Chapter 01

Smoke is rising out of the city; the sun is almost setting. A huge shadow towers over the once peaceful city. An enormous creature, covered in dark energy and oozing green from various parts of its body, stands on all fours and lets out a horrible cry. Suddenly, in the middle of the screaming, the creature gets smacked across the face with a powerful punch! The creature falls to its side, then looks at the strange phenomenon that attacked it. There, levitating in the sky, was a teeny tiny blonde high school girl. The camera zoomed in. She was a beautiful girl with freckles, curves, and a red cape. She had a red and blue one-piece that covered her whole body. Her blonde hair tussled in front of her face in the wind as she glared at the creature. With an annoyed tone, she shouts,

"Let's make this quick; I have a date!"

The creature looks absolutely terrified as she zooms from her location and obliterates it with one last punch. The dark energy and green ooze dissipate into the air. A helicopter with a camera crew is filming her, and she quickly blows a kiss to the camera.

The TV gave a play-by-play of the entire interaction between the mysterious superhero and the unknown creature. In the living room, a young boy sits with a worried look on his face during the fight but quickly lets out a sigh of relief as the superhero destroys the creature. The girl blows a kiss to the camera, and the boy blushes.

******** Steven
Earlier that day
My name is Steven. I'm just an ordinary kid. I'm pretty average, honestly. Brown hair, green eyes, 5'8". I do okay in school, but I don't really know why I'm learning most of this stuff in the first place. I don’t really know what I want to do yet, either. Right now, I'm just trying to survive! It seems every other day, there is a new mist creature around the corner. I don't know how they always seem to find me. But it's usually okay because Francine —I call her Fran— takes care of them before anything bad happens.

As if she were summoned from my thoughts, Fran appeared in the alleyway between me and the mist monster. With a quick strike from her deadly fist, the creature disappeared into the void.

"You okay, Steven? Thankfully, this Boogy seemed pretty slow!"

Fran smiled with her whole face. You could tell she was happy to see you whenever you talked to her. She was wearing a school uniform with a suit coat and skirt instead of her superhero costume. She had blonde hair tied up in a low ponytail when she wasn't super, and she wore glasses too. She would've been unrecognizable if I didn't know any better.

"I'm alright, just fell because I was startled. They always seem to come out of the alleyways when I least expect it. And you can stop calling them Boogies—I know they aren't the Boogeyman now."

Fran laughed playfully, "I don't know what else to call them, though." She scrunched up her face in deep thought as she considered another nickname for the monsters.

"Maybe we should just call them monsters?..." I suggested.

"Aww, you're no fun!" Fran said with a pouty face. She always made the cutest faces. She was always good at using her expressions to get what she wanted. Ever since we were kids, she would always ask for the other half of my popsicle after she ate all of hers. Then she would start to cry when I said that I was actually planning on eating it since she already had one. I always ended up giving her my other half, though, since I couldn't stand to see her cry. I smiled as I remembered how cute she was back then. In the distance, the sound of a school bell rang.

"We'd better hurry, or we'll really be late!"

I started to rush forward, but as I was about to put my foot down, I felt my body turn, and suddenly I was cradled in Fran's arms... she was holding me now.

"This will be much faster!"

Fran said with a grin as she used her super speed to get us to school. Feeling a little embarrassed to be held this way, I covered my face as I was probably blushing quite a bit. We quickly arrived near the school in an alleyway where we wouldn't be seen by the other students. She looked around and put me down. My heart was racing since I was basically just staring at her the entire time. Today was the day—I was going to finally ask her out on a date.

****** Francine
The feeling of the wind rushing through my hair is so exhilarating, plus I get to hold Steven, which is a major plus! After feeling quite proud of the fact that I was holding my crush in my arms and running around the block a couple of times to hold him longer, I eventually stopped in an alleyway. I hated to put him down, but I guess it's for the best... Steven looks so flustered—he he, awww.

Steven and I walk into class and take our seats right next to each other. Thankfully, Steven is pretty smart because, honestly, I can't really pay attention in class. I'm usually pretty distracted during school since I'm so close to him. He always smells so nice. I don't know if it's his cologne or just his natural musk. I should ask him sometime so I can buy it for myself... hopefully, that's not creepy to ask... The day flies by, and I learn basically nothing. My brain usually feels pretty fried right about now.

Steven started walking up to me after class and said,

"Did you get any of that? I was pretty distracted today, I couldn't take any notes..."

Aww, look at him, all flustered from earlier.

"Steven, you already know the answer to that..."

He slumped forward, sighed, and took a deep breath.

"FRAN!"

He kind of shouted it, loud enough for the other students to hear, and the room got silent. It must've been an accident because he suddenly stopped talking, and his face got all red. Why was he acting so weird today? It's not like I haven't carried him before...

"...Uh, we should stop by that hotdog stand on our way back home! It's the weekend, so let's get a treat! I'll buy!"

I'm always down for a good hotdog or two! We left the school and walked our usual way home until we were the only ones left on the street. Then Steven stopped.

"What's wrong?"

I asked. He seemed so strange today. Maybe the Boogy scared him earlier today. Poor guy.

"Uh, Fran... um, what are you doing tomorrow?"

Tomorrow? I don't know. You think I've planned that far ahead? I'm just looking forward to a nice juicy hotdog right now. Suddenly, I saw something behind Steven. A black figure emerged from the ground.

"Duck!"

I cried. Steven almost instinctively went into a fetal position, giving me enough room to strike at the Boogy. This one was fast. It seemed to anticipate my moves, making a sideways lunge toward me. It spat ooze right at my feet. I jumped forward quickly, grabbing the Boogy by the claw? Foot? I'm not really sure what this thing was; they always came in different shapes and sizes. This particular Boogy seemed to crawl on all fours. I lifted it up with one hand and slammed it into the concrete, where its black bits splattered and then disappeared.

"Ugh, they always come right when I want to ask you."

Steven seemed disappointed. I guess he wasn't really shaken up about the Boogies then.

"Ask me what? Out on a date!?"

I teased a little. I knew he wasn't going to ask anything romantic—I just wanted to mess with his head, hehe. His whole face looked shocked, like he just got hit on the head or something.

"Uhhh... how did you know!?"