The Heroes of Little Springs

The kids suddenly came to a halt as the man with the ice cream was no longer standing in front of them. They then looked over and saw that he had moved to the corner.

"Woah how'd he do that?" a couple of kids murmured or some sort of variation to this. A few parents whispered among themselves in equal confusion.

Quiver came beside Jet as he threatened to eat the ice cream. She figured it'd probably still be a bit chaotic even with the threat and it'd be easier if two people were handing out ice cream.

Then she realized Jet had superspeed and wondered what the hell she was thinking.

By now, the kids had pretty much put two and two together on who these people were. And now, instead of just wanting ice cream, they also began to shout questions or call the hero's names or anything to try and get some attention over the kid next to them.

"That was so cool, how'd you that?" "Can I play with your arrows?" "Were you bitten by a spider?" "Is green your favorite color?" "Can I have some ice cream?" "How fast can you run?" "Why do you wear masks?" "I really just want ice cream" were just a few of the things that came out of the kid's mouths as they were trying to get into a line for their ice cream but also wanted to get closer to the heroes. Of course, there were some kids that weren't as interested and they hung back which made things only slightly easier. There was still pushing and shoving but it was a bit more orderly than before.

Fortunately the allure of ice-cream and seeing real superheroes up close was more then enough to calm the rougher children in the mix. At least the officers and other adults didn't have to join in to stop a bunch of stampeding kids. That wouldn't really look to good on either Quiver or Jet's superhero record.

They can stop a high-speed robbery, but watch out if kids are on the loose. That wasn't the case this time, so Jet placed his cooler onto the ground, and began to hand out one ice-cream sandwich to each kid. If Quiver wanted to join in, and help him, he wouldn't mind.

While he was giving each kid their own treat, the two of them were quickly bombarded with several questions. For the ones who only wanted the free food, or asked about it, he quickly gave them what they wanted, so they could be on their way.

Although he knew he was on a mission, or at the very least, one that the cops forced on him, he couldn't help but to not ignore the eager and energetic kids and their questions. "Alright, one question at a time guys." Jet remarked, with a weak smile, and laugh. "I may be fast, but I'm not that quick."

After hearing one of the questions directed at Quiver, she double-checked to make sure her bow was still securely on her.

"No," she had replied to several kids who seemed to think her bow and arrows were toys. She did, however, give them ice-cream as she saw Jet was not utilizing his super-speed to serve everyone.

As Quiver and Jet were handing out ice-cream, Tyler and Susan were towards the back of the group. Susan was trying to push her way forward to get a closer look. But each time she got closer, she saw Tyler was more reluctant to bulldoze through the line so she hung back.

"Come on, I wanna get a closer look," Susan complained. Tyler didn't say anything. Susan groaned and waited with him towards the back. It wasn't like she could ask questions about Zach to kill time: her mother specifically told her not to say anything. So Susan began to kick at the blacktop as she waited.

Detective Hendricks eventually showed up as well, watching how things were going. He relaxed as the kids for the most part seemed to enjoy the superheroes. Finally, something was going right.

Once the line had calmed down, Jet continued to hand out the monster sized ice-cream sandwiches to the kids. Although, Quiver helped him, which lessened the load and time it would take. Of course he could use super-sped, but then he risked an unpredictable kid getting in the way of his speedy arms, and hurting themselves, a stray sandwich plastering over an unsuspecting child's face, or anything in between.

So he played it safe, and did everything with normal speed. "Wow, so cool! How fast are you!?" One child asked, as another chimed in with "Why are you so fast? Did your shoes absorb radioactive goo?"

There were a few other questions, but those kids were further in the back, so their voices were drowned out from the distance, and the children in the front. It only seemed fair to give the kids in front the attention first, as they would be getting out of line soon. "Well...I've been this fast, since as long as I can remember." Jet simply put it, "And sometimes I surprise myself with my speed!"

Once they were handed their ice-cream, were able to ask and get their question answered, these giddy children rushed off merrily. "Can you sign my ice-cream wrapper?" The next kid in front asked.

