CHAPTER EIGHTY-FIVE - O Who Fore Art Thou, Ace

WHEN WE LEFT OUR HEROES, MIKE WAS IN PURSUIT OF EDDIE'S CAPTORS AS EDDIE WAS DRAGGED FROM HIS CELL TO THE EXECUTION AREA, SLAMMED UP AGAINST THE WALL AS HIS ASSAILANT WAS INTENT ON ENDING HIS LIFE WITH 500 ROUNDS OF AMMUNITION.

As Eddie's bound hands were looped around a spike in the wall, his back turned to his captors, he felt the urge to cry out, to beg for his life, but he cast those detrimental urges aside and preferred to face his fate like the proud righteous crimefighter he had become over the last couple of years, the sort of man he had always aspired to be - with the help of his hero, his mentor, his lover, the man who had turned his life around completely and who had given him a real purpose in life - Mike Batz. The painful thought of never seeing Mike again would far outweigh the agony he was about to suffer as an entire magazine of ammunition was about to simultaneously mutilate and obliterate Eddie's smooth, sinewy, well-toned physique.

"Some partner you have, there, kid. Where is he now? Too afraid to come to your rescue? Fucking coward - you're better off without him."

"No", Eddie sneered as he stood facing the wall, "you're the real cowards here. You don't even have the guts to look your victim in the eye."

"Ya know what - I've had it with this Boy-Blowhard, let's just get this overwith."

Eddie braces himself, knowing his life was about to end having been spent in the best possible way. He was ready to meet his maker - at least He wouldn't be afraid to look Eddie in the eye.

The machine gun was cocked, the assassin's finger slowly wrapped itself around the trigger, then a horrifying blast of gunpowder filled the room. Eddie felt the impact against his back and slightly fell forward, his knees buckling. The room fell silent as the shooting stopped. Eddie opened his eyes, realised he was still on his feet, didn't feel the great agony he had anticipated, looked around and determined he was still alive.

"Did they miss?", he asked himself. "No, they couldn't have - I felt something hit my back, something knocked the wind out of me." He then heard the hellish chorus of raucous laughter - all at his expense.

"My God, what a fool - you fell for it!"

"What in God's name are you talking about?"

"You were shot with blank cartridges!"

Of course - the blast of air, the empty shell casings - that's what hit him, but did not penetrate - perhaps a bruising. But this was nothing compared to the bruising he was about to cause - if he could just rip himself free, which is what he was about to do.

Eddie grew more furious by the minute. Being enraged can leave one with a sense of super-human strength. He violently yanked himself free of his bonds, shredded them as if they were made of papier-mache and lunged toward the throat of his executioner, shouting, "I'm gonna KILL YOU!"

Two of the henchmen ran up from behind and each grabbed one of Eddie's arms and stretched them side to side as his would-be assassin picked up the weapon and slapped Eddie across the face with the butt of the weapon, then jabbed the weapon right into his torso, causing his body to buckle.

"We were just messin' with ya before - but now you really asked for it." He aimed a 38-caliber revolver and began to shoot at Eddie's head. As the bullets hit, he let out blood-curdling screams and guttural sobs of pain as he furiously kicked in a vain attempt to break loose.

The henchmen then released their grip and Eddie fell to the ground, feeling the top of his head, looking at his blood-stained hands - he knew his time had come. But, on further examination, Eddie kept patting the top of his head, and didn't feel any shrapnel. Sure he was cut and bleeding and he did feel a burning sensation, but the bullets didn't penetrate - they merely grazed his scalp. There were bullet holes in the wall behind him, right where he was held in a villainous grip.

His enemies were amused at the torment through which they were putting their prisoner. "Woe, look at him fall apart. I only wish his fuck-faced little Boss-Man was here, we'd really make mince-meat outta him."

Then the door is kicked open and the entire room was startled to hear the raspy voice of reason snarl, "All right - I'm here - so start mincing."

