JUNE 22, 2018
8:27 AM, EDT
GRACE HUNTER'S APARTMENT
Grace Hunter was asleep, buried in a mountain of pillows and blankets, trying to ignore the phone buzzing on her nightstand. After a few blind gropes for it, she managed to grab it and drag it under the covers to answer it. The darkness allowed her to at least pretend that she could sleep in for a little bit longer.
"Grace?" a female voice asked.
"This is she, on her day off, answering a call from the police department," Grace answered, pulling the covers off and revealing her brown hair with natural blonde highlights and blue eyes the looked like she'd been up for longer than one would have thought. "Care to tell me why I should bother? I worked the late shift last night and then went out to fight crime so I've spent," Grace looked at her alarm clock, "all of three hours asleep."
"Unfortunately, you're at the top of supers we need to stabilize the city, and we need you to report in." The voice answered.
Grace groaned for a long time. "Why don't you just hire me and get it over with?"
"We told you, you have to undergo training and with the emergency the city is suffering, this counts as police force training. Once the emergency's done we'll put you in the force with a pay raise, if you're lucky."
"In other words, I'm working for free while the police department sits on it's ass." Grace said, putting on socks and dressing.
"Your rent will be footed by the police department during this time as part of the emergency fund given to use by the mayor," the voice said, growing more irritated.
Grace rolled her eyes, but didn't say much else as she was already busy putting on her 'vigilante' outfit. It required more focus which meant that she couldn't come up with a snarky remark for the secretary on the phone. So instead she finished dressing while the woman continued to yell at Grace.
"I'm sure someone like you can find a part time job in the meantime to keep you from starving."
"Well, sure it's not hard, but the thing is most people don't call me back anymore since I have to put almost all my job experiences down in the history section. Most people don't like seeing a person with jobs that lasted a month, all of which make me look like I got fired," Grace added. She was already to the door, and was currently sliding on her shoes. "All right, I'm heading out now, Amelia. Talk to you soon."
"Try not to level the city," Amelia said, "and call me if something happens."
"All right, Mom," Grace drew out the word 'mom' as sarcastically as possible, "I'll try. Text me, not call, that way I can read it and whatever."
With a click, Grace hung up the phone and started her way downtown to the department. She'd been thinking about joining them for a while, though more to operate the phones than actually be an officer. However, seeing that there weren't many supers left in Cleveland, Grace had to step up and start at least trying to keep things from spinning wildly out of control. Didn't mean that she enjoyed getting shot at, bit -yes there were supervillians that bit her-, and forced to endure supervillian monologues everyday. Not to mention that it put a strained relationship on her with her boss. Yes, there was the 'I have to leave early because I've been called by the police to take care of this' excuse, but that didn't mean that Grace enjoyed using it.
At least the walk took her by the zoo, which was usually filled with various animal noises and the like. She could even drop by on an inspection in case 'Mama Bear' or her ilk tried to take it over. It was closed today, probably because of the latest break out of supervillians. Grace didn't mean to linger, but she stared at the locked gate for some time. Grace known all the superheroes to a point, they all spent time wherever Grace had been working most recently and tried to help set things right again. Now they were all gone. Lit on fire by an unknown assailant while she'd been out visiting her sister in California.
That was when she saw Mama Bear emerge from an enclosure. Grace was climbing the fence when two other heroes jumped out, the woman calling for Mama Bear to cease and then the other saying that the one in the armor couldn't intervene. Grace rolled her eyes and finished climbing the fence. They didn't have time for this, she thought.
With a quick motion of her hand, Grace levitated a few gravel pieces up and threw them at high speed at the hollow of Mama Bear's throat. Hopefully. it would stun the woman long enough to let the other two pull their heads out of their butts and do something other than bicker. "You heard the lady, so let's get you to jail so I can go back to watching my morning cartoons."