MASKS
By: J. Duncan Schaper
Tags: Masks, Donald Trump, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Superheroes

CHAPTER ONE

September 11th, 2001 changed our lives in the most unexpected and terrible way.

In New York City at 8:45 am, just a moment before the hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 would collide with the North Tower of the World Trade Center, what appeared to be a human male flew up and redirected the aircraft away from the tower and delivered it safely to rest on the Hudson River.

At first eyewitnesses and bystanders did not believe what happened, thinking they imagined seeing the man or that it was God himself delivering them from evil.

Fifteen minutes later, while authorities set to rescuing passengers and arresting the hijackers, the flying man returned and redirected hijacked United Flight 175 from colliding with the South Tower, this time putting the plane down on a tarmac in La Guardia. Here the man revealed himself to the world.

He said he was to be called simply The American and that he was ready to come out to the world. He wore a simple black suit and tie and a lone-ranger mask over his face. He looked to be a male in his mid-thirties, but the mask and his diffidence made any attempt at identification futile. He said very little, only that he was here to uphold justice and defend the innocent with his powers. When asked what all his powers were, he cryptically responded, “the greatest ambition of humanity.”

The American would save the other two hijacked planes on that day and ensure the safe rescue of all passengers and the lawful arrests of all 19 hijackers. Immediately, the public and media called him a hero — the superhero — and speculated on his history and his intentions. The mystery and magnanimity surrounding him and his actions was the topic of every news station and paper. Even President George W. Bush gave a press conference saluting The American, asking him to come forward and reveal himself. Days later, Washington DC’s MPD would find an unconscious Osama Bin Laden laying outside the National Archives with a note attached. In plain black type the note read, “To the American people, President George W. Bush, Attorney General John Ashcroft, the DoD, FBI, CIA , et al., and the sacrosanct ladies; Justice and Prudence — I am your servant, The American.”

CHAPTER TWO

After his actions surrounding 9/11, The American was not publicly seen again but he was everywhere. Every newspaper and magazine cover for weeks had blurry pictures and exaggerated illustrations of him. He was all the talking heads could adulate about on every TV as it quickly spread across the country then the world. He was all anyone talked about at schools and the dinner table and at work. It concerned many people that the government didn’t know who he was or where he came from, what he was capable of, and as always, the great question of trust. While movies were already being cast and toys made some like the editorial staff of the Wall Street Journal and everyone at the ACLU felt uneasy that someone of such power and influence could remain private and unaccountable. Some argued he didn’t exist and conspiracy theories began about how he was a new government weapon or an extra-terrestrial. Few curious parties actually took to finding him, none were reportedly successful.

It would not be until February 2003, after nearly two years of imposters and vigilantes dressing up in masks, getting arrested, for the public to again see a genuine superhero. And it was not The American. Just before 9am on February 1st, the Space Shuttle Columbia was attempting to reenter atmosphere when a thermal tile fell off and telemetry signal was lost and hydraulic pressure failed. But before the shuttle started to roll and yaw and lose control, someone, or more accurately something shaped like a man came down from space and stabilized the shuttle and guided it safely down to a Texan airbase. This time the US government knew how to handle itself when meeting a superhuman and they made a big show about it. They sat this being down to interview and study him. He was completely bald like he was a marble statue and he could change his color. But most unnerving of all were his eyes. His eyes were empty like an ancient Greek bust and although his features and stature was that of a middle-aged man he was very far from human.

They asked him his name; he said he doesn’t have a name and he’s never needed one. They asked him how he could speak English; he said he knows every language. They asked him where he was from; he said he didn’t know. They asked him why he saved the shuttle; he said he hates seeing life extinguished. They asked what his powers were; he said he didn’t understand the question. He spoke and his voice was deep and ringing, like an ancestor speaking through radio static.

“Listen, I’ve been watching you and your planet for some time now, and, and I want to protect it. Your lives are worth protecting.” He paused. “I just don’t want you people talking to me. Leave me alone. I’ve seen your world and I don’t want to be a part of it. I’ll give you everything, please, just leave me alone.”

The Spacewalker, the media took to calling him after that first interview with the US military. It was broadcasted worldwide and immediately people adopted him as their savior and started claiming him to be a god and calling for global unity underneath him. Unlike the discovery of The American, The Spacewalker did not divide people or make them fear his presence and power, instead they seemed content that something was watching over them, protecting them. After the Columbia incident he would spend a week or so at an undisclosed location in Nevada then NASA and the US Navy put on a huge televised event escorting the Spacewalker back up into space. Every once in a while amateur astronomers would spot him or NASA would publish photographs of him from the International Space Station but beyond these evidences of his existence he stayed out of sight and out of the public mind.

