Mountainrock rarely got warm, sunny days. Perhaps that is due to its altitude, more than a mile above Sea Level. Or perhaps, instead, it's because the various storms passing over seem to "bounce" off the Rocky Mountains, and wash back over them. Or, just perhaps, it's because God wants Mountainrock to have a lot of shade. This day, however, was quite different.

Allison Mallory walked across the lush green hillside behind the Mendolsson Memorial Hostel for Displaced Metahumans, and thought about her life before, during, and after the events of the past year. A seamstress by trade, she used to spend most of her days behind a sewing machine, working hard for little pay at a local dry cleaners. Though she had the skill to design and construct a gorgeous Elizabethan era gown from scratch, all she ever did was attach a button here, and mend a rip there. At night, she would retreat into her small, though cozy apartment, and read. Her two roommates, orange tabby cats by species, would sometimes join her in her chair, and purr until they received the attention they felt they deserved. In some respects, it was lonely - she regretted never having been married. Yet, in others, it was happy in its own way. She had friends, among the women she worked with, but none she was particularly close to. It wasn't until four months ago that she realized what had been missing from her life.

It was five months ago, not four, that the incident occurred. While reaching for a bag of buttons, she somehow turned her entire upper torso around in a full circle. Shocking to her, it was doubly shocking to her boss. The man was confused and unnerved, and reacted the only way he knew how - he fired her on the spot. Unfortunately, she only had enough savings to support herself for one more month, and the prospects of finding work for a woman in her early-middle age were not that good. oh, she once may have been attractive, though not quite beautiful; she was now showing her years, and moreso.

Two weeks after she was fired, Allison was forced to do something that broke her heart nearly in two. She had to give up her two closest friends, the two cats, because she simply could not afford to feed them any more. Fortunately, her upstairs neighbor loved the adorable creatures, and took them in to stay with her, her husband, and her own cat. Then, two weeks after that, she was forced to admit she would not have enough money to pay her rent the following week.

Reading the morning paper the day after reaching a decision, she had seen a personal ad that grabbed her attention, riveting it to the black text. "Are you finding yourself somehow, mysteriously gifted? Are you without recourse, and finding making your path through life difficult? We can help. The Mendolsson Memorial Hostel for Displaced Metahumans."

An intelligent woman, Allison had already figured out the term metahuman, and realized that, with the stunt she had pulled at work, and could now replicate easily, she was in fact a metahuman. That afternoon, she paid them a visit, and was not only accepted, she was welcomed warmly. She was nearly adopted by the fledgling inhabitants, and she was sought after for advice, and assistance.

Family. That was what had been missing.

Since that fateful day, she had found a true home here, at the Hostel, even supplying costumes for the security detail, now calling themselves "Legion". She would never admit it, but she had taken a powerful liking to the feline member, Black Tiger, and saw in him a son she never had, not to mention a hint of the playfulness and irreverence of her own cats. The owner of the Hostel, and leader of Legion, John Mendolsson, or "Silverlance", was likewise dear to her. Though much younger than she was, he was well beyond his years, and she thought of him, to herself, as a younger brother.

Then, there was Synergy. Though she'd never admit it, the rough-hewn former soldier, her own age, was highly attractive, and she would often catch herself imagining scenes from her favorite novels, with him in the hero's role, and herself in the heroine's. 

So lost in thought was she, by this time, that she never noticed the blazing, blue-gray fireball hurtling towards her. 

******************************************

A dazed Allison woke up on her bed, still woozy and oddly excited. Opening her eyes, she saw John and a few others in the room, with Darkenwulf at her bedside. She craned her neck, and saw, to her surprise, that nearly the entire Hostel was gathered outside her door. She then turned back to the lupine alien, and asked, "Wh... what happened?"

"Do you wish honesty or comfort?" he asked in return.

"Err... honesty?"

"We have no idea. We were wishing you could tell us. As it stands right now, you appear to be in perfect health, even better than you were at your physical two weeks ago, with one exception. Your eyes are glowing a rather brilliant shade of blue." Darkenwulf cocked his head. "Does that sound familiar at all?"

"G - glowing?" Allison stammered. "No, no, no, not in the least. Glowing?"

"They are, Allison," said John, standing behind and to the right of Darkenwulf. "Not tremendously, but enough to be noticed."

"Oh, dear, that will never do. Does anyone else know?" she asked, then turned her head, and saw everyone still at the door. "Never mind, I know the answer to that question."

