Auxiliary Hero Corps: Collection of books one, two, and three in the Auxiliary Hero Corps series. (Superheroes Of The Hero Union Corps)

by Charles Eugene Anderson

  “He’s still alive?”

  “Of course he’s alive. Daphnia didn’t want us killing him,” he says. He starts talking to Daphnia and he says it almost sounding like a desperate man, “Kill the boy now, or I will.”

  He points my unreliable Tomcat at me and pulls the trigger, but he misses.

  Daphnia throws my snake to me. When I catch it, I immediately throw it at the Beat. The poet drops the gun and reaches up with both hands to try to get the snake off of him. The snake is too strong, and she digs her muscles even tighter around the vulnerable part of his body. When there isn’t any more air, he goes to his knees and falls on his face.

  I’m transformed into silence as I watch. I reach to help the man, but Daphnia puts out her arm and stops me from getting closer. “Too late. He’s no longer a threat.”

  The door opens, and there’s my brother. I’m surprised. He’s standing in the entrance with my dog. Spike is still alive, and I am thankful when I see him. The odds are more in my favor now that my dog is near, and maybe he could help me defeat all of them.

  I am not expecting what happens next. Daphnia walks over to my brother and she kisses him on the lips. It’s a lasting kiss.

  It is the Beat who makes the next move. I am surprised he is able to get up. He’s again holding my unlucky pistol in his hand. He must’ve grabbed it when I watched them kiss. Now instead of pointing it at me, he’s pointing it at Daphnia.

  The snake has loosened her grip. The Beat must’ve done something to her. My snake drops off his neck so he is able to recite another poem.

  His voice isn’t the same and it’s much weaker now, “I should’ve killed you before. When you first told me of your hare-brained plan, I knew it would never work. I knew taking these two out of the Auxiliary Corps was stupid from the beginning. We don’t need them. You may have corrupted the younger one with your charms, but I’ve already said that Val will never come over to our side. It’s ludicrous to think so. So now you’re going to die.”

  Daphnia turns around and says, “I’m from this neighborhood. I should be the one who kills you tonight. You’ll wait. I’ll make the decisions tonight.”

  “I don’t think so. I’m holding this weapon, and I don’t think you can use your powers before I discharge it.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure about your situation if I were you.”

  “You’re mistaken.” He coughs and continues, “Age doesn’t brings wisdom. Experience brings it. Trying not to make the same mistakes over and over again.”

  The flash of silver from the knife. It doesn’t hit me, but it strikes the Beat instead. The dagger lands in his stomach. The Black Shirt‘s aim was true.

  “I’m dying,” says the Beat. “That’s not cool.” He points my pistol at the Black Shirt and fires two times. But the Black Shirt is fast enough to deflect both of the bullets with his one dagger. The Beat collapses back onto my bed, and I don’t know if he’s dead.

  “Kill me, you’d never be that lucky. You’re a fool, a second rate villain, and you never had the foresight to see the true nature of my plan,” says Daphnia.

  The Beat still is able to speak and he says, “I’m dying.”

  “Yes, you are. But I’m not going to hasten your journey,” she says, quieter this time. “You’re finished and so is everyone who is against me.” She reaches for the man on the floor with his blood coming from his wound, and she takes the Tomcat out of his hand. The pistol slips into her grip, she stands, takes a step towards me, and hands me back my pistol. “Here you go. I think this belongs to you.”

  I take the gun, and place it against the bicep on my right arm so it can turn back into a tattoo. Turning back into its inky original state, it’s nice to have one of my tattoos back on my skin.

  Daphnia does something I had never seen her do. She reaches out with her right hand, and she points her fingers at the Beat. She wants to kill him.

  “Don’t,” I say, but she isn’t listening to me. It’s difficult for me to watch her kill a man who can’t fight back.

  I move towards her, but a gust of wind knocks me off my feet. I fall to the floor. I feel the air leave my lungs as I try to regain my breath. Rudy has pushed me over with his powers. It must have been him, and I didn’t know he could do that.

