The cold sweat that encoated me was making me tremble. My body's intense adrenaline was fighting back against my instinct to run away, which did not make my nerves any better. I had never done a direct attack like this before, normally I snuck in, grabbed what I could, and then ran, only using self defense if I absolutely had to.

Sure I had hidden from gangs and mobs before, them hunting me with guns and knives trying to take back what I stole. Drugs make big money depending on who you sell them too, and a lot of people pay more money for them from me rather than buying them from the gangs because they don't want to get caught up in their violence and blackmail.

But this was completely different. I was on top of the most dangerous gang in Chicago's home base, barely keeping myself from falling right into the middle of their house where if I did fall I would be mercilessly torn limb from limb. I also had smoke bombs, which was great because if I fumbled those then I would pass out from gas and then fall right into the middle of their house where I would be mercilessly torn limb from limb.

I swallowed and precariously balanced my weight on the roof of the house. The thin wooden boards below me creaked and I froze.

"I thought I told you to be still."

I jumped at his words right in my ear.

"I'm trying," I attempted to keep the shaking out of my voice as I spoke to Vasile over the radio in my ear. I was still getting used to the idea that he could hear me and I could hear him even though he wasn't even here.

"On our count, okay?" Jake said.

"Okay," my voice trembled. The two agents were across the street looking through the house with cool x-ray goggles that they showed me. I was still not fully convinced this wasn't some elaborate dream I was having after hitting my head too hard on a wall or the pavement again.

Vasile still wasn't confident in me that I could do this, muttering in my ear a string of words in what I was informed was a language called Hungarian. I didn't even know that Hungary was a country, far less a language. Jake was American and spoke reassuring words to me, thankfully in English.

"3...2...1."

I used the machine they had given me to burn a precise hole in one of the rotting shingles, pressed the buttons on the smoke bombs that were in my pocket, and dropped them one by one.

"Now run!"

I scrambled off the roof as quick as I could without falling, as coughing and shouting erupted under me. Gun shots sounded and suddenly bullets started shrieking their way up and piercing the roof. I took a wild jump off the house before one could hit me, just barely managing to grab the end of a limb of the tree right next to it.

I dangled from the branch and then swung down and landed evenly on my feet. Suddenly one of the boarded up windows on the second floor busted open. White steam curled out of it, and so did bullets.

Jake and Vasile appeared next to me, their guns out and pointed at the house.

"Now get back," Vasile yelled.

I scuttled behind the tree I had jumped out of, as he and Jake advanced and started shooting at the open window. One opposing bullet spiraled out and hit Vasile in the shoulder. My breath got caught in my throat as the Hungarian fell to his knees. He kept his gun up and managed to shoot at the man who shot at him, striking him in the chest and causing the mobster to fall out the window and crash into the ground right in front of them.

I dug my nails into the bark of the tree as the sounds of shooting merged with the sounds of coughing and shouting. Sirens started wailing and I involuntarily tensed up at the noise. Sirens meant police. Police means someone gets in trouble. Or, more accurately, that I'm the trouble. But Jake warned me that the police and the FBI would be waiting a few blocks away, waiting for me to drop the smoke bombs and then they would be rushing in, and he told me that I wouldn't get in trouble for doing anything. It was something I kept asking as the two agents explained their plan to me. I can't get caught, it's my family's number one rule.

Vasile struggled to his feet, gripping his shoulder painfully. Uniformed men with big sticks and guns and gas masks burst out of several vans that pulled up on the street, and ran up to the front of the house and broke open the door. Soon they were yanking person after person from inside, immediately placing them into handcuffs and herding them off to multiple police cars.

Everything happened so quickly yet so slowly that by the time my mind had caught up the sky had started to darken even more into night. I stood beside Jake and Vasile, watching as police sectioned off the house with yellow caution tape. Vasile had a big bandage around his shoulder and was still clutching it tight. Him and Jake and I stood in the street watching everything happen.

