Other People's Heroes (The Heroes of Siegel City) (27 page)

“As many of you have noticed,” he said, “certain members of the Spectacle Six have been incommunicado for several weeks now. Some of you have suspected a fallout, a chiasm in the group. Some of you even went so far as to suggest that Deep Six has
fallen
in his neverending battle to protect the citizens of Siegel City.

I chuckled a little at how Morrie’s speech suddenly became more refined when you put a TV camera on him. Master of lies indeed.

“Nothing could be further from the truth. The Spectacle Six have actually been working in conjunction with Dr. Noble,” who was grinning like an idiot, “in a quest to recover something this city has sorely missed. A real Holy Grail. And I am proud to say that they have found the object of that quest, and all the people of Siegel City will be sleeping easier tonight.”

Reporters’ hands began popping up like targets in a shooting gallery, but Morrie just laughed and shook his head.

“I
could
just tell you what they found,” he said, “but I’d rather
show
you. Come on down, big guy!”

As everybody looked up, the cameraman tilted his lens just in time to see a figure leap from the roof of Simon Tower. There was an instant murmur among the reporters, and as the figure got closer they began to murmur louder, realizing who it
was
. One man could even be heard to shout “Oh my
God
!” over the microphone.

Even
I
had to admit it, it
looked
impressive. The long-lost hero of Siegel was fluttering to the ground (buoyed up, no doubt, by Dr. Noble’s telekinetic powers), landing by his fellow heroes, making a triumphant return. If I wasn’t so disgusted by his presence I may have cheered.

“That’s
not Lionheart
, you
idiots!”
I shouted.

“Awful cynical, aren’t you Josh?” Justice Giant asked.

“Awfully
gullible
, aren’t
you
?” I muttered, then I chided myself for it. He wasn’t really gullible -- just
susceptible.

The stunned murmurs among the reporters rapidly gave way to cheers and applause. It was Lionheart’s face the Gunk was using, but it wasn’t his smile. Lionheart’s smile was warm, gentle and inspirational. The Gunk, even wearing Lionheart’s face, couldn’t manage a smile that was anything but harsh and merciless.

“Rotten bastard,” I couldn’t stop myself from grumbling.

On TV the Gunk-as-Lionheart quieted down the screaming press and fired off another of his soulless grins. “Thank you,” he said, “Thank you. It’s good to be back.”

“Jesus, he’s not even using the accent!” I shouted.

“Keep quiet!” the Giant barked. “I’m listening to this.”

“Where have you
been
?” squealed one of the reporters in a very unprofessional tone of voice.

“I can’t tell you that,” he said. “Not
now
. Trust me, it’s for your own protection. Suffice it to say I have eliminated a very
real
threat, and I have now returned to the city I love.”

There was another chorus of applause and I snorted. “Knows how to play the crowd, doesn’t he?” I said.

“I have every intention of reestablishing contact with my old comrades-in-arms,” he said. “Whether anything comes of that will be entirely up to them.”

I bristled at the thought of him getting a hold of Lightning, the Defender or the Tin Man again. The only reason he’d want to contact those retired heroes would be to eliminate the people who could pick his story apart.

“What about Copycat?” shouted one of the reporters. “Do you have any comment on
him
?”

“Yeah,” I said. “
Do
you have any comment on him?”

“Ah yes,” he said, “the ghost who’s been wearing my emblem. I
am
up to date on current events. Copycat was recently captured by my old friend Hotshot. I trust he has been dealt with accordingly.”

“Or shortly will be,” Noble chuckled. Gunk shot him a look, but by and large I think the comment went fairly unnoticed.

“Okay, okay, ladies and gentlemen,” Morrie said, taking back the podium. “We’re all glad to have Lionheart back, but the man
does
need his rest. I’ll be sending out a press release later with all the specifics. But suffice it to say, your hero has returned! And with him, I’ve got another announcement to make!”

With that, the video screen behind him flashed to reveal another version of Lionheart… a smaller,
plastic
version.

“As you know, out of deference to our fallen hero, we’ve never used Lionheart in our official ‘Heroes of Siegel’ line of merchandise before. Now that he’s returned, though, he’s signed an exclusive arrangement to license his likeness and trademark to Abadie Enterprises!”

“NO!” I lurched against my dampeners, smashing them pointlessly into the cell wall. Justice Giant raised an eyebrow at me

“Lighten up, man.”

