Re: The streets
He had seen the convertible barreling down the street at a hundred miles an hour. Seconds later, there were sirens, then a caravan of police cruisers in pursuit. It didn't take Geronimo Jones another second to realize what he would do.
It took him a couple minutes to catch up and already the situation had escalated: three men in the convertible had assault rifles, and all of them were laying down sheets of bullets towards the cop cars as a fourth man drove. Already the lead pursuit vehicle was peppered with gunfire, the two officers inside ducking low as the criminals in front of them continued to empty clips into their cruiser.
From what Zero could tell, the men inside the convertible were pros--while one was reloading, the other two were firing back, making the police back off enough that, were they able to make it to the freeway, they'd make their escape good.
Riding atop his flight board as surveying the situation from above, Zero knew that these guys weren't going to be above using innocent bystanders to get away, either. This had to stop, and fast.
Zero swept down, and skidded across the air, presenting his flight board as an easy target for the trio of shooters. Predictably, the sight of a flying man made the three men panic, then erupt in a stream of expletives as they opened fire on him. As their bullets bounced off harmlessly, Zero caught a look of fear play across each of their faces. Spinning and banking off of an imaginary surface, his flight board righted itself, and Zero stood facing the gunmen in a position that would allow him to shield the cops from their assault.
"That's enough!" Zero shouted, with a tone of authority he'd never felt as Geronimo Jones. "Stop the car, and drop your weapons!"
The men looked at each other, and for a second, Zero wondered if any of them seriously considered giving up. Instead, their answer was another hail of bullets, each one intent on killing the flying freak in gray and orange leathers.
As the bullets flew off Zero without even scratching his costume, Zero spoke in a lowered voice. "Tsk, tsk, boys. That's never gonna work. My uniform's coated in a skin-tight force field. Nothin' you can throw at me's gonna get through." As he spoke, he produced three white balls from a pocket in his thigh. One of them, the size of a baseball, was already in his right hand.
The convertible was a few hundred yards from the freeway exit. Zero had been cruising behind them to protect the police, but knew he had to end this now. Moving almost quicker than the eye could follow, Zero suddenly stood, on his flight board, between these men and the freeway. As the shooters swung around to unleash gunfire, Zero wound up and threw the white ball from his right arm.
The ball seemed less like it was thrown and more like it was fired, rocketing towards the car's engine block with the velocity of a cannonball. There was a huge crunching sound, and then a warping of fiberglass and metal as the front of the car was devastated. The vehicle lurched up, unsetlling the gunmen, and the entire car scraped along the road to a unceremonious halt.
As the criminals readied themselves to open fire again, Zero elevated silently into the air atop his flight board. Along with is own ascent, the white ball he had thrown freed itself from the chassis, rotating on its axis as it rose up. In the glint of the streetlamps, a bright orange zero was emblazoned on its surface. A second later, the ball was back in Zero's pitching arm.
"You boys should seriously reconsider what you're about to do. This isn't going to end well if you decide to go there." Zero's voice carried over the car, and behind it, the din of sirens as the police caught up. "As far as I can tell, I'm the only one here who's bulletproof. When the cops open fire, I'll be the only one going home."
"Think about it. Think. Then drop your guns and give up. Nobody has to die today."
The police started barking through loudspeakers at the men, who, obviously shaken at Zero's words, threw their weapons free of the car. Within minutes, the four men were flat on the ground in handcuffs. Zero wordlessly nodded to the officers as he zipped up into the sky, eager to get home and have a long, hot shower.
