TORY:
TORY:
The ambulance only had to take Tory away, and to him, that was a complete success.
“We can drive you, Tory. Ambulances are expensive,” Delaney said, then seemed a little embarrassed that she brought it up.
Tory hadn’t even thought about the cost. Not only because money wasn’t something he really concerned himself with, but also because healthcare was covered by the guild if one was a hero.
“I’m alright. You guys should head home before your parents see the news and panic. Thanks, though.”
Tory said goodbye to Marisol and Delaney, and then Alex followed him into the back of the ambulance, anxiously thanking the EMTs for helping Tory out and showing up so quickly, and then refused to leave. When they asked Alex if it was necessary that he tag along, Alex and Tory stared at them like it was a crazy question.
Everytime Tory took a breath, pain flared up in his chest. He tried to keep taking shallow breaths, but it was painful. Alex watched him, his hands running through his curls, his eyes narrowing at every flinch.
“It’s not a big deal, Alex. This is nothing,” Tory told him.
“What are you talking about?” He squinted at him. “You might have broken your ribs, and you’ve never broken a bone before. Why are you so calm?”
Tory worried his bottom lip. He was right—Tory Burns had never broken a bone before. He hadn’t been to the hospital since he was eleven, and he hadn’t ever been healed by a paragon before.
Everlux, on the other hand, had been healed from more than one fractured or broken bone. He’d been clawed by shiftbeasts more times than he could count. He’d miscalculated his flight trajectory and accidentally slammed into buildings, or landed on his feet too hard, cracking his ankle. It was still a little creaky sometimes.
Sometimes he used his powers too much in one day, and he wasn’t able to get out of bed the next day. He wasn’t sure what kind of injury that was, but it sucked. And his mom was always disappointed in him for being too weak and making her rearrange their schedule.
Other heroes weren’t as weak as he was. What was the point in being like them if he was just going to fail?
“I’m calm…” He shrugged, nudging Alex in the side. “Because you’re here. And you’re okay.”
Alex’s eyebrows scrunched together. “Okay.”
They got to Sun Canyon Hospital—a tall building with several levels of loading docks for hovering ambulances filled with rushing, floating androids that chirped to get past the human hospital attendants.
They checked in and waited for someone to see Tory, and in the meantime, they made the dreaded parent phone calls.
“Hey, mom. I’m just calling to—” Alex flinched and held the phone from his ear, then brought it closer. “Mom—mom—I’m fine. I had to go to the hospital with—MOM. I’m fine! Tory is hurt. Stop yelling—he’s going to be fine, too! He probably broke a rib. I’ll tell you when you get here. Yeah, Sun Canyon Hospital. The old one next to Smiley’s. Okay. Okay. Bye.”
Tory snorted under his hand and tried hard to repress his laughter at Alex’s reddening face—laughing hurt a lot.
Alex hung up and glared at him. “Fine. Call your mom, then.”
Tory’s laughter died and he sighed. “She’s going to be...ugh.”
He turned on his phone. There were seven missed calls and twenty texts from the mayor herself.
“Fantastic.” He groaned and pressed the call button.
“Victor Bartholomew James Burns! I heard something happened close to the Ramos’. I’ve been trying to call you for the last hour. Where are you? Are you alright?”
He gave her a quick rundown of the evening and explained that he’d been injured, watching what he said carefully in front of Alex.
She sighed. It was a disappointed kind of sigh.
“Broken? Darling, we need to set you up with a combat teacher or something. He’s not that tough of a hero. And more vitamin D and calcium for those bones. I’ll revisit your meal plan.”
Tory slumped into his chair. “Sure, Mom.”
“And you didn’t keep your phone on! Look what happens when you don’t respond to me! I could have told you there was super activity nearby—you could have been ready.”
“Right. Look, you don’t have to come get me. I’m fine, and Alex’s parents are coming.”
He glanced at Alex, and Alex frowned, his shoulders sinking.
“Nonsense, I’m coming to pick you up. And you’re certain nobody from the party saw you change into Everlux?”
“We’re good on that front.”
