Nelson Mandela once said that our human compassion binds us to one another, not in pity or patronizingly but as human beings who have learned how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future. This man stood up for peace, love, selflessness, and humility. He believed in humanity taking their suffering and turning it into hope and something beautiful. He acted on his belief of selflessness for the greater good. He believed not only in all things good but all things that could achieve greatness. Growing up my mother taught me the same principles. She believed in the good of the world, the good in people. She was the type of person that went out of her way to help others and make them feel special. When she passed away after my sister was born, the world should’ve seemed like a darker place. But everywhere I looked I would find her left behind in the world. I could see the good in the world and in the people. It was like she was still there with me. As timed passed I tried to be the person my mother taught me to be. To act for the greater good.
Hey There. My name is Mack Evans. I am 25 years old, I live in Brooklyn, NY and I’m an Architect. I hike, play video games, drink way too much caffeine for my own good and I have a beautiful girlfriend. I’m pretty much your average guy. Well, Mostly. Honestly, you’re jumping into this story at the completely wrong time which makes it difficult to explain why i’m chasing this guy down a dark alleyway. Let’s start with the basics.
His name is Ian Bates. He’s one of the few high-end drug lords in the City. He’s responsible for hundreds of shipments of Opiates coming in and out of the city. These drugs have been eating its way through the city, causing nothing but mayhem and havoc. While the police have had leads on the source of the drug, they haven’t done much to stop the actual crisis. I respect that they’re trying their best to protect the city but someone’s gotta do something.
While selling drugs is obviously a top niche, Ian is a rather talented bartender at Cosmos’s. Cosmo’s is the cities new upcoming club, where people all over New York come to have a night out. With the biggest music scene in the city, they get vast crowds that are more than willing to blow cash on a good time. What screams a good time time louder than booze and good show?
Mark Matthews is the mastermind behind the place. Mark brought his passion of music and partying to bring people together. It ended up being a great hit that made all the front pages. Mark hired Ian after his main bartender decided to skip town with a pocket full of ideas of his own. Whether Mark knew of Ian’s involvement with drugs or not isn’t certain, but that’s a question for later.
I had been tailing Ian for weeks. His routine was always the same. Morning coffee, Workout out session at the park, Meetings at this shutdown Warehouse near the club, and evening shifts at Cosmo’s. Honestly I was beginning to think I’d hit a dead end until the guy switched up his routine on me. The day started out the same. Coffee, workout, and meetings at the warehouse. It almost seemed ordinary. Normally it’s just Ian and a few other guys attending the meetings at the warehouse, which is how today started. It wasn’t until Ian and his men began to depart the building that aroused my suspensions. A black SUV pulled in front of the warehouse, screeching to a halt. A large man in a suit exited the vehicle and began to talk to Ian. Being at the distance I was I couldn’t make out what they’re talking about, but before I could get any idea’s the mystery man handed Ian, what looked like a giant wad of cash. With a snap of his finger the mystery man had Ian’s men unload a few crates from his car. The crates were loaded into a white van, which I could only assume would be the getaway car. The mysterious guest departed leaving Ian and another man with the shipment.
I followed the van halfway across the city before they finally stopped outside a different warehouse. Ian began unloading the crates while his accomplice disappeared inside the building.
I figured that this was my shot while Ian was alone to take him down and get more intel on the shipments and the sources. I exited my vehicle, staying hidden from view in the shadows. Ian had his back turned away leaving me with an opening to approach.
“Ian Bates?”, I called out. “I’m just here to ta-”
Before I could finish my sentence, he threw one of the crates in my direction and took off down the street. Regaining my balance I took off after him trying to keep him in view so he didn’t get away.
“Ian!”, I shouted. “Stop! You’re only making this worse for yourself!”
Ian made a sharp turn into an alleyway, looking for an escape but none in reach. Seeing that he was caught between the dead end and me, he became conflicted with what move to make next.
“What do you want?”, Ian asked with a hesitation in his voice. I could tell he was trying to hide the desperation in his voice.
“The shipments.”, I said. “Where are they coming from?”
Ian laughed. “Do you really think I’d tell you that?”, Ian huffed out. “You’ll never find out!”
And with that Ian made a break towards the open end of the alley, swiftly pushing past me to his opening. But before he could get too far, Ian was tackled and pinned to the ground.
“Hey!” I shouted. I ran towards them to find that it was in fact my best friend and informally known sidekick Leo Martins.
“What are you doing here?”, I asked, helping Leo shuffle Ian into my car. “I thought you were staying at headquarters tonight?”
“I heard you on the comms. Figured you might need some help.” Leo claimed. Figures, I thought, Leo to my rescue.
Leo and I climbed into my car and made our way back to our “quote-unquote” headquarters. Simply enough, our headquarters consisted of a cement basement below my storage unit. Nobody else had access to the unit besides Leo and me.
“So, what juicy gossip did our guy spill?”,” Leo asked. Seeing how we didn’t have many options on where to keep Ian until we were finished interrogating him, I tied him to a chair ensuring the surrounding ropes were tight and not as easily escaped, and plopped down in a chair next to Leo.
“Not that it’s a surprise, but not a damn thing.” I proclaimed.
Leo chuckled to himself. “Well then, don’t we have a fun night ahead of us.” Leo said. “You should let Ava know you won’t be home for the night. Tell her you had one too many drinks and you’re crashing at my place.”
Ah yes, the reputable Ava Jackson. We had been together for a little over 3 years now. We had met at New York’s Academy of Art 4 years ago and an unexplainable click. We’d been inseparable since.
“Earth to Mack.”, Leo nudged. “ You in there?”
