The alarm blared at precisely 7:45 AM, shattering Roman's already fragile relationship with sleep,
He silenced its cries with a slap and groaned into his pillow with the reflex of someone who had mastered the art of ignoring responsibilities until the last possible second.
His eyes fluttered open as he turned over and checked the clock again to see if he had read the time correctly,
"Seven, forty-five... Seven forty-five, that's fifteen minutes... fifteen minutes" He yawned groggily as he stretched lazily,
"LATE!" His room-mate who was sitting at the desk, gaming on his supercomputer yelled,
"Shit." Roman cursed as he rolled out of bed, scrambling for the nearest hoodie and jeans,
He flashed in and out of the bathroom, then ran a hand through his eternally disheveled hair in a futile attempt at grooming.
With barely a glance at his reflection, he grabbed his bag and bolted out the door.
His roommate, Ethan, didn't even look up from his device, smirking as Roman tripped over a shoe in his haste.
"You know, running to class isn't always requirement.
What's the use? You're already late, sleep in" He chuckled.
"You know, your mom should've raised you better, right?" Roman smirked at him before snatching his tablet off the table.
"Enjoy being late. Again, genius." Ethan snorted good-naturedly.
Roman ignored him and slammed the door shut before sprinting across campus like his life depended on it.
The morning air was crisp and the sky looked down with an overcast gray, promising a drizzle later in the day.
Students milled about, some like him rushed to their various lecture halls, others lounged on the benches like they had all the time in the world.
He weaved through the bustling crowd, just leaving an early study period narrowly avoiding a collision with a hoverboarder who cursed at him in passing.
In a miraculous stroke of fate, or, more likely, the universe's ongoing indifference to his tardiness, the professor was no where to be found.
"Over here" A brunette whispered as she waved him over to a seat at the middle row,
Not too close to the teacher and far from the delinquents at the back,
"Thanks, Charlie" He whispered as he slid into his seat and set up his holographic tablet.
"You're welcome, dummy" She smiled as the door opened and the teacher strolled in lackadaisically.
Roman shot a smug glance at his best friend, Charlotte, who merely rolled her eyes at his un-seriousness.
"Must be nice, being so lucky," Charlotte muttered under her breath as she pinched his arm playfully,
"I prefer to think of it as strategic cosmic alignment." He grinned at her with a wink,
"More like dumb luck."
Lisa Monroe turned slightly in her seat, the golden ray of the sun catching the warm undertones of her brown skin as she did so.
"If Roman actually planned ahead, maybe he wouldn't have to rely on luck." She whispered as she propped her chin on her hand.
His eyes widened as he realized the model was smiling at him in public. It was playful and teasing, but she was smiling nonetheless.
Roman had two choices: respond like a rational adult or say something profoundly stupid.
And, naturally, he chose the latter.
"Why fix what isn't broken?" He answered with a smug grin as he tried to play it cool, ignoring the way his heart ricocheted in his chest,
Lisa rolled her sparkling brown eyes at him but didn't look away.
Roman silently cursed at himself, but hey! A win was a win, wasn't it?
By lunch, the extra seats at his usual table in the campus café was already occupied by Charlotte and Damien.
Charlotte, or Charlie as they liked to call her, was ever the golden girl with blond roots peeking out of the cascade of dyed brown hair that fell over her shoulders in wide curls,
She sat with her arms crossed, eyebrows raised in mild exasperation at Damien,
The eternal cynic who stirred his coffee with the slow deliberation of someone personally offended by its very existence or...
Whatever Charlie was narrating to them.
"You almost missed class. Again," Charlotte suddenly remarked, pointing her fork at Roman.
"But I didn't." He retorted as he promptly stole a fry off her plate.
"Stop doing that, you fat-ass" She groaned as she eyed him.
If looks could light a match, Roman would be up in seven foot high flames.
"One of these days, your luck is going to run out." Damien mumbled as he glanced up at him, unimpressed.
Roman couldn't guess if it was a look of disappointment or just his resting face.
So he shrugged in response. "I'll cross that bridge when it collapses under me."
Charlotte sighed, shifting gears to redirect the conversation to something less abrasive.
"Did you hear about the attack last night? Some villain tried breaking into a corporate research facility. The heroes took them down, how wonderful is that?" She explained gleefully.
Damien scoffed. "Yeah, I heard, They saved the day by demolishing three city blocks. How Inspiring."
