Between Heroes and Villains

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I didn't see him again for another three hours. I heard him. There was a constant buzzing of tools while a speaker somewhere played Rush songs. When he came out again the dents of his helmet seemed repaired.

"You're still awake?" He said, his vocal modulator not quite fully to its usual booming self but not far off.

"I was hoping I could go home. I have work in the morning."

"Don't worry they know you're- well, indisposed at the moment."

"Indisposed? Is that what would call it? You threatened to kill me!"

He looked at me and through the slits in his helmet, I saw what looked like sadness in his eyes.

"I won't harm you. I just, I just can't have you leaving yet. Not before I finish the serum."

"What are you talking about? Is this some sort of game to you?"

He took a few steps towards me. He started to say something and then stopped himself. He just stood there motionless. And then he did something I didn't expect. Something else I didn't expect. He took off his helmet.

I don't know what I was expecting to be under there. An old guy with a scarred face I guess. But no, it was a kid, probably not even old enough to buy booze. He had blonde hair, blue eyes, and a fearful look on his face.

"This is all sort of a game." He said, now in a voice that suited an app developer, not a criminal mastermind. "Let me introduce myself. I'm Jacob." He put out a hand.

"Okay, Jacob." I didn't take his hand. "It's nice to met you, now can you tell me why the hell I'm here?"

He frowned. "Because it makes better news."

"What?"

He came closer, pulling up a chair from the kitchen bar. "It's a long story. I can tell you, but you have to know you won't remember any of it."

He wasn't making any sense. None of this was making sense. "Go ahead."

He took a deep breath.

"It started about four years ago. My brother Dustin and I were freshmen at MIT. He's a few years older than me but we're both pretty bright, me a bit more so." When I didn't say anything so he continued. "Well one night, I was sitting in my dorm, when Dustin busts in, drunk, spouting something about micro evolution and jumping the shark. For the next four hours, we stayed up talking about theories of stretching the human body to its limits and ways to bypass those limits. And the conversation didn't stop there. We continued talking about it, obsessing about it, and coming up with stupid impossible plans.

"For the first time in I don't know how long, I had my brother back. He'd been kind of pissed at me for getting accepted into his dream school at 14 and getting a full ride too. And though the idea of making ourselves super-human was foley it was fun to conspire together. And at some point, that conception turned to trial. We discovered a gene we could manipulate by splicing it with a protein we synthesized in a lab." He saw my eyes glaze over a bit. "We made a superhero serum."

"You? A 14-year-old kid and your brother."

"Well to be fair, I was 15 at the time."

"Okay, so what? Did it work?"

"Not how we wanted. At least not at first. Our trial runs with rats were promising. We thought we made one go invisible. Turns out it just got out. And then one day we came into the lab to find one rat floating in its cage. It had worked. Immeditially we wanted to try human trails but Dustin thought it was too dangerous. Me in my excitement and my hubris I thought we were ready. I was wrong. I exposed myself to the chemical we'd synthesized. I injected it into my leg. The effects were immediate. I felt strong and even floated off the ground a bit. But then a deep pulsing came from within me. Suddenly all the veins in my body felt as though they were on fire. I screamed so loud Dustin had to knock me out, so I wouldn't draw attention to our semi illegal dorm room science project.

"It took me about a week to recover. In that time the blood around the injection site had completely stop circulating. So much so that my leg had to be amputated." At this he knocked at his left leg. The sound it made was metal and hollow. "My brother explained to the hospital that he'd found me under a bookcase that had me pinned for hours. They bought it. When I came to, the strength was gone. The ability of flight was gone. All that remained was a dumb kid who lost his leg.

"We gave up after that. We were so close but after losing my leg I just couldn't bring myself to see the point. And Dustin was so guilty he could barely talk to me. So time went by. I continued to go to class, buried myself in my studies, and forgot about it. Until one day, I realized something was different. I was looking at my reflection in the mirror and noticed I could process fast. So fast that in five seconds I counted every hair on my head (146,798 in case you're wondering). I could do advanced calculations in my head as if they were 1+2. I could taste color. I'd been smart before but now it was like I was a computer.

"So naturally, I went back to the formula. I perfected it. And I presented it to Dustin. He tried it. He became strong. He became fast. He could fly."

"He became Grado."

"You catch on quickly Ms. Temple. One month later he dawned tights and started fighting crime. And me? Well, I never heard from again."

"What a jerk."

"Yeah. Among other things. And so, after the fourth time Grado had been given the key the city I got an idea. A way of showing the world he wasn't so damn indestructible and perfect."

"So you became Black Saigon."

"I was never too crazy about the name. I guess that's what happens when you attack your nemesis while he's eating at a Vietnamese restaurant."

"But Grado- Dustin, he's your brother, right? Why haven't you just talked to him?"

"There you go, spouting off the logic. Fair and balanced reporting as always. I've tried. On many occasions. When I'm Saigon, he listens to me. We talk. We fight, but we spend time together."

"But you hurt people."

"No, I've never hurt anyone. Just his ego. Just Grado's ego. My goal is to disgrace the hero and free my brother."

If this was just a grudge match why was I here? "And how do I figure into that?"

He sighed and stood up. We went back into his workshop and came out with a green mixture. He held it up to me.

"This is why you're here."

"You're going to give me powers?"

"No, it's not that kind of serum. This will make you forget. And it'll make you remember exactly what I want you to remember. To remember how I brought you to my evil liar and threw you into a cage with only a bucket to piss in. Then how Grado showed up and you heard us talking. You overheard about the fight we staged on 3rd street and how it'd make him even more of a renown hero than the bus crash we caused three years ago just so he could save people in front of an audience."

"Why? Why do you want to do this?" I ask, backing away.

"I just want my brother back. And the world already has enough heroes without upping the ante with powers. If it's any comfort I predict this plan, and the resulting memoir you'll be publishing about it, will snag you a lot of money. You'll even get a Pulitzer and a movie about your ordeal."

"But I won't remember this at all?" I say, holding my purse close.

"It'll be like you woke up from a nap. I'll give you the serum, tell you what you need to know, and let you go downtown as if you somehow bravely escaped. You'll be a hero."

"Please, don't so this to me. Don't make a pawn in your feud."

"I'm sorry Julie. But it's already done."

He threw the vial at my feet, the glass shattering on impact. Green smog entered my lungs and I started coughing heavily. And then suddenly the coughing ceases and I'm calm.

"Julie?"

"Yes, Jacob?"

"You will forget everything that's happened the last few hours okay?"

"Okay, Jacob."