"Jimmy you there? Over." the radio buzzed.
"Jimmy to Central. Yes, is there a call? Over."
"Of course there is a call. Haven't you seen the news? Over." asked Harry from the other end, sounding slightly irritated.
Of course there was going to be a call. The thing was all over the news, but the last we heard was that it was almost over. Of late, the number of calls have been really high. It was getting on my nerves, and for good reason. The job wasn't easy, but I knew that when I signed up. What I didn't anticipate was that the frequency would sky rocket in a year. A call or two a month is fine, but this - five calls in a week, that's just ridiculous. I hadn't attended to the last two, so I guess this one is on me, else Frank and Harry from Central Command would kill me.
I went downstairs to the cafeteria. It was more like an entertainment center, what with speakers, couches which doubled up as beds once you pull them out and a magnificent 60 inch LCD television, complete with a surround sound system. The boys were wearing red and white hats, cheering, when Luke noticed me entering. I simply nodded at him and he mouthed "Again?" with an annoyed expression on his face.
"Alright guys let's move out. Call of Duty." Luke announced, switching the TV off. The guys protested and whined getting up.
"Damn, man it was the last quarter!" Tyler looked at me and then looked at the TV, but he knew he didn't have a choice. None of us did.
All of us went into the dressing room and got ourselves set up. The standard issue nanofiber suit felt cold on the skin, reminding me that it indeed had been a while since I wore it. All of us got dressed and the six of us headed to the garage. The garage was a huge space, big enough to fit four 18-wheeler, two cranes and a smaller armored van. The van had the exoskeleton suits inside them, in case we needed to get down and lift blocks to let the people trapped inside out. The department issued only three exoskeletons per station, but we had only two. The third exoskeleton broke down after the last operation downtown, where a building's top two floors had a huge chunk of them destroyed. One would think if at all the exoskeleton broke down, though advertised to be a one-time investment and requiring a maintenance only once in three years, it would be because of some heavy load falling on it, or something on those lines. The third suit however broke down because the guys tried arm wrestling with the suit on. Apart from the fact that the management brought hell down on us plus Nate got suspended for two weeks, that was an epic evening.
I rode in the van as usual with the exoskeletons since it was quicker to just get down at the destination wearing the suit. I entered, closing the door behind me, and sat next on the seat in the corner of the van. The 'W' on the suit glimmered in the light in the van. Luke and Don rode with me, and they were having a discussion about who would get to wear the suit today. Luke argued that he wore it the last time, so Don should wear it this time. Don on the other hand was honest about why he didn't want to wear the suit and just said that it sucks and the last time he wore it, he had to take a leave for a couple of days before he could straighten his back again. I just smiled. Over the years, I had got used to the suit. Certain movements were indeed immensely taxing on the body, and I tried to avoid them as much as I could. Moving in the suit was no easy task though the suit did manage its own weight to a certain extent.
"Confirming the convoy : Two trucks, a crane and the van." Harry called out from the radio.
"Copy that, heading towards the site now." I confirmed.
After a while, Luke and Don decided to settle it with a coin toss.
"Heads, I win, you wear the suit. Tails, I'll wear it." said Don.
The coin went up in the air and Don caught it mid-air, looked at the coin result and went "Umm... So best of three?"
We reached at the site and Don and I got down, wearing large suits, on the street where people were staring and taking pictures on their mobiles. I hated my photo being taken by random people, especially near a site. I stared directly at them, guessing it would look menacing with the suit and all, and sure enough the boys stopped recording and backed off. I turned back with a satisfied smile on my face.
"Why haven't the public been cleared from the streets? Clear them now! I want this site to be empty in five minutes" I shouted from inside the suit at the police officer in charge. He nodded and instructed some uniformed-cops to clear the area. I turned back at the building, a half of it completely missing. You could see the halls and all the rooms from the side. Water was spraying out from the bathroom, at least what was left of it, which wasn't much. Some part of it looked charred too. I opened my suit's helmet using a voice command and inquired the cop about the situation.
"The usual, two 'unidentified' subjects," the cop made a quotation symbol using his hands "flew through that half of the building. Some fighting 'might' have been involved. We would have confirmed the identities of the offenders if it wasn't for that camera having it's lens broken. Number of eye witnesses are zero as usual."
"As usual it is." I chimed in. Most of these calls were identical all the time. The site changed, the magnitude of the damage changed but the official report - always the usual. They were so identical, these calls, that the boys at the section had prepared a template for the report. Just fill in few of the details and the report was ready to be submitted. "And Frank, stop doing those quotation marks with your hands, what are you, four years old?." I said smiling at him.
"Yeah yeah, well, I don't like them either but then hey, it's not like I'm enjoying my job here! I am in Homicide/Robbery and the last proper case I had was two months ago. Now, I'm not complaining that there's less crime but leave a couple of twerps for us is all I'm saying. These asssholes have left only the paperwork part for us to be done."
"I feel you brother. I enjoy these calls as much as you do. Anyway did you vote last month?"
"Yup. Don't even ask me for whom I voted, you know that very well."
I just nodded and went back to Don. I asked him whether there were any people trapped, hurt or dead.
"Nope. Looks like the owner of the house have gone to the Hamptons for the holidays."
"Talk about good luck. Alright let's move ahead and get it over with."
We must have taken just two more steps when the radio buzzed.
"Jimmy, fall back. Now. They're coming back around. Fall back."
Anger and frustration took over me completely. I made a huge jump and smashed the radio into pieces and then made another jump, picked up the guy who hadn't stopped filming us on his iPhone, and then hurled him into the air, all in my head. I composed myself when I heard Don cursing loudly in his suit. I went back to the radio and replied calmly. "Alright, falling back. Bast-" I cut the transmission.
All of us got back in the vans and were ready to move out. Just as we were pulling out, I saw a flash of red and yellow pass by on the street, followed by a man who looked like he was made of metal shooting blue lasers towards something in the sky, where two green men flew by, one shining green and the other passing through buildings like a ghost, and a black jet plane out of which a mass of blackness just dropped on to the rooftop above us.
I closed the van door behind me. "Fucking superheroes."
