The two spent the night exchanging stories and learning more about each other. As time passed, Sam woke up and ate his dinner while occasionally chiming in with his own exaggerated and silly perspective on August’s life. Although mostly hyperbolic, the little dummy’s recount of events brought smiles to both August's and Kayden’s faces. At the dawning of midnight, everyone retired to their own rooms for some rest in preparation for the day to come, when they would attempt to consolidate their power by uniting all of Tartarus under August’s banner. As the artificial sun rose from the bedside screen, illuminating the rooms with its fluorescent light, August was the first to wake from his slumber. After completing his morning routine and exercise, he found himself walking into the living room, thinking about last night’s conversations. He had learned much about Kayden as a person, and so too, had he exposed much of himself to her, showing her the depth of his soul where no light had previously reached. As his mind swirled in a hurricane of love, ambition, and worries, he found a pair of pale arms wrapping themselves around him as Kayden hugged him from behind. 

Looking behind him, he realized that those closest to his heart now stood in the room with him. Taking a deep breath, August let his emotions flow through his words. “You two are the two people I care about most in this world. What we shall do today, will put all of us at great risk. If we succeed, the world and more could be ours. If we fail, the price we must pay is too horrible to name. Before we begin, I want the both of you to promise me one thing.” August stared into Kayden’s eyes deeply, and then into Sam’s. “Promise me that you’ll live.” Kayden, understanding what August was trying to convey, took hold of his hands and gave them a firm squeeze. “I promise, so long as you swear to the same.” Sam also nodded, but he did so cheerily, like a woodpecker, clearly not understanding the gravity of the situation. August smiled nonetheless. It was a fragile, but hopeful thing. “Good. Then let’s get to it.”

August immediately departed to speak with the Sector Lords Vivian, Regulus, and Sonya. Sam went with him just in case, while Kayden consulted the guide August had written the night before to explore the prison and find points where they would most easily breach as well as how exactly they would transport everyone out once the breach was made. August, after a few minutes of walking, arrived at a conference room at the middle of Tartarus, directly below the descent shaft and at the intersection of all 6 Sectors of the prison. This place was neutral ground, where any Sector Lord could book a discussion with another without fear of attack.

As August pushed open the grand mahogany doors, Vivian, Regulus, and Sonya all stood to greet him. August nodded at them, and they seated themselves just as he did, while Sam, after taking a look inside the room, closed the door. “Why did you call us here today, August? And where are Hercules and Letisha?” Sonya was the first to speak, immediately drawing to question the two missing sector lords. “They will not be joining us today. I will have a private discussion with each of them later.” August stated calmly. “As for the reason for this meeting, I will be straightforward. It is the collective wish of everyone imprisoned within Tartarus to break out of here. Today, a chance has come for us to do exactly that.” Immediately, the 3 other Sector Lords erupted into questions, each yelling at a louder volume than the last, trying to make themselves heard. 

August snapped his fingers, and a concussive explosion rang out around the room, silencing the Lords. “Please, I will elaborate, but I cannot do so over your shouting.” The 3 looked down, embarrassed at their outburst. “Kayden Maxwell arrived at Tartarus yesterday. After speaking with her, we have determined that with her complete energy control and my own atomic structure manipulation, we can blast ourselves out of here with nuclear energy with zero risk to any inmates locked within. However, two problems remain before we implement that plan. One, we will require a way to transport everyone out once an opening has been made.” Here, Regulus interrupted. “If you can indeed create a breach between this space and the outside world, I can provide a way for us to exit. My power, synergized with that of my subordinate Luke’s can teleport people to any place that is connected by air with the cooperation of Vivian..” August thought about that for a moment. Regulus’ power was the manipulation of air. His mastery over the element was so total that it was almost like a part of him. His locolized omniscience, while not as complete as August’s own, was just as effective in live combat. Meanwhile, Vivian was a psychic. Her prowess in mental matters was second to none.“What is Luke’s power, if you don’t mind me asking?” August inquired, trying to verify the validity of Regulus’ claim. The man in question responded without pause. “He can teleport himself and up to 10,000 kg to anywhere within a line of sight. If Vivian can connect our minds so that he can use my perception of air, and you open a breach so that air can come in, we can teleport out. There are 638 prisoner’s within Tartarus with an average weight of 80 kg. We can make the trip with 4 teleports, each one taking 6 seconds.”

