CHAPTER 7

HE’D WATCHED THEM FOR A HALF HOUR BEFORE THE ROBBERY.

He’d first spotted them a few blocks away from the store, when he’d been moving from rooftop to rooftop. At the time, they’d been huddled in an alleyway, speaking in hushed tones and he’d known at once, from the expressions on their faces—expressions of doubt and fright and uncertainty—that they were about to do something potentially regrettable. And so he’d tailed them for the next few blocks, clinging to the shadows, sticking to the rooftops, watching and listening. And then they’d arrived outside the grocery store on 4th and Main, and they’d spent a few minutes loitering about outside, speaking again in hushed tones as if trying to build confidence for what a daunting task it was they were about to undergo. They’d pulled on their black masks, pulled out their pistols and one after the other, they’d marched into the grocery store.

“GET THE FUCK DOWN!” He’d heard someone yell, and a warning gunshot had followed. Then had come the screams, the pandemonium. Outside the grocery store, passers-by began to flee, concerned for their own lives.

All he felt was some excitement. Some relief too. He had something now that would keep his mind occupied, keep him from thinking about home, about Anthea.

And the night was still young. There were bound to be more distractions even after he’d dealt with the band of petty thieves.

When he arrived at the grocery store, the cashier was emptying the register into little bags the crooks had with them and a few of them were moving along the aisles of shelves, grabbing whatever was valuable enough to fetch them a few hundred more dollars.

The crooks were so caught up in their petty crime that they didn’t notice him for the first few minutes that he stood at the entrance. The civilians who were laid on the ground had seen him and one woman had even mouthed to him: “Run. Get help.”

But he’d simply stood there and winked at her, leaving her with an expression a mixture of surprise and confusion. Finally, once he’d grown tired of waiting for the crooks to notice him on their own, he cleared his throat, leaning against the entrance with one hand, his other hand at his waist, engulfing his face in flames to mask his identity.

The crooks paused then, and all turned in his direction. For a moment, they all stood, looking petrified by the sight of him, petrified at the knowledge that they’d been caught red handed and that they were all probably 100% screwed and bound for jail.

“Not very nice of you to go around taking people’s stuff without saying please, you know,” Dante said, smiling at the crooks. “It’s bad manners.”

“Fuck,” one of the crooks cursed. “It’s one of those hero kids. Wombat or whatever.”

“Woah, woah, woah,” Dante said then, looking a little offended. “Do I look like Wombat to you? I’m taller than he is, and broader too. Not to mention, I’m not wearing that goofy costume of his.”

“If you’re not Wombat then who the hell are you?” another of the thugs demanded. “Some new kid?”

“New kid?” Dante repeated, growing even more offended. “You’re joking, right? Only a few months ago, I helped save your world and you don’t even know who I am?”

“Oh,” one thug said, as if the realization had just dawned on him. “You’re the other fire guy who’s kind of like Wombat. Well, what do you call yourself then? Kid Wombat or something? Wombat Junior?”

“Alright, I’m tired of getting insulted. I’m going to need all six of you to put down everything that isn’t yours, and then also maybe put down the guns that are yours. And once you’ve done that, put your hands above your head or behind your backs or whatever.”

The robbers all exchanged looks. There was silence for a few seconds. And then, all at once, they started to laugh.

“Is he serious?” one asked.

“You’ve not done something like this before, have you?”

Dante sighed, more than irritated now. He moved away from the entrance and took a step toward the crooks. Immediately, they all took aim, the barrels of their pistols trained directly at him. Clicks followed, indicating that their safeties had gone off.

“One more step and it’ll be the last one you take,” a thug threatened.

Dante chuckled in response to this. “I think I’ll take my chances, but I do appreciate the concern, thank you very much.”

He took a step forward and just as the thug had threatened, the crooks all opened fire. The bullets, however, never reached him, with the bullets melting as soon as they got within a few inches of him, a protective wave of intense heat engulfing his body as he continued to walk toward the thugs.

