The following morning
Saturday, May 17th, 2014
Joshua was still in pain at breakfast.
There was a throbbing in his groin and not from what you might think, either. The bastard that had kicked him there had done a good fucking job and it was painful every time that Joshua tried to walk. He thought it a good idea that he rested for a few days and let his body heal before he tried any more heroics. Joshua rang Lieutenant Williams that afternoon, to ask about the woman and the girl. His mood instantly lifted when he heard that both of them were okay and that they would both make a full recovery. Lieutenant Williams praised Joshua for his actions, even though he said that he should never have been out there in the first place, but he was glad Joshua had been, for their sakes. When Joshua put his mobile down, he actually felt happy inside; he had finally succeeded in something.
Joshua decided that being a vigilante, might work out after all.
Two days later
Monday, May 19th
His bruises, and groin, had healed enough, to allow him to leave the Safehouse.
He had treated myself to an enormous breakfast, down the street, before taking a cab into the centre of New York. It felt good to be out in the fresh air and it was good to be out during daylight, for a change. He spent a couple of hours wandering around Central Park. His Dad had liked doing that, as it was anonymous, and it was difficult to be approached covertly. Joshua liked Central Park; he had grown up living in places with lots of greenery and New York had been a bit of a shock to the system. He hated living in a concrete jungle, so he enjoyed the chance to walk on grass and see large open areas. It also gave him a good chance to think.
What was I going to do next? If he were going to be a vigilante and last for more than a few weeks, without being seriously injured or killed . . . or worse, then he would need training. Now, you could not just pick up a phone book and lookup a vigilante school.
Neither, could you just place a call to Hit Girl and ask for lessons.
..._...
Now, Joshua was very much aware that he was using the Safehouse of a vigilante, but it was obviously only a place to live; despite not having been used for a while.
That would have to mean that the vigilantes had somewhere else to train. That would mean another, probably larger, Safehouse. From what he had seen, the vigilantes would be careful and so far, he had not seen a set of keys labelled: 'Other Safehouse'. How many Safehouses would the vigilantes have had? Joshua supposed that several would be a good idea, in case something happened to one or another. Dad had intended on setting up two small Safehouses, just for the two of them, so if something bad happened, and they had needed to hide quickly, they could. One would have been on each side of the city, so we could get to either in a short space of time. From what Joshua could see of the current Safehouse, it was setup in an anonymous part of the city, in a very anonymous building. You did not want a Safehouse to attract any attention, or it ceased to be 'safe'. One last point had been nagging at the back of his mind: would the owners of the Safehouse return?
Maybe they were dead, but if they were whom the boy thought that they were, then they were most definitely alive.
A week later
Monday, May 26th
Joshua was sitting down and reading some newspapers, when he found an interesting series of articles from Chicago, concerning events over the previous week.
He was intrigued by the reports of an archer and ninjas operating in the city of Chicago. The reports also specifically mentioned Kick-Ass, Hit Girl, and another Hero, called Shadow, plus a dog. Even better, Chris D'Amico, the nephew of Ralph D'Amico was dead. Apparently, somebody chopped off the fucker's head and kicked it around.
A fitting end to a total idiot, who really did not have a clue what he was doing.
..._...
Now, Joshua found this information very interesting, as it showed that there were active vigilantes in Chicago.
New York had not seen any real vigilantes in a long time. The last real ones had been Hit Girl and Kick-Ass, but they had seemed to vanish after some strange events, the previous summer. It looked like they had moved to Chicago. Okay, if he could get in contact with them, then maybe they could help him, but then again, maybe Hit Girl would just kill him. He honestly did not have very many assets. Okay, he was good at Taekwondo, but so far, that had not really helped, and it had not made me invincible, like Hit Girl and Kick-Ass. He knew that he needed training on weapons and how to use them properly and he needed better weapons, not just a riot baton and a second-hand pistol. He also needed body armour or some other similar protection.
Joshua wonder what his Dad would have thought of his son at that point.
Would he have been proud?
Updated: January 2018