Part One of Septic Heroes
A JSE Fanfic
[This is part of an ongoing fic series I started in Decemer 2021.]
[In a world of superpowers, a relatively new hero wants to join the official League of Heroes. His name is Jackie, otherwise known to the public as Windstorm, and he's finally got his chance to prove himself. But in between stopping villains, doing tasks for the League, and trying to keep his powers hidden from his new roommate, Chase, and other friends, Jackie starts to think something big is going on. Is this something he's capable of dealing with? What would a hero do?]
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Jackie could never get tired of this view.
The cityscape did look better at night, when the lights of the windows and neon signs let off a stunning glow. But even now, in the daytime, there was just something magical about it. Who could have ever thought buildings could be this tall? Maybe he’ll get used to it, eventually. But that day seemed a long way away.
He was pretty sure he was the only one who could see this current view. After all, it wasn’t easy to get up here. Not to mention the obvious dangers of sitting on a tiny ledge by the needle at the top of a skyscraper. But Jackie had an advantage. He never had to worry about heights.
The same could not be said for his radio, though.
A voice came over the speaker: “—hase in progress. Repeat, car chase in progress. Suspects are in two unmarked gray vans, fleeing from an armed robbery at the First Bank of Daindover. Suspected super activity—”
“Oh shit!” Jackie quickly sat up straight, unfolding his legs. In the process, he accidentally kicked the radio, and it went flying into thin air. “No!”
Jackie lunged forward, shoving himself off the small ledge he was sitting on. He fell quickly, quicker than should have been normal, and grabbed the radio. That didn’t change the fact that he was hurtling to the ground, fifty stories below. Instinctively, Jackie flipped over, now falling feet-first. As he did so, the air pushed back at him, and his fall slowed…and stopped. Now he was hovering in midair. The sensation was somewhat similar to treading water, if the water wasn’t quite as heavy. Unusual. For anyone else. But Jackie was familiar with this. After all, he was a superhero.
Or…well, he wasn’t an OFFICIAL Hero yet. Just another super trying to help out. There were a lot of those. Almost as many as the supers who decided to be power-hungry assholes about their abilities.
Jackie looked over the radio. Undamaged. Good. He would hate to lose or break this. He wasn’t sure how to get another one. The dispatcher was still talking. “Suspects driving down Fleetway Street. Three black-and-whites in pursuit. Confirmed super activity, requesting backup.”
“Backup, you say?” Jackie muttered, laughing to himself. He pulled his mask down over his eyes, grabbing his backpack from the ledge and shoving the radio inside to drop off later. “On the case!”
And with a gust of wind, he was off, flying towards the chase.
It wasn’t hard to find. The two unmarked gray vans mentioned in the police dispatch were zooming down Fleetway Street, quite careless of anyone or anything in their way. Jackie saw them in the distance, took a moment to drop off his backpack on the roof of a nearby building, and then hurried to catch up with them.
There were now about five police cars in pursuit, and no doubt even more arriving. But they were having a bit of trouble. The back of one of the gray vans was open, and occasionally a ball of yellow light—crackling with energy—would fire from the doors. Cars would serve to avoid it, and the lightball would explode into a wave of energy the moment it hit something, causing a VWOOM! sound that was strangely satisfying. The asphalt of the street flew away in pieces, leaving behind smoking holes.
Yep, that was super activity.
Jackie knew the villains in the vans would see him soon. He wasn’t exactly being subtle, flying in the air. So he had to act quick. He picked up the pace a bit, then as soon as he was able, landed on the hood of the van in front.
Immediately, the van started to swerve. Jackie grabbed onto the seam where the hood opened up to steady himself. Behind the windshield were a man and woman, wearing identical red ski masks that hid everything except their eyes. And both their eyes were wide with surprise. Jackie smiled, and gave the two of them a jaunty wave.
The woman driving jerked the steering wheel to the side, steering the van into a different street. Jackie’s boots skidded for purchase on the shiny hood of the van, but they couldn’t quite grab. And since he’d let go of his tenuous grip on the van to wave at the villains, Jackie ended up flying off to the side.
“Oof!” He landed hard on the street asphalt, tumbling for a bit before managing to steady himself. The moment he did, he launched himself back into the air, building up to his top flying speed to catch up with the pursuit.
