Chapter Two: How To Become a Hero

A news report flashed across the television screen.

"Hello Gothamites, this is Kimberly Vale and I am bringing you the latest developments in a tragic shooting that took place at a local bowling alley not too long ago when a police officer accidentally shot and critically injured the wrong man. Police are saying that Marcus Johnson, a 37 year old African American male, was taken to Gotham General in critical condition after taking a bullet to the chest when a police officer opened fire, mistaking him for a man that was there trying to rob the establishment. Anthony Rowe, the actual man that went there to rob the fundraiser money, was also sent to Gotham General after suffering a concussion to his head. An eyewitness videotaped the exact moment that everything happened. I must warn you, this video is very disturbing."

The video began playing. It showed the bowling ball hit the robber in the head, which caused the robber to drop to the ground unconscious. Then, it showed the moment when the police officer ran into the bowling alley and shot Marcus. After the shot, it showed Marcus grabbing his chest and falling to the ground. It also showed his son, Jeremiah Johnson trying to comfort his father after the accidental shooting took place. The video ends.

"A hospital representative provided a statement that doctors are trying to perform a life saving operation as we speak. I will continue to bring you updates on this story as details come in. This has been Kimberly Vale reporting for Gotham News Station."


Jeremiah sat nervously waiting in the ER waiting room. It had been over an hour since his father went into surgery and nobody had come out yet to give him any details as to how things were , a gurney was rolled out of one of the rooms and it had a patient completely covered up with a white sheet which usually meant someone had died.

"Oh God!" Jeremiah thought to himself wondering if it was his father.

He quickly ran over to the gurney and then proceeded to pull the white sheet back to reveal the corpse.

The dead man wasn't his father. Instead, it was the robber that had been hit in the head with the bowling ball that his father had thrown at him.

"Wow!" He thought to himself. "That guy was only 20 years old."

Then he noticed a snake tattoo on the deceased man's neck. It was the tattoo given to gang members of the Satan's Serpents. Attempting to rob the bowling alley must have been his initiation into the gang.

"He died?" Jeremiah asked, puzzled from the discovery.

"Yes. Blunt force trauma to the back of the head." The doctor replied.

"Blunt force trauma? To the back of the head?" Jeremiah muttered as the doctors continued rolling the gurney away. "That's strange. He didn't get hit in the back of the head." He thought to himself.

About a half hour later, one of the surgeons finally came out to talk to Jeremiah.

"Your father was shot in the chest. We were able to remove the bullet and stop the bleeding. Luckily the bullet had just missed his heart or any other major arteries. He is still critical, but stable. We believe, with plenty of rest and rehabilitation, there is a chance he could make a full recovery. He still hasn't woken up, but you may go see him now if you would like."

Jeremiah hurried into the room and sat beside his father. He was so very thankful that his father was still alive, but he also knew this was only the beginning of a long road to recovery.


A few hours later, Marcus finally woke up. He slowly gazed around the room. He discovered Jeremiah slumped in a chair sleeping.

"Son?" He whispered, barely getting the word out.

Jeremiah woke up instantly. "Dad!" He exclaimed as he rushed over to his father's side and held his hand.

"We did good, didn't we son?" His father asked. "We stopped the bad guy."

"Yeah Dad. We stopped the bad guy." Jeremiah replied. "Too bad the wrong man was shot." He said with a disgruntled tone in his voice.

"It's okay son. It was an accident. Bad timing I guess." His father responded.

"You're the third black man to have 'ACCIDENTALLY' been shot by the police this year. When is this shit going to stop? Jeremiah retorted.

"Have you heard about how the young man who was attempting to rob the bowling alley is doing?" Marcus asked. "I hit him pretty hard with that bowling ball. Lucky for him, I held back a little." He chuckled.

"Actually, that man is dead." Jeremiah sadly replied.

His father's face looked stunned. "Dead?" He echoed in disbelief.

"The doctors said he died from blunt force trauma to the back of the head."

"What? He wasn't hit in the back of the head!" His father exclaimed.

"I know. I thought the same thing. Something weird is going on around here, Dad."

At that moment, two police officers entered the hospital room. "Marcus Johnson?" They asked.

"Yes?" Marcus replied warily, unsure of what they wanted.

"You are under arrest for the murder of Anthony Rowe."

"What?" Jeremiah asked while trying to shield his father from the police. "There must be a mistake. My father didn't murder that man!" He exclaimed.

"You better move out of the way boy, or else you will be next!" The police officer threatened.

"Next? For what? Are you guys going to shoot me also?" Jeremiah asked while holding his stance between the men and his father.

One officer grabbed a hold of Jeremiah's arm and then tried to pull him away from the bed. Jeremiah was going to have none of it as he put up a fight.

