Call of the Hero: One Day (Edited version)

Chapter 6: Party Rock (though not in the house tonight)

He got closer to her, and asked, “What’s going on?”

“Cicada is closer to moving than we thought.”

“Wait, there are things you don’t know?” Azaiah asked, more that a bit perplexed. True, there were some times where Angie would keep things from him, or even lead him to believe something that wasn’t quite the case, but they always seemed to know what was truly going on, the big picture.

“Keep an eye out for them, there’s a good chance they’ll be after you soon. And you might not be the only one in danger.”

“Hey, Angie,” Azaiah said, wanting to see if his guess was right, “You know about that scientist Noah I was talking with yesterday, don’t you?”

“Yes, I am familiar with the events yesterday.”

“Is he involved with Cicada?”

She gave a slight smile as an answer. “You are wise to not trust everyone you meet. Let that wisdom carry the rest of your actions as well.”

He knew it, there was no way a normal scientist could be that coherent or seemingly nice to him without plotting some evil deeds. It’s true what they said, never trust the nice ones, they’d end up causing you the most harm. The mean ones, you knew what they were after, they weren’t hiding anything, and they could be taken care of with a small bit of violence…or maybe a large bit depending on how mean they were, and he could get in trouble for beating up someone who seemed nice. But that was beside the point.

As Angie walked away, he entered the Rock, where he was greeted by a couple friends. “Hey Azaiah, what took you so long?” Zack asked.

“Don’t tell anyone but I took the wrong subway,” he said, though he said it loud enough that it wasn’t like anyone could keep it a secret.

“Ah, our newbie Azaiah is still learning his way around the city,” Zack’s brother Alex said walking up to him putting an arm around his shoulder. “Just tell us and we’d be glad to take you around.”

“Don’t tell me you’ve never taken the wrong one.”

“Nope!” Alex proudly declared.

“That’s because I’m there to make sure he doesn’t, otherwise he’d end up taking a subway to the airport when he meant to go downtown to do something,” Zack then rebutted.

After a bit of a laugh, he went further into the place, seeing there were several guys playing a game of basketball, Azaiah thought he might have a little bit of fun. He quickly glanced around the room to make sure no one was noticing him or paying any attention to him. He focused on the ball as it flew through the air with a shot, however instead of arching back down it kept going upward, flying over the basket.

“I didn’t think I shot it that hard,” the one person said before running to get it. Azaiah really found the laws of physics fun to mess with. And without his parents being here or anyone around knowing what he could do, it’s not like they could connect it to him.

“Azaiah, good to see you here!” he spotted DJ, who had just turned 17 today, there running up to greet him. He prepared himself for his larger friend hugging him, which as expected he did.

“Good to see you too, DJ.” DJ was one of the first people Azaiah got to know here. At his school, it seemed like everyone always had their friends and didn’t want to get to know anyone knew, but DJ went out of his way to get to know Azaiah, even inviting him to the church where he met so many of these others. DJ could be a bit eccentric, but he was one of those people who seemed to love life and every aspect of it, never letting bad news or stress get to him for very long, if anything he seemed to make it easier for those around him.