Mike struts into the room, Eddie leaps over to his side, followed by two vaguely familiar figures; one clad in a black tee-shirt, sunglasses, a black baseball cap, skin-tight black jeans and steel-toed boots, and skin-tight leather gloves. The other was clad in a pure white tee-shirt, sunglasses, faded blue jeans, yes, skin-tight, and also with steel-toed boots, and skin-tight leather gloves.

"Sorry I took so long, but I picked up a couple of buddies along the way. Slimy thugs, I'd like ya to say how-do-you-do to Ace and Rick."

"SHIT! I heard about those guys - we're dead meat!"

Another thug slaps him across the back of the head and shouts, "shut up!"

Both Ace and Rick greet their opponents with a boy-scout salute.

"Holy betrayal", thought Eddie, "Our very own Green Hornet and Kato. Why'd he bring them along?"

Ace snarls, "so nice of you to look after our Eddie while we were away. Hope he wasn't any trouble..."

Tim finishes the thought, "...'cuz we intend to be!"

This is, of course, a quadruple Batz-fight - one good guy to one bad guy. At one point, Mike is grabbed by his throat, only to be rescued from behind by Eddie, grabbing the thug and punching his face in, but his arms are grabbed from behind, his body held in place while another thug wails on his stomach. Ace and Rick jump in - the sight of four fine flying forearms and a bevy of beautiful biceps, two draped in white cotton sleeves, two in black - Ace and Rick - the ying and yang. Ace picks up and brandishes one of the weapons and slams a thug in the face. As he falls back, Tim grabs him and shouts, "finish 'im off!" Ace runs up and grabs the guy by the head, completely twisting his neck around. He falls dead. Ace and Rick stand grinning proudly over their handiwork. Eddie witnesses the whole thing and stares shocked and silent. This was the guy who grazed Eddie's head with those deadly bullets.

Mike's and Eddie's guys are subdued and handcuffed, and Mike radioes in for police officers to collect them. The four felon-fighters scatter about and gather evidence, including the video camera which photographed all of those gruesome images of Eddie with a noose around his neck.

Eddie continues to stare back and forth between a proud-looking Ace and the thug with the twisted neck. Ace notices Eddie's stare and grins at him as if to say, "how'd I do, eh? Pretty damn good!" As the police come in to collect the thugs, including the now-dead one, Eddie approaches Ace, who smiles and pats and rub's the boy's shoulder. Eddie shrugs his hand off as his stare grows cold and angry.

"How could you?"

Ace is perturbed, "excuse me?"

"How can you take a human life and stand there like you just caught 'the big one' "

Tim is now irritated and interjects, "Eddie you can't be serious - the guy took two shots at your head!"

Ace calmly re-traces his steps and explains it to him, "We hear the shots, we walk in, I spot spent shell casings, hear your shouts, see your face contorted in pain, see you with a blood-stained hand and a scratch on your head. I spot the one with residue on his fingers, I become enraged, I charge at him, I break his neck."

This means absolutely nothing to Eddie as he goes on further, "why, you're nothing but a vengeful vigilante - not even a licensed investigator. I heard all about you - you just hit the streets looking for trouble and you don't give a flying darn who you hurt in the process."

Mike tries to intercede and puts his hand on Eddie's shoulder, only to have the boy rebuff him and shrug his hand off.

"Stay outta this, Mike - this is between me and him."

Rick, on the other hand, only grows more furious himself and keeps looking at Ace, wondering why he doesn't just rip Eddie a new one, too. All Ace can do at this moment is draw a breath of resignation and walk off into the sunset.

"You'll understand someday - Let's go Rick - our work is done here. Mike, good to see you as always - I'll be in touch".

Rick tries to follow, "Yo, Ace! Wait up, man!"

Mike intercedes, "No, I'll go see about Ace. I think maybe you and Eddie oughta..."

"Yeah - you're right."

Mike leaves the room - the following two conversations take place simultaneously:

SIDEKICKS:
"Eddie, what the hell was that all about? My guy sticks up for you and you just spit in his face!"

"This isn't your concern, Rick - or Tim - or whoever the heck you are these days."

