Millennium Man #5:
"Millennium Man's Pal, Jim Finnegan"
by Jacob Milnestein

Jonathan Manly lit a joint and dropped the last of his older brother's belongings into a shapeless, brown cardboard box.

Morning light filtered through the blinds, slicing through the growing clouds of smoke and illuminating Jonathan's tired face.

Stretching his arms, he just about managed to suppress a yawn.

It had been Julia's idea to send him out to finish packing and moving the last of Michael's stuff.

She'd got it into her head that his older brother might have some stupid diary laying around, like the one Bruce Todd had, that they could then sell to publishers. Jonathan had sighed, reminded her that Michael wasn't dead like Bruce and stated that anyway, even if they did find a diary he still couldn't sell it to publishers as Michael was his own brother.

Julia had reminded who much money they would make. Jonathan had got dressed and drove over to Michael's old apartment in order to commence looking for the diary.

He sighed again and kicked the box with the back of his foot.

As he had originally predicted, his boring elder brother had kept no such journal.

Sighing for the third time that day, Jonathan Manly breathed deep from the end of his joint and closed his eyes.

The world drifted quietly away and for a long time there was nothing but utter tranquility.then camethe sound at the edge of his hearing.

At first he had imagined it was a cat, locked in someone's bedroom and clawing to get out yet as the noise grew louder and louder Jonathan realised that cats seldom tapped in a polite, yet fashionably impatient manner.

He blinked his eyes open and trailed slowly to the door, imagining that if the person on the other side would ignore the fact that there was a joint smouldering between his fingers then it would only be fair for him not to remind whoever it was that he, or she, wasn't a cat.

With languid, protesting hands he clutched the door handle and opened the door.

Standing there in the space where the cat should have been was Millennium Man.

Jonathan looked him up and down. He was shorter than on the news and a lot skinnier too. The costume seemed to hang off a malnourished frame. His black hair was receding at the top and he stunk of piss, like the tramps that slept on the benches in the park.

Jonathan Manly wrinkled his nose slightly.

"Dude." He announced, for lack of anything better to say.

Millennium Man looked about, nervously.

"I'm looking for Michael Manly," He said clearly. "Is he here?"

Jonathan stared blankly.

"Michael...Manly." Millennium Man repeated, loud and clearly.

"He doesn't live here, dude. Moved out. Gambling debts. The mafia are after him." Jonathan sniggered at his own joke.

"I don't have time for this." Millennium Man snapped in an angry fashion. "Is Michael Manly here or not?"

Jonathan giggled again and looked at the strange, sickly countenance of the Pacific City protector.

"Dude, who are you?"

Millennium Man looked offended.

"I'm Millennium Man of course." The 'superhero' announced and puffed out his chest, only to deflate a moment or two later.

"Dude, you are not." Jonathan smirked.

"Am too."

"Am not."

"Am too."

"Am not."

Millennium Man leant in closer and grabbed him by the tatty remnants of his burnt Sonic Youth T-shirt.

"Is Michael Manly here or not?" He shouted, visibly agitated.

Jonathan shook his head, still smiling.

"He's gone far, far away, my friend. He's gone to seek his fortunes, to find a better life."

Millennium Man pushed him away, disgusted.

Jonathan staggered a few steps and then stopped, surprised at how pathetic Millennium Man was.

"You suck." He said suddenly and inhaled once more.

"Do not."

"Do too."

"Do not."

"Do too!"

With a sudden flurry of action, Millennium Man reached round the back of his costume and pulled out a sleek, black handgun, his shaking hands releasing the safety and waving it in Jonathan's direction.

Before the younger man could react the trigger had been pulled.

A resounding bang filled the apartment building and Jonathan Manly's right shin shattered as the bullet passed through his leg.

The young man screamed, joint falling from his hand and burning a halo into the carpet as its owner collapsed.

Millennium Man looked panicked. Quickly he tucked the gun back into his belt, turned and sprinteddown the hall.

