The Heroes of Little Springs

Within New York, resides the town of Little Springs, which is anything but small. It is a thriving metropolis city within the 21st Century, ridden with skyscrapers as far as the eye can see. Businesses and franchises run constantly, day and night…some can even say that it’s a city that never sleeps.

For all those who prefer a more down to earth approach to living, there are numerous residential neighborhoods, giving off that happy and calm peaceful life that one strived for back in the golden ages.

However all that glitters is not gold, as they say…for deep within the darkest crevices and alleys lurks evil and villainy like none other before. Once a town of peace, Little Springs is now a nest hole for all criminals. The authority does what it can, but even now the civilians are tormented and live in fear, keeping a watchful eye out for themselves…

When all hope was lost for this shadow of a once great city, several heroes rose to the challenge to rid the crime from their homeland. This is their story, as they cleanse villainy and evil, one at a time.

It was a day, like any other in Little Springs. Criminals were rampant and plentiful around every part, but they weren't stupid. They worked in secrecy, night, or when it was in their favor.

Minding his business, Jet, as he called himself when he donned on the uniform, was casually walking down a curb. There were plenty of different stores, restaurants, and buildings, which might strike anyones fancy where he was at the moment.

Of course there wasn't many times when he didn't wear his costume, nor did anyone really know his name. Really no one even knew who he was or what he was doing.

After a life of crazy and wild fun adventures, he figured it was high time to pay society back by helping with the crime rates. Of course over his head after stopping only one successful robbery, which any police authority could manage, he still planned on sticking to this crazy harebrained idea of his.

People gawked and laughed, going so far as to point at him as well, as he continued down the curbs, with a gleeful smile, not paying them any mind.

"Everything looks in order here." He said with a smile, before changing to a different street. "All thanks to the amazing Jet!" He added, before leaving. Everyone who was listening, even if they didn't want to, either laughed or shook their head in disgust. "What a loon..." One man said, before walking off.

Anaea was on her usual rounds around the city. She still hated the idea of being there where there was hardly any plants and the only animals she could really see were the rats and pigeons. But still, she had work to do so she sucked it up for the time being.

She was just doing the usual: stopping petty criminals that thought it was a good idea to take advantage of anyone who looked weak enough to prey on. Most of them she could easily stop with just a whiz of her arrow. That usually sent them running. And once she was done, she fled the area, not wanting to draw any attention to herself.

After unofficially patrolling another area, Jet's stomach rumbled furiously. It caused him to stop, dead in his tracks. Looking down at his stomach, he then rubbed it.

"Well I suppose good duty deserves a good reward..." He said with a smile. He immediately noticed a burger shack, with some man in an apron working diligently.

There was steam and smoke blowing all around in the kitchen, so much that the aroma traveled near the curb. "Mmm, that smells good." He said as he wiped some slobber from his cheek. "Nothing will probably happen..." He said unsure, but then shook his head. "No, I deserve this treat!" He exclaimed happily before heading over.

A few moments would pass by as he placed his rather large order. The chef and most customers just stared at him, in amazement or disgust, he couldn't really tell, nor could they.

He continued to chow down on several hamburgers, before engulfing a huge soda, and continued this pattern.

As Anaea continued to patrol, keeping as close to the shadows as possible, she noticed a nearby pet store where puppies and kittens were sitting by the display window, eagerly playing in the little place they had.

It annoyed her a little to see that because she knew there were probably poorly kept, overly small cages in the back where more animals were forced to stay, hoping someone would adopt them. She thought for a minute about shooting an arrow over there but she knew it was brash and stupid. Not to mention, she could hurt one of the dogs or cats.

She quickly forced herself to move on before she went into the pet store and adopted all the animals there.

Before she left the pet store's area, a nearby electronics stores television display tuned in to the news abruptly. It was so abrupt that the quality of the image jerked, with a loud static sound.

However it quickly resumed its high quality performance, as a news anchorman in a fancy suit, a tie, and groomed nicely, held a microphone in his hand. He had it raised to almost head level, enough so that he could speak into it clearly.

