by J Bennett
Two more figures move through the curtain and make their way to the center of the platform. The others on stage fan out on both sides of them.
One of the figures standing in the center of the platform is The Professor.
The other is Shine.
Except Shine isn’t wearing his old costume. Gone is the orange-and-yellow suit and the glowing lantern insignia in his chest plate. Instead, he wears a costume of flashing gold that seems to glow from within. Slashes of scarlet cut down the costume’s arms and legs.
It’s Beacon’s costume. Sort of. Those are her colors, her helmet, her boots, but I notice now that the shades of the costume are slightly darker. The design is also shifted to more masculine lines that show off Adan’s muscles and wide shoulders. The emblem on Adan’s chest, though, is unmistakable. He wears the lighthouse insignia—the call of Beacon.
The effect is staggering. I hear gasps in the crowd and even wrought cries. Some are playing for the cams, but I suspect others are not.
“Impressive,” Mermaid says next to me. “No one will be able to fight his claim as the next Beacon after this.”
“Thank you for coming,” says Shine, “and thank you for abiding by the parlay.” He speaks slowly, his deep voice moving across the crowd. “Yesterday our town lost its greatest hero. Many of us also lost a friend.” He pauses as if to hold back tears. It’s a touching, tender moment, and I can’t tell if it’s real or not. With Adan, maybe it’s both at the same time.
“We all have questions,” he continues. “What happens now? Will one of us be Shadow’s next victim? I suspect some of our more villainous attendees may also be wondering if this is the perfect time to strike Big Little City.”
“The thought had crossed my mind,” The Professor says. He takes a step forward, leaning heavily on his cane. “But let me just say that as long as Shadow still roams our streets, we are all at risk. He does not pick sides. He does not play by the rules. He hurts heroes, vils, police officers, and civilians alike.”
The Professor pauses to let his words sink in.
“Are they… working together?” Sequoia asks, his voice saturated in confusion.
“For 16 years, it’s always been heroes versus villains,” Shine continues, “but we need to put that playbook aside, at least for now. We face a danger far greater than each other. Shadow is a threat to us all, and more importantly, he is a threat to the city we all call home.”
What Shine doesn’t say, but what we all know is that Shadow has made our city unsafe for tourists. Without them filling up our restaurants, our sidewalks, our bank, and even this museum, our city would grind to a halt. Their Loons feed our local economy and pay for the subsidies I rely on to make my university tuition and apartment rent affordable. Their presence makes the heists of villains believable, and their rescue turns our capes into heroes. We need people in Iconic Square. Shadow threatens our very way of life.
All around me, heads nod and voices murmur in approval. Lysee gazes up at Shine with clear worship in her eyes. Even I can’t help but be swayed by his commanding presence. What he says is true. Shadow is a threat to us all. A realization hits me. Even if I quit as a henchman for The Professor, I wouldn’t be safe from Shadow. He already blew up the restaurant where I worked when I was only a harmless waitress. What if his next target is Shield University or the pharmacy where Ollie works, or another tourist trolley filled with innocent people?
“What The Professor and I, and all the leaders on this stage propose is a truce,” Shine says. “Hero and villain working together until Shadow is found and brought to justice.”
“Or killed,” Evil Santa bellows.
The mumbling around me is growing louder. Someone claps.
“Whoever takes down Shadow will either be the greatest hero the town has ever known or the most revered villain,” Gold says, and he stares hungrily at the stage.
“Assuming they survive,” Mermaid adds, but I can practically hear the circuits humming in her head. Even a lowly henchman or sidekick who brought down Shadow could easily use that victory to spin off.
“There is glory in this fight,” Shine says as if recognizing the same thought coursing through everyone’s minds. “And great ratings too.” He earns a soft chuckle for this.
“The life of our city is on the line,” The Professor says. “We cannot let Shadow cow us.”
“Yeah!” Gold cries, ensuring he’ll get a nice close-up on endless eps.
Other voices rise up around us. “Yeah!” “Yeah!” “Yes!”
“We cannot let him destroy our history and tradition!” Shine cries. He raises his fist in the air, and the other villains and heroes on the stage follow suit.
“Yeah!” the crowd cries.
“FOR JUSTICE!”
“Yeah!”
“FOR BIG LITTLE CITY!”
“Yeah!”
“FOR BEACON!”
“YEAH!” the crowd explodes into applause. As the roars of approval and stamping feet roll over me, something in my heart shifts. I’ve always hated Biggie LC and its population of ruthless strivers. But this is my town. These are my people. They are my family. They are Matthew and Lysee and Gerald, the man behind The Professor. They are Ollie, Adan, DeAngelo, and the sweet old lady who works at Culprit’s Café and always reaches for the bear claw donuts before I even ask. My family is Reena Masterson, Lobo, the Elementals, the Dragon Riders, Evil Santa, Beacon, and all the rest of the lobotomy Personas who drive me to distraction.
