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A Midnight Rescue

By Chris Gilman

John Doen stands on top of his downtown penthouse roof and surveys Megalopolis all around him, "I can feel you, and I know you want your freedom." He chuckles deep in his chest as he lifts his head towards the sky, "And we both know this will change things." He lowers his gaze towards the heart of the city again and grimaces, "In fact, I know they will label me a villain for what I'm going to do. And maybe I am a villain, but what they are doing is more villainous than anything I would do." Rubbing his hands together with a grin he says, "Besides, there's a few things I need to acquire from there besides you little one."

Spreading his wide black wings he gives a fierce down sweep and soars into the night sky. Letting the updrafts of air from below aid his flight he soars into the darkness as he flies deeper into the city and his eyes dart around searching for the location of the psychic personality that calls to him and begs for rescue. "Ah... There you are."

Letting a smile cross his features at seeing the non-descript warehouse near the center of the city. He momentarily closes his eyes and shakes his head in amusement, "Much as it might resemble any other warehouse at a glance, they're usually not found in the center of a big city." Seeing the figures prowling around the lit roof he smiles. "Nor do they usually have armed guards walking around the roof with their eyes sweeping the surrounding streets below. They never do learn how to hide things in plain sight do they?" he thinks with a soft chuckle.

He pulls a small gold lighter from his pocket and flicking it to life with practiced ease watches the flame dance in the winds above the city. His hand draws the flame from it using his pyro-kinetic ability and closes his eyes, feeling the tingle that is the flames covering his mane and tail he shivers in exultation. With lightning speed he feels the tingle surging along his wide and glossy black wings, and finally with a brief flash, bursting from his ankles and wrists. He lets loose an eerie whiney as he makes the fires flare brighter and hotter than they normally burn, causing a new star to momentarily form in the night sky for anyone who happened to be watching.

In the bright flames his clothes burn off him in a shower of ash, leaving him in only a loincloth that remains intact despite the flames. The flowing black of the cloth matches his midnight pelt and seems to fight the silver chains that keep it strapped to his body. A gleaming silver blade hangs from a loop of the chain that holds the loincloth to him and he pats it reassuringly to make sure it's still secure.

He smiles as he glides towards the building and with a surge of his wings flaps them together in front of him in a fiery blur. This flings a fiery blast from his wings to crash into the roof of the building and blast a large hole in it with a roar of flaming rubble scattering over the area. He watches as the blast sends the guards on the roof running for cover and smiles, "Ah, I love the smell of power in the evening."

He laughs loudly and arcs through the gaping hole as the alarms start to ring out. With a heavy thud he lands in a crouch and surveys the room he's crashed into. "What a place to land, the guard barracks," he mutters.

Stunned security men in various stages of dress look at him in stunned shock, two raise batons to swing at him and he pulls the silver sword from his belt, the blade bursting into flame as he brings it up to block the steel batons with practiced ease. His eyes flare into flaming orbs as he studies the two, "Now boys, is that any way to play nice?"

The guards back away from this visage of darkness and flame, looking much like Hell had come to Earth. Another of the men clad only in his underwear is screaming into a communicator he had snatched up from the floor, "Backup! We need backup now! We're under attack by a Super!"

Nightmare grins widely at the guards around him and slams the sword into the floor with an evil laugh. He poses there, fiery wings outstretched and arms flexed in tension, a true nightmare of fire and darkness. "I know your fears, and I am your Nightmare!" he cries out as his mind casts a wide area mental image of the men before him burning in hellfire.

Their screams echo in the drab concrete room, "AHHH! Put it out, put it out!" "Help! Stop it, it burns!" "God save us!" "Drop and roll, everyone drop and roll!" This last was from a small man who was trying to put out his mental fires with no effect.

Nightmare smiles and lets them writhe in the mental sensations that flood their minds as he yanks his sword out of the ground and steps past them into the hallway. With a wave of his hand he blocks the door with a real curtain of flame to contain the guards when the mental images finally clear their minds.

The sudden crack of a small pistol echoes in the empty hall and Nightmare grunts in pain as a hot slug buries in his meaty shoulder. A whinny of pain slips past his lips but he stamps down the panic and fires a wide burst of flame towards the guard who ducks around a corner with feline reflexes. Bringing both hands forward he focuses to blast the corner with a more concentrated burst of flame and the plastic of the wall softens, melts, and burns slightly but misses the guard huddling around the corner.

