The City That Heroes Built

by Daniel Pierce

  He moved like he was surveying his kingdom. There's a sort of hierarchy when you deal with known qualities like Sentinel. He's at the top. Even villains know that. He's too fast, too strong, and supposedly immune to mental attacks or telepathy. I wondered if Fiver knew that. It would be a serious limitation to using ESP to dodge attacks. Even Fiver looked a little cowed, but he made up for it by being a bit antagonistic.

  “Need something, old timer?” Fiver asked.

  “Not from the likes of you,” Sentinel said. His voice boomed. It hadn't changed since I'd seen him years ago. “This isn't a legal shooting range.”

  “Noted,” Fiver said.

  Sentinel looked over at Catchpenny.

  “That was stolen from the First Families Foundation,” he said. “I'll be taking it back.”

  Catchpenny moved to brace herself. Fiver stepped in the way.

  “Look, we're on the same side, okay. This is the new Catchpenny. He's going to be a good guy now.”

  “Who are you supposed to be?”

  “We're no one yet, that's why we're out here practicing.”

  “How do you know about this place?” Sentinel asked.

  “The Guard showed me.”

  “Is that right?” Sentinel scoffed.

  “Yeah. We're putting a team together. We came out here to practice.”

  “How did you end up with the armor that the Sky Bandits stole?”

  “We're clever,” Fiver said.

  Sentinel looked at me. I might have shivered.

  “I'll let you be for now,” Sentinel said. “But if you think you can play me, you'll be sorry.”

  “Sure, man. Look, I've got a question before you go,” Fiver said. “Glory Knight's girlfriend. Do you know who she is?”

  Sentinel just looked at Fiver. After a long pause, I thought he was going to say something, but he knelt into a semi-crouch and sprang up like a red rocket into the sky.

  Cal appeared a second later.

  “Man, that was cool!” he said.

  Fiver took off his mask. Cal and I followed suit. Jen exited Catchpenny. Simon came running back from the town. “I'm sort of jealous that I missed that. I just want everyone to know that I was prepared to bounce bullets off him.”

  “You think you could take him?” Cal asked.

  “Yeah, I think so,” Fiver said. “Unless he hit me. Pretty sure that would kill me instantly.”

  “Isn't he immune to ESP?” I asked.

  “Beats me,” Fiver said.

  “Police your brass,” Simon said. “Environment, evidence, all the other critical reasons.”

  I used a rake and small shovel to collect the spent cartridges in plastic garbage bags. We'd already done the same for rounds we shot indoors. We didn't account for every one, but tried to get everything we could see.

  On the way home, I went with Simon and Fiver. Cal and Jen were going to drop off the armor in a building not far from Murphy's. Since they were driving along at 65, and the other guys were closer to 80, I thought it prudent to get home sooner.

  Simon and Fiver started talking about the Guardian Angels and naming off as many as they could remember. There had been a lot, and they rotated regularly, since they had been around forever. They got the original group that founded in 2000: Sentinel, Sunday, Commander Coal, Arcade, Crescent and Joe Magarac. Commander Coal retired after a year or two, being one of the Yankee Station gang, I think it was about passing the torch. He'd have been about 60 years old when they started up. Magarac lasted just about a year longer, before returning to Pittsburgh. Simon named Calliope and Sally Blues, but they missed Electrophase who spent about five months with Guardian Angels, before joining Liberty Squad in early 2006. Everyone knows Liberty Rose. Arcade and Crescent were killed in the same fight with LEGION. Fiver added Ravelin to the list. She rarely makes an appearance. Zephyr was around for a couple of years, and Persephone spent about a half dozen summers with the team, and would probably be around this summer. The last person to be added before Glory Knight was Oubliette.

  I drifted off to sleep and dreamt about the old heroes.

  Simon shook me awake.

  “Wake up, sleepyhead, you're home.”

  “Thanks,” I said. I got out. “Thanks for the ride.”

  “We'll do this again,” Simon said.

