Chapter 19: A Super Showdown (Patreon)

They laughed together for a moment, but when the silence loomed, it loomed large. Terry looked around the empty hallway, wondering what two kids united only by the shared loss of their parents had to talk about.

Say something, say something, say something.

Tania broke the silence first and he tried not to sigh in relief.

“So, these guys follow you around everywhere or what?” she asked with a wave toward Burg and Blood.

He glanced toward the ghouls and nodded.

“Pretty much. There were a couple days there where they literally watched me sleep.” He reached up and pat Burg on the arm, the muscle and bone beneath his reddish-purple skin as hard as steel. “That was awkward.”

She narrowed her eyes, studying the two undead. She walked around them, eyeing them up and down. Her hand went out, then paused.

“Can I touch them?”

He chuckled. “Ask them, they’re not robots.”

“Oh, sorry,” she with a chagrined expression. “I’d always heard they—” She turned from Terry toward Burg. “—I mean, you. Always heard you were summons of the Emperor. Didn’t realize you guys were people. That’s my bad.”

“What about Crunch?” he asked. “He even introduced himself to you.”

She shrugged. “Don’t know, suppose I thought he was different s’all.”

As she circled, Burg and Blood basically ignored her, keeping their eyes focused on the surrounding hallways. But Terry…felt something. The ripples from their auras were different than what he had felt a few minutes earlier when he had last focused on them.

His chest swelled with excitement when he realized what that meant: he was picking up on something new from the two ghouls! Maybe they were even communicating to each other in secret!

He imagined the conversation now.

Burg: why is this fleshbag circling me?

Blood: should we eviscerate her?

Burg: the prince wouldn’t like that.

Blood: now she’s talking like we aren’t here.

Burg: I’m gonna ask if we can eat her.

Blood: Your funeral, dude.

He snickered to himself at the ridiculousness of the imagined conversation and Tania looked at him in question.

“Nothing,” he said with a wave. “Nothing. I was just imagining what they were saying to each other right now.”

“Huh? Whatchu talking bout?”

“You know about auras, right? Some think it’s one of the base energies linked to supers, but we all have it, even normies—though we can’t really sense it that well.”

“I know what auras are,” she said. “My mom was a Traveler.”

Terry rocked back in surprise and she must have noticed, because she tilted her head. “What? That surprise you?”

“I mean, duh. A Traveler! That’s so cool…” he trailed off once he remembered he was talking about her dead mother.

But Tania didn’t seem to feel sad from being reminded of her mother. A smile touched her lips and she nodded.

“Yeah, Traveler is pretty cool, huh? Got to see some crazy places, that’s for sure.” She had a far away look, clearly dipping into reminiscent territory. After a moment, she seemed to shake herself free from the melancholy. “Anyways, it was good while it lasted. Guess I’m Wichita-bound until I hit my Awakening.”

His curiosity was burning a hole inside his gut, but he didn’t want to broach the subject of her parents and pick at that fresh wound.

Still…it wasn’t often he met someone that knew a Traveler—they were the rarest class and there certainly weren’t many in Wichita. In fact, he would have bet there were zero until she had said that.

“What?” she asked. “You look constipated all the sudden.”

“Do not!” he blurted out, then desperately wished he could reel the words back in. “No, it’s just…I’ve never met any Travelers—or people that were close to a Traveler. I guess I was just wondering…what it’s like?”

“Going through a portal?” she asked.

He nodded.

A smile split her face, genuine and happy, unlike the sarcastic smile he had come to associate her with.

“It’s the most amazing, freeing thing in the whole world. Anywhere you wanna go—” She snapped her fingers. “—boom, you’re there. Top of the pyramids? Easy. Australia for the winter? In a blink. Top of Mt. Fuji for a skiing session? Just gotta get the gear and whoosh, there you are.”

“Thought you needed visas and stuff like that?” He knew it was an amazing class, but she was making it sound a bit too amazing.

She dismissed his question with a wave.

“Only dweebs ask about visas.” She hesitated a moment, she shrugged. “But yeah, generally we had to get visas.” She frowned at him, like it was his fault red tape existed. “Anyways, point is, it’s amazing! I’m gonna be a Traveler when I Awaken. Bet on it.”

