Yesterday's Heroes (Consortium of Chaos Book 1) (33 page)

Cynic leaned forward while trying
to shield his face with his hand so that the heroes filing passed the car
didn’t recognize him.  “Hey, pal?  I’ll give you a
five thousand dollar
tip if you get us out of here right
NOW
.”  He tossed the bills at the
man.  “And I’ll MAIL you another TEN if that guy we hit dies…just as a little
thank
you
.”

The cabbie floored it, and the
vehicle peeled down the street towards Holly’s sleigh.

***************

 “The Narrator stood in line at the
bank on High Street, pretending to be just like all the other patrons. 
Innocently going about his banking business, nothing usual about him…and then,
when the moment was right, he would strike and catch the fools completely unawares…”

The man behind the Narrator in line
frowned.  “You taking to me, buddy?  You got a problem or something?”

“The Narrator turned to look at the
clueless civilian.  ‘
No
,’ The Narrator lied.  ‘,
I have no problems
at all
.’  The Narrator tried to hide his sinister smile.  The fool was as
clueless as all the others.  They would have NO warning when his master plan
snapped into action…”

The man frowned.  “Mister, I don’t
know who you’re talking to, but it’s getting
seriously
annoying!”

“The Narrator glared at the man. 
He was becoming an irritation.  He tried to hide his growing rage.  ‘
I am
merely talking on my Bluetooth to my…secretary
.’  He said.  Yes, that
should be a good enough lie for someone as slow as this man obviously was.”

The man’s eyes narrowed.  “I SAID,
that’s ANNOYING, ASSHOLE! 
STOP IT!” 
The man drew back a fist to punch
him.

 “The Narrator smiled slowly as the
man prepared to take a girlish swing at his handsome face.  He never got the
chance though, as the cheetah was on top of him before the punch could
connect.”

Out of nowhere, a cheetah leaped
onto the man and knocked him to the floor.  He screamed as the animal tore into
him.  The guards rushed towards the scene, as the patrons of the bank and the
tellers started to flee.

“The Narrator laughed and walked
towards the door to the bank’s main counter.”  He looked down at the
complicated looking electronic lock barring the door.  “The Narrator looked
down at the simple twist-tie holding the door shut and pulled it away.”  He
yanked the twist-tie off the door and walked inside.  “The Narrator scanned the
interior of the room and found the entrance to the vault, which was strangely
left open.  He ignored the sounds of struggle as the man continued to try to
beat off the cheetah.  The Narrator shook his head regretfully.  Silly man.  Didn’t
he know that his screams would only attract the attention of the Tyrannosaurus?”

In the lobby, there was a crashing
sound and more screams as a dinosaur burst through the wall of the building and
gave a deafening roar.

“The Narrator walked to the vault
and found it
not
filled with bags of quarters as it first appeared, but
in fact, was filled with surprisingly easily transportable gold bars and bags
of thousand dollar bills.”  He swung the door open and found what he knew he
would find.  “Suddenly, behind him he heard a gun click…”

“FREEZE!”

 “Yelled a guard.  The Narrator
turned slowly to find one of the bank guards had made her way through his trap
and now had a gun on him.  The Narrator smiled.  The girl had no idea who she
was dealing with.  The Narrator knew exactly who
HE
was dealing with
though; a very
agreeable
guard wearing a bikini, who looked
EXACTLY l
ike
Scarlett Johansson and was bringing him a pizza, not a gun.”

The female guard’s appearance
changed to match his description.

“The Narrator pointed to the vault. 
‘Scarlett,’ he said sweetly.  ‘, Be a good girl and help me put these gold bars
in my vehicle.’  His smile widened as he opened the pizza box and enjoyed a
slice.  ‘And
do
be careful of the T-Rex, my dear.  There wasn’t enough
meat on that horrible man, and he’s still
ever
so hungry.’  The Narrator’s
cackling laughter echoed through the bank, drowning out even the sounds of the
carnage in the lobby.”

************************

Security here was light.  This should
be a piece of cake.

Harlot looked over at the man
sitting next to her.  Wyatt had INSISTED on coming along with her on this
mission.  Since this was the largest bank in the city, he said
two
villains would be required to rob it.  She didn’t understand why.  “Remind me
again why I couldn’t just come do this alone?  Like everyone ELSE is doing? 
It’s EMBARRASSING to have a
chaperone
.”

He added powdered creamer to his
coffee, and stirred it with a cardboard stirrer.  “How many banks have you
robbed?”

 “Ballpark?” She thought about it
for a moment.  “Maybe sixty.”

