Gigaheroes

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven: Daniel Peterson

I woke up with a nasty hangover. It took several seconds to realize that someone was shaking me. I rolled over, trying to get them to stop. 

“You have to get up.” I heard Atomic Girl say. 

“Tell… uh, Walter, I’ll be down in… an hour.” I buried my head in a pillow. “Just let me sleep.” 

“Walter has called an emergency meeting. The others have already left the compound. You need to get up. Now.”

“Screw the Ghost. I’m sure the Blue Justice can handle him,” I said, with not a little resentment dripping from my voice. 

“It’s not the Ghost. There’s been a Class Five attack on the city.”

That got my attention. I looked up from my pillow, trying to blink the sleep away. I saw a blurry Atomic Girl come into focus in my bedroom in full costume. 

“You serious?” I asked. 

“Yes.”

I gave a deep groan and slid off my bed. Holding my head in my hands, I waited for the pounding to stop. 

“Daniel.” 

“I know!” I held up my hand. “I know. Just give me a minute.”

“We can’t be late.”

“Well, Hic,” I burped a little. “That’s the neat part of teleportation.”

It so happened that I was still in full costume since last night. And as luck would have it, my aim for the toilet had been on point. Not that I could recall anything, mind you. I just knew I didn’t smell like vomit. I waved my arm, trying to get some feeling back in it. I think I slept on it funny. 

I placed my hand on Atomic Girl’s shoulder. Still holding my eyes closed, I took my usual route to the conference room. Our workplace was situated a few buildings away, so it was a bit out of range. Quickly taking a stop at a rooftop and then the top floor of Walter’s building. We were in the conference room before anyone had even gotten there. 

Atomic Girl glanced around, shocked that we had arrived so quickly. “How many times…?”

“How long it took me to figure out the best route? Shorter than you would think.” I opened my eyes a little so I could get my bearings. Suddenly, I was in Cheryl’s empty office, and I started a cup of coffee. Little was it known that Cheryl had purchased a ten thousand credit coffee maker when she went on vacation to the Bahamas. While I was waiting, I teleported over to the bathroom to do my business and splash water on my face. Returning to my full cup, I teleported three floors down to the lunchroom to grab a bagel. Back up in the conference room again, still no one had arrived. 

Atomic Girl sat opposite of the table with her arms crossed. She watched as I yanked out a chair with my foot and collapsed into the seat. Throwing my legs on the glass table, I enjoyed a very delicious coffee and bagel. 

“I know you hate it here, but people are getting hurt,” she said. “Can you take this a little seriously?”

“If there’s a Class Five running around.” I spoke with my mouth full of bagel. “There’s absolute jack you or I can do about it. Only one who might be able to put up that kind of firepower is the Blue Justice. We’re effectively on the bench for this one.” 

“We can at least try to save lives.”

“And when Walter puts me on civilian duty, I’ll go and do my job like everyone else. Until then, I don’t see you rushing out to save the people. Getting a bagel and coffee is no different than waiting for whenever Walter thinks our media page needs a photoshoot.”

Sarah sighed. “I know. You’re right, but we have an obligation to make this situation as less worse as possible. And… it makes me feel guilty.”

Guilt is exactly what you should feel. At least, that was what I wanted to tell her, but I just didn’t have the heart to do it. Sarah wasn’t a bad person. She was caught up in the exact same situation I was. The difference was she tried to play along to see if she could make things better. I didn’t agree with it, but it was something. 

I took my legs off the conference table and wiped the crumbs off the glass. Straightening my purple costume, I tried to make myself a little more presentable. 

“Thank you,” she said. 

I suppressed rolling my eyes. I finished up my bagel, and just as I was halfway through my coffee, the rest of the Urban Defenders walked in. The Blue Justice didn’t even look our way as he took his seat at the second of the table. Yellow Bolt followed close behind, though he waved to us as he sat down farther down. The final member of the team, The Ranger, was the youngest out of all of us. 

