Super Avenged: Only Human

{Jimmy}

It felt as though the smoke seeped into my ears to fog up my brain. Once the smoke cleared from the room, it still remained inside my head. I barely paid attention as the medic checked my vitals and gave me an oxygen mask to battle the minor smoke inhalation I contracted from breathing in the smoke. Why was I being cared for? Miya was the one in trouble, not me. I could hear her screaming my name, but I couldn’t see her through the smoke. It broke my heart, being unable to help her. She had to be disappointed in me. Some superhero I was, if I couldn’t even protect my own wife.

I dropped my head into my hands, fighting to remember as much as possible.

I turned towards Miya, seeing a woman walk away from her. Miya remained at one of the paintings, her back facing me across the room. Even though she looked amazingly sexy in little black dresses, the artsy tie-dye t-shirt and denim shorts she wore still looked hot on her. Wondering how I’d ever managed to score such a perfect woman, I discreetly stretched out an arm and pinched one of her asscheeks.

Miya whirled around, the beginning seed of anger flashing upon her face. She saw my withdrawing arm and looked up; our eyes met across the room. She put her hands on her hips and shook her head at me, but I saw a shadow of a smile on her face. I shrugged and looked away from her at the nearest photograph.

That’s where I went wrong, when I looked away from her. I should’ve stayed near her, at least. I could’ve saved her if I hadn’t been so lax with my security measures.

A few moments later, I heard her gasp. I turned towards the sound to see her staring in horror at the ground several feet from her. I took half a step towards her when suddenly there was a loud boom and a bright flash. Smoke instantly issued from a smoke bomb on the floor, obscuring Miya from view. Out of nowhere, several more smoke bombs dropped onto the floor. They all went off, filling the gallery with smoke and tear gas.

I may be a superhero, but I’m not immune to everything. The tear gas burned my eyes and made me feel like my head weighed half an ounce. I began developing a headache and nausea attacked my stomach. I heard Miya scream my name, coughing. I tried to get closer to her, but I couldn’t think clearly. She screamed my name again, coughing horribly still.

Eventually, the smoke cleared. Everyone was accounted for...except the one person who mattered.

The stupid oxygen mask began to annoy me, and I could breathe just fine on my own, so I took it off before pressing my palms hard against my eyelids. It all happened so quickly. One moment, Miya was standing there, perfectly content and happy and healthy and safe, and the next, behind a foggy white veil, she was snatched right out from beneath me, headed to a place where the only way to be content would be if you were dead. There were so many different things I could’ve done to keep her safe. Miya was in this situation because of me. My stomach clenched at the thought.

“Hey.”

I raised my head to see Matt and the rest of the guys standing in a semi-circle around the chair I sat in. Everyone looked at me, except for Zacky, who stared at a gadget in his hand that looked like a little GPS thing.

“This thing is idiotic,” Zacky muttered, shaking his gadget unhappily. He frowned at it before looking up at me. “You see, it says that Miya is only about a block away, but I can’t see how that’s possible.”

“Less distance to drag her, I guess,” Brian said logically. “And maybe that’s what they want us to think. It would be unlikely for their hidey hole to be so close, but maybe they did it because we wouldn’t believe they did it.”

“It’s plausible, I guess,” Johnny agreed. “Think we should go check it out?”

“Might as well,” Matt said. He looked down at me. “Do you want to come?”

“Yeah,” I answered, shoving myself to my feet. Zacky studied his gadget before turning swiftly around and walking towards the back exit of the art gallery.

“Zacky, you better look up and watch where you’re going, because I won’t warn you if you’re on a collision course with a door or a wall,” Matt said. Zacky ignored him, stepping swiftly to the side seconds before he walked into the doorframe emerging into the hallway at the end of which sat the back exit.

“He has brain powers,” Brian muttered. “He can sense things like that.”

“Actually, I can see with my peripheral vision, same as you, Brian,” Zacky answered, reaching out and opening the exit door without looking up from his gadget. I assumed it was the GPS thing for Miya’s belt.

The exit emerged into a dark, grimy alleyway. Zacky turned right and walked down the alleyway. He started across the street without looking up, and we all hurried quickly after him, figuring that he sensed it was safe to cross. We followed Zacky into another alleyway. It ended in a T with two other alleys leading off of it. Zacky stopped, and Matt almost walked right into him.

“We’re standing right on it,” Zacky answered, looking up from the gadget. “But...” he looked around “there’s nowhere that’s even plausible for a hiding place.”

“Start looking,” Matt ordered. “Maybe we’ll find something.”

Everyone fanned out and began searching for...something. None of us knew what to look for, really. There wasn’t any possible way that they knew about the GPS belt. Of course, it would be my luck that the GPS would go wonky when we really needed it.

“Son of a bitch,” Johnny swore. We all looked around at him. He sighed and picked something up off of the ground. Everyone walked over to him. Johnny held out what he’d picked up from the ground.

It was Miya’s belt. There was no knowing where she was now.