He nodded and took a sip of his
beverage and then winced at the taste.  “I mean while the bank was
open?
 
How many have you robbed while there were actually people
using
it?”

 “None.”  She slunk down dejectedly
in her seat.  Bastard.  He always did stuff like that, and it was very
annoying.  “How many banks have YOU robbed though, oh wise one?  You hero types
do a lot of
Point Break
style hold-ups on the weekends and not tell the
rest of us?”

He dumped his toxic beverage out
into one of the flowerpots.  “Touché.”  He picked up a magazine on brides,
trying to look casual.  “But, I’ve
stopped
a few, so I know how they
work.  In a minute or two, there will be a shift change, and the door to the
counter area will be opened.  THAT’S when we move.  You grab the cash; I’ve got
the crowd.  In and out.  Sixty seconds, no one gets hurt.  Right?”

She nodded and put her feet back on
the floor preparing to jump up and start running for the door to the cashier’s
cage the second it opened.  One of the cashiers started walking towards it…he
placed his hand on the knob.  Harlot and Wyatt moved.  Before they got more
than a couple steps though, the front door to the bank blew open, and four men
stood in the doorway carrying automatic weapons.  Harlot stopped running for
the vault and looked over at Wyatt in confusion.  “Umm…is this part of your
plan?  Do we know them?”

Wyatt stared at the men for a
minute.  “Nope.  I’ve never seen them before in my life.  They’re not
villains.”

She squinted at the men as they ran
into the bank and started throwing people to the ground.  “So, they’re Capes then? 
Because they certainly don’t seem to be ACTING very heroic right now…”  She
smiled at him.  “…But that seems to be going around, huh?”

He shook his head.  “No, I mean
they’re just
people
.”

Her mouth fell open; utterly
appalled.  “Wait…you mean NORMAL people?  As in NO powers of any kind?  NORMAL
people are trying to rob ME and
MY
bank?”

Wyatt nodded and put up his hands. 
“’Fraid so, Angel.”  He shrugged.  “As long as the bank is robbed though, I
don’t care.  Besides, except for the ninja thief stuff, aren’t
you
basically just a normal per…”  He stopped, apparently guessing from the look on
her face that it was NOT a good idea to finish that sentence.

Harlot did NOT put her hands up. 
She was a SUPER-VILLAIN and super-villains were NOT robbed by norms.  It just
didn’t happen!  She would NEVER hear the end of it from the Consortium if it
got out that four
completely
average
civilians
had robbed her.

Nope.

Something had to be done.

“We have to do something, Wyatt.”

He laughed.  “I can ask them if
they’ll cut us in on the take if you want.”  He looked over his shoulder,
apparently gauging the distance to the emergency exit.  “Personally, I’m just wondering
what the odds are that these yahoos would pick
today
of all days to rob
this
particular bank?  Where the hell do they get off trying to take advantage of MY
plan?  That’s just…”

One of the gunman shot the security
guard in the chest and the man fell over dead.  Wyatt watched in stony silence
as the man died, his sentence forgotten.

Harlot stalked forward.  “
I’ll
go ask them.”

 She ran at the first man and
kicked him in the face before her even had time to aim the gun.  He fired
wildly into the air as they struggled, and she grabbed his arm to aim the
stream of bullets at one of his companions.  Most of the rounds impacted the
man’s body armor and no doubt broke several of his ribs, one bullet hit him in
the shoulder though, and he started screaming while cradling his bleeding arm.

She kicked the first robber again,
knocking him back.  And then threw her grappling hook around his neck.  The
hook swung around his head and latched onto its rope, and she yanked him back. 
She threw the end of the rope up into one of the large industrial fans hanging over
the waiting area.  The man was pulled off his feet and suspended above the
floor; kicking his feet and tugging at the rope around his neck.

Wyatt smashed the third guy in the
face with what appeared to be a psychic cricket bat and then tore after the
last guy.  The man leveled the gun at him and squeezed off a few rounds, before
Wyatt cut the barrel off of it with a sword, spun around and with the same movement
changed his weapon into a sledge hammer and slammed it into the man’s chest. 
The robber flew backwards into one of the desks and smashed it to pieces.  He
slumped to the floor unconscious.

Behind her, the fan suspending the first
robber crashed to the floor, and she removed the rope from his throat as he
gasped for air.  She liked that grappling hook, and she didn’t want to have to
ask Holly for a new one.  This was HER’S.

