I work one day a week every week, get paid ten thousand a month and get all the support I can ask for. I'm Wendy Lynne and what's my job? I'm a superhero.

I zipped up my biker suit and squeezed on my helmet. The time was 00:01 in the morning, my 24 hour shift had just started. This was my second day on the job. I was Wednesday. I zipped around the city on my new high-tech motorcycle, looking out for crime. The voice in my ear, made jokes and told me what was going on in the city: we all had code-names in this company: My eyes and ears were a man codenamed Cheerleader. One thing I didn't expect was how boring being a superhero was. Most of it was just patrolling. Or a robbery, a stolen vehicle or something. I broke up fights, but was told to watch out for other super-powered people. My company seemed to have recruited at least seven of us, though I was a replacement for Wednesday, it was a dangerous job. Superpowers had complicated my life: I was in the vicinity of the Dark-matter power plant the day it imploded. It spread something out in a ten mile radius. Tons of people died. A select few developed powers. I guess I was one of the lucky ones.

I parked my motorcycle outside a fast food joint and ordered what my stomach desired, being careful not to take off my helmet: secret identities were an important thing; I liked my privacy.

Unfortunately, the black biker's jacket with a green striped and 'Wednesday' slapped across it weren't very incognito: three burly looking guys with the cliché socks over their heads were outside waiting for me.

“You broke my cousin's legs” said the guy in a checkered shirt.

I unzipped my jacket slightly, “He tried to steal the inheritance off a little girl in a wheelchair.” I replied.

“I'm not afraid to hit a woman.” the gruff man said.

“Are you afraid of broken legs?” I said back. I had no sympathy for gang members.

The three men closed in on me. Having superpowers did make me cocky. Basic training included three martial arts styles so I decided to make this example flashy. I flipped over the first and landed on the head of the second, throwing him to the ground in a lock and yanking on his arm: I heard a crack; that was one dislocated arm.

My ear buzzed with an annoyed voice, “Wednesday, I leave for one minute and you're already in a fight?” Cheerleader complained, it was after all him who had to deal with the report tomorrow.

“Sorry.” I said back as I swept the legs from under the first guy and elbowed his nose, leaving him recoiling in pain.

The third guy flicked out a nasty looking knife and stabbed me in the side. It went straight through my jacket and stopped. Oh yeah, my superpower? Invulnerability.

My jacket hid this fact: the only people who knew about my power were the big boss, cheerleader and myself. I was the least flashy of the weekdays, but at least my company health insurance was free. Broken-nose then hit me in the back with a baseball bat. Where did the baseball-bat come from? I decided he would be the first to get a broken-leg. Nobody threatens me then hits me with a baseball bat and gets away with it. I kicked him to the ground and then stamped down: he would be limping for a while.

My ear buzzed again, “You know we don't like it when you cause unnecessary injuries We have enough questions from the government as it is.”

“Don't worry, the bike is facing us.” I said back.

The bike was the most amazing thing ever. It recorded my activity, recorded evidence, was armed with hidden weapons, the wheels could become adhesive and let me drive up buildings, it was built to survive a tank shell and could be remote controlled.

With their shit kicked in, the three gang members hobbled away. I let them. I was still trying to cement myself as a force of nature rather than someone who they could beat.

“I'm going to eat now, let me know of any crimes.” I said to cheerleader as I packed my food in the bike and rode off.

I found an empty park and took off my helmet. My long hair stuck to my face. Helmet hair sucked.

“You said last week that you had a kid?” I asked cheerleader.

“That was a slip. You know we're not allowed to talk about our personal lives.” he replied.

I took a bite out of my burger, “Right. Sorry.” I said with my mouth full.

I rode around a bit, played some games on my phone and took the elevator up a skyscraper in time to catch the sunrise.

“How do you not fall asleep?” I asked as I dangled my legs off the edge.

“Lots of coffee. You should see the desk I'm at: Eleven screens, three computers, lots of files. Lots of info on you. Dropped out of college twice and now you're a Weekday.” Cheerleader replied.

“Hey, that's not fair. You know so much about me. I don't know anything about you.”I said as I tried to imagine what this guy called 'Cheerleader' looked like. I imagined an office nerd with glasses.

“Its the same for all the Weekdays. I'm sure we can meet one day, back at base. Have you seen any others?” he asked.

Of course I had. Monday was the most renowned: the blonde man could fly. All I knew of Tuesday was that she was female, Thursday was like a ninja, Friday could make lightning or something? The weekenders were just a large group of highly trained normals. They only called in the big guns when needed.

“I've seen some of them on the news. Its annoying there are so many regulations, I'd like to meet them. Others like me.” I replied.

