Normal Hero ©-- By: William A. Anderson
Normal Hero
Epilogue
William stared solemnly at his burning hand, a yellowish orange ball of flame enveloped his hand, he felt no pain, just a slight warm tingling, his brown eyes looked as if they were glowing orange in the fire light, which they were. William clenched his fist and the fire intensified, not singing his clothes for reasons unbeknownst to him, but he didn't mind, he quite liked his clothes where they were. With a sigh, William unclenched his fist and smiled the fire disappeared and his eyes returned to normal. He was going home.
He ran his eyes over the familiar walls of his grotto, far from civilization he had isolated himself to train and hone his strange powers which he had no idea why or he how he possessed, If only mom could see me now he thought, she would probably tell me to stop playing with fire,. He smiled grimly, if only she was still around.
It had been two and a half years since she had disappeared, his father had died when he was only five. William and his older sister Mical, had been left alone without a home, complements of the banks. Little money and no relatives, they had to strike out on they're own, but that had all changed after they discovered they're talents and that there were others. William, only 15 had inherited his mom's South-eastern Asian complexion, a light golden brown and a mix of his father and mothers hair a jet black with wavy curls and a handsome face.
He wasn't the strongest 15 year old around but he wasn't weak, he was strong for his size, in shape and alive, which was better than some people he knew. Mical was different, at 17, she was shorter than William, had frizzy hair, similar complexion as William and was also fit, she would be beautiful except she had an acne complex which William was always sure to point out. He figured that as a little brother it was his responsibility to keep his sister down to size, it was quite a responsibility that William enjoyed.
William walked out of the deep recesses of his grotto into the dazzling sunlight, the weather in the Florida glades was humid, surrounding his grotto were the remains of last weeks dinner, a large charred skeleton of a Cayman, and a middle sized Anaconda skeleton, it was practically a baby, not nearly as big as last months feast. There was no evidence of a cook-fire, William didn't need one, he could simply cook his food by frying it with his fire. William strolled through the low hanging branches of a charred tree, he passed many others as he walked, all products of 2 years of practice. Predators slid into the swamps, William waded through the murky waist high water unchallenged, the predators had become the prey the first few times they tried to get a taste of him. Murky water bubbled and boiled around William as excitement coursed through him he was finally headed to meet up with everyone, he wondered how much everyone would have changed. Maybe Micals acne will be gone. He mused. What a waste of perfectly good teasing material, also a good conversation starter. He grinned wryly, Mical always had over-reacted when he teased her about her face, she began with slapping his shoulder and telling him to stop but when he persisted she would chase him around the house waving her sandal or whatever shoe she may have been wearing. Dead fish floated around William in a ten foot diameter, apparently having been flash broiled, he waded through them lost in thought.
William stepped out of the water onto the muddy bank, the mud started to dry and crack wherever he stepped, his clothes began to steam and were dry within five seconds. He smiled, he felt alive, leaning his head back he closed his eyes and basked in the clearing, his whole entity consuming the light and heat energy of the sun. Just like a flower. He thought. Weird, I must be spending to much time with nature. He stepped forward into the woods, a bubble of hot dry air circled him, any mosquitoes that tried to get near him were instantly fried in his field of heat. William stepped in a blackened clearing of the woods, char-coaled remains of trees lay everywhere like fine black dust. He had decided long ago he was not going to walk all the way to Houston Texas two years ago when they had decided it as they're rendezvous point. Herman Park, next to the theater midnight.
Standing in the clearing William tensed and bent his knees slightly, Time to fly. He thought with a smile. He combusted, his whole entity was swallowed in fire, his eyes glowed orange once again, Sorry again Trees, He thought sadly. The flames around him began to dance and spin and intensify until the air was perfectly blistering with heat.
William Jumped. The fire surrounding him stretched like a tail behind him, the whole clearing was in flames he rocketed into the sky like a bullet from a barrel, streaking across the sky like a comet, traveling at twice the speed of sound should have messed him up badly, but it didn't, he supposed that having an elemental power had something to do with it. His fire cooked the air around him, at one point he flew through a flock of geese and cooked a few and scorched not a little of them. He punched holes through clouds and created Jet Streams, did loop-d-loops and barrel-rolls. He couldn't fly too high, his fire needed an oxygen rich atmosphere so he stayed just below 30,000 feet, also because commercial airlines flew at that altitude.
He couldn't help but smile to himself as he flew, many kids have dreamed of flying, and having super powers, but this was real. But like the wise man says... “With Great Power, comes great responsibility.” He would have kept flying except he was reaching his destination, flying over Minute Made park, (he wasn't an Astros fan) he could almost make out the zoo and the park with the theater on the hill. He landed next to a monument kneeling, killing a patch of grass the size of an elephant and startling a few pigeons busy defacing the monument. It was a strange replica of a monument he couldn't remember, it was a granite pillar, easily 30 feet tall (He remembered it was some monument in D.C or something). He stood up and dusted himself off, feathers and dust flew.
After shaking himself off thoroughly he tried to orientate himself with his surroundings, he was next to a man-made pond, a monument and another small man-made pond on his other side. A small train track from the zoo, a lot of trees and not a lot of people. He took he hadn't been noticed, there weren't many people and no-one was standing shell-shocked with they're jaws on the ground and they're eyes wide. He decided it was safe, he suppressed his powers until his heat levels were just above abnormal, about the temperature of a bad fever.
He was early, about 6:23pm, the sun was still high.
He decided to go scout out the meeting area, it was always good to know your surroundings in case of a confrontation. Smiling contentedly he stretched and popped various parts of his body, other people found it painful or sickening but he found that it relieved stress. Well down to business then. Whistling merrily as he strolled through the park, he looked like your normal 10th grader, but he was so much more.
