A light breeze danced across the rooftop of my apartment building, momentarily carrying away the concrete and gasoline smell of the city. I stretched my arms overhead, spine cracking, and breathed deeply. I’d never imagined I would miss anything about the Academy, but at least it hadn’t lacked in fresh air. Still, empty tundra couldn’t compare to the buildings rising up all around me, like a staircase leading straight to the stars. The top step was the CN tower, the tallest building on the continent, and tonight I would be getting a VIP view from the very top.

I took off running across the rooftops, easily leaping across the gaps between buildings and rolling to absorb the impact, just for practice. Any wider gaps were easily overcome with a mental nudge of the building’s molecular structure to form a temporary platform where I could land.

The nearest building was only two thirds the height of the monstrous CN tower poking up into the sky. I paused on its roof, eyeing my target. This would require all my mental and physical strength to get to the top. It would be better left for when I wasn’t already tired out from moving boxes all day, but I was here now, and the lure of the building could not be ignored.

I leaped off the roof straight at the tower, which stretched out concrete tendrils to meet me. The concrete clamoured for my attention, the molecules shifting towards my hands, almost dragging me up the tower. Climbing such a sheer surface would have been a long process on any ordinary day, but with my mind tired I had to make certain every patch of building was ready for me before I allowed it to take my weight. Falling off this building would be far worse than my tumble off the Academy’s roof, and I wasn’t keen to give that another try.

When I finally poked my head over the top observation platform, dizzy and exhausted, the first thing I spotted were two silhouettes on the far side of the platform. I immediately ducked back down, cursing. Just my luck. It was the middle of the night, and there were already people hanging out on top of the tallest building in the city. I’d bet anything it was Fireball and that dopey sidekick of his, standing there as if they owned the city.

I peeked over the edge of the building again, muscles shaking with the effort. It was Fireball, alright. His red cape was facing me, flapping out almost horizontally in the stiff wind that whipped around the top of the tower. He seemed to have recovered well from my little trick with the building yesterday. Beside him, his sidekick was almost invisible in his black clothes and cape.

I shuffled around the edge of the building until I had put the centre pillar of the tower between myself and the two figures. They’d ruined my plans to spend the night looking over Toronto, admiring my new city and scheming for the upcoming weeks. But since I was already here, I might as well spy on them and see if I could get any ideas of how to defeat Fireball. The easiest solution would be to pitch him over the side of this tower tonight when he wasn’t expecting anything, but that didn’t have the proper pizzazz. What was the point in killing him if no one knew I was responsible?

Concealed, I pulled myself onto the platform and crept forward to stand behind the centre of the tower, edging around until I could make out their silhouettes. Their words whipped towards me on the wind.

“I don’t know what to do, Coal,” Fireball said.

“What do you mean, boss?” The other figure said. I had learned that he was jokingly called Coal by the city newspapers for his tendency to wear all black and hang out with Fireball. He’d only shown up in the last couple months, and was generally considered pretty useless. No one could figure out why Fireball kept him around, except maybe out of pity.

“There’s nothing much to do around here, and I’m bored,” Fireball said, making my eyes widen with shock and a little grin spread across my face. “I know it sounds ridiculous. I should be happy, but I can’t help feeling bored when there’s nothing for me to do. There hasn’t been a true villain in this city for years. The last supervillain couldn’t even set up a death trap properly. He sprung it on himself for goodness sake, and then I had to try and save him!”

“There’s always the ordinary criminals.”

“Ah, little fish, the lot of them,” Fireball replied, shaking his head. “They’re only interesting for so long, before you begin wondering where the sharks are. All little fish can do is nibble at your toes. Sharks give you the real adrenaline rush, attacking you head-on and even ripping off your arms if you aren’t careful.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“You want your arms ripped off, boss?” Coal asked, sounding confused. How had he ever become Fireball’s sidekick with the level of intelligence he was currently displaying?

The superhero sighed and shook his head, turning around to face his sidekick. I resisted the urge to duck back into cover. Neither of them could spot me in the dark, I was certain of it, and it was better to see them coming anyway. I bet neither of them could fling themselves off a roof and live to tell the tale.

His voice dropped in volume and I leaned forward to make out his next words. “I just want to feel like I’m making a difference to people.”

