[Yes, folks! Weā¦ we are watching the same thing right now! The strongest telekinetic in the world, Ms. Phoenixā¦ is currently holding a child hostage!]
[Ms. Phoenix, the most powerful telekinetic in history, is currently being stopped by her team, the Hope Guildā¦]
[Ms. Phoenix is the strongest member of the Hope Guild. Now, the question remainsāwho will extinguish the fires of the Phoenix?]
There wasn't a single media outlet that wasn't covering the most dreaded news of the century. Ms. Phoenix, also publicly known as Alice Lane, had gone insane and supposedly abducted a little child.
Her team, the Hope Guild, had tried to keep it quiet for as long as they couldābut how could they, when Ms. Phoenix had turned half of Ohio into flat land, literally? The buildings, the cars, the roads, the hillsā¦ all turned to dust and compressed into flat land.
According to the media, the total number of dead would be no less than four million, and it happened almost instantly. A once-revered superhero had now killed more people than all the villains she had ever neutralized combined and in just a single day.
But no one cared about the lives lost. The media didn't. Those not affected didn'tāfor them, the news of Alice Lane going crazy was all that mattered. For them, a superhero turning insane was greater news than the loss of four million lives.Ā
Humans can beā¦ hard to understand.
"Alice, stop thisā¦ please!"
And while the world saw it as entertainment, the Hope Guild did not. They were sad, angry, but most of all, devastated for their friend.
Emotions I have never truly understood, even now.
"Noneā¦ none of you understand! Heā¦ this childā¦ this child is a monster!"
Alice was holding a child, grabbing him by the neck with both hands. Strangling himā¦ killing him. The child was small, perhaps not even two years old. He was as pale as a ghost, but it wasn't because he was an inch away from death. His skin was simply whiteāextremely so.
His eyes, despite clearly being in pain, were staring at Alice. Confusion, perhaps? Or maybe endearment? The child's eyes, as clear as water and almost devoid of color, reflected Alice's face. Her face, filled with a pain that no one could ever hope to understand.
How could they?
"That child is your son!"
When the child she was killing was her own?
"Alice! Just please, give him to us. And then we'll talk, we'll get you some help. Okay?"
"Why are you doing thisā¦? We were all just having breakfast with him earlier."
"Ms. Phoenix, let go of the child, now."
"Woah, woahā¦ I think we all just need to relax and calm down. Alice, come onā¦ I thinkā¦ I think he's tired, soā¦ how about you give him to me, and I'll return him to bed, okay?"
"Alice, Joseph's right. He looks tired, so just hand the baby to him, and then we'll talk."
Joseph, a speedster known as the Tempo. Rumored to be faster than the speed of lightāand perhaps the only one who had a chance to save the child from Alice.
Of course, the other members of the Hope Guild were strong in their own ways.
Tempo, The Empress, Bulwark, Whiteking, and the Shadow and Mirror. They could be considered the strongest heroes in the world, but they were helpless against Ms. Phoenix. And it wasn't because she was their friend, no.
It was the fact that she was simply more powerful than them combined. A superhero who once moved an asteroid threatening to collide with Earth. The asteroid was said to be the size of Toronto, and she had moved it from Earthā¦ while it was still passing Jupiter.
It wasn't an exaggeration. She is the strongest telekinetic in the history of men. Well, was.
She died here, in this part of the story.
"None of you understand! He's a monster!"
Ms. Phoenix was no longer holding the child up in the air, no. She now had him on the ground, his small frame completely pinned down. Most of the people Ms. Phoenix killed had died without her even touching them, but this was different.
She was strangling the child with her own hands.
Perhaps the most intimate thing she had ever done.
Her tears fell on the child's face, which held nothing but a smile. The child was smiling, even close to death. He smiled at his mother.
"Mā¦mā¦mommyā¦" he whispered, struggling to utter even a single word, but he could, he did. "Mommyā¦ is sad?"
"No, noā¦ noā¦" Alice, however, rejected those words, shaking her head as she avoided the child's face. "I'm notā¦ I'm not your mother. You're a monster. A monster!"
And yet, as she closed her eyes, more of her tears landed on the child's face. The child wasn't crying, not at all. But as she saw her own tears trailing down his face, a small gasp escaped her lips as she slightly loosened her grip on his neck.
"Mommyā¦" And with his neck free, the first words the child wanted to utter were, "...I love you, Mommy. Meā¦ me is sorry. I madeā¦ Mommy sad."