August considered it with a blank face. Internally though, he was reeling at the fact that powers could be used in such a way. With his power, he’d never considered all the ways he could use it due to simply not needing to. Dissolving people always worked, and he was much to busy with managing the Underworld to truly experiment with the possibilities. August internally shelved that train of thought for later. “Vivian?” The psychic thought about the problem presented to her. “Yes, I can probably do it, but we should test it before we commit to this course. I’m not sure whether my psychic connection can count as line of sight.” August nodded. “Very well. After the meeting, bring Luke to this room and test this hypothesis of yours Regulus.” The Lord of the 5th Sector nodded in agreement. “Now, as for the other matter, we must discuss. I would like all of you, along with your subordinates, to join my organization, the Underworld, once we have broken out.” August dropped his bombshell with a calm facade. Surprisingly, it wasn’t Sonya, the most brash of them all, who made their issue known first, but Vivian. “And why would we do that?” She asked icily. August merely smiled at the face of her cold wrath. “Please, calm yourself, Vivian. I’m asking not only to expand my own power base, but also as a friend. You see, when we do break out, the Order of Twelve will try to recapture us in order from weakest to strongest so that they can more rapidly regain the public’s trust. If we band together, however, it deprives them the chance of targeting the weakest of us. Not to mention, none of us are so powerful that we can take down the entire Order of Twelve as an organization. The most we can do is kill their members, but the central idea of “heroes”, and the need to persecute us “villains”, will never die out.” August spoke compassionately and truthfully, attempting to sway the Lords with the strength of his ideals. “Together, we can finally make a stand and overthrow this corrupt world order once and for all, and finally take our place beneath the sun without fear. Besides, it is not without reason that you would subordinate yourselves to me. The Underworld has resisted the Order for over half a decade now, to great success until my incarceration. If it is bolstered with all of the inmates in here, we can undoubtedly grow to rival and surpass the Order.” August finished his rant, panting heavily. As his breath recovered, he made his inquiry once more.

“So, my friends, will you join me in heralding a new future for our people?” Silence permeated the chamber for dozens of seconds. Finally, Sonya spoke. “Ah, to hell with it. You’ve basically been our leader this whole time, might as well stick with you. I’ll accept as long as you don’t micromanage me and let me do my own thing from time to time.” August nodded, glad that at least one person would join him. Sonya may be the weakest of the Setor lords, but her weakness stemmed from her inexperience, not her power’s inability. The power to manipulate time itself was one of the greatest in existence after all. Not to mention, Sonya had the most subordinates out of all of them. Since the purpose of recruiting these people was not for their quality(the very fact that they were in Tartarus to begin all but guaranteed that), but rather to bolster the Underworld’s number of administrators, enforcers, and deterrents, Sonya was the most important Sector Lord to convince. After obtaining Sonya’s agreement, August looked to the other two. Eventually, it was Regulus who spoke first. “Very well. I too will join you. It is indeed true that the Order will chase us relentlessly, and without an extensive list of allies, it is likely many of us will end up back here.” Seeing that both of the others had agreed, Vivian too nodded her head with a sigh. “Oh, very well. I will also join on the condition that I get my own branch to manage. I want Russia.” August finally allowed his smile to show, now that they were all his people. “We’ll have to see about that, but there shouldn’t be a problem as long as your management skills remain as sharp as they are here.”

