Swooped | ✓

Chapter 23: Running Around Like a Headless Chook

"Okay, C-" Milo started, his voice cutting off with a crackle.

"Call him Black Dove, idiot!" Geoff interrupted loudly, making me wince as his voice screamed in my ear.

"Don't yell so loud, Geoff," I mumbled into my mask, gliding through the air before landing on the roof of someone's house. "And I've been flying around for an hour already, and haven't found any one to help."

"Well, you tried to help that old lady crossing the road, but you probably ended up giving her a heart attack," Geoff cackled, making me roll my eyes. 

"She made it across the road in the end, okay! And she ended up thanking me when I helped carry her groceries home for her," I defended, remembering the one and only person I had (heroically) helped today.

The GoGos and Milo had gathered at my house, setting up a surveillance room in my study. Milo, being a whiz in computer science, had also stretch his vast knowledge into hacking, and had hooked himself up to the city's street cameras on the numerous computer monitors I had bought. Geoff also made me buy some more beanbags and recliners for the study, as well as a vending machine and drinks bar, because you always needed refreshments when saving the world - apparently.

It was no batcave, but it did its job. Milo could keep an eye on me and scout out the city for any shady happenings or people in need, and also stay in contact with me. We had affectionately named our budget batcave The Nest, for obvious, thematic reasons.

After setting everything up, they had quickly sent me out to start being a hero. Unfortunately, in our quiet suburbs, the only things that appeared to be causing havoc was the terrible traffic. 

"Hey, 'Black Dove'," Milo said, his image hovering in the corner of my goggle lens. I smiled as I saw Milo's image, catching his eye roll at the use of my cheesy code name, and it looked like he was scrolling through something on one of the many screens in front of him.

"Yes, 'Eagle Eye'?" I responded, grinning to myself as Milo looked positively disgusted at his own code name, cringing visibly. 

"I've just been monitoring some help pages for the surrounding neighbourhoods, and apparently a little boy's cat has climbed up a tree and he can't get it down," Milo said, voice monotonous as he read through what seemed like a Facebook post. "Here, I'll send you the post." An image of a boy bawling his eyes out staring up at a tree popped up in the corner of my lens, followed by a lengthy post by the boy's mother.

"Uh, can't firefighters deal with that? Or, I don't know, the kid's parents could climb the tree?" I said, Milo shrugging. 

"They apparently tried, but apparently it's a really big tree," Milo detailed, obviously realising that I was too lazy to read the full post. "And firefighters are occupied at the moment, according to the emergency scanners I'm monitoring."

"Okay, fine, where's the bloody cat?" I sighed, Milo sending me the details. I clapped to myself when a wonderful map appeared on my goggles, telling me exactly where I needed to go. Considering I was flying, it didn't take me long to get to the modest two-storey house surrounded by huge, ancient trees. 

I could hear the cat-kid crying before I landed on the roof of the house, his mum trying to calm him down as he sobbed at his cat, which refused to come down. An older girl - older sister, probably - was sitting under the shade on the back porch, filming the events around her on her phone, lips smacking as she chewed her gum and laughing at her brother's bawling.

"Um, excuse me," I called out, the mum and her son turning around. The mother screamed loudly, causing the daughter to lean against the railing of the porch and look up, camera following her eyes. Her mouth popped open, her gum stretching. I saw her fingers freeze for a second, before clearly zooming in on me.