Chapter 29: 2.04.2 – The blimp heist

2.1 - Edited by: , - 1/15/2021

 

Leona had little idea what her super powers were, and yet she was determined to charge into the fray. 

 

Her whole body emitted light, which suggested she controlled light in some way. 

 

Remembering the feeling when she had fired a blast from her hand, she decided that if she could do that again that would be enough for what she was intending to do. With something to do at range, she had to wonder how tough she was up close. She felt very strong, but was it bullet-bouncy-strong, or overconfidence? What kind of a superhero was she?

 

Hence the reckless leap straight into the flames. There was only one way to find out what she was made of. 

 

She swept up above her target landing zone and slammed down dramatically, crossing her arms. She racked her brain for a clever line while the heavily armed men waited there agape. After enough consideration, the fledgeling superheroine decided imitation of a few comics was the sincerest form of flattery, but what came out was actually a little lame.

 

“Heya boys. I was wondering what you guys were up to?” She asked playfully with an eager smile. Well, in part she was trying to act like her sister, who was super-playful and ultra-confident. Leona felt it wouldn’t hurt to behave in that way. That sort of behavior kinda intimidated her sometimes too, so why not them? 

 

“This couldn’t possibly be an elaborate robbery or some other type of caper, could it?” Leona tilted her head as she laughed. “I mean, a big ol’ blimp like this parked up here screams: ‘Calling all superheroes… please notice us.’ Plus, you know, the guns and all.”

 

The only response she got at first was the armed men looking at each other. In their confusion Leona noticed that the door on one of the building’s roofs was opened, likely by the use of a blowtorch, and these ones seemed to be guarding their getaway vehicle. Just as she was about to start feeling uncomfortable with how long it was taking these guys to catch up, one finally levelled his gun at Leona with a shake of his head. 

 

“Why don’t you just fly… move along, hero,” he said disdainfully. “This ain’t any of your bizness, and it’d be a real shame, like, if you ended your… erm… career here?”

 

Leona stared him down, but she was sweating internally. Okay, a submachine gun… not that Leona knew those types of weapons by sight but a few stood out, and this was certainly of the more lethal variety. She blinked. These hapless minions weren’t running away right away… Things weren’t going at all like she expected. She thought they’d be intimidated and they’d simply bail the moment she appeared out of nowhere. Her self-confidence should have telegraphed that she was a competent hero, but these dingbats were actually pushing back. 

 

Oh CRAP! 

 

Time to test out her powers then.

 

Leona shrugged nonchalantly. “And here I was thinking you were gonna say, ‘Oh crap… we really won the lotto this time. The day we tried our hair-brained scheme an actual superhero ACTUALLY caught us. Oh, woe is us.’ I mean, you get it, right? Heroes still come by San Isidro despite the city being a bit of a cesspool filled with, um... shit like you.” 

 

DID I ACTUALLY SAY THAT TO THE GUY WITH HIS GUN POINTED AT ME?! 

 

Leona, still freaking out on the inside, nonetheless nervously laughed. 

 

The man, clearly displeased with the snark, cursed and opened fire. Leona instantly sidestepped and pointed her finger. “GO, FINGER!” 

 

Nothing happened.

 

She waggled it and still nothing happened. 

 

Soon she was flailing her hands and dancing trying to get something to happen. The sight caused the men to start laughing.

 

The man with the gun couldn’t stop himself from taunting her, but he quickly refocused and got back down to business. “Well, that’s enough funnin’ around. Goodbye, little miss hero-wannabe.” The man laughed and raised his gun again.

 

“No way a goof like her could be bulletproof!” One of the men jeered.

 

Leona freaked out. She couldn’t dodge all these bullets. They were coming right for her and peppering her whole vicinity. “NO!” Leona yelled. Suddenly, as she held her hands up a faint construct appeared in the air. It shone like the aurora borealis. You know the great northern lights? That shiny ribbon-like thing in the arctic skies at night.

 

The bullets collided dead on with the construct, but as if slamming into a wall of rubber, they simply flattened and fell to the ground. The men gasped, “OH SHIT!” 

