Fiction Fragment Friday
We should return to your regularly scheduled dose of the Oddity next week. This week though Fiction Fragment Friday lands on Halloween. With that in mind I wanted to do a story themed just for it. I had a story half written that might have been perfect and I intended to finish it. Then like so often happens when I feel the urge to write about him I got hit with a couple lines of dialog from Ricochet in my head.
Ricochet is one of those characters that once he gets in my head I have to write the story and when I start it just flows out nonstop. He damands for his story to be told whatever that story might be on a given week.
I hate Halloween.
Ok, I don’t really hate Halloween. The holiday for me is pretty much all about free food. Not just candy either. It’s the one night a year I can slip into parties to eat and drink all I want because everyone is in costume. Sure, they might ask you for an invitation or who you are at the door, but when you climb in through a window, you’re set. Everyone just assumes you’re supposed to be there and no one wants to admit they couldn’t figure out who was in a costume.
I also get a kick out of seeing who kids are dressing as each year. It’s a way to stay in touch with pop culture trends. With a day job as a stand-up comic, I need to know what’s still relevant. Last year I even saw a child dressed as me. Who ever thought that would be a thing? Certainly not any of my ex-girlfriends that’s for sure.
What I do hate about Halloween is the confusion. How am I supposed to tell the difference between a supervillain planning a big heist and someone on their way to a party? Everyone is in costume and some of them seem to think it’s funny to dress up as supervillains. One time I leapt off a roof and kicked Honey Badger across the street only to discover it was just a guy in a really expensive furry costume. I couldn’t even blame him for being angry with me after he told me how much it cost. It was enough that I could have paid my rent for half a year. Well the rent on my old apartment before I got evicted for not paying it and had to move in with my tech guy Lester.
I was remembering just that event when a guy on the ground I thought was heading to a party blasted me mid leap with some kind of laser. My powers let me absorb kinetic energy and funnel it into strength, speed, endurance, and generally pure awesomeness. In case you are wondering lasers are not kinetic energy. One moment I’m carefree doing a leap from rooftop to rooftop and the next I feel an intense burning in my side that causes me to go into a midair spin smashing into the side of the building instead of landing on the roof. I hit multiple levels of fire escape on my way down to the alley floor.
Thankfully every one of those impacts was kinetic energy. Now don’t think that means they didn’t hurt. I felt every one of them and I’m pretty sure I cracked a rib or two on the way down. What it does mean is that my powers kicked in and healed me after each impact as well as giving me a jolt of adrenaline. By the time I reached the ground I was able to make a full on hero landing and my head was swimming in the intoxicating rush of my powers.
I looked down at the large hole burned into my costume and pulled the loose fabric out a bit. “Oh, come on. Do you have any idea how much these things cost?” Ok, I don’t know how much they cost either. I saved a tailor’s life once and he has made my suits for me ever since. There was a stretch there where he tried to sell ads on them like I was a racecar driver though so I’m sure they aren’t cheap. Especially at the rate I go through them.
“Well, well, well. If it isn’t my old archenemy Ricochet.”
“Uhm, do I know you? I mean I’m flattered you consider me your arch, but your costume isn’t ringing any bells for me.” He was wearing a mostly yellow getup with silver boots, gloves, and a mask. Obviously not a burglar because no one is sneaking anywhere in a suit more yellow than a banana. There was a long trench coat over the costume doing a very poor job of concealing it from the back or side.
He shrugged off the trench coat letting it fall into a pile of garbage on the street. “There now do you recognize me?”
“Nope.” I leapt over him and landed behind grabbing the coat. “But if you’re going to treat this magnificent coat like that, I’m just gonna keep it.” As soon as I had the coat I flung myself to my right and bounced off the alley wall. Like I expected he blasted the ground where I had been standing with lasers coming from emitters in the knuckles of his gloves. Instead of one big beam, there were eight smaller ones.
“You stupid pest. You think you’re getting to me. I see right through you. There’s no way you forgot the name Laser Fist.”
I bounced around the alley laughing as he blasted. “Laser Fist? You really call yourself Laser Fist? That sounds like a bad porn name. I mean I admit that’s a pretty tough name to forget but I honestly don’t remember you. Despite my laughing and belittling him his blasts were starting to get very close to hitting me. I remembered how much the first one hurt and didn’t particularly want to repeat the sensation.
“I spent the last six months in jail because of you and I’d still be there if I hadn’t slipped out in the riot tonight.”
Just then I heard the crack of static in my earpiece that always came just before Lester reached out to me. “Hey Ric, I got some bad news for you.”
I whispered into my mouthpiece. “Let me guess. There was a riot at Reignsborough Penitentiary and a whole bunch of supervillains escaped?”
“Wow, that’s amazing. You really are the best hero ever.”
I grabbed a trashcan lid and flung it back at Laser Fist. “Sorry bud if it was six months ago you were probably fighting my evil clone that replaced me for a few weeks there. You didn’t even get beat by the real me just a cheap rip off.”
“Ric what are you talking about? You were never replaced by a clone. In fact your DNA is so screwed up by the cocktail of experimental medicine that gave you powers that it can’t be mapped to clone.”
“Well I know that, and you know that, but the guy I’m getting ready to punch doesn’t.” I landed right in front of Laser Fist in a crouch and shoved my fists upward driving his arms to the side. Instead of punching him like I had told Lester I gave him a big headbutt driving him back a few steps. Next I spun kicking him right in the gut causing him to double over in pain. “Sorry Laser Fist, but your parole has been revoked.” With a spinning kick to the head he crumpled to the ground unconscious.
“You were fighting Laser Fist again? How many times do you have to get that guy arrested?”
“Wait I really have fought him before?”
“Yeah, like five times. Last time we were brainstorming better names over the radio while you tricked him into a glass shop and made him blast himself with the lasers.”
“Oh yeah, I remember that. You went with Lightshow and I went with Dr. Photon McBlasty. So how many supervillains got free?”
“News says five, but I hacked the prison’s computer system, and it says twelve.”
I sighed as I slid on my snazzy new trench coat. “Ok Lester it’s gonna be a long night. I need you to do some research for me.”
“You want all their weaknesses and where they might go to hide out?”
“Oh, yeah do that to, but first I need a list of the biggest Halloween parties near me. I’m hungry.”