"They've begun their attack sir." A male voice said.

"They're early," Apex said with exasperation. "Just like these capes."

He leaned his head back on his chair and pressed a button on his watch. Then he rolled his head around cracking his neck, rolled his shoulder, then sat up and pressed a button on his console. A bing rang out throughout the compound and the workers stopped to listen.

"Everyone, your leader is speaking. We knew this day would come. Eventually, the heroes would figure out our location and try to take us. We've prepared for this. Outside is a wall of heroes anxiously waiting to take us down." He said to a chorus of explosions and attack from outside. "I can't promise none of you will be lost. They're heroes, so they'll try not to kill you, but that won't stop losses from being accrued. If you become one of those unfortunate souls then thank you for your service." He said his head hung low. Then he lifted his head. "Just remember that you all are here for one glorious purpose. That we all chose this life for one thing and one thing only. Power. Money is easy to get. You could have worked a 9 to 5 and gotten money. You could be robbing a bank right now and getting money. Respect is easy enough as well, but power. Power is hard. I've given you power, and I've given you freedom. Freedom to live life in whatever fantastic fashion you choose. We made the only choice people like us can make. We're villains. No, not just villains. We're super villains and today we get the chance to show these heroes what that means. Who's ready to show off?”

A chorus of cheers shook the building as the groups worked even harder to prepare.

"That was amazing lover." Rose whispered into his ear from behind and sliding her hand down his chest. Her long golden hair flowed around Apex's head as she kissed his neck.

[ Skill Used: Mental Resistance - Successful ]

Apex slid his fingers through Rose's hair and pulled her head in for a kiss before pulling her back. "Thanks love, now let me speak to Thorn." He said before placing one more quick kiss on her lips.

The daughter of a War Goddess and a Love God Rose and Thorn are one person with two bodies and two personalities. The two warring emotions couldn't be contained within one body so she is both one and two. Rose is a seductress with the power of love and can influence anyone who finds her attractive to do her bidding, however, the more people she has under control the weaker her control becomes. Rose is a beautiful lithe woman with long golden hair that literally shines like a halo on her head, smooth silver skin and green eyes. She wore a black pantsuit that hugged her natural curves with a green shirt that brought out her eyes and a black pearl necklace was given to her by Apex.

 "Thorn. Wake up." Rose said and in a blink she was replaced by a barbarian woman three times her size.

Thorn had superhuman strength, speed, stamina and a healing factor that allowed her to jump blindly into the fray with a low level Warbringer field that caused people around her to be thrown into blind fury. She was a warrior goddess who could leap halfway up a skyscraper and punch a plane out of the sky. Thorn despite having the look of a warrior was still beautiful with gunmetal gray skin and short black hair with red tips that made her look as if she were wearing a flaming crown. She wore a barbarian armor that consisted mostly of furs of animals she's butchered even down to her fur boots. She carried on her back two small magical axes that could change into hammers but her main weapons were her gauntlets that had a set of animal bones harder than steel from her knuckles to her wrists that could deliver devastating punches and deflect or block most attacks. She stood there angrily, breathing heavy and ready to fight. Her face softened drastically, the tension in her shoulders easing when she saw Apex and slowly made her way up to him. She got down on her knees in front of him; even on her knees, she was the same height as Apex sitting down. She softly took his face in her hands and he took her face in his.

"Hi Thorn." he said softly with a smile that Thorn returned.

"Lover" Thorn said before moving to kiss Apex.

"Are you ready to fight?"

“Always." She said nodding happily. Apex pulled her into a tight embrace running his fingers through her short hair while she buried her face in his chest. He kissed the top of her head then let her go and turned back to his console as she stood to her feet. He pulled up the holographic map of the compound and pointed to the courtyard.

"I want you to take the courtyard. I want you leading the ground forces. I know you don't like fighting in tight places so you should have plenty of space to go wild."

"Warbringer?" Thorn asked.

"See if you can get to the middle of the capes before you put out your Warbringer field. It'd be great if you can make them frenzy and fight each other. If you use it while near our forces we're a lot more likely to have losses with the heroes' bloodlust.

"Rose?"

"I need you in charge until this is over. They're going to have psychics ready to counteract Rose's influence. We need a hammer right now."