"Uhh sure," Quiver said, a bit flabbergasted as she took the ice cream wrapper. A nearby police officer handed her a marker and she signed the wrapper.

Of course, she didn't realize that by signing one candy wrapper, suddenly, almost every child in the nearby vicinity also wanted their ice cream wrapper signed. They started to pester not only Quiver but Jet as well, begging that their wrapper be signed just like everyone else.

Realizing what Quiver had gotten herself into, and in a sense, him as well, Jet wanted to roll his eyes or sigh. Sure he could probably sign all of them super fast, but she couldn't. Even if he did, there was bound to be something that would go wrong.

It was then, when he realized something. Not all the kids had their ice-cream yet. It wouldn't be fair to have them all wait, as the greedy kid in front got their own treat, ate it, got a autograph, and then wasted more time in talking to the superheroes. That wasn't why they were here anyway.

"Hold onto your ice-cream wrappers, guys!" Jet explained to the crowd in front, and cupped his mouth, so that his voice traveled to the back as well. "My partner and I will sign them before we go, today. I'm sure everyone else wants their ice-cream sandwiches, before they melt."

A decent amount of the kids groaned at the news and walked away with their ice cream. The kids in the back of course, were a bit happier.

As the line progressed, finally Susan and Tyler were next. Susan immediately began asking questions like when did Jet learn he was really fast and how long did she have to practice before she could shoot a bow and arrow as well as Quiver.

Tyler meanwhile, stood very quietly. There was a hint of admiration present as he faced the superheroes like most of the kids had displayed so far. But he was so quiet it seemed as though he might also be afraid.

Cheerfully, Jet handed Susan her ice-cream sandwich, when he was bombarded by her questions. Of course he wasn't one to be annoyed or shy from such attention, so he smiled warmly at her giddiness.

"I guess it was when I went to my dad's for Thanksgiving!" This was how he answered Susan's question about him learning about his super power. He really didn't explain much after that, allowing the mind and imagination to run wild with different scenarios as to how that played out.

Although he did enjoy the young girl's attention, he took notice of the one odd kid out of the group. The one that was just standing there, not showing anything, not excitement, not disappointment, nothing. He wasn't really sure what this kid's story was, but he brushed it off for later. "Hey sport, catch." Jet remarked and tossed a sandwich his way. "Don't worry, I know my partner looks scary, but she doesn't bite."

While Susan was mystified at the idea of possibly becoming an archer with super speed, Tyler clumsily tried to catch the ice cream sandwich. However, his hands couldn't seem to grasp it and the ice cream fell to the floor. Luckily, it was still wrapped. Tyler hastily picked it up from the ground.

"Thanks," Tyler said.

"Yeah, thanks," Quiver replied in response to Jet's comment. Quiver then knelt down in front of Tyler.

"You sure you don't have any questions? Don't want to know how Jet got his super speed or anything?" she asked, her tone of voice not as harsh as it normally was.

Tight lipped at first, Tyler finally said "Well--"

"Hey, since we're the last ones in line, does that mean we can have extra ice cream?" Susan interrupted. Normally, she wasn't the type to interrupt a conversation but she was already halfway through her first ice cream bar and the sugar was taking effect.

Realizing that this skittish young boy might have something useful to add, considering they were rather quiet the whole time, Jet figured they might be onto something. Or at least he hoped so. In fact, he didn't know anymore.

After playing a game and cops and robbers, he was just wishful thinking now. Then again, even if a kid was shy and quiet, in the presence of super-heroes and ice-cream, most would show some form of emotion that they were still a kid at heart. This one wasn't doing this at all, especially when ice-cream was in his hand.

Once his friend interrupted them, all hope of getting anything out of the boy, seemed to be lost. However, there was actually a few left-over ice-cream bars, and that got Jet thinking. It was now Quiver's turn, to do the work.

"Well," Jet remarked, as he gently escorted Susan to the sports bag. "Wouldn't it be more fun to play capture the flag, or some kickball?" He subtly stared at Quiver, and gave a nod, in hopes that she knew what to do with the boy. "And then later we can have a nice cold snack. Sounds fun, right?"

