Dario stared at the burning building for only a moment before instinctively rushing forward.

He had seen something like this before as a child when a building near his home caught on fire. The thing he found most surprising was just how quickly a fire could spread and cause destruction. The one he had witnessed in his youth was quickly stopped by a Superior, but even so, the building was still devastated.

Luckily, it seemed that the fire in front of him had only just recently started since there were only small parts of the structure burning. There were no Superiors around to deal with it, however, so it was still most likely a lost cause.

Wait... he was a Superior now, so shouldn’t he do something about it? He stopped in place and shook his head to dismiss the thought.

It just wasn’t possible — his powers simply weren’t capable of putting out fires. What could he do? Punch it out? That was ridiculous. He didn’t have anything like wind or water abilities so it would be pointless to try. It really made it clear just how basic his skills were, currently amounting to just increased strength, speed and durability. He really needed to work on evolving his powers.

His musings were interrupted when a man nearby noticed the Status Band on his arm denoting him as Superior.

“Hey! It’s a Superior!” he called out to the other bystanders. “Sir! Sir!” he yelled at Dario. “We need help!”

“Uhh.” Dario backed up a step as the man approached. “Sorry, but I can’t put out the fire. I dont have the right abilities,” he apologized. “You’ll have to wait for another Superior to come.”

“We don’t have time,” the man said in distress. “We cleared out as many people as we could, but we did a count and we’re missing one of the teenagers. We think she’s still inside!”

Dario looked around and finally noticed the groups of huddled children sitting on the nearby curb, staring at the burning building with a wide array of emotions. Many of the children were of varying ages and there was an alarming lack of adults around with them.

Was this an orphanage?

“Please sir, you need to save her, she could be dying in there right now!” The man’s pleading brought Dario’s focus back to the situation at hand.

He sighed and looked at the building in determination. As a young child, he had always wanted to be a Superior who helped people, and while he had changed drastically since then, there was still that kid in the back of his mind who wanted to pull through and do good.

There was only one thing to do at this point. It was time to step up.

“What floor is she in?” Dario asked.

“Her room is on the third floor, near the end of the hall,” the man quickly replied.

No more words were exchanged as Dario ran full speed towards the entrance of the building.

Immediately upon entering, he was blasted with a rush of hot air and hints of smoke. The heat made the skin on his face tingle, and he quickly looked around for the stairs. It was thankfully nearby, and he made a mad dash towards it.

As he ran up the stairs, a piece of flaming lumber fell down from directly above him. Dario saw it and tried to maneuver out of the way, but he was a second too slow. The burning wood grazed his left forearm and left a trail of burning ash on his skin.

“Shit!” he cursed, as he tried to wipe the ash off his arm.

Luckily, his durability held up and he was left with nothing but mild stinging and a small patch of slightly reddened skin. For a second, he stared at his arm and felt grateful for his new Superior self. If that heavy burning log had landed on him pre-manifestation, then he would’ve had much more severe injuries.

Shaking his head, he continued running up the winding stairs to get to the third floor as fast as possible. He may not be able to get injured as easily, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t still die from inhaling too much smoke, and there was a lot more of it the higher he went. On the third floor, he was forced to crouch down low and cover his nose as the smoke started flooding the air, with most of it pooling on the ceiling like waves of water.

Unfortunately, there were two hallways on the third floor and he didn’t know which one led to the girl. Grumbling at the lack of more detailed instructions, he went left towards the door at the very end of the hall.

“Urgh!” He grunted in pain when his hand tried turning the sizzling doorknob. Once again, he was thankful for his resilience as he suspected that his hand would have melted and fused with the hot metal had he been normal.

Without a moment of hesitation, he stepped back and delivered a resounding kick that shattered the door, scattering the broken pieces across the floor.

The insides of the room was a blazing inferno, with flames licking up along the surrounding walls. The heat was immense, but what truly astounded Dario was just how loud it was. He didn’t realize just how much noise a fire could generate.

He was just about to turn and abandon the room when he noticed a figure on the floor, lying on their back. Upon closer inspection, he realized that it was a young blonde woman with soot covering most of her body and face.

She was unmoving, and looked more like a corpse than an actual person.

“Oh, fuck.” Dario felt a punch to his gut at the realization of his failure. He had been too slow and too late to save someone. It was his first ever rescue mission to save a life, something he had dreamed of doing, and he had failed.

She was probably someone who had friends and family who considered her a big part of their lives, and all of their potential futures together were now lost. And it was all because of him. He had hoped to accomplish at least one good thing in his life, but he couldn’t even do that.

