Hero Unknown
Chapter 3
SAM: Yo readers! Welcome to the longest chapter so far, CHAPTER 3!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, this is a pretty long chapter. At least it's not 16 Word document pages. Only 9. Yay…so. What is Manny going to do about La Loba? How will anyone keep him focused long enough to get a straight answer from him? Why's he turning into even more of a space cadet than before? Lettuce find out. ONWARD!!!!
"Mr. Rivera!" Manny came out of his little daydream.
"Huh?" His geography teacher looked at him with a (No other way to describe) very pissed expression.
"I said, do you know which continent this is?" She said pointing at her globe. Her finger rested at the northern bit of Africa. Manny screwed up his face in concentration.
"Egypt?" The class failed to stifle their snickers as the teacher went from pissed to shocked.
"Not exactly, but you are very close Mr. Rivera. This continent is Africa. But yes, Egypt is there at this exact location." Manny smiled happily and the teacher went back to her lecture about deserts and sand mountains in the area. Manny redirected his attention back to staring out the window and thinking about her. La Loba. Her beautiful voice, her beautiful features; she was perfect inside and out.
The bell rang and Manny started gathering his pencil and notebook as the teacher assigned them their homework he probably wouldn't do. He wrote it down anyway and walked out and headed towards his locker.
"Hey Frida, what's up?" Manny said as Frida leaned up against the lockers next to him.
"Eh, nothin' much. How 'bout you?" Frida smiled and looked straight into his eyes. Manny stared straight back and his mind went blank. All he could think about at that moment was her eyes. They were so incredibly blue; it almost hurt him to see how beautiful they were.
"Manny." Manny snapped out of his trance and finally got sense back.
"What?" Frida laughed a little and smiled again.
"I said, what's up with you?" Manny smiled a little.
"Not much. Wanna hit the arcade again after school?" Frida's smile vanished faster than Manny could turn into El Tigre.
"I really wish I could, but I can't my dad said I had to be home right after school today. I need to get a few things done." Frida said. Manny sighed.
"Ok then. Maybe tomorrow or something." Frida looked away and smiled nervously as she pulled some loose hair out of her face.
"Yeah, tomorrow. I don't know Manny; my dad has a lot planned for me. I'm probably going to be really busy soon…" Frida looked down ashamed. Manny looked sadly at her as he shut his locker. He leaned up against his own right next to her.
"Well then, we'll just have to make something work." Many said. Frida looked up at him with a small smile.
"I think I can twist a few things around." Manny smiled widely. The bell rang and that was the end of the school day.
…………..What's gonna happen??????????O.O……………………………………………………………………………………….....
Manny and Frida walked out of the school together as always when Frida saw her father drive by with his sirens flashing. Dr. Chipotle Senior had robbed the casino and was trying to make a break for it.
"I should probably help out…" Manny said. He put his backpack on the ground and twirled his belt buckle around. He ran off after Dr. Chipotle Senior and the police cars leaving Frida standing alone.
"Gosh, I hope nothing too bad happens…but I'll find out…" Frida said to herself. And she dropped her backpack too. She ran off after Manny, the police, and Dr. Chipotle.
"Stop Dr. Chimichanga! There's nothing you can do now to get away!" Manny yelled as he got in the path of Dr. Chipotle Senior.
"CHIPOTLE!!! And Dr. Chipotle Senior thinks not! Dr. Chipotle Senior has…WEAPONRY!" he yelled and pulled out a giant ray gun.
"WHAT!?!" Manny yelled. Dr Chipotle laughed wildly and shot the ray gun at Manny. It hit his arm and Manny's arm was immediately glued to the ground with…nacho cheese.
"Cheese? Really? Is that really all you could think of?" Manny asked lamely. Dr Chipotle looked nervously from side to side and found his confidence again.
"Well, it was all that was really around to think about. And I was hungry. Either way, YOU WILL NEVER ESCAPE!!!" He yelled and shot the ray gun again, this time encasing Manny's feet in the sticky cheese. Manny pulled as hard as he possibly could, but he couldn't break free. Manny looked up and actually became worried that he might just die from lack of air if Dr. Chipotle encased his head in the cheese. Manny looked around wildly for help, but all he really could see was the police. Like they were any help.
