#crime fighting | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ice-cap-k · 1 year ago

Text

Crash Course in Hero Work

Hard prompt is still hard

electric boogaloo

Cross-posted to AO3 here: Crash Course in Hero Work

_________________________________________

The waiter slid a plate with a slice of red velvet cake onto the table. Then came the slices of carrot and chocolate cake a moment later. “Enjoy your desert.”

“Thank you so very much!” Stress picked up her fork with an eager grin. The pastry looked absolutely delectable. It was light and fluffy when she poked at it with her fork and the frosting was unblemished. Crafted by a true master baker. False and Iskall picked up their own forks just as she raised the first bite to her mouth.

It was moist and so, so sweet. Icing melted in her mouth, sending her tastebuds reeling. It was the most perfect bite of cake she had ever tasted. “Mmmhmmmm… This is amazing.”

“I told you this place was great,” False said as she tucked into her own slice. Her eyes closed as she savored the first bite.

“You were right. I propose we come back here again next time we all have a free lunch hour.”

“Agreed,” False nodded around her second bite.

“Seconded,” Iskall said. “It’s too bad things have been so busy lately. I feel like we haven’t had a chance to hang out in a very long time.” He raised his own fork to his lips, only for the delectable morsel to fall off before he could take the bite. “Drat.”

“Here, Luv.” Stress passed him the spare cloth napkin that had been tucked under her plate. He gave her a grateful smile as he took it and dabbed at the splatter of frosting and cake that had smeared itself across the bottom of his shirt. “I agree. You two work way too much. I don’t know how you can manage it.”

Stress caught sight of False eyeing the stain on Iskall’s shirt. She was smirking at his poor luck, but Stress could see the way she had slowed her own eating. That she was taking more time to carefully spear her fork through her desert. So Stress slid another napkin across the table to her. False said nothing as she pulled the napkin off the tabletop and spread it across the top of her own lap. “Well, you just sort of get used to it,” she said. “It’s all part of the job. We do important stuff, and criminals don’t exactly limit their activities to normal office hours.”

Iskall snorted at that. “Could you imagine?”

“Yeah…” Stress said. “As if.”

‘It wouldn’t be so bad if they did, though,’ she thought to herself. Out of the three of them, she was the only one with a ‘normal job.’ The only one who juggled the average 9 to 5 workday. And that was fine for the most part. She enjoyed her job at the glass shop. Because of her, many beautiful buildings had gone up with pretty bay windows. Entire churches had been made with stained glass depictions she had helped orchestrate. It wasn’t your typical boring desk job at the very least.

But it didn’t hold a candle to what her friends did. False and Iskall worked for different sectors of the Hero’s Association, this city's local crime-fighting organization. They saved lives almost daily.

False worked ground patrol and hit operations. She had certain routes through the city she was supposed to traverse and check regularly for signs of criminal activity. Stress had heard plenty of stories about how the blond had stumbled upon muggings and break-ins. If that wasn’t scary enough, False was also always on call. If another member of the Association required a bit of muscle or back-up in an operation, they called False. These usually consisted of major arrest attempts and fights breaking out between groups of nasty villains and heroes.

Iskall didn’t see as much fighting as False. He was hired in as an assassin. Or, well, it wasn’t technically an assassin. More like… oh, Stress didn’t know. Maybe ‘sniper’ was a better term? Either way, his job involved going after the really big bad guys that are too dangerous to get close enough to for an arrest.

Frankly, Stress thought her friends were a little crazy to enjoy something so dangerous. But False always had been a bit more bold than your average person. And Iskall… well he was Iskall. Enough said.

Sometimes, she just wished they would take a few more breaks so they could go back to being as close as they used to be. She missed hanging out with them everyday. But she wouldn’t say that out loud. It wouldn’t be fair to them. They were doing important work.

“So how did you two get lucky enough to have today off at the same time?”

“Oh, well I offered to take an earlier patrol after you called,” False said, perking up. “They were cool with it, and nobody’s called with an emergency yet. How ‘bout you, Iskall?”

"Just finished with an assignment. Finished it after only one day," he said with a wink. The hazel iris of his left eye flared red for an instant, then settled back down. "Nothing gets past this sharp eye, eh?"

