"Hey you..." softly called this hero's heroin, as her voice shot through me with the sharpness of a bullet and the gentleness of a cotton-stuffed pillow. I couldn't help but smile as I made my way through the place I called my home, approaching the woman of my dreams and holding her close in my arms, the both of us enjoying one another's warm embrace. My hand gently stroked through her hair as I looked down at her with more love in my eyes then there could ever be for any other person I'll ever meet in this entire planet. She was the one for me...she was the perfect woman, and I was honored to be the one she called her love.

One day...I would marry her. I would marry Suki Minamoto, the heroin known to Capital City as 'Curatio'.

"Hey." I whispered in her ear, "I love you."

"I love you too." came her reply, as we gently parted from each other's embrace only to find the room between us to kiss each other, our eyes closing softly. Imagine that...a man known as a warrior for the people of Capital City and a woman known as the savior to the injured of Capital City...locked in a gentle embrace with each other as they poured their hearts out into one simple kiss in the privacy of their own home, where no-one knew their true identities. The kiss that can seemingly last forever when in reality lasts only a minute...and yet you find yourself feeling as though it ended too soon despite that feeling of forever.

When you love a person, however...forever just isn't enough. Yet despite my yearning to continue our kiss, it inevitably had to end...and she inevitably had to tell me the happenings of the day.

"You got a call today," she began with a smile, resting her head against my chest and wrapping her arms around my tight, "Chris wanted to tell you about some 'tournament of champions' going on underground. He's busy researching this whole deal with Dillon Death...was hoping if you and some of his friends could look into joining the tournament to make sure that no villain makes it through. As it turns out...whoever wins this thing will really benefit from it, and if it's a villain...it would spell major trouble for Capital City."

"Did he say who else he was sending?" I asked, my eyebrow quirking as I looked down at her.

"Yeah...just two. Violent Clown and the Castle. Turns out that a few other heroes heard about it too and signed themselves up to it: Sugar Smack, Jay Bird and Souless. Looks like the tournament pretty much got stacked with heroes before any villains could sign up for it...Chris made sure to get you three on though. As it turns out, the only villains on the thing are going to be Merritt Evil and Mapleleaf Logan." she responded, pulling away as we walked alongside of each other back towards the kitchen, where the powerful, mouth-watering aroma of dinner awaited me on the stove.

"Merritt Evil? I could have sworn I stopped him from bothering the public awhile back, you'd think he'd learn..." I sighed.

"God knows these villains are just as determined to stick around as you are to put them away, honey..." she chuckled, giving me a peck on the cheek and then proceeding to smack my hand away from the pot on the stovetop. "And don't even think about eating yet, it's still not done cooking."

"But I'm hungry..." I whined, my lower lip pouting as she turned to look at me and quirked her eyebrow, reaching out with her index finger and pushing the middle of my bottom lip in, as though trying to 'un-pout' it, for lack of a better term.

"Don't give me that, you can wait another ten minutes." she grinned, causing me to groan in dissapointment. I made my way over to the table we always sat at to eat in the dining room, which stood beside a larger table specifically for group gatherings. She smiled at me and blew me a kiss from the stove, as I pretended to catch it and kiss my hand, though I kept the pout on to try and convince her to let me atleast sample what she was making.

No luck, though...the woman was as stubborn as a damn mule when it came to waiting for her to finish cooking.

"I need to get my mind off of this hunger or it'll drive me nuts," I muttered to myself, absentmindedly watching as she put on her headphones and started dancing to the music coming through them, my eyes particularly focusing on how she moved her rear. Admittedly, I'm more human then many people would think...heroes have urges too you know.

Ignoring the stirring in my loins and the growling in my stomach, however, I tried to focus on other important matters at hand. The tournament Chris told Suki about...I couldn't help but wonder who I'd be facing off against. There were several challenges amongst the batch that made it through...and undoubtedly we'd be fighting in the wastelands so as to not damage Capital City or the valleys beside it. I prefered the wastelands to fight in, really...but it still put me out of my element against the villains. I was only just beginning to adjust to that place by now, actually.

Reaching into my pocket and fumbling for my cell phone, I decided to try and see if I could get in contact with Chris, hoping to get a little more information on this 'Tournament of Champions'. The phone rang four times before being picked up rather abruptly, the sound of it being fumbled on the other line entering my ear and bringing a grin to my features. Looks like Chris had a hard time finding his phone.

