The man screamed in pain as he stumbled back, the tendons of his right arm retreating, and the arm itself hanging limp at his side. All arrogance and calm were gone from his face and posture, replaced with anger and fear.

He charged at us like a wild animal, only being stopped when a barrage of ice crashed in his body. I looked back at Birgit, who let out a large breath as the bus’s temperature went even lower, to the point that the moisture on the windows started to freeze up.

A gigantic wall of ice formed at her feet, shattering the bus to pieces. All three of us fell on the road. The ice formed a mountainous shape that was at least a few stories tall, trapping the man in there entirely.

It was greater than anything else I had ever seen Birgit do, and I was both amazed and horrified at the sight. I felt the cold on my right hand slightly more than on my left, and I remembered that I had removed my right glove, which I rectified immediately.

I had just used my power on instinct. I hadn’t thought about it. Hell, I hadn’t realised I had done it until it was already too late. But before that, I had sat back, too afraid of failure and too busy wallowing in my own self doubt.

I hesitated. And a hero should never hesitate. Because if they do, then people could be hurt, lives could be lost.

I turned to Birgit only to see her shivering with her arms wrapped around her body, as frost had settled on most of her exposed skin. She was clearly barely holding on to consciousness, her eyes teetering between being open and closed, and she was swaying back and forth.

I rushed over to her side and grabbed her body, which was freezing cold. I wrapped my left arm–my safe arm–around her in an awkward sort of hug, trying to transfer whatever body heat I had to her. I heard her muttering various words in Danish, but I couldn’t make heads or tails from that, so I looked around once more, trying to get a better sense for the whole situation.

Maria was behind us, clearly staring at my exposed right hand, something which I didn’t really have time to ponder. At least she didn’t look too upset, mostly perplexed and taken aback at the whole scene. What was it that made her so perplexed? I did not know, but I wasn’t in a clear enough head space to figure it out.

A crowd was even further behind her, as well as the beginnings of a line of cars and angry looking people next to them. Almost as if on cue three figures, four people that were evidently heroes, stepped through the crowd, coming toward us.

I could identify them as the sole members of the Cretan Hero Association, our semi-local Hero Association, normally split across our island’s four districts, but they were all gathered at Heraklion that day as an act of goodwill to Lady Flame and her appearance at Liberty Square.

And if all four of them were there to face off against this guy, then he was definitely dangerous. Which made it all the more odd and somewhat terrifying that I had heard pretty much nothing about him.

“Who-who are they?" asked Birgit quietly. She sounded so weak and fragile that I felt another wave of worry anger rush through me.

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"A Cretan Hero team," I said with a soul wrenching cough. "That's Aiolos." I pointed to the leading Hero, and the one to walk with the most comfort and assurance. He was a completely hairless man, wearing a black karate uniform with a red belt and a tattoo of a triangle crossed with a line in front of it on his forehead.

"Atroti." I pointed to the woman behind him. She was dressed in a white skin tight outfit with two metal Escrima sticks in her hand and, while she wasn’t leading the quartet, she exuded an air of confidence that not even Aiolos had. She had pale skin and crimson red eyes, the most distinct appearance, and she was also only one of the group to not have a secret identity

"And they are Energiakos and Therapeftria." Behind the two were the Tonosi Twins, Energiakos and Therapeftria, a brother-sister duo with the power to boost the physical characteristics and heal people respectively. They were the youngest of the group, and they had the most elaborate costumes, wearing blue and green spandex suits respectively.

The brother had a lighter stripe down the middle of his body, with a white glowing E on his chest, while the sister had a glowing + sign on her chest. They both had brown hair and eyes, with the sister having freckles dotted across her face and the brother wearing small blue tinted goggles.

They were also my favourite among the lot. They had no Greek ancestry, mainly Roma and Turkish parentage which led to some, let’s say intense, reactions among some of the older and less inclusive parts of our country.

“Young people!” called Aeolos in Greek as they reached the three of us. His attention was mainly drawn to Birgit’s form and Maria’s scar, the latter of which sent some fresh guilt to my brain, but I couldn’t blame him considering the circumstances.

I let my shoulders slightly drop in relief, and attempted to let out a breath in relief. Only to find out that I couldn’t. I couldn’t-I couldn’t breathe. I was just talking to Birgit. What-What happened?

I wheezed out a few small breaths and strained coughs before stumbling slightly. No, no, no–I couldn’t fall. Not now. I tried to take deeper breaths, to calm myself, but it did nothing. I eventually decided to use my right hand to look for my inhaler–carefully touching the outsides of my pockets with a few of my fingers–but I couldn’t find it.

I had forgotten it at home. The thing that could quite literally mean the difference between life and death, and I had forgotten it at home. And there I was, barely holding on to Birgit and in front of some of the best local heroes unable to even breathe.

“He has asthma,” said Maria as she placed her hand on my back to stabilise me. “I’m not hurt, but these two could probably use your help. I don’t know what’s wrong with her though.”

“Energiakos, to the girl! Therapeftria, to the boy,” said Atroti. She was still looking at Maria, more specifically at the scarred part of her face. And she wasn’t subtle about it. Maria looked away from the woman in response.

I looked down at my bare hand. My breathing had suddenly become even more shallow. I couldn’t-I couldn’t breathe.I felt my chest tighten. The world around me started disappearing little by little and the voices of the people around me began to fade away, and darkness began to overtake my vision.

I felt Birgit’s body being taken away from me and I instinctively tried to fight back, only to find out that I didn’t have the strength to. I faintly registered a series of cracks coming from the ice hill that Birgit had made, and the air around me shifted, just a little.

But I couldn’t make out what was going on. An empty darkness filled my whole world, a quiet ringing round being the only thing that broke the monotony of the empty void I found myself in.