The City That Heroes Built

by Daniel Pierce

  They were young-ish when they started, mid-teens, high-schoolers. Rather than the flare of most supra villains, they had a very simple technique. They got in as fast as possible, cleared out the cash drawers and left. They were based on speed and being able to blend in to the city since they all looked normal. My theory on why they were only active during the summer is that it helped with their cover. No attendance lists, more young people out and about during the week to blend in to.

  They're pattern wasn't too hard to discern. They chose places near crowds: shopping malls, festivals, concerts, beaches. All places a lot of people would be expected to carry bags. Unlike someone making a get-away in a car, they avoided places near freeways or places with easy access. Choosing high traffic area made it easier for people running away, harder for cops to get there in cars.

  The Sunshine Bunch had lost Granite Kid in their escape from Leonidas. They'd tried to escape across rooftops and he missed his jump. The impact didn't kill him, but being left behind he bled out in the alley he had fallen into. The rest of the Bunch had shown up last week. Radiation Jane, Speedy McCready, Smokey Pete, and Rush Hour disappeared two minutes after they burst into the 1st Californian on Ocean Blvd. Hard to come up with a pattern with one piece of information, so I dove into the previous years' robberies. I thought I found a pattern. It was mostly a hunch, but I wanted to give Fiver something.

  First, I headed out to the beach, and quickly turned around, since the entire city seemed to have the same plan to escape the heat. I found Fiver alone at Murphy's.

  “I've been texting you all week,” he said.

  “I've been busy.”

  “I need you working on the Sunshine Bunch,” he said.

  “Already done.” I brought a tablet out and showed him the map of the Sunshine Bunch's robberies. “This is everything they've done. Now look at their last dozen.”

  “Six at the beach and bay front,” Fiver said.

  “Two back to back in Arroyo Grande after Free Force went after them last year. First hit this year was Ocean Drive.” I pointed it out. “The way the developments near the water grew around little town centers, each has a pocket of banks. They're not big, but they're perfect for grabbing cash and running. I'm guessing based on the neighborhood that they carry a bit of cash. Lots of small businesses, bars, restaurants, boutiques.”

  “Still a lot of options.”

  “Cal is the equalizer.”

  “Catchpenny will have to wear the King Scarab armor if Cal moves her, but that means losing her net gun.”

  “Trying to go non-lethal?”

  “Not trying to kill anyone who isn't trying to kill me,” Fiver said. “You know, for all the money they steal, these guys are hardly worth going after, compared to say a mobster or drug dealer. I mean a real drug dealer, the guy in charge. They have a far more adverse effect on the city than bank robbers that don't kill anyone.”

  “So why do it?”

  “Well, I can't pin down the top gang members, and frankly, they're not flaunting their powers to take advantage of people. Sunshine Bunch represents an ability to be above the law. They take advantage of everyone by ignoring the conventions of decent society. There's also an unspoken threat: 'We can do whatever we want. We can take your property.' Life and liberty can't be far behind.”

  “Don't supra-heroes represent the same thing?” I asked.

  “Yeah, sometimes. No warrants or public identities. Little respect for privacy. Flaunting power. But at the end of the day you're safer and more free. We're trying to be subtle about things right now. More good Samaritans, less Gestapo.”

  “So what's the plan to take down the Sunshine Bunch?”

  “Ambush and a fight,” Fiver said “Classic supra-hero tactics.”

  “Skyborne and Slowburn would be pretty useful at a time like this,” I said. “Being that they fly and all.”

  “Jen's already got them on standby.”

  “They officially on the team?”

  “Not yet. Maybe not at all. They like being a duo.”

  “You and Cal still going in the all-black military gear? Or are you going to break out the old Rebel costume?”

  “Debating my options. In many ways that feels like a long time ago, and I don't know if I want to go back to it.”

  “If you take out the Sunshine Bunch, the press is going to want some names. You don't have one to give, they'll make it up.”

  “I'll live,” he said.

  “How did you guys track them the last time you got in a fight?” I asked.

  “Virtuoso and Valor put their heads together, built an algorithm. They were trying to be random, but also different every time. You ever watch football and a team tries to hand off when they are facing a 3rd and 13? It doesn't surprise anyone.”

  “I think they changed that up. They're favoring the coastal areas. Free Force figured it out, so they hit Arroyo Grande, just to force them back in their box. I mean, it makes sense. Crowds let them hide, they can make use of their knowledge of the area, there are fewer chances of running into a gang, and they're away from downtown.”

  “So we hit the beach.”

  “Question is, do you break up the group to cover more ground?”

  “Oh, absolutely,” Fiver said. “It plays to our strength, and restricts their tactics.”

  “Which is?”

  “They want to get away. They're going to run from the fight if they can.”

  “So force them to run the direction you want.”

  “Right into the trap we set.”

  “It sounds nice but Rush Hour has been tracked at over 120 miles per hour. Speedy McCready is even faster. They'll just blow by you.”

  “They may, but they won't blow by Cal. Besides, if you're correct, they probably aren't going far, just far enough to change from their disguises, and look natural.”

