Hello, hello.

Here is Chapter 20! Finally.

Hope you guys enjoy it.

The song is a song by Tegan and Sara called "I'm Not Your Hero"

Also look in the author's notes for Chapter 21's hint as well as some new information!

Disclaimers: I own not a thing. Except my ideas.

Standing where I am now, standing up at all
I was used to feeling like I was never gonna see myself at the finish line

She watched the city from the tallest building she could find, draping her legs casually over the side and staring off into the distance. Everything seemed peaceful, a change of pace from the hustle and bustle that it was usually in. She ran a hand through her hair, pulling it out of the tight ponytail and letting it fall against her shoulders.

She was chosen. It was taking some time to get used to. She was chosen, by some being above, whoever decided to give her these responsibilities to protect them, the city below her from the dangers of everyday life. Hillwood's resident superhero. Their number one crime fighter. She had been working the angle of Masked Storm for too long. She hated the name, she hated the tight costume, she hated the mask, but for some odd reason, she knew she wasn't going to be let off easily.

Hanging on to parts of me, hanging on at all

She used to be normal. A normal 21 year old girl who was just about to start her senior year of college. Well, maybe not all that normal. Her parents still didn't know she existed, she had a part-time job at a coffee shop to pay for the things she needed, her sister was still perfect. She had issues. More issues than she could fair to count. But her life changed.

She had decided to help some old man find his stupid ring in the park. He begged and pleaded and she caved, searching for hours upon end until she found a gold ring with a pink gem in the middle. Questioning why an old man would wear a ring with a pink gem in it, she attempted to search for the old man, before realizing that he had completely vanished. She had turned the ring over in her hand before putting it on. She should have never put that ring on.

The one time she decided to be nice, led to her being the way she was now. A pink spandex covered freak with amazing superpowers and the need to have more identities than she needed. Two identities wasn't all that bad, three was pushing it.

Three different Helgas. The faithful best friend, the hardworking and ignored daughter, and a superhero with super-strength and speed.

I was used to seeing no future in my sight line

There was something that was constantly blocking her mind. The fact that she could never get away from the place that has constantly tormented her, from the people that she had casted away. She needed to protect them, this place that she wanted to see destroyed from the ground up. But when she stared down at that ring, she knew that she couldn't.

There was no other potential to a future beside this. With all the secret identities that she had, she couldn't mask all of them from people. If she got exceptionally close to anyone, they were in danger. She realized that sooner rather than later, she would have to abandon everything that made her Helga G. Pataki and fully embrace the identity of the Masked Storm. Whether she wanted to or not.

Sometimes it feels like they wanna remind me
Send all those villains after me

She lifted herself from the edge of the building and heard a scream from below and the mad rush of people running in the opposite direction. She cursed silently, put her hair back up and the mask over her eyes and dove into the middle of the street, staring up at giant mutant…was that a…crap.

She hated rats.

And there was a giant mutant rat running rampant throughout the city with a tiny man screaming on top of it about taking over the city, same old, same old. But she stared into the eyes of the rats and tried not to scream herself.

But she jumped up there to take the man out before the rat decided to bite her and completely kill her. She dodged and ducked and punched and kicked. Normal superhero maneuvers she had learned from the countless amount of hours she had spent in the arcade when she was younger and attempts to avoid her house. But she fought it and she won. All of them were grateful in the end, she knew that. But it wasn't enough to know that no one really knew who she was. The curse of being a superhero.

She just wanted to scream from the rooftops that she was the Masked Storm… and that she didn't want this anymore.

I'm not their hero
But that doesn't mean that I wasn't brave

She slid to the ground and gripped her knees, putting her head in between her knees. Holding back the tears that she wished that she could cry. Until she heard the footsteps behind her. Part of her wishing that she couldn't hear them and continue to block out the rest of the world, but she felt her fists clench up and she knew. She knew something, someone, was there and was almost certain that anyone trying to sneak up on her wasn't good. She lifted her head from her knees as the footsteps got louder before she flipped around and grabbed the figure around the throat, squeezing tightly. It wheezed before it gasped out.

"I'm not here to kill you!"

She looked at the notebook by his feet. She had determined by the adam's apple moving against her arm and the panicked deep breaths he was giving. She let go before walking away.

"You're still not welcome up here."

She turned back to the skyline.

"I was hoping for an interview. For the Hillwood Gazette."

"I don't do paparazzi."

"I don't have a camera, just this notepad. No audio recorders either."

"I don't do press. No interviews, no nothing." She hissed.

"It would only…"

"You're just going to be persistent on this, aren't you?"

"It'll be my big break. To get the story behind the Masked Storm."

"Big break? So you're new at this. Figures." She huffed.

He rubbed his neck. It was then that she actually noticed the boy standing at the other end of the platform. Blond hair sticking out underneath a Hillwood Jets ball-cap. He was fairly muscular, a guy who obviously paid attention to the way his body looked. He wore a faded blue button down and jeans, converse on his feet.

"How old are you anyway?"

"I'm 22."

Too young for his first break. Especially with the Gazette. A newspaper with rich hotshots attempting to run a business, rather than create actual news.

"What makes me think I can trust you?"

"I didn't expect you to."

"Then why are you even here."

"I was hoping to try to."

I never walked the party line
Doesn't mean that I was never afraid

"Why me?"

