Chapter 16

What heroes do

Lucy gripped the iron handle inside the jeep tighter as they approached the edge of the battleground.

The crowd that had gathered below the airship had long scattered in all directions, running for their lives; except for the unlucky ones that were caught in the epicenter of this brutal attack.

Who… Just what kind of a monster would do something like this?

And she wasn’t referring to the demon ape. Despite how skilled it was in combat, it was, at the end, just some mindless beast.

Someone had unleashed it upon the city. Deliberately.

Just who could be so… evil?

There was something truly sinister at play in Sol City.

And it had to do with the Underground…

“There he is!” shouted one of the soldiers from the jeep in front of them, pointing up.

The demon hawk broke through the clouds and soared through the dark sky with intent.

Just how much havoc was this one about to wreak?

Lucy and Aiden had been following the hawk, before it went out of vision and they got occupied with the ape. Apparently, while Lucy and the others were fighting the ape on the north side of the city, the soldiers were busy with another breakout on the far south, where they too encountered the hawk and were forced to go underground.

Apparently the hawk had been circling the whole city.

Was it like an overseer of the battlefield?

Or was it actually the one who’d caused the outbreak?

Or both?

She did hear one of the soldiers saying that some weird shit was going on in the Underground.

The Underground Subway System. She was sure now that they would find answers there.

But also demons. Lots of demons.

Kind of classic if you think about it. Just like the old stories.

Demons rising from the underground… Bringing about the apocalypse.

Raising hell.

Lucy gulped. How were they going to deal with that? They needed information. Intel to prepare… if preparation would make any difference.

The Underground… That’s where the answers lied.

The jeep came to an abrupt halt. Lucy grabbed Aiden’s arm and they shot out the door as the other soldiers opened fire on the rapidly-descending hawk.

Just why was it back here?

Clark’s guns—obtained without his consent, so to speak—were now being concealed and carried by the robot blob. He had thankfully recovered from his injuries from fighting the ape just barely enough that he could move independently.

He’d taken shape of a small car this time around. And he was following them closely.

Discreetly.

It was easy for it to follow them unnoticed. It had some sort of cloaking device on, as far as Lucy could tell, because she couldn’t spot it anywhere. But every time she’d look back for it, the blob would reveal a little bit of its body, or bump into a stalled car, to give her a sign that it was there.

It wasn’t like any soldier would notice it following the jeep from behind anyway, since all of their eyes were stuck on the gigantic demon hawk soaring through the sky.

Clark too had been radio-silent this entire time. Apparently, both him and blob didn’t want to reveal themselves to the military.

Was it because they were some top-secret government ‘defense project’ gone rogue?

She should ask him about it, later.

Lucy wanted to pull Aiden away from the street and behind some secure cover, out of sight, but they saw it as soon as they got out.

They would have spotted it earlier if their eyes weren’t so fixed on the clouds.

It was the demon ape’s body, collapsed on the ground. Cold and blue.

Motionless.

Dead?

Was it really dead?

“They got him!” Aiden whispered to her excitedly. “Alex and that ice lady, they got him!”

Looked like they did. But where were they?

Something didn’t fit.

“There!” Aiden shouted, pointing to a spot behind the demon ape’s carcass. “There they are!”

Before Lucy could squint her eyes to look, a massive gush of wind almost blew them off their feet as the giant hawk flapped its giant wings only a few meters above ground.

What was it doing?

They must be ready for anything!

The demon hawk dove forward and swooshed toward the carcass of the demon ape. It dug its giant talons into the carcass, and lifted it up into the sky, all while tanking machine gun fire from the soldiers.

The carcass! It must be important somehow.

Why else would the hawk come for it?

But why was it important?

And was it even a carcass?

Are the demons even capable of death?

“Holy shit that was so metal!” said Aiden, gazing at the giant hawk carrying the massive body of the demon ape higher and higher, until they both disappeared into the clouds.

“Come on,” said Lucy, feeling uneasy. She felt so every time in a situation where she wasn’t sure what was going to happen next. “It looks like we’re in the clear, for now. We need to head back.”

“But they’re right there! I can see Alex resting on the ground,” said Aiden. He ran off to speak with the sergeant. “Dan, you gotta get them out of there!” he said pointing at the spot where the demon ape’s carcass had lay just a couple minutes ago.

Lucy couldn’t see very well through all the dust that had risen to the air.

She squinted her eyes and tried to focus.

The dust finally cleared just enough now for her to see—

Alex.

Collapsed on the ground. Surrounded by one, maybe two, weird-looking dudes, and the ice witch from before!

Unconscious, or…

Shit.

Aiden must not see that.

“Get who from where?” said Dan, walking forward and squinting his eyes in the direction that Aiden was pointing.

