On a grassy hill, Tyler Smith lounged inside his dark blue motorhome. His silver-gray eyes flicked toward the call.
"Tyler, fix the toilet!" Bethany called.
"I will... just not now," he replied.
"Fix it now, dummy!" Tomika snapped.
"But you broke it, Miks," he shot back.
"So what? It's still your job to fix it."
Bethany sighed. "He'll fix it, right?"
Tyler lowered his voice, leaning closer to Bethany. "You are always in support of what she does; you know she's in the wrong."
Bethany walked up close to her man and wrapped her arms around his neck. Her hazelnut eyes locked on his, she spoke softly. "You know I don't like it when my twins fight.
With her arms wrapped around his neck, he leaned back slightly, eyes rolling in mock protest as a warm smile broke through. "Hmmm, I hear you, I hear you."
She pressed her lips against his, and he reciprocated instantly, both of them grinning as their kiss deepened, lips and tongues tangling together. They broke the kiss with a smile, their foreheads resting together as if the moment still held them.
Bethany, still staring at Tyler's lips, said. "I love you."
Tyler, with a big smile, sighed. "My biggest joy."
"Bethany was puzzled," she said. "What's that?"
Tyler replied. "Those words from you, my motivation."
Realizing what he meant, she brushed a quick kiss against his lips before adding:
Time to leave for work; don't want to be late.
He chuckled. "Alright then. Let me get dressed and take you to work."
[Narrator]:
Ah, finally some warmth. Meeting my favorite couple—what can I say? It's all love.
****
An hour earlier, the Hero Association building was already alive with activity. Officials moved with purpose, each handling tasks tied to the previous day's attack. On the middle floor, the conference room buzzed with overlapping voices.
Inside the conference room, order met urgency. Monitors lined the walls, flashing with live feeds from across the city. The oval table was filled with officials and heroes, each voice layered into a steady rhythm of reports, counterarguments, and strategies.
"We have quite the number; how are we going to handle it? We don't know when their Phase Two starts." The commander said.
Timothy no longer had that weary look on him; it was like he had forgotten what happened the previous week. His brown eyes were calculative as before, and he spoke with confidence. "We need all the help we can get. Like you said, Commander, we don't know when phase two begins. We are splitting up into two groups."
What Timothy said brought about murmurs; everyone in the room whispered to one another that it felt off the chart. Derick is doing everyone the favor asked.
"Why are we splitting up?"
Timothy replied. "Well, you see, Derick, we can't all be in the same place at the same time; we need to move everywhere."
Timothy got up, moving close to a hologram displaying Jean Bassett. He continued:
You're doing your job as bait, and with that we were able to find out about her, but we still need more information about her."
An official raised a hand; Timothy sighted it and urged him to speak.
The official asked. "Why do we need more information about her? We already know she's the mind-control superhuman, and the search squad couldn't find her anywhere."
The official sat back, and Timothy responded to him. "Thanks for that, mister. Yeah, we got the major lead about her, but my instincts never deceive me; I don't think she's working alone."
Murmurs raised again, but Timothy backed up himself when he heard some doubts about his intuition. "You all sitting here might think this is just a flex of power from a superhuman, but I won't take that. For someone to decide to cause chaos, they must have a reason, but she has no reason; she had been teaching elementary schoolers for two years, from what we know. You can't just decide that you want to cause crime without a tangible reason or without a driving force. I believe she's also dancing on the main boss's palms, and as for not having any info again about her, the search squad got something—something we can work with."
As the officials asked their questions, Timothy handled the answers. Off to the side, Larry, Raymond, and Derick exchanged a quick chat of their own.
"Hmm, he's fired up." Larry said as he cleaned his nose.
Raymond said to Larry. "Well, it's good to have him back; we were starting to lose foundation."
Derick frowned; it seems he was annoyed about something. Larry saw his look and then asked.
"What's with the awkward look, Derick?" Raymond, who didn't notice, turned to the man next to him and saw his squeezed face.
Derick answered. "It's Timothy; the way he keeps calling me bait makes me wish that I shouldn't have said that."
Larry scoffed, chuckling a bit. "Is that why you're pissed? Stop being a wuss; he's not teasing you, it's just the moment."
Raymond added, nudging Derick with his elbow. "It's just him speaking; you've been more than just bait."
A smile was carved on Derick's face.
[Narrator]:
He's a grown-ass man; can you believe this guy?
"So the teams will be in two groups, group one:
Raymond
Larry and
Derick
You guys are going on a woman hunt; the search team found an area she's mostly seen that could be something. It's quite the journey you're going on, but you should be done in a day."
From where he was seated, Raymond answered. "Alright, we are good to go."
"Team two will be me and that help of yours, Larry; we'll be waiting for it." Timothy called out.
The teams had been set, and everyone moved out for their jobs. Commander Layla and Timothy stood alone in the room.
Layla spoke softly. "It's good to have you back."
Timothy forced a smile. "It's good to be back."
****
10:18 am is the current time. The city and its people, still recovering from the past events, slowly went about their everyday lives. They thought they would grow into their normal Ultra City lives, but they were mistaken; trouble hasn't left the city.
"What is that, Mom?" A Little boy asked his mom.
She replied. "What's what, Billy?"
He pointed up to the sky to something that looked like a circle. She looked at it and couldn't get what it was and asked a fellow civilian.
"Sir, could you tell us what that is?"
The man also looked up, but he also couldn't get what it actually was; he just guessed.
"It could be a jet that circles the sky."
Another next to him, who had listened to what they said, looked at the wide circle up in the sky and said. "No, I don't think this is a jet's doing."
Soon after, everyone at Penny's Road saw the Circle. Through the murmurs of the city, a voice echoed.
"Let's show them what forgotten children look like."
Like the sun getting brighter, the circle shone bright, and without warning a large radiating yellowish light struck down Ultra City.
BOOM!