Then, same as The American, the initial commotion surrounding The Spacewalker died down and the cults that worshipped him began to disband as the months turned into years and the Spacewalker did not again preform any spectacular feats. Like they were lazy animals in a zoo or a menagerie, the world grew bored and moved on. The revolution that these two beings should have sparked never came. Here were two beings that can fly, carry massive aircraft and stop destruction, save the world when it needed saving, one of our wildest fantasies come true. Perhaps people thought there would be peril every week and the superheroes would be a routine performance. Perhaps people think their lives are so precious that others should threaten them and they need to be whisked away from danger by mysterious and romantic superheroes. Perhaps in those early years no one realized what superhumans could mean to our society, our democracy, our convictions.

CHAPTER THREE

Pax Americana it became called; by the end of 2004 crime and domestic violence was at the lowest point in national history and the Dow Jones average nearly broke 20,000. Bush would win an easy reelection carrying every state except Massachusetts and across the globe America’s connotation became that like our masked protector; altruistic, righteous, absolute. Several large-scale gang and organized crime busts were attributed to The American but investigators had no evidence to prove so. The Spacewalker had helped, reluctantly, to enhance and expand the ISS and reportedly agreed to assist in a Mars mission by the end of the decade.

So in late February 2005 when a federal employee by the name of Edgar Abrams came forward to an Atlanta newspaper about a secret government program to find and train superheroes, the nation finally cracked. He exposed the Department of Defense’s ‘Project Elvis’, a secret military facilities in the The Great Smoky Mountains and northern Georgia. General Armstrong, a man with telepathic abilities, had full authority and extensive capabilities to roam nationwide, seeking out and recruiting any possible superheroes. Abrams’ report also revealed the code names of the other two superheroes at the facility; Dr. Gyges, a biologist who discovered the properties of invisibility, and Metamorph, a shape-shifting creature over a millennia old whom is believed to be the origin of most of our monster myths.

Edgar Abrams was quickly arrested, convicted, and given consecutive life sentences but his whistleblowing had already set in motion an accelerating series of events. Finally it seemed like society woke up from its absentminded paradigm and realized the significance of these times and changes. We finally realized the potential magnitude of their power.

Buzzwords like accountability, individualism, and democratic deficit became powerful and prevalent. Bipartisan grassroot and populist movements sprouted up and quickly grew and demanded the government become more open and honest about superhumans. After a divisive six-month investigation into the illegal creation and rights violations and cover-up of Project Elvis, several prominent politicians such as Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and a handful of congressmen were brought up on corruption and obstruction charges and sweeping changes came to the US government. President Bush instituted the Department of Extra-abled Citizens, or the DEC, and pronounced the superhumans known thus far be considered part of the federal government as DEC Agents. ‘G-Men of the Millenial Generation’ they were sold as, to the rest of the reluctant public and to a Congress that barely passed an act establishing the department into a cabinet-level position with a hefty operating budget. Already the government started shaping them into more of a social figure in a soft-power fight against crime and lawlessness rather than actual crime-fighters. The government wanted to be synonymous with these heroes like an overly-zealous student council president using the cool kids to sell the next fundraiser to the rest of the student body. And they bought it. People loved the DEC.

The City of New York announced it would host a swearing-in ceremony for the DEC Agents to be held on the four-year anniversary of The American’s triumphant emergence. But a couple weeks before the event, on the weekend of August 27–28, another superhuman revealed herself to the world and saved a city from catastrophe. She called herself Sister Sun and she saved her hometown of New Orleans with her power to manipulate and influence the atmosphere. She was young, black and beautiful and she wore a black mask like The American but she was outspoken and spunky and the public went crazy over her like no Super before. She did interviews, talk shows, and speeches taking about her origin story and her life in one of New Orleans’ most forgotten neighborhoods. But more immediately she was snatched up by the DEC and added to their roster, as room was made for her in the 9/11 spectacular.

