I have a limited time to improve as fast as I can before the lab makes any moves. Hopefully, whatever I find on patrol will give me the experience I need.

  I bound across rooftops, relishing? my slowly growing skill at controlling my body’s movements.

  Landing with a roll, I stop at an intersection, pulling out my phone to check the time. Reyna was only willing to watch Bianca for so long tonight.

  Putting my phone back, I scale my way back up to the rooftops before bounding around, looking for anything.

  This is good practice for expanding my mental awareness because up here I can’t make everything out with the brain map, and I’m pushing it farther in the attempts to improve.

  Desperately, I want to take another one of those Enhancement patches to go beyond my limits. The power is exhilarating. But I only have twenty-three left, and I doubt it’s going to be easy to steal any more of them without risking getting caught.

  Though if they're going to sell it…

  I shake my head, stopping all thoughts about continuing my crusade against the lab. Even if I could fight them right now, which I’m not good enough for. I don’t want to draw attention to Bianca and myself right now.

  Besides, if I start making waves already as a new up and comer, they’ll slow down activity more.

  As I look up at a skyscraper, I realize that I’m not scaling that one without just jaywalking through the building as if I own the place.

  Maybe there’s superhuman eBay and I can buy a grappling hook, let me swing around a lot faster than just running around, I imagine.

  Desires for a grappling hook aside, I try to make my way to a busier section of town where there are multiple stores. Most are already closed for the night, but if I were going to do crime, then this time of night and somewhere near here seems like the best choice.

  The problem is that from this far away I can’t make out stuff with my mind map, so I’m relying on my eyes.

  Once in a good central location, I pick a building to camp out on.

  Settling myself down so I’m staring out at the stores, I wonder if it is against the vigilante code of conduct to listen to music while staking out an area.

  Either the vigilante gods are smiling upon me, the criminal god's are frowning upon this two or karma is hitting the electronics store but I watch as two people jimmy open the door and begin to quickly go from the store to their truck bringing more and more stuff with them.

  “Alrighty, let’s do this.” I whisper as I push myself to my feet, remaining in a crouch so they can’t see me.

  They are taking a while to load up the van, but I suppose that’s fair; it’s a large van and a relatively big store.

  I’m going to add binoculars to my super outfit so that I can actually see properly.

  With a flicker, the lights on the car blaze into existence, and they pull out of their parking place to make their grand escape.

  Towards me?

  No way, actually?

  They’re actually driving towards me, which ?I’m qualifying as a low-level miracle, but it means I gotta put my money where my mouth is for this whole hero thing.

  I take a few seconds to figure out the timing and pick where I want to land.

  I’ve fallen from greater heights than this, so it should be pretty easy for me to shake it off. And if I land right in front of them, they’ll probably stop their car because they don’t want to run me over, right?

  Now!

  Leaping off the building, I flail wildly, but I’m on target and crash into the street in a classic three-point landing, instantly regretting the decision-making process that led me to this point.

  The car oncoming I phase in case they don’t stop and feel the car rush through me stopping suddenly, the wheels screaming in pain.

  They did not stop in time to not hit me. In fact, they overshot by about six feet, but I can cover six feet. If they had kept going, I doubt I would have been able to stop them.

  “You hit someone!” The passenger seat criminal says getting out of the car.

  “We’re trying to make a getaway. The fuck cares that I hit someone? Why do we need to stop?” The driver shouts back.

  I get up and dart towards the passenger. If I’m going to do this, I have to do it right.

  As the passenger turns to face me, I charge into them, knocking them to the ground with a thud. I hope they’re mostly okay.

  “You two do know that stealing is wrong, right?” I say, putting a hand on the car door as I stare down the driver hopefully, the look in my eyes daring him to make a move and informing him that no move is going to get him out of this.

  Shit!

  Watching almost in slowmo, I see the perp on the ground pull out a gun and squeeze the trigger.

  The bullet slams into my right shoulder, ruining the jacket I was wearing and hurting something fierce, but I’m not blacking out from pain, and from what I can see and feel, the bullet didn’t even fully penetrate.

  I let out a laugh of hysteria. I’m bulletproof.

  Well, bullet resistant.

  My left hand jerks forward as the car begins moving. Apparently, my steely sunglasses-clad glare did not scare the second guy enough, and he’s driving while I’m hanging on.

  Trying to run along it quickly becomes futile as the car accelerates faster until I can’t keep up.

  Hanging on the side of the car, I keep an ironclad grip trying to figure out the best way to get into the car and figure out how to stop this guy without making us crash?

