8. Things Look Up

Brute Force, for the second straight night, wandered the streets unsure of his next action. He rode his bike aimlessly for hours. Deciding to be done beating himself up he started slowly winding his way to a rough part of town. Maybe he wasn’t ready to deal with super villains, but he should certainly be able to deal with common crooks.

A couple minutes later he turned a corner and found a man with a ski mask running out of a liquor store. Brute Force caught up to him easily on his bike and picked him up by his belt. He handled the man easily with his super strength and tossed the criminal over his shoulder while he stopped and parked the bike. The robber pounded on Brute Force’s back and flailed his legs to no avail.

The store clerk came running out as Brute Force got off of the bike. “Give me my money back,” he yelled holding a broom as a weapon.

Brute Force sighed, more from the lack of understanding of the storekeeper than the small nuisance of the struggling thief. “I wouldn’t have stopped if I was his getaway,” he said, extending the small bag of money in one hand and turning so the thief’s flailing limbs would not hit the already angry shopkeeper.

The man stared at the money as if confused and finally took it. “Thanks,” he mumbled and slowly turned back to the store counting the money.

“He wasn’t very appreciative,” said the thief when the shopkeeper was safely out of earshot.

Brute Force was baffled, “You’re one to judge.” He moved the criminal to the nearest street lamp. Using one of the pairs of handcuffs he had acquired he locked him to the post with his hands behind his back around it. “Don’t worry, the police will be here for you soon,” he said getting back onto his bike.

“What if that crazy guy comes back out with his broom before then?”

“Maybe,” said Brute Force looking back as he put his helmet on, “you should have thought about the consequences before you started committing crimes.” Satisfied with having accomplished at least something right Brute force started heading home. This job was turning out to be not so tough. It seemed like he just needed to figure out which league he was in before he started to play ball.

As he pulled his bike into his garage at his apartments he realized the only problem was he found out he was supposed to be playing in the minors after he got into a major league mess.