Superhero ... ish II

Second instalment:

II

The Shade was still only observing Jimmy, whose patience had nearly run out now.

"Is this going anywhere? Or can I be on my way now? Alone?"

The Shade's eye which was not covered by an artfully straightened strand of black hair widened a little.

"I'm not keeping you here."

Jimmy snorted.

"I know you're not keeping me. But will you stop following me now?"

She had to smirk just a tiny bit again when The Shade glanced away shyly and pulled her thin black hood a little further over her forehead.

"Of course..."

"Well, splendid!" said Jimmy, rather gruffly, as she stood up briskly. She let herself drop down from the dumpster lid on the side where she'd hid from The Shade at first, and made it a point to vanish into the very closest pair of bushes as quickly as possible.

Naturally, The Shade occupied Jimmy's thoughts for quite a while after that. For weeks, to be exact. She took to staring at random people with physiques roughly comparable to The Shade's to see if they could be she, but could never be certain whether or not she had found her out. She had a very bad memory for faces. She could talk to a person for hours on end, looking them in the face and afterwards would not be able to swear if that person had worn glasses or what their eye colour was. So that youthful face obscured by that stupid nose mask thing and a hair curtain, in the fucking dark, was kind of hard for Jimmy to identify. Once she saw a girl on the subway, was absolutely certain it was her and hid behind her book while observing her the whole time she was in view, only to learn a few minutes later that she was in a wheelchair. And quite comfortably too, as if she were used to it. That was when Jimmy actually slapped herself in public and decided to let it go. She had not been followed on her nightly escapades recently, and if The Shade never turned up again, that was that, and if she did, well, there was no need to keep looking for her.

One of the prettiest, best-kept parts of town was the financial district, of course, which was cleverly surrounded by playhouses, expensive bars, cafés, fancy restaurants, at least three hotels, the philharmonics and the priciest boutiques. Some of these adjoined a small park with lovely flowerbeds and a big fountain sculpture. There was a subway entrance right next to it and it was hemmed in with art nouveau streetlamps and young sycamores. At night, it all looked especially clean and sharp, the lights and the glittering water of the fountain, the white reflections on the windows of the old buildings and the expensive black and silver cars parked all around them all made this the ideal backdrop for a nightly walk after watching a classical play or listening to a Dvorak concert.

It was perfectly idyllic.

It really was.

Over how lovely and peaceful it all was, Jimmy almost forgot to do what she came for.

The high pitched giggling and poncey buttwagging of a heavily perfumed ... woman ... reminded her.

This particular ... person... and her male companion where just on their way to Fancy Restaurant X and doing their best to impress each other on the way, Jimmy learned by listening in from up in a chestnut tree. This tree and its immediate neighbours lined a gravel path along with several thick bushes. Their branches provided a thick canopy over the path, effectively blocking the view of the path from everywhere but its entrance and exit.

The couple entered this quiet gloom, quickening their steps. Jimmy scanned the vicinity for any potential witnesses, then leaped to a lower branch of her tree and dropped down quietly. Without trying to sneak she caught up to the two people. Only a few metres behind them, she cleared her throat loudly.

"Excuse me. Do you know what time it is?"

The woman jumped a little and they both turned around quickly, the woman holding onto his arm. The man reached into his pant pocket, presumably to take his phone out to look at the clock, but upon noticing Jimmy's clothes, started to snort.

"Look, a Taliban!"

Jimmy lifted her arms and held out her hands, the open palms pointing at their faces, and stared the woman down:

"Sleep."
She let go of the man's arm and sunk to the ground. Her companion watched this in bewilderment, not even trying to catch her fall, until

"Thank you. A pleasure doing business with you. Moron."

He stared at the empty, dark gravel path in front of him, then noticed he was holding something in his hand. It was his wallet. Denise was lying at his feet, hugging her small handbag and snoring peacefully.

Jimmy sat on the quiet edge of one of the several flat roofs of one of the many ugly public office buildings in the city centre, and chewed gum from an ancient little gum vending machine that spat out unwrapped, coloured balls for a few cents. This gum had come with a sticky rubber toy on an elastic string. Jimmy had the time of her life.

"Come out, I can hear you giggling."

The Shade approached her with crunchy steps on the gravel and stopped in a few metres distance.

"You had a busy night."

"I did." Jimmy turned and looked at The Shade, who seemed amused and a little embarrassed at the same time. She tossed the squishy, sticky rubber ball at her. Alarmed, The Shade quickly bent out of the way, but caught it in the last second and gave a soft snort.

"You rob people and use their money to buy trashy toys and sweets?"

Jimmy tilted her head and thought about it.

"Hm. In a nutshell, yes. Although I have to admit, sometimes I buy pointless shit like food and soap, too."

The Shade cocked an eyebrow - or lifted both of them, Jimmy could only see one of them, after all.

"I know. It's shameful. I should eat less, save it all and buy a tank."

The Shade laughed.

She came another step closer and put the sticky ball down on the concrete ledge of the roof before sitting down herself. This was long-winded and looked complicated, but in the end, her straightbacked, cross-legged position looked comfortable enough. Jimmy blinked slowly.

"I'm not going to attack you, or tell on you or anything like that. So can I ask something?"

"Of course."

"How did you get your powers?"

Jimmy looked her up. She seemed genuinely curious and very serious. As if this were a very personal matter to her. So Jimmy turned serious as well.

"I will not tell you."

The Shade nodded.

They looked out over the dark city.

"You said you wanted to rid the world of assholes. Did you mean that?"

"Yes."

"Then why do you rob people?"

Jimmy looked back at The Shade.

"Because I want what they have. What's your point?"

The Shade looked right back.

"Doesn't that make you an asshole?"

Jimmy smiled a little under the scarf.

"No. It makes me a robber. Being a good person and abiding the law are not the same thing, my sweet."

The Shade managed to blush.

"And I still fail to see your point. I can have the goal to get rid of assholes and still be one."

The Shade cleared her throat.

"But it would be very inconsistent."

"That is true."

Jimmy took her scarf down and blew a gum bubble.

"Show me your face," she said simply.

To her surprise, The Shade pulled her nose bandage down without hesitation.

"... Holy fuck."

To the next part.