The Blower File: Part 3

They were on the edge of an abandoned building and just below them was a broken window. Acting on impulse, Parkour grabbed the ledge of the roof, turned a summersault through the air, throwing his body through the window. Hooded Angel followed a little more slowly, using his grappling hook for support. Greenshade and Sky flew in after them.

"What was that about?" asked Hooded Angel once they were inside.

"Police helicopters. They're looking for something and I don't want it to be us."

Parkour pulled off his ski mask and scratched his head. "But I thought this was legal."

"It is, but we still don't want to run into the police," Sky explained. He dropped to the ground and turned off his invisibility shield. "I don't want to get into politics--I hear enough of that at EPAC--and I'm not saying anything about the integrity of police in general. But here in McHenry City the only difference between the Police and the Mob is that the Mob makes better money. And whatever good may possibly have survived in the MCPD has been pretty thoroughly alienated by Bone Crusher's methods. They may not be able to legally do anything to us, but they might find something illegal to do and at any rate, it would delay us more than hiding for a few minutes will."

Hooded Angel looked annoyed but he nodded in agreement. "We might be able to outdistance them, but alerting the police that we're here would probably alert Bone Crusher. He always had some way of keeping his ears tuned to what the police were doing."

Sky nodded. "While we're stopped here for a few minutes, there's something I want to ask you, Greenshade."

"What?"

"I'm not religious, but I did go to Sunday School sometimes when I was a kid and I do hang around with Evangelicals a lot because of my work at EPAC, so I do know quite a bit about the Bible and what Christians believe. And I know the Bible talks about loving your enemies, forgiving people, being kind, being gentle, turning the other cheek, and so on and so forth. In the abstract, it seems like Christianity comes down solidly against violence and most of the Christians I know would count ordinary fighting--street fighting, I mean, or even professional fighting--as a fundamental sin--and yet you're a Christian and do work as a superhero. And the people EPAC, when it comes to political issues like capital punishment, war, or even police authority, seem to be even more violent than the Forester and almost as brutal as Bone Crusher. For that matter, some of them--though this was definitely a minority--even specifically defended Bone Crusher and his methodologies."

Greenshade phased his armor off and looked at Sky with a serious expression. "Just because a person is a Christian and believes the Bible doesn't mean they consciously apply that truth consistently to everything they do and believe. They should, but they don't always do it."

Hooded Angel smiled a little grimly. "Are you saying that to defend yourself or other Christians?"

"It's not my place to judge other Christians, either for good or bad. But I'll have to be honest, Sky--a lot of things done and said by Christians--or at least people who profess to be Christians--do disturb me. It seems like too many of them look at the Bible through the lens of politics rather than looking politics through the lens of the Bible. But I guess if you want to know why they do and think what they do, you'd have to ask them." He narrowed his eyes in concentration. "But you're right about me. I do work as a superhero. I'm a little like you, Sky, in that my main weapon isn't strength but stealth. Still, the polytechnic armor does give me superhuman strength and do sometimes have to use it."

"In a loving way?" There was an ironic twist to Hooded Angel's voice.

Sky raised his eyebrows. "Bitter much, Hood?"

"Sorry. I'm just getting a little tired of this argument."

"Well, I'll try to explain myself quickly, then. Everything you said, Sky, about what the Bible teaches is true. I wouldn't defend violence for personal reasons--fighting merely because of some personal offense or another. I wouldn't even go along with what Hooded Angel was saying earlier, that we should use violence to get a point across to people in our work, because that's moving into the sphere of judging and punishing, which is the role of the government."

"That's not quite what I meant," Hooded Angel interrupted. "You're right; it's not our job to punish people. I'd never use violence to punish but merely to capture the criminal--but that's not to say I don't enjoy it. You can't blame me for that, can you?"

"That goes into questions about attitudes, feelings, and emotions and I'm certainly not going to argue about that with a psychologist."

Greenshade paused for a long moment as if the interruption had derailed his train of thought. When he finally spoke again his voice had a faraway note. "When we first got started--the Polytechnics, I mean--I wondered about the same thing, whether it was right to do the kind of things necessary for a superhero to do. It was a little more complicated then because we were sort of illegal--it was long before the superhero and vigilante law. My uncle--who was my guardian at that time and who was sort of the leader of the Polytechnics too--walked me through the Bible and what it teaches. I won't bore you with all the theological details, but the Bible does ordain the use of violence in certain circumstances, such as war, capital punishment, and even the corporal punishment of children. Even though the Bible isn't a textbook on politics, it does mean that physical violence is not intrinsically wrong. Jesus Himself used at least the threat of physical violence when driving the money changers out of the Temple."

Sky scratched his head. "So how do you reconcile that with the rest of the Bible says?"

"The primary factor of the Christian life is love. And if you love your neighbor as yourself, then you wouldn't hurt him merely for personal reason. But the very fact that you love other people means that you would use any means you can to protect them. Ultimately, my work is to protect the innocent and uphold the law, even if that means committing violence. And more than that, because there is a real right and wrong in the world, to stop a person from committing a crime or even to punish them for committing a crime may be an act of mercy as well as justice.”

For a moment, neither of the four said anything, and then Parkour spoke rather abruptly: "So, really, both arguments--both what you've been talking about today and that whole thing yesterday--they both go back to whether or not the Bible is true. And that goes back to whether there is or is not a God--right?"

Greenshade glanced at him and nodded. "Pretty much."

