The Hero Beat

by Nick Svolos

  I wished them well but knew there was little they could do. All I could do was raise the microphone and get back to work. I spoke in Spanish, my voice cracking with emotion. “Rico, I’m sorry to tell you and your audience that The Angels are down. I repeat, The Angels are down.”

  Rich was speechless, so I continued. “It looks like Mechanista is walking over to Gale now. I don’t know what they’ll do next. The remaining ERD agents are gathering the bodies of The Angels together on the field. Yes, see there, they’re lining them up in a row. Herculene, Mentalia, Three Dollar Bill, SpeedDamon and Ultiman.” I shouted into the microphone in English, hoping they would hear me through the stadium speakers. “Come on guys, somebody get up!”

  Baron Guapo spoke in Spanish. “I cannot allow this.” He punched the cracked plastic window out of the way and flew out of the booth. The bare-headed ERD agent streaked through the air towards the assembled villains. Looking down, I saw the Angel Security team pressing forward down through the stands.

  “Rico, Baron Guapo has just left the broadcast studio. He appears to be launching himself at Gale and Mechanista. The remaining members of the Angels’ security team are moving to support him. They’re opening fire.”

  The nano-mechanical Omega was the first to react. She turned and fired two rounds at the hurling former Vengeance Squad member. Guapo dodged both shots, and crashed into her at full force. The impact sent Mechanista sprawling.

  The gunfire from Ben’s team was predictably ineffective. While their shot placement was excellent, the bullets simply bounced off the villains and their ERD allies. With a smirk on her face, Gale silenced them with a wave of her arm, sweeping them violently from their feet with a barrage of gale force winds. The buffeting winds tore into the broadcast booth as well, blasting Ratna and I back into the equipment.

  As we struggled back to our positions, Baron Guapo shouted something at the other ERD agents and turned on Gale. The two agents seemed stunned, looking at each other as if they were unsure of what to do, and Gale took the initiative. Bolt after bolt of lightning lit the field, accompanied by ear-splitting peals of thunder, as she tried to electrocute Baron Guapo. The Mexican super dodged each of these, and closed on Gale, landing a tremendous right cross on the former hero’s chin. A shock wave emanated from the blow, echoing throughout the Coliseum.

  “Rico, Baron Guapo has just scored hits on both of the villains. Mechanista has been knocked over to the sidelines, and Gale has been dealt a crushing blow that has her down at the feet of the other two agents. The agents don’t seem to be getting involved. Gale’s trying to get up, but Guapo’s moving in to finish her off.”

  From the sidelines, there was a flash, followed almost instantly by the crack of a gunshot. Guapo fell to the ground, his limp body raising a splash of water-logged turf and blood.

  My heart sank. Ben’s attack and Baron Guapo’s last-ditch effort had failed. We had nothing left. All that was left for me to do was to deliver the news. My voice choked in my throat. “Mechanista shot him, Rico. Baron Guapo’s down on the field, at around the forty yard line. I think he’s dead.”

  I swallowed, brushed tears from my eyes and forced myself to continue. “Mechanista is now speaking to Gale. We can’t hear what they’re saying. Gale’s pointing at the hero at the end of the line, Herculene.” Ratna drew in a sharp breath. “Mechanista is walking towards the row of fallen Angels. She’s pointing her gun arm at Herculene’s head.” My voice rose in horror, “My God, Rico, she’s going to kill her! She’s going to kill them all!”

  Mechanista stopped, standing perfectly still. “Rico, I don’t know what’s happening now. Mechanista is just standing there. Gale’s saying something to her. Wait! Mechanista’s turning, pointing her gun at Gale!” The gun fired, the sound of the shot silencing the thunder. Gale flipped over backwards and landed on her back. In disbelief, I shouted, “Mechanista has shot Gale!”

  “What?” Rich shouted in my ear. “Unbelievable! Has she had a change of heart, Reuben?”

  I spotted something out of the corner of my eye. I turned to see a familiar, black-suited woman walking forward. She had her right hand extended toward Mechanista. “No Rico, I don’t think so. Ratna turn your camera over there, to the right! Rico, I can see Sinfonie emerging from the east arena tunnel. It looks like she has Mechanista under her control!” Mechanista turned to the pair of ERD agents, as another gun sprouted from the Omega’s left arm. The mechanical arms took aim, one weapon trained on each man.

