“I think I’ve heard of this Whirlwind guy before,” Lux called out from under her bed.

She was shuffling around looking for her laptop. I don’t own anything that could give me the means to research this whirlwind. Plus Lux really wanted to be a help to us. She hasn’t really had the opportunity to.

“Do we even have Wi-Fi here?” I asked skeptically as she slowly got up from under her bed. She held up her hot pink laptop with a very proud smile on her face.

“Nope! Which is why we're heading to the library.” She chimed happily as she set her laptop down on her bed.

I was a bit surprised to see her with such a girly colored laptop. I figured she would have a black or dark blue one. As I was looking it over, I noticed the many stickers on it. She had skulls, fireballs, and a small Michael Myers chibi sticker on there. And suddenly her laptop fit her perfectly.

“Don’t judge my pink! I won that in a stupid writing contest. You know how society is, girls get pink and rainbows and boys get blue and footballs.” She groaned as she grabbed a pair of dirty socks off the floor, and began to slip them on.

She was in dark blue denim shorts with a light blue T-shirt. She didn’t bother fixing her hair yet, and I figured she wouldn’t. I stared a bit at her as she finished putting on her shoes. It was astonishing how much she resembled mom. The way she dressed, her face, her eyes. It was a little haunting.

“Yes, yes I know. Wearing dirty clothes and keeping my hair a mess is very unladylike of me. But we shouldn’t be out too long.” She responded without even looking over at me.

“I wasn’t gonna say anything. I was just thinking that... You look a lot like her. Mom I mean.” I spoke a bit softly with a small smile on my face. I looked over at Lux, who was blushing some.

“Y-you really think so?” She asked as she looked down to her feet.

“Yeah. Right down to wearing old clothes she hadn't washed in a week.” I replied with a chuckle.

“Like mother, like daughter I suppose.” She whispered.

She was smiling down at her shoes as she seemed to be thinking about something. It was rare for us to bring up mom in conversation. I was always afraid to. I could feel my heart begin to race, I moved my hand up to my mouth and went to bite on my nails. But I had nothing left to bite. Which immediately led to me tapping my foot. But just as I did, I felt Lux move her hand on my shoulder.

“Come on! Let's go!” She cheered as she gave me a warm smile.

I felt the pit that was beginning to form in my stomach slowly fade away. I gave a smile back to her and nodded. She went to grab her laptop and then we headed out.

As we got to the library we headed to the very back to get some privacy. We found a desk back there and set up. There was this sort of awkward silence between us for a bit. That was until Lux spoke up.

“You know, you don’t have to get all nervous when we talk about mom.” She said softly as she kept her eyes on the screen.

“I-I know, I wasn’t nerv-”

“Stryder don’t even. I know you better than anyone, I can tell when you're anxious.” She fired back immediately in her stern mother tone.

Which kept me quiet for a bit.

“I’m sorry,” I said eventually.

“Good.” She chimed happily.

“I just, I can’t help but feel like that. It was my fault that it happened.” I whispered to myself.

“Stryder, you can’t keep beating yourself up over that.” She replied with a softer tone.

She looked away from the screen and over to me. She kept her eyes fixated on mine with a sympathetic look. But that look just felt like a lie.

“How can you say that?” I grunted out. “Don’t lie to make me feel better!” I balled my fist in frustration as I looked away from her.

“Stryder that’s enough! No one but that stupid drunk blames you for that!” She snapped back.

“Is that why you couldn’t even look at me for a year? Is that why you avoided me for so long?” I asked as I turned back to face her.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

She looked away as soon as I caught her eyes. Which only confirmed my disbelief, which I was afraid of most.

“Stryder I’m sorry I just-.” She started but we were both interrupted by someone.

“Excuse me you two!” We both stopped as we turned to see who was talking to us.

There stood one of the men that worked in the library. He looked to be in his thirties, he had long brown hair that was tied back in a ponytail. He reminded me of some kind of hippie. Definitely not the uptight librarian type. He had on his blue uniform and really fancy shoes. I could see his jaw was clenched tight like he was holding back a yell. His eyes were like daggers staring us down, which was oddly intimidating.

“Sorry, sir! Will be quiet,” I replied softly.

He made an odd gurgling sound as he looked to me, then Lux over and over.

“This is your first warning. You get another, and you're out. Understand?”

“Yes, sir,” I replied quickly.

“Whatever,” Lux said under her breath as she looked back to the screen. Luckily the man didn’t hear her and turned back around to leave.

As we became alone again, I could feel the tension between us. Lux was biting on her lip as she typed in whirlwind’s name. I just looked at the screen and tried to not talk. I didn’t mean to hurt her, I didn’t mean to complain. After all, she had all the right to ignore me when she did.

“Here’s a video of this guy that seems to be viral right now. I watched it a while ago when it was first spreading around. I just didn’t know who the guy was,” She whispered.

But as she spoke she seemed to refuse to look at me. Which made me feel even worse about myself. Maybe I was just overthinking things now? I don’t know.

“I guess I was just too preoccupied with other stuff to really listen to the talk around school,” I admitted. “ I heard rumors of some stuff happening, but nothing that made me bat an eye.”

“I saw a ton of memes about this guy,” Lux added with a smile.

I guess not having a cell phone, and being super antisocial wasn’t a smart idea while superheroes were becoming real. I’m sure there are a bunch of different heroes out there by now that I have no idea about. I would imagine Zack has heard of them by now, being as popular as he is.

“I guess it pays to have a social life.” I chuckled some trying to ease the tension.

But she still wasn’t looking at me.

“Right.” She replied absent-mindedly.

