A Tale of a Sidekick and a Henchman

Chapter One: The Sidekick and the Henchman

Chapter One: The Sidekick and the Henchman

"We all have good and bad inside of us. It's what side we choose to follow that defines who we really are." - J.K. Rowling

St. Martin's Hospital, Waiting Room

August 1, 12:56:09 pm

Thomas sat in a chair, bouncing his leg up and down as he waited for the doctor to come out. It had been an hour since he had brought his mentor, Fourteen, in with enormous wounds. None of the nurses would tell him how his mentor was or when the doctor would return. All he knew was that "he's doing what his job entails him to do".

Which obviously meant making him worried.

He glanced at the clock again, then glanced back at the doors to the ER. The light above it was still red, indicating that they were still working on his mentor. He sighed and leaned back in the chair, trying to calm his nerves.

Sometimes he wondered why he even signed up for this job. To be the sidekick of the superhero Fourteen, one of the Twenty heroes known of. To be the one to patch him up after the dramatics he would do with Zakel. He was told to wear a costume as well, the most ridiculous one he had even worn (it made him so embarrassed). He'd be the one to listen to Fourteen's, or rather Andrew's, rants about Zakel and his evil deeds and what he could be plotting.

When he had first signed up, he had only been just fresh out of the Academy and on his way to look for a job. He never meant to come across one of Fourteen's posters that went:

DO YOU WANT TO BE A HERO?

DO YOU WANT TO HELP PROTECT THE CITY?

THEN JOIN UP WITH FOURTEEN!

It had went on to talk more about the duties of heroes, how to sign up, where to sign up, and when.

He had showed his mom and she had told him, "Do what your gut tells you, honey."

His gut had practically screamed no.

His heart, on the other hand, was squealing yes.

And the very next day, he signed up.

It was painstakingly slow at first. Thomas had been given coffee runs, papers to sign, and the job to clean the floor. Fourteen was rarely seen ever standing when Thomas had shown up at his flat for work, and when he was, it was only when Zakel showed his little skinny ass again. Fourteen, when Thomas had asked him when he would begin hero work with him, had replied, "Hero work? That's not going to happen for a while, not until I deem you ready."

When would he deem Thomas ready?

Fourteen deemed him ready for hero work when he was twenty-one, three years into his job.

By then, Thomas had really just wanted to up and quit and go home. He had wanted to maybe just go get a degree for creative writing and become an author. Or become a director.

Or something.

But when Fourteen deemed him ready, he couldn't very well leave even if he wanted to. So he stayed and became the sidekick Flight.

Being Flight was the only thing he loved about the job. When he was Flight, he was more snarky, more confident, more aware. When he was Flight, he felt like he was a new person, like he had been reborn. He was a new person, with a new name and a new personality.

The other thing he loved about his job was his little snarky conversations with Reaper, Zakel's henchman. The man knew how to snark and knew how to be a constant in Thomas's life as Flight.

The thing Thomas hated?

Fourteen's and Zakel's needs to be dramatic.

They fought like kids, the two did. They were like two boys fighting over a Captain America toy or over who got to sit where at the dinner table or who got the first game controller first. They took the fighting, though, way beyond Thomas had ever seen. It was like the two thought they were meant to fight each other for eternity when they could just always call a truce whenever they wanted to.

The door to the ER opened, knocking Thomas out of his thoughts and making him scramble to stand up. The light above the door was now green.

"Is he okay?" Thomas asked.

The doctor nodded. "Yes, he's much better now than he was when you first brought him in. By a fight with Zakel, you said?"

Thomas nodded.

"Dear God, you better be glad he isn't dead then. He had more than half his ribs broken, a broken arm, several second degree burns, several lacerations, and blunt trauma to the back of his head. Hell be fine in a couple of weeks, but I suggest he doesn't work until two months from now."

Thomas sighed, his body untenaing slowly with relief. "Thank you so much, Doctor Shakespeare."

"It was no problem. But please, keep Mr. Withers nowhere near Zakel."

"That I will try to do, Doctor."

The doctor smiled, gave him a pat on the shoulder, then began to walk past. Then he turned around and added, "He'll be staying up on floor six, usual room as always."

"Right."

Then he turned around again and continued down the hall, around the corner out of Thomas's sight.

Thomas slid down against the wall, relief flooding his system. He'll be okay with time, he thought. I just have to make sure he doesn't hear anything about Zakel.

St. Martin's Cafeteria

August 1, 1:15:35 pm

Thomas sat at a table with a tray of two grilled cheese sandwiches in front of him, a salad, and a thing of green tea. He chewed on one corner of a sandwich, looking through his Instagram. He was looking through the messages he had received and from who, replying to some as he finished off the first sandwich.

"Mind if I sit here?"

He looked up to see a man about the same age as him, twenty-six or twenty-seven, with dark black hair stuck under a baseball cap. Dark onyx eyes reminded him of Reaper's (don't think of how pretty Reaper's eyes are, you stupid) and a dopey grin was spread across his face. He was wearing a plain Flash T-shirt with a pair of navy blue jeans and a pair of tennis shoes. On his shirt was a visitor sticker with the name CORDEN JONES typed on it.

"I don't mind, sit if you want," Thomas replied.

The man grinned his dopey grin. "Thanks."

Thomas waved his hand at him. "It's nothing. I've just been sitting here since one, though I'll need to to visit my boss soon."

"Boss?" the man asked. "What happened?"

"A mugging gone wrong," he lied. "He's fine though, he'll live."

The man nodded. "Funny thing is, I'm here to see my boss too. Guess it was a brawl or something and he got caught in it."

"He okay though?"

"Yeah, he's just peachy." The man grinned again. "But wait 'til I tell him he can't work for a couple of months."

Thomas laughed. "That's how it'll be with my boss!" Then he blinked and added, "Oh, I never introduced myself. I'm Thomas Dreae."

"Corden Jones, at your service."

As the two continued to talk, they never knew they were talking to the enemy of their mentors.