Out of the corner of his eye, Manny saw a small shadow appear on top of a building. He squinted his eyes and saw a bushy tail and dog ears coming from the small figure. Manny smiled.
"La Loba." He whispered. Dr Chipotle Senior paused from shooting El Tigre and looked up in the direction of Manny's line of vision.
"What are you-"Dr Chipotle started as he turned around. He couldn't make out the figure and began squinting. The police including Frida's father looked up at the figure. They all started whispering to each other trying to figure out what it was.
"It looks like a super hero…"
"It can't be El Tigre, he's right over there…"
"Maybe it's White Pantera…"
"No, White Pantera is taller and he doesn't have a tail…"
The police kept arguing with each other as they tried figuring out who it was. Chief Suarez ordered silence and Dr Chipotle focused his attention back to Manny as the figure jumped from view and down into an alley.
"Now El Tigre, it's time to meet your doom!" Dr Chipotle yelled aiming his ray gun back at him. Manny shut his eyes and tried furiously to tug his way out of the cheese. His arm slipped very slightly and Manny tugged harder.
"Need a little help with that?" Manny's eyes flew open and La Loba was standing next to him.
"La Loba! Thank goodness you're here. Wait, where's Frida?" Manny said looking around wildly. He knew her well enough that she would come running to see the action.
"Is that her over there?" La Loba asked pointing. Manny looked in the direction and saw bright red goggles and bright blue underneath them. Manny could've sworn he saw a couple hands moving and he nodded.
"That's probably her. How'd you know?" Manny asked looking up at her.
"I saw the Chief of Police tell her to go behind over there." Manny looked back to the trashcan where he saw Frida hiding behind.
"Um, excuse Dr Chipotle from interrupting but, NOW YOU MUST FACE YOUR DOOM EL TIGRE!!!" Dr Chipotle yelled like a maniac. La Loba stood in front of Manny as he tried to get himself unstuck.
"Loba, what are you doing?" Manny whispered frantically. She turned back and smiled at him.
"Don't worry about it. I like churros, not nacho cheese." Manny looked up at her. La Loba held out her arms and an electric guitar from in her hands.
"Alright Dr. Nacho, I think you need a little time to soothe your mind with a little music!" La Loba said. She strummed her guitar strings fast and hard and sent a massive sound wave to Dr Chipotle. His eye got smaller and he stared straight ahead at the approaching sound wave.
"It's CHIPOT-"Dr. Chipotle started. The sound wave hit him and he was sent flying. "LEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!" he yelled as he finished his sentence. La Loba smiled and nodded at his figure that was slowly becoming smaller and then hit the Miracle City volcano. She looked at the police and she saw Chief Suarez frown.
"Well, we WERE going to bring him to jail, but I guess we can just wait for his next robbery…" He said and the police got back into their cars.
"Who is she Chief?" One of the newer cadets asked.
"That is a new hero. I'm hoping she'll help us…" Chief Suarez said as he watched her and directed the new deputy to his car. The deputy got in his car and everyone started driving away except Chief Suarez.
"La Loba." He said loud enough for her to hear. La Loba looked up from helping Manny with the cheese. "You need to make sure you don't blast the villains away when we are here. Got that?" Chief Suarez looked hard and long into her eyes. La Loba nodded.
"Yes sir. I'm sorry for that." She said softly but loud enough for him to hear. He nodded and got into his car.
"Hey El Tigre, need help?" She said turning back to him. Manny looked up from his pulling. His arm was halfway out, but still had a long way to go. He nodded and rested his arm for a moment. "Ok," she said. "You're going to have to trust me. Do you trust me?" Manny stared hard into her lovingly warm and blue eyes and nodded. He shut his eyes tightly and turned away a little so his arm wouldn't be covered by his body. La Loba held out her arms and a pair of symbols appeared. She smashed them together and the sound wave hardened the cheese. She turned the symbols to black castanets and began playing them. The hardened cheese cracked and shattered. Manny held out his free arm to shield his face and stood up. Even the cheese on his feet was destroyed.
