It was the first time Sarah had had a good opportunity to look at the unknown villain, who broke into the guarded facility only to surrender at once. She was still pondering why the man, whose code name was Golem, did it, and whether it was really an accident as he tried to explain his appearance in the restricted area under Gray Lion’s attack. That was the main reason why she was inside this prison, looking at the odd man through the working force shield. Needing to confirm the correctness of her decision not to blow the laboratories, to clear the events for herself and her boss, and finally, to assess the threat level of the super, Sarah still failed to keep her curiosity as the man’s appearance stood out.
The owner of the dusty albino skin, whose body was potentially made from the unknown light metal, was calmly sitting on the bed, dressed in green shorts and nothing else. Taller than average, Golem was still shorter than herself, reaching somewhere around 185 centimeters (around 6’1”). Quite muscular, he had similarities with a typical brute. Bald with rough facial features and the absence of any hair that made him not ugly, but just unattractive. The light smile had no sincerity behind it. However, what captivated her was his eyes.
Gray akin to his skin, they were a mixture of contradictions. Their color made them almost invisible, turning the man into a faded monochrome photo, but their heaviness and radiating power somehow made them catch the eyes of any onlooker. However, despite the inner strength hidden behind those eyes, they simultaneously showed clear exhaustion from the invisible burden the man had to carry. Still, there was something primal, even predatory deep inside those pale eyes. Something that was threatening to swallow anyone, who dared to play with the temporary calm beast.
Those eyes mesmerized Sarah for a few moments, so she missed the movement of the man, who suddenly raised to his feet from his bed. However, her experience in dealing with psychos told her that there was no danger in this act. She was sure that the power evaluation of this man was absolutely wrong, putting him at fourth level, but that was because Golem himself didn’t wish to harm anyone. And just from his gaze, Sarah instantly understood that the man wanted to be here, willingly going to the prison. This assumption was confirmed with his first words.
“My greetings, Agent Bell, Truthful Eyes,” slightly bowing to them, the man continued, not giving time to answer, “Haven’t spoken with you in a while… But let’s re-introduce ourselves again. My name is Robert Flop… Happy to meet you Sarah Bell, Richard James Tansey.”
The revelation of the super’s true name caused Truthful Eyes to flinch, failing to keep his cool. Secret identities weren’t the thing, but still most CSA agents with abilities tried to avoid using them to cause less attention to their families. Especially, when the mutual relationships between the empowered human and his relatives weren’t good enough.
“Nothing to worry about. I mean no harm,” Golem spoke, noticing the reaction, “I will answer all your questions… but only after we speak, Sarah,” turning to Agent Bell, the man said not showing a single change of expression on his face.
“I don’t think you are in a position to set the demands,” Sarah answered, steeling her voice. That only led to a short laugh from the man, who literally consisted of metal.
“I’ll ask you, Richard, to activate your ability…,” Getting the confirmation nod from his supervisor, the super obediently did it, raising his fist for indication, “Okay, I can tear this force shield in a few seconds at most. You won’t have time to even run away before that. The plasma missiles that a pair of helos on standby have in their arsenal can’t kill me. Your special bullets won’t have any effect, even if they hit me… and they won’t. I can raze the whole prison to the ground without breaking a sweat… The only thing that stops me is my sincere wish not to harm anyone… So, I do think I can make a few demands before answering your questions,” Golem smiled lightly, tilting his head to the side.
It was a rare moment when Sarah didn’t need any confirmation from her partner. The ever-calm super simply broke from his trance, barely hiding a sudden wave of fear. Having a non-combat ability, the man was always relying on the force shield to do his part of the job, and, despite all his colorful image, and experience in CSA, Truthful Eyes never wanted to actually fight. He wanted to be useful, to earn money for his family, but nothing about directly confronting any dangerous villains with superpowers. Sarah knew it, and seeing such a reaction, immediately spoke.
“Richard, go. I will handle everything myself.”
There was a short pause during which the man hesitated, not knowing what to decide. Alas, the fear of the smiling metal man won. Muttering quiet apologies, he quickly left the place, summoning the guard. Sarah had to order everyone to back off just to continue the dialogue. All this time Golem was silently watching the unfolding event with an amusement as if seeing something new.
“What did you want to talk about?” Sarah finally asked when there was no one left around. Still, she was sure that guards were already asking for reinforcements, summoning the super’s team and additional gear just in case. Even more eyes were watching them through the cameras. However, it seemed Golem didn’t care, sincerely wishing to speak.
“Well… I wanted to ask you – what’s like to be a hero? CSA puts so much money into creating brave and righteous images of supers, but it’s just a pretension picture for the screens. But I do know that some of your heroes are actually doing something meaningful. They save lives, send the bad guys into prison, stop the threats from hurting innocent…”
“Yes, that's what the heroes do,” Sarah nodded, too dumbfounded about an unexpected topic to quickly find something to say on the subject.
“But what is the difference between them and ordinary folks, who serve society? The firefighters, police officers, medical workers? They literally do the same, but rarely get the same treatment or acknowledgment, despite the constant effort and willingness to risk,” the man asked with the same calm voice.
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“It’s their job…,” Sarah started only to be interrupted in a moment.
“Your heroes are also on salaries… Yes, CSA likes to name it as a support payment, so the hero can focus on helping, but it just doesn’t deny the fact – your heroes are paid for what they do. The only difference is the size of the paycheck,” Golem laughed sadly, “Don’t misunderstand me, I truly want to know.”
“The size of the threat is much bigger in scale,” Sarah replied, feeling personally offended, as she also started on the streets, trying to clean them from the thugs or drug dealers.
