The stories that really mattered
Kaz and Oliver were running for their lives.
The world had fallen into chaos. Most heroes were killed or missing during the big break-out and everything that followed. Most villains were walking around freely, robbing and killing as they please. Normos were running everywhere, not knowing why those criminals dressed up like villains would target them, wondering how those criminals could replicate the villains' powers so well. The small population of people with powers tried to stop the villains, as they know of the secret, but most of them have useless powers and are taken care of easily.
And then you have Kaz Gordon and Oliver Pyne, the only hope this world has for survival.
They had taken shelter in the Domain. No villain knew of this place, so this was the best hiding place for now. They needed to focus, to think of a plan and to stop the villains.
"Okay, we'll be safe here." Oliver said, locking the door behind him. When he turned around, he noticed Kaz' hands were on fire. "Kaz, your hands!"
"Yeah, I've noticed." Kaz said dryly, " Seriously, how did Solar Flare control these powers?" Oliver shrugged. Both he and Kaz knew Solar Flare's powers could be controlled with concentration. With that in mind, he was possibly the worst person to give the torch to.
They never asked for powers. And yet they were given powers. Solar Flare, dying because of the Impaler, passed down the torch to Kaz, the person closest to her. he had been blessed with the power of fire. Oliver, on the other side, had little help while fighting. He had helped Captain Freedom until his death. He had given Oliver his amulet of power, so Oliver could take over the fighting. Oliver now had access to battle strategies and he could read other people's minds.
Kaz concentrated and the flames died out. "I hate it when that happens." He muttered under his breath, and then he turned to Oliver. "So, what's the plan. You're the strategist."
Oliver thought about this for a while before he gave an answer. "We stay here."
Kaz frowned. This was strange. Oliver had guided them through the masses of villains and now, he suggested to stay out of the fight. He folded his arms. Why would Oliver want to stay here? Because this couldn't be a strategy! A strategy was used as a battle plan, not used to surrender to the villains.
"Stay here? Why? For tactical reasons? Home field advantage?"
"No, because we can't win this." Kaz' mouth fell open. Off course they could win this.
"Off course we can win this, Oliver! I mean, we're practically Captain Freedom and Solar Flare! Well, a male Solar Flare. Why can't we win this battle?" Oliver shook his head. Kaz just didn't understand the current situation. As far as he knew, the two of them were the only 'heroes' left to fight the mass of villains running around freely in Philadelphia.
"I'm not talking about our next battle. I'm talking about us against all villains, about all battles. We can't win them all. But we have to win, or else we die and then it's over. If we stay here, we have most chance to survive the attack. And the chance to die in the battle is 12 per cent. If we stay here, I estimate our chance of survival around the 35 per cent."
"Those are low numbers." Kaz noticed, "why not take our chances?"
"Didn't you listen?" Oliver almost shouted, "If we take one step out of that door, we can die!" A silence followed. Kaz had no idea what to say, but Oliver did listen to what Kaz was thinking. Not that he had much choice – he had no control of this new power. In the meantime, he thought of this morning. This morning had started to so peacefully, like today was just a normal day.
No, it wasn't. today was just the beginning of something terrible. Ten hours ago, the first villains had found their way to the streets. Eight hours ago, Kaz received the powers of Solar Flare and no ten minutes later, Oliver was blessed with Captain Freedom's powers.
"I don't know what you're thinking, but we need to keep going." Kaz said. "we're the world's last hope. We can't turn back now. we have no choice."
"And why do we have no choice?" Oliver wanted to know, folding his arms. Kaz immediately answered, without hesitation. Because of his thoughts, Oliver knew what would follow – and he didn't like it, because Kaz has said this three times today already!
"We need to keep going, because we're heroes now; it's just like in the great stories. You know, the ones that really mattered, like comic book stories."
"No, please, not again."
"Full of darkness and danger they were. Sometimes you didn't want to know the end, because how could the end be happy?"
"Would you cut it out?"
"How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened?"
"Are you even listening to me?
"But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines it'll shine out the clearer."
"Why do I even bother trying to stop you? you're just going to quote it until it's done."
"Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something, even if you were too small to understand why."
"Kaz, please, would you stop!?"
"But I think I understand. I know now. People in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. Because they were holding on to something."
There was a silence. Oliver shook his head. This was the fourth time today Kaz was quoting Sam's speech from the second Lord of the Rings movie. And it was getting annoying. Every time Oliver had wanted to give up today, Kaz had used the speech to convince Oliver to come with him, to fight the villains or to make sure he would at least try to fight the villains. He knew what Kaz was waiting for.
"Still not gonna ask you that question." Oliver said, and Kaz sighed annoyed.
"You're ruining the moment!"
"There never was a moment," Oliver pointed out, "you just tried to be dramatic." Olive had accidentally read Kaz' mind and now knew another goal of quoting Sam was to sound dramatic in times where people should be serious than dramatic.
"I was trying to create a moment."
"Well, it didn't work." Kaz bit his lip and sighed.
"Then I'll do it myself. What are we holding on to?" he said the question, imitating Oliver's voice, "Good question, Oliver. We're holding on to the fact that there's some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for."
Oliver nodded. Now Kaz had said it, he probably felt better. And Kaz did feel better, he discovered by reading his best friend's mind accidentally again. He wished he knew how to block that power, so he could stop invading his best friend's mind. He didn't like knowing what was going on in Kaz' head, not with this way.
The ground under their feet trembled. There hadn't been such earthquakes since their first adventure in Mighty Med with Tecton… oh. They friends stayed down until the earthquakes stopped half an hour later. The items in the store were ruined, and all weapons Wallace and Clyde hid in here were broken. So much for extra weapons. Kaz and Oliver crawled back up.
"Are you okay, Kaz?"
"Yeah. And you?"
"I'm fine." They looked around and then back at each other. Oliver heard Kaz' thoughts. I can't believe Tecton's gone. He can't be gone! We need him! Oliver knows it, too, we don't stand a chance without him. Oliver nodded, having made up his mind.
"We do stand a chance without him." Kaz looked up. "It's a twelve per cent, but it still is a chance, even if it's small." Kaz stared at Oliver for a couple of seconds, looking at him accusingly.
"Stay out of my mind!" Oliver put his hands in the air.
"You can't control your powers, and I can't control mine!" Oliver used as an argument. Then, he looked at the door. The glass was broken, leaving a huge gap in it. People could have just heard them yell. But now, they could also hear the distress calls from those in the neighborhood. Oliver looked at Kaz.
"We have a small chance to win. There's a high chance we can die. Do you wanna do this." Kaz smiled.
"You had me at 'small chance to win'."
And the two friends left the Domain, with powers they could barely control and a small chance of victory. But they were going to fight for the good that still was around here, somewhere. And that little bit of good in the world was definitely something worth fighting for.
"But seriously, try to stay out of my head."
"I'm trying."
Hey there, guys! This will stay a one-shot, so there will be no second part. I really like Sam's speech from the second Lord of the Rings movie (which I do not own) and I was inspired to do a one-shot with this speech. I have also written a Lab Rats one-shot with this speech, so if you have time or just want to read it, you can find it in the Lab Rats archive with the name "Sam's speech". I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I liked writing it. See you next time!
-Writer207