Announcement

New Volume 3 Chapter(s) Weekly. Volumes 1 and 2 now complete!

After Kada and Xard had dropped off his things at the apartment, the four Fiends headed out to dinner, as a more proper welcoming. It was quite late in the evening, and most of the shops had closed, but there were a few flickering lights every couple of buildings; mostly neon signs advertising certain things or indicating what was still open. Xard was wondering where they were taking him, since it was a part of town he had never visited.

They eventually reached a restaurant where all the curtains were drawn, and the sign on the door was set to ‘closed’. However, an old woman that was standing outside opened the door when she saw the group approaching. She greeted them with a bow as she ushered them inside. “Wow, did you guys actually reserve the whole place?” Xard asked, a little impressed. It would make sense if they were wanting to keep a low profile, but didn’t think them the type to be so frivolous with money.

“Pssh, you think we’d actually do that?” Phon scoffed. “It’s your welcoming and all, but we aren’t that generous. We actually, by complete happenstance, came to this place when it was being robbed. Kada beat the living zjik out of the robbers so now they give us free food whenever we visit.” The old lady led them to an already prepared table where appetizers and drinks were waiting. Since the lights were off, the entire restaurant was candle lit; riddling it with ambience.

After they sat down, Phon continued, “We called ahead to let them know that we were coming, so they could make it look like the restaurant was closed. Everything is essentially on the house, so order whatever you like. Really, it comes down to how much you’re willing to take advantage of a sweet old couple’s hospitality. I personally have no problem with it,” Phon said as she ordered one of the most expensive sounding things on the menu.

Xard carefully looked the menu over, and noticed that there were no prices on it. He then glanced over at the main counter, and saw a completely different menu posted above. Kada seemed to notice him staring and commented, “Oh that. This is normally a combo-based restaurant, but they make special orders for us. The menu is what they can make with whatever ingredients they have on hand.”

Xard felt that even if they did save them from robbers, all this seemed a bit too much. They had likely lost more on the free food than the robbers would have taken. His mind was swirling with doubt until the old man of the couple walked over, and thanked them for all the work they had done. Apparently, they had been there several times after the initial incident and helped put in work around the shop.

Xard took a good look around. The walls had recently been repainted, it seemed broken furniture had been repaired, and there was fresh exotic foliage blooming in pots around the room which could only have come from Drim. There were several other small things he noticed that would be difficult for the old couple to do on their own, and guessed the three of them must be responsible. The old man even went as far as to say how the story of the robbery and the tuneups were driving in new customers, and that they were thriving more than ever before.

Jeez if you look at these people they seem like minions of chaos, but deep down they’re just a bunch of softies. Well maybe not Phon, Xard thought as he looked over the menu, now free of guilt. He definitely wasn’t going to order anything sugary, watching the interactions between the group was already sweet enough to make his teeth ache. He ended up ordering some form of fried fish stuffed with various fruits and cheese. He wasn’t entirely sure what the food was as he stuffed it in his face, but it was delicious.

After they finished their meals, they sat around and chatted as the candles kept burning lower. They talked about everything that had happened at the school and other random topics as Xard mostly just listened. It was a nice feeling having company again. He hadn’t wanted to admit how lonely he felt since Warig’s death, but now that he was surrounded again, he realized just how much he missed it.

It wasn’t until the candles were almost entirely gone that Phon asked him, “So Xard, is there anything you want to do? I mean, like any big dreams you want to accomplish, any crimes you want to commit, any castles you want to storm? Y’know, that kind of thing. We can make just about anything happen, we’re quite resourceful.”

Xard didn’t respond right away, since nothing instantly popped into his mind. He fiddled with the straw in his drink, clinking the ice around as he thought about it. “I… I want to save someone,” Xard said meekly, unsure how the others would respond. It looked like Phon wanted to make a remark, so Xard felt the need to clarify. “I mean, I know that I’ve helped people with the actions I’ve taken. But so far I’ve only ever hurt people in the process. I want to save someone in a way that prevents anyone from getting hurt. I want to know that I did something good, without any second doubts.”

“So, you want to be a hero… I understand that.” To everyone's surprise it was Drim behind that statement. “When I was a kid, I loved superheroes, and always wanted to be one. Even after I became a Fiend, I still wanted to be one. You should have seen some of my original costume ideas… Anyways, I quickly found out that even if you only do good things, people won’t always look at you with expressions of awe or thanks. There will be just as many who look at you with fear or disgust.”

“That’s a good part of the reason why I changed my outfits to wear mostly black; that and I think it looks cool. I felt it gave off a better impression of what people should expect when they see me. Someone who is capable, but not a savior. Don’t let that get you down, though. Saving someone is one of the best feelings you can have in this world. Even if that person spits in your face in return. Basically, what I’m saying is that it’s a noble dream, but don’t be expecting a parade when you accomplish it.”

When they got back to the apartment, Xard laid awake for a long time in his much smaller bed than he was used to. He thought a lot about what Drim had said, what it meant to be a Fiend, what it meant to be good or evil, and what it meant to be one of this group.

The next morning, Xard and Kada unpacked his belongings. Even though he had the room to himself, he still had to share the dresser space with Kada. To his surprise, she had even fewer clothes than he did. So, they were able to divide up the drawers without too much hassle. As he started putting clothes away, he noticed he was still wearing his gloves, now battered and torn, the pointer finger completely ripped off on his right hand.

