Vigilante | ✔

Part VI: Post-Crisis

When Eli was younger, he loved reading comic books. He could still remember his mother taking him to get the latest issue. Apparently, she figured it was a good thing if it made him read.

Eli could recall the eagerness with which he flipped through the colorful pages, reading through it quickly to find out what would happen to his favorite hero. He remembered his childish awe at each heroic — and silly at times, now that he thought about it — line of dialogue the hero delivered and the mix of disappointment and anticipation he felt when the last page had been read. At the time, the idea of someone fighting for justice — sometimes without even having super powers — seemed amazing.

It lost its appeal once Eli got old enough to realize that super heroes weren't real. He supposed it happened around the time kids at school decided they didn't like his hair. Of course, that didn't last, because Eli always knew when and how to defend himself.

And then he met Matthew.

As annoying as he could be, Eli would admit to himself that he did do a fair bit of good things. He helped people, he knew that. Matthew — as Vigilante — did things that the police couldn't manage, and he did them because he wanted to. Because it was the right thing to do. Eli could respect that.

He just wished it wasn't so damn dangerous — especially now that he knew he actually cared about Matthew. It certainly wasn't helping that he hadn't seen the man in days.

The last time he had actually seen Matthew, it had been on the night Eli had patched him up after he'd gotten shot. He'd been gone all too soon and Eli hadn't seen either Matthew or his alter ego since then. That wasn't to say that he didn't hear anything about him.

There weren't many details — because this was Vigilante they were talking about — but the news liked to keep people talking about their biggest story. What Eli heard didn't really make him happy. It seemed that Matthew wasn't the type to be held back by something as insignificant as a near death experience. Figures.

Even with a gunshot wound, he'd somehow managed to find the guys that had shot him — something Eli didn't really agree with. The men ended up in the hands of the police with a couple of bumps and bruises that served as a testament to who had caught them. They looked entirely unimpressive and Eli had to wonder how they had managed to hurt Matthew.

They were just a couple of thieves that got lucky, and maybe that just served to piss Eli off even more. It also made him wonder what would happen the next time some idiot got lucky. How many times would Matthew have to get hurt before his luck ran out.

There was a frown on his face as he glanced at the television hanging on the wall, in the corner of the coffee shop. After having caught the thieves, Matthew hadn't been back behind the mask and Eli didn't know if that was good or bad. The best he could hope for was that the man had decided to do the sensible thing and stayed home.

Eli paused in his task of cleaning a table when Vigilante was mentioned in the news. As much as he didn't like to admit it, he was hoping for news of Matthew — good news. There was nothing though, and the reporters just discussed their theories about what could have happened to the masked man.

"Wonder what happened to the guy," Michael said from behind the counter. He leaned on the cool surface of it and looked up at the news, with a slight frown. Eli knew Michael was what could be considered a fan of Matthew's alter ego. He'd always defended Vigilante whenever Eli said something unflattering about him — which was very often. It was only to be expected that he would keep up with the news about the masked man.

"He's probably just hiding out somewhere," Eli said, going back to wiping down tables. "It's what he did last time he got his ass kicked." At least, that was what Eli hoped. If Matthew was just licking his wounds somewhere then he could accept that. He'd still be pissed off, but it was better than the other alternatives.