Shoot For The Stars

Peter Nolof had no regrets about becoming a vigilante. It was fun, it was thrilling, and he liked to think that he was making a difference. Plus he had to put his hard earned archery skills to good use. He’d been practicing and teaching himself ever since his uncle had enabled him and given him his first bow, and the Olympics wouldn’t be held for another couple years. Not to mention he was relatively sure that, at only seventeen, he would still be too young to qualify. Not completely sure, though. He should check.

Peter reached up and turned on the Commlink in his ear. “Hey, you there?”

“Peter?” a distorted and yet still distinctly male voice responded.

“Names, Calem,” Peter reprimanded. He grabbed his quiver and squirmed around to pull it onto his back without spilling any arrows.

“You know you just-”

“Yeah, I heard it,” Peter muttered. “Don’t make this a big thing.”

“I could.”

“And you could not.” Peter finally finished with his quiver and grabbed the deep black sunglasses in the bottom of his duffel bag. He slid them onto his face. Immediately the lenses flashed once. The darkness around him all but disappeared as the night vision flared to life, leaving his surroundings all green. For a moment, at least. The color correction kicked in, showing the silver walls surrounding him, as well as the blue sleeves of his hoodie. And the hood itself.

“But I still could.”

Compound didn’t bother to dignify that with a response. He spun around and kicked the cover off the vent. He dropped out of it, landing easily on the roof of the building. He grabbed his bow and pulled the grate back up, fixing it in place with practiced ease.

“You were just inside a vent, weren’t you?” Oriceye asked.

Compound scoffed. “Of course not.” Oriceye didn’t say anything. But he didn’t say it very loudly. “Really, I wasn’t.”

“Then turn on your camera and prove it.”

Compound grumbled under his breath.

“Then that proves it.”

“I have given you no proof,” Compound countered.

“I know. Seriously, though. Turn on your camera. I need to be able to see what’s going on.”

Compound hesitated a moment. He glanced at the vent beside him. Eventually he sighed and pressed the button on the side of his glasses. ”Okay, fine,” he admitted. “But it’s a good place to get changed.”

“I’ve never said it wasn’t.”

“Well, you’ve been very vocal about not saying it,” Compound muttered. He pulled an arrow from his quiver and aimed it up at the roof of the building across the street. A quick brush against his shoulder had a cable sticking to the arrow. Once it struck true, all Compound had to do was press a button on his bow and the cable began retreating back into the harness under his hoodie. The arrow held true, letting the grapple pull him across the street. “Anyway,” he huffed, vaulting up onto the roof. “I need you to do something for me.”

Compound reached over the edge and pulled the arrow from the wall. He took a moment to examine the arrowhead and nodded in satisfaction. He slid the arrow back into his quiver.

“That’s what I’m here for,” Oriceye chirped. “Though I’m not seeing too much in your area right now.”

“Yeah, I figured. I need you to see if there are any age restrictions on Olympic archery.”

“Finally figured out what you want to be when you grow up?”

“Hah!” Compound laughed. “No.”

Compound flopped down onto the wall around the edge of the roof and glanced up at the sky. He looked away then did a double take, even going so far as to throw in a dramatic gasp.

The sky above him wasn’t a mostly dark void like would normally be seen in the middle of Denver. Unobscured by smog or light pollution or even clouds, he could see stars. More stars than he’d ever be able to see without the glasses. Probably quite a few stars that he wouldn’t have been able to see even if he went to the middle of nowhere.

“That’s new,” he mused.

“Sixteen,” Oriceye reported. “You’re in the clear.”

“Eh, it’s not as fun when it’s above board,” Compound decided. “I have to say, these-” A faint scream echoed up from an alley behind the building. “Oh, hang on.”

Compound leaned over the edge of the building. A woman was running away from a figure slumped onto the ground, a briefcase clutched in her hands. The slumped figure screamed again, calling out to the woman to get her to return the briefcase.

Compound shot an arrow into the alley. It stuck into the ground just in front of the woman. She tripped over the arrow and went sprawling down. The no-longer-slumped figure rushed to recover the briefcase that had flown out of the woman’s grasp. She tried to reach out, but an arrow struck the ground in front of her hand, leaving her unable to grab the escaping figure before they and the briefcase had escaped.

Compound looked back up to the sky. The stars were still there. At least that he could see. “I have to say, these glasses continue to impress me,” he finished. “I mean, all these stars? I don’t know how you were able to do that. Is it the color correction or something?”

“Not really,” Oriceye said slowly. “Technically, you’re not seeing the actual stars. It’s a program I whipped together.” For a moment the stars overtook Compound’s vision. The buildings, surrounding lights, and even his own body disappeared. They were replaced with stars in every direction. Swimming around his head, as if it were stuck inside of some kind of globe of stars. A moment later the stars retreated back to the sky. “See?”

“Couldn’t see anything but,” Compound pointed out.

“Sorry. But yeah, you’re not technically seeing stars.”

“Good, you know I hate to lose.”

“You’re just seeing a map. I’ve played with the perspective a bit, made it look authentic, but still. Just a map.”

“Just a map,” Compound repeated.

“Just a map.”

Compound shot another arrow at the building across the street. He rode the grapple over to the other building, vaulting up on top of it. He retrieved the arrow and looked up. The telltale flashing red and blue lights shone up from a few streets over, coupled with a siren echoing over the ambient noises of the city.

Compound ran across the rooftop, jumping onto the next building when he came to it. He landed and kept running. “And what’s with this new stargazing app of yours, anyway?”

“It’s not an app!” Oriceye snapped. “It’s an omni-directional gyroscopic astronomer’s assistant!”

