Philadelphia, 7:37 PM.

May 9th, 2010.

Aiden was downtown, getting a late second dinner when he received a text from an unknown number.

“Patrol. You down? Same place we met, Eight.” Aiden murmured out loud.

Enkidu obviously, or someone pretending to be her if he was being exceptionally paranoid. He had told her he would join her the next time, and if he blew her off this time, he likely wouldn’t receive another invite.

Aiden looked down at his teriyaki and sighed, looks like he would be getting fast food at whatever was open after midnight. He settled up his check before heading back towards the rooftop, assuming she had meant there and not down in the alleyway. It was at least a ten-minute walk from where he was, so he took it at a leisurely pace thinking.

Patrol. He should probably have found something to conceal his identity, running around in a suit would look pretty strange. Then again, what were they going to do? Arrest him for running around at night in a suit? It wasn’t like there was a curfew, and he could just push all the blame on Enkidu if something actually went down, her identity was still secure.

He should probably still wear a mask, at least.

“Superman, what are you doing here?” Enkidu said incredulously.

Aiden rolled his eyes behind the dollar store mask before planting his fists on his hips and thrusting his chest out.

“I’ve come to fight crime,” Aiden said cheerfully, “With my cute little sidekick, Enki!”

“You’re the sidekick here,” Enkidu said, amused. “Besides, I’ve already seen your face, and I am definitely older than you.”

“I’m twenty-six,” Aiden scoffed, “How old are you, eighteen on your best day?”

Enkidu let out a startled laugh.

“Nineteen actually,” Enkidu said, annoyed, “There is no way your twenty-six, I refused to believe it.”

Aiden grinned at her from behind supermans heroic smile.

“Come on then sidekick,” Aiden said triumphantly, “Let's go clean up this city!”

“You’re the sidekick.” Enkidu shot back with a laugh before she turned and sprinted across the rooftop.

Aiden took off after her, she was far faster than any human he had ever seen before, and the leap that carried her from the rooftop, across the road, and onto the next building showed her strength was easily above it as well. Aiden himself cleared the jump easily, the landing was a little bit rougher given his lack of experience with this kind of thing, but it was easy.

The feeling of flying was amazing, he knew, even just gliding around in his apartment sometimes put him in a good mood for the rest of the day, but this was something else entirely. Judging the distance to the next building, he leaped after Enkidu again, and this time when he touched down, it was a seamless transition back into running.

Aiden grinned, jumping through the air, no safety net beneath him, it was a rush that he hoped he never got used to.

“Why are you cackling like a villain?” Enkidu said, bemused, “Am I going to have to take you in?”

“Sorry, the first time I’ve been able to really test out what I can do properly,” Aiden laughed, “It’s a lot more fun then I expected.”

“Fun?” Enkidu murmured to herself, but he still managed to hear it. “I suppose it does feel pretty good.”

Aiden grinned to himself as they cleared the next building, spreading his focus out around him to sense the locations of everyone nearby. His Ki-sense had increased in range slowly since he had first discovered it, and when he was focusing on it, he could extend that range pretty deep into the city.

Even so, it wasn’t his Ki-sense that picked up on the first interesting thing of the night.

The screech of tires halfway across the city, too far away for anyone with normal hearing to notice, followed by a gunshot and the sound of glass shattering drew his attention. Aiden immediately broke off to head in that direction, and Enkidu changed her own route to follow him without comment.

“Notice something?” Enkidu said seriously, easily keeping pace with him.

“Gunshot, shattering glass and a car,” Aiden said thoughtfully. “Could be a robbery? Or a hit and run? Road rage?”

“All of the above?” Enkidu said curiously, “You heard that from all the way back there? Enhanced senses too, huh?”

“Yeah,” Aiden said easily, realizing he couldn’t really deny it now. “I’m the full package, baby.”

Enkidu laughed at the terrible line, and Aiden gave her a flash of Superman’s pearly whites.

“You look ridiculous.” Enkidu said, amused, “How close are we, wait, I think I can hear it now.”

Enkidu took the lead again, speeding up on an angle to intercept where the car was headed.

“See if there's anything where the shots occurred, could be injured!” Enkidu called back.

“I’m on it!” Aiden confirmed, angling back towards where the shot had come from and speeding up again.

The thought of someone actually having been shot had somehow been lost in his excitement, and he made a promise to himself to not lose himself too much in the adrenaline from now on. Aiden reached the road that the car had been on and scanned the street below as he skipped across the rooftops.

There were a police car lights flashing but no sirens; it had been rammed into a streetlamp that had folded straight down on top of it. Aiden leaped straight off the building and landed next to the car, and he could see an officer in the front seat trying to shimmy his way into the passenger seat, but the cabin had crumpled enough to make it an arduous task.

“Hey officer, I’m going to move this post,” Aiden called out to the man, “Keep your head down for a second! You ready?”

