"To be a hero for all!" Ch.1
This story will be a sort of superhero/science fiction hybrid. As such, there will be a lot of fights, and they can get quite graphic. So, just a heads up for: blood, intense violence, death, and other combat-related triggers, you have been warned.
Also, English is not my native language. Apologies for any errors. There is a whole part where I struggled because multiple characters have an unknown gender and have to be referred to in the neutral, which, I might have screwed up somewhere, since I kept slipping "him" and "he" by accident. It's late for me, so I'll go to sleep, and probably correct any errors I find tomorrow. Questions, comments, criticisms, and all such are welcome and appreciated :b
PoV of Alexendre Ermes.
I had never been a great hero. By that, I mean that, even if stronger than a lot of other heroes, I still wasn’t at the level of the top heroes. I simply couldn’t take on the greater threats. At best, I could be a diversion or assist a stronger hero, but I would rarely be the main name of a big event. I was content with that. Not every hero had to be a superstar. Yet fate has a tendency to grab you whether you like it or not, and today was that kind of day.
My powers were as basic as could be: strength, flight, durability, speed, and the slightest bit of telekinesis. Fairly average power, although my speed and agility were noteworthy. Other than that, I possessed two weapons, both of which were handed down to me by my father. A pistol and a sword, both empowered by the energy of me and my late father, making them better and more durable. To complement this, a simple homemade costume. A black hoodie, a full-face black-tinted gas mask, black gloves decorated with patterns of red flames, and a cape with a crudely drawn phoenix emblem on it.
I… did have another ability.
Since I was young, I remember often slipping and accidentally getting lost in… nowhere. One second, I would be in my room or on the street, and the next, I would be in a completely white space for as far as the eye could see. Nothing. Simply nothing. When it first happened, I was terrified. Eventually, by accident, or maybe by instinct, I somehow slipped back to my world. This happened many times, even if, as I got older and learned to better control this ability, it would be less frequent for me to accidentally slip. Over time, I even warmed up to this big emptiness of nothing. This white void had almost become a comfort space for me when I wanted somewhere to be alone. Although I did notice that I didn’t seem to teleport to the same white space, or the same place in the white space, each time I slipped, since I couldn’t find any item I would leave there.
One day, something even weirder happened. I am not sure if it ever was real. At 15, I tried slipping into the infinite white as I usually did. This time, instead of being greeted with the comforting nothingness, I was in lush green plains.
The place felt serene, but also… eerie. By then, I already had my powers and knew how to fly, so I moved, and I couldn’t believe it. At first, I thought I had teleported somewhere on Earth. There were buildings, a forest, and all the same plants I could recognize. But something was off, something was missing.
No animals, no insects, no humans. This entire world felt like an unending tomb. I couldn’t see any corpses or skeletons, but I could feel that something had died here. Entire towns were just empty, every building worn down and old. I felt the same fear I had when I first teleported into the white void. This place felt suddenly even more empty than the unending white. I could feel panic mounting within me. I could have slipped myself back to the real world at any time, but I knew that I would never be able to go back here if I did. My curiosity overtook my fear as I flew as fast as I could. After what must have been an hour, I saw something familiar, a road that I knew well, the one that went from Lyon to Marseille.
I decided that I should make my way down to Marseille, seeing how my native town was doing in this world, even if I didn’t expect it to be anything more than ruins like all the rest. But, to my horror, when I arrive there… nothing, just dozens of kilometers of completely flattened ground and a giant crater in the middle. The entire town didn’t exist at all, not even a single building. I felt unease rise up in me. What could it all mean? Did it even mean anything? What was this place?
Something grabbed me.
I froze, but I wasn’t being touched physically. Instead, it was as if I was being observed by something that could see too much, yet wasn’t quite awake. I could feel piercing eyes, cloudy, tired, and greyed from all sides, looking at me. And then, I heard it, “You aren’t ready. I will need your help. Someday, you will be here again. WAKE ME UP!”
And with that, I was back to my world. Not knowing if I had dreamed all that, or if it had really happened… I kept it to myself.
21st of January, 2034. Somewhere, a few kilometers north of Marseille, France.
