Alan finally let his head fall back against the leather chair, some of the tension that had been sitting across his shoulders easing little by little now that the conversation was over. The soft cushions sank slightly beneath him while he dragged one hand across his face and exhaled through his nose. Across the couch, Diana chuckled quietly under her breath before leaning more comfortably into Ben's side.
"Good," she said. "Then it's settled. We'll start preparing everything soon." Her fingers hooked lightly around Ben's arm while she glanced toward him with a small smile. "And after we drop Alan off, we could finally use that excuse to visit Jade for a while. You promised we'd check on her at the university."
Alan let out a weak laugh from the chair. "She's probably building robots that'll wipe humanity out by now."
"Oh, absolutely," Diana replied immediately, amusement spreading across her face. "I fully expect her to replace us with machines before graduation."
Ben shook his head once under his breath while reaching for the remote resting beside him on the couch cushion. He leaned farther back into the sofa, crossing one leg over the other before pressing the volume button.
"Speaking of disasters," he muttered. "Look at this, Alan."
The muted television came alive again.
Commercial music disappeared instantly, replaced by overlapping sirens, panicked voices, and distorted emergency broadcasts. The sudden noise filled the living room hard enough to drag everyone's attention toward the screen.
Shaky footage flooded the broadcast. Neon-lit streets flashed past through unstable camera angles while civilians shoved through crowds in panic. Pieces of concrete crashed through storefront windows. Smoke rolled upward between skyscrapers while emergency vehicles forced their way through blocked intersections below.
The Ember City News logo rotated across the screen before fading aside.
Anchor Camille Rivers stood centered in front of a massive holographic map of Avalora. Red warning markers blinked aggressively across multiple regions behind her while scrolling emergency alerts moved along the bottom of the screen nonstop.
"Good evening, Ember City," Camille said. Her voice remained professional, though the strain underneath it slipped through occasionally. "Crime activity has risen dramatically across Avalora and neighboring cities over the last several days. Multiple large-scale villain incidents are overwhelming local response teams and placing enormous pressure on active hero organizations."
The hologram behind her shifted immediately.
Footage from Bluestone City filled the screen.
Part of an entire street collapsed inward beneath a wave of white energy that swallowed parked cars and shattered nearby buildings almost instantly. Storefront glass burst outward across the pavement while people ran through clouds of smoke and falling debris. Somewhere behind the footage, alarms screamed continuously.
Another angle appeared seconds later.
Solar Flare tore through the smoke carrying two unconscious civilians beneath his arms while sections of his armor sparked violently across his shoulders. Burn marks stretched across parts of his chestplate. Blood ran down one side of his jaw.
Then the footage shook violently as a purple shockwave ripped through the district nearby. Several vehicles lifted completely off the street before tumbling end over end into nearby buildings.
"Bluestone City suffered a catastrophic energy detonation earlier today," Camille continued, "following an extended confrontation between Solar Flare and the villain known as Dark Matter. Emergency response crews remain trapped in several collapsed sectors while search operations continue."
The footage switched again.
Solar Flare turned sharply midair, both palms igniting bright enough to bleach the camera exposure white for half a second before he fired. Dark Matter's body tore through the side of a skyscraper moments later, disappearing into concrete and steel.
The explosion that followed swallowed most of the block beneath smoke and fire.
Even through the television speakers, the force sounded ugly.
Fire alarms overlapped with civilian screams while emergency sirens echoed endlessly between buildings. Helicopters circled overhead through thick smoke clouds as debris continued raining into the streets below.
Diana's posture shifted beside Ben. One arm folded tighter across herself while her attention stayed locked on the screen.
The broadcast cut again.
Solstice City appeared next.
A massive dam stretched across the screen with fractures tearing rapidly through the center structure while water burst violently through widening gaps in the concrete. Entire sections of the barrier crumbled apart under pressure.
Aquanaut stood knee-deep against the surge near the center of the collapse, muscles straining visibly beneath his suit while both arms remained locked outward trying to contain the floodwater forcing past him. Water hammered against nearby buildings hard enough to rip vehicles loose from the streets below.
The camera feed jolted as another wave smashed into the lower district.
Streetlights disappeared beneath rising water levels while rescue boats pushed through flooded intersections surrounded by floating debris.
"Aquanaut continues flood containment efforts in Solstice City," Camille said as more footage rolled behind her. "This follows an attack earlier today by the villain known as Torrential, who reportedly breached multiple flood barriers across the eastern sector."
Ben lowered the remote slowly onto his lap.
"The villains and criminals are getting bolder lately," he said quietly while keeping his eyes on the television. His tone carried less annoyance now and more concern. "Most of HeroCorp's top S Rank heroes are still off-world dealing with that space operation, and the remaining organizations are struggling to keep up." He shook his head once. "Half these other S Rankers aren't ready for situations like this. The cities are starting to feel it."
Alan watched the footage silently for another second before glancing toward his father. "But we still have you, don't we?"
Ben finally looked toward him.
A faint smirk pulled briefly at one corner of his mouth before fading again. "That's true," he admitted. "I can deal with nobodies like these without much trouble." His fingers tapped once against the remote while his attention drifted back toward the burning city footage onscreen. "But the heroes out there need to get their shit together and start improving fast. The organizations are finally realizing how bad things are getting."
Diana exhaled quietly while the disaster footage continued reflecting across the living room walls. Her leg crossed over the other as she settled deeper into the couch cushion, though frustration still lingered across her face while she watched another building collapse on screen.
