AWOOOHAAAA! AWOOOHAAAA! AWOOOHAAAA!

Brad was woken by the horrendous sound of a siren blasting from the speakers on the wall. The bed he’d fallen asleep on retracted back into the wall and dumped him unceremoniously onto the floor. The sound seemed to drill into every part of Brad’s body and mind and riddled him with pain. He looked up to see one face appear on the screens. The female face frowned at him with concern, but the other screens remained blank. Did they not care they were being attacked in this way? The alarm was endless. It echoed through the complex and drove Brad over the edge. He could hear it in this room and, on a slight delay, other rooms too. He heard it layered over and over as the cacophony rang out in all the rooms. It was too much. Brad lost control. His scream joined the noise and Brad soon felt safer. His own noise was something he could control. Raising his own volume helped Brad reduce his sensitivity to the deafening alarm, to the point where he did not even hear it anymore.

At some point, Brad realised the noises had changed. When he had to stop his scream to take a breath, he noticed the alarm had stopped and someone was talking to him. Brad opened his eyes and saw the motherly face. She was talking but Brad couldn’t make out the words. He never could think too clearly during a meltdown. He always thought of it as rebooting, turning his brain off and on again.

“Ssssmmmssmmmshhhhh isss OK now,” she was saying in the calmest voice Brad had ever heard. He was coming around much faster than usual. “All alright now, the alarm has stopped. It’s OK to be scared but we have a job to do. I need you with us,” she continued. She looked relieved when Brad focused his eyes on her face and he took a deep breath.

“How did you do that?” he asked, “I’ve never calmed down that fast before.”

“I know,” she said with a self confidence that 2000 years as a superhero would give you. “I am the embodiment of motherhood and kindness. Are you really surprised I can help you relax?”

“No, I guess that makes sense. What was that noise? Are we under attack?” he asked.

She laughed like a wind chime in a gentle spring breeze, it was genuine pleasure without a hint of mocking. “No, little one. That is the sound of a job coming in. We will work on making it less unpleasant for you. In the meantime, the Hero’s Guild have sent us a job.”

“The what?” Brad didn’t remember signing up to a Hero’s Guild.

“We let the Guild know we had been passed to a new human. We did not expect them to send us a job this soon, so it must be urgent.”

“But I’m not ready for that,” Brad said.

“Regardless, there is about to be a robbery in twelve minutes at National Saver’s Bank. You will go and stop it.”

“How?”

“No time for enquiries. The answers you seek will come when the time is right. Now go. The door at the end will get you there in time,” she said. “Why are you still here?”

Brad turned and made his way to the door at the end of the corridor. He ducked under pipes and his mind filled with questions. How could he make it to the bank in time? It was at least a twenty minutes’ drive away from here. What would he do when he got there? One kid against bank robbers. What was his next power? He couldn’t even work the ones he had.

He opened the last door and entered a small room. The walls were metal and plain except a mirror in the back wall. Brad looked at his own reflection. He looked older than the last time he saw it. Not in the face, but his eyes looked wiser.

“Destination entered,” said a voice from behind the mirror and the room lurched to the side. It was like being in a lift, but instead of up and down, this one went whatever direction it needed. He must have been moving fast because after only two minutes there was a soft ding and the doors slid open. “Destination reached.”

Brad stepped out into the basement of The Coffee Cup; the café next to the bank. He made his way upstairs to leave the café and came out just in time to see three people enter the bank. They had hoods pulled low over their eyes and were clearly up to no good. Stood on the pavement, Brad tries and fails to freeze time. He is not shocked. Why would he be able to now when he had failed so often before? He then did the only thing he could. He turned himself invisible and followed the criminals into the bank.

Inside, the National Saver’s Bank was set up like an office. It had lots of desks, computers and people working. The three robbers stood in three different queues. One of the men was stood close to the security guard by the cash machines. The other man was waiting to see a middle-aged lady at a desk, she looked like she was in charge. The third robber, the only woman, stood in line to see a man behind a counter. This was the longest line, but I don’t think they were interested in waiting. The bank was a quiet space, the sort that Brad normally enjoyed, just a little hushed conversation and the tapping of keyboards. Then everything changed when the three of them made eye contact and the woman nodded her head.

“Everybody freeze!” one of the men shouted whilst struggling to pull on a full face mask. Brad noticed a tattoo on the man’s neck of a snake swallowing its own tail. The other two had their mask up quicker and Brad saw nothing of their faces.

“Don’t nobody move!” bellowed one, waving a small automatic gun in the air. The other man had finished wrangling his mask and had a gun out too.

“Everyone down on the ground!” shouted the woman.

Brad wondered which instruction they wanted people to follow as you couldn’t possibly do both, but the customers did not have that problem as they all laid down on the floor as one like they’d practiced. Everyone was clearly scared, but Brad noticed the man behind the counter smile as a barrier fell from a hidden compartment in the roof and cut him and the money off from the would-be criminals.

“There’s no point now,” said the manager in a quivering voice, “Those barriers can’t be lifted for two hours. Not even I can override that system.”