"Thanks." He said. Manny looked up and she was gone. He looked around wildly to see if he could find a retreating figure, but couldn't
"She's like a ninja…" Manny thought out loud. He looked at his arm and saw a few scrapes running down his arm from the shattered cheese. He frowned and turned back to his normal form. "Frida!" he thought at last. He remembered that she was still hiding behind the trashcan for some reason. He ran to the trashcans and saw Frida fast asleep curled up like a dog. Manny smiled as he saw how peaceful and carefree she looked. She smiled a little in her sleep and turned over mumbling something.
"C'mon Frida, wake up…" Manny said shaking her shoulder slightly. Frida's eyes opened slowly and she bolted up.
"AAAH! Whoa, what happened?" Frida said holding her head with her hand.
"You fell asleep." Manny said. Frida laughed.
"At least I stayed awake long enough to see that La Loba chic. She wears a lot of blue doesn't she?" Frida said getting up. Manny nodded and winced a little. He took off half of his jacket and saw his arm bleeding like crazy. Some of the cheese had scraped more than a little bit of his skin. Frida gasped.
"MANNY! We need to get you home or something. What's closer, my house or yours?" Frida said going frantic. Manny held his arm and winced a little more. Frida was running around trying to get her mind to make sense.
"Wait, the police station is closest. Maybe my dad can help. Do you trust me?" Frida asked quickly as she held the top of her head in worry. Manny frowned a little.
"Of course I trust you, why…?" and before he could finish, Frida had scooped him up into her arms and was running down the street to the police station. "FRIDA!" Manny yelled. He was scared he was going to be dropped. Frida didn't exactly have the best stamina in the whole school. But Frida was running at a pretty good speed and her breathing was even. She didn't answer him, but kept moving fast and her eyes focused in front of her trying to get to her destination. Manny didn't believe she could move like this.
"Almost there…" Frida said quietly. Manny heard a small faintness in her voice, like she was running out of steam and consciousness. Manny looked to his side and saw the station about ten feet away. Frida closed the space between them and the doors and they slid open. Chief Suarez looked up from the front desk and saw his daughter running towards him. Manny felt something on his cheek and saw that Frida was silently crying as she carried him. Chief Suarez ran from the desk and closed the space between him and his daughter.
"Frida, mija, give the boy to me. We need to get him to the infirmary stat. RAIMUNDO! Watch the front desk!" A young man saluted him and stood behind the desk as Chief Suarez took Manny from Frida and began running himself. Frida stayed with him the whole time as they ran to the back of the station. Manny looked down at his arm that he was holding against his body. His shirt was covered in blood and his jacket that was half off still was dirty on the one side that was off from Frida's dragging it across the ground.
They arrived at the infirmary and Manny saw all sorts of pointy needles. That's when he fainted. From both blood loss and from the needles.
Manny woke and his head felt fuzzy and really, really heavy. His eye sight seemed a little foggy as he opened his eyes. He saw a fuzzy outline of blue to his right and a bit of red sitting on top of it.
"Frida?" His voice came out in a raspy whisper. He closed his eyes and opened them again and saw everything a little more clearly. Frida was sitting next to him, holding his hand and her forehead down on the bed. Manny listened for a minute because that was all he could do. He listened as he figured out Frida was crying. Really hard. Not exactly snot crying (I know, kinda gross. But hey, it happens) but she sounded close to it. Manny gathered up some of his energy to squeeze her hand that lay in his. Frida looked up and stared at her hand for a moment in astonishment. She looked up at Manny and saw his eyes half open and smiling slightly.
"Manny." She whispered. Her eyes were red and tears were still streaming down her face. She smiled and pressed a hand to her mouth for a moment before she burst into happy sobs and flung herself at Manny. She did jump onto him, but she was careful not to hit his arm at all. Manny lifted his undamaged arm and hugged her tightly.
When they released each other Frida's sobs grew a little harder and she fell back into a chair that sat behind her. "I can't believe you're…" Frida started quietly and she hiccupped a little and gulped for air.
