"THROW HIM," LEBECHI advises in my ear and I frown, beads of sweat stroll down my neck.

It is Kitans turn to tell me what to do, "No, punch him, your punch can end things."

Before me stands the most bulky man I think I will ever meet. I just stopped the robbery he was about to commit and he is pissed at me. My team and I—it sounds really cheesy—assembled outside of school when the last bell rang and Kitan shared everything he brought. The reason why he had arrived school late is because he was getting some gadgets from his fathers company. Mr. Abiade is a technology expert, he owns a store which showcases and sells gadgets that people never thought they needed. I always believed the love for technology ran from father to son, but Kitan took his own towards the ICT area.

He gave Lebechi and I small black devices that we were to put into our ears so we could communicate better unlike the cheaparticle—his words not mine—earpiece I wore the previous day. He also made me put on a body camera on my back and chest, that way they could both see what I see and what I did not, and for video recording purposes—Kitans words again. The outfit fit like a second skin and the best of all was the face mask that stopped over my nose. I found out it was not made of leather to enable easy breathing for me.

"Don't tell me what to do," I tell them both, regretting that I ventured into a robbery scene in the first place. The owner of the store was famous among the students of Excellence Secondary School, he sold almost everything we needed and goofed around with us. So it annoyed me when Kitan said he always got robbed on Thursdays by a burly man with no hair on his head. He looked away when we asked him how he knew, then said he hid in a corner of the store when he saw it happen on two of the Thursdays. One had been on purpose, the other had been to confirm if it was an occasional thing.

"Then do something or you will have broken bones," I did think that with the way the man matches towards me with a partially swollen head as a result of the bottle water I threw at him. His small beady eyes are every definition of red and his teeth are bared. Good thing humans don't have fangs.

"Shit," I run down the stationery aisle, looking over my shoulder to see the man walking fast. "Shit, shit, shit. If I die, I am haunting the two of you."

"Just do something, raise the ground or something."

"Easier said than done." I run until I get to a wall, a dead end. When I turn to make my way out of the area, the brown man is growling before me.

"You get liver to do wetin you do, but after I remove am, you go learn to respect yourself," he speaks in Pidgin English and I cower. I really did grow extra balls to make an appearance like this, and it is the fault of those two, who are safely in the school premises.

"You are a Superhero, not a Supervictim, do something!" Kitan yells in my ear. It knocks a little sense into me, I am the one with the powers not him.

"You have some nerve to always rob a poor man just making a living," I place both hands on my waist, "Now I will teach you why you need to have your own legitimate means of living." Crap, this is the worst superhero speech in the history of Herohood.

The man bounds towards me and makes to grab my hand but I beat him to it, I take his fingers in mine and bend them backwards slowly. He whimpers, then try to punch me with the other, I close my fist and send a blow to his stomach, the action has him spiraling into the shelves at a speed I cannot comprehend. He slumps the next minute, eyes rolled back.

"Shit," is all I say, mostly because it feels amazing to be able to do that, to be able to take on someone as huge as that. "Did you guys see that?"

"See, we told you it would be amazing," Lebechi screams in my ears, "That is the best thing I have ever seen."

"Recorded and will now be posted to YouTube for the entire world to see," Kitan has a different kind of excitement in his voice. I blow the ring, for extra effect, I feel really great.

The owner of the store, a middle aged man, comes towards me. In his eyes are emotions I cannot read, but his voice tells me otherwise. "Thank you so much, God bless you, thank you."

"You are welcome sir." It also feels good to have someone appreciate what I did.

"But who are you?"

I look at him and give him a smirk I know he can't see. Lebechi had argued back and forth with Kitan about what name I should use. She stood on Groundgirl because I could do things to the ground, Kitan had said if it was so, then a better name should have been Floorgirl which left her speechless. At the end, we went with his. "I am Earth-Girl."

To make it even extra, I dash past him, straight out of the store. As I leave, I catch a glimpse of what looks like a crack in ground with smoke coming out of it, it could be anything so I pay no attention to it.

From then on it becomes a regular thing. After school, Kitan and Lebechi hang around the premises then guide me to the nearest 'crime scene'. Since Kitan is like a computer expert, he is able to hack into the Nigerian Police site and get information on the whereabout of the next place Earth-Girl should be. He also hacks into security footages of some banks, stores and plazas and his system, which he always called Amanda since I knew him, alerts him when something suspicious is ongoing.

