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The Next Best Hero- Part 5
🕑 Added 2022-08-29 02:43:41 +0000 UTC“HELP!” They called out a second time, but this one sounded more desperate. It sounded like it was coming from an alleyway nearby. Before I knew it, I was already mid-sprint. Funny thing is, I don’t remember actually deciding to go, I just did. I was always like that growing up, acting before thinking things through. I turned the corner in a flash, and saw a woman clinging onto her purse’s strap, while some guy, whom I assume she didn’t know, did the same. It was a robbery.
“Let go!” The guy said, and his fist started to glow. He hit the woman in the face, and she dropped like a sack of bricks. While all this was happening, I was charging the guy, having already left the ground and started flying, and tried to tackle him. I don’t know if he saw me, or just got lucky, but his whole body flashed blue, and he leapt into the air, causing me to narrowly miss him and crash into the wall behind him.
“Auhg!” I groaned. As I fell to the ground, chunks of bricks from the wall fell beside me. I glanced at the girl, who was holding her face, but seemed mostly fine, then I flew after the guy. I went straight up to try to spot him, and caught a glimpse of a blue streak rushing away, bouncing from rooftop to rooftop.
“Get back here!” I yelled and flew as fast as I can after the streak. I flew as fast as I could, but he was so fast that he got away less than a minute later. The blue streak jumped down between two buildings and when I chased after him, he was gone. “Dang.” I grumbled and searched around the area for a few minutes. “Better go check on that girl.” Giving up, I went back to the alley. I found the girl still holding her face, and sitting on the ground. I landed beside her. “Are you okay?” She didn’t answer, she just moaned and held her face. There wasn’t any blood, but she had a really bad bruise, and her face was starting to swell.
“Uhh…” She moaned again. I took her hand off of her face to get a better look. When I first became a hero, I had to take some mandatory first aid classes.
“It looks like your jaw is broken. Squeeze my hand if you want me to call you an ambulance.” I placed her hand in mine, and she squeezed it firmly. I pulled out my phone and called emergency services. It only took about seven minutes for the police and medics to arrive. The paramedics took her to the hospital, while I started answering questions for the police.
“Can you describe what the perpetrator looked like?” The officer asked.
“He was skinny, and kinda short, and he was wearing a tracksuit.” I said.
“And you said he had an attribute, what type was it?”
“It was an aura type I think, but it acted like an enhancement type. He glowed blue, and then moved super-fast.”
“And you chased the perpetrator?”
“Yeah. I flew after him for about a minute, but he was too fast. I lost him when he ducked into an alley and disappeared.”
“You mean he turned invisible?”
“No, at least I don’t think so anyway. When I say he was fast, I mean he was really fast. I wasn’t even able to really keep up with him. I think he just used the alley to cover which way he went before I could catch up with him.” I explained.
“Hm. Well, we will check the H.A.D for anyone who matches your description, but in the meantime, do you have your Hero ID with you?” The officer asked. The H.A.D was short for Heroic Attribute Database. It was a registry of all heroic attributes dangerous enough to warrant the state being aware of the person’s abilities.
“Yeah, here.” I said and handed her my ID. She looked it over and wrote down something.”
"You don’t have a hero name?” She asked.
“Uh, no. Not yet.” I shrugged.
“Is this contact information still valid?”
“Yeah, everything is up to date.”
“Alright, well, we will contact you if we have any more questions. Good work here though. You may not have caught the guy, but you kept the victim alive at least.” She said and put away her notepad.
“Thanks. Can you call me if you catch the guy?” I asked.
“I’ll try to remember. By the way, what were you doing here this late at night?”
“Oh, I was getting pizza… which is probably cold by now.” I sighed.
“Well, we won’t keep you any longer. Have a good night.” She nodded and walked away. I went into the pizza place, paid, and took home my cold dinner.
“What took you so long? I was getting worried.” Mom said when I walked in an hour late.
“Sorry. It’s a long story. There was this robbery and I intervened. I had to stay until the police finished questioning me.” I took a few minutes to explain what happened to Mom while I put a few slices of pizza into the microwave.
“It’s a shame that he got away.” Mom said.
“I feel worse for the girl. She had her jaw broken. That’s not going to be a fun recovery.” I said and sighed. “If I had just been a little faster, maybe she would have been fine, and I could have caught the guy.”
“You did the best you could.” Mom said, trying to make me feel better. It didn’t work.
“Yeah, I know.” I ate my pizza and went back to my room, still bummed about the whole thing. I knew that I did my best, I understood that logically, but I was still upset. If I had more training, more control over my powers, I could have done better. I thought. I got undressed and ready for bed. I started pulling things out of my pockets: wallet, keys, ID card, and finally my phone, but when I was going to throw the pants into my hamper, I felt something still inside them. I turned out the pocket and a business card fell to the ground. “What the?” I picked it up and looked it over. On it was, “Odion Harocia,” following that was the name of the museum and a phone number. “I don’t remember him giving this to me?” I put the card on my dresser, and crawled into bed. I was planning on watching TV on my phone until I got tired, but then I had a thought. If he taught the world’s greatest heroes… could he teach me?
