Hero Super

Calvin and Grape guy had been sprinting at full speed(or, at least, the latter was) for the past five minutes, heading towards whatever direction didn’t have an insane superpowered maniac lying in wait to attack or throw a flare in the air— which was weirdly impossible. It wasn’t until Calvin threw a garbage can towards a pursuer secretly flying above them that their encounters became scarcer.

Didn’t mean they were out of the woods yet.

They ran through the labyrinthian network of streets and alleyways Villainopolis trapped them inside, the confusing pathway helpfully keeping them from getting bombarded by a plethora of ranged projectiles. Sadly, that also meant they had no idea where they were going.

Calvin wasn’t too stressed, though, with the 'getting lost’ part. The app he activated on his watch was meticulously marking his path and letting him know where the fridge was. Worse comes to worst, he could still make his way back. Of course, he’d have to sneak through or break through, but it was still an option.

What he was more concerned about was their destination. Or lack thereof.

Grape guy hadn’t uttered a single word since they started getting chased. He couldn’t blame him, the man looked like he was barely holding onto his senses with how tired he probably was. Calvin even went a step beyond and did him a favour, taking the knocked-out Sean from his hands and running with two unconscious adults on his shoulders.

It was somewhat straining, but he’d been through worse.

'We need to get out of the streets,’ Calvin thought after seeing another psycho in the intersection in front of them. 'How the fuck are they still finding and getting ahead of us?’

He used [Jumper] and dashed, quickly arriving in front of and kicking the face of the stick-wielding psycho, before turning towards another alleyway. His focus was now finding a hole in the wall or the ground, somewhere to crouch into and disappear.

Luckily, in Villainopolis, finding a hiding spot was easy.

Every alleyway had its own nook or cranny that no one would even think to look through or into— and the nearest one just happened to be a grime-covered sewer lid.

Calvin dashed ahead and opened the sewer lid with a kick, nodding for Grape guy to go inside first. The man in question, however, was too tired to notice his signal.

“For fuck’s sake,” he cursed, tripping the man before 'guiding’ his falling body into the manhole. 'He’ll be fine. He’s a super.’

He jumped in after, retching inwardly as he heard a 'meaty’ splash upon landing.

After a split-second of fighting against the all-powerful primal urge to look at whatever filth it was he had just landed in, he dropped the two bodies unceremoniously onto said filth before jumping back up to close the sewer cover.

“And just to be safe,” he whispered, using [Colour Control] to make the lid blend with the muck and the cement outside.

He jumped down again, now outwardly retching at the sound and the smell. The cat-killing human tendency overtook him, pulling his gaze down the instant he forgot about it.

“Ugh, fuck,” he groaned, looking around and jumping fast towards the nearest dry spot in the tunnel. “Damn it.”

He took out a towel from his pocket and started wiping down his entire outfit which was now caked in sticky grape juice and grimy sewer filth.

'Next time, get multiples of the same outfit,’ he thought as the urge to change his clothes wormed into his head.

While cleaning himself, he took a brief gander at his surroundings, which wasn’t much.

They landed in a surprisingly large sewage tunnel, at least larger than what he expected. It was big enough for five people to stand shoulder-to-shoulder, and tall enough for two to stand feet-to-shoulder.

'Storm drain? No, it’s too small,’ the thought immediately getting overtaken by another, 'Does it even rain here?’

He put the questions of curiosity for another time and looked towards the others in the tunnel.

Grape guy, gloveless and breathless, had dragged himself to another dry spot at the wall opposite him and was trying his best to catch his breath as quietly as possible.

The other two were still lying in the muck, unconscious and peacefully snoring in ignorance.

'I should move them,’ Calvin thought to himself but didn’t put it into action. 'But, then again, they did shoot at me earlier.’

He turned back to Grape guy, still panting away.

“You feeling okay there?” He asked the man while tossing away the towel and taking out a fresh one.

Grape guy nodded lightly and flashed him a weak little thumbs up in response.

He thought for a moment before taking out a bottle of water and tossing it towards the man.

The man caught the bottle and looked at it with a scrunched-up face like he had no idea what it was.