Behind him he could hear doors being opened, curious neighbours coming out into the hallway tofind out what happened.

It didn't matter.

He was Millennium Man, he was above the law, none of that mattered.

Panting, he reached the stairs and ran down them, hoping not to meet any security guards on the way up.

Michael Manly winced, his face contorted in a scowl of displeasure.

The woman 'doctor' didn't seem to notice his apparent discomfort, instead she continued to move her delicate, well manicured hands around the torn flesh of his shoulder.

He tried not to watch her as she worked. In all honesty, Michael severely doubted the woman's qualifications as any sort of doctor aside from those who appeared in top-shelf videos. She looked at odds with her title, her long hair the colour of absolute nothingness and her pale, heavily made up face.

With every move she made, her jewellery swayed and jangled and Michael Manly winced once more.

"Excuse me, erm, Doctor Cadduceus." Manly began.

"Lilith." She answered, brushing her hair from her eyes with her free hand. "Doctor Cadduceus is my father."

She had pretty eyes, he reflected. Perhaps it was the stunning array of black clothing but she almost reminded him of Jonathan's girlfriend.

The Bad Thing surfaced again and Manly inconspicuously crossed his legs.

Just across the dimly lit small room, the Winters stood quietly waiting for the young doctor to finish her work

"Well, what I meant to say was, when will you begin the operation?" Manly finally asked.

"Almost done." Lilith Cadduceus said, her attention elsewhere.

"Hmm?" Manly questioned, frowning once more.

Breathing out, Lilith stepped back and placed her hands on her hips.

"Try it now." She said, her voice stern.

Manly looked down at his broken shoulder bone and discovered, much to his surprise, that, patches of dried blood and the odd bruise aside, Lilith Cadduceus had managed to repair the damage ShadowWraith had done to him without him even noticing.

"Wow." He said quietly before looking up at her. "Wow.I don't know what to say. How did.?"

She smiled knowingly.

"Not all superpowers are like X-ray vision or having the strength of ten tigers." She smiled again, softly this time, a gentleness that looked out of place on her somewhat severe features.

A sudden look of concern crossed his face.

"You won't tell anyone will you?" He asked suddenly.

"I don't know enough to tell." She answered solemnly. "I know that Millennium Man showed up here a few hours ago in some rather bad company boasting enough wounds to warrant a good stay in hospital. How your 'friends' knew where I was or what actually happened to you is none of my business."

In the background he heard Charlie Winters mutter something. If Lilith heard then her expression did not betray her.

"You mean you don't know who I am?" Manly asked, looking down at the domino mask resting besides him.

She shrugged.

"I don't care who you are. If I sat down and thought about I'm sure I could work it out but as it stands your secret identity is not something that really matters to me. I met Henry Burke once and loathed him. I can live without Millennium Man."

Manly's cheeks flushed red. He wasn't sure to be embarrassed or offended.

Slowly he rose from the edge of the bed upon which he had been perched and began to swing his arm back and forth in an experimental manner.

"What was he like? Henry Burke, I mean."

Lilith shrugged.

"Arrogant, selfish, immature. You name it. I didn't talk to him for very long, not sure I could stomached it. My father always painted him as such an upstanding man, to me he came across like a lecherous old man who should have quit the superhero business a long ago. Still, rumour has it your 'friends' over there took care of that."

"That's right." Winters called out, lighting a cigarette. "Blame us, why don't you? Don't forget that if we hadn't buried a viral hatchet in the back of old Burke's head then we'd all be living under Imperial Magistrate rule, most likely."

Lilith shrugged again, still keeping her back to them.

"Or perhaps Burke would have appointed Bruce Todd the new Millennium Man, the Bowler would have killed him and gone on his way and the Imperial Magistrate wouldn't have tried to invade. Does Burke's daughter know what you did?"

Silence drifted through the room.

"Yeah, she knows.I'm just not sure if she knows we're still here."

