We fade into the graveyard, a familiar place for the Boy Wonder over these last few months but he’s not at his mothers resting place but at a freshly dug child sized grave. The Kid is not in his usual attire, maskless in public for the first time in a long time and adorned in a shabby suit.
In a just world, a single man could make a difference. Integrity, charity and sacrifice would be lauded as honourable traits instead of seen as foolish. And Monsters….
Monsters would be able to be vanquished instead of just inconvenienced.
James closes his eyes, a single tear rolling down his cheek as he clutches a crumpled blue scarf in his hands, spattered with dried blood.
Her name was Jessica…a ten year old girl I thought I’d saved. I did everything right, I beat the bad guy, rescued the innocent victim and left her in the hands of people who were meant to protect her when all they did was deliver her back into the maw of the devil.
And all I did was give her false hope that there was ever a happy ending.
A true hero’s not meant to fail and falter but that’s all I do. Doom’s right, I’m just a foolish, misguided child who doesn’t know what he’s doing and is going to run headfirst into his own grave. A pebble trying desperately to block a stream while it washes effortlessly over him.
It’s why part of me wants to believe in the ACA and what it could stand for.
For too long Arcadia has just been accepted as it is, a cesspool of depravation where the wicked and the unjust do whatever they please. It’s refreshing to someone stand up and call it for the bullshit that it is. And push aside the extremism and the brutish methods, the message of bringing light to the darkness is one I can believe in. I almost want to stand by your side and help the ACA reach that goal.
Almost.
Because no matter how pure your message is Mr Goode, it’s been tainted by the corruption of you and your leader and ultimately, both you and the so called sinners you fight to censor have one sickening thing in common.
You both seek to rid people of free will.
And as the hero Arcadia needs, I can’t abide that.
As the hero Jessica needed, I won’t let her death corrupt me too.
There has to be a middle ground, a world people can be safe yet have the freedom to choose who they are. Where evil can’t truly win and where the only good outcome isn’t in one in chains.
The ACA may be the lesser of two evils but Arcadia deserves better then just the gloomy dusk of gray. They deserve a future of brightest light and you may not believe in it now,
But come Thunder, I’ll open your eyes as you never forget the name of the hero who showed you the true greater good.