Junior Hero Blues

by J. K. Pendragon

  “Nothing good.” Rick was breathing heavily. “Javier, listen, I—I need you to stop me.”

  I froze in the midst of getting out of bed. “What?”

  “I can’t do it myself. If the Organization realizes I’ve disobeyed them, they’ll—”

  “They’ll give you to the Hound again,” I finished for him. He knew. He knew and he was asking me to help him. I wanted to dance for joy, but all I could feel was dread and fear.

  Rick sounded rushed and desperate. “I don’t want that to happen. Please, Javier, you have to stop me.”

  I got out of bed, fumbling around for my costume. “But won’t they punish you?”

  “I’d rather be punished than brainwashed again.”

  “I understand.” I finished pulling on my costume and hopped up onto the windowsill. “Where are you?”

  It didn’t quite feel real, being out so late at night. I guessed that once I stopped being a Junior Hero I’d probably have a lot more late-night shifts, but right now it didn’t feel right. The city was too quiet, too peaceful, and I couldn’t move fast enough through it. What if it was too late? Would Rick go through with it? Or would he disobey, and be taken and brainwashed again? What if afterward he didn’t recognize me at all?

  I couldn’t stand that thought, so I focused on moving as quickly along the rooftops as I could, finally arriving in a back alley behind a pizza place where Rick had said he was going to be.

  I crawled along a fire escape and crouched in a shadow, waiting as fear tickled my stomach like ants. I wished I’d had time to call Captain Justice, but there was only so much he could do anyway. For the League to interfere in this again would probably start a war. Rick wasn’t worth a war, but damn it, he was for me.

  A car door swung open below me and four figures emerged from it. I recognized Jimmy Black’s bulky figure, and then two slightly smaller guys. In between them they were holding a petite woman with what looked like a cloth bag over her head. She was struggling as they dragged her down the alleyway, and one of the Organization guys kneed her in the stomach and turned to Jimmy. “What the hell are we doing here?”

  “Switching vehicles,” said Jimmy hoarsely. “No surveillance footage here, so the transfer will be untraceable.”

  “All right, smart guy,” said the crony, grunting as the struggling woman attempted to knee him in the crotch. “But how come we gotta deal with the b—”

  I dropped on him from above, wrapping my knees around his head and grabbing the fire escape above me to twist him to the ground. I pulled myself up out of the way just in time as the second guy ran at me, and he slammed into the wall. He turned and raced at me again, running into my feet, and I kicked him hard in the side of the head for good measure.

  In the moments it took for the two of them to get oriented, I dropped to the ground and broke the restraints around the woman’s wrists. She quickly reached up to pull the bag off her head, revealing staticky black hair and wide dark eyes that looked relieved to see me. Then her eyes widened even more and she dodged around me to aim two sharp jabs into the eyes of one of the Organization guys, and then a kick to his crotch.

  “Agghh!” yelled the guy. “Jimmy, get ’em!”

  Jimmy gave an apologetic expression, and then rushed me. I let him slam me into the wall, not as hard as he could have, and his lips rested next to my ear for a moment. “You’d better hit me hard,” he whispered, and when he backed up, his eyes were desperate and afraid.

  I wanted really badly to kiss him, but instead I nodded and aimed a kick at his gut, sending him to the ground. I hit him with an uppercut to finish it off, and then took the woman’s hand and tried to run with her.

  I felt her tugged away from me, and turned to see one of the Organization guys grabbing her leg. She let go of me in a second and flew toward him, using his momentum against him to jam her knee into his stomach. Then she shot a clawed hand toward his neck, and pulled him to the ground. He fell, wheezing, to one knee, and then she took my hand again and we tore down the alley together.

  I ended up grabbing her and flying several blocks south with her. Well, not really flying, obviously. I’m sure when most superheroes pick up girls and fly them around, it’s all smooth and romantic. But I wasn’t really trying to romance her anyway, so she could deal. We landed in a park, and once she’d gotten her bearings, she went to sit down on one of the benches with her head in her hands. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I went and sat next to her.

