CHAPTER THREE - GLORY BOUND
When he was eight years old, Guy Gardner wanted to be Ernie the Battling Boy, trusted companion to the comic book legend, General Glory.
It was an ambition as real as going to college or getting married someday. At that tender age, there could nothing finer than being the faithful sidekick of someone like General Glory. For the first decade of his life, until he learnt better, Guy spent many nights huddled beneath the covers of his bed sharing all kinds of adventures with the World War 2 hero. General Glory was the kind of hero that would never get drunk and take to him with a leather belt or forever remind him that he was second best.
Later on in life, even when Guy had grown up and relinquished that childhood fantasy, General Glory still left some lasting impressions behind. Guy had wanted to help people the way the General had and he remembered General Glory as once having said that there were all kinds of heroes. Not everyone who fought for truth and justice had to be clad in spandex. Even after he was given his Green Lantern ring, Guy had always kept those ideals close to heart because that was General Glory stood for. Sure, he had lost his way on occasion but then the General also said people made mistakes.
Until he was in the Justice League, Guy had always imagined General Glory to be nothing more than a comic book fantasy, albeit a much loved one. No more than Tooth Fairy or Santa Clause was real. However, that perception would undergo a startling change after a fateful encounter with an old man named Joe Jones. A retirement home resident, Joe was almost in his eighties, if not more, when Guy met him at a comic book convention. As luck would have it, both were bidding on a rare first issue of the General Glory comic book.
Guy had won the bid but at considerable cost. When Joe followed him to League Embassy in New York with promises to reimburse him for the funds in exchange for a look at the book, Guy accepted. After all, what could it matter?
As it turned out, it mattered quite a lot.
Uttering the words that would effect the transformation of his alter-ego in the comic book to the legendary hero, Joe Jones disappeared and was replaced by none other than General Glory. General Glory who did not simply exist in the pages of his comic book any more but was a flesh and blood man who was just as he had been portrayed. He was honest and forthright, fighting for truth and justice thanks to Lady Liberty's light. To Guy, it was nothing less than a dream come true because General Glory was real and he was everything Guy imagined him to be. The General eventually joined the Justice League and later on he and Guy shared some adventures and even an apartment at one stage.
However, Joe Jones was an old man. The transformation into General Glory was starting to take their toll on a body that had long succumb to age. One night, after returning home, General Glory said the words that would return him to Joe Jones again. However this time, the rapid transition from superhuman to withered old man was more than Joe's fragile heart could take. He suffered massive heart failure. It was Guy who found him and those moments following the discovery was the most awful in his life. Although still breathing, Joe's life was hanging by a thread.
Guy visited him every day in hospital but the diagnosis was not good. Joe's condition, as Guy feared was terminal. Still, the old man did not seem to have difficulty dealing with his impending end. As he had explained to Guy, he had lived a long and fulfilling life. Sure, he could have gone on forever as General Glory if he liked but that meant giving up Joe Jones forever and he was not prepared to do that. There was a time to live, Joe had said and a time to die. For him, that time was fast approaching. When the end came, it did so with little fanfare. Joe slipped away quietly in the night and Guy had lost one of the dearest people in his life.
Only after he died, Guy realised that he missed Joe more than he actually missed General Glory. There had not been much time to deal with his grief because his life had been undergoing a series of upheavals at the time. In the aftermath of Tora's death, Guy did not give much thought to Joe or General Glory.
Until about two days ago, when he looked into a newspaper and saw an article about a mysterious crime-fighter in New York city who was hitting the gangs pretty hard. A picture accompanied the article and even though it was vague and partially obscured, Guy recognised parts of the hero's uniform that were visible.
It was the General.
He stared at the picture knowing it was impossible. Joe Jones was dead. He knew this with utter certainty because he had been present at the funeral. He saw Joe buried. However, in a world with superheroes from Krypton and secret Amazon islands, nothing was impossible. He was living proof that nothing was for certain. If Superman could come back from the dead, why not the General?
**********
"Guy, when you said we were going out tonight, I wasn't expecting this." Beatriz declared. They were crouched in the fire escape of a dilapidated building in the Bronx, overlooking a courtyard enclosed by similarly abandoned structures. The whole place had a sinister feel to it and she wished she could flame on and add some much needed like to the surroundings. The night was cold and she wished she still wore the costume that came with a jacket. Right now, its warmth was welcome.
"Quiet." Guy replied. "Sound carries around here."
The neighbourhood if it could be called that had been abandoned long ago. All that remained of its past inhabitants were a few stripped cars, allowed to rust on the littered covered side walk. The only signs of life that called this place home were a random collection of homeless people who occasionally made an appearance. Not to mention the non human residents of the area, that included anything from rats to cockroaches numbering in the millions.