The vans had managed to pull ahead of him in the few seconds he’d been tumbling, but the police cars were still behind him. Jackie could now see into the open doors of the van in back. There were three more people there, all wearing red ski masks. One of them pointed at him. Their hand started to glow.
Jackie dodged to the side just in time to avoid the explosive lightball that followed. Unfortunately, the lightball hit the street in front of one of the pursuing police cars. When it exploded, the car went flying into the air, almost flipping over.
“Shit!” Jackie shifted focus, flying back towards the flipping car. He landed on the ground and raised his hands, focusing. The air around him picked up into a wind, pushing against the momentum of the car. It slowed its wild course and set it back down on its tires. Perhaps a bit more roughly than necessary, but Jackie counted it as a win. He glanced through the cracked windshield at the police officer inside. “Are you okay?”
The officer waved for him to go, indicating the car chase that was getting farther away. “Right.” Jackie nodded, backing up before turning and once again launching into the air.
Up ahead, the vans took another sharp turn as a police car appeared from the opposite end of the street. Jackie followed, his speed in the air causing wind that ruffled onlookers’ hair and clothes. Why weren’t they running away?! Why were there always people who stayed to watch?! One of these guys was throwing bombs made of light, you’d think that would cue some urgency!
Speaking of which—
Jackie gasped, and darted to the side to avoid another lightball, which hit a lamppost and caused it to short out. THEN the onlookers started to run. About time.
He passed the pursuing police cars, waving at the officers inside as he did and laughing at their expressions of shock. Another lightball came flying at him, and he rolled to avoid it. “Do a barrel roll,” he said to himself, glancing behind him to make sure the lightball didn’t hit anything bad. Luckily, that one was flying on a straight course into the sky. But sooner or later, one of these lightballs would hurt someone.
With that in mind, Jackie pushed himself to go faster. He zoomed forward, heading right for the second van. The three villains standing in the open doors barely had time to get out of the way before he crashed into the open back.
“Fuck,” he muttered, getting to his feet and glancing around. Aside from the three villains, the van was full of brown canvas bags. His impact had caused one of them to tip over, where it spilled stacks of wrapped bills onto the metal van floor. “Come on guys, really? The bags of money? Do you think you’re in a cartoon or something?”
The villains seemed unsure what to do. After a moment, one turned back to face the outside, once again taking aim and firing one of those lightballs from her hand. The other two reached to their belts and drew a handgun in unison.
“Uh—no thanks!” Jackie flung his hands outward. A gust of powerful wind knocked the guns out of the villains’ hands. “That’s not really fair, I haven’t got around to bulletproofing this costume yet.” He let out a small breath. “Anyway, can we, like, hurry this up? I actually have a thing to get to soon.”
The two villains glanced at each other. They nodded slightly. Jackie braced himself just in time for the two of them to lunge forward.
“Whoa!” Jackie leaped into the air, hovering around the top of the van ceiling. The villains missed him as they lunged. One fell over into the money bags, but the other recovered and grabbed his ankle. “Hey! Personal space!” Jackie kicked at the man with his free foot, landing a solid hit on the side of his head. The villain instinctively let go. “Alright, sorry, gotta go!” Jackie flew back out of the van. As he passed through the doors, he grabbed the edge of the van roof and, with the help of the wind, flipped himself over so he was now crouching on top of the van.
Okay, now how to stop this thing?
Jackie inched across the roof of the van until he was in the front, just above the windshield. He was about to duck down and look through, but instead stopped. If those guys back there had guns…
After a moment of thought, he reached down and unbuckled his belt from around his waist. He crept up closer to the windshield, sitting on the driver’s side. Then, he waved his belt in front of the windshield.
There was a loud BANG! and a hole shattered in the front of the windshield. A split second after hearing that, Jackie leaned over the side of the roof so he was hanging over the side next to the driver’s door. Quickly, he punched through the glass of the door’s window.
Just like the other van, there were two villains in ski masks sitting in the front seat. The driver shrieked at the sudden breaking of the window next to him. Jackie felt around until he found the lock button on the side of the door and pressed it, unlocking the door. He flung it open.
But the driver recovered. He turned the wheel sharply, starting to swerve back and forth across the street. Jackie grabbed the edge of the roof with one hand, keeping the car door open with the other. There was another gunshot, but Jackie didn’t even see the bullet.
“Don’t shoot when I’m turning, you idiot!” The driver turned to glare at his companion in the passenger seat.
