General Summary thing for the Hero AU

A fight between the mysterious vigilante Shard and some random villain happens to endanger the Maltos, and a new hero jumps into the fray out of nowhere. She seems very uncertain of herself and her powers, but her resolve to protect is unshakeable.

Shard approaches the new hero afterwards and quickly realizes she's never actually done hero work before. He offers to show her the ropes, and she readily accepts.

Shard takes her to a massive office building in the middle of town which, unbenownst to most of the city's inhabitants, houses the secret headquarters of AUTO, the city's main licensed hero group.

Other heroes there recognize her powers as those depicted in a prophecy, defeating some mysterious evil. They've nicknamed the hero in the prophecy Sunbird, which she likes, so the name sticks. Shard is assigned to train her.

They send her to get a communicator from their mechanic, and she's shocked and nervous to discover it's Wheeljack. He recognizes her pretty quickly. He's a little worried about his daughter being some prophesied hero, but he knows her well enough to not even bother trying to talk her out of it. He just reminds her to know her limitations and be careful, which she accepts.

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With Tiana suddenly 'busy' more, Hunter ends up at his bio-dad's shop alone for once. He starts figdeting with a weird disc he finds on one of his shelves while he's in the other room, and finds that it folds out into a full-size shield. He initially puts it back, but when it rolls off the shelf twice, he takes it as a sign and decides to mess around with it more. He figures out how to attach it to his wrist like a watch, and then triggers a full body armor set.

He decides maybe his dad owes him one, and if he was a hero at his age, he can be a hero now! Just for a little bit, then he'll put this thing back. So he sneaks out. He ends up just messing around trying to figure out how it works. He returns for his bag around sunset, sneakily putting the disc back and saying a quick goodbye before leaving.

The next day he realizes the disc managed to roll off the shelf into his bag. Because that was an accident, he reasons he could just use that as an excuse to "unknowingly" have the disc until it's brought up to him.

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Tiana's phone starts experiencing occasional severe glitches, flashing really worrying cries for help on the screen. This has her a bit freaked out, especially since it's her phone, so it shouldn't be receiving anything related to her hero work. She brings this up to Shard, who suggests trying to communicate with it by typing in notes. This makes it act up way more, sort of frantically venting about something horrific but going so fast they can't read anything. Eventually it just pulls up Maps software and shows them where to go. Sunbird is set on going, unwilling to ignore a possible cry for help. Shard is more cautious but knows he can't stop her, so it's better to go with her.

It leads them to a mysterious lab, which they cautiously break into. They find prisoners kept in cells with electrified bars, who Shard recognizes as mostly various old villains, especially from the defunct rebel group known as the Reformers.

They eventually find the old villain Starscream, and next to his cell, a girl seemingly unconscious in her cell. Sunbird recognizes her as her missing friend Hazel. Starscream tells them she's been mostly unresponsive since 'they' did something to her. He tells them they'll be subject to the same if they're caught in here and tries to convince them to leave and tell his allies where they are and to send help.

They're interrupted by someone finding them. The man grandstands and gloats, opening Hazel's cell and pulling out some device. He does something on it. Electricity arcs across Hazel's body and she scrambles up, eyes jumping from Sunbird to the strange man. She looks terrified. He tells her to come over here, which she stiffly does. He tells her to attack, and she just stares at Sunbird. She gets the feeling she recognizes her.

The man does something on his device again. For a second, Hazel's form is overtaken by electric current, and then there's a blinding flash of light.

As their eyes re-adjust, they find Hazel collapsed to her knees, shaking. The man has crashed through the door he first entered through, the door's wreckage covered in whatever it tore off of him as he tore through it.

Sunbird immediately moves to check on her friend, who flinches away from her. Electrity still crackles across her skin. Sunbird realizes this and keeps her distance while trying to reassure her.

Starscream says they have to go, they have no idea who else could come for them, which Shard reluctantly agrees on. Hazel pulls herself together and rips the door off his cell, which he seems shocked by. Shard is clearly unhappy with Starscream being freed but the four leave.

Starscream tells Hazel to look after herself, and that he'll keep an eye on her, and then he flies off.

Already knowing from Nightshade that Hazel wouldn't be able to go back to her old foster parents, and not really wanting to be apart from her immediately, Tiana offers to bring Hazel to her house to stay until they figure out where she can go. She nods agreement. The Maltos, after hearing what happened to her, agree as well. The next day she's reunited with the rest of their friend group, and her very relieved sibling.

