Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting
Napoleon Hill
“I’m here for lieutenant Carpenter,” I tell the man at the front desk.
“And you are?” He raises a bushy ginger brow at me, and I stare back blankly. I don’t know why he has the time to be stupid. I’m dressed in my superhero costume. It’s kind of obvious who I am.
Maybe, there’s another purple cladded teleporting freak I didn’t know about.
The police station is quiet, except for the occasional sound of a phone ringing or the hustle of officers moving between rooms. The walls are of the office I’m in, is covered in brown cork boards, black and white photographs of suspects and criminals from their mugshots. Sheets of printed paper lay scattered and manilla envelopes are strewn across the mahogany table. Neon folders are carelessly stacked together, leaning against empty throwaway coffee cups, still with fresh brown stains.
“Kidwolf,” I tell the officer and he slowly types onto his computer, searching up my name to see if I’m authorized. “Hero of Skylight City and kind of in a hurry”
“Who are you here to see again?”
“Lieutenant Carpenter,” I say, on the brink of snapping like a pencil in half. Given the nasty imagery, maybe I just want to snap the officer before me like a twig.
“She’s in the back,” he says boredly.
Begrudgingly, I thank him though silently, I cure the guy as I walk into the connected office.
Unlike the previous room, Carpenter’s office is tidy, kept clean and neat. The woman in question, is sitting forward, hunched over a computer as she works on an open file next to her. My eyes catch on a frame at her desk, the only personal item she has in the office. A picture of a young girl with red hair bunched in two messy pigtails, and a smatter of freckles dotting her nose and cheeks.
“Kidwolf!” Lieutenant Carpenter says in surprise, worry lining her forehead. “Back so soon? Is everything alright?”
She’s already out of her chair when I stop her. “No, it’s all good. I just came in to call in that favour. If it still stands”
“Yes, of course. How can I help you?” She smiles and I see her resemblance to the girl in the frame. Her daughter maybe?
“I need to speak to Chasm,” I hold my breath. “It’s urgent”
The lady slumps back in her chair. “I don’t know about that Kid. You are a hero but you still ned to be authorised”
“I know,” I say quickly, holing out the official document Dex gave me as proof. He’d obviously been prepared for this – you didn’t become the head executive if you didn’t recognize all the protocols and laws. “Here, it’s signed and sealed”
Lieutenant Carpenter skims through the doc before looking back at me.
“Okay, it looks pretty official. Just be quick. Chasm is dangerous enough without any visitors,” She tosses me a set of keys and the metal jingles as I catch it niftily. “And if anyone asks, I didn’t have anything to do with this”
I nod, understanding it’s her job on the line.
The prison cells remind me of a dungeon. It’s cold, dank and smells of sweat and urine. My boots trample on cobwebs and gravel as I approach the last cell, al bare except this one. When Dex designed this particular holding cell with his engineers, they’d made it specifically for the high-class supervillains that my team were responsible for arresting. Once we were done with these convicts, they were sent to the most secure prison vault in the country – the Lighters Imprisonment Compound. Of course there was a place for regular criminals but that one didn’t concern me much.
Chasm sits with his back against the world, on a thin mattress, held up by rusted metal legs. A small, cracked toilet resides in one corner and there’s a bucket next to it. The floor is dirty, grey, and stained with God-knows-what. It looks unassuming like any old prison. But I know about the alarm systems and how sensitive they are. I know about the Lighters watching over from cameras and the sensor detectors that record your every move. I know that if I touch the bars of the cell, I’ll be electrocuted from head to toe.
Only one person has ever escaped a Lighter’s prison cell and that was three months ago when I just started this hero business.
I clear my throat, earning Chasm’s attention.
“Kidwolf? What a surprise,” he says causally, clearly unsurprised. He grins maliciously, stretching his arms above his head. It’s strange seeing him stripped of his metal gloves but I’m thankful they’re gone.
“You knew I was coming”
I say it as a statement not a question.
“I see you found my little message,” he notes and his malevolent grin curls into arrogance.
“What does it mean?” I ask, crossing my arms. So he put that little red symbol in his glove on purpose. As a message or a decoy?
“Wouldn’t you like to know”
I nearly roll my eyes. “I would, that’s why I’m asking”
My patience is wearing thinner than paper. I have no time for mind games and Chasm knows that. The Lighters are at risk of another attack, and we can’t have any more villains roaming the streets, hurting citizens, and preying on the innocent. If he has any knowledge on who broke into the Lighters yesterday afternoon, I need to know.
Chasm pushes himself off the mattress and stalks towards the cell.
“Careful,” I whisper darkly, my voice dangerously soft. “Wouldn’t want you getting fried.”
He halts, genuinely astounded by my statement. I’m supposed to be a hero – I shouldn’t be so wicked.
