Post by Everyday Heroes on Oct 30, 2016 17:39:43 GMT
AT THE BUCKET
The Pollo Bucket, Austin, Texas
October 29, 2016 1.34PM
'Walter! How long with those fries?'
Lyndsey Matthews craned her neck to peek around the hotbox at her boyfriend, whose vast, swarthy back was currently turned to her as he leant over the deep-fat fryer.
'Comin' right up,' Wally Stravinsky said, as he turned the basket over and let the fries fall into a different area of the counter.
'Yeah, better make it quick, Walt,' the third person behind the Pollo Bucket counter cut in. 'We got some hungry customers here!'
Jason Orion leant as far forward as he could over the counter, the better to look at the two small boys currently gripping the edge of the marbled countertop and staring hopefully up at him.
'You'll have your food in a minute, okay?'
He turned his gaze upward to grin at the boys' mother, but his attention was quickly brought back down to kid-level by a remark from one of the boys.
'Cole! Cole, I know who he is!'
Cole, whose sleeve was getting frantically pulled by his younger brother, turned to look down at him.
'What?!'
'I know who he is,' the smaller boy repeated. 'It's Jason! From the Everyday Heroes!'
'No way!' Cole started laughing at his brother, but halted himself after only a moment. Slowly, tentatively, he turned his eyes back up towards the man behind the counter, leaning forward as if to appraise him more carefully. A moment later, Jason saw the light of realization dawn in his eyes, as his jaw dropped in sheer astonishment.
'Oh my gosh,' he muttered. Then, turning to his mother:
'Mom! Mom! It's Jason! From the Everyday Heroes! The wrestling guys!'
'You got me, buddy,' Jason quipped, winking down at the younger boy. 'You found my secret identity!'
'You don't have a secret identity,' the boy replied.
'Oh.' Jason started, as if only just becoming aware of that fact. 'I guess I don't.'
The boy covered his mouth with his hands, stifling a giggle, as his brother came back up to the counter.
'Can you sign my figure, man?'
'Sure, buddy,' Jason said. 'Where is it?'
The boys' mother stepped forward just then, holding out an action figure of Jason himself. The Vanilla Midget reached out to grab it, cradling it in his hands as he gently put it in the counter.
'I have one of these, too,' he said. 'This guy is awesome, I love him!'
The two boys giggled again, as Jason once again turned his gaze to their mother.
'You got a pen, Ma'am?'
The woman fished into her purse and produced a felt-tip marker, which she held out towards Jason.
'Thanks.' Jason smiled and scrawled his name across the miniature Jason's chest, in as small a handwriting as he was capable of.
'Here you go, Cole,' he said, as he held the figure out towards the oldest of the two brothers. The boy took it eagerly, his face alight with a delighted smile.
'Look, Mom! Jason signed my Jason!', he yelled, as he ran back to his table to join his mother. His brother, however, lingered back, still staring intently up at Jason.
'What's it like?', he ventured, after a few more moments of silence.
'What's what like, buddy?', Jason retorted.
'Having superpowers...'
The Midget chuckled. 'Who says I've got superpowers?'
'You don't?!' The boy gawped. Jason shook his head.
'Nope.'
'But...' The boy seemed confused. 'But you always beat the bad guys!'
'You don't need superpowers to beat the bad guys,' Jason said.
'You don't?'
'No. Listen...um, what's your name, buddy?'
'Brayden.'
'Listen, Brayden,' Jason continued, coming around the counter to crouch down next to his new friend. 'You don't need to be a superhero to defeat bad guys. Look at me. I'm not a superhero. I'm an Everyday Hero. Totally different things. Heck, I'm not even that strong. You're probably gonna be stronger and taller than me when you're grown up. But like you said, I always beat the bad guys. You know why?'
Brayden shook his head.
'Because of this.' Jason thumped the left-hand side of his chest. 'Heart. That's all you need. If you have heart, and if you really, truly want to do what's right, every time, no matter how hard it is...guess what?'
'What?'
'You're already a Hero. An Everyday Hero. Just like me.'
'Really?' Brayden's eyes grew, if possible, even wider.