V Summary of excerpt V

After a few days, a man named Mr. Walkman shows up looking to adopt Hazel, even willing to take in Nightshade too. This ends up going through. The man is quiet and stern, but not unkind, and the two already very eccentric children have no complaints with his eccentricities.

Nightshade is soon back to their usual self, happy to have their sister safe and accounted for. Hazel, while obviously glad to be safe too, is still very distant and jumpy, having a harder time getting over whatever happened to her. It takes a while, but her more playful personality starts to come through again.

Once she's settled into her new home and seems to be doing better, Mr. Walkman tells her about his past – he was better known as the "villain" Mixtape. She recognizes him as an ally Starscream mentioned during their time in containment, and he tells her it was Starscream who told him about her plight.

He introduces her to his 'band', the sort of techno-spirits who power his various transformations: Frenzy, Ravage, and Laserbeak. Hazel nervously introduces her own companion, Val. Mixtape teaches her how to actually use her companion's transformation. They seem surprised that the two seem to become one mind in their transformation rather than allowing the companion to take over, but they chalk this up to a unique quirk with her powers.

The fusion names herself C Sharp, also acting as their alter ego, and they become a covert member of the Reformers.

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'Sunbird' meets up with Shard as she usually does. He gets a ping for help from her and she says she didn't send it, acting bashful about losing it. The two go to figure out who has her communicator, and find another 'Sunbird' being attacked. She says these villains targetted her claiming she'd attacked them before. Of course, the first Sunbird still claims she is the original, but the other has her communicator. The one with said comms convinces the other two to help with the fight.

After the fight, one Sunbird claims to be the one who kept her communicator. The other says SHE has it, but seems shocked to find she doesn't. Shard trusts the one with the communicator, thinking Sunbird isn't careless enough to just "lose" her comms. He brings her back to AUTO and sends her to get her comms checked out jic.

Wheeljack is confused by "Sunbird" not treating him like she usually would, so he's onto her. She steals his comms too and locks him in a closet.

Finding Sunbird trying to convince anyone from AUTO of her identity, her copy returns her communicator and dares her to try to save her dad. She of course assumes 'Mockingbird' kidnapped him, and chases her.

...

She laughs at her. “If you can’t beat them, make them join you? I think you’ve got it backwards.” But then her expression sours, dropping the self-assured mockery for once. “No, joining us is a fate I wouldn’t even wish on you.”

“If you don’t like it, why don’t you leave?”

“Do you have a clue how much worse it would be if they got their hands on me after that?”

“We wouldn’t let that happen.”

She rolls her eyes. “Of course you wouldn’t, hero.” The title is said dismissively, but it seems to spark something in her. She leans a bit closer. Sunbird half wonders if she’s going to bite her.

“You are prophesied to stop our ‘great evil’, aren’t you… and you’re not half bad.” The blade is finally pulled away from her neck, much to her relief. “Maybe you’ll actually succeed... with my help.”

“You’re… really going to help?” Sunbird asks, in disbelief that this hail-Mary plan is apparently working.

“I’ve already given up the best chance I’ve gotten to kill you, so it sure seems like it.”

Sunbird is relieved enough to not be dead that she shrugs off the morbid joke.

Tiana has a bit of a new routine after school, sitting at one of the tables in front of a local café, trying to enjoy her drink while she ignores the growing feeling that she’s being watched.

She’s scouted this place. It’s close enough to the middle of town that she can get just about wherever she’s needed in a reasonable time frame, with dark, rarely traveled alleys nearby where she can disappear to transform and leave quickly.

But the bad thing about a routine is that it’s easy to track. And she’s almost certain she’s being tracked. But she can’t let the enemy know she knows, so she can’t just stop coming here. But they might very well catch her transforming and find out her identity. She doesn’t know who’s watching her, how well organized they are, and what their intentions are.

"Boo."

Tiana nearly jumps out of her chair, just about squealing. The culprit stays exactly where she was when she was half leaning over her shoulder, with her arms crossed and a smug grin on her face. Tiana starts to calm down a bit as she realizes that was the most the prankster planned to do, and then her fear turns to annoyance, and then fizzles out as she looks closer at the 'stranger'.