“You will give me the answers I want Chasm,” I teel him, my fingers furling into fists.
“Or what?”
“This,” I grit my teeth and use my telekinesis to lift Chasm off the ground and slam him on the opposite wall.
“Ready to speak now?” I demand staring down at him.
He looks up from the floor with a deadly glare, his eyes narrowed, arms sprawled at his sides limply and back slumped against the wall.
“NO”
I tilt my head to the side, barely flicking my fingers as I throw him gain. “How about now?”
“No!”
“Now?”
“Not … happening”
I raise my hand, holding Chasm in mid-air on the other side of the cell. He struggles against my hold to no use. His tanned brown skin slowly beginning to turn purple, choking as he tries to gasp for air.
“Give me what I want, and I’ll leave you alone,” I grind out, my deathly, invisible grip tightening.
“Absolutely not,” He retorts.
I drop my hand, dejected and my holds falls way as Chasm drops to the ground with a loud oof.
“If this isn’t going to work, I’m going to have to call in Scorpio,” I pretend to sigh. “Maybe I’ll just get in the whole team, you’ll like that, won’t you Chasm?”
He picks himself up slowly, coughing and spluttering out blood. Hs breaths are heavy as he leans back and wipes his mouth, before scowling at me. “Fine. What do you want?”
I almost smile.
“I want to know what that symbol is. What it means and whose it from. I want to know everything”
“That’s an awful lot of questions,” He says, still on the floor. “What do I get in return for helping you disclose this information?”235Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUxLcClmJKY
I flex my fingers, his eyes widen.
“Fine, fine,” Chasm says in surrender, rubbing his back with a wince. “Jeez, for a superhero, you sure are violent”
“What was that chip Chasm?” I ask. “Why the symbol? The message? Whose behind all of this?”
“That symbol is my bosses,” Chasm explains, dropping his head back against the wall. “Did you have to throw me so hard?”
“So you are working for someone,” I note, more to myself. There is a bigger boss after all, that wasn’t some far-fetched guess. “Who is it?”
“That, I’m afraid I can’t tell you,” He shakes his head.
I realise the double meaning of his words within seconds.
“Because you don’t know who the master mind is, yourself,” I point out, piecing the puzzle together.
Chams closes his eyes, waving me away. “So if were done here, I’d like to get some sleep”
“Not quite,” I interject, and he exhales heavily.
“What is it Kidwolf?”
“Where di you get the tech from?” I demand.
Because no way on earth some average twenty something year old guy designed such powerful gloves. Especially not someone like Chasm who should be at community college not destroying the roads of the city. With, what was his excuse again? Oh yes, he just hated the leadership of Skylight. He had some inexcusable revulsion for the Lighters.
Reluctantly, Chasm hands over that last piece of information before cursing me and zipping his lips shut. When he refuses to tell me anything else, I leave wordlessly in the blink of an eye. Outside the police station, the sun is dying don in the horizon and the streets are clogged with traffic. Horns blare and tyres screech, trucks screaming loudly as they pass, exhaust fumes leaving a trail of soke in their wake. As usual, the city is in chaos at this hour, everyone rushing home from work.
“Puma, what are you doing here?” I discover the green cladded girl leaning against the pole of a streetlamp.
“Waiting for you,” She says, kicking a small stone off the pavement. “The guys sent me”
I nod once and saunter passed her. Together we walk side by side, ignoring the starstruck looks from regular citizens as we manoeuvre through the bustling sidewalk. Strangers that aren’t engrossed in their phones stop and turn to catch a view of us or taking a photo. I right my black hood, thankful for the cover it provides. 235Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMIXlReImWo
“How’s the search coming along?” I ask, avoiding an unlucky collision with a man reading a newspaper. On the front cover an image of a criminal apprehended in handcuffs is being shown taken away, alongside the picture of the alpha squad.
“Not good,” Puma fills me in. “We couldn’t find any leads to who stole the tech. Scorpio and Blue both lost their tempers and left halfway, the cowards. Dex had a meting to go to and told me to come get you. Things aren’t very stable, as you can see”
“I left for like two hours,” I muse. “Did the boys go home?”
“Scorpio did,” She says. “And um … I think Hawk is working with in the lab with the forensics team”
I tilt my head, catching the blush staining Puma’s cheeks. My mouth nearly drop open. Blushing? Stammering? Voice pitching? Those are the obvious signs of a crush.
“Oh my god!” I would’ve squealed if I was another girl. “You like him, don’t you?!”
Puma huffs. “I do not like Hawk”
I nudge her shoulder playfully with my own. “I never said it was him”
She ducks her head, blonde hair spilling over to block her red face.
“Shut up,” She mumbles.
I laugh. “C’mon, let’s go to the lab. You can express your undying love for Blue Hawk there”
“Kidwolf! Don’t you dare!”235Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTZN1klCjK0
