Chapter 1

Neil sat overlooking the city. A stark contrast from last night’s freak storm, there was a warmth and freshness in the air. Neil allowed himself a moment to really appreciate the sun on his face. Neil loved to start his patrol on this building because of the relatively clear view it provided.

His quiet meditation was broken up by Tom’s voice over his earpiece comms system. “Sinewave, come in,”

Caught daydreaming, Neil grasped for a response. “Um, yeah, I’m ready to go T—”

“Hey, use the codename,” interrupted Tom, “We’ve got to be extra careful now.”

“You and your code names!” spat Neil, “You know this is a secure channel, it’s all tech that you created!”

“Hey, don’t blame me for being paranoid. I bet you’re on your favorite rooftop. You are a creature of habit, which is a liability for a costumed vigilante! How do you know that someone isn’t watching you or that someone hasn’t planted listening devices?”

Tom’s point brought a sting of shame. Being a creature of habit was probably a bad idea. Neil closed his eyes and stretched out his hands, feeling for the telltale tingling of electricity and electric devices around him. He drew in a deep breath, held it for a second and pushed out his muscles, delivering a small EMP.

“Well, I didn’t feel any electronic devices near to me, but if there were any, they’ve been cooked.”

“Awesome job, Sinewave,” replied Tom, dripping with sarcasm. “I hope that nobody on the top floor of the building has a pacemaker.”

“I told you that I checked first. Anyway, what did you need? You called me, remember?”

“Wait, I know your powers have been increasing since the accident, do you really think you could detect a pacemaker from 100 feet away? Ah, nevermind about that right now. I um, just wanted to remind you - that event is today.”

“What event?” replied Neil coyly

“You better be joking,” replied Tom in a panic.

“I know, I know. The big unveiling.” Neil considered giving more details, but his guilt about his habits had given way to anxiety. What if they were being listened to? He decided to reply vaguely. “I’ll be monitoring it with some interest.”

“Agreed,” replied Tom in a knowing voice. He segued awkwardly “So, how about that crazy storm yesterday?”

“I was out in it! It was so strange. It’s as if someone flipped a switch and turned on a hurricane machine for 10 minutes. It went from a beautiful clear night to torrential rain, extreme winds and enough electricity in the air to make my skin crawl - and then as quickly as it started, it was clear again. I was just lucky to find a building with some kind of picnic shelter thing on the roof for me to hunker down in. Thankfully it was quick - and bonus - it was enough to keep the criminals quiet last night. Nothing for me to do.”

“And how’s the new uniform?”

Neil looked down at his uniform. It consisted of a featureless skin-tight head to toe dark grey fabric. The palms of his hands and bottom of his feet had a rubberized black coating to provide grip and protection. The part what went over his head didn’t have any openings, but it was made of a slightly different fabric that was sheer enough to not hinder his visibility. A black, flowing hooded cloak completed the look.

“I like it a lot. It’s simple, provides a ton of movement. You really accomplished everything I expected.”

“And the fabric works with your newer powers?”

Neil smiled. Ever since his battle with Conrad, he had gained the ability to move through objects. This had resulted in a number of awkward situations.

“Yeah, this fabric seems to respond to my powers. No unintended nudity this time.”

“Yeah, it’s fortunate that your old costume’s pants were made with the same fabric that your current costume is. It’s one thing for a topless hero to run around, quite another for a fully nude crimefighter. I still don’t understand why certain materials don’t respond to your powers.”

“I don’t quite understand either, to be honest. For the most part I haven’t run into anything else that does this. When I go intangible I pass through everything else. And when I re-solidify, anything inside of me gets absorbed. Except this material. Which is good because absorbing stuff hurts like a--”

“Oh, raincheck on the power status, “ Interrupted Tom. “Hey, Everything is lighting up here. Crime in progress.”

“What’s the situation?”

“Armed robbery. One of those cheque cashing places.”

“Direction?”

“West of you. You know the grocery place near Midtown bridge? About a block or two up.”

“I know the place. Any details about the crime?”

“Three employees. One has been shot, the other two are hostages. Police still en route. Four robbers. No, wait, five. No. Four.”

“Make up your mind?”

“The police aren’t sure. I’m trying to use social media to fill in the blanks. Hopefully I’ll have a count by the time you get there.”

