Marshall Conrad: A Superhero Tale

by Sean Cummings

  I already possessed the ability to fly, but until then, all of my powers had only worked at night, the result of channeling the energy from willful intent of a perpetrator I might be attempting to take down. Stella had told me I wasn’t hardwired yet for daytime work and nobody had ever explained whether a Vanguard’s powers are naturally occurring—I’d always assumed that willful intent was the source. I decided to start with flight, thinking I’d be an old hand at it by now.

  I was mistaken.

  “Fly!” I shouted, and nothing happened. Feeling like an idiot, I closed my eyes and concentrated, focusing all of my thoughts and feelings on the smallest point of contact between the ground and my feet. I imagined an invisible force pushing upward, similar to how opposing magnetic fields act against each other. Suddenly, my feet left the ground and I gently hovered upward.

  If I broke my concentration, would I fall? I immediately thought of Marnie’s kiss, and landed flat on my ass.

  “Okay, I guess I’d better not lose my concentration. I’ll try it again.”

  This time I kept my eyes opened. I conjured the image of opposing magnetic fields and once again lifted off the ground. “H-Holy s-shit,” I said. “Let’s see how high I can go.”

  I looked up at the clouds and picked one as a target. Then I imagined my body as a rocket. There was a muffled boom as I shot straight up into the sky, hurtling toward my target like a guided missile. It was the fastest I’d ever flown, and instead of a cold wind blowing against my face, air friction scraped against my skin, causing a burning sensation. My body buffeted against air pockets that felt like someone was kicking me in the ribs. I slowed my ascent to a hover and looked down at the patchwork quilt of the earth below my feet.

  Interestingly, I didn’t feel a surge of energy in my eyes. I resolved that “seeker’s light” had nothing to do with willful display of a specific power and that it was an instinctive response to the presence of evil. There was no evil at ten thousand feet in the air, so I pivoted my body toward the earth and flew downward, this time at a controlled speed.

  I landed a few feet away from my car, pleased as punch. “All right, that’s one down. How many more to go?”

  I looked around and spotted another boulder larger than the one beside the Tempo. I could probably lift it over my head under normal circumstances, so I walked over and leaned into it with my shoulder to see if it would move. I gritted my teeth and pushed as hard as I could, but the boulder didn’t budge.

  “Now what?” I said, scratching my chin. I wasn’t about to wrap my arms around it and blow out my back, so I leaned into the boulder again, this time imagining it was light as a feather. I dug my heels into the ground and pushed, focusing my energy on the point of contact between my shoulder and the rock. Amazingly, the boulder moved in the direction I was shoving, plowing the earth at its base.

  I swung myself around and placed both hands on the front of the boulder and pushed harder, this time using my legs. The boulder rolled on its side, exposing a soil encrusted surface alive with insects. I wiped the dirt off my hands, proud of my achievement, then decided to lift the boulder over my head and throw it.

  I searched the surface of the boulder for a crack or depression that would help me keep a good grip in preparation for the lift. I dug my fingers into the rock and bent with my knees so I wouldn’t injure my back. With a huge groan, I pulled upward while straightening my legs. I’d just swung the boulder up over my head when a voice called out from beside my car.

  “Remember to let go of the boulder when you throw it!” Ruby shouted.

  Startled by Ruby’s sudden appearance, I staggered backward and tripped on some deadwood. The weight of the boulder was immediately on me and I instinctively remembered the ball of energy I’d used to throw the Minion off my chest back at my apartment. “Off!” I shouted, and the boulder sailed in a horizontal trajectory, smashing through trees and eventually landing about a hundred yards away. An automobile-sized furrow of crushed trees and plowed earth lay in the boulder’s wake.

  “Jesus christ, Ruby!” I screamed. “You scared the shit out of me—I could have been crushed!”

  Ruby hopped on the hood of the Tempo and casually took a shot of whisky from her pewter flask. “Relax,” she said, calmly. “I wouldn’t have let that happen.”