"I can be the hammer," Thorn said cracking her knuckles. "Should I kill?" She asked.

"Wait until the fray gets started heavily before you start the casualties. You drop a cape before they get distracted and they'll all try to mob you. I want you coming back to me."

"Always will" Thorn said with a smile. She leaned down for one more kiss as Apex pressed a button that caused the domed ceiling to open on one side. Like a switch had been flipped in her head she was back in barbarian mode, angry and heavy breathing as she leaped out of the ceiling and into the courtyard 200 yards away in one go.

"Tigerstripe, I want you backing up Thorn for me." Apex said into his radio and received two clicks in confirmation. "Shield team, how long do we have?"

"Sir. We have 20 minutes at best if we stick with the shield generators. We could get an extra half hour if we use the psionic shields." a shield team tech answered, a young man barely who sounded barely over 18.

"No, we're going to need the psionic team for the battle. When the shield generators fail will it cause any problems?"

"There's a 10% chance the shield generators would explode and take out part of the compound when they go out."

“That's %10 too much. Give me 5 minutes then drop the shields." Apex said then turned the holographic map around then tapped buttons activating the smart turrets. "Cube, are you sure these turrets are going to work right?"

"Yes sir, all of our people's DNA is on file, the turrets won't aim for them all. As long as they're careful not to get into the line of the shot, none of our people should be in danger."

"Good girl." Apex said to the 12-year-old technological super genius. "Sky defense team, you guys are going to hang back, protect the turrets and stop any cape that gets past them. I'll keep the turrets posted forward and to the sides so just stay behind it and you won't be able to get into the line of fire."

"Yes sir." one of his fliers answered.

"Dr. how secure is Plan B?"

"We'reallsecurebutIthinkIcouldusealotmoretimeandmaterialsifIwantedtobereallygoodbutfortodayandourusesweshouldbejustfine." the hyperactive hyper intelligent squirrel answered. It was almost too much and too fast for Apex to understand but he understood enough of it.

“Right. Good. Remember Dr., breathe and take your time. We talked about this.”

“Yes. . . . Sir.  . “ Dr. Frankensquirrel said overly slowly emphasizing each word. Apex closed his eyes in slight irritation and then let out a breath before getting back to his work.

“Drop the shields and let loose.” Apex said calmly. Like bugs finally getting through a bug net the heroes came in droves, the flying heroes carrying and dropping in the heroes who can’t. Apex leisurely took to the air flying through the entry of his office to watch the ensuing chaos.

Ah. It’s beautiful

Heroes of all different types and abilities funneled into the compound before getting met with aggressive resistance. Tigerstripe and Thorn stood at the forefront of the ground forces. Thorn threw one of her hammers at a rushing hero before smacking another away with the side of her ax. Tigerstripe stepped onto her shoulder and used her as a jumping point to jump in the middle of another group. Bodies could be seen flying away from her as she kicked and punched. A laser beam fired at Thorn and she used her axe to redirect it to take out three other heroes before returning it to it’s source. Besides the power to change into hammers, her axes had the ability to dematerialize and rematerialize in her hands, she called back the one she threw before sending it through the wings of a flying hero. A hero with apparent super strength jumped onto her back got her into a chokehold, she was brought to her hands and knees but the hold was loosened when Tigerstripe punted the hero in the head. Thorn grabbed the hero that was choking her and threw him into another group. That hero had made a deadly mistake as Thorn’s eyes began to glow red and then there was a pulse of power, all the heroes in her vicinity without significant mental blockers began to rage. They began to attack everyone, friend of foe with reckless abandon. Thorn’s warbringer field caused high activity in the amygdala that lead to heavy aggression. The field was so strong that anyone without help from a strong psychic could be affected; even with mental blocks the field barreled right through them. It was truly a hammer smashing through everyone’s minds. Even Tigerstripe had been affected but she had trained with Thorn and her warbringer field closely enough to be able to aim his frustrations at the enemy. She let herself drown in the rage as she punched and kicked all those around her.

