Alien Pursuit

The silver spaceship was hit again by the spherical aircraft relentlessly pursuing it. Black smoke began to billow from its left wing at the rear, causing the ship to lose balance. For Kara, who hadn't even gotten her license yet, keeping this thing airborne was already taking all her effort.

Meanwhile, the pursuing aircraft were rapidly closing in, more than twice as fast as their ship. At this rate, they had no chance of reaching the portal.

Unless someone could do something.

"Open the hatch," Jay suddenly told Kara. "I'll hold them off."

"Are you crazy?" Kara shook her head. "The radiation has greatly weakened us. Setting aside whether you have enough strength to shoot down those aircraft, we don't even know how much longer you can fly."

"So the plan is for us to wait here on this ship to be shot down and captured again?" Jay retorted.

Kara gritted her teeth, speechless. She knew Jay was right. They had no hope of survival if they continued flying like this. If the ship was shot down, she and Jay might still escape, but these weakened people stood no chance.

"This is the only way," Jay said, looking straight into her eyes. "Open the hatch. I'll be back later. I promise."

After a long hesitation, Kara sighed softly and pressed the button for the Gate of Opening. The hatch lowered with a low hum. The fierce airflow from the high-speed flight rushed into the cabin almost madly, making Jay's bright cape flutter like a flag behind him.

Mr. Reynolds pushed his way through the crowd, his hand on Jay's shoulder, wanting to say something but hesitating. Jay smiled. "Don't worry, Dad. I'll finish up quickly and catch up with you. When we get back, you, Mom, and I will have a real celebration party."

Mr. Reynolds's eyes were filled with bitterness, unable to speak for a moment. He just gently patted his son's shoulder. Even though he had always known about his son's extraordinary abilities, deep down he had always seen him as just a child. It was only today that he suddenly realized his son had long since reached the age where he could spread his wings and soar.

"You must come back, son."

Jay nodded forcefully, then turned to face the raging wind and the six aircraft without fear. He took a deep breath, silently praying he still had the strength to fly, and then leaped out of the hatch, leaving behind a cool silhouette of his cape fluttering in the wind.

A person's life, at least once, should be cool, right? In his past life, he had often fantasized about being like a movie protagonist, having such a heroic moment of self-sacrifice. He used to think it would be so cool, so eye-catching, and might even elicit screams from girls. Now that he finally had such an opportunity, that feeling was completely gone.

It turned out that such coolness was just like carrying a heavy burden, with the lives of over a dozen people on his shoulders, including his dear father. It turned out that being a hero wasn't cool at all. He was doing it because only he could, so he had to.

The closest aircraft was less than ten meters from the rear of the spaceship. At this speed, that was a dangerously close distance. The aliens in the cockpit yelled unintelligibly, and the spherical aircraft suddenly accelerated, spewing two long streams of flame from its rear, aiming to bite onto the tail of the spaceship ahead.

Just as they were about to succeed, a blue blur darted into the alien's vision like a weasel. The alien shrieked, completely unable to see what had happened before its cockpit was hit heavily on the side. Cracks instantly spread across the windshield on the side of the spherical aircraft with a loud "clang." The cockpit instantly lost balance and, like a football kicked with great force, smashed into a building a dozen meters away.

Jay suddenly zipped past the aircraft, his fists aching slightly. The good news was that he could still fly for now, and not slowly. The bad news was that his fists seemed to lack the strength to directly penetrate the shell of these aircraft anymore. This meant he couldn't simply tear them apart with his bare hands.

Three aircraft successfully attracted his attention and twisted in mid-air, chasing after him. However, two other aircraft relentlessly pursued Kara's ship, continuing to sweep it with blue laser fire.

This was not the outcome Jay wanted. He abruptly lowered his altitude, luring the three aircraft to chase him down. The rain of laser fire all hit the street below, causing successive spectacular explosions that sent alien pedestrians fleeing in panic. Using the fire as cover, Jay instantly shot upwards at an extreme angle, like walking a dog, turning once again to zip through the gaps between the three aircraft, heading straight for the rear of the other two.

The alien pilots of the three aircraft yelled in frustration but could only helplessly maneuver their machines to turn back and chase him. They unleashed torrents of blue energy rounds at Jay, but his size was too small, allowing him to weave through the barrage unharmed. Jay suddenly accelerated, a circle of milky white energy exploding around his body. He shot forward like a blue bullet, directly reaching the tail of the aircraft in front. Enduring the high-temperature exhaust from the spherical aircraft, he firmly gripped its tail wings with both hands, one on each side. With a sudden surge of strength, he forcibly altered its trajectory. The aircraft's pilot cried out in panic, only to find his vehicle completely out of control. It nosedived uncontrollably towards its companion. The two spherical ships exploded into a dazzling fireball in mid-air, leaving burning wreckage to tumble down.

The remaining pilots cursed loudly but had no choice but to temporarily lock their targets onto this flying kid. Jay executed a ninety-degree turn, leading them into the bustling city. Kara's ship finally managed to shake off the pursuit.

The people on the ship finally breathed a sigh of relief. Someone softly asked, "Is he Superman? Did he come back to save us?"

"No," Kara stared firmly at the windshield ahead. "But he is someone who is trying."

The entrance to the pipe at the garbage dump was now close at hand – the tunnel leading to the path home. Kara pressed a button, retracting the wings on the sides of the ship so it could barely squeeze into the narrow passage. She loudly warned everyone to "hold on tight," then accelerated again. The ship vibrated violently, its hull emitting a sharp whine as it scraped against the outer walls of the pipe. It was like a cannonball being fired, plunging into the seemingly endless tunnel.