Episode 3: Blackmail Burns

Zoe Avez paced around her room. It's been a week since the incident and the school was rebuilt yesterday. The thing that was plaguing her mind of course was El Fuego. Who was he? She can only find out today.

"You will see, El Fuego. I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE!" She took out her laser beam and shot the wall, spelling out "VENDETTA"

"ZOE, GO TO SCHOOL." Her mom called from outside her room

"FINE!"

Zoe exited her room and saw her mom, Carmelita Avez, cooking breakfast while her grandma, Grandmami Avez, was devising a plan for their next heist.

"Mom, do you know of a hero named El Fuego?"

Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to the youngest member. Their jaws fell to the floor, their eyes wide open. Suddenly, the elderly Avez pressed a button on her suit, which created a rocket wrapping around her, and blasting her out of the FOF HQ. The mother started hyperventilating as her cooking burst into flames and then exploded, gooey eggs plastered on her and the room.

"WHERE DID YOU HEAR THAT, ZOE!?"

"Mo-"

"No! I don't want to hear anything! I-I know nothing..Umm," Carmelita pressed a button on her Voltura suit, which created a rocket, just like her mom's, "GotoschooldontdatetheRiverachildbye!" and she quickly blasted off.

Zoe, left confused, took her bag and exited the HQ.

On the streets, the goth girl contemplated on her situation.

"Who is this El Fuego? How can he know of my secret? I have do not remember of telling anyone about it.."

Just then, she heard voices just behind her. One was the sound of her on/off crush, the other was the sickening sound of her arch-nemesis, and the third..actually, the third was someone she did not know. The villain-in-secret turned around to see.

"C'mon, dude, put down the book. You're gonna get hit by a car…again." Manny warned his book-indulging friend

"Just a sec, I'm getting to the best." Ricky replied

"Duuude, you've been on that book for the past week. You even beat Dr. Chipanzee with your face plastered to that book. Just give it a rest." Said the blue-haired rocker

They could hear a faint sound of someone screaming Chipotle, from afar, but decided to ignore it.

Zoe noticed something familiar with the third member. He was carrying a book that looks similar to her book. Then it hit her. Zoe, fueled with rage, walked towards the three.

"YOU, How dare you humiliated Black Cuev – Zoe Avez!" she said pointing at Ricky

"Who did what now?" Frida questioned.

"Hmm?" the boy put down his book and looked at his accuser. "-oh, it's you."

The two friends by the side had a curious face on them.

"Umm..Am I missing something here?" Manny asked.

"Nothing that I could point out. I mean, I just crashed into her last week, remember?" Ricky then turned to Zoe, "Which I'm sorry about that, by the way."

Ricky closed his book, put it back into his bag and started walking.

"Come on, guys, let's go to school. We'll be late." The young Cospel called

"Why are you excited for school?" Manny asked

"Because, today is officially my first day of school. Now that I got a week to prep up, it's finally my time to debut!" Ricky took out a sunglasses and replaced his ordinary spectacles, spin his hat backwards and posed, "I'm gonna follow the three fundamentals of S. Smooth, Suave and –"

"Stupid?" Zoe commented instinctively.

"Sporting?" Manny gave his answer.

"Umm..SSss…Something that starts with an S? Frida tried.

"The word is Sophisticated. C'mon guys, keep up with the program." He walked a bit and then turned to Zoe, "You coming, chica?"

There was no answer from the raven-haired teen. The flame-bending hero shrugged and went on his way, followed by his two confused friends.

"W..wait! Wait UP!" Zoe called out.

The four reached Leone Middle School. Everyone was deep in thought, especially the villain in secret.

What should I do? He knows my secret? Should I try to eliminate him? But what if he…NO, I will not allow him to divulge any information. This I-

Something hit Zoe's head. Something small, round and fast. She turned around to see the perpetrator who did it, but there was no one around. Instead she found a white round object on the ground. It was a letter wrapped around a pebble.

IF U don't WaNt ME To tell youR SekreT, Do aS I sAY! WaIt 4 fURtHer InStrUCtiOns.

That was all she read. She kept on rereading while massaging her injured head. She could not believe her eyes. Zoe Avez, a.k.a, Black Cuevro, is being blackmailed! She looked around one more time. Who could have done it? But alas, it was futile. She scrounged up the paper and threw it away.