"Why not? You came out of nowhere! You've saved the city countless times and never said a word to anyone. I had to follow rumors to figure out where you were hiding. Might I say though, the old FTI building was a pretty good spot."

She fought the urge to smile at him.

"I'm not that interesting."

"I doubt that."

"I'm not going to tell you who I am."

"I know. Some secrets need to be kept secret."

"No, I mean. I'm not going to tell you who I am."

He paused.

"Why?"

"I'm not much. And besides…"

"You still don't trust me. I know."

She turned away from him and sat against one of the large columns. The sun was setting into different shades of gold and pink, the bright orange looking sun in the middle of it. It was beautiful.

"What if I told you everything about me?"

She looked back at him. There was a desperate look in his eyes.

"Why should I…"

"Care? Look, you're the most interesting thing in this town. My bosses might not think so, but when a superhero comes out of nowhere and saves the city countless numbers of times and doesn't bother to ask for anything in return. It's something that the city has never seen before."

"I'm no hero…"

I'm not your hero
But that doesn't mean we're not one and the same

"Of course you are! You saved…"

"I know who I saved."

"You saved me."

She turned to look at him.

"I was mugged not too long ago. Big guys, I didn't see it coming. But you saved my life. I almost died. I was on my way home after one of my night classes; I'm a teacher's assistant for a journalism class at Hillwood University. They kept kicking and kicking and I couldn't feel anything after a while. You came out of nowhere and I passed out as I watched you fight those guys. You manage to take me to the hospital, I woke up and you were gone."

"It was nothing…"

"I made it my life to write about how you saved my life and countless others."

He walked over and sat beside her as she pushed herself away from him.

"I'm not a hero. I'm not YOUR hero. Their Hero. Anyone's hero."

"Why say that?"

"I just…I was just like you before. "

"You were?"

"What's it like? Being normal?"

"It's not that great. I'd rather be super than normal."

"Being super isn't all its cracked up to be. They didn't care then, they don't care now."

Sometimes it feels like the side that I'm on
Plays the toughest hand, holds the longest stand

"So what about you, a journalist…why a career like that?"

"I've always been into writing. My father kept a journal of his adventures. He and my mother were doctors, they'd travel to help sick people and the last trip they went on, they never came back. But I found my father's journal in the attic of our house and I read it. My grandfather suggested that maybe I kept one too. So I did. It all went from there."

"You haven't always lived here, have you?"

"No. Just moved here for the job."

"What else?"

"My best friend and his wife live here and I live with them. He's a music teacher, she's a scientist. They met freshman year and then he transferred from NYU to be with her in Hillwood. I'm living with them til I can stand on my own two feet."

"You really love writing that much?"

"I do. I get you don't trust it. I heard the reputation the Gazette has. But maybe this could change all that. Maybe you could change all that."

"I doubt it."

Sometimes it feels like I'm all that they've got
It's so hard to know I'm not what they want

"If they knew you…"

"If they knew me, they would label as a freak, not a hero. Don't you get it? Once they find me out, I'm labeled as a psychopath. They don't want a superhero here. They want someone they can know exists."

"You exist."

"Yeah, who wants to believe that a superhero exists when there isn't anyone else around. Superheroes are meant for the comic books."

"Who wants to deal with reality, when they can have something out of the ordinary."

"Only you want that."

"You're all they got."

I'm not their hero

But that doesn't mean that I wasn't brave

He got up, took the baseball cap off his head and ran his fingers through his hair before returning it to his head.

"It's getting dark. The city isn't safe at night."

"I think I'll be okay."

"You really don't want me saving you again."

"Maybe I do."

I'm not your hero
But that doesn't mean we're not one and the same

He smiled before walking away from her, leaving her in a complete daze before she pulled the tight ponytail out again and put the band around her wrist.

"You really want to know what your hero is all about?"

He turned back to her.

"More than anything."

"Cross me, and I will kill you."

"I promise I won't."

She hesitated.

"Meet me tomorrow. 3pm. Don't be late."

"A journalist is never late."

"I don't trust the press."

"You don't trust anyone."

"I see no reason too."

"You can trust me."

"3pm."

"3pm."

He walked down the steps of the building before she decided to take the mask off and stare at her reflection in the windows of the abandoned building.

I do my best to walk the finest line
Till I've had all that I can take

"Man I am going to regret this."

Author's Notes

Hope you guys liked Chapter 20! Here's Chapter 21's hint:

"She said she saw me on TV, this girl's a legend in the late night scene, and you could tell she aimed to please, cause she just wouldn't take her eyes off me..."

I'll warn you now, Chapter 21 will finally earn that T rating. Maybe. Most likely yes though, depends on how I write it.

In other news:

My junior year of college is almost ending, which means summer. Which means more time for me to write! Yay! Which means faster Songs of Hillwood updates, and the unveiling of Fighter! Whoot! I'll let you guys know when Fighter is going to be going up on my Tumblr. Speaking of which...

I have made a Tumblr. On that tumblr I shall be posting Songs of Hillwood chapters as well as previews of incoming chapters and stories, including stories like Fighter and possibly Mission Forever. Hmmmm... but I will also be putting up other stories that aren't necessarily Hey Arnold stories,but still considered fanfiction. So if you like my writing, come and check me out at

.com.

Thanks for reading and I hope to update soon.