I’ve heard stories that the heroes from ancient times didn’t care about the consequences of their actions. Did Odysseus care about his men after the war with the Trojans had finished? It took him ten years to get back to his home in Ithaca and his wife, and all of his men died along the way. Sirens, harpies, and a Cyclops killed off all of his men, but Odysseus didn’t care. All he cared about was getting back to his home, and back to his wife. He didn’t look back and think, ‘Hey, I’m getting all of these poor son of a biscuits killed off. Maybe we should take an easier route. Maybe there are consequences if I make the gods angry at me. Maybe we should sacrifice a goat and ask for forgiveness. Maybe we should find some allies along the way.’
Nope, not Odysseus, he didn’t do any of those things. He just pointed his ship towards his home in Syracuse and it didn’t matter what the gods threw down at him. It didn’t matter what monsters got in his way. He was going to get home to Penelope and his son. He was determined to go home. No matter how many of his men got killed along the way no matter the cost.
Did Odysseus have guts? Yep. Was he cunning? Yep. Heck, yes! Odysseus was a hero, what did they matter? While he was the way he was, I am not that way. I cared about Daphnia and the Old Hippie. There isn’t a day I don’t think about them, and wish I could see them one more time. How much money would I pay to get them back if I could? I can’t say because that’s not how it works. But I don’t think any sum would be too great to see them once again. Maybe that’s the difference between me and Odysseus. Is that why the ancient poets sung about him, and why no one cares about our deeds? Last year I thought my path to the Hero Corps was clear and that it was only a matter of time before they would want me to join them, but now I’m no longer sure. How can I tell my little brother what is right and wrong? I know Rudy. He thinks he can chew on nails and fight anyone who gets in his way, and maybe he should be that way, strong and determined. But I’m not so sure. Because I know everything we do could get someone killed, and that would be another failure we would have to deal with. Sometimes I hope I’ll become Odysseus, with a clear mind and no worries. He let his sword fall where he willed, but that wasn’t me, and maybe with all of my doubts I belong in the Auxiliary Hero Corps.
But I know I still have it in me to be good at this job. I know I can’t stay much longer in the Auxiliary Corps. I will move on. I hope I will move up to the Hero Corps or I’ll find something else to do with my life. Maybe there’s someplace the government places failed heroes? Maybe the Feds don’t care and they would let us find our own way in the world?
Rumors. There are always rumors, but some of them I still have to believe when I hear them because they ring true. There are places besides the Auxiliary Corps for guys like me. Places where there could be real money earned. Some say we should go and work for a private security…I mean, mercenary army. One of them is a private security firm that helps protect the rich from harm with bodyguards. They fight in their own private wars around the world. Smitty, the Auxiliary Corps’ recruiting officer, had supposedly worked for them back in the eighties. I have never asked him about it. I have also heard that Smokey freelanced for a short time, but I always thought those were rumors. In talking to Smokey night after night, there was a five year stretch of time back when he was younger that he won’t say much about. I once asked him if he had ever worked with Smitty, and if they had worked independent of the Auxiliary Hero Corps, but he won’t ever talk about it in detail. All Smokey has ever said about his time with Smitty was, ‘He’s a good guy to have in a fight.’ But Smokey won’t say anything else about him, and I don’t know Smitty well enough to ask him those questions.
I’m starting to get cold standing in front of the YMCA. I want to zip up my jacket even further, but as soon as I reach the zipper I realize it’s already pulled as far as it can go. I will suffer silently against the cold. Rudy takes out his phone as soon as he realizes nothing is going to happen anytime soon. Like so many his age, he’s always plugged in to one of his devices. He’s either texting, surfing the web on his smart phone, or listening to his music on it. It’s been a good hour since he’s had a chance to get his phone out and keep up with his friends and the latest thing in their world. When he flicks the phone awake with his thumb, his phone instantly greets him with a ping, and his friends have texted him their latest important happenings.
