Slumdog Hero

Dawn split the sky like a knife wound, bleeding harsh light across the vast emptiness. Fii squinted against the glare, the ever-present grit between her teeth a reminder that this wasn't some fever dream.

The Wastes stretched before them—an endless expanse of nothing, broken only by the skeletal silhouettes of distant rock formations and the shimmer of heat already rising from the sand.

Behind them, the rocks that had sheltered them through the night cast long, stark shadows, reaching like grasping fingers towards the relentless light. The fire was dead, the ash cold and lifeless.

Glimmerstrike—no, Serena—stretched, joints popping, her bodysuit shimmering in the morning light.

"Ugh," she groaned, pushing herself upright. "This was not the morning-after I had in mind."

Diamond Ace—or Luke, rather—stood stoic, his back to them. Whether out of respect for their privacy or simply disinterest, Fii couldn't say. The armored hero seemed more statue than man at times, his movements economical, his speech spare.

"Morning," Fii said to Serena, feeling strangely awkward.

"Hey," Serena replied, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Did we actually... cuddle last night?"

Fii arched an eyebrow. "Wouldn't call it that. But we didn't freeze to death, so let's call it a win."

Serena snorted a laugh, then seemed to remember they weren't friends. Her face schooled into a more neutral expression. "Right. Survival tactics."

"Exactly," Fii agreed, pushing to her feet. Every muscle protested, the previous day's exertions compounded by a night spent on unforgiving stone.

"Ready to move out?" Luke's voice was muffled, his visor down. Fii suspected it was to hide his expression.

"As I'll ever be," she muttered, dusting herself off. Her mouth felt like cotton, her throat parched. The small pool of water had been a boon, but without fresh supplies, dehydration would become a real concern.

And then there was the small matter of food. Her stomach, having had a taste of sustenance yesterday, growled in protest at being empty once again. But beggars couldn't be choosers, as the saying went.

"What's the plan?" Serena asked, eyeing the featureless desert around them with unease.

Fii approached Luke, trying to gauge his mood through the impassive barrier of his helmet. "Any luck with finding our way back to the Metropolis?"

Luke's visor retracted with a hiss, revealing an expression of strained patience. "I'm not faulting you for not knowing, since you grew up in the slums, but there are no functional satellites left in orbit. It's why all signals are handled through ground-based antennas. We don't have access to GPS, so we're not tracking our route."

Fii blinked, filing this tidbit away. "Never knew that."

"Point is," Luke continued, "we need to find landmarks, compare them to what few maps we do have, and navigate the old-fashioned way."

Serena approached, wrapping her arms around herself. "How old-fashioned are we talking? Stone tablets and sticks?"

Luke shot her a withering look. "I mean using visual references and making educated guesses. At the very least, we should be heading northwest. That'll take us back toward civilization eventually."

"How do you know that?" Serena asked.

Fii glanced at the sky, pointing at the rising sun. "The sun rose on that side. It sets in the west. Therefore, that way is east. So, logically, the Metropolis is..."

Serena tilted her head, then clicked her fingers. "Ah! I get it. Northwest."

"Good job," Fii quipped. "You passed kindergarten."

"Shut up," Serena grumbled, though there was little bite to it. "How long do you think it'll take to get there?"

Luke shrugged, the plates of his armor shifting and resettling with a metallic hiss. "Depends on how fast we can move and what obstacles we encounter. If we're lucky, maybe a few days."

"Fantastic," Serena sighed, rolling her shoulders and stretching her arms overhead. "Just what I wanted to hear."

"Got a hot date?" Fii quipped, sidling up to the hero. "Or did you have another big stream planned?"

Serena flushed, her cheeks staining pink. "No, I'm just..."

"Worried about your sponsors?" Fii guessed, quirking a brow. "The makeup of your viewer demographics?"

"That's not—" Serena began hotly, then stopped. She sighed, deflating slightly. "Okay, fine. Maybe that's part of it."

