The Shadow Avenger crossed Geary Boulevard and continued down Larkin. It was no good patrolling there – everyone would see his cape and think him a poorly dressed transvestite hooker. It had happened before. Black lycra was standard for superheroes, but also for other professions.

Walking downhill toward the financial district, the Shadow Avenger ruminated on his disastrous fifth date with Alison. He'd explained his secret identity, and she'd laughed out loud. He'd really liked her, too, but a guy couldn't date a girl who didn't take his superheroing seriously. "It sounds like you avenge the shadows!" she'd chortled.

Well, who needs a girl from the Marina anyway? he thought. His buddies had warned him against Marina chicks – too skinny, too obsessed with working out and having the right shade of hair and the latest fashions. Of course, that's what had attracted him to Alison in the first place. He took good care of his body, and he liked girls who did, too. He couldn't very well be a superhero without being in top condition. When people asked him what his superpower was, he had to tell them something.

He was about thirteen when he realized that he had no smell. While all the other boys were playing touch football and sweating like mad, the Shadow Avenger didn't smell at all. He knew it was a real power. So far, it hadn't been a great asset in crime fighting, but he had worked on walking really, really quietly and had learned judo. He figured the lack of smell would come in handy someday, in the right situation. Perhaps someday he'd face some kind of dog monster or a werewolf, and they wouldn't be able to smell him coming.

As the Shadow Avenger passed beneath the streetlights, regular little moons of light on the ground, he admired how his cape swirled around him. He knew he cut a handsome figure, doubly so if he wasn't wearing the mask.

Suddenly, he heard a crash and a curse from a nearby alley. A cat? A villain? Keeping in the shadows, he carefully tiptoed up to the corner of the alley. Hearing whimpering, he peered in.

Before him were two men on their hands and knees on the ground. They looked dirty, maybe homeless? They were angled toward him but looking at something in between them, something which blocked his view and yet seemed translucent at the same time. Even with the streetlight behind him the thing was hard to see, other than that he was looking at something's massive, muddled back. Something that both glowed pale blue and sucked all the light from the alley.

"Stop!" he yelled at the thing. He couldn't think of what else to say. It didn't move, seeming to be a shifting mass of shadows and spiky bits. "The Shadow Avenger commands you!"

And then it turned to face him.

"Oh dear God," he thought.

The form didn't so much turn around as it coalesced into something recognizable. Huge, ragged, black bat wings spread out from behind its back. Glowing pale arms, far too thin and long to be human, reached for him. And the face – God, the face – it was a woman's face, but long and narrow, like a ghoul or a harpy, with long black hair that merged into some kind of indistinct body or dress. The eyes weren't eyes at all, but pale blue shining orbs, like faraway stars. The creature was all blue-tinged black and white, like an old photograph gone bad. Then the wings stretched out to him as well. As he inadvertently dropped his gaze to the ground, he realized with a shock that it didn't have feet at all, but was floating off the ground. When he forced himself to look up at the thing again, it was smiling at him, a terrifying smile with dark red lips and a mouth with too many narrow teeth.

"AGHHH!" He yelled, and stumbled back. The Shadow Avenger had never seen anything so terrifying in his life. Before it could do something horrible to him, he turned and ran. Lack of scent would not help him against that monster, but his regular cardio training gave him a good start. He thought he heard, like a cold breath on his cheek, a faint "waaaaaiiit," but that only made him run harder.

By the time he'd reached the Embarcadero, the Shadow Avenger was panting, and ashamed. He should have fought it. He should have beaten it. But then he remembered the teeth and the harpy's wings, and shuddered.

A real man knows his limits, he consoled himself. He was good at taking down muggers, but a creature from the Abyss – that would have to wait.

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