Call of the Hero: Dreams

Epilogue

A/N: I decided this story needed an epilogue to answer a few things and to well, fix something for the main character. I think he’ll appreciate it, considering all I’ve been through today. Granted, he’s been through worse, but whatever. I also have to wonder how many of the random anime references I put into this story you caught.

Epilogue

“Finally!”

Alex hear the shout and was worried for a little bit, so he got up from the bed to see what Azaiah was going on about. There, standing in front of the mirror was a teenager who had brown hair falling over his eyes, without a hint of pink anywhere in them. “This hotel shampoo did the trick.”

Alex couldn’t’ help but shaking his head a bit. After the past week, he couldn’t say he didn’t laugh a bit anytime he saw Azaiah walk into the room with pink hair, or try to shift whatever hat he had chosen to wear that day so that no one saw all the pink sticking out. Yes, he did laugh probably more than he should have.

“So what highlights are you going for next? Blue, purple?”

“I think I’ll go with my own hair color for once.” He shook his head, trying to get the rest of the water out of it.

“Apparently the paper has been covering the explosions at the camp again,” Alex said going over the newspaper that was sitting between the two beds of the room.

“What are they saying today?” Azaiah said laying on his own bed, feeling it bounce him up and down a little bit.

“Just that they’d gotten all but a couple of the kids back with their parents, and they’ve said that there was still one left in the hospital.”

“No word about cicada?” Azaiah asked.

“Nope, it seems the government is keeping their involvement secret.”

That really didn’t surprise Azaiah. The clashes the government has had with them has always been done in the shadow, and whatever reactions they had from it ended up being thrown away, or covered up with some other story. Like the explosions there were caused by an earth quake causing some underground gas lines to combust, and that then caused some other chain reactions. Azaiah was praised for noticing the cause of it during an inspection, so they could get everyone out before it was too late. Or at least, that’s what the public believed.

It wasn’t hard to fool the news media, but the people that were there, those that saw the battles, experienced those vivid dreams, they’d be haunted by these things for a lot time. Even if they were sworn to secrecy, Azaiah doubted that would hold.

“I need to go over the story again for the interview, make sure I don’t mess anything up,” Azaiah said as he went put a clean shirt on.

“Um, Azaiah, that shirt is inside out,” Alex said right as Azaiah pulled it over his head.

He laughed a little bit as he fixed it. “You know, during that dream I had, a brother who helped me fix that once before I went on a date.”

“Just look in the mirror before you leave once we get back home. I don’t plan to check your wardrobe every day to make sure you don’t think something like that before going out in public.”

“Eh, it’s New York. They’ll probably just think I’m making a fashion statement or something.” Azaiah then went back to the bed and sat down on it. “Can you believe we’re finally going back home tomorrow?” he asked.

“It seems like it’s been much more than a week.”

After the camp being destroyed, the military quickly got involved and came up with the cover stories, the reason for the explosions, and they also took in the Cicada operatives under their direct custody so that there were no official police records of the arrests made. They also put the kids up in hotels until arrangements could be made to get them back home. For some, it was a more traumatic experience than others.

“I can’t believe I’ll actually look forward to being around that fat cat. I kind of miss her.”

Azaiah started to doze off, it being earlier than he would have liked being awake, but he just couldn’t sleep. He still wondered if he’d dream about dating Foxie again. It was strange, he knew the relationship was only in his mind, but she was still real, in a way, even if it was an act. But still, those memories existed within him, and they wouldn’t just go away.

“Oh, Dad told me about the final totals of those who had captured,” Azaiah said, popping back up.

“What about them?”

“Well, turns out, their leader, Hillary somehow managed to commit suicide shortly after we began questioning him. We’re not sure how, but they found a lethal dose of a metal in his blood. Foxie ended up dying before they could get her any medical treatment, and Sion has been pretty quiet so far.”

“Doesn’t sound like they’re getting much out of them then.”

Azaiah shook his head. “All the rest were low ranking grunts, they only knew up to Hillary, and had no idea where else the organization was or what they were doing. And then Aaron disappeared shortly after we left camp that morning, and they have no idea where he went.” It seemed like such a waste that even with the intention not to kill, so many had died. Either from Jenna’s bullets hitting truer than she intended, or Aaron’s attacks being too severe and not being treated in time. At least none of the kids at the camp had been hurt badly, that was a miracle alone.

“I’m going to head down to the breakfast buffet, you want to come?” Alex said as he got up.

“Not like I have anything better to do,” Azaiah said.

“Oh, and tonight Miles and I are doing a few songs at the open mic night down in the hotel lobby. It should be a fun show if you feel like listening to it.”

“Of course.” Azaiah had worried about Miles, from the things he said, he knew Miles had faced a lot of things in his life. Maybe he’d never see that kid again, but he didn’t know what the future held. And no matter what the case, he wanted to show Miles that there were people that supported him. After all, wasn’t that what the call of the hero was about? Helping those who needed it, especially the ones closest to him. That was his dream in life, something he wanted to get stronger and wiser so he could chase after it. Maybe it was naïve, and maybe he couldn’t do everything, but he’d do what he could, knowing that his friends and family would be by his side when he couldn’t stand on his own.