Note: Here's the 2nd chapter of the day. Also, instead of Sunday's posting, I'll move the release date to January 31 so I can greet you all for New Year's eve!

CHAPTER SIX

Goodness gracious, Great Ball of Air

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To say that Superion’s arrival at the scene was enough to stop the prison break might have been a little too much as there were villains among the inmates who were certainly at a power level to contend with America’s number one hero. Still, the aura of power emanating from this blonde, blue-eyed, broad-shouldered man in the white armor underneath his stylish red toga was so palpable that those villains who could have fought against him visibly hesitated as Superion’s feet touched the ground.

“Hey, Everyone!” He smiled at the crowd as if they weren’t hardened criminals trying to escape the worst prison on Earth. “I’m sorry it took me a while to get here… There was a flood in Cairo, and that earthquake in New Mexico…”

He sighed heavily.

“Well, you all know how busy it gets this close to the Winter Solstice.”

He had such a mild-mannered atmosphere about him that more than a few convicts were nodding sympathetically at Superion’s worries.

“Hey, it’s Thunder!” Superion caught sight of his cousin in the middle of an encirclement of villains and waved to her like she wasn’t in danger. “Hey, Cuz! Been a while!”

Thunder rolled her eyes at Superion in the same way she often did when Sam did something foolish.

“You’re late,” she said exasperatedly.

“A hero’s never late.” Superion flashed pearly-white teeth at her. “We arrive precisely when we’re needed.”

“Superion~~n!”

Purple flames exploded to life on the ground beneath Superion’s feet. They rose over him like a blossoming flower and engulfed his whole body. This would have been a fatal blow to anyone else, but not the omega-level hero who wielded dominion over the sky. For Superion, it was a simple matter of snapping his fingers. The air around him vanished, taking with it the roaring purple flames that couldn’t even singe his toga.

“My ‘Armor of the Praetor’ is a legendary-rated Mr. Moonday original,” Superion boasted to the flabbergasted Helfire. “Expensive as Hades but worth the price, don’t you think?”

A cool breeze surged toward Helfire, forcing the villain to cover his eyes with his arm. When he uncovered them again, Superion was already standing before him.

“I thought you learned your lesson from Weather Witch, Helfire.” Superion sighed. “It doesn’t matter if they originate from the underworld — it’s the air that gives fire life.”

A swirling ball of elemental energy came to life above Superion’s right palm.

“Superion, you bast—”

Superion shoved the energy ball into Helfire’s chest, and the concentrated power of a hurricane exploded out of it, causing cuts born from countless wind blades to form all over the villain’s body before twisting him around like he’d been caught on a windmill’s blade. Helfire was blown away, sent hurtling over the other prisoners’ heads, and crashing into the thick exterior walls of the Crucible’s top platform.

“My cousin might be a little shy about summoning a full-blown storm inside this prison”—Superion raised his right hand high—“but I have no problem leveling this place with all of you in it.”

Amazingly, nearly all the air in the wide room was being sucked into Superion’s hand, giving life to the swirling ball of elemental energy growing over his palm while making it hard for everyone else to breathe.

“Holy Zeus,” Sam breathed, “that thing’s at least ten times the size as the last one!”

The sky that had cleared when Superion arrived grew suddenly dark once more. Storm clouds hovered over the Crucible’s volcano, creating a chill in the air that made nearly everyone present shiver reflexively.

“I’m a fair guy so I’ll let you all choose…” With his free hand, Superion raised two fingers. “One, you all surrender now, and we’ll call it a day…” He dropped one finger. “Or two, you all try to put up a fight and I let my ‘Super Spirit Bomb’ break you into submission.”

It wasn’t just the villains. Even the heroes and the security team paled at hearing Superion’s threat because anyone who saw him on TV knew how wild America’s number one hero could get in a fight. He and his cousin were the same in that regard. They all eyed the massive orb of elemental energy with wary eyes. Well, everyone except for Sam who looked like he was a kid inside a toy store during Yuletide season.

