Chapter 15 – To Be a Hero

“Icarus explosion at coordinates X150, Y307, Z3.01! All personnel, please respond for rescue!”

Arwain snapped to attention and swerved in that direction, stowing the package he held onto his back. He gritted his teeth as he was finally given permission to act.

Some time had passed since the city started preparing for the wrath of Daedalus. Despite the safety measures and checkpoints implemented, there were expectations that not everything could be deterred.

Arriving at the spot, the flow of aerial traffic had been completely held up, leaving a vacant airspace where the bomb’s reach had gone off. Quickly, Arwain dove, eyeing other Gliders like him shooting downwards to intercept falling victims.

Shopping bags and scattered merchandise floated past his approach. The buildings around him were a collection of fancy shops and eateries for the weekend shoppers, who had been interrupted by their sudden loss of flight.

Arwain barely had the time to dodge as he collided into a family of Build-a-Bird plushies, smashed several plates of Crown Dopenhagen china, and batted away Bluey Muitton purses. A siren blared, notifying the area of falling debris from the sky.

His eyes darted to a housewife crying bloody murder as her Sunday dress flapped over her head. Arwain brought his arms around her thighs as he swooped her from the descent. A pocket of microfibers and shielding polymer formed a convenient cavity to dump her there for the emergency crew later before he dove down for the next.

Many victims had already landed onto the bouncy surface of the fall barriers erected between the buildings. Arwain twisted his body to snake through the spaces in between, catching a businessman still holding his take-out before tossing him onto the barrier. A splatter of lo mein burst out upon impact. He heaved a sigh of half-relief and half-disappointment.

The city’s preparation had clear impact in disaster prevention as a good fraction of people found safety below. Given that the blueprints were also clearly marked in his HUD, Arwain could easily swerve in between the barriers like rain rolling down a series of roofing. Small passageways allowed him to bypass the barriers to catch up to those that hadn’t broken their fall.

“Sector clear. All victims have been accounted for.”

Arwain let out a gasp to ease his nerves as he stopped searching the skies below. He had plucked five people during his descent, far less to worry about than before. He had to hand it to Mayor DeWine for the quick action and good engineering that made the work of Gliders far easier this time around.

“Another signal-less bomb found! Coordinates X110, Y250, Z2.86. Currently being transported by a No-Flyer. Pursue with caution!”

Given that the analog time bombs were successful last time, Daedalus had apparently upped his focus on them, declaring that No-Flyers resistance members had been recruited to stash them in various places around the city.

“Damn extremists.”

Once that fact was revealed, mutterings such as that were thrown all around, not just towards Daedalus’s group, but the overall view of No-Flyers as a whole.

Arwain brushed these insults off, focusing on the task at hand. The site of a tall complex of buildings, comprising the city flight training center came into view.

“This is Aerial from UGS. We are in position. What should we do?”

“Jake from FlightEx. We should focus on evacuating the airspace around the campus. Redirect traffic and keep residents inside.”

“Fair enough. I’ve got reports that the No-Flyer is armed and dangerous. It would be foolish to approach ourselves. Best leave that to the authorities. Figures that they’d get a No-Flyer to do their dirty work since they aren’t affected.”

Arwain listened to the conversation over comms with a growing pit in his stomach. Finally, he couldn’t keep quiet.

“So, wait? Are you saying that we should abandon those in the buildings?”

“Who’s speaking? Name yourself.”

“This is Arwain from Silver Stream. A small company unlike yours. With all of us together, there’s got to be a better way to deal with it than simply waiting around to clean up the aftermath.”

“Of course, but the best action would be to notify authorities and have flyers evacuate while staying inside at all times,” said Jake. “Plus, if too many of us chase after the suspect, who knows what will happen.”

“So we’re just floating here until shit happens?”

“Not my call. No one wants to handle these hot potatoes anymore. It’s our best interest to not be a hero and let things play out.”

“Is that why none of you bothered for disposal this time? The extra uncertainty of it blowing up in your face making you just play catch since the city has everything handled?”

“The public is already on edge. If we go flying in there to diffuse the situation and it goes sour, our reputation will crumble.”

“Well, screw your reputation. We don’t have time to evacuate everyone out of range. Even if they are safe from falling to their doom, anyone caught in the blast has to deal with losing their wings. Do you really want to do that to new flyers that are just figuring out their purpose? Hoping that someone else will take care of it is just an excuse for keeping yourself safe.”

Arwain knew full well that he wouldn’t be able to do much without his wings. He was not smart. He had no other gifts. His entire livelihood hinged on his delivery service.

