Paige Flip

Chapter 1: Introduction

You'd think a day in the life of a boy with supernatural powers would be this surreal experience every second of the day, but that wasn't true until recently. I work at a local pizza Joe's in San Diego as a minimum wage delivery boy, but my job is supported by my powers, as I have super speed that exceeds the speed of sound, and although this power might seem to make my job easier but it's a real hustle trying to hide my powers from the locals in town, as after all super powers aren't really normal in our human society.

When I was asked if I needed a scooter for the job, I had to lie and say I already owned one to avoid suspicion of the speeds I got my deliveries done at.

As expected everyone loves fast delivery so I usually get tipped a hefty amount which makes my job that much more enjoyable than it already is breezing through the town as everything around you moves in slow-motion.

My boss is always complimenting me about my work and how swift I am even on the busiest of days, but my co-workers aren't too fond of me because of that, as it ruins their chances of getting any type of promotions. On the other hand, my abnormal speed comes with a side effect of a slight shock if I use it too much, which I think is mainly derived from the fact I gained my powers from an incident a couple of years ago.

After all these years, I really expected to find another person with powers, I mean by gaining powers I basically proved to myself their existence and there is definitely no way I'm the only person in history to ever have a life threatening experience which changed my life, right?

And thankfully, I was right. On a misty summer night in June, while finishing up the remaining orders for the day, I spotted a figure jumping at obscene heights from building to building. At first glance, I shrugged it off as just my imagination acting up, but curiosity got the best of me and I ended up going in the direction that I'd seen the figure go in. It was hard to see but I kept going until I could see the person's body clearly. They seemed to know exactly where to go, because it wasn't long before we arrived at the bank.

It was pretty late out, so not many people were awake to bear witness to anything that may happen.

The person had a mask on with their hood up, which meant I couldn't catch a glimpse of any identifying features, but one thing stuck out to me like a sore thumb.

Back in college, me and some of my colleagues were really into shoe designing and would always design and come up with unique ideas for cool looking sneakers, and we had links at shoe companies which helped us give life to our ideas. One project in exact was the biggest of all which we spent the entirety of our time at college perfecting. It was a crimson red shoe with matte black font symbols on the tongue representing our group, but that was too basic so we didn't stop there. We came up with a certain design that'd reflect the moonlight to give the shoes a glow effect, like a type of glow-in-the-dark material. We ended up giving those pair of sneakers to the head of the project, Axel.

The figure, now entering the bank from the ceiling windows, was in fact wearing those exact same shoes, identifiable by that slight glow. I didn't expect my colleague and best friend of all people to have superpowers. The fact I was a witness of an ongoing crime didn't even phase me.

I climbed up after him to get a better look at what he was up to, and saw him jumping in a weird pattern, now wearing what I would assume to be laser enhancement goggles, to avoid security alarms.

I'm not the type to stand around and do nothing in a situation like this, but I definitely wasn't going to stop him myself, it isn't in my nature to turn a blind eye to an ongoing crime, even if the mastermind behind it was an old friend. I decided to call the cops anonymously and let them know while I moved out of the area a couple blocks ahead and waited. I could hear the sirens miles away. I decided to leave before I was spotted. I also made sure the police couldn't track my phone number.

I opened my bag to put my phone inside, when I realized I had forgotten to deliver the last order. The pizza laid cold and smooshed inside it's box. I still had to get it to the customer.

I got there as quick as I could, but it was too late. I went back to the store to clock off, only to be greeted by my boss, fuming at the sight of me. I tried to explain, "I'll let you off with a simple warning this time, but just because you're our best delivery boy doesn't mean I won't fire you, you're playing with fire Paige, be careful." He said begrudgingly.

Back at the dorm, I had a roommate called Enji. Enji knew about my powers and helped me train and improve when I first found out about my powers. He's a bit of a tech geek and he makes me equipment that help control the speed I run at or help with changing directions smoothly. When I got to the dorm, I found Enji sitting in the lobby patiently. "What took you so long?! I've been waiting out here since I finished my lectures!" Enji exclaimed. He'd forgotten the key to our dorm room before heading out. "I stumbled upon an old mate and got side tracked, my bad.".

I opened the dorm room and we went in, I was still confused on why Axel of all people would resort to stealing banks. I had to know what went wrong with him.

My first idea was to look him up online. I opened my laptop and got to searching. First, I searched his name up on google, "Axel Rodriguez", but I was only met with old Facebook accounts. I thought of going to Instagram but there was no way his account was something as boring as his first and last name. Then I remembered our messenger group chat. I can't remember the last time I opened it. I started trying some passwords to get into my old account, but I had no luck, I was about to give up but I suddenly thought of what it may be. "Finaldestination1995", I had named it after my favorite band at the time.

I logged in and opened the group chat. "500+ unread messages", it had been so long I forgot what we even talked about here. The last message was from 8 months ago from Liz, "Yo, y'all wanna meet up and grab some coffee?". Most of us had left it on delivered but one thing stood out to me. Axel had seen the message, that means he has used the account in the past 8 months, and that was enough for me. I opened his profile and saw a bunch of posts about his late mother and his new projects and what not, but one of his posts was a picture of a logo, I hadn't seen it before but out of nowhere I heard a whisper behind me, "The harbringers". I jolted up and realized Enji was behind me the whole time. "Don't scare me like that" I said. "I just wanted to ask you if you wanted some hot cocoa.". "What did you mean when you said 'the harbringers'?" I asked reluctantly. "They're an infamous gang, a cult of sorts, their goal is to spread their message 'The rise of the supernatural', but personally I think it's a whole bunch of bullshit.". "Well go get us some hot cocoa and I'll put on a movie" I said.

A cult? I'm beginning to grasp the idea of Axel having superpowers but he wouldn't use them for harm, or would he? My mind was filled with questions with no clear answers in sight. Suddenly, I felt a strong zap go through my body. It hurt but I just shrugged it off as me over exhausting myself. "I'll just drop it for now".