  “Yeah, I've noticed they wear coveralls and cheap masks.”

  “Easy to change out of and burn.”

  “Smokey Pete?”

  Fiver shook his head. “Radiation Jane. Smokey Pete just turns into a cloud of smoke.”

  “Maybe you should bring Simon in on this,” I said. “Low risk of violence. He can stay at a distance and effect the fight, take someone out without killing them.”

  “I can probably talk him into it,” he said. “Good, that's mostly settled. What else is going on?”

  “Someone is growing islands off the coast.”

  “Again?”

  “There's no comment on it by the government. A geological society said it's unlikely that an earthquake or plate shifting caused it, but it is possible that prior surveys of the area are inaccurate. They're outside the shipping lanes, so there's really not much need for a highly accurate survey,” I said.

  “How'd they find them?”

  “Guy in a sailboat with a Fathometer noticed some inaccuracies in the reported data and started to do some research. Turns out he likes diving, too, so he and some buddies went to check them out. There was an article in the paper.” I said the paper, but I only read the online version.

  “That's interesting. Inside 12 nautical miles they're part of the United States. Be interesting to see what happens with that.”

  “Yeah, it's not necessarily part of the US. The US would have no historical claim, it's a new land mass. Some would argue the first person there would get them. There are all sorts of rules with archipelagos and so on. You've got to read the whole article.”

  “What else?” Fiver asked.

  “Crime reporters are breaking stories about a shift in the drug trade. Someone or something called the Blue Lady. Notably the trade and the violence has moved further to the eastern parts of the city,” I told him.

  “We've got to keep our eye on that,” Fiver said. “Organized crime means good pay for supras willing to be enforcers.”

  “How do you deal with that?”

  “Find out where they live and hit them there.”

  “Assassinate them?”


  “It's not really an assassination. They're mob enforcers, not politicians.”

  “Would now be a good time to ask about your killing versus capturing philosophy?” I asked.

  “Ask away.”

  “What's your governing philosophy on capital punishment?”

  “I'm for it, but that's not what I do. I reduce the threat to life, liberty and property made by people who have forfeited their right to the same by threatening the rights of others,” Fiver said.

  “Doesn't that make you just as bad?”

  “No, I'm not killing people who have their rights. I'm killing people who don't.”

  “So you get to decide who has the right to live?”

  “People decide to respect the rights of others and maintain their own rights. Or they don't and they lose theirs.”

  “You have some very pat answers,” I said. “Not that I disagree with them.”

  “I know what I'm about, son,” Fiver said. “I don't believe what I believe because I read it in a book. I've thought about it, reasoned it out. I'm not going to kill people without it being completely justified.”

  “Okay, but you said someone that threatens your property forfeits their right to life.”

  “Yep.”

  “So I steal a piece of gum from you and you'd kill me.”

  “What kind of person would you be that would steal something from me that I would freely give to you? A psychopath. What's your motivation? To hurt me in some way? Have you ever known someone to steal something only once in their lives? Do you know the psychological damage you can do by stealing from people? To get away with that is akin to violating other rights. Property rights aren't any less than any other natural right. They're part of the same balance,” Fiver said. “But no, I wouldn't kill you over gum.”

  “So your exceptional luck at the casinos wasn't stealing?”

  “Is it stealing when the casino wins?”

  “I mean, I don't know how, but you broke the rules. That makes it cheating and stealing,” I said.

  “I didn't break the rules. I played completely within the rules. The fact that I knew what cards were coming is an advantage, just like being fast is an advantage in sports,” he said.

  “Supras are banned from professional sports.”

  “But fast people aren't, and supras aren't banned from the casinos we went to. The casino has the right to boot me any time they want. No one forced them to play, and they make the rules.”

  “They do have rules against using supra-abilities to alter the chances of the games.”

  “Sure, but I didn't do that?”

  “You didn't?”

  “The only thing I did was bet at the right time. The chance didn't change.”

  “You hit doubled down on 17 and got a 4.”

  “And if I got a five, I'd have lost my money. I didn't change the card, I didn't alter the deck, I didn't do anything.”

  “How did you know what card was coming next?” I asked. “Luck? X-ray vision? ESP? You watched how the cards were shuffled with your lightning fast reflexes?”

  Fiver shrugged. “I'm an amazing blackjack player. And maybe I was counting cards.”

  “Card counting is illegal.”

  “No, it isn't. Using a device to count is illegal. If it's in you're head, it's fine. You can't make a rule against something you can't enforce. That's why the casinos have 4-deck and 6-deck blackjack. To make it impossible to know what is coming next.”

  “I'm on to you,” I said.

  “Oh really?” he smiled. I wasn't on to him. I had no idea how his power worked. I suspected he was lying to me. I was pretty sure it was supra-reflexes or some luck power. I wonder if that made him natural enemies with Thirteen, as she claimed she gave other people bad luck. Curious.

  “No, not really,” I said. “What are we doing next?”

  “Saturday nights are getting pretty busy around here. We're all on bouncer duty. You should invite your girl around.”

