Mod The Sims - View Single Post - Story Time Contest: Hero Edition

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Running Out of Hero
Chapter 3

After two nights of planning, Helena was ready to act on Sarah's plan to deal with Aron's threat. She'd sign on to the Brio reality TV show to help Lorie pass the test. It meant putting Lorie in danger, but she was a necessary distraction to keep Aron's eyes off Helena for the moment.

Now Helena stood before the old house that was the Delkarta Center for Paranormal & Supernatural Studies. Hopefully, Maxwell still had the business card from the show's producer. As soon as she stepped into the hall two employees greeted her.

“Welcome!” The man said. “I'm Hyde. This is Jenni. We'll be your tour guides.”

“Actually, I'm here to see Maxwell Eugenio,” Helena said.

“Oh... This way.” Hyde led her to a small office.

Maxwell sat behind a desk staring at a computer.
“Let's run the tests again. I think the project's a success--” Shifting his gaze from the screen he saw her. He stared in shock then quickly turned away. When he stood he was wearing the same sunglasses he had on at the store.

“Hyde! Don't bring anyone back here without permission!” Maxwell turned his face and anger on Helena. “What do you want?”

She took a deep breath. He was rude and weird. Who wears sunglasses indoors? “I gave you a business card at One Stop the other day. I was hoping to get it back.”

“That's all?”

She nodded.

Being nice worked. She kept going. “What's the project? It sounds exciting.”

“It's noth--” Maxwell began.

“It's beyond exciting!” Hyde jumped in. “We're researching whether persons can have superpowers without being manufactured like Aron does.”

“Brio was born with powers.” She countered.

“I doubt it,” he said. “If you study her extensively, you'd notice she has many similarities to Aron officers in abilities and--”

“Shut up, Hyde!” Maxwell snapped. He turned to her. “I'll give the card back on one condition. If Aron shows up while you're with Brio, send me video immediately.”

Helena agreed to the deal. After writing his number on the back, Maxwell handed her the card—ripped pieces taped together. She left without another word.

*****

Sitting in her car, she couldn't stop trembling. She replayed Hyde's words.

She has many similarities to Aron officers...

It wasn't similarity. The truth was she had come out of Aron. They took her when she was four. There were three others who were kidnapped the same year around the same age. Evie, Miyu, Jareen, and Helena grew up in the compound together.

When they weren't being experimented on or training, they were allowed to play outside under close supervision. Then they evolved.

Evie developed fire, Jareen water, and Miyu wind and cold. An external sign of Aron superiority, their hair and eye color changed as their genes mutated. Suddenly, they couldn't be friends with powerless Helena.

Years after Helena became Brio, the three had become Aron officers known as The Elements. Evie was called Flare, Jareen was River, and Miyu was Wen.

With their combined powers, The Elements were the toughest opponents Helena went up against. They saw her escape as traitorous rebellion and hated her with cruel passion. They were her last fight. She nearly died. She hoped to never face them again.

Days later Helena was heading to the back parking lot of a downtown restaurant after having dinner with Lorie for the show, when she heard shouting. It was Lorie with her boyfriend “Fancy Pants” from the robbery.

“He called me a coward and accused me of doing nothing!” Lorie (who'd dyed her blonde hair light blue) yelled. “In front of the cameras, the world! If I'm humiliated one more time, I swear someone's life is going to be a living hell!”

“Careful, sweetie. You sound like a villain.” A smug voice said.

Perched on the roof of a black pickup truck sat a smirking woman dressed for a nightclub. Her long pink hair cascaded down her front in two ponytails. Her exposed left shoulder showed off a tattoo of a roaring wildcat head, the sign of an Aron officer.

“Do you remember me?” The woman asked. “I'm Flare. We go waaay back.”

Lorie blankly stared.

Flare sighed. “Did you get our letter?”

“Letter?” Lorie's eyes lit up with realization. “You're Aron?”

“You're not as smart as you used to be, are you honey? Well, here are your instructions: The old Dodderman warehouse. There are two kids, an old lady, and a trucker. Find and get them out.”

“That's it?” Lorie put up her fists as if ready to rumble. “Give me something that's worthy of Brio.”

Flare's pink eyes twinkled in the moonlight. “We'll give you a real challenge later.” She flew away; a blast of hot air thrusting her body into the sky.

Lorie looked at her boyfriend. “When I rescue those people by myself it will prove that I'm the greatest hero ever.” She jumped into her Ferrari and screeched out of the lot.