“Don’t shoot in the car at all!” Jackie added, grabbing the driver by the arm and pulling him out of the van. He tried to drop him safely, but there was no gentle way to get pulled out of a moving vehicle, and Jackie winced as he watched the driver tumble away.
He could see the man in the passenger seat grab the steering wheel with both hands. Including the one he was holding the gun in. Jackie lunged, half-climbing and half-falling into the driver’s seat as he grabbed for the villain’s gun. Luckily, the man was too startled—and too concerned with not crashing the car—to put up much of a fight as Jackie wrenched the gun out of his hand and threw it back through the open driver’s door. No time to waste! Jackie slammed his foot down on the van’s brake.
The tires squealed. The van shifted, and drifted across the street until it slammed into the side of a traffic light. Jackie was flung forward against the steering wheel, crying out as it dug into his chest. The villain in the passenger side fared worse. His head slammed against the van dashboard, dazing him. “That’s what you guys get for not wearing seatbelts,” Jackie groaned. He straightened, wincing as he pressed a hand to his chest. Hopefully that wouldn’t cause damage. Then he jumped out of the van.
Half of the following police cars pulled to a stop next to the van that had stopped. The other half continued to pursue the first one. Great, the police could handle this stopped one, now Jackie just had to chase after the first van—
“You bitch!”
The air was filled with a powerful humming. Jackie instinctively ducked, and one of the lightballs flew over his head, crashing into the side of a building where it exploded, wrecking the brick. Hopefully those guys had super-damage insurance. But as for the more pressing concern. Jackie spun around to see—of course. The super who was in the back of the van. She’d climbed out when it stopped and was pointing at him, ready to fire another energy bomb—
Jackie ducked around the side of the van, bracing himself for another explosion. But it never came. Instead, the super yelped. Jackie glanced back to see her pulling a small dart out of her arm. There were police officers climbing out of the stopped cars, aiming at her and her two companions, who were now standing in the open back of the van.
One of the officers looked at Jackie. “We can take it from here,” she said. “Go help the others.”
Jackie nodded. He started to run down the street. “Good luck!” he shouted back over his shoulder. Then his feet lifted off the ground and his speed picked up as he flew after the first van.
More police cars had joined the chase. The van continued to twist and turn wildly down the streets, ignoring all possible traffic laws. Jackie kept an eye on the sidewalks, making sure no onlookers were in danger. Luckily, the van was going too fast. It zoomed right through a block in seconds, with no time to harm pedestrians. Drivers in cars, however, were a different story. Jackie caught glimpses of several collisions as cars slammed on their brakes to avoid getting caught up in the van’s wild ride. Nothing looked too bad, though…Still, the guilt was welling up inside him. But Jackie gritted his teeth and kept flying after the van. If he managed to stop it, then there would be no more accidents.
He flew faster, buildings and street signs turning into dashes of color, and almost went right past the van. He had to grab onto the driver’s side rear-view mirror to stop.
As he took a second to recollect himself, the driver’s window actually rolled down. “Why don’t you give it up, Red?!” the driver shouted.
“Red? Who’s the one wearing the bright cherry ski mask?!” Jackie pretended to be offended.
The driver rolled her eyes. “Have it your way.” And she held up a handgun.
Jackie looked at it, then looked at the street ahead. He grinned. “Fine! Just try to shoot me!” He let go of the rear view mirror, letting the van pull ahead of him, but still flying alongside it.
The driver screamed in frustration, and leaned out of the open window, taking aim at Jackie.
Then her companion in the passenger’s side shouted, “Rosalyn, the road!”
But it was too late. She’d taken her eyes off the road, and failed to notice the sharp turn ahead of them. The van drove right off the road, barreling through a park, hitting every bit of tree, grass, and bench until it eventually rolled to a stop. The police cars parked by the side of the road, and more officers stepped out.
Jackie hovered nearby, about six feet off the ground. He floated over towards the van. That…wouldn’t have killed them, right? They hadn’t hit anything head-on, just glanced off a bunch of stuff. He waited, watching the police move in. And he didn’t relax until they pulled out the driver, the passenger, and three other villains in the back. They were all injured at least a little bit, with cuts and bruises and the driver holding her arm weird. But alive. Good. If he’d gotten them killed, he…he didn’t know what he would have done.
One of the police officers, an older man with streaks of gray in his dark hair, caught sight of him. “Hey, kid!”
