The Caped-Crusader Caper - 3. Chapter 3

It took them slightly longer than a half hour to get where they were going. Not only was their destination four blocks east, but it was also three blocks north.

"What were you doing so far from home?" Kyle demanded of their new companions. "You guys aren't old enough to be walking around town like that alone."

"It's just a few blocks," Andy protested, like it was no big deal.

"You're parents are probably worried," Justin put in. His parents would have been, and mad, if he had gone so far from home at the ages of these two.

"Naw," Nick replied, giving an emphatic shake of his head. "They ain't home from work yet. Dinner's at seven. As long as we're back by then, they don't say nuthin'."

Justin squinted at the two boys now. "What...you guys are related?" Andy was brown-haired and blue-eyed, while Nick was slightly olive-skinned and had black hair.

Andy laughed. "Half brothers. Same mom, different dads."

"Ah." Justin nodded, curious now. "Um, you two look to be about the same age."

Andy looked affronted. "I'm ten and a quarter! Nicky's just nine."

"Nine and a quarter!" Nick returned, haughtily.

Andy shook his head, dismissing that conversation entirely. "We're almost there."

Justin was glad of that. The neighborhood wasn't exactly a dump, but it was on its way there. In the part of the city where he and Kyle lived, there were no vacant lots, no boarded up buildings. Land was in demand, not somewhere to pile junk. Not that there were a lot of those here, either - vacant lots or boarded up buildings. But the place had a slightly rundown look, as if time had passed it by. Time, and money, both. Justin could see his dad now, and hear his voice, had he been standing beside him: "It's a working class neighborhood, son. The city is full of them."

Not that Justin and Kyle lived in the swanks with the wealthy, either. Their area was upper middle class, he supposed, though in the city these days that wasn't saying a lot. But his family did more than get buy, and one day, he knew, his parents planned to make a move to the suburbs. Justin had fretted about that once, envisioning being removed from Kyle's side - but he was old enough now to understand that any move his parents made in that direction would come after Justin was grown and gone from their two-bedroom apartment.

And, looking around, Justin realized what it was about this street that made it seem dreary. There were no trees, anywhere. Well, no...that was not quite right. Here and there were missing squares of sidewalk, through which scrawny trees poked their way skyward. They made it look like it was an effort, and that they'd just as soon be doing something else. The half-heartedness by which they made their way towards the sun just added to the generally old appearance of the buildings here. This part of the city was old, and had not had much in the way of the facelift that other parts had had.

But that didn't mean it was empty. There were people on the sidewalks and on the basketball courts, moms pushing strollers, oldsters walking slowly, people making their way to and fro. The foot traffic here was nothing compared to what they had experienced back by the hotel, but this was plainly a busy neighborhood, lived in, and happily so. People smiled at them as they went by, and a couple even told them how good their costumes were. The older folks, anyway. A few younger kids laughed and pointed, or whispered to each other behind masking hands, and a few older teens smirked at them, or even called stupid stuff, like, "Oh, look, it's Superman!"

But no one really bothered them, and Justin had tuned them out mostly by the time they turned into a new block and started up the last street.

Andy stopped then, pointing as two boys his own size appeared on the sidewalk ahead, walking towards them. The two newcomers stopped suddenly as they spied the group ahead, and Justin could see their mouths agape from where he stood.

"Look too small to be the bad guys," Kyle whispered, frowning.

Andy raised a hand and waved furiously. "Hey! Over here!"

The two ahead overcame their surprise, and approached slowly.

"Who you got, Andy?" one of them called.

"Superheroes!" Andy returned, beaming. "They're gonna help us get the clubhouse back!"

The two ahead looked at each other, and then started running towards them.

"That's Noah, and that's Oliver," Nick said then, pointing them out. "They're our friends."

The two new boys drew up before them, and stood gaping at Kyle and Justin.

"Where'd you find them?" Noah asked, his eyes roving over the two superheroes. He was blond and curly haired, and missing a front tooth.

"Uptown." Andy grinned. "And you said we wouldn't find anyone who could help!"

Justin did a double-take at that. "Wait a minute...you were looking for superheroes today?"

"Sure," Nick said, nodding. "We saw it on the news, that there was a lot of superheroes meeting at some hotel uptown. We were going there when we saw you."

Oliver put his hands on his hips and frowned at Kyle. "Are you real?" He was slighter than the other boys, darker and more exotic-looking.

Kyle put his fists on his hips in the true superhero mold, and grinned. "Are you?"

