Chronolock raced through the streets, the world blurring around her. A glowing ball of fire and light slowly creeped on the air as she stepped to the side.

It had been incredibly difficult learning how to stop time on herself. Even more so learning how to move within the stopped time.

But once she did…she discovered her control had improved immensely.

To the point she could do more, or more accurately less, than a full time stop.

Which is how she now sped herself up in time, slowly the rest of the world by comparison.

A feat that was far less straining. And one that allowed her interact with the world at large without returning to normal time.

So she blurred forward through the streets, easily evading the projectiles hurled her way, and slid behind her target.

It was still hard to interact with the world while she was manipulating her own time, the difficulty increasing to the degree she sped herself up. But that didn’t matter if she used a stun baton. A light tap was all she needed.

Lightning surged from the rod in her hand in slow motion as she tapped the young man in front of her.

 

And streamed into him.

 

His head slowly turned, a smirk on his face. Chronolock frowned and took distance as a shockwave emanated from the man.

Wonder Knight fell from the sky as Chronolock fell back. He grit his teeth as he punched straight through the shockwave, his fist impacting the man with a loud bang. The man’s face blurred as it vibrated before suddenly snapping to Wonder Knight. He grinned as wide as he could.

 

“Kinetic energy is still energy! And there’s no energy Quantum Burglar can’t absorb!”

 

Just then, a pair of pink raptors crept from behind a car and pounced on Quantum Burglar.

The moment they touched him they exploded into pink sparks that Quantum Burglar absorbed.

Quantum Burglar held his palm up, a circle of light glowing on it. Wonder Knight cried out as a beam smashed into his chest, sending him flying into a nearby structure.

Just then a black dome rose from the ground, encasing Quantum Burglar.

 

“Absorb this! Void prison!”

 

Aurora Legion gathered, Wonder Knight holding his head and groaning as Voidspeaker descended from the sky.

 

“Nice catch, Void.”

 

“Heh, I’ll show him energy absorption!”

 

“We still need to work on your battle banter though.”

 

“Oh come on, Chrono!”

 

“Oh, so you don’t need me to tutor you later?”

 

“…please help. I’ll work on it.”

 

“That’s what I thought.”

 

Pink Star narrowed her eyes as she stared at the black dome.

 

“Save the flirting for later you two, it’s not over until it’s over.”

 

“Oh come, Pink. We got him in my Void Prison now! Even that magic girl couldn’t break out of it! So what can this guy…”

 

Just then a spot of light appeared on the dome. Aurora Legion’s eyes widened and they leapt to the side as a beam blasted straight out of the dome. Quantum Burglar stepped out as the void prison collapsed.

 

“Very clever, trying to absorb MY energy, huh? But you forgot something…”

 

Quantum Burglar began to glow, lightning arcing around him and the wind kicking up a storm. The members of Aurora Legion grunted and shielded their eyes.

 

“The sheer amount of power I contain! And once I reach that nuclear reactor over there, unlimited power! And there’s nothing you, or anyone else, can do to stop me!”

 

Wonder Knight grit his teeth and clenched his fist. He got ready to leap at the villain, to try and buy at least a little bit of time…

 

And then a surge of yellow light passed through the area.

 

“W-What was that?!”

 

Yellow lights flickered around Quantum Burglar’s eyes. His face went blank for a moment. The lightning and glow around him faded. Aurora Legion took up positions, waiting for his next move…

And then he raised his hands, an apologetic look on his face.

 

“I’m sorry for causing trouble, I surrender.”

 

Aurora Legion froze.

 

“...what?”

---

Captain Hot Devil heaved a sigh as the back of the grav-jet opened.

For retiring as an active hero to join the Academy, he sure was doing a lot of hero work.

And very little teaching.

 

None in fact.

 

He had originally hoped he could start a new job with a more consistent schedule. Get some more downtime. Have regular family time.

 

Then monsters started to drop from the sky.

 

He was going to stick to his guns at first…but his wife had told him off.

Who would he be if he just let people die like that?

And so…here he was.

 

A deep roar pierced the sky.

 

It’s a little one, they said.

 

It’s barely even a kaiju, they said.

 

Captain Hot Devil can handle anything, they said.

 

He was oh so happy he only had to face a velociraptor the size of a house.

He heaved another sigh.

Well, might as well get to it.

 

After all, this could be the last one.

 

The kaiju attacks had slowed to a crawl. ILS intel hadn’t picked up any new ones since that strange surge, so it was just a matter of mopping up the ones that were left.

Which meant…after this, he could go home.

 

Yes, after...this…

 

Captain Hot Devil leapt from the jet.

The giant raptor stalked through the mountains, looking around for any sign of prey.

