Chapter Ten

The room exploded into action. Heroes all over were getting the civilians to safety. I watched with slight fear as one of the Heroes shepherded the Mayor and Emily to safety, Emily looking at me with concern in her eyes. Looking around for Sammy, I could still see no trace of him, but I hoped he was safe, where-ever he was.

The other heroes had instinctively formed a protecting cordon around me. Somehow, without knowing who these attackers were, they knew I was the one in danger, and I appreciated their action.

As Corruptor and his cronies landed on the ground, he turned to face me and the other Heroes. "You will all remove yourself from this room," his grating voice echoed in the stillness. "My concern is with Tucker, not with any of you."
The heroes didn't reply, at least, not in words. However, nearly to a man, they all struck the centre of their belts, and were enveloped in their costumes. Feeling a hand on my shoulder, I turned, and saw The Back Alley Brawler grin down at me.
"It's time you busted out your own costume now, Hero."
"Are you sure?" I stammered, my enthusiasm for being a part of this group just moments ago, completely forgotten.
He winked down at me. "If you have a battle cry, use it now. It'll help strike fear into their hearts."
I shrugged, and said the only thing that came to mind.

"Fiendish Foes of Freedom Fear The Fearsome Firepower Of The Fearless Fire Guardian!" I exclaimed, hitting the belt's centre button.

Brawler shook his head at me. "Kids today, and their alliteration. It was okay, kid, but you need to make it shorter."

"Oh?" I shrugged. "What did you have in mind?"

"How about we fight now, and talk about it later?"

I pondered his words. "It's kind of a lame battle cry."

"No, I mean, how about we work out your lines later, and right now we take these guys down?"

I smiled sheepishly. "Oh. Right. Gotcha."

The heroes cleared aside so I could step forward, and, as The Fire Guardian, I pointed at Corruptor. "It's time you paid for murdering Infern, and Frank, and trying to kill me."
He nodded. "Let's see just how powerful you are, Guardian."

I leapt at him, and, in a strange sense of déjà vu, he kicked me aside. Falling back, I hovered myself into mid air, and completed a backwards somersault, landing on my feet. I fancied I could almost see Corruptor's smirk as he nodded. "Not bad, Guardian. But let's see how well you do without your legs." He levelled his gun at me, but before he could repeat his act of crippling me, I jumped into the air, and forced myself forwards, at an alarming rate. The thought passed through my head, I'm doing it! I'm actually properly flying! scant seconds before my head collided with Corruptor's chest. With a grunt, he hit the ground, and I was upon him, my fists colliding with any part of his body seemed like fair opportunity.

The others who came with Corruptor, I barely heard, yelled, "Kill the hero!" Before they could carry out their act and attack me, however, they had five hundred other Heroes to deal with. The room quickly became a free-for-all, with bullets, arrows, and energy blasts flying overhead. Not that I noticed. Or even cared. No, I was solely concerned with Corruptor, and him with me.
Pushing me off him, Corruptor aimed his gun at me again. I was, however, ready. Squeezing my right hand into a fist, I swung the Fire Sword before it had even finished erupting, and sliced the weapon in half. With Corruptor weaponless, he had no choice but to surrender.

Right?

Launching a kick at me, I dodged away from Corruptor, and upwards, flying away from him at a great speed. Circling back, I produced the gun the Brotherhood had left for me, and shot at his legs, trying to cripple him, as he did me. However, Corruptor jumped out of the way, and grabbed onto one of the rappel lines, climbing quickly away.
"Next time, Fire Guardian, I will kill you!" He yelled as he left.

I hovered in the air, watching him go silently, ignoring everything around me. That was, up until the point when two of the attackers jumped on me, pulling me to the ground. About to fight them off, I realised they were off me as suddenly as they had arrived, and the Brawler, held one in each hand, smirking down at my prone form. "Nice skills, Guardian, but since you brought the mess, you can clean it up. No time for napping."
Standing, I joined the other heroes in fighting off our assailants, until they were all unconscious, or had escaped into the night.
"Well," I said, looking around and de-activating my costume. "Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good fight."
A drew a few tired chuckles, and looked around. "Where are the civilians?"
A man in a red costume, with a quiver on his back, pointed towards a door. "We managed to round them all up to safety in there. I suppose we should get them out."

