Walking down the street looking like my shoulder is sewed to the side of my head I groan just a bit, because I’m going to kill Carter. I haven’t been able to find my headset since he sat at my desk. Taking calls have been a pain, because I haven’t been able to stop at the store to get another one. Twisting and turning. Bobbing and weaving I make my way through the hustle and bustle of the crowds of Metropolis as I make my way back to the Planet.
Since they opened that new coffeehouse around the corner everyone’s been craving them. I for one was starting to think that they put something in the coffee. Not that I cared for the drink. It was unpleasant and it made me gag, but I didn’t say that. Course not fetching coffee was one of my jobs wasn’t it?
“Yes, Ms. Grant. I heard you. I got you exactly what you wanted. I’m walking through the doors right now. I’ll be up stairs shortly.” Yes I’ll be upstairs to deliver orders and then I will be banished to the basement to finish the research that I was doing. Nearly all of the Planets copies had been digitized, but there were still items that needed to be cataloged to determine if they were going to be kept or not. I was also working on a bit of a project for one of the reporters gathering information that the Planet had on metahumans. Earliest sightings. Something about a retrospective.
Truth be told with the press conference held by Superman to introduce Wonder Woman people were curious. Some skeptical. Some of the older reporters said it was nothing more than history repeating itself. Why was I doing this? Well, I had the good fortune or misfortune of offering information…strike that. Volunteering information while Mister White was describing the assignment that he was handing out to said reporter.
I knew a little more than anyone expected. They probably thought I was some kind of metahuman groupie as I expounded on the events that lead to the period of silence as I like to call it.
“The Keen Act…” It slipped off my lips easily and I provided a little more detail. So, I was the one singled out to investigate the archives. What wasn’t digitized I had to go into the stack as some liked to call it. Basement was more like it, because that’s what it was, literally.
Still, it provided me with a good deal of time to myself while I was at the Planet and when I wasn’t there I was at school fitting in like any normal college sophomore who was majoring or considering to major in communications and information management sciences or at least that’s what they were calling it today. I had a minor in mind, but that was neither here and there.
Right now I was simply Jackson Hyde, intern…maybe reporter someday. True there was talk of a quite earnest reporter that had been among their ranks, but he went on sabbatical and no one had heard anything from him. Kent. Had a desk no office, desk had been cleared a new hot shot was brought in to replace him.
It was water cooler talk. It’s how I got in with people listening to what they told me as I made my rounds becoming familiar with this person and another. Tagging along all in the interest in furthering my education and interest in journalism. Print media was a dying breed they said, but there were a few forward-thinking individuals that believed they could help revolutionize how information was shared and accessed by the public. That’s not to say that the Planet hadn’t been through a few lean years. The period between the Keene Act and Superman’s appearance were difficult, but give people something focus on and suddenly there’s a rebirth. Add the fact that a corporate industrialist openly opposes him given his status as an alien. You have something to sink your teeth into.
Of course, no one thought things would go the way they did and someone said corporate industrialist and megalomaniac would find a way to do the very thing the founding fathers of this nation abhorred, a life time leader…a king like leader.
The declaration was unexpected, but it seemed that power was being consolidated and with the laws of the land that had been crafted it seemed that a once great nation had fallen without even a single blow being struck. Ebbs and flows like the tide.
I cannot order you to do this. However, I can ask.
The voice, his voice played through my mind and I wonder what he would think about the path I have chosen. It was my decision. It has always been my decision and there are days that I have regretted the decision, because I always considered what if, but then I remember all the things that I have been told about what if. I shouldn’t consider what I could of done especially when I was not present. I was focused on my task, my assignment.
Still what if one person could have made a difference and the world wouldn’t seem to be as dark as it was. It seems that the world I walk in now is no different from the one I came from. I needed to consider what I was capable of and where I could do the most good and right now that meant continuing to learn more about the people that we shared the planet with. True I was far cry from the leaders, but I did have information.
