A Heroine's Debut

The costumed woman eventually heads back to the kitchen, catches the fork (which still hasn't hit the ground), turns off her power ring, puts the dishes in the sink, and heads out to face the day as a civilian.

At her first bus exchange, waiting outside a jewelry store, the ring buzzes on Jasmine's finger as the world otherwise goes silent and still.

“What…” the woman starts, glancing at her hand… which still looks normal.

The mage doesn't let her finish, “Trouble alarm. Eyes open. Look around. Find the problem.”

“I have ‘danger sense’ now?” the woman shakes her head, but does look around… to see little pieces of shaped copper crawling slowly through the air towards her, still on the other side of the store window, where a few guys with ski masks are holding old-fashioned Tommy guns.

“Yes, you do,” the ring comments, “it's cheap enough, and well… NOT getting hit in the back of the head by a random spray of bullets is worth some investment, wouldn't you agree?”

“Why no uniform?” Jasmine asks as she uses her other hand to activate that illusion.

“In case of circumstances where it fires inappropriately,” the ring answers easily as the woman walks calmly to the jewelry store door, opening it, “shutting it down is less of a big deal, and there's less for a camera to catch if you're not in uniform.”

The now-uniformed hero calmly walks over and picks the bullets out of the air, carefully dropping them, “Good enough,” she looks over at the crooks, “Nice plan. Now how should I handle these buffoons?”

Another bullet starts to slowly crawl out of the barrel of the gun held by the active shooter, “That's your call,” the ring chuckles, “I'm just providing the tools.”

Shrugging, the woman flips the safeties on for all of the weapons, pulls out the clips, and sets them aside. She further extracts the crooks’ shoe laces, and uses those to tie their feet together. Tapping her foot a moment, she then pulls off all of their masks, strips them of their shirts, pulls their arms around behind them, and ties their hands together. Just for good measure, she also shoves each one slightly, so they'll fall.

“Hey, is this going to shatter their arms or anything?” Jasmine thinks to ask after she's already committed.

“You ask that now?” the Mage chuckles in her head, “It's fine. The same safeties that let you open a door without breaking it will keep their bones from shattering and their flesh from being ripped off their bones.”

“Good…” Jasmine grabs the last fired bullet, and drops it as well, “I suppose that's done…” she looks around one last time, nods, reaches over, and turns off the speed while leaving the illusion.

At which point time resumes and physics follow the new scenario: The robbers do face plants, their guns fall to the ground, and the previously in-flight bullets fall because they lost all of their inertia, clattering on the floor.

The crooks start screaming out profanity as they start to wiggle out of the restraints, but Jasmine speaks up, “Assuming you get out of those… want to bet on how many microseconds of freedom you'll have before the police get here?”

They stop, and one of the goons speaks up, “Fine, can we at least get your name?”

Jasmine pauses and smiles, “I am the whisper of the end of evil's reign. I am the whisper of your conscience. I am: The Green Whisper.”

“Huh, haven't heard of you,” a lady running the store tilts her head, “but thanks. I already hit the silent alarm, the police should be here in…” She trails off because they see a police car parking, lights on and sirens off, just outside the door.

Jasmine smiles and taps her ring twice with the pointer finger of her other hand, turning the time manipulation back on, and everything stops. She pauses, seeing the guns on the ground, “What would happen if I fired those?”

“Basically nothing, they'd act like normal bullets fired normally,” the ring chuckles, “the mapping exception that turns your punches, kicks, and thrown items into devastating attacks is tied to rapid motion from your hands and feet. The bullets would seem to slow down a few inches from the barrel as they rejoined the normal time stream.”

“So no near light speed projectiles, then,” the Green Whisper sighs as she heads for the door

“That's a good thing,” the mage laughs as his host opens the door and walks through, “firing something that fast inside an atmosphere would have comparable effects to setting off a nuclear bomb. Theoretically I could make it work that way, but….”

“I get it,” the woman stops him, “we can't save the city by destroying it and leaving a radioactive crater.” She chuckles as she gets back to the bus stop, “ruining my fun…” she reaches for the speed ring, then pauses, “It is a lovely day… and I probably shouldn't work on my endurance…” Smiling, the pair jog to work through the streets, ignoring the lights and the still traffic.