Chapter 3 - Electric Bird
"Ok, so, I gotta ask: How'd you beat that lead baddie at the bank?"
"With an affective move known as the 'punch', I believe. But I suppose mine has more power—like an atomic punch."
"That's perfect! The Atomic Punch, that can be your signature move."
"You think so?"
"I know so."
Nicky and the ant took advantage of being left alone while the rest of Nicky's family was out, and tried to spend the rest of the Sunday afternoon to figure out how to turn the latter into a legit superhero; although, it was easier said than done.
"Hmm…you sure you won't settle for The Magnificent Mandibles?" Nicky suggested, sitting on his bed while his buggy friend was perched on the headboard.
"No," the ant deadpanned, pointing at his face, "I don't even have mandibles anymore."
"How 'bout Phoenix Ant?"
"Too tacky."
"Super Bug?"
"Ok, that's just being lazy."
"Well, you gotta pick somethin', Man. No one's gonna buy a superhero that just goes by 'The Ant'," Nicky pointed out in annoyance, using air quotes to emphasize his point.
"It could happen," the ant argued with a shrug, making Nicky stand up and pace.
"C'mon, we gotta think—it's gotta be good, original, and obviously heroic."
"While also stating the obvious: I'm a mutated insect."
"Right. So, what'll do the trick…?"
All of the sudden, the ant's antennae begin to shudder, "Hold on, Nicky."
"What is it?" Nicky asked out of concern.
The insect was silent for a moment while flying up to the window, concentrating on the outside world, "Someone's in trouble."
"Someone's always in trouble."
"No, this is different—it's your family."
Teresa and Nicholas Manos were making a grocery run, and little Tiana was waiting in the baby seat of a cart as they were paying for their goods at the cash register.
"Honey, is it me, or has Nicky been actin' a little weird lately?" Teresa couldn't help but ask.
"He's a young man, Teri, and he's still growing. It's natural for kids his age to act abnormally when puberty comes along," Nicholas calmly brushed off the subject, loading more groceries onto the assembly line.
And out of nowhere, a screeching black blur flew over the family, instantly starting the line of people waiting to pay for their food.
"What was that, Mommy?" Tiana whimpered.
"It's just a bird, Tia," Teresa reassured.
"Careful, it might fly inta yer hair, Kiddo," the old man at the cash register joked, and poor Tiana shook in fright, "Oh, I'm just messin' with ya. Them rats with wings fly in through the back all the time. You've got nothin' ta worry about."
"I-I don't want birds to fly into my hair."
"I know, Baby, and they won't. Mommy's got you." Teresa carefully pulled Tiana out of the cart and held her close, giving her a hug to calm her down.
"Now, if you're done with trying to scare the youth, I'll bid you a good day," Nicholas firmly told the old man after paying, and the family continued on to exit the store.
But just before they could leave, sparks suddenly burst from all around the automatic doors, rendering them immobile. A staff member ran up to the doors and tried to open them, but to no avail.
"It's no good! They're locked!"
"These, too!"
"Are they all locked?!"
"What're we gonna do?!"
Panic started to spread throughout the store, as the lights followed after the entrances and exits, and more sparks flew to put them all out. The building was dimmer now, as the only light source was the daylight that came in through the windows.
"What's happening?" Tiana quickly asked.
"I-I don't know," Teresa replied in fear, "Nicholas?"
"Teresa, I don't think now is the time to discuss a natural phenomenon," Nicholas protested, unable to hide his fear and confusion as well.
"You're a man of faith, for crying out loud!"
The same black bird from earlier suddenly zipped past, causing another spark, even larger than before, to explode from the lights above and glass started to plummet.
Nicholas immediately grabbed his wife and daughter and pulled them out of the way, just in time before the spot they were just standing in was covered in razor sharp shards. Everyone else managed to duck for cover, luckily, but it didn't end there. All over the store, lights and other electrical devices started to explode, all while the bird flew around them.
"It's that damned bird! Kill it!" the cashier shouted and ran off to find something to fight with.
And as soon as the old man left, the bird finally landed on the counter, staying still long enough for some to make out its traits; the red feathers on its chest proved that it was a robin, but the rest of its feathers were a shimmering pitch black, and it was the size of a crow.
Its claws were long and sharp, too, as it scraped them across the counter and raised its back feathers to build up another electric charge.
"The cashier was right," Nicholas breathed in awe, but that allowed him to let his guard down long enough for the robin to blast him in the chest with a powerful shock, sending him flying back into some carts.
"Nicholas!" Teresa cried and ran to her husband's aid.
"Daddy!" Tiana exclaimed in terror, as she and her mother tried to shake Nicholas awake, but he was completely stunned.
The robin started to hiss in an unnatural and unsettling way, as it descended onto the floor and approached the family with its wings partially unfolded, ready to strike.
But just as the bird leapt into action, a window was shattered by a bullet-sized object, and it came barreling down onto the bird to effortlessly knock it across the room. The feathered fiend was thrown against a wall, sending an electric wave through an outlet and through the wall. It didn't take long for it to recover, though, as it stood and started hissing viciously again to approach the object of crossfire.
It was the ant, and he stood defensively in front of Nicky's family, "Ready to give up?"
Teresa and Tiana both gasped in utter shock when they heard the insect speak, but they were even more surprised when it started to fly and chase the fleeing bird around the building. The rest of the customers couldn't believe what they were seeing either, as they could all only watch in amazement.
