CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

First Meeting of the Brave and the Bold, Part 2

Sam didn’t have much time for a full heal. He didn’t have much strength left either as the system pointed out. His fatigue had risen to a whopping [90%] and his HP had dropped to [135/490]. This was regenerated by the second, but it still wouldn’t be enough life force for more than a quick heal, not if Sam wanted to get back down the stairs afterward.

“This will take away some of the pain,” Sam assured her right before he willed his life force into the tips of his fingers. “Healing Hand.”

Seconds ticked by while Sam went to work. Beads of sweat dripped down his forehead. Black spots appeared over his vision. It had been a while since he’d felt this way—like he was giving up his life for someone else’s sake.

It didn’t take long for the burns on the leg to subside, and the color came back to the mother’s olive-skinned cheeks.

“Thank you, mister,” her kids told Sam at the same time.

It brought a very warm feeling into his chest, one he’d never experienced before. Sam wasn’t sure what they called it, but he knew he wanted to feel this way again. He was sure of it.

This whole time, Crow-Man stood over them like a brooding specter, a silent observer to Sam’s regenerative power.

“Impressive,” Crow-Man admitted.

“This is all I can do right now,” Sam said apologetically to both the mother and the hero looking down at him. “But you’ll receive further medical attention as soon as we get you off this roof.”

Sam’s gaze drifted up to Crow-Man, the delta-level hero known to always have a plan and a backup plan and whatever one called the plan after the backup plan. He noticed that Crow-Man’s own gaze had drifted off to the roof’s entrance.

The flames had mostly destroyed its doors. It would have been impossible to walk back into the apartment and come out on the other side alive. Not even for someone like Sam.

Crow-Man probably deduced the same thing as he glanced away from the inferno peeking out of the roof’s entrance and instead focused his sights on the roof edge.

“I can take the kids down from here,” he answered while patting the object strapped to his utility belt. It was a high-powered grappling gun, an item that was exceedingly expensive in the OTC.

“Cool,” Sam said.

He’d heard that Crow-Man leaned heavily into using gadgets because his powers—although more than one— weren’t much use in these kinds of rescue operations. His incompatibility to a crisis never failed to stop him from saving the day though. It’s why Sam idolized the guy, and that hadn’t wavered at all, even if he’d sucker-punched Sam more than once tonight.

Crow-Man’s eyes studied the younger hero, and Sam could tell that he was scrutinizing how bad Sam looked. His clothes were mostly burned. There were dried blood and soot coating whatever patch of fabric was left.

The veteran hero’s gaze drifted down to Sam’s utility belt which Sam couldn’t help feeling embarrassed about because his belt was nothing like the sleek metal design of Crow-Man’s own state-of-the-art carbon-coated belt.

“I’ve got a rope,” Sam said lamely.

Crow-Man’s mouth, the only part of his face Sam could see apart from the eyes, twitched as if it was trying very hard not to smile at that comment.

“You can heal yourself and others… that’s quite the power,” Crow-Man stated. “How come I’ve never heard of you before?”

Sam could hear the suspicion in the other hero’s voice. He knew it well because it was a tone he’d heard all his life, although for quite different reasons from what Crow-Man was implying.

“I’m new to the hero life,” Sam lied.

Crow-Man’s violet eyes narrowed some more. It was almost as if he knew Sam was lying.

“Look… I’m not the problem here… I helped, didn’t I?” Sam reasoned.

It didn’t look like Crow-Man was convinced though as his eyes continued to study Sam’s face despite the plumes of smoke getting thicker and thicker around them.

“You’re the one who hit me first…” Sam reminded him.

A moment of awkward silence passed before Crow-Man finally grunted.

“I thought you caused the fire since your injuries suggested you’d survive an explosion at close range,” he reasoned.

“Why in blazes would you think that?” Sam asked, his eyebrow arching.

“There’s evidence to suggest that someone started this fire,” Crow-Man answered after a moment’s pause.

“Evidence?” Sam repeated. His eyebrow arched. “What evidence?”

Crow-Man tossed an item down at Sam’s hands.

“What is…?” Sam’s eyes widened.

He was holding onto a thick slab of something that was no bigger than a smartphone. It was wrapped in a soot-covered brown package that had ominous words printed on its surface.

“Block demolition, C-4,” Sam read out loud.

His fingers suddenly lost their strength. Sam dropped the item on the floor, realizing too late that he might have just killed himself and everyone around him.