He thought for a moment that he would need to replace them. Wait, is there even a point to that anymore? he wondered as he stared at them. After a few seconds of pondering, he took them off, and tossed them in the trash can. It felt relieving as he stared at the back of his hands that he had tried so hard to hide; like a great burden was lifted.

“So, where’s your combat outfit?” Kada asked suddenly. She had been organizing her own clothes until now so he hadn’t really been paying much attention to her. It seemed she had inspected all of his clothes in the meantime. He wasn’t quite sure what she was asking him either.

“Uhh, combat outfit?” Xard replied, confused. The look that grew on Kadas face left him bewildered. Her expression made it seem like he’d just kicked a puppy or something. He began wondering if he had missed out on some important facet of being a Fiend.

Kada grabbed him by the arm, and drug him out into the living room. Drim looked up from his tablet to see what the fuss was about just before Kada loudly declared. “Oi! This man doesn’t even have a combat outfit!” Phon suddenly raced in from the kitchen, still holding a spatula and a frying pan with something sizzling in it. Both she and Drim mimicked the face Kada had just given him perfectly, which bewildered Xard even more.

“What?! You can’t be in the For Hires and not have a combat outfit!” Phon yelled while pointing her spatula at him.

“I… don’t even know what that is…” Xard said sheepishly; still not knowing if it was something important he had overlooked. On that cue, Kada and Drim ran into the two bedrooms, and Phon into the bathroom. In literally less than ten seconds later all three of them dashed back out in new clothes, grouped up together, and did poses as if they were part of superhero squad.

What the zjik did I sign up for? sped through Xard’s head for a second as he stared at them with his mouth slightly agape. He recognized Drim and Phon’s outfits. It was what they had worn in every video. He had thought it was strange they had worn the same thing each time, but it made sense now. He had never seen Kada’s outfit before, but after one glance he wished it had stayed that way.

“Okay, so they’re special clothes you wear when doing jobs. I get that now,” Xard sighed, annoyed that he had been so worried over it. “So why can’t I just wear regular clothes for my combat outfit?”

All three of them shook their heads in unison, which pissed him off a little. Drim followed up with, “There are actually a few reasons. Firstly, these outfits are designed for high intensity activities. They’re more durable than regular clothing, and in your case especially, they definitely need to be. Also, these outfits are meant to be iconic, so people recognize us as soon as they see them. Inversely, it makes it easier to walk around when wearing normal clothes, since people will be looking for the outfits.”

“Makes sense I guess,” Xard replied, figuring he may as well go along with it. He didn’t want to feel left out of the group after all. “I don’t really know where to begin, though. I’m not sure what would suit me, or rather my For Hire persona. I’ll say it right now however, I refuse to be color coordinated like the rest of you!” He couldn’t help but gawk at their color choices. It would be fine if it was just one of them, but the fact that all three of them blatantly went along with it made him never even want to entertain the idea of joining in.

“Whatever, that’s fine,” Phon shrugged. “Do what you want, but we definitely need to figure out something… Guess it’s time for a shopping trip!”

◆◆◆

The four Fiends sat on a bus headed to a nearby city. The three others had changed back to casual clothes, and Xard was wearing a simple gray long-sleeved shirt and faded jeans for now. They were sitting near the back in the hopes that they could lessen attention, but it didn’t really stop passengers from constantly glancing back at them. Xard wasn’t particularly fond of the attention. He was tired of people staring at him. From the time after Warig’s death, to the incident in the school’s courtyard, he had been the center of quite a bit.

Guess there’s no peaceful life with this bunch, Xard thought to himself as he stared out the window, trying to distract from the gazes. There had been several clear attempts from passengers to make calls about the four of them, but Phon was using an app on her phone that jammed cellular signals within a certain range. Their phones still worked of course. Xard had to admit that knowing them had benefits. The technology in the phone they’d given him surpassed anything he’d ever come across in his entire life.

They continued riding on the bus for about an hour. Truthfully, they could probably find all the same items in Constead, but the Drazahs felt they had been too active there recently. Xard didn’t mind. He had almost never left his hometown except on rare occasions. It felt good to be going somewhere different for a change.

During the trip, the four of them had engaged in random idle chatter. Xard hadn’t spoken much but chimed in where he felt necessary. However, for the past several minutes the two Drazah siblings had been whispering amongst themselves while sending the occasional glance towards him and Kada. The two of them exchanged their own look like they both were concerned over what was going to happen next.

Their concern was not unfounded. Moments later, Phon pulled the stop cord, and the four of them found themselves lages away from civilization staring at an open field. “Why the hell did we stop here?!” Kada yelled while flinging her arms up in the air in protest.

“Training,” was all Drim mumbled.

“Training?! Ugh, why is it always training with you? We train too much! Whenever we have a day off from doing jobs you always make us train in some bizarre way. Have you never heard of relaxation?!” Kada whined and continued to do so, but the rest of it was incoherent.

Xard wondered why they ever trained at all to begin with. A Fiend can kill a hundred people in less than ten minutes with a single finger. What is there left to train for? he wondered.

Drim entirely ignored Kada’s continuous complaints and pressed on. “Today’s training will be two parts. We are about three lages from the city limits so the first part will be a race. It’s a clear shot across this field. The winner will be whoever reaches the city limits first. As an incentive, I will buy the winner something nice to eat when we get to the mall. The losers will get something as well, but it will be lesser in scale compared to the order they finish. Oh, and no curse usage allowed by the way.”

