It…was…incredible. The sights! The sounds!
Those statues…I swear, Sammy loved those statues. He even asked me
to buy him one. I shook my head, and politely pointed out we'd have
no place to keep it.
"Please?" He whined like a little girl on
a family outing. "If I can't get my harem, at least give me a
giant statue of a female superhero."
"Why?"
"Massive
stone boobs, m'man. Massive stone boobs."
Sammy. Such a pervert.
"If you want massive stone boobs, I'm sure
there's a 25 stone Tanker around here who's looking for a good
time."
"Have you ever met an attractive female Tanker?"
I
blinked. "Who said anything about female?"
"Har har."
Sammy snorted. "Let's go to City Hall."
"Why?"
"There's
supposed to be a huge group of Superheroes who meet every night at 9
pm under the Galaxy Girl statue."
I checked my watch.
"Sammy…it's not even noon."
"So?" Sammy shrugged, and
flicked through the Tour Book we had picked up in the Atlas Park
monorail giftshop. "We can get good seats. According to this book,
it's a huge tourist attraction."
"Which means there'll be
Hellions nearby, ready to mug us." I reasoned. Sammy, however,
would not be dissuaded.
"Who'd be dumb enough to mug us with
Superheroes around? I mean, even if we got mugged, we'd be rescued.
Probably by a cute Heroine."
"We're not getting there nine
hours before…wait."
"What?" Sammy grinned
slightly.
"That's your plan, isn't it? Get mugged. You're
going to get all aggro in some mugger's face, so you get rescued by
some lithe Superheroine in tight spandex, and swoon all over
her."
"No!" Sammy's blushing face, however, told another
story.
"We'll go eventually. We're here for a week, after
all. But not nine hours before it starts."
Sammy sighed. "Okay.
So, what're we going to do?"
"I don't know." I shrugged
at him. "I wouldn't mind going on a tour-bus."
Sammy checked
the tour-guide. "Apparently, there aren't any
busses."
"What?"
"It's a long story. Statesman banned
all busses."
I spluttered. "That's just….manifestly….dumb."
I checked the street, and pointed a little further down the road.
"Look at that! A bus stop. What's it there for?"
Sammy
turned the page, and laughed. "Apparently, newer Superheroes fly
into them. Clear Perspex, and all that."
I shook my head.
"Idiots. Well, we'll have to walk. I'd quite like to go to the
Paragon Museum."
"No. Let's hit this 'Pocket D' club I
keep reading about."
"Let's split up, then. I'll hit the
museum, and you go dance."
Sammy froze. "Split up? What're
you talking about?"
"Well…you go one way, I go
another."
Sammy raised an eyebrow at me. "You just don't
want to go to a club. All that loud music."
I shrugged. "It
isn't really my thing."
He laughed at me. "Rubbing shoulders
with hot and sweaty Superheroes? How often do you see a Superhero,
anyway?"
I looked up, and gestured for Sammy to follow suit.
There, overhead, was a group of flying Heroes. One was decked out in
a toga, and a cape. He waved down to us as he sped along with his
group.
"Dude…" Sammy started.
"Yeah?"
"I could
see up his toga. He wasn't wearing any underwear."
"…Why
did you look?"
Sammy slapped me across the back of the head. "I
didn't. It was just…there."
I laughed. "okay, okay. But I
still think we should split up. I'll meet you at City Hall at 7pm.
We'll grab some dinner, and head back to watch the meeting."
"But
what if I get mugged?"
I thought about it for a second. "Wear
some expensive aftershave, and hope you don't get rescued by a
guy."
"Yeah, baby!"
---
The Paragon Museum was
quite interesting. At least, it was more interesting than if Sammy
would have been there, spouting comments about the fallibility of
Superheroes who had died. For someone who had a great love of
Superheroines, he had no respect for the deceased Heroes and Heroines
who had given up their lives to protect others. Then again, Sammy was
never the most selfless person in the world. Take here, for instance.
I was reading some blurb about a Hero who called himself, quite
simply, The Fire Protectorate. Seems he was a low level Scrapper who
was one of the many who died during the initial Rikti attack. On the
high neck of his red and black costume, he wore a tiny emblem of a
red and yellow open flame. The emblem, or so the information by the
mannequin said, represented what was called 'The Truth Of The
Flame'. That was it. No more information on what The Truth Of The
Flame was. I could almost hear Sammy snickering in my head.
