Graham - Trial by Fire

All Elena wants to do is join the Hollywood Heroes, meet her compatriots, and slowly get into the swing of saving the world. What she gets instead is Consequence, who took out a full-page ad in the LA Times threatening to bring about an apocalypse.

Between villainous masterminds, her fellow heroes, and her attraction to group leader Lacy, Elena is going to have to learn fast how to be a Hollywood Hero or the only thing she'll have to worry about is how to survive a post-apocalyptic world.

Trial by Fire

By Lore Graham

Published by Less Than Three Press LLC

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission of the publisher, except for the purpose of reviews.

Edited by Amanda Jean

Cover designed by Natasha Snow

This book is a work of fiction and all names, characters, places, and incidents are fictional or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is coincidental.

First Edition May 2017

Copyright 2017 by Lore Graham

Printed in the United States of America

Digital ISBN 9781684310234

Elena sat on a cushioned bench inside the lobby of Georgio's Italian Family Restaurant, an old-fashioned place in Hollywood Hills. It was a Thursday night, and while the restaurant wasn't packed, the staff were busy enough that they left her alone. Her hands rested on the worn leather seat, and she was only sweating the tiniest bit due to nerves. After a months-long process, she had finally hit the last stage of applying to the Hollywood Heroes. Each step along the way had gone smoothly, but she still had still felt a combination of excitement and relief when Archive had emailed her a few days ago to invite her to the group interview.

Elena's dark hair was pinned up neatly and she wore dressy slacks and a blouse. Since her arrival a few minutes ago, she'd been keeping an eye out for her interviewers, but hadn't seen any of them yet.

"Elena?" Two women pushed through a chatty crowd of twenty-somethings and approached her.

"That's me." Elena rose to her feet.

The woman who had addressed her smiled politely and offered her hand. She couldn't have been more than five feet tall and had a plethora of freckles scattered over her rose-tinted skin. She had short, curly red hair and wore a neat-looking charcoal suit jacket and skirt accented by a crimson-and-gold scarf. Her attire made Elena grateful that she too had dressed up.

"I'm Archive. Thank you for coming to meet with us."

"Thank you for having me." Elena turned from Archive to address her companion. "Hello, I'm Elena." She offered her hand to the other woman who had approached, but turned it into a polite wave when she didn't reciprocate.

"Pleased to meet you, Elena. I'm Oculus. Ve/vir pronouns, please." This womanpersonwas closer to Elena's height, with light skin and thick, square-framed glasses. A deep blue cap was pinned in the dark curls that fell to vir shoulders.

"Our table should be ready," Archive continued. "Lightspeed texted me that she's already here. Have you been waiting long?"

"No, not very."

"She probably arrived shortly before you did then. Our apologies for the wait."

"It's no problem," Elena replied earnestly.

Elena followed Archive and Oculus past the host stand and through the half-full dining room to a table in the back corner. It was tucked away, partially obscured by a couple of large potted plants.

"Hi, I'm Lacy," the woman already at the table said as Elena sat down. She offered Elena a dazzling smile, flashing her white teeth as she spoke. "Or Lightspeed, if we're sticking to code names for now."

"Generally speaking, that's how we conduct these meetings, yes," Archive said. Elena guessed from the exasperation in her voice that this wasn't the first time people hadn't closely followed protocol.

"Well, she'll learn our names soon enough anyway," Lacy replied before looking to Elena again. "If you're accepted, of course."

Lacy wore a stylish black-and-white dress, with her flowing hair falling well past her shoulders. Her jewelry and bold make-up brought out the golden undertones in her skin.

Elena was content to listen to Lacy, Archive, and Oculus chat as they waited for the others to arrive. She felt more nervous than she had during any other step, if only because she was so close to her goal.

It didn't take long for the last two to show up, escorted by a waiter who handed out menus to everyone. Elena recognized one of them as Guardian even before she'd introduced herself with her code name. Guardian was a bearded woman who wore flowery garb and a turban, and had been one of the two present for Elena's powers demonstration.

The other woman introduced herself as Kinesis. She was a tall, conventionally-beautiful woman with medium-brown skin and wore her black hair in a long braid. She looked familiar, but Elena couldn't figure out where she might have seen her before.

"This is everyone who'll be with us this evening," Archive said as the two newcomers took their seats. "Elena, thank you again for joining us," Everyone else quieted down as she continued. Kinesis looked at her phone for a second before stowing it in her purse. "You'd said in your emails that you were considering Fuego as your code name. Is that still your preferred alias?"

"Yes, Fuego is fine." Elena glanced from Archive to the rest of the table. Everyone's eyes were on her, and their expressions ranged from inquisitive to friendly.

"Fuegothat means 'fire' in Spanish, right?" asked Guardian.

"Yes." Honestly, she wasn't terribly fond of the name, but she'd spent months thinking about it and couldn't come up with anything better. She'd researched superheroes and their names from around the Western HemisphereN.Y.C., Houston, So Paulo, Mexico City, Lima, Rio, and Santiago, plus a few superheroes who worked independently in other citiesand found no better inspiration there. A lot of the namesRaptor, Dauntless, Victory, La Mujer Valienteweren't much more inspired than hers, and a few were bordering on vain. There were a couple that had a less obvious meaning, like Sprite, but they seemed to be the exception rather than the rule.

"Just checking," said Guardian. "I took Japanese in high school, so my Spanish is atrocious." Guardian smiled. "I like the name. It rolls off the tongue, and it's to-the-point."

"Elena, have you been to Georgio's before?" Lacy asked.

"No, I haven't," Elena said, blinking a couple of times. She had been steeled to talk about her superhero credentials this evening, but Lacy's inquiry was unexpectedly casual. "What's good here?"

"Lasagna," Guardian replied immediately, with Kinesis echoing her a second behind.

"I've been to a lot of fancy Italian restaurants, and never found another place with lasagna this good," Kinesis said from across the table.

"I've hardly ever had Italian food, but the first time we were here, I tried it on Kinesis's recommendation and loved it!" Guardian added.

The waiter reappeared, bringing glasses of ice water. Oculus ordered a bottle of red wine, which Kinesis, Archive, and Lacy all offered to help drink.

"And will you be having wine as well, ma'am?" he asked Elena.

"No, thanks. Just a Diet Pepsi."

"So, we know you've jumped through a bunch of hoops by now to get here," Lacy said once the waiter departed. "Archive shared your credentials with us, but what I want to know is why you want to join."

"Sure." Elena looked past Lacy for a moment, gathering her thoughts. "I first heard of the Hollywood Heroes from my coworker, back when I had gotten my first paralegal job in San Francisco, in late 2015. That android who'd gone on a rampage through LA had just been captured."