CHAPTER 21 – RIDE ALONG PART 2
Journal entry two, selected passages
THAT WAS AWESOME!
OK, I get why Dr. Ludgate said to write stuff down. SO MUCH HAPPENED! I gotta keep it all straight. But first…
Magic is real.
No matter how much you know, there is always someone smarter.
Find the smartest person you can, for when you don't know what to do.
Just because other people are smarter, doesn't mean they will think of EVERYTHING so make sure you think hard too.
OK, future me. This is how I remember it.
End of Bobby Wright's journal entry two, selected passages.
Danny Rand watched as Bobby Wright used his shape changing power to adjust his more dynamic CAPTAIN HERO! appearance to something less glaring. Bobby's first attempt was simply to change his classic caped-with-underwear-on-the-outside-with-pirate-boots from a garish red, blue and gold to solid black. "Very ninja, what do you think?" Bobby grinned in his adult looking form.
"I think you look like someone glued Captain America's head onto Thor's body," Danny replied. And ninjas actually wear grey, it blends into night better than black."
"Captain America is blond? You've seen him without his cowl on?" Bobby said excitedly.
"Dang. OK, pretend you don't know that, and that I didn't let that slip," Danny said sheepishly. "But seriously, you are JUST supposed to watch Luke and me work. I don't want you getting involved. So no superhero costume at all. Can you just go in regular street clothes?"
"Mmm, I GUESS….." Bobby said, and another bright flash as his powers worked again. He stood there in running shoes, a red and gold track suit and a t-shirt that read NO BRAG. JUST FACT. He refilled his pockets with what he had emptied out of his blue jeans pockets before transforming himself. "I have to remember to do that," he explained. "When I change my clothes into Captain Hero's uniform or anything else, all the stuff in my pockets vanishes. I think it gets turned into my NEW clothes or something. I'm still figuring that part out."
"Does it always have to make that flash? Makes it hard for you to change in secret." Danny cocked his head to the side. "I remember needing to change into my Iron Fist fighting gear while hiding under the table of a restaurant that got robbed while I was eating dinner with my lawyer. A huge flash of light would have gotten me shot while I was still getting ready."
"I'm not sure? I'm still figuring it out. I mean did YOU get instructions with your glowing fist of death thing? Did someone explain to you how to do a glowing head butt of death instead or maybe throw glowing rocks of death at people?"
"Head butt of death? I… don't know, I never tried anything like that. Huh. We better go, the NYPD is giving us a ride to the site of the raid, so I can get briefed. Luke will meet us there.
In the squad car, a detective from the gangs detail explained the situation from the front seat while Danny and Bobby sat in the back. Bobby was introduced as "a reporter from a college paper doing a ride along day with Heroes for Hire." The detective and patrolman seemed to believe it, even though Bobby bounced in his seat and blurting out "I've never been in a cop car this is so COOL" once.
The gangs unit had been tracking a new street gang in the city for several weeks. They had come out of nowhere, completely taking over a housing project in the Bronx that had been a fortress for The Stoneface Crew for decades. There was no word of shootouts, drivebys or assassinations, all 40-plus members of the Stoneface Drew just vanished from the face of the Earth over the space of a few days. Likewise, the drug corners, protection rackets and prostitution centers that had been Diamondheads gang territory for years had been taken over with no resistance by the newcomers, known as the Real Tonton Macoutes or RTMs.
"Weird thing is," the detective continued," we know that they must have killed a bunch of Stonefaces and Diamondheads. It's not like they all snuck out of town to visit family in Jersey. But no bodies have turned up. No survivors turning up at the hospitals saying "I dunno who shot me, I weren't doin' nuttin.'" Just about 80 hard core gangstas and baby thugs disappeared like UFOs snatched them up."
"REALLY? No… never mind…" Bobby said as Iron Fist elbowed him in the ribs.
"So what is Heroes for Hire assisting the Department with today?" Iron Fist said, his voice slightly deeper and more serious sounding than Bobby was used to.
Bobby had been thinking about what Spider-Man had said that night when they met. His larger shape changed body had a deeper voice, but he still thought that he sounded like a nervous kid a lot of the time. No wonder a lot of new pro wrestlers didn't get much time being interviewed, it was harder SOUNDING genuinely tough and dangerous than he had ever realized. He decided he would have to listen to how people like Captain America and Ben Grimm talked more. Or maybe Stone Cold Steve Austin? Captain Hero should sound BADASS, confident, not like a pissed off little kid…. Wait, what were they talking about now?"
