A colossal airplane readied to take flight at Hermes Co. Airfield. The plane resembled a red Boeing B-29 Superfortress but was over five times, or more the size of the standard model. Hastily its several engines roared to life, filling the night air like an army of hungry lions. The plane drove down the airstrip gradually gathering speed before finally taking flight, soaring through the sky.

  Inside, Daniel and the others braced each other from the turbulence. As they rocked back and forth, he and his cellmates clung to each other, trying their hardest to keep themselves from hitting against the hard metal walls.

  A minute passed and the turbulence finally stopped. Soon, a guard with a plate of food opened the cell doors. As he entered, he threw it in front of Daniel.

  Daniel scowled at the slice of moldy bread on the plate. “What is this?”

  "The boss said you can eat now. Please enjoy." The guard smirked.

  "You can take this and shove it up your a—"

  Daniel clutched his chest like he had a heart attack and dropped to the floor, screaming and squirming. And as he stopped moving, Margret let out a blood-curdling scream.

  “Help our friend,” Pyunma shouted.

  “Give me a break. He’s faking it.”

  As the guard looked closer to confirm Daniel’s stroke was merely a performance, he saw blood leaking from the corner of his mouth.

  "Perfect. If he dies, we won't have a full quota."

  The guard sprinted to Daniel to check on him. As he touched Daniel, he jolted back to life and bit the guard's hand. And as the guard screamed in pain, Daniel quickly gave him a left hand to his chin. Daniel rose and stole the guard's keys. As he freed himself from his chains with the keys, the other prisoners screamed at him, begging for freedom. But Daniel dashed to free Pyunma next.

  "Danny, are you an aspiring actor? Because I bought that Heart Attack Act." Pyunma slapped Daniel’s back.

  "Pyunma, let's say I have experience fudging the truth. Besides, I think Margaret's scream sold it."

  "T-thanks. But how did you fake the blood?”

  “It wasn’t fake.” Daniel extended his tongue, showing the cut on it. “I bit it see.”

  Daniel freed Margaret and the three swiftly left the cell.

  “So where do you think the parachutes are?” Pyunma asked.

  “W-wait. We're not going to leave all these other people high and dry, right?"

  "Don't be stupid, of course not. But we need to move fast and get the spare set of k—"

  Daniel and the others spotted more guards entering the room. One pulled an alarm on the wall that filled the place with loud sirens, and the others charged at them. Daniel and Pyunma dashed to meet their charge in a storm of blows. The men bombarded one another with kicks, punches, and elbows with the stomach and ribs being the easiest targets. However, Margaret covered her eyes from the sight of the violence.

  Pyunma landed a right hand on a guard’s face, but he got knocked down as another hit him in the ribs. Daniel retaliated, hammerfisting the guard on the spine, and he picked up his body, tossing it at the other guards. Quickly Daniel moved to help Pyunma, but a guard grabbed him by the neck from behind, catching him in a headlock and preparing to stab him with a knife in his free hand. Daniel and the guard struggled as the young man tried to keep the guard from stabbing him in the chest. The hand with the knife inched closer to Daniel's heart. However, he redirected the guard's hand, so it hit him in the shoulder instead. Daniel drove his head forward, quickly driving it back and headbutting him, breaking him free. Subduing the guard as he slammed him into prison bars.

  Daniel quickly removed the knife from his shoulder, tossed it aside, and ran to Pyunma.

  "Behind you," Pyunma shouted.

  Daniel turned around and saw another guard with a gun aimed at him. As the guard shot at Daniel, he dodged, but the shot still grazed his arm. Daniel dashed at the guard, dodging more attacks. And as Daniel got close enough, he rammed the guard to the floor and punched him in the face.

  Daniel saw more guards enter the room with guns and ran for the closest exit as they gave chase, shooting at him.

  "Pyunma, Margaret, I'll be back for you. I'll be back for all of you," Daniel shouted.

  ***

  The inside of the vessel was a vast maze of metallic bronze corridors illuminated by ceiling lights. Each of the corridors was nearly indistinguishable from the others except for the various cautionary and directional signs on the walls. Still, it was clear to the fleeing Daniel that the only people who could navigate the plane were those who were already familiar with its structure. Denying him all but one option for survival from his pursuers. To not stop running no matter how fatigued his legs were becoming or how hard his heart pounded.