"Well, then I've got a question. What you're saying about violence comes down this, doesn't it? That you'd never punch somebody just because they made you mad or because they deserved it, but you'd beat someone up or even kill them if you had to in order to save the life of an innocent third party. Right?"

"That's essentially it, yes."

Parkour nodded and then turned to Hooded Angel. "And the point of your story earlier is that you felt it was wrong for that older boy to see something wrong going on--to see a bully in action--and not do anything to stop it. Right? Maybe he shouldn't have just punched him--maybe he should have gone and told the kid's parents or something--but he should have done something."

"Yeah," answered Hooded Angel cautiously as if he thought he was being drawn into some kind of trap.

"Did you follow the details of the Halande Basement Case?"

Sky raised his eyebrows in surprise at this unexpected question. "Just what appeared in the news. I didn't hear anything directly from Time's Detective if that's what you mean."

"I didn't actually talk to him about it either, but the one day I was just hanging around the Hub, I was reading some of the records that are archived on the computers."

"I don't remember hearing about that case at all," said Greenshade, glancing at him again.

Since Parkour seemed to hesitate, Sky answered for him. "As I remember the details, it was discovered that a man had kidnapped five women and had held them captive in his basement for something like five or six years. It was one of the biggest cases TD ever handled."

"Yeah, that's pretty much it. But what I found out when I was reading his records--you know how exact he is about recording everything--is that after the fact he and the police were doing some follow up investigations, and they discovered that some of the man's neighbors had actually known or at least had strong suspicions about it for a long time and they had just been too afraid to do anything about it."

Hooded Angel and Greenshade both started in amazement. And then Hooded Angel sighed. "I wish I could say I didn't believe it. But I've seen too much of the same kind of thing. In the area I work in, so many people are so used to bad things happening and being done, they've completely lost the idea of being upset or stirred to action by it."

"But you'd say that's pretty disturbing, don't you? I mean, if somebody sees something wrong being done and doesn't do anything, aren't they as guilty as the criminal--especially if they do have something they could do? And wouldn't it be all the worse if it would actually be really easy for them to do something and they didn't?"

It was Greenshade who answered. "Yes, but I don't quite get where you're going with this, Parkour."

"Well, if there is a God, He'd have to a good person, wouldn't He? I mean, isn't that the basic definition of God? And yet, if there is a God, He sees everything that goes wrong in the world and evidently just sees it without doing anything to stop it--because it's still going on. I understand that most of it isn't really His fault since most of these problems are caused by people. But if He sees it all and doesn't stop it, doesn't that make Him guilty of all the bad stuff that He doesn't prevent?"

Sky and Hooded Angel glanced at each and then Hooded Angel spoke with unusual sharpness. "Parkour, even if you don't accept Greenshade's religion, you should treat it with more respect."

"I don't see why," answered Greenshade calmly. "If it's not true, it's a lie and why should you respect a lie? In any case, his question is an honest and a legitimate one."

Sky nodded. "I suppose it's a sort of reductio ad infinitum of Stan Lee's dictum. With great power comes great responsibility; therefore, with infinite power comes infinite responsibility. Right?"

Hooded Angel glanced at him. "I never knew you could sound that intelligent, Sky."

“I'm going to pretend that was a compliment.”

Greenshade was looking steadily at Parkour. "Just for curiosity, is there a particular reason you ask that?"

Parkour reached up and switched off his earpiece. "I suppose it's because of what happened to Yfi. And that wasn't really anybody's fault. It was just an accident. But it's really hard on her--and on me--and if there is a God, He could have prevented it, couldn't He?"

Yfi's voice spoke from Sky's suit. "You do realize that all of these guys have some form of digital technology on them somewhere, so turning off your earpiece doesn't really keep me from listening in, right?"

Parkour looked sheepish. "Yeah, I always forget that. I just didn't want to bring up any bad memories--"

"Well, I don't know that you have any right to be so upset about it. I'm not and I'm the one that got turned into a bunch of binary numbers."

"OK, so maybe I shouldn't be upset. It sure could have been a lot worse. But you guys," he appealed to Hooded Angel, Sky, and Greenshade, "know it's true. I mean, you've seen a lot more of the world than I have, but I've hung around with you long enough to know the kind of thing you do see. There are lots of people in the world who suffer--who suffer things a lot worse than anything we've suffered--most of it because of other people, I know, but still--if there is a God, He could prevent it, couldn't He? And if there is a God, He would want to. And yet, you know, all that trouble's still there."

Hooded Angel seemed uncomfortable. "You know, speaking of trouble, we'd better start off again. I don't know about God, but I know we have to do something to prevent trouble in the world and if we don't hurry and catch up to Bone Crusher, there's going to be a lot of trouble."

Sky nodded and switched on his invisibility shield. "I'll buzz out and check to see if the police have cleared off. If they have, we can get going again." Without waiting for a response, he flew outside and in a circle around the area. There was no sign of the police search party. Still, he wasn't satisfied. "Yfi, are you there?" he asked. He guessed her consciousness might be still connected to the computer in his suit.

"I'm here. What do you need?"

"Can you check the police computers and see if you can find out what they were looking for and where they are now? Something about this setup bothers me."

"Of course. I'll be back in a sec. OK, I got it. They've moved northward--and they're looking for snow. That's what they said, anyway."

