Stars In His Eyes
The drive from Gnu York to Starling Island was not always a pleasant or an easy drive. But tonight, it seemed to just fly by. No construction on Interstate 278. It was a night of miracles.
Officer Jack Hewitt was a bit excited by meeting a superhero. He really couldn't wait to tell everyone that he'd seen the world's fastest turtle. But he also felt extremely reluctant about telling anyone and he thought a long leisurely drive might help him hash it out. Sadly, as a native Gnu Yorker, one didn't just take anything leisurely if one could help it. So, with the way open before him, the young Ursine pushed the medal down with a lead paw without even thinking about it.
It was driving into space at warp speed.
Now, as he passed Cloven Lakes Park, the young bear realized that he'd been avoiding thinking about the issues of meeting a real life superhero. It wasn't really that there was anything wrong with meeting a Rept that could outrun physics.
Well, ok, there was a lot of things fundamentally wrong with the idea of anyone running up buildings, across water, and even possibly through time itself. But that was a wrongness for much smarter minds than his.
It was that damn Starfish business again. Four brothers wiped out within hours of each other. It changed the few remaining Hewitts deeply. Bobby began blaming the Zoo Crew for not being there sooner. And, for a short while, maybe a year, became obsessed with the idea that the superheroes were all a part of some big government conspiracy. Jack became obsessed in his own way; thinking that somehow, if there had been more cops... their brothers would have survived. He wanted to become a police on such a sudden, fundamental level that it scared him. So he did what he'd always done; rebelled. This time against himself.
It took Bobby leaving the force because of PTSD to get him into the Academy.
Getting drummed out had reawakened Bobby's hatred of superheroes. Although he never become as obsessive about it as when he'd become a conspiracy nut. Just more vocal... and his complaints were more logical. The vigilantism of it all. Like today, Fastback had beaten those creeps senseless when he seriously out-powered them. Granted, they had killed at least one person and had attacked the cat's father looking for cash for drugs, but the Turtle could not have known that. All he could have seen was two jerks being chased by two cops.
He zoomed in and attacked. CSI said it looked like he returned their fire. Literally. Probably grabbing the bullets out of the air at super-speed and then throwing them back at the suspects. And then he suffocated them somehow. It was a crime scene nightmare, really, and there was a chance the idiots could get off. With the right lawyer and the right judge, although that seemed unlikely.
But it was still kinda cool. His brother's kids would get a kick out of hearing the story. All 11 of them. It was the best thing to come out of his younger brother's "early retirement."
The Day of the Starfish had hurt the whole family. Dad had suffered a heart attack trying to get into the city trying to do who knows what. Mom had barely held on until the first memorial service, before succumbing to heart problems. Bobby and Jack had inherited everything. The big house under the Bayonne Bridge and all the Earthly possessions of Jason, Sean, and Remus.
And Pete's, but that was later and different and with its own heartbreak.
Bob and his wife, Sissy, took the big house, Jack took the little apartment over the garage. Being in that big empty house had probably eaten away at Bobby's soul without him realizing it. All those old memories of growing up with all their brothers. Bobby, the conformist, had been closer to their brothers then he ever was. Without any examples to follow, well... that was unfair and he knew it. Well, things got bad between him and Sissy after two years in the house. They had the one boy, Roosevelt, and they had tried to tough it out together for him. Luckily, the job unraveled first and Bob was out and started to get treatment.
And a new obsession. Kids.
Sissy said that he was following in his father's footsteps. And, Jack could see that. When their father took a bullet in the arm and was forced into early retirement, his own family went from 1 boy to a house full of kids in 5 years. They might have had more, but having twins put the kibosh on that.
Fostering kids made sense in that context. Sissy and Bobby obviously weren't going to have children together. Sissy was a Raccoon. Roosevelt was a hybrid, from long before she met Bobby. No one talked about who his biological father was, or even what species. He looked like a bear more than anything and did not have the distinct tail or mask.
Jack suspected rape; so he never asked. He knew Bobby loved the boy. Loved him so much that he might have thought Bobby the real father; except Bobby would have been 12 or 13 when Roosevelt was conceived. Plus, whatever species the boy's father was, it could not have been bear.
Bobby's and Sissy had fostered 9 extra kids and took in Pete's boy. The house was about as full as it could get and, no doubt, it filled Bobby's day as well. Sissy kept a job mostly to keep up the medical insurance going. Otherwise, with the house paid off and several bank accounts with insurance money sitting in them mostly untouched, there was no need for either of them to work.
Jack drove Jason's car into the driveway, without really resolving his issue. It was a reconditioned late model caddy with a front seat that was perfect for Ursine legs. It had a steering wheel customized for bear arms and hands, something Jason had spent many hours tinkering with. At the time, Jack had thought it vanity, because the Husky set-up seemed good enough to him. However, parallel parking was a dream with this arrangement. Never again would Jack be satisfied with any car that didn't fit like a glove. Jason had been right.
He hit the controls for his side of the garage as he wondered what Jason would say about his meeting Fastback. Probably he'd have said something like, "Sounds like you've made up your mind about what to do. Sounds like you're just looking for a good reason." That was Jason, infuriating and right all the time.
As he pulled in, Jack could see the main house still had its a few lights on. Possibly someone was still up. The television was at least making silver and gray shadow puppets on the walls in the living-room.
That someone was Bobby, which Jack discovered as he peeked into one of the side windows. Not much of a surprise. He was sometimes up when Jack got home and tonight was earlier than most. He walked upstairs, locked his gun in his apartment, and decided that he would visit for a beer and play the topic of superheroes back in Gnu York by ear. It might not come up at all.
As he entered his childhood home, his younger brother looked up and gave him a tired and an almost sad smile. Jack could see that something had happened today. It didn't always take much. But when Bobby got hit with it, it seemed to age the black-furred bear 20 years. Bobby was really only younger by a few minutes, but at the moment he looked as old as their father had the day he died. Jack could see most of the pale skin beneath Bobby's facial coat. In better light, you could probably see the scars from the thing that had grabbed his face that long ago, terrible day.
Jack supposed just seeing that in the mirror might be enough to depress his brother.
He was an idiot to think he should even mention Fastback.
Jack realized the silence was stretching a bit thin. "So," Jack said, as he said most every night he came over to find his brother watching Fast News with the volume turned off, "You got a beer for a brother bear?"
