vigilante

Jumping

It's been a week since I met Starot since then I've been practicing my power, trying to keep time slowed consistently instead of flickering. Turns out that Ether my phone has done this before, and this trial goes back 10,000 years, and has been a multitude of things. Even with my power the days that went by have put me on edge, thinking about when the first trial starts as well its objective. School work doesn't bother me anymore now, seems like the only consistent positive. Ether says that the first trial always happens after a week, for practicing purposes he says, his words don't comfort me much. I'm in Geometry sitting at the front row of the class, twirling my puffy curly hair as I stare at the work that was left for the substitute to pass out, leaving it blank for me to work on later. The clouds outside the windows show dark gloomy clouds, classroom has continued chatter as no one listens to the substitute. The bell rings to head to the next class, I stuff my work into my notebook quickly trying not to be late for my next class. I sling my bag over my shoulder quickly sliding in my notebook, shuffling through the crowd heading for the stairs that led me to the ground floor outside. The rhythmic stepping down the stairs with stepping splash at the bottom. Walking to my next class in the building over, Ether starts to vibrate. My heart stops as ether climbs out of my pocket, flapping his wings to reach face level. "Y0u ar3 f1n3 n0 0n3 but y0u can s33 m3 l1k3 th1s-" his eyes seem to wink at me as he says that. I pause in my steps moving to my next class and move off to a small secluded willow tree."H3r3 ar3 y0ur 0bj3ct1v3s." His eyes change to a panel showing three stars next to them are brightly written letters in cursive. "Save the girl?" I say quizzically "bonus objectives, stop her before she jumps, find and break the phone. What girl?" My question was quickly answered as a yell from the building over, right right my next class, "Don't jump!" Crap, I think. I slow time to a quarter of second as Ether flies up higher next to the girl watching me as he does, as I look up at her I try see her face but I need to move. "Shit how she get up there?" I think for a moment then I snap my fingers "Fire escape!" I run from the willow tree to the building commonly referred as B site. Inside I'm scrambling in the halls weaving in between people looking for the right door, people are slowly flinching to me as I pass them, as they are unaware of what is going on. I find the right door wide open with the plaque reading fire escape, I move into the dimly lit closet only containing an iron ring ladder. As I look up a large black mass blocks the way up. "Damn it! Guess I'm not the only one trying to stop her." I grab on to ladder trying to quickly scale it with the brick walls close up next to me, as I am behind the mass I brace my backpack and feet against the wall to climb around him. Using my hands and feet to push up against the wall, my fear of heights decides now at a crucial moment to remind me of how far I'll fall if I fuck up. "Look up look up look up..." I remind myself, I as I am ahead of the mass I turn my head to see that the mass is one of the security heads, Mr. Amaston. I move my hands to the cool iron ladder, trembling as I do, my feet slide down and I quickly leap my feet to the ladder. "I. Really need to work on my climbing." I say shaking, I speed up being reminded of the girl still on the roof hopefully. As I reach the top of the ladder I see silver vents sitting on the roof with the occasional bricks scattered across, and the girl is already up on the edge moving off. I start feeling droplets on my face and hair, gliding over my skin. I scramble up sprinting to her now, she's wearing a long red sleeve shirt with a short  black sleeve over it with skin tight deep blue jeans. I start hurdling over the vents making dents as I go sliding smoothly with the water helping me as I do. I make it to where she stood and reach to grab her, but she's picked up to much speed for me to pull her back. "Fuck it I'll lose a star." I say, I hold on to her and slide in front of her to soften the landing. I watch Ether move down lower next to the spot we are probably going to land at. These trials are gonna suck aren't they I think, I turn to look at her face. Its Casady the girl I've had a crush on since last year, "Why the fuck is sh-" I've hit the ground and time proceeds as normal, "AH SHIT!" I scream, my back aches with the force of hitting the ground from the roof of the two story building, Casady looks around confused as to how I softened her fall and how I even got there. Her apricot hair is wet with rain as she stands up with me, the rain pours down even harder as we do. As we stand up she is holding me tightly, now have a crowd around us, some start cheering for me then others start as well. Casady presses her face against my neck, "T-Thank you. I regretted it as soon as I stepped off." She says into my neck, her tears are running across my shoulders. I see a tall guy pushing his way through the crowd to get close to us, he has a two other guys covering his flank. I hold her tighter as they get closer, watching them with heavy intent. The cheering stops as he