Today is going to be a long day

Homeroom starts and Zoe took a seat at her usual spot; at the farthest corner of the classroom. Of course, as would fate have it, sitting right next to her was the bounty hunter himself. Ricky turned to his neighbor and smiled.

"Ola, Zoe," said the super-powered teen.

Zoe only stared daggers at him.

How dare he act like nothing is wrong. I will make him pay!

As she was about to ready her hidden laser beam from underneath her gloves, their teacher, Mrs. Lupita, entered.

"Now, class, settle down. We have a new student today. Come out front and introduce yourself." The teacher called out.

Ricky stood up, but he could feel his nerves getting to him. He turned to Frida and Manny. Both smiled and gave him the thumbs up. He turned to Zoe, who gave him the evil eye. Ricky mustered up his courage and started walking.

With each step, the new student gained a small portion of confidence, only to have it all sapped away when one of the students tripped him. With the quickest of his reflexes, Ricky curved into a ball and tumbled to front of the class, crashing to the blackboard. This got people laughing, even the teacher was on the floor gagging from laughter. Ricky got up and dusted himself.

He faced the class, ready to introduce himself, "O-Ola, my name is Ricky Cospel."

His voice could not be heard under the roar of laughter. Once again, he tried, but still no one listened. It was until an unexpected someone yelled everyone to be quiet. They all turned to Zoe Avez, who gotten truly annoyed by everyone's laughter. Ricky smiled and once again introduced himself, only a little louder

"Ola! My Name Is Ricardio Cospel!"

A moment of silence passed. Mrs. Lupita , after struggling to get up from the floor, took over Ricky's introduction.

"Ricky came all the way from Brasilia to study here in Miracle City, so I hope you guys could give him a special welcome! And by special, I mean no mugging him after class."

Ricky made his way back, a nervous smile plastered on his face. Zoe thought deeply on why she did that. What was it that ticked her off?

Then again, what if this is exactly what I needed? The perfect ploy to destroy El Fuego. I'll act nice to him and maybe I could "persuade" him not tell my secret!

She started laughing maniacally, until an object hit her square on the face.

It was another letter.

DO a FunNY dANce IN fROnt of EVerYonE or ELsE

"Or else what?" she challenged.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. A boy came into the classroom.

"Morning, Mrs. Lupita." Greeted the boy

"Morning, Diego." The teacher answered back

Diego, who was secretly Dr. Chipotle Jr, took out a piece of paper.

"I have a note to El Tig- I mean, Manny Rivera. I'm supposed to read it out."

Diego cleared his throat and started reading from the note.

To Zoe's horror, it was a poem from her scrapped book. How did Diego come in know about this? Did Fuego tell him? She did not have time to think about it. Quickly, she threw her chair towards Diego, who then fainted from the impact. Everyone turned to Zoe. The goth teen smiled nervously.

"Uuuhhh..Check out this dance."

She did her funny dance, and funny it was, as the whole class started pointing at her, rolling on the floor and laughing it up. Zoe, red-faced from embarrassment, sat back down and smacked her face on her desk, hiding from the shame.

Class ended and the first one to get out was Zoe, who now found herself a lead. Diego. She searched through the halls for the evil boy scientist. Finally, she found the kid putting his books into his locker. The raven-haired villain took Diego by the collar and slammed him against the locker.

"Who gave you the note?"

"Wha-what are you-"

She banged the young villain against the locker. She then leaned in and threatened him quietly, "Last chance, Chipotle. If you don't tell me who gave you the note, I will incinerate your face with my laser!"

"It-it was Fuego!"

"What!? How is that possible?"

"I- I don't know! When I got to school, I f-found a note on my locker stating that I had to read out the poem to El Tigre! That's all I know, I swear!"

"Where is the note?"

"It told me to get rid of it."

She opened Diego's locker and slammed him inside. Zoe was furious. If Fuego really wants to play this game, so be it.

It was Gym class and the game was dodgeball. Everyone got into their teams. Ricky teamed with Manny and Frida whilst Zoe, for the first time, took part by joining the opposition.

"Good luck." Ricky called out to Zoe. The supervillain only sneered at the comment and took her position.

