I Fell For My Nemesis

Christian felt a lot better as he sat and kicked his feet. It was cold up here but he was used to it. Windchill was no joke. You developed a resistance the more you flew around, especially when you were working against the wind. 

If he could fly around in the middle of the night in January he could handle anything. This was nothing by comparison. 

There were a lot of things he had handled that normal people couldn't. That was the problem with being different. Separate. Never fully relating to anyone else. 

Superpowers were generally kept secret. People with minor ones often lived their whole lives without drawing attention to them. People with major ones usually became heroes or villains and had to keep them from others for the sake of their secret identities. 

Christian knew plenty of heroes that he had interacted with in his long heroic career but he couldn't honestly say he was friends with a single one of them. They didn't have time to hang out as heroes and couldn't share who they were behind the masks. The occasional hello and an unspoken agreement to help each other out when possible was the best they could manage. 

Delta, Frostine, Red Dynamo, MultiMan. All heroes he had worked with more than once over the years who probably wondered what happened to him after he went off the radar. 

He sighed. He interacted with them more than he did his college friends since coming back to New York. Going off of that, they should be the ones in the wedding party rather than Trevor and Eric. But he didn't even know who they were. 

He wished he could tell them he was doing well but if he wanted to track them down he would have to go looking for villain fights. He couldn't risk that. It was the whole reason he had bothered fading into obscurity in the first place after he got stabbed. 

While he was recovering there was a lot of speculation online about whether or not Mercury had died after getting attacked by Circus Freak. He couldn't comment and say he hadn't because then people would wonder how a random person knew that. It was easier to stay out of it altogether. 

Christian's train of thought was derailed by a splash several stories high that would have been impossible to miss from where he was sitting. He didn't get wet but still felt the force of ocean moving that much water against its will. 

What had fallen over? He hadn't seen that part. 

He really couldn't be seen out here or Nox would follow through on his threat but he couldn't help but investigate from a distance. Close enough to see a small silvery figure shoot out of the water and miraculously calm the raging waves, which had apparently been caused by a bomb going off.

Christian was torn. The situation looked like it was pretty much taken care of. He shouldn't get involved but he did want to talk to Delta and let him know he was alive. 

He hovered there awkwardly for several minutes until the decision was made for him. Delta used his water jet propulsion to make it up onto the part of the bridge he had been sitting on before everything happened. He flew back over and sat near him. 

"Mercury! You're alive!" he cried with a grin. "I did wonder." 

"…sorry about that. I was recovering and wasn't exactly up for holding a press conference."

"I bet. Getting stabbed is no joke. It's happened to me more than once over the years. Sometimes I seriously envy Granite. Having impervious skin must be so convenient!" 

Granite was a hero with the power to turn his skin to rock at will. He was great at both offense and defense but not the most agile. He tended to fight villains with sturdier power types in hand-to-hand combat. 

Christian laughed and shook his head. "Ah, power envy. I'm sure he wishes he could get around the way we do."

Delta rolled his eyes. "Whatever. So did you officially retire then? I haven't heard a peep about you since the whole Circus Freak thing. I mean, I can totally understand why you would want to after what happened."

"Yeah. I had a fairly compelling reason to back away so I didn't see the point anymore. Heroism is a young person's game. I was at it for too long and was ready to move on."

"It happens to everyone eventually. People who don't retire are the ones who end up dead. You're doing the smart thing. Does that fairly compelling reason happen to involve a lady?"

Christian laughed again. There was no reason not to tell him. People got married every day; it wouldn't give anything away. 

"Bingo. I'm getting married."

"Congrats! I'll have to tell the others. It's nice to know there are happy endings waiting for us once we don't have to deal with villains anymore. What's she like? She must be something special to tempt the great Mercury away from the hero life," Delta guessed. 

A soft smile appeared on Christian's face at the thought of Avery. "She is. I had a crush on her for ages in my secret identity and was too afraid to act until we interacted more and I got pushed into asking her out.

"I didn't think it would go anywhere but I was already wanting to retire even before I got hurt. It was pretty obvious from the beginning that she could never be a short-term fling. Retiring was the obvious choice once that happened and the rest is history." 

"Aww, good for you! I have a hard time imagining you chickening out about asking out a girl though."

"…haven't you ever heard of a mild-mannered alter ego?"

Delta let out a small, disbelieving laugh. "You? The golden boy? No way!" 

"I'm the kind of person who blends into the background. Always have been. It's a very handy trait when you're a hero. I've done my time so now I plan to use it to fade into obscurity and live out my life with the woman I love as the boring, average guy I always was under the mask.

"Honestly, I wasn't planning on coming out here today. I'm done with heroism. I just…missed flying. The mask was a precaution but it's a good thing I wore it since I ran into you," Christian said sheepishly. 

"Yeah, if I saw a random flying person that kind of would have been a dead giveaway. There aren't any other flight heroes in this city. Oh! While I have you…what was the deal with that new hero who saved you? Everybody's been dying to know but he never made an appearance again." 

Christian grimaced. Of course Nox had to be brought up. 

He couldn't give the man away and say he was a villain because then people would go searching for him. He had promised not to interfere in whatever he was doing involving Nolan Hunsacher in exchange for keeping his secret identity safe. 

"He's not a hero. I think he was a Good Samaritan that didn't want me to die," he said vaguely.

Delta's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "That's some Good Samaritan! How do you know he's not a hero?"

"…I know him. He only saved me because I'm me."

"You know him? Like personally?!" 

"Not personally, personally. It's hard to explain. But you can tell Frostine she was right the next time you see her. I'm sure she'll appreciate that," Christian said wryly. 

She had been spot-on about how Nox saw himself as a Robin Hood. That people's motivations could be much more complex than the typical villain's tended to make you believe. He had nearly forgotten about that. 

"Right about what?" Delta asked in confusion. 

"What we talked about the last time we saw each other. She'll remember."

"Great. The last thing that woman needs is a further ego boost. I'll pass on the message though. If it's hard to explain you don't have to tell me…but it's not like a villain adopted you as a pet or anything. That would be too ridiculous!" 

Christian's stomach twisted. That was exactly what happened. Nox thought of him as a friend and didn't want him to die. Claimed ownership of him as 'his hero' because he was the only one who interfered with his plans. Saved his life because he thought he was a good person even though they were on opposite sides. 

He choked out a laugh. "Definitely!" 

Thankfully, Delta bought it. "I suppose some mysteries are never meant to be solved. At least I can pass on the word that you're alive and retired. People will believe it coming from me. I'm sure a lot of your fans are devastated by your absence."

Fans. It was strange to think of having them but he knew they existed. He had accidentally come across a fan page for Mercury once and had been stunned by the number of people commenting on video compilations of him doing basic hero tasks. He could not fathom why people would care about something like that. He didn't do what he did for praise.