Where There's A Will: Panopolis #3 (Panopolis Series) by Cari Z

Author:Cari Z [Z, Cari]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2023-12-25T16:00:00+00:00

9

How many Heroes live to retirement? Does a Hero ever put in their time and then give up the good fight, and run off to spend their retirement in Aruba? How many, out of our enormous pantheon of Heroes, have successfully put Panopolis in their rear-view mirrors since the Spartan and his cohorts?

Two. Panopolis has had ninety-seven registered Heroes working its streets over the years, and the only ones who didn’t end their terms of service in death or permanent disability were Bellaroque, also known as Bella and Rocco, the twin compatriots and best friends of Morpho Girl. You might remember them: Bella was the closest thing this city has ever had to a real psychic, and Rocco could snap his fingers and come up juggling fireballs.

After Morpho lost her marbles, the twins packed their bags and left, despite the mayor at the time entreating them to stay. They were subsequently pilloried by the media, and no one has heard anything about them since.

One can only assume that they’d had enough. They’d given their talents, their youth, their friends—everything they’d had—to Panopolis. And what had they gotten in return? Spite and hatred for leaving in order to preserve what was left of themselves. I don’t know where they are today; I’m not sure if anyone knows. But wherever they are, I hope they’ve found the peace and happiness that they deserve. Because God knows, none of the rest of the Heroes have.

***

“It could have been so much worse.”

That’s what they kept saying. Everybody I ran into after the explosion had some variation of that to throw at me. People who would have shaken my hand if they could, people who were shaking so badly themselves it was amazing that they were still standing. “It would have been so much worse if you hadn’t been there, Freight Train.”

I got what they were saying. It could have been worse. The only person to die had been Firebolt, in the end. There were plenty of injuries to go around, but almost all of them dated from the fight up to that point. After the explosion, there was no fight. There was only me, crouched naked over the smoldering remains of another Hero, in the middle of a crater. Naked—

great. Ray was gonna have a field day handling the new footage of my bare ass.

It had taken over thirty minutes for the blast zone to cool off so that people could reach me, and I hadn’t moved for that entire time. It wasn’t that I’d been hurt. I mean, okay, a bit of the heat had bled through for a few seconds there and I’d still been seeing stars, but that wasn’t being hurt. It hadn’t been enough to keep me down. It was more that I’d lost track of time. I hadn’t opened my eyes, not until I’d heard someone yell my name in my ringing ear. If I keep my eyes closed, I’d thought dully, maybe I can imagine that I’m not holding onto a shell.

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