Chimwemwe's Pov
"I still can't believe we're going to be flying in a private jet." Suwi spoke in excitement as she began taking some selfies with her phone.
"Wow Suwi I can't believe you, of all people, are giddy about being in a private airplane. Shouldn't you be used to this~." Daniella lightly teased causing Suwi to puff her cheeks a little.
"Hey I don't come from the super rich like you all think. Private jets are really rare in Nyasaland, only owned by the rich of the rich in the country so I've never been in one, so let this pretty lady enjoy herself. Even Chimwemwe took some pictures before we took off."
"Man what's so odd about that and you did put that thing on airplane mode right?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Chicky you know this isn't my first plane ride I know the rules." She huffed.
"I've always wondered why we need to do that though?" asked Daniella.
I decided to answer her question. "The phone's frequency may screw with the plane's navigation and communication system so it's done for safety purposes." I mean it was why my personal EMF field was off right now.
Though back to what Suwi said, she was right though there aren't many people who owned luxury jets here in Nyasaland. I looked up the brain of this project Ibrahim Rafiq while back while freshly into the project. And to say the least man was a real business Tycoon.
"So have any of you guys ever met Mr. Rafiq?" I asked them.
Lusungu nodded "I did. He came to my lab one day and told me that he saw p-p-potential in my inventions and he would like to properly invest in them some day."
"I've only met him once when he and my dad wanted to talk about some business deal ." answered Suwi.
Daniella shook her head. "I've only met him once too. What about you Vin?"The guy was busy drinking some water. "Ah Vin, are you okay?"
"Maybe he's just scared about being in a plane or flying." Suwi pointed out while chuckling a little bit.
"I'm not scared! It's just my first time being on a plane so I'm a bit nervous." He defended himself while drinking more water causing me to wonder if most of that went to his wooden hands.
The door opened and I saw a man in his forties walk into the pit. He is wearing a fancy gray robe I believe they call a Thobe with golden linings, matching kufi and custom cane.
"Greetings my Pillars ." He adjusted his hat and looked straight at me. "I believe you're Chimwemwe Caçar. It's a pleasure to meet the strongest pillar."
"It's nice to meet you too Mr. Rafiq ." I shook his hand while the other gave me mixed looks when he labeled me the strongest.
"Now you all have been part of this project of mine for some time now and I want to ask you all a simple question- and please be honest. Why are you all still part of the pillar project? No answer is too selfish and idealistic."
Vincnet sat up straighter. "To train hard to become the best pro hero in the country and make it to the top to get out of poverty.
"To become a great pro hero to protect and purify the waters of Nyasaland!" Daniella smiled warmly.
"I-I joined to not only become a great support hero but to make inventions to help others and help propel Nyasaland technology industry forward!" Lusugu spoke.
"To get the best training to become the best hero I can establish my fabulous agency and look good doing it!" declared Suwi
"Um, I guess I'm here to have a chance to get into a good college in the future and train my quirk here and there. That's it really" I began anticipating the 'you're wasting your potential' speech but he just nodded thoughtfully.
"Ambition comes in many forms- and quality education is a powerful weapon. I'm pleased to hear such diversity and the fire I determine I can see burning into your eyes." He folded his arms. "I hope each of you remembers something. Nyasaland needs you. We've watched too many of our brightest leave and never return. This project as you know was never just about fighting crime but about rebuilding our nation."
He paused, eyes scanning the group.
"Tell me have any of you ever heard of agenda 63?"
Suwi shot her hand up. "I do! It's the vision to properly unite all African countries into one big super-nation! It was pitched in the per quirk era though nobody made actual moves to make this happen."
"Actually there were some like a past president of Libya Gaddafi tried to push it but he was assassinated in 2011." I added
"Wait, that's stupid. Why was he executed if he had such a good idea?" Vincent frowned.
"Oh something about him being a dictator, a hell lot of corruption in his country, and possibly inference from the UN. Stuff gets crazier the more you hear about it." I shrugged the amount of theories about Gaddafi were wild.
"Impressive Ms. Sosala and Mr. Caçar. When Nyasaland was formed all those years ago many thought that it was the first step in achieving this vision. We had everything from land, resources and people but we held ourselves back with corruption, loans, crime, ethnic disputes, terrorism and possible civil war. Instead of going forward we went back." Mr. Rafiq shook his head in disappointment and continued.
"But we all can change that. As you know the pillar project was specifically made to elevate the hero industry of the country to help combat high crime and outsourcing but also to help the future generation reach their full potential to truly help our country take the proper steps in achieving its potential. So I hope you all won't let us down."
"We won't sir!" Danielle raised her fist.
