Chapter One
An explosion rocked the town center, sending a spray of earth and concrete into the air. At first, nobody knew what to make of the event, chaos spreading outward like wildfire as pedestrians fled from the scene. Cars spun around in an effort to avoid the point of the explosion. A flock of birds sped into the sky, screaming to get away.
Then the creature came bursting up out of the ground, and all hell broke loose.
It was unlike anything anyone had ever seen. The size of a school bus, at first glance it seemed to be an incredibly large, turquoise toad. A giant rafflesia, pink with white spots, sprouted from its back, tufts of pollen showering into the air as it launched itself out of the freshly-made hole in the ground and slammed against the side of a building.
People screamed, fleeing. A truck, perhaps out of fear or lack of control, swerved violently towards the beast.
The creature stomped the ground with a single foot. Immediately, a reflective barrier of light appeared between it and the vehicle. The truck struck the barrier and rebounded, spinning wildly in the opposite direction as if the wall had been made of rubber.
Two mighty vines launched from the base of the flower on the creature's back and grabbed a statue from the center of the square. The marble groaned, cracking with the force of the attack. The creature bellowed furiously, and the statue gave way, the vines ripping it up from its foundation. Grunting, it swung the vines in an arc, launching the statue directly into the hole the beast had made. It took several moments for the sound of the crash, as if the statue had fallen some distance beneath the earth.
For a moment, everything remained still. Onlookers watched, now more curious than frightened of the strange creature that had graced their presence. The beast, for its part, kept its gaze frozen in the gaping hole, breathing heavily.
Several minutes passed. The only sound in the air were the sirens of incoming emergency vehicles. Everyone, even the beast, took a deep breath and relaxed.
Exactly what I wanted.
To the bystanders, it looked as if a small, teenage girl went flying out from the pit in the ground, propelled through the air as if shot out of a cannon. It was, of course, far more simple than that: I'm just magic.
Experient 003 roared, apparently angry. As if chucking a statue at me was going to somehow kill me. What was I, some plebe?
Thirty feet in the air, I swung my left hand, and a pink bolt of energy scythed its way down towards the beast. Surprise, mother-trucker.
Unfortunately, the overlarge toad was a lot more spry than it looked. It jumped slightly to the side, avoiding my attack with ease. Roaring, the two vines swung up to meet me as I descended towards the ground.
"Uh-oh." Launching myself in the air with my powers: easy. Actually maneuvering once I was up there: that was something I hadn't quite mastered.
The first vine missed me entirely, but the second one made perfect contact. It twirled around my middle, wrapping me tight.
And then it brought me slamming down to the ground.
If I had been a regular human, the impact alone would have killed me. I was made of sturdier stuff, but as the vine began lifting me back into the air, the second one twisting around my neck, I knew I was in trouble.
I closed my eyes, concentrating. I had never tried this move before, but if it worked…
I suddenly found myself floating in the sky a dozen feet away, freed from the monster's clutches. "Woo hoo!" I cried, just before I crashed onto the concrete road below. "Ow…"
There was no time to wallow in pain, however. As soon as I hit the ground, I rolled to one side. The space I had crashed on a moment earlier became home to a chunk of concrete, ripped up from the ground and thrown by none other than Angry Kermit. I hopped to my feet and quickly scanned the area for anything that could give me an advantage.
No such luck. A few cars, some scared pedestrians, but nothing actually useful. Typical. I was going to have to do this mano y mano.
My opponent certainly seemed okay with that. The two vines slammed the ground threateningly, and its mighty bellow caused the very air to quake with fear.
Not me, though. I was inconvenienced, not scared.
We began to circle each other, each on opposite ends of the round town center. I estimated there was at least fifty feet between us. Its vines would never stretch that far, and it knew that. Likewise, it was enough of a distance that it would have plenty of time to dodge any projectile I threw at it. Neither of us were likely to land a blow from this far apart.
Or so I thought. We had gone halfway around the circle when Frogger stopped, shaking its whole body from side-to-side. I paused. Was it having a seizure?
It grumbled and took a step forward, and something large and purple burst from the top of its flower. I rolled out of the way and jumped atop a small minivan. The projectile landed where I had been and burst, purple sludge spraying in all directions. Wherever the sludge touched, it burned, leaving an acrid smell. I held my nose. "Gross!" I shouted. "Don't you know that's bad for the environment?"
Either it didn't know English, or it simply wasn't amused by my witty comment, because it launched another ball of sludge into the air. Then another. And another. After seven such assaults, half the town square was now sizzling with the acidic sludge. I, of course, remained unscathed.
Frustrated, I made a few attacks of my own, flinging purple blade of energy from my hands in the beast's direction. They were never going to actually damage it, but I was angry and frustrated and it felt good to do something.
A cry rang out. I turned. A woman was stuck in her car, an old 4-door that looked like it was half a century old. The sludge was starting to burn through the roof, and it had already managed to melt her doors in a way that made them impossible to open. She was going to die.
