He woke in a box-like room, strapped to a chair. The moment he woke he began to struggle against his bonds, but where before he had strength, now he just felt… human. Powerless. After a few minutes, he stopped struggling, and sat, examining his surroundings. He realized that he had an IV strapped into his upper arm, feeding him a clear fluid. He could see a chair, a table, and a mirror in the room; but little else. The way he was strapped in forced him to look directly into the mirror, as if he was supposed to be staring into his own eyes. It gave him the eerie sensation of looking directly into his own soul.

There was nothing to measure time by besides his own breaths, but at least 15 minutes later, someone walked in, and sat down in the chair across from him. This wasn’t the Prophet, it was someone else entirely. This man had short-cropped brown hair, and sea-green eyes. His olive complexion hinted at italian heritage, and his smile was cruel, lacking in anything remotely human.

The man spoke. “So, mr. Jon Garvin, I hear you are going to destroy the world.”

Jon’s anger piqued when he heard that, but he kept his tone level. “So they tell me. I take it you intend to kill me to stop that?”

“Not at all mr. Garvin, not at all. In fact, the sole purpose of Anarchy is to help you do that. There are so many of us out there who are tired of the status quo. Tired of being slaves to cruel, uncaring masters who think money is power, and hide behind petty scams to satiate their greed. What we want is a better world. An honest world, where men can call themselves men, and we are not beholden to the foolishness of madmen who forgot that money was just an idea.”

“And where do I fit into all of this?”

“Why you are our king of course. Naturally, you are unfit to rule as you are now, but soon you will see the value of our message. When you do change your mind, we will be yours to order as you see fit.”

Jon was stunned for a moment, but in that moment the man got up, removed his IV, and walked out of view. He paused, and said “Without the serum, you should feel more like your true self soon. It should take a little over an hour though, so don’t bother trying to find me. I will be long gone by the time you come back to yourself. When you are ready to find me, you will. In the meantime enjoy the view.”

With that, he left Jon sitting in his chair, staring at a mockery of the hero he should be. In fact, the more he stared at himself, the less coherent his thoughts were, until they turned into a confused jumble. The time passed at a snail’s pace, and soon Jon could no longer stand to see his own reflection. Staring into his own eyes for so long was too much like looking at his own failures; that long and tawdry list too much for him to read in this place. Eventually he regained enough of his power to escape, and his first action on doing so was to walk up, and smash the mirror. When he looked at what he had done, he realized that it was the wrong thing to do. Smashing it as he had done had simply created more splinters of mirror, more pieces of himself, reflecting an image that laughed at his own impotence. As the image laughed, he melted it with a beam of power from his fists, channeling his rage until it evaporated.

When he turned around, he saw that his work was not done. Taped everywhere in the room were mirrors, and all of them reflected his failure; his life, utterly devoid of meaning as the figures in the mirrors laughed. As he melted them, he realized it wasn’t the mirrors that were laughing, it was him. They simply reflected him, laughing as he burned everything to a crisp. This stoked his rage, though he had long since lost the level of rationality that would have been required for him to even ask why, let alone provide an answer. His power erupted from his entire body, in a supernova-like inferno of destruction. When he was finally done, he flew home, leaving behind a hundred square foot crater that had once been a building.

…………………………………………………

As he sat on his couch, his mind cleared, and he stared at his hands as he replayed the evening over and over in his head. He was mostly sane again, but he felt like something in him had broken. Perhaps the momentary joy he had felt at his own misery had driven him to the destruction he had just performed, but surely that couldn’t be it.

He took a sample of his own blood, and began running an analysis on the toxin they had used to disable him. Perhaps it had psychogenic properties? He accidentally crunched his mouse when the chemical analysis revealed that not only did the toxin not have any apparent psychogenic properties, but in fact his body had so utterly metabolized it by the time he had thought to run the tests that little trace remained in his system.

He smelled burning plastic, and realized that he had begun unconsciously incinerating his mouse in his frustration. He ran to the bathroom, and rinsed off the quickly cooling plastic before it hardened onto his hand. As he dried his hands, the doorbell rang. He quickly changed back into his civilian clothes before answering the door. Danica stood outside with a look that would have sent an army ranger into a coma from fright.

“YOU Left Me At The RESTAURANT.”

“I’m sorry, I… I was kidnapped.”

“YOU were kidnapped? Sure, and I’m the goddess of the hunt.”

He gave a weak smile “I’m just a little rabbit, hardly worthy of the goddesses time.”

Her expression remained unchanged. “Don’t give me that, you’re hardly a helpless rabbit; and don’t you try to flirt with me right now, I’m too angry at you.”

He dropped the smile. “You’re right, I’m sorry, but I really was kidnapped. They drugged me with some kind of gas, and I woke up in a room full of mirrors without my powers. I’m so sorry for leaving you behind, I was just… a bit tied up.”

She strode through the door, grabbed his hand, and dragged him to the couch. A single tear escaped her eyes, and it seemed to force her to drop the angry look.

“I was so worried. at first I thought maybe you were taking survivors to the hospital or something, but by the time I had been in the restaurant for two hours without hearing from you, I thought you had just left me. Or that you had been hurt somehow. I settled on being angry because you always seem so invincible I just didn’t think anything could have hurt you.” He couldn’t think of anything to say to that so he just held her. Eventually they both fell asleep on his couch.

………………………………………………………

When he woke up, it was to the smell of eggs cooking. She didn’t notice as he sat up, and he took that time to admire her. One side of her hair was frizzy, and some of it was sticking up in pure bedhead. Any makeup she had put on had been washed off, and she shuffled sleepily. When she turned to look at him, her eyes were still shot with red from waking up. He loved every moment of what he saw. She smiled impishly at him as he sat up, and realized she was in a pair of shorts and one of his shirts. As the shirt settled on her, he was certain she wasn’t wearing a bra. She made a clucking sounds, and waved her spatula at him.

“None of that now, we have a few more dates before we get to that portion of the show.

He blushed and sat up farther.

“Good morning,” he mumbled incoherently.

“What was that?”

“Sefvvesgjhng” he said eloquently as he laid back down.

She poked him with the spatula.

“I’m almost done with breakfast if you want some.”

He sat back up at that, and rubbed his eyes. “That sounds good. What time is it?”

She shrugged. Your clock reset at some point, and I’ve been too lazy to check my phone, so I’ve been rolling with the assumption that it’s morning. He got up, poked his head out the door, and called back “nope, pitch black.”

He heard a curse from the kitchen followed by “well it’s morning somewhere, and breakfast is good any time of the day.” He chuckled as he returned to the kitchen, and received his food. They lounged together in much the same fashion for the rest of the day. His troubles seemed to slough off him over the course of the day. As he thought of it, he couldn’t even remember the last time he had simply taken a day to relax like this. He wished this day could simply go on forever, a perfect blend of eggs, bacon, and her decidedly feminine scent lingering in his nose.

When she kissed him goodnight, he did everything short of begging her to stay, but she assured him she had work, and really they would have plenty of opportunity for days like this in the future. More than anyone he knew that there would never be enough time, that life was too short; however he made his peace with her departure. He sighed as she walked away, her hips swinging to the rhythm of her steps. Finally, as she reached her car he closed his door, and retreated into his home to prepare for the coming day.