The girl had retreated to the back of the room, almost leaning up against the screen door taking up the entire wall. Orange sunlight peeking in from behind the blinds cast harsh lines onto the back of her body like tiger stripes. She began to cry, a river flowing from her eyes, as she fell to the floor in panic, her breathing choked behind her terrified gasps. Garrett almost pitied her.
"No more blood, no more death. I've seen enough! You can't just kill everyone who disagrees or threatens you!"Initially, Garrett thought she was talking to him. The girl was making giant assumption, he just wanted information out of her. And then, another voice spoke from her lips.
"He's hungry for blood! It can't be helped. If he's hungry, I'll feed him his own till he can feast no more!"At this threat, Garrett immediately summoned his true form. Black smoke slithered up his body from the floor, encasing him like a cocoon before dissipating into nothing, revealing Garrett clothed in Zed’s black and crimson ninja garb. His broken arm clung tightly to his armored chest, wrapped in blood-red fabric.
Just can’t trust anyone out her any more, can I?Garrett’s guest stood straight up now, unmoving, as her stomach began to expand at a rapid pace. The girl’s clothes grew taut against her skin, soon giving way to ripped stitches and the sound of tearing fabric. Her bloated body was grotesque and inhuman at this point, blown to proportions to should not have been possible. The girl’s facial features were sinking into her own body.
"I've got a joke for you, hungry one! What is the last joke that a dead man hears?"Garrett’s shadow clone leapt between its master and the girl, while Garrett put up a gauntleted arm to cover his face.
She’s going to get blood all over the place.She finally reached her breaking point and burst. Instead of blood and flesh splashing all along the walls though, a shower of blades and daggers erupted from her body. Wind whipped past Garrett as shining blades flew by him, embedding themselves into the wall and cabinets with dull thuds. The clone standing in front of Garrett was stabbed repeatedly, stumbling back as each dagger found purchase in it. Somehow, one of the blades flew above the clone’s right shoulder and hit against Garrett’s raised arm. The dagger bounced off of his gauntlet with a loud, metal
clang, stinging his wrist.
The clone fell backwards against Garrett, dragging him to the ground. Garrett fell against the fridge headfirst, sending a sharp stab of pain through the back his skull, as the clone fell on his lap and evaporated into a cloud of smoke. The daggers that shot into it fell harmlessly to the ground, clanging to the ground.
The storm finally subsided, and Garrett slowly stood up to examine the carnage. He rubbed the back of his head as he slowly made his way to the girl’s exploded corpse. Only, it was no corpse but…a doll?
ShacoGarrett turned around the get a few of the rest of his apartment. From where he was standing, every single surface was perfectly covered in a grid-pattern of daggers spaced out every 5 or so inches. There was a gaping hole in the pattern where he and his shadow clone previously stood, a bare spot standing out on the fridge.
Well...can’t stay here now.Garrett turned around and opened the screen door, exiting onto his balcony.
Vicki left Matt’s apartment after asking a dozen questions and exchanging contact information with the other...champions.
This is going to take some getting used to.Vicki rushed home, clutching her arms close to her chest. As the sun was starting to go down, the cold night was beginning to pick her. Her gym outfit did little to keep her warm.
Her life had changed drastically in less than twenty-four hours. Just yesterday, she was filing paperwork to renew the gym’s business license with Darkwell’s Chamber of Commerce; as mundane as any normal day. Today, she punched a guy across a room, fought a shadow ninja, was pushed through a dimensional portal, and had a casual conversation next to a smoldering pile of carpet and couch. As Vicki sighed deeply, a puff of pale air escaping through her lips.
Vicki’s life didn’t have to turn into a crazy comic book world of madness, though. There were definitely others like her, but Matt had given her two very clear options:
“All that we're asking is that you assist us in whatever why you can, and we can offer the same in return. If not, simply don't act out against our interest.” So either help the power pack, or go on living a normal life without interfering…Her original plan was to follow in her father’s legendary footsteps. She had never lost a professional bout so far, and her father would often bring up rumors of her taking to the big leagues, with TV broadcasts and everything. Vicki Victory, daughter of the legend, forging her own, greater history for others to fawn over.
Seems like I’ll end up more like Million Dollar Baby now…She finally arrived back at the gym. The broken window had been hastily sealed up with a sheet of plastic that billowed against the wind. Vicki unlocked the doors and entered the cold interior of Victor’s Gym. The entire gym was dark except for a single stark, yellow illumination coming from within her father’s corner office. The light against the gym equipment cast great shadows upon the walls. As a child, Vicki would sit and stare up at the shadows while her father worked, imagining them to be the bones of long-dead war machines that she defeated in epic combat.
As Vicki approached closer to the office, her father’s deep voice rang out cautiously against the silence, “Vicki, that you?”
”Yeah dad, I’m finally back.” She replied as she opened the door.
Her father was leaning back in his chair, beaming at his daughter. He was way too big for his wooden desk. “Thought you might’ve actually gone and took off for someplace else.”
Vicki pulled up a chair on the opposite side of the desk and rotated it so that the desk was against the left arm. She sat down as she said with a smile,
”I said I wouldn’t run away didn’t I?”Mr. Victory let out a single, snorting laugh through his nose. The two of them sat in silence for a few seconds. It seemed like the lamp was only illuminating Vicki’s side of the desk, as Mr. Victory could barely be seen sitting in the shadows.
