Superhero Story - 1

Superhero Story

Despite being rather thin, as a six-foot-two man who dressed like the poor college student he was, Lucas Pyke was not accustomed to being accosted by street thugs.

“Give me all your money!” The man had a black ski mask pulled over his face and he was wearing a bulky sweater with baggy jeans. In his hand was a switch blade.

Lucas cocked his head to one side. “What money? I think I’ve got some quarters in my pocket you can have.” He reached into his pants, pulled out seventy-five cents and held it out to the mugger.

“Your credit cards and your phone, then!” His assailant sounded agitated. He was of average height and was probably scrawny under his loose clothing, but it was hard to tell.

“I don’t have a credit card. Here’s my phone.” Lucas pulled his five year old flip phone out of his other pocket.

“Don’t you have anything worth anything?” The robber growled. He grabbed the phone and threw it across the street. It broke into several pieces when it landed.

Lucas looked down at his shabby clothing and shrugged.

“Come on, man! I’m desperate! You’re holding out on me, aren’t you!” The tough took an aggressive step forward.

“Easy there. I really don’t have anything of value. You probably ought to be doing this over by the frats and sorority houses. That’s where all the rich college kids live. Only the poor ones live in this part of the U District.”

“Shut up! I know what I’m doing!” A note of panic had crept into his voice.

Lucas couldn’t stop himself from chuckling. “No, you obviously don’t.”

“Why the hell are you so calm? I could kill you any second!”

Again, Lucas shrugged. “I guess I’m just a calm guy. That, and you don’t seem particularly violent.”

“Oh really? Would a guy who wasn’t violent do this?” He thrust the knife at Lucas and cut his left arm just above the elbow.

“Son of a bitch!” Lucas threw a punch with his right fist without thinking. The blow landed on the crook’s nose and staggered him.

The mugger threw himself as Lucas, but Lucas twisted away from the knife so he only got a scratch along his ribcage. The two of them fell to the dirty sidewalk, Lucas holding the thief’s wrists. They wrestled for a moment and then Lucas headbutted his attacker. His forehead hit the young man’s already broken nose and the knife clattered to the pavement.

Lucas kicked the knife away and stood up with some effort. With the quick, jerky movements that only adrenaline fueled desperation can give, the robber punched Lucas in the groin. Doubling over in pain, Lucas didn’t see which way the thug went.

Eventually, Lucas was able to limp home to the cramped apartment he shared with his best friend Virgil. He begrudged every step as he climbed the three flights of stairs it took to get him to their front door. Lucas fumbled with the keys, but got the door open finally, and was rewarded for his efforts with a flying-tiger tackle from a giggling blonde.

“We thought you were never going to make it!” Ellie hugged Lucas’ neck as she pinned him to the hallway floor.

Lucas could only groan in reply.

“What’s the matter?” Her perky grin instantly melted away to horror when she saw Lucas’ bloodstained shirt. “What happened? Oh my God, Maggie! Get over here, Lucas is hurt!”

After lifting being lifted up with far more tender strength than Lucas would have guessed Ellie possessed, he let her lead him into the apartment and lay him down on their lumpy couch. Lucas was starting to feel less like he had just been punched in the testicles, but what he had initially thought to be a scratch along his ribs was proving to be nearly as painful as the deeper gouge in his arm.

“Don’t you have any bandages or antiseptics?” Lucas could hear Maggie shouting at Virgil as she rummaged through their pitiful kitchen cupboards.

“He’s never come home stabbed before!” Virgil protested.

While the search for proper medical equipment continued, Ellie yanked the shoelaces out from one of her shoes and tied a quick torquinet around Lucas’ arm. She looked around the living room for a moment, then pulled off her t-shirt in one fluid motion and pressed it against Lucas’ ribs to staunch the bleeding.

Lucas did his best to look at Ellie’s pretty face rather than her bright green bra. He focused on the details, the curve of her mouth, the angle of her nose, the sparkle in her blue eyes.

“Quit blushing, it’s no different than when we go lap swimming,” Ellie scolded playfully.

