The Hero and the Thrall  •  Act 2

Krissy barreled through the library doors, and had to fight the impulse to turn right around and run screaming in the other direction at the sight that greeted her. In the flickering lights of the trembling library towered a behemoth composed entirely of rock, metal, and bones, laced with tongues of flame. The mass twisted together in a vaguely animal-like shape, with hulking, heavy limbs and a face—if it could be called that—that appeared to be mostly mouth. It was busily tearing into a bookshelf, glutting on the J-K nonfiction section. Debris rained down from the damaged ceiling and shelves.

Krissy spotted the terrified old librarian cowering against the desk. She had been bloodied by falling wood, and her glasses were knocked askew. Krissy tried to rush to her aid, but at that moment, the monster noticed her. It swiped at her with a claw the size of a car, and Krissy was compelled to throw herself bodily to the floor. The librarian shrieked.

“I’m OK!” Krissy said. That was a lie. Still, she hastily scrambled to her feet. “Quick! Get out of here! I’ll distract it!”

The behemoth screeched and thrashed, and the lights in the building went out. The flame in the monster’s body splashed creepy, flickering shadows against the walls as it lumbered heavily in the librarian’s direction. Krissy quickly surveyed the wreckage and found a chunk of plaster in the dimness.

“Hey, over here!” she barked, hurling the plaster at the beast. It fell a little short, but the monster swerved toward her, and flaming pits that might have been eyes fell upon the scrawny teen with the light-up shoes. Krissy gulped and took off running toward the east wing, hoping the beast would follow.

The ploy worked. Unfortunately, Krissy hadn’t thought much further ahead than that.

She took a sharp corner and skidded into a bookshelf. Earth-shaking pounds announced that the beast had begun to run in pursuit, raking its jagged body through the walls. Krissy couldn’t suppress an unheroic scream as she frantically scrambled deeper into the library—and right into a dead end in the Aarne-Thompson Tale Type museum. The only light was the advancing flame, which bore down nearly above her now. Trapped, just like that poor sap in Dr. Discord’s warehouse—except there would be no Valor Patrol to save her.

The beast lifted a mammoth arm, tearing through a support beam. The building shook, dislodging a section of the ceiling. It crashed down heavily onto the monster’s chthonic form. The impact seemed to crack pieces right off the creature, and Krissy yelped and shielded her head as chunks of molten flesh, bones, and warped metal rained down around her.

I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die! Krissy thought as she was peppered with debris. In one second, something sufficiently heavy or sharp or fiery would fall on her, if the monster didn’t scoop her up and gulp her down first, and then it would all be over!

Something landed in her lap, and she shrank further, screwing up her face so hard that her jaw hurt. If only she had powers like the Valor Patrol!

I wish I were a superhero!

A feverish gold light shone fiercely through her eyelids, and the monster’s scream and the thunderous rumbling died away, leaving only Krissy’s rapid heartbeat. Her breath caught, and she cracked her eyes open to stare at the object that had fallen on her.

A lamp, like the kind she’d only ever seen in movies—

She gasped as a plume of smoke hissed from its spout. She flattened her back against the wall. The smoke swarmed into the shape of a man cloaked in a hazy glow. He stooped and gripped her face. His nails bit delicately into her skin, and she found herself staring, dumbstruck, into gleaming eyes.

“Whatever thy desire, I will obey,” said a voice, though the man’s mouth did not move. Krissy’s lips parted in confusion, but at that moment, the man melted back into formless smoke. The smoke twined on itself and then rushed into Krissy’s mouth. She choked, alarmed, reaching for her throat even as she felt smoky heat surging throughout her body. Her surroundings seemed to fall away entirely, leaving Krissy floating in a void of darkness. Trembling, she pulled her hands back from her throat and stared at them in wonder. A spark danced between her palms.