“Well, then, you kept your identity a secret, subdued Vent, and no one got hurt? Perfect! When you’re back, we’ll have to make a post on your public account about how Everlux saved the mayor’s son. We’ll have an interview done tomorrow. I’m sure it will be all over the news.”
“Mom, I—” He did not want to post about this. It would be a slap in the face to the Ramos family. Imagining Martin and Leo watching a bubbly, self-congratulating hero interview when their lives had just been torn apart was crushing.
“It’s done. Darling, I’m overjoyed. I’m so proud of you. You did good. Just keep your phone on next time so that you can be prepared, and I won’t worry.”
Those words made him smile involuntarily. “Okay. Thanks.”
“I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
“Yeah, sure.” He said goodbye and hung up, still smiling, and met Alex’s gaze.
“Is she coming?”
“Oh.” he blinked. “Yeah. Uh. She said she’s proud of me.”
“For...what?”
He was so stupid. “Not freaking out?”
Alex looked bewildered. “What?”
“Nevermind. She just...you know, she’s worried about her boy’s celebrity image.”
“Breezes, your mom is weird.”
After a few minutes, they were escorted into a curtained room. A doctor wearing a bright red mask came and told him to take off his shirt. Her badge on her white coat said, “Red Apollo, M.D.”
Alex gasped a little at how purple and swollen his ribs were, but Tory managed to keep a straight face. He’d seen worse.
Her hand began to glow a bright golden color and she touched his palm. The color flooded through his veins and arteries and he was glowing from the inside-out. It felt like drinking a cool glass of water on a hot day, but he could feel it everywhere. The pain in his neck and his chest immediately eased, but it didn’t go away completely. There was still some throbbing every time he took a breath.
“Your ribs were just bruised, thankfully. Broken bones take repeated healing and a couple days of work when it comes to my abilities.”
Tory was a little embarrassed about causing all of this fuss over bruising. It hurt a lot.
Red Apollo seemed to sense his shame. Her blue eyes creased, tendrils of brown hair falling out of her messy bun. “A bruised rib is not something to be taken lightly. You were right to come here. The symptoms between a bruised and broken rib can be very similar.”
Tory looked at Alex, assuming he would be annoyed that Tory had dragged him here for something so simple, but he just looked relieved.
“I can recommend some painkillers that will help you manage the soreness. Sneezing and coughing are not going to be very fun for the next two weeks.”
“That’s perfect. Thanks, Red Apollo,” he grinned.
“You’re welcome, Victor.”
ALEX:
Eric and Rebecca Hale burst into the hospital, their hair askew and their chests rising and falling rapidly as if they had been flying instead of taking the car. Alex hoped they had taken the car.
“Alex!” They shouted at the same time, and they ran forward and crushed him into a hug.
His mom leaned back and cradled his face, turning it about to check for scratches and bruises by his chin, her blond hair falling in restless strands over her deep-set, golden-brown eyes. “You look alright. You are going to explain everything, you hear me?”
“Where’s Tory?” His dad asked, and when he saw Tory awkwardly sitting down in the chairs along the wall of the waiting room, watching them, he arrested him in a bone crushing hug.
“Hi, Mr. Hale!” He squeaked. “Ribs.”
“Oh, sorry!” He backed off. “Were they able to fix you up?”
“For the most part. I’m still a little sore.”
He nodded. “Did they have Red Apollo do it? She’s top notch around here.”
Alex rolled his eyes. Be a little more obvious, Dad.
He hoped that Tory would let the name-drop slide, but he saw his left eyebrow quirk up a little. “Yeah. She was awesome.”
Rebecca came and cradled Tory’s face gently, inspecting him as carefully as she had with Alex. “You have some bruising on your neck. It’s faded, but—oh, Tory. Where is your mother?”
“She’s busy with work stuff, but she’ll be here soon.”
“At eleven in the evening?” She blinked. “O-o-okay. And too busy to come see you in the hospital right away?”
“She is Gale City’s one and only mayor, love,” Eric reminded her gently. “Two million people rely on her. Besides, Tory is alright. Nothing our fine healers can’t handle.”
