Chapter Twenty-Four - The Ropes

Melanie... Melaton? Emily still wasn’t sure how to address the woman. It didn’t really matter, she figured. Either way, she seemed to know where she was going and took off with a steady stride as if expecting Emily to keep up.

She had to jog to catch up. Melaton might have been half a head shorter than Emily, but that didn’t mean that it was easy keeping pace with her. Emily couldn’t decide between walking quickly and jogging to stay even.

“You’ve never been out and about, right?” Melaton asked.

“N-not really,” Emily said. “Um. You mean in costume, right?”

“Obviously,” she said before reaching up and rubbing at her chin. “Right. This’ll suck. I’m not the sort of person you’d want teaching you the ropes.”

“That’s... okay?” Emily tried. “I don’t really want to be a, um, public hero or anything. I just want to lead my life.”

“Hmph. Yeah, that’s fair. Can’t even blame you. Chasing after villains is a mess, dealing with corporations a nightmare, and Endgames are complete shit.”

“You’ve been to some?” Emily asked.

Melaton didn’t reply for a while. “So, there are four paths you can take, for being a hero, I mean. There are probably more than that, but it’s easier to break them down, you know?”

“R-right.”

They reached the end of the alley and Melaton stepped out into the foot traffic without so much as slowing down. Emily stumbled and stuttered after her, aware of every eye turning their way, of the expressions of surprise appearing on the faces of those around them and of the phones coming out of pockets to snap pictures.

“Um... um, uh.” Emily said intelligently.

Teddy grabbed her hand and squeezed it. A look down at the big brown eyes half-hidden by a cartoonish mask reassured Emily that she wasn’t entirely alone.

“Get used to it,” Melaton said. “And never slow down or they’ll start thinking that they can stop you for pictures and autographs and all that. It’s not worth it, trust me. Even after knocking out the first ten idiots who think that being in costume means that they can grab a pinch they still don’t learn.”

“W-what?!” Emily squeaked. Did people really do that? No, of course they did. She walked faster to stay close to the heroine.

“There are four paths, like I was saying,” Melaton said. “The first and probably the easiest at the start is to just join the Heroic Response Force. They’ve got training and all that sort of stuff. Their contracts are kind of shit, the pay isn’t all that great but it’s government work so the benefits are alright. They kind of demand that you participate in any Endgame that’s in the country though, and they’re pretty heavily linked to the army.”

“Um,” Emily said. “I thought the army couldn’t have people with powers?” she asked. It had been a big point in her history class.

“You drank the kool-aid if you think even a single country actually does more than pay lip service to that,” Melaton said. “If you want to actually make a difference then the government’s a dead end. You practically need to fill out forms in triplicate to save someone from a burning building.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Emily said.

She shrugged. “It is what it is. We’re crossing here.”

The heroine stepped out into traffic, the cars in either lane slowing to a sudden stop as she just marched across the street.

Emily bit her lower lip at the casual jaywalking, but the nearest pedestrian crossing was halfway down the block and the peer pressure was mounting and Melaton was getting away and... and so she ran after the heroine with one hand over her head to keep her hat on and the other pulled Teddy along.

“So that’s one option,” Melaton said. “The other big one is going corporate. Just as much paperwork, but you just need to hire an agent and a lawyer to do it all for you. The pay is incredible too. I pull in six-figures. The problem is that the pay matches the level of risk you take, and you need to be out in public a lot. One big screw up can ruin your career, and it’s not like you can just rebrand.”

“That sounds, um, interesting?”

“Meh. There’re a lot of PR stunts and meet and greets and all that. Most corporations have entire teams that keep you looking presentable and coaches to teach you how to speak and all that. No swearing out in public either. That’s a pain in the ass.”

“Uh,” Emily said. She didn’t want to point out the hypocrisy there.

Melaton gestured to a building across the street, one that had a large billboard mounted to its side with an entire team of heroes. Emily recognized Silver Fox and Melaton, of course. There were a few more besides. Wither, who had a rose in his mouth, and White Knight in his knightly armour and Peacemaker in her nurse-like outfit. Emily didn’t recognize the half dozen others.

“That kind of ad? That’s expensive as hell, but it sells your image, and then you can use that image to sell other crap. Only works if your powers are flashy or if you’ve got the personality for it.” Melaton said.

“Oh,” Emily said. “Then, um, maybe it’s not for me.”

“Yeah, you seem the sort to fold in front of a crowd. Not that there isn’t a place for that kind of personality. Some guys really get their jollies off to the shy sort of girl.”

Emily’s face flamed.

“But yeah, I figure you’d namic the first time you forget someone’s name at a conference or something,” Melaton said. She pointed to another alleyway and walked in without so much as pausing. “The other options aren’t all that great.” Her voice echoed through the tight little passage.

“O-oh?” Emily asked.

“You can become a freelancer. That’s like a corporate goon like me, but you do everything on your own. That’s kind of locking you into being a B-rater forever. Some manage to go big anyway. Wi-Fire is a household name and he does all his own advertising and all that.”

Emily nodded along. “Okay.”

Melaton arrived at the end of the alley and stepped onto another street without pause. “Then there’s the last option. The one we’re doing right now.”

“What’s that?” Teddy asked.

Melaton looked down at Teddy. At some point the woman had covered her lower face up with her mask and Emily hadn’t noticed at all. “Vigilantism. Taking things into your own hands, government and laws be damned.”

Emily squeezed Teddy’s hand. Their walk turned quiet for a long bit. They crossed another street, then slipped through another alleyway. The area changed. The buildings went from mostly commercial to commercial with a sprinkling of normal apartment complexes mixed in.

Eauclaire was a nice city, with a decently large population. The college helped, as did the large Trans-Anadian highway crossing through the bottom half of the city keeping commercial traffic high.

It was meant to be a rather well-off city. That didn’t mean that it didn’t have rougher sections.

The buildings they were crossing took on an ugly look. Graffiti covering their walls and more and more often there were homes with boarded over windows and closed down shops dotted along the street.

It was the kind of area she would have avoided normally. She didn’t expect it to only be a few blocks over from all the shops and malls.

“This is Homie’s area,” Melaton said. “Look sharp, alright?”

“Oh, okay?” Emily said. She didn’t know how to look sharp, but she’d try.

“What are we looking for?” Teddy asked. “Like, villains and stuff?”

Melaton snorted. “I doubt it. Villains don’t last long here.”

“They don’t?” Emily asked.

The heroine shook her head. “Nah. Think about it, how many new heroes do we get every Power Day?”

“I, I don’t know?”

“Here? Two or three. Twice as many people that just want to mind their own business. And as for villains? Maybe one every other year or so. They don’t have time to get strong before they’re completely swamped by heroes. It’s why it’s so damned hard to get stronger. The best quests are those against an opponent of equal or greater strength. Being a hero gives few opportunities in that regard.”

“Oh,” Emily said.

What did that mean for her? Other than that she had a lot of people who would be gunning for her if she messed up. That... wasn’t ideal.

“We’re here,” Melaton said.

***