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Chapter Three

Chapter Three
As Sebastian drew nearing scorching everything is his path I realized I needed to get everyone outside. Talk about a sore loser, anyway, I shouted to my teammates and opponents to start leaving in an orderly fashion which obviously failed as people left in a stampede reminiscent of the Lion King. Daniel and Ethan tried to stay back but I told them to take care of everyone else and that me and Tegan can handle this chump. "Tegan" I say to her through our mind link, "Tegan, you wanna help me end this poser?" "Meh, I'll think about it" she replies. Unlike most superheroes, I never have to change into costume in a phone booth or alley, I just snap my fingers and tada... Just like magic. I bet you're wondering "But Façade, what is your costume?" Good question young one, well think of every male superhero in a spandex suit ever, but more like Dr. Strange.... He's my idol. Anyway, like that with a question mark and an upside down question mark in a white circle and an "illusionary mist" concealing my face. Pretty cool right? I know. I snap my fingers, change and fly up to meet Sebastian.

Thanks to the illusionary mist Sebastian doesn't hear the slight tinge of fear in my voice when I say "Who are you?" Sebastian turns to look at me, scoffs and continues to burn the field. This time I put more force and confidence in my voice and say "I said Who are you?!" He shoots a beam of energy at me and shouts "Insolent cur, You can call me Joules" I use my powers to switch positions with him so he gets hit with the beam instead and plummets to the ground. I land next to him and say "Joules? You mean like diamonds and emeralds and rubies? What's your power sweating engagement rings?" "Ask him if he's a diamond in the rough" says Tegan through our mind link. I snicker and he looks at me with a look of utter confusion on his face, so I ask "Hey Jewels.... Are you a diamond in the rough?" before falling to the floor with laughter. From the look on his face he was getting quite enraged but knowing my limits was never one of my best qualities. So I continue to antagonize him,"Hey can you sweat out a diamond ring for me, I wanna give my best friend a late birthday gift". I start laughing but that becomes short lived as Joules showed me why he chose that name as he acquaints my face to his energy charged fist as he replies "Cute and what are you going to do? Drown me with that greasy hair of yours?"."Oh it's a fist fight you want, fantastic" I say as I reply with my own energy charged blow. "Nobody insults my hair and gets away with it" I shout as my fist kisses his face and glows with blue energy. "Stop acting like a splenetic child" he replies as he punches back and smiles smugly "I'll make you a deal whatever your name is, if you beat me mano a mano no powers I'll let you take me to the police" My devil-may-care attitude and arrogance will be the death of me as they were two of my biggest flaws but brash was my middle name(No it isn't, it's actually Raphael Angèl). "My name is Façade and I accept, no powers" I reply shaking his outstretched hand.

Remember how I said my devil-may-care attitude and arrogance were two of my biggest flaws, well my fatal flaw or hamartia just happens to be that I'm too trusting. As soon as Sebastian and I shook hands he blindsided me with a kick to ribs. I groan in pain as I stagger to my feet just in time to evade his follow up attack. He lunges but this time I'm ready for him and I punch him in his right ear disorienting him, which leaves him open to my onslaught of strikes from various fighting styles. I switched styles so frequently that all he could see was the the flurry of attacks encasing him in a barrage of pain. From Tae Kwon Do to Muy Thai to Capoeira I relentlessly rained blows barely affording him the chance to strike back. I was so glad I took up all those disciplines when I was young. I eventually started getting cocky and extremely sloppy allowing Sebastian to get back in the fight, "Didn't expect you to be so tough Footloose, it's a wonder you haven't slipped yet with all the grease oozing out of your hair". I block his punch with one of my own, "Pretty big talk from you Coyote ugly, come back here, my fists just love kissing that natural disaster you call a face"

This fight was starting to take its toll on both of us. My movements started getting sluggish and uncoordinated while Sebastian's reaction time greatly diminished but we fought on neither of us wanting to yield to the other. I had to end this now. I waited for Sebastian to attack and pounced, sweeping his legs and positioning myself to deliver the final blow, but before I could strike a beam of energy shot me into the sky. I should've known he wouldn't stick to his word, why did I have to be so trusting.Seconds before I hit the earth my eyes (Or where it would be had it been for the illusionary mist) and fists started burning blue with energy, I channel that energy to propel me at breakneck speed toward Sebastian. I reacquaint Sebastian with my feet except this times it's loaded with energy. He crashes to the floorand before he can move I punch him at all his pressure pointsneutralizing him temporarily. "Hey Tegan, did you miss me?" I ask through our mind link. "I didn't even notice you were missing, but where did you learn to do that?" "Saw it in a show" I reply. I get down on one knee next to him and mockingly say "Oh Joules, we've been together for so long and I just wanted to ask if...... you'd do me the honor of wearing this ring which neutralizes your power until I take it off? Oh you will amazing. He said yes everyone" As I slide the ring down his finger Tegan asks "Saw that in a show too?" "Nope, in a daydream, but it's only a ring because I thought it would be funny" I reply. She laughs as I fly off to take Joules to jail.