Chapter 1: The Gathering
11:59 pm Herman Park, Houston Texas.
Haylee sat in the Cherry Red Corvette smacking her gum and making bubbles every so often to amuse herself. Sitting slightly back to relax but still able to see what was happening at the Park. She was only 16 but nobody thought it strange for her to have a sports car, if anyone did ask she was always very persuasive, that was how she got the car in the first place. She had a way with words, in fact she had talked her way onto an airplane from Paris to Houston, and then a free Taxi ride to the nearest luxury car dealership and then ended up here. Sitting with her black hoodie and black skinny jeans with some red Converse and and a few of her dark red wavy locks spilling out over one eye slightly and her fair complexion in contrast to her clothing was shocking.
Haylee glanced lazily at the time readout on the control panel of the Corvette, 12:01 am.
Time to go, she casually turned off the car and slipped the keys into her pockets. Opening the door of the Corvette, she caught sight of a tall boy with his hands in his pockets his wavy hair given the look of a silver lining by the moon shining behind him. Probably William, she thought a she swung the door closed. As if on cue 7 silhouettes melted from the shadows from different directions. The one nearest to her glanced her way long enough for her to discern that it was Dominique, Tall, Lanky and Dark skinned with short hair wearing faded denim and some Nike's he flashed a smile, hesitated momentarily to look at the Corvette, and then smiled wider and shook his head and continued up the hill.
Already at the top William was creating a small illegal fire on City of Houston grass, and hugging a big haired girl, Mical. Another girl melted out of the shadows, Chelsea, slightly jumping as she progressed up the hill her dirty-blonde hair and her fair complexion were very evident in the moonlight. A small patch of weeds or flowers sprouted up wherever she stepped and the grass seemed to be leaning towards her, there very well may have been dirt in her hair because she loved nature and rainy days but no-one asked.
Standing at the fire Haylee peered at everyone’s faces to see how everyone had changed. Steven and his younger brother Chase were recounting their adventures and stories of amazing cars the had seen. Dominique and his little brother Brennan were squabbling light-heatedly about who was stronger or taller, although everyone knew that Brennan was the strongest concerning physical things because he had super-strength, in the water Dominique was king but other times not so much. Chelsea was fussing over her older brother Blake who also had brown hair about his rumpled clothing. He acted as if he was unaffected by seeing his little sister after two years but everyone knew he loved the attention. Occasionally he would pick up small twigs from somewhere with his mind and place them on the fire, Telekinesis as he liked to call it, William called it the power of thought, which really miffed Haylee because that was her strength.
“So, who's the strongest of us now?” Piped Haylee.
“Pfff. Me.” Dominique bragged.
“Uh huh sure, c'mere so I can evaporate you, and then we'll talk.” Joked William.
“Ok, Ok, lets be reasonable about this,” added Brennan “we all know you two don't mix.”
“ Forget I even asked” Haylee said exasperatedly.
A confused look fell across everyone’s faces, Dominique was holding his hand up like he was about to give a lecture and forgotten what he was going to say. William was wrinkling his brow in confusion. “Did you just do what I think you did?” he asked cautiously. “Probably.” She said with a mischievous smile. William grinned, “Wow, you did get stronger, I remember when you couldn't do it to one person without getting a whopper migraine.” “I try not to overuse it, I went to some of the busiest cities to practice.” Everyone nodded approvingly. “So, show and tell?” asked Chase.
Dominique showed everyone the extent of his water by creating a bubble of water and freezing it like a dome over William's little fire, earning him raised eyebrow from William.
William promptly melted the dome with a condensed beam of flame but left the fire extinguished as he figured it would probably get snuffed out again.
Chelsea made flowers pop up in patterns spelling her name and then grew vines that wrapped around everyone's feet. Mical summoned rain clouds and wind. Steven borrowed Micals clouds to make an especially potent lightning bolt which he had occur a few miles away per everyone's request. And chase turned invisible, William likened it to a shimmer over a hot road and fire, but everyone else squinted in the moonlight for him. Blake lifted a large garden boulder with his eyes, and Brennan took the boulder like it weighed no more than a pebble and threw it like a football. Blake caught it once again before it could smash to smithereens and placed it back where it came from.
Brennan recounted how he had fought Bears and cougars when he went to Colorado.
Dominique impressed everyone with his Alaskan adventures. Blake laughed about his Grand Canyon misadventures with boulders. Chelsea excitedly talked about all the animals and plants she had met.
Chase re-enacted himself sneaking into the concert and trying not to get stepped on. Steven talked about traveling through power lines. And Mical talked about the weather. William was saying something a monster Anaconda and tastes good in the same sentence. Haylee could almost trick herself into thinking it was old-times.
But the concern writ on everyone's faces although the conversation was lighthearted was obvious.
Finally William broke the ice, “So Dom, what is this News you promised us in two years?” He asked curiously.
Dominique's expression changed from happy to grim,funeral faced like someone had turned a switch. “I found her, but she's working for the other side now.” He said grim-faced
William leaned in and whispered to Haylee, “I told you she was evil.” Haylee elbowed him in the side and he scooted off and began anxiously lighting and extinguishing his fire.
“So what are we going to do about her then,” asked Blake, “did you find her location?”
“No but I know the general area. If I knew her location I would have dragged her across the Ocean and she would be here now.” “Wait, so you mean she's overseas?” Chelsea asked. “Yes, and it's our duty to find her, and stop her before she does something even more dangerous and stupid.” “ She probably won't be grateful, you know she hates us.” Added William. “No.” Said Dom gritting his teeth. “She won't.”