Frothy

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They came with the golden sunset shining behind their silhouettes, wearing colorful costumes and shouting boastful one-liners. Calling themselves heroes, determined to stop you from destroying the world.

Only they are not. Not like the ones you fought alongside in the past, who died so you could be here today. You cannot let their sacrifice be in vain.

So you face this superpowered legion with superpowers of your own.

I bend time to my will. It shall flow in any direction I see fit.
I channel the four elements. Fire, water, earth, and wind shall answer my call.
I am faster than the eye can see, stronger than the mind can comprehend. My body has all the power I need.
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The speedsters are the first to arrive and the first to fall. They flank your position, trying to catch you unaware, but all they manage is to put themselves within your reach. After you are done with them, they won't be running anytime soon.

Then come the brawlers and the brutes: individuals of hardened muscles, confident of their strength and durability. Those last longer, swinging massive fists at you, trying to pin you down under their weight. Falling nonetheless, broken bodies and broken spirits.

When those on the ground are defeated, you focus on the targets above: the blasters, the elementalists, the sharpshooters. Airborne and long-ranged, casting beams of all colors within the visible spectrum at you. Now that they don't have to worry about friendly fire, they concentrate their barrage, throwing everything they have, leveling an entire block in an effort to defeat you.

It is not enough. You jump from within the dust cloud, grabbing one of the assailants and hurling them toward another, both crashing violently against a collapsed wall. Someone sends a laser beam your way, but you are already back on the ground, disappearing between the ruined buildings, grabbing a thick piece of concrete and tossing it back at your attacker.

To their merit, they keep on fighting even as their numbers dwindle. A man who can emit freezing rays from his eyes congeals your arm when you're mid-air again, but you break the ice against his face. In a final, desperate attempt, an irradiated woman with increasingly glowing skin rushes toward you, screaming. You grab her by the leg and throw her miles away before she explodes.

In the end, only you remain.

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You make your way to the entrance of Thaumaturge's secret lab. There, facing the thick vault door that still stands despite everything that's happened to Vera City, you recite the words that will unlock it. The irony of them does not go unnoticed.

"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."

The door opens, and you step inside, flickering lights guiding your way until you reach the main hall. Trinkets and memorabilia from the villain's adventures over the years still stand everywhere, dusty and cobwebbed. Some you remember, some you do not.

You walk until you find the machine Thaumaturge described to you. A jury-rigged, indecipherable mess of metal and wires connected to a cracked twelve-inch tube monitor, an old keyboard, and a rusty nickel that is worth more than all the gold in the planet combined.

Humanity's last hope.

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