Suddenly, Jeremiah felt his father grab his free arm. "Calm down. It's going to be okay, son. Let these men do their job. We will sort everything else out later." He ordered Jeremiah to stop resisting.

"But it's not fair! You didn't do anything wrong!" Jeremiah argued while trying to calm down.

"Do you have a place you can stay?" One of the officers asked Jeremiah.

Jeremiah put his head down in defeat.

"He can stay with his mother." Marcus replied.

The police officers began escorting Jeremiah out of the room.

His father spoke up. "It will be alright. I want you to keep going to school, son. I want you to give them hell on the football field. I will be there rooting you on as soon as I can." He said encouragingly .

But, at that moment, Jeremiah felt numb. He couldn't believe his father was being arrested. He was a hero. The hero LITERALLY stopped the bad guy. Yet, no good deed goes unpunished. At least not for people like them anyways.


A week had passed and Jeremiah still hadn't returned to school yet. He hadn't spoken with his father since his birthday and he was still trying to adjust to his new living situation at his mom's house. Plus, the school was about 3 miles further away from her place as opposed to the 10 minute walk from his father's.

Jeremiah still couldn't wrap his head around what was going on with his dad. He felt sad and depressed all at the same time. Mostly, he would just sit in his room and mope around. His mother couldn't add much comfort because she was constantly pulling in double shifts at the factory to make ends meet. Living in the city was getting very expensive. Inflation was putting its foot on everyone's neck. But, soon that sadness turned into anger. He wanted to take out his frustrations on the gang members of the Satan's Serpents, but he knew that would be far too dangerous. Instead, he came up with a better solution on how to release some of his aggressions.


The varsity football team for the Central Raiders was on the practice field. The practice was almost over and the coach was having the team run through a few more defensive drills- practicing blitz plays and tackles before sending them to the showers. Suddenly, the exit door to the locker room slammed open. Everyone on the varsity team could hear it despite being nearly 200 feet away from the building. Out walked Jeremiah. He was fully dressed in his football gear. He wore a ski mask under his helmet because the helmets they gave the junior varsity players usually didn't fit tight enough around the head and he didn't want anything to impair him. The varsity team watched as he walked towards them with an intimidating stride.

As he got closer, he could see the other team members gabbing amongst each other. "That's the kid whose father stopped the robbery at the bowling alley." They muttered while at the same time stepping aside to let him talk to the coach.

"I'm really sorry to hear what happened to your father, son. I'm awfully surprised to see you here. Practice is almost over." The coach said.

"The JV squad is practicing on the other field." The Quarterback muttered under his breath- purposefully loud enough for Jeremiah to hear.

Jeremiah turned to the Quarterback with a menacing stare. Then, he turned back towards the coach.

"I want to get in on the next scrimmage." He demanded.

"Look, son. I know the last few days haven't been easy for you, but I can't let you practice with the Varsity team. It's against school policy." The coach replied.

"What the coach is trying to say is…This ain't no place for someone like you because you could get hurt." The QB threatened.

"I bet I could take you down!" Jeremiah proclaimed, causing several members of the team to say "OH DAYUM!" to further instigate.

The Quarterback didn't appreciate the badgering from his teammates. "You know what, coach? Why don't you put him in for a couple plays? He's obviously feeling hotheaded. Maybe an attitude adjustment would do him some justice." The QB insisted while tossing the ball at Jeremiah.

Jeremiah snatched the ball out of the air and then stepped directly in the QB's face. "DON'T TALK TO ME ABOUT JUSTICE!" He exclaimed. "Just get ready to be put on your ass!" He warned, jamming the ball forcefully into the Quarterback's midsection.

"Sure! Sure! Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth!" The QB blurted.

The coach agreed to let Jeremiah participate in the next few scrimmage plays.

The offense and defense huddled up. Jeremiah was watching the QB's gestures as he explained the play to his offensive line.

"I want you to take that mother effer out." The QB instructed the Tight End. "As soon as he comes around that corner, I want you to plant his ass into the ground!"

Jeremiah could tell he was talking to the Tight End and started sizing him up.

The two squads broke from their huddles. Jeremiah was playing the Free Safety position. He backed up about 10 yards from the line of scrimmage because he wanted to take a running start.

The Quarterback looked at where Jeremiah was standing. "Ha! How does he expect to tackle me if he is playing all the way back there?" He laughed.

"Hike!" The ball was snapped.

Jeremiah took off charging in the direction of the Quarterback. He spotted the Tight End getting ready to hit him, so he quickly acted as if he was going to go down low to avoid him, and then-

POW! Jeremiah rose up with an elbow-uppercut, throwing his forearm into the chin of the Tight Ends facemask, causing him to fly backwards.