“Lionheart would never allow this,” I hissed. On TV, the video screen moved on to show a line of Lionheart clothing, cereal, and other chintzy crap. The camera cut to a reporter who began blubbering about how the great, the
heroic
Lionheart had returned, seemingly from beyond the veil of death itself, to continue his neverending battle for truth, justice and--

“Turn it off,” I said.

“What?”

“Turn off the TV. Or put it back where it was -- I don’t feel like watching those morons gush about how great it is to have Lionheart back.”

“Man, you have
got
to lighten up, you know that?” Still he did
move the TV back and closed the door, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

And those thoughts were enraged.

For ten minutes, anyway. That’s how long it was before the door opened again. This time, it was Dr. Noble and Hotshot. The latter looked exhausted, the former ecstatic.

“I wanted to be here, Josh,” Hotshot said through weary, haggard eyes “You need a friend at your side.”

“Come on
Copycat
,” Noble said through a truly nauseating grin. “It’s time for your trial.”

“Lay on, MacDuff,” I said. Then, smiling, I leaned in towards Noble and whispered,
”I know what you did to Photon Man.”

He looked a little taken aback by that, then chuckled. “You’re bluffing,” he whispered back so that Hotshot couldn’t hear.

“Am I?”

He was visibly shaken by that, but then he shook his head. “Who gives a crap?” Then he raised his voice again. “You’ll get soul-blasted in an hour anyway.”

“Go ahead. Hold your kangaroo court. It won’t matter. Your buddy screwed up
big
time.”

“And how’s that butt-munch?”

“He picked
Lionheart’s
rep to destroy. I don’t care if I have to come back as a
real
ghost. Didn’t you know that’s what a revenant was? A ghost who rises from the grave for vengeance.”

“You going somewhere with this, Corwood? I’m a busy man.”

I leaned in very, very close. And again, I smiled.

“
I’ll stop you,
” I said.

And as they led me away, for the first time, Noble looked scared.

And it felt
good
.

ISSUE THIRTEEN

ESCAPE FROM SIMON TOWER

My cocky attitude began to diminish as we approached the auditorium. Sure, Noble still had that uneasy look on his face, but there was a furrow just fighting to show up on
my
brow as the three of us walked in silence, Noble on my left, Hotshot on the right. Finally, we could see the auditorium door. The walk suddenly became slower.

“So if I were to, say, charge those manacles up, Josh would be able to use
your
teke-field to protect his hands before they blew, wouldn’t you say?”

“Good.” Hotshot’s arm darted out and snatched the center bar of the dampeners, charging them up. I immediately felt power Rushing in from both sides, including Doc Noble’s teke-field, which I used to sheath my hands, arms and the front of my head and torso.

“What the hell is
this?
” Noble shouted.

“What’s it
look
like?” I asked, waving the glowing dampeners in Noble’s face.

“Ah! Get
away
from me, you psychopath!”

“Gosh, Todd, what’s wrong?” I asked in a voice like a three-year-old. He ran back down the hall and I chased him, twirling around the manacles. “What’s
wrong
, Todd? Todd, can’t we be
frien--
”

That’s as far as I got before the dampeners exploded. I felt a clenching around my wrists and a considerable bolt of wind hit me in the face. There was no shrapnel to contend with, though -- when an explosion is caused by the violent disillusion of the ionic bonds of the source explosive, there really isn’t any debris to worry about.

Noble babbled for a moment, then spun in midair and shot down the hall. “Ah, that felt
good
,” I said, turning to Hotshot. “Now
you
-- what the hell do you think
you’re
doing?”

He assumed a face like a character from a bad gangster film and said, “I’m breakin’ youse outta heah.”

“I appreciate it, Mugsy, really, but isn’t this just going to make
you
a fugitive too?”

“Hey, you only live once.”

“Not in this profession.”

“I can’t
believe
you’re helping this murderer escape!” he shouted.

“Come
on
, LifeSpeed,” Hotshot said. “You should know better than that.”

“We don’t have time for this,” I said. I reached out with LifeSpeed’s own powers and made a mental twist. He screamed, clutched his chest, and fell over.

“What did you--”

“Sped up his heart,” I said. “But just for a second. He’ll be okay. I did
not
like doing that, Hotshot.”

“Come on.”

We ran to the stairwell and began flying up to the top of the building. We were on the second subterranean level and there were 40 floors above ground for us to race up through. That gave us a little time to talk.

