268. He’d promised them hope but all they saw in him was despair

He’d promised them hope but all they saw in him was despair. It was not what Ben Patterson had counted on when he embarked on a career as a superhero.

Brought up on a steady diet of old movie serials that showed masked vigilantes beating up bad guys, he had from a young age set himself the goal of becoming one of those heroes that protect the city. Back then, he didn’t even have a clue how much time and gold reaching that goal would take.

Now in his sixties, Ben Patterson had finally amassed the right blend of money and experience to wear the cape. He chose the moniker Silver Fox and set about righting wrongs in the dark back alleys of Magalon City. He paid reporters of the Daily Flash to write glowing articles about him and he booked himself as a guest on TV talk shows to restore hope to the population.

The villains of the city hardly trembled in fear however. No matter how often the Silver Fox came at them, all they did was take pity on him. They didn’t even show him respect by killing him, as they often could have. The Silver Fox was hardly worth risking a life sentence for.

The public did not look any more kindly on him. All they saw was a confused, unfit old guy in tights, clinging to an impossible dream. Newspapers soon started refusing the Silver Fox’s paid propaganda and began running less glamorous, piteous articles, until they stopped writing about him altogether.

In the end Ben Patterson hung up his cape in disillusionment and retired to his mansion overseeing the city.

Heroes are seldom born out of an elaborate plan, he realised.

But there was a silver lining.

Cause villains were.

 

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