A Superior Kind of Hero

Oh, but he was perfect: that noble face, that thick hair, that heroic form. To see him unconscious and hurt like this — it was like looking on a fallen god.

“Oh shut up,” Ellie said out loud. “Please stop being an idiot; you’ll embarrass yourself one day.” She paused what she was doing, and glanced around the room to check no one heard her talking to herself.

It was still empty, of course, and the guards outside wouldn’t have been able to hear.

Satisfied her dignity was intact, Ellie returned to checking Judgement’s vitals. She had to remain focussed, she decided. It did not become a doctor to fawn over her patients, no matter how muscular or handsome they may be.

After a few more moments of silence, she said, “Besides, he’s not even as muscular as he looks on TV. He’s probably shorter than I thought as well.” That one was hard to say, as her only encounter with Judgement thus far had been with him in a horizontal state, and not in the way she’d like.

As usual, his vitals were perfectly healthy. Ellie didn’t need to bother testing anything else to know what the results would be. His everything was perfectly healthy, as far as she could tell. And even though he appeared to be in a coma, his brain activity didn’t match that of a regular coma-patient.

Of course, Judgement was not entirely human — or perhaps not even slightly human — so that complicated things.

Not that this stopped her superiors from expecting results.

She unwrapped a chocolate from her secret stash and popped it in her mouth. Knowing full well that her annoyance with her patient was irrational, she poked one of his arms and told him between gooey chews, “You’re a nightmare, you are.”

The arm moved and Ellie jumped, almost choking on the chocolate.

Judgement opened his eyes, groaned, and rubbed his face. “I get that quite a lot.” As though he hadn’t just woken from a month-long coma, he sat up and looked around. “Well this is odd. Where am I?”

“Saint Francis Hospital,” Ellie said, swallowing the remains of her chocolate. “My name is Doctor Grant. You had a nasty fall. How are you feeling?”

“Like I had a nasty fall.” He grimaced and rubbed his face again. “What did I fall from?”

“One of the Twin Towers.” Ellie had seen it on the news — several people had caught in on camera — and the image of his tiny silhouette tumbling from the sky, backlit by the incandescent glare of windows, was fused into her brain. The country mourned that day, to see its hero so unfairly cast down.

How or why it had happened, no one truly new. And so naturally there was gossip, and rumours, and conspiracy theories. Ellie herself was partial to the idea that Doctor Death was somehow involved.

Judgement said, “Pardon?”

“The North Tower, to be exact.” Ellie said. He still looked blank, so she added, “You know — the World Trade Center."

Judgement swung his legs off his bed so he could perch on its edge, and cradled his head in his hands. There was no intravenous drip to get in the way — the nurses had tried to give him one, and had failed to pierce his skin. “My head really hurts, and I don’t think I can think straight.”

Ellie hesitated. For Judgement, a headache and confusion might mean nothing, or it might mean something incredibly serious, or it might mean something in-between, or it might even mean something positive — she really had no way of knowing. “What exactly are you?” she wanted to ask him. But it did not become a doctor to show such weakness in front of her patient, so instead Ellie said, “What you need is more rest. You fell off a skyscraper; be happy all you have is a headache.”

Judgement sighed. “Look, the joke wasn’t funny the first time you said it, and it’s not getting any funnier with repetition. What actually happened to me?”

Ellie pulled her phone from her white coat. It was set to airplane mode just to be safe, even though she knew all the equipment in the hospital was modern enough to be shielded from radio-waves. It took seconds to find the video she was after.

Judgement took the offered phone and watched himself fall from one of the Twin Towers, and grunted. “I saw videos of this back in 2001. That’s not me.”

Ellie didn’t say anything. She wasn’t yet sure what to make of Judgement’s behaviour. The video continued as the cameraman ran closer and closer to the fallen figure, which had now hit the ground. Sirens wailed through the phone’s tinny speakers as the camera zoomed in on Judgement’s unconscious face, on his square jaw and thick hair.

In real life, Judgement gaped at the phone.

That image, of Judgement lying defeated in the tarmac crater, would hold for exactly eight seconds, Ellie knew, before the video would cut to black and end. She counted in her head, then reached out and gently pried her phone back. “Well?”

“That was me,” he whispered. “That was definitely me. But it can’t be me.”

“Of course it can be you. Falling from the Twin Towers — that’s no biggy for Judgement, all-American superhero, right?”

Judgement reached out and gripped her hand. “I want you to listen to me very carefully right now. My name is Jake Gallagher, and I am a librarian. I am not a superhero, and I most certainly am not all-American. I’m Irish, for God’s sake.”

“That’s a mighty-fine impression of a Southern accent you have going on then.”

“What are you talking about? I—” He cut-off, looking aghast, and tried to stand. His legs gave way, and he crumpled to his knees. His broad chest heaved. “What have you done to my voice?”

“I haven’t done anything. That’s your voice. That’s your accent. That is how you’ve always sounded.”

“That’s a lie!”

Ellie had dealt with angry and irrational patients before, but none of them had been capable of levelling the entire hospital. She could hit the panic button sewn into her coat, and the two armed guards would rush in, but Ellie doubted they would be able to do anything to subdue Judgement. He was – well, he was Judgement.

She marched over to her desk, where she kept her stash of chocolates, fished one out, marched back, and offered it to him. “Strawberry chocolate?”