Lilith smiled cruelly.

"She won't forgive you. If she finds out she'll try and take you out. I'm surprised you've lasted this long, you know how powerful she is now."

An uncomfortable silence settled over the small room.

"Why should probably get going." Manly said suddenly, still moving his arm experimentally.

Lilith nodded but said nothing.

"Thank you for fixing my arm." He said.

"Its no problem." She answered. "Just don't make a habit of it."

Manly nodded and without another word, filed quietly out of the room after Charlie and Shirley.

Regina Darling shrugged into a baggy, cotton jumper and pulled her jeans up, doing her best to avoid looking in the mirror and reflecting on the events of last night.

Trevor was at work, which was a unique occurrence in itself, and she was thankful for the time alone.

The strange voice on the end of the phoneline still haunted her, its erratic, high pitched giggle still drifting in and out of her thoughts.

Quietly she recalled the events that had taken place last night and the severe beating Millennium Man had received at the hands of the thing that had once been ShadowWraith. Silently she suppressed a shiver. It was disconcerting to know that even Millennium Man had been unable to put the beast down.

If ever it returned.well, she didn't really want to think about that.

Millennium Man was a hero, not just to her but to the whole city. Seeing him wounded so easily had forced them to re-evaluate the blind faith they had in him.

Sighing, she eventually faced up to the tired reflection in the mirror and began to run a brush through her delicate, blonde hair.

It wasn't just Millennium Man that troubled her but rather the complicated mess her personal life had become. She was arguing more and more with Trevor and what had began as a casual relationship was going a lot more emotionally fraught than she had originally intended.

She hated herself for that. She'd never been very good at telling them to leave.

Another sigh escaped her lips.

It was days like this that she missed her old life, before the television and Not Tonight, Darling. Days like this when she actually missed Denise Delgado and Victoria Burke.

She smiled weakly.

Now there was an absurd thought.

A sudden buzz on the intercom awoke her from her thoughts and, unthinkingly, she crossed into the front room and picked up the receiver.

"Hello?" She asked, hesitantly.

"Its Millennium Man," The voice on the other end answered. "We need to talk."

Surprise played across her face.

Millennium Man? Here? And he had come to talk to her?

"M-Millennium Man?" She asked, uncertainly.

"That's right." The voice replied.

He didn't sound too much like Millennium Man.

"What do you want?" She asked, suspiciously.

"Open the door and I'll show you."

Sudden realisation dawned and she recognised the voice as Trevor's.

Sighing, she replaced the receiver and pressed the door release.

If this was a joke she wasn't laughing.

Impatiently she opened her apartment door and waited, listening to the soft rise of the lift and the eventual sound that signalled its arrival.

The metal lift doors parted and a thin, ill looking man in a Millennium Man costume emerged.

Panic flooded her mind as swiftly he moved towards her door and pushed inside. In a moment there was a gun in his hands.

"What do you want?" She whispered, her face suddenly pale.

"Come with me." He announced.

She stared blankly at the cold metal and the contrasting costume.

With a single move, he slammed the butt of the gun against her head.

"I said, come with me, bitch!" He screamed.

Her head reeled and she all but collapsed.

In a moment, shaking hands had wrapped themselves around her arms and she was being dragged from her apartment.

She tried to resist but found his grip surprisingly unyielding.

Within moments he had forced her inside the lift and they were travelling down to the ground floor.

Michael Manly watched the strange animated girls on television, concentrating hard on trying to keep up with the events of the story.

Sitting beside him Charlie Winters sat in a similar state of rapture, a cigarette hanging from the corner of his lips and his recently shorn hair topping the expression of utter engrossment upon his brow.

Winters had insisted on getting a haircut shortly after they had visited Lilith, complaining that the long hair was making him 'look like a poof' and he'd only grown it thus far due to a combination of apathy and Shirley's constant mewling over early glam rock record covers.