Oliver looked surprised, but smiled. "Well, o'course!"

Kyle bent forward and smiled. "Well, so am I!"

That answer seemed to confuse Oliver at first, and then to delight him. He giggled, and then backed up a step, grinning. "You're funny!"

"I try." Kyle smiled at Andy. "Wanna show us where this clubhouse is?"

Noah raised a hand and put it on Andy's arm. "Me and Ollie were just there. Those boys are still inside!"

"Our clubhouse!" Oliver added, indignantly.

"It's just up here," Andy said, pointing up the block.

They resumed walking, while the four younger boys chattered gleefully, pushing and playing, and seemingly delighted that justice was about to be levied on the evil ones. Justin hoped that they could really help here, but had already allowed for the fact that they couldn't. An ignominious retreat would be hard on Kyle, and Justin really didn't want that to happen. He hefted his bow as they walked, and imagined for a moment he was imbued with the spirit of Ben Grimm, the Fantastic Four's Thing. Roy Harper as Speedy was cool, and Justin felt him a kindred spirit somehow, which was why he had chosen him as his own avatar. But Roy was also only human, and sometimes a guy needed to feel slightly superhuman to tackle the stuff that happened on a daily basis. Justin took a deep breath, feeling somehow that Ben Grimm was also seeping into him. Why be one superhero, when you could be two?

He grinned. It's clobberin' time!

"What are you smiling at?" Kyle asked, just a trace of nervous energy apparent in his voice now.

Justin tapped the end of his bow on the sidewalk as they walked. "I was just thinking I don't want to hurt anybody. But if these guys wanna fight, I say we give them one."

Kyle blinked at that, and then a smile came onto his face. "That's the spirit!" He leaned closer. "I can do anything with you at my side, Speedy."

Justin nodded at that, feeling the sentiment deeply. "Me, too," he whispered back.

Of course, there was the fact that neither of them was much of a fighter. Every kid in school fell into one of three categories: The bullies, the picked on, and the neutral. The bullies liked to push, and the picked on always seemed to give. Being neutral was the only way to be, really. That meant refusing to be bullied, and feeling sympathetic to those that were. Both Kyle and Justin had stayed in the neutral column throughout their school years, despite the fact that they were viewed as a little geeky by some of the toughs.

Kyle was a talented gymnast specializing in trampoline, and Justin had wrestled for two years. They both had moves, and were strong for their sizes, and Justin had taught Kyle some wrestling action, like how to take a guy down and pin him hard. Neither of them were badasses, but neither were pushovers, either. Kyle, especially, had a highly developed sense for aiding the disadvantaged, and had pulled Justin into a conflict more than once in the hallways at school. But they were a recognized team among their peers, and the knowledge that if you messed with one you had to watch out for the other was enough to make their lives at least reasonably trouble-free.

So far.

A building-sized opening presented itself between two other buildings, clearly once the home of some structure that had been razed. The lot wasn't terribly wide, but seemed very deep, and was knee-high in some sort of a weed pretending to be a grass. The area nearest the street was empty, but they could see a few things farther back, including a shipping container all the way back against the back wall of a building on the next block. The wall was a vast canvas of brick, unadorned by windows or doors, for once the two buildings had backed right up to each other, without even an alley between them.

The buildings to either side presented similar walls, and the net effect was like walking into a box canyon with no easy way out but back the way they came. It made Justin a little nervous, and by the look of him, Kyle didn't much like the landscape, either. At least the grasses weren't so tall that they couldn't see anyone hiding, or trying to hide, or even standing about with a potential to cause trouble. In fact, there was no one to be seen anywhere.

"They're all inside," Noah said, sounding anxious.

Justin realized then that the boy was looking at the shipping container. He turned to Andy then. "I thought you said you guys made this clubhouse?"

The other boy nodded. "You gotta start with something. You have to see the inside to know what we made. The door's on the other side, anyway."

They reached the shipping container, and Justin could see that the twin doors in the back were closed. Andy held a finger to his lips then and shushed them all, and they circled around the container towards the other side. It was then that the boys could see that the container was not set up against the wall of the building, but that a space of ten or fifteen feet separated them. This container had a side door, too, which was opened outward and appeared to be locked against the side so it could not be closed. They could hear the soft murmur of voices and laughter within.

"That's them," Andy whispered. "Get 'em!"

