The sky painted a canvas of oranges and purples as the sun bid farewell to the city skyline. Alex savored the cool evening breeze from the comfort of a bench in Memorial Park. The sun's rays danced off a bronze statue nestled among the trees, depicting the mighty Vanguard. True to his name, Vanguard led the way, a pioneer among superheroes. His bravery knew no bounds, sacrificing himself to protect his beloved city and its inhabitants.

Alex always admired supers, and like many others, put them on a pedestal. They are the elite. When no one else can solve the problem, somehow they always can.

It had been half a decade of superhero-supported life, and Alex had to admit, life was good. Nobody knew what caused them to start appearing. There were many theories, ranging from government experiments, to natural evolution, to radioactive bug bites, each more bizarre than the last, depending on who you asked. There were many conspiracy theorists that spent hours upon hours investigating and deliberating (sometimes full on arguing) about the most logical cause. Of course, nobody could give a definitive answer. Sometimes, it seemed like they weren’t even trying to come up with the real answer, but just the one that was the most outrageous. Alex usually didn’t pay much attention to them, but occasionally found himself falling down the rabbit hole for some cheap entertainment.

The numbers of supers was small, but not insignificant. Most major cities had a super team, including Alex’s home city of Hillcrest.

Hillcrest’s team: Nova Squad.

Nova squad was your typical hero team. Each member donned their flashy uniforms of vibrant colors that, while cool, were not the most practical most of the time. Hard to blend into your surroundings when you are wearing primary colors all over your body. It did look pretty cool though, Alex had to admit.

Each member of Nova Squad had a unique power. Vanguard was probably the most iconic. He sported a classic, medieval style shield. His plate armor colored with his colors of choice; red and black. He didn’t wear a helmet, likely to show off his award winning smile. Seriously his smile had won many awards, the dude was good looking. He was extremely strong and had the ability to fly. Vanguard was the leader of the Nova Squad and one of the earliest supers.

Alex would occasionally see him streaking by and it always gave him an extra measure of security. Vanguard was the city’s shield and protector. He took that charge seriously.

Nova Squad was the best deterrent that the city could ask for. That didn’t mean that crime had stopped. In fact, crime had changed drastically. While petty crime had taken a drastic plunge in frequency, super crime was on the rise. With the introduction of superheroes came the inception of their counterparts. Supervillains.

Luckily, for the normal citizens of Hillcrest, villains hardly ever made a move openly. Most of their attacks were made against financial institutions or technology companies, places where they could gain something. There was the occasional psychopath that really only wanted chaos, but fortunately, they were few and far between.

Villains hardly ever worked together. Most of them have the ‘does not play well with others’ personality type. Which is fine because that usually makes them easier to contain. It kept Nova Squad busy but they were fine with that.

When villains did form teams, the results were devastating. The last time it had happened in Hillcrest, it had been crippling in more ways than one. The city suffered and so had Alex.

Alex was average in almost every way—height, weight, looks. He had hair the color of the tree bark surrounding him and blue eyes. Before, he could walk through a crowd, and nobody would notice him. He had a friendly demeanor and was approachable, yet he didn’t seem to command attention either.

Now, he did call attention, if only a little. He was young and most people his age didn’t have to use a wheelchair. It was one of the things that was the most difficult for him to adjust to after it had happened. The staring.

Most people didn’t actually stare at him, but it had felt like that. He hated having to explain when someone asked. It made him feel like people only saw the limitations he faced, not what he could still accomplish. His life had changed drastically, but that didn’t mean it was over, even though it had felt like that initially.

It was this day, two years ago, that his life had changed. He always came to this park to remember, both what he had suffered, and how far he had come. Many trials, but also so much growth. It was a bittersweet memory.

—Two years ago—

Alex was walking through the park on his way home from work. It was a nice day, and it was a good way to unwind. Not that his job was that stressful. He was just a classic, entry level worker at a business. It was good for him. Alex wasn’t ever considered the smartest person, and hadn’t ever gone to college. This job paid well, and the requirements weren’t too crazy. He could work, then go home, without anything from work coming home with him. Ideal scenario for him, as far as he was concerned.

As he walked, he heard the standard symphony of city life. The beautiful chorus of colorful language being shouted. The blaring horns of greeting and friendship. All jokes aside, Alex loved living in the city. He had stayed a summer with his grandparents in the country, and it had been eerily quiet for his liking.

A whoosh sounded above, shaking Alex out of his stupor. Vanguard.

Alex loved when Vanguard flew by. It was cool. What he would give to be up there with him. What a life that man gets to live. Whenever something goes wrong, he is there to help.

Many people were afraid of superheroes. They claimed that they were given too much freedom, and they inherently had too much power. To Alex, it didn’t matter that much. They offered more positives than negatives in his opinion. Plus, nobody was going to complain if they were the ones that needed help. All your morals and high standing go away the second you are the one in danger. Life was funny that way.

Fortunately, supers didn’t care too much about your views on their roles in society. If you needed help, they were the first ones to show up. They protected. It’s what they do.

