I swung through the streets enjoying the sense of freedom it gave me. I flung myself upwards and flipped through the air as I descended before firing a web and shooting skywards as people below shouted, pointing at me. Thankfully I’d managed to get almost the whole day out to ‘visit family’. It was Sunday, and after an entire day of radio silence, I’d finally gotten my first call. The call had been a random guy who’d wanted help carrying boxes as he moved out. I checked the directions to the address he’d sent me. I was close by.
Now that I was thinking about it, what was I supposed to charge? A certain amount or just however much people were willing to pay? I probably should’ve had this stuff figured out already.
I stopped against a building on the street and walked down the side till I stood on the ground. I stopped a random lady, “Uh do you know what building this is?” I asked pointing at the address on my phone. She pointed to one of the ones further down, giving me a confused look. I strolled down the street to find a guy standing outside the building focused on his phone.
“Are you… Jacob Mazovyck?” I asked. He looked up before staring at me for a few seconds.
“Are you the guy? You sound like a kid” he said.
“Yeah, I’m the guy” I replied deepening my voice. He carried on staring at me.
“Uh… ok. I just need to move some heavy boxes down to that truck. Are you sure you can do that?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’ve got superstrength man. It was on the flyer” I replied.
“Right…” he said trailing off.
“What floor do you live on?” I asked. He frowned but answered anyway.
“The fifth. Just follow me up” he said. I glanced up. His windows were open.
“No need. Just stay down here” I said. I leaped upwards onto the wall and dashed up the side of the building stopping by his window, and quickly slipping inside.
The house was bare, with a few boxes stacked by the front door. I grabbed one and walked it over to the window, webbing it and slowly lowering it down to the guy at the bottom. I went back and did the same for the other four, before jumping out the window and landing onto of the streetlight. I hopped down to the guy as he stared at me in shock.
“Pretty cool right?” I said grinning under my balaclava.
“Yeah, that was spectacular” he said. I felt a slight flush of embarrassment but kept it down. I loaded the boxes back into his car quickly, and the turned to him unsure of how to approach the question of money. He broke the silence first.
“So how much?” he asked.
“Uh… fifty dollars” I said. He frowned but shrugged, reached into his wallet and handed me the money.
“Thanks” he said before hopping into his car and driving off.
I stared at the cash in my hand dumbfounded. Fifty dollars for about two minutes work. That was insane! My burner buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out fumbling for it.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Uh… is this the guy from the metahuman handyman flyer?” a woman said uncertainly. I grinned.
“That’s me. How can I help?”
-
I swung through the air humming to myself. It was the afternoon now, and things had slowed down. I’d gotten nine calls so far. Three of them had been prank calls. Two of them had been direct complaints about leaving footprints on windows, and the other four had all been asking for help. I’d made four hundred dollars, mostly because the last lady had seemed rich, so I’d charged a teeny bit extra. But that had been about two hours ago. I stopped on top of a roof sitting on the edge as I snapped a quick picture of the view with my phone, and instantly put it into hidden.
I sighed, rubbing my hands together before tucking them under my armpits. My stomach rumbled. Maybe it was time to go back? No I still had four hours till I was allowed out, so I was going to make the most of it. I’d just get something to eat from a hot dog stand or something like that. I hopped off the edge of the building and fell through the air enjoying the sensation of falling. Now that I wasn’t absolutely terrified of slamming into the pavement and meeting a grisly end, falling felt completely freeing.
I shot a web out behind me and swung backwards, arcing around the building I stood on. I backflipped as I released and shot out another web as I stabilised spinning into the next swing. I heard a shout below and ignored it when there were another series of shouts telling me to stop. Not again. I stopped landing on a building as I turned to look at the scene. A bunch of people pointing somewhere I couldn’t see. I swung over to them landing in front of the group.
They all shouted over each other in a mess of voices.
“Stop! One at a time man” I said. A guy stepped forward.
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“A guy just took my phone and legged it “ he said.
“I think he took my watch too. I had it half a second ago” another guy said, stepping forward.
“Ok… what do you want me to do?” I asked.
“Stop him!” the small crowd of people shouted at me.
“Ok, ok” I said. Geez. I vaulted into the air and webbed down the street they’d pointed down. I spotted the guy from a mile away. He was being chased by a woman in heels who was running surprisingly fast, and an older guy.
I zipped overhead landing in front of the guy. He stopped, and went to cross the road, but I webbed his back and yanked him towards me. His feet kicked up taking the wing mirror off one of the cars in the road before he thudded onto the sidewalk in front of me. He groaned clutching his rib and dropped the bag he’d been holding. I picked it up and opened it, seeing it was filled with wallets, watches, two handbags and some loose cash. Ah, a pickpocket.
I looked up at all the people around staring at me, a few of them clapping, while others looked uncertain. The tall lady in heels emerged from the crowd to see me standing over the groaning man. She walked over to him, kicked him and then snatched the bag from me. She pulled out a purse, huffed, kicked him again, dropped the bag and walked off. So no thank you?
The older man appeared a few seconds after breathing heavily. He took a second to catch his breath before thanking me and taking a watch from the bag. I glanced down the street to see if the others were coming. They weren’t. Did they expect me to go all the way back to them? I glanced inside the bag. Maybe I could run off with it all, I mean they wouldn’t know who I was.
Nah. Wasn’t worth the trouble.
I leaped into the air and swung back to the small crowd. I landed amongst them and opened the bag for them to take their stuff.
“Wait a second” I said as all of them started to leave.