“Water,” Calvin helpfully explained, “it’s not poisoned.”

Instantly, he untwisted the cap and drank the entire thing in one go, “haah… damn. Would’ve drunk it even if it was. Haah… I feel alive again.”

“Good, I need to—”

A sudden flood of thuds ringing from above made the two pause and stare at each other. Despite the mask and Grape man’s dirt-caked face, the two could feel the anxiety the other held as the footsteps and the stomps continued echoing from the alleyway above and through the tunnels around them.

Estimating the amount of people running through, though nearly impossible, can simply be summarized in a single phrase— a fuckload. Coincidentally, the phrase also contained the only word repeating in both their heads with every footstep that echoed from above.

The 'event’ felt like it lasted an eternity, but it only lasted a minute in non-life-threatening time.

'Holy fuck,’ Calvin cursed, but didn’t dare utter a word, not until the man in front of him did as well. “How many was that?”

“They’re the Scrappers,” Grape guy answered as if reading his mind. His face looked sweaty and grim, but not as much as when they were being chased. “Who knows how many there are?”

“Scrappers?” Calvin echoed with a tiny head tilt.

“Yeah, I don’t understand either. How are they here? I mean, why are they here? In our turf too… no, it’s too far in, we have to want—”, he paused, turning to the non-reactive Calvin, “—you don’t know the Scrappers?”

Calvin shrugged in response, “I know they’re terrifying.”

“Really? Just that?” He asked, incredulity plastered on his expression. “What, you’ve been living under a rock or something for the past half year?”

“Something like that,” he replied dismissively, “who are they?”

Grape guy shook his head and stared at the ceiling, “They appeared nearly a year ago, just stragglers looking crazy all powered up and shit, but it wasn’t until a few months when they started 'grouping up’. Unfortunates, Muggers, Poppers, Chrome-eaters, Power-fuckers— there’s a buffet of insults and names you can pick from to call them, but most people just call them Scrappers seeing as everything they steal end up on or in them, one way or another.”

Calvin raised a finger, “On or in?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “Equipment or food.”

“Ah,” he nodded back with a gesture for him to continue.

“They own most of the outer ring these days, or at least they roam most of that place. No one goes there anymore so they practically own the place, I guess. For now, at least.”

'Outer ring,’ faintly remembered the map on his watch.

Villainopolis was, in its earlier days, a mirror image of Bastion.

It has since evolved into what everyone knows today, 'like a fowl with cancerous tumours growing in every feather’ as Sebastien put it, but it still had the same fundamental structure.

Three cities, or three rings in this case, with each one composed of different districts and divides— gang territories. Calvin’s memory wasn’t good enough to remember those without taking a look at the map, but he did remember the rings.

'Which gang is the motorcycle helmet one?’ Calvin thought, wanting to probe for an answer. “Are they stronger than your group?”

“The Kleins? I don’t know,” he shook his head, “The boss and his cade are some of the meanest and toughest, and there are a bunch of strong members in the family…”

“…but?” He urged him to continue.

“I mean, you saw them. Fucking scary group, the lot. They steal everything that isn’t bolted down, and smash everything that is bolted down. Chairs, windows, microwaves, rotting food—”, he paused and looked towards Calvin with grim eyes, “—people. Haah… they’re demonic bastards.”

'I’ve met demons, they’re scarier,’ Calvin mused to himself. “People?”

“Kidnapping, you know? You saw how excited and determined they were trying to catch us.”

'Fucking… again?’ Calvin groaned to himself, sensing the pattern his life had taken so far. “They were throwing explosions and fire at us, though? Those seem like… counterintuitive weapons when you’re trying to snatch people?”

“Depends who you’re trying to snatch,” he wiggled his brows and gestured between himself and Calvin, “mundan— ahem— 'non-powered’ people get kidnapped too. Most end up dead, though.”

“I wonder why,” he scoffed.

“Some come back. 'Non-powered’ people, I mean. That’s why some of the things we know aren’t just rumours.”

“So they escaped,” he scratched his chin.

“I don’t know,” he shrugged, “I didn’t meet anyone that did. Only word floating around is that they came back, and they came back 'wrong’…”

“Wrong?”

