Once a Slinger… Prelude to a Rebirth

Johnny Gallo stared at the display-safe the held the costumes that had once been worn by his three friends. He'd been spending days staring at them since Excelsior had first acquired them. They had been trying to figure out what to do with them. They had been in the possession of a gang of petty thugs with delusions of grandeur.

"Hey Johnny," Chris said as he trotted in, hoping to spend the day on monitor duty. Chris didn't like using his Dark Hawk form lately. It made him uncomfortable with how violent he got. Chris didn't dislike Johnny as much as everyone probably thought he did. It was just that, as Dark Hawk, Johnny was the likely target; Johnny liked to run his mouth.

"Hey," Johnny said absently.

"You have an idea last night?' Chris asked as he turned on the monitors and took his seat behind the bank of computers. "You know I was thinking Phil could use one, y'know."

"actually," Johnny said, standing up from where he'd been crouched all morning. "I was thinking about taking them back to Eddie and Cassie in New York."

"Really?" asked Chris. "You know I did some research on Hornet when I this all first came up last week, and the papers say Hornet is dead."

Johnny laughed. "Yeah, I talked to Eddie about that two weeks ago. It seems that while he had the brains to rebuild his armor, he didn't have any money to, or else he might have done it. Anyway, he sold a copy of the schematics to someone who could actually afford to have a suit made. Eddie said the guy wanted to be a super hero."

"So that's who got iced?' asked Chris.

"Yeah, some idiot who wanted to be a hero," Johnny said sitting on the back of a chair. "He got his wish… I guess. Eddie went to his funeral."

Johnny's phone suddenly began to play "Flight of the Bumblebee." "Speak of the devil," Johnny said, doing a back flip off the chair. "Gallo," he answered. "Talk to me."

With in thirty seconds of talking to him, Eddie had apparently told Johnny something that made him sway, and almost fall. Chris was up in an instant. Johnny didn't look good. "No," Johnny responded. "No, I get it," he affirmed. "I'll be there as soon as I can." Then "Friday, I got it."

Johnny snapped his phone shut and took a step toward the door before hitting his knees.

"Johnny!" called Julie as she walked in the door. She flew in a bolt to see if he was okay.

"You two didn't fight did you?" asked Micky.

"No," grunted Chris, insulted at the assumption.

"I-I-I" Johnny stammered. "I have to get back to New York. I have to go, I need to pack." He got to his feet, but it seemed his legs were still like rubber.

"Johnny," Julie said, holding onto his arm. "What's wrong?"

"Its my old friend Ritchie…" Johnny trailed off. "He… he's dead."

"Julie, take Johnny home," Mickey said. "Chris, get me Phil on the line please."

Julie flew Johnny home and helped him pack. It was more like repack for him. He threw a bunch of clothes in a suitcase, she folded them all and made sure they'd fit. He was about to pick up their phone to call the airport when a call came in. "Gallo, talk to me," he answered.

"Johnny, you and Julie come on back to the hangar, we're gonna talk," with that Phil hung up.

Julie and Johnny moved back toward the Hangar, Johnny now able to move on his own, the shock having worn off.

"Listen," Phil said, when they arrived. "Mickey told me what's happened. I've already chartered a landing for the Excel at the LaGuardia in a couple hours. I called your friend Eddie, he'll meet us at the airport, and then its off to a bar to catch up. I'm staying with my uncle while I'm in town. You are staying with Eddie, and Julie is staying with her family."

"Who said she was going to come?" asked Johnny, confused.

"You didn't think I was going to desert you at a time like this did you?" she asked, sounding almost hurt. "we're best friends Johnny."

"We didn't think we could pry you two apart with a crowbar, much less the little-ol Excel." Mickey smiled at her wit. "Me and Chris will stay back here and keep things running smoothly. Mr. Jones has agreed to lend a hand while you guys are in New York."

"Thanks Boss-lady," Johnny said, truly moved by the way his friends were rallying around him.

In a few hours time, the Excel had traversed the country and was landing at LaGuardia international on a special runway. They made it into the terminal, past security, and were scanning the crowd for Eddie. "That reminds me," Julie chirped. "How will we recognize him?"

"Oh…" Johnny smiled. "You'll know him." Suddenly an even wider smiled broke across Johnny's face as he waved for his friends to follow him. He quickly embraced another young man, this one with black hair and a goatie. "Eddie!" he said as he embraced his friend. "How are you holding up?"

