Jack was saving a bank from a robber. This was his seventh robbery he had stopped.
"Thank you, hero," said a little girl with a teddy bear, in tears with her mother he had saved during the robbery.
Seeing this innocent child's face made Jack smile.
Then suddenly a policeman ran over in a panic.
"Don't go, wait a minute."
"DON'T LEAVE — EMERGENCY."
Jack was puzzled. The officer grabbed his arm and held up his smartphone.
"Sir, see this."
A city bus on the Queensboro Bridge — forty-three civilians, taken by an armed crew in broad daylight. They were very aggressive and had even shot a hostage, showing their violent behavior on camera.
"These bastards." Jack, with an angry face, left the scene running toward the bridge.
By the time he reached the bridge perimeter the situation was locked down — police units blocking both ends, news vans positioned on the far bank with cameras running live. Jack crouched on a rooftop two blocks back and scanned the scene through the crowd below.
The bus sat in the middle of the bridge. Armed men were visible through the windows. No movement from inside. Police were locking them down through snipers.
He was still working out his approach angle when something cut through the air above him.
It was a mechanical armor, fully covered. The figure moved above the bus and with a blast attacked the terrorists inside using a laser. Without a single thought, I moved and went to the bus and attacked the other terrorists, and within a few seconds I saved the hostages.
Around me the hostages started coming to their senses.
"Sir, thank you."
"I am saved?"
"Doctor — doctor, he was shot, help him."
The injured were taken to the ambulance. I looked around for the armored figure.
When I decided to meet the new flying guy, he had vanished. I didn't know where to find him.
Seeing the news cameras and police surrounding the area, Jack left the scene. But his Xlr8 and the new guy were clearly being broadcast live throughout America.
Even though Jack was not a big Marvel fan, he didn't know all the comic heroes, but he recognized the guy who had just shown up. It was Darkhawk. A guy who got his powers from an alien bracelet — something like that, a classic cliché. And the funny part was that Jack knew that guy. They had even met a few weeks ago in a coffee shop. He couldn't remember who he was then, but now he did. That was good, since he was not an enemy.
And he was sure this was the same guy who had saved him last time from the Tombstone people, as it was the same blast. He remembered it clearly.
The media coverage that followed made the bus rescue feel like a historic event.
By evening every major outlet had the footage on a loop. The winged armored figure dropping onto the bridge, the crew going down, Xlr8 saving the hostages — all of it captured from three different camera angles because half the news vans had been rolling before it even started. By midnight the internet had already named him. Opinion pieces were running by morning.
New Hero Emerges — Who Is The Winged Vigilante?
Blur vs. Wings: New York Has Two Mysterious Heroes NowBridge Rescue: The Moment Everything Changed
Jack read through the evening newspaper at home with a neutral expression.
The Blur's numbers had actually gone up in the wake of it — more people searching, more people talking, the new hero pulling general attention toward the vigilante question rather than away from it. But the tone had split sharply. Some of it was positive. A lot of it wasn't.
The Daily Bugle had published two articles. The first called the Blur "a reckless unidentified creature operating without oversight or accountability in New York's most vulnerable neighborhoods." The second was worse. Monster or Menace? The Case Against New York's Alien Vigilante. It ran with the blurry dock footage as the lead image.
Even in the school group chat it was going on like an internet war.
Jack had laughed at that. Then he read the comments section, which he immediately regretted.
"we don't know what it is or who controls it"
"what happens when it decides we're the criminals"
"Darkhawk — the new hero's name"
"the blur stopped three trafficking operations and we're seriously debating whether it's safe??"
"it's an unregistered weapon is what it is"
He closed the tab.
The crimes were getting less as police and even military took action, and a lot of gangs were arrested — and even now it was still going on. But he didn't find anything about Tombstone on the news . Only some small mob gangs leaders were being pushed forward as victims to take the blame for the incident.
Natasha turned off the TV and set down her coffee.
She had been watching the bridge footage for a while. Then, with a smile, she picked up her phone.
"I think I have some idea about our hero's next target."
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