Suddenly, it burst. Krissy’s back arched as a shockwave rolled over her, transforming her in its wake. Her Arrowman T-shirt, skinny jeans, and hoodie were replaced with a body suit like PurpleX’s, but in Infernal’s red and black. Her neck bowed back under the weight of her ponytail as it grew to be longer than she was tall, like Miss Tress’s enchanted locks. Her Light-Up Valor Patrol Teen Edition Shoes became those tall red boots with the thick soles that she’d seen online. And, to finish it all off, a dark latex mask adorned her eyes. The one name she hadn’t crossed off on her list of potential aliases stood out in her mind.

Spark.

As quickly as it started, it was over. Krissy—Spark, now—dropped back to her feet on the polished library floor, now strewn with chunks of building and monster pieces, with the beast itself bearing down on her. But she wasn’t cowering anymore!

She knew exactly what to do. She’d only been daydreaming about this for as long as she could remember, after all. Spark leaped backward, and just as expected, she stayed airborne. She whooped in glee and darted forward, looping under the arm of the beast and circling behind it. The air whistled in her ears, and her silky ponytail lashed behind her, somehow heavy, yet weightless at the same time.

“Time to fight fire with fire!” Spark crowed, punching her fist into her palm. A spherical light appeared between her hands, and she hurled it like a shot put into the monster’s side. The light exploded on impact, and the beast jolted back with a roar. It staggered and pushed right through the wall onto the street outside where it toppled a power transformer and flattened a car.

All the lights went out on the street.

Spark hissed through her teeth as if in apology and zipped forward, but almost immediately jumped back with a gasp when the beast shifted before her eyes. One moment, it was facing away from her, but its entire form had rippled within itself. The mass of rock and metal that had been the thing’s left hind leg roiled and abruptly became its enormous jaws, which very nearly snapped around the superheroine.

“Whoa, DOWN boy!” Spark squeaked. She hurtled over its head into the open air outside the library, and it shifted beneath her, once again changing direction.

“What ARE you? Die, creep!”

She unleashed another blast that shook more of the monster’s armor loose. It scattered around the street. Spark didn’t have the chance to congratulate herself before the beast lunged at her. Despite its hulking size, the thing could ­jump­. It caught Spark in one of its giant claws, swatting her right out of the sky. She hurtled at a speed that would make a professional pitcher jealous into the hood of an oncoming car.

There was a crash, screams, and a squeal of tires as the car careened wildly. Spark barely managed to clutch the crumpled hood to keep from sliding off. The vehicle lurched on its brakes, and Spark was forced upright. She shook broken glass out of her hair while her brain sloshed like Mom’s kale smoothies in the blender.

“What the—oh my—are you OK?!” said a man’s voice.

Spark made to answer, but didn’t have the opportunity. The behemoth was upon her again. She yelped and instinctively bolted out of the way as its huge claw swung down onto the car. She somersaulted in midair, reminded by another terrified scream that she’d just left the man in the vehicle to his terminal fate. She whipped around to see the beast hefting the car up toward its jaws. The man inside leaped from the driver’s seat, clearly choosing to take his chances with going two-dimensional on the pavement over the maws of a monster.

“Gotcha!” Spark grunted, diving forward to catch the man under the arms. His momentum propelled them both toward the street, but Spark was able to slow their descent to survivable speed. She dropped him the last foot or so to the ground. He staggered, gasping.

“Get out of here, as fast as you can!” she said. Her voice was nearly drowned out by the screech of crushed metal.

The monster was eating the car!

Spark’s jaw slackened, and the man yelled and took off. She clenched her teeth and launched back into the fray.

“All right, no more miss nice guy!” she said, hurling a firebomb into the beast’s head. It roared in response, and a pair of bright lights blazed into her eyes. She threw up her arm to shield her face and flew backward out of its reach.

“Ack, what the…” she said, squinting at the thing. The car, badly battered and twisted, had inexplicably fused to the beast’s body. Its headlights cut beams through the darkening sky. And, now that she was looking at the monster, she could see a corner of the J-K nonfiction shelf jutting from its shoulder, amid dented weapons and pieces of a skeleton.

“Oh…fritz,” she swore.

