“F*ck!” Laney Jackson hated her job sometimes. Being a journalist sucked, especially as a woman. Here she was at the Starling Regional Airport, trying to elbow her way to the front of the gathering crowd to talk to the one and only Narcissus. The only hero in the top rankings of heroes to come from the Starling region. “Starling’s Sun”, they called him. Laney thought it was stupid.
But the news outlet she worked for, “The Star”, wanted to send their best journalist to get the best details when they’d heard their Sun was back in town. It was practically unheard of for a hero to take a flight home unwarranted.
Laney wanted to stay towards the back of the crowd and just take notes based on what the crowd says. It helped her get the feel of the public’s opinion, or so she told herself. But her stupid manager, Georgie, told her that she needed to “get in on the action every now and then”. So, to avoid getting fired, she slowly made her way to the front of the crowd.
“Narcissus! Narcissus! Why have you come to Starling unannounced?” Laney projected, hating the way it made her voice sound.
Narcissus ignored her, like he did to all the other reporters and journalists, and continued to wait for his luggage. Laney resisted the urge to roll her eyes and continued to call out pre-written questions that she’d hastily come up with in the car.
“Does your family know that you’ve come to visit?”
“Were you not just on a mission in Darcland?”
“What happened that you’ve retired from the mission early?”
None of the questions that Laney asked even garnered the slightest bit of attention from the hero. Of course, Laney was used to this; people hated the media. This was when Laney had to choose between two actions: give up, or ask the questions that made even her blood boil.
She didn’t want to get fired.
“Did you face your nemesis, Generator, in Darcland?”
Now, Laney wasn’t just asking questions randomly. She’d done digging into Narcissus and found that he faced off with his nemesis more often than any other hero she’d followed. Not only that, but these confrontations were often kept more secretive than his other battles. She hoped that by asking about something that wasn’t very public or obvious, it would capture his attention. Not that she expected any reaction from the stone-faced hero, at that point.
However, it was this particular question that made Narcissus look up at her. He just stared at her. He didn’t answer the question or walk away or anything of the sort. He just looked at her with that peculiar look on his face that Laney couldn’t interpret. He looked like he was shocked, or mad, or maybe he was about to cry?
After about another moment of shock, he realized himself and snapped his attention back to his luggage, which was just coming out of the conveyor. He grabbed it and promptly left the airport.
As the crowd dispersed, Laney stood there, contemplating. She’d decided, though. She’d go back empty-handed.
