Free Other People's Heroes (The Heroes of Siegel City) by Blake M. Petit

on, let’s get a move on.”
    It started out amicably enough. We started at Morrie’s office and began to make our way through the bowels of the complex. The first thing I asked him was about Lionheart -- what really happened to him.
    “Let’s not talk about that,” Hotshot said. “Sore subject.”
    “But you knew him, right? You were his friend.”
    “We were pretty close.”
    “Was he as... as great a presence as he seemed?”
    “Greater. There’s not a decent person on Earth who could have met Lionheart and not be willing to put himself on the line for the guy. He was the sort of person you would do anything to follow -- the sort that inspires courage and confidence just by walking into the room.
    “One time the Sinister Squadron had deactivated the Tin Man’s armor and trapped him in it, disarmed the Defender, caught Condor and Oriole in cages and put Lightning in this null-time sphere so she couldn’t use her speed powers. They had me trapped in a gravity bubble, too, so I couldn’t reach anything to charge up. Nobody had a plan, nobody had an idea. We were all doomed.
    “Then, bam! Lionheart shows up. He doesn’t lift a finger to save us because he knows he doesn’t have to. He charges after the Squadron and in about ten seconds, Tin Man has escaped from his dead armor and deactivated the traps Lightning and I were in. We freed the rest of the guys and wiped up the Squadron just in time to stop them from launching the Omega Device.”
    “The Omega Device?” I asked.
    “One of those contraptions old Masks used to use to try and conquer the world. I think this one would devolve the entire eastern seaboard into plankton or something, they sort of blend together after a while.”
    “But that doesn’t sound like Lionheart actually did anything,” I said. “He had to have done something .”
    “Why?”
    “Because... because he was Lionheart .” It was the simplest thing in the world to me, why couldn’t his old teammate see it?
    “You’re not getting the point, Josh,” he said. “There were plenty of times when Lionheart saved this planet by himself and saved our lives in particular. In this particular instance, though, he didn’t have to. Not directly, anyway. When we saw him, it jazzed us up again, enough for the Tin Man to break out and free us. From there, victory was a foregone conclusion.” He let out something of a sigh. “I miss that -- the excitement of a real rumble, not knowing the outcome beforehand. That was a real thrill, buddy.”
    “Why did it stop?”
    “Long story. After Lionheart was gone, Morrie tracked me down and said, ‘Hey, kid, I got me an’ idea,’ and we started to build this little organization. It just sort of snowballed from there.”
    I didn’t like the direction this conversation was taking. Hotshot, Lionheart’s own teammate, was one of the guys who started this mess?
    “What would Lionheart say about all this?” I asked.
    “Lionheart? He wouldn’t have liked it at all. The guy didn’t have a deceptive bone in his body. The closest thing I ever heard him say to a lie was one Christmas when he tried to convince Lightning he liked this incredibly ugly sweater she gave him. You could still see the truth in his eyes, though. Those always gave him away. He was good at a lot of things, but the worst liar I’ve ever met.”
    “He was a good guy, then?”
    “The best. You didn’t just follow him, you didn’t just respect him... you would do anything, anything not to let him down.” He sighed. “Y’know, there’s a reason you don’t see his picture stuck on t-shirts or cereal boxes like the rest of us. Morrie wanted to use him – begged me to, actually. It’d be like having an Elvis shirt or something. But I won’t let him. That was my one condition for going along with this – no Lionheart merchandise.”
    By now I was furious. This guy was Lionheart’s friend , his teammate for God’s sake, and he’d betrayed him by constructing this