The three cars had arrived twenty minutes ago. Two Cadillacs and a Transam. They parked against the side walk and emerged into the night. At least a dozen young men whose racial description ranged from African American to Hispanic to Caucasian had emerged in their expensive suits, Nike sweats and jewellery from the vehicles. Guy had a pretty good idea what these kids were into nor did it take a genius to realise that legality had nothing to do with the deal about to go down. Although he could not see them, he knew every one of them were well armed with under their designer label outfits. "What's going on?" Beatriz whispered softly.
"They getting their allowances." Guy said with equal quiet. He was fighting the overwhelming urge and kick all their butts good. Of all the people he had ever come across in his life, the vermin who peddled narcotics were the worse. They were nothing more than parasites who fed of the hunger of fools who did not know better. It was hard to stomach that every one of these scumbags were kids. Whatever happened to the good old paper route? Guy had no delusions that if those 'kids' had any idea they were being watched, murder would also be an equally easy line for them to cross.
"They're kids." She replied unable to hide her shock.
Of course she should not have been surprised. Beatriz was born in Brazil on the streets of Rio. A city where the difference between living in the lab of luxury and total poverty was distinguished by a long stretch of pristine beach. She had not been lucky enough to come from the former and she knew what it was like to be so poor that anything was permissible for the taste of the good life. She had been fortunate. Being able to shoot green fire from her mouth had allowed her to escape that life and make the crossing. However, what of those who could not? She knew numerous friends who had succumb to the lure of drug money
And they too had been children like these.
"Yeah, the youth of America." Guy remarked with disgust.
"We should do something." She looked at him.
If only she knew how much he wanted to do something Guy wanted to get in there and teach these kids a lesson about dabbling in that kind of garbage. However, he was keeping himself restrained because they were here for a reason. There was a new crime-fighter out there and the press had indicated that this was the heartland of his territory. In the darkness of every corner and fire gutted building, the cockroaches that made up the gangs waited to wreak violence with automatic weapons and their vials of crack. If the General had made this the mission of his life, then he could well understand why. This was the sort of thing the Crusaders needed to deal with. Leave the high profile alien invasions to the Justice League. This is exactly what they had been talking about that night in Warriors.
Despite himself, Guy could not deny liking the idea of being in a team again. Although Catherine's interpretation for the reasons for forming a new team were somewhat naive, Guy honestly believed that Catherine missed them as much as they had missed each other. Sure those years in the League was hardly his finest, but he found that it had left great impact on all their lives. The ability to laugh as the absurd and admit that even as superheroes, it was all right to laugh at themselves had a forge a friendship, those in the new League could never understand.
Until now, neither Guy nor Beatriz had been paying much attention to the dealers who spoke among themselves. Their voices flared up occasionally with a string of foul words to pepper their already grammatically impaired speech. Guy's attention had been more focussed on the darkened fire escapes, the black line of roof tops that ran across the skylight. His senses were attuned to the place now, just as his body was primed for attack. He hoped the General was not going to take much longer. His Vuldarian genetic coding compelled him to attack whenever he came across a situation that required aggressive solutions. Before his time, the Vuldarians were likened to the Guardians in that they protected the innocent. That directive had been genetically engineered in his being.
"You never said why were were here." Beatriz spoke up again.
"We're looking for someone." He said shortly.
"Who?" Curiosity suddenly gripped her. "Anyone I know?"
"Its hard to say." Guy admitted. "I'm not sure myself."
Suddenly, his senses heard movement. He looked at her and held his finger to his lips, indicating quiet. Beatriz stopped moving, although her eyes darted about trying to see what he had. Guy could feel it a body approaching that did not belong to the group in the courtyard below. The dealers had no idea what was coming at them. They were oblivious to all except the business of peddling their junk. Guy did not intend to give them warning.
Suddenly a figure moved through the air towards the group like a projectile. Beatriz started to rise but Guy placed his hand on her shoulder and kept her still. She looked to him for answers but gave up when she saw none was forthcoming. The figure landed on top of the Transam in full view of the dealers. As expected, they went for their weapons. A colourful assortment of assault weapons and handguns.
"Guy we have to do something!" She declared. "They're packing a lot of artillery!"
She was right. They were.
"All right," he nodded quickly. "Let's do it."
Before he could say another word, she stepped back and flamed on. Her wonderful bronze skin turned into a tinge of green before she flared into living flame. As she leapt off the edge of the fire stairs into the air, she looked an emerald wraith he might have fashioned out of his Green Lantern ring if he still had one. The entire block had become illuminated by the light of green fire and this captured the attention of the gang and the mysterious hero as well. She moved across the sky like a comet before coming to land on the Cadillac.
