Girl Super Hero Project Prompt 2: Power of Pause

Girl Super Hero Project Prompt 2:
Power of Pause
This super hero or super villain has a pause button she can use to her advantage. Tell us how she got it and harnessed its power.

 

Who’s Got The Button

By L.L. Heberlein

(850 words)

He brought the button to my house one gray, gloomy afternoon. The drizzling rain clung in sparkly droplets to his over-sized wool coat and wide-brimmed felt fedora. He looked suspicious, but then anyone in a fedora looks suspicious to me. Who wears fedoras, anyways? Only gangsters in old movies and people trying to look like something they aren’t. What was he, then? Who was he? And what was he doing standing in my doorway?

“You’ll be needing this,” the man said, shoving a box into my hands. It was the same size and shape they used to hold one of those fancy cupcakes. I grabbed the box before it dropped, doing a little foot-shuffle maneuver to keep the door behind me propped open.  It was one of those doors that would lock behind you if you shut it.  I kept the door open with one foot so that it blocked the apartment from his view. Call me paranoid, but I wasn’t inviting Mr. Fedora inside. 

“Sure,” I said, rolling my eyes toward the ceiling. Like this sort of thing happened to me every day. It did. Well, maybe not exactly like this, but when you live life as an actual, open, out-of-the-closet superhero, strange things show up on your door step.  It happens. “So, what does it do?”

“It’s...” He drew the sentence out, like he needed more time to figure out what he was going to say. “… A pause button.” 

“Pause button? Appropriate,” I said.  I offered him a little smirk, but the guy didn’t crack a grin. No sense of humor, apparently. No, no. Big pause button. Serious business.  “And what am I supposed to do with it?” 

He cocked his head to one side and stared at me with a blank expression. Everything about him was a blank expression, come to think of it. His face was very neutral, unremarkable. His eyes were a grayish color and gloomy like the sky.  There was nothing overly interesting or notable about his appearance at all. Well, except for the damn stupid hat. There, I said it. The thing looked stupid on him. 

“Miss…”

“Please, let’s not kid ourselves with formalities,” I said. “It’s Hyper Girl. Just Hyper Girl.” 

“Fine,” he said. “Hyper Girl, this is a pause button. It is very powerful, but can be used only once. As soon as you press it, everything around you will stop. The movement of people, the ticking of time, traffic…”

“Ooooh, traffic!” I said, prying the lid off the button box. “Gimme, gimme! I’ve gotta be across town by six.”

Fedora guy yanked the box out of my hands. “Did you miss the part where I said it could be used only once?” 

“Sure, sure,” I said. “Only, when is it going to come in handy for me, right? I mean, I’m Hyper Girl! That’s what I do. I move super, super fast! And a lot. How is a pause button going to help me in any way?” 

Fedora guy shook his head. “If you have to ask that, maybe you aren’t the right person for the box.” He took one step back from the door. It looked like he was ready to leave. 

“Don’t!” I cried. I grabbed his arm and pulled him back. “I’ll take it, I’ll take it! Cheese and Rice!!” I opened the lid again. The red button was the size of a softball. “So, I just push this thing, and time and all that other stuff just stop?  For how long?” 

“Until you push the button again,” he said. “Once that is done, the button will become useless to you. It will only regenerate once it is passed on, once you  give the button to someone else.” 

A strange feeling rose in my gut.  “Is that why you’re giving this to me?” I asked. “Did you already use it?” 

The right corner of his mouth curled upwards. He lifted his hand to his hat, dipped his head toward me, and headed down the step. “Have fun,” he said, not bothering to turn back around to look at me.  “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” 

My eyes shot wide. My superhero senses were really tingling now. “What did you do?” I yelled after him. “WHAT DID YOU DO?” 

A vicious laugh echoed off the wet pavement as he walked across the parking lot. I wanted to run after him, but the door would lock, and I didn’t have my key. You try hiding a key in all this Lycra. What I had, however, was the box with the button, and the ability to stop him. To stop everything. 

I bolted across the living room, grabbed up the remote and turned on the TV. The story was everywhere, splashed across all the news channels. 

CITY BANKS ROBBED. VAULTS EMPTIED. POLICE BAFFLED AS PERPATRATOR GOES UNSEEN. 

Ah, horse feathers. 

I opened the box all the way. The big red button seemed even bigger and redder with my hand hovering over it. 

“Well,” I said, addressing myself to my fat orange cat, Professor Purry Pants. “Here goes nothing!”