"…big meeting just after sunset at an apartment building over in Mott Haven in The Bronx. The informant is a good one, so it is a chance to sweep up the top people in the RTM organization. Even if we can arrest a few at least we can get some information about them. We have one of our SWAT commanders planning the raid, with a second SWAT team in reserve in case things go south. Considering how deadly the RTM seems to be, Lieutenant Stone wanted you and Cage along. Be a hell of a thing to have it turn out that the new gang in town are mutants or ninja trained super soldiers or whatever. I think he's just being careful, but better safe than sorry, ya know?"
Several hours of waiting followed, first at the police station. Bobby was excited to sit in on the tactical meeting at first, but it got repetitive as people went over and over the plan. He couldn't tell if they were all trying to memorize EVERY SINGLE DETAIL of what the inside of the building was like, the buildings AROUND it, or if they were all just killing time until sunset. On TV, it always looked like cops just drove up to a place, surrounded it and a few kicked the door in. The Punisher would already BE there, inside the building WAITING for them all to come INTO the place and slaughter them all after… popping out of a closet? Or something… Bobby lost focus again, imagining ways a dozen different heroes then how CAPTAIN HERO would do things. until it was time to go.
From what Bobby has picked up as he drifted in and out was that "Code Blue" was a new kind of special police team training to take down super-criminals, weird monsters and terrorist threats that usually The Avengers or Fantastic Four would handle. Seemed like a good idea. OR…. What if they hired mutants and people that found strange meteors and things to BE cops? That kept Bobby distracted until they arrived in Mott Haven.
One SWAT team went in a police van disguised as a beer delivery truck, and Code Blue were traveling in what looked like a garbage truck on the outside, hiding what looked like Mission Impossible computer room to Bobby. Iron Fist, Power Man, the disguised Captain Hero and two patrol officers were in the back of an ice cream truck.
"I can't see anything…" Bobby moaned.
"Hush up," Luke snarled. "We're just being paid to babysit, make sure nothing happens that THESE fine officers can't handle. We don't HAVE to see diddly, we don't WANT to see diddly. I'm not in the mood today to go up against some top secret Maggia experimental ten foot tall robot boxer robot or some crap. Fist, what did they call those things?"
"Dread something. Dreadknights? Who can keep track. Hey, remember that time that Lionfang tried to sell Boss Morgan some "weaponized tigers" (Danny did air quotes with his fingers) to help him control Harlem? Bobby, listen to this. Lionfang can mind control zoo animals right? So he DUCT TAPES remote control laser guns to HELMETS… and somehow he got the helmets onto ZOO TIGERS he stole from somewhere! So he's trying to convince Boss Morgan to pay him TWO MILLION each for these things! Lionfang was all "Just have them walk up and down the street shooting lasers at cars and buildings, and demand protection money!"
Luke laughed and continued the story. "We'd been hired to recover the tigers, right? So we didn't see ANY of this stuff coming our way. We snuck into the buildin', expecting to see the tigers being used for some corny DEATH TRAP or stuff. We hear Lionfang's sales pitch, peek around the corner and what do we see that fool doing?"
The police radio crackled. "Team One, out of the van! Go Go Go!"
Sounds of yelling, doors and windows being smashed. A muffled explosion? Maybe a stun grenade? Bobby wasn't sure. Then the yelling turned to screams."
"What the… steel shutters just dropped! Exits are blocked repeat our exits are blocked!"
"Here they come…."
Sounds of gunfire.
"I shot them! BULLETS AREN'T STOPPING THEM!"
Screams over the radio, screams outside the van."
"OH CRAP, WALKING DEAD THEY'RE ####ING ZOMBIES!" over the radio then silence.
Power Man and Iron Fist leapt out of their seats as the patrolman opened the back door of the ice cream truck. "DON'T DO A DAMNED THING!" Luke yelled at Bobby, then jumped out the open door.
END OF THE RIDE ALONG CHAPTER TWO
WRITER'S NOTE
YES I am aware Code Blue's first appearance in THOR was whenever it was. This is THEIR prequel story too, what they did to get ready to be ABLE to do what they did in that issue of THOR.
Tune in in a few days or part 3, I'd post it now but I'm tired of typing!