Broken Hero

Chapter 16

Eclipse storms back to the office, dropping heavily into her chair. She knew the others would have a hard time trusting her, especially when she wasn’t as sociable as the others. However, it had been three weeks already, and she had thought that, at the very least, they would stop avoiding her. The guards weren’t as nasty as before, but they didn’t respect her either. The civilians weren’t much better. It didn’t matter what she did, or didn’t do. The second she showed up, people would scatter. She was starting to regret her time as a villain.

Her computer boots up quickly, and she opens their tracking system, checking each team member's location. Their watches were built with a type of GPS that gave her a general read on everyone's location. It wasn’t perfect, but it did help when someone was in danger. They could also send an SOS when needed.

Warfalcon was with the fire team downtown in the residential area where an apartment complex had caught fire. He’d taken longer than normal, so she was starting to get worried, especially if that fire spread. Her earpiece chirps as she watches the screen.

She presses the button to answer. “Stronggirl here.”

Warfalcon’s panicked voice came over the line. “Oh, thank the gods you answered. We’re struggling to get these flames under control. The fire is too hot for me to enter the building, and there’s a missing little girl. Her father has a study that was built to withstand fire. It’s possible she went there to hide, but the building is unstable.”

“I’m on my way to help.” Eclipse jumps up as he sighs in relief.

She uses her shadow to slip into the shadow realm and hurries towards Warfalcon’s location. The shadows around her jump to do her bidding, gathering intel from the fire and bringing it back to her. The girl had hidden in her father’s study, but the room was starting to fill with black smoke, and the surrounding building was unstable.

She slows down as she steps out of the shadow realm, making sure Warfalcon sees her before moving towards the door. A woman was screaming, begging for them to find her baby. Others were trying to get pictures of the heroes fighting the fire, and first responders were working with the heroes to keep the crowd out of danger. She could see Anna calming down a hysterical woman in the crowd, who was probably a resident who had just lost her home. Some of the heroes move out of her way as they notice her, and she can hear the whispers from bystanders.

The fire felt hot on her thick skin, but it wasn’t hot enough to break through her resistance. She picks up her pace, diving through the entrance and making her way through the flames. Thankfully, the little girl was on the first floor, but she still had to navigate the debris as more fell from above her. The door to the study broke easily, but it scared the little girl hiding on the other side. She looks about nine years old and has blonde hair that was dirty with black ash.

“Hey, kiddo, we need to get out of here.” Eclipse holds her hand out, but the girl backs away.

She sighs, looking around as she bites her lip. The fire was spreading quickly, but she couldn’t force the kid to let her help. That would cause more problems than it would fix.

She takes a deep breath and sits down. “Yeah, I know. I'm scary, aren’t I?” She gives the kid a soft smile as they watch her warily. “But I promise, I’ll get you out of here. I just need you to trust me, OK? I won’t leave without you, and I won’t let you get hurt.”

The girl hesitates but finally nods, climbing into her lap and wrapping her arms around Eclipse’s neck. Eclipse sighs in relief, removing her cape from around her waist and wrapping it around the little girl's body, thankful for fireproof material.

“Alright, let’s get out of here.” She holds the girl’s head close to her chest, covering her mouth and nose so she doesn’t breathe in the smoke.

They make their way through the flames, the path being more dangerous than before. Eclipse could hear the building around them creak and whine. The entrance loomed ahead of her, but the relief of seeing the sunlight was short-lived as she looked up. She realizes too late that the ceiling is about to collapse. Using her body to shield the girl, she braces herself as the building begins to collapse around her.

She coughs as the dust fills her lungs, her arms shaking as she holds the debris on her back to prevent it from crushing the scared girl under her. Her head spins as she looks around, trying to gauge the situation. She was severely dehydrated from the fire, so her healing factor wasn’t kicking in completely. Blood drips down her forehead from where a beam had hit her. From what she could tell, the little girl was unharmed save for a few scratches. She stayed curled under Eclipse, her body shivering in fear.

“It’s OK. We’ll get out of this.” Eclipse smiles at her weakly as the girl nods, burying her head in Eclipse’s chest.

The rubble moves above them, and sunlight streams down, blinding her for a second.

“I found her!” A voice she didn’t recognize yells out, probably a first responder.

More rubble was removed, and then the sound of skittering stones as someone made their way down. Eclipse recognizes the hero from their rescue team.

“Aegis, get the girl.” He looks stunned but nods and reaches for her.

The girl flinches, moving away from him and pressing tighter against her.

“It's OK. He’s a good guy.” She gave her a small smile as she looked up at her.

The girl nods slowly and crawls over to Aegis. Eclipse sighs in relief as he climbs out with her on his back. She took another look at her surroundings, biting her lip. If she moves, then the surrounding rubble will shift and bury her even further. Warfalcon would probably come to help, but she couldn’t depend on anyone else to help. The sounds of stones skittering make her look up in surprise as Aegis comes back down with Quartz, a female hero.

“Don’t look too surprised.” He chuckles.

“Sorry, you just weren’t the ones I expected to help me out.” She lets out a slight laugh.

He rubs his neck as the two look at each other. “Yeah... I think we all misjudged you. Let’s get you out.”

Quartz raises her hands, and Eclipse feels the weight lift from her back. Aegis grabs her arm and pulls her out.

“Thanks, but if you set that down, this is all going to come down on us.” She looks around before pointing at a thick stone. “That one doesn’t have any weight on it. You can use it to hold up the debris.”

Aegis nods and lets her sit down while he grabs the stone and slides it under the debris. They all hold their breath as Quartz sets it down, letting it out as the stone holds. Aegis slides her arm over his shoulder and helps her up, slowly climbing back up. Warfalcon reaches out and takes her hand to help her out before doing the same for the other two. Cheers from the crowd erupt around them. She slides down the rubble, stumbling as she lands on the ground. Anna appears out of nowhere, helping her regain her balance.

“Thanks.” She smiles slightly as Anna helps her to the grass to sit down.

Her body automatically soaks up the surrounding water, giving her healing factor a boost as Anna looks at her in concern. “Are you OK?”

“Yeah, I’m OK. Just a bit dizzy from lack of water.” Her breath comes out as black smoke.

Anna doesn’t look convinced. “You’re breathing back smoke and unable to stand on your own. That doesn’t sound like you’re OK.”

“My lungs are getting rid of the smoke I inhaled, and I’m dehydrated. You’re getting bolder.” Eclipse observes.

Anna walks away for a second and comes back with a bottle of water as well as her cape. “The little girl wanted me to get it back to you. She’s been talking the paramedic’s ears off about the tall, scary hero who saved her life.”

Eclipse chuckles as she takes them. “Thanks. I’m just glad she’s OK.”

“Yeah... you had all of us scared for a moment, you know. Well... Warfalcon and I, at least. The others were more worried about the kid.” Anna sat beside her. “Warfalcon was going to go nuts trying to find you. He almost jumped in once Aegis came back, but Aegis insisted on being the one to go after you. Which surprised all of us, but he said that he saw how you had kept the kid safe and felt bad for how everyone treated you. Guess it was his way of making it right.”

Eclipse drains the water bottle before speaking. “It surprised me, too, honestly.”

They both fall quiet, Anna looking thoughtfully at the ground. Warfalcon whistles, signaling everyone to head back towards the academy. “Are you able to stand?” Anna holds out a hand.

Eclipse nods as Anna helps her up. “Thanks again for the help.”

“You’re welcome.” Anna smiles sheepishly as she follows Eclipse back.