At the extremely televised event The American was absent and an empty chair was left to signify his vigilance or whatever and The Spacewalker sat like a broken workhorse and he gave a speech without any emotion about endeavoring. Dr. Gyges and Metamorph both appeared remarkably human on the stage although they too shared The Spacewalker’s discomfort. General Armstrong was not present and without an empty seat. Sister Sun stood alongside George W. Bush as he gave the culminating speech and then gave badges to each of the Supers. The crowd roared and the talking heads orgasmed and called it the beginning of a new era and the end of ‘human’ history and they were absolutely right.

CHAPTER FOUR

After 2005 the world felt like it started spinning faster. America became enrapt with itself and its superheroes and finally the spectacle set in. In 2006 we see twelve miners freed easily in Sago WV, a bombing plot thwarted and a massacre in an amish school averted, all thanks to DEC agents. The first DEC licensed movie is released and breaks record sales.

2007 is a blur starting off with a mass shooting in a Utah mall stopped by a monstrous man who roams the pacific northwest and jokingly gave his name as Bigfoot. Sister Sun stopped plenty of tornados, tropical storms, fires, and floods. A college comedy trio called The Marx Bros. stops a mass shooting at Virginia Tech by rapping to a depressed & mentally ill student. Unfortunately no DEC agent can stop a bridge in Mississippi from collapsing and a widely attended vigil is held in memorial. Metamorph rescues more miners. A massacre in Wisconsin is thwarted by Gen. Armstrong. A school shooting in Cleveland is resolved in standoff with no deaths. A mass shooting in a mall in Omaha is avoided and a chemical explosion is contained with no casualties.

In 2008 America witnesses the transition in its culture and lifestyle to focus entirely on the DEC agents. Finally the public gets what it’s always wanted and the media has weekly tales of heroic feats and miracles witnessed. No levee burst in Nevada, or tornadoes in the Midwest. In February a shoot-out in a Missourian town hall is impeded by the Marx Bros and two weeks later they again stop a college shooting at Northern Illinois. In March the DEC stops a bombing in Times Square and a crane and its operator were saved in Manhattan a week later. In a radical gesture democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama campaigned in several states with two DEC agents and secures his party’s nomination easily. That summer featured a few more blockbusters with liberal representations of the origins of several DEC agents while Sister Sun continues to stave off the hurricanes and tornados. In Kentucky DEC agents stop another workplace shooting then are seen carrying the American flag, leading our Olympic team in Beijing. But the real drama of 2008 didn’t come until the Great Recession hit.

As the Dow Jones fell and stimulus packages were rolled out The American finally reappeared after all those years in hiding since 9/11. He walked out of the NY Attorney General’s office and held a press conference and made public an investigation he and Dr. Gyges carried out into the causes and those responsible for the global economic collapse. Careless predatory and subprime lenders, underwriting frauds and corrupt security brokers were all brought in and to justice. The media compared them to Woodward and Bernstein and by the time Barack Obama was elected people were already calling for The American to run in 2012. The movies that Christmas season featured the entire DEC ensemble and some stand alone origin stories that again broke records. Sister Sun and Dr. Gyges ended the year with Anderson Cooper counting down the ball in New York.

In 2009 the first of the Ultras started grouping together on the internet, eventually spreading to the mainstream media once some videos and pictures of superheroes went viral on Facebook. The ‘Ultras’ were originally just fanboys, super fanatics that wanted to be like the supers. At first the media and internet just made fun of them but after one of the Ultras, who called himself Pip-Squeak, stopped a rape, the Ultras started becoming something like a national interest, like a new sports team. Another Ultra gained national prominence when he stopped a BART police from gunning down an unarmed civilian, eventually being branded the Golden State Warrior by the newspapers. From then on the Ultras were more than just dorks-on-the-internet, they became normal people turned superstars and they inspired everyone. Anyone could become a superhero.