“Hey, nice Draconian Ball reference!” he blurted out.

Just like that, the tension permeating the air died down, and all gazes fell on Sam, the Superion fanboy.

Thunder rolled her eyes at him like she had just done with Superion.

“Not the time, Herculean,” she sighed.

“Herculean?” Superion raised a thick eyebrow at Sam. He scrutinized Sam for about a second longer before a welcoming smile flashed on his face. “Oh, hey, Thunder’s told me a lot about you in her emails.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Really?” Sam glanced from Superion to Thunder—who was sighing even more heavily—and then back to Superion. “What’d she—”

“Seriously not the time,” Thunder said, sounding exasperated.

“Um, yeah, sorry, I, uh, didn’t mean to interrupt…” Sam glanced sideways at the villain closest to him—the polymorph Cheetor. “Dude, you guys should choose option one. Seriously. I don’t want to see you all broken up like Helfire…”

Not that the convicts needed reminding. Watching Helfire go ‘splat’ on the prison walls like a fly that had been swatted away was a hard visual to forget. Still, there were a few ruffians—particularly the villains who’d climbed up from the 3rd sub-level like Spider-Servant, Master Machismo, Red Dead Redeemer, and Dullahan—who refused to surrender to Superion’s ultimatum. So, a new fight ensued, one quickly nipped in the bud, not by Superion himself, but by the other heroes who didn’t want to risk Superion’s power laying waste to what remained of the Crucible’s administrative floor.

Crow-Man, Thunder, Ice Brand, Miracle Girl, Bethany, and Sam all moved to subdue those few villains who chose the tougher route. Meanwhile, Superion yawned and kept his massive ball of storms ready in case the other prisoners decided to change their minds. None of them had planned it. They instinctively felt the need to act before it was too late. It might have taken longer than if Superion had done it himself, but, eventually, after enough villains had been zapped by lightning bolts, encased in ice, beaten up by magical fists, whammied by telekinetic blasts, or put to sleep by throwing knives coated in special narcotics—the battle of the Crucible was won.

Sapped of their will to fight, the remaining inmates were corralled into temporary holding cells on the second sub-level, their power-dampening collars reignited.

As for the heroes who’d help quash the prison break, they were invited by the Crucible’s interim chief into what was left of the chief’s office on the administrative floor to discuss the events that had transpired and what to do about the fallout. While there, Sam finally got a chance to meet his favorite hero.

“So, you’re both a warrior and a healer?” Superion asked, his brow arching.

Sam nodded awkwardly.

He couldn’t help but feel embarrassed in front of his idol who seemed surprisingly friendly despite being renowned as one of the greatest heroes on Earth.

Superion patted Sam on the shoulder. “That’s amazing!”

A sheepish grin flashed on Sam’s face. “You seriously think so?”

“Yeah. I wish I had a healing gift… Then I’d be able to save more people.”

“Oh, yeah, sure, that’s kind of my jam…”

Sam could hear the frustration in Superion’s tone, which was a weird parallel of how he’d felt when he was still just a zeta.

“I know the feeling… it never gets easy, does it?”

“No, it doesn’t, but we keep trying despite the odds…because that’s what heroes do, right?”

Sam hadn’t noticed it before since he’d only ever seen Superion on TV, but now that they were standing side by side in a corner of the chief’s room, he finally noticed that his idol—this larger-than-life being of immense power—wasn’t as physically large as Sam thought he’d be. Sure, Superion was broad-shouldered, but he wasn’t a muscle man like Dr. Hearthstone or a brute-looking like Apex. Superion was more like Sam. They shared a lean build and average height which hid the great power they had within them.

“Y-Yeah,” Sam grinned back. “Um, by the way, you were awesome today… And that move, the Super Spirit—”

“It’s not actually called that,” Superion admitted, adding, “I just thought people would get the reference and back down faster.”

“I got the reference!” Sam said excitedly.

“And no one else did…proof that you’re both huge nerds.” Thunder, standing next to her cousin, chuckled at Sam’s reddening cheeks. “You two are so alike it’s creeping me out.”

