Excerpt: Fangirl

You know things are at their absolute worse the moment you wish that your biggest problem in life was high school and all of the drama, politics, and issues that come along with it. As I heard gunshots being fired outside, as the sounds of metal clanging against metal resonated in my ears, I realized that I desperately wished that I hadn’t been stupid enough to get myself into this mess.

But it was way too late to wish for something like that. The survival of the world was at stake, and if the sounds of the raging battle outside told me anything, it was that soon enough, I’d need to stand up and take care of the mess that I had gotten myself involved in. I shuddered and hugged my knees to my chest as I heard the sizzle of a laser cutting through armour, I winced as the smell of burning flesh and coppery blood permeated my nose.

Things were getting worse. I could hear it, but I was too scared to stick my head up and witness it.

Too scared. How immature was that, exactly? My entire life, I’d wanted to be a superhero, or at least a sidekick, and now that the time was here, now that I had the chance to actually prove myself, I was hiding away in a warehouse, hoping that the battle ended before I needed to jump in.

The truth of the matter was that I wasn’t ready. I knew I wasn’t ready. And I was scared. Scared of facing down the psychopath outside who had taken down one of our city’s greatest heroes, scared of facing down the woman who had already single handedly taken down the Justice Alliance, the Consortium of Liberty, and the Sonic Youths as well as the other, more minor teams, who were out there, trying to save the world.

Screams filled my ears as heroes who were on my side of the battle fell at the hands of the megalomaniac who could control and spread dozens and dozens of diseases not found anywhere on this planet.

I closed my eyes and tried to summon a steely resolve as I heard a sonic scream get cut short moments before a maniacal, cold laughter rang out over the carnage outside.

The bad guys had won.

They’d taken down every hero outside.

Every hero except for one.

Me.

Crap, I thought to myself as I reached for the two Chinese fans that I used as weapons. It’s me against the malady.