  Daniel sprinted down the corridors of the airplane. The guards were in hot pursuit as they shot at him. As a shot grazed his ear, he increased his speed motivated by the purest of terror. However, as Daniel turned a corner he met another guard. The guard went to draw his gun, but Daniel kicked him in the stomach before he could, quickly stealing his gun.

  The other guards soon closed the distance, but as they looked for Daniel, he popped from behind a corner and shot the ceiling above them. The falling debris hit his pursuers, incapacitating most of them, still missing one as he evaded the attack. The final guard, going to shoot Daniel again.

  Daniel avoided his shots, jumping back behind the corner, but he soon noticed one of them had ruptured a fuel pipe. The guard continued to shoot at Daniel, unaware of the ruptured pipe. Another of the shots grazed the pipe, igniting the fuel and before Daniel could do anything, the corridor exploded.

  Daniel fell through the air, unconscious. But he swiftly landed in the water below like a rock. Daniel quickly sank deeper and deeper into a watery doom in the dark depths of the city bay. Still, Karen grabbed his body and swam him back to dry land using all her strength. As Karen shivered from her icy cold swim, she looked at Daniel with her face losing color, seeing him bloody, bruised, burned, and not breathing.

  "Love, stay with me," Karen shouted.

  Karen worked like the wind giving Daniel CPR. She pressed down on his chest with her hands and started pumping up and down. Karen continued again and again, but Daniel didn’t respond. As Daniel remained lifeless between the intervals, she quickly turned to mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, breathing oxygen into his lungs. Again she tried repeatedly, but Daniel still didn’t respond. And as she saw him lifeless, she shed tears.

  "God, I beg you. Don't let someone else I love die a violent death."

  As Karen cried on Daniel, he jolted back to life, coughing up water. She breathed a sigh of relief "Thank you." Quickly she hugged Daniel, but he screamed out. Forcing her to let go.

  "Love, I'm so sorry."

  "No problem, angel."

  "Can you move at all?"

  Daniel endeavored to rise, but he screamed again as he tried, dropping back to the ground. "No chance."

  "Well, we're in quite the spot. I can't leave you here, and I don't dare try to move you. But how did this happen? I mean your powers—"

  "My powers haven't worked for a while. I was saving some dame from a couple of thugs, one of them cut me with her knife, and the next thing I know, I'm on that slave ship." Daniel interrupted.

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  "There must be an explanation. Did anything strange happen to you before the incident?"

  "No, I was walking around, got hit with a little dizzy spell, and saw it happen."

  Karen scratched her head vigorously like ants were biting her. However, she quickly stopped fixing her ruby eyes upon Daniel. And a shiver ran down his spine as he saw her. When Daniel looked at her, there was something else in her eyes other than her standard ability to pierce his soul. He saw a weariness that he could only recall witnessing one other time. It was the incident when their first apartment was consumed by emerald flames.

  "When your dizzy spell started, were you thinking about something intensely? So much so that the whole world around you became a cold dark place."

  "N-no."

  "Daniel Jones, I know when you lie to me," Karen bellowed.

  "Okay, I was stressing out about the talk we had in our kitchen. But how could that take away my powers?"

  Karen took a deep breath and touched her forehead to Daniel's. And she looked him dead in the eyes.

  "Blows to the mind and spirit can be just as devastating as those to the body. So heed my words no matter what. I love you, and you are not a loser."

  Daniel gazed deeply into Karen's sparkling ruby eyes. They were steady and calm as they stared back at him. The pure honesty of her statement shot into Daniel from her eyes. Quickly all of Daniel's injuries began to heal at a miraculous rate, his newly restored powers rejuvenating his body. And as he fully recovered, he stood up. But as he went in to kiss Karen, a guard appeared. The guard reached for his walkie-talkie, but like lightning, Karen drew her gun and shot him down.

  As Daniel looked at the incident his eyes widened to the fullest as he stared at the guard’s body. "K-Karen, you killed him. Even if he had it coming, I don't think it's right that—"

  The guard moaned, and Daniel's jaw dropped as he saw him breathing.