The guard dives out and rolls across the hall trying to rely on his feline reflexes and speed to snap off a few more shots. Too bad for him they go wide and Nightmare focuses well enough to make the ammo of the gun explode loudly inside its magazine. A feral scream of pain echoes chillingly down the corridor as the guard scoots backwards on his rear and away from the enraged villain coming towards him, blood oozing from his injured hands. He mewls in pain, the cocky attitude that had led him to attack such a powerful Super now gone like a wisp of smoke.

To add insult to injury Nightmare does a quick scan on his mind and implants the vision in the guard's mind of being skinned alive. The young tabby cat starts to scream, "NO!!! Please no more, please no more!" The feline squirms in real horror at the feeling of his flesh being torn from his body as every nerve in his body screams in psychic pain.

Nightmare scowls at the feline in disgust, "That will teach you to not fight the Nightmare that lives in your own mind."

He checks his wound and flexes the arm slowly, "Just a flesh wound at least, in and out without hitting the bone." He sees the blood dribbling down from the wound and taking a handful of fire from his wing he presses it to the bullet holes, gritting his teeth as they cauterize closed to stop the blood loss. With a rough grunt he continues down the hallway, the fire of his wings reflecting in his eyes. In a bad mood he blasts each of the alarms as he passes them, "I'm really getting sick of that damn alarm." He decides to add the security cameras just for good measure and to burn off some of his rage so he can think clearly.

Finding the research labs he enters the main data center and is pleased to see it vacated. Closing the door behind him he welds it to the frame with a quick stream of fire, "That should keep people out of my way while I work." Sitting at one of the computer terminals he quickly taps in a quick series of commands and smiles as data streams across the monitor.

"Just like the report said," he whispers as he slips a small device from a fold of his loincloth that had kept it safe. Plugging the small thumb drive into the side of the computer he initiates the data transfer and smiles as the progress bar slowly works its way across, "This will net me a nice profit." He hears someone banging on the door to the data center and gives a disgusted sigh, "Well, that didn't take them long did it?"

He stands and waits for the person on the other side of the door to finally force it open. He greets the guard with a smile as the hulking bear in a torn and too small security uniform stumbles into the room and stops to look at him. "Give up Super, you're under arrest."

Nightmare chuckles, his shoulders shaking as he crosses his arms over his broad chest, "Foolish. Just like the un-altered guards I've already met. How do you plan to fight your worst Nightmare? How can you fight your own mind?" He reads the bears shocked mind and sees him as a child, skinny and weak. Picked on by bullies and laughed at by the other kids for not being a more typical member of his race. With an evil grin he sends that image back and the bear clutches his head as he cries out as he once again sees himself on the playground in school, all the other kids laughing at him.

With an almighty roar he starts to lash out blindly around him. His big beefy arms swinging like large clubs and Nightmare is forced to dodge and duck out of the way of the berserk bear. "No one will ever laugh at me again! They promised me!" the large guard screams as he looks around with eyes that aren't seeing the real world right now, but the inner illusion generated by Nightmare's powers. The large equine shakes his head as the flailing bear runs past him and slams his head into a bulkhead. With a grunt of pain he slumps to the ground, his own strength having knocked him unconscious as well and putting a large dent into the solid steel.

Hearing a beep from the computer he turns back to see the flashing 'complete' on the screen. "I'll take that," he says with a smile as he retrieves the small flash drive and returns it to the hidden pocket in his loincloth and pats it reassuringly with a smile. "Now, to remove the originals," he says as he spreads his wings and the flames brighten. He shoots a hand towards the bank of computers and blasts them with a stream of flame. Smiling at the destruction he turns to leave the room and do the last thing he came here for.

Walking down the corridor he doesn't encounter anyone else, "Maybe they're hiding from me finally?" He chuckles, "As they should."

He reaches the high security dorms and closes his eyes in concentration. "I know you're here little one, I can feel you near," he sends out with his mind alone. "Open to me and tell me where you are."

"Here," comes a small voice in his mind from one of the cells in the hall.

"I'm coming, just be strong," he thinks to the fellow mind that seeks his security.

The massive steel door the mind guides him to looks like it could stop a tank, but good thing he's got abilities no tank ever had. A brief flash of concentrated fire to the lock and the door slides open with a soft whoosh. Looking inside he sees the small female squirrel curled up against the wall in terror. "Do not fear, I am here," he sends to her with a gentle thought and adds a mental image of him coming to her rescue, a equine knight in fiery armor. She peeks through her fingers and suddenly flings herself at him with all the nimbleness her kind is known for.

