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July is Flash Fiction Month! I’ll be sharing short short stories here through the month of July. More notes about this story are at the end of the post.

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“Are the cuffs really necessary?” Butcher Bird wriggled her arms, rattling the chain. “You know I can’t use my powers inside.”

Sitting across the metal table, Spider Lily glared at her. “You’re dangerous enough without them.”

Butcher Bird grinned. “Glad you remembered that.”

Spider Lily extended her arm and rolled up her sleeve. Unlike most superhero costumes, Lily’s was loose-fitting. At least a dozen spiders crawled up and down Lily’s arm. It was a warning. “The Association gave me ten minutes to talk to you. I want to hear your side of the story.”

Bird scoffed. “Since when do you want to hear my side of the story, Lil?” 

“I know we’ve had our differences, and that you’ve never been interested in joining the Association. But LAPH still sets the standards for what is and is not acceptable superhero behavior. We’ve ignored your previous infractions, but today you’ve taken things too far.” Lily pinched her fingers close together. “You’re this close to being declared a supervillain.” 

Bird let out a harsh, one-syllable laugh. “You people really have no perspective, do you? Do you know what that rocket was loaded with?”

“You impaled the CEO, several times, in a gigantic nest of barbed wire and left him to die.” 

Bird gestured to the emblem on her chest, which depicted a white and gray bird with a black mask around its eyes and at the tips of its wings: a loggerhead shrike. “Um, yeah. That’s kind of my whole thing. It was people, by the way.”

Lily’s brows met in a point. “What?”

“On the rocket. Not probes. It was a bunch of people in vegetative states. Their families thought they’d taken them off life support, but no, your beloved spaceman CEO thought they’d be excellent test subjects. Did he die, by the way? I didn’t get a chance to go back to check. You know. Because arrested.” She jiggled the chain of her cuffs again. 

Lily blinked several times. “He’s still alive, in the ICU.”

“Damn. Next time I’ll do better.” She sounded genuinely disappointed.

“See, that’s the kind of thing that makes you sound like a supervillain!” Lily huffed, then calmed herself. “How did you know there were people on that rocket?” 

“I got a tip-off.” Bird shrugged as best she could. “Someone who suspected her favorite uncle wasn’t going to the great beyond. At least not in the figurative sense.”

Lily narrowed her eyes. “Why would she tell you, and not us?” 

“Oh, she tried. She went to the cops first, then through the usual LAPH channels. Cops laughed at her, she was ignored by the hotline…thankfully, she found me.” A smug smile appeared on Bird’s face. “That’s the advantage of working with a small business.”

Lily jotted something down on her tablet. “Let’s talk about the cops.”

“Oh boy, here it comes…” Bird rolled her eyes. “They were shooting at me.”

“Because you were attacking a CEO at a rocket launch!” Lily slammed her hand against the table. “Three of them died, Butcher Bird. You’re really living up to your name.”

Bird quirked an eyebrow. “And?”

Lily straightened herself. “Superheroes are always meant to work with law enforcement, never against it.”

Bird’s face hardened. “Even if law enforcement was trying to help a megalomanic shoot coma patients into space, without their family’s knowledge or consent? You’re okay with that?”

Lily’s eyes flashed. “No. I’m not okay with that. But going off the knowledge the officers had at the time–”

“–which my source tried to tell them, but they ignored–” Bird cut in. “This is the problem with you Association people. Everything is black and white with you. But the people like me, who don’t live an ivory tower, or whatever your HQ is made of…” Bird scuffed her toe along the clean floor. “We know better. No one is totally good, and no one is totally bad. Just because you’re in the ‘Loose Association of Powerful Heroes’ doesn’t mean that you actually are a hero. Just because you destroy a launchpad doesn’t mean you’re bad.” 

“But you did destroy a launchpad. And a lot more than that.” 

Bird leaned back in her chair. “Hell yeah, I did. And I would do it all again.” 

“I think I’ve got enough here.” Lily stood up. “The sec-bots will see you back to your cell.” 

“So, am I a supervillain now?” Bird asked as she walked past. 

“I’m not at liberty to say.” Lily had her hand on the door. “It’s not my decision.” 

“Don’t give me that Association talk. Look at me, Lil. Look me in the eyes and tell me what you would do,” Bird challenged. 

Lily swallowed, and took in the face of the woman who used to be her friend. “I don’t know,” she admitted. 

“Not so easy, is it?”

“No,” Lily said quietly.

“As long as you know that.” Bird nodded. “Do what you have to, Lil.” 

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This is another FFM challenge! Participants were given songs by other brave souls attempting FFM to use as inspiration for today’s story. This was inspired by “Renegade” by Styx (Butcher Bird being caught by the long arm of superhero law) and “My Back Pages” by the Byrds (“My guard stood hard when abstract threats/Too noble to neglect/Deceived me into thinking/I had something to protect/Good and bad, I define these terms/Quite clear, no doubt, somehow”)

Butcher Bird and Spider Lily popped into my head a few months ago, and I knew I had to write about them for FFM. I didn’t think this would be their introduction, though! Butcher Bird was always meant to be an anti-heroine, the song choices really screamed her name. I’ll probably have a couple other stories about these two, because I want to see them in action.

The loggerhead shrike is one of my favorite perching birds because they’re small and vicious. They impale their prey on thorns or barbed wire. And, credit where it’s due: the name Loose Association of Powerful Heroes was actually made up by my friend Sam, waaaay back, and I never forgot it.