Superhero in Disguise (Adventures of Lewis and Clarke) Read Free

Wench costume.
    A flash of red cape turned the corner ahead. So few streetlights worked in this neighborhood, the kids would get away for the simple lack of her being able to see them. Her chest tightened. She needed to do something.
    “Drop my purse, you jerk!” she screamed with all her breath, which, granted, wasn’t a lot at that point.
    The tiny pirate’s bodice wasn’t made for sprinting, and the material lost its hold on her right breast. A swift downward glance showed an expanse of pearly whiteness bobbing up and down and a tree root growing up through the sidewalk. She reached up to cover her boobs at the same time that her left foot missed its jump over the tree root.
    The four-inch heel went flying. Her ankle twisted under her. Tori flailed for balance with her left arm and fell, hitting the sidewalk hard. Her left leg made contact from hip to knee, shredding both skin and fishnet stockings. Both palms skidded across the concrete. Tori felt the sharp sting of skin peeling away and gasped. She landed with a thump on her left hip and bottom, the tulle petticoat under her tiny pirate’s skirt flying up.
    For a stunned moment, she remained in that undignified heap. Her mind created a mini-movie of what she must’ve looked like. A quick embarrassed laugh burst from her throat. She winced as she peeled her hands away from the sidewalk. This one needed to be entered in the Falling Hall of Fame. Then, realizing her skirt was no longer covering her lacy underwear, she slammed it down over her thighs, grimacing at the sting in her palms. No need to give the staring trick-or-treaters more of a show than necessary.
    She looked toward the street corner where the Devil had disappeared. “Happy Halloween,” she muttered.
     

     
    JOE Clarke suppressed the temptation to whistle while he worked. He loved his job as a superhero, even with the long hours and the often negative press, but it didn’t seem like work on Halloween. He got to dress up as anything he wanted and wander the streets looking for bad guys. Or more accurately, teenagers behaving badly.
    Maybe the city’s real villains were at home handing out candy with their villain-in-training children; Joe didn’t know. But most of Double Bay’s superheroes spent these couple of nights patrolling their neighborhoods against the only immediate threat—tomorrow’s citizenry.
    Devil’s Night, the night before Halloween, had become a free-for-all over the years. Kids had gotten it in their heads that they could do anything they wanted this one night of the year so long as they called it a prank. Even good kids succumbed to peer pressure to become petty vandals.
    At one point, things had gotten so bad that chucking eggs at cars had escalated into setting the vehicles on fire. A city-wide crackdown a decade ago had brought the situation under control. Now most of the complaints were about smashed jack-o’-lanterns, stolen decorations, trees and shrubs wrapped in toilet paper, and thrown eggs and rotten vegetables.
    Last night, Joe had arrived too late to keep a house from being toilet-papered—a very quiet job that he didn’t hear until he was right on top of it. But he’d managed to keep a few cars from getting egged. Of course, most of the eggs had dropped on the sidewalk when he’d scared the crap out of the kids. But better there than on a car’s paint job.
    This year, Joe dressed as Zorro. The black costume concealed his presence and allowed him to stop more vandalism-in-progress than he’d managed last year. Fewer smashed pumpkins and stolen decorations, less graffiti. Renting the Captain America costume last year, complete with hoodie-mask and metal shield, rated high on his geek meter, but it hadn’t put the fear of God into many vandals. Zorro apparently scared them more, no doubt due to the fact that his sword looked real. Joe really liked the sword.
    A flock of teenage girls rushed down a driveway and turned toward Joe. Their titters upon seeing