CHAPTER 1
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Charlotte Bolton walked toward her locker ready leave Swellview High alongside of her childhood best friend Jasper, with a relieved sigh. Midterms had finally finished and the 17 year old was truly gladdened to get them out of her way and was ready to de-stress and relax for the long weekend.
'Whoo! I'm glad that's done! That French final was confusing, right?!" Jasper grinned putting his hands behind his head.
Charlotte raised an eyebrow as she placed her books in her bag and closed the locker. "Jasper, I don't take French, I take Spanish. And, anyway, weren't all the language finals yesterday?"
"Oh. Yeah." The two friends fell into step with each other as they walked out of the school. "All this test stress is getting to me." the tall brown-haired boy pouted, then grinned excitedly at her.
"Let's go to the Sugar Bowl to celebrate our freedom! My treat!" Charlotte sighed.
"Can't. I've got work. And, anyway, we wouldn't Kennedy to get jealous would we?" she teased.
Jasper paled, before shuddering. "Ugh! She threatened my buckets, Charlotte! My buckets! Even after I told her you and I were just friends." He slouched down as if to hide his tall frame as if said blonde-haired girl would pop up suddenly like the devil.
"I don't know what I ever saw in her." he said as they turned toward the main street where the bus stop Charlotte used to get downtown for work was.
"You didn't." She said smirking. "You suddenly hit a growth spurt and the girls just jumped at you like wild hyenas."
The curly-haired girl put her hands together and began to narrate as if she were a nature show host. "You were like a baby gazelle, unsure and confused at the watering hole. Surrounded by wild and vicious predators. Kennedy just saved your ass by being a lion and swiping you up from the horde of hungry hyenas."
Jasper pouted. "Hey, you don't need to describe me all helpless like that. I'm a ladies man! A true lady killer!"
Charlotte just giggled and waved her friend off. "I'm so sure. Thanks for walking me to the bus stop Jas."
He grinned. "Of course just remember to keep your phone on you and charged. And text me when you get home tonight!"
She rolled her eyes. "Ok, mom."
"Hey, you've heard the news, it's getting wild out here, especially downtown. Captain Man and Kid Danger can't be around all the time."
The curly-haired girl smiled fondly, if a bit exasperatedly, at her childhood friend. "I'll be safe, Jasper. I promise to call you, ok?"
And with that the two friends parted ways as Jasper continued on home and Charlotte waited patiently for the bus.
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Entering the coffee shop/bakery she worked at, Charlotte sighed as she took in the busy atmosphere. An apron was thrown onto her head as her short-haired co-worker, Selena, hurried past her.
"Get to work, chicka! Alex bailed on us today and Emily's left early for a family emergency, so it's just you, me and Matt."
The pretty dark-skinned girl raised and eyebrow. "Alex bailed again? Did he at least have a good excuse this time?"
Matt sneered. "No, he didn't even bother to give us a heads up."
"Hmmph. Well, we'll just split his check then." she said grabbing the notepad Selena passed to her.
"I'm on waitressing today?"
"Yes, please, if you could? We're swamped." The short-haired Latina gestured toward the busy front.
"Start by taking the order for table 8, there, por favor."
Waving her off, Charlotte walked over to a table filled with giggly teenage girls.
"Did you hear how Captain Man and Kid Danger saved those people from those horrible robbers?" A dark haired girl said excitedly to her friends.
The one next to her grinned. "I know! Oh, Kid Danger is so cute! If only he could save me!" she gushed starry-eyed to a flurry of agreements from all her friends.
Charlotte inwardly rolled her eyes. Not this again.
Quickly taking the girls' orders she walked away from the, quite literal, hero worship.
The first time Charlotte had heard about Swellview City's duo of heroes was when she'd first moved to the city in the 7th grade. She'd of course thought it was a joke. Two costume wearing vigilantes jumping around playing hero? Nah. It was probably just talk of some new superhero movie that just came out.
She was quickly and unfortunately proven wrong, when within a week of arriving in the city, an actual, bon fide supervillain named Dr. Minyak had actually nearly destroyed the city with a dangerous superweapon he'd created. She and her family had read the news in disbelief as two costumed superheroes, identified as Captain Man and his sidekick Kid Danger were credited with disabling the weapon, and capturing Dr. Minyak and his assistant.
And trust her, the stories only got weirder. Sometimes she really couldn't believe her life. It was like living in an only slightly less dangerous version of Gotham city. In her opinion, any city that held the Joker was scary as fuck and couldn't be beaten.
"I don't know what you have against them." Matt said cheerfully as he prepared the ingredients for the orders she gave him.
"I mean, is it really that weird for them to try and help out a bit, clean up the city?" he continued.
Charlotte leaned against counter. "It's not them, specifically, I have anything against. Though they do dress like a colorful second-rate Batman and Robin. Its this whole situation. First, there are way, way too many super-powered villains in this city, for some reason. And 2nd while I admit Captain Man and Kid Danger do try to help, sometime they cause more trouble than it's worth."
"Like what?"
She raised an eyebrow. "Like when they blew up the main and only bridge to get to downtown in an easily avoided situation with the Time Jerker." She gagged slightly. God, her life had become a comic book, hadn't it? The Time Jerker, honestly.
"Or when they accidently knocked the city's power out with that altercation with Dr. Minyak." Selena added from the back.
Charlotte nodded and grabbed the tray Matt prepared. "See? More trouble than it's worth. And that's, what, the 14th time Dr. Minyak has escaped from jail?"
