The Salamander in “Father’s Day”

The Salamanders black and red, scale covered costume glimmering in the pale Summer moonlight, he stealthily darted along the narrow alleyway behind the old brownstone building that was Wicked Queens secret lair then, able just like his namesake to catapult himself ten times his own height and just as agile at scaling walls, the hero made a daring 25 feet leap up to a window on the 4th floor before climbing the rest of the way up the side of the building then , using one of the many chemicals he could, like a Salamander, excrete from his armour to melt the lock on the window, he slowly slid it upwards before crawling inside and onto the carpeted floor of the office within.

He heard the sound of a gun being cocked and then he felt a barrel being pressed close to the back of his head,

“Wicked Queen wants to see you, boy”, said a gruff voiced man with a deep southern accent.

The tall, elegant woman seated upon a throne dressed in a flowing black satin gown with a black crystal crown upon her head of dark auburn curls gazed across her throne room, lit by flickering torches on all the walls, as a man in a black and red costume, the golden insignia of a crawling Salamander upon his chest was led into the room by two of her burly, grim faced henchmen armed with machine guns.

“Ahh, the Salamander”, said the woman, an ecstatic smile spreading across her crimson painted lips,“Or should I say Dr Charles Scarlatti, one time professor of biochemistry, I believe, at Tulane University who, while attempting to duplicate the genetic code which allows the Salamander to miraculously regenerate its bodily organs was forced to inject himself with his own serum in order to rescue his wife and infant son from a burning building. Sadly, his acts of heroism did not end there for then he decided to adopt his famous Superhero identity; donning his trademark scaled Salamander suit that like the skin of the Salamander excretes defensive chemicals against any would be attacker and using his new powers of self- regeneration; salamander like speed, strength and agility set out fight crime and the forces of evil on the streets of our city, becoming a constant thorn in the side of every criminal in New Orleans, including myself”.

“I didn’t come here to talk about my life. There’s only one thing I’m interested in, Wicked Queen and that’s my wife and son. I know you’re holding them captive. Well, you can have me if you let them go”, said the Superhero, solemnly.

“And why shouldn’t I just kill you right now?”, asked Wicked Queen, “You know I have 200 heavily armed guards at my beck and call while you, why your just one man”.

“And you know as well as I do that it would take a lot more than 200 men to kill me”, said Salamander, “That is why you resorted to kidnapping my family. Well if you let them go, you can kill me; do whatever you want but if you hurt just one hair upon their heads, you will need more than 200 men to protect you, that I swear”.

The vile criminaless laughed,

“Ha! You really think that I am afraid of you?”, she asked.

Pressing a button upon the arm of her throne the evil queen opened a trapdoor in the floor and up out of it rose a burly man dressed in armour like alligator scales with a long tail that he seemed able to control and a snapping alligator helmet , its jaws lined with curved metal blades and seeming as powerful as a man trap.

“Gator”, she ordered, “Take this man’s head off”.

“Yes, Wicked Queen. With pleasure”, said the Gator headed man and, looking into his open jaws, the Salamander could see the face behind them start to grin.

The Salamander crouched into a fighting position but then the Gatorman, spinning round swept that long tail towards the heroes legs knocking him off of his feet and then lunging towards him, the Gator attacked with his enormous jaws.

Fortunately, the Salamander rolled out of the Gators path just in time to avoid his face being snapped off, then leaping to his feet, the hero grabbed hold of the Gator by its scaly tail swinging with all his might and hurling the Gator across the room, its snapping head crashing into a wall.

Dazed, the Gator stumbled back up on his feet and turned slowly to face his opponent again.

Just then, however leaping up and snatching down one of the flickering torches from the wall, the Salamander rushed forwards, thrusting the blazing end of the torch between the Gators jaws .

The Gator headed villain screamed, struggling to pull the torch back out before collapsing on the floor.

“Guards”, the Wicked Queen ordered, her voice filled with rage, “Please remove that Gator headed imbecile”.

Immediately, two guards that had been standing nearby, taking hold of the Gatorman at either end, lifted him up and carried him out of the room.

“Is that the best you can do?”, said the Salamander defiantly before his voice changing to a pleading tone, he added, “Please stop this ridiculous game and let my family go. Then I’ll surrender to you”.

Wicked Queen gave an irritated sigh.

“Very well”, she said then, turning to one of her guards, ordered, “Bring the Salamanders wife and son here”.

Bowing the Guard exited the room and a few minutes later the hero saw the guard return, leading his wife and son as captives.

“Charles!”, cried his wife, seeing him.

“Daddy”, shouted his son, “Daddy”.

“Don’t worry, Lydia”, he shouted back to his wife, “They’ve agreed to let you and Robert go”.

“But what about you?”, asked his wife.

“I have to stay here”, he said.

“No, daddy, no”, cried his Son running over to him.

“Go back to your mother, Robert”, said the Salamander.

“No, Daddy”, said his son, starting to cry, “I want to stay here with you”.

Wicked Queen groaned.

“I’ve changed my mind”, she shouted to her guards, “Kill them all”.

Hearing this, the Salamander stretched out his right fist, pointing the golden salamander ring which he always wore towards the wicked queen.

“So be it”, said the Salamander, determinedly.

Then, the front of the ring opening up, Wicked Queen saw, too late, a tiny hypodermic dart fire from the ring and felt its sharp needle pierce her chest.

“What was that?”, she shrieked.

“A fast acting neurotoxin that I have been working on developing, your highness”, replied the Salamander, now with a smirk, “And only I have the antidote. So, if you want to live you will let my wife and son go now”.

The Queen put her head in her hands realizing she was beaten,

“Very well”, she shouted to her henchmen with a sigh, “Release the prisoners, that’s an order”.

Walking out of the Wicked Queens lair and into the sunlight, Robert smiled thinking about what had just happened.

“My dad is a superhero”, he thought, “And he saved me and my mom. My dad is the coolest dad ever”.