Jon appeared in front of the little girl, and took in every single pulse of her outburst in the face.
'My friends...they are all I know...I wanted to protect them....' The girl repeated these phrases continuously, and Jon is simply sitting in front of her and listening.
His clothes are ripped apart in a handful of pulses, and his camera was pulverized with all but the memory core remaining.
'I am sorry.' Jon said, and the little girl looked up to see the half-naked man. That's when she saw how his entire upper body is covered with scars, burns, and wounds, 'I don't know what I can do for you, but at least...I am here with you.'
'My friends! They are all I know! I want to protect them!' The girl ignored Jon's plea and continued sending out shockwaves with increasing intensity, as the structural integrity of the entire area began to deteriorate.
'Your friends wouldn't want you destroying everything here.' Jon said, reaching out to grab the little girl. Her body is hot like burning iron, and his skin began to sizzle as it got cooked alive. But to him, none of this matters.
There is a little girl that needs comforting in front of him, and she just needed somebody to be there. Of course, Jon will be there.
'I am sorry for all that happened, but I am here with you. Everything is going to be okay now...you can calm down now...' Jon caressed the little girl's burning body with his charred fingers and she began to slowly calm down as the outbursts of energy pulses from her body gradually to calm down and reduce in intensity.
'My friends.....they....who...who are you?' She asked with a weakened voice, and Jon sat back with her in his arms. She looked pale as the previous glowing light on her body began to fade away.
'I am...I am just a cameraman.' Jon replied.
'A cameraman...? Ha....you don't even...have a camera....anymore...I am sorry for burning you...'
A final breath escaped the mouth of the little girl, and she passed away in his arms while grabbing onto his badly burned fingers tightly with her hand.
Jon remained sitting there in silence when the columns next to him snapped, popped and began to slide. The final collapse has begun. Jon looked up, as the ceiling began to shake and rain down dust as he is about to be trapped here with the girl was not saved for all eternity.
'Master? What are you doing here? Where is Beacon....' Pethant's voice came from behind, as he slapped his fist into one of the columns while grabbing tightly onto another two, holding the floors above together with his raw strength. His armor looked completely broken down, as he looked to have been various fights too. His breastplate had a gaping hole in it, and the protection in his entire right arm is missing.
'P...Pethant?'
'You went so far ahead, so I had trouble following you right away. But then you stopped suddenly.' Pethant said, holding onto the sliding column with his bare arms and fingers that dug into the concrete, 'what has happened here...'
'Beacon.' Jon replied, closing the lids of the little girl and putting her down gently, 'it was never a rescue mission to begin with.'
Pethant's eyes widened at the revelation, and he looked around at the bloodshed with trembling lips. He is angry, and so is Jon. However, they are bound by the Principle of Non-interference.
Jon needed to do this the right way.
'Master. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?!' Pethant asked, trying to force his words out slowly, 'don't tell me you are going to let the bastard off the hook?'
'....'
'ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT THE PRINCIPLE OF NON-INTERFERENCE?' Pethant asked, raising his voice ever so slightly in the heat of the moment.
'It's not just that.' Jon said shaking his head and refusing to look at Pethant in the face, 'the people needed to know the truth somehow, and nobody had the right footage. I only had a tiny bit of evidence so far...The people need to know the truth, somehow, and I...'
'...master...need a camera?' Pethant said, tossing over a metal ball towards him, 'my armour may look wrecked, but the camera is still working perfectly. Now, go! I will hold out until the rescue team gets here.'
'Are you sure you are alright here?' Jon asked, his tone noticeably lighter.
'Don't you worry about me. Go get the footage you need, master.' Pethant said with an earnest laugh, 'it's about time you change your camera now!'
Jon nodded appreciatively before disappearing from the area, leaving behind a single sentence.
'I owe you one, Mr Genos.'
'Yeah right.' Pethant said, 'look at all the wounds you have suffered.'
And yet Jon is acting as if nothing has happened to his body.
A true professional cameraman indeed, Pethant thought, despite all of the crippling injuries and pain that he must be experiencing, this normal looking dude is still continuing forward. He really needed to learn his composure, concentration, and poise from his master.
In the meanwhile, Beacon has been dashing in between sources of light as he found his way back towards the surface without anyone spotting him. The upper levels have already been secured and cleared away by the police forces when Beacon appeared.
However, he didn't stop for a single moment and continued to speed past the area.
'Beacon...?' Rockpaperscissors, the counter hero looked towards the dashing rookie hero before he disappeared again. Then, a nearly invisible figure also dashed through the crowd.
'SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT!' Beacon cursed out in fear as he looked back at the figure pursuing after him like a ghost after every jump between the light sources. He didn't know when this figure appeared, but a sense of unmistakable danger followed him around ever since his appearance.
He tried to shook him off by hiding in a certain source of light for a long time, but each hiding place in the lights, LED's or fire pit have only resulted in the total extermination of that source of light. If Beacon's hiding place before he can escape, he will be ejected out from that environment forcibly and practically become a sitting duck for that instance.
He made a sharp turn and went out through the staircase towards the surface where it's just about mid-morning where the surrounding light should make his power far more potent. Then, he will confront the ghost that has been following him.
