Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: RELAX (06/08/17)
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TITLE: Why I Never Get a Day Off | Previous Challenge Entry
By Art Westefeld
06/14/17 -
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I knew my dad, the original Speedster, had a busy life, but I never expected that with our speed powers I presumed that I’d have time enough to get things done in a hurry. And thus I could relax, in theory.
It seems that on my days off is when supervillains want to pull their various capers.
I used to be a regular church going woman, however with fighting super crime, I just seem to oversleep on Sunday mornings, likely from staying out late Saturday night stopping supervillains. When I get up on Sunday, I start my day hearing on the news about the ones who got away with their acts of crime, so I need to follow up on those villains on Sunday afternoon. Obviously I always catch them. What kind of superhero would I be if they got away with their villainy?
So this last weekend, some friends and I went to a local waterpark to enjoy a day of togetherness. Naturally I had my costume with me, just in case. We had just started on the tube float, which ran a winding course through the park, a good way to relax. Just lie in an inner tube and float in the artificial current, Doing nothing but staring up at a clear blue sky. I was certain no super crime would happen here.
Unfortunately, Dad’s old adage of being ready for anything, even in a peaceful setting, was accurate. It reminded me of when Dad was out for a jog, at normal speed, and a costumed villain named the Jester attacked him just because he was jogging in his old police academy sweatshirt.
I was jerked out of my sun-induced daze by shouting of panicked people and the squawk of security personnel radios.
A supervillain was attacking the front gate to steal the day’s gross. Not a standard target for the general supervillain, but there were tens of thousands in paid admissions, so it wasn’t a total waste of time for the villain. A newbie calling herself the Purple Flame. She was a standard pyrokinetic, with the ability to control any flame she could see. I gathered she wanted to confront Speedster to build up street creds.
As she made her real slow getaway, toasting a few police cars, and security people to a lesser extent, I got off the ride, ducked into a restroom to change into my costume, and sped to the parking lot where the standoff continued unabated. To preserve my secret, I left the park and came in from behind the burning cars.
Passing the cars, after I used my powers to extinguish the flames, I confronted Purple Flame.
In my best superhero bellow I called out, “Stop where you are, and no one else needs to be hurt!”
She responded with the expected, “No one but you, Speedster!”
Cliched dialouge, yes, but as I said, she was a rookie.
I had to finish this quickly, (how else?) before my friends realized that I wasn’t on the float ride anymore. So I ran at her at speed, counting on the force of a light punch delivered at superspeed, to take her down. Apparently she could fly by making the air around her light up and riding the thermals. Thus, she avoided my direct attack, so I had to use strategy to stop her actions. In a standard move, I raced in a circle beneath her until the oxygen was pulled out of the air by creating a vacuum. Her flame snuffed out, she fell right into my waiting arms.
Of course, there was a TV crew on hand to catch the action. Alas, it happened to be a competing station. I answered their attempt to interview me with a brisk, “No comment,” then returned to the float ride, where I spent the day worrying about sunburn, and running up my credit card bill at the various food stands. A working heroine needs to keep her strength up, after all, with so little time to relax.
It seemed like the rest of the weekend made up for my interrupted afternoon. No more supercrime.
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