Ha! And that was why I had never wanted to be a superhero. As if any of the people he helped actually cared about the sacrifices he made for them. At least I would never have to grovel to the public, begging them for their respect and admiration. No, as a supervillain I would simply take it.

“What about that girl who was dressed up like a demented ballerina?” Coal asked, the first sensible thing he’d said so far.

Yes, what about that demented ballerina? The way Coal had stared at me yesterday was still burned into my brain. He’d better not have some weird ‘bad girl’ crush on me. I was too busy to deal with that, and also not interested in that sort of thing. I leaned forward, straining to hear Fireball’s response.

Unfortunately, a gust of wind chose that moment to push me off balance and I stumbled against the tower, a curse escaping me. It was quiet, but the two figures froze.

“What was that?” Coal asked, but the superhero held up a finger for silence and cocked his head to the side. I held as still as I could, not even daring to breath as his head pivoted around to face my hiding place.

“Gotcha,” he said softly, staring directly into my eyes.

I stepped out from behind the tower. “Alright, alright, you found me out.”

“Speaking of demented ballerinas...” Fireball said calmly.

“Guilty as charged!” I grinned and gave an elaborate curtsey.

“What the heck are you wearing?” Coal interjected.

I scowled at him. We were having a lovely bit of banter, and he had to ruin it with his asinine comments. He was in no position to judge my choice of outfit, given what he was wearing. A baggy black sweatshirt, black cape, and black tights were not exactly superhero garb, even for a wannabe superhero like him.

“I am Death’s Dancer,” I said, returning my attention to Fireball, “and I will be running this city from now on.”

Fireball laughed, a deep chuckle like logs crackling in a fire. “That’s a lovely idea, but I beg to differ. What you will actually be doing is coming quietly with me before anyone gets hurt. If you agree to stop this foolish supervillain nonsense before it gets any more out of hand, I’ll make sure that you are given a second chance at a normal life.”

“There is no life for me but that of a supervillain,” I declared, punching my hands onto my hips and tilting my nose up in the air with the most dignified expression I could manage.

“Very well, if that’s how you want to do this...”

The darkness atop the roof made it easy to see fire gathering in Fireball’s hands.

“Now, now, none of that!” I reached out with my mind to the ground under their feet and encouraged it to turn liquid, just as I had done at the bank. It obliged, and I was rewarded with two startled yelps.

“I’d love to stay and chat,” I said as Fireball and Coal struggled to free their feet from the solid concrete. “But you know how it is – things to do, people to see, villainy to plan.”

I didn’t wait around for what was to come next. Before the two heroes had a chance to stop me, I was running across the roof. I reached the edge and vaulted over the side without hesitation, hurling myself into empty space.

Shouts echoed behind me, but were quickly lost in the wind rushing past my ears. I struggled to take deep breaths and not pass out. The tower had a lower platform, and once I made it past that I could grab onto the building and everything would be fine. So long as I didn’t pass out before then.

The lower ring loomed large before me, and I passed within a hairsbreadth of the edge, since it was quite a bit bigger than the upper ring. Then it was gone, and I was falling headfirst towards the ground.

Now I reached out for the building wall with my mind, at the same time encouraging the air around me to become more solid, slowing my fall until it was more like sinking through water than plummeting through thin air. I angled my body so that my fall would take me towards the tower wall.

When I was within reach I grabbed the building as it rushed past beside me, yelping at the burning sensation on my fingers. It seemed as though it wasn’t going to work for a few agonizing moments. My heart pounded wildly in my chest and the building continued to fly past at a shocking rate, shredding my red gloves and the skin beneath them. Then my progress slowed even further, halting at last with me clinging to the side of the building, about a quarter of the way up. I flattened myself against the cold concrete, in case the superhero was looking down over the side, although there was no way he could see past the lower ring, and took several deep breaths.

My hands were stinging fiercely and I pulled one off the tower wall, squinting at my fingers in the faint moonlight. I couldn’t see them very well, but blood was trickling down my arm, underneath what remained of my gloves. Perhaps I should have gone for fewer dramatics and a more controlled descent, but it was too late to fix that now. At least I had learned a potential weakness in Fireball. He hated to be bored above all else and was willing to face personal danger just because it would mean that he had something to do with his considerable powers.

One thing was certain–he wouldn’t be bored any longer now that Death’s Dancer was in town.