Jackie waved. “Hi, Ace.” He briefly landed on the ground.
Ace looked at him. He nodded stoically. “Nice job.”
“Thanks!” Jackie beamed.
“The radio works, then, I’m guessing?”
“Yeah. Again, thanks. It’s really helpful.”
Jackie recalled the last time he’d seen Ace, about a month ago. He’d shown up late to a jewelry robbery, following the news. Ace had been there, and discreetly handed him a custom police radio. “Ya gotta keep up with this stuff if you’re trying to do this,” he’d muttered. “Here. We have a stock of these for newbie heroes like you.”
“Are you allowed to just…GIVE this to me?” Jackie had asked.
“Look, do you want it or not?” Ace had replied, not answering the question.
And, of course, Jackie did.
“Good.” Ace nodded. “We can book these guys no problem. You go home now. Go watch TwitchTock or something.”
Jackie laughed. “I think you’re mixing up some stuff there. But sure. Maybe I’ll see you again?”
Ace nodded noncommittally. Jackie gave him a salute, then jumped into the air and sped off.
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The car chase had taken him a fair distance away from the building where he’d left his backpack. It took him a few minutes to find it, but once he recognized the rooftop, he landed and immediately made for the corner where he’d stashed his backpack. Great, it was still there. He crouched down and unzipped the flap, taking out his phone and powering on the screen so he could check the time.
“Shit!” It was 2:50! His meeting was at 3! Jackie straightened up, looking wildly around the city until he found the right direction. There. His possible new apartment was somewhere over there. But he couldn’t even see the building from here. He groaned, quickly putting his phone back into his backpack and shouldering it, already working out the next course of action.
He could fly there, of course, but he always felt weird about flying towards home. What if someone was watching? He couldn’t afford to have his secret identity leaked. But that car chase was bound to slow down traffic, so he couldn’t call a cab, and he was pretty sure the nearest train didn’t leave anytime soon. He could decide to just call the whole thing a bust. Try to arrange a meeting with his possible new roommate another time. But someone else might show up first, and move in, and then he’d be stuck without an apartment again and he felt really bad about taking up space in his mom’s house for much longer—
“Is this a bad time?”
“Ohsweetholyfuck!” Jackie jumped, shooting six feet in the air before he realized he wasn’t under attack. He looked back down at the roof and saw…a woman. Standing on the roof. Had she just shown up, or was he that distracted? “Um…sorry, who are you?” he asked, slowly floating back down to the ground.
The woman was wearing a suit, yellow with a green tie. Her blonde hair was thick and wavy, down to her waist. And there was a green mask covering the top half of her face. All in all, a strange getup. “You can call me Leapfrog,” she said calmly. “And you’re Windstorm.”
“Uh…y-yes! That’s me! The hero of the city!” Jackie straightened up, trying to look heroic.
Leapfrog chuckled. “A hero of the city, true. Though not officially yet. That’s why I’m here, actually.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out something shiny. Jackie couldn’t quite see it from here, so he walked a bit closer. It was…a badge. A copper shield, with a stylized LoH on it in white. Beneath the large letters was the name ‘Leapfrog,’ followed by ‘Recruitment Liaison.’
Jackie’s eyes went wide. “Wait…you’re from the League?!”
“Yes.” Leapfrog smiled a bit as she tucked the badge back into her pocket. “We’ve finished reviewing your application, and we think you could be a good fit for us, Windstorm. Or do you prefer to be called by your civilian name?”
“I-I—either’s good, really,” Jackie laughed. “Wow. So, wait. Am I like…in? Is there training or something?”
“Well, the League of Heroes is a bit cautious about who they accept. We’ve been infiltrated by villains in the past. So, you’re not exactly a full-fledged member yet,” Leapfrog explained. “Think of this as a test run. We’ll be watching the news for your activity, and occasionally we’ll send you tasks to complete. If all goes well, you can be an official Hero by the end of the year!”
“Oh my god.” Jackie was speechless. He’d applied to join the League online, but that had been a couple weeks ago, and without getting any notice yet, he’d been afraid it hadn’t gone through. Or even worse, he’d been rejected.
