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Heroes of Tomorrow
Chapter Six: A Second Chance: Part Three

Chapter Six: A Second Chance: Part Three

“I didn’t know it was customary for people to talk to themselves here,” an annoyed voice came from behind me, obviously having difficulty in speaking greek.

Turning around, I saw a girl almost as tall as me looking out at the sea herself. She definitely looked out of place in our city. She had long black hair, accented by a few blue streaks and crystal blue eyes. She was also dressed in an overly large winter hoodie, pants and boots in spite of the fact that it was summer.

“You’re faster than you look,” huffed the girl as she began walking toward the lighthouse. “Well, are you coming or not?” she asked, turning towards me.

“Who are you and what’s going on here?” I asked after a few moments of silence, not moving to follow her.

“They didn’t tell you? That’s odd.” She sounded, sounding genuinely shocked. “Jensen told me to meet you at the park. He talked to your friend, the blonde one, what’s his face, to find out where you were. I came in when you were running like a little kid,” she said, her voice taking on a mocking tone at the end.

“Let’s suppose I believe you,” I said, as I rushed to catch up to her. “Why did you follow me then? I doubt that I looked like anything much, running away like a little kid,” I said, smirking slightly as she turned her head away from me, clearly annoyed.

I shivered once more under the cold. I didn’t know why, but it made me happy to get under this girl’s skin. It also allowed me to think about something other than my encounter with Maria and how I ran away from her and Iraklis.

“I can’t believe I’m supposed to spend the next two months training with you,” she said through gritted teeth.

I almost chuckled at that. It didn’t seem like it’d be fun for me either. Or maybe it would be the most fun I’d had in a while, who could know.

“You brought the temperature down, didn’t you?” I said. I was almost sure that she did. She was dressed appropriately for weather like this, which coincidentally came here just as she did.

“I’m not the best at controlling my power. That’s why I was sent to train with Jensen. My parents learned what he offered you, so they volunteered me as well,” she said. She sounded more annoyed than anything else, being overly loud and dramatic.

“Is that so? Who are your parents then?” I asked her almost immediately after, my curiosity getting the better of me.

“That doesn’t matter!” she snapped at me, gesturing wildly with her hands until a barrage of ice was shot to her left, reaching the sea.

My eyes widened and so did hers.

An elemental power?

That was something you didn’t really see in Heraklion. It wasn’t something you saw out in the wild unless you were really lucky or assaulted by terrible villains. Those that belonged to the Elemental Agencies usually kept their cards pretty close to their chests, keeping their actual identities a well guarded secret, being mainly heroes or other powerful individuals.

My inner fanboy was squealing at the fact that I would be training with one, albeit for a short amount of time, while the more sensible part became even more intimidated that I wouldn’t hold up.

“Don’t. Don’t say a damn word,” she growled in a dangerously low tone of voice.

“You usually expect the ice types to be the more calm and collected ones,” I blurted out without thinking. “To be, you know, coolheaded.” I shrugged.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Oh dear God, what did I just say and why did I say it? I didn’t want an awkward silence to form, and I had the sense that if I asked any questions I’d immediately regret it. The girl seemed to be debating whether or not she should say anything, deciding to just sigh as she started to continue walking to the lighthouse.

Her breath was visible, and the temperature had dropped even more. I genuinely thought of just running as far away from her as possible. But I decided to stay put.

“Is everything alright?” I asked after her, although I wasn’t moving to get closer to her.

“Just don’t hold back when we’re training.” she said without turning around and I almost didn’t hear her.

“Pfft. I’m not really anything special,” I said casually. And it wasn’t false. If someone like Iraklis, or even Maria were taking part in the training instead, then that would probably be best for everyone.

I didn’t actually believe she would do something to hurt me. Of course I didn’t know her but her whole posture seemed defensive rather than offensive. Plus, it was very rare that you would see a villain with powers like hers. You wouldn’t see them just strolling around at least.

It took all of two seconds for me to be proven wrong.

A wall of ice as tall as me was shot straight towards me and I barely had the time to do anything to raise my hand in order to defend myself. The ice sped toward me, and eventually my bare fingers touched it.

It was cold, as was expected from ice, and it instantly began covering my whole form.

I could see the red lines begin to cover the ice and a moment later it shattered in a cold, so very cold, and loud screech.

Small particles of the substance surrounded me and the girl, her dual coloured hair and baggy clothes blowing in the wind, her eyes wide and mouth set in a frown. The beginning of the wall, reaching about half a meter away in both distance and height, was the only remaining piece of her attack.

Meanwhile, I was breathing semi-heavily. My fingers trembled from the cold and the force that the ice impacted them. I tried not to let it show however. I stood tall as I faced her with a semblance of a smile on my face.

“Who are you?” I asked her as I made my voice as threatening as I could. It was a bit tough to do while I was smiling, but I tried my best.

“I could ask the same thing,” she said through gritted teeth. “You seem quite powerful for someone so sure of their weakness.”

“You don’t know wha-”

“Hold kæft hold kæft!” she said loudly, in what I assumed to be, well, German? Most likely another northern European language, but I couldn’t be sure.

I didn’t have a chance to say anything however, as she pointed at me and began speaking in her accented Greek once more. “Don’t hold back on me. I’ll make it to the Atlantis Academy, and I won’t be set back by a training partner and rival that doesn’t try his best every minute of the day!”

I put my glove back on. Dammit. She was right. This random person who I didn’t even properly know yet was the one to help me understand.

“A hero is someone that uses every talent in their arsenal, be it brains or brawn, to save, inspire and reassure others!” I said to her, repeating Alpha Surge’s words. “Don’t worry, that’s the ideal I strive for, the ideal that I will fight to achieve, so I won’t hold back!”

It was all so simple and yet I couldn’t see it.

“My name is Birgit Stine Paulsen,” she said, a slight smirk decorating her face.

“Alexandros Adamos,” I said, rubbing my hands together. “And you better not disappoint, miss ‘impossible to pronounce name’.” I added, shrugging my shoulders as I began to walk back to the city.

I had to find Iraklis and, more importantly, I had a lot of explaining to do.

“What did you just say?” I heard her say loudly, her voice becoming much more screechy than it was before.

“See you in the day after tomorrow!” I yelled back, while also having a small chuckle to myself.

The whole atmosphere began to get warmer and warmer until eventually it reached normal temperatures once more, and I was certain that she must have been far away by this time.

My phone was buzzing in my phone pocket, and I took it out to see that it was a call from Iraklis. It ended before I could pick it up. I just realised that he had called me about a dozen times in the past few minutes, and my parents had called me triple that amount of time, both from their individual cell phones and our landline.

I let out a hearty laugh at seeing that. They were all truly great. I turned back in the direction of the lighthouse.

Yes, this, this was it.

This was the beginning of my story.