  “I’m more powerful than you think, brother, and with Daphnia’s help I will surpass everyone including you.”

  Spike comes to me. He wants to help me.

  “Let’s leave, but first there’s something I need to take,” says Daphnia to The Beat. “Leave his body there for me now. It’s my turn to do something to him.”

  Amazingly there is something leaving the Beat. Is it his soul leaving him? I’m confused, and I can’t tell. It’s a red glow, and it hovers above him before it comes to Daphnia’s hand. “There you are. Now you are mine forever,” she says. “You’ll live, but you’ll belong to me from now on.”

  The body of the Beat lies on the floor, and I think he’s dead, but I’m wrong. He moves a little, and I’m relieved when I see he’s alive.

  What has she done to him?

  “We’ll leave you now, Valentine. I know you can hear me, and I am sorry about the mess in your apartment.” Daphnia has come over to me, and she looks at me as I lie on the floor. I want to get up, but I’m in a vulnerable position, and I wait. “This time I will let you live, and I will ask you to join me only once more. If you refuse me again, honey, I’ll have no choice but to kill you, and you’re far too pretty for me to want to do that to you.”

  I hear my brother speak, and he says, “Be smart, Val. Don’t be a fool. Join us.”

  Daphnia moves to my brother and reaches for his hand. He takes it, and those two stand over me. Daphnia says, “Give him time, Rudy, and he’ll come to us when he’s ready. We only have to be patient.”

  The sounds of police sirens fill our ears, and Daphnia says, “It’s time to leave.”

  My brother asks, “What about the Beat?”

  “Leave him,” she says. “He’ll just wake up in a minute. I don’t know why but this always happens to the weak.” The two of them turn and leave.

  The Black Shirt walks over to the Beat, ignores Daphnia’s orders, and picks up the man. He puts him over his shoulder, and the Beat’s head turns towards me. I can see his face, and he surprises me when he opens his eyes. He’s disoriented, but with his hand he touches a spot on his own neck. A look of relief comes over him, and his hand is touching a small silver wire protruding from it.

  The wire is something I never noticed before.

  The three of them leave, and I’m still alive. I’m left surprised and confused.

  Book Three Chapter Two

  “There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.”

  ― Plato, Old School Deep Thinking Superhero

  I get dressed and put the rest of my clothes back on. It only takes me a minute to replace my tattoos and get out of my apartment. Instead of going down the stairs and out the front door of my building. I decide to leap out of my second floor window to save time. I am not a flying hero, so I don’t run and jump like I have sometimes seen them do in the movies. No, open my window, and take a second to look down. It’s too high for me to jump down safely, but if I hang from the ledge, it might be possible for me to land without hurting myself.

  I use my hands and grasp the window’s ledge to lower myself. I look down again, and my feet are only six feet closer to the ground, but enough to make me think I won’t get hurt. I let go of the ledge and fall.

  It isn’t the distance of the fall where I end up hurting myself, but it’s the garden hose that I couldn’t see from above. I twist my ankle when I land on the curled up bundle. The pain shoots up my leg, and I fall to the side. My shortcut doesn’t end up being one. Luckily, my resting place is soft and I end up in the wet grass. I am soaked on the right side of my body, and might have sprained my ankle.

  I don’t have time. I must get up.

&
nbsp; I raise myself up as fast as I can, but my ankle screams at me when I want to put weight on it. I don’t care. It hurts, but I must continue if I am going to stop the pack of villains who had just left my apartment. Again, they have proven they are smarter and cleverer than me.

  I can hear a car speeding away. The car has been parked a block away, but now I see it speeding towards me. I get out of the way. I dive for a patch of grass. When I land, even with my ankle hurting, I make a pretty good roll for a landing. He has missed me. I see the car drive away. I’m getting mad, and my hurt ankle isn’t making my mood any better. Defeated again.

  I think about doing something I’m not proud of. I think about joining them. I’m tempted to join Daphnia. I’m admitting this to myself. If there was ever a chance for me to change sides, to leave the Auxiliary Hero Corps, this would be the right time.

