The car was spinning in the air, sending me up into the ceiling where I slammed my neck into the roof. The whole world had gone crazy. At some point I slapped my wrist. Still, I was bounced around and I felt pain blossomed with each slam against the car.
Then I was transformed. But the car still rolled. I still smashed into things over and over again. The car still threw me around, bouncing me against everything.
Finally, the car came to a stop. I lay there for a second. Then I got up to my feet with a snarl.
Someone had hurt me. Someone had to pay.
The car was on it's back. I didn't care. I slammed my claws into the floor that was now above me, and slashed my way through steel, plastic and foam. I dug my way out, and pushed my way to freedom. Once I was out, my gills took a deep breath. I pointed my head towards the heat of the sun on my face.
I roared, declaring my rage. I was in pain, but not to the point of actual injury. Just enough to make me mad.
I snapped my head to focus on my opponents. They smelled like gunpowder, plastic, and leather. There was a hint of more gunpower in the air, and the metal of weapons. One of them was the Winter Soldier. His men stared at me in fear. The Winter Soldier aimed his weapon at me.
I leaped away as a metal object propelled itself from his weapon to me, exploding on Sam's car and destroying it for good. Soldiers began to fire at me. I ran at high speed, my enhanced senses showing me where they were, the sound of bulletfire only aiding me in what I was doing. Guns are loud, but when I was prepared for them, I could use them to help me find my targets.
Winter Soldier shot at me again. I ducked low on the pavement, letting the grenade fly over head, and rushed towards the soldiers. I roared, my claws dug into the concrete, and I leaped towards one. As the second car pulled up to spill more soldiers, I landed on the one I'd targeted and slashed at his chest, slicing deep. He tried to raise his gun, screaming in horror, and I took the assault rifle into my mouth. My teeth sliced into the metal with ease. The others tried to aim at me, the smell of fear in the air, and I leaped towards another soldier, slashing at his leg to leave enormous gashes in him. When they started shooting again, I was up in the air, leaping over a sedan. I ran around it, then leaped to grab a guy by the leg, pulling him to throw him at a nearby car. The soldiers tried to get a bead on me, but I ran back around, dodging the gunfire in great leaping bounds, using cars as cover. When I was close enough, I jumped over the hood of the Humvee to grab the back of a soldier's jacket.
“Shit!” was all the soldier could yell as I pulled him over the hood. I growled, grabbing his gun and tossing it to Sam, who'd snuck around the guardrails. He let out a surprised shout when a assault rifle fell out of the sky to land in front of him, but I ignored that to bash the soldier I had on the ground in the face, breaking his jaw and knocking him out.
Just then, another Humvee rolled up. Smelling the gunpowder inside, I leaped over to it, slamming into the roof of the second car. The men inside were about to get out, so I responded by ripping the roof off to join them inside.
In the enclosed space, they couldn't escape. I was a deadly monster in an Humvee full of men. I only had to do what came best.
I started slamming my feet against people, my tail wildly swinging through the air, and my teeth dug past body armor to fill my mouth with hot blood. I tried my best not kill anyone, I still wasn't ready for an act so heinous, but Wildmutt's primal nature left me happy to maim. Which left my victims panicking.
“God help!”
“It's got my arm!”
“Shoot it! Somebody fucking shoot this thing!”
The eight men in the car tried to fight back, but it's hard to aim a gun at something that big in such a small space when it is slicing your arms open.
Just then an arm reached into the rooftop and grabbed me by the neck. For a moment, I thought it was the Winter Soldier when I felt the metal fingers lift me up out of the Humvee and toss me out to the pavement. But as I got up with a snarl, I realized it was someone else entirely. Someone I recognized.
He stood as bald as every, his black skin shining in the sunlight. Skin the same color as the car I'd just been in. Creel.
I roared, rushing him. Creel stepped forward, and I leaped onto the man, sending him back into the car, which crumpled under his weight. I bit down at his throat, and he got his left forearm in the way. I gnawed on that instead, my claws ripping at his shirt and digging gouges into his skin. He swore, then punched me in the rips with his right arm. I bit down harder. He punched me again, and this time I was forced to back off. I leaped off him, growling, and circled around for a moment. Then I saw more soldiers come around to aim guns at me. I hurriedly reached for the Omnitrix.
In a flash of light, I became bipedal again. My claws shifted to become a single one on the back of my fist. My orange fur became striped with black, and a white patch grew on my belly. The omnitrix went from my shoulder to my chest. I roared, the sound erupting in a wave.
“Oh yeah baby!” I flexed, my muscles bursting with power. “The Rath is back!”
The soldiers fired at me, but I didn't feel a thing as bullets bounced off my skin. “Hey you!” I pointed at Creel, who was stepping forward. “Let me tell you something, Creel! Rath doesn't-”
Creel punched me in the face. I stepped back, shaking my head.
