April was sitting slouched on a sea-blue sofa, that was so soft and comfortable one could probably have a good night’s sleep on it. Next to her was her cousin Ellie, who looked a few years older, and had her long charcoal black hair tied up into a ponytail. Some television show was
playing on a big screen in front of them, with the sound turned low while they were eating some ramen and gossiping. Ellie started clapping and said,
“Well done! Your second week and you got your headline idea on the paper.”
“Yeah!! I’m just SO excited. What an awesome start to the week huh?” April said cheerfully.
Ever since her Editor went with that headline, she had been feeling giddy all day. It was her dream to be an Investigative Reporter. She loved writing so much and had been a part of the school’s editorial staff in high school. She remembered the fun she had attending school events, interviewing other students and then writing articles on them. She reckoned that she had gained such an interest for this, because of her growing up watching those Superman movies. She wanted to be like the Lois Lane type. Writing articles for school events had been a great experience for her, as well as a fun thing to do, but after she graduated, she decided her dream was to go into the more
serious side of reporting. She wanted to be moreso a Criminal Investigative Reporter. Her cousin Ellie was a junior cop, and the two girls sometimes joked on how they would make a good team.
“The guys were so funny,” April continued to say.
“Jason was laughing all morning over the whole masked kid thing. I mean, I guess it is funny if you're a huge comic geek like he is, but his laughing is contagious!!”
Ellie couldn’t hide how proud she was for April.
“Sounds like the atmosphere is pretty awesome there.”
“I’m still shocked with those photos you showed me though,” Ellie remarked, looking startled.
“I hope the guys in the station will be able to find him.”
April shot her a shocked and sad look.
“Aww come on Ellie! You guys are hardly going to arrest him are you? He was just-”
“No NO, definitely not!” Ellie said, putting her hands up like she was backing away.
“I agree with you girl TOTALLY, and so do a lot of the guys in the station. I mean if it wasn't for that kid, we wouldn't have caught like four thugs we've been looking for, for SO long!”
“Good!” April said in a scolding tone.
She then shoved her last bit of ramen into her mouth, then pushed the bowl away from her.
Ellie rolled her eyes and said,
“One of the guys at work was calling the kid, ‘Astro Boy’.”
April laughed a bit.
“So, how's the whole junior cop thing going for you?”
Ellie gave a small laugh.
“Well I'm mostly just answering calls and dealing with queries, no major field work going on, except maybe a few stake outs and all that.”
She put her empty bowl on the table, then added in exasperation,
“I mean, I get little kiddies saying I'm old because I'm like twenty two years old, but the guys at work say I'm so young.”
April laughed and stretched her arms towards the ceiling.
“Oh, I don't ever want to grow up. Take me to Neverland!!”
Ellie smirked at her.
“You don't have to worry about growing up, teenybopper.”
“HEY!” April said pretending to be annoyed, and throwing a cushion at her. The side of Ellie's hair became all tousled after the cushion got her good. April laughed but Ellie grabbed two cushions and advanced towards her.
“Okay okay I'm sorry...no no no!!” April put her hands up in front of her like she was begging to surrender.
Early the following morning, Ellie's phone beeped on her bedside dresser. She groaned and reached her hand towards it, knocking it onto the ground. Groaning again, she reached her hand onto the ground, then picked it up with a yawn. She
sighed loudly when the time on her phone read 4.04 am, as she answered the call.
“Mhm?” she yawned into it.
As she listened to what her co-worker was saying, she covered her mouth so he wouldn’t hear her yawn again.
Then her eyes opened instantly and she sat up quickly in her bed.
“Yeah...sure...on my way...okay, see you then!”
About an hour later, Ellie was sitting at the back of a police car listening to what her co-workers were saying. Even though she was still a bit tired, she was delighted it was her third stake-out. She had been called in early because there had been a huge gang fight between two notorious gangs, and shops had been broken into and civilians attacked. They were following a group from one of the gangs, and told her that by no reason whatsoever was she to leave the car, and to stay there to call for extra backup just in case. She looked out the window as the car sped through one of the most dangerous streets around Harbor's Lane. Alarms were going off around her and she noticed a shopping mall had been broken
into. Police were filing into the building carefully, with guns pointed.
The car sped down a lane-way left of the shopping centre, and she heard her co-worker Tom say to her other co-worker Rick.
