The Association of Super Beings and Extraordinary Humans: Chapter 14
The next morning was almost utter havoc. I didn’t sleep from Dom’s visit the night before and could barely move or acknowledge that my friends were trying to get though to me. I couldn’t think straight. All I could think of was that he was there. He made Alice suffer just one more time before he took her from me for good. And while everyone else had finally calmed down after finding me angry and sleep deprived, I continued the investigation. Reading through file after file, report after report. But none of it made any sense. Everything was so sporadic and out of place that it made tracking him impossible, not to mention any information on this so called “Fearsome Five”. There was no motive. Literally just random killings. The frustration was getting to me and everyone could see that. I’ll be honest, I’m not a smart guy. Not that I have anything wrong with me, I’m just not that smart. My smarts come from gut feelings. Pure instinct half the time. You could say its almost like magical thinking. Like there’s this voice in the back of my head that points me in the right direction. And right now, he didn’t feel like sharing.
I sat at the kitchen counter, going back through file after file and eventually I gave up. I would’ve gotten up and done something else had Kyle not come over and already started inspecting the files.
“Woah. This is…. this is weird”
“I know. The murders are so random its impossible to track anything”
“No, I mean they’ve got heroes down as potential weaknesses”
“What?”
“Look. Is says here on Cast Iron’s file. Axel would’ve been a weakness”
I looked and sure enough, Axel’s name was down under weakness. What did that mean you ask? Well it clicked. Finally, that instinct was pulling me into the right direction. I grabbed my own file and began to read. And there, under weaknesses was Gas Mask. And by extension, Cast Iron.
“Kyle…. Kyle you’ve done it!”
“Done what?”
“You’ve figured it out!”
“How?”
“He can steal powers Kyle! If the Association has other heroes under others weaknesses then that means-“
“He’s taking the powers that we’ll be weak against….so he can fight us head on!”
“Exactly! Kyle you’re a genius!”
“Not really. You figured this out”
“I’ve spent all day doing this and not once did I see the picture til you showed up. Trust me kid, its on you”
I told him to gather the others and in a few short minutes. We explained what he was doing and how we were going to counter. And we were going tonight. Me and Kyle had a plan and we had a feeling we’d know who he was gonna go after next. He killed Gas Mask to use his gas against Kyle. Cast Iron against me. So logically, the next one to die would be D-Rip, a hero who could trap people in small rips in reality. He was the first of the next generation with almost unstoppable powers, just like me. Although I suppose living with his power is a lot more taxing than mine. Either way, he’d use D-Rip against Axel we figured; trapping him meant he couldn’t use his explosions. So once we geared up, we headed out as a team, and had Emily guide us and feed us intel on the way.
“Okay, from what I’ve got here, Apex can steal powers, so that means you’ll have to minimise exposure as must as possible. You’ll want to keep quiet for this one.”
“Copy that. We’re approaching now. You see anyone in there from the thermal drone Emily?”
“Not right now. But I wouldn’t just say he isn’t there. You’ll have to search the old fashioned way”
“Roger that. Beginning search”
We had managed to track down D’s last known location; a warehouse down at the Industrial Districts pier. Why he was here, we had no idea. He hadn’t been seen all day, and with the killings, we had to assume the worst. However, Glam didn’t want to risk anyone being sent to investigate since she didn’t want to risk anymore lives. But we somehow managed to convince her that we’d be the best ones for the job. Being that me and Tyler knew Dom. We’d know if he was just proving his worth, or that something else was going on. Anyway, we had split into two teams. Tyler had taken Kyle and Johnny, since those three would have an easier time getting the drop on Dom, so that left me once again with Axel and Fe. Keeping Axel quiet was easy; Fe told him to just be a spy. Be Kyle or something. While he visibly looked disgusted at the latter, he took the former seriously and well, moved like a spy. He was even humming that tune from that one moving while he was doing it. And does that every time we do something like this. Its was funny but got boring after a while. Anyway, I tried contacting Ty to ask him if he had found anything but all I got was static. Pure static. Weird, I thought, aren’t these things on mega batteries? Then, an ear piercing buzz roar sound echoed throughout our search area
“What….what was that…”
“I have absolutely no idea”
“I don’t like the sound of that….we should go back to Tyler”
Fe was right. Whatever the hell that was sounded way out of our league, even with the crazy almost unstable powers we had. As we turned to leave a glow came from our entry point. All three of us stopped dead in our tracks and I instinctively pushed them back gently, stepping out in front. I can’t help doing that. I guess you can thank Alice for always making me react by keeping everyone else as far away from danger as I can. Anyway, the glow suddenly just…stopped. Like someone just switched off the light. We relaxed ever so slightly, when a HUGE….thing made out of pure lightning or electricity or whatever burst in and started screaming like it crawled out of Hell on its period. Axel screamed like a woman (he tends to do that) and Fe grabbed my arm as tightly as she could. She let go when I pushed at it, swinging my right arm as hard as I could into its stomach. Bad decision really, as the second my hand touched it, it discharged and sent my flying backwards. I’ll admit, that hurt. Like, a metric fuckton of pain. My vision was already blurring as Fe and Axel came rushing to get me on my feet.
“I mean you have balls to try”
“Axel! He’s hurt!”
“I know! But you have to be impressed”
He came roaring at us again, ripping through the steel wall like it was paper mache. He lumbered towards us, almost in a confused, drunk like manner. And it spoke.
“B-B-BRING!!!”
“M-M-M-ME!!!!”
F-F-F-F-F-FOOOOODDD!!!!”
Uh oh. Big, strong, can’t be touched AND can think. Doesn’t look good does it? Well I have a secret weapon. And he’s called Smurf
(Hello! I’m Tyler! I see Jack left his laptop open. He’s doing a real good job of this account huh? I’m really happy to see him express himself other than punches! Also stop calling me Smurf. You know I hate it! I’ll tell everyone about the thai restaurant incident and you know I will jacket boy!)
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