Recently, my favorite video game underwent a huge overhaul. It’s one of those MMORPG jobbies and, well, I’m addicted. You’ve already read about my addiction to comic books. Well, let’s see here, I get to play a game with my friends where we play comic book heroes and villains called City of Heroes/City of Villains. I probably don’t need to elaborate on why it’s so addicting for me.
Add to it that fact that I’m a few million miles from my created family and it is a way of keeping in touch with them—we all game together. Keeps us out of trouble and spending money. And it is something my husOtter and myself can do together. Grant you, we just moved to Florida and once things come together, I don’t know how much time we’ll spend on the computer.
Unless, of course, it’s so I can write.
This little fiction piece was born out of the fact that I downloaded some music from the game and had visions of a story using all of our characters coming together…and pitted against all of our villains. You’ll see I forgot characters names (I can’t remember which of Augie’s scrappers is a martial artist/quick reflexes combo), but figured it was more important to just write something…anything. Besides, when do you read about superheroes other than in comic books?
So I’m giving it a go. An little adventure—and this is the intro. Now, my one friend named her character “Mystical Wench,” a martial artist and regenerating character. I just can’t use that superhero name. So I changed it to Mystical—it just worked better for me.
I’ve not edited anything. I’m just happy to be writing.
Augie sighed heavily and wiped his brow. The kids who came into the dojo on Friday nights were the serious ones, the best students and they always gave him more than a workout. He waited until the last one waved by and headed out with their parents before he yelled to the back office.
“Oh Wenchie…you better have a good reason for this,” he said while still looking out the front door.
No answer greeted him.
He figured she still had her headphones on, as she tended to do when she wanted to catch up on work and a class was underway. The uniform “Hai!” that scrambled from the main classroom was more distracting then any amount of music. They did not have a choice with keeping the computer in the back of the storefront. The apartment upstairs also doubled as storage and it was the compromise they had to live with. He shut off the last light and tapped on the door.
“Wenchie?” He leaned in.
“I thought I told you, the newspapers call me ‘Mystical’ now.”
“Well, I’m not the Paragon Times,” he moved over a chair next to her. After a hard stare at the screen, he paused with a sigh, “we can’t bring Bae back.”
“No, but we can bring those Tsoo idiots down.”
“Honey,” he hugged her, “I can’t….”
She was rigid and serious. She was not going to sway from this topic. He quickly edited up the hours she had been on the computer as of late. It looks like the books were going to be even farther behind than ever before.
“Okay, fine, what have you gotten-“ he felt her smile, briefly, without even turning to look at her face.
They met when they were both figuring out what to do with their lives, long before they joined their prospective super group, a level headed organization humorously called a Happy Medium. Augie would find this laughable, considering the amount of firepower they dished out—a great show of power that had nothing to do with being ‘Happy.’
They had seen each other at various competitions across the state of Rhode Island and New England. Her looks brought him in, her style of martial arts uniquely her own. It was not until the state competition he saw the young woman take the adult match with receiving a kick to the ribs-one that could surely have broken both her ribcage and her spine—and yet stand up and walk away. His years of fighting overseas in HongKong and Shanghai showed him that no amount of meditation could give a human that strength.
She had to have a superpower. He asked her on a date and warned her that she could be disqualified.
She ignored him then too. And continued to compete.
And then stepped down before the final rounds.
His mastery of the martial arts and his uncanny super reflexes gave the illusion he had super powers, but it was mere training. Time off led them both to the Hero Corps.
The first time they crossed paths there, even though she had a mask on—he knew her fighting style. It made sense to team up and work the streets together. They could have been like most of the populace, gotten married and raised kids, but her need for competition fuelled her to fight the good fight—and his want-n-need to make sure she was safe gave him further purpose.
They opened the dojo as a further precaution to the persons of Paragon City. If they could not be actively on the streets saving people, at least they could be teaching them to save themselves.
Bae was one of their oldest students and the most decorated. They can never be sure if he had joined the Hero Corps. He was found dead a month ago. The victim of a brutal beating. The funeral was attended by everyone in Augie’s and Mystical’s dojo.
Mystical could not handle it. She had been researching since. She found several links to the Korean underworld out of the borough of Talos Island.
“And there are three shipments coming in tonight. But this one,” she pointed at the screen, “ this one is different from the others.”
“Could be a legit shipment from Seoul.”
“Could be. But look at this manifest,” she tapped away a few seconds. “The most come in during daylight hours, during open harbor. Makes sense with the time it takes for those boats to come up through Panama. But here, “she pointed at the screen again. “This one ship comes in at 3am. It’s legally documented and I’m sure it will check clear—“
“But you checked it against last month’s schedule and it’s out of sync. It’s the only ship coming in with the same goods but at an odd hour.”
“The Tsoo have something coming in,” Mystical pointed out. “That’s my hunch.”
“Do we have to do this? Can we just pass it on? I’m exhausted, totally exhausted, because you didn’t help teach class.”
She looked at him.
“And I better find my costume.”
“Yeah, I’m not letting these bastards sleep again.”
“Can’t we call Borrie? Brehon?”
“Borrie? Maybe,” she looked at the wall clock, “he tends to stay awake late. And Jake? Well….oh no. That’s tonight.”
“See? You’ve been in front of a computer too long.”
“I can’t believe I forgot.”
“It’s okay, Jake called me and wanted to confirm the phone number.”
“Ah, cool. So he’s going?”
Jake had been the Brehon longer then they had been Mystical and _____________________. So long, in fact, it seemed like Jake O’Savage’s friendship with them was the first time the Brehon had human contact. He worked at the University all day and as a hero all night for the famed Legion of Superheroes at night. Time was not wasted on the tanker they called “the Brehon.”
As a gift for their long standing friendship, Mystical had set Jake up on a blind date. A blind date that was going on this very evening. They knew not to bother their friend, no matter how well he knew the city and could help them with their investigation of the Tsoo.
They suited up and used their base teleporters to head to nearby Talos Island to visit with the Tsoo.