"Its quite hard to keep up with." Michael said, not taking his eyes from the screen. "Who's that again?"

"That's Sailor Venus." Charlie responded. "You can tell because she wears orange. Sailor Mercury wears blue, Sailor Mars wears red and Sailor Jupiter wears green."

"Oh." Manly answered then frowned. "So what about Sailor Moon, what colour does she wear?"

"Well she sort of wears blue an' all." Charlie continued. "But you'll recognise her because she has those funny bits in 'er hair. Quite cute really."

"Oh." Manly repeated.

A sudden movement and the television flickered and faded to black.

Both men looked up to see the scowling form of Shirley Winters, her arms crossed over her chest and a disgruntled expression apparent upon her features.

"This stops now." She announced, anger seething quietly beneath the words she spoke.

"What's up, love?" Charlie asked with a smile.

"I'm pissed off with you two sitting around doing bloody nothing all day, that's what up." Shirely shouted.

Both men flinched visibly.

"Michael, its time for you to get your own place. We said we'd put you up till you get this ShadowWraith rubbish out of the way and we did. I'm not bloody paying for this hotel room for the two of you to sit around watching bloody Sailor bloody Moon all bloody day. You're both grown men, for Christ's sake."

Manly turned red for the second time that day.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Winters, I didn't mean to impose." He began.

"Oh, shut up. That stupid bloody public schoolboy attitude of yours really gets on my nerves. Get a job!"

And with that she stormed from the room.

The two men exchanged glances, shrugged and then Winters turned the television back on.

Instead of cartoon schoolgirls they were greeted with the image of a serious faced reporter, a microphone with a KGPC logo clutched close to his chest.

"You used to work for them, didn't you?" Charlie beamed.

Manly groaned silently.

Behind the KGPC reporter was a large building, located by the looks of it on 11th and Carnival street, roughly 10 blocks or so from Mega-Hits Records.

Manly sighed as he recalled the raid he had thwarted there earlier in the year. Things had been so much easier then.

Leaning forwards, Winters turned the volume up so he could hear what the reporter was saying.

'...it would seem that the man in question is one Jim Finnegan, a former employee of this station.'

Manly's jaw dropped wide open.

"Jim..." He whispered.

He hadn't seem Jim in ages, not since the Bowler had appeared and he had been unable to work.

'Mister Finnegan, a former cameraman on KGPC's The Manly Side, presented, as I'm sure you'll remember by Michael Manly is apparently holding several hostages in the building's lobby. Amongst them is acclaimed presenter, Regina Darling of PCN's own hit chatshow. In a telephone call to police earlier today Mister Finnegan announced that he held Regina Darling responsible, along with Victoria Burke and Manly himself, for the loss of his job and would have his revenge on those who had betrayedhis trust.

'It is thought that Mister Finnegan's original plan had been to take just Miss Darling hostage but was spotted by security guards as he tried to exit the building. Rumours that Jim Finnegan is currently dressed as current superhero, Millennium Man can not at this time be confirmed.'

"Jesus." Winters whispered.

Manly leapt to his feet, snatching his torn costume from the chair beside him. Dried blood and the signs of ShadowWraith's vicious assault still adorned the costume but he had no time to worry about that.

Charlie Winters stood up also, genuine concern suddenly apparent on his face.

"I'll come with you."

Manly shook his head.

"Victoria will be there. Lilith was right, you and Shirley have got keep a low profile." Quickly he dropped his trousers and pulled the costume on over his boxer shorts and the T-shirt he had borrowed from Winters. "I'll be back soon." He announced and quickly strolled to the window, pulled it open and leapt outside.

Millennium Man nervously pointed the gun at the line of people, eyes flickering behind the domino mask to the gathering police cars outside the expensive apartment building's glass doors.

His face was a portrait of panic, mind desperately racing to recall all the kind of things that people said in films during similiar situations.

"Nobody move." He mumbled. "Nobody move and I won't kill you."