“I’ll stop blushing as soon you do.” Lucas chuckled and instantly regretted it.

“Don’t do that!” Ellie put her other hand firmly on his chest to hold him still. She was now leaning over him and staring intently into his eyes.

Maybe it was the bloodloss that made him brave, but Lucas leaned his head forward towards Ellie—to kiss her, he realized after he had already started moving—and she was bending down closer to him!

But in a flurry of red hair and harsh language the kiss was aborted. Maggie pulled Ellie out of her way, barked at her to get back to keeping pressure on Lucas’ ribs, and got to work on her patient.

Maggie was a genius and her mission in life was to heal the sick. She had some huge government grant to build some kind of suit that sped up the healing process and even Ellie didn’t fully understand how it worked. So when Maggie knelt beside Lucas with a needle, thread, a bottle of vodka and a lighter he had no qualms about letting her operate on him.

She stitched and muttered and cursed, but when she was done Lucas was no longer bleeding from either wound. “Why the hell aren’t you at a hospital?” Maggie growled once she was finished.

“He took my phone and the apartment was closer than the Med Center.” The University of Washington had an excellent hospital, but it was on the other side of campus, which meant it was miles away.

“He took your phone?” Virgil asked, incredulous.

“And then he threw it away,” Lucas admitted sheepishly.

“Never mind that! What happened?” Ellie was still not wearing a shirt and her hands were covered in Lucas’ blood.

“Some idiot with a knife. I think it was his first mugging, he wasn’t very good at it.”

“Good enough to stab you!” Maggie snapped. Then her expression softened and her eyes lit up. “Hey! I know, you can test my suit!”

“Maggie! You can’t test your experiments out on Lucas!” Ellie protested, crossing her arms across her chest and planting her feet defiantly.

“Nonsense, I’ve got the green light to test it out.” Maggie waved her hand dismissively. “Meet me at my lab in the bioengineering building first thing in the morning. Oh, there’s so much to do!” She began gathering up her things to leave.

“But don’t you think Lucas needs his doctor here for the night, just in case something should happen?” Virgil put his hands on Maggie’s waist and kissed the base of her neck.

“He’ll be fine! So much to do…” She trailed off and bit her lip. Lucas and Ellie watched, thoroughly amused, as Maggie wrestled with her eternal struggle: her work versus Virgil. The two of them had grown up next door to one another and seemed to be each other’s only weakness.

“That can all be done in the morning!” Virgil turned Maggie around so she was facing him. “What matters right now is Lucas’ safety.” His voice was serious, but Lucas could see the little smirk at the corner of his best friend’s mouth.

“Fine!” Maggie threw up her hands, dropped her coat and purse, then grabbed Virgil’s shirt collar and dragged him into the bedroom, kicking the door closed behind them. She may not have been able to resist Virgil, but she certainly wasn’t fooled by him.

Ellie shook her head. “So you’re going to let her test the suit out on you?”

Lucas shrugged. “Why not? It’s Maggie, she knows what she’s doing.”

“I suppose…”

Lucas reached out from where he sat on the couch and took her blood encrusted hand in his own equally bloody hand. “Everything‘s going to be alright, I promise.”

Ellie rocked back and forth for a second, then smiled. “Okay, but I’m going to be there to make sure nothing goes wrong.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“Now let’s wash your blood off our hands.” She gingerly pulled him into a standing position and they scrubbed their hands clean in the kitchen sink.

“Lucas Pyke! I see you peeking!” Ellie accused as they washed their hands.

The two of them were standing side by side at the sink and, truth be told, Lucas had been using his several inches of extra height to look down at Ellie’s chest. She was not an overly busty girl, but that did not mean she was anything but stunning while shirtless. “I was doing no such thing!”

“Don’t you lie to me! You’re a horrible liar anyway.” She couldn’t quite keep the smile off of her face as she chastised him.

“Maybe I did…a bit.”

“A bit? You’re lucky I didn’t catch you drooling!”

“Drooling? I’ll admit to peeking, but there was no drooling!”

