H-108 stared at her hand, a calm glazing over her eyes. She watched the walls of the corridor flashed by as Will sprinted ahead, intending to leave far away before the guards woke up and chased after them. Sirens were blaring as the whole laboratory turned into a battlefield. However, it seemed that the heroes were more conscious of the area that Will and H-108 were running from as the fighting was less fierce there. They were heroes after all. They didn't want innocent test subjects to get involved.
As Will carried H-108 in their escape, they saw a masked figure ahead. From the costuming that screamed 'justice', it was made apparent that she was a hero. Will slowed to a walk and held in his breath, instructing H-108 to do the same.
Despite his experience, Will felt his heart thumping wildly in his chest. Flamboyant red hair, gold laced mask, an awe-inspiring classic hero's costume with the red cape and white-gold suit; it was Ember. Fierce, unyielding and righteous were keywords that one would describe her with.
H-108 looked Will in the eye and waved around her peas but received a shaking head in return. Just like most of the other heroes participating in the current mission, Ember was a highly experienced hero with plenty of defeated villains under her name. Her experience and strength were nothing to scoff at. However, there was just one hero, Will was confident that he could stealthily walk by without her noticing.
Just as they walked by, Ember suddenly stopped and turned back with a guarded expression. Tilting her head sideways, she abruptly turned back round and rushed ahead like a mad bull. Next thing the duo knew, the ground was rumbling and the guards that had just woken up were flying in the air.
Staring at the burnt mark the shape of a shoe left on the ground, Will inadvertently gulped. 'She's as terrifying as the rumours say.'
As screams resounded behind him, Will took the opportunity to bolt! Timing his steps to the strangely rhythmic sounds of grunts and bodies falling to the ground, he ran across the hallway and up the secret emergency exit.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
RUMBLE...CRASH...ROAR…
"Where'd they go?" Ember's lips straightened into a pensive line. She tapped her feet on the ground, each tap creating cracks in the ground and leaving burn marks. "My instincts can't be wrong. I definitely felt someone walk by."
Behind her, the guards were stacked into a human hamburger, fainted.
Frowning, Ember kicked one of the guards awake and threa-cough, asked with a flaming fist, "left or right?"
"E-excuse me?"
"LEFT OR RIGHT?"
"R-Right!"
"Thank you." She said as she slammed his head against the ground to knock him back out.
The flames in her fight hand surged like a busted pipe and a tsunami of fire rushed across the hall, the direction in which Will and H-108 ran.
"F-Fire!" H-108 had been leaning against Will's shoulder so she had been keeping watch behind all this time. The flames eerily lit up the dark stairway, seeping into the cracks of the locked door like a living creature with its own will. H-108 who had been weirdly calm this entire time trembled and quaked in Will's arms. "I, d-don't like fire. It hurts. Too hot."
As she cried, her eyes glowed along with the peas in her hand. "No fire. No more pain."
Water spurted out from her palms and quenched the intruding flames.
"Miss?!" Will exclaimed in surprise. How could she have more than one ability?
"Will." A voice null of emotion called out to the stunned villain. "Keep moving."
Will felt a shiver run down his spine. It felt like he was being reprimanded by his boss. Completely devoid of emotions, like a robot or cold-hearted fiend.
The spy swallowed down his questions and faithfully kept running. The small figure in his arms eventually relaxed, as if falling asleep. However, keeping his guard up, Will decided to put his mask back on and created a makeshift one for the asleep H-108 out of cloth.
"HERE!" Ember's husky voice echoed as she smashed open the door to the secret exit. "Was it you? Did you put out my fire?"
Will jumped back in a startle, dodging the ball of fire that made its way straight his way. However, doing so ended up making him accidentally disabling his ability.
"Stop attacking!" Will shouted out, in a voice differing to the one he used to speak to H-108.
"That voice and mask...who are you?" Her masked eyes furrowed in guarded suspicion.
"I, I'm Ghost, y-you guys hired me and my companions to scout the area."
"The shy scout that didn't talk to anyone?"
"Y-yes." Will replied. "I'm not shy, though."
Ember redirected her gaze to H-108 who had been wrapped in Will's arms. "What are you doing with that child?"
"I found her when I was scouting the location so I was going to bring her outside to get checked."
"Why'd you hide from me?"
"There were guards ahead and behind us so I didn't want to distract you and if they discovered us, the child and I would have been nuisances and so I thought I should quietly get away before anything happened. That's why I didn't dispel my ability. I never thought you'd suddenly fire at us though. I was so scared. I thought I was going to die. Ms Ember, you're an amazing hero, but being the target of your flames is really terrifying. I can only imagine how villains feel when they turn to crisps under your ability. Look, my hair had been singed even though I dodged. You really are an amazing fighter. You have good instincts too. I really admire you. After this is all over, can you give me your autograph?"
"....I never knew you were so talkative."
"Really? You think so? My team says the same thing. I don't really get it though. I mean, I'm just talking normally but they keep telling me to shut up. Isn't that really mean? I mean, we're a team, y'know? Shouldn't they be more supportive? And it isn't that I talk a lot, it's that they don't really talk at all. Like, they only say a sentence at a time. Like, who does that? Isn't that insane? How do you expect people to have a conversation like that? Seriously, it's worrisome. And they even told me to just shut up and don't talk at all so I stopped talking and all but it's been really difficult."
Will kept rambling, hoping that his nonsense would throw her suspicion out the window.
"Who used the water?"
"It was this child. It was really amazing! She turned her palms at the door and water just gushed out like spoooooosh and the flames died. But it seems that it used up all her strength. She fell asleep straight away. I'm really worried for her so I was hoping to get the medic to check up on her. She was also really really scared of the fires so I'm afraid there might be psychological trauma from all this."
"M-my bad." Ember coughed and cleared her throat. "I'll take responsibility and take the child to safety. Please hand her over."
Will tense up. "Don't worry, I'll go. Ms Ember is a strong hero so you should focus on fighting the bad guys. Leave something like this to me."
"No, I've already beat the guards up. It's fine."
"No, no. I insist. Also, I think there are more children down there. I couldn't quite open the doors to the other rooms but they were definitely occupied. The only reason I was able to open the door to this child is because she was trying to escape. Ms Ember, you should rescue the other children. I'm sure they're all scared and trying to run away right at this moment."
"...Alright. I'll entrust this child to you."
"Yes! Don't worry and leave it to me!"
Will watched Ember turn and head towards the other test subjects. It was only when she was gone again that he started to run too, not even daring to let out a sigh of relief.
'I spoke more words in 5 minutes than I would've in a whole week!'
Will shook his head. 'That's beside the point. I must report the situation to Boss.'
He leaped out of the lab and away from the battlefield. It was time to go home.