In March of 2009 DEC agents would stop a mass shooting before it starts in Geneva County, Alabama. Then one month later another superhuman-being reveals itself at a moment of violence. A man, or rather something that used to be a man, protected police officers in a violent shootout with a mentally-ill gunman in a Pittsburgh neighborhood. The Steel Phantom he called himself, revealing to the news media that after a terrible industrial accident he was trapped under several hundred tons of steel that forced the shutdown of a local mill. There he stayed for nearly four decades until being stirred into breaking free by General Armstrong’s telepathic abilities. Composed entire of bulletproof steel and dressed like a film noir dick, quickly the public called for him to be made a DEC agent. Then after stopping a gunman in North Carolina and another in New York, DEC agents safely bring down a failing plane above Buffalo. General Armstrong saved a doctor from being murdered in his church by anti-abortion extremists. In the summer two more DEC-licensed movies premiered but were critically unsuccessful while the news media receives record-breaking viewership when DEC agents stop a massacre at a military recruiting office in Arkansas. Unfortunately no DEC agent can stop a collision between two DC metro trains and the outraged public begins calling for more DEC freedom and autonomy into society for its own safety. The halting of a white-supremacist shooting in the DC Holocaust museum eclipses the news of the crash several days later. At the end of June, the death of celebrity Michael Jackson becomes a national tragedy and all DEC agents attend his funeral along with Barack Obama and the event is turned into some kind of spectacle. Sister Sun keeps the rest of the summer storm-free and the season remains uneventful until the Fort Hood Massacre in November. Thanks to The American, no one was harmed and the suspect apprehended. Later that month The American also saves golf celebrity Tiger Woods from a car crash and the media heralds Tiger as a friend of the DEC, further promoting their image as celebrities instead of public defenders. The DEC ends the year stopping a gunman in Washington state then in a sensational display DEC agents subdue the Christmas underwear bomber above Detroit. 2009 felt like it blew by.

CHAPTER FIVE

The best part about those early years with the superheroes was the feeling one would get when a quiet calmness would come over you. Like at the last light of a sunset, you would look up at the dimming sky and feel the assurance of the supers. It would feel like the weight of the world was lighter because they were there protecting us from anything, everything that wished to do us harm. Like a hug from your mother, our lives felt like they mattered and they were righteous enough to deserve the supers’ protection.

I remember walking around New York City in 2009 and everyone treated each other like a superhero in disguise. On the street people were always stopping to help the homeless or the un-abled. Americans were caring for each other again as neighbors and as fellow citizens. On the street everyone would smile at each other because who knows, maybe this passing stranger saved the world last week.

From 2001 to the end of 2009 the changes that befell America felt as if they were happening all around us, but yet had no affect on our society. America trotted along, as it always had, while the sky began to fall and we didn’t even stop to think about those that flew up to stop it. We thought we were just an audience.

But in 2010 it was different. Something changed and only if you were paying attention back then you would have noticed. America felt like it woke up and realized what was going on. For the first time since 2001 things felt unsure.

2010 would become known as the year of the super-villains. The whole ordeal would pass in only 72 days starting in February and culminating in what would be reported as the Deepwater Horizon incident. But for the first time in our post-modern, super era, the truth was willfully misrepresented to the public. The American public was led to believe that two people, without actual powers, convinced people to believe they had superpowers. The American public thought that a DEC agent was hypnotized by one of the villains and killed another DEC agent while under their spell. The American public thought that a truce was negotiated with an ultimate foe. The truth is much more complex.

A man called Brutus was the first villain. It was true that he had no actual superpowers but he did wield a power all too common in America. Wealth. And the corruption that it ushers. At the end of the ordeal Brutus would both victim and assailant, and wholly deserving of his fate.

Brutus first caught the attention of the DEC before the media started their spiel. The DEC, growingly paranoid, had been covertly monitoring the communications and activities of a couple hundred million Americans. Fortunately and purely by chance a few of those Americans being monitored belonged to and actively participated in a paramilitary, anti-superpower organization that also concerned itself with abolishing taxes and stockpiling firearms. The group was called The Mortal Men and by the beginning of 2010 there were chapters in every city and corner of the nation, acting autonomously and in unison, preparing for a major battle with the DEC.

The man who would become Brutus quickly rose from a junior member to chapter president then to national treasurer and finally at the 2009 Enclave he was unanimously elected as the Mortal Men’s champion, earning the title Brutus. As Brutus, he would lead the group in their recruitment and preparatory operations, devising training exercises and when the time is right he would lead their troops against the DEC. He would make the world see the truth of the supers and usher in the revolution.

Brutus was doing just that when the DEC first became aware of him and his organization. In Connecticut he was meeting the leaders of several other paramilitary groups and militias at an under construction power plant; they were negotiated the terms of their vassalage to the Mortal Men. Suddenly there was a fire, the cause of which is still unknown. Luckily the Steel Phantom and Sister Sun were nearby and were able to evacuate the 6 civilians onsite before surprising Brutus and the others. There was an exchange of words, Brutus told the agents that the Mortal Men are coming for them before escaping and leaving the other militia men to perish.