“Well, if you are going to be a pervert, I’m going to put a shirt on,” she said with an exaggerated huff as she dried her hands and threw the towel at Lucas.

Lucas chased her into his bedroom where she was rummaging through his dresser. He leaned against the doorframe and watched Ellie pretend to make a scene.

T-shirts and socks flew in every direction as she dug though the drawers. “All your shirts are so ugly! No, this will never do! Nope. Oh no. Yuck!”

“They aren’t as bad as all that.”

Ellie smirked at him over her shoulder before returning to her rummaging. Then all of the sudden, she stopped. She reached down into the back of the t-shirt drawer and—her hand trembling slightly—grabbed a purple shirt with a photograph of the four of them from freshman year printed on the front. Ellie’s father had taken that picture when he came to visit them. He had given Virgil, Maggie, Lucas, and Ellie the shirts last year; right before he died.

Ellie cradled the shirt in her hands before throwing it back into the drawer as though it burned her fingers to touch it. Then she snatched a random shirt and darted past Lucas with tears welling in her eyes.

She was across the hall and into the bathroom with the door locked before Lucas had time to turn around. Lucas walked over to the door and could hear her crying. He knocked softly.

“I just need to brush my teeth. You can go on to bed, you need your rest.”

“I can stay up a while longer.”

“I…I just need to be alone for a little bit.”

Lucas stared at the door for a minute. He could hardly keep his eyes open. “Alright. Good night.”

“Good night.” She turned the faucet on so he couldn’t hear her crying any more.

With a sigh, Lucas sat down in the hallway, leaned back against the wall, and waited. Ellie and her mom were not close, so losing her dad had been devastating. It was the reason Lucas and Ellie hadn’t gotten together last year when they really, really should have. The long distance boyfriend had finally been gone. The crazy ex-girlfriend had been dealt with. Lucas had thought nothing could stop them.

And when Lucas drifted off to sleep, he dreamed that nothing had stopped them.

*

Ellie dried the last of her tears and gave herself a long, hard look in the mirror. “You were in his bedroom. His bedroom! And you still managed to screw it up.” She shook her head, blonde locks swinging to and fro.

When she opened the door she saw Lucas asleep on the floor. Ellie put her hands on her hips. “You stubborn idiot,” she whispered. “I don’t deserve you.”

She bent down to help him up, but couldn’t help herself—she kissed him on the cheek before waking him and getting him moved into his bed.

Lucas muttered some incoherent thanks and then Ellie went to sleep on the couch that Lucas hadn’t bled all over.

*

The suit was blue, skin tight, and covered Lucas’ entire body save for his head, hands, and feet.

“What if I have to go to the bathroom?” Lucas was in the middle of Maggie’s lab. Maggie was making last minute adjustments from her computer console before she powered up the suit.

Maggie rolled her eyes. “It’s designed to be used by people rendered completely helpless by their accidents or illnesses. Of course there’s a waste disposal system!”

“Okay, just checking. It’s very tight.”

Ellie ran her eyes up and down the length of Lucas’ body. “Payback’s a bitch, huh?”

Lucas shrugged and looked down at her chest. “Worth it, though.”

Ellie blushed.

“Alright you two, enough of that!” Maggie snapped. “It’s time to plug you in. Lie down on your back.”

Virgil helped Maggie haul an enormous power cord over to Lucas. They strapped the strange looking cord to circular ports on Lucas’ chest, shoulders, and thighs.

Ellie knelt beside Lucas and took his hand. “You’re sure that you want to do this? It’s not too late to back out.”

“Everything is going to be fine, I promise.” He squeezed her hand.

Maggie waved everyone back and then threw the switch. Electricity jolted Lucas. Energy coursed through him. His whole body burned…and it felt amazing! Lucas was sure that he could lift a car over his head with ease.

Then sparks began to fly from the power ports. Maggie swore and began feverishly entering commands into her control console. Lucas gasped. It was starting to hurt now. He could hear Ellie screaming.