The beast reached for another car parked along the side of the road. With a crunch, it, too, was added to the monster’s belly—and almost immediately emerged from its skin. Spark hammered the monster with a volley of exploding shots, breaking parts away from it, but it paid her no mind now as it tucked into a telephone pole and a huge tree. Buffet de Rosetta was in business, and it looked like the quadrupedal garbage disposal intended to have its frequent diner card fully punched by night’s end.

“C’mon, what is it going to take?!” Spark shrieked. “Snack time is OVER!”

One of her explosions connected with particular force, making the monster stumble as a huge chunk of freshly devoured concrete fell away from its body. Smoky golden light glowed from the gaping hole. It almost looked as if the beast were hollow…

Even as Spark watched, the gap began to close as the surface of the monster rolled. Spark wasn’t about to let the opportunity go. With a battle cry that sounded way better in her head than it did coming from her high-pitched, teenage voice, Spark fired shot after shot into the glowing chasm. Masses as big as her entire body crumbled away as the monster howled, swinging steel-laden claws at her.

Spark dodged, clenched her tongue between her teeth, and surged her energy between her palms. An electric blue fireball blazed to life, pulsing with raw heat. It swelled larger and larger as the monster finally managed to get its feet under itself and lunged. Channeling the precision that helped her deal sweet justice on Beverley Nicholls’ face, she catapulted the bomb overhead, right into the monster’s open wound.

Spark was blown from the air with the force of the explosion. Monster shrapnel flew in all directions, causing almost as much damage as the behemoth itself had. Spark nearly found herself decapitated by a hurtling rusty sword. Dry leaves and grit blasted her skin, threatening to strip the flesh from her bones.

Then, everything settled, leaving only the dolorous complaints of a dying car alarm. A cracked powerline near it snapped, crushing the hood, and the alarm choked.

Silence fell.

Spark panted, sprawled awkwardly against the tilted remains of a chain link fence.

“I…I did it,” she said.

She leaped up. “I did it!” she whooped, punching the air. She corkscrewed into the sky, feeling her heavy ponytail swish around her, and was reminded of her transformation. Spark squealed in pure excitement, looking down to admire her appearance with her hands pressed to her face. She was perfect!

Clap. Clap. Clap.

“And thus, the mighty heroine felled the great beast,” a voice said.

Spark looked around. A man stood a short distance away, barely visible beneath the shadow of a large tree. He leaned casually against its trunk, applauding slowly. Realization began to dawn on Spark.

“You’re…” she started breathlessly.

He vanished from sight. Spark blinked, and the next thing she knew, she felt a gentle touch on her hair.

“Victory, beauty, power—new garments, even—all are wishes I have granted before,” came that eerie purr. “But never in a combination quite like this.”

Spark spun to face the man.

Not a man.

A djinni.

He slackened his grip to let her ponytail slither through his fingers as she rounded on him. The djinni fixed upon her with golden eyes that seemed overly bright in the darkness and lips curved in a little smile. He was standing very close, still holding a tendril of her hair.

“Isn’t this amazing?!” she cried. “I’m a superhero! A real superhero! And it’s all thanks to you!” She pumped her feet in a happy dance, and, unable to resist, threw herself at the djinni in an abrupt hug. Her lungs filled with a smoky sweet scent as she pressed her face against his ornate necklaces. The djinni drew a sharp breath in protest, staggering a bit, and pried her off him.

“I’m at your command, Master,” he said. He swiped his eyes down her, hitching up a brow. “Mistress,” he corrected himself. Spark made a face.

“Mistress?! That’s gotta stop, it’s way too creepy,” she said. “Call me Kri-Spark!” she stumbled, her face splitting into a huge grin.

“Kri-Spark,” the djinni repeated quizzically.

“Spark, I meant Spark,” she said, flapping her hand in dismissal. “That’s my superhero name!” She placed her fists on her waist and beamed.

