What Lies In The Hearts Of Men?

Nurse Red-heart drew another mug of greasy black coffee in the reception hall of the Canterlot City Hospital, it was late out and the reception had quieted down for the night. She sat at the table and tapped away at the keys of her computer, she was mostly filing away patients records, your run of the mill business when it came to keeping the american hospital in line. She didn't question when the sliding glass door slid open and in walked the girl known as Aria Blaze walked in wearing a blue one piece jumpsuit with a yellow zipper, the back read Lab-tech human organ delivery driver. Her position only called for loading and unloading red containers and driving the van, so it didn't exactly require a med school education. Nurse Red-heart looked up and and got a tab ready to take the inventory of the delivery.

"Little late for the labs to be making a delivery isn't it?"  She asked as two other Lab-Tech employees began unloading the containers, both blind to the fact that the organ's and blood's owner had been dead only a few hours. The "donor" was the late media mogul Scotch Bonnet. Ran a modeling agency on the surface, but bellow, deep within his true nature, he took most of the woman and girls who came to him, bright eyed and heads full of ambition and dreams...and made them do unspeakable things. Most of them were sold off like cattle, others forced into a lot in life no human being should ever endure, but he was dead now. Drained of blood, his heart torn from his body, and his penthouse office burned to a crisp, along with his body. He served only himself and took so much in life, perhaps in death, he can actually give to those more deserving of life.

"Something we got last second, making my last delivery okay?" Aria said as the organ donor list got signed, typical protocol. She followed the crew making the delivery a few more paces down the salt and pepper colored halls of the hospital, she checked her bearings and made sure they were too caught up in their job to notice her ducking into a maintenance elevator, it was an express on to the roof of the hospital. She stick her hands in the pockets of her purple jeans and put on a sour grimace, this wasn't something she had seen herself doing not too long ago, not just because she had ambitions of ruling the world, but she had killed a man tonight. Not in cold blood, and it wasn't like it was an innocent man taken in his prime by the cruel hands of her kin the fates. Never the less, such a notion had not occurred to her. Scotch Bonnet had tried to take advantage of Adagio when she went into his office, like all the others who came to her office, Adagio and Aria both wondered just how many girls he'd taken over that desk of his, made them bend over and feel his grimy hands all over them, and then his...

The elevator dinged and let her out onto the rooftops, the moon had disappeared behind a thick layer of clouds. The lights of the city casting an unnatural halogen glow over everything, you could hear the honking below as angry drivers hurried to their destinations, the hospital was only five stories tall. On the roof, machinery and generators hummed and whiled loudly as Adagio reached into the pocket of her brown jacket for the a flashlight, the one she took from her pocket was no ordinary flashlight. The handle was a solid silver finish and the front lens of the bulb a covering that made the shadow of an S shine against the bright yellow bulb. Aria shined the light with its emblem like S in the corners of a building rooftop not far from the hospital one. "It ain't the bat signal, but it's effective.'' she said only to herself with sarcasm. She turned to get back on the elevator as a voice, as smooth as silk gloves, yet intimidating and valiant like the old heroes of the days gone by.

"It is, I can see that small light from a mile away sometimes." Aria shrieked softly and jumped back a bit from the surprise. Looking up, she saw a figure cloaked in all black, the sleek coat on his shoulders fluttered like wings behind him, his belts held a shimmering silver buckle and two holsters of tanned brown leather, she didn't fear that they held two M 1911 pistols, antiques of an era that hearkened to the similarities her acquaintance shared to the old days, as did the black mask and red scarf around his neck. He landed beside her and smirked as Aria took a seat on an air vent and fished for a flash drive she'd taken from Scotch Bonnet's office. "Took you long enough to get here my dear." The mysterious being said as he took from one of the many pouches on his belt and a harness around his shoulders, a bundle of money. "You're payment as per our agreement." Aria took it handing him the drive.

