TO BE A SUPERHERO
"I am going to be a superhero." I said the words out loud to myself softly, as I climbed up the roof.
"I am going to be a superhero." The words were important. An affirmation. In their own way, they were a power. Just saying them made me feel more confident, convinced me of the truth of an idea I knew couldn't possibly work.
"I am going to be a superhero." This was it. I recognized the parahuman below me. Lung. leader of the Azn Bad Boys. I'd read up on him. On all the parahumans in Brockton bay. I had to. Information was my only real weapon. Lung was one of the only Parahumans to go one on one with an Endbringer and survive.
For a second I had doubts. this was Lunacy. He might be a gang leader, but he had taken on an endbringer! there was no way I could win.
Below me Lung was snarling, "…the children, just shoot. Doesn't matter your aim, just shoot. You see one lying on the ground? Shoot the little bitch twice more to be sure. We give them no chances to be clever or lucky, understand?"
"I am going to be a Superhero." I dropped down from the roof. It was two stories, but I had practiced my landings in the weeks after the locker incident. I landed without incident, bending my knees and bracing myself with one hand. I was going to be a superhero. I was never going to be weak again. No matter what I had to do to get there.
"I won't let you kill children." I said as I stood from the crouch black cape flaring behind me.
"Who the fuck are you?" Lung asked, annoyed.
I froze, That was a good question, I really should have thought of a name before doing this. "I am going to be a Superhero." I muttered a bit nervously.
"Superhero?" Lung laughed at me. "Shoot her."
I dove to the ground as soon as I hear him say it. I had seen a bullet proof vest in an army surplus store, but I didn't have enough money to get it and my other supplies, and the wetsuit I was wearing certainly wasn't bullet proof. I rolled behind a dumpster, and pulled a canister out of one of the pouches I had crudely sewn onto the wetsuit. I pushed the Button on the top and threw it over the dumpster and into the mass of enemies in front of me. I couldn't hear the hissing over the sound of gunfire, but I hoped with my entire being it was working. Just to make sure, I pulled its twin out of another pouch and repeated the process.
It took a few seconds but I started to hear coughing from the other side of the dumpster, and there was a growing white fog in front of me. "I am going to be a superhero." I muttered to myself as I strapped on the gas mask I made from a cut up plastic soda bottle and a surgical mask. The shots had mostly stopped by now, replaced by coughing. Steeling myself I darted out of cover, pulling my police baton out from behind me.
Lung was coughing now, as were the rest of the gang. The bug bombs I had used were making it hard to see, but that was more their problem than mine, afterall, I didn't have to worry about hurting allies, i could just hit anything that moved and be reasonably sure I was hitting a gang member. A future child killer, if they followed Lung's orders.
I moved through the poisonous mist like a ghost, hitting anything I saw that moved hard enough to take them down, at least temporarily. I suppressed a laugh, feeling the adrenaline spike as my body burned from the effort. I was a superhero! I was protecting Kids! I did it! I had to restrain myself from laughing.
Everything was going exactly as I planned! That was until I saw Lung.
Lung already had maybe a quarter of his body covered in armor. Triangular sections of metallic plating were piercing through his skin, where they would continue to grow and overlap until he was nigh impenetrable. If they weren't already, his fingertips and toes would become like blades or metal claws. He was coughing, he was incapacitated for now, but I was running out of time. I put away my baton. Blunt force wasn't going to dispatch lung. Maybe if I had gotten the drop on him and knocked him out in one hit, but it was too late to worry about what might have been. I pulled out my knife. He wasn't on fire like I had seen in the Kyuushu video yet, and he wasn't yet impenetrable. I could do this. Lung regenerated, I wouldn't have to worry about him dying all I needed to do was take him out long enough for the PRT to get him. Lung's Hands were Over his face, his eyes and mouth, shielding them from harm, but his neck was unprotected. There was no time to lose, darting forward I stabbed the knife into lung's neck as hard as I could and ripped it sideways until the knife was free.
There was a surprising amount of blood, I noted to myself as Lung collapsed into the mist, clutching his throat. I hoped he didn't bleed to death, though I was sure he wouldn't after all, he survived an end bringer right?
I stopped, watching. I had taken down Lung. The mists were starting to get to me. I needed to get out of here. Lung's gang wouldn't be killing any kids tonight, and my gas mask was a temporary measure at best.
I darted out of the area, running on foot as fast as i could until I got to the alleyway where I had hidden my clothes. My first successful crime stopped! And no one the wiser. For the first time since that horrible night three months ago I felt alive again. I may not have superpowers, but I was a Superhero.