“Ready.” The man called back, somewhat muffled.

Aiden took hold of the end and floated up into the air until he was high enough for it to clear the roof of the vehicle and bent it back in the other direction, before dropping it onto the sidewalk. It barely seemed to weigh a thing to him, and there was no struggle at all. Aiden could hear the officer talking quietly to someone over his radio.

Aiden couldn’t help but grin.

“Alright, the post is gone, want me to peel the roof back?” Aiden projected his voice, he wasn’t going down for damaging a cop vehicle.

“Yeah, it's totaled anyway, go ahead.” The officer said easily, “What's your name anyway?”

Aiden peeled the roof upwards with barely any effort and grinned at the man inside.

“Superman,” The officer barked out a laugh, “I can’t believe I didn’t recognize you.”

Aiden laughed as well, this mask was paying dividends. He tore some more metal out of the way to free the man up to get his legs out, his left foot seemed injured, before helping the man to climb out of the mess.

“You going to go after those bastards?” The officer grunted as he sat back on the hood of his patrol car.

“Enkidu, a local hero, is taking care of that,” Aiden said easily.

“Never heard of an ‘Enkidu,’” The officer said distractedly.

“She’s the one who saved Virago, and fought that Onomopeter guy off a while back, she doesn’t get enough credit,” Aiden said easily. “You should put in a good word for her, she could use the goodwill.”

“I’ll put it in the report,” The officer barking out another laugh, “You, her agent?”

“Of course,” Aiden said immediately, “but please, call me Superman.”

The officer snorted.

“What were the baddies after anyway?” Aiden asked curiously, “Or was it a hit and run?”

“Robbed a jeweler a couple of streets over,” The officer said as he peeled back his pants leg to take a look at his leg.

Aiden glanced over at it for a moment, lots of blood, and a deep cut, but it didn’t look too bad; it would definitely hurt to walk on, though.

“Need me to call you an ambulance?” Aiden offered.

“Already radioed it in, thanks, though.” The officer said gratefully.

Aiden just nodded, studying the wrecked car with interest. Didn’t they have Kinect shields and stuff? There was that one hero woman, uh, Rocket? She had a shield that blocked kinetic energy, and they had to have some kind of inertia dampeners with all the space ships.

“Out of curiosity, do the police ever buy high tech gear of all these crazy scientists running around?” Aiden asked curiously. “Better body armor? Energy shields? That kind of thing?”

“Pretty random question,” The officer said, bemused, “Depends, it's not really the kind of thing you’d find in a patrol car either way if that’s what you mean.”

“It was,” Aiden agreed, “Why hasn’t someone come up with some kind of high-tech safety solution for car crashes?”

“They are too busy making ridiculous things like giant robots, lasers, and cryoguns.” The man said honestly, “I don’t think the thought of making some useful for society ever crosses any of these crazies minds.”

“Seems like such a waste,” Aiden said honestly.

Philadelphia, 6:37 PM.

May 11th, 2010.

“Who are you?” A female reported, asked excitedly, stuffing her microphone in his face.

“I’m Superman, obviously,” Aiden laughed.

“That’s definitely not the suit Superman usually wears,” The reported said amused.

“That’s because this time, Superman means business,” Aiden said cheesily.

“Well, Superman,” The woman laughed, “Can you tell us what business transpired here tonight?”

“Of course,” Aiden said confidently, “A local hero called Enkidu noticed that something was amiss, and she quickly organized a response, I was sent to make sure Officer Gregory here, a good man who definitely needs a promotion, was alright, while Enkidu, a very heroic individual might I say, took it upon herself to stop the criminals from further terrorizing the city.”

“That’s incredible! We’ve had reports of an unknown female hero stopping the getaway car halfway across the city.” The reporter said excitedly.

“That would be the local hero, Enkidu, one of the most dedicated and impressive people I have ever met, she wears a pale green costume for those who haven’t had the opportunity to see her yet, she is truly an inspiration to us all,” Aiden said calmly, inside he was trying not to laugh. “I can say with certainty that she has the Superman thumbs up of approval!”

Aiden turned and looked at the camera, holding both thumbs up cheesily, the plastic superman mask looking absolutely ridiculous over the top of his black business suit.

The monitor clicked off.

“I can’t tell if I should be annoyed or flattered,” Superman said wryly. “You seem pretty convinced it’s him.”

“I’ve located footage of him crossing the city in the exact same suit, only several minutes prior,” Batman said simply, “Another camera picked up both Aiden and ‘Enkidu’ barely a block away from the alleyway he vanished into.”

“I’ve had enough conversations with the man that I would recognize his voice anywhere,” Black Canary said resignedly, “It’s him.”

“Do we know anything about this ‘Enkidu?’” Flash asked curiously, “I can’t recall having heard of her before.”

