“Now, now, there is no need to give me that look. Trust me, once I’m done, you won’t even feel anything. You’ll be far better off than you were!” Red Ape announced proudly.
If a standard scientist were to see his lab’s state, they’d be more than embarrassed for him. Dirty walls with cages were piled all over, each filled with animals of all kinds; monitors scattered around on the walls and ceilings; shelves of notes turned over; tables packed to the brim with what little equipment he had been able to get.
To say that it was a mess was a light remark. It was practically a garbage heap pretending to be a lab.
Still, to Red Ape, this was his newest home. Green Wolf had left him high and dry, demanding proof that he deserved to stay in Zoo after they had to go out of their way to save him from being sent to Nightshade.
“Now, please don’t hiss.” Oh, he was going to give them that proof. Then Green Wolf would have no choice but to make him his right-hand man.
Red Ape stood in this dirty home, which he called a lab. He was dressed in a long, flowing lab coat, the once pristine cloth now stained, torn, and badly stitched together. His head was covered mainly by a large cartoon monkey mask. Floating through the air, various metal hands flew around, all controlled by his will like a hive mind of bees.
A small kitten hissed up at the villain in one of the cages as he opened it, reaching for it. A syringe filled with a strange green liquid was held in one of the floating hands. “See, with this, I think I’ve finally cracked it.” Red Ape explained to the cat, waving maniacally. “The others didn’t go so well, but this is my tenth batch. I need you to grow big and strong so that I can use you in my army.” He reached out for the cat but stopped when he saw a flash of red on a monitor.
It came from the left and glowed with a bright light as an alarm began to go off. There were several people who had entered the sewers. One of them caught his gaze, though. A damn hero.
“Myth.” Red Ape seethed when he saw the monitor. "Well, it looks like I’ll have to start packing up and-” The villain stopped when he saw the hero take a left, a right, another right, and then a left. “Why is he coming straight for me!” Myth took every correct turn as if they knew exactly where they needed to go. A minor panic began to grow inside of Red Ape before his ego got in the way.
An ego that began to build up like a flame.
“Oh. So, he thinks he can just come to me and cheat my little game. This is perfect; I’ll be able to test my newest beast.” Red Ape walked towards the wall, where a large lever was jutting out. The villain grabbed it and pulled it down as hard as he could.
It was time for the show to begin!
***
The screams filled the sewers as Jack sidestepped the alligator’s tail, dragging Hope with him. Myth avoided an attack of his own as the second beast attempted to bite the dark-skinned man in two.
“Why are they so big?” She asked in a panic. She was getting flashbacks of Intake and could already feel her heart beating faster.
“Always some idiot that isn’t happy with how things are!” Jack hissed. “Just got to make them all bigger!”
It wasn’t regular alligators that they were dealing with. These things were huge, thicker, and larger than any animal should have been. Their skin was coarse and jagged, covered in razor-sharp scales, and they were a nasty gray color with a set of intelligent eyes that quickly tracked the movements of the prey in front of them, which was bad since they were the prey to these big beasts.
“They’re created by Red Ape.” Myth yelled as he sidestepped the swings from the gators, each one leaving gashes in the ground. Every hit easily tore part of the stone floor, ripping the sewers apart. “His power lets him understand the biology of certain animals; his MO is mutating them. This is part of his twisted game. We’ll need to take these out and catch up to him before he can escape.”
“We? You’re assuming I’m gonna fight them.” Jack stated, annoyed.
“You’re a big, strong, tough-looking guy. Don’t tell me you’re scared.” Myth smirked.
“A little, yeah.”
“You got to do something!” She argued. “We took on that one villain; we can do this, Mr. Larison!”
“Yeah.” Jack sighed. He put himself in front of her, eyeing one of the beasts. There were only two creatures, one coming after them, while the second followed after Myth.
She gripped his arm tightly and stared at the alligator. “So, uh, what do we do exactly?”
“You have super strength, right?”
“Yeah?” She nodded. “I’m durable too.”
