"I.  Am.  JUST—-"

All of the air left Blue Tango's lungs when a fist buried itself into his gut.  A single light shined down from above our hero who, battered and beaten, was bound to a wooden chair.  The room was pitch dark outside the small circle of light also surrounded by four suits all waiting to get their shot at the masked vigilante before them.

Tango coughed and gagged and spit blood on the floor beside him.  The same suit that took his breath away stepped back in from the shadows and cracked him in the face with a closed fist, bloodying up his cowl.

"OWWWWW!!!"

Tango whined and wept as the suit rubbed his bruised knuckle and leaned down, face-to-face with him.

"I'm not gonna ask you again!" yelled the suit.  "Who are you?  And who sent you?!"

"Just kill the freak!" said another.

"Let's see what's under the mask!" one more interjected.

Tango scowled under his cowl and carefully continued to work his wrists out of the binding twine from behind his back.  The original one leaned in closer beside his ear.

"I think you made a mistake and I don't think you know who you're dealing with…"

He stepped back and took another crack at Tango's face, blackening his eye.

"UGGNNNHH!!!!" screamed the hero.

"Everyone makes mistakes though, right men?"

A couple from the group responded with a chuckle, the others remained silent, ready, and eager to hop in on the fun.

"And we're willing to forgive and forget….  RIGHT men?"

The grunts responded with some grunts.

"But if you're not going to cooperate…  And tell us what we wanna know…  Then I guess we'll have to dig it out of ya!"

The main suit (the head-honcho, leader, bossman) pulled a switchblade out from his pocket and flipped it open.

"...And we'll start by cutting that mask off!"

"YEAH!"

The members of the group all joined in a chorus and sang out!  It was then, however, that a whistling sound whipped through the room and shattered the single bulb of light above them!

The metal baton clanged against the concrete floor as The Atomic Bat appeared. Moving like a creature of the dark, she took down one thug with an atomic punch, and threw another against a wall! The two others attempted to flee, but the Atomic Bat tackled one of the thugs from behind and restrained him with zip ties. She then leaped unnaturally into the air and seemed to fly a great distance to subdue the other one before they could escape. She restrained and detained them all together in one pile before freeing Tango from his binds. Tango immediately pressed past the Atomic Bat and threw a wild, sloppy yet stiff right cross onto the left eye of the suit that was battering him earlier!

"IT DOESN'T FEEL SO GOOD, DOES IT!?"

Tango drew back to strike him again, but the Atomic Bat hooked his arm with hers.

"You've done enough! Let's go!"

The Atomic Bat's uncharacteristically stern tone was all that it took for Tango to come to his senses.

Tango grit his teeth, before letting out a breath. “FINE,” he sighed, veering his sight to the ground before lifting back up to the Atomic Bat.  "They deserve much more than just….  THIS!" 

Tango went to step towards the villains once more before he was met with an unfamiliar coldness from his partner/mentor.

"Outside, now, buster!!"

We caught up to our heroes atop a nearby building. The Atomic Bat was silently and calculatingly pacing in front of a timid Tango. The awkward and tense silence was finally broken when the Atomic Bat yelled out: "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?"

“I… I was trying to…”

“Trying to do what!? Get yourself killed!?”

“I…. I wanted to prove to myself, and others, that I’m not useless. That I can do something to help.” Tango looks back up at Atomic Bat, and says, “And you aren’t angry with me, right?”

“I’m…. I’m not angry with you… but I really do not think that you made a good decision tonight. You could have gotten yourself hurt, or even worse. I want you to know that no matter what happens, I will be here for you, okay? But you’ve got to be smarter. This isn’t a game. What we’re doing is super dangerous, especially for someone without powers!”

He hangs his head. “I know, A.B. I’ll do better next time.”

Atomic Bat turns away from Tango, and watches over the city. The lights of the buildings were like stars to her. She turned back to Tango, and says, “You still have a long way to go. I can train you, show you some tricks I learned along the way. But I won’t go easy on you just because you’re a rookie.”

It’s then that The Atomic Bat’s “Bat-phone” vibrates with an urgent notification!

“Crap…”

The Blue Tango leans in to try and take a peak at Atomic Bat’s screen.  “What’s up?”

Atomic Bat sighs before explaining. “Captain Jordan just texted me. It seems that the thugs that we were involved with earlier might have actually been Federal agents who were in the middle of a sting operation…”

“Impossible!” Tango exclaims in utter bewilderment. “I scouted those guys for days! They were totally dirty!”

