Tall buildings, busy streets, grouchy pedestrians: that is Nightshade City, the crime capitol of the world. Helicopter patrols, police sirens, and evil: what used to be a commonplace routine. Spandex, inhuman powers, heroism: what is currently a commonplace routine.
Nightshade City is a crazy, hectic mess of a city; it always has been, and probably always will be. But it is a place where the unthinkable is thinkable, and the impossible is possible.
For those who are curious, my name is Charlotte Moon. I am a seventeen year old girl living a not so ordinary life in a not so ordinary city. But thats only a part of it, and Charlotte Moon is only half of who I am. By night, or whenever there's danger nearby, I go by Scarlett.
No, I am not in a cheesy night-time theatre production, or in one of those role-playing clubs where you dress up and go play in the park.
That is my hero name, and I am a Superhero.
Any normal city would leave their crime fighting to the police, but Nightshade City is different. In the 1950's, a radioactive spill happened on the coastline, causing about ten percent of the population to have some sort of ramifications. Some died, some developed unknown illnesses, while some gained inhuman abilities.
The part that really baffled scientists, however, was that children were being born with abilities or developing them in their adolescent years, decades after the Great Change occurred.
It goes without saying that a vast majority chose to either hide their abilities, or put them to good use, but there are also many who chose to use their powers for evil. The police were unequipped to deal with it, so that is where we, the heroes, come in.
Let me tell you, the city is full of villains who, when given the chance, would try to take over Nightshade without batting an eyelash.
This means that, sometimes rather than doing homework to keep up with my secret identity known as Charlotte Moon, Scarlett has to go fight crime with other heroes who want to see the world become a better place, or who don't want to see their homes burnt to the ground by evil, cackling, gut wrenchingly vile, shiver inducing bafoons.
I know this may be shocking, but fighting crime and saving the city is not what I typically want to be doing on my Friday night.
But alas, the criminals never stop, which means I can never stop. Especially when I have a bunch of people looking up to me and expecting me to be the hero all the time.
And let me tell you...
...that's a lot of pressure.
~~~~~~~~~
"Charlotte!" a voice yells, rather loudly, startling me out of the deep sleep I was happily enjoying. But it's only at the realization there are muffled, angry footsteps approaching my door that I realize I am in imminent danger, causing my eyelids shoot open in fear.
The psychopath is on the warpath to my room, and I know I'm about to get an earful. I roll over in my bed and check the time, then bite my tongue to refrain from unleashing the sequence of curse words that fight to escape my mouth.
Instead, I let out a loud groan, scrunching my face up in annoyance and shutting my eyes again. It's always the moment where you know you should probably get up that you feel the most tired.
"What?" I mumble as I brush my messy hair out of my face and remove the drool from my cheek with a lazy swipe of my hand.
The stomping moves closer, the door swings open and hits the wall, and the footsteps move further into my room, stopping momentarily to most likely look over my half-dead body in disappointment.
As the footsteps continue through the room, hesitating to step over the dirty laundry strewn around, I fear for what I might see when I open my eyes; Is it a red eyed demon perhaps, or just a very angry mother who despises when her daughter sleeps in?
At this stage in my life, I can't tell which one is worse.
"It is one o'clock in the afternoon. It's time to wake up!" my mother informs me, quite aggressively, as she opens up the curtain to my window, flooding my room with light.
As the sun makes a direct beeline for me, hitting my face and breaking the seal on my eyelids, I wince in shock and hiss, falling off the edge of my bed, and crashing down to the hardwood floor with a loud thud.
Sorry downstairs neighbours.
"But mo-om!" I whine like a child not getting their way, even though that is what's happening.
I glance up at the angry woman in front of me, her hands on her hips and a frown on her face. And there she is in all her fuming glory; my naive mother.
She doesn't know anything about my Superhero antics, which is probably for the better. However, it makes my life so much more difficult in situations like these, where I deserve to have a good sleep-in, but she just thinks I'm being lazy.
To be Frank, or Joe or whoever you fancy, it makes me want to shout my secret identity from the rooftops for all to hear.
Just a big fat, "I'M SCARLETT, HA-HA, TAKE THAT WORLD!"
Obviously I'm not going to do that because it would be dangerous for everyone I know, including but not limited to, my parents, my friends, my ex-friends, my extended family, and even the man on the bus who tried flirting with me when I was thirteen years old, although he would probably deserve it.
My father, on the other hand, knows everything, after having caught me flying around my room one day, which forced me to explain everything to him.
It was an awkward moment when he realized that he was literally trash talking his daughter the whole time.
The only bonus of him knowing everything is that he owns a Martial Arts studio, so whenever I come home from being "Super", with bruises and cuts on my body, I blame it on the Martial Arts to cover it all up.
My dad plays along, not wanting to blow my cover to my mother, because if she found out, she would probably have a heart attack and never leave my side again for the rest of my life.
That would be an awkward honeymoon.
"Quit your whining, Char," she grimaces as she exits my room, leaving me in an awkward position on the floor.