HEROES:
Mike spots Ace in one of the hallways in this abandoned building, "Hey! RODNEY!"

Ace freezes in his tracks and turns to face Mike.

Mike smiles at him, "I just wanna thank you and Tim for helpin' us out there."

Even with sunglasses, Mike could still sense a look of sadness and hurt over the Face of Ace. Mike knew why the guy was down, but should he blow it off or confront the situation? If confronting it, how should he go about it. He decided on a happy medium of sorts. He reached over and patted Ace's arm.

"Hey, come on, Rod - ya did good today - the two of ya. Hell, I wasn't even sure which one of 'em hurt Eddie like that. You did - you pinpointed who did it and let him have it. That was awesome."


SIDEKICKS:
"Ace saw you were wounded and he took action. You'd have done the same thing if Mike was almost killed, and you know it."

"Yeah, but...snappin' the guy's neck? He's not even a real gumshoe - he's just out for revenge of some kind. And what are you doin' runnin' around with him? You were a top notch mechanic before."

"Oh, yeah, sure", scoffs Tim, "one of the best. What was my reward? My own boss shot me and had me hung up on a tool rack."

HEROES:
"Hey, come on, off with the shades, would ya? Best if I could look ya in the eye. It's all right - it's just you and me here."
Ace took his shades off. Mike sees a look of real sadness and hurt in his eyes and reaches over and puts his arm around the unmasked hero.

"I know. Eddie really went off on ya - I'm sorry for that - he had no business."

"I'm not a bad guy. When I saw that Eddie got shot - I didn't plan on killin' that thug - I just got so worked up..."

"You were lookin' out for my boy. I can't tell you what that meant to me."

"You know I'd do anything for you - Eddie, too - you guys are a part of each other."

"I'm glad you can accept that."


SIDEKICKS:

Eddie nods in resignation, "yeah, I remember that. But what's this guy Ace have to offer you that another job wouldn't?"

"Same thing ya got going with Mike, I'd think. All that excitement and danger and then that sweet feeling ya get for a job well done. Crimefighting's gotta be one of the coolest gigs out there."

"Even with the sunglasses and the weird names? I mean, come on - Rick Righteous?"

"Hey - you don't go steppin' on our methods."

"Does that guy ever take his shades off? Do you?"

"We gotta keep 'em on - we're always in disguise."

"But, why?"

"Can't tell ya that - not my call - that's up to Ace. But ya know what, I will make this call. Now, I may not be a licensed gumshoe, but I suspect it's not our unorthodoxed manner of crimefighting that's buggin' ya."

"I don't know what you mean."

"Oh, come on, I'm not buyin' any of that unlicensed crap for a minute. You're jealous of Ace because he knew Mike before you did. That night he recruited me after I got fired from the garage, Mike and him went into another room and you're eyes were so green."

Eddie all to vehemently insisted, "that's got nothing to do with..."

"You're JEALOUS!"

"That's not.."

"JEALOUS!"

"Don't you use any interrogation tactics on ME, pal!"

"I'll keep sayin' it til you finally do."

"ALL RIGHT! Just LOOK at him - he's hotter than heck - he's closer to Mike's age, he's got a great body, he's tough as nails - his whole get up even gave me a hard-on...but you know who he really is, and so does Mike, I still don't. Mike never told me about him."

"Did ya ask?"

"Of course I did - Mike just tossed it off as 'oh he's an old friend of mine I met while working a case' and just left it at that. I don't appreciate being left in the dark here."

"Okay, then - why don't we go out there and I'll introduce ya to him."

HEROES:

"Hey, if you ask me, I think Eddie's a little worked up I never told him all about you - "

"Yeah, but you should - you should've let him know from the get-go. We're all crimefighting brothers here - there's a bond, ya know? My trust in you notwithstanding, if I can't trust your boy with my identity, who can I trust?"