Some would’ve loved being told he was like his idol, but not if it came from Thunder’s lips. Those same lips that he’d once kissed and couldn’t forget kissing. After all, which beautiful blonde superhero would want to kiss a guy who reminded her of her cousin?

“Um, we’re not that alike…” he whispered.

Meanwhile, Superion glanced sideways at Thunder, Sam, and then back at Thunder.

“I see you’re still a bully,” he noted.

“What?” Thunder raised an eyebrow at him. “I’m not a bully. I like telling it how it is.”

“And hit people who don’t agree with you,” Superion countered.

“Oh, yeah, she does a lot,” Sam weighed in. “And there’s this look she gives—”

“When she gets mad?” Superion finished for Sam. “Yeah, I see that eye roll pretty often too.”

“Right?” Sam agreed.

They both got smacked in the shoulder with electrically charged fists, causing them to flinch away from the violent Thunder.

Superion sighed exaggeratedly. “Still can’t take a joke.”

“Even though she’s number one at teasing people,” Sam sighed as well.

“Do you two want to get hit again?” Thunder snapped.

Someone in the room cleared their throat, forcing the trio’s attention on the hero glowering at them throughout their banter.

“Are you three done fooling around?” Crow-Man growled.

“Sorry, Crow-Man,” Superion apologized. “I was just excited to hang out with Thunder again. Cousin energy.”

Crow-Man was standing next to the hardwood table that dominated the other end of the office. The person sitting on the other side of the desk was Warden Bethany Carlyle. She wasn’t the actual chief, but no one could find Chief Johnson, so Bethany was asked by the security team to step up until the Wardens sent in reinforcements.

“If you’re ready to listen”—Bethany smiled wanly at the gathering—“then I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news to share… The truth is—”

Bethany stopped mid-sentence because she noticed the tiny floating orb around Ice Brand’s shoulder.

“Is that a recorder bot?”

Ice Brand glanced to his left.

“Oh, yes. Sorry, it’s mine.”

He plucked the orb from the air and pocketed it.

“I’m contractually obligated with Valhalla Max to record all my adventures for their premium program, ‘Modern Einherjar,’ Ice Brand explained, “and I forgot that my bot’s set to stream automatically.”

He pulled out his smartphone and began to type something on it.

“One sec… I’ll just let my fans know that the stream’s on a break, so they won’t riot. They were all so excited to see Superion and Crow-Man and Thunder and—”

He glanced over his shoulder to look at Sam.

“You’re great too,” he added. “The world’s most-watched vigilante on my stream… it’s like Yuletide season came early.”

Thunder leaned closer to Sam’s ear.

“And that’s one more reason why I didn’t sign with the Asgardian pantheon… They care too much about the views,” she whispered.

“Ignore Jin Oppa. He’s harmless.” Miracle Girl stretched out in her chair. “Now, can someone care to explain why we all nearly died today?”

Bethany spared another second making sure Ice Brand wouldn’t suddenly start recording again before beginning her tale. She told the others that she and Crow-Man had been down at the 4th sub-level to meet with the Trickster.

“There’s a fourth sub-level?” Sam asked warily.

“And a fifth, from what I remember,” Superion added. “Could you imagine if any of those monsters got out?”

“Crow-Man and I took care of the fourth sub-level’s inmates, and nothing can come out of the fifth sub-level once they’re thrown into it,” Bethany explained, easing the apprehension in the room.

“Why did you meet with the Trickster?” Thunder asked.

Crow-Man’s response was a single word. “Chimera.”

Everyone visibly stiffened at the mention of the clandestine organization of evildoers, which, strangely enough, they’ve each encountered on separate occasions even though Chimera was supposedly a secret organization these days.

“That’s how he got me here.” Crow-Man’s scowl deepened. “But the intel we received…”

Even with his cowl hiding most of his face, one could see the dark look he gave the others.

Crow-Man let a moment of trepidation pass before finally saying, “You should hear it for yourselves.”