Tjack

Over in the Fantasy Hero thread a GM was concerned that all his players wanted to be Swordsmen, and I replied something to the effect that if you have a group consisting of Conan, the Grey Mouser, Gomez Addams, D'artaignian and Luke Skywalker that you'ld have a hell of a game.
It's about the characters not the write-ups. Same thing for the Defenders show, as long as the writers create interesting scripts and the actors make their roles come alive the show will be great. If not than the most different power sets in the world won't save it.

Over in the Fantasy Hero thread a GM was concerned that all his players wanted to be Swordsmen, and I replied something to the effect that if you have a group consisting of Conan, the Grey Mouser, Gomez Addams, D'artaignian and Luke Skywalker that you'ld have a hell of a game.
It's about the characters not the write-ups. Same thing for the Defenders show, as long as the writers create interesting scripts and the actors make their roles come alive the show will be great. If not than the most different power sets in the world won't save it.

Over in the Fantasy Hero thread a GM was concerned that all his players wanted to be Swordsmen, and I replied something to the effect that if you have a group consisting of Conan, the Grey Mouser, Gomez Addams, D'artaignian and Luke Skywalker that you'ld have a hell of a game.
It's about the characters not the write-ups. Same thing for the Defenders show, as long as the writers create interesting scripts and the actors make their roles come alive the show will be great. If not than the most different power sets in the world won't save it.

Over in the Fantasy Hero thread a GM was concerned that all his players wanted to be Swordsmen, and I replied something to the effect that if you have a group consisting of Conan, the Grey Mouser, Gomez Addams, D'artaignian and Luke Skywalker that you'ld have a hell of a game.
It's about the characters not the write-ups. Same thing for the Defenders show, as long as the writers create interesting scripts and the actors make their roles come alive the show will be great. If not than the most different power sets in the world won't save it.

For those of you still with us...well, THANK YOU... *Cough* I mean, here we see evil magics are a pain in the rump even when you mostly resist them
 
"You're bleeding," I realized a bit too late after putting the last spear into the tarp wrap we'd had ready on the shore, feeling like an idiot for not noticing it before. It looked like at least one shot with a spear had tagged Tornado.
 
"A gash," he said, shrugging it off, but I didn't like the look of it. It wasn't deep, true, but it was deep enough to cut and still awfully red and… it didn't look healthy.
"Yeah, well, you should get Doctor Salem to look into it," I told him with concern, "And you know Ariana is going to worry."
 
"She doesn't need to see this," He said, meaning the latter no doubt, "And she's not going to if you…"
 
"Hey," Ariana said approaching. She gave both of us stern looks. I suppose it was too much to hope that she'd forgive us for the overhead communication, "Everything okay?"
 
"See," Tornado whispered at me, "You jinxed it." Then he smiled at her, trying to keep his wounded thigh facing me instead of her, "I'm fine."
 
"You're lying," She scowled.
 
"Hey, it's not nice to accuse someone of lying," He protested.
 
"Even when they are lying?" She countered.
 
"Especially when they are lying," Tornado asserted, "Besides, you're mad at us, remember. You're supposed to be snubbing us, not fussing."
 
"I can do both," Ariana said trying to get a look at him.
 
He kept turning in little bursts to the side keeping the wound constantly juuuust out of sight.
 
"Stop that," She insisted.
 
"Stop what?" Tornado smirked.
 
I saw a chance to get a bit further out of the doghouse and took it, "It's a long gash on his upper left leg… it's shallow, but it doesn't look clean. I think Doctor Salem should take a look at it."
 
"Dude," Tornado shot me a glare, "Seriously?"
 
Ariana gave me an assessing look, but rewarded me, well, not with a smile, but less sternness then took advantage of Tornado stopping to look over her barely older Uncle's injury.
 
Now it was safe for me to shoot Tornado a smirk.
 
"He's right," Ariana said, "That looks bad. You're not healing as fast as usual."
 
"He got stabbed plenty and he's fine," Tornado countered, "or will be after a few more minutes in the water.'
 
"You're not him," Ariana said, "And we don't know how these 'blessed' objects work. Fly back to the base. I can give Eel a ride…we can deliver the spears."
 
"Uh huh, no way," Tornado said, "I do not want you near those things. They make you mean, flat out hateful. I only held one for a brief time and I got nasty."
 
She  rolled her eyes, "I figured that's why he was wrapping them up."
 
"Maybe I should just hoof it," I told them, "I mean, these things make you hateful and nasty and even distance…"
 
Arina walked over, and ran her fingers over the tarp, and frowned, "I see what you mean. I don't have the gift of the third eye or anything, but getting this close makes me want to chew you out. I mean, I wanted to before."
 
"right, so hoofing…" I began to say
 
"Don't be silly," She said, "We put them in the back trunk. Now go change in the car, I carried some sweats that would fit either one of you," She looked at Tornado, "Go to the base fast, okay? Now would be good."
 
Tornado sighed and was off.
 
There was indeed a pair of gray sweats that fit me, and soon enough I was dressed. I shoved the tarp back into the trunk, grumbling and then cleared my head.
 
"It's that quick, is it?" She said.
 
"Yes," I admitted as I slid into the vehicle's passenger side "And apparently, I'm now more resistant than before, not that it feels like it."
 
"Let's hope we don't hit a traffic jam," She said, "I might strangle you."
 
"Don't joke," I said with a frown, "I don't want to lose my cool and I worry I could hurt you."
 
She sighed, "Okay, do you know how patroni…" She caught herself, "No, not doing that. You have superpowers that are way off my scale and you are not saying I'm weak, you're worried you are… in the noggin."
 
"Kind of," I smirked, "Not how I would word it. So how do we keep anger from leading to hate, and hate leading to movie quotes?"
 
"We…" Ariana thought about it, "Agree we only speak in compliments and we're always polite."
 
"You're kidding, "I said.
 
"You mean to say 'pardon me, but you're kidding', " She corrected, "And I'm not. You agree to try it?"
 
"Sure," I said, "You start the compliments first though," then I added, "Please."
 
"Fine, you're very brave, and you clearly care," She said.
 
"And?" I shouldn't have been flip, but already those spears were pinging at me, even from here.
"And it's your turn," She replied a touch of irritation in her tone.
 
I was just trying to lighten the mood, geez, "Okay, you're beautiful…" I said to her braying, well, it felt like braying with the dark magics of the spears nipping at my ego.
 
"Oh, is that all?" She snorted.
 
"I'm sorry," I glared, "Don't you mean 'thank you'?" She couldn't even follow her own rules!
 
She grit her teeth, "Thank you…so much."
 
"You're welcome," I snapped, "And yes, the spears are getting to me. I really want to tell you off right to your beautiful face."
 
"Yeah, well, it's a good thing you're so nice and kind of hot, or I'd pop you one," She was pissed, "I was mad at you before this."
 
"Yeah, I know," I rolled my eyes, then corrected, because she clearly hadn't been listening when I said these things would do that to us, "I mean you're very forthright, and I'm sorry I was worried about your life being endangered by knowing me and then I had the nerve to say I'd take care of you even though you're an amazing woman who any guy would want to protect."
 
"Thank you for recognizing your well-intentioned chauvinism," She mouthed off to me, "You don't smell like bad tuna at all!"
 
"That's a compliment?" I blinked, then bit down, "Beg Pardon, but was that a compliment? You're normally so good at making your wishes known."
 
"Well, I'm trying," She said, "Evil spears in the back, you heroic lifesaving meathead," She took the next corner hard.
 
"Thank you for trying, you smooth tongued harpy you!" I shot back.
 
"You're welcome!" She said, "I can't believe how much I want to kick your firm and masculine ass!"
 
"Please stop, you're making me blush! And if I may say, mad as I am, I STILL want to know you better, you interesting and good hearted shrew," I had to process everything from my raging thoughts into something kind of nicer, but the filter was really flubbing it.
 
"Well, you'll probably get your chance, because maybe I do have a thing for heroes, and maybe I still like you even if you and my Uncle were talking about me like I was a trading commodity on a stock room floor," She snorted and hit stop. I realized we'd driven around to a well concealed service road into the mall/base.
 
"Well, gorgeous," I said, "Thank you, because right now I kind of hate myself almost as much as you do. I hate screwing up with someone I like because I want them to like me back. I'm immature like that," I told her, "Now get away, because I have to cart eight rage fueled cursed objects to Dr. Salem!"
 
"No, no, thank you! And I have to go check on my idiot uncle and see if that weird wound has been tended properly while I contemplate how unhealthy this whole conversation has been! It's been a unique experience you…" And she switched to Spanish.
 
"Spanish is cheating" I said getting out of the car to get the stuff from the back.
 
She flipped me off, said more things in Spanish, and went on into the mall.
 
 
"Damn, this is messed up," I snarled to the air as I grabbed the tarp and followed.

OKay, things got crazy today, but just to keep my one paragraph a day mandatory rule...Edit to this: Added a few more the day after.
 
If I wanted violence, I soon got my wish. I'd like to say it was my patrols that did it, but actually, the marine research institute had set up some cameras on some of the routes where the whales frequent. Just like Whale Guy, some humpbacks were streaking past at surprising speed as if fleeing the mother of all predators. It was the tip we needed. Hours of searching and then wham, the same cameras that allow school kids to stream live ocean life footage does the trick.
 
If they ever make a website that can punch, hold up buildings, and rescue cats I may become obsolete. Of course, that would be a noble crowd sourcing endeavor if ever there was one.
 
Even in the water I couldn't keep up with Tornado, but I'm proud to say I wasn't far behind. And Tornado might be able to plunge in for a quick strike, but fighting in the water? Not his thing. That said, I was glad for the company because there were eight warriors this time and they were fighting smarter and with more options. Two of them threw nets towards Tornado, and if it had hit, it might have wrapped him tight and taken him out of the fight before it began.
 
Fortunately, the man remained a weaving blur and managed to avoid the first one deftly. The second came closer but still didn't ensnare.
 
While they focused on him, I came in from the flank and knocked one for a loop. I had a better feel now for how much they could take, armor and all, and this time there was no compulsion from an evil spear to induce me to cutting loose. The fellow I hit was out, but he'd be fine when he woke up.
 
 
Then three of them got smart and coordinated, brandishing their spears, two covering for my counter attack while one thrust forward. The yahoo stabbed me in the shoulder. Yeah, reach is a pain in the ass, or in this case shoulder. It didn't go through me, but it went deep enough that when he yanked it out I could taste my own blood in the water.
 
I've never hunted for boar, but I do like history. If I remember right, back when folks boar hunted with spears, a group of men with spears would go at the mean pig who would gladly tear them to pieces. One or two would stab then fall back, and the angry boar would go after them, only to have the other guys who had been waiting impale him on his incoming charge.
 
I don't know what you've heard about education in the South, it has its problems, but I'd like to think a graduate of Pratt High, jokes aside, is smarter than a pig.
 
Instead of punching the next one, I slammed my hands together in, what surface side, would have been a thunderclap kind of move. In the water, there's more resistance, but when can hit like a pile driver, that's moot. There was an underwater boom and the resulting wave of force and water sent the water-breathing warriors back several feet and, more importantly, off balance.
 
I pressed the advantage, and swam to one, kicking him in the solar plexus, knocking the wind… pardon, water out of him. Nice to see some biological similarities that were useful in play.  I launched from that one to the next, and pulled the next one into a punch trying to knock him into the third.
 
It would, if it had worked, looked amazing and really sped up this fight. While the punch landed squarely in the second target's jaw and he did go back, he missed the third guy. Darn, I wish I'd done better on vectors in math class. Darn Mr. Snyder, he was right… I would too need math when I went out into the real world.
 
Well, if you can ever call the life of a superhero real.
 
The third warrior screamed "For the Eldest!" In the same tongue, I had learned thanks to Doctor Salem's spell and threw his spear at me. I twisted to the side, and while it was a narrow escape, the throw missed.
 
I told him what he could do with the Eldest with the spear in no uncertain terms and closed. He drew a knife and stabbed me as hard as he could. It didn't even break my skin. I backhanded him and turned to see where the others were.
 
Where were the other four?
 
I saw the water spout carrying them up on the air as Tornado spun it up higher and higher. Okay, my former whirl pool seemed less.
 
impressive now. This is how a pro did it. They didn't have a chance. They also couldn't breathe as the water siphoned out of the vortex.
 
Finally, when they all passed out, he let them drop.
 
"That," I said, "was amazing."
 
"Yeah," Tornado said with a smile and then arched down to catch something that was falling free, "And we even got a spear to..." His hand curled around the shaft of one of the damned weapons.
 
"Tornado! You've got to brace yourself for," I yelled alarmed.
 
"Shut.up." Tornado glared at me with rage in his eyes and began to curse  at me in Spanish. No doubt there was a threat about how if I ever hurt his Niece he'd gut me like a trout. The spear was powerful and it was negative and... he hefted it up, feeling the weight of it. If he threw that, at the speeds he was capable of, it would probably go clean through me. 
 
Then he let it drop instead, right into my hands, "I see what you mean," He said drawing in deep breaths, "Those things are wicked bad mojo. Sorry man, I may have insulted your mother."
 
"It's okay," I said, biting down on my own temper, "I know how these things get. Can you fish out the bodies, I'll get what spears I can?"
 
"Yeah, use some of their armor to create a little space between you and them though, okay? One of those things is bad enough," Tornado said

Maybe I'm just being a guy, but I'm not sure how anything he said to Tornado was "working angles."  He expressed concern for her and that his intentions toward her were good. 
 
Though I admit his comment at the end about women of any heritage was one of those moments he'd have been better off just keeping his mouth shut.
 
As to the entry from yesterday...
 
 
Though to be fair, I didn't think anything at all about it until Lady Obsidian's conversation with Fish Guy.  If my suspicion is correct, it was nicely set up, Hermit.

Naturally, as a rational being I know there is not a global conspiracy between women to keep men from growing complacent. They really do not have secret cabals set to keep our egos in check and some grand agenda. However, if fiction isn't a safe place to face our slightly sexist nightmares I don't know where is.
 
If the idea of superheroes on patrol, circling and circling the city streets just waiting for some supervillain to try something seems odd to you, imagine that, but with whales involved. Somedays being a "Fish Guy" is just down right surreal. There will never be a CSI: Atlantis TV show. Talk about too niche specific, likewise, I doubt that folks will be raving about that hit series "Halibut Street Blues" about aquatic cops just trying to keep the ocean safe for the public. 'Let's be careful out there' indeed.
 
But here I was, doing large looping circles around the whales. Gray whales, humpbacks, and heck, dolphins, and porpoises too. It was not unlike going from one neighborhood to another, if said neighborhoods were shifting location now and then. I was an outsider, but I was surprised at how friendly some of the creatures were. One Dolphin came very close to check me out, seemed to decide I was okay, and went back to snapping up fish.
 
I made a mental note not to get too fond of any of these guys. I had named Whale Guy and that had been a mistake because now I was worried for the big lug. I still hadn't spotted him on my patrols.
 
I rose to the surface where the communicator could work more easily, "How are things up there?" I asked.
 
"Boring," Tornado said, "I mean, don't get me wrong, I agree this is our best lead, but after the first hour, some of the wonder of whale watching wore off. After two? Gone entirely. At least when I'm flying over the streets I get to see the occasional pretty lady."
 
"You mean you never use those lenses to look on the shores for bikini wearing examples of nature?" I smiled.
 
"No comment," He answered.
 
Then, he surprised me, "Hey, Eel. I'm sorry. Maybe Fox had a point earlier and I was being a hypocrite.  About Ariana, you know?"
 
"It's understandable," I said, "We all feel protective of loved ones, particularly the ladies in our life. Being born in a more or less enlightened modern age only helps so much. We're still going to have trouble overcoming centuries of evolution and social conditioning, right?"
 
"True, but… I could try harder," Tornado confessed, "And you're a good guy. We've all seen that."
 
"Thanks," I said with a smile, then sobered, "And I do worry  her being with me might put her in danger."
 
"No more danger than she is in just having me for a relation or her own aspirations," Tornado said, "No, you're being nice, but I was wrong, and I apologize."
 
"Apology accepted, and I promise to treat her right as she and I see where it can go," I told him, "I'll take good care of her."
 
"Then you have permission to date my niece," Tornado said, waving at me from high above.
 
"That's accepted too…" I smiled.
 
"So… am I being sold for one cow and a few chickens, or are we going for the full two cows?" A voice broke through tersely over the com, "And so nice to know you'll take care of me as part of the trade."
 
"A..a..ariana?" I gulped. How could a man's throat go dry in a whole ocean of water?
 
"Ari!" Tornado said with exaggerated easy going warmth "We didn't know you were in on this communication! How nice of you to join us. I was just apologizing to your boyfriend."
 
"My boyfriend?" Ariana said coolly, calmly, "mmm he was in the running for the position, that was before I found out he was working angles."
 
"Now, Ariana, I didn't… that's not what I meant when I…" I flustered. My brain scrambled looking for an elegant way out of this without recrimination. Honest to god, at that moment if someone told me I could choose between this or escaping a deathtrap? I'd pick the death trap without a moment's hesitation, "I may have worded some of that wrongly."
 
"One date,"She said, "One date, and you talk to my uncle about permission?"
 
"Now to be fair, I granted it, he didn't ask," Tornado clarified, "He's a good man and…"
 
"I'm going to lose my temper," She said sounding pretty level, but increasingly strained, "I got on the com to help you patrol… I can use binoculars too. You know, despite being helpless and… you know what? I am losing my temper. I'm 'hanging up' before I become a Latina stereotype."
 
"If it makes you feel better," I said, "Traditionally any woman might be offended no matter what the heritage involved…"
 
"Thank you," Her voice went as frosty as Arctic Fox's blast, "That helps so much."
 
I winced, "Sorry?"
 
 
"Everything is clear here on the South beach area from shore view. Ariana OUT."
 
"Mabel, you didn't tell us she was on this channel," Tornado said a bit tersely. In a way, I was glad he was also annoyed, other wise I'd suspect he set this up.
"Well, I was going to get around to it, but when she came on, you two immediately began the most interesting conversation and, well, darling, I'm a lady. I try not to interrupt."
 
"Oh my god, Mabel does see use as her soap opera show," I muttered on the com.
 
"As sands through the hourglass, so to go the capes of our lives," Mabel purred, "And perhaps I do feel some sort of loyalty to the gender mmmm?"
"Sisters before misters?" I said.
 
"More like 'Other women friends before men acting like a donkey's rear end'," She replied, "Really, Tornado I expected this from," She tisked, "But Eel, I had such high hopes for you."
 
My teeth gnashed and I bit back a retort about her warranty.
 
I hoped some of the Eldest troops tried something soon. I really wanted to punch things.

Okay, I promised at least a paragraph every day if I could so... well, I hammered a bit against ye olde wall of creative uncertainty and this is what finally came out. 
 
 
Lady Obsidian turned to me, "Well, that was the Marine Institute with their data.  Between them, Greenpeace, and the local navy base, we now have more information about the migration patterns and locations of whale schools than I ever wanted to know. Between that and some of the toys I've prepared, you're going to have a better chance than anyone alive to find the most likely target whales off the California coast for corruption and recruitment."
 
"Thanks," I said, tapping the wrist band she'd given me, "I know it may feel silly having the team focus on whale watching, but…" I shrugged, "It makes sense to me."
 
"I agree with you, believe it or not," She assured me, "But …before you swim off, bear with me a moment. I want to ask you to go over your story again. This time," She frowned, "I want you to focus on Valorous."
 
I paused, "Valorous? He was helpful in the fire, but other than that… mostly he just came along as we found the other Independents. I'm trying not to take the fact he wants my spot on the team personally… he seems nice," I hedged realizing I couldn't fully mask my dislike.
 
"Does he?" Lady Obsidian said, "What did he do when Arctic Fox and you arrived on the scene in the first place?"
 
"Took bad pictures of her," I shrugged.
 