"Someone is about to break into a Toyolto Car store, better get there quick," he tells me casually one day when Lebechi and I were getting bored of waiting for something. She always suggests I go to the streets, hang around, especially since my name has been spreading around town after helping four people and the YouTube videos. Although some people still call me a demon, over what happened the first day I tried to play Superhero.

"Roger that," I, who is in my suit already, jump up and race towards the store. It takes me half an hour, with lots of complaining about how it sucks not to be able to fly. That is the one thing I always prayed for.

When I get to the store I see two men just by the gate, they are dressed in a blue shirt and black trousers with a baton attached to their hips. In their hands is a bottle of ogogoro—the local gin—and they laugh loudly as they talk to each other. They were too busy not doing their jobs to notice someone inside was about to steal from them.

"Isn't it too early to be getting drunk on your job?" I sneer at them, knowing the time was just a fw minutes past six, the sky was beginning to darken slowly. "There are many people who need jobs and here you both are."

"Who be this one?" One of them points to me, his face is scrunched up in disgust. He is not the one to be disgusted, I am.

"Don't waste time with them," Lebechi tells me, "the man is by the car."

"Does it not have like an alarm?" The security men look at me weirdly as I talk to the people in my ear.

It is Kitan who replies me, "He has some sort of device that disarms anything, get there fast."

"Roger that."

"Be like say this one na mad person," the second security looks to his partner and to me. If there was enough time, I would have definitely schooled them, instead I shake my head and then lift the ground underneath me and take myself over the wire fence. I am opportune to catch the scared look--and see the bottle of drinks fall--on their faces just as I settle down on the other side.

That will teach them not to not mess around.

The store compound is large, but the only building is a small blue bungalow with the name of the store crested on it. I walk towards the back, where the cars are parked, there are various types cars which makes me subtly wish I had interest in knowing the different names. Without wasting time, I make my way to where the car is with directions from Kitan.

My ears pick up sound of a revved engine and I race towards it, mostly without calculation, and for faster movement I decide to take the driveway. The moment I step foot on the path, I see a black car headed my way, straight for me in reverse. There is no time to run, hell there is no time to think. Lebechi yells at me to leave, Kitan too but my feet are stuck. Mother once told me about the three F reactions to danger; Freeze, Flight, Fight. I am in freeze mode mostly because my brain makes it look like I am back at the road, right on the walkway with the car that drives over the speed limit when my friend runs across.

"Amadin," the voice pulls me out of my memory just when the vehicle is to bash into me. I am unable to do anything other than use both my hands to cover my face and brace for the impact, I might be squashed and die or I might get broken bones. Anytime soon, I tell myself when I hear a crashing sound.

"A-Amadin, are you okay?" Lebechis voice is frantic, I open my eyes and see a wall before me.

This wasn't there a second ago, "Y-yeah, I am." When I move away it slowly turns to sand and pours onto the ground. That is when I see the car, the back is bashed beyond badly, glass is spilled all over the ground and where the wall stood, a big crack is in the cemented floor.

"Damn!" Kitan says.

"What was that Lebechi? Did I do that?" I ask before hearing faint shuffle of paper, what I assume is she is opening the book, she says she is yet to get another book with more information and has to ask her father but hasn't seen him in a while. Apparently, she is not the only one interested in old cultures, myths and legends. Her grandmother used to collect things when she was alive.

"I think it is some form of protective reflex, only it is not a reflex, it just comes with the power. It is a defensive mechanism, but nothing in this book talks about that."

"So, like Gaaras Sand Protection?" Kitan talks, reminding me of his weird obsession with anime. I don't think they are all bad, I mean I have my love for the superhero verse, but his obsession would likely have another name if the people who create words could make another. The only one I managed to watch and enjoy is One Punch Man.

"Nobody speaks weird, Bae."

"It is basically the same thing that happens to him, whenever he is being attacked, sand from his gourd comes out and blocks him. I wonder if you have a sand skin protection."

"Please, please. Lebechi, so is this going to be a regular thing?" I direct my eyes away from the ground to the car and see someone struggle to come out.

"Only one way to find out."

I walk towards the figure in all black as he falls to the ground through the window. He picks himself up when he sees me a few distance away and holds out a blade. I am afraid, if the sand protection was just a one time thing, that knife could seriously injure me. Still, I am willing to try.

"Is that sharp? Looks not." He growls so much I fear he is an animal underneath his all black costume, and runs towards me. I don't make a move to move.

