“Why’d it have to be cocaine? Smoke some weed, hell do heroin. At least that’s slow them down. But no, they just had to do the one hard drug that gives them limitless energy.” Hugo grumbled to himself as he scrambled around the dimly lit streets of the ripple. He was still getting used to this whole “hero business” that had got thrust on him a few weeks ago. Up until now he had just been getting used to his new powers by helping out around campus at night, stopping a few muggings here and there, but as he honed his gifts his “soul radar’s” radius expanded and the spiritual screeches of suffering that haunted him at night pulled him farther into the slums of Pi City. If that was the end of it- a few more sleepless nights to help some more people in need- Hugo wouldn’t have felt any level of discontentment, but after tracking the pattern of a few overdoses he had found the suppliers.
Unfortunately, finding them turned out to be the easiest part. Sure, with the benefits of intangibility and the borrowed fighting skills of the legendary Bruce Lee, he had been able to make pretty quick work of any thug dumb enough to hang around to fight him for long, but the smart ones knew if they ran he wasn’t going to catch them all. He couldn’t bring the car his brother gifted him, not only was it his only means of transportation in real life that he couldn’t offered to lose, but the license plate would ruin his attempts at anonymity. And the scrappy flying machine prototype he had been working on with Da Vinci wasn’t able to take off on its own yet, he needed a high perch to take off from. He had been gifted with all the knowledge to become Batman but none of the money and resources, so alas, he found himself dressed in a black hoodie, face mask, and sunglasses sprinting through the night chasing a group of coke dealers who had decided to flee in all different directions.
“Why are you just running around? You are simply not fast enough to catch them. Use our machine!” The voice of the scientist rang in his head.
“False! He would be fast enough had he worn a tracksuit. They provide an optimal range of motion, comfort, and style. Victory is decided by preparation and he has failed.” The spirit of Bruce Lee countered.
“Shut up Bruce!” He shouted out loud, forgetting the voices were all in his head. “I’m sick of hearing about the tracksuits. I tried that yellow one once and all the criminals just laughed at me, it was humiliating.”
“That is because you did not wear it with confidence. Confidence is the key to fashion, and you have failed.”
“Okay okay, I get it. I failed, but I’d probably be a lot more confident if I caught these guys so if you help I’ll try the tracksuit again.”
“Promise?”
“YES! Now hurry up and give me some of that action movie wisdom. These guys are gonna get away.”
“Okay then I agree with Leonardo. You should use the flying machine.”
“Motherfu-” He hissed, getting only halfway through his cuss before he realized they were right. The truth was, he knew the machine was his only shot at catching them, but when he helped invent it he had imagined something more like a speed boosting device that let him cruise a safe distance above the ground, not something that basically just acted like a hang glider flying above buildings. It was truly a nightmare situation. Out of his eagerness to impress his heroes of the past, Hugo had assisted in the creation of a device that forced him to face his fear of heights so he wouldn’t seem like a coward to their ever lingering spirits.
“FINE I’LL USE THE FUCKING FLYING MACHINE!”
“Yay!” Da Vinci meekly cheered, his spiritual presence being diminished by Hugo’s rage as he began to begrudgingly climb the fire escape of a nearby building.
“Hi Hugo, wanna become a doctor? That’s great. How about you come work for my hospital, feel the burden of guilt for a cute little girl who’s dying that you can’t save. Bond with me over that guilt, become dependent on me, and then watch me die. Don’t worry though, you’ll hardly notice the crippling depression because of the super powers I decided to leave you with. Now you can be haunted by the tormented spirits of everyone around you AND you get to do the one thing you hate most and jump off buildings every night. Doesn’t that sound great!?” He sarcastically mimicked his deceased mentor Jame Peach on his way to the roof as a reminder for his motivation.
“Why yes doctor, I would love to do that! Could you also use it to ruin my love life. Things have been going a little too good for me since my Uncle died.” He responded as himself, making sure his own character sounded extra stupid. “Damn I’m such an idiot. Why couldn’t I just have worked somewhere else. It could’ve been ‘Hugo Holmes: businessman. Please let me introduce you to my trophy wife, ironically named children, and golden retriever.’ Or ‘Hugo Holmes: Attorney-at-law. I have been cleared on all charges regarding the murder of my first and second wives.’ Both those have a nice ring to it, but no I’m stuck with ‘Hugo Holmes: emotionally unstable nerd. Has to jump from fucking buildings at night.’ Ugh I hate this!”
Though his complaints and fantasies of alternate lives were soon forced to end as he found himself standing at the edge of the roof. Unencumbered by buildings blocking its path, the crisp autumn air sent a shiver down his spin to accompany the one he already felt from gazing down from seven stories up.
