#eliminated five

Turns out, I didn’t have to worry about my parents.

After changing out of my damp clothes, I pick up my phone from my desk, which I left home to prevent my location from being tracked, and see that my mom left a text.

we went to the mall w/ your sister we’ll brb

I notice that I also have texts from the group chat, and quickly unlock my phone to check them.

Favian created the group chat, originally for planning missions and such, but over time Cassia, Devon, and I took over it and turned it into our own personal chat room.

I open the group chat and am immediately greeted with Cassia’s and Devon’s ‘First Kill’ celebration.

CassCass: FIRST KILL FIRST KILL FIRST KILL

CassCass: hero-whirlpool-death/la-news.com

NOVED: RIP WHIRLPOOL, NO ONE MISSES U

CassCass: YEA F U WHIRLPOOL

Favian is online

Favian: We literally killed someone today, can’t you guys be more serious about this?

CassCass: NO

NOVED: NO

Favian is offline

NOVED: ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

CassCass: ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

NOVED: ANOTHER ONE GONE AND ANOTHER ONE GONE

CassCass: ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

Lucifer is online

Lucifer: ISTG IF YOU DONT SHUT UP

CassCass: *gasps* HAVE YOU FINALLY DECIDED TO COME OUT OF YOUR CAVE AND REJOIN SOCIETY ALARIC

NOVED: *takes pics*

Lucifer: …

Lucifer has left the chat

CassCass added Lucifer

Lucifer has left the chat

CassCass added Lucifer

Lucifer: STOP

Lucifer has left the chat

CassCass added Lucifer

CassCass: NO

NOVED: just mute notifs?

Lucifer is offline

I  turn back to my homework with a sigh.

I should feel bad about Whirlpool’s death. I should. It’s the human response.

Then why don’t I feel guilty? Am I really evil?

I shake my head vigorously. I’m not evil. I’m not the villain. They’re the villains. The ones who took our powers. The ones who stole our future away from us. My future.

I wanted to be a hero, but because of them, I couldn’t.

It’s only natural that we became villains.

It’s only natural.

At least, I think so.

...

The next day, I go to school, for obvious reasons.

The whispers and stares follow me the moment I walk inside the building. I flinch and draw my jacket tighter around myself. Even if it’s irrational, I can’t help but be paranoid about being caught.

Calm down, I tell myself. Eliminated kids have always been treated like this from the moment our team became public.

But this is the first time we’ve killed anyone.

“Hi, Eli!” Cassia calls from her locker as I pass. I wave at her before heading to my own locker.

Cassia and I were the first ones to start forming our villain team. After being fed up with having to deal with being powerless, we started recruiting others like us through an anonymous online survey. And that’s how the Masked Villains were born.

Not a very exciting origin story, but that’s all we could do since we’re just sixteen.

“Hey, freak!” Something cold and powdery hits the back of my head, and I whirl around.

Monica smirks and throws another snowball at me. This time, I dodge, and it hits the locker next to me.

Monica Parker. Ability: making snowballs. Hobby: throwing snowballs at people.

“It was you and your little villain friends who killed Whirlpool, wasn’t it?” She drawls, forming another snowball in her palm.

“W-what?” I say, forcing my voice to jump a few octaves. “N..no, it wasn’t! I-I’d never do that!”

The entire hallway bursts into peals of laughter.

Over time, I’ve learned that the best way to avoid being suspected of being a villain is also to be shy and twitchy. Incidentally, the best way to get bullied is to be shy and twitchy.

“N-n-no it wasn’t!” Monica mimics me in a high-pitched voice. “Pathetic.”

She throws another snowball at me, and I don’t dodge this time, letting the snowball hit me in the face. Give them a show, and they’ll get tired of it sooner.

I quickly brush the freezing snow off my face, ignoring the laughter.

“Enough.”

Surprised, I glance towards the source of the voice, then I spot her. Kelani. Of all the people who had to interfere.

She parts through the crowd and straight up to Monica.

“Stop tormenting your classmate, Monica,” Kelani says coolly.

“Playing hero, Markov?” Monica sneers.

“I am a hero, Parker,” Kelani snaps back.

“Don’t you have better things to do than defend villains?” Monica snarks.

Kelani glares at her. “Leave now, or I’ll make you,” She warns.

Grumbling, Monica storms away. The rest of the crowd slowly dissipates as well.

“Thanks,” I mutter, grabbing my textbooks before slamming my locker shut.

“You’re welcome,” She says. Then she glances at me, and a flash of recognition comes over her face. “Oh, El-”

“I gotta go,” I say quickly. “Thanks again.”

The villains got away, and everyone else is giving me hell for it.

Actually, they’re giving Kelani hell for it, but I still feel attacked.