She’s exactly the same height as Tiana, with the same body shape, the same face shape, the same hair type and the same… just about everything. She was almost identical to Tiana. Almost, except for the way she was dressed, her hair being styled different and dyed a vibrant and almost iridescent blue, and the fact that her skin is white. Her eyes are also dark blue.

She chuckles slightly as she walks around the table to sit at the other chair, eyes on her like a wolf waiting to pounce. She picks up Tiana’s drink as she’s about to sit down, looking at the label. “Is there caffeine in this thing?”

“Yes,” Tiana says, only realizing the audacity of the question after she's answered on reflex.

“Damn,” the stranger says before Tiana can say anything else, putting the drink back down on her side of the table.

She quickly grabs it and pulls it to her chest. “Who are you? Do I know you?”

She makes a ‘so-so’ motion with her hand, leaning back in the chair a bit. “I changed my look a bit, I guess you might not recognize me. I figured you’d prefer this, though.” She shoots her a look like she should understand the implication.

It suddenly clicks. “You?! Why…” She doesn’t know how exactly to word her question, trailing off instead as she looks her up and down.

“I think I look good.”

Tiana clutches her drink a bit closer as her face starts to heat up. "What do you mean...?"

She just chuckles a bit. Tiana huffs. It makes her feel weird.

"What, you wanna talk about it?" she asks, leaning on her hand. "Somewhere more private?"

She wonders for a second if she can trust her, but it occurs to her... she could've killed her quite easily before. Why wait just to kill her a few days later?

"...Fine," she says, standing up and slinging her bag over one shoulder.

The shapeshifter stands up too, stretching. She starts walking leisurely, hooking Tiana's arm as she walks past and dragging her along. She lets it happen with a tired sigh.

...

Her transformation has been changed, too. Sunbird is trying not to stare too close so the shapeshifter won't make another remark implying she's attracted to her own pale doppelganger.

What is red on Sunbird is a light teal on her, and what is yellow is blue. The black is left exactly the same, except for bright teal lining around the eyes of her mask, creating a better contrast against her eyes which are mostly a deep ocean blue with sky blue irises. It looks to be the only artistic liberty taken with the form other than the color changes and the hair style staying the same as her civilian disguise.

She's sitting dangling her legs over the edge of the building's roof, looking down at the people below. Sunbird is sitting cross-legged a little bit further from the edge.

"So... What's with the colors?"

"What, did you like me better when I looked exactly like you? I figured that would get confusing."

"Well, yeah, but... I just mean... why those exact colors?" Her eyes drift to the exposed half of her face.

She looks down at her arm. "Closer to my colors. My real colors. You could say it's more comfortable." She shrugs.

Sunbird feels kind of relieved. "Oh! That makes sense. It looks a bit more like the real you." She wonders if her transformation somehow reflects 'the real her'... in a less literal way...

"Oh, no. I mean physically. It's just easier. Slightly less to change, a bit less effort." She leans back on her arms to look over at Sunbird with that mischievous smile. "The whole fire look wasn't so bad," she says somewhat ominously, then chuckles and turns back to the street. "But I'll stick with this. For now."

Sunbird grimaces and looks away from her, entirely unsure what to make of her unpredictable new "ally". She'll probably be helpful during the fight against her kin, but what will she do afterwards? As mean as she is, Sunbird doesn't want to plan to lock her up once she's not 'useful' anymore. (She's also kind of worried she would escape at some point and wreak catastrophic vengeance.)

She remembers something. "Oh right! What is your name?"

She glances back at Sunbird. "My name?"

"...Yes?"

She turns back away. "I don't think you could pronounce it."

"I could try," she says tentatively.

"Also it would probably drive you insane."

Sunbird narrows her eyes. "...How?"

She shrugs. "That's just how it works."

"I think you're making that up."

"Are you willing to risk it?"

Sunbird crosses her arms, unamused and somewhat annoyed she isn't looking at her now. "Is it embarrassing?"

She laughs, but it sounds a bit forced. "Even if it was, how would you know?"

Sunbird gives a long sigh, giving up on the conversation and letting the silence sit for a while.

"Okay, I was bullshitting. It's Spitfire."

Sunbird almost asks why her name happens to be an English word before realizing it definitely wasn't. "That's a cool name," she says a bit softer.

"Yeah," Spitfire mumbles.

V Summary of excerpt V

“Who is that?”

Sunbird stops to look where her new partner is pointing.

