Freckles

Night at the Museum

Heroes can't always be there, sometimes you have to save yourself. 

***

Well, this night could have gone better.

Dangling upside down fifty feet in the air while a group of supervillains crackled below was not the way Hazel imagined spending her Saturday evening. She cursed herself for succumbing to her supervisor Jane's sweet plea for company while she worked overtime at the museum.

Hazel could already hear her mum's warning words, telling her that working in a museum in a city ridden with supervillains was stupid. You're just asking for trouble, her mum had insisted. At this point, Hazel was slightly inclined to agree, but then again, she was currently in a life or death situation.

The reality was regardless of whether or not she worked in a museum, bank, hospital, charity shop, cafe or worked from home, sooner or later she was going to have a run-in with a supervillain or criminal. Crime was rampant in the City of Glenfallen, and the odds were four in five that sooner or later, you'd have your brush with the villainous supers.

Thankfully, the town was also blessed with superheroes who always came to save the day. Well... most of the time. Heroes couldn't be everywhere all the time, nor could they know what the villains were up to unless someone alerted them. Hazel prayed that one of the security guards had been able to trigger the silent alarm before them and the rest of the night staff had been rounded up.

Below Hazel in the main museum exhibit hall, a room dedicated to pre-historic relics, her colleagues where being manipulated by an invisible force. Hazel knew it to be the doing of the pretty women leaning casually against one of the stone pillars. Whenever the women's hand moved, her colleague's feet lifted from the floor before their bodies were sent propelling to wherever the women chose.

That has to be Kinetic, Hazel thought, she's much taller than she looks on tv.

Kinetic was a well-known supervillain with the ability of telekinesis. Unlike many other villains who had a flair for dramatics, she didn't go overboard with the spandex, leather and outlandish colour schemes. She was dressed simply, donning plain jeans, a white top and a smart looking black blaser. Her black hair was short, cut in a stylish pixie cut. Upon her face was a white mask, covering part of her upper face.

Kinetic seemed to be enjoying flaunting her power, a small smile on her face as she hummed away like it was as easy as breathing. By the time she was done, Hazel's workmates were standing in a tight circle in the centre of the room, right below her, their hands all tied with rope.

Hazel had already been subjected to the women's power and knew how loathsome it felt to be in its grip, it was the reason she was in her current upside down predicament, with her glasses constantly slipping down her nose. The only thing keeping her suspended was a rope coiled around her ankle that was attached to one of the ceilings support beams. Why she was being picked on to this degree, she wasn't sure, but she had a faint feeling it had to do with the man sitting atop one of the glass displays, looking utterly gleeful at her and her workmate's expense.

Wolf.

When he and his band of villains had stormed into the museum, he'd taken one look at Hazel's red coat and grinned wickedly before announcing 'oh look, it's little red riding hood.' One snap of his fingers and Kinetic had sent a bewildered Hazel soaring into the air and left her hanging there, much to the amusement of the three villains present.

Wolf was another notorious supervillain, well known for his ability to shape-shift into a ghost-like wolf and his striking costume. He was dressed in dark grey leathers, his trousers and jacket utterly torn apart at the sleeves, torso and legs, revealing red underneath. It made him look like he had been ripped apart by a wolf and had been left shredded and bloodied. His hood was pulled over his head, two pieces of fabric like scruffy wolf ears attached to it. He wore a black mask that hid his upper face, his black and red bangs falling around the edges. Painted on his left cheek were four red gashes, as though something with claws had struck one side of his face.