“How could you have let the villains go?” Ember, our supervisor, asks Kelani.

“I was worried about Jia and stayed back,” She explains.

Oh wow, thanks for blaming me, Kelani. You are such a great friend.

Ember sighs. “Well, what’s done is done. I’ll let you two off this time, but next time, there will be consequences.”

I dip my head respectfully as she walks away, her black hair swishing to reveal the layer of fiery orange underneath.

“You should’ve gone after the villains,” I mutter.

“I was worried about you,” She insists.

“Well, I guess I’ll go to the training center,” I say. “Gotta train this weak-ass ability of mine.”

“You should rest-” Kelani starts.

“I’m fine,” I say. Kelani opens her mouth, then closes it with a sigh.

“Well, I need to go home. I have a Physics quiz to study for.”

We part ways, she walks over to the elevator, and I head downstairs to the training center.

...

The training center only has a few heroes in it at this time of day, since most heroes are heading home by now.

“Hey, Kwon!” Rudy, also known as Superglue, calls from the vending machine. His blond hair is tousled, covering one of his brown eyes. He’s also barefoot, and his hands and feet are covered in blue glue. His ability is superglue, hence his hero alias, and he creates glue from his skin. “Wanna spar with me?”

I’m almost certain that Rudy Norman wants to ask me out, which is unfortunate, because he’s not my type. Hopefully, I can make him lose his interest before I break his heart.

“Maybe later, Norman,” I call back.

I walk over to the one-on-one training platforms, slip on the headset, set the difficulty to the max, then press start. My virtual opponent appears on the other end of the platform, then immediately charges at me. I quickly step aside, then lash out with my ropes. It slices through the ropes with a knife, then hurls it at me. I barely manage to catch the knife and hurl it straight back.

Since the knives are just holographs, they don’t hurt me, but getting hit too many times makes me lose. The depressing music that plays with the fat red ‘YOU LOSE’ sign is enough to motivate me to win.

Oddly, the sparring calms me down, my body falling into a familiar rhythm. Finally, I end the match, wrapping my ropes around my opponent’s throat and choking him to death.

The faceless opponent disappears, and ‘YOU WIN!’ flashes in front of my eyes, accompanied by a dizzying amount of confetti.

I slip off my headset, regaining focus.

Rudy claps enthusiastically from the edge of my platform. I roll my eyes, exasperated at him.

Suddenly, all five of the television screens on the walls blare to life. Rudy and I both jump, startled.

A reporter speaks from a helicopter, which is flying over the wreckage of a half-sunk cargo ship. The same ship the villains attacked today.

The beloved hero, Whirlpool, has been confirmed dead as of August 11th, 7:38 PM. This is a great loss to our community, and the heroes have promised that they will bring the villains responsible to justice.

I bite my lip. It was mostly my fault the villains got away.

It’s not like I’ll particularly miss Whirlpool, though. He was annoying and arrogant, and spent most of his time in the training center shirtless, lifting weights and flexing his muscles.

‘Beloved hero,’ my ass.

But still, he was a good hero and captured many villains. However annoying he was, this is still a great loss for us.

“Whirlpool’s dead?” Rudy says softly, his eyes wide.

“Yeah,” I say quietly. “I tried to catch the villains, but...I wasn’t strong enough.”

I’ll never be strong enough.

I couldn’t even protect my parents.

It’s my fault that they’re comatose.

“Hey,” Rudy says gently. “You are strong. Wanna spar together?”

I roll my eyes. Well, it’s not my fault if he gets his heart broken.

“Fine,” I say, walking back to the edge of the platform. “Just don’t blame me if I kick your ass, Norman.”

...

By the time I finish sparring with Rudy Norman, my whole uniform is covered with blue glue. I head off towards the showers, declining Rudy’s offer to buy me an energy drink.

In the showers, I strip off my uniform and switch on the water, letting the cool water wash away the glue and sweat. I relax under the spray, feeling content for the first time today.

Today, was...stressful, to say the least. I still feel bad for letting the villains get away. But there’ll be a next time. And next time, I don’t intend on letting them get away another time.

Feeling motivated, I switch off the shower and quickly pull on my extra change of clothes; a loose T-shirt and shorts.

The moment I step out of the shower rooms, I’m greeted by an overly enthusiastic Kelani.

“Hi, Jia!” She says brightly. “I got you this.” She hands me a bubble tea. I remember mentioning that I liked the bubble tea here in L.A once.

“I thought you went home to study,” I say, taking a sip of the drink. It reminds me of being back in Korea.

“Well, screw Physics,” Kelani says, rolling her eyes. “I thought we could train together for a bit. Or do you have to go home? When are you leaving?”