“Rath doesn't-” He punched me in the gut, and I snarled.
“Rath doesn't-” Creel leaped up and slammed his fist into my chin. It didn't hurt too much, but it was enough to send me onto my back, physics working against me.
I snarled shaking my head. Creel stepped forward, and I leaped to my feet, roaring. The burst of noise sent Creel back. "RATH DOESN'T LIKE BEING INTERRUPTED WHILE RATH IS INSULTING PEOPLE! IT'S WHAT RATH DOES! AND NOW RATH'S GONNA INTERRUPT YOUR FACE WITH RATH'S FIST, AND MAKE YOU LIKE IT!"
Creel tried to attack again but this time I was ready. I leaped forward, slipped under his right cross to circle around to his back. My arms wrapped around his waist, and I pulled him close, his metal back to my chest. I flexed, lifting him off the ground.
“Ah, shit!” Creel yelled. He tried to struggle, and I grinned.
“Too late!” I grinned toothily. “FINAL!” I lifted him up, leaning back into a classic German suplex. I slammed him into the concrete headfirst. Then I leaped up, still holding him, and brought us back to standing. “ATOMIC!” One more suplex. I brought us back to standing spun him around so he was upside down in my arms, then leaped twenty feet into the air. Spinning towards the ground as soldiers stared in awe, I slammed Creel headfirst into the pavement. “BUSTER!”
A crater was slammed into the bridge. I sat for a moment, with Creel embedded in the bridge at the center of the crater. “Ha!” I rose up lauching. “Why do you even try!? You're always going to ice skate uphill! Then Rath will make the hill a not-hill, so your trying is meaningless!”
“While I love the trash talk, that doesn't make any sense!” I looked up to see Sam. He was holding one of the assault rifles that belonged to the soldiers, and wore his jetpack in it's folded form, giving me a look of surprise. He shook his head. “Hey, I'm gonna help Cap! You got this!?”
“Rath has everything!” I turned to look at Creel. He was rising from the crater. “Go, Flys-Around-Like-A-Falcon-But-Doesn't-Have-Feathers!”
“Got it,” Sam said after a confused glance.
Creel rose to his feet, shaking his head before glaring at me. “I should have figured I couldn't beat you like this,” he said, stepping forward.
“You're dumb if you didn't,” I stepped forward as well, glaring. “I'm the Rath! Rath can't be beaten! Not now, not ever! Bring on your best, Mr. Absorbs-Stuff-And-Works-For-Stupid-HYDRA!”
Creel smiled. “You know, you remind me of my boxing days. The guys who were all talk until I finally beat some sense into them,” his skin went from black steel to flesh. “I'm going to do the same to you.”
Creel reached into a pocket. If I'd been thinking straight, I'd have stopped them. But as Rath, with my lowered IQ, I just stared at him. He took out what looked like a piece of rock, barely a pebble. It glowed slightly with a blue light. He raised it for me to see. “Vibranium, like in your friends shield,” my eyes widened in horror. I sped forward, and Creel clenched his fist around it. I lashed out with my claw, trying to beat him to the punch. My claw slammed into his face.
And uselessly bounced off his blue chin.
“Damnit!” I roared. I lashed out again and again, slashing at him. Creel let me fruitlessly hit him for a bit. “Break! Break you moron! Let me tell you something, Creel of Hydra! When Rath hits something, it breaks!”
Creel caught my fist. He squeezed. And I screamed. For the first time, I felt unbearable pain as Rath. I tried to pull back, but he was unmovable.
“That's the thing,” Creel smiled, his blue face shifting. “I'm unbreakable.”
He pulled back and punched. I staggered back, falling to my knees. He kicked me in the chest, and I went flying, slamming into a car. The force of my impact made it slide back, then over the edge and off the bridge, smashing the guard rail and sending concrete through the air.
The car landed on the street below with me smashing into it a second later. It turned into scrap on the pavement. I rested there for a moment, groggy.
Then Creel landed on my stomach. He wasn't that heavy, so it didn't hurt much. His right hook did. From his spot on my body, Creel grabbed my neck and started punching me in the face. Over and over, his vibranium fist hit me in the chin, cheek, and nose. Soon, blood started to pour from my lips and nostrils.
I was scared. But I was also Rath. I didn't want to die. But I was also not about to let Creel hit me without making him pay for it. Rath... I wasn't willing to let him kill me without leaving a mark.
“RAAAGH!” With a roar, I grabbed Creel by the shoulders. In his vibranium form, he was lighter than his steel form, so I could lift him and toss him over me. He was sent flying, and I quickly rolled to my feet. I fell to my right knee, staggering. Creel landed on his back nearby, rolling to his feet as well. Thinking quickly, I grabbed the car I'd been embedded in and threw it at Creel. It smashed into him with fruitless results, exploding and sending shrapnel everywhere. Creel walked right through it, smiling.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Nothing you can do to hurt me,” Creel said.