"It's alright dear, it's alright, and I'm going to take you someplace no one will be able to get to you again." He holds her with strong arms as she buries her sobbing face in his broad chest. "I think it's time we get out of here before the guards can summon a real Super, not some inept wannabe."

Two guards run down the hallway to block the exit with guns leveled at his hulking shape and he frowns, "You won't shoot me while I have the girl, and you know it. Your bosses would skin you alive for harming their prized slave." He uses his supernatural fire cast in a stream from his wings to heat the barrels of their guns and make them droop like limp noodles.

The two guards look at their useless weapons with slack jaws. Dropping them, they run off down the corridor like the devil himself was after them as Nightmare thinks, "And perhaps I am." Nightmare grins at his joke before looking towards the ceiling flapping a fiery ball towards it with his massive wings. As the fireball strikes the ceiling a short distance down the corridor he wraps his fiery wings around his small companion to shield her from the debris that rain on them.

Once the hole clears of wreckage and fire he shakes his wings to clear them and with a leap he surges through the hole in the roof and flies into the night. A few shots ring out of the night and towards him as he surges into the darkness. Shouted orders carry up from the chaos of the compound below, but he ignores them all as he carries his small package safely into the dark night sky.

As he flaps for altitude he hears the sound of a helicopter's engines spinning up and he looks around with a startled expression on his features. "No..." he quietly says and starts winging harder for altitude. "Gotta make some distance from here before those helicopters are in the air."

"Surrender now Super, you can't escape!" he hears a voice boom behind him. Looking back he sees an attack chopper following him easily through the air. A quick burst of machinegun fire arcs through the air and he banks to the side to avoid the bright tracers. "That was your only warning Super, we will shoot you down to stop you. You will not be allowed to escape with your prisoner."

Nightmare back wings to a sudden stop and the chopper shoots past him before swinging around to hover in front of him. "I am no Super, I am your Nightmare," he says quietly as he quickly scans the pilot's mind and even quicker projects the pilot's worst nightmare back into his mind.

The pilot suddenly sees his cockpit full of maggots and creepy crawlers, the young ferret screams as he tries to get them off him. He bats at his controls and helmet as he screams in terror, "Get em off! Get em off! Oh God, they're in my clothing!"

His gunner looks back over his shoulder at him but sees nothing odd other than the actions of his comrade. "What's wrong with you? You're going to make us crash you fool." Feeling the chopper going out of control around them he yells in terror, "Stop it!"

The chopper starts to spin and Nightmare watches it fall from the sky, he grins as two small flashes of tiny explosions indicate the small cockpit has ejected to save the two crewmen. "That should teach you a lesson, I am the Nightmare you fear," he says in a whisper. Looking down to the young woman clutching herself to his chest he speaks quietly to her, "Let's get you someplace safe little one."

He is spun around by a rocket darting past him from behind. Looking he sees another attack chopper letting loose a second rocket and reacts to detonate the projectile as it leaves the tubes. The blast making the chopper rock backwards as the pilot fights for control as his weapon pod explodes. The machinegun under the chin of the attack chopper speaks and he closes his wings to drop into a dive and out of the gunner's field of view.

He plummets towards the ground and he hears the whine of the chopper following. With a twist he turns to face the plunging chopper and flares a beam of fire towards the craft. With a massive explosion one of the rocket pods on the left wing explodes in a fireball and sends the craft into a uncontrolled spin. Nightmare spreads his massive wings to stop their plunge and lets the attack craft pass them. He doesn't even stay long enough to see if anyone ejects from the chopper.

He kills his flames and disappears into the darkness of the night sky, his black fur and feathers helping him blend into the comforting darkness as he flies to the outskirts of Megalopolis and settles behind a large estate. With a quiet and gentle bump he lands next to a massive retaining wall and approaching it with caution.

Placing his hand on a block of the heavy retaining wall he feels the palm reader in it tingle as it recognizes him. A secret entrance to his premises opens and he carries her down the smooth stone tunnel, lights coming on as the door shuts behind him with a soft hiss. Entering his below ground lair he carries her to the infirmary and sets his burden gently on an examination table. As she feels him let go she suddenly leaps into his arms again and clings as she whimpers softly and buries her face in his chest, "Don't leave me..."