Archangel, a hero with beautiful angel wings and a flaming sword, flew over the battlefield watching as his friends and teammates brutalized each other. He tried to swoop in to attack only to find he was losing balance. He tried to right himself but he kept falling slowly. He looked back to find that a turret had blown a hole straight through one of his immaculate wings. He crashed to the Earth breaking his neck and dying instantly; then another Archangel ripped from his back as his vacated skin began to crumble to dust. Archangel also had the power of rebirth. Not regeneration, it didn’t matter how hurt he got if he didn’t die. 

Gross

Apex watched as flying heroes were picked off in the sky by the smart turrets. One hero attempted to destroy them with heat vision only to find it repelled back at him by the shields around it.

Ha. Dumbasses      

Any heroes who managed to slip through the hail of fire enough to get close to the turret were met with resistance in the form of the sky defense team. Terrordactyl a villain who modified himself to be a giant pteradactyl, the wicked witch and her flying monkey and a number of other flying villains attack with full force. Terrordactyl uses his giant maw to rip the wings off a hero while his claws slash through another. The wicked witch stands on her broom with her cloak held open as more and more flying monkeys fly out ripping, tearing and slashing into oncoming heroes.

[ Skill Used: Psychic Resistance - Successful ]

They’re here

Apex searches the field the surrounding area. Just then the haze around Tigerstripe’s mind cleared completely as she smelled a scent on the air. She began a low growl as she knew her nemesis had arrived.

[ Skill Used: Telescopic Vision - Successful ]

 Apex’s sight zoomed in and he saw in the distance cresting the horizon, the Heroes of Destiny, and at the forefront was their leader Might Guy and his sidekick Kid Mighty. Apex’s greatest enemy who has been a thorn in his side since he began his criminal career. Might Guy was a  hero with a body that Greek heroes would worship. He wore a blue body suit with a white M on the front with a flowing white cape with a blue G on the back, his bracers, belt and boots were both white, a head of blonde hair, blue eyes and a chiseled jaw made him look like a Nazi’s wet dream.  He had too many powers to name, super strength, speed, flight, invulnerable skin, healing of internal damage, mental resistances and magical resistance. His only real weakness seemed to be Milles Warren. Might Guy’s true identity of a fifteen year old kid, he instantly turned into Might Guy with a simple but extremely hard clap of his hands while saying Might. Even with all the power he still had the immaturity of a teenager, he was brash, reckless and quick to anger. Not traits you want in an all powerful golden demigod. Kid Mighty had come on as his sidekick soon after. Kid Mighty’s suit flipped the colors with a white body suit and a blue cape but with a cowl attached to hide his face. He wore combat boots lined with steel on the front of the foot and the heel for devastating kicks and metal lined blue gloves and bracers. Apex didn’t know much about him beyond that he didn’t seem to have any real powers but had great athletic ability, fighting prowess and a knack for technology. Kid Mighty did become his moral compass and kept him in check very well. They seem to have grown up together but Kid Mighty couldn’t be much older than Miles, 17 at most.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Now the fun begins

Apex smoothly lifted into the air. Might Guy flew Kid Mighty who was hanging from his grapnel into the thick of the battle before taking straight up into the air. He took a shot from the smart turret like it was nothing and maintained eye contact with Apex, his face as stoic as usual.

Let’s see if we can’t put a smile on that face.

The corners of Apex’s lips lifted in a menacing grin. In a blink of an eye the two crashed into each other over the battlefield exchanging Earth shattering punches. A normal person would have had their jaw disconnected from their face but the two just wound up for another punch, Apex feinted and dodged Might Guy’s punch which left him open for a devastating haymaker that sent him flying end over end into the ground below. The impact sent out a shockwave that rocked the compound and made the ground shake. Might Guy lifted himself up almost immediately his eyes literally burning red with rage as he sent out heat vision that just barely missed Apex’s face but did manage to cook one of the witch’s flying monkey and a flying hero it was fighting.

There we go. Now we’re cooking with fire.

Apex dropped to the ground landing on his feet. Thorn’s warbringer field had thinned out the crowd by a lot as heroes had beaten each other to bloody pulps. Though her stamina is great even Thorn had been weakened by all the fighting and now had her hands full fighting Kid Mighty and a number of other heroes. Tigerstripe had left the battlefield to find her prey. A few small guys decided to take a chance at Apex one seeming to have a body made entirely of blue steel and another who had super speed. Apex dodged a punch from and tripped the speed demon and made her run into blue steel taking them both out of the fight. The quick distraction was enough for Might Guy as he flew landing a punch to Apex’s stomach that knocked the breath out of him then released an energy bolt into his gut that sent Apex flying back rolling end over end. Apex clutched his stomach checking for burns and punctures.

