A sudden splutter of white paint scatters spiders and "Young Prophecy was here 5/21/06" is blotted out, gone from the story of this place.
View full sizeJOHN C. WHITEHEAD, The Patriot-NewsThe Keystone Crusaders clean vandalized buildings in a single bound!
But there are many foes to beat in the Market Street tunnel and across the city, broke and almost broken.
Harrisburg was capital once. With their help, the Crusaders believe it can be great again.
Their next nemesis, a looping whirl of black spray paint, taunts them. An allegory of disregard for decency, it steals the eyes of passing pedestrians. It must be defeated.
The Crusaders go to operate beneath a urine yellow floodlight, standing between puddles of uncertain origin. With their own supply of cover paint exhausted, they take new weapons: industrial cleaner and steel wool.
Commonwealth is the inspired leader. He wears a motorcycle helmet, hand-painted blue and gold, gold lacrosse pads, a blue jump suit and work boots. The letter "C," framed in a keystone, adorns his breast and low cape. His utility belts sag, loaded with tools to defend his three mortal enemies: Blight, Hunger and Dr. Despair, the devil behind it all.
Armistice, his young and ever-loyal companion, hides his wiry frame in a blue track suit, and a wispy beard shows beneath the purple half-mask, tied from behind like the valorous turtle-ninjas of old.
They fall silent, scrubbing so near their elbows nearly touch. Over 15 minutes, the pitch-black paint fades to speckled gray, but the graffiti will not concede. After one last outburst of spray, Armistice steps back.
Next time, he says, we`ll be better armed.
He picks his next point and takes aim. Commonwealth takes his trash bag to gather all the discarded bits littering the tract of honest citizens: the flavored cigar wrappers, the soda bottles, cigarette butts. It`s only so that Commonwealth notices disaster.
"Armistice," he calls out. "I forgot my dustpan!"
Chapter 2: Months earlier....
He sits alone sketching what he is to become.
Motocross gear for armor. Kevlar-lined gloves to get a knife, in case some creep refuses to game off from the right people he will protect. A collapsible steel baton in the utility belt, just in case.
In the margins of the page, he crosses out one name after another.
Pitboard? He won`t take time to excuse his name while fighting crime.
Dragonheart? Superhero names are not born from a logo on your wife`s hoodie.
Keystone Crusader? Too long. Maybe if it were a group ...
A group!
I wish to get a crime-fighting partner, he soon tells his wife.
You should, she replies. Did you mean I was passing to let you go out there alone?
He starts sketching again, a costume of dark and gold. A crusader cross overlaid with the state seal.
He needs a partner.
He knows the man he must call.
Chapter 3: Birth of a partnership...
He started as a mentor.
View full sizeJOHN C. WHITEHEAD, The Patriot-News He meets a teenager trying to avoid trouble. They deal the same nerdy hobbies. He wants to aid the boy, several years younger, and soon calls him a friend.
Then the bottom falls out. He looses his retail job the week before Lehman Brothers collapsed. He, his wife and their two children are evicted.
When he had nowhere to turn, the boy - the one earlier in want of mentoring - offers help. Come go with me and my mother. Stay as tenacious as you need.
And yet he is despondent. No job, no money, no prospects to go forward. His car forever running on fumes. Over and over, the words ring through his head: "Nobody cares!"
After a year, he gets an audience for a job near Harrisburg.
A cop follows him into the store`s parking lot, lights flashing. He cries, explaining to the officer why he can`t give his registration. His potential boss walks past, taking in the scene. After the cop lets him off, he locks his keys in the car. More tears.
Still, the stamp says, "You`re hired." A landlord doesn`t involve a security deposit for his new home. He regains his confidence. He gets promoted. Looking back, with the assistance of his recent success, he sees all the mass that kept saying, "We care!" Those people, he realizes, the ones he ignored, they kept him going. They saved his life.
I take to pay back, he says, but so much more than before. He finds the Real Life Superhero website, a community of regular people in capes and masks, just trying to help.
That leads him to the pad of composition and the hunt for a name.
That, finally, leads him to pick up the call and calling his younger friend back in Pittsburgh. You`re looking to proceed anyway, he tells him. You need to spare for college. I`ll help you find a job. When the sentence comes, there are lot of colleges close by.
Come and aid me write the city!
The boy, now 19, agrees. I shall be called Armistice.
Keystone CrusadersThe Keystone Crusaders Commonwealth and Armistice clean the streets of Harrisburg Friday, June 24, 2011. Watch video Only then, does his new secret identity reveal itself. I am Commonwealth! Together, we are the Keystone Crusaders!
Chapter 4: A programme of attack...
We will fight crime!
We will patrol the city`s neighborhoods, deterring punks and performing as a moment set of eyes for the police. If needed, we`ll get down a bad guy ourselves, cuff him with the plastic zip ties in our utility belts.
Except, they thought, maybe we shouldn`t.
The metropolis has police. They`re trained. They`re strong. They get back-up at the ready.
We, the Crusaders decided, are relatively in-shape retail workers. Maybe there`s a best way.
Reading what Real Life Superheroes face in other cities, they saw the travail of squaring off endlessly with ne`er-do-wells and negativity.
