Gamorah

Mark had been with the Crew for seven years by the time he turned sixteen. The traveling family has a modge podge of cultures and ages with ten members in total; Ms. Susie, his dads Mathew and Pete, Sebastian/ SeaBass, the twins Claire and Charles, Sarah the oldest of the kids, Benny who was Mark's age,  Johnny SeaBass’ kid, and finally Mark himself . Mark was also the newest member of the Crew and the only one who hasn’t been to the city of Gamorah and they would finally be visiting for a few months working whatever jobs they can get to save up money for traveling and food. In Gamorah you wouldn’t be questioned about your ID or what your past was, as long as you could do the job you would more than likely get hired.  The Crew was always looking for a place that wouldn’t be looking too closely at their papers, most of them being runaways or criminals.

Mark himself was thrilled at the idea of seeing what was so horrible about Gamorah. There wasn’t much information about the city and anything he could find was only published in the last four years. It was almost like the city was an black hole of knowledge until four years ago when something or someone changed.  More often than not if Mark saw something about the city on the news it would be briefly mentioned but nothing would ever be explained. It felt as if even the news casters were anxious about even mentioning the city.

The only other place that mentioned Gamorah were a few instagram accounts, one was theoretically run by the self proclaimed vigilantes of the city, named the Olympians. The rest were fan accounts or memorials to the superheros before them. The accounts only gave the city a bigger sense of mystery to Mark. Who were these vigilantes and what happened to the original duo?  It almost reminded him of a city in a comic book Benny read, night stalking vigilantes and all. 

By the time the buses the Crew rode around on came to a stop it was midday and sunny. However, it did not feel that way, Mark couldn’t explain what he felt when looking out the window but even seeing the sun and all the people roaming the streets going from place to place the city felt as if it was still night. The crowds of people seemed distant and cold, not lively and warm. Mark had been to plenty of cities within the last seven years he’s lived with the Crew, many of which have felt similar to each other. He thought he knew what to expect when coming to Gamorah, he was wrong. This city was nothing like New York or Chicago, sure in all three cities he knew that if he had anything on him there was a chance he would be mugged, but in New York and Chicago he still felt safe, in Gamorah he felt in danger just looking out the window. 

After making sure everyone was settled in and prepared to be in Gamorah for a while, Ms. Susie let the three teenagers, Sarah, Benny, and Mark himself, go roam around and have fun.  Instead, the trio headed straight to the library. Usually, when going into a newer place everyone knew what to expect and could go around with little issue and feel perfectly fine, but with so little information on the place the teens figured they should see if they could get more from the computers in the city. 

  When they got to the library they were greeted by an older lady who seemed pleasant enough. She welcomed them with a smile and asked if they had any questions. Benny took the opportunity to see if they had a comic section and Mark and Sarah asked about computers. In the search for more information the now duo had found that the citizens of Gamorah had as little information on the outside world as the outside world had on it. There were no news articles on any of the recent heists in the city nearby, but a bunch on the Gamorah Universities soccer team. After a bit more digging Mark decided to search for information on the heroes he saw earlier, Pompeii and Commander Freedom. 

The two heroes had apparently only been  around for around a year but were beloved by the entire city; from what he could find they were the biggest reason that Gamorah’s crime rate had dropped for  a few months before The Twin Flames, some big name crime lords, got arrested. Not long before the Twin Flames were caught both Pompeii and Commander Freedom disappeared. There was speculation that Pompeii was the daughter of the Twin Flames but with no one there to confirm or deny the claims it died down. 

After an hour or so of research Sarah and Mark were a little more confident in being able to make it through living in the city and they went to grab Benny to explore for the few hours before dark. The first thing they did after leaving the library was to get dinner. They found a small café named Robins Roast. Sarah and Mark filled Benny in on what they learnt about Gamorah and the vigilantes in the city.

“Benny, these guys are almost as crazy as those rat themed vigilantes in that comic you read! It’s insane, I genuinely think the only difference is that most of them have powers. It’s honestly shocking that the ILS(International League of  Superheroes) hasn’t interfered here.” Mark was explaining to the boy hoping that Benny would be interested. 

“Mark, I already knew about these guys. I've been following them on insta since their account was created.” When Mark heard that he was a little defeated, he had wanted to tell Benny about something new he had learnt so the two could learn more together. Sarah’s voice brought Mark out of his thoughts, she had started to explain some of the information she gathered about the recent history of the city, apparently not long after Pompeii and Commander sent the Twin Flames to jail the Jameson’s had passed away to some unnamed illness that their daughter wouldn’t explain. That daughter was now the head of their industries and worked with Matches, the crime boss that replaced the Twin Flames. 

Eventually the trio left the café to actually explore the city, they only had an hour until the sun went down and they would have to head back to the buses. Even though the sun was still out Mark was hoping to catch a glimpse of any of the Olympians. From what the instagram had posted they had a new member going by the name Artemis she seemed to use a bo staff unlike the other two heroes, Hestia and Ares who didn’t use any weapons. The few pictures they posted of her on patrol had her doing random stunts that Mark recognised from gymnastics. 

As they roamed the streets they saw empty alleys and lots of trash on the ground. They had to dodge people as they walked. Sarah had wanted to visit the Jameson Industries building and the boys couldn’t figure out an argument against it so that’s where they headed, Sarah had seemed to find Bianca Jameson to be an inspiration and wanted to see the inside of the skyscraper. Mark believed that Sarah just wanted to have a chance at meeting the 20 year old however slim it was. Benny seemed to be the only person without a person he wanted to run into. 

Eventually the trio went back to the buses all filled with energy after seeing many things that  the city had to offer. Ms. Susie and Pops asked about what they saw and learnt about. Mark spoke about the vigilantes again this time with Benny filling in what Mark missed. Sarah ranted about how cool she thought the Jameson girl was and Pops teased her about it. After a bit they had dinner with the rest of the Crew everyone with their respective “families) and talking over each other Johnny wanting every little detail out of the teenagers he can get and complaining that he couldn’t join them. Mark’s dads helped SeaBass to get Johnny to go to bed. Benny was showing Mark his favorite post on the Olympians instagram, most of which involved Hestia and Ares messing around, when Mark saw someone new standing behind the adults bus. 

She had long braids pulled back into a ponytail, a sliver mask covering her eyes, and she was wearing a navy hoodie and black cargo pants with combat boots. It took a moment but Mark recognized her from the photos as Artemis. Damn, she’s kinda pretty Mark thought before he started to walk towards her.

“Howdy! Can I help you?” Mark called to the masked girl, when she didn’t respond he repeated his welcome. “My name’s Mark, you’re Artemis right?” again she didn’t respond. If it wasn’t for the grin on her face he would have thought that she couldn’t hear him. After she stared at him for a long while she waved at him and ran off. Mark hoped he would see her again over the months.