“In that case, here’s the plan. I’ll stun it, and you attack from the rear.” The darkness around them was forced away as Jack ignited with a golden glow. As if the sun itself flowed through his veins, it hummed, and he could feel the power coursing through his heart—that strange beat getting quicker. For the first time in ages, he felt good. Better than good, actually. He felt like a god. “We’ll beat this thing in one move.”
Superpowers could come in nearly any form. Elemental control, plant life creation, animal-based abilities—there was no count to the number of powers that existed within the world, all of which were thought to have come from the four Lords, the first ever Supers. Most powers had special effects built into them, namely, enhanced bodies, improved strength, speed, and durability.
This is what let Jack go toe to toe with the monster before him. The animal lashed out with its tail, the razor-sharp scales lining the limb, able to slice a normal man in two, but they never hit Jack, the man being too fast. It wasn’t just quick dodges, though. Jack moved like a blur, and she could barely follow him with her eyes.
The man zoomed back and forth and was even able to run up the wall at one point to dodge a strike. She had seen heroes like Max Lightning on the news. They were speedster types. Most powers that gave enhanced bodies also gave enhanced speed, but some heroes were just simply built for speed. Jack was one such person.
Jack didn’t fight back at first, leading the creature further back into the sewers as he built up more of his energy, getting faster and stronger with every passing second.
Finally, though, Jack felt the energy reach a peak inside of him, and he raised his arm, pointing his finger at the animal. “Sorry about this in advance.” The golden glow blasted out of his finger like a bolt of lightning and slammed into the snout of the creature, making it let out a howl of pain! Its body began twitching rapidly as if it had been tased, and it tried to focus, but its head was spinning. “Alright, kid. You’re up.”
The alligator stopped, its eyes showing a flash of realization at the words, but it was too late to act. She was on it in an instant. She still had her backpack since she hadn’t had time to drop it off; it was basically the best weapon she had. She swung it as hard as she could, getting a direct hit on its head. It howled in pain, its eyes snapping wide, but she didn’t stop there and instead jumped onto the creature’s back and managed to get her arms around its snout, forcing them closed.
“Now it’s your turn, Mr. Larison.”
Jack felt the power ignite with his hand, sparks of what looked like fire or lightning seeping out of his palm as he brought it down as hard as he could directly into the eye of the animal, which she lined up for him. The golden glow exploded out, and this time, the creature let out the closest thing it had to scream, thrashing around wildly as its nerves lit up.
Its eyes were wide for a moment before it slumped forward, unconscious. She wasn’t spared either, dropping off of the creature, twitching and gasping as the attack affected her. She flopped around on the ground as her body slowly regained control.
“So that’s what a taser feels like.” She shuddered, standing back up on wobbling legs.
“Well, more of a Super Taser,” Jack admitted. “Didn’t want to kill it, so I set my energy to stun.” The man explained. “I can basically change the properties of my energy into other forms. In the fight with Intake, I made it into a powerful explosive that could blow part of the man’s body away. Here though I lowered the attack and focused it into something that would harm the nerves.”
“I really want to know what your powers are.” Then again, she still wanted to know what else she could do. She hadn’t really realized how strong the man truly was. And yet, his weakness was apparent, a pant coming from him as he gripped his left arm tightly, the light fading away from him. “How’s your heart?” She asked quietly.
“It’s not over yet.” The man snapped at her. “There were two, remember.”
“Oh yeah!” She turned, finding that the second alligator was still fighting Myth. “Whoa. He’s even cooler than you!”
Jack’s dodges had been fast, but they were also rough. The man hadn’t really tried all that hard to avoid getting hit. Myth, on the other hand, moved with grace like some kind of dancer. He spun out of the way, time and time again at the very last second, the creature’s eyes darting around as it tried to keep up with the hero, and his robes flowed out to mask his movement further.
Myth’s eyes left the creature for only a second, spotting them standing off to the side. He seemed to give a sigh of relief when he saw that they had defeated their enemy.
