“Why does that matter?”
“She has more time to live than you do, if all things take their natural course. Which brings me to this.”
Mike reached into his pocket and withdrew a metallic cylinder about nine inches long.
“When the time comes, either when you’re getting older and ready to pass the torch, or when you’re near death, you can use this to transfer your power to another. You hold one end and the other person holds the other, you depress this button in the end, and in a few seconds, all of your powers will go to the other, and you will take on the state of that person.”
“When should I do that, and how will I know who to transfer it to?”
“You’ll know the time, and you’ll know the person. Just keep your eyes open.”
Walter took the cylinder and put it in the drawer of the end table by his recliner.
“Make sure you keep that in a safe place,” Mike said.
“I’ll put it in my safe before I go to bed.”
“If it’s all the same to you, would you mind too much if I stayed here for the night? We can resume your training in the morning, but for now I would rather like some rest.”
17
It didn’t take long for Walter to find trouble that evening. He had just dropped Kendra off at her parents’ house, gently setting her car down in the driveway, when he heard a scream. He flew up and focused his hearing to try to pinpoint where the sound was coming from and flew in that direction when he heard it again. It was near downtown. When the woman screamed again, he spotted her at the corner of 14th and Race, and a block away and running fast was a young man with a purse. Walter swooped down and scooped the man up in one arm and deposited him on the top of the Kroger building.
“Hey, you can’t just leave me up here,” the man protested.
“I’ll be back for you, just gotta return this,” Walter said as he took the purse and leapt off the roof.
“Here you go ma’am,” he said a moment later, handing the purse back to the woman on the street.
“Thank you, Walter.”
“The pleasure was all mine,” Walter said with an exaggerated bow, “Are you heading home? Can I escort you to your car?”
“Thank you very much, but I have an Uber coming.”
“Well, take care, ma’am.”
A minute later, Walter had dropped the would be thief off at the police station and overheard something on the police radio about a high-speed chase near Lockland. He followed the highway north and spotted a car doing nearly 100 mph on I-75 with two police cars in pursuit. The driver of the car spat out a string of expletives when his car suddenly lifted into the air and flew slowly toward the next exit. The cops took the exit and were waiting by the time Walter set the car down in the Wendy’s parking lot.
“Thanks Walter,” the officer said after he had secured the suspect in the back of his cruiser.
“No problem, officer. Can I drop the car off anywhere in particular?”
“You know where our impound lot is?”
“Sure. Just let ‘em know I’m coming.”
“Will do.”
Over the next few hours, Walter stopped six burglary attempts, two carjackings, four convenience store robberies, six muggings, and sped a heart attack victim to the hospital in time to save his life. He stumbled into his apartment, grabbed a beer, and collapsed into his recliner.
“Busy night?” Mike asked from the couch.
“You could say that. It’s like the crooks all decided to have a go at the same time. I’ve never seen anything like it around here.”
“Then I’ll give you a bit of time to recover, but I have some things to show you later.”
“Yeah, let me finish this beer and grab some Zs.”
Walter was still grabbing Zs when Kendra pulled up to the street. Franklin was out the door before she got to the porch.
“Walter’s still asleep. Had a busy night,” he said.
“Does he usually stay out all night?” Kendra asked.
“Sometimes, but he was real busy last night. Alien dude said he just got in a couple hours ago.”
“Alien dude has a name.”
“Not one anyone can pronounce.”
Franklin got in the car and Kendra put the car in gear and pulled out.
“Whoa girl, what’s this?” Franklin said, grabbing a basketball out of the back seat, “I thought the gym has their own.”
“It’s a nice day. There’s this outdoor court near there. I saw it yesterday driving down Paxton.”
“Now you know you don’t stand a chance against me on an outdoor court. Where do you think I honed all my mad skills?”
“Mad skills, huh? Could have fooled me.”
“Still got a better shot than you do, with your chicken wings. Bock, bock, bock.” Franklin put his elbows out and flapped them.
“Careful dude, I’m driving. And I’ve worked on my shot.”
“We’ll see about that.”
They arrived at the playground and Kendra grabbed the ball and put up a jumper, with much improved form, but still missed.
“Well girl, that looked better, but it’s still a brick.”
Franklin got the rebound and dribbled around in circles, switching hands and doing a couple behind the back dribbles.
“Hand me that ball. That first one was just a warmup.”
“You want the ball…come and get it,” Franklin said holding it out with his arm outstretched. Kendra reached for the ball and he pulled it away, going into another array of fancy dribbling.
“Come on, see if you can take it from me.”
Kendra kept reaching for the ball, but Franklin was quicker and she couldn’t even get a hand on it. After the third attempt, she leaned in, but instead of reaching for the ball, she planted a quick kiss on Franklin’s cheek. It had the desired effect, causing him to lose concentration and dribble the
