Spook and Shadow

The dew on the blades of grass sparkled in Raelle's eyes. She quickly stomped them out, soaking her leather boots as she swore loudly.

“Four thirty-eight is not an appropriate time for anything, except perhaps sleep!” The large dog looked up at her as if the say, “Perhaps?” Raelle huffed at the small patch of grass in the ocean of pavement in which the mutt was supposed to be doing it's business.

“I'm a creature of the night.” Raelle continued her rant at the empty pre-dawn street. “Obviously. Hurry it up, Galli, before someone recognizes my boots or something. I will not have my secret identity ruined by a dog with poor bladder control.” As if she could understand, Gallifrey finished up and shook her collar excitedly, prancing around Raelle's ankles.

“No walk right now,” Raelle yawned. “I'm pulling double duty with Spook missing. Jerk.” She rubbed her eyes tiredly, scrubbing at where her mask usually rested. “I hope he turns up ok.”

A newspaper knocked her on the elbow as she struggled with her overly spent emotions. Raelle reacted automatically, slipping into a fighting stance and glaring wearily at the newspaper boy, who averted his gaze into his thermos of coffee and crashed his bike into a parked car. As the half-awake teenager picked himself off the hood Raelle examined the front headline.

“WHERE IS SPOOK?” it read in bold blocky letters. Underneath, “Shadow thwarts gang war, rescues governor.” Raelle scoffed to herself. One of her trickiest and most exhausting fights yet and she was still only second news. She swore silently, her mouth forming the words with extra malice. For what must have been the millionth time, she pledged that her next battle would be on sexism.

Gallifrey licked her hand to get her attention and Raelle started. Just how long had she been standing in the street absently staring holes through a newspaper? The sun had crested over the horizon, painting the peaks of the skyscrapers with dusty peach and gold. Her bathrobe, which was hardly tied in the first place, barely covered her uniform, her boots and leggings plainly visible to the waking city. She blinked as a car roared past, and shook her head blearily as she shuffled back to her apartment, dog dancing overenthusiastic circles around her rubbery knees.

“Hey! HEY!” Someone familiar shouted. 'Aw, shit' Raelle thought to herself, bringing her hand up into her long blond hair to shield her face. Unsuccessfully. “Hey Raelle! Wassup girl?”
Inside her head, Raelle was stringing along extremely angry, nonsensical curses, all shouted at the top of her head voice, most involving her want of a bed. On the outside however, she swept her tangled hair as best she could into it's everyday bun and put on a false sugary smile. A plump Hispanic girl jogged up to her, panting slightly in her designer tracksuit.

“Hi, Diana. Just taking the dog out. Early. Yawn.” Raelle said in a exaggerated sleepy voice. Diana was sweet, but possibly the only person able to have such an obsessive fangirl crush on Shadow while unknowingly being coworkers with her alternate identity. Diana knew more about Raelle's super hero side than Raelle did herself.

“Almost didn't recognize you with your hair down.” Diana bubbled. “Cute dog! So. Did you see the news today? Shadow totally kicks butt again!” As per usual, Diana glossed right over Raelle's hints of exhaustion and disinterest, jumping right into the heart of her obsession. “But is that what they report? No! It's all Spook this and Spook that, and frankly I'm sick of it! Shadow needs some recognition!” She pumped up a manicured hand for a high five, and Raelle returned it mushily. In any other instance she would be supporting her end of the conversation with vigor, but without Spook to patrol half the night with her, she hadn't gotten more than a few scant hours of sleep in over a week. Loathe though she was to admit it aloud, she needed Spook. Plus the speedster quite often provided comic relief with his quick wit, and she was only just beginning to realize how much he bolstered her spirits on long, thankless nights.

As Diana chattered on about feminism in superheroes, something nibbled on the edge of Raelle's awareness. As a dimensional jumper, she was constantly familiar with small tears in reality in her everyday life. Mostly everyone could not see them, or if they did, they paid them no mind, blindly wandering right through the rips. Raelle avoided the tears, for most of them drew on her power and made her jump against her will. This one was no different from all the others, appearing randomly at shoulder level a few feet to her left with an otherworldly crackle.

Raelle would have written this one off as she normally had if it wasn't for Gallifrey. The scruffy dog, normally as blissfully ignorant of dimensional rips as the rest of the world, was unmistakably growling directly at the tear. Abandoning her feigned interest at Diana's twitterings, she instead focused her full attention on the tear. And there, if she listened hard enough, was a very, very recognizable voice, echoing in the alien rip. The bone deep exhaustion dissolved from her shoulders very suddenly.

