“Hello, what is your emergency?” A female phone operator for the Hero Organization asked.
“I heard a loud explosion come from beneath my apartment building and the water shut-off. I think they are connected,” A young man said across the phone.
“I’ll send someone over right away,” The phone operator said before putting the phone down, and the phone immediately started ringing again.
*ring*
“I wonder what is going on? Shouldn’t this call be going to someone else?” She lowly murmured before picking up the call.
“Hello, what is your emergency?”
“I heard a loud explosion beneath my apartment and my water stopped working,” An old woman said.
“I’ll send someone over to check on you don’t worry,” The operator said putting down the phone.
*ring*
The phone rang again, even though this operator should already be sending a hero to investigate this water break and explosion; she would never turn down a call from a citizen in need.
“Hello, what is your emergency,”
“The water at the hospital shut off after a loud explosion was heard from underground. We have a backup water tank, however, that will only last so long,” An old man said.
“Eagle Hospital?” The operator asked, looking at where the call was coming from on a screen.
“Yes,” The old man said.
“I’ll send someone over right away,”
‘I think a speedster to check on everyone, someone with the ability to see underground, and someone with a lot of muscle will work, since this sounds like something a villain would do,’ The operator thought, selecting the right heroes using the limited information she gained from those calls, which all came from around the same area.
“We are currently experiencing a large number of phone calls due to an explosion and a water shortage affecting about 30,000 people, including the sick and injured at a hospital. We have already sent Death Detective, Steel Hands, and Plumber Pete. We will be turning off all phone calls from that area to avoid causing another large amount of calls,” The operator’s boss said over the loudspeaker.
“I wonder what caused this, it’s very strange? This must be a mad scientist's experiment gone wrong or something causing his underground lab to blow up. Which caused the water pipes to break!” The woman said starting the first conspiracy theory related to Joy’s antics.
===
4 hours later:
The heroes sent to investigate this incident have found their way down to the sewers for further investigation into who, why, and what caused this to happen.
Death Detective was one of the best detectives in all of Gumtrap and would use his ability to ask questions to the recently dead to solve crimes ranging from burglary to stopping villainous schemes to destroy Gumtrap.
Steel Hands was a large and bulky man that could crush his foes in a bear hug using his hands that could be turned into steel at will. He does professional powered weight lifting against the other strength-powered of Gumtrap. He is also secretly a family man and owns a small restaurant. He will spend his days cooking, weight lifting, or fighting bad guys.
Plumber Pete was a bit of an oddball in the hero community, but he was unparalleled in the city of Gumtrap when it came to plumbing.
“Based on the water pressure in this pipe and the location of the water outage. I think the explosion occurred in block 1B in between these two intersections,” Plumber Pete said while pointing at a paper map.
The three heroes walked through the sewer system and eventually found their way to the scene of the crime. A mess of blood spread along the floor, the stench of fresh bodies, water flooding out of broken and bent pipes, rubble spread all throughout the tunnel, cracks in the concrete lining the wall and a hole dug in the concrete.
“My precious! Look what they did to these pipes! It could take a week to fix all of this! DD, who did this?!” Plumber Pete said.
“Strange? I don’t see any human spirits around here. Whoever did this must still be alive...and don’t call me DD.” DD said.
“I’ll stop calling you DD if you catch whoever did this!”
“...I’ll have a look around,” Death Detective replied soggily, finished with Pete.
Death Detective went over to a large bloody pile of bones and dried skin and held his nose. He looked closely at the body for signs of what killed this large beast, which only experienced heroes could fight one on one. He found some small bloody holes drilled into the bats' side and based on the amount of blood and local wildlife, he guessed it was a suctioner monster that ate the dead creature after it was killed in the explosion. He walked over to a broken pipe to investigate the explosion. He found warped rock and traces of powder used in the explosion.
This meant the person who caused the explosion was an experienced rock powered that used explosives or that multiple people were involved is this each with different specialties. However, the second is unusual as a group of villains with this level of rock manipulation and access to untraceable explosives would be doing things much grander than simply causing residents plumbing issues for a few days, however, the same could be said for the singular individual unless that individual had a few screws loose and did this on a whim as usually as these bizarre things happen when only one person is involved instead of multiple people. If that is the case then only a handful of people could have achieved something like this.
“Did you find anything, DD?” Pete said interrupting the detectives' thoughts while taking different measurements of the burst pipes.
“There wasn’t much to go off of but I suspect only one person was involved in this.” Death Detective replied
“Only one? Well, I guess that makes sense it's easier for there to be only one wackjob instead of many,” Pete said.
“What are our suspects?” Steel Hands asked itching to show this villain his steel fist.
