ADIT

1.01

I lay at the edge of the roof and watched the people working out in the gym across the street. There were five of them in there at the moment. The old lady and the large bearded man were at their usual places on the treadmills while the trainer, a cute blonde, helped some new guy with the weights. The fifth, Max, was still in the back and out of sight.

My binoculars were focused on the locker door when Max stepped out. His dirty blond hair was still damp from the showers and he wore a loose gray t-shirt and black sweats. I kept him trained in my sights as he walked across the gym. I tried to concentrate but all I got was a new but dull pulse from the chest of the old woman and the familiar vibrations from one of the supports in the middle of the gym.

Max was whistling as he left the building. I ducked my head down to make myself smaller until he passed further up the street. I hated whistling. No matter who was whistling or what the tune was it always felt too shrill and grating. When he'd gone far enough it felt safe, I stood and shoved the binoculars in my bag before slinging it over my shoulder.

With silent steps I raced to the edge of the building, jumped, and grabbed ahold of the building beside it with my fingertips. My feet swung after me and stuck to the building and with a couple steps I made my way up to the roof. I followed him like that for a while, jumping from rooftop to rooftop when I could, and scaling the sides of the buildings when I couldn't. Always careful not to get too close. I also maintained concentration on those pings in case they were some sort of warning system.

Most of the pulses came from buildings: corners, doors, windows, beams, or random spots in the wall. Occasionally they came from a human or animal although that was rare. Sometimes when I concentrated on an object or building I could get it to start pulsing even when it hadn't before, but even when that happened I still didn't have a clue what it meant. I'd spent the last couple days trying to figure it out. That is, when I wasn't looking for work or following Max.

It didn't take him long to get home. The route was simple and familiar by now, two blocks south, three blocks east, and then up the steps to his old apartment. If he was part of the conspiracy he wasn't getting paid for it, or he knew better than to spend any of his ill-gotten money right now. His apartment looked more run down than mine and that was saying something. My apartment had a rat and cockroach infestation and at least half of my neighbors were constantly strung out on heroin and it still looked more pleasant than his place did.

It didn't take long for me to settle in on the roof across the street. His lights went on and I watched his shadow cross the blinds as he moved about. I'd watched him for a week now, waiting for confirmation on what I already knew. He was a cape. He had to be. I'd known it from the first time we'd met outside the mines. The way he'd held himself and the authority with which he'd spoken. He'd dismissed the reporter's claims, saying, and I quote,

"It was just an unfortunate accident. And I think in times of grief it is important for us to pull together as a community instead of finding some scapegoat to carry the blame."

I agreed with him to an extent. If there was mismanagement though, if there was someone at fault, I wanted them to be held responsible. I'd watched the clip on repeat for hours, dissecting it, trying to convince myself he was right. That's how I'd stumbled on the conspiracy. While he was talking the news station was running one of those tickers at the bottom of the screen and official reports claimed that the electricity had gone out causing one of the machines to fail, but I was there. I remember the thudding boom that had echoed throughout the mine and the grinding of gears that had followed it. Only after that had the lights flickered before going out for good.

That's when I'd really started paying attention to Max. Why did a cape tell everyone not to worry about why the collapse happened? Didn't capes have better things to do? Why was a cape working for the mines anyway? I poured over his clip again, this time trying to find out if he meant what he said or if he'd simply memorized some memo from a corporate office. It was hard to tell with just a couple sentences and through a television screen so I'd started trailing him.

And since then my investigation had hit a dead end. The only thing I knew about Max was that he worked out religiously, and that he lived in one of the crappiest apartment complexes in Denver.

An hour later and the lights in his apartment went off. I climbed down off the building, walked across the street, and looked up at his window. He emerged from the complex when I was halfway up the three story climb. In my strange position he didn't notice me even though he looked around carefully. If I'd still been on the roof it was possible he would have seen me. He took off down the street and I followed after him. His clothes were form-fitting, a long sleeve compression shirt and matching pants, all of which clung tightly to his muscle-bound body. All of it was pitch black with any logos marked out or removed. His face seemed different too, although it was hard to tell in the dark from behind. Whenever he passed under the streetlights his face seemed almost metallic.

We made our way west toward Ciancio Park, Max walking down the sidewalk and me trailing on the buildings behind him. I watched from across the street as he made his way further into the park. Following him now meant walking out into open and losing my cover. He stayed in the park for a couple hours walking around or sitting and waiting. A couple people walked by and the occasional car would drive by, but other than that it was an empty night. He headed back in my direction and I pulled the lion mask from my backpack on.

It was hard to think of something dirt or sand related so I'd decided to go with an Egyptian sphinx theme but realized only after I'd bought the mask that adding cumbersome wings when I couldn't even fly would be stupid. As Max made his way across the street from the park and I focused on the ground beneath him. A swirl of dirt, dust, and gravel began sweeping around him and he looked around for the source of the attack.

"What are you doing here?" I asked from the top of the house I stood on.

Max turned toward me, and with a huge leap he soared through the air and landed on the roof next to me. That was unexpected. I ran backwards, as I threw pebbles and dirt from the ground around the house up and slammed them into him. Nothing seemed to hit him as hard as it should, and some of them even turned off and missed him completely. The ones that did hit him seemed to bounce off with metallic ding.

He raced after me as I went and as I turned around to jump down the side of the house I saw a shadow fly over me and he landed on the ground in front of me with a thud. I threw up a torrent of dust around him obscuring him from sight, and then raced back to the other side of the house. I raised a cloud of dust as I went, surrounding the entire house in a haze of flying dirt and slowly began pushing the effect out as far as I could as I climbed down the side of the house. The block was soon filled with a sandstorm as I made my way down the street.

I was right. Max had powers. Powerful ones at that. Some sort of leaping flight and invulnerability. Too powerful for me to take down. The best I could do was blind him and run away. But I had an advantage he didn't. I knew who he really was.