B.E.C.K.Y.: Am I A Superhero?

And Then It Happened

I have to admit, I enjoyed being the unknown hero.

For the next three weeks, the news covered the shark attack while many speculated as to who, or what, had rescued the girls and brought them safely to shore. Some people said it was a good samaritan. Some said it was an angel. Others said it was someone from Atlantis. And some said it must have been some kind of alien being.

That one struck a little too close to home. But most people put that idea in the same category as the Atlantean one, so I felt fairly safe still.

Becky did not.

He stressed, tried to calm down, and stressed again. For a mechanical construct, he was incredibly human!

My workouts became more intense, leaving me sweating and exhuasted by the end every time. He pushed me to work till I dropped, then pushed me to do it again!

If I said I was irritated by this, I would be understating the fact!

*You brought this on yourself by choosing to do something that could bring agents down on us!* Was the response every time I complained. He may have agreed that saving the girls was the right thing to do, but that did not mean he was willing to forgive and forget it!

So, I worked at the Wing Chun Dummy, fought combat mannequins, exercised and ran the obstacle course until I was nearly comatose from the effort. 

The thought may have occured at times, that it would have been better if I had let Goliath take a chomp out of the girl!

I think it was about five weeks after the event, when things had started to die down, that I had my first real scare for my new life.

I had just taken an evening swim, passing by a still healthy Goliath as I did. The big tiger shark watched me swim past, and I swear he knew it was me who had disrupted his meal a few weeks before. I may have put an extra burst of speed on as I passed him by, just to be sure.

I had showered and pulled on a pair of black sweat pants and a grey athletic shirt, and Becky and I were discussing what we were going to work on that evening; I had taken an interest in cooking lately, and I was working through different regions of the world. My current focus was on the cuisine in Thailand. Sure, Becky could probably just zap the information into my head, but I wanted to learn it the usual way. No sense letting my ability to think for myself go to waste!

A knock at the door interrupted our discussion.

A quick check of the security camera screen showed two people, a man and a woman, dressed in casual clothing, but wearing badges on their belts standing on the front porch.

My heart froze in my chest.

*I am not going to say I told you so.* Becky humphed in my head, sounding smug, scared, and angry all at once.

"Shut up. Not a word from you while they are here."

*Oh, believe me, I am going to be as silent as the grave we are both about to be in!*

Yes, Becky can be that nasty.

They greeted me with a smile, introducing themselves as Detectives Martins, the man, and Juarez, the female. Both had a Hispanic look to them which, it being Florida, home to Little Cuba, was not too surprising. Their posture and facial expressions were casual, suggesting that they were just passing through and not really focusing on me for anything overly serious.

They had a few questions for me, about the incident with the shark attack five weeks back. I had been spotted as being in the crowd on a street camera and, as they were interviewing all the others, they were now doing so with me. It was not big deal, just trying to find out who the Good Samaritan was that saved the girls. We spoke for a few minutes, and I established where I had been, and what time I had been there, suggesting which waitress they could speak with and saying I often went there for dinner.

"Thank you, Mr. Shane." Juarez said with a professionally kind smile. She had beautiful dark eyes, and she clearly knew how to use them to keep one's attention. "You have been very helpful. Could I ask one last thing? Why did you stop to see what was going on?"

I shrugged, doing my best to look at ease and calm. 

"Morbid curiosity? I was passing by and saw the crowd, so I was curious as to what had happened. I know shark attacks have occurred at that beach before and, when I saw people looking out at the beach, I wondered if that was what had happened."

My explanation sounded plausible to me. I just hoped Martins and Juarez bought it.

It seemed like they did, as they thanked me for my time, tucked away their notebooks, and headed back to their car. I watched them leave for a moment, that seemed like the thing most people would do, then closed the door.

And almost fell back against the door as a wave of dizziness and weakness came over me as the adrenaline bled out of me. Oh man, that was close! I hoped I pulled it off.

*I will make arrangements for travel to a new destination.*

What?!

*If the police are here, it will not be long before government agencies send their people. We must leave!*

"If we leave now, we might as well just walk into the police station and confess that I am the one who rescued those girls!"

*So the strategy is to stay and try to appear innocent.*

"Exactly."

*Well, just in case, I have alternate personas prepared if we need to make a rapid departure.*

Gee, paranoid much?

*You do not know what they did to me!*

Okay, struck a chord there! His mental shout sent a stab of pain through my skull, making me wince and clutch my head.

"Hey! Ease off!"

I swear I heard him take a deep calming breath.

*I am sorry, Jonathan. But they invaded my programming, tried to take me over, control me, and make me into something I was never intended to be. It was the equivalent of being a prisoner of war to you. How would that have made you feel, if it was done to you?*

Yeah, I could understand how he would be mad, hurt, scared, and paranoid after all that!

"Sorry, Becky, I didn't realize it had been that bad for you." I moved to the mirror, my way of establishing that I was really trying to connect with him, and looked my reflection in the eyes.  I tried to use my eyes to show Becky how I felt about what had happened. Rape was something I did not want to think about it, and knowing something similar had happened to someone I considered a friend was more than upsetting.

"Becky?"

*Yes?*

Eye contact.

"Let's make sure they never get their hands on us, okay?"

A sense of relief, and a warm feeling I could not identify passed through me. I guess it was Becky's equivalent of a hug. it felt pretty nice, and I could not help but smile slightly as I experienced it.

*If you are agreeable, then this may be a good time to move on to Phase Two.*

Okay, curiosity heightened.

"What's Phase Two?"

*Defensive and Offensive protocols."

Did a smile curve my lips?

Oh yes, yes it did!