I’m left standing by myself because Smokey and Jane are talking to the group of young men in front of the YMCA. I can listen in if I want to, but they usually always say the same things. There was always crime in Chinatown because it’s where many low level criminals deal drugs.
The police are only concerned with the demonstrators down at the municipal building. A tall skinny youth is wearing an old pair of jeans and they make him look ferociously skinner and taller than a normal person. The skinny youth asks The the Lady Jane, “What are you going to do to help us? I got robbed tonight and the cops didn’t do anything.”
I find myself drawn to the conversation, so I start to listen and I’m drawn into the conversation.
“One of us has to leave, and I can’t make him leave. I’m afraid of him,” says another skinny youth, and I don’t understand what he’s talking about. He is standing close to his friend, who is not as tall as he is. “He waits around for us and he gives me and James a hard time. He’s an old guy, but he isn’t old. It happened by that old rundown theatre.”
“How do you know? I don’t understand, is he young or old?” asks Jane.
“Old guys don’t move like he should,” says the taller skinny youth. “I saw him changing his into his outfit in an alley once, back behind the diner. He must have thought no one would see him there. He’s young and built strong. He is also very handsome in a street youth sort of way. Still, he looks at you with eyes that are really ancient. Those eyes don’t match how young he looks.”
The friend elbows him in the ribs. I think he might be jealous of the way the man is describing the superhero, and that brought him back into the story he’s telling The the Lady Jane.
“He sees me and he pulls out a dagger. It was a wicked evil looking knife. I’m still about twenty yards away when he starts to turn towards me. I’m thinking, I’m dead. I am really dead.”
“It sounds like the Black Shirt,” says Smokey, who is too big for anyone to stand apart from, but it always seems like he’s always too close. “Which diner was this?”
“The Templeton Dinner…on Granville,” says the skinny youth. He eases his way back from Smokey and he seems much more comfortable talking to The the Lady Jane instead of Smokey.
“The Templeton,” I say, unable to help myself. “When?”
“Tonight,” he says. “I’m telling you this because it happened tonight.” He pauses for a few seconds to make sure that no one else is going to interrupt him so he can finish his story. “Like I said. I thought was going to die in that stinking alley, but then you saved me,” he says, pointing at me.
I’m sure that I’m showing a look of disbelief on my face, and all I can say is, “Okay…?”
Then he’s pointing at my brother, “You too, you saved me.”
I look over at my brother and he has the same look as me, but he doesn’t say anything. I know he is surprised because he looks away from his phone and stops his texting.
Smokey and Jane are the only one who aren’t surprised, and he Smokey says, “These two saved you?” Smokey asks and then he looks at me, but I don’t believe he’s surprised. He and the Lady Jane are hiding something from me.
“You and that guy scared him off when the two of you came out of the back door of the diner. You saved my life,” says the skinny youth.
I don’t remember seeing him. I had been so focused on talking to Rudy that I hadn’t even noticed that the skinny youth was around, and I thought I definitely would’ve noticed the Black Shirt lurking nearby. “What did Smokey say to you?” I ask.
“Smokey never said anything. Sure, he told me your story. He told me that you
are unhappy, and that you want to leave. He tells me these things because Smokey likes to talk. Of course, I made a few phone calls because I know Smokey, but I knew nothing about you. Smokey thinks you might stay now because of your brother, but I know that isn’t enough to keep a guy like you in the AHC. He’s the only one in the Corps who doesn’t question himself. Smokey and maybe your brother,” she says. “I haven’t had a chance to speak to him, but I can see it in his eyes.” She shifts her weight to her other foot because her body tires standing in the same place. “You know, I took some time off from the Hero Corps,” she says.
I knew the real reason she had left the Hero Corps. She had been thrown out, but she had once been on a pedestal and she wants to preach to me. Because she has fallen so far, I keep my mouth shut and let her continue.
“I became a hairdresser. I even got my cosmetology license and everything, but it wasn’t for me. I could only listen to those women and their gossip for so long,” she says, and now her body weight is even on her feet, and she must feel what she’s saying to me is important. “And the first chance I got to come back, I took it. It didn’t matter if it was only with the Auxiliary Corps. I knew I had to come back, or else I would go nuts.”
