Noah reassessed the situation. Even if his morbidly obese step brother somehow waddled over fast enough to help him with the door, the five insects that had come through the sink would still be a problem.
A lot of information about Famine was available to the regular public. Whenever the Eater appeared in a city, they released a tide of biological monstrosities that wanted nothing more than to consume all biological matter for their master. It often took months or even years for the National Guard and WHA to fully clear the city of the creatures after Famine was routed. And every time they appeared in a new city, the Eater and their creations were stronger, having evolved from the previous fight.
Needless to say, them having poison or other, more abominable evolutions was a fool's bet. Perhaps if none of them were flying around he would try to crush them. But as things stood, it was almost a certainty that he'd get stung by them once or twice.
Noah held the bathroom door for dear life until he heard Caleb unlocking his room's door. The very moment it clicked open, he exploded into a desperate run.
When he reached it, he barreled right into the half open door and his stepbrother behind it.
"Jesus Noah! What the fuck is happen-?!" Caleb's words died on his throat when he saw what Noah had been running away from.
His step brother saw the small bugs, but also caught a glimpse of the abomination that came out of the bathroom: a long creature, long as a human, and thin. It looked like a centipede, with hundreds of razor sharp feet. At the bottom, it had a deadly looking stinger. All along its body smaller, glistening bugs held on to it, like babies to a mother. Lastly, its head looked like some demented monster-fly with a harpoon-like stinger in front and a sac on the back that expanded with air, growing to massive proportions.
Noah was able to close the door just in time, before the air sac contracted and the harpoon shot out. The projectile impaled and went half way through the wooden door. It missed him by an inch, the thing hanging right below one of his armpits.
Even though he was almost crying with panic, Noah still had the wherewithal to act, and he locked the door. But he had a feeling it wouldn't be enough.
This was proved correct when, after a few seconds, the smaller baby bugs that had been clinging to the big one reached the door and began pressing themselves against the small gap at the bottom. They were oily, slippery with fluid, and their flesh was flexible. This allowed them to worm through the gap with only marginal effort despite having initially appeared too big to pass through.
He began stomping on them, while at the same time he once again roared at Caleb. "Caleb, pass me the bedsheets!” Caleb was too shocked to move. Useless. “CALEB! WAKE THE FUCK UP! If you don't want to die, grab the bedsheets NOW!"
Maybe The One True God was indeed real, because a miracle happened, and Caleb began moving. The fat boy ran faster than Noah thought possible for his size and grabbed the thing he asked for.
Noah wasted no time when Caleb gave it to him and began packing it against the bottom of the door. Once that was done, he went and grabbed furniture, drawers, anything with weight, and began piling it on top. Caleb followed his example and assisted him with that too.
Now that he had bought some time, Noah began thinking desperately, trying to find a solution.
But he was interrupted by Caleb's wailing and mumbling. "This can't be happening! Oh god! Oh please god! Oh True God who art in heaven deliver us from evil and-"
"Shut the fuck up!" hissed Noah, slapping him harshly on the face. "I'm sick of your wining and crying! I’m trying to fucking think here!"
Caleb began to cry even harder, making those wretched, annoying autistic noises of his and tearing at his hair. Noah slapped him over and over, each slap harder than the next, until he finally fell silent.
It was a well known fact that one way to get powers was when an Eater's symbiote underwent meiosis. There were countless movies and stories that used this as a plot device, of people suddenly finding they had powers in the middle of an Eater attack.
Noah swallowed. Perhaps this was his moment—the moment he finally got powers.
He closed his eyes and breathed in. He had always wanted this. When he was younger and less cynical, he used to pray to The One True God for superpowers, to be the next Paragon or Myth. He used to imagine that maybe his dead mother was a superhero or that his father was one and was keeping it secret. He had even stopped eating food for a week at home out of some hope that maybe the reason he couldn't use his powers was that they were mixing Null in his food, which was another popular superhero origin story plot device.
Of course, those were just dreams and wishes, and they never came true…but maybe now would be different. Maybe he’d finally escape his sickening, depressing life. Maybe he was finally about to become a superhero.
Noah concentrated, trying to detect any changes in his body, trying to activate his powers.
He tried making force, willing his powers out with strength, but all that did was make him look like he was taking a big shit standing up. He tried relaxing and letting it flow, like wind, but nothing happened. He prayed to The One True God, but the bastard had never answered his prayers before, and this time was no exception. He tried everything, but it was all useless.
During this time, the nightmare insects were not idle. They had been working at the door, spewing some sort of acid, causing it to slowly melt, the baby ones at the bottom eating through the blanket, making their way through it bite by bite.
Noah gave up on finding his non-existent powers. What had he been thinking? Getting powers was like winning the lottery. It only happened in fiction.