  “You shouldn’t have bothered saving me,” she said sadly, her voice slightly accented. “I’m a dead woman anyway.”

  “What did they want you for?”

  “I tried to get out. But I know too much.”

  She was part of the Organization. The realization of what they probably did to people who tried to leave hit me hard in the gut.

  “I can take you to the League.” I tried to sound reassuring.

  “And hide there forever?” She sighed. “I just wanted a normal life.”

  “But . . . aren’t the Organization not supposed to interfere in people’s personal lives?”

  “Not supposed to.” She shrugged. “But they make exceptions. I know about their Hounds.”

  “There’s more than one?”

  She nodded. “Martha had a protégé. She brought him over from Europe.” She laughed and put her head into her hands again. “They’re probably going to let him have me, when they catch me.”

  “They won’t catch you,” I said firmly. “I’m taking you to the League. You’ll be safe there.”

  I took her to the League headquarters and filled out a whole incident report. It was weird being there so late too, and Captain Justice showed up with his hair messy and wearing a sweater to talk quietly with the lady for a bit. Then as I was finally leaving to go home and sleep, he jogged up to me. “Blue, I need to speak with you.”

  I was kind of exhausted and annoyed, but I tried not to show it as I turned around. “Yeah?”

  “You said that it was just a coincidence that you ran across the Organization kidnapping Miss Min. But she tells me that she was kidnapped by Jimmy Black.”

  “Uh.” I shifted on my feet. “Yeah. Well, I didn’t want to tell you.”

  “Why not?”

  “I figured there wasn’t anything you could do.”

  Captain Justice shook his head. “Please never assume that, Blue. What happened?”

  “Uh . . .” I took a deep breath. “He’s been . . . you know, fighting the brainwashing again. He called me and told me what was going on, asked me to stop him.”

  Captain Justice’s eyes widened. “That was very brave of him.”

  “Yeah. Especially considering there’s, like, nothing we can do for him. No, it’s okay,” I said as Captain Justice opened his mouth to speak. “I get it. Don’t want to start a war or anything.”

  “Blue. If Jimmy Black resigns voluntarily from the Organization, there’s nothing they can do. We can protect him after that.”

  “But what if they go after him? Like they did with her.” I gestured to the room where Miss Min was currently being interviewed.

  “I can’t promise that we can keep him out of the Organization’s hands,” said Captain Justice. “But we can do our best. And that includes his family. Tell him that.”

  It was already starting to get light out by the time I crawled back through my bedroom window, relieved that my parents hadn’t noticed I was gone. I stripped out of my costume, leaving it lying on the floor, and crawled into bed, shutting my eyes against the sunrise streaming through my window.

  I couldn’t sleep. I was thinking about Rick. Horrible things. I was worried they were torturing him, brainwashing him, making him hate me. Or worse, making him forget that he’d ever met me. If they found out what he’d done . . .

  There was a knock on my window. My eyes flew open, and I sat up to see Rick crouched on the fire escape outside. I brought my hand to my mouth and stumbled toward him, tugging the window open and throwing mys
elf into his arms, careless of the cold night air on my bare skin.

  “Oh my god,” I gasped. “I was so worried about you!”

  He gave me a few quick kisses, and then climbed in through my window nervously. He looked pale and like he hadn’t slept either, and an impressive bruise was forming on his chin where I’d probably hit him a bit too hard.

  “They don’t know anything yet,” he said. “But I’m scared. What we did to Min . . . it’s against code. The League wasn’t supposed to know. They’re angry at me. They don’t suspect that I lost her on purpose, but if they start to . . .”

  “Captain Justice said that if you resign from the Organization, there’s nothing they can do.” I pulled him to my bed. He sat heavily next to me, still glancing around like we were going to be attacked at any second.

  “Nothing they’re supposed to do,” he said quietly. “But they weren’t supposed to go after Min either. They’re not following the rules, don’t you get it? They know who I am, they know who you are. Our families . . . We’re not safe.”

