Doc Masterson and the Prisoner of Time, Chapter 10

Doc Masterson’s been in the superhero game for most of his life. But his powers are more dependable than his mental health. After returning from upstate, his visits Isabel in the hospital…

Chapter 10 – Pep Talks

I arrived in the city later that night and headed straight to Mary’s Mercy hospital where Isabel had been admitted after her ass-kicking. When I got there she was a fucking mess.  She was not attended by the hospital’s doctors but by the Apparatus’s own physicians.  Isabel’s anatomy was rather unconventional; no one quite knew how her muscles conjured up the strength she wielded.  Then there were her reflexes, which were, in some cases, five times faster than the average human. Though they were little help that day.

When I found her she was laying in bed and listening to her music on earphones.  When she saw me she pulled them out.

“Hey, Doc,” she said, weakly. 

I could tell her supposedly indomitable spirit had been broken. “What are you listening to?” I asked.

“Nine Inch Nails,” she replied.

“Really?  I listened to them when I was your age too.”

“Did you?”

“Yeah.”

She turned away.  “I guess you aren’t that old after all.”

I was surprised myself. “Yeah I guess not.”

She started to cry.  “I fucked up,” she murmured. 

“No you didn’t.”

“I did!  I just wasn’t thinking.  Now look at me!”

The poor girl.  It was bound to happen to her eventually.  It happens to everybody that wants to be a hero out there.  Eventually you are going to get really hurt.  I had to remind myself though that she was only fourteen.  I felt pissed that the Apparatus was using this kid for their ambiguous plans. Sadly, she believed the crap they were selling her and she believed in what she was doing.  It was useless.

“Has Paul been here yet?” I asked.

“No, he has been meeting with the president. He said he would come later.”

Paul would calm her down, one way or another.  Who knew how long he would be, sometimes a president could take forever to submit to the plan.  I decided to take the matter into my own hands. 

“Did you ever hear of Gargantua?”

“No,” Isabel replied. 

“He was a giant.  Twenty feet tall.  Lord knows where he came from or what he was.  He was invincible, practically.  Well one day when some friends and I were rescuing miners in the hills of Pennsylvania, we came across and woke Gargantua up.  He had been sleeping underground for who knows how long.

“We knew we had to stop him before he came to any densely populated areas. We alerted Violet Russell, who was just 200 miles away.  Of course Violet immediately headed for the mine.  It took her all of two minutes to reach us, and when she had, she speared through the giant’s stomach.  Didn’t even slow down. She came out in a giant cloud of green blood.

“Gargantua just laughed.  Violet wheeled around through the air, built up even more speed, and flew right at him again. This time though he caught her in his hands.  Violet is strong.  Very strong.  But she was not stronger than Gargantua. He clenched his fist, crushing her.  I will never forget the sound of Violet’s scream.”

“Did that really happen?” Isabel asked.

“It did.  He didn’t kill her though.  She was in the hospital for six weeks.”

“Really?”

“Really.  So don’t let it get you down, kid.  Everybody runs into somebody stronger than them.  You can’t win all the time.”

Isabel did not respond.  She leaned back and closed her eyes.  “I am very tired.”

“Okay, Isabel,” I said.  “I’ll check up on you tomorrow.”

“Bye.”

How many times had I given young superheroes that same speech, only to bury them a couple years later?

After I left Isabel I wondered if Thousand Dragon Fist was still nearby.  I headed up to the roof, and sure enough, he was there, looking down at the city, eating a burrito with his Buddha mask half-lifted. I had known for a long time that the Fist was a black man – it was sort of an open secret. But other than that, no one I knew was aware of his real identity. 

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey.”

“Your girl in there is pretty stupid,” the Fist said.

“Her heart is in the right place,” I countered. 

The Fist gave me a dubious look. “You mean, in her chest?”

I can’t believe I was defending the Apparatus’s use of Isabel. “She’s super.”

“But she’s not a hero, Masterson.  Can’t you tell?” He drew in a deep breath and stuffed the burrito wrapper into a pocket in his costume. “You’re going to die working for the Apparatus.”

“I’m not working for them,” I said.  “I’m working with them.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“I’m volunteering.”

“So… because you’re working with an evil organization out of the kindness of your heart, your conscience is guilt-free.”

“There’s room on the roster,” I offered.

Thousand Dragon Fist laughed bitterly. “Never,” he said.  “I work alone, and I work here.  I have my little world that I protect and that’s that. Besides,” he chuckled.  “I’m not really super.”

“But you are a hero,” I told him. 

“Maybe,” he mused.  “I do my best, that is all.”

“Why don’t you join us? You would if you knew what we are up against.”

“Do you know what you’re up against?  I have a feeling you don’t. You know, Paul Drake visited me too about a month ago.” The Fist scratched his ear through his mask. “Trying to recruit me.  I heard the whole spiel.  Didn’t believe it then and I don’t believe it now.”

“We don’t know what could happen.”

“How is that different from any other point in history? Seriously? I can’t deal with your problems out there.  I have problems right here that need dealing with, every day.  The answer is no, Masterson.”

He jumped off the roof and vanished into the shadows of the city.

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 119/14/2021

Not much of an update today. But I did post the final chapter of “The Prophecy of Carson McCullers” on Medium, here:

The Prophecy of Carson McCullers, Chapter 3, Conclusion

Thanks for reading.

Matt