'Sure,' Jason nodded, as he clapped the small boy on the shoulder. 'For example...say a bully was trying to beat up one of your friends. What would you do?'
Brayden barely hesitated. 'I'd tell him to go eat worms! And then I'd run up an' save my friend and then we'd both run away an' hide so he couldn't see us!'
Jason smiled. 'See? You'd risk getting beat up yourself, just to save your friend...'
'Well, yeah...'cause it's my friend...'
'That doesn't matter,' Jason said. 'You'd do the same thing if it was, I dunno, a puppy, right?'
Once again, the boy did not hesitate. 'Yeah! It ain't right to beat up puppies!'
'See?' Jason's smile now stretched all the way across his face. 'I knew you were an Everyday Hero! Heck, you recognised me, right?'
Brayden giggled again. 'Uh-huh. An' I know who that guy is too.'
The boy held out a finger towards Walter, who was just coming up behind Jason, a Li'l Pollo Kids' Special in hand.
'Who, me?', the big man said, pointing towards himself in mock surprise. 'Nah, I ain't no one famous. I'm just the guy who cooks your fries.'
The grin on the fry-cook's face, however, betrayed this statement; Walt knew that Brayden knew, and Brayden knew Walt knew he knew.
Before either of them could say another word, however, the mood was shattered by the sudden appearance of a young blonde girl, who burst through the Pollo Bucket's doors, panting heavily.
'Sorry, guys,' she breathed. 'My stupid car broke down. I had to walk here.'
'Well, you just about made it, honey,' Lyndsey said, throwing a regulation apron over the counter. 'Come 'round here and give me a hand. It's 'bout to get hectic in a minute here.'
The newcomer began to make her way around the counter, but stopped dead in her tracks as little Brayden once again piped up:
'I know you too! You're Sailor Cherry!'
'Who, me?' The look in the young girl's eyes as she turned around to face the boy belied the calm she tried to inject into her voice. 'N-no I'm not...I'm...um...I'm her twin sister.' The look of apprehension was replaced by one of relief as the girl nodded. 'Yeah. Her twin sister.'
'Uh-huh,' it was Cole's turn to pipe up, from the window booth he and his mother had chosen. 'Her twin sister. Sure.'
Cherry went to retort again, but stopped short as Jason gave her a meaningful look.
'It's all right, Cherry,' he said. 'They know.'
Cherry frowned. 'They...do?'
'Yeah. But it's okay. They ain't telling anybody. Are you, guys?'
Brayden and Cole both shook their heads, the former even going as far as to cross his heart. Jason grinned at them, then back at Cherry.
'See?'
Then, turning back to the boys, he added:
'Tell you what, guys. Since you're such good little Citizens, I think you deserve a little something to remember. Why don't you guys ask your Mom if you can come round later? Like, after the lunch hour rush. Around four or something like that.' Jason shifted his gaze up to look at the boys' mother. 'Is that all right?'
The woman nodded, and the leader of the Everyday Heroes smiled.
'Awesome. Now, you guys enjoy your meals, all right?'
With that, and after excxhanging thumbs-up with the children, Jason headed back around the counter, to help his friends prepare fried chicken pieces for the incoming lunch hour crunch. Just another minimum-wage fast food employee working at a mildly successful independent chicken shop. Just another young guy trying to make a living in a world where that was not always the easiest thing to do.
Just another Everyday Hero, trying to get by.
THE VIDEO
Outside The Pollo Bucket, Austin, Texas
October 29, 2016 4.45PM
'You guys ready?'
The three grown-ups and two children standing against the wall of the Pollo Bucket nodded.
'Okay...say cheese!'
'CHEESE,' the five yelled, as Lyndsey Matthews pressed the camera icon on the smartphone's screen. She paused a moment, to appraise the final result, then handed the device back to the thirty-something brunette standing beside her, nodding.
'How's it look, Mom? Is it good?' The brunette's two sons ran up excitedly, pushing and jostling one another as they tried to peer at the screen in their mother's hand. After a few moments' fighting for position, each boy got a good look, and almost immediately punched the air in delight.
'Awesome! Thanks, y'all!'
The three independent wrestlers still standing against the wall grinned and gave thumbs-up.
