Fall

Captain Justice lay sprawled upon a pile of rubble comprised mostly of broken bricks. His once flowing red cape hung tattered around his neck like the illusions of perfection that were slowly being torn from the minds of those who looked on. He felt blood run down from the cut on his forehead and sink into the dirty spandex, staining away the pure white angellic brilliance it originally possessed.

The Annihilator placed his foot on his chest and began to press down. A sharp pain shot through Captain Justice's body as his cracked ribs were pressed beyond their breaking point. He screamed out in pain.

"Had enough, Captain Justice?" The Annihilator cackled wickedly.

"I'll never surrender," Captain Justice managed to force out. "Not to you or anyone else."

"Very well. Have it your way..." The Annihilator grinned as he heaved the battered hero from the remnants of the demolished gas station. He hurled the captain into the gas pumps causing them to shatter upon impact. Gasoline sprayed from the hose and began to spread across the lot. It burned with the fire of the sun in his wounds.

"Get..." he gasped at the gathering crowd, "get back..."

The crowd began to step away. He must have saved this gas station from robbers a dozen times, but never again. It had been demolished. He wasn't even sure he'd be around long enough to save anything again. The Annihilator was just too strong. For all the good he'd done protecting these people, there was nothing he could do now. He scolded himself as his thoughts became increasingly fatalistic. "No! I can do this. I have to do this!" he screamed.

Summoning strength he never knew he possessed, Captain Justice slowly rose to his feet. The Annihilator was thrown off guard by this sudden movement, but quickly regained control of himself. He would handle this champion of ethics just like all the others. Pain. Repeated, nonstop pain. Even heroes have their limits. "Do you want some more? I have an endless supply of hell for you, Justice."

Captain Justice shrugged off the mockery. He slowly made his way to his black clad nemisis. He readied himself to strike as he moved closer, but the villain was too quick. The Annihilator swung hard, and nailed Captain Justice in the solar plexus, sending him sprawling to the ground. Still, he forced himself to stand again. "You won't defeat me, Justice. Give up the fight and I may spare you."

"I will not lose to you. Not like this. I swear to you, Annihilator, one way or the other, you will fall by my hand."

There was a disturbing conviction in Captain Justice's voice bordering on desperation. The Annihilator's face remained frozen. "We shall see."

The Annihilator planted an Herculean uppercut onto Captain Justice's jaw that sent him flying back through the air and into the walls of a nearby fast food restaurant. The brick cracked and readied to give way when his beaten body hit.

He was dazed. Confusion washed over him. "Who...where? Pain...lots of pain...What? People...black...Annihilator...fighting...must save...can't move..." His thoughts slowly began to reform. His vision cleared as the faces of the onlookers came into focus. "So many of them..." he thought. "Can't save them this time..." He looked them over. There was Mrs. Whitfield, whom he'd saved from a mugger. And there, standing in tears, was little Simon Hilton, who had been held hostage by Professor Peril until he had come to the small boy's rescue. And the Anderson family, who almost went over the cliff when their brakes failed in their oldsmobile. He'd saved them all at some point either directly or indirectly. He'd been a hero, someone to look to for salvation. Someone who could set wrong things right. But who could save him now? None of them were powerful enough to deal with the Annihilator. He didn't expect them to. It'd be suicide to attack him. He easily was a hundred times more powerful than the strongest of the bystanders. Who would save the hero when he was in trouble? No one. No one could. Some hero. He couldn't even save himself. The city would be destroyed and there was nothing he could do about it. He was going to die. They all were going to die and it would be his fault.

The Annihilator was convinced he'd killed the meddlesome moral upstart. He'd sat there against the smashed wall of the McDonald's for quite some time without moving. He laughed a wild evil laugh that made the earth itself seem to shake with fear. "At last!" he cried victoriously, "I have won! I AM GOD!!!"

"I'm still breathing..." came a voice weakly behind him. He turned to see Captain Justice standing, fighting for balance twenty feet away from him. He took two steps and then fell over. Slowly, he pulled himself to his feet again.

"You never learn, do you?"

"I'm afraid not, Annihilator." Captain Justice took a few more steps before collapsing again. The Annihilator laughed. Still, the worn out hero struggled to his feet. "This is my city. These are my people. No one messes with my people." After another step, he fell again.

"HA! What is a washed up, beaten down fool like you going to do to stop me? You can't even keep to your feet. I'd step back, citizens. I'd hate to stain your precious clothing with the blood of your martyr-fettished friend."

"Do as he says," panted Captain Justice. "Back away."

The people obeyed as they pushed back. The bloodstained champion, tried to stand but could not, so he pulled himself to his knees and began to crawl toward his foe. Again he fell on his face as his antagonist laughed. When he could no longer crawl, he pulled himself forward until finally he reached the ankles of the Annihilator. The villain stooped down and raised Captain Justice by the throat.

"Is this your hero? Is this your saviour? He is nothing!"

The Annihilator dropped him to the hard, wet pavement. Captain Justice's eyes filled with tears. He knew what he had to do. "I tried my best and it wasn't enough," he said to the weeping, disbelieving crowd. "I have failed you, my friends."

"How sentimental. What a poetic deathbed speech. Maybe someone here can engrave it on your tombstone. 'I have failed you, my friends.' I am certain that is how you will be remembered. As a failure who couldn't cut it."

Captain Justice ignored his enemy's hatred. "Please forgive me. I know it's not much, but it's all I have left. I only pray it is enough."

He slowly raised his arm up to the sky. It began to heat up as he focused the last of his strength into it. A small flicker flashed in the palm of his hand, then a glow, and then a flame. "I love you all, my friends. Goodbye."

The world froze still in that moment. Then just as quickly as it stopped, it started again. His blazing arm went limp and fell to the gasoline drenched parking lot. Before the Annihilator could react, the fire spread swift as vengance and the large tanks of gas below the station exploded in a firey glimpse of hell.

Many looked away. Their hearts could not bare to see their hero fall.

When the firefighters arrived and the flames died down, the crowd looked for a sign of Captain Justice. Two charred bodies lay in the smoldering ruins. An ambulance arrived and rushed their hero to the hospital. His vital signs were low and fading fast. Some people went home and watched the news intently for hope he would survive. Some stood staring at the scorched earth that claimed their hope. Some screamed and cursed God. And some fell to their knees and cried, because they didn't have the strength to do anything else.