Fire and Ice

Chapter Seven

"Superman" POV

     While I'm fighting two men in the warehouse, I hear Ember scream.  I look in her direction and see her collapsed on the ground, shaking and crying.  I go to help her but a gunshot echoes throughout the warehouse.  One of the men had somehow gotten their gun back and shot her.  I run over to her and shove two of the men attacking her to the ground.  Hooking one arm under her knees and the other under her back, I lift her up and fly from the warehouse.  Her hood falls back, revealing bright red hair tied back in a ponytail.  Behind a dark red mask, her blue eyes were filled with tears of pain.  

     "Superman?" she whispers.  I chuckle at her nickname for me, but then saw her eyes start to close.  

     "Stay with me Ember."

     "M' tired.  It hurts."

     "I know." I answer, my voice filled with sympathy.  "But you have to stay awake."  I land on the roof of a building, gently laying her on the ground.  I sit down and place her head on my lap, making sure to keep pressure on her wound.  She's passed out now.  I remember her friend who she had been so desperate to save and the emergency room and an idea forms in my head.  I take out my phone and dial a number.  

     "Hello?"

     "Brett, I need your help."  Brett is my roommate that I've known for a couple of years now.  He knows all about what I do, and is helpful when I need information on certain things because he's good with computers.  

     "Hey, how did it go?  What do you need?"  I had told him about where I was going before I went to rescue the girl.  He was the one who had helped me find her after her kidnapping came up on the police scanner he had access to.

     "Not so good." I answer.  "Ember got shot."  

     "Dude, I'd love to help, I really would, but I'm not a medical professional.  I'm good with computers, not the human body."  

     "I need you to help me find somebody who does."  I ask him to find nurses who worked in the emergency room of the hospital whose name was Lexi.  

     "I think I found her." he says after I here him typing on a keyboard for a minute.  He describes her and I know it's the same woman who I saved at the hospital.  

     "That's her.  Thanks Brett."  I hang up and fly to the address that he had given to me, landing outside an apartment door.  I knock, and the woman, Lexi, opens the door.  She sees me holding her friend who is bleeding out in my arms and her eyes widen.

     "Oh my god." she whispers.

     "I need your help."  I say, even though she probably already realizes why I'm here.  

     "Come in."  she answers, motioning me inside the apartment.  She leads me to a bedroom where I lay Ember down on the bed.  I can tell she was losing a lot of blood; her face is pale.   Lexi leaves the room for a moment and returns with what looks like a first aid kit.  "It doesn't look like there's an exit room so I have to get the bullet out."  At first, her hands are trembling, but then she takes a deep breath to calm herself down.  She removes the bullet and then cleans the wound.  "I just have to stitch her up and she should be okay."  After Ember is all stitched up, Lexi breathes a sigh of relief.  Even though she wasn't the one that got shot, her face was pale.  

     "She's gonna be okay." I reassure her.

     "I know." her voice is trembling.  "I help patients in the emergency room all the time, but it's so hard with somebody I know and care about."

     "You look like you did a good job with her, considering the circumstances.  I wouldn't be able to save a complete stranger, never mind one of my friends."

     "It's just hard seeing how much she puts her life at risk.  What if one day she gets hurt and I can't help her?"

     "She chose this.  She can protect herself."  Lexi laughs at this, and I look at her in confusion.

     "That's exactly what she told me yesterday when I got back from the hospital." she explains.  "Is there some kind of script that superheros are given?" I laugh.  

     "What's her name?" I ask, realizing that the only thing I know to call her is "Ember".  

     "You don't know?" she asks.  "Aren't you a mind reader or something?"  

     "Yeah, but I try not to use it that much." I explain.  "I feel like it invades people's privacy.  I read her's just enough to know she wasn't a bad guy and to find out who you were.  I didn't find out her identity because I know how important a secret identity is to people like us."

     "That's good of you." she smiles kindly.  "But I don't think it's my right to tell you that.  It's her secret to tell, not mine.  If she wants to tell you, and, for some reason, I think she will, she'll tell you when she waked up."

     "Okay." I say, understanding.  "If I give you my number, can you let me know when she wakes up?  I just want to make sure she's okay."

     "Sure." Lexi gives me her phone and I put my number in her contact list.  

     "Thanks.  And if there's anything you or her needs, just let me know."

     "Thanks." she says smiling.  I leave the apartment and fly back to mine, worrying about the girl whose name I don't even know yet.