  I nodded. I was exhausted. Too exhausted to fully appreciate Calliope's uncharacteristically revealing outfit as she passed me in the hall. I mumbled, “Hi”, fumbled for my keys, and fell asleep on my couch.

  July 3, 2021

  There's a supra theory that goes like this: Your power shapes your personality. There is an opposite theory your personality shapes your power. They're probably the most debated of Sofer's theories, at least among geeks, and perhaps scientists and lawyers. He never really flushed them out, but you can find blog posts and interviews if you're interested in more detail. The theories go like this:

  You wake up with a power, let's call it invisibility, since the ground work for that moral discussion is a couple thousand years old. The consideration is that people can't see you, so you'll become evil. But that philosophical discussion doesn't factor in today's standards. In a world of finite resources, using invisibility to avoid moral repercussions can be argued. Today, you wake up with a power and there are many paths to take. Let's say you're bullied at school. Invisibility avoids that. Yeah, you can rob the bank or sneak into the women's shower at the gym, but you can also lie in wait for the bad guys or follow them to their lair. Or go to work for the military or a spy agency. Or spy for industry. There are a lot of options. One theory says that the guy with the evil power is going to be evil. You develop the ability to shoot lightning from your fingertips, you'll find yourself as a villain or maybe a vigilante, because you can do it.

  There's a lot of support for this. Listen to anyone talk about what they would do if they had a power and they talk about how they would use it to their advantage, manipulate people in their lives, even if it's something stupid like sneaking in to the movies.

  At an extreme, consider the guy who grows an extra pair of arms, or can melt people with a look. Yeah, maybe there's a minute of shock and disbelief, and I'm sure there was more of that fifty years ago, but now, people are going to think about how to use that power. Even if they're a nice person, the abilities are too useful to ignore. How many really decent men wouldn't want to melt their ex-wife? How many abused women wouldn't stop their attackers? Who wouldn't be interested in hindering a romantic rival? So they use the power, maybe benignly at first. People deserve to be killed, or have a broken leg, she's better off with me, anyway - those sort of thoughts happen to all of us, but with a power you can do it.

  So you do. Now you're evil, maybe just a little bit, the power has shaped you. The corruption sinks in. A hundred years ago when comics were invented, the writers knew this. They kept their heroes pure in thought and motivation. The bad guys used their powers for evil. The good guys didn't even use their powers to get chicks, they were humble, and they had secret identities.

  The opposing theory is that evil people develop powers that they can use for evil. Things like flight or telekinesis can go either way, but then there is a power like the one that decimated South Bend, Washington July 2nd and 3rd, 2021.

  A supra's blood somehow infected the community, turning people into mindless animals who sought only to kill other human beings. They called it a zombie outbreak. Five hundred people died before they restored order with the help of supras out of Portland and Seattle. The last sighting of the responsible supra had him heading south, and he remained at large.

  Hearing about the zombie outbreak brought to mind the theories that I described above, which sent me online to research the arguments. I fell into a sinkhole of knowledge, arguments and claims. I ended up back at the 11th Commandment.

  I mentioned it before, so let me address the theory here. Because powers were shown to be biologically controlled, as opposed to magic, technological or whatever, Sofer t
heorized that they could have occurred throughout evolution. History, or legend, if you prefer, are filled with tales of power that are attributed to magic. Many have been documented: healing with a touch, walking on water, incredible strength, control of fire. Two have not. Time travel and precognition. Time travel shows up more in the literature of the last 200 years than ancient tomes, but the ability to see the future was recorded by many cultures, not simply that the claims were made, but the general acceptance that fortune tellers existed.

  Fiver said Sofer was wrong. I suspect that it's because Cal's power is some sort of manipulation of time. Sofer also strongly believed that mind control did not exist. He didn't discount the possibility of enhanced influence over the human psyche, such as intense hypnosis, or controls the way people are naturally vulnerable to mental manipulation. But free will was a principle he claimed could not be destroyed. The zombie outbreak might be a sign that mind control is possible.