Fii chuckled and clapped Serena on the shoulder, amused by her transparency. "Don't worry, Sparkles. Once we figure a way out of this, I'm sure your fans will come crawling back."

Serena rolled her eyes, but her lips quirked in a reluctant smile. "Oh, shut up, slumdog."

Luke cleared his throat, his expression souring. "As riveting as this... bonding is, we need to move."

The morning's trek was even more grueling than the previous day's. The heat, though not yet at full fury, bore down on them with an oppressive weight. The landscape seemed to mock their efforts, taunting them with shimmering mirages that vanished whenever they drew near.

Fii led the way, picking their path through the barren dunes and rocky outcrops. Luke trudged behind her, his heavy footfalls crunching in the sand. Serena lagged further back, panting, her usually immaculate hair hanging lank and sweaty.

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"Are we there yet?" she called, her voice carrying a plaintive note. "My feet are killing me."

Fii glanced back, eyebrow arched. "Your suit doesn't have any tricks to make this easier? Maybe hover boots or something?"

Serena huffed, struggling up a dune. "If it did, I'd be using them."

"Keep the chatter down," Luke growled, scanning the horizon. "There could be bandits, raiders, or worse."

True. The stories she heard from Mambo Naya, Barathi, and the other Kurigali about the wastes painted a far more dangerous picture than what she'd heard about in the slums. What was it Naya always said? 'Those who live outside the City of Glass know of two worlds, the one that is and one that isn't.'

The Wastes were supposedly that second world, the one that isn't. It's where the Loa made their home—otherworldly spirits that possessed no true form.

Fii glanced at the top of the ridge she was climbing, sighing. She had wanted to see the wastes before, but in this way? Nah. Her muscles ached and protested as she climbed. This part of the Wastes had somehow grown more treacherous.

"Don't those kinds of groups usually stick around oases or watering holes?" Serena asked. "Why would they bother with a place like this?"

"I'm more worried about the wildlife," Fii remarked, recalling the creatures that had watched them the previous night. Had they really been animals?

"Great," Serena muttered. "Monsters, too. Just our luck."

"Don't be such a defeatist, Sparkles," Fii teased. "That's my job, remember?"

"Ha ha," Serena said, her tone flat. "Stick to the day job, slumdog. Comedy isn't your forte."

"Rude," Fii retorted, though she found herself smiling nonetheless.

Despite the banter, a growing sense of unease gnawed at her. Something about the landscape, the way it shifted and whispered, felt... off. The shadowed crevices between the rocks seemed to yawn wider, darker, and she couldn't shake the feeling of eyes on her.

Not the open, honest stare of an animal, but something older, hungrier.

"Can anyone else hear that?" Fii asked abruptly, casting a wary glance over her shoulder.

Luke stopped, cocking his head. "Hear what?"

"I don't know." Fii strained to listen, but the desert's silence pressed in on them. "Voices, maybe? Like... whispers?"

Serena shivered. "I don't hear anything, but I've got goosebumps. Ugh, I hate this place."

"I don't hear anything either," Luke said, his visor clicking as it zoomed in. "But there could be dangers we aren't equipped to detect. Stay alert."

Fii nodded, forcing herself to relax. She was just spooked, that was all. A night in the desert would rattle anyone.

They continued on, the sun climbing relentlessly towards noon, and the voices—if that's what they were—seemed to follow. Sometimes, Fii caught herself listening for them, only to realize that she'd stopped watching the uneven, rocky terrain. She tripped several times, earning a derisive laugh from Serena, but eventually learned to block out the whispers and focus on the path ahead.

They skirted the edge of a deep ravine, the bottom hidden in shadow. Rocks littered the landscape, and as they picked their way through, one of the boulders shifted, sending a cascade of pebbles clattering down the ravine's steep sides.

"Shit!" Serena yelped, scrambling back.

Fii spun, hands raised defensively, but there was no follow-up. Whatever they'd disturbed had settled back into stillness.