The sunrise over the city horizon filled me with hope. Crime wasn't that bad. Only two so called 'super-powered villains' had tried anything and I genuinely didn't think there were that many people with dangerous powers anyway. But I was just happy to have a job. This was the first month I could afford rent/food and treat myself.

I checked the time on my phone: 5:26AM

“Do you meet the other sidekicks?”

“Yeah, we have meetings and have to discuss hand-overs every night, so I'm mostly in contact with Bestie and Fixer.” Cheerleader replied.

I chuckled, rubbing at the dark bags under my eyes.“Your nicknames are just great.”

Because I wore a helmet, I didn't bother putting any make-up on, the sweat would just make it run anyway.

“So who would you want to meet if you could?” cheerleader asked.

“I'd like to see Monday up close, he seems really cool. He doesn't even wear a helmet or need a bike, I wonder what its like for him. And what it's like to fly.”

“Ask and you shall receive” A voice behind me said.

I shrieked and nearly fell off the building, but a hand grabbed me and yanked me to safety. I fell on my back and looked up at a blonde haired man.

“Hi, I'm Monday.”

Holy shit. It was like meeting a celebrity. Well, I guess he was a celebrity.

“I'm Wendy-Wednesday. Wednesday. Hi...”

I tried to regain my composure and suddenly became aware of my acute lack of make-up.

Monday smiled, “So you're the new Wednesday then.”

“What gave it away?”

“The word Wednesday stitched on the arm of your jacket. Plus I saw you ride here. Not many people own a bike like yours.”

“Oh.” I replied. My brain had turned to mush. All the questions I wanted to ask evaded my mind.

“So to answer your question, my secret identity was compromised, but it didn't matter, I can evade prying eyes if I fly fast enough, and about the flying? It's exhilarating, but not what you think.”

Monday reached over to me and brushed my hair, flicking a tiny switch on my ear. He learnt in. My heart was pumping.

“So what's your power?” he whispered.

“I'm not sure I'm allowed to say.”

“I realise they want to keep it under wraps, but I'm on your team.”

“Cheerleader would kick my butt.”

“I just turned cheerleader off. Don't worry about it. I'm just curious.”

“Invulnerability.” I whispered as our eyes locked.

Monday's eyes widened, “Wow... That's a big one. Hard to use I bet. No wonder your bike has so many extras compared to everyone else.”

Monday's presence kept my heart thumping.

“How long have you been a Weekday?” I asked.

“Nine months. Its easy money when you know this city inside out.”

“Oh, I have a sat-nav.”

“That's not what I meant.” Monday said as he turned me around a grabbed me. His touch felt nice. Or it did until my lunch nearly came up as we took off into the sky.

Every 'superpower' had a drawback of sorts, nothing was straightforward. Now Monday's became apparent. He made it look smooth and easy, but I wasn't dumb, this wasn't flight. This was gravity manipulation. It constantly felt like we were falling no matter what direction we went. My last meal nearly came back up to say hi. Once I got over this, however, the views were absolutely spectacular. Sunlight gleamed off the windows, traffic looked like toy cars in a play-set, the blue sky was such a perfect backdrop as the wind rushed past me. After a quick circle that was over too soon, he dropped me back on the roof and I switched my ear-piece back on.

“Nice to meet you, Wednesday.” Monday bowed and flew off.

“-o there, are you there. Come on. What was that?!” Cheerleader said in my ear.

“I'm here cheerleader.” I replied.

“yeah, don't turn me off again. Its important we stay connected.” he said in a frustrated manner.

“Did I miss anything?”

“No...”

“Okay then.” I smiled, this was going to be a good day, I decided, “Let's get back to work.”

At 11:34am I saved a man from a car crash, at 2:12pm I stopped someone jumping off a bridge, I fell off by accident instead and cheerleader had to remote control my bike around to the shore. As long as I was saving lives and earning money, I couldn't complain: there was a lot of freedom. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful as it dragged on.

I had pizza for dinner and ate it on the same skyscraper where I met Monday. I was secretly hoping he would pop by again, but I ate the pizza alone.

“This is going to be a lonely job isn't it.” I said to the setting sun.

“You've got me remember.” Cheerleader replied.

“No, I've got your voice. Out here, all I have is pizza.” I ate the last slice. It was a delicious pizza though.

“Keeping a double life will be hard, I won't lie. When I was promoted to be your assistant, I had to sign no end of secrecy contracts.”

This was new info, “What did you used to do in the organisation then?”

“Accounting. I'm the one who doubled the budget for your bike. Your welcome.”

I stood up and felt let the wind breeze through my hair. I couldn't wait for a shower.

“Do you know my real identity?”

“I know your first name, your abilities and some of your history. I don't know where you live or where you're from.”

“That's a shame, I was going to invite you around for breakfast.”

