A hero, a dozen terrorists, and an otherworlder walk into a blackened hallway— a joke was in there somewhere, but none of them was too keen or unoccupied to find it.
'What's he doing here?’ Calvin thought, his heart racing twice the speed due to twice the surprise.
As if sensing Calvin’s confused gaze, Lightspeed gave a small nod to his student, “We’ll talk later. For now—”
“Get him!” The butcher-slash-scrapper swung his giant knife down on the newly-appeared hero.
Lightspeed blurred, instantly appearing in the air in front of the knife-wielding man with his fist pulled back, a golden shine hitting Calvin’s eyes before he brought his knuckleduster down on the man’s face.
The man was thrown backwards from the force, hitting Calvin and the other Scrappers who were struggling to hold him down.
Albeit startled, he immediately took the chance to escape.
Using [Jumper], he 'pushed’ against the wall, throwing himself and the ones holding him down forwards and into the larger Scrapper.
“Fuck!” “Ugh!”
Curses and grunts flew in the air as they got pushed back and forth between the two as he repeatedly used the power to get away.
Calvin twisted away from their grips as soon as they loosened, using [Jumper] again to escape upwards, away from their reach and into the blackness of the hallway.
'Darker,’ he thought as he made the entire hallway this time into a field of pure darkness— rendering his own black outfit essentially invisible.
“Fucking mark him!” The butcher shouted while fending off another punch from Lightspeed. "Agh you little!"
“I—I can’t! I can’t! My shit’s not working!” One of the Scrappers replied just as Calvin felt a sting in his head.
'There you are,’ Calvin immediately pointed towards the Scrapper with his finger, 'no, too noisy. The whole place might come down here. I can just knock him out.’
He rushed and jumped, using the darkness above to hide, before landing right next to his target and punching upwards. An audible crunch rang out as he presumably crushed the jaw with his punch, making him flinch a little. He ducked underneath a blow, waiting to see a Super Absorb panel.
'He’s not dead?’ He was briefly surprised and oddly relieved.
Those emotions didn’t last long, as the back of his neck tingled with heat. He ducked and rolled to the side, feeling the air singe and sizzle as he got out of the way.
“Holy—”, he cursed, instinctively looking at the flame’s destination.
“Ahhh!” A Scrapper, coincidentally in the way, screeched bloody murder as his skin started to sizzle and cook.
“Fuck!” The fire-breathing Scrapper looked annoyedly towards Calvin.
The man’s chest expanded and his throat glowed a dangerous red.
Without thinking, Calvin jumped towards the firebreather and punched his jaw close before wrapping his entire arm around to prevent the man from opening his mouth.
The sound of muffled screaming and sizzling flesh made for an orchestra of pain that made Calvin flinch and quickly release the man, kicking him away immediately.
The man fell and writhed on the ground, opening his mouth and releasing a pillar of fire and a bloodcurdling scream that made Calvin freeze at the sight.
“Behind you!” Lightspeed’s shout jolted him back to attention.
He immediately summoned a line of [Impervious Pebbles] behind him while simultaneously using [Vigilant Aegis] to cover his back.
clang
“Holy shit.”
“You fucking rat—”, the butcher’s gravel-like voice made his neck hair stand on its end.
He immediately dove forward, feeling the air behind him whistle from the force of the brute’s slice.
“Ah!” Another scream, another Scrapper, similarly hurt by their own ally.
“Fucking—”, the butcher swung his knife around, blunt-end first, pushing all the other Scrappers away. “Get the fuck out of my fucking way!”
Sparks rose as he swung his knife again, blocking Lightspeed’s golden knuckledusters.
“—awfully fast reflexes for a pig.” Lightspeed casually taunted.
“Fuck off!” The large man forcefully pushed him away. “Hold him!”
“How?!” Another Scrapper asked while diving towards the hero, failing to hold him as he blurred and disappeared.
Being practically invisible, Calvin backed off caught his breath, taking a moment to survey the hallway. The group of Scrappers, around seven of them remaining, had split into two groups to fight against the two of them— butcher and his two underlings, and four unnamed Scrappers with unknown powers.
Surprisingly, his group was bigger— although admittedly they didn’t look as threatening as the fatass with a knife.
'He can take care of those guys,’ he concluded, standing up and dashing towards his group.
Like a blender of fists and feet, he struck every which way he could while trying to keep himself out of sight and out of reach. It wasn’t long before the herd was reduced to four— two for each of them.
'This is tiring,’ Calvin panted from a distance.
