Chapter Text
Chapter 1
I crouched in the bushes, trying to be as quiet as possible. A small dirty park near Winslow wasn’t the best place to enjoy nature, especially in February, but I wasn’t there for fun either way.
I could feel a few people in a nearby clearing, no capes as far as my powers could tell, but I couldn’t get anything more than that without getting closer and taking a look. For the hundredth time I regretted not talking my dad into buying a cheap phone. It could’ve helped me in the locker (maybe), it would’ve definitely come in handy now.
Still, there was nothing for it, so I crawled forward, trying to stay in cover and ignore various pieces of trash strewn about. Soon, I started to hear voices.
“You think you’re funny, you n* bitch?!”
“I think I’m hilarious! Anyway, I wasn’t talking to you, limp dick. I was talking to Emma.”
“Sophia, I…”
“Save it! I’m not actually interested in whatever you’ve got to say. I go away for a couple of months and you’re already hanging out with the nazis? Didn’t think you were that much of a cunt.”
“I thought you died, okay! What was I supposed to do?”
“Survive, that’s what. Guess it was too much to expect of a whiny bitch like you.”
So it was almost exactly as I suspected. Emma wasn’t brave enough to confront Sophia at school, so she somehow caught her out there with a group of Empire wannabes.
And wasn’t that a surprise? I still remembered my relief when Sophia disappeared from school in late November. I thought the girl was sick or something until I noticed Emma’s puffy eyes one day and even the rest of their bitch hangers-on like Madison were subdued. Even though nobody said anything where I could hear, I wasn’t stupid. Something bad had happened to Sophia. Later on, I found out that no one except Emma knew for sure what was going on. All that Emma (or the school administration) had been willing to admit was that Sophia wasn’t returning to Winslow any time soon.
I naively thought that my nightmare was over. I tried not to be happy about Sophia’s possible death, but there was no reason to grieve either. People died every day, especially for the last 20 years, with the Endbringers and various other monsters out there. For that matter, the country had still been reeling from a Behemoth attack the same week Sophia disappeared.
In any case, my nightmare wasn’t over by any means. It took Emma surprisingly little time to recover, if by “recover” one meant getting new friends. Some very white friends with an occasional shaved head and a couple of suspicious tattoos. Friends that were definitely ready to go as far as Sophia, if not further in making my life hell. The new dynamic got interrupted by the Christmas holidays, but it went back with a vengeance the very first day of school when I got showed into my locker filled with rotting garbage. For some strange reason my last conscious thought was about Sophia. I wished I knew what happened to her, because she definitely owed me some explanation about Emma.
Surprisingly, my wish was granted. Not all of it, but by the time I recovered from various infections and a possible concussion from impacting the wall head-first, Sophia was back at school as well. Her mysterious disappearance went unexplained though, as far as I knew. She looked totally fine, better than ever, actually. She strutted about the school like she had no care in the world.
There were some noticeable differences from before, though. Sophia seemed to pay attention in classes, always answering the teachers’ questions correctly and handing in her assignments on time. She also quit the track team, which wasn’t a huge surprise, as she’d already been replaced by another athlete. But she didn’t seem to care about sports anymore either way.
There was also tension between her and Emma. The redhead’s new circle didn’t seem to be eager to welcome the black girl, and Emma didn’t seem to be ditching them either. After a couple of days, an uneasy truce settled in, with Sophia ignoring the whole group. I could sometimes see her talking to Madison, but otherwise she was on her own. Kind of like me, except not at all, because nobody messed with Sophia at school, not even the nazi kids.
And that was another thing: Sophia didn’t pick up her “bullying Taylor” duties either. She seemed content with totally ignoring my existence. She didn’t try to shove me or trip me when we passed each other in the hallways. She didn’t try and “accidentally” hit me at PE, she barely even participated in any team activity there. She didn’t even try and mess with my homework. The first time that Madison tried to involve her in that, Sophia said something quietly to her that made the girl squeak and stay away from me for the rest of the week.
