1 Our Hero

"SECURITY BREACH. BUILDING INTEGRITY AT 46%," the alarm blared.

Gulping nervously, Brian Campbell, head of security at the Graveport Science Institute, readied his taser as he aimed it at the solid, metal blast doors that separated the building's interior from the outside world. An armed intruder had broken in minutes ago, and they were already tearing through the highly-classified laboratory.

"Backup, I need back up!" the middle-aged bald man called into his shoulder-mounted radio.

It was too late. A second later, the 2-ton doors were effortlessly blasted open, sending a cloud of dust shrouding the entryway as bits of drywall collapsed from the impact. His finger preparing to squeeze the trigger of his stun gun, Brian was caught off guard as his weapon suddenly flew out of his hand and was pulled into the dust cloud.

"Do yourself a favor and move aside," a gruff voice spoke.

Stepping out of the cloud was a tall, well-built man that was dressed in a black lab coat with a dark camo tank top underneath. His solid, black boots noisily clopping over the tile floor, the man lifted his right arm. A large, red, gun-like device was mounted on it, and its purpose was soon revealed as it finished pulling Brian's taser towards it, before the stranger caught it and tossed the weapon away. This was an arm-mounted tractor beam.

"D-dammit," the security guard hissed as he pulled out his night stick and charged at the man. "You're the one that needs to move aside, criminal scum!"

The lab coat-wearing man easily dodged and smacked the guard to the side with his tractor beam, sending him into the wall and crumpling to the floor in pain.

"Do they even pay you enough for this?" the man scoffed as he stepped over Brian and continued forward. "That was far easier than I expected."

As he approached another set of blast doors, the villain reversed the polarity of his tractor beam and effortlessly blasted them open. Stepping into this next room, he smiled as he spotted his target. Sitting on a lab table was a miniature fusion reactor, a miraculous device that could power entire cities despite being the size of a suitcase. Resembling a beeping box with many hoses and flashing lights on it, the coat-wearing man pulled it towards him with his beam. Small, but the thing was very heavy.

With that, he fled the scene with the reactor in tow. The sound of marching footsteps down the hall told him that more security guards were on their way, but rather than deal with them, the villain opted to jump out of a 30-story window. Crashing through the glass before the guards could reach him, he activated his jet boots, where he harmlessly soared through the air and rocketed away from the building.

"That went exactly according to plan," the stranger remarked with a satisfied smile, his short, military-style crew cut blonde hair blowing in the breeze. "Now to make a clean escape, and I'll be home free."

The villain had spoken too soon, however. A blue and red blur shot past him a second later, before rapidly coming to a stop around a kilometer in the air in front of him.

"That's far enough, Doctor Klepto," a woman's voice boomed loudly as he approached.

"Ah c'mon, her of all people?!" the man spat as he leaned his legs forward to bring himself to a stop, where he hovered in midair with his jet boots. "Graveport is a big city, yet I have to run smack-dab into Passion Princess?"

Floating there with her hands on her hips was a tall, muscular woman that was clad in a skin-tight red and blue spandex suit. Her long, blonde hair blowing in the wind some 300 feet above the ground, she had an eye-catching figure atop her muscular build, with a pair of gigantic breasts that seemed almost weightless as they jiggled with her movements, while her strong abdomen led down to a pair of wide, impressive hips, behind which was a large, round, bubble-butt that shadowed the ground below.

This was the superhero, Passion Princess, and while her name was silly, it was nonetheless revered by heroes and villains alike. Incredibly powerful, having saved the Earth many times, she was often regarded as the strongest hero in the world.

"Taking something that doesn't belong to you as usual?" the heroine asked with a smirk. "Why don't you hand whatever that is over, and I won't kick your butt from here to prison."

The sticky-fingered villain merely chuckled nervously before leaning forward and forcing his jet boots into full power, speeding him past the floating woman and rocketing far off into the distance.

"My client is willing to pay 22 billion dollars for this! Like hell I'd just give it up," he laughed as the buildings of the industrial port city below became a blur while he flew over them. "For that, I'll take any risk."

This was Doctor Klepto, a gadget-loving scientist that had a penchant for stealing. If there was some rare artifact or new one of a kind item that he could profit off of, he'd use his arsenal of weapons and gadgets to steal it. While an intelligent man, he'd nonetheless overplayed his hand by challenging Passion Princess.

Turning his head to see if the hero was in pursuit, Klepto's jaw dropped as a beam of blue light shone towards him from somewhere above, hitting his tractor beam. In seconds, the arm-mounted device froze over and became encased with a layer of ice, deactivating it and rendering it useless courtesy of Passion Princess's dreaded ice-vision. This of course caused the miniature reactor that he was holding with it to fall.

"Noooooo!! You moron, do you know how much that's worth?" the villain cried as he chased after it while it fell, shaking off his tractor beam as it disintegrated into ice chunks.

The wind was knocked out of Klepto as he was brutally tackled from above and forced downwards. With no way to scream, the villain was helpless as he was slammed into a small public park built between some of the smoky city's warehouses. 

"Hehehehe, do you mean this thing here?" the heroine asked as she climbed off of the villain and held her hand out. The case-sized reactor promptly fell squarely in her palm, the landing calculated to perfection.

"Y-you crazy bitch, I think you broke some of my ribs!" Klepto coughed before spitting blood into the grass next to him. 

"Well I hope you have insurance for the hospital, because crime doesn't pay," Passion Princess replied with a kiss of her lips while her red cape blew in the gentle breeze. "At least you can brag that you were tackled by the 7-year winner of the world's top 10 most gorgeous superheroes in the world." 

"I-it feels like a just got hit by a train," the mad scientist coughed again. "Dammit all, I was so close."

Another brief primetime interview was what awaited Passion Princess, where she was celebrated for her feat of the day and even signed a few autographs before returning home. Paparazzi and reporters alike broke their necks struggling to climb over each other to get pictures of the gorgeous hero, who blew kisses to all while taking her leave. Her residence was a private island just off the coast of Graveport, an East coast American industrial city where she was based at. 

Flying across the water at supersonic speeds, Passion Princess quickly arrived at her lavish fortress situated on the island, where upon the security systems detecting her approach, the AI that controlled the base opened the gates to the cozy subterranean lair.

"Well that was a nice easy day, I thought I'd have nothing to do until the Science Institute dropped me a ring," the heroine sighed as she stretched her arms while walking inside, letting her long hair down and giving her head a shake as she entered the living quarters. "How did you make out today, my love?"

Within a fully-furnished living room was a handsome brunette-haired young man that was seated on the couch in front of a television set. Dressed in a simple pair of boxers and white T-shirt, he smiled as she entered, but did not get up.

"I did just fine, honey, I just watched TV," he explained. "Um, I wanted to ask you, could you take a look at my neck? I think it's beginning to chafe."

"Oh no! Of course, let me see," Passion Princess whistled as she floated over to the man and took a long, flirtatious seat on his lap, before gently examining his neck. "Hmm, you're right. This iron collar has really been rubbing against your skin, it's all red."

Around the man's neck was a metal collar that was connected to a thick iron chain, which was attached to a hook in the floor behind the couch, preventing him from moving very far.

"I-it's been weeks now, Jan," he insisted weakly. "Do you think you can finally take this thing off? I mean surely we trust each other by now."

"Oh, Vincent," the heroine sighed as she lovingly touched his cheek and stared at him through deep, hollow blue eyes. "I can't take it off. Because then you might leave me and try to run back to that stupid family that you were crying about when we first met."