I was busily typing away at the new sleek, microprocessing unit of my brand new computer in my very own office of the Union headquarters.
"The Panther said I could do a lot of high-tech research with this," I eagerly said to myself, accessing my user log in screen.
"Please enter your pass code," the feminine computer voice spoke. And I typed in JDM4c69a87M42. It seems the Union wanted each individual's access code to be very particular from one another's. "Incorrect Passcode," the voice retorted. I was flustered, but typed once more. "Incorrect Passcode," it said again. Angered, I typed furiously each time, and the same message greatly frustrated me at every stroke of the enter key.
"Why I oughtta..." But just then, a sound startled my frustrating rave and the door whooshed open, revealing a familiar face which looked quite disturbed.
"Hunteress?!" I wondered, at the blond-haired woman in the leopard-skin outfit that had slowly paraded in with a slouch. "Can it, Face...I have a problem..." she said. But I was in awe at this sudden reunion. "I didn't know you joined the Union," I said.
I had rolled my seat around to face her, and she approached. "I joined a month ago..." she explained. "Hasn't been going too well," she explained. But I was in a frenzy at the visit from a guest. "Would you like a soda from my brand new office mini-fridge? It's ice-cooled to perfection," I offered. However, she was in no mood to celebrate.
She angrily grabbed the collar to my costume and aggressively answered, "Listen! There's something wrong..." I dropped the can of soda onto a table and calmed myself to listen to her problem.
"I think...I..." she began, hesitating. My ears perked in interest. "You think you what?" I asked. She continued once again, in a solemn, grave tone. "I think... I may have, injured, or even killed a police officer."
The New Justice Union#8 - A Heroine in Need
"You WHA!?!?!" I cried in torrential shock, leaping out of my chair. "H... how... why? Why would you..." I stuttered. "I... I didn't know it was him... I thought he was an enemy... so I speared him. But when I crept closer... I saw the blue uniform, and the badge, as well as the ailing face wearing it."
I struggled to absorb the events of the story. "I still don't understand..." I told her. She sat down upon the ground, and shrank, as she pulled her legs inward and embraced them. "It's like this..." she began her story.
"All this time, the time I've been spending as a member of the Union, there was an underlying motive that I had within me since the day I entered this headquarters. You see, a long time ago, an evil mobster by the name of Bangora and his men had killed my friend and her parents in a crossfire. I was very young when that happened, I watched in horror as we each fled from the scene of the shooting, I was in the front of the pack, and I successfully managed to hide in an alley until there it was over. But...when I turned my head to see if my friend was okay...I saw her, on the ground, as well as her family in a trail behind her. Ever since, I never was the same. I had a chance to save them... if I had called the cops sooner, they all might have been alive today," she somberly explained, rocking back and forth.
I sat attentively, stroking my faceless chin and taking in her story to sum up facts. "Is that why you devoted your life to finding a serum that would heal a man, and give him great strength," I deduced, with my uncanny wit.
"Well, yes...partly. But when I entered the headquarters last month, I realized that they here had technology unimaginable. The high-processed labs, and the digitally mastered database, I couldn't go wrong. But I had to begin my stay here with one task... to find Bangora and get revenge. Lately, Goldman has been foiling my plans, catching me every time I get close to Bangora. He knows that my emotions may get the best of me when I find him, and who knows what'll happen when I do."
I continued to sit silently, until I chose to speak once more. In an assured tone, I began to analyze, "And yet you chose to go after him one more time... an ongoing loop that will never be completely finished until your goal has been accomplished," I deciphered, once again. Boy, was I on a roll.
She nodded, staring at the ground timidly. I sighed as well, knowing full well this to be a dark situation. "You really got yourself deep this time. What do you think Goldman will do when he finds out?" I wondered.
She continued to look below, with her knees still hugged by her arms, until she looked up, with a pleading expression. "I don't know... he said, that... if he caught me going after him one more time, even within a mile, he would kick me off the team. And... and that can't happen. If he does that, I won't be able to ever set things straight again with my friend. Goldman doesn't trust me, and he doesn't think I can handle Bangora without... without..." I finished her sentence. "Without massacring him?"
She nodded. Silence brewed, as I leaned back in my chair, meditating in deep thought at the current dilemma at hand. Stretching into the innards of my vastly knowledgeable depths of mind, I came up with a conclusion. I sat forward in my chair and began to explain. "There's only one thing to do..." I said. "What?" Hunteress wondered. "If I tell you, you might try to stop me. And we don't want you getting caught. If you're caught, you'll be kicked off the team. And if you're kicked off the team, your hopes of locking Bangora up for good will be long dismissed. He'll be free to do more corruption. It's the law of Syllogism, my friend. I'll dig up some info on this guy to put him away for a good long while. Besides, I owe you one for destroying your reputation, and making you lose your job. In the meantime, I'll see you later," I frankly answered.
I walked out of the vertically-sliding door of my office, and closed it behind me, leaving the Hunteress in perplexity.
The next day, the Hunteress was called into the main computer room of the Justice Union Headquarters. Goldman stood, awaiting her arrival rapidly tapping his gold-plated foot upon the ground. "Do you know anything about this?" He inquired, pointing to the giant screen ahead of them. The screen showed the headline of the day's paper from the Daily Times. "Faceless Crimefighter Arrested for the Confession of Police Harm,"
"Looks like quite a long headline to me, sir..." she said. But inside she thought, "(Darn) you Face, why did you go turn yourself in?!" Goldman looked at her suspiciously. "They say a policeman was harmed at the site of an abandoned warehouse where Bangora and his men had recently resided."
