Heroes and Villains

5 - The Foreseer

Suddenly, a white arrow stabs itself on the side of Monkey Paw’s foot. Everyone looks surprised at it for a while, even tilting their heads.

I’m the first to realize there’s more to it than just an arrow. After all, someone must have shot it, right?

However, I’m still very much stuck under the metal net to be able to do anything but thrash against it.

“Crime does not hold against Justice” A woman’s voice can be heard from the outside at the same time smoke begins to rise at the entrance.

Every goon turns their guns to the rising smoke, waiting for someone to come out of it but no one does.

“What are you waiting for?” Monkey Paw shouts at his men. “Go check it out!”

Some very hesitant thugs step forward and disappear into the smoke that now engulfs the entirety of the entrance lobby, making it hard to see anything beyond it.

Sounds of a struggle reach us and I see Monkey Paw starting to get impatient.

“Justice will always prevail” The same female voice reaches us, this time more closely seen that the thick smoke is coming our way.

Monkey Paw glares and shouts at his men.

“Go! All of you! Take her down whoever she is!” He shouts, thrashing with his fists.

As his men go into the mist, he turns to me and my ears perk up as I realize I am still in a pinch.

“You’re coming with me, Kitty” He says and grabs the end of the net, starting to drag me along with him to the back of the bank.

Obviously, I continue struggling against my binds but my claws are useless against this metal. In a final attempt to get free, I try to reach Monkey Paw and bite him but he just jumps out of the way.

“Be a good kitty cat and stand still or I’ll have to give you the nap nap” He says and I hiss at him as a response.

More struggle sounds echo from the spreading smoke and this time we even get to hear gunshots followed by deadly silence.

Monkey Paw laughs as he continues dragging me away.

“Looks like your friend is dead meat!” He says.

“I don’t even know who that is!” I shout back.

“Why did she come to rescue you, then?” Monkey Paw asks me but I don’t even have time to answer him.

Out of the blue, he gets punched in the face by a lady in white.

That’s the best description I have for her, really. She’s a lady and she’s very white.

Fine, so you want a more detailed description… Picture this, then: She is wearing what seems to be a white wavy wig that reaches down to her lower back, a white tight jumpsuit that looks worse than the suits they make us wear at the bar, and a white mask that covers the top half of her face with no holes for the eyes.

The mask is the most detailed thing about her, though. It has an intricate design of sand clocks and clock pointers, all white-colored, of course.

Monkey Paw holds his chin after the hard punch and glares at the strange woman.

“Who are you?” He asks her.

Standing up straight, the woman responds. “I am the Justice that eradicates crime” She says. “I am… The Foreseer”

At this, Monkey Paw burst out laughing.

“Really?” He says through wheezes. “That’s the best you could come up with?”

He stops laughing when the woman, sorry, the Foreseer, grabs her white bow and aims a white arrow at his head.

More serious now, Monkey Paw looks at her. “What do you want?”

“I want you to leave” She simply says and I look shocked at her.

She has him cornered and she is just going to let him walk away?

Monkey Paw shrugs, totally content with this idea. “Fine by me”

With yet another shrill laugh, he jumps out of the way of the arrow and runs as fast as he can out of the bank. No care at all about the men he leaves behind, lying unconscious on the ground.

“Are you out of your mind?!” I shout up at the strange woman. “Who the hell do you think you are?!”

She looks a little taken aback at my reaction as I continue thrashing against the metal net. She crouches to help me with it and after some effort, we manage to get it off of me.

“I am the woman who just saved your life” She says, matter-of-factly. “I believe you even owe me a thank you”

“Yeah, I am thankful for that but why did you have to let him go?” I ask her, standing up.

“You would rather I had killed him?” She asks me.

“Yes!” I shout, throwing my arms in the air. “That guy has been pestering me for months! I almost had him!”

She tilts her head at me and places a hand on her hip.

“It does seem like you had everything under control before I came along” She says, clearly being sarcastic.

“In fact, I did!” I say. “I was just about to get myself out of that net and kick his sorry ass!”