"Okay," Eddie said. Eddie McDonough was more somber and sober than Johnny was. "this just shocked the heck out of me I guess."

"You should have seen me when I first got the news," Johnny comforted him. "nearly catatonic." He sighed, then dropped his heaviest bag at Eddie's feet. "You take that one," he said as he slung two light looking duffle bags over his back. "and I'll take these two."

Eddie smiled and struggled to get the heavy bag into a carrying position. That was when Julie noticed Eddie's arm. "I'll get that Eddie," she said reaching for it.

"I got it," he snapped and awkwardly stormed away dragging the back in a way it was certainly never meant to be dragging it.

"I should have told you, he's a bit sensitive about that," Johnny added, feeling like an idiot. "He hates it when people help him."

Julie rolled her eyes. She smacked Johnny in the head lightly, making Phil laugh as he walked behind them. As they got to the curb, Eddie was already feeling like an idiot. "I'm sorry," he said to Julie.

"Hey, no big deal," she waved off. "People do the same thing to me, the assume because I look the way I do, I'm an airhead. I've got about a 110 IQ, not extraordinary, but above average."

Eddie blushed. "187," he confessed meekly.

"Well," she said. "I know who I'm calling if I ever go back to college."

"So, you said we were headed to a bar?" Johnny said, not liking that he was getting left out.

"Yeah, this place I've been going after work," he explained. He turned to explain to Phil and Julie. "I'm interning in the R&D division at Stark Industries."

"Lead on, lead on!" Johnny said.

"Actually," Phil said, readjusting the shoulder strap on his bag. "I'm headed to crash. I'm staying with my Uncle, so I'll see you guys tomorrow at the funeral."

"Wait!" Julie called. "I'm having dinner with my family tomorrow night and she said I could bring anyone I wanted with me, I was gonna tell Johnny about this later, but I can tell you all now, I'd like you guys to come. My older brother is even gonna be back from college tonight."

"Sounds like a plan," Phil said as he waved down a taxi. "I'll get the address tomorrow at the cemetery." He turned to Eddie, "Pine Hills right?" Eddie nodded. "See you guys there."

The remaining three caught a cab to the bar, which wasn't too far from the airport, thus making their still carrying luggage not so odd. "So," Johnny said, brining his beer and Julie's club soda to the table. "are we drinking to Ritchie tonight?"

"Not yet," said Eddie, looking around the corner, then smiling. "There she is."

Johnny turned around and then jumped out of his seat. "Cassie!" he greeted the woman with a hug. When they separated he turned the darkly clad girl toward Julie and said, "Julie, this is Cassie St. Commons."

Cassie was a very pretty girl with long black hair down to her shoulder blades. She had penetrating eyes and an aura that drew the eye to her without her dressing in any sort of overly revealing way. Ironically though, the only person who Cassie couldn't command the attention of at any given time was the one she wanted to. Right now she was getting read to finish her last under-grad year at ESU and start on her psychology PhD. As part of it all she was a peer counselor at the student union.

"Hey," Julie said, narrowing her eyes at Cassie, whom she noticed was showing all the signs of an old girlfriend meeting her boyfriend for the first time in ages.

"So!" Cassie said, ordering a beer for herself and sitting down with them. "You've been on the west coast for a year now, how are things going?"

"Great," Johnny said leaning back. "I found myself a roommate who is also my best friend," he said giving Julie a hug. She hugged him back in a bit of a possessive way, making deliberate eye contact with Cassie. "And I'm back in the game."

"You're being Ricochet again?" asked Cassie with a roll of her eyes.

Johnny nodded and Eddie spoke right over him. "Didn't you go to that support group I told you about?"

"Yeah… That's kind of how I met Julie and Phil."

Eddie laughed. "So what, the three of you fell off the wagon together?"

"Actually," Johnny laughed, taking a sip. "The whole group fell off the wagon after fighting Ultron."

"Wait," Cassie said, leaning forward. "You went up against Ultron?"

"Oh I didn't make a dent in him," Johnny confessed. "Dark Hawk tore that guy apart."

Eddie shook his head. "Only you would get an entire support group to go off the wagon," he said with a smile. "you're kind of like Demeter… Greek God of decadence."

Johnny smiled, and twisted a non-existent handlebar mustache. Then his face lit up. "oh, speaking of jumping off the wagon," he said. "I have gifts for both of you." He reached under the table and set a bag in front of each of them.