 

One shrieked out, “BULLETPROOF!”

 

“You lugheads, it’s just a shield! It ain’t gonna last if you just SHOOT!” The first man barked a prompt and crisp order. He might not be the best at bantering, but he seemed to have a great deal of experience; a veteran crook or a soldier gone crooked. Leona eyed the men spreading to the sides and she spread her hands to match. OH… oh… oh crap… how does this even work?!

 

Not giving her the time she needed to further figure things out, all the men opened fire. Leona’s eyes opened wide and her legs shook a bit. The aurora ignited anew and formed a rippling rainbow-colored dome around her. The bullets came in, thick and fast from the firing lines in front of her, but those that hit her shield still flattened out and fell to the ground. Those that zoomed past hit the building behind her, fragmenting the windows into heaps of glass.

 

The men yelled and unloaded everything they had at her. Leona glared back at her aggressors and screamed out in return, “STOP SHOOTING AT ME!”

 

They blinked, but continued firing even more.

 

“I’ve freaking had enough of this…” Leona muttered. “Finger blasts, work!” She concentrated really hard, the result of which was a burst of energy that flew out from her shield. Lucky for them, she was new to this otherwise she’d be a little rougher with these jerks who just up and started shooting at her. 

 

Even so, five of them were catapulted against the wall by the door while another few were sent flying over the edge of this rooftop to their prospective deaths. “Oh, hell no!”

 

Leona leapt off the building, flipping backwards. Her wings extended to catch the air and she dove after the three that had gone over. She flapped her wings rapidly and with the burst of momentum she generated, she caught one. The world seemed to slow down, while the recently acquired thug dangled in her grasp as she continued to propel herself downwards. 

 

The man was a terrible handful, considering that he was flopping, not unlike a freshly caught salmon on the deck of a boat. Leona spotted an ugly gargoyle jutting out on a ledge on the way that presented an elegant solution to her problem. Since she only had two hands, simply grabbing them wasn’t what she should do to save the remaining two. 

 

Getting an idea, implementing it as quickly as it came, she wedged the man’s belt into the mouth of the gargoyle, accidentally giving him an ultra-wedgie nightmare, hung up by his pants. Time seemed to further slow as the winged superheroine beat her wings as she dove for the remaining two freefalling criminals.

 

Not fast enough. Not fast enough! She wasn’t catching up fast enough!

 

Leona poured on the afterburners, in the process getting an inkling of what she was capable of as she pushed herself harder than she yet had, squeezing out every drop of speed she didn’t imagine she was capable of. She blurred a bit from the perspective of any onlooking citizen of San Isidro watching from the streets below. 

 

Thankfully, the two were gripping each other for their dear lives, so when she caught up just before they became pancakes, she was able to grab them by their flailing hands to haul them safely up and over to a nearby police car stationed below. They collapsed into a pile next to an elderly man who gave her a hearty thumbs up while the deposited criminals wet their pants. 

 

In the next moment, she winked at the onlookers and elderly man as she frantically threw her wings out to catch more air that launched her upwards again, leaving a wave of high winds behind her as she shot back to the site of the heist. As she created the edge of the roof, she landed heavily with her arms crossed again as though nothing at all had happened. 

 

The crooks, meanwhile, had mostly gotten into their blimp to flee. Seeing her return, one shrieked like a little girl and pointed at Leona as he cried, “She’s fucking for real! MOTHERFUCKER!”

 

“RUN!” another yelled. 

 

Yet another, the very first to address Leona, opened fire on her again. And again bullets met her aurora field.

 

“Damn it…” the man cursed.

 

Leona shook her head and grinned. “Nuh-uh.” She lifted a hand and pointed it at the man. He flinched but continued to fire on her. Pointing a single finger at the man she felt that same, now familiar, sensation. With a flash, a bolt of light fired off and without really aiming, struck the man’s chest, bowling him over against the rail of the blimp. Meanwhile, one of the other crooks was untying the blimp from the air conditioning unit they’d anchored it to.