Someone is perched on top of a building, out of sight from the ground below but perfectly visible to them in the air. They have vibrant sky blue “wings” seemingly made of insubstantial triangular holograms, along with a long tail in a similar style. Otherwise, their outfit is mostly purple with gold accents.
It doesn’t look like anyone she’s seen or even heard about before.

“I don’t know,” she says slowly, wondering if they should approach her.

Before she can decide, she turns to face them. Her eyes are covered by an opaque visor with a display resembling eyes. She perks up as she notices them, waving them over.

“She seems friendly,” Sunbird remarks hesitantly. She kind of wishes Shard was here.

The stranger stays in the middle of the roof, hidden from view below, even as the birds land closer to the edge.

“Who are you, and what do you want?” Mockingbird says, pointing a blade at them.

“Woah, wait, we’re going to try to solve this peacefully,” Sunbird reminds her.

“And I’m going to be ready if that fails,” she sneers, not taking her eyes off the stranger or lowering her blade.

They put their hands up in surrender. “I come in peace, promise!”

Sunbird is slightly taken aback. Their voice is familiar, but not enough to place…

While she thinks about it, Mockingbird continues the conversation. “Then what do you want?”

“I’m C Sharp. I’ve seen you two – or, mostly Sunbird – accompanied by the vigilante Shard. And I wanted to warn you about him.”

Mockingbird huffs. “Yeah, I’m not exactly fond of him.”

“Wait,” Sunbird says, “Warn us about what?”

“And why would you trust us if we ‘associate’ with him? Or Sunny does, at least.”

Sunbird shoots her a look. Mockingbird is unaware or unbothered.

Sharp clasps her hands in front of her chest. Again, it’s oddly familiar to Sunbird.

“He’s clearly hiding it. I just don’t know who all he’s hiding it from. I thought it was worth making you aware.”

“And what if we’re in on ‘it’, and we’re going to kill you for figuring it out?”

“We’re not going to do that!”

“How would she know that? She has no reason to trust us more than your ally. Isn’t that suspicious to you?”

Sunbird huffs. She looks at Sharp, who looks very conflicted and frustrated, even with most of her facial features filtered through the visor display.

It occurs to her that Mockingbird would know very well the tricks her kin would use. If this is one of them, she would pick up on it quicker. Maybe she should trust her here.

“Sunbird... I know your civilian identity. I won’t reveal it in front of her in case you don’t want her knowing, and I… can’t explain how. But I know you’re trustworthy.”

“How many people know that?” Mockingbird hisses at her.

“I-I don’t know! It should be just you and Shard, and…” She looks C Sharp over again, and her eyes go wide. “Uh…”

“You forgot?”

“I think she figured it out,” Sharp says, her voice dipping closer to what she’d expect from her.

“Yeah, you’re uh… It’s definitely not what I’d expect from you…”

“It’s very complicated. It’s… I’ll explain some other time.”

“When I’m not there,” Mockingbird says, finally putting her blade away.

Sharp laughs drily. “I mean, I don’t know you. I didn’t entirely want Sunbird knowing, honestly, and she can tell you how big of a deal that is.”

It is. Sunbird feels a bit bad that she apparently wouldn’t trust her with this willingly.

“Fair,” Mockingbird says, unbothered. “What was up with Shard?”

“Wait, yeah, he was– why wouldn’t you trust him?”

“… Do you know the hero Bumblebee?”

“No.” Mockingbird says.

Sunbird thinks of her second dad. “He was a hero in this town, he worked with AUTO, and... he was killed.”

“He was looking for a powerful artifact from Pre-History. He was last seen in possession of it. Presumably returning to his allies at AUTO,” Sharp adds. They take a step closer and hold up their wrist, projecting a blue-tinted hologram view of a 3D shape.

“Is that the dumb gem Shard has on his forehead?” Mockingbird asks with a snicker.

“Well...” She does something and the display flickers to green. “It’s the wrong color, but given its nature–”

“No, wait, his gem turns green sometimes!” Mockingbird nudges her partner to back her up, and she nods slowly.

“Oh! Good to know… Anyway, it’s a computer, so I wouldn’t have been surprised if the colors could change. But uh…” She rotates the display, revealing the backside of the gem. It is not flat.

Mockingbird starts giggling. “He replaced his brain with a gem...”

“There are only two options I can think of. Either he is Bumblebee, and he faked his death… and found the fountain of youth… Or he stole the gem from Bee. After which, Bee was next seen dead.”