"12th actually." he called as she grabbed the trays and walked over to table 8 and 6.
"Anyway, they saved those people didn't they? I mean the police couldn't handle half of the wackos Captain Man and Kid Danger do." he told the pretty dark-skinned girl as she walked back over.
"I know." she said. "Which is why I said I don't have anything against them specifically. Just against the way the handle things."
She paused. "And the amount of super-powered beings in this city." she added.
"You're just jealous" Matt said with teasing grin. "Bitter your dreams of being a superhero are shattered after you found out you were too short for the job?"
Charlotte glared at him as she took the next order. "Hey, I'm not short!. Just because the rest of you are freaking giants, doesn't mean I'm short!"
"Charlotte, you're 5'2"." he deadpanned.
"That is a perfectly average height, thank you!" she called over her shoulder, ignoring his no-doubtedly sarcastic response.
Flipping giant.
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"Selena, you good closing the store? I've got to head out now if I wanna catch the last bus home. The stop's a bit of a walk from here." Charlotte said in concern.
Matt had left half an hour ago and there was still two hours left until closing time.
The short-haired, older girl shook her head. "I'm good, babe. There aren't many people now, anyway. Go and catch that bus."
"Thanks, see ya Sunday!" Charlotte cheered, grabbing her bag as she waved goodbye.
The curly-haired girl had been walking for a few minutes, her backpack weighing heavily on her, due to school books she'd shoved in there. All she wanted was to go home, take a long, relaxing shower (maybe she'd even treat herself to a bubble bath) and sleep all day Friday and Saturday. That was how exhausted she was.
Just as she was envisioning curling up in the warmth of her comforter with a good book, Charlotte was grabbed rather roughly and slammed against a disgustingly grimy back alley wall.
Her head hit the wall, making harsh thudding sound. Oh. That… doesn't sound good, does it? She thought dimly.
In her vague state of mind, Charlotte was unable to entirely process whatever it was that was being said to her. After a moment she was able to get the gist of it and was not at all pleased at what she was hearing.
Of course, of course. I had to get mugged. Though she supposed it could have been worse. She winced as possibilities whirled through her head. Much worse.
She quickly came to terms with parting with what little money she had on her. Anything to get her out of this before something even worse could happen, her life was worth more than a few shifts worth of pay no matter how irritated she was with her current situation.
As she slowly moved to give the muggers her bag, to her bewilderment she noticed a shadow of what looked like a flying figure on the ground of the dimly lit alley.
What in the worl-.
To her astonishment Kid freaking Danger dropped out of nowhere and knocked out one of the two men holding her.
What the actual fuck?
Though despite her shock, the curly-haired girl still had to admit to being impressed by the movie-like drop-kick he gave the man.
She bet the guy holding her would have been impressed as well if he hadn't been seconds away from getting a fist to the face.
It was actually kind of embarrassing for a teen, for no matter how superhero-ish he was; he was definitely still a teenager, to put two grown men down for the count.
Hell, she was embarrassed to get caught by such easily defeated men! Though... perhaps that was the blow to the head talking, though she was sure it wasn't a concussion despite the pain.
Slightly disoriented, Charlotte slid down next to her discarded bag, disregarding the dirtiness of the alley, and watched as Kid Danger used zip ties to make sure the muggers wouldn't get away before the cops came and then use what look liked a disposable phone to actually call the cops.
Charlotte was actually still pretty dazed when the blonde-haired superhero turned his attention back to her, but she was still lucid enough to think about how ironic it was to be saved by the guy she had been indirectly complaining about just hours earlier. She groaned. If Matt ever heard of this, he'd never let it go.
"Are you alright?" the boy said. And, wow, he's voice was deep. And his eyes were so brown. Such an interesting shade too, like amber-
She frowned and shook her head, letting the superhero pull her to her feet gently.
"I'm fine, I think. Just my head."
She then made mistake of looking at him. Oh my. He was tall, taller than even Matt who was damn giant.
This was her first time getting a close up look at the revered hero so she took the time to observe him discretely. He wasn't built like most superheroes from comics, having more of leaner, track-runner build instead. Though he was clearly in good shape, judging by the defined abs and muscles shown beneath the skin-tight blue fabric he was wearing.
She would have said something about the mask he wore over his eyes being a bit cliché but her head was still pounding and she also thought it was better not to anger the tall and super-powered guy who had just beaten up two muggers faster then Charlotte could make those stupidly overly-complicated drinks that preppy college kids liked to order at the shop.
She was also mightily distracted by Kid Danger grabbing her arm and pulling her closer to his rather hard chest.
What in the world is he doing? To her surprise and slight embarrassment he began checking her over for injuries, eventually running his gloved hand through her dark curls.
Before she could lecture him on when not to touch a black girl's hair (every time, please and thank you), she stopped as she noticed his gloved hand slightly stained with blood.
"Yeah, looks like you took a nasty blow there. You sure you ok?" he said tilting her head slightly to get a better look.
Shocked into silence by her ordeal (not at all by the superhero's too-close presence) Charlotte nodded wordlessly as the costumed vigilante looked down at her intensely, his pouty lips pulled into a slight frown.
Just as it looked like he was about to say something the sound of sirens filled the air and a moment later he was gone. He literally just vanished into the shadows of the alley, leaving Charlotte looking around in confusion and surprise.
It was some seriously Batman-ish stuff and later, in the safety of her own home, a slightly annoyed Charlotte decided that this was probably how Commissioner Gordon felt as she drifted off to sleep.
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TO BE CONTINUED!
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