Soon, the thugs realized it was futile to continue shooting and so they stopped. One of them charged right at Dante then, swinging a powerful fist. Dante dodged the blow with ease, and retaliated with a powerful blow that sent the thug flying all the way to the back of the store, crashing into a shelf that fell apart and collapsed onto him, essentially burying him.

The remaining thugs exchanged looks again. Then, all at once, they dropped their weapons and everything they’d stolen, dropping to their knees instantly, hands held over their heads.

“Wait, what?” Dante asked, confused. “You’re done already? Aw, come on, I was hoping this would go on a little longer,” he whined.

After the grocery store robbery, he came across people holding up a convenience store at a gas station and made light work of them even though he’d had to do so without flaming up considering he could have accidentally blown up the gas station if he got too reckless. After this, there’d been a drug deal in an alley, then another drug deal beneath a bridge and then a third drug deal outside of a nightclub, all three of which he’d stopped with minimal violence. Then the night had culminated in a car chase—the police were tailing after a sedan filled with people who’d just robbed a fancy apartment.

He'd been on his way back to base when he’d caught wind of the car chase, at which point he’d joined the pursuit, catching up very quickly to the cops and flying between their cars. As he did so, the cops shot him looks out of their windows, looking both surprised and relieved to see him.

He winked at the cops, and then fired off an intense jet of flames from his feet, propelling himself forward with great force. He very quickly sailed past the sedan, and then landed just ahead of it, grinning as he waited for the vehicle to get closer. As the sedan zipped toward him, its occupants stuck their masked heads out of the window, aimed their guns at him and fired. Like with the grocery store, the bullets didn’t reach him.

Finally, he aimed his index finger at the sedan and fired off a compressed, bullet-like burst of flame. The flame bullet struck the hood of the sedan and what came next was a loud BANG just as the sedan went flipping through the air, flipping a few times and soaring over Dante before finally crashing into the asphalt upside down, its engine beginning to smoke immediately.

The cops brought their vehicles to a stop around the sedan, hastying out and taking positions behind cover, training their pistols at the sedan, waiting for the crooks within to emerge.

The first of the crooks emerged from the sedan and took aim with his pistol but before he could fire, Dante was right in front of him. Dante seized the front of the pistol and grinned at the crook as he heated the pistol up until the entire thing glowed orange, turning searing hot and scalding the crook’s hand.

The crook yelped, let go of the gun which Dante tossed aside, and then the crook took a swing at Dante. Dante let the blow connect, and smiled at the look of horror on the criminal’s face when he realized his punch had done absolutely nothing whatsoever to Dante.

“My turn.” Dante winked, and then threw a very tame blow that connected with the crook’s face and knocked him out cold instantly.

When the rest of the criminals emerged from the sedan, they surrendered at once, and the cops made the arrest.

“Thanks, man,” one of the police officers said, as he led one of the cuffed crooks to his cop car. “Hey, you think I could get like an autograph or something,” the cop asked after, once the crook had been shoved into the back of the car. “Maybe even a photograph? My kid goes crazy over you hero sort, Wombat and Tiger and the rest of you. Picture with you would make for an incredible birthday present, I reckon.”

“Sure.” Dante shrugged, rather pleasantly surprised. “When’s your boy’s birthday?” he asked.

“In a few hours,” the police officer answered, just as Dante moved beside him, ready to pose for the picture. The officer retrieved his phone, handed it to his partner and struck a pose. One picture was taken, and then other officers joined in, all of them striking poses with their guns for the second image. For the final one, they went with a video, with everyone saying “Happy Birthday, Peter!”

Afterward, Peter’s dad whose name was Peter himself asked Dante: “So what do we call you anyways? Got like a codename or something?”

“Uhh, nah, not yet,” Dante answered, shaking his head. “I suppose you could go with Fireguy for now, at least until I workshop something.”

“Alright then, Fireguy. Really appreciate this.”

Afterward, the cops drove off and with a smile on his face, Dante took flight again. He hadn’t flown very far however when he noticed a figure perched atop a rooftop, one who looked to have been observing things.

