In current times, Chrysanthemum City is seen as a Calamity level threat. It had been locked away by the rest of the world, with massive walls and barriers placed around it to keep the full force of its infection in.
A place swarming with monstrous beings, once humans, or Supers, they had long since given up their mortal flesh and became something new. The city now belonged to the Hive.
It wasn’t always like that, though. Chrysanthemum had been a normal city like any other. One that had its very own Enforcer member guarding over it. The hero known as Legend. Two years ago, it was hit by a Calamity-level threat. The Beast had arrived. Many heroes, and even villains, died to the Beast, doing their best to send it back into space, where it now resides, repairing itself and getting ready for its next big fight.
It had been after the incident with the Beast that a Cleanup squad member would be infected by a strand of Lucifer’s Dead Virus, mutating and involving into a brand-new form of sickness.
It wasn’t time for that story, though. This tale was set during the actual Beast attack—the once beautiful buildings of Chrysanthemum lay in ruins. The city had been known for its architectural designs—twisting roads, various theme parks, and buildings that went every direction but straight up.
Now, though, magma flowed down the streets, hail rained from the sky hard enough to impale stone, twisters of wind tore anything not bolted down away, and lightning danced through the air, cutting out every source of power.
The many buildings'' weird designs came in handy for once. At least, that was what Landon Grove thought. It allowed him and a few other dozen civilians that had gotten out of the streets in time to survive. They used the rooftops and hopped from tower to tower, all attempting to get away from the disaster that was destroying the city.
“Just a bit further!” Mr. Grove shouted. He had to scream it as loud as his lungs could manage just to get his voice to be slightly louder than the sounds of combat.
What little part of the city wasn’t filled with hot flames had dozens of Supers throwing everything they had at an unseen threat. He hadn’t been able to get a good look at whatever the Beast truly was. It was far too fast and tore through anything that got in its way, even if that happened to be a building. There must have been nearly one hundred different Supers, all fighting a single target.
“We need to keep moving.” He yelled again. “We’re nearing the edge of this mess and will be able to be picked up by someone.”
“What we need to do is stay put!” Someone else screamed back. “It’s too dangerous to be jumping from roof to roof. If we stay here, a hero will eventually come and save us!”
“Like hell, they will.” He pointed down toward the ground. A large pile of burned Supers had been stacked together. Many of them had been blasted out of the sky when they attempted to fly, either from the Beast or a stray bolt of lightning that had caught them. “We can’t stay put! That thing could hit us any moment now-”
It was like Lady Luck herself decided to play a prank on him. Before he could even finish his sentence, the building they were on made a horrible screaming sound. He felt his eyes go wide when he saw something massive crash through it from down below the street.
Everything shook, and a few poor people slipped off and tumbled down, falling to their doom.
“Run for it! The place is coming down!”
The roof was slick with ice, and steam constantly burned his eyes, making it hard to see how far the jump to the next building would be. He took a chance, as did many others, and he ran at full speed and jumped off of the roof.
Dozens of people weren’t as athletic as he was and didn’t get close to the next roof, falling toward the pits of fire down below. He felt his body ram into the hard rock as he crashed into the edge of the roof, barely making it. He tried to grapple to the edge or dig his nails into any cracks, but the ice made it impossible to get a grip.
He felt a panic kick in as he began to slide off. This building had been shaped almost like a leaning tower, making it function almost like a slide, so it was even harder to stay up than it should have been. Luckily, a few people managed to get to the top and got a solid foothold. One of them grabbed his arm before he stumbled all the way off and began to pull him up.
“T- Thanks.” He grunted, feeling the stone dig into his gut as he got half his body over the slope.
“Don’t thank me yet.” The man who had pulled him over hissed, shaking his head. “We aren’t out of this yet.”
Rubble rained from above, and the heroes down below screamed something. Another building came crashing down as the Beast seemed to keep its straight line of rampage going. Pillars of magma blasted out of the sewers from down below, and even from up top, he could feel the massive heat waves.
Their building began to shake once more, and he held on for dear life. They weren’t near any other buildings, at least none close enough to hop to. Everything else had either already been reduced to molten rubble or was too far out of reach to jump to. The sound of stones ripping echoed through the battlefield, and he cursed out as their building began to tumble over.
He kicked off of it as hard as he could. He knew he wouldn’t be able to get anywhere close to any other building, but he figured it was better than being crushed to death by the tumbling tower. He dropped through the air at incredible speeds. The building hit the ground first and exploded into large shards of rubble. A jagged piece of stone slammed into his side from midair and spun him over.
