A Stupid Bird

The world has a weird flavor quite unlike our own. Unlike Earth, humans here aren't born with similar characteristics. a significant portion of the population have superpowers. Society, however, continues to function. Heroes rise to defend those who can't defend themselves, they represent governments, they are integrated into the system.

Life isn't easy being a hero, they have to fight off villains as well as the powerful monsters who occupy large parts of the planet. Unlike our earth, this planet, called Gaia, is a large planet with catastrophic disasters affecting it in various places. Humans only habit the environmentally stable areas, while powerful beasts occupy the rest.

In City A, a large tyrannical bird has suddenly decided to land. Panic has stricken the populace, because this isn't an ordinary bird, but a semi decaying black bird that radiated out a tyrannical feeling of death. Whichever ordinary person saw this bird would automatically melt to death.

one might think that being an introduction to this world, perhaps this bird is some kind of fodder. However, things cannot be further from fact. This was a class Z disaster and city A had little chances of saving itself. Heroes had gathered around trying to solve the issue, the primary goal was to lead the bird out of the city to prevent the continuous onset of casualties.

"If we had Cardinal here we could have taken this blasted nether bird down. But he has been missing since weeks."

"Gather all the heroes who do not use their sight to fight so that we can taunt the bird out of the city!" A hero called Mindhunter spoke.

"Who would've thought we'd depend on handicapped heroes! The blind heroes, do you think they can succeed?"

"No choice, this is the best plan we have. Jetstream you have to lead the group to target the nether bird and lead it away from the city. With your speed you can drive a hole through the bird." Mindhunter spoke out again, he seemed to be the leader of the group.

Meanwhile, the bird continued to spew black fireballs that spiralled out all over the city, melting large parts of it along with a lot of ordinary people it sheltered. Jetstream led his team out, there was little time left, at this rate the bird would wipe out the entirety of city A.

With a quiet sigh, he touched the ground once with his fingers to hope for the best and jumped up with a powerful blast propelling him to hypermach speeds as he decided to use his body as a missile, the group of blind heroes who could combat this nether bird followed.

"Die!" he screamed, as he penetrated through this powerful bird and flew into the sky, his allies taking various points to attack the bird in a manner to end up driving it out of the city.

The bird cried out weakly as the hero Jetstream had pierced its heart using his own body. Jetstream wasn't a blind hero, but he had a defect, which in this case turned out to be an advantage, when he propelled himself to such speeds, his visibility dropped down to zero, making him essentially blind.

Jetstream continued flying away, however, he had surprisingly begun melting as well. It seemed having any physical contact with this beast melted humans as well. However, the powerful attack had attracted this bird's attention as it angrily flew in the direction of jetstream's twinkling flight path, using it's wings to angrily leave the city and follow.

In all these events, a small boy, who was standing outside a shop looking for a good opportunity to pickpocket food in the chaos calmly looked at the nether bird and the actions of the heroes without any consequence. The boy was a weak one, and once he saw the bird flying away, he decided it was time to sneak out some bentos however he was caught by the shopkeeper who had been calmly sitting in the corner and smacked on the head. People cheered for the heroes.

Jetstream passed away and his sarcophagus, like that of several other heroes who gave up their lives to protect people was paraded through a mixture of cheers and tears among the people, his name was immortalized. The terrifying bird never returned.

Several years passed. The boy and the shopkeeper continued to play the game of cops and robbers, but the kid would always fail in his efforts. It wasn't because the kid sucked at stealing, he was an extremely proficient pickpocket and thief, people couldn't figure out how he could steal their wallets without even touching them. However, the shopkeeper remained forever elusive in his attempts to steal.

"Kid, why are you so obsessed with those superhero fools on the street? You always go to watch them when they are out running around. You are powerless kid, just like me, stick your neck down and live quietly, why make trouble for our clan? You know we stay away from those folks as much as possible." The shopkeeper yelled at the boy while throwing orange peels at him.

The kid caught the peels mid air as he simultaneously nodded. "I know I am powerless, but so what? I like to see these people, what is your problem old fart? It's not like I have some stupid dream of becoming a superhero."

"Brat, you have developed a big mouth this days. Won't dream of superheroes my ass. If i see you slacking off work again

I will beat you up! Get ready for school!" The shopkeeper screamed. He had been taking care of this kid since he was a kid, an orphan that his brother had adopted. Somehow over years of trying to swindle the old man, the two had gotten close enough to speak candidly to each other.

"Hmm, school." The boy nodded, he didn't like school, he felt stifled in there. "Time to go, hope I do not become late."