Tough Thoughts - Mildcard - We Can Be Heroes the Threequel

Chapter 18 || Lonely Pressure

WILDCARD

Oh... poop! Marcus Moreno knows about the whole Mildcard thing!

"So that's what Mildcard was about!" he continued on, "It was about Wildcard and my daughter!"

A-Capella nervously showed Marcus a picture of Missy and me kissing with a big banner that said 'Mildcard! Happy 2 Year Meet-a-versary!' on it. It was the day Missy and I had officially been friends for two years. And I was happy on that day, so I just... kissed her. Yeah, but then, I found Wheels' memory wiper machine in the dumpster because he had started rebuilding it and remodeling it, and I just wiped that memory out of her mind before Miss Granada could have it destroyed again.

"OH MY GOSH!" Marcus Moreno screamed, "AHHH! MY DAUGHTER'S KISSED YOU?!"

"Exactly 316 times," Wheels said, showing Marcus his 'Mildkiss' section on his panel.

"AHHH!" Marcus screamed again.

"Now I see why Missy didn't want to tell you." Fast Forward raised both her eyebrows.

"YEAH! BECAUSE I JUST SAW A PICTURE OF WILDCARD CHEWING ON MY DAUGHTER'S FACE!"

"It's a kiss--" Rewind started but Marcus Moreno stared at the screen, where it showed Missy and Noodles.

He went quiet. Then, he spoke softly.

"Why didn't she tell me?"

MISSY MORENO

We were hiking in the light again. It'd officially been a week since we had reached the black mountain and we were getting close to the top. The purple glow had become brighter there. Noodles then spotted a gorge. No way out. We had to cross it and there was no bridge.

"Aw," Noodles groaned, "Can we go around?"

"Nope. If we go around... it'll be bye bye us because we'll fall to our deaths."

"Yeah... even Slo-mo can't survive that kind of fall!" Noodles exclaimed, peering over the edge.

"Well don't look at it! Noodles... Do you think maybe you could make a tightrope? So I could walk across, then you can swing across?"

"Sure! Here."

Noodles stretched his arm out and grabbed onto a secure stone.

"You're good! Go on! And don't look down..."

"Do you think I wanna look at what might be my death?" I gave him a look.

And you know, he was right. I looked down. And boy, was I terrified. I took a deep breath and found myself frozen in the middle. I couldn't move. I couldn't speak. I wanted to get off the tightrope. But then, I'd be barreling right into Noodles and we'd fall off the mountain together.

WILDCARD

We all watched as Missy got on her tightrope--which was apparently Noodles' arm--and began to slowly inch her way across the deadly gorge. She suddenly froze, not daring to move. Then, everyone facepalmed. Because she took out Ojo's iPad.

"OH REALLY?!" Facemaker exclaimed.

"MISSY JUST GET ACROSS!" A-Capella screamed, though we knew she couldn't hear us, "YOU'RE GONNA FALL AND DIE!"

"Missy!" Noodles yelled, "Why aren't you moving?!"

"I-I'm... I... I'M SCARED! OKAY?! I LOOKED DOWN!"

"And I told you not to--"

"LOOK DOWN YEAH I KNOW IT'S TOO LATE!" Missy screeched, wobbling a little bit.

"OW!"

"What?" She turned to the wincing Noodles.

"You stepped in my elbow cut!"

"Ooh... sorry!" she exclaimed before suddenly freezing, "NOODLES! NOODLES! BEHIND YOU!"

She began to inch her way as fast as she could over to the other side, but then, Velocrians came. They grabbed Noodles and began to try and wrench him free.

"AHHH!" he yelled, "MISSY!"

"NOODLES!" she screamed.

He was holding onto the other side of the gorge for dear life while Missy was trying to get across without plummeting to her death. Then, finally, a Velocrian did the unthinkable. He threw his hammer onto Noodles' arm.

"AHHH!" Noodles yelled, letting go and realizing his mistake a second too late, "NO! MISSY!"

"NOODLES!" her cry echoed through the gorge as she fell into the deep darkness.

"Let's go, noodle boy," a Velocrian grabbed Noodles' broken arm and yanked hard.

Noodles screamed, letting a little tear slip. They pulled him over and we could only stare at the ceiling as Noodles thumped to the floor.

"AHHH!" he yelled again, looking at everyone.

Then, I felt my heart crack into a million pieces when I saw tears build in his eyes, and he broke down right in front of us. I patted his back and he grabbed my arm, and though it hurt, I let him grip it as tight as he could.

"I left her! I killed her!" he was crying, "It's all my fault! I can't believe I just did that! I--"

"Noodles!" I grabbed his shoulders. "It's not your fault. You didn't leave her. You didn't kill her. The Velocrians killed her."

I stood up, glaring in fury at the walls, feeling like I was going to kill them back.

"And they'll pay..."

MISSY MORENO

When you fall down a gorge like this, let me tell you... it's not fun. But it's black and cozy... and it's like you're going down a very dark memory lane. Where it's nothing but your darkest feelings. And I could see the bottom of the gorge. Hard. Cold. Rock. There was one spot of sunlight there. And that's where I landed. Where the world became black. And I thought of nothing but a name.

Wildcard.

WILDCARD

We were busy comforting Noodles and didn't even realize that now we could see Missy.

"Missy!" I exclaimed, staring at the girl before me on the screen.

She was broken, bloody, pale, and I felt like I was living my own horror story. Missy looked dead. Well, she was dead after falling that far from a gorge. And I felt like butt. Because we couldn't do anything anymore. All the Junior Heroics were captured. One was dead. The Heroics were captured. The leader of the Heroics' program was, too. Anita Moreno was. Even the president and his council was.

And there was no one left to defend the world. No one left to love. No one left to laugh with. And no one there to comfort but Marcus Moreno. He put an arm around me and gave me a huge hug. And I guess that's all that mattered to him at the moment.