Zero.Hero2 - Chapter 5

I lurched backwards through lights and color that strobed in my vision like a hypnotic rave. The freefall feeling tingled in my hands, up my arms, to the pit of my stomach, and shot out of my feet. I opened my mouth to scream, but there was no air to breathe. I gasped and choked, clutching at my throat. 

"Dude, get up!" Norah’s voice pulled me down through the sky and into a huge metal tube sitting on a rocky runway. My eyes shot open wide and I looked at the well-lit ceiling. I let out a huge breath and relaxed against the upright seat as I opened my character menu. There it was, my new ability! 

Eh, not the greatest starting Affinity, but it was deserved. We did almost kill her, and broke her spine. But there was hope. The last thing she said to me was that she wanted exciting battles, and of that, we were in no short supply! She and I were going to be pals; her and Gary though… time would tell. 

"Did you do it?" Piper asked as she flipped around in her seat. 

I nodded, a huge grin spreading over my cheeks. "And this thing is so bad ass! I have to show you guys right away." 

The plane rolled to a stop in front of the gate and the lights blinked twice. The seatbelt sign dinged off, followed by the clamor of people standing up, ready to depart the plane after such a long trip. It felt eons longer to me, having spent four days in the Shaman realm rather than ten hours. 

Elise peeked over the back of her seat with a worried look on her face. "What’s Gary going to think of it?"’ 

I had totally forgotten about how Gary was left behind in the Shaman realm with my Raven form eyeball. "I'm not sure, but something amazing happened. I’ll give you the deets when we’re alone." I was so excited to tell them everything I'd seen and done in the Shaman realm. 

Mr. Juhl stood in the aisle, addressing all his students while the few heroes groaned. "All right guys, we’re going to take a headcount, then head out to our limousines. Meet right outside the gate." 

"Limo!" Piper fist pumped, her eyes sparkling. Mr Juhl shook his head with a sigh. Because I was pulling double duty on this trip as both a student and a participant in the Olympics, poor Mr. Juhl had to put up with Piper. Elise and Norah were always well behaved, in human form at least, but Piper was getting into shit no matter what shape she took. 

We gathered up our bags and jackets and moved single file like snails towards the exit. We crowded together around the seats at the gate and Mr. Juhl counted us. I caught Augur’s gaze for a brief second, and he smiled. I motioned for him to join us as Norah and Elise chattered about popular sights to see, and Piper groaned about starving to death, but he declined, mouthing, “Later.” 

When Mr. Juhl was satisfied we were all present, we headed out to baggage claim. The Naples airport was enormous! The ceilings stretched three stories up in some places with balconies for the V.I.P. lounges overlooking the walkways. Custom frescoes adorned every blank wall, gelato shops and coffee spots were at every intersection, and stylish restaurants were scattered throughout. I. Freaking. Loved Naples! 

The baggage claim scanned the bags on their way out of the shoot, displaying a holoscreen over the luggage with the first and last name of the owner. So cool! I moved toward the conveyer belt to grab my bag when a woman on the other side of the carousel yelled at a security guard. 

It wasn’t the screaming woman who held my attention, though, but the man standing behind her, blue hoodie pulled up around his face, sunglasses on. Keensense tickled the back of my neck and I sent out a Scan when someone touched my arm. 

“If you have your bag, would you please step aside, miss Holland?” 

I jumped as Scan lit up the artificial face before me. It was some vaguely-human-looking machine with an LED face. Its eyebrows were pointed up in a question, and its hands out as if to show me the way to the door. The Scan readout came back with a plethora of information. 

Wow, a decommissioned bot from the Roach-Raiders. Didn’t expect to see that in the airport. Cool to see they deactivated some of their more deadly subroutines. 

“Miss Holland, are you alright?” The robot toon on a sympathetic tone, with just a hint of motherly care. Wow, they emotional acuity of these things was getting good. 

I looked back to the screaming woman, but the man with the glasses was already gone. Keensense prickled the back of my neck again, but gently, as if the danger was passing. 

“Yeah, sorry.” I nodded as my eyes combed through the crowd, but there was no blue hood. 

“Thank you,” it said as a smile lit up its digital face. It ushered me back to my group and I tried to put the man in the hood from mind. He was probably just some creepazoid trying to get a look at Terra’s Heroes. For some reason, the paparazzi really liked getting shots of us when we were human, except for Norah… they liked getting shots of Norah in either form. 

When we’d all grabbed our bags, we stepped out to the pickup area. I whipped out my phone and shot a quick text to my mom, then called Nora, Elise, and Piper to join me for a selfie. We looked cute together, all our faces smiling genuinely, though we were obviously tired. I looked the most refreshed of all with my bright green eyes and wondered if it had something to do with getting four days of sleep in the Shaman realm. 

