Just For One Day

7

     "So that's one War And Pea Soup with crackers on the side, a Death Of Ivan Sandwich, and two Kafka coffees. Sound right?" The blonde waitress finished scribbling in her notepad, cracked her gum, and looked at us expectantly.

     "That's right," Meteor said, sitting across the table from me.

     "I'll be right back, hons," the waitress said, tucking her pencil behind her ear and winking at me.

     "Excellent work today, Quickdraw, excellent work!" Meteor said, unfolding his silverware from its napkin. "The way you handled that robot dinosaur was nothing short of spectacular!"

     "Hey, don't sell yourself short," I replied. "We would have been in real trouble if you hadn't taken care of the slime dude."

     "Who knew he would dissolve in root beer?" Meteor said, laughing.

     "Not him, obviously," I laughed as well. "Otherwise he would have known not to rob a soda shop."

     It had been about a month since our run in with DeLuge and Teravolt. Things had been pretty quiet all said and done, so when we stopped a robbery in progress perpetrated by a guy made out of green jelly and his pet robot dinosaur with tentacles, we decided it was cause for celebration.

     "Yeah, what was it that they said their names were?" I asked.

     "I think it was Plasmodium and Dinoflagellate." Meteor replied.

     "Oh my god," I said, laughing even harder. "We have to give them points for creativity at least. It's like they took a cell biology class and were like 'Hey, those words sound cool!'."

     I took a casual glance around the diner while Meteor and I talked and waited for our food. It was seven thirty in the evening, and there were a lot of heroes hanging out there tonight. There were a few that I didn't know, but the rest of them I recognized on sight and even knew their real names. Heroing brings you into contact with a lot of other metahumans, and you tend to develop a close-knit community as a result.

     In the booth directly behind me were Adorabomb and Nightfever, who were working as a team at the moment. Adorabomb was cute, tiny, rosy cheeked, and had a head full of golden curls. She could gather up energy like Meteor, but instead of being able to direct it she had to let it all out at once like an explosion. She also had a condition where she never hit puberty so she looked like she was twelve, when she was actually thirty seven. This actually worked to her advantage because it put villains off their guard. Nightfever dressed in a white suit with a big popped collar and platform shoes. His power can only be described as 'human disco ball', which is to say that he could let out blinding flashes of light from his body at will. He also danced like an idiot whenever he fought anyone. My bet on that particular team's shelf life was about a month, maybe two. Nightfever had a big ego and Adorabomb smoked like a chimney and drank near constantly.

     At the counter sat a couple more heroes. First was Chickenhawk, who could fly. I don't honestly know if he had any other powers or why he chose the name 'Chickenhawk', but I didn't really know the guy very well. Apparently he was pretty popular. Go figure. The next hero was Black Dashiel, who did his best to look like he was in a motorcycle gang. Black leather and jeans, tattoos, pompadour, big black bike, you get the idea. He didn't have powers but kept a variety of weapons stashed in his saddlebags, like chains, lead pipes, brass knuckles, and even a couple handguns, although he only used rubber bullets. Superheroes were accepted and even welcomed by law enforcement, but they came down on you like a ton of bricks if you actually started killing villains. Black Dashiel was pretty standoffish generally, but he was useful in a fight, if unimaginative because he used his real name as his superhero name.