Eagless 103

White Knight Cosplayer Seeks 15 Minutes of Fame

“What is this?” Ashley called out. She’d picked up the newspaper Nicole had left on the counter before leaving the room.

“Your first headline,” Nicole answered, returning with her laptop charger in hand and sitting on the couch after plugging it into the wall.

“But it’s so negative! I helped people! Listen to this! ‘Another faceless vigilante is stalking our campus and putting students at risk.’ Nothing I did put anyone else at risk! But you know what it did? Kept a bag from being stolen.”

“I know.” Nicole was eating a bowl of cereal for breakfast as Ashley vented.

“Then he said, ‘this campus would be better off if this super-zero hung up the mask and just went to class.’ What kind of nonsense is this?”

“I don’t know, Ashley.”

“The paper never treated the White Knight like this. A woman can make just as good a hero as a man.”

“I mean, that’s definitely part of Jasper’s problem because he’s for sure a pig. But your problem here isn’t about you being a woman or about you at all, really. That’s just the difference in having Hailey Hall write about you compared to Jasper Saunders. Keep reading, he takes shots at the White Knight too.”

Ashley read on. The White Knight spent weeks building the community’s trust before they stopped viewing him as a threat and started viewing him as a hero. And that trust was repaid with a building blown to rubble. Let’s just skip all that this time and not have a vigilante in the first place. Mr. Fox may be a generous man, but he’s also a busy man. We should try to keep our buildings all standing this year. Step one of that goal is not having vigilantes. “This is unreal. I’m going for my run to cool off.”

“Have fun!” Nicole called through a mouthful of cereal as she turned the TV on.

Ashley went out on patrol that night like she had every night before, but this time she wasn’t just watching to see if there was trouble; she was looking for it.

White Knight cosplayer. She snorted after climbing atop the union. We’ll see about that.

After thirty minutes of quiet, she got up to walk. Since she couldn’t get her leg to stop bouncing, the next best thing was to put that restless energy to use.

She descended the ladder and walked away from the union, slipping her mask into her pocket as she went.

The campus was well lit at night now. In addition to the new building, Fox Industries donated funds for improved campus lighting and security cameras. Not that it mattered much tonight. Ashley hadn’t seen another person in the hour since she’d left her house.

Ashley circled the perimeter of the union and the library without seeing another person. She settled in at a picnic table nestled in a corner outside the library, one area on campus that was still covered by shadows at night. It was all but impossible to see her in the dark, even if someone was looking. But none of the three students who entered the library over the next hour were looking. Her mind wandered as she waited for something, anything, to happen.

Most of her fantasies were ways she would come to someone’s rescue and fight off the bad guy. In her head, it was usually Jasper Saunders who was the perpetrator. An efficient two birds with one fantasy—saving people and fighting Jasper.

But the campus stayed quiet until the library bell rang out, signaling its impending closure. Ashley stood and stretched after having sat still for so long. As the few students studying at this hour trickled out and went their separate ways, Ashley returned to the house. Nicole’s door was closed, and the lights in her room were off when she got in. Hurriedly showering off and crawling into bed, she quickly fell to sleep.

The next night, Ashley bypassed both the union and the library. It was a Thursday night, and the bars were the place to be. Ashley climbed up the escape of one of the buildings overlooking the ones that sat right off campus.

It was already 10:30 pm when she settled in, but it was a short-lived stakeout as two men walked out of a bar holding up a girl who was barely able to walk.

Ashley jogged to the ledge and leapt down the steps of the fire escape, ignoring the creaking sound it made each time she landed. Creeping around the corner, she watched as they crossed the street towards the frat houses. Ashley slipped the mask into her pocket and followed parallel to the men on the campus side of the street. When they turned right down a residential street three blocks shy of the frat row, Ashley jogged across the street to follow, slipping her mask back on as she exited the main road.

Out of the sight of passing cars and students, the two men stopped propping up the girl and began carrying her, with one holding her by the shoulders and the other by her feet. That was enough for Ashley.

“Hey!” she called out, stepping into the streetlight. The two men started walking faster as she gave chase.

The one holding the girl’s feet set them down and turned to face Ashley as the other man kept going, dragging the girl’s heels across the sidewalk.

Ashley slowed as she approached the man who had stayed behind. He took a fighting stance but wobbled from the alcohol. She rushed him. Leaning back to avoid a haymaker, she stomped at the man’s knee. With a shout of pain, he fell hard to the ground as a result of both Ashley’s blow and the momentum of his own missed swing.

Leaving him writhing on the ground, Ashley continued her pursuit of the man dragging the girl. He’d disappeared from view during her fight with the last guy. Sprinting down the sidewalk, Ashley frantically searched, looking for signs from cars and houses that someone had recently been there.

As she passed the last house on the block, she turned to look behind the nearest car. She wasn’t able to see anything before she tumbled to the ground with a yelp.

After she skidded to a stop, she reached down to rub her shin but saw the man she’d been chasing walking towards her with what looked like a wooden broom handle in his hands. The girl was propped up against the car, eyes half lidded.

Ashley lifted herself to her feet with a limp. Her right leg was tender but could hold weight. She eased backward, her eyes darting around to take in her surroundings. The man approached, holding the broomstick like a bat. With a smirk, he sprinted at her, drawing back the broomstick. With the man bearing down on her, Ashley stood still, waiting. He started his swing with the stick when he was only a few feet away and that’s when she made her move, leaping back and to her right behind the stop sign. The broomstick missed its target and connected instead with the metal pole.

The man froze as the stick reverberated and sent a wave through his body. Ashley took advantage of his temporary shock. Stepping forward, she grabbed the broomstick with both hands while pulling him in and lifting her left leg. Planting her foot in the center of his chest, she kicked off, gripping the broomstick tightly. He toppled backwards as she held onto the handle. Hopping back to his feet, he rushed again, even without the broomstick. She sidestepped him and swiped through his legs from behind, sending him falling on his back.

Between the hit to his head from the fall and the alcohol, he stayed down this time. Ashley jogged to check on the girl, still limping.

“Are you okay?” she asked, but the girl could only mumble an answer. Throwing the stick down, Ashley lifted her up and began walking back towards campus, leaving the second man on the ground and passing the first, who still grumbled and held his leg.

Eagless continues with episode 104.

For more stories set in this world, buy my books, The White Knight and SAMSON – OUT NOW! Or read my short story series The Street Rat for free like Eagless!

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