(This is Episode Two, missed the first one? Find it @ Heroisms: Immortality)

The Pastor stands before the hundreds of people crowded into his small church. As he looks around, a bead of sweat glimmers in the dim candle light before him. He clears his throat and begins. “Our Loving Eternal Heavenly Father, as we meet this morning to remember our dear friend and loved one…” Alison tunes him out and turns to Alex, still wiping a tear from her eye. “I still can’t believe this has happened. I feel like we only saw him a few weeks ago. Jason leaned forward to quiet her before she could continue, but then stopped to think about what she said. A few weeks ago? Perhaps. But when was it… and why?

“James from Fire here and we need backup immediately, Code Alpha, forty nine, fifty two!” The call came through panicked and distressed. It wasn’t often that the fire department needed super heroes, but Alpha at the beginning of the code meant that something was amiss. Heroes aren’t meant to ask questions, just get there and figure it out as soon as possible. However Jason jumped on the radio and got back to him. “What’s your location and problem?” The reply came back garbled and only a few words made it through. “*Crack*… *Hiss*… the asylum…” Static was all that he was left with after that. As Jason stared at the speaker, he wasn’t sure about anything. Just they needed to get there, and pronto. As he stood to leave one final clue crackled across the radio, “escape attempt”. Then nothing.

Jason rushed into the lounge of their base, looking frantically back and forth. He spotted Alex who was lifting weights. “Alex! Jesus, we’ve got a huge issue over at the asylum! Fire Rescue called in a fifty two!” Alex shot up from his prone position and dropped the weights to the ground, all nine hundred pounds. “A fifty two? What the hell is that?” Jason paused a moment to think, he actually only knew it was really bad but realized he had no idea of what they were up against. “I’ll check it and you round up the others!” Alex nodded and ran off to the study while Jason rushed back to the radio and looked for the code book. As he read through the codes he found it. “Alpha, Special Ops assistance required. Forty nine, uncontrollable blaze. Fifty two, Listed Criminal on Premises.” Jason dropped the book and ran up the stairs to his room shouting the meaning of the code for all to hear. In minutes the entire group of six were in their transport and on their way.

As they pulled up, they recognized James or “Blaze” immediately. As they rushed up to him, they recognized the immediate distress on his face. His feet were tapping the ground nervously and he relaxed only a little when they rushed up to him. Alison piped up first. “Blaze, what the hell is going on?” He pointed to the inferno where the asylum used to stand. “It was that guy who has been going around calling himself Firas the Fearless. He came to help the inmates held here escape.” The team of heroes looked at each other and then stared at Blaze. “Firas, isn’t he a fire guy? That’s right up your alley isn’t it?” Alex asked with a half grin and confusion in his eyes. James looked at him and nodded. “But Dracon isn’t.” His words came across and hit Jason square in the face. Everyone turned to Jason, and watched him run his hands nervously through his salt and pepper hair. “Shit. Not him. Anyone but him.”

Dracon is a man who much like Blaze can withstand a tremendous amount of heat. However, he also has some other abilities. Jason remembers these to be: kill your partners, hold a grudge and manipulate light. The last one was key, as it allowed him to bend the light around him so he could become invisible, change colors or even change appearances. Jason stared distant into the fires. “I’ll kill him today if I can find him.” The others shushed him and they all stared at the flames. Alex cleared his throat and made his announcement. “No time like the present to get to work I suppose?” They all jumped up and rushed in, splitting up and watching for Firas. Blaze would be the first to find him, not that it was hard. The man was screaming like a lunatic. “Burn! Burn! Burn!” As he managed to burn more of the asylum’s ruins he noticed Blaze standing near by. “Ah, time to send you to hell!” As he turned the flames on Blaze, Blaze emerged right in front of him. “I was thinking of doing that to you.” Blaze punched Firas straight out. Just as he noticed Jason rushing toward him. “Look out!” he screamed at Blaze, who turned just in time to see the light of the flames flickering the tiniest bit strangely. Suddenly, Dracon was before him.

Jason leapt over Blaze and crashed hard into Dracon, both of them tumbling through flaming debris. Dracon stood first, and stared into the eyes of his nemesis. His voice deep and dripping with venom, his words sank in like daggers. “Come to die like the old man you are? Or would you prefer the same treatment Silverstar received.” Jason paused only a moment to pay tribute to her memory. When Jason had found her, she had been brutally attacked, raped and was left for dead. She died hours later only after uttering one word. “Dracon.” Jason steeled himself. “No. But I’m going to send you to that personal circle of hell Satan has reserved for you.” He leapt at Dracon as if he was a feral beast. As many of the other heroes were embroiled in their own battles rounding up the escapees, Blaze watched hopelessly as the two pummelled away at each other.

As the fight between the two became dirty, and down right atrocious, Blaze felt like he should step in. After all, he was watching a dear friend getting clobbered and clobbering right back. Suddenly, the tide turned when Dracon tripped up on some debris and toppled over. Before he knew what was happening, he had an extremely angry Jason slamming his fists upon his face. Jason hit for what seemed like forever. Finally, Blaze grabbed his arm as Jason raised it for another swing. “That’s enough!” Jason looked down and saw his rival. Broken and defeated, Dracon lay on the ground barely breathing. His tongue had been punched against his teeth and was missing a piece and the only reason they noticed that was because Jason had nearly punched his jaw clean off and had ripped through Dracon’s right cheek. As Jason stood up, his hands not even showing the faintest bit of wear, he looked to the team of his peers surrounding him. Judging him. He watched as Blaze handed over Firas to the authorities and looked back to him, shaking his head disapprovingly.

That was the last time Jason has seen James. Blaze. Jason hung his head as the church erupted in the song Amazing Grace. As tears rolled down his cheeks. Alex patted him on the shoulder. “There, there bud. There, there.” As Jason hung his head not in sorrow, but in shame he thought about James and how he did everything else right except this one thing. It wasn’t fair. His mind also drifted to his nemesis, still in a coma after the beating he’d received. Jason sniffled and wiped his nose with a handkerchief from his blazer. He stared at it and lost himself on a train of thought. Why did he die and I wasn’t even punished? I beat a man into a coma, and almost to death but not even a slap on the wrist. Things have to change. As he straightened up in his seat, he wiped his nose once again and his look was as cold as steel. Things must change.