22:05. Monday, November 20th, 2023. Forest Clearing in Gazebo Park, Midport.
With Zeke’s talent, it didn’t take too long for him to get to the location the fight was supposed to take place at. He was in his full Messenger uniform, a red leather with white accents on the shoulders, neckline, and on the sides of the torso.
To cover his face, he wore a matching full-face motorcycle helmet with a large face shield to best maintain his peripheral vision. Because the face shield was tinted to obscure his face, it came with an attachable flashlight.
Besides covering up his face, the helmet was also practical since there was a greater than zero chance that he could get a concussion if he ever fell during his talent’s maximum speed. In that same vein his costume also included elbow and knee pads. It helped that he also thought they happened to look cool.
Sean, or calling him by the new sidekick name they picked out, Mailbox, was gonna be running late since he was still biking up the trail. Seriously if he would just let me carry him, this wouldn’t have been an issue. I don’t see why his ‘masculine pride’ is more important than being on time.
After Messenger had arrived, he could see the two villains who were waiting for him: Poltergeist and Mummy.
Poltergeist wasn’t mannish but she was pretty stout with broad shoulders for a girl. She was wearing her usual accouterments, a black medical mask and a black jacket with gold epaulets.
The jacket looked like something a fancy history general might wear if it was the right size and she buttoned it up properly, which she didn’t. She only buttoned the top button without putting her arms through the sleeves, and it was so big on her it draped her back like a cape.
Meanwhile Mummy was on the taller end, definitely over six feet, and was on the more lanky end.
He wore a black hoodie with the sleeves cut off and sweatpants, with a huge golden ankh around his neck. His face was fully wrapped up in bandages along with his arms. He also had two golden bracelets, presumably to match his necklace.
The bandages weren’t held tight around him, instead they loosely floated, most likely the result of his talent.
Messenger would be lying if two of them didn’t look intimidating.
“Where’s your second?” Poltergeist asked, sternly.
“My ward is running a bit behind. He won’t be long.” Messenger said, demoting his friend from ‘acquaintance’ to ward for being tardy.
“Aww, you hear that boss? Our kid hero has got himself a sidekick. They grow up so fast!” Mummy fawned condescendingly. The boss in question didn’t seem quite amused at her subordinates teasing but it was hard to tell with how stone faced she always was.
“While we wait, have you gone over the rules with them? Need a refresher?” Poltergeist asked Messenger, sounding like his dad did during his first day of middle school. Ugh, I don’t know which I hate worse, Mummy’s open disrespect or Poltergeist’s more subtle variety.
“That this is fair combat and that I have no reasonable guarantee of safety. Yes, and he agrees to witness these events without interfering.” Messenger said.
“Not ‘fair combat’, mutual combat. But the rest of your understanding will suffice.” Said Poltergeist.
“Great! With that settled we have some time to kill and shoot the shit. So tell me Messy, because I am dying to know, what’s your deal? Bitten by a radioactive mailman? What makes you think you can put us in the ground this time?” said Mummy.
The real reason was because he had recently had a breakthrough with his talent, but he sure as heck wasn’t going to say that.
“It’s a hero’s job to deliver justice to villains like you.” Messenger said, he was proud he snuck in a small delivery pun in there. He was even tempted to strike up his hero pose. Right shoulder facing forward, left hand on his hip with his left elbow bent straight up, while his right hand was flat out in front of him. The moment wasn’t right for it, however. Gotta save that for my win!
Poltergeist scoffed. “I have already demonstrated why that won’t happen anytime soon. What makes you think this time will be any different, dear hero?” Poltergeist asked, seeming genuinely curious.
“Because a rematch you know you will win again would make your sinister little game that much less fun for you!” Messenger declared! What he didn’t declare was that he was already aware that during her last challenge she had sent out Frankenstein.
Poltergeist slowly shook her head. Was she… Disappointed?
“You disagree? You clearly are getting bored? Why else would you send Frankenstein to fight the Midnight Divers when they challenged you two months ago?” Messenger asked.
“The boss doesn’t need to explain shit to you dumbass! If anything you should be grateful we even entertain little shits like you while keeping out assholes the divers out of town!”
The Midnight Divers were actually vicious. They were a villain duo that went from city to city wreaking havoc, but apparently weren’t strong enough to beat Frankenstein in a one on one fight. Or, seemingly, dangerous enough to put themselves on the federal government’s notice.
Even Messenger had only heard of them when the fight was announced online.
“Oh please, you run this messed up monster of the month because you are too lazy to try to do any real villain shit ever since you stopped smashing mailboxes. A federal crime I may add.” Messenger said, waving his finger at them. Gotta work in the delivery theme whenever I get my shot!
“You want to play the hero so fucking bad that here you are upset we don’t commit enough crimes for your taste! You’re so right, I’ll get right on burning down a few orphanages.” Mummy said.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“I’m not upset, it’s just clear to me that your superficial attempts at villainy have just left you restless. And all that boredom is gonna lead is to you falling back into old habits. I’m just doing the world a favor by stopping you before it gets to that point.” Said Messenger.
Cutting through the tension a bit, Sean showed up.
“Sorry I am late!” said Messenger's acquaintance. Come on man, don’t apologize to the villains!
“Alright, you ready to begin.” Messenger said, trying to make it sound more like a statement than a question.
“Born ready, someone’s gotta teach you a lesson in why you don’t lecture Graveyard Bash!”
