Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Incredible Comics #7

The woman came downstairs and into the laundry room of her tenement with her basket of laundry. As she shoved her clothes into the washer, a man came in, locking the door behind him.

“What are you…?” the woman asked but went silent when she saw the knife he was holding. “No,” she began panting.

The man launched himself at her, knocking her down. She began crying but he remained lying on top of her. “Yeah, keep struggling. Makes it better for me.”

As he worked himself out, she began screaming as loud as she could. Within seconds, the door was ripped off its hinges. A large figure came in and grabbed him off of her. Still screaming and crying, she got up and ran out of the laundry room and back into her tenement building. The figure was garbed in yellow with blue tights. He had large wings on his back and smaller wings on his ankles. “You’re a criminal,” he huffed.

“Yeah,” the guy tried to sound tough but was clearly scared. “What about it?”

“You must suffer, like your victims.”

“What? What are you doing? Don’t…” the man began screaming in pain.

A couple hours later, Officer Murdock walked by the alley the laundry room door was located in. From the alley, he heard groaning and trash bags rustling. Placing his hand on his gun, he cautiously went into the alley. “Hello?”

Another groan. Murdock took out his flashlight and pointed it around the alley and found the man lying in the trash. “Ambulance…” he groaned.

“Dispatch, this is Murdock. I need an ambulance in the alley between 11234 and 11236 Wacker Street. Hurry, it looks bad.”

“What happened?” Time Man several mintues later when the ambulance had arrived and the paramedics were carefully loading the criminal into it.

“He says some guy with wings crushed his arms from elbows to fingertips and also his pelvis,” Murdock explained.

“Ouch,” Time Man said. “Why?”

“Our victim was trying to rape a woman who lives in this building,” Murdock pointed behind him at the tenement. “He said the guy had wings so I’m thinking he’s someone like you. A superhero but kind of loose with the word ‘hero,’” Murdock said.

“Hmm, I’ll have to keep my eyes open. I’ll see you, Officer,” and Time Man flew into the night sky.

“See you.”




Time Man spent most of the night looking out for the winged man but found no trace. Since Time Man had made his debut, crime in the neighborhood had gone down drastically. Only major crimes continued to occur--murder, rape, the occasional robbery attempt--but petty crime still occurred but with rarity.

Out of the corner of his eye, Time Man saw a green car speeding down one of the boulevards. As he turned his head, he saw a winged man flying after the car. Time Man stopped to see what was going to happen and saw the winged man catch up to the car and lift it over his head, the four passengers each opened the doors and jumped or fell to the street. The winged man then smashed the car into the street, totalling the car and destroying the street on impact. The men all scattered as Time Man flew down and struck the
winged man across the jaw with full force. The winged man barely stumbled.

“Who are you?” Time Man asked as he stopped flying and turned to the winged man.

“I am Icarion,” he answered “and who are you and why are you helping these men? They killed someone in cold blood and ran away.”

“I saw what you did to that guy who tried to assault that woman and I assume you were going to do something similar to these fellas.”

“They were breaking the law. They need to be punished,” Icarion took a step toward Time Man.

“Then call the police or grab them and take them to the police. You just can’t kill or maim them.”

“Why keep criminals alive? Criminals just beget more criminals and you keeping me from punishing them makes you no better than they,” Icarion said and leapt toward Time Man.

Time Man was able to dodge the attack but Icarion had quick reflexes and was able to land a punch as he turned around to where Time Man jumped. Time Man fell to the street, cracking the pavement. “Ouch. That hurt,” he said. “First time for that.”

“They are getting away,” Icarion said. “We need to apprehend them. Help and I will do things your way.”

Time Man thought but looked at Icarion and nodded. They each went after two, quickly grabbing them and taking them to the nearest precinct. They stood on the roof of the precinct and looked at each other. “I should’ve had them take you in as well.”

“We are two sides of the same coin. I just don’t want to arrest the same criminal over and over and over again,” Icarion said.
“I don’t either but we can’t just kill them all. That makes us no better than them,” Time Man explained. “If I hear that you are disabling or killing any other criminal, I’m going to hunt you down and stop you myself. Got it?”

Icarion glared at Time Man then flew off. Time Man sighed and flew off back towards home. As he flew he suddenly heard a scream and then Officer Murdock fly out of a bank window. Time Man landed next to where Murdock had landed and helped him up.

“Are you all right?” Time Man asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine. There is a big guy in there. A very big guy.”

Time Man and Murdock walked up to the bank window and saw a giant stone-looking monster shuffling around with bags of money. “What in the…?”