He flew toward the rooftop and landed next to the figure. Dang turned around to face him, smiling slightly.

“Fireguy’s a terrible name,” Dang remarked.

“It’s also temporary,” Dante responded, extinguishing his flames and joining Dang at the edge of the rooftop, leaning over and peering down at the rest of the city. Out of the corner of his eyes, he glanced at Dang. “How long have you been following me?” he asked. “How long have you been keeping watch?”

“Not very long,” Dang answered. “I was nearby and about to respond to the car chase. Then I saw you and figured I’d watch, let you handle things. Seems like you’ve been out a while though, there’s photos of you all over social media. Great job with the grocery store, by the way.”

“Well, I got bored,” Dante said. “Figured I’d keep myself busy tonight.”

“Keep yourself busy or keep your mind busy?” Dang asked, giving Dante a curious look. “You’re thinking about home, aren’t you?”

Dante scoffed. “How would you know?”

“For starters, I know you’ve been keeping busy a lot this past two months. Even more than Wombat and Tiger. A lot of the sightings thought to be Wombat have been you instead. Wasn’t hard to piece together why you’d be doing all of that.”

“Well, doesn’t matter why I’m doing it,” Dante said. “This is my home now. Gotta keep it safe.”

“But—,”

“I don’t want to talk about it, Dang,” Dante said softly, calmly. “I don’t want to talk about her.”

There was some silence, interrupted only a few minutes later by the sound of police sirens ringing through the air. Dang straightened then and looked at Dante. “You want to handle this one with me, Fireguy?” he asked, grinning as he did.

Dante chuckled, then climbed onto the edge of the rooftop. “Race you there,” he said, before throwing himself off the rooftop, arms outstretched, embracing the sensation of falling, the sensation of freedom.

It was a precious thing.

***

Dang went to the shelter after school the following day, dropping by with Dante and Daedalus. As they always did, they went in through the building’s rear which meant they had to pass through the kitchen and every time, once they walked into the kitchen, they would be met with cheers from the cooks who worked there. It was no different this time.

Dang had grown up in the shelter, been raised there, and so he’d known most of the people who worked there literally as long as he could remember. This meant they were all fully in the know about his abilities, and also knew about Daedalus and Dante being doppelgangers of his. In the past couple months, the reception they received whenever they visited was a lot more positive, largely because the orphanage had been torn apart during the invasion when Caden and Kai and set their sights on it, and it was Dang and the gang who’d helped put it back the way it was, with Daedalus also throwing in a few upgrades and security measures to ensure it wouldn’t be quite so easy for anyone to attack the place again.

Daedalus had repurposed Bellum’s murderbots and created battle drones hidden in the walls and ceilings, battle drones that would be activated if the security system was tripped off. Not to mention he’d also implemented an emergency lockdown procedure. Anything to ensure the orphanage was safe and considering it hadn’t been attacked the past couple months, his precautions looked to be working as intended thus far.

“Hey,” Dang said, speaking to Joseph, one of the cooks who worked at the orphanage and perhaps the one who Dang had known longest. “How’s uh, how’s Anna doing now?” he asked, making his way out of the kitchen with Joe and into the main orphanage.

“She’s not walking yet,” Joe responded. “Still too painful to even attempt it, but she’s better. She’s eating more, all but back to her usual hearty self. Doc reckons it might be a few more months before she walks again, if at all she ever does. There’s procedures that might get her back on her feet sooner, something to do with implants but she’s had her say on it—she wants none of that.”

“Where’s she now?” Dang asked, scanning the orphanage. Downstairs, there were just a few kids loitering about, playing board games with each other, or playing with one of the many musical instruments or something of the sort, all of them too engrossed with what they were doing to notice Dang’s arrival.

“Her room,” Joe answered, pointing upward. “Come on, I could take you to her.”

“No, it’s fine,” Dang said, giving Joe a gentle nod. “Thank you. We’ll uh, we’ll go see her now, see how she’s doing. But what about the twins?”

