A day in the Life

New York City. One of the grandest, most visually stunning Cities in the world. The buzz of the city was completely unlike anything Charade had ever heard before. It was incomparable to all the places he had visited so far. They were quiet, and frankly, dull. They also had a considerably lower crime rate than The Big Apple. If there was anywhere that Charade could actually feel at home, this was it. It wasn't customary for him to do so, but in this case, Charade felt that he was practically required to Breathe the air, walk the streets, and see the sights. It had never occurred to Charade to do something like this before. In fact, it never occurred to him that he could attempt to do something for his own luxury. It seemed that the idea of helping others was the only thought that could ever cross his mind, and what better place to carry out that idea than here?

As Charade walked down the street, he noticed the people who passed him by. They were all in a rush, but they didn't seem to be going anywhere specific. They weren't running away from anything... or running towards anything. They all just seemed to be hurrying anywhere they went. Maybe that was just the nature of the city, everyone was busy, and as a result, had to have that extra spring in their step. It all added to the life that this city had... the life that Charade had to protect.

The hurried faces paid little attention to Charade as he marvelled at his surroundings. After all, who would notice another homeless man in New York City? On top of that, how would anyone know that this homeless man had superpowers? That little detail about him didn't exactly stand out. To most people looking at the unshaven man with messy black hair and wearing a dusty trench-coat with several holes poked into it, and not without it's scorch marks, nothing would seem that out of the ordinary to them. At most, they could take some pity, and throw some loose change in his direction, but they would never question his existence.

It was an alarm that had broken Charade's thought process. It had come from a bank across the street. A window had been smashed, some gunshots had been fired, and approximately four men could be seen inside brandishing ski masks and machine guns. It was obvious what the situation was. There was no police in sight, and none of the civilians on the street where brave enough to do anything about the problem, so it was Charade's time to go into action. He made his way across the street, ducking low and hanging close to the wall of the bank, so that he was relatively out of sight from the robbers, but he was still able to see the inside of the building. Two of the men were keeping the crowd within the bank under control, one was hastily loading a sports bag with the money, as the other man was holding a gun to the bank clerk, who was shaking in fear.

From the athletic build of the men, it seemed to Charade that stopping this robbery was going to prove to be one hell of a challenge. He probably couldn't do it on his own... but dammit, he had to at least try. After all, it wasn't as if help was going to swoop in out of nowhere, right?