When I woke up, I was floating. Not on water, but in a never-ending sea of nothing. I tried to swipe around, but there was nothing to touch. Just an empty void. If this was heaven, it really sucked.

Suddenly, floating in front of me was a white, glowing sphere. It wasn’t made of any discernible material, in fact, it was a big ball of white energy. I apprehensively reached out to touch it, finding it warm to touch. As my fingertips brushed against it, there was a pulsing sensation through my entire body. It wasn’t a warning type of tingle, but a welcoming one. It made me feel safe. Like everything was going to be ok. I went to move my entire hand into it when another sphere appeared to my right.

Unlike the first, this one was pitch black. I reached to touch it and was met with a feeling of similar tingling sensation. Except while the first sphere made me feel safe, this one gave me a sense of freedom. That I could do anything, be anyone. Whatever my heart desired could be mine. I once again felt the urge to reach in deeper and grasp the sphere.

Before I could, the first sphere called to me again, calling for me to return to it and choose it instead. In return, the black sphere urged me to take it and ignore the first. I paused for a moment and glanced between them. Didn’t that dream guy tell me something about a choice? Did that mean that was more than a dream? Actually, this might just be a mid-death hallucination. Questions for later.

The two spheres called out even more than before, desperate for it to be the one chosen. I was stuck for choice. The power to save or the power to take… Fuck it. Why not both? I reached out with both hands simultaneously, reaching into both spheres at the exact same time. For a minute, nothing happened. Then, everything happened.

Each sphere exploded in a burst of white and black light. I pulled away from both, only to find my right hand was consumed in a white light while the left was covered in dark light. I started to say, “What the fuck”, when the lights began to spread up my arms. In seconds, the lights had hit my shoulders and were moving to meet at my chest. However, as they did, I felt a searing pain through my entire body.

If I had thought my suffering earlier was bad, this was one hundred times worse. It felt like two different forces were clashing inside my body and were trying to tear each other apart. Soon, my entire body was covered by these two lights and I started to tremble as power coursed through me. I tried to scream, but found no sound, only light came out of my mouth. Just as I felt as I was about to explode, the light stopped. Hell, all light stopped. My vision turned to black and everything tuned out.

XXX

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. When I woke up again, I wasn’t in an endless plane of existence anymore. Instead I was in a hospital bed. I looked over to see a heart monitor and an IV drip next to the bedside, both attached to my body. My clothes had been replaced by a white hospital gown and a series of casts over my arms, legs, neck and a bandage wrapped around my stomach. Finally, I noticed someone sitting in the corner of the room, their head nodded over as they slept in a chair. It was my sister. I slowly began to try and sit up, but found that the second I did, my entire body was consumed with pain.

“Shit!”, I exclaimed as I sunk back down into the bed. Moving was a bad idea it seemed. At least I wasn’t dead though. This caused my sister to slowly flutter her eyes upon and realise I was awake.

“Ronin! Doctor, he’s awake!”. In an instant she ran over and wrapped her arms around me. While I appreciated the gesture, I winced as my bruised and battered body recoiled at her touch. She noticed this and ended our brief embrace. “You are the worst, worrying me like that!”.

I nodded and said “Yeah, mistakes were made somewhere along the line”.

“Yeah, just not by you”, Faith murmured. “This is all my fault. God, I’m so fucking sorry”.

Before I could respond. a man in a white lab coat with messy brown hair came into the room, a look of disbelief on his face. “Huh. Didn’t expect this”, he muttered.

It was always bad when a doctor said that. He realised this might be concerning and said “Not that it’s a bad thing. It’s just, well, you were in a coma a couple hours ago. Hell, your heart stopped at least four times and, you know what, I should stop talking. I’m Doctor David Woods. Welcome back to the land of the living”.