The building had been mostly torn down by the time he dropped, so the fall hadn’t been enough to kill him. It hurt like hell, though, and he screamed out, feeling his ribs break along with an arm he landed on. Red gushed down from his side at the spot the rock had hit him.
His eyes burned, and up ahead, the magma began to consume the torn-down building he had been on. He felt his flesh heat up, and his lungs burned like hell. He tried to roll over onto his side and crawl away with his arm, but he wasn’t fast enough. The magma was catching up. It was like it was alive. It devoured the building and the crushed corpses, dancing over the bodies and reaching out for him.
He was going to die.
At least he would have. Today, though, Lady Luck was smiling down on him. She always smiled at him when he was in trouble.
Shards of ice stabbed into the ground meters away from him and blocked off the ocean of lava. A wave of water rose out of the ground and twisted its way, avoiding him and crashing down onto the fire, putting it out and hardening the magma.
He glanced up and saw them down the street. Two heroes. One of them was a young girl. She couldn’t have been any older than fifteen and gripped a trident-like weapon to her body. She was shaking, and fear was ever present in her eyes. The other hero was an older teen, or maybe in his early twenties. He was a dark-skinned man who wore white robes.
The man in the robes ran toward him, and Grove nearly let out a sob of relief as the hero grabbed him and began to drag him away from the battlefield. “Good work.” The hero called out to the girl. “You saved this man. What’s your name?”
“P- Poseidon.” The girl said, still shivering. “It’s my first day.”
“Who the hell thought it would be a good idea to let a rookie come?” The male sighed. “I’m Myth. Stick close to me. We aren’t going to be fighting that thing. Our job is to get anyone still alive out of here and leave it to the Enforcers to deal with the Beast. Sir, are you able to walk on your own?”
“I- I think my legs are broken.” Grove winced.
Myth nodded his head. “Understood. Grip onto me.” His body grew larger, and his flesh was replaced with thick fur as he morphed into a large bull-like monster. He gently placed Grove on his back. “We’re getting you out of here.”
“Wouldn’t a flying form be better?” Poseidon asked.
“You know I can do that?” Myth asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I saw your dad.” The girl shrugged.
“I see. Well, normally, you’d be right, but with the amount of static in the air, it’s best not to risk it. Besides, the Beast has gone out of his way to blast down any Super it saw flying. Even the Victorian was shot down and is being healed by my father.”
Poseidon nodded her head and reached out, taking the arm of Myth. “We should go then-”
A massive explosion shook the block they were on and kicked up a wave of dust. Grove risked a look back and instantly wished he hadn''t. The ice barrier Poseidon had made began to break apart as something simply walked through it. He felt his eyes sting, and it was almost like staring into the sun. Poseidon whimpered and held onto Myth tighter, and the older hero''s face dropped as he stared back at the Beast.
He wasn’t able to get a good look at it. The thing was practically causing lava to bubble out of the floor. With every step, it shook and glowed brighter than even the sun. They were already in its kill range. They lost.
A harsh beam of lightning bubbled out of the light that made up the Beast''s form and blasted out. Myth threw the man he held into Poseidon’s arms and moved in front of the girl, ready to take the blow. It never reached him though. The lightning vanished and faded as someone else moved in front of him and blocked it.
Myth stared down at the man who had just saved his life. The man was in his late forties and had dark skin. Like Myth, he also wore white robes: Legend, a member of the Enforcers, and father of Myth.
“Dad.”
“Go,” Legend stated.
“Where are the other Enforcers-”
“Go!” Legend screamed it this time. “Now.”
More lightning blasted out of the hole in the ice wall, and Legend moved forward and blocked them with his palm. His body grew larger, and he got to nearly ten feet tall. His veins glowed, and lightning began to bubble inside of him, and his hair grew long and white. Legend didn’t become a monster like his son. Instead, he became a God of Thunder!
“Leave! Now.” Legend yelled back.
Myth stared at his father, then wrapped his arm around Poseidon, picking her and Grover up. He didn’t look back as he ran.
Grove did, though. Grove stared back as Legend marched toward the Beast, the last Enforcer left standing, ready to do his job.
***
“Lady luck does seem to have a way of smiling down on me. Is it destiny, fate, or maybe something else?” Mayor Grove mused.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Shut up.” Myth hissed out and slammed the man into the wall.
“Don’t be rough with him.” Battery called out. “He’s just a normal human.”
“Is he, though?” Snowdawn frowned.
They were still in the underground parking lot. It had turned into a weird stand-off of sorts. Green Wolf had claimed he had given up. He didn’t hold a weapon but still stood up straight with his arms folded. It was clear the villain was having a silent laugh at everything that was going on. Next to him, Demonica stood, glaring at the heroes, but she was wise enough to not try anything for the time being.