 

Leona crossed her arms and grinned at their desperation. “Guess you lost your gambit. Well, it’s on you since you practically wrote me a blank check your butts couldn’t cash. So let me think… how about you guys just spend the next… Actually, will they ever let you guys out? Does anyone here know how long attempted theft gets you in jail?” she asked jokingly. “Right, anyway, if it’s even a possibility it’s best if we get you all started on your time as soon as possible, no?” She pointed an arm at them again. 

 

“No! No no! No no, no?” A man waved his arms. They fired again, but this time, when Leona reacted, her body was covered by a curtain of the aurora effect which rendered her…

 

“BULLETPROOF!” One of them screamed and buckled to the ground. The bullets this time ricocheted off of her body instead of flattening. In reprisal, she sent a light blast at the man still wrestling with the knots around the air conditioning unit. The man went flying over the whirring machinery. He groaned and flopped into unconsciousness as he hit the concrete behind it.

 

“NO NO NO!” The most capable of them stood and this time he held a bazooka.

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Leona’s eyes widened. “Oh, are we finally pulling out the big guns? Okay!” She made a mock gun with her fingers again to snap her thumb forward. 

 

In a burst of her light energy, the bazooka went flying high up above the railing to fall. The man cradled his wrist which now hung with an unnatural looseness and he screamed at her, “You FREAKING BIRD-BEAST! YOU BROKE MY WRIST!”

 

Leona smiled and flicked her thumb again. This time, a smaller blast struck him right in his chest, bowling him over. The biggest threat to her was now quite unconscious. 

 

Suddenly, the engine of the blimp revved up and it started pulling away from the building. The blimp’s anchor hadn’t been fully pulled up, keeping it still tethered to the AC unit. Its metallic bulk groaned loudly in protest, but held.

 

“Like that’s going to work.” Leona grinned and blew her fingertip dramatically, really getting into the theatrics of her new profession now. She extended her wings and in a moment rocketed to the man who she had bowled over the air conditioner, bent down and threw him onto the blimp’s deck. Her aura became more intense the second it took her to do that and returned to the same levels after. 

 

Deciding to get in close, Leona launched herself directly at the blimp’s crew. In response, they ran inside the cabin from the open balcony around it to slam the door behind. For her part, Leona landed, casually walked up and politely knocked on the door. 

 

No one answered. “Oh, is nobody home?”

 

She hopped over the side and hovered to a window and pushed her cupped hands forcefully against a window like she was shading the glass to see inside. Flattening a palm against the surface, she pushed harder and the windshield shattered against her and she was inside the cabin.

 

“SHE’S IN!” The one who freaked out, exclaiming loudly. They turned towards her with their guns at the ready. The pilot pushed the blimp’s throttle as far forward as it would go. The air conditioner screamed even more, clearly nearing the breaking point.

 

“You know, if the anchor snaps, it’s going to make a huge mess… why don’t I give you a bit of a hand?” She leaned out the window and pointed a finger towards the straining rope and fired off a blast to cut the line. The blimp lurched forward suddenly causing the nervous man to stumble towards Leona while the others except for the pilot fell over. 

 

Leona turned towards the tumbling nervous man, sidestepped as he passed by her, all freaked out, practically foaming at the mouth and chopped the back of his neck. That move always worked in the movies, but Leona had to wonder if she’d been duped when he looked up at her with wild eyes. To Leona’s satisfaction, his eyes didn’t stay open for long as they rolled back and he fell over in short order. Turning her attention to the pilot, she quickly snapped off another of her bolts. He was knocked into the controls but bounced off, groaning in pain. 

 

At this point, everyone had had enough and surrendered. There was a loud clatter as they dropped their guns. 

 

“WE GIVE UP!” They yelled in unison. However, the danger wasn’t past. The blimp was heading right for another building, threatening to cause more damage.

 

“Good, I’m glad you’ve come to your senses, but someone please turn this blimp so we don’t crash and go up in flames!” Leona commanded while flashing a warm smile. “I expect good behavior.”

 

Fighting through the cringe, one of the men ran to the controls and pulled the throttle back, which Leona wouldn’t have known to do. He turned the blimp as quickly as it could manage and narrowly missed the oncoming building. 