The dust had settled now. But the wide street was empty.

Alex was were nowhere to be seen. Nor were the weird dudes surrounding him.

Where the hell did they go?

And how did they simply… vanish?

Whoever they were, they were gone. And they’d taken Alex with them.

“Where did they go?!” Aiden cried out in confusion. “They were right there just a second ago!”

“Relax, kid,” said Dan, looking down at them from his towering height. “I know you’ve been through some tough shit today.”

“I’m not bullshitting you!” said Aiden.

“Hey, I never said you were.” Dan raised his hands defensively. “I’m just saying, in stressful situations like these, you sometimes see shit that isn’t there.”

The other members from Dan’s crew began surrounding him now with intense murmuring.

“I’ve never seen shit like this in my entire life, though, damn,” said the bearded soldier.

Lucy recognized him from earlier; he was the one Aiden had given the grenade launcher tip to. The one who’d dragged them out of harm’s way during the bombing of the spider and the snake.

“This is wilder than all of our tours combined, eh?” chipped in another.

“Dunno about you guys, but I remember seeing shit like this when we were in The Congo,” said a loony-looking skinny guy.

“That’s cuz yo dumbass ate those wild mushrooms, dog. Despite my wise advice to do otherwise!” said a relatively-skinny soldier; his skin almost as dark as Dan’s.

“Yeah, well.” The loony soldier sniffed hard. “That trip doesn’t even come close to this one, huh?”

“Not even close,” Dan approved, nodding his head at the spot in the sky where the hawk had disappeared.

He then turned to Lucy and Aiden. “You kids are strong. Thank you for leading us to the fight, or at least the end of it. Now we can include this in our report.”

Aiden smiled faintly.

“What do you think took it down though?” asked the bearded soldier. “Something even fatter, meaner?”

“Perhaps,” said Dan, gloomily looking around. “Keep your eyes open.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Lucy had only told them that there was a demon monster let loose here.

She had kicked Aiden quiet before he could blurt anything about ice witches.

Or some guy bursting into flames and going toe-to-toe with this demonic monstrosity.

“The hawk would have led you to it anyway,” said Lucy humbly.

“It could have,” said Dan. “But it didn’t, did it? It was you guys. We had no idea about all the hell that was breaking lose above ground.”

“What did you see… in the underground?” Lucy asked him hopefully, although she knew it was a long shot.

Dan looked at them with the fear of doom in his eyes. “You don’t wanna know.”

***

Lucy and Aiden assured Dan and his crew that they can make their way back home; whatever home meant now.

They didn’t need to know that they were in fact living in a super luxurious mansion atop a cliff hidden deep in the northern forest.

Lucy felt a little uncomfortable knowing that they were at least sleeping in a soft bed, and getting to eat fresh fruit. Everyone else trapped within Sol City was nowhere close to that lucky.

She would have taken more people into the mansion if she could. Children, especially.

But that wasn’t possible. Clark had made it very clear: The secrecy of the mansion and their existence was paramount.

Lucy could be risking the very lives she was trying to help or save, by exposing Clark’s location.

Once they were sufficiently deep into the northern woods, the robot blob revealed itself to them.

“Nice stealthy driving,” Aiden said to it, patting its head which it absolutely adored. Aiden was still walking with a limp. He had twisted his leg pretty bad.

Maybe Clark could do something about it.

“I’ve got a first aid kit back in the house,” his static voice whizzed through their watches after Lucy asked him about it. “There’s gotta be a spray or something in there for sprains and what nots.”

A machine with a first aid kit for humans.

Sure.

Makes perfect sense.

There was so much about Clark that they didn’t know yet.

Or, for that matter, about Alex…

“Watch your step,” Clark warned as they entered the estate grounds, but Aiden missed it. Lucy was quick to grab him before he tripped on the raised ground.

“You never watch where you’re walking, do you?” Lucy snapped at him like she usually did.

“Sorry,” said Aiden softly and went straight back to being quiet.

That’s weird. He should have snapped back at her like he normally would.

Something was bothering him.

Lucy scoffed at herself for expecting a normal reaction from Aiden. Nothing about today was normal.

Once again, they had narrowly escaped certain death.

Just how many more times could they keep getting lucky?

Luck’s bound to run out sooner or later.

What’ll she do then?

She must figure out a way to stop this.

She needed a concrete plan. Based on solid intel.

The demon infestation of Sol City... It must be purged!

And if it’s too dangerous to even attempt, then they need to bolt out of here. Plain and simple.

No more trying to play the hero and trying to save the city. It was just too risky.

They clearly had an exit opportunity now, and they should take it.

Intel… it all depends on intel. And that can surely be obtained in the Underground!

They were silent through most of their walk back to the mansion. She was too stressed about everything that happened, and needed time to process it all, and think about what to do next.

