Xard was quite surprised when he was the first to reach the entrance of the mall. Only now that he had finally stopped running did he realize how exhausted he was. It wasn’t really muscle fatigue—more worn out from how much he had used his Curse and mentally tired from having to think so expediently on the fly.
He was bending over with his hands on his knees while he recuperated, but suddenly found himself toppling forward, startled by the noises behind him. Phon had appeared, shouted ‘Congratulations!’, and set off a confetti popper like the one Drim had used yesterday when they inducted him. Xard was just about to whirl around and yell at her for all the stuff she’d pulled, but a long black vine suddenly stuck into the ground next to him. A moment later Drim was standing there, having used the vine to pull himself down from the sky.
Before the victor had time to react, the three of them heard a loud continuous yell from behind and turned around. Kada came bursting out of the building across the street which was fixed just a second afterwards. She didn’t stop screeching or running until she had caught up with the group. Once she stopped, she gasped for air, making Xard wonder if she had actually breathed at all during the race.
“So Xard is the winner then, good for him,” Drim didn't waste any time. “Oh, I forgot to mention this earlier. While there is no prize for the winner of this leg of the race, there is a punishment for the loser. Kada, you’re going to be in charge of carrying everyone’s purchases. Have fun with that.” It was clear by the look on her face that the loser wanted to complain, but was too busy catching her breath.
“Well then, let the shopping begin,” Drim announced as he held open the door, gesturing for the two rookies to head inside. Xard couldn’t help but be overwhelmed by the grandness of the mall. It was larger than any other form of shopping facility he had ever visited, but couldn’t really take it all in when he heard the two siblings talking behind him. “You went easy on Xard, didn’t you?” The brother interrogated his sister.
“Yeah, what can I say,” Phon sniggered. “He was so unprepared. It was like watching a baby deer learn how to walk for the first time. While it was amusing, I almost felt a bit of pride. I guess since I was the one who recruited him, it makes him my protege or some such nonsense.” The eavesdropper didn’t really know how to feel about what he heard, and decided to push it out of his mind for now.
Before anything else, Xard headed off to the bathroom. He didn’t really have to use the toilet, but was more concerned about the status of his feet. When he got into a stall, he sat down and checked his soles. They were worse than he’d thought, almost black from the amount of dirt and asphalt residue. There were pebbles, shards of glass, and various other bits of things stuck into his flesh as well. Thankfully, due to his increased tolerance and thicker skin, he hadn’t really been in pain the whole time, but if he were to continue with such antics, he’d have to find a better solution. The only reason he noticed in the first place, was that he seemed to be standing off balance a bit.
The boy did his best to pick out everything stuck in his feet, then used the sink to clean them up as well as he could, hoping that no one came in during the embarrassing act. After he got his shoes and socks back on, he figured he had taken long enough and should be getting back to his friends. Then, a strange thought crossed his mind: were they really his friends? He’d only met them a few days ago, but so far, they had made fun of him, used him for bait, isolated him from his school friends, convinced him to leave his home and move into a tiny apartment, run a race, and forced him to cause chaos throughout a city.
What Xard found even stranger was that none of that really bothered him. He wasn’t annoyed at the Fiends for anything they’d done and had an aching annoyance when he thought about the possibility of them rejecting him. Even if they weren’t really friends yet, he hoped that would change soon—that this was a place he could really belong, and that this group could help him find his path in life.
What followed for the next few hours would probably be classified as a form of torture to. The newbie was subjected to hours of outfit suggestions by the other three, and forced to try them on, even if he didn’t like it. There was everything from biker jackets to tight golden short-shorts. He felt like he was trapped in a shopping montage on a tv show. The only thing missing was catchy background music.
After crawling through the clothing trenches of dozens of stores, they took a break in the mall’s food court. From all that shopping, there was nothing that really leapt out as a ‘combat outfit’ to Xard. However, he had found a nice pair of gray pants which were ripped and torn already, and he figured they’d likely end up that way with his Curse—something he could center a motif around. In fact, he liked them so much that he had decided to wear them out of the store. So some progress towards at least a temporary outfit was made.
Drim had lived up to his promise and bought everyone rewards for the race based on their ranking. Xard’s restriction was ‘something simple’ so he ended up just getting a hotdog with a soda. Kada had no such restriction and was allowed to get anything she wanted. She got what was known as ‘The Sugar Coma’ from the ice cream stand. It was literally a large plastic tub consisting of one scoop of each ice cream flavor. all 68 of them.
Phon was given just a single package of saltine crackers since she came in last. The victorious glutton attempted to shame some of her ice cream out of pity, but Drim had stared her down. And Phon graciously accepted the meager gift. Though instead of eating them, she had broken them up into bits and was flicking them across the food court trying to hit random passersby.
“So Kada, can you please stop carrying around our stuff in a bucket?” Drim asked the girl who had not stopped stuffing her face since they sat down.