"Aw, yeah cool!" Susan replied and she had immediately forgotten all about Tyler and was now thinking about the prospect of playing a sport with a superhero.

In a way, it ended up being a good thing that Jet seemed to be the more fun of the two superheros because now everyone was drawing their attention to Jet and the games they could all now play as opposed to Quiver who remained where she was. Tyler didn't seem interested in the games and remained close to Quiver.

"So, what was that question you had?" Quiver was now able to have her full attention on Tyler. This seemed to relieve him if only slightly. It also was probably good that most of the kids were busy playing with Jet.

"Well, it's just...how do you defeat monsters that you can't always see?" Tyler asked.

"That depends on the monster I guess. Do you mean like a person who can turn invisible at will?" Tyler shook his head.

"I mean...something like the Thin Man. How he disappears and then the next thing you know, he's right behind you. He doesn't turn invisible, he's just there."

Quiver felt a bit of disappointment settling in. Obviously, this kid seemed to think the criminal might actually be the video game character and not offer some sort of clue like she thought. But at least she could ease this kid's mind  if only a little.

"Video games tend to fabricate things a little. Things like that aren't real." She knew she was potentially stretching things a little at this point. After all, if a living, breathing Medusa existed, who was to say something like what the kid was describing didn't exist?

"But he is real. I've seen him."

While Quiver did the actual work this time, Jet made sure that the rest of the kids were preoccupied with him. It wasn't as difficult as he would had imagined, as they seemed to take a liking to him. Sure Quiver seemed to be just as nice of a super hero, but these children found Jet to be super fun also.

There first game, and hopefully only, if Quiver could get enough information out of the shy boy, was capture the flag. Or at least his take, back when he went to elementary school. Each child had a rope tied around their waist, acting as a belt, with one small flag for each side.

The kickballs inside the bag, would act as the actual flag for the other teams to capture. When the game was over, the winning side would be determined by how many balls they captured and had at the end. This game(s) would go on for however long Quiver needed the time. Although Jet did play with the kids, he didn't use his super-speed, as that would not be fair for the other team, since they were kids, and that he was super-powered.

Quiver didn't really know what to say to this. She knew the kid wasn't lying. Or, at least, he didn't think he was lying.

"Are you sure it wasn't your imagination?" Quiver offered. "That happens sometimes."

"I don't think so. Zach always said the kids went missing because of the Thin Man. And I--"

One of the kids had accidentally dropped a ball and it now bounced towards the two. Quiver and Tyler both jerked as the ball came between the two. The kid didn't seem to pay much attention to the two and was just focused on grabbing the ball and bringing it back to the game.

Even though the kid had left, Tyler didn't really seem to want to talk anymore. In fact, he actually looked as though he might want to play the game with everyone else now that he saw everyone had joined in.

"You know, I never got your name," Quiver said, in the hopes of trying to get him to talk once again.

"Tyler."

"Well you know Tyler, if you happen to see that Thin Man again, you can always tell me or Jet. Okay?" Tyler nodded. But Quiver knew she had probably lost his attention.

"Umm...I think I'm going to go and play the game now." Quiver nodded and Tyler ran off to join the game. She was disappointed but whatever he had to say could wait for a bit. The kid was unusually skittish so maybe playing with Jet would help.

While Quiver was 'interrogating' Tyler, Jet had his hands full keeping an eye on all the other wild children. For a normal person, this could be a very stressful task to handle, but with super-speed came super eyesight. Within seconds he could keep in check where all the different kids were.

Still keeping an eye on all the kids, even with super-speed and super powers, was a challenge in its own. The game of capture the flag had barely begun, perhaps a round or two of the first part was underway, when Jet spotted Tyler, the skittish kid rushing in to join the game.

Had Quiver already gotten everything she could out of him? Did she scare him off accidentally? That was a possibility, since she could get vile often. Whatever was the case, her time with Tyler was very short. What information could she possibly have gotten in such a short amount of time?

Although it was in his nature to be optimistic, Jet couldn't help but to feel that whatever she had received was not worth all the effort they put into this. Especially all the money he had poured into buying those jumbo-sized sandwiches.

