Hero's Call

Chapter Thirty Two

"Remind me again why we're planning on saving this city," Cali said in frustration as she plopped down on the bench next to Milo. Bill and Milo had found a relatively unpopulated spot of boardwalk that surrounded the Pier 17 shopping center. Stretching out in front of them was the East River and along that was a collection of apartment buildings, warehouses, and commercial real estate. Not far from where they were sitting was the warehouse Destructo had converted to his lair that Xander had shown them. They had been casing the place almost non-stop since they had arrived in New York only days before.

"What happened," Bill asked with amused curiosity.

Calliope huffed. "I made a pass of Destructo's warehouse like normal, and on my way back, a homeless guy starts harassing me for spare change. I told him I didn't have any and he called me something rather nasty. I started to say something back and he spit in my face."

"What?" Milo asked, stifling laughter. "That's awful."

"It was awful," agreed Cali. "My mouth was open."

"No," Bill said, shocked. "He didn't..."

"Yeah, Bill, he did," she told him. "A homeless guy spit in my mouth."

Milo and Bill exchanged glances quickly before erupting into laughter.

"It isn't funny," Cali chided. "I threw up just to get the taste out of my mouth."

Milo and Bill choked back their laughter.

"That's unreal," Mila commented. "This city."

Their time in New York had been brief and they hadn't had much time to see the sights that the city was famous for. They did, however, have the opportunity to experience the worst parts of New York that people who lived elsewhere heard horror stories about. It was enough to make each one of them wonder exactly what they were trying to save. Not seriously, of course. They were true Heroes. But there's only so much humanity a person can experience before they start to wonder whether there really was any good left in people. The little bit of laughter they had shared over Calliope's unfortunate run in with the homeless man was a welcome change to the bleak, unforgiving nature of their visit.

By Captain Amazing's instruction, they had been staking out the warehouse for hours on end. They needed to learn everything they could about what was inside whether it was an army of hired goons or robot warriors. The more knowledge they could obtain, the better off they'd be when they stormed the castle. Their efforts had proved to be less than worthwhile, however. Almost no one came and went to and from the warehouse. Food would be delivered three times a day at exactly 8:30, 12:30, and 6:00. The food was left at the door and an envelope was issued through the mail slot in the door. Other than that, nothing stirred.

"Dinner from Gino's," Bill said, looking through a pair of binoculars. "Right on time. Destructo sure does like that crappy pizza place."

"We should get back," Milo said, failing to acknowledge Bill's comment. "We don't have much time left. Hopefully Xander and the Captain have come up with some brilliant plan."

There were only six hours until midnight and the end of the world. Captain Amazing had been pushing back their attack until their recon missions proved fruitful. Now they were out of time and had little to no information on what they should expect. Like it or not, they were going in blind, and it deeply unsettled all of them. Xander wasn't much help since he hadn't been inside the warehouse in weeks. They would have to come up with the best plan they could and hope for the best. No one liked it, but it was the only option they had left. The only other option was to let things unfold as they may, but that was never truly a real option.