Forthright and his small task force, made of only two others, were handpicked, the same as every police department was designed. The Captain of each force chose two he believed to be strongest to come with him for emergency enemy combatants, and Forthright now chose two people who would not die or give up in the face of danger.

Forthright and his goons soared through the sky on military-grade hoverboards, over the thronging crowd of people who booed and jeered as the emergency signal went off on everyone’s phones in the area.

Dangerous astral combatants in the area, seek shelter.

Dahlia groaned in disdain, it would be near impossible to catch him in the crowd without accidentally hurting anyone. She was another half-fish person, an astral as well. Her looks were strange, side effects of her ancestry, with blue skin, small gills on her cheeks, and seaweed-colored hair.

Forthright’s second partner, Keko, was an Alterian, the perfect choice for combat with their tough skin, extra set of arms, and increased strength, albeit he was slow. Like most Alterians his eyes were bright yellow, his hair rough and black.

They spotted the two serial criminals and Dahlia’s eyes turned beautiful mahogany. An orb quickly encircled Nero, and everyone in the crowd turned to look. They recognized him as the arsonist from the news, and everyone ran in a panic, pushing over each other.

“Run Adonis! Take the files and run,” Nero shouted.

“I can’t leave you to die again! Why do you refuse to let me help you?”

“I’m not going to die. Don’t be dumb.”

Adonis shook his head no, took off the backpack, and his wings burst from his back, bits of blood dripping down it. He attempted to push the strange orb, but he couldn't. It looked lightweight, but it wouldn’t budge.

He started to shout, rubbing the sides as the sphere became smaller, and Nero had no choice but to press himself down against the ground to avoid being crushed.

Forthright and his task force landed several yards away, proud of how fast they had handled the situation while causing mass panic. The media would glaze over the stampede once they captured the arsonist, so all was well.

But Forthright did not intend to take him alive.

“Dahlia, make it smaller,” Forthright commanded.

“What? No, we already trapped him!”

“ Do it. We can’t let guys like him get locked up. They’ll get loose and start again.”

“Just do it, Dahlia. Everyone’s running away. We can say it was a mistake,” Keko told her.

Nero overheard them, deciding his fate as he lay, facedown on the pavement, and he became angry. The hot pavement was hurting his right cheek, a pebble was pressing into his palms, and here they were, trying to be judge, jury, and executioner.

“I’m going to kill you,” Nero screamed. “I’m going to kill all of you!”

Forthright chuckled, glanced at a nearby stop sign, and held his palm out. It flew towards, right into his hand, and he grinned, taking great joy in killing his shame.

“You need to die or else Acheus won’t,” Forthright explained. “This is just business.”

Keko and Dahlia were alarmed at the brazen confession, and immediately, they didn’t want to stay. Adonis was still trying to break in, smacking his fist against the orb, refusing to leave, but Nero chose him.

The air sparked, and the watch strained, but it was weak now, and Adonis fell right through the pavement and onto the patio of Nero’s bedroom, much to the confusion of his husband.

Next, Nero lit his entire body on fire, but it was contained to the sphere. It was a giant ball of light, red, and he couldn’t be seen as it lit up the intersection, and the people inside the buildings were now evacuating.

“Call for backup,” Forthright commanded them.

As Keko made the call, Dahlia strained against the force of the energy, the heat drying out her skin. She needed water, and fast. She stood on the inner pavement with the water, but it was closer to the sphere of light, and her efforts were in vain.

Cars crunched, metal trash cans were twisted, and Forthright created a secondary dome around the living bomb. The heat increased, and the gel on his brow started to drip, making his eyes tear up, Dahlia had to get out of the inner sidewalk as the water was starting to boil.

The metal shield he created did no good, and it melted, creating a hollow, black rim around Nero, as he screamed several profanities, his anger making him even stronger.

“Take the source in,” Forthright commanded her. “It’s the only way we can stop him from decimating another part of the town.”

Dahlia, without thinking, agreed and stuck her palms out, trying to take a fraction of the energy, slowly, to absorb the blast. A warm, wonderful feeling started, around her chest and it grew, and onlookers cheered, believing that she was about to defuse the bomb.

She balled up her hands into fists, stared at the sky, shuddered, and disintegrated into ash.

Whatever that was left of Dahlia blew away in the wind, an empty casket funeral to be had.

Keko ran towards Forthright, and pushed him down, believing his tough skin would protect him from the heat, but it did not. A hot, bright, pillar of flames shot out into the sky, burning his back, and Forthright’s legs.

In one final act of heroism, knowing he would die, Keko used his ability of ‘transfer’ to take Forthright’s wounds and accept them on his own body. He was alive, shocked but alive, under the crispy man, his skin falling off in chunks, and Forthright cried, as his muscles were bright white instead of red, the blood evaporated from the heat.

Nero stood up, on the corner, the closest building marred from the flames, naked, and took out his sword, lighting it ablaze.

“ I’m going to kill you, eat you, and then Almuz,” Nero and Unas said. “Your anger smells delicious.”

His meal would be interrupted as backup had arrived, with various SWAT teams from all over Atlaan. Everyone wanted their chance to catch the naked pyromaniac, and he was more than happy to give them a fight.