Things only got better from there which was encouraging seeing as I thought I had been about to die. I recovered from my injuries in record time as there were no visible injuries after just a week, all bruises and cuts disappearing as if they had never been there. According to the doctors this was, and quote, medically impossible which meant that they’d done hundreds of tests to see if I possessed the meta-gene or not yet every test came back negative which honestly was the best news I could have gotten right now.

Most people revered heroes and wished to be like them, gods amongst men who could defy the fundamental rules of the universe. I was the opposite. Powers brought problems. I knew enough about superheroes that half of them either died a painful death while the other half were miserable. Actually, most of them fit into both categories. I didn’t want either of those things for me. I planned on living a normal life and powers would ruin that shit so I was content to leave my miraculous recovery a mystery and move on with my life.

Faith had stayed at my bedside the entire time I was in hospital. I once had tried to ask about her article, but she shut down that conversation pretty quickly. The only thing she said about it was “The paper shut it down. It’s not our problem anymore”.

During my stay in hospital, the police took their time to visit me. More specifically, Detective Jack Henderson. In his late twenties, he had a grizzled look with a five o’clock shadow and dark, messy hair that looked like he had just jumped out of bed. He came into the room stinking of cigarettes, but with a notepad and pen in his hand.

After I described my account of events to him, he remarked, “You’re lucky to be alive kid. I could count on one hand the number of survivors the Slasher’s have left before you”.

I nodded before asking “So what’s the deal with this Alejandro guy?”.

He growled under his breath for a moment before responding “I shouldn’t really tell you this but fuck it. He’s the leader of their gang and was born and raised here in Greyhall. Lived with his dad most his life before he killed him when his dad nearly beat him to death. Served a brief stint in juvenile detention and when he was released, started a gang with the friends he met on the inside. He’s also a registered metahuman”.

That much I had figured out on my own. However, I was still struggling to figure out what the fuck he did to me. One touch from that asshole and I no longer had the energy to do anything.

The detective continued, “It’s a unique power he’s got. He can drain the strength from someone’s body with just a touch. He enhances his own body with the stolen energy which gives him super strength and heightened endurance”.

So that was it. Not only could he take out anyone with a single touch, it made him even stronger in the process. No wonder the Slasher’s had become as powerful as they had with a guy like that leading him.

“Now unlike most of his other victims, you’re in the lucky position of still living .This leads onto my next question. Want to press charges?”. I nervously laughed before I rapidly shook my head. No way was I pissing off the Slasher’s further than I already had. I enjoyed living. One near death experience was enough for me.

“Didn’t think so. We’re gonna leave some officers outside your house for a little bit, just in case, but I’d recommend lying low the next couple weeks. Fingers crossed we never have to see each other again”, he said before standing up, nodding to my sister and heading on his way

A nice interruption from the constant stream of doctors or interviews was a brief visit from the twins. Ashley gave me a tight hug the second she saw me while Kaine came over and punched me on the shoulder, shaking his head as he did.

“Ow”, I exclaimed. “It’s a good thing you don’t plan on being a doctor”.

Kaine just shrugged, saying “Just wanted to check you weren’t a ghost was all”.

In response, Ashley punched her brother in the arm and said “Don’t be an ass Kaine! He nearly died!”.

“If he can get stabbed and walk it off then I don’t think my punch will even phase this guy. But seriously, how are you Ronin?”.

I’d hardly say I walked off the beating I’d gotten but I didn’t have the energy to argue with him. “Fine honestly. The doctors are saying I can go home tomorrow but to stay off school until the start of next week”.

“That’s all the time you’re getting off?”, Ashley questioned. It was a fair point and I wouldn’t have argued against more time off school, the hospital said there wasn’t much need to stay off as physically I was fine. They thought it would be better if I took the rest of the week off to mentally recover instead of just jumping back into things, recommending I see a therapist, but I turned them down on that offer as personally, I felt fine.

That was probably an issue. Most people would be shaken by what I’d been through, but to me it felt like I was the same person I had been this time last week. Maybe it was due to the fact that I didn’t have any injuries to show for it, maybe it was the fact I’d spent years preparing myself for the possibility that something like this would happen, maybe something inside me was a little bit fucked up even before this but it didn’t matter all that much to me.

