Blue Lightning, don't give up now.

Yet Billy's guitar wouldn't stop smoldering. His body wouldn't stop losing its opacity either. Why did Jyuji have to go and leave him alone to survive in the misty forest of concrete called "South City?"

A horde of orgmen came at him, denting the asphalt road with each step. Face hardened with determination, Billy strummed a series of discordant chords. Wild arcs of blue electricity crackled across his guitar and forced more fume out of the musical instrument.

As the silver-skinned ogres drew closer, Billy ended his play. A steady stream of electricity poured out of the guitar, struck the incoming orgmen, and reduced them to ashes.

Four orgmen survived the carnage. Behind them, more gigantic humanoid silhouettes were coming.

Gripping his smoldering guitar tightly, Billy launched himself up into the gray sky. He should've escaped instead of fighting back earlier; his guitar couldn't shoot lightning forever. If the instrument broke, either destroyed by the orgmen or the overheating system, Billy would fade away.

Two orgmen jumped at him, their arms spread. Billy tossed the guitar up and let the ogres pass through his semi-transparent figure.

I do miss a good hug as a ghost, but bear hugs? No, thank you. Billy caught his falling guitar by its fingerboard and glided away with a grin; somehow, it felt good to crack a joke in such a dire situation. As the redness faded from the teal electric guitar, Billy's body regained its opacity.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Billy flew into the gap between two shoddy apartment complexes. Good thing South City had a lot of passageways amid the residential buildings, which formed a secure escape route for Billy because orgmen were too big to enter the narrow paths.

When the end of the passage came to his sight, Billy halted and readied his guitar. Orgmen roamed the street down there, looking around for an intruder. Luckily, they never thought of looking up.

Just as Billy prepared himself to play another set of irregular, dissonant chords, he heard someone scream, "Fire Breath!" The masculine voice sounded rather light, quite fitting for a boy who had just gone through puberty.

Looking at the now wary orgmen, Billy smacked his palm against his forehead and sighed. This guy was new to fighting and Seed business, wasn't he? As far as Billy knew, the Seed in someone's body never required one to call the name of the attack out loud to summon its power; instead, one could just mention the correct password - the name of the attack - in the heart.

As the orgmen ran to where the shout came from, a massive gush of flame streamed along the road and consumed them. When the blaze cleared, the silver-skinned giants - now charred with gray smoke escaping from their bodies - roared and continued their stride.

"C'mon, musclebound morons! I can't wait to burn ya to a crisp!"

Animalistic howls and deafening booms echoed; amid them, Billy heard more taunts from that teen and cringed. Had this noisy fighter met Jyuji, he'd have swallowed a fireball... Oh, wait. This guy breathed fire, so fireballs would make a tasty meal for him instead.

As irritating as this guy was, Billy glided out of the passageway and strummed his guitar; teens would always need an adult's protection in such a dangerous area. Electricity danced across the body of the glowing instrument, and when Billy stopped the play, lightning bolts went hurtling towards the advancing giants.

The orgmen shrieked as their scorched bodies crumbled to dust.

"Fire Hook! Fire Uppercut! Fire Straight!" The teen - a little Human Torch - finished off the three remaining ogres with a flurry of flaming fists. Amazing how he could scream so much and come up with so many names for his fiery punches in a fight.

If this guy wanted to keep that silly habit, he'd better learn to weaponize his scream. Ruptured eardrums hurt like hell.

As Billy glided down, the flaming teen grinned broadly. "Hey, thanks for your help, Mr. Guitarist Ghost!"

"How did you know that I'm a ghost?"

"You fly." He snickered. "And the mist goes through you."

"Good catch, kid."

The teen flicked his fingers. With the coat of flame around him fading, Billy could now take a better look at the guy's appearance. He stood a little over five feet tall with a hairstyle that looked like the quills of a porcupine. His crimson tank top, which matched the color of his hair, couldn't conceal the large patch of glossy blue skin around his neck and clavicles.

The teen pointed a thumb at his own chest. "The name's Glenn Summers. You?"

"I'm Billy the Friendly Ghost." Billy laughed. Yeah, laughing was healthy, at least for him.

