Silver Shadow #5
"Discussion"
by Aaron Baugh

Although destruction was an unfortunate and common sight in Pacific City nowadays, the entertainment industry was still going strong.  Now, perhaps more than ever, escapism was the order of the day, and it was the job of Chuck Starling and others just like him to provide the brains of Pacific City's citizens with mind-numbing, enjoyable television programs.

At this moment, though, Chuck Starling, writer, producer, and director, was doing a favor for a friend.

"Claims department, please.  Yes, I'm calling on behalf of Jian Li Fong, account number 23661 - what? Oh, Fong, with an 'F'.  Like in flag.  Yes.  Well, I was giving it to you.  Fong, lady.  F-O-N-G.  It's bloody Chinese!  Oh, Christ.  It's number 236-screw it, let me talk to your supervisor, lady.  Yes.  YES!"

Chuck held his hand over the mouthpiece of the phone and mouthed the word 'dipshit' to Jian, who sat not more than five feet away, playing with a snowglobe that had previously sat on Chuck's desk.  He put it down as Chuck began to speak into the phone again.

"Yes, Mister... ah, Mister Langdon.  I'm Charles Nelson Starling, director here at Pacific Limits Studios.  Um-hmm.  Yes.  See, I'm calling on behalf of an employee of mine, Jian Li Fong.  See, his home was destroyed in the... yes, I know that many had their homes destroyed.  I knowbut.  But...  Yes, his home wasn't in the path directly, but the tremors, yes, they caused a gas leak that caused an explosion.  He's fully insured, why hasn't he been paid?  He needs that money to get a new place to... No, he hasn't gotten it yet.  Well you can't mail it to him, stupid, his apartment blew up!  Everything he owns was in there,
you damned poof!  I, I'm sorry.  I'm SORRY, Mister Langdon, but this is very upsetting.  Your company holds his fire and renter's insurance accounts.  He chose you for a reason, sir, and you won't pay him.  I understand.  Yes, yes I do."  Chuck's face began to turn red as he listened in silence for a few moments. "Yes.  Um-hmm.  No, no reason.  Could he come by and
get it?  No?  Well, why not?  WHY NOT!?  No, I don't know how much you've lost, I don't care how - hello? Hello?"  Starling slammed the receiver into its cradle.

"FUCK!" he bellowed.  He stood there, fuming for a moment before plopping back into his chair.

"So, it went well?" asked Jian dryly.

Chuck managed a short bark of a laugh.  "Afraid not, friend.  They don't appear to have any interest in getting your money to you in a timely fashion."

Jian scowled.  "Living with Zhao above the 22nd street dojo is wearing thin."

"You could come stay with me.  Take the guest house!  Tara would love to have you, and you know it.  But no health food.  None."

Jian smiled weakly.  "Thanks you, Chuck, but I like you too much to live with you.  Besides, I like to hold the balance of the favors owed in our working relationship."

Chuck's smile grew genuine.  "Okay.  But I'll at least help you look for a new place.  Maybe even forward you a couple of checks.  Hey, if Wastelander takes off, I might be coming to you for money."

"I'll keep my fingers crossed, Chuck.  And thanks."

"Don't thank me yet.  I've got another trick for Mister Langdon and his company.  Get down to the set.  I'll be there in a few."

"What page are we starting with today?"

"Thirty-five," said Chuck as he picked up the phone and started dialing.  If the insurance men didn't want to deal with him, fine.  Randall Scott of the studio's legal team owed Chuck a few favors anyhow.

Every large city has a waterfront.  And every waterfront has abandoned warehouses, where old machinery sits and rusts and nobody cares.  Since nobody cares, nobody bothers to look in the ones that have been empty for years, which made it a perfect place for Emma to be practicing with her new toy.

Since finding the Magistrate's sword a week ago, she had barely put it down.  Even then, it had never been more than a few feet away.  Holding the silvery steel sword had been a rush, and as she used the power it gave her, she felt more and more of the thrill filling every fiber of her being.  She already knew that the blade would cut most anything.  She hadn't run into anything that had resisted it yet.  A mutilated truck and several lumps of heavy steel that were once die casting and tool-making machines were testament to that.  She was stronger, too, and had begun to perfect flying.  Yes, the sword would make her goals all the easier to obtain.

Emma sat on one of the many empty and discarded crates that lined the walls.  She held the sword in both hands, blade flat, lying across her lap.  As she stared at it, she became entranced by the flames that seemed to dance up and down its length, but not burning her at all.  She thought of her fights with Silver Shadow, and let herself smile at the surprise he would know when they met again.  All of the surprise would be hers this time.