Behind him, the sky was blue and the sun shining brightly. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary where he was broadcasting. "Good afternoon LittleSpring, it's me Hank Gillinham, with the news." He explained, before adjusting his tie.

"Just a few hours ago, a group of petty criminals have raided our nearby LittleSpring's hospital vault. While it is unclear of their motive. Stay on the lookout for any suspicious activity." He explained, keeping his character and serious composure. "As we say here in Little Springs, stay away and safe." He added with a smile, before the news switched to a different topic about something insignificant about the weather.

A few moments later, a large reddish brown van barged through a building's wall and window. Civilians all around gasped, stopped, and ran in terror, as the van squealed and sped off in the distance.

Before it left the area, it hit a bump, which opened the back doors of the van. They slowly shut again, but gave enough time to show some rather concerning barrels, which were stowed away in it.

All of this happened in the matter of seconds. The petshop's windows and cages were broken and shattered, leaving the kittens, puppies, and other animals to roam freely. Some even managed to wander outside as all of this was happening.

As they sat, walked, and played casually in the street, a large delivery truck and some other cars were already speeding by at the same time as the van popped through. They hadn't the time or probably the humanity to stop for these unsuspecting animals.

Noticing all the commotion from afar, Jet stopped stuffing his gut full of burgers and slurping down his drinks. He then noticed the same van speeding by, swerving through the streets to get away as some far away police cars attempted to chase it with limited success.

In fact one of the police cars was shot at by the van, from afar. Their tire blew out quickly and they lost control of their vehicle. It spun uncontrollably until it hit into some street light, which slowly snapped and fell off.

Noticing a little girl, who stood in shock and terror underneath of the falling streetlight, Jet stood up quickly. Without wasting another moment, he rushed to her aid with incredible speed. His pace was so fast that his burger's bread and drink were thrown up in the air, before spilling over the counter.

Before the light hit the girl, Jet grabbed her, and got out of its way. It slammed straight into the concrete, cracking it in several places. The little girl held tightly onto Jet, as he smiled, and placed her down.

"Are you alright?" He asked, to which the girl nervously nodded. He then looked over at the escaping van with a serious expression.

"Well little girl, stay away from the street...I got to jet!" He exclaimed, before speeding off to the van.

Anaea watched the news report with utter fixation, wondering why people would be breaking into a hospital vault. Then, she heard the commotion and quickly turned around, catching a glance of the van.

Quickly, Anaea shot at the hoods of the vehicles. While they wouldn't stop for an animal, they would probably stop after something unexpected hit their cars. She then used this time to run to the street and move the animals to safety.

She placed them down on the street in a clear and definitive manner that told them to stay put before running to jump onto the roof of a car that was heading in the same direction as the van. She jumped from car to car in order to reach her goal.

Meanwhile Jet was hot on pursuit of the fleeing van. He didn't hear the information that Anaea had, or any citizen tuning in to the news, but he knew enough that the police were chasing them.

Also a little girl and possibly others could had been killed by their reckless driving. And not the mention they were firing on police, so that gave him enough to make up his mind.

"Hey Butch, did we lose em' yet?" One of the bad guys asked, who sat in the passenger seat, and held a pistol. He rubbed it gently with a cloth, as if to clean or polish it.

The driving, Butch, cocked his head over to the side, so to look out of the side mirror. The sounds of the police sirens were fading rapidly, and he could barely see their flashing lights beyond the street anymore. Yet his crooked smile soon turned sour, as he noticed a yellowish blur of something heading towards them, from the back.

"What the?" He uttered, which caused him to drop the cigar which he was smoking out of his mouth.

"Oh, looks like we got company." The crook in the passenger seat said with a smile, before clutching his pistol tightly.

Quickly Jet was already to the driver side of their van, which surprised them both. "License and Registration please." He said with a grin, before the armed thug, leaned over and shot his pistol several times.

"Woah!" Jet shouted out, as he dodged each shot, but also had to stop momentarily, in the process, which allowed the van to gain some distance from him.