“You think he killed Bumblebee?!” Sunbird exclaims.

“I definitely think he gets his powers from the ARD somehow, and that’s why they’re so similar to Bee’s. It recorded his powers while he had it, before his passing.”

“ARD?”

“Archival and Recording Device,” C Sharp says.

“Huh! They still use tech like that, even after all these years. Decades. Centuries. Millenia. It just looks different now. Probably improved, but still the same idea.”

“…Who does?” Sharp asks, as if testing her.

“Your ‘pre-history civilization’.”

“… How do you know about them? She would’ve… She didn’t tell me…” Her eye displays shrink to dots. “‘Our’...?”

“I guess you know about the Chalyr?” Mockingbird asks.

Electricity arcs around Sharp’s arms, and Mockingbird shoots back off the side of the building, hovering above the street, staring at C Sharp like she’s dangerously radioactive.

“No, you… You couldn’t be xen. You would’ve known right from the start.”

“What’s going on??” Sunbird says, starting to feel entirely out of the loop.

“Did you know she was a Chalyr?” C Sharp asks.

“Yes! She impersonated me at first! More than she still is!”

“I changed the colors,” she points out.

“But she turned on them because they mistreated her! She’s on our side now!”

Very slowly, C Sharp relaxes. “I guess she wouldn’t randomly reveal it to me in front of you if you didn’t already know…”

“You’re one of the few humans I’ve seen expecting us at all, and the only one who knew about shapeshifters before I told them.”

She looks at her hand for a second before responding. “Her connection is… poor. She’s afraid to draw your kins’ attention. But she told me that ARD would have more information. And yes, she warned me about shapeshifters. Not you, though…”

Mockingbird groans, finally moving back to land on the roof again. “They wouldn’t have trusted me with this mission. Sure, I was one of the most capable warriors in their army,” she says bitterly, dropping into a hiss to say “but I wasn’t their brainless pawn.” She laughs darkly. “They always bet on me losing… And I never have.”

C Sharp, in a very casual tone, says “That’s profoundly fucked up and awful.”

“Yeah, they really fucked up. Anyway, I’m pretty sure they only sent me here as a decoy.”

“What? You never mentioned that before!” Sunbird exclaims.

“You don’t need to worry about it, Sunshine. You have me.” She pats her on the head as she says this, which Sunbird looks very unamused by.
“Chalyr knows Chalyr. I’d know it if I saw them, and I’d tell you.” She turns back to Sharp. “But if they found me out, I figured it’d look pretty incriminating if you found out from someone else what I am. And I’ve seen what the Mark of the Empress can do…”

“The…?”

“The lightning. That’s the mark of the Warrior Empress of the Xenobots. Only xe and xer line can use it, and xe's the only survivor of xer line.”

“What happened to the rest of xer ‘line’?” Sunbird asks, suspecting the answer.

Mockingbird crosses her arms. “We were at war. We happened.”

“You were there?” Sharp asks.

“I– Of course not! Do I look that old?!”

“Shapeshifter,” Sharp says in a flat tone.

“I’ve kind of wondered about your age too,” Sunbird chimes in.

“I’m… We don’t keep track of that kind of thing. I’m not much older than you, though.”

“Like, by centuries, or…?”

“Okay, whatever else your ‘informant’ told you about us, it was wrong. Apparently. By years. Earth years.”

C Sharp laughs nervously. “Yeah, that joke was dumb...”

V Summary of excerpt V

Nick has been part of a band of bullies at the school for a good while, and they sometimes target Hunter and especially Jacoby. Hunter is of course pissed about it.

Nitro catches on to something bothering Thrash and asks about it. He decides to tell nos, even if nos might figure out his identity from it, because he just wants to vent about it. Nos makes a remark about the bullies probably being insecure and scared, and Thrash just bitterly says they don't need to make that everyone else's problem.

The next day, Nick suddenly decides to stand up to his 'friend' group, mentioning that the he met the hero Nitro who called them 'a bunch of assholes'. The other bullies turn on both Nick and Nitro in concept, insulting the latter for openly using neopronouns and supposedly being gay.

After school, Nitro and Thrash meet up as usual, but Thrash is kind of cold. He tells Nitro he figured it out, that nos has been bullying him and his friends for a long time. He says nos is an asshole.

Nitro starts crying. Nos apologizes and says nos doesn't know what to else to do, nos lost all of nos old friends trying to fix this. Nos begs Thrash not to leave nos.