Even though there was an adequate reward on the line, it still seemed as if Kada wanted to comment, raising her finger and opening her mouth in preparation. Drim ignored her again but still seemed to address her concern. “I’m sure you’re wondering why we need to practice something so simple as running with our advanced physique... While our strength and reflexes are certainly enhanced to godlike proportions, our inherent speed is not.”

“That does not mean that we can not achieve such speeds, though. With our added strength, reflexes, and proper technique we can reach consistent speeds of around 50lph; probably more if someone works very hard at honing it. It has to do with how hard you push off from the ground, and how fast you can move your legs forward to push off again. You need to be careful you do not push too hard, however, as that could damage the ground and cause accidents in the process. It also helps to try to spread the pressure through the entirety of your foot. I’ll give a brief demonstration.”

Drim lowered his center of gravity, but didn’t take a full runner’s stance. He moved his left leg forward a bit, and extended his right leg as far back as possible. In a flash he was gone, now several feet ahead of where he started. As he ran, when he finished pushing off from one foot, the next foot was already in position to kick off again. However, he didn’t do so instantly, he would wait for just before his momentum dropped before hitting the ground. From an outsider's perspective, it seemed more like he was gliding across the grass rather than running; moving at least a good ten feet with each step.

In the span of a minute, he seemed so far away from the three just standing there and watching. Xard couldn’t help but admit that he was impressed, and felt there was no way he could do that without practice, even with his power-up. Drim ran a little farther before going into a crouching slide. Phon teleported him mid-slide a little bit behind the group, so he ended up right next to them when the slide was completed. He suddenly understood an earlier warning from Kada about how he likes to do things he thinks looks cool.

Drim stood up and straightened himself out before saying, “So there you have it. With enough practice, you should be able to run that fast as well. It may seem a bit excessive against humans, but I’m sure you can imagine its usefulness if you were trying to run beside or catch an animal, monster, or even a car. So, we’re going to get right to it. The first thing I want you to do is kick off from the ground as hard as you can so you can get a feel for your power. Then from there it should be a bit easier to scale it back to a manageable amount.”

Both Kada and Xard readied themselves as asked. Drim gave a slight hand gesture, signaling them to start, and they both pushed as hard as they could as instructed. Xard pushed with his right leg, which immediately sunk right into the ground. What the...?! Did it rain here recently or something? he thought as he struggled to pull his foot out of the mushy ground.

Kada on the other hand must have been on firmer ground, and it seemed like she kicked off with both feet instead of just one. It sent her flying into the air, followed by immediately falling down and skidding across the ground on her face. Once she stopped moving, she sat up and rubbed her face, then screamed, “Ahh! Why does the embarassing stuff always happen to me! Also, why isn’t Phon participating?!”

Phon, who had been standing there idly the whole time with a crooked smile on her face like she’d been enjoying the show, suddenly lurched to attention when her name was mentioned. She looked away to avoid eye contact and muttered, “Oh, uhh, I’ve been a Fiend for a long time so this stuff is too basic for me. Definitely not something I need to waste my time doing, yeah.”

Drim just stared at her with annoyed eyes and said sternly, “You’re participating too, Phon. In both this little practice and the race. So go ahead and show the others what ‘someone who's been a Fiend for a long time’ can do.”

Both Kada and Xard watched gleefully, knowing that she could never refuse a request, or rather in this case an order, from Drim. She grimaced and strained her neck giving an annoyed head sway before finally pushing off as demanded. “Wait, is that your full power?” Kada snickered after they saw Phon move barely more than a grade-schooler would while skipping.

“Pssh! No!,” Phon exclaimed. “I’m just saving my energy for the race is all.” Xard suddenly felt much better about his chances. After seeing Drim, he felt he had no chance in hell at winning, but seeing Phon made him think he wouldn’t get last either. After a few more attempts at balancing their power, they were all lined up in stances ready to race.

Drim gave a countdown, waved his arm, and they all took off sprinting. Drim was the clear frontrunner, speeding along much faster than the others. He reached the city limits in no time, securing first place with ease. Kada was second, reaching the end a few minutes after. Xard was third, only a few seconds behind Kada. The three of them waited at the finish for what seemed like quite a while, before Phon finally crept up to the end, panting wildly, and collapsed on the ground when she reached them.

Drim walked over and stared down at her with empty eyes. “I’m very disappointed in you. That was quite a shameful display for someone who claims to be my sister. It makes me wonder if we’re even related at all.” Without even waiting for a response from her, he looked away and walked off to go scout out the city. Phon raised a hand after him with a face that looked like she was about to start bawling, but didn’t say anything.

“Cosdamn, I didn’t think Drim could be so cruel. He really hit her where it hurts... I didn’t know Phon could make such a pitiful expression,” Xard whispered to Kada.

“Nah, I think that was actually the best thing he could have done,” Kada said with a smirk. “He knows he’s the only one who can get her to improve. After this, I’m guessing she’ll train nonstop so that she’ll never get his disapproval again. She’s a brocon after all.”

Xard took another look at Phon who had a wildly different expression now. Her eyes were beaming with determination while she clutched at the grass with vigor. She then seemed to notice the other two staring at her and yelled, “Stop gawking! I teleport basically everywhere so I don’t get much cardio, okay!” After a short while, Drim returned with drinks for everyone. They rested on the grass for a while so that they, mostly Phon, could recuperate. After the break was over, Drim began informing them of what their next event would entail.