“Pretty late, actually,” I admit, running a hand through my still-damp hair.

“Not sure I want to know how late ‘pretty late’ is, but okay,” She says. “Do you want to train together?”

Ever since we became partners (one week ago), Kelani’s been trying her best to be friendly towards me. I still don’t know how to feel about it.

“Actually, I was going to go to look into the Masked Villains’ files,” I say. “I thought it might be helpful to know who we’re up against.”

“I’ll go with you,” Kelani says immediately. I sigh inwardly. I knew she’d say that.

“Let’s go, then,” I say. Hopefully, we can get out of here before Rudy somehow finds an excuse to join us.

...

The Computer Lab is exactly what it sounds like, a large room full of computers, with ten super high-tech computers in a separate room that agents jokingly call the Siberia Room, because of its freezing temperature to maintain the computer system without overheating.

Kelani and I take a seat at one of the regular computers and open up the hero database, with contains data about all heroes, villains, weapons, and notable events. Basically an important thing. Kelani logs onto the database with her account. Since I’m a new hero, I don’t have official access to the database yet.

I watch Kelani type ‘MASKED VILLAINS TEAM’ into the search bar. Immediately, a result comes up.

“The Masked Villains are made up of a quintet of powerless teenage renegades. They are suspected to be eliminated teens. They go by the aliases Evil Queen, Viper, Calamity, Deimos, and Lucifer.” Kelani reads.

This much I already know. The Masked Villains have attacked several times now, twice a bank, once a storage unit, and now a cargo ship.

I reach over and click on the name ‘Evil Queen’.

“The Evil Queen is a villain associated with the Masked Villains group. She is presumed to be a female teenager and wears a black mask of an unknown material with a white smile. Her skin tone is presumed to be olive, and witnesses have said she has dark hair. She uses knives to fight and possesses no visible ability,” I read.

“The Evil Queen,” Kelani says sarcastically. “Seriously, how stupid of a name is that?”

I smirk. “Lucifer isn’t much better. I’m pretty sure he’s just some dumb thirteen-year-old kid trying to be edgy.”

Kelani laughs. “I know, right? Reports say that he’s a bit older than that, though. Around seventeen, eighteen, or something?”

“Yeah, he was a bit tall for thirteen,” I admit. “Still, I don’t approve of his villain name choice.”

"I don't exactly approve of his life choices, either," Kelani mutters. "Seriously, how messed up do you have to be to become a villain? They even killed a hero today, who knows how far they'll go?"

"To be fair, they did get their abilities taken," I say, shrugging. "Which is kinda ironic seeing that the elimination process is for preventing more villains."

"Ugh, please," Kelani groans. "I've already seen tons of memes."

"There are memes?" I ask, intrigued.

"Yep," Kelani answers. "A lot."

“Please enlighten me about these memes,” I say.

Kelani sighs. “Maybe another time. I want to tell you something.”

“Go on,” I say, leaning back in my chair.

“So...I’m sorry if this is offensive to you, but,” She pauses, then goes on. “I heard that your parents were attacked by villains?”

I press my lips together. “Last year,” I mutter. “They’re still in comas.”

“I’m sorry,” Kelani says softly.

“It’s okay,” I say, feigning nonchalance. My eyes burn with sudden tears, and I blink them back before Kelani notices.

“Anyways, I may have had a peek into some confidential files,” She says, a mischievous smile flickering on her face, “And I found the villain who attacked your parents. If I’m persuasive enough, I might be able to get Ember to transfer to that case.”

My breath catches in my throat. “You’d...You’d do that for me?”

Kelani smiles warmly. “Of course. I mean, we’re partners and all.”

“Thanks, Kelani,” I whisper. “This really means a lot to me.”

“Oh, call me Kel,” She says. “That’s what my...friend used to call me.”

Darkness. Pressing in on all sides.

Unrelentless, Unforgiving.

Sinking.

My lungs burning, I kick against the water, but I keep sinking, sinking, sinking.

I struggle, trying to drop my backpack, wrenching my arms out of the straps, and letting it go. It contained valuable weapons, but I can’t think about that now.

My lungs on fire, I paddle furiously, kicking my legs, heading for the light.

My head breaks the surface, and I gasp in the air. Air. Wonderful, clean, cool, not-water, air. I love air. Air is my savior. All hail Air.

I shake my head, trying to clear my delirious thoughts.

My friends. Did they survive the blast? Speaking of, how did I survive the blast?

A dozen explanations run through my mind. Whirlpool took most of the blast, the land mine wasn’t designed to kill, we somehow got sucked into the water, maybe through a hole caused by the blast.

I glance around, then spot the sinking cargo ship. Police copters are swarming around, along with rescue boats, trying to save as much of the crew as possible.

