CAPE
A subversive superhero story.
A future entry on the 2015 IFComp, developed with Undum and Raconteur.
[Open the spoiler tag for a (non-spoiler) text excerpt; CW for oblique references to violence]
[spoiler]The person you’re ostensibly doing this for is almost an afterthought, but you realise, first of all, that they’re terrified. It takes a moment to realign your self-perception, to understand that there isn’t some other thug standing behind your shoulder. Of course they are. They just watched you render their assailant unconscious without a second thought.
By the transitive property, you’re the scariest thing in this alley.
“Do you have your phone?” you finally think to growl, after a long moment of mutual, fearful staring.
After sucking in air, they wheeze out: “Yes.”
“Good. Call an ambulance.”[/spoiler]