[ Suit Skill Used: Energy Resistance - Successful ]

Apex blew out a sigh of relief before breaking out into a fit of laughter. He floated back upright and took off flying on a collision course with Might Guy only to be brought down heavily in a heap.

[ Skill Used: Psychic Resistance - Failed ]

It was as if a jackhammer was chipping into his brain, he couldn’t see straight and could barely stand. His psychic resistance skill was leveled up quite high, it took a powerful psychic to push through them.

[ Status Ailment: Psychic Paralysis - Time Limit N/A - You are currently being attack by psychic abilities. All stats dropped by half until attack ceases. ]

“Thorn!” He shouted but Thorn was preoccupied with Kid Mighty and a number of other heroes. She was still weakened by the overuse of her warbringer field.

Get out of my head Cyprus!

No.

 He rolled over onto his back clutching his head in agony and let out a deafening sustained scream.

[ Skill Used: Scramble - Failed ]

Apex continued his scream as it grew even louder. All battle ceased as everyone was brought down to a knee except for Cyprus Bleak, the master psychic, who was knocked out cold by his powers being scrambled.

[ Skill Used: Scramble - Successful ]

[ Status Ailment Cured: Psychic Paralysis: Psychic attacks have ceased. All stats returned to normal. ]

Apex heavily and carefully got to his feet, anger rising in him. Everyone else shook off the effects of scramble and began to get to their feet as well. A gunslinger hero tried to take advantage of him being off guard and fired at Apex only for Apex to block the bullets with his cape.

[ Suit Skill Used: Bulletproof Cape - Successful ]

Apex ran at the gunman throwing his body into him and rolling with him taking the twin revolvers out of the gunman’s hands mid-roll. He lined up shots on two heroes that were hassling thorn and fired.

[ Skill Used: Deadeye - Successful ]

His aim was true and the bullets sailed through the knee of one hero shattering it and the arm of long blonde haired Viking looking hero causing her to drop her long sword. Thorn meaning to hit the Viking woman with her hammer didn’t realize in the commotion that she was still holding her axe and sliced right through the woman’s neck lopping her head off.

Shit. She’s going to pull aggro heavy.

Every hero nearby noticed the beheading and all went to take down Thorn. Apex lined up shots and fired into the crowd hoping to draw some attention but though a few heroes dropped, they still dog piled and overwhelmed Thorn. Apex looked around and noticed that there were still quite a good number of heroes still standing while most of his villains had been either knocked out or captured. Sometime in the ensuing melee, the heroes had managed to destroy his turrets and terrordactyl and the witch were defeated. Tigerstripe was nowhere to be found.

This isn’t over yet. Apex doesn’t lose.

“Dr. launch Plan B!” Apex shouted into his earpiece.

“You got it.” The Dr. returned.

Suddenly a wall parted in the compound and a group of patchwork creatures came shambling out, their bodies held together by tight stitches. There were creatures of various shapes and sizes from humanoid to beasts. They were all slack jawed, mindless puppets being controlled directly by the Dr who rode in the head monster in the back. It was a giant 12 feet tall brute with unnaturally large muscles made by the Dr. stitching multiples arms and muscles together to make huge muscles. The insides were mostly an empty set of tunnels that allowed the Dr. to crawl through to repair any damage as it occurred. Dr. FrankenSquirrel was a 2 ft tall hyper intelligent white squirrel wearing black gloves, mad scientist goggles and a red lab coat.  Along with genius intelligence, the Dr. possesses low levels of psychic power; since his mind is firing too fast and frantically to interact with any mind beyond attempting to scramble it, he uses his psychic powers to control his creations. His power was called Inhuman Puppetry.

“Help Thorn, if we lose her, we’re done.” Apex told the Dr.

“Roger Roger.” the Dr fired back.

