focussed on the lonely road, all he could think of was the kids he was so determined to dislike, to ignore, to rid himself of, but had found himself bonding with in the end.
"Who wants a hot dog?" Rust said at the end of a long day of school, Hero Training and additional Gamma Accident training.
The kids shrugged. "Hey, why not?" Jack said.
The group of six hopped inside the van and they were off, driving through the dry Summer Valley Landscape in search of a fast food restaurant.
All the cares of the world faded as an old, fun song started playing on the radio. Caleb reached over, turned the volume up and everyone started singing along.
Everyone sounds like a rock star when they sing their heart out beside good friends. That song never sounded better than when sung by five teenage outcasts and a once legendary hero in a beat-up van whose owner no one knew.
"Okay, what do you want?" Rust asked as he pulled up in the drive-through, next to the intercom where he would have to place his order.
Rust couldn't distinguish one word from the other as all five kids jumped in with their orders.
"Soda... fries... no ice? Sorry, I didn't catch that, what had ice?... Burger... chicken... did someone say turkey? Honestly, who orders turkey at a fast food place?" Rust struggled to catch the rapid-fire orders.
He gave up and eventually just ordered a family dinner pack. The team seemed satisfied.
The occasional car passed him, the headlights suddenly looming into view, slowly making their way as if coming for him, but then zooming straight past him as if trying to get away from him. Other than those rare encounters, Rust was on his own now.
"Just what I wanted."
That may be what he said, but he didn't believe it anymore. Rust had spent years on his own, but he couldn't remember the last time he actually felt alone.
He hadn't had much contact with the human race for ages, now the voices of five teenagers and a bipolar college graduate echoed through his mind.
He had managed to suppress his memories for the past eighteen years. Now, everything made him think of the kids.
The twinkling stars, their light jumping in through the windows, reminded Rust of young Bella.
"When the lights go off, I want your light to go off, too," Rust said to Bella, who stood in the middle of the empty gym.
Bella nodded as she took a deep breath, calming her nerves and psyching herself up to try her hardest.
She closed her eyes.
Rust flipped the bright lights in the gym off and the vast room was plunged into darkness.
Bella immediately glowed a bright violet. The vivid light lit up herself and everything in a five-metre radius.
"You control the light," Rust said, reassuringly. "Don't let the light control you. Focus on shutting it down."
Bella focussed, the intense concentration furrowing her brow. She had tried, many times before, to reign in her powers. Never before had she had a mentor with previous experience, though.
It took a fair while, but Rust waited, patiently. He found himself wanting to see the teenager improve.
The light faded. It didn't disappear, but it faded, something Bella had never done before.
Bella was over the moon. She smiled and thanked Rust with so much heart that the veteran hero was taken aback.
Rust fiddled with the radio station, an attempt to get his mind off things.
He couldn't find a station he was satisfied with, and found himself leaving the radio in between stations, on static.
The noise reminded him of Ethan.
"Try a trash can," Rust instructed as he and Ethan stood on the grass, on the playing field behind the school.
Ethan's appearance fuzzed and flickered and in a second he was no longer a teenager but a green and black, over-flowing, grubby-looking trashcan.
"Nice," Rust praised. "Okay, now do a gorilla."
The trashcan turned back into Ethan, who pondered the request for a moment before his form blurred and he transformed into a large, male, silverback gorilla.
"Good, good. Now do a... greyhound wearing a pink polka dot tutu, a red fez, a pair of those party glasses with the goofy nose and fake moustache with a ukulele strapped to its back," Rust instructed, excitedly.
Ethan, the gorilla, blinked at him as if he had just uttered the request in Japanese.
"A what?" he said.
"A greyhound wearing-" Rust began to repeat.
"No, I heard it, but did you mean it? You're not joking?"
"Just do the hologram."
Ethan shrugged and complied, turning into a greyhound wearing a pink polka dot tutu; a red fez; a pair of silly, goofy, party glasses with a huge nose and moustache with a ukulele strapped to his back.
They both laughed.