  I stomped over to my car, my blood boiling. “You’ve got a lot of nerve trying something like that,” I snarled.

  “Stop your pissing and moaning, Conrad.”

  If I was angry before, I was mad as hell now.

  I’d purposely driven for over an hour so I could be alone, and somehow, Ruby had found me. She’d probably been watching me experiment with my powers and instead of offering some advice, she’d treated me like a source of personal entertainment. I’d had more than enough of Ruby’s bad attitude since the day she showed up at my apartment. It was time to push back.

  I thrust out my right hand like a medieval battering ram and fired a blast of energy that sent Ruby careening off the hood of the Tempo, crashing into a pile of rotting timber. She quickly got to her feet and stuck out her chin defiantly. Her eyes narrowed with black anger and she drove her gloved hands together like a jackhammer, blasting a concussion wave toward me.

  I stretched out my other hand and trapped the energy into powerful ball of compressed force, then I hurled it back at her. “Oh sheeeeit!” she wailed, as the energy bomb hit the ground and exploded, blasting the deadwood in all directions while she catapulted through the air. She landed flat on her back and stared at the sky with stunned look on her face.

  “Truce,” she coughed. “I had that coming.”

  I was still incensed as I reached out and helped Ruby to her feet. Suddenly, her small hands fastened around my wrist and she pivoted on her heels, swinging me around and around like a hammer thrower at the Olympics.

  Jesus, she was strong.

  When she let go, I jettisoned through the air until she was little more than a dot on the horizon. I remembered how I summoned the ability to fly and slowed my ascent until I had enough control to fly back toward her.

  “Never drop your guard!” she shouted. “Not even for me!”

  “Truce then,” I said, landing at her feet.

  “Truce,” said Ruby, grinning.

  Chapter 32

  It was a rare moment of comradeship.

  As we sat on the hood of the Tempo, it occurred to me that while everything about Ruby rubbed me the wrong way, there had to be a reason why she was annoying as hell—I just couldn’t put my finger on it. She was a twig of a woman, but she’d lived a long life and every wrinkle on her face told a story of broken bones and smashed teeth. I speculated on what kinds of creatures she’d fought against over the years. As a retired member of The Guild, she’d probably seen her share of cataclysms. That probably explained why she handled stress better than me.

  And she was clever.

  You don’t live as long as Ruby without having a few tricks up your sleeve, and I imagined that she’d learned her lessons the hard way—through trial and error and perseverance. It was Ruby who’d told me to use the shard of Sentient Quartz on the Grave Demon. She’d also forced Stella into a corner when she challenged her to find a way to defeat Grim Geoffrey without resorting to dark magic. Stella had reluctantly agreed, realizing that she’d wind up kicked out of her coven for doing it.

  Ruby Thiessen was a paradox. Her diminutive stature concealed an indomitable spirit, and in the short time I’d known her, she’d taught me the importance of brushing yourself off and soldiering on.

  She seemed distant.

  I’d just finished giving her an update on my grilling at the Sheriff’s office, the trio of Gremlins and my battle with the Minion. Under normal circumstances she’d have torn a strip off me for battling the Minion in my apartment and nearly blowing my cover, but not today. She just sat on the car and stared off in the distance. I told how I was finally able to draw on my powers, hoping my enthusiasm would snap her out of it. In
stead, she nodded silently, taking it all in.

  “How did you get out here, anyway?” I asked. “I took precautions so that I’d be alone.”

  “I’m still a witch,” she said. “I cast a spell so you wouldn’t see me, and I was in the backseat the entire time.”

  “Ah, that makes sense,” I nodded. “You’re a huge pain in the ass, you know.”

  “Yep.”

  I put a reassuring hand on her shoulder to show my concern. “Is everything all right?” I asked.

  She glanced at my hand and then at my face, then back to my hand again. “You planning on moving that any time soon?”

  “Sorry,” I said, taking my hand off her shoulder.

  “When all this Grim Geoffrey shit is over,” said Ruby, as she handed me her pewter flask, “I’ll set up a formal training plan for you.”