Two days later, Allison was out of bed and going about her business as normal. However, she had a secret she did not tell him. She did not sleep anymore, not really. It wasn't a matter of insomnia, or fear, she simply had no need. She was never tired. Nor was she, for that matter, ever thirsty, or hungry. Though worried, she knew what this meant. While she had been a metahuman before, her ability was more of a cosmic joke. When one member of Legion could juggle main battle tanks, and another hurl fire as hot as the sun, the ability to rotate one's waist in a full circle seems rather... anti-climactic. 

Now... now, she actually had power.

Five days later, she approached said fire-hurler, the young Lisbeth. She was also known as "Flamestrike" in her role with Legion, and had incredible control over exactly where her flame struck, and even from what angle. The fact that her blasts did not have to originate with her hands or eyes added considerably to her accuracy. "Lisbeth... tell me... how did you know your powers existed?"

The young woman just fixed her with a glance. "Don't try to start in on this that easy. Something happened the other day, and you may have new powers, right?" Allison only nodded. "Then let's go outside, and test out what you can do." She grabbed the seamstress's arm, who allowed herself to be pulled outside.

"Just try anything you can think of. If it works - you can do it. If it doesn't - you can't." 

Though Lisbeth's suggestion seemed simple enough, Allison found she was, somehow, afraid to try. So she simply closed her eyes, and tried to calm down the way she always had - by imagining she was floating. 

"Okay, that's one - flight." The voice startled Allison, who looked down, to find out she was more than fifteen feet in the air, and still rising. A conscious act of will, and she suddenly rushed at the ground at speeds much, much greater than any fall could ever generate.

The sound of Allison's impact with the hillside resounded through the hostel. Inhabitants and Legion members alike rushed out, to find Allison, only slightly battered, pulling herself out of a crater more than fifteen feet across, then helping a shaken lisbeth to her feet. The latter's only comment was, "I guess we can also add invulnerability to the list."

Over the course of the next week, Allison finally pieced together a list of what she could now do. And the list was rather extensive. Somehow, she had been imbued with an amount of life-force so great, that it made her faster, stronger, and tougher than anyone else in the entire Hostel - not even Hauler could match her strength, Wingstorm couldn't match her speed, and even Dragonlord winced before she did. In addition, she could, through a concerted effort, heal the injuries her teammates received at her hands during her training. Finally, she was accepted fully into Legion, as "Paragon".

**************************

Darkenwulf finished making the last connections to his current project, a direct communications system to the mountainrock Police Department, and then stood up. "Silverlance, this will greatly aid us in defending both the hostel, and the city. Should they have any information of an incoming threat, they can notify us. And, should they require our assistance, they can contact us for that."

Silverlance nodded. "I really don't like the idea of ordering someone into harm's way, but I guess that it's not really my decision anymore." He sighed. "I didn't want the Hostel's security team to become another super-hero group, but I guess that's exactly what we've become. Go ahead, turn it on."

A flick of a switch, and a viewscreen the size of a large television became active. A faint blue glow filled the room, and a soft, high-pitched whine could be heard. "I am contacting the Inspector now, John." The lupine depressed a panel, and a chirping noise softly carried itself to their ears.

Seconds later, the screen lit up, showing an image of the Inspector. "Good god, this thing actually works... " he shook his head. "It's a good thing you called when you did, Silverlance. There's a situation brewing downtown my men can't handle by themselves."

"What is it," asked Silverlance.

"Some metahuman psycho calling himself  'Reactorr' has started tearing the place up. Among other things, he seems to be immensely strong, bulletproof, and, unfortunately, radioactive." Inspector Avagnarde shook his head. "The senior partner of the police unit sent to investigate is right now in Mercy hospital with radiation poisoning, along with nearly seventeen innocent bystanders."

"Into harm's way..." muttered Silverlance. "Okay, I know who I'm going to send, then. I'll get them there in less than three minutes. Gateway will be sending them when they're gathered."

"Excellent. And thank you, Silverlance." As the inspector depressed something on his desk, the viewscreen went dark once more.

Leaning into a microphone, Silverlance cleared his throat, and pushed the button. "Synergy, Hauler, Dragonlord, please report to the meeting Room, we have an emergency."

*************************

The team stepped through the shimmering portal, to a sight out of a war movie. "Looks like Berlin near th' end-times," said Synergy. "'Cept I don't remember no freak in spandex." He pointed, and they all saw him.