  “They wouldn’t risk antagonizing the League like that.”

  “I don’t know what they would risk. Obviously I’m pretty valuable to them.”

  “Hey.” I reached out to touch his cheek. “You’re valuable to me too.”

  “I can’t.” He pulled away. “I’m all messed up in the head. I want to go back to them. I feel like I’m betraying my family.”

  “They’re not your family,” I said firmly.

  “I know.” He sounded frustrated. “But I feel like they are. I don’t know, Javier. If I leave, there’s no telling what they’ll do to get me back. I mean, maybe I should just do the selfless thing and stay with them. Let them keep me like this.”

  I stared at him. “No!”

  “You know it makes more sense. For my family, and for yours.”

  “I don’t want to let you go, Rick. I won’t.” I stood and bent over him, touching my forehead to his. “Please don’t tell me you really want me to.”

  Rick closed his eyes, his face strained. Then he grabbed my wrists and tugged me down for a kiss. I wrapped my arms around him, straddling him and kissing him hard. I was intensely aware of the fact that I wasn’t wearing anything except my underwear. I wished we could be like this forever, with nothing to hide, nothing between us. I put everything into that kiss, hoping against hope that it would spark something in him, make him decide that I was worth fighting for. Eventually he pulled away, breathing heavily, and cradled my face in his hands. “I don’t want you to let me go,” he said roughly. “I want you to save me.”

  I nodded and got off him, rushing to pull on the first clothes I could find. Then I grabbed my phone and dialed the League’s emergency number. “Hi,” I said into the phone. “I need to talk to Captain Justice right away.”

  Within half an hour, a bunch of League vehicles had shown up at our apartment to take us all to the headquarters. They’d been sent to Rick’s family’s house too. Rick had wanted to call and explain things to them, but Captain Justice had warned him that it wasn’t safe, because there was a good chance their phone lines were tapped. We waited anxiously in the League lobby until the cars drove up containing Rick’s mom and dad, his sister, and their cat, as well as Kendall and her moms. I knew it was just a precaution, since the Organization probably wouldn’t do anything to them, but I was still really relieved to see her.

  Rick’s parents were confused, of course, but Captain Justice took them into a private room to discuss things with them. Apparently he was pretty used to having the your child has superpowers talk.

  He came out a few minutes later, without Rick’s family. “They’ll be spending a few nights in one of our guest suites. How are you feeling, Rick?”

  Rick’s hand had been in mine the whole time, and he was incredibly fidgety, like I was the only thing holding him down. “You should lock me up,” he muttered. “I—I’m fighting it, but it’s hard.” He gripped my hand really hard, and I pressed into him reassuringly. “Seriously, you need to get this out of my head. Now.”

  “We will,” said the captain. “But first I need you to call the Organization, and tell them on record that you’re resigning. Otherwise we’ll be seen as having kidnapped you, which would break the truce we currently have. You understand?”

  Rick swore. “Yes. All right, give me the phone.”

  “It’s gonna be okay, Rick,” I said, in the most reassuring voice I could manage, and he grabbed me and kissed the top of my head.

  He dialed the Organization’s number on his cell phone and turned on the speakerphone. His hand was so tight on mine, he’d probably have been breaking a normal person’s bones. “Hello? This is Jimmy Black. I’m calling because . . . because I need to resign.”

  The guy on the other end sounded surprised, but pleasant. “Resign?” He paused. “I’m afraid that’s not something you can do over the phone, Jimmy. You’d have to come in and do it in person.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, for obvious reasons. One, we need to make certain that you aren’t under duress. Secondly we have to check on the status of your family and friends, to make sure that they’re not being held by the League as hostages in exchange for your loyalty.”

  “Damn it,” said Captain Justice quietly.

  “Who said anything about the League?” Rick’s voice was shaking. “I just don’t want to do this anymore.”

  “Of course,” said the man. “And we’ll be happy to discuss that with you in person.”

  “Fine.” Rick hung up and sat down heavily. “What the hell am I going to do now?” He looked at Captain Justice. “Don’t make me go back there.”

