Unlikely Heroes

"This place gives me the creeps."

Cal complained while Mikaela snuck down the empty hallways of the school they'd slipped in while the authorities weren't looking. Like Leon said, the fancy private school was on lock down, and all the doors were locked and the blinds shut. The school was full of students who were forced to stay locked inside far past the time they were usually dismissed, yet none of them were visible and and they were dead silent.

"They're on lockdown, Cal," Mikaela sighed. "That's what they do in lockdowns. We do a drill like this every year."

"First of all, it's Spectro. I don't know who Cal is. Second, I've made a point to cut class during the drill every year," he smirked. "I go get pizza instead."

"You're an idiot, Spectro."

"Thanks, Psionica."

Mikaela tried peering into one of the windows leading into the classroom, but had no luck, since the blinds were shut. She sighed and turned to look at Cal, shaking her head.

"He's in one of these classrooms," she said. "I don't know how to figure out which one. And there's like four cops crawling around. Then finding us would be worse than the thugs finding us."

"Well, if I were a thug with a couple henchmen, I'd have a gun," Cal said slowly, thinking. "And how many students here carry a gun? None. How far can your telekinesis stretch? Do you have to see the item to move it, or could you just picture it and assume it's there?"

Mikaela caught on to Cal's idea fairly quickly, but she seemed a little nervous about it.

"Cal, I don't know if I'm that strong," she said.

"Just try it," he said.

She nodded, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. He watched her fists clench and unclench, her brow furrowing in concentration. After a bit, she seemed to get a little dizzy, leaning on Cal for support.

"Woah, hey, stop if it hurts," he told her.

"No, I got something," she said.

A few moments later, there was a thud against one of the doors, as if something small and hard had hit it. Mikaela's eyes shot open and she went straight to that door, finding that it was unlocked and swinging it open. Cal followed her, finding that she'd swiftly picked the gun up off the ground and was staring across the room at a man who seemed utterly shocked, and was dressed in all black. Behind him were about twenty terrified students, huddled up with their teacher in a corner.

"Get on the ground," Mikaela demanded.

He didn't listen, instead flipping out a switchblade and starting towards her. Like a magnet, the blade flew right out of his hand and landed in Mikaela's who handed it to Cal with an annoyed look on her face.

"How did you-?"

"Look, just get on the ground before I regret being nice," Mikaela snapped.

"Damn, girl," Cal smirked. "That mask and outfit really brings out the hood bitch in you, huh?"

Mikaela gave him an unamused look, and he just held his hands up in surrender.

"I mean that in a good way. Like, it's really hot."

Across from them, everyone seemed confused about how to handle the bickering. The gangster slowly got on the ground like Mikaela asked, and she didn't hesitate to kneel down next to him and tie up his wrists and ankles with some shoelaces one kid offered her.

"Alright, there's three others," Cal said. "Where do we find them?"

"I'll never tell," he grumbled.

"Oh, I think you will," Mikaela said. "Because we're giving you the option to live. That gang of yours? They'll kill you just for failing up to this point. We both know that you've basically given yourself a death sentence. Your move."

Cal didn't expect him to give in, but found that he'd gone totally pale. He told them everything they needed to know. Cal handed the firearm to the teacher for protection and locked the door for their safety on his way out, glancing over the confused but grateful faces of the students. Like the thug told them, the two others were in a couple other classes. Neither of them expected Cal or Mikaela, and it was easy to take them down, too. This left the leader.

"How did you know the gang has a death sentence for failure?" Cal asked Mikaela as they hurried through the campus to get to the leader before he heard about what was going on and escaped.

"Oh, I totally made that up," Mikaela laughed. "You're right. This outfit does turn me into a hood bitch."

The leader was supposedly in the girls bathroom, which was one of the only empty rooms. Or so everyone thought. Cal moved through the wall to unlock the door from the inside and let Mikaela, but froze when he noticed one of the stall doors were closed as the gang leader paced back and forth in front of it. He stopped and pounded on the door, and a soft squeal came from inside.

"Come out, kid," he growled. "I'll kick the door down. What're you gonna do, flush yourself down the toilet?"

No answer from inside. Cal remembered Mikaela was waiting outside, and quickly went to fiddle with the lock on the door. His hand had barely touched the handle when his oxygen was suddenly cut off by a hand around his throat as the thug grabbed him and threw him back against the wall. He could feel himself reappear when his head bumped against the tile wall, looking up at the thug.

"Did you really think I wouldn't know you were coming for me?" he said, annoyed. "You take down three of my boys, and you thought none of them would tell me? But there's two of you. Where's the other one?"

"Don't worry about it," Cal grumbled.

He was unsure of how the man was even able to touch him while he was invisible. He must have let his guard down a little too much. Mikaela must've heard the thud of Cal hitting the wall, because he saw the doorknob move, like she was desperately trying to get it open. Cal glanced back to find the barrel of a gun in his face.

"Girlfriend can't snatch this now, huh?" he smirked.

