Heeeeeeeeey! Sorry about posting two days late, but I had a leadership conference all week, so I was absolutely brain dead Friday, and I didn't remember until today. But, um, here we are!
Salem
March 11, 2016
My eyes widen as I gaze upon the motorcycle.
"Wow I can't believe you guys kept it!" Sparrow says as she walked up to it. It's a purple and silver motorcycle that looks like most of the others in the garage. There's a few dents and scratches, even a bullet hole on one part, but overall it looks like it'll run just fine. I jump on, giggling a bit in excitement. Allison changes her boots to skate mode and rolls around for practice. Sparrow pats me on the back before gently pulling a helmet over my head.
"Since I don't exactly trust you to operate a vehicle I'm putting this on auto pilot." I pout as she hits a few buttons and backs away. The engine roars to life as the garage door opens. I quickly hunch over as the cycle speeds forward.
"Ah, wait for me!" Allie calls after me.
"It's on auto pilot!" I yell back, barely missing a bug to the mouth. She creates portals and skates through them. Every time she emerges she gets faster and faster. The distance between the portals grows smaller until she catches up to me.
"Wh-ere a-re we g-oin-g?" Her voice is choppy as she asks the question. I pull up the map on the screen, purple lines highlighted our path.
"The city of Druley. This should be fun." I grin through my helmet. "Jump on the motorcycle I'm going to use Sparrow's teleportation to get us there faster." She turns away from me and mutters something but I couldn't hear it. She teleports on behind me and holds tight as I tap into our aunt's power. I keep thinking about being there. My vision blurs and the surroundings fade into lines before disappearing completely. When my vision clears everything is different. I hit the brakes and look around.
"So this is Druley," Allie comments, glancing around. The buildings' paint and plaster is chipped or peeling. Rails are bent. The colors in the walls are all bland and faded except for the graffiti that's on practically every building. The alleys have garbage everywhere. Dogs can be heard barking loudly, and judging by the sound they aren't very small, too. I start up the cycle again as I catch a glimpse of a car who's wheels had been stolen and is now sitting on cinder blocks.
"I know Jaime said that there was a robbery at a store, but sheesh. This town looks like a robbery would be the very least of their worries." Allie's eyes look a bit sad. A loud ringing sound snaps our heads to the east.
"Let's go," I say as she hops down and adjusts her goggles. We race towards the crime scene and just as our friend had said, the grocery store is being robbed. Two men stand with their backs to us pointing guns at people lying on the floor. I gun the throttle of the motorcycle before jumping off and letting it sail through the air and crash through the window into the first man. I take off my helmet and throw it after the bike. It hits the man in the face right as shakily stands up. People scream as glass rains down on them and the man falls back into the wall. The second guy raises his gun to me but is stopped when a sickle swings through the air and cuts the back of his hand. The man yelps and drops the gun. Allie swings again, cutting at the man's chest and again at his arm. She rushes forward and jumps up, kicking off his chest and launching him backwards into a shelf. The metal creaks as it begins to fall, some people who are still on the floor scream.
I squeak and quickly teleport in front of the shelf, the tattoo disappearing. I switch to Superboy's strength and push the shelf back in place. The people's screaming turn into sighs of relief.
"Try not to make collateral damage, Gray!" I hear a shot and feel something zip past my ear. The man who I had hit with my bike is leaning over a table. His leg is bleeding and bent in a nasty way, my guess was it was broken. His face doesn't look much better either. He's shakily pointing his gun at me.
"You costumed freaks think you can stop us?" The man has short blond hair poking out from the knitted cap over his head. He has a beard that makes me think of lumberjacks…and pancakes. Gray stops punching the second man, who's bald with a tattoo on his neck. His looks constantly surprised, because he has no eyebrows. She drops him on the floor.
"Who do you think you are? Superman?" I look down at my clothes.
"Hmmm. No 's' shield here, so I guess not. Why? Do you think we're Superman?" I ask sarcastically.
"Because if you do, we'll have to get you to an eye doctor." Gray smirks. The lumberjack guy's nostrils flare. I switch to Impulse's speed and dash forward, grabbing his gun and then the second guy's gun, which is still on the ground, careful to avoid tripping on people.
"Yoohoo," I taunt, waving the guns. I disarm them, like I had seen in videos and read in books. This makes the man even more frustrated, his face reddening.
"That's it! I didn't think I'd have to use this. Thermos, get your sorry butt off the floor." Slowly, No Eyebrows stumbles off the floor. Half of his face is swollen and bruised. Gray takes a step towards him, making him flinch.
"Over here, wuss." Thermos slinks over to Lumberjack.
"Now, behold our power! Thermos!" The beaten man lifts his arms, straining a bit with his left. Grey stands at alert with her sickles out. I extend my fingers, my tattoos swirling around. He slowly brings his hands down, swaying them from left to right. The air gets a little colder. I blink.
"Are these guys serious?" Gray whispers. I shrug.
"Um, aren't thermoses supposed to keep things warm, not make things cold?" I ask, tilting my head slightly for emphasis.
"I told you that name was stupid," Thermos mutters.
"Shut up!" Lumberjack snaps. "Fine then, since you two still seem so unfazed, we'll see how you deal with Smudge's sludge." He flicks his wrist at me and a stream of brown stuff that I'm not sure is a solid or a liquid flies at me. I easily sidestep it. Unfortunately, thee man directly behind me isn't so lucky. The sludge lands right next to him, a little splashing on his face. The smell is terrible, I can only hope that it's mud and not... a different substance. The vomit the man coughs up doesn't help either. I step out of the aisle, feeling a bit sick. Smudge continues to shoot his sludge out at us.
Gray teleports in front of Thermos, who screams before she punches him. I use Miss M's flight to zip up to Smudge. I flip and nail him in the face with my boot. He falls back, and screams in pain as he lands on his bad leg.
"I'm not sure if anyone has ever told you this, but your powers are pretty lame." I give him a pitying look. "This is real power. Naga!" I call. A giant black snake shoots out of the shadows. It hisses at Smudge, who's screaming in both fear and pain as he tries to scoot away. Naga's head sways. I make a shooing gesture and the snake disappears. I extend my hands to the trembling man and my tattoos flutter off my arms and around his wrists. The binds tighten and pull him forward. I take out handcuffs from a clip on my belt and snap them around his wrists.
"But, even though you're power is practically useless, it may come in handy later." I place a hand against his neck. I think of vampires, mosquitoes and ticks. How they suck what they want out of people's necks. A warm sensation flows up my arm and Smudge yells in protest. A new tattoo that's smaller compared to most of my others appears on my arm. It looks like someone tried to make a flower with ink, but messed up and tried to rub it out, only to create a smudge.
"I got mine," I call to Allie, dragging Smudge from out behind the counter.
"Me too," Allie replies. Her guy is unconscious. I give her a look, but she rolls her eyes. She turns to the woman who is the first to get off the floor.
"I need you to call the police. And an ambulance. That man has a broken leg so he won't be able to run, and this one is unconscious. If anything goes wrong, remember they are both tied up, and a good solid kick to the gut should settle them down." The woman nods, eyes wide. A man helps me pick up my motorcycle.
"Thank you," he whispers. I smile.
"No prob." Gray taps her feet on the ground before teleporting outside. I follow with the motorcycle, which isn't really in any different condition than before. As we leave I hear people cheer for us and laugh.
"Oh, I almost forgot, I used up long distance teleportation, so you'll have to get back on foot." Gray looks at me, irritated. She grumbles something before teleporting ahead of me.
"Hey! Wait up!" I call before speeding after her.