"You did good, kölyök." Vasile looked impressed with me, despite having a hole through his shoulder.

"Thank you," I said quickly.

"Do you..." Jake subtly sized me up. "Do you have any family?"

"Yes," I said firmly.

"Blood family?" He raised a blond eyebrow.

I scuffed my feet. "No."

Jake was quiet for a bit, staring into space intently before announcing, "I'm gonna call him."

Vasile hit him in the shoulder. "Mit csinálsz?"

"He did well Vasile, really well," Jake said. "He's smart and he's quick and he's resourceful. A young boy with no family and a hard life --he's just like we were, and we need more inner city street smarts at the agency. Flagg would be lucky to have him."

"Flagg?" I piped up. "Is that a person?"

Jake uncrossed his arms and looked down at me seriously. "What if we told you that the agency we work for wants you to be a part of it."

"Huh?"

"We want you to come work for us."

I blinked. "Be a spy agent?"

"Yeah. Do things like we just did, taking down violent gangs and protecting the country from threats."

I still didn't quite understand what was going on. "Why me?"

"Because you're strong."

I examined my biceps, which were about a third of the size of the two agent's ones in front of me. "Not really."

Jake chuckled. "I mean morally strong. You could have said no to helping us. You chased after a man who stole a poor woman's seven dollars, risking your life to do that."

"Normally I don't have to risk my life, but you guys were kind of shooting at me," I reminded him.

Jake smiled. "But you still did it. You risk getting attacked and beaten up and arrested everyday to get food and supplies to the people you care about. You are fiercely defensive of the community you live in, and are willing to protect it and what it stands for. You are selfless and innovative."

I tilted my head. "Innovative?"

"Creative."

"Thank you?"

"Yes, it is a compliment," Jake laughed again.

"Well you did just get shot," I nodded to Vasile, "that doesn't really make me wanna join."

"See, he's witty too," Jake poked his partner in his injured shoulder, prompting a scathing hiss of Hungarian curses.

I tried to snuff my laughter but it didn't stop Vasile from glaring at me.

"So, what do you think?" Jake asked sincerely.

"Um..." I nervously curled a bit of my hair around my ear. It had been getting longer recently, so much so that I now had what Mrs. Lawrence had dubbed "wings" on either side of my head. Maybe it would be good to go to this place, this "agency." I might get a decent haircut. Decent food too, that I didn't have to run a marathon for. "I—I dunno," I stammered. "Where is it?"

"Denver."

I pretended to know where that was. "But what about my family here? I can't leave them."

I really couldn't leave everyone at the Dragonfly. They rely on me, especially the older members of our camp and the ones with disabilities like the war vets who come and go sometimes. Oh and then there's Seb and Mandy who Mrs. Lawrence says have this thing with a long name that makes them see things that aren't really there, and they need extra help getting food and shelter.

"You can think about it," Jake promised. "We're staying at a motel on 11th avenue. Room 5."

"And we leave early tomorrow morning so tell us soon," Vasile said curtly. "And if you do decide to go, don't tell anyone."

"Why?"

"Because it's a top secret government spy agency," the Hungarian rolled his eyes like I was the dumbest person he's ever met. To be honest I would be surprised if I wasn't the dumbest person he has ever met before. "No one knows it exists."

"Nobody?"

"Only important people. Like the president, for example."

My eyes widened. "Shit."

Jake chuckled again. "Yeah exactly. That's why if you decide to come with us --you cannot tell anyone where you're going. Just have to just disappear. Take your time to think about it."

I watched the two spy agents walk back to the car they were sitting in before I had helped them shut down the mafia that had been clogging the streets of Chicago for decades, who had been terrorizing me for just over the decade I've been alive. I helped them. Me.

I did that.

-

There was a knock on the door and I quickly jumped up from my math homework and rushed to answer before the Captain did. Anything for a break from fucking algebra.

"I got it!" I called as my sneakers made squeaks against the smooth wooden floors in my haste.