“Fuck! Where the fuck is he?!” One of the two shouted, swinging a box towards thin air.
His power, from Calvin’s brief observation, seemed to be something like being able to box up heavy objects and carry them like it was nothing. He boxed up the burnt Scrapper from earlier and was swinging it as a weapon.
'Talk about dead weight,’ he smirked at his own pun, 'That doesn’t actually make sense. Uh… something about a grave situation?’
It seemed like a useful power. At least, at first glance. The existence of pockets really made it feel rather unnecessary.
'I could absorb it, but I don’t know how many more I can absorb. I saved points just in case… but it's not worth the points,’ He thought while sitting and guzzling down a bottle of water he turned similarly black. 'Plus, it’s not really the time. I should focus.’
“Damn it!” The other Scrapper shouted. “We need to do something— ugh!”
Calvin had bum-rushed and clotheslined the man before spinning around and sending a kick against the other’s jaw.
clang
“Ugh,” Calvin dropped to the ground and grabbed his foot, feeling like he just kicked a metal pipe. “What the shit?”
“Ha! Nice try, bitch!” The remaining Scrapper shouted. “Fuck you!”
He felt the man kick his back, barely missing the back of his neck. He forcefully rolled and used [Jumper] to get up, wincing as he put his foot down.
He turned to the man and made a disgusted face as he saw his boney-metallic jawline, “Ew.”
The man kicked the ground again, losing balance as he hit the air, “Where are you, you damn—”
“Here,” Calvin announced as he dashed towards him and punched his abdomen with all his might.
The Scrapper flew back and hit the wall, turning limp immediately afterwards.
He turned to Lightspeed, now left only fighting the Scrapper with the big knife and bigger build.
Calvin caught his breath, watching the hero dance around the brute with relative ease. He blurred, popped in and out, occasionally punching him here and there— a battle of attrition.
'Why’s he doing that?’ He was confused. 'Just punch him in the jaw.’
He decided to help after watching for a moment, dashing straight towards the back of the Scrapper and landing a kick while simultaneously summoning a pebble in front of his forehead.
The Scrapper stumbled forward before bouncing back as he hit the pebble in front.
“Fuck!” He cursed, immediately spinning around and slashing towards Calvin.
Calvin ducked underneath and was about to dash forwards before he felt a hand grab his coat and pull him back. He didn’t have time to panic at the sudden interference as he suddenly felt wind slice the air in front of him.
“Pay attention,” Lightspeed’s voice jolted him back to awareness.
“I am,” he said defensively, summoning another pebble to block the Scrapper’s advance. “What was that?”
“His power,” the hero replied.
“Fucking captain obvious,” Calvin muttered as he stood up.
The hero ignored his comment, blurring and dashing forwards. He appeared in front of the Scrapper, fist already pulled back. Steel met steel once more as he punched the knife used to block him, sending the Scrapper flying backwards.
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“Stop!” The Scrapper shouted as he flew to the other end of the corridor.
Lightspeed appeared again nearby, “it’s like that.”
“Do you always slow down before punching someone?”
“You try hitting someone while going as fast as I do. See where your arm ends up,” he said with the obvious annoyance of someone always getting asked the same thing. “Anyway, it doesn’t have too much range, but it can let him slice people an arm’s reach away and shrug off blows automatically.”
“Then why is he still blocking?”
“No idea. It’s not like he can’t block simultaneous hits. I already tried.”
“But he can still be knocked back,” he hummed, taking out a palm-sized rock from his pocket.
“Throwing rocks?”
“Just testing something out.”
Calvin pulled his arm back and aimed for the Scrapper’s head. His aim ready, Calvin summoned a pebble behind his hand, using [Jumper] full force to throw the rock at Mach speed while immediately summoning pebbles to surround the man's head, front and back.
The pebble hit, the head rocked back, the head rocked forward, then back again, and the body collapse to the ground.
“That didn’t seem like a test,” Lightspeed spoke, turning to him.
“It was, I just absolutely aced it,” he smiled, thanking the prefix. He then turned to the hero, making a bit of distance, keeping wary at the man’s motives, “So, who are you? What are you doing here?”
“Drop the act,” the hero scoffed scoffed, “I know it’s you, Calvin.”
“I don’t know any Calvin,” he denied immediately, “but he sounds like a strong, handsome, kind, passionate, attentive, loyal—”
“I followed you from the Academy,” the hero interrupted.
“I’m a minor, creep,” Calvin crossed his arms.