My reminiscence was interrupted by a sudden shove. I yelped as I fell to the ground, out of the branches I’ve been hiding behind.
“Fuck! Look at this! It’s the fucking jew dyke bitch from the school! The hell are you spying on us for?”
Two pairs of strong hands unceremoniously lifted me up by the shoulders and another hand introduced itself to my stomach, fist first. I coughed weakly and fell again, breath driven out of my lungs by the sucker punch.
“What do we have here? Taylor! How nice of you to join us.”
Going by Emma’s tone, her usual confidence was back, even after Sophia’s accusations.
Suddenly, I was being picked up again, but this time the hands felt different. Smaller, but somehow stronger. Getting some of my breath back, I opened my eyes and saw Sophia’s face in front of me, calm, but one eyebrow raised.
“What are you doing here, Hebert?”
I took another breath, my stomach throbbing with pain.
“I’m not letting this happen, whatever this is. I’ve already called the police!” That was said loud enough for the rest of the clearing to hear. There were a dozen or so people, mostly guys, but a couple of girls too. Some of them I knew from Winslow, but nobody from our class except for Emma. Some of the guys were definitely older than us, maybe even adults. This was very bad. Especially since…
“Yeah, right,” Emma chuckled. “You don’t even have a phone and there’s no payphones in this park! She’s lying.”
There was some laughter from the crowd and a couple of jeers. This was bad and I started to have second thoughts. My powers were totally useless in this situation, because no capes were around.
Sophia chucked too, but it was a short, mirthless sound. “Your bullshitting skills need some work, Hebert.” She shook her head, still holding onto my shoulders with a tight grip. Despite being shorter than me, she didn’t seem to be straining to hold me up, though I was getting my strength back already. Suddenly, she let me go and I stumbled, but managed to right myself. Sophia reached into her pocked and retrieved something, a phone. One of those huge, bulky ones, that were marketed to hikers.
“Make yourself useful and keep this safe for a moment. No need to call anyone though, I’ll do it myself. Just don’t drop it, it probably costs more than your house.”
I could only gasp as the surprisingly heavy device was shoved into my hands. Sophia, meanwhile, turned to the others and cracked her knuckles loudly.
“Well, what’s it gonna be, punks? What do you think is gonna happen here? Huh, Emma?”
“Sophia, don’t be stupid. You’re outnumbered. Even with how strong you are, you’ve got no chance here!”
“That’s right, n* cunt! We’ll fucking show you your place!”
“Guys, that’s not what we talked about! We just need Sophia to remember who she is. See, even Taylor is here, so it can be like old times.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Emma? No seriously, are you fucking crazy?”
“Yeah, Barnes, shut up! We’re not letting some black bitch join. We can deal with Hebert later, but your former friend needs to be taught a lesson!”
I backed off a little now that there wasn’t anyone behind me. I didn’t know what Sophia was planning, but her chances didn’t look good. Even though she obviously knew how to fight and was athletic, a single teenage girl couldn’t beat ten guys. Some of them seemed twice as big as her! Probably the best option for both of us would be to run. I knew Sophia could outrun all of them, but I doubted my own chances.
I glanced at her phone. I didn’t know how to turn it on and it was probably protected by some kind of password. I remembered that the emergency number has to work anyway, but I didn’t know how to enter it and there didn’t seem to be anything resembling a panic button.
Suddenly, I’ve heard a thud and a scream, which made me raise my head and look at the clearing. Sophia was now standing at the center of it and one of the thugs was prone on the ground behind her clutching his leg. For a second everyone appeared shocked, except for Sophia, even though I could only see her back. Then everything went chaotic as various thugs, even the girls except Emma, tried to attack Sophia. “Tried” was the key word, because she seemed to flow like water between their punches or even the knife thrusts. Her own hands barely moved, but the attackers still fell with their wrists, arms or sometimes legs bent in unnatural ways.
In less than a minute it was other. Now the only three people standing were Sophia, Emma and myself. The black girl (who was definitely not a cape, as my power helpfully pointed out) turned to her former friend.
“Well, Ems, what are you going to do now?”