The hero stepped away as far as he could from the creature and reached up to mess with the little headband that he wore. He moved it to the side as a set of horns began to form at the top of his forehead. Long and curved like a bull's, they started to jut out of him and grow. It was time for him to go on the attack.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Myth was about to show where he got his name from.
The hero’s robes were suddenly stretched out to their full extent as he grunted and flexed. His posture slumped forward, and he grew in size, dwarfing even someone like Jack. His arms, which were already massive, nearly doubled in bulk, and his legs twisted and curved, gaining hooves. Thick brown fur covered his skin as his face stretched into a large snout, which opened and let out a roar that shook the tunnel they were in. Jagged horns jutted out of the side of his head, and he almost looked like a bull, but one that walked on two legs and had the arms of a man.
Myth felt his new body twitch, his muscles finishing their expansion, and the bull cracked his knuckles. The alligator stopped and stared at the now nine-foot-tall behemoth of a monster that was in front of it and let out a quiet meowl of fear.
“I’ll admit that’s pretty cool.” Jack hummed while she stared with stars in her eyes.
The poor beast never stood a chance. Myth reached down, his hand big enough to wrap around the jaws of the creature. He lifted it, pulled his other arm back, and punched it into the monster’s stomach with a single mighty blow. The animal let out several gasps and gagging sounds before he simply dropped it, the mutated alligator falling unconscious.
It was over in an instant.
The man turned his body around and suddenly shrank back down to his normal size, his fur and horns fading away. He rearranged his robes, making sure he was modest, and turned around to face the two of them. For a moment, silence filled the sewers as the two alligators lay unconscious. “Did we do it?” She asked.
“I guess so.” Jack kicked his gator with a bit of force, making sure it wasn’t faking or pretending. He frowned and bent down, reaching for the head of the animal. He grabbed something that had been stabbed into the skull of the beast and, with a tug, ripped it out. “So, Mr. Monster, what’s this?” He asked, tossing it to the hero.
Myth caught it and stared down, frowning. It was a small, gray hand. No arm or anything; just the hand made of a strange metal. “Some machine. First time I’ve seen it. Red Ape is always experimenting on animals, but this time, something was different. These things seemed like they were under his control. He’s always had to plan around the wild instincts of beasts, but if he’s made a way to control his monsters like this...”
She stared at the hand and frowned. “I think I’ve seen something like that before.”
“You have?” Myth tossed her the hand, and she caught it.
The thing was made out of a weird metal that was super shiny, allowing her to see her reflection. It almost seemed to hum and, at one point, glowed with a fading blue light. She didn’t know why, but for a moment, she found herself staring down at it with a mix of emotions. “Nah. Never mind; I haven't seen it before.” She shrugged and tossed it back to Myth casually.
“You’re no help.” Myth stared down at the hand, then dropped it, raising his foot up, and brought it down hard enough to shatter the hand. “Look out for more of these. The animals aren’t evil. They’re being controlled by that cruel man.”
She nodded her head. “I’m going to punch him in his face.” She promised. Hurting animals was where she drew the line on what made villains into supervillains.
“These were just to test us and distract us. It’ll get harder from here. Still, you didn’t do too badly. I will allow you to come with me.” Myth grunted.
“Both?” She asked.
“Both.”
Jack rubbed his neck, letting out a breath. “I just got suckered into helping, didn’t I? Let’s just get this over with.”
“That’s the spirit.” She smiled, punching him in the shoulder, but then shrunk down when he shot her a look.
They began to walk through the sewers once more. They expected more beasts to jump out at them, but it was strangely quiet. It made her frown, as something felt off. She had heard stories of all the villains. It wasn’t like them to just let heroes reach them like this. Normally they’d throw a gauntlet of stuff at you that you had to fight through in order to save the girl in the end. At least that’s how it went in all the comics she read.
