Meanwhile… #5
They were a good fifteen feet off the ground when the Star Champion stopped to eye the mugger he had captured. He held him by the front of his jacket and pulled him very close, analyzing the criminal with his blood red eyes.
From Pete Mackreely’s perspective, he saw a man in a skin tight suit the color of the night sky, with a smattering of twinkling white stars covering him from head to toe. Pete was confused by this, as he had always seen the Star Champion wearing a white outfit in the middle of the day. The suit continued seamlessly into a full face mask, with only two red lenses covering the eyes. Everything else would have blended perfectly into the starry night sky.
He didn’t have time to analyze the flying man’s wardrobe, as he was distracted by the intense gaze that his captor currently had fixed upon him. He couldn’t see the Champion’s eyes, but he couldn’t look away from the red lenses hiding them. He felt like he was being hypnotized by the snake from the Jungle Book.
The relentless stare broke suddenly when the Star Champion turned his head skyward and began flying upward at incredible speed. Pete was terrified, not of heights, but of falling from them. Luckily the wind rushing past them was to powerful for Pete to open his eyes.
Higher and higher the pair flew. Pete was convinced he was going to wet himself and he screamed in utter terror all the way up.
The Star Champion stopped just as suddenly as he started. They were now well above the towering city, and Pete was crying. The Champion looked at the pitiful man, tilting his head to one side curiously. He didn’t understand what the man was saying. It all sounded like gibberish to him.
“Please… Please let me go… I don’t want to die!” Pete cried pathetically as the Champion looked him over. Thoughts of his big story were gone now, all he wanted was to be safely back on the ground.
The Star Champion didn’t make a noise. He merely watched as the pathetic creature gibbered, and leaked fluid from it’s eyes. He reached up and grabbed the creature by it’s mane, and roughly twisted it’s head to the side, inspecting it’s neck closely.
Pete screamed in such a way, it would put the greatest of horror actresses to shame. He thought the flying man was about to snap his neck, as the iron grip of his hand clenched a tuft of Pete’s hair and turned his head to one side. Pete swore he heard a strange whistling noise before they were swooping toward the street once more.
With a rush of cold night air, the Star Champion left Pete Mackreely hanging for dear life on the tip of a flagpole outside the New Plymouth High School.