Kyle held up a hand. "Wait a minute. We need a plan." He looked over the area, nodded, and turned to Justin. "You and me will stand on this side of the door with our backs to the container. Andy, you and your friends walk over by the brick wall there, in front of the door, and when I wave to you, call to the guys inside."

Andy nodded, held his finger to his lips for silence, and motioned for his friends to accompany them.

Kyle patted Justin's arm. "When they come out, get between them and the door. If they want to get back inside, they'll have to go through us."

Justin just nodded, knowing it was too late to argue. They walked along the side of the container to the locked-back door and stood side-by-side beside it, backs to the container wall. Andy and the others reached the brick wall opposite the open door, and stood in a line with their backs to it. They were ready.

The voices inside were clearer now...

"..this thing was closer to home," one voice said, sounding slightly whiny. "This is a long way to come just to sit inna trailer."

"It ain't a trailer," said another voice, sounding irritated."And it's just two blocks. It's a place to hang, okay? They ain't none o' that 'round where we live. Them places is all took."

"It smells," said a third voice, just sounding bored. "Someone took a piss in here once."

"Probably some drunk," Irritated replied. "It wasn't recent, and those bedbugs cleaned the place up real nice."

"It's too dark, too," Whiny went on. "This table needs ta be closer to the door."

"We'll bring a light," Irritated said, his annoyance growing. "Will ya shut up, already? Them bedbugs had a nice lantern. We shoulda made them leave it when we flushed 'em outta here."

"Shit," Bored said then. "And they'd be back wit' their old mans, too, wonderin' what went with their light. I don't like none o' this."

"God, youse guys is a pain! I get youse a place to hang out, and all youse can do is flap about it!"

Justin nodded, able to tell from their accents where these guys were from. You could often tell by the way people spoke what part of the city they lived in. Even a few blocks away could sound like a different world.

Kyle leaned close. "Ready?"

Justin nodded, and Kyle turned back to Andy and the others and waved.

Andy took an obvious gulp, nodded back, and cupped his hands around his mouth. "Hey you stinkfaces!"

The voices inside the container suddenly cut off.

"What the hell?" Irritated hissed. "It's them bedbugs again!"

"Told ya!" Whiny hissed back. "They probably brought their old mans wit' 'em!"

There was a clatter inside, the sounds of chairs being pushed back, and then the pounding of feet against the plywood floor.

Justin looked past Kyle's head and saw just the front of a face peer out the door. "They're alone." It was the voice of Irritated. "I told 'em not ta come back!"

Three boys burst through the doorway, spreading into a rumble line as they did, and only stopped as they caught sight of movement out of the sides of their eyes.

That being Kyle and Justin as they slid over in front of the doorway. Kyle swelled his chest and crossed his arms over it, and Justin held his bow at the ready.

The three bad guys swung about in a hurry to see what was happening behind them...and for a second, all action ceased.

Justin took the pause to appraise the others. They were fairly normal looking dudes in jeans and tee-shirts, all dark-haired and heavily tanned, maybe Italian in extraction. Irritated, who had led the charge, was the biggest of them, but still a half a head shorter than Kyle, who was himself half a head shorter than Justin. The silence drew out as they all stared at each other, until Kyle apparently couldn't take it any longer.

He grinned at the opposition. "Surprise!"

Irritated, who really wasn't bad looking at all, curled his lip at them. "What the hell is this?"

Kyle's grin disappeared. "You're being evicted. This place belongs to our friends over there."

The other boy let out a disdainful hiss, but his nerves were visible in his eyes now. The situation had gotten weird, and he obviously felt out of his depth. "You think youse guys frontin' in them outfits is gonna scare us?"

Justin already had the measure of the others. Irritated was the leader, either a bully or a guy with some mad-at-the-world in him. The other two were followers, not really looking for trouble. They had happened on the vacant lot and the container, come in and leaned on the little kids, and scared them off. But they didn't look like gang members by the way they were dressed, and they really didn't look like they wanted a fight. Just three guys looking for a place to be. Kinda sad, really.

But that was neither here nor there. Justin took his bow and slapped it into his other hand suggestively. "We don't like people who steal from our friends."

Kyle nodded and waved a gloved fist. "Why don't you come on back over here and we'll see what happens?" Kyle seemed to have appraised the three, too.

Whiny and Bored looked far less ready to do that than Irritated did, and even Irritated didn't look like he thought it was a good idea.

"They're too big," Whiny whispered to Irritated, his own fright making his voice too loud.

