Page 47 of The Not So Super Hero

B ailey was about to learn what true fury was.

He awoke to the rattling of his—oops—their apartment. First, he thought it was an earthquake. Then he heard something in Spanish that he was fairly certain was not a cheery word. Nate’s voice followed, “Sleeping in is not allowed.”

The apartment shook more. Bailey swore he heard something shatter.

Nate’s laughter echoed through the apartment.

Retrieving his glasses, he tip-toed to the bedroom door.

He peeked through the opening to discover Nate rushing out of Zane’s room .

A shadow followed. Said shadow slammed into his back.

A sheet of ice formed, sparing him of the full assault.

The shadow’s hit still sent him hurtling down the hall.

Nate hit their wall, putting a freaking hole in it! What the hell?!

Then Zane burst out of the room, soaked from head to toe. His hair was plastered to his face, which was contorted into pure rage. His eyes held darkness that consumed everything around him. Well, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

“Oh, good morning, Bailey.” Nate chuckled, ignoring the twisting shadows around him. “Sorry to wake you. Zane starts his training today. I knew he wouldn’t be there on time, so I thought I’d pay a visit.”

Nate didn’t expect Zane to retreat into his bedroom, grab a lamp, then return to chuck it at him. Nate narrowly dodged the lamp, so it shattered against the wall instead.

“Stop breaking stuff!” Bailey cried. “We already have a dent in the wall!”

“We’re about to have a dead body in our apartment too,” Zane growled, taking menacing steps towards Nate. Apparently, waking Zane from his slumber meant someone was going to die. That actually wasn’t very shocking.

“You’re welcome to come along, Bailey,” Nate said, causing Bailey to stare at him in disbelief. “Obviously you don’t have to train, but if you’d like to see your boyfriend show off a bit.” Nate winked.

“I uh…we-we’re not...heh...”

Grumbling, Zane returned to his bedroom and slammed the door. The shadows slowly disappeared until the apartment was at peace again. Well, except for Zane’s room. Rage seeped through the door in a wave of heat.

“What exactly will you be doing today?” Bailey asked after he changed into something other than sweatpants. He sat with Nate on the couch, waiting for Zane.

“We won’t really be making him use his powers, although he already did,” Nate snickered. “It’s going to be more of an obstacle course to force him to do some exercise.”

Bailey snorted. He couldn’t even imagine that. Zane? Exercise? Those were two words that should never be together. The guy would probably drop dead after a light jog. Zane was lazy. It’s a miracle Death hasn’t mistaken him for a corpse yet.

“I’m telling you, this will be the sight of the century.” Nate nudged him. “You won’t want to miss it.”

Bailey laughed along with Nate until Zane returned with the same frustration in his gaze. Bailey quickly silenced himself while Nate turned to Zane and grinned ear to ear.

“Ready to go?”

Zane walked out the door.

“Pissy as usual.” Nate got up from the couch with Bailey following. The two left the apartment, which Bailey was still whining about. They weren’t even there that long and there were already damages. They would not have to pay for them, right? Because if they were, Zane was paying for it.

“No worries, they’ll fix the wall,” Nate reassured him. “Believe me, we’ve all done damage to our apartments. Natalia caught hers on fire a couple of times.”

While Nate chuckled, Bailey stiffened. He forced out a chuckle of his own, burying his hands into his pockets, which shook. Thankfully, they didn’t speak more about the uncomfortable topic. Zane remained ahead of them, seeming to remember where to go after yesterday’s tour.

It didn’t take long to get there, Zane walking through the doors first with Nate and Bailey right behind.

Bailey could only assume another mutant had something to do with the training room.

It was a damn city! Was it an illusion? Because the room seemed to expand forever.

There were skyscrapers, shops, cars, and even people.

Sounds of life filled the streets, people talking and car horns blaring.

There was no reason to believe that they weren’t in town surrounded by booming life.

Bailey stifled a shout when a person walked through him.

“This beautiful work of art is courtesy of Adrianna. While we’re here, she can choose what we see, what we hear, even what we feel.” Nate knocked his fist against the side of a building. His fist didn’t go through it.

“You can get hurt in here if she wants you to?” Bailey asked, shivering at the thought of someone having full control of his surroundings.

“Believe me, she can do more than hurt you.”