"I know Fox, she's one of those lucky women who tends to be very photogenic. Bad how?"
 
I wondered where she was getting with this, "Way too close to her face…" And I told her what I could recall, about the eyeball shot, his comments throughout the Independent Hunt, reactions, and more. She raised a brow when I mentioned, sheepishly, his defense of Partials.
 
"You do know that I am not even a Partial, right?" One could almost hear an eyebrow raise.
 
"That's…different," I said, "You're Lady Obsidian," I blushed a bit, "Okay, I am already feeling guilty for coming across as an elitist snob, but honestly if you keep pursuing this I'm going to go fanboy mode and talk about how awesome you are and your genius is a superpower all its own."
 
"Best you don't," She did let gentle amusement leak through her tone letting me know she wasn't too mad, "Flattery makes me suspicious."
 
"You mean like how Valorous is always… " I paused, "yeah, I'm starting to see why you don't trust him."
 
"I've learned to heed my instincts, and with what you've told me? Some of my distrust is now on extremely high alert."
 
"What did I say to make you feel that way?" I asked.
 
"You don't trust him either," She reminded but I notice she didn't answer the question.
 
"Yeah, but you seem to know better why, I haven't gotten past 'somethings wrong with this jerk'," I informed her.
 
"We could chalk it up that super power of genius," She said using the term I'd picked before, "But in this case, let's attribute it to experience," Lady Obsidian tilted her head thoughtfully, "As it is, I still hope I'm wrong. Time will tell."
 
I frowned, "It seems like you have me spying on a fellow superhero, and I have to tell you, I'm not…comfortable with that."
 
"Oh, young man," She said with a tone of sympathy, "You think everyone who calls themselves a superhero is part of one large brotherhood of justice. No, Eel, not everyone who claims to act in justice's name really serves her. People do the most treacherous things in the name of the highest ideals. And not all masks are made of cloth metal or glass."
 
I frowned, "I know that, but…"
 
"Don't think of it as spying on him then," She said, "Think of it as protecting Arctic Fox when she is utterly helpless and can't see it coming."
 
 
I didn't like the idea of any team mate being used, and if Valorous wasn't on the up and up, then no doubt Fox would be devastated, and if he tried it I'd … I paused, "Ma'am, it feels like you're manipulating me."
 
 
"Yes," She nodded, "Yes I am. And if you ever end up leading this team or any other, you'll learn to do the same. Just, be honest with yourself and others on your team as much as you can while you do it. They won't thank you for it, mind. But it helps you know when you're crossing the lines you drew as a youth and reminds you they're people, not pawns."
 
 
"What's the point of having lines drawn if you're only going to cross them?" I stiffened, feeling, oddly disappointed in her, and maybe it showed, "There's right, and there's wrong, and the difference shouldn't be that hard to tell."  Part of me wondered if I had any right to take this attitude with her. She'd saved the nation more than once, maybe the world.
 
 
"I can't speak for others," She says, "But for me? After I've crossed them is when I need them most of all. If I'm going to kill an ideal I thought sacred, I need to be able to see when it fell, and find out why; pay the price for It, and be able to ask myself: If the situation were the same, would I do it again? We all cross a line sometime, as life goes on, Eel. If only to keep from crossing an even more important one. I hope your first time doesn't come too soon. It's never pleasant. But never assume a sign of your failure, even a crossed line, serves no purpose. I wish you gentle lessons but in this line of work, that's the last thing they're likely to be."
 
 
I frowned, and got the oddest idea I'd just been dismissed. I didn't care for the cargo I had been handed as I left.

Some times you have that 'oh why didn't I think of that earlier' moment. It happens to superheroes, and writers.
 
You know, as gross goes, it's all in the eye of the beholder sometimes. While Slime didn't seem as gross as before, he was still somewhat disgusting. Turned out, he found a lot of life forms on Earth less than aesthetically pleasing himself. He had met humanoids before on the transport shuttle, but to this day he found rigid life forms 'built wrong' and 'kind of disturbing'. He confessed further he couldn't  stand to watch us eat.   His reaction to the news of the mystical threat was one of alarm and gratitude. He hadn't realized there were branches of humanity that were water breathers at all let alone that many nations of them. Slime had some encounters with mystical types, but it was hardly his forte. Still, he would do his part, and he would be on guard.   "Okay, you know, I liked him, I'm surprised Slime hasn't been invited to the team himself," I told Arctic Fox when I thought Valorous couldn't overhear.   "Eww," She said, "Of course you want it on the team. It makes your name look good in comparison."   I must have shot her a look because she shrugged, "Fine, Slime gets the job done, but as far as I know he or it or whatever insists on keeping to his own most of the time. Think of it from his perspective? Would you want to be around a group of people who grossed you out half the time?"   I shrugged, not able to argue with that one, "So who's next?"   "This one, you know, at least on TV," She said with a sad sort of shake to her head, "Assuming you've watched at least the local stations for things beyond news. Ever hear of Viewpoint?"   "More like pay per viewpoint," Valorous snorted above us.   She smiled at that, then returned her gaze to me.    I racked my brain, "Wait, the guy selling hamburgers?"   "And Floor wax and designer sneakers, and more yes," Arctic Fox said, "I mean, I guess we can't complain too much. We do make some money on our own images, but Viewpoint takes it to a whole different level."   Viewpoint's commercials were not filmed before a live studio audience. Still, we had no trouble getting on the set. Most people at least look up at superheroes, but when we landed, while a few guys checked out Arctic Fox, and some slight glances went Valorous' and my own way, it was as if this sort of thing was normal.   Then again, I guess costumes were all part of the show.   Viewpoint looked like he spent a lot of time tanning. His predominant colors were gold and black, and he had a lot of chest showing which, every now and then, someone would come up and dab more oil on, then the camera would roll again. It looked like he spent as much money on hair care as some people did rent because he had a truly magnificent coif over a pair of designer shades.   A signal to roll em was made, and Viewpoint's scene began. He walked into the fast food restaurant set up, and it looked like it had a party going already, which only cranked up when he came in on the stage. All the fast food workers were attractive and young, with their uniforms touched up in ways I'm sure the real chain would frown on. Music played, and customers, most of them attractive as well, seemed to be dancing with Viewpoint and their food as he swayed and boogied on in!   That's when the bad guys stormed in, well, the actors playing the bad guys. One of them had a blue make up job to make him look iced up with a lot of cheesy gold chains, and the other was an exceptionally short guy with a mean expression and some kind of parody army uniform.   "The Party's over for you and Meaty Minstrel, Viewpoint!" The frozen looking guy appeared, and they hit the dry ice machine to have a cold frost seem to form around him.   "Yeah! We're shutting this place down and forcing them to go to Generic Burger town!" The short guy concurred announcing their villainous plan.   "Frozen Flava! Sgt Small Portions!" Viewpoint said, "Man, you guys have ruined every fast food burger place in town except Meaty Minstrel!" He turned the camera with a burger in his hand, "The Merry Meat that's the DJ of your belly party!"   I exchanged a look with Valorous, and both of us were saying the same thing 'DJ of your belly party?'   "And that's right, VP!" Frozen Flava announced, "And now we're going to make you conform to our money saving standards!!" And cold fog billowed forth even as Sgt. Small Portions drew forth a gun and made firing motions which I assumed they'd fill in witch cheap CGI effects later.   Viewpoint lowered his shades, and his eyes glowed brightly, washing the two in beams like headlights. While harmless, it was clear this wasn't a special effect. Viewpoint's eyes really were producing the golden energy.   And he said his lines, "Meaty Minstrel never re-freezes it's food, Frozen Flava, you fool! That's why it's poppin fresh in any of the twenty four hours of service! And forget it, Sarge! The portions are always enough to make any man proud…" He lowered his shades while the two 'villains' pretended to be laid out by his 'blast', then looked towards the camera with a much softer sparkle in his eye, "Yet pleasing to the ladies."   "Viewpoint, you've done it again!" One buxom 'manager' for the restaurant exclaimed!   "No, Baby! Meaty Minstrel does it, every time, every meal!! That's MY Viewpoint!" He announced.   Everyone cheered and the party scene started up again for about five seconds, when the director said, "Cut, and we're good." The 'party' died right there and the various actors and actresses scattered. I thought I heard the guy who played Frozen Flava muttering to himself 'I am not a disgrace to the black community. I am not a disgrace to the black community…I don't care what mama says'.   Where the 'manager' lady turned, "We need more stick em, I almost popped out and ruined the shot…"   "Ahem," Arctic Fox said to Viewpoint, "VP, got a moment?"   Only now did the director seem to notice us, casting an eye upon the three of us, "Delish, we could use you…" "Thanks, but I'm not interested," Fox said.   The director made a shoo fly don't bother me motion at her, "Not you, him… the Fish Guy. Nice abs, broad chest" He made a twirling motion, "Could you turn around for a moment?" as he strove to get, I presume, a look at my ass.   "No," I said, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable, "No. I could not."   "Oh come on, we've got a fillet spot you could really help on…" He said.   Arctic Fox looked torn between being offended at being passed up for me, and tickled at my response, instead she dropped a snowball on the guy's head, "No means no, even in showbiz." The director sputtered, and for a moment I worried he was going to order us off the set.   Viewpoint was apparently already on the case rushing between us and his director, "Superhero business, Marteen, I'll handle it." He moved the three of us along, "Could you not go out of your way to antagonize my director? I don't need to lose a sponsor."   "Like you're starving for sponsors," She said with a sigh, "Look, all heroes, even… you, need to be filled in on a major threat to the city."   "A man's got to make a living," he said, "So don't get up in my grill about this."   "Apparently I'm going to have t-shirts so I guess I can't throw any stones," I said.   "See, Fish Guy here knows what's up," Viewpoint flashed a Hollywood style smile at me.   "I prefer Eel," I corrected.   "Ooooo," He sucked in some breath as if he had seen an unfortunate accident it was too late to do anything about, "Eel huh?"   "I warned him, but he's stuck on the name," Arctic Fox said.   "You should get an agent to help you with these career choices, man," Viewpoint advised me.   "It's not a career, it's a calling and…I like Eel, okay?" I grumbled.   "Say what you want about Eel's name," Valorous said, "But at least he doesn't sell his patrol routes and priority listing for protection to the highest bidders." Valorous didn't hide his disdain for the practice.   "Wait, you do that?" I said trying to keep my own face from sneering. Superheroes I respect, Super Mercenaries? Not as much.   "Hey, you don't know me," Viewpoint said, "I've got family with health problems, I've got relations hoping for college. I grew up on mean streets and I don't apologize for working my way up."   "You were born in nice safe suburbs and your parents are doing fine." Valorous corrected the record, "And you're a single child."   "How the… fine, fine," He sighed, "Someone keeps messing up my wiki bio with facts, I see. Yeah yeah, We all know the reason Lady O has her nose up in the air because of my lifestyle, what's her majesty want?"   "Respect would be good," I said, a warning tone escaping me. I mean, in fairness, I knew the woman by reputation, but what I had learned, I had gained admiration for, and besides, you don't talk crap about your elders especially when they saved the city several times when you were in diapers.   "Ease up," Viewpoint said, "Sheesh, you're as bad as Pinprick. So, are you going to tell me the news or not?"   I bit down on my earlier tone and explained to him just what was going on. Finishing with, "In the commercials, you have X-Ray vision and telescopic stuff, not just blasts, right?"   "All real," he grinned, "These eyes have over a dozen different settings, and I see what you're suggesting. I hang near the shore, check out the babes, pretend to be whale watching and give you guys a heads up. Yeah, I can kill a few hours doing that. But what's in it for me?"   Fox smiled at him, "I don't leave ice ramps thawing all over your next five shoots by 'accident'"   "Whoa, threats to my livelihood?" He exclaimed.   "If you start demanding green from us, don't be surprised when I think of ways to cut the budget," Her amber eyes narrowed, and she poked him in the chest, "And don't think I didn't notice the veiled jab at myself and Pinprick with that Frozen Flava and Sgt. Small Portions stuff!"   "Complete coincidence!" He assured.   "Uh huh," She said, "Fine, it better be. You willing to help or not?"   "Fine, fine," He said, "geez, everyone in this job is so uptight."   "It's not a job it's a …" I blinked, "Whales."   "It's whales?" Valorous said.   "They didn't catch Whale Guy," I pointed out to Fox and Valorous.   "Enough about Whale Guy," Fox groaned.   "Who the hell is Whale Guy?" Viewpoint asked.   "His sidekick, kind of," Valorous shrugged.   "He's a gray whale, and my point is, they're rounding up marine life… to make sea beasts they need whales or other creatures… right? They still need some. So we shouldn't just be guarding the shores," I said, "We should find the largest group of whales close by and guard them!" I slapped Viewpoint on the shoulder, causing him to stagger a bit, "Thanks man, I think you helped me out already."   He rubbed at his shoulder, "Don't mention it."   "We're on whale guard now?" Arctic Fox said surprised.   "Do you have a better more likely lead?" I answered.   She did not.

Okay, today took me a lot longer than usual to crank out some writing. Thus this rough draft will probably be uglier than the usual ones. Those allergic to bad grammar, vlonks, and typos may wish to avert their eyes.
 
Fire is a hungry nasty beast. Feed it, and it just gets bigger and wants more. Flames are no friend to yours truly as the encounter with Body Suit had proven. So I can't tell you how glad I was to have Arctic Fox along on this.  Not that Valorous was useless as he flew in the upper floor of the blazing motel while I took the bottom one.
 
 We'd come looking in this area for the next Independent, when Valorous twitched his head to the side and said there was a fire that way. Sure enough, a thin plume of smoke came into view as we got closer and the three of us got to work… the hunt for the next guy would wait.
 
"How's it going on your level, Eel?" Fox had asked through the comm. She had caked my shoulders and coated my body in cold and ice before sending me on my way into the burning building. After all, fire and I are not friends.
 
That said, it didn't last long, "Been better," I confessed through the make shift mouth scarf I'd fashioned, trying not to breathe the smoke in. Fire may not be my friend, but smoke has the better kill record. That's why in school they pull you aside and tell you to huddle close to the ground if you're ever in a fire. Of course, for fire drills they just boot your ass out of the school and have you wait around for an hour swatting at insects, but somewhere in the lessons they do mention the danger of smoke.
 
So, I was hunched as I moved through the building, grabbing blazing hot debris, and moving it to the side. You have to make sure you don't let the heat take a sudden fresh flow of oxygen and turn it into a sudden back-draft or you could end up flash frying a family you meant to save.
 
I respect cops, but there's a reason it's the firefighters who have the title 'Bravest'.
 
I listened for the cries of help. There was one, to the left behind the debris I had moved. I slammed open the door and found a woman and her son huddled.
 
"Is this all of you?" I asked.
 
"My husband is out at a business meeting we came in town for," She nodded with as much calm as she could muster, "The window is blocked."
 
"Follow me, I'll lead you out…" I said grabbing her son and lifting him up, "Stay close, hunch down, and trust."
 
I took them out the way I came in, and noticed that while smoke was still everywhere, the flames were dying down. No doubt Arctic Fox's work from outside. When we got clear and outside, well she had seen better days.
 
I don't know if she needs moisture in the air for her powers, or naturally creates it, but either way the normally sensational looking woman looked like a wash cloth that had been twisted and squeezed of contents one too many times.
 
"You okay, Fox?" I asked through dry lips, aware that I was probably not looking or smelling too good myself.
 
"I'm beautiful, well off, and have superpowers; No complaints. You look like crap though," She retorted but smiled a bit.
 
"You two run to the…" but the mother was already grabbing her son from my arms and racing across the street. Smart woman, "Get an EMT to check you out for smoke inhalation!" I called after!
 
"Thank you, Fish Guy!" The boy yelled as they moved.
 
You know what? Even with the wrong label, I'm not going to argue one of the sincerer thanks I've gotten.
 
"Where is the Fire Department?" I asked her, probably not for the first time.
 
"The truck is pinned and trapped at Dixon Bridge, but another one is on its way," She said, then called out, "Valorous?"
 
Valorous set down two people. Out of all of us, he probably looked the freshest, but there was no doubt he wasn't slacking. He'd gotten more people than I had.
And mentioned it, "So, that's nine so far for me, and seven for Eel, is that right?" He asked.
 
"Yes, good work," I said, "I think everyone else got out safely on their own accord, the manager said it almost everyone else was out for lunch or a convention and…" and I glanced over at a building across the street. After my encounter with Bloodwatch, I was a bit skittish about potential snipers. But no, whoever it was it wasn't a sniper. Though depending on your view of the Fourth Estate, they might be a vulture. It was a camera man, filming all we were doing from a ledge on one of the upper floors.
 
"We've got a fan," I said to the other two, "Or at least a guy from one of the stations."
 
"Moron's going to get himself killed," Valorous muttered.
 
"I am not doing an interview with my hair like this, " Fox said as she turned to see for herself.
 
That's when the camera man got dizzy or just mistepped, and fell over the ledge.
 
I'd like to say that I immediately leaped up and caught the camera guy in a spectacular move and brought him to a safe landing. I wouldn't mind a story in which Arctic Fox created a small hill of snow below the man so he'd land softly. Heck, I would have even tolerated Valorous launching himself into the air and doing what super strong fliers do!
 
But the truth is, none of us had a chance!
 
Valorous was only fifteen feet towards the guy , and I was just tensing with poor Fox's powers sputtering from being played out when a spray of… gunk, some sort of ooze shot down from the roof. It was nasty looking, like blue snot extending and weaving to catch the guy. I looked for the source of the azure ooze, maybe some gunk gun wielded by a chemical wizard. But there wasn't one. The slime had tethered part of itself to the roof and the rest just stretched on down and snared the camera man before he had fallen even a full teen feet. It lowered him down, down down; it's upper end somehow sticking to the surface of the walls like gum as it went down at a slower rate than it's lower part closer to the ground.
 
The Cameraman was screaming the entire way, but honestly, there was a surprising about of tenderness if the motion of the slime. It was rocking him down with no more force than a father setting an infant down in the crib.
 
"Xeno Fourteen," Valorous said with both disgust and interest, "I heard about it, but never got to see it."
 
"Yeah, that's what the government boys call it," Fox made a 'yuck' face, "Most of us just call it Slime. I mean, it's a terrible name, but… there you go."
 
I had to admit, I was a bit grossed out myself. It looked like the love child of anti-Freeze and blueberry gum that a snail had crossed over. I took a moment, then asked, "What, that's the other Independent?"
 
"Yes, it's an alien, keeps to itself mostly," She said, "It's intelligent, and goes about rescuing people, as you can see."
 
Now released from Slime, the Camera man ran off screaming, leaving his camera behind him. Slime itself had dropped into pulsating mass near the camera and was poking at it with a thin tendril it had constructed.  It was playing the footage back? Slime's exact size was hard to measure, it had shifted so much in the brief rescue going along across as far as thirty feet one moment, and now looking more like a four-foot-tall pile of…itself.
 
"We're not doing this," I said rubbing at my eyes, "I don't care what it looks like, I am not being a narrow-minded jerk twice in one day."
 
"What are you talking… " Fox was saying as I walked up to Slime with my hand extended, "About?"
 
"Hi," I said, "I'm called Eel. I'm with the New Samaritans, and we're trying to spread a warning to other heroes…" I swallowed a bit trying not to be grossed out as Slime took that moment to form a bubble in its surface that pulsated grotesquely, "Like you, about a coming threat."
 
The bubble popped. It smelled a bit like sulfur.
 
"Oh gawd," I heard Arctic Fox say.
 
Slime then curled about me, surrounding  up to my legs in a ring made of itself up to my thighs, though it never touched me.
 
I held perfectly still, feeling both grossed out and nervous, while I still had my hand out, "Klaatu, Barada, Nikto?"
 
Streams of smaller bubbles danced along its surface at that, though mercifully they didn't break. The creature pulled itself together in front of instead of around me, now resembling a half-melted snow man in shape, sans hat or other decorations. It formed a pseudo-pod and took my hand, enveloping my digits in its own semi-liquid mitt.
 
