The Return of Chief Justice (Chapter I)

CHAPTER I (1)
(Late April, Present Day)



He had fooled them all!

It had taken twenty-five years, but he fooled them all.

Twenty-five years of medication and therapy and he still fooled them all.


Jonas Marrow, the man known once as the Fire Fiend, had finally convinced those over-worked psychiatrists and psychologists in the criminal justice system that he was finally cured. He had convinced them all he was no longer insane—no longer a danger to himself or to others. He was now free to take his rightful place in society along side of the other honest, law-abiding citizens. Model inmate/patient—what a laugh! Marrow was a well-behaved patient that never gave the staff any trouble. Idiots! Of course, he would behave. What else could he do in the stringent, controlled environment?

Jonas fooled everyone not because they believed him cured, but rather he was never sick in the first place. Jonas was always aware of exactly what he was doing. He knew the difference between right and wrong, but always preferred the side of wrong. After all, good and evil were merely conceptions of each individual’s mind; therefore, one person’s good and another person’s evil and Jonas’ evil was his own good. His mother always told him that it was “good” to be different.

Those stupid bleeding heart liberals on the jury had a chance to sentence him to death or even life imprisonment. Instead, the morons begged for leniency. Don’t put him in prison and throw away the key; send poor sick Jonas to a mental hospital to get help. He’s not evil!

No one else could possible understand, or even appreciate, the true nature of fire. How he loved to watch things burn. How he longed to make things burn again! He loved to set fires and his ability to not make them appear as a deliberate act of arson. It was even better when he could make it look like it was due to some other dope’s negligence.

Jonas longed to feel the rush as he could hear people in a burning building scream for help knowing that there was no why to escape the flames or any hope of being rescued in time.

There was no better way to release someone’s spirit from their body and cleanse it for all eternity.

Fire is pure! Fire is alive! Fire is life!

It was all so deadly and simple—and only Jonas could see it!


In the beginning, it was all so innocent. It all mere fun and games—until he showed up! The blasted Boy Scout wasn’t content that he ended the war in Europe and wiped out all major crime in America. Now he had to clean up petty crime and make local convention law enforcement officials look like a bunch of hapless boobs.

The hero was right. The police were stupid. The Fire Fiend could always evade them. They could never capture him. Only that stupid-hero could do it. Only the patriotic glory hound had what it took to defeat and apprehend him—time and time again!

It some ways, it was flattering. It took a super-powered being to capture a mere normal human with no super-powers of his own. Marrow only had his wits, great intelligence, and technology to combat the enemy. One would think that a non-super-powered villain with no henchmen would be the great adversary of the greatest hero that every lived, but Marrow was exactly that! Even though the hero beat him every time, he was never out. He could never be defeated for good. Time and time again, the Fire Fiend would escape to fight another day with another plan to thwart his nemesis.

It was always frustrating as well. Although the hero could never finish him off for good, Marrow could never do the same to the hero. The cursed enemy always managed to figure out Marrow’s ingenious clues and stop him before a major blow could be struck. Time and time again, Marrow would seem to have the upper hand but, in the end, the enemy always outsmarted him. Just when it seemed that he had the do-gooder on the ropes and was about to score a knockout (figuratively speaking), the hero always made a comeback and won the fight. No matter how brilliant the plan, the hero always prevailed.


Every dog has his day—and the Fire Fiend had his!

Call it luck. Call it destiny. Call it sloppiness on part of the hero. Call it that Marrow finally outsmarted the enemy. Marrow had his day!

The hero always got the better of him—until that one day—the one day that changed it all. On that one faithful day, it was all over!

However, Marrow did not want it to be over!

It took twenty-five years to get out of that damned mental hospital. There was one last goal to achieve and Marrow was going to finish this before he took his last dying breath.

Twenty-five years ago, he had humiliated and discouraged his enemy so bad, that the once great and proud hero went into hiding. He had destroyed the heart and spirit of his enemy.

It wasn’t enough!

Much like a poker player that couldn’t stop until either he broke the bank or lost all his money, Marrow wanted to destroy the physical remains of the hero—or be destroyed himself.

It was believed by many that the hero died long ago, but Marrow knew otherwise. The hero was still alive and hiding in his hole. He was like a wounded dragon that retreated to its cave only to cower inside and lick its wounds for the rest of its life—waiting for its natural lifespan to end.

Like all vermin that hide in their holes, even they must eventually come out from time to time or, at the very least, stick their heads out.

Marrow was going to force the weakened hero out of his hole. He would come out! Marrow knew his enemy well and he knew what he needed to do.


Jonas Marrow, the Fire Fiend, was going to destroy Chief Justice once and for all!