Rust quickly flicked the radio to a station playing a sad, reminiscing song.
The song reminded him of the kids' laughs. Snapshots from the past month flashed through his mind, tearing at his conscience, at his mind, at his heart.
His last moment in Hero High, talking to Jack. He knew Jack had lost a father seven years ago and, although Rust had never had children of his own, for some reason he was starting to feel like he was taking over that role for Jack.
"It's only been a month," Rust reasoned aloud. "I don't know them, they don't know me and we are no closer."
He drove past a large billboard advertising some product he couldn't care less about even knowing the name. But the picture of teenagers playing on the beach intensified the ache inside his chest.
Guilt. It was burning him from the inside. He was strong and his strength hadn't waned over the years, but how much longer did he have until this guilt grew too powerful and overtook him?
He hadn't felt guilt for years. The last time? When he first faded into the shadows, into a life of hiding and maintaining a low profile. He felt guilty for not having protected his team, for giving up on saving the world, for not standing up for the name of G-4, for Gamma Accidents everywhere and for his family.
"I can't do them any good now," Rust said to convince himself. "I mean, seriously, of what use can I be to them?"
His words fell on deaf ears.
He knew he couldn't run this time. He ignored it last time, he gave up last time, he let go last time.
This was his second chance. How long had he wished for another chance to take a shot and make things right?
He couldn't change his past and that was a fact.
He had lived eighteen years believing he had nothing.
"Idiot," he chided himself.
He always had something, even when he had nothing. Even after he lost his family and he was stripped of his hero status, told never to show his face in town again and labelled dead... he still had something.
He was alive, and although survivor's guilt and the memories of his lost brothers and sister plagued him every waking moment, he realized it was now time to let go.
He had spent so long telling himself he shouldn't be alive, telling himself he had nothing to live for, telling himself there was no sunset to ride into this time.
Then Urban Danger came onto the scene and gave him something to live for again.
He was letting go again.
I've got right now, Rust thought, quietly, starting to feel like he was losing it talking out loud to no one. I've got Audrey, Jack, Ethan, Ty, Caleb and Bella.
They needed him now.
He looked at his watch, his heart-rate picking up with hope and a sense of duty. He'd be driving non-stop but he could make it back to Summer Valley if he turned around now.
With great enthusiasm, Rust threw the steering wheel around, throwing the van into a sudden, unstable, 180-degree turn around.
Once pointed in the right direction, ready to race for a new horizon and a new beginning, Rust floored it.
He smiled up at the billboard with the laughing, carefree teenagers as he passed it.
"Don't worry kids, I'm coming," he promised.
27
/> Urban Danger sighed, contentedly, as he looked up at the Summer Valley Hero High School building, decorated, tastefully but playfully, with streamers, lanterns and balloons.
Teachers, parents, renowned heroes and students milled around the entrance, dressed to the nines, (which, in some people's books, translated to wearing a clean pair of jeans and matching socks.)
A garage band made up of Hero High students played tunes in the background as students danced, teachers tried to make conversation and parents (chaperones) hovered around the gym, where the event was taking place.
Danger was looking forward to this evening. He had had no communication with Audrey or Rust since he sent them on their way, instructing them only to contact him if they found the villain teacher. This would be the first time he would ever lay eyes on the team Rust had put together.
Relaxed and jovial, Danger shook hands with heroes, parents, teachers and students as he entered the gymnasium. He smiled, broadly, as nervous, tense and anxious-to-impress teachers greeted him. He shook their sweaty hands casually, as if he hadn't even noticed how edgy they were. All he wanted was to put everyone at ease.
Leisurely making his way to the long refreshments table along the far side of the gym, Danger stopped conversations and idle chitchats as he passed.
He was quite the celebrity, he realized. That would end by the time this welcoming ceremony was over.
He sighed as he stood by the corner of the refreshments table, near the punch bowl, watching the happy occasion unfold.
Upbeat tunes played over the sound system, teens danced alone or found their little circle of friends and stuck together like glue for protection. Teachers chatted with parents and heroes, politely discussing everything from the weather to how well little