Chapter 10: Robin Hood

The Fastest Man Alive.
Chapter 10:
Robin Hood.

In this new hero career that I forcefully decided would be my path to the big time, money was needed. Unfortunately for me though, this was a thankless job with no pay. So I have to make up for that by pulling a Robin Hood on unsuspecting individuals and lucky for me I am aware of the most connected individual within Hell’s Kitchen. The infamous Turk Beret. With Alfred’s help I already had his location.

For now, though I won’t snatch him up. This was a chance to watch from my perch to see what he is up too. I watched was someone was selling off what looks like shoes. I couldn’t help my curiosity and held up my phone for Alfred to work the camera and turns out he was selling Nikes that he requisitioned from somewhere. Lucky for him he wasn’t selling guns tonight. I know I have a few crates and tons of ammo back at base, but a man can never have too much weaponry.

Since it wasn’t anything significant I waited for his deal to be over, I might as well be courteous to the man and let him finish his deal. Once I’m done with him I doubt he is going to enjoy the rest of his night. It took him a full ten minutes to move all of his stock, and it was time for me to make my move. With him closing the back doors to his van, I was already at him and pulling him with me back up to my perch on top of the adjacent building.

“Ahhhhhh! who are you, dude? I didn’t do anything! I’m innocent!” Man, this guy can hit some high pitches. He should be ashamed of himself. “You should be ashamed for screaming so loud Turk,” I stated while holding him against the ledge. “Who are you? I don’t have any beef with you Mutants man.” Just the mere mention of the word Mutant caused me some irritation.

“The name is Metahuman, get it right or don’t say it at all.” with that I forced him over the ledge and held him there. “I got it. I got it don’t say the M word period. Come on, man I didn’t do anything,” Turk screamed out.

“So Turk I require some information, and I heard you’re the guy to speak to,” I replied to his panicked look while bringing him back onto the roof. “Man, I don’t know anything. They lied to you.” came his instant reply. “Come on Turk don’t be like that! Everyone knows you’re connected to everything. Anything shady going on, everyone knows Turk knows the four one one on the situation.” I spoke to his ego, and he couldn’t hide the smile that came upon his face that he tried to hide right away. Yeah, I got his ass alright.

“Come on, man if you say that, then you know how the streets go. I give you the info, and I am labeled a snitch.” While bringing Turk back upright, I straighten his clothes and let him take a look at me. It was time to shift gears. “Listen you tell me what I need to know, and I can make it worth your time.” this perked his attention up. 

And I could see the gears turning in his head, and that was what was needed to have him willingly give me the information that I needed. It would do me no favors to have to hurt him, granted I doubt he even knows his worth. Other than the hobos that I keep fed, he has the most connections with actual answers since he is on the inside and not the outside looking in. “What you wearing man, you one of them power rangers from tv?” came his question. 

This made me frustrated with him as I didn’t come here for his quips. “Yeah, the bright color is so you can see my foot when I plant it up your ass.” “Alright, alright I get it, don’t rock the boat when you’re allowing me to float. So tell me what you need and what’s going to be my payment for my gold standard information services,” Turk replied with a grin. Ugh, this was going to be a long night I can feel it.

“I need information on some small-time drug dealer’s den locations, and what’s in it for you is some cash for pointing me in the right direction.” Was my reply while trying to be nonthreatening since I needed him as an informant in the know. “Come on, man, I don’t do no drugs.”

“I know you don’t do drugs, but you deal with guns, and everyone buys guns. You can give me the dealers, or I can leave you inside of some five-star prison.” That’s on me for trying to buddy up to a criminal. Now it’s time for the hard way, I grabbed him by the collar and ran us to the top of the Manhattan bridge. That got his attention alright, and he started back up his screaming. I loosened my grip and shook him slightly to make him think I was going to drop him.

This made Turk fold like a lawn chair on the fourth of July, and it was perfect. “I’ll Talk, I’ll talk just don’t drop me from up here man.” Turk was screaming out at the top of his lungs. Man, it’s nice to make some progress. With that, I ran us back to the top of the building perch overlooking his van.

“I know of a few dudes off the west end of Manhattan, Yeah six dudes working out of a house. I sold them a few gats and some ammo. They didn’t even want to buy the body armor  those cheap bastards.” Turk squealed out, hoping that I wouldn’t take him for another run. Yeah, about time he cracked: it was already around eleven, and I had to make it home before my parents had ideas about my location.” Alright, give me the area and our transaction will be complete.”