Aiden was obviously stressed too. But, apparently, so was Clark.

The demon invasion was so dense that even an advanced AI machine was stressing over it.

They were finally through the door of the mansion. Lucy felt a rush of safety and comfort wash over her. She could collapse on her bed and not get off for ten straight days.

Tempting proposition indeed.

But her mind was still restless.

“Thank you,” said Aiden, smiling at the robot blob who had helped him gently get on the couch.

He barked back joyfully.

Of all the concerns and worries swirling through her mind right now, she was surprised to find herself asking Clark, “So where’d you find the robot blob?”

“Right here,” Clark responded. “He awoke with me.”

“Awoke? Just like that?”

“Yeah, same as me,” said Clark plainly.

“Don’t call him ‘robot blob’,” Aiden snapped. “He’s got a name!” He nervously looked at Clark. “He’s got a name, right?”

“Well… He’s got a signature. A digital signature, that is. Oh, and he’s got a MAC address of his own too, you know, like in WI-FI—”

“That’s not what I’m talking about!” said Aiden, baffled. “You never named him?”

“Never felt the need to.” Clark’s blue ball on the smartwatch made a motion resembling a shrug.

“We’ll think of something,” said Aiden, looking kindly at the now-excited robot blob. “I will think of something!”

Lucy knew that naming the robot blob was important to Aiden. But making it a priority in a situation like this was nothing but a coping mechanism.

Something was bothering him.

“What’s happening…” She cleared her throat. “…to Sol City, Clark? Where are these flying monsters coming from?”

Clark spent a couple seconds in contemplation. “I’ve got a few theories. But I need to test them. I’ll need time.”

“The soldiers said… said something about seeing weird shit in the Underground.”

“I heard that.”

“You think it’s worth checking out?” asked Aiden.

“No!” said both Lucy and Clark in unison.

“I mean, yes,” Clark clarified. “It is worth checking out. And it would confirm one, maybe two, of my theories…”

Aiden eyed him curiously. “… But?”

“But it’s not going to be us,” Lucy finished for him. “We’ve had enough.”

“That’s right,” said Clark. “I don’t want to say I told you so. But I did tell you so.”

“We couldn’t have just sat around and done nothing!” Aiden protested. “You agreed!” he said to Lucy.

“I was wrong,” Lucy admitted. “I thought the alien guns and the freaking tank would give us a big enough edge, especially considering that a bag full of grenades was able to take out the spider and the snake. But these new demons… they’re something else entirely. They’re simply out of our league.”

“Again,” said Clark. “I told you so.”

“But we’re superheroes!” Aiden protested. “We are supposed to help people! This is what heroes do!”

“You are supposed to train, first,” said Clark. “We have no idea what your mutations are, or when they will mature or manifest. We need time… to experiment and explore.”

“Or we just need to get out of here,” said Lucy. “This is not our fight if we stand no chance of winning it.”

“How can you say that?” cried Aiden. “How can you even think of just abandoning everyone trapped inside the city? There are children in there who need our help!”

“I understand!” Lucy finally snapped. “But I am thinking about us first. I am being practical here, Aiden. It would be foolish to just throw ourselves into dangerous situations, relying only on nothing else but pure luck!”

“It wasn’t just luck that kept us alive today, though, was it?” Aiden snapped back. “It was Alex. Throwing himself into a dangerous situation for our sake. He’s saved our lives more than once now!”

Uncomfortable silence. The robot blob looked from Aiden to Lucy and then back to Aiden nervously.

Aiden was too tensed up right now. She should talk to him about this later, when he’s calmed down.

After a minute that felt like a month, she spoke again, “Clark, why was Alex on fire?”

“Beats me,” said Clark.

“Don’t you know him?”

“Yeah, for a day longer than I know you guys. If you’re keeping any superpowers secret from me, please come clean now.”

“I don’t think he was hiding it,” Aiden chipped in. “I think it just sort of…”

He seemed to have lost his trail of thought.

“Sort of came out of nowhere?” Lucy finished for him. “Maybe it did, maybe it didn’t. The fact here is simple: All of us barely know him, or anything about him.”

“What are you suggesting?” Aiden asked her with his eyebrows tensed.

“That he might not be who he says he is,” said Clark in a matter-of-fact tone. “We must consider the possibility that this entire conflict is… um…”

Aiden looked like he would explode any second now. “This entire conflict is what?”

“That it has something to do with Alex,” said Lucy, figuring out what Clark had gotten at but was hesitating to say to Aiden. “He could be involved somehow. He set himself on fire, for god’s sakes!”

Aiden remained silent.

Clark continued, “It’s possible that he too is from another planet, but doesn’t know it. Although he did have an ice witch for a friend… so maybe he is simply hiding it from us. Or…”

He once again hesitated to say the next part.