Neil looked around, locating the west ledge of the building. Turning his body, he began to run, building up more and more steam. He was at a full sprint as he reached the ledge. Using all of the muscles in his leg, he leaped into the air over the ledge. Time seemed to slow down as he found the apex of his leap. Using his new powers, Neil altered his body density. The intense tingling in his body let him know that he was completely intangible - he was a ghost, hovering westbound, unencumbered by gravity or wind resistance.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you, what’s it like to fly?” asked Tom

“This is amazing, but it’s not flight. I’m just unaffected by any force. Gravity doesn’t pull me down, and wind resistance isn’t a thing when I’m like this, so I can just continue to cruise through the air at my top sprinting speed.”

“How’d you manage to figure that out?”

“If gravity had an impact on me, I’d have sunk to the center of the earth the first time I discovered my powers. That didn’t happen, so I started experimenting with momentum. Basically, as long as I’m moving when I go all ghosty, I keep moving in that direction.”

“Well I hope you’re able to change directions, you’re off target. The GPS says that you’re more north than you should be.”

Although he couldn’t turn, Neil had been practicing. By slowly re-solidify his body somewhat, it allowed gravity to have a muted effect on his body. Gradually he fell to the top of another building, completely solidifying his body just before he contacted the roof.

“Which direction now?” asked Neil

“Turn south, GPS says you’re two buildings from there.”

Neil looked towards the building and repeated his ghost-like hovering, landing on the building with the cheque cashing place. He looked around the roof with some concern. “Um, we’ve got a problem. There’s no roof access here. I can’t exactly barge through the front door. Any ideas?”

“I just checked the blueprints - at least ones that I could find from a few years ago, Sinewave, and it’s just a storefront type building. Doesn’t seem to be any back entrance for the business.”

Neil couldn’t stand the idea of a frontal attack with hostages. Bullets didn’t concern him anymore, but they still posed a threat to the hostages inside. Neil considered some options. “Hey man, How many floors does this building have? I have an idea”

“14 floors.”

“So that’s like 13 floors and a roof between me and the cheque cashing place?”

“Wait, wait, Sinewave, what are you thinking?”

“Momentum. What’s the best part of this ceiling to stand on so I can get the drop on them?”

“Stop! The blueprints aren’t great. This isn’t a good plan. I don’t want you stuck in a chunk of concrete or something!”

“Well, then tell me where to stand.”

“It looks like there’s nothing structural in the building about 50 paces to your left”

Neil starts to walk to his right

“Your other left, Sinewave.”

“Well, here’s hoping this works. This shouldn’t take too long. See you at the unveiling. Going silent.”

Neil walked his 50 paces and took a deep breath. He jumped up into the air and waited for gravity to start to pull him down. As he started to fall, he phased his body and let the momentum pull him down through the roof of the building. He wasn’t accelerating at all, so to his surprise it was a pretty slow fall. He had plenty of time as he made his way down through the building, counting floors as he lowered through them. He found himself closing his eyes whenever he passed through a floor, mostly out of reflex. Once he arrived on the main floor, he solidified himself, landing in a featureless small room.

Neil looked around. He couldn’t see any obvious entryway.

“The downside to passing through a building is that I have no clue where I am on the main floor,” he thought to himself. “I guess I’ll listen for noise?”

Neil pressed his ear against a nearby wall. It was silent. He moved to another and could hear people talking.

“Well, either that’s the hostages, the gunmen or some unwitting saps working at one of the other shops on the main floor,” Neil reasoned. “I like those odds.”

Neil passed through the wall into a small office. The door was closed. The two employees were on the floor, frantically trying to attend to their downed colleague. Neil and put his finger to his mouth to signal that they should all keep quiet. One of the employees looked over at Neil and nudged the other employee.

“Look,” he whispered, “It’s Sinewave!”

Neil crouched down.

“What’s going on,” Whispered Neil, “why are you locked in here? Where are the gunmen?”

“The guy on the floor, Bill, decided to jump the gunmen. They got spooked and shot him. They’ve been arguing ever since. They jammed us into this room and tore out the phone line and trashed the computer. One of the guys is guarding the door from the outside, the other are trying to bypass the safe.”

“That’s helpful, thanks.”

“Can you get us out of here? I hear you can walk through walls. Can’t we go back that way?”

Neil frowned. “I’m sorry, it doesn’t work like that. I can’t make other people ghosty like me. Instead, I’ll try to make this quick so Bill gets the attention he needs. I am sure an ambulance is on the way if it isn’t here already.”

Neil crept toward the door and leaned against it. He looked back at the employees.

“Psst,” said Neil, trying to grab the attention of either employee.

One of the employees looked up.

“How tall is the guy outside the door,” asked Neil as he raised his hands.

“About there,” replied the employee.