"Collateral damage," Charlotte countered defensively.
"They don't exactly have a precision setting." She added with a 50-50 gesture of her hand.
"They should. But that would require actual accountability and they're not exactly trustworthy." Damien deadpanned as he raised a mocking eyebrow at the girl who looked like she was about to explode.
"How. Dare. You. Damien Cross" She growled as she prepared to lash out at him, again.
Roman immediately tuned them out and scrolled through the day's headlines.
The news carried the same cycle that seemed to be in an endless loop.
The heroes clashing with villains, the city suffering for it while the media spun it into another sanitized victory as the sponsors tried to win people's favor by compensating and fixing up the destruction.
Every single day delivered the same stories in different fonts.
By afternoon, Roman was tired and on the verge of going to his dorm or just dropping dead.
"I'm just saying you shouldn't tell people stuff like that, Damien!" Charlotte yelled as she elbowed him in the ribs.
"She asked for MY HONEST OPINION, Charlie!" Damien screamed for the umpteenth time,
"Well, ding-a-ling-a-ling, Damien, she obviously didn't want you to tell her the dress was a sore disgrace!" She said as she smacked him on the shoulder.
"How are her feelings my fault?" He replied in an exasperated tone,
"Well, she did design the dress?" Roman mumbled as he trudged to the next class tiredly,
"She told me to be truthful?" He retorted,
"Should've minced words then" Charlie snorted,
"I don't even get you women, why ask for transparency if you can't handle it" He grumbled as he threw his hands up in annoyance.
"HELLO! FELLOW HUMANS" A voice sounded that made them jump and freeze,
"Calm down, it's just me" Lisa smirked at them, Roman's eyes followed her hands as they rested on her hips.
"Her. Eyes. Are. Up. There. Roman" Charlotte whispered inaudibly through exaggerated coughs before flashing the widest and most disarming smile at the woman.
"Sorry, I have a bad coughfit" She apologized with a chuckle,
"Must be the weather, get well darling" Lisa smiled kindly,
"Yep, de-fi-nit-e-ly the weather" She grinned as she threw a discrete glance Roman's way.
His eyes widened and he choked out a cough,
"Weather, weather" He mumbled as he flashed Lisa a small grin when she glanced at him,
"You guys are coming to Brittany's party tonight, right?" she asked, her eyes practically sparkling with excitement.
Charlotte immediately squealed and answered for everyone "Obviously."
Damien barely glanced up from the book he was reading with an unimpressed look on his face as he caught Lisa's expectant gaze on him.
He paused as if thinking about it before he mumbled sternly,
"Hard pass."
Roman hesitated as soon as Lisa's eyes landed on him. "I don't know if—"
"Oh, come on," Charlotte interrupted, nudging him lightly on the shoulder. "It's Brittany's birthday! There's going to be good music, good food, and, best of all, I'll be there."
"You're really going to say no?" She added, raising an eyebrow.
"You love parties." Charlie lied.
Roman opened his mouth, ready with an excuse, but Lisa tilted her head slightly, watching him with that expectant look she always used when she knew she was about to get her way.
"…Fine," he muttered in defeat.
"Perfect! See you guys at eight. And wear something decent, Roman. Please." Lisa beamed as her entire face lit up.
"I always dress decently." Roman said with a scoff.
"Sure, love that fashionable holed hoodie vibe you've got going on" Charlie grinned after Lisa had walked away.
"It adds character," Roman shot back, focusing on arguing with Charlotte rather than Lisa's smile lingering at the back of his mind.
And by the time he got to the house, it was packed.
Music pounded through the walls, a rhythmic pulse that made any conversation nearly impossible.
Roman was already questioning his life choices as he pushed past and sorried his way through people grinding down their sweaty bodies together while trying to find Lisa in the crowd.
Charlotte was off chatting up some girl and Damien, had predictably never shown up in the first place,
he was undoubtedly still at home, reveling in the serenity of the solitude of his apartment and charging up his social battery.
Roman grabbed a drink, intent on surviving the night with minimal social interaction, when the first scream rang out.
And the front wall exploded.
"Oh, fuck my life," He whispered, covering his nose as debris rained down and a figure emerged from the wreckage and smoke, breathing heavily with eyes that glowed a malevolent red.
Their clothing was in tatters, their posture was erratic,
And it was immediately obvious what they were: an unstable and desperate villain.
Why would a Selenite crash a human party?