Kada, in lieu of carrying the various bags containing everyone's purchases, had bought a bucket and melted everyone's purchases down into it. The girl swallowed and finally took a break from her vacuum-like intake to respond, “I don’t get what you’re complaining about. Once I unmelt it, everyone's stuff will be back to normal. You don’t have to be worried about it mixing or anything if that’s what’s bothering you. So really, it’s just a convenience. You should be praising me for my ingenuity if anything.”
This argument lasted for a while, but Xard stayed out of it, just listening to them talk. He was enjoying the peacefulness until the four of them heard a loud creaking sound. The Fiends all swiftly turned their heads in the direction of the noise, but couldn’t quite make out the cause of it. No one else around them seemed to be worried, like they couldn’t hear it at all. How can they not hear it? It’s so loud! Xard rambled in his head. It kept getting louder and louder, sounding like whatever it was would reach a breaking point at any moment.
Right after, there was a short series of snaps as the groaning reverberated so loudly that everyone in the mall could finally hear it. With everyone looking, they finally landed on the source of the noise. The cable for the mall’s elevator was snapping, and it would soon plummet down, possibly with people inside. Xard leapt from his chair, turned to Phon and shouted, “Quick, teleport me to the bottom!”
The Vixen just looked at him for a moment to process what he said and tried to start talking. “Well, wouldn’t it be better to—” was all she could get out before Xard cut her off.
“Please Phon, you have to do it now! I have to save them!” the man urgently pleaded, his eyes quivering as he stared at her.
“Fine, fine, you don’t have to be so pushy,” the woman shrugged. She then moved her hands to her eyes, then vanished from Xard’s sight. Everything vanished, entirely isolated in a small dark room. The boy-playing-hero couldn’t see anything, but the creaking had mostly been replaced by screaming from above until there was one last resounding snap that was deafening in comparison to anything before. A sharp scraping quickly followed. The man finally realized he was at the bottom of the elevator shaft. When he looked up, he saw sparks illuminating the void, lighting up the metal box that was careening down at him.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Xard widened stance, preparing to brace for the impact. The screams were erupting in volume so much that he felt like his ear drums were going to burst. He held up his hands flat, and could feel the heat of the sparks just before his hands touched the bottom of the elevator. For a split-second, the rookie realized he had forgotten to activate his Curse. That was all it took to send him crouching down fully to the ground.
The rest of the energy flowed into Xard’s hands, stopping the elevator. It was a lot of force to take in at once—too much that he wouldn’t be able to redirect it. The unyielding force straight through him, and out his rear. He was glad that his friends weren’t there to see this, or else it would look like he had just ripped the biggest fart in history. Though there was a good chance that Phon was actually watching.
When the last bit of motion came to a halt, the area was suddenly quiet. All the screams had stopped, and there was no metal scraping anymore. The only thing Xard could hear was his own heavy breathing, at least until his phone started ringing. “Oh what the hell, who's calling me now?” he grunted. The glorified crash pad slowly lowered one of his hands to make sure the other arm could stand the weight of the elevator alone. It really was quite heavy, and the weight of all the people inside wasn’t helping.
By the time Xard got his phone out and up to his ear it was already on its third time ringing. Phon’s name flashed across the screen. The savior hit the answer button but couldn’t really vocalize anything coherent since the added strain was making it hard to form words.
“Heyyy, you did good,” the half-hearted praise came through the phone’s speakers. “Looks like they’re all still alive in there, but they can’t get out. We need you to lift it up a bit, until I say so in order to get it inline with the mall floor. Once you do, we’ll open the doors and get them out.”
Xard put his phone to speaker and then stuck it back in his pocket. Then with both hands, he pushed up as hard as he could, until he was able to stand again fully. Then after a short reprieve, he pushed up again, overextending his arms. However, there was still no movement from above. He strained himself and lifted it a couple inches higher until it was balanced on the tips of his fingers. At last, there was a response from Phon telling him to maintain that height. Super strength or not, it hurt like hell.
Finally, there was a loud clang from above, then the sound of feet shuffling. Xard could feel the elevator getting lighter every second. After about a minute passed, Phon chimed up again on the phone and asked, “Alright, it's all good in there. Do you need our help getting out?”
The rescuer thought for a moment but then replied, “Nah, I got this… I think…” Xard crouched down again and laid the elevator flat in his palms. Then, he pushed up as hard as he could, launching the elevator back up the shaft. The man quickly scrambled out onto the floor of the mall, right before it came crashing down once more. He laid on his back with a smile, but soon noticed the crowd around him.
Xard stood up and faced the crowd. Just like Drim had warned, their eyes didn’t hold gratitude in them. Most of them were looking at him in fear, a few in disgust. It was gut wrenching, and made the ‘hero’ wonder for a moment if it was worth doing at all. Suddenly, a little boy came running out of the crowd, wrapped his arms around Xard’s legs, and shouted, “Thank you! Thank you for saving us!”
