Guardian's Rise

by Matthew Renard

  ‘So...’ I paused, unsure of where to start. ‘Uhm. I’m confused. I never said you were happy. I mean... I’d hoped, at the time, but...’

  ‘Why are you wearing that?’ She gestured at the ring with her knife, and I was acutely aware how happy I should be that it wasn’t sharp.

  ‘Because-’

  ‘If you think for one second,’ she continued, ‘that I’m going to get all... girlish, and cheer, and sob and say yes to a proposal, you’ve got another thing coming!’

  ‘I don’t.’

  She stared. ‘Then why?’

  I paused, trying to gather my thoughts. ‘I thought you were dead.’ She rolled her eyes and made a disgusted sound. I pushed on, regardless. ‘I loved you. Like, “rest of our lives” love. When you dumped me for that squaddie-’

  ‘He had a name.’

  ‘Yes, I know.’ I replied coldly. ‘I’m choosing to not use it.’

  She eyed me calculatingly. ‘Do you think I owed you?’

  ‘Telling me you were unhappy would have been nice.’

  ‘I did!’

  ‘When?’ I shrugged. ‘When we argued? When you called me names? When you belittled me in front of our friends, and families? That made me unhappy, Em.’

  ‘Exactly!’ She dropped the knife on her plate, and it clanged loudly. I knew nobody else in the restaurant was talking, but I couldn’t look around - everything had become dim around the edges, and she was all I could see. ‘We weren’t happy.’

  ‘And rather than try to fix it, you ran off with a Squaddie-’

  ‘Neil.’

  ‘...Neil.’ I hissed. ‘And I thought you had died. I called your parents once to just make sure you were okay.’

  ‘Yeah, Dad said he told you what he’d thought of you all along.’

  That was an understatement. I’d long suspected Major Roarke didn’t think I was good enough for his only child, and he confirmed my suspicions with a vengeance. ‘Yes.’ I shrugged. ‘But we’d been happy once, Em. And I never...’ I paused, feeling myself choke up. ‘I never got to even say goodbye.’ I pulled the chain off from around my head and placed it unceremoniously on the table. The small diamond in the centre gleamed and cast small lights on the table. ‘There. Goodbye.’

  Emily looked at the ring, then back at me, and slowly shook her head. ‘You really are a melodramatic son of a bitch, aren’t you?’ She stabbed the prawn with her fork, and popped it into her mouth, chewing thoughtfully. ‘But an honest one.’ She waved the waiter over, who nervously approached.

  ‘Is... everything okay here?’

  ‘We’d like to see the dessert menu, please.’ She smiled brightly, wiping tears away.

  ‘Uhm... okay?’ He went away quickly, looking as confused as I felt.

  And the night went on.

  ‘The problem,’ Emily said, a fork loaded with tiramisu dangling near her mouth, ‘was never one about love.’ She ate the forkful. ‘It wush reshpec’.’

  ‘You really shouldn’t talk with your...’ I paused. ‘Wait. Are you saying I didn’t respect you?’

  She swallowed. ‘Not in and of myself, no. You saw me more like I was an extension of you. Jason and Emily.’ She shrugged. ‘Outside of me and Sammy, how many friends did you have?’

  I thought about it. ‘Not many.’

  ‘Exactly.’

  ‘Wait, there was Bill from Kendo.’

  ‘Oh, Bill from Kendo.’ She scoffed. ‘He wasn’t your friend.’

  ‘Of course he was!’

  ‘You couldn’t stand him! You’d complain about him constantly, and for good reason.’ She started ticking a list off her fingers. ‘He flexed in every photograph he put on social media for no reason other than to show off the fact he worked out...’

  ‘Yeah, there was that time he held up a kitten and flexed so hard we thought the kitten weighed half a tonne. Or that he’d pop the kitten.’

  ‘And he did that... what was that thing he did that annoyed you?’

  I thought back. ‘Oh! When he’d do that thing with his water bottle?’

  ‘Yeah, the water bottle, that was it!’ She nodded once. ‘He’d take a swig of water and do that self-satisfied “Ahhh” noise.’