“Rath is willing to try,” I spat blood out, rising up. “Rath is willing to break vibranium.”
Then the Omnitrix began to beep, before flashing a red light. In an instant, I was human again. Unhurt. But human.
“Oh,” I said softly. I met eyes with Creel. He smiled. “Oh shit.”
Creel ran towards me.
Then bullets started hitting him from the right at a high speed. We looked over there, and saw Sam. He was holding a minigun (Where did he get that?), pouring bullets into Creel.
“Run!” Sam yelled.
I sped towards him, Creel following at a walking pace, acting as though the bullets slamming into his face and chest were simple raindrops. Sam backed away, and I came up next to him. “Any chance you can turn into something that can beat this dude!?” Sam yelled over the minigun roaring in his hands.
“Not for a while!” I yelled back. The two of us walked backwards as Creel moved towards us.
“Well that's just great!” Sam cried out sarcastically.
Creel was about ten feet away when Sam tossed the minigun away. “Come on!” Sam grabbed my arm and leaped up. His wings unfurled, and the rockets activated, launching us into the sky. Creel reached out for me as Sam lifted me into the air, barely scraping his fingers against my shoes.
“Shiiit!” I cried out as Sam flew us over the battlefield, aiming towards where Steve was battling the Winter Soldier. He dropped me near some cars, and I rolled as I hit the floor, trying to mimic what I'd seen from parkour videos. I landed in between a Honda Civic and a Prius, slamming into the Prius with my shoulder as I stumbled. As expected it hurt a lot, but it was a lot better than what Creel would have done.
“Thanks, Sam!” I yelled out hurriedly, running as soon as I found my feet. I tried to circle where Cap and the Winter Soldier were battling. I found myself staring slightly as two superhumans duked it out in the middle of the street. Winter Soldier was stabbing with a knife, trying to slice into Steve, while Steve used martial arts to keep him at bay. They moved with intense speed, mere blurs of motion. After a brief moment, Steve kicked the Winter Soldier in the chest, sending him flying into a car.
I jumped when someone landed behind me, only to sigh in relief when I saw it was Sam with Natasha. She was bleeding from her left shoulder, which she held tightly with a grimace.
“You okay?” I asked her.
“Later,” she said back quickly. “Where's the guy you were fighting?”
“Right there!” Sam pointed at Creel. He was running towards us, pushing aside a bus and sending it flying. The three of us scattered, my heart pumping hard in my chest, and Creel followed me.
“Damnit, Rath, why do you have to annoy people so much!?” I yelled. I ran past Steve and Winter Soldier, who both ignored me, heading for the only thing that could save me. I grabbed it, wrenching it out of the back of van, and quickly spun to lift it in front of me.
Creel's fist slammed into Captain America's shield. And nothing happened. Vibranium hit vibranium alloy, and left me safe.
I didn't know why Steve's shield was in the back of the van. But it saved my life. Next to where Creel and me stood, Captain America was thrown over the hood of a truck, landing about 8 feet to my right. Thinking fast, I dropped low as Creel threw another punch, ducking that and rolling.
“Steve!” I threw the shield to him. Steve got up and caught the shield, hurriedly putting it on as he and Winter Soldier squared up. For a brief moment, we all faced each other. Captain America, Winter Soldier, Creel, and me. Then the Omnitrix beeped out with a green light. I reached for it. Creel rushed me, Winter Soldier rushed Steve. I twisted the dial on the Omnitrix, found an alien, and hit the face as Creel punched me.
His blue glowing fist hit my chest, then pierced through me. Skin split around his knuckles. The muscle, bones, organs, until he made the same journey out the other side. His fist went straight through my heart and spine, turning them into goo.
Or at least, it would have, if all those things hadn't been changing into goo anyways.
“Goop!” I announced in a robotic voice echoing from the device floating over my head.
I now stood as tall as Creel. My body stood in a bipedal form, made of a green gelatinous form. The Omnitrix symbol rested on the Anti-Gravity Projector floating over me, the device erecting a gravitational force over me to allow me to stand. If I'd had a mouth, I'd have smiled.
“Let's do this!” I shouted through the Anti-Gravity Projector.
Creel stared at me, shocked. “What are you supposed to be, green shit?”
“Rude!” I replied, offended. I threw some goo into his eyes. Creel staggered back, removing his fist and wiping at his eyes.
“Ugh! Okay, I'm going to turn you into a stain on the sidewalk!”
