Chapter 29
When Ken imagined what love was as a concept, he always pictured an old couple sitting on a park bench holding hands, or two people gazing into each other’s eyes as they say “I do” in front of all their friends and family. It wasn’t until he saw June leap into action, converting her pyrotechnic energy into movement, leaping from car to car, pushing people one by one out of the way of a zig-zagging tornado, that he understood what love truly felt like. He was not accustomed to this new sensation. He didn’t dislike it by any means, he just didn’t know what to do with such feelings, especially since he was feeling them in the middle of an active battlefield. The one thing he did know about romance was that it is likely a bad idea to confess your feelings to someone as they teleport around falling debris in the form of an actual firecracker saving people.
June looked at him and smiled. “That’s 25 for me! How many have you saved? First one to 100 gets the prize!” Hmmm. Maybe a confession of adoration would be more appreciated than previously assessed. Only, she didn’t wait for Ken to respond before darting off to shield a small class of kids on a field trip from having a mailbox land on their heads. As the blue box careened toward the group, she timed a pyro-punch perfectly and knocked it away as though she was swatting a fly.
Ken hadn’t been able to isolate the source of the tornadoes that were tearing through this part of the city, but he was certain a villain was responsible. He thought about saying the magic words that would transform him into Samurai Tortoise, but shifting would bring on a drastic change in personality, and his mental awareness was of the utmost importance at the moment. He could have used the extra strength and dexterity to separate cars from large pieces of rock and concrete, allowing him to save civilians buried in the rubble, but Ken was managing pretty well so far. Not quite as well as his current teammates, however. They were something else. Watching the twins work was inspiring.
June shifted into living fireworks which allowed her to essentially teleport to different hard-to-reach areas of the downtown block. She would then partially materialize limbs to carry people to safety. And Jax was excelling at his role too. Out of the glowing blue and purple clouds he had created above the surrounding skyscrapers, Jax formed giant shielding domes where civilians could take cover while June and Ken rescued their friends, families, colleagues, and other members of the community. Their system was actually working pretty well, but if they couldn’t isolate the villain responsible and take him down, it would all be for naught. And that was Ken’s responsibility.
In a moment of distraction, he failed to clock a falling gargoyle that had been chipped off of one of the buildings by a powerful gust of wind. Luckily, June had seen it all go down, and with a series of loud BANGs and POPs appeared at Ken’s side in a burst of neon colors and smoke, throwing a powerfully explosive uppercut at the gothic stone monster, shattering it into a million small pieces of harmless pebbles. She was amazing.
June winked at Ken, smiled, and said, “Hey Samurai Tortoise, maybe it's time to, you know, Tortoise up, or whatever.”
“That may not be the best idea at this current moment. I would like to keep my mind… uncluttered.” He answered. “You seem to have the search and rescue well in hand. Maybe I can facilitate delivery to Borealis’ safe zone while I scour the area for the villain responsible for all this.”
June nodded and re-entered the simulated war zone while Ken used what downtime he had to scan the area methodically. He wondered if this challenge would use actual villains as the basis for the simulation or if it would just be some generic stand-in. It would help to know the criminal’s classification. It would be one thing to go up against a Creator or Manipulator, but if it was an Aspect, Ken and his squad would be in for more trouble than they could likely handle.
“Any luck?” June asked through heavy breaths as she dropped off another person to Ken’s growing group, snapping him out of his thoughts.
“Not yet, no. However, I believe I may be getting closer. My guess is that the evildoer responsible is currently airborne,” Ken responded quickly. “How many more innocents do you think are out there needing our help? I can sub in and let you ferry this group to Borealis if you are getting too tired, Skyrocket.”
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“I’m fine!” June snapped. Her brow was sweaty, and she bent over to take a few deep gulps of air. “You do your job, and I’ll do mine.” She said stubbornly before she darted off to rescue more people.
Ken’s eyes lingered a bit longer on June. A sudden urge nearly overwhelmed him, and this time it wasn’t the warm gooey feelings he was experiencing with regard to June, but a nearly uncontrollable urge to transform: Samurai Tortoise was begging to get out. Ken resisted with every fiber of his being, using the tools gained through years of meditation and visualization to keep his unpredictable counterpart at bay. He took deep calming breaths and repeated his favorite mantra: You are enough. You can handle anything. After a few moments, the urge passed, and Ken resumed the hunt for his target.
The difficulty was not that Samurai Tortoise made Ken feel bad in any way or that his presence was negative for him, mentally or emotionally. In fact, Samurai Tortoise loved coming out, and Ken relished the feelings attached to his transformation. But Ken stood firm on maintaining control over his mind and body when the situation got tough. He thought back to the second trial of The Culling and how he had stolen that poor Rabbit girl's Eclipse statue. Ken would never have taken the option considered to be "cutting corners." He would have methodically sorted through the piles to find the appropriate idol. The whole point of entering this competition was to prove that he could earn the right to sit on The Council by doing it the right way. Not by trading on his family name. And sure as hell not by piggy-backing off of someone else's hard earned work. Samurai Tortoise could be unpredictable, and that was unwelcome at the moment. Wait! What was that tiny speck darting through Jax’s aurora cloud?
Without taking his eyes off of the sky, Ken shouted over at Jax, “Borealis! Switch positions with me. I believe I’ve found the villain!”
“On it!” Jax replied as he concentrated on his shields, ensuring they stayed viable.
“Be with you in a sec, Tortoise!” June added as she picked up another civilian, getting ready to shift into fireworks. “Don’t engage without backup!” She was clearly trying to sound as Heraldy as possible, for the viewers, no doubt.
Ken nodded and ran in the direction of the flying figure, sprinting with everything he had. He quickly rounded a corner and confirmed his theory. Hovering in the air, floating amongst the blues and purples of Jax’s power and staring straight down at them, was the famous villain, Torrendous. He was dressed in simple monk’s robes with various prayer beads draped over his body.
“And who might you be?” Torrendous said with an eerie zen-like calm.
“My name should not matter. What matters is that you cease your destruction of this city. Immediately!” Ken said firmly. “If you do so, we will take you in and let the authorities know that you complied with our orders.”
Torrendous chuckled, then purred, “Ah, a Herald. You must not be very good, for I have never seen you before.”
Pop! POP! Bang Pop! All around Torrendous, bright colors flashed. BAM! A firecracker hit him right in the face.
“What the-”
POP! Another blast slammed Torrendous directly in the chest, and he recoiled. Boom! One more to the face.
“What is this?” He was knocked off kilter.
Two arms materialized out of the blasts and gripped Torrendous around the neck, and pulled him crashing to the ground.
June popped up on the street, right next to Ken, grabbed his face in her hands, and kissed him right on the lips. “Now that’s what I call a one-two punch!” she quipped.
Ken smiled like an idiot back at her. But, before either of them could move to restrain the prone villain, a burst of air shot up at them from his body, sending them both flying into the building directly behind them.
Torrendous stood up and calmly approached Ken and June as they struggled to their feet. “It seems you have misread the situation,” he said as he began a truly impressive metamorphosis into a giant twister. He pulled manhole covers, cars, light posts, doors, windows, and all sorts of debris into himself. In no time, the tornado had grown to the size of a house and made a beeline for the largest building in the city.
“Shit!” Ken shouted while he held onto a doorframe to anchor himself. “Unless we stop him, Torrendous is going to take down the Cyber City Tower!”
As he watched the sidewinder zig-zagging through the city toward its tallest building, Ken thought about their odds of surviving the challenge and realized that the tower wasn’t the only thing in danger of being wiped out.