Brushing off all the intoxicating thoughts that Ava causes everytime I think of her, I sit up and pull out my phone.
“Mack, have you told Ava yet?” Leo inquired.
Though it was a vague question I knew exactly what he meant. Ava didn’t know about any of my late night activities of busting criminals and saving the day. It’s best if she didn’t. It’s dangerous work, I’d blame myself if anything ever happened to her.
“Ava doesn’t need to know.” I tell him. “It’s safer this way.”
I like telling myself that. It’s a comforting thought. I know my late nights and missed calls probably give her the wrong idea but I could never burden her with this secret. This act is my path, not her’s. I would never want to put her in harm’s way.
“Absent boyfriend by day, Vigilante by night.”, Leo say’s. “I’m sure she’d totally understand.”
He has a point, I thought. I know Ava would try her best to support me no matter what the cause; but the idea of her being involved in something that could be potentially dangerous made my stomach twist in knots.
“What Ava doesn’t know won’t hurt her.” I tell him.
I get what you’re thinking. It’s an insane idea to play out, let alone participate in. Superheroes, Vigilantes, and Villians are your storybook fiction; not something in reality. But for you to understand why I’ve set out to become who I am, I have to take you back. Back to the day where all the good I saw in the world disappeared from eyes like the sun on a rainy day.
* * *
7 Years Ago
To be honest, I didn’t just decide to be a vigilante overnight, and it wasn’t a spur of the moment idea either. It’s not like I grew up wanting to be a hero and became one. It wasn’t till after my little sister died that I found myself in the situation I’m in now.
It was a normal day. Emma, and I got up that morning for school, I made us breakfast and relaxed before school. I remember how excited she was for school that day because she got assigned to be her crushes science partner. I remember her telling me all the quirky and cheesy jokes that she was going to tell him and how giddy she seemed. I do also remember telling her that boy’s are vile creatures and she was too young to be flirting with boy’s but I’m sure that was just my natural older brother instincts.
We left the house and then headed out to our schools, New Heights Middle School and Brooklyn High School. Emma’s school got out about 20 minutes earlier than mine so she usually beat me to the bookstore after school. Emma adored books almost as much as our mom did. She loved helping out at the store. I hated it.
I remember goofing off with my friends after school and then heading home. It wasn’t until I was about a block away from the bookstore that I realized something was wrong. The store was surrounded by a crowd, police cars and an ambulance. I ran the rest of the way, breaking through the crowd. When a police officer tried to stop me, I explained that this was my families bookstore. He took me aside and sat me down and said, “Son, I’m afraid I got some bad news.”
What he said next broke my heart in so many ways that I didn’t understand. From what they got off the security tapes, Emma had been working in the bookstore after school when a man came in and decided to rob the place. Emma, being the fierce little thing she was, told him to leave and stood her ground. He shot her down and fled the scene before anyone arrived. She bled out and died alone, protecting the bookstore she loved so much.
That night I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t believe that she was gone. That something so terrible could happen to someone who deserved so much more. I crept into her bedroom that night and ended up falling asleep on her bedroom floor, wishing for at least one more night of her around.
Over the next few weeks I started to gather up her stuff in an attempt of comfort when I came past her sketchbooks. Emma loved to draw comics; She said it was her way of releasing what she was feeling into the world. And my god was she talented. Her work belonged in a museum. One of my favorite pieces she did was a comic strip of a man know as Shadow Barom. He was pretty much your basic superhero. In all honesty, he reminded me of Batman without the bats. Shadow Barom dedicated his whole life to
protecting the innocent and his city. The dude was pretty cool. Emma had a special talent to just create different realities and people from nothing. It was incredible.
Months passed since Emma died. A funeral was held, and a few of her friends and mine came. Emma and I didn’t have a lot of living family, besides our Dad. The impossible thing about our father though was he was always too busy to be around. He chose work over a family. After my mom died, he used work to distract himself and keep him busy. He dug a hole he couldn’t get out of. Work was his way of life. Maybe if he had been less focused on work and more focused on his family, Emma would still be here.
I have to give him points though. He made time to come to the funeral. He left that same night for some important business trip which didn’t surprise me in the least bit.
The police had gotten nowhere with Emma’s killer. Which didn’t make the grieving process any easier. Looking through Emma’s sketchbooks helped ease the emptiness of not having her there and I realized what she meant by having an escape. Her books made me feel like I was in another world. It made me think that maybe if someone like the characters in Emma’s books existed, They could’ve been there to help her, to save her. To protect her.
That’s when I started to piece this crazy idea all together. If the city had a protector, a hero, then maybe they could’ve helped Emma. Maybe it was the grief getting to my head but I felt like I was on a high with these idea’s buzzing around up there. I went to my storage unit and began writing ideas and plans. I felt insane but this was most alive I felt in weeks. I called Leo and told him all about this crazy ass idea and surprisingly he didn’t have me committed and decided to help.
Leo is a genius when it comes to technology and putting ideas to life. I guess in a way he’s my sidekick. He helped create the look on my suit. Microfiber that’s flexible and durable, black and faded blue to add color, a grapple launcher on the right arm of the suit, and lastly a metal staff to top it off. Originally we started off just wearing a black ski mask but do you know how hard it is to breathe with those things on? So ditching the mask, we decided to use face paint to hide my identity,
kinda like a war paint look. For the most part we used black paint smothered around my eyes and fading down across my cheekbones.
We have Emma to thank for the look, and the name. ‘Shadow Barom’.
From that day on I trained with Leo in boxing classes, and did the best I could to keep scum off the streets. Even as I continued on into my adult life, I held onto my secret life, keeping my promise to be a protector to those in need.
Fantasy