  That night I went to Murphy's. I wanted to drink, so I sucked it up and took a bus. Some kids opened a can of Pringles at least fifteen feet from me and I could smell the sour cream and onions flavoring for the entire ride. I was starving when I got there. I resolved to stop being cheap and just hire a car next time.

  Simon had closed the kitchen, giving his people a few days off for the 4th of July. Wisely, he contacted a couple of amazing food trucks and had them serving in the parking lot. People keep talking about the bubble bursting on food trucks, but I don't believe it.

  “Good tacos, huh?” Simon said as I stuffed my face. I didn't even try to answer, just took another bite of my carne asada taco. “Thinking about getting one and having a fake reefer in the back to store Catchpenny's armor. Give us a little incognito approach, a mobile place to hide. What do you think?”

  “It's either brilliant or ridiculous,” I said. “I'm leaning toward brilliant. What's everyone else up to today?”

  “Doing their own thing, I guess.”

  “I feel like you hesitated for a second,” I said.

  He hesitated again. “Cal and Jen are hanging out.”

  “And?”

  “I don't know how you feel about that. Or more to the point, if hanging out because something else. I suspect that it won't, if only because Cal is more dedicated to unit integrity than getting laid.”

  “Nah, whatever. I like her, but we were never serious,” I said, “I'm cool with it.” I don't know if either of us believed it.

  “That's very mature of you,” Simon said. “And since you're probably still a little miffed, I've got a friend who is trying to hook up her friend. You up for getting set up?”

  “Ah. Hmm. I don't know. I'm not really comfortable with that.”

  “Right on. Let me know if you change your mind.”

  Jen barged in from the outside with Cal in tow.

  “Where's Fiver?” she asked.

  “Not here,” Simon said.

  “He's not answering his phone,” Cal said.

  “We've made a breakthrough,” Jen said. “Need to get him in on this one.”

  “Well, we don't need to, but we're going to want to.”

  “He's going to want to hear this.”

  They were clearly banging. They even had a little cutesy pitter-patter rhythm to their dialogue.

  Cal checked his buzzing phone. “Okay, he's up and he's on his way.”

  We waited until he showed. I finished off more tacos than I care to admit. Fiver bought a round of beers. Jen told us what she'd found.

  “So Cal had grabbed Glory Knight's computer from the cops' evidence room, but I hadn't taken a serious look at it. When Sentinel showed up last night, I remembered that I needed to get into it, so after Cal and I stashed the armor, I turned it on. Keep in mind that I can hack nearly anything when I tell you that it was not easy to get inside. The encryption program is supratech. It's unexplainable, probably can't be duplicated. Someone made this specifically for a group like the Guardian Angels.

  “Luckily, I was able to crack it. I found some files that were locked away. He'd been put in touch with Marissa Courtney through the First Families Foundation. Marissa Courtney is a trust fund kid. Her dad was one of the Elite Eight, a group of investors that had a chunk of all the big companies in the internet boom. Her brother is David Courtney. Leonidas. He gave himself up to the Guardian Angels after the debacle with the Sunshine Bunch that destroyed half the city. They turned him over to the Citadel, where he remains. Marissa Courtney asked Benjamin Hanes, aka Glory Knight, if he could help her brother's situation. Ben said sure. He emailed back a couple of days later to suggest they meet. This was about 3 months ago.”

  “This is a long story,” Fiver said.

  “Shut up, man,” Cal said.

  Jen continued, “So pretty much normal business after that, but a couple more meet ups arranged via email. There's also an email sent to him from the CEO of First Families, thanking him for talking with Ms. Courtney. The CEO's name is Rachel Thomson. When Fiver got us tickets to the First Families event, they came from her office.

  “Anyway, two months ago, Benjamin sends an email suggesting an alternative solution. Then he and Marissa are meeting up every couple of weeks, and then more frequently.

  “In the mean time he starts researching supra stuff online, bio-engineering, and one company in particular, Bio-Citadel, the company that her father bought heavily into when he sold his tech-stocks.