"What are you doing? What if it was just luck?" Kitan has worry in his voice. "Do something."

Not a chance.

I wait, making myself open to the attack from the man, he gets very close with the blade over his head with the plan to stab me. In a second, a wall of sand burst from the ground and his blade collides with it. My view is blocked but I hear the object fall to the ground. Then the sand falls, the black cloth mask prevents me from seeing all of his emotions, but with how wide his large eyes are, I can tell he is in shock.

"Told you that thing was blunt." He growls again, obviously he cannot control his anger. He decides to punch me but again, another wall of earth rises up and his fist hits that. He continues on and on which becomes funny.

When he is tired, I stop laughing. The most I have done since I began was catch thiefs who sometimes surrender on the spot or I beat them with a single punch and it does not make this superhero thing any fun. I decided to watch a few Youtube videos on fight moves that are rad, now is the time to test it. "My turn," I feel flexible as I do a black flip that lets my right leg land on his cheek. Shit.

"I call that the Earth flips."

"What?" Kitan and Lebechi say at the same time, probably confused with the name I call the action.

"Don't blame me, it just came to my head."

The man stands up, visibly shaken from the kick. He cracks his neck and a low growl escapes from his mouth.

"Amadin, just hold him up and, like use the earth to make him not move till when ever the slow pokes of a Police comes."

"Nah uhn, I am here to have fun." I lick the inside of my cheeks, feeling all the power in me. I turn to face him fully. "Want some more?"

He runs to me and attempts to punch me again, the wall rises up, knocking him back. My chance comes after the wall falls, since he is not very tall, I am able to punch his face and he moves back from the impact. Still, I don't stop there, I kick him between his legs, he shrinks in pain, muttering gibberish. To finalize it, I turn around sleekly, then hit him with as much forces as my legs could give. Apparently, it is a lot as he rotates twice before falling to the ground.

"Damn, I am good baby!"

"Technically it is not you," Kitan chuckles, "It is the ring."

"Don't be a kill joy," Lebechi says happily.

"Tell him, all he does is kill my newly found joy." I laugh and look to the man who moves weakly on the ground. This would teach him to stay away from vehicles that do not belong to him for a long time.

"What is that there?" Lebechi asks, and I notice what she can see through the video cam on my body. It is like a crack on the ground from where one of the sand erupted and it is only a few meter away from the criminal. Just like the store, there is light smoke coming out of it.

"I don't know, let me go check," my buddies disagree, good thing they are far away from me. I approach, carefully, my intention is to have a quick look. Maybe it is an underground car shop.

But Nigerians always prefer to stay on top.

When I get close I see it is not just a crack, it is wide and has a light orange illumination.

"What the hell?" the silence becomes loud, I kneel so I can examine it, a wave of heat touches my face and I shift. It is like the steam from the hot water Mother once forced me to bend over.

"What do you see?"

"Nothing, but it is very hot. I am sweating deeply," and truly I am. I feel all sticky inside of my outfit and just want to get out.

"You know what?" Again Kitan has worry in his voice just like before the man attacked, "pin the man down and get out of there, we have school tomorrow and we don't want you sleeping in class, again."

I chuckle remembering how a teacher asked me to frog jump, because of the outing of last night, and the night before, and the fact I am getting little sleep these days. I told my parents final class students started having late classes to prepare for the external exam in some months time, they were skeptical at first and demanded to speak with the Principal but I was able to convince them by saying I wanted to get all A's and this was the only way. Imagine the excitement in Mothers eyes and pleased look of Father.

"Amadin, did you hear me?"

"Yes, I do. Alright." I stand and just a second later, a gush of wind bursts out from the crack, only it is not a wind. The faint light from the half moon, that is out, illuminates a brownish creature with bat like wings, it has a human body—mostly skeletal—but the head is inhuman, the eyes are all black and the tongue make ticking noises.

I fall to the ground, my entire form in shock. It hovers around me for sometime, screeching loudly.

"Get out of there," I can't tell whose voice it is because all my senses are working improperly, "Amadin, get out."

Finally, it comes at me, long sharp claws stretched out at me, I use my hand to cover my face reflexively, my breathing is heavy. I am going to die and by the hands of something that looks like it came from Hell. But somehow, I feel nothing.

When I open my eyes it is still there, clawing at me. It is like a ghost that passes through me. My body begins to work again, I move back, away from it.

"I-it, it can't touch me," I tell no one in particular.

"Lebechi, do you know about that thing?" Kitan asks

"No, I haven't seen anything in the book."

