I watched the sun glitter on the glass of buildings as Darwin and I drove through midtown. I couldn't stop thinking about last night. About what Cora said, about what I said, and how Tori reacted to it all. But I told Tori about my parents, I told her how I feel about her, and while I'm hurting now, I don't regret it.
"Pull in here," I told Darwin. Darwin nodded and pulled into an empty parking lot. Darwin put the car in park and I turned to him. "I've been a crappy friend," I admitted. "Not just recently, but for a while now. To you and Tori, and I think it's time you knew why." Darwin watched me closely. His eyes were dark, his expression hard. "My parents are Red Flame and Cold Front." Darwin cocked an eyebrow.
"Oh... okay?" I waited for him to say something else, but no other words came.
"I'm... I'm being serious, man." Darwin nodded.
"I know. I've also known about your parents for a while now." My heart dropped.
"What? How?"
"Oh, come on, Norm, it was obvious. First off, Red Flame and Cold Front only wear those eye masks, beyond that, they look exactly like your parents. Then there's the fact they keep vanishing at random moments, just to come back with bruises, looking tired, like at your birthday, when Red Flame and Cold Front were fighting in the park."
Wow. I never expected him to have pieced it together. He had never said a word to me about it.
"Why didn't you say anything?" I asked. Darwin shrugged.
"I figured if I was right, you'd tell me yourself eventually, and if I was wrong I didn't want to accuse your mom of being a criminal and your dad of being a vigilante." I frowned.
"Then wait, why all those comments about how hot Cold Front is...?" Darwin grinned.
"Oh, that was just to get under your skin."
"Well, there's something else too." I breathed in deeply and told him about my powers. I told him about Cora and Bryan and about what our book club really was. I told him about the Chronicle too. When I was finished, he had a dark expression on his face. He asked me a few questions, which I answered. He asked me to show him my powers and I did.
"Wow... I mean I just can't believe this. You're the Guardian!" I winced at the name. I hated it but after the incident with my Mom and the hard drive people confused me for a separate hero that died a decade ago. Darwin seemed excited at the prospect for a moment, then frowned. "This Chronicle guy, he's dangerous, isn't he?"
"Yes. He almost killed my Dad." Darwin looked out the window, his eyes dark.
"And... I guess I can't talk you out of going after him? Can I?"
"No. You can't." Darwin gave a vague nod and smiled.
"Alright. Well, I guess I support that choice, even if I don't agree with it." I smiled.
"Thanks, man." Just then, Bryan's Camaro sped into the parking lot and screeched to a halt. Darwin frowned.
"Is that Bryan? What is he doing here?" My chest tightened. There was only one reason Bryan would track me down in the middle of the day. I opened the door and Darwin put his arm on my shoulder. His eyes were wide with fear. He seemed to understand now why Bryan was here. "Be careful, okay?" I nodded and stepped out of the car, jogging to meet Bryan, who just opened the passenger seat.
Sliding in, I ask him, "What's going on?" I shut the door and Bryan immediately sped down the road, heading north.
"Cora found the next target," Bryan explained. "We don't have a lot of time. Cora is meeting us there."
"Where is the target?" I asked.
"Riverside." I shook my head.
"No way we'll make it in time. Traffic will be crazy." Bryan frowned.
"You didn't hear? Midtown is being evacuated. Something about a bomb threat." Bryan kicked the car into another gear and we sped up onto the highway.
To my relief, Bryan was correct. Most of the traffic was being pushed the opposite way due to the evacuation. The brick building was tall, standing fifteen stories, the outside covered with soot and grime, and the windows boarded over.
"What kind of target would be here?" I asked. "The building is condemned." Bryan shrugged.
"Who knows? Who cares? Let's go." He jumped out of the car and I followed.
"Shouldn't we wait for Cora?"
"There isn't any time, let's go!" Bryan drew his baton and marched towards the building and my chest tightened again. Bryan had a hunger in his eyes. He was so eager to catch the man who killed his brother. I thought about the man Bryan almost killed and wondered just what he would do to get vengeance. Shaking my head, I drew my baton and followed Bryan.
Bryan scaled the fire escape.
