Daylight

Normal people did not understand the news. In a field outside of Raynham, just within the borders of the Hockomock Swamp, thousands of dead bodies were found. Poorly dressed bodies flopped over badly burned bodies. Little fires crackled. The air smelled like sulfur.

What average city folk didn't know was why. Why did this happen in a field? Why so many dead? Why the costumes and tattered clothes and prison orange jumpers? Hero showdowns rarely left horrific scenes of carnage. The simple answer of war never occurred to them.

Superpowers as nations go to war. Politicians engage in political warfare. Corporate entities waged price wars. The inevitable always happens. War began among crime and crime fighters.

Daylight revealed the price. Lives. The public didn't understand. The Horde weren't human. The Heroes were misguided loners. The prison squad was reprehensible. They blamed Mardi Gras, the Harmless Man. The media provided the logic.

Crime remained static. Robberies, murders, rapes happened, sure, but at a predictable rate. Drugs came in and went out. Drug dealers and thugs died at their own hands. Police arrested them. They were released, all the easier to arrest, institutionalize and hide away.

Once the vigilantes fought back and organized, the criminal element congealed into a horrific monster syndicate with no ambition greater than the total destruction of all law and civilized behavior. The world turned for the worse. America had never seen 2300 dead people in a rural field dressed in costumes and armed like private security mercenaries.

It undermined the purpose of a police force to boot. Police departments became a stopping point for criminals on the way to the hospital or the morgue. And the mistakes. Heroes killed innocents and other heroes and white collar criminals and traffic violators. Or, so the media told American Citizen 245 and her family.

An outburst of anti-hero sentiment flared up again. The late Sly Peterson became a martyr. Theories about his suicide became nefarious. Who killed Sly Peterson? An article read on the cover of Times Magazine.

The Average citizen was left to draw their own conclusion. The horribly violent Harmless Man and his gang of prison insiders were a logical choice, once pushed to that by media coaxing,

People don't want to know the truth. The want a quick answer and a way to express their disappointment in their jobs, their pay, their protection and their fear. That fear was Harmless. But don't worry.

I killed Sly Petey. I set up the bloodbath at Hockomock. I burned the bodies. I robbed the banks. I bribed the media. And now I own the minds of millions. Fear is the best tool to lead.

When I remove this Pig Mask, dress in a suit, and provide the final solution, all intelligent, God fearing Americans will have no choice but to ellect me into office. Just a Governorship or a Mayor of a major Eastern City will do. I'll push the legislation we all want.

The Vigilante Reform Act. You see, people want their crime in a nice tight box. Everyone has their own crime of choice. Is this goes to far, we'll all be robots, prisoners or dead.

I will keep America safe. I will target the true enemy.

But first, a terrible disaster.

Anonymous letter to Channel 7 News

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Terminal

It's another word for dead, or close to it. Terminal. It means the end. Bus terminals. Train terminals. Endings. It's not a fitting word for the death of a friend. For many years, Buzz and I didn't see eye to eye. We didn't speak for weeks. He wanted to blaze. I wanted to redirect.

Buzz liked direct language. He liked action. Buzz wasn’t afraid of anything. I’ve heard people slander the Hero movement, particularly those of us who used force to its limits. They say we are criminals. The Police hunt us and politicians persecute us.

But I ask you this. If a man was trapped in a tiny apartment for fear of being mugged, or worse, by gangs, would you blame him for making a decision one day to fight back? A timid man can be brave if he chooses to stand up for himself. That’s what Buzz did. In his former life, before that first time he wore the uniform, he was not part of the solution. In his new life, we haw a Hero. In death, he is a reminder of what is right with the Hero movement.

Barney Aldren. That was his name. His real name. He was a person like any of us. He’d had enough. He fought back. In fighting back, he angered the criminal element. They fought back. The situation escalated. Now, we are at war with crime. War is not for police. It’s for brave soldier. This is not some foreign country. This is the United States of America. Our home. People who would destroy us must be eliminated. Prison is not an option. Prisoners become Inside Boys, and Harmless Man will make criminals in to cold blooded vigilantes with no regard for any law besides the Old Testament eye for an eye mentality.

We must neutralize the criminal element, stop feeding the army of a psychopath with a Bible, and end this threat. The only people who will do this is our brave Heroes. With this in mind, I have submitted an outline of a Constitutional Amendment to establish the National Union of Heroes. This union will ensure that we fight with order, consistency, clear rules of engagement and government support. It stresses accountability and has an endgame, the complete elimination of the Horde of Evil and the Inside Boys.

In memory of Buzz Baldwin, the man Barney Aldren, and all of our fallen heroes, it is imperative that we rally around this legislation to restore order to American urban centers.

Excerpt from a speech by Chronos on the steps of the Capitol Building.

Chapter Ten | Chapter Twelve