Catching the Hero

Chapter One: Pilot

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Chapter One: Pilot

The air was humid and smelled slightly of mold, and the rain drizzled down onto the town of Willow Hills. The night was cool, and the people were all indoors.

 I jumped across the tops of the buildings, gaining on Wolfsbane. He had just robbed the Willow Hills Supers Museum for the fifth time in two months, and I had finally caught him in the act. He wasn't very far ahead of me now; I totally had him.

I bent the air around me until I was in the shadows and quieted my steps. Thinking that he was alone, Wolfsbane slowed down and looked around the roof, and then shifted into a small wolf and jumped down onto the fire escape. As he went down, I ran to the edge of the roof and quietly climbed down the fire escape. When the Wolf hit the ground, I jumped down and began the chase, catching up to him within seconds. Just as I was about to grab him by the neck, something crashed into my from the side. The force threw me against the wall of the building, and I watched as the super-strong  and extremely arrogant villain, Black Falcon, pinned me to the wall.

"Well, what do we have here, it's Little Miss Hero," Falcon smirked at me. "You know, Fallon, green is a nice color on you, but I think you'd look better without it."

"In your dreams, Falcon," I scoffed. 

"Always such a downer, aren't you," he sneered at me. "Anyways, I think you're slightly out of your league, trying to best someone like me." He touched my cheek, and then fingered my black mask. A sly smile can over his face. "Maybe I can get a glimpse of what's under the mask, what do you say?"

I started to struggle as Falcon grasped the side of my mask. I knew I couldn't let him see who I was; he could use it against me.

Looking to my right, I saw my chance to escape. Because of the rain, large puddles had formed throughout the alley, and I could use them to my advantage. Pulling the water from the ground until it was behind Falcon, I forced it to wrap around his neck and constrict. It pulled him away from me and slammed him into a building opposite of me, nearly making him lose consciousness.

Just as I was about to handcuff him and escort him to prison, something furry hit me. While I had been preoccupied with Falcon, Wolfsbane, who I thought had escaped into the night, quietly came behind me. Changing into the form of a large dog, he slammed into me and quickly bit into my left thigh, nearly causing me to cry out. He pulled back and pushed me into the alley wall, making me lose my bearings for a few seconds.  For a moment, I was nervous about this fight. Ryder and Wolfsbane could easily overpower me if I was injured, and as blood continued to flow from my leg I began to feel a bit lightheaded. But I wasn't about to let them get me so easily.

Quickly turning around, I gathered more water from the puddles and flung it toward the Wolf. He was pushed back into the building, but quickly recovered. As he ran at me, I was distracted and didn't hear Falcon coming behind me until they both crashed into me and pinned me to the side of the alley. I almost cried out as the force of their attack slammed my head into the brick wall, and I felt blood begin to mat in my hair. The combined loss of blood in my head and thigh were taking effect on my ability to think clearly, and small blurry spots were showing in my vision.

"Well, that was fun, wasn't it!" Falcon said , but then a terrible expression took his face. "But unfortunately my dear, we're no longer playing games."

Falcon pulled back his right arm to deliver a super-powered blow to my chest, but before he could follow through a staticy sound filled the alley and the dim lights started flickering. A powerful electricity moved quickly across the ground and stopped about five feet from where Falcon had me pushed to the wall.

Suddenly, the electricity sped through Wolfsbane and paralyzed him. He fell to the ground stiff as a plank of wood and did not move, except for small shudders running through his body. Almost as quickly as it had caught the Wolf, the electricity moved until it wrapped its tendrils around Falcon and pulled him to the ground. Taking my chance at revenge, I pushed the water over to Falcon and combined it with the electricity.

As soon as he went unconscious, I let go of my hold on the water. I slouched and let the pain of my injuries take over my mind, letting out a whimper as I hit the cold, hard ground. I could feel my head throbbing as blood dripped down my neck, but the bite mark on my leg was much more painful. It was deeper than I had thought and hurt more than anything I'd ever felt. 

As I was about to pass into unconsciousness, the pain started to dull and my head began to get clearer. Startled, I jumped and became aware that my wounds were healing quickly and the pain was nearly gone.

I pulled myself up onto my elbows and looked around. Crouching in front of me with a look of concentration on his face was a young superhero that I recognized immediately.

Night Ryder.

Even behind his dark red mask, anyone could tell that he was undeniably handsome.  His black hair fell into his eyes, which were a dark green that gave me chills; he was well over six feet tall, and his body was perfection, very muscular but still lean.  His suit was a dark red to match his mask and had black accents around the neck, arms, and legs.  It fit him perfectly, showing off every muscle he had and making him appear even more intimidating than he already was. 

 Not even realizing that I had been staring at him, I shook myself out of the trance.  I could barely feel any pain anymore, in fact, I felt better than I’d felt in a while.  When I looked down, the bite in my leg was nothing more than a faint scar, but my leather pants were torn and full of blood.  I’d probably have to throw them out, it wasn't like I could go to the dry-cleaners and ask them to fix my hero-suit. That wouldn’t help with keeping my identity under the radar.

I looked back up and saw Ryder getting back to his feet and offering me his hand.  Looking at it skeptically, he said, “Your leg is probably still a little weak, he almost bit all the way through. “

Sighing, I reached up and grasped his hand, feeling sparks and tingles as he pulled me up.  Wow, I thought, I guess he’s still putting out some electricity.  Now standing, I turned my face up to look at him.  He stood much taller than my average height of 5’6”, and was a lot bigger than me in many aspects of the word. But I couldn’t allow him to think he intimidated me, so I merely said with a blank face, ”Thanks, I’ll be off now.” I could tell he wanted to say something, but he refrained. I was somewhat glad that he did, because I didn’t want him to think I would work with him again.

And so I walked away into the night, leaving Night Ryder confused and staring behind me.