The power plant explosion in Connecticut was the largest story of the year. The DEC gave just enough information to the media for them to whip the public up into a frenzy. The Mortal Men were painted into villains worse than the Taliban for their plots against the DEC. Soon family members, concerned citizens, and Ultras began doxxing suspected members of the MM and swatting some of them. This continued for a few weeks with minimal police interruption that gave the Ultras tacit approval for these abhorrent acts. But even with every true citizen hunting him, Brutus eluded capture. By now the media had made him into a super villain, calling him monstrous or shapeshifting, never telling the truth. The media let America believe that Brutus and the Mortal Men were on the run all those weeks, but a series of events far more baleful and baffling actually transpired.

After the power-plant explosion, Brutus and the remaining Mortal Men retreated to a safe house in the West Virginian Appalachians. There they remained in secret until General Armstrong appeared on their doorstep. In his characteristic solemn demeanor he asked Brutus to help him bring down the DEC. The other MM don’t trust him, as they should, but Brutus does and they devised a plan to infiltrate a DEC station and locate a rogue super. But before they can initiate their plan, the other militia groups from the powerplant meeting catch up to the MM. General Armstrong and Brutus convince them to join the MM and form an unholy alliance of Wall Street bankers, racists, eco-terrorists, social anarchists, 2nd Amendment groups, and Russians to help them against the US government and the Supers.

Brutus and Gen. Armstrong infiltrate the secret DEC location, an abandoned megachurch. General Armstrong uses his abilities to figure out the passcode for the DEC secure database. They’re able to locate two super-powered entities; codenames GERM and GAIA. The DEC are alerted to the break-in and The American crashed through the ceiling.

The American nearly kills Brutus but instead he kills General Armstrong and Brutus escapes. Brutus finds Codename Germ; a man with psychic powers like General Armstrong. But instead of using his powers to communicate, he guilefully becomes their subconscious and uses it to take over their lives. He hates that his codename is Germ. Instead he prefers the name Marionette.

They agree to team up to find Codename Gaia and defeat the other supers. The Marionette uses the unholy alliance and adds doomsday cults and drug cartels to their numbers. The Mortal Men plan a national general strike and coordinated seizure of key military and communications capabilities once they get Gaia on their side.

On the eve of phase one, while out at a bar, The Marionette uses his powers on a man, trying to convince him to join their cause. The man at the bar does not say a word, he just turns around and stares him in the eyes and guns down the Marionette. The murder sparks an investigation and the MM’s conspiracy is averted. The subsequent arrests are called the Hutaree Roundup by the media. Brutus, as always, escapes, but he mysteriously makes contact with Codename Gaia. It sends him west. He follows something all the way to the southern border and across into Mexico to Mexicali and there Gaia finally reveals herself to Brutus.

She is Earth, Mother Nature, flora and fauna incarnate. It takes a woman’s form sculpted out of earth and plant. She tells him to be careful. She tells him she is very angry at him and his kind. He asks for her help against the DEC. She becomes furious, asking how dare he ask her to choose sides in the war to kill her. She becomes so angry she starts to cause an earthquake. (Since it is outside of the USA, Sister Sun wouldn’t think to respond) Luckily for Brutus, someone else does. A man, like Gaia but instead of rock and plant he was a statue of pure molten magma that rose from the ground like a localized volcano. He suppressed the earthquake and spoke to Gaia in an ancient language and calmed her down. She apologized and said that she forgot. Then she disappeared into the ground.

Brutus escapes with the help of the lava man but it takes nearly a day. They become good friends by the time they finish getting free. The lava man says his name is Mantle. They part ways, Brutus unable to convince him to join the Mortal Men. Mantle instead asks Brutus to help him deal with Gaia. Brutus says he is going to use the supers to defeat Gaia. He heads back to America to regroup with the last of the Mortal Men in Appalachia.

He gets to the safe house only to find Gaia there. Mantle arrives shortly after Gaia manages to kill all of the remaining Mortal Men, sparring only Brutus. Mantle tries to convince Gaia to release Brutus but she only gets more furious. She starts to cause another earthquake, trapping some miners nearby. Sister Sun immediately comes to the rescue. She meets Gaia after saving all of the miners. Sister Sun is terrified and says nothing. Other DEC agents arrive to the safehouse just in time for Gaia to escape with Brutus as her hostage. Thus begins the slow-speed chase to the Gulf of Mexico that became infamous, the only instance the public gets a glimpse at the truth in all of this.

