I Fell For My Nemesis - Chapter 103

Jocelyn wandered the streets helping various people or stopping crimes until she needed to get home and sleep after she managed to procure dinner (a hot dog from a cart in the park). It was a Friday so it didn’t matter so much that she was going to bed later than usual. Villains preferred to strike on weekends.

She typically spent all day out of the house Saturday and Sunday dealing with them and other hero work since she had nothing better to be doing. She wasn’t like most heroes. Her secret identity wasn’t as fleshed out.

She had no one demanding any of her time since she lived alone. Her apartment was little more than a converted storage closet but since it was just a place to sleep she didn’t care. She didn’t get claustrophobic and having roommates when you had a secret identity was more trouble than it was worth.

Jocelyn had a toaster strudel before heading out Saturday morning and didn’t get a chance to have lunch until nearly 2 PM because of how in demand her powers were. She was trying to decide what to eat when a splash sounded beside her and the smell of pizza hit her nostrils. She turned and saw her fellow hero Delta holding out a pizza box.

He smiled at her. “You hungry, Frosty?”

As much as she resented being called the name of a fictional snowman she wasn’t one to turn down free food. “Yes. But I’ve told you a million times not to call me that.”

“But it’s so fun! Would you really deprive me of one of the few joys in my life?”

“Just give me the pizza.”

“I will! Meet me on the nearest rooftop so we can eat in peace,” Delta replied with a wink before shooting himself up into the air and leaving her soaked.

Jocelyn sighed and froze the water before making the ice dissipate. It was something she had to do often when he was around. At least her ice propulsion didn’t make anyone get wet.

She met Delta on the roof and discovered he was already inhaling his second slice of pizza. He angled the box toward her with his other hand and she dug in too. It was far from the best pizza she ever had but she was too hungry to care.

Neither of them said a word before the entire pizza box had been depleted. Delta burped before rubbing his stomach and sighing in satisfaction.

“That hit the spot. I’m just glad I ran into you instead of MultiMan because he could eat four whole pizzas by himself. I didn’t want any to go to waste and wanted to share with a fellow weary hero but he’s too much.”

Jocelyn was inclined to agree with his assessment. MultiMan’s power was making copies of himself. He probably used up more energy than the two of the combined.

“I take it you’ve made the mistake of sharing food with him before.”

“Yeah, and he ate all of it before I even got any!” Delta replied indignantly. “He could eat an entire buffet by himself.”

She didn’t doubt it. She was glad he ran into her too because she had been hungry and eating out all the time was a real drain on her finances. Though now and then people gave her food for free because they wanted to thank her for saving them or what she did for the city in general. That was always nice.

Jocelyn had to carry cash in her costume because she couldn’t exactly use a credit card with her name on it while looking like Frostine. She had a small pouch on her hip that was useful for that sort of thing.

“That’s unfortunate,” she said mildly.

“Yeah. So what brings you out this way?” Delta asked.

“I just finished dealing with Skulker. Again. You’d think he would learn by now but he’s been in and out of jail for years.”

“Ah, repeat offenders. They’re seriously annoying. I’ll never understand villains’ motivations. But I guess that’s what separates us and them.”

Jocelyn was forcefully reminded of Mercury. He used to think the same way before realizing that Nox was different than the people he usually fought. But most heroes tended to think that way.

She might too if she wasn’t a therapist. People’s motivations were much more complicated than their actions could lead you to believe. She had learned that a long time ago. As a result she wasn’t the type to judge a book by its cover. There was always a lot more going on under the surface.

“Agree to disagree. It’s not quite that simple,” she said.

Delta rolled his eyes. “You always have to disagree with me, don’t you?”

“Not always. But you are wrong a lot of the time.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“It’s nothing personal, Delta. You’re an excellent hero. You’re just…what’s the word…narrowminded? A lot of heroes are.”

“But you aren’t,” he said sardonically.

Jocelyn shook her head. “No. I think understanding those we fight is important. Thinking we are better than they are won’t help us catch them any easier. Villains may seem petty and a lot of them are but there is more going on there than you might think.”

“What you said. Agree to disagree. I’m sure there’s someone somewhere who needs us. You want to go patrol the area together?”

Delta may act annoyed with her frequently but he still liked working with her. Otherwise he wouldn’t make offers like this on a regular basis. Aside from her coworkers and Keith she saw him the most.

Jocelyn definitely wouldn’t count him as a friend though. He was strictly a colleague since they never spoke about anything other than hero work. He didn’t even engage in small talk. None of the heroes she interacted with did.

They showed up, occasionally helped each other out, then left. That was how things always worked.

They didn’t have time to chat and couldn’t exactly talk about their lives because they needed to keep their identities secret. Not that she had much to say about herself anyway. She knew she was boring.

She didn’t have a favorite food, a favorite color, or any hobbies to speak of. All she had was her job and she couldn’t go into specifics because of client confidentiality.

“Sure,” Jocelyn agreed.

No, Delta wasn’t her friend. He wasn’t her partner or her sidekick either. They were simply heroes who had similar powers and worked together a lot. She didn’t know of any other heroes who had a relationship quite like theirs though. Usually, heroes were loners.

Most were at least vaguely aware of each other by covering the same service area but because they had their own schedules and lives outside of being heroes they only interacted when they happened to run into each other.

Sometimes she wondered about the others heroes she knew. What did they do with their free time? Did they struggle finding a balance between hero work and having a life? Did their powers ever make regular living more difficult? Things like that.

Jocelyn didn’t have a life so she didn’t know what that was like. Her power did have the perk of her never getting hot or cold though. She could wear anything she wanted all year though she tried to stick to what was normal so she didn’t stand out. Standing out was never something a powered person wanted. People might notice things about you that would give you away.

What was Delta like when he wasn’t being a hero? She saw him out and about more frequently than any of the others. He might be like her.

She couldn’t exactly ask though. It was a hero taboo to ask about their lives outside of hero work.

She supposed it didn’t truly matter. She and Delta worked well together. Knowing more about him wouldn’t change that. All that truly mattered for their cooperation was their ability to work together as a team. They were good at that after how many times they had done it over the years.

Jocelyn and Delta made their way around the city together for the rest of the day, stopping more times than she could count to intervene in some situation or other. They worked together like a well-oiled machine.

At the end of the night when she was getting so sleepy she could hardly keep her eyes open they parted ways. He gave her a cheerful wave and said, “See you when I see you!” before heading off in the opposite direction of her apartment.

She worked in Brooklyn but lived in Manhattan. It was hard to tell what part of town Delta was heading for if he was even heading home now at all. He might be going out to get a late night snack somewhere first. Fighting crime was exhausting and really made you work up an appetite.

Jocelyn headed back to her micro-studio in the Upper East Side. The tiny window had a great view of Central Park but that was about all it had going for it.

All of her belongings were stacked floor to ceiling and she had a mini fridge, toaster oven, and microwave in lieu of a real kitchen. She barely had room for a tiny desk and her mattress was raised above everything else so she had less than two feet between her head and the ceiling when lying down, not unlike a bunk bed.

She spent more time in her office than she did here so the lack of space didn’t bother her. She was a minimalist anyway. It was a place to crash at the end of the day and nothing more.

Jocelyn handled her living space very well overall. Though when she was as tired as she was now she frequently tripped on her way out of the shower because of how the toilet was angled in the tiny bathroom.. That was never fun.