Purple Phoenix

Chapter Three

Stuffing the money into one of my pockets, I stalked my way towards her. Spectre would be a worthy opponent; she was one of the main superheroes of Shard city alongside Animalia, Poseidon, Windrider, and Light Shine. I remembered her fight with Psychochaos, a villain who had the ability of telekinesis. It was featured on TV, and everyone was awed with her abilities of phasing and superspeed, especially since having two powers was incredibly rare. With her abilities, Spectre was the perfect opponent to be able to end his terror reign of the city. Psychochaos was now in prison, serving three life sentences.

Spectre neared me, watching me apprehensively behind her white mask. Her suit was a reddish-white color, nearly pink but not quite.

"Who are you?" Her soft voice rang out. I guessed she was trying to figure out if I was a super or not and if yes, what powers I possessed. What battle tactic would she use against fire and flight? I supposed I would figure that out soon enough.

I unleashed a bit of fire from my hand. "I am Purple Phoenix. And who, pray tell, are you?" She tilted her head. My goal was to make her mad by targeting her ego. That always made them more interesting opponents.

"I am Spectre. Back to the situation at hand, we can resolve this peacefully, or not. It is really up to you." For some reason, I did not detect any annoyance or anger coming off of her. I tilted my head. No flair of ego either, and no over-explanation of who she was. Huh, that's odd.

"Everything's fine. I do not see what the problem is." I feigned ignorance.

She rose an eyebrow. "Right. So you did not steal from that couple?" I looked back and realized they hid behind one of the dumpsters, peeping out.

"Can't say I remember," I was getting bored. We needed more action and less chatting.

"Purple Phoenix, this is just one mistake. You can fix yourself before you spiral down to a path of hatred. I can help you."

"Thanks for the offer, but I think I'm good." Could she- oh, I don't know- superspeed or something already? Maybe I should start the battle. Do villains always start the battles? It seemed one of my weaknesses was my lack of experience. I should fix that. Blasting a ball of fire at her, I saw her eyes widen for a split second, and then she was gone. The fire, instead of hitting her, flew into the building she was standing behind.

Clenching my fists, I ducked low and started glancing around me. Where was she? She couldn't have gone far. Well, technically she could, but not with me here. She would want to finish me off first, but I couldn't spot her anywhere. That's probably why she's called Spectre; she was like a ghost.

Out of nowhere, I felt a blow to my back. Where did she come from? I yelped when another punch landed on my stomach. Dropping to my knees, I touched my stomach. It hurt a whole lot. Her punches were anything but normal. They felt like bullets, big, gigantic bullets hitting me. At least I wasn't bleeding.

I felt another punch hit my leg. The lack of a suit was also detrimental. I had no padding anywhere. I sent a ball of fire into the air, not even aiming at anything in particular. It didn't hit anything and faded into the air. No surprise there.

Another punch to my ribs. She better not do anything that will require me to go to the hospital. I did not have money for another bill right now.

Then another on my shoulder. I dropped completely to the floor. Everything hurt. I felt like a giant bruise.

A kick landed on my stomach, and I rolled a couple times. I groaned. Why did I think this was a good idea? I could already imagine the news headlines - Newbie villain defeated after her first attack. What a loser I was. My wishes crumpled to dust. What a waste it would be if I died now. I hadn't accomplished anything yet. Then I realized I wasn't being beaten up anymore. Did Spectre stop, thinking I already gave up?

I opened my eyes and saw...gray? Oh, wait a second. That was smoke. Smoke, which was everywhere. The building that I threw my fire on. It must have spread, and Spectre must have gone in to save the people. Whoops. That wasn't my intention, but I'll certainly take advantage of it. This gave me a chance to scurry the hell out of here. I rolled back onto my stomach and struggled to get onto one knee, then the other. I used my hands to push myself off the ground.

I can do this. Easy-Peasy. I stood up on shaky legs, stumbling a bit left and right. Everything felt hot, and I wasn't talking about the burning building beside me. The injuries Spectre caused seared my body.

Focus, I told myself. I needed to get out of here because I was one hundred and ten percent sure the other supers would arrive sometime within the next minutes, and I doubt they would give me the thumbs up while I passed through.

I tried to figure out how to sneak past inconspicuously before the heroes showed up. Police cars and firetrucks pulled into both sides of the streets. Looks like I won't be able to walk away. That leaves flying as the only option. I first had to see if I could even fly in my condition.

Slowly grabbing the tendrils of air around me, I willed my body to be lifted. With great effort, I levitated off the ground. I was one foot off the ground when I lost control and dropped. Cursing, I landed on my feet. I did not come this far to lose. Come on, Eve. Picking the air again, I sent a burst of wind on my feet, raising me up once more. I continued with the air pattern until I landed on top of the roof. From roof to roof, I gradually made my way back home. Finally, I arrived back on the rooftop of the building where my apartment was in.

Exhausted, I collapsed onto the floor and stayed there. My limbs felt heavy when I tried to lift them. I sighed. Nothing good came out of this. I had to be more careful and be less impulsive with my decisions. I reached for my phone in my pocket when I realized that there was still the money I had put in there. Sitting up quickly, I took it out and started counting the bills. I started laughing from joy when I got my sum.

They gave me $1,200! $1,200! I didn't care why they had carried together so much in the first place, I was simply super excited to have so much money. Jumping up, I winced at the pain but continued down the stairs and entered my apartment. I first stumbled over to the bathroom and checked out my soon-to-be bruises. At least nothing seemed to be broken. I grabbed my one pillow and two blankets (I used one blanket as a mattress) and retrieved my phone from the kitchen. After creating my makeshift bed, I laid down, phone in one hand.

What should I buy first? I needed a bed, a suit, and maybe a TV if there is money left after that. Using my phone, I searched up beds on sale and chose one for $300 that I could pay once it arrived. Then, I looked up a makeyourownsuit.com, a website where you could create a suit's design, color, icon, padding, gloves, mask, and anything else possible. They generally shipped it within a week, but if I paid extra, I could get it within four days.

My fingers tapped on my phone screen, creating my suit. It took an hour before I had everything in place. It was just how I imagined it to be. The price accumulated to $600 which shocked me, and not in a good way. Hefty, but necessary. My finger hovered over the "Order" button. I smiled and clicked it. Now I could be a true supervillain.