"I'm here to fight for truth, and justice, and the American way."
~ Clark Kent (Superman)
"So, now that we have that fixed, let's learn a bit more about ourselves." I suggested, not really wanting to leave. Delinquent intrigued me, and I wasn't about to let her slip through my fingers just yet.
She gave me another blank stare. "Why would I do that? I already know more than I want to about you, Lightbulb. You're a super with a White Knight complex, like your boss, Captain Impossible, which led you to help me – a known 'villain'. You're cocky and smug, which is resident in your posture and personality. You're also a super, which means that you're most likely an insufferable jackass as well."
"You're a super too, are you not?" I asked incredulously.
She scoffed, "It's not like I chose to be a super."
"What makes you think I did?"
"Well, I'm pretty sure we're in different situations, Lightbulb." – I ignored the snobby nickname for a second time in a row – "At least your powers didn't cause you to lose something you love."
My gaze darkened. "You don't know what I lost because of my powers, Delinquent." She knew nothing about what I lost because of these powers. Let's count them off, shall we? My father, a real social life, better grades, my safety, my sanity, I could go on forever.
"Yeah, is that true?" She sneered, "You don't seem to be too sad about it do you?"
I was in front of her in seconds. I was sure that my expression wasn't pretty, seeing as her eyes flashed in panic. "Don't you dare talk about my fa- the things I've lost, okay? Just because I'm a hero doesn't mean I haven't forgotten what was taken from me. I decided to use my powers for good instead of dwell on the past. I've saved so many lives in the past couple of years and what have you done with your newfound powers, huh? Oh, right. You graffiti a couple buildings and intercept a pharmaceuticals van. Yeah, you're just helping so many people with your powers. So many people."
"I am!" She screamed at me, causing me to back up a step. "So many families are suffering at the hands of Paramount Pharmaceuticals and their stupid pill settlements. And Senator Klaus's decision in the Croatian crisis is hurting innocent children. I'm trying to open peoples' eyes to this stuff. The people hurt by these things need to know that there's someone out there on their side."
I had to admit that she had a point about that.
I sighed and looked her in the eyes. "Why can't you at least do any of this without breaking the law? The only way you can really get people to listen is if you're one of the good guys, and presenting yourself out as a villain isn't going to get you anywhere with the people."
"How do you know that?" She questioned. "Just because you're Mister Super Sidekick doesn't mean that everyone loves you. Sometimes you have to bend the rules a little to make a difference."
I stayed silent. Without knowing it, she'd hit a major cord of mine. I knew that all the people weren't totally with me. In fact, there were certain groups of people who thought that the idea of Captain Impossible even needing a sidekick was preposterous. They absolutely hated me, and it didn't make me feel too good about myself.
"The rules are set in place for a reason." I countered.
She smiled slyly at me, taking a step closer. "Even the most seemingly perfect societies are flawed and corrupt. You just need to know where to look."
"No place is perfect."
"That's why I intend to open the minds of citizens to that fact. They need to know that they can't trust their system." Her tone told me that maybe she had been wronged by the system at one point. It made me wonder if it had something to do with the reason she became Delinquent.
All of a sudden, my watch beeped. It was an incoming message from Daniel. Delinquent's eyes got wide and fearful again, probably figuring that the watch beep meant something bad for her.
I pressed a button on my watch and Daniel's voice filled my ear. "Hey, kid, how's it going?"
"You know, this isn't really the best time, dude." I said, annoyed. I made sure to also turn away from Delinquent, so she knew I was talking to someone else in my earpiece, not her.
"Yeah, well, I just wanted to let you know that Mistress is in downtown, attempting to rob a bank. The police can probably take care of it, but if you have the free time, you should head over there. It's always good to make an appearance helping the local police at a crime scene."
I sighed. Mistress was a super villain, well, a sad excuse for one. Mistress was a bit delusional in the head. She could create red cloud images, but that was about the extent of her powers. She only ever escaped from us because of dumb luck. She was a class D villain at the most, definitely not a danger to the city. She was mostly just an annoyance, which was why I was so reluctant to go try and capture her.
"C'mon. I don't to have to capture her." I complained.
"Okay, but if the police don't capture her this time, I'm blaming you."
"Alright. I'll see you in the morning."
I sighed and pressed the button on my watch to end the call. I turned back around to face Delinquent, but I was met with a sudden throbbing pain in my forehead. I caught an image of Delinquent with a metal pipe over her head before my vision went dark.
*
*
*
When I opened my eyes again, I had a major headache. My vision was a bit blurry and there was something uncomfortable digging into my back. I twisted my arms, only to find that they were zip-tied to a pole, which explained the uncomfortable feeling in my lower back.
I looked up and caught sight of Delinquent pacing back and forth in front of me. She was absentmindedly chewing on the edge of her black glove, muttering nonsense under her breath.
"You didn't have to tie me up." I complained, getting her attention. "I mean – my head is killing me."
She glared at me. "Yeah, and I'm so sure that you weren't going to turn me in to the police."
"I thought we went over this?" I asked incredulously. "I don't want to turn you in."
"Oh yeah?" She argued, angry with a bit of a ludicrous tone. "Than what about that little call from your boss? Huh? He told you to capture me and you agreed."
"What? I . . . oh." She had only heard my end of the call with Daniel. She didn't know that the person we were talking about wasn't her. She thought I was agreeing to turn her in, not good. "That wasn't you he was talking about. He called about Mistress – you heard of her?"
Delinquent shook her head.
"She's a small-time villain who thinks she's in the big leagues. Captain Impossible called me to see if I could head over and help the police apprehend her. I told him I didn't really want to, especially since she was only a danger to herself, and he told me we would deal with it in the morning. That's it."
