Glitch stepped out into the cool night air of the alleyway. All around the narrow walls lay piled with junk and trash and old shit that no one much wanted. He sighed, his fingers coming up as he scratched beneath the fur of his orca hat.

So many cities had gone to rot in his time as a hero. He wondered sometimes why he did it at all. Then there was this strange little man who he’d been watching now for some weeks. Maybe his judgement had simply been wrong this time? Maybe Gilly Rivers wasn’t the man for D.A.R.E.

He shook his head. He hadn’t been wrong before, and his gut told him that Gilly Rivers had some innate quality. The kind found only in those of little consequence. The kind that saw a lump of dull polished rock turned quickly towards a lump of rock less dull, or perhaps just a little more polished. Whatever that quality was… it was his job to find it.

‘Watch outttt!’

Glitch turned to see a dead man falling through the air, and somehow – right towards him. His hand moved just in time. As it did a rush of neon-green tiles sprung out beneath his feet revealing a portal – a glitch-hole – one that fed towards darkness. In the next moment he felt the man collide with his chest, the two of them plunging through the earth only to be spat out once more beneath a new patch of shimmering green tiles, and somewhere much further down the alleyway. They landed with a grunt, and right within a huge pile of stinking, black rubbish.

For a moment they both lay heaving. Glitch’s vision obstructed beneath the skewed fin of his orca hat. Above he could feel the warmth of a strange, little man lying straddled against his chest. The same Dead Man that had got to flying through the night.

‘Oh, God! I’m so sorry!’

Glitch watched as the man re-arranged his hat for him so he could see. Above the man’s eyes were wild with panic, his hair a shade of carrot that had long gone to mold. Beneath the midnight moon the man simply stared, a sickly bright smile forming wide between his lips.

For a moment Glitch stared back, his eyes blank, his mouth set toward the shape of a grim, uncompromising line, ‘Get off.’

It was only then that the strange, little man seemed to realise what he was doing. And which was of course nothing less than straddling another strange man in a dark little alleyway. He rose panicked, only to topple and fall through the rubbish until his face met the cool, wet stone of the alleyway floor.

‘I’m so sorry. I didn’t look. I just–’ the man’s mouth froze as Glitch fell through the rubbish and into darkness. A moment later and Glitch stepped out, there upon the alleyway floor, and right above the man’s very nose. Behind him those same neon-green tiles spread out disappearing into the night, that dark tunnel closing with a thwwwip.

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The strange, little man’s eyes were wide as two lunar coins. He lay at Glitch’s feet, his entire body backing slowly away, and with a trembling crawl, ‘I should go…’

‘You…’ said Glitch, as he crouched down to meet him, ‘…are a Dead Man.’

‘Actually…’ gulped the man, ‘I feel very much alive.’

‘Wrong.’ Glitch slapped him across the face, ‘You’re alive because of me. Otherwise, you’d be dead. And which of course means that your life, is now mine.’ The man’s face danced with horror. ‘Do we understand one another Dead Man?’

The man shook his head.

Glitch clicked. Behind him a glitch-hole opened, those neon-green tiles fading out against the alley as it tunneled towards darkness.

‘Then let me ask another question…’ Glitch jerked his thumb toward the roaring tunnel behind him. ‘…How would you like justice for your daughter’s unlawful death?’

***

Gilly stared up at the strange man crouching beneath that even stranger hat.

‘Me…? Justice…?’ Gilly shook his head, ‘You’ve got the wrong man.’

Above the man nodded, almost as if he’d half expected those very same words.

‘Look…’ the strange man turned upwards then, his eyes closing tight as he turned toward the stars. ‘Can you hear it?’

Ever so slowly Gilly continued to back away, ‘Hear what…?’

The man above sighed, ‘The City… she’s sick.’

All Gilly could hear was the rustle of trash, the sighing wind, the sound of a distant scream.

Again, he shook his head, ‘You’ve got the wrong man. I’m no hero.’

The portal behind seemed to roar and call as if it new Gilly’s very name.

‘Are you so sure…?’ Above the man’s eyes twinkled from beneath the shadow of his hat, ‘After all… your daughter didn’t seem to think so.’

Gilly shook his head viciously, ‘You said it yourself – I’m a Dead Man.’

‘Ahh, but that’s when men are at their best.’ Above the man smiled, ‘No one ever sees a dead man coming.’

He stood then, turning on his heel with a sigh, ‘Still… if your daughter’s wishes meant so little then maybe you should stay.’ He motioned to the walls of trash piled all around the alley. ‘You’re certainly in good company.’

Gilly watched as the man strode off into the tunnel, his form sucked within darkness until nothing remained but the roaring black.

In front the portal called.

‘You’ve got the wrong man…’ whispered Gilly.

That’s when he felt it, that scrunched up piece of paper bound tight within his hand. As it came apart, he saw that same drawing, the same one Daisy had given him that day at the factory, the same one given by Spindlefingers in the courtroom of The Old Justice.

My Daddy… The Hero.

In front he felt the darkness waning as it called his name, the portal growing smaller, smaller, smaller.

My Daddy…

His eyes grew wide.

‘Waitttt!’ He leapt from the floor, charged, and with one final push threw himself into darkness of the tunnel beyond. As he did he held toward one, single word. A word written clear by his daughter, by Daisy, a word she had wished for him, and what’s more for the city of Paradise Rise.

It was a word Gilly had never used himself.

It was a word too simple for a man of his knowing.

And yet somehow it rang – right off the very page.

Hero.