Blackouts and Harassing the Mayor

      She dreamt a lot about sheep. Not counting sheep. Weird, bipedal sheep bleating at each other in the bowels of hell. She was dreaming about the sheep crowding around a single messy desk with a single sheep desperately shuffling and shifting through papers. Some of his documents sliding off the side of the best and spontaneously combusting on the ground.

           “Vincent,” she said.

           The sheep looked up, his eyes looked relieved, despite his eyes being that of a sheep. “Oh, it’s you. How are those ‘superpowers’ holding up?” He asked, “figured out how to use them yet?”

           She nodded, staring directly into the eye of Satan’s Secretary. “Just fine.”

           “Well, that arm you traded is getting some good use,” he mused.

           “What do you-”

           She was cut short when the world started shaking. The ground cracking into ravines of fire and the sheep surrounding the desk bleating in terror as they tripped and were engulfed in the flames.

           “Raquel,” came a voice that rumbled with the world.

           She braced herself against Vincent’s desk, the secretary of Satan not phased by the world around him.

           “Raquel the power’s out.”

           Raquel woke up to a dark bedroom, the love of her life shaking her side. “Hmm? Go back to sleep.”

           “It’s a city-wide shortage,” she said matter-of-factly.

           Oh God damnit. “Ugh, fine!”

           Raquel rolled out of bed and flopped onto the floor before standing up and feeling her way around with her one hand until she bumped into her dresser. From behind her she heard her girlfriend ask, “Need me to get a flashlight or?”

           “That would be nice…”

           There was some shuffling, some bumping around, until a small light came from the other side of the room. Raquel’s eyes adjusted to the new tiny light source as it approached, her girlfriend Eriko now visible. Raquel scavenged for her clothes and prosthetic arm when she heard a little grinding noise coming from the flashlight. “Is that a hand crank flashlight?” She asked offhandedly.

           Eriko shrugged, standing next to Raquel with the flashlight. “So? It’s cheaper than buying batteries every few months.”

           “You watch way too many survivalist video’s you know that?” She said as she pulled out her prosthetic from under a bunch of folded shirts.

           “And you watch too many videos from a decade ago,” Eriko retorted, “seriously, why are you so obsessed with some British people and a lady with too many pets?”

           “Those people are internet treasures!” She argued, slamming the metal prosthetic on top of the dresser.

           When Eriko started to chuckle, Raquel threw a hat at her. “You’re acting like a child.”

           “Don’t laugh, that’s my childhood!”

           Eriko continued to chuckle as Raquel put her prosthetic on. She could feel the power course through her blood, her muscles relaxing as she let her abilities sink in. She closed her eyes, it felt better when she did.

           “God I will never get used to that.”

           Raquel opened her eyes, but she didn’t need a mirror to know what she looked like. She picked up her hat, a cowboy hat with two odd holes on the sides. She slipped it on easily, her new rams horns fitting perfectly through the holes. She looked at Eriko and smirked, “Can’t get used to the face of your hero?”

           “No more like I have a sheep trying to impersonate my dorky girlfriend.”

           She didn’t bother correcting that it was a ram and that she wasn’t a dork. But when your girlfriend obtains superpowers by putting on her prosthetic arm and it gives her a red sheep eye and rams horns… well that’s certainly an image. “I’ll be back in a bit, go back to bed,” she said.

           The women knew when Raquel was like this, the dark wasn’t even a problem. She could see just fine, well fine enough. She took her trench coat off from behind a chair and put it on. Really coming together. Just one last thing. Over by the window overlooking the street lay what looked like ice skates without their blades. She quickly put them on and opened the window, a cold night’s breeze coming into the apartment.

           With a grin and a leap Raquel was in the air, falling, but in the air. She landed on the street with a thud that echoed for miles. She heard at least twenty car alarms go off and a baby crying from another building. “The fuck does she expect me to do anyway? Go harass the mayor? Oh, you know what-”

           Activating her ice skate like machines with a tap of her foot she began to float. She pushed herself forwards with one foot, then the other. Soon she was gliding through the streets as if it had frozen over. Her trench coat flailing in the breeze and her hat staying firmly on her head.

           Gliding up a few blocks she dug her metal arm into the pavement and used her own momentum to turn onto another street. That’s gonna leave a hole… who cares? I don’t drive.

           The mayor lived near city hall, right next to it actually. Shitty planning if you ask me. This wouldn’t be the first time Raquel broke into the mayor’s house and it wouldn’t be the last. No matter how many times they upped security or replaced the windows, she would come back.

           This time she thought for a more practical approach, breaking a window at this time of night was sketchy. She didn’t play by anybody’s rules, but she didn’t want to be shot at 3 A.M. She simply glided up to the front door, turned off her skates and gripped the door handle with her metal arm. And ripped the door off it’s hinges.

           “Mr. Mayor!” She called out in the quiet home. When she got no answer she rephrased, “Mr. Martinez! I need to have a word with you!”

           A crash, a bump, footsteps, the works. Nothing Raquel hadn’t heard or seen before. From atop the stairs a man in a bathrobe appeared. “Good morning Mr. Mayor!” Raquel chirped.

           “Did… did you break my door?”

           “Thought you would want a breeze.”

           “That’s not- what do you want?”

           “Power’s out. City wide supposedly,” she told him, “fix it.”

           “Remind me why I should listen to you exactly?” He asked.

           “Because I’m the one who keeps saving everyone’s asses from attacks. I swear this place is a hotspot for evil plans. Have you tried rebranding?”

           “Enough,” The mayor groaned, “someone is most likely already on top of the power outage. As you can see, it’s effected my family as well. Now can you please leave?”

           “Pleasure doing business with ya Mr. Mayor!” She waved the mayor even though he couldn’t see her.

           He groaned and went back upstairs while Raquel reactivated her skates and began her journey home. Following the same streets as she has done so many times now. Some streetlights were already beginning to turn back on as she stopped at her building and began to climb, an easy feat.

           She slid into the window, snapped it shut and quickly undressed before heading back to bed. Not even bothering to take her prosthetic off, and not caring her horns were stabbing into her pillow.