Eighteen year old Enzo Virelli ran as fast as he could as riveting lighting wrapped through his charred shoes in the snowy streets of a city in the nation of Alpinea at nighttime. With his lighting abilities, there was no one on the planet who was faster than him, or so he thought. His pursuers were crazy if they thought they stood a chance.

  Turn after turn, he kept running with electric precision. He was still a long way from the hideout, but with his high speed sprints, he should get back in no time. No one ever discovered the hideout.

  Eventually, Enzo turned on a bridge, and when his pursuers noticed, they immediately began raising it in an attempt to finally stop him.

  These guys can’t be serious can they? Enzo thought to himself.

  He took a deep breath and began to quickly dash upright with topaz colored electricity surrounding him. The drawbridge eventually was all the way up by the time Enzo got to the top. He stood at the top of the bridge and checked out his scenery. The city of Skaldrin was a nice cozy city with sleek rooftops, curling chimney smoke, and glowing lanterns. It would have totally been a nice place to live if it wasn’t for the snow, and God how he hated snow. There were also a ton of cafes, museums, libraries, and of course the police sirens. They were so loud that they were ruining the moment.

  A sudden helicopter flew near Enzo and shined an immensely bright light on him. He covered his eyes in annoyance, it just had to ruin the beautiful view.

  “Eyes on Boltfire! On top of the bridge!”

  Enzo yawned before cracking his knuckles, which caused electricity to gleam around his hands. He wondered why they were so desperate to capture him anyway, it wasn’t like he robbed a bank or anything… at least not recently.

  He stared at the other side of the bridge, knowing how easy it would be for him to make. With a burst of electricity, he capitulated his body towards the other side, his blonde hair flowing in the wind. He was practically screaming with excitement.

  He was stoked to have superpowers, gaining them five years ago during the twentieth Emergence was a true blessing in disguise. Now if only nations never used emergees to fight for their own petty wars.

  He landed at the other side of the bridge, using his hands to pull himself up. The ice from the frozen bridge practically froze his hand—he forgot to bring gloves. As he kept dashing down the bride, he placed his hands by his mouth to exhale on them. He then placed his hands in his warm jacket. Maybe it was finally time to leave Alpinea, its winters were brutal.

  He saw several police cars parked, blocking the bridge entrance. If he just jumped over a bridge, what made them think he couldn’t jump over a line of police cars? He jumped over it with ease. Some of police officers got out of their vehicle and fired round towards Enzo, but his electricity was practically bullet resistant.

  Enzo looked back to laugh at the police officers. They were foolish if they really thought guns were going to take him out. He was pretty shocked that they were trying to actually kill him though. Can’t a guy change sides for once? After all, being a villain was boring.

  Suddenly, Enzo ran into a huge slab of ice that sprung up from the floor. The impact left him feeling dazed and confused. He looked around to see what happened and then noticed the hero floating on a cloud of ice in the sky—Artico.

  “No way, Artico!?” Enzo panicked.

  “Surrender Boltfire, now’s the time to turn yourself in,” said Artico calmly.

  “No way! I’ve been imprisoned in the Loftlong enough. How long do you guys want to keep me there anyway? As far as I’m concerned, I’m changing my career,” Enzo (Boltfire) answered.

  “Changing your career? I don’t know what you mean by that, but all criminals must finish their time in prison,” said Artico. “It’s the law.”

  “I’ve been in there for a year man, I don’t want to go back. Why do you guys care so much about one escapee? Why not deal with the others?” said Enzo.

  “Because you’re the most dangerous,” said Artico.

  Enzo gritted his teeth as he heard those words. As far as he was concerned, he wasn’t near as dangerous as some of the other people out there. He never harmed or killed anyone, yet they acted as if he was the most wanted man in the world.

  “Is Ms. Pyra with you?” asked Enzo, feigning confidence.

  “Of course she is, she’s my wife.”

  Suddenly, the air grew unnaturally warm. Enzo looked up and saw a huge wall of fire raining down on him. He quickly used his lighting to dodge out of the way. The fire left the sidewalk he was walking on completely charred. Chills went up his spine when he made eye contact with Ms. Pyra, who was floating in the air, her boots ablaze. Enzo began to run away from the superheroes in a state of panic.

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  “One of you guys should be the stay at home one!” Enzo freaked as he continued his desperate escape.

  His wiped the sweat off his face after dodging a large ice ball from Artico. This wasn’t good at all. He was confident that he would escape before, but with big guns like Ms. Pyra and Artico, he wasn’t sure if he would return back to his hideout safely this time. He just didn’t want to be in that damned lonely cell again. Being in solitary confinement for an entire year basically drove him mad.

  The Loft was a prison built for the world’s most dangerous emergees. It was said to be inescapable, until a mysterious man let out Enzo and a few other inmates. The Loft was filled with cells and walls that were built to nullify superpowers. Suppression emitters were riddled everywhere there. Due to the nature of his powers, and his tendency to try to escape, solitary confinement was what he was sentenced to. He had to claw his own flesh on his arms just to survive that agony. There was nothing he hated more than being alone, and no matter how much he tried to relent, the officials were no budging. The husband and wife duo were his enemies, yet he really didn’t want to hurt them. He just wanted them to leave him alone.

