Auxiliary Hero Corps: Collection of books one, two, and three in the Auxiliary Hero Corps series. (Superheroes Of The Hero Union Corps), Page 5

  He says, “I don’t need her help, and I buy all of my own clothes. I can buy everything I need.”

  “I can see that,” I say. “She’s worried about you. She knows you’re getting older, but she still worries about you. She has raised all of us, and I’m sure she’ll never stop worrying no matter how old we get.”

  “She worries about you because you are a freak,” says Rudy, trying to make a joke, but I know he thinks it’s true. “You and all of your freaky friends are the ones getting into trouble. Me and my boys don’t go out and mix it up every night with the spandex heroes. She doesn’t want to see us dead.”

  “You know it’s different for me. I don’t have a choice. It’s my job.”

  “We all have choices,” he says. Now he seems more interested in talking to me, but he also wants to be mean. “You may be a freak and run with all those wannabes every night, but it doesn’t mean you have to. You can quit. You could come home. Get a normal job like everyone else.”

  I know what he wants now, and I know I want it as well. I wanted to come home, but I also know it isn’t possible. As soon as the investigation is finished on the deaths of Hippie and Daphnia, I know I’ll be back out on the streets again. I’m even taking a chance being here right now. It’s rare for an Auxiliary Corps member to have a villain attack his family, but it wasn’t unheard of. For me, trouble seems to find me no matter what, and it didn’t matter if I was at home or not.

  Rudy moves his chair closer to the table. “I want to join the Auxiliary Corps, too. I have talents they need. I don’t want to be ordinary.”

  I’ve always suspected how good a runner he is, but I never thought it was because of an ability. While I’m not slow, I’m by no means the fastest one in the Corps. It must have been after Rudy’s sixteenth birthday that I noticed he could run faster than me. In fact, that wasn’t uncommon for those of us in the Corps because that’s usually when we first become aware of our abilities. I simply hadn’t put the pieces together in my head.

  “How fast are you? And didn’t you just make fun of me less than a minute ago?” I ask, still thinking over the surprising turn in our conversation. I had waited up for Rudy to talk to him about his behavior, but if I were to guess, it was Rudy that had wanted to talk to me all along.

  “I’m fast enough,” says Rudy. He reaches for the old sugar bowl in front of him, but then pulls his hand back. “Let’s put it this way. I’m as fast as I need to be. I’m faster than any man, and I might even be faster than Spike, but I’m not faster than a car. I’ve run past one of those neighborhood radar detectors…let’s just say I’m quick, and I always manage to win.”

  “I knew you were fast, and that’s why you always play the forward position in your soccer games, right?” I ask. I focus on Rudy’s chin, and I notice it’s my father’s chin and even has a little dimple in it. I wonder if he remembers our father. I don’t think he does. He was a baby when he died.

  “I would have thought it was obvious,” says Rudy. “I play forward on our soccer team because if the pass is right I can always beat the defense to the ball. In soccer, you can be fast, but not too fast. If you’re there too soon then you’re off sides. I’m fast, but I’m not fast enough where a referee can’t see me.”

  “Really? So why are you telling me this?” I ask, feeling like the only thing I’m doing is asking Rudy questions. He’s telling me all of this for some reason. I decide I’m not going to say anything. Rudy is one of those people who likes to keep talking once they start, and at this point it’s better not to interrupt him.

  “I got to thinking that I never lose. That I must have ability like yours. It has to be ability. I got to talking to my friend Gustavo, and he thought the moles on his skin were his ability. He thought his moles would get him into the Auxiliary Corps.”

  I don’t say anything, but give him a puzzled look, and he notices the expression on my face.

  “A mole? On the skin? Yes, he wanted to know if the moles gave him a special power,” says Rudy. “He claimed the moles on his back blocked satellite, TV, cell phone, and Wi-Fi reception signals. He also claimed the moles on his right arm could cook food as good as a microwave.”

  “Is this Crazy Gustavo you’re talking about? Didn’t he live on Morris Street? You told me he used to give the tourists a hard time in Yaletown. I was always afraid he might make one really mad someday.”