She shows me the palm of her hand, not wanting to hear me anymore which only makes me angrier.

“I believe we have more important matters to address other than how you had everything under control” She says, looking over to the hostages who are now slowly standing up.

They look surprised at all the thugs laying on the ground now that the smoke is starting to vanish. I know we do have to address this, seen that the police of the city are basically useless.

I mean, if they were efficient in any way they would have been here hours ago!

“Fine, what do you want to do?” I ask her.

She looks at me and I sense a smugness coming from her. “Aren’t you the hero of the city, Kitty Girl? Why don’t you show the newbie here how to do it?”

Oh? So, she wants to play this game, does she? Alright, let’s play this game.

Turning my back to her, I head over to the nearly open vault and manage to open the rest of it, using my claws.

“What are you doing?” She asks me.

“There’s something you clearly haven’t heard about me” I tell her, coming out of the vault with my arms filled with bags of money that I stuff inside my backpack. “I’m not the hero of these folks”

I point my chin to all the fancy looking people who watch me with eyes of fear, amazement, and even some disgust.

That’s right. It doesn’t matter that I saved their lives. I’m still a mutant and now that they don’t need me anymore, that’s all they can see.

I look back at the Foreseer, who is still shocked at what I am doing.

“Maybe you can be their hero” I tell her. “But I have other people I need to protect”

Without any more delay, I jump towards the entrance, startling every single person inside the bank. Then, I run away from the place as the police sirens finally start ringing in the distance.

But, of course, she follows me. She just can’t let it go. No, a little perfect human like her had to follow me after I took money that isn’t mine from the bank.

Not giving in, I jump through the rooftops to try to lose her, but she proves to be resilient. No matter how many acrobats I have to do to manage to reach the next building, she always manages to find a way to follow me.

Of course, she does have her grappling hook to help her. I wish I had one of those.

After an hour or so of trying to outwit her, I am starting to get fed up. I need to get back downtown and I don’t want to have her following me when I do that.

Growling in frustration, I suddenly stop just before jumping to the next building. Surprised at my sudden move, she doesn’t have time to stop herself before nearly falling off the edge of the rooftop.

I grab her arm and throw her to the ground, pinning her down.

“Will you stop?” I tell her, hissing lightly.

She glares back at me and tries to free herself from my binding.

“Not until you give that money back!” She shouts.

“You might as well give up because I’m never going to give this back” I say and loosen my grip on her.

That proves to be a big mistake because she takes the opportunity to release her arm and kick me in the chin, getting up almost immediately after.

“If you’re not going to give it back, I’ll have to take it from you forcefully and bring you to Justice” She says, standing ready to fight me.

“Good luck with that, missy” I tell her, also getting myself ready to fight her.

Surprisingly enough, she waits for me to take the first move. Wanting to get this over with as quickly as possible, I spin and am about to kick her with my left leg, but she dodges my move altogether.

I look surprised at her for a moment wondering how she managed to dodge such a fast attack but waste no time to try to bring her down again. This time I decide to use my fists and go for an upper jab to her chin.

Again, she easily avoids me, moving out of the way before I even get close enough.

Realizing she must be predicting my moves somehow, I level up my attacks. I go for another punch, followed by a quick hit with my other arm at the same time I try to kick her stomach with my knee.

She manages to avoid all of those.

Stepping back a little confused, I realize I might have underestimated this Foreseer girl. She obviously decided to become a hero of her own merit. It should have been obvious to me that she knows what she is doing.

I step further back to think before I attack her again, but she comes after me and it’s her turn to attack me.

I am unable to avoid her attacks like she did with mine, but do manage to block all of them. Thinking fast, I drop to the ground and spin to throw her off her feet.

She doesn’t manage to avoid this blow.

She falls to the ground, hitting her back against the floor and I get on top of her before she can make another move.

Right now, I just want to finish this because I really have no more time to waste. So, I reach out and pull her mask from her face, revealing her identity.

She gasps and so do I.

I was not expecting this at all.

“You’re Yumi Hamato!”