Hero (Gone 9)

The Brownstone Declaration

We, the Rockborn Gang, state the following principles:

Our goals are peace and freedom for all people, human or human-mutant.

We value human life and will always do everything in our power to avoid causing the death of any human, including human-mutants.

We believe in the rule of law and will work with any legitimate law enforcement agency committed to our goals of peace and freedom.

We will oppose any human-mutant who uses their power to dominate, control, intimidate, or kill innocent people.

We will also oppose any government or part of government that seeks to use the rock to dominate, control, intimidate, or kill innocent people.

&nbs

p; Cruz made copies and handed them around.

“You’re like our very own Thomas Jefferson,” Dekka said, smiling wearily at Cruz.

“Mmmm, shouldn’t it be ‘We will oppose any mutant who uses his or her power,’ instead of ‘their?’” Shade asked. Then, spotting Cruz’s raised eyebrow, she said, “Oh. Okay, gender neutral it is.”

They debated language back and forth, but Cruz had summarized their feelings pretty well in the document.

Cruz produced the original and laid it on the coffee table. She placed a fine-point Sharpie beside it. “Sadly we don’t have parchment or quill pens.”

Dekka turned to Francis. “Francis, you haven’t said a word.”

Francis shrugged. “I figured I’m the youngest . . .”

Dekka smiled. “How old do you think I was when the FAYZ happened? How old do you think Sam Temple was? Any of us?”

“Okay, well, yeah,” Francis said. “But what about what Simone was saying, that there aren’t enough of us. What do we do about that?”

Cruz nodded, retrieved the paper, and handwrote:

We welcome any Rockborn who agrees to live by our principles.

“Good amendment,” Malik said. “But it will be hard to control, hard to manage. What if a dozen Rockborn show up? We’re not going to know them. We’re not going to know if we can trust them.”

“We can have the NYPD at least run background checks, right? The mayor wants our help,” Shade said.

“Okay, someone sign,” Dekka said impatiently.

Shade said, “You sign first, Dekka. Just because I disagree with some of your decisions . . . Look, you’re the one person here who everyone trusts.”

“Not to stick my nose in here,” Cruz said. “But we’ll need someone to just, manage, you know? Like, nonmutant, not someone who has to fight. The six of us . . . seven, I guess now . . . we’re the front line, but someone’s got to organize stuff. We’re going to need people we can trust who won’t be on the front line.”

“People we can trust?” Shade frowned. “Trust to be calmly dealing with daily chores while everything’s going to hell?”

Dekka said, “As it happens, I decided that last night, and I have an idea.”

With that cryptic remark, Dekka took the pen, held the document flat, and in a bold hand wrote Dekka Talent and the date.

One by one, they signed. Shade Darby. Cruz. Malik Tenerife. Aristotle Adamo and in parentheses Armo. Francis Specter. Simone Markovic.

Dekka handed the signed declaration back to Cruz. “There you go, Ms. Jefferson. Time to put it up online and show it to the world.”

Two minutes later what was to be known as the Brownstone Declaration hit Facebook.