Night Shift: A Superhero Story

Alan "This is my first version of Night Shift, a story I'm working on. Enjoy and leave comments; I appreciate your feedback."


Ya know. If there’s one thing I enjoyed before my views changed, it was being a superhero; a vigilante who patrolled the streets at night to stop crime and criminals at the time of day when it happens most often. Civilians crying for help in alleys, me getting a jump on the enemy, getting into a fist fight and saving the victim, good times. I always knew danger was part of the job, and I enjoyed being outnumbered 5 to 1 knowing the generic street thug has the strength and combat skill of a boxer with a record of 1 win and 99 loses.

This story is about how I was a superhero, how it came to be, and what it was like in my quest to stop a crime ring run by a well known devil of the underworld.

My story...as Nightshade.

[Cue superhero sound effect]

It all began one afternoon in November of 2008. It was a peaceful time. Thanksgiving was over and people where preparing for the Christmas Season, things where quiet outside the shopping malls and department stores, and the city felt peaceful and secure. At Alucard’s House I sat back and played video games as usual. “I’m going out to get a drink.” I said to Alucard as I paused the game and put on my trench coat. I left my signature hat in the regular world, so there my head wasn’t shielded from the mild drizzle covering the streets outside. The usual walk to my favorite convenience store went fine with me leaving with the usual drink, but outside trouble came in the form of a couple of guys who were up to no good. They looked like stereotypical street thugs with baseball caps on backwards and overly large articles of clothing to go with their expensive looking tennis shoes.

One approached me and eyed my drink. “Look at this chump drinkin’ soda pop! Whatta wuss!” The tough guy said as he grabbed my drink and waved it over my head. “You want your pussy drink? Too bad!” He then proceeded to throw my drink into the ground, shattering the bottle and spreading its artificially flavored contents on the sidewalk. The thugs then began to laugh, slapping their knees and pointing in a mocking fashion.


Unfortunately for him, that was the last bottle of that drink the Convenience Store Guy had in stock, and even more unfortunately for him I was wearing my steel toes. I stepped back a few paces as the punk continued to call me derogatory names. “Hey look, the baby’s backin’ it up! Whatta lo...” I assume he was going to say “Loser”, but my boot making contact with his jaw cut him off. He fell to the ground moaning in pain as the rest of the thugs stopped laughing. “You mess wit’ him, you mess wit’ alluv us!” One of them said rather angrily. He ran forward and threw an over exaggerated punch that I quickly caught and delivered an elbow to the stomach and several knees to the face before suplexing his sorry ass.

The last 2 thugs looked at me with eyes wide open as they argued which one would fight me next. As they debated I picked up some of the remains of glass from the bottle, and when the next fool charged at me, I threw the shattered remains of my drink at his face, cutting him up pretty badly. Still running while holding his face, I “politely led” him into the brick wall of the convenience store, which he then ran head first into. With three of his compatriots fallen at the hands of a simple guy wearing a coat, the last thug pulled out a knife in desperation. “Back up, man! Freakin’ freak, I’ll cut you, man!” the fool yelled whilst waving his knife like a maniac. A simple kick knocked his knife away, and one side kick followed by a right roundhouse took his consciousness from him.

Victory was mine. 4 thugs who acted so tough where beaten by a guy they thought they could around. I brushed my hand on my coat and pulled out my phone to call the police. They arrived 2 minutes later (Damn fast cops in this city, I swear) and took the would-be criminals away.

After the adrenaline rush and rage induced beatdown, I remembered why I left the house in the first place and bought another drink.