Boltran City Stories: Part-Time Hero
Kayte Levinge reveals a new commitment.
The world is different. Individuals with extraordinary abilities have been emerging since the late 1970’s. The agreed upon term for these individuals is “Powered” or “Powered Individual”. Documented cases range from something as mundane as being able to grow hair faster on command to flying into space. Many cities accepted the new type of humans, but one metropolis, Boltran City, is where we will visit today.
One Powered young woman, Kayte Levinge, realized she could manipulate her personal gravity. With a thought she can become lighter than air or heavy enough to fall through the floor. Content to know about her powers and continue working at Bean There coffee while attending community college, Kayte decided to pursue battling injustices in her limited free time.
Bean There was busier than usual. A battle between the warrior woman Slaughterella and a hulking rock creature commanded by a teenage wizard closed the nearby office building, and the workers decided to grab a coffee across the street. The din of customers is interrupted by the shriek of the espresso machine while 90’s era alternative rock plays at a low volume under the conversations.
Kayte smiles to the last person waiting for their oat milk latte, handing them a mug filled to the brim. As the customer walks to the sanding table by the window Kayte tucks a strand of brown hair behind her ear. Her co-worker, Sarah, begins washing the stack of dishes left by the morning crowd. Sarah grunts.
“I’m happy to keep busy, but I wish the fighting would have waited until we got the dishes washed. I had to hand the last muffin out on a napkin.” Sarah wiped a strand of blonde hair from her forehead. “Kayte, can you get the water?”
Kayte turned 180 degrees, looked at Sarah intently, and blurt out. “I got a costume.”
Sarah didn’t respond. The music played softly as the moment seemed to stretch into hours for Kayte. Sarah sprayed pastry bits off the plate and placed it in the dishwasher with a clatter. She shut the door, let out a breath, and looked at Kayte.
“What’s that?”
Kayte chewed her lip.
“Sarah, I got a costume.”
The silent moment between the baristas was backed by the gentle conversations throughout the coffee shop. The clink of mugs on plates and tacking of keyboards were deafening as Kayte waited for an answer. Sarah’s mouth quirked.
“What costume? Like for comic con?”
Kayte huffed. "No, for, the thing.” She lowered her voice to a raspy whisper. “For crime fighting.”
Sarah’s brow furrowed. Then the realization hit her and she blurted “No way!” loud enough to draw the attention of a couple of patrons. Kayte flushed bright red and walked to the sink behind the espresso machine, busying herself with already cleaned spoons. Sarah rushed to her side and whispered “What the fuck, dude? Are you serious with this? I don’t get why-”
“Because I don’t do enough!” Kayte snapped. Sarah leveled her eyes at Kayte, who held the stare. “Because volunteering isn’t fixing the problem, it’s a band-aid.” Kayte stammered for a moment before collecting her thoughts. “ I mean it’s a good band-aid; I just know I can do more.” Kayte looked out the window, as Slaughterella handed the police a rock the size of a doberman. The rock wriggled impotently, small armlike protrusions waving frantically. “Like her. She saw a problem and just fixed it. I want to do that.”
Sarah looked out the window, then back to Kayte. This topic had been a regular conversation at work for the past month. Sarah thought it was the latest in a series of brief hyper fixations, but now it was real.
“Ok, so you’ll, what? Punch rocks? Chase bank robbers, what?”
Kayte pulled her phone from her back pocket. She tapped the news app where she bookmarked an article. The image was of a man who was clearly undead with heavy makeup to look alive, wearing a tacky suit. He was standing next to a house labeled ‘condemned’". Kayte handed her phone to Sarah.
“I’ve been researching who’s been cutting funds for house-less support programs. Some billionaire named ‘Johnathan Trunchleton’ claimed the funds were going towards a new program but he never confirmed what the program was.” Kayte moved to Sarah’s side to point to the photo . Sarah gagged.
“Why does he look like he’s dead?” Sarah pressed the phone back into Kayte’s hand.
“Because he IS.” Kayte opened a link to another site. “He’s one of these super villains The Justice Corps were talking about. He calls himself Bourgeoi-Z.” Kayte noticed Sarah’s stare. “Yeah, I don’t know, it’s a cheesy name, it’s not as good as Tech Azure or Water Witch.”
Sarah sighed. “So do you have a cheesy name yet?” Kayte flushed again, then walked away to take empty cups and plates from patrons. When Kayte returned Sarah blocked her path to the sink. “Your super hero name?”
Kayte took a deep breath. “It’s EmVee.”
Sarah waited a beat. She furrowed her brow. “MV?”
Kayte wrote it down on a napkin. When Sarah still didn’t respond Kayte sighed.
“Because Density is Mass over Volume. M/V.”
“Ohhhhhh. That’s pretty good.”
“Yeah, I might try a few different ones.”
“So, what’s the costume look like?” Sarah leaned against the counter. “And do you just FIND people and make them stop doing crime or whatever?”
“It’s in my photos, and there’s an app called ‘supr’ where you register and people request help. It’s like Uber but for Powered people to help out.”
“Can’t someone just fake needing help then ambush you?” Sarah refilled a customer’s mug. The music seemed louder as the displaced employees wandered out to look at their demolished offices.
“It’s not any more dangerous than simply existing as a woman.”
“Yeah.” Sarah was silent for a moment. “So, does the app let you punch this zombie capitalist until he opens more house-less shelters?”
“No it’s to get started, be like a part-time hero I guess. But I have to do something. The Justice Corps is busy handling huge issues, like when those aliens invaded last year. And that Nefarium guy and his huge robots. I just…I think I can help. I need to help.”
Kayte looked to Sarah with pleading eyes. Sarah smirked and smacked Kayte’s bicep.
“Whatever dude, just show up for your shifts. I can’t work with Joseph alone, he’s going to try and ask me out again.”
Kayte smiled and lightly pushed Sarah.
“Deal.”
Sarah grabbed Kayte’s phone from her hands.
“So where’s this costume? Is it by your nudes I know you have a folder for?”
As the baristas looked over the new heroine’s costume for her part-time heroism, Slaughterella took off from the site of the battle, her limited flight carrying her through the skies of Boltran City. As she soared through the sky, in the streets below people stepped into shadows, sprinted through traffic faster then the eye could see, lifted water out of a glass with merely a thought, and many more incredoible abilities.
Welcome to Boltran City.