People in the bank stared at them
for a minute and she braced herself for…something.  People were always freaking
out whenever she did ANYTHING and…

One of the tellers stood up and
started clapping.  He was soon joined by another.  Around the room, person
after person stood and gave them a round of applause.  A woman ran up to Harlot,
eyes filled with tears of gratitude.  “Thank you so much, Miss!  Those bastards
have hit this bank twice this year alone!”  She looked over at the security
guard.  “…And they got Fred…”  Tears streaked down her face.  “…I don’t know
what we would have done if you hadn’t been here.  You two are HEROES!”

She glanced over at Wyatt who was
breathing heavy, a strange look on his face.  She suspected that he MUST be
feeling as proud about this as she was.  She had NEVER had anyone thank her for
ANYTHING she ever did inside a bank…or anywhere
else
for that matter. 
Usually, they just shot at her and tried to burn her with laser security
systems and stuff.

A hero.  No one had ever called her
that before.  It felt…nice.

Wyatt looked down at the crying
woman.  “Ma’am? ...Throw your hands up.  This is a robbery.”

The woman’s mouth fell open in
shock and horror.

Harlot glared at him and started
pushing him towards the door.  “HA!  Good one, Wyatt…but this
ISN’T THE
TIME.” 
She hustled him outside and she turned over her shoulder to look
back into the bank.  “This one’s such a kidder!”

He looked confused.  “But you said
you wanted to win at crime today?  Didn’t you?  I’m only here because I thought
that’s what you wanted.  I would have MUCH rather stayed home in bed with you and…”

She cut him off, still yelling back
at the teller.  “Nice meeting you though, ma’am!  Be sure to call the
authorities about those guys!  Villains like that belong in jail!”

A
soldier took the utmost care of his horse.  As long as the war lasted, he
looked upon him as his helper in all emergencies and fed him with hay and
corn.  But when the war was over, he allowed him little to eat and made him carry
heavy loads of wood.  When war was again proclaimed, however, the Soldier put
on his charger its military trappings and mounted, and the Horse fell down
straightway under the weight, no longer equal to the burden.  He said to his master,
"You must now go to the war on foot, for you have transformed me from a
horse into an ass; and how can you expect that I can again turn in a moment
from an ass to a horse?'

Things were getting complicated. 
They were getting complicated, and Wyatt didn’t like it.

He’d spent his whole life as a
hero.  Done what he was supposed to do; a loyal company man.  There had even once
been a time when he genuinely
believed
in what the Squad was trying to
do, and was the first in line to go off on any mission he was told would help
people.  He had done his best to be a hero.  …Sometimes, he missed the
simplicity of those days.  When he knew who he was, and who the bad guys were. 
When he was better at lying to himself.  Before he realized how empty and
miserable his life really was.

But that was all done now.  He had
moved on.  He had grown up and realized that the hero game was a futile
endeavor.  It wrung whatever passion and joy you had in life right out of you,
and left you an empty shell.  The truly heroic died young, and the worst were
given more and more power.  It destroyed everything you had, and in the end,
all that was left was the Cape.  There was a big part of him which wished that
he had just died with Peter, and his dreams.  …Died with the heroes.  But they
didn’t exist anymore.  They were extinct.  Gone.  You could still see them in
museums, but they had long ago ceased to walk the earth.  They had been
consumed.

It was all a lie, and his whole
life had been for nothing.  Everything he’d ever been told, and everything he’d
ever believed.  His brother had died for
nothing
.  He had sworn that
there was nothing and no one which could make him go back to that life.  It
just wasn’t worth it. 

…And yet he had just spent the
morning stopping a bank robbery.  He couldn’t explain that.  He had robbed the
bank because Harlot wanted him to, and he had
stopped
a bank robbery
because she had wanted him to.  He couldn’t explain that either.  Just two more
entries on the long LIST of things about his life he couldn’t explain.

But he
knew
he didn’t want
to be a hero.  The truth was that he had NEVER been a hero.  He had tried…tried
so
HARD
… but he had failed.  He had done what he was told, and fought
who he’d been told to fight, but that didn’t make him a hero.  A hero did
things because they were the RIGHT thing to do, and Wyatt was rarely sure of what
the right thing to do even
was
.  Peter had always been sure, but Wyatt
went through most of his life in a state of confusion.  He had always been
under the bizarre delusion that there existed some sort of moral scoreboard. 
There were “heroes” and there were “villains,” and the line between them was
always distinct.  The heroes would win, because they were right.  The villains
would fail because they were wrong.  But at some point, the line between those
two groups had begun to blur, and Wyatt couldn’t see where he fell on the chart
anymore.  Eventually, he realized that the reason why he couldn’t see where the
“hero” line ended, was because it had disappeared entirely.  Anyone foolish
enough to try heroics now would just be throwing their lives away.  And yet,
for some reason, that was precisely what he’d just spent his day doing.