The sidekicks walk out into the hallway and approach their respective heroes. Ace quickly turns around and puts his mask back on, hopeing Eddie doesn't see his face. Eddie goes right up to Mike who give him an "it's okay" smile. He then looks at Ace, and says, "All right, Ace - just who are you, anyway."

Mike interjects, "Eddie, I can't disclose that..."

"Why the heck not?"

"Because there's a price on my head", says Ace. "The Mafia is after me and if I'm ever spotted, I'm to be executed - no questions asked."

"What? You gotta be puttin' me on - Mike?"

"It's true, Kiddo. I was there from the get-go."

"My real name's Rodney Campbell. I was a cab driver a few years ago - of course it's my job, or it was then, to take anyone anywhere they wanted to go, no questions asked. My passenger was wanted by the mob - he owed them a fortune and was in hiding himself. But he got found out. He let his guard down and exited my cab, and as he was paying me, he was spotted. His ememies drove up to us, he got scared, I memorized the license number, I jumped out to grab him, to try to get him back in but we were both shot a few times and we fell to the ground. I was in pain all over, I couldn't tell where I'd been hit. I tried to get back up, but every move I made was agony. The guy kept apologizing left and right, but it wasn't his fault."

Mike added, "I was down the street and I heard the shots, so I drove around the vicinity and spotted the whole thing. I started shootin' back at the bad guys - one returned fire and nicked me a little, so I plugged him but good - the other one got away. I thought for sure that Ace and his passenger would be dead, but I heard moaning and it was him, really hangin' in there. Oh, God, ya shoulda seen him, bullet wounds all over him."

"Yeah, but ya know somethin', Eddie? I kinda felt a rush, like I was doin' somethin' worthwhile for once, ya know? The bullets were hittin' me left and right, but I just wanted to hang in there for this guy, protect him - he was still alive and he was gonna make it. I felt like a real hero for the first time in my life."

"That's cuz you were, Ace. You're a civilian and you risked your life to save someone else's - wanting nothing in return."

Mike continues, "His rehab lasted for months, so I took him in, had him stay with me for a while. I thought somebody this tough should be doin' more than drivin' a cab. And he was placed in the witness protection program, and since I was around at the time, I was entrusted with his secret identity, and I took a vow to never reveal it."

"Mike, I think it's okay - Eddie's with you and a good guy in your eyes is a good guy in mine."

He removed his shades by pressing a button on his belt buckle which was a remote control device unlocking the shades. Tim followed suit.

"This is in case anyone ever captured us and tried to remove our masks - they have to be electronically unlocked - anyone who tries to force them off would get charged 50 volts."

Eddie just about melted when he saw what was behind the shades, the mask. It was a beautiful, boyish pair of baby-brown eyes, not much older than the two sidekicks.

"Gosh, you're so young."

"Yeah, I'm 28."

"And you gotta live the rest of your life in disguise?"

"If I want to live out a good long life, then, yeah."

"That goes for Tim, too?"

Tim nodded.

"When I first recruited him, I explained my situation and swore him to secrecy."

Tim added, "He told me how much he admired hearing about helping you guys out when you rescued me. We talked about how we had the same experiences-workin' for a cab company, gettin' shot on the job, helpin' to fight back, that kinda thing. I never really thought about crimefighting before, but then..."

He looks at Ace and the two exchange warm smiles and put their arms around each others' shoulders.

"...I got a great chance at another life, thanks to him. It's really been a blast."

He pats Ace's chest.

"Just like you and Mike."

"So, Eddie, you wanna know if Mike and I were ever together - the answer's yes. After I was fully recovered, he wanted me as his partner - in that sense, too - and I said I gotta go out and get these guys - he said 'lemme help you - we could get 'em together', and I knew this was mine to deal with and mine alone. He has a great PI practice and I didn't want him to focus on just one case or go into hiding just for my sake. So, I took off. Tim's my new partner now in every sense of the word. I'm grateful to know that Mike has a real prize partner in you, and it was a privilege to kick some ass with you." Ace chuckles and adds, "it was a lotta fun today, wasn't it!"

Eddie smiles, "it sure was - apart from this headache I'm about to get."