I watch her feet from my upside down position as she stomps out of the room, leaving the door wide open as parents usually do when they enter your room.
Once she is gone and not able to see me, I super speed into a standing position and shut the curtains angrily, glaring at nothing in particular.
"If only she knew what I was up to last night to make me so exhausted," I grumble under my breath to myself.
Last night I didn't get home until seven in the morning after having to deal with some Villainous shenanigans. I got a late night call (and by "late night" I mean a two in the morning call) from another Super on my "business" (Superhero hotline) phone.
A fellow Super, who goes by Zeus, called and told me that there was trouble downtown and I needed to get down there as fast as possible.
When I had gotten down there, a bunch of cars were set on fire by a popular newer Villain with laser vision who decided to intimidate the civilians. He goes by Rancor (after googling what the heck that means, I discovered it apparently means bitter and angry), and he has been quite active recently.
And by popular, I mean he's received a lot of public recognition on social media, some people calling him a "hot new Villain", which I don't necessarily disagree with because his body is extremely toned in that spandex suit of his. While others call him a "nuisance who needs to be locked up", which I also don't disagree with because he is legitimately ruining my life.
He has taken a liking to tormenting me, and he does so by flying around me in circles, shooting me with his lasers. Although it does no damage to me since my powers include fire and extreme heat, the components making up the laser are different, therefore allowing it to hurt like hell.
But that just makes it all the more annoying.
Rancor, then, decided that he needed to boost his Villainous image by exploding a few things, causing a riot to breakout. The streets in all directions were blocked by flaming cars so the civilians couldn't escape. They were huddling together, about fifty of them, in the middle of the intersection surrounded by a ten foot tall wall of flaming cars that could've explode at any second.
Rush, who is another Super I am good friends with, Zeus, and myself had to help the civilians escape before the cars exploded. All this while Rancor sat on top of a nearby building, watching the scene unfold and laughing at the chaos taking place.
After we finally got the civilians to safety, Zeus, Rush and I chased Rancor around town for a long time, trying to apprehend him, and unsurprisingly, we failed. He's a tough man to catch and seemingly vanished into thin air.
Five hours after this whole thing initially started, I'm flying through my bedroom window and going back to bed after talking to the cops and press for a good hour or so.
This sleep pattern has been going on for the past week now because of this idiot, and last night I was completely exhausted. I'd say I deserved a good sleep in, don't you think? At least it was the weekend and not a school day.
Grudgingly, I comb through my closet, picking out an outfit so I can get ready for get the day. After deliberating if I should rotate to a new pair of sweatpants or if I should actually make an effort, I throw on black leggings, a red ruffled tank top with a black jacket, topped off with my wonderful combat boots.
When I emerge from my room, my parents smile at me, seeing that I decided to join the land of the living, and I look at them grumpily before turning on the news; I want to show my father the reason why I was sleeping in so late so he can feel bad for allowing my mom to wake me up.
The TV automatically is on the Nightshade City News and shows the hectic night I had to deal with. I pretend to be totally surprised at what happened and shake my head with a frown and furrowed brow. "Oh dear, would you look at that? That's terrible!" I say whilst staring straight at my dad with a deadpan expression.
He watches the screen and finally pipes up after a good while of sitting in bewilderment. "Rancor is getting out of hand," he finally says, looking at me. I give him a smug look, knowing he does, in fact, feel bad for my mom disturbing me.
"Yes, those stupid heroes need to get their act together. Three heroes against one villain and none of them could catch him? That's ridiculous," my mom exclaims, oblivious to the fact that one of those "stupid heroes" is standing right in front of her.
But, having to play along for years now has turned me into a wonderful actress. So, rather than getting angry and showing it, I get angry internally but agree with her to her face. "Yeah, they really need to pick up the slack. If they don't, Rancor is going to win," I reply, folding my arms across my chest. My eyes are glued to the screen as my interview with the reporter shows up.
"Scarlett, how do you feel about Rancor getting away?" the bubbly female reporter, Natasha Hamilton, asks Scarlett, shoving the microphone in my face.
Gosh, I hate that woman.
"We will get him next time Natasha. Hope isn't lost for Nightshade," Scarlett says to the camera and I roll my eyes at my cliché response. It's such a cringe fest whenever I have to say something heroic.
Its always so cliché and dumb.
The footage shows a bunch of fans and rescued civilians running up to the trio of Superheroes and asking for pictures and autographs. Then the TV cuts to the news anchors at the station and they continue on with another story: a mysterious disappearance of ten men working at a warehouse near the docks on the other side of town.
The TV turns black as I press the power button and my parents go about their business, leaving to the kitchen to clean up from their breakfast.
Once they're gone, I pull my phone out to check the time and decide to go out to get something to eat. "I'm going out for breakfast!" I call from the front door of our apartment as I jingle my keys in my hand.
It takes a moment for them to respond, and I hear giggling coming from the kitchen, before I see mom poke her head out from behind the wall and smile at me. "Okay hon, be safe!" she calls back, then disappears again behind the wall.
I open the front door and can't help the smirk spreading over my face.
Be safe?
If only she knew who I was.