“The next bit will also be a race, but it’ll be vastly different. The goal will be the mall which is at the far north side of the city, almost exactly opposite of where we are now. Curses are allowed, in fact they’re highly encouraged. Do whatever it takes to get there as fast as you can. We’re also going to add on another layer of complexity to this. Phon won’t be participating since her curse would basically make her win instantly.”

“Instead, she’s going to be teleporting the rest of us at random intervals to random parts of the city. This is to help us work on our situational awareness and response. It will also help with getting used to being teleported while in action, which is a very important dynamic for us working well together as a team. Even I’m not completely used to it myself. That’s why I’m participating too. After you’re teleported, your orientation will likely be thrown off. Just remember that the sun sets in the west and you should be fine. I guess you can also use the compass in your phone if you suck.”

After a few more explanations and answered questions, the three contestants were readying themselves. Phon had already wrapped her ribbon around her eyes and warped to some unknown location. Xard wasn’t really sure what he should be doing to prepare, as he watched Drim doing weird stretches.

Suddenly, Kada appeared next to him, and she wrapped her arm around his shoulders. “You see that nice little patch of grass over there,” she said while pointing to a seemingly random spot in the field. “I’m gonna go throw up over there. I suggest you find yourself a nice little patch of grass and do the same.”

Xard was extremely weirded out as he looked on while Kada carried out what she had mentioned. He didn’t really want to watch, but he was so intrigued by why she was doing it that he couldn’t look away. After a while, Drim gave a warning that it was about to start, and then suddenly vanished without warning. Kada then vanished a second later.

Fear suddenly engulfed Xard. He had been teleported by Phon before at the school, but he was so pumped up on adrenaline then that he didn’t really notice it. He stared at the ground, bracing himself since he didn’t really know what to expect. Suddenly, the spot on the ground he was fixated on disappeared, and it was replaced with a new spot of ground; dozens of stories down from the skyscraper roof he was now standing atop.

◆◆◆

Phon was sitting in a booth at a vacant bar. It wasn’t close to its opening time so there was no one around. She had used her curse to easily circumvent the locked doors. The bar was near the center of the city, so it made it for an ideal location. Even though her body was present, it was being used for little more than a radar as she sat in a meditative state.

Phonscience was using this radar to view a complete 3d model display of the entire city. She set her main body to only focus on the auras of the three Fiends, represented by solid pieces. All the other people in the city made up a sort of mist where there were high concentrations, and they were basically invisible to her where people were scarce.

Wanting a relaxing atmosphere after the ordeal with the race, Phonscience turned the space around her into a beach with gentle rolling waves. There was a calm breeze and the peaceful sounds of the ocean. Since it was just imaginary, and she didn’t really care about tact, she summoned a large recliner right in the middle of the sand and plopped down into it. She also made a drink appear and took a few sips, followed by a few deep breaths. None of this would help her physical fatigue, but it helped her mind unwind so that she could focus on the task at hand.

This was also needed since the last few days had been particularly stressful. The incident at Xard’s school hadn’t been awful, but the days leading up to it they had gotten several fake jobs. Every one of them was set within Constead’s city limits, but every time she or Drim went to the location, no one was there. Phon would always search the area with her vision, but no one matching the requesters description would be around. She would also check the locations Drim visited after he reported the same thing.

There seemed to be no common element between these job postings other than that they were set in Constead. The poster, time of posting, and the nature of the request were always quite different. However, at each location, she had noticed a recurring aura. It was always too far for her vision to clearly make out, but it was definitely the same one each time.

It was quite possibly just a coincidence; potentially a busy delivery person moving all over the city. Still, it made her feel uneasy. If there was a quiet day in the future, she might try to investigate further. Her scan of the city that they were currently visiting showed that the same aura was not present, so at least that person wasn’t a complete stalker, and she didn’t have to worry about it at the moment.

Phon let these thoughts shift to the back of her mind and refocused on what she needed to do. She moved the 3d display of the city onto a floating table, and had it move over to hover above her lap. She chugged the rest of her drink, made the glass vanish, and summoned three floating screens; each one zoomed in and focused on a different one of her companions. She picked up all three of their pieces and placed them on top of three different skyscrapers.

On her monitors, all three of them were instantly transported to where she placed them. She purposefully put them right next to the edge, hoping for the best reactions. Drim only raised his eyebrow slightly, but the other two’s reactions were golden. Xard looked like he was about to leap out of his skin, and Kada instantly fell on her butt and scooted back farther onto the roof.

She knew Drim would be the first to act, so she decided to focus more attention on him for now, widening his screen while shrinking the others. He didn’t disappoint her and started moving instantly. He backed up a few steps, then dashed right off the edge of the building. Just as he was about to start dropping, he shot a black vine out of his arm across the skyline.

It wrapped around a pole on a nearby rooftop. He made the vine spin while the end vanished as he’d done before, pulling him to the roof. Phonscience watched for a while as he repeatedly soared from roof to roof. “I should have guessed he’d do something like this,” she said to herself. She had the monitor focused on Drim flip down towards the ground beneath him. The people below were all completely oblivious to his existence.

