Day 5 of 31 Stories - Superhero Dispatch

Still playing catch up from missing a day last week, but I'm getting there. We watched the new Suicide Squad movie earlier tonight, which may have sparked an idea or two. Enjoy day 5 - Superhero Dispatch.

People think the superhero gig is all sunshine and roses, saving the day and fighting the bad guys. Everything's black and white, no body is every unsure of themselves or concerned about whether or not they're doing the "right" thing or doing it the "right" way or for the "right" reasons. Anybody who doesn't see things as clearly one way or another is obviously a villain, because nothing can be a gray area if the only thing you see is the light of truth, right?

What a crock. Nine times out of ten, we're not saving "the world," we're saving the ass of the person who's willing to pay the most. And yeah, a lot of times, those people are the ones trying to make the world a little less awful, but most of the time it's because they've realized how badly they screwed things up in the past, and now they're trying to make amends or something. It's like they've suddenly realized that everything can and will become public, so they're trying to shine up their image before word of all their nasty little backroom dealings comes to light.

Sorry. I can be a little cynical, I know - it's hard not to be when you spend most of your days figuring out who to dispatch to watch situation, and determine if the "right" side (there's that word again) has the proper authority and/or the proper currency to have us deal with it. Like everyone else who starts out in the main office, I came in with stars in my eyes and a song in my heart, and it didn't take long for the stars to fade and the song to turn into a marching cadence.

When you see the superheroes in the news, you never think that there's a whole bunch of bureaucracy pulling the strings in the background, do you? Nah, it always looks like they just show up where they're needed, like they have some kind of sixth sense to tell them where there's trouble. Well, that sixth sense is us - Dispatch. We take in the information from around the sector, we distill it, have analysts that determine what the best return on investment is, and we send them out into the world to save it. Well, save the specific part of the world that we deem worth saving this go-round.

The first few weeks of training are always the hardest, because that's when we have to break the newbies down. They have to learn really quickly that they can't save everybody, and it's not worth burning themselves and the superheroes out trying to. It's heartbreaking, it really is, the first time you see them make a call - deciding which job is worth sending the best to, and which won't even get the third-stringers. No one likes to see their local town get wiped off the map because a storm went in a direction we couldn't have predicted, but sometimes, even our analysts get it wrong. We work with the information we have at our hands, and we do our best with it.

At least we don't have to deal with all the crap the poor folks in the government have to contend with. We at least get to work off of what will help or hurt the most people, generally - we don't have to account for the political bull that can make blowing up a city full of people an acceptable loss. On my worst days, I'm not sending a crew of super-powered people to blow up the only factory that provides work in a town. We might end up taking down the owner of that factory if it turns out they've been polluting the groundwater or something, true, but at least with that we have teams that come in afterwards to try and kickstart the economy with other, less eco-deadly methods. We leave them with options, is what I'm saying.

I sound defensive, I know. And I am. I'm not going to lie - sometimes, missions go wrong. Sometimes, our intelligence isn't as good as we want it to be, and we send the wrong people, and people get hurt or die. Not every superhero is created equal - anyone who's read a single comic book or watched even one episode of a TV show about superheroes knows that sometimes you get the guy who can leap tall buildings and deflect bullets, and sometimes you get the guy who can talk to fish. Both useful, but in very different (and sometimes, extremely limited) circumstances.

I try not to get too close to them. I don't have any powers of my own, other than a little bit of bureaucromancy, and that's more learned than innate. As far as the average superhero is concerned, I'm nothing more than a fragile bit of potential collateral damage, so they obviously aren't going to invest much time or effort in me. I get it. I mean, I hate it, because I get to know them from the inside out, with the access to all their medical records and files and backgrounds, but I get that they don't see me as worth the risk. I try to see it as a way that they're protecting me from them, because everyone knows that superheroes that have people they love out in the open are just asking for villains to kill those people.

So, I try to stay out of the way. I keep my cool, keep my distance, make sure they don't see anything that would make the world notice me. I know that the superheroes know who is taking care of them, and that they appreciate me - us, I mean. They appreciate us, as a team. We get some pretty good gifts for Administrative Professionals day, I'll tell you that. It's not a bad thing, to work for some superheroes who are loaded. They can afford to shell out for some pretty hefty gift cards, if nothing else. And sometimes they'll cater lunch, or, well, have us order lunch and put it on their expense reports, you know, because they're a little busy saving whatever part of the world needs saving that day. You can't expect superheroes to order their own lunch, right? Talk about a little beneath them.

But I know. I know that they appreciate what I do for them, making sure that their costumes have all the little extras taken care of - every seam double-stitched, every pocket and pouch lined to make it water- or air-tight as needed, all the various potions and capsules and the like labelled in the way that they find easiest to detect in the dark. And sure, it might not be exactly part of my official job description, but it's those little extras that make you good at the job, right? They're what show your bosses that you love what you do, and going above and beyond is how you move up in the world. So I give them the best information that I can, and I send flowers to the appropriate parties if things go wrong, because I want to make sure we look like we have a heart. We have to be people-oriented, of course, otherwise people won't want the superheroes to come save them. 

And if I happen to add a little bit extra to their info packets, telling them about a good taco place I know in the area or some neat little touristy shop they might want to stop by - after the mission, of course - then what's the harm in that? I know what the superheroes like, and I know better than anyone that they don't really get a chance to take vacations. So why not give them a chance to turn a work trip into a mini-vacation now and then? Nothing wrong with mixing a little bit of fun with the work, right?

Sometimes, they even bring back something for me. Well, for the team, but you know, I'm the one that told them where the tourist shop was, or where they can find a little street market that sells authentic, hand-made scarves and such, and I have seniority, so you know, it's addressed to the team, but I know who it's for. I share, though! I always make sure my team is taken care of. Just like the superheroes make sure I'm taken care of.

I don't get too close, of course. But I know. And they know that I know. They know I'm watching, and whenever they decide it's worth the risk, they know I'm here. Just like I know where they are. I always know where they are. I sent them there, after all. They trust me to know where the best place to send them is. They know I won't steer them wrong. And I know that they trust me.

I know.