"Snow?" repeated Sky, raising his eyebrows. "OK, theoretically it could snow here at this time of year, but it's not that cold and anyhow, why would that be a matter for the police? It must be some kind of code. But if they're out of this area, we can move on." Sky flew back to where the others waited. "I think we can go now, but we'd better be careful. I'm still not comfortable about the police presence. Something weird is going on."

"They may be looking for Boris too," Hooded Angel commented. Going to the window of the abandoned building, he shot out his grappling hook and with it pulled himself up to the roof of a building across the narrow ally.

Greenshade floated along beside him. "And we can't ignore the possibility that President Conners' agents are involved in this--they may have figured out that Boris and Bone Crusher are the same. Based on the things I've heard, I suspect Conners would like nothing better than to have an excuse to arrest Bone Crusher, and this charge against Boris gives them the excuse. And even if Boris were acquitted of the original charge, now he could be charged with resisting arrest or running from the law or whatever the technical charge would be."

"If they try to arrest him, he will resist arrest," answered Hooded Angel grimly. "And Conners doesn't have any agents that I think could win against Bone Crusher now that he has superpowers."

"Speeding Bullet has a lot of tricks up those interdimensional sleeves of his. But you may be right."

"Though if you want to get technical about it," added Sky, "it was the Futureplex's fault that Boris wasn't arrested to begin with. He didn't run from the law; we stole him. This could get messy if and when he really does get arrested."

Hooded Angel shook his cape back in an instinctive movement. "Let's concentrate on defeating him. That's all that matters right now. The Futureplex is big enough to take care of itself."

"So you think that we do need to defeat Bone Crusher?"

"Why else do think we're running around up here?"

"I was just curious." There was a note of amusement in Greenshade's voice. "Since he is so powerful..."

"You're not trying to restart that argument from yesterday, are you, Greenshade? Anyhow, it was the Forester--not me--who said that the most powerful sets the rules and even he took it back after he thought about it a while. No, we've got to get Bone Crusher and contain him somehow. Why--well, I know we don't like to say it, because he's such a nice guy--but if Heroman himself ever went rogue, I'd fight him. I don't just say if he turned on the Futureplex--there are days I'd like to do that myself--but if he became a criminal, if he started hurting people instead of helping them--then I'd try to take him down. I know none of us would stand a chance against him unless we could somehow play on his one weakness, but I'd still try and go down fighting if I couldn't win."

Greenshade made an inclination of his head and then turned to Parkour. "Do you feel the same way?"

"Oh--well--yeah, sure. But I really don't think you have to worry. If Heroman were going to snap, he'd have done it a long time ago."

"So you both would fight Heroman if he turned evil--even if you knew it was a hopeless fight, you would at least try."

"OK," Sky commented, "I recognize that little amused note you get in your voice when you're trying to make a point. Just go ahead and drop the other shoe."

"Well, I'm just trying to clarify something. You've never been tempted to fall down and worship Heroman?"

Hooded Angel stopped moving and stared at Greenshade in surprise and then laughed shortly. "No. Have you?"

"No. But if you think about it Heroman is, to the best of our knowledge, the most powerful man--or organic being of any kind--ever to live on this planet. I overheard Dr. Genius talking once, and I guess that the Futureplex theorizes that he only taps into a tiny fraction of his real potential. If he could unlock it all, he could easily out-muscle the vast majority of the superheroes of fiction and the gods of mythology."

"I think he could do that now," remarked Sky thoughtfully. "If we're talking about brute physical force."

"Certainly he is far more powerful than us--and the difference is greater than the difference between us and the ordinary man on the street. Except for his weakness to aspartame, he would be an unbeatable foe and even with that weakness nobody has been able to defeat him yet."

Hooded Angel shrugged. "I still don't get the point."

"I'm just saying that Heroman is far more powerful than we are. But we all know that he's just a man. A man with incredible powers, but still just a man. He differs from us in power, but not in nature."

"Wow. I feel like I'm in Intro to Philosophy all over again," remarked Parkour with a self-effacing laugh. "You're saying the difference is qualitative, not quantitative and relates to attributes not to essence."

Sky raised his eyebrows. "You must have done pretty well in Intro to Philosophy."

"You don't just throw philosophy around for the fun of it," Hooded Angel challenged, turning on Greenshade. "You're working up to something."

"I'm just trying to make a point about who God is--or even about who we claim He is. Whether the Bible is true or not is another question--of course, you know I believe it is--but before you can answer that, you have to understand what it teaches."

"Besides corporal punishment of children?"

"Besides that. And that's the transcendence of God."

Sky smiled to himself. "Wow. That got real theological real quick, didn't it?"

"Well, it's the only way to answer Parkour's question. You know, Parkour is stronger and more skilled than your average person. Hooded Angel, with his training and that special suit, is stronger than Parkour. With the Polytechnic armor, I'm stronger than Hooded Angel. Bone Crusher now is probably stronger than me and Heroman is stronger than all of us. But God is not stronger than Heroman in that sense--God isn't just like a man only more powerful, wiser, and better looking. He's not just--how's that poem go?--'a bigger and a better kind of me.' Of course, since man is made in the image of God, there is some analogy between the nature of God and the nature of man--otherwise, we couldn't understand God at all. But the difference between God and man isn't merely like that between any two men only greater. It's a difference of quality rather than quantity--of essence and not merely attributes. That's what we call the Transcendence of God."

Parkour scratched his head. "OK, I guess I follow that. You're saying that God is not just a lot greater than we are--if He exists at all, He is infinitely greater."

