"Oh fuck yeah" great wide wonder was vibrating, His favorite kind of vibrating, His skin felt like a thousand ants were trying to burrow out of his pores.
Standing in the VIP alleyway of the 'The Gilded Cage,' the neon lights of the club turning his silver-and-blue suit a sickly, strobing violet.
"You ready, Wonder?" his handler asked from the sidewalk, gesturing toward the two honor students. They were practically vibrating, acting like they'd won the jackpot for the chance to have me fly them into the clouds.
"I'm ready," I said, putting on my best camera-ready smile as I walked toward them. "Hey there, lucky girls. You ready for the best day of your lives?
I started to reach for the girl on the right, but then I stopped. Across the street, I saw a homeless girl just standing there. She looked cute but out of place, just watching the whole scene with quiet eyes. Something about her made me freeze.
"Actually," I said, pointing across the road. "I want her. Come here, kid."
"Hey! You can't do that! My dad paid for this!" the blonde girl in my arm protested.
I felt a surge of heat in my chest and was ready to hit her right there. My hand actually twitched, wanting to shut her up for good, but I held myself back. There were too many people watching and cameras everywhere, Vought would skin me if I caused a scene now.
I let go of her roughly. "I'll deal with you later," I muttered under my breath, giving her a look that made her flinch.
I ignored the handler's confused face and kept my eyes on the homeless girl. She was finally standing right in front of me. Up close, she looked even more interesting than the "perfect" girls Vought tried to force on me.
I've never really tried a homeless girl before. A bit unhygienic, sure, but my collection needs some variety.
I shoved the annoying blonde aside and grabbed the quiet girl's waist. "Come on, kid. Let's see if you look better in the stars."
I gripped the homeless girl's waist tight and launched. The sound of the crowd vanished instantly, replaced by a violent roar of wind as we punched through the sound barrier. At Mach 1.5, the city below turned into a gray blur in seconds.
Aldrich POV :
Well, that was easy. I was just there to keep an eye on my target, genuinely wondering how I'd ever get him alone. He flies so fast and always has people around him, but then this happened unexpectedly.
It was lucky, too. I only had a short window of time because if my borrowed powers faded, I'd be left with nothing. But here I am, alone with him, well, plus the other human girl who won't shut up. She's already stripped off her clothes for some reason.
Is it truly this easy? Both of his hands are occupied, one on me and the other on the girl. All his vital spots are wide open. Is this what humans call "pie falling from the sky"? I didn't see any actual pies falling, but oh well.
One hand gripped my shoulder, the other held the girl. Every vital point on the "hero" was exposed. It was the perfect opening, a gift from the sky itself.
But as the strike was prepared, a strange realization caused a pause. The atmosphere at this altitude was thinning, the temperature dropping into a lethal chill.
The girl's frantic struggling had lessened, replaced by a desperate, shallow gasping for air. She had been pleading for him to descend, her voice cracking in the freezing wind, yet he continued the ascent.
The higher the flight went, the more the air seemed to vanish. The "Superhero" looked straight ahead, seemingly indifferent to the distress of the person he was supposed to keep safe.
Why was a supposed protector ignoring the clear signs of hypoxia in another human?
Was this actually a feeding ground? Is this how a Supe feeds? I have heard of species that suffocate their prey by drowning them, but this feels too elaborate. Why take us this high before making a move?
I really should strike now. It's becoming harder to breathe, and even though I'm adapted slightly better than a human, I'm reaching my limit. But I have to know, why is he doing this?
Why go through all this effort to reach the freezing dark just to watch a human stop breathing? I decided to wait just a second longer to see what thus "hero" end goal is before I took his life and powers.
Great Wide Wonder POV :
Well, this was boring. I thought picking up this homeless bitch would spice things up, but she didn't even get naked. I was about to drop her and just fuck the blonde instead, but she took all the joy out of it. Whatever. Let's just add them to my collection.
Well, at least we set a new record. The blonde froze over and died, but the homeless girl is actually still alive. Impressive.
"Why?"
"Oh, look at that, we have a philosophical homeless bitch," I sneered, the drugs making my head spin as I looked at her.
I paused for a second, actually looking at her properly. Maybe I shouldn't even call her a bitch yet. She looked like she was just there for the flight, genuinely ignorant of what was happening.
While the honor student next to her had already stripped and frozen solid, this girl still had all her clothes on, just staring at me like we were having a normal conversation on the ground.
"Well, if you really need to know 'why,' it's just because I want to," I snapped, the high making me feel untouchable.
I looked down at her, realizing she was even stupider than she looked. "And besides, you dumb idiot, I can't exactly have your bodies found after you were seen with me, can I? Vought would have my head. Up here, you just... disappear. Problem solved."
"Because you want to?" she repeated.
"Yeah," I grinned, feeling the rush of the wind against my face. "Because I'm the Great Wide Wonder and I can do whatever I want."
"I see," she said.
Before I could even blink, a white-hot spike of pain exploded in my chest. I looked down, and my brain couldn't even process what I was seeing, this tiny, homeless girl's hand had punched straight through my chest.
I heard my own ribs snap, a dry, brittle sound that shouldn't happen to someone like me. Then I felt it. Her fingers, small and slick with my blood, clamped directly around my heart.
The air was already gone, but now the world started to turn gray. I tried to use my speed, tried to fly away, but I was pinned in the sky by a strength that made mine feel like a joke. My heart gave one final, desperate throb against her palm before she squeezed.
Aldrich POV :
"You're right," I said as the light left his eyes. "Up here, nobody hears you scream. You're no god; you're just a vermin. I cast you down."
The instant he died, we began our free fall: me, the dead god, and of course, the frozen human girl.
It was too wasteful to just leave her up there. It's customary for my species that if you don't feed, and there is no one else to feed, you treat food with dignity. If you don't need it, you give it back to the land; there are always many others in need down there.
The silence of the high altitude was suddenly replaced by the screaming roar of gravity. The peace of the stars vanished, replaced by the violent pull of the earth.
I closed my eyes and felt the wind trying to tear the skin from my face. I was just a girl in a dress, falling from the stars with a god's corpse in my arms.