Reactorr, as he called himself, stood nearly as tall as Hauler, though with slightly more human proportions. His muscles rippled with undeniable power, and they blanched as he casually ripped the entire facade off one of the nearby buildings, causing it to collapse in a heap. Silverlance regained control of himself. "Remember, Synergy goes in first. he can help drain this guy's radioactivity. Once that's done, Hauler and Dragonlord move in, and go toe to toe to put him down. Move out!"

Moving with a speed he had not had since his youth in the Forties, Synergy rushed the titanic powerhouse. The large man did not seem to have noticed him, until the smaller man leapt full onto his back. "Yer goin' down, weirdo!" yelled the old man.

Without even blinking, Reactorr simply snatched up Synergy, and tossed him through a building, leaving six foot holes through several walls. Despite his unbreakable bones, the hero lay still, barely moving at all, and most certainly out of this fight. What is worse, the psychotic supervillain still crackled with energy. "Haw, haw, haw, these freaks sent an old man up against me! Idiots, I'm a living nuclear reactor!"

Silverlance rushed to Synergy's side, while hauler and Dragonlord moved in. "I don't care what you are," said the massive metahuman, "you hurt a friend of mine. And you put too many good peope into the hospital already!" One massive hamhand grasped a fallen light pole, and swung it with such force that the wind alone blew debris back like a small tornado. The hasty implement found its mark, connecting solidly with the villains head, and a thunderclap that shattered what few windows remained intact on the barren street.

When the debris stopped moving, and Silverlance could see again, his heart quailed. The nuclear fiend was not only hunhurt, he had Hauler in a bearhug, and the sickening popping noises sounded like the strongest member of his team was no match for this creature. "Release him!" he demanded, launching the strongest blast of shimmering, silver energy he could.

"Haw, haw!" was the response from the utterly uninjured monster. "Your powers aren't any match for the power of the ATOM!" He snapped his head forward, imbedding his forehead in hauler's face with a sickening crunch, then tossed him aside like a rag doll.

DragonLord, holding back out of fear of endangering his comrade, saw his chance. He inhaled, and spewed fires as hot as the bowels of Hell at his foe. Though the flames seemed to cause him no damage, the concealed his inhumanly swift approach, as the hero used all the momentum of his flight to land a titanic punch on the jaw of Reactorr. Alas, it was not enough. The only crack heard, besides the punch itself, were the bones of DragonLord's hand breaking.

"Looks like you guys are out of your league, blaster- boy. Scaleface here can't even begin to hurt me... and I most certainly can hurt him!" A backhanded fist caught DragonLord across the temple, sending him careening into a building, which promptly collapsed on him. "And now it's just you and me," he snarled, as a hideous grin spread itself across his face.

Doom approached John Mendolsson on treetrunk legs. Already, he could feel himself getting slightly dizzy, as the ambient radiation from the fiend permeated the area. His only saving grace was the presence of Synergy, whose unconscious form was still somewhat proccessing the radiation, though not enough to do more than prolong the inevitable.

Reactor was now three steps from Silverlance. He paused, to survey the scene. "Beautiful, huh? Just pure destruction. Like a real nuke."

With the sound of a peal from heaven, and a concussion that blew Silverlance back ten feet, a blurred form collided with the radioactive villain, carrying him into a solitary concrete column projecting from the remnants of a collapsed building. A voice rang out, one well known to Siverlance. "You will NOT hurt my friends any more!"

"Allison?" As his vision cleared, and the dizziness faded, he saw Allison standing over the form of Reactorr. She was wearing her normal clothes, not the hero suit she had designed for herself, and almost glowed with the powers she had recently gained.

The nuclear fiend lifted himself back to his feet. "At last, a challenge! Alright, old woman, show me what you've got!"

The fight that day would live in Silverlance's memory for decades to come, as he was the only witness to it. Blows that could shatter mountaintops landed on flesh as impervious as steel. The air around them incandesced with the forces unleashed, yet neither combatant seemed to feel anything except the need to defeat the other.

Though it felt like an eternity, the fight only lasted less than a minute. When it was over, Allison stood over the fallen form of Reactorr. She then immediately dropped to her knees, sobbing uncontrollably. "I... I didn't mean to... I didn't want..."

Silverlance eased himself upright, then hobbled over to her. "It's okay, Allison. It's okay."

She turned, her face red and eyes brimming with tears. "It's NOT okay! I didn't want to kill him, but he... but he... I was trying to his his chin... and I hit his eye... and his neck... I heard it break."