Battery and Snowdawn kept their eyes locked on the villains. Battery had even formed a golden bubble around Green Wolf and Demonica, which would buy them a single second should the villains try to attack. Whisper stood next to Myth, trying to calm him down. Myth currently had the mayor of Oleander pressed up to a wall, his fingers digging into the man’s jacket.
As for Cinder... She awkwardly stood in the back, watching all the groups. “I had my enhanced senses on and heard him admit to it.” She said slowly. “‘Trust me. Wish would destroy you. It was a fluke that she lost. Once she’s seen a trick, it’ll never work on her twice. She’ll kill Battery the next time they come face to face.’ That’s what I heard him say.”
“He knows Wish?” Snowdawn asked, shooting a look toward the mayor.
“Why do you think we were after him in the first place?” Green Wolf’s voice came out muffled and distorted thanks to the bubble of energy he was in.
“They were after the mayor?”
“It caught me off guard as well.” Cinder nodded. “How do you know Wish?”
“What do you think? He’s the leader of the Wandering Coin.” Battery said flatly.
That caught her off guard. Even Whisper seemed a little surprised. The girl stared at the mayor, her head cocked to the side, likely trying to read his Paths. Her mind raced as she thought about that. If the mayor was evil, did that mean Kyle’s dad was evil also? Speaking of which, what happened to the-
Green Wolf tapped at the barrier, cocking his head to the side. “You know it’d be smart to simply crush us to death while you can.”
“You’d break out of here before the barrier harmed you.” Battery snorted.
“Maybe.” Green Wolf shrugged. “Still, I can’t teleport now, so even if I could, I wouldn’t be able to get very far. It makes me wonder why you’re relaxing on the job.”
“Don’t piss the heroes off,” Demonica growled out, banging on the barrier with her remaining limb. Her gaze had never left Myth, practically glaring at the monster that had left her crippled. Myth, on the other hand, didn’t bother paying any attention to them. He was too busy still pinning the mayor to the wall. “They could probably kill us and get away with it with a light slap on the wrist.”
“How long have you been the leader of the Wandering Coin?” Myth hissed.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Mayor Grove said flatly.
“You can cut the act.” Green Wolf called out. He leaned in his bubble and used it to slide down into a sitting position, getting comfortable. “We all know.”
“Stop talking.” Battery twitched his finger, and the bubble around Green Wolf grew smaller, causing the villain to have to shift. “I don’t want you talking.”
“Why? Scared that I’ll say something I shouldn’t?” The villain snorted. “I’m trapped, with no means of escape. What could I possibly do?”
“Keep talking, and I think I’ll do what Demonica suggested.”
Green Wolf shrugged and threw his arms behind his head as he got comfortable in a new sitting position. “Like my new boots? I made them out of this hero-” The bubble grew smaller again and nearly caused Green Wolf to fold over as he was forced to crouch down. The walls began to close in on him slowly, ready to crush him, but he flicked his own finger out, and another bubble made of kinetic energy formed out of him, forcing Battery’s bubble to expand back to its normal height. Battery grunted and held his hand out, trying to outpower Green Wolf’s, and Snowdawn and Cinder both got ready for combat in case the villain broke out. “I have to wonder how you did it.” Green Wolf hummed. “I mean, how did you get rid of teleportation?”
“Ocean Empress.” Battery said through gritted teeth. His bubble began to crack around Green Wolf’s as the villain''s own started to grow larger.
“I know that, but I more meant how-”
“Stop paying attention to him.” Myth growled out. “He’s just in it for the looks of shock on all of your faces. Turn away from him, and he’ll get bored. Our focus is on this man.”
“I get that he’s a villain, but you kind of look like you’re about to blow a gasket, Myth.” Cinder stepped forward and placed a hand on her leader''s shoulder.
“Of course I’m mad! This man! Because of you, my father is—”
“That’s hardly my fault.” Grove snorted. “I happened to be caught up in the attack, the same as you.”
Myth gritted his teeth and pulled his fist back, but it was stopped by Cinder, who held his arm in place. She shook her head. “We shouldn’t question him here. We know he’s the leader of the Wandering Coin. We should arrest him or something. He’s the mayor, so this is bound to cause issues, and I’m sure the Hero Branch will want to talk to him or something. We can question him then and find out what’s going on. For now, though, we need to focus on capturing and arresting Green Wolf. He was why we did this, right? To find out where Fairy Queen is.”
“For once, Cinder is right.” Whisper nodded.
“For once?”