The 4 soon departed to do their own things. August instructed them to brief their people on the situation and consolidate their own power within their sectors. Power testing was set to begin in the conference room in 2 hours, and Sonya was to organize all the inmates into groups based on their abilities, both Super and otherwise. August arrived back to his own room, where Kayden was lounging on the couch. “I take it you’ve got the breakout point all planned out?” August asked as he plopped down next to her. “Yep, we’re gonna blast our way up from the Descent shaft. The mercury won’t be a problem as long as you convert it into energy fast enough, I’ll vent it upwards and drill us out. The problem of getting up can be solved easily enough, I’ve called some of the subordinates you’ve listed for me to build a hover platform. I’ll inject energy into it to keep it afloat and yeah, that’s the plan.” August beamed at Kayden with joy. “That’s great. So many problems are solved with a portable infinite battery!” At this point, August felt comfortable enough around Kayden to joke with her. It was quite the milestone, since humour was one of August’s favorite pastimes, one which he rarely indulged. 

Kayden pouted at August’s tease, but knowing it wasn’t serious, decided to simply let him have his fun. “Although, there is a simpler plan, but we’re unsure if it’ll work. I’ll let you know when the results come in. Anyways, now that things have settled, I’ll go knock some sense into Hercules while you handle that lustful vampire.” August stretched on the sofa in a cat-like manner, which prompted Kayden to stroke his head. August purred and leaned into her touch, his muscles relaxing from the stress of the meeting. Unfortunately, the moment had to end and the two got back to discussing work. An hour later, Kayden left for Sector 3 with Sam as backup and proof of her allegiances while August went towards Sector 2.  Arriving at the entrance hall, August beckoned one of the guards over. The man approached carefully, as if he was next to a dangerous animal. August felt it was kind of rude. “Go get Hercules.” August decided that if the man was going to fear him, then he might as well not bother with pleasantries. The guard stood, staring for a moment. “Well? Go!” August waved the man off, feeling quite annoyed at the lack of mental capacity most of Hercules’ subordinates suffered from. After loitering around the entrance of Sector 2 for almost 3 minutes, August’s head perked up. Soon after, footsteps echoed off the walls as a tall man walked in with an air of arrogance. 

“Sup old timer! Don’t ya know you should set an appointment if you wanna talk?” Hercules was a tall man, standing at a height of 6ft 7, though his boots made him seem another inch taller. His face had a certain youthfulness to it, rather unlike what one would imagine the second most powerful man in the world’s most secure prison would have. “I’m only a year older than you, Hercules.” August replied, now even more annoyed. His age was something he was proud of, and rightfully so. Not many could achieve what he had in a mere 21 years. “So, what’d you want do talk about?” Hercules questioned, leering at August. “Let’s talk in private. I’ve arranged for the arena to be cleared out for our … discussion.” Hercules chuckled at August’s words. “Awww, why so testy today? The backache kicking in? Need me to help you pound it out?” August exhaled sharply. “Let’s go.” Without so much as a glance back, August marched out. Hercules laughed and followed.

Arriving at the arena, which had indeed been emptied, Hercules dropped the pretense of civility. “The fuck do you want? Tryna ‘demonstrate your superiority again or some shit?” August shook his head. “No, well yes, but not in the way you might think.” When Hercules arrived at Tartarus, he was 18 and full of ambition. He challenged Sector Lord after Sector Lord, seemingly invincible. That was, until he tried to fight August. His body, which had been nearly impervious to all attacks, was slowly pulled apart, and he fainted within seconds. The next day, he tried to assassinate August in the morning, and as a result, had one of his fingers vapourised. Although two years had already passed, and his hand was healed, Hercules never let go of this grudge and had opposed August every chance he got. Even now, he seeked to take the position of 1st Lord from August, although he was at a loss as to how. “I’m here today to offer you a wager. A 1 vs 1 fight, Sam doesn’t intervene. If you win, you may do as you wish to me and take over as Lord of Sector 1. If you lose, you will be my loyal and zealous subordinate for the next 100 years. Deal?” August proclaimed boldly. It should be known that August was only able to affect Hercules with his power with Sam’s enhancement. Without it, Hercules’ body could not be manipulated. The same went for Regulus and Letisha. They couldn’t manipulate the air or blood within his body. Plus, his biology meant he could hold his breath for hours at a time.

