Powered Individuals

Chapter 16 - Making A Name For Ourselves

"Please don't drop me!"

"I have not dropped anyone in my lifetime, so you will be fine."

"Are you sure?"

"As long as you do not squirm around too much, you will not fall. We are almost there, I can see the buildings."

I cracked open my tightly shut eyelids to see a gleaming skyline in the mid-morning sun. All my fears of flying were erased as I gaped at the shiny buildings that lined the countryside.

Aer was strong enough to carry both me and Ruby, but to be fair Ruby was incredibly light so it wasn't much of a challenge. She rode on Aer's back and I was forced to get first class seats on the Aer Express: travelling with only Aer's muscular arms as my seatbelt. Tristan had the ability to levitate a few feet off the ground, so he flew below us. Aer was about fifty feet in the air and above the forest that surrounded AAPI.

Merlin had sent us on our first mission in Cardinal City. We were all dressed in our full costumes, and our comms were synced to perfection. Our mission was to scour the city for any suspicious activity, starting on a small scale like robberies, and then call each other when we found something. I was super excited, but also a little nervous if I messed anything up. Knowing me, I was clumsy as all hell.

We made it past the never ending forest, and I could see Tristan floating beneath us. We met up outside the city gates and Aer landed on the ground. We made a plan to split up there and call over the comms when we saw something. We all nodded and then went in our separate ways: Aer shooting skyward to take an aerial view, Ruby climbing over the gates to go on foot, and Tristan turning invisible and going who-knows-where. I stood, facing the gate, and contemplating what might wait on the other side.

I finally climbed over the gate myself, and landed in Cardinal City.

If there was one thing I would say that was impressive about this city, other than the architectural features, it would be that the people could run pretty fast. I sped past slower pedestrians and pushed through crowds, trying to chase down a classic criminal that had stolen some lady's purse.

It would have been an easier feat if I was Winter, but nonetheless I could handle this guy on my own. There was no reason to call the others because it wasn't anything big, so I couldn't expect Tristan to pop out of nowhere and disarm the guy.

I felt a bit ridiculous in my costume, it being a flashy black and white. It definitely made me different from the crowd.

In the last final stretch, I dove after the man and grabbed his legs, tackling him to the dirty sidewalk. There was a tangle of limbs and then I eventually got the purse, standing up with my hands holding his behind him. I turned him into the police and ran back to give the purse to the lady.

"Thank you! Oh, how could I ever repay you?" The old woman showered me with hugs and gratitude. I weakly smiled and gently pushed her off.

"Maybe you could keep a better look out for your purse, ma'am," I said kindly. She nodded and I walked off down an alleyway.

This wasn't what I wanted to use my powers for. I wanted to take down actual bad guys and fry the living snoz out of them. Not save some old ladies' butterscotches from getting snatched. I leaned against a building wall to catch my breath. Then Ruby's voice came over the comms.

"We got a robbery at the bank on the corner of 45th and 82nd Street. They're holding hostages." I could feel the life drip back into me as I scaled the staircases to the tops of the buildings.

I jumped a few and made it to the corner where the robbery was allegedly happening. Sure enough, there was a large crowd and a ton of policemen and cars trying to fend them off. I swiftly jumped to the ground from the small building I was on and made my way through a rift in the crowd. Ruby was already there, conferring with a policeman, and I made my way over to her.