Wahoo! I had the whole day to myself and see what came of it!
Supercop: 5/?
by Nan Smith
Previously:
" ... Fire at Metro General is raging out of control," the newscaster's voice said. "Now would be the time for us all to shout 'Help, Superman', but the Man of Steel is still in Japan ..."
Henderson was already moving. The hospital was on fire and people needed a superman. It looked as if he was the only game in town.
He hurried into the bedroom and shook his wife's shoulder. "Sue!" he whispered.
She opened her eyes. "Bill? What's wrong?"
"There's a fire at the hospital! I'm going over to see if I can help." He opened his dresser drawer and yanked out a pair of black jeans and a black shirt.
She was instantly awake. "What if people recognize you?"
"It doesn't matter. I'll be careful, but I can't let people burn to death if I can help."
She sat up. "I have an idea. Put on that ski mask you wore when we went up to Vermont for our honeymoon. Then if anyone sees you, they won't recognize you. It's in your socks drawer."
As usual, her advice was right on target. The ski mask was tucked into the corner of the drawer. He shook it out and pulled it over his face. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
She nodded. "Go."
He kissed her hurriedly and ran out of the room.
**********
And now, Part 5:
When he went out the door he headed instinctively for his car and stopped. It would take forever to get to the fire in the car, even though they would probably let him past the roadblocks -- assuming he took off his ski mask -- but on foot he could probably make it in less than a minute. An instant later, he was running, striving for ever more speed, even as he moved faster than anything had ever moved on the face of the planet except for Superman, himself.
Aware now of exactly what he was doing, it was fascinating to watch his surroundings as he crossed half the city in the blink of an eye. He didn't feel any different, but everything around him seemed to slow down. Cars appeared to be frozen in place, people were poised with both feet in the air in the middle of a step; he even saw stoplights that were in the process of changing from red to green and he could see how the colors of the old one hadn't completely faded while the new one was in the process of coming on.
It wasn't just his physical body that had speeded up, he realized, but his mental processes as well. His thoughts. Everything. It was a little mind-boggling if he let himself think about it too much.
The hospital was ahead. He wove his way through the mob of fire vehicles and emergency personnel as if they were literally standing still. He could see hospital employees and ambulatory patients who were apparently milling about behind the fire lines, uncertain of what to do, and people on litters and gurneys in the process of being transported by anyone at all, even other patients. Streams of water from fire hoses were directed at the flames that were engulfing one entire wing. He could hear screams from trapped people still inside.
He came to a sudden stop under the branches of one of the trees that decorated the hospital grounds. Standing back in the shadows, he trained his x-ray vision on the building, willing himself to see through the layers of concrete and steel to the interior.
The barriers melted away before him and he saw at once where the cries were coming from. A small group of personnel and patients had attempted to escape the flames that swept through their ward by retreating through a short, narrow hallway, but now smoke and fire also blocked the other end. They had closed the doors at both ends in a vain attempt to keep out the flames and there was nothing to burn where they were, but there was also nowhere to go. They had minutes to live, as the heat and smoke were reaching critical levels.
He glanced down at himself and around at the furiously working firefighters. No one could know that this group was where it was and even if they did, no one would be able to reach them in time. It was up to him.
"Bill, old boy," he muttered to himself, "you'd better hope you've got the whole batch of powers because you're about to stake your life on them."
He took a deep breath and moved.
He raced forward faster than the eye could follow, past the fire lines, aiming for a spot as close as possible to the trapped people. For an instant he paused below a second floor window, bent his knees and thrust upward as hard as he could.
Someone behind him shouted but he paid no attention as he sailed upward like an arrow shot into the air and grasped the windowsill with both hands.
A blast of heat hit him in the face as he hoisted himself effortlessly through the window, but hot as it was, it didn't burn him at all. His eyes didn't even tear up. He had been right. He was as invulnerable as Superman.
He paused for an instant, glaring around with his x-ray vision, orienting himself. The trapped people were in the narrow section thirty yards ahead and branching off to his left. The whole main hallway was blazing, and he was going to have to walk through fire to reach it ...
Time for another test of Superman's powers. He inhaled deeply, sucking in more smoke than oxygen, but it didn't matter. Henderson blew out hard, exactly as he might to cool off a bowl of steaming soup, but with much more force.