The despair he felt nearly crushed him, but he persevered. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to try and stay calm. He immediately started coughing as smoke entered his lungs.

“Right, I need to get out of here,” he muttered. “I really tried, damn it, I really did.” He sighed in frustration. “I’m so sorry.”

He made to turn and leave, but paused in thought to look back at the girl. He furrowed his brows and went inside the room towards the soot-covered corpse. Since he had failed in saving her, the least he could do was to retrieve the body.

As he approached her fallen form, he noticed slight movements from her chest. Dario looked at her face and saw that her eyes were staring at the ceiling, occasionally blinking.

She was still alive!

With relief coursing throughout his body, he closed the distance between them and scooped her up before heading towards the doorway. He had to get out fast and get her medical assistance.

To his dismay, the floor beneath them groaned and collapsed inward, causing both of them to fall downwards. Dario immediately reacted and maneuvered their positions so that she landed safely on top of his soft, squishy body. Fortunately, they landed in a room that was mostly intact.

From his position on the floor, the purple-eyed young man groaned and cursed at the world for all his misfortunes. He quickly regained his bearings and stood up with the young woman in his arms. She was still conscious, amazingly enough.

Dario hurried towards the stairs when he suddenly heard a noise from an open room to his right.

“Meow.”

Inside the room, and under the bed, was a small white cat. It’s large sky-blue eyes were staring directly at him.

The two held a staring contest for all of three seconds before Dario burst out in laughter. Despite the seriousness of the situation, he still found amusement in his absurd predicament.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” He groaned at his own bad luck. “Come here little guy, let’s get you out of here,” he said as he approached the mewling feline.

The cat seemed to rear back from him, somewhat cautious and afraid.

“Not gonna hurt you." he said, offering his arm. "I’m here to save you, so come here."

The cat warily stared at him for a brief moment before — after a bit of coaxing — it finally determined that he was a passable human. The white-furred feline mewled as it climbed up his arm and secured its position on his shoulders.

“Now, let’s get out of here.” With hurried steps, he moved towards the stairs.

Unfortunately, It collapsed before he could reach it.

“OH, COME ON! Seriously?” he shouted. “Can’t I get a break?”

The only response was the sound of ever increasing flames burning the air.

Dario peeked down where the stairs collapsed and only saw burning wreckage. “Okay, that’s a no-go.” Glancing around, he saw his last saving grace in the form of a large open window. With no other choice, he quickly walked over with his passengers in tow.

He looked outside and estimated the two-storey fall to be a survivable jump, even with the injured person in his arms.

“Okay, so, we’re gonna jump out this window,” he told his companions. “Everyone cool with that?”

The girl in his arms remained silent while the cat started licking his dark, soot-covered hair.

“Cool,” he said before looking at the small feline on his shoulders. “You have nine lives, right?”

The cat ignored him and continued grooming his hair.

“Eh, one is good enough.”

Without any more fanfare, Dario carefully lifted himself up on top of the window sill. He held the girl’s head against the crook of his neck and cradled her as close to his body as he could. He took a deep breath… and jumped out into the cooler night air.

As they fell, the cat on his shoulders lost its grip and started flailing around, trying to grasp onto anything. It failed in latching back onto Dario and smacked face first into the wall before rag-dolling towards the ground. Fortunately, it was able to right itself mid-air and land on all fours, looking somewhat disheveled as it started running off into the distance.

Dario had much more success and was able to gracefully plant his feet on the ground with no discernable issues. Despite jumping out of a two storey window, from his perspective, it felt more like hopping off of a small table.

Being a Superior was awesome.

As soon as he landed, he hurried over to the man who had initially asked for his assistance. “I have her here! She’s still alive, but she needs medical attention,” he told the man.

“Thank you so much sir, thank you so much!” he bowed his head in gratitude before leading him to a group of nearby medics.

“Is she alive?” one of the medics asked.

“Yes, but she was in there for a long time,” Dario answered as he handed the young woman to the pair of medics. “Do you think she’ll be alright?”

“Only time will tell, but she should make it out of this ordeal intact,” he said after a quick check of her vitals.

“Good.” Dario felt extremely relieved to hear the good news since it had been his first ever rescue attempt. It had nearly ended in failure, but he thankfully pulled through.

“How about you, sir?” the healer asked him. “Are you injured?”

“No, I’m fine,” Dario replied.

The medics nodded and left him alone. He was surprised they accepted that so easily, not even checking him physically, but he supposed that being a Superior meant different treatment.