And suddenly it stopped. Maggie breathed a sigh of relief and slumped down over her computer. Ellie tore free of Virgil’s restraining grip and threw herself down beside Lucas.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt? Answer me!”

Lucas chuckled. “I would if you gave me half a chance. I’m fine. Better than fine, actually.” He could still feel electricity pulsing through his muscles and while he longer felt able to lift a car, he still felt bizarrely strong.

“Sorry about that!” Maggie called. “A slight miscalculation due to Lucas being so damn tall and skinny. I was designing this for old people with crippling injuries.”

“No worries, I feel great!” Lucas waited while Maggie and Virgil unhooked him from the power cables.

“Shouldn’t we take the suit off to make sure he wasn’t burned by all those sparks?” Ellie asked.

Maggie bit her lower lip nervously. “I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

Ellie put her hands on her hips and rounded on her friend. “What do you mean?”

“According to the last readings I got, the suit is rather more…attached to Lucas than what I would consider advisable.”

“And what the hell does that mean?” Ellie demanded.

“That we are going to have to be patient, that’s all. The bond between the suit and his skin should begin to weaken after a couple days. Then he can take it off.”

“Should?”

“Well there’s no guarantee, I have no data for this contingency, but I’m about as certain as I can be that there will be no lasting effects.”

“I’m sure everything will work out,” Lucas told Ellie. He put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down.

“Not to be crude,” Virgil interjected, “but, I’m not going to have to live with him for the next two days while he goes to the bathroom in that thing, am I?”

Maggie groaned. “Of course not! I told you, there is a waste disposal system. Lucas will attach one of the waste bags to the tube by his ankle when he has to go and then throw the sealed bag away. The suit takes care of hygiene afterwards.”

“How…practical.” Virgil grimaced.

“This is a miracle of human ingenuity and all you can think about is poop!”

“That and how beautiful you are.” Virgil put on his most suave grin.

“Why would you be thinking about those two things together?” Maggie raged.

“I’m always thinking about how amazing you are.”

Maggie punched Virgil as hard as she could in the shoulder. “Stop!” She punched him again. “Being!” Another punch. “So!” Again. “Charming!” Then she kissed him. Virgil held her close for a long kiss, because he had known exactly how she would respond. He had, in all likelihood, brought up the waste question again just so he could do this to Maggie.

When the kiss was over and the two of them had untangled themselves, Virgil announced that he and Lucas had an errand to run.

“We do?”

“Yes. Now put some clothes on, I won’t be seen with you in public like that.”

*

“A jewelry store? What do we need in a jewelry store?” Lucas asked, very perplexed.

Virgil looked at him as though he were the biggest idiot on the planet. “Jewelry.”

“But neither of us have any money!” Lucas protested as he followed Virgil inside.

“Yes…about that. I’m afraid I haven’t been one hundred percent honest with you about my finances these past few months.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I’ve been saving up.”

“Virgil! I work two jobs and tutor sorority girls in math! Sorority girls!”

“I’m well aware of how much you despise stupid women, but not everyone in the Greek system is a moron.”

“All the ones I tutor are!”

“Learn to be more open minded, Lucas. And quit shouting. I’m here to buy my engagement ring.”

Lucas stopped and sputtered. “Your engagement ring? But I thought you and Maggie weren’t going to get married until after you graduated!”

“Yes, and we will be graduating in a little over a year. It is time to get engaged. We’d have done it years ago if she’d have let me. Damn stubborn woman.”

Lucas snorted back a laugh.

“What was that indelicate sound for?”

“You calling Maggie stubborn. You’re lucky you weren’t struck dead out of sheer irony.”

“I am not stubborn!”

“You’re being stubborn now.” Lucas smirked.

“No, it is not stubbornness when the other person is in the wrong. I am merely educating you right now.”

“You are so arrogant!”

“I am neither arrogant nor stubborn! If I were then how could I have won the love of the world’s perfect woman?”

“First of all, you could seduce anything with two legs.”

“That is ridiculous! I have never been with any other woman besides Maggie. Why would I want to be?”