"Exactly. Unlike the gods of most mythologies--Greek and Roman anyway which is all I really know about--who were merely more powerful than man, just as Heroman is merely more powerful than we are."

"And the point is...?" asked Hooded Angel. "How does that relate to anything we were talking about before?"

"Well, I think Sky said it best. 'With infinite power comes infinite responsibility.' God's power isn't just great--it's infinite."

"OK, I get it. Because God--in your thinking--is infinitely greater than us, He isn't bound by the same rules as we are."

"No!" For once, Greenshade's voice rose sharply and moved his hand with an abrupt emphasis. "That's not what I'm saying, Hood. God is bound by the same rules we are because they are His rules. I mean, if we're talking about moral rules, as far as what is right and wrong. God's nature is the foundation for those rules and He couldn't go against them without ceasing to be Who He is."

Sky sighed. "I think I see a lot of potential argument material in that statement but I don't think we have time now to get into it all. But I still don't see how you're answering Parkour's question, which I thought was what you were trying to do."

"Let me just make sure I get what you're saying," added Parkour. "We're still on what I said earlier, right? About if there is a God how can He just sit back and do nothing when there's so much bad stuff happening in the world?"

"Yes."

"I said that if one of us saw something bad happening and didn't do something to stop it if we could, we'd be guilty of the crime ourselves. But you're saying since God is--what was that word you used?--transcendent?--He isn't on the same level as us and so that rule doesn't apply to Him? Or is that not what you're saying?"

"Let me try to say it a different way." Greenshade paused and when he spoke again, it was in a softer voice. "Do you remember the first time we met, Sky? On Santa Barbara?"

In the safety of his invisibility shield, Sky grimaced. That mission on Santa Barbara was something he preferred not thinking about whenever possible. Here in the US, he was able to maintain more of a detachment to the problems he saw--in Santa Barbara he had been a lot more closely involved. It had been there that he had first met Greenshade who, as Kobe Time (a Bible College student at the time), was on a missions trip to the small island nation but had ended up getting involved in things as a superhero. Sky had worked with him and this partnership was partly responsible for Greenshade coming to work for the Futureplex later. "What about it?"

"There was a time when I--when both of us--did the very thing we've been talking about. I mean, we just stood back and did nothing while one man subjected another man to extraordinary pain, basically torture."

Sky grimaced again. He remembered that.

"How could you do that?" asked Hooded Angel, turning to look in amazement at Greenshade.

"It wasn't easy. But it was the only thing we could do. We were pretty deep in the central jungles of Santa Barbara. Some of Dr. Koan's soldiers had shot a man in the leg and the wound had been infected. Sky and I were able to get him to a doctor, but the only way to save his life was to amputate the leg--but the doctor had no anesthetic and we had no way to get him any."

"Oh." Hooded Angel sounded a little confused. "Well--of course, that's horrible, but it's not--"

"It's a case where one man hurt another and we superheroes--do they count you as a superhero or a vigilante, Sky?"

"I'm not sure I'm technically either."

"Anyhow--we did nothing to stop him."

"But you had to in order to save the man's life."

"Exactly. And then we could go back to the conversation we started with. I know you don't believe in corporal punishment of children, Hood, but you do believe parents should punish children in some way if they do wrong--even if its in some nonviolent way like grounding, it's still a punishment and the very definition of a punishment is that it's something unpleasant. But it's necessary for them to grow up to be good--or even moderately successful--people."

"But the cases where that's true are very small," Hooded Angel objected.

"Yes, but they do exist and that's all that matters, isn't it?"

Parkour shook his head. "I'm not sure I see the connection between your story--the punishment of children--and anything else we were talking about."

"I guess he's saying that it's all right to hurt someone if it's for their own good." Hooded Angel sounded a little disgusted. "And so God just stands back and doesn't help us, because somehow that is helping us. But how can there be anything good about most of the trouble in the world?"

Greenshade paused and then spoke in a strange voice. "You know, of course, that when I was still a kid, my parents were killed in a car accident and that I was somewhat badly injured. It was for that reason that I was kidnapped by the Control Center and subjected to the experiments which allowed me to use the Polytechnic Armor. I'll never forget how I felt then--the feeling of loneliness and helplessness. And in all that has happened since then, my grief for my parents has never gone away. But if it hadn't been for that, I wouldn't be a superhero today. I never would have gotten this armor. I never would have met any of you. And you, Hood--you told us earlier that the whole reason you ever became a vigilante was because of what happened all those years ago in the park. In other words, if that older boy had interfered and stopped that bully, you probably never would have put on that hood and cape. All the good you've done as a vigilante never would have happened."

Sky spoke, trying to break the awkward silence which followed this speech: "All right, I'll grant you that. I know that sometimes good does come out of bad. But if you believe that, how can you do any work as a superhero when, for all you know, by helping someone you may be hurting them and when, if they're hurting, it may be helping them?" They had not been inactive while they were talking, and by now they could see the towering form of the Blower Broadcasting Building in front of them. They had come down to a lower rooftop in order to reach their destination and here, the road rose abruptly so that on one side they were not very far above road level at all, though this road was more like an alley. Sky had been about to advise that they seek more concealment, when he noted something odd on the readings from his sensors which hovered wraithlike in front of his eyes. "That doesn't make any sense," he said suddenly, before Greenshade could answer him. "The temperature is dropping--it's dropped nearly twenty degrees in the last five minutes and its still going."

