We walked towards the alleyway, standing and stopping a few feet away from the boys.
"Hey!" I called out, they turned to look at us.
"What do you want?" The tallest one asked, he looked like the leader of the group.
"Leave him alone," Luke said.
"What could you possibly do? You’re just nerds in capes.” The kid cocked an eyebrow at us.
"Let’s go, boys." Luke snapped his fingers.
I chuckled, “Are we dogs now, Dr. Fluke?”
Luke rolled his eyes and we began the fight.
Michael and I shot our lasers at two of the four kids. Luke and Ashton pulled the other two annoyances away from the victim, then threw them out to the streets. Ashton laughed as one of them ran.
I went right up to the little boy, “Hey there, soldier.”
He looked up at me with frightened eyes, “Hi.”
"Are you okay there?" I asked, picking up his backpack and handing it to him.
He nodded, “Are you guys real superheroes?”
I nodded at him. “Are you heading home?”
"Yeah, I just got out of school."
"I’ll walk you if you want."
"Okay," He walked past me, a smile creeping up onto is face.
"Cal, you don’t have to…" Michael tried to say.
I shook my head at him, “I want to.”
The kid waved tame from the sidewalk, “C’mon!” He looked so happy, I loved that.
We started walking.
"So, what’s you name?" I asked, leaving the boys behind, knowing that I’d be able to come back and find them soon enough.
"Todd," He replied.
"Well, I’m Cal-Pal. And those guys back there? Those were Dr. Fluke, Smash, and the Mike-Ro-Wave."
"Do you guys really fight bad guys?"
"Yup. You know, Todd, it’s okay to be your own hero sometimes."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, when people pick on you, or make you feel bad, you sometimes just have to use your own powers to fight them off. They’re just bad guys. And, if you beat them, you’ll save lots of people from ever getting picked on by them later.”
"But I don’t have any powers."
I crouched down next to him to get to eye level, “Everyone has powers, some of them just might not be too obvious at first.”
Todd stopped in his tracks. “This is my apartment. Thanks for taking me home, Cal-Pal.”
"You’re welcome," I stood back up and ruffled his hair. "And remember, fight off the bad guys. You’ll save a lot of people then, including yourself."
He nodded at me. I stood and waited until he was inside before I went anywhere, then I went on my way and walked back to where the fight had been so I could go find the guys.
When I got there, they were back in the car waiting for me, music turned up loud.
"So much for trying to stay quiet and slip under the radar." I said to Luke through the open window.
He ignored me, “Get in, Cal-Pal. I’m hungry, let’s go get some food.”
"We need to be more careful than that, people could find out our identities." I exclaimed, getting in the car.
"Then we’ll put our normal clothes back on and then go get something." Luke said.
We put our clothes back on on top of our costumes. We got food from the McDonald’s dollar menu and sat by the window in a booth.
"Cheers to a good first crime fighting sessions." Michael held up his paper cup full of soda. The rest of us did too, we "clinked" cups and then all took a drink.
"Hopefully, the rest of our spree today after we eat is just as as successful." Ashton added.
"Yeah, hopefully," I agreed, then watched Ashton’s face slowly turn red. "Ashton? Is something wrong?"
Michael looked the same direction that Ashton was looking, Luke and I were both seated with our back to the door. Michael’s eyes followed Elle as she walked through the McDonald’s to a table where her friends were sitting, including the girl that I liked, Belly.