Probably likes making people feel like they’re being interrogated or something…Her father finally broke the silence, “You were gone for a while.”
Vicki shrugged.
”I made a few new friends and hung out with them for a while.”His mustache curled up with a smile, “Everyone still wants to be your friend, huh?”
Vicki leaned back in her chair and gave a sideways smirk to her father along with another shrug.
”It’s the hair.”Her father’s smile slowly faded away before speaking up again. “I saw on the news...there was a robbery or assault at the diner. Cafe was closed today from a crime yesterday, ‘nd I know you like that diner for some reason…” Even in the dark, Vicki could see her father’s eyes reflecting bits of light. He was looking right into her soul.
She froze for a second before sighing.
”Yeah, I heard. I was gone by the time anything happened there though.”Another large span of silence drifted between them. “You’re terrible at lying.”
Vicki sighed in frustration, raising her arms before letting them fall back onto her armrests.
”What do you want me to say dad? I was out with some friends. You told me to go cool off, so I did. I didn’t do anything stupid, just...trying to clear my head.”Mr. Victory nodded, then kept his head down. “I know...I know. I’m just...worried about you. It ain’t every day that a man goes flying through one of my windows, y’know?”
Vicki folded her hands into her lap, looking down at them. She quietly responded,
”Yeah...I know.”Her mountainous father rose from his chair and slowly walked around the desk until he was standing right next to Vicki. She was always afraid his head was going to hit the ceiling. He knelt down next to his daughter and wrapped his left arm around her shoulders. “I trust you Vicki, I just...I’m your dad. I’m gonna worry about you, that’s how it works.” Vicki just stood staring down at her hands for a few seconds before leaning her head back against her father’s arms. Age hadn’t whittled down his muscles at all.
In a low, calm voice, her father whispered, “Just promise me you’ll try ‘n stay out of trouble, alright?” His gentle demeanor always surprised Vicki; she felt like the tone never matched his appearance. She nodded in response to him.
Vicki’s father leaned in and game a small kiss to her forehead, “I love you, scrappy.”
”Love you too, dad.”
Raze heaved his mighty spear downward, slashing at a large, metal cargo crate. The bladed edge cleaved through it easily, leaving a clean line gutting the freight container open. Raze threw his black hood back and wiped the sweat off his forehead. He stood in the middle of a garbage dump, adorned with a black pair of sweatpants and a black hoodie.
It was a good idea to test out my abilities today, but I really gotta get back to work tomorrow...something has to put food on the table. He looked up at the sun: bright and shiny, casting light all across the smooth, blue sky.
Alright, let’s test out what I really came here for. Raze’s spear disappeared into flame and he began to slowly jog through the dump. Putrid odors pierced his nose, but he had gotten used to it since he first arrived in the morning. Slowly, he began picking up speed.
C’mon, I gotta go faster than this... Raze concentrated all of his energy into his legs and pushed himself to sprint. He ran right through the front gate of the garbage dump, past a truck as its driver stared at him in confusion, and kept running along an open stretch of road.
Raze chose the dump for its solitude, as well as the fact that it was very distant from the city. The citizens of Darkwell absolutely would not tolerate the stench of a landfill too close to their beloved city, so the local disposal companies were forced to construct garbage dumps miles away from the city. They paid extra for the disposal services, unfortunately. However, this provided Raze with the perfect opportunity to test out his champion’s powers in the real world.
He was no athlete by any means, but somehow, Raze wasn’t tired out at all. It was difficult to gauge his speed against an endless expanse of grass, but he could tell he was going extremely fast as the wind was whipping his hair wildly in every direction. Off in the distance, Raze spotted a tram shuttling people from a nearby city to their jobs and schools in Darkwell.
That’s one way to check my speed.Raze peeled off left, towards the train. With each step he took, mounds of plant and earth were uprooted, leaving a trail of disheveled grass and dirt in his wake. Adding to the chaos, green flames burst up with every step that landed, dying out as soon as Raze moved on. He looked down quickly, then focused his attention straight ahead, beaming with glee. It had been years since Raze felt this free.
Finally, he caught up to the train. At first he kept pace with it, but then sped forward, easily outrunning to locomotive. Every now and then, a passenger would look out their window with a mix of awe and confusion on their face. Raze simply returned their looks with a wide smile.
Raze eventually outran the very front of the train, and peeled off towards Darkwell proper. He slowed his velocity and came to a rest at one of Darkwell’s many concrete rivers, now dried up. Pulling out his smartphone, Raze quickly searched on the internet for the average speed of Darkwell’s trains. He smiled widely yet again: “Darkwell’s shuttles travel at a speedy 50mph, helping you beat the traffic!”
A loud cawing noise interrupted his moment of joy. Just 5 feet away from Raze’s perch, a crow stood staring at him, its head cocking from side to side inquisitively. Then another crow landed by its side. Then another.
A white blotch fell from the sky and narrowly avoided Raze, landing right next to his hand. He flinched his hand to his chest, and looked up to see its source. Finally, he saw it: a great, black cloud of crows all flocked together, headed towards Darkwell. Off in the distance, he saw multiple streams of crows all flying towards to the center of the city. The sky was a veritable river of black feathered creatures, all menacingly cawing.
”What the hell is going?”
