Part 50 (2/2)
Jason stood on a small stool while Audrey took measurements for his legs. He finally agreed on a costume design and asked her to make it for him. She didn't ask any questions as to what made him have the change of heart. Audrey only thanked him, told him how great it was going to be, and started in on it right away. In fact, all she had left to do was make his pants and cape.
This is embarra.s.sing. I mean, I'm grateful to her for making the outfit, but I wish there was an easier way...or a way that didn't involve me standing up on a pedestal like an idiot.
”So when am I going to see this costume in action?” she asked him.
As soon as it's done.
”Once it's finished.”
She smiled and told him she couldn't wait to see it. Audrey measured his thigh, quickly scribbled down a number, and moved on to measure his waist. ”So, can I ask what made you change your mind?”
”About becoming a hero?”
”Yes.”
”Well,” he took a breath and told her that he could fly.
”What?” she nearly shouted. ”You can fly? Jason! That's, that's amazing!”
This is the reaction I was afraid of.
Jason said it wasn't anything special. ”Besides, once I was airborne I fell.”
”You fell?”
He cleared his throat and told her he did.
”How far down was it?”
”I'm not sure. Maybe one or two kilometers at most.”
”And you didn't die?”
He shook his head. Obviously not. If I had you and I wouldn't be talking now. ”No. I crashed and was perfectly fine.”
”Then does that mean you have another power you didn't realize you had?”
He nodded. A few actually. ”Yeah, actually...” Jason went on to tell her about the situation he faced when he climbed back to his feet. He told her about being shot, watching the bullets fly past him in slow motion, his ability to run faster than bullets, and how he destroyed the gun in his bare hand. ”Then the girl thanked me, asked what my name was, and I told her it was Ilion.”
Audrey was nearly speechless. ”Jason! You're a hero! Oh my word, I mean, it's terrible that someone nearly mugged that girl, but you saved her! That's”
”I know, amazing.”
”It is Jason,” she told him. ”Don't act like it isn't.”
It's not though, and that's the problem. I saved someone, that's what you're supposed to do. It isn't heroic; it's just what should be expected. And if those two p.r.i.c.ks who call themselves heroes actually did what they claim to do then I wouldn't have needed to save that girl at all. I'm only picking up after adolescents who don't know how to live properly in this world.
He stepped off of the footstool and took a seat on the bed. Jason set his head in his hands and told her he didn't want to be a hero. ”I really wish this world didn't need someone like me to save the day. I wish everyone was capable of taking care of themselves and were willing to look out for one another.”
”They aren't though, Jason.”
”And that's why I hate the fact that I need to be a hero,” he told her. ”All I'm doing is babysitting these people who are incapable of governing themselves within the confines of their own lives. They prey on one another, they're inconsiderate, and they conspire against one another, and I detest it.”
”We all do.”
”But you aren't going to be the one out there, stopping it all on a daily basis.” He glared at the floor and muttered, ”They shouldn't need me.”
Audrey took a seat next to him and asked if he'd rather leave London in the hands of the Human t.i.tan and Captain Density. ”They aren't going anywhere, even though they're out in London for different reasons.”
The idea only made Jason cringe and feel worse about his role as a protector of London. ”Those two buffoons are only going to exacerbate matters if they're left alone.”
”Exactly.” Audrey turned his head toward her and looked him in the eyes and told him, ”You're going to change the world and influence billions of people, so don't think that you aren't making the world a better place.”
She's right. The world is filled with bad people, filled with laziness and deceit, but maybe it can change. I mean, if it can become corrupt, can't it cleanse itself too? Audrey, you know what I need to hear. Thank you.
Jason kissed and thanked her. ”So what else do you need from me so you can finish this outfit?”
9:15 PM.
Baltimore, Maryland Mia stood in her kitchen and glanced through a list of fifteen possible targets Cladis could attempt to kill in two days. Her contact from the park gave her a clue that cut her workload severely though, as the next victim would need to have AB negative blood. Unfortunately none of the fifteen people she originally believed to be at risk had the blood type. She hadn't told anyone about the blood pattern. Her ragged friend never said a word about the small taskforce devoted to stopping Cladis and as such she waited to say anything to her team before consulting him.
Their group hadn't made any progress since Detective Sage's death, but the stranger Mia met already knew more than their group did and worked off of less as well. It wasn't as if Mia didn't trust the others, it was only that her contact proved to be more efficient than the four in her squad combined, and she didn't want to betray that trust her contact held with her.
”Do you ever intend on cleaning this place up?”
Mia swore and instinctively went for her gun, though she left it with her badge on a small end table next to her front door. She looked up and found the tattered man who acted as her contact in the middle of her living room with his eyes on her mess of an apartment.
”How the h.e.l.l did you get in here?” she barked.
He didn't say. ”Have you found the next target?”
”No.”
”Why not?”
”I'm not working with very much to begin with,” she reminded him.
He nodded and told her he was sorry about that. ”If there was anything else I could give you I would, but there isn't, not right now at least.”
”Is there anything else?”
He nodded. ”How well do you know everyone you work with?”
”What are you asking me?”
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