I still keep my mouth shut, and I am surprised that I have kept quiet for so long.
She continues, “I know at your age you think you know everything, and that someone like me has nothing they can say to you, but you need to listen.” The Lady Jane reaches into her pocket with her right hand. She might have a weapon in there, but I’m not sure.
“Rudy might be enough to keep you here for a few months, but once you know think he’s safe, you’ll leave, but I’m telling you that there’s nothing out there. I know because I’ve already been there. Your brother, he’s much more different than from you, isn’t he? He’s ambitious all right, but there’s something that’s not right about it.”
“You don’t know me and you don’t know my brother,” I say, stepping forward.
“I know him. I have seen his type before. I’m surprised that Smitty is still at the Auxiliary Corps’ office. He isn’t going to be with us much longer.”
“What does that mean?”
“It doesn’t mean anything but what I said. He should have gone up to Hero Corps instead of staying in the Auxiliary Hero Corps. It’s a waste of his time for someone with his talents. As soon he figures out how to use them, he will be gone,” says the Lady Jane. “But for me…for Smokey…we will die here in the ranks of the Auxiliary Corps. Your brother, he should go to the Hero Corps before something else happens.”
“What? What is going to happen to him?”
“Nothing. Nothing is going to happen to him while we are with him. I must be getting like Smokey, and I’ve said too much again.”
I can’t hold inside what I want to say any longer. I can’t keep my mouth shut because I’m too mad at The the Lady Jane. She doesn’t know me, and I know she doesn’t know my brother better than me. What did she mean? It isn’t what comes out of my mouth. Instead of asking about Rudy, I want to attack her and hurt her with words. “You lie. You don’t know me, and you don’t know what is going to happen to Rudy.” I’m focused on The the Lady, and I see in the corner of my eye that I’ve said it loud enough for the Smokey, my brother, and the skinny youth to look over at us.
The Lady says angrily, “Oh, I know he’ll leave. He’ll leave because he’s more…” She stops.
“He’s more what?” I step closer to her, and now I’m close enough to be within her arm’s reach, and it must have been too close because this is when her hand leaves her pocket and she hits me. She hits me hard in the face, not hard enough to knock me down, but it still hurts.
Smokey and my brother take a step closer to me and the Lady holds up her left hand to gesture to them to stay back, but she also lets them know that she’s finished with me.
I don’t do anything but stand there feeling the pain, and I’m so confused I don’t say anything either.
“Enough talk, I’m still in charge here and we need to get moving,” she says, still looking at me and tired of our conversation. “Val, you’re on point. One block out, and we’ll see if you’re tasty enough on the hook to get the Beat to bite because he’s the fish we want to catch tonight. Let’s catch us the big one, shall we?”
I regain my composure, and I’m ready to say something to The the Lady, but Smokey comes up and grabs my shoulder. “You had your chance, kid, and you don’t want to get hit again…do you? She’ll hit you again with that blackjack she keeps in her pocket if you don’t learn to keep your mouth shut.”
The discussion is over and it’s time to go. We leave the YMCA and the skinny youth behind us so we can go and find us some real killers tonight.
* * *
I’m the decoy. I hate this plan. The rest of my patrol is a few a blocks behind me and they’re all walking together. This is a classic Auxiliary Corps’ tactic. I also know for sure it is a tactic for the Hero Corps, and it’s because it is The the Lady who has drawn up this plan. On the night Daphnia was murdered, it had been the same plan. This time I am the bait, walking in front of the others.
If our branch included flying heroes, we would have used them to fly overhead and do reconnaissance. But flying heroes are very rare, and I don’t think I ever heard of one being a member of the Auxiliary Corps. While the Hero Corps and the Auxiliary Corps did sometimes have joint operations, we don’t can’t have access to a flying hero for any old reason, and there’s no way we could’ve obtained one for tonight’s patrol on such short notice.