  I took a swig and grimaced. “I thought you weren’t going to be my wet nurse,” I said.

  “Changed my mind.”

  “How come?”

  “Politics,” she huffed. “The Guild disagrees with our alliance.”

  “You mean working with me and Stella?”

  She nodded. “Yep. But they don’t understand the degree of danger facing the near world, and said they’d revoke my membership because it’s forbidden for Guild members to work with anyone from the covens. Pompous assholes.”

  “So what happened?”

  Ruby glanced at me and her lips curled up into a malicious smile. “I gave back the gold watch and told them to stuff it.”

  I was surprised, but not shocked.

  Stella said Ruby was thrown out of her coven for using dark magic; now The Guild was cutting her loose because of their suspicion toward witches. Clearly my father must have been an important person for a schism to develop between two orders charged with protecting mankind.

  I wasn’t surprised that she’d told The Guild precisely where to go. In a way, I was proud of her for taking a stand because it was something I would do. This was politics at its worst —ignore a threat in the name of party solidarity.

  I tried to think of something conciliatory or noble that might help Ruby feel better and nothing came. “I’m sorry, Ruby,” I said. “It will be their loss.”

  She hopped off the hood of the Tempo and stretched. “No matter,” she said. “The Guild has never really bought into the supernatural.”

  “I hope you realize that I have no intention of ever joining The Guild,” I said, dead serious. “I detest political bullshit.”

  “No worries,” she said. “Of course, you know they’re going to come down hard on you if you don’t join up. They see you as some kind of sacred cow because of what happened to your father.”

  “Mooooo.”

  Her smile broadened and then she started laughing hysterically.

  “Oh yeah, they’re going to love you to death, Conrad,” she snickered. “Speaking of politics, how’s that old psychic radar working?”

  “Still on the fritz,” I grumbled. “I was going to try a couple of experiments, but then you showed up and picked a fight with me. Why do you ask?”

  “Big news,” she said. “Congressman Byron Aldrich has a summer home at Crystal Beach. His wife was up there cleaning the place out and she’s been missing since last night.”

  I swallowed and pushed back a feeling of mad panic that grabbed my stomach and squeezed. “You’re kidding—Don’t they have Secret Service Agents or something like that.”

  “Nope. Secret Service protects the President. House of Representative members and their families have private security.”

  “How the hell did the guy get past her security detail, then?”

  “That’s a damned good question.” Ruby nodded. “According to the latest newscast, they didn’t even realize she was gone until they noticed that she hadn’t checked in with them for over three hours.”

  “Cripes, this is huge,” I said, stunned.

  “You might want to get that radar working again,” Ruby said, poking me in the head. “Like now.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I saw an aerial shot of the house when I was watching the news.” She frowned. “Someone painted a big red spiral on the roof.”

  Chapter 33

  I wasn’t about to waste any time complaining about why I hadn’t foreseen Marilyn Aldrich’s kidnapping. I’d done more than enough of that over the past few days, and it no longer mattered. The important thing was to figure out how to get my psychic radar working again because for all I knew, the Congressman’s wife was already dead, and it would be a matter of time before someone found her mutilated corpse.

  If she was still alive, it meant I finally had a chance to confront Grim Geoffrey’s host, but then what? Ruby told me I’d have to kill the host if I wanted to prevent the cataclysm from happening during the summer solstice, and I’d refused. That’s why we’d been searching for a portal into Grim Geoffrey’s realm. If we could defeat him on his home turf, there would be no incursion into the near world.

  We’d been unsuccessful so far.

  Dennis the Ogre alluded that dark magic was responsible for our inability to find a portal.Now with less than a handful of days to go before the summer solstice, Grim Geoffrey had raised the stakes. But why Marilyn Aldrich? Why a Congressman’s wife?

  Byron Aldrich had won reelection thanks in large part to his wife’s popularity as a media personality. I didn’t vote for the guy because Republicans have always given me the willies, but if I were going to vote Republican, it would be because of Marilyn Aldrich.

