Ace Dangers Vingette - New Years 2010

[angrydurf]

Ace stepped out into the chill winter air of the observation deck. The noise of the celebration muted by the double paned glass door and even the traffic noise and revelries in the street nearly silenced by the sheer height of the building. He walked to the railing his gloved hands slowly folding around the icy metal as he stared off into the night.

 

Another year gone, the endless cavalcade of the immortal. Behind him the vibrant celebration of Freedom City's elite. Below him the city of Freedom, the streets and homes filled with those joyously ringing in the coming New Year. Ace took a deep breath of the icy air and looked out over the city he loved, thinking back over another year gone. Criminals captured, Villains vanquished, Friends made and Friends lost. Times unerring march forward.

 

Ace had greeted the new year in many places and many ways, from posh parties like this to silent and alone hidden in the loft of a resistance supporter. He had partaken in the Dakanan rituals of the suns rebirth and prayed forgiveness of the Holy See for his many sins. None of it however really mattered in the end. Ace had seen the malaise of the ageless in his travels. Ancient powers lost in their dreams of forgotten times. Obsessed immortals seeking some glimmer of meaning in their unending existence.

 

He had even done so himself for a time. Lost himself among the celebrations of a thousand lands, warmed himself in the embrace of companions unnumbered. He had hoped to stave off the inevitable realization of his extended life. But even comparatively young as he was he knew, for the likes of him a year was no more meaningful than a decade, a century, or a day. So why mark a new one with such fanfare?

 

“Because it is life.†He intoned to himself. A life that continued where others may not was not to be regretted it was to be put to use. He had sworn to put the immortal terror behind him years ago. To live each day to its fullest. For all of those who didn't get the chance he would live his life for all of them.

 

And so he came to it, his resolution. Not the ones he would share with those inside, but the same he had made every year. Live life and never forget for all of them, and he silently listed them all;

 

For Rex, Raj, Ace, The Colonel, …

 

Ten minutes later Ace returned to the party eyes dried and a smile on his face, joining in the revel, “Should auld acquaintance be forgot ...â€