There we were. Standing in the Walmart parking lot. A giant chicken, piloted by a crazy old lady looming before us. I really hate that this is the first situation I ever had to resolve as Champion of the Universe- but alas, here we are.

"Alright, so.. uh, Retina. What can you do?" I asked, and she winced in response.

"Ah... well, that's the unfortunate thing. My costume is in the trunk of my car, so I'm going to have to go and get it. My powers don't exactly work too well without it.. but I'm sure you guys can manage without me, at least for the time being?"

Great... not like we have much of a choice.

"Yeah, I.. guess we can manage." I replied. I watched as she disappeared into the parking lot, somewhere among the dozens of cars parked there.

I looked over at Blur. "Any ideas?" I asked, and he regarded the giant robot pretty seriously. It was currently heading for a building, seemingly poised to attempt to knock it over.

"I... well, I think I'm going to have to focus on saving the civilians.. since I can probably prevent every human casualty by myself. I think you'll have to take the thing out yourself, at least until that woman gets back."

I was about to respond; but in a split second, he was gone.

Now, I looked up at the chicken, and thought about everything I'd learned. I closed my eyes, and in my mind's eye I could swear I saw the spiral galaxy I'd made back when I first got out of the chamber.

Channeling my new abilities, all the power and speed I'd gained- I rushed toward the robot.

Remembering the way Semicolon had leapt atop the building earlier after beating me up, I attempted a similar maneuver. I squatted, and took the biggest leap I possibly could- mustering every last bit of my strength. And surprisingly, I found myself hurtling through the air, straight toward the chicken, and right as I connected with it I swung my body. My fist connected with it, blowing a giant gaping hole in the machine, as I barely began to hurtle toward the ground myself.

But, just as I began to fall- a hand grabbed the back of my shirt, and suddenly, I was atop the building. Blur looked at me with approval, and gave me a salute, before running back into the building. Purple streaks of light went in and out of the structure, bringing people out of it as it collapsed. Blur is doing his part... I have to do mine. I guess this is why I have a team.

I leapt off the building, spinning similarly to how Semicolon did when he punched me. And just like that, I landed a punch on the chicken's metal beak- blowing it off with the sheer strength I now possessed.

From the new hole that had appeared on the robot's face, I could see an elaborate control panel, where the old lady was frantically pulling switches and pushing buttons. I didn't want to hurt the woman, I only wanted to bring her to the authorities, so I was reluctant to use much more force on the robot.

The force of me punching the chicken caused me to fly back onto the roof of the building, which was starting to collapse. Beneath me, purple streaks of light still flitted throughout the building, ensuring nobody was hurt during this whole encounter.

I leapt into the robot's face, and confronted the woman. But when she looked up at me, she had a crazed look in her eyes.

"You! YOU! You are the one who is messing with my test run. Well, let's see you mess with this." I was about to respond, when she pushed a button on the control panel, and a giant egg-shaped thing dropped from the robot's bottom. It opened, kind of like a capsule, and a bunch of little chicken-shaped robots spread out, firing lasers and the like at the civilians.

Deciding I'd had enough, I assumed that if I destroyed the control panel, maybe the smaller robots would malfunction as well. Either way, I had to focus on this lady- if I left her alone, she could push some other random button and make something worse happen.

I walked over to the console that seemed to control the robot, and grabbed the top of it with my hands. I was surprised to find that my fingers dug into the metal, and could grip it as if I was crumpling a piece of paper. It took some effort, but I managed to pry the machine off the robot, and flung it out of the gaping hole I'd created earlier.

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The old lady watched in horror as I did this, and acted as if I'd just killed someone. "H-How could you!?! I spent the past 15 years on this! Well, this was a test run, and this was meant to be reserved for my ex-husband- but I think I'll use it to wipe you out first."

She pulled her sleeve back, and exposed a small metal band around her wrist, that sported a red switch. She flicked it, and at once a metal exo-suit began to encase her, spreading out from the metal band. The soles of it began to emit some kind of blue fire, and she literally flew out of the hole in the robot chicken. She stretched out a hand toward me, and a little nozzle came out of the sleeve of her suit, spraying me with something that I presumed was oil. Then, she raised her leg, emitting the blue flames that were seemingly keeping her afloat- and that fire began to stream toward me.

