Pacific Station Vigilante (Book 2): The Negative Man [Stormfall] (21 page)

Issue #9 –

From the Rooftops

The fool took to the rooftops which was my domain.  I knew the pattern and the layout better than anyone.  He wasn’t nearly as fast as I was, so it didn’t take long for me to catch him and pull him down.  “You’ve gone far enough!”

He rolled to his feet from my push and lashed out with a barrage of barbs.  I avoided most of them.  Besides the physical pain, for some reason my body was adapting to the poison.  I yanked out the few that made contact and tossed them back at him.

“So, it seems your body is conditioned against my greatest gift.”  The spikes he was preparing disappeared into his hand.  “No matter, I have many more skills than you give me credit for.”  He took two big leaps and began assaulting me with kicks.  They were fast and executed very well.  The only bad part was my reflexes were so much faster.

I caught him by the ankle and slung him to the rooftop.  Flipping in midair, I brought my leg down on his chest.  A knee to the face was added for emphasis.  “You can’t beat me in a fist fight.”

“You might be right, this is a foolish endeavor.”  He pushed away and faced me again.  “Let’s see how far you are willing to go.”

I couldn’t stop him from jumping to the next roof and took chase.  He seemed to have some skill in the urban running phenomenon known as parkour.  He hopped from the roof on to a fire escape and burst into an apartment.  By the time I got down, he had an entire family hostage.

I slowly backed away.  “You don’t need to do this.”

“Sure I do.  We all know you don’t want more blood on your hands tonight, do you?”

He was taunting me, using the death of that innocent man he set up against me.  “You’re backing yourself into a place you can’t come back from.”

A spike grew out of his hand and faced the young son between the mom and dad.  “I have no intentions of coming back.  You picked a fight with the wrong super.”

As fast as I could, I jumped into the open window and reached out with my arm.  His barb dug into it, not making it to the child.  I grabbed him by his shirt and whipped him into the front door, shattering it.  Running into the hallway, I delivered an uppercut that sent him to the end of the corridor.

I was amazed at the amount of abuse he took.  He got up and broke out the window and back up another fire escape.  Our battle/chase once again took us to the rooftops and under the night sky.

Two roofs over and I noticed a helicopter flying around us.  It seemed our struggle had finally caught the eye of the law.  We also made it to the last rooftop – a construction site created a long void between the one we were on and the next one over.

“It seems this is where fate has brought us Prowler.  Plus we have an audience building.”

Besides the helicopter, people were gathering at street level and looking up at us.  This made me extremely uncomfortable.  How could I use my powers in front of so many people?

He created another large barb, this one sword like.  “Don’t tell me you’re getting stage fright over there?”

No, there was no time to care what people thought of or saw me as.  The man across from me was the enemy and he needed to be put down.  I met his sword with a fist and his barb shattered under the pressure of the punch.  Two more straight lefts to his head left him battered once again.  Not taking any chances, I kicked him in the ribs and once more on the nose.

With blood pouring out, he looked up with a smile.  “Beating on me again?  We all know you don’t have what it takes to do the job.”  He spit out some of the blood.  “Prisons can’t hold me and when I get out, I plan to do so much worse.  Just think of all the fun I can have with the ladies of North Terrace.”

I snapped.  The thought of him doing anything worse than what he had done sent me over the edge.  I grabbed him once again and with a heave, tossed him over the rooftop towards the ground below.  It was the only way The Crimson Mask would never hurt anyone again.

**5 Years Later**

“Well Wonder Man, I can’t believe you did it.”

The launch day of the Jupiter XM phone had been a huge success.  Wonder-Tech, the company I started from the ground up, was now a player.  “PJ, I told you coming with me would be a success.”

The two of us left North Terrace shortly after the death of The Crimson Mask.  I found a home in Pacific Station to start my own tech company and PJ came along for fun, said hadn’t paid him back yet.  His wife’s family made sure they were well off.  His business acumen wasn’t great, but I was glad not to start this adventure alone.

I was about to walk out and give the press a statement about the success of the phone when he stopped me.  “Maybe with the business up and running, we can start our other line of work again.”

The Prowler had been retired since the day I left North Terrace.  “I’m not sure I’m ready to take that burden on again.”

He smiled, aware that I knew he had taken up the vigilante role again.  “Well whenever you’re ready, I’ll be waiting.  Crime doesn’t stop just because we do.”

Maybe one day I’d use my powers again when the city really needed me.  Until then, I’d bide my time knowing that even in my greatest moments, my biggest regret still haunted me.  Wayne had been right all those years ago; I wasn’t a hero, I was a coward.

The End

About Us:

Jeremy Croston and Jeff Trelewicz are the independent authors behind the Two Dudes.  Each has a vast array of literary offerings to share with you.

You can email either at:

Jeremy –
[email protected]

Jeff –
[email protected]

Their homepage is at:
http://ucfgk04.wix.com/twodudesbrewsandbooks

They have a podcast too!  You can find it at the link listed below or on iTunes:

http://twodudesbrewsbooks.podomatic.com

Books:

Jeremy’s Books:

Split Decision – The Story of Oliver Callahan

Ragnarok on Ice:

Power Play: Act 1 Svartalfheim

Penalty Kill: Act 2 Midgard

Game Over: Act 3 Yggdrasil

The Inglewood Chronicles:

The Cactus Killer

The Wrath of Pan

The Cascade Snowman – Gregory’s Tale

The Curse of Oberon

Pacific Station Vigilante:

The Negative Man: City of Chaos

The Negative Man: Stormfall

Jeff’s Books:

The Time Traveler’s Journal

Everything Comes Full Circle

Paranormal Contact:

Paranormal Contact Volume 1: Phoenix

Paranormal Contact Volume 2: St. Augustine

One Last Thing:

Thank you for taking the time to read my book.  I appreciate your time and effort in doing so.  I would love to hear from you and hear feedback about my work.  I encourage you to write a review on Amazon to help other readers, as well as me.  Again, thank you for being an awesome reader!

Warm regards,

Jeremy Croston

[email protected]