Fading Light and Growing Shadows

Chapter 1

Alex didn't know what happened until they regained consciousness and it hit them like a truck. The events of the night before left them with a busted lip and a sprained wrist. And if that wasn't enough, their shift started in 15 minutes and they were across town and it would be very hard to carry a tray of food with a sprained wrist. Damn, they wish ambidextrous right about now. Even though they could carry a food just fine with their left hand, it was harder to balance if they had to maneuver quickly around people and where would they put the food down to serve it? Maybe Shaun would let them be a busser today. Wait...

As they sat up, they squinted against the sun hitting them on the left side of their face, wishing it was still early enough that the sun alone wouldn't give them a headache.

"Well, maybe the person shouldn't have hit me so hard in the head and making me fall from that height. But no," they say, dragging out the no. "They just had to rob the bank at two in the freaking morning. Again." Alex rolls their eyes. They don't know why, but for the past two weeks, they tried to rob the bank at least twice, and Alex had to stop them both times, the cops not getting there in time, and the other heroes already busy. They've been trying to figure out what could be so important to the robber, but all there is money and the occasional gold bar. Why people even had gold bars anymore, they didn't know, but what they did know is that it was getting on their nerves. Even better, winter is coming up soon and they weren't a winter person. Other heroes could deal with the villains. Alex didn't want to.

Alex slowly takes off their jacket, biting their cheek to keep from crying out, and takes off the small backpack off their back, having been hidden by the jacket. They open the bag easily, well, as easily as you could with only one working hand, and Alex reaches inside for a bottle of water and their phone. They groan in frustration, the screen is cracked again. They bet the people at the Hero-phone were tired of seeing them at least once a month. You can only get so many hero-warranty phone screen replacements within half a year. They guess they'd wait a little longer before they went in again.

Alex ties the jacket around their waist and they take off the full face mask they had been wearing, a crack in it that had taken off a big chunk of the left side of the mask. Not enough to show any resemblance to show who they are, but surprisingly enough that it was done by a single punch by the attacker. Alex laughs, thinking about how much that probably hurt the robber. They stuff the mask into their bag, not wanting to leave anything behind. Even if it was just a broken mask.

They take out the spare pair of black jeans and t-shirt, the ones on right then torn and bloodied. Alex changes in the corner of the narrow alleyway they were in making sure to do it as quickly as possible. FInished, they exit the corner in clean clothes and wrist wrapped. Picking up their backpack, water, and phone, Alex leans up against the wall, finally calling Shaun. He picks up on the second ring.

"Alex, where are you? It's not like you to not be here five minutes before your shift." The man's voice sounds a little higher than his usual deep voice, the fact of Alex's phone being years old. "Tell me you weren't out fighting again last night too late."

Usually, Shaun had to look out for Alex because they wouldn't do it themselves.

Shaun had figured it out because one day, after a particularly bad fight with a robber, Alex had gotten a rather nice black eye and busted lip. Shaun had immediately jumped on it, even though Alex had tried their best to cover it up with makeup, asking them why they had a black eye and swollen lip. Alex had half-lied, saying that they had accidentally gotten into a fight, but was fine. Alex then learned Shaun's power and the two had a sit-down. Alex, with the threat of being fired from Super Eats, told Shaun what had really happened and that they were known as the reputable Shadow Warrior, they were told by Shaun to go home and get some sleep.