With a feeling of confusion, he decided that agreeing with her was the best strategy when he had no real clue about what she was going on.
He’d already had enough gotten lectured by the uptight government agent earlier and was going to make further mistakes by saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.
‘Nope, no tricks working on this guy. I guess you’d need winter dresses as well as summer dresses. Cold gets to everyone. Everything else ok with you?’
Frank nodded at her. He was uncertain about how a conversation about ordering coffee and baked goods for a large crowd of people had turned into such a deep discussion. Everyone had their little secrets he supposed. Of course, he could see her.
She was standing right there in front of him. He had no idea about any tricks though, it was a pretty dress that matched her. Giving a positive comment to an old woman wasn’t a big issue.
She did look young for her age. In her late forties at most rather than her sixties. He’d never asked her actual age out of respect, that and it frankly wasn’t his business.
She was just someone else in the community, her old age might have made her a little confused though.
Tricks? What? Is this an age thing? Is she seriously going on about her age?
‘Great to hear Shelly. Sorry but I’ve got to go and finish off a few more jobs outside. It’s been nice chatting with you, and I’ll see you later when the drinks and food arrive. Let me or Benny know at my shop if you need any equipment.’
She didn’t respond but gave him another wink as she threw him a package as he was opening the door to leave. It was about the size of a small briefcase, wrapped up in brown paper and tied with string. He felt that it had a little bit of weight to it.
Surprised Frank grabbed onto it; all the details of the package fixed in his mind a nano-second before it fell into his waiting arms.
‘What’s this?’ he asked in surprise. ‘A present or a new black leather jacket?’
She looked at him and this time surprisingly her face showed a measure of her actual age as though she had become suddenly drained of vitality. Frank thought that he saw a hint of sadness flash past her eyes before an inner steel door slammed down and stopped any further hint that he could see in her eyes. She was sad, he knew that. Old and sad. He wasn’t quite sure how to help her out with this.
‘It…belonged to someone that I met a very long time ago when he was first starting. You’d like him. He was a handsome young man with a great deal of inner strength. We knew each other once…’ Her voice quivered with a hint of strong emotion.
Frank felt a little uncertain that Shelly was giving him a gift. If this was going to be part of a supes costume, then he’d rather be firm and return it. Walking around wearing a cape without any powers was something that posers or emulators did but it often got them into trouble when a real supe came along. A person shouldn’t be pretending to be something that they weren’t.
‘…I guess thanks but I’m not going to be a supe. Wait, your friend. Were they close to you?’
Shelly looked at him and rested her hands on a dressing table in front of her.
‘No. I wish we had but no. He left the world a long time ago. You wouldn’t remember him, I’m sure. But he was a good man like you. He tried his best to help others so please don’t think of the costume as a burden. It’s more of a uniform. Hand-made yes but strong, it offers more protection than you realise.’
Holding the wrapped brown paper package in his hands Frank chose to get it sent back to Shelly’s shop as soon as possible. She was an old woman and sometimes nostalgia would make people do strange things. Even gift wrap the package in beautiful colours with a few flowers attached as a thank you.
‘Great!’ Frank tried his best to feel uplifted about the whole experience. He’d been given a present from a member of the community who cared about him. This was a shared feeling. Helping others just for the sake of enabling them to have a better day made him feel that he was making the right choices and decisions. He didn’t expect much in return except mutual respect and understanding. What goes around comes around.
‘I appreciate it, Shelly. I guess it might come in useful.’
He waved his farewell to her and left the store. The genetic material collectors might have picked up something useful and he needed to check in with Benny if all the footage from a large number of hidden cameras both inside and outside the vicinity had caught much of the fighting the previous night.
Both resources would be in high demand by collectors and those who followed superhumans but were unable to awaken or develop any superpowers by themselves. Humans always loved two things: entertainment and distraction. Genetic material and raw footage of fights supplied both. Frank personally wasn’t a fan of the whole mess and found it below his level of interest but if selling materials supplied money that would be funnelled back into community projects, then he would take any opportunity to do so.
A call on his phone buzzed through. Checking the caller ID it was Benny, either with a question or to let him know that a representative of the insurance company had turned up. He put the phone back in his pocket for a moment while he was holding onto the brown paper-wrapped package that he had been given. Holding onto it didn’t make him feel comfortable given that it was likely to be a superhero costume that had been popular a long time back. Selling it was out of the question. He did not want to be caught holding onto this by Agent Evie either.
Frank’s phone continued to buzz in his pocket. He raised it to his ear, activating it and answered with a lazy drawl.
‘Yeah, this is Frank.’
‘Boss. We got an issue here. Can you get back to the shop? I mean right now. Electrical Goddess be blessed. A few copy-cats here are trying to take without payment. I’d prefer they pay the old-fashioned way if you catch my meaning. A small magic box of tricks and party favours is located in security box 4 on Teeve Street fifty metres from your present location. No one in the vicinity at present according to street cams.’
‘Really? On my way. Stay safe. I’ll be there in a few minutes to discuss fair compensation. Oh, and thanks for the heads up.’
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Holding the phone in his hand, he lightly squeezed it; careful he didn’t end up hurting his hand by crushing it.
‘I could handle them myself boss, but I thought you’d like to build up your rep with this crowd. I gotta go, one of the rich ones thinks she’s clever by showing off. We’ll see you real soon.’
Frank disconnected the call and then shoved his phone into his back pocket and rolling his sleeves up, broke into a steady run. He didn’t want to burn through too much stamina before he was able to fully observe the situation.
