It was eight days after the one night stand with Tony Stark – after that night they never met, he didn’t even visit the bar – typical. And also, it was nine days after the massive explosion at the club where the huge party was. During these days, the news was all about the attack – there were discussions about it, how many people were injured, how many of them died, what was the motive of the man who caused it. They never showed his face, never said his real name. He had a nickname - it was Goth.

Adeline was sitting behind her desk at home, with one ear listening to the news, and working on a special piece of clothing made just for her. It cost quite a lot of money - the special equipment and the materials weren’t easy to buy. A huge magnifier stood up on the table. She was looking through it on the clothing and welded small particles together with a miniature welding machine – specially made for this type of work. She had another secret – besides that she could create a purplish shield around her, Adeline was very intelligent. She understood technology, math, and science. She was able to create prototypes of machines, even create or hack a system on the Internet. It was another gift she had.

She was working on this project for several long months. It wouldn’t take that much time if she had enough money for it, and spare time. Ever since she moved to L.A., she wanted to help people, keep them safe. Her father never allowed her to do that back in San Francisco. But since she moved to L.A., she was free, making her own decisions.

Some of her nights weren’t just about parties or work. She loved night walking, enjoying the view of this big town while keeping an eye on weak girls and women, who were going back home from work, or parties. It was her mission, her duty. She had the opportunity to learn how to fight, be strong, and protect herself. The others didn’t have the chance. Why shouldn’t she protect them? Why shouldn’t she fight against the crime which wasn’t punished? There were many nights where she kicked some asses and made the men cry. Some of them were strong – they tried to attack her with knives or even guns, but she was stronger, faster, and fearless.
A white shining spark flew on the material. It happened sometimes – it was a sign, everything was working just fine. This was the day when she could finally finish it and try it on. She made herself a suit – tight black catsuit with a purple stripe on every side of arm and leg, which represented the colour of the shield. There were small, almost invincible leads which created a network filled with special energy. The fabric might be thin, but with the technology inside, she had created fireproof clothing. And not just that – it could control her warmth, so she wouldn’t freeze during winter.

“Happy Birthday to me,” she smiled like a devil, put the small welding machine next to her, and touched the suit. Adeline was proud of herself. After all those months, it was finished – almost. The only thing, which was missing, and wasn’t finished, was the mask. She needed to protect her identity. The idea was to create something where she could use black and purple colours.

~ We interrupt this program for a very serious message. The man with fire, Goth, who destroyed one of the most famous clubs in L.A., has escaped from prison. ~

Adeline slowly turned her head to the news, and her eyes widened. She knew this would happen. It was just a matter of time. Her father told her everything about him – who he was, why he was doing this. She knew his future, relationships, and the fact he used to be her dad’s best friend. The Goth was looking for some special cure, created by her father, doctor Martin Montana, which could change people’s DNA, and gain special abilities – something like she had. The difference was, she was special ever since she was born – no cures, no changed DNA.

~ There is no need to panic. The police are looking for this man, and they are working with the Iron Man. ~

The brunette rolled her eyes and turned back to the finished catsuit. She started to work on the mask – it was easy, nothing difficult. She already bought the background for it, now she needed to add some fabric, and colours. It was just to be undercover. No one can know her identity – especially not when Goth is in town, and she slept with the Iron Man. She was the Guardian – a nickname some women gave her, for keeping an eye on them.

~ We don’t know what to expect from this man, what was his motive for his actions. However, we will do everything that we can, and we’ll put him back where he belongs – in prison. ~ This time, it was a male’s voice. Adeline turned her head to the TV and saw there the man, who was also in the bar that night – Lieutenant James Rhodes. ~ This man is dangerous, we can’t deny it. But there is no need to panic. The air force will help the police with searching. ~

“You need more than that,” said Adeline quietly. She put the mask on her knees and continued with her work. Finally, a day off was what she needed, and this was how she spent the day.

A jingling sound came from her bed – it was coming from a laptop. It was doing an operation while she was finishing the suit. Adeline created a small device which could change her voice. Now, it was finally done. She let the mask be and went to the device. It consisted of two parts – a small particle, which needed to be placed over her ear, and a small controller, which fit into a small pocket of the suit. With only a click, she could launch it.

~ Yes, we tried our best. We even had help from Iron Man, but we have no idea how we escaped. The truth is we don’t know his identity. We did our best to find it out, but we failed. ~

“We even had help from Iron Man,” said Adeline sarcastically, but her voice was different. It sounded like a metal plate, her voice was higher, and there was an echo. It worked perfectly. No one would ever know it was her.

Adeline realised, Rhodes was still on the television, and talking. It was live, somewhere in L.A. It was a press conference. She sighed, rolled her eyes, and went to turn it off, when a massive explosion was heard from the TV, and even from the outside. The people in the television were panicking. When she looked outside of her balcony windows, she saw a huge fire, several blocks away. “Oh no,” she sighed, her eyes were full of fear and panic. “Jen!”

…

Do not cross the line – that was written on a police tape, which was wrapped around street lamps. People were looking at a burning building. A lot of families were evacuated from it; some of the people were still there. The police, firemen, everybody did their best just to evacuate them. However, the strong, uncompromising fire was their enemy. “We need more men!” somebody shouted.

