The Crimson Phoenix

Saving the Day: Part 1

Leo was walking down the street towards his house, deep in thought about what Dr. Cartel hypothesized. He was having a feeling of extreme change, like he was no longer sure who he was anymore. Imagine being an extraordinary person and having powers beyond the human scope. He never even thought about it, or expected it. He kept on pondering on Dr. Cartel’s hypothesis.

“You were struck by lightning and burned by the fire from the explosion. According to my research, If you were to have powers, it should be lightning related, since lightning struck you first when the GE-176 exploded on your body. Also given that the compound was already charged up, you should have lightning affinity. It's like the compound already found its catalyst before fusing with your body.” Leo recalled Dr. Cartel's hypothesis. He was still bewildered and worried about the troubles his powers would cause him. ‘I really have super powers!?’ He thought to himself, trying to wrap his head around it all. Leo recalled facing Dr. Cartel again and asking.

“If I have lightning affinity, why don’t I feel anything and what’s that got to do with my abnormal increase in temperature?” He kept wondering, with a body temperature of 230°F, he should be dead. A normal human should have a temperature range of 95°F in normal cases and 138.6°F in cases of extreme fever. But having a temperature almost double of that, and still feeling well, something is definitely wrong somewhere. Considering Dr. Cartel’s hypothesis, that temperature will constantly increase, making him a walking furnace.

When lightning strikes, it heats up the surrounding temperature to over 36000°F which is about five times hotter than the sun’s surface. Dr. Cartel believed that could be the cause of his abnormal increase in body temperature. He told him to stay for more tests but he couldn’t. He had to get home before his aunt suspected anything.

He was a few miles away from his house and was walking so as to exercise his bed-ridden legs when he heard car sirens. He looked towards where the noise was coming from and suddenly saw a 2016 Ford transit van drift ninety degrees before straightening up and picking up speed. Behind it were six police cars which also drifted and the driver of the fifth car lost control and stopped while the last one collided with it. The van was moving with high speed and the cops were having a hard time catching up. It’s not that they couldn’t, but they were trying hard not to hurt pedestrians. This happened all behind Leo, and just like a normal bystander, he thought of backing off, but he saw a young woman crossing the road. She was pushing a trolley with a baby inside it. At this moment, his heart skipped a beat and the van was already six meters away from her.

He wanted to save her so he started calculating in his mind. He wasn’t supposed to be able to calculate fast enough but he actually did. ‘The woman is pushing a trolley with a baby and a van is about to make contact. Looking at the van, it’s moving with a speed of approximately 32.6km/hr and it’s now about 5.7 meters away from the victim, so she has approximately 0.63 seconds to get out of the road. But given the baby and the time it’ll take to recover from the shock of seeing a large van about to hit her, she’s not gonna make it.’

He kept on calculating in his head and didn’t realize that time had actually slowed down for him. He was the one moving so fast that time looked too slow to him. ‘I have two options now, I either stop the van or I give her and the baby a push. A van moving at that speed won’t stop easily, even if I have super strength. And if I do stop it, it’ll push me back a little and I’ll collide with the woman and the baby. So I have to… wait, why’s everyone moving so slow.’ He thought as he suddenly realized time was slow to him. ‘Is this what it feels like to be struck by lightning?’ He was surprised until he realized that time didn’t stop for him but just moved slowly, which meant the van was already three meters away from the woman.

“Oh no!” He exclaimed as he dashed with intense speed. He wrapped his left arm around the woman’s waist and carried the baby with his right hand and dashed to the other side of the road. After reaching the pedestrian lane and being reassured that no one else would get hurt now, he felt relieved and time returned back to normal. The van hit the trolley and crushed it. The woman who was panicking saw herself in the pedestrian lane. She was shocked and she stared at Leo with complex emotions. It was filled with both shock and gratitude. The bystanders looked at him while a few of them faced the speeding van that was being followed by the cops.

“Are you okay?” Leo asked through his bandaged mouth. Only his eyes were visible so nobody would recognize him. He wanted to be assured she was fine. She just kept staring at him with shock, not knowing what to say.

“You... saved me! How did you do that?” She asked, still bewildered. Leo didn’t want to answer the question so he looked towards where the van was headed. ‘There could be more casualties if I don’t stop that van.’ He thought to himself. He snapped out of his thoughts and handed the crying baby to the woman. Some people were already using their phones to film the scene and it made him feel weird. He felt like putting on his hood but remembered his face was already covered… his whole head actually, except for his eyes.

“Here’s your baby ma’am?” He said as he handed her the baby. She still kept staring at him as she collected the baby from his hands.

“Who are you?” She asked. He gave it a bit of thought and suddenly remembered Spider-Man saving MJ.

“I’m just a mechanic.” He said as he looked towards the disappearing van and cop cars. He rubbed his hands together, trying to trigger his speed but nothing happened.

“Come on Leo, you gotta do this. There are lives at stake here…” He tried motivating himself as he tried jumping and preparing to run but nothing happened. “F*ck this, I’m running.” He finally said with annoyance as he decided to dash.

WHOOOOSH!

