Once I finished up with Officer Paulson, I spent the time until Gilpatrick was done talking with the cops sorting out my notes, then trying to write at least a few paragraphs of something comprehensible for my final paper. I couldn't really relate it directly to History, of course, but seeing a real live current generation Super in action couldn't hurt. Also, there had been our discussion yesterday and earlier today which had some good information. Not to mention some of the things he'd said prompting new questions.

It took a while for Gilpatrick to finish up with Officer Johns. A bit part of that had to be his storytelling. I'd hear Officer Johns quietly ask something, then Gilpatrick reply with a whole tale. I couldn't hear much of what those tales were about, and had no idea what the questions had been, but at some points Gilpatrick had stood up and acted out part of his stories, and only one of those seemed to have anything to do with his fight against Soldier of Misfortune. After a long while he stood up and walked the three officers to the door, waving good bye to them as they left. Then he came back over to me, sat down, and finished off his breakfast like nothing had happened.

"I'm a little bit surprised they didn't take you down to the station or anything."

He shook his head, swallowed, and said, "In a small town like this? They're only gonna do that if they really think you're the culprit or think they need to keep you out of circulation for a little bit." He held is hands in front of him, palms pressed together, and laughingly said, "I'm the picture of innocence, so they decided it wasn't worth their time."

I snorted a laugh. "And Officer Johns is an old Army buddy?"

He shook his head, that joyous smile making an appearance. "Nope. He was Navy, and I've worked with enough Marines to know all the good jokes."

"Is that what you were doing over there most of the time? Telling jokes?"

He nodded. "If you make somebody laugh with you, it makes them less suspicious. That's not the only reason I do it, of course, but it's one of the reasons I've kinda made a habit out of it."

"I guess it would be. You good to keep going with the interview?"

He smiled at me, and having that thousand watt smile turned on me hit different. "Sure. Too much longer and it'll be time for lunch, though."

I rolled my eyes. "Handy thing we're in a restaurant." I thought about that for a second, then said, "although I guess they want us to clear out?"

He shook his head. "Nah, I asked Denise when you hit the can, she's good with us staying for the rest of the day if we want. And that's without us buying lunch or dinner."

"You save someone from a Super Villain, I guess they feel safe with you around after that." When he tapped the side of his nose with an index finger, then pointed at me, I asked, "okay, first question. Based on what you said, it seems like you've researched the Battle of Thermopylae?" He nodded, and I asked, "in your opinion, would any of the combatants have qualified as 'Supers'?"

He paused in thought for a moment, then shrugged. "At a guess I'd say maybe Leonidas, definitely Xerxes. There might have been others, but I don't recall names."

"Why?"

"Why do I think those two were, or why do I think there might have been others?"

"Both?"

He laughed. "Okay, on the Leonidas thing, nobody credits him with any superhuman feats. Peak human, yeah, and there are some C, even B listers who have nothing beyond that from a physical standpoint. But then there are a lot of military and first responders who could say the same. On the other hand, leading a force into a hopeless battle and standing to the last man? That kinda hints at some kind of mind control or morale boosting powers. Again, there are units that have done so without any Super with them, so it's not a sure thing there, either. Basically it's lot of little things that, in my mind, would each make him worth calling a 'Super' nowadays. Although I guess if he had the mind whammy going on he'd probably go into politics instead."

He stopped long enough for me to finish my notes, then said, "Xerxes, on the other hand? The shortest he's listed at is like six foot eight, and some of the records list him as 'tall as two mortal men', which even given how people have gotten taller nowadays puts him at ten feet tall. Possibly more like twelve."

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Aren't there people who are just, y'know, tall? Like a lot of pro basketball players?"

Gilpatrick shrugged. "Yeah, but once you get past about seven feet, even at seven feet, you start seeing all kinds of medical issues. Square cube law stuff, really, but since it's physics, it's pretty universal. Xerxes, on the other hand? Did all kinds of crazy acrobatic stuff, not to mention sparring with his bodyguard on a regular basis. So yeah, I'd put him firmly in 'Super' territory."

"What about the others you mentioned?"

"Not so much mentioned as didn't mention. I've got a personal theory about it."

I waited until I realized he wanted me to ask him. "Okay, hit me with the theory."