“Hello? Earth to Ronin”, Kaine addressed, waving his hand in front of my face. Oh right, they were waiting on me to respond to them.

“Yeah, I’m here. Just distracted. What was the question again?”.

Kaine’s smile wavered slightly before he shared a quick glance with his sister who frowned a little, each with a common look in their eye. Pity? No, they were concerned. Of course they were, it wasn’t like I was doing a good job at convincing them otherwise.

“It was nothing”, Ashley dismissed. “So… do you want to do something when you get out the hospital?”.

Giving the brightest smile I could manage, I said “Yeah, I’d like that. Got any ideas?”.

“Let’s see a movie”, Kaine suggested. “Grab some pizza while we’re out too. There’s that good place at the retail park, that could work”.

I hadn’t realised just how much I’d missed these two until just now. No doctors, no blood tests or examinations, just chatting shit with my friends. It felt like normal. Maybe going back to school so soon was a good thing. If there was anything I really wanted right now, it was status quo.

XXX

Alejandro stood in his caravan’s kitchen, grabbing a can of cider from the fridge. Taking a seat on his sofa, he took a swig of his drink before turning on the tv. It had been a busy week and today was the first chance he’d gotten to sit down and relax. Flicking through channels until he found the football game he’d been looking forward to although he scowled when he saw the score. 2-0 and his team losing after such a strong start to the season too.

As he settled in, Alejandro pulled out his phone and did a quick surf through his news alert to see if there was any mention of him directly. The Slasher’s were mentioned constantly, but it was rare he was mentioned and never by name if so. While he was fairly confident he’d dealt with the reporter situation, it never hurt to be thorough with these things.

His fears vanished when he saw nothing mentioning him specifically although he did find a report on the Slasher’s. “The victim, who cannot be named due to his age, was cleared from the hospital this morning, no longer in critical condition. Police are currently searching for any potential witnesses to the assault with initial reports detailing members of the Davenport Slashers being seen around the scene at the time of the assault”.

Alejandro found himself frowning. They might not have said his name, but there was only one person they could be talking about. The fucking kid Faraday kid.

“Motherfucker”, he said out loud without even realising he was thinking outloud. He’d fucking gutted that kid personally and now he was up walking again? It was impressive, sure but an issue for Alejandro. The gang knew Alejandro had dealt with the kid personally and if that same kid only had minimal injuries a week later, they’d think he’d gone soft. No, he had to make sure this time, the kid didn’t get back up.

He had to be careful though. Alejandro got away with a lot due to the services he provided for this city, but there was one rule he couldn’t break and that was killing a kid. It had been made clear to him he was on his last warning right now so he needed some level of deniability. Get one of the fresher’s to do it, pretend they took matters into their own hands. Yeah, that would work

He swung open the door to the caravan to find his right-hand man, the Bull, working on his bike. The Bull was one of the toughest fuckers he’d ever met, around seven-foot-tall and over four hundred pounds of pure muscle. He was ex-KGB, now a mercenary for hire that currently gave his services to the Slasher’s. Even better, the Russian’s had done some not so legal experiments that essentially gave him the same level of strength as his name sake.

“Hey Bull. Need you to round up some of the boys”. Bull turned his attention to him, a look of general disinterest written on his face. The Bull cared for very little. Anything that didn’t involve money, violence or sex didn’t concern him. “Tell them to find the Faraday kid and take him out. We were half assed last time, make sure he’s dead this time and the message is sent”.

The Bull just grunted and headed off to follow Alejandro’s commands. The Bull was helpful to have around not just because he was big, but because he was simple. Tell him to do something and he just did it. With that sorted, Alejandro headed back to the trailer. He heard the sound of movement from his bedroom, meaning Jade was awake at last which improved his mode considerably. Settling back into the couch, he checked the score to find it was 2-1 now.