  "He's alive, but you shot him in the chest."

  "With a rubber bullet, love."

  Daniel grew a big smile."Okay, I assume you can get out of here by yourself. Time is money, and I have slaves to free."

  "Not like this." Karen glanced at the guard, ensuring he was still disoriented.”You’re face is exposed.”

  "My secret be hanged. There's no time to get my armor."

  "My love, I have your business suit pressed and ready for you in the car."

  Daniel pulled Karen closer to him, wrapping his arm around her waist. “How did I ever think I could live without you?”

  “I’ve pondered that very question more than once.” Karen smiled.

  ***

  Daniel donned his armor. Karen blew a kiss to him, and he cracked a smile as he put on his helmet. Seeing the airplane leave the city's airspace, he jumped onto it, cutting through the air. Daniel zoomed through the air upward like a bullet, landing on the plane's hull. He fought against the intense winds trying to blow him away, digging his fingers deep into the hull. And as he ripped a hole in it, he quickly entered the plane.

  Inside the plane, sirens filled the air, and everything not tied down flew through the hole sucked by the immense vacuum force of the depressurized room. Daniel allowed the force to pull him to it. Inches from its mouth he battled against the immense suction pulling its sides together, closing the hole, and stopping the suction. As Daniel fell to the floor with everything else, he ripped off a refrigerator door.

  Daniel smashed through a wall with the refrigerator door as a shield, drawing the fearful gazes of everyone in the corridor.

  "It's the valiant knight. Fire everything." A gangster shouted.

  The gangsters and guards unloaded a salvo at Daniel with their guns. He took refuge behind the door and charged at his adversaries. And even as multiple shots pierced through his leg, he was undeterred as he rammed into them. Daniel unleashed a storm of blows upon his enemies. However, one of them shot him in the arm and made Daniel drop the door. But as he continued the attack, Daniel dashed at him, dodging more. And as Daniel got close, he kicked his adversary down.

  Still, Daniel spotted a small army of guards charging at him, and he groaned.

  “I don’t have the time or energy to do this pretty.” Daniel thought.

  Daniel clapped his hands together, and the ensuing shockwaves knocked the approaching guards down, subduing them.

  In the slave prison, the sounds of battle, crashing, gunshots, and explosions echoed in from the hallway outside until they went dead quiet. Daniel kicked down the door, holding two unconscious guards in his hands. As he rushed in, he dropped them, as a guard moved to shoot him, but Daniel backhanded him into the bars of a cell. Quickly Daniel took a set of keys from the wall and the guard he had incapacitated. As he kicked open one of the cell doors, he tossed the keys to the prisoners inside, a man and a woman.

  "You two, the first big key on the right is for your chains, and the second one is for the cells. Free yourselves, and then start freeing everybody else. I'll do the same on my end."

  "Y-yes, thank you." The woman said, weeping tears of joy.

  Daniel hurried to Pyunma and Margret's cell. As he arrived, he pushed the door open, dashed inside, and quickly broke their chains, freeing them.

  Pyunma looked at Daniel, clearing his throat. "V-valiant knight, I've seen you all over in the news or the paper. I never thought I would get to meet you up close. It's an honor."

  “Friend, I’m just a person.”

  "S-sir, I realize you probably have enough to worry about right now, but can you look for our friend, Daniel Jones?” Margaret swallowed. “The last time we saw him, the guards were shooting at him. H-he could be dead or dying somewhere."

  "Oh, Daniel Jones, I found him floating in the water just outside the Hermes Co.," Daniel said.

  Pyunma and Margret shared a look. The two’s jaws dropped as life left their eyes. And Daniel almost jumped out of his armor as he saw them.

  "Alive. I meant to say I found him alive."

  Margret dropped to the floor. Daniel went to pick her up, but Pyunma beat him to it as he cradled her in his arms.

  "I got this, man," Pyunma said.

  As Pyunma held Margret, he cracked a small smile as he fixed her hair out of her face. Daniel began a massive laughing fit as he saw him. “You dog, you sure do.” As he strolled out of the cell, Pyunma followed close behind.

