The Street Rat 206

“I’ve been thinking,” Eddie said over the sound of sirens as he and Archer sat on a ledge high above the streets, “your bow really seems to come in handy a lot. I don’t want to steal your flow or anything, so I won’t choose a bow, but I think having a weapon would be helpful for me. Even if it’s just a big stick or something, I think that would work.”

“Whatever you say.”

“Yeah, a big stick would work well. Maybe a pole of some sort.” 

It was early May in Sanders. Their schedule, where they’d both work the weekends and each have two nights off during the week, was still working well. 

Archer still hadn’t returned to the motel, but Maria had been a bit less chilly at the mention of his name since he had saved them in March. Eddie much preferred the typical street crime they had been facing than the homicide detective work to catch Archer. 

“Yep,” Eddie said, “one partner is enough for me.”

“What?”

“Just finishing the narration monologue with a flair,” Eddie answered, hopping to his feet as the sun crept over the horizon and turned the gray sky into a slightly brighter gray sky. “Let’s call it a night tonight. Tomorrow I’ll look for a pole to use, and we can start training during the nights we work together.”

“Sounds great,” Archer answered.

“So, where does one go about finding a pole to fight with you think? Is there like a Weapons Depot? Armaments R Us?” Eddie asked as he walked to the fire escape. “Archer?”

Eddie turned to find himself alone. Halfway across the street, he saw a body attached to a wire swinging away. 

“I hate it when he does that.” Eddie shook his head as he climbed down the escape. “I wish he’d tell me where he gets all this wire to use.”

***

“Okay.” Eddie climbed over the ledge on top of the building he and Archer typically started from. Archer was already waiting for him when he arrived. “I found a stick.”

“You’re kidding,” Archer said as he looked up to see Eddie holding a wooden broomstick with the head detached. 

“What’s wrong with it?” Eddie puffed out his chest, indignant that Archer didn’t think his weapon was good enough. 

“It’s literally just a stick.” Archer jabbed at the piece of wood. 

“What part of our conversation last night made you think it wouldn’t be?” Eddie laughed as he twirled it. 

“We’ll find you a new weapon.” Archer shook his head and turned back to look out at the city. 

“Won’t matter.” Eddie walked next to him, planting the stick into the ground and leaning into it. “I won’t use it. I’m happy with my stick. More consistent branding for me as a man of the people.”

“Whatever.”

“So, how do we train?”

Archer let out a long sigh before setting down his bow. 

“Here’s a real weapon,” he said as he picked up a metal staff. “You can use that toothpick if you want, but don’t complain to me when I snap it in half using a real weapon.”

“You’ll have to hit it first.”

“You really don’t know the first thing about fighting with weapons, do you?”

“Not at all,” Eddie answered proudly. 

“Okay.” Archer rolled his eyes and settled into a stance. “Show me what you got.”

“We haven’t done any training yet.”

“I need to know what your baseline is before we start. Now—” Archer resumed his fighting stance “—show me what you’ve got.”

Eddie twirled his broomstick in his hands again as he circled Archer. Eddie waited until he got to Archer’s left side and pounced at him, swinging his stick overhand at his shoulder. Archer took a step to the side and knocked Eddie to the ground, causing the weapon to slide away. 

“I wasn’t ready,” Eddie said, hopping back to his feet and retrieving his stick. 

“You engaged me.”

“Details.” Eddie waved as he talked. “Let’s go again.”

Archer settled into his fighting stance as Eddie circled him once again, this time angling to Archer’s right. Rushing in, Eddie swiped up with the stick, only to have Archer pin it to the ground and force Eddie to run into his end of it, knocking the breath out of him as it jammed into his stomach. 

“I’m just going to lie here a bit,” Eddie moaned from the ground. “I think I might throw up.”

Archer shook his head and walked over to the ledge to wait.

“Maybe I’ll stick with using my hands,” Eddie said as he sat down next to Archer. 

“Maybe,” he said without looking away from the city below. “But it would still be good for you to know how to fight with a weapon, in case you ever need to know. We can spend some time each night working on it. If you’re still not comfortable with it after a while, we’ll stop.”

“Alright, teach, show me what to do.” Eddie hopped to his feet and jogged back to the center of the rooftop. 

Archer joined him after slowly getting up himself. 

“Okay,” he said as he settled back into a stance, “whenever you’re ready.”

Eddie and Archer continued Eddie’s weapons training through the night, and every other evening they worked together that week.

***

That schedule continued through the summer, with Eddie and Archer training between incidents on their nights working together. With Eddie practicing on his own during solo patrols and finding odd jobs throughout the neighborhood on his nights off, and Archer doing whatever kind of things Archer did when Eddie wasn’t around. 

As the summer grew hotter—the hottest on record for Sanders—Eddie tried taking his broomstick with him on patrols, but he never had any luck using it. 

“It just gets in my way,” he complained to Archer in late July.

Archer had to shoot an arrow into an escaping man’s shoulder to stop him after Eddie’s stick caught in a garbage can and tripped him up as he ran.

“That’s because you only remember to bring it every third time,” Archer responded as he walked up to the man he had shot, who was trying to stand again. Archer kicked him to the ground and ripped the arrow out of his back, eliciting a scream. 

“Here you go, ma’am,” Eddie said as he returned the purse he had taken back from the man to its owner. “Really, no problem.”

“And I’m doing my best,” he said, turning back to Archer as they walked away from the scene. “It’s just hard to get into a new habit, you know?”

“No. Just do it.”

“Okay, Nike.”

“What?”

“Never mind. I’m just saying it takes more time to build a habit. Maybe I’m better off not worrying about using the stick at all. I was doing fine without it.” He climbed up the fire escape as he talked, Archer trailing him. 

“Whatever you think is best.”

“You always have the best advice, you know that?”

“Hmm,” Archer grunted as they made their way to the top of the building.

They responded to at least ten incidents a week during the summer, but Eddie was still grateful that every single one was a one-off. No threads connecting one to another. No master plan or grand scheme was afoot. Just normal, everyday crime the Street Rat was equipped to handle. Now that Archer was on his side, there wasn’t one person terrorizing an entire community the way that Archer had last winter. 

No, Eddie smiled to himself as he and Archer leaped from roof to roof, returning to the motel to call it a night. Things were in a good place.

The Street Rat continues with episode 207.

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