Chronicle 37

After his father retired, Luis ran the family taqueria alone. Customers would form lines on the side of the house where the service window was open until late in the night. Every so often, they’d be disappointed as the shop was abandoned. One regular customer, Lisa, noticed that those times coincided with Mexcellente sightings and news of Mexico being successfully defended. She deduced that Luis was the man beneath the sombrero, but didn’t know how to bring it up, especially around other customers.

Lisa approached the window with a knowing grin. Luis shook it off and put a tortilla on the flat top.

“The regular?” he asked.

“Please!” Lisa responded louder than necessary. She grew slightly nervous, still navigating how to broach the subject. “Hey, Luis…”

“Yeah?” he turned to her, having barely ever spoken to her past the order portion of the interaction. They were friendly through the window, but never met outside the taqueria.

“You uhh.. Do you remember Gilberto Matute?” she asked, knowing Mexcellente was the hero who brought down the heinous villain.

“Huh?” Luis played it cool, maintaining focus on his cooking. “Uh… I think so. Why?”

“Well, I was just thinking how lucky we are to have Mexcellente to stop people like that.”

“Mmhmm.”

“Don’t you agree?!” Lisa asked aggressively.

“Here’s your food.” Luis waved the next customer forward, avoiding the conversation.

“Thanks.” she said. She walked away looking defeated, though Luis didn’t notice.

Once the shop was closed that night, Luis took to the sky. His guitar, Antonia flew beside him and played a twinkly tune he had never heard before. She continued as they watched over the dazzling city below.

“What are you doing?” Mexcellente asked.

“Oh, nothing.” Antonia said playfully and went back to her tune, which sounded more and more like whistling to get his attention.

“Okay. Tell me.”

“She likes you. And I think she knows.”

“What are you talking about?”

“That girl. She comes every day and I’ve never seen her finish her tacos. She doesn’t come for you, Luis.”

“Loca.” The hero dismissed his guitar as reading into it, but he started to realize she was right as she played her tune again.

“Hey, Mex. What’s happening there?” Antonia turned his attention to a situation at the border. Police lights flashed and spread as it appeared more and more law enforcement arrived at the growing scene.

Mexcellente flew down to just above the activity. Mexican police were forming a perimeter around the Rio Grande on their side of the border and American police were doing the same on their side. He looked down to see that Mexicans were caught crossing and being detained. This wasn’t unusual, but what caught him off guard was the treatment they received. In the distance, some detainees were cowering behind a truck, away from a single man, who was beating down a man in the middle of the road.

“STOP.” Mexcellente demanded, rushing down to correct the officer, only to see that it wasn’t an officer at all. Before him stood the epitome of the American way, FreeDom.

“Brother, I could use some help.” Dom smirked and pointed to the rifle on the man’s back. 

Mexcellente realized he wasn’t assaulting immigrants, he was thwarting a cartel operation. As this realization happened, he caught a magazine of artillery from a truck mounted turret in his poncho and released them onto the ground. The thugs gasped, seeing their bullets have no effect on the hero. Antonia played an energetic song as the fight began.

With a loud “WOO”, FreeDom transformed into eagle form and swooped at the gunmen to stop them from shooting at Mexcellente. The Mexican hero grabbed both his tepoztli from his waist and flew straight at the group of goons, spinning with the axe tips outward. He chopped up the barrels of their rifles and knocked them down.

Up on the truck-bed, FreeDom held up the gunner by the back of his bullet-proof vest. The militia was expediently disarmed and neutralized by the duo when they saw lights above them whizzing across the sky in a straight line. All the lights twinkled for a moment before speeding down toward the ground. They planted into the dirt forcefully and at great speed. One such light landed right on one of the cartel members who was still on the ground, exploding the lower portion of his leg. Above them, a shrill voice filled the air.

“This world is ruled by INVISIBLE BARRIERS. My family was TORN FROM MY ARMS by these IMAGINARY WALLS. NOW, I, BORDERLINE, WILL BRING IN A NEW ERA. If everyone wants separation so badly, HERE IT IS!”

The lights, shining up from their buried positions, connected via a single laser, which rose up into the sky farther than the eye could see. A scream came from the same cartel thug when that laser shot straight through his remaining leg.

“Here.” Mexcellente shot some delicious food from his lonche onto the ground beside the gravely injured man.

“NACHOS?!”

As the barrier continued to connect and extend upward, someone shouted from the Mexican side of the border.

“Luis!! Help!!” Lisa shouted, standing thigh-deep in water. Her and other immigrating hopefuls were held at gunpoint by the other part of the cartel crew. Mex knew he had to save Lisa at all costs or he could never live with himself. Mexican police surrounded the hostages, but were unwilling to risk fatalities. 

“I have to get back to Mexico.” Mexcellente told FreeDom.

“Yeah, let’s figure this bad boy out.” Dom slowly stepped up to the laser barrier; close enough for his moustache to start burning. He still stood there, looking it up and down as his facial hair was alight. When he stepped back, he put out the flames with his pointer finger and thumb. Then FreeDom extended his flag and launched it at an angle into the air seemingly at random. “You think this ‘Borderline’ can fly or you think he’s in an aircraft?”

“No clue.”

“I’d reckon a guy like that can’t fly.”

“Okay.”

“Let’s take him down.” FreeDom suggested, transforming and making his way high into the air, to where the lasers stopped. Mexcellente followed the red, white and blue streaking behind the eagle. He was stunned for a moment as he watched a spear tip nearly strike the side of the eagle hero’s head. Instead, Dom opened his beak and let it fly through until he clamped down on the shaft of the flag to carry it along as he flew. Mex was impressed. Other than Antonia’s music, he had very little pageantry.

“Ahh the heroes come to strike me down!” Borderline yelled from a single-person airplane.

FreeDom transformed into a human again as he planted the spear of the flag onto the nose of Borderline’s plane. Mexcellente looked on in awe, seeing the pure showmanship of the American hero. He approached from behind until he watched Borderline’s plane extend lasers outward from many points along its body. FreeDom’s hat was cut in half along with some hair. Mex stopped midair and watched as Borderline did a barrel roll.

“FreeDom!” Mexcellente screamed as he saw smoke rise from the lasers and there was no sign of his ally when the plane became upright again. He looked down and began to fly toward the ground immediately, realizing that FreeDom had lost consciousness, the top section of the flag falling beside him, waving in the air majestically. Even in defeat, FreeDom was glorious. Luis reached him just before he hit the ground, then moved aside as the flagpole planted into the dirt below, missing its spear-tip.

“Nice catch.” FreeDom coughed.

“Let’s try this again. Maybe we should go at it a bit smarter this time.” Mexcellente said. 

“Smarter it is!” Dom replied enthusiastically. The heroes looked up at Borderline’s distant plane and began to strategize.