He came out of the stupid idea that normals could be superheroes too. It was a tale as old as the Democratic Union, but no matter how many times people got splattered, they couldn’t help but chuck more guys into dangerous positions they should never have been in to begin with. The Ranger—Carl—was a seventeen-year-old. They plucked him out of enlistment because he was good looking. Nevermind his abysmal physical scores… or his shoddy marksmanship… or his lack of confidence. 

And the worst part was he knew it. He barely said a word during meetings, and thankfully, Walter never assigned him to do any actual grunt work. He was a prop for the media page, and that was it. I felt bad for him in so many ways. It was one thing to be a celebrity. It was quite another to be alone among celebrities. 

We were all seated in silence, unsure of what to say to one another. I looked over to The Blue Justice, who looked like he was thinking up of a rousing speech in his head, but just as he opened his mouth, the doors slammed open and Walter walked in. 

“At ten thirty today, there was an incident on twenty-seventh street. A homeless man suddenly demonstrated class five super powers and broke out. He is currently at large, and all attempts to track him down have failed.” Walter clicked a remote, and a projection appeared in the middle of the table. It was a video recording of a newscast.

A woman narrated in front of a green screen of the city street. “As you can see, the damage to precinct 11 is catastrophic. The criminal known as Adam Mason was arrested for trespassing and public intoxication. Upon being read his rights, the individual flew into a violent rage and murdered his lawyer in cold blood. His rampage has so far claimed over a dozen lives and leaving more injured. Social services have confirmed records of Adam Mason, but it appears this individual was never on the Registry. We’ve reached out to the ASA for—”

Walter shut off the newscast. The conference room was dead silent. I glanced from Walter to the Urban Defenders. For the first time in my life, I saw the Blue Justice visibly unnerved. I couldn’t blame him, seeing as he was the only one on the team capable of standing toe to toe with that. It was going to be on him to bring super hobo to justice. 

“So how does this affect our media campaign on the Ghost?” I asked, genuinely curious about Walter’s game plan. 

“Affect!?” Walter laughed bitterly. “It killed it stone dead. No one is going to care about the Ghost now that we have ultraman on our hands—and no, that is not what the media are going to be naming him.” 

“But isn’t this a good thing?” Yellow Bolt asked. “This way more dramatic than some class two super villain.”

Walter looked at Yellow Bolt as if he was an idiot. “The Ghost was a non-threat. He was a bone to toss to our bored audience. This is a class five. Do you think the higher-ups are going to let us bag him? We’re going to get fucking steamrolled by a B-Rank team, or worse. If this catches national attention…”

I saw the numbers playing in Walter’s head in realtime, the millions of lost credits in advertising revenue being gobbled up by some bigger name. It was his worst nightmare. And on the other end of the stick, The Blue Justice visibly eased up.

“That’s only if they get to him first,” I suggested, teasing our leader. “If we track this Adam Mason down fast, we can nip this in the bud and get all the credit.”

“If I knew where he was, that’s where you would be,” Walter snapped. “City is being ridiculous with its surveillance system. Billions of credits in tax money and they can’t track down one stupid hobo!” He slammed his fist on the table. 

“Is there anything in his background? Maybe something that can clue us in on what he’s planning?” Atomic Girl asked. 

I know some people say glaring daggers, but Walter genuinely looked like he was going to run a sword through Atomic Girl and throw her out the window for good measure. The problem was none of us were supposed to be asking questions. There was no real decision making or investigation that was supposed to be done in this room. That was for Walter’s staff. We were supposed to obey orders and look pretty. 

And you know what? I was perfectly fine with this arrangement. Let them try to sort this mess out. I hoped they wouldn’t ever find this Adam Mason, whoever he was. I certainly didn’t want to fight him. 

“What do you need us to do?” The Blue Justice asked, clearly hoping to calm Walter down. 

“You, the Ranger, and Yellow Bolt are going to be giving interviews. We need to get our faces in this situation as much as possible. If we can get in front of this to a large enough amount of people, it’ll make it harder for anyone to sideline us. This is our city, and any of the vultures who want this story need to remember that.”