I unlocked the front door and opened it to see four soldiers, all dressed in their proper uniforms, shiny colorful medals and everything. They only wore those for special occasions, but Dad lets me wear his jacket around the house sometimes. Obviously it's too big on me, but as long as I don't let the end of it catch on anything then Dad lets me prance around in it and Mom tells me I'll look badass in my own medals someday.

It was never any question that I follow in my family's footsteps and serve my country. My parents never pressured me to do so, and I know that if I wanted to do something else then they would totally support me, but growing up surrounded by soldiers I caught the adrenaline drug pretty early and now I couldn't wait to enlist.

One of the soldiers on the porch was Stryker's dad, Uncle Phillips. He and my Dad had been best friends since their days in ABT. Despite our father's close friendship though, as yesterday's whole drug-drama shitshow proved --Stryker and I never got along. Dad says it's because we're too similar, but Mom agrees with me and says (behind Dad's back) that Stryker is just a dick. My mom is the coolest.

"You're back!" I exclaimed happily, knowing Uncle Phillips served in the same regiment as my parents.

The soldier squatted down closer to my level and gave me a small smile. "Hey Haz," he said my nickname and ruffled my hair. "I'm back, yeah."

There was something about his voice that didn't sound quite the same. Normally his standard southern accent was upbeat and lively, urging me and Stryker to see who was the best at any activity we could think of, and saying "y'all" and "partner" and the occasional "howdy." Right now though it sounded like all that fun wasn't there.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

Uncle Phillips licked his lips and looked down my face with a grim sadness.

I heard the captain come up behind me and give a small gasp when she saw who was at the door.

I looked up at her. "What?"

I saw her staring at the other three uniformed soldiers that came with Uncle Phillips. I recognized one of the three as I warringly peered around him, the other two I'd never seen before in my life, and they were dressed as privates. The other man was a navy pilot Corporal, Benjamin Jenkins, my Mom's closest friend. I saw that he was holding something. A small package of sorts, a compact fabric triangle.

Red white and blue.

It was the American flag.

I tripped backwards away from Uncle Phillips and fell down.

"Harrison--"

I scrambled to my feet. "No."

"I am so sorry--"

"No!" I screeched.

He put out his hands in a defensible gesture, still crouched on the front steps. "It's okay. Everything is going to be okay," he said calmly.

"N--no," my bottom lip trembled. This absolutely cannot be happening. Today was a normal day, everything was fine and normal and okay, I went to school today I ate lunch with my friends and then the Captain picked me up and took me home and I was doing my homework exactly like any other day today was a normal day and now it's suddenly my worst nightmare.

I felt Captain Chamber's hands touch my shoulder. "It's okay--"

"No it's not!" I cried. "All of you stop saying that!" I began to get flustered as I could feel the tears coming to my eyes and making my nose tingle. My heart was beating in my ears and everything was going numb. "This isn't happening," I whispered to myself. I wrapped my arms around my head and tried to block out the overwhelming feeling of terror that was slowly snaking through my veins and taking hold of me. I collapsed to my knees again as the paralyzing fear in my chest spiraled outwards.

"You're going to need to come with us," said a voice from behind Uncle Phillips. The two strange soldiers I didn't recognize started coming towards me and I jumped back up to my feet. My heart beat quicker as they got closer and then I did the only thing that I could think of.

I bolted.

I darted out of the Captain's grasp and pushed past Uncle Phillips and ran down our front steps. "Harrison!" I heard the Captain shout after me.

I barely felt anything as I sprinted away, banged through the front gate, skidded around the corner and took off towards the city.

I had no idea what I was doing or where I was going, all I did knew was that I had to get away. I had to run.

"Get back here!" I heard a man yell from behind me and I turned while running and saw the two soldiers coming after me.

Okay they were definitely not with the army.

I turned back around and ran even faster, streaking across intersections and streets almost getting knocked out by cars honking their aggravation at me. If only they knew that my life had just fallen apart.