He couldn’t explain why he’d do
something he didn’t want to do, just because Harlot did.  And worse, she had
almost gotten herself killed in the process.  Why would she risk her life for
people she didn’t even know?  It made no sense.  She was too valuable to lose. 
Too important.  Wyatt could risk his life if he wanted, because he didn’t
matter.  His life was circling the drain as it was, and no one would really
miss him if he died.  But Harlot was important.  She had a whole evil family
that loved her, and they’d self-destruct without her there.  They wouldn’t last
a week.  They depended on her.  Everyone depended on her, because she was
amazing.  She was also the whole reason he was out here in the first place, so
to see her endangered while doing something so foolish, was
terrifying
. 
If something were to happen to her, he’d…   

“I really don’t know what you’re so
grumpy about.”  Harlot glowered at him, completely not understanding why he was
upset.  “Everything worked out, didn’t it?”

He paid for her hot dog and handed
the change back to the vendor as a tip.  “I’m not
grumpy.   
I’m just
hoping you realize that this was a onetime only thing.”  He shook his head. 
“The next time we’re part of a bank robbery, we’re not going to get involved
unless
we’re
the ones robbing it.  I didn’t spend hours of my life
planning something just to watch you
die
and the plan fail.”

“Fail?  How can you
say
that?  And I was soooo far from getting killed.  We kicked those guys’ asses!”

He stopped at the crosswalk and
waited, even though there were no cars visible.  “We were supposed to
be
those guys. 
We
were supposed to rob that bank, and now the newspapers
can report on how we saved it, rather than how the Squad failed so completely.”

She rolled her eyes.  “Well, we
COULD have made sure they knew it was us, but
someone
didn’t want to
stay and have his picture taken.  Personally, I think that would have
really
made those heroes look like fools, if the
villains
were the ones who…”

He stopped walking.  “Listen, I’m
just saying, next time, let the stupid place get robbed and not get involved. 
It’s a complication we don’t need.”

“And what about Fred?”

“Who?”

“Fred.  The security guard.  Did HE
deserve to die so that your epic plan could come off without a hitch?”

He started down the street again.  “I
don’t know.  I never met the man.”

She raced to catch up with him.  “Stop
it, Wyatt.  I’m serious.  Look me in the eyes and TELL me that Fred deserved to
die, and that we didn’t do the right thing by stopping those guys before they
could hurt anyone else.”

He was quiet for a moment.  “All
I’m saying is that evil organizations shouldn’t try to be something they’re
not.  If you didn’t want to rob the place, you should have just told me, and I
could have found some other way for us to spend the afternoon.”

“But I DID want to rob it, I just
didn’t want those guys to rob it
first!
”

 He pinched the bridge of his nose,
fighting off a stress headache.  “I was just trying to give your idiot family
their long desired ‘win’ so that you’d be happy…”

“And I already told you that I
really appreciated it.”  She smiled.  “That was very sweet.”

“…but I have no intention of going
back to being a Cape.  I have hung up my costume and retired.  No…not retired…been
thrown out
.”

“But YOU haven’t changed.  You just
have a new job now.”

“So, what are you suggesting?  That
I put on the tights again and go back to cruising the city looking for trouble? 
Go beg the Freedom Squad to take me back?”

She shook her head and tried to get
in front of him.  “I’m not saying that, no.  Those guys are jerks.  But I think
there’s a lot of room between joining the heroes and not trying to help people.”

He put up both his hands to halt
her line of thinking.  “You seem to be confusing me with the man the media told
you I am.  I’m not a hero.  Not anymore.”  He cleared his throat, and suddenly
felt like crying for some reason.  She was just so hopeful and had so much
misplaced faith in him, it was almost tragic.  “I’m not.  I wish I were, I
truly
do.  I know that’s who you want me to be…but…but I just can’t.”  He shook his
head sadly.  “So, you’re out of luck, Angel.  I’d do
anything
for you,
but I can’t pretend to be someone else.”

She scowled in annoyance.  “I know
who you are; you’re a hero and a good man.  I don’t need the media to tell me
that, I can see it for myself.”

He scoffed and stalked stalking
down the street again.  “Am I?  Did my biography tell you that?  I’m sorry I
don’t live up to your expectations.”

He didn’t understand what she was
looking for from him.  First she wanted him to become evil, so he became evil. 
And now she wanted him to stop bank robberies.  He didn’t know what was going
on, but he found her refusal to accept him utterly heartbreaking. 