Hercules considered the proposal for a moment. For a physically super such as him, living 200 years was average, but even then, 100 years was a long time. Then, unexpectedly, he laughed madly. “You must be desperate to make a wager like this, oldy! Alright, you’re on! Let’s do this!” Hercules bashed his fists together, his muscles and skeleton swelling up as he reached well over 10 feet, before taking a sprinter’s stance and rushing straight at August. Hercules knew that he would never get a chance like this again, and since he was gonna be stuck in here anyway, 100 years wern’t worth all that much. At the speed he was going, he shattered the arena floor beneath him from air pressure alone and would reach August within a second. Thankfully, August, knowing the man-child’s temperament, had prepared for that. The instant Hercules pushed off, August manifested a wall of pure tungsten right in front of the man’s face. Hercules bounced off the wall, although a massive dent appeared in it. Climbing out of the crater he shot himself into, Hercules commented on August’s fighting. “Same old tricks, eh old man? They’re not gonna work for long!” Lashing out with fist after fist, which were now the size of August’s head, the slab of tungsten soon crumbled under the powerful force of the strikes. August simply smiled at the display of brute strength. “I wouldn’t be so confident. I’ve recently had my eyes opened to the sheer number of possibilities that I’ve never explored with my power.” In the hour that August and Kayden spent together before the fight, they had brainstormed numerous applications of each other's powers, which neither of them had considered before. It was actually a common point for all Supers, being unable or unwilling to use their powers creatively, as they often saw themselves as all-powerful. Hercules grunted and moved his arm back, preparing to launch himself forward again, only to feel a light wetness on his arm. As he looked, a line of blood had appeared on his bicep. August, watching his experiment succeed, smiled. “Monomolecular edge. Not bad, right? Even if’s you’re tough, something that thin and that strong can still cut into you. It’s just basic physics and chemistry you see” With a gesture, countless blades became visible to Hercules, and a second later, they disappeared. “I’ve littered the entire arena with them, floor to ceiling. Surrender, Hercules. I’ve won.” August smiled smugly at the annoyance before him. 

Hercules however, was not quite ready to give up. With a furious roar, his body grew even more, though this time, denser. Just from his mass alone now, the ground beneath him cracked. With another roar, he charged, shattering the thin blades with his body. August grimaced and encased himself in a thick layer of diamond, which was rooted into the ground deeply to prevent him from being tossed around. In his hands, a lance appeared, whose tip was made of a single electron. Originally, something like this would be impossible, but with August’s willpower constantly holding it in place, the lance could be considered the single sharpest thing in existence, thousands of times shaper than even the monomolecular edges that August used before. As Hercules appeared before him, August thrusted with his lance the second Hercules punched him in the chest. Since his body was still made of physical matter, aka atoms, and with the lance being so sharp, Hercule’s arm was instantly penetrated, and a large hole formed. August on the other hand, was sent crashing back into the arena wall by th force of the punch, but managed to use his armour to absorb the impact of the punch. However, that meant it shattered into pieces. August formed a massive ball of cotton to absorb his impact with the arena wall as he quickly reformed a set of simpler steel armor which managed to take the impact with the wall, although a the air was knocked out of him all the same. 

Panting hard, August raised his head and glared at his opponent, to find him kneeling on the ground, holding the stump of his arm at the shoulder, trying to stop the bleeding. It turns out, August’s aim was thrown off by the punch and the lance drilled straight through Hercules’ shoulder, talking his entire right arm off. Hercules was quickly reverting back to his original state as a 6 foot 7 man instead of a 12 foot giant, but the blood loss wasn’t slowing down. August quickly walked over and and tried to seal up the bleeding, but he couldn't do it well, the human body was simply too complex, and he had very little practice with this art. Hercules had at most 20 minutes to live. August quickly pulled out his pager and sent a message to Sonya, hoping that she would arrive in time. 