The brown package he held tightly in a vice-like grip in one hand as though the contents were valuable beyond belief. He would be returning it to Shelly in one piece as soon as this little affair was dealt with. He’d need a few magic tricks to deal with the wannabe crowd first. A small detour was in order first. Benny could take care of herself pretty well, but he wanted her to be safe at the minimum. She was a good friend as well as his only employee, even though she deserved better than an amnesiac do-gooder as a boss.
You better keep her safe electric goddess, or we’ll have words. Deity or not.
***
Agent Evie was having a reasonable day. Not the best day seeing as how she was meant to be a combination of role model and government representative for superheroes.
Gods, how she hated that term. Even the name supervillains sounded like something out of a cartoon or a comic book. In her mind, if you gained powers through whatever event, you were simply one of the supes. The worst word was capes. Who even wore a cape? She knew that some of the more garish ones chose to wear….interesting outfits. Costumes even but still it seemed like a bad choice to wear an outfit that would make you easily recognisable.
She was reminded of colourful birds fighting each other. Ego. It all came down to ego. The female ones were far more complex such as herself. She had wanted a costume to let her shine brightly.
Not to fight others but simply to express who she was and what she possessed. That had been years ago though.
Not that she was biased towards normal baseline humans. Her parents had been standard humans and so had she until the age that her powers manifested themselves. Now, that had been a bad day.
A very bad day. Being kicked out of high school and put under arrest for criminal property damage was not a fond memory of hers.
Her parents had been fairly lenient with the damage but strict on the rules.
A few phone calls and she was put into a mentorship program to better harness her powers before she applied for a trial city government apprenticeship.
Relaxing her face from a grimace, she put on a bright smile, not too friendly but just enough to let others know that she did have genuine empathy for their situation.
Having your shopfront, car or personal belongings smashed apart when you’ve been at home sleeping or out at night, was not a good feeling.
Same as living in a war zone. Not that I know about it but it sure looks the same as on a screen.
Walking down the street she saw several of the local people involved in tidying up the fronts and slowly getting their lives back to a normal standard. Given that it had already happened several times now they would feel frustrated she felt but developed a certain resilience in dealing with a difficult situation.
She tried to call out in passing to one older couple who were setting back up a food stand on the sidewalk. It appeared they were setting up drinks and small snacks alongside the main dishes served. A sign showed prices below and pictures of gyros with a variety of side options.
‘Uh, hi! Hey!’ she called out as the couple failed to register her before the woman heard and waved a hand in response before pointing at the food sign.
Greek food. Evie had always loved eating it. Meat-stuffed pita bread, along with ingredients such as onions, fried potatoes with tomato, and tzatziki had always made her mouth water. If they were open later, she’d be coming back here to buy a few.
‘Hi, there! Is the repair work progressing ok with you?’ Evie greeted with a light smile that she didn’t overly feel inside.
‘Fine. The government could do more though. Best to put a stop to those awful capes fighting each other in our streets. It’s not fair.’
A woman in her mid-fifties with closely cropped brown hair and a few creases on her face who had been stacking cans of soft drinks called back to her.
‘If we could afford it, we would have moved to a nicer area by now. One that is properly regulated with private security. Luckily, we have Frank here to help us become more settled. He’s a good man who just keeps giving to others without asking for anything in return. The best example we’ve seen of a decent person in a long time.’
A skinny man with thick eyebrows and a tired face looked at the woman with an expression of love. He emptied card boxes of snacks in handfuls, placing them onto shelves on the side of the gyro stand.
‘Marnie, Frank is great and all but I’m sure the nice lady from the government doesn’t want to hear about him. Did you finish stacking those drinks yet?’
Evie walked over to the preparing food stand and gestured towards the sign with prices on with one hand resting on her hip.
‘I can see that you’re serving gyros. Looks tasty. Will you be open for business later?’
‘We would be if a certain someone pulled his weight and used some more strength to carry those boxes.’
The woman nodded her head towards the man as she finished stacking up the cans of soft drinks.
‘I’m trying my best. If you want to cook good food, then preparation is the key. We’ll open in an hour or two miss. I can tell you that we serve delicious gyro though. You’re not a vegetarian or vegan, are you? You look dressed to impress with your suit. I didn’t know there was a financial office around here.’
Evie raised her hands and rested them around her back stretching out a little.
‘Nope. I love the taste of meat with tzatziki, fried vegetables would be great though. No, I work for the city government.’
‘Well, if you’d like to pay for your order now, we can get it sent over to you as long as you’re in the local area. Wait, you work for the city? Well, first take a look and make your choice then we can talk. It’d be good to know what’s going on.’
Taking a look at the board Evie took out her wallet and paid for several gyros. She also took out her government credentials and showed them to the couple first to see their reaction.
‘Golden? A registered supe?’
‘Stop staring at her like that. Right now she’s a paying customer. Goddess knows that we could do with some to recoup lost earnings after all that damage.’
‘Alright, I’m sorry miss. We don’t need any further trouble after the mess we woke up to. It’s been the second time this month that idiots fight each other and cause this damage. The whole mess makes it hard for us you know. My wife and I. Makes feel me glad our kids live in a better area. ‘Course I say kids but they’re all adults now.’
Evie smiled at the man.
Hearts and minds. Need to win those hearts and minds to win the war on rogue superhuman going wild out here in the poorer city districts.
Smile Evie, smile and show them the positive government agent and registered super hero.
Watch how their dreams are crushed by a lack of response from central government.