"I hate this," she admitted softly. Her fingers curled loosely against her arm while her attention stayed fixed on the television. "Sometimes I really wish I could still go out there and help people." A faint breath escaped her nose afterward. "But I'm too weak now. Flying alone already drains me enough. Fighting would probably kill me at this point."
Ben's expression shifted slightly at that.
Without looking away from the screen, he slid one arm around her shoulders and pulled her a little closer against his side. Diana leaned into him naturally while the city footage continued flickering across both of them.
"You're retired now," Ben said calmly. "I know you miss the action." One thumb rubbed slowly against her upper arm. "But the newer heroes need to learn how to handle situations like this themselves. If we keep solving every disaster for them, they'll never grow strong enough to survive this world."
Then the corner of his mouth lifted faintly.
"Besides," he added, "who's gonna cook for me if you spend all day punching villains through buildings again?"
Diana looked up at him immediately with a smirk pulling at her lips. "Wow. That might be the most selfish thing you've said all week."
Alan snorted quietly from the chair nearby before suddenly leaning forward and pointing toward the television.
"Wait. Look." His posture straightened immediately. "Something happened in Elysium this morning."
The footage switched again.
This time the entire screen glowed red.
Fire consumed huge sections of the city. Entire blocks burned beneath rolling smoke clouds thick enough to hide parts of the skyline completely. Apartment windows shattered outward from the heat while burning debris collapsed into the streets below. Emergency sirens screamed nonstop beneath the broadcast audio.
"Meanwhile, Elysium suffered mass evacuations earlier today," Camille reported, her expression visibly more tense now. "After the supervillain known as Pyroclasm ignited multiple districts across the eastern sector."
The broadcast cut to shaky civilian phone footage.
The camera bounced wildly through crowded streets packed with terrified civilians trying to escape. Burning vehicles lined both sides of the road while flames crawled up the sides of nearby buildings fast enough to trap people inside. Somebody screamed off camera.
A man stumbled hard near the center of the footage after getting shoved down during the panic. Before the fire could reach him, another civilian grabbed him beneath the arm and dragged him back upright while smoke swallowed half the street behind them.
Then the camera jerked violently upward.
Something moved through the sky.
A blue blur tore across the smoke clouds overhead so fast the footage struggled to keep focus. The shockwave behind it rattled nearby windows hard enough to crack several storefronts.
Pyroclasm turned sharply in the middle of the burning intersection, flames erupting harder around his body as he lifted both arms.
Black Mentis hit him before he could attack.
The impact folded the villain's entire body sideways mid-motion. Pyroclasm's feet left the ground instantly before his body launched across the street fast enough to disappear through a massive electronic billboard suspended above the avenue.
The steel frame twisted apart around him.
Sparks burst downward alongside shattered glass while the villain's body continued through the structure before crashing roof-first onto a parked transport van below hard enough to flatten half the vehicle beneath him.
The footage shook from the delayed impact.
Pyroclasm barely moved afterward.
Blood streamed from the side of his mouth while pieces of broken armor and burned fabric hung loose from his body. One arm twitched weakly against the crushed metal beneath him as smoke rolled upward around the wreckage.
Black Mentis landed several yards away without a sound.
The street around him looked tiny by comparison.
Black Mentis stepped through the smoke where the street had collapsed into glowing debris and fractured asphalt. The heat pressed outward in uneven waves, bending the air around him, but his movement did not slow. His silhouette cut through the haze in sharp contrast, briefly disappearing whenever the thicker smoke rolled across him, then reappearing closer each time it thinned.
Then he raised one hand.
The clouds above Elysium began moving.
At first the footage barely caught it. Then the entire sky twisted slowly inward as moisture condensed unnaturally fast across the smoke-filled atmosphere. A gigantic mass of water formed high above the city, large enough to cast shadows across multiple buildings underneath it.
People in the footage started screaming again, this time in confusion.
Black Mentis lowered his hand.
The water crashed downward across the burning districts all at once.
Entire streets vanished beneath the impact. Steam exploded upward through the city while walls of fire disappeared almost instantly beneath the flood. Burning rooftops hissed violently as smoke clouds burst apart under the pressure.
The shockwave from the impact rolled through nearby intersections hard enough to shove abandoned vehicles sideways across the pavement.
By the time the steam cleared, most of the flames were gone.
Black Mentis never looked back at the destruction.
His body lifted from the ground surrounded by compressed air before he shot upward through the sky fast enough to leave only a distorted blur behind him. Several civilians in the footage physically staggered backward from the pressure left behind after his takeoff.
Back in the living room, silence settled briefly.
Even Diana stared at the screen for an extra second before leaning back slowly against the couch.
Camille lifted a tablet inside the broadcast while emergency alerts continued flashing behind her.
"Authorities are urging extreme caution as attacks intensify throughout Avalora," she continued. "Several cities remain under active threat while casualty numbers and property damage continue rising by the hour." Her expression softened slightly afterward. "And once again, Black Mentis successfully neutralized another large-scale threat before further casualties could occur."
Alan turned immediately toward his father with a grin breaking across his face.
"Huh. Nice." He laughed once under his breath. "You dropped that third-rate villain with one damn punch."
Ben said nothing.
He simply kept watching the television while one finger rested quietly against the armrest beside him. Only the faintest movement near the corner of his mouth suggested he had heard the comment at all.