“Has anybody seen my husband?!” a lady screamed.

“Where is my mother?!” a child cried out loud.

The situation wasn’t under control. Even the police were panicking. They tried their best just to catch the culprit. It was hard for them – and even harder when the man, Goth, was able to do anything, just to hurt them.

“Miss? Miss! Miss, you can’t go there!” a fireman shouted at an unknown human being in a weird black costume, with a mask on the face. “It is dangerous!”

She didn’t listen to him. The woman ran into the burning building, ignoring everyone around her. She needed to save her friend. She lived in this building. Where else she could be, when she wasn’t at work? Adeline called her before she left her home. The brunette, with a mask on her face, was running up the stairs, watching all the terrified, confused people on her way. When she saw two small kids, coughing, not being able to breathe, she had to intervene. Children first – it was always like this. Adeline turned to them, spread her arms, and took them with her. “It is going to be okay,” she said with a different voice. “Just come with me.”

When they finally met the first fireman, she gave him the weak children. “Take them away,” she coughed. The smoke was horrible. Her throat scratched, the eyes were watering. “Go!” she ordered him. There was no time for hesitation. She had to move. Time and oxygen were precious to her, but Jen was much more than that – she was her friend.

Two more floors, too many people who needed her help. They reached for her , begged for any help she could give them. The people were weak, almost without any oxygen. The smoke was worse than the fire. Adeline didn’t know what to do first. She wanted to help so badly, she was the guardian; however, her friend was in danger. Her decisions were hasty and probably bad. She grabbed an older woman by her forearm and helped her on the way down until they met another fireman. The brunette with a mask on her face gave the elderly woman to the man and immediately run upstairs again. If anyone else needed help and was in a good condition, she directed them to the lower floors, where firemen were.

After a while, she finally got to the apartment where her friend lived. The door was closed, the smoke was even worse, and the fire was getting there slowly. There was no time. She got into the apartment, looked over the place, trying to find her friend. There was no sign of her. “Jen!” she screamed and started to cough. Adeline ran into the bedroom. It was also empty, full of smoke, and with destroyed ceiling. The last option was the bathroom. She was running out of oxygen very quickly. There was no time for more mistakes. If she won’t find her, she will have to leave. Fortunately, she did find her. Jen was on the floor in the bathroom, unconscious. “Shit! Jen?!” she screamed with a different voice. Adeline had been already on her knees, trying to wake her friend. Nothing happened.

Suddenly, another huge explosion shattered a part of this building. The whole place was shaking. The brunette with a mask on her face took the young woman in her underwear and slung her over a shoulder. “I’ll get you out of here, I swear,” said Adeline especially to herself, because Jen couldn’t hear her.

The fire was already in the hallway. Adeline did her best just to avoid the fire. She wouldn’t burn herself, but her friend wasn’t wearing any special suit. She ran down the stairs, quickly checking if the firemen didn’t forget anyone. The apartments seemed to be clear. While trying to escape, a new explosion was right next to her. Thanks to her reflex, she moved her hand in front of herself and put both of them under the protection of a shield. “That was a close one,” she sighed.

After very long minutes, fighting with the smoke and fire, Adeline finally got out of the building, with a friend over her shoulder. She took a deep breath of a fresh air. Her eyes were watery, some tears escaped them. She wasn’t crying. The smoke caused it.

“We have another wounded!” somebody shouted from the street. Some doctors, even firemen came to the mystery woman.

“Please, help!” that was Adeline’s first words. Her voice remained the same – changed, thanks to her very own device. When two men took her friend, she gave them the important information. “Jennifer Brooks, born 1989 – she works in the Movie’s bar. Contact them for more information.” Once again, she coughed.

“You should go with us. We need to check you,” said a doctor, who tried to take her hand.

“No!” she protested. “I’m fine.”

“She’s not breathing!” Adeline heard from a group of doctors, whom tried to help her unconscious friend. Her heart almost stopped, when she saw what they were doing to her. Her eyes widened, her breath almost disappeared, and her heart was tearing apart. Jen was dying right in front of her eyes. The brunette with a mask wanted to scream, cry out loud, but she couldn’t. She had to remain confidential.

Adeline took a step back, then another. She had to leave. A lot of people were looking at her, pointing with their fingers. “That is the Guardian!” Some of them said something nice. “She came to help innocent people.” But some of them weren’t that nice. “Who does she think she is?”

It got worse. She saw a light in the sky. It was getting closer and closer. It wasn’t a bomb, or a meteorite. It was the Iron Man, flying right to them. It was time to go, time to escape from him, even though she was leaving there a dying friend. Adeline felt horrible. She started to run away. The people were trying to avoid her, giving her a space to run. She heard the Iron Man behind her. He was after her, but she never looked back. When the brunette came to the crossroad, she took her chance and jumped on a truck, tightly gripped the iron handles, and let the vehicle drove her away…

…

It was nine in the evening. The Movie’s bar was almost empty, without any visitors. Adeline went to the bar where she worked, just to find out something about her friend. She gave them some information about her, and a contact on this place. When Adeline came in, there was only her colleague Dan, and one older guy silently drinking his beer, and reading a newspaper.
The brunette took a deep breath, fixed her dark-blue summer dress, and combed her free straight hair. “Hey,” that was the only thing she said. Her heart was loudly beating; there was a lump in her throat. When she saw his pale face, and tears in eyes, she knew something happened to Jen. “Dan? What happened?” Adeline tried to act normal, but her voice was shaking.