Myth slowly lowered his arm and let go of the mayor. “You’re right. Sorry. I’m just a little ticked off, is all. Whisper, keep him held in place. If his Paths seem like he’ll try something, then stun him. Battery, you and I will attempt to detain Green Wolf. Cinder, since you’re fireproof, I want you to detain, or at least keep, Demonica held back as long as you can. Snowdawn, you’ll support all of us when we need it, but mainly focus on Cinder.”
Demonica’s body grew more rigid, and her eyes narrowed. The woman began to pace, sensing a fight about to break out. Green Wolf folded his arms and didn’t look like he was about to put up a fight.
Myth moved closer to Battery and stared at the two villains. “We have the Watch Dogs upstairs. They’ll be down here any second now to help us. On top of that, there are dozens of Hero Branch members and officers. I’d suggest the two of you don’t try anything funny. When I count to three, Battery is going to lower his bubble. Calmly get on your knees, lower your head, and put your hands behind your back. If you do that, then no one needs to get hurt. If you try to run, we’ll use force if we have to, and you won’t get very far.”
“So, you think we’ll just give up?” Demonica hissed. Purple fire dripped out of the woman’s fingers. “We’ll fight and win. Right Green Wolf?”
“Ha!”
“This is no time for joking around.” Her glare shot toward her teammate, and he simply shrugged. “Will you fight with me or not?” The villain questioned, her body gushing more of her purple fire.
“Nah. Don’t feel like it.” Green Wolf said, throwing his arms behind his head. “I got the feeling you’d blast me with your flames the moment I was distracted and try to get away. If I’m going down, I think it’d be funnier to have you go down with me. I’m the kind of guy that’s fine with losing the game as long as I’m not the only one.”
“You damn bastard!”
“One-armed bitch.”
“One.” Myth began to count. “Two.” Demonica turned and glared at the heroes. Her skin ignited with purple flames and began to crack the bubble she was in. If she was going down, she was going down swinging. “Three-”
“Isn’t it weird how no one seemed to notice that cop guy got away?”
Green Wolf’s words caused all of them to instantly freeze. Whisper was the first to react, her eyes going wide. She slammed her taser into the neck of the mayor, zapping the man and downing Grove, who screamed out as he dropped. “Look out!” Whisper yelled.
Cinder raised her shield up just in time. Blinding lights filled the underground parking lot, and gunfire rang out. This wasn’t just the little stuff either. These rounds were huge and flowed out as if fired from a machine gun. They tore through the pillars as if they were made out of wet tissue paper, and even she winced as they hit her, leaving nasty red bruises across her flesh. Snowdawn crashed down to the floor, Myth changed into a form with scales, or fur, strong enough to tank the hits, and Battery created a bubble around himself.
The attack caused the bubbles around Green Wolf and Demonica to drop, and Green Wolf instantly wrapped his arms around Demonica, picking her up and coating her in his kinetic-absorbing energy, causing the bullets to ping off both of them. Demonica slammed her hand out and ignited a massive purple fireball that exploded and kicked up a massive wave of dust and smoke, blinding them all even further.
She lowered her shield and tried to blast a fire arrow at them, but the bullets caused her hand to flinch, and her attack missed, slamming into the roof above and nearly bringing it down on them.
The gunfire grew even worse, and the sound of a car''s engine roared out as the mayor''s vehicle came crashing toward them at breakneck speed. The thing had clearly been souped up by a Mental-based Super. It had looked like a simple black limo earlier, but now the thing had shrunk down a bit, getting less long but far wider, covered in thick iron plates. Massive guns that looked like they’d belong on very expensive jets were all over the car, firing wildly into the room. The windows were pitch black, not allowing her to see into the car, but if she had to guess, she’d say Kyle’s dad was the one driving it.
The car rammed into Battery and Myth, throwing the two of them back. She went to fire at it with another attack, but the thing suddenly unfolded and expanded, changing shape. Metal twisted and snapped out of place, and what looked like large arms grew out of it, which scooped up the unconscious mayor. The roof opened up and dropped him inside, then quickly closed. Her fire arrow smashed into the thing and caused it to shake, but it didn’t stop as its legs began to twist into place, allowing it to stand up.
“What the hell?” Snowdawn screamed out.
The limo had changed into a large, sixteen-foot-tall, black robot. The body of it was still the car, and it didn’t have a head but did have legs and arms that poked out of it. The thing was crouched down and took a slap toward her. She raised her arms up and blocked the strike and sliced into it with her shield, tearing half of its hand off. The guns of the robot locked onto her and fired as it tried to stumble back.