Parkour, who was wearing only shorts and a t-shirt, was chaffing his arms. "I was feeling cold, but I was afraid it was just me."

"It would be just you--my suit, Greenshade's armor, and Sky's exoskeleton allow us to keep a stable temperature no matter what it is outside."

"But at this rate, it's going to be subzero soon," said Sky, looking at his readings, "and your suit won't protect then. Yfi said something about the police looking for snow and it's cold enough for snow now, but I still don't get it."

"Now, really boys, don't you know? Justice keeps best in a cold environment."

At this unexpected voice, the four men looked around just in time to see a vehicle pull up in the alley beside them. It was an odd vehicle, in shape something like an old fashioned sledge but larger and with caterpillar treads. And inside it sat a tall woman, dressed entirely in white with a white fur collar and white hair that seemed incongruous with her youthful face. As she stood up, two large wings unfolded from the back of her cloak.

Hooded Angel stared down at her angrily. "What are you doing here in McHenry City?"

She laughed, a clear, bell-like laugh. "You never get any more original, do you, Hood? As my arch-enemy, I think I am entitled to better dialog from you. Something dramatic--something that makes you pay attention--something--" she snapped her fingers-- "chilling." As she said the word, a few flakes of snow began falling from the sky unto Hooded Angel's cloak.

Sky drummed his fingers against the control rods of his exoskeleton. When Yfi mentioned snow, he had never thought of this possibility--the possibility of Snow Angel.

Snow Angel's real name was Jill Frost and she had become a vigilante after criminals had gunned down her policeman husband. (And yes, his name was Jack and no, we don't know what his parents were thinking.) For a period of time, she had worked for the Futureplex, where she had gained (Sky had never figured out how) a genetic enhancement which allowed her to generate cold and even to have a limited amount of control over the weather. She had later broken with the Futureplex, due to her more aggressive style of crime fighting. Now she worked on her own, technically an outlaw as her methods went beyond anything the Superhero and Vigilante Law (even in its broadest interpretation) could justify. She didn't seem to care and so far no one, not even Hooded Angel (who was her most frequent opponent) had been able to arrest her. With her special vehicle ("The Snowmobile"), her hidden base ("The Snow Fort"), and her powers she had been able to run circles around the Futureplex, Conners' agents, criminals, and the police.

Suddenly Sky had a very bad feeling about why she might be here in McHenry City.

"I can only imagine what brings you boy scouts out here," continued Snow Angel with her mocking laugh. "You never know a good thing when you see it. Sometimes I think your good sense must be quite frozen over. This is about Bone Crusher, isn't it?"

"I can't see how it's any of your business," said Hooded Angel. It sounded as if he was speaking between clenched teeth.

"That's so cliché, Hood. Really. Try this one. Do you like popsicles?"

Hooded Angel leaped backwards. "Scatter!" he shouted.

Even as he did, Snow Angel rose from her vehicle, her white wings beating through the sky. (Those cybernetic wings which allowed her to fly were another relic of her time with the Futureplex.) As she rose, a beam of ice shot from her hands, freezing the spot where Hooded Angel had stood a moment before.

Greenshade's main skill was evasion, so Sky wasn't worried about him--and he wasn't sure how much affect Snow Angel's ice would have on the polytechnic armor anyway. But that left the other three. Hood's suit would give him almost no protection, and Parkour had even less. And Sky's only protection was his invisibility shield, and he knew by playing around with air temperature she might be able to flush him out--fortunately, he wasn't sure she even knew he was there which would be in his favor. He rose swiftly, but he was worried.

"Now, come, boys? Are you really going to give me the cold shoulder?" Snow Angel's pinions beat against the air as she aimed her attacks at Hooded Angel and Parkour. Both Hood and Parkour were extremely agile and so far had escaped the attacks, but neither were in a position to fight back. And the length of time they could evade was limited. Sky thought quickly, trying to think of something he could do. Unfortunately, he didn't really have any powers. His primary job was simply to watch and at the moment he couldn't see what else he could do. The only hope seemed to lie with Greenshade. As he could fly also, he seemed the fitting antagonist for Snow Angel.

"Do you really think you can beat me that easily?" she asked suddenly, cutting a circular swath of ice in the air. Greenshade was thrown backwards as if by some kind of invisible force. "I would say I'm just getting warmed up, but in this case, it would be cooled down."

Of course. Snow Angel's powers didn't require direct physical contact meaning that she could attack Greenshade without having to penetrate his armor. Probably she couldn't attack him with full power, but it was enough to slow him down, and that was all it would take. Before he could recover, she could probably take out the other two.

And then everything began happening, began happening so fast that they could hardly take it in. Two police choppers appeared from nowhere and began closing in on them. They were fairly small models and they were flying erratically as if their pilots were drunk which, even in the MCPD, was unlikely. Snow Angel wheeled in the sky and fired a beam of ice which froze the propellers of one of them. It spun out of control and crashed, but still the other shot forward. And before Snow Angel could fire at it, five or six small unmanned drones appeared from the others side, one of them firing some kind of projectile. (Sky raised his eyebrows. He never knew the MCPD had equipment like this, but it was marked with the police symbol.) At the same time a police car spun around the corner, headed straight for the Snow Mobile. And then Sky did a double take--the car was unmanned. Though he knew that some police cars did have the capability of computer control, very few used it. He realized, after a second, that the choppers were unmanned as well.

