The Intern

The Beginning

The clouds hung lowly over the smog filled sky, the people of the city slept soundly in their beds, unbeknown to the terrors that the darkened night could bring. He glanced upwards towards the twinkling stars, the few that were bright enough to fight the illumination of the lively city - even the giant skyscrapers with protruding neon signs weren't a match against the distant balls of gas.

Every night was the same for him. Sat atop one of the various building's, watching and waiting. There were few roofs that he would take this stance, the rest were either too weak or too high, what would be the point of surveillance if the one surveying was too far away to see anything. But here he waited. For what, he did not know. 

Hours would go by before he would see any sort of movement, sometimes it would be a bird or a rat, sometimes someone coming home from the graveyard shift - most times never what he was looking for. Well, not looking, watching for. 

A couple of hours would pass, still nothing, so he would shift his position to roof number two. This one was better for him, he had a view of the city centre as well as the countries biggest bank, even from his distance he could make out the faint engraving above the huge metal doors, simply reading "The Bank". The architecture outdated the building, making it stick out like a sore thumb amongst the holographic signs and images in the windows opposite. 

Oftentimes, no one would be so stupid as to attempt to rob The Bank, but the authorities in these parts had become so lax with punishment that it would take an entire week, sometimes two, before he saw even a patrol car. That's why he did what he did. The only one willing to be the eyes that the city so desperately needed.

The rain hammered down upon him, but it would take more than a little bit of rain to force him to end his guard early. 

When the Town Hall clock buzzed out a chime four times, his gaze shifted to The Bank. Another thing in this city that was out of place, the clock tower, for some strange reason the original bell was kept in place but never sounded. Instead it was re-wired to keep up to date with technology, making each chime sound like an electric fence that was being triggered by a fly, but if you listened hard enough, you could hear the ghost of the bell chimes as well.

Four o'clock in the morning. Tuesday. He had been doing this long enough to know the night's routine. He cautiously watched as the enormous metal door of The Bank sluggishly opened and out stepped a blonde woman. He guessed she was blonde anyway, her hair could have been white but the distance was hard to tell. But there she was, as always, locking up the metal door behind her. She did this every Tuesday, he had no idea why or what significance Tuesday was to The Bank, but he always made sure that she locked up okay.

He assumed she was an employee of The Bank, her clothes were the same as the day time workers, all apart from the shoes she was wearing. All the other employees wore black dress shoes, normal attire for someone who works in a bank or any customer facing job these days - but she wore bright white sneakers. Probably because she could get away with it, no one was around to tell her otherwise, and it's not like any customers would be wandering in to snitch on her.

The light haired lady had managed to get all of two shops away from The Bank before something caught his eye, a group of hoods rounded the corner and made their way towards the lady. She hadn't spotted them yet. He adjusted his position on the roof to watch the group more closely, he counted four so far, more than enough to cause trouble. His eye line switched between the woman and the group, trying to calculate the best outcome of the situation, maybe they were just passing through and happened to have their hoods up, it was raining. But something about the way they walked made him nervous, it was a pack formation, stalking their prey.

It wasn't until the group split into two, half of them lingering by The Bank and the other two racing ahead towards the woman. His heart picked up it's pace as his suspicions were confirmed, tonight would be like every other night, some low life preying on the weak and exploiting them for their own gain. Although, he had never come across this many at once, normally he would deal with one or two at the most. General muggings or assaults, nothing he couldn't handle, but four people working together with some resemblance of a plan. Now this could be trouble for even him.

No matter. It wasn't as though it deterred him, it just meant that he had to be careful; no room for mistakes.

He scaled the wall as quickly as he could, hanging from the roof by one hand ready to propel himself to the wall opposite. He did so without hesitation, landing on the resident's balcony a floor down, he used this to his advantage, using the bars of the balcony to swing himself forward and using the momentum to tuck himself into a roll and land safely on the ground. It wasn't the most glamorous or concealed landing, but it took no time. Time that could be used saving a life.

Unfortunately, he had created too much noise, as he raised his head to scout the area the two hoods and the woman were all looking at him. Disguise over, no point in hiding now. He stood up straight and blew a strand of hair out of his face. "Evening" he said flatly.

Now that they were in close proximity he could see that the two people wearing hoods were in fact male. One of them had hold of the woman, while the other held her purse. He took a few steps towards them, giving them a warning "Leave her alone boys", he threatened. His palms heated up when they didn't budge.

"I'm going to give you one last chance to run" he said in a more aggressive tone, trying to convey an air of caution, letting the thugs know that he was a dangerous man that shouldn't be messed with. The reality was, he had never taken a life, and he wasn't going to start tonight, but these guys seemed as though they had no problem killing someone.

"What is taking so long?" someone shouted from a distance, from the corner of his eye he could see the other two goons running towards the disturbance, he wasn't about to break eye contact with the guy holding the woman. As soon as the two thugs had joined their friends and noticed their extra member, they seemed rattled. "Erico, the boss isn't going to like interference" one of them said, sounding shaken. "Good job dipshit" the man who's name must have been Erico said. 

He'd heard enough talk from these criminals, he concentrated all of his energy into his fist, while watching two of the goons run towards him. He waited until the very last second, a fist few past his face as he dodged the attack. His fist flashed white flames, the heat radiating from them. "What the Hell?" Erico gawked, his eye line attached to the blazing white flames. His grip on the woman released and he took a few steps back, "Retreat!" he shouted to his men, "But the Boss-" one of the goons started, but Erico interrupted them, panic lacing his voice "Screw what the Boss says" was the last thing he said before he scrambled away. 

One of the goons pulled out his phone and pointed it towards the fiery hands, "What are you doing, i***t?" he heard from the distance. The man holding the phone in his shaky hands backed away from the flames before running after his colleagues shouting, "The boss will never believe us".

That was the first recorded instance of someone exhibiting super human abilities. That was 57 years ago. His nickname was White Light, vigilante and hero to the every day person. Since then, more people have developed these superhuman abilities, each generation showing more unique gifts. 

Unfortunately, not only the people with good intentions have started showing these gifts, making the already lethal criminals into deadly killing machines.Showing a growing need for people with pure intentions to take a side of justice and help fend off those who intend to do harm.