Chapter 1 - There is no Category 6

Meteorological sources report that Hurricane Atlas has officially become a category 5 hurricane. With wind speeds topping a hundred and eighty miles an hour Atlas will achieve landfall within the next six hours…

“Hey, Taylor, so, what happens if it becomes a category six, hurricane.” Ryan said, interrupting the news broadcast.

I looked over at him, like usual, as if he was a little slow.

“Category 5 is as big as it gets. At that point there isn’t a reason to actually measure any more. The scale isn’t an absolute measurement, it’s a judgement of property damage and danger.”

“Well, I think there should be a Cat 6,” Ryan said as he tied his mask into place.

I never wore a mask when I went out into the city as Per Ignim. I was there to save the city, not protect an identity that most people wouldn’t even care to pursue. Well, that and the fact that I was usually covered in flames and most people didn’t look too closely at your face when they were thinking, “Oh, cool. Flames,” every time they saw you.

My costume had evolved a lot over the years. Nine years. Has it really been that long since this all started? I can remember my first days in the city, running around in that cheap plastic armor and the motorcycle helmet. I thought I was the coolest thing since sliced bread. How little I knew about being a hero, or fashion sense for that matter.

I leave it to the younger heroes to sport their spandex. Me, I’m all about looking good, and being comfortable, while fighting crime. A pair of tailored pants and a comfortable, but tailored, top are who I am any more. My ebony skin sets off the canary yellow color quite nicely.

That and the flames.

I took to the air burning my way toward the ocean front. Ryan and I had tapped ourselves for the evacuation effort. It’s our job as heroes to lend a hand where we can...and to prevent the villains from taking advantage of the situation and looting the businesses that the owners were leaving in such a rush.

After all, who’s going to miss something that they’ll assume was lost or destroyed in the coming disaster.

“Hey, Taylor, I think we’ve got our first customer,” Ryan said over my headset. I watched as the streak that was him ran toward a family packing their car. The oldest girl was good looking and I smiled as I flew down. Trust Ryan to find a girlfriend at a time like this.

“It’s Per Ignim,” the girl said as I came in for a landing. I laughed as Ryan glared. People recognize me, at least they recognize Per Ignim. Ryan, who goes as Anyone’s Guess isn’t near as famous. It could have something to do with the fact that his costume is a simple pair of Guess jeans and a cape. I mean, who imbues a pair of jeans with superpowers and then leaves them in a thrift store...but I digress.

I stood there calming the family while Ryan used his speed to collect their things and get them in place. The girl was looking a bit scared as she surveyed the horizon. The storm was and angry slash of grey and lightning that covered almost 180° of my field of view by that point. I smiled at her and said something about there being nothing to worry about.

She accepted my words in the spirit they were meant and flashed me a beautiful smile.

Ryan finished up his work and we watched the family leave.

“Dude, you could have helped me,” Ryan said a little put out.

“He helps who watches as much as he who is watched,” I replied with a grin.

He punched me in the arm and we got back to our patrol. After the first family, I lost track of how many people we helped pack to get out of there. Some of them I even got my hands dirty for, accepting packages that they father or mother handed me from the window of their apartment. Flight can be useful in and of itself, especially in times like this.

We had been working for close to two hours and the sky was beginning to get dark, and if I hadn’t known that it was still the middle of the day I would have assumed that the sun was going down. Possibly, I should have realized at the time that in one regard the sun was going down.

An era was ending with the approaching storm. The threats that we had faced in the old city were being brought to a close. Our youthful optimism wasn’t going to deflect a hurricane, and even colossal heroes, as we were, have to bend before the will of nature.

I’m not saying that we should have just given up. I’m saying that we should have realized sooner, begun preparing sooner…

No, that’s not accurate.

Change, good or bad, happens, and those that refuse to change will be destroyed. There are some villains I’ve run into in the past who talk about all creation as destruction. The Blacksmith in his forge burns the wood to generate heat. It is a fire that leaves nothing but ash in its wake. Even as the wood is being destroyed, however, the steel is being tempered, formed, shaped. The steel even loses something in the process: its impurities.

Hurricane Atlas wasn’t a fire, something I could have handled, and had handled so many times in the old city. I didn’t fear fire. The cold, however, was something we all should have feared more.

Reading these words, you might get the impression that it was a calm day and the clouds were just rolling in slowly and surely.

There, with three to four hours to go before the storm landed on the city, the wind was already gusting up to eighty miles an hour. There were periods of calm, sure, but they were getting fewer and further between. I’d never understood my flight before this, and didn’t understand it now, but the wind, as long as I was airborne, didn’t bother me in the least.

Most of the civilians were on their way out of the city, and we turned our attention more fully to the looting already going on.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love common criminals? You throw a fireball or two and they run for the hills. At a time like this, it is enough to scare and not maim, so I did just that. I threw a fireball, said something like, “Per Ignim is here, scum. Desist in your criminal activity,” and they would run away.

I guess the grapevine, or the rapidly deepening gloom, was enough to stop more looting in the area we were patrolling because we only spent about twenty minutes working at that task.

That’s when the explosion in the old 1st National Bank occurred. The building was a tall old thing, beautiful in it’s own way, and the damage done by that explosion was enough that the building was completely destroyed, but you know all about the destruction that the hurricane caused.