Lightspeed shook his head at him, taking out a pair of handcuffs instead. Calvin tensed up at the sight, making the hero chuckle at his reaction before blurring and appearing on top of the downed Scrapper in the distance.
After an audible click, he blurred and appeared on top of the next one, taking out a bunch of cuffs and tossing them Calvin’s way.
The tense otherworlder caught them, immediately getting a panel.
Super Equip
Super Gear: Nullcuffs detected. Equip? Yes No
'Nullcuffs?’ Calvin’s brows furrowed at the resemblance. “Again, I’m a minor.”
“Shut up with your jokes and help me cuff them,” he nodded towards the one near Calvin’s feet.
Calvin kicked the Scrapper the hero nodded towards.
Super Absorb
Super Power: Titan's Jaw detected. Absorb? Yes No
“Even the dead ones?” He raised a brow under his mask.
“Never assume they’re dead,” Lightspeed turned to him, his tone turning accosting, “Power or tech, there’s always a way to look dead.”
“I’m pretty sure this guy’s dead, though,” he muttered under his breath. "So you did die..."
Despite that, he did as the hero was doing and cuffed every living and un-living Scrapper on the floor.
Super Absorb
Super Power: Heat Mark detected. Absorb? Yes No
'Heat… that’s how he was marking me?’ He thought. 'It seems useful… kinda.’
Super Absorb
Super Power: Ignition Lungs detected. Absorb? Yes No
Super Absorb
Super Power: Boxer detected. Absorb? Yes No
He checked every power he could absorb at the moment, but none were something that he fancied. Not that it was possible to absorb it at the moment. Lightspeed was here, and his cover was already probably blown to bits hours beforehand. He needed to keep at least his power-absorbing voodoo a secret.
After cuffing the last one, he sneakily pocketed the remaining [Nullcuff]s before turning to the hero, “Now, uh… I gotta go do something so—”
Lightspeed blurred and appeared next to the door Calvin was heading towards, “So that’s how you were moving so fast and jumping so high. Multiple powers, huh?”
“That was pure athletic ability,” he lied.
“You can also change colours and summon pebbles. What else?”
“I can also cook a mean steak, pretend to play the piano, microwave popcorn under a minute—”
“That blurring, is that one or is that tinker tech?”
“It’s your eyes. They’re going bad. You should get it checked out, like, right now.”
Lightspeed said nothing back, staring at Calvin through his similarly featureless mask.
Calvin’s chest drummed up a solo as the hero's gaze bore straight through him. His face was unseen, but he knew the man was deliberating. What to do with him, what to do with his secrets.
After all, he was doing the same thing.
Unfortunately, his options dwindled the moment he appeared. His efforts trying to stay incognito rendered nil, exposing most of his secrets.
'Getting cut up, experimented on, and possibly imprisoned in some lab is a no-go. Do I really have no choice?’ He frowned, already considering trying to silence the man in front of him.
“You suck at this,” Lightspeed suddenly said.
“Your mom sucks at—”, Calvin instinctively replied before stopping himself, “—excuse me?”
“At this,” he pointed all around, “you snuck around like a dog wearing a bell, heading towards the most interesting thing that immediately catches your attention.”
He was momentarily stunned, “Sorry?”
“I was really expecting you to be a spy, a villain, or a terrorist, you know? You have to admit, Calvin, you’re really suspicious,” he gestured at him up and down, “that outfit, the fact that you know how to enter this place, your past, or lack thereof, everything literally screams 'I am someone suspicious'.”
He looked down at himself, weirded out momentarily after seeing nothing, 'Wait, he can see me?’ “How are you seeing me?”
Lightspeed tapped his mask to answer, “Tinker tech.”
'I need to ask Dox for something like that,’ Calvin thought. “So, I’m no longer suspicious?”
“Not saying that. But you're no terrorist,” he shook his head while raising a pair of [Nullcuffs], “that’s why you're not in a pair of these.”
“Hooray for that,” he said sarcastically, trying to mask the relief in his voice.
“And that’s why I’m not telling anyone for now,” he nodded.
Calvin squinted, “For now?”
“You owe me one, Calvin,” he said seriously before stepping aside and looking towards the other end of the hallway. “Turn them dark, the people we cuffed I mean, with your power and then go do what you came here to do.”
He looked down at the Scrappers, “I can do better than that.”
Calvin used [Colour Control], turning the entire hallway back to the normal boring cement it was before. Afterwards, he coloured each Scrapper grey, camouflaging them into the brutalism.
“That is better,” Lightspeed nodded, walking over to the Scrappers and dragging them into a different room. "Go, I'll clean up."