  He jumped over a tall black gate that led to a park covered in lush snow. It was so much snow that it almost made it hard to run, and that was when things got bad.

  Ms. Pyra took a deep breath and stretched out both of her fist below her. She rained down large tears of flame, totally melting the snow around Enzo. It took Enzo everything he had to dodge the flames, until a large fireball absolutely wrecked him from the right.

  He flew a few feet back, after the flame buffeted him. It was a brutal hit that left his arm feeling sore, yet he was not burning. Experienced emergees were capable of withholding the lethality of their attacks.

  “You didn’t burn me?” Enzo asked, looking at the flame hero descending to the ground.

  “Of course not, I’m not some brute, like you,” said Ms. Pyra.

  Enzo balled his fist, he was so angry that electricity began to pulse out of him like a riot.

  “The only ones who are brutes are you two. I did nothing wrong,” said Enzo, squinting his eyes.

  Artico descended from the sky after his wife did. “Boltfire, you literally robbed banks and are guilty of arson, emergee assault, and now prison escape. If you’re so upset about doing being imprisoned, then you should have never done the crimes.”

  “Well it’s not right to send emergees to the Loft. That place is terrible. I can’t go back there anymore. I’m trying to turn a new leaf and turn my life around,” explained Enzo.

  “He’s just a dumb child that is unable to take accountability, I should have burned him with that fireball!” Ms Pyra said fiercely.

  “Now honey,” Artico laughed.

  Enzo tried to run again, but noticed he couldn’t move his feet at all.

  “Oh yeah… I froze your feet while you were talking before. I’m sorry Boltfire, but this ends now.” The thick ice began to spread more around Enzo. “I kinda like you, so I will vouch for you when we send you back to the Loft. You’ll probably spend five years in there at the least, but that’s better than your whole life on the run right? Once you get out, I’ll be more than happy to help you get back on your feet.”

  Enzo rattled with rage, his body crackling as memories of that hellish cell flooded his mind.

  The cold that seeped into his bones, the silence that screamed louder than any voice.

  For a whole year, he’d been locked in that box—no sound, no light, no one but his demons for company. He was alone with nothing but trauma, grief, and thoughts dark enough to swallow him whole.

  He clenched his fists, and lightning surged in his chest like a storm that could not be contained.

  The fast building charge made his body glow bright. Then with a furious scream, he unleashed a thunderous explosion of lightning that shattered the ice and the air all around him. After he was free, he continued his great escape. Getting to his hideout was his top priority.

  “Oh great,” Artico sighed, before activating his ice cloud to fly again.

  “I knew I should have burned him,” said Ms. Pyra as she continued the chase.

  Enzo ran with his lighting beginning to fade. That last blast practically had all of his energy in it, sooner or later he would run out of steam. He panted heavily as he ran towards the streets once more. That particular street was riddled with even more cars than the other streets he saw. The good news is that Artico and Ms. Pyra stopped attacking as much, probably due to fear of hitting a civilian.

  He tiredly hopped over cars, trying to make sure he didn’t hurt anyone. Eventually he made his way to yet another bridge. Eventually, the traffic got a little more clear, so the husband and wife started to rain down ice and fire once more.

  Enzo did his best to dodge on low stamina, eventually, a huge ball of snow hit him and knocked him towards the rail on the bridge.

  Enzo deliriously looked down below at the frozen lake. Jumping on it would be suicide, as Artico would have full reign over the ice.

  “It’s over Boltfire,” Artico said calmly.

  Enzo sparked up more electricity in a desperate move. “If you come any closer I’ll attack you myself!” he bluffed.

  “Like that would do anything,” Ms. Pyra mocked.

  When things couldn’t get any worse, the air intensified even more. He turned around and saw a huge slab of molten rock being launched at him. He made a small shield of lighting before the attacked knocked him down to the floor.

  He looked up to see a large stocky man holding out his hand in pure confidence.

  Magma Man too!? Enzo thought. I’m screwed.

  The attack left him bloodied and dizzy. He tried to activate his powers again, but he was completely unable to now. He was out for the count. All he could do was wait for capture.

  “Dammit,” Enzo said while punching the icy ground.

  “Hey Magma Man, that was too far. Are you trying to kill him?” Artico complained.

  “I’m just trying to make sure he doesn’t run away again,” Magma Man said fiercely as he ominously walked closer towards Enzo, making him tremble with fear.

  “When I said I wanted to burn him, I didn’t mean it literally,” Ms. Pyra added.

  “Yeah, well I don’t got a squeaky clean image in the media,” said Magma Man. “I gotta get to my daughter’s birthday party tonight so I’m ending this.”

  Enzo got up to run away again, but before he could, Magma Man suddenly appeared in his face with a fist full of magma.

  “Hey stop!” Artico yelled.

  Enzo closed his eyes and prepared for the worse. After several seconds, nothing happened. Confused, Enzo opened his eyes to see Mamga Man in his face frozen in time. He looked around at everything and realized everything was frozen in time. The cars, the wind, the pedestrians, Artico, and Ms. Pyra, all frozen in time.