gets closer. He gets about 2 feet away from us before he stops, "Thanks man for saving her we were getting ready to start another video, ain't that right Casady?" The two guys laugh like hyenas and the main guy waves his phone around like a trophy. She makes no move to go to him, I immediately have red flags going off in my head. She made a sex tape and regrets it thats why she jumped, "Casady stand straight for a second." She hesitates but stands straight, I slow time to a millionth of a second. All the rain drops stop moving, people as well. I walk over to him carving a path out of the rain drops as I do, I struggle to hold time like this. I snap his phone in half in his hands, leaving the two pieces in his hand. I quickly regain my position that I held and let time resume as normal. The rain and people continue with what they were doing, the rain that was carved out has a noticeable absence in sound though quickly replaced. I was surprisingly quickly embraced by her, cries softly into my neck once again. Ohs and whispered voices can be heard from the crowd as they notice the cracked half's in his hand "What the fuck?!" he yells, his friends now back away into the crowd trying not to be noticed. "I dealt with the video, as far as anyone else cares it didn't exist." I whispered into her ear, she sniffles "I don't know how or why, but thank you so much I don't know how to repay you..." A hundred thoughts push their way through each one wanting to be approved, but I push them down and live in the moment. Ether flies over behind her shoulder and changes his screen to reveal all of the objectives. The stars next to save the girl as well find and break the phone explode into supernovas, similar to Starot's suit, but the one next to stop her before she jumps stays the same. I look lower on the screen and see a two small buttons at the bottom left of the screen a button reads try again, the bottom right reads finish current trial. I feel my eyes burn into the finish trial, the screen changes to a different slide reading you picked finish trial then to changes Ether's eyes. Ether flies down low to climb in my pocket that he inhabited earlier, I feel him shimmy into my pocket then a click comes from him and he becomes still. The crowd begins to dissolve as they realize how soon next class starts, the guy walks away cradling the half's in his hands. "Come on," I say "we need to get you checked out by the nurse." She nods and lets go of me, but wraps her arms around my right arm. We walk to the nurses office slowly, by now the bell rang for the next class though I don't care right now. We get to the nurse's office I just get an ice pack for my back, while Casady gets a through checkout, I head to class with a nurses slip in my hand limping a small bit. The rest of the day till lunch was relatively normal, as other students, teachers, and Cassidy's friends  thank me for my heroism. I massage my back with now cold water pack during lunch being held down by my backpack, my friends Josh and Asher praise me for what I did. "See Asher," Josh says "do one really cool thing and now he's a -" "Can it" I tell him "I can't really feel my back so I'm in no mood." I start being approached by Mr. Amaston the large and beefy man he is, now what I think. "Hey," he says "you are wanted in the principal's office." Adam and Josh start chuckling to themselves, but I give them the finger as I start walking to the principal. The sky starts beaming with sunlight as I enter the school's offices. I walk down the main hall with Mr. Amaston behind me, doors with names of counselors are all one after another as most of them should be. I enter the principal's office at the end of the hall, inside Mrs. Wieferich is sitting behind her desk with her back to the wall in front of me. To Mrs. Wieferich's right is, who I assume is, Casady's mom and dad with Casady next to them, "Sit down please." Mrs. Wieferich gestures to the empty wooden cushioned seat on her left, I sit down in the seat and drop my backpack lean it against my seat, throwing away the watered down ice pack. Mr. Amaston takes his leave to the cafeteria to let us talk more privately. "I wanted to thank you for what you did earlier today as well does Casady's parents." "Your the kid that I've sparred with before, and please call me Mr. Meredith." "I've taken that you two have met before?" Mrs. Wieferich says "Yeah," I say with some confidence "we both go to the same kickboxing place." "Thank you so much for saving her, I don't know what we would do with out her." Mrs. Meredith wipes her eyes with a napkin from her purse. "Thank you again." Mrs. Meredith finally says"I am eternally glad for what you have done." Casady puts her hand on mine, my heart flutters with the anticipation of what might happen. "I'll always be in your debt." Casady says rather sweetly, "Now then you should be going back to class as the next bell will ring rather soon, and the Meredith's will be leaving with their daughter." Mrs. Wieferich says with a slight snap to grab my attention, everyone except Mrs. Wieferich gets up, I grab my bag and leave to go to class after the Meredith's have already left. "No rush," I mutter "ease off the thoughts. Well cross that bridge when we get to it."