Free Trainee Superhero (Book Three) by C. H. Aalberry Page A

together.
    Our antics are attracting attention: three
more rhinotanks are heading our way. Never Lies takes them
down with a shower of plasma bolts, and we land in the park as
medusas fly towards us. I blast them out of the sky, but there are
more heading our way. Some get close enough for Phoenix Pink to hit with balls of plasma or cut with her sword. She does well
with her teleporting attacks, although she’s not yet in the same
league as Bad Day .
    I’m just starting to get tired when a shriek
rises up from across town and all the creatures around us fly off
towards it.
    “ Siren Blaze has this power where she
can call all the nearby aliens towards her,” Phoenix Pink explains. “It’s almost never a good idea, but she does it anyway.
All that happens is we fight for a few minutes and then retreat so
she can do it again. Pretty lame tactics. I keep saying we should
make some kind of lure out of it, but no one listens to me.”
    I guess that’s where the dog whistle Small
Talk used came from.
    “Well… that’s an unexpected bonus. Let’s go
help the boss,” says Never Lies .
    We fly towards the saucer. I’ve never been
trusted with the bomb before, so I’ve never actually been close to
a real saucer. The others use me as a shield as we approach the
nest of turrets. We land on its gently curving roof where Dark
Fire has burnt a hole through the thick hull, exposing a thin
tunnel beneath. I drop my bomb into the hull while Never
Lies and Phoenix Pink keep the sky clear, and then we
take off into the sky to a safe range. The bomb automatically goes
off after five minutes, but Dark Fire also carries a remote
detonator.
    “That was hard,” say Phoenix Pink as
soon as we get clear.
    Her armor isn’t shiny and smooth anymore, and
the tip of her sword has broken off. She doesn’t seem worried by
it, if anything she seems excited, and probably keen for more. I
recognize that special kind of madness in her eyes that leads us
humans to strap on flying armor and face the hostile universe. Dark Fire winks at me.
    “Would you like the honor?” he asks, offering
me the remote.
    I hit the big red button and the saucer below
us explodes, sending a plume of flame high into the sky. The saucer
splits into pieces that crash down to the ground. Fragments of
saucer rain down on the town, and some lucky kid is going to find a
triclops head in his backyard.
    “That was sweet,” I say, “I could get used to
doing that.”
     
    I may only be a trainee superhero, but I’m
not going to let that stop me from saving the world.
     

Back Story
Three
     
    The danger doesn’t end when a saucer goes
down.
    The danger doesn’t end when the superhero
teams track down the last wounded triclops and blast it into
dust.
    No, the danger only ends when every alien is
destroyed, and sometimes that takes weeks. The bigger creatures are
easy to find, but the lesser creatures often go to ground in areas
surrounded by civilians. They may be smaller, damaged, or
dysfunctional, but they are still dangerous. It still takes a
superhero to bring them down safely, a superhero like me. I know
those of us who specialize in the cleanup work are looked down on
by the other superhero teams, but what we do saves lives.
    And it isn’t easy.
    I do a lot of my killing in public places, so
I have to keep a low profile. My work requires stealth and
accuracy, not the raw power required for open battle. I’m not a
soldier, I’m a hunter: a meticulous, patient, relentless
hunter.
    You have never heard of me, which just shows
how good I am at my job. I’m always active, never seen.
    I’ve fought the saucers’ lesser creations on
the roofs of malls while you shop below. I’ve made kills in the
sewers below your favorite restaurant, fought in the park where you
walk your dog, followed my quarry through the place your parents
take their car to get serviced. I may have been in your house,
tracking down that last metal serpent hiding amongst your