I woke up to the feeling of a warm burning sensation on my chest. I sat up slowly and looked down. The left side of my chest was glowing. There was a bright light shining through my shirt. As the light grew brighter, so did the burning in my chest.
"Ah!" I yelped and clutched my chest.
But the burning didn't stop. I threw my shirt off and tried to get a better look. The light was beginning to die down, and so was the heat. When the light was gone, it revealed a mark. A downward pointing sword on my chest.
"What the heck..." I mumbled.
I jumped a little as I heard a crash coming from my sister's room. I didn't even have time to react. She swung her door open and slid on the floor toward me, still in her pajamas with a wicked bed head.
"Hey, you o—" She stopped mid-sentence.
She looked at me funny. I was starting to think Zack pranked me again.
"Hey, your face; it looks fixed," she said in disbelief.
I grabbed my shirt off the floor and slowly headed to the front door. Crap! I don't have a good enough lie set up yet! I needed to escape.
"Well you know, puberty," I said as I slipped on my shoes..
"What? What does p—"
I immediately slipped out the door. I was lucky that I slept in my clothes. I slipped on my shirt and headed to Zack's. I focused on the card and it appeared from the glittery dust in the palm of my hand. It read 'vision' on the back still.
"That's a whole lot of detail," I grumbled.
"Yo!"
I looked ahead and I saw Zack waving at me from down the road.
We met up and both confirmed that what happened last night was real. We then agreed we should go somewhere private and talk about our cards and the imperiums. Zack was excited to show me his 'make Stryder salty powers.' There was this old abandoned factory near the outskirts of town. There was a rumor of it being cursed, so not many people ventured there. The perfect place for a secret conversation, or to get mugged.
As we arrived behind the building. Zack leaped in front of me with excitement.
"Ready to have that heroic little mind of yours blown!" Zack cheered.
"Whatever helps you shut up faster." I huffed.
Zack got in a stance and took a breath. Closing his eyes as he tried to focus. He held his hand out, and I could feel a wave of heat washing over me. Smoke slowly rose from his hand, and then a green flare erupted from his palm. I took a step back. And as the smoke faded and the flares died down. There were two balls of fire left rotating in his hand.
"Woah! Dude! Dude!" I cheered.
He just summoned fireballs! Freaking fireballs! Just like in a video game!
"I know right? As if my devilish charms and smooth voice wasn't enough. I get even better."
"So it doesn't burn at all?" I asked.
"Not even a little. Now, more importantly, show me what you can do!"
"Well, I'm not really sure. My card only says vision on it." Zack began to break down laughing, almost dropping his balls of fire.
"I guess I really am the cool one!" He stopped abruptly and slowly looked up at me, with the 'I'm up to no good' smirk.
"Zack," I said as I slowly backed away from him.
"Stryder, if I'm wrong, you get a free hit," he said with a crazy look in his eyes.
"Zack, don't you d—"
He aimed back his arm like a baseball pitcher and chucked the fireball toward me. I started to panic when suddenly, everything around me started to slow down. The ball that was flying toward me was now hovering.
I started to calm down as the ball came my way. I stepped to the side, and easily dodged it. I noticed him fling the other one at me and I dodged that too. Once I relaxed, everything went back to normal again. I looked over at Zack, who seemed to be in awe of me.
"Dude! Your eyes started glittering blue. That was cool!"
"Zack! What if you had been wrong!"
"Details, details. Sometimes you just gotta take risks."
"I hate you sometimes; you know that."
"You know you love me. Without me, you wouldn't know how to have fun."
"Without me, you'd probably be in jail," I said under my breath.
"That's why we're bros," he chimed.
I smirked at his statement.
"Just imagine; we can change so much with these gifts!" I cheered, holding out my hands to the sky.
I felt so energized, so warm and fuzzy on the inside! This was great!
"I can get women," Zack said with a smirk to rebuttal me.
"We can fight for justice."
"I can burn that guy who stepped on my jays!"
"Zack, haven't you ever dreamed of being a superhero?"
"I've dreamed of being a superstar, making money, oh and the ladies." He growled like a tiger and I punched his shoulder.
"Zack, people die every day to people like the Red Steel Gang, people who've done nothing wrong. We've been blessed with abilities that can make a—"
"Look, I'm not like you Stryder. I'm no knight in shining armor. Just because I was blessed or whatever doesn't mean I owe anyone anything."
" How selfish can yo—"
"But! I can work to make this world a better place for my sister, so she can walk around without fear."
He gave me a big cheesy grin and I couldn't help but smile. He held out his fist and I reciprocated by holding up mine.
"We can do it together." I chimed.
We bumped fists and laughed a little. It may not have seemed like much, but from that point on, I knew things were gonna be different for us.
Clunk!
Something fell over from around the corner. I jumped and looked over at Zack. I felt my heart beginning to race.
"What was that?" I whispered to Zack.
"Maybe someone's getting it on in there," Zack snickered.
"Do you have a filter?" I asked.
"It is time to test your strength young heroes," a disembodied voice called out around us.
It sounded familiar, like one of those goddesses.
Then from the corner of my eyes, I saw three people emerge from around the wall. Each a red steel gang member. I almost forgot to breathe as I saw one of them brandishing a pistol. The others seem to have knives in their hands. This was real, this was really happening. We were going to have to fight.
"Who the hell are the two of you!" The one with the gun called out to us. "Whoever you are better get ready for a beat down."
I took in a deep breath. This was it. Our first test as heroes. I activated my eyes and charged at the gunmen. He seemed to panic at that and shot rapidly at me. I dodged it with ease and came in close. I grabbed his wrist and shoved his arms down to the ground making him shoot the dirt. I moved my leg behind him and swept him to the floor. As he fell on his back I stomped on his wrist, making him drop the gun.
"AHH!" I heard Shrieks of agonizing pain coming from behind me.
I turned hastily around to a shocking sight. There was Zack holding the 'I don't know pose' while the other two gang members were engulfed in his unholy green fire.
"I tried to warn ya. I'm hot." Zack said smugly down at the soon to be Red steel kabobs.
"Hey don't roast them alive!" I yelled.
"Oh crap right!" Zack yelped.
He quickly turned around and tried desperately to shut it off. When that didn't work, he tried stomping on them. Then, poof. The fire was magically gone. I just gave him a look. The two didn't seem too intensely burned. I guess he can control the heat level of his flames, maybe?
"What, what are you?" The guy I was standing over stuttered out.
He looked like he was about to cry.
"Doesn't matter who we are. What matters is what you know." I insisted. I leaned down and snatched his collar.
I pulled him up to my face and glared into his eyes.
"Oh I see what you're doing!" Zack exclaimed running over to me.
"Oh really?" I replied with some skepticism.
"Uh huh, watch this." He turned to the gunmen. "You know where the leader of the Red steel gang is don't ya?" Zack chimed as he yanked the kids collar from me.
He brought him super close to his face, holding out a hand and erupted a fireball to life. He smirked at the poor kid.
"I don't think you wanna test him, as you may have seen he barely knows how to turn off his fire." The guy looked petrified.
But Zack just started to giggle.
"He looks like he's about to piss his pants!" Zack chuckled out.
I elbowed him in the side and he coughed. Gaining his serious face back.
"look man I, I don't, I don't know nothing." He said frantically.
"I find that hard to believe," Zack said as he moved the flame closer to his face.
"Okay! Okay! He's inside this building! Honest!"
"If you're lying I know where you live! I'm a witch ya know!" Zack yelled as he bolted to the warehouse.
I punched the guy in the face a few times knocking him out. Then I followed after Zack. This was it. The next stop, the boss battle.