phoenix ✦ k.takami (hawks)

Forty Nine

"We stop looking for monsters under our bed when we realize they are inside of us."

Track 50; I am not a woman, I'm a god by Halsey

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"Onto today's hero talk: who's this Phoenix we're all hearing about now? Yesterday in Fukuoka, Kyushu, a rising hero took on what we believe may have been a Nomu with a breathtaking display of power."

On the television screen, the familiar man with one large horn bulging out of his forehead cleared his throat. "The event took place mid-afternoon, the prime time for tourists and civilians walking home after work." Behind the disfigured horn, a picture appeared. It was an enhanced screen-cap of your face mid-fight; it was the moment in time where you had your arm out to redirect Nomu away from the helicopter. Your eyebrows were furrowed alongside a look of determination as your face was littered with cuts, dirt, and flecks of blood behind your cracked visors. "This woman, right here, showed us the definition of Plus Ultra, ladies and gentlemen. She took on a Nomu that I'm sure Endeavour would've struggled to fight and won by the skin of her teeth."

He shifted his glasses just before the screen was overtaken by the scene of the fight. "If I'm hearing this correctly, Estrella hadn't been a hero for more than six months before she took on this challenge. Before we get into detail about Estrella's battle with the Nomu, I'd like to let her speak for herself about what happened here."

Being on TV for the first time was definitely nerve-wracking to say the least. Your hands were covered in a thin layer of cold sweat, so you wiped them against the material of your slacks as if you were rubbing away wrinkles that had manifested there over your time wearing them. How were you supposed to casually talk about killing somebody that you knew the true identity to?

Just breathe. You told yourself, letting the habit of finding your senses go about you to chill yourself out. Don't panic. That wasn't who you thought it was. Besides, you don't remember doing it, so what is there to give away?

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FIVE DAYS AGO...

"What the fuck are we supposed to do now?!" A hero called from amidst the wreckage of the street, looking towards his companions. The most they had ever dealt with was petty street crime, not a mutated monster that could cause a high-ranking pro-hero to knock on death's door.

"I'm not sure, what's the plan?" Another replied.

"We don't have one, that lady was the only chance we had at winning. Didn't you see her quirk?" The two of them met up on the trashed sidewalk, just outside of the crumpled building that you had been thrown through. "Do you think she's dead?"

"She probably wants to be if she isn't, seeing the extent of her injuries. I'm not sure how she was still moving..." His sentence was left unfinished when Nomu intervened, picking him up by encasing a palm around his face from behind and whipping him to the side. His body remained motionless a few blocks away, though heros working alongside him were quick to his aid.

"Fuck! One of you should cover me while I see if I can do anything about this guy." The other hero sighed heavily, darting into the middle of the fray to see if he could do anything to deter it off of the already mortally wounded heros trying to take care of it.

Your train of thought during this moment of unconsciousness was never to be remembered. Your body was heavy, as if it was made of concrete when you were able to move a finger. That was all you needed, though it took every ounce of Will in you to raise that finger in the first place. Your mouth and throat felt as if you had swallowed sandpaper, you felt like you could drink a whole ocean. Sight wasn't an applicable thing, not with the amount of blood streaming over your face. There was enough there to begin causing it to feel thick in your eyelashes, so you didn't even try to open them. You weren't sure if you had that ability within you at that moment anyways. There was a surge of heat through your back. You couldn't recognize if it was pain or adrenaline powering you up again, but your body was shifting to stand before you realized it.