This was seriously not cool. Either I’d left my locker open by accident, or someone had found a way to open the lockers. One way or another, I now had a bunch of garbage in my locker. Judging from the way Derrick and his cronies were laughing at me, I’d say it was them. I shot them a glare and they laughed harder. I sighed, grabbing all the rubbish and garbage, and putting it into a small plastic bag. I slammed my locker shut and dumped the garbage in a dustbin nearby. Gross, now I needed to wash my hands. I made my way to the toilet and quickly washed my hands, when my phone buzzed.
I checked. It was Quinten, and there was only one message. It read;
Meet me in the refectory. We need to talk.
What was all that about? I hoped it wasn’t anything serious. I washed my hands and then made my way to the cafeteria. I wonder if it was about Rachael and Eric. No, Quinten was never big on romance, so I don’t see why he’d text me just to talk about that.
I spotted him standing outside the cafeteria. He saw me and waved me over, his demeanour slightly unsettling.
“Hey man. What’d you want to talk about?” I asked as we stepped inside.
“Don’t take this wrong but are you… fitting in ok?” he asked. I frowned.
“Yeah. Why?” I asked. He hesitated to answer, looking for the right words for a few seconds.
“I don’t know. I think everyone realised they were treating you a bit harshly because of your stupid joke. Completely unnecessary by the way. Weird too. But that’s besides the point. Everyone’s open to hanging out with you now so… you don’t have to avoid us” he said.
“Avoid you? Where’s this coming from?” I replied.
“I’m confused. On Wednesday, when you brought over Eric and just left. Didn’t you leave because you felt uncomfortable?” he asked.
“Uh not really, I just… didn’t want to play monopoly” I lied. I couldn’t tell him I’d been swinging around the city as a metahuman for hire. How would I even begin to explain that? If I told him he might end up telling Alexandra. Then it'd reach tía and tío. Then it would get to Big Sis. Given she was already seriously pissed with me I doubted her finding out would go down well. I could already picture her screaming at me because I’d tried to fight guys with guns.
“Are you sure?” he asked. My burner phone repeatedly buzzed in my blazer pocket.
“Give me a sec, I need to take this” I pulled out my phone and answered it.
“Hello?” I said covering the speaker so they wouldn’t hear the noise of the cafeteria.
“Uh hi, are you that superhero that helps people for money? You sound kind of young” a woman asked, tinged with concern.
“I’m not a su… “ I paused glancing at Quinten, “…yeah man, that’s me. What’d you want?” I said, deepening my voice slightly. Quinten tried to grab my attention, but I ignored him.
“Uh… how much do you charge?” she asked, her voice slightly strained.
“Depends… what do you need?”
“My fiancée's leg is broken, and there’s no way we can afford an ambulance. Could you take him to the hospital?” she said, the worry more apparent in her voice now. I paused. I hadn't expected that. I didn’t want anybody's health to be in my hands, but I was already talking to her. It’s not like I could just say no.
“Uh yeah. I -I can do that” I said.
“Thanks. We live in Chelsea on W 22nd St. I'll stick a white top out the window. If you could get here quickly that would be appreciated” she said, her voice slightly emotional.
"I'm on the way" I said.
"Thank you" she said. The line went dead. Well… money was money. Hopefully it wasn’t too bad. I didn’t want this guy's leg to fall off whilst we were swinging.
“Who was that?” Quinten asked.
“Sorry man, gotta run” I said.
“Wait!” he said grabbing me. I slipped from his grip and jogged away.
“Lucas!” he called out.
“I’ll be back soon!” I shouted back, weaving between the crowd of students. It was time to make some money.
-
I swung from building to building checking my watch. It had taken a bit longer than I’d wanted to get here, but I still had tonnes of time before lunch ended. I landed down on the street asking for directions, and quickly took back to the sky.
Finally, I swung onto the street. I spotted the white shirt dangling out the window and landed on the wall next to it. I paused. Should I call? I didn't want to accidentally go in the wrong person's house because I hadn't double checked. I fumbled with my bag and reached inside, looking around for my phone. Suddenly a concerned looking Latina peered out the window.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Come in, quickly!” she said, the panic in her voice apparent.
I quickly made my way into the apartment to find the fiancée laying on the floor next to a ladder with a leg bent out of shape.
“Can you take him?” the woman asked, her voice desperate. I nodded. I stepped toward him looking at his leg.
“Looks bad, right?” he said.
“Uh… not the worst I’ve seen” I replied, trying to keep the situation light.
“Stupid really. I knew the ladder was faulty. Could’ve fixed it as well” he said through gritted teeth. He was trembling.
“No worries man, just… hold on a sec” I said.
"You sound like a kid" he said with a frown.
"I-I'm not" I replied. Big sis had taught us all basic first aid, so I knew that if I was going to swing around with him to the hospital I’d probably need to make a splint first. I looked around for something before grabbing a blanket. I wrapped it around the leg as the guy grimaced. Then I grabbed random things in the house to create a makeshift splint. It didn't look quite right, but I'd have to make do. I picked him up, which was surprisingly easy, and put him over my shoulder. Hopefully his leg wouldn't swing around too much.
“What hospital are you going to?” the Latina asked me.
“Uh… the closest one?” I said. I hadn't planned this properly.
"Lennox Health is nearby" she said with slightly teary eyes.
"Ok. I'll go there. S-sorry" I said nervously.
"Keep him safe, ok?" she said.
“I’ll be fine Rosita. Seriously” the guy said. Rosita kissed him, and then rushed out the door. I hopped out the window and started swinging through the air, making sure not to go too fast. I fumbled with my phone, tapping in directions to Lennox health. And... got it. Thank god, it wasn't far.
