Big City Villain | BOOK ONE

Chapter Four: And Back Out of Action.

"Don't you remember what it was like in the Solitary Bin?" my brother's voice yelled at me.

We were currently walking back home, and I was a good two steps ahead of him. The cold night air was getting to me and I could feel it seep into my body, chilling me right to my bones. The cold was my weakness and nearly everyone knew that, which was probably why I suddenly felt the weight of my brother's cape on my shoulders.

"I remember," I mumbled, gritting my teeth. Spending two weeks in the Solitary Bin was like a lifetime in solitary confinement.

The should be outlawed Solitary Bin pokes at all of your weaknesses. For me, that was ice cold water and being very tightly confined. As in 'you had to stay in one position' tightly confined, you could not curl up or stand up or anything. You just laid there, surrounded by cold water and hyperventilating because you feel like you're drowning. Two weeks in there and it took me nearly a month to recover. Both mentally and physically.

I shivered at the thought and shot Tights a glare, mad at him that he brought up such a horrible memory for me. He shrugged and caught up with me.

He lowered his voice and grabbed my arm, forcing me to stop. "You almost died after that episode. Don't you remember how worried mom was? Do you really want to put her through that again?"

"As I remember it, you were the one who pushed for that punishment, not any of the others," I hissed, shrugging off his arm and cape. "So what now? Are you going to throw me back in there? Reduce my curfew to 4:30 PM? What more could you do to me?"

"I'm letting you off with a warning. This is your first time breaking your probation, and it was to save a civilian," Tights said, sounding irritated with me. Like I should have been grateful that he wasn't going to report me. Such a great supportive brother he is.

Still, anything is better than going back to the Solitary Bin. I narrowed my eyes at him. I had been completely prepared to get thrown back into the Bin that this turn was suspicious to me. "Is there some catch to this?"

"No. Get home, I have to go see what mess you made back there," he said, picking up his cape and putting it back on. "Next time splash water on my face instead of racing off to save the day."

"Sure. And when you get back to that girl's house ask her what business she has leaving her front door open in the middle of the night, and ask her why she's home alone," I grumbled, turning on my heel and heading back home.

When I got back, I snuck inside and made it halfway up the stairs before a searing pain made me double over and stop in my tracks. I gripped the handrail tighter and moaned slightly, I slowly lowered myself to the ground and tried to control my breathing so it was slow and steady. Why do growing pains have to be so painful?

Let me explain something, teenage supers have two types of growing pains: The growing pains where your body is stretching out. The behind-the-knees pain, the pain where no matter how hard you stretch it just isn't enough. You know the pain, every teen experiences it.

But there is also power growing pains. Where your powers grow stronger or even, in some rare cases, new ones pop up. Trust me, they hurt to begin with, but when you are banned from using your powers, these growing pains hurt even more as you have no way to 'stretch' your powers out.

And that's what's causing the pain now. It can be so debilitating sometimes that I can't leave my bed or move from wherever I happened to be when the pain hits. Like halfway up the stairs at home, or at school in the hallway or on my way to the bathroom, which is no fun but add necessary bodily functions and you have a recipe for disaster. Not fun.