Outside on Market Street, Brandon is walking down the street in search of a spot to change into Guardian. After about two blocks, he chooses a tall office building as the perfect location. He walks down the alley next to the building making sure no one sees him. Once he sees that the coast was clear, he disappears in a flash of lightning and reappears on the building’s roof. “Well time to go to work,” he said as he knelt down, put the bag next to the ledge and stood up. Then he takes a couple steps back and charges himself with lightning. Streams of electricity course all over his body glowing intensely; then the bright bolts of lightning fade and form his trench coat. The bolts gather at his hands and create his fingerless gloves. Then he extends one arm out in front of him with the palm of his hand turned upward. The lightning bolts travel down his arm and come together in his hand creating a ball that glows brightly and instantly disappears, leaving behind his hat. He puts on his hat to complete his transformation into Guardian. “Let’s get down to business,” he said. Then he floats into the air and quickly flies off towards the burning Buckingham-Royals apartment building.
At the Buckingham-Royals apartments, police and firefighters are escorting the residents who have evacuated the building away as several other firefighters enter the building with hose in hand to battle the blaze from within. Black smoke poured out of the building as the fire incinerates everything inside. Screams and cries for help from the people trapped on the twelfth floor can be heard by the people below. A helicopter hovers overhead looking for opportunity the rescue the trapped people. Channel 8’s news copter still in the air above the building as Noah Johnson continues to report, “The rescue chopper is still in the air looking for way to get to the residents still trapped on the twelfth floor amidst the heavy black smoke billowing out of the building. The pilots of the chopper have made several attempts to approach the building but the thick smoke and intense flames prove to be too much for them to handle.” Noah sees something approaching out of the corner of his eye and turns his head to the left to see what it was, “And it looks like there’s another helicopter coming in to assist the rescue chopper that’s already here. And…wait a minute…” Noah stares at the approaching object closely and realizes that it is not a helicopter, “It appears that the object I thought was a helicopter is actually something else. We’re going to turn the camera around so everyone can see what I’m seeing.” The news copter’s pilot rotates the camera toward the flying object and focuses it to get a clearer picture. Noah Johnson is surprised by the image on the helicopter’s camera screen. “Ladies and gentlemen, it appears that the object approaching the Buckingham-Royals apartment building is in fact the Guardian.”
Everyone watches in amazement as Guardian flies toward the apartment building. “This is truly amazing folks; the Guardian has arrived to help with the rescue. He is passing our news copter and descending towards the police and firefighters down below us,” Noah said. The people on the street express sighs of relief and appreciation as Guardian descends to the ground and lands softly. He walks towards the fire marshal who is overseeing the situation. “How many people are still inside?” Guardian asked.
“Listen, this is none of your business, alright. Leave this to us. We got it,” said the fire marshal.
“Oh yeah, you got things well in hand considering the fact that you can’t reach them,” said Guardian with a hint of sarcasm.
“We’ll figure out something. We’ve already got a helicopter…” the fire marshal started to explain.
“That can’t get close to the building because of the smoke and flames,” Guardian interrupted. He exasperates a sigh. “The longer we stand here and discuss this, the longer those people suffer. Make a decision chief.”
As the fire marshal and Guardian continue to discuss the matter of the trapped people, one of the firefighters comes out of the building and jogs up to the fire marshal. “We can’t go any further. The fire and heat is too much. And the smoke is making it nearly impossible to see. Several of us have already gone through both oxygen tanks,” the firefighter told the marshal.
“What about the people?” the fire marshal asked.
“We can’t get to them. Parts of the building have already collapsed. This fire’s getting out of control,” the firefighter said. Then he looks over at Guardian, “Hey, you’re that Guardian, aren’t you? Hey look you gotta get up there and save those people.”
“I’d love to, really. But it seems that your boss doesn’t like me very much,” Guardian said sarcastically.
“Nah, chief you gotta let him up there. He’s the only one who has a better chance of saving those people than we do,” the firefighter practically begged him.
“I’m still in charge here! And I say this is our situation, not his,” The fire marshal said frustrated.
“Your helicopter can’t get to them. Your firefighters tried their best. Like it or not, I’m all you got,” Guardian said, striking a flamboyant pose. “So what’ll be, chief?”
The fire marshal realizes that he is out of options and has no choice but to trust in Guardian. “Alright, looks like it’s up to you. But you better damn well save them all,” he says reluctantly.
“And I thought you didn’t like me,” Guardian said with a sly smirk.
Then he walks pass the fire marshal and the firefighter, who gives him a thumbs-up as he makes his way towards the building. While walking to the building, Guardian encounters several firefighters exiting the apartment building. He quickly asks them how many people were trapped inside. “About ten,” one of them said. Guardian approaches the building and looks up. He can hear the peoples’ cries for help. “There’s no time to waste,” he said. Then he takes off and flies straight up to the twelfth floor. When he reaches the twelfth floor with the trapped people, the intense heat and flames instantly remind him of his house on the night his mother was killed. He hesitates for a moment before going in. The people’s pleas for help snap Guardian out of his hesitation and he flies into the building through a broken window. When he enters he sees that the floor is filled with smoke, but it isn’t as dark and thick as the smoke from the burning floors below. “Is there anybody in here!” calls Guardian.
“We’re over here!” said a male voice.
Guardian quickly floats over the far end of the hallway where he heard the voice come from. When he gets there he finds that all ten people were huddled together near the stairwell. All of them were coughing heavily from the smoke that’s quickly filling the hallway. “Hey, you’re the Guardian,” the man said.
“Can you get us out of here?” said a lady.
“Don’t worry, I’m gonna get all of you out of here,” Guardian told them. Guardian looks around for a way to get them out of the building. As he is looking around, he spots a pile of rubble at the end of the hallway which appears to have a light source behind it. “What behind there?”
“The stairwell, we were trying to get to the roof but part of the building collapsed before we could make it to the stairs,” said the man.
“Alright, everybody stay back,” Guardian said as he started walking towards the pile of rubble.
“What’re you going to do?” another woman asked.
“I’m going to get you out of here.” Guardian stops walking just a few feet from the pile and charges up a Lightning Sphere. Once it’s fully charged, he hurls the Lightning Sphere at the rubble and completely destroys it, giving them access to the stairs. “Alright, everybody out,” he said. The people get up and quickly make their way towards the stairs.
The people make their way desperately to the roof as they climb the remaining four flights led by Guardian. A few minutes later, they reach the roof and breathe a sigh of relief and fresh air. Guardian signals to the rescue chopper who spots them on the roof. The rescue chopper flies down slowly towards the roof and lands. The channel 8 news copter is still in the air recording the scene. “…as you can see, he has done it. The Guardian has rescued the people trapped on the twelfth floor and led them to the roof to be picked up by the rescue chopper and taken to safety. He truly is a remarkable hero,” Noah Johnson said.