Lucas ignored his protests. “And secondly, Maggie is the only other person I know as arrogant or stubborn as you, which is perfect because that is exactly what the two of you maniacs need, each other!”

Virgil regarded him for a moment and then blatantly chose to hear exactly what he wanted to hear. “As long as you admit that Maggie is perfect.”

Lucas rolled his eyes, but said nothing. The store owner had finished with the other customers and was ready to assist Virgil.

Virgil had already selected the ring he wanted, which the owner of course praised Virgil’s fine taste in choosing. The ring was quite sparkly, but Lucas had no other way to judge a ring so he was forced to assume that Virgil had indeed done a good job in picking it. Virgil came from a family with money and knew things like what made one engagement ring better than another. Of course, Virgil would not doubt have purchased an even more extravagant ring if he had been on speaking terms with any of his wealthy family members.

While Virgil was paying for the ring, Lucas noticed a nervous looking man wander into the store from the street. He stopped for a moment, stared at Lucas and Virgil, took a step back towards the door, and then muttered to himself before back and pulling a gun out of his coat.

“Everybody freeze! This is a robbery!”

“Christ, not again!” Lucas groaned. He raised his hands.

“Alright old man, put everything in this bag!” The gunman threw the owner a canvas sack.

“I think we can take him,” Virgil whispered.

Lucas scoffed. “You think we can take everyone! Just stay silent and this will be over soon. I cannot believe my bad luck, getting robbed twice in two days. Ellie will never let me hear the end of it.”

When the jeweler scooped up Maggie’s ring from the counter and was about to put it in the bag with the rest, Virgil protested. “Hey! That’s my engagement ring!”

“Not no more it ain’t, pal!” The thief, who hadn’t even bothered to wear a mask, growled. He was young and scruffy, with a glossy look to his eyes and a twitch in his cheek.

“Please, it’s for the girl I love!” Virgil, the romantic idiot that he was, reached his hand out to grab the ring.

The robber’s eyes bulged with panic and he swung the gun around.

Lucas actually had time to wonder why everyone else was moving so slowly as he leapt forward and tackled Virgil to keep him from being shot. Their attacker was so stunned by how quickly Lucas had moved that he didn’t even pull the trigger, he just stared, dumbstruck.

Lucas kicked the legs out from under the thief and then dove at him to slap the gun away. Again, Lucas felt as though everyone else was moving in slow motion.

“Please, don’t kill me! I just needed the money for drugs, please!”

“Shut up,” Lucas told him. “Mister, can you call the cops?”

“Of course, young feller. My stars!” The store owner wandered over to the phone still shaking his head.

After the police arrived and took the would-be armed robber away, they congratulated Lucas for saving his friend from being shot (they had less kind words for Virgil) and sent them on their way after taking down their contact information. Lucas, now without a phone, had given Virgil’s phone number as well. Virgil had, naturally, been allowed to keep his engagement ring.

*

Late that night while walking home from his job at the sporting goods store, Lucas saw a girl with long dark hair stumble hurriedly out of the bar he liked to go to on the rare occasions he had money to spend. She looked over her shoulder and Lucas recognized his ex-girlfriend, Ursula. He ducked sideways, hoping she hadn’t seen him. For once, Lucas caught a lucky break and Ursula had been looking back at the entrance.

Lucas heaved a sigh of relief until he saw the two gargantuan drunks stagger out of Earl’s and leer menacingly at Ursula. She yelped and scurried away down the street and around the corner.

“Shit,” Lucas muttered. Ursula may have been a horrible, crazy bitch, but she didn’t deserve what those two bruisers looked to have in mind for her. “Hey guys, wait up!”

They were both as tall as Lucas and each at least twice as broad. They glowered at him and then turned back to pursue Ursula.

“No, hey, wait a minute. I know that girl can be kind of a tease, but—”

“Shut the hell up, twiggy!” One of them roared without turning around.

“Listen, I really can’t let you two do what it looks like you’re about to do. So why don’t we head back inside and I can buy us all a drink?” Thank God that Earl’s was so cheap! Lucas had barely enough cash in his pocket to buy three well drinks.