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The last time Messenger challenged Graveyard Bash to a fight, he fought Poltergeist. It lasted a total of two seconds. He showed up, gave a speech about how he was gonna deliver them justice, the fight began, Poltergeist picked him up by his clothes and tossed him onto a car.
It was, by far, one of the most embarrassing moments of his life. Made no better by Juggler laughing the whole time.
Since then, he trained. He knew that he wasn’t going to beat Poltergeist anytime soon, even if he spent years practicing with the best of the best. What he needed was a shot, any shot, to use their own rules against them. That shot came when he found out Poltergeist wasn’t taking on fights anymore.
This was the main reason that Messenger had wanted to challenge Graveyard Bash, and it was thanks to his training that he thought he could finally beat them.
Messenger registered his talent as
This was this weakness he had worked on, so that now, everytime he stopped, he would simply lose speed rather than stop completely. It was a long journey, but he had made it.
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Mummy started by launching a volley of his bandages at Messenger. In order for Messenger’s plan to work, he needed to tie up as many of them as possible, so he dodged and weaved throughout the trees.
As he ran throughout the forest, he couldn’t help but remember what the sensation of
Mummy’s number one weakness was that his bandages were slow, powerful, but slow. As each of them whipped in Messenger’s direction, they left deep gashes on the trees.
“Come on Messy, don’t you want to play!” Mummy shouted. Crack! “You give us shit for playing games,” Smack! “and here you are forcing me to play tag!” Crunch! A tree, most likely a rotted one, fell to the ground.
“Don’t take the bait Messenger…” He whispered to himself. He couldn’t fall for the bait because he had to stick to his plan.
Messenger had three plans, one for each of his potential opponents. His plan for fighting Mummy was by far the hardest to put together, while also had the highest likelihood of succeeding.
It took scouring the internet for what little footage of him that was out there Mummy, interviewing the one villain who had fought him one on one, and even measuring out different brands of gauze, but Messenger had finally pieced it together.
Mummy had exactly three rolls of gauze on his person at any given time. One he used for a mask, and two for his arms. If Messenger had to guess, he thought maybe could only control those three at any given time.
So Messenger kept running, until he was out of the reach of Mummy’s bandages, and his eyesight. Then he stopped. And hid, turning off the light on his helmet.
Thanks to his talent, he didn’t get tired from running when he used it, but his heart was still beating in the stressful moments before Mummy caught up. He needed to wait only a few seconds before he could hear Mummy still shouting. He readed himself, grabbing a rock from inside his pocket (he didn’t want to leave anything to chance).
He waited agonizingly as Mummy passed his hiding spot a little bit, unclipped his helmet’s light, and threw the rock, and charged.
He was betting everything on this. He needed to distract both of Mummy’s arm bandages if he was gonna have any shot at defeating him. One punch at his full speed.
As expected Mummy immediately launched one of his arm bandages toward the rock’s location. But he knew that would be enough. As soon as Mummy realized he wasn’t in that direction, he would be listening for his real location. The moment Messenger’s talent activated, he then turned on the flashlight and threw that at Mummy too.
The plan was simple, in the moments before
As predicted, Mummy launched his other bandage straight forward, while Messenger switched directions to come at him from the side.
As for the third bandage? This was where the interview he had was vital. Even if it meant getting help from a villain. Mummy couldn’t take it off, it was the only thing covering his face. And the villain Messenger talked to had made sure to constantly stress, no villain would willingly unmask themselves because that was the same as admitting defeat.
Everything Messenger had worked toward was leading up to this moment as he began to flank Mummy. It was an all or nothing strategy that he was going to use to finally beat his town’s villains. After he defeated Mummy, even if she could technically kick Messenger’s but, by their own rules Poltergeist and her crew would be required to hang up their cowls.
There was just one thing he didn’t account for. Not having his helmet’s light meant he couldn’t actually see the branch in his way before it tripped him.
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It turned out, Mummy had a technique for close quarters combat that Messenger was not aware of, which was that he could use his bandages while they were still wrapped around his arms to punch very, very, hard.
So Mummy was more than comfortable jumping on top of Messenger the moment he had fallen to the forest floor to wail on the hero.
“You.” Wack. “Think.” Wack “You.” Wack. “Are so.” Wack. “Clever!” Slam!
Mummy ranted and raved about how much he hated Messenger’s “bitch tactics”, while not letting up. The present became a bit blurry for Messenger at that point.
Messenger cried. Zeke cried. The pain he was feeling was nothing like he had ever felt. Even when he was thrown onto the car by Poltergeist, the wind had been knocked out of him, but he had recovered quickly.
Emotions poured into him at once. His desire to run away, his need for his dad to somehow save him, his fear that Mummy wouldn’t stop until he was dead, his regret for not thinking to just buy a second helmet light, and most of all, his hate. A pure hatred, one that he had never felt as pure as this.
He realized at the very moment that Mummy punched him in the stomach so hard he threw up in his helmet, that every reason he had to hate Graveyard Bash before this moment was bullshit. That he was just finding reasons to hate them so he could feel more like a hero. He knew because he wanted them to pay and he no longer cared how they paid.
Mummy punched his ribs so hard he felt something snap and he wished things he had never wished on anyone before, he hoped they would all be hit by a bus, that they would get cancer, that the government would raid their houses and shoot them when they slept. With his every breath he wished for their torment, and his every scream he prayed.
His final thoughts before darkness took hold of his consciousness was that Mummy would pay for the pain he caused a thousand fold.