Episode VI

Dr. Pettigrew sat in his office scanning the local newspaper. He was expecting his new teaching assistant in about ten minutes. The newspaper headlines were bleak, as always. Gang wars, drive-by shootings, rampant burglary and vandalism. The university campus, like his own house, was in a nicer part of town which escaped most of the criminal activity, and it was safer too because the campus security guards were more dependable than the police. Still, the mayor was doing a deplorable job of managing the city. They need someone with intelligence in the position, he thought. Someone with a backbone who is willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. An article suddenly caught his eye: A group of concerned citizens were circulating a petition to oust the mayor and hold a recall election. Most likely, they would collect enough signatures. Interesting.

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on his office door. "Come in," he called out. The door opened to reveal Dennis Brown.

"You said to be here at two, sir."

"Yes, you're right on time. You'll need to fill out these papers and take them to the Student Employment office. I've already filled out my part."

"Thank you," Dennis said, putting the papers into his backpack. "So, what will I be doing in this job?"

"What I need the most right now is help with my two World History sections. The students take two quizzes each week. One is in-class using scantrons, and the other is online. You will run the scantrons through the machine that reads the scores and record them in two electronic gradebooks, one for each section of the class. You also need to transfer the scores from the online quizzes from the class website -- I'll give you a password -- into the same gradebooks."

"You mean the electronic scores aren't transferred automatically?"

"No, they are not. I've talked to the computer tech people but they can't seem to do anything about it."

"Well, I could do the coding to make that happen. It wouldn't be that hard; I'd just have to..."

"All right, fine. Don't tell me the details, just make it work. I also want various statistics on each set of scores. Mean, median, mode, range, percentile distribution and letter grade distribution. That means you'll have to do math."

"That's not a problem, sir. I can even write a program to do all that automatically as well."

"Good. You can pick up the scantrons from me every Friday. The first batch are in these envelopes. The reader is in room C-513, for which my secretary will give you a key. There's a computer in there also. Here is the URL for the class website and the administrative password. Since you know so much about computers, you should be able to figure out how everything works." He wrote the information down on a piece of notepaper and handed it to Dennis, along with the envelopes. "Return the scantrons to me when you are finished with them. Unless you have questions, you may go now."

"No, no questions. Thank you, sir." Dennis managed to make it out of the office and down the hall into the bathroom before bursting into tears.

Episode IV

Dennis sat in a small diner with his girlfriend, Carry, eating a French dip and discussing the high crime rate in Mammoth city.

“The reason the politicians in the city won’t do anything is because the gangs basically own them! The police are crooks and all of the citizens are too scared to do anything to change it! What we need is someone who’s not afraid to effect change in the city, someone who won’t be bullied or bought off!”

“Some one like you?” Dennis teased.

“Yes! We need someone who cares about the city, someone whose values are strong, who’s not afraid to stand up for what they believe in!” Carry cried before taking a sip of her coffee.

Dennis became serious. “You’re right. The city needs officials who aren’t as corrupt as the criminals.”

“Maybe you should go into politics.” Carry grinned. “You care about the city, and want to help. Plus you’d look cute up at city hall.”

Dennis chuckled. “I don’t look good in suits.” He sobered. “I couldn’t go into politics; I’m just not politician material. I have a feeling I can do something-- I just don’t know what yet.”

Carry finished her coffee and stood. “Well, I have to go, but call me if you figure it out before I see you next, okay?”

“Okay, I’ll see you later.”

Dennis sat in the diner a while longer, thinking over their conversation. If I could just find a way to help. He thought. He chuckled to himself. What this city needs is a hero. He paid the waitress and gave her a tip, shrugged into his jacket and started off for his two o’clock appointment with Professor Pettigrew.

* * *

He made his way across campus to his job as Professor Pettigrew’s assistant. He thought about everything that had happened in the past few days: his desire to effect change in the society, his new job with the professor, the strange way he seemed to become so emotional whenever the professor was around, and a strange run-in he’d had with a history major that morning.

He had been making his way to meet Carry for breakfast, when he ran head-on into another student, who had been contemplating the ground with a vengeance. “I’m so sorry!” Said Dennis as he helped her up off the ground. He recognized the girl as Marcia Silverberg, a very pretty history major whom he’d seen once or twice.

“Hey, watch where you’re going!” Marcia said.

“I’m very sorry. Can I help you get to where you’re going?”

“No you may not! I might get killed if you helped me. Just stay away from me.” She turned and walked away after giving him a sour look.

Dennis couldn’t understand why Marcia was so cold to him. Maybe she’s just having a bad day, he thought, although he doubted it.

