Tasselled blonde hair came into view just as the world was tilted off its axis and his heart, off its static rhythm.
"Goodbye, Dove," he called out, tossing the words carelessly, as if everything didn't hinge on the next few moments going just right.
The heroine landed several hundred feet away from the would be death sentence for Galvinur, the woman's home planet.
But of course, he wasn't going to let that happen.
She smirked, stealing his next breath. "Dove? I thought I told you I didn't care for pet names? But since you insist, how about vermin or snake for you, Dr. Grey?"
"I prefer irresistibly handsome."
With an incredulous shake of her head, she tightened her hands into fists as balls of fire engulfed them. "Goodbye, Snake."
He chortled at her playful banter. Of course she didn't see it as that. The woman was a superhero, after all, and superheroes tended to try to intimidate as a means to cover up their insecurities and hidden fears.
Not that she could possibly have any insecurities. She was perfect.
"Shall we dance?" Extending his hand, he revealed a detonator with his thumb precariously hovering over the switch.
"May I cut in?" replied a booming voice that set his teeth on edge.
The hero descended from the sky, landing beside Nightingale.
"Birdman, I'm sorry but I'm afraid the dancefloor is too crowded."
The man who could quite possibly ruin everything all while sporting a speedo on top of a pair of blaring red tights, sneered at the villian.
"It's Red Finch," the hero corrected, his jaw flexing, which was only one of his tells.
The man was about as subtle as a bull.
"Right, because that is so much better," Dr. Grey said, rolling his eyes for effect. "Now, as I was saying, goodbye-"
A flash of something red caught his eye, but he had no time to react as the flying object sailed from Birdman's grasp and through the air, hitting his thumb and forcing the appendage against the switch. The man had meant to hit his wrist, but missed by a few fatal inches.
"No!"
Nightingale was the first to react. As always, she never thought of the immediate danger she was putting herself in, only doing what she felt compelled to do. It was like breathing to her, a second nature that had been lost on his villianous heart. That was, until she had entered into his life.
He propelled himself off a makeshift throne fashioned out of old gears from the city's abandoned clocktower, but it was already too late.
The lazer flashed green beneath the heroine's hands. He watched with a mixture of horror and disbelief as she created a forcefield around herself and the lazer. Her face was so utterly transfixed on the task at hand, she had never looked so serene. At the final moment, he could have sworn she glanced his way, but the lazer went off and an earth-shaking eruption rippled across the platform of his lair, crumbling the concrete as the forcefield absorbed most of the force of the lazer, but not all.
For a breathless few minutes his world was utter chaos. He was flung backward off his feet and he collided with a hard surface. Debris from his lair -his home- cluttered the area, barely missing him. He fought to make sense of the chaos.
Finally, as the dust settled, he regained his posture and called out for his heroine. Silence rang like gongs in his ears.
He called out once more as he half-walked, half-dragged his feet over to where the lazer had been. Something was wrong with his left leg, but his mind didn't register the pain. All he could think about was finding the woman.
Hope quickly dwindled to desperation as he looked within the rubble for any signs of her.
The dust was so thick, he didn't see her until he nearly tripped over her outstretched arm. When he saw her, he cried out.
"Gale!"
He fell to his knees and scooped her limp body up into his arms. Ash and blood stained her face.
"Gale? Gale, wake up," he begged, but she didn't stir.
Heavy footfall alerted him of the approaching of the Red Finch, but he didn't release her. The hero could think what he wanted, it didn't matter. Nothing mattered anymore.
"If you cared, why did you kill her?" Gone was the bravado. The man's voice was stripped raw and gruff, proving that everything the superhero had said to the villian before had been for show.
But Grey had seen through Birdman's facade years ago.
With a defiant shake of his head, he said, "It was never supposed to be this way."
"Yeah, the death lazer was just for show," Red Finch retorted. "All those years of destruction and making us fight you. It was just a joke to you, wasn't it?"
"No!" His voice cracked. "Perhaps it started out that way, but that was before she came along. I had to think of ways to keep her coming around. It was the only way I could see her."
The hero gave a humorless chuckle. "You're kidding, right? Do you honestly believe she could ever grow to care for a monster like you?"
No. He hadn't been so naive.
"This wasn't supposed to happen, you weren't supposed to be here," he murmured, pressing his cheek against her forehead as he rocked her. Tears ran down his cheeks, but he didn't make a move to remove them.
"I'd kill you for what you've done, but I think living would bring you more suffering," muttered the other man. A 'swoosh' ensued his words as he bolted into the sky and vanished seconds later.
Grey let out a gutteral cry, holding the woman closer.
If he had known he had been saying his final goodbye just minutes before, he would have said so much more.
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