After a gut-wrenching 8 minutes, Sonya hurried into the arena, quickly spotting August and Hercules. She rushed over, frantically checking August over for any injuries, and sighed in relief when she found none. “Hey. Hey, I’m alright. I’m alright.” August patted her on the back, trying to calm her down. “Sonya, I need you to heal him.” August went on to say, pointing at Hercules. Sonya looked at August, shocked. “I can only assume you two had a duel to the death. Why the hell would you want him healed?” “He’s a brute, but he’s a useful brute and a man of his word. He will abide by the wager we made.” Sonya looked disbelievingly at August. When he made no further comment, she sighed and relented. “Fine, you’re the boss now. But if he tries to kill me, I want additional hazard pay, got it?” She arched her eyebrows at him. August smiled and nodded indulging, his adrenaline from the fight wearing off.

“Sure, just get to it.” August dissolved the patchwork he made to slow down the bleeding, and Sonya laid a hand on Hercule’s chest. After a few seconds, the bleeding gradually stopped and tissue slowly regrew. After a couple of minutes, the arm of healed, but Hercules still didn’t wake up. “Ok, the damage is repaired, but he won’t wake until…” Sonya was cut off as August picked Hercules up by the collar of his shirt and delivered a haymaker straight to his face. The big man awoke with a startled gasp, hand going to cheek in an attempt to soothe the stinging. “That was for giving me back cramps, idiot.” August commented. Hercules looked at him disbelievingly, his memories of the fight still crystal clear. “You took off my arm!” “And now I’m your boss.” August deadpanned. Hercules stared for quite a few seconds, until eventually, he erupted into boisterous laughter. “Alright, you won fair and square this time. I will honour my word and serve you faithfully for the next 100 years.” Hercules took a bow, before straightening and looking into August’s eyes. “Now, what are we doing? No way you put yourself in so much danger without a reason.” August smiled, relieved to get another powerful subordinate on his side. “The first step will be breaking out of here. After that, you’re likely going to supervise Asia.” August made this decision since Hercules was a respectable and capable man despite his bulk, and also because the man was actually Japanese despite his name. “For now, rally your men and get them used to the new leadership. After that, go to the descent shaft atrium and wait for us to get it open.” Hercules nodded in understanding. “Very well.” August nodded at him, dismissing the man to go do his task. Meanwhile, he addressed Sonya. “Let’s go to Sector 3. Letisha likely won’t bend so easily.” “You consider THAT bending easily? Your new girl must put up a hell of a fight in bed.” Sonya sassed at him. August chuckled and started speedwalking. Although Kayden was powerful, he couldn’t help but worry about her. The spontaneous romanticism between the two was inexplicable yet, so overwhelmingly powerful. August just couldn’t get her out of his mind, no matter what important task he was attending to.

Around half an hour earlier, Kayden arrived at the entrance of Sector 3. It was decorated with a gothic aesthetic, and although the prison was underground, Kayden felt a weird dampness in the air. Disliking the sticky feeling, Kayden burned away the moisture in the air with a light bit of thermal energy. Although she considered it light, the two men standing guard at the entrance felt an alarming amount of heat and squirmed in discomfort. “Take a walk, boys.” A deep, sultry voice sounded from the dark corners of the entrance hall. Kayden turned around and saw a women with dark blue hair the color of the night sky and eyes more crimson than blood. “Letisha?” “Yes, that’s me.”  Letisha’s lips curled into a smile, one that screamed danger to Kayden’s honed instincts. “I’m here to negotiate on behalf of August for your allegiance.” Despite the danger she felt, Kayden didn’t worry much, and wanted to end the boring talking quickly. If it came down to it, she could beat this vampire wannabe with her hands tied behind her back, but it might just give her a bit of thrill of destroying someone who dared to have designs on what was hers could tide her over until the time for escape came. “Oho, so that little boy sent his latest conquest to my door hmm? Well, I do enjoy not having to hunt my own prey from time to time.” Letisha smirked at Kayden with a condescending superiority that implied the vampire knew something she didn’t. Kayden didn’t like it one bit, but for August’s sake, she would at least tolerate the bitch for 5 minutes. 

