“Time for what?” It was a stupid question. I already knew the answer. The patient verbally acknowledged that he was ready to die. We only had minutes until we reached the hospital. As long as he was talking, he wasn’t dead, and everybody knew heroes liked a good monologue. Simple superhero logic.
“There is a darkness coming,” he muttered.
His hand reached out, all six fingers extended in my direction. For all the tools at my disposal, none of them could diagnose the problem. Alien physiology be damned. I wasn’t in the mood to lose another patient.
I grabbed his hand. His fingers wrapped about my knuckles, stronger than should be logical. He pulled me in close, his thin lips moving but not making a sound.
He finally spoke in a whisper. “It is you.”
“Me?” Delirium set in. Everything out of his mouthfrom this point on would be the result of his brain coping with his impending death.
“I can protect you from the darkness.”
His eyes narrowed, intensifying as he pulled my hand to his chest. The EKG slowed, his heart rate dropping. I tried to pull free, to get to the equipment, but he held fast. I tugged again, but his grip was absolute. At any second, I knew he was going to box.
“It comes.”
The suit under my hand separated, pulling away like oil and water. His skin underneath was covered in scars, an almost tribal pattern similar to Pe’a tattoos. They flared, burning away his suit until his entire body glowed.
“You okay back there?” Lei asked while swerving around the corner. “Xander? Man, you okay?”
All that remained of the alien’s suit was a spot of black the size of a quarter. It moved down the center of his chest until it touched my thumb. I pulled with all my might, nearly tearing him off the stretcher. The black spot vanished underneath my hand. Whatever he was doing, I wanted no part of it.
“It protects the worthy.”
The monitor stopped beeping. One continuous tone meant the alien’s hearts had stopped. His eyes shut, the muscles in his body relaxing. I pulled myself free, prepared to bring him back from the dead. There was no way I was repeating my last shift. He was going to make?—
The black started at my fingertips. The veins along my hand and arm bulged, thick and black. Had he infected me? Was I about to fall victim to the same fate? I scratched at my hand as the black oozed outward, coating my skin. Expanding, it shot up my arm, vanishing under my sleeve. I couldn’t feel it moving, but seconds later my other hand was colored a flat black.
“What the hell?” The reflection in the storage door looked like me, but not. It had already coated my entire body.
“Holy shit,” Lei yelled.
I turned to see her leaning over the steering wheel staring up into the sky. Before I could ask what was going on, a blinding flash of light shot through the front window. As quickly as it appeared, the world returned to normal.
The ambulance jerked to one side as she spun the wheel. I caught my reflection—the black alien ooze gone. Had I imagined it? Lack of sleep had played tricks on medics, but I swore the alien had done something. Staring at the body on the table, he was now naked, his scars no longer shining.
The truck slowed until Lei put it in park. She rushed into the back, but there was no hurry. For the second time in two days, I had lost a hero before we reached the hospital. I slumped back in the seat, staring at the alien’s unmoving chest, the monitor continuing to taunt me.
I had failed.
4
I had been toldto take the rest of the day to get my head together. In the middle of a superpowered emergency, I must look pretty bad to be relieved of duty. I should have gone home, stood under a scalding shower and called it a night. There were plenty of things I should do, but I remained fixated on watching the paramedics bring in a steady stream of patients.
They had picked up another hero. After twenty, I stopped keeping count. It was going to be a long night inside the walls of every hospital in Vanguard City. Government vans had arrived. Even the Centurions' science team showed their nerdy faces. In all my years, I had never seen so many humans rushing to save the heroes who were supposed to protect them.
“Ironic, isn’t it?” Aiden, formerly known as the asshole, said.
“What’s that?” My voice sounded unamused and lackluster to even me.
“They’re the heroes. They can fly and hurl fireballs, but now it’s up to good ol’ science to save the day. Everyday folks have to become the heroes.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
His hands were wedged in his jacket pockets, so he used his foot to tap my shin. “I’m trying to pay you a compliment.”
“He died.”