“You know,” he pointed to his temple and spun his finger.

“Right,” Calvin nodded.

Another set of footsteps above made the two pause and hold their breaths. The Scrappers seem to still be looking for them.

'Relentless,’ he thought, feeling scared at that particular trait.

They waited a few minutes in silence before speaking again.

“Shouldn’t we go?” Calvin asked.

“KZ should be near enough that they’ll back off soon. If not, we can still make a run, but I need to catch my breath first.”

'KZ, I have no idea where that is,’ he brought up the map to try and figure it out while keeping the man talking. “I’m guessing that’s how they 'recruit’ people too. Kidnap then brainwash?”

“That's one guess about what they do with people,” he raised a finger before wagging it away, “there’s a few more, but most of them are crazier than the next…”

Calvin paused his search to look at the man with a tired expression, forgetting he had a mask. He gestured instead for him to go on, “…like?”

“Well, you know, they eat people for strength. Sacrifice lives for power. Enslave them. Turn them to human stew. Turn them to leather,” he listed them off nonchalantly. “There’s one rumour about a hatchling they treat like a god, and guess where the kidnapped people fit in that story.”

“In the hatchling’s stomach.”

“Bingo,” he chuckled. “But really, who knows.”

“Yeah, I’m going to stick with my guess. I mean, that was a lot of supers.”

“Oh, all of them are supers. That’s not a rumour, that’s true. And that’s why everyone’s afraid.”

“What? All of them?” His eyes widened underneath the mask.

Grape guy nodded as if satisfied with his response, “Every single one. That's why everyone's terrified of them.”

“Damn,” he muttered, every bit of information complicating his objective. “Why haven’t they taken over? If they’re that strong?”

“One name,” Grape guy smirked and paused for dramatic effect, “Empress.”

“Ah,” he nodded. “Then why hasn’t she done anything yet?”

“Beats me. Probably thinks it’s beneath her to go out to the Outer Ring and take care of them, something like that. Who knows what those Archs think.”

“Haah…” he sighed. 'I just had to come here in the middle of a fucking gang war.’

Calvin leaned against the wall and scratched his cheek, resting his head on the concrete as he started thinking about his next steps.

'Goal’s still the same; I need to find out where this fucking bridge is,’ he reminded himself. 'I might have to fight my way out of here— oh, right,’ he reached behind his coat and took out a box from his pocket, 'gotta reload the guns… but how do I do it without being weird?’

His eyes narrowed in thought as an idea came to mind. He put the box back into his pocket and used [Automatic Wardrobe]. Unfortunately, that didn’t work.

'Welp, just gotta do it in the open, I guess,’ he took the box back out and did his best to subtly put it on while distracting his sewer-mate, “So, Grape guy, where do I need to go if I need—”

“Robbie,” he interrupted.

He paused, “Excuse me?”

“Name’s Robbie, man. Not Grape guy. Don’t reduce me to my power, I’m not a cape.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” he nodded, putting his glove back on, “Robbie, you know any place that can help find the bridge? Like an information shop or a map shop or something?”

“A broker. They’re called brokers,” Robbie chuckled lightly while correcting him, “there’s plenty if you know where to look. I can introduce you to someone if you want.”

Calvin was briefly grateful before common sense knocked on his noggin’, “All due respect, Robbie, I kinda don’t trust you.”

“What’s not to trust?”

“You shot at me.”

“You trespassed.”

“You also goo-ed me.”

“You knocked two of our group.”

He nodded, “Fair, but point still stands.”

“Here’s the thing, kid. You know what you did up there, and something like that goes a long way here,” he held a finger up, “And, before you say anything, I know you’re new here. Could smell how green you were from the way you talked about everything. So I’m guessing you have no idea how anything works around here.”

Calvin stayed quiet, arms crossed, and just stared at him cooly. Inside, he was anxious and was slightly panicking. 'Am I that obvious? Damn it, now I’m going to have three knocked-out bodies—’

“You don’t have to trust me. A favour for a favour,” he gestured to the two on the ground, “help me carry these two, at least until we get to KZ. You get hostages and a guide.”