“This is none of your business, buddy!” The red haired one shoved Lucas hard, but he managed to keep his balance.

“I don’t want a fight.”

“It sounds like you do, dipshit!” The brown haired one shouted as he threw a punch at Lucas.

Lucas leapt to the side and the brown haired man stumbled forward and fell on his face. His red headed counterpart stared at Lucas, shook his head as though to clear the fog of alcohol away and tried to punch Lucas.

This time Lucas dodged and had time to grab the drunkard’s shirt and throw him head first into the grimy walls of Earl’s. By now the brown haired man had regained his feet and dove at Lucas to tackle him.

Deciding to press his luck and see what he could really do, Lucas stood his ground, and as the drunk came sailing through the air at him, he twisted underneath his assailant and shoved upwards as hard as he could. The man flew several feet higher into the air before coming down hard in the middle of the sidewalk at least a dozen feet away.

Lucas whistled appreciatively. Then he glanced around to see if anyone had witnessed their little scuffle. No one had. He shoved his hands into his pockets and hurried off towards home.

Wondering just how he was ever going to thank Maggie for giving him this suit that had saved him twice in one day, Lucas strolled down the less than tidy streets of the northwest corner of the U-District. He was feeling quite content with life. That is, until he heard a girl crying somewhere off to his left.

Under normal circumstances, Lucas would have walked on by; maybe called the cops if he saw something that looked violent going on. He was not an uncaring man, but he was not particularly strong or intimidating and he did not carry a gun. He did not want to get involved if it meant he would likely make the situation worse rather than better.

But tonight did not feel like normal circumstances. Having thwarted two crimes today, Lucas peered around the corner to see if there was a third crime he could stop. What he saw made Lucas burn deep down in his gut.

A waifish Asian girl was being held up against the alley wall by a brutish looking man who was obviously enjoying raping her. The girl was crying and whimpering and trying feebly to keep the man’s hands off her. An even more brutish goon stood behind them, watching the vile show and the alley entrance.

Lucas had already stepped around the corner and started sprinting at them before he realized he was doing it. The man watching drew a gun from his coat pocket and fired at Lucas. Lucas dodged to the right, kicked off the wall, and flew the last ten feet or so to tackle the gunman. A quick jerking motion brought the man’s head up and down against the pavement. Lucas saw the man’s eyes flutter closed and heard the gun clatter from his hand; he wasn’t getting up any time soon.

The other man, the raper, turned away from the girl and pulled a knife out of his jacket. Lucas kicked him in the chest, punched him in the jaw, picked him up, and threw him into a nearby dumpster. The man had felt as light as a rag doll. Lucas looked down at his scrawny arms.

“Maggie, what have you done to me?” He asked himself.

A flurry of words in a language that Lucas didn’t understand brought his attention back to the Asian girl. Her skimpy dress was torn and her tears had ruined her makeup. She stepped forward as though to hug Lucas, seemed to think better of it, and then ran off quite a bit faster than Lucas would have thought her high heels would have allowed.

Lucas reached into the gunman’s pocket, dialed 911 from his phone, and left the phone on top of the unconscious man’s chest. Out of the corner of his eye, Lucas spied an orange extension cord hanging out of the dumpster. This gave him an idea. He fished the other man out of the dumpster and tied up both men with the cord before leaving.

*

“I swear to God, if this is a crank call, I’m gonna kick somebody’s ass,” Officer Sam Avery growled as he slammed the door of their Seattle Metro patrol car.

Officer Charlene Monroe clicked on her flashlight and shined it down the dark alleyway. “I don’t think this is a crank call, but I’m not sure you’re going to be any less inclined to kick someone’s ass after you see this.”

“Jesus Christ,” Sam swore.

Charlene studied the scene. Two men, apparently unconscious, were tied together with an orange extension cord. One of them had his pants undone and partially pulled down to expose his genitals.

“What the hell do you think happened here?”

“I’m not sure yet,” Charlene answered. “But this is the second pair of very large, particularly nasty looking men that we’ve seen pulverized and left in the street.”