"You look like could use some help." Beatriz said to the other superhero. The heat of her feet on the top of the car started singing the paintwork and one of the thugs roared some obscenity in protest, before opening fire.
Not that it would ham her in any shape or form.
When Beatriz became Fire, it was not merely a physical description of her abilities. Her entire body took on the properties of fire, which meant bullets were useless against her. The flame from her body illuminated the courtyard and for the first time, Beatriz got a glimpse of the person she and Guy had been looking for.
"General?" She exclaimed, amidst a hail of bullets tearing through her.
General Glory did not answer but he had become airborne to avoid being torn apart by the bullets. As he moved across the sky, Beatriz saw golden wings carrying him aloft and though his uniform was the same, there was something different about the General. With a sudden start, she realised that the uniform was General Glory but the man beneath it was someone else entirely. With a spark of inspiration, she now knew why Guy had come here.
She turned to the young men trying to kill her and sighed with disapproval. "You boys are too young to be playing with guns." She sent a jet of green fire at the briefcases full of white power and incinerated it with little difficulty.
"Bitch!" One of them yelled and started firing at her with increased vigour.
"No one calls my girl that." A voice suddenly stated behind the tall, Hispanic youth. The boy turned around just in time to slam into the sledge hammer that Guy had morphed from his fist. Seeing a new hero on the floor, the gang turned their fire at him too and Guy morphed his other arms into a bullet proof shield that sent ricochets all over the place.
Suddenly, out of nowhere Beatriz saw a thug emerging from behind one of the cars and there was nothing juvenille about what he was carrying in his arms to launch at Guy. Even if she could get to him in time, she could not keep him from firing.
"Guy watch out!" She shouted as the projectile escaped from the portable rocket launcher towards her lover.
Guy saw the missile coming at him and was prepared to jump clear when all of a sudden, he was air borne. Someone had swooped down and picked him up just as the rocket reached him. It slammed into a nearby wall and took out half the building with a loud explosion. The structure collapsed in a ball of yellow flames that lit up the night sky. Guy looked down and saw Beatriz staring at him as he flew overhead.
He looked up and found himself staring at the masked face of General Glory.
************
With the fire Beatriz started and the explosion following the attack from the rocket launcher, the entire block was soon ablaze. The thugs who were intelligent enough to know when it was a good time to make themselves scarce. They quickly jumped into their expensive cars and disappeared into the night as police and fire trucks moved in to take control of the situation. Very soon, the normally forgotten part of town was raging with enough cops and onlookers to be officially classified as a three ring circus.
"At least they didn't' t get the stuff." Guy said grimly, staring at the debacle from several storeys up from a roof top a safe distance away from the scene of the excitement. He counted almost a hundred people below and winced again under his breath. This was all supposed to be low profile.
"Thanks to you people, I wasn't able to question them." General Glory said obviously unhappy about their help.
"Look," Beatriz retorted. Her patience was running out rapidly. They had done the best they could. Was it their fault if one of those children was armed with a portable rocket launcher? "We're sorry we ruined your sting operation but we thought you were going to get killed The General Glory we knew was strong, no bullet proof. Flight capability or not, we were did not want to see you hurt."
That took the edge of the General's annoyance somewhat and he let out a sigh. "I can take care of myself," he replied although he was nowhere as angry as he had been. "I've been shot before."
"So just who are you?" Guy finally demanded. "Cause I know you aren't Joe Jones." It seemed sacrilegious seeing someone else wearing the General's uniform. He knew this person was not Joe Jones but knowing that did not ease his mind any further.
"Joe is dead." General Glory replied.
"I know that." Guy snapped back. "I was at his funeral."
"Oh." The General said with a slight exclamation. "I did not that you were that close."
"He meant a hell of a lot to me and I want to know what gives you the right to wear that uniform." Guy retorted walking up to the General who was perched up on the concrete palisade at the edge of the roof.
"Guy, please." Beatriz spoke up quickly. She could see his anger starting to get the better of him and when Guy Gardner got angry there was no reasoning with him. General Glory had been the only one of the few people other than Tora who could calm Guy when he was enraged. It had taken Beatriz time to learn, but she could now confess to acquiring that skill as well. "Let him explain."
Guy paused a moment. Beatriz had the same effect on him that Tora did. Like Tora, Beatriz could calm him down because he cared enough to listen. However, Beatriz also had a temper of her own. Their wild arguments were usually a prelude to some extremely passionate love making. Guy shook that particular thought out of his head because it would get him very far if he started down that train of thought. He gave her a warm look and made a mental note to take her out to dinner.