  ***

  Daniel busted down the door of the cockpit. As he entered, the pilots aimed their guns at him.

  "Before you do something stupid," Daniel reached behind and effortlessly crushed a fire extinguisher on the wall.

  As the pilots saw him, they dropped their guns in surrender.

  "Great, now fly us back to the city."

  A few minutes later, the colossal airplane landed back at Hermes. And as its doors opened, a flood of people ran out hurriedly, freed from imprisonment. The people hurried toward the closest exit, shouting and screaming like a pack of animals in a stampede. And amongst the chaos, Daniel walked with Pyunma as he still carried Margret in his arms.

  "Valiant knight, I have a request. I run a small construction firm. And business would boom if a hero like you endorsed our projects," Pyunma said.

  “It’ll help that much?”

  Pyunma nodded.

  Daniel groaned. "Let me think about it."

  Suddenly, the people ran screaming in the opposite direction. Daniel sprinted in their original direction searching for the source of the commotion, and he found it as he saw James. And disoriented by the chaos of the fleeing civilians, Daniel let him shoot him with his laser gun. Coughing blood inside his helmet, as he dropped to the ground.

  "It's a good thing I forgot some paperwork here. I saw the plane landing and hurried over. And now I get to finish what I started," James said.

  As James aimed his gun at Daniel, Pyunma put Margret down and quickly charged him. James shot him in the arm, knocking him down, and turning his attention back to Daniel. However, Daniel elbowed the crown of his head. As Daniel saw James weakened, he quickly grabbed a wooden crate from a pile and prepared to beat him with it. Still, he abandoned the attack, as one of the civilians, a young man, collapsed next to his target.

  James regained his senses and shot Daniel in one of his arms as he helped the young man. And as Daniel coughed blood on the ground, James stood up to fire the killing blow. But he stopped as he saw the Chrysler Thunderbolt driving toward him. Karen wore a black mask around her eyes as she drove the car into James at full speed. Even as he shot at her through the windshield, the attack was undeterred as she slammed into him with the car. Still, he caught the vehicle, lifting it off the ground and readying to toss it aside.

  As James started to pick up the car, Daniel roundhouse-kicked him in the face, hitting his eyes. James gripped his face tightly as stinging pain enveloped him. And with his opponent disoriented, Daniel used all his remaining strength, grabbing him and flinging him far away from the airfield. Dropping to the ground as darkness enveloped his mind.

  ***

  Daniel regained consciousness inside the Chrysler Thunderbolt in the back seat. And he saw Karen in the driver's seat as she drove them through the city.

  "What's going on?" Daniel asked.

  "Love, thank god you're awake. I'm driving somewhere to lie low for a bit while the authorities do their work."

  "Karen, the people?" Daniel hurriedly sat up.

  "The police arrived after you lost consciousness. I decided it was best to leave before people started asking questions."

  Daniel let out a sigh, cracking a smile. But Karen almost crashed the car into a light post as a frightful idea appeared within her consciousness.

  Daniel jumped out of his seat. "Angel, what's wrong?"

  "I just thought of something. In all this, I forgot to take off the car's license plate. What if someone traces us from it?"

  Daniel shot Karen a smile. "Tell me what street we're on, and follow my directions."

  The car stopped by an old set of lockers in a secluded neighborhood. Daniel quickly left the car and hurried over to one of the lockers. As he entered the combination, he took a bag of fake car license plates. Daniel removed the car's license plate and crushed it into a little ball. He threw it into a garbage can and replaced it with one from the bag. And Karen’s jaw dropped as she saw him.

  Daniel dashed into the passenger seat beside Karen. "Man, it was a good thing I thought ahead and gave the car a dummy license plate."

  "So you had a stash of fraudulent license plates all this time?"

  "I got them years ago. It was before I went straight. I only kept them around because I thought they could be handy."

  "But still, you promised we would make big decisions together."

  Daniel’s smile left his face as it was replaced by a raised eyebrow at Karen. "A small bag of license plates doesn't count."

  Karen pouted."I believe it does."

  "Drive the car, woman." Daniel pointed down the street toward the horizon.

  Karen prepared to say something but gave up not having the strength to argue after their long night. Driving the car away from the neighborhood, still pouting.