Judgement looked up at the red-wrapped chocolate being wafted in front of his face.

“They’re my favourites,” Ellie said, “but I’ll share one with you anyway.”

Judgement huffed, dragged himself back onto his bed, and stared Ellie down. A moment later, a smile flittered in-and-then-out of existence at the corners of his mouth. “They’re my favourite too.” He took the chocolate.

Ellie fetched another chocolate for herself, and the two of them ate in silence.

“You don’t believe me, do you?” he said after a while.

“No. I believe that you believe it, but I was here from the moment they brought you in — after they finished prying you out the ground. You fell from the Twin Towers, Jake, you look exactly like Judgement, and you were wearing his costume when you arrived. You’re him, even if you don’t believe it.”

“You called me Jake.”

“It seems the polite thing to do.”

Jake was about to say something when the doors were thrown open with a crash. Ellie jumped, and turned to see a man dressed in a formfitting bodysuit and cape striding in. The two guards trailed him, looking sheepish.

Upon spotting Jake, the newcomer stopped where he was. “Brother!” his voice boomed.

“Oh for Pete’s sake,” Jake said.

The man marched forward and put a big hand on Jake’s shoulder. “Tell me true, are you well?”

Jake sighed. “And who, pray tell, are you?”

Ellie didn’t know who this newcomer was either. He looked and dressed just like Judgement, although stood together she could see this new hero was taller and more muscular. Could there be two — or perhaps more — Judgements?

God, that introduced some … interesting … possibilities.

“I see you have visited realities you should not, brother. What do you hope to gain by letting this civilian control you?”

Jake brushed the superhero’s hand from his shoulder. “I don’t know who you are, but you’re no brother of mine.”

The superhero said, “My name is Judgement. I am the champion of this country and defender of this planet.”

Jake opened his mouth and then closed it again, and then he turned to Ellie and said, “I feckin’ told you I wasn’t him! I think someone owes me an apology.”

The superhero — Ellie wasn’t convinced he was the real Judgement — clasped Jake’s wrist. “I can help you, brother. Come with me.”

“Now you hold on just a moment,” Ellie cut in, confused and annoyed. “This here is my patient, and he is under my care. I will not have you just … gallivanting off with him.”

“I appreciate your concern, good doctor,” the superhero said, “but you find yourself concerned in a matter that you cannot hope to comprehend. It would be best for me to take Doctor Death here off your hands.”

“You — what?” Ellie said, and then looked at Jake.

“Doctor Death?” Jake pulled free of the superhero and threw his arms up in the air. “I wash my hands of this ridiculousness. If you need me you’ll find me in the nearest pub.”

“I know you’re still in there, brother,” the superhero said, grabbing Jake’s wrist again and preventing him from walking off. “Do not fight me — you know it is for the best you let the innocent return to his reality. Come.”

“If it’s all the same to you, I’d much rather not,” Jake said, his voice turning to confusion with the last couple of words as he plunged his closed fist into the superhero’s stomach. Ellie could swear she saw a thin blade mist into existence in his hand as he did so.

Dark blood spurted, and the superhero gasped.

Looking terrified, Jake pulled the knife from Judgement’s gut.

“I see…” Judgement wheezed. “So you have found a way to circumvent the Pact.”

“I don’t know what is going on,” Jake said, sounding helpless as he plunged the knife into Judgement again and again. “I can’t stop. Doctor Grant, help me! Why can’t I stop?”

Ellie rushed forward, not thinking, and grabbed his arm. “Stop it! Stop it, Jake!”

The two guards now had their guns trained on them. “Out the way, doctor!” one of them said.

Jake let Judgement slump to the ground, and then threw the knife at the guard that had spoken. The guard fell, and the other started firing. Agony exploded through Ellie’s chest. She’d been shot. She tried to scream but couldn’t find the breath.

Jake strode to the remaining guard, bullets ricocheting off him. “I’m really sorry,” he said. “It’s not me doing this.” Ellie couldn’t see what he did to the guard, but a moment later his body thumped to the ground.

Alarms were going off and lights were flashings. Jake walked back to Ellie and knelt beside her. “Help me,” he said. “I don’t know what to do.”

Ellie coughed, and felt blood trickle from her mouth. “I think I might need a doctor.”

“I’ll get you one.” He hesitated, and looked to Judgement. “Is he dead?”

The superhero, Judgement, American’s champion, Earth’s defender, wasn’t breathing. “Yes.” She looked at the two guards. Even though every word hurt to say, she added, “They’re all dead.”

“I killed them.”

“Yes.”

“It’s stopped for now. I’m me again.” He shook his head, as if to clear it. “Wait here, Doctor Grant, I’ll find you a doctor.” He ran off down the corridor, chasing the alarms. Everyone would be evacuating the building, Ellie knew. She also knew she would soon die without treatment.

She dragged herself to Judgement’s corpse, teeth clenched against the pain. This man, this bloodied chunk of meat, his death — strangely, it meant nothing to her. Just another life lost. She’d encountered much death in the hospital, and long ago learnt to deal with it. This wasn’t any different.

She closed her eyes, waiting for Jake to save her. “You’re such an … idiot,” she said, spitting blood with the words. “You’ll … embarrass yourself one day.”

There was no one alive in the room to hear her.

The alarm sung; the lights danced.

And Ellie waited to be saved.