A fat secuirty guard sobbed heavily into the sleeves of his jumper, hoping no one would notice.

Regina Darling watched him with cold, calculating eyes, dried blood and the faintest lavender bruise decorating the side of her head.

"What?" He screamed, waving the gun in the air. "Why are you looking at me?"

The assembled hostages flinched in terror.

"You're pathetic." Regina said, her voice low and dangerous.

Millennium Man froze, panic and fear giving way to the hatred and anguish he had known so well since she had forced him out a job.

"Look at you." She continued. "You look like a state. You don't even look like Millennium Man."

He lashed out with the gun once more, knocking her to the floor with a thud. To her credit, she did not cry out but simply lifted herself slowly back up to the kneeling position he had forced them to maintain.

"Don't make him angry." An elderly woman to her right whispered, clutching her pet poodle close to her bosom.

She looked around.

All these people, she recognised every one of them.

"Why are you doing this?" She asked, turning to look at the man in the Millennium Man costume once more.

He giggled and the hard truth dawned.

"Why am I doing this?" He asked in a mocking voice. "You want to know why I'm doing this?"

It had been him, this crazed maniac that had tipped her off about ShadowWraith.

"I'll tell you why I'm doing this." He turned, though not enough that he couldn't see them all from the corners of his eyes. "I'm doing this because no one cares about me. You're all so self-obsessed, so orientated around your own wants and desires. None of you cared about me, about what I wanted. Not you, not Burke, not Manly, not even Millennium Man. You all treated me like a retard, all of you are in it together."

"In what together?" She continued to push the subject.

"IT!" He screamed out. "You're all in it! All of you! You're out to get me! I know it. I could have the perfect job if you hadn't screwed it up for me!"

"You need help." She whispered.

A hideous smile crossed his face.

"Far from it." He whispered in reply, aiming the gun at her head. "I think you'll find, Miss Darling, that's you who is in need of help."

Manly's feet touched the ground, gravel beneath his large boots. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Victoria Burke surrounded by a flurry of reporters and assistants.

He moved swiftly away from the spreading circle of people and ducked past the line of police cars and into the thick of the assembled police officers.

"Millennium Man, thank God you're here." A thick Irish accent suddenly announced.

He turned, cringing slightly and looked over at the portly figure of Police Commisioner Jordan, his vibrant red moustache ever present beneath his equally red nose.

"Commisioner." Manly nodded uncomfortably.

"We were praying you'd turn up and not one of them other, what do you call them? Scientific zeros?"

"Science heroes." Manly corrected him, trying to look resolute.

Jordan waved the answer away.

"No matter. What counts is that you're here now."

Manly nodded.

"The television said..."

"Do superheroes watch the telly then?" Jordan exclaimed with a sense of awe.

Manly looked uncomfortable again.

"Well, yeah."

"I'd never have guessed that. Didn't think you boys had time for that kind of thing."

The uncomfortable silence settled between them.

"Anyway, on TV, it said that Jim Finnegan was in there.is that true?"

The somewhat overweight Irishman pointed to the figure beyond the glass doors of Regina's apartment building.

Manly scowled.

It was Finnegan alright and he was dressed as Millennium Man. At his feet were a dozen hostages, one of which he could just make out as Regina Darling. The anger boiled within him and he couldn't explain why.

"You idiot, Jim." He whispered quietly to himself.

"Know him do you?" Jordan interupted his thoughts.

"He was a friend of Michael Manly's." Manly said without really thinking. "I don't think they've seen each other in a while."

"Oh. Well we were going to shoot him down, got snipers across the street and on the rooftops and everything but we figured one of you lot might want take an interest what with this being Regina Darling."

"What's so special about Regina Darling?" He asked through gritted teeth.

"Pretty young thing." Jordan smiled. "Probably the most important person in our city too. Even the mayor watches Not Tonight Darling."

Manly nodded but said nothing.