  But it’s not the thing to do, and I quickly change my mind.

  There’s a gentle breeze and I focus on my surroundings. I need to get moving again, but I know I can’t walk far. I look and I see the little white car with a flyer on it. I hobble over to it. With smart phone and the right app, I can be driving it in five minutes. I pull the flyer off and read it. There has been an effort in my neighborhood to renovate the old Vogue theatre. Reading the flyer, I can see some of my neighbors are still trying to bring the old theatre back to life. I fold the flyer and put it in my pocket. I know where to go. It’s the Vogue. The Vogue theatre is the key to what’s going on, or maybe it’s the place where this is all taking place. Why hadn’t I realized the old theatre is where Daphnia and her friends are hiding out? It was their staging ground. It would be like the old Hippie and go to the rat’s nest and clean it out.

  I open the small car’s door. Maybe if I’m lucky, I can find some clue out there to help me figure out what is going on.

  Book Three Chapter Three

  From a White House Press Conference, August 26, 1981

  The Attorney General: “I am not participating in any strike against the Government of the United States or any agency thereof. I will not do so while I’m an employee of the Government of the United States or any agency thereof.”

  It is for this reason that I must tell those who fail to report for duty this morning they are in violation of the law. If they do not report for work within 48 hours, they have forfeited their jobs.

  Press: Are you going to order any Hero Union Corps members who violate the law to go to jail?

  The President: Well, I have some people around here, and. Maybe I should refer that question to the Attorney General.

  Press: Do you think that they should go to jail, Mr. President, anybody who violates this law?

  The President: I told you what I think we should do. They’re terminated.

  The Attorney General: Well, as the President has said, striking under these circumstances makes up a violation of the law. We intend to start criminal proceedings against those who have violated the law.

  Press: How soon will you start criminal proceedings, Mr. Attorney General?

  The Attorney General: We will start those proceedings as soon as we can.

  Press: Today?

  The Attorney General: The process will be underway by noon today.

  Press: Are you going to try and fine the Hero Union Corps one hundred thousand dollars per day?

  The Attorney General: Well, that’s the prerogative of the court. In the event that any individuals found guilty of contempt of a court order, the penalty for that, of course, imposed by the court.

  I am mad and it takes me a few minutes to clear my head.

  It doesn’t take a hero code to tell me what to do next. I’m going to follow them back to the Vogue. It’s the deep-dark hole full of rats like Daphnia, the Beat, the Black Shirt, and my brother were fleeing to. I’m going to find them. I also leave a message for Smokey at the Templeton. Hopefully the bear will show.

  Before I enter the old theatre, I have to get Spike off of my skin. I know it won’t be easy dealing with Daphnia, the Beat, my brother, and the Black Shirt on my own. If I had time to think for a moment I would.

  I only have one purpose. Every breath I take and every heart beat focuses my body on revenge. I walk to the Vogue. Those who I know and have loved have played me for a fool, and I plan on putting an end to it.

  A gust of cold wind blows me sideways. It must be coming up from False Creek and it reaches me here in the poorer part of this city.

  I want Spike next to me. I also want to put on a coat for now over my dress shirt Daphnia had picked out for me. It’s still early in the night. Homeless people are waiting to secure a place in the front of empty buildings. They’re looking to find a little bit of shelter for the night.

  I need my wits. Spike waits next to me. A woman tourist is trying to find her way back to her hotel and she asks me the directions to Richards Street. I must no longer seem as angry as I once had. I point and give her the easiest way back. I must appear calmer. There’s one building in this neighborhood that’s been abandoned for years, but none seek its shelter or find warmth in its walls. It’s cursed or maybe it’s haunted, but there are no squatters there. This is the place where in my heart I know the Beat, the Black Shirt, Daphnia, and my brother have been hiding all along. My patrol should’ve flushed them out of there weeks ago.

  Spike and I are there. I look down at Spike. He’s waiting on me. We must get inside.