"What? Can't believe I'm what?" Manny asked. His voice was still raspy and it only was able to come out in whispers. Frida went from happy to looking scared.
"Manny, you're not just in the back of the police station, you're in the hospital. The doctor in the infirmary called 9-1-1 and an ambulance was sent to get you. The stuff they gave you in the ambulance to slow your heart rate down gave you an allergic reaction and they had to rush you to the emergency room. They gave you so much medicine; I couldn't believe one person's body could hold so much." Frida explained. Manny looked petrified. "Once they finished trying to fix your arm, they gave you MORE medicine to help gain more blood cells. You started waking up after the little surgery thing but the medicine they gave you was the wrong kind. You fell into a coma." Frida said. She gasped a little and another sob came out. "They said you had a 29% chance of living." She whispered. Manny's eyes grew big. Frida began to sob again and she hiccupped many times. Manny thought to himself.
I almost died. I was so close to death. He tried to imagine what all of it looked like. He imagined Frida sobbing and a river pouring down her cheeks. He imagined his dad and Grandpapi running to the hospital ; his father in his boots and his Grandpapi flying in his robot suit. He imagined his mother being contacted and her running like a cheetah from the school library to the hospital. Her hyperventilating as she saw him lying in his bed with all those wires coming from his skin. His father directing her away from the sight and getting her a bag to breathe into. His father and Grandpapi crying a little and looking sadly at their only boy.
"Where's my family?" Manny managed to say a little clearer. Frida looked up and sniffed.
"Your dad had to take your mom away and to the cafeteria for some tea. She went nuts at the sight of you." Manny had guessed correctly. She had gone into total panic mode.
"But I'm totally fine." Manny said. He looked at his damaged arm and saw it covered in bandages. "Sure, I'm a little weak and tired, but that's just from the wrong dosages in medicine right?" Manny said trying to calm Frida down. She nodded slightly. She got up and walked to the door.
"Excuse me, nurse? We need the Rivera Family in here." Frida said poking her head out. Manny heard a response from someone in the hallway and the sound of hurried footsteps. Frida walked back over and sat back down. She looked at Manny and stared straight into his eyes for a minute.
"How are you feeling?" She asked softly. Manny stared straight back into her worried and strong blue eyes.
"I'm pretty good. Juts a little tired with a small headache is all." Frida nodded slightly and smiled. He heard the sound of rushed footsteps and his family came in with hopeful smiles and tears.
"MANNY!" His father yelled. Manny's head felt like it split in two and he winced and squeezed his eyes shut.
"SHHHH!!!" everyone said. Manny opened one eye and saw his father look sheepishly at them.
"Mijo…" His mother said and wrapped him in a soft and warm embrace. Many raised his good arm and hugged her back.
"Nieto…" His Grandpapi whispered and came to hold his grandson's hand. His mother came up and Manny saw tears streaming from her eyes. His father's mask was off revealing his mustache and graying hair.
"My son. I cannot believe this has happened…" His father whispered more to himself than to Manny. "If I had been there; If I had been there to help you…this might not have happened…" Mr. Rivera whispered. He closed his eyes and Manny watched as tears leaked.
"Aw, c'mon dad. I'm fine. I'm awake and fine." Manny said trying to make his dad feel better. Everyone except Frida gasped at hearing his voice so weak.
"He's right Mr. Rivera. I'm not saying he should even be here, but he is awake and out of his coma. And his voice sounds a lot better than what it sounded when he first woke up." Frida said. Manny nodded and made his head spin.
"Hey dad, can you ask a doctor if they know when I can get out of this joint?" Manny asked. His dad was still for a moment and nodded. He walked out into the hall and Frida stood up to let his mother sit.
"Thank you Frida." She said. Frida looked at her.
"For what?" Maria looked at Frida for a moment and smiled.
"For saving my son's life." Frida blinked. "It was you that had told those doctors they were giving him the wrong medicine. It was you that instructed them the correct procedure in curing him from the medicine. It was you that stayed with him this whole time. It was you that saved him." Maria said softly. She brought Frida from around the chair and hugged her tightly. Frida felt tears from her in her hair and she began to cry again too.