Knowing she had to cover up her true story, she ignorantly acted. "Well, gee, I don't know anything about it! I wouldn't stupidly go after him again after you threatened to kick me off the team!" She said, with a slight, nervous chuckle.
"Well, I for one know that the Face wouldn't do such a thing," A voice vouched for the Faceless Hero. She had walked in through the door, with a Daily Times newspaper in hand. "I know the face, I've worked alongside him! He wouldn't attack a law enforcer!" Cywind testified.
Yet another hero strode into the room, withy shiny, silver armor, as well as a rebel flag upon his the sleek metal. "Ah, knows dat Mars Ben wud neber hert no's fly. Mucher less, a po-leece awfiser," a familiarly Southern voice echoed. "Well, dere wuz dat wun tahm where Mars Ben trahd to swat de flah wit de swatter. But I knows dat he wudn't harhm no's bunnie rabbot!"
"Don't worry," Goldman consoled to the uproaring heroes. "We'll get to the bottom of this. Richard, Patriotess, and Eaglet Girl have already gone to speak with the mayor and her colleagues for an appointment that was scheduled this morning," he explained. "They will put a word in for our own there."
Meanwhile, in a raging conference room full of news reporters, media, as well as the mayor and fellow constituents along with three founding members of the Union, a rowdy inquiry brewed. Flashing lights blinded the eyes periodically as many captured the rare stillness of the area.
"Nobody told us there was gonna be newspeople," Eaglet Girl, whispered to Patriotess in an annoyed tone. "Deal with it," she quite offensively replied.
Out of the crowd yelled a young voice from the Daily Times Headquarters. "Miss Patriotess! How would you explain the laser cannon you're building? Are we really supposed to feel safe when you have a giant satellite in space aimed at the planet?" the eager, inquisitive Samantha Winkle asked.
"I assure you, that the construction of our fusion generator and plasma cannon is better meant as a safety precaution for our world," Patriotess answered. Another reporter shot out his question, "Is it true that one of the Union members harmed a police officer late last night?" he asked. The Patriotess lowered her eyebrows. "It's not positive who or what caused this tragic mishap, it is possible this could have been a setup, but we as a group will surely get to the bottom of this mystery," she answered patriotically.
"But how do you explain the fact that the hero, this so called 'Face,' turned himself in just hours after the crime?" A voice shouted. The Patriotess was speechless, but Eaglet Girl stepped in. "You don't know the cause! It could be blackmail for all we know!" She angrily lashed out.
The mayor began to speak, her stout, pudgy resonance standing out from the crowd, and once this happend, all became silent. "All this angry raving from the traitor who had almost helped her kind envelope the earth and destroy it," She said. At this remark, Eaglet Girl was silent. It was true, though not many knew it, except the founding members, Eaglet Girl had once helped her fellow corrupt Nestopians to aim revenge on the Earth who had once tried to ravage colonization on the planet. Only, she had turned back at the last moment, and was temporarily relieved from the team. Because of this, Patriotess, and others, were not particularly friendly to her.
"How do we know, you haven't somehow conviced the Union to destroy our planet? And repopulate it with your kind?" She suspiciously asked. "I assure you, that we only want what's best for the people. Though Eaglet Girl cannot be completely trusted, she has shown that she can cooperate with us at a certain level," Patriotess explained.
"And if I may say something myself," Richard Stanner, also known as the Bulk, requested. "The hero you have captive in your precinct does not have any superpowers at all."
The mayor frowned, and contested the statement. "So you mean to tell me, that you're trying to 'weed' out those who are not worthy of being in the Union, and framing them so that they'll be locked out and kept out of your affairs?" She accused, with a gasping, mumbling crowd behind her. "No! That's not what we're saying. We all want what's best for the people, and our own fellow members. That's why we are doing our best to getting the Face cleared of all charges at this time," Patriotess fought back.
"But what about the cannon? Promise us you'll decommission it for the safety of our community members!" The mayor avidly requested. "That wouldn't be a wise idea," Patriotess answered.
"You see!" The mayor roared. "They refuse to tear down production of the cannon so that they can plot their own devious deeds!"
Eaglet Girl, steaming from the inside, bellowed out in anger. "I can't take this any longer! You want to know why we're building the cannon!? It's because we have word that an evil galactic lord, Thrasymochis, is plotting to send hundreds of super-powered drones to destroy our planet! Just like the one we destroyed in the nearby city!" She cried.
Nothing but silence was heard throughout the conference room, as everyone had been shocked by the sudden outburst of fanatical disillusionment. Then a burst of laughter towered the room. "You expect us to believe that a group of alien robots is going to take over the planet? What sci-fi movies have you been watching?!" The mayor mocked.
Meanwhile, watching from above in the headquartes, was Goldman, the Hunteress, and a few other heroes, who had a communication visual link connected to the computer screen. 'All this... because of me,' Hunteress thought.
"I'd like to teach that fat woman a lesson in archery," Kevin Manboat angrily scoffed, pounding his fist into his hand. "Here's how you shoot an arrow from a bow... Whoops! Sorry!" He practiced. Hummingbird, in her green attire, grabbed hold of Kevin's arm comfortingly. "Calm down, everything's gonna be alright, hon," she said.
"This can't be happening," Cywind said unbelievingly. "What can we do?"
Goldman turned to her solemnly. "Nothing right now, we have to let the law take its course..."
But down below, in the 15th precinct of the city, the law's course was not looking very just... |