With one last hit, the monster had been downed. Third time this week one of these had attacked the north of Marseille. A few people cheered on, they had filmed the short battle between me and it. I turned to their camera phone and did a peace sign, one foot on the creature. At the age of technology and superheroes, most people didn’t fear those creatures anymore, and saw them as a slight distraction from the daily.
I gave a few fist bumps, took a few more pictures with the people there, and helped with the debris of the fight before flying off. Today, at 14h, I was due to go to a local school to tell a few good words to the kids. Stay in school, don’t do drugs, to be good is to be cool, the usuals. Being a hero wasn’t just punching things after all. Killing things is what the military and the Global Counter-Anomaly Association were for. We, as superheroes, wore flashy colors and showed a smile when fighting. We are here to bring hope to people, to inspire onlookers.
13h33: I was drinking a coffee, relaxing for a few minutes before heading to school. As I was about to fly there, I felt… something. A feeling of unease, and a buzzing in my ears. The white dimension was calling to me, or something inside it was, I could feel it. I tripped to the infinite white. It was just as empty as ever, nothing to see really, but very far away, I could feel something. It was faint, very faint, yet I could swear someone was calling out for help. So, I flew my way over to it, going top speed towards the nagging feeling. It was hard to say how much distance I was really making without any point of reference, but it must have been well over a thousand kilometers, further than I’ve been in the infinite nothingness.
Once I arrived at my destination, there wasn’t anything different. Not anything that could be seen at least, but I could feel it. Right there, just in front of me, something was desperately calling out for help. I could feel terror, and, even without any sounds, I could feel it screaming. I tried to wave my arm and speak, but nothing worked. Whatever needed help was close, but not here. So, I decided to trip back out of the infinite white.
To my shock, I arrived somewhere completely unfamiliar. Tripping out of the white dimension had a tendency to move me around, but it was different this time. I could see buildings of unfamiliar architecture, roads, signs written in a language I couldn’t make heads or tails of, and, more pressing than that, corpses. It was the stuff of nightmares, creatures, vaguely humanoid in shape, seemingly bipedal, lying across the street or against buildings, all torn apart. The relatively smaller creatures looked to be around 150cm (5ft), with a thinner build than the average human, covered in fur of varying color, a long fluffy tail, eyes that were not quite front-facing like a human’s, 5 fingers on each hand with thumbs, whiskers on their faces, long ears pointing up, and a vaguely feline-like appearance to their face structure.
Their corpses lay bare in the streets or buildings, a lot of them seemingly recently killed. Limbs torn off, body parts visibly chewed, some disemboweled, others were barely recognizable as more than a pile of gore. Their blood only a slightly different shade of red than mine. “W….what the hell??!!” I spoke out loud. I had no idea where I was, and despite not knowing these creatures, the sight was very disturbing. Where was I? What were those things? And most importantly, what the fuck is going on here?! Important questions, but for later, I could hear someone scream. Whatever had called me was close by and terrified.
I hurried over, no time to even put my gas mask on, I flew through the streets filled with blood, gore, and guts. I had seen some gruesome stuff before, but this was different. It’s as if this town had been attacked, and there had been no effective evacuation or resistance against whatever was attacking, leaving almost the entire population to die. Quickly, I arrived in the court of a large building, my senses tingling. I could see what had called me here. It was one of those creatures, although this one was wearing a cape and a costume, it must be a hero, or equivalent in this world.
The small feline-like creature seemed to be fighting against 7 much larger creatures. Those ones looked like a completely different species. They were similarly furred and bipedal, but they had a bigger build, taller size, and resembled hyenas. Except for their arms and legs, which, instead of fur, bore reptile-like scales. Their hands ended in large and blunt claws, and their jaws looked similarly terrifying. 3 of them seemed to be superpowered individuals, while the other 4 wore some type of armor and were armed with rifles. One of the superpowered monsters slammed the much smaller creature against the wall.
I had to act, but didn’t want to attack straight away. Maybe it was a misunderstanding, maybe the small creature was the one doing all the killing? I couldn’t assume anything. So, I took a page out of the GCAA (Global Counter-Anomaly Association) handbook. Number 1: Always try diplomacy first.