“Get down on the floor and don’t say another word,” said the woman as she pulled a gun out of her pocket. The manager swallowed and sank to her knees. The masked woman then pulled a remote control out of a bag with her other hand. It looked like a regular remote you would use to change the channel, but Brad thought this one might do a bit more. He was right. She aimed it at the fallen barrier and pressed a button. The bank teller on the other side was not smiling anymore when the shutter slowly raised to reveal him. He let out a little squeak before falling to the ground.

Brad looked from the manager to the other bank employees hoping to see a clue as to what he should do. They were all looking blank. Brad didn’t know what to do either. He was just a kid. Yes, he was invisible, but how could that possibly help bring down three armed criminals.

At least he can move around unseen, safe in his bubble. Brad realised that if he could get a good look at them; he could describe them to the police afterwards. It might help the police find or convict them. That would have to do. It was the best he could manage. Brad got closer to the tattooed man. He was about average height, dressed in black and covered in a full-face mask. He spoke with an accent Brad didn’t recognise. It could be European, or it might have been Bristol. Brad was not widely travelled and was still a child. He moved on to the woman. She was also dressed head to toe in black, but she was a bit taller than the man. He couldn’t remember what she sounded like. Brad hoped some of this would be useful to the police, but he doubted it.

Brad looked into her face mask and could see she had blue eyes. They were eyes taught with worry. Then they changed as they focused on something behind him. They looked angrier. Brad turned in time to see a customer bravely, and somewhat foolishly, stand up and rush the other man. He ducked low and ran into him, burying his shoulder deep into the robber’s stomach and knocking them both to the ground. Chaos erupted around the bank. The men on the floor grappled and fought over the gun. The tattooed man shouted in panicked rage. Several of the other customers screamed and got to their feet.

All that was shattered by a bang.

The gunshot cracked loud and echoed off the wall of the bank. Brad didn’t see the bullet spat from the woman’s gun, but he saw its effects. The brave, foolish man fell helplessly off the man and blood flowed from his chest. The room froze, stunned into stillness by the proclamation of power.

Brad’s eyes widened. He was completely out of his depth. What was he doing here? He didn’t know if the alarm that started ringing was real or just in his own head. He had no idea if the screaming was his own or other people. He was already in his safe space. He went there to remain invisible. Where was there for him to go now? His mind railed for somewhere else to hide, somewhere deeper. He forced the safe space to expand. Pounded on its walls until, suddenly, they gave way and opened out into a new safe space. He poured his thoughts into it and all the noise and chaos halted instantly.

Brad took a shuddering breath and looked around. He’d done it again. Time had stopped for him. He could save the brave, foolish man. He pushed back as he had before. It felt easier this time, more natural. Things happened in reverse. The bullet slid free of the man’s chest and undid the massive trauma it caused earlier. It flew back into the woman’s gun with a flash and sat waiting for another victim. Brad stopped pushing.

Brad turned and took the gun from the woman’s hand as she stood frozen to the spot. He moved around the room, carefully picking his way through the people laying prone on the ground. When he got to the other robbers, he disarmed them the same way. He stowed the guns behind the desk. In one of the bank robber’s bags he noticed a pile of cable ties. The kind used to bundle up wires behind a computer. He used them to tie one of the men to a desk. Things were going well, better than Brad could have hoped. He was clearing up this danger with out any risk to anyone.

Then the edges of his safe space began to wobble. Brad desperately clung on, but the time control shattered and he was plunged into the real world again. The woman looked confused for a split second when her gun was gone and her criminal associate was tied up, when, just a moment ago, everything was under control. Then she realised.

“There’s a super in here. The Guild must have been on to us,” she said. Instantly, both headed to the back door, abandoning the tied-up man without a second thought. Brad followed them. He’d done so much; he couldn’t let them get away now. Brad followed them as they charged up the stairs. Surely, they had nowhere to go. If he could lock them in a room, or trap them somehow, then he’d be a real hero. He charged after them on to the roof. It dawned on Brad that these two knew what they were doing, and they had an escape plan. Brad, however, was right on their tails and he was not going to let them get away. He chased them to the edge where they both made a colossal leap to the next building. It was a massive gap. Tough enough for an athletic adult to jump, but impossible for a child. Unfortunately, Brad realised this too late. The edge of the building was too close for him to possibly stop in time. He had to jump or fall. He had no choice. He lengthened his stride. He put all his might into the leap and sprang from the ledge. Over the edge. It wasn’t enough. He was never going to make it over to the other side. He slowed in the air and his forward motion turned downwards and he started to fall. But he didn’t fall far. He hung in mid-air. Hovering between the buildings.

“Ha!” he cried, as he propelled him self after the fleeing criminals. He was moving a metre above the rooftops. Travelling faster than he could ever run, faster than they could too. Brad scooped up a long metal pipe from the roof he was over and clonked both robbers on the side of their heads. He knocked them unconscious and left them slumped over each other by the heating vent over a Chinese take away. He’d done it. He’d saved the day.

Looking over the edge of the building, he saw the police arriving at the bank and storming inside. So Brad calmly used the rest of the cable ties to tie the two on the rooftop together and he flew down to the police cars. On a piece of scrap paper, he told them about the location of the other two and went on his way.

“Maybe I can do this hero thing after all,” he thought as he flew back to his secret base.