It took a while for Alex to get the shot lined up. He was going to force all his stored up energy into one shot, so he would need to make sure it counted. If it didn’t land, he would be left extremely vulnerable. If it did, he might be able to finish the fight in just one punch.

Maybe that will be superhero name—One Punch Dude. Nah that sounds ridiculous. I’ll still need to brainstorm when I get back. Once the name is out there, there’s no going back.

He spent the better part of half an hour positioning himself. Every time Alex was about to make his move, the Sand Drake intervened. He wasn’t sure why, but it seemed like it knew that if he were to land this hit, it would be all over. Alex wondered if he was radiating some power that it might be able to sense somehow. Maybe it had a sort of primal instinct telling it that it was in trouble.

That would be nice. But, until Alex gained this sixth sense, he would just have to rely on his wits.

Alex dove under a tail swipe and started moving so fast along the sand that it looked as if he were gliding. The clouds of dust he kicked up made it appear that his feet never touched the ground.

Alex had fallen into a rhythm. He didn’t even need to think, everything was just instinctual. A claw came crashing down and he effortlessly evaded. He felt like he was fighting a boss in a video game that had easily recognizable patterns. This obviously wasn’t the case, but the way he reacted made it appear like that.

He reflected on how far he had come since the tutorial. He wouldn’t have even dreamed of being able to control the flow of a fight like this before. Now, he wouldn’t be surprised if someone watching would think he had trained his entire life for a moment just like this. He wondered how much was his own efforts, and how much was that of the AI. He knew he wouldn’t be able to do any of this without the Forge, but would he lose everything if the Forge ceased to exist?

He was scared to lose his powers as he had grown rather accustomed to them, but he still felt a pang of a distant hope that someday he would be free of the Forge and the Coalition.

He jumped onto the creatures arm and began climbing onto its back. It began to swat at him, but he was moving too quickly. It tried to shake him off. It felt like he was trying to ride a mechanical bull by standing on its back in the middle of an earthquake. He nearly lost his footing, but was able to grab hold of one of the spike protruding from the creature’s back. He clamped down as the vicious assault continued.

It either thought he had been knocked off, or it had grown tired, because it finally stopped shaking. Alex didn’t wait for a second attempt and dashed up the Sand Drake’s back. He started to channel the energy into his arm. It would be quick so he would need to have everything ready to go.

It must have felt his approach because it snapped back at him with its powerful jaws. He dodged to the side, but the sound of its jaws clamping down was almost an attack of its own. He was slightly disoriented as the beast started to growl. It was a low, deep grumbling. It was strange because it wasn’t particularly loud, but it had some type of mental effect on him. Alex started to loose his balance and was taken over by an unexplainable urge to flee.

He could hear a voice in his head shouting at him, but was unable to make out any of the words. He lost all sense of self and could no longer make out any of his surroundings. All he could see were the eyes of the beast in a dark expanse.

He didn’t know how long he was like that, but it felt as if he had been trapped like that for days. He was unable to move. The sounds that were in his head were now silent. Then the eyes started to move. They were getting closer to him until they disappeared.

“MOVE ALEX!” he heard in his mind.

All the lights and sounds came crashing back to him at once. The sudden influx into his sense felt like he was standing at the base of a dam as it burst. Too much information for him to parse all at once. Luckily, he was able to understand one crucial piece of information. The jaws of the Great One were closing in on him. The energy in his arm was still primed at ready to go. Alex wouldn’t have the time to dodge, so he instead forced all the energy he had into his punch.

He charged straight into the Sand Drake’s mouth. Propelling himself forward, he reached the back of its mouth before it could even react. He jumped upward off of its tongue and into its skull. With an overpowered strike, Alex punched through. The next moment, he found himself on top of the creature. There were bits of brain matter dripping off of him. He stood in a pool of blood.

The Sand Drake began to rock back and forth, swaying as if the wind were blowing a tree. It rocked until it finally reached a tipping point. It fell so fast, it was as though the ground was traveling up to meet them. Alex held on and at the last moment dove free of the beast. After rolling a few feet, Alex landed on his feet and took in the scene.

The goopy mess slipping out of the Great One’s skull was enough to make Alex queasy. He was glad he barely had time to register when he was flying through its head. If remembered that, he felt like it would scar him.

He had time before he needed to leave, so he spent that time the best way he knew how—he took a nap.

----------------------------------------

Alex awoke and made his way back to camp. He didn’t know exactly when his tour would be up, but he knew that it would be today and he wanted to say goodbye. It would be kind of a douche move to not at least talk to Krizzik before heading back to Earth. It was likely he wasn’t ever coming back here again. The sector was many times larger than his solar system. How many times? At least two, but Alex literally had no idea. He had just seen a model of the solar system he was currently in and he guessed it was at least as big as his own. So, at least two times as big.

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Realistically however, he knew it had to be much larger. To top it off, two sectors had collided which meant that it was just one massive sector now. The odds of him returning to Saxar IV were slim to none, especially since they were making progress in their war effort. They had been projecting a complete loss of the planet, but recent events have drastically improved their odds. Current projections suggest that they will recover their planet within the year.