“Guess we should do something about that,” she said as she moved the monitor near the ground, looking for a good spot. She found a crowded part of the city and moved Drim’s piece on top of a mail deposit box. “Let’s see how you deal with this,” Phonscience grinned. Drim crouched in response to suddenly appearing on the mailbox. Phonscience assumed it was to try to reduce his visibility, but it didn’t seem to help much; eyes from all over were quickly turning to look at his sudden appearance.

Without hesitation, a flurry of green petals shot out from Drim and started flying around him, creating a twister of distraction. After a few seconds, the petals settled to the ground, before disappearing completely. The crowd of people seemed to all blink in unison, as if they were wondering if their minds were just playing tricks on them, and if that person had ever actually been there at all. Even Phonscience with her advanced tracking struggled to follow him. His petals gave off the same aura as his body, making it near impossible to detect him that way.

Luckily, Phonscience could rely on the piece on the board to know his exact whereabouts. He was now back to darting across the rooftops, the citizens below none the wiser. “Y’know, he’d really make a good assassin…” Phonscience shuddered at the thought. He may be the only person in the world that could get the jump on her if he ever had a reason. She moved her hand to grab his piece again while thinking of where next to move him.

His piece had been hard enough to grab on its own, since it had been moving at a high speed, but this time when she went to grab it, just before her fingers touched, it changed direction and darted away. What the?! Phonscience thought. She looked at the monitor and Drim seemed to be moving normally. Believing it to have just been a fluke, or that Drim was dodging something he saw suddenly, she reached again. Just like before, his piece dodged her grasp.

“What the Mawhg?! Can he see my hand or something?!” Phonscience shouted. She kept trying to grab it, but it kept slipping right through her fingers. There’s no one else that can sense auras like I can, I’m pretty sure. I wonder if it has to do with ‘that’ little quirk of his, Phonscience pondered. If that is the case, I wonder what he feels from me. I’m guessing the reason he’s doing this is to help me train as well. That’s just like him; certainly this is the most difficulty I’ve ever had using my curse.

Phonscience was eventually able to catch Drim again using both of her hands. Once she was able to do so reliably, she decided to move on to Kada. She had been observing Kada’s aura the entire time; as well as keeping a slight glimpse of her monitor out of the corner of her eye. It had taken a bit for Kada to work up the nerve to jump off the roof. She had leapt off the building, done a few flips, then dove straight into the ground, resurfacing a ways away.

At that moment, Phonscience had made a sign board with ‘7.5’ appear on it and held it up as if she was the judge at an event. Kada had also chosen to dive off the side of the building with the most potential spectators. Phonscience wasn’t sure if she was being bold and doing it on purpose, or if she was just oblivious to the consequences of her actions. Currently, Kada was running with her arm held straight out in front of her, melting everything in her path and then resolidified it after she passed through.

She was making a beeline right for the mall, while yelling at the top of her lungs. Phonscience assumed that it was to act as a warning for anyone ahead of her to get out of her way, but couldn’t stop herself from sighing. “That girl does not have a subtle bone in her body, does she…?” Whenever she moved Kada’s piece, Kada would pause, refind her heading, and resume yelling while running. She was definitely much easier to manage than Drim, but she still needed to be watched since she could cover a lot of ground quite quickly.

Xard was the only one left. Now that Phonscience had a handle on moving the other two around, she maximized Xard’s monitor. He was still on top of the roof where she’d left him, and hadn’t seemed to have made much progress. However, he had taken his shoes and socks off, but still didn’t seem any closer to taking that first step. Phon waited until he was fully leaning over the edge and staring at the ground, teleported just a few inches behind him on the roof, shouted “Boo!” while tapping him on the shoulder, and teleported right back to her spot at the bar.

This had startled Xard just enough that he lost his balance and was now plummeting towards the ground. Phonscience wasn’t really sure what he was going to do, but watched in excited anticipation, not wanting to miss a second. After a couple moments of panicking, Xard seemed to calm himself down, as well as straighten out his body so his feet were pointing right at the ground. He hit the ground hard, but there was no thud, no satisfying splat, which made Phonscience a bit sad, but a bit proud that Xard hadn’t gotten himself killed.

Suddenly, a large burst of energy popped out of Xard’s head and up into the air. “Ahh, I see, that was his plan,” Phon surmised. “He needs to work on that, though, or he’s going to go bald very quickly.” Xard seemed to have reached the same conclusion soon after, as he lurched when he saw the many strands of crimson hair falling around him. After he recomposed himself, he finally took off running in the direction of the mall, far behind the others, even with Phon’s meddling.

Once he picked up a decent amount of speed, Phonscience began moving his piece around. He seemed to handle the first few transitions decently enough, but after the fifth one, he stopped completely and puffed up his face. She understood that look, and teleported him to a back alley out of courtesy, where he immediately began vomiting. “Should have listened to Kada’s warning, shouldn't ya?” Phonscience huffed in amusement.

Once he was done puking, Xard resumed his almost pitiful dash towards the mall. “Run as fast as you want little-red, but if you don’t come up with something creative quick, there’s no hope for you,” Phonscience said, almost feeling bad for him. It was almost as if he could hear her, stopping suddenly in the middle of traffic with cars rushing past him. He took off his shoes again, ran out in front of a car, and held his foot up to the grill.

The car stopped moving instantly. There was no screech, no whiplash of the driver, it was just moving one second and completely immobile the next; all the momentum sucked out of it. Xard turned away from the staring driver, crouched down in a runner’s position, then blasted off with a surge of energy rushing out of his feet. He soared down the street ahead of him, but the energy didn’t last very long, and soon he was running back at his normal speed.