  Sinfonie walked forward, her eyes closed, and her lips moved in unison with Mechanista’s. “She’s saying something to the ERD agents, Rico. We can’t hear what, but I’m guessing she’s telling them to leave. Down on the field, I think I can see Ultiman regaining consciousness. Yes, he’s getting up. A couple of the other Angels are coming to, as well. I can see Herculene and SpeedDamon struggling to their feet.”

  I heard motion behind and I turned to see a pair of battered Angel Security men securing Agent Wells. While one handcuffed her hands behind her, the other lifted her mask enough to place a gag in her mouth.

  I turned my attention back to the field, “Rico, the Angel Security team is securing Agent Wells. Down on the field, the three Angels and Mechanista, still under Sinfonie’s control, are squaring off with the last two ERD agents. Nobody’s moving. I don’t think anyone wants this fight to continue. Ultiman is saying something to the ERD guys. He’s pointing at the two unconscious agents now. They’re moving towards the downed men and picking them up. They’re flying away, Rico.”

  SpeedDamon zipped over to Gale, never taking his eyes off Mechanista and Sinfonie, and checked for a pulse. He shouted something to Ultiman and Herculene as he stood up.

  “Rico, it looks like SpeedDamon has just confirmed that Gale is either dead or incapacitated. Herculene and Ultiman are moving towards Mechanista and Sinfonie.” Mechanista’s guns retracted into her arms to be replaced by hands, and a stream of metallic objects ejected from her chest to fall on the ground before her. “I think, yes, it appears that Sinfonie is forcing the bullets out of Mechanista’s body. Ultiman’s waving the Angel Security containment team onto the field. It looks like the fight is finally over. Rico, I need to get down there,” I said. “See if I can get some reaction from The Angels before they take off. It looks like it’s safe to go down to the field. Do you mind if I cut the feed?”

  “Not at all, Reuben. Thank you for your report. I hope you’ll check in with us later to let us know what you find out. Be careful out there.”

  I smiled and faced the camera. “On behalf of myself and the team here in the studio, Ratna Banerjee and Ben Jefferson, I thank you for letting us borrow your equipment and giving us the chance to get this story out. This is Reuben Conway, signing off.”

  I heard Rich wrapping up the report for his audience as I tore the earphone off and set the mike on the commentator’s desk.

  “You alright?” I asked Ratna.

  The shutterbug took a heavy breath and said, “Yeah, I guess.” She rubbed at her ears. “My ears are still ringing. God, she almost killed us.” She looked at me. “Is it always like this?”

  I shook my head. “Almost never. You did good, Ratna.”

  She smiled. “Thanks.” She nodded down at the field, “So did you. I can’t believe this stunt worked.”

  I shook my head. “It really didn’t. We got lucky. Sinfonie saved them. Otherwise,” my voice trailed off. I didn’t want to say it.

  One of the Angel Security men, the guy named Carson, chimed in, “Don’t sell yourself short, man. You gave us a chance. Sometimes that’s all you can do.”

  I didn’t feel that way, but I didn’t feel like arguing the point. “OK, thanks. Let’s go, Ratna. We’ve got a story to chase.”

  As the security guys carried Wells from the booth, Ratna and I followed them out. A few minutes later, we were down on the field. The rain died away as the storm clouds above us began to break up and move inland. Ultiman was sitting on his knees next
to Gale’s body. I could see as I got closer that Sinfonie’s shot had caught her between the eyes. Her head lay in a pool of blood and brain matter.

  I walked around a bit, taking in the scene. SpeedDamon was tending to Three Dollar Bill. Burn marks on the chest of his colorful karategi indicated that Bill must have taken a pretty bad shot from whichever agent was firing laser beams from his eyes. Ben’s team had already taken up positions around the perimeter of the area, while Ben himself was tending to Mentalia. Ratna walked around the scene, snapping photos.

