The boy had been away for six months.
Six months since the day Bolt attacked.
Six months since the Danger Squad was eradicated.
Six months since this city was put in his care.
The more he looked at him, the more disgusted he felt.
This was the costume he chose? What happened to his old one?
His costume, if one could even call it that, was a green T-shirt with a large "G" in the middle, cargo pants with boots, and a makeshift cape that looked like a simple blanket.
Not even close to standard super attire.
Was this some kind of statement?
He shook his head to prevent his mind from dwelling on it. He had a monster to deal with.
He fired more lasers into the beast while Guardien focused on saving the people in the building. First, he made himself gigantic and held the building down to prevent it from tipping over.
He then screamed for the people to evacuate before it fell, which they quickly obliged. In the span of a few minutes, everyone was out.
Almost everyone...
There was a mother and child, stuck under some debris at an odd angle Guardien couldn't see. If he let go of the building now, it would collapse and kill them.
Meanwhile, Unstoppable was still reeling from Strong's attack while Strong himself was preparing another one.
Amazo saw all of this and paused.
This was his chance to take down that creature, but there were civilian lives on the line.
He had to make a choice.
And a choice he made.
A second later, he flew as fast as he could to the building Guardien barely held together so he could save the mother and child.
Until suddenly, he saw something.
Something golden.
Some kind of light.
It flew by him, just as Guardien did, and quickly entered the building. It then found the woman and child and got them out of the debris so quickly Amazo knew if he blinked even once, he would miss it.
Because this wasn't the first time it appeared.
Before he could question it, Unstoppable roared, grabbing his attention.
It managed to grab Strong and throw him into another building. This time, with enough force to put him out of commission for a while.
Amazo was the only one left now...
Well, him and Guardien.
And he wasn't in the mood to face this thing with a rookie tying him down.
He flew towards the creature, slowly forming a giant sword out of plasma. Unstoppable didn't attack, but rather reached into the ground and pulled out a large chunk of it. A hunk half the size of its whole body.
It then threw this chunk right at Amazo, who quickly stopped forming his sword and fired a blast of raw plasma to counter it.
Said blast sent hundreds of small boulders right at the evacuating crowd below, the crowd Guardien saved from that collapsing building. Amazo tried to act but noticed Unstoppable heading his way, getting ready to attack.
He had to make a choice again.
But this time, he couldn't choose.
He never expected himself to thank Guardien for choosing for him.
In a brief second, he saw the boy utter something, something Amazo could only pick up due to the lip reading he picked up from Major Payne.
"Aw jeez," he said and sent himself flying into the debris heading towards the civilians. He then shrank himself into a speck and began ricocheting off of them, crumbling them into so many pieces the civilians barely noticed them falling.
Amazo couldn't believe what he was seeing.
Was this the same greenhorn kid that challenged him six months ago?
Guardien then pulled his left hand back and formed a fist. Before Amazo could even guess what he was doing, he vanished.
And just as quickly, he reappeared right in front of Unstoppable and punched it.
A punch so powerful, the creature was on the ground instantly. Not even sent flying, it just collapsed to the ground.
Amazo flew close to it and realized it fell unconscious.
"No way," he muttered to himself, a cold sweat dripping down his cheek.
He took it down with one attack.
This kid went from barely close to his level to far beyond it? The more Amazo thought about it, the more it infuriated him. He knew the boy trained, but to grow this much?
As Amazo was lost in his thoughts, he felt something tap his shoulder. He quickly turned to see Silverblade with a cheerful smile on her face.
A smile that annoyed him.
He looked elsewhere to see Strong was alright too and approaching Unstoppable's unconscious body. Guardien was already there.
"Wanna head down?" Silverblade said, her smile still annoying him. He shrugged and joined Strong and Guardien in their discussion.
"So what is this thing?" Guardien asked.
"Dunno. It just showed up outta nowhere," Strong said, scratching his large head.
Amazo smirked.
"Time to put this brat in his place," he thought with a smirk.
"We were on our usual PATROL until it randomly appeared here," Amazo started, making sure to emphasize the word patrol. "Who knows how much damage it would've caused if we weren't here in time."
"I feel like you're trying to tell me something."
"Oh? Really? Impressive!" Amazo said with a mocking tone. "Maybe if you were patrolling with us, this incident could've been avoided, considering how strong you've made yourself."
"Oh come on boss," Silverblade chimed in. "You can't blame him. He's got a secret identity."
"I can blame him actually. It's a fucking waste of time. Friends, family, so much fluff in your life you can easily cut out and focus on what really matters."
"You don't know anything about my life, so what authority do you have to call it a waste of time?"
