Chapter Nine

It was such a nice day, I decided to walk to the tailors.

It isn't such a nice stroll as you might think, though. Deciding to forego the monorail system, I had to get to the industrial area of Steel Canyon, where the tailor had his shop, by cutting through a place called Perez Park. Believe me when I say, it wasn't a totally pleasant experience. Luckily, I had gotten rather fast on my new feet, and evaded a lot of the gangs.

Superhero in training I might be, but that doesn't mean I'm stupid.

It was actually, I'd like to note, by first day outside the hospital. With Dr Wilks finding it increasingly difficult to find reasons to keep me inside, I had been given a clean bill of health, and discharged. Whilst part of me missed lying around doing nothing, I was glad to feel the slight breeze blow fresh air on my face, to hear the laughter of children…to look at all the Superheroines in their tight clothing. Okay, so I maybe have been channelling Sammy with that last one, but there's nothing like looking at beautiful people to make you appreciate freedom, and life in general.

Upon reaching the tailors, I strode inside, and was immediately approached by a balding man, who shook my hand.
"You muzzt be Ze Fire Guardien." He intoned with a horrendously fake French accent. "I 'ave been expecting you."
"Uhm…Fire Guardian. That's right." I looked around – the tailor's was pretty crowded for some reason, and I didn't particularly want people to know what I really looked like.
The tailor seemed to sense my unease, as he followed my gaze. "Ah, do not worry yourself. Zese people, zey are all 'Eeroes too, no? Zey do not care 'oo you are."
I couldn't help myself. Really. "Ah, but ze gulls follow ze trawlers to get ze fishes, may oui? Ohh, hoo hoo hoo." I finished my fake accent in a terrible, stereotypical French laugh.
"Ah, Meester Tucker, you zink you are all zat….but you are not."

---

Choosing the correct costume for myself was a pig. I mean, it was a horrible process. For starters, I went into their 'dressing room', expecting to find a large selection of clothes, but instead, I was told to strip down, and after I had, I'd gotten probed, prodded, scanned and analysed by a large bank of sensors.
After putting my clothes back on, I exited the room, to find the tailor (I never learned his name, but mentally called him Pierre) waiting for me, a large PDA like device in front of him.
"Now, Meester Tucker, we do zis," Pierre pressed a button, and a holographic display of my naked body sprung to life in front of us.
"Zut Alors!" Pierre exclaimed, a bit too loudly for my tastes. "You were supposed to leave your underwear on!"

Various catcalls from female Heroes in the tailors punctuated this, until Pierre pressed a button, and my holographic lower half was covered up by a pair of black trousers.
"Next tahme…we do another scan, no?"
"Good idea." I blushed. "Now, what can you show me?"

---

"How's zis?" Pierre asked, for what seemed to be (and this is only a minor exaggeration on my part) the millionth time.
"No. It's all wrong."
"And what, exactly, is wrong wiz zis one?"
Where to begin?

Pierre had taken a liking to the 'fire' aspect of my name, and had loaded up a hooded robe, all bright orange, with red flames on the arms.

"It's just not…me. Plus, it doesn't seem to provide enough protection."
"All our costumes are of ze highest quality, monsier. One will protect ze same as ze other."
Now that was something I didn't get. Apparently, all the 'costumes' were, in fact, holographic representations of real clothes, that projected itself onto my body. Apparently, if I wore next to nothing, it would be the same as wearing a medieval suit of armour. The real protection came in the form of a forcefield, projected by the same unit that projected my costume, which was the same shape as the clothing that I chose to 'wear'. The only part of my costume that would, in fact, be 'real' would be my right glove, which had the fire sword's base unit sewn into it…but that, also, could be contained as part of the costume's holographs, by means of utilising what Pierre called a 'zero pocket Z-Space'….something. It was getting a bit too….technobabble ish for my liking. I got even more confused when Pierre told me that the forcefield, and thus the costume, could provide me with any shape I wanted, as long as it was more than my original dimensions. If I wanted to look taller, more muscular, even grotesquely fat, it could all be done, and nobody would know any different. Hell, I could look like a woman, if I so chose, but I decided against that.
Sammy would never leave me alone.

"Well, how about something darker? How about…." I flicked through the costume selection. "This flak jacket, in dark grey, with the same red flames?" I made an adjustment, and the chosen selection came up.
"Hmm. Not bad, Meester Tucker. You 'ave missed your calling, no?"
"No."