“Excuse me,” she said sharply to her friend. She took two purposeful strides and plunged her arm into the heart of the tear. At her contact, the portal fizzled with energy, arcs of electricity popping out of a white hot center, her arm disappearing into elsewhere. It apparently became obvious to Diana as well, as she uttered a small scream and hopped back a step. Raelle ground her teeth voraciously with the effort of not jumping; she spread her feet and swore aloud in surprising combinations. As she searched with her hand in the tear, Diana pressed one of her delicately painted hands against her collarbones, a picture of appropriate horror at the whole situation. A small crowd of early risers had formed at a safe distance, attracted by the unearthly fireworks issuing from thin air and Gallifrey's hysterical barking.

“What's happening?” Diana managed to shout over the surprisingly loud bursts of energy and howling of spectral winds. Raelle spat out an unintelligible curse word; her hand in the heart of the tear had made contact with something promising and she put the last remaining dregs of her strength into pulling it out. Her string of angry swears deteriorated into angry grunts, her teeth bared and her entire body weight thrown against the pull of the other dimension. The tug of war became significantly easier once her arm was freed; she was holding a gloved hand with a fierce grip on her wrist. The extracted hand lengthened to an arm, and then the head and shoulders of a man, who was screaming through clenched teeth along with her. With an extra hard yank, and an ominous slurping bang, the man popped entirely out of the portal and sprawled on top of her on the sidewalk.

The sudden materialization of a person on a now busy sidewalk was overwhelming. He was recognized almost instantly, with his classic black and white mask, custom black uniform and high top red sneakers. “SPOOK!” somebody screamed, and all of a sudden everyone present was buzzing with excitement.

Spook, for it was indeed him, looked up at Raelle, a whirl of emotions in his eyes. Raelle felt oddly comfortable laying on the pavement, her hero partner lounging on top of her. The silence stretched between them, contrasting with the pandemonium overhead. “Shad- Raelle.” He finally rasped, looking lost between pure relief and something else. Confusion? Disbelief?

“Hi.” she answered, her own emotions scattered. Mostly she was completely spent, content to spend the rest of the day laying on the hard ground.

“You saved me,” he said wonderingly, a smile playing at his lips. Raelle frowned.

“Yes. Unheard of, I know. And now you're crushing me, so if you wouldn't mind...”

The goofy smile dropped from his freckled face at her cold tone. “You saved me,” he croaked again. “I thought I was lost forever and you saved me.” The turmoil of emotions in his brown eyes solidified into desperation, his strong hands gripping her as if she was going to disappear.
Something she had been seriously considering until she saw small tears forming at the corners of his eyes.

“Of course I did,” she said softly. “It's what we do, silly. What kind of a-” he didn't let her finish, moving in with his characteristic lightning speed to place a surprisingly chaste kiss on her lips.

The crowd oohed.

Raelle was tired. She was virtually covered with bruises and lacerations from various battles. She had managed to wrench her shoulder extracting her friend, and smash her hip on the landing. Her dog was going nuts, her secret identity was in tatters, and she had work in the real world in less than five hours. Nevertheless, she couldn't help but react on instinct, propping herself up on one elbow to better kiss him back. She could hear Diana shrieking as they paused for breath and Spook muttered, “You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that.”

Raelle grinned. “It can't have been as long as I've wanted a nap. I missed you, but right now I kinda just want some sleep. You can tell me all about it later.” And with a wink, she jumped directly to her bed. It was bliss. “Oh yeah, dammit,” she muttered, popping back to the street.

“Raelle is SHADOW?!?!” Diane was screaming. Raelle grinned and grabbed Gallifrey, who was yelping pathetically. Spook twitched almost too fast for her to see as she appeared next to him and disappeared almost just as quick with her dog. Gallifrey never liked teleportation, and upon landing in Raelle's bedroom she slunk off with her tail between her legs. Raelle had managed to jump in between the covers, and was utterly spent.

Spook flashed into her room, just as she knew he would. “Raelle I-”

“Yeah, yeah.” she muttered, grabbing his shirt and yanking him next to her. “Did you at least shut the door?”

“Um,” he shifted his position next to her uncertainly. “I'm pretty sure I did...”

“Good,” she sighed, resting her head on his chest. She felt him wrap his free arm around her, and the beginnings of a murmur into her hair, but she was asleep before he could even finish three words.