Two solitary figures atop a tall building continued their tete-a-tete. One was named Colinaude, otherwise known as the costumed avenger Eidolon; the other was Godsend, known otherwise as the Alabama Lamb, and personally as Robert. It was the last one he wanted to be addressed as right now. But Colinaude had his own ideas.
"You can’t dictate how I operate," he told Godsend. "You can offer suggestions, and I will listen to them, but I won’t follow them. I will not compromise."
"The problem is," Godsend said, "many of us feel you’ve already compromised, and we have little interest in seeing you compromising further. That is not the face of heroism we wish to project."
"And what is that face? Shock and awe?" Colinaude scoffed. "That’s a good way to attract attention, but it isn’t the best way to get the job done. There’re many levels a less subtle approach misses. Your way does nothing to prevent future occurrences, to help stem the tide. I’m not interested in participating in that any longer. I made that clear long ago. You made your objections known then, and you found out immediately that there were merits to mine, and detriments to yours."
"The point," Godsend said, "is that you seem to see the world in a perpetual shade of gray. Sometimes there are black and whites. Sometimes you must see the larger picture."
"The point, the point," Colinaude said. He was getting cold up there, incredibly. There was still no sign of rain, which usually was the time it felt cold here. Yet there was something in the wind, which this perspective was only intensifying. "I see the greater picture. Yet I cannot ignore the smaller ones. Yes, there are shades of black and white, but they are the composition of the gray I see most clearly. Gray is the base color. Gray is the one we think we can ignore, because it does not stand out as starkly. It lacks appeal, and that’s the very reason it is, or should be, the most important one. Those who don’t pay mind to it, are bitten by those who by nature are attracted to it. And those people are the very ones who are not interested in colors, but in scraping by. They see themselves as victims of the colors. Gray attracts these."
"You think too much," Godsend said. "It clouds your judgment."
Switchblade, the controversial hero who had reawakened Colinaude’s moral compass, died not long after doing so. He fell victim to foes that sprang up looking to defeat him. They developed their crafts in a direct intention to beat him at his own game. It was a bloody death, one that polarized the nation’s attitudes on super heroes as a whole. In this climate, the shift the Eidolon had taken away from the Terrific Tandem alliance with Godsend sent him into further recession. Those who still liked him, only grew more intense in their championing of him. Those who didn’t, why they did the reverse. The man in the middle, Colinaude, carried about his crusade as he intended, not minding the gathering controversy he had inherited for himself from his ideological mentor, Switchblade.
"That’s a poor attitude," Colinaude said. "It’s indicative of the very reason why we’re no longer working together. You appall me."
"And you me," Godsend said. "You’re becoming brash, irrational. That is entirely too dangerous. And you won’t listen to reason."
"Give me some to listen to," Colinaude said.
"Stop," Godsend said. "Listen to me. You’re disconnecting yourself from everyone. You can’t do that. You can’t act alone and expect to remain lucent. It’s a fool’s gamble."
"I don’t need that advice from someone like you," Colinaude said.
"Someone like me?" Godsend said, half-rhetorically.
"Someone like you," Colinaude said. "The split was mutual. You encouraged my decision at the time. Yet that didn’t stop you from turning around again, begin these little chats, for one."
"Initially I respected you," Godsend said. "You betrayed that."
"That’s your opinion," Colinaude said.
"Not only mine," Godsend said. "And you’ve turned your back on every other hero, from here in Traverse to Bowie to the Lost City."
"The Lost City doesn’t have any heroes," Colinaude said.
"You know what I mean," Godsend said. "There are those who operate there given the need. Don’t be sarcastic with me."
"Don’t be self-righteous," Colinaude said. "How about that? Can’t do it?"
"It’s not being self-righteous," Godsend said. "It’s being levelheaded."
On the last mission of the Terrific Tandem, the foe was, like the first, Rancor. He had modified his approach, and his ambitions. This worked for and against the strengths Godsend and the Eidolon had utilized for half a decade. In many ways, their positions had been reversed. Rancor now preferred to pull his strings from behind the curtain, and since Godsend had been monitoring him, butting heads with him, since the beginning knew more of what was really going on than Colinaude, who was more focused on the effects of Rancor’s meddling. That Godsend had been keeping his information to himself all this time led to a confrontation that nearly cost them a victory against Rancor. This came at a time when his ultimate defeat was at hand. They still managed to foil him, but the Tandem fractured and he got away perhaps for good, knowing he would have to become even more clever for the future, and that there would be no one to stop him then.
