The following is a work of fiction of my own creation, designed for a superhero setting, though of no specified comic book universe.
-
"We need to be superheroes," Sarah said, "or at least like superheroes if we are going to make this work."
"What do you mean?" Amanda asked.
"I mean we learned something from Kayla," she said, "and we were lucky to learn it the easy way. I thought that we could just be normal people until this all ended, but it won't work. If we are going to be out using our powers then we need to be ready."
"Sure," Bennie said, "but ready how?"
"Ready for some action," she said, "a bit more of function than fashion in our clothing choices."
"We are fashion people though," Kayla said, "what exactly does more function than fashion mean?"
"For now it means that," Sarah said pointing at a pile of clothing that was laid over the edge of her couch.
"Aren't those your yoga pants and gym shirt?" Amanda asked.
"Yes and for now they are as good as we have to a superhero costume," Sarah said, "at least something that we can move around in."
"All right," Bennie said, "then what next?"
"We rent a ride-share car," Sarah said, "and then get ready and go over to Liberty Street and figure out what is going on." The other three responded to her words, as Amanda prepared her own clothes, while Bennie and Kayla booked a nearby car with their phone. They stopped only briefly for Kayla and Bennie to get into their chosen uniforms as well before driving across town to Liberty Street.
They stood outside the building across the street, not exactly sure how to proceed. The four of them stood abreast and looked at the 1050 Liberty Street. The bottom of the building was some kind of furniture store, but there was an apartment over top of it. They looked upstairs to the second floor where they would presumably find apartment 2. The curtains were drawn and they could only see that the lights were on, not knowing who or what lay within.
"Can you see anything?" Sarah asked to Bennie.
"Nothing," Bennie said, "I think that I am looking into the bathroom of that apartment, but the door is closed, and every other reflective surface that I can see is too foggy to tell what is going on, other than there is someone home."
"How about we just knock and see who is home?" Sarah asked.
"How about we don't?" Amanda said, "Whoever did this to us is presumably pretty powerful, and we can't be sure that they have good intentions."
"So what instead then?" Sarah asked.
"I have an idea," Kayla said, "you guys wait here."
Kayla walked across the street and looked around to make sure that no one was watching her. The street was in a commercial stretch where people mostly didn't go at night, and at the moment there was no one else around, and not a car to be seen. With a last check Kayla turned herself into her waxy form, and slowly elongated her neck until she could look through the window through the second floor window.
"She didn't tell us that she could do that," Amanda said.
"Maybe she just figured it out," Bennie replied.
Kayla stood there for a moment inspecting through the curtained window, and appeared to see something as she turned back towards her friends. As she was beginning to retract her neck, the window alighted with a bright flash behind her.
"Someone is shooting at her!" Bennie screamed out. Sarah did not think but instead reacted as she instinctively turned the wall translucent. Amanda also didn't stop to think of her actions, but upon seeing the person inside she caused this person's clothing to constrict them, wrapping around her back and tying itself closed. It was evidently a woman that had attacked Kayla,and they watched her struggle before falling over and hitting the floor, where Amanda used the carpet to further entangle the woman. The three of them ran over to check on Kayla, who was back to her regular shape, though still in wax form.
"I am OK," she said, as the others reacted by running up the outside stairs to the outer door. Whereas at the office Amanda had been concerned about causing damage to the building, now she was not concerned. Whoever this was seemed to have been expecting them and had meant to hurt her friend. She used a nearby towel and sweatshirt to animate and open the door. The four of the burst in to find the woman still struggling against her clothing and the carpet.
"Let me go! Let me go! Let me go!" she screamed.
"OK! OK! OK!" Sarah yelled back, "We let you go, but you stand down, we talk and you talk, no more attacks."
"That was a mistake," the woman said, now a bit more calm, but still muffled underneath the fabrics, "I didn't even known that I could do that. Just please don't hurt me."
"Let her go," Sarah said looking to Amanda, who complied to her friend's direction. As the fabric released the woman she gasped for air, and coughed at the smell of carpet that still lingered in her lungs.
"Hold on a second," Bennie said, "I know her."
"Yeah," Kayla said, "me too?"
"What do you mean that you know her?" Amanda asked.
"She is Erica Lavigne," Bennie said, "beauty vlogger. She has a pretty famous channel, all of her makeup how-to videos gets tens of thousands of views."
Sarah looked at her, and realized that the other two were right, and Amanda soon pieced it together as well. They had come here for answers, but now were more confused than before.
"Sorry about that laser blast or whatever that was," Erica said, "I didn't mean to do that, I just got kind of scared when I saw you outside the window."
"I don't get how you saw me though," Kayla said, "I was looking through a slight crack."
"I can see things," Erica said, "or at least I can since this morning."
"Since this morning?" Sarah asked, "Wait a minute, you ever heard of Elegangel?"
"How did you know?" Erica asked, "Those guys contacted me the other day offering me a bunch of free stuff. I turned them down telling them I didn't want the stuff."
"So what happened?" Amanda asked.
"Their stuff seemed ok," Erica replied, "but I am getting contacted all the time to do spots for new companies, and I gotta stay impartial so I said no. They countered back though and told me that they just wanted some feedback on some fake eyelashes. Fox fur they said, looks and feels like natural, and very full and luscious, so I said yes finally"
"So what happened?" Sarah asked.
"Well I had a first date last night," Erica replied, "and I figured that I would wear them then, impress the guy maybe with a bit of cosmetic help. Turns out that we got along pretty well, and we ended up talking for a while, in fact he kind of swept me off my feet. I got home at like 4 AM, and fell asleep right away, and kind of forgot that I was wearing them. I wake up today and find out that I can't get these things off, and that they have done something weird to my eyes."
"Weird like what?" Sarah asked.
"Weird like I can see everything," Erica replied, "and I mean everything. I can zoom into microscopic level or out to telescopic. I saw a plane fly overhead today and focused in on it and could see the peoples faces inside, but it gets weirder than that. I think I can see a lot more, like infrared, and some other stuff which is probably like ultraviolet or something, it seems like I can see just about everything and more."
"More?" Amanda asked, "What do you mean?"
"It sounds even weirder," Erica said, "but I can see around angles, I can even look behind my head without much trouble, plus now also the laser blasts which was kind of a surprise. Sorry."
"Hey," Sarah said, "no need to apologize, after the day that we had, that is the least of our concerns."
"This doesn't really get us closer to any answers," Amanda said, "unless you know something that we don't."
"The guy just left me his card," Erica said, "for some place on Ninth."
"Yeah," Amanda said, "we were there, with nothing to gain."
"But we ..." Kayla started to say, before being interrupted.
"Hold on," Erica said, "what's that?"
"What's what?" Sarah asked.
"This entire apartment was just illuminated by a bunch of electromagnetic radiation," Erica said, "like someone is spying on us. The energy is coming from the street." Kayla ran over to the window and threw open the curtains to see a car in front of the apartment. Her action was rash, as whoever was watching knew that they were watching back, and the driver took off at a rapid speed.
"Come on," Sarah said, "we got to get to the car."
"No time," Bennie said, as he ran to the bathroom. The others followed her as she jumped into the window over the sink.
"I am teleporting to the rearview mirror on his car," Bennie said, "I will call you when I can."
And then she disappeared.
Log in to comment