I’m motivated now!
Yosh!
***
Jack arrived downtown in a few seconds, and the scene below stunned him.
Hell.
That was the best word for it.
Corpses—severed hands, legs, heads, and bodies, incomplete bodies—were scattered across the asphalt road with fresh blood, and faint blue-skinned beings wearing white outer armor and blue inner armor wielded guns, firing again and again.
The corpses on the ground kept increasing, although four or more young teens—the Teen Team—were also saving people.
“Ugh…!” Jack clutched his stomach and placed a hand over his mouth, suppressing the urge to throw up.
‘I should fight.
People are dying.
‘I can’t stay here like a kid,’ Jack thought, but unfortunately, his body seemed to have a mind of its own, not obeying his command to move.
‘Move, damn it!
Move!!’
Just as Jack kept struggling with his body, he saw it—a kid who didn’t have the luck to be saved early… A cannon beam struck him, and his entire body burst apart, scattering blood, bones, and other innards on the floor.
‘NO!!!’
Something seemed to snap inside his head as anger surged through his heart, suppressing the fear, and he heard it—
‘Kill them.’
A voice as sweet as the devil’s.
‘How dare they come to your world and kill!?
They deserve death!
‘Wipe them out!’
It kept ringing in his head, just like when he once thought about A-Train, but this time he didn’t stop it because—
“They all deserve to die.”
Voom!
Jack’s eyes glowed a fiery red, and two laser beams, thick and hot, erupted from his eyes, descending to the ground—toward the one who had killed the kid.
***
Below, the Teen Team was being slowly suppressed.
“Uh, guys,” Rex shouted as he kept throwing white balls at the Flaxans, the balls exploding on contact, “I’m down to pocket change here!”
Boom!
An explosion too close caused him to fly back, falling on his butt.
“They’re killing me faster than I can keep up,” Dupli-Kate said, and a Flaxan struck her back with a gun, causing her to duplicate and fight him, but more Flaxans gathered around her.
“We gave people time to escape, that’s—”
Voom!
Atom Eve hadn’t finished talking when a red beam descended from the sky, slashing the Flaxans in half easily.
“Huh?” Atom Eve blinked in confusion, then she looked up and saw him.
Black hair, handsome face, and a worn-out hood and trousers.
“Superboy?” Atom Eve muttered.
Boom!
With an explosive sound, Jack vanished from where he hovered to stand in front of Dupli-Kate in an instant, just in time to stop a beam from hitting her.
Voom!
Another red beam erupted from his eyes, boring a hole through the Flaxan’s head.
Jack soon began a carnage.
Moving so fast, he appeared behind a Flaxan and gripped his head, crushing it—blood, skeleton, and brain matter dripping from his hand.
He flew low, grabbed a Flaxan, threw it into the sky, grabbed another one, and did the same thing.
Under five seconds, he threw eight Flaxans into the sky, and while they screamed midair, his laser swept through their bodies, severing their lower and upper parts.
“Watch out!” Atom Eve screamed as she watched a massive car with a cannon aimed at Superboy, electricity flickering at the tip of the cannon.
Jack turned his head and fired another laser beam, piercing through the window and melting the head of the driver.
And then something shocking happened—the Flaxans started drying up and fleeing, their screams piercing through the air as they turned back, running into the portal, Jack’s beam killing those at the back.
Voom!
The portal closed.
“…Superboy…” Atom Eve called out as she stared at the boy—who seemed his age—watching as he stood in one place, not moving.
Then—
“Blergh!”
—He vomited.
***
Inside the Golden Gate Bridge.
“Here. Water,” Atom Eve said as she gave the sitting Superboy a glass of water.
“Thanks,” Superboy took the water and drank it in one gulp, exhaling after he was through.
“Your first time killing?” Atom Eve asked as she walked back, giving him space.
Jack offered a weak smile, then looked at the ground blankly.
“It’s a normal physiological reaction,” Robot chimed in.
“For a human, vomiting after taking a life for the first time is a standard physiological defense mechanism. You’ll adapt in time. What matters is that your actions successfully preserved innocent lives.”
“I know, it’s just…” Jack muttered, his grip on the glass cup tightening slightly.
Rage had consumed him when he was fighting the Flaxans, and it was only after he snapped out of it that everything he did came crashing down on him.
He had killed.
Even though they weren’t human, he had still killed people like he was slaughtering animals… No, he had never killed animals in the same amount as the aliens he killed today.
“Huu…” Jack exhaled again, then kept the glass cup on the bottle crate beside him before standing up.
“Thanks for everything. I should be going.”
“Honestly, we should be the ones thanking you. If you hadn’t shown up when you did, we might not have made it out alive,” Atom Eve said as she gave him a small earpiece.
“Here, take this. It’s our team earpiece. Robot hooked it up so we can stay in touch during fights, and it’ll buzz you the second something goes down in the city.”
“Okay,” Jack nodded and took the earpiece, then turned to Robot.
Robot, understanding the look, pressed a button, and the ceiling of the headquarters opened.
“Thanks for everything… again,” Jack said to the team, then exploded upward, leaving the base.
(A/N: Before anyone goes on about the template influencing it, I’ve made an auxiliary chapter to explain it. Check it out!)
***
This will start on Monday!
Monday, okay!!