THE ONE THAT IS MANNY
"And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are…" -Mark 5:1
Chapter 1: The Stone what Began Everything
"Manny!" cried the old man from behind the door.
Slamming the door open, Granpapi Rivera entered his grandson's bedroom. To his surprise, there was no one inside.
"Where's that kid?" wondered the old man. He crouched and searched beneath the bed. "Manny?" He opened the locker and searched for him inside. "Manny, you here?"
Looking around, the old man spotted something over the youngster's desk: a group of math books; they gave the impression they were casted aside. The window was also wide open and the curtains flagged. A rejoicing smirk drew on Granpapi's face.
"He, he, he! That's my grandson!"
Granpapi Rivera approached the window, in case he could still see his grandchild anywhere in the horizon. A metal arm protruded from his Golden Sombrero of Chaos. Said arm ended in a pair of binoculars that placed themselves right in front of his eyes.
The starless and smog-filled sky shrouded the cityscape below. The volcano in the middle remained temporally dormant, despite its fame of erupting at random times. An ocean of night-lights illuminated nearly every corner of the streets; at least, as far as the buildings were located, for beyond the urban panorama a vast desert landscape surrounded Miracle City as a sea would to an island.
In the horizon, massive mountains spired so imposingly they could almost pierce the clouds; their shard tops, the blackened sky and crescent moon above granted the whole scenery an uncanny resemblance to the lower maw of a beast about to grind the city with its sharp fangs.
Still, no sign of Manny Rivera.
"Mmm… no sign of El Tigre anywhere." Granpapi withdrew the mechanical arm back to his sombrero. "No importa, I'll tell him later."
He was about to leave the room and grab some of his son's homemade chocolate stuffed churros when a thought struck his brain like a lightning bolt.
"Un momento, what if Rodolfo comes back before Manny does?" he rubbed his chin with his hand, thinking deeply on the consequences for his grandson. "Oh, well. Guess I won't be able to have my calm night of indiscriminate crime after all." He shrugged.
Then, he stood in front of the window.
"I can't let my grandson get grounded for sneaking out of the house when he should be studying; it'd discourage him of becoming a villain."
Almost as soon as he finished that sentence, his large sombrero deployed its concealed inner machinery all around the old man's body. In a matter of seconds, the seemingly harmless headgear transformed itself into a fully functional war machine in the manner of a powerful robot suit.
"PUMA LOCO!" cried the elder man from the red glass cockpit.
Puma Loco used his powerful robotic pincers to knock down a large hole next to the window and proceeded to jump off from the edge. His jet-feet propelled him upwards to the dark sky.
Now, all he had to do was delay Rodolfo's return to home so he never notices Manny left.
Maybe some minor robbery on the way…
------------------------
Random burglars crawled into houses with the intention of emptying it with the speed of a hurricane. The other, more powerful and resourceful villains raided banks, museums, markets, jewelries, schools, hospitals, newspaper stands and graveyards. Meanwhile, a strong and brave man did his best to handle this entire crime spree by himself.
Just another typical night in Miracle City. Above Miracle City, however, things were different.
Way different.
------------------------
Manny should have stayed at home and study for his math exam. Since he got a nasty F the last time, spending the night with his books would have been the best for him and his grades. Repeat: 'would have'.
His father's words still resounded inside his head, even as he continuously leaped from roof to roof. One of the fiercest scolds he has ever received and all because of that stupid exam. It began with the usual "Manuel Pablo Gutiérrez O'Brien Equihua Rivera" and ended with the son locked in his room, reviewing his barely existing class notes.
Eight days had passed since that moment and Rodolfo, who was aware that his son would have another exam soon (soon as in tomorrow morning), had obliged Manny to stay in his room after school to study, much to his Granpapi's dismay. Despite the noxiously boring measure, the boy managed to resist the adversity.
Until tonight.
One roof, two roofs, three roofs…
"Dang! Don't I have anything better to do?" sighed a bored El Tigre. For a few seconds, the thick pages of the math book seemed less boring. Gladly, just for a few seconds.
