One punch.
Another.
And another.
Lucas Kane stood beneath the roaring waterfall, his body braced against the crushing force of the water. With each strike he drove his fist forward through the torrent.
Every punch briefly disrupted the flow. For the smallest fraction of a second, the falling water stalled where his fist passed through.
But that wasn't enough.
Lucas didn't want the waterfall to hesitate.
He wanted it to tremble.
He wanted it to reverse.
The demand wasn't unreasonable in his mind. This waterfall wasn't exactly legendary—nothing like the immense cascades of the world. Compared to those, this one barely measured up.
So asking it to flow backward?
That wasn't excessive.
Apparently, the waterfall disagreed.
The torrent intensified, as if the river itself had taken offense.
Water thundered down with increasing force.
Lucas remained expressionless.
Inside his Cosmo, the Phoenix Constellation shone brilliantly. The fiery form of a phoenix gradually took shape above the blazing star pattern.
He had already made his decision.
He wouldn't leave until the waterfall reversed.
School would resume soon, but that hardly mattered.
Lucas was an orphan. If he skipped a few days—or even weeks—of classes at Midtown High School, no one would likely notice.
And that suited him.
No one worried about him.
Which meant he didn't have to worry about anyone else.
Lucas's eyes ignited with determination.
"Come on," he muttered.
The waterfall roared louder, the torrent surging violently as if answering the challenge.
Several miles north, near the outer edge of Cunningham Falls State Park, another sound echoed faintly through the forest.
Gwen Stacy paused on the trail.
"Was that thunder?"
She glanced upward.
Towering trees blocked most of the sky, their branches forming a dense canopy overhead. Sunlight filtered through scattered gaps, casting shifting patterns across the forest floor.
The scene felt strangely quiet.
Gwen lowered her gaze and pulled out her phone.
A tracking app displayed a small map.
Two dots appeared on the screen.
One marked her location.
The other…
It flickered in the distance.
Taking a steady breath, Gwen tightened her grip on the hiking stick she had purchased the previous afternoon in Thurmont.
Then she continued walking toward the signal.
At first, Gwen had assumed Lucas's phone had simply been stolen.
She hadn't thought much about it.
She had her own summer job to worry about.
But the next day, Curt Connors asked whether she had delivered the gift he'd prepared for Lucas.
That question stuck with her.
After work, she stopped by Lucas's new apartment.
The envelope she had left on the couch was still there.
Untouched.
For reasons she couldn't explain, Gwen suddenly felt uneasy.
She immediately called her father, George Stacy, asking if the New York Police Department could help locate Lucas.
At first, George hadn't taken it very seriously.
But seeing the worry on his daughter's face, he contacted colleagues at the Queens precinct.
The result?
Nothing.
Lucas Kane had seemingly vanished.
He had no credit cards.
No driver's license.
His phone was either stolen or turned off.
Tracking him was nearly impossible.
To the modern world, Lucas Kane was practically invisible.
No family.
No close relationships.
Not even a circle of friends.
Even if the police opened a missing person case, there were almost no leads to pursue.
None of Lucas's classmates could say when they last saw him.
None of them had noticed he was gone.
None—
Except Gwen.
A few days later, George finally asked the question that had been bothering him.
"Gwen… are you sure you're not falling for this Lucas guy?"
Gwen had just returned home after searching for Lucas again.
She blinked in surprise.
Then she answered.
"Dad… Lucas and I are just friends."
By the time George processed that answer, Gwen had already run upstairs.
He stared after her, confused.
Then he looked at his wife.
"Friends?" he said. "You believe that?"
Helen Stacy smiled faintly.
"Whether I believe it doesn't matter," she replied.
"But you should probably accept something."
George frowned.
"What?"
"You're not going to keep your daughter forever."
George blinked.
Later that night, Gwen collapsed onto her bed.
Lucas had been missing for over ten days.
The worry gnawed at her constantly.
Just as she closed her eyes, her phone buzzed.
She checked it absentmindedly.
Then she froze.
It wasn't spam.
Her account had triggered another login alert.
She opened the message immediately.
This time the signal wasn't vague.
It pinpointed an exact location.
Maryland.
Cunningham Falls State Park.
A waterfall.
That was why Gwen was here.
The sound of rushing water grew louder as she pushed deeper into the forest.
Sweat ran down her face, but her steps quickened.
She was close.
Beneath the waterfall, Lucas completed his 9,999th punch.
He pulled his fist back.
Behind him, the phoenix silhouette burned brighter than ever.
Then he launched the final strike.
His ten-thousandth punch.
The fiery phoenix spread its wings.
A sharp cry echoed through the air.
Lucas's fist collided with the falling water.
"Reverse!"
BOOM.
The impossible happened.
Instead of crashing downward, the waterfall surged upward like a dragon rising into the sky.
The torrent reversed direction, blasting toward the heavens.
For a moment—
Everything seemed frozen.
Then a voice pierced through the stillness.
Clear.
Shaking.
"Lucas!!"