comments chapter 4 chapter 5:
Clark was floating a few inches over his bed, it wouldn't be the first time he ended up against the ceiling in the morning, laying on his back, his arms crossed over his naked chest.
He normally would sleep in his boxers but have chosen to keep his pants on, it was like he knew he would be needed this night, his glasses on the little table across the room.
The mild-mannered reporter was a deep sleeper, but there was one thing that would wake him up in an instant.
“ Help me, somebody Help me please...”, Clark was startled awake by the sounds of someone screaming for help, he was shocked, that was the voice of Victoria, he jumped from the height he was floating on the wooden floor and ran out of the door in the direction of the sound, he stopped in front of the door, hearing her call for help again through the door, “ Help me, somebody Help me please...”
Clark forced the door open, Wells, who had heard the calls too, now right behind him...
meanwhile outside the tavern, everybody was asleep a few guards were dozing off on their waiting-post and a lonely rider, dressed in black, wearing a mask and riding a beautiful, black stallion, a man known as Zorro. He watched the guards, who were dozing of around the corner, he needed to get from one side of the plaza to the other side of the plaza.
“ We need to be quiet, old boy, we don't want to disturb their bedtime.” the fox whispered towards his stallion with the name Toronado.
Toronado was a special horse, one of a kind, he wasn't only very fast and well-trained, Toronado was also smart and could understand everything Zorro said to him, you could think of him as a human in the body of a horse.
The stallion nodded in agreement and lifted his hooves in slow motion on at the time, he sneaked past the guards and over the plaza like a tiger that was sneaking up a prey, carefully to not make any sound that could alarm the soldiers.
It was a success Zorro reached backside of the tavern without the slightest sound, he stood up straight in the saddle, using the back of his 17 hands tall stallion, Toronado was used to it by now and stood perfectly still until his master was out of sight, as a step up to reach the open window above him, this windows were always open and gave access to a room behind the kitchen, that way he could jump through an open space in the kitchen, a route that Victoria thought of as Zorro's exit.
Clark stepped into Victoria's room, he saw don Carano with struggling with Victoria, one hand was over her mouth now and his other arm around her neck, the mean don stood with his back towards the door not noticing that Clark had taken place in the doorway his arms crossed over his still naked chest, “ you have 5 seconds to release the senorita.” Clark's voice was cold and hard, he should have known that he was going to try something.
“1...” don Carano whirled around still holding the tavern owner in his grasp. “ You again,...” growled Carano.
Clark didn't react and continued his counting while he blocked the easy exit through the door “2...”, “3...”, don Carano threw Victoria in a corner of her room, she fell with her head against the little table in the corner of her room, losing her consciousness almost immediately.
Carano took some fast steps towards Clark with a clenched fist, he took a swing making sure that Clark would be out in one hit, he aimed for the chin but the dark-haired young man took a step aside right before his nemesis would hit making him stumble a few passes backward.
Clark used that time to make quick look towards Victoria, he used his super-hearing to listen to her heartbeat, he let a sigh of relief to know that she passed out.
" Herb., you take care...," he stopped his sentence the moment he felt a hit on his chest, you know the sound of a ring hitting on a piece of steel, well that sound rang through the room the moment Carano's first hit Clark's chest, he shook his hand looked at it, it was bruised, maybe broken even from this one hit, Carano was really shocked now he hadn't seen that coming, Clark turned around and hit at his chin just hard enough to make him fly through the railing ending down one floor at the feet of a masked man in black.
Zorro looked up seeing Clark standing there, he kneeled down next to the don, " He is still alive!" he yelled towards Clark, the man of steel nodded in response, Zorro took the rope he knew Victoria kept behind her bar, it wasn't the first time someone left the tavern tied up.
The fox tied the man on a big wooden beam before he ran up the stairs thinking " he is not going to take Victoria away from me, not as long as I am alive." the thoughts were strange to him, never in his whole life had he felt jealous of another man, until Clark entered their lives and now there he was in her bedroom, sweeping her off her feet, I still think there is something strange about the man."