“What’s wrong?” someone said. I peered inside the bag. There were still a few wallets in there, as well as all the loose cash. I paused. I guess it wouldn’t hurt too much.
“Nothing” I said. I swung away to a rooftop and opened the plastic bag. I pulled out the wallets and grinned to myself. I’d give the wallets to the police, but the loose money was mine. I mean how the hell was I supposed to know who it belonged to. I dumped the money into my bag, and then paused. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to take the money from the wallets either. I started checking the wallets. The police wouldn’t know how much money was in the wallets before they’d been handed in, and they’d have no way to prove I’d taken any. It was a win-win. For me, of course.
Suddenly the static shot through my brain. Above me. I dived to the side, webbing my bag and pulling it towards me. A person slammed into the ground where I’d been, transparent insect wings fluttering on their back. They had long brown hair tied into a ponytail and wore a shiny purple costume with white trim. From the costume alone I could tell they were a superhero – I mean who else wore such a brightly coloured costume. The good thing was they weren’t one I recognised. That meant she probably sucked. She paused and looked up at me grinning.
“Wow, you’ll be my first criminal with powers. My first supervillain” she said. There was another burst of static warning me danger was coming. Her wings fluttered and she darted towards me.
“Supervillain?!” I said confused diving out the way. She swung for me wildly but I dodged every punch using the danger sense and my insane agility.
“I think you’ve got me confused for someone else!” I said, ducking a wild blow. Her arms were covered in a weird transparent armour, and from the sound of her fists cutting through the air I could tell she had some kind of superstrength.
“Shut up. I know you stole those wallets!” she said, obliterating an antenna with a swift kick.
“I was going to give them back!”
“Yeah right! You going to tell me the balaclava’s a fashion statement next?”
“I’m serious! I literally just stopped a pickpocket and gave a bunch of people their stuff back. And the balaclava is a fashion statement!”
The fight stopped, the girl breathing heavily as the fluttering of her wings slowed.
“Can we talk now?” I said.
“Sure, just let me knock you out first” she replied diving towards me and swinging a punch. I ducked, and decided enough was enough. I pulled myself across the roof with my web, grabbed the plastic bag and dived off the edge of the roof. I needed to get as far away from here as possible. Actually, scratch that, I’d just take them to the police station with all the money inside.
I felt my danger sense go off, and I webbed to the side. The butterfly girl shot through the air, her wings fluttering violently. She was fast, changing directions almost instantly as I dodged. I landed on a building and started legging it across the wall, full sprint. I was fast. Really fast.
“Stop!” she shouted behind me.
“Just leave me alone!” I shouted back. My danger sense buzzed and I pressed myself flat against the wall as she shot past. I jumped down, and started swinging back the way we came. I swung faster this time, releasing the web at the apex of my arc. I was covering serious ground. I pulled out my phone and searched frantically for directions to the police station. It was close. Good. My danger sense buzzed and I flipped upwards as the butterfly girl shot underneath me. She slammed into a wall, but quickly shook it off turning back towards me.
“Ugh! How are you doing that?!” she shouted.
“None of your business Ms Butterfly” I shouted back.
“They’re dragonfly wings, moron!” she shouted, zooming towards me. I couldn’t keep dodging her, I’d mess up at some point. I had to stop her. As she zoomed up at me, I suddenly turned to her catching her off guard. I shot mini bursts of webs at her face and wings. They slammed into her, covering her mask, and gluing together two of her wings. She slowed down then veered wildly, before crashing to the ground cursing.
“Later loser” I shouted back in a mocking tone as I headed for the police station. I rounded the corner spotting it, and relaxed, slowing down.
My danger sense buzzed again, violently this time. Huh? I glanced behind me to see if it was playing up. Mistake. Butterfly girl slammed into me with the force of a truck and I felt my ribs explode in pain as we tumbled through the air. We crashed to the ground just outside the police station. I recovered quickly, but she didn’t. Her momentum had carried her past me, and she’d definitely hit the ground harder than I had. The web of cracks in the concrete told me more than enough. I darted towards the entrance as I heard her shout at someone to stop me. I burst through the doors, accidentally breaking some of the glass with my strength. Everyone inside turned to me, and hands went to guns. I held up my hands lifting up the bag of wallets.
“I’m returning these” I said, breathing heavily. I was met with silence. “Well not returning, I didn’t take them. Some pickpocket stole them. I’m giving them to you so you can give them back” I continued. My shoulder ached, but I ignored it. A cop stepped toward me pulling out his gun. Other cops followed, but my danger sense didn’t buzz.
“What do you want?” he said, eyeing me. Huh?
“We’re you not listening? I just said” I said, pointing at the bag.
“Drop it and back up” he said. I dropped it and backed up slightly. He stepped over and picked it up. He checked inside and nodded.
“He’s telling the truth. They’re just wallets” he said to everyone.
“So can I go?” I asked. He shook his head.
“We’ll need to detain you to ask a few questions. Take off the balaclava slowly” he said.
“Not doing that” I said, backing up as I brought my hands down, tightening my bag straps.
“FREEZE!” he shouted. Suddenly my danger sense buzzed more violently then ever, and I vaulted out the window. The crack of gunfire sounded behind me and the people in the street dived for cover. I jumped up and stuck to the wall above the police station, looking for the fastest way out of there.
I spotted the butterfly girl unconscious in the street as I went to zip away. I suddenly remembered the less than cordial relationship law enforcement had with superheroes, and metahumans in general. I sighed, and webbed her up to me, throwing her onto my shoulder as a few more shots sounded out behind us. I was dropping her off on some random rooftop and going home.