It was these moments of peace that Alejandro lived for. The moments in between the conflicts that made all the blood and death worth it. He knew that this calm was coming to an end, he could feel it in his gut. He didn’t know whether it was going to be some new gang trying to take him on or if the Chain would finally try and cut him out, but war was coming.

No matter who it was that was coming for him, it didn’t worry Alejandro. After all, he’d done this a hundred times before. Maybe the Chain could provide a threat, but Alejandro would deal with them all the same. After all, they had relied on him for years now, growing complacent, weak, while Alejandro only got stronger. He’d proven he was the strongest man in Greyhall and no one would take that title from him. No one.

XXX

“Ronin, can you go grab some milk quickly?”. I was splayed out on the couch, listening to music when Faith popped her head into the doorway. She had taken full advantage of me being homebound, giving me all the jobs she didn’t want to do.

“You do remember I got stabbed a week ago?”, I remarked.

Faith raised an eyebrow and scoffed, “And your fine now! So move it down to the corner shop already”. I sighed before I raised up off the couch and made my way out the door.

It was nearly the end of Summer and the weather was slowly getting colder, a cold breeze ruffling my hair slightly. I pulled up my hood to fight off the cold and paced down the street. In a few seconds, I was outside the local corner shop, a small establishment that sold the basic goods along with a few dodgy items under the table. I walked in and saw the proprietor, Mr Kowalski, a smallish man with a thick, bushy beard.

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“Mr Faraday! I’m surprised to see you up and about so soon!”. I gave him a nod before walking into the frozen isle, grabbing two cartoons of milk before returning to the counter.

“You and every doctor I’ve talked to in the last week. How much is milk again?”. I rummaged through my pockets for change as he tapped the order into the register.

“One pound fifty”. I raised an eyebrow at his unusually low price. Mr Kowalski was traditionally tight pocketed when it came to his goods, so a fifty pence discount was unusual. Suspicious, I took a closer look at the milk I had chosen and found what was wrong.

“Kowalski, you bloody fraudster! This milk is out of date!”. Kowalski gave me a sheepish grin and just gave a noncommittal shrug. I scowled and returned to the frozen isle in search of fresh milk. It was as I scanned the shelf that a shout came from the counter.

“I’m gonna say this once, hand over all the cash in that register or I blow your fucking head off!”. I don’t think that was grandma in for her weekly paper. The frozen isle itself was hidden from the counter, tucked into the back of the shop so I was out of view of the current situation. I peeked around the corner of the isle to discover a man in a ski mask aiming a pistol at Mr Kowalski. Well shit.

I moved back behind the corner and crept further down the aisle, slowly moving towards the exit. I was getting the fuck out of there. I liked- Well, I didn’t dislike Mr Kowalski, but I literally was stabbed a week ago and that was bad enough. I wasn’t getting shot for someone else.

I quickened my pace and crept out of the opposite end of the aisle from where the crime was happening. Neither of the men at the counter could see me as I made my way out the door. That was until the robber turned just as I was walking out the door. “Oi, you-“.

As the robber turned his gun towards me, Mr Kowalski moved. I don’t even think he spotted me, but as the gun moved away from him, he struck. He grabbed the man’s wrist and tried to wrench the man’s gun from him. I dashed out the door and behind the wall, but as I was about to run, I stopped. Almost as if forced, I turned back and looked into the shop.

The robber was much stronger than Mr Kowalski and was easily winning their war of might. He pushed the gun down and towards Mr Kowalski’s head, his finger squeezed down on the trigger. In the instant before the shot, I felt my veins pulse as a rush tickled down my spine..

“NO!”. I extended my right hand and found it was glowing with a bright, almost blinding glow. At the same time, a white screen appeared in front of the barrel of the gun, milliseconds before the robber fired. The bullet merely bounced off the shield, harmlessly dropping to the floor as the screen blocked the impact before shattering into shards of light that faded from existence.