With a decisive gesture, she grabbed the sword by its handle and flung it towards the remnants of the Range Rover that sat in the dark warehouse.  It sank into the engine block and rested there.  She extended her hand, and with a screeching sound of metal on metal, the sword pulled itself out of the engine and glided swiftly back into her hand.  Her smile grew.

Step, step, step, step, step, jump!  Bounding across the rooftops that skirted along the devastated section of the city, Jian craned his neck skywards where Millennium Man carted several large windows in some sort of modified sling arrangement, headed for a rebuilding effort.  For more than the fiftieth time today, Silver Shadow wished he could fly.

He had thought of so many things to say.  So very many things that had crossed his mind since he saw Millennium Man fly away from the small hillock in the park.  Lots of things.  But Christ, he wished he could fly.  Throwing something at him had occurred to Jian, but provoking a very powerful superhuman wasn't high on the list of priorities.

Yelling at him didn't seem to work, either.  So many camera trucks followed the big guy that another voice yelling for his attention was drowned out by twenty others doing the very same thing.  So, Jian thought, I'll just follow him until he stops for the day, then I'll approach him and things will be great.  I'll tell him off, then.well, then maybe he'll kick my ass.  But still, it'd be better than just chasing him around.

He wished he could fly.  It would all be much easier.

"KGPC, please hold."  Click.  "KGPC, please hold." Click.  "KGPC, hold please."  Click.  "Now, what can I do for you gentlemen? Do you have an appointment?" asked the small man seated at the desk.

"Yes, we do," said Chuck.  "Chuck Starling and Jian Li for Miss Burke."

"One moment," he said as he turned to the small monitor on his desk.  "Yes, here it is.  Miss Burke is currently in a meeting.  It ran a little long," he added, saying the last bit in a conspiratorial whisper.

"Right."  Chuck sat down again.  Jian hadn't even bothered to move from his seat.

At the end of the hall, a pair of oak doors opened, disgorging an array of professionally-attired sorts, men and women, but none stood out as much as Victoria Burke did.  Her dark blue suit fit in all the right places, and she steadily advanced towards her office entrance as another person approached from the direction of the elevator, where Jian and Chuck had come from.

This newcomer's head had been shaved recently, and he wore simple slacks and a collared shirt.  No tie.  And he didn't look pleased.  Only Jian saw this, though, and stood.  Chuck, on the other hand, had zeroed in immediately on Victoria and stood to meet her.

As it happened, all four met in one big cluster at the receptionist's desk.

"Miss Burke, I'm Chuck Starling."

"Eric, who's my next appointment?"

"Can I help you?"

"Victoria, we have to talk."

"EXCUSE me, but I have an appointment."

"Michael!"

"QUIET!!" shouted the squirrely man with the headset.  All the confused conversation evaporated.  Eric, as he was called, sighed.  "Miss Burke, this is Jian Li and Mister Starling from Pacific Limits.  Mister Manly, you'll have to wait."

"Michael Manly?  Damn shame about your show, fella, I enjoyed it," lied Chuck as he stuck out his hand.

Michael smiled weakly and shook it.

"This is my top man, Jian Li.  He's our stunt coordinator."

"My pleasure," said Jian, smiling.

"Likewise," replied Michael, obviously in a bit of a huff.  "Victoria," he began, turning away from Jian to face the woman, "I REALLY need to talk to you."

"About what, Michael?  Why are you even here?"

"Loose ends, contractual stuff, all that.  But that's not what I mean," he said, giving her a tilted-head 'you know'-type grimace.

Her eyes widened slightly in understanding. "Not now," she said sternly.  "Mister Starling," she said, downshifting easily into pleasant business mode and taking his arm as she escorted him into her office, "I'm very interested in this proposal of yours.
Wastelander, I'm told.  May I call you Chuck?"

The heavy oak door shut with a thud, leaving Eric, Jian, and Michael standing in silence.  Eric went back to his phones.

Michael and Jian looked at each other, each clearly not knowing where to step next.

"Hungry?" asked Michael.

Jian shrugged.  "I could eat.  But I don't know this area."

"Oh."

Silence.

"There's a pub around the corner, not far.  Buy you a pint?"

Jian smiled a little.  "Sure.  They aren't going to miss us," he said, hiking his thumb in the direction of Victoria's office.  "And I'll buy."

Michael smiled as he nodded.  "Good enough.  So, you do stunt work?"

"Yeah.  All aspects.  Planning, training, doubling.  Even a little acting.  Chuck's here to pitch our newest creation.  I have a recurring role, plus I'm the double for the lead."

Michael snapped his fingers.  "Shoot.  I was kind of looking for a job myself."

The outer doors to the elevator opened, and they stepped inside.

