A Drown Rat
By Alex Croley
One of the first things I found out when I started being a superhero was that rain and spandex do not mix. First there is always shrinkage. Secondly you can never sneak up on a person unless they are deaf or totally unobservant. Lastly I dare say, you do have that not so fresh feeling after taking off your spandex costume. It is something just so sleazy that just yells "BATHTIME".
So here I am, the spectacular and ever heroic Dominoes, sitting on the Clark Memorial Bridge getting soaked by one of Louisville's infamous rainstorms. Hooray for the good guys.
I guess I could be bitching to much...I am a mutant. I actually like the fact that I can fly faster than most airplanes and shoot electricity out of my hands and every orpheus imaginable. (although I would find myself very disgusted with the prospect of a spark of lightning out of my ass)
So here I am, sitting on a bridge and waiting for something bad to happen...in the rain. Some genius decided to define what I do as patrolling the city. sigh I rather be at home, in bed or dare I say it studying for a test in history. Not that it effects my social life any, you can effect something you do not have in your possession. My topics with my friends or teammates if you will stems from look whose attacking now instead of what am I going to wear on my date tonight. As attractive as it might sound to some people I do not like the fact that I am a professional hero.
Take for example, last night; I was flying home from the library and suddenly I saw a terrible crash on the interstate. A normal person would have called 911 and hoped that there was no one hurt too terribly. I, on the other hand because of my 'unique' status, had to decide whether or not to act; which was kind of lopsided at the time because, there was no police or paramedics on the scene of the accident. So I flew down to see what I could do about helping people in immediate danger.
The accident involved a tractor trailer and a small compact car. The person in the semi was alright, from what I saw, because I saw him coming out of eighteen wheeler. On the other hand the car looked smashed, apparently the car flipped once over its side and rested on the concrete guardrail. The back end of the compact seem to cease to exist, all that was seen was what looked like a slab of metal pressed against itself. I looked inside of the car to check to see what, if anything could be done. There were two passengers in the front seat, both were unconscious at the time. When I couldn't open the door on the passenger side I had to force it open by prying the door off, which is no small feat for two reasons: First, because lifting a car is by no means the same as opening a metal door; Secondly, and the most I normally fear the most, was there was two injured people in the car and there was no way for me to simply pounding the door off or smashing the window for that fact. It took me about thirty seconds to find finger holds on the door, to get enough leverage, to begin prying and another two or so minutes to make the finger hold into hand sizes to get the leverage I needed to get a decent handle on opening the doors. I couldn't use any of my electricly based powers because, I could smell the gasoline leaking and did not want to make the situation worse than it already was.
Finally I was able to jerk the door to a decent opening and immeditly went and turned the ignition off and removed the keys from the steering column. By that time I could hear a paramedic (or was it a police officer) shouting something about backing away from the car. With my mind numb from the stress of the emergency I began to walk back from the car. The paramedics somehow got neck braces onto the people in the car, and began to work quickly to check for vital signs. After the paramedics looked over the two injured people in the car, they asked me to help put the car upright and then help pry the console from the legs that trapped the people in the car. To me, it was a blur of events after that, I guess the stress had actually got so bad that I turned my mind off of the bloody bodies or the endurance of having to use my hands as a living jaws of death.
However, I did remember that someone thanked me...a police officer I think it was. At that moment I somehow understood how important my position was, and the responsibility that came with it. The warm feeling that complament that was given to me was indecribly wonderful.
So here I am...sitting on a bridge in the middle of a rain storm. I can hear several police cars sirens going off in the same general area. Might as well see what the problem is this time.
??