He couldn't believe the results. The fire nearest him went out like it had been doused with a waterfall and a thin coat of frost, melting quickly, covered every surface. Steam filled the air around him. Emboldened, he hurried twenty feet down the corridor and repeated the action. Less than a minute later, he stood in a steam-filled corridor outside the door that had been his target.
The billowing steam around him was warm, there was no question of that, but not hot enough to burn human flesh, and his time was limited. The fire had been beaten back temporarily but it wouldn't last. He pulled on the door.
It was locked. He set his jaw and exerted strength on the knob. There was a satisfying crunch, and the knob turned easily under his hand. He yanked the door open.
Muted cries and muffled sobbing met his ears. Two women in the uniforms of nurses or attendants were attempting to calm four patients, none of whom could be more than sixteen. Henderson could feel the heat in the room, and a quick look with his x-ray vision showed him the space on the other side of the rear door to be engulfed in fire.
"Come on!" he commanded. "This way out -- hurry!"
They gaped at him and he smothered exasperation at the precious seconds that were ticking away.
"Who are you?" one of the women asked, obviously taken aback by his masked face.
"A friend. Come with me if you want to get out of here!" he commanded.
The other woman moved to help one of the teenage patients up from the floor, obviously deciding that going with him was safer than staying. Henderson stepped forward, lifted the boy effortlessly from the floor and jerked his head. "Follow me."
They stepped out into the hallway, still obscured with a haze of smoke and steam. From the far end, he could see the lick of flames once again approaching, and with it a cloud of thick, black smoke wafting toward them.
One of the teenagers hesitated. "We're gonna be burned alive," he whispered.
"There's a window that way." He pointed with the fingers of the hand that supported his burden's knees. "Hurry!"
"I can't!" The speaker was the one girl in the group. Henderson glanced back at the approaching flames, drew in his breath once more and blew out freezing air.
More flames went out. He turned to the group. "Go!"
This time they obeyed. He brought up the rear with his burden.
One of the teenagers peered out at the massed firefighters. "How are we gonna get out?"
"Wait for me." Henderson put one leg over the windowsill, glancing at them. This would reveal to them beyond doubt what he was, but if he wanted to save their lives, he didn't have a choice. Besides, after that demonstration, they'd probably figure it out anyway, if they hadn't already. He swung the other leg over. It was too bad he hadn't mastered flying yet, but ...
Well, why not try? The very worst he could do was fall, and he wouldn't be hurt, nor would his passenger. His x-ray vision worked when he concentrated on wanting it to work. Hopefully, that was the secret behind the flying as well.
He slipped over the sill, concentrating hard on maintaining his height in the air, and very suddenly, the feeling of gravity was gone. He was standing on nothing, taking the teenage boy with him. The ease of it would have been stunning if he hadn't had a much more important project on which to focus. He *wanted* himself to fly forward, and his body obeyed, sailing quickly in the direction that he literally willed himself to go. His feet touched the grass and he set the boy down.
Firefighters and several uniformed police officers were surging toward him. From somewhere, he heard shouts and out of the corner of his eye he could see a news van. Oh well, the secret was out. He might as well put on a good show. Quickly he launched himself back in the direction of the window, moving faster now.
The remaining five persons were waiting, and he reached through the window, grasping a teenager in each arm. "Put your arms around my neck!" he commanded.
They obeyed unquestioningly. An instant later he had deposited them on the grass and was on the final trip.
The last three were the two hospital employees and one remaining patient. He reached through the window for the boy, and spoke to the women. "Grab me around the neck, one of you. Quick."
The younger woman hesitated. Henderson spoke sharply, using the voice he had cultivated as a cop to bring obedience from others. "Hurry! I'm going to take all three of you. Grab hold and hang on!"
The younger woman grasped him around the neck and he swung her onto his back. "You mind a piggy back ride?" he asked over his shoulder, reaching out for the other woman. She shook her head and tightened her grip enough to strangle an ordinary man. Henderson pulled the second woman against his side, holding both her and the boy with one arm around each waist. As smoothly as possible, he lowered them to the grass some distance from the rescue personnel.