“Okay, stop here!”
Rick pulled the break then stopped the engine, and the two of them unstrapped their seatbelts. Rick turned around to Ellie in the back seat and said quickly,
“Okay, Tom and I are going to follow the guys up ahead of us. If we get into any trouble, like serious trouble, call for backup immediately. We should be okay though. It looks like there's
only four of them up ahead.”
How can you be sure? she wondered, but nodded quickly.
As they exited the car, she watched them duck down with their pistols, and creep along quickly towards some of the gang in the distance. She couldn't help her fast heart beat as she grabbed the binoculars on the seat next to her and looked through them. Zooming in on the troublemakers ahead of them, she could definitely confirm four of them. She knew that Rick and Tom were very experienced and well able to handle these guys, but she still had a very bad feeling. These two gangs she had researched, were extremely dangerous and this situation was a big one for her. It was at times like this, that the reality of working as a law enforcer was definitely not to be
taken lightly.
Ellie had been briefed thoroughly on the situation when she arrived into work, and she knew what she had to do, and she was going to do it well. Doing it with a cool head would be hard though, because she had to admit, she was feeling pretty uneasy now. Rick had reassured her though, that no matter what happens, to keep calm, and all she had to do was get backup, and more than likely it wouldn't even come to that. He seemed pretty confident so that did help her some bit, and the two of them were tough.
Through the binoculars, Tom and Rick were pointing their guns at the four men and walking slowly towards them, shouting to them to put their hands up. The four men quickly put their hands up and were shouting something back to them, though Ellie couldn't make out what they were
saying. Tom went over to cuff one of the men while Rick kept his gun pointing towards them. She noticed Tom grab the man's hands and cuff them, pushing him up against the wall. He went towards the other one to cuff him, and Ellie sighed in relief.
So far so good.
Suddenly her eyes shot wide open as the scene drastically changed in front of her. Three other men dropped from the small roof above Rick and Tom, dropping down on top of Rick. Ellie
gasped as Tom quickly turned around, and the guys who had their hands up facing the wall, dropped their hands and grabbed Tom. A few shots fired, and Ellie noticed two of the thugs fall to the ground yelling in pain. One of his friends went to grab something from his pocket, but Tom was
on top of him grappling him to the ground, and went to point his gun at him. The gun however flipped out of his hand, as one of the thugs quickly kicked Tom hard into his shoulder, then others started kicking him in his sides.
Ellie's heart started beating faster.
She quickly called for back up, trying to remain as calm but as firm as possible. Looking back towards the scene, Rick threw someone off him and made his way towards Tom, but someone hit Rick across his back with an iron bar. She gasped as Rick fell to the ground.
The back up wouldn't be here in time!
She should have called sooner, she thought frantically! The thugs started kicking Rick into his sides. Rick and Tom were both trying desperately hard to get up, while trying to fight off the thugs, but she could see blood forming around Rick and Tom on the ground.
I have to do something!!
She grabbed her gun and began to open the door. She remembered Rick telling her adamantly to stay in the car no matter what, and to call back-up if something was to happen. But back-up wouldn't be here in time because they were beating them to death. Their lives were more important than her career!
NO!! she shouted to herself, as she got out of the car and saw one of the thugs point a gun at Rick, and then towards Tom. She wasn't going to make it in time either.
They were going to be killed!
She was so scared as she rushed towards them, but suddenly another figure dropped down from the roof too. To her utter amazement, the figure landed a kick right into the thug’s back, knocking the gun out of his hand and making him fly backwards into one of his friends.
Ellie stood there paralysed to the spot. The mysterious figure looked much younger, and quickly somersaulted up in the air, and did what looked like a sort of cartwheel, kicking a bunch of the others around Rick and Tom. The figure was incredibly fast and incredibly strong, landing a kick or a punch here and there towards the
thugs. She couldn’t count how many times she gasped when the younger figure was making those thugs fly backwards. They were flying into walls, skips, trash cans, cars, you name it!
It was like a professional martial artist with unnatural strength!
With Ellie's breath stuck in her throat, she tried to study this mysterious young-looking fighter who was literally battering the thugs. The figure was wearing dark green combat trousers with a shabby black top. After she moved closer to the
scene slowly, she noticed that he was definitely no more than fourteen years old for sure.
