Flight

Evelyn stared into the frightened blue eyes of the baby Russian. She did love him. She cared for him. A lot actually. But she had agreed to be with Jonathan still as a couple and she wasn't going to hurt anyone. She forced herself to look away momentarily. But then she looked back at him. For once not being the target, Jonathan was beside her protecting Patrick. Of course he was a hero now.

And that’s when it struck her. Val had a point, Jonathan Toews didn’t need her anymore...he didn’t need to be saved, because he was a hero! Heroes could save themselves and most of the time she wouldn’t be needed…

She faced Vanek. “Let him go, please. I’ve had way too much drama happening and I’m not in the mood to kill anyone anymore.”

“Then we’ll just go ahead and kill him!” Vanek snarled.

“Don’t!” Evelyn growled, flapping her wings fiercely behind her. She couldn’t help it. And suddenly her mind focused on saving Valeri, instead of watching out for Jonathan. It was as though her mind knew her well and perhaps better than she knew herself or anything. Her eyes found the poor, helpless Valeri Nichushkin’s.

Vanek put the gun down finally and stepped forward. “Let’s discuss how you and Jonny Boy aren’t a couple anymore - how you are madly in love with the “Baby Russian” here. You know you should really learn to keep your mouth shut when there are villains lurking about...I heard everything you said. Things won’t work out. Jonny loves Kaner and you love Nichy. Simple. So, therefore logically, the little Russian must be destroyed.”

“You’re not harming Nichy!” Evelyn growled. She narrowed her eyes at the villain. “I won’t let you!” She lashed out at Vanek, who dodged her and darted up to Jonathan, to test him. The brunette hawk man blocked Patrick, who cowered behind him.

“Really? You’re gonna not make this easy on me, eh?”

“Leave Kaner alone. Touch him and I’ll rip your limbs off, one by one!”

“Ooh, threatening me, classic!” Vanek battled with Jonathan.

“You won’t get Kaner! I won’t let you!!”

But Vanek spat at the new hero. The superior villain flung him to the side and grabbed Patrick’s wrist, as he attempted to flee. The blond was dragged toward the ledge of the middle level of seating. He kicked and screamed and fought the hold.

Kelly and Brooke launched into action. Kelly helped Evelyn out, as they two of them took on Brawler, who continued to hold onto Val. Brooke tried to help Patrick out, but Vanek froze her in place.

Jonathan recovered and shook his head to clear it. He spotted Vanek wrestling with Patrick. HIS Patrick! He narrowed his eyes and darted forward. He slammed into Vanek and sent all three of them tumbling over the edge. They fell toward the ice below - or rather the pit. Jonathan kicked Vanek in the direction of it and they all tumbled down toward the darkness. Jonathan caught Patrick’s flailing hands and held him from falling anymore.

Unfortunately, Vanek grabbed onto Patrick’s ankles. Jonathan’s wings flapped fiercely in an effort to hold his friend and the villain attached to him. He was kind of just letting his mind and instincts do all the work. He had no idea what he was doing right now.

“JONNY!” Patrick shrieked, as Vanek’s nails dug into his ankles rather sharply.

“I’m not going to let you go Patrick! I promise!” Jonathan growled.

Vanek let go of one of Patrick’s ankles and used his hand to create a solid ice tower under him. Then he shot some ice into the air and formed chunks of floating ice that looked like clouds or icebergs in water. Jonathan suddenly felt his wings stop working and he and Patrick were flung onto one of the ice barges. Vanek hopped onto another, cackling evilly.

Jonathan sat up and realized that the villain had froze his wings. He sat defenseless on the ice chunk holding tightly to Patrick, who had scrambled over to be with his brave Captain. He shifted around, so he was blocking Patrick, who was terrified and cowering behind him. Vanek shot more ice at Jonathan, freezing him into an ice cube.

“JONNY, NO!!” Patrick screamed. He scrambled out from behind the safety of his friend and tried desperately to unfreeze his friend, but the ice was solid on him. He began to tear up, as the villain calmly came over and grabbed him by his curly blond locks. “JONNY!! LET ME GO!! JONNY HELP ME!!” He was dragged by Vanek over to the Zamboni tunnel and placed on the solid ground.

Jonathan felt his anger rising and as it did, he began to heat up and it melted the ice off of him. He found that his anger seemed to trigger his fire ability and he added fuel to it by becoming more angry. He soon melted all the ice on him and his wings and scrambled to his feet. “Vanek, let Kaner go!”

