Tonight was the big night. If Zade made it through tonight without being killed or caught he will have successfully been a vigilante for the longest time since the development of the DVA. 4 months, that’s how long the previous record holder had worked for, the weird part of that was that that guy supposedly wasn’t a super, just a rich smart guy. Although his career was before super intelligence was considered a power so maybe he was. Either way this was a big day for Zade, he wasn’t sure though if it would be easier or harder from here on out. He should have known that it would be much harder. And that all the trouble would start on his big night.
He jumped from rooftop to rooftop and down towards a couple of people in what looked to be a drug deal. He hugged the shadows as he approached them, he never did anything about drug deals but sometimes it paid off to follow the participants afterword. But as he got closer he saw that one of people was Mr. Greene, the plant man that he and his friends had met back at the bar. Mr. Greene handed the other man a large suitcase and said, “Put this in the dogs before they breed, then we’ll buy the special pups from you, they should be exactly what Darrell needs.” The other man nodded and started to walk away.
“Wait!” Mr. Greene said abruptly. “You come alone like we told you?” the man nodded. “Someone else is here, get out of here and let us know when the pups are born”
Zade stayed perfectly still as the man ran away, doing his best to convince the plant man that he was wrong about being watched not knowing that the shifter’s enhanced hearing could hear his breathing. As he crouched ignorantly in the shadows, he felt something begin to constrict around his leg.
“Found you,” Zade looked over at the plant man only to see him standing completely still, exactly where he was during the exchange earlier. He hadn’t moved how was the guy holding on to his leg? Zade looked closer and saw the Mr. Greene’s feet had become rooted in the ground and were throbbing ever so slightly as the only indication that he was controlling the vine that was working its way up Zade’s leg.
Thinking quickly, Zade grabbed the hunting knife he kept with him and slashed himself free of the vine and jumped on top of a nearby dumpster to stay off the ground.
Right as Zade began to gather his thoughts the plant man charged him, his arms like savage whips trying to tear Zade apart. Zade had good enough reflexes to dodge this wide swing, but was unsure of how to confront this opponent, not only thinking of how to beat his opponent but implement his backup plan for if he ever got caught. Back on the ground his opponent continued to swing his arms, if you can call them that, now becoming much harder to dodge without the warning that he got from the initial charge. Zade managed to dodge the tendrils for a few passes but then out of the corner of his eye he saw one coming that was going to hit. Thinking quickly Zade used a trick he had learned on his travels and teleported Mr. Greene a couple of inches to the left. Not enough for the attack to miss but just enough to dodge and counter attack and all in a way so it would appear as though Zade had simply reacted very quickly. And as expected he had the time to counter attack, so with his knife he sliced Mr. Greene’s attacking arm right of and then started to run. He looked back to see Mr. Greene rooted again with his arm regrowing. This was the stall he needed to start putting his plan to remain anonymous into action.
He ducked into another alleyway and then began to focus on the energies of Nightwatch, a local hero who’s ninja esque costume Zade had created his own to replicate. He also had had tabloids publish several articles about his tendency to sleepwalk around in his costume, Zade didn’t know if the articles were true or not but he hoped that it would be enough to keep his nighttime activities secret. Zade heard Mr. Greene approaching and so he went for it he summoned Nightwatch to within his sphere of influence, hoping that he was asleep and in costume, into a position that would look like he was trying to surprise Mr. Greene. As soon as Zade activated his power, Nightwatch’s limp, and fortunately costumed, sleeping body appeared in position, and Zade retreated a safe distance to observe. Moments later one of Mr. Greene’s tendrils wrapped around Nightwatch’s Body, startling him awake.
“Got you!” said the plant man. “who is this?” and as he rotated the body to take a look, the Hero activated his power becoming incorporeal, just a shadow, and moved across the ground a distance away from Mr. Greene and then materialized and pulled a weird object out of his belt he pointed it at Mr. green and then a giant fireball engulfed most of the plant man.
Zade watched, stunned. After the fire dissipated, the remains of the green body stood stiff for a moment then launched a small object into the night sky and fell limp to the ground. Nightwatch looked around for a moment and said under his breath, “not again” and then brought his hand to his ear, apparently using his comm to report the confrontation, as he began to walk away.
“Did that just work?” Zade thought to himself as he began to saunter back towards his apartment for a few hours sleep before he had to go to work in the morning, having completely forgotten about the fact that he now had the longest super vigilante career in US history.