Even Snow Angel was having trouble with so many opponents coming from every direction and apparently without fear. Meanwhile, while she was distracted, Parkour and Hooded Angel had secreted themselves. Sky landed on a nearby roof top near where Parkour crouched, hidden behind an air conditioning unit--with the all the vehicles around, flying was making him more vulnerable. Just as he did, a voice shouted from the loud speaker of one of the choppers. "You leave them alone. That's my boyfriend you're trying to freeze."

Parkour started at the voice and then placed a finger against his ear piece. "Yfi! You've got to stop this. You're spreading your consciousness too far--you'll fragment."

"I can defrag later." Her voice sounded more determined than usual as it echoed out of every speaker within a half mile radius. "Right now, I've got to clear her out of here."

Sky should have realized earlier that Yfi was involved in the weird attack--that explained why all the vehicles were unmanned. But he had never realized that Yfi's powers could do something on this level. He wondered if the scientists at the Futureplex realized it. He noted, though, that Parkour looked in agony. His fists were clenched and he kept muttering, "Please let her be all right. Please let her be all right."

This went on for only a few seconds, though. After that, Snow Angel had had enough. Dropping back into her Snow Mobile, she flash froze the police vehicle which blocked her way, rammed into it, causing it to split in a thousand tiny fragments, and was gone before anyone could do anything, even if there had been anyone who wanted to do anything.

"Yfi!" Parkour shouted desperately. "Are you still there?"

"I'm here." Her voice spoke now only from his ear piece. "All together--and we got rid of that snow woman, too."

"That kind of stunt is way too dangerous."

"And having her squirt ice around wasn't? But I'm going to encrypt myself in your ear piece for a few minutes just to be on the safe side. I've had enough excitement for a while."

Sky nodded and then went to check on Hooded Angel. "Are you all right, Hood?" he asked dropping down beside him.

"My pride's a little wounded but I guess that'll heal," he said, sounding a little bitter. "But you'd better check on Greenshade. He hasn't moved since Snow Angle hit him."

Sky noted that Greenshade was hovering motionless in the sky a short distance away. "Greenshade," he called out, first in a low voice and then a louder one. "Kobe!" he added, thinking that his real name might spark more reaction.

But there was nothing.

"We've got to get to a better spot. Hood, if you inflate your suit, I can pull you and Parkour but only for a short distance. Fortunately, Greenshade is essentially weightless while in that armor. We'll go to the top of the BBB--no one should look for us there."

"Check." Hooded Angel seemed to realize that this was no time for talking.

Even with Hood's suit inflated, it was quite a job for Sky's exoskeleton to drag him and Parkour and, for a moment, Sky was afraid he had made a mistake, but somehow he pulled the two of them, as well as Greenshade, to the top of the tall building. There were four peaked facades on the four sides of the roof so it was unlikely that they would be spotted. They would be safe here for a few moments. Mainly his thoughts were occupied with Greenshade, but he couldn't help thinking back to the conversation of earlier. He felt sorry for Yfi and Parkour--but he also realized that if it weren't for the accident that had given Yfi her powers, he and the others would probably all be dead now.

Hooded Angle bent over Greenshade's armor, which Sky had laid out on the roof. "Greenshade--if you can here me--phase off your armor."

For a moment nothing happened, and then the polytechnic armor vanished and there lay Greenshade, his face and hands blue with cold.

"He's--" Hooded Angel began.

"No. His heart is still beating," corrected Sky, glancing at his readings. "And he's still breathing--if he wasn't, he couldn't phase off his armor. Fortunately, because Snow Angel's powers are organic in nature they don't function on the same level as natural cold."

Parkour shook his head. "What does that mean?"

"It means," Hooded Angel answered, "that we can probably revive him--if he'd been exposed to that much cold naturally, there'd probably be no hope. But we caught it in time and he should be fine if we get him help fast."

"I may not be much of a superhero, but I do have a few useful tools wired into this exoskeleton. Give me a sec to get it set up and I can start radiating energy into him which should revive him."

Hooded Angel glanced at him. "You're always full of surprises, Sky. Since when did you have something like that?"

"Last time the Futureplex sent me on a mission with you, they were afraid we might run into Snow Angel, so they gave me that upgrade."

For a moment, none of the group spoke. Sky had switched on the special beam in his suit, but he knew it would be a minute or two before it had any noticeable affect.

"After we get Bone Crusher," said Hooded Angel suddenly, an angry note to his voice, "I've got to concentrate on Snow Angel. Maybe if the Futureplex will give me a little back up, I can get her. She goes too far."

"You mean because she was trying to kill us? At least, I'm assuming that's what she was trying."

"Yeah, but it's not just that. I've been trying to arrest her for months, but I haven't had any success yet. She's crazy."

"Do you say that as a vigilante or as a psychologist?" Sky had his own reason for trying to make Hooded Angel talk.

"I don't think she's certifiably insane, if that's what you mean. I'd feel better if she was. No, she just thinks that she can make all the decisions--that she's the one who not only pursues criminals, but judges them and executes them."

"You mean she literally kills people?"

"How else would kill someone?"

"You know what I mean."

"Yes. I know definitely of at least four people she's killed. Now, granted, they did deserve to die. If they'd been arrested and tried, they would have gotten the death sentence without question--at least, I don't think there'd have been much question in any of the cases. But if that were it, at least I'd understand. I know it's wrong, but I can sympathize with the feeling. But she doesn't just stick to punishing criminals. She isn't just a force for the law outside of the law. She interferes with ordinary people, with the way they live, with little things in their lives that she doesn't like."