It wasn't bad, in fact. Not bad at all. In fact, it was getting there quite nicely. In fact, soon after I had the chest piece down, everything else fell into place.

Soon, it was joined by a red cloth mask, a dark grey helmet with a large chin guard, and yellow lab goggles. Soon afterwards came the black and red shoulder pads, and the lower part of my body would look like armour plated cyborg legs. Soon, I had nearly everything I wanted. Only one thing was missing.

"No. Absolutely not."
"Oh, come on! Why can't I wear a cape?"
"It has been…'ow you say…forbidden. Only 'Eero's 'oo 'av passed ze test can wear ze capes." I tried to muddle through the fake accent, and figured out what Pierre had said.
"Well, how do I pass the test?"
"You are not ready yet. Give it time, and when you are more powerful, you will be able to take ze test."
I sighed. Pierre was unmoving about it. He tried to change the subject.
"I understand from your contact, zat you wish to 'av an emblem put on the uniform somewhere?"
The Emblem. Of course, I had forgotten.
"Yes. It's…this one." I showed him a graphical representation of the Emblem of The Truth of The Flame.
"Ah, zis will be easy. Where would you like eet, and what colours?"
I thought about it, and what I knew about the two Heroes that had come before me. One wore it on his lapel, the other on her gloves. All very well and good, for them, when the Brotherhood wished to remain anonymous, hidden from their splinter group. However, times changed. If there was going to be a new Hero working with the Brotherhood, I wanted their icon to be in a nice, easy viewed area, a not so subtle finger up at their darker faction. Jason Tucker had survived, I wanted it to tell them, and Corruptor in particular. And now he's your worst nightmare.

"Red and yellow. Put it on the chest." I turned to Pierre. "And make it big."

When it was ready, Pierre pressed a few buttons, went behind a desk, and came out with a metallic yellow belt, with a glowing red disk in the middle. "'Ere you go, Meester Tucker…or should I say, Fire Guardien?"
"Guardian," I corrected, "And what exactly is…this?"
"Zis is your costume."
Pierre once again launched into his litany about forcefields, and Zero-Space-Pocket whatever-the-hell's. I cut him off. "So, this belt is all I have to wear?"
"Yes. Just press the red disk when you wish to put on ze costume."
I attached the belt, and hit the middle disk. With a brief flash of light, I saw…absolutely nothing. Nothing had changed. I didn't feel any different. Pierre, however, was grinning.
"Absolutely masterful. My best ever work!"
Frowning, I looked down at my arms.

They were encased in dark grey armour, and had red flames up the side. Just like I had asked for. Hovering over to a mirror (well, why not? Useless as I found it, it was my first time in costume) I took myself in, and, I had to admit, I was impressed. Touching my chest with my hands, I noticed that, yes, I couldn't actually touch my clothing underneath the 'costume', which meant that the forcefield was working fine. Also, my right glove had something sewn into it.
Squeezing my right hand into a fist, I couldn't stop myself grinning when the Fire Sword erupted.

A few heroes around me clapped enthusiastically, and one approached me.
"Nice costume, mate. What's your name?"
There was only one answer that seemed appropriate. "I'm The Fire Guardian."
"Well, Fire Guardian, tight costume." He held out his hand. "I'm Deaths Head. Maybe we can team together sometime?"
I nodded. "Sure." I cocked my head slightly. My voice didn't sound like my own. Something about the costume gave it a more metallic, distorted noise.
Deaths Head made his way into the dressing room, and I turned off the costume. Turning to Pierre, I smiled.
"Will zat be all?"
"No, I need something else."
"And what would zat be, Mr Guardien?"
"I need a tuxedo."

---

The limo approached the Mayors Mansion slowly, as I looked over to my right, at Emily. "You look good." And indeed, she did. The years apart had seen Emily, who always had a nice figure anyway, slim down and tone up some. Probably in unconscious response to seeing all the lithe Superheroines getting all the men. She wore a long blue gown that glittered with the light, and it worked well with her pale complexion, blue eyes, and black hair. "Thanks," she smiled. "So do you."