  ‘Every single time.’ I agreed. ‘Like he was in a drinks advert. Drink some water... “Ahhh.” Take a swig of Coke. “Ahhhh”. Take the tiniest, most minute fraction of squash?’

  We did it at the same time. ‘“Ahhh.”’

  Emily giggled. ‘Plus, what was it he said the first time he met me?’

  ‘I don’t remember.’

  She eyed me. ‘Liar.’

  I sighed. ‘He looked you up and down, turned to me, and said “Yeah, well I can still beat you up.”’

  She nodded. ‘Totally not true, by the way.’ She plunged her fork into her dessert. ‘And let’s not forget the icing on the cake.’

  ‘You mean...’

  ‘Yes, I mean. He drove a DeLorean, for God’s sake, Jay. Who the hell honestly wants to own a DeLorean, let along drive it? It was more rust than anything else.’ She munched on her dessert, and then reached across with her fork to my untouched salted caramel cheesecake. ‘He was clearly an 80s coming of age movie villain who had escaped into the real world. Toxic masculinity incarnate.’ She grinned at me and scooped some of my cheesecake slice. ‘And, also, there was that... you know.’

  I tilted my head. She’d listed everything wrong about Bill. ‘No?’

  ‘Oh.’ She smiled sheepishly. ‘You weren’t there. He told me he wanted to sleep with me.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘It’s okay. I didn’t.’ Her smile turned eviller. ‘Remember when he vanished?’

  I nodded slowly. ‘He quit coming to Kendo and never spoke to me again.’

  ‘Yeah. I may have “accidentally” dislocated his arm after he “accidentally” grabbed my bum.’

  I laughed. I couldn’t help it. ‘Seriously?’

  ‘My body is my own. Not yours, and definitely not his.’

  ‘No, no.’ I nodded. ‘I approve completely.’

  She smiled at me, and I felt my stomach flip. ‘I know you do. You always did. It’s one of the reasons I always liked you.’ She nodded to my dessert. ‘You going to finish that?’

  ‘Be my guest.’ I pushed my cake forward. I disliked salted caramel anyway, which she knew.

  ‘So, love was really not the issue. Respect was.’ She continued her earlier train of thought. ‘You couldn’t see me as my own separate person, and that drove me crazy. I had to get out on my own and see who I was.’

  She busied herself eating the cake whilst I mulled that over. I couldn’t argue the point, sadly. Whilst I knew I respected her in my way, maybe that was different to what she wanted.

  ‘So...’ I ventured, and instantly had her full attention. ‘Where does that leave...’ I gestured to the space between us.

  ‘Oh.’ She shrugged. ‘Not a bloody clue.’ She beamed at me. ‘Isn’t that frustrating?’

  ‘Oh, you have no idea.’

  ‘I really do.’ She polished off the rest of the cake quickly, with almost surgical precision. ‘Look, I’m fairly sure you still love me,’

  ‘I do.’

  ‘And for what it’s worth, I still love you-’

  ‘What?’

  ‘But we’re not the same people we were. For what it’s worth may end up being worthless.’ She shrugged. ‘Our lives just might not be compatible with each other’s anymore.’ She used the fork to point to herself. ‘I’m a highly placed executive at one of the largest companies in the world. I work long hours, six days a week. I get perks, but it’s a very stressful life. And you...’ She shrugged. ‘You can just bum about whilst that lawyer of yours runs the show.’ She leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially. ‘I’d get very annoyed with you, very quickly.’

  My head was still spinning. ‘But... doesn’t that mean I’d be flexible and could fit around your life?’

  She shook her head. ‘You don’t get it, Jay. I don�
��t want someone who’ll just fit around my plans. I want a partner. An equal!’ She looked at me sadly. ‘I don’t know if we can be that for each other.’

  ‘But...’

  ‘Let’s just see how things go, for now. Okay?’ She took my hand and squeezed it.

  And the night ended.

  I had told Em I’d walk home. She looked concerned and called me silly - this wasn’t the best neighbourhood for someone out by themselves at night, least of all an unprotected man who happened to be the richest man in the world. I had shrugged it off, telling her I’d be fine. She protested until I told her I’d call a cab.