“Uh, superhero kid. That stores getting robbed” he said, through gritted teeth. I glanced down to see a bunch of guys in balaclava’s run out of a store, hop on bikes and book it. Crap. I didn't want to deal with that.
“I’ll, uh, deal with you first” I said, trying to ignore the situation.
“You… you don’t have to. Just... leave me on a rooftop or something. I’ll be fine” he said, breathless.
“You sure?” I asked in a pleading tone. He nodded. Dammit. I debated whether or not I should help. I'd look bad if I just let the robbers go now that he'd pointed it out. Ah, screw this. I zipped to a rooftop and set him down carefully before diving off the edge to the group with the bikes. One of them spotted me, and pulled out a gun, firing at me before I’d even reached them. His aim was so bad my danger sense didn’t even go off until after I landed on the streetlight above them.
I dodged a few shots, letting my danger sense guide me as I planned my next move. I probably should've been more scared than I actually was, considering people were shooting at me. Wait, if I was easily strong enough to lift a grown man then surely I could… I dodged another shot before yanking a guy towards me with a web. I left him dangling from the streetlight and snatched his gun away from him. The others stopped firing at me, splitting off in different directions. I webbed one of the guys feet together and he fell to the ground. I landed next to him and knocked him out cold with a well placed blow. Damn. This was easy.
I jumped up and swung after the others. I yanked one guy up to me and webbed him to the wall, before just webbing the final guy to the floor. Wow, the webs were actually pretty useful for fighting. I grabbed all the items they’d stolen and swung back to the store, handing them back over. I swung away quickly, not bothering to listen to the store owners’ thanks. I reached the rooftop and grabbed the guy again. Jumping off the building, I shot out a web and swung down the street.
“Wow,” he said through a clenched jaw, “that was pretty quick.”
“Yeah man, let’s just focus on getting you to the hospital” I replied. I was starting to get worried, the colour had drained from his face and he was starting to sweat profusely. Suddenly my danger sense went off, loud and clear. I zipped us over to a wall, dodging as a car flew through the air where we had been and crashed into a building.
“What the hell?!” I shouted. I looked down to see two metahumans fighting as civilians ran away screaming. Holy shit.
“Go!” the guy shouted. I listened, leaving the guy on the rooftop before throwing myself towards the battle. It suddenly dawned on me that I was throwing myself into the middle of a fight for no good reason other than some guy had told me to. Dammit, I should've just ignored the damn call.
I landed on one of the streetlights above the fight. The street was in absolute chaos. I recognised one of the fighters. It was Panzer, one of Athena’s regular villains. A neo nazi nut in hulking suit of armour who regularly tried to take over New York. I’m pretty sure she was supposed to be in jail. The other person, the one who’d thrown the car, wasn’t someone I recognised. They wore a blue hoodie, jeans, a blue ki mask and some ski goggles. Strangely they weren’t wearing any shoes. Whoever they were obviously trying to dress the part of a superhero but was failing miserably. Neither had noticed me yet, so I took the chance to attack Panzer as the guy in blue charged towards her.
She spun around before I could reach her, swinging wildly with a massive metal arm. I dodged landing on top of her suit. I crawled around as she reached for me, her large metal hands slamming against her armour with enough force to put the fear of God into me. And then suddenly we went flying. I caught a glimpse of the guy in blue as we hurtled through the air. I pressed myself flat against the armour trying not to piss myself. We crashed into some cars, but Panzer took the brunt of the blow and I only felt the after-effects of the sudden stop.
I looked behind us at the property damage, my heart sinking. Before I could say anything a blur of pink slammed into Panzer. This time I jumped off before we even reached five feet off the ground. She went flying and slammed into the side of a building. I landed on the ground and put my hands my head in horror and said a few choice words in Spanish. This amount of damage was insane! Where the hell was Athena?!
I glanced to the side. A girl in a pink version of the get up stood next to me, not wearing any shoes either. I understood why now. They must’ve had some type of superspeed. That didn’t matter right now though.
“What the hell are you doing?!” I shouted at her. She seemed caught off guard by the sudden outburst.
“Uh… stopping the villain. Who are you?” she asked
“Are you fucking insane?! I- the damage! Look around!” I shouted. She looked around for a second, before shrugging.
“Damage happens during fights” she said casually. The was a slight woosh and the blue guy stopped next to me.
“She down?” he asked. The sound of whirring and hydraulics moving told me everything I needed to know. The speedsters readied themselves, but I stuck my hands out.
“I’ll deal with this. You two stop, you’ve done enough damage anyway” I said.
“No way! We got her to this point, you can’t just take the credit!” the girl said.
“I don’t care about credit, just stop throwing things around!” I hissed. I vaulted towards the building as Panzer stood back up. I webbed her legs to the ground then landed on top of her. She swung wildly for me, but I crawled all over her, pulling at wires, and tubes and webbing her up.
The fight ended without much struggle. With her suit failing and web slowly tying her up tighter and tighter, she gave up. I webbed her down some more for extra measure, and then looked around at the damage. The road was destroyed, the side of this building was absolutely ruined, and there were just upside-down cars lying everywhere.
I turned to the blue and pink clowns.
“I had no part in this!” I shouted.
“Damn right you didn’t!” the guy shouted back.
“Yeah, we’re the ones that took her down” the girl added on. Glad they got the message. I zipped up to the roof I’d left the guy up on. Crap, he was unconscious. I grabbed him and leaped off the side of the building. Hopefully he wouldn’t die. I mean he hadn’t been bleeding or anything. It was probably just the pain. I glanced back as I swung towards the hospital. Hopefully no one had gotten hurt back there. That could’ve been dangerous.