Superhero ... ish I

First instalment.

I

Jimmy looked up from her pocket calendar and scanned the rooftops on the other side of the window. The tram was standing, so the movement outside had been unmistakably there, and despite the darkness outside and the light inside the car the view of the tiled roofs was fairly clear. There HAD been something black and too large for a bird, just for a moment. She kept squinting at the roofs and the chimneys and antennae up there until the tram started moving again.

Like all other information that wasn't very useful or particularly interesting, Jimmy stored this little phenomenon somewhere way back in her head where it would probably be lost for ... well, let's say forever. So she carried on as before for a few weeks.

Glass is so fragile and easy to miss at times. The one that was sitting on the edge of the kitchen table - fuck knows why people keep putting their stuff right where it's doomed to be knocked over and fall - well, Jimmy didn't anticipate it there, of course, and as she gesticulated wildly while discussing some really important political idea or other with her father, she knocked it over. It sailed over the edge and dropped, and Jimmy caught it - or she wanted to, anyway. She thought she did, though it really did seem as though it hung suspended in the air, wobbling in midair just a tiny bit, before she grabbed it.

"Well ..." she muttered, contemplating the glass as she set it down on the table again and completely forgot the point she had been trying to make five seconds ago.

Back at home, she sat down at her desk and stared at a pencil for a few seconds. Hard. Frowned, stopped staring and started glaring.

Let's leave Jimmy to her staring exercises now and turn our attention to something far more interesting.
The future.

Not the flying cars spaceship and totalitarian police state future, but rather the future taking place only a few months from now.

The figure landed behind the man with a soft thud. As it straightened up from its crouched position he turned around. He seemed surprised, but not alarmed, and when he saw the bedouinic costume the person before him was wearing, he started grinning. His mouth opened to say something, but nothing came out but spittle and blood, followed by pieces of teeth, as Jimmy slammed a fist wrapped in leather straps into his jaw.

He groaned in outraged pain and his head came back around. He staggered backwards a little and started to assume a defensive stance, but Jimmy didn't let him catch his breath and used this instant to pull the dagger from her belt, move in with lowered head like a ram and thrust the blade into his stomach, right below the ribs. She kept shoving him backwards with her head under his chin until he fell over and off her dagger with a pitiful gurgle.

She knelt to wipe the blade on his fine pink button up shirt before it was completely drenched in blood and whatever else leaked out of him now as he jerked and mewled softly. She stood, watched for a few seconds longer until she was sure he was dead, and then dashed into the closest driveway, into a dark backyard and through nightly gardens.

On the roof of the fifth row of garages she was certain she was being followed. An animal of sorts, what else could keep up?

She let herself drop down by a couple of dumpsters and made a sharp turn to the right behind one of them, where she stopped and crouched to wait for the pursuer.

Sure enough, only a few seconds later a black shape dropped down silently where she had landed a moment ago. It straightened up and stopped. It was a person, but... seemed to be sniffing around? Jimmy cocked a brow. Really now?

The figure had obviously sensed that she was still close, so there was no need to stay still any longer. Jimmy pulled herself up onto the dumpster lid and squatted there, facing the figure. They were black-clad and covered in rivets and chains. Kinky, Jimmy thought and smirked. Not that the person could see that. Jimmy's face was still covered with the scarf. The cocked eyebrow was very visible, though, and the person smiled in return. They wore a white noseband for a mask, so that eyes and mouth were visible.

"Why did you do that?" The voice had the same young, androgynously attractive qualities as the look.
"Do what?" Jimmy replied harshly. Her voice was rough and slightly muffled by the scarf.

"Kill that man."

What's it to you? Jimmy thought. "He'd bragged about beating up his dog."

The pretty person blinked.

"Also, he had horrible taste in shirts." Jimmy shrugged.

The pretty person laughed, but stopped herself at once and cleared her throat, then proceeded to size Jimmy up.

Jimmy did the same and waited patiently. This person evidently wanted something.

"Who are you?" asked the person.

Jimmy tilted her head a little. "What do I look like?"

"... To be honest, you look like Assassin's Creed meets Al Qaeda."

"Then you may call me Al the Assassin, if you like."

The person laughed again. Jimmy smiled under the scarf.

"You may regret you said that. ... Al." She gestured to her chest. "I'm The Shade."

Jimmy nodded politely. "And what does The Shade do?"

The Shade shrugged delicately and looked at a tree.

"The Shade takes leisurely strolls in the night - parkour style?" Jimmy suggested. The Shade snickered again.

"Being a shade includes following people, and appearing randomly." She turned back to Jimmy and came a step closer. "And if said people happen to take leisurely strolls through the night, I happen to do the same, yes - parkour style."

Jimmy hadn't moved yet. "And this begs the question ... why?"

The Shade affected a surprised look. "You killed someone? In a pretty gruesome way, without provocation? That's ... intriguing."

Intriguing? Now that's a comment that intrigues me, Jimmy thought with a smirk.

"I thought... I might find out why," The Shade continued with a shy glance up at Jimmy.

"I just told you why. He was an asshole," Jimmy said matter-of-factly.

"So you are an assassin and it was really not a joke?"

Jimmy shrugged. "So it would seem."

The Shade kept looking Jimmy up curiously.

"Why?"
Jimmy blinked impatiently.

"To rid the world of assholes."

To the next part.