I needed information about all kinds of people which lead me to take a particular interest in some of articles that they did regarding metahumans, vigilantes and the like. It was good to know how they were treated. To know how those that were different were treated. It could provide invaluable insight on how they might treat potential friends. Though with the current state of affairs one had to wonder how it all might unfold.
Even as I passed out the beverages I wondered when and how. What would he do. Would it be enough? There was far too much to focus on and even though I had been instructed, counseled to keep my head down I found it difficult to do. I spent the better part of a year waiting, because I was unable to act, but now that I am able to do so I find it difficult to simply sit on my hands and wait for someone to alert me as to when we would make our next move.
I felt that I was doing nothing more than gathering information that would never be utilized, not by the people it was meant for. There was a danger lurking, but which threat was greater? The threat above or the one below?
Focus. Focus Jackson. Jackson. The mask that needs to be worn in order to keep my person safe less I’m found and brought back to stand trial for treason against the crown. So rather than let my anger get the better of me I get coffee and focus on the assignment that has been provided by Mister White. Provide research on rise and fall of metahumans over the nation’s history.
Still, one couldn’t help but notice the various leads regarding missing metahumans, young ones. They weren’t that common but every so often there was a source that talked about a metahuman that they were familiar with that disappeared. It wasn’t something that the Planet wrote a story about, but I had come across notes from the reporter that had gone on sabbatical, Kent. He was looking into it.
It wasn’t something I shared with Johnson. It should be tossed away, but I couldn’t let it go. I had bigger things to worry, bigger things I couldn’t do anything about right now, but this? I don’t know. Perhaps someone could give them a voice when the time was right.
Work came and went and I found myself walking the streets. I wasn’t in a hurry to return to his apartment, off campus apartment. It was the agreement that I made with Joshua. It was better for everyone involved if he moved off campus rather than staying on campus. Especially given the fact that I was starting to work a lot of late hours at the Planet. I was going to be in and out a lot and there were classes of course. It took some convincing, but I rather not put anyone in a compromising position if I could avoid it.
Besides I told him there were going to be times when I needed to be myself. That I needed to be me and that wasn’t always convenient if I had to deal with roommates. I needed to breathe. To be honest I knew that I wasn’t always the most pleasant person to be around. At the apartment I could be whoever I wanted. I also could smile to the neighbors help them with their groceries and then shut the door and shut them out when I needed to.
Never in a million years did I believe I would find myself in this position. I knew I wasn’t alone, but the support, the support I was accustomed to that I could turn to was gone. Friend gone, dead by my hand. Talking with Joshua and the others wasn’t the same. They had their own lives to focus on even though there were routine reports about what was happening.
They had been tasked with tracking Manta’s movements and letting me know if he or his men were in the area. He was Orm’s eyes and ears on the surface. Atlantis lost one operative and replaced him with another. Manta had men and resources that could be places anywhere that Orm wanted. Tracking their movements were critical in determining what came next.
It should be something I was involved in. If, anything they could be using them to track down the Others and anyone else that may have been loyal to the Orin. They needed to eliminate and sympathizers. There was a part of me that wanted to believe that I wasn’t in this alone. That it was more than me and the remaining Others.
Which is why it was difficult for me to figure out exactly what I should be doing. I should be out there with them, but I couldn’t. I was not allowed. That was difficult to handle. In my mind, I knew that I wasn’t being sidelined, but I was used to being able to take an active part in anything that I was involved in. This was my life. They weren’t the only ones that were being hunted and perhaps that is why I found myself taking an interest in Kent’s notes. The idea that someone went missing because they were metahumans. The possibility that something could have happened to them.
It almost feels wrong, because it could easily be seen as a distraction, but it is far from it. It is not a distraction. It’s something that provides focus and clarity. It also keeps me out of the hair of those that are doing their best to help me. A distraction is what I’m doing right now, walking the streets so I don’t return to the apartment and try and get Joshua on the phone to see what he’s found out if anything. Focus on the mission. My mission whatever’s left of it.