Chapter Thirty Six Earning Respect.

Chris stood boldly in the arena with his cold deadly stares was wandering around and surveying the faces of everyone present. His gaze was enough to melt down the ice berg from the movie Titanic. The crowd were all enthusiastic as they bubbled in excitement while anticipating for the worst. Today was the D day, the day that he'll prove that he was worthy of his team's respect.

Bombstruck had a proud smirk on his face that never seemed to cease. He was certain the fight would only end with him emerging triumphant. To him, Chris had only gotten to S rank level through connections, while him and the rest had to fight their way to the top. It was like a culture and Chris was desecrating it.

The synthesized voice shouted for the fight to begin and the two supers swung into action.

Bombstruck was notorious for his bad temper, he didn't hesitate to strike first by releasing an enormous explosion that overwhelmed his foe. The explosion was so enormous that it threatened to burn the whole place down.

Fortunately the arena was highly fire proofed else the crowd would have been toast. But unknown to them, the arena was not the only fire proofed entity as a raging superhuman with the embodiment of fire itself spit out from the clouds of flame and launched to his enemy. He was taken unawares by the sudden attack and had little time to react as he spread his arms defensively and aimed for another quick shot. But the raging berserker wasn't intimidated, rather he kept flying towards him.

Another burst of flame escaped he's hands and erupted right in front of his enemy. But this time Chris dashed through the flames like it was nothing and flew to him with immense speed and power. He grabbed him by the neck and slammed him to the cold metal floor.

The crowd held their breath as they watched in utter disbelief, they'd never seen him fight with so much grace. He's opponents attempts to escape from his hold yielded nothing.

So then in the face of desperation and panic, he succumbed and did the unthinkable. He pulled out his glove and touched Chris with his barehand.

He was not feared for his bad temperament, but for his touch. His touch could turn anyone or anything into a living ticking bomb, and yet he could still create massive explosions while with his gloves on. The carnage he could reek without the gloves was immeasurable. He never wanted to use such deadly moves, no he never thought he needed to, but he did.

He braced himself for the worst as crowd fell in silent on noticing what had transpired. They all watched in anxiety as they waited for Chris to explode like fireworks. But strangely and surprisingly nothing happened. His eyes widened in disbelief, he couldn't believe it.

«It's not possible...» He thought to himself.

"That's right bitch. Am immune to fire." He whispered with a wide grin on his face.

He quickly tried pulling up another stunt, but was swiftly knocked out with a disastrous blow to the head. It felt like his brains was being with a mallet. Everything became blur as he instantly fell in a state of myopia, before eventually passing out.

Chris gradually stood up and looked at the crowd. Everyone remained calm, they weren't expecting him to emerge victorious in the match. Then suddenly a certain beautiful female super stood up and started clapping.

He recognized her almost immediately, it was Star vision. A few others gradually joined her and started clapping and soon the whole crowd began cheering and hailing his name.

"Captain Boom!! Captain Boom!!"

He beamed with smiles as he listened to the crowd chant his name. An idea came to his mind and he suddenly shot into the air like a rocket and crafted his name with fire. The name slowly dissipated like fireworks as smokes hovered the air.

The supers continued to chant his name as they watched him display the amazing stunt.

He was happy cause he knew he'd finally earned the respect he deserved.

★★★★★

He arrived at the top of Legion hall building where Gwen had told him to meet up with her after his victory. He looked around but could not seem to find her, so he decided to leave and return later. But stopped momentarily when he heard a familiar sweet voice.

"Leaving so soon?." She teasingly asked.

He turned back to meet with her gaze but was stunned when he saw her skimpy outfit. She was amused by how he was shamelessly ogling her curvaceous body.

"Chris you do know I can sense all the crazy ideas that are going through your mind right now."

He chuckled softly as he approached her gently and suddenly slipped an arm around her slender waist then spoke softy to her.

"Then I suppose you should know what am about to do right now."

She wanted to protest but his lips suddenly sealed with hers. Her lips were softer than anything he'd ever known, it was like bitting into a cotton candy, like melting into hot vanilla. Unfortunately he wasn't able to savour the taste of her lips before she gently pulled away. Their foreheads were still touching as she chuckled softly while speaking in a hoarse voice.

"Chris what are you doing?."

He was puzzled as well, he didn't intend to suddenly walk straight up and kiss her, but he couldn't control his emotions whenever he was next to her.

"I..I..am sorry?." He apologized with a clear hint of uncertainty.

She simply gave him a sweet smile and then gently turned and walked towards the cliff of the building and sat down. Then she gestured for him to join her. He meekly obeyed and sat next to her on the cliff. Their was a tensed awkward silence between the two of them as they quietly admired the radiant blue night sky

Then all of a sudden, a bright shooting star appeared in the sky. The sight of it triggered a tremendous sense of excitement in her and she tapped him instinctively as she hurriedly told him to make a wish.