Then it pumped my arm up and down. It was like giving a handshake to a very enthusiastic pool of mud.
 
"Do you, speak English?" I said hopefully.
 
It broke contact, and fell back, and splattered flat, almost a perfect square against the ground and lay still.
 
"What did you do to it?" Arctic Fox demanded, "Lady Obsidian says this guy is a true hero, if you hurt it."
 
"Nothing! I just asked if it could speak Eng…" Then before I finished the words, the patterns on slime took shape.
 
MANY YEARS AGO  in a SOLAR SYSTEM FAR FAR AWAY…
 
Words scrolled along its surface, lighter spots of blue along the darker patterns… it was shifting itself to resemble font!
 
A GROUP OF ALIENS WERE IN A TRANSPORT SHIP AWAITING TRIAL FOR CRIMES OF RESISTING A CRUEL EMPIRE! AN EMPIRE THAT HAD THUS FAR, NO INKLING OF A SMALL RIMWARD PLANET …. KNOWN AS Earth…
 
"Cool," I couldn't help but smile as the words at the top of it's…torso? Screen? Thinned and departed to make room for the next bit of explanation.
 
The Prisoners were not all good people, but the EMPIRE was WORSE and they realized their one chance to get away was to unite in a break away attempt! Working together, they slipped their restraints, and tried to seize the ship!
I found myself craving popcorn
 
ALAS ALACK! The prisoners achieved their goal, but not before a signal was sent to warn the EMPIRE and sent three Hunter Ships in pursuit. The small transport shuttle had no chance to fight, and would not be able to outrun them!
 
"What's he saying?" Fox said moving closer.
 
"Shhh," I said, "This is getting good."
 
One of the prisoners, a former smuggler, had heard rumor of a wormhole, one that would lead to the most primitive reaches of space! AND perhaps, even take the shuttle out of range of the transponder being detected! They ran! Calculations rushed! Probability of success dubious!
 
"Never tell me the probability," I muttered really wishing I had that popcorn now.
 
"What are you twelve?" Fox muttered.
 
"Actually, this is kind of cool," Valorous had approached.
 
Upon discovery that her boyfriend was also …. You know, a guy, she rolled her eyes before watching the rest play out.
 
FREEDOM OR DEATH!! And they plunged into the Wormhole! The shuttle was not made for such transit, and only the slimmest of fortune or perhaps some greater spiritual being could account for the survival of most of those from the wreck!
 
I winced, that meant some of them had died. I knew were real people, albeit from outer space, but part of me wondered what kind of people were they? Was one of them a lovable wise cracking comedian of the group? Or the noble silent strong sort? Maybe a wise old mentor had? Probably a wise old mentor.
 
 
They were lost in a strange world, of savages, some of the primitives were good, some were bad, most were scared by those different from them. THEN Your Government came, men wearing uniforms and the mark of The Eagle's Eye.
 
"Operation Eagle Eye handles Aliens?" I said to Fox , "I thought they handled superhumans?"
 
"According to Lady Obsidian," Fox said, "Those guys will handle anything super period. They'll try to seize a superhero's tech in the name of national security. Maybe once they were more like a national guard who backed up supers, but now they seem to see everyone with powers they don't have influence over as a threat."
 
Valorous shook his head, "Surely they have better things to do now that pester the New Samaritans? There are real villains out there."
 
 Operation Eagle Eye captured a few, took them away, but one of what they would call Xenos prevented them from gaining the shuttle itself, making sure the last of its travel tech was handed off to one of the few Earthlings it found it could trust. Others have gone their own way, but this is my home now… and I will fight for it.
 
The scrolling effect stopped.
 
"Awesome," I said, suddenly Slime didn't seem so gross anymore. A thought occurred, "Do you mind being called Slime or is there another word you'd prefer?"
 
Slime is fine! It said, I did not always know how to speak in text, but even with this way of communication? You couldn't pronounce it.
 
 
"Yeah, uhm… " I took a deep breath, "Let me fill you in on what's going down." It was my turn to give a far less amazing story summary to the guy, a story of the Eldest, undersea races, and a danger to this very plane of existence.

Hmm, Valorous is a flying brick with a noticeably bulky belt and an extremely defensive reaction toward Partials.  I'm guessing he's either a Partial who's supplementing his powers with invisible forcefield augmentation, or had a sibling/parent/relative who was a Partial and got into major trouble.
 
This is a good read -- as in "multiple binge-reading sessions in one day" good.

Earlier on I had Pinprick say there were 'one or two ' independent heroes in the city. I may go back and up that to 3 or 4. We'll see. 
 
I'll give Valorous this much, he seemed hooked up to know the city well (certainly compared to a new arrival like yours truly) and the bulky belt he had around his waist was more than just garish. He had places for his custom job smart phone, bit of money, snacks, and even a mini med kit. I made a mental note to consider getting the latter and brush up on my first aid. He had a good grasp of where high crime rate areas were.
 
Once I stopped pushing Whale Guy, Arctic Fox became down right chipper. It was a strange side of her. Her defenses were almost totally down around Valorous. It was clear that she wasn't just whistling Dixie when she had given that speech on love to me earlier. She and he chatted from their short distance. He asked how the team was doing, and she told him, though she didn't name secret identities. Whatever else you could say about Valorous, you couldn't say he didn't show an interest in her day to day.
 
"It's such a shame I can't convince Lady Obsidian to get you in," Fox said, then glanced back at me riding along on her ice pillar, "Don't worry, Eel. I don't see why we can't have two strong guys on the team."
 
"I appreciate that," I said, and I did. It was, from her previous stance, a major concession. Maybe she was warming up to me, or maybe her boyfriend's proximity brought out her warm and fuzzy side.
 
"We're getting close to one of the independent's stomping grounds," Valorous said and I noticed we weren't too far from the piers I had frequented before.
 
"Please tell me we're not counting Bloodwatch as an independent?" I said with a growl.
 
"Hardly," Arctic Fox answered, "We're talking real superheroes, or at least those that try."
 
"What is one of the poor saps a Partial who's too stubborn to stay on the sidelines?" I tried to joke. Of late, Ariana had been on my mind, and while I was glad she found some ways to help, I wondered if that she didn't have an Uncle like Tornado, would she be suiting up anyway without guidance and putting herself in line for an inevitable ass kicking?
 
Not that I hadn't gotten my ass kicked, and kicked hard before coming here. In fact, one particular beat down still haunted me.
 
But my moment of introspection was cut short.
 
"You'd be surprised what a dedicated and resourceful Partial can do," Valorous said testily. He had had fun at my expense before, but now he appeared truly irritated.
 
"Well, you're right," I admitted, though I was surprised at his annoyance, "Some of the great heroes of the early days had just one or two powers or abilities at only slightly over human peak and I don't mean to knock partials any more than I knock firemen or EMTs…" Now that I was saying all this I wondered, was I a power snob? I mean, I always told myself I was just concerned, but there's a dangerous trap of elitism in the superhero game.
 
Had I fallen into it? I mean, I didn't think my tone was that dismissive but…
 
"I think I see her," Arctic Fox declared, disrupting my musings on if I needed some sensitivity courses.
 
Focusing my gaze on the direction she was pointing, I noticed a bouncing figure, and when I say bouncing, I mean she was springing from the side of one building to another and launching up to roof tops. I don't consider leaping that cool, but this was a lot more energetic than anything I managed, and went easily as far as I did on my longest running leaps. She was all over the place.
 
"Pogo! Slow down for a moment!"  Arctic Fox yelled at the frenetic figure.
 
"Pogo?" I said at the name.
 
"At least it's not slimy and gross," Fox shot me a look.
 
I sighed.
 
Pogo apparently heard, and, bouncing far higher than her name sake ever could, tumbled, bounced, and sprang all the way back to us covering dozens of yards in essentially three hops. Now that she was closer, I could get a better look. Pogo wore a neon green costume with yellow slanted stripes on her leggings. The visual effect was glaring. She wore some sort of face paint in the form of a half mask and green tinted mirrored shades (how those stayed on when she bounced I have no idea). Her skin was a yellow tan and it was pretty clear she was of Asian-American heritage. Her slick black hair was in a winsome bob.
 
"Hi, Fox! How how's everything who's the new guy?" She bounced over to me, seeming to move about me at all angles, "Are you Eel? I mean, you like being called Eel right? I'm Pogo! It's really nice to meet you and I am so jelly, because you're in the team I want to join but every time I try to join it's always 'too young this' 'too young that' and 'training programs' 'when you're ready' blah blah blah real drag, huh?"
 
"I'm Eel," I said realizing my introduction was late by several syllables, "How old…"
 
"Old enough to fight crime, to battle against the forces of darkness and save the day, well a small part of the day, but Lady Obsidian doesn't count that, she's like 'oo you'll get hurt honey chile' and I'm like "No I won't I'm resilient' and she's like shaking her head, and Pinprick's like 'do you ever shut up, kid?' which I think is really rude…"
 
"He can be rude," I managed to get out while shooting a look to Arctic Fox that I hope translated to 'help?'. Fox, for her part, looked like she was enjoying my struggle for a chance at expression.
 
"I know, right? I mean, you make a few jokes about height and he's all 'grrr grrrowl' and so on and I'm like 'You're not the boss of me' and I do my own thing but I would really love to join the New Samaritans like you have.  And Tornado …who is really cute by the way… he thinks I'm funny but you know he doesn't take my side either and Arctic Fox told me I had potential but should be chasing boys, going shopping, and studying my school work, but wow, I mean, I have saved lives you know? I even fought a  supervillain, ever hear of Heap! The living Refuse?"
 
"I cannot say I have," I admitted, and took another breathe ready to tell her the reason we were here.
 
The breath was a mistake, because she was off again, "Well, he was gross, nasty, and I had to shower five times after my battle with him but I did defeat him and I was awesome. But do I get credit for that and other things? No! It's always slow down, Pogo! Wait till you're older, Pogo and…"
 
"Pogo, quiet down," Fox finally said.
 
"Yeah, that too," She blushed and, to my surprise, quieted down.
 
"It's really nice to meet you," I said, offering a firm handshake, "But we're actually on hero business. It's involving a potential invasion and a mystical menace."
 
"Ow wow," Her eyes got huge as she shook my hand, "Does it involve Chinese mythology? Because honestly if it does I'm not sure I can help you, my grandmother's always going on about how I'm too western and I guess I am so I haven't really kept up on my heritage so if you need a mystical consultant on Chinese Mythology, wow, am I embarrassed."
 
"No, no," I assured her, "Though if you see anything curious involving other sea creatures, we'd like you to give us a call."
 
She was trying hard to be good, and only had a half dozen interruptions as I filled her in on the situation. She was warned, repeatedly, not to touch the spears themselves if she ever found one, and while it would not get her membership as an equal into the team, the New Samaritans would be grateful, of course.
 
It took another five minutes just to say good bye to each other.
 
"Lord love a duck," I muttered once she was gone, not caring if my 'folksy' sayings didn't count as English or not to Fox and Valorous, "Why didn't you guys warn me?"
 
"Would you really have been prepared?" Valorous pointed out.
 
'Fair," I admitted, "Who is next?"

In every hero community, there comes a time to finish your corndogs and rally the troops
 
"So," I said, "you guys are taking this awfully calmly," I had filled the others in at the food court at what I had learned, "None of this makes sense. I mean, the sea beasts will be great equalizers, that's why they were trying to capture Whale Guy, so they could transform him into a monster but…"
 
"Whale Guy?" Pinprick said.
 
"The gray whale that I and Ariana found out there on our date," I said feeling a bit sheepish.
 
Tornado grumbled.
 
Ariana fought a smile.
 
"Indeed," Lady Obsidian said.
 
"Whale Guy?" Pinprick shook his head looking at me, "This is your play on a date?"
 
"Girls love guys with a sense of humor, right?" I glanced over to Arctic Fox, Lady Obsidian, and Doctor Salem.
 
Arctic Fox gave that hand shift side to side and muttered, "meh."
 
"Well, usually," Lady Obsidian said kindly, then looked to Doctor Salem.
 
Doctor Salem nodded with forced kindness, "Depends on the humor."
 
"If you'd been there, you would have found it adorable," I insisted.
 
"I found it adorable," Ariana admitted in low tones.
 
"Thank you," I shoot her a look of gratitude. Maybe she was throwing me a bone, but I really needed it right then.
 
"Could have been something wrong with the air mix in my tank though," She added just as low.
 
I shot her a hurt look. She needed to learn that with great feminine quipping came great male vulnerability.
 
"Sorry," She smirked, "Couldn't help it."
 
"Back to the subject?" Lady Obsidian ahem-ed.
 
"Even with a dozen sea monsters or what not, they would be out numbered to ridiculous levels, some of the undersea kingdoms are more tech based than magic based, but frankly, for every guy out there with a blaster, someone else is hauling around a knife made from whalebone or coral, "A thought occurred to me and I looked at Fox again, "As an aside, Can I trademark Whale Guy and his image for him? The old guy was really adorable."
 
"Focus," Lady O commanded.
 
"Yes, Ma'am," I coughed into my hand, "My point is, it can't work, we have them out numbered, and out gunned, and that's just counting not superpowered types. is that why everyone is so calm? Because at this rate, I'm thinking the Eldest is an idiot."
 
"You're assuming the goal is the Eldest wants his army to win," Doctor Salem corrected.
 
"Why would they want to lose," Tornado inquired. He'd been a bit surly after Arctic Fox's dressing down, and he hadn't been happy when I'd entered with his niece by my side. To her credit, Ariana had put some distance between us as we came in. She and I weren't actually an item and there was no need to antagonize Tornado over a first date.
 
 
Doctor Salem answered him, "It doesn't per se, but it is a mistake to assume the Eldest cares for even one creature sworn to it beyond their temporary usefulness. It wants only one thing, to be free, to have complete access to this plane. And to do that, it would let this very world collapse in on itself in madness and ash. Don't doubt it for a moment. It is entirely possible that the various peoples of the seas aren't being sent as conquerors, but rather sent as blood sacrifices," She went on, "I have no doubt those spears, if used to slay, feed the Eldest and empower him to escape. I see no reason a soul dying while holding one wouldn't feed it as well."
"And again, I say, why are we taking this so calmly?" Some of them hadn't finished their meals, "They may not be surface folks, but they're still people. We have to do something. I have to go back to where the fight was and find those other spears…"
 
"Already gone," Lady Obsidian said sadly, "I can't swim as deep as you for as long, but my fields can protect me short term and I took a plunge while you were recovering. The other four warriors you spoke of were gone and so were all the spears except for the broken one you snapped. Doctor Salem has those, but says their use is…" She glanced over at Doctor Salem to confirm, "Limited?"
 
Doctor Salem nodded, "Useless to me now as they are no longer a conduit. Of course, its influence is gone, and that's a good thing."
 
"Yeah," I agreed, imagining what a rage fueled superhero with Lady Obsidian's experience and power might do. It wasn't a pretty mental image, "But we also don't have four more to rip up, and I have no idea how to get to the other thousand plus."
 
"Ah, but we will," Doctor Salem said with a thin smile that spoke more of determination than humor, "We just need you to find another one. Anyone, and then… I can use it to find the others."
 
"You can?" I shouldn't have been surprised but I was, "how?"
 
"Magic," Pinprick said helpfully.
 
"Thanks," I shot him a look.
 
"Ahem," Doctor Salem raised a brow at Pinprick, then looked back to me, "Lays of joining, of symmetry will be at play. Like attracts like, once a part always a part, and so on," She said as if explaining the most basic of basics because she didn't have time for the advanced stuff.
 
Which was probably the case.
 
"So, I guess I'm patrolling the shores?" I said.
 
"Actually, now you're on patrol with me," Arctic Fox said, "Lady Obsidian thinks its best if we travel in pairs when possible. There's still a city that need protecting. You and I are going to track down the independents and see what they can contribute," she smiled a bit at something, "at least I'll get to see Valorous again. Is it okay if he patrols with us? At least part of the way?"
 
It was a polite request, and despite his Fish Guy label affixing he'd done with the press, after her speech about love, I figured perhaps I should give the guy another chance. She had, in her weird way, had my back even while trying to show me the door. I could go it for her sake if not his.
 
"Sure," I said, "As long as he agrees to call me Eel."
 
"I told about the results on that name," She delicately wiped her face with a napkin, "But thank you. He's really a great guy." And her smile lit up a bit.
 
"Let me go get a shower and a change of costume," I said, "And I'll be ready to join you on patrol and seeking out the independents," Then I thought of something, "And about Whale Guy?"
 
She rolled her eyes, "Fine, fine, we'll talk about getting Whale Guy is trademark."
 
"Yay," I said in a normal volume with a slight smile.
 
Her eyes rolled and she walked off.
 
Riding with Arctic Fox was easy. She made a consistent disk of ice under us, and then formed these ramps of shifting ice behind us which propelled us at a pretty fair click. I wondered why we weren't taking the hover car, but no doubt one of the others needed it, or perhaps it was ready for an emergency. But this wasn't bad. I didn't really the feel the cold, and all I had to do was stand still.
 
It was like a free ranging conveyer belt for two people.
 
"Do people ever get mad when the ice melts and leaves water everywhere?" I asked.
 
"Are you kidding?" She sniffed, "This is California. Come Summer drought they'll be begging me to race over their lawns."
 
"Point," I admitted, "I bet you're a hit around Christmas."
 
"I do not dress in trampy elf outfits at malls, Fish Guy," She said as we kept moving.
 
"Oh really? So, are the papers wrong about snow hitting that local children's hospital every year, just that hospital, on Christmas Eve?" I inquired, with a follow up at her irritated expression, "I researched the area, you know?"
 
"I'm hardly the only super in the world with cold or weather powers," She said, but I noticed she didn't deny it.
 
"You're a mean one," I sang in my deepest voice, "Missus Grinch…."
 
"Stop that," She said annoyed, then suddenly just like that she lit up again with a smile that went right to and included her amber eyes.
 
Hovering just slightly over us, was Valorous. He moved right to her side on the ice disk, and held up a smart phone to her face, "Winter Goddess come to visit," And I heard the click and saw the flash of light.
 
She laughed and pushed aside, "Hey, that close all you're going to get of me is my eyeball," Then she kissed him, and he returned it.
 
And there I was, without a doubt, the third wheel of this little ice palace.
 
"Ahem," I coughed into my hand after a silent twenty count.
 
"Ah, sorry about that," Valorous said while Arctic Fox checked her hair for mussing. The big man held out his hand to me, "Fish Guy, right?"
 
"Eel," I reminded, eyes narrowing. This time I was tempted to take his hand and squeeze the living snot out of it. It would be a jerk jock thing to do, but it was tempting. I resisted the urge and just gave him another polite if still firm shake.
"My bad," He said then asked, "So any more news on this Atlantean invasion?"
 
I wasn't sure I wanted to tell him anything else, but he was a hero, and I supposed he need to know. Lady Obsidian had directed us to for that very reason, even though I was certain there was something she didn't trust about the guy.
 
It didn't matter, the normally cool as ice Arctic Fox was talking away, "It's not just Atlanteans, in fact, I'm not sure which ones are the Atlanteans. But Eel's dreams and encounter have led to a lot more than that…" And she began to fill him in with my information.
 
It occurred to me I might be the better one to do so, but it was clear Valorous wanted her to talk, not intruding until she was done with the entire thing as well as she knew it.
 
"I'm having a hard time believing there's an Eldest thing out there," He admitted, "It sounds a bit…hokey."
 
"Trust me, it's real," I said trying not to shudder at the memory of that spear breaking, "And those spears are very dangerous to your soul and body. Try not to handle them directly if you can find something else to carry them in."
 
"So why aren't you combing the seas?" he asked.
 
"Because we don't know where to find them," Fox said gently, "The oceans are huge, and we don't know when or where the next raid will be. This one's goal wasn't even an attack on people. They were trying to transform a gray whale…."
 
