No Master Plan Here (Madness Runs in the Family) by Joel Burdick Page B

head. She pulled a phone from her back pocket and checked it before returning it. “We still have an hour or so until the movie, so how about we find somewhere to have a nice chat beforehand, see how well your Kay did with this.”
                  Anansi opened the video feed of the lab in his display, seeing confirmation of what Kay had told him, which was three spider drones caught in a mess of black tar-like goop and two more messing with the core mechanism. Apparently lab work could do without him today.
                  “I'd like that.”
     
     

    Chapter 9
     
                  November 23, 2013
     
                  “Welcome to Supers Network, the supers news net. I'm The News.” The man was middle aged and sported a blue domino mask and business suit that did nothing to hide his identity, especially since it was public knowledge. Jason Richards had been a news reporter before he discovered his own powers of clairvoyance, seeing places he was not. He had always been obsessed with supers from day one, a major comic fan from the time before, and was the most accurate source of news involving supers. Denise liked him.
                  “Top story today involves young Maryland hero known as Blink. For those of you who don't know her, shame on you, but I digress. The little vixen, whose power set includes teleportation and invisibility, came across a gang of men brutally beating a gay man in her home town of Baltimore. Hate crimes such as this one have been more common in recent day with the increased effort from the LGBT community to attain equal marriage rights.” The News flipped to the next page in his stack of papers and cleared his throat, preparing to continue.
                  “A crowd had gathered to watch the assault, which drew our heroine. Despite being out of costume, Blink leaped to action, using martial arts and her ability to teleport to disable six men twice her size in a matter of seconds, though not without being hit several times. After cuffing the men to a light post, she administered first aid to the victim while berating the onlookers for doing nothing to help the man.
                  “The victim's name has not been released by police, but they have released that the man is in stable condition at Sinai and will be released after an observation period.
                  “A representative of the Baltimore PD had this to say:” The News reached over and pressed a button on a smart phone.  The still image of an elderly man wearing the dress uniform of the Baltimore Police Department appeared beside The News, and a voice began playing from the phone.
                  “The Baltimore PD has in custody six men who were videotaped committing aggravated assault on a man. The men were captured by the licensed vigilante, Blink, who has issued a statement corroborated by the aforementioned video evidence. We do not take these crimes lightly, and neither do our licensed vigilante counterparts, and these men and any like them will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
                  The News nodded and tapped his papers on the table. “Blink did respond to an email from the Supers Network asking for comment, saying “I think people like that are dumb, and people should be able to be happy, no matter who they love. I also think the people watching should be charged with criminal neglect or something, but the police aren't gonna do that.””
                  A crash in the next room drew Denise's attention. She stood from her seat on the couch and stretched towards the ceiling, feeling her muscles limber. Anansi was in there, in her apartment's bedroom, and though the wall muffled the words beyond recognition, he was yelling. She turned off the television and opened the door to see him pacing in front of the bed, wearing nothing but a pair of pajama bottoms, a cell