“We’ve got a couple more twins here now but I assume you’re talking about Caleb and Chase. They oughtta be out in the garden, them two’ve been spending a lot more time outdoors these days, getting used to moving around without their blindfolds, trying to get better with their powers. I think you lot might have put a few dangerous ideas in their heads with all the superhero stuff you’ve been doing.”

Dang chuckled and gave Joseph another nod before starting up the stairs, Dante and Daedalus following him. He knew perfectly well that Caleb and Chase weren’t training with their powers because Dang and the gang had somehow inspired them to do so. No, he knew they were doing it because they in part blamed themselves for what had happened to Anna when Caden and Kai and attacked, blamed themselves for not being strong enough to protect her.

They wanted to get a stronger. He made a mental note to check on the twins before leaving the orphanage but in the meantime, Anna was priority.

Anna’s room was her office at the orphanage, one that’d been repurposed to double as both an office and a room. The left side of the room was lined with bookshelves, with her desk placed there, leather seats accompanying it. Across from the desk area, there were two comfy-looking couches placed on either side of a rather interesting-looking coffee table that also doubled as an aquarium, with small colorful fish gliding around within it. The aquarium was lined with LED light strips, and it provided a soothing ambiance to the room.

A half-wall split the room in half and on the right side of the room, a tidy bed and next to it, a bunch of contraptions intended for monitoring vitals. There was a bedside drawer atop which there were plastic containers containing Anna’s meds—most of which were painkillers, and were labeled Morning, Afternoon, Night. Also on the bedside drawer were framed images, one of which was an image of a nine-year-old Dang standing next to Anna, tugging at her dress, an awkward smile on his face while Anna had the happiest smile ever.

Not very far from the bed, a brown door that led into the bathroom, left cracked open.

Pushed up against a wall was a long table atop which were flower vases and a whole lot of boxed presents and cards and notes that Anna had received, some of which had been left by some of the kids at the orphanage, with some also having come from Dang and the gang.

Anna was in the room, as Joe had said. She was at her desk, sat in her wheelchair and in her laps was a little brown-skinned girl who looked no older than six. Anna had a picture book in her hands and was reading to the girl who would giggle every time Anna said a word the girl couldn’t quite pronounce.

Dang and the others waited by the doorway, watching as Anna read gently and softly to the girl, Dang’s eyes stinging ever so slightly as memories of Anna reading to him flooded his mind. She’d been there as long as he could remember and was the only reason he’d turned out half as good as he had. Had anyone else taken him in instead of Anna and the shelter…no, he didn’t even want to imagine just how differently things might have been. Everything he was now was because of her and yet, he hadn’t been there in time to keep her from getting hurt. The wheelchair she was in now, she was only in because he hadn’t been fast enough, because he hadn’t been strong enough when it mattered the most.

He didn’t tears were streaking down his cheeks until Dante patted him gently on the back and offered him a tissue. “Here,” Dante said softly, as he held the tissue out to Dang.

Dang hastily wiped the tears off his cheeks with his hands, then accepted the tissue, dabbing gently at what was left. When he glanced back into the room, Anna was near the end of the book she was reading. He waited with the others, all of them continuing to watch and then, just as Anna finished the book and shut it, the little girl in her lap glanced up, and looked straight at the doorway, straight at Dang and the others.

“Anna!” the girl exclaimed, her eyes going wide with excitement. “Look!” she squealed. “It’s the superheroes!”

Anna looked then, smiled softly as she saw Dang. Then, to the girl, she said: “Yes, Cara, it’s the superheroes. You want to go say hi to them?”

“Yes!” Cara squealed, before excitedly racing out of Anna’s lap and bolting across the room to Dang. She threw herself at him, and hugged his waist, considering that was about as tall as she was.

Dang was taken aback slightly, eyes going a little wide with surprise, heart skipping a few beats. He had no idea quite how to react, but after a few seconds, he simply chuckled and rubbed the girl’s head gently then stooped low so he was face to face with her.

“Hey, Cara,” he said gently. “How are you doing?”