Thrash is still frustrated, but he feels kinda bad for Nitro, and he doesn't want to break off the friendship. He sighs and says he'll give nos another chance, but if there's anything else he needs to know, nos should tell him now.
Nitro considers this for a moment and then shrugs, says nos doesn't think so.

After a second nos adds "I'm gay?", unsure if that counts. Thrash kind of double takes and says he thought they just said that because nos uses neopronouns, and Nitro says "Yeah... That was definitely what they meant."

V Summary of excerpt V

Notes that would be set up earlier in the story if it were fully fleshed-out: Jacoby is the kid who wears the mascot suit, Dill is the "ringleader" of the group of bullies

“Nightshade, over here!”

“Do you have to yell at my antenna,” Spitfire mumbles.

“Sorry,” Tiana says softly, probably too quiet to be heard over the crowd. Whether she heard it or not, Spitfire just rolls her eyes, clearly not bothered enough to move away from her.

“Hello!” Nightshade greets them as they make it through the crowd to their seats. They get a verbal greeting from Tiana and a bored wave from Spitfire. “Where is Hunter?” they ask, looking around.

“Went to find his buddy,” Spitfire says.

“Him and Mo were going to find Nick and have him join us. I feel like they should've been back by now, though...” Tiana says with a frown.

“Bet they just ditched us.”

Tiana nudges Spitfire to move her legs off the seat so Nightshade can sit down. She pulls her legs into her own seat but stays leaned across Tiana's lap, who sighs in defeat.

Nightshade sits down with an amused smile.

“That doesn't seem like Hunter,” they opine, “he's usually very frank about where he does or does not want to be.”

Spitfire shrugs.

“I guess they might've decided to hang out somewhere else once they found him...” Tiana says with a sigh. “I'd hope he'd keep me updated if he did...

Nos had bitten off more than nos could chew, for sure.

“Dill, man, aren't you– isn't this going a bit far?” Nos keeps nos’ eyes on the switchblade in his hand as nos cautiously backs away.

Dill, unfortunately, keeps pace with nos. “You started this, man,” he sneers.

Nick grimaces, and then nos’ back hits the fence. Nos glances behind nos and makes eye contact with Jacoby. Nos quickly turns back around to keep an eye on nos' assailant, thinking, ‘Well, he'll get me medical help, at least.’

Nos wonders if it's worth revealing nos hero identity to these guys to protect nosself.

Hazel checks to make sure the camera is pointed in the right direction, adjusting it slightly to get it centered.

“It doesn't have to be perfect,” Sam teases.

“Might as well be,” Hazel says as she continues to adjust it, “Nothing else to do yet...”

“I guess, but you know it's gonna drift down anyway,” Sam reminds her.

She sighs and takes a step back, watching disapprovingly as the camera quickly drops a bit. She looks at the field, not through the pathfinder for once, seeing the cheerleaders out practicing. Jacoby is near them, not in costume yet. She doesn' t blame him. That suit always looks so hot.

“I wonder what's going on,” she mumbles, squinting at him tensing up so obviously that it's visible from here.

“What's going on?” Sam asks.

Hazel points it out to them. “He's looking under the bleachers, I think.”

What he does next isn't clear for a second, but it soon becomes obvious.

Sam gasps, clutching the banister in disbelief. Hazel backs away from the front of the box as the entire crowd erupts into shock. She moves to the outlet, yanking the laptop's charger out and placing her hand over the exposed plug.

The power goes out. A few kids scream, and Jeremy says “Hey, I was using that!”

“What's going on?!” Matt asks, standing up from the bench.

“They're making us do flashlight football tonight,” Dave jokes.

Eli ooos and says “It would be pretty cool if, like, everyone in the stands shined their phone flashlights on the field to light it up.”

“I don't think phone flashlights are bright enough for that,” Jeremy says.

“Okay, but if you had a bunch of them—”

“HEY!” Jeremy shouts, covering his eyes with his hands.

“Is that bright enough?” Dave asks, snickering.

“Yo, guys!” Xavier shouts while staring at his phone, “Coach's nephew turned into a dinosaur on the field!”

“What?!” Matt rushes over to him, ignoring the shocked murmuring of the rest of the team.

“I mean, she didn't get a pic, 'cause the lights went off. That's just what my sister said she saw,” Xavier says with an apologetic shrug.

“Is she sure it was him?” Matt asks.

