"Waaaah—! Waaaah—!" A little kid bawled at the edge of the airport, but then—smack!—a loud noise made him jump out of his skin. He looked toward the window and saw, stuck right on the outside of the plane, a lady in jet-black armor—wait, was that a big sister or an auntie? Platinum hair whipped around her head like fire in the wind. She glanced inside the cabin, then did a midair flip and landed smack on the wing.
Zzzap! Electricity crackled, and the Titan hovered at the tip of the wing like it was just another Tuesday.
The jet engines were going full blender mode on the airflow, but honestly, neither of these two seemed bothered one bit.
The World Trade Center was getting closer and closer.
"If you want to do big things, you gotta carry big burdens. In this dark world, you want something, you gotta give something up. You want results but don't wanna get your hands dirty—what a joke!" The Titan was crackling with electricity, chin raised at Jill Young. "So, what's your move now?"
"I just wanna know one thing." Jill Young stared down the Titan, gritting her teeth, then roared so loud it echoed to the heavens: "You keep talking about sacrifice—so what have you sacrificed?"
"My conscience," the Titan said, gently clutching his chest like he was reminiscing about the good old days. "My humanity."
Jill Young went quiet. Silent. Then, suddenly, she burst out laughing.
She smirked, then chuckled, then cackled, then went full-on maniacal giggle mode.
And then—she let out a roar that could shatter glass.
"You call that sacrifice? You think you even qualify to talk about sacrifice? Makes me sick! I'm a crime boss, not exactly a saint, but I don't go faking tears after sending folks to their deaths, whining 'Oh boo-hoo, poor me, I had no choice.'" Jill Young raised her fist high. "I'm no hero, and I don't have some giant sense of responsibility. If I can save you, I will. If I can't, well, tough luck—I did my best. But for scumbags like you, I got just one thing to say—never in my life have I seen someone so shameless!"
"Talk all you want, but what's your choice?" The Titan stretched his arms wide, whipping up even more wild wind around the plane as it rocketed straight for the World Trade Center. "Think sweet talk changes the world? Think sweet talk saves lives? You wanna be a superhero? Let me tell you—there are no superheroes in this world, just a bunch of idiots with delusions of grandeur—"
"Bullshit!" Jill Young cut him off, thunder couldn't even drown her out. "You keep telling people what can't be done just 'cause you're a self-pitying loser! You force others to fall because you never had the guts to fix the sky yourself! The ones who'll risk it all for their beliefs, the ones who'll sacrifice themselves to save others, the ones who'll dive into the darkness for someone else's sake—they're the real superheroes!"
Jasper Xiao—bathed in holy light, fearless even in the face of death.
Black Death Emperor—holding back the darkness, sacrificing for a thousand years.
Dream Monroe? Maybe her too, walking her lonely road for her own ideals, shutting herself off from the world.
Then there’s Henry Huo, always open-minded and moving forward. Wu Zhengfeng, holding the chaos at bay. And more, so many more heroes and martyrs. Faces from countless worlds—brave, bright, adorable, self-sacrificing—they flash before my eyes, strong or weak, but every one shining on, never forgotten.
Golden lightning flickered and bloomed in Jill Young’s eyes.
"If it weren’t for people like that, our world would've been toast ages ago. You wouldn’t even be here spouting nonsense. Every bit of happiness we have was fought for by folks like that. You, wallowing in the dark, have zero right to mock them, zero right to insult that kind of will!"
Jill Young swung her hand down hard: "I can’t stand your damn face, so today I’m telling you—heroic willpower is real!"
Boom! Boom! Two explosions rocked the plane—Jill Young had secretly rigged the fuselage with power bombs during the earlier brawl. One wing and the tail blew clean off, ripped away by the wind. The giant A380 was now just a bald cabin with a single wing.
It dropped like a fallen angel, spiraling down. No matter how wild the wind got, with half its parts missing, there was no way it was flying straight again.
"Heh, you sure talked a good game, but in the end, you made your choice—wait, what?" The Titan sneered, then did a double take.
Flame Tide got chucked straight into the last working jet engine.
KA-BOOM! Hellfire blazed across the whole plane, while the engine spat out impossible power. BANG BANG CRASH—rings of energy burst, and Jill Young left a hundred footprints all over the single-winged plane, doing her damnedest to steer it.
In a blink, the plane punched through the wind, skidded sideways, and just barely scraped past the World Trade Center, heading off into the distance.
Up ahead, a bunch of other skyscrapers were blocking the crash path.
"Haaaaaaah!" Jill Young roared, BREAK BREAK BREAK—just break already! Her energy was shot, she was running on fumes, always just one breath short of busting through!
Well, guess there’s no other way.
Blazing gold patterns erupted, golden flames shot skyward. Jill Young unleashed her blazing demon form—her eyes fired out three feet of red-gold light.
The Titan didn’t move. He just hovered there, watching as Jill Young shot out like a golden laser beam, slammed into a skyscraper with a giant thud, then bounced back and shoulder-checked the plane.
Creak! The plane's surface dented in, but didn’t break. Jill Young spread the force out, and the massive plane veered just a little off course.
People—more and more people—were watching it all unfold. Citizens trapped in Manhattan’s towers, frozen, listening to Jill Young’s wild shouts, watching her bounce around like she’d lost her damn mind.
BANG BANG BANG BANG—golden light ricocheted, bouncing off building after building, slamming into the sides and belly of the plane from every angle. In a blink, the plane was dented all over, but somehow it wobbled past each skyscraper, slowing its fall bit by bit.
Look—this huge plane was threading between the towers, dropping lower and lower, time itself seeming to slow down. Folks on both sides watched the crying kids inside, saw little hands slapping at the windows.
Listen—amid the thunderous booms, golden light kept bouncing between the ground and the plane’s belly. The street below exploded with craters, slowing the plane’s descent. Bones creaked, muscles trembled, but that girl’s radiance just kept shining brighter.
Someone clenched their fist.
Suddenly, a huge web shot out from one of the towers, blocking the nose of the plane.
"I'm the Superhero Little Spider!"
One of the Chosen Ones, hiding among the citizens, finally made a move—leaping into the wild wind, weaving a web with everything he had.
The web shattered in an instant as the plane smashed through, and the hero spat blood and passed out cold.
But right away, more people—lots more—jumped in to help.