But this seemed to be the case wherever they went or whatever they tried. They were either one step behind, or hadn't gotten anywhere to begin with. Still, at least seeing a bunch of cheery children, was one of the highlights of the week.

As Tyler went to join the game, Quiver scoured the crowd of officers for Detective Hendricks. She didn't have to look very far as Detective Hendricks was approaching her.

"His name's Tyler Smith. The latest victim, Zach Willington, was at his house before he was taken," Detective Hendricks began explaining, evidently aware that Quiver's purpose was to find any information she could on Tyler.

"Well that explains a lot," Quiver said.

Meanwhile, Tyler was trying to gain Jet's attention so he could get a rope belt just like everyone else as he tried to dodge the other kids from bumping into him as they played the game.

Super-speeding his way towards Tyler, Jet was easily able to avoid all the children running about. He figured he would reach him first, as he was having a lot of difficulty. Probably because he was more shy and backward then the other boisterous children.

"Hey there!" Jet exclaimed with a rope, tied with two flags on each side, limply in his hand. "Glad you could make it! Just put this on and join the blue team!"

Eagerly doing as he was told, Tyler, Jet, and the rest of the children continued their game of Capture the Flag. Sometimes the rules of the game were improvised, so much that it didn't even seem like the same sport.

It didn't matter what they were doing, as the children were just pleased to have had the chance to meet superheroes. The fact that they received ice cream and were able to play games with their idols just made their day even better.

Slowly as the day progressed, fewer children and competitors remained for the game, as their parents began to depart. Eventually only two kids would remain, Susan and Tyler, their parents, the two super-heroes, and the detective...

Once Tyler had his belt, he immediately immersed himself into the game.

The game progressed and Quiver watched from afar. But she quickly realized she was becoming lost in her own thought and wasn't really paying attention to the game. She tried to think about what they should do next and wondered how much more information they could possibly get out of Tyler.

The next thing she knew, she heard yelling coming from the game. And not the cheerful kind of yelling.

There were two kids that didn't seem to be interested in the game anymore and instead were fighting. It was difficult to make out who it was as other kids had swarmed them by this point. All Quiver could make out was that it was a boy and a girl. She started to head for the two along with parents and police officers nearby.

What she couldn't see was that it was Tyler and Susan. And Susan was winning.

Although fewer kids remained for the hodgepodge game of capture the flag, there was still enough competition to go around. There was the red team and the blue team, and although each group bickered and fought each other on who deserved the super-speeding hero more, Jet preferred to stay unaffiliated with either side.

Occasionally he would jump from teams, when he thought his interference would give the other side a fair chance, but for the most part he spectated. Above all else, he didn't use his speeding powers either. Mainly since using super-speed against children was just too low for him to even consider.

Just as the blue team was about to score a point to their goal, Jet realized that everything suddenly stopped. No one was heading towards the goal, as neither the blue team was coming in for a point, or the red attempted to steal the ball back.

It didn't take him long to realize there was a circle converging all at one point. While he couldn't exactly make out everything that was going on, he heard enough voices and sounds to know enough. That and he noticed Quiver and the parents of the suspected children rushing to the commotion. Of course by the time they got there, more damage might be done and time wasted.

Having the power of speed on his side, he decided it wouldn't hurt to take the responsibility of breaking this fight up. Being speedy, flexible, and with great reflexes, Jet was able to worm him way through the ring, and into center.

Once he made it inside, he took it upon himself to separate Susan and Tyler, by grabbing the two by their shirts, and lifting them up and to their sides. "Woah! Woah! Calm down there guys, it's just a game."

"You're a liar!" Susan was yelling at Tyler, ignoring Jet's remarks.

"I am not!" Tyler yelled back.

Susan tried to take a swing at Tyler and was possibly going to tackle him again.

Without hesitating, Jet sandwiched himself in between the two kids, and pushed them far away from each other, as he extended his arms. "Alright, that's enough!"

This time however he wasn't as laid back as before. He wasn't in the mood for two children spoiling the fun of all the others. Especially after all the planning and money he spent on this botched idea. Not to mention he wasn't entirely sure this would had worked the previous night and he was having even less optimistic thoughts currently.