  Break it into easier pieces.

  I can’t do the latter parts of this if I can’t get into the car. The easiest way to do that would be to open the door and swing my way inside.

  I need something to grip if I want to do that because the handle I’m using to hold on to the car won’t make a great one if I’m opening the door.

  The window might work?

  Raising my aching right arm, I ball my fingers into a fist before slamming it into the window.

  The first punch rattles the door, and I really wish I could punch with my left arm here. It would be way easier.

  The second punch cracks the window, spreading a spiderweb of future told destruction.

  The next one is going to do that.

  Winding back as far as I can while hanging on to the passenger door like a lunatic, I punch as hard as I can, blasting through the glass and sending it scattering inside.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Thankfully, there’s nothing in there. I’m worried about breaking the only two living things in the vehicle were the driver and his accomplice, and with the accomplice gone, it’s just him and he should be well out of the way of the glass.

  Now, the hard part.

  Pulling myself forward with my left arm, I latch onto the handle with my right hand as soon as I believe my grip is secure; I release the handle and shove my left arm through the window, hugging the door with all of my might.

  “Would you be so kind as to pull over by any chance?” I shout as we round the bend, heading towards the highway.

  “Fuck you!” he shouts continuously, glancing at the door as if I’m going to break in and kill him as if I’m some kind of phantom of the night.

  Though he’s not entirely wrong, I am going to break in, and hopefully it’s going to be a phantom of the night sort of thing, but I’m not going to kill anyone.

  Accidents aside, I’m really hoping that I never have to kill a single person.

  Though if I find out Amelia is dead, I might be willing to off some of the scientists.

  I’m letting myself get distracted.

  On three, I’ll throw open the door and try to propel myself inside.

  On one, we take the final turn before we ?eventually merge onto the highway.

  At two I begin to gently tug on the door, testing to see how much resistance I’m going to face to do so.

  And three.

  With a roar of effort, I swing the door open and propel myself inside with a mad scramble getting into the passenger side of the car.

  As the door slams shut behind me, I wonder if there was an easier way I could have done all of this. Like I don’t know using my superpower to just jump in the first place?

  “So, would you please stop the car?” I ask, looking over at him with hope.

  He lets out a vicious scream as he attempts to punch me in the face with his free hand.

  Catching the fist, I slam my free hand into his side, and I can feel something crack beneath my blow, making both of us wince.

  Him in pain and me in feeling sorry about it.

  “I’m sorry!” I say, reaching over to grab the handle above his door. If he won’t stop the car, my only option is to go on top of him and stop the car myself!

  His continued attacks are really easy to ignore now that I’m fully phased, but his attack on the hand holding the handle hurts!

  “Stop hitting me!” I say, elbowing him as I get into the seat, sort of.

  I’m more hanging myself in a sitting position by holding onto the wheel and bracing my feet, but it’s close enough I can sort of drive.

  I keep twisting my head around, trying to get my eyes free from this guy’s body so I can see where we are supposed to be going.

  I really don’t want to have him be hitting the accelerator while I’m trying to stop the car as that will only do bad things.

  “If you won’t stop thrashing around, I will have to knock you out!” I yell, jerking the wheel to the right so we can avoid hitting a streetlight.

  “Get the fuck out of me, you ghost shit!” He screams, reaching up towards his face as if trying to claw me out of him, but all he’s really doing is getting his fingers in my eye, which does not help.

  “I warned you!” I say before beginning to hit him again as I shift around so that I can.

  Quite pesky that I can’t pass through myself.

  After a few blows, I get him to stop struggling, and now I can slow the car down properly.

  Do I call 822 here where the car is or do I drive to where the first person was and then call so that the police can catch both of them?

  Do I not call at all and just tie them up and hope that someone is going to find them?

  How is someone to do this whole secret identity thing as a vigilante? I know that I won’t use my phone. I’ll use one of their phones, but that’s as far as I’ve gotten.

  Actually, I don’t know where we left the last guy. I was focused on getting into the car and, you know, not flying off of it.

  I’ll just pull over here. One perpetrator and all the stuff they stole is an alright haul, I think?

  Pulling over into a parking lot, I get out of the car and try to figure out how I want to restrain my captive.

  And the car I don’t want him driving away, but am I supposed to stay here vigilant until the police get here to pick them up?

  After a harrowing search, I use some ties they used to situate the electronics to bind this guy’s hands and feet together before I look for something important to take out of the car?

  What parts of a car are under twenty-five pounds?

  I got no clue.