  “Yeah, that’s him,” says Rudy. “We tried putting a hotdog next to his arm to see if it would cook but we didn’t have any luck. It was still cold after thirty seconds, just like it had been when we took it out of the fridge. Then Gustavo eats the hotdog, saying it tasted warm enough for him. Well, nobody believes him, and then someone else goes into the cupboard and gets out a bag of microwave popcorn. We place the bag on the counter and then Gustavo places his arm right next to the bag. We’re all thinking nothing is going to happen, but we’re all playing along, and I even encourage him. I say, ‘Leave it there another minute. I know it’s going to work.’ Gustavo starts grunting and shaking, and do you want to know what happens next?”

  “Please, tell me,” I say. I had let out a few laughs during the story because I could picture Crazy Gustavo trying to get the bag of popcorn to pop with the moles on his arm. “Nothing happened, right?”

  “I swear to God, I’m not making this stuff up,” says Rudy. “He leaves his arm there for another minute, and it popped. It really did happen. Gustavo made one of those kernels in the microwave popcorn bag pop. We all jumped back when it happened.”

  “No, I don’t believe you,” I say.

  “He couldn’t get any more to pop, just that one. So we opened the bag to make sure it was for real, and it really did pop. I swear it did,” says Rudy. “Gustavo still has it. He carries the popped- kernel with him everywhere he goes now.”

  I shake my head and say, “I don’t know if I believe you.”

  “Let me continue, because that isn’t the end of the story. A few days later, Gustavo tells everyone who will listen he has a super power, and the Auxiliary Corps should let him join.”

  “He didn’t?.”

  “Yes, he did. And then he goes down to the Corps’ recruiting station and demands they should test him right away. He tells the recruiting officer he has a power, and he should be able to join immediately.”

  “Really? Why haven’t I heard this? Is this legit?” I ask, wanting to hear more of the story. I’ve known Gustavo to do some crazy stuff. He was someone we hung around with when we were kids. I had lost track of many of my old friends because I didn’t live in our neighborhood anymore, but Rudy still lives here and he still knows what’s going on.

  “Of course it happened. I was there with him. Gustavo somehow talked the Auxiliary Corps recruiting officer into believing he had an ability, and that he should be given the chance to demonstrate it,” says Rudy. He’s leaning back in his chair now and his shoulders have slid down a bit. His legs were always long, and he’s found a spot to stretch them out to accommodate their length.

  “This really happened?” I ask, still not sure if I believe Rudy at this point in his story. He has been known to tell stories that are bigger than they really are. But I’m enjoying talking to my brother, and I want him to continue. “Who was the recruiting officer at the Corps’ office?”

  “He didn’t tell me his name, but he was old and he wore a gold earring.”

  “Smitty. It must have been him. Gustavo got our toughest recruiting officer. He never believes anyone when they try to get recruited,” I say. I’m getting drawn into the story. “I’m sorry, please keep going.”

  “Well, Smitty doesn’t believe Gustavo from the beginning. And he sizes Gustavo up pretty fast. He knows this guy must be a little crazy, so he tells Gustavo he doesn’t need to fill out any of the paperwork because he doesn’t believe that he has an ability in the first place.”

  “I’m sure he wanted to get Gustavo out of there as soon as possible. Smitty probably gets a half dozen of those guy
s in there every day.”

  “Sure he can. His other ability is that he can talk people into anything, and the recruiting officer wasn’t immune to it. Gustavo just keeps telling him that it’s true and with his powers he can really cook food.”

  “I know Gustavo usually sells stolen cell phones, but he’s completely nuts,” I say. I roll my right shoulder back and try to take the pressure off of my back. As soon as I do, I’m ready to listen again.

  “Well, Gustavo brings his own bag of burnt microwave popcorn with him, but even the recruiting officer isn’t going to let Gustavo use his own food. But Smitty doesn’t have any popcorn, so instead he grabs some Chinese takeout leftovers from the night before. Smitty brings that out for him and tells Gustavo to heat it up because he’s getting hungry.