"What? What?! Who is this?!" came his voice on the other line, annoyed at his obvious struggle to pick his small cell phone up so suddenly.

"It's Dom, Chris. Suki told me something about this tournament of champions gig?" I replied, leaning back in my chair. Suki turned around to look at me and smiled, at least until she noticed me leaning back in my chair. She cast me a glare that could send a shivver down any grown man's spine as she motioned for me to sit the chair back down properly. Sighing, I stopped leaning back and sat back down, knowing that she hated it when I accidentally broke the legs on these things. She gave me another one of her smiles and nodded, turning back to her cooking as I waited for Chris on the other line.

"You still ther--" I began, only to hear his voice cut me off.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Georgina came in asking about something. So anyway, hey you big dumb bastard! How's life treating ya'? I take it you got my message?" he laughed on the other line.

"Yeah, Suki told me...I was actually calling to ask about that too man. Exactly who will I be facing in this thing? She told me who's in it, but didn't know who I'll be facing." I asked, absentmindedly going to lean back in the chair again only for Suki to swiftly turn around and give me one of those 'Do it and you get the couch' looks, instantly stopping my absentmindedness and bringing me back to reality as I quickly lowered the chair, offering her an innocent smile.

"Well it says here that the final brackets were decided...lemme see if I can pull anything up on it for ya', hold on." he said, as soon the sound of clacking keyboard keys replaced the sound of his voice, and then the click of a mouse replaced the sound of the keys. Moments passed with simple clicking and typing sounds passing through, as I lazily circled my finger on the table, hoping I wouldn't be repeating any matches in my first one.

Finally, his voice returned.

"Alright! Well it says here you'll be taking on Souless, and if you win you'll be going on to the semis against either Merrit Evil or Jay Bird. I'd say you got it pretty easy but, then again...I could take you all on and win with one arm behind my back, you know what I mean?" laughed Chris, undoubtedly leaning back in his own throne as carefree as a bird.

"Ah shut your mouth, Chris...we'll see about that the day we face each other, eh?" I smirked, nodding my head. "Anyway, thanks for the info man...I'll get to checking things up on this Souless guy, I've hardly seen him around Capital City lately." I said, my voice hinting at a bit of confusion towards the end there.

"That's because you've not really had the opportunity to see him, you've just faced his friend Violent Clown. The guy comes and goes, he's a pretty interesting lad. Has the ability to temporarily possess anyone with ill-nature in their hearts, depending on how strong they are. Other then that he can just do a few magical tricks and fly. Personally, if I wanted to see a rabbit pulled out of a villain's ass I'd go see one of those civilian magicians, but what do I know?" Chris joked on the other line, before continuing on, "Anyway man, I've gotta let you go. This whole thing with Dillon Death is about as confusing as one of Enigma's monologues. Later."

"Later." I said, hanging up just as Suki moved the pot off the stove and towards the countertop. I knew it'd be another five minutes before I could actually eat it...but damn it, the smell was driving my stomach nuts.

"Come on Suki...just let me have a taste!" I begged, giving her as good a puppy-dog face as I could...only to get a laugh and an 'awww' out of her.

"I'm sorry Dominic, but you know me! No food for you until I'm sure it's ready!"

I sighed, my last attempt at an early meal being foiled. Only one villain had ever been able to get the best of me here, and that villain was dead and gone now thanks to me. Yet all Suki has to do is say 'no' and she instantly gets the best of me...I just don't get it sometimes.

Ah well, I guess that's just what love does to you, huh?

Either way, despite my hunger...food was soon becoming a second-thought on my mind at this point, as I began thinking about exactly what was in-store for the person who won this thing. What was so important about the prize that would allow for devastating effects on our city should a villain actually win? The more I thought about it the more I honestly hoped that I could make it all the way to the end of this thing however, because whatever it was...would truly benefit any hero that obtained it. That was the way it worked, it was the equivalent exchange of things amongst heroes and villains. What a villain can use to their advantage for evil, a hero could use to their advantage for good.

Yet for me to be able to figure out what this thing was...I would first have to take down a fellow hero who I'd never even met before. That alone will be a huge challenge in and of itself, because no one hero in Capital City should ever be taken lightly, even by another hero.

"Alright...time to eat!" called Suki, my muscles instantly tensing up as my concentration was cut, my eyes darting towards the pot on the counter.

"FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!" erupted the battlecry from my lips, as I leapt from my seat and raced for my dinner. Hey, every hero has to eat sometime, right?

After all...even with our powers, we're still human.