"Now, I'm usually a pretty nice guy, but I doubt your parents or the principal are going to be as forgiving." Jet remarked, as he made sure to keep the two from getting in contact. "So why don't you two cool it, and talk this over like friends."

Once Susan saw she was unable to beat up Tyler anymore, she settled with giving him a sour frown instead.

"But he's lying," Susan whined. It was an annoyed whine, annoyed that Jet wasn't understanding what she was trying to say and that she had every right to beat Tyler up. "He said Zach got kidnapped by the Thin Man!" It was clear Susan was getting angry about it just mentioning it and if she weren't restrained, she probably would have tried to beat Tyler up again.

By this point Quiver had reached the group but was still behind a majority of the kids who were now snickering and trying (but failing) not to laugh.

"But it's true, I saw him!" However, Tyler's defense only made it worse: most of the kids were now laughing and were beginning to disperse. Tyler looked up at Jet. "I really did." His voice was quieter now as if he wasn't so sure he believed himself anymore.

Jet wasn't sure how he could take any of these children seriously, when one was fighting the other because of a wild rumor, and the other was claiming that they knew the culprit of all the missing kids was from the 'thin man'.

At the same time, Jet had faced off against sludge monsters and snake ladies who could turn people into stone with a mere glance. So this whole mysterious and demon like 'thin man' rumor that was spreading like a wild fire, wasn't entirely that unbelievable. At least he was willing to give a person, even a kid, the benefit of the doubt.

There was also the fact that Tyler had claimed he had seen this culprit. That was more than most witness reports, that just suggested it was this crazy theory going around. At the very least, whoever kidnapped their friend may probably be connected with all the other kidnappings.

Even if this kidnapper wasn't a demon apparition, which was still hard to believe, they were still a threat hiding in the shadows and allowing their actions to be fabricated to bolster their reputation. With that in mind, Jet wanted to ask a question, but made sure not to lean on either too side heavily. Unless he wanted to anger one or the other kids.

"So, you saw someone kidnap your friend?"

"Well...not exactly..." Tyler explained.

The children were dispersing, evidently no longer interested in the conversation at hand and more interested in continuing the game with or without the superhero. The only one who appeared to want to remain was Susan and she now crossed her arms in front of her as she listened to Tyler's explanation.

Seeing the fight breaking up and the group dispersing, Detective Hendricks held up a hand on the police officers who were still attempting to involve themselves in the fight.

"Wait. Let them handle it."

What he wasn't expecting was the parents of both Tyler and Susan to continue. Desperately, he reached out for Tyler's mom.

"Ma'am--"

But they didn't listen.

"Well what is it then?" Jet asked really unsure where this conversation would head now, especially because he was sure the police, parents, or some other adult would come in at any time and interrupt this. So he wanted to be sure to gather whatever information he could from Tyler, which hopefully this time would actually led them somewhere besides in circles.

At the same time he wasn't really sure how to get this kid to spill the information he needed in time. If he was too slow in asking different questions, someone could intervene and ruin all chances. Or the kid could be really tense, which was the case, and no amount of asking questions like one would to an adult, would actually work.

"How would you like to be an honorary super hero? We could really use some help with this bad guy. What did you see or learn?"

Quiver saw a number of problems now occurring and she had little time to react before the parents arrived. She looked down at Susan.

"Do you want to be an honorary superhero?" she asked as she got down on one knee so she was eye-level with Susan. Quiver asked lowly in the hopes that other children wouldn't overhear and they suddenly wouldn't have a mob of kids asking to be superheros.

If Susan had any intent of arguing over Tyler's new promotion (which she probably did), that intention was now gone.

"You have to keep it a secret though," Quiver added. If Susan was always as loud and enthusiastic as she was when they first met, the last thing she wanted was Susan parading her new role to the other kids.

Susan nodded.

"Susan, Susan what were you thinking?" Susan's mother asked from behind.

"It's all right, they're done fighting," Quiver said. "We've decided to make both of them honorary superheros."