“There is a blue house over on Avenue C in the east village. They have a big caddy in the front can’t miss it, cause it’s on some ugly ass rims and with a purple paint job.” Came his immediate reply. “I have located the group and home he has identified sir,” Came Alfred immediate answer before I could even ask for a GPS guide. With that, I took off towards the east side of Manhattan, leaving Turk up on top of the building.

“Aye, what about me!” Turk screamed out at me, but I was already going over six hundred miles per hour, and everything was already slowing down around me. The GPS was trying to keep up with me, but it wasn’t the latest nor was it calibrated for the speeds I can go. That would need to be rectified later because I think I can use my aura to affect electronics like how the speed clone decided it wanted to mate with the computers and make Alfred.

I was blazing a trail down the road when I noticed a crash on the way to my destination. The money was for my end goals, but my current goal was to keep up this hero job to the big time, and it wouldn’t do if I missed an opportunity to get my name out there. Granted now I recall I forgot to give the firefighters my name, crap.

It was a nasty pile up on the road. It looked like a Mercedes tried to cut off the truck, and it all went downhill from there, and due to the nature of New York City’s roads, it was terrible. I drop the visions of me getting all the money to focus upon the situation at hand. With a swift turn, I was up the nearest building overlooking the scene of the accident. From my perch, I was able to see the truck overturned on its side leaking some liquid it also had a bright bio hazard sign tankers side. There are no ways I want to get that on me since this is the Marvel universe and you never know what that’s going to do to a human body. 

The cars were all in different positions around the truck, yet it just had to be the one unlucky Honda that’s on its roof near the bio hazard liquid. Great just my luck, “Alfred double check to make sure First Responders are on the way. Also, bud let them know about the hazard.” with that I was already moving, I had to be careful with my electric discharge since blowing us all to hell is not the way to save people.

It was clear the Honda, and the truck were in the worse of the situation, so I aimed for them first. With a yank I pulled the door clear open, this sucked because if I had super strength that would have came clear off the hinges. Now I have to worry about the door blocking my retreat. They make this seem so easy in the comics and movies, save the day and get the girl. Yeah, that’s not how this situation is going down. This was not a hot girl; it was what appeared to be a rug. With a closer look, it was just a very hairy guy, and man did I want to puke. 

Holding back what had to be my lunch since I skipped dinner like a moron, forcing myself to focus on the human rug in front of me, it was time for action. With a yank, I pulled off a panel from the driver’s dashboard and used that to get all the glass out of the way.  Then with a foot against the car side, I pulled the human rug hard out of his seat. Ugh, and he was all sweaty, too; this was not what I envisioned myself doing when I chose the hero path. Talk about the other side of a hero’s life.

With the human rug out and clear of the wreck, it was time to get him on the side of the road to safety. Then I performed a full body charge to flush out any fatigue I was feeling. The human rug was moved over to the side and out of the way. “First Responders are already en route ETA two minutes and counting currently northbound towards your location.” Came Alfred’s smooth voice. With that, it was time for overdrive which didn’t last too long. But once I cleared out the other cars, it turns out the Mercedes was in worse condition than I thought. This car was all kinds of messed up.

The front end was crunched in, and so was the back. The roof was also caved in at an angle, and it was pinned up against the cab of the truck when I leaned in to take a better look at what I found it sent a shiver down my spine. When I leaned down, I yanked open the driver side door, and I found the driver passed out with blood leaking from his forehead. In the back, I heard a scream, what I found was a pregnant woman clearly about to go into labor. This was such an astonishing scene to me, how in the world did she even survive the crash. 

She was wearing a large coat over what appeared to be a dress with no shoes on, and I couldn’t find any in my sight anywhere. It took me three whole seconds to crunch the astronomical numbers of the probability of her survival and damn was she the lucky lottery winner. Alfred broke me out of my reverie on the situation, though. “I believe she is going into labor, sir. That could also explain the driver’s erratic behavior before the accident. Also, first Responders are closing in on your location, sir.” Came his smooth voice. Well, it was time to move and stop gazing at the situation.

Clearing a path, I picked him up in a fireman’s carry, and I ran with the gentleman who appeared to be the husband in question. I rushed him over to the sidewalk where I had placed all the rest rescued during the accident. With a nod, I was back at the car trying to figure out how to get the lady out.

From the way, the car was wedged in it was holding up the truck, but any moving of the parts to get her out would severely weaken the supports. This was going to be a genuinely tricky operation. I was worried about going high speeds and what that would do to the baby or her entire labor situation. The only way to save her would be to wrap her in my speed force aura, but the downside of that is that I would have to be close, too close for my comfort. That was the only way to save her life with the way the supports were so weakened.