She narrowed her eyes, disbelieving. "Why wouldn't you just go help the police anyways? I thought you superheroes were all about saving the day, even if the danger was at a minimum?"
I sighed for about the hundredth time that night. "Do you think we have the time to stop every single bit of crime in Washington DC? There's only two of us, and Washington DC is a big city. It's not like we have a whole League dedicated to saving our city."
She shrugged, seeming to know what I was getting at. "Alright, I'll believe you for now."
I smiled, relieved that I was, in fact, not going to be kidnapped or murdered tonight. I was able to stand up when I realized that the pole stretched high enough, which also gave me a bit of a confidence boost now that I was the same height as Delinquent.
"Does that mean you'll untie me?" I questioned.
She chuckled. "I don't know, maybe I like you all tied up."
I tilted my head back, but I noticed that she was still a bit on edge. "Well, I don't appreciate it. I mean – you could have at least tied me up with rope or something so I could get out, but why the zip-ties? These things aren't exactly comfortable."
"I'm not an idiot, Lightbulb." She smirked. "You would electrocute and catch fire to any normal ropes."
"Can you at least tell me how long I was out? I have school in the morning and I need to sleep."
"School?"
Oh, shit.
Great. Years of lying to my friends and masking my identity from my foes and I let something slip to a villain just because she was flirting with me.
(Man, I was a sorry excuse for a hero now, wasn't I?)
She looked at me unbelievingly. "You're a student? How old are you?"
"Well, I never really said student . . ."
"Please, there's no way you're a teacher. So I'm either guessing that you're in college or high school." She paused to marvel at me. "Wow, who knew most of our nation's heroes are just kids?" She asked rhetorically. I knew she was referencing the event in Empire and Iris Cities. All those supers were in college except for one. If you did the math, half of them were supers whilst still in high school, like me.
"Look, I can at least infer the same about you." I countered, which shut her up pretty quick. "You can't be over twenty based on your petite exterior and small frame. Plus, the features that I can see seem young, young enough to still be in school as well."
"Touché, Lightbulb."
She crossed her arms. I knew she wasn't happy about how I narrowed down her age, but I at least shortened the playing field. Narrowing down a super's age was the next step to finding out their identity. And a super's identity was normally their best asset. When villains knew who you were, they knew what your weaknesses were.
"But, how long was I out?"
She shrugged. "Only a couple minutes, I didn't hit you that hard."
I nodded. That meant that my shift would actually be over soon and I could go to bed. Or, well, I could go to my couch. I didn't technically have a bed.
"So, how long are you going to keep me here anyways?" I asked. "I mean – if you aren't going to interrogate me or something, I would prefer to be free."
"I don't know, I kind of find it funny. 'The great White Lightning tied to a pipe by a rouge vigilante' seems like a great headliner."
I actually chuckled at that. But if she really did leave me here, I could just call Daniel and have him get me out. If I pulled some twisting moves, I could push the button on my watch that connected my earpiece to Daniel's. I would be out in no time.
But, while I was tied to the pipe, I wanted to at least get some answers.
"So, why'd you become a super? Are you a Batman, Superman, or Spiderman?"
She tilted her head in confusion and I remembered that not everyone had the access or the want to read the old comics, so I had to explain it to her. "Batman became a vigilante to avenge his parents' death. Superman was born with his powers and became a superhero to protect the Earth. And Spiderman was turned into a super by external means and threw on the mask to make sure no one would die at the hands of a petty criminal like his Uncle did."
She seemed to consider this for a moment.
"I guess I'm a bit of Batman, but mostly Spiderman." She concluded.
This question told me a bit more about her than she realized. I figured the only Batman part of her story was the vigilante part, because if her parents really had been murdered, she would've definitely been more of the avenging villain type. If she was a Spiderman, that meant that she was like most of the super population, changed into a super because of something they couldn't control and decided to use it to help save people.
"What about you?" She asked suggestively.
I shrugged. "Spiderman, but I had a mentor."
She nodded, "Captain Impossible."
I was better off than most supers were when they first started out. I had a superhero to learn from and to teach me, most didn't. That fact lead to many a failures, like, this kid in New York who could fly. He went too high too fast and couldn't breathe. And when he fell back to Earth, unconscious, he hit the ground so hard and fast that he was perpetually crushed.
Yeah, it was a good thing that I had Daniel in the beginning, even if he was a big pain in the ass sometimes.
I smiled. "Yeah, he might seem like a huge jerk, which he is, but he's also taught me all I know. Without him, I would've just been some scared kid. I probably would've ended up short circuiting half the city by now."
After a moment she walked closer to me, close enough that I could've tucked the stray piece of fuzzy black hair behind her ear.
"You know, you aren't so bad White Lightning."
And then she kissed me.
First off, let's not mention the fact that I barely knew her. Or the fact that she was technically a villain in the public's eyes. Or the fact that my hands were still tied uncomfortably behind my back and too a pole. But let's mention the fact that Delinquent's lips tasted like honey and were as soft as cake.
A sudden electric spark traveled between us, and I'm not trying to be metaphorical here. I literally shocked her through the kiss, a reaction to the induced levels of hormones running through my body.
She pulled back with a smile on her face and I shyly looked down. "Sorry about that."
She shook her head, a playful grin now taking over her face. "Meet me up here tomorrow. And maybe we can do this again."
I barely had time to nod before she disappeared. I practically banged my head against the wall in frustration. Great. I just got kissed by a beautiful vigilante who wants to meet me again and now I have to call Daniel to get me out of these stupid zip-ties.
(And, no, I had no idea how to take them off without cutting off circulation to my wrists. I don't go to a public school, we don't zip-tie backpacks to chairs there.)
I pressed the button on my watch and waited for the call to connect.
"Hey, Daniel, I might need some assistance getting out of a pinch here."