"You say that," Stress says with a smirk of her own. "But what was it that you told me yesterday over the phone? Something about accidentally picking up a candle when you thought you were grabbing a glass of water?"

"No," False gasped, looking torn between utter disbelief and the mischievous temptation to tease their friend. "You didn't really, did you? Tell me it wasn't lit…"

Iskall put his fork down and sunk a little deeper into his chair. Cheeks flushed pink behind his glasses with embarrassment. "It was. I just forgot to wear my contacts that day," he said, voice going up in pitch. "And I thought I told you that in confidence, Stress."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, don’t go getting yourself all worked up. It's just False."

"That’s right. Just me," False said, quirking one eyebrow. "And I'm just never going to let you live it down that you drank candle wax."

"I never said that!" Iskall cried, slapping his palm against the tabletop. “I did not drink wax!” The girls broke down laughing as his voice cracked. He realized too late that he was just making things worse and clamped his mouth shut. Poor Iskall. The embarrassed flush was spreading from his cheeks all the way up to the tips of his ears. Stress almost felt a little bad for him.

“Right.” Stress wiped a still-forming tear from the corner of her eye. “That is true. To be fair, he did not say anything about drinking wax. I doubt you’d use your powers for something so simple anyway.”

False snorted. “Pfft. Well maybe if he did he wouldn’t have that problem. ”

Iskall only rolled his eyes in return. “Alright. Ha ha. Yes, very funny. At least I can use my power outside of combat if I wanted to.”

“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with a bit of extra strength behind my sword. I don’t need to be attuned to anything else, thank you very much. I’m very content being like any normal person when I’m away from work.”

“Which never happens,” Stress says, poking at the last piece of her cake with the fork. “Because you two are always working.” Well, would you look at that? The conversation had come full circle.

Both False and Iskall drew back. The good-natured teasing and annoyed glances ceased as they both looked sheepishly away. Iskall scratched at the back of his neck with a guilty frown. False, on the other hand, pushed around a glob of frosting still left on her plate. “Sorry, Stress,” they say in unison.

“I’ll look to get some more time off so we can hang out again,” Iskall said, perking up. “I’m due for some vacation days anyway.”

False nodded. “And I could take a few more days of just being on call and not spending all night roaming the city on my own. Oh! Or, and hear me out on this… how about you come on patrol with me, Stress?”

“Me?” Stress nearly dropped her fork; she was so caught off guard by False’s offer. “I don’t think that offer is as lovely as you seem to think it is, False. I don’t have any fancy powers like you two. I don’t even know how to fight. What on Earth would I do?”

“You wouldn’t have to do anything,” False said, jabbing her fork in Stress’s direction. “You could just come along with me. Help me keep an eye out. We can talk while we walk and make a game of it. Keep each other company. And if anything comes up, leave all the crime-fighting to me.”

“So you just want me to keep you company, and then go run and hide the moment the bad guys show up?”

“Sure!” False shrugged. “If you’d like.”

“Oooh, and maybe that would work on my assignments too,” Iskall chimed in. He nodded eagerly, looking back and forth between the two girls. “I’m on my own a lot of the time. Hanging out on rooftops, doing research through the camera network. That sort of thing. We could hang out then too!”

“But Iskall, don’t you usually end up shooting people?”

“I do indeed have a license to kill! Yes!”

Sometimes, Stress felt like her friends were a little out of touch with what it meant to be normal. Or have a healthy dose of self-preservation.

She pushed away her dessert plate. It was a good thing the cake was gone because she wasn’t feeling very hungry anymore. “Thank you for the offer, lovelies, but I think I’ll have to pass.”

“Well, the offer will always be on the table if you change your mind,” False said, before taking another bite of her cake.

“Right. But for now, let’s focus on what’s next since I have you both for the rest of the day. I believe we were planning on going to the arcade next.” She pulled out her wallet and thumbed through the bills inside. There was more than enough to cover the meal and the tip inside. She pulled out a folded wad of money and placed it on the table for the waiter to retrieve when they came back. Beside her, Iskall and False did the same. “We better get going if we’re going to have time to hit all the best games.”

“Good idea,” False said, putting her own money on the table. “Better get there sooner to give Iskall more time to practice on the TCG cabinet. He’s going to need all the help he can get before we face off.”