Kyle uncrossed his arms. "This isn't your turf, guys. Why don't you all go on back to the river where you belong?"

Irritated licked his lips, and shook his head. "This is nuts. Coupla guys dressed like Superman!"

Bored shook his head. "That's Robin and Speedy, Mikey."

Kyle flashed a grin at Justin, and then turned back to Bored. "Right you are!"

Irritated - Mikey, apparently - gaped at his friend. "Jeezuz, Vic! That comic book crap!"

Vic suddenly looked decidedly un-bored himself. "Ain't nothin' wrong wit' comics!"

Mikey closed his eyes and shook his head. "I'm goin' insane!"

Justin stepped forward. '"Look. It's real simple, guys. This clubhouse belongs to the neighborhood kids here. You had no right to move in and run them out. You get me?"

The other boy opened his eyes and spit on the ground. "It's a friggin' vacant lot! It don't belong ta them!"

"I'm outta here," Whiny said then, stepping away from the other boy. "We don't need this shit place, smells like piss. Come on, Mikey."

"I ain't bein' run off like no jit!"

Kyle gave a sigh. "There's no place in your own neighborhood to hang out?"

"Just our apartments," Vic said. "Too many clowns onna streets."

"You ain't gotta tell them shit!" Mikey yelled.

Vic cocked his head to one side. "What's your problem, Mikey? You jacked this trailer from the little kids, and you got caught. Don't feel very good, does it?"

A number of emotions worked their way across Mikey's face, the last one looking very much like desperation. "We need this!" he hissed. "There ain't nowhere else ta go!"

Vic sighed. "There's my place, and your place, and Carl's place. We done okay there."

"They ain't our places," Mikey returned. "Not like this could be!"

But Vic looked back at the container, and shook his head. "This place ain't ours, neither. Come on, Mikey."

Kyle took another step closer to the three. "Wait a second." He raised a hand and waved at Andy. "You guys come on over here."

The younger boys all looked at each other, but no one moved. And then Andy grabbed his brother's arm and started pulling him forward. Faced with being left behind, Noah and Oliver followed. The four circled warily around the three bad guys, and stopped beside Kyle.

"Tell 'em to go!" Andy whispered.

But instead, Kyle waved a hand at the container. "Why do you like this place, Andy?"

The younger boy looked startled by the question. "Huh? It's our clubhouse!"

Kyle nodded patiently. "I know. But why do you feel like it's special?"

The younger boys all looked at each other. "It's our place," Andy said, shrugging,

"No sisters!" Noah put in then.

"No brothers!" Oliver added.

Nick laughed. "No momma's, watchin' what we're doin!"

Kyle nodded, and swung his hand to the three older boys. "That's all they want, too. A place to be where they can relax."

"But it's ours," Andy said then, looking distressed.

"I know." Kyle looked over at Justin a moment, and then smiled at Andy. "Can you share?"

The little boy looked shocked. "With them? They're mean!"

Kyle transferred his gaze to the others. "You guys gotta be mean?"

Mikey looked hostile, but Vic and Carl looked at each other.

"I ain't mean," Vic said. "I gotta little brother o' my own."

"What about you?" Kyle directed at Carl.

"I ain't mean. I just wanna get along."

"That leaves you," Kyle said flatly, pointing at Mikey.

That boy glared. But then his eyes moved to the container, and then to the four youngsters that had made it into a clubhouse. He winced then, and dropped his eyes. "I don't wanna be mean. There's enough of that at home."

Kyle scratched his head. "Seems to me, the easiest way out of this problem is if all of you share this place."

"They're squirts!" Mikey blurted. "Buncha pains in the ass!"

Kyle watched him a moment. "How old are you, Mike?"

The other boy looked taken aback. "Thirteen. What's it your business for?"

Kyle smiled at Andy, and then back at Mike. "These guys are just like you were, three or four years ago. How would you have felt then if some older guys took something of yours?"

Mikey's eyes widened slightly, and he frowned at Andy and the others. In that second Justin was certain that Mikey had had things taken from him before. That he had been there, and done that. His sullenness and anger now were a direct reflection of what had been done to him. What had been taken from him.

The other boy nodded then. "Yeah."

Kyle turned to Justin. "What do you think, buddy?"

Justin smiled. "You're doing fine without me. Go on with it."

Kyle grinned, and beckoned to the three new boys. "Come on over here."

Vic smiled, and Carl looked amazed...and Mike looked resigned. But all three of them came over.

