Miraculous World: Georgia Chapter 6

Chapter 6: How to Be a Hero

Tux looked both ways and snuck back into the house. A trellis at the side leading up to Lizzy’s window helped, since at least one of her parents was in the living room watching the news. Her sisters were waiting in the room, and knowing what she had just come from they had supplies ready. Ice water, trail mix, a painkiller, and comfortable clothes she could change into with the assistance of the closet’s privacy. Oh, and some sliced fish. Her voice reflected the fatigue and soreness she felt. “Kerah, chill.”

Suddenly, she was Sarah again. Kerah was hovering beside her, looking as pooped as his partner. “What the heck is their PROBLEM?” The floating penguin’s first words were unusually blunt, even for him.

Sarah dragged herself into the closet to change, her sisters and the other Kwamiis listening. “I don’t know, but that training isn’t normal. At least, I hope it isn’t.”

Anna looked nervous as she stood in the room. “What did they make you do?”

As Sarah finished getting changed, Kerah started for her. “It began normally enough. Basically what she was doing to all of you before the test. Physical trials combined with some nasty quizzing.”

Sarah emerged from the closet, now in more comfortable clothing. “Yeah, the problem is when they made me use my ability. Slipstream said it was to test how far I could go with it, and if my power ran out that was fine since he knew who I was. Tidal went somewhere, my power ran out… and Slipstream didn’t let me rest and feed Kerah before coming at me again.”

“WHAT?” Lizzy, Anna, Dag, and Varod practically yelled in concert.

Varod had to address the obvious. “If he didn’t let you recharge, that means she had to do it as herself?”

Kerah nodded. “All I could do was watch from the sidelines as he ran her around most of the same trials, asking more questions, talking about how it’s not the superpowers that make a hero, but their actions as people. I eventually got into her purse and snacked a bit so that we could be Tux again.”

Sarah flopped backwards onto Lizzy’s bed. “Of course, that’s when he called a stop and let me go home.”

Dag looked over at Lizzy. “Do you think he’s going to do the same thing to us tomorrow?”

Lizzy looked right back. “I hope not, but I think we need to be ready. I’m the most different between the two forms, so if they try to make me do stuff that’s even similar it won’t work.”

Varod the Flamingo cocked her head to the side. “Sounds like your dad’s car just pulled up, dinner will be soon.”

Anna nodded at her partner. “Good catch. Sarah, keep stretching out the stiffness. We’ll cover for you, come down once the painkillers kick in and you’re feeling normal. You know Mom and Dad watch us like hawks to check if we’re hurt, they’ll notice you’re sore right away.”

“Good idea. Okay,” Sarah raised her fist into the middle of the circle, “sisters together.”

Lizzy and Anna raised their own to bump hers. “Sisters forever.” Dag and Varod dove into their partners’ pockets and they went downstairs.

As soon as they did, Kerah dropped the brave face and flew over to Sarah. “Are you alright? Seriously, I didn’t get a chance to ask during training, but some of those crashes looked bad.”

“I… I will be. Thanks for asking, Kerah. Slipstream had to be holding back for that last part, but it still hurt.”

“Do you think I need to talk to Dag and Varod about what’s coming?”

“Do you think it will make a difference? Kerah, we knew going in that this wasn’t going to be normal, and it still went like that. I’m not going to quit, though. Already dropped out of the after-school activities so I can focus on superheroine work, but it’s going to be hard if every day is like this.”

“I’m here for you, Sarah,” he replied. “It’s never easy for a real hero, but I know you can make it.”

“Thanks. Really, it means a lot. Now come on, if I wait up here too long they’re going to get suspicious.”

“Actually, speaking of that. Aren’t you three licensed already? Why are you still keeping it a secret from your parents?”

“Because they’ll worry too much. Once we are all trained up and approved, Mom and Dad will at least know we’re up for the challenge. They’ll still worry, it’s what they do, but we can do that much.”

“I guess…” Kerah didn’t look convinced, but he was hungry. He dove into Sarah’s purse as usual, and they went downstairs to the table. Sarah was late for the hug pile, but caught her dad before he made it to the table so the world was right. It was Friday, school was done for a while, and the five of them could relax for a bit.

Well, eight, but three were just listening to the movie and trying to not laugh too loudly at the jokes.

Sarah fell asleep about a second and a half after her head touched the pillow. Lizzy and Anna followed soon after, wondering about what Saturday would bring. Thankfully, it dawned clear and warm. Sarah and Anna occupied their parents while Lizzy went out for a walk. A very long walk.

“Dag, from the depths!”

Deep Blue arrived at the deep woods clearing very early for her training session. After what her sister had told them yesterday, she wanted every edge she could get. Well, that, and the opportunity to duck out came a lot earlier than she thought it would. The problem was that these particular woods had a lot of these clearings, and you could be in one and not notice a marching band playing in the next one over. Made them great for secrecy and private training. Not so much for finding people. Imagine her surprise when the clearing she arrived at was not empty. Three men were already there.