It was just silent, though. They arrived at the end of the path, the sound had come from without getting into another fight. A sizable, rusty metal ladder leading back up to the surface awaited them. “Are we really about to fight a supervillain?” She winced. Now that they were getting closer, she felt uneasy. “Shouldn’t we call for backup or something?”
Jack thought about it for a moment, going over the situation. “We could leave and go get someone.”
“No.” Myth cut him off, folding his arms. “If we leave, he will get away. If you wish to leave, then go. I won’t stop you. I, however, cannot and will not turn back. I’m finishing this here and now.”
Jack grumbled and shrugged. “Kid, you should head back up.”
“No! I can fight! You saw me. I need to do this! I want to fight alongside a real hero! You saw how strong I was! And with your power, we can just knock him out, right?” She asked. “It should be fine!”
Jack rubbed the back of his head, letting out a sigh. “I guess. But stay safe.” He pushed the sewer lid off and stepped onto the road above. He was standing in a city block now—one with many old buildings and empty cars. Parts of the street were destroyed, and there wasn’t a sound other than Myth climbing up. They had to help her up, and she gasped at the sight of the block.
There were many places like this. Abandoned streets, and in some cases, even entire cities. Sometimes, it was because the damage was too significant; in other cases, it was because the city could have been filled with radiation, disease, or some other threat. In such cases, they were left to rot away, with everyone having to pack up and move. There were just some areas the Cleanup Squad couldn’t fix.
Jack found what he was looking for at the end of the street. A small building that could have been a clinic was turned into a makeshift lab, or rather, a zoo. It smelled of chemicals, oil, and dirty fur. Loud animalistic noises echoed through the building and out onto the street.
“This is gonna be a trap,” Jack complained, walking forward. “I’ve done a fair few jobs with Cleanup in abandoned clinics like this. Last one we did had so many wire traps. Saw a guy trigger one, and then... Well, let’s just say I saw him real well all over the place.” She shuddered a bit at his words and hoped he was just joking.
“Yeah, we shall have to keep our guards up.”
“And we’re just going in!” She said with a stunned look on her face.
Both men looked at each other for a moment, then shrugged. “Yep,” they announced.
She sighed and shook her head. It was reasons like these that women lived longer than men. “So, what are we expecting from this man? Will the other members of Zoo be here?” She finally asked.
Myth shook his head. “I doubt it. Zoo isn’t a group I would call chummy. When the members aren’t listening to Green Wolf, they do their own thing, and if Green Wolf were here, we’d know it already. He doesn’t like playing subtle games like this; he’d rather put on a big show for the entire city. All we’ve got to deal with is Red Ape, and besides his animals, he’s just a normal guy.”
There were two primary forms of power. The first and most common were the Physical ones. Things like Jack with his lasers or Myth with his weird body. These were powers that were pretty obvious. They had an effect on the world around them. The second form was what Red Ape had. Mental powers. Things that didn’t affect the user in any noticeable way. Powers like these affected their minds and gave them ideas for things they could do. In Red Ape’s case, it was a Mental power that gave him ideas on how to genetically modify animals.
The most famous person with a mental power would be Harrison Avalon. A brilliant man who wasn’t a superhero but did provide all the gadgets and gear the heroes needed. He was also the man who owned the Cleanup Squad and Avalon Industries. Boy Genius was another Mental Power user, and he was a member of the Enforcers, ranked just under the Victorian, meaning he was the second strongest hero in the world.
Basically, Mental powers could be scary, but if you hit them hard enough, they’d go down like any normal person.
“Is everyone ready?” Myth asked, bracing his body up against the door. He took a deep breath when he saw their nods and pulled his leg back. “Let’s do this.”
The superhero kicked the door down, sending it flying off the wall. The inside of the lab was the waiting room of a clinic. There was a lot of open space, and many of the chairs’ people would have used to sit had seemingly been thrown out. All the windows were covered with sheets, and many of the doors were ripped off. Cages lined the walls, and animal droppings were scattered everywhere. It smelled really bad.