"This is Andy, and Nick, and that's Noah, and that's Oliver."

"Hey," Vic said, smiling.

Carl waved, and Mike just nodded.

Kyle turned to the younger boys. "And that's Mike, and Vic, and Carl."

Andy shook his head. "You're not gonna boss us around, are ya?"

"I won't," Vic said. He held up a hand. "Swear."

"Me, either," Carl added. "I get 'nuff'o that shit at the house!"

"What about you?" Kyle asked Mike.

Mike made a little hissing noise, and squinted at Kyle. "You do this shit everyday? Go around gettin' in other people's business?"

Kyle looked less than offended. "Superheroes help people," he replied. "We right wrongs. What makes us happy is when others are happy."

Mike looked amazed. "Hey, the corn is growin' tall here!" Again he shook his head. "This is nuts."

"Oh, well. Either stay and be friendly, or roll. Your choice."

Vic nudged his friend. "Come on, Mikey. It's a good deal!"

Mikey still looked like he couldn't believe the way things had gone, but he finally nodded. "Okay." He turned then, and offered a hand to Andy. "Mike."

Andy stared at the hand, looked at Kyle, who nodded encouragingly, and then stuck out his own hand. "Andy."

They shook.

Everyone moved back inside the container. There was a worn kitchen set, a table and six chairs, a large old stuffed chair that had definitely seen better days, and a variety of items that had the look of having been scrounged, possibly from other vacant lots. It was too dark, and the interior did faintly smell of something that might be old urine.

But it had been swept out, and the floor was clean, and there was a tattered but serviceable rug on the floor between the table and the stuffed chair.

"It's better with more light," Andy told them. "I'll bring my dad's lantern back, but he said I can't leave it here 'cause it might get took."

"We got some stuff we can bring," Vic said. "You guys like games? I got a lot of 'em." He smiled. "And comic books!"

"You got Spiderman?" Nick asked. "I love Spiderman!"

"Yup. I got a lot o' stuff!"

"I got a little TV I can bring," Carl said. "Runs on batteries. But I ain't leavin' it here, just like your old man's lantern. Someone might jack it."

"We got stuff, too," Oliver said. "This might be fun!"

Kyle turned to Justin, his eyes alight. "I think our work here is done."

He turned back to Mike. "Can we trust you all to get along? Give me your word of honor."

The other boy reared back a little. "Are you for real?"

Justin stepped around his boyfriend and glared. "Answer him."

Mikey took a step backwards. "Yeah, yeah, okay." He nodded. "You got my word on it." He looked over at the others, all of whom were happily engaged in conversation now. Their ages were not so different that they couldn't find plenty of common ground, and it certainly looked like everyone was settling in for the long haul, and that it stood some chance of being a trouble-free one.

Mikey turned back to Kyle and leaned closer. "Who are you, really?"

Justin didn't wait for his boyfriend to answer. "He's Robin, the Boy Wonder."

Mikey gave a little, amazed breath, and smiled. "Okay." He nodded. "We'll be okay here. I got the word. We'll look out for the bedbugs."

Kyle smiled. "You might begin by not calling them that."

Mikey laughed. "You're somethin'! Okay."

Kyle nodded. "We'll be leaving, then."

Andy heard that, and quickly dragged Nick over to them. "Thanks, Robin! Thanks, Speedy!"

Oliver and Noah came, too, and the four boys swarmed around Kyle and Justin and offered them a sort of confused group hug. Vic and Carl shook their hands, and Mikey walked with them to the door and stepped outside with them. For a moment they all stood there in silence.

Mikey licked his lips. "This comic book stuff...is it all like you?"

Justin and Kyle looked at each other. "There's a lot to it," Justin said. "Heroes and villains - the dark and the light. And some in between, in shades of gray. It's about people, really. The stories are cool. They...they make you think." He shrugged. "They're about the world, and you'll get it if you look hard enough."

Kyle nodded. "If you're curious, I'm sure your buddy Vic can help you."

"Maybe. Thanks."

Kyle stuck out his hand. Mikey looked surprised, but shook it, and then turned to Justin. They exchanged a handshake, and then Kyle turned to go. But he stopped to look over his shoulder. "We're trusting you, Mike. Don't let us down."

Justin smiled, but held up a finger. "Yeah. Be good to those guys."

Mikey looked like he couldn't believe the whole thing, but smiled anyway. "Okay." He watched as the two costumed figures moved away.

And then, they were gone.