“In the comics they always make it look so easy. Superman swoops down, saves the day, and Lois Lane swoons. I outta sue the bastards for false advertising.”
-Keith Green to Sam Daylin and Jennifer Chase, Oct. 31st 2016
***
Jenn was just walking up to the front of Keith’s apartment building when we pulled up in Keith’s beat up blue and white Chevy truck. The corner of her mouth quirked up in a nervous kind of smile as we got out and I caught the unspoken question she sent my direction with an arched eyebrow.
I smiled and waved my hands exaggeratedly. “We’re all still alive.”
Keith nodded sincerely as he walked around the front of the truck. “It was touch and go there for a while, but we made it. He’s still in one piece.”
Her nervous smile became relaxed as Keith gave her a peck on the cheek. “Well thank God for small favors.”
He laughed. “I’m gonna go up and grab my stuff. I’ll be right back.”
Keith and I exchanged nods as he went through the door and the look of pure amazement on Jenn’s face made me chuckle as she walked over to me. “Well, miracles do happen. I was half expecting for you to come back a tenderized piece of meat.”
“Ah, so your motives become clear!”
I expected another joke, or maybe a playful slap. Instead she half tackled me as she grabbed the sides of my face and kissed me. My back slammed against Keith’s truck with a thunk and after the initial momentary shock wore off I had the common sense to wrap my arms around her and kiss back. I’m not sure how much time passed before the kiss ended because all the blood had rushed from my brain to other parts of my anatomy, but when she finally did gently pull away her eyes glinted in the pale blue fluorescent of the street light from unshed tears.
As one started to roll down her cheek I caught it with a thumb and whispered. “I know it’s been a while, but I didn’t think I was that bad.”
She wordlessly shook her head then laid it against my chest. I tightened my arms around her and kissed the top of her head. “What is it?”
Her voice came back, slightly muffled from her face being half buried in my shirt. “I just wanted you to you know how I feel. How I’ve always felt.”
My response was cut off as Keith came back through the door. Jenn pulled away and with a smile whispered, “To be continued later tonight.”
Talk about a cliffhanger.
If Keith noticed anything he didn’t let it show as he put the box of equipment into the back seat of Jenn’s car. “You two ready? I’ve got superheroin’ to do.”
***
The batting cages had become our unofficial superhero training grounds over the past couple of weeks. Charlie didn’t even pay us any attention anymore. He had the entrance already unlocked and he gave me a slight nod as I dropped off the envelope with his money as we walked past. Keith changed in one of the bathrooms and when he came out Jenn and I applauded. I couldn’t see his expression behind the mirrored surface of his helmet, but the obscene gesture he made at us as he walked past gave me a hint.
We went through the usual routine of shooting baseballs at him but they didn’t even faze him anymore. I even took my own life in my hands when I snuck up behind him and swung at his back with a baseball bat. The bat shattered and my throbbing hands reminded me of what an idiot I was. Keith just casually looked over his shoulder and shrugged.
Jenn walked over and glanced at where I’d struck him with the bat. “Well, you’re certainly doing better at directing your focus. How does the suit feel?”
He doffed the helmet and had a wicked case of helmet hair. He ran a hand through it, which only made things worse. “It’s not bad. It felt kinda bulky at first, but once you get used to it you almost forget you’re wearing it. It moves well, has a lot of flexibility. I think we’ve got a winner.”
“Great! Well I think the next ste-“
She was cut off by the sound of squealing tires and police sirens. Lots of police sirens, which were quickly punctuated by the ratta-ratta-ratta of automatic gunfire. On instinct I jumped over, grabbed Jenn and pulled her down to the ground with my body covering her. Sparks flew as bullets ripped through the wooden barrier and ricocheted off the chain link fence surrounding the park next to us. I heard a few dull thuds and looked up to see Keith standing in front of us, almost mirroring what I was doing with Jenn though not actually touching me.
The sirens faded a bit into the distance and I felt it was safe to let Jenn back up. Keith was looking over his shoulder, trying to see his back. When he turned I could see three impact points with bullets mashed up into little metal pancakes. I reached out to grab one and instantly snatched my hand back with a curse. They were still hot.
“Holy shit.”
Keith looked down at us and I caught a glint of fire in his eyes as he moved to put the helmet on. “Get Jenn home!”
I was helping Jenn to her feet when she pushed past me and grabbed at Keith’s arm. “Wait, where do you think you’re going?”
Keith gently moved her hand and his voice came back a bit distorted behind the helmet. “Schools out.”
With a jump he disappeared into the night sky.
Jenn shouted a curse and I grabbed her hand and pulled her along with me. “C’mon, we have to get back to the apartment.”
She broke my grip and put her hands on her waist. “Look, I know your manly juices are all flowing right now but I’m not some fine piece of china that needs protect-“
I cut her off when I grabbed her hand again and started pulling her towards to exit. “No, not because of that. We need to get to the equipment.”
I ran every red light there was between the batting cages and our apartment, and we were damn lucky that we didn’t get pulled over or die in a flaming wreck. Kids dressed as superheroes, ghosts, and vampires littered the streets as parents took them from door to door trick-or treating. I had to dodge a particularly older looking and pudgy angel as we bolted through the apartment door with a muttered “Sorry, no candy.”
Jenn made a beeline for the walkie talkies while I ran into my bedroom. She glanced up at me as I wheeled my TV into the living room and started playing with the transceiver. She bent down to get a better look at what I was doing and gave me a quizzical look. “You trying to get the news?”
I shook my head. “Keith’s helmet has a built in camera that transmits a streaming signal. This transceiver should be able to pick it up so we can see everything he does.”
She smirked. “And you just forgot to mention this feature when you were showing Keith how the helmet worked?”
I shrugged and said deadpan, “Oops.”