“Hey! What’s happening here?” All the creatures looked towards me, surprised and shocked. The smaller one looked terrified while the bigger ones smiled as if pleased. “Hom! Tralga, Jenli, watzka katai?” One of the hyena-like creatures spoke to its accomplice, as if suprised but happy, then they gave a nod to one of the non-powered soldiers. The soldier, in response, grabbed what looked to be a civilian to the ground and got closer to me. The civilian was gravely injured, barely responding. “Hum…. why are you br-” I was cut off, as soon as the beast arrived close to me, it opened its jaws wide and ripped out the throat of the poor thing before seemingly offering me the corpse. The small hero creature screamed, pain in their voice, tears in their eyes, which earned a loud laugh from all the others.
I looked at the corpse in front of me, and I was frozen. Once again, I had seen my fair share of fucked up things, but seeing someone have their throats ripped out before their still warm corpse was presented to you as a gift was not one of them. “Fuck that! Fuck diplomacy!” I drew my gun before even realizing it and shot the soldier straight through his head. Before his limp body could hit the ground, I also shot at two of the other soldiers and tried to dash towards the third one, only for one of the superpowered beings to stop me.
It was pissed and lunged its claws at me. I blocked, but underestimated how strong it was, and how sharp their claws were. The creatures slashed at my arm, easily piercing through my costume, making my arm bleed. Before it could get another shot at hurting me, I punched it straight in the plexus. It was launched back several meters, hitting the wall behind it. The two other superpowered beings dropped the smaller hero and went in to attack me.
I dodged and dashed around, trying to avoid their hits. They were much stronger than I, so I had to be content with using my speed and playing it safe, getting a few shots off when they made a mistake in their positioning, which was often. They seemed very aggressive, but also very novice at fighting. I only had some 5 years of true experience, and I was doing better than them.
The small hero was in tears, despite not being held or having anything stopping them. They looked frozen. Their face screamed of the horrors that they had seen, its body was battered and cut, its costume torn to shreds. I tried moving over to them, to which they reacted by jumping back on their feet and trying to dodge away from me.
At least, they could still move. By now, the third hyena had gotten back up, while the remaining non-superpowered one had fled or hidden. The third one lunged, which I dodged, leaving the first one to try and grab me. He was barely too slow as I countered his grab with my elbow, using my other hand to punch its lower jaw, dislocating it with a satisfying noise. Meanwhile, the smaller superhero had taken flight, their thorn cape with a symbol of the sun flapping in the wind. They weren’t very fast, at least, compared to me, and hyena number 2 had started to fly towards them, quickly catching up. “NO!” I quickly took flight, going straight at the assailant, unseathing my sword. I reached it just before they were about to grab the smaller hero. The monster had the time to put its arms in a defensive position, forcing me to slash across its arms instead of the neck I had been aiming for.
All three of the beasts ganged up on me, taking advantage of my low velocity after slashing to try to grab me. I swung my sword on all sides, slashing several of them as I backed up, but they were simply too aggressive, and one managed to grab my leg. Its powerful claws dug into my calf and tried to tear it. I took my pistol back out of the holster and shot the creature away, missing its head and hitting the shoulders instead. But now, I was face-to-face with all three of them, being swarmed. I aimed my pistol, and before one of them could bite my arm off, the smaller hero yelled something. “Trolca!” A bright light emanated from its hands, blinding the three assailants, allowing me to fly backwards towards the hero. “So that’s why you got a sun on your cape?”
Before the three hyenas could react, I grabbed the hero by the collar of his shirt, to which they reacted with a worried yelp. I then flew faster than I ever did, dragging the poor, injured thing with me. Going faster than Mach 7, I soared high above the clouds in less than 3 seconds.
I looked at the battered fighter. They were in bad shape, but I clearly couldn’t take all three of these alone. For some reason, they also had that look of fear in their eyes when they looked straight at me. It was on edge, as if ready to fight me if I lunged at him. “Listen here, little guy! I don’t know what the FUCK is happening, but if those bastards are responsible for all those corpses I saw…” I got closer to emphasizing my point. “…they have to die right here and right now. One of them escaping is bad enough.” I usually had a no kill unless necessary rule, but fuck that, I ain’t letting those things live after they evicerated someone in front of me. “Are you good to fight, or do you think you could fly to get some help. I can’t take all three at once. If possible, I’d need at least one of them distracted.”