Vanek looked up from the Zamboni entrance, where he had bound Patrick’s wrists and ankles together with ropes. He’d wrapped some white cloth around Patrick’s mouth. The blond was grunting and struggling. He was sat in one of the chairs to the side and then tethered to the railing like a dog on a leash.

“You wanna make me, Jonathan!” Vanek snarled.

“Don’t mind if I do...and call me Captain Blackhawk!!” With that the leader of Chicago darted across the ice, lifting into the air and zoomed at Vanek with speed and fury. The villain launched ice at him, but he dodged it and instead built up his anger. Seeing Patrick bound and gagged like that made him utterly irate. He opened his mouth and sent a stream of burning hot fire at the man, like a dragon!

Vanek gasped and screamed, as the flames consumed him. But he was able to recover, cooling himself. He sent a ball of ice at Jonathan, hitting him directly in the heart. Jonathan fell from the air and crashed to the ground with a loud thunk before the villain.

“Mmmmffmm!” Patrick screamed with agony into the cloth.

The centerman for the Blackhawks pushed himself up, staring at Vanek with a pained glare, out of the corner of his eye he could see Patrick tugging sharply at the ropes with wide scared blue eyes.

“I’m stronger than you, Captain Blackhawk!” the wicked villain sneered.

“No! I’ll save Patrick!” Jonathan moaned, as he tried to get to his feet, but was taken over by a sharp pain inside of him that made him stay on the ground.

Vanek kicked him in the middle of his chest, causing Patrick to scream again. Jonathan fell backward, narrowly missing hitting his head on the frame. He caught himself though and found himself gazing down into the darkness of the pit.

“I could freeze your wings again and send you spiraling down into the darkness below, but--you’re pathetic and weak as is, so maybe you can just watch me kill ‘Kaner’ instead. Not so strong and tough are you now, eh Jonny Boy?”

Jonathan couldn’t find any words or any fire. He was trapped in a defenseless state and all he could think about was worry and pain. He hung his head and didn’t move, as he heard a higher-pitched scream come from Patrick Kane. He slowly lifted his head up to see the villain storm by him, dragging Patrick - by the rope leash - back to the ice.

The poor blond Blackhawk was struggling mightily, but his efforts were in vain, as Vanek easily got him onto a floating ice chunk and then let him go. Jonathan reached his hand out toward Patrick, trying to get some kind of spark going in him. Vanek kicked Patrick in the chest, sending him onto his back. Chilling muffled sounds of distress, panic and pain flooded Jonathan’s ears. He closed his eyes and attempted to focus.

He heard Evelyn’s voice in his head. “You can do it Jonny, you’re a hero now, you’ve got to save Kaner!”

Then Kelly’s voice telepathically entered his head. “Jonny, you’ve got to save Kaner. You’ve GOT to! You can do it! You CAN!”

He snapped his eyes open and they glowed that magnificent orangish-red.

“You watching, Jonny Boy? Look at me beating up your best friend! Look at him squirm and struggle,” Vanek’s sly snicker echoed toward him.

Jonathan pushed himself up and his head snapped up into the air. He let out a super hawk cry, which was fueled by a serious amount of anger. He was channelling everything he had and he was really pissed off. He zoomed toward Vanek and slammed into him, sending him flying across the rink, where he slammed hard into the boards. He landed though on one of his ice chunks.

Jonathan slashed the ropes off of Patrick and removed the cloth gag from him. He sent the blond a smirk and wink and then flew at Vanek. He rammed into the villain, pinning him again the boards. Vanek tried to hit him with ice, but he was so fiery and furious that the ice melted instantly.

“DON’T YOU EVER HURT KANER AGAIN!” Jonathan picked Vanek up and flung him down into the pit, purposefully aiming for a hole. He plummeted downward, trying to save himself, but found that he couldn’t and instead screamed as he was consumed by the darkness below to join Kaleta and Strum.

“JONNY, HELP ME!!” Patrick’s panicked scream came.

Jonathan looked over to see the ice chunk Patrick was on, slowly tilting upward. The blond shrieked, as he clawed at the edge. But he couldn’t get a grip. The brunette zoomed toward him and snatched his hands, as the block of ice titled completely upright and Patrick slid down toward the darkness below again.

