Three days later
Wednesday
Lake View High School
"Josh!"
It was Kyle.
"Hi, Kyle! What's up?"
"You're British, right?"
"Yes," I said slowly.
"And you have a British accent."
"Yes... Where you going with this?" I asked, confused.
"There are rumours that there's a team of new vigilantes out there and they have British accents..."
I now knew where this was going!
"... Are you one of them Josh?"
"I promise you that I am not one of those new vigilantes!" I replied.; actually proud of myself, as I didn't lie!
Kyle didn't look convinced.
"Chloe could be the other one!" Kyle exclaimed, suddenly.
"As if! Chloe's scared of the dark; she could never be a vigilante!" I retorted.
"Oh, okay!" Kyle said and walked off.
Later that day
Lake View High School
"Joshua!"
It was Chloe.
"Hi, Chloe! What's up?" I tried and smiled at her; she looked mad.
"You're stupid, right?"
"Depends!"
"Why did you tell Kyle that I'm scared of the dark?" Chloe demanded.
"All I could think of at the time! He thought that I was one of the new British vigilantes and you might be my partner!" I explained.
"Oh! That could have gone worse, I suppose!" Chloe admitted.
"Yeah!" I agreed.
"Good thinking!" Chloe said, kissed me on the cheek and then ran off.
That evening
Western Chicago
The man crept down the alley and waited at the entrance to the street.
He didn't need to wait long. The woman walked down the street, completely oblivious to the trouble awaiting her. As she got level with the entrance to the alley, the man raised his right arm; the hand held a pistol. The woman saw it and screamed, but stopped suddenly, as something streaked past her and hit the attacker, square in the chest.
The attacker started to convulse as nineteen pulses per second coursed through his body. Then the man fell to the sidewalk and convulsed once or twice more, before lying still.
"You okay!" A voice growled.
The woman turned to see the famed vigilante, Hit Girl!
"Yeah, he never got the chance to do anything!" The woman replied and gazed down at the man, on the sidewalk. There was an arrow, lying beside the man, but the point was not a point, it was a pair of electrodes, which had pierced the man's clothes and impaled themselves into the man's skin.
"You're safe now!" Hit Girl growled.
"Thanks!" The woman said as she walked off, down the street.
Hit Girl crouched down to remove the arrow and check the man's pulse. He was already starting to come around.
"Nice shot!" I commended her.
"I thought it was good, too!"
"The ever modest Hit Girl!" I said dryly.
"Well looky what we have here! Halloween aint for weeks, kiddies!"
We turned to find a group of a dozen young men, some of whom were obviously under the influence of alcohol.
"What happens next is your choice!" Kick-Ass snarled. "I suggest you leave!"
"We don't like vigilantes in our town; we suggest that you leave!" The 'leader' suggested strongly.
I really didn't want to hurt any of these youngsters.
"Kick-Ass, batons only!" I cautioned.
"Way ahead of you!" Kick-Ass replied and I saw him with his batons ready.
"You go first!" I suggested.
"Brawn before beauty!"
"Time and a place, ass!" I laughed.
I drew my swords and advanced a dozen feet behind Kick-Ass. The 'leader' started to look worried; he pulled out a pistol, an old Browning Hi-Power.
"That all you got!" Kick-Ass snarled, as he continued forwards.
The leader snapped off three rounds, which Kick-Ass ignored.
"Fuck this!" Several guys shouted and turned to run.
Kick-Ass stared down the 'leader' and as he got closer, Kick-Ass simply stowed his batons and then reached out and plucked the pistol from the 'leader's' hand.
"I'll take that!" Kick-Ass announced, expertly ejecting the magazine and dumping the chambered round into his hand, with the magazine.
The 'leader' and his remaining team vanished.
Four miles away
"Goddammit!"
"Will you two stop trying to give us both heart attacks!" Sergeant Sam Fellowes complained.
"Those doughnuts'll get you first!" I growled.
"So... What do you jokers want?" Sergeant Paul Murphy asked.
"Present for you!" Kick-Ass announced and passed over a plastic bag.
"Okay! Not doughnuts! Browning?" Murphy asked.
"Took it off some idiot who said he didn't like vigilantes!" Kick-Ass explained.
"You don't want it?" Murphy asked Hit Girl.
"I have several already, thanks!" I growled in reply.
"I'll bet!" Fellowes allowed.
"Oh yeah, almost forgot! You'll find a mugger, four miles back, he's waiting to be picked up! Enjoy your doughnuts!" I called, as we walked off, back towards our motorcycles.
A few miles further north
We hid our motorcycles in an alley and continued our patrol on foot.
Kick-Ass took the lead and climbed a fire-escape onto the flat roof of an apartment block. We were able to walk along the flat roofs of the next few blocks and had a good view of several alley ways and streets. it was getting late and approaching the time for shops to close and their owners to bank the days takings.
We sat down and spent a few minutes chatting, which we rarely got to do when we went out together. Using the comms we could still patrol the length of the roof top, without breaking our conversation.
Around eleven, things started to kick off. We could hear shouting and generally rowdy behaviour, which was expected from young adults leaving the bars having had one or more too many! Kick-Ass identified a group of men, keeping to the shadows, who looked to be waiting to ambush an unsuspecting shop owner. Strategic street lighting had been smashed.
"Hit Girl, I think they need some more light down there!" Kick-Ass suggested.
"I can do that!" I replied and notched an arrow. "Let there be light!"
I released the arrow and watched as it streaked downwards, before it hit the sidewalk and sputtered to life; the flare illuminated the area in brilliant, incandescent light. The group of men ran, like cockroaches seeking darkness. We watched as a couple of late night stores closed and their owner's headed for the nearest bank, protected by the glare of the flare.
"That worked well!" Kick-Ass commented. "You make a good little Archer Girl!"
"Little!" I responded, with mock anger.
"You know what I mean, purple menace!" Kick-Ass replied, laughing.
We stayed on the roof and watched till after midnight, ensuring there was a peaceful night. I retrieved my arrow, once the flare had burnt out. All in all, I was very happy with the compound bow and the arrows. Chloe was an excellent teacher and had helped me master this complex weapon. Even Kim and Josh, were doing well. We now kept two compound bows and a large selection of arrows, in Lucille, just in case! I also added similar items to the other safehouses.
One thing that I did need to work on was my upper body muscles. The compound bow relied on muscles that were not usually used in this way, so I just added some new moves to my daily training rituals.