"The way they discipline their children, for instance?"

"Are you just trying to bait me, Sky?"

"Yes," answered Sky, but not aloud.

"If there's anything she comes in contact with that she doesn't like or doesn't approve of, she'll try to change by whatever means necessary."

Greenshade's eyelids fluttered and then came open and he spoke in a voice which was faint but perfectly coherent. "In other words, you complain because God doesn't interfere in people's lives and then complain because people do."

Sky nodded. He had thought that if he could get the argument started again it would provide the stimulus to bring Greenshade around. Since he had been able to phase off his armor, Sky had known he must still be partially conscious and so bringing him to full consciousness would be relatively simply.

Hooded Angel was too caught up in the argument even to realize what had happened. "I don't think that's logical, Greenshade. It's not the same thing. There are times when people need to interfere with other people--I mean, that's basically the definition of a superhero or a vigilante, isn't it? But we just try to stop people who are breaking the law or causing actual physical harm to someone."

“Why not? You and I both know, Hood, that at least a quarter of the crimes we deal with on a day-to-day basis--the ordinary, mundane stuff--can be traced directly to a handful of specific behavioral patterns. If we started monitoring those and dealing with them before they turned into action, we could cut down crime by a quarter."

Hood's faced lowered. "I guess I should have expected that from an Evangelical. But how on earth do you propose to do something like that? Even if it was possible, what right do we have to get involved in people's lives like that?”

Greenshade laughed. "Exactly. I think you misunderstood me--I wasn't saying we should do something like that. I was just try to get you explain why we can't."

"Yeah, it's just too complicated--and it's not right. We talked earlier about bullying, and doesn't it basically come out to a kind of bullying? I mean, who are we to try to judge and fix each others lives? I could attack Sky because he plays too many video games and he could turn around and attack me for drinking too much coffee. There's a little bad in the best of us and a little good in the worst of us."

"Including Bone Crusher?" asked Sky.

"Yes, including Bone Crusher. You know that as well as I do, Sky. You said it yourself--he wasn't a saint but he wasn't a monster either. But now--now, it's different. He's gotten superpowers and broken out of the Futureplex, though I suppose I can't blame him too much for that."

Greenshade's skin was almost its normal color again and he was able to push himself up into a sitting position. "Your point, Hood, is that we can't try the sort of thing because we don't have that authority. I can't judge your life, because you could also judge mine and our opinions would just cancel each other out. I don't know Snow Angel that well, but I would imagine that there are things in her life--aside from her habit of murdering people--which which are just as questionable as the things she tries to correct in other people's lives. That's why we superheroes and vigilantes have to stick to the law--because the law is the one common standard that applies to us all. Beyond that, we're not wise enough to really know how to fix the problems in people's lives. As you said earlier, the definition of a superhero is someone who interferes in other people's lives--and I suppose you could say the same thing of a preacher--and I do see in both capacities a lot of the interior details of people's lives. And I'll admit--I see a lot of things that I wish I could fix and I don't even know how--with all my superpowers--and sometimes I can't help thinking that if I did interfere, I'd probably just make things worse. And that's why my responsibility is limited to the small number of things like saving lives and upholding the laws--things there are no question about. But that's not the whole story." He become so animated that he stood up. "Take a parent. A parent has more responsibility over their child--whether they use corporal punishment or not--they have to do more than just make sure their children follow the law. They have to train them to live all of their lives."

"Not everyone agrees about that," Sky pointed out.

"No, but nearly everyone agrees that somebody needs to do this. You may take them away from their parents and put them in charge of schools or the government--maybe eventually the Futureplex will come up with a VR program for raising children--but in any event, someone has to take more of an interest in a child than an adult can in another random stranger or they will never become adults in the first place."

"So you're saying that a parent has a greater responsibility and authority than a superhero."

"Exactly. And the whole point I was trying to make earlier is that because God is transcendent--He isn't just like us only better--He doesn't stand in the same degree of responsibility to us. Just as a parent has more authority than we do, because the different between a parent and a child is to some degree an actual difference of nature, so because God's nature is infinitely different than ours, He has infinitely more authority and responsibility. Not only that, but He can really see the future with certainty, and so has to consider the contingencies which we can't because we don't know them. And He is all wise, and so He always knows how to work."

"I suppose that follows," said Hooded Angel slowly. "But I'm not sure you've still answered Parkour's question."

"Parkour's question was how it is that God can just stand back, as it were, and not interfere with all the bad things going on in the world."

Parkour pushed up his ski mask and scratched his nose. "Yeah, that's pretty much it.”

"And you're argument is that God's responsibility is actually greater than a man's, rather than less," said Sky, tapping his fingers thoughtfully against his control rods. "But it still seems to me that it makes things worse rather than better. It seems like God has a greater responsibility to stop evil than we do--"

"He does," Greenshade interrupted. His skin was perfectly normal in color now. "We just stop crime--and pull the occasional person out of burning buildings--but God has to stop evil. And sometimes that means allowing--or even causing--suffering and pain. That man in Santa Barbara--the one the doctor was operating on--he was too delirious to understand what was happening to him. He couldn't understand what the doctor was doing, but it was for his own good--it was what he, in his sane moments, would have wanted. When I told that story earlier, Hood summarized it by saying, 'It's all right to hurt someone if it's for their own good.' The way he said it told me he doesn't think much of the idea and I don't blame him. It's a dangerous idea--like corporal punishment--and very capable of abuse. If I became an antihero like Snow Angel and tried to use that argument to defend myself, you would be right in fighting me. I'm just an ordinary person--with superpowers and even those really are just in my armor--I don't have the authority or the knowledge to deliberately inflict or refuse to help problems in other people just because I think it might help them. But God isn't just an ordinary person even with superpowers. He's God. The very idea of God--even if you don't believe it--implies that He would have authority and ability to deal with matters on a deeper level. I'm not God and I certainly don't claim to understand why He does--or doesn't do--the things He does. But if there is a God, it's only logical to assume He would know better than we do about that."