Noah began searching around his stepbrother's dirty and messy room for a weapon, or, at the very least, something useful he could for self defense.
There, hanging on the wall, next to some anime toys, he found a katana. Because, of course Caleb would have a katana. Noah grabbed it.
"Hey, leave that back where it was! It’s a collector’s edition item, don’t touch it!" Caleb tried to rip the sword out of his hands by force, his autism making him incapable of understanding that they were going to fucking die if he didn’t find a weapon.
Noah shoved him harshly, silent, not saying a word. His step brother fell on the floor like a beached whale and began wailing, hysteric.
Noah didn't have time for his shit and ignored him. Instead, he ran over to Caleb's closet and began rapidly grabbing the thickest winter clothes he could find. He put as many layers on as he could without sacrificing mobility. He also wore one of Caleb's ridiculous anime masks and winter gloves.
By the time he was done, the door had been breached and insects were starting to crawl in through gaps in the makeshift barricade.
Noah sprinted to the window of the room and opened it. Outside was the fire escape. He would use it to get down. Caleb would buy him some time as his massive body was eaten by the bugs. As someone once said, one doesn't have to outrun the fastest monster, only the slowest human.
Noah was already going down the stairs, but out of some morbid curiosity or pent up anger, he lingered a second or two to see Caleb's gruesome demise.
His mentally ill step brother was still on the floor where he had left him, wailing like a newborn babe that had its mother's tit taken away, still making those pathetic, animalistic noises he always did when agitated. The bugs were almost upon him, and when Caleb realized that, he screeched and wailed even harder. The whole display was nauseating to behold.
When they finally did reach him, Noah expected them to begin tearing Caleb apart. But at the last second, a torrent of light spewed out of Caleb's chest and impacted the ground in front of him.
Once the light cleared away, what remained was a terrifying, massive yellow and red monster with four insectile legs. It had the body of a slug and a narrow, long head. Six baleful eyes were arrayed in a column along its head, below them a vertical mouth full of teeth. The titanic creature was full of spikes and radiated heat, glowing with an inner light. Both its maw and two mantis-like hands dripped magma onto the floor. It was double the height of a human, almost brushing the ceiling.
This new monster made short work of the insects attacking Caleb. It opened its maw wide and unleashed a torrent of fire upon them.
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Noah half expected it to turn around and begin feasting on the fatty snack behind it, but the creature just stood in place, eerily still.
And then the fact hit Noah like a brick--Caleb, his accursed step brother, the least worthy human being on the planet, had gotten superpowers.
Caleb didn’t realize this. As a matter of fact, he didn’t seem to realize much of anything, since he was basically catatonic on the floor. His flawed and feeble mind long having been overwhelmed by all the nightmarish recent events. He rocked back and forth in the fetal position, still tearing away at his hair; how he hadn't gone bald already was a mystery to Noah.
An insectile screech from above startled Noah out of his reverie.
A terrible floating abomination was coming his way. It was huge and spherical, heavily armored with some black, shiny material. The thing had no head, but long, wicked tentacles that presumably served to feed it came out from the bottom of it. Numerous bio weapons were strategically placed at different parts of its body.
As if that wasn't enough, the creature's noise had attracted others, as if it were commanding them. From the windows of nearby apartments small insects began to come out, flying and crawling across the walls. From the streets, larger, human-sized and deadly looking creatures with maws full of sharp teeth and bioweapons began climbing up.
Senseless with terror, Noah ran back inside.
Despite the limited time he had before his enemies closed the distance, he approached Caleb slowly and in a non-threatening manner, so his summoned creature would not turn him into roasted minced meat.
"Come on, Caleb, we have to go. A lot of creatures are coming our way." Noah shook him gently, trying to get him back to the real world. "Come on Caleb!" he hissed. "Please get up! We need to go!"
"You left me." mumbled Caleb, his mind not all there.
Noah began trying to lift his obese stepbrother, pulling him up with both arms, but it was like trying to lift an elephant. He went back to shaking him and trying to reason with him.
Caleb's eyes began to clear from their dazed state. "You left me to die and hit me!" he shrieked, pushing Noah away, his voice angry and hurt. "How could you do that?!"
His stepbrother's summoned creature reacted to its master's anger and turned to face him, full of menace.
Noah raised his hands in a placating gesture and used his sweetest, most honeyed voice to spew the best bullshit his mind could come up with in those few moments he had to think. "No, Caleb, you have it all wrong! I was, um, getting out of the way of your power. You see, I also got powers. The power… to detect other powers! And I saw you had powers and, um, I had to get out of the way and-"
At that moment a stream of horrid bugs began entering the room. Some were small, some bigger, some flew. They came in all varieties, each more monstrous and deadly looking than the next.