Shadow is threatening my people. My family. My town.
And suddenly I’m cheering with the rest. All thoughts of quitting The Professor’s show are gone, or at least placed carefully in a temporary storage box. The mission to take down Shadow is bigger than one show, bigger than me. Shadow represents what we lost with the Castillo v. PAGS decision. He represents the new way of violence and destruction—the fake world bleeding over into the real one. He is the desert and the hovering cam drone that watched Alby’s soul melt away.
My whole life I’ve wanted to come up with the ideas others could use to fix our broken world. But in this moment as Sequoia, Gold, Kitty, and Mermaid holler around me; as the Professor stands at Shine’s side holding up his fist in solidarity with this incredible new truce, I realize that sometimes ideas aren’t enough.
Sometimes you have to get your hands dirty and fix the problems yourself.
“We are all heroes today!” Shine hollers from the stage.
Sometimes you have to kill the shadows.
I raise my voice, giving my cry to the roaring, deafening cheers all around me.
*
The Villainous Adventure Continues
Alice is determined to bring down the mysterious killer known as Shadow, but how much is she willing to sacrifice to make that happen? Can she be the hero her city needs, or does it take one villain to defeat another?
I’m hard at work to complete the third and final book in The Henchman’s Survival Guide trilogy, HOW TO BECOME A HERO. Be the first to find out when it goes on pre-order by signing up for my mailing list.
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Author’s Note
Whew! The stakes are getting high for Alice and her compatriots, and it doesn’t help that she’s sleeping with the enemy (or is Adan really the enemy after all?). The villains and heroes of Biggie LC have forged a fragile peace, but how long will that last as the pressure mounts to keep ratings high and impress an ever-hungry audience?
It was a joy and a struggle to write the second book in The Henchman’s Survival Guide series. One of the most challenging aspects of this story was to show Alice’s slow (yet inevitable) descent into the dark and desperate Fame Game she’s spent her whole life despising.
Alice may be the protagonist, but she’s still a henchman. In this book, I wanted to show her darker side. The need to save her show (and her paycheck) forced her to make some pretty painful sacrifices. She pushed Ollie away, ignored Matthew who needed her more than ever, and humiliate
d and betrayed Lysee. She even hurt Sequoia in the process. At the end of it all, she found herself successful… and alone. The only person she could turn to for understanding was someone who’s made sacrifices of his own. Adan. (Where is that steamy relationship going, I wonder?)
The challenge of Alice’s character arc in this book was to show her edging over the line to the dark side while making her journey understandable. I have a confession to make. I’ve always been fascinated with villains, and some of my favorite characters are villains whom you can emphasize with. (Is it weird that I still kind of love Spike from Buffy?)
That’s not to say Alice is going full villain. My goal is to show that she is just like the rest of us, a conflicted person struggling with difficult decisions. In her heart, Alice wants to do the right thing, but it’s easy to start tiptoeing into life’s gray areas when times get desperate and options dwindle away.
It’s hard to know what any of us would do if we were backed into a corner (and fascinating to think about!). I love these types of questions and putting my characters in tight spots to watch them squirm.
And Alice has a lot more squirming to do.
Let’s just say that Book 3 is going to be BIG.
Alice is going to have to decide if her heart is good or evil, if she will keep fighting the system or become a part of it.
Speaking of her heart… Things are getting hot and steamy with Adan, but is he just a friend with benefits or the only person who truly understands Alice? What about enigmatic Leo? His heart has a few dents in it, but something tells me his feelings for Alice are far more complicated than they seem. Then there’s Sequoia, the gentle giant. Personally, I am so rooting for this guy, but Alice will need to forgive herself before she ever feels worthy of his love.
That’s a lot to consider, and we’re just getting started. What will become of The Professor, Alice’s fellow henchmen, and Biggie LC? The world just got a lot more dangerous, and we all know Shadow won’t go down without a fight.
I’m going to be completely honest. While I’m really excited to start tackling the third and final book in this trilogy, I’m also, well, terrified. I’ve written the outline, and this book is big. Explosive. Supernova. Big fights will go down. Relationships will crumble. New, unlikely partnerships will form. Blood will spill.
It’s going to be a wild ride. And it’s going to take a while to write. HOW TO DEFEAT A HERO came out way bigger than I anticipated (over 100,000 words!), and the next one… well, let’s just say my fingers are going to be super buff after typing all those words.
So please be patient and soon enough, you’ll get to read HOW TO BECOME A HERO.
Your quirky writer friend,
J Bennett
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Also By J Bennett
Girl With Broken Wings Series
A gritty and darkly humorous paranormal adventure series about family, loss, redemption, and cool abilities.
Falling (Book 1)
Coping (Novella, 1.5)
Landing (Book 2)
Rising (Book 3)
Recovering (Novella, 3.5)
Leaping (Book 4)
Flying (Book 5)
Girl With Broken Wings Complete Box Set