"Good thinking, Manticore", Statesman nodded. He and Manticore opened the door, and the non-powered party guests milled out, looking around at all the damage. The Mayor, in particular, seemed distraught. "My roof!"
"Don't worry, Mayor," I tried to comfort her. "I'll pay to get it repaired. No cost, and no loss of money to the charity."
She seemed grateful enough, if still shaken, and I went to Emily's side. "My first battle, and you missed it."
She smiled at me uncertainly. "Well, you know, I had work. Being the Mayor's assistant, and all that." She looked around. "Where's Sammy? I didn't see him in the ante-room with us."
I searched the crowd. "He isn't here."
"Then where…?"
Just then, as if summoned by our words, Sammy re-appeared in the doorway. "Oh, man, what happened in here? I go to the toilet, and…this must have been one hell of a party!"

I grinned at him, when a thought occurred to me.

The Corruptor was male. Sammy was male. Both times I had met Corruptor, Sammy was nowhere to be seen. During my recovery, Sammy was by my side nearly constantly, after I had woken up, and Corruptor hadn't been heard from. Sammy took an unusual interest in my capabilities as The Fire Guardian. And, more importantly, Corruptor knew who I was…had used my nickname, in fact, before it was official news that I, Jason Tucker, was Fire Guardian.

I shook my head. Sammy couldn't be…could he?

---

Morning came slowly, and with it, the hangover.

I want you to understand that I'm not a heavy drinker. Yes, I will occasionally throw back a few bottles of something cold and fermented, but for the most part, I'm happiest downing Fanta after Fanta. I loves me some Aspartame. On the rare occasion, however, I throw caution to the wind, and drink whiskey, beer, or, as I had done last night, champagne. From glasses which bore the strange name 'flutes', to the prerequisite slipper (don't ask) and even…Lord help me….Emily's lips.

Which brings us to here and now. And me. In bed. Naked. With Emily.

"Ohhh…" I groaned. I felt a jab in my ribs.

"Shush. Some of us have the day off." I turned, and Emily smiled at me. "Good morning, Jay. Sleep well?"

I snorted. "I barely got any sleep, as you well know."

Emily smirks, and slid her body, so it was pressing up against me. "Yeah, but it was worth it." She kissed my shoulder lightly, and touched my ears. "Do they still hurt?"

"Hmm? Oh, no. The grafts are fine, now. I don't notice them."

"Good." Her hand slid lower, and drummed a light tattoo on my abs. "You seemed pretty pre-occupied after that fight. What did Corruptor say to you?"

"Oh, nothing. Not really. It's just…I have some things on my mind."

"Yeah, I noticed that last night." She smirked, and kissed me gently on the lips. "Did you have anyone in mind when you were doing your…thinking?"

I shrugged. "Sammy."

The hand on my abs, which was keeping a rather spry and upbeat tempo, withdrew. "Excuse me?"

"I said, I was thinking about Sammy."

"Oh." She wrinkled her nose at me, which I found quite adorable. "And why, pray tell, during one of the most…athletic encounters of your life, were you thinking about Samuel Edwards?"

She had lost me. "What? Ohh….no! Not when we were…"

"Good."

"No, that was all about you. It's just…do you think Sammy's acting odd?"

"I hadn't noticed."

Of course she hadn't. Emily had been living here in Paragon for a while, whereas I had Sammy up in my face, day in and day out, since before she left.

"Em…I've been thinking about Corruptor."

"Oh, goody." She sighed, and slipped away. "First Sammy, then your arch-foe. Do I feature in there at all?"

" 'Arch foe'?" I repeated. "Yeah, I suppose I do have an arch-foe. Cool. But, Em, listen: what if Corruptor is someone I know?"

She looked confused. "What do you mean?"

I relayed my thoughts from after the fight to her, and she listened, not saying anything, barely moving.

"So, he called you 'Jay' the first time you fought him?"

"It was barely a fight. He nearly killed me, and I didn't touch him."