The robber was confused, but before he could turn the glow in my hand faded and was replaced with a dark mist, almost like fog but darker and it swirled around my hand. As this started, there was a tingle in my hand and a beam of ebony black energy fired from my hand, hitting the criminal in the back of the head.

He dropped to the ground unconscious, wisps of darkness billowing of the back of his skull. For a second, I thought I had killed him until I saw his chest rise, just knocked unconscious. Mr Kowalski had taken cover behind the counter and seemed oblivious to what had just happened. So, I took my chance and legged it down the street. As I got to the front door, Faith swung it open, panic written all over her face.

“Ronin! I heard a gunshot, are you ok?”. I gave a slight nod before pointing in the direction of the corner shop.

“Maybe call an ambulance. I think someone just got hit with a laser beam”.

XXX

Another day, another police interview. The robber had been taken away by the police while Mr Kowalski and I gave our statements and let me tell you, I lied my ass off. Police often weren’t too fond of metahumans, especially ones that tried to do their jobs for them and weren’t government registered. To this end, I made up some story about hiding in the back the whole time, unaware of what happened.

Lucky for me, Mr Kowalski seemed oblivious to my actions during the attempted robbery, just telling police that some random had knocked out the robber and legged it. Never even saw me. The police were persuaded easily enough, happy to just take the criminal and go. The detective I had met the other day, Jack, had been at the scene and kept a wary eye over the scene. As he took in the scene, I heard him mutter “Last thing we need is a damn vigilante”.

After that, I went home and just sat in my room, thinking about it for a while. Literally all of my worst fears had been confirmed. Why? Dear god, why? There were one hundred and one people more deserving of powers than I was. People who could probably put those powers to good use. Cause I certainly wasn’t. I wasn’t the type to go looking for danger. Sure, if I find a situation I can fix, I will. But, the second a situation gets out of my depth and things get serious, I will run without a second thought.

I have to look out for myself. I planned on having a long, healthy life and I wasn’t going to risk that for the sake of people I didn’t even know. Still, these powers weren’t just going away. Yet now that I thought about it, I had no clue what it was I could do. I raised my hands and extended them out, trying to recreate the effect from earlier. Nothing.

Of course this wouldn’t be easy. I rolled my shoulders before closing my eyes. I focused. Dug deep into myself and tried to remember the feeling of adrenaline flowing through me, how my base instincts took effect. For a second, I felt a tug. Something in my brain clicked. That feeling from my dream, the sensation when I touched those orbs. I opened my eyes to find… nothing. Well, didn’t I feel dumb now. Oh well. As long as I avoided near death situations, I would probably be fine. What could possibly go wrong?

XXX

By next week, doctors finally allowed me to go back to school. After a week and a bit of house rest, I had been getting cabin fever a bit and was eager to stretch my legs. Just not in the way I ended up actually doing it. “Your first day back and you’re going to be late again!”.

It was half eight by the time I was out the door again. I gave Faith a brief wave as I sprinted down the street, running towards school. I was taking my normal route when I began to approach the street where Alejandro had caught up to me. I slowed my pace as I turned the corner and looked upon the scene. Suddenly, everything seemed to grow quieter and the colour drained out of the area. I took a deep breath before I sped up, now wishing I was anywhere but here.

Suddenly, a group of men, all wearing ski masks and holding guns in their hands. They were talking amongst themselves, only noticing me as they grew closer to their vehicle. One of them gestured to their gun and said, “We got a problem here?”.

I think my sense of danger was slowly being worn out from back to back life death situations because at this moment, I didn’t feel fear. I felt like I could take them all out with the flick of my hand. In a way, I wanted to. They were probably off to hurt someone, commit some crime that would only cause pain. I could stop them and maybe even save a life. Then again, saving people was what got me into this mess in the first place. Plus, my powers weren’t likely strong enough to do it anyway. I was just on a power high after finding my new abilities. So….