There was nothing technically wrong with being rejected by the League. Supers could still be heroes outside of them, but being an official Hero meant they had access to resources like better costume materials and villain databases. Not to mention, law enforcement and journalists tended to take supers more seriously if they were backed by the League of Heroes. It meant they were the best of the best. Jackie had always wanted to join the League, ever since he was a little kid who could barely hover an inch off the ground. Just imagine! The style, the respect, the chance to meet other supers and help that many more people! Not to mention the extra money, honestly. He might eventually be able to buy his own apartment, instead of moving in with someone else.
Speaking of which—“This is all super great a-and I’m so honored, l-like really, I don’t have the words. But…I do actually have to be somewhere in less than ten minutes,” Jackie said apologetically.
“Ah, of course.” Leapfrog nodded. “In that case, let me just hand you your new work phone and you can be on your way.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a smartphone in a red case. “The passcode is 0616.”
Now curious, Jackie took the phone. “0616,” he repeated, pulling off his glove to put the number into the touchscreen. When the phone unlocked, it was the most basic of basic setups. The only available apps were Settings, Calls, Messaging, Video Chat, Contacts, Camera, and Photos. Not even the weather app or anything.
“We call this the Red Line. As you advance in your trial period, we’ll send you software updates that’ll give you access to more of the League’s systems. For now, my phone number is in the contacts. Feel free to call or text me about any questions you might have, and I’ll do the same when we have a task for you to complete.”
“Got it.” Jackie nodded, taking his backpack off to put the Red Line inside. He couldn’t help but notice that the clock on the phone now read 2:53. “Again, thank you so, so much. I won’t let the League down!”
Leapfrog chuckled. “With that enthusiasm, you’ll be a Hero in no time. Oh, by the way, I caught a glimpse of that van chase. Good job. You need any medical treatment or anything?”
“No, no, I’m fine. Thanks.” In truth, Jackie did have a few aches and pains. Mostly his hand hurt from punching that window, and his chest was still aching from slamming into the steering wheel. Not to mention the tumble along the rough asphalt he took early on…okay, maybe he wasn’t fine, but it was manageable, and he really, really needed to head out. “Anyway, I-I’ll be going now. Uh, see you later?”
“Count on it.”
Jackie waved, backing up and gradually lifting off the ground with every step he took. Eventually, he was once again flying, and he headed off into the sky, leaving Leapfrog behind on the rooftop.
He really hoped he knew how to get to the apartment building from here.
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Jackie arrived at the address, panting from running through the streets. He could’ve taken the sky route, but he’d decided against it. It wouldn’t be good to be seen flying to his possible new apartment, so he ended up touching down a few streets away and changing into his normal clothes, running the rest of the way. Though now he was starting to regret that choice, with a stitch in his sides and an ache in his ribs. And since the advertisement had listed an apartment on the tenth floor, and he walked in to see the only elevator in the building with an ‘Out of Order’ sign blocking the doors, that regret deepened.
Despite the time on his phone now reading twenty full minutes past the meeting time they’d agreed upon, Jackie stuck to his decision and climbed up the ten flights of stairs to the top. By the time he’d found Room 1020, he was FORTY full minutes past the meeting time and thoroughly out of breath. Taking a moment to recover, he knocked on the door, and hoped that he wasn’t too late.
Luckily, the door was opened almost immediately. “Hey man, sorry I’m late,” Jackie launched into his excuses. “I just—on the way here, there was this big commotion and stuff, I had to get out of the cab, it was a whole mess—”
“Oh, no worries, bro.” The man who’d opened the door looked…well, actually a bit like Jackie himself, if an inch or so taller. Brown hair, though it was cut short in comparison to Jackie’s own style, and bright blue eyes. His facial hair was also much thicker, and could actually be called a beard. The man wore a gray and orange snapback cap, as well as a gray shirt made up of a pattern of overlapping triangles. A black jacket was tied around his waist. “So, you’re Jackie then?”
“Yeah.” Jackie nodded, relieved. “Jackie Skye. You’re, uh…Chase? Should I call you Mr. Brody?”
Chase laughed. “Nah, it’s fine. C’mon in.” He stood aside and Jackie walked through the door.
Shockingly, the apartment looked exactly like it did in the pictures on the website. A wide open area, with half of the floor devoted to a living room and half being a dining room. There was a kitchen tucked off to the side, through an open archway. Pretty average looking, but there was a wide window on the far wall that had an amazing view of the cityscape. “Oh wow,” Jackie whistled. “I thought that was photoshopped, but no. That’s actually what it looks li—DOG?!”
