I Promise You 01

Ryan barely got back to his feet when Suprema flew straight into him, pile-driving the young hero into the earth with an even greater impact. Lydia was somewhat surprised to hear fighting still going on because that meant Storm Surge was still capable of resisting after that much damage.

Lydia knew her boyfriend needed a distraction. She scanned the area and didn't see a battle tank lying around but she did remember that her grandfather had put an emergency kit in her car and that he said it had something for self-defense in it. She ran back and popped the trunk. Inside was a small green pad. It took her a moment to recognize it as a thumb print ID device.

She touched it and the bottom of the trunk popped open. Inside were some funky looking gun that looked more like a sixteen ounce bottle with a pistol grip attached and a few other silver objects that looked like grenades. She grabbed one of those and the gun then raced back to the fight. Lady Suprema was standing in a low ditch pounding the crap out of someone she couldn't see.

"Give it up Storm," she kept saying between punches. "This is stupid. I'll keep this up until you realize how wrong you are."

'Grenade – gun, grenade – gun; Ryan would be hurt by the grenade, so I shoot her,' Lydia thought. She pointed the gun at Lady Suprema and nothing happened.

On the gun a light was flashing; it read 'Setting'. 'Oh', she realized.

"Do you have a stun setting?" she muttered to herself.

"Weapon set to stun," the gun responded. Lydia could not help but realize how odd that was. Still she aimed at Suprema and shot. A bolt of energy lanced out to Lady Suprema and ... did nothing. The super-heroine hardly noticed.

"I'm fighting the most powerful person on the planet and I set the damn thing on stun," groused Lydia to herself. "Weapon: Full Power!" she commanded.

"Weapon at Full Power," was the voice's dutiful reply. Lydia aimed and fired again. Lady Suprema was lifted off her feet and knocked six or seven feet away. She looked ... annoyed, but not really hurt at all.

Eye beams blazed through the spot Lydia had just rolled away from.

"Oh God, oh God, oh God," she whimpered. "Lady Suprema is trying to kill me. Well fuck that nonsense. Weapon, kill the bitch!"

"Weapon on 'Kill the Bitch,' the feminine mechanical voice indicated.

Lydia popped up off the ground, drew aim on Lady Suprema who was flying toward Ryan once more and shot her dead center. The energy was blinding, Lady Suprema screamed and went tumbling off into the night.

"Oh crap, did I just kill Lady Suprema?" gasped Lydia. She stood up and started walking toward Ryan.

Suddenly there was a rush of air and she was face to face with her female nemesis. There was a nice circular hole burned in her outfit, scooping out the top of both breasts up to the neck. Her skin even looked mildly sunburned.

"No, you did not just kill Lady Suprema, but she's about to kill you," Suprema seethed. "You tried to disintegrate me."

"Oh ... that is what that setting does ... Sorry?" Lydia cringed. Somehow it bothered her that her grandfather had given her a disintegrator pistol and not warned her what it was. Before any such thoughts could percolate through, Storm Surge slammed into the distracted Lady Suprema and he bore her to the ground.

Fists arching with flame and lightning, he pummeled Suprema again and again, shaking the earth and causing rain to flood down from above. On the ninth blow, Lady Suprema caught his fists and pushed him back. She was just too strong. She flipped Ryan over and began squeezing his fists so hard they started to break.

"Get off him, you bitch," Lydia screamed and pointed the pistol. Lady Suprema kept causing Storm Surge pain so Lydia pulled the trigger.

"Weapon Status: Power Cell exhausted. Please reload or recharge."

"Mother fucker!" she howled. Well, she still had her grenade. She pushed down the button on the top of the grenade and both combatants separated as if shocked by some unseen force.

"Don't move," Ryan cautioned Lydia, holding his fist in mid-strike.

"Alright both of you," snapped Lydia. "Calm the fuck down or I'll throw my grenade at you."

"Lydia, you idiot, that isn't a grenade," Lady Suprema, who had also stopped fighting, said.

"That is an Ion Mine," Ryan explained. "If you let up on that plunger it will go off and vaporize everything in a one hundred meter radius ... except Lady Suprema and myself, but we'll still hurt like hell."

Lydia cursed her grandfather for sticking something like this in her trunk. Why couldn't he put instruction on the damn ... and then she saw the bright orange warning on the side of the mine.

'Warning: Ion Mine; disrupts all atomic structures in a 100m radius. Release time: zero seconds. For booby trapping suggestions, consult manual.'