"who are you supposed to be tonight anyway?" She said as she took the bills and counting out the hundred grand. Somehow, stealing the organs and blood of a man who would have given her more if he only let him take advantage of her naivete, was less sickening than LETTING him violate her for the sake of securing a modeling career with him. The stranger chuckled softly drawing the guns from his holsters and holding them across his chest, before twirling them in his hands.

"My dear...you are looking at the man who is one with the darkness, the man who knows what evil lives in the hearts of men...I am judge, juror and executioner when the law of man fails to uphold it's promises to the common man...I am THE SHADOW!" He said letting his coat flutter by lifting up, Aria would have found him funny, if he hadn't just handed her a hundred thousand bucks.

"Last time you were the British guy with the swords." She said tucking the cash safety in her jacket and chuckling a bit.

"Ahhh you refer to my time as the a humble vaudevillian veteran, vicariously cast as both villain and victim." He said making little gestures with his hands, Shakespearean showtime sentiments, for showmanship and spectacle of the silly and serious. In truth Aria's acquaintance had many personas to take on, but they all must be the dark and mysterious stranger types not seen much these days in the public eye.

"You know you're crazy right?" She said calling the elevator back up to the roof, 'The Shadow' only chuckled again as he tucked the data packet safety in a pouch. "Just what do you think a kook ruining around after reading one too many comic book can do to stop organized crime from leaching into this city hmmm?" She said as he perched like a raven on the air vents and seemed to almost fly up onto the metal network of them that ran all along the rooftop, until he looked down at her, his eyes shining softly behind the black domino mask around his eyes.

"They'll come like roaches, and I shall be the exterminator, I'll spray them like bugs with enough lead to make a sewer plant, and you're welcome to join me...we could make one hell of a team, the femme fatale and the tall, dark and mysterious vengeance seeking vigilante...what do you say?" He asked looking down at Aria as the elevator finally pulled up and she got aboard it leaving him with her parting words.

"I think you just love to hear yourself talk, you're a bigger ham than Trixie Lulamoon." She said with a laugh as the elevator doors closed.

"You say that Ms. Blaze, but The Shadow knows what evil lies in the hearts of men!" He said giving his coat another flip and he took across the metal patchwork of the air vents, a single slip and he'd plunge to his death, but the shadow fears not death for he is its shroud. The shadow took a leap from the city hospital roof and his hands wrapped around the ancient and rusted metal of a fire escape. He placed hand over hand as he could feel the pulse in his veins. fingers pulling him up higher and higher until he used it propel himself the remaining distance to the roof. 'There are some like Aria, sweet girl and all, but she lacks vision.' He thought to himself as he ran as across the black tar roof, the clouds above giving way to rain that belted the brim of his hat. The shadow only chuckled as he did the same on the other side of the building until he reached the ground. The streets of Canterlot City were emptying as people ran inside for shelter like a bunch of wicked witches of the west.

He stuck in his hands in his coat pockets and kept his head down, the flaps shut concealing his hardware. The spring shower came down hard, the traffic and street lights cast a hazy glow against the blurry low vision the rain caused. He stopped for just a moment by a newsstand, the tired eyes of the vendor as he stood behind his counter, the cornucopia of local headlines lain out up front, everything from the satirical bombshell of MAD and latest from DC, to the classics in small digest sized publishing in the back, provided by the New York Post themselves even. "Nice evening isn't it?" he asked the guy behind the counter with a smile, the seller didn't return the sentiment when he saw the getup."

"Yeah I guess, you're a little early for Halloween there buddy boy." He said pouring himself a cup of coffee, "You gonna buy something? Cause I an't one for chit chat." He said as his strange customer began to browse the selections. His interest peaked at a headline: Businessmen from Persia claim. "We're legit!" The article itself  went into detail about how some guys coming to Canterlot city from countries ranging from Sicily to Persia, Mr. Bonnet's contacts in organized crime, though their interview with the press wanted to say otherwise, and that these men sans one late media mogul, were all here on legitimate business and nothing more, but if what was stored on the drive was true, it would rebut ever word they had spewed lick acidic venom at the blind sided media.