With all the excitement of Wednesday as soon my body touched the bed I faded away into dreamland. During the night I had some strange dreams. I had dreams of falling friends and fighting friends and the sound of someone crying. What could these things mean? I awoke in a panic the next morning terrified of what I'd seen. I decided that I'd walk to school to help clear my head so that I could better interpret these dreams. Lost in my thoughts, out of the corner of my eyes I saw a trail of fire in the sky. Seeing as I only knew one person that could do that I immediately shot Daniel out of the sky causing him to land 5 feet away from me. I sprint to meet him. "What do you think you're doing?" I ask him sternly "I was too lazy to wait for the bus so I decided to fly to school" He replied nonchalantly. I punched him in the arm and said "You're an idiot". He gave me a look of feigned pain and replied "I wasn't even that high up, plus I was gonna stop by the bakery outside school and walk the rest anyway" I punched him again, "You do know you were in your costume right? You do know that the few villains we've fought know that Façade and Vwoom are buddies right?" (Let me explain the name, firstly Daniel's power is to manipulate and control fire, the fire comes from within, don't ask. Secondly when we were all choosing our names for the first time all the good fire related ones were already gone: Human Torch, Pyro, Hot Steak so Daniel decided to go with the sound of a fire igniting and here we are. Most importantly I will find a name for him if it kills me). "Sorry" he said sounding genuine, I helped him up and we finished the walk to school together.

Halfway down the road, the sound of tears ravished Daniel's and my ears. As we drew nearer to the source more and more tears filled our ear drums. The source of the crying was a woman on the floor and when we tried to find out what was wrong all she could reply was "Despair" before bursting into tears again. I decided to try my hand at mind reading with a technique I learned from a book. I had seen what I needed and it was bad. "Hey Daniel, suit up" I told him as I snapped my fingers becoming Façade. "Finally" he shouted as he flames encased him dying down to reveal a red suit with a V on his chest. After reading the crying woman's mind I knew exactly where we were going.As we got closer to the hospital a wave of despondency forced me and Vwoom to the floor. "And who might you two be" said a raspy depressing voice. I tried to force myself to look at the owner of the voice when I replied "We're your worst nightmares". Another wave rocked my body as a high fake laughter filled my ears. "You must be the mighty Façade and one of your trusty wonder buddies. So nice to finally meet you. I am Despair and you will learn to fear me" said Despair and with his final word depression gripped me with its unyielding icy hands and unwillingly wrapped me in a loving embrace. All of my worst memories rushed back to me faster then I'd like crippling me. The first rejection and the second and third and so on, when my parents almost died, all these memories forced me to scream out in anguish and judging from the sounds next to me Vwoom was experiencing the same.

"You were always the second choice, the expendable one, only remembered when you were needed, forsaken by those you once called friends" Despair's raspy voice whispers in my mind, "Everyone's favorite when nobody's around, so loving yet loved by no one, you'll never be anything". I sank to the floor in tears, I had given up, there was no way I could come back. Despair was right, I was nothing, tears soaked my clothes and I was on the verge of giving up until I heard Vwoom shout "I..... Won't....... Go........ Down....... That easy". I tried to dry my tears and force myself to think of all the good memories I could. I thought about Mlle Alexis and how she giggled when I told her I'd score a goal for her, how she cheered when I scored, how it felt to score, the celebration I had with Daniel and Ethan and Nathaniel and Tegan. I forced myself to my feet and smiled like the Grinch since Despair wanted to impose his negativity on me I'd return the favor seven fold. I used my mind link to talk to Vwoom and together we imposed all our positivity on Despair. His screams cut through the air as he came into being. He was a short skinny guy dressed all in black surrounded by shadows. Before he feel to the floor he hurled shadow balls at us hitting us square in the chest. As we all rose from the ground, I sprinted towards him throwing and energy punch only to hit his shadow armor. Vwoom attacked with a stream of flames which Despair fought back with an equally amazing stream of shadows. Beams of energy, fire and shadows flew through the air as none of us wanted to miss or yield. "No more play time kiddies* said Despair, his voice high and raspy. I rushed to end this fight quickly but Despair was quicker and he trapped me in shadows. Vwoom tried to save me but he got pinned down under a shadowy fist. "Watch true Despair as none of you will be able to save the other. A shadowy blade appeared out of nowhere and started to fall on Vwoom, I tried to scream but the shadows covered my mouth. The last sight I saw before becoming fully trapped was the blade dropping across Vwoom's throat and a burst of flames...... I had no idea what happened.