Xard stopped and looked at his feet; a little disappointed. He drained another car and tried again, this time releasing the energy in short bursts whenever he needed it. He made it much farther this time, but not even remotely enough distance that would be acceptable for this kind of race. Xard absorbed the energy from another car, then blasted himself through the air, into a large pool of rushing traffic.

He started from the back so there would be no accidents; landing on the hood of the car and absorbing the energy through his feet. He then did a slight burst into the air and landed on another. This repeated until he had absorbed the energy of about a dozen cars, and Phonscience noticed that he seemed to be bursting with it, struggling to keep it all in.

He resumed his burst-running once he got away from the cars and made it to an open street, making decent progress until Phonscience intervened. “Now this is something I can mess with!” she scoffed. At first, she just moved him to different open roads, to see how he would handle it. After he got used to it, she decided he was doing too well and wanted to really mess with him.

After searching through the streets a little bit, she found a lovely, disgusting back alley where she moved his piece. Xard was mid-burst when he teleported there, and careened right into a large pile of garbage bags; ones that had likely been sitting there for a long time. He stood up, cursed at Phon, and cringed at the gunk he was now covered in.

Xard took a deep breath, and let out a pulse of omnidirectional energy from every inch of his body using the remainder of what he had stored up. It was strong enough that it managed to shoot the slimes off of his clothes and skin, but not enough that it would damage his clothing. Phonscience couldn’t help but admire him a little since he was starting to use his curse so well.

The race continued on for a while. Phonscience stopped focusing on them individually and now just moved each of their pieces at random. She tried to give herself restrictions so that it wouldn’t go on forever; such as she could only move them after a certain amount of time had passed, and could only move them so far from where they were. Eventually, it came to an end, with all of the contestants arriving within just a few seconds of each other.

◆◆◆

Xard was quite surprised when he was the first to reach the entrance of the mall. Only now that he had finally stopped running did he realize how exhausted he was. It wasn’t really muscle fatigue, he was just more worn out from how much he had used his curse, and mentally tired from how much he had to think on the fly.

He was bending over with his hands on his knees while he recuperated, but suddenly found himself toppling forward, startled by the noises behind him. Phon had suddenly appeared, shouted ‘Congratulations!’, and set off a confetti popper like the one Drim had used yesterday when they inducted him. Xard was just about to whirl around and yell at her for all the stuff she’d pulled, but a long black thorn suddenly stuck into the ground next to him. A moment later Drim was standing there, having used the thorn to pull himself down from the sky.

Before Xard had time to react, the three of them heard a loud continuous yell from behind and turned around. Kada came bursting out of the building across the street which was fixed just a second afterwards. She didn’t stop yelling or running until she had caught up with the group. Once she stopped she took a large breath, making Xard wonder if she had actually breathed at all during the race.

“So Xard is the winner then, good for him,” Drim said not wasting any time. “Oh, I forgot to mention this earlier. While there is no prize for the winner of this leg of the race, there is a punishment for the loser… Kada, you’re going to be in charge of carrying everyone’s purchases. Have fun with that.” It was clear by the look on her face that Kada wanted to complain, but was too busy catching her breath.

“Well then, let the shopping begin,” Drim announced as he held open the door, gesturing for Kada and Xard to head inside. Xard couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by the grandness of the mall. It was larger than any other form of shopping facility he had ever been in, but couldn’t really take it all in when he heard Drim talking to Phon behind him. “You went easy on Xard, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, what can I say,” Phon sniggered. “He was so unprepared. It was like watching a baby deer learn how to walk for the first time. While it was amusing, I almost felt a bit of pride. I guess since I was the one who recruited him, it makes him my protege or some such nonsense.” Xard didn’t really know how to feel about what he heard, and decided to push it out of his mind for now.

Firstly, Xard headed off to the bathroom. He didn’t really have to use the toilet, but was more concerned about the status of his feet. When he got into a stall, he sat down and checked his soles. They were not in good condition; almost black from the amount of dirt and asphalt residue. There were pebbles, shards of glass, and various other bits of things stuck in there. Thankfully, due to his increased tolerance and thicker skin, he hadn’t really been in pain the whole time, but if he were to continue doing this he would have to find a better solution. The only reason he noticed is he seemed to be standing off balance a bit.

He did his best to pick out everything stuck in them, then used the sink to clean them up as well as he could. After he got his shoes and socks back on, he figured he had taken long enough and should be getting back to his friends. Then, a strange thought crossed his mind: were they really his friends? He’d only met them a few days ago, but so far they had made fun of him, used him for bait, isolated him from his school friends, convinced him to leave his home and move into a tiny apartment, run a race, and make him cause chaos throughout a city.

What Xard found even stranger was that none of that really bothered him. He wasn’t annoyed at them for anything they’d done and had an aching feeling when he thought about the possibility of them rejecting him. Even if they weren’t really friends yet, he’d hope that would change soon. He hoped that this was a place he could really belong, and that this group could help him find his path in life.

What followed for the next few hours to some would probably be classified as a form of torture. Xard was subjected to hours of outfit suggestions by the other three, and forced to try them on, even if he didn’t like it. There was everything from biker jackets to tight golden short-shorts. He felt like he was trapped in a shopping montage on a tv show. The only thing missing was background music.

