Angel's Breath

Prologue

"The Angel of Light has been a huge help in defending Central City against the vicious Circle Insidious. He has saved us all once again! And I have asked him and his trusty sidekick Cupid's Arrow to join us for a thanks from all of us!" The mayor proclaimed to the crowd. They all went wild with excitement and gratitude. If only they knew that their beloved Angel was nothing more than a lazy, glory seeking bum who watched tv all day and worked out and made me do all of the tracking, trapping, and work.

I should back up. I'm Reid Johns, but most of the city knows me as Cupid's Arrow, sharpshooting sidekick to the Angel of Light. Well, I'm not your average sidekick. I have to ability to make projectiles such as arrows and bullets go exactly where I want them too, no matter where I aim. It isn't the best ability, especially when you are compared to someone who has wings, can fly, and can control light itself (hence the name Angel of Light). But I don't know him as the Angel of Light. I know him as Lance Danielsson, and until he was given his powers by a freak mutation on his 23rd birthday, we were the best of friends. In fact, some people thought we were either dating or siblings. We did everything together, ever since we met at the age of 5. I got my abilities by accident. I was one of the Circle Insidious' 'experiments', and by experiments, I mean I was kidnapped by them and they gave me powers that I honestly didn't want. It was Lance's idea to make the best of it and use my powers to fight crime. Now I'm in his shadow.

The Angel of Light walked on stage. All 6'3" of him, mask covering his face, black hair flowing in the wind. His costume is a brilliant white with black accents near his stomach, groin, legs, and feet. It's skin tight, showing off his perfect six-pack, that just comes to him effortlessly. His wings are folded behind him, and are the same color as his hair. Ironic how a superhero with the power to control light has black hair and black wings. I resent him so much over his appearance, ever since my abduction, I've had heterochromia and mismatched hair. They basically turned me into a chimera, and that messed with my appearance. Thankfully, I can play off the hair as dye, but the other physical things, not so much.

"Thank you all so much for coming tonight to thank me. Unfortunately, due to circumstances I cannot explain, Cupid's Arrow could not be here to accept your gratitude with me." He tells the crowd.

"Reid, are you getting this?" My boss, reporter Jean Hasher tells me. "You need to make sure that this is all on camera. If no other station gets it all, we'll be promoted for sure!" I forgot to mention, I work behind the camera for Channel 5, Central City's premier news organization. So anything public with Lance, I either have to take the day off, or miss it and work. Leading a double life is hard, but Lance isn't going to get a job, and I swore to his family I'd take care of him if anything were to happen to make him unable to work. I guess this counts.

The mayor comes back out on stage with a large, gilded key. Great, another key to the city. As if we don't already have like 7 of them back at our headquarters. "In gratitude, we at City Hall would like to award you with the key to the city." She says. Lance takes it, and although the mayor struggled to lift the key due to the size, he lifts it over his head with ease.

The crowd loves that motion, chanting "ANGEL! ANGEL!" People love a spectacle. And no one loves attention more than Lance. He was always one of the 'populars' at school and college. Football star, homecoming and prom king, the works. I mean, I was never unpopular, but I was never as popular as Lance. He let all the attention go to his head though, and started dating erratically. Boys, girls, it didn't matter to him. All he wanted and cared about was a nice body, a nice face, and someone to warm his bed. It caused endless fights between the two of us because for a while, he got the reputation as a player. I told him that he needed to stop, and he didn't listen. Or at least, until one of his ex's took their breakup a little too had, and he decided that living alone was too much and turned to substances. They found him two weeks later in a coma, fighting for his life. He died hours later. That really shook Lance because he felt responsible for the death. He hasn't dated since. Or, at least, not in the "I'm going to be exclusive with you" sense. He still hooked up, because, let's be real, what college age guy didn't hook up at parties?

Lance decided that he wanted to do an interview with reporters. Of course he did, the attention hog. Jean jumped at the chance to interview him, because who wouldn't be?

"Why did the Circle Insidious decide to attack Central City?" She asked him after waiting to be called on.

"Well, this grand city stands for everything the Circle Insidious wishes to destroy. Happiness, joy, progress, are all things that they wish never existed. If they had taken over, then they would have converted everything back to the medieval era. No electricity, no cars, nothing modern. They also would have outlawed 'fun' other than for the use of procreation." At that, he winked. "Their base wasn't too hard to find and destroy. It was located off the coast, on a uncharted island. Cupid's Arrow and I infiltrated it and blew it to smithereens. Now, there is nothing but a pile of rubble on the island." Yeah, that's totally what happened. More like he got his sorry butt handed to him, and I had to go in and save him before he got killed. He got many different superpowers, but invincibility and immortality were not part of the package. If I remember right, he started bawling his eyes out over his possible death, and gave me a bear hug and wouldn't let go until one of the Circle Insidious came into the torture room.

Lance decided that that would be his last question and flew off, presumably back to our HQ. Jean and I pack up our things and head back to the news station so we can grab our cars and head home.

"Wouldn't it be nice to see who the Angel of Light really is?" Jean asks me as she drives towards our offices. "Just to find out who he is, and what he looks like under that bodysuit. All of him."

"Ok, first off, ew. TMI Jean. And second, for all you know, he could be someone really lame in his everyday life. Or he could be gay, or in a relationship. So I doubt that he'd give you anything that you really wanted."

She looks at me with a look of disgust. "You sound like you already know him. But if he wouldn't give me the time of day, then why would someone like you be any better. With your weird eyes, and your bad dye job, you are a nobody to him." Her words hurt, but in a way, she is right. I have nothing compared to her blonde hair, gray eyes, perfect skin and body shape. But if only she knew the truth...

Thankfully before the argument got any more heated, we pulled into the parking lot. I got out of the car, and started walking towards my car. We were done for the day, and we are the away team, so I didn't have to unload anything. Jean didn't think I was capable of turning stuff in, so she did it herself. I got into my piece of crap truck, older than dirt, and sputtered out of the parking lot. I needed to have a word with the Angel of Light.

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Hello! I know that this wasn't a long chapter compared to some writers, but I needed to stop before too much happened. I hope you enjoy it so far. I've had this idea in my head for a while, and I'm finally executing it. I know I should be working on either Crimson Huntress or Ghost of Apollo (I'm going to call them CH and GoA for future ease), but I am in a funk, for them. I'm debating on which of the two possibilities to do for GoA, and I just updated CH a little bit ago. So, until next time.

-LB