"Who are you?" The mother asked, still shocked while also partially blinded by a combination of both heat and brightness.
"Don't worry, I'm here to help," Rio said, sufficiently aware of his own blazing aura, he quickly dimmed the flames.
Effortlessly tossing the debris aside and rubbing his hands together he proceeded to absorb all the flames in the room into his body.
"Wow! You are a Pyronite from Pyros! Like in Pyros Unleashed! The comics were right about your people really existing!" The boy gushed to Rio, though the kid still knew what was better, meeting his superhero or his life.
You see, this was a little secret Rio has been keeping for a while now. Since he knew it was just a matter of time before he became a celebrity just as famous as the original Ben had eventually become.
He wanted the masses to know about the world beyond them—one filled with all kinds of aliens. After all, there are various incidents when Ben goes to the future and in various future timelines, humans naturally learned about aliens, coexisting to the point where aliens roam the streets like humans.
But he also knew revealing the truth all at once would be too shocking of a plot twist for most.
That's why he has been secretly making a bunch of stories to slowly get people used to it. Currently, he has only managed to have it reach the comic book market, but soon enough, with all the exposure and free market he will be getting with the news broadcasting his heroic accompaniments.
Let's just say that he might be able to reach the anime, game, and merchandise market and the best, even build a cinematic universe.
All of this was thanks to his AI, which turned his basic plots into masterpieces.
Rio likes to believe that he's doing a public service, with all the near world-ending encounters he might have to face this summer alone, it didn't hurt that he'd make some side money.
Now, back to his heroic rescue.
"Sure thing buddy," Rio said in a friendly manner to his little fan.
Then, he cut a hole through the window with his heatray and he repeated the same process with a swirl of flame through the window as before, pulling the mother, and son duo and carrying them outside.
Saving the people inside, He came to the top of the building and raised both hands to consume all the fire. Previously, he could not do this, as when he absorbs fire, the fire comes towards him which could hurt anyone in its way.
So, it could also injure the people inside.
With the people safe, he rocketed into the sky, leaving behind a column of fire and smoke as he flew through the air.
For Rio, instead of revealing himself to all the other civilians, he opted to keep his identity as just a freaky fiery tornado and left the scene like a meteor.
"What is that?!"
"There's really a guy who's on fire!"
When everyone noticed the change in the sky, the flaming man had already flown away.
"No way! A gold sumo slammers card! Where'd you get it?" while everyone was looking towards the sky, Ben was drawn towards a child holding some sumo slammers card.
"Tell me! I've been searching all over for that!"
"It was a prize inside a box of sumo smack cereals." the child confused by the sudden question still answered Ben, clearly he was also a fan of sumo slammers.
But before they could talk more a horn's honk cut through their talk.
"Ya, super doofus" Gwen sitting on the front seat with Max called out "Fire was just a diversion to cover a jewellery shop robbery. Rio's already on his way. Get in—we gotta go too!"
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Soon after Rio left the burning building, he saw police chasing a car.
At an intersection in the city, the car that was being driven by the robbers sped right by, ignoring the stoplights and with no regard for the lives of the civilians as they ran.
As they looked in the rearview mirror, they saw that a bright cloud of fire and smoke was on their tail and rapidly closing its distance.
"What the hell is that?!" One robber shouted as the driver made the car go faster.
Suddenly, the fiery cloud fired a fireball, tossing it at the robbers' car, hitting it in the back, and sending it flying in the air right into a brick wall as the driver screamed.
"No, not good! Stop the car!"
The car came crashing down to the ground as the robbers rubbed their heads still in a daze.
Seeing that the Robberers couldn't escape anymore, he didn't land and had the Robbers surrender, —his transformation time was nearly up, and the police could handle the rest.
Leaving the bandits to the cops who had just arrived. Ascending in the air Rio looked for the RV. Then, noticing the RV which was now approaching the scene he quickly went to an alley not far in front of the bus.
Turning back into a human, Rio exited the alley and came near the road, as he sent a message via his phone he waited for the RV to come there.
Inside the RV, Max heard a notice from Gwen's computer.
> MESSAGE FROM RIO
- Grandpa, I am standing on the Road, just drive straight and you will find me-
Grandpa Max listening to the message slowed the speed of the RV, looking at the walkway for Rio.
Soon spotting Rio, he pulled over and Rio made his way in.
Inside the RV, Gwen's computer was broadcasting the scene of a news host "talking nonsense" about the robbery, and there was a small line of words below broadcasting some irrelevant news.
"Bro you were so cool at the scene, and how did you deal with those robbers?!" Ben punched Rio's shoulder.
"Nothing, just one fireball and they crashed into a wall" Rio smiled and spoke.
Then he turned to look at Max "Grandpa, where are we going now?"
"I am thinking of going to the largest supermarket nearby. We need to buy some daily necessities." Mark replied.
Rio nodded, just then Ben sneakily looked at Max and then came near Rio and Gwen.
"How much pocket money do you have left? Let's buy more food and put it in the car, so we don't have to eat Grandpa's weird delicacies."
"I only have a few dollars," Gwen said helplessly.
"Actually, I think...it's okay if you're used to it." Rio tried his best to keep his expression natural and whispered.
Sure enough, the two of them looked at Rio.
"Did being an alien really turn you into one?" Gwen asked incredulously at how Rio could say such a thing.
"No, no!" Rio quickly explained, "Don't worry, I will use some of the money I saved to buy things." (After all, Rio earned at least a few thousand dollars a month.)
Sitting down and fastening their seat belts. They drove to a hotel, rented three rooms there, one for Gwen, one for me and Ben, and one for Max, and settled in for the night.
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Hey there! Thanks for reading my work! I hope this chapter is to your liking. I tried getting done with hinting at some potential. Sorry if you expected more details. Also sorry if you felt it was still too much detail.
If these chapters are a mess of grammatical errors, please point it out and I will try to fix it.
Thanks as always for your time, hope you have a fantastic day and please stay safe.