  I walked over to where Baron Guapo lay. Two of the Angel Security people were working to stabilize him. I was relieved to see he was still alive, but he wasn’t out of the woods. It looked like the bullet caught him in the chest and might have damaged one of his lungs. There didn’t seem to be any way I could help, and I didn’t want to get in the way, so I took a moment to say a silent prayer for Guapo and moved on.

  I found Herculene standing over by Mechanista as the containment team worked to secure the Omega. Sinfonie was deep in concentration, but Herculene noticed my approach and forced a smile.

  “I don’t think this place is gonna be ready for Saturday’s game,” I observed as I carefully stepped the last few meters over the broken turf. The Trojans had a pre-season match scheduled for that weekend. As I got closer, I could see that she had really been through hell that morning. Her face had several fresh bruises and there was some dried blood caked beneath her nose. Her toga, soaked with rain and mud, was ripped and burned in several places. In spite of all this, she was still the most beautiful sight I’d ever seen. “You alright?” I asked.

  “I will be in a minute,” she replied tensely. She reached out with her right arm and forced me back behind her, placing herself between Mechanista and myself in case something went wrong. I mentally kicked myself for stupidly blundering into the way.

  The containment team finished applying their equipment to Mechanista and switched it on. Sinfonie jumped back as her link to the supervillain abruptly terminated. “Yeowch!” she exclaimed, raising her hands to her head. She took a few steps back from the power-nullifying equipment. “Remind me to never get captured by you guys.”

  Herculene stepped forward to inspect Mechanista. The Omega stood motionless. Her body was entirely made up of nanotech, and therefore incapable of doing anything while under the nullifying effects of the equipment. She was a living statue. Prison was going to be very unpleasant for her.

  Satisfied with the result, Herculene picked her up and placed her in the containment cage in the large truck the security team used. As they’d done with Hammerblow, the technicians secured the cage door and turned on the nullifier field. The team started collecting up their gear and made ready to leave.

  Cops and ambulances started pouring out of the tunnels at either end of the arena and onto the field. Mentalia and Three Dollar Bill were sitting up, and the team of medics were loading Baron Guapo into an ambulance. As I watched Herculene and the team work, Sinfonie stepped up beside me. I reached out with my good arm and pulled her close. “You don’t seem to have a good handle on this retirement thing.” I grinned as I let her go. “Thanks for what you did here.”

  “Forget it. I couldn’t let one of the only women on the planet who’d actually date you die,” she cracked. After a brief thought, she said, “Now that I think of it, don’t forget it. And don’t let these guys forget it either.” She indicated The Angels. “It’s always good to have people owe you favors. I don’t want my retirement interrupted again.”

  I laughed. “Fat chance.” I leaned in and asked quietly, “What’d you tell Joe?”

  She chuckled. “The truth, if you can believe it. He didn’t even bat an eye. Turns out he knew about it all along. I guess he got suspicious a couple of years back and followed me. He thought I was cheating on him, but he found the lair, instead. Never said a word about it. He gave me a hall pass for today. After this, I have to quit. That was kinda non-negotiable.”

  “Better do what he says. You’re starting to act like some kind of hero.”

  She laughed, “I know! Depressing, isn’t it? I’m getting so boring in my old age.”

  We were joined by a much more relaxed Herculene. She pulled my friend in and gave her a big hug. “Thanks, Sin. You really pulled our butts out of the fire.”

  The former supervillain struggled free. “Okay, okay, you’re welcome, already! Just let me get out of here before anyone tries to arrest me.”

  “No problem,” the warrior goddess said. “Where’s your car?”

  “Motorcycle,” Sinfonie replied. She pointed to the northeast. “I left it in an alley over that way.”

  Herculene swept up Sinfonie and placed her on her back. Sinfonie looked terrified as Herculene said, “Hold on tight.” Herculene flashed me a smile, saying, “Be right back.” She leaped into the air, landed on the edge of the Coliseum and jumped again out of sight toward Sinfonie’s bike. I laughed at the sight of Sinfonie’s reaction. Better her than me.

  Meanwhile, a pair of ambulances left the field carrying Baron Guapo, Mentalia and Three Dollar Bill. SpeedDamon escorted the containment truck on its way back to the Tower with Mechanista. I saw Dawson talking with some cops, and I walked over to them.