So Lucy continued for him. “Or maybe he’s a demon himself. He had the same kind of strange warmth coming from him. I was doubtful at first too, but then I remembered how similar it felt to the heat coming from the spider, and then the ape. It also, maybe, explains why the ice witch and her friends would want to take him away—”

Aiden abruptly got up and limped out of the living room through the giant glass door that opened automatically for him.

“Aiden!” Lucy chased after him. So did blob, or whatever his MAC address is.

But her watch suddenly tightened and vibrated, stopping both her and blob in their tracks.

“Lucy,” came Clark’s voice. “Approach with caution. His heart rate indicates he’s hyper-emotional right now.”

“I know,” she told him. “I know my brother.”

She got out through the glass doors and looked around, but she couldn’t find Aiden anywhere.

A small bout of panic rose in her chest. This happens every time Aiden disappears.

Relax, Lucy. He couldn’t have gone far.

The robot blob tugged at her and indicated that she follow him, so she did.

They went around and behind the mansion, toward the cliff overlooking the city.

Lucy followed the blob. It led her beyond a few small bushes, closer to the edge, where there was a bench.

And seated on it, tense with his hands joined together, and his face resting on them, was Aiden. He gazed intensely at the red glow emanating from the city spread wide before them.

Lucy thought of how beautiful it would’ve looked from here… before. Colorful, bustling lights everywhere, especially during the music festivals at the city center.

Now, the only light was from the fires. And the strange red glow, which seemed to have no source.

She should come back up here once it was all over.

If it does end. And if they survive through it…

A cold, freezing breeze blew over them. Lucy couldn’t recall the city, or the parts around it, being this cold.

“Aiden,” she said softly, her breath turning to mist before her. “Come inside.”

Aiden snapped an angry look at her with swollen eyes. He instantly snapped away from Lucy and turned to look at the city once again. “I cannot, for the life of me, sit through one more minute of you guys insulting the guy who just saved our lives, and not to mention, everyone else in the city.”

“I’m not insulting him—” Lucy tried to explain.

But Aiden cut her off. “Yes, he was on fire. But so what? Did you see him team up with the ape and start burning people alive? No! Instead, he fought the demon ape. He defeated the demon ape! With some help, sure… from that ice witch lady… who didn’t seem at all villainous to me either, just saying!”

Lucy remained quiet. She wanted to let him vent.

“He jumped between us and the ape, completely unaware of the fact that he had any powers!” Aiden continued. “That’s what my gut says. He fired something from his hands before that, but that could be some other power or magic that he wasn’t aware of.”

“That was me,” Clark quickly clarified. “I armed the watch on his arm with a static blast.”

“Right,” said Aiden. “But still… he is the one who took the shot! And that proves my point. Whatever he is, he is not our enemy!”

“I never said that he was,” said Lucy.

“You called him a demon!” said Aiden. “He is not a demon!”

“Okay,” said Lucy calmly. “Okay, Aiden. He is not a demon. But then, what is he?”

“Maybe he just stumbled upon a mutagen, like you guys did,” Clark cut in. “And his mutations kicked in much quicker than yours.”

Aiden took a small breath in before continuing. “Whatever he is, or whatever planet he may have come from, he is our friend. I just know it.”

The robot blob rested its body on the ground, whimpering briefly like a puppy.

Lucy sat down beside Aiden, accompanying him at glaring at the city.

He was still tensed up. He just needed time.

Lucy was prepared to sit with him all night out in the cold, if that’s what he needed.

“It should have been me,” said Aiden, his voice shaking.

“What do you mean?” asked Lucy.

“It should have been me!” he announced. “Powering up and taking down the freaking demons. I’m a superhero now. And that’s what heroes do! I’ve got my powers. But still… still!

“Even after getting super powers, I am still just as weak and pathetic as I was before.”

“Aiden, don’t say that—”

“But I am! I am, Lucy.” Aiden clenched his fists. “I wasn’t taken out by some powerful demon’s ultimate attack or something like that. Or even some basic attack. I was incapacitated because I twisted my foot, dammit! That’s how pathetic I am.

“Weak and pathetic… and useless!”

“Don’t say that, please,” Lucy begged, but she knew her words didn’t comfort him. Words may not be enough anymore.

They sat in silence for a few minutes. The cold breeze still blew over them, and it felt strangely comforting. Perhaps because it was a stark contrast to the fiery, hot demons in the city below.

“How do we know that the ice lady and her friends won’t harm him?” Aiden suddenly asked Lucy.

“We don’t,” she told him honestly.

“I’m going after him, then,” Aiden declared. “He saved everyone, and now he might be the one in danger. So I’m going to save him, either with or without you guys.”