 

After settling the blimp into a course without any more buildings in it, he raised his hands. “There, see?”

 

As the blimp came to a slow hover, the men stood slowly, all hands up like the stand-in pilot.

 

“Good. Now, everyone stand back to back… I want to try something.” Leona smiled even more. “Form a nice triangle, hands at your sides.”

 

Everyone did as they were told and Leona concentrated. A golden ring encircled the three who could follow her orders and it drew tightly around them, binding their arms to their sides. “Hey! We’ve got our rights!” One yelped. “You can’t do this to us! It’s unlawful imprisonment!”

 

“Not really… This is what a superhero does. They capture the bad guys, right?” She smiled sunnilly. She grabbed the unconscious ones while humming softly. When they were grouped up she repeated the same feat with them just to be safe.

 

“That should be all of you, right?” Leona winked. “If so, I think I’m going to experiment with flying this thing and see if I can get us down.” A moment after, the first ring started to dissipate. Oh… there were limitations... She pointed back at the conscious men to renew that ring but the newer one dissipated instead. Well, she was still trying things out.

 

“Hey, you can’t do this!” The man complained again, loudly.

 

One of his friends hissed. “Sssss-Shut up! Or do you wanna get blasted in the face? Um… I got no problem with a girl tying me up and stuff. Only blast him if he keeps running his mouth!”

 

“You ass! Why you tellin’ her to blast me!?”

 

“Because you keep screamin’ in my ear. If she was gonna, she’d blast you anyway so she might as well do it now and spare me your complain’in”

 

Leona couldn’t suppress a giggle. “Okay… you all sit tight. Quietly.” She walked to the console and fiddled with it to figure out by experimentation what each control did. She really wanted to go down.

 

It took a while, but by the time she figured it out, a police dirigible had come her way. She at least had enough time to figure out how to set the craft down on a roof. 

 

Remaining careful not to mess with anything else much, she kept an eye on the men for a while. 

 

“Come out with your hands up!” The police barked. 

 

Peeking out the broken window, Leona smiled cautiously. “Hey guys. It’s safe in here. The criminals are all subdued! I’m gonna step out and let you see me, okay?” She followed her words by opening the door for them, unbarring it and then she stepped out, smiling as disarmingly as she could manage.

 

One of the cops gasped and stepped forward. “Wow, a real-life superhero’s here again! You passing through or will you be in town for a while?”

 

“I live here…” Leona smiled broadly. “You’ll be seeing a lot more of me in the future. This was my very first bust!” she said proudly, enthusing. 

 

“I hope I did okay by you guys!” She was quite excited, positively charged with adrenaline. “I’m not sure what I want to call myself… but…” She moved her hand and created the shield which shone like the aurora borealis. “I think I like the name Aurora. Does that sound nice?”

 

“Sounds good to me!” The fanboy officer grinned. “Miss Aurora, please don’t forget to stop by the precinct so we can get your statement.”

 

Leona hadn’t even thought about that. 

 

It was everything she wanted! “I’d LOVE to!” She happily beamed. 

 

“I do want to keep a bunch private so my family’s protected, y’know… you get that, right? But I also definitely want everyone to know that I’m fighting for justice!” She let her wings spread. They shone. 

 

“Well, I need to head home. I think the binding I put on the three conscious ones inside should fade soon after I go. They’ve become quite well behaved now that they’ve got all the lead out of their system.” 

 

With that, she waved and leapt into the air with a loud whoop. “WHEEEEEE!” 

 

She circled once before speeding off across the city. 

 

The police officers stared after Aurora with bemused stares.

 

She wasn’t sure which way home was but when she got far enough away, she removed her cell phone from its protected pocket, while hovering while she got her bearings and for good measure, she turned off the phone before proceeding, just in case they, whoever ‘they’ were, could use it to track her somehow. 

 

The condominium group soon came into sight and she maneuvered in that direction. 

 

She considered the situation and decided to not risk the odds of being spotted, so she instead dropped down towards the spare woods at the back part of the complex and tried reverting to her normal form.

 

The problem was, she wasn’t quite sure how to change back! 

 

Oh, crud...

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