I stumbled over a crack in the sidewalk that I hadn't seen because my vision was starting to get clouded by tears, but I kept on running even though my lungs were heaving and my calves burning.

I heard the same guys yelling and chasing after me but I rounded corner after corner of the familiar streets hoping to lose them, until suddenly something hard wrapped around my legs and I slammed into the ground.

I sat up and tried wiggling out of a weird metal net thing that had constrained the bottom part of my legs. I tore and pushed and pulled and screamed at it but it was stuck to me and within seconds the "soldiers" caught up and yanked me to my feet.

"No!" I tried fighting them off, elbowing and thrashing as much as I could. "Get off of me! Leave me alone! Stop it!" I got their ears and faces with my bashing but it was futile since my crying started to cripple me as much as my tired limbs were. "Get off!" My voice cracked.

The men lifted me off the ground and towards a black van that had pulled up on the street next to me, but I kept fighting them back as I was dragged towards the open side door.

"Quit moving kid!" One of them yelled as I kneed him in the gut.

"No! Get off of me!" I sobbed. "Assholes! Fucking assholes, let me go!" I planted my tied ankles on the sidewalk and tried to push back, but the men were a lot stronger than I was and it didn't work.

I was shoved into the dark abyss of the van, hit my head against something hard, and everything went black.

-

"I've said goodbye to a lot of people, but this one is sweet," Mrs. Lawrence smiled down at me. "I know you really do be gonna go to a better place and you're finna do something good with your life. So go. Don't look back. Go do what none of us ever will."

I tackled her in a hug, relishing her comforting scent of artificial rose-perfume and weed. "Love you Mrs. Lawrence," I murmured.

I know I wasn't supposed to tell anyone, but it would break Mrs. Lawrence's heart if I just up and vanished. She would think I was dead, that she had failed as a parent. I told her all about what I had got up to and then Jake's offer that I could join them. Mrs. Lawrence had said it was up to me and what I felt in my heart and what I felt was... I should go. That feeling of triumph that I had done something genuinely good for once made me feel good. And she had agreed with me.

It was late, well technically early, so no one else was awake as I said goodbye. I trusted everyone on the Dragonfly hotel to not tell anyone where I went, I knew that all of them would lie to the cops about me without hesitation, but Vasile had warned not to tell anyone so I planned to just... leave. Let everyone except Mrs. Lawrence think that I had been taken by child services or ran away or finally captured by gang leaders or got put into juvie or died or something. She promised she wouldn't say anything either.

"Yeah yeah," she patted my head. "Now scram kid."

"Bye," I whispered.

I swung my legs over the edge of the roof for the last time, then clambered down the fire escape. I slunk past PB's watch spot at the top of the alley, and began my walk over to 11th where Jake said he and Vasile would be. I got to room 5 and knocked on the door. It opened and Vasile was on the other side, an expression of surprise on his face when he looked at me.

"Well well well," he smiled smugly.

"Told you," Jake came up behind him. He slung a backpack over his shoulder and slipped the straps on. "You cut it close kid."

"Yeah," Vasile frowned. "We have a plane to catch."

My eyes widened. "A plane!"

"Da. How else would we get to Denver?"

-

"Stop it! Where are you taking me!" I struggled in the grasp of the two soldiers. "I wanna go home!" I cried, not caring how girly it sounded.

"You are home," one of the men snarled into my ear as he and the other one dragged me down the strange hallway.

I stopped fighting back for a moment in fear and shock of what he said.

We reached a door where two more uniformed men, older than the ones holding me, were standing on either side of. When we got there one touched his finger to a keypad that was beside the handle, the door opened with a beep, and I got violently shoved in by myself.

I fell down hard on my chest onto the short carpeting, which knocked the wind out of me and for a moment I stopped sniffling. The door slammed behind me.

"Get up," a strong voice commanded.

From the floor I glanced up and saw the dark silhouette of a man framed by the sunlight streaming in from the massive window behind him.

An evil super villain intro shot.