Big Superhero Action by Raymond Embrack Read Free Book Online Page A

never saw in the comic books where they changed the world or anything. It was never a given that they would. No. The only difference they’ve made is drawing more of that to this city.” He pointed to the shot of JKM and the Halo.
    “They bring tourism too,” Spector said.
    “Oh right. Now Brutalia has an attraction. Lucky us. The amateurs get the most benefit. Some of them are even criminals.”
    “Are you saying criminal superheroes or super criminals?”
    “Criminal superheroes. Some of them are pedophile stalkers. They make things worse by creating a vacuum for super criminals.”
    “What does that mean, a vacuum?”
    “So far it’s been crazies posing as superheroes, right? Less so with the other side. That creates a vacuum. Nature does not allow a vacuum. When you have superheroes you create super villains. One leads to the other.”
    Tour buses now clogged the traffic and sidewalks. They went to locations of superhero sightings. They shot video of the amateur superheroes, who were easier to find than the real thing.
    “Notice you don’t see other cities doing this.”
    “This is the only city to have the occurrence of actual superheroes.”
    “Why here?”
    “Nobody knows. There are theories.”
    “It’s the government. Secret testing.”
    “Not aliens?”
    “No. Superheroes fit into the known spectrum. They’ve always existed but we didn’t know them as such.”
    Their lines blurred until it didn’t matter who said what; in any conversation about superheroes Milo publicly took no sides. Sides were irrelevant to him. Talking was a way to remain inconspicuous.
    Twenty minutes later he left Starbuck’s, strolled through the rain back towards the KM Building at the corner.
    Once inside the KM Building took the elevator sixty four floors to the top, stepped back into the nerve center of The Carousel.
    His sensors picked up Heroes Man. He had given the kid access to a self-erasing guest rooftop code. The sensors told him Heroes Man was still alive. That had been the kid’s first test. Any activity outside narrowly defined parameters of guest intrusiveness would have triggered disintegration codes turning the kid into a tube of cremains. In three years the KM Building security system had subtracted eight OSD burglars from the payroll. An anorexic cockroach in rubber-soled shoes couldn’t sneak into the KM Building.
    He found Heroes Man in the kitchen making grilled cheese sandwiches. The buttery cheesy smell pierced his nose, set off an ancient appetite. Even more unusual since the kitchen did not stock bread, butter, or cheese. The kid was a twentysomething tall slender type with blonde hair that was short but cut to hang like it was long, framing the kind of sensitive perfection he had the luxury of downplaying, his features and bone structure sculpted with more symmetrical grace than necessary. He always wore headphones. His clothing clung to him, layered top and shorts and sandals, bare feet with black-painted nails. He was built for flight. He had been a stalker, turning up at the Starbuck’s to make his pitch: he could locate the Motorchrists. He could fly and lead a superhero anywhere. In one week he had worked that into becoming an intern sidekick to The Carousel. He served Milo a grilled cheese sandwich on a paper plate, served himself.
    “I’m a chef,” Heroes Man said. “I have weird hours.”
    “Me too.”
    “You don’t have food here.”
    “I don’t need a lot of food. And I hate stores.”
    “I brought food.”
    “You’re not moving in, kid.”
    “I have my own place.”
    They took seats in the kitchen, munched on grilled cheese. It tasted like it smelled and wanted to be served on a daily basis and again after midnight.
    “How long could you fly?”
    “I discovered it a year ago.”
    “How?”
    “I heard the song ‘Heroes’ and I could fly.”
    “That’s it?”
    “Yeah. I’m into ‘Heroes.’ Heard it for years. Then from that one time on it made me could fly.