“Don’t imply things beyond your understanding, and don’t try to turn me against him. It won’t work. Will you submit?” Kayden asked once again, annoyed with the vampire’s tricks. “Oh come now, you’re already here, at least let me have some fun. Why don’t you join me in bed for a while?” Letisha whined with a malicious leer. “Times up. I hope you at least put up a fight.” Kayden extended her right hand and shot out a bright beam of superheated plasma straight at Letisha’s center mass. The vampire woman was quite fast however, despite her small frame, and dodged out of the way with superhuman agility, her body bending and flexing in unnatural and disturbing ways as she re-oriented herself. The lusty women took out what looked like a packet of yogurt, and bit into the top. Crimson blood gushed into her mouth, a few droplets dripping down to her chin and over the floor, giving the already gloomy atmosphere of the hall a whole new style of ominous. Kayden watched the obvious power-up with curiosity, not detecting much of a difference. “Was that supposed to do something?” She mocked, trying to get a rise out of the other women in the hopes of getting a better fight. Letisha smirked, her teeth stained with blood. “How mouthy. I’ll make sure to rip out your tongue first.” Kayden, disgruntled by the slight, fired a barrage of high-energy photon beams at Letisha. The vampire once more dodged with unnatural grace, weaving through the beams and letting them cut into the wall behind her. Kayden decided to spice things up a little, as throwing beams was getting quite boring, and engaged in CQC. Closing the distance between them rapidly with a jet-assisted jump, she rammed an energy-coated fist straight into Letisha’s face. It splattered into blood, and a second later, the headless body also collapsed into a puddle. 

Staring stunned at the puddle on the ground, Kayden failed to notice Letisha appearing behind her, stabbing her blood-coated hand straight into her back. She let out a surprised gasp as the pain hit, her back feeling like molten lava was being poured on it. “Well, that was easier than I expected. Good thing I never showed this particular application of blood manipulation to anyone in here, no? Blood clones are a neat little trick.” The vampire smiled smugly. “Now, I recommend you do exactly as I say. Since I’ve touched your blood, I can make you erupt into a pulp with a single thought.” Kayden grit her teeth and glared. Letisha ignored it and patted her on the cheek condescendingly. “Feisty. August is probably going to get here soon, and he’s going to call Sonya when he finds you lying on the ground in a pool of your own blood. You’re going to remain silent and still until I get close enough to get some of his blood. Understood?” “How about you let her go and I won’t turn you, atom by atom, into a puddle of water?” 

August stood at the entrance, with Sonya just a few steps behind him. If looks could kill, then August’s glare would have melted Letisha into a puddle long before his power could even activate. “Darling, we all know how your power works after so long. It’s potent, but it’ll take at least 300 milliseconds to take effect. Meanwhile, my power takes only 80 milliseconds to take effect. By the time you dissolve my brain and shut off my hemokinesis, your little girlfriend will be nothing but sludge.” Letisha smirked confidently. “Enough of this.” Kayden got bored of waiting, and since Letisha wasn’t going to fight her fairly anymore, she decided to stop holding back as well. Sam had actually been boosting her power this whole time, but she held back in hopes of getting a better fight. Now, with his enhancements, which was a 127.8% increase to all factors, her power was quick enough to completely scramble the electrical impulses in Letisha’s brain at near light speed. The vampire suddenly stumbled, and then fell to the ground, her body shaking in a seizure like manner. Sonya immediately rushed up and started healing Kayden. “Interesting.” August commented on Kayden’s usage of her power. “Like we theorized, the fastest acting method for you to disable someone is to mess with their electrical impulses. It seems that the particular part you rewrote in Letisha’s brain controlled her breathing.” August proved his point by kicking the downed vampire in the chest and watching as she gasped for air only to fail at getting anything in. “Might as well put her out of her misery.” With a wave, August dissolved Letisha Valentine, Lord of the 3rd Sector of Tartarus, known and feared as the Mother of Demons in the outside world, into a puddle of red wine.

