Unworthy Hero ~ Chapter 4

“Good morning, class!” Mr. Zimmern, my Geometry professor, said gleefully, skipping out from his office. His wispy blond hair and round tortoiseshell glasses stood out from his brown leather jacket and the gray scarf he wore around his neck. “To start, how have your endeavors on those surface area packets been?"

We all responded with a halfhearted “good” or “okay”.

“That’s great! For those who aren't quite finished with those, I'll give you the period to work on them, since I don't have a lesson plan for today. If you need me, I'll be at my desk."

As I did my worksheet, I considered my future. If this whole Superhero thing didn’t work out, I had my backup plan. I would graduate from CHIT, then apply to the University of Super City for more specialized education in architecture. I would then design buildings for fellow Superheroes, both in Super City--a hidden city in the clouds made exclusively for Heroes--and in the human world. The more I thought about it, the more likely this career path seemed, considering no one here liked me as a Superhero.

“And it’s one-thirty! You are all released from class!” Mr. Zimmer chirped, clapping his hands together in excitement. We all gathered our bags and left eagerly for lunch.

I walked to my dorm, put my stuff down when I came inside, and went to the refrigerator. I opened it and watched its emptiness, waiting for food to magically appear there.

I should probably go grocery shopping.

With that thought, I grabbed my wallet from the dorm room’s safe and headed out to my Civic. I got in, started it, and began the short drive to the local grocery store. I drove over to the store and parked my car between another Civic and a ginormous pickup truck.

A little while later, as I was walking through the dairy aisle, my watch buzzed. When I looked at it, my blood ran cold.

The watch was displaying the grocery store I was at, and the dot was right behind me.

There was also something off about the dot itself.

The Villain ID didn’t appear. Instead, the dot was labeled as UNKNOWN.

I turned around slowly and saw a well-built man casually examining a bag of frozen chicken. He then put it in his cart and began to walk away. I decided the best thing to do was follow him around for a little while to see if he did anything suspicious.

“Hey, Sarah!” Taylor exclaimed, appearing behind me from out of nowhere. “I didn’t think I’d see you here!”

“Oh, hey, Taylor!” I said. I looked around for the man, but he was gone.

I turned back to her. “Would you mind finishing the shopping for me? I have to go do something.”

“Umm...sure, I guess,” she replied.

“Thanks!” I said quickly, giving her the shopping cart. I then ran off to the nearest empty aisle and looked at my watch. The man had left and was now speeding towards the city hall, which was at least a block away from here.

How had he left so fast?

With no time to spare, I ran to my car and drove all the way back to the dorms. I then changed, jumped out the window, and went to the garage.

“Hello, Time Turner,” Nicholas said upon me getting into and starting the supercar. “Where will we be going today?”

“Captain Hope City City Hall,” I said, buckling my seatbelt.

“Calculating route for 10293 Main Street. Would you like me to drive?”

“No.”

“Alright.”

The steering wheel unlocked, and I drove the seven minutes to my destination.

When I got there, I looked around for any sign of the Villain, noting the small crowd forming around the edge of the lot. I froze when I saw something moving in the air above me. It was a human figure, circling the building. I could make out a cape flowing from the red-and-blue suit my opponent was wearing. After looking at it for a while, I noticed he was getting closer. Soon it was at the point where he was on top of the building, standing still, his hands on his hips. Meanwhile, I was frozen in fear, my arms pasted to my sides.

“What are you doing, Time Turner?” a person shouted from behind me. That reminded me that a crowd was studying my every movement. I knew I couldn’t stand there like a coward, so I stepped forward and stared down the figure.

“What do you want here?” I shouted, attempting to sound noble and heroic.

I heard a boisterous laugh coming from the figure. He then glided down from the building until he stood just inches away from me. He was easily six inches taller than I was, and was built like a typical male Superhuman. He had slick black hair, with a gold-colored symbol on his chest with the letters RW in it. His suit was crimson, which had a stark contrast to the admiral-colored boots, cape, and mask he wore.

“Time Turner, right?” he said in a husky voice. Much to my surprise, he held out his hand. “I’m Red Warrior. How...honorable it is to meet you.”