Chapter 27: The Hero’s Ability
Vixen walked into her apartment dressed in her black gown. Very few people had ever seen the beauty hidden beneath her mask.
Her oval-shaped face carried a soft fair complexion that almost seemed to glow beneath the apartment lights.
Perfectly arched brows rested above a pair of striking green eyes capable of pulling attention in effortlessly. Long lashes framed them naturally, adding to the allure.
Her nose was small yet elegant, fitting delicately against her features, while her thin lips carried a soft red tint reminiscent of ripe cherries.
She was still removing her earrings when the call came through.
Not from her supervisor but from him directly, the Councillor, Richard.
’He called?’ Vixen thought, taking a nervous gulp, she answered.
"I watched the broadcast." His voice came flat with a tinge of annoyance. "You told the press you weren’t responsible for the operation."
"I wasn’t."
"Vixen." The voice paused, "We positioned you for that moment specifically. The media was there. The cameras were rolling. You had everything you needed and you gave it away to a street-level nobody whose name we don’t even have on record."
"His supervisor was present for the entire operation. I arrived late. Giving myself credit for his work would have been a lie."
"It would have been strategy."
Vixen said nothing.
"Who is he?" Richard’s tone shifted slightly. Not softer. More focused. "You saw him in action. What are his abilities?"
She thought about the way Nicholas had moved through that building. The efficiency of it. The complete absence of hesitation.
The way he’d looked directly up at her from street level when she hadn’t made a sound.
"I don’t know him," she said. "He’s new to the association. I haven’t seen his file."
"His abilities, Vixen."
"I didn’t see him use any." She kept her voice even. "He handled everything without them."
A longer silence this time, "Interesting"
"Find out who he is," Richard said. "Since you seem tired of being the face of my association... perhaps it’s time I replaced you.."
"Sir?! don’t get the wrong idea. Please sir, I only said that because his supervisor was there—" Vixen cut in with a panicked voice, she couldn’t lose her spotlight, her pay would drop drastically and everything she’d worked for all this while would go down the drain, "Please sir"
"Next time, you do what you’re told to do. Am I understood?"
Vixen gritted her teeth, her hands curling into a fist, "Yes sir,"
The call ended.
Vixen set her phone face down on the table and looked at the ceiling.
"Just a while longer. Till mom’s fine again"
----
Morning arrived faster than expected and just like they’d discussed, they both met in the association building.
And Selena, as always couldn’t wait to pour out her thoughts.
"Katherine not having abilities isn’t the problem I’m worried about." Selena kept her eyes forward. "Most of those children can’t fully control what they can do yet. A student loses focus, a power activates accidentally — Katherine has no way to defend herself from that. And children are cruel when they notice someone is different. Without abilities she becomes a target. If someone decides to bully her—"
"Then I’ll bully them."
Selena stopped walking.
Nicholas didn’t.
She caught up. "You cannot hurt children."
"I didn’t say I’d hurt them." He glanced at her sideways. "I said I’d bully them. There’s a difference."
"There really isn’t—"
"Try me."
She felt the headache arriving like an old acquaintance. ’A few more days,’ she told herself again. ’Eric will sort this out. A few more days.’
The girl was sitting in the corner of the room with her knees pulled to her chest when they entered. She didn’t look up immediately. Her eyes were red from crying that had probably been going on most of the night.
Dana stood nearby, her usual brightness dimmed considerably.
"She’s been like this since she woke up fully this morning," Dana said quietly. "The images came back to her in pieces. She remembers most of it now."
The girl’s hands were wrapped around her own wrists like she was trying to hold herself together.
"She keeps asking if she’s a monster," Dana added.
Selena moved toward her instinctively.
Nicholas stayed where he was, assessing the room. The faint trace of miasma was still there, barely detectable, but present. Clinging to her like smoke in fabric.
"I’m not sure the ability will work," he said. "But I’ll try."
"That’s the most humble thing you’ve ever said," Selena muttered.
"If it works, you pay me."
"There it is."
Dana smiled despite herself.
Nicholas walked toward the girl and crouched down to her level. She looked up at him with red eyes, clearly uncertain about the man covered in fading bruises from the night before.
"You didn’t kill anyone," His voice remained flat. Matter-of-fact.
Somehow, that honesty comforted her more than empty reassurance would’ve, "And if you had, he deserved it anyway. I would’ve done it myself."
The girl blinked at him.
"Snap out of it."
He placed his hand on her shoulder and activated Void.
{Ding}
{Void Activated}
The black fog came immediately — seeping from her ears, her nose, curling into the air between them before dissolving. Everyone in the room instinctively covered their faces.
Then it was gone.
"It worked, she should be fine now I believe"
The girl took a breath that sounded different from the ones before it. Deeper. Cleaner. Like something that had been pressing on her chest had finally lifted.
She started crying again, but it was a different kind.. tears of relief.
Somewhere else entirely, in a space that didn’t need to be described to feel wrong, a pair of purple eyes snapped open.
The boy sat very still for a moment.
Then he spoke to the empty room with the croaking deep voice that didn’t match his face.
"Someone cancelled my abilities." No one answered.
He looked down at his hands. The miasma that usually curled lazily around his fingers had pulled back slightly, like something cautious.
He tilted his head.
"Someone has the ability to free my puppet. Master has to learn of this."
[A/N: I want to specially thank you all for sticking with me up to this point! And I want to humbly ask for your continuous support as I continue this journey. There’s so much to explore in the story and so many turns to take. I’ll do my best to give y’all a satisfying story! I just hope my fingers don’t fall off and my brain doesn’t melt into soft tofu. But until then, stick with me fam!]