"Whale Guy" I said helpfully.
 
She ignored it and went on, "Into a sea monster after all."
 
"Did the gray whale get away?" He asked, letting the sea monster bit slide.
 
"Yes, Whale Guy got away," I said kind of proud of myself for having made it possible.
 
"Stop trying to make Whale Guy happen," Arctic Fox shot me a look, "God, so annoying."
 
"The Tee shirts could depict him with a little half cape with a WG on it," I muttered, "It would be adorable."
 
She ignored me again, "So our current task is to inform other independents of what's going on. Interesting in joining us?"
 
"You know I am," He smiled and rose up into the air, "Don't worry, I'll be on my most charming behavior."
 
"You always are," She beamed up at him then when his eyes looked elsewhere shot me with a brief burst of cold even I could feel, if only as a slight sting.
 
"Ow," I said obligingly.
 
"Stop embarrassing me in front of my boyfriend," she whispered harshly with Irritation in her tone.
 
"Why, you think it will ruin his focus for the big homecoming game and then the other cheerleaders will blame you?" I asked deadpan.
 
"I mean it," She said testily.
 
"Okay, okay," I sighed. I knew I was joking around too much, but it distracted me from the questions like how was I going to get my hands on another spear when, as she had said, the next chance could be anywhere and any place. Also, I found I enjoyed being the one busting chops now and then.But the independents might not share let alone appreciate my sense of humor, so best to tone it down.
 
Sometimes other superheroes take all the fun out of world endangering events.

In which Caleb meets Ariana again, and gets a lesson in the price of  insisting on a romantic interest with braincells
 
Mayo told me everything he knew, which he claimed wasn't much, but I felt like I could easily have spent a year getting into the details of. I'm sure we talked for at least two hours straight before I remembered the poor guy might be starving by then. After some hem hawing about trying to find a delicate way to ask if he liked food cooked or he only ate raw sushi, it turned out his people did indeed prefer it cooked.   They used underwater vents of heat, volcanic fissures, and the like. They still enjoyed and ate raw fish now and then, but cooked was always better he thought. Of course, it seemed his father gave lectures on how they used to swim for tens of miles to find a decent heating location when he was a lad… against the current, both ways. Not like spoiled youngsters in the seas today. I began to suspect generational rivalry was universal, or at least global.   So, we had a meal underwater. It was, unusual for me. The closest I had ever come to having an underwater meal was having surface food in a waterproof bag which I popped up to devour. Granola bars mostly, so the cooked Sushi under water was strange, and frankly messy. Imagine Chinese food that levitates?    It was a laugh riot for Mayo.   While the information was invaluable, some of it did not make sense to me. It turned out that there were less than four million underwater people, as an estimate, throughout the world. Now he couldn't be sure on that. The Kingdoms often masked their numbers to each other, and some still rebelled against the Eldest.   "Mayo, you do know we have billions of surfacers right? The US Military alone , that's this one country you've come into the land of… has almost one and a half million active duty personal…."   "You should not be revealing your numbers to me, Caleb, it is sloppy and…" He paused, "billions of people?"   "Yup," I said.   "I…. did not know this." He confessed.   "So how, with not even all your people involved in this, are you guys expected to win?" I inquired.   "I do not know that either," He considered.   It was on that conundrum that I decided to end the conversation, share what I learned (Though I'm sure Mabel at least had recorded everything we'd said in that funky language) and maybe get a few clues from the more experienced heroes.  Apparently when Mayo and I had taken our own lunch break, the other others had done the same, so I began to head towards the food court to find them.   Ariana found me first.   She was dressed in blue jeans that fit her well, sandals, and a blouse that exposed her shoulders nicely.  The expression on her face was a blend of curious, concerned and gentle humor. I liked the combination.   Those dark chocolate eyes of hers could swallow a guy. I wonder how aware she was of that?    "Hi," I said first and found myself leaning against the wall and forgetting to move on past.   "Hey," Ariana brushed a lock of her hair behind her ear, fetchingly. Okay, that was on purpose! At least, I think it was, "You okay, Caleb?"   "Thanks to Doctor Salem, I'm fine," I said noting she was using my name even though she'd gotten it by overhearing it no doubt, then again I had used it with Mayo and I didn't even want to kiss him so that was fair, Also, I was currently sans mask so that was probably her respecting the base polices as well, "And you?"   'Yeah, I was never any danger," She admitted, "I am embarrassed that I punched out Mayo. I didn't know he was rescuing you. I mean, he came out of the ocean with those the needle teeth bared and you in his arms like he was going to eat you and… I may have jumped to conclusions." Her blush was adorable.   "Yeah, he says you hit like a bottle nose dolphin at full charge," I informed her, "Not bad for a vertically petite person."   My echoing her earlier comment did not ease her blush, "I'll apologize to him sometime."   If she wasn't going to just talk about it, I would, "He'll appreciate that, but what I want to know is how does someone like you take out a trained warrior in one punch, oh, and my personal favorite… WALK ON WATER?" I gave a 'what gives?' gesture with my hands.   "I have powers," She admitted.   "I was coming around to realizing that," I smiled, "What kind of powers?"   "Density shifting," Ariana explained in a rush, with the kind of enthusiasm one has when they have a neat trick all their own. Which in this case I guess she did, "Uncle Tino's molecules can go hyper... my molecules are different.  I can become solid as stone, or light enough to walk on water. But in the superhero world, stone breaks, and walking on water while neat…."    "And disturbing to those of us of church going persuasion," I reminded, though to be fair, I hadn't been to a service in over two months.   "Ahem," She raised a brow, "Catholic Girl here," Then a low mutter, "Okay, frequent lapses… where was I?" "Walking on water, while neat," I repeated.   "Yeah, not exactly flight. So, I can get strong and tough, but not strong and tough enough to hang with your average super villain. And I can get around, but hardly up, up, and zoom," Ariana admits, "I'm a Partial."   I'd heard about Partials, and jokes about dentures aside, they're kind of the almost-rans of the superhero set. There was a time when a pair of wings was a superpower enough to let you fight Nazis.    Not that you really need a super power to want to fight Nazis. Nazis have very punch-able demeanors.    Nowadays, unless that proverbial winged guy had some major tech to balance it out or was a black belt in like four different martial arts, he would probably have to sit the fights with villains out or they'd snuff him fast.   Some Partials made big bucks in movies or TV shows, parleying their limited powers into opportunity for fame. Others do well enough in fields like message delivery, body guarding, or construction. Being as strong as five men goes great with a job in construction, for example, even if you're not bullet proof. If I could only breath water, I'd be considered an oddity, not a super.  It was like Valentino had said. Ariana was so close to being able to be a superhero she could taste it.   I wondered if that was part of her attraction to me? I…   "So," Ariana said after a moment, "This pause is getting long, and awkward," She added with a bit of a nervous look.   "Sorry, I spaced out for a moment there," It was my turn to blush, "I tend to over think and get wrapped up in my own thoughts."   "Yeah?" She grinned, "Are they trapped in puffy little clouds or hang over your head or in narrative bars? I'm betting clouds for you. You seem sort of retro."   I broke out in laughter.   She dimpled adorably, then took my arm, "Okay, good. I got you to laugh. Now what was that concerned look you had? Because if it was pity, I'm good. I may not be where I want to be, but I'm still one in a million when it comes to gifts and I won't whine about not getting more. And I'm still a help around here now and then. Heck, I've even helped folks after an Earthquake once, though I had to be careful."   "You did?" I said impressed and finding I liked her having possession of one of my limbs.   "Sure, I can't go through solid objects, but I can walk on delicate materials without breaking them when I'm ultra light, and if I found in my search someone in need of help, and had a safe place to do it, I could go dense and strong and help like a one woman squad at digging them out. I give what I can, you know?"   "So you don't want to be a superhero?"   "Caleb, are you crazy?" She looked at me incredulously, "I? I would look fantastic in a costume. Of course I would love to be one. I like helping, and I envy how clear cut it seems to you guys."    "With a cleavage window?" I hinted. Okay, probably shallow, but the idea of a long talk about how it was rarely as clear cut as even we liked seemed a bit heavy now.   "You wish," She smirked.   "High boots…" I added.   "You're demented," She grinned.   "Opera gloves?" I made an exaggerated pleading sound.   "You're supposed to save the disturbing turn-ons until our third date, genius," She sniffed loftily but was not offended, "Opera gloves? Really?"   "Whoops," I said walking with her now, "Hey," I paused forcing us both to slow down and then I smiled at her.   "What?" She said curiously.   "So, you're planning to give me at least three dates," I pointed out smugly, "Are you?"   Rather than answer me on that, Ariana started our walk up again, "How do you feel about midriffs?"    "Oh, I think they can be fantastic and you would totally rock th…" I realized what she was doing, "Hey, you're avoiding the question by distracting me with the sexy."   Her blush was back, "So what if I am?"   "Fine," I said, "What do you think about Fishnets?" I countered.   "I think you'd look a bit weird in them," She said, "But it would it would fit your theme."   I groaned. There are definite disadvantages to being attracted to women who can out quip you.

In which we learn where the Team has been "holding the Mayo"
 
"This will work?" I asked Doctor Salem as I stared at the pool.
 
"It's a simple translation spell, I won't be the target of it, and he is probably far more willing to talk to a fellow water breather he's dream shared with than some strange old surface woman, now hold still," She made four touches. One to each of my ears, then one on my lips, then up again  right to my forehead. It felt like she was playing tic-tac-Toe with my face.
I dived into the water to join Mayo. The swimming pool was now filled with salt water, if at a temperature a bit warmer than the section of the Pacific I'd been in. 
 
Mayo had a hell of a black eye from where Ariana had, if what I heard was right, decked him. I guess she got startled. How she knocked out a trained soldier with one punch was another little mystery about her I wanted to inquire into, but first things first. Mayo had possibly saved my life after resisting the pull of a spear he had been holding on for I don't know how long.
 
And as a reward, he'd gotten punched, and now imprisoned for questioning. The first I could understand was an accident, the second wasn't sitting well with me.  
 
"Can you understand me?" I asked him as I floated before him, "Are you okay?"
 
"Your mate is dangerous to startle," Mayo finally said, rubbing at his bruised eye, "And is not normal. I did nothing to harm her."
 
"I know," I said, "You're a good man," And despite only having met him in a dream, pardon me, sending, and briefly in the ocean where he was ready with others to kill me, I believed it. Mayo had dropped that spear and fought its influence. He had shown signs of being given little choice in who he fought for. Hell, if I remembered right, his family if not entire village was essentially held hostage.
 
"You are kind, Caleb but judge too quickly," He said, "Why have these surfacers not slain us? Do they plan to torture us? Are you well?"
 
I wondered how much surprise shown on my face as it occurred to me that Mayo still didn't quite grasp that I was a surfacer. I breathed water without aid, so he assumed I was from…whatever that other undersea kingdom was.
 
I could really use this to my advantage, I realized. Clearly, he trusted me, and he might open up to a fellow aquatic citizen faster than he would someone born of 'the enemy' his people were about to invade.
 
All I had to do was a little shuck and jive, gild the lily and he'd see me as a fellow prisoner here who was the one he could really trust with… battle plans, with mission goals, with everything.
 
I could not bring myself to even start.
 
"Mayo, I'm not from any undersea kingdom," I told him, "I can breathe water, and I have great power, but I'm was born on the land from surfacer parents. I'm one of them. I always have been. I only ended up sharing that Sending with all of you because of the fact I can breathe water and the spell snagged me by accident."
 
Honestly, I almost expected Mayo to faint judging by the look of shock on his face. If I had been surprised by his mistake, he was absolutely gob smacked by my revelation.
 
"By Poseidon's barnacled ass! Tell me you are jesting! Tell me I have not thrown away everything for an abomination!" He was aghast, "For a land devil come real!"
 
I would be hurt by that if I wasn't still processing the curse, " Poseidon's barnacled ass?" I repeated.
 
"Do you worship Poseidon? " He inquired pausing.
 
"No," I admitted.
 
"Then what do you care if I'm a bit profane?" Mayo grunted, "I'm already damned just for helping you."
 
"Because the Eldest said so?" I inquired, maybe a bit disdainfully, "He doesn't seem like a very nice sea god."
 
"He's not, and no, not by him. By every measure, Atlantean, Lemurian, Thonian, Mu  and Lyonese, even the Yongwangguki gods all warn against interacting with surfacers, and almost all of them have legends of abominations, people of the land who can enter the sea as easily as we do, but are not of it. Some even speak of those who will spread unholy words and corrupt generations with their lies. And I am now imprisoned by you?"
 
"It can't be that bad," I said.
 
"In legend, one of your kind is called 'the Great Defiler' and 'Greatest of Land Devils' …. 'The False Prince'…"
 
"Lot of titles," I said.
 
But he just kept going, "the 'Devourer of Morality', the 'Beast From Above' , 'Destroyer of Serenity' and 'The Living Taint'." 
 
I sighed, "Let's keep that Taint talk away from the guys, please. I have a hard-enough time with the Fish Guy jokes," I asked without thinking how little that probably mattered to him.  Then I went on, "I am just a guy. I have a gift, and I'm very blessed, but I am not here to lead your people astray or defile your women or anything like that. I'm just trying to stop this Eldest from enslaving your various kingdoms so they rise against the surface. Now  please, tell me what's going on."
 
"And if I refuse?" He crossed his arms.
 
"If you refuse," My eyes narrowed for a moment, "Then I will personally….thank you for saving my life, possibly several times. Ask what we can do to help you get back to your village or wherever you need to go, and then possibly give you a nice meal before you go which I was going to ask you about anyway. Then, even if I have to carry you back to the ocean in my own arms, I will make it happen."
 
Whatever he was expecting that wasn't' it, Mayo's large black eyes seemed to get even larger, then finally he said, "You are terrible at this."
 
"Terrible at what?" I said, hands out the universal sign of I don't get it.
 
"Prison interrogation," He snorted, "You are supposed to offer the kindnesses a bit and at a time, with greater kindnesses offered for compliance. You should asking me for battle tactics, strategies, key locations, who are my officers in command. What do I know about our military capacity and resources. You should have the goad as well as the meal being offered, preferably by one uglier than you who enjoys frightening people while you pretend to hold him back."
 
"goa..oh, stick and carrot… and good cop bad cop," I said realizing what he meant, "No, I didn't come in prepared for that."
 
"You are primitives," Mayo shook his head, "savages who barely understand the first thing about how to prioritize. Your people, your lands are in danger and you value me over all that?"
 
"Well, I am a heretic," I rolled my eyes, "Would like me to get a translation spell cast on one of the others and have them slap you around a little while I looked sympathetic?"
 
"At least it would bespeak of some degree of professionalism," Mayo said with a shake of his head, "And at the same time show you were not stuck in the grotto while blind to the ocean. You are a soldier of your people, you must think of them first, before yourself, and certainly before me."
 
"One wrong to an innocent individual in the name of the greater good soon leads to every individual fearing they'll be next and that kills the good for everyone, and I'm not a soldier but even our soldiers have a code of honor that they aren't going….." I raised my hands, "Mayo? Are you serious!"
 
"I…" he sighed, "I don't know. I was not lying when I said anyone in my kingdom, and the other undersea kingdoms would see you as a devil. And I'm not lying when I say your people are very much in danger. And…. If you threatened me, maybe I could tell others I had to tell, but you treat me kindly and now I…"
 
"You've been robbed of the excuse of duress to ease your conscience?" My head was still spinning a bit from all the ethical gymnastics going on here.
 
"Mayo," I finally said, "I want your people be free from the Eldest too, remember? What does your faith in other gods and your gut tell you about that?"
 
Mayo closed his eyes, and assumed a position while floating under water not unlike sitting Indian style for a moment. I waited as patiently as I could.
 
Finally, he answered, "I need to help my people become free from one evil god, and worry about the cost to myself later. I did not ask to be a soldier, a warrior, but I am one…and I should give myself up for them to help them, even if it costs me my place in that society. Innocents come first…Always."
 
"Always," I said, and offered a hand.
 
He reached out and clasped not my hand, but further up at my wrist, "Let me tell you what little I know."

In which a lovable character shows a less lovable side, and a less lovable character shows where she stands on somethings
 