But that was likely the same for many in this city. The very thought of losing one’s wings could be clearly felt for the Gliders, so caution held everyone back. The bombs that detonated earlier could have been disposed of like before. Instead, more and more people were being told to clean up after the coast was clear.

It had only taken one unexpected outcome to shake the confidence that Gliders had in their abilities. But for Arwain, that was a risk he was willing to take.

“Then, I’ll take a crack at it. After all, we have the advantage in mobility. I’ll slip through the building and swipe that bomb even if he is trying to escape.”

Before anyone could stop him, he zoomed towards the main building, determined to prove them wrong. His comms lit up with an annoyed Jolly.

“Arwain, you idiot. Why are you so dang eager to stick your neck into things?”

“I’ve always been that way, Jolly. You know me far too well. I doubt you chimed in to stop me.”

“I’ve given up with convincing you otherwise. Have at them. I’m relaying the map data.”

Arwain’s view changed into a skeleton blueprint of the surrounding buildings, the fleeing No-Flyer marked with an icon. He swerved to the side to take an approach from a blind spot, scanning the side of the building for any entry points.

Due to the height of the skyscrapers, the materials were far too strong for a person to simply break through. His only choice was to pick an opening where he could surprise him before anything could be done with the bomb. There was also no telling when the timer was set to go off, so he had to choose fast.

“Bingo.”

With a flap of the wings, he switched directions, aiming for an entryway that was one floor above the runner. He swooped through the arch, made for the nearby stairway, and did a U-turn flip just in time to fly right into the hallway and before the runner. He was a gruff man with a box that tried to disguise the obvious contents. But having been found out, he was dead set on following the fleeing crowd to take down as many as he could.

A gun extended from his right hand, and a bolt of energy flew out from it. Arwain twirled out of its path, hearing it dissipate with a sizzle after it struck a metal railing. He recognized it as the standard-issue stun gun that the police used to stop flyers. If he was hit by that, the machine-based tissue in his wings would malfunction and lock up until the proper repairs could be made.

Fortunately, he had played chicken many times as a kid, making him anticipate where the shot would go. The tell of the man’s shoulder give him away as Arwain dove out of the way. His feet touched the wall, and he started running along it.

Knowing that Arwain wouldn’t be scared off, the man ducked into a cramped room where flight would be less of an advantage.

“Heh, if he thinks he can stop me if I’m grounded, then think again.”

A blast flew past Arwain when he entered what looked like a classroom, and then one more as he rounded a shelf where the room opened up. A makeshift jumble of desks and chairs served as cover for the runner to shoot from.

With a quick flap of the wings, Arwain vaulted from one side of the room to the other, tossing up the furniture to make himself a hard target to track. With one final leap, he sailed over the barricade and brought his foot down, right on top of the man’s head.

The crate that he was carrying spilled from his arms, where it hit the ground. The lid fell off and a round object rolled out, a timer already ticking down with fifty seconds left.

“Oh shit, he was just trying to stall!” Arwain quickly scooped up the Icarus bomb and flew out of the room, looking for a quick exit to take it as far in the other direction from people as possible.

“Flight shaft, 100 meters ahead to the right!”

“Thanks, Jolly!”

He looked down as the timer went under thirty seconds, entering the shaft and going straight up as far as the building would go. By now, notifications to evacuate would have been received, so those in the building would be many floors down and far enough from the blast.

“Throw it now!”

“Right-o!”

Arwain heaved the bomb straight up, seeing the timer go into the single digits. With a kick against a ledge sticking out, Arwain shifted his momentum 180 and blasted his air thruster to put as much distance as possible.

A sharp whiz cracked through the air and the shaft brightened a bit, but Arwain refused to spend a moment looking back.

“You can cool it now. You’re out of range.”

Arwain slowed to a hover, stretching his limbs to celebrate a job well done. He was glad that he could stop the runner from creating any more victims.

“Um, Arwain. Look up.”

“Huh, no way. Cool guys don’t look at explos-”

A heavy thud smacked Arwain right in the back, causing him to spin out of the flight shaft and spill onto the floor.

“Idiot.”

“Right. I forgot that the bomb itself would fall back down.”

He sheepishly scratched his head and floated to the nearest exit, returning to the delivery that was interrupted.

“Delivery time!” Arwain shouted, a few minutes later, to a receptionist lady who looked over at a clock.

“You’re late.”

“Sorry, I was caught up in a bit of trouble. But here it is!”

Arwain grabbed the package on his back and thrust it forward.

“I’m not paying for this.”

She pointed at the condition it was in, beat up and contents spilling half out.