As the whistle blown, red balls started flying across the room. Zoe intently aimed at Ricky, but the new student was surprisingly agile, dodging swiftly away from the incoming rubber balls and quickly throwing whenever he got a hold of a ball or two. Although, his aiming need a little practice. Manny, after feeling too much of the heat, decided to go El Tigre on the competition and beat down the opposition. Frida, after getting hit 5 seconds into the game, was rooting for her two friends.

The game ended and Ricky's team won, with some assistance from El Tigre. Zoe only walked away with scorned. Even though she did not get hit once, she never did manage to exact her revenge on Fuego. It can only happen when she's in her Cuevro costume, most probably after school. While she was distracted with her scheming, an unexpected ball flew straight towards her and landed on her back, causing the teen supervillain to fall.

Zoe abruptly got up and looked around. How is it that she always missed the perpetrator? She looked at the ball. It was another letter.

START A FOOD FIGHT BY THROWING TODAY'S LUNCH TO VICE-PRINCIPAL CHAKAL

It…wasn't so bad, actually. No one likes Chakal that much to begin with.

And so it was lunchtime. The food serving was some sort of over-expired goulash that the students still wonder why it's being served.

With the food on the tray, Zoe scooped a handful and threw it straight towards Chakal, who was just standing there to keep students in order. It landed on his face

"FOOD FIGHT!" Zoe yelled. She then quickly hid underneath her table before all hell broke loose.

Goulash flew across the room, like a reenactment of gym class, except it was a free-for-all. No one, other than Zoe, was safe from the horrors of expired goulash. After lunch period was done, Chakal tried to hold back everyone for questioning, but got food poisoning for accidentally swallowing the goulash on his face.

Throughout the whole day, Zoe was hit with letters to do acts that are either embarrassing to her or just plain mild. She just had it with all the stupid things she had to do. If the blackmailing didn't get to her, the mode of how it was sent did. Every letter would be attached to something either hard or small enough to throw. The last letter of the day (which she was grateful for) came in a form of a brick (which she was able to catch in time before it hit her).

COME TO THE BAK OF SCHOOL AFTER CLASS FINISHES AND MAYBE I'LL LET YOU OFF THE HOOK

That was the last straw. Zoe ripped the letter and stormed out of the class. When she came back, she was in her Cuevro suit.

"EL FUEGO!"

Everyone turned to Black Cuevro who got her lasers ready. Without warning, she shot her beams at Ricky, who managed to evade it in time. The whole class panicked and ran out of the class, leaving only the supervillain, Ricky and his two friends left. Ricky turned into El Fuego and faced Black Cuevro.

"Cuevro, what a sur-" he didn't managed to finish his greetings as more beams headed his way. Fuego dodged the shots. He then position himself to lunged directly at Black Cuevro. He successfully pinned her down.

"Chill, chica. What's wrong with you? Someone blackmailing you or something?"

The statement brought up her anger. She pushed off El Fuego and got ready her lasers, this time at ultimate capacity. Fuego, who wasn't prepared, felt the full-brunt of the beam. She sent him flying across the room, crashing through the wall and landing himself outside. She then let out her wings and chased him outside.

Meanwhile, Manny and Frida were standing still by the sidelines, processing what was going on. Then they heard the sound of laughter coming from the hallway. Manny turned into El Tigre and crashed through the wall of the classroom to get to the hallway. He observed the area to found out the source of the laughter came from a sniveling Siniestro and a snorting Dr. Chipotle Jr. El Tigre shot both his claws and wrapped it around the two unsuspecting villains. He reeled to two in.

"Talk," He started, "And I'll beat you painlessly."

"You mean "Or"…right?" Siniestro asked. All El Tigre did was give them an evil grin. This made the two villains gulped.

Outside, El Fuego was having a tough time defending himself from Black Cuevro's fury. Her fighting pattern was different in comparison to last week. She was a lot more relentless and unpredictable, crafting unexpected movements that caught the young bounty hunter off guard. To make matters worse, Fuego was still feeling the effect from the beam earlier. Just as Cuevro cornered the fire-bending hero to deal the finishing blow, El Tigre shot his claw to stop the encountering villain.

"Stop right there, Black Cuevro!" Manny yelled out. The two turned towards the tiger-teen hero/villain.

El Tigre reeled back his claw. He then proceeded to grabbing the two beaten up villain behind him and threw in front of Black Cuevro.