After a couple of hours, they were taking a break in the mall’s food court. From all that shopping, there was nothing that really leapt out as a ‘combat outfit’ to Xard. However, he had found a nice pair of gray pants, which were ripped and torn already. He figured they’d likely end up that way with his curse, and could center his motif around that. In fact, he liked them so much that he had decided to wear them out of the store. So, some progress towards at least a temporary outfit was made.

Drim had lived up to his promise and bought everyone rewards for the race based on their ranking. Xard’s restriction was ‘something simple’ so he ended up just getting a hotdog with a soda. Kada had no such restriction and was allowed to get anything she wanted. She got what was known as ‘The Sugar Coma’ from the ice cream stand. It was literally a large plastic tub consisting of one scoop of each icecream flavor; all 68 of them.

Phon was given just a single package of saltine crackers since she came in last. Kada had tried to give her some of her ice cream out of pity, but Drim had stared her down. Phon didn’t even eat them. Instead, she had broken them up into bits and was flicking them across the food court trying to hit random passersby. “So Kada, can you please stop carrying around our stuff in a bucket?” Drim asked the girl who had not stopped stuffing her face since they sat down.

Kada, in lieu of carrying the various bags containing everyone's purchases, had bought a bucket and melted everyones stuff down into it. Kada swallowed and finally took a break from her vacuum-like intake to respond, “I don’t get what you’re complaining about. Once I unmelt it, everyone's stuff will be back to normal. You don’t have to be worried about it mixing or anything if that’s what’s bothering you. So really, it’s just a convenience. You should be praising me for my ingenuity if anything.”

This argument lasted for a while, but Xard was enjoying just listening to them talk. He was enjoying the peacefulness, until the four of them heard a loud creaking sound. They all swiftly turned their heads in the direction of the noise, but couldn’t quite make out the cause of it. No one else around them seemed to be worried, like they couldn’t hear it at all. How can’t they hear it? It’s so loud! Xard rambled in his head. It kept getting louder and louder, sounding like whatever it was would reach a breaking point at any moment.

Shortly after, there was a short series of snaps as the groaning reverberated louder until everyone in the mall could hear it. With everyone looking, they finally landed on the source of the noise. The cable for the mall’s elevator was snapping, and it would soon be plummeting down, possibly with people inside. Xard leapt from his chair, turned to Phon and shouted, “Quick, teleport me to the bottom!”

Phon just looked at him for a moment to process what he said and tried to start talking. “Well, wouldn’t it be better to--” was all she could get out before Xard cut her off.

“Please Phon, you have to do it now! I have to save them!” Xard pleaded, his eyes quivering as he stared at her.

“Fine fine, you don’t have to be so pushy,” Phon shrugged. She then moved her hands to her eyes, then vanished from Xard’s sight. Everything vanished, he was just now in a small dark room. He couldn’t see anything, but the creaking had mostly been replaced by screaming from above until there was one last resounding snap that was deafening compared to anything before. A sharp scraping sound quickly followed. He then realized he was at the bottom of the elevator shaft. When he looked up, he saw sparks illuminating the void, lighting up the metal box careening down at him.

Xard took a stance, preparing to brace for the impact. The screams were so loud now, he felt like his ear drums were going to burst. He held up his hands flat, and could feel the heat of the sparks just before he touched the bottom of the elevator. For a split-second, Xard realized he had forgotten to activate his curse. That was all it took to send him crouching down fully to the ground.

The rest of the energy flowed into Xard’s hands, stopping the elevator. It was a lot of force to take in at once; too much that he wouldn’t be able to redirect it. It went straight through him, and out his rear. He was glad his friends weren’t there to see this, or else it would look like he had just ripped the biggest fart in history. Though there was a good chance that Phon was actually watching.

It was quiet now. All the screams had stopped, there was no metal scraping anymore. The only thing Xard could hear was his own heavy breathing, until his phone started ringing. “Oh what the hell, who's calling me now?” he grunted. Xard slowly lowered one of his hands, to make sure the other arm could stand the weight of the elevator alone. It really was quite heavy; the weight of all the people inside wasn’t helping.

By the time Xard got his phone out and up to his ear it was already on its third time ringing; Phon’s name flashed across the screen. Xard hit the answer button, but couldn’t really say anything. The added strain was making it hard to form words at the moment. “Heyyy, you did good,” came through the phone’s speakers. “Looks like they’re all still alive in there, but they can’t get out. We need you to lift it up a bit, until I say so, in order to get it inline with the mall floor. Once you do, we’ll open the doors and get them out.”

Xard put his phone to speaker and then stuck it back in his pocket. Now with both hands, he pushed up as hard as he could, until he was able to stand again fully. Then after a short reprieve, he pushed up again, fully extending his arms. However, there was no movement from above. He strained himself and lifted it a couple inches higher until it was balanced on the tips of his fingers. At last there was a response from Phon telling him to maintain that height. Super strength or not, it hurt like hell.

Finally now, there was a loud clang from above, then the sound of feet shuffling. Xard could feel the elevator getting lighter every second. After about a minute passed, Phon chimed up again on the phone and asked, “Alright, it's all good in there. Do you need our help getting out?”

Xard thought for a moment but then replied, “Nah, I got this… I think…” Xard crouched down again and laid the elevator flat in his palms. Then, he pushed up as hard as he could, launching the elevator back up the shaft. He quickly scrambled out onto the floor of the mall, right before it came crashing down once more. He laid on his back with a smile, but soon noticed the crowd around him.

