“Heroes don’t retreat, they use tactical repositioning” - Unknown

I watched in horror as the fire over Heatwave's chest grew brighter and brighter, burning away his leather jacket, allowing me to see the contraption covering his chest. Four metal straps connecting to a circular device reminding me of a grill. Bursts of fire were occasionally created, spurting of the orb of fire before being pulled back, making the fire brighter. The ambient temperature skyrocketed, and I had an uncomfortable realization that this was what it was like to face Heatblast, feeling a pang of sympathy for the Penguin's goons that I had fought. I could feel the pull to combine with my other Dittos, knowing that my time was running out. Seeing Heatwave struggling to control the fire, assuming he was preoccupied for at least a small amount, I turned my head to Dick, hoping he came to the same conclusion that I did.

"We have to leave," I said, wincing as I heard Dick say at the same time, "We can't run away." I started feeling some of my clones collide with each other, and the pulling sensation increased even more.

"I'm about to turn back into an unpowered human in front of a man with a superpowered flamethrower," I shout. "Unless you can defeat him by yourself, we are both about to be burned alive!" I glance at Heatwave and let out a sigh of relief when he is still locked into place.

"That machine is either going to explode, wiping out this block, or allow him to do the same thing," he replied, tapping his ear several times and cursing. "Coms are down as well, so no backup, either, we shut the machine down before he uses it, or we die trying."

"Are you out of your Fucking Mind!!" I shouted, punching him in the hip. "If we have time for the Omnitrix to reset, Heatblast or XLR8 would easily handle him. Trying to burn Heatblast was like trying to drown a fish, and while you could burn XLR8, you would have to hit him first, which was unlikely. As I felt more and more clones collide with my body, the Omnitrix finally flashed red, transforming me back into my human form. Trying to turn back into Heatblast, the dial just flashed red, stopping me from doing so.

"How many people are you willing to let die for that reset?" Dick shot back, fists tightening on his Kali sticks. "There's a reason why we're called a hero, and there's a reason the page of the handbook starts like that. We protect others first. Always. That's our sacrifice."

Being a hero. Panic welled up in me, as my chest started to feel like it was going to burst, I thought about those words. Was I even a hero? I had the powers of them, whenever the Omnitrix gifted them to me, but I had never done anything in my regular form that could be construed as heroic. I knew that by running, the Omnitrix would reset in time, but Dick was right, would I allow others to pay that price? I looked down on the Omnitrix logo and laughed mirthlessly. How had I become so close to forsaking the symbol of the hero I had branded onto my costume? I reached down, prying a baton from a groaning soldier, and rolled my shoulders.

I looked at Dick and simply nodded. "Let's do this."

In a story, we would have evaded the fire, quipped and said witty banter, and would have easily brought down Heatwave. I wanted to believe in that false truth, but I had to force myself to stop believing it when as soon as we were within ten feet of our opponent, his disk of fire exploded, launching us back to where we had started. Bodysuit lightly singed from even getting close to the explosion, I rapidly patted out any parts truly on fire, thankful for the fire-resistant properties. A look at Dick showed the same, lightly smoking but no real damage.

Glimpsing At Heatwave, I grimaced at the monster he had turned into with that explosion. The skin around his machine had started to blacken, the metal straps starting to lightly glow, likely causing burns as well. His gun produced a steady flow of flames, scorching the ground it was pointed at, but the worst part was his eyes. Eyes dried out from the intense heat, my eyes immediately began to water. I couldn't tell if he had become blind completely, but there was no way his eyesight was completely unaffected. Almost throwing up when I swear I saw one of his eyeballs crack, and I saw in dismay that his gun was pointed exactly between us.

I immediately jumped to the side and could feel the intense heat at my feet as a torrent of fire launched at us, exponentially larger than what had previously been shot out. The asphalt hadn't been scorched, it had been melted, and the acrid smell began assaulting my nose. I got up, looked at the baton in my hand, and suddenly threw it at Heatwave's head, trying to see how his vision was impacted. While I was disappointed when I saw him point his gun at the spinning weapon, I smiled when the burst of flame completely missed, allowing the baton to fly straight. Unfortunately, just flying straight wasn't that impressive, as it missed Heatwave's head by several feet, producing a small clang when hitting the wall behind him.

The fact that his vision was slightly impaired reassured me that we had a chance to win the fight, but if either one of us was hit by one of his fire streams, I wouldn't bet on surviving. Judging by the fact that the flames kept growing larger, his eyes would progressively get worse and worse, but as his eyesight got worse, his fire got hotter and more dangerous. I grabbed another baton, having to pull on it a bit longer than the last one, trying to decide if fighting a semi-blind person with a flamethrower is better or worse than a completely blind one with a flame cannon when I hear Dick's voice.

"You go left, I'll go right, we're running out of time!" He yells, and I almost yelled back for revealing our plan in front of the enemy, when I see his hand movements. He holds up his two fingers crossed, then moves them up and down in a straight line. I nod back, getting ready to run straight at him, when Dick reaches in his pocket, pulls out a small black object, then throws it directly at Heatwave's head. Unlike my attempt, it soundly hits, and then starts to immediately produce large amounts of smoke, concealing his vision even more.

A smoke grenade, I realize, then start running, half a second after Dick starts to, both of us running straight at him, and not separating left and right. I see great pillars of flame shoot out, both missing us by more than enough room, but realize that if he shot both left and right that only left where we were for his next attack. As I split off to the left, I saw Dick angle to the right, and I let out a breath in relief as the next torrent of flames, lighter than the previous ones, shot down the middle, barely missing us.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

We were both only around ten feet away, and with every step, I took the temperature got hotter and hotter, until I felt my skin start to burn even through my protective suit. Stifling a scream, I swung my baton as hard as I could at the flamethrower, hoping that he wouldn't hear our incoming footsteps. The end of my weapon struck the back of his thumb, and I kept swinging until he had dropped the gun, Though when I looked at Dick, his attempts to knock him out had gone unsuccessful. Seeing the flame around his chest start to grow and pulse, I knew another explosion would be imminent.