***
Keith’s vision was the washed out green of night vision as the H.U.D. adjusted for the lack of natural light and the bright flashing lights of the police cars and the occasional gunfire could be seen clearly in the distance. There was the deafening rumble of a sonic boom as Keith pushed himself past the sound barrier and sped towards the chase.
“Keith, can you hear us?”
He clicked on his comm-system and his voice sounded a little strained as he responded, “I’ve got you. You must’ve been flying to have made it back to the apartment already.”
Jenn’s voice came over the channel. “Just call him Speed Racer.”
Keith snorted. “Oh, and Sam? Remind me to thank you for telling me about the video feed. You kids see everything okay or should I move my head a bit so you can get a better picture?”
“Sorry, it slipped my mind. How’d you know about it?”
The sirens and gunfire could be clearly heard over the pickup mikes on the suit now that Keith was closer and had dialed back his speed a bit. “Oh, well the flashing ‘streaming live feed’ message that popped up on the H.U.D. a few seconds ago was my first clue. It’s fine though. This makes things a bit easier.”
Relief washed over me but I tried to keep it out of my voice. “Yep, and the picture’s coming back clear. Have any idea what this thing is about yet? Besides the obvious that is.”
“Radio chatter suggests they’re suspects from a bank robbery. They killed two cops already while they were making a break for it, hence the army of squad cars following them.”
Jenn sat down next to me, her laptop open and a live news feed of the chase playing over the local news channel’s website. Worry laced Jenn’s voice. “You have any idea what you’re going to do?”
“Thought I’d improvise a little.”
The news anchors voice sounded a bit distorted in the small speakers on her laptop. “Wait, something’s happening. It appears some sort of object has flown in and is hovering next to the car. We can’t be sure but it looks like…oh God, is that a person?”
Through the camera feed we could see that he was over the suspects car now and dipping down towards it, pulling up next to the driver side window like he was going to ask if they had any Grey Poupon. The driver’s eyes bulged as Keith gave him a little wave. “Excuse me sir, could you pull over and show me your license and registration please?”
“What the hell?!” The driver jerked on the wheel and the car swerved to the right, almost taking out a Honda that was in the far lane and causing it to spin out. Gunfire erupted from the windows and Keith spun away while almost rebounding off of the pavement of the highway in an effort to dodge. With a grunt he arched back up into the sky.
“Well, that didn’t work. Time for a more direct approach.”
For a moment all we could see is the night sky as he shot straight up and into the clouds. A few seconds later we could see the car chase again only this time they looked more like little toy cars. “Tallyho.”
With a boom Keith sped down towards the cars like a meteorite. Jenn screamed into the walkie talkie but I doubt Keith could have heard her. Her hand grabbed my arm in a death grip as we helplessly watched Keith plummet down towards the suspect’s car until at the last second the world spun and there was a deafening squeal as the feed went to static.
Our eyes jerked over to the news feed and I watched slack jawed as a black blur sped down towards the car and slammed into the hood. In an instant the front of the car buckled and flipped the car end over end. Debris and sparks exploded in all directions until finally what remained of the car skidded to a screeching halt in the middle of the highway.
Jenn’s walkie talkie hit the floor as she screamed into the laptop’s screen. “KEITH!”
I could barely hear the anchor’s voice over the sound of her sobs, “We’re not sure what happened folks, but it appears that object from earlier streaked down and impacted with the suspect’s car, causing a massive crash. As you can see the police are quickly surrounding the area and the car is now on fire. Emergency vehicles are on their way…”
I ignore the rest as I bent down to wrap my arms around Jenn’s shoulders. Her hysteric cries had died down into a fit of sobs that shook my body. I wanted to comfort her but there was nothing to say. The shock of what I’d just witnessed left me numb and I found that my eyes were glued to the static filled screen of my T.V.
Then, for the third time that night I almost had a heart attack. The static on the screen started to flicker, and labored breathing echoed from my walkie talkie. Jenn shot out of her chair, dumping her laptop the floor as she dove for her own walkie talkie and screamed into it. “Keith?!”
From the laptop’s speakers I could hear the shocked voice of the reporter, who was straining to be heard over the sounds of the helicopter. “We can’t be sure folks but it appears that there’s a man crouched in the middle of the highway where the impact just occurred. Police are rushing in to surround him now and we’re trying to get closer and get a better picture of this. Larry, can you see this?”
The live feed from Keith’s H.U.D. flickered back to life and I could see car debris and flames spread out all around him. It looked like ground zero from a bomb. As Keith glanced down I could see crumpled pieces of what used to be the car’s fender and front end in the middle of the crater Keith was standing in.
His voice came back strained, “Mental note: don’t do that again.”
Jenn looked as though she couldn’t decide to be relieved or furious. In the end she went with furious. “You stupid son of a bitch! You could‘ve been killed!”
On the live feed screen police, with guns drawn, were circling Keith and shouting demands I couldn’t quite make out. Keith’s voice came back a whisper, “Uh, can’t talk right now.” Then louder as he shouted at the officers, “Hey, take it easy! I was just trying to help!”
Gunfire erupted as Keith leapt out of his crater and into the night sky, “Jesus! They’re shooting at me!”
I screamed into my own walkie talkie, “Get the hell out of there!”
“What the hell do you think I’m doing? I can’t believe those bastards are shooting at me!”
Jenn looked like she was about to shoot fire out of her mouth. “Just get your ass home.”
“Yes mom. I’m on my way.”
I added, “And try not to let those news choppers see which direction you’re going.” I glanced up at her and gave her a weak smile. “Well… it could have been worse.”
The look of pure death she gave me made my insides freeze and I quickly bent down to pick up her laptop from the floor- anything to break that gaze. One of these days I’m going to learn when to keep my mouth shut.
Yeah, right.
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