Rodney peers over the top of Eddie's head and touches it lightly. "Yeah, you'd better see to that - it doesn't look like a serious wound, but it's good to get it checked out."

"You're right. Hey, listen, uh, I'm real sorry for what I said back there..."

Ace breaks him off, "nah, that's cool - -"

"No, it's not. I let petty jealousy get in the way. It was really small of me. I shoulda been grateful from the get-go 'cuz the three of ya saved my life - and I know you twisted that guy's neck outta anger for what he did to me - you were really lookin' out for me there. It's good to know we got you in our corner and that if I were killed today, that Mike would be in good hands."

Eddie reaches to hug the tight-tee-shirted twosome, and they reciprocate. Ace and Mike both hug and kiss each other on the cheek, saying so-long.

Tim pats Eddie's right arm, "feel better?"

Eddie does likewise, "sure do. Thanks again."

They also kiss each other on the cheek.

"Hey, no sweat. Looks like me-n-Ace are takin' off, so...be good."

"You, too"

Ace and Rick take off into the sunset as Eddie, arm in arm with Mike, look on. Then they look into each other's eyes and melt into each other's arms and share a passionate kiss.

"Gosh, it's so good to hold you again."

"Same for me, kiddo - same for me. Hey, let's get the hell outta here, huh?"

Eddie smiles and whispers, "Roger", and off they go.

As the two walk, Eddie grows pensive. "Hey, Mike, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, Eddie - what's up?"

"I kinda felt a little down when I saw how much fun Ace and Rick are having together."

"Why's that?"

Then Eddie's words really sink in and Mike is taken aback.

"Hey, wait a second - is there something wrong here - something about the life - your life with me? C'mon, Eddie, talk to me."

Eddie smiles and assures Mike, "no - there's nothing wrong with us - you and me will always be good - I'm in love with you and I'll always be. But I think - - oh, gosh, I don't know - - do you think I've gotten more serious? Maybe a little too rigid, or something?"

"I don't getcha - I mean, you are growing up and gettin' more mature."

"It's just that I don't think I'm as fun-loving as I used to be. Sure my life was pretty miserable, like Tim's was, but when we got together, it opened up a whole new life for me, too - I got my will to live back - my sense of humor came back - these past couple of years have really rocked, but..."

"You have grown and are still growing into an incredible crimefighter and I can see you've devoted your life to it. Are you thinking that since you're now fighting for justice at all costs, and how important it is to ya, that maybe you feel you can't have some fun with it, too?"

He chuckes at the memory, "you were pretty funny then - I think you still can be - if you just relax and go with the flow like you did at first."

"Aw, but I was just some kid off the streets who met up with this really hot gumshoe and the thought of all these adventures we'd have, and all, but, yeah, I really take crimefighting a lot more serious as the years have gone by."

"As well you should - we have the safety and well being of every citizen in this town to guard - a huge responsibility - but if you feel you had to sorta hunker down and not let yourself have any fun with it, it's not true. I fell in love with a boy who not only defended me and saved my life in that alleyway, but the same boy who always had a big smile, always quick with a quip. No, you don't wanna let yourself get all hard-nosed just yet, boy. That's my part - you're supposed to rejuvenate me and all that stuff...sure, I'm the older of the two of us and I've seen some real wicked stuff over the years and when I was by myself, it did get to me - it jaded me - But then someone like you comes along, cheers me up - you knocked me out of a longterm depression, you realize that. Ace had to go away to protect himself and you dealt with my former sidekick and boss-man and nearly lost your life, if not your mind. You make me happy - all that holy gee-whillikers stuff - you bring a smile to my face - you cheer me up - you make me wanna live again - to the fullest."

"Really?"

"You sure do - Don't deprive yourself of the gift you've given me. Please?"

"You got it."

As the two keep walking, Eddie stops in his tracks.

"I never said gee-whillikers."

"Oh, yes you did."

"Holy Jimmy Olsen - no WAY!"

"Way."

"Awwwww."