  I really wasn't that tired, and whatever cleansing Doctor Salem had performed on me had worked. No, any terror or insignificance I now felt was now entirely the doing of my own overwhelmed concerns and imagination. How does one hunt down hundreds of spears over seven oceans, and snap them all? Doctor Salem was working on it. Maybe she had a plan for a tracking spell. I was told by Lady Obsidian to get some rest.   I told her flatly that wasn't happening.   She sighed, and allowed me visitors, but only one at a time. I knew what she was doing. The "only one at a time" rule meant that that I'd be granting audiences like a bed ridden prince rather than just getting it over with in one swoop. Then again, I figured most of the team had better things to do.   Boy was I wrong.   "So you're okay, right man?" Tornado inquired of me, "Magic is crazy stuff. I once got popped into a dimension where everything was bright red and blue roads, and every cobble stone showed you one of your memories. Going up and down the roads, were feet, no bodies attached to them, but the had mouths where the ankle stumps would be and they would ask you riddles and not even wait for the answers. It was weird, but it sounds like what you went through was worse."   "Thank you, Tornado, I'm honestly... okay. I'm just feeling overwhelmed, but I'm not lying in the pit of mystically induced despair anymore. I'm good. I'm recovered, and I can handle anything," I assured him with more bravado than was probably warranted.   "Fantastic,"  He smiled, then, then while it didn't turn into a frown, the smile vanished "You took my niece on a date? She's a kid."   "Your 'little' niece is twenty, just two years younger than I am?" I pointed out, "So yes, I asked her out. She said yes. Going to the ocean was something she wanted to do, and I could show her things no one else could."   "What things?" He said suspiciously.   "Barnacles," I told him with a sigh, "Come on man, give me some credit. Do I look or act like a player?"   "The good ones never do," He stated matter of fact "She's my blood. You've got family, right? You can't expect me not to get protective."   I thought about my own family, particularly the women in it. The ones that had been hurt by some jerk, and the ones who had yet to be hurt but would be putting their hearts on the line. I considered we were in a modern age where we had to recognize the rights of our fairer sex relations to make their own choices.   The fact we had to recognize and respect their choices didn't make the protective urges any less genuine.   "No, I can't blame you," I said, "All I can do is tell you the truth, that I have never intentionally in my life hurt a woman who put her trust in me. I've screwed up, and I've done it accidentally, yes, but I've never been deliberately cruel."   He began to pace, which given he was floating was an odd visual. He didn't quite stay even, so he bopped high at one side of the room, then low at another, and I began to imagine him at one of those primitive blip in an ancient video game folks used to play in the seventies.   Tornado glanced over at me, thankfully pausing, "Okay, you're a good guy. That's great. You're a superhero, and she's tempted enough."   "Enough?" I must have looked a bit too pleased at the idea she was tempted.   "Check the ego, I mean she wants in our world, she wants to fight crime," He said, "And I've tried to shoo her away from it, and she scoots back in. You know that fiery Latina stereotype?"   "Yeah?" I raised a brow, "She actually didn't seem like that."   "She's not," He nodded, " It would be easier to handle if she were. Her temper would flare up bright and frightening for a moment and then after she petered out, you could handle her again. Ariana isn't 'handled', she's more like water. You think she's soft, that she'll go along, but actually..."   "She waits you out, and then finds the way in and takes it anyway, and has a lot more force behind getting places than you ever imagined," I said admiring, "She does keep a level head on her shoulders," I took a deep breath, "Okay, I understand why you'd want her away from this life, it's dangerous, but  Valentino," I said using his name even though he was wearing the mask, "Come on, with you in the biz she's already invested emotionally in the world of supers whether I date her or not. And maybe, even if neither of us was involved, she'd take up the calling if she could. You said it yourself, she's got her own brand of stubbornness."   "Well, I don't have to like it," He snorted, "And if you loved her..."   "Pump your brakes, I barely know her, though I like what I know," A lot, I thought, "But I don't know her well enough to be using the L word. Come on, man. She clearly has powers."   "Not enough," He looked grateful that was the cause, "But I'll let her tell you the details on that one. Just, go easy. She's only twenty. It's possible she's drawn to you because of what you are, not who you are. If she can't be part of our world as one of us, she could be part of it as a romantic interest."   I frowned at that, "She's only into me because I breathe water and am super-strong? Is that what you're saying?" At first it sounded insane, but then, I had used my powers to impress her in the first place. And maybe she might be looking for a vicarious kind of belonging on the team she could not, for some reason, join herself.   "I don't know that. Subconsciously ? Maybe. I'm saying she's young, idealistic, and brave. She's a kid, and even if you don't mean it intentionally, you could hurt her badly. Let's face it, superheroes are worse than cops and doctors combined when it comes to the time we can devote to a significant other," He said, "You want to put any woman through that?"   My mouth opened, and I felt both horrified at the idea of some as yet nebulous love interest waiting, miserable, for the latest newsfeed to tell her if I lived or died, and angry that Tornado seemed to think that because I was a superhero I should die alone and without anyone to come home to. Both reactions were a bit extreme, and I took a deep breath rather than respond.   Then again, I was supposed to be trying to be a hero, and that didn't stop when I wasn't wearing the costume. Innocents first.   "No, I guess I don't," I frowned, "It was just one date. I can distance myself... for her sake."   "What. A . Load. Of. Crap." came from the door way. It was said with such utter disdain that even if the owner of said voice didn't have cold powers, I would have felt a chill.   "Hey, Arctic Fox, one at time," Tornado said irritably, "That was Lady Obsidian's orders."   "I assure you," The queen of cold and ice said loftily, "If Dr. Vernon had just heard the utter drivel tripping out of both of your mouths right now, she would shake my hand for this intervention. Valentino, your niece is what, three years younger than you, four?"   "Something like that," He shrugged, "I'm not sure what your..."   "I've seen you date girls her age, in both costume and not," Arctic Fox went on, "But Ariana, who has more sense than some thirty year old women I know is a delicate Mex-american flower who can't stand the first harsh winds of romance gone wrong? She's twenty, and by now,  she's had at least one crush that ended up crushing her. Possibly hard. Given your juvenile manipulations of a man you claim as a team mate and friend, I can can see why she wouldn't tell you about that."   "Hey, go easy on the guy," I found myself defending Valentino.   "No," Tornado's jaw set, "Maybe I am too protective and ...too close to the situation. Fine, later Caleb. Sorry, for... coming out of the gate with this one, " He moved past Fox with a dirty glare and moved on.   "He was just looking after his own," I said to her after Tornado was gone. I was surprised. Arctic Fox was the one member of the team I wasn't expecting a visit from.   "And that makes it right how?" Arctic Fox snorted, "If Ariana knew he'd tried that, 'fiery latina' or not, she'd have his ass and he'd deserve it," She had folders in her hand, but didn't hand them over yet, "Do you like Ariana?"   "Yeah, but the danger..."   "Let me try again, in your own language," She put two fingers together against her mouth and gave a pretty piercing whistle that made me whistle before saying in the worst imitation of a Southern Accent I have heard,  "Hey Bubba, you think that there latina philly is nice and purrty? Then you should see if she wants to mosey on over to the footbridge after dark!"   I winced at the pitch of the whistle and glared at the accent, "Do you have to be a b*tch?"    "No, it's a life style choice I merely gravitate towards, but it gets people to listen," She took a deep breath, "Look, it's no secret I would rather have my boyfriend on this team than you. But you are a part of the team whether I like it or not,  and even you weren't, the idea that we should avoid love of all things is poisonous. Love isn't something you run from, Love is something you strive for. You open a little bit more each day, and the person you're with, he or she does the same, and then hopefully, once both of you have seen all the crazy in each other, rather than be repulsed, you...join, and I'm not talking sex. You hold onto each other and you stand no matter what against the world. That's what love is supposed to be. That's the dream, the only dream worth having in this crapsack world as far as I'm concerned. And it is not a reason to not save the world, it's a reason to save it, because with love and only love is this stupid planet worth saving."   I was stunned. I had not thought of her as a romantic. I mean, yes, I knew she had a guy she was gaga over, but that was still not what I expected, "So does everyone on this team have someone, or are you the lucky one?" I said, and I didn't mock when I said it.    "Just me," She smiled sadly for a second, clearly glad at her own fortune, and sad that others didn't have what she has, "Valentino plays the field, and plays it well, probably afraid of commitment. But that might be my own biases involved. I like him, but men."    I smirked at that, "Oh yeah, we suck."   "Fine, obviously men are no more monolithic than the more sensible sex, but I reserve the right to gloat the day Tornado meets his match and ends up wrapped around some woman's finger," She said sans mercy.   "Mean," I said, but smiled.   "If she's a good woman, he'll count his lucky stars," She added, "As for Doctor Vernon, she dates. At her age it's easy to dismiss her romancing days as done, but as she hinted earlier..."   "That was a hint?" I inquired thinking the comments on Denzel before but Fox went on.   "...She's not dead yet," There was admiration in her voice, "She's also a lady old school so if there's some peer at those science meets or senior superhero gatherings she's seeing, I'm out of the loop on that one."   "And here I thought you two were at loggerheads," I muttered.   "Logger what? speak a real language," She told me.   "It means you seem to argue a lot," I sighed at the lack of education big city superheroes had.   "Yeah, we do. Because I think I'm right and she's wrong on some things. If I didn't respect her, I'd do what I'd want and not even bother listening to her, but I do, so I argue," Her expression indicated worry that I wasn't very bright.   "And Pinprick? He mentioned an Ex..." I started to say.   "I hope she rots in hell," Arctic Fox said before the full question had left my mouth.   "Whoa," I blinked, "What did she do? Cheat on him?"   "Eventually in every way possible," Fox answered with such seething contempt that I was very glad it wasn't directed at me, "I shouldn't be surprised you don't know. Pinprick might make jokes about her when Glen isn't about, you know, those little jokes we tell because they're true and we hope the truth will hurt less? But even then he tries to stay out of the habit of openly talking trash about her because she's the mother of his son. And he never, ever, even jokes about her where Glen can hear."   "Well, that's...decent of him," I said curious as hell as to what the lady had done or not done. I guess Arctic Fox picked up on it, because she went on.   "She swore through good and bad, sickness and health..." Arctic Fox explained, "then he had his origin. He came out shrunk down, and feeling like a freak. She agreed with the feeling and left him. She took their son with her, and he had to go through hell to prove he was a person let alone the boy's father and fit enough to be so. She left him because she was embarrassed by his new stature and couldn't handle the scrutiny. She told the courts it was 'traumatic' for her. For her! " The temperature in the room was dropping, "And she lied whatever lies it took to try to keep Pinprick from being able to see Glen. Pinprick's ex didn't just bail on him, she betrayed him utterly. Frankly, I've met supervillains with more honor. If I could vote other females off the Island of womenhood? She'd have been sucking water a loooong time ago. You don't swear to love and cherish and then pull that crap and get a pass from me. I don't care if it's on some team mate or a man or woman I don't even know. You. Don't. Do. That."   "Sometimes people divorce," I said, stunned at the heat in her words even as it was accompanied by a chill, "Sometimes marriages are a mistake."   "I know that," she raised a brow, and the cold backed off, "My own family has more than one. And I feel sorry for those who find it necessary, but there's divorce, and there's betrayal. One does not have to be the other. Someone else's heart is a sacred trust."   She put the folders in my hands, "Sacred." She said in one word as if this discussion was over.   "You didn't strike me as the church going type," I admitted.   "I'm not," She shrugged, "I don't believe in God. It doesn't mean I don't have a sense of the sacred. Now read those."   "Sure," I said, "What am I reading?" The papers were notes on , what was this, T shirt patterns, action figures?  And the first pages some kind of trademark clarifications for New Samaritan Non profit?   "Ways and means to protect your super identity from becoming some other company's trademark," She answered.   "Wait, they can do that?" I blinked.   "Of course, I thought you were into history, surely you remember the Emerald Avenger and what happened to him?"    I winced, "Yeah, some company trademarked his name and costume and then put legal papers and motions out restricting his use of it."   "Do you want that to happen to you?" She raised a brow.   "No," I admitted, "But, this feels a bit like selling out."   "There are options in there to have proceeds from your action figure sales and t shirts to go any charity you like, either all of it or a percentage. So unless you really think helping St. Jude's or Project Innocence or the Make a Wish foundation is 'selling out'..." She shrugged.   "No, I get it," I was overwhelmed by this. How much would be greedy? Did I really need a job after all? What charities should I give it to? As much to buy myself thinking time, I asked, "If Pinprick's Ex tried to screw him over so he couldn't even see Glen, how does he have visiting rights?"   "If I had to guess, it would be because he got rich with investments after the divorce and she couldn't touch the money, oh, and he hired a real attorney, one of the best divorce lawyers in California," a smirk, "Who threatened to take the story mega public and portray her as the atrocious and traitorous spineless b*tch she is."   "Pinprick would never do that," I countered, "Because it might hurt Glen."   "She didn't know him well enough to realize that," Arctic Fox answered, "Sad, isn't it?"    Then she noticed me sussing the papers out, "Relax, you don't have to sign it right away, think it over, and if you need me to I'll walk you through it later," She started to leave, "Don't tell Pinprick I discussed his dirty laundry so much with you. I hate being shrunk."   "Promise," I said, then something in the paper work caught my eye, "Hey! Some of this is to trademark "Fish Guy" as well as Eel? And next to Eel there's a notation of..what is this?"   "First of all, you may not like the name Fish Guy, but even if you don't it's got Brand power now thanks to your exploits," She said at the door, "Secondly, you might might to reconsider the name Eel. It's not testing well."   "Not testing well?" I gaped at her, "It's a sea creature, like me. I can even..."   "No one cares, Eels are slimy and gross. I suggest go with Fish Guy or find something new," Arctic Fox's amber eyes locked onto mine, "If you want to have any marketability at all."   "But..." I protested.   "Slimy," She said withdrawing, "and gross."

Got a bit more done tonight before midnight. 
 
 
  Someone caught my scream in hand made of light, brought her glowing fingers together, and muffled it more and more until it just silenced.   I could hear other things now.   "He told me to get to shore and I did," a woman's voice, one filled with shame and frustration, caught my ears, "I left him to that..."   "Hey, this is not your fault, you did nothing wrong," A man's voice this time. Similar sounding, consoling and reassuring to her.   "Except knock out the guy who rescued him," Another man's voice.    "I didn't realize that at the time," Protest from the first voice, more embarrassment.   "We can sort things out later," A second woman, a voice of authority and calm. Concern was there too, "For now, let the Doctor do her work."   "It's done," a voice said, another woman, filled with power and I could read nothing else. The hand was hers, I knew that much, "He's awake now. I've taken the barbs from his soul. He'll be fine, against all odds."   I opened my  eyes. I was in the med-bay, half submerged in a box/slash bed they'd arranged for me, and there was a pretty big crowd around me.  The wounds the spears had inflicted on me were gone, but more importantly? I didn't hate myself anymore. I didn't feel like an unworthy bug that had somehow gained the notice of a mountain side it had dirtied by landing on it.   "Doctor Salem, I presume?" I gazed at the woman before. She had not aged as gracefully as Lady Obsidian, but then I imagine most women didn't. Doctor Salem's wrinkles ran deeper into, she didn't stand quite as straight, and yet her eyes were surprisingly clear still. Her costume had a 17th century vibe to it, mostly in a blend of dark blues and purples. There was an almost mesmerizing torc about her neck with skull designs at the end. I could see echoes in the frame of her cheekbones to the beauty she must have had as younger woman but if her beauty had faded, it hadn't touched one bit of her poise. Like Lady O, she had an aura of command.   "You didn't tell me he'd come up quipping," Doctor Salem glanced over at Lady Obsidian. Lady Obsidian was in her armor, perhaps ready for trouble, perhaps already having faced some, "Young people," As if that explained it all.   Doctor Salem nodded to her and turned back to me, "How are you feeling?"   "Not...as shaken as I should be," I confessed, "And I'm very confused," More realizations came to me as I took in the crowd , team mates and more. My eyes shot to Ariana who gotten out of her wet suit and was now wearing a light blue blouse and darker hued jeans that fit her nicely. The others were in costume, "What happened? Where's Mayo? Did anyone get the other spears? Did they find the other underwater soldiers? I knocked some out but when I broke the spear... and who's protecting the city?"   Everyone tried to answer me at once.   "I went to the shore and called for back up, but the others were facing another threat...."   "Nothing we couldn't handle...."   "We almost had to pry you out of that fetal position you were in, Jesus kid, what did you see?"   "Lady O called Doctor Salem, when she realized it was probably mystical... and we have Valorous picking up our slack... again I might add."   "Seriously? You're going to bring up your boyfriend when Fish Guy got the mother of all magic whammies?" "But you're okay now, right?"   "Wait, is Mayo the pasty guy Ari knocked out?"   "Okay, I'm really feeling bad about that now..."   "You called an Albino looking guy Mayo? Isn't that a bit...well, racist?"   "Ahem," Doctor Salem said, her finger tip suddenly glowing with a blue light that filled the room. Everyone shut up, except for Lady Obsidian who had been letting the others ramble, "If you all don't act in a more orderly fashion I'm going to ask Lady Obsidian to order you out of the room. If you don't mind, let me answer the young man's questions on the mystic side?"   Murmurs and mumbles of compliance.   I was the one who spoke up, at risk of rousing a wizard's...err witch's wrath, "Actually, I need to confess something. I screwed up. I had this dream, and thought it was just the dream. It was actually the sending. I don't know why I picked it up. I'm not Atlantean or anything, but I guess I got caught in one of those contingencies. Even after you mentioned visions I didn't think it through and equate it with dream. If I had bothered to put two and two together I would have never let Ariana near the ocean," I said in a rush. One of Ariana's elegant raven brows shot up in an arch at the word "Let" but she let it slide, for now.   Rather than being annoyed with me, Doctor Salem was quite calm, "None of this surprises me in hindsight, Eel and you were hardly the only one who missed some clues. And as the mystic expert, I should be the one to know better. Whatever spell was cast was meant for sentient waterbreathing peoples. You maybe a surface born man, but you still fit the required qualifications. Add to that a possible subconscious command for not sharing it with anyone not of their ranks, and of course your mind would rationalize it as a dream. I'm the one who ignorantly assumed any sending would be for land dwellers. It all makes perfect sense actually. Now tell me about this dream, and tell me what happened out there as best you can remember and I will tell you what you need to know. "   The way she phrased that was not lost on me. I was the one who got whammied, didn't I need to know everything?   I gave her everything I could recall of the dream, and it came to me in alarming detail. I found myself recalling some of the armor worn, the various types of sea people I saw, and even some of the words chanted though she shushed me when I started to repeat those.    Then I described how the perfect date with a great girl went south. Ariana gave a slightly pleased smile at being called a great girl but her features grow more somber as I covered what happened after her departure.  As if it were her fault what happened next just because she could have stuck around. Some people take too damn much on themselves.     "You are, " Doctor Salem's response after hearing my response to the mystical onslaught from my vandalizing a 'blessed' spear caught me quite by surprise, "a remarkable young man."   "For curling into a ball after breaking a pointy stick?" I snorted.   "The compulsion from that spear being broken was far more powerful than anything tied to the sending," Doctor Salem said to me as if explaining the obvious, "You shattered a conduit. An anchor used by the Eldest to strengthen his ties and influence to this world. It's the last thing he wanted, and so that thing was trapped to curtail such ever being tried again..."   I started to wave it off again...   "By driving you to suicide," she finished.   "I'm sorry, try that again?" I said after a moment to let it sink in occurred.   "That despair, that worthlessness, that wasn't just a byproduct of interaction, that was meant to erase your very will to live and destroy your ability to feel joy," She steepled her fingers.   "Reminds me of my Ex," Pinprick muttered.   "How come I... how come I didn't kill myself then?" my throat was dry.   "Strength of will, true faith? Purity of heart? Perhaps you even have a destiny and other powers have need of you, but something," She continued, "Or someone, shielded you. If from within, you are very rare. If from without? Someone powerful loves you, or at least finds you useful. And that has cost the Eldest much."   "From one spear?" I raised a brow.   "The next time you do break one," She explained and I fought a cringe at going through that again, then heartened at the rest, "It will have less of an effect on you. It will never be completely safe, but you are now a greater threat to him than anyone else on this team just because you can destroy his anchors. Destroy them all, and the Eldest may find his ability to affect this world reduced to a phantom."   "First thoughts," Tornado said, "I think I saw this movie, but the good guys won so...yay. Second thought, how many of those guys in that sending had those spears?"   "All of them," I said trying to sort how I could even begin to track them down.   "And how many of them were there?"   "At least a thousand, maybe thousands," I said still stunned.   Tornado thought about how to put a positive spin on this, then smiled weakly and slapped me on the shoulder, "Hey, man, job security!"

We have guests today so I didn't get as far as I'd like, but hopefully it's not too anticlimatic a resolution to yesterday's cliff hanger.
 