Monsters were jumping into the fray assisting Thorn who was still being overwhelmed. A monster with the head of a wolf, the body of a gorilla with extra bear arms and legs attached was biting, tearing at and tossing heroes away from Thorn. Other human patchworks took to fighting and trying to rescue the capture villains. Two humanoid monsters rode centaur like monsters with horse bodies attached at their torsos but one had the upper half of a gorilla. Most of the human bodies were normal humans only able to hit hard because of no mental limiters on how hard they hit but quite a few were dead supers still able to use their powers.

 Might Guy who had been damaged by Apex’s scramble skill finished off two villains who had taken advantage of his momentary vulnerability. He rallied and flew back at Apex. Two exchanged a series of heavy punches again. Apex ducked out of the way of a wide left punch but Might Guy used his right hand to catch his left and then brought his elbow down heartily onto the back of Apex’s skull driving Apex into the ground head first. Apex was momentarily dazed and Might Guy grabbed him by the neck line of his cape and dragged him. 4 patchwork humans ran up to try to take Might Guy down but he quickly dispatched them by shaving the top of their heads off with his heat vision.

“This was your plan? A bunch of cannon fodder creatures. I expected better from you ‘Apex’.” Might Guy taunted and laughed.

Apex began to chuckle as well and Might Guy whirled on him throwing him  hard into the ground and placed a foot down in Apex’s chest.

“What so funny monster?” Might Guy asked with a hateful sneer.

“That you think these things are my plan B. No no, he’s plan B.” Apex said with a bloodied smile while pointing behind Might Guy,

Might Guy turned slowly following Apex’s finger and his stomach dropped. Floating from the dark doorway slowly and menacing, Might Guy could see a glowing pair of red eyes and 2 gleaming silver bracers. Apex’s plan B was long dead hero Blitzkrieg. Blitzkrieg was the Might Guy of a different era. Blitzkrieg had super speed, strength, flight, heat vision, endurance and all his powers were in the upper limits, the highest in history. He touched down lightly on the battlefield and slammed his bracers against each other sending a shock wave so strong it shook the entire compound causing everyone to double over. A hero rebounded and attempt a flying punch of blitzkrieg but before it could land Blitzkrieg had brushed it away so fast and hard that the hero didn’t even notice that his arm had disappeared at the shoulder. Then blitzkrieg threw a punch and although he stopped short of hitting the hero and pulled back the hero’s head still got hit with a shock wave so hard his head disconnected from his body. The body remained standing for what felt like minutes before hitting the ground.  Another hero appeared to blitzkrieg’s left which was met with a left punch that blitzkrieg threw without even looking in her direction that caused her head to disappear in a cloud of red mist. 

Good God

Even Apex got nervous under the intimidating might of Blitzkrieg. It was a good thing that Dr. FrankenSquirrel was unshakably loyal to Apex or he would be forced to wonder how he could manage to take him down should the Dr decide to turn that monster on him. Apex looked up to see that Might Guy had also become frozen in place. He couldn’t see Might Guy’s face but he figured he had to be wearing a look of utter terror.

Then the unexpected happened; Kid Mighty turned his sight on Blitzkrieg. Kid Mighty swung from his grapnel and planted both feet hard into Blitzkrieg’s chest before pushing off of him hard knocking the behemoth off kilter for only a second. Blitzkrieg threw a punch at Kid Mighty but instead of dodging back the young hero ducked into Blitzkrieg’s inside and used the late hero’s own momentum to flip him over onto his back. Kid Mighty had placed two explosives on Blitzkrieg’s chest during the dropkick. He used his grapnel to get away and triggered the massive explosion. Nothing could be seen but smoke for a long minute. Then two beams cut through the smoke towards Kid Mighty who just managed to flip and dodge out of the way.

“No!” Might Guy shouted before disappearing in a blink flying up to the back of blitzkrieg wrapping his arms around the hero’s waist, lifting him  and dropping him in a German suplex so hard his head went through the floor.

Blitzkrieg stood back up and Might Guy moved in to throw a punch. Blitzkrieg guarded against the huge punch from Might Guy and returned it landing a punch so solid on Might Guy’s face that the pressure caused the hero’s nose to explode in a huge gush of blood. Then Blitzkrieg punched him so hard in the stomach that all the content of his stomach were forced out. Blitzkrieg lifted him to deliver the finishing blow when Kid Mighty landed on his back stuck a gas grenade in his mouth held it closed with semtex putty. Blitzkrieg grabbed Kid Mighty from his back and slammed him to the ground knocking the air from his lungs before stepping hard on his chest crushing him while trying to rip the clay off of his mouth. Might Guy regained his senses enough to see Kid Mighty on the ground with Blitzkrieg’s colossal foot on his chest.

