The City That Heroes Built

by Daniel Pierce

  June 27, 2021

  We spent Sunday at Kids Remembered and I saw someone I recognized. It'd been a while since I'd seen the barista from downstairs; the one I thought was Moccasin because she always opened the store late when Moccasin made the news fighting with gangs. She was hanging out, acting like one of the runaways, or perhaps she was and belonged. I pointed her out to Jen and Jen asked casually about her to the staff. They didn't know her, but said she'd been around for a couple of weeks.

  Jen and I spent the rest of the day on our own.

  Moccasin made the news that night, busting up some gang members shortly after a drive by shooting, not far from Fiver's clean up project. The Chill also got into the act, engaging the Stone City gang on their turf.

  June 28, 2021

  The barista I thought was Moccasin opened up the coffee shop on time, without any sign of trauma or distress. I bought Jen a latte and myself a latte with an extra double shot and went back upstairs. Calliope came out of her office looking like she'd slept on the couch.

  “Morning,” I said cheerfully. She grumbled and pushed past on her way out. She looked good even in sweats.

  Jen and I toasted not having to work on Monday mornings and went about reading the news. There were a few more acts of violence in East Santa Maria overnight, but no bystanders were hurt. It wouldn't reach the papers for a few days, but there were tensions few in the city were aware of, and they had started to boil over.

  Fiver had his ear to the ground, or the gutter, and got the word from a couple of his contacts that Stone City and the Santa Maria Sinners had been buying guns and ammo. The cops were hanging out at stores and pulling video when people made big purchases. East Coast Steve made an appearance when we were sitting with Fiver and Cal. He wanted a gun, just in case. Fiver gave him the name of a guy.

  “When supras are asking for guns, I start to worry,” Fiver said.

  “He's the Chill, isn't he?” Jen asked.

  She'd mentioned the theory to me when we met him, but I figured there had to be more than one guy who moved from Philly to Santa Maria, and we couldn't definitely prove that the Chill had. We knew that a supra in Philly had ice-related powers and didn't appear after the Chill started operating in Santa Maria, but I thought the deduction was thin. Specifically, I said her theory was built on thin ice. She didn't so much as honor my pun with a groan, a sure sign that our relationship was on thin ice as well. At that point I gave it about a month, but it didn't take that long.

  Fiver didn't acknowledge, which we both took as a yes, and instead changed the subject to patrol patterns with Cal. They outlined a plan to secure their neighborhood, a three-block radius around Murphy's.

  “That's not very ambitious,” I said. “Jen and I can take a stationary post on a rooftop somewhere, expand the coverage. Cell phones and teleportation are an awesome combination.” Cal agreed to incorporate us. He had a spot picked out that put us east of the bar about 10 blocks away.

  Cal dumped us there after dark. Jen and I threw up on arrival. We had about 30 minutes of good conversation in us, and stood in silence for way too long.

  “I don't think this is working,” I said.

  “Maybe we should move around,” Jen said. “We can walk down the street, I don't know what we're looking for, but maybe something will come to us.”

  “Maybe,” I said. “However, I was talking about our dating. It's cool, you're great, but it feels like we're kind of bland together. I mean, I like you, I think you like me, but…”

  “But not having a good reason to break up, isn't a great reason for staying together,” she said. “Yeah, you're right. I've had a great time, though.”

  “Me, too.”

  “This sort of feels like a trap where you get mad that I didn't try to save the relationship.”

  “You know I'm a guy, right?” I said. “Men don't do that.”

  “I've dated some really needy guys.”

  “I recommend you only date men,” I said. “Men aren't needy like that. Not to exclude women, you can date them, too. I just mean adults. Mature people. Not mature, like old, you know what I mean.”

  “I do. Are we still going to be able to be on the team together?”

  “Yeah, I think so. I don't see why not. It's not like we were together for years.”

  “Okay, don't get weird on me, though.”

  We stood on the top of the building at the corner. It was an old leatherworking shop that hadn't been open in a decade. Most of the businesses in the area had been closed for most of the last few years.

