Building Bridges (Saileyra)

The Guardian strolled along the North Avenue bridge in Chicago. The sun was just rising to begin the morning, it's first beams of light glinting of the many tall buildings. Some of the city was clearly is a state of disrepair; a fire by the looks of what remained. But a majority of the city was as beautiful and titanic as ever.

New York had been mostly destroyed, which meant that there was nothing for The Guardian there. The biggest aggressors there were a group of people who claimed they were protecting the city and it's people. But he felt this city call out to him. Chicago. He could see the city was quite large, almost rivaling New York. It would make sense that after the destruction more people would flock here, bringing with them crime and violence. The Guardian could almost feel it in the air around him- the anger, the hate. The city had a war between criminals and people of law, and it had been ongoing for a long time. He had been called here to do what he could.

As Guardian neared the middle of the bascule bridge, a series of explosions boomed from before and behind him. His eyes saw the smoke and fire, the screams and panic that followed the booms. The cracking of stone and the crunching of steel. And then he felt the bridge under him begin to fall, just as he saw the bridge in front of him begin to plummet as well. He reacted quickly.

He dropped to one knee and put both his hands on the bridge under him, palms facing down. His appearance changed from a tall, long blond haired, Northern-European to a night-sky skinned celestial with wings. Light sped from his hands until the light spanned the entirety of the bridge to the land on either side. He willed the light to raise up the fallen parts of the bridge. In less than a minute the entire bridge looked mostly put back together, besides a few holes and cracks. But the only thing holding the bridge up and together was Guardian and his light.

"Go!" Guardian's voice strained, yelling as loud as he could over the panicked screams and distant sirens. "Every get off the bridge, now!"

It took all of his power just to hold up the bridge. Ushering people off the bridge on top of that would be too much for the newly-awakened Guardian. Hopefully someone would have the presence of mind to do what Guardian wished he could.

So much weight. So much exhaustion. At his peak of ability, Guardian would be able to easily hold up this bridge (and a lot more) for a much longer, extended period of time. But he had only been awakened for less than a month. He was lucky he was doing what he was. But his lucky began to run out, at least partially. Parts of his light structure began to dissipate, causing chunks of bridge to fall into the water below. What luck of his that remained had made it so that a woman had come by and began moving people off the bridge faster and more efficiently. He had only glanced at her direction and he hadn't payed attention to how she was doing it, but she was stepping up and taking a commanding position to get people off the bridge. And it was good fortune that she had managed to get everyone off the bridge. Everyone but one celestial humanoid, that was. But he couldn't get off the bridge, not anymore. It was too late for that. All his concentration and strength was already pouring out just to maintain the failing construct holding up the bridge. Getting off himself would be impossible. But being The Guardian, he was more than willing to sacrifice himself, even if it meant only saving a single life.

A minute after everybody had been evacuated off the bridge, all the remained of the bascule bridge was a single chunk of bridge hovering over the middle of the river below. The chunk The Guardian was on. The light below the chunk of bridge began to flicker, the flickering increasing in tempo until it was gone. The Guardian collapsed from exhaustion onto the plummeting chunk of bridge. The chunk of bridge and The Guardian hit the water, and sunk below the current. 

Unseen, Guardian's form changed to a long, blonde-haired Northern European after he collapsed. And that's the form he'd die in unless someone could save him. But that's the risk he was willing to take. Those people on the bridge wouldn't come back in 500 years if they died. The Guardian would. It was either his dime-a-dozen life or their thousands of priceless lives. The choice was all too easy. Hopefully the choice to go after Guardian and save him would be just as easy for someone else.

The Guardian's eyes fluttered open. He was no longer underwater. His first thought was that he had died and been returned to the future, but a glance at the still destroyed bridge and debris floating down the river said otherwise. Somehow, he had not drowned in the water. A glance to his right, and he saw that somehow. The woman who had been ushering people off the bridge sat next to him, just as soaked as he was.

"I assume that the thanks for my life belongs to you. I doubted anyone would come for me, though I...." Guardian paused. He looked like a human, currently. Last time people had learned of his identity, they attacked him, even though he did nothing wrong.

"Perhaps it would be better if I kept my true identity concealed. I should play it as if I were a simple bystander caught in the chaos, a believable tale."


"...Though I did hope that that celestial figure would be able to save me. But again, thank you for coming along to my rescue. And I would love to properly reward you, but I have nothing to give you but my gratitude. I must go now though, I was headed somewhere when the bombs went off. Excuse me."

And with that, Guardian began to walk away, hoping the woman would believe that he was a bystander. Most likely she would, he thought. It wasn't as if humans could see his true form underneath his human guise.

The Guardian pulled his hand out of the woman's grip. He turned to face her, putting on a look of seriousness (which was not hard for The Guardian to do). He looked into her eyes and prepared to lie as convincingly and straight-faced as he had ever said anything, but the look on her face told him that she would not believe anything he told her but the real truth. And he would have to tell it to her, despite how that might bring yet another extraordinary person to attack him. In New York City, the first people that saw him that didn't run attacked him. And they had abilities normal humans did not. This woman could very well be just likes those people. She could definitely do more than a normal person, diving through the water and air and swimming herself and him to shore. She was more than a normal person, just as he was. Based on experience, she would attack him like the others. But she would only believe the truth, and not telling the truth would likely garner the same reaction from her as telling the truth.

"But maybe I avoid conflict by telling half the truth..."

"You have caught me, and now you know my secret. I am an otherwise normal man gifted with invulnerability and some other extraordinary abilities that other men lack. You, also, can be handled more roughly than the average man. The coordination and agility to maneuver through the air and water to catch me, the durability to survive the dive, and the strength to carry me and yourself to shore. Yes, I am a man who is tougher than most men, but so are you."