“I can think of two that have the ability to something like this. Granite Killer or The Black Huntress, however, the huntress has been missing for a while so I suggest we assume Granite Killer as our primary suspect until more evidence is found. I have no idea what would cause one of them to kill all of these monsters at random but I also don’t understand why somebody would be evil in the first place so maybe it was just something they decided to do on a whim without a care in the world for all the problems they just caused.”
“Indeed,” Pete replied half handedly.
===
After Pete excitedly took as many data points and measurements about the broken pipes, they went back to the surface however on their way back Death Detective heard a ghostly wail in the distance something he was all too familiar with.
“Is anyone there?” The ghostly voice said in the distance.
“I’ll be right back. I heard somebody call for me,” Death Detective said while heading toward the voice.
“We’ll come with you. It is always best to stay together in dangerous places like this,” Steel Hands replied.
“Okay, let's be quick. I need to finish this as fast as possible,” Pete responded.
They followed Death Detective to a random spot below a sewer grate. There seemed to be a small amount of small blood beneath it but overall nothing unusual for this sewer system filled with monsters constantly in battle. Death Detective, however, got an entirely different story. A scared blue spirit of an old man was in front of him.
“Help me!” The old man screamed at the heroes.
“There isn’t much we can do for you, anymore. I’m sorry may Avanta see that your soul be put at ease in the afterlife,”
What do you mean?! You can help me right! I called for you!”
“You died, but don’t worry if you tell me what happened, I will stop at nothing to avenge your death,” Death Detective said to the spirit.
“I...I...died. What do you mean?” The man asked.
“You are no longer amongst the living. You are now a spirit that will slowly dissipate over the course of a few days until you are summoned by Avanta,”
“Is that why I can’t touch anything?” The man said bleakly.
“Yes,” Death Detective replied, trying to explain to the dead man what happened.
“I...I’ll tell you everything. I was driving a delivery of Sulphurine back to Gumtrap, when one of my tires burst and I had to go out and fix it with two security guards to guard me while we were being attacked by a pack of Grave Drakes. I fixed the tire but a girl snuck into the back of the truck while we were busy and murdered the guards and knocked me out, when I woke up she didn’t say anything and forced me to get her into Gumtrap. I did as she said but I tried to secretly call the heroes as soon as we entered the city since I was scared and she killed me as soon as she heard the operator's voice. I don’t know if she was going to kill me either way or not but I assumed the worst and she threw my lifeless body down into the sewers and I was forced to travel with my body until a croc came by and ate it and I was forced to watch.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“I’m deeply sorry that we failed you but how did she kill you and what did she look like? It is very important, I’m sorry if it pains you to remember,” Death Detective said.
“She used a dagger made of rock and had a blank face with deep black hair and smelled like rancid meat. Are you sure there is really nothing you can do to help me!” The man pleads one last time.
“There is really nothing we can do for you, I’m sorry but your evidence has greatly helped me and I will go to the ends of Thrae to find her. Tell me your name if you have anything you want to say to anyone tell me and I will personally deliver it to them,” Death Detective replied, determined to give this man’s family some last words and a confirmation of his death.
“Thank you for giving me peace, at least. My name is Greg Miller. Tell my wife and daughter, ‘I love you both. I know I haven’t been the best husband or father and that I spent too much time working or at the bar and not enough at home. I hope that in my death you both find happiness without me.”
The spirit of the man disappeared after he said his final words and all that was left was his memory in those that knew him.
“So what did he say?” Steel Hands asked.
“We are changing our primary suspect to The Black Huntress, she killed this man and stole his truck of explosives, which I assume was used in that explosion back there,” Death Detective responded, clenching his fist in sorrow and anger.
“The Black Huntress? Huh?” Plumber Pete said stroking his face.
“What? Is something wrong?” Steel Hands asked.
“No it’s nothing, I just really thought it was Granite Killer is all,” Plumber Pete gave an offhand remark.
‘Mr. Green was very interested in that woman for a job before she mysteriously disappeared. I’ll have to tell him once I’m done playing Hero,’ Plumber Pete thought in his head while the group went back up to the surface.
=======
*sqeuch* *squelch*
It’s happening! It’s really happening! My little bat is hatching, and I’ll have another monster under my contro...I mean I’ll have another friend to help me do things.
*pop*
‘Maifear! Cinnamon! Food!’ Cinnamon sent out her first words and this time I’m pretty sure it is safe to call it a her as I can’t imagine anything with that big of eyes and so much black fluff being a guy! Cinnamon also seemed to be able to walk on her legs which looked like small twigs and her wings were smaller than normal but overall the cutest of all the mosquito bats. I can’t even see her blood pouch behind all that black fluff. Cinnamons pitch black ears also seem very shadowy.