  “How much of the supra-heroing of these guys do you think is because they think they're going to make money?” I asked Jen.

  “Does it matter? If the crime rate drops and the city improves, and becomes a safer place to live, someone is going to benefit. May as well be the people who are risking their lives for it.”

  “I think Fiver may have sparked this tension among the gangs. I'm fairly certain that it was intentional, and I suspect that it goes deeper than beating up a couple dealers on a particular corner.”

  “You think he's blurring the line between good guy and bad guy?” she asked.

  “I'm not sure. What's worse: people dying in a gang fight that destroys the gang, or people living miserable lives because gangs run their neighborhood?”

  “That's if the gang war ends on a positive. It could kill a bunch of people, and the gangs could come out more powerful.”

  “True,” I said, and gave that some thought.

  I had a local news feed on my phone. The city wasn't much busier than normal, but then the people who contributed to the feed didn't hang out in East Santa Maria after dark. We heard a few sirens after a half hour on the rooftop. A while later, Free Force was spotted over downtown heading east. We heard gunshots, a lot of them, about 10pm. A few minutes after that, Concord of Free Force landed on the rooftop behind us.

  He approached, menacingly, in his bright white uniform. He was a little shorter than me, putting him well under six feet. He was lean, but not muscled. His mask hid the top of his face, but showed his chin and his blonde hair.

  “What are you doing up here?” he asked.

  “It's a free country,” Jen said. She sent a short text to Cal, using a code he'd given us, two digits told him everything he needed to know about our situation, whether the LZ was hot, how immediate our need was.

  “It's private property, and it's a suspicious place to perch,” Concord said.

  “If it's not your property, you can fuck off,” Jen said. “Being “suspicious” isn't a crime, and even if it was, you're not a cop.”

  “Maybe I'll haul you to the police station and let them run your prints.”

  “You're threatening to kidnap us, and take us to a police station where they have no reason to fingerprint us and will have to let us go. Little something called the Fourth Amendment. I thought people called 'Free Force' would know a little something about freedom.”

  Concord huffed.

  “Coin out,” Jen said.

  I moved slowly to place the coin on the ground OAF side up. Concord hesitated.

  She sent a number to Cal.

  Cal appeared in front of us in full tactical gear, including a ski mask and a rifle strapped to his chest. Awkwardly, he showed up facing us, but he quickly spun and took in his surroundings.

  Concord started to hum. His whole body, that is, made a strange noise, like machinery being turned on.

  “Yeah, it's me,” Cal said. “What's up?”

  “I'm patrolling the area,” Concord said. “These two looked like trouble.”

  “Two kids in hoodies? They hardly look like trouble. Me, on the other hand, let's face it, I look operator-as-fuck. When I show up, you're either in trouble, or I'm about to get you out of it. Guess which side you are on, buddy.”

  “Whatever,” Concord said. He flew off.

  “What a dick,” Cal said. “You guys cool?”

  I retrieved the coin. “Yeah, we're good.
Just wasn't sure what Concord was up to, so we thought we'd better have back up.”

  “Yeah, cool, no sweat.”

  “What would happen if we put the coin the wrong way up?” Jen asked. “Would you teleport into the ground?”

  “No,” Cal said. “Two objects cannot occupy the same space.”

  “So like would your molecules merge?”

  “No, I couldn't do it, it's not possible for two objects to take up the same space. It's physics, or science or something.”

  “But let's say you teleported right in front of that wall and your rifle was in the wall…”

  “I couldn't do that, because it's impossible,” Cal said.

  “Teleporting is impossible,” Jen said.

  “That doesn't seem to be the case,” Cal said. “Are we done? Fiver's probably going to be getting his ass kicked at some time tonight and I don't want Simon to go down with him.”

  “But you're not worried about Fiver?”

  “Meh,” Cal said. “Losing a fight is good for him.”

  “He doesn't seem that tough.”

  “He's not, he still doesn't lose a lot of fights. See you guys in a bit.” Cal disappeared.