He watched the hero for a moment before deciding to trust him and go back into the room where Batty was, pausing immediately in confusion, “Huh?”
The room was empty.
Not literally, but there was no one where Batty should have been. The green goo, the soaked towel, and the opened machine were still there, but not a sign of the naked woman. He looked around and behind the door, brows furrowing in confusion.
Then, it hit him.
Right on the nose.
“Fuck,” Calvin stumbled backwards, fully falling down as he felt a weight on his chest.
He felt someone grab his arms and pin them above his head before a wooden chill singed his throat.
There was no pain, having instinctively used [Vigilant Aegis]. The blow was fast, but the adrenaline was still fresh. It didn’t do anything to brace himself from the impact, but his nose was still good.
“Who are you?” Batty’s voice reverberated in his migraine-filled head.
“It’s me, you fucking dumbass,” he groaned, unequipping his mask using the Super System. “See?”
Batty was stunned, staring down at him with widened brown eyes, “Kid?”
“I expected a thank you at least but you— woah!”
Batty pulled him up and hugged him tight, sobbing on his shoulder while muttering, “You actually came…”
“Uh… yeah,” Calvin replied, feeling awkward.
He did come, but not out of anything other than guilt.
“Kid’s half your age, lady,” Lightspeed spoke, tossing clothes towards them. “Get up.”
“Who the fuck— Lightspeed? You brought a hero—”
“—I didn’t,” Calvin immediately interrupted, pushing her face away. “He’s just a stalker.”
“I’m his teacher,” Lightspeed shook his head.
“He’s a creep,” he corrected, “can you get off of me now?”
Batty’s eyes narrowed as she looked at the hero up and down before finally getting off of Calvin.
“I need a stim,” She spoke, asking the hero.
“A stim?” Calvin echoed as he stood up.
Lightspeed nodded, taking out a syringe and tossing it towards her. Batty caught and injected it in her neck.
“Quick-acting stimulant,” the hero explained, sensing Calvin’s curious gaze, “it’s going to keep her going for a handful of hours.”
“But make me crash for a day or two immediately after. Which means we don’t have a lot of time,” Batty added. “One sec.”
She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. A second later, cloth materialized behind her and wrapped around her body, forming an outfit that was familiar to Calvin.
“You’re a Mythos, huh?” Lightspeed noted, sounding mildly impressed.
Batty gave him a glance before nodding, “I got lucky.”
“Mythos,” Calvin muttered, his brows curling. The term was familiar, but he couldn’t grasp how.
“What are they teaching you?” Lightspeed remarked, turning towards him with an obvious tone of disappointment.
“How to play tag and how to punch annoying faces,” Calvin said with a smirk, “although the latter was more of a self-study thing.”
He scoffed at him while Batty quickly explained, “A type of Gimmick. Same thing, we have 'rules’, but they’re called 'lore’ since it follows a story of sorts. A mythos, hence the name.”
Calvin looked her up and down.
White sneakers, striped shirt and pants, striped cap, leather gloves, a wooden bat, and her name and the number '70’ printed on her chest and her cap. It was obvious what her 'lore’ was at first glance.
“Baseball is a story?”
“Everything's a story,” she shrugged, “Gimmicks are usually the 'etcetera’ of power types. It gets confusing.”
“Hold the impromptu class later, we need to rescue the others and find a way out of here,” Lightspeed refocused their objectives.
“Others?” Batty echoed.
“You’re not the only one they kidnapped,” he explained.
“I wasn’t kidnapped,” she corrected with obvious annoyance. “Just call your friends.”
“Not a lot of friends available. I sent a signal, but let’s not get our hopes up.”
“Whatever the case, we need to find a way out of here,” Calvin interrupted, “But… should we do something about that first?”
Calvin gestured towards the machine in the middle of the room Batty came from. All of them knew what it was, and what it could do, so it didn’t take a second before the consensus was made.
The three walked into the room and over to the machine, surrounding it like it owed them lunch money.
“Take or break?” Calvin asked. He knew what he wanted, but he couldn’t exactly nick an entire machine with a hero watching.
“Try taking it,” Lightspeed chuckled.
He narrowed his eyes at the hero but nevertheless did as he suggested. He put his hand on the machine before pulling on his will, calling on his [Ear Pocket Locket] to store the damn thing.
There was a sudden feeling of weight on him... like he was trying to lift an entire mountain on his back.
“Holy,” Calvin pulled his hand back immediately. “What was that?”
