Friday 8 June 2007

ASBO-Boy - Hero-ism: Part 1

Swansea was changing. The Elementals were gone; the police presence was diminished; the rich started to complain more than ever and the poor remained silent. Occasionally the ground shook and everyone was reminded of the thing that had come out of the ground and was now ‘living’, supposedly, in Singleton Park. It was an uncomfortable reminder to the comfortable that things were changing, things which were beyond their capacity to stop. The authorities were in hiding. They weren’t meant to be, after all, they were and always had been The Solution.

Weeks passed by and Squeeze barely noticed. Some nights he’d come in smelling of bins, other nights he’d be covered in paint again. If he closed his eyes and pretended the last year hadn’t happened he could almost see himself as he was before. He wasn’t the same person though and that was becoming clear.

“Today,” he began, standing in front of his friends in the basement holding a piece of paper left by Gwen, “We’re going to the Sandfields.”

Without the Elementals around the public had become jumpy, so initially they’d taken advantage of the gap with a spate of good deeds up and down the city. Cleaning up had been the order of the day and this included apprehending criminals the police couldn’t catch and tidying up the city. When he’d been told that he’d be painting over his old graffiti the others had clearly expected him to lose his temper. Collectively they’d held their breath waiting for his reaction, but in truth, he felt nothing, in fact, he welcomed the opportunity to do something good for the city. It was penitence. Armed with a can of paint, a brush and a wad of flyers he’d scoured every inch of the Uplands and beyond.

It hadn’t taken long for their good work to be noticed. Their well-meaning message fell on deaf ears and each was torn down and replaced with a wanted poster. All criminals who were bagged by the ASBOs were claimed by the Police without a mention of how they’d been caught. But the people knew and somehow the word got around. It didn’t take a genius to notice that the council wasn’t painting over the walls and the Civic Repair groups were crippled by their own corruption and how on earth had the police suddenly become 250% more efficient. Word got around.

“Gwen has left us some stats,” Squeeze continued, “Since Townhill and Mayhill were demolished, over 25% of the populations were reabsorbed by the Sandfields. In the seventeen years since the Walls were built the population has more than doubled, but it goes without saying that no new houses have been built to accommodate the new people.”

Bark was nodding, “We share our house with another family.”

“Obviously, we can’t build houses, it just gives us an idea of the problem we’re up against. The Council likes to think of it as a success story. The Vetch stayed in the Sandfields after all, says they, there are still jobs, they claim. But football and a few factories aren’t really enough. Half of the streetlights don’t work, buildings are unsafe and what was once a relatively nice place to live has become a slum.

“So, we go in. Arc-Light, Bark – you two are on repairs – Telegraph poles; electric wiring, etcetera – Gwen wants them back up and running. The police presence there is non-existent so we can walk around in broad daylight in the suits, we can show our faces, so to speak. Malady – Gwen has a specific op in mind for you, but it kinda needs you to be really happy.”

Malady looked up. She hadn’t been the same since the bunker, despite the fact that her ability had gradually expanded to react to a whole new spectrum of emotions. It was the same with all of them, their powers had swollen beyond their original abilities. Bark had started planting the seeds from his back in parks and within weeks they grew to full height. Arc-Light had begun to see what she described as energy patterns; she understood how electricity worked, how it moved, how it behaved and Squeeze could now stretch his body to more than double its original length.

Malady understood. Happiness and pain were still her most potent emotions and everyone knew it. Squeeze didn’t feel comfortable with making her heal people; it felt too much like they were using her to change their image, and even though she was helping people it didn’t make him feel any better about asking her in the first place. But, if they managed to change the system then she’d be able to go back and have a normal life.

“Which is why we’ve got you this…” Squeeze handed her a wad of papers. Malady looked down the page and for a moment her expression didn’t change, then it shifted gear and the magnitude of what she’d received dawned on her fully. Laughing, crying, she skipped around the room hugging everyone before darting off upstairs, no doubt to show her parents.

The others smiled and Squeeze continued grimly, “With any luck she’ll be able to start curing people tomorrow. Everything from nits to cancer.”

“What will you be doing?” Arc-Light asked, her tone was off-hand, but the question was loaded.

“The same thing I’ve been doing for the past four weeks. Cleaning up.”

That night Squeeze lay back in bed and thought about what he was doing. Gwen had asked him how badly he wanted things to change. He’d told her that he was prepared to do anything. Was he, she asked, prepared to break the law and risk a lengthy prison sentence in order to do this? Was he prepared to, potentially, take the fall for everyone else? Was he prepared to keep this secret for the time being in order to start a revolution? He’d said yes, and with that she’d handed him a digital camera.

Possession of a camera was illegal. More punishable than drugs, arms or pornography. Beneath the pillow Squeeze held its cold, metallic surface and pondered how he was going to get the next picture.

2 comments:

Jester said...

How fascinating- I love the detail about the possession of cameras - and I wonder what the photo could be?

I think this is a great place to pick the story back up- moving through all the good work that they have been doing- and the influence that they're beginning to gather.

I always did like Bark- and now he's an environmentalist! Brilliant!

Quoth the Raven said...

Yay! New trees!

So this is good! I love grown up Mike, he's great. And that the general population is bright enough to allow word to spread that they're good guys - stupid people are so tiring.