They opened the bags and shock came over their faces. Cassie almost leapt across the table grabbing at Johnny's throat. "WHAT DID YOU DO!" she screamed.

"Noth-" he couldn't finish his sentence as she was going right over him. "We didn't need these that bad! Why, Johnny, WHY!"

"I didn't sell my soul!" Johnny finally yelled. Julie and Eddie had suddenly noticed that most of the bar was staring at them. Julie waved, and Eddie mouthed "Sorry."

"I didn't sell my soul," Johnny repeated. "Someone else did. We confiscated the suits and I figured you guys would want them back. I actually managed to convince the team it was the best idea."

The night pretty quickly after that. Eddie took Johnny home and Julie flew back to her family's place and Dusk went back to her apartment.

The next day they were all in dress clothes at a cemetery on a gray morning. The sky looked like it was almost ready to rain. Johnny imagined for a moment that it was just waiting for them to get finished. Ritchie had died as a fire-fighter, so his funeral was pretty nice. There were all sorts of other people getting up to talk about him. It seemed that even after the suit was taken away from him, Ritchie hadn't given up on being a hero.

Other fire-fighters talked about how Ritchie Gilmore never complained about doing chores around the fire house. About how, during his first year when the new guys get handed all the crap jobs out of an old sense of hazing, Ritchie never once complained or objected. He instead would launch himself into the jobs. He did them with a passion. He took courses at ESU so he would know all about all aspects of fire-fighting. The guys, even the veterans, had expected him to go into an executive position eventually. They talked about how Ritchie always respected the chain of command, and how he never questioned a decent order. If ordered to stay behind, he did, if ordered to go in, he did. They all said that Ritchie was a remarkable firefighter.

Next up were victims, or rather, survivors, of fires. They were people that Ritchie had saved. They talked about how Ritchie never let them believe for a moment he was going to die. They said that he always said "I've seen Hell; this is just a nice sauna." They all loved how he joked. He was strong and quiet. He never demanded recognition and only spoke to the newspapers on the rare occasions when his supervisor told him to.

Lastly there were the slingers. Johnny looked to the sides, he figured this would happen. He stood up and walked to the podium. "Hello," he greeted. "A lot of you won't know this about Ritchie, but for a couple months in his freshman year at ESU, Ritchie was a super-hero. He called himself Prodigy. I know this because I worked with him." Johnny paused. How would Ritchie want this done. "Ritchie was hard headed, stubborn, and a lot of times a jerk." Eddie and Dusk dropped their jaws, while Julie just covered her mouth in shock. Johnny continued. "At a lot of times, that was why, not just he lived, but also why I lived. Eddie saved me several times. He was the one who showed me I could be more." He shrugged. "More than just some kids who is agile, more than some 'cool kid' sitting in the back of the class. He showed me I had a hero inside me. Ritchie was my inspiration. I won't sugar coat things, Ritchie wouldn't have wanted that. I didn't like him… but I did respect him, most of all after we had to put away the masks and tight. We were forced… through certain events, to give up our costumes, and for Ritchie and our friends that meant their powers too. Ritchie did it. And you know what, I may still have the powers, but Ritchie became a bigger hero than I'll ever be." He pulled out the Prodigy costume. "I recovered his costume about a week ago. I think it should rest with him. That way, the person who wore it as a hero, can honor it for all eternity." Johnny laid the Prodigy costume, neatly folded in the box beside Ritchie.

"I'll see you on the other side man," Johnny said quietly. He walked away and sat back down where both Julie and Cassie took his hands. Cassie was also leaning on Eddie's shoulder, a few stray tears running down her cheek. There were a few more people after that, those who had known Ritchie growing up in the orphanage, and others.

It was a sad trip to New York, but at least it ended on a high note. Johnny, Julie, and Phil all had dinner Sunday night at the Power's residence. It was a time of wild stories, laughter, and in some cases, intimidation (Lets just say Alex and Jack had a few choice words with Johnny regarding their sister). There was also a brief staring contest between Alex and Phil.

The world is full of heroes. The Marvel world is full of meta-humans. What happens next? The Slingers are gone, broke up to the four winds, but what really were they? Were they a group assembled by fate? Or were they four college students who knew what needed to be done? Furthermore, will they be the last to grace ESU?

The New Slingers?