Nightfall kept the city quiet.  The ocean beyond was a dark, glistening pan that stretched to infinity, and the buildings that were nearer were dotted with golden squares.  White and red lights crawled up and down the concrete arteries of the city, and massive halogen lights on steel towers illuminated those sectors of the city where rebuilding and cleanup efforts were
still underway.  At this height, however, the noise of the machinery was a dull groan.

Wind wasn't a factor, as it normally would be for a person sitting on the edge of the KGPC control tower on the hills overlooking Pacific City's eastern approaches.  The massive telecommunications and microwave transmission tower had a flat observation deck, resembling  a few massive plates stamped together.  Below that deck were a few small control rooms, until the walls around them tapered into the tower itself.  The big picture made the tower look like a styrofoam cup impaled on a pencil.

Michael Manly, Millennium Man, sat atop this tower and just looked out over the city.  His stare was a blank as his mind dwelled on the events of the past weeks.  More than that, though, he thought about his future.  HIS future, not Millennium Man's so much, but Michael's.  He had no job, few friends he could turn to....

"So this is where you come, huh?  Not exactly comfortable."

The voice was quiet, but coming out of the darkness near the base of the tower where all the dishes and drum-like microwave emitters were clustered, it was damn spooky.

Yellow orbs surrounded Manly's hands as he leapt to his feet, facing the source of the voice.  "Who's there?"

"Wow.  Great line.  But I'll bite.  I didn't get as much coverage as you, you know, but maybe you'll know me."  A gray shape dropped onto the roof of the tower's observation deck, landing lightly on its feet.

"Silver Shadow," said Manly as soon as he could make out the white half of the yin-yang symbol on Jian's chest.  "Why are you here?"

"Because I want to talk to you.  Believe it or not, it's a tough deal trying to find you."

"I came up here to think.  Alone.  Go away."

Silver Shadow looked at him, stopping his advance a few feet away from Michael.  The shorter of the two, the man in gray returned Manly's stare.  "No.  You don't even know why I'm here.  It's very rude of you to try and get me to leave before you even give me a chance to say my peace."

"I could just leave."

Shadow nodded.  "Yes, you could, but I have some things to say to you, and I'm not inclined to track you down again, although a grown man in white, yellow and red with a big cape is tough to miss.  Besides, for a guy who can't fly, it's a tough climb.  Wouldn't want to waste it," he said with a crooked smile.

Manly looked away.  "Get on with it."

Silver Shadow crouched down, facing Manly.  He'd worked on what he wanted to say, but the sting had been taken out of his comments by weeks of trying to overcome several immediate problems.  One, finding a new place to live.  Securing the space above his first dojo hadn't been a tough problem, but getting the insurance company to pay up had required many phone
calls, the involvement of Chuck Starling and the studio, and threatened legal action.  Getting the few thousands out of the companies wasn't that big a deal, but the billions that they were being forced to pony up to the city made them scrimp every dime.

The other problem had been finding Millenium Man.  Jian couldn't do that when he was working, and when your target is flying at six hundred feet carrying steel girders around the city, it's tough to corner him.  Only an entire day invested in tracking the man had led to this moment.  And right now, Jian Li Fong had little idea where to begin.

"What were you doing in the park when spaceships began to trash the city?"  He hadn't yelled it, nor spoken with great force.  But Michael Manly spun suddenly to face him as if he'd been electrocuted.

"What?"

"You heard me."

"Who the hell do you think you are?  You don't know what I've been through.  You don't know what I've lost."

"Besides your hair?"

Manly rolled his eyes and took a step towards the vigilante-type hero.  In a blink, Silver Shadow was on his feet and had shuffled back a step.  "I was doing my part, you know?  I was there, standing up against the power behind that attack."

"And a great job you did, too.  Thousands died, man.  I did my best to save a few, but you could have done more.  I saw you fly away from the park.  You could have helped."

"I did help!" said Manly vehemently.  "If I hadn't been where I was, then there would have been more death, more destruction.  I made a difference."  He almost sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than Silver Shadow.

"Fine," said Silver Shadow as he stepped back again, towards the darkness where the tower met the roof of the observation deck.  "I came to say my peace, and I said it.  But I've watched you after the whole thing, Millennium Man.  You're all messed up right now, I can tell it by looking at you.  Get yourself in order before its too late.  If you drop off the face of the
planet like the one before you, we all lose out.  Until you get it together, you're useless to me and the rest of the city."

The gray-suited man moved to where one of the massive guy-wires anchored to the deck.  "And if I were you, I'd re-evaluate my dealings with Charlie Winters.  He - well, he's got issues. Major issues.  See you around, Millennium Man, though you probably won't see me."  Under his mask, Jian smiled a bit.  Silver Shadow sketched a mocking two-finger salute, then ran
down the wire, not seeming to mind the height, his speed, or the way his body was angled as he moved.

Millennium Man simply watched him go.