He forced the storm to continue its display, even as the strain began to tighten at the base of his skull.He felt the edge of danger inside himself.There was a vast reservoir of power that he kept sealed away.It fed from the aggression bred into his genetics and the hunger for dominance that had always lurked beneath the surface.He’d never let it loose, not fully, because he feared what would spill out along with it.
Tonight, he was closer to that edge than he’d ever been.
And that was when he nearly lost his grip.
His vision flickered.A spike of power stuttered outward, uncontrolled for half a heartbeat, cracking a nearby lamppost.
He stiffened, breath catching as panic flooded through him.
Then Hannah touched him.
Her hand slid into his with a sure, warm confidence, and the bond between them lit up in a way that stole his breath.Her presence rushed into him.Her focus met his fury with a balance so perfect it felt like exhaling after years of holding his lungs tight.
Lightning wrapped around both of them, merging, their energies intertwining with a fluidity that stunned him.He felt her heartbeat syncing with his.Felt her anger at the injustice around them.Felt her determination to stand with him even in the heart of the storm.
More intimately, he felt her trust.
Her belief in him.
Her love emerged through the bond with a clarity that loosened the tightness in his chest.
Together, they steadied the storm.
The words continued forming across the sky, more precise now, shaped by her strategic mind and his power working in tandem:
We are not your enemies
Protogenus is lying to you.
We want to work with humanity not against it.
Hannah stepped forward with him, her voice joining his as they projected their message across the city, across every screen, into every home.
As if summoned by the truth itself, Dr.Helena Pierce stepped into view on a rooftop overlooking the square.Her silhouette was backlit by a monstrous machine.It was huge, glowing green, and humming with lethal intent.It was their power-stripping weapon.Ten Dioscuri variants flanked her.
Her arrival changed the atmosphere instantly.Gray felt Hannah’s fury spike beside him when the older woman raised the weapon, its core pulsing with sickly green energy.Pierce’s taunts rolled over the square, but Gray barely heard them.His focus centered on the weapon.
“Beautiful performance,” Pierce called, her voice magnified.“But the world doesn’t need your speeches.It needs protection from you.”
“You’re the only one attacking civilians,” Gray said.“Supes didn’t start this riot.You did.”
Pierce ignored him.
“Surrender, Gray Spark, and I’ll deactivate the weapon.You’ll undergo power removal peacefully.And no one else gets hurt.”
“No.I won’t do that.”
When Pierce fired, Hannah didn’t hesitate.
She pulled him against her, and together they flooded the weapon with a rush of power that had no right to exist.
Hannah’s energy channeled his, amplifying it, shaping it into a lethal strike against the attack.Pierce’s weapon overloaded instantly.Her scream was swallowed by the explosion that followed, a blast of blinding light that lifted chunks of rooftop debris into the air and sent Dioscuri flying.
When the smoke cleared, Gray and Hannah were still standing in the center of the square, their fingers still interlaced, their bond felt like the beginning of something he’d been denying too long.
The crowd looked at him differently now.Some still feared him.Some didn’t know what to think.But many watched with dawning comprehension, shame softening their features.
Gray lowered his voice, letting it carry without force, because he knew that raw honesty now would strike harder than power.