  “She's not my girl and I saw her all week.”

  “Good, you can hang out. Maybe you should get some practice tending bar.”

  “You guys only serve beers and liquor, how hard can it be?”

  “Not hard at all, but when the government comes knocking and wants to know how you can afford to live without a visible means of support, it'd be nice to have a W-2 with some numbers on it,” Fiver said. “Working here, just enough to keep up appearances, explains why you're here all the time.”

  “Do you think you're being investigated?! That I'm being investigated?!” Please note the exclamation points. I was alarmed. I was terrified that this would happen.

  “When did Noah build the ark?” Fiver asked. I just looked at him. “Before the rain.”

  “I'm pretty sure that's a line from a Robert Redford movie,” I said.

  “It is. Great movie. The point is, you always know your way out.”

  “I think that's a Dinero line.”

  “Again, you are correct. I've been watching spy movies all week. The points remain valid. We can't risk getting caught. It's bad for us, it's bad for the city, it's bad for people who depend on us.”

  “Yeah, okay, I can work in a bar. But can I say one thing? You seem to exclusively hire attractive young women to work here. What's up with that?”

  “Attractive employees are a way of adding value to a customer's experience at very little extra cost,” Fiver said.

  “You pay them more because they're attractive?”

  “Cal pays them, actually, I just advise him. He pays them more because they're valuable and he wants to retain their services. You get paid what you're worth.”

  “What am I going to get paid?”

  “On paper? Whatever you clock in for, plus tips. Simon runs the payroll stuff. You have to report tips to the IRS, so he'll put all that paperwork together for you. It's mostly automatic, and it's all electronic, so it's not even paperwork.”

  “This sounds like money laundering, and possibly tax fraud by the way.”

  “I don't know that it is, technically. Most of our money is all gained through legitimate means.”

  “Doesn't it violate the government's right to property?” I asked. I didn't really care what Fiver did. To me the ends justified the means, and that was the extent of my deep thoughts.

  “No. First the government has no natural rights, they only have Constitutional and political power. The government takes through coercion, violating any argument even if it was an entity worthy of natural rights. I haven't consented to be governed. Most people only have under duress.”

  “I feel like just having this conversation is going to get me on a government watch list.”

  Later, I brought up the issue with Cal.

  “How do you guys sort out the moral ambiguities of being a supra-hero?”

  “I don't know what that means,” Cal said.

  “Like when you want to kill a villain, and Fiver doesn't, how do you work it out?”

  “That's a pretty unlikely scenario.”

  “Okay, let's say the thing where Fiver fought that gang enforcer and beat her up. What if he killed her?”

  “I don't know. The world is a better place?”

  “But why is she worth killing, and not say, another guy in the gang?”

  “I don't have a problem with killing any gang members.”

  “Just for being in a gang? What if they haven't done anything wrong?”

  “Joining a criminal organization that engages in intimidation and violence is doing something wrong.”

  “So is littering. Would you kill someone for littering?”

  “It's against the law, doesn't make it wrong.”

  “Where do you draw the line?” I asked.

  “I know the difference between right and wrong,” Cal said. “It's not that tough to figure out. What's the deal?”

  “I just figured some sort of shared philosophy should be an integral part of the team.”

  “We stop bad gu
ys,” Cal said.

  That's as far as I got with him. Simon had fewer answers.

  “I let everyone else think about things like that. I'm just trying to help out.”

  “Wouldn't it bother you if Fiver or Cal killed someone you didn't think deserved killing?”

  “Like who?”

  “Say a kid.”

  “A kid running around killing people?”

  “Say robbing banks, like Sunshine Bunch. They used to be really young.”

  “Old enough to rob banks, I'm not going to put them in the same category as kids playing video games and minding their own business at home. Besides, stealing from people? That's an asshole move. A kid that's robbing people at 16 isn't going to grow up and suddenly become a good person.”

  “You don't believe in second chances?”

  “People don't become less dangerous if you catch them and let them go,” Simon said. “You just give them the chance to hurt and kill more people.”

  “What about Charms? He became a good guy,” I said.

  “Says him. The Guard fell apart pretty quickly when they started getting killed off. Charms didn't get killed, by the way. It may not be proof of anything, but I wouldn't let an ex-villain join our team, and I sure wouldn't join a team started by a villain.”

  “Yankee Station were criminals who became good guys.”

  “Yankee Station were always good guys. Just because you break a law, doesn't make you a bad guy or a villain.”

  I had to give Simon all my data so he could put me on the pay roll. I spent my first official day of employment drinking beers. The evening's conversation was less philosophical; it mostly revolved around women, and our various preferences. I crashed on Fiver's couch again.

  July 17, 2021

  Fiver turned on the TV to wake me up. I sat up and watched the report. The live feed was a helicopter view of a destroyed cemetery in Arroyo Grande. The reporter repeated the story told by police and witnesses. LEGION was unearthing a body when Free Force arrived. Sonic booms from Concord brought the police, but they arrived late. Two members of Free Force were killed. Police weren't saying which two.