Episode III

Marcia Silverberg stared out her dorm room window. Yet another afternoon doing homework. This isn't how I thought college would be, she thought to herself.

Granted, she knew there would be lots of work. But she just knew that something exciting would happen to her once she hit a four year university. She'd even saved up the money to live in the dorm so she could be closer to the action instead of stuck 5 miles away at home.

But instead of the exciting, world changing stuff she thought would happen, she just spent day after day working on homework. If something doesn't happen soon, I may just quit and go to work. Might as well. I'm just wasting my time around this joint.

Sighing, she turned back to her book and starting reading again about the US Civil War.

Episode II

Dr. Gerald Pettigrew stood in the doorway of classroom C-504, holding review sheets out for the students exiting his American Government course. Normally the doctor wouldn't have been passing out papers himself, but his assistants had recently both quit. One of the girls had dropped out of school so that she would have enough time to raise her first son. The other assistant however, Sharona, had become so emotional and weepy that her counselor suggested she transfer to the Film department. Finally, Peter Williamson, the doctoral candidate that normally assisted with lectures had come down with the flu and had had to cancel his last few teaching commitments.

Once the last student left the classroom Pettigrew grabbed his attache case and slammed the door behind him. Because he had let one of the students talk him into giving them a test review he was late for an appointment to interview a possible replacement for his assistants.

The young man standing outside his office was clearly the one who had applied for the position, and Pettigrew was curious to determine why. Combing his errant brown hair back with his fingers the student called out to the tardy professor, "Dr. Pettigrew I presume?" Grunting an affirmative answer the professor unlocked his office door and motioned the young man inside.

"Now Mr. Brown, you are a computer science major. I'm curious to know why you've applied to be an assistant to a political science professor."

"Well sir, I've always wanted to make a difference and I think that politics might be the way to do that. I am studying computer science, and I want to work with computers, so I'm not thinking about switching my major. But a couple weeks ago I was talking with my girlfriend and she was complaining about gun violence, about how rampant it was and wondering why politicians didn't do more about it. I realized then that politics was where the real action was. While I will never be a politician I thought that perhaps I could help them out with my leet, I'm sorry sir, with my excellent computer skills. And there is this gang problem in the city, perhaps if I make some political connections I can do something to help solve the situation."

"Hmm...so I assume you'll have no problem running computerized tests and managing an electronic gradebook?"

"Oh, no sir, I've done both as projects in the past."

"Very well. Are you available this Friday at two?"

"Yes. Does this mean I get the job?"

"Indeed. I'll have the paperwork ready for you on Friday when you show up."

"Thank you sir, thank you!" After earnestly shaking the professor's hand the young student popped up from his chair and strode out of the office. Curiously he burst into tears as he entered the hallway, but in his excitement he attributed it to his relief at obtaining the position, his first real job.

Episode I

It was a cool spring Monday morning in Mammoth City. The sun struggled to shine on the massive skyscrapers and the people rushing to work, but only managed to pierce the thick cloud of pollution in a feeble sort of way. Business executives drove to their office buildings, children rode yellow buses to school, police officers sat down to their morning coffee and doughnuts, while gang members made sure their illegal weapons were in order before beginning the day's illegal activities.

At Mammoth State University, students with eight o'clock classes rose blearily from bed, dragging their way to the classrooms where they could sleep in the nice comfortable desks. A small minority of the students, known as geeks, had obtained sufficient amounts of sleep the previous night and were alert enough to take notes.

One particular geek was named Dennis Brown. He was an average MSU freshman, a computer science major with sixteen units of mostly gen ed classes. As he sat in his eight o'clock English Composition class, automatically transcribing the professor's lecture, his mind wandered to the meeting he had attended the previous Saturday. It was a gathering of peaceful-minded citizens who wanted to make organized effort to clean up the ubiquitous graffiti in their corner of the city. The meeting had been broken up by a group of gang members throwing rocks, who scattered when the police arrived. Only one of them was arrested, and as a minor he would likely be released unpunished. The graffiti was a way that the gangs marked their territory, and they didn't appreciate interference.

If only I could do something to really make a difference, Dennis thought. But what can I do? I'm just a college student. Even the police can't stop these gangs. Then he realized that his English professor was asking him a question, and postponed these dreary thoughts for another time.

The story begins soon

The story has already been going for a while elsewhere, but we're going to start posting it here soon. Look for our first segment later today (we hope).

~Black Wolff

PS It looks like it will be a bit longer before segments are posted--there may be some more editing to be done. But we'll be working on it and hope to start posting soon. :-)

Who are we?

Come here to read the continuing adventures of Superheroes and Villians. You'll be amazed and awed each week as you read another thrilling installment.

~Black Wolff