She ignored the gunfire, though she’d likely pay for it later with a body covered in bruises. She held her shield up and forced a ring of fire around the edge of it. She had to admit she was a little ticked off, so she didn’t hold back much and threw her arm out. The fire disk blasted out, spinning through the air, and sliced the legs of the robot off of its body. The upper half of the robot crashed back down, body first.
The body of the robot rose up, literally floating off of the ground. It must have had tech similar to Boy Genius’s gravity tech that was in Nightshade. It tried to fly for the exit, but she jumped at it and landed on top of it. Snowdawn followed after her, and he vanished, leaving behind an ice sculpture of himself. He reappeared on the hood of the floating car and smirked.
“Learned that one from a video game!” He raised his arm and was about to slam it down but suddenly screamed out when his back was split open by an unseen attack. Across the parking lot, Green Wolf stood twirling his knife. Snowdawn dropped off of the car and crashed to the floor below.
“Snowdawn!” She raised her shield up and managed to block the slice Green Wolf sent at her, but the force of it was still strong enough to shove her off and send her slamming down into the pavement next to Snowdawn.
Battery and Myth jumped back up to their feet and were about to give chase, but the robot’s arm twisted around, and a large rocket formed out of the hand. It fired into the roof of the underground parking lot they were in, and that proved to be the final straw, causing the entire place to come crashing down.
Myth transformed into his wood dragon form, the tree working as a makeshift pillar, and Battery fired his golden barrier out, attempting to keep the place held up alongside Myth.
She rolled over and checked on Snowdawn. His armor was beginning to break, and his back was cut cleanly open. She winced, applying pressure on it and causing him to howl. “Just hang on. Battery will heal you when he can, or I’ll call Paragon or something-”
“F- Forget about me,” Snowdawn growled. “Don’t let them get away!”
She turned and saw the robot had reached the exit. Green Wolf and Demonica both stood guard and were blasting at the machine, ripping chunks out of it and slicing the metal apart, but the machine didn’t stop and literally plowed through them both, flying out at insane speeds and taking to the sky as soon as it could.
Green Wolf cursed and turned back to her, slashing his knife out. She jumped in front of Snowdawn and held her shield up to protect them, but she didn’t have to, as it turned out. Before the unseen slash could reach her, a bolt of thunder had appeared out of thin air and blocked it. The entire underground area began to fill with mist, and clouds formed above them, causing rain to fall.
Pillars of ice began to freeze the roof in place, keeping it held up and allowing Myth and Battery to let go, both men dropping to their knees and panting a bit. At the staircase that led back into the stadium, four people stood.
“I brought backup.” Pretty Face announced. “Both the hero and his team.”
Duplicity, Backup, and Bad Wolf—all three stood behind the popstar hero. Backup gave a sly grin as Bad Wolf used her power over the clouds to hold the ceiling up herself. “Myth. You go on ahead. Wolfie, Dups, and I will deal with these two scrubs.” Backup announced, pointing at Green Wolf and Demonica.
Myth helped Cinder pick up Snowdawn, and she used her other arm to grab Battery, and the four of them exited the underground tunnel, heading upstairs and back into the now-empty stadium. They were followed by Pretty Face. “Can they win?” She asked.
“I’ll put my trust in them.” Myth shrugged.
“Does it matter?” Battery spat out. “The mayor is long gone. We aren’t catching up to that thing and have no idea where the hell it went.”
“Yes, we do.” Myth smirked.
Battery frowned for a moment before realization flickered in his eyes. “That’s good and all, but our mission is capturing Green Wolf. We were doing this to prove Pantheon is a strong group and as a favor to Boy Genius. If we do this, then it might mean we become an official team.” He placed his hand on Snowdawn’s back and began to mend the boy''s wounds. “Though I guess we don’t have much of a choice thanks to ‘her’ actions.”
“Her actions?” She raised an eyebrow, trying to figure out what he meant. That was when she noticed it. She looked around and counted. It was her, Battery, Myth, and Snowdawn. “Where’s Whisper...” She asked slowly.
“Where do you think?” Myth pulled his phone out, and when he opened, he had been sent a location ping from Whisper. “They grabbed the mayor and were in such a hurry they didn’t even bother checking to see if Whisper was around or not. Their arrogance caused them to just gain a stowaway.”
Down below in the parking lot, Green Wolf turned around, about to flee out the exit, but it was filled with rows of ice and water, dozens of clouds twisting over it. “Fucking Christ, my luck today is bad...”
“Think we can beat them?” Demonica growled.
“Oh, I’m killing them, all right.” Green Wolf glared at the three holding his knife up. “My plan went to shit, and I’m not very happy. Afterward, I’m having a long conversation with Avalon.”