I looked back at the beast. It might as well have been taking a sip of tea and watching the sunrise for as much as it seemed to care. It was out for blood, and it was my blood it wanted. With an angry roar it launched another sludgy projectile at me.
I spun around and ran towards the woman and her half-melted car. "Lady!" I shouted. "When I give the signal, raise your hands!"
I flung a purple blade ahead of me - it slashed through the car like it was butter, separating the roof from the rest of the vehicle. Another blade - a little more dull than the previous - slammed into the roof and sent it careening off, leaving nothing but open air above the woman's head. Hesitantly, she raised her hands.
Still running forward, I sent a blast of pink energy at my feet, and launched forward and up as the latest of the beast's bombs burst behind me. The angle worked out just right: I grabbed the woman's hands, and together we fell forward, barely outside the still-sizzling pools of sludge.
The landing was rough - like I said, I still haven't gotten quite used to the whole flying thing. We hit the concrete and rolled, tumbling over each other.
A group of onlookers rushed forward, helping us to our feet. "Let's get you to an ambulance," one man said, grabbing the woman's hand.
She shook her head. "You," she said, pointing at me. "Thank you. You saved my life. Who are you?"
"I'm, er...nobody." I shoved the people who had helped me up aside and started walking away from them. "You, er...really ought to get out of here."
"But dear, you shouldn't- oh my goodness, your hand."
I looked down. My left hand was a prosthetic, made of rings of silver metal. It usually did just fine, but now it was sparking, and the metal of the thumb was crushed until it almost touched the wrist. I couldn't feel it, thankfully, but it looked pretty bad.
"It's okay," I said. "But you really should leave."
I don't know if they followed my advice or not. I didn't have time to wait around and find out.
I had a beast to kill.
"I bet you're real proud of yourself, aren't you!?" I shouted, striding towards the creature. For its part, it had not attacked since I rescued the woman, waiting patiently next to the ruins of the town square statue. "This fight was supposed to be private!" I continued. "Just you and me. There was no need to get anyone else involved."
I held my right hand over my left. Purple energy sparked between them. The metal thumb twisted, expanded until it mostly resembled a finger again. Some of the other metal bits shifted back into place, too. "Let's do this," I grumbled.
Two vines came lashing out at me. I ducked and rolled beneath the first. The second I grabbed in my left hand - forming a purple blade in my right, I swung down, hacking it into pieces. The beast roared, and its remaining vine recoiled back to the base of its flower.
A flurry of green powder sprayed into the air, launched from the top of the rafflesia. I didn't wait to see what would happen if it touched me: slamming my hands together, a gust of wind sent the spores careening off to the clouds. I kept walking forward, inching closer. "Is that all you've got?" I dared.
The plant atop its back began to vibrate as if in response, an orb of green energy growing just above the top of the flower. The civilians who had been foolish enough to stick around began fleeing for their lives as the air quivered. Anybody could tell what was about to happen. I swallowed air. Perhaps challenging the giant beast was not the brightest idea.
Energy continued to swell into a giant sphere. The creature itself didn't seem to entirely understand what it was doing, quaking under the pressure of so much power. For a split-second, it seemed as if it was going to collapse.
Then it dug its heels in - quite literally into the ground, I might add - and the plant atop its back curled so that it slightly pointed in my direction. My stomach leapt to my throat.
There was a brief pause where everything seemed to become still.
A moment later, everything erupted into chaos.
A beam of light issued from the plane-sized orb of light, spearing in my direction. I started running to the side, knowing full well that there was no way I could protect myself from such a blast. The beam rushed past me, a blast of heat nearly knocking me to the unforgiving earth, and blasted against the side of a building. The brick-and-mortar structure never stood a chance, exploding from the force of the attack.
As I continued running, the beast began to turn, hoping to catch me in the beam. Where the beam struck, it left total destruction. Storefronts were obliterated, vehicles detonated from the heat, and trees were reduced to ash. Lucky for me, the big bloke was slow, so it was easy enough for me to outpace the attack. After not even thirty seconds, the energy in the beam ran out, and the assault was over.
The destruction, however, remained. The town square was hardly recognizable anymore. Here and there, small pieces of the shopfronts remained. No vehicles had been spared - like metal corpses scattered about the plaza, small fires smoldering in their engine chambers. A few actual human corpses lay unrecognized in the streets, casualties of the bitter conflict. A news helicopter circled overhead, being careful to avoid the pillars of smoke rising from the ruins.
I glared at the beast, which sat panting in the center of it all. It was not supposed to go this way. The hunt was supposed to be a quiet, unnoticed affair.
Stepping forward, a ball of green energy grew from within my hand. "My turn."
It never stood a chance. Even in my fury, I kept control over the attack. A single green beam of light issued from my palm and smote the monster where it stood. When the light faded, all that was left was a smoldering pile of ash, and a single pink petal that gently floated to the ground.
It didn't take long for the authorities to swoop in and take control of the scene. They didn't know what to make of what had happened. They swarmed over everything like confused insects, wondering what could possibly have wrought such horrors.
I didn't give them any answers. By the time they had arrived, I head leapt into the tunnel and was long gone.