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Heroes Beneath Us

"The newly created Department of Affected Citizens or DAC issued a statement this morning warning all unregistered Supers to turn themselves in or face the consequence of the law. What frightens me is that there are currently no laws regarding what to do with unregistered Supers. Do they just arrest someone when they can walk through walls. How does the government deal with them?" -Neil Thranton, Washington in the Morning News, October 13, 2020

Chapter 3 DAC Headquarters, Washington DC October 13, 2020

Special Agent Roman hated lectures, they did nothing for him. It would be so much easier to just tell him what he did wrong instead of yelling at him like his director, Henry Carver was doing now. The older Jaguar who had patches of gray on the edges of his fur was an ex-CIA agent who had come out of retirement when the president had personally asked him to take the job. Roman had heard stories about the man, a virtual legend in the intelligence department. He had been to almost every country in the world, spied on just about every world leader from the Cold War and was now a happily married man with two children and several grandchildren. He had everything, he lived the American Dream and now he was here, yelling at Roman.

"You lost two agents and the target." Henry was standing, having long cast away his chair that had rolled off into the corner between the wall and the bookshelf that held a colorful collection of American classics. He was breathing hard and was exerting himself with the yelling, but he wanted the dog to know that he had done wrong. "How is this department supposed to remain credible when you kill everything that moves and is different." He rubbed his temples with the tips of his claws that were dulled to stop him from accidentally tearing papers.

"He killed those agents." Roman replied, standing at ease with his tail swishing silently behind him and not raising his voice. The man was dangerous and I acted accordingly." He looked down at the cat who was a good five inches shorter than him. As much as he respected the man for his past, he didn't enjoy being told how to do his job, he knew what he was doing.

"You." Henry jabbed a finger at Roman whose eye twitched in annoyance and resisted barring his fangs, a serious show of disrespect to a superior. "Tore through his house after taking a potshot at him through the window." He grabbed a remote that sat on the edge of his table and turned on the small, almost antique television that was seated on a small table off to the side of the desk. Henry used it to review cases for possible ways to make the Department more efficient. He had no idea finding issues with this latest mission.

The television emitted a high pitched whine that set Henry's fur on edge. His wife had told him to just buy a new television if it irritated his sensitive ears so much, but he insisted that there was no reason to replace something that was not broken.

An image slowly appeared that was from the chest camera on one of the agents. He was the last person out of his designated van, the one that Roman was in.

Roman watched patiently, this was not new. All agents wore cameras, Henry could have used his if he wanted to, but the old cat wasn't one to do such a thing. If he wanted to prove a point, he would.

"Now let's." He reached back and grabbed his chair and seated himself. Roman turned one of the chair that sat in front of Henry's desk and sat down himself. "Charles Holbrook, worked as a mechanic. The worst thing on his record was a parking ticket that he paid the day he got it." Henry wasn't sure if he was going to get the point across to Roman, but he was damn well going to try.

The video was short, only a few minutes, but it showed everything that Henry wanted to show from when Roman shot an unarmed and nonthreatening figure that was standing in front of one of the side windows to the point when Roman ordered them to shoot on sight and finally the shot that killed the man.

Both of the agents said nothing and didn't look away from the screen the entire time until it was finished.

"There was no reason to kill him." Henry said in a much softer tone. "He was unregistered, all you needed to do was arrest him and I would take care of the rest."

"And what?" Roman crossed his right leg over his left so that his booted foot hung down. "Throw him in prison where he could terrorize people there?" Roman coughed and looked away from the television towards a painting on the wall. It was of Kansas City, from a skyscraper looking over the cityscape towards the setting sun. It was a beautiful picture, one that was now impossible to replicate.

"This man." Henry waved at the television that was paused on the scene in the bedroom. There was a charred body, burned beyond recognition, a man frozen in a position of horror and pain and then a man on the ground with blood oozing from a hole in his head. "He **was** no killer, no terrorist."

"All murderers start unassuming." Roman held fast though he knew fully well that his boss was correct. On the outside, Holbrook was a completely unassuming, law abiding citizen who would most likely have done nothing of note in his entire life, but Roman was done giving people the benefit of the doubt, not after Helios and Kansas City, not after he lost his sister there.

Henry couldn't take it anymore. He wanted to fire him right there and then, but he couldn't. No one on his team would speak out against him, they were loyal to him, or at least whatever ideals he had. And they weren't even all Canis who always defended what they considered their pack, but humans, felines, equines, a bit of everything. To add insult to injury, someone up above him wanted him to stay, in fact, Henry had to do something that he didn't want to do.

"I can't take this." Henry threw up his arms in defeat with a groan. "I have never met someone so... so..." He leaned forward and held his head in his hands.

"Can I go, sir." Roman was unimpressed. Normally he wasn't so obnoxious, especially not with his superiors, but he had his beliefs and he wasn't about to change them just because Henry wanted him to. He stood up, about to dismiss himself when Henry's hand shot up.

"Wait." He said with little strength. "You have new orders."

"I was expecting you to suspend me, or worse, fire me." Roman said with little honesty. He knew he was safe, there was a reason why he was at this job now. There was a reason why no one on his team threw him into the fire. Each one of them had lost someone dear at Kansas City, each of them felt like they were owed something, something that could only be paid in blood. It was obvious, the rosters for each member was right there on file, no one tried to hide it.

