The next day, we brought Dan to our secret hideout. "No one uses this lab?" he asked. "The teachers don't, at least." We told Dan about the Cosmic Fireguard, and us inheriting his powers. We told him about Supercluster sending all the criminals we had fought in hopes of beating us and him taking the Cosmic Flame. During lunch break, as we were eating in the cafeteria, a bunch of students approached us, saying: "Dan, you're back? We thought you died!" Dan told them that an alien invasion gave him superpowers, and all kinds of things. Soon, Keira started flirting with Dan. "Hey, sweetie! Wanna hang?" She said, her voice laced with sweetness. "No thanks." Dan calmly replied. "Aww, but you're cute!" She answered. "Yeah, but you're not." Dan replied, with what I swore was a bit of a snicker. She started wailing before running off. "Nice." I said. "That thot has got to stop." Ashley said. "Is she like this most of the time?" Dan inquired. "Yeah. She's got a penchant for flirting with popular guys." I replied. After school, the three of us were chatting on the way home, so glad and enthralled to finally be back with each other again. Then, a punch I saw in slow motion due to the superspeed that I had headed toward us. I pushed my friends out of the way, only to see a familiar face. "Craig, what are you doing here?" Dan asked. "Oh, just here to teach this nerd a lesson. How's life, speedy?" He grinned. "He's mine. You guys can wait." Craig smashed his fists together, and I watched his entire body get enveloped in a layer of rock. Craig punched the floor, concrete spiking out towards me. I ran around it, but he trapped me with stone walls. I briefly considered running out, but I decided that I would have to teach him a lesson, man to man. I dashed around him, the dust and debris picking up from my speed. I set a little small flame alight, and a small firestorm was coming his way. "You think this can stop me? Dead wrong." Craig marched through the firestorm like it was nothing. I was wary of the destruction I could cause, so I tried to only use my speed. After putting out the firestorm, I dashed at him, but instead of hitting him, I softened my impact as I tackled him through his stone walls. I ran as fast as I could, Craig as my shield, hitting all the debris we ran into. Only after 5 minutes did I decide to turn tail. I mentally prepared myself for the impact, as I sped right beside my friends. I jumped off a wall, still holding onto Craig as I slammed him into the floor as hard as I could. There was dust settling, and a crater formed. "Not bad, kid!" I, of course, was startled that he was still conscious--- no, alive, because that force was capable of pulverizing and utterly destroying bones and the human body. As Craig struggled to get out of the crater, we detained him about how he had obtained this ability. He mentioned a galactic being who wanted him to destroy the Cosmic Flame. Ashley and Dan tried to hold me back from melting his face with a flaming fist. For now, I decided to leave him stuck in that crater. After all, he deserved it anyway.