Vincent nodded. "Like I said I'll give it everything."
"Absolutely!." Lusungu added.
"That's quadruple for me." grinned Suwi.
"..." Yeah I am not going to do that.
"Good, that's the type of fire I need to see in all of you." He smiled and got up from his chair. "Well, enjoy the flight to Zanzibar." He left for the next section.
Apex Owl and Mr. Dutch moved forward and took the seats in the very front facing us.
"Now remember this isn't just a vacation. The festival will host some global media, business moguls, and even high profile figures including Prophet George Moyo." Mrs. Dutch explained.
"Really he is attending!?" Danielle asked excitedly, while Lusungu looked confused, Suwi looked curious and Vincent had a more thoughtful expression. I wasn't a megachurch sort of guy so the news didn't hit anything for me.
Apex Owl arms crossed continued from there. "Some heroes have been hired for the festival. You guys have generated a lot of attention across the industry so some might be evaluating you though not officially, but make no mistake, impressions matter. Take this as your chance to make real connections in the hero world so be smart and not waste this chance."
The plane began to move and I saw Vincent tighten his wooden arms harder and his face was filled with anxiety causing me to chuckle.
"Ayise shut up!" He snapped at him but took a deep breath as the plane to pick up more speed and we caught in the air
Later
The flight had been smooth sailing so far and we were just currently munching on some snacks offered by a flight attendant and watching an Anansesem produced movie on the screen for the majority of the flight. So after like 30 minutes I arrived in Zanzibar and the view of the islands and water from the air was pretty beautiful.
After landing at the airport we quickly entered a car which seemed to be waiting for us towards the hotel they booked for us. While on the road it was already so packed with preparations for the festival, and even saw a few heroes here and there monitoring the streets stopping thieves, breaking possible fights.
Not long after we reached the luxurious hotel and I marveled at it as it really looked like a rich people hotel. After getting our stuff and going to the lobby Mrs. Dutch took care of the rooms while we just waited. Scanning the lobby I saw some upper class guys from natives to foreigners (or I assumed they were foreigners and some of those natives could be the foreigners). Even saw four heroes higher in the countries hero charts getting their booked rooms.
I wonder if I'll see any heroes from overseas here too?
As my eyes kept wandering around as I walked till I almost bumped into someone but we both got out of each other's way that could happen.
"Oh sorry about that sir." I quickly apologized.
"Nothing to worry about little Caçar." I heard the man's slick voice speak out and my surname out of nowhere .
Looking at him he was very tall, about 6 '3, curly black hair in a fresh fade cut, he was wearing a long brown coat, a blue mask and black sunglasses. This just screamed suspicious.
He tipped the glasses downward a bit revealing jet black spider eyes which were a bit familiar. With a wave and a winked he walked down the lobby.
"What the hell was that?" I wondered but before I think about it Suwi playfully nudged my shoulders telling me that Mr. Dutch got the rooms.
The boys and girls got our separate rooms and let out a whistle at it. Lusungu ran to one of the beds and began jumping on it laughing in glee.
I just dropped my bag on another bed and went out on the balcony to get a good view of the land but it wasn't enough so I removed my shoes and jumped high onto a wall then began walking to reach the top. I got to a good spot and took a picture of the landscape. I would have borrowed Lus's drone but the girls, especially Suwi, have gotten attached to it.
An Arabian pretty woman was relaxing on her balcony in a gown, sunglasses and a wine glass on hand. She turned her head towards my direction and I could tell surprised at what she was seeing me there.
"Sup." I made a peace sign and continued to walk towards the roof.
After reaching the top of the hotel building I took in the sight of the landscape taking in a deep breath. Touching my furry ears I reached for the ear plugs and removed them but all noise began filling my making me grit my teeth in pain and put the plugs back on my ears.
"This is going to be tougher than I thought." I sighed as a new found respect for people with super hearing came to me as they must have some serious tolerance or focus to go through all this.
Taking a deep breath to relax looking back at the landscape I could help but recall that in my past life I only visited the beach only like three times in my life at lake Malawi that's it. Memories of my former visits to lake Malawi with my former family began rushing to me causing a bitter feeling to form in me.
I deeply love my aunt and grandmother but I can't help but think about my previous family sometimes and it just seems random most of the time. By the ancestors it really sucks having these feelings.
I sensed a signature by the distance and a little further away I saw a girl with two sets of pure white wings just floating on her back in the sky. Good thing I have pretty good eyesight.
From what I could make out she seemed to be around the age of 12-13, and had wavy long curly black hair with some feathers on their, ebony skin tone wearing casual clothes.