With a deep breath, I rushed myself into the car, with a twist I placed my arms along her side and kicked out hard, sending what’s left of the car flying. With my aura flared it was directed to cover her. With a swing, I brought myself under her position to pick her up in a bridal carry. Up above was still the roof, and this had to go if I wanted to take a steady step. Even with my speed though I was able to see the slow crumbling on the back half of the vehicle we were in. Just seeing that in slow motion alone drove me forward, I refused to die here today at this moment. Heroes never die, and I planned to be one of the greatest, so this moment was but a stepping stone. 

I kept telling myself that as I pulled one of my hands from beneath the lady. With a focused motion, I blasted the roof clear of the rest of the vehicle and ran out. That was my first time using my lightning for anything other than powering my body. In the tv show, it was shown that The Flash had to do some crazy circle run to be able to throw his. I never wanted to go that route, so I neglected that training a little, so this was a surprise using the speed lightning in such a fashion. Now was not the time to enjoy discovering new abilities. No, this was the time to save two lives.

I took a moment to look around, and I noticed firefighters were frozen mid-stride towards our location, but they weren’t what I was looking for. I found the paramedics a few seconds after I located the firefighters. The paramedics had a few beds located by the people whom I had saved already. The lady was still panting in my arms as I made it over to a free bed to let her down. I was pretty confident that the baby just got a full dose of speed force juice, but I would have to worry about that one later. 

While lowering the lady down on the bed, we slowly returned to natural time syncing back with all the action around us. That caused everyone to suddenly jump in there spots. The paramedics froze, and I had to pick one of them up and bring them to the ladies side as she kept screaming into the night. “Oh my gosh this lady in labor! Paul get over here!” Yelled out the paramedic from his position after his dazed and confused moment passed. Well, I guess that was that, and my helping hand was no longer needed here.

With that thought, It was time that I made my way to get some cash to help my situation. Before I could even take a step in the direction of my soon to be liberated loot, some firefighters stopped me, “You that kid that saved our brother from that big blaze in Queens kid?” he asked me. That brought me up short though because I had no clue that word had even got out about that so fast.

“Ahh, yeah I had the speed, so why not help?” I replied, trying not to show how surprised I was about them already knowing about that.
“Thanks kid the fact that your helping instead of being an issue in this city says a lot about you. Tell us, what’s your name?” the primary lead firefighter asked me. My brain was still trying to catch up with this development. Spiderman never got this kind of love, and he saved cops and firefighters all the time. 

Yeah, that must have been a comic issue or J.J. causing that type of treatment to happen.” My name is BBB — LightSpeed, yeah my names LightSpeed” I answered almost giving him my actual name. I saved it with a hero name. This I had to provide with more confidence in my voice, yeah LightSpeed is going to rock this city. That caused the firefighters to almost laugh at me due to my whole awkward first answer than my actual response. “Alright kid get out of here the cops are coming over,” he answered me trying to keep a straight face. This brought me up short since they are helping a vigilante technically. Well damn do a good deed and get rewarded: so much for no good deed goes unpunished. 

This moment gave me insights I’ll have to take advantage of later though. Making myself legal will have to be my big move before the whole Avengers situation, and if I can get it right, this will be able to be used as a springboard platform. With a nod I was moving again, having such a chat with the firefighter rekindled the reason why I wanted to do this whole hero thing.

I wasn’t in it for the glory; this was more than just a means to an end. My goal was to help pave the way for the new Metahuman kind. Just getting some glory along the way never hurt and man was I feeling amazing from just a little bit of acknowledgment. I had to be humble about it because if I weren’t humble, the world would find a way to come crashing down on my head. The lady and her baby were saved, and everyone else was saved, so mission accomplished. Now it was time to put my eye on the prize. “Alfred is anyone home at the location given to us by Turk?” I decided to ask my oh so helpful A.I. Helper. “That dreadfully distasteful purple vehicle is currently in the driveway.”

“How do you even know that?” I couldn’t help but ask him. “I am currently accessing the city’s camera at the end of their block. It has such a clear view you would think that they would have been caught by now. Came his smooth reply, and that perked me up. I was hoping he hacked a few cell phones, but it seems like he already had boundaries. That had me thinking about how much of the personality matrix made up his actual consciousness. I knew I had taken a look at his code, and it was all fine, but one can never be too sure about what makes up his friendly A.I. that has control over so much.