“Alright… where did those guys go?” He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and began to search. Normally, Hugo was constantly barraged by the spiritual signals of the world around him. Those experiencing extreme emotions would hit him like a sharp scream, but the typical ones were perceived as little more than static background noise. However, when he focused in he could make out the unique differences that every living being had and could single them out in the same way one does by focusing on specific instruments in an orchestra. Having already had a run in with a few of the gang members, he had knew what specifically he was searching for, and as the symphony of the city’s spirits hit him he keyed into their specific rhythm.
“Got ya!” He locked onto a signal about 200 yards to the east, gaining a visual of a white line of his body jumping from rooftop to rooftop and demonstrating a wide variety of acrobatic skills. Damn, this guy knows parkour? No wonder I couldn’t catch him. I almost feels like he deserves to get away.
Though unfortunately for the criminal, “almost” wasn’t going to cut it. Hugo took one last glance at the ground, swallowed his fears, and jumped. He allowed himself free fall for a few seconds, picking up speed before pulling on a string that dangled from the small backpack he was wearing. The front of the pack unfolded and two spring-loaded wings made of synthetic cloth immediately popped out. Reaching back, he took hold of the handles attached to each wing and used it to alter the angle, rerouting his dive so he swooped upwards into the sky.
There wasn’t a hang gliding spiritual expert he could consult for help. The very few he encountered familiar with the activity died due to their inadequacy at it, and Hugo wasn’t about to trust them with control. Still, he wasn’t a master at flying himself. His fear of heights made his controls a bit shaky and his maneuverability left a bit to be desired, but thankfully none of that mattered. His link to the spirit realm gave him access to a phasing-like ability by warping him and chosen inorganic material into a place he called “the void.”
In order to enter purgatory- the place where he befriended the unsatisfied souls of his spiritual consultants- he had to lie down and enter a meditative state before his physical and spiritual body could separate. But when he quickly activated the ability, his physical and spiritual essence remained bound together and he would disappear in a puff of black smoke, being transferred to a world of darkness where his senses were extremely dampened. He didn’t fully understand the mechanics of it. Einstein had explained the physics of it to him in some terms he only partially understood, but the gist of it was that inertia was maintained for whatever his physical body had been doing and when he reformed his body would appear where it would have been had it continued its trajectory. If he was on a train, he would continue to move with it and reform at its final stop, and when he was flying towards a building he could avoid a crash and appear unharmed on the other side.
This meant he only had to worry about traveling in a straight line, conveniently cutting down his travel time. He watched monitored the pace and direction of the fleeing criminal and set himself on course for interception. They met on the roof of a warehouse, Hugo’s body suddenly coming into existence just to the side of man’s sprinting path. He allowed Lee’s spirit join him, granting him all of the expert’s martial arts knowledge. He stretched his arms out wide, alternating the angle of the wings with the torsion of his hips to optimize his torque and delivered a flying spin kick straight into the man’s chest.
Damn, that was badass. He smirked, feeling proud of himself despite the fact that none of the displayed expertise was to his own credit. Though, what he certainly deserved credit for was his severe miscalculation of the strength of the warehouse’s ceiling. A one inch punch from Lee was enough to shatter boards and knock a grown man off his feet, and apparently his flying kick was enough to send an adult flying through a roof.
With a loud crash, the two bursted through the sheet metal and began spiraling down. Hugo stretched his wings out once more, slowing his descent; however, the criminal was knocked unconscious from the kick and was on course for a messy landing. Crap! I can’t let him die.
Hugo hated helping criminals. He would’ve loved to be able to let the street trash fall to his death as payment for all the people he had hurt, but the nagging presence of his healer instincts told him he could never call himself a doctor if he willingly let a person die.
Shit! He preemptively cursed himself out, already regretting the actions he knew he was about to take. Instead of slowing his fall, he pivoted his wings into a dive. He knew there was no hope if he simply tried to catch the man, his wings were connected to his arms so if he was holding onto a body they would continue to fall all the same, the only difference being that Hugo would die as well. His best bet was to wait until the last moment and redirect their momentum.
Hugo raced to the ground, arriving just seconds before the flailing man. In the same swooping motion he used for takeoff, he spread his wings and cruised hardly a foot above the concrete floors. Come on, come on. Make it in time! He gritted his teeth and chased the body, timing his catch right with the moment his path began to arc upwards. This allowed him to directly counter some of the falling force in the y direction and channel the speed so it was moving at a sideways angle; however, he knew it wasn’t going to be enough to protect them completely. He pulled the man close, allowing his wings to wrap around them both like a cocoon. When they finally did hit the ground, the shield of wings allowed them to roll, letting the duo tumble to a halt without incurring any fatal damage.
