Unlikely Heroes

Cal hadn't given her much explanation about why she needed to meet him so desperately. Janice had come knocking at the closet door to see what she was up to and Cal had had to go invisible again and slip away. Mikaela wriggled into a pair of dark jeans and zipped a black jacket over a red tank top before winding her hair up into a bun so it would stay under the hood. She paused and stared at herself in the mirror.

"What am I doing?" she muttered to her reflection. "This could be some kind of prank. Of course, if Cal really wanted to humiliate me he could have just announced to the entire school population that I'd hooked up with him in an abandoned elementary school."

Her reflection just stared back at her, offering no help at all. Mikaela sighed. "Good talk."

She stuffed her phone into her back pocket and headed down the stairs, taking them two at a time. She hit the bottom and froze. Her father was coming out of the kitchen with a bottle of Jim Bean. They stared at each other for several moments, his eyes bloodshot and bleary.

"Where the fuck you going now?" he demanded.

"Out," she said stiffly. She edged into the living room, trying to keep her distance from him. He lurched toward her, placing a hand on her shoulder and shoving her roughly against the wall.

"Don't give me any of your shit, Mikaela," he growled. His grip on her shoulder was starting to hurt.

"Don't you have a red eye to catch in a few hours?" she asked, trying to pull free. "I'm just going out to meet a study group."

Her father sneered. He shoved her away from him, nearly sending her toppling over the end table. He started muttering under his breath about useless, ungrateful daughters and Mikaela fairly bolted for the front door. She was still angry when she reached the school and found Cal waiting for her.

"What's this all about, Cal?" she snapped. He gave her a weird look.

"Jesus, who pissed in your cereal this morning?"

Mikaela shook her head. "Never mind. What did you want me to meet you here for?"

"We need to go to Ivers Park."

Her eyebrows shot up. "What the hell for? That place is seedy as fuck."

"Exactly. Look, Garrett Hanson is in trouble."

"And you care because why?" Mikaela frowned. "What kind of trouble?"

"The really big kind." Cal looked grim. "He got involved with some people he really shouldn't have, and they're probably going to kill him tonight."

"How do you know that?"

"I've heard about it. He deals, okay. He was supposed to sell to a local gang but his supplier backed out on him. And now the gang is after him. They will kill him. And not slowly, if the rumors I've heard about them are true."

"And you want to swoop in and save him from an entire gang?"

"Hey if you're not up to it I can go alone. I can see why you'd be afraid of violent gang bangers," Cal said mildly.

"You think I'll be scared because they're violent?" Mikaela actually laughed. "Oh, that's adorable Calvin, truly. I only meant I thought you would have come up with something a little more daring and challenging for our first superhero outing. So are we going to stand around chatting all night or are we gonna kick some ass?"

She crossed her arms and stared at him while he gave her a look that was a cross between amused and exasperated.

"Well come on then," he said. "I'm gonna park a couple blocks away from where Garrett meets people for his deals. I don't want the car being seen in the immediate vicinity."

"So why are you so worried about this anyway?" Mikaela asked as she climbed into the passenger seat. "Is Garrett your drug dealer or something?"

"No," Cal said, looking insulted. "Give me some credit."

"You expect me to believe you don't use drugs?"

"Of course I do. But I don't get them from Garrett."

Mikaela wrinkled her nose. "No wonder you didn't want to be a superhero," she muttered. "Delinquent."

"I'm worried about this because I don't want to see one of my fellow teenage classmates face a grisly demise. Nice to see you have so much faith in my character though."

"Sorry," Mikaela said, rolling her eyes. "I guess I just had some reservations when you told me to meet you at night in a dark hoodie, after you had snuck into the girl's locker room."

"I needed to talk to you. It was urgent."

"Yeah, sure. So urgent for you to see a bunch of cheerleaders in their underwear."

"Hey this whole using our powers for the good of mankind thing was your idea. I'm doing what you wanted, Highness."

"Does that make you my servant?" Mikaela smirked. "I think I'd peg you more as the court jester."

"No that honor would go to Leon. I'm more like the rogue knight who's the best of them all but doesn't like to play by the rules."

"Seducing tavern wenches everywhere you go?"

"And the occasional princess." Cal winked and Mikaela punched his arm.

"I told you, I'm not a princess."

"We're here." Cal parked the car and Mikaela followed him the three and a half blocks to the park, well past the well-lit area and to the old rusted out train tracks. Cal nudged her and gestured for her to put her hood up as they heard voices up ahead. She felt a little ridiculous ducking around behind bushes but she forgot her misgivings as they saw Garrett Hanson by the train tracks, surrounded by a group of men with tons of tattoos and very unhappy expressions.

"I just need a little more time," Garrett stammered. Even from a distance Mikaela could tell he was shaking and his face was covered with a sheen of sweat.