As it turns out, the costume was free. Every new hero gets their first costume for nothing – the tux, on the other hand, cost a bundle. The tailor shop I had gone to dealt exclusively in holographic clothing, which meant they had to get a tux from another tailors, (I was informed by Pierre that "Although we use ze finest forcefields, cloth is sometimes preferable, no?") and fit it to me. Unless, of course, I wanted to replace my Fire Guardian costume with a tuxedo, for one night. I had briefly considered it, but when Pierre told me it would cost a pointless amount of money to change the clothes for one event, then change back, I refused. Rich I may have been, but I took some pride in never losing my head with cash.

As the midnight blue stretch limo, complete with mini-bar, hot tub, and cable TV (All Sammy's ideas, I assure you) pulled up near the doors, another voice practically whined at me and Emily. "What about me? Don't I look hot?"
Emily and I both turned to stare at Sammy, who was wearing jeans, and a t-shirt with a bow tie printed on it.
"What?" Sammy protested.
"I can honestly say I've never seen you look more smart, Sammy." Emily nodded sagely.
"Really?" He seemed pleased. "After all, there'll be a lot of hot superheroes here. I want to look my best."
As soon as Sammy said 'Superheroes', I reached for my belt, and examined it. I don't know why I had worn it tonight…after all, nobody would be stupid enough to attack the Christmas ball, with all the big names in Superherodom in attendance. And me. The newbie. The ineffective guy who couldn't even fly properly, and whose one real 'power' involved looking at people's skeletons.
Emily took my hand, and rubbed it gently as we got out, and onto the red carpet. As soon as our feet hit the ground, we were mobbed by reporters. Paragon City Fashion Network cameras, next to CNN, BBC, Fox, MSNBC…it was certainly going to be given press
"And this is the Mayoral Aide, Emily Campbell, accompanied by…by…"
Emily smiled at me evilly. "This is Jason Tucker, the owner of The Tucker Foundation, as well as the newest Superhero on the block, going by the name Fire Guardian."
I was stunned that Emily had mentioned I was the Fire Guardian, on worldwide TV, in front of billions of people. The press, however, seemed more taken back that I had been outed as…
Oh, hell. Well, there goes the secret.
"Mr Tucker! Mr Tucker! Why are you suddenly coming forwards as January's Wordwide Lottery winner? Is it…"
"What does this…"
"How do…"
"Where…"
"When did…"
"Are you here…"

Barraged by question, I turned to Sammy. "Sammy!" I hissed. "Distraction."
"On it." Sammy nodded, having started taking to calling himself my 'sidekick', and taking his self-imposed role very seriously. He jumped in front of me and Emily, and yelled. "Wait!"
The reporters were stunned into silence, waiting to see and hear what Sammy would do. I wasn't totally surprised when he went into a intricate breakdance routine, leaving reporters staring, and allowed myself and Emily into the mansion without further incident.
Emily turned back to watch him. "What on earth is he doing?"
Without looking back, I shrugged. "The Robot."

---

The main ballroom was filled with people in elegant gowns, and sharp suits, and I guessed, by looking at all the belts that were just like mine, that the majority of the people in the room were fellow Heroes. Emily and I went straight to the bar, and got two glasses of champagne.
"Why did you do that?" I asked her. She wrinkled her forehead in confusion.
"What do you mean? That I mentioned you were the owner of the Foundation, or that I told everyone you were the Fire Guardian?"
"Both."
"Oh, Jay, don't be so naive." She chuckled. "As soon as you started fighting crime, people would want to know who you were. No secret identity is really secret, not here, and sooner or later, you would have been found out."
"But, still…"
She sighed. "If I'd have known it would bother you that much, I wouldn't have done it. I'm sorry, okay?"
I could never stay mad at her, no matter how much I tried. "Okay. Shall we dance?"
She grinned. "I thought you'd never ask. But…uh…leave the Fire Sword at the door, okay cowboy? This is just about you…and me…" And, so saying, she took me by the hand, and led me to the dance-floor.

---

It was nearly midnight. Nearly Christmas Day, and the party was showing no signs of slowing down. I glanced over to where Sammy was dancing with a redheaded Heroine, who seemed quite impressed with his 'distraction' from earlier, which I had found out had been broadcast on televisions throughout the mansion, including one or two by the bar.
It meant no end of dance interruptions for me, as Hero after Hero patted me on the back, to thank me for everything the Foundation had done to help out in Paragon, and quite a few…I realised I was starting to think of them as 'civilians', approached me, to meet the latest Hero in the city, or to tell me about how The Foundation had touched them. It was the first time I had ever been the centre of attention, and it's no exaggeration to say I was the centre of it. Men watched Emily dance, and looked at me jealously, and the women wanted to know how Emily had 'bagged' herself a multi-billionaire philanthropist, as well as a Superhero. I was really quite flattered when a few heroines gave me their phone numbers, and made the discreet decision to not tell Emily about it.