"I'll start at the top floor. You start at the bottom. We'll clear each one until we meet in the middle." He tossed me an earpiece and I put it in. "If you see him, radio in." Bryan continued to scale the fire escape while I found a loose board over a broken window and pried it open. The inside of the building was dark with a thick cloud of dust puffing up every time I took a step. There was no furniture, just barren stone walls, so I could only guess what this building used to be.
I cleared the first floor and found no one. I found the stairs and ascended to the second floor where I found old cubicles with nothing in them. I let out a sigh. Part of me thought we were being conned. Why would the Chronicle be here? I searched the second floor anyway and was a little relieved when I found nothing. Sure, I wanted the Chronicle to be stopped, but it didn't change the fact that I was still traumatized from our last encounter.
I got to the third floor, then the fourth, then the fifth. It was when I got to floor nine and still hadn't met up with Bryan that I got concerned.
"Bryan?" I radioed in. "Where are you?" No response. Just static. I sighed and searched the floor. I rolled my eyes as I prowled the darkness. Nothing, nothing, oh look! More nothing... I frowned. Something at the edge of the room caught my eye. I approached one of the concrete beams and shined a light on it. A lump of gray paste was slathered to the center. On it was a device that looked like a calculator with red flashing numbers on the screen - it read 3:00. I looked around and shined my light at the other beams and sure enough, each one had the same putty, the same device. I held my breath as I slowly spoke into the earpiece. "Bryan... We have to go..."
Then I heard it... not a noise from the earpiece but coming from upstairs... grunts and yells. My heart froze. I drew my baton and ran to the staircase, ascending the steps two at a time. I kicked in the door to the tenth level and saw Bryan on the ground, blood seeping from his mouth and pooling on the floor. Standing above him was a man, and as he turned to face me my heart stopped. The same cold eyes.... The same dark expression... the Chronicle himself.
The Chronicle wore something covering the lower half of his face, some sort of bandana and he made a tsk sound as I lit up with electricity.
"Get away from him!" I ordered. The Chronicle laughed.
"You are in no place to be giving orders, Norman." The Chronicle reached into his pocket and pressed something before drawing his blade. Downstairs I heard the electronic click of the countdown begin. "Besides, you'll both be dead in three minutes, anyhow."
I charged him and my baton clashed with his blade. The blade won and the top half of my baton was sheared away. Bryan picked himself up from the floor, just as the Chronicle made a wild slash for my knees, leaving deep gashes gushing out blood across the floor. I grunted and Bryan put the Chronicle in a head-lock, the two struggling for dominance.
Bryan growled in his ear, "You... killed my brother, you sonofa..." The Chronicle threw Bryan to the floor and laughed.
"My poor boy, you think I killed your brother?" Before Bryan could answer, I zapped the Chronicle with an electric bolt, sending him back with a grunt against the wall. He began to stand, but I grabbed him by the wrist and punched him in the face for good measure. As he fell back to the ground, I accidentally tore something from his wrist and I was surprised to see it was a cheap artificial hand.
"We have to go!" I told Bryan. "He's just armed a bunch of bombs downstairs. They're about to go off."
"We can't leave yet," Bryan huffed. "We have to finish him." He gestured to the slumped form of the Chronicle.
"We're all about to be finished," I argued. "Now let's go!" Bryan grimaced and reluctantly followed me to the stairwell. Bryan began to descend but I caught his arm. "No time. We need to get to the roof, I can fly us down from there." I sprinted upward and Bryan followed, the harsh sound of our boots slapping the concrete echoing through the stairwell.
I threw open the door to the roof and we sprinted into the daylight. I gave Bryan my hand and we were about to take off when I felt something crunch against the side of my ribs. I fell to the ground, gasping in pain. Bryan whirled around and saw the Chronicle emerging from the stairwell.
"You're insane!" Bryan chided him. I lifted myself and looked down below. I could see a car pull up, and Cora quickly jumped out of it. She looked up at the roof and I gestured for her to stay down there. "You killed my brother, you... you..." Bryan was overcome with rage and he drew his baton once more. The Chronicle merely smiled and removed his bandana.
Bryan froze. His face was the color of snow.
"Mathew?"
That was when the bombs went off.