“ughhhhhhh.” Hugo groaned, stretching his arms out and pulling the string once more so his wings folded back into his pack. “Definitely a few cracked ribs, probably a concussion, and I’m definitely gonna have whiplash tomorrow. What do you think Doc?” He asked the spirit of his deceased mentor.
“Sounds about right. Just be thankful it’s not worse.” The voice of the esteemed doctor James Peach replied.
“How’s the other guy?”
“Looks about the same, though he’ll also have a pretty nasty chest bruise.”
“Perfect.” Now feeling pretty beat up, Hugo was content to be finished for the night. He could always catch the other guys a different day, but for now, he just wanted to lie still.
“HEY GET UP! THERE ARE MORE OF THEM IN HERE!” The voice of another deceased acquaintance sent a jolt through Hugo. It was Elvis. Not the Elvis, Elvis Elric. That one tech genius a handful of science kids including Hugo admired growing up.
“Great… perfect. This is awesome.” He grumbled, rubbing his head as he stumbled to his feet. Going from coursing adrenaline during the fall to a dazed induced by the landing, Hugo hadn’t even noticed the spirits of the five armed individuals whose attention he had just grabbed.
He threw his now cracked sunglasses on the floor to get a clearer visual of the group. They definitely didn’t look like there were from around there, and one particular man gave an air of someone far more important than the grunt Hugo knocked out while the others stood around him.
“Damn Bruce. Why’d you have to kick him so hard? Look what you got me into now.” He complained in a whisper, noting the barrels of guns pointed at his chest.
“If it was a tracksuit it would’ve been even harder.” Lee responded.
“That’s not the point dude. Now we gotta fight five people and I’m already hurting.”
“There’s only four. And even without a tracksuit we can definitely handle them.”
Wait what? He glanced at the group 1 2 3 4… where’s the fifth one? I definitely sense five people.
“THAT’S THE ISSUE YOU DIMWIT!” Elric’s spirit shouted once more. “Obviously I’m not concerned about these people, you can literally let the bullets go through you, but someone back there is wearing my tech! You need to catch them!”
“Four bad guys wasn’t enough, I gotta fight a super tech warrior too? You guys seriously need to stop being so kind, it’s not even my birthday.”
His sarcasm was a sign that he had finally come to terms with reality. He limped a few steps to the side to make sure the unconscious man’s body was far enough away to not get caught in the cross fire.
“Hola!” He waved at the quartet, exercising the extent of his Spanish knowledge while he attempted to sound less hurt than he was. “Me llamo..." He trailed off, realizing he had no way of ending the sentence.
Huh, I guess I haven't given myself a cool name yet. Anyone got suggestions?
Peach was the first to offer his input. "The Spirit Guardian"
Nah, that's too "good guy superhero" I feel like I'm more of a vigilante.
"Vigilante!" Chimed in Einstein.
Are you just repeating what I said? Well, I guess you weren't known for writing.
"The Messenger of Tartarus and Arbiter of Sins."
What the actual fuck. That's awful. Who invited Poe?
"Tracksuit man!"
Shut up Bruce.
It was clear the spirits weren't going to be any help. None of them were even close to current with their sense of "cool." Come on, what gets the message across?
~
His mind traveled back to the third week of class, just as rumors of his nightly crime fighting were starting to become something of a folktale around campus. That Monday morning's organic chemistry class happened to have occurred right after a particularly eventful weekend where he stopped a crazed man running around with a machete right outside every drunk student's favorite 24/7 taco joint. He had handled things pretty quick, but one girl livestreaming her own reaction to thinking she was about to get killed caught a video of Hugo's escape in the background where he disappeared in a puff of black smoke. Needless to say, the mysterious crime fighter had become a topic of conversation.
"Did you hear about that guy." Isabel, the girl he had met at the party before classes started whispered as she took a seat next to him.
"No, what guy?" He feigned ignorance, interested in hearing her interpretation.
"Wow, you really do live under a rock. Supposedly there's this guy running around campus fighting muggers and stuff. Last night outside Marco's he stopped this crazy guy and then just disappeared. I wouldn't believe it if it wasn't for the video, it's like he's some type off guardian angel, or I don't know, maybe a ...."
~
That's it! Hugo's eyes lit up with excitement, he had settled on the perfect name. He pulled his hood back over his head and began rolling up his sleeves. Me llamo... He couldn't help but smirk beneath his name as the word escaped his lips
"Ghost."
