I'll be experimenting with formats in the coming chapters. I'd love reviews to include how you readers feel about the format, as already done by this anonymous person. But hopefully a fouled up format won't ruin the story. Moving on.
Chapter 2, Proudly Introduced
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History class, room 114, 11:50 AM
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And the bell rings in three… two… one…
"Lunch time!"
Manny Rivera burst out the door with a speed not often seen in his peers. They were all together either too tired, too hungry, or just too apathetic to feel much at this point in the day. But everyone knows that lunch makes things better. Also, it's taco day. And any who dare mock taco day will need to contend with a series of pointy objects mysteriously planted in their spines. Funny how accidents happen. Despite the rules stating otherwise, Manny made the trip to Frida's class up the stream of students all the easier by simply running through them. He'd gotten this down to a science, and not one student was unfortunate enough to get bowled over. Once he reached room 125, he frowned and slumped against the wall; Mr. Malverde had held the class in long again. When Manny first heard that this guys name was Malverde, he thought maybe he could get away with slicing him up and saying that he was confused with the giant hideous monster. Even Frida assured him he wouldn't.
"Come on, Frida," he whispered, "taco day, taco day, taco day! They're gonna' eat all the tacos!"
He stamped his foot in frustration, and almost magically out came the class. Frida was not the first, or even in the first ten. After almost everyone came out, Manny had to wonder why his best friend hadn't followed suit. Peering in, he smothered a laugh; Frida was in trouble, and Mr. Malverde was plastered from shoulder to shoulder with spit balls. Perfect. Four years of public schooling and Ms. Suarez was no different. Maybe that's what made their friendship work… or maybe it was just the mutual love of chaos. Finally, as he really had no evidence, Malverde let her go. Frida mocked him silently as she left the room and saw Manny smiling wide.
"Yeah, it was me," she whispered low, to avoid self-incrimination. "Don't ask how I did it. A master never reveals her secrets."
The two shared their laughter as they made their way down the crowded hall, which had not cleared up at all in the last five minutes, typical of high schools in general. There were cliques talking here, and simpletons idly standing at choke points there, but nothing atypical or violent, just the day to day. The court yard was just as crowded as the halls, a testament to either an inability or an unwillingness to enlarge the school or change the schedule. Once more, nothing special.
"Come on, Frida. Tacos."
He motioned towards the line when she looked at him, and was already on his way to the end of it when Frida returned her gaze to what had caught her attention: Zoe Aves. Just sitting there, glaring at her. For whatever reason, this rivalry between them was just not dying. Frida, personally, could not figure it out. She remembered trying to be civil, just trying to carry on without animosity… but that apparently wasn't enough to curb Zoe's ire. And over the years, it just got worse, and for no real reason. It was annoying, and slightly creepy. She broke the stare when Manny came back and grabbed her wrist, leading her away. This got Zoe's attention, and certainly not in a productive way. Her blood boiled seeing what she saw as a sign of affection. She had long ago forgotten what started this feud, but Zoe Aves knew that her vendetta had not died with the reason. It had taken up a new one, and that new one was Manny. He haunted her, made her weak. And she craved that weakness.
"I hate you… I hate you, Rivera," she muttered openly to herself, knowing nobody had heard her. In her mind, someone had listened, and in fact responded. "I know it's not true… I wish it was."
She slammed her fists onto the table, which got the attention of the two closest tables for a second or so. She couldn't care less, though. Zoe hated just about all of those people anyway. She was also getting hungry. Zoe made it a habit of rushing down here as fast as possible with Diego, and then sending him to get her food. Being an obedient sort of guy, Diego did as he was told, eager to please his mistress. He, at least, didn't care that she said she hated him. It cooled her anger as she thought briefly on how loyal he was, despite her constant raging against him. That cooling sensation was replaced with another flare of anger when he arrived, ignoring his previous orders to bring food, and don't talk.
"Here are your tacos, mi amor."
"What was that?" she scowled and stood, hissing out words laced with poison. She hated that too. The last time someone called her 'mi amor', she ended up getting hurt.
"I, uh… nothing."
"That's right, nothing. Now, sit down, and let me eat in relative peace. I have a lot on my mind."
She sat with her tray, staring down at the food on it. She wasn't eating at all; not because the food looked questionable, not because of an eating disorder, but because she was too busy dwelling on her hurt to do it. Finally, when she felt Diego's eyes on her, she looked up at him and scowled a bit. Not really afraid, he looked away, just because he knew her well enough to know that she wasn't feeling well, and staring was making it worse. Diego looked at her again when he heard the crunch of old taco shell. After a moment, he decided to make conversation.
"You know, there aren't rumors that they're going out together anymore. We could, I dunno, make a move."
She just chewed on the taco meat, thinking on her own bitterness. She hated her bitterness most of all. It was so debilitating, and sometimes it got so bad that she could swear to smelling it. And she did not enjoy smelling nothing but poison of her own making all day long. Sometimes she cried… often until she fell asleep. Zoe never did that in front of Diego. Surely he would think less of her, just like everybody else, if he ever found out.
"Nah. It wouldn't work. Manny doesn't like me, anyway," she finally answered, now more saddened by her own thoughts than angry.
"You don't know that. The last time you talked to him you told him you didn't like his boots and ran off," Diego chuckled. He was across the hall that day, and it made him laugh that such a pathetic insult had resulted in Manny Rivera swearing that Zoe Aves would pay dearly. How very good a day that had turned out to be.
"It's not him. It's her!"
In the middle of the line, Frida popped up her head and looked around. Once the tingling sensation had stopped, she moved forward another space in line, giggling as Manny produced one joke after another.
