Lights high above flared to life, bathing the entire laboratory in florescent light. At the same time, a stream of goons armed with cattle-prods and stun-guns poured into the room, two dozen of them spread evenly along the walls. All the while, Captain Clear stood frozen, scarecrow-like, in the middle of the room just ten feet from the vial he'd come to retrieve.
"Those goody-two-shoes at the Legion of Justice didn't have the evidence against me so they sent just one man to break into my lab to steal it. Well, Captain Clear, we know you're hiding in this room and it'll only be a matter of time before my henchmen find you, you invisible idiot. Find him!" crackled Dr. Selkath's voice through an unseen speaker system. As ordered, the goons all took a step forward toward the middle of the room and swung their arms from side to side, a low-tech but thorough system of searching for someone who can't be seen. After a couple of seconds, the each took another step forward, repeating the process. Captain Clear, still standing unseen in the middle of the room, was reminded of his very first heist, before he ever joined the Legion of Justice, and how he'd had almost been caught that time, too.
The 24Hr Mini-Mart clerk let the floating chips and two six-packs of beer get a few steps passed the register before saying anything. "So, are you going to pay for that? And don't give me that 'I look young for my age' bullshit as, hey, obviously I can't see your face."
As Captain Clear (who still haven't adopted a superhero name yet and was still known simply as Mark) turned, the cashier grabbed an aluminum bat and laid it upon the counter, staring hard at a spot between the two sets of items.
"Wait, you can see me?" Mark stammered with fear and guilt as the bottles clinked together.
The cashier pointed to a spot on the counter. "Damn, kid, how about putting that stuff down, then we can talk about this spot of trouble you've found yourself in. Last thing I need is you dropping those brewskies and giving me another, more literal, mess to clean up." Timidly, invisible boy placed the items on the counter, while his eyes glanced back and forth from the cashier's hands and the bat, expecting one or the other to strike him. The stolen items returned, the store clerk said, "Next time, kid, you'll want to extend the invisibility to the items you're holding as well. For now though, turn off the magical invisibility amulet so we can talk face-to-face."
Mark shrugged his shoulders, only realizing after he'd done it how useless an invisible gesture was. "Sorry, I don't have an amulet."
Fred let out a sigh. "Well I know it isn't a nanotech suit or tiny, light-bending drones rendering you invisible as you don't seem that smart."
"Yeah, it isn't any of those either," agreed Mark thinking to the C+ he was passing his science class with.
Letting out a groan, the cashier picked-up the bat. "Kid, you better now have drunk some magic potion or cast an invisibility spell or made a bargain with an entity from the Lower or Higher Places. If that's the case, who knows who long you'll be like this, and I don't have all day."
"No, no," said Mark raising his invisible hands, "It's none of those things. It's just me. I'm doing this." A second later, Mark started to appear before the cashier, hazy at first, then clearer and clearer as if someone were adjusting a TV antenna or tuning a radio dial.
"Huh," said Fred, staring at the kid in jeans and a t-shirt while he placed the bat back under the counter." Well, if it ain't Mark Williams. Damn kid, I remember you coming in here since you and your brothers were small enough to climb these shelves."
Shaking where he stood, Mark Williams did his best not to meet the cashier's eyes. "Um, hi Mr. Kojima, um, I'm really, really sor-"
Before Mark could finish his apology, Fred cut him off by popping the top on one of the bottles of beer. "So, you've got super-powers now. That's real interesting since we haven't seen anyone else in your family exhibiting powers. Stay where you are."
Mark froze, realizing only then he'd taken a step or two toward the door when Mr. Kojima came around the counter. The kid, held in fear, listened to heavy footsteps as the cashier walked past him to the 24Hr Mini-Mart doors. Then came the small chime of the bell attached to the "We're Open" sign and a soft click, probably of the doors being locked.
As Mr Kojima walked back to the counter, he said, "There, that should keep anyone from interrupting our chat, or at least until Mrs. Godfrey starts banging on the doors. I swear nothing keeps that old woman from her pack of smokes." The cashier took another sip of the beer before placing the bottle on the counter and picking up the two packs Mark had tried to steal. "So kid, what's with the invisibility?" he asked as he walked down the aisle to place the beers back in the cooler.
It took Mark a moment to answer, stammering at first until he finally got the words out. "Um, well, I just kinda woke up with it, I guess. Just one morning I opened my eyes and couldn't see my hand. Like I knew it was there but it wasn't, you know."
Back behind the counter, Mr. Kojima chuckled. "Yeah, kid, I know how invisibility works. No one in your family has ever shown signs of superpowers before so best to check if it was just a genetic fluke or if perhaps something else was introduced into your system, you know, like bug toxins, chemicals, other what-not. I guess we'll need to keep a better eye on you and yours for a little bit, just to see if anyone else starts to show signs of powers." The smiling clerk opened up the bag of chips and after eating a few held out the bag to Mark.
Like a fearful gazelle approaching a watering hole, Mark cautiously stepped toward the counter. Then, just as cautiously, he stuck out a hand and the older man powered a couple of chips into it. "Umm, so you said 'we' when you talked about spying on my family. So, who do you actually work for, then? The police? The FBI?" Seeing the cashier continue to crunch on chips and drink his beer, Mark lowered his voice, guessing, "Is it the Legion of Justice?" The cashier's eyes opened just a little wider at the mention of the superheroes and Mark stiffened, crushing the chips in his hand. "Oh, no, please don't send me to The SuperMax! Please, it was just ... I swear I'll never do it again!" Mark fell to his knees, tears in his eyes as his mind raced to what the future surely held. The Shining Knight bursting through the doors to arrest him, sitting in a jail cell with the likes of The Harrowing and Green Abomination, the disappointment in his parents' eyes.