The ant soon caught up to the robin, grabbing its talons and spinning around before throwing it hard, sending it flying back into shelves of goods and scattering the debris. But the bird was able to retaliate by flying back up to the ant at full speed, its feathers and talons buzzing with more electricity as it grew closer.
But the ant was smarter and instantly fled, leading the robin around the store until he came up to the hardware section of the store. He headed strait for shelves stocked with rolls of copper wire, grabbing a roll and unrolling it before taking two ends and flying back towards the robin.
Just as the electric build up in the bird's body was about to be released, the ant caught him in wire and dragged him to a nearby outlet, shoving the ends of the wire into the wall. Once the electricity in the bird's body was transferred into the wire, it instantly blew the outlet and singed the wall around it.
The ant quickly grabbed the wire and wrapped more around its neck and wings, rendering it immobile; he assumed that maybe he could use this bird's electrical attacks against it, but his theory was proved wrong when more electric waves traveled back through the wire into the bird, seemingly having no affect.
"Guess I'll have to find another way to daze and confuse you," the ant pondered aloud and flew off to find something else to use.
But just as he came back, a baseball bat collided with the bird and knocked him unconscious, as the old man from up front huffed in exhaustion.
"Man, you're quite the handful," the cashier panted.
The ant thought it was best to stay out of sight, and then flew out through another window, leaving the old employee to deal with the presumably dead bird. But as soon as he left, the old man looked around to make sure the coast was clear, dropped the bat, and quickly worked to untangle the robin from the wires.
"My apologies. I had to convince him you were defeated," the old man whispered to the motionless robin, "Worry not. I'll have you fixed up in no time—I'm the greatest scientist that ever lived, after all."
Meanwhile, the customers on the other side of the store were still trying to collect themselves what had just happened, and it wasn't long before Nicky came sprinting up to the doors. But they still wouldn't budge, no matter how much he kicked or pulled.
"Allow me," the ant insisted before floating up to the automatic doors, effortlessly breaking a large hole in the glass with a punch.
"Ma! Pops! Tia!" Nicky called out with worry, sprinting around the store until he finally found his family at the front, and he instantly ran to them.
"Nicky!" Teresa called back, as she embraced him.
"You guys ok? What happened?!"
"I'm not sure. One minute, there's a bird flyin' around. And the next, everything starts explodin' and breakin' down."
Nicky finally noticed he unconscious father, "What happened to him?!"
"Again, I-I just don't know. He was attacked by some…bird." Nicky's eyes squinted in suspicion at his mother's answer.
"A bird?"
"Yeah."
"I'll be right back, Ma."
With that, Nicky stood back up and went back outside to look for his insect friend, "Hey, you still there?!"
"Yes, I am," the ant calmly replied and flew up to him.
"You're smarter than you let on. So, how the hell does a bird do all this?"
"I wish I knew, Nicky, I really do. But I can't figure it out either. The strangest thing was the bird's capabilities, though. It could channel electricity through its body, and even use it to destroy other devices of the same use."
"That explains why it's so dark in there…"
"But the bottom line is, something's very wrong."
"Ok, so, what do we do?"
"I think you should stay with your family, and help your father get some medical attention. Meanwhile, I'm going to scout around, see if I can find anything else out of the ordinary."
Luckily, Nicholas got away with merely a few bruises, and no one else visiting the store was gravely injured either. Eventually, authorities arrived and started to clean up the mess, sending the customers home with their groceries free of cost.
The Manos family was no exception, as they returned and tried to go about the rest of the evening as if nothing had happened; albeit, it was difficult to forget.
"So, Pops…" Nicky awkwardly as he leaned against the doorway to his parents' room, his father was already in bead reading The Bible, "How do you feel?"
"I feel much better, now. Thank you, Nicky," Nicholas calmly replied without looking up from his book, creating an awkward silence.
"Right…what do you think happened taday, anyway?"
"Perhaps The Lord was trying to send a message."
"What's he sayin'?"
"Well, God works in mysterious ways. Maybe he's trying to tell us a story, remind us of our sins, or even give us a warning?" The middle-aged man inhaled and closed The Bible, setting it onto his nightstand before taking his glasses off and putting them down as well. "Or it could have just been a crazed animal trying to get into the building. I may be a man of God, but I know when to be practical. Now, goodnight."
"Yeah, sure. G'night."
"Psst!" Nicky's attention was immediately diverted from his father, as he glanced down the hall to look for the owner of the voice, even though he already had a pretty good idea as to who it was. The young man walked down the hall and peered into his room, and the ant was sitting on the window sill.
"What's up?" Nicky asked.
"Listen, Nicky. Things are far worse than I thought," the ant quickly began, the firmness in his voice startling Nicky for a second.
"W-What makes you say that?"
"Right after a left the store, I followed some more distress signals. They were appearing all over the city, and all of them had one thing in common: Machines had suddenly gone on the fritz. That bird has done more damage than we know."
"You're sayin' all these occurrences are connected."
"What other explanation is there? I did some more investigating, and I found out that the machines all burst with flying sparks, just like the ones at the store."
"Ok, but you took down that bird, right? What's ta worry about now?"
"Creatures like this don't just appear out of nature, Nicky. Something's changed them, something vile—and I'm certain it's the same source that changed me."
"You really wanna find what's behind all this," Nicky stated matter-of-factly while sitting down on his bed.
"More than anything," the ant replied desperately, "And more importantly, protect the innocent from his or her other deadly monsters."
"Alright, I'll help you keep lookin' for answers, but tomorrow, ok?"
The ant sighed, "Very well."