The djinni looked as if he might respond, but just then, the wail of sirens cut through the air. His head swiveled toward the sound with an expression of disdain, and Spark caught sight of his pointed ears, adorned with gold jewelry. For a moment, she simply stared at him. But as the sirens grew closer, she returned to her senses.

“Ah! We should get out of here!” Spark said. Superheroes were supposed to disappear mysteriously into the night! “C’mon, let’s go!”

She grabbed the djinni’s hand. Again taken aback by her forwardness, his eyes flicked rapidly between her grasp and something lying in the ruins of the library as she compelled him a few steps.

“Wait—” he began. His voice cut out with a gag as he lurched to a stop, and his hand slipped out of Spark’s grasp, leaving her clutching one of his bracelets. She looked back at him, startled, and glimpsed a gleam of white around his neck. A heavy silver collar fitted with a padlock and etched with illegible insignias burned at his throat. An incorporeal chain stretched a good fifteen yards from the collar into the shadows of the partially demolished Aarne-Thompson Tale Type Museum.

“The lamp,” he hissed, rubbing his neck. “I can’t travel far from it.”

“Right!” Spark said, scurrying back toward the library. She picked around in the rubble until she found the mysterious-looking artifact. She scooped it up from the cracked marble floor, gave it a kiss in glee and gratitude, and shot a thumbs-up at the djinni. Before she could see his venomous scowl, she’d beckoned him and hurried into a nearby alleyway. The lights of the approaching vehicles spilled across the broken scene.

With a whoosh of smoke, the djinni joined Spark in the alley. She peered around the corner, watching the first responders jump out of their cars.

“Man…I really want to go out there and make a name for myself as a superhero,” Spark said. She sighed and withdrew from the edge of the alley. “But…I need to get used to my powers, first. I’ve got to be incognito, for now…”

Her form glimmered, and a scrawny teenage girl in skinny jeans and Light-Up Valor Patrol Teen Edition shoes replaced the superheroine. With an air of fatigue, she held out the bangle she’d accidentally taken from the djinni. He made a terse noise and took it back, replacing it on his wrist. Her eyes found her own wrist, and she jumped at the sight of her watch.

“Oh my gosh! Look at the time! My parents are gonna freak out! Oh…but just wait until they meet you…” Krissy began to smile at the thought, tugging on the djinni’s hand. “They’ll be so surprised!”

“Indeed.” He pulled himself out of her grip and brushed at his silken outfit. “I’m sure they’ll have lots of insights on what you should do with your remaining wishes,” he said nonchalantly. “Assuming they don’t simply take my lamp from you and use my powers for themselves…”

Krissy’s brow creased. “What! They wouldn’t do that.”

The djinni shot her a sneaky smile and vanished, reappearing on her other side. He rested his weight on her shoulder. “Wouldn’t they, though?” he asked with a hint of a lilt in his voice. “I can’t tell you how often I’ve seen it happen: brother turning on brother, parent turning on child…” he trailed a fingertip down her cheek. Krissy snorted.

“Yeah, well, you’ve obviously never met anyone like MY parents, then,” she said, flicking his hand away. Then she frowned. “But…you have met a lot of terrible people—people even willing to go against their own family…” She turned worried eyes on him. “If someone found out about you and tried to take you by hurting my parents…”

Krissy swallowed, a decision made. “I’d better keep you—and my powers—a secret, for now.” She nodded, trying to reassure herself. “That’s for the best. Besides, superheroes keep secrets all the time! But for this to work, you have to cooperate with me, OK?”

He smiled at her. He had very pointy teeth. “Anything you wish,” he replied, twirling the end of her ponytail around his finger and touching it to his lips in a kiss. He stepped back and bowed deeply.

The overly courteous gesture gave Krissy pause. Choosing to be charmed by his manner, Krissy grinned back at him in satisfaction. She turned and began to head down the alleyway with that little bounce in her step as she fished the crumpled sticky note out of her pocket. Her ponytail swung against her shoulders.

The djinni watched her for a moment before following.

“Anything you wish,” he repeated slowly, a wicked smirk tugging at his lips.