The Bride Wore Black Leather

pepper right into his eyes. He cried out in shock, then again in agony, as the pepper ate into his eyes. He staggered backwards, clawing at his streaming eyes with both hands, unable to think of anything but the horrible thing I’d done to him. I grinned at Julien.
    “Some shit I don’t put up with. And the old jokes are always the best. Living god, my arse. For all his admittedly impressive power, he’s still a man. Let this be a lesson to you, Julien. Never leave home without condiments. Condiments are our friends.”
    “I’ll kill you!” screamed the Sun King, staggering blindly back and forth. “I’ll kill you all!”
    “So much for peace and love,” said Julien. “It’s always sad, to see an old dream die.”
    He stepped forward and booted the Sun King square in the groin. He put all his strength and weight into it, and the force of the kick actually lifted the Sun King right off the ground for a moment. He tried to scream, but the pain blocked his throat. He fell to his knees, all the strength and all of his breath knocked right out of him. He bent forward over his pain, air rattling in his constricted throat, tears streaming down his face from puffy, squeezed-shut eyes. He didn’t look like a living god any more. I looked at Julien with something very like shock. You don’t expect the Great Victorian Adventurer to fight dirty. But he was looking down at the Sun King, genuinely more in sorrow than anger, and when he spoke, his voice was tired, and soul-deep weary.
    “Stay down, Harry. I know a lot of tricks a lot worse than that one. You always liked to hear stories of my old days as an Adventurer, fighting the forces of evil. But you never understood what that meant. You were never a fighter.”
    The Sun King’s head came up slowly, and he forced his eyes open so he could sneer at Julien. His face was flushed a dark and unhealthy purple with rage, and when he forced his hands away from his aching groin, they were trembling with rage, too.
    “Don’t you laugh at me. Don’t you dare laugh at me! You wanted the power. Have it!”
    The Sun King stabbed one hand at Julien, and a fierce light erupted out of his fingertips, hitting Julien in the chest like a lightning bolt. He cried out and staggered backwards, then the same terrible light blasted out of his eyes. Julien howled horribly, clutching at his face, and the light blazed right through his hands, outlining the bones within like an X-ray. The light shone out of Julien’s face, and out of his hands, and from his chest. He fell to his knees. He seemed to catch on fire from the light, blue flames bursting out all over him without burning or consuming him. His whole body shook and shuddered, as though he might explode at any moment.
    Patients and security people scattered away from him, screaming and shouting. I had to fight my way through the press of bodies to get to Julien. There was no heat from the blue flames, only the terrible light blazing out of him. The Sun King laughed breathlessly. He was still holding himself as though something inside was broken, but his eyes had cleared, full of an awful laughter.
    “He’s too small a thing to hold the power I gave him. He can’t control it, he can’t even hold on to it. Any minute now, the power will break loose and destroy this whole building and everyone in it. And that’s what you get, for mouthing off to a living god.” He looked at me, and sniggered. “Of course, you can stop all this, John Taylor. I left you a way out; because I am a kind and considerate living god. You can stop this; save everyone in the hospital. All you have to do is kill him. Kill your friend, kill the legendary Great Victorian Adventurer, and the power will return to me. But you’d better do it quickly, while there’s still time!”
    He disappeared, still laughing.
    I looked around, and there was Dr. Benway, staring at Julien in horror. She hadn’t run, but she couldn’t bring herself to move any closer.
    “What do I do?” I screamed at her. “How do I stop this? How do I save him?”
    But she shook her head numbly. For all her experience in Ward 12A, this was beyond her. I grabbed Julien by the shoulders, holding him still against the power within him, which was shaking him like a rag doll. The blue flames burned my hands, but I wouldn’t let him go. He turned his face to me. The light blazing from his eyes was almost incandescent now. He forced words out, painfully.
    “Do it, John. Kill me. You