“Holy Zeus,” Sam breathed.

Luckily, it didn’t explode, which was when Sam remembered that C-4 wasn’t so fragile it could detonate just by falling on the floor.

Crow-Man reached down and picked up the block of C-4, which he then hid inside the inner folds of his cape.

“You can’t fake that kind of reaction,” he said right before offering Sam his hand.

Sam frowned. “You were testing me?”

He let Crow-Man pull him up to his feet while his frown deepened some more.

“I’m not the bad guy!” Sam reiterated.

“I know that now,” Crow-Man replied. “It means I can trust you to watch over this woman while I carry her kids down to the street…”

“You could have just asked me first,” Sam grumbled.

It took a minute for Crow-Man to secure both kids to his harness, and another few seconds for the kids to say goodbye to their mom.

“I’ll be okay,” she promised while tears streamed down her chubby cheeks. “You guys go with Crow-Man first… I have—”

She glanced up at Sam expectantly.

He was suddenly feeling the pressure because he still hadn’t thought up a new hero moniker yet. And he knew better than to give them his actual name.

“I’m still work-shopping it…” Sam said lamely.

“Captain Cure?” the boy suggested.

“All-Cure?” the girl added.

Sam guessed that they would have probably thought up more embarrassing-sounding hero monikers for him if Crow-Man hadn’t abruptly picked them up. He jumped over the edge of the roof with the kids in tow immediately after he’d shot his grappling hook into a secure patch of the roof’s floor.

“Th-they’ll be okay, right?” the mother asked worriedly.

Sam was about to assure her that everything was going to be fine now, but the kids’ screams as they plummeted to the ground kind of made that hard to say.

He glanced over the edge and marveled at how Crow-Man was easily rappelling down with the kids while agilely avoiding the fires that gushed out of the broken windows along the apartment’s front side. All while the children sent high-pitched shrieks into his ears.

“They made it,” Sam reported.

He watched Crow-Man unhook the kids and deliver them into the arms of the first responders below.

“Okay, let’s get you ready—”

The words were lost in Sam’s throat because the roof had begun to shake violently. Thick cracks spread out across the floor like spider webs. Fire spilled out of the largest cracks, heating the air to way past sauna levels.

“Damn it all to Hades,” Sam snapped.

“Oh, gods!” the mother said as panic flitted across her face. “Oh, gods, save us!”

Sam didn’t think the gods would do anything of the sort. After all, they only helped those who helped themselves. There was no time left to wait for Crow-Man either. No, this next rescue was all on Sam now.

He reached down and helped the mother to her feet. “Come on!”

She was a bit too thick around the waist and thighs for Sam to carry her in his current state, but he kept her up while they limped toward the southern end of the roof which was the only part of it that wasn’t bathed in flames.

Kid, take the fire escape! Hurry! the master’s disembodied voice whispered into Sam’s ear, causing him to stop and look around. Get moving, lame-brain!

Sam recalled seeing a fire escape mounted along the building’s south wall when he’d gone in from the back of the apartment. He could only hope that it was still there.

They nearly lost their balance several times as portions of the roof collapsed around them.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Sam kept repeating over and over to reassure the mother. “I’ll save you…”

When they reached the edge of the roof, they saw the fire escape was still intact. Unfortunately, they would need to jump down a floor to reach it as the top of the metal ladder leading down to the landing below had already been ripped off its hinges.

“Okay… okay…” Sam breathed. “We can do this…”

Sam instructed the mother to climb onto his back, piggyback style. This would free him up to carefully drop them down onto the iron grill landing below.

“Ugh, gods,” Sam gasped as pain shot into his feet the moment his toes smacked hard on the grill landing. “Just a little more…”

They climbed down the steps of the fire escape while trying hard not to breathe in the smoke that clung to the walls on this side of the building. All the while, Sam kept reassuring the weeping mother on his back that everything was going to be okay. He only wished he believed it too.

Their luck held all the way down to the second-floor landing, which is where things took a turn for the worse. This was when the building shook so badly it caused portions of the fire escape to break off from the wall. This included the steps Sam was currently standing on — and it would be at least a fifteen-foot drop onto the pavement of the side alley below them.

As the mother screamed into his ear, all Sam could do was shield her from the fall so it would be him crashing into the street first. He could only hope that he had enough life force in him to survive the fall.

“Gods…” he whispered. “A little help, please…”