"I guess I can trust you." General Glory replied after a moment. Those fews days after meeting Joe Jones had changed his life. He had remember seeing Guy Gardner visiting Joe daily during the old man's last few days and he knew Joe thought fondly of Guy. It took him some time recognise Gardner because he looked so different then. Gardner had been prone to cowboy boots and dark leather jackets and he wore the most ridiculous haircut. Guy Gardner then, looked nothing like Warrior now. His hair was different and there were strange tattoos all over his face and body. His uniform was nothing more than pants and thick boots. He knew the woman from the media coverage on the old League. She was called Fire. She was quite a standout beauty, Donovan decided without hesitation. Although, now that he noticed, Gardner did not seem to appreciate the attention he was paying her. Still, it was hard for him not to stare at that luxurious mane of tousled emerald hair and her skin tight costume of the same colour.
"My name is Donovan Wallace." He introduced himself. "I shared a hospital room with Joe when he was dying."
Suddenly, it clicked and Guy remembered who he was. "You're the rookie cop." He declared. "The one who was shot in the back during that gang shoot out."
Donovan nodded slowly. "Yes that was me." He replied slowly. He still had nightmares about that day. There were many nights where he had woke up shaking, the sound of one lone bullet ringing in his ears. "I was.. no am paralysed. Joe and I talked, well he did most of the talking, I just listened."
Guy could not help smiling at that. "Yeah, he could go on when he wanted to. Told you war stories did he?"
Donovan brightened up, "He did." Then he realised just how close Joe was to Guy and understood what had led the Warrior to find him. "You probably know he knew he was dying."
Guy could only nod.
"Well," Donovan continued. "He kept telling me it was time to pass on the words. That it was important that General Glory's work go on. It did not have to be about fighting wars or dying for one's country, it had to do with fighting the fights that are worth fighting, the causes that just. When he gave me the words, he gave me a chance to be whole again, to be worth something."
Guy swallowed hard because those words could have been coming from Joe Jones himself. He could understand why Joe had passed on the mantle of General Glory to this young man. Guy remembered the news reports about Donovan Wallace and the shooting that crippled him. He had saved a child from some thug and been shot for his trouble. Even without being present, Guy guessed Joe would have seen the goodness behind the person who puts himself in the line of fire like that, despite the consequences. Joe would know he was the right person to carry on the tradition of General Glory.
"He was a good guy." Beatriz said coming towards Donovan. "If he gave you the words, he knew you were worthy of them." She kissed him lightly on the cheek. "Its good to know that General Glory is still around." Beatriz could understand how Guy was feeling because she felt the same sadness. The old General Glory was a forthright, sweet man who never seemed out of time even if he had emerged forty years past his day. She had admired his chivalry and his kindness. She hoped the new General Glory could live up to that.
"I'm still new at this." Donovan admitted. "I've been hitting the gangs. Trying to clean up some of this sewer but it is hard work."
"You up to some help?" Guy suddenly offered. In the past few minutes, he had time to think and if there was a new General Glory around, Guy had just the place for him.
"I don't follow." Donovan replied.
Beatriz did however and she liked the idea. If the gang was getting back together again, did that not include General Glory as well? He had been apart of the Justice League as much as herself or Guy. "Guy, myself and a few past Leaguers are putting together a new super team. We'd like you to join."
That took the young man by surprise. He looked at both the veteran heroes with an expression of astonishment. "You hardly know me."
"Joe knew you." Guy stated. "And that's good enough for us."
"I don't know," Donovan answered truthfully. "I'm not interested in fighting the big fights. Alien invaders and super villains seem petty in comparison to what I've seen on the streets, I'm needed in the slums."
"I could not agree more" Beatriz replied. "Our team is not interested in the villains or the world crushing threats. We are however, interested in helping people the way you are doing. The streets need cleaning up. Children need to feel safe going to school not being threatened by school yard pushers or whatever that roam the streets these days."
"You're serious." The new General Glory stated. He could not deny the attractiveness of the offer. He had no family to speak of. Since he had become General Glory, he had few friends because they expected to see him bound to a wheel chair not taking on the drug underworld single handedly. It would feel good to be apart of a group. The rookie cop in him still yearned for the companionship of veterans who had the experience and he was a long way to knowing what potential lay beneath this extraordinary gift from Joe Jones.
"Come on kid," Guy urged. "What do you go to lose?"
"Nothing I haven't already." Donovan replied. "All right," he smiled at Beatriz. She was just so beautiful. "I'm in."
"Welcome to the Crusaders," Beatriz returned his smile with one of her own. "General Glory."