Deathstalker 06 - Deathstalker Legacy

She'd known immediately where she was with Lewis. She wasn't a jot closer to understanding Finn.
    She followed him out over the city, the two sleds riding high over the already bustling streets, almost up in the clouds. All the other air traffic gave them plenty of room, from the darting messengers on their slip-streamed boards, to the bulky freight carriers too heavy for the roads. Nobody waved, or even
    acknowledged their presence, and no one wanted to get too close. Emma was scowling so hard now her brow had begun to hurt. As a Paragon you expected respect, not fear. Something was very wrong in Logres.
    And she was pretty sure it all had its base in Finn Durandal. She'd seen all the documentaries, including the drama reconstructions, studied all his major cases, even been a member of his official fan club, back when she was just a kid. He'd done amazing things in his time, especially when he partnered Douglas Campbell and Lewis Deathstalker. The dream team, I the media had called them. Finn had been the ideal she'd modeled her life on. But this cold, casual, almost effete man, with his empty words and emptier smile, was nothing like the legend. Just a man, with muscles and a pretty face, and a few flashy fighting skills.
    Nothing like the Deathstalker, who never looked anything less than the warrior he was. She had no doubts at all concerning the Deathstalker's conduct during the riot. Where others had seen cruelty, she had seen only passion. Where others had seen killing, she had seen only duty. Lewis had behaved as a Paragon should.
    Finn led her down, out of the clouds and into the city. They swooped down like birds of prey, and all the other traffic scattered to get out of their way as Finn and Emma shot between the tall buildings, rising and falling on the bucking updrafts. The gusting wind had a sharp biting edge at this speed, buffeting around the edges of the sleds forward force shield, but once again it was the sheer scale of the city below that took Emma's breath away. Even at the very beginning of the day, with the last of the dawn still leaking out of the sky, already the streets were thronging with people and traffic, bustling back and forth like ants in a colony. Traffic filled the roads, filtered effortlessly through the baffling maze of streets by the city's central traffic computers. People were on the move, heading out to work, or back from the night shifts, in the city that never slept, never paused, never faltered. And all around, almost overwhelming when seen at such close range, towers and edifices shot up into the sky, fashioned like works of art, sparkling with brilliant lights, and more often that not flashing vivid holo adverts to the crowds below. The city; endlessly alive, vibrant and alert, stretching away like an endless sea of stone and steel, faceted with shimmering glass and precious metals. The greatest jewel of the Empire. Pride and wonder burst in Emma's heart, to be a part of such a city. There was nothing like it on Mistworld, or Xanadu. Nothing so ... intense, so alive and full of purpose.
    Finn took her lower still, cutting back on his speed now, till they were scudding by barely a dozen feet above the heads of the pedestrians on the main city streets. People looked up to see the two Paragons sail past, and a few of them waved and some of them smiled, but most just stared up coldly, their faces set and grim. As though they were the ones sitting in judgement. Not at all what Emma Steel was used to.
    She knew she had a hard reputation; she took pride in it. But it had always been her proud boast that only the guilty ever had anything to fear from her.
    Finn maneuvred his sled close in beside hers. "Don't mind them," he said easily. "They're just confused.
    They'll get over it."
    "They look like they hate us," said Emma. "Like they can't trust us. Like we're not really Paragons anymore."
    "Never expect gratitude from those you serve, Emma. We protect them, do their dirty work for them, even clean up after their messes, but they never appreciate what we do. They don't care that we do a job no one else can do, that we give our lives to it because it needs to be done. They don't want to see the blood and suffering our job entails, because then they'd have to admit that they're part of the problem. If they were all clean-cut, law-abiding citizens, without guilt or secrets or hidden desires, they wouldn't need
    us. Would they?"
    Emma didn't know what to say to any of that. It was