While Bailey was ready to get the hell out of there, Zane seemed uncaring as per usual. He had his arms crossed, eyes taking in their surroundings with an apathetic expression. Nate noted that and said, “You look ready to start.”

“Define ready,” Zane spat.

Nate rolled his eyes and instructed Bailey to head over to Adrianna. Bailey had no idea who that was or where she was until he pivoted on his heel to find a door. The door stood in the middle of the street, leading nowhere. Bailey glanced at Nate with a very “what in the fuck is this” expression.

“Go on in,” Nate instructed, smiling far too eagerly.

Bailey gave Zane one last look, his cheeks brightening upon finding Zane watching him.

There was a moment of staring before Bailey quickly opened the door to find a room within that held both Natalia and Chris.

Bailey felt better heading in after seeing them.

As soon as the door closed, it disappeared.

The moment Bailey disappeared, Nate moved. Shards of ice shot in Zane’s direction. He dodged, shielding himself behind a car. The ice impaled the car, screeching metal and breaking glass.

“No powers for you, Zane,” Natalia instructed. Her voice echoed from nowhere. “Think of this as a game of tag. Tag Nate and you win.”

“Bullshit,” Zane growled, taking an opening to bolt towards an alleyway.

Zane was quick on his feet for someone who didn’t exercise. Bailey watched from above, the room being hidden by Adrianna so that they could see out but no one saw in.

Zane jumped on a dumpster in the alley, kicked off it, then grabbed hold of the fire escape.

He climbed the stairs with Nate hot on his trail.

It was obvious he wasn’t trying that hard.

Zane knew Nate had excellent aim and if he had wanted to hurt Zane, he already would have.

While Zane preferred life on easy mode, he was already exhausted. Was it nap time yet?

Zane ran across the roof to slide behind a shed moments prior to Nate coming into view.

He felt that their game wasn’t very fair.

Nate got to use his mutation. What bullshit.

It irked him that Nate was the one doing the chasing, too.

He wanted to push the smug bastard off the side of the building or into a raging volcano.

A pillar of ice shattered the shed. Expecting an attack, Zane used the mess as cover to crawl beneath the pillar.

He reached the edge of the building before Nate caught sight of him.

He kicked himself off the building, hit the adjacent tower, and repeated the process until reaching the ground.

Damn, he was already panting. Zane remembered when he could do that for fun. Now he was cramping.

Groaning, Zane moved through the streets.

He kept low and quiet, hiding in the shadows, behind cars or in buildings.

However, Zane never went too far. He kept Nate in sight because if he didn’t know where the bastard was, he was more likely to get caught.

He wasn’t exactly sure how long this “game” would go on since he, apparently, had to tag Nate. What were they, five?

From above, Bailey watched, leaning against the glass like a kid in a candy store.

In reality, the city wasn’t that big. Adrianna explained the room was the size of a typical gymnasium.

Their surroundings changed according to Adrianna’s will.

The guys ran around the same area that changed in their eyes, but not in actual space.

Her mutation only worked indoors, though, and couldn’t get it any bigger, though that didn’t make her any less impressive.

“What’s the point of today?” Bailey asked, struggling to keep up with Zane. He continuously lost sight of him, even from up here.

“This is as close as In the Field experience we can give him. Sadly, we kind of have to force him into it considering the circumstances,” Natalia explained, leaning against the glass with no fear of it breaking.

Bailey actually stepped away from time to time because his paranoia ate away at him that the glass would shatter and he’d fall to his death.

Bailey nodded. None of them knew when Rebirth would attack again. The quicker they train Zane, the better. Not to mention they could leave afterwards.

“You, Nate, and Zane were at Raiffel together, right?” Bailey inquired. “All three of you were close then. Were there others? Maybe someone else here Zane knows?”

Bailey’s question seemed to have hit a sore spot.

Chris frowned while Natalia looked away with an almost solemn expression.

There wasn’t a chance for him to apologize for whatever bothered her.

Natalia quickly answered, “Those that we knew most were lucky enough to have homes to return to. Some are heroes as well, working in their home countries. We actually returned to Mexico. However, our parents didn’t have much, so it appeared Rebirth had no issue. .. keeping them quiet.”

Bailey nearly tore through his lip, gazing solemnly downward.