Elise looked the most put together, as usual. Her brown curly hair was pulled back with a yellow bow, and her big brown eyes sparkled with joy. Piper never could drop the buckteeth from childhood, but her face at least did grow into them. Nora's straw-colored hair had pink overtones in it, something she'd adopted since we'd gained a little bit of fame. 

All in all, we looked like normal college girls. I was grateful for this normal picture, and our normal college girl moment. I knew from Augur’s premonition that it could be a far different story sometime in the next few weeks. 

A black SUV three times as long as should’ve been possible pulled up next to Mr. Juhl. It parked and a man emerged from the side wearing a black suit with the XHRI logo embroidered in red over the left peck. 

He spoke to Mr. Juhl, and before I knew it, the door to the massive car was sliding open for us. I gasped at the vastness of the interior as I stepped inside. I could almost stand all the way up! There was a TV on the back of every headrest for the front seats, but the limo opened up in the back with bench style seats facing each other. 

Piper scrambled to get to the back area and laid across a whole bench, ensuring that we could have the coolest spot in the limo. Mr. Juhl eyed her with frustration, then shook his head. We took our seats and strapped in as we departed. 

It was dark outside, but Naples was alive with color and sound. Much like the reputation of New York City, it seemed Naples didn’t sleep, either. I knew that it hadn't always been that way. Naples had been a smaller city until the Big Bang dropped the Vulcanis asteroid on their heads, creating a significant monster problem. With the emergence of superheroes in Naples, dozens of companies flocked to build their headquarters there. Tourism flourished and commerce followed, creating a sprawling metropolis of activity within a few years. 

There were dozens of shops with their doors flung open wide, lights shining brightly, advertising for everyone to come in for a bite, or drink. We drove south towards the edge of the downtown. When the taller buildings cleared, the skyline opened up to show us Mount Vesuvius, and the massive wonder that stood beside it: The XHRI Headquarters. 

Piper clicked a remote at the ceiling and a holoscreen display flipped down, blocking our view of the front seats. A diagram appeared on screen, showing a person with a small square on their chest that projected a yellow bubble around their body. "With this new technology, everyone can be safe. The Xion Heroic Research Institute is proud to present the Personal Automated Deployable Shield, or PADS for short. Why be at risk in this world of dangerous monsters and villains? Preorder yours today— 

“Boring,” Piper said as she flipped the channel. 

The scene cutaway from images of the new technology and how it performed, to a man with black hair streaked with white above his ears. It was Benito Gilberti, the head of XHRI. He had an aging face that looked weary with stress, but it was obvious he wasn’t that old, just exhausted. Despite that exhaustion, he had a professional demeanor, and even smiled at the interviewer’s introduction. 

He spoke in Italian and white text scrolled across the bottom. "We never want to see another tragedy befall this great city, or any other, but it is inevitable. What we can do now is empower our citizens to be protected from the dangerous unknown, without the involvement of superheroes. With the Personal Automated Deployable Shield, everyone will be—." 

"Ugh, lame," Piper droned and she turned the holoscreen off. 

As we drove further toward the edges of town, a towering building surrounded by three smaller competitors became our obvious destination. It was Xion's personal hotel that they had built with reserved suites for special guests. Of course, the hotel was also loaded with heroes who would be performing in the Olympics. It was a quick ten-minute drive from downtown, fifteen minutes from XHRI, and another five minutes to the looming Xion Stadium. 

My gut twisted with worry as I thought about the competition that was rapidly approaching. We had a tight schedule, and I knew that Enscepec wouldn't let us get away with dawdling. There would be no time for exploring the city for us, it would be all training. 

More than just my worry about where my days and nights would disappear to was whether we could even perform well. We had gotten a lot of press coverage in the days leading up to our flight to Naples, but that didn't mean we were the best. Far from it, we were only B rank. We had so much room to grow, and I was scared that we would fall short, disappointing SoL. Not just disappointing, but affecting others’ livelihoods. 

The limo slowed to a stop, and the driver came around to let us out. We hopped to our feet, giddy to see our suites. This hotel was upgraded over the last year as Naples prepared to host the games. Likely, the three flanking hotels had undergone construction in the last year to expand. 

Even for being ten thirty at night, the hotel was bustling. Mr. Juhl ushered us from the two limos and into the lobby. The gray granite floors sparkled with flecks of pink, and every few tiles there was a brilliant white square thrown in with glittering black. It looked sort of like a checkerboard, if the white tiles had been skipped every three squares. The ceilings extended up at least thirty feet, leaving room for beautiful hanging chandeliers. It looked classy as hell. I felt like I didn't belong, but was enjoying every second of the glamorous treatment. 

