The Golden Age

With the defeat of Pig Fink at the hands of the National Union of Heroes, peace and prosperity returned to the cities of our great nation. President Dubois convinced Congress that the wars of the past were no longer the focus of American Defense. The country returned to a political stance of isolationism. American left the world stage.

The regulation of Civil Law Enforcement Officers provided the training and the guidance for aspiring young Heroes to take their place in the pantheon of national icons. The chief among these was Kid Kosmos. In the days of the Demon Squad, the Horde and the Inside Boys, heroes were no more than weapon laden vigilantes. The Kid was different. A star athlete in college, and a gold medal sprinter, he was a specimen of physical health, maturity and good hygiene. There was nothing he couldn’t do.

Human evolution being what it is, sheer chance made it inevitable that he would be born. A boy who could do things that were preternatural. He was stronger and faster than any human on earth. He looked like the baggage kid at the supermarket. He was polite and understood decency. He was the first born Hero. No life circumstance created him. He was who he was from the beginning.

He’d fought beside men like Harmless and Buzz Baldwin. He’d tended to the injured with Guise and Mercy. He’d been at American Boss’ trial for tax evasion. He never asked for the spotlight, but when his testimony saved Rick Dubois from prison and set the Boss on the road to the presidency, the Kid became his icon. Kid Kosmos was the first Superhero.

The Golden Age began as Chronos and Kosmos defeated the Horde and arrested, not killed, Pig Fink. It turned out he was Anthony Scallini, a low level mob Capo with a grudge and Borderline Personality Disorder. The monster that terrorized metropolitan America was no more than a crazy two bit hood. The Horde was detoxed humanely, and a few even went on to survive in the working world.

The Inside Boys eventually wandered back into petty crime once Harmless disappeared. The Kid asked Mercy once what had happened. “Debt repaid,” she said, and abruptly retired and disappeared.

Dodger died of pneumonia at age seventy-one. Guise opened a retail costume shop. Kosmos and Chronos were left holding the flag. With government funding from the Boss, they developed a recruitment and training program. Sure, people could join the army if they wanted, but it seemed far more attractive to dawn the Red and Blue of the Union and fight crime in their own back yard.

Crime rates dropped. Fortune passed everywhere. The Union volunteered in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East. The battles were difficult, but they were won. Soon, the world became a safe, sane place.

Then the letters arrived. The older generation recognized the message. A voice cried out in the wilderness.

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The Devil


No true human being abandons their life’s calling. Mercy was a healer, a doctor. Harmless was a judge. The final dust up with Fink ruined his body. Mercy spent three years with him on a white beach, hidden from Rick and the others. Guise was devastated. He knew. She told him. He would not be fixing things for her any longer. It was a forty-three second phone call from a pay phone in Cozumel. She’d chosen the devil.

She thought the devil desired evil as a child. Living with this man taught her the devil was the one who needed healing and love, but could never receive it. His name was David Mott. He worked the docks in an old New England fishing town. He was beaten by his father. He was thrown off a boat. He caught diseases from hookers. He stole. He drank. He fought. He was utterly unlovable.

One day, he put on a skull mask and started beating people. He read the Bible. He read the Book of Judges. He read Maccabees and Isiah. He knew the Law and the Prophets. He wrote a four hundred page manifesto. Above all, he hated God. God was his master and he hated God. God took an innocent young boy and turned him into a demon.

Mercy tried. His body healed. He told her things about his past. He seemed better. One day, he explained what happened the first night they met. The muggers assaulted her. She was attractive. They set their sights on more than her money. He beat them to death. She bled a lot. This frightened him. He left her with words, and hoped someone found her. He ran away.

"Debt paid', he said to her one day. He’d done nearly nothing that night. She’d wasted three years on him, and he only wanted to die. "Debt paid", he said, and left.

Then she saw the letters on the news again.

Chapter Eleven | Chapter Thirteen