“G-O-O-D,” the girl replied, spelling out her response. “How are you doing? Are you still a superhero?’

Dang glanced at the others then, unsure what to say. They simply shrugged at him. He returned his gaze to Cara and smiled. “I don’t know, Cara,” he answered. “Do you want me to still be a superhero?”

“Yes!” Cara responded excitedly. “Can you fly with me? I want to fly! I want to go high, and touch the clouds!”

“Tell you what, I’ll fly with you later,” Dang promised. “But I can’t take you to the clouds…that’s too high for a little girl like you. How about I fly you to the roof? Would you be happy with that?”

“Yes!” Cara squealed, clapping her hands together excitedly. “You and me, flying to the roof…I’ll be the tallest girl in the entire place! The others will be jealous!”

“Yep, they certainly will be.” Dang laughed, rubbing Cara’s head again before straightening to his feet. Cara went on then to hug both Dante and Daedalus with Daedalus looking rather awkward when she hugged him, even more awkward than Dang had been. While Cara asked Daedalus to show her all sorts of cool cyborg stuff, Dante and Dang went further into the room, joining Anna at her desk.

The two of them went straight to her, crouching at either side of her wheelchair, glancing up at her face with solemn expressions.

“Hey,” Dang said, taking one of her hands in his. “How are you doing?” he asked.

“Better now that you’re here,” Anna replied, squeezing his hand firmly, as she did Dante’s. “I didn’t realize you’d be dropping by today. Everything okay?”

“Yeah.” Dante nodded. “Just figured we’d come see how you were doing. Haven’t been able to drop by these past couple days and you know, we’re so—,”

“Hey, hey, hey, don’t do that,” Anna said then, cutting him off. “Your lives don’t revolve around me, okay? I see what you do on the news, alright? Stopping robbers and car chases and whatnot, and that’s exactly what I want you doing. Can’t just stop moving because an old woman like me got hurt. Stuff like that happens all the time and like I said, it’s not either of your faults.”

Both Dang and Dante simply nodded. “Yeah, okay,” Dang said. He cast a glance around the room. “Is there, uh,” he cleared his throat, “Is there anything you need done around here? Maintenance, repairs, cleaning, anything at all? Something we could help with?”

“No, nothing.” Anna shook her head. “Not at the moment, at least. How’ve you boys been? Any more cosmic shenanigans?”

“None so far,” Dang answered, shaking his head. “What we did looks to be holding up fine, there’s been no new breaches, no incursions, nothing. All quiet on the cosmic front. And there’s been nothing on Caden and Kai either…wherever they are, they’re doing an incredibly good job at laying low. But I promise you, someday soon, I’ll find them…I’ll make them pay for what they—,”

“Don’t think like that,” Anna said at once, a hint of disapproval in her tone. “Don’t think like them. I don’t care about revenge. And I don’t want you to either.”

“But—,”

“No buts,” Anna insisted. “Put that out of your mind. If they come back around and cause any more trouble then sure, stop them. But don’t go around looking to get back at them for what they’ve done. You don’t need that type of weight on you, alright?”

Dang sighed. “Sure, fine.”

“Promise me,” Anna said, raising one eyebrow over the other.

Dang’s eyes widened. “What?”

“Promise me that you won’t go out of your way looking for revenge.”

“Anna, it’s been a little over two months. You don’t think I could have had my revenge by now if I was actively looking for it?”

“Promise me.”

Dang sighed again, shaking his head. “Fine.” He nodded. “I promise.”

Anna turned to Dante then, squeezing his hand and narrowing her eyes at him. “That goes for you too.”

Dante smiled. “Sure, Anna. I promise.”

After a hour long conversation with Anna, during which she also made Daedalus promise that he wouldn’t go looking for blood or attempting to hunt Caden and Kai down, they all headed outside to find Caleb and Chase in the garden. The twins were standing around a fountain in the garden and were taking turns levitating fruits around the fountain as well as in and out of it.

The two stopped when Dang and the others arrived and sat at the edge of fountain. Caleb was the first to speak. “Was wondering how long it would take you to come out here,” the boy said, he and his brother having already grown a few extra inches over the past couple months, his piercing blue eyes focused on Dang.