The boy was quickly dragged away by an adult, hopefully his parent. That little bit was enough for the Fiend, though. However, he didn’t feel happy like he should’ve, instead he was furious at himself for doubting his convictions, even if it was just for a second. Xard started to notice that the crowd was getting bigger, and mall security was slowly approaching. It was then that he noticed that the other Fiends weren’t there, leaving him to assume Drim had used his vines to get them out.
Snickering came from behind the center of attention at that moment, the other three Fiends spontaneously appearing behind him. He had no idea why they were laughing so much. The other three grouped up tightly next to him forming a box, with all four of them facing outward—the other three still laughing with no sign of stopping. Xard wanted to shout out, ‘what is so damn funny?!’ but didn’t think that would be best in this situation.
Kada, who was directly behind him in the square, suddenly slapped him directly on the buttcheeks, leaving him wondering how she could possibly be hitting them. The boy looked over his shoulder to his rear, his butt entirely exposed for anyone to see. “What the?!” Xard cried out. Then he suddenly remembered the mass of energy from the elevator. It must have caused his newly purchased pants to rupture under the pressure. Though this was less of just a slight rupture and more of an explosion.
“Hey Drim,” Phon spoke up. “We should get the mooning hero out of here. Make us vanish in style!” A petal barrage similar to the one earlier in the day surrounded the four of them. Once the crowd was completely distracted, Phon teleported them away. They first took the unwitting flasher to the bathroom so he could change back into his old pants, then got on the bus to head home.
Xard spent most of the ride looking out the window. He was doing his best to forget the embarrassment of having his ass hang out in front of a large group of people. It wasn’t too hard, though. The feeling of having truly saved people was overshadowing everything else. He couldn’t even stop grinning the entire time, even though he’d try to whenever he saw it in his reflection.
“Enjoying yourself, Mr. Hero?” Phon’s reflection had appeared right behind his. Xard spun his head back around to find her sitting right next to him. That seat had previously been occupied by Kada. He looked across the aisle to see the girl asleep, her head leaning on Drim’s shoulder. The engrossed man was reading something on his tablet and didn’t seem to notice at all that Kada was next to him now, or using him as a pillow.
“I get that you’re probably feeling pretty good right now,” The Vixen continued. “And I don’t really want to rain on your parade. But in the future, please think a little more before doing something so selfish.”
Xard was appalled. Selfish?! he didn’t believe what he was hearing. What about saving a whole bunch of people from certain death could possibly be selfish?! The lad got upset, almost offended, and wanted to fire back at her, but just couldn’t bring himself to do so.
“I see you don’t really understand what I mean,” Phon looked a little disappointed. “It was great that those people were saved, but it was bad that ‘you’ specifically had to save them. You could have asked me to just teleport them out instead, or asked Drim to stop the elevator with his plants “
“We’re both very experienced and could have helped those people easily. However, you decided that you were the one who had to save them, even demanded it. You wanted to be the hero. And I saw it Xard, that little moment you messed up with your Curse. Nothing bad happened, but it easily could have, because you were selfish.”
Phon stood up, stared at the sleeping Kada with annoyance, pulled out her toy gavel, and slapped the slumbering snoozer right across the face.
Kada woke up, rubbing her cheek in pain. After she saw Phon glaring at her, she slumped out of the seat and back into her original one. Normally, Xard would have found this scene quite amusing but couldn’t bring himself to laugh. He was quite upset that Phon had accused him of such things, and even more upset because he knew she was right.
◆◆◆
Xard spent most of that afternoon lying in his bed. It wasn’t until the day started to get dark that he finally decided to stop feeling sorry for himself and take action. A bit later, he stormed out of his room, causing the three who were sitting in the living room to turn their heads with undivided attention. The boy still wasn’t used to giving monologues, so even just this small group made him a bit nervous.
“What the incident at the mall has shown me is that no matter what outfit I pick, it will likely just get torn to shreds given the nature of my Curse. So until we can figure out a better solution, I’m just going to use my school uniform since I have a lot of them. Though I did make one small change that I hope you all approve of,” the young man pointed to the chest of the uniform he was wearing. Where his school’s emblem had been previously, the Fiends For Hire logo was stitched in with golden thread.
“Oh wow, you can do stitchwork. Not really helping out your stereotype there, bud,” Kada jested.
“Ignore her,” Drim insisted. “That’s actually really cool, Xard. Would you mind doing the same for our outfits as well?”
The domestically-skilled boy nodded, happy that they accepted and appreciated it, and spent the next hour altering their combat outfits. When he was done, the four of them stood dramatically, showing off their new logos. Kada’s was in silver on the back of her vest, Phon’s was in purple above each of the cuffs of her sleeves, and Drim’s was in green on the back of his cloak.
However, they didn’t actually have anywhere to go that night, so the scene that should have looked epic seemed a little silly in their cramped living room. The four of them spent the rest of the night wearing their outfits, and sat down together to watch the news. They all sat there quietly with unease as a report played about the chaos the Fiends had wrought in the city that day.
Discord, , and Amazon Release (Pending), can be found on the Fiends For Hire .
Do you agree that Xard was acting selfish?