Just as he began to squeeze the trigger, Cal shut his eyes tightly and flashed behind him, still on the ground. He kicked out his leg and knocked the man off his feet. He tried taking the gun out of his hand, but ended up wrestling for it, as the girl who'd been hiding in the bathroom stall opened it and poked her head out. Cal gritted his teeth as the massive guy rolled on top of him and pinned him down, still trying to get control of the gun.

"Get off him!"

The man's head snapped up just as a knee collided with his chin, knocking him back with a cringe-worthy cracking sound. Cal scrambled to his feet and saw Mikaela standing there, glaring at him.

"How'd you get in?" he asked.

"I heard a damsel in distress so I picked the lock," she said, tucking a pin back into her hair. "And I'm not talking about the trembling freshman in the corner."

The girl who'd been held hostage in the girls bathroom was shaking violently in fear, not sure what to do until Mikaela nodded towards the open door. As the thug slowly processed what happened, she ran out the door to safety.

"You two twerps..."

The thug started towards them like he was going to attack, then suddenly broke into a run and barreled through both of them, out the door. Cal and Mikaela started to chase, but saw four police officers chase him and tackle him to the ground. Cal grabbed Mikaela's hand to stop her, fading them both out of visibility and taking her the other way.

"They can handle the rest on their own," he whispered as they snuck out.

They ran back to Cal's car as fast as they could to change into regular clothes before anyone saw them. Mikaela settled into the passenger seat next to Cal as he pulled his shirt back over his head, leaning over to give him a quick kiss. She frowned when she pulled away and touched his forehead, where a bit of blood was trickling down from his hairline.

"Cal, you're bleeding," she said.

Cal just mumbled an "it's fine", a throbbing pain in his head distracting him. Mikaela furrowed her brown and shook her head, pulling his hand away when he tried to touch it.

"No, you're not fine," she said. "Did you hit your head?"

"Yeah, I just bumped it when he shoved me into the wall," he mumbled. "I'm fine, it doesn't even hurt. It'll bruise a little, at the most."

"Cal, I should drive," Mikaela said.

"No, I'm fine," he repeated.

"It wasn't a suggestion," Mikaela said sternly. "Switch seats. I'm driving."

Cal reluctantly switched with her, wincing softly and closing his eyes. He thought they'd be going back to her place, but was surprised to see that Mikaela had driven him to his own house instead.

"Why are we here?" he asked.

"I'm telling Annie you're hurt," Mikaela said. "She doesn't have to know how. Just that you're hurt."

"No, not Annie," Cal frowned. "Mikaela, she'll freak the fuck out."

"Calvin Stuart Bennet, what on earth have you done to yourself this time?!"

Cal and Mikaela looked to the front door and saw that Annie was already there, having seen them pull into the driveway. Per usual, no one was home and she was in charge of house-sitting.

"He tripped and hit his head," Mikaela lied smoothly.

Annie rushed over to help Cal inside, despite his protests. She sat him down at the kitchen table and rushed to get supplies to clean up the blood. Mikaela sat down by him, giving him a smug half smile in return of his annoyed glare.

"Does your head hurt?" Annie asked him.

"No," Cal lied.

"Yes," Mikaela answered for him. "He could barely sit in one place without swaying. I drove him here because I knew he couldn't handle being behind the wheel."

Annie nodded, believing Mikaela over Cal. After inspecting him a little bit, she sighed.

"Well, kid, you've managed to give yourself a little concussion," she said.

"You're overreacting," Cal said, though the way he acted suggested otherwise.

"No, she's not," Mikaela pressed. "You fell pretty hard, Cal. Almost like someone threw you to the ground or something."

"Get in bed," Annie demanded. "No tv, no texting, no video games, no computer, nothing. Just stare at the ceiling and think about what a clumsy idiot you are."

"Yes ma'am," Cal grumbled, sliding out of his chair and starting upstairs with Mikaela.

She gently laid him back on his bed, even though he protested and tried to sit up.

"Mikaela, I'm fine," Cal whined. "I'll stay home for a day and I'll be perfectly fine the next."

"Tomorrow is Saturday," she told him. "You're staying home all weekend. And you're going to let Annie take care of you. Be nice to her."

"You say that like you're leaving," he frowned.

"Yeah, I have to head home," she said, almost reluctantly. "You need to rest, and I'm not letting you do that by being here. I'll be fine. My dad won't be home until tomorrow night. I think I can handle one night on my own. I'll come visit you tomorrow. I'll bring over my homework and we'll do it together. Okay?"

"I can't do homework, I have a concussion," Cal said a little too quickly.

"And now I got you to admit it," Mikaela grinned, leaning down to kiss him. "Find, I'll do it by myself while you sit there next to me and stare at the ceiling like Annie told you to."

Cal rolled his eyes as she stood up and lightly brushed her fingers once through Cal's hair. She started to walk away, but Cal grabbed her hand, pulling her back.

"Don't put yourself in a situation where you'll get hurt, okay?" he said softly.

"I won't."

"I'm serious. Please don't get hurt. And if you think you might, just come here. I'll give you a house key and everything."

"Cal, no one can hurt me anymore. Not with you by my side. It doesn't hurt."

She gave him a bright, reassuring smile before bending down to kiss him again, then left, gently closing Cal's bedroom door behind her.