Her Superhero Lover

“Who knows? Could have been him, could have been a big fu*king bird. Considering that Jaime said he saw two people, I think he’s a bit too hopped up for this right now.”

“Regardless,” a third voice said, calm and controlled, “if it was The Horseman, then we’re ready for him. Even The Horseman can’t take a ten gauge deer slug in the chest without going down.”

“Still…” the first voice said, and Renee could hear a quaver in his voice. Whoever it was, they were scared, and most likely trigger happy. It was a problem. The third voice was most likely the most dangerous, she thought. But the first voice was the one that was the most dangerous to the children, because he’d be the most likely to spray the room in a panicked burst of gunfire.

She knew she had to act, and soon. She used her ears to get the best guess she could for each group in the room. The children, she thought, were closest to the windows, probably being used as human shields. Two of the gunmen were on her right, facing the south side and looking out at the wide playground. The other gunman, the calm one that worried her the most, was on the north side, where he could monitor the police and news media best. She made her decision, and headed to the south side of the building. Looking back to where Grady was standing over the other classroom, she waved her arms. He waved back. He was in position.

“Let’s hope I get through this alive,” Renee whispered. Grabbing the lip of rain gutter at the edge of the roof, she took a deep breath. She looked over at Grady and nodded, hoping he could see her. Kicking with her legs, she swung out and off of the roof.

While in the air, Renee was reminded of when she had been in elementary school, and she, along with a few of her friends, had played on the monkey bars. They’d spent recess period after recess period skinning the cat, flipping around, and doing a bunch of other bar tricks they probably shouldn’t have, considering the bars were built over blacktop. The gunner groaned but held, redirecting her body’s momentum around and down.

She had a moment to see that her ears had steered her pretty well. The two gunmen were about five feet apart in separate windows, one of them turned three quarters away while the other looked at her with widening eyes. He started to yell and pull his shotgun up to his shoulder when she crashed boots first through the window.

She was grateful then, more than any other time, for the special boots Grady had gotten for her. When she started shooting up in height, he had gotten her what looked like platform boots. However, instead of having her feet resting on top of large amounts of platform, her feet were actually underneath the gel padding, with only a normal flat boot heel under her foot. Still, there was close to an inch of vulcanized rubber protecting her feet as she went through the glass, her feet catching the gunman in his chest and face. The gunman’s nose crunched, and he flew backwards to land in a broken heap in the center of the floor.

Rolling off of the impact and to her feet, Renee launched herself anew at the second gunman, who was spinning towards her. Pushing the button on the device on her right fist, she cocked her head back and punched, catching him in the sternum. The force ripped through the man, his chest deflating weirdly as the force crushed his ribs flat against his backbone, while his stomach and arms seemingly swelled like inflated balloons before the shockwave knocked him backwards, and he collapsed against the wall.

Renee spun on her knee towards the last gunman, freezing when she saw the man reach down and grab a young girl under her chin, yanking her up and holding his pistol against her head. “So, The Horseman does have a helper. Wonder what you should be called?”

“Doesn’t matter to me,” Renee replied. “But put the kid down.”

The gunman shook his head, and pointed with his head towards the other side of the school. “Maybe you’ve been distracted by taking out those two, but The Horseman is raising hell on the other side of the school too. I drop this kid, and I’m a dead man. The media might call him a superhero, but he’s no comic code following Superman.”

Renee nodded then shrugged. She stood and backed up, keeping her hands open. She saw the chalkboard on the wall, and backed away. “You’re right. And since I just took out your two partners, you know I’m not the Girl Scout type either.”

A loud boom came from the other end of the school, and both of them glanced over. “Sounds like The Horseman’s having problems too,” the hostage taker said. “Too bad for you.”

Renee’s mind whirled with possibilities. She wanted to run to Grady, but knew she couldn’t. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she stepped back, her hips bumping against the chalkboard. “You never know,” she replied. “Listen, I just want the children to be safe. Maybe swap me for them?”

“Yeah right,” the gunman replied. He kept his pistol pointed at the child’s head, but his eyes roamed her body. “Not saying I wouldn’t mind spending a little time alone with a hottie like you, but I’m not suicidal.”

“Why not? You know what they say, once you go black…..” Renee said, putting on her most seductive smile. At the same time she reached higher, thr*sting her bre*sts out. She felt sleazy, but if it distracted the man, she would be willing to do it. “You ever had a black girl, big boy?”

“Not yet,” the gunman replied, his eyes focusing on the swells of her body. “When I get to Mexico, maybe I’ll find out.”

The gunman’s hand wavered in his distraction, and she took advantage. She had been trying to distract the gunman for two reasons. First, to get his pistol away from the child. Second, she saw on the ledge at the top of the chalkboard a thick metal ruler that she suspected the teacher used for drawing lines on the board. Snatching it up, she whisked it as hard as she could at his head, praying her aim was good.