I pushed the door open, hoping to see the light of the outside, only to be greeted with a set of stairs. At the top, there was a metal door with several latches.
I made my way up the stairs, the feeling of dread getting stronger as I went up them.
The door at the top was closed shut and rusting. The latches were tough to budge but eventually, I undid them all and got the door open.
Bright neon lights filled my vision, my eyes needing a moment to adjust. I used my hand to block out some of the light to try and make out what I saw.
I was in an alleyway. Old, discolored, and torn posters filled the walls of the alley. The alley had a couple of dumpsters, though I guess some people couldn’t make it all the way there as there was a lot of trash on the ground. Shallow puddles of what I hoped was just water were scattered around the alley’s cracked concrete.
The buildings making up the alley were tall and built of brick and mortar. Windows and balconies were arranged within feet of each other, a set of stairs connecting each of them and a ladder at the bottom.
The source of the bright lights I had seen was right outside of the alleyway. The lights contrasted the night sky making for quite the spectacle.
I turned around and closed the rusted door, taking notice of any significant details around the alley. This way, if I ever needed to come back, I’d be able to recognize it.
I took a deep breath and exited the alley.
What I found when I exited was a massive metropolis. I could see skyscrapers and tall buildings in the distance. The area I found myself was a little removed from that, but still had the same metropolis architecture you’d expect.
The source of the neon lights was the numerous billboards that sat on top of and on the side of the buildings around the area. Most signs were just advertising snacks and brands, but there was one sign in particular that drew my attention.
The sign displayed what looked like a superhero. The superhero wore a red sleeveless spandex suit with a crimson-like color outlining his ribs, a similarly colored utility belt, and heavy-duty work boots. On his chest was a dark red outlined diamond shape with a bright red stylized ‘R’ inside it. The hero had pale white skin, hazel eyes, and ginger hair. He was unnaturally muscular, his muscles looking like tumors in the way they stuck out of his body. The hero gave a thumbs up and a friendly smile with an American flag in his other hand, with text beside him stating, “Be A Hero Like Riot, Enlist Today!”
This sign confirmed what I theorized in the lab. People have superpowers up here, and I was no exception.
More specifically, it confirmed that there are superheroes. I wasn’t exactly sure how that would affect my life, but it is something I would need to keep in mind. Especially since my power steals others’ powers, I could easily be labeled a villain or criminal.
Before I could process what was happening, something moving faster than I could perceive crashed on the ground before me. An ear-piercing explosion echoed throughout the entire neighborhood as a massive crater formed. Smoke, ash, and dust filled the air, making it extremely difficult to see anything. The area felt like a warzone. I was knocked onto the ground from the impact.
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The smoke suddenly began to clear, swirling into an unnatural pattern. The winds around me started to become so strong that I was being pulled by it.
Through the clearing smoke, I could make out two figures. A black woman wearing a business casual outfit and…
And Riot, the hero I had seen on the billboard wore his hero costume.
The woman seemed to be controlling the wind, trying to push Riot off her. Riot’s eyes were crazed and he was breathing heavily.
Riot yelled, “Are you scared now?! Are you?! How dare a traitor like you tell me what’s right and wrong. You’re no different from those powerless weaklings.”
Riot cocked his fist back, his veins started to pulse and the muscles in his arm grew ever so slightly.
“Never again-,” Riot yelled, exasperated, “Never again will I allow someone to manipulate me like you did. You used me!”
The woman noticed me after the smoke had finally cleared, looked over, and screamed, “RUN, GET AS FAR AS YOU CAN AWAY! DON'T STAY HERE!”
Riot took his other hand and held it over the woman's mouth, muffling her screams. Riot then stood still for a moment and looked over at me.
“Mind your business kid. I’m just dealing with a villain,” Riot said coldly.
Riot proceeded to finish the punch he had charged up. The impact made yet another explosion, and I was flung even further back. The sound masked it a little, but the sound of her bones shattering, her flesh and blood popping like a water balloon, and her final scream suddenly getting cut off was echoing in my mind. Blood splattered everywhere, and even from my distance, I was drenched in it. The blood splattered like water being sprayed from a sprinkler. Her bones were shattered in what seemed like millions of pieces, several laid out before me.
I felt my insides churn as vomit began to flow out of me involuntarily. I was straining as my body had a visceral reaction to what happened. There wasn’t much to throw up, what came up was mostly water.
Tears streamed down my face, and the tears were wiped clean off of my face from the residual wind from the woman's attempts to escape. It felt as though, even if it wasn't possible, from the afterlife she was telling that it was okay. That it wasn't my fault this happened.
I couldn't let Riot kill me too, I couldn't let him, not after that woman tried to protect me and tell me to leave. Out of instinct and desperation, I fumbled to get up and started to run. I unbuttoned the lab coat as I ran and used the inside to wipe my face and arms of blood and sweat before throwing it to the side. This way I’m clean of blood, even if that means now I’m wandering around the city streets in a weird experiment get-up.
My feet splashed in the puddles of water as I ran, stumbling every once in a while. I was running on pure adrenaline. Each splash of the puddles gave me flashbacks to the sound of that woman's blood splattering everywhere. I couldn't stop now. I had to keep running.
I looked back and saw Riot squat, charging up like he had earlier with the punch, and then suddenly pushed himself far into the air, deepening the crater. He ran away, he left me alone. He assumed I was a normal civilian and couldn't do anything.
That woman looked afraid of Riot, she was trying to get him away from her. She was pleading for my help. That’s not something a ‘villain’ would do. He was yelling about her manipulating him, which makes me think that he did this out of anger, not self-defense.
Suddenly, the air began to move again. Debris floated like dandelion seeds in the wind.
The debris came together to form a skeleton larger than the surrounding buildings and its feet cracked the asphalt road as it stomped towards me.