"Okay, C-" Milo started, his voice cutting off with a crackle.

"Call him Black Dove, idiot!" Geoff interrupted loudly, making me wince as his voice screamed in my ear.

"Don't yell so loud, Geoff," I mumbled into my mask, gliding through the air before landing on the roof of someone's house. "And I've been flying around for an hour already, and haven't found any one to help."

"Well, you tried to help that old lady crossing the road, but you probably ended up giving her a heart attack," Geoff cackled, making me roll my eyes. 

"She made it across the road in the end, okay! And she ended up thanking me when I helped carry her groceries home for her," I defended, remembering the one and only person I had (heroically) helped today.

The GoGos and Milo had gathered at my house, setting up a surveillance room in my study. Milo, being a whiz in computer science, had also stretch his vast knowledge into hacking, and had hooked himself up to the city's street cameras on the numerous computer monitors I had bought. Geoff also made me buy some more beanbags and recliners for the study, as well as a vending machine and drinks bar, because you always needed refreshments when saving the world - apparently.

It was no batcave, but it did its job. Milo could keep an eye on me and scout out the city for any shady happenings or people in need, and also stay in contact with me. We had affectionately named our budget batcave The Nest, for obvious, thematic reasons.

After setting everything up, they had quickly sent me out to start being a hero. Unfortunately, in our quiet suburbs, the only things that appeared to be causing havoc was the terrible traffic. 

"Hey, 'Black Dove'," Milo said, his image hovering in the corner of my goggle lens. I smiled as I saw Milo's image, catching his eye roll at the use of my cheesy code name, and it looked like he was scrolling through something on one of the many screens in front of him.

"Yes, 'Eagle Eye'?" I responded, grinning to myself as Milo looked positively disgusted at his own code name, cringing visibly. 

"I've just been monitoring some help pages for the surrounding neighbourhoods, and apparently a little boy's cat has climbed up a tree and he can't get it down," Milo said, voice monotonous as he read through what seemed like a Facebook post. "Here, I'll send you the post." An image of a boy bawling his eyes out staring up at a tree popped up in the corner of my lens, followed by a lengthy post by the boy's mother.

"Uh, can't firefighters deal with that? Or, I don't know, the kid's parents could climb the tree?" I said, Milo shrugging. 

"They apparently tried, but apparently it's a really big tree," Milo detailed, obviously realising that I was too lazy to read the full post. "And firefighters are occupied at the moment, according to the emergency scanners I'm monitoring."

"Okay, fine, where's the bloody cat?" I sighed, Milo sending me the details. I clapped to myself when a wonderful map appeared on my goggles, telling me exactly where I needed to go. Considering I was flying, it didn't take me long to get to the modest two-storey house surrounded by huge, ancient trees. 

I could hear the cat-kid crying before I landed on the roof of the house, his mum trying to calm him down as he sobbed at his cat, which refused to come down. An older girl - older sister, probably - was sitting under the shade on the back porch, filming the events around her on her phone, lips smacking as she chewed her gum and laughing at her brother's bawling.

"Um, excuse me," I called out, the mum and her son turning around. The mother screamed loudly, causing the daughter to lean against the railing of the porch and look up, camera following her eyes. Her mouth popped open, her gum stretching. I saw her fingers freeze for a second, before clearly zooming in on me. 

"Who the hell are you?!"the mum screamed, running from her kid to grab a large shovel leaning against a shed. "Liam, Sasha! Get behind me!" The little boy just stared at me, wide-eyed, his tears drying and his nose runny with snot. The teenage girl slowly walked off the porch, not running to her mother but instead trying to get a better image of me on her camera.

"Woah, amazing costume, dude," the girl said, zooming in even further, nodding appreciatively. "Those wings are so life-like."

"Thanks," I said, the girl's mum screaming again as I flapped my wings.

"Sasha! Call the police and get behind me! And you! You! Don't hurt my family!" the mum yelled, waving the shovel around.

"Oh my God, this is hilarious!" Geoff howled in my ear, and in the video chat screen in front of my eyes I could see him rolling around in a fit on the ground. Gia was lounging on a hot pink beanbag next to him, tears in her eyes. Milo just frowned at the screen, eyes narrowed at something.

"Uh, C? That girl is doing an insta live right now," Milo said, and I pressed a finger to my ear.

"What? She's live streaming?" I asked, the girl's gum smacking loudly as she zoomed in. I turned to her camera then, giving the phone a cheerful wave.

"Yeah, she's not exactly famous, but her friends are at least watching. Apparently they love your  halloween costume, but are wondering what the hell you're doing on their roof," Milo said, sending me a video of the girl's current feed.

"Oh, cool! Hi, people watching this live stream! I'm C- Black Dove," I said, standing up from my crouching position. I saw a series of shocked emojis and exclamation marks in the girl's live chat, and may or may not have spotted one eggplant emoji. "Uh, I'm not a creep, I promise! Just your friendly neighbourhood birdman? I came here to help!"

"BirdBOY," Geoff corrected, sounding out of breath after his laughing session.

Turning to Sasha's mother, I slowly pointed to the large tree behind her.

"Um, I saw your Facebook post, and you said that your cat's stuck up there?"

"Are you a stalker?!" the woman screamed, grabbing the back of her daughter's shirt, the girl cursing and saying that she's ruining the live stream. The boy had completely stopped crying now, and was looking at me with awe.