Seemingly noticing someone was looking at her she turned in my direction and stared at me with pure violet eyes filled with curiosity. She tilted her head in confusion and I shot a casual wave at her which she returned and went back to doing her thing.
My phone began to buzz and I saw a message from Lusungu saying "Apex Owl is saying you should come down from there and get back to the room".
After reading the message I waved at the girl again then began walking down the walls and reached the balcony of the room where Apex Owl was waiting for me and the man didn't look happy.
"Mr. Caçar, it seems that our warning of you to stay in your best behaviour went into one ear and came out through the other." He gave me a hard stare.
"Sorry Apex Owl I just wanted to get a good picture."
"You can call me Mr. Frank I'm not on hero duty right now and I don't care if you wanted to get a good picture for your Instagram posts That's not an excuse for breaking quirk laws and would have landed you into a lot of trouble if a guard or hero on duty saw you using it. But I'm going to let you off with a warning for now."
"Okay I get it." There was a bit of attitude in my reply and I had an annoyed facial expression.
"Anyway you are all allowed to go to the beach for a bit but be back up here at 11:00 with no Nyasaland timing." Apex Owl then left the room.
"Ayise Chimwemwe." Vincent called out getting my attention. "My guy I get that you don't really care about any of this but some of us do and like Mr. Frank said it's a good chance for us to start building connections so man don't fuck things up for us."
"Ey brother in Christ would you relax man. You're acting like I'm out to sabotage your whole hero career " I waved it off and he looked at me all confused like he was trying to figure out what I said. "I mean ruining your future for your hero's job."
"I know what you said!" That was an obvious lie.
"You ain't my boss my guy and watch who you blow your frustrations on" I gripped his wooden shoulders a bit too hard but he didn't flinch though he did take a deep breath.
"Look, it's been a rough morning. Danielle was right, maybe sometime on the beach will help me out a bit." He apologized, taking me off guard a bit, looks like I missed some character development or something so I got my arm off his shoulder.
"I know this is none of my business but what's been bothering you man." I asked.
"It's nothing major, just something happened back at Copperbelt." He quickly explained with a troubled expression.
"Hey Vin you wanna go hover-boarding with me and Chimzey? Maybe that will help you feel better. Though I only made two and I'm not fully done with one of them yet." Lusungu showed off two discs to us.
Wait what was that about hover-boards?
I used my quirk to make one of them fly to my left hand and began using my quirk to inspect its structures along with its wiring and circuits checking for any faults but everything was okay.
The disc transformed into a golden painted hover-board just floating there. It kind of gave me flashbacks of when I played the OG sonic riders game.
Lusungu looked proud of his invention, Vincent jumped back at the sudden transformation while looking at it as if it would explode any second, while I just circled it and hoped on making it rise higher in the air.
"Hey come on man take it easy if you don't even know who to control it!" Lusungu frantically warned me.
"Take it easy my guy I got this." I hovered around the room slowly and even flipped standing on one arm. "See no problem." I flipped back on my feet.
"Don't expect us to help you pay for what you break." warned Vincent.
"You pay for something with what money?" I snorted.
He gave me a deadpanned but offended look. "Really n*gga?" He flipped the bird at me making his wooden index finger extra long and thick (pause) just to be extra.
There was a knock on our door and the girls walked into the room.
"Wow Lus nicely done." Suwi quickly walked over and looked at it with shining eyes.
"YEP!" Lusungu puffed his chest a bit.
"You did test this one out right, remember what happened last night?" Danielle poked his cheek making Lusungu nervously clear his throat.
"A-As a great scientist said failure is just the stepping stone to success."
"Even if it gets you faceplating into the walls and floors huh" She chuckled.
Suwi tried getting on but I kept moving away from her making her pout. "Hey come on Chicky don't be greedy I want to ride it too."
"Nah. Well I'm going to see what this thing can really do you know for a test run. See you at the beach, snitches." I flew to the balcony out of the building ignoring Suwi calling out my name in protest.
Speeding up the hover-board I flew over the waters enjoying the wind in my face as I went further for some minutes. As flew further across the water, he saw an incoming wave so deciding to emulate surfers from TV and surfed across it and went high into the sky while doing some tricks.
"That was amazing" I laughed to myself but I should probably get this thing back to Lus before he starts whining about it but at least I was out of my funk.
While flying back I picked up on something an extremely familiar signature by the beach, so I turned towards the source and spotted a man dressed in a black suit so quickly flew down to him.
"Hey uncle J I didn't know you'll be here too." I waved at him.
"What in the… Chimwemwe what are you riding, wait what are you doing in Zanzibar and how did you know it was me!?" He frantically removed his glasses.
"Geez good to see you too."