  Taking out the criminal's phone, I call the police and don’t answer a lot of the questions before leaving the call on and running off quickly, finding a building to scale with my powers and perch up on the rooftop to watch.

  I screwed up more parts of tonight than I succeeded, so I at least want to try to stick the landing with this guy heading towards jail and the electronics being returned to the store.

  Eventually, a few squad cars pull up, and while the police officers mill around looking for me, I decide to hide to the best of my ability as I spy.

  After about thirty minutes of doing who knows what, the criminal is taken away and a tow truck arrives to take the van somewhere?

  Hopefully, the poor store owner gets everything back.

  Checking the time, I see it isn’t as late as I thought it was going to be. At this pace, I can probably go and stop at least one more crime if I’m fast?

  Shoving my phone back into my pocket, I stand up and launch myself to a nearby building, already aiming myself towards the center of town.

  “Stop!” A voice over a loudspeaker calls out and as the red and blue lights of the police cars back light me I wonder if I should have waited for the police to leave the area before suspiciously bouncing across rooftops to run away and do more vigilantism.

  I wisely elect to neither turn my head nor say anything to the police as I keep running, but as the sirens blare, I have to come up with an idea.

  I’m confident that I can shake them.

  All I would need to do is find somewhere to slip into the sewers as I round the corner and vanish.

  The problem is more of a where I want to go.

  A grin breaks out across my face as I leap high into the air, ignoring the wind roaring in my ears as I look around, trying to orient myself fully.

  I won’t be able to run on rooftops the whole way there, which means I’m going to have to use the streets just like everyone else, but on the off chance that a miracle is born and that this works?

  I have to try it.

  Landing in a crouch before bounding forward, using my temporary advantage of not having to run on the ground as long as I can as I aim for the corner of Jefferson and Throne.

  As I use a lamppost to spin around and take the corner faster, I can make out three cars, all with lights and sirens blaring.

  “Do you all not have anything better to do?” I grumble to myself as I run as fast as possible.

  I am not nearly as fast as a car. At least not cops ignoring these recommended speed signs. But I am fast and, more than that, I can run in a significantly straighter line, then they can drive.

  Cutting through someone’s front yard, I run through a minivan speeding up.

  A few minutes ago I thought I should go at a controlled pace with this because I want them to follow me to the lab, but now I need to go as fast as possible.

  The problem with that being they are catching up so I need to stay in a place where I can drop down and bug out escaping scot free which means I am slowing down even more since most of my easy bug out spots are on the normal street which they are also using.

  I’m not going to make it all the way to the lab.

  It’s not the thought I want to have blaring through my head, but I’ve been running top speed for almost five minutes and they’re to the point I don’t know if I could even round a corner to use my powers.

  It’s quickly becoming a how many of them will see me use my powers question.

  As a squad car speeds up on my right, I propel myself to the left, rounding the corner only to see several police cars, officers, and guns pointed at me.

  “Fuck!” I squeal as I try to come up with a plan.

  The extent of my plan is: do something that does not make me test just how bullet resistant I might be.

  “Stop resisting. We mean you no harm. But if you continue to run, we will have to use force!” The officer with the megaphone says, holding a hand up to me, as if that’s going to stop my advance at all.

  Sewer beneath me? Possible.

  Charging through them? Possible.

  Dashing into one of these buildings and trying to lose them? Maybe.

  Putting my head down, I pump my legs faster, aiming to get as close to the police barrier as possible.

  I don’t know who shot first, but the sound of gunshots begin to destroy my ears.

  Aren’t they afraid of shooting one of their friends?

  With a grunt, I leap forward, going entirely for distance instead of height.

  As the barrier hurtles towards me, I phase.

  Sweet relief greets me as my body becomes insubstantial. Maybe it’s because the sound is just passing through me, but my ears are no longer being assaulted by the cacophony of shots.

  They’re ringing, sure, but I’m free from the sound itself.

  The arc of the leap would have me just slamming into the barrier and collapsing to the ground at worst. At best, I guess I would topple over the top half and lay on the ground on the other side, getting really comfortable with the legs of the officers.

  Not wanting either of those fates, I leave my powers on, passing through it and falling through the ground as I’m inside the barrier.

  Hopefully, they’ll just think I teleported or something like that.

  As I touch down in the tunnels and I immediately start doubling back, planning on getting as far from here as possible.

  Though I’m not planning on popping up right outside my apartment complex, that sounds like a wildly bad idea.

  I need somewhere I can escape to when I do stuff like this that I won’t mind if it gets compromised or known??

  The clock tower.

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