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Stories from the Verse
Con Version
Chapter 133: Cooper 43
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Takano 125
Brian slipped behind one of the sheds around the work area, and began the transformation to Mister Justice--suit, belt with dart gun, sword. Straightening up, it occurred to him that he had no idea what he could do to help get miners out of a collapsed shaft. He couldn’t fly; if he expended energy he would have extraordinary strength, but not super strength. He knew the sword could do surprising things; he had discovered that it would unlock a bolted door, in addition to glowing, flaming, and separating spirits from souls. None of that gave him any ideas about solving this problem.
Part of him thought he should go out there and start trying to help; part of him thought it was ridiculous, that he could do nothing their teams were not already doing other than demonstrate his own incompetence. What bothered him more is that guy who turned into a hawk clearly thought he would be able to make a difference here, but gave him no clue as to how he might do that.
It was time to pray.
“Lord Jesus,” he began, “these people obviously need your help, and apparently like Gideon I’m the help you chose to send. I’m going out there to help now; let me see what to do.”
He stepped out of his cover, leaving his duffel behind, and surveyed the scene. There was someone who seemed to be giving directions; he headed toward him. When he was noticed, he said, “How can I help?”
The man in charge scratched his chin and said with a southern drawl, “I don’ rightly know. We’re try’n’ t’ find men down there in the dark, but it’s not goin’ well.”
Mister Justice nodded, and saw that there were several ropes attached to harnesses. “Toss me one of those,” he said, and in a moment he had it. He braced the blade of the sword in a crack in the rock, wrapped the distal end of the rope around the hilt, and placed his hand on the pommel. At his will the sword glowed, and as he hoped the glow traveled down the rope to the harness.
“Will this help?” he asked. “It’s not much, and I’m afraid I have to stay up here with the sword to keep the light going, but I can anchor the rope and help pull someone up.”
“That might just do it. Riggs?” he called, and a small wiry muscular man responded. “Let’s get you down that hole and see if you can find anyone.”
With little more than a nod, the man crushed his cigarette and donned the harness. If it bothered him that the thing was alight he didn’t let on, but instead started scrambling down the hole as several larger men took hold of the rope and lowered him.
After about a minute there was a shout from the hole, “I got Wilson. Pull us up.”
The team proceeded to draw the rope back out of the hole until Riggs emerged with a dazed and injured man in his arms. Workers helped him over toward what was apparently the medical shack as Riggs returned to the hole.
For the next couple hours everyone worked, Riggs going down and coming back up again, until finally he said that he couldn’t go any deeper and didn’t see anyone else down there. As the people started to drift apart and Cooper detached the rope from the sword, the man in charge came over.
“I want to thank you. I’m not sure we could have saved as many as we did without the help of a superhero.”
“I did very little,” he answered. “You, Riggs, your men--you’re the superheroes here. Now, if you’ll excuse me--”
“Oh, of course. I’m sure there are other places you need to be.”
Mister Justice just smiled and walked away, passing behind the shack where he retrieved his duffel, then heading for the road back down the mountain. He would have to find a secluded dell in which to change back to plain old Brian Barrelmaster.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