“No problem here mate”.

XXX

As the robbers drove away, the one who was riding shotgun turned to his comrade. “Wasn’t that the kid? Why didn’t we blast him?”.

The car came to a stop at a junction, the driver looking both ways before he replied, “Alejandro said to send a message. We want to send a message, we’re gonna need more than one body”.

The guys in the back nodded at this statement while the shotgun rider was confused. “You saying we shoot up the school?”.

“No you fucking moron!”, he scorned. “We’ll get him later. Once he found some friends to walk with”.

XXX

Another day, another lot of useless knowledge learned. Seriously, I would memorise so much pointless information only to forget it after exams were finished then rinse and repeat for the next year. In fact, I was venting this to Kaine and Ashley as we walked out the school doors.

“You remember the important stuff though. Like, a doctor would remember where the arteries are, or a lawyer can remember the law”, said Ashley.

Kaine rolled his eyes and chimed in too. “Still, there is still a lot of random shit they had to have made up. Like when am I going to need an imaginary number in real life?”.

However pointless this mock argument was, it felt good to be back at school. After being stabbed and getting super powers, a bit of normalcy felt good. Being surrounded by pupils as we all made our way home for the day, it felt like I was just another teen. The events of the past week seemed to fade away as we walked with the stream of humanity, eventually diverging onto a side street that led towards the O’Reilly household.

The plan was to hangout at their house tonight, playing games and watching Netflix, before Kaine’s dad drove me home later so I didn’t have to walk home at night. While I was personally confident I could make it back ok, everyone else insisted that I didn’t need to push my luck.

“Speaking of school, you guys got any idea what you want to do after school?”, Kaine asked.

Ashley shrugged, saying “Something science based. It’s still two years away though so I haven’t thought about it much”.

At least she knew what field she wanted to go into. I was completely clueless to what I wanted to do with my future with the only subject I was really any good at being English. What was I-.

The sound of screeching tires disrupted our talk. Looking over to my left, a familiar looking car suddenly pulled up with the windows open and the occupants glaring out at us. It was those guys I had ignored earlier. One of them leaned out the window, holding a semi automatic in his hands. “The Davenport Slasher’s send their regards!”.

Time froze as he pulled the trigger. I knew I was the only one who had time to react, that it was up to me to get my friends out of harm’s way. Unlike before, I didn’t fire any laser beams, instead I shoved Kaine to the ground with one hand while I moved to tackle Ashley, protecting her with my body. I reached her just before the gun fire started. Someone screamed but it was drowned out by the roar of bullets flying. We hit the floor and I wrapped my arms around her, keeping myself in between her and the line of fire.

I prayed that my powers would protect me but even if they didn’t, I wasn’t going to let go of Ashley. These guys were Slasher’s and that meant they were here for me. I’d been warned to keep my head down and like a fucking idiot, I ignored it. Why? Because I had powers? Because I thought they wouldn’t come back?

After what seemed like an eternity, the man stopped shooting. I heard the car speed up and drive away, but I didn’t move to watch. In fact, I waited a good couple seconds before I moved. I slowly sat up and took in the scene around me. The building behind us was riddled with bullets with the front windows shattered and screaming coming from inside the house. All around us people were coming to their windows to see what had happened while there were sounds of shouts coming back from the direction of the school as people ran from the gunfire.

It was in this chaos that I noticed my body seemed to have a shimmer to it. It looked like that shield I had made for Mr Kowalski except this covered my entire body. Just as soon as I noticed it, the effect faded, as if it never existed in the first place. Still, that wasn’t important now. I looked over to Ashley, her hands shaking around me.

“Are you hurt!?”, I asked, to which she slowly shook her head. I slowly let go off her and began to take a deep breath when Ashley suddenly screamed.

“KAINE!”. Ashley rushed over to her brother who I only know noticed was lying in a gathering pool of blood. My mind went blank before despair hit me like a truck, my body going numb while Ashley continued to shout.