  Before entering public life, she’d been the host of Greenfield Morning, a lighthearted news and information program on KGRB. Each day, she’d greet viewers with a cheerful “Wakie Wakie Greenfield, the sun is shining and breakfast is on the table,” endearing her to a generation of Greenfield residents. After the show was canceled when KGRB became a Fox affiliate, she hosted a popular talk show called “Greenfield Magazine” featuring local guests who’d talk about everything from the world’s best chili recipes to the art of fly tying, my personal favorite. Five years ago she received a Citizen of the Year award from the Greenfield Chamber of Commerce and then she published the “Jasper Frogginton” series of best-selling children’s books. Marilyn Aldrich was, in a word, beloved. I shuddered at how the fear in Greenfield would reach epidemic proportions if she wound up becoming murder victim number nine.

  I hopped in my car and headed back to town so I could watch the news and find out if there were any leads in the search for Marilyn Aldrich. Ruby sat silently in the passenger seat and staring at each passing power pole, lost in thought.

  “Are you sure you’re okay, Ruby?” I asked, concerned by her glum demeanor.

  She forced a smile and nodded. “I’m fine. I just feel like the chickens are coming home to roost somehow.”

  “Because you got kicked out of the covens and the Guild?”

  “That’s part of it,” she said, exhaling. “I’ve lost a helluva lot in my life, mostly because of my bad attitude.”

  “You were pretty nasty to me, and I haven’t dumped you,” I said, jokingly. “Actually for a miserable old woman, you’re not half bad.”

  Ruby rolled her eyes. “I’m old all right,” she said. “How’s the radar working?”

  “Nothing yet.”

  “I’m distracting you. When we get back to town, drop me off at The Curiosity Nook. I need to talk with Stella. Maybe we can conjure up a counter spell that will help you get a bead on Marilyn Aldrich.”

  “Will do—shit!” I said, glancing at my watch.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I have a date in thirty minutes that I suddenly have no interest in attending. I should be out there searching for her.”

  Ruby put her hand on my knee and gave it a friendly tap. “Go on your date, there’s nothing we can do about finding her right now.”

  “I guess so,” I said, softly.

  “Is she pretty?”

  “She’s beautiful
,” I said, suddenly feeling warm all over. “Her name is Marnie.”

  “Your upstairs neighbor?” Ruby asked. “That sounds awfully convenient.”

  “She’s a lot younger than me, but darn it, she’s gotten under my skin.”

  “Follow your heart,” said Ruby, putting a reassuring hand on my knee. “If it’s real, the age difference won’t matter one little bit.”

  We drove in silence until we passed the “Welcome to Greenfield” sign at the entrance to town. I turned down Shelby Avenue and drove past Delaney Park until I saw the waving Boris Yeltsin sign in the window of The Curiosity Nook.

  “Looks like my stop,” said Ruby, as she opened the passenger door. “If you get a fix on Marilyn Aldrich and she’s still alive, you call Stella and me. I don’t want you going after Grim Geoffrey’s host without some backup. It could be a trap, for all we know.”

  “Will do.” I nodded.

  Ruby snickered.”You’re the most uptight forty-year-old man I’ve ever met. Have fun on your date and for shit sake, have some sex.”

  She slammed the door before I could fire off a snappy comeback, so I pulled back onto Shelby Avenue and headed back to my apartment. I turned on the radio in hopes of hearing an update on the search for Marilyn Aldrich and I wasn’t disappointed. Every station on the dial was covering her disappearance and reporters were now openly questioning the ability of the Greenfield Sheriff’s Department to find her, not to mention Sheriff Neuman’s competence.

  “If they only knew the truth,” I muttered, as I pulled into my parking space and turned off the Tempo.

  I stepped out of the car and locked the door with my key, then headed into my building. When I opened my apartment door, Marnie Brindle was sitting at the kitchen table with an assortment of take-out boxes and a huge grin on her face.

  “You’re right on time,” she said, checking her watch. “I’m impressed.”

  “Thanks.” I hung up my coat.