Lihua Zhao, & Charlie Peterson.
(Written in collaboration with @DreadPirate)
Academy 61, Roseview.Charlie sat in the courtyard on a bench staring at the clouds while his hands fiddled with a deck of cards. The breeze was calming, and he was in deep focus, not a distraction in sight. Ignoring his studies was Charlie's specialty and there was no better way to spend it. Since he had taken the beating and spent the night in the DOVE medbay, he hadn't mustered up the courage to really branch out to any of his classmates and he could feel himself slipping into a slump.
It's been a few days since the whole disaster at the festival. Lihua should have known better herself, but honestly, the whole thing wouldn't have gone to hell if Deborah hadn't put herself out there as a target... Which the older woman was debating in her head as to
why Deborah would do so. A terrorist that is known for killing important people in the Metahuman world and out is out there and has the ability to strike at any given moment... and she decides to show up at the festival anyway? Even the woman was painfully naive, there would have to be a
reason to do so. One that Lihua couldn't see off the top of her head, and honestly, it isn't her concern. She'll let the DOVE leader lead the whole organization into the ground.
While she cares for her own students. Speaking of which, she hasn't had a word with the Lucker girl or Rowan in awhile... she'll have to change that. However, she was certain that the two were independent enough to maintain things on their own end. Who she was really interested was Charlie, the Academy student that she had saved just a few days ago. She hauled him straight to the DOVE Headquarters so he could get patched up, and their top-tier medical care certainly came through.
He was released, and sent back to the Academy. Lihua herself wanted to check up on him. It was only out of formality, after all. He wasn't even one of her students. So, she casually strut to the courtyard, wearing the most modest black suit possible, with a suit skirt, and high heels that brought the towering matriarch even higher.... She had hoop earrings on that completed her appearance.
She saw Charlie sitting on a bench, defeated. Almost feeling sorry for the boy. He could use company of the Zhao Matriarch. She formally sat down next to him - with her legs together tight, and taking up as less room as possible - placing her clipboard on her lap. She was silent for a moment as she looked around the beautiful courtyard of the Academy.
"Hello, Charles," Lihua greeted him. Formally as she could. "I've been meaning to check up on you since what happened in Havenfield."
For an instant, she looked at the cards.
"Oh? You like cards?"
Charlie knew she was coming for him but he was really hoping his premonition was wrong. Solitude might not be the best thing for him, but it's what he wanted. Charlie continued looking at the clouds as he answered.
"Oh hi Ms.Zhao. Umm yeah I do, it's kinda my hobby." Charlie smiled and looked at the professor. "Thank you again for the other night. You really got me out of a pinch." He said not stopping the practice motions in his hands. "Sorry if I scared your daughter by the way. I didn't really know how bad it was until the next morning."
"That's excellent... it's far more interesting than playing video games, or something else... ah, such wastes of time," Lihua said, casually as always. She looked at Charlie for a moment. "No need to thank me, I was only doing the right thing." She said... she finally thought about the change that she went through. Even seven years ago, she would have helped Charlie. Well... she would have saved him from the men, but not drove him all the way to DOVE headquarters. That just demonstrates her humility. "After all, I may need you to save me some day." She smiled.
"And don't worry too much about Lijuan, I will handle her."
"Let's hope that day never comes," Charlie said, he was working through his anxiety the best he could keeping the conversation light. "With a mother like you I'm sure she'll be fine. Your powers though are pretty terrifying. I mean all elementals are but yours... Well maybe it's because I saw them up close but still. The things you can do? I can't imagine doing what you can do. Does that much power ever.. I don't know." Charlie paused he already knew the answer but he was feeling self-conscious about being so helpless the other night. "Scare you?"
It was quite surprising to be receiving this question from someone as young as Charlie. Most children go "Hell yes, I have superpowers!" or go into a fit of angst about it. But, Charlie... he asks the hard questions. However, to Lihua, it wasn't all that difficult. Because the woman had reached another level of personal understanding and awareness decades ago. "The power used to frighten me, yes...." Lihua started off. "I have the power cause so much destruction, so much death, if I were to lose myself and become a madwoman."
She thought about the likes of Luis... and the thought of becoming like him disgusted her. However, there was a special way to describe this.
"When I first got my power, when I was young, I feared the destruction I'd cause if I lost control - and obsessed with control to such a degree that I almost never considered the possibility of losing myself to the power. Then once I got control, I was dangerously close to straying off my path, and that became my fear for decades to come. With one thing keeping me on the straight and narrow. Years later... at this point, I don't fear my ability anymore because I have reached a new level of personal understanding."
She was getting a little wordy here, but she had a special message for Charlie.
"I realized that, despite all this power, I truly am no different from any other person. I have two children, I'm a teacher.... I
bleed..." Lihua said. "I have nothing to truly fear from my ability, because I am what I am. I no longer have anything to fear."
" I guess that all makes sense." Charlie got the message but he just couldn't bring himself to be confident. All of these other meta-humans around him could leap tall buildings, or shake the earth however they please. He could merely just know who was going to what right before it happened. He had no control over others the way others did. No fear, no respect to strike into others. Just himself, just his personality to try and grip people. Card tricks, something to connect to people on a gimmicky level, but on a level sure enough.
