Several hours later, Asher's flight had begun its decent into the Iowa airport. Sitting behind some empty bags of beef jerky, Gold Boxer was zoning out with his arms crossed, when he noticed the worried expression on his seat neighbor's face.
"You're worried about that girl of yours back home, eh?" he asked eventually.
"Huh? Oh ah, I guess," Asher admitted. "I mean I'm relieved that my presence won't put her in danger, but she just feels so far away from me now. Rand said that he'll check in on her at least."
"Oh yeah, the old man won't let anything happen to her while you're gone," the hero assured him. "The police department kind of sees the guy as dead weight at this point—and I guess I can't blame them sometimes. But his heart is still there, and when he feels there is an injustice, I see his old passion as a cop reawaken like some kind of heavy-drinking phoenix."
"You and the detective seem to go way back," Asher asked. "What's his story? From the day I met him, he seems to have had an aversion to heroes, but he seems pretty chummy with you."
"Clive is…something of a tortured soul," Gold Boxer admitted. "He was never the same after what happened to his wife and daughter, and who could blame him. Have you ever heard of Herohena?"
"Of course, that bastard is the reason why we now have the Super Vigilantes Act of 1989," Asher replied. "Wait…that guy murdered a woman and her 6-year-old daughter. Don't tell me that was Clive's…"
"It was," Gold Boxer said solemnly.
Back in the 1980s, shortly after the advent of superheroes, a hero with the feral power of a hyena that went by the name "Herohena" had rescued a woman and her young daughter from a mugging. Upon saving the woman, however, the superhero sought a "reward" for his actions, and forced himself on her there in the same alley he'd rescued her in. The daughter, despite her age, was not about to let her mom get attacked like that, and quickly ran for the nearby public street screaming for help.
In panic, Herohena ferociously cut down the girl using his powers, before being forced to do the same to the horrified mother in order to silence both witnesses. Despite denying his crimes, Herohena's actions were captured on CCTV, leading to the disgraced hero's arrest, and for sweeping reforms across North American laws regarding superheroes in the form of the Super Vigilantes Act of 1989. It allowed for a greater vetting process for would-be heroes, as well as limits on what they could legally get away with.
The tragedy did not end there, however. The slain woman left behind a husband, a young rookie cop in the Graveport Police, who from that day on, was extremely wary of the superheroes that claimed to fight for justice, having a knack for pinpointing their sometimes-selfish ambitions. Grieving his wife and daughter, Clive Rand became a bitter and tortured individual that was still determined to do his job. As the years went on, however, he turned to the bottle.
"Poor guy, I had no idea that the widower in the story was Rand," Asher remarked. "That incident is always used as a case study for heroes and ethics. Can't believe that I just met the guy in it."
"But just because he distrusts heroes now, doesn't mean that he won't work with us," Gold Boxer continued. "Back in 2002 when I was a rookie hero, I was with a few other newbies trying to make a name for ourselves by taking down Red Onslaught. Do you remember him? Overly-paranoid fire villain that usually ended up burning up his hideouts—as well as his henchmen."
"I've heard things," the young man nodded.
"Well anyway, Rand's precinct got word of our little raid idea, but I begged him not to stop us," Gold Boxer sighed. "We were a couple of glory-grabbing idiots. Red Onslaught annihilated us when we raided his base, where even as a solid gold man, I felt like I was close to melting. Right when the villain had us pinned-down, ready to finish us off, a police car smashed into the building, and out comes Rand guns blazing. Onslaught was so surprised by the entrance, that it distracted him long enough for me to get close and deck him in the face."
"Wow, that's amazing!" Asher exclaimed. "I had no idea that grizzly old man was such a badass back in the day."
"He's a good guy, I'd end up working with him many times going forward," the hero smirked as he leaned back. "He didn't trust heroes but he wasn't about to let one die if he could help it. I guess his grief and demons eventually caught up to him as he got older, however, and he eventually stopped being the active soldier that I used to see him as and he ended up being reassigned to missing persons. Being assigned to cold cases that don't lead anywhere. I think it's the department's way of politely telling him to quit."
"Well if you trust him, then I do to. He's the only person I know that would probably believe this…unique case that I'm in," Asher said as the plane's wheels touched down on the runway. "I'm thankful for it. I think I'd have been screwed otherwise."
"You really need to tell me why you're in hiding," Gold Boxer said with a raised eyebrow. "I'll get it out of you one of the days we're here."
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"ANA, are you absolutely sure you have the right signature?" Passion Princess asked into her phone as she flew over the water towards Graveport.
"Yes ma'am," the AI replied. "I have locked onto the last known location of Asher Avril's cellphone. The coordinates are straight ahead."
"I know," the heroine said as she watched the radar on her phone. "But the thing is, if these coordinates are right…then my Asher never left."
Now hovering directly above Asher and Priya's apartment building, the blonde-haired superhero was very confused. The data that her computer obtained after hacking into Asher's cellphone provider indicated that the last known location of his phone was right there in the apartment. Shrugging, she drifted down and finding a familiar window, cracked it open and slipped inside as she had several times now.
"Asher? Baby, are you in here?" Passion Princess called as she walked inside. Her ears twitching, she could hear a heartbeat.
Looking around the bedroom, she hungrily looked up and down the bed, before gliding into the hallway. Her heart jumping for a second, the heroine suddenly became enraged as she spotted a man who was not Asher sitting there on the living room couch.
"Good afternoon, Passion Princess," Clive Rand said as he casually sipped a black coffee. "What brings you here?"
"Me? What are you doing in Asher's apartment?" Passion Princess asked as she stepped over to the couch and loomed over the detective. "Where is he?"
"I'm afraid that is confidential police information," Rand replied as he took another sip, taking note of the heroine's fists clenching.
Her eye twitching for a second, the heroine's pained expression suddenly became a smile as she straightened her hair and stepped over to the couch. Bending her enormous bubble butt over the other side, she took a seat and crossed her long legs, before sighing as she looked back at the detective.
"Okay. I understand, I'll just wait for him to get back," she shrugged.
"He lets you stay in his apartment like this? Wow, you two must be really close," Rand continued as he held up Asher's phone. "I wonder. Were you looking for this by any chance?"
"Why do you have his phone?" Passion Princess asked, her icy-blue eyes staring intently at it.
"Where we're sticking him, we can't allow him to have any communication with the outside world," the detective explained. "Someone that is potentially very dangerous wants to get to him."
"WHO?" the heroine's voice hissed loudly.
"I-I'm not sure yet, that's what I'm trying to figure out," Rand gulped as his cool, relaxed façade cracked while the towering woman leaned towards him. "In fact, this was one reason that I was hoping to run into you here. Maybe you can help me find out who is looking for him?"
"I'll do anything as long as it brings him back fast," Passion Princess sighed as she clutched her chest. "Have you ever been in love, detective?"
"I have," he said as he looked towards a photo of Asher and Priya together that was hanging on the wall. "I know that love sometimes does weird things to people."