One newsman tried to break through the police barrier to rush toward him. A uniformed officer whom he recognized as one of the new graduates from the Police Academy, who had recently been assigned to his Precinct, snagged the enterprising fellow by his collar as Henderson set his teenage burden down. One of the rescued women sat down hard on the ground, obviously too shaken to stand, but the other turned to him. "Thanks," she whispered.
"You're welcome," he said, automatically.
"Excuse me, sir." The very respectful voice was from a firefighter who was standing behind him. Henderson turned.
"Yes?"
"The Chief would like to see you, sir. He'd like your help. Can you tell if there's anyone else in there?"
Henderson turned to stare in the direction of the hospital. "Not in the burning area. Where's your Chief?"
"Over there, sir."
Henderson strode over toward Fire Chief Walters, making sure that his ski mask was firmly in place. The man was looking at him with an expression on his face that Henderson couldn't quite interpret. "You wanted to see me?"
The fire chief nodded. "You're not Superman, but you're *a* superman, aren't you? Like him and Ultra Woman?"
"Yeah, I am."
"We're having trouble reaching some areas of the fire. There's a lot of volatile chemicals stored in there, and --"
"What do you want me to do?"
**********
It was nearly four-thirty when the firefighters at last had the flames under control. Henderson stuck around until he was certain that the rest of the job was just a routine mop-up and soared up into the air, disappearing into the darkness, leaving behind, he was certain, an excited and frustrated mass of journalists. He had been aware at the times when he spoke to Walters that a dozen or more news cameras were trained on him, and he was careful to hold himself stiffly and to keep his replies as brief as possible. Mostly, he had simply obeyed the orders of the Chief.
Now, rocketing toward home through the night, he experienced a sense of satisfaction at a job well done. He had saved the lives of six people tonight, people whose futures would have been snuffed out without his intervention. It would be interesting to see what the media had to say about him. In any case, Metropolis knew it had a new superhero, at least for now.
Their small, fenced back yard was unlighted and provided a perfect landing spot. He could hear the television in their living room, so he surmised that Sue was awake and waiting for him. Gently, he knocked on the back door.
Sue must have been listening for him, he realized a moment later, for she didn't look in the least surprised when she opened the door and let him in. For a moment they simply stared at each other.
He pulled off his mask. "Well," he said, "that went a little differently than I expected."
"You were on television," she said. "I watched you rescue those people. You were amazing."
"All I did was the same things Superman has done for years," he said. "They're *his* powers, after all."
"I know, but it wasn't Superman saving people, tonight," she said. "It was you. I think Superman would be proud of what you did. I sure am."
"I figured out a few things, anyway," he said.
"I saw you flying," she said.
"Well, yes, but that isn't all." Henderson grinned, leading the way back into the living room where an announcer spoke excitedly from the television and he could see an image of himself soaring through the air, bringing out the last three people from the fire.
Watching it and the subsequent images that showed him in action, he saw that the effect of the black clothing and the ski mask had been all that he could have desired. They hadn't been able to get a clear picture of him, and that was exactly how he wanted it. Let him stay a mystery.
"What did you figure out?" Sue asked.
"I don't break things, even when I'm not thinking about it," he said. "I didn't have time to concentrate on being too careful while I was getting those people out of the building, but I didn't hurt anyone. I still can't afford to get careless, but I think it's going to be all right."
"Are you coming to bed with me?" she asked.
He shook his head. "Give me another day to be sure. I don't want to take the slightest risk, but I think I can stop worrying before long."
"Good," she said, emphatically. "I've gotten out of the habit of sleeping alone."
He kissed her. "So have I." He drew back and wiped away a black smudge that he had unintentionally deposited on her cheek. "I think I'd better take a shower."
She grinned unexpectedly. "Better let me have those clothes. We don't want any black clothing of yours to show up covered with soot. I'll throw it in the washer."
"You should get back to bed," Henderson said. "You need your rest, and I can run a washing machine as well as you can."
"I have tomorrow off," Sue told him. "I'm too excited to sleep right now, anyway. Go take your shower and I'll start the washer as soon as you're done."
Aware that he wasn't going to win this one, Henderson did as he was told.
**********
tbc