“I mean, Coach can do it, and powers run in families sometimes,” Eli says.

Dave huffs. “Yeah, but have you met that kid?

“Leave him alone!” Matt barks, and Dave puts his hands up in surrender.

There's a moment of nervous silence before Calvin finally speaks up and says “Did him turning into a dinosaur make the power go out?”

“Maybe it's the other way, he was so startled by the lights going out that he turned into a dino,” Jeremy suggests.

“That wouldn't startle him! ... Not that much,” Matt says.

“You're friends with him, right, Matt? Did you know he could do that?” Eli asks.

Matt freezes for a second. “No,” he lies.

The rest of the team stares at him for a second. He thinks they might be on to him.

Hunter looks up from angrily trying to get a response out of Nick as the crowd suddenly bursts into gasps and screams and general shock. “What happened?” he asks no one in particular.

“It's Jawbreaker!” Mo tells him, pointing out on the field where sure enough, the dino hero Jawbreaker is frantically looking around at the crowd.

“What? When did he get here? Why is he here?” Hunter says.

“I don't know, I wasn't looking! I was looking for Nick,” Mo says, then after a pause, “He looks scared... Do you think he needs help?”

It occurs to Hunter what must've happened. His eyes go wide. “Yeah, probably... but I think it's too late to help him.”

There's a bright flash from the box on the other side of the stands and the lights go out, leaving the field cast in the last traces of twilight.

Mo latches onto Hunter as the crowd starts to panic. “We need to stick together! We should go back to Tiana and Spitfire!” she tells him.

Hunter glances at his unanswered messages one last time and sighs, switching contacts to message his sister.

“Alright, let's go... hope they're still where they were, or that she texts me back before we get there...”

Spitfire watches the dino storm out of the arena. Soon after, Nitro bursts out from under the bleachers and follows him. “Did you see that?” she asks Tiana.

She looks up from her phone.

Spitfire snorts. “Definitely not, then.”

Tiana huffs. “I was telling Hunter where we are. What was it.”

“Aw, it's sweet that you trust me to keep a look out. I figured it was too dark for you to see, anyway.” She chuckles at Tiana's tired sigh. “Jacoby ran off and that one guy, Nitro? Nos came out from under the bleachers and went after him.”

Tiana furrows her brow. “Hopefully nos' going to check on him...”

Spitfire shrugs.

Tiana suddenly looks around. “Nightshade? Are you there? ... Did we lose them?”

“Oh, they slunk off and jumped a fence after the lights went off.” Tiana gives her a suspicious look. “Yes, seriously.”

Tiana groans, looking thoroughly defeated.

After a moment of silence, Spitfire moves to wrap her arms around Tiana. She's clearly caught off guard, but quickly hugs her back with a miserable whimper.

“I'm sorry this ended up so bad,” Tiana mumbles.

“Honestly, this seems a lot more interesting than foot game.”

“...Are you pretending you don't know what it's called?”

“I can't believe you'd accuse me of that,” she says with a big smirk on her face.

“You're so mean sometimes,” Tiana says with a laugh.

“So, why are you two hiding out in this corner?”

Tiana inhales sharply, pulling back to look at her brother. “What do you mean?”

“It was out of the way of the pandemonium,” Spitfire says.

Hunter looks utterly unconvinced. “Yeah, and you were cuddling for warmth, I guess?”

“What's wrong with hugging?” Mo argues.

“I was just comforting her,” Spitfire says, leaning her head on Tiana with a small smirk.

Hunter scowls, clearly still looking for something to say.

The PA suddenly crackles to life. Attention turns to the box, especially the girl perched on top, hologram wings spread wide.

“Test, test, looks like this is working! Good, this set up was powered by a hunch. And hopefully I won't overpower it and damage your equipment!” She laughs a bit nervously.

“Anyway, nice to see everyone out here tonight! I'm guessing anyone still here is waiting for the show to go on. Hopefully the—”

The lights around the arena come on in the middle of her sentence.

C Sharp straightens up, blinking at the lights for a moment, then she laughs. “ ‘Keep them entertained while I fix it,’ they said. Well, have a good... the rest of the night!”

With that the PA turns off and they jump off the box, wings fanning out as they hover in front of the box and hand the microphone back to someone manning the box.

The crowd sound quickly picks back up to its usual volume.

“Who was that?” Mo asks.

“C Sharp

V Summary of excerpt V