Heroes Wear Capes

“Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?”

~ The Joker

Xander was much more excited than he should have been.

Okay, he should have been terrified, but it was hard to feel scared when you were in the presence of both members of one of the most famous super rivalries in history.

(It was so cool!)

Like, he knew Artic Frost was a dastardly villain who robbed people, but seeing a super villain in person was a rare event. Despite how often they seemed to attack downtown, being face to face with the likes of someone on par with Artic Frost was something Xander had never experienced before. Though, Xander had to admit that being closer to the villain did make her look more . . . human.

After seeing her face in the news for years painted as a horrendous villain, you’d expect Artic Frost to seem a little more villainous and not so normal. You had to be reminded from time to time that even the worst of people were the same as you, a person.

Also, he had to admit that it was pretty funny to see the two bicker like old friends, even though they were bitter rivals.

Xander vividly remembered a news article recounting an argument the two had at a bank robbery months ago that lasted thirty minutes with neither side firing shots, just arguing on the fundamentals of hero versus villain.

Though, when the pair did get to fighting, it was always brutal.

(Xander was really glad that Wild Fire tended to avoid Oakland, because if he went more often, there may be permanent freezer burn and scorch marks on more of their buildings.)

Xander sped out of the way as both Wild Fire and Artic Frost aimed at each other with ferocity. He wondered if it had ever occurred to them to try different strategies when fighting each other. Obviously the current methods weren’t good enough for either to completely destroy the other.

But maybe that was the point.

“Xander! Why are you just standing there? Help!”

Mera’s voice in his ear was enough to wake him up from any trance.

“Sorry, I got distracted.”

There was a sigh from the other side. “Yeah, and that behavior may get you in real trouble someday. Go and help Ross.”

It took Xander a moment to remember that Ross was Wild Fire. When you just learned the identity of one of your heroes, you did a double take when you heard their real name for a few days.

Instead of aiming towards Wild Fire’s fight with Artic Frost, Xander decided to focus on getting the civilians out of the way of the fight. The two looked like they had a sort of tunnel vision for each other and would probably barley notice if they tripped over a couple civilians in their quest to absolutely destroy each other.

Xander sped around the busy square, moving people safely out of the radius of the fight. He found that with super speed people felt lighter, meaning he was able to carry most everyone out of the square with no problem in seconds. He found some barriers to set around the square, keeping the civilians from trying to get back in the action. For some reason everyone wanted to get as close as possible to the battling duo for a selfie. Like, is a picture really worth potentially dying?

In fact, as soon as the barrier was set up and the civilians were out of the way, everyone started to take out their phones for a video of the two.

Xander had to admit that if he wasn’t a part of the action now, he might’ve been one of those people.

Maybe he had changed after all. Now that he knew what it was like to be inside the barrier, he knew how frivolous it seemed to ever want to be nearer to the action.

Xander turned back to maybe join the fight when he realized he hadn’t exactly gotten everyone out of the radius of the fight. The troupe of little children were still sitting behind a mound of snow that had packed, throwing snowballs at Wild Fire and Artic Frost. They were probably doing more harm than good.

Actually, the closer he looked, the more it looked like the little kids had taken Artic Frost’s side of the fight.

“Ow!”

A brunette little girl had aimed a snowball right at Wild Fire’s face, hitting him near the eyes and temporarily blinding him from Artic Frost’s ice.

Xander used his speed and ran in front of Wild Fire, grabbing the ice shard midair and cracking it into a million little pieces. When time turned back to normal in Xander’s vision, Artic Frost had her arms on her hips.

“You couldn’t have just let me have that one, Momentum?”

He shook his head. “I’d rather you not kill Wild Fire just yet. He still has a couple of things to teach me.”

Artic shrugged. “Understandable.”

Wild Fire looked positively insulted. “Hey, I’m right here.”

Xander turned to face him with crossed arms, “And you wouldn’t be standing there, alive, if I hadn’t just saved your life from Elsa over here.”

“That name is getting old,” Artic sighed, “I’d rather not be compared to that blundering Ice Queen unless we’re talking about the original version of the script.”

“Original version?” Xander asked.

“Originally Elsa was an evil villain with blue skin and a vendetta. It was only after the writers heard that blasted song of hers that they changed the plot completely. If you’d have asked me, the story was better when no one understood her reasons for turning evil. She doesn’t need anyone feeling sorry for her life decisions.”

Huh.

Xander wondered if there actually were connections between the fictional character and her. It certainly would explain some things. People definitely don’t become evil for no reason, and the same went for Artic Frost. Maybe she felt like Wild Fire or some other hero wronged her at some point, or maybe she robbed banks because she needed the money for her family. She wasn’t one of those villains intent on destroying the city or the world, and the only reason she wanted to hurt Wild Fire was so that she could do villainous things without him getting in the way. She must’ve had human reasoning underneath the pale white hair and icy exterior.

He had to admit that thinking of a person personified by the media as a monster as anything remotely human was a strange thing. When you were up close and personal, you realized that even villains were human underneath too.

“Enough wasting time,” Wild Fire rebutted, crossing his arms, “We need to get back to business.”

Artic Frost smiled slyly. “And what business was that? You trying to take this beautiful necklace away from me without giving me Momentum in return? Don’t think you’ll be able to get out of this with both valuable artifacts.”