“How about me and Atomic Girl?” I asked, groaning inwardly that I was probably getting put on field duty again. 

“You two are staying at the compound. We’re keeping all our pieces close. The last thing I need is one of you getting killed and making the team look incompetent. I can’t replace any of you on such short notice.”

I rolled my eyes. Thanks for the concern, Walter. But deep down, I was glad I could just go back to sleep. I really didn’t want to do anything today, especially not with a raging lunatic on the loose. I did feel a little bad for the police grunts who would be on the front lines while we were lounging around, but hey, that was life in City 57. This was what super heroes did. And besides, anyone who signs up to be a police officer is just asking to be killed nowadays. 

The rest of the meeting was relatively short. Cheryl came in and handed scripts out for those who were doing interviews. Walter gave out some more verbal lashing, especially to me, and then he walked off to wherever he was going next. The others filed out while Atomic Girl and I stayed in the empty conference room. 

“I just wish we could do something,” she quietly said. 

“Yep.”

“Do you think—”

I raised my finger. “Before you finish that thought.” I teleported over to her, leaving my watch in my chair. A few seconds later, we were on the rooftop of the compound. It wasn’t much beyond a flat space of gravel, but at least we didn’t have to worry about being overheard. 

“The answer is no,” I said. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, and I know it’s rich coming from me, but please don’t do anything stupid.”

“Why’d you bring me up here if the answer is no?”

“Because you’re going to argue with me, anyway.”

“Listen! I’m not asking you to be a superhero or the Nighthawk or whatever. I’m just saying that this is no way to live!” 

I could feel the frustration in her voice. 

“I know. Believe me, I know. But there are certain lines even I don’t cross. One of those is screwing around when Walter’s mad.”

Atomic Girl snorted. “You can tell the difference?”

We stared at each in other in silence for a minute. I broke down into a small chuckle and soon we were both giggling like maniacs on the rooftop. We looked over City 57, the rotting corpse of a city it was. I wondered if anyone got to live a “good” life anymore. Was there was someone—anyone—out there who was happy? Maybe happiness was the wrong word. Was there anyone left who felt like they were doing the right thing? Old people say the world changed when the bombs fell, that it became crueler. I don’t know. Maybe the bombs fell because people were always that cruel to begin with.

“Do you ever think about just running away?” Atomic Girl asked. 

“All the time.”

“Why don’t you?”

“Nowhere to go.”

“There’s gotta be somewhere.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Maybe, but if I got there, and that is a big if, who’s to say I won’t have to run again? I don’t think cutting and running is the answer. At least, it’s not for me. There are too many things I care about.”

“Like what?”

“Like Walter’s good charm.”

Atomic Girl laughed again. “I’m serious. Do you honestly think there’s anything worth sticking around for?”

I looked at her and shook my head, sighing. There is one thing I desperately wanted to say, but it couldn’t be here, and it couldn’t be now. I don’t know if I would ever get the chance to say it, but I knew it wouldn’t be right unless I had a future I could fight for. Until then, I couldn’t promise a damn thing. 

“I think… a chance to live our lives the right way. I don’t know how. I don’t know when. But I think that’s worth sticking around for.”

Atomic Girl seemed a little disappointed in that answer, and to tell you the truth, so was I. But it was the truth, and I couldn’t bring myself to lie to her like that. I had lied so many times to so many people. I just couldn’t do it to her. 

“How long do you think we have before we need to head back?” She suddenly asked. 

“A few more minutes, I think. Remember, we’re supposed to be doing passionate lovemaking right now.”

Atomic Girl giggled, but her smile slowly faded. “What are we going to do next?”

I didn’t know quite what she was referring to. “With our super hobo? I don’t know what’s going to happen. I just hope nobody gets hurt. I don’t care about our views on social media. It isn’t worth risking one of our lives over. Even The Blue Justice.”

“You think Walter would really do that? He’s always been… vindictive. But do you really think he would go that far?”

I looked over the city pensively. “We’ll see.” 

Link to Chapter Eight