“Sonya, go and keep an eye on Regulus and Vivian just in case something goes wrong with their power synergy experiment. We’ll join you shortly.” Sonya bowed her head and swiftly left the scene. “Sam, go rally my men and bring them to the descent shaft. Stick to the script I gave you.” “You got it boss!” The power booster gave a clumsy salute and ran off. August closed his eyes for a moment to make sure there was no one in the vicinity and sighed. “You didn’t negotiate with her before you guys started fighting.” August looked pointedly at Kayden. The white haired woman shrugged in a ‘what can you do’ way. “I asked for her allegiance 3 times and didn’t attack her for 2 minutes. Plus, she pissed me off.” August sighed yet again helplessly, rather exasperated with his girlfriend’s inability to communicate in a courteous manner to anyone but himself. “Oh whatever. It’s not like that vampire would have submitted without trouble. If we really brought her in, I’d probably tire myself to death putting out the fires that crazy bitch would inevitably start.” August engaged in some self reassurance to cope with the actions of the other crazy women he still had to deal with every day. 

“So, how did power experimentation go?” August decided to move on and ensure that their powers worked as theorized. “Well the energy coating worked well enough, I can defend myself in a melee if it comes down to it.” “Really, cause it didn’t look like it.” August side-eyed Kayden judgily. “Oh shut it. That was a surprise attack. And I cut through that bitch’s clone like nothing with my energy fist.” Kayden pouted at August. “Still, are you feeling alright?” August, although hiding behind a mask of jokes, was quite concerned. Although Sonya had already rewound time around the wound to it’s previous condition, there had been a hole in his beloved’s body just minutes prior.” “I’m perfectly fine, don’t worry.” Kayden smiled, trying to show that she was in fact fine, and not just saying it. “Alright, just one last thing before we go then.” Closing his eyes in concentration, August began to walk towards the sealed doors of Sector 3. He stopped after getting a few meters away from the door. “And, that’s the last one. Final scans … ok, we’re good.” August turned around, his previously cool demeanor seemingly evaporated into thin air, and shuffled shyly up to Kayden, as if he hadn’t just turned 40 of the worst villains in the world into water.

“I was really worried, you know.” He scolded, before leaning up and pecking Kayden lightly on the cheek. “Don’t pull that stuff again, ok?” Kayden’s head nearly combusted with the amount of blood rushing to her cheeks as she blushed bombastically. “O…okay. I won’t as long as you don’t. Speaking of which, you didn’t get injured fighting Hercules, right?” Kayden suddenly remembered that she wasn’t the only one who fought a tough opponent just now. She was very much used to being on her own. August too blushed, touched by her caring. “Yeah, I’m fine.” “So what are we gonna do with the rest of Letisha’s subordinates?” Kayden asked, suddenly remembering that Letisha had over 40 supers under her command. “Oh them. I just killed them all. Couldn’t really trust them since you just killed their leader and all.” August shrugged nonchalantly, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was indeed a ruthless crime lord. “Oh, alright. Thought you wanted to keep them for administration and shit though.” Kayden didn’t really care about the fates of those background extras, so she moved on quite quickly. Besides, she’s killed way more than that in a single day.

“Can’t exactly trust them without an established leader, and the chaos of the escape is already difficult enough to manage as is. Adding an unstable element would only hinder us.” August spoke dispassionately. He was a bit upset at the loss of a perfectly usable resource, but Kayden’s priority in his heart had already outgrown all but a few. Thus, he accepted the loss without much thought. “Actually, there was one more thing I wanted to discuss with you. It seems that my hubris has gotten the better of me for all these years. Just earlier, as I was trying to close Hercules’ wound, I discovered that I could actually heal him. My manipulation of atoms and quarks can become much more in depth then what I previously believed to be my limit. I’ve tried again and again in my early days just after my awakening to find the limit of my powers, and I thought them well defined, but now, everything has changed.” Kayden tilted her head curiously. “What do you mean? Why and how has your power changed?” August looked deep in thought. “I think I know why. Supers get their powers after their awakening, which generally happens when the mind and body is put under tremendous stress. At the right level, the hidden potential within humankind left by the Precursors awakens and we gain our powers, which are dependent on both bloodline and the stress margin. It’s been theorized that it may be possible to take powers even further through a second awakening, although it’s never been officially proven. It is highly possible that I experienced a second awakening when I thought Christina had died.” Kayden thought about August’s hypothesis. 

