Vanessa slides onto the train just in time, still heaving from her run. She checks her watch “4:32 pm” and sits down, plugging her headphones in. She starts playing some music, sitting back until she sees something in the corner of her eye. She pauses, listening in. “Time to introduce you to Manhattan’s newest superhero: the Invisible Man! The Invisible Man’s fighting style is simple, he turns invisible to trap his foes…” Vanessa smirks and turns her music back on. “Invisible Woman” she mouths to herself. “One day they’ll get it right.”

She reflects on her day so far. She stopped a bodega from getting robbed a couple of blocks back, broke up a fight between two gangsters, and saved a cat from a tree. Overall, pretty routine stuff. “It’s a lot for one day” she thought to herself, taking in a deep breath. Her first week on the job was looking to be pretty tough in the big city. 

She thinks about all the good that she had done back in her hometown and compares it. Back in her hometown, she got one robbery in the past 3 months of her having her powers. It was at a watermelon stand off the interstate, and the only reason it happened was because the vendor didn’t accept Venmo. Breaking up fights? Those were mostly high schoolers where she was from, not really people with handguns and knives. Cats from trees? That was much more her speed, but usually it was a goat stuck in a fence or something.

 Suddenly she hears a muted voice through her headphones “-ext stop is 25th and 3rd.” “25th and 3rd?!” Vanessa blurted out, clamoring to her feet. None of the passengers look in her direction. She scans the map and her heart starts to sink. “I was supposed to get off 3 stops ago.” she thought to herself. She pinches the bridge of her nose and shakes her head. The subway doors open up, and she approaches a man sitting at one of the benches. “Excuse me, sir, do you know where the train going towards 1st street is?” The man looks up at her, glares, and turns away from her.

Vanessa spends the next 15 minutes trying to find a train until she sees something in the corner of her eye. “Southbound train” the sign said in big letters. Vanessa darts over and sees a train getting ready to board. She sighs in relief and starts to calmly walk over. Before she can even catch it the doors start to close. Shocked, Vanessa starts to run for the door. The doors inch shut closer and closer. Vanessa breaks out in a full sprint, reaching out her hand to stop the door until… they shut. She missed it. “Dammit!” She says to herself.

“Oh are looking for a Southbound train?” a homeless man offers. Vanessa smiles. “Yes, yes I am.” “Oh those aren’t going to run for another 30 minutes. They do maintenance this time of the month.” Vanessa frowns. She sits on the bench and thinks to herself. What is she going to do now? “You know, miss, the streets are numbered. You can probably just walk.” Vanessa looks up at the man and gives a thumbs up. “Great,” she says to herself. “I guess I’m walking.”