“Cassie!” I groaned, flailing wildly with my arm in the direction of the speaker.
“Five more minutes.” I mumbled rolling deeper into the sofa.
“Cassie get up! We are on in five minutes.” Said the tentative voice of her intern, not wanting to annoy me but still needing to wake me up, I felt for this poor girl.
I shot up like a rocket, Five minutes! I thought in disbelief, I only had a little nap.
“How do I look?” I said while rushing toward the mirror on the far end of my trailer.
“You look fine Cassie. Now go we don’t have much time.” She squeaked at me while I gave myself a quick once over in the mirror.
The fact that my makeup was still fine was truly a miracle, the same could not be said of my hair. It had gone into bed head mode from my nap so I picked up a hairbrush and began to furiously brush my shoulder length blonde hair.
“Cassie you have to go!” My intern squeaked again as I made the final adjustments to my hair and dress while stepping out the door.
I moved as quickly as humanly possible while in heels, pushing past directors and interns and stage hands, making a beeline right for the stage.
I stepped on to it with 30 seconds to spare, my co-host looking visibly relieved at not having to do the whole show himself. H leaned over and whispered angrily to me.
“Where the fuck were you?!” He hissed conveying as much anger as was possible in a whisper.
“I over slept.” I said shrugging.
Before he could come up with a retort the trademark saying of television cut off our conversation, the show was starting.
“Lights. Camera. Action!”
The opening credits to hero view played as I sat on the red plush sofa, next to my co-host Donny, the two of us together were the hosts of HeroWatch, the primary show on the activities on villains and heroes in Australia.
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
“And today we have a special episode” I heard the credits saying and for once they weren’t exaggerating, we were interviewing the latest project by the united heroes to get the youth on their side, we were interviewing the new junior hero, Ddraig Goch.
The credits ended and I saw him walk in, he had been dressed in a suit while still wearing his costumes mask of course, he was tall, about 6’2, 6’3 and had a broad shoulder athletic build, and from what I could see tanned, bronze skin.
He sat down, looking uncomfortable but trying to hide it, the silence was beginning to drag after the roar of the crowd had died down and I was about to speak up to help the kid but Donny beat me to it.
“So, Ddraig Goch,” he drawled in his trademark Aussie accent. “It has been a week since the events with the Dominators, we have reason to believe that this was a chance for the Junior Heroes to gain some publicity before recruiting more members. So I have to ask, have you had any luck on that part?”
The young hero shifted his weight awkwardly, definitely more comfortable fighting crime then on a stage.
“Yes sir, we have had quite some success recruiting members, and I am happy to report that they will be revealed in a weeks’ time at the latest HeroCon event being held right here in Brisbane.” He said in the methodical way reversed answers always sounded.
“So, Ddraig Goch, what made you choose this life, in particular the events tying a currently un-named vigilante with a similar mask and power set to you and the break-up of a Bandidos Sangrientos slave trafficking ring?” This was the big question, it had taken a little while for the studio to dig for this information but now they were 90% sure that the vigilante had been the new Junior Hero.
For the first time in the whole of the interview he didn’t look uncomfortable and leaned forward in his chair.
“If you want to know if that was me or not, the yes, yes it was.” He spoke in a deep baritone, not loudly but just enough that everyone in the room could hear if they strained. And strain they did, this kid had a whole TV studio hanging of his every word in the way that any reporter would envy. “But if you want to know why I did it? I did it because it was the right thing to do,” the he looked at the cameras “and because nobody else would.
He stood up and left after that walking off the edge of the stage in a true drop the mic exit. People chased after him with questions, but not Cassie. Cassie was still rooted to her spot.
She had been wondering the reason the UH had made him the pioneer of the Junior Heroes, sure he was good at fighting but so were many other people, people who didn’t turtle up into rehearsed responses when quizzed. But now she knew, because on this day Cassie knew for sure that he had made at least one new fan.
She smiled and walked back to her trailer, it was going to be a long day.