"Do I need to? It's not like you're doing anything important. Just living some cruddy day job somewhere like a good lil corpo slave."
"Look who's talking?"
Amazo jolted at that.
"The fuck did you say to me, you little shit?" Amazo said and approached him, only to be stopped by Silverblade. "Get outta my way, girl."
"I'm afraid not. Please turn around."
Amazo reluctantly obliged, only to groan at the sight.
A large crowd had formed behind him, complete with a news crew filming them.
The supers stared at them for a brief moment before Amazo spoke.
"Well? Get on with it!"
The crowd surrounded them and began their pestering.
"Amazo! Amazo! Rita Lisa from The Morning Paper here, and I wanted to ask how did this creature come to be?"
"We have no idea. We were doing our usual PATROL rounds." Amazo stopped to side-eye Zack. "Then it randomly appeared. Don't worry though. We'll get to the bottom of it."
The other reporters then bombarded him with various questions. He was about to decline them all until one set him off.
"Do you think it has anything to do with the robbery in Uptown?" one reporter asked in the sea of questions.
Amazo's gaze turned to them, trying to hide his shock.
"What's your name, girl?" he asked, noticing the large cameraman behind her.
"Suzie Yokia, Live from Phoenix News."
"Ugh... okay Suzie, what's this about a robbery?"
"Just as this attack started, there were reports of a bank robbery happening in Uptown, seemingly perpetrated by the New Dragon Clan."
Zack immediately cut in between another reporter and her.
"I'm sorry, did you say Dragon Clan?" he asked, noticing Silverblade stepping in to keep Amazo from punching him.
"Yes, sir. Just as this attack started, the Dragon Clan committed a bank robbery in Uptown. Reports say the vigilante Watchman deployed on the scene to stop them, but they escaped," Suzie explained.
"Were any civilians hurt?" Zack asked, holding her by the shoulder.
"Hmm, yes sir. It ended up in a hostage situation which resulted in the deaths of ten people and injuring of fifteen."
"Aw jeez..." Zack said quietly.
"Umm, who are you?" Suzie asked, the other reporters growing silent.
"Green Guardien."
The second he uttered those words, the crowd exploded, and another sea of questions followed.
"How does it feel to be the only surviving member of your team?"
"Where have you been for six months?"
"So do you plan on retiring anytime soon?"
"Are there any other survivors?"
"How did you get so strong?"
Strong had to come in to prevent a stampede as Zack withdrew from them.
"I can't believe this... if only..."
"You were patrolling with us," Amazo said, putting his arm around him, "instead of prancing around as a mere human."
Zack instinctively pushed him away.
"What do you mean by that?"
Amazo shrugged.
"So that's why you were so hesitant to save those people? That's why you wasted so much time trying to make obvious choices?" Zack said, anger building up in his voice.
"Now, now, kid. I'm still your leader. You can't talk to me like that."
"I can talk to you however I want, asshole!" Zack shouted, silencing the crowd of reporters nearby. "Human lives were on the line here and you wanted to make a choice? There was no choice to be made! Those lives always come first! I can't believe you..."
Amazo threw a punch right at Zack's face, but it did nothing. Zack grabbed Amazo's fist and threw it aside.
"You don't want to do this," Zack said, his voice deepening in a way that shocked everyone around him...
Even Amazo.
"Y...you sure about that?" Amazo said, preparing a stance.
Zack nearly spoke but turned away instead.
"Nah. Not worth it," he said with a smile as he walked away.
Amazo tried everything in his power to resist attacking him from behind, but was starting to fail. He decided the best move would be to change the subject.
"Hey kid!"
Zack kept walking.
"Did you notice the golden streak?"
Zack stopped.
Amazo smirked.
"While you were saving those civilians, you left two in there. Some gold streak of light appeared and carried them off."
Zack turned to face him, giving him a puzzled look.
"Not the first time. It's been happening for months now. Just wanted to make sure you were aware."
Zack gave Amazo a look before turning back around.
"I'll keep that in mind," Zack said with a mock salute and flew away, leaving everyone dumbfounded.
"No way... did he just..."
"Ignore you, boss? Seems so," Strong said with a smirk.
One that quickly disappeared when Amazo glared at him...
The crowd started asking another set of questions, but Silverblade calmed them down and started answering their questions one by one.
One question that Amazo made sure to ignore was related to the golden streak.
The less the public knew about it, the better...
Meanwhile, Strong helped Amazo compose himself as he was mere seconds from bursting into a fit of rage. However, Silverblade didn't focus on him at all.
Her mind was on Zack.
She didn't even need to look at him go to tell he was furious...
To be continued...