The Syndicate was currently Nova Squad’s main concern. They were essentially a terrorist cell based right in the heart of Hillcrest. Of course, they wouldn’t call themselves that. Nope, they called themselves ‘agents of change’. They actually had a lot of traction and a huge following in the city. They believed that the power structure needed to be modified. Their supporters: the same individuals that thought superheroes had too much power.

The way the Syndicate brought about this reform was controversial at best. While they didn’t target civilians, focusing instead on corporations and government entities, that didn’t mean that citizens didn’t get caught up in the crossfire. Every incursion had its fair share of casualties on all sides of the conflict.

They always made it sound like it wasn’t their fault and that it was not their intention to cause harm to people. That was likely why they had any following at all. Hard to support a group that went around killing people’s grandparents. Most people frown on that.

There was a large support for both heroes and the Syndicate, but most people just wanted nothing to do with it. It was hard to feel safe when you never knew if a car was going to smash into you, or your car was going to be used to smash into someone else.

Come to think of it, this is a common occurrence. Why are they using cars all the time? Don’t they have better weapons? Do they use any tactics at all? The only people that seem to win are the Super Insurance companies. They are making out like bandits. If I were a hero I would…

Alex’s thoughts were cut off as the tree in front of him burst into flames. Then the one next to it, and behind him.

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What is going on?

Alex searched the park trying to make sense of it all. It felt like he was having a fever dream where nothing made sense.

I wish this was a dream. This is a nightmare, Alex thought as he found the source of the inferno.

Pyromancer stood in a clearing. He launched fireball after fireball all around the park. If Alex wasn’t close to him, he likely wouldn’t have seen him at all as the smoke was beginning to intensify. Alex’s eyes felt like someone had poured a gallon of sand into them. He blinked it away while moving behind a tree for some cover.

All around him were the sounds of terror and confusion. Birds were screeching and flying away. People were sobbing and shrieking. Most were trying to run away from the eye of the storm. Some were not making any sounds or movements at all, unconscious from the smoke.

Alex was a pretty strong guy. He played basketball a couple times a week, tried to go to the gym, eat healthy, you know the usual stuff. It appeared like he was now going to put that strength to the test. He couldn’t just leave these people unconscious. That was as good as leaving them to die.

He searched the environment and saw a man face first in the dirt about twenty feet to his left. Staying out of Pyromancer’s field of view, he made his way over. He picked the man up in a fireman’s carry, hurrying out of the park. On his way out, Alex saw multiple others who hadn’t made the trek to safety. After about a minute of arduous work, he was clear of the smoke. Resting the man on his back, Alex left him in the care of some bystanders. He had just saved someone’s life, and Alex had to admit it felt great. Adrenaline pumped through his veins, and it felt great. He wanted to save more people. Not only to chase the high that he was currently feeling, but also for the warm fuzzy feeling it brought with it. And also the adrenaline.

He searched around and found something that he could use. He grabbed a rag from a hotdog stand nearby and covered it in water. He then wrapped it around his nose and mouth to function as a makeshift gas mask.

I saw this on TV, so it must do something.

Prepared with his state of the art protective equipment, Alex ran back into the blaze.

Alex saw a few supers in the distance. They would be there to help, but their initial focus will likely be on the Syndicate. If Pyromancer was here, the rest of his team was not far behind. They might not be able to focus on saving anybody for a while and Alex couldn’t just stand by.

Person after person was saved. On one of his last trips in he had seen a family—two girls who were wailing and their mom slumped over. Alex immediately made his way over to them, lifting the mom and leading the girls by the hand. With the three of them led to safety, Alex had saved thirteen people in total. Each trip had taken him longer than the previous, and his eyes and lungs burned, screaming for him stop. By now, more than half of the park was ablaze.

Currently, Alex was heaving his chest while lying on the ground. He was covered in soot, grime, and sweat. This was the most difficult thing he had ever done, but he knew he had to go back. There were more people still inside the noxious gas. Steeling himself, he rose and entered the park again. This would be his last trip. At least, that’s what he told himself, and the people trying to stop him from going in again. Thirteen wasn’t a lucky number. He couldn’t stop there.

He should have stopped.

He spent, what felt like hours, hunting for more survivors. He had been having more trouble each trip, and he knew that was probably a good thing. Maybe there were more people doing what he was doing. He remembered seeing another one deeper in the park. He trudged forward, only able to see a few feet ahead of him.

His vision was beginning to turn black around the edges and he felt like he was walking on a sinking ship.

I’m not going back until I find one more.

The air began to clear around Alex in an instant. He took his first clean breath in minutes. His vision slowly began to clear, and he looked up. Zephyr had arrived and she meant business.

Alex had seen her clearing other parts of the park and it looked like it was his turn. The fires, deprived of oxygen, were quickly snuffed out. Zephyr, using her wind powers, flew around dealing with the spreading wildfire. The remnants of the fires still evident on the charcoal husks that were once beautiful foliage, smoke still rising and embers still glowing.

That was when Alex realized his mistake.