He deliberated for a moment, “That still leaves us with the 'after’ part of the deal.”

Robbie smirked, “Look we’ll be fine once we get to—”

“Ragh!” A battle cry shook the two to alertness, immediately sending their gazes to the source.

Sean, the first motorcycle gangster he knocked out, suddenly stood up and started charging at him with a dagger. Not a second later, he was no longer charging him with a dagger. He was grunting as his face was mushed up against the grime-covered sewer wall.

“Calm down, man,” he said while pushing his arm up.

“Sean!” Robbie called out in relief, “You’re fine, don’t worry.”

“Agh! You fucker! What did you do?! Where are— mmph!”

Calvin covered his mouth and whispered, “Quiet or I’ll knock you out again, Shin.”

“Scrappers,” Robbie explained, coming up to them.

Sean visibly tensed up, or at least as tense as you can be while getting pushed against the wall with your arm behind your back. He looked at Sean and then glanced at Calvin before giving them a nod a second later.

“He’s good,” Robbie said, tapping Calvin’s shoulder.

Calvin nodded back and let him go, “Stay quiet now.”

“Ugh, you damn— why’s chief like that?”

Calvin crossed his arms, “He wasn’t quiet.”

“He’s just sleeping,” Robbie reassured him. “We need to get to KZ to…”

Calvin stared at him annoyedly, “…can you stop pausing in the middle of your damn sentences—”

Robbie shushed the both of them with a finger before pointing towards his ear.

Sean immediately understood the assignment while Calvin took a second before following suit, focusing on his hearing while locking his gaze towards the sewer lid.

Dripping water, creaking pipes, and the natural sounds of the gutters echoed off and around him. Nothing unusual, not until a second later, when a rhythmic splashing started coming through and piercing through the deafening ambience hung above the tense atmosphere.

'Splashing?’ Calvin’s heart dropped as his gaze naturally lowered towards one of the tunnel’s ends, just in time to see a man, scarred and scrappy, pointing towards them with his palms.

“Got you!” The man shouted with a rumbly and excited voice.

He grabbed the two by the collar and kicked off against the wall just as a couple of coin-sized glowing purple globs shot out at them like cannonballs.

[Vigilant Aegis] took care of the impact against the opposite wall, although he also took a heavy hit to his stamina covering three bodies at once.

'Shit,’ Hearing a splash and a subsequent acidic hiss, Calvin’s nerves tightened and his focus sharpened to a point. 'That’s not grape.’

“Run!” He heard Robbie shout behind him.

Calvin didn’t dare look back, keeping his eye on the scrapper a few meters from them. The two stared at each other for a tense moment before the scrapper re-aimed his palms towards him. A hole appeared in his palms, glowing briefly as he pointed.

Seeing the hole, he immediately summoned a pebble inside, just in time to block the next set of globs that threatened to gush out.

“Wha—” The man pulled his arms back and looked at his palms.

'Of course he’s acid-resistant,’ he thought, disappointed that a fleshy sizzle didn’t come into earshot. 'He’s probably not punch-resistant, though.’

Taking the chance, he kicked off the wall again and started charging.

The man saw him and, in a scramble, tried to shoot again, only for his load to explode inside like before. “Fuck!”

Panicked, the scrapper put his arms up but Calvin’s kick was too strong. He flew to the wall of the intersection behind and smashed against it, before getting kicked a second time in the stomach.

“Fuck indeed, fucker,” he taunted, kneeling to make sure the scrapper was either dead or unconscious.

“There!” Another voice interrupted him, coming from the other end of the intersection he was in. “Meat!”

“Damn it,” he groaned and stood up, cracking his neck.

He was about to run and knock his teeth out in a similar manner as his prior engagement when three more people appeared. And then five. And then ten.

“Well. Fuck indeed,” he muttered, spinning around and running back to the sewer entrance. “Oh come on!”

Robbie and Sean were gone, but they left behind the snoring body of their chief.

“Those damn—”, he dashed and picked him up, angrily heading towards the entrance.

“They’re up here too! Run!” Robbie shouted from above. “KZ is north! Grab chief!”