Chase laughed. “Yep. I warned you on the ad, right?” He reached down and patted the head of a big dog, one of the ones that was absolutely fluffy and pure white. A samoyed, right? The dog seemed to smile smugly as Chase patted it. “This is Frosty, he’s my boy. Absolutely non-negotiable for the roommate stuff, so if you’re allergic…uh, good luck I guess. Maybe not move into this particular place.”
“Oh my god, what a good boy,” Jackie whispered in awe. “Can I pet him?”
“Yeah, sure. Uh, you want to always ask, though, sometimes you can’t.”
“Right.” Jackie leaned over and immediately started to pet Frosty’s thick coat. The dog seemed to smile wider.
Chase closed the front door. “So, uh. You are here about the Roommate.com ad, right?”
“Uh, yeah?” Jackie looked up, confused. “Why, do you get people who show up and aren’t there to talk about it?”
“Well, no, but thought I’d ask anyway.” Chase shrugged.”Anyway, do you want a tour? It’ll take like five seconds, and that is not an exaggeration.”
Jackie laughed. “Sure.”
“Right.” Chase beamed. “So as you can see, this is the living room slash dining room slash kitchen.” He gestured vaguely at everything. Jackie straightened, scanning the surroundings in greater detail. The furniture was nice, not fancy or anything but looked taken-care-of. A few mugs sat out on the coffee table. There was a to-do list stuck on the fridge with a magnet, as well as a grocery list and a couple reminders, one of which read ‘Meet new roommate: Jackie Skye. Thursday the 15th, 3:00pm.’ Or at least, Jackie was pretty sure that’s what it read. Chase’s handwriting was quite messy.
“And if we go down this tiny hallway here…” Chase walked to the left, Frosty at his side, and Jackie followed him. “We have the bedrooms, the closet, and the bathroom. This one will be yours, if you decide to stay.” Opening the door on the left side, he revealed a pretty bland bedroom, with white walls, a single ceiling light fixture, and a bed and dresser. Two windows led out to the same view from the living room. “You can change it up, if you want. Paint the walls, change the lights, get new furniture, whatever. I don’t care.”
“Okay.” Jackie nodded. “What about the living room? Can I put decorations up in there?”
Chase looked surprised. “Oh, nobody’s asked that yet. Um…sure. As long as it’s not anything that could offend people coming over.”
“Nice.” Jackie walked inside, heading straight towards the windows and testing them. They slid open, with barely enough space for a person to get through if they wanted. He could fly out of that easily enough. “Looks good.”
“It’s really the better room,” Chase laughed. “Mine only has one window and I keep forgetting to replace the lightbulbs.”
Jackie closed the window. “Anything I need to know about this place? Noisy neighbors? Things like that?”
“Nah, the walls are pretty solid. As long as you’re not having some sort of live band playing or anything crazy like that, you won’t hear anything.” Chase shrugged. “Honestly, I haven’t been here that long myself, so I’m not that familiar with the neighbors. Oh!” His expression brightened. “There’s a family in 1018, actually! You might run into their son, he’s six years old and fucking adorable.”
Jackie laughed. “You like kids, huh?”
“Yeah, bro. I’m pretty good with them, too. Oh, you ever been to, uhh Wonder Entertainment Center? On the edge of town?”
“Um.” Jackie’s face scrunched up as he tried to remember. “Give me more details?”
“The place with the roller rink,” Chase explained. “And an arcade, some laser tag, this huge jungle gym thing—”
“Oh! And the waterslides in the summer?!” Jackie adds.
“Yeah yeah!” Chase nodded excitedly.
“I went there with my mom all the time!” Jackie said, excitedly clapping his hands. “When I was a kid! We just called it the Fun Center, but I remember that jungle gym, with the rope course and the monkey bars and the miniature zipline—god, I loved that place.”
Chase laughed. “Well, I work there. Part-time.”
“No way.”
“Yeah, totally! Hang on.” Chase untied the jacket from around his waist, turning it around to show the center’s logo on the back. “See?”
“Dude that’s so cool!” Jackie shouted. “Do you get, like, season passes or something? Employee benefits?”
“Technically, yeah, but I don’t really have that many people to go with.” For a moment, Chase sounded more than a little sad. But he soon cheered up again. “The point is, I really like working with the kids who come there. They always put me on party helping duty because I’m able to entertain everyone under the age of fourteen.”