Caleb, predictably, began panicking. Thankfully, his creature did not seem to need his input to act and dove into the mass of monsters, burning and maiming them like a killing machine.
Noah needed to get in Caleb's good graces if he wanted to survive, so he discarded his dignity and strangled his pride. "Don't worry, brother," Noah said, ruffling his hair and smiling gently. "I'll protect you. Just focus on calming down. Breathe deeply and count to ten, okay?"
Caleb looked at him like a scared child looking at its father. "O-okay! T-thanks, N-n-noah!" he answered, full of gratitude, and began doing as Noah had told him, counting out loud.
Noah hoped that Caleb's summon would do all the work and that Famine's monsters would focus on it, seeing it as the larger threat. But, alas, the creatures seemed to be avoiding it, almost as if they knew they were dealing with a Summoner type superhuman. They were purposefully going for Caleb. Most likely one of the creatures had a way to detect power types and they had evolved countermeasures from facing them in the past.
The summon was doing an admirable job at fighting the tide. The small ones burned away from all the fire, but the bigger ones seemed more resistant and they were even managing to fight back against it. Their bioweapons fired plasma or some type of energy, others fired acid, and some fired parasites, making the titan sustain heavy damage.
There were too many of them and soon some began slipping past Caleb’s summon despite the thing’s best efforts, running straight for Caleb.
The first to reach them looked like a bug-like velociraptor without arms and a horrible stinger for a head. It was covered in spines and its abdomen glowed green, filled with a noxious fluid. Small things moved inside of it, swimming in the liquid.
The velociraptor had been half melted by the titan's heat and this made it slower than it should’ve been, which was what allowed Noah to react in time and dodge its attempt to inject him with whatever horrors it carried inside.
Its chitinous armor plating was also melted in places, and Noah aimed for one such weak spot.
Lady Luck finally smiled upon him, because he got a lucky strike, the blade piercing right through its neck.
Blood flowed out in a thick cascade, but the thing did not go down. It charged after him again.
Noah backed away and grabbed a drawer that had been used in the door's blockade. He threw it at the creature, hitting it in the head and stunning it.
Using the small window of time, he took the chance to strike again. This time, he pierced it through its thick thigh and chest.
He must have cut a nerve or something important because it lost control of that leg and finally fell down, spewing its noxious abdominal contents out.
Noah had no time to revel in his small victory since another one was coming at him.
This one was human-like and taller than him by a couple heads. It was corded with muscle and had a black, armored body. Its long tail ended on what looked like an assault rifle made of flesh and chitin. The thing’s head was eyeless, with a great maw housing black, shark-like teeth. One of its arms ended in a mass of barbed tentacles dripping a milky white substance, the other one had been melted off. However, the most concerning thing was that the creature seemed to be covered by a broken, fractured force field that was self-repairing slowly.
The monster didn’t even give Noah time to think. It shot out its tentacles, wrapping them around him in a constricting grip.
Fortunately, his thick clothing allowed him to avoid being pierced by the barbs and suffering from whatever they would have infected him with. Unfortunately, the creature began retracting the tentacles and dragging him closer.
“Help me!” shrieked Noah, desperate, being drawn closer to his doom by the second.
Caleb began making helpless frantic noises and those weird hand and body movements of his. He looked like he wanted to help but didn’t know what to do.
“Caleb, by The God, order your fucking summon to help me!”
Noah was almost in reach of the thing now. He struggled and struggled, but it was all useless, less than useless.
And just when he thought he would die, one of the great fiery raptorial arms of Caleb’s titan came down and scythed right through the thing, like a hot knife through butter.
The titan returned back to the fray after that quick save. More creatures were streaming in, endless, uncountable, inexorable.
Just when Noah didn’t think it could get worse, the big creature that he had seen floating towards them before arrived. Using telekinesis or some other method, it blew away the wall and window and levitated into the room, a colossus in a tiny box.
Caleb’s summon immediately focused on it, jumping at it. However, the telekinetic monster blasted it away, making it go through a wall. It then aimed its many weapons at the hole in the wall and began firing a constant barrage of plasma, acid, and other things at the titan.
The floating monster then began charging another burst of its power, aiming at Noah and Caleb.
Noah thought he was dead, moments away from becoming chow for some oversized bugs. He didn’t see a way out of this situation. But, a flash of light made him blink.
Once he opened his eyes again, a female superhero was there, in the air, atop the floating monster.
After a moment, a sword, which seemed to be made of concentrated light energy appeared in the hero’s hand. It grew in size to massive proportions and then she swung it down, cleaving the floater in two, right down the middle.