What little was left of Forthright’s clothing were his lower sleeves, which fell off when he pushed the corpse off his body, and the upper part of his pants, the shoes melted off, but no pain was there, as Keko absorbed it all.

Forthright wanted to run, he had seen how easily his team was killed, but he was positive with backup he would be the victor. Haughty and proud, Forthright started to underestimate his enemy.

Nero focused the heat onto the soles of his feet and grinned, catapulting himself into the air with one big blast, bursting through the SWAT cars trying to land on the street below. Molten metal flew through the sky, and Forthright with a simple flick of his finger tried to use them as bullets, but most of them were useless, already molten.

More automobiles and metallic city landscapes were used as projectiles. Forthright stuck out his hand, his hoverboard straight into it, and he shot up, right into the sky.

“I will kill anyone who stands in my way," Nero screamed, as he cut through cars and motorcycles.

Making his way closer to Nero, Forthright saw him within his sight, flying fast, metal trailing behind him. He closed his fist, focusing all his energy on another contraption, but he was confused, falling, the air, nothing to catch him.

Adonis had returned, a loyal and brave griffin, making the flight back, refusing to abandon his friend. With large flaps of his wings, Forthright was pushed off of his board and fell haphazardly towards the ground. He extended his hands, and the hoverboard came right back to him.

Nero continued to fly through the sky, only stopping to slice the cars flying upwards towards him and Adonis.

The broken pieces of metal fell to the ground, and the sounds of exploding cars were interrupted by shrieking civilians and police officers down below. Nero began to enjoy their sounds of terror and fear and began to flip and turn in the air, grinning. He stopped slicing the cars but simply began to burst right through them, a fireball of insanity and derangement.

Forthright got on top of his board once more and turned towards Nero. As he soared down towards him, pieces of metal, cars, and various metallic city objects came to Forthright, following him and creating a long trail.

Once he felt that he had collected enough, Forthright clenched his fist, and all the pieces stuck to each other, one by one, creating a large metallic beast.

No matter how many times Adonis tried to knock him off or push him to the ground, Forthright got right back up, the large trail still following him, and Adonis couldn’t understand why he was collecting so much.

Adonis landed on a nearby building and watched as Forthright created his monster, unable to stop him. Nero landed on another rooftop, but not as gracefully as Adonis. He tumbled down and rolled onto it, getting ash and dirt all over him. He gazed up to see what Forthright had made.

It was a giant snake, soaring through the air.

It had a multitude of car lights for eyes and window wipers for eyebrows. It opened its mouth and hot oil spewed forth. Its fangs made of mailboxes released burning letters into the air.

The sounds of screeching and grinding danced in the air, as the random cars, trucks, bikes, scooters, and sewer potholes pushed against each other with every twist of its body. Its slithering looked more like quick giant jerks as smaller parts fell off with every push in the smoggy sky.

Forthright’s eyes glowed even brighter than ever before. He struggled to stand on his board and sat down. His head hurt from the sudden exertion, but his goal was to take down Nero before he could do any more damage to the town, and kill more people.

Forthright felt something wet on his upper lip and ears. He touched them and realized they were bleeding, and his victory timeline was now more urgent.

Forthright let out a maniacal scream, and the snake made its way to Nero. Onlookers watched as he flew through the buildings straight for the beast, moving so fast, glass windows shattered as he passed by, screaming when the pieces dropped down on them, searing and slicing their skin.

Nero raised his sword and flew towards the tail end of the snake. He sliced through, struggling to hold on to the sword’s handle with both hands as he rocketed toward its head. Random objects smacked him in the face as he kept going, cutting vertically through the underbelly of the beast.

His hands were cut and bleeding but he grits his teeth through the pain and tears as his head was bombarded with car doors. Fiery chunks fell to the ground, spreading destruction through the streets of Atlaan.

As Nero finally made his way to the head, he lost grip with one of his hands and shrieked. “Don’t let go, don’t let go, don’t let go," sobbed Nero. “Please don’t let go.”

He finally made his way through the beast, its life short-lived. The snake's flaming corpse fell to the ground and Forthright tried to piece it back together. The pieces wouldn’t stick, so instead, he catapulted them upwards into the sky.

A flaming metal bench smacked into Nero and he finally let go of his sword. He cried as the hot bar singed his skin and left a mark on his arm.

Forthright flew towards Nero, sweating from the Atlaan heat and flames surrounding them.

He grunted as stray embers singed his skin, flinching with every hit. He wouldn’t let Nero escape, or else all the destruction around them would mean nothing. The surrounding buildings were in full blaze and it no longer looked like a bustling city but a war zone.

Firefighters arrived on the scene trying to rescue people stuck inside the burning buildings, but the curious onlookers to the fight made it more difficult.

“Give up," roared Forthright. “Let me just read you your rights and we can call it a day!"

Suddenly, Forthright was falling. Adonis had pushed him off his board, leaning all his weight into him. Forthright extended his arm once more to bring his board back, but it was no use.

Adonis flew straight for it and crushed it with his beak.

Forthright fell faster and faster, pieces of metal sticking to him and surrounding him. It created a large ball around him, and with a loud boom, he hit the pavement, asphalt flying outwards.

He saw black, surrounded by heat, struggling to stay awake.