“You piece of—”, Calvin’s attention was taken by the scrappers catching up to him. He wanted to jump up to the lid and escape there, but a series of shadows passing by above made him rethink, “Damn!”

He turned around and ran towards the other end of the tunnel, the one that had yet to 'spawn’ a bad guy.

As he ran, the splashing behind him started multiplying and becoming louder with every bend and intersection he went through. A quick glance from behind showed him why.

It’s a multiplying super.

“They’re like fucking zombies!” He shouted in frustration, annoyance, and terror, with a tiny splash of thrill at the idea of being in a zombie chase. 'Find an exit first, then find those two backstabbing sons of bitch—’ “Shit…”

Another 'zombie’ dropped down in the intersection in front of him.

The scrapper was holding a gun, an assault rifle, that looked like bits of copper and plastic piping were strapped together with bundles of cloth and tin, like a child’s attempt in making a toy gun. And it probably was a gun. Weirder things have happened.

He looked around in the darkness, confused for a moment, before spotting and locking on to Calvin who wasn’t making too much of an effort trying to hide.

In what seemed like an instant, the gun was raised, aimed, and subsequently fired so fast that Calvin couldn’t even think to use his power.

“Shit!” He ducked and ran to the side, hiding behind a tiny outcrop on the wall while the gunman continued spraying and praying against his cover. 'Fucking speedster.’

He winced, feeling a sharp burning sting on the side of his thigh. He glanced down and took a sharp breath, feeling both fortune and unluck. He was hit, but it was a glancing blow at best. It still hurt, though.

'Calm down,’ he breathed out while focusing on his hearing, 'block the gun once he stops shooting. Use the aegis too.’

As expected, as hoped, the gun stopped shooting. Without pause, he immediately ran out and prepared to summon a pebble to block the muzzle.

But there was no muzzle.

No gun either. Nor gunman.

“Huh?” Calvin frowned, now hyperaware of his surroundings.

The only thing left was the sewer water on the ground and the pillar of light coming from the entrance above where the gunman should’ve been.

'Where is he? Is he fucking invisible or something?’

Despite the mystery, he didn’t have time to do a scooby-doo and look for clues, as the splashing behind him refocused him towards his objective— to not get kidnapped a second time. Technically a third, if he counted the first time he came into this world.

[Jumper] made it easy to ascend and escape the sewers.

'Finally, some fresh—’ “Fuck!”

[Vigilant Aegis] and [Impervious Pebble] made it possible to block the explosions and projectiles immediately greeting him upon said escape from the sewers.

[Colour Control] made him look fresh while blocking everything.

And [Gourmand’s Insight] was just doing its best.

“Holy shit,” he muttered after the explosion, taking a quick glance towards the source.

A red-haired, scrappy, and scarred individual stood prominently in front of a crowd of other non-typical-looking individuals. A manic smile on their faces and a bloodthirsty look in their eyes gave Calvin a subtle impression that they were not friendly in any way. And that he should get the fuck away as soon as possible.

Which he did.

'Time to disappear,’ Calvin thought, using [Colour Control] to make everything around them black, essentially turning him invisible in his pure black outfit.

“Shit! Find 'im!” The red-haired one shouted, prompting the group behind him to shout their own unique warcries.

Not that Calvin was listening. Scaling a building and zig-zagging along the way while trying to find out his location was sorta taking up his attention. Like an over-energetic and possibly-mutated jumping bean, he bounced around and slowly made his way to the rooftops.

“There!” He heard someone shout from above, followed immediately by the whooshing of a projectile passing beside him.

“Already? How?!” He heard snoring in his ear, immediately answering the question. 'I forgot to change his colour. Shit… I should just drop this fucking mundane. Why the fuck am I still carrying his ass?’

Despite the fire in his chest burning and crying for him to let go of the burden, he continued running up while occasionally shielding him with the aegis.

Eventually, he made his way up.

'KZ. That’s Kingdom Zone. Somewhere north-ish… but where the fuck is north?!’