"These two guys have been blackmailing you all day long!" He said, pointing at Siniestro and Dr. Chipotle Jr.

"H-he's lying!" Siniestro defended.

"Am I?" El Tigre signaled to Frida. The blue-haired troublemaker took a recorder and pressed the play button.

Ways to get His attention, the recorder started playing. It was the voice of Frida Suarez. In a short fit of panic, Frida quickly pressed the fast forward button, then let go

Did you see Cuevro's face? Started one of the voices. It was the Italian accent of Sergio, but talking with his Siniestro voice.

Yes, that SWINE will finally get the taste of our form of vendetta. And she wouldn't know it was us! The second voice was of Jr, recognizable due to his odd manner of speaking with his voice octave going from high to low.

The rest of the recording spilled out how they managed to get away with the whole thing. Putting the whole blame on Fuego when Diego was in question helped get them off the suspicion. Their only job was to deliver the letters as discreet as possible when they had a chance. It was usually Sergio who did so, seeing as he was in the same class as Zoe and the rest of the group. They also mentioned of a third member, who was the mastermind behind it all.

After the recording stopped playing, Black Cuevro's eyes were locked on to her two blackmailers. She quickly sped towards the two, grabbing them by the arms, and flew off without a word, leaving the three to wonder what she planned on doing to her tormenters.

"Revert." Ricky changed back to his human formed, but the teen's injuries were clear. As the battered down bounty hunter fell, Manny and Frida caught him.

"Dude, you don't look so hot." Frida punned.

"Haha, very funny, Suarez. Maybe you should write that down. Or better yet, maybe you could add that to the list of things to attract a certain someone." Ricky snipped back. Frida elbowed him, making him winced.

"You need to go to the hospital?" Manny asked

"Nah, I just need sleep..And probably food. Mind we stop by for snacks?"

"I don't' see any problem with that." Frida chirped.

"You sure you don't need any help? I could get you there El Tigre style."

"And risk people see me getting a piggyback from you on my first day? Thanks but no thanks, Rivera, I'm struggling through this."

"Suit yourself." Manny and Frida both let go of Ricky, who dropped faced down to the ground, "Meet you in front of school." Manny called back. Only the sound of Ricky's muffled grunt could be heard.

-In Calevera-

Black Cuevro flew all the way to Calevera to interrogate and then punish the two villains. Once she was clearly above the bandit-ridden town, she dropped the two unsuspecting evil-doers. The crashed hard on the ground. She then gracefully landed where the two were and proceeded to interrogating them.

"Who was it!?" she started. Both Siniestro and Chipotle were cowering in fear. They could not utter anything. Growing impatient, she aimed her arms at them and readied her lasers.

"Put that down, Cuevro. They were only following my orders."

Zoe turned to a dark alleyway. Within the darkness, two bright red orbs could be seen floating.

"What do you want, Django."

From behind the darkness, the mastermind smiled. He started walking towards the clearing, showing his visage. The grandson of Miracle City's most feared villain, Santana of the Dead, appeared before her. Django of the Dead was, in all sense of the word, all bones. Donning a bandito outfit that fit his stature and carrying his own mystical guitar like his grandma, Django tipped his hat towards supervillain.

"Merely testing something. But I was slightly disappointed by the outcome." Django answered back.

Zoe aimed her lasers towards Django and blasted away the beams. Django, who remained calm, flicked the beams away.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN TESTING? YOU RUINED MY DAY!...Wait, what do you mean by disappointed?"

Django grinned, although he had no lips to show for it, one could feel him grinning. "Tell me, Zoe, what do you know of El Fuego?"

"El Fuego? Isn't he some nerd named Ricardio Cospel?"

"Yes, but what I mean is…Do You know who El Fuego really is?"

"Cut to the chase, bones."

"You see, I have heard from my Nana that the one known as El Fuego has been around for a long time."

"How long?"

Django paused a bit.

"Ever since the original El Tigre appeared in Miracle City."

AN: Yellow, guys! Qirtz here~ Did ya enjoy the new episode? I know it's a lot to get through, but hopefully I delivered...well sort of.

So, Django knows the history of El Fuego as well, eh? What will he reveal? Will it impact on how Zoe sees our protagonist? And what about the man in question? Will he be alright? Stay tune for the next episode of...EL FUEGO!