Zorro arrived at her room and was shocked what he saw, there in the corner of her room was his Victoria with a wound on the side of her head, Clark's hand on her chin, he was looking at the wound on her head, it was time to make his presence known.
“ Victoria, Querida, are you alright? What happened here?” asked Zorro trying to keep the jealous edge out of his voice, he succeeded towards Wells and Victoria, but not for Clark's super-hearing.
" There was a man that attacked me and would have taken me away if it wasn't for these men."
" The noise came from the tavern, come on let's take a look." boomed outside the tavern. The soldiers were on their way.
“ Soldiers!” whispered Zorro, “ I better make my leave, my presence will only complicate matters.”
Clark stood up and placed a hand on Zorro's shoulder, “ Don't worry I will keep her safe as best as I can when I am around, I am glad I could prevent that she suffered the same fate as my girlfriend.”
Zorro nodded, “ for Victoria's safety I am in your debt, Thank you for what you did and I will do anything I can to help and find your girlfriend.” Zorro responded before he took his leave and it was just in time because he had just closed the curtains of the kitchen when a knock could be heard on the door, “ open up, now, that is an order!”
“ One minute please!” yelled Clark.
“ Herb., would you be so kind to open the door, I will make sure that she gets down in one piece.”
Wells stepped up from his place beside Victoria and walked down and past Carano who was tied up downstairs.
Clark reached out a hand, to help Victoria stand up but fell against him the moment she tried to take a step forward, “ I think my ankle is sprained or broken,” Clark looked with his X-ray vision toward her ankle, it wasn't broken. “ I don't think it's broken but I will carry you down if you want, that way you don't need to use it before the doctor had a chance to look at it.”
Victoria nodded and placed her arm's around Clark's strong neck, after all, which women would refuse the offer off being carried by a handsome strong man.
Clark swooped her up and started walking towards the stairs, he noticed that it was already crowded when he walked down the stairs, he placed Victoria on one of the benches in her tavern just in time when the alcalde walked towards her.
“ Senorita Escalante, could you tell me what has happened here?”
Victoria wanted to start her version of the story when Diego and his father walked in. Clark smiled a small smile when he saw him, a smile that said I should have known, he knew who Zorro was but more importantly he knew what it was like, to see you loved one suffer as your alter-ego, he was glad he wasn't an outlaw and hunted by the police, though.
“ Victoria are you alright?” Diego asked while hurrying towards her side.
" I am fine now Diego, thank you," she responded towards him before turning her attention back to the alcalde.
" It was right on the moment I wanted to make my evening toilettes that a man knocked on my door, I opened the door slightly but it was more than enough for Carano to push open my door and took me by my neck, I was able to yell for help before the man shut me up, I was glad when I saw Mr. Kent and his friend appear, they made sure that he couldn't take me away. That is when I passed out and I came back to my senses when the fight was over," said Victoria to the alcalde who made sure that Mendoza has written everything down before his attention went to Clark.
“ You are Mr. Kent I presume?”
Clark nodded, “ Yes, sire, I am Clark Kent and this is my friend Herbert George Wells.”
“ You are not Spanish, Where are you from senor?” asked the alcalde
“ I am from the Americas.” was his only response, he didn't trust the man so he only answered at the questions, nothing more nothing less.
“ Could you tell me your side of the story?”
Clark nodded, “ I was asleep when I heard the calls for help, I followed the sound and opened the door not knowing what I would find there.”
“ I was right behind him,” said Wells in between.
Clark nodded, " Yes I ordered them to let her go, he reacted and threw in the corner of her room, he than went towards me with clenched fist, I just defended my self and hit him back and he fell down, we tied him up and made sure that the senorita regained her consciousness. That when I brought her down because she wasn't able to stand on her feet."
“ That is exactly how it happened!” responded Wells on Clark's story.
" Alright, senor that will be all," Desoto said before he ordered his soldiers to take the prisoner to the quartel and left the tavern himself.
Diego knelled down in front of Victoria, “ let me see that leg?”
Victoria showed her painful leg.
" It is badly sprained, not broken," he said while bandaging her feet
Victoria would be alright, for now...