"Supers have always been around, a small percentage of the population, but there's a cycle to it. For a while they're the folks everybody is looking to, talking about, following. Like now, where Supers have all kinds of laws specifically about them and how they're allowed to skirt the edges of the law. On the other hand, that slowly shifts to times when the whole 'different is bad' takes hold, and they're persecuted as tools of some supernatural evil, or something like that. After a while, nobody believes the old stories, and they join the ranks of Myths and Legends. Then new 'Supers' rise up and are the center of attention for a while, until people get sick of the excesses of the bad ones, so they just come down like an angry mob avalanche on all of them. After a couple of cycles? The originals are seen as demigods or pure legend or whatever. Like Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Or the heroes of the Trojan War."

"So you think the heroes of the Trojan War were Supers?"

He smiled gently at me, shaking his head, "c'mon, Nelson. are you gonna tell me that some guy who can shrug off any weapon that hits him isn't a Super of some kind?"

I laughed. "Fair point. Not all of them boasted that kind of supernatural power though."

He nodded, laughing a little in turn. "True that. Even now, there are guys who run with the Supers, even some of the A listers, who are nothing but really lucky, skilled, talented humans without a lick of magic or super tech or whatever. I mean, sometimes they'll have some shit you can't buy at the local department store, but it's usually stuff that enhances their ability to do Super things, rather than straight up providing it."

I thought about it for a second. "Like Venus' crossbows?"

He nodded, "yeah, exactly. Wasn't thinking about him exactly, but he's a great example."

I blinked. "Isn't Venus a woman?"

He smiled and shook his head. "Nope. I'd appreciate if you could keep that little tidbit between us, or bury it so deep it's never seen on the internet. Except maybe after he passes away."

I paused, trying to think of a polite way to ask. Eventually I just said, "is he trans?"

Gilpatrick shook his head. "Nope. He'd make a killing on the drag queen circuit, but he's just a dude with the disguise and acting skills to look like a super-hot woman in a skimpy outfit. His skill with crossbows is just that, too; the result of thousands, probably tens of thousands of hours of practice. Same with the acrobatics."

I just sat there digesting that. If you could point at one person as the one who'd let me know I was gay, it would be Venus. Almost a 'if she doesn't turn you on, you're not into women' thing. The posters, the assorted fan merch, all of it was just... I dunno. I always thought it a little bit exploitative, but if she was just a persona put on by a dude who spent that much time not just training to fight, but how to look so much like a woman that multiple women's groups had approached the Super to be, I dunno, a mascot, or speak to their members, or whatever? I had no idea what to think about that.

Okay, I kinda wondered what he looked like out of costume.

"He's kinda ugly-cute. Y'know, like a Pug dog or a Persian cat."

"Really? I mean, okay, if you say so. Why does he do it?"

Gilpatrick shrugged. "Why do any of us do it? For a few it's a money thing, for others its our power fantasy to help people. If I had to guess for him, it's a religious thing."

"Wait, what?"

He just nodded at me. "Yep. Dude takes his faith very seriously. Also takes his privacy very seriously, so I'll be more than a little disappointed if any of this winds up coming out while he's still alive and kicking ass."

"So why tell me?"

He laughed. "You're a historian, Nelson. I am literally telling you so it'll be there for posterity's sake. So if some dude a hundred years from now is thinking, 'I want to help, but how do I turn this odd lot of skills into helping?', they'll have Venus to look up to. Or some woman, for that matter, although 'dressing up like a guy' to go Super-ing has been more of a known thing since Samus."

"Huh. I've read about her. Lots of people thought she was a guy until she took the power armor off. Real badass. Such a loss that she died after such a short time."

He smiled at me. "Another note for the posterity book. She didn't."

"What?"

He nodded. "Yep. A certain company's lawyers approached her with a cease and desist. She'd built the armor at first as a cosplay, before she realized she had the knowhow to actually make it, y'know, Super power armor."

"Wow. Thank you. For trusting me with all this."

He smiled at me again, the smile once more filled with that joyous love of life. "Not a problem, Samuel. You're a young guy. As far as I know, neither of them will outlive you, so once they're no longer in a position to care, you can publish it in some dusty journal, where nobody'll find it until the next historian comes along and can tell their real stories."

"I... I really don't know what to say."

"Simple enough, Nelson. Just say, 'thanks for picking me, I'll try to live up to your trust'. Or, y'know, something like that."

I laughed and nodded. "I definitely will, Gilpatrick. I'll do my very best to keep anything you tell me in confidence secret until it doesn't have to be."