Her Superhero Lover

“And the White House said they expect the trade negotiations to continue on schedule,” the news anchor said on screen, shuffling his papers. “In a bit of local news that is starting to make national headlines, a local underground hero, once thought the realm of gang legend and myth, may in fact be real. Action Five reporter Maria Mendoza, has details. Maria?”

The anchor’s face disappeared, and a shot of one of the worst neighborhoods in San Diego flashed on screen. “They call him The Horseman,” the reporter said in a voice over. “For the past year or so, a scourge on the criminal underworld of San Diego county has been cleaning up the streets. Given credit for dozens of incidents, street gangs in the county have taken on almost a superstitious fear of this figure. Few members of the gangs we spoke to were even willing to say The Horseman exists, and those that do, insist on having their faces and voices disguised.”

“He’s huge, like around six and a half feet tall,” a disguised voice and scrambled face said in a darkened room. “He came down into our neighborhood, coming down off a rooftop or something man. By the time we had even pulled our first gun, he had three dudes laid out. I swear I emptied a whole clip at him, and it didn’t do nothing.”

The reporter’s voice took over, cutting to a shot of a police officer. “Detective Ernest Lomax of the San Diego Police says that while the Department is sure there is some form of vigilante action going on, the stories his team have heard are too unbelievable to be true.”

“Some of the people we’ve brought in, they’ve said things like he’s knocked down a steel door with a punch, and that he grabbed a car with his bare hands and stopped it from speeding off. Now, while we can understand some of the stories coming out, some of them are most likely the delusions of gangsters who were more than likely drunk or high when the incidents occurred. While we appreciate the help, The Horseman has also committed serious felonies in doing what he has done as well.”

“That is the dark side of The Horseman, and what earned him his nickname from the local criminals, a play on the Four Horsemen of the Book of Revelations,” Mendoza continued. The shot changed again, this time to her standing on a street in one of the poorer barrios of San Diego, in front of a taped off section of sidewalk. “In addition to over a dozen people put in the hospital, local gangs are blaming The Horseman for at least two deaths of high ranking street gang members. These normally untouchable leaders have found themselves targets of The Horseman, and last night was another incident.”

The scene cut again to a shaky cell phone video, with Mendoza taking over narration duties. “This video was taken this morning at two fifteen. In it, you can see five suspected members of a gang affiliated with the MS-13 group fighting with a man in a red and black suit. The result of this fight left all five gang members in the hospital, two of them in critical condition.”

Mendoza appeared back on screen, her face and voice serious. “When Action Five was given this footage, we immediately turned it over to the police. However, we also turned it over to our national affiliates to see if it could be enhanced or in some way worked with to give us a better image of what this Horseman looks like.”

The image changed again to a computer enhanced freeze frame of the fight. A bit of animation moved the figure, and isolated The Horseman. “From what our national experts tell us, The Horseman is between six feet and six foot four, and in the neighborhood of two hundred and thirty to two hundred and forty pounds. He’s extremely muscular, and is obviously in top physical condition. He has pale, almost platinum blonde hair, and is most likely a Caucasian male. Due to his eye mask and costume, there are no other identifying marks about The Horseman that can be made at this time. In any case, it looks like San Diego may have our very own costumed vigilante. In Lincoln Park, this is Maria Mendoza, Action Five News.”

The anchor reappeared, going on to local sports news. Renee shook her head and shut off the TV, thinking about the story. A real life vigilante in San Diego? She’d expect some whacko to get dressed up and pull stunts like that in Portland or maybe Berkley, but San Diego? She hadn’t thought there were enough weird folks like that around the city for it to happen. In any case, she doubted it would last for long, as The Horseman would most likely find himself on the wrong end of a Glock before too much longer. She finished her cereal and washed up the bowl, setting it in the drying rack for later. As she did, her mind kept flashing back to the computer enhanced image of The Horseman. He looked a lot like Grady, she thought, minus the hair which was so much blonder than Grady’s light brown it looked almost platinum. Still, The Horseman had the sort of muscularity that she had seen on Grady, and he moved with the same liquid grace. She laughed at her own self-delusion. “Come off it girl. Just because he’s ripped and gave you the best s*x of your life, does not make Grady Voelker a superhero,” she joked, heading back towards the back porch.

Along the way, she found Grady’s bookshelves, and selected a light novel that she’d been interested in for a while. She was happy that he had real books, there was something about the feel of real paper under her fingers she appreciated. She was on chapter two of what had turned out to be a pretty decent light adventure novel when she next looked up. Nothing mentally stressing, but she hadn’t picked up the paperback expecting to read War and Peace. Setting the novel aside, she watched the waves break out on the sand, when suddenly the thought occurred to her, she’d had s*x on the table of this very patio the night before. While it wasn’t quite like having s*x on the beach itself, the porch was a bit more public than she would have expected, and she shivered at the memory. Grady awoke a primal need in her, one that left her almost unable to control her actions, and it was something she needed to come to grips with. Thankfully, he had been nothing but respectful and considerate of her. She knew it would be too easy to be taken advantage of with as much as she felt last night.