The Spacewalker is the first to find Gaia and Brutus after disappearing in Louisiana when they re-emerge on the oil drilling platform Deepwater Horizon. By this time Brutus now sympathizes with Gaia and he submits to her leadership in the attack against their enemies. The Spacewalker confronts them. He tells them this isn’t how it’s done, how it should be done. He tells them we can always work together. Gaia believes him and surrenders and Earth and Space connect for a brief, beautiful moment that only Brutus is witness to. Then the American arrives.

He curses Gaia and declares that America, his America is the ruler of the world, not the other way around. Gaia nearly tears his head off and destroys the whole oil platform, except another superhero saves the day. Inexplicably the ocean rises several hundred feet and for a moment the whole platform is underwater and Brutus nearly drowns. Gaia stops her raging and says “I’m not doing this.”

“No.” Replies a booming voice from the water. “It’s me.” Then the ocean recedes to normal and the oil platform does not explode. After everyone catches their breath, out of a pool of water on the helicopter pad, a figure arises. Like Gaia or Mantle it is a being made of water. It takes the shape of a young lady. “My name is Puddle.” She says.

“Nice to meet you Puddle. They call me Gaia, these are my friends. They call him Brutus and him Mantle.” She pauses. “I think I’m going to leave now. For a while. Please, let me go in peace.” The Spacewalker stops her and asks if he could go with her. She smiles and says why not. They disappear. Some say they meet in the Himalayas on cloudless nights. The American takes Brutus into DEC custody. The true series of events never reaches the public. The DEC’s version of the story, where the Marionette killed General Armstrong and Mantle & Puddle never appeared, where The American is the good guy, that became the truth.

The rest of 2010 is dedicated to these events. There are no school shootings, no car bombs. No wildfires, no explosions. A year quieted by the Supers, filled instead by the voices on TV. The news and the talk shows and entertainment takes over and 2010 becomes celebrated already like some historic event in our national saga. 2010 became some kind of notion. Some non-real event that we all vaguely remember.

CHAPTER SIX

2011 was the last year that felt measured by any conventional standards. It was not 2011. It was the time Red Glare appeared and saved Congresswoman Gabby Gifford. The masked man who could run faster than light swooped in and whisked her away from the unstable gunman’s bullets. He became the new face of patriotism. 2011 was no longer a year, it was the time a super appeared on Jeopardy! It was the time Steel Phantom stopped an F-18 from crashing in California. It was when Sister Sun and Mantle stopped forest fires in Arizona. It was that time The American flew to Libya and brought Muammar Gaddafi to trial in the United States. It was when Pip-Squeak saved baby Caylee Anthony. When earthquakes in Virginia were stopped and hurricane Irene diverted. When the DEC mourned Steve Jobs and arrested Jerry Sandusky. I graduated college in 2011 but it didn’t feel like an accomplishment. Everything happening around me felt more celebrated, more monumental, and the historic moments of my life started to slip into pointlessness.

When 2012 started I had landed a job as an entry-level writer for a small newspaper in Stanford, Florida. My piece on Sister Sun’s eulogy at Whitney Houston’s memorial was just cut from print and I left the office to blow off some steam. I went down to a nearby corner store to get a pack of cigarettes when I saw a crowd forming in an alley nearby. I jogged over and peered over the crowd. The American was disassembling a pistol, standing in between a man and a boy. The man, a large Hispanic-looking individual sat grimly and cross-legged with his hands cuffed behind his back. The boy, a black teenager, looked scared and confused and disoriented by the crowd. The American started speaking after I joined the crowd. He asked the boy his name; Trayvon, the boy responded. The American assured him that there was nothing to fear. The crowd cheered and the police arrived and took the handcuffed man away. That was the closest I’ve ever gotten to a Super and I had to tell everyone about it. I even posted about it on Facebook. I didn’t care that I was acting like an Ultra, it felt fun and cool to be blessed with a Super’s proximity just for a brief moment.