  “He also is a very competent and enthusiastic fantasy baseball player, easily in first place in his league.”

  “Definitely not a suicide then,” Simon said. “You don't kill yourself if you're leading your fantasy league.”

  “I concur,” Cal said. “Two time reigning fantasy football champ!”

  “That's a pretty decent break,” Fiver said. “You'll remember that Rachel told me he thought someone was developing a cheap and easy way to determine if you're a supra or not. Bio-Citadel is the leader in that technology.”

  “Why wouldn't she mention that she introduced him to Marissa Courtney?” Simon asked.

  “She's got a secret identity and a happy life. She also didn't know that I knew who she was before I approached her after Glory Knight's death. I'm also serious about my secret identity.”

  “So who is she?”

  Fiver looked at Cal.

  “Yeah, it's on,” Cal said. “It's been on.”

  “What's on?” I asked.

  “We've got a scrambler to stop bugs and parabolic microphones,” Cal said.

  “She's Firefly. From the Guard.” The one Screamingo ran into when he died. “She wasn't happy, me showing up, knowing who she was. But she did give me the info. Can't fault her for the omission. Sounds like she was protecting her friend.”

  “So we're assuming that Glory Knight went from researching Marissa Courtney, to researching her company, to discovering that they were developing this new technology?” Cal asked. “Because this is exactly what they would sell to investors. No reason to keep that secret. It's a cheaper version of what they already do. Bio-Citadel creates the chemicals used to neuter the prisoners in the Citadel. The people in the sleep farm are kept in permanent comas using chemicals the Citadel created.”

  “Yeah, and they are expensive and not simple to use,” I said. “Think about the ability to spend $5 and find out if your friends and neighbors were supras. They could have latent powers or benign powers, and they could still be ostracized, attacked or worse. Think about what happened when an online database started leaking identities. People died.”

  “Add on false positives, and false negatives,” Fiver said. “The repercussion in politics is huge. If someone with supra powers won an election and has powers, how many people are going to claim it was related? Think about sports. Maybe a baseball player hits 75 homeruns, but he's got the ability to make plants grow 20% faster. He gets kicked out of the game.”

  “That's fine, I get that the meritocracy of American institutions could be brought into question, but it's not like
money in politics and steroids in sports don't exist,” Cal said. “The more important question is, so what? Is this a secret worth killing Glory Knight over? I don't think so.”

  “Can I just assume that we're all fully behind this being murder and not suicide?” I asked. “We're beyond a doubt?”

  “I am,” Cal said.

  “Same,” Simon added.

  “Suicide seems unlikely,” Jen said. “Unbelievable is a better way to phrase it.”

  Fiver didn't commit.

  “I think it's unlikely,” I said, “but I don't know that the evidence compels me to believe that. The only full investigation ruled it a suicide. Do we have any reason to believe the police lied? Do we have a copy of the investigation?”

  “I have a copy of the report,” Jen said. “But it simply says that it was ruled a suicide. The typed up versions don't contain all the investigator's notes.”

  “Coroner's report?”

  “Referenced, listed as an attachment.”

  “So can we get that?” I asked Cal. “Cause of death is pretty critical, could give us insight into the killer.”

  “We know the investigation took two days,” Fiver said. “Primary method of suicide for males in their 50s and 60s is a handgun. Glory Knight was tough, though. Couldn't have gone that route if he wanted. Same thing with poison, he'd have to take a lot. Hanging? Maybe. Unlikely to want to go out that way, even if he could. The difficulty in killing himself could explain the long wait on an autopsy and the lack of an instant cause of death being determined. And then there is another option.”

  Fiver sipped his beer. His version of the dramatic pause, or a chance to work out what he was going to say next.

  “Then there is suicide-by-supra.”

  “I don't buy it,” Cal said.

  “How would you go about killing yourself if you were as tough as Glory Knight?” Fiver asked Cal.

  “Two time fantasy football champ,” Cal said. “I wouldn't.”

  “But if you had to?”

  “I'm not that tough. Bullet through the head probably.”