Wednesday 29 February 2012

Hominem, memento te

Booking an underground fight proved to be easier than we expected it to be. New Atlantica was thirsty for blood and Marcus Drake's new show was going to quench that thirst.

His first opponent was an average sized Asian guy. A first generation immigrant, most of us were immigrants or of immigrant descent in that city, in dire need of money for his family.

Drake dropped the fight but that did not come as much of a surprise to me. He somehow managed to put a semi decent show forth though and that got him a second fight.

He was never supposed to win that fight. The other fighter was going to have him for breakfast but Drake prevailed in the end. His win got him a semi decent paycheck; and a lot of pain.

"Get yourself fixed up and show up in three days time. Same, place, same time, give or take ..." That was the goodbye he got from the organisers.

He was bruised everywhere. His whole body was aching, his right eye was almost closed and he lost a tooth in the final round. But his bones were all doing fine, the tooth started to grow back after a while and my superhero friend was wealthier than what he was a few hours back. His first paycheck which was of some significance was quick, bloodshot and consisted of more pain than cash. But it was something.

At least for now ...

Tuesday 28 February 2012

Cuius Regio

It became apparent after a while that Marcus Drake was in serious need of money. He was a straight cop, as straight as they get mind you but the payroll of law-abiding police officers in New  Atlantica kept getting a hit, year after year. His father, a non-curable gambler, managed to turn a bad situation to something even worse by letting his son inherit what he was always good at producing; bad debts to the wrong people.

I do not how I ever managed to get him to give in to the idea of trying underground fighting. At that point, this seemed like an excellent idea, with my newly acquired friend being unbreakable and all. Little did I know ...

Monday 27 February 2012

Ductus Exemplo

You need to choose wisely in the city of New Atlantica. You need to be careful who you trust, who you do business with and most importantly, who you befriend.

I met Marucs for the first time in a pub downtown. It was a wretched place, packed with scumbags and troublemakers. Just what a man needs when looking for a proper adrenaline kicker.

After a few beers and some ill-advised pool games I got into a fight, a real nasty one with my face being smashed by a couple of mean looking guys as an outcome.

He didn't get into it; fighting was not his thing as he later told me. But he did buy me a drink when I came round from the beating. He seemed like a genuinely nice guy and he held a decent conversation.

I got his attention the moment I told him I was a writer looking for inspiration.

"So, do you want to know my secret then?"

Little did I know that his secret was going to act as my future inspiration, just not for writing ...

Initium ...

The first time I met Marcus Drake, I could not decide whether he was this sweet person suffering from his own naiveté or a  full-blown lunatic. He would talk about his super-powers over and over again and about his biggest worries of all; his inability to apply his powers for the greater good.

The biggest irony of all was the fact that it was Marcus's duty to defend the greater good. He was a police officer mind you.
"I do Justice a disservice on a daily basis you know. The hardest thing about being a cop is dealing with that inner struggle inside of you. The battle of good and evil. And in most cases, evil prevails."

I never lost my faith in my strange super hero acquaintance. After all, it isn't everyday that you meet a man whose bones cannot be broken and his blood cannot be shed.

Marcus Drake became my super-hero the day he decided to stop acting like a law enforcer and turned himself into a servant of Nemesis ...