In the coming weeks Trayvon would become the public’s new favorite superhero. The DEC, specifically The American, seemed to feel responsible for Trayvon’s future after the traumatic experience of getting almost murdered. They offered for him to join them at the DEC headquarters and start his training to become a DEC agent. Obviously he accepted and his training was highly public and the entire ordeal felt like another showcase. He was called The New American for awhile or America’s Son but in mid-July, when they finally revealed the high-tech supersuit he would wear, Trayvon announced the name he wanted to be known as; Sable Heart. In his supersuit he was bulletproof, he could fly, he could lift a mac truck, and he could shoot beams of energy out of his palms. The public went wild as he demonstrated his powers stopping a gunman in Aurora, Colorado and again later in Newtown, Connecticut. As his popularity grew, a small group of Ultras gained notoriety as well. This group would claim that Sable Heart was not a true super and his inclusion to the DEC was an affront to America and the principles of the supers. It become apparent that the group’s criticisms were racially-motivated when they protested the DEC’s incorporation of another African-American man by the name of Half-Ton, after he stopped a tour bus from crashing in Oregon. The group of Ultras drew national condemnation with inflammatory remarks that captured headlines that attracted more like-minded Americans.

By 2013 I was fired from my writing job and turned to smoking weed during the weekdays while I watched Fox News and MSNBC, which was nothing but superhero coverage 24/7. I was doing just that when I saw the live coverage of the Boston marathon attack and Miss Cinnamon’s management of the blast with her fire powers. When Goodall made her debut during the Colorado flooding, communicating with all of the affected animals and telling them to seek safer habitats, I was working as a barista and burned my hand as we all stopped and stared at the television. These female heroes seemed to push the formerly mentioned group of Ultras over the edge and a few members were arrested for posting on their internet forum about hurting the two newest members of the DEC. It once again became embarrassing even deplorable to identify with the Ultras. The media discussed the event so avidly all Ultras became associated with the bigoted zealots.

Then came the mother of them all: Mother Mystic. With her telekinetic powers she became the first geriatric superhero as she broke victims free from a sex ring at Super Bowl XLVIII. She was a kind and lovely woman that reminded everyone of their own grandmother and the public reached a new level of obsession. She would do interviews and act like Fred Rogers and tell everyone that they were their own superheroes with their own superpowers. In 2014 I could sense the urge to treat one another with kindness come back over America, as it did when superheroes first came about. Or at least it was there for a few weeks that spring. That is until a vigilante used Mother’s urging as motivation to stop a shooting in Las Vegas, losing his life in the act. The suspect was caught and the vigilante martyrized and soon vigilantism was on the rise across the nation and police stopped inhibiting such behavior. In fact police stopped stopping crime a while ago, it seemed America could police itself with the leadership of the DEC. Uniformed officers traded their badges in for masks and that was it. The Age of the Masks had begun; unnoticeably, irrevocably, and even I cheered it on. No one knew it was a new world order and if they did, I doubt anyone would care. Our lives were wonderful, we thought we were living in a golden age.

But in 2015, I remember feeling once again that forgotten sensation of unease, distrust, like the world was once again driven by shady enterprises. By the time the next superhero revealed herself, the flying Earhart, the vigilante Ultras had returned and it seemed everyone had forgotten their prejudicial proclivities. They were even further emboldened by Kim Kardashian and Stephen Colbert and other celebrities that donned masks and each had several arrests attributed to them. Then, when the first gay superhero revealed herself, Queen, the American culture had subtly shifted and a new set of social principals had taken hold. Donald Trump used his daughter’s masked character to announce his candidacy for president and made headlines as he called for Ultra citizens to be promoted above citizens who did not worship supers, along with other inflammatory, bigoted remarks. Although much of the electorate condemned him and his rhetoric, he won the 2016 election and superheroes took on a new role in the government. After his inauguration he called for the repeal of the DEC as it ‘restricted the freedom of American Ultras and American Altruism.’ Only The American, Red Glare, Miss Cinnamon, and Mother Mystic attended his inauguration, the rest of the DEC agents were never publicly seen again; except for Metamorph, Sister Sun, and Sable Heart, who appeared to carry out their president’s will like dispirited workhorses.

Ever since then, I’ve suspected that a schism occurred within the former DEC, with one side being allegiant to Trump and the other, well I feel like a lunatic conspiracy theorist when I say it, but I think there was a great battle and the other supers lost. For a reason beyond me, Trump & Co. imprisoned or did worse to those heroes and the public never realized. His policies placated the nation with cheap creature comforts, socialist populism, and an anesthetized complacency that only comes with an opioid addiction. I got fired from the cafe and picked up a job as a ‘cleaner,’ one of the largest growing professions in America. We follow the Extra-abled where ever they go and clean up the messes they make as they ‘stop crime.’ Usually the destruction they create is worse than the crime they stop but no one ever cares. Whatever the cost, we love to watch our superheroes save the day.