"That’s one way I’d expect you to put it," Colinaude said. "You are naïve."
"And you are blind," Godsend said.
"This is pointless," Colinaude said.
"That would be your conclusion," Godsend said. "You are only proving my point."
"And you only prove mine," Colinaude said. "Say something useful and I’d have something to consider. You haven’t, and so I don’t. We could go on like this, but you’re really just wasting my time."
"There that is again," Godsend said. "What do you have that’s so important?"
"Rodrigo Ramirez," Colinaude said. "Sound familiar?"
"Vaguely," Godsend said.
"Exactly," Colinaude said. "Let me refresh your memory. Earlier this year, when you were pursuing the international crime lord Delenda, you learned he had a number of connections here in Traverse. In fact, it was the first time you’d actually been in Traverse in months. Celebrity had called you elsewhere."
"Save your editorializing," Godsend said.
"Okay, fine," Colinaude said. "I can do that. The truth speaks for itself. In this case you did in fact handle some of those connections, ones you deemed as posing a significant danger based on their perceived strengths even disregarding and independent of Delenda. I read a good deal about it in the paper, believe me. I also heard a great deal about your methods, how you prioritized those connections, how you evaluated them. Believe me when I say this, you missed the big one. Ramirez is now on the verge of something greater than any of the other connections could, or would, have ever approached. Yet you dismissed him outright, ranked him squarely at the bottom."
"I don’t see a threat from him even now," Godsend said.
"You wouldn’t," Colinaude said. "But that’s what I’ve been working on. He’s closing in on becoming a bigger threat than even Delenda ever was. You would never have known until it hit the papers. And why? Because you have totally dismissed approaches such as mine. You dismissed me."
"You forced that," Godsend said.
"I didn’t," Colinaude said.
"What were your methods in determining this? That’s what I’d like to know," Godsend said.
"The entirely conventional kind," Colinaude said. "You don’t seem to think I’m capable of that. You’ve chosen to forget much."
"What choice did I have, after St. Ambrose?" Godsend said.
"That was only ever an isolated incident," Colinaude said. "It was not indicative of some change. It wasn’t. If anything, it became indicative of how I grew to be perceived. Especially by you."
"It is not something that was easy to ignore," Godsend said. "You can’t deny that."
"And I will continue to stress there was a context for it," Colinaude said.
"Not one that justified it," Godsend said.
"Maybe not to you," Colinaude said.
"Not to the media, either," Godsend said. "You didn’t help yourself there, either. Especially when you refused to come forward and admit it. Did you know that Moonraker was hassled for months, everyone blaming him over circumstantial evidence?"
"I couldn’t help that," Colinaude said.
"You could have," Godsend said.
"I couldn’t," Colinaude said. "Not when it would have meant an even worse backlash. There are many out there convinced there were no heroes involved whatsoever. They say it was gang related. And in a way, it was. If there is confusion over it, I won’t intervene."
"And you will not convince me you’re not corrupting yourself," Godsend said. "Not like that."
"Not to you," Colinaude said. "And I tell you now, I don’t need to."
"You are making a mistake," Godsend said.
Rancor retired to his club in Taipei, where Colinaude made sure he had contacts, not ones he would easily be able to keep in touch with personally, through methods he trusted, but with enough satisfaction. He would know when Rancor made another move. Godsend, in the meantime, moved on to other concerns, caught up, in Colinaude’s estimation, with the notion that he was always on top of things, the importance of which he declared for himself. They were no doubt worthy of attention, but they no longer held the interest of Colinaude. Rancor periodically sent his same surrogate tentacles outward, and Viper was always a favorite one, but never since the end of the Tandem did Godsend take heed. Rodrigo Ramirez, the Cad, was developing into a similar figure. That’s what alarmed Colinaude the most about him, not his association with Neville, the agent developing a reputation as the Barracuda.
"We all do," Colinaude said. "If we didn’t, there would be no need for people like the Eidolon. Or Godsend. Now, quit wasting my time. This ‘session’ is terminated."
Perhaps for the first time, Godsend acquiesced, but before leaving he took the measure of returning Colinaude back to where he found him. Without another word, the purple-and-gold clad Lamb departed, leaving behind an uncertain relief. Not all of Robert’s words had been wasted.
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