"Not even others?" Charlie asked as he stopped his shuffling and sleight. The silence set in as he looked at her. "I know you have to be brave for your children and students but... What about the black hound, a guy like that. With so much control over himself. You don't fear you won't be able to do it on your own?"
"But, that is the thing, Charles," Lihua started off. "Don't misinterpret this; but I fear other Metahumans as much as everyone else does."
She started off.
"Many, many, people lack the discipline, and self-control I do... and lose themselves to their abilities, and build themselves up to be superior - only to sate their inability to control themselves," Lihua said. "I've seen men like Gods slaughter people, and use their powers in ways I've hoped to never see.
That's what's truly frightening."
Still, there was one last thing she had to say.
"...
However, like I said; no one man is superior over the others. No one is without weaknesses, and I've seen the most terrifying of men meet their end because of their... arrogance." Lihua said. "Even the weakest of people can kill the greatest of men in the right circumstances." Such as the death of Luis, the Changeling. He was the one she was referring to in most of her monologue.
Charlie nodded along and tried to understand as best he could. Maybe he wasn't so helpless after all, anybody caught off guard like that could've been victimized. He's only human. Charlie resumed his card work and watched the king change to a two, they were both made of the same material. In some cases the two is better, simple isn't always a bad thing. People underestimate you more, but sure overcoming that is a matter of persistence. However on the other hand, this was predictable coming from somebody as powerful as she was. Charlie began to question if the woman even knew what weakness felt like. What it feels like to have to be aware at all times in order for his meta-human abilities to even work.
"Ms. Zhao, what if it's not a man though. Where is the line drawn between meta-human and human. Once the power itself consumes you, like the devil of Verthaven or the Black Hound. Are they even human? Aren't we all just one step away from that level?"
"The line between Man and Meta is subjective, and always will be," Lihua was quick to answer... and that was the best answer she could honestly give him for that one. Charlie will have to decide that on his own. "When we get down to it, Charlie.... can you ask if that question if there was, say, no Metahumans? Anyone can be consumed by power if they can't handle it... in the case of the Devil of Verthaven, she was consumed by her own rage at losing a loved one and didn't know how to handle it. So she turned and took her anger out on the world."
Lihua paused for a moment.
"There are...
so many people like that. Scorned by the world. The real problem was that she had gained a power like no other..." Lihua trailed. "So in a way, we all are, but at the same time, it's all down to circumstance. What kind of person we are... and what we have been subjected to..."
"Then why don't we try and help them? If they are just like us but confused, or went down the wrong path... It just seems like DOVE did nothing at the festival, there was so much happening and all the wanted to do was get themselves out of there. I heard a civilian even attempted to step in..." Charlie grew frustrated and he clenched the cards between his hands. They sprung to the other and he put them in his pocket trying to control himself.
"Because... We cannot save everyone. Some people are just too deluded to help, they can only be stopped before they cause anymore death." Lihua started off, as she took in a deep inhale. "And... I'm past the point of trying to help people like that. I've been on this earth for half a century now... there is a point where you have to say enough is enough."
There was still one more thing Lihua had to say.
"And besides... don't take this the wrong way... this is just my personal philosophy," Lihua started off. "But, we as people don't owe the world anything. We can have the greatest of abilities, but that doesn't mean we absolutely have to go out and be heroes. We have the freedom to as we please, after all."
"You just seem like you were the only person trying to help anybody... You could've helped people more important or powerful... People that make a difference." Charlie sighed and sunk back into the bench.
This was getting rather trite. Many students have had this issue. Some have gotten over it, some haven't.
"... Regardless of how you may feel," Lihua said. "You are still a life. It doesn't matter if you believe you aren't important now... but, that may most definitely change in the future. And I wouldn't deny you that chance just because you may not be the strongest." Her goal was
not to go out and save the world, but merely live her life by the new personal code. She's not going out to be a hero, but Charlie was in danger, and she wasn't going to ignore him because "he wasn't important enough." What kind of person would that make her?
Well...
She'd be Lihua Zhao seven years ago.
"And plenty of people were helping," Lihua said. "You just didn't see them."
"I guess..." Charlie grew quiet, he felt exposed. More than just his open self but that he had shown a teacher out of all people a darker side. A side that he drowns typically in a drug binge, crime, and partying. "Sorry I went off ranting like that." Charlie grew morose, but he fought the urge to crumble in front of someone he barely knew. He had worked so hard to get to this point, he thought this would be the peak, but it turns out he was far from it. Back at the beginning, again. "Thank you... For everything." Charlie said in an apologetic tone.
"It is okay," Lihua was quick to reply. "You were just venting because you feel little in a large world... but, you must keep in mind that a man is defined more by what they
can't do rather than what they can. You may feel weak, but you can turn your weaknesses into hidden strengths if you drive yourself." That was the last piece of advice that Lihua was going to give him. Lihua got up off the bench, and faced Charlie.
"It was great speaking with you," Lihua started off. "But, I must be going now."
She took a few steps.
"Good day."
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