  “You can’t,” I said. “Captain, please.”

  “I’m not going to,” said Captain Justice. “I’m going to have to take this to the League council. But in the meantime, I’m going to have Chelsea remove your brainwashing. I’m certain no one will argue against that.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief that Rick echoed. Captain Justice gestured for us to stand and follow him, and he tapped his phone to alert Chelsea that we were coming first. “We’ll have to do it in the basement. Rick, you will probably have to be restrained.”

  Rick went white. I mean, he’s always white, but you know. “Don’t let me stop you. Whatever you do.”

  We went down into the horrible basement area, and Captain Justice locked Rick in. I sat opposite the cell, waiting while he paced the room. “What if it doesn’t work?” he said.

  “I don’t know. They managed to remove the brainwashing from everyone else.”

  “But what if . . . what if I’m not even brainwashed? What if this is just who I am?”

  “Rick!”

  There was a noise from behind us, and someone rushed in. “Vanessa!” Rick stepped up to the bars to meet her. “Oh my god. I missed you.”

  “I missed you too,” said Vanessa. “The Raven had someone to meet.” She glanced at me. “So they said I had to come here for protection. And then I saw Chelsea.”

  The door slid open, and Chelsea came in, looking determined.

  “Can I stay with him?” I asked her.

  She shook her head. “No. We need to be alone.”

  “Why?” asked Rick. “I want Javier here.”

  “I’m sorry,” said Chelsea. “But you’ll have to wait outside.”

  “It’s okay.” I took a few steps closer to the crackling red bars. “Rick, I’ll be right outside. It’ll all be over soon.”

  “What if I’m making a mistake?” Rick reached through the bars to grab my hand, his face twisted in fear. “Do you trust her?”

  “I do,” I said. “Please, Rick. Let her help you.”

  He closed his eyes, looking like he was trying to control his face. “Yeah. Okay. Please wait for me.”

  “Of course.” I gave his hand a squeeze and then turned, my stomach doing somersaults, and left the room with Vanessa.

  “I have some interesting news that will distract yo
u,” she said as we got into the elevator. “Did Ivana ever tell you she had a brother?”

  I nodded. “I think so. A twin?”

  “Yeah,” said Vanessa. “Guess what? She found him.”

  I stared at her. “What?”

  “Yeah, they spoke on the phone this morning! She was meeting him for lunch today.”

  “Wow.” I blinked, surprised by the sudden good news. “That’s awesome. They were separated, weren’t they?”

  “Yeah, like, forty years ago. It’s really cool.”

  “What happened to him?”

  “I don’t know. I guess I’ll find out tonight.”

  I’d thought it would maybe take a few minutes. But Vanessa and I sat by the elevator for hours. We talked a bit, but eventually she said that she had to go. “Tell him I’m sorry, I just can’t handle being around people for more than a few hours at a time. I’ll text you though.”

  “It’s okay,” I said. “I’m sure he’ll understand.” At that point it was hard to talk past the knots in my stomach anyway. Captain Justice came by to see me, and explained that the council was voting overnight on what to do about Rick, but he was hopeful that they’d agree to protect him.

  “They’re good people,” he said. “I’m confident they’ll make the right decision. It’s not just about Rick. The Organization cannot be allowed to get away with treating people this way. Something has to be done.”

  “He’s been down there for hours,” I said weakly.

  Captain Justice sat next to me on the bench. “Can I get you anything? A coffee?”

  I shook my head. “How are my parents?”

  “They’re fine, I spoke to them on my way here.”

  “Okay.” I nodded. “Does it usually take this long?”

  “I imagine it’s different for everyone.” Captain Justice looked at me sadly. “It’ll be getting dark soon. Why don’t you head to your room, and I’ll call you as soon as it’s done?”

  I just shook my head again. “No. I’d rather wait here.”

  Captain Justice nodded. “All right. But Rick will probably want to sleep afterward, and I’m certain he’ll want to see his family.”