"I want to." Henry rolled his head back and brushed some fur out from his eyes. He opened the top drawer of his desk which was empty save for a single plain manilla envelope in it. He grabbed it and tossed it to the edge of the table where it was in reach of Roman. "This came from up high. I was told not to look at it."

Roman eyed the envelope as if it was poison. There was little that Henry didn't know or was kept from. This was odd.

He reached out and took the envelope, not opening it. Not here.

Henry dismissed Agent Roman. He watched the wolf until his tail slipped through the door, still swishing silently.

"How did I get myself talked out of retirement." Henry spoke to himself as he turned off the television. He had seen enough dead bodies, hell he had been responsible for enough deaths when he was a field agent, but that didn't mean he enjoyed the sight. He rubbed his eyes to get the image of the scene out, but it was only replaced with other images of similar scenes. For some reason, they always fled to the bedroom. Perhaps it was because they felt safest where they slept each night, or maybe it was just coincidence.

Henry kept his office clean, a trait that most Felines had. They abhorred messy environments had couldn't operate efficiently if they were forced into a space that was less than excellent. It was trait that some found annoying as many of his friends found out when he found himself in their homes for a drink. He would often fidget and tinker with their belongings, moving items around to new places that he considered better until he was told to stop. He couldn't resist. The fact that he couldn't clean up the mess that was Roman was bugging the hell out of him.

The cat smiled at the thoughts, but the smile was short lived. He had work to do and not a lot of time to do it.

The UN Security Council was meeting in a week and Henry had to come up with data about how many Supers were registering, how many were arrested and how many arrests turned violent. He had been working on it for some time now, turned out that despite loving paperwork, the government still had a difficult time organizing such things.

What he did have however was disturbing. There was an increase in violent confrontations between law enforcement and Supers who were participating in more and more civil rights protests. It was the 60's all over again, except more people were dying all ready and it hadn't even been a year. The Integration Movement in the mid 1900's were bloody with non humans struggling for equal rights. People had died, but in the end everything worked out. Now it seemed that the government was preparing for some kind of armed uprising. The military was involved, sending soldiers in on occasion to arrest *dangerous* Supers. It was escalating quickly and now the world was going to learn at the UN.

The UN was already volatile with entire nations throwing their hands in. Great Britain and the Commonwealth was already condemning the United States. The Prime Minister had made comments about similarities between the US and Nazi Germany. That didn't sit well for many and the bickering never stopped from there.

Henry's tail twitched erratically as he shuffled through a dozen different scenarios in his head. He now remembered why he took the job. The president, a man who he considered a close friend, was concerned. He saw what was happening, but he had no choice. President George Nelson was a man of the people, often going against party lines to side with popular opinion. Sadly popular opinion was to sign the Super Registration Act, it was also favored by all political parties. To veto the bill would have been suicide, that was why he had come to Henry.

The President couldn't be discreet about where he went so he had gone to a dinner party along with party members at a restaurant that he knew Henry was going to be at that night. He managed to slip away long enough to track down his old friend and ask him to be his eyes and ears on the inside of a government that he was afraid was slipping towards something dark.

Being two old CIA buddies that had bonded through dozens of suicidal missions, Henry couldn't abandon his friend, not when he was practically begged him.

Now Henry was having doubts about his ability to do anything. Everyday he got reports of more violence, some of them instigated by a growing number of Supers who were becoming more and more restless as their nation turned against them, others were by agents and officers who hated all Supers for the action of one.

Helios. Henry pondered about the lizard who had been an icon for America. He was a hero to many, but very few now. Henry had admired him for being so selfless and he wanted to believe that it wasn't him who had destroyed all of Kansas City those few painful months ago, though all evidence did point to him. Who else, could destroy a city in a blinding flash of light. Helios had fusion occurring inside of his body, he was a walking bomb.

If he could find Helios... Henry rested his chin on his hands. If he could find him and get the truth, then maybe he would be able to stop this mess or at least settle it down before something else happened, something worse.

Henry picked up the phone on his desk. It was an old phone, like much of the stuff in the small office. It still had a landline, but no ordinary land-line and it only called one number.

With a few presses of keys, the phone was ringing and it was picked up almost immediately.

"Hello?" The familiar voice on the other end answered.

"George, it's Henry." Henry couldn't help but smile. "I need a favor."

"Another." He could just see George's grin on his face. "Just how many is that now? Four? Five?"

"It doesn't count since you'r my boss." He joked and was glad to hear a chuckle on the other end.

"Alright, what can I do for you." There was a slight shuffle on the other end and the phone was shifted. "Make it fast though, I have a meeting in a few minutes."

"I need to know more about Helios and I imagine that you, sitting pretty in that Oval Office and get me some information."

There was a moment of silence and Henry could hear George's breathing on the other end as the man thought. "I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks, your the best."

"It's why I'm sitting here in this nice, expensive chair." He drew out the words as if he was stretching, which he probably was. "While you're sitting in that dusty office."

"You gave me this office." Henry reminded him.

"And don't you forget that." Henry rolled his eyes. He was probably the only person who could say that he could shoot shit with the president and it was a nice luxury to have.

"I won't, but I need that information."

"I'll get you what you need." George replied. "Now don't you have a litter box to clean up." He was referring to the litter box that had been set in the room when Henry had first arrived, it had instantly went into the garbage can, much to the amusement of the staff.

Henry put the phone back on the receiver, not even saying goodbye.

He was also the only person who could hang up on the president and get away with it.