Precognition: the ability to perceive future events before they happen.
Josh keeps a journal of superheroes. Not just superheroes, he catalogs villains too, but he's more fascinated in the heroes. There's more known about heroes than villains, seeing as how social media treats them like overpowered celebrities.
For example, the Medium's real name is Hayley Kiyoko, a twenty eight year old martial arts teacher who's been Atlanta's main heroine for as long as Josh can remember. She doesn't try to hide her identity, but that doesn't mean everyone knows outright who she is.
Chimera is a completely different story. The guy is a ghost. All that's known about him was that he just showed up the year before out of nowhere. Not only is he basically nonexistent outside of his crime fighting, he's extremely powerful. Way too powerful for a single hero to be.
He's more of an antihero, in Josh's opinion, considering that he's sort of an asshole. The only reason he helps people was because of Medium, who took him under her wing as soon as he surfaced.
Before the explosions, Josh saw heroes as close to god tier as humans could get. Now that he has his own abilities? He feels sorry for them.
Because now he knows the terror and confusion they must feel, finding out that anyone, even a scrawny, near sighted sophomore and his borderline genius best friend, can have powers and not have any idea what to do with them.
So, when he has an opportunity to be a hero, he definitely doesn't want to take it.
Tiana roams through the candy aisle in the gas station, holding a family size bag of chips and a liter bottle of coke under her arm. Josh wanders close behind her, looking for lemon heads, which are his favorite.
They spent hours in the library doing research, and when nothing else interesting or physically possible came up, Josh suggested they get something to eat. Neither of them hadn't eaten since breakfast and since Tiana was acting like she'd never had food in her life, they left with a stack of books and a hunger like they'd never seen before.
While he grabs a packet of starbursts off the rack, he hears the bell ring and every inch of his skin goes cold. Josh slowly lowers his hand, glancing up at the mirror that reflects the rest of the store.
He sees two men walk in, one heading down the first aisle as the other goes up to the cash register. Tiana must sense it too, because she appears at his side, gripping his wrist.
"They both have guns," he whispers. "You can feel it too, can't you? Like built in stranger danger."
"Yeah, I feel it. What do we do?" She asks.
"I don't know, call the cops?"
Tiana suddenly straightens. "Wait a minute. We have super powers."
Josh's eyes go wide. "Tia, no-"
"Come on, it's just a robbery," she chides. "It's not like they're mass murderers."
"You don't know that! They have guns!"
"And you can teleport!"
"We don't even know how to use our- oh my god."
She's already running into another aisle, grabbing hats and ski masks off of racks. Josh reluctantly follows her. If she actually plans on going through with this ridiculous plan of hers, he might as well try to help.
There's no one else in the store except them two, he cashier, the robbers, and an older girl somewhere near the back and away from danger. He ducks behind a beef jerky stand and takes the ski mask Tiana hands him, pulling it over his face.
The man pulls his gun out from his pants, shouting for the cashier to fill a small duffel bag of all the cash in the register. Tiana looks back at Josh, mouthing something under her breath, and slowly steps forward, flexing her hands out nervously.
Josh sees her already sharp nails grow even more, like cats extending their claws. She taps the man on the shoulder.
"Excuse me sir, that's sort of illegal. Maybe we should take this outs-"
Before she can finish, the man grabs her and spins her around, pressing his gun to her chin. "Shut the hell up, missy, ante que yo pone un bala en tu cara bonita."
"Josh?" She whimpers.
At the sound of her plea, he jumps out from his hiding place, pulling back the man's arm that holds the gun. The robber lets go of Tiana to direct his attention to Josh, all the while she grabs the bag of money and whacking the man with the gun over the head and knocking him out.
Josh pushes the unconscious man to the ground, hearing the clicking of a gun behind him. He turns just as the other robber begins to shoot.
Tiana yanks him behind her, but a shimmering wall appears in front of them. The bullets clink against the barrier and drop to the ground.
"What the..." the second man turns around and immediately receives a punch to the face, knocking him out cold and sending him to the ground.
The woman standing there wears a baby blue bandana over her eyes, a large German shepherd sitting idly beside her. She holds a walking stick on one hand and the leash in the other. Josh recognizes the bandana with a closed eye sewn into the fabric, the silver-white hair, the permanent scowl on her tan face.
"You two." She gestures at Josh and Tiana with the walking stick. "Let's go. We need to have a chat."
Hayley Kiyoko whistles and the shepherd stands back up. She walks out, the force field dropping as the door closes behind her.
Tiana looks at Josh, her expression hidden by the mask. "That was the Medium."
"What do you think she wants?" He asks.
"Do you think she knows about... us?"
"One way to find out." Josh inhales sharply, grabbing her hand. "I'm really starting to hate this hero stuff."
YOU ARE READING
DOOM DAYS ✓
Adventure"When I watch the world burn, all I think about is you." When Josh said he always wanted to be a superhero, he didn't mean becoming the prime target for the scariest villain ever, or having to juggle high school and awkward crushes on other superher...