'Oh man, this is so cool', the oldest of the two boys gushed. 'Wait 'till I show this to the guys at school!'
'Glad you liked it,' the shorter of the three adults standing against the wall said. 'But tell you what...I can do you one better.'
'For real?!' The boys' eyes widened as their new friend nodded. Before he revealed what his plan was, however, the young man turned to the children's mother.
'Is it okay if they're in our video?'
'No way,' the two boys exclaimed, almost immediately starting to tug at their mother's sleeve.
'Can we, Mom? Can we? Please. Mom! Can we?'
'All right,' the woman said, smiling. The two brothers whooped for joy, slapping five before walking over to join the trio at the wall.
'Uh-uh,' the small man uttered, shaking his head. 'You guys go back and give your mother a hug and say thank you. Then you get to hang with us.'
The two children promptly obeyed, gleefully sprinting back to their mother to envelop her in a heartfelt hug. Only then did the three wrestlers gesture for them to re-join them, as the biggest and widest of the three, a husky man dressed in orange and blue spandex, turned to the young woman in charge of the camera.
'You ready to go, Lyndz?'
The girl nodded, whipping a tablet from her satchel and swiping it unlocked.
'Ready when you guys are.'
'Okay.' The big man cast a look round at his entourage. 'Everybody ready?'
'YEAH,' the two boys shouted, as the smaller man and the blonde girl nodded. The big man nodded, glancing back up at the brunette standing a few feet away.
'Roll it, Lyndz.'
The girl nodded, and gave the usual camera operator signal, holding four fingers up, then dropping them one by one. No sooner had the last finger had gone down than the small man stepped forth, addressing the camera directly:
'Hey, guys. This is Jason Orion, of the Everyday Heroes. And today, we got a couple of very special guests with us.'
He took a step back and indicated each of the two boys in turn.
'This is Brayden, and this is Cole. Say hi, guys.'
The two boys waved at the camera, gleeful smiles on their faces, as Orion continued:
'They're two pretty cool dudes who wanted to hang out with us and help us talk about our Trios Championship match at GOL Dia de Los Muertos. So, you guys wanna say something?'
The man gestured towards the two boys, holding an imaginary microphone to their mouths. The youngest of the two recoiled self-consciously, but his brother had no such qualms, and embraced the opportunity whole-heartedly:
'Listen up, Outliers! The Everyday Heroes are gonna keep their titles, 'cause they're cool an' you drool! An' that's the bottom line, 'cause Stone Cole said so!'
Every adult in the vicinity tried very hard not to chuckle as the small man slapped five with the boy, congratulating him on a job well done. Only then did he turn his attention back to the camera.
'You know what they say, dudes...from the mouths of babes...'
The man grinned briefly, before pointing back towards the children:
'See, Outliers...that is who we do this for. People like them. People who believe in us no matter what. Who believe in us, even we ourselves don't. And at Dia de Los Muertos, it's not gonna be any different. We're still gonna go out there and give our all...for them, and people like them.'
'That's right.' It was the big man in spandex's turn to step forward. 'They want us to step up to the challenge, and we will. Not just because we're the GOL Trios Champions, not just because we want to win...but because they want us to win.'
The small man nodded. 'Outliers...you guys have done some stuff. You're top tag team competitors at WRPD Wrestling, and your Sawtooth Grin is holding the Gods of War Pandora's Box right here at GOL, right now. Your partner El Matto Acido has been making some waves in our company as well. So there's no doubt you guys deserve this shot. There's no doubt you guys are worthy competitors. And there's no doubt you guys are gonna give us a fight come Sunday
But...'
The young man grinned.
'...but I hope you're not forgetting who we are, and who we have on our team. We're the GOL Trios Champions. We beat three other teams to earn our belts, and then got past a successful first defence, the thing everyone says is the hardest to do when you're a Champion. Not only that, I'm the former Pollomania Supremo Champion, and I went through more than you can imagine to defend that title for as long as I had it.'
The wrestler's expression becomes intense as he begins to count on his fingers:
'I took fireballs to the face. I dove off the top of cages. I got attacked time and again by someone who just could not let the fact that I'd won his title go. And when push came to shove...I was still standing there, with my arm raised, as the Pollomania Supremo Champion. And it took all of that dude's efforts to get me to lose that title to someone else.'
