Not All Heroes Wear Capes (The Pack Fanfiction)

Chapter Nine: Phantom

He and Mitch had argued about the topic of whether or not to tell the rest of the Pack of their powers countless times before, and it always had the same outcome. Jerome thought they should tell them because he honestly didn't think they would care, and Mitch firmly believed that they would freak the fuck out. And because Jerome couldn't really give away his identity to his friends without them putting two and two together (because believe it or not, they aren't idiots) and realize that Mitch was his crime fighting partner... Jerome was kind of stuck doing whatever Mitch was comfortable with.

But... something has been bugging Jerome for the past few weeks, only more stressed by a certain... interesting news article he happened to see while scrolling in Twitter the day before (sometimes he was grateful for Preston's weird new superhero addiction leaking onto his home page). And, well, now seemed like a good time to bring it up.

"You've heard about the new vigilante that's popped up Canada, right?" Jerome asked, and upon seeing the confused look on Mitch's face, he continued, pulling his phone out of his pocket. "Yeah, they don't have too much on him, but there's some pictures floating around, mostly of the work he leaves behind, but there's only a few of the actual dude himself... and none of them are too good."

"Any idea on what powers he might have? It might not even be another super...human..."

Mitch's words trailed off as Jerome flipped his phone over to show him a picture of what appeared to be some sort of crime scene, with two people, the criminals, probably, unconscious and bound to a lamp post with thick, thorn-ridden vines. Blue flower petals littered the concrete around them.

"He's got...?!" Mitch's voice trailing off, a surprised look on his face.

"Yup." Jerome said, popping the 'p'. "Dude's got control over plants."

"That's... terrifying. Though, it's not too surprising, seeing as we got that crazy guy in Texas with the fire powers."

Jerome shrugged. "Yeah, but, it kind of gave me an idea..."

"Here we go again-"

"Hear me out!" Jerome laughed, putting his hands up in self-defense. "All of these people are looking for these other superheroes and finding them because they know where they are. They know the fire-freak is in Texas, so they look in Texas. They know flower-guy is in Canada, so they're looking in Canada. They know that we're here, so they look here. But if Iron Ram and Wild Time were to suddenly appear in Canada too..."

"...then we'd totally throw them off." Mitch was nodding as he was talking, pondering the idea.

"The only evidence they have of our existence is the one that the girl we rescued a while ago posted." Jerome continued, looking impressed with himself. "And we can use our trip up to Rob's place as the perfect excuse for a sudden experience. It'll get the press off our backs... and maybe the cops too."

Jerome noticed Mitch wince with the mention of the police. There have been some close calls with the police in recent memory. As it turns out, the police weren't exactly happy about the possibility of so called 'vigilantes' doing their jobs for them. There was basically a manhunt out for them, and they didn't want to even consider what might happen to them if they got caught. Luckily, Mitch's super-hearing could pick up the sirens of the police cars in enough time for them to get away, so the police haven't even gotten a single glimpse of them yet.

It was funny in a weird way, watching the police scramble around looking for two people who they weren't even sure really existed.

"Still, it's risky." Mitch said with a frown. "What if we get caught by one of the others? We'll have to go out more than just one night to get attention down there." He shifted a look to Jerome, who was looking at him with a hopeful look on his face.