 
 
Blood trailed from my shoulder into the water behind me. I've been cut before. There's a reason terms like invulnerable or invincible come with qualifiers in the super biz; qualifiers like 'nigh' 'relatively' 'virtually' or my personal favorite 'close enough for government work'. Certain lasers had sliced me when they'd have severed someone else entirely in half. There are metals, rather expensive ones, that can cut through anything, even yours truly. And damn it if Bloodwatch wasn't right that a titanium bullet at point blank in my eye would be a severe downer on my day.    But I was surprised, the spear didn't exactly seem high tech. Wait, what was it from the dream? The spears were 'blessed' by the Eldest One. Crud, I hate mysticism.   "Head towards the shore," I ordered Ariana, "Now."   Floating under the water as we were, I got to talk, she didn't. She did shoot me a briefly defiant look before breaking through the surface, stepping up onto the water as if it were solid, and running towards the shore! She could walk on water?   Later, no doubt when I had time to think on it, my carnal desire for the girl I was dating would conflict strongly and uncomfortably with my religious upbringing.   Right now, I had a fight on my hands!   The fanged behemoth they were riding and I closed. It's maw opened and I felt the pull of water rushing in threatening to drag me in like an undertow. I resisted the pull, and managed to avoid getting swallowed. The creature clamped down with a thunderclap of a snap on empty water ! Its red eyes blazed with hate.  This thing hated me, or maybe it just hated. It hated with an almost human capacity for the emotion. And that was spooky as hell.   Instead of in its mouth, I landed on the top of it where its riders awaited me.   The golden skinned fellow with catfish like bristles on his skin was the one who had thrown his spear at me was drawing a knife. I didn't know if that could hurt me, instead I focused on the spears that I pretty sure could. I moved to the side as the next fellow, a blue-green guy with something like a gladiator movie set for armor attempted to stab me. I grabbed the incoming spear while it was extended, and then yanked it as hard as I could.   He tried to out-muscle me.   Big mistake. The soldier was strong, probably stronger than the average human athlete, but he wasn't in the super range.  For him, it had to be like playing tug of war over a rope with a speedboat. That's called water skiing.   His grip came loose and he shot behind me like a piece of luggage falling off the back of a truck.  For a moment, I was terrified that the behemoth was going to devour the new target right in front of it's ugly face.   Thank god, it didn't. Two spear-less, three to...   I managed to block a third spear with the one I had just taken mister aqua marine there, but here's where the trained soldier has an advantage over the insanely gifted. They coordinate, they work together and know moves like flanking. So while I did a pretty impressive block of magic spear number three, the fourth guy had circled and got me in the side with his own.    I cried out in pain as three inches of the weapon head drove into my flesh. Judging by the look on the attacker's face, he was surprised  it hadn't gone deeper, but if he'd gotten an inch and a half lower, that would have been plenty to skewer a kidney!   I swung the spear I had just blocked with at the warrior who got the hit on me. I did not think to pull my blow! This guy had more armor than some of the others, and it was a good thing because I broke it open and probably a rib as well with the staff part of the weapon in my hand.    What was the shaft made of anyway? It wasn't like your typical sources of wood abounded in the ocean, at least not in plain old tree form!   A knife hit the side of my neck as the guy who had thrown the first spear rejoined the fight with the weapon he had. I guess it wasn't 'blessed' because it fractured without so much as raising a welt. I kicked him hard end over end in the water where he lay still and moved no more.   Served him right, I thought mercilessly eager for the next... "What the hell?" I said out loud.   How did I get from shielding gangbangers and pulling punches on supervillains until I knew their limits to cutting loose on soldiers who, except for magic spears and water breathing, didn't seem much tougher than your average trained goon?   That's not me!   The tail slap from the behemoth caught me as flat footed as one can get while under water. That's the problem with moments of desperate introspection, the folks trying to kill you do not respect them as legitimate timeouts.   Even in the buffer of the sea I found myself tumbling end over end until I actually found myself breaking the surface of the ocean and facing open sky. That sea-beast had really run my bell. I'm sure, but I think it hit harder than I did.   I wanted to kill it.   I wanted to hurt them all.   I glanced at the spear still in my hand. Why was it still in my hand after a surprise slap like that? If anything, I  figured I should have lost my hold on it. Instead I'd tightened my grip subconsciously. I found myself almost missing the straight forward and relatively clumsy mind whammy Magic Word had laid on me at the bank.   This thing wasn't blessed, it was cursed.   And I didn't want anything to do with it.   I dodged the next spear from a pale warrior who... I'd almost forgotten about Mayo! I mean, maybe it wasn't him. Maybe it was another albino like merguy. Yet if I had good money, yeah, it was him.   "Mayo, it's Caleb..." I wanted to keep my eyes on him, at the same time I knew any second the sea monster and other warriors would be joining us. I did something a superhero isn't supposed to do in a fight. I took my mask off, goggles and all.   In the dream I had been wearing some kind of headgear, but my face was visible. If I remembered the dream, maybe he would too?   "Caleb!" His eyes blinked, and I realized the light up here must be near blinding to him, but he clearly made me out. He gritted his needle like teeth as if ... as if he were trying to block out pain and hate.   "Yeah, I feel it too, and I've been holding onto this for just a few seconds," I suddenly had a lot of respect for Mayo.   Mayo knew my name, but the rest was a babble of a language I felt like I knew once but had forgotten, like that Middle school French class you let deteriorate until you're pretty much back to square one.   His inhuman face lit up with determination, and then as if he was trying to exert every inch of might in his body... he let the spear fall from his finger tips and fall down into the depths below.   The expression of conflict from his face eased and I swore for a moment he was about to cry with relief. And a scream of outrage, some word I didn't understand, came not from him, but one of his peers riding the back of that sea beast. And they weren't gunning for me. They were going after Mayo!    It's mouth opened and Mayo began to be drawn towards the gaping maw as I was, but Mayo wasn't as strong as I am.    Without even thinking about it,  I threw the spear I had been carrying (Or had it been carrying me?). Once again I blessed being a family that was so old fashioned that chucking rocks for distance was part of the ritual for passage into manhood. I'm no Payton Manning, but I had a big target, a magic spear stronger than steel, and a whole lot of upper arm strength!   The spear drove deep into the left eye of sea monster! It thrashed and twisted in a fashion more suited to a beheaded snake than a marine mammal! It's rider was thrown clear off! And given the reaction of the sea-beast, that was probably a good thing for him because I wasn't sure he'd survive the same blow that had taken the breath out of me.   Speaking of Breathing, Mayo had submerged! Of course, maybe I was amphibious, but these guys couldn't stay topside long.    It was time to change tactics. I'd gotten spoiled by my durability. I had neglected my speed. I plunged in after Mayo and shot past him. The remaining warriors were wisely staying away from the rampaging sea monster, but each had recovered a spear. I shot towards them, and they braced, probably expecting to take me down like a united phalanx of pikemen handling a mounted knight of old.   Sorry guys, no joust today.    I twisted just out of the range of a spear lunge and circled them, faster, and faster, the force of it building around them as I created a localized whirlpool.   I'd like to say this was old hat, a trick I'd pulled off dozens of times and had mastered but that would be a lie. I was a whirlpool virgin.   Okay, that sounded wrong. I'm going to leave that phrasing out of my future autobiography.   Imprecise and imperfect as my first attempt was, it was enough to send the remaining soldiers battering against each other helplessly  until they were out cold. I glanced up to see the Behemoth finally slowing in it's thrashing. It lay very still... and changed.   The fangs receded. The eyes were were no longer glowing with hellish red light, and the blights along its skin cleared.   It was a dead humpback whale.   I guess whatever magic had transformed it in life had let it go in death. I moved towards the embedded spear in its socket, and steeling my resolve pulled it out.   It was there again, unreasoning rage, unthinking hatred, it was like my soul was rolling in an oil spill. All those destructive urges I had ever suppressed, some I didn't even know I'd had, were bubbling up to my consciousness. I hadn't realized how much I hated that supervillain team back home that had humiliated me. I wanted them dead. Some part of me had enjoyed the idea I might have broken Magic Word's shoulder. He deserved worse, didn't he? And if I ever ran into that reporter for news 3....   I glanced down at the spear, "The one ring," I told it, "You ain't."    And I snapped it over my knee!   There was a flash of hellish reds and venomous greens that filled my vision.   I thought I had known hate and anger a moment ago?    I knew nothing of either.   I was an insect moving soil and calling it civilization. I was a flea on the back of greater beasts I couldn't even begin to comprehend and congratulating myself for discovering this particular square inch. I was a speck; an irritation pretending at person hood.    The entirely of my worth was defined only in that something real had noticed me, something far more ancient than I could ever fathom and more powerful than I could grasp. Science had not yet made measurements that could quantify the disparity to how little I mattered compared to the being that had graced this spear.   I was nothing, less than nothing.   Compared to the Eldest.   A pair of pale hands grabbed me, and  began to carry me away towards the shore as I clung into a fetal position trying to feel my body, and I couldn't. I couldn't feel anything but how little I mattered.   I had lied to Ariana earlier. It turns out there was something in the ocean I very much could not handle.   And it knew me now.

Today's effort includes a girl in a wet suit.
 
Why do Californians often have such great tans? Well, I suspect it's because while they love to go to the beach, most of them are not swimming. And that's understandable. The Pacific, at least the part of the Pacific on the California Coast, is chilly.  Obviously, there are souls that brave the waves, particularly in the summer but even then, it rarely gets above seventy degrees Fahrenheit.
 
For me, this is no barrier. My powers allow me to handle even freezing waters without trouble. For Ariana? Well, a wetsuit was required.
 
And damned if it didn't look good on her. The material of the blue and black wetsuit hugged her form nicely, and she tried to pretend she didn't notice that I was noticing even as I tried not to notice too obviously. Neither of us quite pulled our respective ruses off, which I call even-stevens on.
 
 
Finally, I just confessed, "It looks good on you."
 
"I thought it would be bulkier," She said demurely, "But since the first time you saw me I was in a swimsuit, I can't exactly clutch my pearls now."
 
I laughed, "Probably touched up with better materials than usual thanks to Dr. Vernon. I hope I wasn't staring too much."
 
"No, you were staring just enough," She said.
 
I was losing the quip war here, and loving it.
 
"Shall we?" I gestured to the ocean beyond.
 
She grabbed the light weight state of the art scuba and turned to the ocean's face, "Let's," She put it on.
 
Shielded from the chill of the waters by said wetsuit, she began to swim out along the surface. I joined her, doing lazy circles along the same as she strained against low waves trying to push her back. She was a strong swimmer, but I suppose I was making her look bad.
 
"Show off!" She said with a mix of annoyance and amusement.
 
"Mind if I help get us further out?" I offered a hand.
 
"You said you would," she reminded, putting her breather in her mouth. Her tank held a lot for it's small size.
 
I smiled shark like at her and took her hands, each one in my own. I was going to enjoy this.
 
"Uh oh," Her dark chocolate eyes widened in realization behind the goggles.
 
"Hold my beer," I said in the language of my people, even though there was no beer to hold.
 
We were off like a proverbial torpedo and its lovely Latina payload. She had taken the precaution of putting her rebreather in, and with that in mind I was free to not just carry us over the surface, but to plunge us into the depths! Well, I had to remember not to rise too fast later. I didn't want anyone getting the bends. The Pacific was still new to me, and while we humans know less about the depths of the Ocean than we do the moon's surface, I had taken the time to study what was known. I had just the place to take her.
 
The coral reef here wasn't as legendary as some larger ones, but it is bursting with color, and when she switched the light on her belt on, those colors really came alive! Not to be outdone, stripped fish of orange and blue broke into a pattern all about us and Ariana forgot all about me for a moment as she took out her underwater camera and snapped shots as quickly as she could.
 
I laughed. I can do that under water. Look, mom, no bubbles, "Enjoying yourself?" I asked her.
 
That's when it sunk in (no pun intended) on her that I could talk down here, she couldn't, not really. She poked me playfully and then looked about again for the next sight. Excitedly, she pointed. Along the sea floor here, there was a skate shooting along. She took pictures carefully, but as it was getting away, Ariana looked at me winsomely (well as winsomely as one can with a face full of scuba gear) and I could tell she wanted something but details were lacking.
 
"What do you want?" I just flat out asked her.
 
She pointed to the skate, then to me, and then made the 'head clutch' motion and managed a 'doo dee doo' sound at the cost of releasing a few bubbles.
Oh, for the love of…
 
"I don't do that," I said, "No habla Ray or Skate.. parley not a fish?"
 
That earned me another poke, which I might have deserved. I smiled.
 
If one could give a wistful underwater sigh, she managed it. But it didn't keep her 'down' long. She was off looking around, and I realized I was letting her wander a bit far afield. I don't care which ocean you're in, it can be a dangerous place. One encounter with the wrong sort of jellyfish, and kiss your ass goodbye.
 
"Hey, don’t' get too far," I warned her.
 
Ariana heard me, but while she didn't dart off further, she wasn't exactly racing back to me. Why is we superheroes are never attracted to the overly cautious homebodies? It would solve a lot of our problems if we were.
 
As it was, I was enjoying her enjoyment. The delight emanated from her like a current all her own, and dragged me pleasantly along with it. I was having fun because she was having fun. Not that I wasn't caught up in some of the wonder myself.
 
One of my uncles lived in the mountain side of North Carolina. He loved those low mountains and woods as much as any sailor ever loved the sea. I appreciated them, but not as much as he did. He used to say that if he ever got bored with those forests, then he'd know he was bored with life. 
 
When the cancer took him, his sons and I took his ashes, went to his favorite high peak, and let his remains rip loose in the wind. It was what he wanted. And, I think, for me? It'll be my ashes mixed with the currents off the Carolina Coast.
 
Which I suppose means Fish Guy will become fish food, but to heck with it. All that means is I'll be cutting out the middle men ala worms.
 
Then I saw the shadow pass over us! She was in for a real treat! I pointed up and smiled.
 
She gasped, and began to rise with surprising speed, I mean surprising! I remembered her doing that in the pool somehow. She wasn't kicking her legs or anything, it was as if she had just suddenly become rather buoyant!
 
I needed to ask about that but I could see why she was hasty. Even in California, not everyone gets close to a Gray Whale.
 
Our visitor was a migrating behemoth of the California coastal waters. The baleen munching marine mammal wasn't really trying to get away, so Ariana was gaining on him rapidly. Maybe a bit too much so. I put an arm around her waist, and was surprised at how…cushy she felt. That's not slam on her figure or anything. I mean she felt pillowy in areas I didn't expect her to be given her well-toned figure. What was going on?
 
While I slowed her down a little, I didn't stop her and she rather than be offended at the gesture, she seemed to realize I was just trying to protect her from ascending too quickly.
 
Maybe I was being over cautious.
 
She ran her hands along the side of the gentle giant, with a sense of wonder. The whale, for his part, actually seemed to enjoy the attention. Huh, big bull was threatening to pull my date away from me entirely.
 
I guess size really does…  stop that, Caleb. You're better than that.
 
Sometimes.
 
I let go of Ariana to give the gray a few light pats myself. He was an old one I think. Judging by the scars along his flanks, he might have even surfaced an orca or shark attack at one time. The guy was a survivor.
 
"I shall call you, Whale Guy," I told him with the most serious tone I could manage.
 
There was a scuba blocked snarf from Arania at that.
 
It was an unfair advantage, but as I could talk and she couldn't, I went on, "Yes, Whale Guy. You shall my sidekick. I shall punch people, and you shall roll over them and then sing beautifully…together, we'll fight crime."
 
Another snarf, and yes, underwater laughter. She shot me a look as if my making her laugh was somehow below the belt.
 
I felt no guilt.
 
And Whale Guy was in my corner! Whale Guy wasn't trying to steal my date. Whale Guy was clearly my wingman. Whale Guy was loyal! Whale Guy was on my side…
Whale Guy was leaving?
 
I am not telepathic. I do not read the minds of marine life, I don't care how smart it is.
 
But I knew panic when I saw it.
 
Whale Guy was booking as fast as his fins and flukes could take him! Whatever was coming, out of a fight or flight response, he'd picked flight.
 
I whirled and moved back towards Ariana, expecting either a really gutsy shark, or more likely, a pack of killer whales. The later was actually far more dangerous to baleen whales. They don't call orca "sea wolves" for nothing. They are smart, organized, hungry and deadly.
 
The fact they can be adorable in their way doesn't change that.
 
They have to eat like anyone else. Despite that bit of nature and the necessity of the circle of life and all that. I was tempted to slow them down and keep them off Whale Guy. I never should have named him.
 
But what came next was not a pack of killer whales.
 
In fact, it wasn't like anything I'd ever seen at all.
 
Well, maybe in my dreams, or, at least, one particular dream.
 
That was coming back to me in a rush!
 
Five figures were riding what appeared to be another whale, but I'd never seen a whale like this in any documentary ever. It had similarities to a humpback but instead of the strands of baleen, it had fangs surrounding a gapping maw. Its eyes were not gentle and wise, but glowing red.
 
Riding him were five warriors dressed in strange and archaic armor. None of them were human, and one of them was as pale as snow.
 
"Mayo?" I gasped, "Oh god, it's real!"
 
That's when another of the warriors threw a spear at me cutting a gash along my supposedly nigh- invincible shoulder.
 
There was blood in the water, and it was mine!

Superheroes can't just 'go' to the bank
 
 
  So, the idea that some ganger who probably was not a very nice young man had been crippled on my watch was eating up at me. To make it worse, that feeling I had missed something important regarding the mystic sending continued to poke at the back of my mind. Holding an idiot ball is embarrassing enough, feeling like you were sure you were holding two of them? Well, it's down right frustrating.   I had my apartment, but I was barely using it. It was time to move some furniture in or Aaron was going to get suspicious. Though, so far, he wasn't asking questions about why I had gotten a room, was only now moving into it. Nope, he just wailed on his guitar and yelled some lyrics. He had a good voice , but I still only understood about half of it.   Something about capitalism being dead and worshiped, and how it was now a skin suit the corporations and banks wore hoping no one would notice their welfare scam. I think there were lyrics about the government practicing necrophilia on its corpse. I'll give this much for Aaron, he had a gift for imagery in his lyrics.   They were the kind of images I wouldn't want any kid under age eighteen around, but they were imaginative. Today his T-shirt had the words 'Choking Hazard' with an arrow arching down to his crotch area. I resolved to myself to try to make sure if my folks ever visited to make sure they were either well warned about Aaron or never met him.   "So how are the performances coming?" I said as I carried a dresser in. I tried to make it look like I was straining a bit, "You get a lot of applause."   "Oh," He said taking a break, "We don't measure in applause. But we did trigger fifteen people of various political stances on the right and left. So... good night."   "You count success in the number of people who freak out when you sing rather than them clapping or so on?" I looked at him out of my room now that I put the dresser down.   "Welcome to Cali, Caleb," A grin, and another screeching riff on his guitar, which I would later find out, he had named Lizzie Borden.    His music had reminded me of something.   "Later, Aaron. I'm hitting the bank, I need to set up some automatic payments on  my account," I told him.   I think he said something like 'steal a pen for me' as I left, but as he was playing still I couldn't be sure.   I didn't want Aaron waiting for his half of the rent in case I went into an adventure in space or something. Mind you, I had not yet been in space, but in this calling its best to be prepared to go full on Armstrong. Aliens were a thing. Earth had alien superheroes. It had alien supervillains. We had even been invaded twice, three times if you counted a tiny island nation now ruled by an alien overlord for four years now. Said Conqueror rules with the blessing of the locals who benefited almost overnight from his technology being used to feed them, clothe them, and who are no longer facing death squads from rival political factions. The UN is still freaking out about it with a lot of finger pointing. More than one nation tried to liberate the island (And help themselves to all that juicy alien technology) only to find their efforts repulsed with more ease than a grown man swatting a fly. The whole island has a force dome it can click on at will.
 
Yet your average joe still couldn't get a flying car. It almost makes me feel guilty I get to cruise around in one: almost.   Of course, a flying car can't help you in your secret identity as you wait in a god awfully long bank line. I had thought I had beaten the lunch crowd, but this city, while no metropolis, had a good population and that meant some places were busier than I'd expect them.   The blinds were down, which is probably why we didn't see the supervillain until he walked in. There used to be rules to superhero costumes. For example, there was a time purple and green combo automatically meant villain. White and gold? Total hero. Red, White and Blue? Definitely hero. Black could go either way, but black and red usually had scary over tones.Yadda Yadda… well, confine folks to rules even more fussy than no white after Labor Day, and before long generations will rebel. What that means: Today anything goes.   So, I couldn't be sure if the guy in the off-white tuxedo with the stylish P on his tie and a hat and mask combo was a villain or not. Odds were good he was up to no good. Most heroes don't do their banking in costume, after all. 
  "Greetings all," He said smugly, "I am Magic Word! Now, PLEASE make no attempt to trigger any alarms or contact anyone outside the bank!"   And just like that, I realized I couldn't contact the team. Others who had been reaching for their cellphones let their hands fall to their sides. One bank teller looked very uncomfortable. No doubt she'd been trained to hit a silent alarm, but now? Nada.   The two security guards on duty didn't know what exactly was going on, but they were smart enough to realize a mask was suspicious and that command sealed it.   "Freeze," One said, "Don't make a move until..."    While he was delivering his warning, I appraised the situation. Way too many people were in here. I was caught in the classic mask trap. If I demonstrated my powers, I'd out myself. If I didn't, this guy might rob the place blind.   "PLEASE," Magic Word said smugly, "Don't shot me and don't touch me. That goes for everyone.'"   The poor guards looked baffled as they put their guns away.  Then one grabbed his night stick!  I guess whatever form of mind control Magic Word used, it had some rather specific limitations. He managed to smash a pretty good blow on Magic Word in the shoulder who cried out in pain and surprise.    I raced towards Magic Word myself. If I gauged my strength right, I would be noted as just one of those reckless guys who got lucky trying to help. Nothing super about that, right? But I couldn't touch him. My hands shook as they tried and failed to cross those last few inches.   "Son a... PLEASE hand me your night stick, Mr. guard, and hold perfectly still," Magic Word almost hissed it, and he got a really mean look in his eye as he said so. This time there was no compulsion on me. He'd been too specific, not that that helped me right now. I still couldn't lay hands on him and I didn't have a weapon. Then I eyed the little desk/display they had set up with papers about promotional offers, forms ready to fill out, and yes, two ink pens chained firmly to the thing.   Magic Word took the nightstick and said, "PLEASE, don't defend yourself, and don't dodge, guard."
 