“Nahj…..Nahjink yalka,” The creature said, its eyes sad, falling, its ears flattening. But then, it looked straight at me and got in a fighting posture, trying to tell me he’d fight. Although dread could still be seen in its eyes, they were terrified of those monsters. Somehow, they had understood me, even though I couldn’t. “Brave little thing,” I gave a pat to its head. Might have been inapropriate at the moment, but I was stressed and not thinking clearly. “Now, get ready.”
The hyenas had finally reached us almost 20 seconds after we had fled. This is why I enjoyed fighting in the sky. I was pretty much faster than everything, and could easily use my 360° flight to outmaneuver my enemies. Most people could only fly forward and backward, having to turn to go in other directions. Not me, I was like a hummingbird. “Y’all are slow, you know that? Could’ve almost had a drink!” I taunted. If the little one understood me, maybe they would. Their hyper-aggressive fighting style would play to my advantage as I was in the habit of using my agility to punish wrong moves. So, the more angry and unthinking they were, the better.
I flew straight at one of them, sword in hand, as I tried to bait its allies to save them by raising my sword. It worked wonders. Number two flew at me, trying to punch me off their ally. I leisurely dodged them, took out my handgun, and dumped 5 bullets in his back. The third one tried to go in too, but the smaller fighter lunged at him, launching flashes of light at its head.
Number 1 was the one whose jaw I had already broken, and number 2 had several bullets lodged in his back now. Overall, their state looked pretty poor, but then again, I had a nasty gash on my arm and my legs because of these damned claws. So, looks like we were evenly matched in injuries. Not for long, though.
I flew around them, shooting every so often. I couldn’t really hit them, but that wasn’t my objective. I reloaded my gun to have a full clip when needed. I baited number two towards me with a tired gesture. He took the bait. Before number 2 could reach me, I lunged towards him, hitting his ribs and cracking them. Number 1 was coming in from behind, trying to sandwich me. “So predictable.” As number 1 was about to reach me, I used my flight to go under them, flying in their blind angle below them as I got behind number one. I aimed the shot up, and, as they were turning around to glance down at me, I shot a bullet straight through their head. Number 2 seemed pretty infuriated by the death of his ally and lunged at me. I could have easily taken care of him if it weren’t for number 3, currently opening his jaws wide to bite off the terrified head of the fluffy hero.
I chose to save him, aiming at number three and hitting several hits on its ribs, getting it to drop its prey. Number 2 had taken this moment of distraction to bite down on my neck. I barely blocked it with my arm, which now rested in the powerful beast's jaws. It bit down, hard! My bones slowly cracking under the pressure. I threw my gun up in the air and used my now free hand to hit the windpipe at full strength. The creature looked shocked, as if not used to a prey fighting back. It gasped for air as it stumbled back. I took the moment to grab my gun, which was falling back down, and landed the shot on its head. “HELL YEAH! ONE LEFT TO GO!” I yelled, my combative spirit invigorated.
The last one took a glance at the ground, seeing number 1 dead and number 2 falling to his death, and decided it was not worth it as he turned around and tried to fly as fast as he could. “NO YOU DON’T!” I caught up to him, flying just above, delivering a punch to the back of his skull. Now, they were flying faster than they had ever had! Just downward instead of forward. They reached the ground, forming a crater on impact. The beast tried to get back up, but before it could, I slammed into them with all my velocity, boots caving in its thorax. I looked down at it. The creature was unconscious, and I thought about shooting them dead as I was pretty adamant about killing them. But, on second thought, he had been a fleeing enemy, and killing someone fleeing or surrendering was a big no-no. Besides, its body was already reduced to pulp.
I slowly flew out of the crater I had formed. All around, hidden inside buildings, or frozen in place, dozens of the smaller, vaguely feline-like creatures were observing me. They looked terrified, as if wanting to flee, but unable too. “Well, good thing y'all aren’t cheering any louder, or I’d go deaf,” I said sarcastically. I was used to being praised for my work. Did I do something wrong? No, the little hero wouldn’t have helped me otherwise. Maybe it was just the shock of seeing me.
In any case, with the immediate emergency taken care of, I had one other question to solve. I soared high into the sky, outside of public view. Looking at it now, the sky and the sun were a slightly different shade than what I was used to. Looking down at the ground, I saw buildings, architecture, and land masses I didn’t know of. “Where the hell am I?” I said to myself.