3.04

“What can you tell me about Paragon Surge?” Hunter asked. He and Michael had finished training for another night and were relaxing in Michael’s hideout under the high school.

Hunter and Silas had been keeping in touch. Silas was still at The Fortress with his parents. He said he had been enjoying spending time with them and relaxing.

Hunter still couldn’t get through to his mum.

“What do you want to know?” Michael had just finished preparing steamy, delicious looking hotdogs.

“I dunno. Just tell me stories I guess.” Hunter helped himself to a hotdog.

“What do you know?”

“Not much.”

“How don’t you know much, or even who I was. Your own father was a superhero.” Michael had finished his first hotdog and was getting ready to devour his second.

“I only ever really asked stuff about him and The Victories. Not much outside that interested me, and so he never told me much. As long as my dad was the cool hero of the story, that’s all I really cared about.” Hunter had finished his second hotdog.

“Well, we were one of the first assembled superhero teams. There were five of us, Hoopler, Maestro, Jet, Grimjaw and me, Excelsior.”

“Cool names.”

“But with an assembled team of heroes comes an assembled team of villains. Each of our main archenemies got together and formed their own team. The Malicious Five. They were The Baker, Glacier, Torpedo, Steamblast and Checkmate.” Michael sat back and looked relaxed.

“Which one was your main villain?” Hunter asked. He’d downed a third hotdog.

“Steamblast.”

“What can you tell me about Steamblast?”

“Steamblast was a rabbit that stood about six and a half feet tall if you included the ears. And he always corrected the papers if they got his height wrong. He was quick and nimble and smart too. He had a pack on his back and a steam gun.”

“Are all of Paragon Surge still alive today?” Hunter asked. Michael looked to the ceiling and Hunter failed to notice the tear that rolled down his mentor’s cheek.

“No, unfortunately. Maestro and Jet were killed close to thirty years ago.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Hunter stopped eating his fourth hotdog and looked at his mentor. Michael had wiped the secret tear away and was looking jovial again.

“If you don’t mind me asking. What happened?”

“It was our last mission as Paragon Surge. A dangerous one where the fate of the whole world was in peril.” Michael sat forward in his chair; excitement dawned on his face.

“Tell me about it.” Hunter prepared a milkshake each and handed one to Michael.

“The Malicious Five had gotten their hands on a top-secret device that was meant to be used to help with getting rid of air pollution. They threatened they had worked out a way to make it poison the atmosphere of our planet, killing everyone.”

“But then wouldn’t they die as well?” Hunter took a sip of his milkshake. It wasn’t as good as the ones Michael made.

“Well you see, they were safe.” Michael sprang up out of his chair and started pacing the room. He carried a dramatic air about him now. “They had a base on the smaller moon.” Hunter remembered in history, learning about the second moon that had been blown up.

“It was up to us to stop them. Only Jet had ever been to space before, and so the rest of us were beaming with excitement and nervousness at the same time. Athena City had a shuttle and sent us up.” Michael’s voice rose at the end of the sentence. He turned around and gave a thumbs up with both hands.

“What happened?”

“We landed on the base. They never built any kind of defence system, assuming no one would ever follow them into space. We were relieved.” Michael went back to his milkshake and took a long slurp.

“Once we were in, that’s when the fun started. Their base was full of grunts and workers, and many tried to stop us. Others ran away in fright, hopping into escape pods and getting the hell outta there.”

“Then we got to the main room, and that’s where all of the members of The Malicious Five were waiting for us. Checkmate had a remote to turn on the device once it was ready to go.”

“Big five on five fight?” Hunter asked.

“You betcha. Grimjaw went after Glacier. Maestro after The Baker, Hoopler clashed with Torpedo, Jet went for Checkmate and I, of course, went for Steamblast.”

“It was an overwhelming fight. I parried and riposted and jabbed and dodged. I rolled and jumped and lunged like never before.” Hunter watched on as Michael re-enacted his glory days.

“But there was just something different about this fight compared to all our other ones. I guess their drive was just as fierce as our own, they were holding us off perfectly. Steamblast had me down on the ground and I turned and watched as The Baker killed Maestro.” Michael slouched as he recalled the tragedy.

“Our lives had been in danger many, many times over the years. But we’d always managed to get out of danger just in time. Even The Baker was a little bewildered with what he had done.”

“Everyone was a little distracted and Jet seized the moment to get the remote away from Checkmate. Now Checkmate, she was a tricky one. She had precognitive abilities that allowed her to see four seconds into the future. So taking her on in a fight was hard. There were work arounds and I guess the death of Maestro was enough to throw her off.” Michael finished his milkshake and started preparing himself a second one.

“So what happened?”

“Even though we were one hero down, that drove the rest of us to try harder and we turned the tables. We were winning, especially when Jet had taken the control from Checkmate. But that tricky villain, she had a backup plan.”

“She set the base up on self-destruct and fully unleashed her fury on Jet. The two of them fought and we offered to help, but Jet said we needed to save ourselves.” Michael’s voice choked up and he paused for a few moments.

“And so we did. The three of us got out of there, Grimjaw carried Maestro’s body. We waited in the shuttle for as long as we could, but we had to take off to save ourselves. We watched as the moon was blasted to smithereens and that was the end of Jet, and of Paragon Surge.”

“What happened to the others?” Hunter asked.

“The Baker turned himself in and refuses to leave prison, even though he’s served his sentence. Steamblast and I still had a lot of run-ins with each other. Grimjaw retired after killing Glacier and Hoopler and Torpedo disappeared.” Michael sat back down in his chair when he finished the story. He looked tired.

“That’s why I do the best I can now in helping train young heroes. I want as many to live as possible.”