early scene in my unfinished superhero project

a small fragment, a scene from my superhero novel, that might be a web series or a graphic novel, maybe all three.... anyway, i have bits and pieces here and there. i forgot about this scene, which i wrote a couple of years ago. the main POV character is a retired Super powered (depowered) vigilante named Leonard Singapore, aka The Blinking Fist.

People in Leonard's life are being killed by someone who seems to be Leonard, but it wasn't him. In the whacky world of super people, this may not be a paradox. The Android Cops who are investigating have maybe irresponsibly, brought The former blinking Fist to a crime scene, a dead old friend awaits.

Return Of the Blinking Fist:
Ride Along...

It’s been ages since I was at a crime scene, like riding a bike, dammit. I almost reached into my utility belt for rubber gloves, when Android Cop #1 handed me a pair from some magic pocket in those crazy overcoats the Android Cops all wear. I have to ask him to snag me one. I gloved up, feeling a bit woozy maybe from last night’s ‘almost blinking of fist’. It took the wind out of me. 

I notice the old school Retro Hero - Captain Proteus, Jr. on the floor of his bathroom, is one of the first guys I teamed up with when I started out back in the mulleted rookie ‘Blinking Fist’ years. He was kind of an old ham, but could he throw a punch. A self taught street fighter, who looked a bit odd, and off, all the time, his power was really just being able to have bursts of speed that he most effectively used as punches and kicks that you never saw coming. He never changed that cheeseball bright 70’s costume, from when he started out in the 70’s,  and still used catch phrases, Like “I am taking your fire!”, which I alway wanted to say to him about, ‘uh dude, that’s Prometheus, not Proteus.’ But maybe he knew, maybe he was aware that his speeches to the villains were cornier than a golden age comic book? 

I’m reminiscing about that time we stopped “the Brawler Gang” from taking over the waterfront. I’m smiling at the corpse, who I barely recognize, not just because of how bashed in old Rory’s face was, but because he looked so old, very old, maybe older than he should have being a superhuman septuagenarian and all. He looked human, frail. I’m wondering if they realize I know this guy’s secret ID, and if I should spit it out, as I notice that Android #2 is droning on and on in my face, and thinks I am smiling at his story, so I start listening to his droning on about Super Hero history:

“....Dating among superheroes has changed as the times and the heroes change. Back when caped figures first starting showing up, stopping muggings, fighting nazis, and mad scientists, the heroes clung to their secret identities tightly, and secret from their loved ones, for the most part, this secrecy though had it’s downsides, as many of those pioneers weren’t very good at keeping secrets, and those closest to them paid the price. Eventually, their unwillingness to unmask, even for the government led all but a few who complied, to retire. There were very few ‘sanctioned’ heroes throughout the 50’s until the rise of civil rights, Vietnam, and all that. Using heroes in that particular war, was a hard sell to folks who revered the heroes who took down Hitler and his gang of monsters. When the ‘Heroes were Reborn,' as the press liked to say in the 60’s, many of the heroes led public lives, though some stayed hidden, the heroes also started openly dating each other, and creating the next generation of heroes.


These days, the 3rd and 4th generations of heroes, and villains only deal with the rest of us as necessary. Very few keep up the pretence of a ‘normal life’. The body you see before us, is one of those 3rd generation ‘retro heroes’ who took the whole ‘Secret Identity’, and ‘Secret Headquarters right under their family’s nose,’ very seriously, one of those kind of heroes. Meet the now deceased, at least for now, Captain Proteus Jr. “

“I know Rory McDougall Jr. when I see him lying dead, Cop #2.” 

I find myself kind of threatening and assuming an offensive stance, toward Android Super Hero Trivia Master #2, and I try to compose myself. “Sorry, It’s just, he was a friend, y’know, we teamed up a few times.” The Android would have spit at me, if it had the programming, I think. 

But he stood up tall, buttoning up his awesome night sky black overcoat, and kind of shrieked his metallic hollow response: “understandable, Mr. Singapore, do you need some time alone with the deceased? Or to step back from the investigation.”

“No, I’m fine, really, it’s just been awhile since I’ve done this, though, too. I will be fine, I am just consulting, right? Take the reins, detective.” 

I assumed a more open submissive posture, instinctively, all the movie kung fu was tickling at the back of my hypothalamus, and had I any blink power left, certainly, I would have needed something to punch, but I pushed back instead, as there was no blink, no fire, that could ignite my seemingly still intact but dormant skills. Cop #2 took several holo images of the body before anyone touched it, to see things up close. As he was processing the hi res images he took with his telescopic eyes, he started asking me what I knew of Captain Proteus, lately.

“Well my electric fellows, before last week I wouldn’t have had much to tell you as I hadn’t seen old ‘Retro,’ in ages... his pals called him Retro, he hated, but tolerated it. Then, just last Saturday, he and Lion Man, who lives down the street from me, they show up to my Secret Garden Suite Lair with beer, and a bunch of 70’s Italian Crime films, cheap Godfather, and French Connection ripoffs, mostly, Y’know?” Both Cop Androids, nodded like they knew. I was starting to warm up to these robots.

“Did Mr McDougall confide anything you think might be pertinent to his rather gruesome demise?”

I sighed, “Let a hero tell a story, my friend, some of us, it’s all we have left, is our stories, of team ups and crossovers, time travel, Sexy Lady Villains, and so on.” They both crossed their robot arms across their chests in robot precision unison. I shuddered, maybe too visibly, but continued.

“ As I was saying, we ate some pizza, watching this poorly dubbed but admirably shot and directed Damiani flick, one of those Franco Nero ones, anyway, Lion Man had already passed out and was snoring as loud as you can imagine a guy named Lion Man who eats nothing but pizza, coffee, beer, and gas station microwave burritos might snore. Rory, leaned over from my old rocking chair that he always sits in when he comes over; he leans in and asks me if I remember that last time that he and I teamed up, back in the mid 90’s, when I was at the height of my career, constantly turning down membership on the teams, but so often their go-to super guy for team ups. Anyway, Ol’ Retro whispered to me, over Lion Man’s braying sleep apnea, that he had recently discovered that Clive Dimble wasn’t dead. In fact, Dimble had visited him late one night, armed to the teeth, wearing one of ‘Wings Malone’s’ old flying rigs.” 

I paused as the Androids gasped in robotic unison. I had no idea that Androids could be surprised like that. They genuinely gasped. So I surmised it wasn’t police level knowledge that Clive was back in business. My old superhero conspiracy tumblers falling into place, my instincts were telling me that Clive Dimble, the former sidekick super team leader who became one of the most successful super villains of all time, who Retro and I thought we’d accidentally killed, back in the day, that, Clive Dimble was directly connected to the supposed reappearance of someone stronger, taller, more handsome than me seemingly being and calling themselves ‘the New Blinking Fist.’

I decided to hang on to this theory, but tell the Cops everything I did know, maybe they would spill something I didn’t. I was really aware just how much I was enjoying thinking about stuff like this again, even if what it all pointed to, was that I was on a hit list, maybe as a best case scenario. So I told the android Cops, what Retro had told me, which really other than my instincts is all I knew at the time.


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