“It sounds plausible enough, and I guess it ultimately doesn’t matter that much why. Now, how has your power changed?” “In scale and use, not much, but whereas previously I could only manipulate particles en masse due to the limitations imposed by a human brain, I can now manipulate each and every particle individually, yet at the same time. Essentially, either the processing power required to manipulate each particle has decreased, or my processing capabilities have increased. I’m leaning towards the former since my personality hasn’t experienced any drastic changes since the second awakening , something generally associated with enhanced mental factors.” August took a deep breath. “What it means practically is that I will now be able to create with my power, not just destroy. If your arm was cut off, I could regrow your arm. If your head was cut off, I can regrow your head. Which brings me to the thing I wanted to talk about.” August grabbed Kayden’s hand and squeezed tightly, nervously shifting his eyes. “Could I do a deep scan of your body?” Kayden blinked, not expecting such a simple request after so much buildup. “Sure, go ahead. I don’t get why you’re making a big deal out of it.” “You do understand that it’s deeply intrusive and will tell me basically everything about you biologically right?” “Yeah, sounds fine.” August sweatdropped at Kayden’s lack of common sense. “Ok, let me explain everything in detail before I actually do it though. Once i get a deep scan of your body, I will be able to resurrect you should you ever perish. Additionally, I will be able to reverse any aging to a time during which I scanned you. If in 50 years you want to look young again, I could make it happen. It would even be possible to leave your memories intact during the process. Essentially, we would be immortal.” Kayden looked at August with confusion clear in her eyes. “That all sounds wonderful? What’s the downside? Can you not do it to yourself?” At the end of her questioning, Kayden grew panicked at the thought of August dying while she lived on. The thought along brought her such grief, that she couldn't imagine what it actually occurring would feel like. “Don’t worry. I won’t let you die. I promise, I’ll find a way for us to live together forever.” Kayden suddenly lunged forwards and hugged August tightly against her slightly taller frame. August started shaking. Kayden, concerned, pulled away and brought herself to eye level with him. Suddenly, August burst into laughter. He laughed so hard that, as he held his sides in pain, he lost his balance and fell to the ground. That didn’t stop him though as he rolled around laughing his guts out.

After a few minutes during which August laughed like a madman and Kayden watched on like a confused cat, the atom manipulator finally calmed down and caught his breath. “It’s not that. I can affect myself just fine. The only downside is that the longer we live, the more easy it is to get bored. That’s the whole reason you came to this place. I don’t want to condemn you to a life you would hate.” August looked down, his cheer disappearing as quickly as snow in lava. Kayden once again pulled him into her embrace, this time gently. With her left hand, she softly stroked his cheek. “Oh darling, I could never get bored of you.” “You mean it?” “Every word.” “Ok.” August closed his eyes and concentrated deeply on Kayden, using his power to map out every molecule in her body, storing all of the information deep within his mind. After a few minutes of intense concentration, August opened his eyes again. “Alright, I’ve completed the scans. I’ve also fixed all the mutations caused by aging in your body, so you should start feeling a bit lighter and breath a bit easier soon.” Kayden smiled, glad to see that her beloved was feeling better now. “Thank you, dear. Now, we should probably go join your newly acquired subordinates. I think it’s about time you get some sunlight.” And indeed it was. Although there were plenty of supplemental vitamins sent along with foodstuff to Tartarus every month, August’s pale, nearly translucent, skin betrayed just how long he had spent underground. Lightly dabbing his eyes with his handkerchief, August nodded. “The time has finally come. Let’s go.” Together, hand in hand, they walked toward their future.