Falling for a Superhero

Chapter Ten-"I Pledge Allegiance to...Anyone but The Proliator"

Harder with each lash, he beat them harder and harder as they bit down on a lemon. I only started to worry about myself when the leader walked toward my direction and yanked me up from the ground. I immediately smelt all the beer on him, even though it was the pledges that were showered in that stuff. He smirked.

"You're really pretty," he commented.

"Thanks..." I whispered, not knowing what was running through his devious mind. Suddenly, he whistled and the spankings stopped, unlike the muffled grunting. I even glanced over to see a pledge fall to his side and squirm off the pain coming through his ass. I don't blame him. They beat him the most, clearly because they made comments that someone as good looking as him could get a girl like me.

"I got a new one," the leader told his friends, lazily, his eyes drooping down of fatigue. "Untie the bastards and the first one to lay this pretty bitch gets in. The other two...well you're just out of luck."

Before I knew it, the other two had sliced the plastic wrap with a pocket knife and the pledges all looked at me. I could see them calculating how much they wanted to get into the organization...whether the desire was enough to use me as consequence. Shit, shit, shit.

"How about the first one that touches her gets beat the hardest and so on, and so on?" a British voice suddenly said from nowhere. From behind the pledges--well the only two not wiggling on the ground--stood a man, dressed in black, gold, and red. His suit was all black, but his belt, shoes, and mask was gold. The only ounce of red was his cape and outlines to his gloves and shoes.

The Proliator.

Suddenly, I was seized by the smelly leader and, with a blur, Proliator smashed him into a wall and I tightly closed my eyes, both wanting to miss the violence in front of me and also bite down on my lower lip enough to take the pain away from my cuts along my arm.

"What? You didn't like my 'new idea'?" Proliator asked the frat boy leader in a British accent so perfect you'd think it was his specialty so girls could comment further on how they were saved by their knight in shining armor. "Oh right. You can't speak now."

What? I opened my eyes and saw the two members sprawled out on the concrete just like the pledge that had got beaten too hard was earlier. The pledges, however, were gone now, hopefully getting some help. I, on the other hand, hopped up and started backing away. That's when I saw what was really happening.

"All they want is to be accepted into your group. For what? No one should want your company to be considered as a 'brother'," Proliator said down to them. Suddenly, he touched the leader's leg and he immediately started to scream in pain, yet somehow the cry was familiar to me. "Is that how you want them to feel!? Huh! And her? You brought her into this for absolutely no reason, you filthy scum."

What did that mean?

I started backing away when I noticed that he still knew I was there, or maybe the fact that he had one touch and he made the tough guy scream so hard. I turned to walk away and then he appeared in front of me. My breath was held faster than when I had met Dastan. His dark eyes weren't really visible in the dark, but I swear that I saw flickers of...red? Maybe to match the blood he just shed on those guys...

"I'm not going to hurt you," he whispered.

"How do I know that?" I asked back. He twitched his lips and his eyes released all red flakes.

"I've never had someone so afraid of me," he said. I stepped back.

"I'm not afraid of you," I denied. I gestured to the unconscious frat boys. "But I'm pretty sure they are!"

"They really beat up themselves if you saw what happened," he reasoned. "Which you didn't because you were busy shutting your eyes for no reason."

"I don't like to see fighting," I confessed. He slightly snorted and then even I scoffed. "Especially not from some wanna-be superhero."

He looked at me, not with arrogance or disbelief. He just...looked at me and I felt as if he was staring into my soul, trying to tell me some unspoken prophecy or some crap. Eventually, I started to walk around him, attempting to pull out shards of glass in my arm that caused me pain. Suddenly, with a blur of speed, Proliator was standing in front of me.

"You can't leave yet," he said. Under what authority?

"And why not?" I asked, impatiently. I wanted to cross my arms, but glass prevented that.

"I haven't healed you," he answered. Healed me?

"That's what a hospital is for. I rather have professionals than some boy pretending he has powers," I said to him. Breathe, Angela, breathe. "So if you don't mind-"

"Here," he said, grabbing my un-stabbed arm. His eyes started to glow a light, noticeable blue as his touch was cold at first, but then it had warmed and then was normal temperature--as if I had tiny shots of electricity that quickly subsided--while his other hand tried to pull a big piece of glass out. I hissed in pain and when my eyes, pricked with water, looked up to his, they had changed into a golden/orange color that were glazed with just as many tears as mine. "You can feel that?"

The electric sparks across my arm from your touch? Yeah...

"The intense pain coming from my arm? YES!" I yelled, removing his grip on me. "Now if you don't mind, you can go squeal about another one of your heroic deeds while I go to the hospital."

Big shocker that a human couldn't fix an injury that stitches would...

With that, I had finally walked around him and had to switch directions to change my course to the ER that I knew was a couple of blocks away. Great. Just freaking great. So now my theory of the Proliator being some fake NYPD stunt to scare criminals, he turned out to be real. And it was just my luck that I had to meet him. UGH. Why did I have to be the person that insisted on trying to save people from unfortunate situations like hazing-and yet still end up getting hurt!?

Not only that, but I'd have to explain my stitches to Dad...and Sebastian...and Cheyenne...and anyone that would surely ask about it.

"Is that how you want them to feel!? Huh! And her? You brought her into this for absolutely no reason, you filthy scum."

Proliator's words weren't some battle cry towards the head jerk, but it was as if he was a frustrated teacher or coach, grilling something into his mind by personal tactics. But then he added me in the situation as if that would give some sort of sympathy. Yeah right. The lead boy's screams still rang in my head it took me through my entire nightmare to realize that his screams matched the shrieks coming from the poor pledges.