Salem's pov
I was getting ready for school and today Suwi and I got permission to leave earlier thanks to mister the people at the pillar project pulling strings so we could get to the special event today so we were leaving around lunch time. Now I was the only one out of the five who didn't get any media and I have a feeling that's what they're planning for me.
As I was brushing my teeth the upper insides of my mouth felt weird and so did my tongue. I stuck it out and so it was a little longer and there were spikes coming out of its papillae. My eyes widened in shock at what I was looking at.
"The fuck. Auntie!" I yelled and suddenly auntie speeded in the room.
"Chicky what's wrong!" She asked worriedly and I just showed her my tongue. "Oh well looks like you're not going to be kissing any girls anytime soon. Sorry Chicky." She giggled a little.
"Yeah, you got jokes. How I am supposed to handle this." I grumbled.
"Oh, relax cub me, your grandma and mom were able to control them just fine and you would too so don't worry about hurting yourself or any girls in the future." She was then instantly in front of me and examined my tongue. "But I think we still need to get you to a hospital to get this looked at."
"Are we going now or tomorrow?" I asked her.
"Well, I would say we should go after your school day is over but since you have that event to get to, I say we should go tomorrow." She sighed then patted my head. "Now hurry and finish up so I drop you off. I have to be at Jemima's studio soon"
"Oh yeah how is that going by the way?" I asked.
"I'm getting used to it." She scratched her cheek a little. "Just finish up."
Sometime later
Auntie and I were in the car as she drove me to school listening to some afro dancehall music while playing on the radio. As we were enjoying the tunes the radio started tripping, leading auntie to start messing around with the in frustration wanting to get back to the song.
"13-year-old Nicole Umar was found dead yesterday." We heard a news reporter from the radio announce.
"Huh?" Auntie and I questioned.
"Just three days ago 13-year-old Nicole Umar son of the MP Kelvin Umar was found dead on his bed at the boarding school of Mouth Chichi. Reports say that he was diagnosed with high amounts of poison in his system leading to his death. Further reports on the incident on the incident and Mr. Umar response to the death of his son are still to be brought." Auntie switched it back to the afro dance.
"Wow, the son of an MP was killed. It's been a while since I heard of a case like that." She commented.
"You think it was some political rivals sending a message."
"I don't know, try not to deep my paws in politics." She sighed. "But what I do know is that this will be the headline in the news for the past month or so."
We reached school and she dropped me off and we said our goodbyes. Then I saw the Nguzu car pull up and Matthew being dropped by his dad and it looked like they were not having a pleasant conversation in the car. Matthew got out of the car with an upset look and his dad drove off. He finally noticed me.
"Um what?" He asked.
"We need to talk now during breaktime." I told him as I couldn't speak to him now because of the guards and it's only 10 minutes till attendance calls.
"Sorry Chimwemwe I can't I hav…" He was cut off by me grabbing him hard by the shoulder and glaring at him.
"Nigga I said we need to talk during breaktime." I ordered him this time and he looked intimidated. "Good go to the benches by the football field." I smiled and left for my class.
Sometime later during breaktime
I was by the benches at the football fields waiting for Matthew to show up to have a little talk. Luckily people don't crowd around here during break but only for lunch. About six minutes later Matthew showed up and I put on my microwave radar to sense if anyone else showed up or was around. The guy really looked like he wanted to leave as soon as possible.
"Look, whatever you want to talk about, can you make it fast please?" He told me.
"Sit down my guy." I told him and he did just that. "So, you're a vigilante now." I saw his eyes widened and he made a surprised sound with his trunk.
"What!?" He yelled but quickly quieted down. "How did you know?" He stressed.
"You're not really slick. And Suiw knows too." I withheld the part of spying.
"Wait Suiw knows too!" He gulped. "S-so what did she think?"
"That's not important." I rolled my eyes. "What's important is your little vigilante gimmick."
"Why do you care? I thought your thing was staying out of people's business." He said with a little attitude.
"Yes, but the problem here is that you keep telling your parents that you're over at my place so I had to cover for you from time to time. Your mom constantly calls there just to make sure your there and your dad even came over one time."
"Believe me I know." He rubbed his cheek.
"Last is your involvement in the little drug use." I finalised and he gulped. "Yeah I know about your little inhaler which gives you that power boost."
"Chimwemwe please don't tell anybody else about this!" He begged.
"Matthew, you're doing drugs at ten!"
