Anagha Baheti

Sjena walked down the hallway, two soldiers in front of her, and two behind. The ones behind her held their plasma guns pointed at her. The guns were useless against her shadows, but they didn’t need to know that. She had surrendered voluntarily, and she had no intention of escaping justice. If superheroes were exempt from the law, it wouldn’t be long before society would collapse.

“Oh Sjena, your shackles stand so bravely between society and collapse.” The condescension was thick in Midnight’s voice.

The soldiers led her to the conference room where her case would be heard, and she quietly occupied the empty chair before her. They retreated to their posts outside the room.

A few minutes later, the committee entered the room and occupied the three empty chairs on the other side of the rectangular mahogany table separating them from her. The committee consisted of Beakon, Sherry, and The Judge. She had worked with all three of them on several occasions. Her judgement would be fair, but probably harsh.

Her family occupied the chairs to the far right. All of them had shown up to support her. No, they were there to support Varjo. They couldn’t have known how close they were to the person behind the mask.

“Good morning, ladies, and gentlemen,” Beakon spoke from behind a yellow-white mask covering his entire face. “We are here to determine an appropriate punishment for breach of contract between the Superhero Academy and the hero code-named Varjo. We have reviewed the police reports, the witness testimonies, and the audio recording submitted by Litch. Varjo, we lean towards revoking your licence, but given your impeccable track record, we want to provide you with a chance to explain yourself. What do you have to say in defence of your actions?”

“Are you seriously going to revoke my licence because I saved an innocent family instead of money launderers and drug dealers?”

“Some people affiliated with that establishment might have had criminal inclinations, yes, but what of the hundreds of people who were there to earn an honest living? What of the janitors, the security staff, the journalists? What of the people who were just passing by?”

“Even if I wanted to save them, there was no way I could have scoured through nineteen floors to locate the bomb, nor could I have moved three hundred or so people out of the blast area. I had a real chance of saving the family in this room today, so I took it. Besides, if the Sun Bridge had collapsed, it would have led to a lot more deaths due to hundreds of vehicles falling into the water. I took a call based on the information available, and I stand by my decision.”

“It was not your call to make.”

Sherry screamed as she stood up with so much force that she sent her chair flying before it smashed against the wall. Beakon grabbed her arm and she calmed down. A soldier dragged a chair into the room and she sat on it with all the grace she could muster. She swiped a lock of hair off her face and spoke in a collected voice.

“A life is a life. The lives of many outweigh the lives of the few. That is our creed. That is the contract you signed.”

“I have stood by our creed all my life, but I will no longer act like we don’t choose the lives we save every day. Sure, we have the contract to hide behind, but not deciding is a decision, and I am tired of pretending it isn’t. If the price of choice is rejection, so be it. You may strip me of the perks that come with my license, but you will not find guilt or shame within me.”

Sjena commanded Midnight to pull the shadows away from her.

“Hey, hey, hey! Don’t pull an Ironman on these people. You don’t have half his charisma.”

She sent her fury through their connection. Midnight stopped laughing.

“Are you seriously willing to lose everything for them?”

“Yes. They make me who I am. Without them, there is no me.”

“Look, Sjena, if you want to end your career, that’s your choice. But I won’t suffer the consequences of your actions. If you go ahead with this, I will have no choice but to look for another anchor. I wish I could say I would miss the years we spent together, but that would make me a liar.”

“I understand. Pull back the shadows.”

Midnight cut open a tiny portal in the air. The power of the explosives surged within him, enhancing his control over the shadows. He commanded them to return to their realm.

The shadows slowly peeled away from her, revealing her face to the world for the first time. She stood up from her chair, turned around, and waved at her son. He leapt out of his father’s lap, ran to her, and hugged her legs. She lifted him in her arms.

“This is my son, Sonho. And that is the rest of my family. The purpose of revealing this information is not to appeal to your emotions. I only need you to know what influenced mine. You do what you need to do. I did what let me sleep well at night.”

The Judge, who had been so silent until now that he almost went unnoticed, finally opened his mouth.

“I empathise with your emotions, Varjo. I honestly do. But you might have just dug yourself a deeper hole. You operated on emotions, not logic. We can’t have a member of our academy being illogical in any capacity.” He stood up and took a deep breath before he signed the final verdict. “Varjo, you are hereby released from your contract. You may no longer use the Academy resources. You are prohibited from using your powers. If your powers have a source, you must surrender it to HR. An inhibitor will be provided to you, which you must wear at all times. Failure to abide by our instructions would lead to an instant death penalty. You must also surrender all devices that were issued to you through your tenure as a superhero, including the coffee mug and water bottle. This case has now been closed.”

The other two got up and all three of them left the room. One of the guards collected the papers and took them away. Sjena nodded to her husband, who pried their son away from her. A faint sizzling sound was followed by the shadows concealing her face. A guard motioned for Sjena to follow him, which she did.

“Well, it was a pleasure doing business with you.” There was an excitement in Midnight’s voice.

Sjena didn’t respond.

“Alright, final offer. Come with me to the shadow realm. We can hide there for a while, then you can hand me over to a more interesting creature and live the rest of your boring life as you see fit.”

At this, Sjena smiled.

“I’d rather see my son grow up.”

“You’re no fun.”

“In a few years, my son would disagree.”

“Just throw me into the shadow realm.”