The whirlwind weeks before departure were hard on all of us, and this was exactly what I needed to unwind. With the Olympics going on there were hundreds of heroes walking around, many of them big names like Tyranitus, Blue Blaze, and even Enscepec… as a coach. 

Unmistakable for his shiny bald head and is six and a half feet of height, Enscepec strode across the lobby toward us. He was in civilian clothes to avoid detection, but he was pretty hard to miss anywhere, in anything. He pulled the four of us aside from the group of students. 

"Remember. Tryouts tomorrow, so you must go to sleep immediately. If you do not, you will all get Eternal Torment. Promise me." He eyed me, as if I were going to be the one specifically breaking this rule. 

"We’ll be ready." I said, avoiding his request for an actual promise. 

"Don't worry Mr. Enscepec, I'll keep the crew in check." Elise said with a determined smirk. 

"Good, then I'll see you tomorrow." Enscepec flicked his key card in his hand and walked to the elevators with his pink, sprinkle donut covered rolly luggage trailing behind him. I barely contained my laugh at the towering hero with a jerry-rigged handle on his comparatively tiny looking bag. 

I turned back to the group and caught sight of Augur standing amid the crowd, talking casually into one of the other classmates. As if he detected my gaze, his head turned to me and he gave me a small smile. I felt a tightness in my chest that was both fear and longing, but managed to give him a smile back. 

I’d spent much of the summer anxiously awaiting Augur to ghost us again, but it hadn’t happened. He’d lost my trust long ago, and while he’d said he was willing to do what it took to earn it back, I wondered if I could ever trust him the same way again. 

"All right, gather around students." Mr. Juhl grouped us up at the center of the lobby and began doling out the room keys. When he came to me he stopped with a cocky smile. "Your suite, Ms. MVPs." 

Norah snatched the key card with a satisfied smile. “See you peasants in the morning.” 

Mr. Juhl groaned and moved on. 

We crowded towards the elevators and I snapped a quick picture of the lobby of the hotel for my mom before getting on. We went up to the 15th floor, not anywhere near the top of the building. I was shocked as I stepped off the elevator and noticed the decor. There were no drab or strange patterned carpets, and the furniture was tasteful black couches. The lighting was soft, like welcoming someone home with the embers of the hearth instead of the dim and dingy ambiance I was expecting. 

Norah held the room key in her hand, a sparkle in her eye. "Suite 1525. This is us." 

She waved the card across the handle of the door and it gave a little beep as a green light flashed. She turned the handle and pushed the door open, but none of us were prepared for what was on the other side. It was bigger than our apartment back home, and that was just the entryway! 

Piper charged into the room. "I call the biggest bed!" 

I inhaled sharply with a grimace. "About that, the suite only has two beds in it, but they’re double XL Kings, so we should be fine." 

"Look at these beds!" Piper shouted and I heard the telltale sign of her flopping onto the bed. 

We ran like giddy girls to one of the bedrooms and stopped in awe in the doorway. The bed had to be at least four times the size of a regular king size bed. Who was sleeping here, basketball players? 

"And that's not all," Piper said as she hopped off the bed and ran to the left. We followed her, ready to experience more wonder, and gasped at the site in the bathroom. 

There was a tub the size of a kiddy-swimming pool with jets and bubble functions and a whole control panel to do things I didn’t know were things. Stuff like “Exfoliation Mode” and “Sensation Level.” 

We had hit the jackpot! 

No wonder why Augur wanted to join our class; he wanted to get on the sweet room deal. The thought of Augur got my mind turning on his prediction—the stadium exits locked down, the protective shield around the arena disabled, citizens crying out in fear, heroes fighting a horde of monsters. It wasn’t going to be pretty, but at least we could be prepared. 

Norah squeaked with delight. “Massage chair!” 

But I couldn’t shake the feeling that I needed to summon the Hypnothrasher. She was part of that preparation, and I was damn glad she was so cool and useful. Her spells and abilities would surely make the difference, but we needed to review them and help her understand how to fight with us. 

A smirk played on my lips as I thought of the massive cat and how bad I just wanted to show her off. No one else had summons, and now I had two. I needed to gloat a little bit. 

“Piper, close the windows. Elise, take off your shirt.” 

“But Claire, Mr. Enscepec told us to go straight to bed.” Elise warned. 

I crossed my arms. “Don’t you want to see the Familiar?” 

“Oh, me! I do!” Piper said and rushed to close up the room for privacy. 

Elise crossed her arms, but I could see in her face that she was going to surrender. “Fine, but just two minutes. Then we all have to go to bed.”