“SOMEONE CALL AN AMBULANCE! QUICKLY!”. I looked around in shock and found my hands were trembling as I scrambled forward, trying to stop the bleeding. No, no, no, no. Not Kaine. Please god, not Kaine.

“It’s my fault”, I mumbled. “I did this”.

XXX

Time slipped away after the incident. At the time it seemed like forever, but looking back it was no time at all. I had been briefly checked by paramedics but there were people who needed immediate help, so I was an afterthought to them. Detective Jack was once again present and made his way over to me, cigarette in hand.

“We just keep meeting don’t we kid”, he grunted.

I glanced at him before continuing to stare forward and nod, no response. I hadn’t had any words since they’d taken Kaine into the ambulance, since I’d been left on my own

My fault, my brain told me. All my fault. Repeated it over and over again, it was my fault.

Jack leaned against the wall next to me, looking at me with a blank expression, a well practised poker face. “You have got some fucking luck you know. First an assault, then a holdup, now a drive by. You go from disaster to disaster, yet you’re still left standing. It’s odd, isn’t it?”.

“What are you suggesting?”, I whispered, doing all I could to keep myself from growling at him. Jack lit his cigarette and took one, good, long puff before he looked back at me.

“Honestly, I don’t know. There’s just something that nags me about you. You ever want to tell me what it is, call this number”. Jack slipped me a piece of paper with a phone number, scrawled onto it. He then gave me a brief head nod before he walked off, his break over.

When I came home, I just sat on the couch for a bit. Faith had tried to make conversation at first, but now was one of those times I needed to be alone. All I could feel was guilt. I had been selfish. Greedy and selfish. Willing to look the other way just because I thought it wouldn’t affect me. And now Kaine was in the hospital. Because of me.

Alejandro Alverez. I knew he was behind this. He was obsessed with sending a message, maintaining his oppression over this town through fear that he didn’t care who got hurt, who he killed to do it. He was a monster and no one was going to stop him.

So, what was I going to do about it…. That was what mattered. I could continue to live living like I had. Pretend that I couldn’t do anything and let the Slasher’s tear my neighbourhood apart. Let the people I love pay the price for my actions. Or lack thereof. The alternative…

Fuck it. The Slasher’s had to go. The police couldn’t do it, they’d tried and failed, and no other gang could even rival them. The responsibility fell to me. Some idiot who accidentally shot a laser once. I wasn’t a hero, nothing even close to that, but that wouldn’t stop me from finding Alejandro and stopping him, one way or another. For Kaine’s sake. For Ashley’s sake.

Problem was, you can’t just walk around using superpowers and not wear a mask. Especially when messing with criminals. I needed a costume or at least something to cover my face. I headed to my room and began sorting through the room for anything that would work as a costume. Sunglasses? Nope. Scarf? Na. Maybe I should get one of those tuxedo masks… No, that was dumb. Everyone would recognise me in a heartbeat.

“Hey Ronin! Pocket money’s on the table”. I sighed, dropping a heap of clothes I was holding as Faith shouted up from the kitchen. Nothing I owned would really work for me. This meant I would have to go buy something. Let’s hope the pocket money covered it because I was broke.

As I walked into the kitchen, Faith was holding out the money, looking at me with a frown and sad eyes. “How you holding up?”.

I shrugged, feeling too many emotions right now to make sense of which one was strongest. “Not sure. Shaken is probably the word I’d use”.

Faith nodded as I took the money, sliding it into my back pocket. “Hey, can I head to the hospital, see how Kaine’s doing”, I asked her.

“I don’t know if that’s the best idea Ronin”, she replied, a soft element to her voice as if she were scared to speak to me at normal volume.

“Please, Faith. I need to check on him”.

There was a moment of silence before she just nodded. “Fine. Just stay safe”.

I nodded in acknowledgement then turned to go out the door, not skipping a beat. From behind me, Faith shouted “Hey Ronin! I-“.