“Why
are
you doing this?” I asked.

“Because that’s
not Lionheart!
” he shouted.

“Not that I’m complaining, but why do
you
believe me if nobody
else
does?”

“We’ve got the Heart, remember? If that
were
Lionheart, neither of you would have been able to lift so much as a finger against the other.”

“Well, at least
you’re
not as susceptible as some people.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s a mind-controller! He’s already got a hold of Flambeaux, Deep Six, Mental Maid, Morrie -- hey, are we getting
heavier
?”

We were. Our ascent was rapidly slowing down as our bodies dragged through the air. I looked down to see Flux zipping up the stairwell.

“I didn’t want to believe it, Josh,” he called, “but an innocent man
never
rabbits.”

“I’m not really
rabbiting
,” I said, “this is more like
gerbiling.
”

Flux shot upwards and I only barely managed to dodge his rocketing fist. Hotshot, on the other hand, managed to
catch
that hand.

“You won’t believe me,” he said, “but I’m
really
sorry about this.” He flipped the weightless Flux into a wall, hard. I don’t know if it was enough to render him unconscious, but it was certainly enough to break his concentration -- Hotshot and I both lost our “extra” weight at the instant of the collision and shot towards the ceiling like a pair of bottle rockets. We screeched to a halt so fast I thought we’d leave skid marks in the air.

“In here!” he shouted, pointing at the second door from the top of the stairwell, the one that led to the top floor.

“We’re not going to the roof?”

“They’ve probably already got somebody waiting for us there.”

“But -- the top floor? Where the gift shop and restaurant are?”

“Yeah, why?”

“It’s the middle of the afternoon, all that stuff is
still open!
”

“Witnesses. Let’s go.” He landed, opened the door and stepped through. I ducked in behind him. We darted through the hall into Simon’s Sky-High Café and ran into a murmur among the patrons. Hotshot immediately took on his “calm down the folks” stance.

“It’s all right, everyone. Just a routine superhero inspection... nothing to worry about.”

“Hey, isn’t that Copycat?” someone shouted, pointing at me.

“Isn’t he a
Mask?
” screamed another incredibly helpful person.

“Um... he
used
to be,” Hotshot said, throwing an arm over my shoulder. “He’s reformed now. I’m training him to be my sidekick.”

“Your
sidekick?
” I whispered.

“You wanna get out of here or
not?
”

My limbs started going all rubbery on me and I felt a now-familiar “pulled taffy” sensation. “DoubleGum Man is coming.”

“Astute, isn’t he?” The purple-clad rubber man began to flow out of a vent in the ceiling, wrapping me in one arm and Hotshot in another.

“Oh come
on
,” I said, easily turning my own body to rubber and slipping out of his grasp. By now the people in the restaurant were freaking out, wondering why all these Capes were fighting each other -- a situation that was only made worse a few seconds later when V3OL burst in through an empty elevator shaft and fired an energy-web at me from his robotic arm.

“Perpetrators located,” his voice buzzed. He fired again and again I managed to duck. I couldn’t copy powers from the robot, but I slithered in close and oozed all over his arm.

“Release me,” he said in the calm, stupid monotone voice Morrie thought sounded “cool” coming out of the talking action figure. I wrapped my arms around his more powerful right one and jerked it through the air so it bore down on DoubleGum man, who was paying
no
attention to us but rather trying to stuff himself down Hotshot’s throat and suffocate him.

“I will not fire at my teammate, perpetrator, if that is your intention,” V3OL hummed.

“Fine,” I said. “Hope you’ve got a spare arm.”

With Hotshot’s power I charged up the metal appendage and fired it at DoubleGum Man. He screamed and his body contracted, snapping back to its ordinary configuration like one of those stretchy dolls -- which is exactly what he looked like when he fell over. V3OL stumbled around, his torso sparking and hissing from the socket his arm was intended to occupy. “I’m really sorry about that,” I said as he shut down. And I was, but I wasn’t too worried -- Particle would be able to fix him up.

There was a rumbling sound and a huge chunk of floor fell away right in front of me. One of the few remaining patrons toppled backwards and would have fallen if I hadn’t flown in and pulled him away. Once he was safe I saw a pair of red-clad arms trying to find purchase amongst the rubble. They finally gripped something and began to pull.

“Yo, ‘Shot!” I shouted. “More company!”

“Funny,” Hotshot said. “You’d think
Lionheart
would just
fly
up through that hole.”