At five minutes to, the Mayor got up in front of the band, and asked them to wind down their song. When they did so, she got in front of a microphone, and spoke.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to thank you all for coming to this Christmas ball." Applause. I've never understood, and I probably never will, the need some people have to applaud themselves. It seems very…needy. A self-congratulatory gesture which stinks of ego.
"As you all know, the cost of the tickets for tonight's ball are going to a very worthwhile charity,"
Tickets? I was confused. Nobody had told me anything about tickets. I was about to whisper to Emily, when I noticed the Mayor was looking directly at me, and smiling. "Although this young man has, for a long time, wished to remain anonymous, earlier events gave us all a face, and a name, to the owner and founder of the charity in question tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome up here the creator of The Tucker Foundation, Jason Temple-Tucker!"

I turned to Emily, and noticed she had an insanely evil look of glee on her face. "You knew about this!" I accused her.
"Of course. Go up there and make a speech."
"I…don't have anything prepared."
"Big baby." Emily practically dragged me up to the stage amidst laughter from the others in attendance. I turned, and saw a man I instantly recognised as The Back Alley Brawler, laughing harder than anyone else. Nearby, even Statesman, in full costume as ever, had a slight smile on his normally saturnine face.
I approached the lectern, and the Mayor kissed me on the cheek, before whispering, "This was all Emily's idea. We all know you're the Guardian, but don't mention the Brotherhood. Please."
"Okay," I whispered back, before facing my audience.

Well over 500 Superheroes, who had faced down thugs, muggers, genetic mutations, zombies, and Rikti stared up at me expectantly.

"Uhm…hi, everyone." I began nervously. "I wish I had known about this beforehand, so I could have made other arrangements. I understand getting ambushed by fifty Trolls in The Hollows is a nice alternative to public speaking."
They roared with laughter, and I heard a voice ring out, "Too true, too true!" I tried to hide my smirk, as Sammy had never even seen a troll. Glad I had won the audience over, I continued.
"People have praised the work of The Tucker Foundation for all that it's done, and I'm truly happy that it's managed to touch so many lives in a positive way. However, what nobody should forget, is that it's you, the men and women of Paragon City, the defenders of the people, that do a lot of the work.
"It was you who stopped the Rikti threat two years ago. It was you who risked your lives to protect people, like myself. Although I had no idea I would be speaking here, I'd like to ask each of you, now, to take a moment to remember those who couldn't be here tonight. I ask you to observe a moment's silence to remember your…our…fallen comrades."

Silence fell over the hall, and, I like to imagine, the world, as everyone within earshot, whether in the hall or from TV, bowed their heads. I continued in a hoarse whisper. "We shall never forgetten all they have done for us, and all they have achieved. This world will forever be a better place, because of their legacy."

After a respectful silence, everyone looked back up at me. Although they were no longer laughing, I saw something in their eyes I hadn't before. Respect, and a sense of welcoming. Through my actions of asking for remembrance of the fallen heroes, I had shown the proper respect for their friends and allies, I felt like I was now one of them. I took note of the time, and pushed onwards.

"Tonight, you've given money to a worthy cause. I make it my pledge to you all that, as of today, Christmas day, that no more children will go hungry because they've lost their parents. No other people will have to resort to joining street gangs for shelter, or robbing people for money. Today, we take a stand together, as one people, no matter where we are, and say that we will win the war against our darker halves, and everyone will be free!"

The room erupted in cheers and applause. I smiled down at Emily, who winked up at me. I looked around for Sammy, but he had been lost in the sea of faces, and I couldn't spot him anywhere. My eyes drifted down to one lone figure in a red and blue costume, arms crossed.

Statesman met my eyes, and nodded solemnly.

Welcome, He seemed to say. You are truly a Superhero.

I was content to let the applause go on, to bask in the glow of my peers. However, when the room started to shake, the applause and cheering quickly died down. Before anybody could place the source of the shaking, we soon found it, as the ceiling opened up, and men in black armour rappelled down, weapons blazing.

Corruptor had found me.