“Thing’s pocketproof, non-reductible, and paranull. Can’t take nor break it. Not with what we have on hand,” Batty explained.
“I don’t know what any of those words mean.”
“Figure it out,” Lightspeed said frankly.
“Thought you were a teacher,” Calvin looked at him with a brow raised.
“Can’t pocket, shrink, or break it with powers,” Batty said, demonstrating the last property with her bat.
A wooden thud and a crack rang out. Her bat broke like it was a twig.
She spun her hand after, summoning another bat, “can’t do it with normal Tinker Tech too.”
“We need specialized equipment, which none of us have,” Lightspeed added. “But we can’t just leave it here.”
“What happened to the ones from six months ago then? There was a ton there, right?” He asked the hero, referring to something they were both familiar with.
“Buried,” he answered promptly.
“Leaving it here is probably the best thing we can do,” Batty suggested.
“We need to at least bury or hide it,” Lightspeed said with a shake of his head.
“And I’m telling you, there’s no need—”
While the two were discussing— or arguing— about what to do with the machine, the clueless Calvin was left to his own to observe the machine. He put his hand on it again, trying to pull it inside his pocket.
'It’s like… like pulling an entire room into a smaller room… it just feels impossible,’ he thought, stopping his attempt.
His next experiment involved his powers, namely [Jumper] and [Colour Control]. To no one’s surprise, neither worked.
'I can still summon pebbles, but that doesn’t really help,’ he noted, putting his hand on the machine part at the bottom instead, 'it’s not tinker tech either, there’s no pop-up. Then again, I don’t get a pop-up for things I can’t physically equip or ingest.’
He reached for the baton on his belt, looking down as he felt nothing on the holster.
'Oh right, it broke,’ he sighed, remembering the fight with the crackhead Powerpuff Scrappers. 'Good think I have a backup.’
He reached behind his coat and took out the golden wrench, staring at it for a moment. It had its own mysteries to solve, namely, the fact that he couldn’t use his powers on it either.
'Paranull,’ the word echoed in his mind. 'Lucky. I wish I’d known about it earlier though. Could’ve been useful.’
The wrench was then raised and tapped lightly against the glass, producing a crystalline ringing. The sound reminded him of someone annoying clinking their champagne glass with a fork, trying to get everyone’s attention to make an inane and uninteresting speech.
'It sounds like glass and plastic combined,’ he noted, tapping it again.
Crack
“Huh?” Calvin’s brows shot up as he heard an unexpected sound. He looked closer at the glass, noticing a crack the size of a piece of hair on the place he just tapped. “Guys?”
“—I’m not going to let the literal most powerful Villain have such a dangerous—”
“Lightspeed. Batty.” He called out again.
“—what?” The two paused their argument to look at him.
The sound of shattering glass completely filled the room not a second later. The upper part of the machine held up by the glass crashed down on the bottom part, smashing both pieces into tech scrap.
There was a bit of quiet as the three stared dumbfounded at the machine before it was immediately broken by the sound of static. Flame emerged from the top of the machine, sparking and shorting every circuitry inside.
“Uh…” Calvin looked to the two again. “Does that mean we can go now?”
“What did you do?” Lightspeed asked as he glanced at the wrench. “What is that?”
“It’s a wrench? I don’t know, I—”
A high-pitched cry interrupted his lies, coming from the destroyed machine beside them.
Before any of them could address the inhuman screeching, the three suddenly collapsed to the floor, clutching their heads and chests. A pressure, like an entire planet’s weight, bore down on all of them accompanied with dread and a sense of oblivion.
It lasted half a minute before the screech died down, along with the pressure and the pain.
Calvin was distressed, but in a different sense from the other two in the room, 'I know that feeling. Why do I know that feeling?’
“What the fuck was that?” Batty asked, panting and panicking.
Lightspeed caught his breath, sitting against the wall, “I don’t know.”
'Like… like I was hearing something wrong…’ Calvin grunted, getting up and scrambling to the machine. “No way.”
“Kid?” Batty called out.
Calvin ignored them, grabbing the broken top of the machine and tossing it away, digging into the broken and mildly burning contents of the machine.
Moments later, he froze, eyes widening as his suspicion was realized.
The two behind him got up and walked up to take a look, immediately wearing similar expressions as soon as they came close.
A mass of flesh and circuitry, like a robot getting cancer, was smashed and burned in the center of the machine. Fragments of glass and copper were scattered here and there, remnants of it’s once prison.
Three pairs of clenched butts, two pairs of horrified gazes, and a single question hanging in the air.
“What the fuck is that?”