Chuck landed in front of a group of military personnel.  The explosion had stopped, and now the only trace of it was a quickly dissipating mushroom cloud behind him.  But he had lived!

            “Please.”  He said to the stunned guard in front of him.  “Help my friend.”

            “Of course.”  The man said, snapping to his scenes.  He took the boy from Chuck, and quickly moved towards the medical facilities.  Satisfied that Mark was in good hands, Chuck flew off, back to the city, Mark’s syringe in his clutches.  He needed to be sure it was over. 

            He couldn’t tell where he had fought Alison before.  Everything had been leveled into a uniform plane.  The buildings were flattened, and everything close to the blast had been melted.  Even the metal skyscrapers had burned under the intense heat. 

            Soot and dust hung heavy in the air, and fires burned below, quickly engulfing anything and everything that hadn’t already been burned away.  Cinders burned in the air, drifting in the wind. 

            Then he heard a rumbling.  His attention shot to the spot, and he watched in horror as the ground moved.  He stared, disbelieving as Alison sat up, reviling herself.

            She looked around, dazed, not fully understanding what had happened.  Her body was dirty, and burned.  Her hair was charred, but she was Alive.  Then she saw the hero flying in the sky, not far away.

            “This doesn’t count.”  She managed to stammer.  “You cheated.”  Her eyes rolled into the back of her skull as she fell back down, un-contuse. 

            Chuck landed on top of her, disbelieving that she had actually survived the blast.  He walked up to her massive face, the syringe in his hands.

            He shook his head and laughed to himself.  “You just don’t know how to die, do you?”  He drove the syringe into her skin, and pushed the plunger down.  In her state he could easily kill her, and she would deserve it to, but Chuck never liked killing, especially when there was another way. 

            He stayed and watched over her for a few more hours, her body slowly shrinking back to what it once was.  He looked into the dark sky, and sighed to himself.  He was done, his job, finished. 

            The events of that day were never told to the public.  The government felt that it might drive the populous crazy with fear, as it very well might have.  So, the next day the president came on the air and lied to his people. 

            The official reason for the complete and total destruction of a city was said to be “An act of terror by an unknown group”.  The country was at war within a month.

            Chuck went back to what he did normally, stopping the small crimes that plagues wherever he chose to go, and he was happy to do it.  Happy to be protecting those who needed it, and actually being able to stop the bad guys.

            Mark made a full recovery from his wounds, but he was never truly the same.  He never again tried to take over the world; in fact he started saving it!  He started helping Chuck in any way that he could, and is now in training to become a superhero himself!  So he went on with life knowing that he was doing good in the world, always trying to make up for his actions on that day. 

            And so the world carried on, safe.

            The end…