Is it another one from the heightened generation that he failed to clear away? The mission report counted for 30 teenagers, and he made sure to deal with all of them prior.
Just who is the one following him then?
Beacon made a sharp turn around to face his pursuer sensing the rapidly closing difference between the two of them, only to see a foot in his visual field. He immediately began the process of dissipating his body in smaller constructs of light, but the process was not quick enough as he was ejected out from the process by the kick before he was sent flying back into the stairs. Taking the time to recollect himself, he dissipated his body and hid in the various emergency lights, but all of those were simultaneously destroyed.
Beacon coughed out blood as a solid punch found his way onto him during the total darkness all around. However, there is no time to waste, as he scrambled out up the stairs riding a pair of light constructs that moves him rapidly up it. It is not as fast as dashing between sources of light along the 'highway of light rays', but still faster than how quickly he can run.
The surface is there! He can see it!
Once he is up there, he will be nearly impossible to stop.
The construct of light carried him over the line like Santa's sleigh, and he finally felt the bask of the morning light.
'Show yourself!' Feeling himself getting stronger and stronger by the second, he turned around to face the ghost on the empty square.
Jon stood tall with a metallic ball in his hand. He had been recording all of this time, and he tossed the ball aside at the perfect angle before approaching Beacon.
'So it was you all along?' Beacon was surprised by the average-looking human, but he didn't pay too much attention to it. He just can't take him seriously, 'I will give it to you. You are annoying.'
'I have recordings of your action, Beacon. Submit yourself!'
'Hahaha, you are bluffing.' Beacon said with high pitched laughter as he wiped away the blood on his forehead, 'there is no evidence. I was in, and I was out. I am a hero, and my career will begin with the punishment of the naughty camera that disobeyed the principle of non-interference and killed everybody.'
With his reinforced body that had all of his wounds suffered from the previous fights healed, Beacon created thousands of swords of light before sending them towards Jon. He disappeared from where he was standing as the solid light constructs crashed into each other before dissipating.
'Who gave you the missions?' Jon's voice came from behind Beacon, and all of the hair stood up from the back of his neck as he panicked and dissipated his body before reforming at a safe distance. Just what is this ridiculous speed?
'Who do you think you are?' Beacon yelled out and swiped his hand again as light spikes pierced up from the ground through the after the image of Jon. Then, the image disappeared yet again an instant later.
'I am a cameraman and journalist.' Jon's voice came from behind Beacon yet again, 'I stay on the sidelines, and I pursue the truth.'
Beacon screamed out in fear and swung a light sword behind him, but Jon was nowhere to be seen again.
'Why did you kill all those teenagers?' Jon asked, this time standing right next to Beacon.
'I will kill you!' Beacon slammed an ax next to him, but it found nothing but the pavement again as the road tiles are snapped into various pieces.
'I believe you, seeing how easily you killed those kids.' Jon said, 'you will be trialed, and judged accordingly.'
'Like shit!' Beacon swung out both of his arms widely and sends out a ring-shaped light blade all around as it cut through the road signs, trees and the lights in the vicinity. An alarm went off due to his act of vandalism, and he sent a light dagger to silence it, 'are you just going to keep running away, or are you going to fight, like a man?! I will murder you like those rats!'
'Suits you.' Jon said from behind Beacon yet again, and he immediately dissipated himself away and into the air. Then, he reformed form a distance to cast an attacking spell when Jon appeared right in front of him, ready to deliver a deadly punch. Cursing underneath his breath, he dissipated his body and abandoned the attack.
The same pattern happened many more times, and Beacon is just wasting his energy constructing weapons only to be abandoned.
Finally, he managed to find an opening and sent a gigantic sword of light flying towards the backside of Jon.
'The footwork as quick as shooting stars....' Jon murmured underneath his breath, and he spun around in place, dodging millimeters to the side to avoid the devastating attack. Then, he brought his arms up to the side and tapped it alongside the surface of the light sword.
'The fingers as accurate as entangled quantums....' With his fingers running along the side of the sword, he manipulated his body around the sword and grabbed onto the handle, 'the hand as steady as black holes...'
'WHAT?!' Beacon screamed out in fear as he witnessed the first time that anyone was able to grab onto his weapons, 'IT'S NOT POSSIBLE! HOW?! HOW?! HOW?!'
'The eyes as sharp as a string of molecules...' Jon said, locking his eyesight onto Beacon as it pierced through his body before the light sword even did. Then, he flickered in front of him with his own blade burying through his chest before he had a chance to form a counter of his own.
'What...are you?!' With struggling breath, Beacon asked as golden colored blood flooded out from his torso as well as his mouth. Then coughed once into Jon's face.
'I am just a cameraman.' Jon whispered into Beacon's ear, 'just the world's strongest.'
'NOOOOO!' Beacon struggled as he grabbed onto Jon's arms and sent out hundreds of small daggers into his body, but Jon didn't waver for a single moment and held firm, 'NOT NOW! NOT HERE!'
With Beacon's loosening grip, his body exploded outwards into rays of lights in an outburst of heat. Beacon, the hero able to wield the constructs of light, died a heat death with nothing but infrared photos lingering around as his remains.
The light sword also dissipated in a heatwave from inside Jon's hands, and he looked at where the budding professional hero is standing a moment ago and let out a heavy sigh.