“So cool,” Jackie repeated. “Part-time, huh? So that’s why you need a roommate for rent?”
“Yeah, I can’t really do much there, honestly.” Chase rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “I can’t uhhhh…do the more intense stuff like cleaning or moving equipment, so I’m mostly the party-and-cash-register guy. It’s cool, though. I’ve been doing some YouTube stuff in my spare time.”
Jackie raised an eyebrow. “Oh? An…INFLUENCER?” He pressed his hand to his chest, pretending to be in awe. “I had no idea I was moving in with a celebrity.”
Chase laughed. “God, no. I just record videos. Talk about my life. Try to do trickshots and stuff that I think is cool. I mean…if you wanna check it out, my channel is called BroAverage. Maybe you could use it to suss out if I’m a good roommate.”
“BroAverage. I’ll try to remember that, but my memory kinda sucks,” Jackie admitted.
“Oh, same, bro. It’s like…an actual problem.” Chase sighed.
“Well, at least your life is so much more exciting than mine,” Jackie said jokingly. “I just work at a call center.”
“A what?”
“You know all the spam calls you get on your phone?”
“Oh my god, you’re a telemarketer?!” Chase gasped.
“Basically, yeah. Except for services you already signed up for and you’re not paying the bills,” Jackie explained. “My hours can be pretty weird, I get called in irregularly.” That was technically true. He did work at a call center, but his hours were pretty regular. Well, he had to have some excuse why he was going out all the time, didn’t he? He couldn’t exactly tell Chase how exciting his life really was.
“Hey, as long as you can pay your half of the rent on time, it’s all good,” Chase said casually.
“Don’t worry, man, I’m not gonna leave you hanging,” Jackie reassured him. “Is it on the first of the month?”
“Last of the month. This go around I can cover 75% if you help pay for a new showerhead with better pressure control.”
“New showerhead, alright.” Jackie nodded. “So…you already have my number, can you call me after you’re done with all the roommate interviews?”
“Bro, are you kidding me? You can move in as soon as you want!”
“Really?” Jackie asked, eyebrows raising in surprise. Chase sounded pretty eager.
“Yeah, you’re the best guy I’ve talked to so far, and I’ve had at least a dozen people stop by,” Chase said cheerfully. “I mean, you’re not a slob and you aren’t creepy, so that’s better than all the rest.”
“Man. Roommate.com needs a better vetting process.”
“True. But, uh, I didn’t really have that many options for roommate listing,” Chase said awkwardly. “My only regret is putting my phone number up there, but that site doesn’t have an internal messaging process, so…yeah. But if you’re good to move in, then I can take the ad down, and we can figure out logistics and stuff.”
“Yeah, sure.” Jackie walked back out into the hallway, Chase following. “We can—god, your dog is like, really good at following you.”
Chase grinned. “I told you, he’s my boy. Always right by me. Right, Frosty?” Frosty accepted Chase’s pats with another smug smile. Or maybe that was just his face. Still, Jackie got the feeling that the dog was proud of staying by his owner’s side all the time, so quietly.
“So the building allows pets, then?” Jackie asked. “What if I want to get, like, another dog?”
“Oh, no, I’m pretty sure there’s a limit for how many there are per apartment. I think. Like I said, my memory is shit.” Chase bit his lip. “You can probably ask the…building manager, or whatever. I remember there’s a noise limit, though. Frosty doesn’t bark that much, but if you get a dog or a bird or whatever that’s loud, you’ll probably get complaints.”
“Got it.” Jackie nodded.
“Anyway.” Chase clapped his hands together. “You’ve been officially approved to move in whenever. By me, the owner.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, of course. You’re cool.”
Jackie smiled. “Hey, thanks, Chase. I really needed a new place. Well, it’s your place, but thanks for letting me stay.”
“It’s no problem,” Chase assured him. “Where are you staying now?”
“Ah, just with my mom. She lives in the suburbs and it’s a hell of a commute to work.” Really inconvenient to be a city superhero and not…live in…the city. “She’s great, but I can’t stay forever, you know?”
“Right. Yeah.” For a moment, a strange expression crossed Chase’s face. Like he was sad, but also trying to focus on something. It passed quickly, and Jackie wondered if he’d made it up. “So what’s a good day for you to move, then?”
.............................................................................................