Cheerleader laughed. He sounded as tired as I was. Turns out that invulnerability doesn't give you unlimited stamina. My body ached from tiredness. I told cheerleader and he really sympathised with me: he had to switch between sitting and standing all day and got bored as well.

Soon the day wound to a close without further incident. I wheeled my bike back to the compound. As far as I remembered, the process was to go into the underground carpark, un-gear, get debriefed, take a secret passageway to the metro, then I would take the subway back to my apartment to sleep for a day.

I waited for the barrier to raise and rode my bike down and left into the restricted lift. I looked at the time on the bike, it read 23:59PM. The blast-doors closed behind me and the lift jolted and headed down. I threw off my helmet and took a long exaggerated sigh.

“Well done, Wednesday. Your second successful shift. Now you take it easy and rest and I'll see you in a week.”

“Goodnight, Cheerleader. Thanks for everything. I'll see you soon.”

I took out my earpiece and walked through the opposite door. Wearing the same outfit for 24 hours straight was horrible. I was going to have request that a shower break be implemented in my day: there sure was enough downtime for it.

I got as far as the changing rooms when an alarm sounded. It wasn't the fire drill. I put my earpiece back in.

“What's going on?”

“Wednesday, I need you outside, right now.” Cheerleader said.

I ran back into the lift and it went up. My helmet was still on the ground: I secured it on my head.

The blast-doors opened and a ran outside of the carpark and hopped over the barrier just in time to see a large, hulking yet cloaked man throw a biker into the ground. I caught a glimpse of of the biker's jacket: Thursday.

I ran towards the throwdown at full belt, willing my tired body to keep going.

Thursday tried to break free of the grip as the unknown assailant grabbed a large gun of his back and unloaded a hail of concurrent shotgun blasts right into Thursday's body. It was a horrifying massacre. Chunks of bloody flesh exploded outwards and Thursday stopped struggling. The assailant turned his attention to me.

Shit.

Cheerleader was screaming into my ear, but I couldn't hear him over the static.

The shotgun was dropped. As I got closer I saw the bulking armour plates underneath the cloak, as well as the weapons. This guy was a walking armoury. He grabbed what I can only describe as hand-cannon from his belt and fired. Armour piercing rounds ripped through my helmet and hit me in the head, causing me to stumble to the ground. I ripped off my helmet in time to see a grenade roll by me.

This guy was nuts!

I jumped up and drop kicked him in the face just as the grenade blew us both off our feet. While I was on the ground I felt the familiar punch of a sub-machine gun belt my body. I took the hit: I could get another jacket. The bullets stopped.

I feigned death until I heard the footsteps get closer. Now!

Like a striking cobra, I whipped my legs up and coiled around his body, using my momentum to throw him to the ground. He was heavy. Now I was on top. I slapped his ears and throat to disorientate him and then punched him in the face. Repeatedly. He rolled me over, but I didn't stop punching.

Since his face felt harder than normal, I could only assume he was wearing a mask. I felt the barrel of a gun get shoved into my chest, followed by more bangs.

“Why won't you die?!” A muffled voice shouted from under the mask. I could see it clearly now. The mask looked like a metal, Mexican death mask. He was on top of me and had me pinned. He grabbed my face. This wasn't good. I wasn't immune to suffocation. I struggled to bat his hand away, but his grip was solid.

I had until he realised he couldn't crush my head and found out I couldn't breathe. I felt around his body. Armour. Guns. I pulled a trigger: guns with the safety on. I should have asked for more gun training. I gasped for air. A gun strap. Ammo belt. No air left. My muscles strained for energy, my heart slowed. Another gun. Round... things. Key chains? Wait: grenades!

I pulled on all the pins I could find and braced myself.

Booooooom! The force flattened me into the ground, incinerating my jacket and blasting the weight off me. I passed out from lack of available oxygen for a few minutes, but my body didn't want me stop here. I lay on my back. With the soothing sound of a car alarm and the sigh of smoke and embers. And probably numerous body parts, that thankfully weren't mine.

It was the middle of the night. I was just in the centre of an explosion. Thursday was dead.

My shift was going so well, too.

It wasn't long before some people came out of the car park and secured the area. I was asked if I was okay and given a blanket: it turned out that my dignity took a hit, but it was the first time in a while since my power had done any serious work. I made a mental note to add 'immune to explosions' to my curriculum vitae.

Once the company medical team checked me over, my first question was: 'am I going to have to pull a double shift?'

The medical team didn't know, but cleared me for no injuries, so the second question I asked was: 'Can I go home and take a shower?'

The internal security team arrived and gave me some answers. I wouldn't have to pull a double shift today, but the attacker had breached some hefty security measures.

