Enzo rose to his feet in a sigh of relief, though he did not know if he was in the clear yet. Only one person could have stopped time like that and it was his cousin, the time superhero Chronos.

  He looked behind and saw a tall figure with long black hair walking towards him. Their costume was almost pitch black.

  “Matteo? What are you doing here?” asked Enzo.

  “I’m the one who should be asking you that,” Chronos said, walking closer to his cousin. “What are you doing in Alpinea?”

  Enzo looked around the environment, still perplexed by the phenomenon that was taking place before him. He hadn’t seen his cousin’s time powers in a very long time, it was almost nostalgic.

  “…I just wanted to check out the country my mom came from. I have to say… it blows,” said Enzo. “Some of the cafes are nice though.”

  “Why did you escape prison?” Chronos asked, ignoring Enzo’s statement.

  Enzo scratched his head before thinking of his next words. “I didn’t really escape, someone broke me out.”

  “Who was it?”

  “Uh… Mr. Brax, can you believe it?”

  “The leader of a gang in Aerilon huh? Did you make a deal with him? Is that why he let you out?”

  “No deal at all, he said he ‘just felt like it.’ Said he felt sorry for me… or something.”

  “Have you worked with him before?”

  “C’mon, what’s with all of these questions?” griped Enzo.

  “Well you’re a wanted criminal, I can’t just let you off easy can I?”

  “Well…”

  “Better make it quick, I can only stop time for five minutes at a time, and you’re down like 2,” explained Chronos.

  “Alright fine, I never worked for him before, I actually worked with a rival gang, so I was surprised he broke me out.”

  “Why are all these people chasing you anyway? I got the call to stop Boltfire, but what has ‘Boltfire’ actually done?”

  “I’ve done nothing man,” Enzo said, nervously thinking about the time limit. Magma Man would crush him immediately as soon as the time ends. “I’m just one of the only few people to have ever escaped from the Loft and now they’re pissed.”

  “Ah, that makes sense,” said Chronos as he rubbed his chin. “Last question cousin, what are you trying to do now that you’ve escaped the Loft?”

  “You mean like my goals or something?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well… This is gonna sound crazy but I want to be a superhero. What Artico and Ms. Pyra are doing is the kind of life I want to live. Who knows bro, maybe I’ll meet a nice superhero girl, get married and fight crime together like them too. I just feel like I screwed a lot of people over, I want to make up for it.”

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  Chronos shuddered. “You haven’t screwed over as many people as you think Enzo. We both joined the same gang in Aerilon because we both lost everything. The ones who really screwed people over were the world governments. That superpowered war was a hellhole, and we got the short end of the stick.” He walked closer to Enzo and put his hand on his shoulder in solidarity.

  “Yeah… I guess we did,” Enzo said while trying to force his eyes to not get teary eyed.

  “You know it’s not unmanly to cry.”

  “Aw, shut up!” Enzo fussed.

  “When the Emergences first broke out, it was awful. Aerilon was probably hit the hardest, odd how its biggest city Spectralis is still thriving.”

  “Because Spectralis basically has its own government,” answered Enzo.

  “You’re right cousin.” Chronos took his hand off Enzo’s shoulder and walked towards the end of the bridge, eyeing the icy lake below. “This world is unfair, you and I did not deserve to suffer like we have. The best thing we can do is try to help out others the best we can,” he preached.

  “Yeah, I couldn’t agree more.” He missed chatting with his family, but they were all on the other side now. Chronos was basically all he had left, but their lives ended up becoming completely different when Chronos decided to suddenly betray the gang and arrest his fellow comrades. Enzo was the only one he let get away back then.

  “You really want to be a hero Enzo?” asked Chronos.

  “Yeah, of course. I hate this world… more than you can imagine, but while I’m alive, I want to try to do something meaningful. That’s one of the only things I thought about at the Loft. That torture just felt like it would never end. I don’t want to go back, but I want to be a hero somehow. I’m not gonna be able to take the hero exam for obvious reasons though,” explained Enzo.

  “Well… there might be another way.” Chronos said, while being meaningful of the time. He turned around, facing Enzo again. “If I let you go free, will you follow this method?”

  Enzo’s ears perked up. “Yeah, what is this other method?”

  “Well, I went to the Loft a couple of days ago to assist with escorting another villain, and Con-Crush was there. Before he went into solitary confinement, he was kinda freaking out.”

  “Con-Crush in the Loft? I remember him! If he’s there, does that mean he was finally defeated by someone?”

  “Yeah, he was defeated by a vigilante named The Rejuvenator . I don’t know much about this guy, but it’s possible he only became an emergee days ago. He’s probably incredibly strong. He may become a registered hero soon.”

  “Wow, this guy must be the real deal,” said Enzo. A brand new emergee defeating a threat as big as Con-Crush was just something you didn’t hear everyday. This Rejuvenator person sounded amazing, but hopefully he would never run into him. “What were we talking about before?”

  “Uh… about Con-Crush in the Loft. He told another former inmate, that just left the Loft about a demon that was going to show its face at Umoja Terminal in Amani going to Spectralis. He says this beast is weakened now, but is growing stronger little by little. No one knows where he is, but he will be at the terminal July 5th according to Con-Crush. He says there’s no greater threat to mankind than this beast. And it’s got something to do with the abducted billionaires too.”

  “What? A demon? What are you on about!?”

  “Sorry, I don’t have time to further explain, my time’s almost up,” said Chronos. “According to an informant, Con-Crush has only told The Rejuvenator, and a few other inmates about this demon. The demon is a man with a face that everyone will know. All you have to do is expose the monster, slay it, and the world should acknowledge you as a hero. And you don’t have to go back to the Loft. I’ve told other heroes already, but many of them don’t believe me—rather they don’t believe Con-Crush. Many criminals go crazy in the Loft, most of the other heroes don’t believe anything without evidence.

  “Man, I have so many questions. I still have no idea what you’re talking about. Can we chat about this later or something?” Enzo asked.

  “I’ll try to find a way, though we’ve been busy with gang villains acting up. My schedule’s super busy but even I will try to be there July 5th. If there’s one thing I regret, it was betraying that gang. If I knew it would make me lose my little cousin, my last family member, then I never would have done it.” He hugged Enzo before quickly ending the hug.

  “Don’t say that. This world needs you as a hero,” smirked Enzo. “And What about Ms. Pyra, Artico, and Magma Man? Won’t they be mad at you?”

  “Don’t worry about that, I’ll handle them. Run away Enzo! Go be that hero you’re trying to be.”

  “Take care… cousin,” said Enzo as he sprinted away with newfound lighting.

  He did not anything that was happening, but he somewhat knew his plan now. Slay the dragon, and become the hero. But the biggest question he was asking himself was how does a man become a dragon anyway? Would such a dragon really end the world if it’s not slain?