He took a brief look at his surroundings before immediately locking on towards a direction, dashing without thought as he recognized the rooftops he was traversing over. He didn’t get far before shouting and screeching started taunting him from behind. He couldn’t say we wasn’t bothered, or even scared, but he certainly felt motivated to run as fast as he could.

'This place feels familiar,’ an unexpected thought came to Calvin. 'Did I go here with Sam?’

His train of thought was abruptly halted by a Scrapper appearing on the roof in front of him, seemingly popping up and out of the cement.

The woman jumped towards him, “Ha! Got you—”

“Fuck off!” He shouted while angrily kicking her in the jaw.

Super Absorb

Super Power: Temporary Displacement detected. Absorb?

Yes No

A sickening crunch followed by a split-second appearance of the Super Absorb window made his stomach feel like rocks were grinding inside it. Lucky for him, another scrapper came up from behind to distract him from the feeling.

“Rragh!” An inhuman screech stabbed his ears.

Calvin spun around and kicked whatever that 'thing’ was to the side, much less angrily this time. No crunch nor window rang out or appeared, much to his relief. “Wait… was that a dino?”

He looked back, and it was.

“Huh,” he muttered, pinning that in the back of his mind. “I wanna try being a dino too.”

Now that he knew where to go, Calvin made a change in his plans. He jumped down the nearest alleyway and started traversing through the maze of streets and empty buildings, trying to lose the more 'enthusiastic’ pursuers. He was sure there was only a bunch of them left chasing him, but it was still a bunch more than what he would prefer.

It took a few minutes, but he eventually found his pace and was slowly getting faster as he got used to the terrain. Parkouring was easy, but doing it with a body on your shoulder messed up jumps and rolls.

After a handful more minutes, and a lot of distance covered, he started slowing down.

Running while carrying a body was fine. Sprinting while carrying a fully armoured person, while sprinting through a maze of obstacles, and constantly using powers all the while to dodge, escape, or otherwise block attacks— it wasn’t just taxing. It was exhausting.

'Just a bit more. I’m almost at the zone,’ Calvin thought, letting out a sigh. A moment later, a realization made his back sweat more than the chase, 'how do I know that?’

He had no time to ponder though, due to the untimely appearance of an explosive projectile hurtling towards him in a timely manner.

Calvin was too tired to even curse. He jumped as high as he could to dodge the explosion, which was generally a bad idea when said explosion involved fire in any way.

Which it did.

“Hot! Hot!” He winced, kicking the wall beside him to jump away.

Another hitch in his escape came in the form of a mossy tentacle grabbing onto his ankles and throwing him down to street level.

He negated the impact, as per usual, but undershot the strength of the power— the body on his shoulder forgotten and unaccounted for.

“Ugh,” Pain shot up his legs and on the wound on his thigh as he bore the force of both the impact and the succeeding dash forwards to the final sprint.

Disgusting sounds of mushy moss growing at breakneck speeds reached his ears as a green wall appeared at the end of the alley right in front of him. He looked up to estimate the height of the jump he needed only to see the same moss covering the sky like a net.

Calvin turned around and saw that the exits were covered with the same net of moss that was in the sky. The other end of the alleyway also had three Scrappers with shit-eating grins on their faces and stupid-looking hair on their heads.

'Meth-head fucking power rangers-looking asses,’ he grumbled, seeing their red, blue, and green hair.

A tired sigh escaped his lips. He was trapped.

“No escapin’ now, bunny boy,” red-hair taunted.

“Haah… Fuck it,” Calvin tossed the unconscious 'chief’ towards the open bin beside him.

“Ho-oh? Keepin’ yer friend safe, eh? Looks like we got a hero here,” he laughed.

The big-bodied blue-haired woman beside him tensed up, “d—didn’t boss say we need to back off if it’s a hero?”

'Boss,’ Calvin squinted at the word.

“Figure of speech, fatso,” red guy smacked her side.

“He’s got a gun!” The green girl looked alarmed.

Red guy’s arms turned, well, red as he looked at Calvin, freezing up as he saw him, “Them’s finger guns, dumbass. Meat’s just tauntin’ us.”

“Yep, just tauntin’,” Calvin smirked under the mask, bringing down his thumb, “bang.”