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Stories from the Verse
Con Version
Chapter 127: Cooper 41
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Brown 327
Coming out of the shower, Brian mused on the whole superhero bit. It struck him that he wasn’t all that good at it. Tommy seemed to have a knack for it--she single-handedly had stopped the Sewer guy, and almost single-handedly captured Blue Ray. His record to date included stopping four ordinary human members of a motorcycle gang--oh, and he did capture Major Pain and Private Problem. But up against Blue Ray he managed to make a fool of himself and get clobbered rather solidly. Had it not been for Tommy and William, he might have wound up ending his career there. He needed to do better if he was going to accomplish--whatever it was God wanted him to accomplish here.
He hadn’t yet found a church to his liking, but it was Sunday morning and he was trying another. Being staunchly Calvinist he tended to look at Presbyterian and Reformed churches first, and also Baptist churches. Originally Baptist churches were rather Armenian, but over time most of them had moved to the more logically rigorous theology of John Calvin and Huldrych Zwingli. Unfortunately this rigorous thought had largely vanished from most churches. He was also limited by the fact that if it wasn’t within walking distance he would need a cab. On the other hand, his work clothes were appropriate to the expectations of most congregations.
Today’s excursion was not more encouraging than previous ones. He managed to keep the pastor for maybe twenty minutes afterwards, engaged in discussion, and reached the conclusion that the man was a product of the revivals who believed more in Decision Theology than in Irresistible Grace. On the positive side, the pastor was able to point him to a Reformed congregation that leaned more toward the traditional five points of Calvinism; unfortunately, it was quite a few miles out in the suburbs. Maybe I’ll get a cab out there next week, he thought; I get paid on Thursday.
It struck him that he was going to have to get to a bank during his lunch break Friday, and he was probably going to have to open an account. That in turn was going to mean he needed some kind of ID. Hopefully his employee card would do; he had nothing else. He wondered what they might require in terms of personal information, but realized that he wasn’t going to find out by wondering.
He visited Red Swashbuckler again that afternoon, mostly because he knew that getting there during the week was not really going to be plausible. He realized during the sparring that he was more tired than usual--indeed, Red made note of it--and remembered that when he ran the night before he used the sword to allow him to expend extra energy into it. He was always tired after using that enhancement ability, and it struck him now that if he was tired it probably meant that he had consumed calories, the sugar and fat reserves on which the body relied for energy.
At least he wasn’t going to get fat. On the other hand, if he was going to use this ability, he was going to have to put more sweets and fats and carbohydrates in his diet.
He thought ironically, the sacrifices one must make to be a hero.
He went out again that evening as Mister Justice, accompanied again by Truth, but they agreed on an early night as they had work in the morning, and ‘I was up late fighting crime’ was not really an ordinarily accepted excuse for workplace tardiness.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with eleven other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #512: Versers Work. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