"Thanks Granddad," Lydia muttered.

"I'll take care of the mine," Lady Suprema sighed.

"No; my girlfriend thus my problem. I'll take care of the mine," Ryan countered.

"I can take the damage more than you can," Lady Suprema argued with him.

"How about this; I don't trust you to not rip off her hand," he pointed out. Lady Suprema exhaled deeply and shrugged.

"You want to play grown up then have at it, but our fight isn't over," she reminded him. Ryan nodded and came over to Lydia.

"Okay now, I'm going to slip my hand in next to your and take over the detonator. Then I'm going to fly up on into the upper atmosphere and toss it," he outlined the plan for her.

"Are you going to be able to get far enough away?" Lydia asked.

"Umm ... no. This is going to hurt ... a lot," he confessed. Lydia sighed and nodded her assent.

Ryan deftly made the switch and swept up into the sky and out of sight. Lydia looked down to earth in time to see Lady Suprema standing now only inches away.

"Where did you get an Ion Mine?" the super-heroine asked, her eyes following Ryan. "Oh, and," she put a hand on Lydia's pistol and shattered it into a hundred pieces, "that's illegal tech too. You have some explaining to do."

"That's right," Lydia snapped back, "we can sit down with the NYPD and talk to them about the stuff I found at a rummage sale why you explain what you are doing out here beating up your ex-boyfriend who also happens to be your ex-ward." Their conversation was cut off by a flash of light up on the night sky.

"Well, I had better go finish him off before he recovers," Lady Suprema mused then she raced off into the night after Storm Surge. Lydia sat down on the damp ground and felt like crying. The fight was all but over when the two titans fell to earth once more. Ryan kept struggling but had clearly lost the ability to adequately defend himself. Lady Suprema kept telling him to stay down, but he refused.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Lydia ran up to the greatest power on the planet. "Please tell me why him?"

"I told you, we are perfect for each other. We belong together," Lady Suprema said with worn patience.

"That's girl-talk. What's the real reason?" Lydia persisted. Lady Suprema dropped Ryan to the ground and turned her full majesty on Lydia.

"He does for me what no other man can do; he makes me a woman," she ground her teeth in sexual frustration.

"Wait, seriously? You can't find anyone else to fuck you? Lady Suprema, you are gorgeous. You have fan clubs all across the globe. How hard can it be?" Lydia babbled.

"Men ... cannot survive having sex with me," Suprema muttered softly. "There is no one else but him. There never has been and may very well never be again."

Lydia stepped back and her eyes grew wide.

"Oh ... that sucks." Lydia thought it over then the blocks fell into place. "He took your virginity didn't he?" Lady Suprema nodded.

"Back when I started out, and was weaker, women didn't have promiscuous sex and by the time it was 'okay' I was too strong ... until he came along," Suprema sighed.

"Men," Lydia commiserated. "Let me guess, you didn't see it coming."

"No, I thought it was harmless flirtations until suddenly he was ... in me ... and I felt so alive, but it was only that one time before he turned eighteen," she admitted.

"And then you fucked like bunnies ..." Lydia joked and Lady Suprema actually blushed slightly.

"Don't worry about it; most of us were fighting through high school while you were fighting the Purple Lotus or the Seven Dragon Knights," Lydia told her. "You had adrenaline rushes and we had hormones."

"And now he wants something else," Lady Suprema looked down sadly at Ryan who was pushing himself up off the ground.

"Let him live a little," Lydia suggested. Seeing the suspicion in Suprema's eyes she added, "You made love on the Moon. A guy isn't going to forget that and as far as I can tell he hasn't forgotten you, but he wants to try different things here on Earth that you did decades ago."

Lady Suprema's gaze fell back to Ryan with renewed intensity.

"Besides, do you want to beat him up every week? I've only known him three weeks, but he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who lets people push him around ... even if it is for his own good. Do you see what I'm saying?" Lydia prodded.

"I can't express to him how much I hurt inside when I wake up and he's no longer there," she said bitterly.

"I'm getting the picture," Ryan groaned.

"How about this; you get him two days a week and we – me and his work – get him for the other five? He sort of gets what he wants and you still get something of what you want," Lydia suggested. Lady Suprema seemed to be thinking that over.

"No," growled Ryan.