I stepped past Heatwave, trying to swing as hard as I could at the back of his knee, remembering how damaging the hit against the robot was. Even though the robot used technology to allow him to stand upright if Heatwave fell due to the pressure on his knee, putting his chest facing the ground, then hopefully the explosion would be more contained. Heatwave's knee bent as my baton collided with it, causing him to suddenly falter in place. I grabbed him by the shoulder, trying to push him down, letting out an involuntary gasp when his skin was incredibly painful to touch.

As Heatwave began to fall down, due to my combined pressure on his knee and back, I saw Dick keep up the assault on his head, slamming his weapons into the back of his skull, pushing him down even faster. As he fell facefirst to the ground, we both let out a gasp, trying to regain our breath, both freezing when realizing that the temperature wasn't decreasing but actually still increasing. Looking down I saw the edges of the ground around his chest start to glow, and I started to run away as fast as I could. Dick to the right of me, we stepped over his body, and ran, getting a couple of steps in before another explosion ripped us off of our feet, flying us through the air.

Since my back felt like it was one degree away from becoming alight, I tried to pat down the flames, eyes still trained on the torrent of flames where Heatwave was standing. Seeing nothing moving inside of the bonfire, I place my hands on my knees bending over to try and regain my breath from both taxing sprints. even though we did get tricked by a supervillain into thinking this would be a stereotypical exchange, the Omnitrix acting up made the fight so much harder than it needed to be, especially considering Ditto was the alien it turned me into. Almost any other alien would have been better, even the ones who were purely smart would have been allowed to understand whatever was on his chest better while considering the disparity in power, ditto was almost useless.

Looking down at the Omnitrix, I gently flicked it, somewhat irritated it almost caused the death of me by unlocking another alien at the worst time. I let out a small laugh, wincing at the spikes of pain in my chest, as immediately after I flick the Omnitrix, the light switches from red to green. I start switching through my aliens to see if my act of bravery had unlocked any more aliens, frowning when it was just three I already knew I had. While Heatblast could attack at long ranges, XLR8 was almost exclusively a melee fighter, and I wasn't sure what fight would ever warrant turning into Ditto, an alien who excelled in longer forms of combat, Big Chill coming to the forefront of my mind, would be very useful for fighting villains such as Heatwave.

Slowly turning around to limp out of the alleyway, I walked closer to Dick, who seemed surprisingly unharmed from having to fight a man partially made of fire in hand-to-hand, or in this case hand-to-flame gun. Our fists lightly collided as we traded another fistbump, I freeze when I realized that the exit to the alleyway we were in was blockaded by a crowd of people, all taking pictures with their cell phones.

"Does being flanked by paparazzi ever happen to you in Gotham?" I ask Dick quietly, both of us not moving since we realized our only exit was blocked.

"Not usually, in Gotham the standard exit is that we leave before anyone realizes we were even there," he responds, tone thoughtful. "I would hazard to guess that in Central City the heroes are more well-liked, I mean in Gotham we usually just beat up gang members, I think the Flash has even stopped a tsunami once." He slowly starts walking to the crowd of people, covering his eyes from the flashes of light but stops once I grab his arm.

"We can't go through those cameras," I hiss, dropping his arm when I see his irritated face.

"Why the hell not? We have to get back to STAR labs somehow, and that way is through that crowd of people," he responds, pointing a the crowd of people, causing them to cheer. He grimaces at the unintentional response, frowning.

"We can't go through there because we don't have cool names to choose from," I say annoyed. "You're apparently not Robin anymore and I never got a name, and I don't want to get stuck with an awful name. If I had one I could go and introduce myself obviously, but without it they might label me something awful like Watchman." I let out a huff, trying to think of a way out. I cross out Ditto, and using Heatblast to fly away would leave Dick by himself, and I don't trust him to not give me a name on purpose that's awful.

I start to resign my fate with a subpar name until I realize the final alien I can use. I turn to Dick, a wide grin on my face. "How do you feel about getting carried back to STAR Labs," I innocently ask, "Because I know how we could back in a couple of seconds."

I watch trying to hide my smile as horror grows in Dick's eyes, him understanding what I just suggested. "No, no no, that will never happen." I see his eyes track my hand which is slowly creeping towards the Omnitrix, and see Dick immediately turn and run towards the crowd of fans. "This asshole's hero name is... its... its-"

I slam my hand on the watch, producing a burst of green light, quickly shifting to the Kineceleran, letting out a raspy "XLR8", and start running after him. His voice gets cut off as he gets lifted by one of my arms, my other clawed hand over his mouth. He starts to struggle, trying to break out of my grip, but soon stops struggling and stays deathly still. His stillness probably has nothing to do with my immediate acceleration, or how I start to run up the nearest building, pausing once I make it at the top.

Scanning the city skyline for STAR Labs, I quickly spot the round building, and start sprinting in that direction, weaving through the traffic, occasionally running up and down buildings to make sure I'm continuously running in the right place. I flinch as a red burst of lightning appears in front of me, but as I identify it as the Flash, I calm down, allowing him to lead me to our destination. In no time at all, we arrive at STAR Labs, and I gently lower Dick to the ground, and shift back into my human form, looking at the Flash.

"Why did you lead us back here personally?" I ask, slightly confused. "We would've gotten back here eventually." I look up at the Flash, who after making sure Dick is alright, looks at me and frowns.

"I took you back myself because thirty minutes ago, a group of Villians started to attack Central City."