Level UP Hero

“Excuse me!” Sam Shepard apologized as he slipped his way into the back of the crowd. “Media coming through!”

‘Media’ was a bit of a stretch, but being a twenty-one-year-old beat writer for the city’s number one newspaper had its perks. Namely being able to ignore the dirty looks people gave him as he shoved his way through the crowd of civilian onlookers and first responders.

In the distance, the thunderous booms of explosions going off one after the other rang in his ears, drowning out the police sirens and terrified screams. A horrific shriek shook him to his core, threatening to turn his legs to jelly.

“This isn’t how my first day in the Herald was supposed to go…” he sighed.

Soon enough, Sam managed to push his way into the very front of the crowd which was pressed tight together like a can of sardines right at the edge of the police line. He nearly choked at the sight before him, chilled to the bone from the image of such jaw-dropping destruction.

Ruined buildings on either side of a torn-up street gave one the impression that an earthquake had just struck this unfortunate part of New York City. There were fires everywhere, so many in fact that the night sky glowed with a fierce orange tinge.

Sam gulped. “Holy Zeus…”

Focus, Sam. He reminded himself. You have a job to do.

Blinking away his shock, the young reporter pulled out his smartphone from his pants pocket and started recording the view.

“What in Hades are you doing, Shepard?” came the growl from right in front of him.

Sam sighed right before he pocketed his smartphone and turned to confront the police officer who he imagined had a stick perpetually rammed up his butt.

“Just doing my job, sarge,” Sam replied.

Police Sergeant Andrew Graham glowered at him, his eyes like headlights pinning Sam into place. The glower was the thickset, black man’s most defining feature; one Sam didn’t enjoy being aimed at him.

“You know the rules, dumbass,” Sergeant Graham snarled. “No unauthorized video recordings of extermination zones!”

Sam flashed his press badge at the sergeant. “You know you’re impeding freedom of the press, right?”

Graham spared it the barest glance. He seemed unimpressed.

“I work for the Herald, man!” Sam complained.

This declaration only worsened Graham’s glower.

“I don’t have time for the whining of a little shit stain who was too cowardly to stick to doing the thing that really matters,” Sergeant Graham scoffed. “And as if you couldn’t go low enough, now you’ve joined the yahoos who put up headlines that make our heroes look bad!”

Sam couldn’t blame the sergeant for thinking poorly of him because he had a point. Being a hero was a duty that could never be forsaken and yet Sam had run away from it. Not because it was too tough a job or because he was scared, but because he'd failed at it so badly that his weakness caused the death of others.

“I didn’t do anybody any good on the front lines, Sarge…” Sam knew he deserved the ridicule but he couldn’t help but repeat the lines he’d used to defend his actions for months now. “I was a crappy heal—”

A scream cut through the clamor, shocking most of those watching into silence.

“H-healer!” a woman cried, desperation and pain stuttering her words. “I n-need a healer! P-please, somebody h-help me!”

The first responders standing just on the other side of the police line glanced nervously at each other. It was obvious to Sam that they could hear her too, but none of them jumped at the chance to go out there and help. Well, that wasn't true for at least one officer stepped up to Sergeant Graham looking like he was ready to do his job.

“I think we can get to her, sarge,” a young, brown-haired, gray-eyed police officer told Sergeant Graham. “She might not be too far from the line. The scream sounded close and I—”

“Officer Nolan.” Sergeant Graham turned his scowl on this policeman, cutting him off. “Are you a healer?”

“N-no, sir,” Nolan frowned. “But—”

“So what are you gonna do, Officer Nolan? Drag her through the rubble and fire?”

“I—”

“Did you just suddenly get super strength or flight? Is that how you were going to save her?”

“No, but—”

“Then we follow protocol!” the Sergeant barked. “And protocol says wait for more heroes! They’ll handle rescue operations!”

At the word hero, Officer Nolan glanced in Sam’s direction. The implication was clear: what are you doing? Sam scratched at the mess of dark brown hair atop his head.

What am I doing, Sam wondered. I can help, but that might finally kill me.

“But that woman needs our help, Sarge,” Nolan began, but his sergeant quickly cut him off.

“You think I enjoy hanging out here doing nothing but preventing idiots like Shepard here,” he pointed a thumb at Sam, “from wandering into an extermination zone and getting themselves killed?”

After a brief pause, Officer Nolan shook his head. “N-no, sarge…”

“That’s right,” Sergeant Graham huffed. “But I do it because I have to. I got a wife at home, you know? So I do what I can to get back to her. Besides, I’m not a gifted like Shepard... not that he’s been any use tonight.”

Sam was just about to reiterate that not being of any use was exactly the reason he quit his old job, but then the horrific screeching started up again. The sound of it was like sharp nails raking across a chalkboard, leaving Sam and everyone around him feeling more unnerved than they were a second ago.