"Easy," Luke murmured, placing a steadying hand on Serena's shoulder.

Serena cast him a sheepish look and shrugged him off. "Sorry. I'm just a little jumpy."

"Let's just get out of here," Fii said, pushing forward. "We need to find water soon. This heat's gonna kill us if we don't."

"Hang on," Luke said, leaning against one of the taller boulders. "I need a breather." He released his helmet's seals with a hiss, his pale face emerging, dripping with sweat.

"Status?"

"Not good." Luke tapped at a control panel on his forearm. The display flickered, numbers scrolling before dying completely. "Power's down to seventeen percent. Environmental controls are failing. Internal temperature's rising."

"So you're basically wearing an oven," Fii concluded.

"That would be accurate."

"You could always take off your armor," Serena suggested. "It's not like you really need it anyway."

Luke shot her a look. "The armor stays."

Fii squinted at him, gauging the stubborn set of his shoulders against the crimson flush spreading across his face. Metropolis types and their damn pride.

"Look, tin man," she said, "whatever that suit's supposed to protect you from, it won't matter if your brain cooks inside your skull."

"I'm fine," Luke insisted, though his labored breathing suggested otherwise.

Serena rolled her eyes. "Men."

"Heroes," Fii corrected. "Worst kind of stubborn."

The sun climbed higher, a merciless eye staring down at them. Fii wiped sweat from her brow and scanned the horizon. The landscape dipped ahead, a subtle depression in the otherwise flat terrain. She narrowed her eyes, focusing on a patch of ground that looked... different. The color was slightly off, the sand a shade darker than its surroundings.

"Let's head that way," she said, pointing. "I think we might find water."

"What makes you so sure?" Luke asked, sealing his helmet back in place with obvious reluctance.

"See how the ground changes color there? And those plants?" She gestured to scraggly growth barely visible in the distance. "Desert plants follow water. They've got deep roots that tap into underground sources."

Serena squinted, shading her eyes. "Huh. I guess I see it. Is that another thing you learned from the, um, what's their name again?"

"The Kurigali," Fii supplied.

"Right," Serena said. "They taught you a lot of this survival stuff, huh?"

"They taught me the important stuff, yeah." Fii started down the gentle slope, her feet finding purchase in the loose sand. "How to track, how to find food and water, how to read the signs of the desert."

Luke followed, his movements increasingly sluggish. "Useful knowledge," he grunted, his voice distorted by his helmet.

They reached the darker patch of sand, and Fii knelt, running her fingers through it. Cooler beneath the surface. Promising.

"Here," she said, digging deeper. "The soil's different. More compact."

Luke swayed slightly, catching himself against a nearby rock. His visor retracted again, revealing a face alarmingly red with heat.

"You okay?" Serena asked, genuine concern creeping into her voice.

"Fine," he grunted, though he was clearly anything but. His suit emitted a warning beep, then another. "Just... need a minute."

"You need to get out of that damn oven," Fii said bluntly. "Now."

Another warning beep, more urgent than the last. Luke's shoulders slumped in defeat.

"Fine," he muttered, fumbling at the controls on his arm. "Unlocking couplings. I'll need assistance."

There was a pneumatic hiss, and the heavy plates of his armor began to shift, unlocking from each other. Fii stepped forward, helping him shrug off the massive shoulder guards and chest piece. Serena pitched in, albeit reluctantly, tugging at the components still clinging to him.

They stripped him down to his underlayer, a skintight bodysuit laced with sensors and cooling loops. Beads of sweat rolled off his face and soaked through the fabric, plastering it to his body. It clung to his muscular frame like a second skin, and Fii found herself averting her eyes, suddenly all too aware of the intimacy of their situation.

"You're, uh, kinda ripped under there, huh?" Serena blurted, then flushed scarlet. "I mean—sorry! Didn't mean to—I was just noticing—"

"Stop talking," Fii said, saving them both from further embarrassment. "We need to keep moving. Find that water."