Her chin tilted up toward the ceiling and she let out a choked sob. The plants burst into electric green energy all at once, a thousand embers and fireflies bursting to life and then slowly fading into the air.
“I’m so sorry. I know you’re scared, but we’re going to h—” Tory started, but Golden Blade marched past him and tried to pry apart the wooden planks of her cage.
“Let her out,” he turned to Everlux, his eyes fierce. “Let her out now. The responders are on their way, and they are going to capture her and out her just like they did with Vent.”
“What if she’s still dangerous?” Tory asked.
“Even if she is, we can’t turn her in. She’s our friend,” Rebecca said, walking up to Wild Blossom and holding her side with a grimace. “She’s a good person. She wouldn’t do this without some kind of…I don’t know. Hypnosis?”
“I know! She and Vent were both under some kind of control. We have to do something.”
“You were perfectly willing to sell out Vent a minute ago,” Golden Blade pointed out, his eyes steely and dark. “I won’t let you do the same thing to Blossom.”
Tory’s mouth clamped shut. He had to remind himself that this was not Eric Hale talking to Tory. This was Golden Blade talking to Everlux, the twenty-year-old social hero.
He was not Everlux. They were not talking to him.
He was not Everlux.
“I didn’t know they were going to out him,” he said, his mouth feeling like it was full of cotton.
“But you still came here to profit off of the situation. People were hurt, and you decided to talk about it on a talk show like it was entertainment.”
He was not here. He was not real. He would not feel real until he was back in Tory’s skin, Tory’s hair, Tory’s clothes. He was an actor in a play. A player in a video game.
Everything was murky and distant. He was pretty sure the Hales were still talking to him, but they sounded like they were underwater.
“Everlux, come here.”
A voice pierced through the clouds that were forming around him. It was his mom’s.
Golden Blade looked up at the mayor, then turned his fierce gaze back to Everlux. “I’m going to take Revamp and Wild Blossom to a super clinic nearby. Will you stay here and make sure that the rest of the citizens are safe, and report when the authorities get here? Do a clean sweep of the place.”
Somewhere, distantly, Tory realized Golden Blade was trusting him with the clean-up. He couldn’t parse out why he would do that.
Except that he knew that Everlux, the wildly popular social hero, would want to take the credit, and that was much easier to do when you stayed until the end.
“Yes,” he said, then turned to his mom and went back to her.
“You did well,” his mom whispered. “I am so proud of you.”
He brushed a leaf off of her shoulder, realizing too late that it was a pretty familiar gesture for a superhero and a mayor who were supposed to be strangers to the public eye. The leaf burst into green light before it hit the ground.
“Thanks.”
“The sword is…kind of cool, actually. Should we add that to your branding?”
He imagined what he would do with a sword. He’d seen Golden Blade use the sharp edges in his arm guards and his blade to restrain criminals and tackle shiftbeasts, injuring them in the process. If Everlux started carrying a sword, he would be expected to do more than trap enemies in cages. He didn’t want to hurt anyone.
“No. It wasn’t that useful.”
It did look super cool, though.
He glanced back at Golden Blade and Revamp, watching Rebecca scoop Wild Blossom up into her arms, hand her to Eric, then transform into a battered-looking raven with rumpled, missing feathers. She must have been more hurt than she was letting on. They took off and flew through the window, diving into the night.
“Wait.” Diane blinked. “Are they just leaving?”
“They’re going to a super clinic.”
”Well. I’m certain the super clinic will restrain Wild Blossom, and we’ll figure out what to do with her then.”
Her face began to blur as her lips pursed with frustration. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes, his hand sliding under his mask for a moment. Fear and stress and anxiety had sapped energy right out of him, and he’d used his powers a lot yesterday and today.
He imagined himself going to Alex’s apartment, flying inside his bedroom window, waking him up, and curling up next to him. They didn’t have to talk, or touch, or anything—just be in each other’s space in the comforting blanket of dark. He’d finally feel safe.
Unless Golden Blade or Revamp somehow figured out who he was. And then he probably wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near Alex. He wouldn’t blame them.
He probably couldn’t visit them anymore.
He rubbed his palm against his eyes again. He was Everlux. He could not act like a crying child when he was in costume. He had to pull himself together.
ALEX:
Alex bolted for the gathering crowd of bystanders outside of the glowing blue enforcement boundary set up around the entrance to the studio building—a platform three stories up that connected to a boardwalk filled with vendors and restaurants above ground level. Smoke was billowing out of a couple different windows of the building, all on the same floor.
He pushed through them and tried to catch the attention of the emergency responders dressed in black and white uniforms.
“Excuse me! Have you seen Victor Burns? Where’s the mayor’s son?”
They didn’t pay attention to him, busy with their patients. His heart raced with anxiety.
Tory wasn’t responding to his phone, there was nothing on the newsfeed, and Alex’s parents were nowhere to be seen. Where were Golden Blade and Revamp?
Then he spotted Everlux flying out of the building, carrying a man smeared with soot, and landing beside the ambulance.
His teeth grit. Everlux.
“If he doesn’t know where Tory is, he’s dead,” Alex muttered to himself, then ducked under the boundary and marched up to Everlux.
“Hey, kid! Stop!” A few of the emergency responders walked up to him, but Everlux noticed him and flew to his side.
“He’s with me. It’s fine.”
Alex met his gaze, trying to read his expression despite the white lenses of his silver mask. Alex expected him to look…annoyed, maybe? Haughty at the fact that some fan of his was there disrupting his time to shine?
Instead, Everlux looked relieved, his stiff, heroic posture drooping a little. “Alex. What are you doing here?”
“I—” He was a little stunned at the reception. Everlux remembered his name? “Have you seen Victor Burns?”
It was his turn to look a little surprised. He nodded, his mouth curving up into almost a smile, before it fell again. “Uh, yes. He’s totally fine. The mayor is fine, too. Revamp and Golden Blade are also good, they took Wild Blossom to a super clinic.”
“He’s okay. Alright.” Something loosened in Alex’s chest. He was suddenly able to breathe again. Tory was okay, and his parents were, too. Top priorities. “Do you know where he is?”
“I think he was being debriefed by the enforcement responders,” he said. “Victor wasn’t in the studio, so he was fine.”
“Okay. Now what was that about Wild Blossom?”
That was when the building exploded.
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