(This is Episode Nine, Just joining in? Find Episode One @ Heroisms: Immortality or the Previous Episode @ Heroisms: Disguise)

Morgan stood off to the side as Alex and Alison joined him. “Who’s Virgil? And who is that guy?” Alex asked, unsure if he wanted to know. Alison stood staring at Brooke, still unsure if it was her or not. Morgan finally answered after a few moments of awkward silence. “That’s Lance. He’s what’s called a truth seer, and if what he said is correct, your girl here is actually a guy.” The three of them all looked back to Lance making Brooke uncomfortable. Alison was visibly getting agitated by Lance’s methods to what was seemingly one of her friends. “So what do we do now and how do we out this Virgil character?” Morgan swallowed hard. “Normal methods include torture. Virgil is a shape shifter. He can manipulate his appearance and is trained to withstand incredible amounts of pain. Last time I heard a story about him, he was being tortured for so long and kept his form that the person holding him actually believed that Virgil was their loved one. They stopped, he performed the assassination despite being captured and he escaped.”

As the group stood by, Lance had begun slapping Brooke and Alison was about to give in. Only Alex held her back. “Give him a minute, Lance knows that Virgil isn’t Brooke and it’s likely that Virgil knows that too. He should give in soon.” Soon turned into eventually, and then eventually turned into later and then Alison couldn’t take it any more. “I know it’s her Alex, maybe they force fed her meat at the jail because they knew she was a vegetarian. Just another form of torture.” Alex shook his head. “I believe these guys, if Lance can really see the truth, then why question it?” Alison spat at his feet in anger. “Why question anything at all then? What if that’s really her, and they torture her to death?” Alex looked over and noticed Lance had pulled out a knife and was sharpening it. “Well, maybe we should talk to them about it.”

Alison made it there long before Alex and she spun Lance to face her. “I don’t care if this is or isn’t her, but no matter what I can’t let you do this just in case it is her.” Lance growled a long angry sigh. “It’s people like you who make me sick, people like you who are weak and let the wrong person in. You can’t give in, that is entirely where his power lies.” Alex was suddenly stepping between them, not where he wanted to be but also probably the safest place for him to be at this point. “Look guys, we just got here. Let’s not fight, put Broo-er… Virgil in lock up and we will figure something out in the morning.” Lance pulled back and put away his knife. “Fine. Your rooms are in block B.” He tossed them a pair of keys and waived some guys over to carry the bench Brooke was on away. Alison leaned in as Brooke passed by. Brooke was almost hysterical, and she screamed accusations at Alison as they passed. “You’re going to let them torture me? You said you’d protect me! You said I was like your little sister!” As Alison burst into tears, Alex threw his arms around her and guided her to their room. As they laid there together in the dark, Alex knew he would get no sleep. Alison was shaking and crying so bad she was convulsing. It was going to be a long hard night.

***

Jason knew that his new get up would attract some attention if he was caught by a camera. Lucky for him, his past provided him all the knowledge and skills necessary to evade and confuse these electronic watchdogs. As he moved silently through the shadows, he came upon his first group of delinquents. A drug deal was going down, and both groups were armed to the teeth. As he laid in wait, he watched as the transaction took place. He finally saw an opening and moved through the shadows behind some of the armed guards patrolling the perimeter. After quickly and silently dispatching them, he began to feel the adrenaline kicking back in. He hadn’t felt this good in a long time! After tying the two men together he made his way inside and tried to manoeuvre himself around the side of one of the cars. Suddenly he found himself in the middle of a stand off and bullets began flying left and right.

He dove out and grabbed a man in a leather jacket and hauled him down. After promptly tying him to the bumper of the car they crashed behind, he knocked him out and proceeded to the next guy in the chaos. As he moved about through the bullets and the shadows, he had never felt more alive! Something about not being government sanctioned was almost too much for him. As he leapt out for the last guy, he felt a slight thud as the man shot him in the chest. Lucky for Jason, he was invulnerable. “Look, I know you want to shoot again, but don’t waste the ammo. Just surrender and no one gets hurt.” The man relaxed a little and grinned. “I must have missed the first time, I won’t miss again.” As he pulled the trigger, the bullet ricocheted back on him off Jason and dropped him to the ground. Jason laughed heartily. “I did try and warn you. But no criminals ever… listen…” He watched as a small oval shaped disk rolled on its edge away from the man’s body. As it struck his foot, he looked at it and immediately knew he had to do more research before his next outing. He fled the scene of the crime and left everything as it was. The disk laid facing the sky, and despite being splattered with blood it clearly showed the undercover officer’s badge in the dim moonlight.