Chapter Three
November 10th, 9:43 AM
"It's probably best if I don't drive you up there."
Margot put the car in park. They were still a mile from the news station, off the beaten path in the parking lot of an abandoned grocery store. She looked at Erin, watching her unbutton her shirt. Slowly.
"Go ahead, take your time," Margot said, sarcastically.
"What?" Erin said.
"You're supposed to be there at 10."
"Jesus, Margot, I know," Erin said. She tugged off the shirt to reveal her shiny blue spandex outfit. She then unbuttoned her pants and slid them down her legs, exposing her bare legs and white knee-high socks.
"You think this is stupid," Margot said.
"Yeah, I do," Erin said, pulling on her white rubber boots. "It's a waste of time."
"It's half an hour, Erin," Margot said, drumming the steering wheel. "You'll have plenty of time to go bowling or whatever later on."
"Margot, listen," Erin said. "I had another nightmare."
Margot stopped drumming. She looked at Erin. "I'm sorry."
"Yeah. You were in it too. We were on trial. And you testified against me."
Margot giggled. "Wow. I sold out? Wild."
"It was scary," Erin continued. "Hammerson was there. Sunny was there. And they unmasked me and they put me in the stocks, like it was medieval times. And then those hillbillies ripped off my clothes and..."
"It was a dream, Erin," Margot said. "And I know they're horrible. But they're not real."
Erin pulled her rubber gloves on her hands. "Easy for you to say. You're not the one on the front line."
Margot stared at her. "Hey, if you really don't want to do this, we can turn around, Erin. We can stop this whole Blue Lynx thing right now." A note of anger had crept into her voice. "But the reason we're doing this is so that we don't have to go out every night. We can win if we have allies in the community. We can stop Hammerson if the people are on our side."
"I know, I know," Erin said, adjusting her utility belt. "But can we trust anyone, yet?"
Margot sighed. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, that dream I had. It was a sign. A message. And it said that the law is not our friend, Margot. We're vigilantes."
"You're right," Margot said. "But we're not dealing with the law today."
"But they will be there," Erin said. "And it makes me nervous."
"Oh come on. You're just camera shy."
Erin placed her mask on her face and straightened it.
"No one else knows about this, alright," Margot said. "Just my contact, her crew, and the doctor who'll be giving you the shot."
"Fine, okay," Erin said. "I'm going now."
Margot nodded. "Alright. I'll pick you up here in a bit."
Erin took a deep breath, exhaled, and stepped out of the car. She shut the door. As Margot sped away, Erin stuck out her tongue and stamped her foot.
"This is so stupid," she thought. She didn't want to do it. But Margot kept insisting. Kept going on and on about good relations with the community, the power of the press, all that bull. They were on a winning streak, taking down Hammerson's drug houses, doing things perfectly, being real superheroes, and now Margot wanted to go all social media on her ass. And for what cause? Getting a frickin flu shot.
They had fought about the event for days. "I know people," Margot said. "We can set something up." Erin had just shrugged. "What does it matter?" she said. "We're doing what we want to do." Margot had clicked her tongue. "We don't beat Hammerson by just beating up his goons. We have to think about the big picture."
But Erin hadn't wanted to be a superheroine for the "big picture." She didn't have a larger goal for the city; she wasn't a political person like her dad. Honestly, she'd just wanted to beat up rapists and muggers. She had wanted to leap from buildings and rescue people from fires and spar with supervillains. You know, the fun stuff.
Margot had different ideas. Erin obviously owed her big: she had saved her life on the Night at Hillbilly Manor. She was willing to indulge her friend on the smaller points of superheroine life. But events with the press? It all seemed so silly, even old-fashioned. Especially this event. A PSA for getting your flu shot? "Who cares?" Erin had said.
"It'll show people in the city that we care," Margot had replied. "That we are on their side. In the fight..."
"Against germs?"
"No! In the fight for their safety!"
Same difference, Erin had thought. And pointless and dumb either way. But if made Margot happy...
She was running now, taking the city's back alleys, trying to keep a low profile in route to the news station. It did feel good to run like this, to let her hair fly in the cool November wind. When she ran, she was invincible. She could forget about her past failures, her nightmares, this stupid news event, and let herself become engulfed in the moment. It was comparable to the feeling she had in the middle of a fight, a high you could only fully experience as a superheroine.
"It's worth it," she thought. "The bad stuff is worth it for this incredible feeling." She saw the news tower come into view, and knew she was just blocks away. "Though this event is definitely bad stuff."
It was 9:59 when she arrived in the station's back parking lot. It was Saturday, and there were just a few cars around. "The doctor should meet you in the back," Margot had said. "And they told me he'd be wearing a labcoat."
Erin looked around. There was no doctor in sight. No person at all, actually. Just a massive, tan-bricked building with a single ground floor entrance.
"Huh," Erin thought. "Maybe they cancelled?"
Erin crept toward the entrance, looking around her. The parking lot was eerily quiet. "Slow news day?" Erin thought. She arrived at the door and peered through its large pane of glass.
Suddenly, she heard a car door slam. And then a voice calling out across the parking lot.
"Blue Lynx! Over here!"
Erin turned around. A small man in a labcoat was waving his arms. He was bald with a brown mustache and glasses. He stepped away from a large green van bearing the station's logo. A cute little doctor. The man Erin was looking for.
"Hi," Erin said, walking toward him. "You're the doctor?"
"I am," the doctor said. "Nice to meet you."
They met each other in the parking lot between the station building and the van. The doctor put out a hairy hand and Erin met it with a rubber glove. The two strangers shook hands. Erin stood at least half a foot taller than he.
"I'm Doctor Gregory Todd," he said, looking into her eyes and smiling. "I'm a big fan of yours."
"Thanks," Erin said. He was a strange looking man. His glasses seemed almost painted to his head, which was small and shaped like an almond on its side. His smile was dotted with a few blackened teeth. He didn't look a whole lot like a doctor. But what did Erin really expect?
"Ready for your close-up?" Todd laughed.
Erin nodded. "Just not too close," she couldn't help but say.
The doctor smiled. "Oh I know," he said. "Protective of your identity and all that. Don't worry, Blue Lynx. This will be short and sweet. And for a good cause."
Erin put her hands on her hips. "Right. So where's the film crew?"
"Oh," Todd said, rubbing his mustache. "They're back in the van. We're going to film it back there. In the van."
Erin blinked. "In the van?"
Todd nodded. "Yeah, it's pretty spacious. You'll like it."
Who filmed a PSA inside a van? "I guess it'll be more secretive that way," Erin thought. But it still seemed far from right. It seemed like a trap.
She fingered the flaps of her utility belt absently. "Well, I'll follow you, then," she said.
The doctor smiled and turned around. He walked with a small limp, and Erin had to reduce her normal foot speed to maintain a safe distance behind him. As they came up to the van, Erin looked through the windshield. No one in the front. She noticed Todd watching her, and she turned back to him to see him smiling and beckoning toward her.
"Back here," he said.
Erin turned the corner of the van to see that its doors were wide open. She looked inside and saw a man attending to a camera, a man sitting on a bench carrying a boom microphone, and a woman in her thirties looking in a mirror and adjusting her hair. They didn't look comfortable, per se, but the van was more spacious on the inside than it appeared from the outside, just as the doctor had said.
"Blue Lynx," the woman said. "So glad you could make it. I'm Evelyn. Ready to get a flu shot?"
On to Chapter Four
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