  The Vogue is an old movie palace, but now it’s only a theatre in ruins. Smokey says he used to go and watch movies when he was a child. While I never had a chance to see a film on its screen, it doesn’t mean I’d never been in there.

  When I was in high school, I’d snuck into the Vogue with some friends. The theatre is an ancient ruin in the city. I convinced myself to squeeze through the small opening. At the time I only made it to the backstage. The Vogue had been an old vaudeville theatre, and there was enough room on its stage to showcase the comedians, jugglers and singers who performed there.

  The movie screen had been removed long ago, and I remember walking through piles of junk that had been left behind. In there, I heard music from below. It was an old song, the kind they would’ve played during the war years, a song that reminded me of the kind of music my grandmother played that was popular in her day.

  I remembered I had gotten scared when a chair came crashing down from the balcony into the auditorium below. After I heard the noise there was a laugh from above. I decided it was time for me to leave. I ran back to the window where I needed to escape and crawled through. My friends laughed at me when I returned to the alley.

  But tonight I wasn’t going to leave the Vogue in a hurry. I knew I was going to do my best to bring the nest of villains to justice.

  I’m able to get inside the theatre after all of these years. To the best of my recollection there has been no changes that I can see once I get inside. My biggest problem, is lifting up Spike, and putting him through the open window. I should’ve turned Spike back into a tattoo but I wasn’t thinking.

  I had brought a flashlight, but the dark doesn’t seem to bother me. It doesn’t bother Spike either and I can hear him sniffing around. I’m uncertain where to start. I hear Spike react to something, and I’m not sure what he senses. Someone else is out there.

  There’s a beam from another flashlight. It waves back and forth. It finally shines on my face. I’m blinded, but I am not anxious and I refuse to let my hand touch my other tattoos, especially my Beretta Tomcat. My pistol stays on my skin for now. I don’t want to remove it yet, and I hope my instincts are correct.

  “It’s pretty gloomy in here,” says the Old Hippie. It’s the same voice I recognize from weeks before, and his tones are just as missed as the man I missed saying them.

  “It can’t be you,” I state.

  “Why can’t it be? It’s me, the Old Hippie, your old friend. With a quick motion he takes the flashlight and he shines it on his own face. Spike is the first to greet my old friend. He jumps a
nd knocks the light out of his hands. The flashlight lands on the ground and shines on my feet instead. Spike has his front two paws on his shoulders and starts to lick the old man’s face. But it doesn’t matter because three are happy. I say, “I can’t believe it when I see you. I went to your funeral.”

  “Are you mad? I’m sorry about that. It wasn’t my idea to make me dead.” The Old Hippie gently places the dog’s front legs back on the ground.

  “Was it Smokey’s?” I asked. “It doesn’t sound like him.”

  “No, it wasn’t Smokey’s idea. It was way above his pay grade. Plus, you know him; he doesn’t think that way,” says the Old Hippie. He stops speaking for a moment, and I think he doesn’t want to tell me what he needs to say, but he changes his mind and continues to speak. “I’m tired of all the secrets and the lies. It’s time for the secrecy to end.”

  “I still don’t know how two old men villains are young enough to keep fighting when they should be in a nursing home. It’s not right,” I say making my mind up. I want to know the answer. So I ask the question, “What is going on?” Are they their descendants or has someone else decided to take their characters?”

  “It’s worse. They discovered a way to turn back the hands of time. The villains of our city have discovered their own fountain of youth, or the next best thing. They are the original rogues but now they are young. Our top guys haven’t discovered their secrets but we know it’s going to upset the balance. It’s really not cool if you ask me. It also doesn’t help our side when Daphnia and your brother decided to go over to the other side.”

  I don’t know what to say at first, but then I ask, “This is bad isn’t it?”

  “Yeah, it’s really a downer, and I wish we could tune out and drop out, but we can’t.”

  Looking down to make sure that Spike is still next to me I say, “I’m going to do my best to end this tonight. I don’t care if I have to do this alone. But having your help would be better for all of us.”