Other People's Heroes (The Heroes of Siegel City) (13 page)

Goop approached me, his body squishing around, making a sound like a water balloon. He walked up until he was staring me in the eye. Then he raised both arms and, with a squish, dropped a hand on each of my shoulders.

“I’m proud of you, little guy,” he said. Then he jerked his neck a little, blinked and added, “Proudproud
proud
!” He pulled me into a decidedly unsolid hug. Then he gave me a sloppy kiss on the cheek and walked away.

I’ve got to profile
that
?
I thought.

“
Dude!”

I didn’t even have time to turn around before I was practically concussed by Animan and the Conductor, both beaming like they’d just seen their little brother hit his first home run.

“My name. It’s Ted Ossian. If anybody calls you a rookie after
that
stunt I’ll
personally
hand ‘em their ass.”

“No you won’t,” Animan said.

“Yeah, I won’t,” Ted grumbled. “But they’d
deserve
it.”

“You
rule
, brother,” Animan said. “I’d give you my name, but nobody uses it anymore. I’m just Animan.”

“Animan it is, then,” I said. Unable to contain my smile, I shook their hands and embraced them as though we were meeting for the first time.

Much as I’d enjoyed my prior visits to the office of Morris Abadie, I could positively
feel
the outpouring of love when I walked in that afternoon, what with the blackened gaze boring straight into my soul. Actually, what I felt was the Rush from Mental Maid’s powers, stronger than I’d ever felt it before. Was she angry? Pleased? Was I disrupting whatever scheme she had or playing right into her hands?

The power was so intense that even the source I was drawing it from was feeling more diffused, as if Mental Maid’s powers were not confined to her body. It was almost as though they were bleeding into Morrie. I tried, just for a second, to reach out and try to feel my way through her powers, to
understand
them, the way I had with some of the others, but it didn’t do any good.

Didn’t matter much anyway. I didn’t have another chance to try. The look I was getting from Morrie cut me off from any bold moves I had left in me.

“What,” he said.

“The
hell
,” he continued.

“Was
that?
” he finished, giving me a sensation of
deja vu
. As he fumed, Mental Maid glared.

“I saved that kid,” I said. “I’m not making any apologizes for that.”

“Somebody
else
could have saved the kid.”

“Nobody else was in position.”

“That wasn’t your call! Do you know how long Flux and LifeSpeed have been doing this sort of thing?”

“Yeah? Are they coordinated enough to use their powers like they’ve got one brain? And what were you thinking, sending someone as unstable as First Light into a
combat
situation?”

“If that kid hadn’t touched her, she would have been
fine.
”

“Well I guess if you don’t bother to
plan...
”

There was a crackle and I dropped into the chair across from Morrie. My limbs froze into place on the arms and my jaw snapped shut. I was still able to look from side to side, though, and I saw Mental Maid’s eyes shining that damnable purple glow.

“
I
am going to talk,” Morrie said. “
You
are going to listen.” He was leaning over his desk now, his cigar resting between his index and middle fingers sending tendrils of smoke up to circle his head like a halo. His eyes flashed and he over-enunciated each word like a pissed-off father who has tried every other method to the point of exhaustion in his quest to drill a point into his son’s thick head.

“It was not your call to make,” Morrie growled. “When you are in Mask you do not -- repeat -- do
not
do anything even
remotely
heroic. You will trust that, should the need arise, someone wearing the
proper damned uniform
will handle the situation. Bank robbers do
not
save kids from who are about to get run over by an eighteen-wheeler.
Capice
?”

I felt the mental control freezing my mouth in place relax. This, apparently, was my cue to agree with Morrie, call him a god and so forth.

Instead I squeezed out the words, “Why not?”

Morrie was momentarily stunned that I didn’t just crumble. “
What?
” he said.

“Why
wouldn’t
a crook save a kid? If he could?”

“Cause -- because he’s the
bad
guy. Because -- dammit,
do you get me
?”

“Yeah,” I spat out. “I get you.”

“Good.” His eyes dimmed and he inhaled through four inches of Cuban tobacco. “That said,” he hissed, “I gotta admit, that was some kinda showmanship out there.”

“Huh?”

“You gave those rubes a spectacle they ain’t gonna forget for a
long
time. You got a knack for that, kid. And
remember
that, it’s the
only
thing keepin’ me from making Mental Maid wipe yer brain and throw your candy-ass out of town. I haven’t seen a job fouled up like this since the Photon Man fiasco.”

My limbs were reawakening and I found myself finally able to move again. “I’m
real
sorry to have let you down, Morrie, you just don’t know.”

“Yeah, right. Okay, get out of here, kid. Yer welcome to hang around the complex whenever you want, but I ain’t gonna need you again until Tuesday. That’s when you start training for your next show.”

“Shift again?”

“I don’t think so. Time you tried on a different Mask.”

“Got you.” I stood up and turned towards the door, but that Rush... that feeling I was still getting from Mental Maid... it was just too intoxicating not to try.

Not really understanding how the power worked, I thrust out at Morrie and I
felt
. I felt the truth. Morrie was mad at me, to be certain... but I’d also impressed the hell out of him. I was still uneasy as I left the office, but carrying that knowledge made me walk just a little taller.

REWARD

Hotshot was waiting in the hall when I came out. “How was the riot act?” he asked.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” I said, exactly as snappish as I’d intended. I headed towards the lounge, but Hotshot cut me off -- he pulled a plastic shaft from a pouch on his belt and used his power on it. Since the shaft had a focal point, he was able to fire an ion stream into the air, blocking my way. If it had been an object with no point, such as a ball or a particularly regular stone, it would have continued to break down until it finally exploded, like a grenade.

