I Need A Hero

It was raining the afternoon of that fateful day in the middle of June, and had this been any indication to Clara’s day, she would have just packed up and left, but instead, she sat on a black office chair, bored out of her mind. With a sigh, her green eyes slid to the small clock that was placed on her desk, surrounded by pictures of her family and friends. The clock taunted her. The hands seemed to move too slowly along the white face, sighing as she watched it.

Her chin was braced with her palms, her elbows supported them on the desk, and her mind was off on some day dream.”

“Hey, wanna sneak away for an early lunch? The head honchoes are in some kind of meeting for hours.”

Clara McIntyre had just turned thirty-two,and she was no where she wanted to be in life. Instead of a white picket fence, two kids, and a mortgage, but instead, she was stuck in this dead end job. She looked at the computer screen and the mindless data entry that waited for her, then outside. She’d rather sit out there than fry her brain any longer.

“I’m in.” Clara smiled at her friend, and co-worker, Lucy, then grabbed her lighter and pake of smokes out of her purse.

When she first got the job for Stark Industries, Lucy had been the first person she met, and the two instantly clicked. They were complete opposites, Lucy was brash, didn’t hold back on her opinions, and Clara was shy, reserved, and not one to take chances. Clara liked to play it safe, even when it came to relationships.

The two friends left the noisy office building, and when Clara stepped out and saw the sun peaking out from the dark clouds, she felt a renewed sense of energy. Maybe this day wouldn’t suck.

“Oh good!” Lucey smiled as she walked out of the glass double doors, to see the rain had stopped. “Maybe the deli will have seats outside, we can watch the hot business men walk by.”

“Or you just wanna catch someone’s eye.” Clara winked at her friend as they stepped inside the deli, and it was packed with patrons fresh on their lunch hour. It was no secret about Lucy’s crush on the company’s owner. Mr. Tony Stark was all her friend could talk about.

“Come on. You can’t tell me how hot he is. Plus, I heard he’s available.” Lucy sighed as they walked out onto the patio, that was placed near the sidewalk. They chose a table near the railing that overlooked the sidewalk.

“Would be nice.” “I would love a sugar daddy.” Clara sighed as she placed her feet on the glass table, and sighed, letting the warm sun energize her. “Anything to get out of this crummy job.”

“Didn’t go good with Mr. Lawyer, huh?”



“Well, he turned into a big fat jerk.” Clara sighed as she flicked the lighter, lighting the end of her cigarette. “Story of my life. Guy seems like a winner. Asks me out, buys me an expensive dinner, and expects a blow job.”

“You keep dating jerks fro me the office, you need to branch out a little.” Lacey winked over at her sister. “I have a friend who knows this guy. She says he’s a nice guy.”

“Code word, a dog.” Clara sighed and took another drag off her cigarette and sighed. “There are no such thing as good men. They all want one thing. And they’ll bullshit ya until they get what they want.”

“It’ll happen Clara. Lucy gave her friend a reassuring look. “He’s out there.”

“Yeah,” Clara snorted. “And he’ll come riding in on his white horse, and sweep me off my feet.”

Clara was about to take another drag, when the ground beneath them began to shake violently and she screamed as she was pitched to the floor, and she cradled her head as debris rained down on her, feeling glass bite into her arms.

What seemed like hours, the shaking stopped and she raised her head to see the ash falling down on them. She raised her head to see that Lucy was sitting up a few feet away from her, her dark hair white with ash.

“Lucy!” Clara pushed herself off the sidewalk, and she winced as she felt the twinge in her ankle.

She was about to reach Lucy when an explosion sent her flying backwards, and with a painful thud, she landed on her back. She coughed as the ash swirled around her. She went to get back up, but screamed as pain zipped along her leg, so she looked down to see a large piece of concrete on her thigh. She tried to move it, but after a minute, she fell onto her back and isntead of herself looking up at the ceiling, she was looking at thick, dark clouds.

“Oh my god Clara!” Lucy appeared at her side, and with horror in her blue eyes, she saw the slab on her friends right leg. She took her hands and began to push on the concrete, but it was too heavy. Lucy looked up as she heard the ruined building creaking and groaning. “I’m gonna find help.”

Lucy got to her feet, and ran over broken glass, and concrete rubble, and into the street where there was chaos. People were running past her, and she tried to flag them down, but they just pushed past them.

She ran up the stream of people, and when she turned a corner, she stopped. Just a few feet from her, locked in a battle with some kind of metal man, was a man dressed in a dark blue uniform. She watched sat the man tossed a sheild towards the metal humanoid figure, and it exploded into a shower of sparks.

“Please, help me.” She ran up to him, terror on her face. “My friend-please. She’s trapped and I think the building is going to come down. “Please.” She took a blood and ashes covered hand and placed it on his upper arm. “Please.”

He slid the sheild into the carrier on his back and turned to look at Lucy. Except for his eyes and mouth, his face was covered in a mask. He looked behind him for a second, then at Lucy.



“Please,” Lucy pleaded, “no one else will help me.” Lucy could see the conflict in those blue eyes, and she silently pleaded him to help her. “She’ll die if you don’t help me.”

Precious seconds ticked by as he looked at her, then he face her a slight nod, then reached his hand up to his head.

“I’m helping a civilian that’s trapped Romanoff.”

“Thank you, this way!” Lucy led him back to the cafe, and after climbing over the rubble, she found Clara still lying under the slab, but she could see the dark stain spreading along the ash covered ground.

“Hey.” Lucy fell to her knees and took Clara’s hand in hers, and cried in relief as she watched her friend’s eyes flutter open. “I’ve got someone to help.” She looked up as she heard the groan from the support beams above her, and an explosion rocked again outside, sending bits of ash onto them.

Clara felt Lucy holding her hand, and she tried to concentrate on her friend’s voice, but she was slipping further and further into unconscious.

“M’am, anyou hear me?”

Clara opened her eyes again and found herself staring into a face covered with a mask.

“Y-yes.” She breathed as she felt the throbbing pain in her leg. “My leg-“

“This is gonna hurt, I’m not gonna lie. Okay? But we need to get you out of here. This building is about to come down.”

His deep, soothing voice, calmed her, so she nodded, and squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the pain she knew was about to come. Lucy was about to help her friend’s rescuer, when to her astonishment l, with a heave, he easily lifted the slab off her friend. She was quickly spured into action when the ear piercing screams of her friend Came next.

“We have to go!” He turned to Lucy, then reached down and picked Clara up off the floor. The pain zipped through her leg and it made her dizzy and sick to her stomach.

With all the strength she could summon, she looked up at the man who was carrying her outside. “Thank you.” He looked down at her and Clara caught her breath as she found herself looking into a pair of tourquoise colored eyes.

“All in a days work m’am.” Clara closed her eyes as she was carried over to a medical staging area and she was gently placed on a stretcher. She wanted to watch him leave, but when the EMTs began to splint her leg, the pain was too great for her to remain awake, and she slipped under the waves of unconsciousness.

Notes