No...way! she gulped. Was this that kid April had been talking about?
In about less than two minutes, the thugs were lying there unconscious, with puddles of blood around them. She was desperate to check on Rick and Tom, but she was terrified.
She noticed the young boy kneeling down beside Rick, and checking his wounds. He then looked around him and saw Ellie looking towards him.
He rushed towards her with a worried expression on his face. She backed away instantly, pointing her gun at the boy with a trembling hand.
The boy put up both his hands and said,
“It’s okay. I’m not gonna' hurt you.”
“Your co-workers, they need an ambulance.”
“Y-yes,” Ellie said, her voice gripped by fear.
“They're on the way. H-How did you-”
The sound of police cars in the distance interrupted her sentence.
The boy smiled over at her and said,
“You're safe now. Cya'.”
He quickly rushed away from her but she shouted,
“W-wait! Thank you!!”
“You're welcome,” she heard him shout back, then he disappeared into the distance.
Ellie ran towards Rick and Tom, then bent down towards them.
“It's okay. Help is on the way!!”
Rick was out cold and she quickly checked his pulse, then thanked God it was beating. Tom was holding onto his side in pain and trying to talk.
“That little kid...”
“I-I know...shhh don't talk,” Ellie said trying to tend to his wound.
“That kid” he repeated.
“He saved our lives...”
Ellie looked behind her in the distance.
Who are you? she wondered.
April was brushing her teeth later that morning, eager to get to work to assist in writing that article. She was still so basked, as she helped prevent her boss from putting a negative headline for that young boy. She heeded the words of her boss though, when he had reminded her that she had to be non-bias and to keep her emotions in check when writing articles. It’s good to believe in someone deep down, but you had to have all the facts.
Suddenly she heard the door to the apartment open. She quickly spat out the toothpaste, dried her mouth and looked towards the bathroom door.
Was that Ellie she wondered? If so, why would she be coming back into the apartment so early? Wasn’t she supposed to be at work? Did she forget something? April didn’t blame herself for being so jumpy. What she had gone through a few months ago, along with her screaming-in-her-sleep nightmares, it was quite hard for her to feel like a normal girl at that moment.
She took a deep breath then called out,
“Ellie? Is that you?!”
“Yep,” she heard Ellie shout back from the kitchen.
April let out a sigh of relief, then dried her hands and rushed out the bathroom towards the kitchen.
“Wow it's like just after 10am,” April commented as she stepped into the kitchen. The window was open and the sound of busy traffic drifted in through it.
“Shouldn't you be in work?”
“I was,” Ellie said, putting on a coffee for herself.
“Got called in extremely early this morning for a crazy stake-out, so I was given a few hours to rest and sleep or whatever, before I gotta’ head to the airport for my training week.”
“And remember, no house-parties,” Ellie said wagging her finger at her.
“Yes mum!” April replied apathetically.
Ellie looked at April for a few seconds, like she was studying her.
“What about you? You were supposed to be in work like an HOUR ago?”
April playfully sat herself up on the counter.
“Oh, I'm not in until 1pm today.”
April grabbed one of the apples in the bowl next to her. She juggled it and added,
“But WOW you look...more tired than usual and...I don't know...concerned or...fearful or something?”
Ellie sighed after she grabbed her coffee, and sat on the kitchen stool.
“I feel like I wanna' go see a therapist or something, after this morning...”
April quickly jumped down from the counter, then grabbed the empty stool next to Ellie, quickly perching herself on it.
“What happened?” April asked, studying Ellie’s face hard this time.
“You kind of look like you've seen a ghost or something!!”
April tried to wait patiently as Ellie sighed, then rested her left elbow on the table and rubbed the side of her forehead. She let out a long sigh, and April was trying to guess what Ellie wanted to tell her.
“Come on, tell me!! The suspense is killing me dammit!!”
Ellie folded her arms angrily and replied,
“Is that the way you’re going to be interviewing people as a reporter?!”
April sat back timidly and meekly said.
“Sorry...”
“Tom and Rick nearly got killed,” Ellie started to say.
April’s hand flew over her mouth as she stared at Ellie in shock.
“I SAW them get nearly beaten to DEATH. I've never seen anything like it! Oh man is this the career for me? Like really??”
April noticed her cousin’s hand tremble while holding her mug.