At any rate, the result was an ear-splitting energy beam lancing in front of me as I reached for the door, only millimeters from branding a streak across my chest. It was enough to get my attention.

“What did I ever do to you, Josh?” he said. “I’ve tried to be a pal to you from the minute you walked into this complex, I even took you around like I’d known you all my life, but you treat me like something you’d pick out of Doctor Noble’s ingrown toenail.
Why
?”

I gave him a stare colder than anything even Mental Maid could conjure up. “Lionheart isn’t around,” I said. “
Somebody’s
got to be disgusted at what you’ve done to his city.”

Before he could babble out another word, I shoved past him and into the lounge. It was mostly deserted now, but Animan and the Conductor --
Ted,
I had to remind myself -- were waiting for me.

“You still got your brain?” Ted asked.

“As much as ever,” I said.

“Good.”

“So... Have you seen Miss Sinistah here?”

“Wondering if she’d heard about your impromptu heroics, huh?”

“Aw,
no
,” Animan said. “Don’t tell me we got
another
one with a crush on Miss ‘I’m-Slow-Dancing-With-the-Scum-of-the-Earth-and-I-Deserve-It’.”

“You’ve seen it before?” I asked.

He pointed a thumb at Ted. “Hey I
lived
through it with
this
one.”

“She’s not here,” Ted said. “She left a few minutes ago to make a phone call.”

“Not Doctor Nimrod again--”

“Family emergency this time. I tell you, bro,
this
should blow her mind.”

“Actually,” Animan said, “I think she’s back already. Feast your eyes, man.”

He pointed over to the television area, but Miss Sinistah was already racing towards me. I didn’t even get to blurt out a “hello” before she hit me with a flying hug at breakneck speed. If not for the stamina I got from her powers, she probably would have knocked me down. Her arms wrapped around me and hugged me tighter than I’d ever been held in my life. I decided that if there was a Heaven, I didn’t want to go if those arms weren’t waiting there.

“You...” she said, her voice cracking. “You are so...
incredible
. Do you know that?”

“Lil’ old me? What did I do?”

She pulled her head up and kissed me firmly on the cheek. When I finally saw her eyes, they were red and puffy. “Hey... hey, have you been
crying
?” I wiped a tear from her face (Lord, how could invulnerable skin feel so soft?) and pulled her in for an even tighter hug. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

“I’m just... I’m so
proud
of you.”

“Thanks, Sindy.”

She squeezed harder. “It’s Annie,” she said. “My name is Annie.”

Geez, even her
name
was cute.

“Okay, then,” I said. “Annie.”

“I can’t stay,” she said. “I have a family crisis to get back to. But... when I heard what you did for that little boy...” her eyes welled up again and a fat tear rolled down her cheek. “I must be a mess.”

“I think you’re beautiful.”

“I know you do.” She kissed me again and finally took her arms away. I never wanted anything as badly as I wanted them back around me.

“Thank you,” she said, and she was gone.

“What was
that
about?” I asked Ted.

“I don’t know, man, but if you don’t
use
this...”

“Are you sure there’s something to use?”

“God, even
I’m
not
that
stupid.” He wrinkled his brow. “You want to hear the music she was giving off?”

I didn’t even answer, the tune simply welled up within me. It was a soft piano riff, quiet, gentle and majestic. The kind of music you only hear in movies. The kind of music you fall in love to. Ted smiled.

“Nice, isn’t it?”

“Beyond nice. But
why?”

“Hey, rookie!” Nightshadow waved at me from a computer terminal across the lounge -- there was an entire bank of them we could use to access the Internet or the Simon Tower media archives.

“No rookie over here!” Ted shouted back. “We got a grizzled veteran, I’ll have you know!”

“
Josh
, then,” Nightshadow said. “The first newsfeed from your little tango just showed up on the web. Come take a look.”

Ted placed a hand on my shoulder and led me over to the computer, where he started reading over Nightshadow’s shoulder. Ted read highlights from the report out loud. “Notorious thief Shift... Spectacle Six... saved the life of ten-year-old--” He audibly gasped. I thought people only did that in comic books. “Josh... the kid you saved is named
Tom Harmon
?”

“Annie
Harmon
,” Ted said. “No wonder she’s falling for you, man. As of this afternoon, she owes you a brother.”

DOWNTIME

It was about 7 p.m. when I finally made it back to the
Powerlines
office. Nearly every evening edition newspaper in Siegel City led with the story of the hardened criminal who saved the little boy’s life: “SHIFTING GEARS?” asked the
Star.
The
Ledger
proclaimed “SHIFT’S SAVING GRACE.” The
Post
even worked in a tossed salad joke. The only paper I could find with any negative coverage was the
Trumpet
, which practically crucified poor First Light for putting Tom Harmon in danger to begin with. It was a bit unfair, but not really unexpected, given the publisher’s well-known bias against Capes. Of course he usually reserved his ire for guys like Nightshadow and the Arachnid, rather than the high-profile, much-beloved Spectacle Six.

Sheila came by as I was clipping the article out of the
Ledger
. As soon as she saw me, she raised an eyebrow. “
You’re
in a surprisingly good mood.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Well, for one thing there are no circles under your eyes and you’re not drinking the annual caffeine intake of Juan Valdez in one sitting.”

“I had a good night’s sleep,” I returned.

“Since this morning?”

“Time warp.”

“You’re also smiling like a jackal on nitrous oxide.”

“It’s a wonderful, sunny day.”

“You’re humming.”