As the medics carried the young blonde woman he'd rescued towards a makeshift medical tent, she turned her head towards him and stared at him with steely blue eyes. She tried to mouth something to him, but was unable to pronounce a single word. Dario liked to think that she had words of gratitude for him as she disappeared from his sight.

With all the action over and done with, he sat down on a nearby bench and stared at the roaring inferno devouring the orphanage.

It was a close call, in all honesty, and he still felt the adrenaline flowing throughout his body. It was always a hell of an experience coming down from a high like that. This was a first though, as he had never before run into a burning building to save a life. He usually got his adrenaline highs from street fights and back alley brawls, but this was very different.

From the moment he had entered the building, he began to feel energized. His earlier spar with Miss Aimee drained him of some of his inner energy, but now, he felt fully awake and invigorated. All of the minor burns and injuries he had sustained during the rescue all healed, leaving him blemish free.

Normally, he would tack this on to being normal Superior stuff, but he had a feeling that it had something to do with his Power Class.

Assimilator meant that he could absorb something and reutilize it right? That had to be what was happening here. Something in that building filled him with power and revitalized him. The only thing he could think of was the heat, since that was all he could feel when he was inside. Perhaps he could absorb heat, and that’s where his constant source of energy was coming from.

Before he could continue theorizing the specifics of his abilities, there was a sudden commotion caused by the appearance of a strange looking figure.

In front of the burning building stood a stout, middle aged man with a bald head, sporting a thick beard. He stared at the fires with bright red eyes while taking deep breaths and exhaling. Each consecutive breath the man took released a small cloud of smoke that wafted around his crimson, heavily armour-plated body. He had a large black pipe with red markings dangling on his right hip.

Dario vaguely recognised him as the famous Superior known as Soldier Smolder.

The man raised his hand and made a pulling motion.

Instantly, the flames engulfing the broken structure moved in the direction of his fist like water being drained down a sink. There was a rush of air as the fires were quickly displaced into a single point directly in front of the stout man’s fist. After half a minute, the ruins of the building came into clear view, no longer obstructed by any of the flames responsible for its destruction.

Above the man’s fist, where all the fire coalesced, floated a brightly glowing ball of heat and light.

Soldier Smolder grabbed the black pipe from his hip and raised it to his lips. He started to inhale, and the pipe began siphoning the glowing ball into its confines. It wasn’t long before it was completely consumed.

The crimson armored man belched a cloud of smoke as he put away his black pipe.

That was when the applause started, and Soldier Smolder bowed towards the clapping bystanders.

“Thank you all for remaining calm during this terrible fire,” he spoke with a loud, booming voice. “I apologize for the late response. I only just recently arrived back from my excursion, and there were no other Superiors on hand for the task. All that matters is that everyone made it out alive and in one piece, thanks to everyone’s quick actions.” He pointed and gestured towards the people around him. “I’m not the only one who deserves praise here, you all deserve it as well!” The cheers of the crowd swelled at his words. “Well done, everyone!”

After the clapping slowly subsided, Soldier Smolder looked around before spotting Dario. He began walking towards him with a confident stride.

“I heard you saved someone from the fires today, young man,” said the crimson armored Superior.

“And a cat,” Dario added with a timid smile. “Although, I don’t know where it went.”

“Good job, nonetheless,” Soldier Smolder praised just as he noticed the Status Band on Dario’s arm. “You a new supe? I haven’t seen you around before.”

“Yeah,” Dario nervously replied. The man in front of him may not be one of his childhood idols, but he was still fairly known. “Just had my examination earlier today actually.”

“Ah, new recruit huh? Was this was your first time rescuing someone?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“Well done then, you saved a life today.” Soldier Smolder smiled at him. “You did a good thing, never forget that.”

“Thanks,” Dario said, feeling strangely pleased. “I try my best.”

“That’s all anyone can ask for,” the bearded man asserted, placing his hand on Dario’s shoulder “What’s your name?”

“Dario,” he replied. “Dario Sindred.”

“Well, Dario, keep up the good work. This world needs more heroes like you.” Soldier Smolder nodded in acknowledgement before turning and walking away.

Dario stared at his retreating form and wondered if he would ever be as amazing and well known as him. Hah, that was probably unlikely, but a guy can dream right? He had other things to focus on first, like trying to survive into adulthood.

Despite the morbid thoughts, he leisurely leaned back in his seat and stared at the night sky, ruminating on the day’s events in muted satisfaction.