“But they have the power to balance those scales… And it takes more courage to face the burning building, in which you need to enter to save trapped people than to do the same, when you have the ability to control the fire by will. However, the crowd will cheer for the super, looking at flashy effects instead of cruel reality, where the sweat after years of training was the key to success. The same goes with police officers, who don’t have bulletproof bodies… Do you imagine what bravery medical workers need to have to say to the relatives that their son or mother has died? To take the blame, despite being the one, who tried to save that life.”
“What do you imply with this discussion about the superheroes? That there aren’t heroes in fact?” Sarah asked, feeling how the direction of this odd conversation was flowing far from her intended interrogation.
“I don’t imply anything. Just want to figure out what makes people heroes… Self-sacrifice? But not all the time they die. It’s especially true with wielders of strong superpowers. For example, Demonologist. The guy is basically unkillable,” noting how Sarah flinched on mentioning the name of the super, Golem smiled before proceeding, “No self-sacrifice will ever happen from him as it’s almost physically impossible, but everyone will describe him as an example of a heroic figure.”
“Because he had done a lot to get there,” Sarag replied with a hidden pride.
“Maybe… But a surgeon with over twenty years of practice might have saved more lives… I bet he would get only a name tablet on the wall in one of the clinic's corridors at most as a recognition. Maybe even a one-time bonus. That’s it – no cartoons, action figures, and praise from everyone,” Golem pointed out the fact, “It’s hard to measure the good deeds. And I don’t think there is a container for them with a pointer of the level needed to get a heroic tag. Moreover, the very same surgeon might never hold a weapon in his hands, not speaking about deliberately killing someone… while your heroes have bloody hands for sure.”
“Sometimes it has to be done,” lowering her voice, Sarah sighed with regret.
“Yeah, I understand. Soldiers are perfect examples. All their job is to kill the enemies, so the latter won’t kill them. And the more efficient you are in this job, the more medals you will earn… Well, it works in a perfect life. The reality is quite different in that regard, but it’s not the time to discuss the military and how commanders may exploit their “armed slaves”. Let’s return to heroes. So, what defines them…”
“Listen, it’s a pointless conversation. I don’t know the answer. It’s the society, who names someone as a hero… It happens by itself, and by someone’s will,” Sarah responded with growing irritation.
“Is it? Let’s return to the beginning of our discussion, where I told you that CSA heavily invests in the public image of superheroes. It means that there is a will that names someone as a hero, using available resources. I tried to think about it again and again, but the only thing I can see as a defined and distinguished trait to get the acknowledgment as a hero is public admiration. It seems it doesn’t matter what you have done, whether have you sacrificed anything or not, how much effort had it taken to do the heroic deed… Nothing matters in the end. Only the proper story to form a public image that will raise the value of your “brave achievement” tenfold… Unfortunately, the same goes for villainous acts.”
Sarah didn’t find how to comment on it and Golem didn’t continue his speech further, creating a moment of silence in the cell. Both seemed to dive into their thoughts, pondering at the odd subject instead of an interrogation. The latter wasn’t forgotten by the senior agent. No, Sarah just accepted the fact that this conversation wouldn’t be useful for her plans. So, she had time to think about the answer, using her personal point of view on the possible events and the responsibility that came with her position.
“I admit that CSA creates heroes with a clear goal to lower the fear of supers in society. Thus, the criminals are labeled as villains to separate the bad guys from the other wielders of superpowers not to damage their artificial image of belonging to a good side. It never was about real heroism, working just to fix the events of long past… I don’t know who the real heroes are. However, I do know when I need to make a tough but correct decision, so more people in the future will live better… Or live at all. To bear the consequences of my decisions, no matter how hard it is, just for the sake of others… At least I try it as I feel this might be what you are speaking about. Not admiration but the weight of aftermath that the people have to carry with them till the end of their lives… It’s not about the public image for me, but more about what is right or wrong in each case. The answer may vary depending on the scale of potential consequences, but there is still an answer. And maybe the real bravery is to make such a decision each time, not pushing the responsibility onto others.”
“Thank you, Sarah,” Golem nodded after a short pause, “It means a lot to me… I will never be a classic hero as with the rivers of blood I spilled it’s simply impossible. But even if I am viewed as a dangerous villain, I will try to keep my moral compass… no matter the cost… I appreciate our conversation, but now let me think over everything. You can increase my threat level up to the maximum possible, but I promise I won’t try to escape.”
The ending felt abrupt, but despite all attempts to ask the questions, Sarah was met with silence from Golem. The man simply closed his eyes and froze, turning into some kind of an ancient statue, motionless and unavailable to the outside world. Feeling the meaninglessness of the attempts, she had to leave, still inwardly going through the course of this strange interrogation that became a pseudo-philosophical farce from the start. Only when the thick metal door cut off the cell from her sight, Sarah sighed again.
“How was it?” The Truthful Eyes was first to speak, noticing a confused expression on his partner’s face.
“Odd… Very-very odd. And non-informative. I will need to think about what to tell the boss. For now, lower Golem’s danger level to class one, but keep him in the same cell. If he tries to escape, don’t engage in any case – immediately summon Demonologist and wait. We don’t need to have pointless casualties. Golem acknowledged the power of Demonologist, so it might be his natural counter. Hope, it won’t come to the battle between two mighty supers – the city won’t survive it,” Sarah commanded the guard, trying to recreate potentially valuable details from this weird conversation. However, no matter how she tried, she pondered about one thing – was it the correct way to portray the supers that CSA took? The existence of heroes with super abilities demanded someone to be named as villains, even if they had done nothing to deserve it. Otherwise, the system wouldn’t simply work, missing its crucial half. In the end, the heroes always needed villains to fight against as there couldn't be light without darkness.