"Quick Chris make a wish!" She squeaked excitedly.

He chuckled softly and obediently closed his eyes to make a wish. Then he opened his eyes after a few seconds only to be met by her curious gaze.

"So?...what did you wish for?" She asked anxiously.

He looked at her for a moment, and was still mesmerizied by how beautiful and innocent she looked. He chuckled softly and whispered to her. "I think is best I keep it to myself."

She smiled and shook her head in approval before looking away. He could tell she already knew what he'd wished for, as her sudden calmness and melancholic expression was a clear message that she wasn't pleased with his reply.

"Chris..." She suddenly called him after a long moment of brief silence.

"Hmph?"

"Can you keep a secret?." She asked innocently.

He looked away from the sky to meet at her gaze, a sudden feeling of unease was starting to brew inside him

"Yeah. I guess."

She giggled sweetly as she averted her gaze to look unto sky. Her eyes glistened dreamily as she opened up to him.

"When I was a kid, after my mom passed away. My step dad would always beat I and my sister up and lock us up in our room all night. He accused us of being witches and the reason for our mom's death."

He noticed the tears that threatened to fall off from her eyes. He wanted to hold her or even kiss her, but somehow he couldn't seem to do any.

"Then one night while we were sleeping." She continued, with her voice was a bit shaky. "He sneaked into our room and molested me"

"What!?." He shouted furiously, he couldn't bear the thought of someone laying a hand on her let alone an old creep.

"He told me to keep it between us else my sister would suffer the same fate." She gently wiped off a tear that threatened to fall from her face and continued. "I decided not to talk and he continued to molest me, every single night. One day I couldn't take it anymore so I ran..."

Tears finally flooded down her reddened cheeks as she cried bitterly. He instinctively reached out and cuddled her tenderly. She let the tears flow freely as she clutched tightly to him. After a few moments of tensed silence, they were still cuddling and she still clutched tightly to him like a little baby would hold unto a candy.

He was a bit amused as to how childish she was acting, instinctively his hands started to comb through her soft brown hair while she snuggled closer to him, freely sinking into his chocolate alluring masculine scent.

"Chris?" She softly called him.

"Hmph"

"I can't say yes to you." She suddenly said as she quietly got off from his arms.

He knew exactly what she meant by that, he had wished unto the stars for her to one day agree to be his girl.

"Haha why? You don't like tall handsome dark guys?." He tried feigning ignorance, but her words had hurt like a bee sting.

"No not at all, I love your color." She chuckled as she said earnestly. "Am just scared that I'll never be able to satisfy you."

"Satisfy me!?. How?"

She quietly bit her lips nervously while she contemplated on how to tackle his question.

"Chris...I'm afraid of intimacy."

The confusion on his face creased on hearing what she said. As the realization dawned to him on why she'd said so. So he calmly asked.

"Is it because of your step dad?."

She nodded meekly while shyly looking down. He had a sudden urge to seize her once more in his arms, kiss her and promise never to let anything happen to her. But those were only words and words were like faint promises. It hurt him that he couldn't help her.

"I don't care Gwen. I can do without the sex." He said sounding a bit desperate.

"Can you?. Cause that's what I see when I look inside the head of every man, is lust. You can't control it Chris, it's nature. Eventually you'll get tired of me." She reasoned innocently.

He was silent for some minute, he knew she was right. She had the physic of a beauty goddess, no sane man could overlook that. But still, that he felt those emotions didn't mean he couldn't restrain himself from acting on it.

"Try me and you'll see that l'm a lot tougher than what you see in that head of mine." He said boldly.

"And how long do you think you'll last?." She taunted while bringing her face close to his.

"Long enough to change your perspective on life." He replied confidently while also drawing closer

"What if you don't succeed?." She pressed on, her lips were on inches away from his.

"Then I'll keep trying" He replied with a flirtatious smirk.

She chuckled softly as her cheeks flustered deeply. Their lips were almost touching while she spoke in a more seductive tone.

"I have to warn you though, I can be really stingy when it comes to sharing my man."

He's confidence and composure never faded even as he felt her warm breath brushed against his lips. He said coolly "Am all yours baby."

She chuckled softly as her cheeks reddened while she blushed shyly on hearing him call her "baby". They kept staring at themselves intimately, finally she looked away and said shyly

"We should probably heard inside it's getting cold out here."

"Weird. It keeps getting hot whenever your around." He flirted shamelessly.

She couldn't stop herself from laughing out loud as she gently stood up.

"Your funny. " She mumbled as she continued blushing deeply.

"Seriously is that one of your unknown super abilities?." He jokingly asked as he joined her and they gradually left the rooftop of the legion hall.