He sped up like a bullet. He was so fast, even he couldn’t comprehend the speed. Those around the place were all dumbstruck and the woman’s cloth was blown away while the baby began to look at the woman with it big, cute eyes. It had actually puked on its dress as a result of the speed but didn’t cry.

‘Holy shit.’ Leo thought to himself. He was still trying to comprehend his powers when he suddenly realized there was a garbage truck in front of him.

AAAH!

He screamed as his reflexes made him slide under the garbage truck and then stand up at the other end, in front of the truck and continued his running.

“Okay Leo,” he told himself, “Now’s not the time to be all surprised by your powers. You gotta focus on the task at hand and prevent any casualties.” He then turned serious and increased his speed. He suddenly overtook the van and cleared the road of all the people crossing a mile before the van. He was thinking of stopping the van by using strength but he shelved the idea. That would make him exposed. He needed to stop this and disappear. He decided to enter the van and stop it from the inside. Since time was slow, entering a fast moving van was easy for him.

He went to the driver’s side of the van and tried to open the door but it was locked. He could’ve broken the window but he would have injured the driver too. He went to the other side of the van and tried to open the door, but it was locked too. He decided to punch the glass. High speed punching plus super strength equals shattered glass. His punch shattered the glass and he unlocked the van before going into it.

The sudden shattering of the window and appearance of a stranger in the passenger seat startled the driver and he lost focus on his driving, causing the van to swerve. He looked at Leo who was beside him with both shock and annoyance. The driver reached out for his gun and tried to shoot him but Leo redirected the nozzle of the gun causing him to fire outside.

BANG!

Leo quickly looked outside to see if anyone got hit but it turned out the bullet hit a concrete wall, missing a man by a hair’s breadth. The driver kept shooting the gun, trying to hit him but he directed the gun nozzle upward making him shoot at the roof. Leo used one hand to keep the driver’s arm pulling the trigger in the air while he used the other one to punch him in the face.

The driver lost focus when he punched him, causing the van to maneuver recklessly. There were two other robbers at the back of the van, together with three big bags filled with money. When the van turned right violently, it caused the guys inside to fall to the right, on each other.

“Get off me moron.” One of them groaned at the other who fell on him. These guys were wearing black and one of them was putting on a turtleneck. They both wore black masks, exposing only their mouths and eyes, along with black trousers and black boots. Leo tried to stabilize the van by turning the steering left and avoiding the innocent pedestrians. At this point, the gun had already been emptied of its bullets. The gun was a Colt. 45 ACP and it only had twelve bullets in it. It was supposed to have thirty bullets though.

Leo decided to knock the driver out but the latter didn’t give him a chance. He held the steering wheel with one hand, and fought him with the other. He was good, and it was obvious that he must have learned some fighting skills. Leo wasn’t trained so he had to tank his punches which were painful. He suddenly gave the driver a punch on the head and knocked him out at last. He tried using his legs to press the breaks so as to slow down the car. He then opened the car door, pushing him out the van on the sidewalks and took control of the moving vehicle. The two guys at the back were yelling and complaining.

“What in f*ck sake is wrong with you!? Can’t you drive normally!?” One of them yelled. Leo pulled the van over, causing the robbers panic.

“What the hell!? Why are you stopping? Why the hell did you stop?! Did you shake the cops?” the other guy asked. Leo didn’t answer him and quickly left the van with super speed. He ran towards the back of a building and watched how the whole thing was going to play out. Those guys were armed and they knew that in order to escape, they had to open fire on the police. Leo suspected this too but even if he could tank punches, he wasn’t sure if he could tank bullets. He did prepare the cops from getting injured though, since that was the least he could do.

The police vehicles all stopped behind the van and the police men got out of their cars, pointing guns at the van and waiting for the guys to come out. “Freeze! This is the police. Come out, drop your weapons and put your hand on your head.” A policeman yelled through the speaker and had his gun pointed at the van.

“Sh*t. What the hell? Where’s Jensen?” One of the robbers was frustrated and angry at the fact that there were armed police men outside waiting for them to open the door.

“He ain’t in the van. We are in big trouble. We might as well surrender.” The other one said with a sad and panicking mood. The first robber gave him a stern look.

“Are you kidding me, I ain’t goin’ back to county prison. I knew that good for nothing dushbag ain’t no good. If I’mma go down, I’m gonna go down fighting. And the same goes for you twipple-toes.” He said, cocking his gun and poking the other guy’s chest with his index finger. He was the bigger one of the two. The other guy gave a pitiful look.

“But we are outnumbered! That’s suicide you’re suggesting. I wanna live not die. If I die, how am I gonna spend this money?” He yelled and complained. At this point, the cops were getting impatient and they were counting down.

“You have five seconds to surrender or we will use force. Five… four…” He kept on counting. The big guy in the van suddenly cocked his Heckler & Koch UMP sub machine gun.

“If I’mma go down, I’mma go down fighting.” He said as he waited for the countdown to end. The other guy wasn’t convinced and he already planned to surrender. Being alive was better than dead.

“Two… ONE!” The countdown ended and all hell broke loose.