"It's not as bad as you think! The rest of Nono Afwa told me that there are no side effects!"
"And you believe them."
"Yes! They've been using them for three weeks now and have been just fine and I've even been using them for 7 days now!" He defended.
"Plus, they let me become something more a hero who saves others and instead of being the one who needs saving." He said with tears streaming down his face. "You saw the videos and saw how good we're doing."
"Nigga are you serious right now?"
"Wait, how about I take you to meet them." He suggested.
"What?"
"I take you to meet the rest of Nono Afwa and you'll see that there are no bad people and all the good we do."
"No." I rejected it and got up prepared to leave. "Look, I am not the type to snitch on another person's parents but be careful with what you're diving into."
"Wait, please , it's not that bad, I promise just give it a chance. Maybe once you see them in action you could also see the value of being a hero." He desperately said.
"Huh I am going to regret this but fine I have a let's go."
"Now?"
"Yes, now you were planning on skipping anyway so let's go." I told and he nodded and prepared to leave.
Sometime later
Me and Matthew had sneak out of school and where on our way to the hideout as he calls it. He seemed really excited by this and I wasn't. I watched like four of their videos yesterday and it seemed like standard clout chasing, but then again, I could be wrong.
We reached the abandoned building and we found the four teens walking out of the building each wearing black jackets, brown trousers and black boots. Guess they weren't wearing their usual hair costumes.
The first on was about fifteen, tall light skinned guy with a small afro but with a fade and he had green eyes. He honestly looked like a mister steal your girl.
The second one was about fifteen too, on the shorter side, his hair was tinted blonde at the top, dark eyes and he had a dial on his left cheek.
The third one was just as tall as the first if not taller. Buzz cut hair, dark eyes, a long spike coming out of his elbow and he looked more muscular than the other. To be honest with his size and appearance he could be older but I could be wrong.
Finally, there was Matthew's older brother Peter. His hair was a little braided at the top, dark eyes and like I said the lower half was that of an elephant.
"Hey guys this is my Friend Chimwemwe." Matthew awkwardly introduced me and I just waved at them.
"Little nigga we, told you not to bring anyone else here Matthew. This isn't some hang out spot where you can just bring your friends." The first one said unamused.
"I told you he would bring one of his primary school friends here, my guy." The Spikey armed one commented.
"Matthew, I thought I told you not to do this." Peter glared at Matthew who looked down then turned to me. "Look, go back to your school, you shouldn't be here."
"Relax, your mom has been calling my house a lot wondering about the two of you." I said surprising him.
"What but I'm not even friends with you and I've never been to your house before." He asked, confused.
"I know but since you two leave together sometimes she asks if you're there too." I continued to twist the story. "I had to lie a lot of times and cover for you too from time to time and I'm starting to get sick of it. So, I basically found out about this little vigilante thing you two got going on so I tried to Matthew convince Matthew here to quit your 'activities' while he was ahead but he convinced me to come here so I can witness the good your crew truly does." I finished my little cover story.
"Guys please just do this once. I promise he won't cause any trouble plus he's only going to be here today." Matthew pleaded with them.
"Look, we don't have time for this, we're already late. Matthew, your friend can come with us but only if he doesn't get in the way, tell anyone or keep coming back." The one own as Frank said.
"Thanks." He went to the side to change , leaving me alone with the other three. Leaving us in an awkward silence.
"So Chimwemwe right." The blond tinted one said and I nodded. "Well, I'm Junaid but people call me Junta, that's, O-Brize and Spike." He introduced himself and the other two but I can tell those are just nicknames and not their actual names.
"Nice to meet all of you." I said politely. Soon Matthew came back with his costume ready to go. "So, are you guys seriously going to run around the streets in your costumes?"
"No, we have a car but most of the time we are on the streets without clothes. People think we're heroes on patrol and don't question much." O-Brize said. "Okay Matthew, start that camera." He ordered and Matthew started recording and I got off the shot.
"What's good everybody, it's your boys."
"Nono Afwa." They all answered with a pose.
I yawned and tuned out the classic YouTube intro stuff though this looks like this is a live streaming. Though now I know that they reached five thousand followers yesterday and they're making a special video in celebration of that. Since O-Brize was one doing all the talking he was sort of the leader of the group, seconded Spike who explained that today they're actually going to stop their first ever villain. Finally, Junta who laid down the jokes.
Peter on the other hand stayed silent and just stood in the background smiling. Guess before Matthew came along, he was the camera guy and now doesn't know what to do.