He raised the stick and struck the guard who had hit him earlier. Magic Word's blow hit the man hard across the mouth bloodying the guard's lips. Then he raised the night stick again.
 
Magic Word might dress like a gent, but he was an awfully petty bully.   Thank god the blinds were down. This might work.   I tore a pen free from it's chain while the other hostages begged Magic Word not to continue striking the guard! While it was not the distraction I wanted, it's what I had, and I used it. I threw the pen with all my might into the largest overhead light above us.   Now when I use the phrase 'all my might' I am talking steel breaking level punches.  So it didn't surprise me when the pen hit with the force of a sling bullet and then some! The light shattered in a rain of glass, and then dimmed- all in one fell swoop.     It had suddenly gotten very shadowy. I see fine in shadow.   "What the hell?" Magic Word cursed. No doubt he was about to mind control whoever did that to identify themselves or worse,, stop whatever they were doing.   I didn't give him the chance. I seized the stand the pen had been attached to, a weighty object, and before you could say batter up, struck him with it sending him flying away from the blinking and blinded guard where he smashed into a wall.   Magic Word slumped and went out cold. I don't think I broke his shoulder or did any serious long lasting injury to him, but I'll admit neither was I feeling too sympathetic. All around the room people found themselves able to act again, and new light sources, dozens and dozens of smart phones, lit the place up.   By that time, I had put the display back where it was and tried to look as confused as the next guy, "Did you see that?" I asked a lady near me.   "I didn't see anything once the lights got screwed," the lady admitted.    "I think I saw Tornado streak by and punch that guy!" I said putting as much hero worship in my eyes as I could muster, "But it was so fast.. if that was him, he was in and out."   Well, that soon go around with discussions of how Tornado had saved them, and how there must have been another crisis going on at the same time for him not to hang around. Not that it was a problem. Some villains need power suppressing tech or state of the art knock out drugs. Others need a pair of handcuffs and duct  tape over their mouths.   Like everyone else, I got a brief questioning from the police, where I acted just as clueless as everyone else. EMTs declared that they wanted to X-Ray Magic Word's shoulder, but other than that he was fine. And about an hour and a half later I even got my accounts set. I was surprised. I expected the bank to close up for the day.   But this was a high supervillain activity town. So I guess they were somewhat jaded about it.   My head stung, not sure where the headache had come from, but a good guess would be a side effect of Magic Word messing with it. I didn't see others taking or aspirin or anything mind you.    I needed to get to the ocean.   Where had that thought come from?     Outside of the bank, I contacted the base and filled Mabel in on the bank robbery and how I handled it, "I just hope I didn't leave finger prints all over the place," I confessed to her.   "Do you know how many people touch those areas every day? You're fine," Amused, "Better than actually, there's a job for Eel."   "Ah, well, my headache can wait," I said, "Hit me with it."   "Ariana has a free afternoon, and we have the gear for her to scuba. She called me to call you and say she knows its short notice but..."   I grinned, "Let me check my calendar ....yes. Absolutely yes."   Huh, I had almost forgotten my offer to Ariana which I couldn't believe myself as she was definitely memorable. Maybe that's why the Ocean was so strongly on my mind suddenly?    As for the headache, I'd scarf some aspirin. It had been so long since I had a date, I was not going to miss this for anything.

Yeah.  Clearly he needs another talk. I have a couple of options to see who will drive a few lessons home. Fish Guy is soft hearted and hard headed.
 
 
 
Pushing to get it done period is kind of my goal (Which is why so many of you are suffering through vlonks, typos, and terrible grammar) . But don't worry. If need be you guys will peek in and see a paragraph like this:
 
I struggled with the choice, biting my bottom lip and tensing. Who would live, who would die? And could I live with the ramifications of knowing I had left one behind to their confinement favoring another soul over them? Their expressions were filled with hope. Hope I was destined to dash in one of them even as I gave light to it with the other. The burden of this decision was heavier than that post office building had ever been.
 
I shot a pleading look to Dr. Vernon, surely she'd understand, "Can't we rescue both?"
 
Her voice lowered so none could hear, "No. It's a base, not a petting zoo. Now either get the Lab Mix or that Poodle Corgi thing, but we are not taking both. And stop looking at me that way, it's no-kill shelter."

Sorry folks, short one this time. I may do more later tonight but right now, this is all I got in me today.
 
  Lady Obsidian might be able to drag my amphibious ass back to the base, but she couldn't make me sleep. Okay, she could probably knock me out, but that is not the same thing. Heck, tired as I was, I couldn't make myself sleep. I soaked in the tub and let it restore me. I got dressed, not in costume but in a pair of jeans and a t shirt I bought at a concert once.  I checked on late night news reports with Mabel, and I paced the building. Maybe I should have burnt up my nervous energy in the pool, but somehow enjoying a swim felt wrong right now.   People were on a hospital table.   Bad people, I suppose, but good or bad they'd been under my protection, and they'd gotten hurt. Logically, I knew this happened. No one, not even the greats like Lady Obsidian or Mister Ultra have a one hundred precent track record of keeping the Grim Reaper from claiming his due. I recognized that.    I still didn't like it.   The was once a mall, so I shouldn't have been surprised at how immense the base was. I did what mall walkers do. I walked in circles, well, now and then I jogged. I would stop and peek in at various sections I hadn't seen yet. Ex stores now converted to labs were plentiful. The most important was probably the med bay. My healing in water trick meant I got to avoid the place, which is fine by me. As a rule, hospitals always seem unfriendly. Not the staff per se, I've met some amiable doctors and nurses who were amazingly friendly given their huge work load. It's the feel of them. Yes, they tend to be drab and sterile, but even when they try to spruce the areas in bright colors or floral prints, it feels like putting a pink collar on an angry tiger. Yes, that is adorable, but odds are you still will get a hole in you if not flat out cut open.   Maybe it was time to test out the training area? Superteams with the resources have training areas where they can cut loose with their powers and face battle simulations, sometimes the training areas have cute trademarked nicknames. Mabel had told me the nick name of this one was the Rumble Room. Mind you, they didn't say out loud. Something about skirting legal issues with a team in upstate New York.   "You should be asleep," Mabel's voice still purred, but there was no flirtatious endearment, "And you are not up to the Rumble Room right now."   "I'm fine, Mabel, I've got energy to burn, I've recovered from the shock and being shot..I..."   "I mean your headspace," She said, "And lack of sleep."   "Look, I can.."  I started to snap, then I blinked, "I can't sleep." I sighed, "Any news from the hospital?"   "Not in the last ten minutes since you asked last time, no," she said.   "I asked ten minutes ago?" I honestly didn't remember.   "Yes, and that's another reason you need to sleep," Mabel said. Yeah, the flirtatious tones were definitely being downplayed.   I almost said 'I don't wanna' but if anything would confirm that my adult mind was in danger of shutting down that would do it. Instead of fighting with Mabel about how I could not sleep despite being more exhausted than I realized. I tried to change the subject. "Where do those go?" I gestured to a sealed door that, had this still been a mall, would have been for employees only.   "Well, some of them do go behind the other labs and so on, but it also leads to the basement and the top security areas," She explained.   "I thought this whole place was top security?" I said surprised.   "Please, guests come here often, down there? Team members only and I require a voice check, a retinal scan of your eye, and a password," Mabel said, "Some serious stuff down there?"   I was too tired to filter my curiosity, "Such as?"   "Devices that supervillains and governments alike would love to get their hands on. A few mystical, some are alien tech we managed to snatch up first, but most of it is cutting edge doomsday level superscience made right here on Earth that the world is just not ready to handle. You'd have to ask Lady Obsidian what's what. Some of it is on its own closed system in case I ever get compromised. No point in ultra high security if someone could just hack me and have me help them," her normally purring voice almost shuddered.   "You can be hacked?" I said with concern, and a bit of sympathy, "I mean, there's a lot I don't know about you but... that would scare me."   "It should, and any of us can be hacked," Mabel said, "We live in a world of telepaths and mind controllers, of shapeshifters and reality benders. Even taking that out, normal humans manipulate their fellow man every day. But thank you for your concerns," A pause, "Yes, it does scare me."   "You're an AI... I mean, actually sentient and sapient," again, no filter, so the fact that I was doing the equivalent of judging her (Was she really a her?) rights as an individual didn't sink in, "I didn't think Lady Obsidian would make one. The ethical implications...."   A return of her own chuckle, "Really, handsome, does Dr. Vernon seem the type that if she was going to make an AI she'd construct one with this personality?"   "Who made you then?" I asked, then realized how that could come out, "I'm sorry, that was rude of me."   "He's gone now," Mabel said after a pause, her voice sad and there was nothing flirtatious or husky about it, "If I promise to wake you as soon as I get more updates on the wounded gang members, will you at least put your head on your pillow?"   "Sure," I said, "And sorry again. I'm not always an idiot."   "Fortunately for you, some ladies find part time idiots kind of cute," She said as I walked towards my room here, "I bet Ariana does."   I groaned, "I knew you were watching when I showed off at the pool for her."   "mmm very nice," I know she didn't have a face but it was easy to visualize a grin, "I quite liked it."   "You're great and all, Mabel, but I think I'm more concerned if Ariana liked it," I confessed.   "She did," Mabel's purr was back, "Normally I'd never betray another lady for a fellow's sake, but if it'll take your mind off things..."    "If anything would," I confessed slash wheedled.   "Because someone might drown in there, I have some bio-scanners in the pool area. Her heart rate increased, her temperature went up a degree, and her pupils dilated...all very promising signs," the AI sounded a bit intrigued herself. I wondered if the team played the part of her soap opera? I mean, she had lots of TV to watch but...   "Hot damn," I grinned wearily.   "You abuse this knowledge, and I will let her know you know and make it sound like you ordered me to tell," She warned.   "That'd be lying!" I objected.   "And you wondered if I was sentient," She cooed wickedly.   "I'm going to bed," I said trying to mask my delight at the confirmation she'd given me, "People are mean out here."   "Oh good," Mabel said, "I thought I was going to have to lure you into the med bay and asked which sample of chloroform you thought had the nicer fragrance..."   On that note, I went to bed.   And to my surprise, I did sleep. I guess my body had finally decided enough was enough, either that or Mabel's chatter and assurances to wake me with any news had helped me settle my concerns.   And I got the news when I woke...   "All of them are alive," Mabel told me as I came out for another free breakfast.   "YUSS!" I pumped my fist into the air.   "But one will never walk again.." She finished.   My hand went down even as my face fell.   "He would have died if not for you, sugar," She told me, "Remember that."   "Yeah," I said, "Doesn't keep me from wanting to find Blood Watch and beat him with his own gun."   "You may get a chance, we'll see," She tried to assure me, "Now, what do you want for breakfast?"   "Not hungry anymore," I said, and sighed, "Thanks anyway."   Mabel gave a frustrated sort of mmmm. But let it be.

Okay, at first I thought this would be a smaller post then... suddenly it gruesome
 
Lady Obsidian took center seat at the big table. The crescent shaped piece of furniture was at high shine, and each of the other New Samaritans took their own seats.  The seats weren't marked visibly, but people, even superheroes, are creatures of habit and territory. One could read a lot into the arrangement I suppose. Pinprick was at Lady Obsidian's right hand. Tornado at her left. Right of Pinprick was Arctic Fox. Did she just like Pinprick more than Tornado, or just enjoy more room? Not that chairs were packed next to each other. Maybe she used to sit closer to Lady O herself, but the tension over her boyfriend not getting on the team had driven a literal distance between them as well a social one?
 
Maybe I was over thinking this?
 
There was that brief awkward moment of trying to figure out where I would sit, but given a choice between the ice queen and the fun-loving speedster, well, it was pretty easy. Besides, being on the other side of Tornado would balance the table out. I slid into the chair.
 
"Leather upholstery?" I said as I eased into the chair, "This is a nicely funded team."
 
A hovering tray brought me an iced tea, just like mom used to make, "Very nicely funded, and very hospitable," I added, "Thank you, Mabel."
 
"You're most welcome, Romeo," Mabel chuckled.
 
For a moment, I wondered if …aw crud. Unlike the bathrooms or bedrooms, the pool area wasn't off limits to visual. In fact, leaving that much water open without supervision when kids like Glen visited would be downright negligent. I had showed off to impress Ariana, but Mabel had seen it too.
 
Oh, AI or not, she and I were going to have to talk.
 
"Some of the team's funding comes from my patents," Lady Obsidian said with amusement "And Arctic Fox's family knows investments, but I'd say the bulk of credit goes to Pinprick," She inclined her head to him, "He provided a lot of the initial funding for us to invest and capitalize on in the first place."
 
"You're the rich one?" I couldn't hide my surprise as I looked at Pinprick.
 
"What? The little guy can't make money?" Pinprick said.
 
"Yeah! I hear six-inch-tall guys are great at stockmarkets," Tornado said and gave that 'wait for it grin' before letting it drop, "They're masters of the short sell."
"I will end you like a bad novel," Pinprick warned him before turning to me, "There may have been a bag of gold involved in my origin story. Memories were hazy, but I had quite a lot of coins on me when I came to."
 
My facial expression must have shown how much I didn't trust this story, because Lady Obsidian threw in, "He's not kidding. He had this bag of gold coins, bigger than he is. We invested it for him. And it's worked pretty well."
 
"Glen doesn't know it," Pinprick smiled, "But eventually his ass is going Ivy League."
 
"Yes," Lady Obsidian nodded, "College is very important," And she tilted her head my way, "Very."
 
I squirmed a bit, "So, you had news for us from your mystic friend to share with us?"
 
"There's trouble," Lady Obsidian admitted.
 
"Of course, there's trouble," Pinprick threw up his hands, "Has any mystic ever shown up and delivered good news? It's never 'I have seen the signs, and you know, the crops will be good and your sports teams will be victorious'. It's always 'The portents bode ill, something ancient has awakened, and it hungers' oooooo" He made spooky sounds.
 
"Quit being so dramatic, Pinprick," Arctic Fox rolled her eyes at the archer before turning her gaze back to Lady Obsidian, "So what did she say."
The armored woman paused uncomfortably before saying, "She's read the signs. There's a very old magic that is stirring, and there's a sense of very dark ambition. We should be alert, and concerned."
 
"Called it!" Pinprick declared triumphantly.
 
"Tell me she had more details than that?" I raised a brow, "I mean, mystics give me the creeps sure, but there's got to be more than that."
 
"There is," Lady Obsidian answered, "A few nights ago was a sending, a powerful one, one that engulfed the world."
 
"What's a sending?" Arctic Fox inquired. I was glad she did, because I wasn't sure myself.
 
"Well, understand that when it comes to the occult I'm quite the layman myself," Lady Obsidian explained, "But essentially it's a message cast on the frequency of the spiritual. It can often be a vision so powerful it's immersive. Subjects of a sending may think they're hallucinating, day dreaming or what have you."
"And this one went all over the world?" Tornado inquired, "How come everyone all over the world is clueless about it? I mean, at the very least you'd think hundreds of psychics would be doing the head clutch, phone calls to 911 would be pouring in about what folks saw…so on?"
 
"It depends on the contingencies and requirements wired into the spell according to my good friend Doctor Salem," Lady Obsidian answered, "She says that one can put limitations on who is allowed to key in on the Sending. They don't have to be psychic or mystical… though those might sense something is going on, brushing past them, like she did. The requirements can be things like 'Born under the sign of Leo' or 'Only those with blue eyes', or a mix. Unfortunately, she can't know who it was intended for or the contingencies in place. She only knows what she managed to divine. I gather it's like checking for residue at a crime scene for her, but that's mere speculation on that part."
 
"I always wondered," Tornado said absently, "Why she's Doctor Salem, but you're the one with the multiple degrees and you go by Lady Obsidian. I mean, you're both smart women who deserve titles of respect, but why are you the Lady in the duo?"
 
"Because when she and I were younger, I was the one who wore a slip while super-heroing," The older woman said without missing a beat, "Focus, people. Doctor Salem cast some separate divinations of her own, and she believes there is someone or something important here that might give us insight into who is behind this powerful sending and to what purpose they are working. I know this is a bit outside our bailiwick, but she wouldn't have come to me for help if she thought it would be a waste of time. Something big is brewing."
 
Something was bothering me about this, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. You know that feeling you get when you know you're missing something but can't pin it down but you're sure you'll be kicking yourself hours later? I was having one of those moments.
 
"I can ask Valorous if he knows anything related to this," Arctic Fox suggested, "If it's a really big problem brewing, we might need more muscle."
"We need brains more than muscle," Pinprick said, "At least when it comes to solving mysteries."
 
"He has a brain," Arctic Fox said defensively, "He's knows police procedures and he notices everything."
 
Lady Obsidian was quiet for a second then, "Tell him about this if you like. If it's as grave a threat as Doctor Salem suggests, then it won't do any good leaving him unprepared. One or two non-team members knowing won't hurt. Just have him keep it from the public. We don't want a panic when conspiracy theorists try to pencil in their own narratives on this admittedly blank sheet we've got."
 
Arctic Fox was pleased, "Good, right after this then. Is there anything else?" clearly she was eager to get going.
 
"Ahem, it's your turn to patrol with the N-E-W-B-I-E," Pinprick reminded her.
 
"The Newbie can S-P-E-L-L," I shot a look at him.
 
Arctic Fox shot me a look like she was being asked to wipe the nose of an obnoxious kid brother, "I don't suppose one of you would…"
 
"No can do," Tornado said, "I have a public relations event to get to."
 
"The Swedish twins?" Pinprick grinned.
 
I grumbled, at must as the injustice off it all as anything.
 
"Yes," He admitted with a smile, "Obviously in case of emergency I'll head right out to help whoever."
 
"Pinprick?" Arctic Fox looked at him hopefully.
 
"Haahahahaha…." The little man laughed then, "no."
 
"Oh, come on," She said exasperated, "Tornado is not the only one who might hope for a little romantic time. Surely one of you can take the newb on."
"Feeling a little hurt here," I admitted. I was a big guy.  I wasn't being used to being treated like the nerd at dodgeball team selection, "You guys know I did fight crime and superhero and everything before I met you, right? The city's new to me, but the duty isn't."
 
"You have a point," Lady Obsidian said, "Though the escorts were not meant to hold your hand so much as letting you get used to how each team member worked. The better you know us, the better we coordinate.  Still, as others seem to have something to do, and I need to get some lab time in… sure, keep your ear bug in, and don't be afraid to call me. Okay?"
 
"Sounds good," I smiled, "Any suggestions on where to patrol?"
 
Pinprick considered my question seriously, "Try the north pier near Stern market," He suggested, "Two street gangs, the Northside Leones and the Wardawgs are meeting. Believe it or not, to bury the hatchet… if rumors are right. That's over all good news, but it's also possible someone's itchy trigger finger and bad blood over old scraps might have them decide they just prefer to kill each other. You don't strike me as stealthy, but it is near water so…."
"I'll spy on it and make sure it doesn't go south," I said with a nod.
 
"Good news is, they're nothing you couldn't take in a fight, Fish Guy," He assured me, "switchblades and bullets not exactly a threat to you."
"I'm on it," I looked at Lady Obsidian.
 
"I think we're done for the night," She nodded, "Just everyone, remember to keep your ears open for talk of what might be that sending. It's not a lot to go on, but sometimes we get lucky."
 
Costa Sagrado had some beautiful shores, glorious blue waters beyond them, and was surprisingly clean. Mind you, the pier area was less so but it wasn't so filthy as to make me cringe going through it. There is little worse than breathing water and find out you're sucking down sewage masquerading as a harbor. To this day, I will not discuss New York Harbor. Thank god, this city was different.
 
I came near the meeting sight, and peeked my head out. I have incredible night vision. Light only goes down so far into the ocean and my powers are built for it. So, the two gangs gathering together at this late hour might as well having been having their chat by noon.
 