  We continued our watch. We heard gunshots in the distance. More sirens, but nothing for a while until a couple of cars pulled up down the street. It was past midnight, but still a fairly warm California night. We could see seven men get out, one talking on a cell phone, the other six leaning against the cars, smoking and talking. Two held rifles.

  Jen texted a series of codes to Cal. He popped in to the coin, and we pointed out the suspected gang members. “I'll get Fiver and Simon.” He took twenty seconds.

  Simon concentrated. “They're mostly relaxed, I don't think they're a real threat.” The guy on the phone hung up and said something to the others. They got in the cars. “Okay, now they're a threat. They're ready for a fight. Two are actually scared, but the others are amped up.”

  “I'll follow,” Cal said. “Leave the coin out.”

  He popped over to the roof across the street and then re-appeared on another rooftop further down the street. So he went, teleporting short distances rapidly to keep up with the cars. Two minutes later he returned, laid hands on Fiver and Simon and disappeared without a word.

  In the distance, gunfire broke out, echoing down the mostly empty streets to our rooftop perch.

  “Free Force!” Jen pointed at three figures in white moving towards the noise. Bolts of electricity reached out from the ground, engulfing the new arrivals in a ball of lightning. They dropped below rooftop level. Gunfire continued, a lot of it.

  Cal appeared. He grabbed the coin, then Jen and I, and we found ourselves in the armory. Jen started to throw up. A wastebasket was conveniently located near the couch. I was empty but was nauseous enough to dry heave, sounding as bad as I felt. On the couch, Simon bled from his stomach and chest. His dark clothes had been tattered by bullet holes, and covered in hastily applied bandages.

  “Get on the phone to the healer, when she answers tell her to coin out, and text 999 to me,” he said, and was gone.

  I called. “I don't have a connection,” I told Jen. She tried her phone.

  “Me, neither.”

  Jen began to wipe the blood off Simon. “He needs a hospital. Let's get him out of this gear so Cal can take him to a hospital and he'll look like a bystander.” In the first aid kit, she found scissors and started cutting away his shirt. I helped him out of the mask and web gear.

  A minute later, Cal was back. “There's plasma in there, get it now.” He looked at Simon's wounds, felt underneath him to check if the bullets had gone all the way through. “Hang on, bro.” Cal went to work patching him up.

  “Did you leave Fiver on his own?” I asked.

  “Free Force is there, too, but the fight is over.”

  “I need to go outside, I don't have a signal in here.”

  Cal turned and looked at an instrument on the wall. All sorts of things are in the armory, this gadget looked as non-descript as any of them. It was a simple box with a red light lit.

  “Cell phone jammer,” he said. “Cops aren't supposed to use them, but that doesn't stop them. I need to get Simon to a hospital. I'll be back.”

  Cal and Simon disappeared.

  “He better get back, I have no idea where we are,” Jen said.

  “I think we're in the basement of Murphy's,” I said. “Walking out would be a good failsafe if Cal's not around to teleport.”

  “No one in California has basements,” Jen pointed out. “Earthquakes.”

  “Yeah, but there is advanced construction that they use for skyscrapers. They've got to dig those foundations deep, so it can be done, the building just has to be able to give.”

  Cal reappeared. “Okay, you all ready to go? I'll take you to Murphy's.”

  The next thing I knew we were in the alley outside of Murphy's.

  “I've got to go look after Simon. Let Fiver know I'm at the hospital and I'll extract to the armory when he's okay,” Cal said. He waited for us to finish dry heaving and acknowledge that we'd heard him.

  He disappeared again.

  “I think I'm starting to get used to the teleportation,” Jen said. “I only want to sort of kill myself after that last one.”

  “What do we do now?” I asked.

  “We can stay here, or go back and look for Fiver,” she said. “I'd rather stay on the move.”

  We poked our heads out of the alley. The streets were deserted. Murphy's had closed up, as had everything else on the street. Somewhere in the distance, the sounds of chaos rang out: sirens and gunshots, with the steady rhythm of helicopters in the background. We walked down the dark streets towards the noise, passing streetlights that worked yesterday, but had been shot out tonight. The neighborhood went quiet as we walked. Flashing red and blue lights raced down the street less frequently. Incoming texts announced the return of our cellular service.