  I paid the bill and watched Emily leave. Grabbing my jacket and zipping it up, I left a healthy tip for the waiter in the form of a 50 OWD bill, as well as a diamond ring on a silver chain.

  I did walk home, too. It took me several hours, since I had no idea where I was going - although I was barely aware of the time. Part of my brain took over and traced my way east, using the pale green light of Lemniscate Tower to guide me. Eventually, I returned to the hotel, and made my way up to my room. Sammy was still there, waiting for me, a huge grin on his face.

  ‘Well?’ He danced around the room. ‘I could have daaaaaaanced all night. I could have daaaaaanced all night, and still have daaaaanced some...’ He trailed off when he saw the look on my face. ‘What?’

  ‘She still loves me.’

  ‘Yes!’ He held his arms straight up. ‘That’s brilliant!’ He paused. ‘Isn’t it?’

  I shrugged. ‘She doesn’t think we’re compatible anymore.’

  ‘Well, it could be worse. At least she doesn’t know you were going to propose that night when she ran off with Neil.’ He chuckled, then saw the look on my face. ‘Right?’

  ‘Well...’

  ‘Oh, Jesus. You’ve got to be kidding me.’ He shook his head. ‘What’re you playing at?’

  I was aware of a small burning anger in my stomach, and wondered just how long it had been there.

  ‘I’m not playing, Sammy. And I’m going out.’ I reached under my bed, and grabbed my belt.

  ‘Jay! What’re you doing?’

  ‘Going out.’ I held the belt by the front segment, and pushed it against my body. The two halves wrapped around my body and snapped together, as if held in place with strong magnets. I slid opened the balcony window and ran out, diving over the railing and slamming my hand against the red disc.

  Fire Guardian took flight.

  Chapter 11

  Breaking News

  New Cape Jape With No Red Tape!

  Story by Anderson Williams

  In a stunning debut yesterday, a new Powered Individual thrust onto the scene yesterday, stopping a car jack and foiling a bank robbery. This tall PI in red and black cut a somewhat menacing figure on the streets and in the skies as he then raced through the steel and glass canyons of our fair home, seemingly looking for trouble - and boy, did he ever find it!

  Proving himself impervious to small arms fire, this mysterious PI stepped in front of a hail of bullets that were aimed at a small group of street youths playing a game of pickup basketball, before proving himself a dab hand with a sword... but this one was stolen from the Archangel Uriel. Reports from witnesses say it roared with fire, and smoke poured from it. Some say the jet of fire was four feet long, but regardless, the assailants were disarmed, and most were sent to hospital with severe burns.

  Whilst this is not always unusual behaviour, what stands out is that this particular Powered Individual stayed around to make sure the youths were alright, and even gave a statement to the police! It’s been a long-held idiom in our city that Capehill belongs to the Capes, and that they don’t always bother with us little people and our problems, unless it’s a publicity stunt. However, this PI could be turning the tide of public opinion.

  “Yeah, he was, like, bam! Just there, man, you know?” said Mac Elstree, 19, of Willowbrook. “Like, just took those bullets, and then this sword appeared, like out of thin air, man! I don’t always go in for those Capes, man, but this guy? He’s the man.”

  Checking with the Powered Individual Registry revealed no data on this new Powered Individual. Whilst this opens up some legal ramifications if and when his identity is revealed, for the time being he will remain an unknown. In fact, we know only a few things, which we can exclusively reveal after checking with experts, who have reviewed cell phone and CCTV footage: He is at least six feet tall He appears to be left-handed and has some martial arts training He can fly and is impervious to bullets We have long had Powered and Augmented individuals in Capehill - could this mystery man be a true hero?

  Chapter 12

  News Breaking

  Michael slapped the newspaper on his desk, facing upright so I could read the story. There was a semi-blurry photo of me in costume, Flame Foil ignited, looking menacing.

  ‘So. Would you care to explain that?’

  Sammy looked over my shoulder. ‘Looks like a fairly poorly written newspaper article to me.’

  ‘You know what I mean.’ Michael shook his head.