The first was a large, burly guy she recognized. Last time they met, he arrived in the form of a tornado, and before that he had blasted her with lightning. Elemental, the villain. “So you’re telling me that Slipstream and Tidal are gonna be in the next field over, distracted?”

“That’s right.” The second speaker was facing away from her, but she didn’t need to see his face to recognize the blonde hair or his orange-and-blue costume. Blaster, civilian name Paul according to her younger sister, supposedly a hero or a candidate for it. “They’re training at least one of the other rookies, and that’s going to mean they have to be focused.”

How did he even get that information? That doesn’t make sense! He’d need to get into either their personal planners or the Superhero Regulation Office’s databases to get it.

“Are you sure they’re going to be there on schedule?” The third person’s business suit and deep tan weren’t enough to identify him at this distance, but the voice was instantly recognizable. Ryan Parker, reporter for the morning news, a man who had been making a reputation lately chasing down superhero and supervillain action.

“Of course they are. Have you ever known them to be late for anything?” Blaster’s question was met by a shake of the reporter’s head. “Anyway, I haven’t been wrong yet, my pages are getting popular, Ryan’s ratings are up, and Elemental gets the kickbacks and prison breaks. It’s been working out for everyone.”

“Other than when those newbies kept intercepting me,” Elemental growled.

Alright, this is serious. I need to warn everyone that there’s an ambush… and we might be able to turn it around if they don’t know we know.

Deep Blue took her oar and reversed it, tapping the bottom. It opened up, and from it she pulled out her blue Provisional Hero License. Tidal had said that if she needed to signal for help she should tap it to her oar. Time to test it. Deep Blue held the card to the flat face of the oar, and a soft beeping confirmed that the alert was sent. She put the card away, and pulled out a different one. Once the sisters had found out that these things were possible to make, they had made some for themselves. Time for sisters together. Another soft beep, another pair of alerts sent. Now, she just had to do her best to watch the targets while she waited for reinforcements.

Back at the Fischer residence, Sarah and Anna both sat upright as their Miraculous chimed at them. Their sister was in trouble, which meant they had to move. Sarah knew the location, they just needed to get gone. The duo had to force themselves to act casually as they went downstairs. Anna ducked over to the living room where their parents sat speaking quietly to each other. “Mom, Dad, we’re going to go out and look for Liz. She’s late coming back.”

Her parents nodded at each other before her dad looked back at her. “That’s a good idea. Your mother and I are going to go get some groceries while you’re out, be back by dinner.”

“Yes, Dad. Sarah, come on, let’s go!”

The sisters went out the back door and got out of sight. Sarah took a breath to steady her nerves. “Good one, Anna, that was smooth. Kerah, skate!”

“Varod, stand tall!”

Tux and Bright Feather ran. They ran as fast as Feather’s feet could carry her. They ran through the woods, weaving through trees with an agility they did not have two weeks ago, to a point just a smidge to the left of where their sister should have been. Before they could even get halfway there, though, they were overtaken. Two more heroes, one brown and one tan, came speeding up from behind them and slowed to match pace. Tidal kept her eyes forward, dodging trees as she addressed the sisters. “You two got called as well?”

Tux had to do the same, though she was nowhere near as casual about it. “Yes, ma’am. If one of us is in trouble, whoever it is has to deal with all three of us.”

Slipstream flashed a vicious-looking smile. “Good! That’s what I like to hear. Hope you’re not tired from yesterday, bad guys don’t hold back.”

“Then neither will we.” Anna’s face reflected both determination and fear.

“That’s where you’re wrong, kid.” Slipstream’s voice held an oddly paternal tone. “The difference between us and the bad guys is that we know when to stop. No matter what you think of them, everyone deserves mercy. Everyone deserves the chance to fix themselves, whether that takes one try or a thousand. We will take them down, then get them to someplace a bit more secure than where they’ve been held before. Getting tired of handling this guy.”

By the time they found Deep Blue, there were only two people in the field. Blue quietly told them what she knew. “Elemental and Blaster. There was a third, the Morning News reporter, but he left to get in his helicopter. They’re expecting to ambush us in about… three minutes.”

Tidal smiled. “Excellent work. In that case, we launch in 60 seconds. Tux, Deep Blue, I need you two to go in with your powers activated. This will be done in five minutes one way or the other, and we need to take advantage of the element of surprise. Bright Feather, save yours for an emergency.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the three replied.

“Get set, we go on three. One… two… three.”

“GLIDE!”

“TITANIC!”

“... we really need to teach you girls about what stealthy attacks are like…” Despite his facepalm, Slipstream leapt out behind the two girls, whip out and ready to support. Tidal and Bright Feather were right behind them. The team was ready to go.