In quiet moments of
self-reflection, Wyatt could see what she saw in him.  The truth of the matter
was that she was only with him because of her infatuation with his public
image.  He could see that.  There was no other reason why someone as incredible
as her would want to be with someone like
him
.  He was only here as a
stand-in.  Like one of those costumed characters at the Freedom Squad theme
park with the big fiberglass heads.  You could hug and
pretend
they
were
real, but they were only a warm body in a Fabricator suit.  A
fake
she
was trying to make as close to the original as possible.  He could see that. 

She couldn’t have any deeper
feelings for him, because the cold truth was that there simply wasn’t much left
inside him to have feelings
for. 
The Cape had already taken everything
he had, and she couldn’t love an empty shell.  She could lie to herself that
the shell could still be worth something, but it wouldn’t matter.  Not in the
end.  One day, she’d see that he truly had
nothing
to offer.  Nothing left
to give anyone.  He’d play his last hand of revenge with the Freedom Squad, and
then he’d bow out of life.  They’d most likely kill him, but he knew that
coming in.  He had accepted it.  But anything in him worth loving had died
already.

He had never been a hero, and never
could be.  He was always just another loser with a stupid piece of meaningless fabric
clipped to his back.  That’s all he’d ever been.  Some day soon, she’d realize
that she could do better than him, but she was too nice a person to just throw
him aside.  And so she’d stick with him out of some sense of misplaced duty,
and he didn’t want her pity.  …Well, not that he wouldn’t be perfectly happy
having her near him no matter her motivations, just that he would be a whole
lot happier if she were happy too.  He wanted her to want
him. 
But he
could see that was never going to happen.  Today was just one more indicator
that they were looking for completely different things in life.  He wanted her;
she wanted Fabricator.  But that man had never existed.

A smile tugged at the corners of
her mouth.  “What?  Are you feel…
objectified
?”  He was silent for a
moment and she started chuckling.  “You are! 
Ha!
  You’re the only guy
I’ve ever met who wants commitment after sex, you know that?  You’re
adorable.”

He stopped at another crosswalk and
glared at the man standing next to him who was obviously eavesdropping on the
conversation.  Wyatt’s eyes narrowed.  “Is there something you
WANTED, sir?” 

The man rapidly shook his head and
quickly scurried across the street to get away from him, despite the traffic
and the “don’t walk” sign. 

Wyatt ignored his terrified flight
and refocused on her.  “I’m not asking for commitment.  I’m just saying that I’m
a person, not some TV show character, okay?  I’m just warning you that the big
moment you’ve imagined in your head, where I decide to go back to heroism and
realize all the good I could do?  It’s not going to happen.  I know you wish it
would, but it’s not.  …And…and knowing that you’re standing there, waiting for
me to do something which I’m never
going
to do, is making me feel…”  He
trailed off.

Her voice took on a bright, helpful
tone in an effort to assist him in finding the right words.  “Used?  Like I’m just
using your position and our relationship to further my own supposed dreams of
heroic activity without bothering to care what you have to say about the matter,
because I’m incapable of thinking of you as a living being and not an invention
of the media somehow given life solely to entertain me?”

He thought about that for a
minute.  “Sad.  Like once again, I’m failing at something and letting someone I
care about down.  And I’m sick of feeling that way.”  She opened her mouth to
reply, but he cut her off.  “I just want to make sure that there’s no misunderstanding. 
I was never the guy you think I am, and I’m
certainly
not him now.  I’m
sorry.  I
truly
wish I could be the person you want me to be, I’d love
to fulfill every dream you’ve ever had, but I can’t.  I’m not a hero; I’m just
a man.  I know that fact’s not going to make you happy, and you probably won’t
want to…
see…
me anymore, but I can’t be…”  He angrily pointed to the man
on one of the hero parking only signs.  “…
that guy.
”

Harlot was quite possibly the only
person left on the planet who he cared about at all.  He’d do anything for her,
but he couldn’t do this.  …It was so HARD not to just pretend though.  For
her.  Not to just lie to her and say that there was something left in him which
wanted to return to the life.  But there wasn’t.  Sometimes…sometimes even he
wished he could that person.  Wished he could go back to being the happy fool
he’d been, and be the hero she wanted him to be.  But he couldn’t.  He’d seen
too much since then.  And she didn’t deserve to be lied to, and she shouldn’t
have to “settle” for anything.  He’d spent his whole life pretending, and he
just didn’t have the strength anymore.  She’d only get hurt, and he’d die
before he hurt her.