Twenty minutes passed, like twenty centuries. Indeed, the boy's mind could not find anything better to do than roof jumping. His father, White Pantera, left home earlier than Manny in another attempt to capture criminals during their activities. A possible encounter between both Riveras would lead to obvious consequences so Manny needed to keep a low profile tonight.
"I better stop jumping around all around like an alley cat before my dad finds me and chants my whole name again." He thought. Then, looking around, he jumped from the building and landed on the sidewalk of a car-crowded avenue.
In addition, Frida had been sick lately. For this reason, she managed to avoid the past exam and an F of her own. She could not accompany her best friend on a nocturne adventure of fun mischief.
Walking by in a relatively relax manner, El Tigre raised his sight at the dark sky, at the towering structures he a few moments ago was jumping across.
"Maybe I'll pay Frida a visit. Would need to evade my father though. Hers too."
The last time Manny went over to her house was three days ago, when he found that she had flu and would therefore skip school. In a desperate attempt to evade the fearsome test, even tried breathing in one of her tissues to catch a cold himself but, for some reason, he didn't. They both thought his superpowers granted him some endurance of sorts to diseases.
El Tigre walked by the avenue, paying little attention to his surroundings. The noise of running cars filled the air and the foul fumes emanating from their escape tubes.
Suddenly, an explosion thundered. When the boy turned to look, a dense smoke column rose from a broken bank while its alarm system released an ear-piercing ring like a wounded creature.
From the raided building, the Flock of Fury flew away with bags of stolen money in their hands as they cackled malevolently in the manner of a dark coven. El Tigre could at last have some action after a dull night of aimless wander.
However…
"Flock of Fury!" shouted a man from the other side of the avenue; a man wearing a spotless white suit, shiny bronze boots and a red feline mask.
"Dad!" exclaimed El Tigre. "I can't let him see me here when I'm supposed to be studying!" Thinking fast, the kid ran away on opposite direction to the upcoming fight but, then, he stopped all of sudden.
How could he let his father fight against three villains all by himself? What kind of son would do that? Manny ran out of time for moral pondering almost immediately as the Flock began heading his way in some strange aerial maneuver to surround and strike White Pantera.
Panicking, El Tigre used one of his claws to open a clog next to him and jumped into the sewers. The tunnel was filthy, humid and rat-infested; not to mention it reeked to all the combined types of biological waste that Miracle City dumped during the day. Even so, it was better than facing his father.
Guilt started to overcome the teen. Abandoning his father in the middle of a fight was not something he would ever intend to do.
"My dad should be alright, he's more than a match for them.. Besides, perhaps Granpapi might join him in." El Tigre tried to calm down his self-reproach.
Surprisingly, he turned out to be right. Moments later, a loud blast blew part of the pavement, which, in the boy's case, would be the ceiling. When El Tigre checked out through another clog, he spotted Puma Loco joining his son in the fight against the Flock of Fury. Although a villain himself, Puma would always be willing to aid his family even against his villainous colleagues.
El Tigre withdrew himself again and continued walking down the sewers. The sounds of the fight faded away as the boy wandered for nearly an hour. When he no longer resisted the putrid fumes and the boring environment of a sewer tunnel, he climbed the wall and emerged to the outer world. To his surprise, he had travelled all the way to the outskirts of Miracle City.
He had already discovered there was nothing for him in the city tonight, so he just ventured into the surrounding desert wasteland. By night, this part of the region was much fresher and cooler. The young lad enjoyed this change and, after meandering around the dry soil, he decided to lie down and rest for a while.
The rest became a deep sleep, and that while could have easily become the whole time between night and dawn if it wasn't for…
BOOM!
"I left the churros on the table. They're… wait, what am I doing?" El Tigre woke up so startled and suddenly that, for a moment, confused dreams for reality. Once he pulled himself together, he checked out what happened.
The blast had been powerful enough to open a small crater on the ground. Luckily, the explosion didn't blow his head to smithereens; had it happened a few meters away, it would've with ease.
"Whoa! What's that?" El Tigre leaned forward on the edge of the crater.
