El Aguila Negra está muerta

El Aguila Negra está muerta

Special skills: Strong analytical skills, excellent communication skills, approximately four times as strong as an average man, able to shoot balls of electricity from my hands.

Dan looks down at the paper and scribbles out the last line. He has been revising his resume, yet again. If only he could get a job in a large city, he could show the masses his power, and rid that metropolis of crime. He is, after all…Captain Electro!

Dan sets his resume aside, and finishes his Cap’n Crunch. Starting time in the mail room is at 8am. It is tough to make a living on eight dollars an hour. The days drag on, as he is stuck in the beige, windowless room. It makes him realize why prison walls are painted the color they are. It has the ability to crush the will of even the strongest man.

After a few tries, his 1996 burgundy Corsica finally sputters to life – expelling noxious fumes from the tailpipe. Today is like almost every other day. The office still uses an out-dated punch card system to keep track of time. He punches his card, and begins sorting mail. There are few visitors throughout his day, and most rarely engage in any small-talk with him. Even the other two mail room workers hardly speak to him. He has heard whispers between them. They consider him a freak. One once said that Dan is probably a serial killer or pedophile. Dan has no time for them. He can’t make friends with anyone. It might be too easy for them to realize his secret identity - a risk he can not afford to take. Every hero must make sacrifices. Dan’s cross to bear is solitude. His parents died in an accident early in his life, and since the age of eighteen, Dan has been on his own. This is the struggle of a true hero. The comic books make being a superhero sound easy. Batman was a billionaire. Superman went from a podunk village in the cornfields to become a big city reporter. Even the whiny Spiderman lived in a thriving metropolis. They all had the means to research crimes. If Hickory, Michigan – a town devoid of hickory trees – has an underworld, Dan will not discover it while sorting mail.
On Dan’s lunch, he rushes to the library to gain access to their public computers. He has resumes posted on all major job sites, and checks his email daily for job offers. Occasionally he gets various “Work from Home” email, but today he does not even receive those. Rejected and dejected again, his mood is somber in the afternoon, until he overhears a coworker mention to the other about a drug dealer. It appears this scum has a thriving marijuana operation in downtown Hickory after dark. Dan perks up and tries to listen to the details. He thinks about talking to the drones to get more info, but restrains himself. Dan doesn’t want to raise suspicion – especially since he will apprehend the criminal tonight.
After work, Dan returns home and goes to bed. He sleeps this early, so he can spend the night securing the city from whatever evil tries to bestow on it. As he waits to fall asleep he wonders if there are others like him out there. Others trapped in small towns scattered across the United States – others with powers, but not the means, to provide justice and protect mankind. He wakes up around midnight, dresses in his alter ego’s outfit, and heads out to protect the streets from evil.

Captain Electro, as he refers to himself at night, has a sub par outfit. Dan sets money aside every paycheck so he may one day create the outfit suitable for Captain Electro. He is even thinking of taking a sewing class. Until the outfit is complete, he will not dare wear it in public. Captain Electro should be viewed with dignity and respect – not as a crazy Circus Soleil reject. This, along with his car’s tendency to backfire, would definitely make him stand out in Hickory. His secret pledge to protect and serve would be discovered. For the moment, he just wears a dark, black hooded sweatshirt, black sweatpants with hockey knee pads underneath. He disguises his face with a Lucha Libre mask - an authentic Mexican wrestling mask he found online. The mask type is Aguila Negra. He thought it looked like a silver outline of a Phoenix on the front of the black mask. Since a Phoenix rises from the ashes, and has something to do with fire, he thought it was close enough to electricity. It wasn’t until curiosity got the better of him that he realized aguila is Spanish for eagle. The mask is not easily noticeable with the sweatshirt hood up, but if he stops a crime, the mask will disguise his face.

Tonight is the third year one month anniversary of the first patrol he took. So far he has reported four cases of littering, and found a lost dog from the signs posted on telephone posts. He didn’t receive recognition for those deeds – not that he craved the recognition. He doubted the police did anything about the litterers. As for the dog…he recognized it from the posters and drove it to the family’s house. Captain Electro took a bungee cord from his trunk, and hooked one end to the dog’s collar – the other end to the banister. He rang the doorbell, and with a backfire of the car’s exhaust, disappeared in to the night, as a light turned on from inside the house.

Captain Electro feels tonight will be his night. He softly whispers “there is electricity in the air” as he sips his cup of gas station coffee. So far, that is his catchphrase – but he knows he will need a catchier one for after he apprehends the drug dealer. It seems that even in the quiet, peaceful town of Hickory, the evil scourge of rampant drug trafficking seeps through the night, like a biblical plague. Tonight, he is going to end it. Captain Electro will apprehend the evildoer.

He sits in his car across the road from Carla’s Country Crafts, coffee in hand. The shop is located at the center of town, close to the only intersection with a stoplight. The stakeout is going slow - each passing minute feeling like eternity. He wishes he had a Sudoku puzzle book. There is so much fiction about superheroes. They seem to just show up whenever there is a crime. A real superhero is not glamorous. It involves a lot of waiting and sleepless nights. Captain Electro needs to be in a big city like New York, Chicago, or Albuquerque, so he can accomplish more for the common man. There are no bank robberies or mafia here. A lesser man would give up by now…but he is not a lesser man. He is super. This empty street makes Captain Electro want to move on - to cruise the neighborhood looking for trouble - but he has read that patience is a virtue. That must apply to superheroes even more so than mere mortals.

