A Hell of a Time

It was fifteen minutes after leaving home that I realized that going out at night, dressed like a goth hooker, in January was a stupid idea. I was cold and in general regretting this stupid decision. At the same time, I didn't want to go back home just yet. It was like, it was like there was something I needed to do. At the same time, this felt like a stupid idea. We lived in the docks district, and the all Asian Gang in this city controlled a lot of territory down here. I didn't think that I'd run into to much trouble from them, unless I ran into Lung, but still.

I didn't know where to go or what to do, but then I heard a woman's scream and in a heart beat I was running in that direction. I found myself at the ends of an alley and five Asian men in red and green outfits were holding a young woman between them and beating the hell out of her.

"Maybe we should take her back to be a whore," I heard one say, "a girl like her could make us good money?"

I could feel rage burning and boiling up inside me, this wasn't right... Fuck, I was strong, I could stop this, so I shouted: "put her down!"

The gangsters turned to face me, and the one who spoke just laughed. "Come on," he said, "aren't you too young to be dressing like a whore, girl? You wanna take her place or something? I don't think many of our customers would like a scrawny shit like you."

Another one tapped the first guy on the shoulder, "hey, cut it out. Look at the girl's face-she's gotta be a cape."

"Yeah," the first guy said again, "but look at her, she's a bundle of twigs. She can't be that tough"

The second thug was going to respond again, but I cut him off. "I said, put her down." I raised my hands in front of me and curled them into fists. This made the first man laugh again.

"Look at her, she doesn't even know how to fight!"

I snapped, "last chance!"

The five thugs were all laughing, and one who hadn't spoken pulled a gun. "No, last chance for you," he said. "You just turn around and forget what you saw, and you don't get shot."

I glared at the man, but inside I was kicking myself for rushing into something like this. I just got my super strength tonight, and I immediately rush out... God damn it... I had super strength, maybe I had super toughness? But mom died in a car accident, if toughness like that was part of the package, then she wouldn't have died... I saw the woman between the thugs, she was looking at me through blackend eyes, pleading. I even saw her mouthing "help me."

So I charged. It was stupid, but I didn't think I'd be able to live with myself if I didn't save this woman. The man with the gun shot me and I felt a painful impact. I stumbled, but kept moving forward until I was close enough to swing at the bastard.

My fist had connected with the man's shoulders, and the thug dropped his gun and fell to the ground, painfully moaning about his arm. The thug's friends took one look at what I'd done, let go of the girl, and turned to run, but I wasn't about to let them get away. I reached out and grabbed the first one I'd heard talking. I don't know why, but I got a sudden urge to hoist him up over my head, an urge I followed. Then I threw the son of a bitch into the man who'd tried to talk sense into him, knocking them both to the ground.

The last two thugs had turned a corner at the end of the ally and disappeared. I turned back to the woman who was pushing herself up off the ground. She turned back to me.

"Thank you," she said in a hoarse voice.

"Eh, I couldn't just let them... Look, it was nothing okay." Ugh, that old cliche, but I couldn't think of anything else to say. "Are you okay? Do you need to go to the hospital?"

She shook her head no, "I just need to get home-oh!"

I caught her as she collapsed. "Look, Miss, I think you need to get to the hospital."

"No, no, I just-"

She was interrupted by a new voice,"What's going on here?"

Still holding the woman up, I turned to the opening of the alley to see a blonde girl about my age but more filled out, in a white dress and a gold tiara, flying a foot off the ground. I recognized her.

"Glory Girl?" Glory Girl was a member of New Wave, a group of super heroes that had taken off their masks to make some political statement, something to do with accountability.

"Yeah, that's right. Now put the woman down."

Glory Girl curled her hands into fists and I was suddenly reminded that a girl with demon eyes, wearing all black, and holding up an injured woman probably didn't look that good.

"Look," I said to her, "this isn't what it looks like. You see these Asian thugs on the ground?" I gestured to the man with the broken shoulder and the two who had yet to get up from the ground. "They're the ones who hurt her."

"Yeah," the woman I was holding wheezed out, "she saved me."

"Oh," the superhero said, "sorry." She landed and came closer.

"She's hurt," I said to the Hero, "but she doesn't want to go to the hospital. Can you do anything?"

"Give me a second," the hero said before pulling out a cellphone and stepping further into the ally. I couldn't make out the full conversation she had on the other end, but I did overhear her saying "it wasn't me this time." After a few minutes, she came back. "Can you stay with her for a few minutes? I'm going to go get my sister."

I nodded and she flew off. Glory Girl's sister was Panacea, a healer with near miraculous abilities. My arm was starting to fall asleep and my belly hurt from where I got shot. "Miss, I'm gonna set you down now, if that's okay?"

She nodded, and after getting our backs up against a wall I kind of sat down to set her down. I stood up once she was steady and decided to check my gunshot wound. The good news was that I wasn't bleeding, but it was tender. I'd have one hell of a bruise in the morning. I counted myself lucky that I didn't take worse damage getting shot.

It was then that I noticed movement. One of the thugs, the one who'd underestimated me, was moving. He was trying to crawl away, so I stepped over him. I stepped hard, clicking the heel of my boot next to his head.

"Where do you think you're going, you son of a bitch?"

The man startled, doing some kind of half jump and flipping onto his back before trying to scoot away from me. He was practically screaming in Japanese "Watashi kara hanarete taizai, anata akuma!"

"In English please?" I have to admit, that last word stirred something in my heart.

The man, panicking, said, "stay away from me!"

"Yeah, no," I replied, "somebody has to make sure you pay for what you did, so stay put. Go it?" The man stopped moving. "Oh, and would you mind telling me what 'Akuma' means?"

"D-devil," he exclaimed, "it means devil!"

I smiled. I think I've found my cape name.