"Give me five minutes, let me try and convince him to let the hostages go in exchange for me."

Without waiting for an answer Michael Manly began to walk towards the large glass doors. Behind him he heard Police Commisioner Jordan raise his megaphone to his lips and announce the situation.

Millennium Man watched intently as the automatic glass doors slid open.

The other stood there, cropped blonde hair and a costume almost identical to his own.

"Jim..." He announced, his voice awkward, words uncertain. "Let them go, its me you want."

A smile flickered across his tired face.

"No, its not just you." He beamed. "But its you I'll start with. Burke, Manly, Darling, they'll wait."

The other stood there waiting. Nothing happened.

Finally he waved the gun at the whimpering hostages at his feet.

"Go on, get out of my sight."

One by one, with more than a little hesistance they rose and began to get edge away to the door, running once they reached the imagined safety of the other and spilling out onto the street.

Regina Darling paused, her face bruised and bloodied.

In one sudden motion she flung her arms around his neck and met his lips.

The anger rose in Millennium Man's stomach, all the hate and rage that had befriended him now finally finding targets.

His gun swung up and he pulled the trigger.

The world slowed down. He watched the bullet speed towards the back of Darling's head, watched as the young woman was tore from its path and as the other took hold of it in one hand and crunched it to dust.

Something flashed in the other's eyes and suddenly Millennium Man felt terribly afraid.

The faces of those that humiliated him swam up once more.

The Bowler, Majestic Man, the Imperial Magistrate, ShadowWraith even, all of them snarling and laughing at him.

Vaguely aware of Regina's sobbing form at his side, Manly darted forwards, a wave of unpridictable emotion shimmering before him.

Jim Finnegan screamed out as he took hold of his hand and crushed every bone in it. The gun tumbled lifelessly to the floor.

Emotion and colour contorted before him as he lashed out, his fist shattering several of Finnegan's ribs and knocking him down against the cold, marble floor of the building.

"What the hell were you thinking?" He screamed. "What the hell did you do to her?"

Finnegan's eyes flickered, blood running from his nose.

"Oh...it is you, Michael.and I thought you were gay." He smiled.

Manly hauled his former workmate's body up and slammed him into the wall.

"I never pictured you for the superhero type, Mikey." He whispered.

"Shut up." Manly snarled, bringing his fist down once more.

Finnegan's mouth exploded in tooth shaped shrapnel and thick blood.

"...thought you were too self-obsessed to care much about saving the world."

"Shut up."

Another blow and his several more of Finnegan's ribs collapsed.

"...but.it.looks.like.I.was.wrong." Finnegan panted between breaths. ".now...I...know...why...you...always...looked...down...on...me."

"Shut up!" Manly screamed and launched himself into the air, dragging Finnegan with him.

At the back of his mind he became aware of the fact that Finnegan had thrown up on him but the thought was soon swamped by the anger and fury that crippled all rational thinking.

Holding the crippled man up with hand, he lashed out again and again, shattering bone and causing major damage to his internal organs.

"You were supposed to be my friend, Jim, I was supposed to trust you! But no, you couldn't cope with that, Jesus, what's wrong with you? What's going on in that screwed up little head of yours that makes you want to act like this? What you think I've had it too easy, is that it?"

A final blow shattered Finnegan's face.

As he shook the limp body of his friend, Michael Manly suddenly became away that his fist was imbedded in Finnegan's brain.

Shock set in and he dropped the body. It spiralled, flailing like it was still alive before erupting in a crimson smear against the floor.

He landed at the edge of the crushed body.

Suddenly it dawned on him that in his rage he had used the full force of his strength.

"Oh Jesus." He whispered. "Oh Jesus, what have I done?"

Desperately he clawed at his own face. The tears ran between the cracks in his fingers, falling silently against Jim Finnegan's tattered Millennium Man costume beneath.

In the distance, he was vaguely aware of Regina Darling's stiffled sobs...