But it was too large to notice the small shadow over its head.

And so Captain Hot Devil dropped from the sky like an arrow, blasting jets of fire from his feet at the last moment.

 

And straight onto the raptor’s head.

 

The dinosaur screamed and leapt back, the ground shaking as it landed. Captain Hot Devil tilted so that his flame jets propelled him forward, tossing fireballs at the beast.

The balls burst on the raptor’s scales…but barely left a mark.

Captain Hot Devil clicked his tongue as he swung his feet to the side, propelling himself out of the way of the raptor’s claws. He straightened and launched up, coming eye to eye with the beast.

He swung his fist forward, a cone of flame extending out.

 

And straight into the raptor’s eye.

 

The raptor screeched and began flailing about. Captain Hot Devil launched himself as high as he could go, moving away from the creature’s violent rampage.

Well, that was about the best he could do.

But that was fine.

He knew his job. He wasn’t intended to kill a kaiju all on his own. He just had to distract the beast until the ILS HQ or one of the real heavy hitters arrived. So as long as he could cause it enough pain to keep it from moving, that was enough.

 

Just then, a yellow surge shot through the mountain.

 

Captain Hot Devil frowned.

What now?!

He heard a roar and looked down. Yellow lightning flickered around the raptor’s eye. Captain Hot Devil narrowed his eyes and launched himself at the beast.

He didn’t know what was going on.

But chances are it wasn’t good…

And then his eyes widened.

 

The giant raptor…lay on the ground.

 

It…went to sleep?

 

Just like that?

 

Captain Hot Devil stopped his fall and hovered in the air, blinking at the suddenly docile kaiju.

 

What on Earth was going on?!

 

---

 

Dr. Ueda and Miss Dayal walked down the halls of one of the ILS’s super containment facilities.

 

“Thank you for escorting me today, Miss Dayal.”

 

Miss Dayal smiled.

 

“It’s my pleasure, Dr. Ueda. Besides, I have developed a friendship myself with your next patient.”

 

“Oh? That is good to hear.”

 

“Yes, you could say I feel something of a kinship with her…”

 

Dr. Ueda and Miss Dayal stopped at a door. They knocked and then entered.

 

Inside was a woman, singing and strumming on ukulele. She had frazzled back hair, tan skin, and burn scars covering much of her face. But not covering her big grin.

 

“Eh! Doc and Vaidehi! Howzit?”

 

Dr. Ueda smiled.

 

“Hello, Dr. Iwalani. How are you feeling today?”

 

“Can’t complain! Weather’s nice and the chef made some ono grindz today! I miss the ocean though…it like…calls me, you know?”

 

Dr. Ueda nodded and pulled out her notepad. She and Miss Dayal both took a seat across from Dr. Iwalani.

 

“Yes, tell me, what do you think about doing about that call today.”

 

“I, like, was tinking, yeah? So like, bringing da ocean to everyone was kinda lolo, yeah? I was like, about to ruin da islands! So dat’s no good!”

 

Miss Dayal nodded.

 

“When it calls you…it’s easy to forget everything else, isn’t it?”

 

“That’s right! So I tink, maybe leave da ocean as is. It’s more better that way, anyways. No like change what’s already perfect!”

 

Dr. Ueda smiled and nodded.

 

“I believe you’re on the right path, Dr. Iwalani.”

 

Dr. Iwalani grinned and pulled out a huge notepad. She flipped it open, revealing…crayon drawings. Crayon drawings…of highly detailed schematics.

 

“Then I tink! If bringing da ocean to peopo is da kine, how about I bring da peopo to da ocean! So I wen design this kine Mega Suction Water Slide! We go pull the peopo up, and bring them to da ocean! Howzit? Pretty akamai plan, yeah?”

 

Dr. Ueda and Miss Dayal exchanged glances.

 

“Very…creative, Dr. Iwalani. If I might make a suggestion…”

 

Suddenly a wave of yellow light passed through the room. Dr. Iwalani clutched her head and fell out of her chair, yellow light flickering around her eyes. Dr. Ueda immediately flickered to her side as Miss Dayal stood out of her chair, starting to whisper her chant.

 

“Dr. Iwalani! What’s wrong!”

 

Dr. Iwalani opened her eyes and slowly stood back up.

 

“Ah, not to worry. Nothing’s wrong, Dr. Ueda.”

 

Dr. Ueda and Miss Dayal froze, exchanging glances.

 

“My apologies, I got a bit carried away, didn’t I? This plan…would hurt a lot of people wouldn’t it?”

 

“Um…”

 

“Don’t worry, I won’t cause you any more trouble. I promise.”

 

Dr. Ueda and Miss Dayal frowned.

 

What was going on here?