'That's right,' the man in spandex cut in again. 'And I'll tell you what else, Outliers. Me and Jason were this close to winning the Pollomania Tag Team titles as well. We fought three other teams, and eliminated two of them. And even though we didn't win...we showed everybody what we were made of. We got everybody looking. So maybe you guys don't wanna underestimate us. Maybe you guys don't wanna go in there on Sunday thinkin' you're just gonna run over us an' take our titles. 'Cause guess what?! We Heroes don't go down easy. An' I don't just mean 'cause I'm tubby.'
This time, the people around the two speakers did laugh, encouraging the big man to continue.
'So maybe you guys wanna ixnay on the murder alktay. 'Cause other teams you fought may have been too scared of you to put up a fight, but us? We're made of sterner stuff than that. We've been through a lot, both alone and as a group; too much to let a couple of guys with a good track record and a bad attitude scare us.'
'Yeah!' The third member of the group, a blonde girl in full Sailor Moon cosplay, stepped forward for the first time. 'I faced the ChaosSworn a bunch'a times, an' they're way scarier than you!'
'Yeah,' the heavyset Hero added, 'and me and Jason fought in a cage at Pollomania, against five bad dudes with attitudes. And not that long ago, the three of us went through the Mexican Asylum and walked out the other side as GOL Trios Champions. We've faced a bunch of challenges head on, and lived through 'em. So what makes you think this is the match that's gonna take us down? Because spoiler alert...it's not.'
'You bet it's not,' the shorter wrestler cut in again. 'You see, Outliers, you may be amazing wrestlers in your own right...but on Sunday, at Dia de Los Muertos, you are in for the challenge of your life. On Sunday, at Dia de Los Muertos, you're going to be inside the Spider's Web with the former Pollomania Supremo Champion, the former, final and longest-lasting UWL American Champion, and two of the hottest prospects in independent wrestling today: the Owl Man, and Sailor Cherry!'
'That's us,' the girl cut in again. 'An' let me tell you something, Outliers...I may not have done as much as these two guys right here, but I'm not a pushover, either! And I'm not scared of you, or this match! I don't even know how you escape the Spider's Web, but however it is, you bet me and Jason and Owlie are gonna be up to the challenge! 'Cause our fans are counting on us, and we're not gonna let them down!'
'That's right, Outliers,' the shorter man, Jason, concluded. 'On Sunday, we will escape the Spider's Web, and we will retain our GOL Trios Championships. And we won't just be doing it for us...'
The man jerked his head back towards the two boys.
'...we'll be doing it for them.'
'...aaaand CUT!'
Lyndsey, the camerawoman, put down her tablet with a big smile.
'Great job, you guys,' she called out, as she walked over to the heavyset masked avenger and kissed him on the lips. 'Especially from you, big guy. My hero...'
The two small boys let out an 'ooooooh' as the couple kissed, but Jason stopped them with a hand on their shoulders.
'C'mon, guys. Heroes don't make fun of other Heroes.'
'You really think we're Heroes?', Brayden asked, his eyes widening again at the thought.
Jason nodded. 'Sure you are. You did a great job just now. Got those Outliers shaking in their boots! Know why?'
The two boys shook their heads.
Jason grinned.''Cause they know we got all you guys on our side, and them? They got no one!'
He clapped each of the boys on the shoulder once. 'Now...I think your Mom wants to go home...'
He pointed towards the thirty-something brunette, who was waving. The two boys each held up a hand, palm outward, telling her to 'wait' as they collected high-fives from both male Heroes and a hug from both Sailor Cherry and Lyndsey the camerawoman. Only then, and after shaking hands with Jason one last time, did they re-join their mother, babbling excitedly about what they had just experienced.
Jason stood and watched as the small but happy family skipped all the way back to their car, the boys turning back around now and then to smile and wave at their idols.
'Well,' he said to no one in particular, as he watched the children enter the vehicle, 'win or lose on Sunday, we've done our job today.
Win or lose on Sunday, today...
...we were somebody's Heroes.'