Purple Phoenix

Chapter Fourteen

The SCU must be the Supreme Team that Steve was talking about. Kratos let out a laugh. "That idiot? You think I'm scared of him? Hardy har har. Let's get to the real task at hand. I want ten million dollars, here, in the next ten minutes. If you are not able to do this, I will kill her."

I choked. Ten million dollars? He was seriously overestimating the worth of me. Seemed like I was destined to die because no way the police would give him that much money. That's ridiculous.

While they continued talking I bit my lip, trying to find a way out of this situation. I couldn't use my fire because then they could figure out who I really was. Unless... unless they wouldn't see it. My power was not necessarily fire; it was the creation of thermal energy. In other words, I could heat up so much that I create fire. If instead, I kept it down, could I direct the heat to where he was holding me? It was worth a try.

Closing my eyes, I focused on creating heat on my right hand, first to test it out. Indeed, when I touched my right hand with my left, I felt raw heat. I flared up the nape of my neck and waited to see if it would affect him.

Peeking at him from the corner of my eyes, I watched for his reaction. I felt his grip on my neck slowly decrease as I added more heat. It was going too slow, so I jacked up the heat. Suddenly, he yelped and withdrew his hand.

Taking the advantage of this, I sprinted away from him, not even bothering to punch or kick him. He was so strong that I would be breaking my hand if I did that. As I was running, I heard Kratos growl behind me before he crashed into me, knocking the air out of me. Bastard. He got off me, grabbed the scruff of my shirt, and lifted me in the air. I saw his fist coming at me. I was about to say screw it and use my power since I'd rather be alive and have my identity revealed rather than dead, but I didn't need to.

I heard a boom, and something hit him straight in the chest, whipping him to the floor. Unfortunately, he decided to drag me along for the ride. I collapsed next to Kratos, my knees slamming painfully on the ground. I tried to crawl away, but he grabbed my ankle and brought me closer to him. Despite my repeated attempts to wiggle my foot out of his grasp, he stayed on like a steel cuff. He proceeded to haul me towards him with ease, stand up, and use me as a human shield.

"You're surrounded. Let her go," Someone commanded. Now that I was back on my feet, well, partially, my feet were touching the ground, I could see what was happening. Around a team of a dozen stood encircled around Kratos and me. They all wore black suits, with paddings on their knees and elbows, and black helmets. On their legs, they had another weapon, most likely a handgun by the looks of it, strapped around their thigh. They also had bulletproof vests with the letters SCU on their chests. The most intriguing part, though, was the weapons they held. The form was similar to an assault rifle but other than that, it had nothing in common. It had this bright green liquid by where the bullets would go in, with green lines tracing around the gun. To be honest, it looked straight out of a sci-fi movie.

These weapons were all aimed at Kratos and me. I wiggled around, but Kratos wrapped his arm tightly around my stomach, so I could only flop around like a fish without water before giving up. At this point, I really just wanted to go home, cuddle in my bed, and never wake up again, but alas, here I was.

"Why the hell should I let her go? Then I'll be put in prison," Kratos reasoned. He wasn't wrong.

What I presumed was the leader spoke again, "You see this gun." He motioned to the green weapon he had in his hands. "This is called the SX2. And it's an amazing gun because imagine it like a heat shooter. It shoots lasers made up of heat towards the offender. But the interesting thing is, if it hits an innocent bystander, they'll get a burn, but it can be healed. But if it hits a super, it causes pain more than you could ever imagine and temporarily subdues you. What this allows us, is to take risks, so even if it does hit a civilian, it won't do permanent damage." Superb. A string of curses went on through my head. This was what Steve meant with his Supreme Team. The perfect group to take down any super.

"Look, if you give me the money, I'll let her go."

"How about this instead, we promise we will not give you life in prison if you surrender."

"You'll give me fifty years. I'll die by then." They went back and forth like this. What I didn't understand, though, was how stupid Kratos was. Why did he think grabbing a random person off the street would in any way be beneficial? Obviously, he would have mounds of police after him, and his price offer alone was absurd. He should be aware of that. So what was the point of all this?

I saw journalists along with cameras creeping from behind the police, not close enough to be intrusive, but not too far so that they couldn't capture us on their cameras. Kratos, with a wicked grin on his face, and me, annoyed and huffing.

As soon as Kratos' eyes connect with the media, he relented. "Fine. I'll give up." Of course, he pushed me to the side like a rag doll, and I was pretty pissed about that too. I wanted to light this place on fire and kill Kratos, even if that went against my no murder policy, but still, I held back. I needed to keep my identity a secret. Standing, I straightened my hoodie and crossed my arms, watching as the SCU clamped these odd looking handcuffs onto his hands.

"Why? Why can't I feel my powers?" Kratos sputtered.

"These handcuffs block your powers. You won't be able to reach your powers while this metal touches you." The leader said, grabbing him by the elbow and pulling him up to his feet. Another person was next to the leader, helping him take Kratos out. I stood, waiting to be addressed. After a couple of minutes, I realized no one was going to approach me. Maybe they didn't need a witness statement. Shrugging, I walked in the opposite direction of the media, passed the police, and finally, out of the mall, to the clear air, wondering, why the supers never showed up during that whole commotion.

While walking back home, I took my phone and checked the headlines. Sure enough, many said something regarding about how awesome and great the Supreme Team, or SCU, was, quickly taking down one of the major villains within five minutes (felt longer than that), and how no injuries arose from the 'fight', but there was no fight in the first place. After they finished talking about how great the SCU is, they went on to compare their defeat times next to the ones of supers. They even showed the statistics- zero injured/died with the Supreme Team, while over the years hundreds of casualties occurred with the supers, but that was incredibly unrealistic. The supers fought way more fights with much more challenging villains. If I wouldn't have worried about risking my identity, I myself could have taken Kratos down within a couple seconds. He had to be close to inflicting damage. I don't.

As I continued reading the news, I realized this was what the superheroes meant. Steve was trying to slowly turn the public against supers and bring their support for the SCU, and I had a feeling that this, was just the beginning.