Aaron Majesky sat bolt upright when his alarm went off. Looking out the window, he could see the sun already rising above the north side skyline. It was getting on toward 10 am, and he had sandwiches to make!
Aaron slipped into a polo and some khakis and ran down the stairs. Heroes Deli, his uncle’s store, was just a few blocks away on Clark Street. Aaron was in a pretty good mood, despite having a 12 hour shift at his uncle’s deli. He had recently reconciled (somewhat) with his former girlfriend Emily, and had just helped his friends, the Infinite Seven, defeat some villains who, from Aaron’s point of view, barely deserved the title. Now, he was ready to be a normal joe for a few days. Work all day, relax at night. Maybe patrol the city as Dragonfly.
The workday was hard, sure enough. The place wasn’t that busy, but the lunch hour was nuts, and cleaning up afterwards was even worse. Aaron counted over 200 customers between 12 and 1. After than, he just had to prepare for Celeste, the closing manager. The young latino woman was a couple years younger than him, but had lived in the city all her life, and had been working for his uncle quite a bit longer than he had. Aaron had tried to ask her out once, and had been shot down cold.
Aaron was just finishing his restocking when Celeste walked in. “Hey, Aaron! How was the afternoon?”
“Busy! I just now finished restocking. The bread guy from Welmont’s called and said he’d be late; we got about 20 white loafs left.”
“Should do for dinner; it slows down a lot,” she said, walking past Aaron behind the counter.
“And Aaron, Ai! If you go down Clark toward the city be careful, there’s some sort of lunatic out there in front of that Irish pub, blasting some fire at people as they go by. Cops have the street shut down; I had to talk.”
Aaron’s ears perked up. “Trouble?”
“Si,” she said, putting on an apron and preparing for the evening rush.
Aaron grabbed his “bag” from behind the counter and sprinted out the door.
“Hey, you forgot to count the drawer down!” Celeste called after him.
“I trust you, it’s good. Gotta catch the 22 to the gym!” While the fact that Aaron Majesky was Dragonfly was generally well known in Stevenson, he’d kept it a secret since moving to Chicago. He intended to keep it that way as long as possible.
Meanwhile, back in Stevenson Illinois...
Steven Chen knocked on Angela’s door for the fifth time that afternoon. Looking at his watch, Steven noted it was after 6 PM, well after “daybreak” in vampire time.
Finally, the young woman answered the door. Her cheeks were blush, and she was still wearing the skimpy but long t-shirt she wore for bed.
“Hey, Steven,” she said in her normal lyrical voice. But on her teeth, Steven could see fresh blood remaining.
“Hello. Were you coming to Michaelangelo’s for pizza? That RA McCreedy is buying.”
“I...I think I’d better not. I’m not feeling well,” Angela replied, looking away. As she did, Steven glanced over her shoulder and saw another form laying in Angela’s bed, immobile.
“Ah ha. I see. Okay, See you,” Steven said, abruptly turning. Angela realized he’d probably seen her visitor.
“Wait, Steven!” she said, running into the hall in her shorts and t-shirt. “It’s not like you think!”
“It’s not?” he asks, obviously hurt, but with putting on a very effective mask of nonchalance.
“I...I don’t know how to say this. He’s DINNER, Steven,” she whispered. Taking him by the hand, Angela led Steven back to her room.
“I, um, I thought you didn’t drink from people, except, you know, villains and stuff,” Steven said haltingly as Angela caressed his hand in her room, near the unconscious body of her victim.
“Well, I’ve grown a little since I made that rule,” Angela said, whispering in his ear.
“I have to go,” Steven said, but moved in to kiss Angela. As he did so, he felt his sense of control slipping away. Anyone else might have let the moment pass and enjoyed the sensation, but Steven pulled away. He was too concerned about being in control to let slip an obvious misuse of other-worldly powers.
“I have to go, Angela. See you later.” With that, Steven slipped away.
Clark Street, Chicago
Slipping under the El tracks a block away, Aaron switched into his costume and tucked the bag and his street clothes under some old junk for safe keeping. Then he took to the air.
The man in the street wore a green leather duster over street clothes, and sported hair like U2’s Bono.
“Get a load of this guy,” Dragonfly thought as he swooped in from above. The police had barricaded Clark in both directions south of Addison, and traffic was backing up. Dragonfly decided to test the villain with a humming bomb. Swooping in low over his head, he dropped a bomb set on medium yield right in front of the Irish avenger.
Before the decide could activate, the man dived for cover behind a car and incinerated the humming bomb with a fire blast that came directly from the man’s hands.
“Hey!” Dragonfly shouted. “That was a two hundred dollar gadget!”
“Eh! Hello, there, little bug!” the man called out. “How about a little bug zapper!” With that, he fired a line of fire so wide Dragonfly could not entirely dodge it. Dragonfly wasn’t prepared for that level of power. The left leg of his costume caught fire, and he quickly dropped to the roof of a nearby building to pat out the flame.
“Sh*t!” Dragonfly cried out. “That was amateur!” Skipping down several buildings in a low fly to avoid being seen, Dragonfly popped his head out and looked at the villain. Every time the cops tried to make a move or advance, he blew something up. Clark was already lined with the wreckage of a dozen cars, including two cop cars.
Looping back up the alley behind the buildings, Dragonfly came back from the north once again. This time, however, he contacted CPD by radio to let them know he was coming. As he swooped down Clark Street, the police opened fire on the cars near the unknown villain as a distraction. When he turned his attention on the police, Dragonfly swooped in and pierced his shoulder with his sword. The flame-throwing Irishman screamed out in pain, and Dragonfly finished him with a circle kick that subdued the man into unconsciousness.
As the police closed in, a few of who congratulated Dragonfly while others scoffed, the crowd began to applaud. Dragonfly shook hands with a couple of the officers and introduced himself by his hero name. Then, he flew off into the sky to the sounds of appreciation for the citizens.
No comments:
Post a Comment