A young lady is walking down the street. Captain Electro feels the need to jump from his car and rush over to her. This is no time of night for a lady to be walking the streets. She is wearing grey sweatpants, a U of M sweatshirt, and appears to be tightly clutching a small purse. Obviously she is not a hooker. He notices she is walking hesitantly, head moving from side to side, as she looks in to the shadows of the night. Captain Electro suddenly is wide awake. This is potentially someone that could need his assistance. He decides his goal for tonight will change. It is now to make sure she gets to her destination safely. He will silently follow her…making sure no villains attack her.

She stops under a street light and looks around. Captain Electro watches as she slowly walks around the corner of the tiny craft shop. This is bad, he thinks. Darkened corridors and alleyways are always festering with muggers, rapists, and other scum. Sure, he has yet to see that in Hickory, but there are only so many alleyways he can cover. He quickly gets out of his vehicle and runs across the street. As he approached the back corner of the shop, he pressed his back against the brick wall. There is not much light, and he feels like a ninja – unseen by the average human eye. He peers around the corner to make sure the lady is safe. To his dismay, he sees a drug deal taking place. The young lady hands over money, and an evildoer hands her a plastic bag. He can’t see the contents, but he knows it is marijuana. The evildoer is younger than he expected. He appears to be a teenager, with long floppy hair, wearing baggy jeans. Captain Electro can tell from the cocky demeanor that this young thug has potential to become a criminal mastermind. This causes Captain Electro’s pulse to quicken and his heart to race. The moment he has been waiting for is coming to fruition. This is his time to apprehend a criminal and make the streets of Hickory safe. He can feel sweat on his palms and on the nape of his neck. Many days he has dreamed of this moment, and planned the speech he will give to the thwarted criminal. Captain Electro steps around the corner…ready for action.

“Stop criminal, or feel the shocking force of Captain Electro!”

The lady drops the baggie to the littered concrete. The baggy-jean criminal jumps back, quickly recovers and stares back.

“I am Captain Electro…here to rid the streets of vile scum like you.”

Captain Electro starts in to his speech. “I am born from the lightning that flashes through the night. My duty is to…umm…stop you criminals from doing…crimes….and protectthepeopleofHickory…” The nerves get to him and his words run together. He tries to recover, but that causes more fumbling. The lady keeps asking what the hell is going on. The criminal asks if this is a joke.

“Who the hell are you, you freak?” The criminal regains his control and starts moving to Captain Electro. “Get the hell away, before you get hurt.”

Captain Electro gets frustrated. This is not going as planned. The vile criminal does not seem afraid of him. Embarrassment quickly turns to rage.

“Criminal, give up now and you won’t be hurt”

“What the fuck is going on?” screams the lady. She is too afraid to move. Her eyes dart back and forth from the two men, and to the baggie lying on the concrete.

The criminal races towards Captain Electro. Even in the darkened alley, and with the criminal’s hair hanging in his face, Captain Electro can see evil in the criminal’s eyes. The criminal is wearing a Megadeth shirt – a true sign of evil…stating he supports massive deaths, and is inconsiderate of typos.
Captain Electro’s heart is beating so much he swears he can even feel it in his ears. He grabs the drug dealer and slams him against the wall. As he does, a powerful electrical wave releases from his hands and into the evil teen causing the body to crumple to the ground.

“What did you do? You killed him!”

The lady screams and runs around the corner. Captain Electro doesn’t pursue, but just stares at the body lying lifeless in front of him. He did not mean to use such force. He just got so…angry.

A few minutes pass as Captain Electro stares at the body. Time seems frozen. It does not exist. This was not the plan. His breathing is increasing. Anxiousness is creeping through his body. His stomach feels weak. He vomits. He tries to turn away, but the vomit sprays on the wall of the building, and splatters the teenager lying before him.

A siren in the distance breaks the quiet of the night. Captain Electro snaps out of his frozen stance and runs back to his car. He starts up the Corsica and drives quickly away through the night.


Dan sits at his kitchen table. Beer bottles are scattered around the kitchen. Bowls with small amounts of spoiling milk are on the table. An empty box of Cap’n Crunch is within reach. Dan periodically scratches his unshaven face. For the first week after the incident, the news reported how a local teenager was brutally killed by an unknown assailant. A witness stated that the assailant was obviously a deranged sociopath.
There is a message on his voicemail from his landlord asking where the rent check is. Other messages are from his employer – each more threatening, until the last one states he has been fired for not showing up to work.

Dan periodically holds the mask, but his hands tremble whenever he touches it. He should be a hero. He rid crime from the streets. That has been his dream since he was a young boy and first discovered his powers. His failure was that he never practiced to harness that immense power. It led to death. A death of a criminal…but still a death. It is also a death of his dream. He no longer wants to move to a big city. He no longer cares to be the defender of the helpless. All he cares about is having another drink.