I don't really have a fixation with superheroes nowadays. Sure, I used to buy posters and action figures when I was young. But somewhere along the way, my fascination for their status receded into a view of professionalism. They have their job and that's good I guess. One should glorify them just because they are doing their job. Nonetheless, it would be nice to get an autograph for one.
Gigabyte was a rising star in the professional crime-fighting scenario. He's slowly building a reputation around himself and his fame made him reach the top hundred of the world's top hundred heroes. He's practically considered the best here in the Eastern Seaboard. He's the face of magazines, commercials and he even made a meager tech company that made my very smartphone. In summary, he's the big guns around this place and meeting him is a huge thing for me.
His booth is crowded right at the doorstep. Everyone had a paper on one hand and ten bucks in the other. They were lining up for something and I peeked over to what's happening. Gigabyte is at the end of the table autographing while leeching off the money from his fans. And I thought him charging for autographs was just rumors. Nevertheless, I grabbed ten bucks and took a line. I don't have paper but I have something better. It's a commissioned fanart I got Jerry. I asked him to draw Gigabyte in his 2018 armor because, in my honest opinion, that was his coolest look yet. There are the sleek modern design and the hushed green metallic tinge of his armor. The visor reached from ear to ear and it was rumored to have X-ray vision and thermal tracking camera. He could literally see the past by detecting previous heat signatures in a designated spot.
Once I reached the front of the line and showed him the fanart, I sensed that his expression turned sour behind the mask. His visor looked back and forth between me and the paper.
"Is this official?" He asked with his robotic voice.
"Uhm... No. I bought it from a friend."
"Did you know you're infringing my intellectual property right now?"
I don't know anything about copyright rules or something related to the matter. So I was just silent as he laid his baggage on me.
"You used my image and I'm losing money because of this. You didn't even get the visors right. " His laugh rang through my ear like pinpricks that stabbed me from the inside. "Next!"
He threw the fanart on the floor and I picked it without looking back. People were staring at me but they never lingered long, they were too fixated at that asshole. Once I left the tent, I ripped the fanart at threw at the ground. I stomped at it, spat it and kicked it to the dirt. Don't meet your heroes, that's what they say. I guess they were right huh? Shame filled me from the inside. Shame that I believed in him as a hero. And with shame came anger...