The Plan

Heroes, more like Zeroes. They didn't bring us peace. They didn't bring us happiness. They didn't even want us here. The only things that they wanted from us were praise and privilege. It was sickening.

After more than ten years, we saw a pattern of behaviour in these so-called heroes. Corruption happened, and a new hero came. In between that, there was always one hero who died. To hide their negligence, the case always ended up being closed with an absurd reason.

I mean, hear this!
Ultradear. Died because of a heart attack, but that shouldn't be possible; he has immunity to prevent that from happening.
Jezzling. Died because of a crash. Diabolical! Jezzling was a speedster. He could avoid those crashes. I just couldn't see that would happen.
Loventine. Died by stabbing. Sure, I could see that happen. All she did was mind control. But think twice! She could mind control. How the fuck did she let that happen?

Something was happening in the back, I could feel it in my bones.

Recently, it was Electrica. Let me remind you of her cause of death. She got skin cancer. To be specific, she was electrocuted, and her skin was dying. It was as ridiculous as the others. She has the power to control lightning, so why the fuck did she get electrocuted? It didn't add up.

"Are you done with your plate, son?" Jordan came in.
"I'm not your kid, Yord."

He looked at my plate and came in to get it. "Awww, my son is in his rebellious phase. Let me get that for you."

He pissed me off. "You're done? Now let me be alone."

I knew he was ambitious to take down these hero businesses, but the sentence he was about to say shocked me.

"You got the details on Electica? I found her heart and brought it here."

We agreed not to tinker with the hero's dead body. We agreed that the police should take care of that. We agreed not to be suspicious of each other like this. A heart of a hero? That's just beyond human.

"You what?"
"We haven't been getting any footing in this investigation, and it's been about ten years since we started."
"You broke the rule, Yord. They could come for us."
"Relax. Her heart was traded on the black market."
"How do you know that information?"

He walked away with my plate and said, "We'll have a meeting with everyone after this."
"Yord?! Jordan! Answer me!"

This was the first time I saw him seem desperate. I thought he might have one of those nightmares again about his family being obliterated by the heroes' fight. I knew he wanted revenge; that was one of the biggest reasons he wanted to join... maybe, I'm not too sure anymore. I think he couldn't wait any longer. It was my guess, but I was probably on point, knowing him for ten years.

An hour passed. All six of us gather in the apartment's shared living room. Jordan opened the meeting, "Tasyah has found out about another hero's death. Seiza has almost finished with the machine for Electrica. How about the others? We need to keep our feet on the ground today."

Yup, he is definitely on edge. We're friends, but I guess we're not even close, huh? He didn't even tell me about these urgencies beforehand.

Wiwin raised her hand and said, "I got the blueprint you asked for, Jordan."
"Great! Anything else."

I forgot to tell you. Yes, Jordan was the head of operations. It wasn't me. I was just his partner. I raised my hand, "I found out from all of the evidence about Electica's death. It wasn't an accident like every hero we encountered before. She was killed by someone else— another hero, maybe. I couldn't pinpoint who it was, and I'm not too sure if those guys are the guys."

Jordan said with enthusiasm, "At least we got lead, Zeed. But we lacked evidence. You and I will have a conversation after this."

Now I got my answer to why he got Electrica's heart. He was insane with that one. It still baffled me that he broke our rule of conduct just to reach his goal. We were definitely far from friends. I have never seen him this insane.

"Harold..."
"No need to ask, we got the money to keep going."
"Great. Anything else."

I'm surprised. He didn't mention the heart. Did he...?

"Alright, if nothing else, dismissed. And don't forget! We need to keep our pace here!"

Everyone got back to what they were doing, except Jordan and me.

"Okay, pal. Spill! Why did you have..." He put his index into my lips. He didn't answer; instead, he led me to the basement. We never use the basement. The basement was for garbage and unused items. Did Jordan even get Harold's permission to put the heart under here? It felt illegal.

"We're here."
"... Where is the heart?"
"You're looking at it."

...Purple glob? That didn't look right.

"Why is it purple? Did she get poisoned or something? That didn't add up. My research found out she wasn't poisoned."

He grabbed me by the shoulders. He looked me in the eyes. He looked atrocious.

"You know what that means?"

I gathered my intellect from my learning and came up with... "None."

"Huh?"
"I have nothing in mind what this means."
"Seriously?"
"Yes. What is it?"

He released his grip and walked toward the... "heart". He then talked in a sinister way, "This, my friend, is a sign that she couldn't hold her power."

I got more confused. Sign? Hold? What?

"I could see your confusion. Let me ask you this. Have we ever found out how these people get their powers?"

We've been on this rollercoaster for ten years, and we still haven't found a solid reason why. The fact that Jordan was confident of his answer was worrying. I couldn't hold the feeling that he was spitting out a random answer because he heard a rumor or something like that.

"I can see you seem to be more confused, Zeed. Don't worry, I can assure you. I got a machine just for that matter."
"Wait, wait, wait! Before you continue. I need clarification. How on earth do you know all of this? You're not even a scientist or a doctor. You don't have any certificate to do surgery like this, do you? How do you even have that heart?"

He grinned, and the atmosphere around us filled with darkness.

"I gained knowledge, Zeed."
"Huh?"
"You know how DNA passes through even without surgery, right, Zeed?"
"...Yes?"
"They trade it. They trade their DNA— teeth, hair, blood, dead skin cells, and any body part that carries DNA."

I stepped back slowly, "No... You fuck in the head, Jordan. You didn't like the Jordan I knew ten years ago. Don't you hate the hero? What happened to the plan to shut down the heroes? Why did you become one of them?"

He stepped closer to me and said, "Oh, it's still going all right. If we never conclude, I'll do anything to reach it."

"Then...? Our original plan was... kaput? We won't be fighting them as normal humans?"
"No, Zeed." His eyes turned from black to red. He emitted an aura I had never seen. Darkness filled the basement. The air became dense. I felt sick just breathing it. "The plan hasn't changed. We'll kill the hero this year, and we will achieve it, no matter what."

Those were the last words I heard from Jordan before I passed out. What happened to you, Jordan? What happened to the friend I knew?