  Dawson smiled when as I walked up. “That was a heck of a stunt, Conway. We could hear it from outside the stadium. Didn’t know you could speak Spanish.”

  “I’m pretty sure there are about a half million Telemundo viewers that would tell you I can’t. I never learned how to correctly conjugate the verb ‘clobber’.”

  “Well, you did good enough for me to understand.” He nodded over to Wells. She was awake and under guard. The containment team had installed a spare set of equipment to negate her powers, but they probably didn’t want to transport two supers at the same time. “She’s in a lot of trouble. Looks like the Feds are already trying to disavow any involvement, make her the scapegoat.”

  I had no love for Wells—my ears still rang like I had just come from a Blue Oyster Cult concert—but even so, I knew this was wrong. “That’s a raw deal, Dawson. The government’s in this up to their teeth. She had to be working under someone’s orders. Is anyone searching Galestorm and Stormfront?”

  “Yeah, we got the warrants just before the fight started. We got teams out at both places now. Stormfront’s HQ is in Delaware, so the Feds are in charge of that.”

  “Think they’ll play it straight?”

  “I don’t know. Between what you have and what we find at Galestorm, we should be able to keep ‘em honest. On the other hand, this whole thing’s going to get very political. Some very powerful people are going to want this whole thing buried.” He looked at The Angels on the field, “Fortunately, we still have some powerful people to stand against them.” He clapped me on the shoulder. “We have you to thank for that. Nice work.”

  I think I blushed a little at the praise, but I didn’t think I deserved it. I was getting tired of telling people that Sinfonie was the real hero, but I tried one more time. “I don’t know why people keep giving me credit for this,” I protested. “You know, my plan failed. All I managed to do was get Guapo shot. Sinfonie’s the one who deserves the credit.”

  He looked surprised, “You don’t get it, do you, Conway?”

  “Get what?”

  “Sure, Sinfonie’s the hero,” Dawson said. “She put herself at risk to come down here and save The Angels. But, she’s also a supervillain. Do you really think she’d have shown up if you weren’t involved? I saw the two of you over there. You seem pretty chummy. That’s why she came. It’s your connections with these people that made it happen.”

  I was stunned. “Huh. Never thought of it that way.”

  The cop grinned. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. So, shut up and take the damned compliment.”

  XVII

  As Dawson and I stood talking, a Coroner’s van arrived. The crew got out and began picking pieces of Gale off the field and putting them carefully
into plastic bags. Ratna took photos of their grisly work, and Ultiman flew off to the western rim of the stadium. Maybe he didn’t want to watch the indelicate procedure on the field, or perhaps he just needed to be alone with his thoughts. I saw him, just standing there, looking toward the west. Eventually, the Coroner’s men put the bags and Gale’s body into a large, black body bag, loaded it onto a stretcher and into their van, packed up and left.

  The Angel Security people were walking around the stadium, using a metal detector to find and collect the spent bullets. A couple of cops followed them around, looking irritated. I didn’t think they liked the idea of someone messing with a crime scene. “That reminds me,” I said to the detective. “What do you need, with regards to these bullets? I’m pretty sure that Ultiman’s going to destroy them, which seems like a good idea to me.”

  “I’ve been thinking about that, myself. If the force has ‘em, the Feds will get ‘em. But, we’re going to have trouble prosecuting Longshot for Phoenix’s murder without ‘em.” He rubbed his chin with one meaty paw. “I should probably talk to the DA.” He walked a few steps away and pulled out his phone.

  The morning sun was starting to fight its way through the dispersing storm clouds and despite this, the temperature on the field was starting to cool off, which was a pleasant surprise. I noticed that the stadium big screens and the Jumbotron were still displaying an image of the Telemundo studio. I walked back up the stadium steps to the press booth. I came up the west side, so I went into the bullet-riddled scorer’s booth first, shutting down the displays in the stadium before moving on to the Telemundo booth. As I was putting the studio gear back the way I found it, a knock came from the open door. It was Ultiman. “Do you have a minute, Mr. Conway?” There was something in his tone that seemed out of place. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but it was odd. The man was always so deadpan, so matter-of-fact.