Helena parked three blocks away from the warehouse. Unsure of what waited behind the doors, she went to the side where fire escape stairs led up to the second floor. Taking a bit of energy from a flickering light bulb she filled the glass of a window with cracks until it caved.

Crates rotted in every corner of the warehouse. The wood floors were covered in sawdust and sand. Helena found Lorie on the ground floor. She was upset that she'd been followed until Helena offered to be her sidekick.

Lorie agreed. “I do need a lackey.”

Working together, they looked behind and in every crate, machine, room, even a huge stack of smelly rotten hay... everywhere from top to bottom. Finally, Helena realized that they hadn't checked the elevator. Finding a crowbar, they pried the doors open. On the third floor they found the hostages.

The elevator was stopped halfway down. Looking inside they saw a man (Tuck), two children (Hayley and Gene), and an elderly woman (Retha) sitting on the floor.

There was enough space between the floor of the building and the roof of the elevator for bodies to pass through.

Retha reached up first. As Helena pulled her up, the light in the elevator turned red. An alarm blared. White smoke poured down from the vent in the elevator's roof.

Flare.

Startled, Retha slipped from Helena's grip and fell back onto the floor. The elevator shook. Tuck lifted the crying children up to Helena. Working together, Lorie and Helena were able to get both Retha and Tuck out.

“Everyone downstairs.” Helena ordered.

As they scrambled down the last flight of the stairwell, Flare appeared at the landing. They stopped in their tracks.

“Upstairs!” Lorie shouted.

They made their way to the second floor where Helena had come in. There was another stairwell on the opposite side of the building. As everyone headed in that direction, Flare jumped over the railing cutting off Lorie from the rest of the group.

“Ready for that challenge?” Flare asked, tilting her head back as two plumes of fire shot out from her palms to the floor.

Wide-eyed, Lorie stepped away from the hot flames. She was way out of her league. Flare shot a fireball over the rail down to the main doors consuming them in fire.

“Sorry, folks. Brio wants a real fight,” she said.

“I passed your test.” Lorie said, hoarsely.

“You won't get them out alive so you've failed.”

At Helena's prompting, the group quietly headed for the open window. Meanwhile, Helena scooped up some sawdust and sand that covered the floor. Flare was busy tossing fire daggers at Lorie who barely dodged them. When she was close enough, Helena shouted. Flare turned. Helena flung the contents in her hand at Flare's face.

Screaming, Flare clawed at her eyes. Helena lifted her right leg, bent it, and kicked her straight in the chest. Flare flipped over the rail and fell. She lay, moaning, on the first floor.

“Wow!” Hayley and Retha had watched the whole thing. They stared at Helena in awe. She shooed them out the window. Flare would awaken soon.

The guys were waiting for them when they made it to the ground. They ran to the front where the gates were. Turning the corner, they stopped again.

A man with aqua colored hair leaned against the wall. River. Next to him was a gray haired young woman. Wen. They'd been waiting. Helena ducked behind the group.

“Took you long enough,” Wen said.

“We were beginning to worry.” River yawned.

The warehouse doors burst open behind them. Flare hobbled over.

“Who put out my flames?” She screeched.

Helena had been so startled by the other Elements that she hadn't noticed the fire was extinguished.

“Orders were not to kill anyone,” Wen stated flatly.

Flare sniffed. “I was only having fun.”

River gave a half smile. “Brio saves the day again.”

“Like she did anything,” little Hayley muttered.

Wen narrowed her gray eyes at the girl, but before she could speak the sound of sirens caught everyone's ears. Someone had called in Flare's fire.

“Sorry to cut our reunion short, but that's our cue,” River said, straightening.

They took off into the sky. Flare flung a huge fireball down. Wen's strong gust of wind sent it hurtling. It hit the roof with the boom of an explosion.

Firefighters raced toward the building. The flames were so huge the whole block lit up like it was day.

“What the hell was that?!” Lorie shouted at Helena. “The hostages are saying I did nothing. Do you know how humiliating this is? I'm the rescuer. I'm Brio, not you.”

“Sorry.”

“It's too damn late to apologize. Don't you ever come near me again.”

*****

Helena sat in her car, exhausted. Despite her anger, she didn't want Lorie to die trying to fight Aron ...but she didn't want to die either. The longer the ruse went on, though, the less likely either of them would come out of this alive.

Sighing, she stuck her key into the ignition. A shadow moved in the back seat. She screamed as sunglasses stared back at her in the rear view mirror.

Maxwell frowned. “You forgot. Not cool …Brio.”

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