  “Gustavo tries to heat the Chinese takeout, but it isn’t going the way he hopes. Five minutes pass and the food isn’t any warmer. Ten minutes pass, and Smitty starts to tell him that not everyone has a power and it’s okay because not everyone has an ability and they live perfectly normal lives. He’s trying to let him down gently.

  “But Gustavo just doesn’t give up. Pretty soon, fifteen minutes have passed and still nothing. The recruiting officer tells him it’s time for his break, and his time is up.

  “Gustavo must have given one last push, found strength someplace, because that’s when it happened,” says Rudy. “I was really feeling bad for him, and I reached out and touched him on the shoulder. I told him, ‘Hey man, it’s going to be all right.’

  “But I can’t break his concentration, and he’s not listening to me. I look at Gustavo’s face and he’s not going to give up. I hear the recruiting officer say something, but I don’t know what he says, and then that’s when I smell it. It was burnt Chinese food. The whole box of Lo Mein had caught fire. It wasn’t like it was fireworks, but Smitty had to go and get a fire extinguisher to try to put it out.

  “That was only the beginning, because he kept going, and he kept cooking the Chinese food. He starts pulling all of the electricity out of the room and his energy is being fed directly into the Chinese food.

  “It freaked me out. Gustavo draws starts drawing the electricity out of the power sockets in the walls, out of the light bulbs, out of the computer, and I think he even took it out of my cell phone. The whole room goes pitch black, and all I can see is the burning box of Chinese food. At this point I’m scared, and I jump back. I look and now Gustavo is glowing. He lights up the room from all of the electricity he’s absorbed into his body. Smitty comes back with the fire extinguisher, but he won’t get any closer in case something else happens. It was really amazing. You should’ve been there. Who knew he’d be like a sponge? He was sponge of electricity. Sometimes I still don’t think it really happened. Anyway, it takes a few seconds for the lights to come back on, and that’s when Gustavo can’t hold on to the electricity any longer, and the electricity starts coming out of his fingers. It made him look like a Mr. Wizard or something, lightning bolts flying out of his hands. But I can see Gustavo is scared. I know something like this has never happened to him before, and he can’t control it. I dodge a couple of them and so does the recruiting officer,” says Rudy. “Luckily, neither one of us got killed.” He looks over to the kitchen sink..

  “I never heard about any of this. What happened next?” I ask. I can see that Rudy is still gripping an old dish towel he found on the table. He has its ends in both of his hands, and if it had been a chicken he would’ve twisted its neck clean off. He must have been scared just thinking about it. I’m still thinking about my brother going to the recruiting station with someone he wasn’t really friends with. Rudy has always been a planner, and I wonder why he’d gone with Gustavo.

  Rudy continues, “Like I said, I dodged two or three lightning bolts, and so did the recruiting officer. They were flying everywhere. But the last bolt hits Smitty’s computer and it was strong enough to knock it off of his desk and smash it against the floor. Well, by that time a few of the big boys in the back had come running out. They had their guns drawn and they see Smitty under his desk, me in the corner, and finally they see Crazy Gustavo standing in the middle of the room shaking like a scared puppy.

  “The lights have come back on. There must have been a generator in the back,” says Rudy. He has a worried look on his face.

  If I were to ask him directly he wouldn’t have admitted he had been scared, but I think I knew know my brother well enough to know when he wa’s putting on a good face.

  “There are video cameras in the back; they were probably watching the interview the whole time. They aren’t always sure what is going to happen at a first meeting with a candidate. Can you imagine the first time they saw Smokey change into a bear? I saw it in a training exercise, and I had been warned. It still frightened me,” I say. I’m concerned for Rudy, and I wish that the Auxiliary Corps had notified me that my baby brother was at the interview with Smitty. I don’t know why they didn’t let me know, but sometimes their reasons weren’t aren’t always clear to me. “I’m sure they were getting bored waiting for the Chinese food to do something. So why did you really go down to the Corps’ offices with Gustavo? It’s not like you guys are close.”