  Fiver's text read, Carne Asada? Robertos?

  I showed Jen. “It's two blocks from here.”

  “Let's go,” she said.

  I let Fiver know we were on our way. He had a burrito in hand when we arrived.

  He held up the burrito as a welcoming salute. He seemed in a good mood, and in pretty decent health, except for the fist-sized holes burned into his shirt and jeans.

  “What happened?” Jen said.

  “Stone City thought it wise to shoot up a police station,” Fiver said. “We went right at them, Cal and Simon shooting from the rooftop, me jumping down and getting into a hand-to-hand fight. Worked out pretty well, they had a hard time shooting me when I was in among them. I'm not sure if it was a trap intentionally, but they had their supras standing by out of sight. One was a crazy fast gunslinger, pistol in each hand, running about shooting at everyone. He took out Simon, which meant Cal had to medevac him.”

  He took a bite of his burrito, chewed, continued.

  “I managed to reach out and punch him, which got me his undivided attention. He shot up the whole street trying to get to me, and finally ran out of ammo when Free Force showed up. They got blasted by Chain Lightning, not sure if you ever heard of her, but she lit them up, big time, on their way in. I managed to get close enough to hit her, but as soon as I did, her lightning zapped me a dozen times. I blacked out for a few seconds. When I shook it off, she was gone and Free Force was finishing off the rest of the gunmen. Paragon started snapping AKs. Providence helped out the injured cops, and Concord medevac'd one to the hospital. Liberty wasn't there, by the way.”

  Fiver took another bite. “Anyway, I split, got hungry, came here. Cal said he's standing by with Simon until he's stabilized and we can get him healed up. Hey, get me another one, if you're going up there.” He handed me a $100. I ordered three carne asada burritos. They couldn't make change for $100 and Fiver waived it off. “They can keep it.”

  I didn't realize how hungry I was until I got to the taco shop. When the food came, we destroyed i
t in silence.

  I got halfway through my burrito when a bang like a circuit breaker rang out behind me. I turned to see a sparking electrical box and a woman wrapped in electricity heading our way. She was dressed in a grey body suit with gloves and boots that matched. Electricity swirled around her, emitting a rapid crackle as she approached. People outside the taco shop started to scatter. Fiver had another bite of his burrito.

  Chain Lightning walked over calmly.

  “You guys should probably take off. Head back that way, I'll meet up with you in a minute,” Fiver said between bites. He stepped into Roberto's kitchen and returned with a broom. Jen and I backed away. Lightning leapt from Chain Lightning and obliterated the table. Fiver was already moving toward her. Her electrical field grew and he was forced back. She reached out with another bolt of lightning. Fiver blocked with the broom, it's business end shattered. He closed again and attacked with his broomstick.

  “Let's go,” Jen said. She turned and started to run. I jogged behind her, looking over my shoulder. Fiver was on the defensive again, jumping behind a car as Chain Lightning swept sparks over the area. When I looked back at Jen, she'd put some distance between us. I struggled to keep up. I figure we made it about a half mile before I needed to rest. In retrospect, that might have been optimistic. Jen was doing much better than me. She waited for me to catch up.

  “You're out of shape,” she scolded.

  “I've very good at my sport,” I said. “It's very niche, and doesn't involve running long distances.”

  “We didn't run a long distance,” she said.

  With a bang and another exploding transformer, Chain Lightning appeared under a lamppost down the street. She looked our way.

  “Fuck, run, fuck,” Jen said. She pushed me to get me moving. We ran away, down the dark, abandoned streets of the rail district.

  Chain Lightning exploded out of a power supply behind us with another bang and shower of sparks. Then another got her a little closer. Then another. I was slowing Jen down. We turned a corner, then ducked down an alley. For a moment we had lost her. After a series of pops that echoed down the dark streets, she appeared ahead of us. We turned again, down another alley. A few steps in, Jen pushed me into a pile of garbage behind an overflowing dumpster.