“A doctor from a hospital called here,” he dryly gulped. “He said there was this attack on this residential building, and,” he started to cry.

“Dan?”

“Jen died today, because of the fire, and attack,” he said tearfully. “Jen is dead, Ad. That bastard killed her!” The brunette sat on a bar chair, right in front of him. Her eyes were full of tears, her heart broke, and the vision fulfilled – Jen died. She knew it from the moment when a doctor started to yell at his colleagues that she wasn’t breathing.

“No,” that was the only thing she could say.

“He said that there was this mysterious woman who got her out of the building,” he continued. “If she wouldn’t get her out of there, her body could burn to ashes.”

Adeline didn’t say anything until she found a question in her head. “How did she die?”

“She choked thanks to the smoke. Maybe if the woman gave her an artificial respiration at the beginning, she might have still lived.”

There was a silence between them. They were quietly crying, not even looking at each other. Adeline’s head directed to the entrance door, Dan was looking at an empty glass. “We need a drink,” he said after a while and turned behind him.

The woman was thinking about the whole afternoon. She was there when Jen died. She was the one who took her from the burning building. She was the one who ran away when Iron Man came there. Adeline started to blame herself. Closing her eyes, Adeline realised this will have an interesting sequel. No one knew she was the Guardian, the one who helped many women, the one who was there when the building was burning.

Adeline and Dan had four glasses of whisky. They needed to flush the sorrow with an alcohol. They talked, they mentioned the funny moments with Jen, her smile, and behaviour. She was the sun in the bar. Everyone loved her, but she was Adeline’s closest friend.

“Can you keep an eye on this place for me?” said Dan after a while. “I need to clean the warehouse. Only one hour, and finally we will be closing, and there is… no one,” he checked the bar with his eyes. The only man already left away, leaving the money on the table.
“Yeah, sure, just go,” she nodded in agreement.

The brunette was there all alone, only with a new full glass of whisky. She stroked her nape, squinted her eyes, and heavily exhaled. Her neck hurt from that afternoon. On her left shoulder were some bruises – when she had Jen draped over the shoulder. Her fingers gently stroked the purple-blue bruises, and she sighed. That was the last memory of her.

The entrance door opened. Someone stepped inside, but she didn’t look at the person. It was probably another customer, a guy who came there for a beer.

“What a lovely surprise,” said a familiar voice from behind her back. Tony Stark had a smirk on his face, and as usual, he had his stylish orange sunglasses on his nose. “Another night at the bar, working?”

“No,” she answered with an unpleasant tone and brushed her hair with fingers. She put them on her face, just to hide her red eyes. She bent her head down.

“Hey, what’s with the tone?” he sat next to her and looked at the glass. “Whiskey? Are you celebrating something?”

“And what brings you here, Stark?” she said grumpily. “What, you don’t have better plans to do?”

“Believe me, this is the best plan for today,” he rolled his eyes, and without asking, he took her drink and drank it. That was the moment when she gave him a devilish look. “Oh my god, you look terrifying!”

Adeline clenched her fist. “I am not in a mood for this shit, Stark. Make fun of someone else.”
“Unfortunately, you are the only one available here,” he grinned at her. “Oh come on. The last time, I had fun with you. I came here to cheer myself up and you look like you would kill someone.”

“Yeah, I would. And you are the first on my list,” she rolled her eyes.

He started to laugh. “What is wrong with you, woman? You are mean to me; you would like to kill me. Today, a mysterious woman, who was “trying” to save the day, ran away, when she saw me. I don’t know what to think.”

“Hey, Ad? What are we going to do with Jen’s stuff?” Dan came back to his female colleague and saw a new customer sitting right next to the brunette. “Mr. Stark, welcome back. What can I get you?”

“Whisky, well, two,” that was his only response. He was rather looking at Adeline, scanning her face.

“I don’t know what we will do with them. We have to contact her family,” she gulped and wiped a tear from her cheek. “I’ve got to go. This was a very rough day. I have to call Monica, and tell her what happened today.” She stood from the chair, went to her colleague, and gave him a tight hug when he gave the order to Tony Stark.

Before she left, Adeline took one of the glasses of whisky and drank it. She did the same as Tony did. After it, she left them alone in the bar. It was time to go home, time to lie down in the bed, and never wake up. This was a nightmare.

“Adeline!” Tony shouted her name, which made her stop in the middle of the street, and turned to him. “I’m sorry! I didn’t know.” Dan told him what happened.

“Because you only care about yourself,” she growled. “Everything is only about you, you selfish motherfucker!” With these words and tears in her eyes, Adeline moved forward, not listening to him anymore.

Notes