"Billy? Oh, wait, you're Rocketbilly Redcadillac," a robotic voice spoke through the patch of blue skin. "I know you. You halted the Methuselah's previous invasion with Jyuji and the legendary Beyond the Grave."

Billy gasped, his guitar fumbling out of his hands. "What? You aliens can actually speak?" He caught the instrument before it hit the ground.

Suddenly, booming footsteps came from behind Glenn as five gigantic humanoid silhouettes drew closer. The teen turned and scolded, "You're really late, guys."

Billy's eyes widened at the approaching figures. How the heck could this boy befriend orgmen? Though unlike the ones he had just met, these ogres stood about a head taller than an average human and wore shades and suits.

Glenn shifted his gaze to Billy. "Don't worry about these orgmen. They're part of the South City Exploration Team."

Billy shuddered. "What the hell! Didn't your parents say a thing about it?"

"I've been living in an orphanage since I was four."

"You're still a teen, you know? You're supposed to study at school instead of fighting monsters!"

"I hate school, mister, and I don't need it to achieve my dream." Glenn pointed at the lustrous blue skin of his neck. "Look. The dean of Metaslica University helped me by choosing me to lead these orgmen and injecting a Seed alien named Fornax into me."

"For God's sake, kid, why did you let the dean do that?"

"I wanna be a superhero. The dean gave me the chance to be one. Why not?"

Brow furrowing in anger, Billy approached Glenn. "Superheroes only exist in fairy tales."

"People never try hard enough to be one!"

A hiss escaped through Billy's gritted teeth. No wonder why the dean - a snake - picked the naive, foolish mouse that was Glenn.

"It's okay, Billy," Fornax assured. "I've taught him how to use his superpower."

"I'm getting you outta here!" Billy glided over Glenn. Hovering above the friendly orgmen, he added, "C'mon, kid!"

"Why don't we just team up?" Glenn suggested. "We can roast everything in our way!"

"Let me tell you once more, 'The state of Billion isn't a playground!' Sure, you can defeat orgmen easily, but what about the bigger, scarier monsters?"

"That's the challenge I must face to be a superhero, and I ain't gonna-"

The approaching scamper of eight legs cut him off. Rapid, rhythmic clacks followed.

"I'll show you how I beat this big guy!" Glenn exclaimed. "Fire up, Fornax!"

Billy turned. A twelve-meter tall scorpion with the upper body of a bare-chested man came at them, waving his four snapping pincers - two of them came from the human half, while the two bigger ones came from the scorpion half. The torso and the head lacked the crystalline plates that covered the lower-half of his body, but how the hell could Billy and Glenn hit the weak spots? The creature also had a segmented stinger tail that hung just a few feet above its bald head.

The blazing Glenn barreled towards the scorpion man while shouting at the top of his lungs, prompting his classy giant buddies to follow him. Billy was no expert in orgmen language, but he somehow sensed concern in their shrieks.

Better lend them a hand. Billy plucked a set of smooth, flowing notes. Tiny cracks of shock built up across the body of the guitar and flowed along the fingerboard.

Glenn jumped over the scorpion man's swiping pincers and landed on his broad shoulder. Barraging the fleshy head and torso with fiery fists and feet, the teen screamed, "Fire Punch! Fire Kick!" over and over again. They left nothing but minor burns and bruises that healed up very quickly.

The scorpion man grinned at Glenn, his stinger tail coming down upon the teen.

"Glenn!" The broken concentration ended Billy's performance and dispelled the electricity he had conjured.

An orgman tackled Glenn out of harm's way, and the tail pierced through the ogre's spine. Grinning even more broadly and maliciously, the scorpion man wagged his tail to show off the limp orgman. The body soon disintegrated, and the worn suit and shades fell to the ground.

"You killed my friend!" Glenn got up and charged at the scorpion again. "You're gonna-" An orgman seized his arms. "Hey, let me go! I wanna beat-"

The orgman glanced at Billy and yipped before flinging Glenn over an apartment complex. Then it joined its comrades in pummeling the scorpion man.

As the thrashing pincers crushed the ogres one-by-one, Billy nodded and shot up into the air. He'd protect Glenn and play a melancholy tune for the orgmen later, to replace the tears he could never shed for them.