The steam from a man hole cover billowed in the harsh orange light of a near by street lamp. 22 stood in front of Muriel hoping to prove that 'coward' was not a word found in the FBI oath of induction. The sound of the slow echoing claps grew louder as the 3 foot tall man emerged from the shadows. A brilliantly white smiled stretched across the man's face. "Wellllll," he began as his height slowly brought him to a tall 6' 1", "that was pretty impressive kid. What was that?" the man chopped the air while forcing out a few generic karate noise, "Some sort of kung fu trick?" He stepped forward, his neon suit shimmering with each step. With a deal of force, he used his foot to roll the unconsious rapist onto his back. "Well, kung- shwey or not, whatever you did, it worked. Oh and who's this pretty miss behind you?" Much like he did to the thug on the ground, the man shouldered 22 to the side. "Good evening fair - very fair - citizen. I am Mr. Miniature." He took her hand and kissed it. "You perhaps have seen me on countless television interviews, magazine and newspaper covers, and even the late night infomercial runs. Yes. I am THAT Mr. Mini."
22 just stood there as his girlfriend morphed into some unholy school girl nightmare. "Well hello there," she squeaked out in a fit of giggles, "I've seen all those things at least a dozen times." It's a safe bet that she had, in fact, not even heard of Mr. Mini before now but hey, when you're famous, that doesn't matter. "So you're a real superhero? Why don't you show me some of your powers then."
"Sure thing little lady." Mr. Mini stepped back into the center of the alley cross roads. With a flick of his hair and his hands on his hips, he bellowed out, "Miniatureize!" and disappeared...sort of. Muriel giggled and ran forward, dropping to her hands and knees to see the tiny hero strut his stuff at a few inches tall. 22 couldn't help but roll his eyes and scoff. In a flash of orange light, Mr. Mini was instantly back to normal. Muriel's eyes remained wide and glazed over in shallow admiration.
"Oh boy! Twenty did you see that?" She hopped up and down, directing her comment at her boyfriend but not giving him a second glance."Now that's a REAL super power!" 22 opened his mouth to object that his shrinking ability was nearly identical when he was interrupted.
"You see kid," Mr. Mini strutted over and placed a blue gloved hand on 22's shoulder, "if you want THAT kind of reaction, you gotta show a little pizzaz, give some showmanship, flair! I would lend you some, but I wouldn't want it to go to waste. I mean look at me!," He spun Twenty around to face him. "I'm the symbol of justice in this city! When you see an orange and blue blur out of the corner of your eye, that's me. You on the other hand look like you've been taking your inspiration from some dark and moody teenager's book of poetry. The jet black suit and tiny little number on your sleeve isn't going to grab anyone's attention. And I couldn't help but notice your reappearing act." He held a finger to 22's chest. "You know...that looked a lot like my special talent. Are you trying to step in on my show? I mean I would say that this town isn't big enough for the two of us but since we can shrink that's just not true. So here's the deal. I'M the superhero around here, not you. I don't know how you got your power but you better make your secret identity, your ONLY identity. Got it?" He stepped back, a false toothy grin returning to his mouth. "Well it was pleasure to have this chat with you two but I shall be off."
As he turned to the alley way, Muriel ran forward. "Wait, MM, take me with you! I want a real man with real powers, not this boy who can't save me when I need a hero."
22 found his voice, "But he does exactly what I do!" he protested.
"Yeh, but my Mr. Mini can do it better." she smirked. Mr. Mini turned and raised a condescending eyebrow in Twenty's direction.
"When the lady's right, she's right" he chuckled. In a blue flash of light he was tiny once more. Muriel picked him up and placed him on her shoulder.
"Good bye Twenty-Two." She with a wave of her hand as she disappeared in the steam of the manhole cover.
22 just stood there alone. He wasn't saddened by her exit, no he was more irritated than anything. "You need pizzaz kid." He mocked the hero's tone under his breath.
"Agent 22 come in!" His ear piece sprang to life.
"22 here."
"Agent, we need you over in Shantville, there's some heavy activity around a hot spot that we have just confirmed to be a drug smuggling operation. Please report."
"Confirmed, 22 out." And with that, the man in the jet black uniform became one with the shadows as he unkowngly headed towards a meeting with fate.