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Miracle City Outskirts, Old Churro Warehouse, 12:00 PM
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M sat at the head of the table, this time barely lit by an overhead lamp. A faint green light filtered down onto him, making his appearance seem more or less appropriate for the grimy locale. Across the table sat several local villains, surveying a map of the city, a blue print, and several sticks of dynamite. He thought the plan was simple. Everyone else present agreed.
"El Oso, Voltura, Dr. Chipotle Sr., you have been selected to carry out this preliminary mission, based upon your skills. Now, I'll go over this one more time," he said with a low voice, standing and pointing first to Voltura. "Voltura, you will spearhead the attack on the mint. Your job is to take out early defenses, distract them, and after they have been removed, you will be the look out."
Next he pointed to El Oso, "You are the muscles. You listen to the other two, and remember your job is to open the safe and carry heavy stuff. That's all. You can't stop to get an ice cream, and you can't have an action phrase."
As El Oso moped about his shattered dream of having an action phrase, the last member of the crew spoke up, eager to show he knew what he was doing. "And I'll have my mutant jalapenos take out the remaining guards and get the money."
"Very good. Now, the others should have the escape route ready in fifteen minutes, and you need to get moving now. So go."
The meeting was adjourned on that note, and the trio left out the front entrance. M sat down, picking out day old blood from under his nails. He had borrowed a nail file from the helpful Ms. Aves shortly before detailing the plan… he'd have to thank her later.
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Rivera Estate, 12:45 PM
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Rodolfo Rivera, Miracle City's great hero, sat back in great comfort as the day proceeded without much care. After crashing the super villain convention last month, crime had been down by ten percent. And that, while a noticeable depression in his work, was an encouraging thought. Upon finishing another of his favorite romance novels, setting aside with a sigh, he flicked on the television, to see that dire news was on every channel.
"If you are just joining us, we are once again in front of the Miracle City mint, where Voltura, El Oso, and Dr. Chipotle Sr. have all been sighted robbing the vault and holding the guards and workers hostage. White Pantera, we need you now!"
"… What? All three of them? No matter! White Pantera!"
One torn suit and a broken wall later, famed hero White Pantera crashed down on the street and beat a heated path to the mint. He landed next to Chief Suarez with a deep thud, forming tiny cracks in the pavement.
"It's about time, Pantera. We need you to get inside and put an end to this. They've had ten minutes to empty the vault."
Pantera laughed, "No worries, Chief. I'll have them beaten in no-" He was interrupted by Voltura flying over head, as well as the unexpected dropping of a bundle of TNT strapped to a primitive timer directly in front of the police car blockade. White Pantera rushed to move all of the officers away before the five seconds remaining on the clock ran out. The explosion caused massive damage, destroying all of the cars and devastating the street. Today was going to be expensive.
Voltura's partners took that as their cue to hurry up. Chipotle marched his squad of mutant peppers back onto the courtyard, where Voltura hovered over head, keeping White Pantera at a distant with countless bursts of lasers. When El Oso joined them, gold bars in each arm, she smiled and picked a radio transmitter off her belt.
"We've got it. Get us out of here!"
Pantera leaped forward, landing in the courtyard, but was blinded by a sudden explosion. The controlled blast encircled the villains, and in moments the ground underfoot gave way. They sank into the earth, disappearing from view. Looking up, Pantera saw his nemesis staring down at him, smirking.
"Too slow again, Pantera!"
He growled through gritted teeth as she flew off into the city. There was no way he'd be able to catch all of them. So he decided to go after Oso and Chipotle. With a strong leap he jumped down after them into the hole. He landed only a second later; it wasn't deep at all. They dug out a pit under the courtyard. Now this didn't make sense… Dr. Chipotle was well known to plot things like this out, and even better known to employ thugs to help make the work easier. But why would Voltura help them with this? The Flock of Fury didn't help anybody. White Pantera jumped down from the rubble and made his way into the tunnel, where he ran into the waiting El Oso. Knocked to his back, the Rivera was helpless, if only momentarily so. El Oso opted to spend that moment mocking the hero.
"Wow, good to see you're still good on your feet, Pantera."
"El Oso! Return the stolen goods!" Pantera sprang up and pointed straight at the heart of the villain. "If you do, I won't have to hurt you."
"You know, I'm usually the one who does the hurting, man!" And to illustrate that point, Pantera was knocked head first back into the rubble. El Oso took that time to retreat, knowing that his job here was done. White Pantera would take too long to recover, pulling up out of the rubble when Chief Suarez called down to him. That was a miserable attempt to stop villainy.
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Rivera Estate, 3:36 PM
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Manny and Frida came through the door laughing, not yet having heard about the epic failure that White Pantera had endured just hours ago. Manny saw his father moping in his favorite chair, watching the news.
"… and so, despite his valiant effort, White Pantera was unable to stop the evil trio from making off with millions of pesos and several hundred pounds of gold. When combined with the total damages from the fight-"
Manny had taken the remote and turned the bad news off. There was silence for a moment… and then the son took to consoling the father.
"So, what happened?"
Rodolfo sighed, "I'm just getting too old for this, Manny. I used to be able to stop things like this from happening. Why, it seems like just yesterday that I saved the mayor's house from getting robbed by the Rock Monster."
"… Dad, the Rock Monster doesn't rob anything. It doesn't even move. It only rolled into Rodriguez's house because of that earthquake."
"You know what I mean. I can't believe I let the mint get robbed…"
Manny hugged his father tightly, hoping to crush out the despair that clung to him. "You're not old dad. You'll get 'em next time. Now, me and Frida are gonna' go chuck things off a bridge. See ya' later!"
"Ah, that's nice Manny. See you later."
It was only after sitting quietly for five minutes after the teenaged trouble-makers left that it occurred to him what had just been said. He stood fast shouting his son's many names when it did, though nothing happened to stop the mischief from being made.