"Get rid of that freak!" The driver shouted, as he floored it. The armed thug nodded, before jumping in the back of the van. Quickly the doors threw open, as Jet was already hot on their trail again.

Armed with a bigger gun this time, the thug smiled wickedly. "Let's see you dodge this one, Speedy!"

Suddenly Jet's eyes widened. "It's Jet! It's Jet's, is it so hard to remember?" He asked, before the thug fired several slugs, which tore open the asphalt.

Almost being torn in two several times, Jet continued to jerk quickly to the left and right, as he dodged each round, but realized that this wasn't going to work.

Noticing a tool store on his left, he sped off, and grabbed a rake. Catching up to the van again, he threw the rake underneath of the tires, popping all of them.

Losing control of the steering, the driver swerved the van into a wall, where it tipped over. Quickly Jet threw open the doors, only to see that where the two thugs once were was goop.

It was like they had pasted themselves all over the window. Confused and grossed out, he noticed a container of something. Curiously he popped open the lid, and looked inside.

As Anaea rode on the cars, trying to catch up to the van, she heard gunshots being fired.

"What is going on?" she wondered. She wished these cars would go faster. But, it appeared most of them wanted to steer clear of the van as much as possible.

The car she was currently on came to a sudden halt upon hearing the gunshots. Anaea jerked before quickly jumping off the car and getting on top of another one. When she got closer to the action, cars were going steering off the road left and right as they tried to avoid the sound of bullets close by. She jumped off the last car she was on and continued on foot.

When she reached the van, she saw someone standing by the opened, crashed van.

"Hold it right there!" Anaea called, aiming an arrow in the man's direction. She was nearly out of breath but she tried not to show it.

Jet inspected the barrel closely, going so far as to actually lean in and stick his head inside of it. He gave off a confused expression, as he peered inside.

Just as Anaea had came into view of the totaled van, he reached his hand in the barrel, dipping it in the goopy mixture. Once the strange woman's voice shouted out from behind him, he immediately pulled out of the barrel.

He also pulled out his hand, which was full of the white goop, dripping its ooze onto the floor below, before sticking his finger in his mouth, and slurping it off.

"Oh hey, I see you're here to admire the wonderful Jet's work." He said with a smile.

Anaea gave a disgusted expression upon seeing him slurp the goo off his finger.

"Step away from the vehicle or I'll shoot," Anaea warned, her voice stern. She pulled the bowstring back farther to indicate she meant business.

"Oh what's your problem? Lighten up." Jet said with a scowl, upon seeing this unknown female who was threatening with a bow.

Quickly he shook the rest of the goop off of his hand, which sprayed everywhere, but on himself. "Don't tell me you're one of them to." He added, as he readied himself for whatever she was going to do.

Anaea didn't let Jet's attitude waver her bow. However, once she heard Jet's last comment, she put the bow down.

"Ugh, no!" Anaea insisted. "I thought you were one of them."

After realizing that it was all one big misunderstanding, Jet smiled gleefully. "Oh, well you're a little late to the show." He said, pointing his thumb to himself, smiling even more.

"I went and showed them a thing or two, you don't mess with the Jet!" He added, as the knocked over van continued to smoke in the wreckage.

Anaea put a hand on her hip, not at all amused by Jet's behavior. She then walked closer towards the van and, more importantly, the goo.

"What is this stuff?" Anaea asked. "I wonder if this has to do with the hospital vault..." Since she saw Jet seemed to suffer from no side effects by touching the goo, she took a small sample and rubbed it between her fingers.

Jet didn't do anything as the girl came closer, in fact he moved out of her way so that she could inspect the van and barrels to her own leisurely pleasure.

Once she started to ask questions, particularly about the goop, he laughed with a big smile. "What? Don't tell me you've never seen ice cream before." He said, dipping his hand in the barrel again, and eating a handful.

"Mmm Mmm Mmm! Frosty!" He said, savoring the creamy and sugary vanilla ice-cream, which was slowly melting in the Spring's heat.

"...Yeah, you got me." He said with a shrug, even if the girl's reaction wasn't interested at all. "I love food myself, but I'd never go all gung-ho and lock and loaded for it."