“Fine, fine,” Compound allowed. He jumped over another alley and skidded to a halt on the last building. At the edge he could see the police car in the distance. The car it was chasing was swerving and weaving through the otherwise empty street. “What am I looking at?”

“Getaway car from an armed robbery.”

“They rob the kitten and puppy orphanage?”

“Nope.”

Compound hummed. “I guess I can be nice, then.”

Compound pulled two arrows from his quiver. He nocked one onto his bowstring and pulled it back. He took careful aim at the approaching getaway car.

“So, what’s with this new stargazing app of yours, anyway?”

The Commlink clicked to life just to let him hear the long, drawn out sigh from Oriceye. After a moment of silence he grudgingly spoke. “Astronomy and star maps are important,” Oriceye assured. “I mean, what if we end up facing a villain with a star gimmick? What if there’s some kind of puzzle and the only way to solve it is to arrange a bunch of cutouts of constellations? What would you do then if you didn’t have this?”

“Dude, we’ve faced one supervillain. One.” On the street below, the car finally sped past the building Compound was perched on. He followed it with his bow and fired the first arrow. Immediately he rolled the other across his hand to nock, aim, and fire. Both of the car’s rear tires all but exploded from the punctures. The car clanged and sparked against the ground, skidding to a halt. The police car sped up and came to a halt beside it.

“And you’re already making plans for another?”

“You say that as if you aren’t.”

“Point,” Compound conceded. “But are you sure that’s why you made the app?”

“Not an app.”

“Are you sure it has nothing to do with the fact that just last week your better half was complaining about there being no good place to go stargazing?”

“Better half?” Oriceye repeated. “That hurts, man. I thought we were friends.”

Compound waved aside Oriceye’s words. “Oh, don’t worry. I call you her better half too. That way you two are constantly getting better. It’s a feedback loop. You’re welcome.”

“I think I’m grateful?”

“And don’t think I haven’t picked up on how you didn’t answer my question,” Compound chided. “Then again, I suppose that is an answer.”

“Hey, it sounds like someone just called in a convenience store robbery a couple blocks south of you. Think you can make it in time?”

Compound scoffed. “Who do you take me for?” He ran toward the south end of the building. With one quick jump, Compound hopped onto the next building. Without slowing down a bit, he prepared another grapple arrow. He jumped off the second building at the same time he fired the arrow. Before he could even start to properly fall, the grapple zipped him across to the other building. He landed badly, unfortunately. His bow slammed against the arrow and snapped it in half.

Compound didn’t let his focus linger on the broken arrow. He just sighed and vaulted up onto the roof. He looked down at the street below. “I don’t see any convenience store.”

“You’re right on top of it,” Oriceye corrected. “It’s built into the building.”

“Ah, I see.” Looking down again, Compound was pretty sure he could see a brightly colored sign. That was probably what he was looking for. “Exits?”

“Just the one.”

“Any police on their way?”

“A couple minutes out.”

“So just keep the robbers occupied,” Compound decided.

“Essentially. Security cameras show the crook gearing up to leave. You ready?”

Compound nocked an arrow and aimed it at the sidewalk below. “Yes,” he declared, nodding for good measure. With the way his head bobbed, a few pinpricks of light slid into his view. Compound smirked. “Hey, give me a constellation.”

“Uh, Ophiuchus,” Oriceye decided.

“Great! Highlight it on my visor!”

Below Compound, the door swung open. Someone began running out. At the same time, Compound let loose his arrow. It dropped down in front of the crook, slicing through the pavement. The crook cried out and stopped running.

“Highlight it?!” Oriceye shrieked. “I can’t! The program doesn’t do that!”

“Then describe it!” Compound practically shouted. “Hurry!” He readied another arrow.

“There’s an arrow at the top. Then draw a line down and to the right three units at about a thirty degree angle.”

“Units?!”

“I’m giving you the stars respective to each other!”

The crook shook their head and began running again. Compound sighed. “Screw it, Big Dipper it is.”

He shot the second arrow. It fell just to the right of the crook. They screamed and jumped away from it. They tripped and fell to the ground. Compound fired another arrow in front of the crook.

“The Big Dipper?”

“It’s the only constellation I know.”

Compound fired a few more arrows at random intervals, keeping the crook too terrified to actually run away. The flashing lights of a police car shone down the street, followed closely by the siren. Compound fired off one last arrow, finishing off the tail, and nodded in satisfaction. The arrows around the crook formed a perfect Big Dipper.

“The tail curves the wrong way,” Oriceye said.

Compound let out a loud sigh. “You are just determined to ruin this for me, aren’t you?”

“Sorry. Just thought you should know.”

“Right.” Compound backed away from the edge of the building, hiding in the shadows beside the door down to the stairs. “Think anyone’s gonna come up here?”

“Officer Jenkins hasn’t said anything.”

“Jenkins?”

“The one who arrested the crook. You should be safe.”

“Good.”

Compound slung his bow over his shoulder and leaned back against the wall. He tilted his head up, gazing into the sky above him. He picked a star at random and pointed to it. “Is that Ofeekas?”

“Ophiuchus,” Oriceye murmured. “And no.”

“Oh.” Compound shifted his arm to the side. “That?”

“No, that’s Draco.”

“What about that one?“

“Nope. Little bit to the right. No, that’s too far, go back left. And that’s too far. Now your hand is too low!”

Compound sighed and dropped his arm completely. “Forget it,” he decided.

“Gladly. That hurt to watch.”

Compound just hummed and kept his gaze on the sky. “You’re gonna update your stargazing app so you can highlight constellations, aren’t you?”

“Already working on it.”