Xard stood up and faced the crowd. Just like Drim had warned, their eyes didn’t hold gratitude in them. Most of them were looking at him in fear, a few in disgust. It was gut wrenching, and made Xard wonder for a moment if it was worth doing at all. Suddenly, a little boy came running out of the crowd, wrapped his arms around Xard’s legs, and shouted, “Thank you! Thank you for saving us!”

The boy was quickly dragged away by what Xard assumed was his parents. That little bit was enough for him, though. However, he didn’t feel happy like he should, instead he was furious at himself that he’d doubted whether it was the right thing to do, even if it was just for a second. Xard started to notice that the crowd was getting bigger, and mall security was slowly approaching. It was then that he noticed that the other Fiends weren’t there, leaving him to assume Drim had used his thorns to get them out.

Snickering came from behind Xard at that moment, the other three Fiends spontaneously appearing behind him. He had no idea why they were laughing so much. The other three grouped up next to him forming a box with all four of them facing outward, the other three still laughing with no sign of stopping. Xard wanted to shout out ‘what is so damn funny?!’ but didn’t think that would be best in this situation.

Kada, who was directly behind him in the square, suddenly slapped him directly on the buttcheeks, leaving him wondering how she could possibly be hitting them. Xard looked over his shoulder to his rear, his butt entirely exposed for anyone to see. “What the?!” Xard cried out. Then he suddenly remembered the mass of energy from the elevator. It must have caused his newly purchased pants to rupture under the pressure. Though this was less of just a slight rupture and more of an explosion.

“Hey Drim,” Phon spoke up. “We should get the mooning hero out of here. Make us vanish in style!” A petal barrage similar to the one earlier in the day surrounded the four of them. Once the crowd was completely distracted, Phon teleported them away. They first took Xard to the bathroom so he could change back into his old pants, then got on the bus to head home.

Xard spent most of the ride looking out the window. He was doing his best to forget the embarrassment of having his ass hang out in front of a large group of people. It wasn’t too hard, though. The feeling of having truly saved people was overshadowing everything. He couldn’t even stop grinning the entire time, even though he’d try whenever he saw it in his reflection.

“Enjoying yourself, Mr. Hero?” Phon’s reflection had appeared right behind his. Xard spun his head back around to find her sitting right next to him. That seat had previously been occupied by Kada. He looked across the aisle to see Kada asleep, her head leaning on Drim’s shoulder. He was reading something on his tablet and didn’t seem to notice at all that Kada was there now, or using him as a pillow.

“I get that you’re probably feeling pretty good right now,” Phon continued. “And I don’t really want to rain on your parade… But in the future, please think a little more before doing something so selfish.”

Xard was appalled. Selfish?! raced through his mind. What about saving a whole bunch of people from certain death could possibly be selfish?! He was upset now, almost offended, and wanted to fire back at her; but just couldn’t bring himself to do so.

“I see you don’t really understand what I mean,” Phon looked a little disappointed. “It was great that those people were saved, but it was bad that ‘you’ specifically had to save them. You could have asked me to just teleport them out instead, or asked Drim to stop the elevator with his plants “

“We’re both very experienced and could have helped those people easily. However, you decided that you were the one who had to save them, even demanded it. You wanted to be the hero… and I saw it Xard, that little moment you messed up with your curse. Nothing bad happened, but it easily could have, because you were selfish.”

Phon stood up, stared at the sleeping Kada with annoyance, pulled out her toy gavel, and slapped Kada right across the face with it. Kada woke up, rubbing her cheek in pain. After she saw Phon glaring at her, she slumped out of the seat and back into her original one. Normally, Xard would have found this scene quite amusing but couldn’t bring himself to laugh. He was quite upset; upset that Phon had accused him of such things, and even more upset because he knew she was right.

◆◆◆

Xard spent most of that afternoon lying in his bed. It wasn’t until it was starting to get dark that he finally decided to stop feeling sorry for himself and take action. A bit later, he stormed out of his room, causing the three who were sitting in the living room to turn their heads with undivided attention. Xard still wasn’t used to giving monologues, so even just this small group made him a bit nervous.

“So, what the incident at the mall has shown me is that no matter what outfit I pick, it will likely just get torn to shreds given the nature of my curse. So, until we can figure out a better solution, I’m just going to use my school uniform since I have a lot of them. Though I did make one small change that I hope you all approve of,” Xard pointed to the chest of the uniform he was wearing. Where his school’s emblem had been previously, the Fiends For Hire logo was now stitched in with golden thread.

“Oh wow, you can do stitchwork. Not really helping out your stereotype there bud,” Kada jested.

“Ignore her,” Drim said. “That’s actually really cool Xard, would you mind doing the same for our outfits as well?” Xard nodded, happy that they accepted and appreciated it, and spent the next hour altering their combat outfits. When he was done, the four of them stood dramatically, showing off their new logos. Kada’s was in silver on the back of her vest, Phon’s was in purple above each of the cuffs of her sleeves, and Drim’s was in green on the back of his cloak.

However, they didn’t actually have anywhere to go that night, so this scene that should have looked epic, seemed a little silly in their cramped living room. The four of them spent the rest of the night wearing their outfits, and sat down together to watch the news. They all sat there quietly with unease as a report played on the chaos they had wrought in the city that day.

 

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