"See, we put our trust in you. You didn't deliver. And now we come to find out you spent all our money too. We can't let this kind of thing just slide. Hanson, bro, you're all out of time."

Two more men came forward, grabbing Garrett's arms to hold him in place while the guy who'd been talking cocked his fist and punched him hard in the face.

"I'm going in," Cal whispered. He turned invisible and Mikaela felt a faint tingle of static electricity as he moved past her and into the circle of men. Some of them held switchblades, one had a crow bar. Mikaela focused and the weapons flew out of their hands, scattering them through the The men stared around in confusion, until one of them jerked as though he'd been punched. He staggered back with a curse, clutching his nose. Cal moved through the circle, punching and shoving people.

"What the fuck is going on?" The guy who seemed to be in charge scowled menacingly at his crew. "Quit fucking around!"

The guys holding Garrett looked at once baffled and angry. Some of the others moved to pick up their fallen weapons, but Mikaela lifted the crow bar off the ground and made it swing in a wild arc, making them halt and gape. They ducked as Mikaela sent the crow bar hurtling past them to start whacking the guys holding Garrett. They staggered away, a wide-eyed Garrett nearly falling over as he tried to avoid the crow bar. Mikaela slipped out of the bushes while Cal had the gang bangers occupied and grabbed Garrett's arm.

"Come on," she hissed. "You have to get out of here."

"Who are you?"

"Don't worry about it. Just go before they notice-"

Mikaela caught movement out of the corner of her eye, and the gang leader's fist narrowly missed her face as she jumped away. He pulled a gun out of his waistband and pointed it at her.

"I don't know who the fuck you are bitch, but I'm gonna kill you," he growled. A hot spark of anger bloomed in Mikaela's chest.

"You think you're tough?" she asked. "You'd be a lot more intimidating if you were holding your fucking gun right."

His jaw dropped as the gun flew out of his hand and flipped around, pointed at his face.

"And while we're at it, trying to cold cock people is really fucked up." Mikaela trembled faintly as she felt pressure building in her head. She glanced at his hand, and his fingers wrenched back, cracking. He howled, cradling the injured hand against his stomach.

"Man let's get the fuck out of here!" someone shouted. Cal appeared in front of him.

"What's the rush?" he asked conversationally. He punched the guy in the head and he dropped. Cal disappeared again as another man lunged for him. Cal went about disappearing and reappearing as he kept beating on gang bangers. Mikaela shoved Garrett.

"Get out of here already," she snapped. "And stop dealing drugs, dumbass."

"O-okay." Garrett staggered back, still staring at Cal and Mikaela for several moments before finally turning and fleeing from the park. Mikaela clocked the leader in the head with his own gun. He finally stopped his cursing and shouting about his broken fingers. Mikaela heard a distant wail of sirens, but they were steadily growing closer.

"I called in a tip," Cal said, appearing beside her and surveying their handiwork. "Did you seriously snap that guy's fingers?"

"Yep." Mikaela clicked the safety off on the gun and let it drop beside the unconscious gang leader. Cal caught her arm and the two of them retreated back into the bushes, watching as cops arrived and took in the scene before them looking perplexed. Mikaela tugged on Cal's sleeve and they slipped away, hauling ass back to Cal's car. When they were clear of the park Mikaela couldn't hold back her laughter anymore and covered her mouth to stifle the giggles.

"I wish I could've taken a picture of everyone's faces. Priceless."

"I thought the rabid flying crow bar was a nice touch." Cal shot her an amused look.

"Thank you." Mikaela batted her eyelashes and then started giggling again. She tugged her jacket off, suddenly feeling too warm despite the faint fall nip in the air. She felt restless, unable to hold still; like there was electricity coursing through her veins. They made it back to Cal's car and he headed back towards the school.

"And you thought my superhero idea was stupid." Mikaela shot him a triumphant smirk.

"I admit that it was kind of fun, saving lives and kicking ass and all."

"I'm going to take that as you apologizing and admitting you were wrong."

Cal rolled his eyes. Mikaela leaned her face against the cool glass of the window. Cal pulled back into the school parking lot, cutting the engine and turning in his seat to look at her.

"What?" she demanded.

"So, we're really gonna do this, then? Team up to fight crime?"

"Yeah." She shrugged, trying not to smile and failing. "I guess we are. We did a pretty good job for rookies. In my opinion."

"You know that means you have to spend more time around me."

"Well. I guess you're not quite as terrible as I thought, so I think I can endure it."

"Have you ever considered being a motivational speaker?"

Mikaela laughed softly. "Life coach, actually."

Cal laughed too. If someone had told Mikaela a few weeks ago that she'd be sitting in Cal Bennett's car laughing with him and actually kind of enjoying herself, she probably would have punched them. Her entire life had been changed by a reckless driver and some unidentifiable blue goop. And crazy as it may have been, there was a tiny part of her that didn't mind so much.