Small Stuff

Felix stood in the shadow of one of the large buildings lining the street, dressed in his Rewind uniform. His cape billowed out behind him, the cold wind carrying it as easily at it threatened to freeze Felix's face. Those little eye-masks were barely useful for anything. It was just as well that he brought a scarf with him. While technically not a part of his superhero outfit, it was blue… so it kind of fit the theme?

He rubbed his hands together to keep them warm, walking through alleys and various streets, essentially patrolling the more dangerous part of town. Harper, as Ironwill, was somewhere else in the vicinity. If they actually wanted to stop crime, they needed to cover a pretty large area. It's not like there was crime at the turn of every corner. Unfortunately for the pair of them, Johnathan was busy taking care of his grandson, and so elected to stay home. Felix sighed, before stumbling on some action entirely by accident.

A figure sprinted past him as Felix just so happened to actually round a corner. A pair of armed shadows – each wielded some kind of club – ran after him. Felix made a snap decision, popping back in time and tripping the first figure. He didn't know the situation at all, so if the figure was a thief or some other unsavory character, then Felix would need to deal with him. That said, stopping the two people who apparently wanted to maim someone was a good idea.

Taking the pair by surprise, Felix slammed his fist into one of the men's solar plexus, dropping the guy instantly. He dropped down, guessing that the other shadow would try to slam his club on Felix's head. Felix felt the weapon whiz over him, and using a sweep, he toppled his other assailant.

That wasn't so hard! He turned to go interrogate the runner when he felt a sharp pain blossom at the back of his feet. For some reason, he couldn't put any weight on the foot, and he unceremoniously toppled to the ground. One of the men he'd dropped rose with a knife in his off hand, red dripping from its edge. He'd cut Felix's Achilles tendon.

Before Felix could respond, the man raised his right hand – the one holding the club – and hit him in the head. It wasn't enough to knock Felix out, but he was dazed. Stars exploded in his vision, and he could barely keep his head upright. Placing his arms in a guard around his head, Felix desperately tried to focus on rewinding time.

He couldn't. His mind was in too much of a mess to focus enough for that. He'd either need to calm himself and miraculously un-daze himself, or fight his armed assailant barehanded while unable to support his own weight.

"Bad time to play hero, huh? What are your superpowers? Wetting your pants?" the man asked, his gruff voice rife with macabre amusement. He was taking joy in beating Felix down. At least he was talking; it would give Felix time to recover, if he could just keep him talking.

"I can read your mind," Felix claimed, hoping that it'd be interesting enough of a power. It was.

"Really? How come you didn't see-" the man slammed his club into Felix's ribs, "this coming?"

Felix focused through the pain. He didn't have much time left before rewinding would do him absolutely no good. He breathed in the slow, methodical way that Miss Watanabe taught him. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. He could see the club coming for him again. It wasn't working.

Just before the club was about to make contact, Felix popped. Grasping the situation instantly, he ignored the pulsing headache he'd developed – something that normally would have floored him, but was much preferable to being sliced and hit in debilitating ways – and turned around. He kicked away the hand that grasped the knife and delivered a punch to the man's head, knocking him out.

Breathing heavily, Felix stood over his two opponents, thankful that he was physically no worse for wear thanks to his abilities. His adrenaline would wear off soon, though, and his headache would come to haunt him. He needed to deal with the runner before that happened.

He walked over to the runner, who by now was rising to his feet and looking around for his surprise assailant. His eyes landed on Felix, going wide. "Who are you?"

"I'm Rewind," Felix said simply. "I think it's more important for me to ask who you are? Why were you running from those two," Felix nodded towards the collapsed men, "this late at night?"

"I don't owe you anything," the boy – Felix could now clearly see, his eyes more accustomed to the dark, that this runner was definitely younger than him by at least a few years – said churlishly.

"Oh, but you do. Without me, you'd be lying on the concrete with a head injury. I should know whether you did something to deserve their anger," Felix replied, crossing his arms over his chest. His gloved fingers tapped at his arms in impatience. The boy looked at Felix and then tried to book it.

For all his headache, Felix rewound time an additional second and caught the boy before he could think to take off. However, he was not quite agile enough to prevent the boy from tripping over a second time, and they fell on the ground.

Pushing himself to his feet, Felix offered a hand to the boy. In doing so, he noticed a few dollar bills fluttering free of the kid's jacket and flying away. The boy scrambled after them, catching them before the crisp wind stole them. Ah, so he was a thief after all.

The boy looked to Felix with guilt. "I-"

"Go."

Without hesitating, the boy ran off as if he were worried that Felix might change his mind. And in normal circumstances, he might have. Thievery isn't something Felix condoned, but the owners of that money had just tried their hardest to put Felix six feet under. He had something of a grudge of his own, now.

His headache thundered as he called Harper to regroup with his teammate. By the time he found her, she was standing over a scene of her own, but with significantly more downed people. Some of them even held guns.

"What'd they do?" Felix asked, walking up to her.

"Organized crime. Nearly burnt down one of the local businesses that went afoul of the local powers, apparently," she answered, calling the police. Odds were that they carried illegal weapons, which would be enough to get them in trouble and warrant an investigation. "Anything on your end?"

"Stopped a thief from meeting an early end," Felix said, still looking at Harper's handiwork. "Small stuff."

"Wanna get a bite to eat?" Harper asked as her stomach rumbled with the power of a thunderstorm. Felix laughed at her hunger's poor timing.

"Yeah. Maybe it'll help with the headache."