"Gimme this copy of the gazette, oh and this month's MAD I want to see which is a bigger laugh...Hey what's Haunted Horror?" He asked as he noticed the very Roy Liechtenstein cover depicting a glowing green skull with fiery red eyes.

"Bunch of old horror titles from back in the days when they were everywhere, it's four bucks on top of the six and two for the MAD and the paper." He said as The Shadow only placed a big twenty on the counter.

"Keep the change Print Shop."  He said taking the brown bag of reading material  in his hands. Not tonight, there'd be no attack on any big time hot shots...not yet...let Bonnet's death sink in and sting the public but die off a bit. Let the rats think they're safe so they'll crawl out of the grimy slime of the sewer pipes. Then hit them hard while their guard's down, then once the Sicilians are gone, with the Persians in tow,  maybe the Russians  will try to muscle on his fair and beautiful city, Or the Chinese, maybe even another media mogul like Scotch, chance white, or Don Love...as in Donald not a mafia don, but they where all slime to him, slime that needs to be shark steam cleaned and bleached away, like the chrome head that adorned the steel walls of the flats as he ascended them home.  He past the sliding glass doors of the apartment and ascended the ancient stone steps all the way to the 28th floor of the building, his heart pounding in his chest and breath short from practically running up the stairs.

The apartment door didn't lead to some dinghy roach infested dive that would have fit his character, no the place was actually quite nice. humble even, nice little blue carpet and white baseboard walls. The hallway leading to the appropriate rooms. a glow from a television in one gave advice to the only occupant being home. He looked past the doorway and into the room, inside was a woman. She hadn't even changed out of her grey pantsuit and dress shirt from work. her glasses askew on her face as she snoozed on the couch, a folder on the coffee table from work. a not on the table read her only words.

Justin- meatloaf and peas  from the office cafe in the oven love mom.

He wasn't V, nor was he really The Shadow, or The spirit, or any of those heroes. He was Justin Sun-fire.; Canterlot High student and son to a single mother who had been under the thumb of that Bonnet guy not long ago, once a lifetime ago, she had been in the same position of so many young ladies like her, a teenage mother struggling with her one year old son, father long gone, seeking asylum up in the Yukon or god knows where. When big top of the world bonnet offers her the job of lifetime as a model. All she had to do was let him bareback her black cherry in his office, Which she refused and took the job kept away behind the computers in the basement, managing the accounting for the building maintenance. Eventually Bonnet forgot her face as he had plenty more girls to use for his sick kicks. 'Tough break,' he told her. You didn't wanna play ball when you had the chance so now you accept your lot in life, nobody gets anywhere in this life without getting their hands dirty girls, nobody.'

He looked at his mother sleeping so peacefully, if she woke she'd see her son in a black fedora and trench coat strapped with pistols and pouches. She was way too exhausted from working for that slime-ball on his last day on earth...did she even know he was burnt to crisp sitting in the morgue while his organs were going to people who needed them just a few flights up?  New life given and created from a grisly death? "Look at you ma, you've done so much for me, and I can't even tell you what I've been doing to repay you." He said softly opening a wooden music box on the coffee table, it played a tinny rendition of The Chordettes hit "Mr. Sandman.  "I promise, nothing will ever hurt you the way he almost did ma, and no one will ever take advantage of you like that again...look at you you're the parent and I'm the one making the promises of parenthood to you, I don't care." He said taking a blanket from the closet and covering her with it, before giving her a soft kiss on her forehead. "I love mom."

He said as a small smile appeared on her lips. Justin "The Shadow" Sunfire turned and went to his bedroom to catch up on the latest skewering from the satirical bombshell known as MAD magazine. Then maybe use the newspaper to plot tomorrow's "after school activities."