It took a minute before Mark's panic subsided enough to hear the cashier yelling at him to calm down. "Kid, relax, I'm not calling the Legion. No one is going to The SuperMax," Mr. Kojima said, lifting the boy to his feet and turning him around.
At first, Mark thought the older man might be trying to point him at the door but as Mark wiped the tears from his eyes, he realized he was facing the back of the store. "Um," he said attempting to turn back to the cashier, who instead, with his hand on the top of Mark's head, pointed the boy's eyes at the crumbled chips on the floor. Then he felt his head jerked up and now saw the broom and dustpan in the back corner of the store. "Oh, um, sorry about that."
As Mark swept up the spilled chips, Mr. Kojima spoke. "As I said, you're not in any trouble this time. I'm not even going to call your parents. Besides, everyone tries to steal from the 24Hr Mini-Mart once they realize they've got something special. It's not that big a deal." Seeing the confusion on the boy's face, Fred gestured nonchalantly around them. "Look around, kid. It's a shitty convenience store. All sorts of people walk in and out and around here all day. They're familiar with it, comfortable even. If you're going to commit your first crime, you don't wanna be pissing yourself at the same time. Most anyone ever takes are packs of beer, chips, cigarettes. Or, if they're feeling really adventurous, maybe they get the almost two hundred bucks in small bills sitting in the cash register. And if one of them turns out to be a real asshole, well, that bat you saw earlier has a couple nifty tricks as well."
Downing the last of the beer, Fred stepped out from behind the counter and turned Mark toward the door. "That all said, don't make this a habit, or I am going to have someone sneak behind you, drop a bag over your head, and stick you in the deepest, darkest hole they can find." Feeling the kid stiffen under his hand, Mr. Kojima nudged him toward the door, hoping the boy wouldn't stop and piss himself until he got outside.
Mark placed a hand on the door and paused. "Um, can I ask one more thing? What would've happened if I hadn't stopped? How would you have caught me?" Not wanting to turn around for an answer, Mark instead stared out the glass doors at the city street, its blocks and alleys forming a maze an invisible man could easily lose any tail. Just a few minutes ago, he was inches from freedom with his first (and hopefully only) stolen haul. Then a man crossed in front of the door, lifting his hat slightly and giving Mark a subtle wink. Across the street, another woman in sweat-clothes sitting at a bus stop waved at him.
Behind him, Fred laughed. "Don't worry about that kid. We've got our ways to track folks." Mark could hear the cashier scratch the stubble of hair on his face for a moment. "But since you asked, I'm now a little curious, why did you stop?"
"Umm, because you caught me," Mark replied though he felt just a little less confident in his answer once the words left his mouth.
"Nope, I simply mentioned that I could see you stealing. I didn't lock the door nor did I lay a finger on you. You stopped because you were scared." The store sat uncomfortable silent for a moment. Then Mark heard the squeaking steps of the cashier's non-slip shoes coming out from behind the register again until they stopped right behind him.
Turning, Mark saw conflict on Mr. Kojima's face, a debate bouncing itself behind the man's eye until he finally spoke. "You seem like a good kid, so I'm really hoping I don't regret telling you this last piece of advice. Your power, that gift you've got, it's going to make you really good at being sneaky and such, and you're going to take that route more often than not. That's just the way people are - always playing to their own strengths. But it's also going to make you feel like giving up, quitting, throwing in the towel, the very moment you think you've been caught. Just remember, you've not truly been caught until they've got their hands around your throat." The older man then turned the boy back around and nudged him toward the door. "Now get out of here and make some better choices."
As soon as the boy passed through the 24Hr Mini-Mart doors, he was Captain Clear again, surrounded on all sides by an enemy sure to find him. Seeing the goons on all side and closing in on him, Captain Clear sighed. So much for the stealth option, he thought to himself as he walked over to the vial. Pocketing his prize, the superhero released his invisibility and twenty gasps escaped from their owners' mouths seeing the hero appear in the middle of the room. Remembering the 24Hr Mini-Mart clerk's final words of advice, Captain Clear drew two collapsible batons and readied himself for a brawl. "You haven't caught me yet," he said, knowing Dr. Selkath would still be watching.
Well that took forever. Um, so this was from a Reddit Writing Prompt about a cashier that spots items floating out the door of a convenience store, or something like that. Wow, it's been so long since I've written ... well, anything really, and an especially long time since I wrote anything not connected to anything else. Umm, yeah, well I guess just because I'm lazy. Anyways, this was a one-time thing, not meant to be connected to anything else, and has been sitting in my notebook unfinished for so long I can't even find the Writing Prompt I got the idea from. There's about two more stories in that notebook, also only partially finished so maybe I'll get around to those. Umm, so what brought me back to writing after all this time, you might ask? Well, I mean, I was writing just in short, short bursts that I'd be easily distracted from. Um, yeah, and then came Kawaii Kon again and I got to go to the Fan Fic Writing Panel again and though I probably didn't learn as much as I should (I did get some notes), I still love listening to other people talk about writing so that I was kinda inspired and that got me back to actually trying just a bit harder to focus and put words on paper. I also (may have) found a way to finally make some profit from this trash, except it requires ... editing. So maybe I'll look into that
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