The Northside Leones had mostly denim jackets with Leonine designs either on the jackets themselves or tattooed on their bodies. They wore a lot of blue and gold. They were a predominantly Mexican American group, but they took any angry young Latino boy into their ranks. Strength in numbers and all that. The Wardawgs were the older gang, at least in this city. They'd been around in one incarnation or another since the 80s. Mostly consisting of equally angry young black poor, they had originally formed for mutual defense against what they saw as a racist local police force and a biased economy. Any halo either gang ever had though had been pretty badly tarnished by their own acts of theft, violence, and drug dealing.
 
They weren't breaking any laws now though. And some of them looked weary to the bone tired as they gazed upon their opposites.
 
"You keep crossing down into Mignola boulevard," the leader of the Wardawgs said, "Yet at the same time you say you want peace."
 
"Some of our gang, we got family of the East part of the street," The leader of the Northside Leones answered after conferring with some in his gang who I assumed were either advisers or the ones with the relatives, "You can't ask us to desert family. You know?"
 
"Yeah, I hear your mother is a pretty tight fit" One Wardawg further back gave a jab.
 
The Northsiders began to curse, some reaching for guns or knives, only to have their leader shout at them in Spanish to chill the hell out. The Wardawg leader turned around to the joker in their crew, "You talking or am I talking? Shut your ass up."
The situation de-escalated, and I took a deep relieved breath.
 
I wasn't alone. Neither one of these gangs wanted a fight now, despite enmity. Kids this young should not be acting like burned out war vets.
"Okay, how about you get East side, we keep the rest," The Wardawg leader said, "Just the East."
 
Some mutters, but grudging nods, "Sounds good."
 
"In exchange, we want use of St. Thomas Bridge without being hassled and…"
 
Even with night vision, I almost missed it. There was a movement above from a rooftop. I had been so busy making sure neither gang started a fight with the other that I hadn't considered a third party! There was no fancy flip and three point landing this time. I jumped out of the water yelling "Look out!" and tried to cover the incoming fire.
 
It was not a single shot.
 
A spray of gunfire came from the rooftop came down on my back and the area around me in a hard steel rain! It didn't so much as scratch my skin, but despite my best efforts, I wasn’t' the only one who got hit. One Wardawg cried out and dropped down as his knee was pierced by the resulting spray. On my other side, the Northside Leone Leader himself cursed as his left arm was tagged.
 
I wondered who the #### was doing this?
 
But it was one of the gangers that knew… "Christ, it's Bloodwatch!"
 
And they panicked. I guess I couldn't blame them. They were not bullet proof, I was. Yet the sheer terror in their eyes as it settled in who was after them startled me. They easily had the man out numbered twenty to one, though he did have the high ground.
 
Instead of organized retreat or counter attack, members of both gangs freaked and each did their own thing. A few tried to use me for cover. Several drew their own weapons and fired at the figure on the roof, but their hand guns didn't have good accuracy at that range and again. Besides, I swear some of them had their hands shaking. Others just plan ran.
 
Now, I've only hunted a few times, but honestly, this had all the marks of a turkeyshoot in the making, and the gangbangers would be playing the part of the feathered ones. Bloodwatch shot on the run, and worse, he shot with accuracy even then, a scarlet blur that fired another burst clipping three more who were trying to get to the end of the pier. They were too far away for me to help!
 
I couldn't shield them all! And for a moment my utter inability to defend them directly almost overwhelmed me. I needed to buy the others time to run.
My eyes spotted a speedboat near the pier. No engine…but for what I had in mind, it wouldn't need one, "Go now!" I said to the gangers, bent down to grab the boat, and threw it at Bloodwatch with such force I sheared a bit off the ledge of the roof as it smashed towards him!
 
Dark vigilante he might be, but that one caught him off guard. A spray of broken boat clipped him and I heard a groan. The gangers came out of their right long enough to realize this was their one chance. Those that could run, ran! Others limped or crawled, and a few, wounded (Or possibly dead already!) lay there.  
 
"Help your friends," I ordered, and to my surprise some gang members already where.
 
"This is Eel at the Pier" I announced to the ear bug, "Bloodwatch is trying to kill them all! Kids have been shot! I need ambulances, please!"
Even as I was doing that, I launched myself up to follow where the boat had been.
 
The beartrap caught my foot. Had I been non-powered, it would have mangled it beyond recognition if it didn't just flat out cut it off.
 
I twisted to get a better look at Bloodwatch. Like you'd expect, his outfit was blood red with black highlights. Color aside, there was a rather military look to what he had on. And where a regular soldier might have a patch showing rank on the shoulders, he instead had Justice's Scales with an Eyeball over them. I could see dark skin under his red tinted visor.
 
"You son of a ##### murderous psycho," I snarled at him, "If you're hoping to hurt me you'll have to do better than this." I wanted his focus on me, not the gang members. I raised my foot up ready to lift the trap and shatter it to prove a point to him.
 
"I believe you," Blood watch said, hand dropping from his gun and to his belt. There was a click!
 
And electricity coursed through my body as if I were golfing in a thunderstorm! There were two sounds besides the zzzzzark of the juice. One was a popping fizz burst sound in my ear where the communicator was. The other was some guy screaming bloody murder in pain.
 
Then I realized the 'some guy' was me!
 
Forcing myself to work through the pain, I shattered the trap and broke the circuit in more ways than one and staggered towards Bloodwatch.
 
"Why are you protecting them?" He spat, "They're murderers, poisoners, and thieves! You save them, you will be responsible when they kill others, you understand that right?"
 
Another burst round caught me square in the chest. Something was different about them? Wait, were these rubber bullets? Odd… he's trying to fry me and then spare me? Maybe he's trying to gauge my limits while at the same time not killing me.
 
Still, since he was feeling chatty, I obliged as I moved through, "It's not our place," I said, "You don't get to decide who is irredeemable and who isn't.  We stop them, we don't kill them!" I tried to grab him.
 
He grabbed my wrist instead and flipped me off the damn roof using my own momentum against me.
 
"Who does then? Some judge who goes 'ooh this one isn't eighteen yet, surely he didn't know what he was doing when he put a bullet to an innocent man's head and pulled the trigger?' Or maybe God? You a believer maybe? Think the skyfairy will sort it all out."
 
I caught myself on the ledge of one window, "As a matter of fact, yeah, I'm a believer more or less. Raised that way at least. I have doubts, but sure, how about we got with letting God decide who lives or dies."
 
I yanked hard and launched myself up to find he already crossed to the other side of the roof ready to shoot some of the downed gangers and make sure he had gotten them.
 
He turned when he saw me and scowled.
 
"Oh, I might believe there's a God. But even if there is," He said, reaching for a grenade and lobbing it at me, "He's not very good at his job. No, I believe in Justice, real justice where the weak don't have to hide from the vicious and strong! I believe that if you see a monster, you don't wait until after it's ravaged a village. You put it down before it can disturb the hair of one innocent child's head!"
 
The grenade exploded in my face, not with force or heat… but with light! I couldn't see! My own eyewear might have dimmed it a bit, but not by much and I was completely blind!
 
"You and your friends make me sick, Eel," Bloodwatch said with contempt, "You save the day but feed the revolving door that let some punk kill someone else the next week. You throw these animals in cages, so they become wilder, more dangerous animals, and then seem surprised they come back stronger and kill or poison even more efficiently. You don't train rabid dogs, Eel. You put them the #### down. Until you learn to do that, you are a placebo fighting a cancer! Me? I'm the scalpel!"
 
I swiped empty air, trying to find out where he was speaking from.
 
"I won't kill you, I don't want to kill you, blind as you are more ways than one," Blood watch said, "I've got a titanium bullet, a one shot. I could put it through your eye and I bet that would take even you out. But if I have hope at all, it's that you'll wake up and realize I'm right. I won't kill you. I Kill the guilty, not the stupid. I am going to finish I started before those ambulances closing can help… and if you don't like the sounds of the shots and screams. Cover your ears, because that's all you can do right now."
 
Nothing! Nothing was clearing!  I still couldn't see! At this rate by the time my eyes did clear he'd have killed off the gunshot victims on the pier.
 
"Screw your hateful zero tolerance bullcrap," I seethed, "Screw your arrogant dismissal of everyone who ever tried to help others reform while you spout off about your own twisted brand of despair you pretend is hope… " I raised both hands, "But mostly? SCREW YOU!"
 
I broke the roof.
 
I hadn't tried the shockwave before now because I knew it would just put a hole in this weak roof. Well, now the target was the roof, and I didn't give a damn!
I heard stone and wood alike break under me and felt myself plummeting as the edges caved in. I heard the clatter and thump of something, or possibly some one, falling nearby. I heard cursing from Bloodwatch. You know what I didn't hear?
 
Gunshots. I didn't hear gunshots.
 
I knew my eyesight had come back when the debris was lifted off me by shimmering fields of energy. Lady Obsidian scooped me out of that mess like I was a batch of vanilla ice cream.
 
"I'm okay," I told her, "I just see so I was worried if I punched I might…."
 
"Knock the debris into an innocent," She nodded, "Don't worry, the only thing hurt was a condemned building and any squatters were gone as soon as the heard of two dangerous gang meetings."
 
"Bloodwatch…" I said sitting up, "he…"
 
"Got away," She said, "Won't be the first time he's slipped one of us, Eel."
 
"And the gang members?" I asked, "Did any of them…"I swallowed, "I think I saw one get shot in the chest."
 
"You got the request for ambulances out before your com was fried," She assured me, "As for if any died? That's…yet to be determined. There are four in critical condition. Four more in Serious. If not for you? They wouldn't that well off. It's out of our hands now but you did well."
 
"It doesn't feel like it," I said, "Not with … he got away, some could die anyway. I should have…"
 
"Weight of the world," She said and I realized she was carrying me in the field away from the scene, and towards the base whether I liked it or not, "I told you that you cannot carry it alone. For such a bright young man, you do not always listen."
 
"Yeah, mom says that's why she went prematurely gray," I muttered.
 
"You should send that poor woman flowers more often," Lady Obsidian observed.
 
She was, of course, right on that one, "If this is just an attempt to take my mind off those guys in the hospital," I chuckled, "You may have to try another tact because it's only partially working."
 
There was a pause as we made our way towards the mall.
 
Finally…
"You know, Eel. There are a lot of good and reputable colleges that offer online courses…"
 
I groaned and thumped my head against the inside of the force bubble.

Not a lot happened in this one. I guess it's more of a bridge to other stuff..
 
"I'm sorry," I said to the landlord, "How much for the closet errr apartment again?"  
 
The apartment before me was, well, it wasn't falling down, but I think the department of corrections board would disapprove of it as being too small for their prisoners, especially as I was sure I'd be sharing with some local insect life. It had a window, one the size of a postage stamp. And the price that had been asked for it was astronomical.
 
Well, by North Carolina standards. And perhaps I was exaggerating the lack of space, but not by much.
 
The landlord didn't find me amusing, "That's a normal price for a prime location like this," He snorted.
 
"The location being facing over a back alley?" I said looking through that postage stamp window.
 
"The location being in the city, redneck," This from a potbellied guy wearing a wife-beater shirt with a beer in his hand. Apparently, my accent topped his wardrobe, at least in his eyes.
 
As much as I hated to admit it, the guy had a point. The hows and whys have of why ninety percent of all villain attacks are in Urban areas as opposed to Suburban and Rural zones have been debated and analyzed for decades by people far smarter and more educated on the subject than me. But the prevailing theory on why cities are the places besieged by super criminals is "because that's where the money is".
 
It's not universal. The small town of Pluck, Kentucky once became besieged by some supervillains for weeks before a group of heroes from Nashville (the Music City Militia) took a road trip to the rescue and put an end to and saved the day. From what I hear, one of the locals even stole a villain's power source. Now she defends Pluck all by herself.  
 
I'm not one for theft, but… good on her.
 
But if I wanted to be close to the action, any action, my best bet was an apartment in the city. Preferably ocean side to play to my strengths, and prices, even blocks away from the ocean,  were outrageous. Same for being down town or uptown; frankly I wasn't sure how folks managed to afford to live in this city at all unless they came into it already middle class or up.
 
That said, this was a bad deal all around, and I didn't like my potential land lord.
 
"Pass," I finally said to the guy, "This is nothing like what you put on your website."
 
"Fine," He snorted, "You know the way out."
 
"yeah, I'll be sure to tip the three-headed dog out front," I shot back and opened the door to leave. A little old lady stared up at me. She had large lensed glasses of round shape that made her look like an owl.
 
"Oh, pardon, ma'am," I said politely.
 
"Is Mr. Bateman in there?" She asked for the Landlord by name.
 
"Yes, yes, it is," I said, "He was just showing me the room. You're welcome to it."
 
"Ha, got one of my own already," She shook her head, "And the door still won't close half the time," She said to the land lord as I moved to the side, "You told me you'd fix it four days ago."
 
"The bum of a handy man quit," The landlord shrugged, "You want to move, Mitzhim? I get paid for the next two months either way. Hope you're not late for tomorrow's rent by the way"
 
"That's Mrs Mitzhim to you, God rest my husband's soul, and what if I get robbed?' She said with a sprinkling of heat.
.
"I'm not responsible for what scumballs do," He snorted.
 
"Actually," I coughed into my hand, "You are. And she doesn't owe you this month's rent."
 
"What's this?" Mrs. Mitzhim asked.
 
"Or any month's rent until the problem is fixed," I continued.
 
"Bullcrap!" He snorted.
 
"No, law crap," I countered, "I may hate this city's prices, but it's got a lot protections, on the books, for tenants and their rights. Until he fixes that, you're off the hook."
 
"Get the hell out of here," Mr Bateman snarled!
 
I grinned and started to slide out only to be caught by Mrs. Mitzhim.
 
"Yes, ma'am?" I inquired, surprised at her action.
 
"You're a nice boy, too nice for this place. I have a grandson. His last roommate sucked…I'd move in with him but the building has no elevator and it's four floors up. It would kill my knees. You interested?"
 
Was I interested? I glanced at the hole this guy told me I should be begging for, "Yes, yes, ma'am, I am."
 
Aaron Mitzhim's apartment was not huge by any stretch. Heck, I could fit both bedrooms in this apartment easily into the room I would have at the base.  But the price was better than anything I could pay on my own, the location was close to the ocean, and I didn't see any roaches.
 
"I can't thank you enough for actually letting me jump the line on this one," I admitted, "This is nice."
 
"No," Aaron said, "It's decent. You've just seen so many run down closets that it looks nice in comparision, but thanks. And don't worry about it, my grandmother vouches for you? That's enough in my book."
 
Aaron was not what I was expecting. The mohawk, nose ring, and vulgar tee shirt just didn't click 'sweet grandson' with me, but you know? That was my hang up.
 
"All I did was point out a few of her legal rights," I shrugged, "And as much to bust that jerk landlord's chops as anything. I didn't like him."
 
"Yeah, I'm getting her out of there one day," His eyes narrowed, "Get enough cash to find her a real home. I'm probably the only punk musician in this town who openly admits to wanting to sell out."
 
Yeah, I was liking Aaron. He as a no BS kind of guy, "I can think of worse reasons for doing so. And no, I don't mind the smaller room. The skylight more than makes up for it," I considered, "I take it you are not going to be a quiet room mate? Musicians have to practice."
 
"I never play in here after midnight," Aaron said as if that was a major concession, "But yeah, I am not going to win any Mr. Popularity votes from the dregs below us. You okay with that?"
 
"I sure am, as long as you're used to incredibly weird hours and abrupt departures with little to no explanation," I said trying to cover the superhero angles, "I value my privacy even if it's not a quiet privacy."
 
"Pay your share on time, respect my privacy in return, and never ever play Vanilla Ice or Justin Beiber near me because I don't want to go to jail," He advised.
 
"I'd snort guano before I'd play either one of them," I crossed my heart in front of him.
 
"Yeah, we'll get along fine," He nodded and offered his hand, "Welcome to your new home, Caleb."
 
We shook on it.
 
"Thanks," I was curious, "What's then name of the band you're in?"
 
"Kennedy Can't Duck," He answered.
 
"Righteous," I said with an utterly straight face. Sure, I had the base, but if I wasn't going to live there then I needed this place. I had lucked out and I knew it. Hell, if he told me the band's name was 'How was the play, Mrs. Lincoln? I would have acted like it was in perfectly good taste.
 
And I didn't mention a little detail like my room-mate's band name to the only member of our team who was old enough to remember JFK when I updated her later that night, "So I took your advice. Thanks for the spare costumes by the way."
 
"Just one would get awfully torn up or smelly after a time," She smiled at me, but something hung in the air, and I began to realize what it was.
"Speaking of costumes, I best get my own on and go patrolling," A chance of getting pummeled by bad guys sounded a lot better than the lecture I had the feeling she had been waiting to deliver. I turned to go do just that.
 
"Caleb Lambert," She said using my full name in that way older people do when they want to bring you up short. Worse thing is it works. What a horrible world we live in where one's name is akin to being grabbed by the scruff off the neck.
 
"Yes, ma'am?" I winced. I hadn't even taken a step, so I really had no choice but to turn at meet her gaze, "Something amiss?"
 
"You know exactly what's amiss," Dr. Vernon frowned, "I told you to leave the building after all the innocents were out.You stubbornly decided your own health and safety were less valuable than a post office and disobeyed me."
 
"Yes, but…"
 
She held up a slim finger, not done yet, "When I invited you onto the team, one thing we agreed on was that I was team leader. Now I understand heroes will be heroes, but we are supposed to risk our lives for the citizenry, not things. You ignored me. Now are you willing to accept my commands or not?"
 
"Yes, doctor," I said with a sigh, "But…"
 
She nodded, a sign to continue and that she was listening.
 
"Honestly, even if I had known it was just a post office I still would have done it," I said, "I think lives might have been lost in the long run if their  mission had been seen as any part of as a success."
 
Dr. Vernon's left I, well, I couldn't be sure, but I think It twitched, "You remind me of Hercules."
 
"The Greek God?" My eyes widened, "You've met him?"
 
An amused look crossed her still lovely face, "I mean the myth. Because you are so eager to hold the weight of the world on your shoulders, someone is going to use that against you one day to get out of something and there you'll be stuck there."
 
"I don't follow how my saving the building relates to …" I guess I trailed off, because she went on.
 
"What we do, what we are, is hard enough without trying to measure every possible outcome of what we do and don't do and trying to social engineer it all. It is one thing to be a role model, it is another to take everything on yourself. People who hate will find an excuse to justify the unjustifiable. Your denying them one avenue just means they'll find another. Yes symbols are powerful things, but you are more valuable than a photo op for justice, and I did not want you on this team to be a martyr for the intangible and as yet non-existent. It is too damn easy in this business to go from "I'd give my life for theirs" to "I'd give my life hoping I can keep the world nice". We are superheroes, not gods. And we have to respect each person's responsibility to rise above or wallow," She had a good voice for speech giving, darn it.
 
I frowned, conceding some points in my head, "You seem …awfully insistent on this whole respecting the common man thing. Not that I disagree, but did you ever…"
 
"Make a mistake when I took my job as role model to mean I knew better than others what they needed," A sad look crossed her face, "Oh honey, I thought you read my book."
 
"Yeah, but your son wasn't your…" I started to say.
 
The woman's neck stiffened at that, as if she was experiencing a stabbing pain. And I supposed she had.
 
"I'm sorry," I said, "I didn't realize it would still hurt after all this time," I said apologetically.
 
 
"That's because you've never been a parent," Dr. Vernon rubbed her eyes, stress, no doubt, "Go switch into your costume. We've got a team meeting about what an old friend told me."
 
"Right," I started to go again.
 
"And Caleb? I may not like that you put bricks and mortar over your own safety, but you did a fine job leveraging the weight until I got there. You are a very smart young man in a lot of ways."
 
Maybe it was just the pinch of sugar after a cup of castor oil, but I smiled at her praise anyway.
 
"Thank you," I said as I continued towards my room in the base, "Not bad for a guy who dropped out of college."
 
I thought I heard her say "Wait, you what now???"
 
But if that's all she said, it was no big deal.