The dark room lit up with a bright glow as hundreds of eyes suddenly stared at them from the other side, near the back.
Animals, all bigger than they should have been, were crammed into small metal boxes. Lions with razor claws, apes with arms the size of cars, cats with their fur standing up on the end, bats with wings as big as a person—all glaring at the humans that entered. The beasts growled, thrashing in their cages, seemingly not caring if they harmed their own bodies.
They weren’t in danger, though. All the animals were either chained to the wall or in cages far too small. Scars littered their bodies, and some looked beaten and starved. Myth felt his teeth grind together, and Jack gave an expression of disgust.
Despite the rage the two felt, it was her who reacted first. She felt her blood boil at the sight of the creatures, and she stepped past the two men, gripping her hands into a fist. “Hey! Come out here, you freaking jerk!” She screamed, her voice bouncing around the lab and echoing out.
Jack took a surprised step away from her. He had never seen her look so mad before. The animals all whimpered, backing away or shrinking into their cage when they sensed her power. “Are you sure yelling at him is the best idea?” He asked.
As if on cue, the sounds of rugged boots stomped down the stairs. They finally saw the man who was doing this. The one taking the animals. Red Ape’s lab coat was stained and foul-smelling, and the red monkey mask he had on was stretched across his face. In his hands he held a helmet. It was forged out of the same metal as those hands, and it was made to cover the entire upper face of a person, with a single red dot resting in the center and several knobs off to the side. He placed it over his mask, squishing it into place, and then gave them a half-bow.
The man’s helmet hummed, and a faint red light seemed to shine out. Several floating hands followed the man. Curled in the man’s arms, still hissing and clawing at his throat, was the cat they had seen on the poster, leading to this wild chase.
The one and only Red Ape made his appearance.
“Can I help you?" The man instantly ducked when Jack pointed his finger and blasted out a thin golden beam of light that smashed into the wall and cracked the stone. “Jesus! Calm down!” Red Ape yelled with wide eyes.
“Why did you do this?” She asked, stepping forward. “Why’d you take all the animals?”
“Well, I was going to explain my goal before that one shot a freaking laser at me!” Red Ape reasoned in an almost offended tone.
“I don’t give a damn about your plans.” Jack snorted. “I’m just going to kick your ass.”
She stopped the man with her arm. “Wait.” She looked toward the villain. “I need to know. Why? Like, why the hell are you doing all of this? Why are you evil? Superpowers are rare; why on Earth would you ever willingly decide to be a villain when you could help people as a superhero?”
Red Ape let out a loud chuckle. “Oh my, Myth: You really brought an idiot into battle with you. Why am I evil, girl? Because it’s fun! I don’t get to do half of what I can now as some goody two shoes hero. I’m rich from all the money we steal; I can have any woman I want by controlling her with these hands; and I get to feel like a god. Why would I ever decide to be a worthless loser of a good guy?”
She frowned at his answer and folded her arms. “Seriously? Okay, yeah, kick his ass, Mr. Larison.”
“With pleasure.” Jack began to walk towards the man, his body already glowing as he started cracking his knuckles. “You’ve hurt all these animals, and I’m a little mad; I really hate villains like you-” Before he could throw a punch, Red Ape threw the cat in his arms towards Jack.
On reflex, Jack reached up and caught the cat. He quickly tossed it back to her just in time as something else began to walk down the stairs behind Red Ape, who moved out of the way. The villain let out a mad laugh as his best creation yet reached the bottom of the stairs. “I’d like for you all to meet my newest weapon. Toni! Named them after a cop Zoo killed! Get him!”
It was a kangaroo of all things. The creature towered over Jack and stared down at the man, whose eyes had gone wide from shock. Its flesh was stretched across its skin and had become a nasty gray color, and its arms were far longer and more muscular than they should have been. Another one of those metal hands was digging its way into its face, blocking half of it, but one eye managed to peer past it and glared down at Jack.
“What the actual fu-” Jack never got to finish his sentence as the thing sucker punched him as hard as it could.