"It's no problem. I care about Manny. I care that my best friend is given the right stuff to live." Frida said turning toward Manny. Mr. Rivera came back in the room with an astonished looking doctor.
"Manny, this is Dr. Mayo. She's your main doctor." He said. Manny smiled and nodded in her direction. She smiled a little and nodded back.
"Well Manny, the shocking bit is that you're awake. You were expected to be in that coma for another few days. That's good just so you know." She said. Manny smiled and she looked down at her clipboard. "If you are well enough to walk slowly within these next few weeks, we can let you go in around less than a month." Manny's smile vanished and his jaw dropped.
"Less than a month?" Frida whispered. Dr. Mayo nodded. Frida shook her head in disbelief.
Manny closed his eyes and groaned. He opened them again and saw the doctor looking a little upset.
"I'm sorry, but I can't heal him any faster than he can. There's nothing I can do to speed up the process." And she left the room. Manny looked around at his family.
"Hey, what time is it? And how long was I out?" Mr. Rivera pulled out a watch and looked at it for a moment.
"It's 9:48. Visiting hours are almost over." His father said. Maria stood up and breathed deeply.
"Mijo, I'm so happy you're ok. I'm so happy; you couldn't even understand the pain my heart went through just from the very idea you were hurt." She said with a smile. She put a hand to his face and kissed him softly on his forehead. She smiled happily and walked to the door.
Next was his father. "Mijo, I'm also incredibly happy you are ok. If anything worse had happened…I…I don't know what I would do." His father said. He brought his son into a soft hug and smiled at him. "I love you Manny, you know that." He said and joined Maria by the front door.
"Manny, my grandson, if you were to still be in a coma right now, there would be no possible way that I would sleep tonight. I would break back in and sit by your side all night long until you woke. You know I love you Manny." Manny's Grandpapi said. Manny smiled and hugged him. When they broke apart, Grandpapi walked over the door with the other two.
"We love you Manny." His mother said. Her eyes were starting to shine with tears again.
"We love you more than you know." His father said and put an arm on Maria's shoulder. His grandfather nodded.
"I love you guys too." Manny croaked. They all smiled and nodded with tears and walked out the door. Frida sat back down in the chair and scooted closer to his pillows.
"Hey Frida, they never told me," Manny started, realizing something. "They never told me how long I was out." Frida looked down at her hands which were folded in her lap.
"You were out for about a day and a half." Frida said. Manny looked at her.
"You didn't leave, did you?" Manny said with a half smile. Frida nodded slowly.
"Frida! You missed a day of school for me!?!" Manny said. Frida smiled.
"Yeah, duh. I mean, what am I going to do there when I could be here?" She asked. Manny thought for a moment.
"You're probably right. You don't pay attention in class anyway."
"It would've been worse today if I was worrying about you all day." Manny looked up at her and saw that she was looking down at the ground.
"Hey, don't worry so much about me. I'm fine." Manny said. Frida looked at him and smiled.
"I know. And I'm going to visit you every day until you're better." Frida said firmly. Many smiled.
"Make sure you bring some sort of game or something with you, 'cuz I'm going to get really bored when you aren't here." Frida laughed a little.
"Will do." Frida said with a giggle. A nurse poked her head in.
"Sorry miss, but visiting hours are over. You have to go home now, but you can come back once the hospital's hours start again at 8. Ok?" She said. Frida nodded.
"Yes ma'am" Frida got up from her chair and leaned forward so she could hug Manny.
"I'll see you real soon. This I swear!" Frida whispered. Manny laughed a little as Frida walked out the door waving. The nurse stepped in and asked if she could get him anything, but Manny really just wanted to sleep and dream this world away to a place where he wasn't injured for a month. And to a place where Frida and his family were happy. A place where he could learn more about La Loba.
Whoa. Talk about an uber long chapter when not much happened. Yeesh…anywho. Tell me what you think! I need feedback to keep going! I think this little tragedy is only a prequel to what may happen in the FUTURE!!! ^^ I mean like a couple weeks, not 20 years from now…lol. Now, press that little box and start typing nice words and feedback. ^^