The Syndicate, in its entirety, wearing protective masks only slightly better than the one Alex had made, were standing in a clearing. Their vision was clear now, and every single one of them looked directly at him.

I am royally screwed. Why didn’t I stay back? Thirteen isn’t that bad of a number.

He turned tail, and began running. He took only half a step before searing pain filled his entire body. It was like that one time he had stuck a fork in the outlet just to see what all the fuss was about, only dialed up to twenty. Apparently, Voltstorm didn’t like that he had crashed their party. How rude of Alex.

Alex crashed sideways and straight through a tree, knocking him unconscious.

Alex awoke, face in the dirt, a little disoriented. He tried to get up, but found that he couldn’t. He strained his neck trying to get a good look around him. What he saw sent him into a panic. The tree that he had crashed through was now pinning him to the ground. It was one of the trees that been on fire not long ago. He knew this, because there were blisters and boils on his skin where it was resting. And what was worse, he couldn’t feel any of it.

Alex tried to calm himself. Panic would not help him right now. He just couldn’t see any way out of his current situation. Tears welled up in his eyes, and he started to see all of the things that he loved doing slip away from him. The tears were stinging, his eyes still raw from all of the smoke. His life was over. Alex just kept running through it all, wondering if it was all worth it. In the end, he believed it was.

This gave him all the peace of mind he needed right then. 13 people would live to see another day because of what he did. Surely 13 lives were worth more than his. He kept thinking of those two little girls. They had their whole lives ahead of them. That had to count for something. The tears kept flowing down his cheeks, but now they weren’t so bitter.

Alex regained his composure and tried to see a way out of his current dilemma. A loud voice stole his concentration.

“We have given you enough time. You have failed time and time again to remove them. We have done so with ours. The Qurath are unhappy with your performance and have sent us to rectify your mistakes.”

“Please! You don’t need to do this! We were making progress. We have given everything we could for the Qurath,” another voice pleaded.

“Your cries fall on deaf ears. We have no need for the weak among our ranks. We will end this once and for all.”

With that, a scream so shrill and full of desperation filled Alex’s ears. And then.

Nothing.

The silence was nearly louder than the scream had been. Alex’s vision began to darken again and he succumbed.

He woke up intermittently for the next couple hours. He would hear a bang or whoosh every now and then, but he would quickly lose consciousness again. It wasn’t until 7 hours after the mysterious voices, that he would finally be saved.

The tree was lifted from his body and he was rushed to the emergency room. After many hours of intensive care, Alex was stabilized. He had lost a lot of blood and had suffered third degree burns over a large part of his lower body. He was placed in a medically induced coma for 3 months while he recovered.

When he awoke, things were much different. Almost the entirety of the Nova Squad was dead. The battle between them and the Syndicate had been a bloody one. There was speculation that since the park was largely empty of people, the Nova Squad had deemed lethal force justified to end the terror that was the Syndicate.

The carnage of the battle was almost unbearable and the remains of many of the supers involved were unrecognizable. While Zephyr and few others survived from Nova Squad, none of the syndicate remained. And nobody left unscathed.

Altogether, there 42 casualties, including the supers and villains.

In the aftermath of everything, everyone hurt in some way. Whether the loss of a loved one or the loss of the supers who were trying to help.

Alex hurt for other reasons. He was told he would never walk again. His scarred flesh never seemed to heal all the way as every movement sent sharp pains everywhere he could still feel it. He was happy for the lives that he saved but he still woke up every morning crying. He couldn’t help it.

The next year was full of grueling pain as he went to physical therapy to regain as much movement as he could. It began to be more bearable, but he still felt a lot of pain doing even the most minuscule of tasks.

Slowly, Alex began to find his new normal. He still had rough days but was starting to come to terms with his new life. He found ways to enjoy the things he used to, albeit in slightly different ways. He could still go to the gym and he even joined a wheelchair basketball league. He couldn’t work his old job anymore, so he found a new job. One that would allow him to help others who had similar experiences to himself. Well, mostly similar anyway.

—Today—

Alex lingered a little longer in the park. That day had changed a lot in both good and bad ways. His parents had died right after he graduated high school and he hadn’t had any family for a while. He had felt pretty lonely at times. Now, he had found new people he considered family. The mother and two girls. Sarah, Katy, and Taylor had helped him through his darkest moments. Sarah was a few years older than him and she was like the sister he never had. Katy and Taylor were the sweetest little girls and he loved being their adopted uncle. It filled a hole that he didn’t know existed in his life.

Alex made his way out of the park. He was going to meet the three of them for ice cream. He hadn’t seen them in a while as school had started back up and he was excited to see them all again to hear about their classes.

That was when the strangest thing happened. He stopped moving, tilting his head quizzically.

There was something floating in the middle of his vision. It was a bunch of characters that kept changing in seemingly random patterns for a couple of seconds before it began to make words that he could read.

Welcome to the Forge. Initiating training and information tutorial. Please remain calm and prepare for transportation.

Moments of confusion later, Alex was teleported away from his spot in the park.