“I love you too sis”, I said in reply before shutting the door behind me. I hated lying to Faith but if she knew then she would try and stop me and my mission was too important to let anything delay me now. Everyday that Slasher’s remained in Greyhall was another day someone could get hurt.

No more.

Now, step one. Find where to buy a ski mask.

XXX

The Slasher’s loved to party. They had money and power and what good were those two things if you couldn’t flex that you had them. So here they were in a strip club on the outskirts of Davenport, flaunting their ill earned goods. They sat in their private booth, piles of booze and drugs littering the table as five Slasher’s hassled the waiting staff for more drinks.

That was when I arrived. The crowd made way for me as I walked towards them. Every eye in the room turned to look at the weird guy in costume who had just strided in. I wore a black hoodie, white gloves, white tracksuit bottoms, white bandana and a black pair of goggles. Yeah, my budget was pretty small for costume making and it was fair to say I looked like a dumbass. Still, it did what I needed it to. No one would recognise me under all this.

The Slashers glanced up in disbelief as I arrived. Their hands reached for their guns while one of them said, “It ain’t Halloween kid. Fuck off now and we won’t carve you a new asshole”.

Another one just laughed as he looked at me and said, “What are you meant to be? Some kind of hero?”.

I felt power flow through my body before I growled, “I’m karma, asshole”.

My fist was surrounded by darkness as I slammed it down onto the table. It exploded into several pieces of shrapnel that shot out, cutting the gang members all over. The ones not frozen by surprise opened fire, but their bullets bounced harmlessly off the forcefield I had erected. People began screaming and charging to the exit while the thugs seemed mortified their bullets hadn’t worked. Little did they know, it took most of my concentration to maintain this forcefield, but they didn’t need to know that.

As soon as I had gotten my costume together, I’d spent the next day figuring out what I could do. Once again I was off school to give me time to recover from the trauma which gave me plenty of time to train my new found abilities. Safe to say, I was looking forward to testing out my powers on these pricks.

I waited for a pause in the shooting before I dropped my shield and fired lasers at two of the thugs in the booth, hitting them both in the chest. One of the thugs tried to run, but I grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and threw him into the wall. He flew off the ground and crashed into the wall, leaving an imprint where he struck it before flopping to the floor.

One of the two remaining thugs threw a punch while the other tried the escape tactic too. I easily caught the punch and turned to face the fleeing thug. Using his arm, I judo tossed the attacking thug, launching him far enough to crash into the runner. They hit the ground and for good measure, I hit them both with a laser beam.

One of the first guys I had hit was now getting up and charged me. I effortlessly sidestepped him before landing an elbow to the back of his head, knocking him clean out. The man who hit the wall tried to grab his gun but found a wall of light blocking it from him. I calmly walked over before raising my foot and stomping down on it, a sickening crunch as his bones snapped.

He cried in pain, but I hit him with a beam in the back of the head to put him down. My attention was now drawn to the last of the gangsters who had grabbed one of the bar staff and was holding a gun to her head. “Back the fuck off or I will-“. I didn’t let him finish.

A blinding light burst from my body, acting as a flash bang to anyone even remotely looking at me. The man let go of the woman and held his hands to his searing retinas. Before he opened his eyes again, I punched him square in the chest. He flew off the ground and landed like a bag of bricks, limp on the ground. The crowd had long fled the scene and their screams were now distant echoes as the chaos subsided.

The dancer I had saved had backed away into a corner as I inspected the club. My job here was done. I tossed her a card and said, “Any of these guys come back here, call this number. This street is Slasher free from now on”. I carefully stepped over the unconscious bodies and walked towards the exit when the dancer cried out.

“Who the fuck are you?”.

I smirked under my bandana and said, “I’m just some asshole in a mask”.

I walked out onto the street as sirens began closing in, so I made myself scarce. After all, I still had at least three more places to hit tonight.