Half Hero ⚡️ {Superhero Adventure Scifi}

Chapter 34: Hangry

There are over fifteen hospitals in Kuala Lumpur, and I knew for a fact that an Aussie doctor with a C-name didn't work in five of them. Mac's flawless translation skills made asking people a breeze, but navigating the congestion of the massive city was awful.

The cruel heat was getting worse by the hour and the humidity had turned my hair into a frizzy football helmet. A tributary of sweat was pouring down my back into every nook and cranny, soaking my dress and clogging my pores with a film of scooter smog.

Mac was acting as if everything was normal, and it was exhaustive trying to keep up the passive-aggressive farce that I was fine. His logic around why we should separate was spotty (at best), and I was getting fed up with his evasive behavior.

We'd wound up in a lively night market, crawling the stalls for a cheap meal that (probably) wouldn't give us food poisoning. Our first night in the city, some poor bastard in our hostel had eaten bad street food and painted the only bathroom with the remnants of his misery. This was actually the first meal I'd been able to eat all day because the sight of that toilet haunted me all morning.

"What'cha thinking, little half hero?" Mac smacked around a mouthful of bao bun.

"That you need to learn how to eat like a human," I responded flatly.

My pho was steaming the mouth-watering aroma of seasoned broth swimming in hunks of fresh fish and shaved chives. I stirred the slender glass noodles to release another delicious waft.

"Don't worry, we'll find doctor-C," he smiled.

"None of those places were remotely familiar," I sighed. "And while I've barely enjoyed our sweaty walking tour of the Devil's butt hole, I'm not exactly looking forward to doing it again tomorrow."

"You saying you want to give up?"

"No!" I cried. "I just want the next place we randomly pick to be the right hospital so I can get this over with and move on with my life."

"Man, someone's a little hangry tonight," he muttered into an obnoxiously large bite.

"I'm testy, there's a difference."

"Hehe, you said testes."

"Grow up."

"You first," Mac countered without missing a beat.

I pretended to slurp my piping hot soup, eating around the tiny violet octopus tentacle that was spindling off the deep spoon.

"If this guy offers you an antidote," Mac remarked, mopping up the last of his heaping pile of pork buns. "I sure hope it simultaneously cures your shitty attitude"

If was a pretty big assumption right now, and I wasn't sure how I felt about the whole 'cure' thing. Without my powers, I was just an ordinary girl who happened to have brutally murdered a few (dozen) innocent people. I would have no means of protecting myself and I'd still be running from Hamm, the pug-nosed maniac with gingivitis.

"That's if I don't fry him first," I replied flippantly, picking at my meal.

"I truly hope that's not a real possibility," Mac warned, glancing up to gauge my expression. "Ella, you can't murder people just because you think they wronged you."

"Why not?" I snapped. "Hamm can do it."

"And you're comfortable equating yourself to an executioner?"

I bit down on my lower lip hard enough to draw blood. The frustration burned acrid on my tongue and I sucked on the wound.

"I think your dad would choose mercy over-"

"Who the hell are you tell me what my dad would choose? You're just helping out the daughter of your dead buddy, right?" I exploded, angrily throwing up my arms to toss my spoon across the crowd of tables. "And so what if he would? This is my life, and my choices we're talking about!"

"Exactly," Mac nodded. "Your choices define your future, so don't fuck 'em up."

"Ooh, did you learn that at Oxford?" I derided with a snotty guffaw.

"No," he replied softly. "Life taught me that."

For a while, we didn't say anything. I wasn't hungry anymore, so Mac tipped my bowl to his giant chin and glugged down most of my food. 

The sounds of the market layered a calamitous soundtrack over our tense sit-off. Mopeds buzzed a street away while car horns papped and mewed at the hordes of people. Languages were being shouted from every angle in the melting pot that was set to boil us both alive.

"We should get back to the hostel," Mac said, unfolding from the rickety plastic bench beneath our table. "Good to turn in early."

"You go," I told him. "I'll catch up. I want to take a walk to clear my head."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." I shrugged. "The hostel is three blocks away, I won't go far."

"Alright," Mac didn't look at all sure. "I'll wait up for you."

I offered a measly wave and he lumbered off into the horde of bodies (his head and shoulders still bobbed over everyone in the market.) I'd lied about taking a walk. The last thing I wanted to do in this outdoor sweat-scape was take a casual stroll.

A young couple whose ghostly appearance stuck out in the tapestry of earthy skin tones was hovering near my table, hoping to swoop in the moment I left. I gathered up my bowl and hucked it in the nearest trash can.

Wandering beyond the limit of the semi-enclosed food court, I could see the bustle of the streets. Swarms of people flooded around commuter cars, regardless of the lights supposedly directing traffic. Bright neon signs glowed iridescent offers to the multitude of individuals moving at a frenetic pace. Sidewalks teamed with bodies and street grates spewed vapors into the already sweltering smog.

I strolled a block past our hostel to find a row of colorful restaurants opening out onto the jam-packed walkway. The flash of activity from one of the flat screens inside a quaint establishment offering seafood and foot massages caught my eye, and I paused to watch. The footage was blurry, like when they show someone's 'home video' of alien saucers, but the image was enough to swell my chest with panic.

The grainy video played on loop as a diminutive pale figure, with the distinct outline of breasts, lit up like a disco ball behind a dilapidated bus in a parking lot. The woman-ish person leaned over the bus' engine, then hopped back in a jarring motion that didn't look natural. Moments later, the dazzling girl was interrupted by what looked like a small boy.

The azure glow of my implausible ability was trending on social media and news outlets all over the world.