Silverlance gripped her shoulders, and tried to turn her to face him. One part of his mind noted, distractedly, that for some reason her clothing was nearly undamaged, save for her collar and the edges of her dress. "Allison... it's okay. What you did, you did in self-defense. You did not try to kill him, you only tried to stop him."

She pulled away, and suddenly cocked her head. "There's someone over there!" she declared, pointing at one of the fallen buildings. So swiftly he could barely comprehend it, Allison had crossed nearly a quarter mile, and was already tossing debris and rubble weighing hundreds of tons like they were playing cards. He decided to check on his fallen teammates before going over to her, in hopes her task would give her a chance at catharsis.

DragonLord was somewhat conscious, and managed to dig himself out of the building that covered him with Silverlance's help. Together, they dragged Hauler and Synergy closer to where Gateway would be creating the portal to retrieve them. Taking a deep breath, he walked over to where Allison was, as she had finally stopped flinging the detris of the ruined building.

He found her sitting over the body of a sixteen year old boy. His high cheekbones and darkly tanned skin marked him as of Native American heritage, and she held him cradled in her arms, crying once more. "John... I felt him die... I felt him die..."

He took a knee, and wrapped one arm around her shoulder. "I'm sorry, Allison. No one can do anything about that."

She turned to look at him. A thousand thoughts rushed into her head, both memories of her family when growing up, and her new family at the Hostel. One overriding thought raced through her mind - this boy had a family somewhere, too. "Goodby, John," was all she said.

Stunned, Silverlance, fell backwards slightly. "Wha...what do you mean?"

Azure. Cerulean. Sky-blue. These words pale when attempting to depict the tableux before him. Eyes squeezed shut, hands blazing with the augmented life force she had been gifted with just a short time ago, she opened her mouth, and breathed it all into the young man. Before his eyes, the lad's injuries repaired themselves. To his stare, his wounds closed. And most awesome of all, the boy began to breathe.

"My god, Allison... you... you just..." As awesome as Allison had been in battle, as deific as her power had seemed, this act was one he had never expected. And its results were equally unexpected.

Exhausted, and having spent every last erg of her life-force to her task, the act of granting a life to replace one she was forced to take, Allison Mallory entered into eternity on angel's wings.

******************************

Rain haunted the city of Mountainrock like the ghost of an old friend. And on this day, the rain seemed to be teardrops, as Heaven wept even though it had gained a new angel. Gathered in Granite Hill Cemetary, the inhabitants of the Hostel found themselves joined by the Mountainrock Police Force, who supplied a full twenty-one gun salute. Hauler, Synergy, Black Tiger, DragonLord, Jarhead, and Silverlance were the pallbearers. And the public stood a respectful distance, watching the city's heroes mourn the passing of one of their own.

The time came for the eulogy, and Silverlance found he had forgotten the carefully crafted speech he had written about her. He also found he could not remember a single word of it. And what is more, he did not care. he knew exactly what he had to say.

"Allison Mallory. She left the world with no material possessions, no relatives, and no lasting monument to her memory except a tombstone. It sounds depressing, doesn't it?

"The truth is, she gave this world gifts far more important than any office building, any political triumph, or any military victory. She gave her friends her love. And in the end, she gave a complete strange the most transient gift of all, the gift of life. 

"She knew that using the powers given to her to do what she did would kill her. Her last words were simply to say goodbye. I never have been a religious man, or even philosophical. But she taught me something that day.

"A true hero is not the person who risks his life to stop the world from exploding. It's the man who, knowing he is going to die, still does what he can to save another. A stranger. A true hero places himself in harms way even against a foe who most certainly will destroy him, because if he doesn't, no one will. And a true hero is willing to give his life so that another may live.

"Allison Mallory was a true hero. And so may we all, human and metahuman alike, aspire to be as brave, and selfless, as she was."

The clouds broke. For a moment, a single ray of sunshine passed across the assembled crowd. The mixture of tears and rain dried on wondering cheeks, as eyes lifted in contemplation, wonder, or memory. And, near the back of the crowd, a young man stood quietly, remembering the woman who had given him the ultimate gift.

William Blackhawk closed his eyes deeply, remembering every bit of the face he had seen, returning him from the tunnel of light... then passing him, and taking his place. She had offered herself in his place, and whatever power lay beyond all reality had accepted. He would never forget it. For just a moment, he opened his eyes, and as they flashed blue, swore to take her courage to heart, and her example as his own