Maybe that’s why we have a Blinker tonight. They’re cheap and they don’t care who they work for. The Lady Jane must’ve requested help from the Hero Corps, but I know knew from past experience they’d send us a Blinker instead. The Hero Corps very rarely concerns themselves in the affairs of the Auxiliary Hero Corps.
The Blinker is there waiting for us. He’s tall and skinny and like all Blinkers he wears thick glasses. The glasses make his eyes look even bigger than they already are. He has his arms folded as if he’s tired of waiting for us to arrive.
What is a Blinker? They are like temporary heroes for hire. The Auxiliary Hero Corps only uses Blinkers when we need them. Our Blinker recognizes the Lady Jane and shakes her hand.
A Blinker can teleport from rooftop to rooftop, which is helpful in a situation like ours. But the more the Blinker teleports, the dizzier he becomes, so we have to use him sparingly. Also, they aren’t a part of either the Hero Corps or the Auxiliary Hero Corps. Are they villains? The Blinkers aren’t technically villains either. The Brotherhood of Blinkers is independent and works for a fee, and everyone likes to keep them that way, apart from us.
I’m walking, and I know there’s nothing else I can do to protect myself. Of course, I have my shirt off like I should, and tonight’s cold doesn’t have its usual bite. My senses are at their peak, and as we approach the alley where Daphnia lost her life, I am only running on adrenaline. I could’ve chewed on nails and not feel felt them, but I’m not nervous. I take Spike off of my chest. In a moment, my dog is ready, and if I don’t get any help from my friends behind me, at least I have Spike and I know he’ll be ready to help. I’m sure The the Lady Jane wants to say something about me being too nervous, and that I shouldn’t have gotten Spike ready so quickly. But the Lady Jane hasn’t fought against the Beat or the Black Shirt. Her plan is too simple, and I’m the one who’s out front, not her. I vow to learn some new tactics for us if I survive this evening. I know there must be a better way of patrolling a street. If I did some research, we could practice them. We need to be more prepared for situations like this.
I hear my dog growl. It’s a deep, throaty sound, and I know that someone is near, someone dangerous.
“Easy, boy,” I say to Spike, trying not to be nervous and feel the pain in my left eye. It’s swelling now from where The the Lady Jane hit me. I know my Blinker is someplace above me, but I don’t know how much help he�
��s going to be. It’s going to be a mystery even to me. I can’t see anything, and I know if I were the Beat, this is the spot where I would attack.
Spike turns in a new direction. I am not expecting him to turn away from me. Instead of facing forward, he turns and looks back. I know there is someone in front of us, but there must be something else taking place behind me.
Then I hear a scream in front of me. There is something going on up there, but I don’t know what it is. If Spike was on a leash, I’m sure he would be pulling me back. Then I hear a scream again, and I make up my mind to go forward and ignore Spike’s warning. I don’t know if I’m right or not, but I want to move. I want to go forward. It doesn’t matter to me. I know the Beat likes to overwhelm the senses with his poems. It doesn’t matter which way I go, but I know I need to do something, because staying here is a bad idea. I then confess to myself quietly and I try to listen to the little voice inside my head. Maybe that’s the worst thing I can do. I’m not going to stay here. I have to move, but my body won’t let me. I keep still, I’m not moving at all.
When I was a kid, I used to play a game called ‘freeze, frozen, and freezing.’ It wasn’t much of a game, but it did have three stages to it. If a friend yells, ‘freeze,’ then you couldn’t move until you pretended to use extraordinary strength to break out of the last stage. That’s what I need to do now. I know I need to use all of my will to move.
‘Frozen’ was the second stage, and if a friend tapped you on the back or punched you in the arm, and called ‘frozen’ then there was nothing you could do but stand there like a statue, and your friends could run by and punch you one time.
Auxiliary Hero Corps: Collection of books one, two, and three in the Auxiliary Hero Corps series. (Superheroes Of The Hero Union Corps) Page 8