Now, I don't believe Behemoth ever told me I was fireproof- and I didn't want to find out. But there wasn't much I could do, and the oil on me already was beginning to catch flame- but at that moment, my team came through for me.

A giant laser beam hit the old lady in the side, sending her hurtling into the building nearby- and at that moment, a hand grabbed my collar and I was suddenly at the base of the robot. Retina ran over to me, and put a hand on my shoulder. It seemed that Blur moving me at that speed, created a vaccuum that extinguished the flames that had begun spreading on me.

"Are you okay?" She asked. Now, I said this was Retina. But at the time, that was a very vague assumption. She was wearing a weird motorcycle helmet that covered her whole face, with a bunch of different colored visors stacked against each other in front of where her eyes should have been. She touched the side of her helmet, and most of the visors retracted up into it, leaving only an orange visor covering her eyes..

"Yeah, I-" Right then, Retina pushed me aside, and a bright orange beam of energy streaked out of her visor, at the old lady who had (apparently) just got up, and begun floating again with the help of her super-suit.

The lady expertly dodged, and the laser hit her giant robot chicken, causing it to collapse.

Then, two things happened virtually at the same time.

As the robot collapsed, there was a civilian standing directly underneath it- a mother pushing a stroller. They were trying to get to the WalMart parking lot, so they'd be away from any collapsing buildings. Blur had probably rescued them from the building along with everyone else, and told them to head in that direction- but at this moment, he was somewhere else in the city, virtually completely out of sight- probably dealing with some of the little robot chicks that the bigger robot had spawned earlier.

But Blur's field awareness was insane. No sooner had the robot begun to collapse, then he was on his way back to the group of civilians- the purple streak was getting closer and closer, all in the blink of an eye.

But something was wrong. For a brief moment, it was painfully obvious to me, and to Retina as well as we both had somewhat enhanced vision, Blur was not going to reach the mother in time.

Retina blasted the chicken with a massive orange beam, which I assume was some kind of heat-ray. She cut it in half, and both halves landed on either side of the civilian, attoseconds before Blur arrived.

He completely stopped moving. He was in shock, it was clear that he'd never had this issue before. He was always fast enough.

"M-must be the watch, I... what?" But that was all the time it took, for the old lady to grab him by the shoulders and start flying him up into the sky.

"LOOKS LIKE YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO SAVE EVERYONE!" and then she laughed maniacally, the sound of her laughter echoing throughout the whole city. It was clear that she planned to drop him, and she was so high up that there was very little anyone could do.

I closed my eyes, and subconsciously envisioned the spiral galaxy, channeling the power I had without fully meaning to. I guess it had become a habit, I'd been doing that a lot today.

Was this really going to happen? My first recruit, dropped and killed like this? I hadn't fully grasped the weight of my responsibilities until now. He joined because of me. I'm his superior- I'm technically responsible for him. If I let this happen...

I wished I had something- anything. I had so much strength, if I had a rope, or a chain... if I had a spear, and I hurled it just right, I could probably pin him to the building not too far from where he was, and then he could get himself to safety. If I only had something like that.

The image of the spear became clearer and clearer in my mind. I could feel something... weird. Like, some kind of latent energy present in the atmosphere. I clenched my fists, and found that I could channel it... manipulate it. I felt an otherworldly connection to every single thing in the galaxy, just like I did when I first got my powers.

I thought about how much I wanted to save Blur- I thought about how much I wanted to save everyone, and how awesome it was that I was supposed to have the power to do that. And without thinking, I threw that primordial energy straight at the old lady.

I opened my eyes, and saw that she was pinned to the building by the scruff of her suit- she was unharmed, thankfully. Pinning her to the building, was a glistening purple spear, seemingly made out of some strange metal. Blur was next to me, looking at me in awe.

Just then, a bright flash of light appeared before us, and Behemoth was standing there, slow-clapping. "Took you long enough."