"But why?" pressed Parkour. "OK, I do get what you're saying. Just as a doctor needs to hurt a patient in order to save his life, so God may let us suffer for some reason. And I guess if there is a God, He would have that right and that ability. But that still doesn't fully explain why. So, you know, bad stuff happened to you so you could become a superhero and help other people--and that's true of Yfi and even Hooded Angel in a lesser extent. But that just pushes the problem back, doesn't it? You suffer so you can help other people--but why doesn't God just help the other people without dragging you into it at all?"

Greenshade nodded. "That's a valid question."

"It's like money. If God wants to give me some money, why doesn't He just give the check straight to me instead of giving it to you to cash and then give to me when it's going to be a lot of hassle for you?"

"That's a very good analogy. And the reason is, I think, because God is more interested in who we are than what we have."

"I don't follow."

"A couple of days when you and I were hanging around the Hub, Hood--waiting for Dr. Genius and the Cavalier to show up to help on that Incorrigible case--you were telling me about a criminal that you'd just had to arrest. He wasn't a supervillain, but he did have an interesting back story."

Hooded Angel frowned. "I guess that's one way to look at it."

"Who was he?" asked Sky.

"He was just a common street punk who lived in my area of town. I knew he'd been involved in a couple small robberies, but I couldn't help feeling sorry for him. He was dirt poor and really did need the money, and he wasn't a violent criminal. Still, I would have arrested him but then--what are the odds?--he won the lottery."

Sky raised his eyebrows. "Oh, yeah. I forgot your state is one of the few that still has that."

"Yeah. Great, isn't it? Well, the police didn't have anything on the kid and I decided to just let what I knew slide. After all, I figured now that he had a good break, maybe he'd clean up his act. And he did--at first."

"But easy come, easy go?" Sky guessed.

"Pretty much. He ended up spending all the money he had won in a matter of months and he ended up flat broke again. But by that time, he had grown addicted to wealth and so he went back to being a criminal but this time he was more driven and violent. If I hadn't gotten him in time, somebody would have ended up dead over it. It's a sad story, but I don't quite see the point."

"The point is that it doesn't matter what you have but who you are. Just getting money didn't make him richer, because he either didn't know or didn't care about handling it right. What he needed wasn't money, but a change in himself--either morally or intellectually. God could give everyone in the world lots of money, but that wouldn't make everyone rich. God could give pleasure to everyone in the world, but that wouldn't make everyone happy. God could give good circumstances to everyone in the world, but that wouldn't make everyone good. That's why God does things that may seem, to us, roundabout and indirect--because His main goal is to change people, to change who they are--to make them better. Not just to give them things."

Parkour scratched his nose again. "And is that supposed to make me feel any better? I guess it makes sense, but it doesn't change how bad things seem."

"That's a different question. You asked me how it is that God, seeing all the problems in the world, doesn't stop them and may even be, in some cases, the cause of them. I think the case can be made that there are good reasons--at least, sometimes we can see what those reasons are and so it isn't implausible to think there may be reasons the rest of the time. Since God is different from man, His responsibility is different. But knowing all that doesn't necessarily make us feel any better about it." Greenshade began pacing. "Your question is actually a Biblical one, Parkour. A lot of people in the Bible wondered that--why it is that God doesn't just rend the heavens and come down. In my line of work--both as a preacher and a superhero--I do see a lot of suffering. And I can't help but think sometimes that no matter what plan God has for it all, it can't be worth it. But then I remember that God Himself thought suffering was worthwhile to achieve its desired end, and since it cost Him more than it will ever cost me, who am I to object?" As he spoke, Greenshade stared out over the skyline of McHenry City. The others followed his line of vision and saw in the distance the towering spire of a church steeple, and on its top the sign of the cross.

There was a long moment of silence, and then Sky cleared his throat. "Well, I kinda hate to ruin the moment--and I certainly am not looking forward to another battle today--but I guess we'd better go inside and see if we can find Bone Crusher."

"We need to wait for Greenshade to recover," said Hooded Angel and then stopped. "Wait, you are recovered. We've been arguing for the last five minutes, haven't we?"

"I was wondering how long it would take you to notice that."

"You were doing that on purpose, weren't you, Sky?"

"I figured it was the easiest way to get him back to normal."

"Huh. You never cease to amaze me. But Greenshade, are you sure you're all right?"

"I'm sure."

"Well, then, Sky's right. We need to get after Bone Crusher. We've wasted too much time already."

Sky said nothing. But he could help worrying. They had already been pretty badly beaten by Snow Angel--he didn't see what hope they had against Bone Crusher. Nor could he avoid an uncomfortable feeling when he considered what it must be that brought Snow Angel here to McHenry City in the first place.