"Wait, I thought you guys have caught villains before?" I asked them after they were done filming the introduction part.
"Nah, those were just those common supermarket thieves. We never took down any real villains before." Spike answered. "I'll go get the car." He left around back.
"And you guys are sure that's a good idea?" I raised my eyebrow at the idea of going after a real villain.
"We'll be fine, we got a secret weapon for extra juice." Peter boasted but O-Brize glared at him making him cough nervously. "J-Just try to stay out of the shots." He told me.
"Okay Mr. Background character." I rolled my eyes and mocked him lightly.
"Chimwemwe." Matthew whispered warningly.
"Pft hey these kids are pretty funny but he's got you, their Peter." Junta laughed.
Peter grumbled and glared at me but before he could say or do anything the car arrived. It looked like a regular white van and I wasn't going to ask how that got as I know it's better not to ask questions.
We entered the car and I noticed Spike putting a driver's licence obviously fake into the compartment. Matthew started recording and I tried not to get in the shot and four teens were talking and laughing while in the car, well three as Peter was just laughing along and throwing a little comment here and there.
Spike suddenly stopped the car and they all put on their masks and got out with me following suit.
"Hold it if you want to hang out with us you have to lose that uniform and put on a mask." O-Brize ordered.
"Really." I sighed.
"Well yeah you don't want people recognizing you by the streets or if you get caught in a shot, right?" He reasoned.
"Good point." I agreed and went in the back and removed my jacket putting on the Matthew sized hoodie and finally a plan grey face mask on.
"Okay everyone, over recent weeks we've been hearing about some asshole in this area snatching up people's glossaries, mostly taking their food items. How is he an official villain you may ask because people said that he wears a strange outfit and quirk and since the heroes as usual are ignoring the problem me and my crew took it upon ourselves to help." O-Brize said to the camera.
"Because that's what Nono Afwa is helping people with stuff heroes feel there is too good for." Junta commented. "We've been asking around for days and now we think we got the location of our snatcher."
The four continued on to the local market and asked for feedback from some people. They also helped people in helping them lift heavy glossaries to their car, O-Brize giving some cash to people to buy glossaries with and so on.
"So, these are supposed to be the actions which inspire me to be a hero" I whispered to him.
"Chimwemwe stop, I'm trying to film but yeah." Matthew whispered back. "They're still making time to help people with minor problems and can't you see how happy the people get when someone helps them out even with small things."
"It's not staged, I'll give them that much." I rolled my eyes.
"Why do you have to be like this?"
"HEY YOU TWO STOP SLACKING!!" Peter yelled,
"S-sorry." Matthew shuttered.
We drove off again a good distance from the market to a dirty area.
"Okay guys you ready." O-Brize asked and they all nodded and took out the inhalers and put them in their pockets.
Matthew began filming again as they walked along the dirt road and past some bushes. I don't know what's going on but I'm feeling that something was off so I activated my microwave's radar and I picked very close ahead and it felt off. I was getting a bad feeling.
"Guys I think we should go back, this doesn't seem like a good idea." I voiced out.
"Relax kid if we get into any trouble, we got a way to get off of it no problem. "Junta reassured me.
"Seriously, let's go back now." I warned them again.
"Kid, can you keep quiet? You might alert the villain. O-Briza said in annoyance.
"You know you can just go back and wait for us in the van." Spike jumped in.
I was about to reply but then I felt something coming at us slowly but I just decided to go back as they were dead set on this and Matthew also seemed dead set to this too.
"He has a good quirk but is such a coward." I heard Peter mock. But I didn't pay mind to it as I let them all be.
I felt the thing move a lot faster than before and manoeuvred around the trees. On instinct I jumped to the left as something zoomed past me and then I heard a chilling sound. I turned around and my eyes went wide to what I saw.
Junta was in the air impaled by a large horn right to the stomach by a large horn of the muscular man. I couldn't make out his features but when he turned around, I saw he had a buffalo face. There was the case of his eyes or lack thereof, as they seem to have been literally clawed out. Though I could tell he was focused on me.
He oozed out the most killing intent I've ever felt, making me really nervous as he sneered at me in pure hatred. The rest just froze with fear and Matthew just fainted on the spot and the scene.
"NALA!!" He yelled at me in pure rage and threw Junta to the ground and the bloody scene caused the three boys to scream in fright.
I just backed up in a little fear with just one thing on my mind. Why was this guy called by Simba's wife's name?