“I’ve heard of her!” Captain Marvel said cheerfully, “She only appeared in Philadelphia sometime at the start of this year, but shes stopped a lot of crimes already.”

“She was the other person involved in that Virago incident as well,” Green arrow said pleasantly, “They chased off that bastard Onomonopeia, they can’t be too bad surely?”

“The man somehow knows the identities of all of us, he’s certainly dropped enough hints about my own.” Black Canary said dryly. “In his defense, I still do not think he has any intention of revealing any of them.”

“He could change his mind at any point,” Batman said seriously, “We will need to investigate Enkidu.”

“In case he has revealed anything to her?” Superman sighed, “Are we going to scrutinize every single person he talks to, he hasn’t done anything wrong yet.”

“It will be too late to act afterward if he does intend to reveal your names.” Wonder Woman said calmly, “I personally do not believe he intends to, not unless pushed to act.”

Batman leaned back against his chair.

“You’re saying we should allow him to go completely unchecked?” Batman said seriously.

“Not completely, no.” Wonder Woman said evenly.

You’re already doing weekly sessions with him,” Flash said thoughtfully, “Monthly check-ups as well, whos handling that?”

“Emil Hamilton,” Superman said easily, “He is the one who took care of Power Girl when she first arrived here.”

“I’ve heard the name,” Batman said seriously, “He’s the director of STAR. Labs, Metropolis?”

“That’s the one,” Superman confirmed, “He's a good guy, incredibly intelligent too.”

“Could we ask him for a sneak peek at the guy's files?” Green arrow said cheekily, “See if there's anything interesting?”

“He is not currently our enemy,” Wonder Woman said immediately, frowning. “That is extremely unethical.”

“I was only joking!” Green arrow said defensively, “Relax!”

Philadelphia, 8:18 PM.

May 11th, 2010.

Aiden snatched his phone up when it dinged, idly reading the message before responding.

Aiden laughed, the power of wearing a mask was real, he would have never said half the things he had if his real face had been attached to it. They hadn’t managed to group back up that night, but there was always next time. Aiden had enjoyed himself way too much, and he knew that he would get dragged into the superhero lifestyle for good if he didn’t keep on his guard.

He had been trying to figure out how to get some initial clientele for his super-powered bodyguard idea, but it was thoroughly evading him. He couldn’t just market it like he would some other service or product, he needed to find some people who wanted protection and then get them to spread the word.

Aiden briefly considered just rocking up at Lex Luthor's building and asking if he needed a bodyguard, but from what Aiden could remember he already had that Mercy woman working for him, he could even go ask Bruce Wayne, but Batman might take either of those as a hostile action, as funny as it would be.

He needed someone who had connections but needed protection from something, someone who could be needled into marketing him to those same connections. Aiden would need to establish an identity that he could use to sell his services.

People had already seen him on the news wearing a business suit and a superman mask, but he could find a better mask. That should give him a little bit of a kick start, but he still needed to find an easy first mark.

“This is the second jewelry store robbery in this month, by two different criminals,” The caster said unamused, “The first robbery was thwarted by the now recovered Virago, but the culprit the Blue Snowman, managed to get away a second time. The other unrelated robbery was stopped by the hero who has taken Philadelphia by storm, Enkidu.”

“The police have released several statements about the robberies already, but we are no closer to finding answers.” The second caster said more cheerfully, “I’m just glad there another female hero out there!”

Aiden still couldn’t believe the nonsense these scientists got up to, he briefly considered trying to have a discussion with the villain, maybe he could convince her to do something worthwhile.

Aiden doubted it would help, surely they rationalized themselves into these decisions in the first place, even if he couldn’t see the reasoning from an outside perspective, there probably was a reason that at least they considered valid.

Aiden tried to think of what a villain who had cryo-tech could do with it, some kind of heating or cooling system designed to be used with another tech? Surely that would be worth something here, even if there were alternatives already on the market. Cryogenic systems to keep donated organs fresh, was that possible? There was probably money to be made there as well.

Aiden frowned at the security footage showed Virago chasing the Blue Snowman through the building. The guy wasn’t even trying to fight back, simply run away apparently, maybe he should hunt him down and offer to be the villain's bodyguard, surely he had to know some important people that he could connect him to jump-start his career in super-powered protecting. All the villains knew each other, right? Probably not, but even if the guy declined, he could just beat him up and threaten to take him to the police if he didn’t give him some names.

The job would probably be a low paying one, considering the guy was stealing from jewelers and pawnshops, worst case scenario he could steal the guy's armor and try and sell that. Aiden grinned, warming himself up to the idea. It would also scratch the new, everpresent itch of wanting to run around the city that had popped up after that first night out with Enkidu.

Best case scenario he found himself a couple of clients, worst case scenario he got to beat up a villain and made some money selling the suit.

What could go wrong?