"Ryan, you are her first and only love, you took her virginity, and how many other girlfriends are you going to find as tolerant as I am? If you want your free life," Lydia lectured, "take your five god-damn days and be happy."

"Diplomacy is the art of compromise that leaves no one happy," Lady Suprema whispered. Ryan stood up and faced Suprema.

"I never stopped loving you, but I needed to make my own way and stand on my own two feet," he related.

"Two days?" she asked him softly. Ryan mulled that over.

"Two days," he agreed with a nod. Lady Suprema grabbed his battered form gave him a huge hug and then a kiss before launching herself into the sky and vanishing.

"We didn't decide on which days," he uttered.

"That could have turned out worse," Lydia smiled mischievously. Ryan cast a look her way and glared. "Wait until you see the lingerie I picked out for you to see me in tonight!" she gleefully informed him. "But first my cars been flipped over; can you right it?"

After picking the car up and putting it back on its tires Ryan started laughing.

"What is it?" Lydia questioned.

"I should have just screwed you on the second date and gotten this over with. I've been keeping her away from you for two weeks now and it all turned out to be a waste of my time," he chuckled.

"What makes you think I would have had sex with you then?" Lydia teased.

"Because I followed her to your place where you pulled out your pink little toy and whispered my name while you pleasured yourself," he explained. "If it is said in the breeze I can hear it."

"Oh ... you are going to be tons of fun in the bedroom," Lydia giggled.

Miles down the road Ryan turned to Lydia.

"So are you ever going to tell me where you got an energy pistol and an Ion Mine from?"

"If you want to have sex with me you'll never ask me that question again," she replied.

"Okay," Ryan shrugged; he clearly had his priorities right.

The next day on the eastern end of Long Island

Lydia liked her grandfather's renovated Victorian mansion out here on the rural side of the island. Her grandfather was a recluse, confined to a wheelchair and alone except for his mute manservant named Gordon. As far as she knew, Lydia was the only one who made regular treks out to see her favorite relative. In fact, she had the impression everyone else was afraid of the old man.

She strode confidently into her grandfather's study as he snapped a look and a smile her way but kept his main attention on the series of monitors around him. He was always reading, or tinkering on something. She came around the desk, hugged him and slipped him a bag of Skittles – Gordon wouldn't let Granddad have candy anymore.

"Grandpa?" Lydia greeted him.

"Yes honey?" he replied somewhat distracted.

"Why did you give me a pistol that disintegrates people and a thingy that levels whole city blocks? I mean seriously; what did you think I would be facing?" she wondered.

"I thought you would be dating Storm Surge who has an enemies list as long as the Empire State Building," he chuckled.

"Oh. Grandpa, I shot Lady Suprema with that pistol," Lydia confessed.

"How did that work out?" he inquired.

"It pissed her off," Lydia informed him.

"Oh well, it is only the pistol model. The rifle model is a bit stronger," he mused.

"Is there something I need to know about?" Lydia inquired hopefully.

"I love you Lydia," he smiled up at Lydia.

"I love you too Grandpa, how did you know Ryan was Storm Surge?" Lydia went fishing.

"Let's not go into that," he smirked.

"Grandpa, are you a super-villain?" Lydia mused.

"Let's not go into that," he cautioned her in a friendly manner.

"Is there something we can talk about?" she asked.

"Sure. Five years ago fifty of Earth's mightiest supers (heroes and villains) gave their lives in defense of this planet," Grandpa changed the subject.

"I knew that Grandpa ... where is this leading?" Lydia answered.

"Three people rose up to save the day; Lady Suprema, Clockwork, and Storm Surge," he continued on.

"Oh, I had never heard that he played a major role," Lydia furrowed her brow.

"Lady Suprema kept him out of the limelight, but many who fought there know how tough he is," he gave some insight.

"That's nice, but wouldn't that make me safer?" Lydia reasoned.

"Of those fifty that died, forty-eight were male," Grandpa smirked.

"Uh-oh," Lydia put it together.

"Yeah, now that word is getting out that he's no longer exclusively with Lady Suprema, female supers are going to start coming out of the woodwork and a good number of those are going to be villainesses," he cautioned Lydia.

"I'm not worried; he puts the bad girls in jail," Lydia asserted. Ryan was, at his core, a good guy. Sure he could be immature at times but Lydia had known men much older who were even worse.

"Lydia, he's a twenty-one year old heterosexual male and have you seen how little super-villainesses are wearing these days? Worry," he taunted his favorite family member.