"Aww." She mock pouted. "Do you want me to protect my big, strong Superhero?"

I grinned at her. "He wouldn't stand a chance." I pushed the covers away, and stared, unashamedly, at her body. "You've been working out."

She shrugged. "I want to look good."

"It's more than looking good. Last night was….unbelievable." It was my turn to caress her stomach, which was flat, taut, and toned.

"For me, too." She grinned at me, and it reminded me of nothing so much as a cat stalking it's prey. "Care to go again?"

Oh, yes.

-

After our most recent encounter, and after we had showered (separately, so don't get to thinking we were at it like rabbits) and dressed, Emily wrapped her arms around me, and hugged me tightly.

"Last night was amazing."

I nodded. "We should do it more often."

He eyes sparkled with humour. "What did you have in mind, Jay?"

"Well, it's too soon for marriage. But maybe, when all this is over, we can find an apartment somewhere in Paragon?"

She nodded. "It sounds like a good plan. We'll talk about it more when things are over, though, as you say." She brushed some imaginary dirt from my shoulders, and grinned at me. "You look good."

I turned, and examined myself in the mirror. Wearing a tight red t-shirt, black trousers, and a black jacket with the collar turned up, she was right. I idid/i look good. Of course, the post-coital buzz was probably stopping me from thinking straight, as I couldn't help but think that I didn't look anywhere near as good as I could have, without her by my side.

My phone rang, breaking me from my reverie. Shrugging a sheepish apology Em's way, I opened it.

"Tucker." I barked.

"Dude," Sammy's voice filtered through. "Where were you last night?"

"Hang on." I cupped a hand over the mouthpiece, and turned to Emily. "It's Sammy."

"Oh, good, ask him if he's Corruptor."

I stared at her calm and serious expression.

"I'm not alone here, Sam. What's up?"

"Dude, you finally got some?" Sammy chuckled. "Hey, listen, I found something out. Can you meet me in Atlas Park at noon?"

What?

"Sammy, what're you talking about? 'Meet me in Atlas Park'?"

"And come alone."

Sammy sounded…cold on the phone. Completely unlike himself.

"Sammy, seriously, stop pretending you're a spy. What's going on?"

"I mean it, man. Come to Atlas Park, by yourself, at noon. If you're not alone, you won't see me."

"Sammy…" I sighed.

"Goodbye, Jay." He hung up.

Goodbye, Jay. A perfectly normal way of ending a conversation. So why did it make me shiver?

Emily noticed, and looked at me askance. "What is it?"

"It's Sammy. He wants me to meet him, alone, at noon."

"So? He probably just wants to boast about some girl he was dancing with."

"No, he wasn't….he wasn't himself. He was cold. Detached. And he said 'goodbye Jay' to me."

"What did you expect him to….oh, wait. Isn't that what Corruptor said to you?"

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.

"Well," Emily continued, in 'business mode', "Since it's Christmas day, and a lot of the Brotherhood's operatives can't be reached, I'll go myself and find out what's going on."

"What?"

"Look, Jay, if Sammy's somehow fallen in with the splinter group, he could be in danger. And you certainly will be."

"But…"

She moved away, and glared at me. "Don't get all protective on me, Jason Tucker. Just because I'm sharing a bed with you doesn't mean you can run my life!"

I stared. She sighed, and continued in a softer tone. "I know what I'm doing. This is my job, and I can take care of myself." As if I wouldn't believe her, she struck a pose and flexed for me. Somehow, I found this leaving her looking more vulnerable than anything else.

"I'll be fine." She got up on tiptoes, and kissed my nose. "If not, I know how to reach you."

I nodded. "Make sure you do."

Emily nodded back, and went to the door. Looking back at me briefly, she winked and exited. "Don't worry. I'll be perfectly okay. I mean, it's just Sammy, right?"

I watched her leave silently, wishing I had told her I loved her. It occurred to me, all alone in the silence of her apartment building that those words had never passed my lips since she came back into my life, and I wish to hell I had said it at least once.

And, for good reason. If I had, maybe something would have turned out differently. As it was, however, I never said it, and I would never get the chance to.

I never saw Emily Campbell, the love of my life, ever again.