“What happened? Are they going to be okay??” April asked with a mixture of fear and sadness spread over her face.
“They’re in the hospital at the moment, and the doctor said they’d be fine.”
She looked up at April's face and continued.
“It was that kid...in those photos you showed me, with the mask thing over his face-”
“Oh my gosh!! He did that to them??!”
“Will you let me finish??” Ellie barked at her.
“That kid saved them! He like, dropped out of nowhere, and just had those thugs lying on the ground ready for hospital, within like two minutes or less!!”
“So you saw the kid?!” April asked, her jaw dropping down so far.
“Yes,” Ellie quickly nodded.
“He was definitely about thirteen or fourteen years old. April I have never in my entire life, seen such a young boy fight like that. He was amazing!! His strength was unnatural, like enhanced or something. I mean he was making the thugs fly a distance backwards, just with one kick or
punch. It's not real. How can a kid have that strength?”
Ellie rubbed her forehead again.
“I don't know. I was in such shock that I'm thinking maybe I imagined it. Maybe it was just the kid was a trained fighter, but I imagined that whole enhanced strength factor?”
Ellie sighed again.
“He is one scary kid.”
“Wow, this is so EXCITING!!!” April squealed, but then quickly said,
“Sorry sorry it's actually not. I can't imagine what your co-workers went through, and what you must have felt watching that. Sorry. That was very inappropriate of me.”
“No it-it's fine April,” Ellie said with a small smile on her face.
“I'd LOVE to write an article on him!!” April said excitedly.
Ellie gave April a firm look and said,
“You are not to write ANYTHING about him because every detail is pretty confidential. I'm sure some of it will probably leak out into social media, but for REAL newspapers like the one you're working for, they have to get the okay to do that.”
April sighed.
“You see, REAL news is always hidden. It's so annoying.”
“But there's also a lot of fake news out there too.” Ellie said.
“Yes I get that, but this is REAL. My boss has his daggers pointing towards this boy, and I want to give him a good reputation because he's helping people, and you just confirmed that the boy IS a real hero!!”
Ellie tilted her head to the side and looked at April with a serious expression.
“Is that really true? Are your intentions, to give this kid a good reputation, or to write an amazing write-up about him to get yourself on the good side of your boss there? I know you mean well April, but remember to have a heart when writing articles. Maybe the boy doesn't want to be written about. I mean he skedaddled pretty quickly after saving my colleagues. He didn't stand around waiting for thanks and praise.”
“So he saw you?” April asked, her eyes opening wide again.
“He did, and he even spoke to me.”
“What?? What did he say??”
“He said “you're safe now. Cya..” before saying “you're welcome”, when I shouted out thanks to him as he rushed off. He seems like a really nice humble kid.”
April looked up towards the ceiling and was thinking hard, then said.
“My boss said the boy was homeless.”
“He definitely does look like he is,”
Ellie said thinking hard.
“He looks like he could use a good meal, and his clothes were kind of tattered, and he looked kind of dirty too.”
“Poor kid” April said sadly.
“Where are his parents?”
“Yeah...” Ellie said.
“He definitely does look homeless. With the way he can fight, he could be using that to rob places and people for money and stuff. Instead though, he’s helping people...”
“I’m still a bit creeped out though with that strength and speed of his. That wasn’t normal April. I think I may have imagined that part.”
“How could you have imagined that?” April asked.
“I don’t know,” Ellie replied in an exhausted tone.
“I think probably ‘cos I was in so much shock, and maybe I’m a bit stressed or something.”
“I’m thinking that if I imagine something like that again, I might call to my doctor.”
Then she yawned,
“Anyway, I'm going to head to bed for a while. I really gotta' get some sleep before my flight.”
“I’m going to miss you for the week,” April said sadly.
“It’ll be all weird and quiet and...creepy, without you here...”
“I’m sorry April, but I gotta’-”
April smiled up at her as Ellie stood up.
“It’s okay Elle. I know you have to do your training week. Just check in with me at least once a day.”
“You know I will cousy,” Ellie smiled back at her.
April watched as Ellie made her way towards her bedroom at the end of the hallway, then closed her door behind her. She excitedly pressed a few keys on her cellphone, and after a few seconds, her friend answered.
“Amrita, house-party, my place, friday night...”