Iskall stood up and pushed his chair in. The girls followed suit. When they reached the door, he held it open for them as they walked outside. “Says the girl who lost the last three rounds we played,” he crowed. There was a cheeky grin on his face the entire time they walked, even as False turned to snap at him.

“You got lucky last time, mister. I’m going to make you eat those words.”

They would probably be like this the whole way there. Stress didn’t have much to add, since she wasn’t very good at that game anyway. But she was pretty grand at skeeball. And There was no doubt in her mind that she was going to drag them over to the skeeball lanes as soon as they got there just so she could crush them. Then they could duke it out at the cabinets.

She pulled her keys out of her purse to unlock her car. When she did so, she noticed something a little odd just over the skyline. There was a really big dark shape up there. It was too big and bulky to be a bird. Too slow to be some sort of aircraft. It almost looked… purple? Or was it pink? “Guys?” False and Iskall didn’t seem to hear her. They were too busy arguing over high scores. The large pinkish shape in the sky was moving closer. It was getting even bigger and bigger. She could just make out individual, brightly colored wings stretching out from a black body when she noticed something much smaller fall from its base down to the street below. “Guys,” she said again a little more loudly.

Boom!

The spot directly below the flying shape went up in a fiery blaze. The ground heaved, nearly knocking Stress and her friends to their knees. Her car alarm went off as a wave of hot air nearly bowled them over. Glass windows were knocked out of nearby skyscrapers. She could hear screaming and shouting. Panicked people were beginning to run down the sidewalk away from the blast zone.

“What in the-?” Iskall and False whirled around as soon as they recovered their footing. They looked up at where Stress was pointing to see the incoming bogey.

“Are we under attack from butterflies?” False asked incredulously.

Stress couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “That’s a butterfly? That’s not a butterfly. Butterflies are pretty and sweet and small and wonderful gifts of nature.”

“Sure looks like a butterfly to me,” Iskall said. He had yet to take his eyes off the flying object, though the one eye was now beginning to glow a bright red.

Now that it was flying closer, Stress had to admit to herself that it kind of did look like a butterfly. But it was a mockery of all butterflies everywhere.

“What do you see, Iskall,” False asked. Her own eyes were starting to glow a pale blue. The fingers of her right hand flexed. Light radiated out from her palm in a beautiful beam that lengthened and solidified. Her fingers wrapped around the hilt of the newly created sword with a center glowing the same shade as her eyes.

The red in Iskall’s eye intensified. The glow ebbed and flowed, brightening as he focused his innate power. “It’s a ship,” he said a moment later. “That looks like Doc in the window at its head. He’s steering it.”

Stress turned to stare wide-eyed at her friend. “I thought the Hero Organization put him behind bars last month? When did he get out of jail?”

False pulled out her work-issued communicator. “Ren the Dog somehow found out the transfer route when he was being taken to a high-security facility.” She typed a quick message out to the Association as she spoke. “He hijacked the truck while it was on its way. Chances are, he’s around here helping to wreak havoc too.”

Great. Two known villains were dropping bombs on the city in a massive butterfly. And who knew what else was in the works? As if things couldn’t get any worse.

Another speck fell from beneath the massive butterfly. Stress spotted it coming down, but Iskall shouted first. “Bomb! Hit the deck!”

All three of them threw themselves into the side of Stress’s car before the speck could hit the ground.

Boom!

This one hit much closer than the last. The shockwave made the car shake as a wave of hot air rolled over it. Sparks danced over their heads with the hot breeze as the asphalt cracked underfoot.

“We gotta get up there and stop them,” False snapped.

She peeked her head up over the hood of Stress’s car, but Stress wasn’t about to have her friend get burned. She grabbed False by the wrist and yanked her back down. “Are you crazy?! We’ve gotta get as far away as possible!”

“She might be right,” Iskall said. He was gritting his teeth, staring up at the massive butterfly. Annoyance glittered in his two mismatching eyes. “I don’t have my arrows or my gun on me. I can’t hit him from here.”

“Then I have to get up there to him,” False insisted. “I’ve got a weapon at all times,” she said, shaking the sword in her hand once.

‘But how do we…” Stress trailed off. The butterfly was getting very close, and the buildings were tall in this area. She spotted a parking garage going up multiple stories. The ramp twirled up and up. It towered a story or two above the butterfly that was about to pass it. “I got an idea. Get in the car guys.”