Just like Caleb before, Noah was now catatonic with shock. All of the recent stressful events and surprises had taken a toll on him, and he slumped down to the floor in relief.
The heroine began swinging her giant sword widely, each swipe felling dozens of creatures.
At first the smaller bugs tried to climb onto her, but they were burnt by her hard light armor. They soon gave up and went for more suitable prey, namely Noah and Caleb.
Caleb’s summon, no longer being fired upon, chose that moment to burst back into the room, burning the small bugs with its flame breath. The thing had sustained heavy damage. It was missing an arm and a leg, its body heavily corroded and burnt. Nevertheless, it continued to fight, helping the hero.
Noah had been too distracted and out of it to realize before, but a few of the bugs had managed to reach them, crawling through the roof. He only noticed them once one of them dropped on top of him, falling on his arm.
The small nightmare-cockroach began climbing up his sleeve, fast as hell. Noah tried to stop it, to grab it, but it was strong and slippery, its clawed legs fastened tight to his clothing.
Cursing and frantic, Noah used both hands and all of his strength, straining for dear life. But the thing was impossible to get rid of and even worse it was making progress, crawling up slowly, inch by inch. It also bit at Noah’s glove holding it, spewing some acid or poison out of its stingers that burned his skin beneath the fabric.
More began falling from the roof, landing nearby, skittering silently towards him.
Noah stomped one of them that had gotten too close, but another nearby used the chance to begin crawling up his shoe.
Thinking quickly, Noah kicked off the shoe with the help of his other foot, sending both bug and shoe flying.
He stomped yet another with his last remaining shoe, but it was hardy and did not die. He had to stomp it harder a few more times before it would finally quit moving.
Throughout all of this, the bug Noah was struggling with had made it all the way up to his bicep. Sweat dripped down his face and stung his eyes. His strength was leaving him, arms trembling with effort. He wouldn’t be able to stop it much longer.
Noah decided to take a risky gamble and removed one hand from the bug to unzip his winter coat. He then released the other hand and began removing the coat as fast as he could. He managed to take it off just as the bug was nearing the nape of his neck. He threw it on the floor and began stomping on it until the bulge inside the coat stopped moving.
And yet for all of his success, more of them came. More fell from the roof, three of them right on top of him. More came flying.
The hero finally noticed their distress and, after another flash of light, appeared right next to them. It took about a second for her armor and sword to materialize after she appeared.
“What’s what, gents!” she said, grinning. “Bright Knight at your service!” One by one she grabbed the three bugs on Noah, burning them with her armored light gauntlets. With her other hand, the hero began creating hard light grenades and throwing them at the bugs.
Noah was so rattled that it took him a few seconds to gather his witt to form a reply. “Thanks for saving us! Please get me to a safe area and I will make sure to repay you with whatever you want!”
“Usually here is where I’d say that saving lives is a reward in and of itself…” Bright Knight smiled ruefully, speaking while she fought. “But I am a small-time corporate hero and I won’t turn down a reward if you want to give me one—you don’t have to though!”
It was at this point that Caleb barrelled into the conversation, having shaken his fear at the presence of the feminine hero and overflowing with excitement. “Um, h-hi, Bright Knight! I’m Caleb! I am a big fan! I bought your playable character for Super Smash Heroes vs Villains and I saw all your fights, even those in the Dark Web, and, um, I thought you looked really cute on that bikini gravure shot you did that one time and-”
Both me and Bright Knight cringed hard at Caleb’s lack of social skills. I was used to it, but she looked more than a little creeped out.
She put up a hand and interrupted him, changing the subject. “So which one of you is the Summoner or Controller of that bad boy there?” asked Bright Knight, pointing at the monstrous titan that was still in the fight.
“Oh I am!” said Caleb. “That’s my superpower! I call him Firedeath Monsterdragon!”
“I see.” she smiled, but it looked forced. “And did you just get your powers from Famine’s meiosis? Or are you a preexisting hero?”
“I just got them! These bugs were attacking me and-”
“Alright, so here’s what’s gonna happen, you two: this area is almost cleared now.” Finally, after so long, most of the bugs were dead. Now she and the titan (Noah wasn’t calling it by Caleb’s edgy name) were cleaning up the few that were still here and there. “So we are all gonna move out. You, Caleb, are a super now, so you are legally obligated to join the fight. But we are gonna drop off the civilian, and any others we find along the way, first.”
“But Noah isn’t a civilian!” whined Caleb, making Noah wince. “He has the superpower to detect other’s superpowers!”
He approached the hero and whispered. “Look, my step brother is mentally ill. I lied to him about having powers. I am a regular civilian, so, yes, please drop me off at a safe location.”
Bright Knight looked confused, but she shrugged. She didn’t give a shit and had more important things to worry about.