"The
truth of the flame is that it's hot. Like the Heroines you're
missing out on at the club."
I scowled at my reflection in
the Perspex display. Sammy had, as of late, seemingly loaned his
voice to my internal monologue. I shook my head, and carried on
through the museum, which was surprisingly quiet, considering the
time of day. I moved on throughout the museum, reading volumes upon
volumes of information about Statesman, when something caught my eye.
I turned, and saw another display, of a female Hero, who was dressed,
once again, in red and black. I moved closer, and read her name.
The Fire Defender. And this one, too, had the exact same
emblem of a red and yellow flame on her costume. This time, there was
one on each of her black leather gloves. Once again, there was a
referral to her following 'The Truth Of The Flame', but no
reference to what this truth was.
I wandered until I found a
museum worker, and asked him.
" 'The Truth Of The Flame'?"
He shrugged at me. "I've never heard of it, I'm afraid." I
showed him the costumes of The Fire Defender, and The Fire
Protectorate, and he seemed slightly nonplussed. "These two Heroes
never worked together. In fact, this one," as he gestured to the
female Defender, "Died before the other became a Hero."
"So,
what?" I mused. "I've discovered some underground Superhero
Conspiracy Theory?"
The worker smiled slightly. "You know…it's
quite possible. I can't believe nobody's ever noticed this
before." He was getting quite excited, which was a refreshing
change of pace from Sammy's total lack of caring about the departed
Heroes. Taking in the time, I saw it was almost time to meet up with
Sammy at City Hall. I looked at the man's namebadge. "Look…Frank.
I need to go meet up with a friend of mine. I'd love to know more
about this, though."
Frank nodded. "Absolutely. I need to
speak to the curator about this find. Is there a way I can contact
you?"
"I'm just visiting Paragon for the week." Without
second thought, I reached into my wallet, and pulled out a business
card, handing it over. "I can be contacted at this phone number
24/7."
Frank thanked me, and pulled out his phone, as I walked
towards the door.
"Hello, Mr Infern? It's Frank, from level
two. One of our museum guests has spotted something quite
remarkable…"
---
"So, how was Stiffsville?"
Sammy grinned at me over his pizza.
"I beg your
pardon?"
"Stiffsville. The museum."
"Oh, I thought you
were referring to the nightclub. I imagine you got a
little…excited."
Sammy glared at me, which was, sadly for him,
difficult to pull off with a mouth full of what the pizzeria called
its' "Cement Shoe Special".
"Actually, the museum was
quite interesting. I think I made a discovery about some underground
Superhero cult."
Sammy laughed, his mouth wide open. It was
amazingly disgusting. "Only you, Jay, could take a holiday and turn
it into something 'fascinating'. As for me…I had a great
time."
"Oh?"
Sammy shrugged. "Well, until I found out
the Hero I was flirting with was actually some super-strong ninja
Villain, who put me in a dancing cage and left me there." He
sighed. "Oh, Sarriss…"
"Okay. Well, do you want to head
out to this mass meeting under the statue?"
Sammy immediately
perked up. "Yes. Yes, yes yes. Definitely."
I paid the bill,
and we got up to leave, just before my phone started to ring.
"Hello?"
"Mr Tucker? It's Frank, from the museum. This
is…incredible. Please, you have to come and meet me right
away."
"Okay. Where are you?"
Frank had never left the
museum, so we hurried out (Well, I hurried. Sammy just moaned about
how he'd miss all the Heroes) to the Museum, which, thankfully, was
just a few blocks away. Rushing through Atlas Park, we did, as it
happens, pass by that meeting Sammy wanted to see. I took a direct
route past City Hall. Naturally, Sammy being Sammy, ran straight
through the meeting.
"Ladies…" he crowed. "Super Civilian
coming through!"
I stopped and turned, catching all the
expressions of shock, amusement, and disgust on the faces of the
Heroes. "Move it, Sammy!"
He scowled, and hurried after
me.
When we got to the Museum, we saw that hurrying wasn't
particularly necessary.
It wouldn't have made Frank any less
dead.