It appeared to be green, glowing and rocky. El Tigre jumped in and picked it up. Now, a regular recently fallen meteor would've burned his hand like a churro left in a microwave for over an hour. But this one didn't.
Manny drew it closer to his face to inspect it better. It was green, glowing, but only resembled a rock, for it was as soft and cushiony like a sponge. Also, it had the size of a large apple. He put it into his pocket and thought of showing it to Frida tomorrow.
And speaking of tomorrow…
"Oh, no! It's 4:00 am!" El Tigre looked at the massive clock tower in the middle of Miracle City. Indeed, it showed four o' clock in the morning. "Dad must be home already. And if he doesn't find me…" El Tigre didn't even want to think about it, not that he had much time to think anyway.
Rushing as fast as he could, El Tigre managed to run all the way back to the city, to his home, to his room, to his bed… Incredibly enough, the young superhero managed to travel through all the distance in less than an hour.
Just as he travelled through the same avenue where he left his father and the Flock fighting, El Tigre saw White Pantera running on his way home too. Good news: His father hasn't yet found out that his son escaped. Bad news: He definitely would unless Manny didn't press forward.
El Tigre ran faster and managed to get back to Casa del Macho before his dad. Having no time to use an elevator or ladders, the boy simply encased his sharp claws into the wall and climbed all the way up the tower to his place.
Once in his room and as fast as he could, he spun his belt buckle and, in a blaze of green fire, his El Tigre suit changed back to his regular clothes. Then, he put on his Queso Sarcástico pajamas, put some assorted books on his desk, heard the front door opening, panicked, put the meteor rock in his school backpack lying on the other side of the room and threw himself to the bed.
"Manny, are you there?" said a voice from the other side of his door. The kid pretended to be fast asleep. The door opened. "Oh, you're sleeping. Sorry, guess it'll have to wait 'till tomorrow. Well, buenas noches."
He was somewhat relieved it was the voice of Granpapi instead of his father. Just kind of, because that meant Rodolfo didn't make it home, even when he was really close to. Manny worried for this a bit but his exhaustion overwhelmed him before he could think of it further.
Then it happened.
It began to shaking, like holding a caged beast inside. Manny, in his hurry, forgot to zip the backpack well. Twitching, the pack dropped itself to the floor and the meteor rolled out of it all the way next to the boy's bed, up near the headboard.
For a few minutes, the rock limited itself to beat like a hideous, malformed heart. With each contraction, it gained both volume and mass to the point of reaching the size of a human head.
The beating grew stronger and faster until it finally opened; not cracking like an egg, but like a bloom: the top of the rock unfolded slowly like flower petals. A green slime poured from the meteor's opening; gently, and yet dreadfully like a vile serpent stalking its prey.
As soon as it had all come out of its shell, the strange creature crept up Manny's bed like a giant liquid slug. When it placed itself over the sheets, its size was that of a large puddle.
Without any warning, the slime adhered to the young boy's face like a nasty blindfold.
"Hey! What's going-?" The ooze muffled Manny's mouth, drowning his voice and any possibility of crying for help.
In his struggle, the boy managed to release an arm by thrusting it upwards; but, as soon as he tried to reach his belt buckle, the slime extended its tendrils and forced them back. As Manny tried to free himself out of the snare, he noticed most of his body had already been entangled by the sludge which, in turn, had adhered itself to the bed.
Unable to move, talk, scream and eventually breathe; Manny's mind blanked in terror. All he could do was expect the end of this… situation.
However, this was far from ending.
Very far from ending.
Well, this is my first ET fanfic. For the moment, and as the plot settles, I will limit myself to say only these 2 things:
1. The very moment I thought of the words "for we are many" (as quoted above. I think I ought to make a reference to the famous phrase what inspired me), I knew writing this fanfic was a must. In fact, "For we are Manny" was the original title but I decided to change it in favor of The One that is Manny.
2. I hope you'll enjoy it coz I'm certainly having fun writing. Also, I'd really appreciate to reads your reviews.