  It was the 27th of December, and Sammy and I had been... I suppose “summoned” is probably the best term to describe it. The front desk of the hotel had rung up to our rooms to say our driver was there to take us back to the Foundation. We’d dressed quickly and gone, to find the staff erupting into applause. I realised, at that moment, that this was my first truly public appearance since the explosion, back in September. Michael had been at the front of the crowd, cheering and clapping with the rest of them, but under his arm I could just make out half of a photo of me on the newspaper.

  Oh.

  We’d gone upstairs to his office, when his joviality had evaporated, and he’d slapped the newspaper down.

  ‘What’re you thinking, going out and doing that?’

  ‘What makes you think it’s me?’ I questioned, nervously. Not that I’d be in trouble - at the end of the day, he was still my employee and (I hoped) friend. I was more concerned that he’d recognised me.

  He tapped the waist of the photo. ‘That belt the mystery man is wearing is a one of a kind, first off the production line model. Save for a prototype that was destroyed, this is the only one ever made. And I gave it to you.’ He eyed me. ‘There are only six people in the world who know that exists and, extremely luckily for you, it’s not in their best interests to come forward and admit they know that little gold belt is more than just a fashion accessory.’ He shook his head. ‘What I want to know is... why?’

  ‘I don’t think I can explain it.’

  Michael looked at me. ‘Is it something to do with that SabrexTech executive that was in your hospital room nearly every day after the explosion?’

  I turned to face Sammy. ‘Nearly every day?’ He shrugged weakly. I’ll talk to him later. I turned my attention back to Michael. ‘That’s private.’ I scanned through the story. ‘What’s this? The Powered Individual Registry?’

  ‘Anyone with powers needs to register their identity if they’re going to go out and do stupid things like fight crime.’

  ‘But I’m not a PI. I’m Augmented.’

  ‘Which right now is your only saving grace!’ Michael exploded. ‘We don’t ask for people with prosthetics to register at this moment in time. That may change, and when it does...’

  ‘Then what? People will come after my loved ones?’

  ‘What?’ Confusion clouded Michael’s face. ‘No, you’ll probably get endorsement deals and sponsorships, and then the neutrality of the Anson Foundation will be effectively over in the eyes of the media.’

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘How do you think PIs get attributed for different things?’ Michael held his hand out and started ticking off fingers. ‘They solve, or commit, a crime.’ Finger. ‘The police file the information with the registry or identify them through the registry entries.’ Finger. ‘The media reports on it and the good guys get endorsements, whereas the bad guys get more notoriety.’ Finger. ‘You, not bein
g on the registry, will bother a lot of people, because the natural assumption is you have powers.’

  ‘Why?’ Sammy asked.

  ‘Currently, no Augmentations include being bullet-proof, or materialising a giant flaming sword out of thin air.’ He shook his head again. I was worried it may fall off. ‘I assume that’s your Heat Baton with a hologram?’

  ‘I... yeah.’

  Michael gave me a frank and earnest stare. ‘Are you going to stop this ridiculous crusade?’

  ‘Probably not.’ I gave him my best defiant glare.

  ‘That’s what I thought.’ He reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked like an oblong golden box with slightly tapered ends. I realised it was a segment for the belt just as he dropped it onto the table.

  ‘Do you have your belt with you?’

  ‘No.’ I said. Just as Sammy responded, ‘Yes.’

  I turned to look at him again. ‘Why did you bring my belt?’

  ‘Hey,’ he shrugged, a cocky grin playing on his lips, ‘you never know when you’ll need it.’ He laid the belt on the table, and Michael swapped one of the larger segments out for the one he’d pulled out.

  ‘Try it now.’ He gestured, and I flung the belt around myself. Feeling the magnetic fasteners latch onto one another, it hummed, and I tapped the disc.

  As the costume appeared around me, my vision changed.

  ‘Woah!’ I looked around frantically. What had been my regular eyesight was now more like a heads-up display in a videogame.

  ‘You okay, Jay?’ Sammy stepped towards me, and his outline in my field of vision turned yellow, then green. The words appeared in the middle bottom of my eyesight: No Threat.

  ‘I... yeah.’ I nodded. ‘This is just taking some getting used to. But it’s pretty cool!’

  Thanks.

  I blinked. ‘Uhh...what?’

  I said thanks. Do you wish to manually calibrate optical sensitivity and projection?