Blaster got himself set before they reached him, though, the extra second or two of warning being enough. Tux had to dodge to the side as Elemental took a swing at her, and Blaster unleashed concussive force at the group. They were scattered by the attack, and Elemental took the opening to reach into his pocket. “Sometimes superpowers aren’t the best way to deal with you heroes. Eat this!” He threw something towards Deep Blue and Bright Feather, who had landed together. It was round, red, and about the size of a baseball with a nub at one end.

Slipstream recognized it immediately. “GRENADE!”

“Got it!” Tux’s Glide power let her move with a blazing speed, and she got between her sisters and the oncoming threat with time to spare. With a kick, she launched the grenade right back at Elemental, whose evil smirk dropped almost as fast as he dove for the ground. With a boom, the grenade exploded, and suddenly half the field was on fire. Blaster was launching attacks at the heroes as they tried to approach, keeping them back.

Elemental stood. “I’m wise to your tricks now. There’s no point in playing coy. I have to finish you with overwhelming force!” Suddenly, the fires around the field started streaming towards him, and his form changed. He was a man no longer, instead becoming eight feet of walking flame. “Take this!” He reached out his hand, and from it spewed a huge ball of fire.

If it had struck home, the heroes might have been hurt very badly. Instead, two jets of water fired by the Otter Heroes extinguished it, leaving only a blast of steam. Slipstream shouted back “using fire against two water heroes probably wasn’t your best idea, there. Girls! We’ll cut Elemental off, you three keep Blaster occupied.”

“We can HEAR YOU!” Blaster held out his hand and attempted to swat Slipstream with more bolts of energy, having notably less success than his first few shots. That’s when Bright Feather’s ribbon wrapped around his left arm as Deep Blue charged in. Her oar was set for a swing that might have knocked Blaster entirely out of the clearing, but had to be stopped short so that she could get out of the way of a sudden wall of flame. The oar was plenty to deflect a couple of energy blasts, though. Tux came in to swipe low, but he used his power to jump high and backwards out of the way.

“Blaster! Over here!” Elemental was not having a good time against Slipstream and Tidal. Every gout of flame lit more of the forest on fire, but between them the Otter Heroes were extinguishing things twice as fast. Elemental was about to be cut off from his power source. Blaster turned as his name was called, and in two seconds put together what had to be done. He took aim at Tidal, hoping to take out the distracted hero.

He might have managed it, too, but in his own distraction he missed that Deep Blue had gotten close again. With an overhead smash, she laid him out on the ground. Blaster was unconscious and would not be able to influence the rest of this particular fight. The sisters regrouped and ran to join the fight against Elemental.

Give him some credit, Elemental was not a stupid man. He would never have gotten this far if he was. The odds were against him now and he needed an escape. In a sudden rush, he pulled in all of the power remaining from the dwindling fires. “Maybe next time, heroes!” He took aim again, but this time it wasn’t at the two experienced ones. This enormous wave of fire was aimed at the three rookies.

“NO!” Slipstream leapt between it and the girls, summoning a wall of water to intercept the attack. Fire met water again, but this time it was much bigger and much closer. Superheated steam went in all directions, but Slipstream found himself engulfed in it and screamed in pain before dropping to the ground.

Elemental knew better than to hang around after that. Once his fire powers were gone, he ran away as fast as his human legs could take him.

“Slipstream!” Tidal was ahead of the three sisters, but only be a moment. “Love, are you okay?”

In obvious pain, the brown otter hero turned his head so that he could look up at his partner. “I… I don’t know. I need to get to the hospital to make sure I’ll be able to fight another day.”

“I’ll get you there right away!”

“Wait.” He had to take a moment to get himself together. “If they try to take care of me, they won’t make it through the suit. I will have to come out of form, and if I do it there they’ll know who I am. I need you to take Blaster in and tell them to put him somewhere secure.”

“But that means…”

“Yeah. They were going to find out eventually, anyway.” He looked over at the three sisters, closed his eyes, and said the words. “Mishpah, low tide.” With a flash of light, the Kwamii Mishpah appeared. Now laying in the grass was a man. A man the girls recognized. His name was Sam Fischer. They knew him as…

“Dad?” Tux’s hands came to her mouth, then looked over at Tidal. “But… if Slipstream is Dad, then you’re …”

“Maya, low tide.” Tidal’s suit shifted back to her casual clothing as Maya appeared by her side. Leigh Fisher stood there. “Yes, girls. We have a lot to do. Get your father into the wood line, shift out and feed your partners, then become heroes again and carry him to the hospital. Tell them Slipstream and Tidal sent you, and that he got hurt in the fire before we could extinguish it.”

Bright Feather could hardly believe what she was seeing. “What are you going to do, Mom?”

Leigh took a deep breath. “I’m going to do what your father asked and put Blaster in prison. After you three get home, we are going to work out a patrol plan.”

Deep Blue’s eyebrows furrowed. “Why? We’re not heroines yet, we can’t!”

“You’re going to have to. Your father and I are… much weaker when we’re not together. You three have to step in. While I can take care of the reporter, we don’t know where Elemental is. Now, girls, it’s time to get to it. Maya, high tide!”