Page 41 of All Superheroes Need PR
“Sorry,” she says, and I might be too distracted by the sight of the Wyvern’s bare body surrounded by mountains of snow and red-clad emergency workers, but I swear I see her blush in the light of the TV.
The camera pans over the hole in the snow that a shirtless Wyvern is disappearing into. He’s gone for so long, I start to feel feverish. “The mountain is stable ... The snow seems to hold, unlike it did when Pele attempted to use her laser sight to burn her way through. Instead, the Wyvern appears to be melting the snow with his steps. Everywhere he touches, snow turns to liquid, but not so much to risk a cave collapse. Gradually, he’s able to work his way through and—look! Now he’s returned, and he’s carrying ...”
The Wyvern returns into focus, trudging up the mountain in a way that doesn’t look easy. On the contrary, he’s making it look hard, grunting with every step, but he doesn’t stop. He’s wearing boxers only, whereas before he’d been in sweatpants. That’s the first thing I notice, I’m ashamed to admit, but when I manage to unhook my gaze from his body, I see what he’s carrying.Bodies.
His hair hangs in his face, which is pointed at the ground as he stomps barefoot through the snow. You can’t see his expression as he lowers four people onto the ground, two from each shoulder, but you can hear his labored breath.
I have my hands clasped to either side of my face. “Priceless,” Luca says. “Can I post this?” He shows me the phone, but Margerie steals itaway. “That’s too good for your account. Let me post it on the Wyvern’s official one.”
“No way,” Luca starts to argue.
“I’ll pay you for it,” Margerie says, already sending the photo to me. Then she proceeds to toss Luca his phone back and steal my phone right out of my lap.
“How much?” Luca asks.
“A thousand.”
“A thousand? Shit, that’s a good deal.”
“Never take the first offer, idiota,” David grunts. He’s a lawyer, so that makes a lot of sense.
“Fine, make it ten.”
“Ten? You’re crazy,” Margerie says, fingers flying over my phone like a madwoman. “I’ll do five, though.”
“Score!” Luca throws himself back into his seat, looking as smug as a house cat while I stare transfixed at the screen, having a hard time remembering that I’m supposed to be working.
“They’re alive, Vanny. Look,” Mani says from across the room, where he and David are sharing a love seat.
As the reporter catalogs the survivors’ injuries and cameras zoom in on the blue-tinted faces of four, then eight, then twelve groaning, moaning, writhing emergency workers, the medical staff on-site report that everyone is alive. And the Wyvern keeps going until all eighteen emergency personnel are pulled out alive.
I whisper, “He wasn’t supposed to go on his first tour for two more weeks. That was when the COE gave him approval ...Fema’s recommendation was not to send anyone else in until after the storm. They thought it could lead to more casualties, especially with what happened to Pele. And he’s a Forty-Eight. The liability ...”
“Well, looks like your boy said fuck off to liability.” Luca laughs. He claps his hands and points at the screen. “You know, I hate to even fucking say this, Vanny, but I’m starting to like your boyfriend.”
Fake boyfriend,I open my mouth to correct, but I don’t ...
We must watch the Wyvern uncover people for most of the night. The live coverage flickers in and out as the storm gets worse. I can’t help worrying that he isn’t wearing a coat, and several times I fight the compulsion to call him. I have his cell phone number, but I’ve never used it. I don’t even know ifhehasmynumber.
He’s been working for hours, first rescuing theFemastaff before moving on to the ones they were originally trying to help. “And here we have it, the Wyvern has made it deep enough into the snowbank; he’s found the cars. It ... we’re hearing reports that there was another collapse ...”
I don’t breathe for the hour it takes theFemaworkers to excavate the tunnel the Wyvern disappeared into as it collapsed once and then a second time.
Margerie is panicking. She’s gotten up from the couch and is pacing behind it. “Monika’s there,” I say as soon as the text hits my phone, making me realize we’ve been sitting here glued to the screen for six hours.
My brothers are still here; David had to go home to his girlfriend, but Emmanuel is still in the love seat looking like he’s gonna pass out, and Luca is still riveted to the screen, fielding message after message of his own because all his friends know that his sister is dating the Wyvern, and not one of them knows it’s not the real thing. He releases a boisterous laugh every once in a while that startles the rest of us.
Charlie comes back in from the kitchen with sandwiches and a pot of coffee, the saint. He glances at Margerie as he pours her a mug—black with sugar, how she takes it. He dumps half a cup of cream into mine, and I take it with a weak thanks.
The images that start to blast my phone are from Monika. I email them as quickly as I can to Margerie for her to assess the best, which ones we’ll keep for official COE press, which ones we’ll post, and which one’s we’ll sell to other outlets. I understand the price tag they put on Monika’s contract very quickly. Because the pictures she gets of the Wyvern are absolutely fucking incredible.
She captures the moment theFemaemployees clear the snow and the Wyvern’s face first emerges. He’s clearing the tunnel he’s created from his side too. And behind him, he’s dragging the door of a car on a thick chain. There areeightpeople clinging to it. And Monika captures it.
Rollo looks like he’s in pain as he hands over the people. He doesn’t stop to check any of their vitals but returns to the darkness. And Monika, the cheeky and talented woman, manages to evade security, who are too busy scrambling with the survivors, and follows him.
Monika Neumann. An ex–war journalist who was born in Seoul and raised in Germany before moving to the States and pursuing a career that’s made her famous, particularly because of the fearlessness she displays right here. She follows Rollo past the point of no return. She sees the warning,Beware Ye Who Enter Here, spits into her fist, and smears her palm all over the signage.
She heads into the dark, snapping photos as she goes. She opts for pictures instead of video, and it’s clear why. The Wyvern isglowing, emitting just enough light to see by. She wouldn’t be able to use her night vision—he’s moving too fast to use night mode—so she follows and takes pictures, her flash every so often reflecting off his back, but more often than not, she takes photos in the dark just like that. And each of them is spectacular.