His heart goes out to her again and he gently strokes at her hair, "Don't worry little lady, you'll be safe here as long as you want. I won't let those government types get their grubby hands on you again."

She looks up at him, tear tracks running down her cheeks. "How can you keep them from me? I've tried to get away before and they always found me." She clings all the tighter to the muscular equine, "I don't want them to find me... I don't want to go back to that lab." She buries her face in his furred chest again and he can feel her hot tears rolling through his fur.

He sighs and sits himself on the table she had leaped from, "It'll be alright, you can stay here with me. I'll give you a whole wing of my estate for your personal use if you want." When her sobs have stilled and her breathing drops to the slow rhythm of sleep he carries her out of the infirmary and finds an empty bedroom. "A medical examination can wait till later I guess." Setting her on the soft mattress he tucks her in and he leans down to kiss her forehead. "You sleep well lil one, I'll be back soon as I've cleaned up."

He goes to his own suite of rooms and pulls off his loincloth, extracting the tiny flash drive of precious data from its folds. He places it in his desk before he tosses the loincloth into the laundry chute and enters his bathroom. Turning on his shower he steps into it with an involuntary shiver, as it slowly warms he relaxes against the slowly warming wall. He sighs as he rests his forehead against the wall and lets the hot water run over him, washing both his blood and his sweat from his body. "It seems this place isn't going to be quite as quiet as it used to be." He takes the bottle of soap and starts to wash himself thoroughly.

Rinsing off the last of the soap from his fur and feathers he shuts off the water and triggers the drying jets. Spreading his wings slightly he lets the warm air blow through his sleek fur and with a sigh steps out of the air to find something to wear. He pauses to examine the small hole in his shoulder and grunts at the fire sealed hole, "At least it isn't hurting as much anymore." Finding some clothes he pulls them on before he retraces his steps to the bedroom he had left his guest in.

As he eases the door open a reddish-brown furred flash latches onto his legs and sobs can be heard as a small quiet voice begs, "Please don't leave me; don't let them find me..." She looks up at him, the tears still flowing, "I'd rather die!"

He wraps her in his strong arms, "It's alright my lil pet. As I said, I'm not about to let them get you again. You're safe here with me, and you can stay as long as you want."

She looks up at him with her sky blue eyes as he carries her back to the bed where he sits with her in his lap. "Do you mean that?" she asks in a quiet voice as if afraid to admit such a thing is possible.

He nods and gives her a tiny smile of reassurance, "Yes, I do."

She closes her eyes and pillows her head on his chest again, "Thank you... Master..."

He looks down at her in surprise but she is already asleep again, "What have I gotten myself into?" He settles himself on her bed and holding her lets her sleep herself out as he thinks, "Well, no matter what I've gotten into I'll handle it like the leader of any other herd would." He smiles at the small female in his arms, "No matter who's in it."

As the first rays of day are cresting over the horizon the small squirrel in his arms slowly stirs. He smiles down at her as she opens her eyes and looks up at him with a worried look. "You're real?" she asks in a quiet voice. He nods and widens his smile as she clings tighter to him as if to reassure herself. "All those times I heard your voice in my head, it was real..." she trails off.

"Yes lil pet, I'm real and you are still safe with me. You can stay here as long as you like and the government will leave you alone." He gently strokes her long blond hair as she chitters happily in that way squirrels are famous for.

"You really mean it... I can stay with you Master..." she starts to cry but now they're tears of happiness.

He holds her and rocks her gently in his arms, "Shhh... shhh... It's alright, you're safe. We can even set you up a lab if you want," he looks down at her with a smile, "but no blowing up the estate. That would be a bit hard to hide."

She looks up at him, tears of joy still filling her eyes, "Thank you Master."

He ruffles her hair gently, "You don't have to call me Master. My name is John."

She lowers her muzzle but looks up with her eyes, "Yes Master John," she says with what must be the world's cutest look. She clings hard against him again and he just holds her gently as she rubs her cheek against his chest. For now he decides she can call him whatever makes her comfortable.

All characters unless otherwise stated are the property of Christopher Gilman.Story © Copyright Christopher Gilman 2008 all rights reservedMegalopolis © Copyright Goliath Thunderstep and Emerald Cistern and used with permission mail me and tell me what you think at [email protected]