Gabe rested his chin on his palm and looked around the dingy diner he sat in. From his booth, he watched as kids ran around with reckless abandon, jumping onto tables and slamming each other to the ground. Behind them, a young worker watched the scene in horror, his mouth agape. The early morning sunlight gave the diner an orangish hue. He looked to his left, outside a large window, and watched as cars passed by on a busy road.
A man with a wolf's head — a lycanthrope — sat across from him, rummaging through a few beige folders.
The lycanthrope looked over at him and gruffly asked, "Do you want to go somewhere else?" "No…this is fine. I wanted you to come to the house and talk to Etienne, but I don't know if he's ready for all of that. The person you brought back is very different from the Etienne I grew up with. I may not be done with your services just yet, P.I." The P.I. looked at him for a while and nodded his head. He looked down and continued to examine the folders.
"You know, sometimes I wish real life were like TV shows. It would be nice if I could look at a document for ten seconds and understand it right away. Unfortunately, it's going to take me a while…" P.I's voice trailed off.
He flashed a quick look at Gabe, saying, "Feel free to order something, it's on me. Maybe it'll calm you down." Gabe watched as P.I. flipped through the folders, noticing how P.I. continually looked at the same document and shook his head.
"What are you looking at?" Gabe finally asked.
P.I looked up at him from behind the folder, "It's related to your case actually…"
Before P.I could continue, two small kids ran up to them. The kids were no taller than the table and their goofy grins revealed large gaps in their teeth.
"Mister, are you a werewolf?" One of the kids blurted out.
P.I looked at the kids, then looked back at Gabe. Finally turning his attention back to the documents, he responded, "Yes I am, and I feed on nosy little boys and girls who don't know how to mind their business. Now run back over to your mommy and daddy."
Gabe watched as the two kids ran away screaming and laughing.
As Gabe turned back to P.I, the lycan handed over the document he was looking at.
Gabe recoiled as he finally got a look at it. At the top of the page, some words were typed out, and a grainy, low-resolution picture appeared at the bottom.
In the photo, a man carried a shirtless Etienne into the terminal of the airport. The man donned leather gloves and a ski mask; his features were completely indistinct.
Gabe looked up at P.I in horror as P.I lit a cigarette.
P.I looked back at him and said, "Don't worry about the payments for now, we'll put those on pause. Just head on home and text me if he says anything strange or interesting. I'm going to figure out what happened to this kid."
Gabe opened the heavy door to the mansion slowly, and closed it without a sound.
"That picture…it seems more and more like there was some foul play involved. I need some time to think…" Gabe thought to himself.
He looked up at the gigantic family portrait as he climbed the stairs. He walked past Etienne's room, and slowly opened the balcony door.
To his surprise, he saw Etienne, balancing on one hand on the edge of the balcony.
Etienne bounced off the balcony and landed on his feet, standing right in front of Gabe proudly.
"Right…I forgot this is your favorite spot too," Gabe whispered.
Etienne ignored the statement, "I was just about to come find you, I need to tell you something. I finally made a decision Gabe."
There was a long pause.
"What decision did you make?" Gabe asked reluctantly.
"I'm go—"
Gabe interrupted, "Wait wait, before that. Did you go to the hospital already?"
A puzzled look crossed Etienne's face, only to disappear just as quickly, "Oh, right!" The hospital! Yeah, call them they'll tell you that I went."
Gabe rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, "But did you go?"
Etienne's expression remained blank, "Call the doctor and he'll tell you that I went," He slowly walked into the house.
Gabe grabbed his temples as he followed behind him.
"You know, a part of me is happy you're still acting the same, that you're still you. But a part of me wishes that you had matured a little bit while you were training with the ninjas or monks or whatever. Be a little less selfish, a little less self-serving."
Etienne stopped as he was approaching the stairs. He turned and looked at Gabe.
"That's the thing though Gabe, I have changed," Etienne exclaimed proudly, "That's what I wanted to talk about. I've decided I'm gonna become a hero."
There was a certain energy to the word hero when he said it. It was as though the air in the room became electrified.
Gabe was taken aback, "Okay…that means you're going to stop killing, right?"
Etienne sucked his teeth, "Damn, I thought that might be a problem. So wait, the INHO doesn't allow killing in any capacity?"
Gabe became even more confused, "Of course the Intranational Hero Organization doesn't allow killing…and I feel like you should know that."
Etienne continued walking down the stairs, "You know, the professional hero world has always been on the same level as pro wrestling to me. It's flashy and it's fun to look at sometimes, but I don't keep up with it at all."
Gabe crossed his arms and tilted his head, "That tracks, I guess…"
Etienne stopped walking again and leaned against the rail. He threw his hands up, "Okay, fine then! Maybe I don't do it under the INHO's banner but I want to spend some time helping people. Maybe I do it under some other organization, it doesn't really matter to me."
Gabe scoffed, "Eti, the INHO is an arm of the Department of Defense. There are no other superhero organizations or anything like that. It's either the INHO's way or they slap you with the vigilante label and hunt you down."
Etienne threw his head back and groaned loudly, "Lord, trying to do things the legit way is such a hassle. Whatever, I'll be a vigilante. It won't be the first time I've broken the law."
Etienne expected a response from Gabe, but he remained silent. Etienne looked over at him, and was surprised to see his pensive, almost melancholic expression.
Etienne took one step up the stairs and looked directly at Gabe, "I know you understand me, Gabe. Even if nobody else does, I know you do. Whatever it takes, I'm going to do this. I need to do this. If they say no killing, fine I won't. Taking revenge for my parents' death takes priority, but maybe more importantly than that, I need to do whatever I can for the community they cherished. For me, that means fighting crime."
Gabe couldn't help but crack a smile. He thought to himself, "I don't care what happened to him. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that this is Etienne.
Gabe pulled Etienne in for a tight hug.
Etienne hugged him back and whispered, "I knew I could count on you big bro. I hope this hug also means you'll be helping me with that hero work because I could really use it."