"You need to do more research. Amadin, get out of there."

The creature screeches loudly, angry at not being able to get to me and I watch. It looks from me to the

weak man on the ground and then screech more loudly than before, I cover my ears until it stops. It then flies to where the man is and in an instant, disappears into his body. Everywhere becomes silent, and I only hear my breathing.

"Is it gone?"

"Does it have to be gone for her to leave?" Kitan chides Lebechi way too loudly, jolting me from my frozen stance. "Time to leave, leave now, just leave."

"I have heard you," truly I do not know what happened but I am glad it is over. I get off the ground and prepare to run back to school when the security guards make their appearance. A little too late if they asked me, but they didn't.

"Hey you, you wan steal our car abi, God catch you!" One of them accuses me and I cannot help but laugh.

"I can't drive and you are welcome," I tell them, they have their batons in their hands ready to come at me, I suppose. "He was the one who almost stole what you were supposed to watch," I point behind me before I dust my body of the sand.

"Who?" The second asks, confusion in his voice.

Are these people blind?

"He is right th--" it is my turn to be confused when I do not see the man where he last was. He was totally weak, there was no way he would have stood up without me knowing.

"Something is not right," Kitan says.

"Obviously. I beat him a lot, he cannot just disappear."

"I am not telling you to clarify my words, just get out of there."

"What if I leave and he attacks these men?" I gesture to them which makes them flinch briefly, probably still scared of me because of how I got into store.

"Who she dey talk to?" The second asks but I ignore.

"Well, they are grown ass men, they can take care of themselves. You on the other hand are just child."

"But I have the powers and I am the Superhero."

"Are you? Really?" Now he angered me.

"Fuck off, Kitan."

"If only that were possible but you would be a mess without me," although he speaks the truth, I hated them and him at the moment.

"Still, fuck of--"

"Guys," apparently Lebechi has been calling for our attention, "Would you stop arguing for a moment and listen!"

And we kept quiet, I focus my attention, and hear the sound, the screech from before. I try to pinpoint the location, the security men beat me to it. "W-what is that up there?" Slowly, I look up to where one of them points and there is the missing man, on the Power supply pole, perched onto it like a bird.

"Amadin, get out." You don't have to tell me twice.

"Run," I turn to tell the men but see they have made their way towards the entrance, their batons left behind.

"So much for being guards," I start to move myself, headed for the entrance to, I don't make it far when the man-thing lands in front of me. His mask is still on, his eyes are wide, but all of it is a thick black.

He, the thing, I am not sure which, screeches and makes for me before I realize it. The earth bursts out to block his path, but now he has enough strength and breaks through it in a single punch. I am very afraid. I am able to dodge the first punch which he throws my way, but not the second and I realize a little to late that it is not a punch when I feel a sharp slice on the wrist I protected myself with.

Blood drips from the injury, my breathing increases and I can hear my heartbeat fast. Anger overpowers me and when the man-thing tries to strike again, I raise a ball of earth, larger than my head and throw his way. It slams into his chest, my ears pick up the sound of, perhaps, crushed bone. Suddenly, the creature itself rises from the man like smoke and screeches louder than before. In less than a second, it bursts into tiny particles that I can hardly see.

I am shaking, I look around, not trusting its disappearance this time. "W-what happened?"

"There is no time, the Police are on their way already, just leave."

"I need to get my uniform before I go home," I say still frightened.

"Go home, bandage that wound, you can wear the sports outfit tomorrow, I'll bring your uniform for you." Lebechi tells me sharply.

Mother is working overnight tonight and Father has been coming home late or not at all. We have a middle aged woman who comes around to takes care of Eni when both my Parents are busy and the good thing is she hardly disturbs me, so I know I will have the perfect chance to sneak into my room through the window.

"Okay."

Along the way, I decide Kitan is right and I am no Superhero. I plan to tell them in school, I was over all of it, not after experiencing what I did. I am able to enter into my room by lifting the ground underneath me to my window level. After I step inside, I regret fully not reminding myself that my brother is a snoop and may have been in there, seated on the ground by my wardrobe and my comics in his prying hands.

"I knew you were lying when you said your school started extra lessons."

•••

It is official, the group has what is bigger than them.

Now tell me, how is the fight scene? I'm actually worried it is shallow :'(

Would you give up too if you were Amadin?

Let me know how you feel and also listen to Power by Little Mix for this chapter (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Thank you for reading
Ciao