Xander paused. “Wait, did you just call be a valuable artifact?”

Of course the super villain ignored him.

“I could fight you all day, Frosty.” Wild Fire lit his hands on fire, showcasing his abilities.

She only laughed.

“You know, if you just agree to give me Momentum with no rebuttal, I’ll willingly give you the necklace. But, right now I know that the moment I hand it to you I’ll be double crossed.”

She wasn’t wrong.

“So, I’m going to give myself the upper hand here,” Artic Frost alerted, grabbing the nearest kid by the collar. It was the brunette one who had thrown the snowball at Wild Fire.

Xander heard Mera gasp on the other line, “That’s Ross’s little sister.”

Of course it was. Why wouldn’t the superhero have a little sibling who found themselves in the middle of a dangerous battle?

“There’s no need to injure any children,” Wild Fire urged. Xander could see him straining under his self-control to try and save his sister, because any sudden movement would probably result in her getting harmed in some way. Artic Frost really lucked out.

“No children will get injured if you agree to let me take Momentum without argument. You only get the necklace and the girl when I have your word that you won’t double cross me.”

“How do I know you won’t double cross me?” Wild Fire asked.

Artic Frost shrugged. “You’ll have my word.”

In the little girl’s case, she seem super calm compared to how he would be doing in her situation. In fact, if Xander was willing to bet, he’d say Artic Frost was never intending to hurt the kid either way.

It did make Xander feel better though that his life was now worth more than some stupid rich person’s necklace.

If the little girl wasn’t Wild Fire’s little sister, Xander wondered if he would just try and blast Artic Frost and hope she let go of the kid. But, now? He seemed to really be considering letting her take Xander away.

She didn’t know how big of a jackpot she’d fallen on by picking that girl.

“You have my word.”

“What?”

Xander turned to face Wild Fire, confused. “You’re really giving me to her?”

“You really want to risk the life of that girl?”

He was right.

“Fine, but how is Artic going to make sure I can’t run away? I am faster than her after all.” Xander asked.

He turned to see Artic flinch.

“Well, it requires a lot of physical effort by me.”

Xander really should have seen it coming.

Artic Frost created a large block of ice in her hand. It was the last thing Xander saw as she brought the ice down on his head.

Celeste paced the floor. After escaping the scene, she ran to the basement of an abandoned apartment building she knew of. That’s where she tied up Momentum to a chair and then started nervously pacing the floor.

She had given the necklace to Wild Fire. There was no guessing when he would find out it was a fake, but there was also nothing he could do about it because he had no idea where she was.

She didn’t want to give up the speedster to Trevor Rossi without knowing for sure he was the one who killed the guy’s father. She may have been the villain of the story, but she wasn’t heartless. She wasn’t going to let him suffer at the Rossi hands if he wasn’t a murderer.

Even with the identity of Wild Fire on the line, she wasn’t willing to ruin an innocent’s life. Besides, Momentum seemed a bit too happy go lucky to be a murderer. He was making her second guess handing him over.

He groaned and she turned to face him. It seemed like Momentum was finally waking up.

“Where am I?”

“That’s not important.”

Momentum’s eyes widened as he realized something. “My mask.”

Celeste had taken off his mask out of curiosity. She wanted to know if the man under the mask was anyone she knew, but, sadly, he wasn’t.

“Let’s get straight to the point, Momentum,” Celeste stated, standing right in front of the boy, hoping to maybe intimidate him, “I was told you were the one to kill Paul Rossi. I was told to bring you in to Trevor Rossi to face the proper actions, but, frankly, I don’t believe you were the one to take down that CEO. You don’t seem like a murderer to me. This is your one chance at defending yourself before I decide to turn you in for my reward.”

Momentum let his head go down. “I didn’t kill him in the hospital, if that’s what you’re asking, but I may as well have killed him seeing as I was the reason he was in there in the first place.”

Celeste titled her head, confused. “How?”

He then went through his whole spiel. How he got his powers by spying on a deal of Rossi Corp’s out of curiosity. How he was the reason the other side freaked out and shot Paul Rossi. How he went to the hospital that day to ask for answers and instead witnessed Paul Rossi’s death himself.

At the end of it all, Celeste couldn’t help but to scoff and say, “you shouldn’t have ran from the scene, dude.”

Momentum sighed. “At the moment it seemed like the only reasonable option.”

Celeste weighed her options.

“How do I know you didn’t make that story up?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe you can just trust me?”

“Trust is not something I give up lightly.”

Momentum shrugged. “All I can tell you is that I wish Paul hadn’t died. You can take me to Trevor and let him do what he wants with me, but let me ask one thing. Is the price on my head really worth letting an innocent person die?”

One thing was certain. All Celeste had to do was show up on the Rossi Tower roof and hand Momentum over to Trevor and she could find Wild Fire’s identity. She could finally run around the city without him foiling her plans. She could get as much money as she would need to keep her entire apartment building going for weeks if she wanted. Wild Fire wouldn’t be able to stop her from robbing as many rich folks as she wanted.

She could be powerful. She could hold one of the city’s most powerful people in her palm if she wanted to.

Celeste created icicles in her hands and sliced the ropes that tied Momentum down to the chair. He looked at her in shock and she handed him back his mask.

“If the world asks, you escaped.”

He nodded, seeming to know Celeste’s darkest secret.

Maybe she wasn’t so evil after all.