Alex had been slightly conflicted about leaving before the job was done, even though he had a sort of strained relationship with them. He had grown close to some of them and it is hard not to feel sympathy for a people suffering so much.

Alex would need to get used to not finishing jobs however. This was the nature of his station after all. He would be sent in for specific missions. It wasn’t his job to fight the everyday battles, he was a specialist not a soldier.

He walked through the camp for the last time. It was strange that this had been his reality for so long. He had grown accustomed to sleeping on a cot next to a dozen strangers. He was nearly run over by a squad trotting through the camp. That too was something he had grown used to. There were no traffic laws in the camp so one always had to be aware of their surroundings.

He walked past the mess hall. He had been given a type of pot that he had used to store almost five gallons of Thryntal. Once you filled the pot, all you had to do was latch it and then it would preserve whatever was inside for up to five years. He didn’t expect it to last that longer, not even close, but five gallons of the stuff should last a while. He still wasn’t sure if he was going to share it with anyone. That was a decision for another day.

After Alex had traversed the camp for around twenty minutes, he had finally arrived at his destination. He pulled the tent door open and slid inside. He was greeted by a one armed Saxan. Krizzik beckoned him over and gestured for him to take a seat.

“How are you? I see they still haven’t made your prosthetic yet,” Alex said.

“No, they have, it just feels…wrong. I put it on and it is not me. It feels like my body rejects the very idea of it. I do not know how often I will use it. The doctors assure me that feeling will go away the more I get used to it, but I’m not sure I want to get used to it.”

“I understand. When I was first put in a wheelchair, I just wanted to get up and walk away. I actually fell out of my chair the first few times I sat in it because I forgot I couldn’t walk anymore. The nurses looked horrified, but it was actually the highlight of my days back then. I started to do it on purpose just to see their reactions. That is until Sarah yelled at me for being immature. It was probably hard for her to see that as well.”

“It will take me time to grow used to my new circumstance, but believe it or not, I have been through worse. This was a relatively simple healing and the prosthetics really are tremendous. I will adapt.”

Alex just gave a reassuring smile. He was never good at saying goodbye and he always made it awkward. He started rubbing his arm unsure of what to say. Thankfully, Krizzik saved him.

“You know, I will miss you. We have had an interesting year together. You may not have always considered me a friend, nor I you. Now, I consider you a brother. You have done much for my people. We originally looked at you as a means to an end. We needed help and you were up for hire. We pay, you get the job done, you leave. That was the arrangement. I never once considered I would grow to care for you. You saved my life and countless others. We will always remember this.”

“Thanks for everything. I know we got a little strained after the whole crown incident and the Great One trying to hunt me down, but I seriously doubt I would have survived as long as I had without the help you gave me. Heck, just the water alone had been a life saver. I know that your hands were tied at first, but I would have died to those variants if you hadn’t intervened. You could’ve lost everything and yet you saved me. So, consider us even, brother. Bro? No brother sounded better, bro is too casual.”

Krizzik smiled and shook his head.

“I am unsure whether we will cross paths again. I had our researchers create a long distance communications device. We are using a Coalition relay array, so it should reach your planet considering they were able to extract you from the planet originally.”

Krizzik handed him a small, intricate device with glowing symbols etched onto its surface. It wasn’t any bigger than a four function calculator. It felt cool in his hand.

“It is solar charged, so you do not have to worry about it running out of power. It is rather expensive to run however, so I will not be able to communicate with you too much. I will leave it to your discretion though I ask that you use good judgement. You may send me communications as well as receive mine, but I will be the one paying for both incoming and outgoing calls.”

“Thanks so much! This is an awesome gift. I will take care of it and will make sure to only use it for important stuff. I’m not sure what that stuff will be exactly, but you can trust me,” Alex said with a reassuring smile.

They finished saying their goodbyes and Alex went to collect his things. He assumed that he would have to be holding anything that he wanted to take home. Otherwise, it probably would teleport with him.

He did ask for some clothes. It would probably look weird from him to randomly pop back up in just his superhero gear. It might draw more attention to him than his spontaneous appearance. It was likely that he would appear back in the park where he had disappeared from. It was either there or his apartment, but he thought the latter was unlikely.

He had picked out the most normal looking set of clothes he could find and placed it over his armor. It looked like he had just spent an extended amount of time getting in touch with his inner self. The clothes were a lot like linen and were simple in their design. It was the kind of outfit someone would wear to a spiritual retreat. It wouldn’t totally blend in, but it was much better than some of the other stuff they had.

There wasn’t anything in his size as most of the Saxans were nearly the same height, which was about one foot too short for him. The pants only went down to his mid shins and the shirt only went down to his belly button. Beggars can’t be choosers, and he really did look like a beggar. He cleaned up as best he could to prepare for his trip back.

Before long, a prompt had appeared in his vision. It told him that he should prepare for immediate departure. He lifted all of his things, making sure to hold his pot of Thryntal close to his chest.

A blinding white light appeared in his vision. The heat had started to feel so familiar, immediately disappeared.

He was headed home. Finally.