She scrolled through YouTube and clicked the first video in the results. I sat back, and she muted her laptop as the video played.

The video was taken from somebody's cell phone. The quality wasn’t the best, but it was visible. They were in the streets, like a highway or something. Traffic had come to a complete stop, as the video showed someone in a hood. They were weaving fiery punches from something. The more I watched, the more clear the antagonist became. It looked like a girl. She was in a red hoodie and blue jeans. She had this black gas mask on her face, letting her blonde hair cascade in the wind. Her fists were lit ablaze with dark red fire as she relentlessly shot punch after punch at the hooded figure.

The one dodging had some weird gust of wind showing up each time he blocked a punch with his arm. His hood had some kind of swirling wind around it, seemingly keeping it down over his face. He had a dark green zip hoodie on, with black jeans and black boots. The hooded guy seemed calm and relaxed, dodging and blocking each strike. The girl was producing fire from her elbows and fist like firework sprinklers. It seemed like it was making her strikes much faster, and harder.

She was pushing him back toward a car. The person who was recording moved around to get a better angle. It was clear he was holding his phone from outside his car window. I could see the surroundings a little better now. There were more people on their phones, seemingly videotaping the fight. I could also see a few cars piled up in a crash. I’d assume that’s probably how traffic initially stopped. It seemed like a few people were complaining, but oddly enough. It was like a lot of people were cheering and rooting for… someone. We had it on mute, so we didn't know who exactly.

I was a bit surprised to not see any police, or anyone trying to force themselves through. It was like some gladiator match. I looked intently at the screen, trying to decipher more. That’s when I noticed the steam coming from the girl. I thought it was a quality problem before but no, she had steam emanating off her. The hooded guy ducked from a right hook, just barely dodging it. She came in for an uppercut with her left arm and the hooded guy jumped back. He hopped up and spun around in the air. As he did, a gust of wind picked up and formed a funnel around him. It was only an instant, but his foot shot out from the funnel and kicked her in the chest. All the air dissipated from him as he made contact, and gently fell to his feet.

She slid back like she was on a slip and slide. Was she melting the concrete!? She was bent over holding onto her chest. Stumbling a bit as she came to a stop and the surrounding crowd seemed to be in shock. The girl stepped forward and stumbled a bit, as the hooded man stepped toward her. I had no idea what happened, I wondered if he broke her ribs or something. But it didn’t last that long. It was like an explosion. A bright red flare sparked from her feet. Then she rocketed forward at him, leaving a trail of smoke behind her. Ramming him into the hood of the car.

The hooded guy was lying on his back against the car hood. He struggled to sit up as the cameraman zoomed in on him. His hood surprisingly still managed to hide his face. The girl was standing in front of him with her hands held out, sparks were erupting in her palms as the fire consumed her arms. As soon as the guy tried to get off, she shot an enormous burst of fire at him. He swung his arms out in front of him, as the fire spiraled around him like a tornado. The cameraman jumped and zoomed out. There was a huge funnel of fire swirling around him and the car. The girl’s arms sparked and flared like a wildfire as the funnel grew, and grew.

The cameraman frantically flung his arm back into his car, nearly dropping his phone. The view was from his car window now, looking through his cracked window. Then BOOM! The funnel exploded. A wave of fire shot out in every direction. The driver jumped hard again and dropped his phone.

We could see the screen shake a lot as it dropped to the floor. I’m sure if we could hear it, we have a good idea of what was happening. Luckily it didn't take long for him to pick his phone up again. The view was of the inside of his messy car, then through the cracked screen of his car window.

As the camera refocused, alone stood the hooded man. In front of what was left of the car that had been melted like cheese. He was panting hard and staggering a bit. Then, he dropped face first into the asphalt. The cameraman zoomed in on him, he seemed lifeless, like a doll. Lux and I grew closer to the screen. It was just a still image of him lying there. Then we both jumped back as a giant wall of ice erupted up from the ground around him. The cameraman panicked and dropped his phone again. Which ended the video.

I blinked a few times in shock, that was insane. Like really insane. It was like I was looking at a TV show or a video game. They were really fighting with superpowers!

“Well, damn,” Lux muttered as she scrolled down a bit on the videos.

The title of the video was, “Icarus takes an L to Helios Comet!!”. Which kind of aggravated me. I started looking at the related videos. One said “Missouri's Whirlwind reduced to Icarus,” Another was titled “Icarus losing his wings! (a complication of him getting knocked by Helios Comet”.) I noticed that video after video was just making fun of him.

“That explains all the memes that are going around…” Lux sighed

“And why I haven’t heard of Whirlwind, I have heard about Icarus though,” I replied. A few kids in my class were laughing at a video a few weeks ago. Talking about how Lame of a hero Missouri has."

She kept scrolling down looking at the videos, but it was nothing but videos upon videos roasting this guy. There were some with videos of the early stages of their fight. Which looked like it was in the city. Then one video that stood out to me was called, “Why the Knight would stomp Icarus in a fight”. Which put into perspective how iconic I had really become. Lux nudged me playfully as she pointed out the video.

Before we had a chance to watch the earlier fight scene, Lux got a call. She jumped a bit at her loud ringer and answered quickly.

‘What! Who's this!?” She loudly whispered into the phone.

She looked aggravated, but her face soon softened to one of confusion.

“How’d you get my number?” She shot back at the phone.

Then she just listened for a bit, nodding at what the person was saying. She promptly hung up after telling the person okay.

“Who was that?” I asked with a raised brow.

“It was Jack. He said he needed to see you, and it was urgent.” She said with a little worry in her voice.

My eyes widened in surprise but I nodded. What could this emergency be?