(Lightning Rod)

Roddy scowled at his website.? He'd thought that his video of taking down the bat-winged girl would get a lot more than just 78 likes.? Admittedly, the focus hadn't been all that great.? It had been dark and she'd managed to fly halfway out to the harbor before the lightning bolt took her down.? But still, you could clearly see her outstretched wings in the flash.? Couldn't you? If you paused the video and looked closely?

At least it seemed to have satisfied the Russians.? The remaining bounty money had appeared in his account the next morning, enough to pay the rent for his upscale apartment for the rest of the year _and_ get that vintage 300ZX he'd had his eye on ever since he'd begun selling his services.

Which is why he'd created the website. It was his way of advertising, showing what he could do without, however, leaving any evidence.? It was mostly a set of videos of electrical discharges, smaller once erupting from lighting fixtures, street lamps and the like, larger ones coming from the sky itself. The targets varied, mostly cars and small businesses getting struck and set ablaze, but some with people getting zapped in seemingly freak accidents or acts of nature.? All under the caption "Wanna see lightning strike?? Lightning Rod can help."

It was a little rough getting started.? He'd tried approaching local gangs but had trouble because of his youth and especially his "pretty boy" looks. It inevitably required a demonstration of his power, which was frequently turned on some member of the gang he felt had dissed him. Which often went badly. But a few more far-sighted gang leaders saw the potential in what he had to sell and began giving him work.? He started making videos of his jobs, partly out of vanity but also to put up on the website.

But the gangs, he knew, were really small potatoes. And the work, while lucrative, was sporadic. What Roddy really wanted was to get the attention of this group he'd heard rumors about called the Benders of Light.? From the way some of the gangs talked about them, they were an item on the rise, though they didn't seem to be involved in local street crime or petty gang feuds.? The trouble was, nobody seemed to know where they were or how to contact them.? So all he could do was to keep posting videos of his jobs and hope they'd notice him and contact him.

Roddy replayed the bat-winged girl video, this time in a loop, watching wistfully as she got zapped and fell again and again.? The girl was in fact the only other person he'd encountered who was in any way like him, and now she was gone.? As he watched, he began rubbing the growing bulge in his pants, idly wondering what she would've been like in bed. And if she'd have put up a fight there as well.

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