"Oh my God, she thinks you're such a creep!" Gia snorted, dabbing at the tears in her eyes, careful to not disturb her immaculate eye makeup.

"If anyone's the stalker here, it's Milo," I muttered quietly enough so only the Parliament could hear. Milo scoffed, giving me a cool look directly into the camera.

"Are you here to save Lulu?" the boy suddenly asked, and I assumed he was talking about his cat - I didn't scroll down far enough in the post to get to the cat's name.

"Yep!" I said, nodding. The boy's eyes lit up, and he pointed up the tree, hope radiating from his tiny body.

"Wow! Please save Lulu, Mr Superhero! I love Lulu!" the boy said, eyes beginning to water again.

"Liam! Stop talking to the crazy man!" the boy's mum yelled, her daughter rolling her eyes.

"Mum! You're embarrassing me in the live stream!" Sasha whispered, but the laughing emojis bursting in the chat made it clear that everyone could her her.

"Don't worry, Liam! I'll get Lulu for you," I said, the boy nodding. Leaping off the roof, I could hear Liam and Sasha both gasping, followed by the rapid pinging of people yelling in the chat. I easily soared through the air, hovering high up until I latched onto the branch the troublesome Lulu was perched on. The cat hissed, startled, and I slowly raised my hands out to try to calm her.

"Hi, Lulu," I said, the cat's tail bristling, its teeth bared as its back arched. "I'm not gonna hurt you. Come here, girl." The cat stared at me suspiciously, inching forwards. "Attagirl. See? I'm not gonna peck you."

Lulu crept towards me, and I began to relax, until she suddenly let out a cry and lunched. Her claws latched onto my arm, but couldn't break through the kevlar. Still, her sudden movement made me screech, pinching the back of her neck and pulling the wild beast off me. Lulu screeched, clawing the air as I held her out.

"Bad Lulu!" I scolded, waving a finger at Lulu's unapologetic sneer.

"Well, cats like killing birds, so I'm not surprised," Gia said as she watched in amusement, chewing on some popcorn. "Nice work though, dude."

"Thanks," I said, glaring at Lulu, who realised that I wasn't letting her go any time soon, pathetically letting herself be dangled from my fingers. Jumping off the tall branch of the tree, I slowed my descent down with me wings, before doing a little flip just before I landed - I mean, I was in front of a camera.

Liam's mother was staring at me, shovel dropped to the ground in shock, as I plopped Lulu into Liam's waiting arms. 

"Holy shit," Sasha said, mouth also wide open in shock. "That was fire."

"Thank you, Mr Superhero!" Liam said, rushing forward to hug me, Lulu getting wedged between us. I could hear the little demon screeching, but she didn't attempt anything too drastic in Liam's arms. I pat the kid on the head gently before he pulled back sporting a wide, toothy grin.

"No problem, Liam. Look after Lulu from now on, okay?" I said, the boy nodding, running to his mum to show her the cat safe in his arms. Turning back to the camera, I blew a kiss towards it, smiling even though no one could see it behind my mask. "See ya, everyone! And thanks for not hitting me with the shovel, Liam's mum!"

"What was your name again?" Sasha called after me as I launched myself into the air. 

"Uh, Black Dove!" I shouted back, waving before disappearing from view. When I was high in the sky, I let out a loud whoop, diving and climbing happily through the air. Sure, all I did was save a cat, but it felt good. 

Helping people felt good.

"Eagle Eye! Any other cats to save?" I asked giddily, Milo rolling his eyes, but tapping on his keyboard anyway.

"No cats, but there are some people that need some pretty basic help," Milo said, and I let out a cheer. 

"Let's save the suburb, then, team!" I said, Milo facepalming while Geoff and Gia cheered.

After a slow start to the day, after saving Lulu, I had found lots of other people that needed help. I came across a little girl losing her balloon at an outdoor carnival, and her dad had been shocked but grateful when I caught it in the air and returned it to her, apparently never able to deal with her temper tantrums. 

Following that, there was a construction site that had progress halted because of a faulty crane, so I helped them out for a little while, using my ability to fly and supposed super strength to help haul materials up into position for them. They had all gathered for photos with me afterwards, even shouting me lunch. 

For the rest of the day, I managed to help clear a fallen tree from a road, help a wannabe Youtuber take some sweet aerial shots for his video, and helped an elderly man get to his apartment on the third-storey of a dilapidated apartment building by flying in straight through his window. He had made me stay for tea, which was difficult considering I had a mask on, but he had given me a straw to stick under my mask. 

Secret identities were important stuff.

I ended up flying back home late in the afternoon, the Parliament waiting at the door to my back yard for my imminent return. When I landed, Gia and Geoff suddenly whipped out some party poppers, spraying me with strips of tissue paper and glitter.

"Congrats on your first day on the job!" the GoGos yelled, tackling me to the ground with hugs. 

"Guys, get off my boyfriend," Milo said, arms crossed as the GoGos cooed, making kissy noises which made Milo glare at them. Geoff and Gia eventually got off me after teasing Milo some more, Milo flipping them off before pulling me to my feet, tugging me to his chest. 

I heard Gia gag and Geoff squeal from behind Milo, but I ignored them when Milo pulled my goggles and mask off, giving me a soft kiss which I melted into.

"I'm proud of you, C," Milo said, his words warming me from the inside. Milo gave me a tender look, bumping his forehead with mine before speaking again. 

"See? I knew you could do great things if you just got your ass off the couch."

A/N: And our precious winged boy begins his hero(ish) journey :')