“You think they’re connected?” Sam scratched his head and looked around the alley.

“The people in Earl’s said those two guys harassed a girl and then chased her out of the bar. The guy here with his pants down would be in jail for date rape if his daddy hadn’t gotten him such a good lawyer last year.”

“Jesus, you’re right! I remember this little pissant! Do you think we’ve got some kind of defender of women running around the U-District?”

“That would make him a vigilante, Sam.”

“I know that! But he still saved two women tonight, how bad can he be?”

Charlene fixed her partner with a level glare. She may have been the youngest person on the force, but she had already acquired something of a reputation as a hard ass.

“Don’t look at me that way, I know it’s wrong! I was just saying…ah hell! Never mind.” However, Sam leaned down close to the tied up men and whispered, “You bastards got a taste of what you deserve.

*

After pushup number two hundred fifty-seven, Lucas gave up on tiring himself out enough to sleep. Even after the initial adrenaline rush from saving that girl in the alley, he had still felt brimming with energy. Energy and strength.  Lucas had never done more than twenty or so pushups at once before, but now he had done more than two hundred fifty and he felt like he could do at least that many more without feeling the least bit tired.

Lucas glanced at the clock. Three twenty-two. He grabbed his jacket and headed out.

“This is stupid and dangerous,” he told himself as he started down the street, but that didn’t stop him from walking down 50^th Avenue checking every dark corner and keeping an ear out for sounds of violence.

After about half an hour he came across a painfully obvious drug deal in process. Lucas approached the two men. They glared at him, but did nothing more. They likely hoped he would simply move along.

“I don’t think you want to do that here,” Lucas told them.

One, the dealer, growled, “Piss off!”

Lucas shook his head. “No, but I am going to need you to leave and never come back to this neighborhood. Please.” It was important to be polite.

“Listen, idiot, I said piss off!” He pulled a gun out of the waistband of his baggy jeans and pointed it at Lucas’ chest.

Lucas sighed. In a blur of motion he karate chopped the dealer’s wrist and the gun went flying. “Now, as I was saying. Please leave and never come back.” He turned to the would-be buyer. “And you, why haven’t you run away yet? Go on, shoo!”

While Lucas was shooing the customer away, the other man came at Lucas with a snarled curse and a knife. Lucas spun away to avoid the tackle and the stab. The drug dealer landed flat on his face with an oomf. The buyer turned and fled, finally displaying some modicum of good sense.

Lucas stepped on the remaining criminal’s wrist until he released the knife. Then, while pinning him with his knee, Lucas removed the man’s shoelaces and socks. He tied the dealer up with the laces so that his arms were behind a telephone pole and shoved the socks in his mouth.

“Phone, where is your phone?” Lucas dug through the jacket pockets full of drugs, which was tricky with all the squirming the tied up man was doing. Eventually he did find a cell phone and used it to dial 911 just as he had before.

“Have fun in prison!” Lucas called over his shoulder.

This was fun, Lucas reflected as he walked. It felt like he was doing some good. He had always been disappointed that he couldn’t volunteer more, but he had been working at least two jobs since he was fifteen. There just hadn’t been time.

Continuing his patrol around the University District, Lucas eventually came across a drunken frat boy dragging his crying girlfriend by her elbow. She had an ugly bruise over her left eye and she kept falling down. Evidently, she was drunk as well.

“Help!” The girl shouted at Lucas when she saw him.

“Shut up!” Her boyfriend turned around and backhanded her hard across the mouth. Lucas saw blood fly as the girl collapsed to the sidewalk.

Before the bastard had turned back to face Lucas he closed the gap between them and sucker punched the frat guy in the ear. It wasn’t honorable, but Lucas felt like if anyone deserved a sucker punch it was this asshole.

The punch sent him sprawling, but he staggered back up to square off against Lucas. Lucas kicked him in the groin. He stayed down after that.

“That’s what happens when you misuse your manhood,” Lucas lectured as he stole the groaning man’s shoelaces and tied him to a stop sign.