  Rudy looks around, and I almost think he’s looking for a way to tell a lie, but no, I don’t think he does. “That’s what the recruiting officer asked when I came with Gustavo,” he says. “He takes me aside first and tells me, “Son, you can’t go in there. These interviews with potential candidates are private. We don’t know what will happen in there, and no one knows if we can keep you safe.”

  “So how did you talk him into it?”

  “I talked him into it by asking him what his talent was,” says Rudy. He tells me it’s classified. I tell him I’m an enhancer, I can make those around me better, stronger, faster. I also told him I was your brother, and he seemed impressed. So finally he says he’s curious to see for himself.”

  “You’re an enhancer? So you can make everyone’s talent better?” I ask. I never thought anyone else in my family had a talent, but now I find out Rudy has two. iIt has been known to run in families. There were many siblings who have talents, and it wasn’t unheard of for parents and children to have talents and abilities the Auxiliary Corps could use. Sometimes those talents were the same, and sometimes they weren’t. I began to wonder if Anna and America had some hidden talents. Did my parents have talents when they were alive? Did my grandmother? I start to get dizzy thinking about all of the possibilities. “Why didn’t you tell me all this before?” I finally ask Rudy.

  “I guess I wanted to see for myself. I wasn’t sure, but I knew it was true when I touched Gustavo on the shoulder. I guess it was embarrassing,” he says answering me like a teenager.

  “I guess I have always known you have had abilities, but just because you do, it doesn’t mean you should join the Corps. You should do something less risky,” I say.

  “Nope. I’m like you. I want something more physical. I want to be special and important,” he says, not listening to me.

  “Would it work for me? Help me?” I ask, thinking about Spike or the Beretta Tomcat on my skin.

  “I don’t think so. I don’t think it could help Smokey either, but your friend Daphnia, I might have been able to help her,” he says. “I know the two of you were close, I’m sorry about what happened to her.”

  I begin to think he might be right, and his enhancing power might have helped Daphnia, but there’s nothing his enhancements can do for me. He can’t make my tattoos work any better. But there were others in the Corps who could benefit from his abilities, and other squads would want him bad. The more I think about it, there are others outside the Corps who might want my brother to help them. The Beat could become the greatest villain of all time with Rudy’s help. There would be no one that could stand up to the powers of his poetry if he became stronger. I knew if Rudy passed his indoctrination into the Auxiliary Corps, the Hero Corps would recruit him promptly.

/>   Now that The Old Hippie is dead, I know other patrols were moved to our section of the city. The Beat had come out the winner in both of our encounters. He had recruited the help of the Black Shirt and become a force to be reckoned with. There might be no stopping the two of them, at least not by Smokey and me.

  I look at my brother, and I am determined to finish our conversation. He has grown up, and now Rudy is no longer the little boy I remember. He’s a young man trying to find his own direction in life. I don’t know if I can help him because I haven’t even figured out my own life yet. At least I could listen to him. To get the conversation started again, I ask him, “Do you know who you are named after?”

  “I guess I’m named after Papa,” he says. “Just like he was named after his father. You should’ve been named Rudy. You’re older, why weren’t you named after our father?”

  “I don’t know why I wasn’t, but you don’t remember him, our dad, do you?” I ask. “He was a big man. He might have been the biggest man in the neighborhood. I think we both take after Mama. She was tiny.”

  “I remember him,” says my brother. I don’t know if I believe him or not because I know he was still a baby when Papa died. Doubtful, but maybe he does.

  “He was mostly a good man, but he did have a temper. There was a time I saw him punch out the window of a delivery truck when he was teaching me how to ride a bike on the street because it had gotten too close. I don’t think he was afraid of anything, but I do remember him getting mad. He was very protective,” I say.

  “It doesn’t matter,” he says. “At least you have more memories of him than I do. I don’t remember too much about him. Mama, I remember plenty about her. What else do you remember about him?”

  “I don’t know,” I say shrugging my shoulders slightly. “Most of the time I get mad at him because he’s dead. It’s not his fault that he was killed, but I still think there is was something he might have done to stay alive so he could’ve seen us grow up. Mostly I wish he was still alive and so he could have been there for Mama. I remember her crying most every night after he died. I know she was sad for the rest of her life.”