Before the QB could even realize what was going on-

BAM! Jeremiah had already hit him in the midsection with his shoulder pads, lifted the QB up off of his feet, and pile-driving him into the ground.

"OOOOH!" Several players and coaches couldn't help but let out gasps of amazement when they heard how hard the thud was.

"How was that for an attitude adjustment?" Jeremiah piped up, noticing the QB was disoriented from the blow.

When Jeremiah stood up, everyone had their eyes on him- even the JV squad was watching. They were smiling hard because they hated the jock Quarterback.

"Wow, son! That was a helluva hit!" The coach applauded. "How about we run another play?" He eagerly added.

Jeremiah looked at his watch- it was 5:30pm. "No thanks! I have somewhere more important to be soon!" He declared while walking back towards the locker room.


Jeremiah knew if he walked fast enough, he could still make it to the Wayne Dojo before 6 o'clock. He decided to leave his shoulder pads on and wear his winter coat over the top of them. This way he would only have to carry his gym bag and his football helmet.

He checked his watch again. It was 5:45pm. He was only about a mile away from the dojo, which meant he should easily make it there on time. He was surprised when he noticed that several Gothamites were holding up Black Lives Matter signs because they were protesting the fact that his father had been unlawfully shot by the police. Seeing that type of support definitely gave him a bit of comfort as he made his way through the downtown area.

While cutting through an alleyway 3 blocks away from the dojo, Jeremiah stumbled upon an argument happening between two men and a woman. However, the three didn't see him because he was able to stop and duck behind a dumpster. He could hear the two men questioning the woman about a computer chip.

Suddenly, the argument escalated when one of the men backhanded the female causing her to fall to the ground. The other man yanked her up by the hair and then put a knife up to her throat. She started to scream, but the man quickly muffled her by putting his hand over her mouth.

Jeremiah wasn't sure of what he should do. The woman was obviously in need of help, but all he could think about was what had just happened to his dad after he tried being a hero.

Then he saw a familiar tattoo on the neck of one of the men- it was that of a snake- Satan's Serpents.

He realized the reason his father got in trouble was because he didn't have on an outfit that could have concealed his identity. But, Jeremiah had one. He had a ski mask and his football helmet which could give him the anonymity his father didn't have.

Just as the gang member with the tattoo raised his hand to smack the woman again-

WHOMP! Jeremiah tackled him as hard as he could, knocking the wind out of the bad man.

The other man, holding a knife, slammed the woman into the side of a brick wall and she slumped down. Then, he attacked Jeremiah by stabbing him in the back. Luckily for Jeremiah, he was wearing his shoulder pads, and the knife barely pierced his skin, causing Jeremiah to become angrier.

POW! Jeremiah then did a spinning windmill punch knocking the man to the ground.

He quickly made his way over to the woman and helped her up.

"Thank you!" She said while handing him a small microchip. "All of the answers are on there. Just follow the clues." She instructed as she fled the scene.

BANG! BANG! Gunfire went off and a bullet ricocheted off of the crown of Jeremiah's black and silver football helmet. The shots were coming from the man Jeremiah first tackled.

Jeremiah quickly dove behind the dumpster to take cover. The man aimed to shoot again, then-

CLANG! A Bat-a-rang knocked the gun out of the gang member's hand.

The Bat-a-rang landed close to Jeremiah's feet. Within a second after the gun was knocked out of the gangster's hand, the man was suddenly being pulled up to the roof by some sort of retractable grappling hook. When Jeremiah looked up at the roof, he just caught a glimpse of a cape flapping in the wind.

The other gang member that stabbed Jeremiah in the back was about to attack, when suddenly-

THUD! The man who had been pulled up to the top of the roof was tossed over and thrown into the other man causing them both to slam into the ground.

Jeremiah looked at his watch. "Shit! It's 5:58. I need to get my ass to the dojo." He declared as he grabbed his gym bag and dashed away.


It was 6:01pm. The class sat patiently on the floor mat. However, they were surprised to see that Sensei Wayne wasn't there yet. Then the back door opened up to the dojo and Sensei Wayne walked in.

"I apologize for being late. I had a couple large bags of garbage that needed to be brought out to the curb." He informed the class as he tightened his black belt.

As he sat down on the mat in front of the group, Jeremiah came running in and hurdled over the gate. "I'm so, so sorry for being late, Sensei Wayne, but I swear I have a good reason for why!" He declared.

"I understand why you are late." Sensei Wayne proclaimed.

Jeremiah looked stunned. "You do?" He asked.

"Of course! It's garbage day!... Now, please take your seat on the mat."