“No!” He shouted again before turned to Blitzkrieg and used his heat vision on the weakening hero. Might Guy cooked Blitzkrieg’s face, the skin bubbling as Blitzkrieg’s dead eyes didn’t change in the least, then kicked him away with all his strength. The dead hero’s body flew lifelessly through the air before crashing through a wall out of sight. Might Guy picked himself up slowly and walked over to Kid Mighty’s crushed body. He picked up his head and hand, his entire body racked with utter despair. Kid Mighty was dead; no healers would be able to help with that. He squeezed his eyes closed and his teeth clenched together tightly; when his eyes opened again he shouted out his hurt, blasts firing from his eyes burning the heavens. 

Might Guy had lost. No matter what the outcome was in the end, he had lost. Grief had hit him hard and he decided to skip right past denial and right into step #2. Anger. His eyes glowed red with power and in a blink he had Apex by the throat. His long blonde hair had dropped all around his face and he looked like a raging golden demon. He wasn’t holding back anymore, not even Apex could do much against his overwhelming strength. He held a giant ball of energy in his hands, holding it inches away from Apex’s stomach.

“You killed my brother, now you join him.” Might Guy said, his jaw clenched, his voice unnaturally calm. It sent chills through Apex’s body. This was a side he hadn’t seen before.

“That’s not a very herolike thing to say.” Apex managed to chuckle out.

“Do you really want those to be your final words?” Might Guy asked slowly inching the energy ball toward Apex’s stomach his glowing eyes still boring into Apex’s. A beeping sound went off, momentarily distracting Might Guy who looked down at a watch on Apex’s wrist, Apex’s eyes followed.

Apex began a sickening laugh. “No, I think my final words will be; better luck next time, boy.” he said before he phased out.

“No!” Might Guy shouted again his voice so heavy with anger that he could surely be heard miles away.

 The rest of the villains began to phase out as well and then the shields came back on top of the compound.

“Bomb!” One of the technocentric heroes yelled.

Miles away, in a closed nightclub owned by Apex, the villains collected themselves and took stock of everyone in attendance. Apex walked up to his office and sat down in his chair. Rose followed him in moments later.

“Lover, attendance has been taken. We’ve lost seventeen souls today, not including the frankencreatures that were destroyed, and Tigerstripe is nowhere to be found.” Rose said solemnly.

“Jeez. Seventeen people huh.” He said holding his face in his hands. “Find out all the people we lost today and make sure their families are taken care of. I don’t want them to even have to think about money. It might be a small consolation, but it’s the least I should do for what I took from them.”

“Yes sir.” Rose said. They felt the floor shake momentarily and the lights flickered from an incredible explosion in the distance.

“And make sure that blitzkrieg monster is disassembled and burned. That was too much even for me.” he said disgust evident.

“You got it.” She said, bending over to give him a kiss before heading out the door. She turned back around to ask “What about Tigerstripe?”

“She’ll find her way back. She always does. We both know what she went to do.”

“True.”

“Lock the door on your way out, I need some time alone.” He said and she dutifully locked the door behind her.   He sank back into his chair.

Notifications

CHALLENGE COMPLETED

You have completed the challenge Stay Out of My House.

You’ve led over 50 villains and defended your compound against an overwhelming force for 30 minutes.

Reward: 3000 exp, 10,000 delrens, 500 infamy points.

LEVEL UP

Congratulations Apex, you have reached the highly coveted level 100!

You are a force to be reckoned with.

You have received 3000 infamy points.

You have received 50 attribute points.

You have received the unique title Villain King.

The world now knows your name and even the most sinister of villains now kneel at your feet.

Though you have reached the highest level of World of Heroes, there’s still plenty left to do. Stay the course, and one day you may rule the world.

Log Out

Logging out. . .

Finding Phonebooth. . .

Hanging up cape. . .

Changing into secret identity. . .

Putting underwear on the inside. . .

Thank you for playing World of Heroes: Apex.