Creel tried to punch me again. All he got for his efforts was goo on his fist. I grabbed him in my gelatinous hands and tossed him back. My form shapeshifted, becoming nothing but liquid, and the device over me gripped me in it's gravitational hold, flying me over to Creel.
Being Goop was so weird. I was technically two beings in this form, the shapeless goo, and the flying saucer letting that goo shapeshift. I had no bones, no organs or muscles, so I had to move through the saucer. My chemistry was up to me, so I could change from harmless to acidic. It should have been confusing, but it was oddly natural. As though my human form was the one that was weird, that I had always been able to change shape and acidity.
As I did now. I surrounded Creel in a bubble of me, and changed into the strongest acid I knew how. Creel punched at me as I covered his body. It did nothing. Vibranium or not, you can't punch Goop to death. I 'watched' through the saucer as Creel's clothes were dissolved. But that was it. Damnit. Apparently vibranium can't be melted.
Still, I had other options.
Before I could enact those, I saw Cap get kicked by Winter Soldier. The Winter Soldier stepped forward and grabbed Steve's throat. He raised his knife.
“No!” My saucer form flew at the Winter Soldier.
I slashed into the back of his hand, blood flying into the air and forcing him to drop the knife. With Creel, my goo fell to the floor, allowing him freedom. Creel, not missing a beat, ran towards Cap. I guess he thought he'd thrown enough punches. I flew back to my goo and rose up behind Creel.
“You want a piece of me!?” I said, spinning to throw a portion of myself at Creel's left foot as it hit the floor. Green goo slammed into his foot. Creel kept running forward. The goo stretched. Then it snapped back into position, forcing Creel to stay.
Goop can become acidic. But he can also become an adhesive, as sticky and stretchy as you want.
“What the hell?” Creel said. In front of him, Captain America and Winter Soldier moved off, Cap knocking off Winter Soldier's mask with a left uppercut.
“Here, have all the pieces you want!” I shouted. I spun around, becoming a floating green swirl, and rapidly fired off portions of myself. They hit Creel in the back and shoulders. He struggled, but this wasn't a heavy weight, it wasn't a kinetic force for his vibranium form to absorb. This was glue, surrounding him in adhesive and gummy stuff. In seconds, he was covered in the stuff from neck to toe in a massive pile of sticky glue. He slowly struggled through it, but it would take him a while to get out. Once I was done, I walked around to look at him. Creel glared at me.
“I'm still not down,” Creel said. “I'll get out of this eventually.”
“Oh don't worry,” I reached for the Omnitrix floating with my Anti-Gravity Projecter, about to turn into Blitzwolfer to hit him with a sonic blast. “I've got something-”
An explosion filled the air. I turned to see a car in front of Steve finish turning into scrap metal. When I looked around the battlefield, I saw Steve, Sam, and Natasha all standing in different spots. Natasha was next to a silver truck, while Sam was by a blue taxi. Steve stood closest to me, and he was staring at the destroyed car with shock on his face. I wondered why for a moment.
Then I remembered. Steve had uppercutted the Winter Soldier's mask off. Bucky's mask. He'd seen his friends face on a killer.
“Steve,” I started to say.
Then the police sirens began to ring out. A bunch of black SUV's rolled up, spilling out men in black military uniforms. I turned into liquid and flew forwards, throwing pieces of my self at one of the van's and surrounding the soldiers coming out in more adhesive, attaching them to their SUV's. I was going to do it again, my form shifting to aim at guys surrounding Steve.
“Freeze or I'll kill him!”
I stopped, shapeshifting my body to look towards the person yelling at me.
For a moment, I wondered why the KG Beast from Batman vs Superman was standing there. Then I saw what he was doing.
He and five other men had Sam at gunpoint. Sam was looking at me sadly, his hands up. Fake KG Beast glared at me. “Change back!”
My eyes moved quickly around my body as I stood there. Nearby, Natasha was captured as well, forced to her knees with no regard for her injuries. Steve was on his knees, staring at me. Sam still had his hands up, clenching and unclenching them. Creel was still in the goo I'd surrounded him in, looking at me.
Fake KG Beast stepped closer to Sam. “I said, change back! Now!”
For the first time, I felt dissatisfaction with my Omnitrix menu. If I had Lodestar, I'd have been able to rip the guns out of these guys hands. Instead...
I reached up for the Anti-Gravity Projector, and tapped the Omnitrix. In an instant, I was human again. Fake KG Beast turned his gun from Sam to me. He stepped towards me, eyes hard.
“On your knees.” I glared at him defiantly. In a blur of motion, he slammed the butt of his gun into my chin.
I crumbled to the ground. As stars filled my eyes, I spat blood from my mouth and glared up at the guy. He smirked. Then he lifted his boot high.”
“No!” Steve shouted as the boot came down. “Don-”
A burst of pain followed. Then I was out.