I breathe in and out to calm myself down, then head towards the harbor. Maybe I can sort things out once on land.

...

“ELI!” Cassia shouts, spotting me.

I smile weakly. “A little help?”

Cassia drags me onto the harbor. I sigh with relief and hug her tightly. Her pale skin is even paler than usual, and I can hear her teeth chattering.

But she’s alive. They’re all alive.

“You’re all right,” I whisper, relieved.

“Never do that again,” Favian says. “We were positive you drowned.” He somehow manages to look stern with his mask on, which has a wide-fanged smile.

“I had to drop my weapons and stuff,” I tell him apologetically.

“Is that the only thing you care about?” Cassia snaps. “You could have died! You could have-”

“We all almost died today,” Favian says quietly. “Let’s consider this to be a reminder to be more careful with our missions in the future.”

“Did anyone have the insight to bring towels?” Cassia says, shivering.

“Nope,” Devon answers, shaking his dripping brown curls out of his eyes before slipping his mask back on.

I wonder what people would think if they saw us now, a team of villains reduced to a bunch of half-drowned kids.

“Let’s just get out of here before the police show up,” Alaric mutters.

With impeccable timing, shining white ropes shoot towards us, wrapping around our torsos and binding our arms to our sides.

“Villains, you are under arrest.”

I glance towards the two figures walking out from behind a crate. One is a girl I don’t recognize, the ends of the ropes shooting out of her fingertips. She has short black hair and dark almond-shaped eyes.

The other girl is none other than Standstill the hero, Kelani Markov. She’s dressed in her signature silver suit with a white pause/play button on her chest, complete with black boots with silver buckles. Her long brown hair is tied in a high tail, and her blue eyes glint with triumph.

“We’ve caught them,” Kelani speaks into her wristband.

I curse under my breath. After all that we did to evade capture from Whirlpool, here we are again, facing capture yet again. Will they throw us behind bars for the rest of our lives? Or will they give the death penalty for killing Whirlpool?

With a small jolt, I realize that Whirlpool was our first kill.

“So, we meet again, Masked Villains,” Kelani says.

In my mind, I desperately try to formulate a plan. We have no weapons, no powers. They hold the upper hand in every way.

“Hi, Kelani,” I say, bobbing my head in a half-hearted wave. “Miss me?”

Kelani scowls. “Don’t call me by my name, villain.”

I wince.

I wonder how she would react if she knew I was the one behind the Evil Queen’s mask. Then I realize she probably wouldn’t care. She’s ignored me for the past four years, anyway.

Still, we used to be best friends-

I throw the thought out of my mind. There was nothing between us. It all fell down that day when we were twelve and I was chosen for elimination.

“Hey, Standstill,” Devon says, breaking the silence. “Got a new sidekick?”

The girl scowls and smacks him across the face with one of her ropes. Devon winces.

“I’m not a sidekick, I’m a hero,” The girl snaps. “I’m Jia, and my hero name is Whiplash.”

“They’re a new hero,” Kelani adds. I glance at Jia, and sure enough, they’re wearing the blank gray outfit of a hero-in-training.

A new hero. This means that they probably haven’t gotten much training yet.

That would explain the strained expression on their face.

I pull against my bindings, and they wince, sweat breaking out on their brow.

“Stop struggling, villain,” Jia snaps, tightening my ropes.

But by now, the others have caught on, and are also struggling against their ropes.

A split second before Kelani steps forward to freeze us herself, Jia cries out, and their ropes burst apart into particles of light.

Jia crumples to the ground, and we break into a run. I can hear Kelani yelling for backup, but she doesn’t come after us. She’ll be on the ground next to Jia, asking them if they’re okay.

She’s just wired that way. I should know.

We finally get out of the harbor, but there’s no time to celebrate. I can hear sirens behind us, which means that we’re not out of danger yet.

“Take off your masks,” Alaric says suddenly. “They’ll be looking for masked villains, not a bunch of teenagers. And they don’t know our faces.”

He’s right, I realize. I take off my mask and slide it into my jacket, then lower my hood.

I glance around at my team.  Cassia, with her auburn curls and blue eyes. Devon, curly brown hair and hazel eyes. Favian, close-shaved dark hair and dark skin. Alaric, black hair, and blue eyes. To anyone passing, we’d look like ordinary teenagers. Well, we’re still soaked to the bone, but otherwise ordinary.

We quickly walk towards the hustle and bustle of the city, blending in with the crowd of pedestrians.

“We should get home before people start noticing us and connect the dots,” Favian says after we’ve gotten a little ways away from the crime scene.

A patrol car races past, further proving his point.

“See you at school,” Cassia whispers.

“Bye,” I say, waving.

We split ways.