J Street

Earlier

"Ya load sixteen tons, whattaya get? Another day older and a real sore back."

"We can do without your serenade, Jesse," gail said. She shook her head. He had volunteered to help with repairs to the House of Mystery. But his help was dubious at best. He'd carried a few boxes, and then found a microphone and hadn't quit playing with it yet.

Borelli stormed in, his cheeks read and his chest heaving. "MAYOR! BAD! NO!"

Joe Rice, DaDamerican looked at gail quizzically. "I don't get it either," she said.

"Try English, Jason. Always helps," Jesse said.

Jason closed his eyes and he glowed a brighter green for a moment. "Clarity of will, clarity of mind."

"What was that?"

"Never mind, gail. What I was trying to say is this . . .the Mayor has banned superheroic activity from J Street. And he's thrown the Pantheon out!"

"Thrown us out? What do you mean?"

"We're banned. As of tomorrow, it's illegal for us to be here."

gail rolled her eyes. DaDamerican let the microphone drop to the ground with a huge pop.

"He did, did he? That's just f***ing lovely."

"I'm going to stop this. He can't do this!"

"Well, he is the highest authority here," gail said.

"Mayor. Yeah, right. This is all my fault. If I hadn't abdicated none of this would ever have happened. I'm going to take over the government."

"No. You're. Not," DaDamerican said flatly.

"Listen, Jason, it's a noble thought . . .but the ethics are a bit murky. I mean, a coup enforced by superhuman powers? Isn't that the sort of thing bad guys do?"

Borelli's face remained steeled, but his eyes dimmed. "Well we have to do something. I'm going to negotiate or something. We have to do something."

"I'll tell you what I'm doing," DaDamerican said. "I'm getting the f*** out of this turd-pit. If these ungrateful retards don't want me here, I'll make my *ss as sparse as polysyllabic words in a Hemmingway novel." He turned to walk away, hopping over various and sundry debris.

"But what about the Pantheon?" Jason asked.

DaDamerican paused for a moment, then turned around. He held both middle fingers in the air proudly. "F*** THE PANTHEON!"