“P-please!” the woman yelled. “S-someone, please! Help me!”

Through the scattered fires and widespread destruction of the extermination zone, Sam thought he could see a pale hand rising mere inches off the ground. It could have just been his imagination but…

“Sarge… I think I see her,” Sam reported. “Officer Nolan’s right. She’s not too far…”

Officer Nolan nodded, but Sergeant Graham ignored him, pointedly turning his back on the reporter.

“Sarge…” Sam’s tone was insistent now. “I really think—”

“I don’t care what you think, Shepard,” Sergeant Graham snapped. “You stand there and wait for the real heroes to come.”

Startled by the agitation in his tone, Sam looked his way.

Graham’s wide-eyed stare was glued to the carnage, sweat dripping down his forehead. Like most of the non-gifted around him, the destruction beyond the police line was too much for them to bear. It was a lot to take even for Sam. And yet, he found himself stepping forward, his legs trembling only slightly.

Shit, he thought. I can’t do this. I can’t risk my life that way again.

Contrary to Graham’s view of him, Sam was no coward. In fact, he was built to do the brave thing. All gifted were as it was one of the requirements for becoming a chosen of the gods. Sam’s problem wasn’t fear. Something graver held him back. But hearing that woman and her desperate plea for help, it awakened something in him that he thought he’d sufficiently suppressed by now — and that was the will to answer the call.

Don’t do it, Sam. You’ve already quit the hero life, you useless punk. He chided himself. You’d only make things worse for her and you!

A shrill cry sounded once more before abruptly cutting off. Throwing logic out the window, Sam ducked under the police line and jumped headlong into the heart of danger.

“Shepard!” Sergeant Graham yelled after Sam. “Get back behind the line, you idiot!”

Sam paused in his tracks, tempted to listen to the gravelly voice urging him to come back. No, he shouldn’t be going to play hero now when he ran away when things got too hard the first time.

But then Sam heard the woman’s voice a third time. It was much weaker. She was running out of time.

Despite the sweat dripping down his brow at the thought of risking his life yet again, Sam kept on running.

“Shepard! Get back here!” Sergeant Graham screamed.

His heart pounding in his ears drowned out the sergeant’s protests. Each beat, growing louder and louder as he grew closer to the center of the extermination zone.

Don’t worry, Sam. It’s just routine delta-level extermination. You’re here for experience! It’ll be just like a light jog. The ‘wise words’ of his editor fell short when faced with the task set before him. Yeah, right…What in Hades is routine about all of this?

He had a point. This wasn’t what usually happened — heroes lying on the ground bleeding from wounds they may never recover from, and a horror set loose on the city that no one seemed able to stop.

A heavy whoosh drew him out of his thoughts. On instinct, Sam dove forward and narrowly avoided decapitation via the wheel of a truck that had been sent flying his way. He scraped his palms on the broken asphalt and he cursed at the pain.

Raising his hands to check them, Sam cringed at the dark blood dripping down his sun-kissed forearms. There was too much of it to be his.

“Styx,” he breathed.

He looked down at the ground, aghast to see the pool of blood inching toward him. His eyes drifted to the source: a group of lifeless bodies surrounded by the thick red liquid. There was so much of it that the iron scent caused his nose to wrinkle.

“What in Hades am I doing?” he asked himself.

Sam glimpsed movement in the corner of his eye. His gaze snapped toward it, body tensing as he prepared to leap to his feet. But it was just a body stirring on the ground.

“Nothing to worry about… Don’t get spooked,” he reminded himself. “Wait, what?”

It was a woman. Her short blonde hair framed a bloody, heart-shaped face. Her eyes were a dazzling sky blue, and they were staring right at Sam’s own teal-colored irises.

“Help me,” she whispered, her weak voice barely carrying over the distance.

“Oh, man,” Sam breathed, shuffling over. “I found you…”

When he reached her side, Sam scanned her body, the state of it easily observable through her ruined costume. Her fair skin turned paler by the second, likely an effect of the blood hemorrhaging out of the huge gash on her side. There was a deep cut on her brow too. It leaked blood down the side of her cheek.

“Holy Zeus… You-you’re Thunder…” Sam realized.

Thunder — it was the name of the alpha-level hero who was ranked seventh in the national charts.

But there’s no way. Thunder wouldn’t go down like this, Sam thought.

Thunder was an unstoppable force of nature whose recent and sudden meteoric rise had made her legendary among this year’s crop of new heroes. So how could that woman, the gorgeous and brave hero whose face was on the poster plastered on Sam’s bedroom wall, be reduced to such a state?

“Help,” Thunder mumbled. Tears rolled down her cheeks, streaking through the drying blood that covered her.

The sight of his idol looking so uncommonly vulnerable forced Sam to get a grip.

“I-it’s okay,” he said as reassuringly as he could. “I’ve got you. It’s gonna be okay... I hope.”