"I'm notā¦" Alice wanted to say she wasn't the child's mother, but his pale face, with nothing but a smile on it, made her hesitate. Her mind, clouded with darkness, was now seeing his smileāand the Hope Guild saw her hesitation.
They saw a small glimmer of their friend, but their first priority now was making sure the child was safe.
"Joseph!"
Tempo did not hesitate at all. He disappeared from where he stood, causing an echoing pulse to whisper in the air. And then, in less than a blink of an eye, he was already near Ms. Phoenix.
But near was all he could be, as he found himself suddenly unable to move; his hand, inches away from reaching the child. The only thing Tempo could do was watch as Alice's face turned crazed once again; her hands gripping the child's neck once more.
Tempo was trapped, unable to move from the invisible chains Alice wrapped around him. Still, he tried to move, screaming in his mind as he forced his feet to take just a single step furtherā¦ to the point that one of his legs snapped in half.
But he didn't care at all. He didn't care and only wanted to save the little child.
And yet, he watched. He watched as the smile faded away from the child's face.
The young boy died there and then at the hands of his own mother.
"No!" And Tempo screamed, louder than he had ever done so in his life. And this scream was followed by a boom.
A boom that told people, that told even heroes like Tempo and the rest of the Hope Guild that it was going to be alright.
A boom that signaled the arrival of the greatest, and strongest superhero since the dawn of history. The very woman who had started the Age of Heroes 300 years agoāthe shining star herself, Megawoman.
A ridiculous name, but billions respect it.
And there she was, a shadow moving in the sky. But not for long, as she now kneeled right next to Ms. Phoenix. Her long golden cape had not even finished flowing with the wind, and yet she had already freed the child from Ms. Phoenix's grasp; holding her by the wrists before moving behind her and locking her neck with her arms.
"Childā¦" She whispered into Alice's ears. The tone of her voice, almost like that of a grandmother scolding her grandchildren, "...What have you done?"
"Thatā¦ that childā¦" Alice did not seem to care, however, as she pointed at her child that was lying on the ground, lifeless, "...He's a monster. Don'tā¦ don't let himā¦ don't let him live, Megawoman."
"He'sā¦ dead, Alice." A sigh escaped Megawoman's lips as she stared at the childāand she could no longer hear it, she could no longer hear the beating of the child's heart that was supposed to thrive loud and playfully,Ā
"You killed him. You killed your own son. Why?"
"Noā¦ none of you understandā¦" Still, Alice continued, "Heā¦ he's a monster. Killā¦ kill him, Megawomanā¦ you'reā¦ you're the only one who could."
"What are youā" And then, Megawoman found her words halted. Not because someone cut her off, or that Alice spoke over herā¦ but because she heard something that was supposed to no longer be there.
The child's heartā¦it was beating again.
Megawoman stared at the little child for a while, her eyes narrowing as she watched as he once again opened his little eyes and his lips that gasped for air. But she couldn't focus on this fact for long. As soon, his little body started floating in the air.
"Alice, stop it!" Megawoman roared as she tightened her arm on Ms. Phoenix's neck, "Stop it or I will have to kill you!"
"I won't stopā¦" Alice gritted her teeth, her face even more crazed than before, "...I will never stop until I kill the monster!"
The ground started to quake, and the parts of Ohio that weren't flattened by Ms. Phoenix were also starting to crumbleāand Megawoman could hear the screams of the people.
"Stop it!" She roared again, pain obvious in her voice, "Stop it or I will kill you. Please, Aliceā¦ don't let me do this!"
"No, never! I will neverā"
And before Ms. Phoenix could finish her words, everything just stopped. The quaking of the earth halted, and the members of the Hope Guild could find themselves able to move again. As for Ms. Phoenix, well, Megawoman was now lying her corpse down, gently; her neck, swinging loosely in her arms.
"Shitā¦" She whispered as she stared at Ms. Phoenix's face, closing her lifeless eyes before turning her focus back to the child,Ā
"...How is he?" She asked.
The child was now surrounded by the members of the Hope Guild, checking to see his condition.
And the child, well, he lived.
Rebirthed from the ashes of the phoenix.
Most of the events that happened that day were now obscured, some erased completely from the media and history.
Ten years have passed since then, and now, the very same child they saved stood before a mangled corpse. The boy's hand, dripping wet with blood.
And that very same child was me, and I remember everything that happened that day. My biological mother might be rightā¦
ā¦I am a monster.