“What?”

“I said get in the car,” Stress snapped. “You need to get up there, False. I’m, going to get you up there.”

Iskall and False both exchanged very confused looks, but they did not argue. They both pulled open a car door and slipped inside. “What’s the plan?” False asked as Stress slid into the driver’s seat.

“We go fast, we go high, and we pray I don’t end up dying.”

With that, Stress slammed her foot on the gas.

Stress wasn’t afraid for the sake of her friends. They had their powers and their training. They had all their hero modifications. They were literally made to survive disaster. She, however, was not a hero. She hadn’t gone through all that. But she had a car and a plan when they didn’t. So as far as she was concerned, she was the only one at risk and the only one who could do this.

Iskall grabbed her shoulder from the back seat. “Watch out! I can see another one coming!”

Another speck became a very large and noticeably box-shaped lump as it fell into view of her windshield right before it hit the ground. The road went up in a fiery blast directly in front of them. Stress screamed as her car rattled over the broken bits of asphalt through the fire that roared and licked at their windows. “Don’t touch the windows,” she warned as the fire fell away and the entrance to the parking garage loomed over them. “And buckle up!”

Up and up they went. Round and round the ramps. Floodlights streaked past as they kept climbing. Stress paid no mind to the roadblock they tore through or the dents it left in her car. It wasn’t like she would be able to use the vehicle after this was all over anyway. Either her plan worked and she trashed the car, or it failed and she still crashed the car. There wouldn’t be much room for anything in between.

She blinked away the glare of the sun as they pulled up to the roof level of the garage. The giant fake butterfly was in sight of the ledge. It was the perfect height for a really bad plan. That’s what this was. A really bad plan. Stress’s heart was racing. This was so silly. So foolish. And really really dangerous.

She felt False and Iskall’s hands squeeze her shoulder.

“I didn’t realize this was your plan,” Iskall said. He sounded giddy like he was on the edge of breaking down into excited giggles. Or nervous giggles. Either or, really.

“Let’s do this,” False said, the excitement evident in her voice.

Well, at least they were here with her.

Stress floored it. The car shot forward, slamming the three of them back into their seats. It hit the edge of the garage, sending shattered concrete pieces falling to the ground below. But the car kept going. It sailed through the air, almost like it was flying. And then Stress felt her stomach lurch and they were falling.

“Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh!”

Crash!

With a horrible sound of shattered glass and ripping metal, they hit the side of the butterfly. Stress couldn’t tell up from down or left from right as the ruined vehicle went rolling. Her ribcage was thrown against her seatbelt painfully. She felt herself bump harshly against the side of her door and the edge of the steering wheel before the airbags went off and slammed into her, knocking the breath from her lungs. Even after the car came to a stop, her head still felt like it was spinning.

“Nice job, Stress,” False said at her side. The words sounded distant like she was hearing them from underwater.

“Stay right here.” Iskall’s voice sounded slightly clearer. But only slightly. “We’ll take care of the rest and keep you safe.”

“Sounds good to me,” she managed before they opened the dented doors to her car.

It was a good thing they seemed alright because they weren’t alone anymore. It looked like they had crashed directly into the main control room of the butterfly-shaped craft. A green man with wickedly curled horns and four legs was approaching their wreckage with steam coming out of his nose.

“It looks like I have some pesky nuisances to deal with,” he huffed. Fingers curled at his side menacingly.

“Funny,” False said, her sword glowing in hand. “I was just about to say the same thing about you. Right, Iskall?” she asked, turning to the man at her side.

He nodded. Stress could make out the glint of metal as he pulled a sturdy knife from his belt. It wasn’t a ranged weapon, but she figured that wouldn’t bother the assassin, er, sniper too much. “We’re going to have fun putting you behind bars a second time.”

Stress unbuckled her seatbelt. If she was going to stay in the car and leave this to the professionals, she might as well get comfortable.

That had been quite the rush of excitement. Now she understood a little better why her friends liked hero work so much.

#whumptober 2023 #prompt no. 22 #“vehicle crash”#hermitcraft #creative writing #car crash #bombing #stressmonster101 #falsesymmetry #iskall85 #docm77 #alternate universe - heroes #alternate universe - different powers #crime fighting

1 note · View note