[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ec/6b/cc/ec6bcc647cf1518e312e6e6cc1bedf04.jpg]
Cinnamon is also calling me Maifear. So we have Meister, Maistear, and now Maifear. Wonderful…Well I guess lets see what Cinnamon can do after I lay down some ground rules.
‘Do not attack the woman with dark hair and if you ever feel the need to punish yourself, do so by pretending to sleep with your eyes closed.
‘Yes. Maifear.’
‘Show me what your powers can do?’ I ask.
Cinnamon instantly turned her body from that of a fluffy bat into a dark mist that floated off the ground. Out of the mist grew a pair of black fangs that almost seemed to blend into the mist.
*squeak* *squeak* *squeak* *squeak*
‘What are you doing?’ I ask about the squeaking.
‘Summon. Others.’ Cinnamon replied, trying to show off her powers as an evolution of a Pack-Bat, which one could assume is calling for back-up.
‘Don’t do that!’ I admonish Cinnamon, for trying to call a bunch of probably evil bats to our home.
‘Yes. Maifear.’
‘Is this your new subject, Meister. It is quite small, but I am sure that could be easily fixed in the next evolution if you so choose, Meister. I would be more than willing to teach it basic combat training to be able to put it’s life on the line for you,’ Cake said.
‘Cinnamon! Help! Maifear!’ The small black bat monster replied.
‘Fine, you can teach Cinnamon. I’ll be at the laptop if you need me,”
‘Laptop?’ Cinnamon asked.
‘Try to teach her some basic words as well,’ I reply.
‘Yes, Meister. It will be done.’ Cake responded before heading through the broken concrete wall and into the other room to give Cinnamon pointers for how to live as a monster.
At the same time, I will be looking at this world's version of YouTube. I found it in my never ending search to understand this world, I ended up finding a website called OurTube; with a blue square and a pause button in the middle as a logo. I spot a few videos that catch my eye immediately including, Top 100 facts about Thrae, The Mystery of Verlin Green, Monster Anatomy 101, but the one that I click on is, What would happen if monsters gained human-like intelligence? As I think it is relevant to my position.
“Welcome back! Make sure to lightly tap that like button, so I can afford food next month. That’s not a joke by the way but anyway on to the video. This video is entirely fictitious and the likelihood of this ever happening is near-impossible, so with that out of the way, let’s start this up. After a word from our sponsor of course, Raid: Shining Legends-“
I skip past the stupid sponsorship bit by about a minute on impulse and get to the meat of the video.
“-so if we were to assume that the monsters kept their intrinsic evilness and didn’t gain human emotions then I presume that humanity would be extinct in about 15 years without any intervention from one of the Gods. Monsters would probably try to breed and eat as fast as possible and train their levels using the weaker dumber monsters as a sort of prey. They would probably avoid all contact with humanity until they knew their victory in the war for the world was secure and they would then slaughter all of humanity and use us as slave labor or flavor for their meals as we would be put in breeding pens like animals. Humanity would be over, and monsters would easily outmatch us in every department at a speed that mercilessly slaughters ours. This is assuming we don’t find them early on and eliminate them. That would be the bad side and what I presume most likely in this scenario however there is also a good side of this scenario. That being if this monster had some sort of human emotion and compassion we could use it to save so many lives by using it to fight against villains or any bad guys that threaten the world. But that is just a theory since it has never been documented any monster having anything above a 3 year olds intelligence so we have nothing to worry about.” The video ended off with.
‘Maistear, what are you watching? Can I have a better bed?’ Kiwi asked from behind me.
‘I’ll try to get one...wait KIWI! You can speak normally! And you evolved into a…
...a mostly normal looking human with two sets of arms, one being normal mantis arms and the other being sharp human arms. Kiwi has large eyes with cat-like iris and antennae poking through her hair, her abdomen looked sharp enough to cut metal and connected to her tailbone. Kiwi was also fully nude with no clothing however she had nothing to show off, as she had no nipples or really anything that would need to be hidden. However, something else is definitely missing from her body…
Her boobs!
Kiwi is as flat as a board!
If not flatter! Kiwi could probably balance the bubble in a level by placing it on her chest!
This world is so unfair!
[https://danbooru.donmai.us/data/sample/10/fe/__mantis_chan_original_drawn_by_sparrowl__sample-10fe6b6842386f66bdb5cfccc9bd9053.jpg]
[https://danbooru.donmai.us/data/sample/9b/6b/__mantis_chan_original_drawn_by_sparrowl__sample-9b6b9340bc6a5389267fecb834836ae6.jpg]