“I hear you two are training,” Dang said, folding his arms. “You don’t mind me asking exactly what it is you’re training for, do you?”

“We’re not going to be in this place our whole lives,” Chase answered, running a hand through his dirt blond hair. “Soon, we’ll be out there, like you, and we’ll need to know how to protect ourselves against people like Caden and Kai if they come back around. Can’t keep being helpless.”

“Right, and you think training with fruit makes you less helpless?” Dante asked, raising one eyebrow over the other.

“Anna won’t let us train with anything other than,” Chase said.

“I won’t have you blowing up half the shelter,” Anna spoke then. “Until you’re training under proper supervision, you’re to stick with apples and oranges and watermelons. And maybe a football every now and then.”

“Proper supervision?” Dang repeated, frowning at Anna then. “Where would they find proper supervision? I mean, you can’t exactly put out job posters asking for people willing to train with superpowered kids.”

“No, we can’t,” Anna agreed. “But there might be people already out there who’ve got experience with stuff like this, with learning to use complicated abilities and who wouldn’t mind supervising every now and then.”

Dang’s eyes widened with suspicion then and he looked to the twins to find them both staring intently at him, mischievous grins on their faces. He looked to Dang and Daedalus, both of whom shrugged and backed away from him, as if signifying that he was all on his own for this.

He looked at Anna again and shook his head. “You’re not serious, are you? You want me supervising them?”

“It’ll be fun,” Caleb said, as if to convince him. “And we’ll be extra compliant.”

“I-I-I can’t do that,” Dang stammered. “I’m not a teacher, alright? Besides I wouldn’t even know how to help you understand your powers, it’s not like we’ve got the same abilities. Yours are a lot more complicated.”

“You could Resonate with us,” Chase said. “Wouldn’t that let you use our powers? I imagine you’d be able to teach us just fine that way.”

Dang opened his mouth to retort but found himself producing a series of stammering sounds, before looking to Anna again. “How long have you been thinking about bringing this up?”

Anna simply shrugged. “If you don’t do it, there’s not a long list of other people who could. And it’ll help keep them safe. Don’t get me wrong, I know you’ve all done what you can, what with all of the security protocols around here…but protocols can be bypassed, especially by people who hop between universes. Teaching them how to defend themselves, much as I don’t fully like it, I think it’s the best thing for them. And you boys are the ones I trust to do it.”

“Whoa, boys?” Dante spoke then, shifting uncomfortably. “I thought this was just on Dang?”

“It’s not.” Anna shook her head. “If he’s helping out, you’re all helping out.”

“Oh boy, maybe we should have come on a different day,” Daedalus said, scratching his head awkwardly.

“So?” Chase asked expectantly, eyes twinkling slightly. “What’s it going to be? You say yes, we could start right away.”

“Wait, wait, wait, hang on,” Dang said, shaking his head. “I need to think about this, I can’t just give an answer right away.”

“Why not?” Caleb frowned. “You know what, it’s fine…if you’re not going to help us, I suppose we could just head out there, get in some trouble and figure things out all on our own. Learn on the job or whatever. And if we get hurt doing that, I suppose that’s just how it was meant to be.”

Dang’s face paled slightly. “I know what you’re trying to do. Stop that.”

Caleb simply grinned.

After a few more seconds, Dang sighed. “Look, fine,” he said, resigning himself to the decision. “I’d be willing to do this.”

“Yes!” Caleb squealed.

“But only on weekends,” Dang added. “Saturdays to be specific. Two hours every Saturday. And I’ll only be teaching you the basics, nothing that you could go overboard with. And the moment you even do something reckless, that’s it, we’re done…capische?”

“Capische,”

“Alright then,” Dang said, nodding. “So I’ll see you Saturday then. But before I leave, where’s Cara? I promised to fly around with her for a bit.”

The twins’ eyes lit up then. “Can we come too?”

“No.”

Their faces fell at once.