While in a very comfortable medical bed, I had a visitor.

“Hello, Wednesday.” the scruffy man said.

“Please tell me I can go home now. I just want to shower, sleep and watch netflix for a week.” I said.

“Nice to meet you too.” he replied.

I recognised the voice now. Short beard, dark curly hair, glasses, tattoos on his arms. Not what I thought.

“Chee-”

Cheerleader raised his finger to his lips, looking at the still-present medical staff. He walked over to me.

“I'm not supposed to be here, but I wanted to make sure you were alright. Are you?”

“Physically, yes, mentally, eh. So what's going on?”

Cheerleader rubbed his tired face.

“So the long of the short of it is this: The guy you... defeated, was called War. There's three more, all sporting a fancy 'horsemen of the apocalypse' name. They've been threatening this organisation for a while. There's some pretty hefty crimes they've committed, but at the end of the day, they're just well equipped terrorists.”

“What about Thursday?” I asked, remembering the barbaric murder of my co-worker.

“Thursday is dead. We'll have to get a replacement.”

“Wow. Us Weekdays really are expendable.” I huffed.

“You're really not. You keep this city safe. This whole Weekday Organisation was an experiment to keep crime and murder in check. And compared to other cities, this is the safest place in the country. You stop tons of unreported crimes and are one hell of deterrent. Unfortunately it makes the evil crawl out of the woodwork. But can you imagine unchecked super-powered people doing what they want?”

“Yes I can actually. It involved eating pizza, having a shower and taking a nap in front of netflix.”

“Sorry.” Cheerleader looked sullen, “They want to to stay for security reasons, but I'll clear you to go. Just be careful.”

I nodded, “See you next week.”

Just as he promised, cheerleader cleared me for home. I changed into my civvies and closed my locker, taking a deep breath. Not deep enough. I started crying and collapsed against my locker. This job wasn't going to be easy money. I had watched someone die today and something told me I would see a lot more.

I sat on the subway, watching the lights fly past and left at my stop. Nobody around me knew I was the masked rider of Wednesday. It was one big secret. And I was glad. But I also had no-one to talk to. And even if I did, I couldn't talk about my work.

I look the stairs up to my apartment and unlocked the door. Inside was quiet. I flicked on the light-switch. The clock above the TV told me it was just after 4AM.

I weighed my priorities. I decided on shower, food, sleep.

I stepped into the hot shower and let all the day's sweat, grime and pain wash away. I don't know who invented showers, but I want to kiss them. The freedom of not wearing a leather biker suit was something I was going to start treasuring. I was going to have to adopt summer dresses into my wardrobe. I grabbed my razor and shaved my legs: it had been a while. Blood trickled down my legs, I'd nicked myself. Yeah, I managed to cut myself.

That was my hilarious weakness: my invulnerability washed off with water: not just any liquid like sweat or oil, but good old H20 dissolved my layer of invulnerability for several hours. Only myself and my new big boss knew about this: it was a glaring weakness; we tested it and he thinks its some sort of oil in the skin and my body that somehow pads concussive force and deflects sharp objects. The irony that I could probably take a punch from Hercules but get killed by sufficient enough rain was not lost on me. That's why, despite being invulnerable, I had to wear a full-covering biker's suit. Just in case it rained on Wednesdays. Maybe I could just ask for a thin waterproof one?

After my shower, I dried off and put on my teddy-bear pyjamas. The shower had sort of woken me up, so I grabbed a blanket and collapsed on my sofa, turning on the TV. Yeah, no I was tired. I passed out immediately.

My next pay-check cleared under the guise of premium bond investments cashing out. I bought so much food that I couldn't fit it all in my fridge. As I lay on my couch, binging a new television series I had found on the sunday night, I paused the TV and looked down at the empty pizza box.

I was still new to this city. I was lonely. I couldn't really hang out with anyone from work and I didn't want to go out by myself.

“I'm going to buy a cat.” I said to myself.

The next day, I walked back to my one-bedroom apartment with a cat-basket in my hand. Inside, I positioned it on the floor and opened it. Out stepped my new pet. I was now the proud owner of a ginger kitten called Chi.

I flicked on the TV (A big part of my life) as I read the instructions on the cat food. The news started jabbering in the background.

-estimating a global loss of two hundred donuts. Over to you, Sam.

Thanks, Jenny. Today, our guardian angel of Monday, defeated the shop bombing terrorist who calls himself Conquest. The fight took place in Pretzel Plaza where Monday, despite taking injuries and burns, managed to trap the terrorist under the fountain statue. Damages were minimal and crowds gathered-

“That leaves Famine and Death, huh, Chi.”

The new kitten meowed back at me. My heart melted at the miniature cat. It was the most adorable thing I had ever seen.