The shadows were growing long by the time Jackie headed home. After the meeting with Chase, he’d decided to do a few more flights around the city, just in case any more car chases happened. But nothing had, so he soon landed, changed back into normal clothes, and took the train back to his mom’s house.
He entered the house through the front door, unconsciously catching the handle as it closed so the door wouldn’t slam.
“Is that my darling son?” his mom’s voice called from the living room. “My beautiful boy?”
“Maaaam,” Jackie groaned, though he did so with a smile.
His mom laughed. Jackie walked down the hall to the living room entrance, poking his head inside. There she was, sitting on the sofa with a book in hand. She actually looked quite a bit like Jackie; he’d inherited her brown hair, blue eyes, and smattering of freckles. And ever since he’d started growing his hair out again (it was now mid-back length, same as hers but without the gray streaks), they resembled each other even more. “So how’d it go?” his mom asked. “Was he cool?”
“Yeah, he was cool. Uh…actually said I could move in next week, if I wanted.”
“Oh that’s great, sweets.” His mom brightened. “But always remember, you can call me or come visit whenever you want.”
“Yeah, I know, Mam.” Jackie yawned. “I’m kinda tired, so I’m gonna take a nap, okay?”
“Alright, Jackie. I’m going to make dinner at 6:30, if you want any just pop in. We can talk more about your day! Oh, did you see the news? There was this police chase earlier.” His mom winked.
Jackie laughed awkwardly. “Yeah. I heard. Anyway, I’m just gonna…go sleep now. See you later.”
“See you later!”
Jackie left, heading down the hall and up the stairs until he found his room. Even though he’d been living there for a couple months now, it still looked more like a teenager lived there than a twenty-eight-year-old man. Probably because most of his stuff was still in boxes in the garage, where he’d put it after getting kicked out of his last apartment. Which he was still bitter about. He hadn’t even done anything, his roommates had pinned all the noise complaints they got onto him. Ugh. Looking back on it, probably not the best idea to move in with those assholes. Hopefully Chase would be a better roommate. He seemed nice. Friendly, at least.
Closing the door to his room behind him, Jackie threw his backpack onto the bed. It missed, toppling off the side. He winced at the clunk it made as it hit the hardwood floor. “My one weakness: terrible aim,” he muttered as he walked over.
He unzipped the backpack and began unloading the contents onto the bed. The radio. His supersuit: red hooded suit with blue highlights, belt, blue boots, gloves, and the blue eyemask with white lenses to protect his eyes while flying. Then his phone. And finally, that other phone in the red case. The Red Line. From the League of Heroes.
For a moment, Jackie just held it. The weight was a bit heavier than the average smartphone. There was no doubt it was more durable, too. He unlocked the screen and looked through the contacts and settings. It looked like his only contact was that Leapfrog woman. For now. There was room for more. Maybe he could contact other heroes through the Red Line! They could team up!
A huge grin spread across Jackie’s face. He bounced on his feet, unable to contain his excitement. The actual League of Heroes! They wanted him to join them! That was—it was just so unbelievable! There were probably a million other flying supers in the country, but they’d chosen him. It was incredible!
Well, he was still in the trial period, apparently. But who cared? It was the League!
After a while, Jackie realized he’d started to float. He laughed, stretching out on his side as if he was lying in bed. Okay, but he had to really get down to business if he wanted to be a Hero. No doubt the League had high standards he had to meet, not to mention tons of other supers in their trial periods. He’d have to work hard to stand out and impress them. How would he go about doing that? Should he go out on patrol more? That would be easier once he was back in the city itself, after moving in with Chase. Maybe be a little more showy in stopping crimes? No, maybe not. Maybe they’d want him to be serious about hero business.
Jackie yawned again. He hadn’t been lying when he said he was tired. It had been a day filled with activity. Stopping a car chase, running across the city to get to the meeting, general flying around…now that he was home, it was starting to catch up with him.
He dropped out of the air, landing perfectly on the bed. Well, on his costume, actually. After a bit of adjustment, he grabbed his backpack, folded the costume, and put it all back in there, adding the radio afterwards. He then set his phone and the Red Line on his dresser and lied back against the pillows. The ceiling was plastered with glow-in-the-dark stars he’d gotten as a kid and never taken down. Surprised they were still stuck there, considering all the flying around he used to do in this room.
A few moments passed before he fell asleep with a smile on his face. Getting contacted by the League of Heroes AND getting a new apartment? It had been a good day indeed.