Panic surged through the room and people screamed, scrambling to get away from the destruction.
Roman stood frozen, his drink still in his hand as his mind raced between fight, flight, and freezing in sheer disbelief.
"Oh, for the love of—" someone groaned from the crowd.
"Can people just use the freaking door? That's why it's there! You go in through it, it's a freaking door! That's what it's made for! How flipping hard could it possibly—? Oh."
Brittany flipped her blonde hair and turned, her rant dying in her throat as she caught sight of the villain.
The air was thick with tension, the villain's ragged breaths remained the only sound cutting through the silence before they let out a guttural snarl and raised a hand, energy crackling at their fingertips.
Roman saw his life flash before his eyes for the umpteenth time in his life.
A streak of blue shot past Roman,
almost knocking him off balance as a blur of motion intercepted the villain.
A wall of energy erupted between them, and a shield deflected the incoming blast just as the speedster figure tackled the villain to the ground.
And a purplish conjured chain wrapped up the villain and tightened around the Selenite who had chosen a path different from theirs.
The fight was fast, brutal, and over within minutes.
The villain, now subdued, lay unconscious amidst the debris, their body barely twitching as the female and male hero stood over him.
The party lay in ruins.
Walls crumbled, the furniture was obliterated, and the entire front of the house blown apart.
The music had long since cut off, replaced by the distant wail of approaching sirens.
Roman stood amidst the wreckage, watching as the heroes exchanged words with corporate representatives, the enforcers.
He watched a stretcher get wheeled in with widened eyes as they retrieved a student from beneath the rubble, after examinations, they covered it with a clean white sheet.
Someone hadn't made it.
And then, like clockwork, the media arrived, interviewing the happy heroes and broadcasting yet another "clean takedown."
The dead body wasn't mentioned, and neither was the damage to the building nor the mass of injured people that healers were working on near the ambulance.
But Roman had seen it.
He had heard the raw terror in the screams and felt something unspoken shift within him.
Maybe Damien was right.
Speaking of the devil, Damien had arrived late, only to find the aftermath of the destruction.
He took one look at the wreckage, people getting attended to at ambulances, scattered debris, the enforcers interrogating a crying Brittany, and the dazed expressions of his friends before asking flatly,
"What the hell happened?"
As they walked home under the artificial glow of the city's neon skyline, the rhythmic hum of distant traffic filled the silence between them.
Charlotte, still high on the adrenaline of the night's events, recounted everything to Damien in vivid detail.
"It was insane," she said, eyes wide with excitement.
"The villain came out of nowhere and blew the whole front of the house apart! People were screaming, running, absolute chaos.
And then, bam! The heroes arrived. Bolt moved so fast, it was like a blur, he straight-up tackled the villain before they could fire off another blast.
And Sparrow's shield? It deflected an energy shot like it was nothing!"
Charlotte said as she left out the part where the deflected shot that hit the chandelier and part of the ceiling that killed the unfortunate student.
"Did you see the way Bolt dodged the energy blast? That was straight out of a blockbuster!
And that villain was totally and completely unhinged!
You could practically feel the rage rolling off them. I can't believe I saw the ranked number 50 and 52 heroes" She added with a happy laugh.
Damien kept his hands stuffed in his pockets, his expression unreadable.
"Yeah. And did you see the collateral damage afterwards?" He answered, mockingly referring to the argument they had earlier that day.
Charlotte scoffed. "Oh, come on. Forget that, you can't tell me that it wasn't at least a little impressive. The speed, the precision... It was insane!" She yelled defensively.
"Impressive? Sure. Reckless? Absolutely. Someone died, Charlotte. That isn't something to gawk at." Damien huffed in irritation at her naivety and selective ignorance.
Her excitement dimmed slightly, but she refused to back down.
"They were trying to stop a villain. What else were they supposed to do? Let them run loose and kill everybody?"
Damien exhaled sharply, shaking his head. "
I don't know. But this? This isn't the answer either, They had options that they could have used."
"No, they DIDN'T, you're being so ungrateful" Charlie yelled.
"Yes, they DID, stop being so annoyingly narrow-minded!"
And they started to bicker.
Roman barely listened, his thoughts still tangled in the chaos of the party, the destruction and screams flashed through his mind.
The thrill of watching the fight had long faded, leaving behind an unease he couldn't quite shake.
He stared ahead, the neon lights reflecting in his blue eyes,
That didn't feel like a victory.