Dominus

Chapter Three

I made my way up the rooftop towards the front of my house where I could see the rest of the neighborhood in front of me. Dozens of street lamps lit up the night, and in the distance, flashing city lights. I took in the fresh air and put my bluetooth earbuds in--another key part of my whole hero routine. Not only could I listen to my favorite songs, but I could also sync them to my crime alert app. Then, any alerts could be read to me while I'm listening to music or busy doing whatever.

Speaking of music, I then went into my Spotify playlists and selected "mission mix"-- a collection of songs that get me excited to fight bad guys or save people. A song can do so much for your mood, and nothing starts the night like Lil Uzi. His song, "Erase your social" began to play in my earbuds and suddenly I felt on top of the world.

It was time to stop a bank robbery.

I faced the left side of the rooftop where a line of houses stood, each a solid four or five feet apart.

(This was always the hardest to get over in the beginning. You can't be scared of jumping from one house to the next. As long as the distance is reasonable, you've just got to believe that you will land. You'll wanna practice power hops, and maybe some long jumps in your training to get good at this.)

I took a deep breath, standing at the opposite edge of my roof, then I ran for it. As the edge became closer and closer, I readied my legs, and at the very last moment, I leaped to the other side. The ground below seemed so far, much farther than two stories. However, I never forgot to tell myself "I am going to land" over and over again while my feet eventually caught the roof of my neighbors house.

Although I managed to land on both feet, I almost fell over trying to walk forward. Once I gained balance, I looked back at my house then ahead, on to the next house. As I made my way across the rooftops, I eventually found myself downtown, atop the roof of the local eye doctor. The bank was only a block away, so as I got closer, I began to survey the area.

The bank resides as the last building in a small metroplex. It looks like your standard bank, a giant white building with a large set of concrete steps out front. Outside, dozens of cops and civilians surrounded the front steps, and some began yelling to whomever was inside the bank on a megaphone.

"Please, let the hostages go and we can work something out!" one officer pleaded. Of course, I couldn't make out what was said over the sound of people screaming, but I could tell that whoever was inside was not giving up.

Since the front of the building was blocked, I jumped off the roof and ran towards the back of the bank. It had one door that went inside, and another that led to a wide, empty parking lot. Behind the lot was a set of trees that morphed into a nearby forest. That's where I started. Hiding behind the trees, I surveyed the back of the bank on the chance the bad guy decided to take an escape route.

Why weren't the police back here? I had no idea.

When I didn't see anyone or anything around, I began to notice something was off. I looked to my left--nothing but trees. In front of me was an empty parking lot, but I could hear movement to my right. Immediately drawing my bow, I nocked an arrow in the string and pulled back, ready to fire at whatever was hiding.

I began to move forward while careful not to make any noise, aiming my bow around every tree and bundle of shrubs. Then, a rustling came from the other side, and as I turned I almost dropped my bow at the sight. Standing behind me was a girl, about the same age as me, with wavy brown hair, and pale skin covered in freckles.

"Hi, um- don't shoot, please" she said, holding her hands up. I dropped my bow and put away my arrow.

"I could have shot you, you know?" I said.

"you could have, but you didn't" she replied sticking her hand out, "Annabella but my friends call me Bella" she explained

I shook it, taken aback by her hidden aura. Somehow I could tell she was powerful.

"Mason" I said shaking her hand. there was something about her that seemed so familiar.  "What are you doing out here?" I asked.

"Probably the same as you," she said, pulling out her phone. She then showed me her screen, which displayed the same crime alert app as mine. I grabbed my phone to show her the same thing.

"So, you go out and fight crime too?" I asked. I'd never met someone else that went on missions-- at least, not someone my age.

She looked at me like I had seriously offended her, "What do you mean? Of course I do! Loads of my friends do, too. They don't really stop as much crime, but it's the effort that counts I guess. What about you?" She looked down at my bow. "This doesn't seem like your first rodeo."

I shrugged, "I've gone out a few times. My dad started training me when I was five."

She looked at me, surprised. "Five years old? My parents wouldn't even let me use my powers until I was ten."

"Yeah, well, I don't really have any powers, so I bet he was just trying to catch me up to everyone else."

Talking about it out loud like that, felt almost relieving in a way.

Annabella's eyes widened "You don't have powers? And you're out here? Come on, that's pretty impressive," she said, and for a second I swear she could tell what I was thinking.

"Ha, yeah, I guess. It's nothing crazy though." I thought for a moment and remembered why we were here. "Oh yeah, maybe we should be figuring out what to do about this," I said, pointing to the bank.

"Don't worry, so far the man inside hasn't done anything. He's just been yelling about superheroes being a scam and all this other b.s."

I looked at her surprised, "Okay good--wait, how do you know all of that?"

She then pointed to her ears. "Enhanced-hearing, along with enhanced  strength, and the power where I can summon the ability of any reptile," she explained.

Oh, this girl was cool. The ability of any reptile? I didn't know the extent of that power, and I had no intention of finding out. At least not yet. "Any reptile? That's so cool!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, my parents were minor heroes back in the day."

"Really?" I asked.

"Oh yeah there were so man-"

Before Annabella could finish her sentence, we heard the sound of a door opening close by.

We closed in behind the parking lot and watched through the trees.

"There he is," Annabella suddenly said, as I looked between branches until I saw him. A five foot tall, round-bellied white man in a chef's uniform had swung open the back door. He wore a cowl that connected to his chef's hat and covered his entire face, leaving room only for his eyes. As I paid closer attention, I noticed throwing knives slung across his shoulders.

"Is he a new villain? I don't recognize him." I said, hoping Annabella knew something that could give us an advantage.

"His name's The Chef, he just started popping up everywhere downtown. As far as I know, he doesn't have any powers and he's always claiming supers are a scam."

"So he's like most bad guys without powers," I said, jokingly.

"Pretty much." Annabella laughed. As I looked back at the chef, I noticed him putting something on the wall of the bank. "What's he doing?" I asked. Annabella began watching alongside me as the chef walked away from a round metal device stuck to the wall. Then, he walked to the opposite side of the door and did the same with another device before returning inside.

"Umm..what were those?" I asked, praying they weren't what I thought. Annabella went silent for a moment, closing her eyes, seeming to focus on the sounds of the device.

Suddenly, she gasped. "It sounds like a timer! I think those are bombs!"

Great. They're exactly what I thought..