Chronicle 51
Mexcellente looked closely at the ground where one of Borderline’s lasers emerged from. There was a metallic device at the base, but much too hot to even put his hand near. It was glowing red, and the laser it emitted was wavering. It was firm in the ground and when he dug to see if there was a way to deactivate from underneath, he realized the laser also extended into the Earth below.
Another realization came to him and he blurted out loud. “Good thing you didn’t kill him.”
“What do you mean? Wait, how’d you know I was planning to kill him? I hadn’t even decided that yet myself.” FreeDom chuckled, holding a slightly serious demeanor as he awaited an answer.
“Oh… I’ve seen you on TV. FreeDom Fighting used to play every Saturday morning on TV. You always go for the kill.” Mex said, turning away to conceal his fan-hood.
“You watched my show, for real, man?”
“At least three times.” Mex restrained himself from getting into details of his favorite episodes and sounding too much like a fan.
“My favorite was when I speared through both eyeballs of that Kraken guy.” FreeDom reminisced fondly.
“Then you flew through his socket as the American Eagle. So cool.”
FreeDom took a deep, invigorating breath. “Good to know I have fans past the border.” He smiled wide and proud. “Speaking of… Why is it a good thing we didn’t take him down yet?”
“We don’t know how to deactivate the wall. We need him to take it down before we take him down.”
“You got some brains under that sombrero.” FreeDom turned to the sky in search of the plane.
“We’ve gotta move quick. I have a friend on the other side.”
“I heard her call you ‘Luis’. My advice? Never give out your secret identity. Lost a lot of heroes that way.”
“She figured it out on her own.”
“So she’s got her thinking parts all aligned like you.”
“Guess so. We gotta get that wall down before someone’s killed.”
The duo peered through the red wall to see people on their knees, cartel members pacing. Lisa was among them, the youngest of the captives. She was slumped over as if she’d fallen asleep. They realized how long it had actually been. Morning had come and gone. It was already nearly mid-day.
“Antonia.” Mex called to his guitar. “Stay near the border, keep watch over them.”
“¡Órale!” Antonia flew to the wall and began strumming a relaxing melody to calm down the captives. It worked on the cartel thugs for a moment, but when they noticed the effect, they became more aggressive.
“Noon, Mex.” FreeDom drew attention to the distant sky, where red beams were sprouting sequentially.
Borderline flew in the distance, dropping more laser pillars, expanding the grid, trapping Mexcellente and FreeDom. The plane went outside the enclosure, then turned around to pass directly through the barrier. It was unscathed.
“You catch that?” FreeDom asked. Mexcellente appeared thoughtful. “What’s that brain cooking?”
“He’s immune to the laser. At least his plane is.”
“I got that.”
“We can use that to get us across the border so we can rescue Lisa’s family.”
“Short term solution. What’s the long term?”
“One we get through, we treat him like you treated HapHazard on episode 258 of FreeDom Fighting.”
The heroes met eyes and said simultaneously, “BACK-CRACKER.”
“WOOO.” FreeDom launched into the air as a majestic bald eagle. This time, accompanied by Mexcellente, with a plan.
Borderline was surprised to see the return of the eagle man. So surprised that he paid no attention to the hero tailing them. FreeDom yanked free the spear tip of the Emancipator that he left dug into the nose of the plane. As the villain reached to activate the lasers aboard the plane, he was snugly held by a powerful, ancient poncho. He grabbed and pulled at it, but it was no ordinary piece of cloth. Mex pulled him from the craft so FreeDom could take hold of the steering, taking note of all the labeled buttons.
‘AUTO-PILOT’
‘RADAR JAM’
‘ACTIVATE BORDER’
‘ACTIVATE DEFENSE’
‘TOGGLE’
He tried toggle a couple times with no result, hoping it would turn the barrier on and off. Nothing else even hinted at deactivation. He turned on the auto-pilot and started slamming buttons with balled fists. All the controls without labels seemed to strictly be for flying. Mexcellente kept up, flying behind with Borderline wrapped up, strangely not resisting the capture anymore.
Even though a great distance above, Mexcellente caught the sound of two dissonant chords. An alarm from Antonia. Something was wrong across the border.
“We have to move now. My friend’s in trouble.”
FreeDom took control of the steering and dove the plane towards the ground. As they approached the wall, Antonia reunited with Mexcellente. He saw now that the cartel was preparing to execute one of the immigrants. There was no time.
Mexcellente sped ahead of the plane and flew with his back to the sky, Borderline wrapped in his poncho beneath him. The poncho spread to cover his whole body. As he moved through the upward-aimed lasers, a straight line was burnt through layers of the hand-woven material. Borderline, whose Humpty-Dumpty-esque form was protruding from the poncho in certain spots, yelped as the laser nicked his leg.
“LUIS! MY FATHER!” Lisa shouted.
Mexcellente spun as he flew into three thugs, slicing them with his axes. Antonia played some energetic music to empower him. The sound of a gunshot and a bullet to follow came from behind. Though it would have struck only Borderline, Mex released a stale corn tortilla. The bullet flattened against the inedible wrap. When Mexcellented located the gunman, Antonia was already smashing him as if an invisible rockstar were smashing their guitar on stage.
“Gracias, Mexcellente. Gracias.” praised the captives, freed and running to safety. Lisa hugged the hero and joined up with them.
Mexcellente checked the border wall for FreeDom and saw the plane in flames on the other side. FreeDom was nowhere in sight. The Emancipator was planted beside the wreckage, flag waving in the wind.
“OYE.” a voice came from behind a bush. Mex feared his involvement. “Cartelito doesn’t like losing money. That group you just set free could have been a nice payday for me.”
“Human trafficking, Cartelito? Talking in the third person?” Mex flew closer. “You’ve changed.”
“HELP ME OUT HERE, CARLOS.” Borderline whined.
“Perate, ‘Borderline’.” Cartelito responded as if speaking to an annoying little brother.
Borderline knew Cartelito? Was this a coordinated effort? Mexcellente tossed Borderline to the floor, seeing him as no threat. As he prepared to face off against the familiar rival, he wondered what became of FreeDom. Would the symbol of liberty rise again? He sure hoped so.