Atomic Bat rolls her eyes. “Do you really think that being a hero is as simple as ‘seeing things for what they are’?” She sighs. She stares at Tango, and then says, “Let’s head back to the station and try to clear this all up.” She looks at him, and says, “And for the record, you didn't let me down at all. Besides, it’s not the end of the world. We’ll get them next time. Come on.” She offers her hand to Tango.









“Hello everyone! Our names are The Atomic Bat and the Blue Tango, and we're superheroes!" Atomic Bat looks at Tango. "Why is it that people never realize that what heroes do isn’t easy? We’re constantly under threat by any of these meatheads. It’s the only thing they know, the only thing they understand… violence. I do what I have to so that everyone else can sleep soundly at night feeling safe. I’ve given up so much to make sure others can go home happy without a care in the world. It’s not just about me, or us.  This is about every person who’s ever been told that they can't."

"Tell me about it!"

"Once upon a time, I was told that I could never become a superhero. I faced prejudice and hate as I began to walk the path of a hero, but I overcame it all to become the symbol that you see before you today."

"Symbol!"

Tango pointed and paced back and forth behind the Atomic Bat as she continued.

“The world isn’t easy for heroes these days. It can be tough to stay the good guy when everyone else is fighting for power. But that’s just why we do it. Because it’s right. And because our fans need us.  Vagabond, shaking Angie's hand and walking away after a member of your own camp royally screwed your shot at the Tag Team championships was commendable, and you've totally earned my respect for that show of good sportsmanship.  And we totally look forward to testing our continuously improving skills as a team against a team that is as seasoned as the two of you, but as a team that also failed to gain traction in our first outing, we realize that you guys are surely going to be coming into this match even hotter and more fired up than you did against Sar and Angie. Fair enough, you have something to prove, but understand that so do we."

The Atomic Bat took a step back and a distraught Blue Tango stepped forward.

"They had their shot, A.B.!  They had their chance and they went down!  I know what you said, but I still feel like I let you down.  I know what we stand for and I'm totally down for justice, but…  I can't help but feel a sense of redemption in our match coming up."

"You have nothing to redeem, Tango…"

"But I do!"

"You don't."

"Listen, A.B.  I DO.  I'm done kissing up to these dudes, man.  Yeah, Vagabond's great and it's super cool that he and his old partner, Clyde Rover, had their little winning streak for so long…  But that's, like, over now.  They had their shot at the titles and lost, then immediately got thrown in a match for a chance to lose at getting them again!  It'd be nice if an opportunity got thrown our way sometime!"

"Tango!"

The Atomic Bat grabbed the Blue Tango by his shoulders and gave him a shake!

"You need to get your priorities straight!  There ARE rules to this thing, you understand?"

Tango took a deep breath and let it out his nose.

"I DO understand.  How am I supposed to just let it all go though?  We let those….  Those….  Bee—"

"Don't!"

"We let them get away with hurting Ruby, A.B.!"

"We didn't let them!  We were close and we put the hurting on them, Tango… They got lucky."

"Lucky schmucky.  The only lucky duckies in the room right now are Vagabond and Clyde Rover, but it ends now.  Vagabond has talked a big game about being able to tag with anyone, but the guy has only had luck in this neighborhood with Isiah King!  They beat up on that Calypso-guy and Barney Green!  I hate to be the 5 o'clock news on those guys, but that's not a whole lot to brag about.  To go on and say you can tag with anybody and get the job done then team with the dude that you teamed with for years and went undefeated with just to lose to the current champs, like, super-easily is kinda weak.  For US?  This is a great opportunity.  For those guys?  It's like they're in a contest to go get your butts kicked again.  DO they have something to prove, A.B.?  Maybe.  But if you're telling me to take priority on what's right and what's good, then I think my top priority is to beat these two and WE take on the champs, whether it's Lack & Ang, Graves & Cadryn, or Cashe & Kido!  We have the perfect chance to take over this division and once we do there will be no doubt that our voice of justice will be heard!  No one will stand in our way!  No one will DARE cross our path!"

Tango breaths in and out heavily into the camera as the Atomic Bat comes from behind him and reaches towards it.

"O-kay, Tango...  I think that's a wrap...  That was kinda omin---"

The camera clicks off.