After dialing 911, Lucas checked on the girl. She was snoring softly. Lucas looked around. The cops should be here within a few minutes and no one else was around, but he still didn’t feel right about leaving the girl alone and unconscious in the street. He hid behind a dumpster until he saw the patrol car drive up.

Dawn would be coming soon so Lucas decided to call it a night and head home. He practically danced the whole way back, he was that giddy.

*

“What a weird God-damn night,” Sam muttered as Charlene carefully put the tied up frat boy’s phone into an evidence bag. “You really think we’ll get a usable print off the phones?”

“It’s the only lead we have. The drug dealer said it was a monstrously huge blonde guy and no one else has woken up from the beatings he gave them yet.”

“He sure does beat the shit out of the ones hurting women.”

Charlene nodded. “It must upset him more.”

“The Lieutenant sure as shit ain’t going to be pleased to hear about a vigilante on his turf.”

“I’m more worried about the media getting wind of it, actually.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Until he makes a mistake and gets someone killed he’ll be treated like a hero.”

Sam snorted. “And after seeing the bruises on that girl’s face you’re going to tell me that’d be wrong?”

Charlene looked over to where the EMTs were treating the girl they’d found. She ignored Sam’s stupid question. “The girl. He wouldn’t have left her alone like that. Shit!”

Sam blinked in surprise. He had never heard Charlene swear in anger before. “What? What is it?”

“He was here! He had to have been! He has to protect women, he couldn’t have left her unconscious where some other scumbag could have come along and raped her. Don’t you see?”

“Uh…”

“We could have caught him! He would have stuck around close by where he could make sure she was safe until he arrived!”

“Right…yeah.” Sam scratched his head. “Doesn’t really help us now though, does it?”

Charlene rolled her eyes in frustration. Sam was a good cop with great instincts, but his grasp of logic and strategy were meager at best. That was why he hadn’t been promoted to detective yet—that, and his horrible temper, actually.

*

“What’s got you in such a fine mood this afternoon?” Ellie asked as she dried the plate Lucas handed her.

Lucas shrugged. “I guess I’m just excited for tonight.” He was helping Ellie do the dishes after she made lunch for him. He had been starving after staying out all night and there had been nothing to eat for breakfast in his apartment except half a scoop of oatmeal one piece of toast. When he got paid tomorrow he would be able to buy some groceries…probably.

“I can’t believe they’re finally getting engaged! They’ve been dating since they were eleven, can you believe that! Ten years and I’ve been their friend the whole time. I feel like I’m part of it, you know?”

Lucas nodded. “Does Maggie know?”

“Oh, she totally knows! But she’s pretending she doesn’t.”

“Of course.” Lucas finished washing a bowl and handed it to Ellie. He glanced over at her. She looked incredibly happy. Lucas doubted he would have a better opportunity than this. “So, after Virgil proposes, I’m thinking that they will want some privacy.”

“Probably,” Ellie agreed with a little smirk on her lips.

“Perhaps the two of us ought to give it to them. We can go down by the fountain or get ice cream cones at Dicks or…something.”

Ellie bumped him playfully with her hip. “You mean like a date or…something?” Her grin told Lucas she was making fun of him, but her blue eyes stared intently at him, waiting for an answer.

Lucas pushed her back with his own much bonier hip. “Yes, actually.”

“God, you’re boney! I think I’m going to have a bruise.” She rubbed her side exaggeratedly.

Lucas stared down at her, waiting for her answer.

Ellie waited longer, her smirk growing wider.

“Oh God, please just say yes!” Lucas begged finally.

“On one condition.” She held up her index finger.

“Anything…within reason.”

Ellie snickered. “Fine, no pink tutu—this time. I want to buy you dinner at that Thai place you like so much in Queen Anne.”

Lucas grinned from ear to ear. He would gladly have worn the tutu, but he would never admit that to her. “Deal.”

“Yay!” Ellie threw her arms around Lucas in a ferocious hug.

Lucas hugged her back. It’s about damn time, he thought. Nothing can go wrong this time.

*