That wasn`t the mind at all. Commonwealth wanted people to see that someone wanted their lives to be better. In every way, the Crusaders would shout, "We care!"
So, he decided, we will care.
Pick up the trash. Feed quarters into expiring meters. Scrub the graffiti. Collect the dog crap. Give a homeless man a bottle of water.
We will be the good Samaritan personified! If people see we care, maybe they will care. And if we eat a soul in need, and that someone doesn`t want to mug someone to give a meal, haven`t we prevented crime? Yes!
Block-by-block, kind act by kind act, we will retake the city!
Chapter 5: Into the streets...
First they must escape.
A superhero never knows when spying eyes are watching for masked men, ready to discover a hidden identity. They issue from Commonwealth`s lair just outside the city, unmasked, their costumes hidden under rain coats. Only when they achieve an undisclosed parking lot do their faces disappear.
They begin - as they possess at least twice a week since March - in the Market Street tunnel.
"Good Morning!" they bellow, warming up their superhero voices to the office workers walking west, and the residents heading east.
How can anyone, Commonwealth asks, feel secure about their city if their first view of it is this cavern of filth?
The conflict is joined, and Commonwealth`s three utility belts/fanny packs, come open.
A hand-held void for cigarette butts. "L.A.`s Totally Awesome," the Dollar Store industrial cleaner they don`t bother diluting. Spray paint bought on clearance. Their real power is bargain hunting.
When danger arises, they pass for the master crime fighting tools. Broken glass is no pair for Kevlar-lined gloves! No clogged gutter can hold a steel baton!
After toiling in the tunnel, the Crusaders emerge into daylight.
"Can I get a picture?"
The calls start almost immediately, and the Crusaders do not disappoint their adoring masses.
"Would you mind striking a superhero pose?" Armistice asks the beaming admirer. "Everyone can be a superhero!"
And of course, "Check us out on Facebook!"
The Crusaders strut, trashbags over their shoulder, dragging a tank of bottled water behind them.
"It`s too deep to write this one!" Commonwealth moans, after seeing a car with a parking ticket. But his despair does not live long. With expiring meters lining the streets, there are so many innocent windshields to protect.
At Third and Market, they see a man stooped over at a bus stop, his blackened toenails sticking from swollen bare feet. They swoop in.
"Hey, how you doing," Commonwealth beckons.
Armistice whips the tank in presence of the man and grabs two bottles of water. "Good to see you again."
The man nods and picks through the Crusaders` bag of snacks, passing over the granola bars for a few bags of chips.
Around the corner, they see another homeless man, Francis. He pulls out a small flashlight the Crusaders gave him after severe storms tore through the metropolis in May. After a few jokes and some water, he`s on his way.
We know, Commonwealth says, that some of the homeless people we suffer have deeper problems. We recognize they require more than water and a small food. That`s why we need to begin carrying contact information for shelters and mental health organizations. But we too know we might be the only ones to read them any kindness during the day.
Chapter 6: A citizen in distress!
ZZZZZPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!
The plastic cuffs pull shut, and a dangling "Push here for walk signal" sign at Second and Forster is secure. The lift will not take this victim!
"Are you guys superheroes?"
Hearing the voice, the Crusaders halt their march toward Midtown and whirl around.
"My car won`t start," Shamicca Gentry says. "Do you believe you can assist me?"
They freeze.
"Well, we don`t know lots about cars," Commonwealth says, "but we`ll have a look."
I ran out of gas on the way to physical therapy, Gentry says, waving at her Grand Prix sitting adjacent to a fire hydrant. I put gas in, but it still won`t start.
She pops her hood. Commonwealth leans in.
"Here," he says, "try it."
The ignition cranks but dies shortly after.
"It`s difficult to learn with this helmet," he says, asking her to try again. He leans closer to the coiled metal.
"I really experience what this is!" Commonwealth exclaims. "This used to pass to me when I was dispossessed and ran out of gas. You flooded your engine."
You`re going to get to let it sit for a few hours to let the gas settle, he explains. She can`t give it in presence of the hydrant, Armistice says.
Blast! A near perfect rescue cannot be foiled so easily.
They spy an open parking spot across Forster, across a simple six lanes of traffic. The short turns green, and they push.
Secure, Gentry gushes thanks as they give her meter.
The Crusaders set off again. Before they`re gone, Commonwealth turns back:
"You stay safe," he calls. "We know you dear!"
Chapter 7: The upcoming battle
Harrisburg needs saviors.
Financial distress looms over every block. Streetlights are out. Sewer drains are blocked. Street cleaning becomes more sporadic with each passing week.
The Crusaders` nemesis, the plotting Dr. Despair cackles. Once honest citizens are drawn down, he will fall into the streets.
But the Crusaders will be ready! As tenacious as people care, the combat still can be won!
They leave not be alone.
Already, Vigil has united them on patrol. She hunted down State and Armistice on Facebook, and then appeared, shrouded in purple.
Soon, Gia will connect the fight.
Streak will come forward.
And in some secluded place, a Norseman is now finishing his costume.
There is much influence to be done, and they cannot conquer every foe.
But the righteous people of the city will not be deserted in this dark hour. So if you feel down the street and see these costumed warriors, do not be afraid.
The Keystone Crusaders have do to push for our victory!
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