Alex supposed his dad had a point—as far as he could tell, Diane Burns was almost never home or available. She hardly had time to have a life or be a mom, let alone relax. Her sleep schedule was negotiable, and her constant stream of coffee to survive her position in office and on the guild council was not. It wasn’t his place to judge a single mom, let alone the single most important person in Gale CIty.
Still. He knew a lot of important people with crazy work schedules, people who were parents and otherwise. She had barely had time for a phone call when her son was in the hospital. Sometimes, he got the impression that she had her hands in a lot of projects and not enough trust to delegate certain roles to other perfectly capable people.
“Tell us exactly what happened with Vent,” Rebecca said, and so Tory and Alex took turns giving them as many details as they could.
“It wasn’t like him,” Tory insisted. “Vent—he’s—” He hesitated for a long moment. “He’s a hero, right?”
Eric looked crushed by the news that Vent had become some kind of vigilante or villain. “Well, Tory, sometimes we can’t trust heroes to be the same as they are on their profiles. Or even on the news. Sometimes, heroes decide they want to leave the guild to follow their own path, even though performing super work outside of the guild is illegal. Sometimes, they become vigilantes.”
Tory didn’t seem entirely convinced.
Alex, for one, despised vigilantes. He had dreams. He thought the world was unfair, too. But he had the willpower to follow the Justice Code. He would never become anything like a vigilante.
No matter how much he wanted to.
TORY:
Diane Burns arrived with news vans on her tail, like chicks following a mother hen.
Rebecca stepped up to the glass window, her gaze hardening as she watched Diane step out of her hover car and start marching across the balcony to the entrance, surrounded by her retinue of security. Rapidfire camera lights illuminated her features in the dim light. They captured her tensing jaw and black sunglasses, her charcoal gray suit jacket flapping in the wind, and her pale, pursing lips.
Tory could see how all three Hales stared at Diane Burns with a quiet ferocity.
He could see the flashing cameras and how the retinue wasn't firmly holding the reporters back from the hospital entrance. If she didn't want them there, she was smart enough to make sure that they wouldn't come. She would act terse and worried in front of them, but he knew this was press that she didn't mind. He saw her stormy, professional mayoral affectation coming off of her like a rich, elegant perfume.
He saw all of that, and he still got to his feet and walked to the hospital entrance, his throat growing hard, like he'd swallowed a rock. He tore through the front doors and found himself buried in her suit jacket, her arms wrapped around him. She smelled like the apple cinnamon candle that burned in her home office.
"Oh. Oh, darling. It's alright." Her hand combed through his hair. "Sweetheart."
Cameras flashed around them, and Tory burned with frustration. Why couldn't they leave him alone?
"Alright, that's quite enough."
Tory thought she meant him and pulled away, but she grasped his arms. "Not you, Victor. The cameras. They're like sharks that caught blood in the water."
She caught the eye of her chief of security and nodded. The chief stepped forward and held out her hand, and a green light shot out from her hands, enveloping them in a small, invisible field. The cameras stopped clicking, confused murmurs rumbling from news team to news team. The hovering cameras and reporters began to trickle away.
"Darling, you shouldn't have turned your phone off. I couldn't find you, and I didn't know what happened. All I knew was that there was some kind of suspicious super activity going on around the Ramos apartment, and then there were news reports about you going to the hospital. I was worried sick."
"Sorry." He pulled back from her. The retinue of security around them didn't meet his gaze, giving them the illusion of privacy. "I just...I just didn't want to do...you know. I wanted to stay at the party."
"Tory?"
Tory turned and saw the Hales exit the hospital, distressed and baffled, their eyes searching the balcony.
"Did they leave without saying goodbye?" Rebecca asked.
Tory looked at Natalie, and she let down the shield. Most of the reporters were gone.
They suddenly appeared in front of Alex, the curtain of invisibility falling between them. Alex yelped, then laughed a little.
"Didn't leave without saying goodbye," he said, and Alex smiled.
"Take care of yourself, okay?"
"No, you."
"No, you. Dork."
Tory wanted to stay with him for the rest of the night. Crash at his place, fall asleep, wake up to the smell of Eric Hale's famous Saturday morning pancakes.
Instead, he just hugged his best friend goodbye and left.
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