“Thanks!”

In a single smooth motion, Neil made his arms intangible, plunged his hands through the door, and solidified them as he linked them around the gunman’s head and pulled him into the door with all the force he could muster. The wood absorbed into Neil’s body and caused a sharp stinging pain in his forearms. Straining to hold the assailant he pulled him close to the door and let him slide and slump slowly to the floor with a dull thud. As he processed the stinging feeling in his arms he noticed the two large holes left in the door. Neil peeked through the door, waited a second and opened it. He then peeked out tenatatively. He dragged the gunman into the office and closed the door behind them.

Neil motioned to one of the employees. “Hey you,” he asked, “hey, do you have some way to tie this guy up?”

The employee nodded. Neil grabbed the gun and passed it to the employee.

“I’m going to go take care of the other three. Keep him tied up and keep him quiet. Do not use this gun unless you absolutely have to. I don’t need the extra attention.”

The employee nodded again.

As Neil left the office, he could hear the other gunmen arguing. He peeked around the corner to see them all standing close to each other.

“Bill doesn’t have time for me to take this slow,” Neil thought, “I’m just going to go for it.”

Neil charged toward the three men and tackled them. As they fell, Neil slammed his palm into the back of a gunman’s neck, making sure that the villain hit the ground face first, hard. Neil spun to his feet. He turned to pick his next target. As soon as one of the gunmen started to get to his feet, Neil leaped forward and kicked him in the groin.

“I’d almost feel bad for that, but I’m on a schedule,” Neil rationalized, “besides, there’s no rules about fighting dirty when it comes to criminals.”

As the gunmen lurched forward in pain, Neil touched the back of his neck and let some electricity loose. The man’s body shuddered and he fell to the floor convulsing.

“Three down, one to go,” thought Neil. He turned and saw the last gunman still struggling to get up. Quickly, Neil moved over toward him and slammed his foot down on the man’s ankle, crushing it. The man let out a blood curdling scream.

“If you don’t stay down, I will crush the other one. OK?”

Desparately, The man nodded.

Neil ran back to the office and opened the door.

“How’s Bill?” asked Neil.

“He’s breathing, I don’t know,” replied one of the employees glibly, “I’m not a doctor.”

“Do we have some way to move him?”

“Nothing I can think of. We cash cheques, we don’t exactly have a stockroom filled with stretchers.”

Neil looked at the holes in the door. His arms felt so heavy and they still stung from his last absorption. Wincing in anticipation, Neil phased his hand and pushed it through the door right by the top hinge. Neil took a deep breath in and solidified his hand, leaving a hole where the hinge was once attached to the frame. Without a top hinge, the door slumped down, leaning heavily on its lower hinge. Trembling from the pain, Neil wiped his now-damp brow. He knelt down and repeated the process on the lower hinge. The door broke loose and crashed toward Neil. The weight surprised him. He wasn’t sure if he could catch it. Panting and straining through the heavy arms and the stinging pain he wrestled the door towards Bill.

“Do you think you guys can help me get Bill on this and help me carry it out of here? It’s a heavy door.” Neil asked.

Both employees nodded in agreement.

Working together, they got Bill onto the door while Neil barked out orders.

“We’ll have to hold it at an angle to get it through the door frame. One of you get on the side here to keep him steady, OK?”

As they came down the hallway the gunman with the broken leg opened fire. Instinctively, Neil started to phase his body to avoid the bullets. As he felt the wood of the door start to slip through his fingers, he remembered the employees behind him and re-solidified. The door and Bill fell to the floor as Neil felt the hot sting of being riddled with bullets. He hoped that he reacted quick enough to the bullets and that his body was shielding the three employees. Once the gunman emptied his clip, Neil’s patience ran out. He charged at the gunman and electrocuted him unconscious. In a moment of rage and frustration, Neil stomped on the gunman’s good leg, breaking it as well. He looked back at the employees. All three of them laid on the ground bleeding and groaning.

“You guys OK?” asked Neil?

“No thanks to you,” responded the glib employee, “I’ve been hit!”

The other employee sat up and leaned forward. He had been shot in the shoulder. He didn’t say anything to Neil, but he looked at Bill, smiled and gave a thumbs up sign.

Neil unlocked the front door, motioning for the ambulance.

“We’ve got three subdued gunmen and three employees. They’ve been shot.”

Outside the building the crowd clapped and cheered for Sinewave. Ashamed, Neil ducked around the corner and ran off. Between letting people get shot and letting his frustration win, he didn’t much feel like a hero deserving of applause.

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