Patrick dangled down, as Jonathan worked to hold him and lift him to safety. Their eyes met, Jonathan’s strangely cool fiery ones, and Patrick’s soft blue ones.

“I’m not losing you Patrick, I need you with me in Chicago!”

“Then don’t let go Jonny!”

“I’m not! I won’t!”

The new superhero yanked Patrick up finally and put him on a different chunk. His efforts sent him tumbling backward, away from his friend. He suddenly crashed to the ice chunk, he had been hovering over.

Before anyone could do anything, a thunderous shaking that was almost like an Earthquake came and the gaping hole suddenly disappeared. The ice rink was returned to normal. Patrick scrambled to his feet and stumbled across the ice over to Jonathan, who appeared hurt at the far end. The blond hugged him.

“Jonny, oh Jonny, my hero!”

Jonathan gradually pushed himself up. He felt exhausted and extremely weak, as though he’d played four hockey games back to back. He managed to lift his arm up, and without thinking about it, he pressed his lips to Patrick’s and took him in for a kiss. Patrick gasped in shock, but relaxed.

“Jonny?”

They broke apart, as Jonathan realized what he had done.

“Sorry Kaner...but I’m glad you’re okay!”

“I’m glad you’re okay.”

They remained sitting together on the ice. Jonathan stroked Patrick’s hair. They looked up to see that Val had been saved and that Brawler was gone too. Perhaps the defeat of all the villains had finally made the rink and everything return to normal....well except for Jonathan Toews, who was a superhero and seemed to be gay for Patrick Kane.

Evelyn was actually hugging and looking like she was in love with Val. Brooke and Kelly stood beside them.

Eventually all of them stood together at center ice. Evelyn had an arm around a cheery Val, while Jonathan had an arm around a grinning Patrick. The two blonds looked extremely happy. Brooke and Kelly stood to the side, waiting for the grand talk to be over.

“So, I guess this is where we’re at, eh?” Jonathan said.

"I guess so. I'm sorry, but--"

"No, no, it's okay. I've seen how you look at Val, you're in love with him."

"And you are in love with Kaner?" At that moment she really wished she could have two boyfriends...she really did. But that would be awkward. “Jonny, it was fun and I’ll never forget us and what we had, but you seem to want Kaner now and I’m fine with that. I would love to have two boyfriends...but because I have to pick...I choose Valeri.”

“I understand. I am fine with that.” Jonathan dipped his head in a princely bowing motion. "I was going to suggest we break it off anyway. We were once a thing, but that's all changed now and you and Val are happy together. I can't come between that happiness." (He's such a gentleman!)

“I want us to remain best of friends Jonny and if ever you scream or need help, I won’t hesitate to help out, but Val comes first of course, as you know.”

“I do. And right back at you.”

The two shook hands as a peace offering and agreement.

“I don’t know how you got your powers, but it has to be whatever Kaleta did to you. Whatever he tried to do to you backfired...he didn’t burn your heart, he gave you a burning heart, full of passion, desire and fire for Kaner. You are his savior and I guess also his lover…”

“He kissed me on the lips!” Patrick told. “But that’s fine, truthfully, it was kind of hot and I liked it!”

“There’s more where that came from Peeks.” The brunette gave him a cheeky grin and slapped him on the behind.

“Jonny!” Patrick gasped, blushing bright red.

“Well, I guess this is good-bye and the end of Evelyn and Jonathan or Black Hawk and Jonathan, right?” Kelly questioned.

“Right,” Jonathan and Evelyn exclaimed.

Jonathan turned to Evelyn and looked bewilderedly at her. “I don’t know why, but somehow, when I was fighting Vanek, I just came up with my hero name: Captain Blackhawk. I don’t know why I thought of it, I just did.”

“Captain Blackhawk, I like that! It’s like how I became Black Hawk. But it’s a great name for you, Jona--I mean Captain Blackhawk.”

There was a grand silence that followed, before...

“So Jonathan Toews is a superhero now, eh?” a deeply familiar voice boomed toward them all.

Notes

Kaner and Jonny are just sooooooo adorable together!! Gosh, they're just the best!! :) How can you hate either one of them? (Other than jealousy?) You just can't.
Okay, so there's only two chapters left with this, believe it or not...sad isn't it???? I know...but I promise that the last two will be awesome!! I still have to answer the question about how Kaner appeared to be so flummoxed. ;)


Next up: Why did it seem like only Jonny knew Evelyn/Black Hawk??