He didn’t think it quite worked like that. As far as he knew, class selection was a black box, but most folks agreed that Traveler was rare, even for legacies.

Still, he didn’t want to take the wind out of her sails.

“That’ll be so cool. Will you take me somewhere fun? I…I’ve never left Wichita.” The admission was embarrassing, but it helped that she didn’t make fun of him.

“Absolutely! Anywhere you wanna go! Screw the permits and visas and all that bull! And screw Wichita—no offense. But there’s so much more out there, Terry.” She waved her hand to encompass the halls. “Here, you and you’re family are the big fish in the small pond. But out there…oh, God, it’s worth it. The food, the sights, the nature. The sun! When the hell are we gonna get the sun back!” She waved a fist up toward the ceiling, as if she were blaming it for hiding behind his grandfather’s working.

But he had to agree, seeing the world sounded pretty amazing. One thing she had said, though, caught his attention.

“Food? Isn’t it all pretty much the same wherever you go?”

Her eyes bugged out, her mouth gaping open in horror.

“Terry, Terry, Terry, you poor, sheltered soul. Actually, speaking of food, pretty hungry myself. Let’s get some lunch and I’ll explain just what you’re missing out on.”

Then she wrapped an arm around his shoulders and started walking them away from the dorms.

“Let me tell you all about…sushi.”

***

The two of them made a quick visit to Dr. Wong, who was none too pleased that Terry had injured himself...again. But the doctor had let him go with only a light scolding after he had explained that it was a simple accident. 

Nose set, the two of them now sat at the very edge of the dining room table, on the opposite side from the distant relatives that had been here when they arrived. His Aunt Julia wasn’t here thankfully, but he did recognize some of his father’s distant cousins that had been gossiping about his mother last time he ate down here, so he steered Tania away and pulled out the chairs on the end for them.

“Bad blood?” the girl asked with a mouthful of smoked brisket slathered in barbecue sauce on top of a ciabatta roll.

He shrugged, taking a slightly more manageable bite. “They said some things about my mom. Rather just avoid them really.”

She cast the other side of the table a dark look, holding deep eye contact as she shoved another way-too-large bite into her mouth.

“Skew um,” she mumbled through her food.

“Huh?”

She held up a finger, working the food a moment longer before swallowing.

“Screw ‘em. You’re the prince, who cares what they think?”

“Yeah, I guess,” he replied noncommittally.

She plopped her sandwich to her plate with a splash of sauce.

“No, not I guess.” She emphasized the last two words in a sarcastic imitation. “Say it with me: I’m the prince.”

“I’m not gonna—”

“Say it!”

He rolled his eyes. “Fine. I’m the prince.”

“Oh, in the name of—say it like your balls done dropped already.”

He snorted at that, then noticed that her loud discussion of his balls had drawn more than one dirty look. Which was actually annoying.

“I’m the prince,” he said with a bit more volume.

“Pssh, no, not buying it. You ain’t no prince.”

He arched an eyebrow at that. “I know what you’re doing.”

She adopted an innocent expression and shrugged. “Don’t know what you mean.”

“You’re trying to embarrass me, aren’t you?”

She pursed her lips and shook her head. “Embarrass you? No, Terry, I’m trying to free you.” She waved a hand around her, indicating the table, the buffet, and the room. “This is your grandfather’s palace, not theirs. Take it back! You’re only a prisoner if you let yourself be.”

He sat back in his chair, a smile forming on his face.

“Wow, that was so cringe.”

She snorted into her food, but recovered quickly.

“Yeah, maybe,” she agreed. “But I wasn’t kidding. Saying the words will help. Even if it’s just to convince yourself.”

He eyed the distant cousins at the other end of the table, noticing that they were talking in low tones and occasionally glancing over at the two of them.

Inspiration took him and he shot to his feet, knocking his chair backward.

“I’m the prince.” It still sounded hollow to his ears.

Tania faked a yawn.

“I’m the prince,” he said a bit more forcefully. The relatives at the table were all staring at him now.

“Not buying it,” she said, ignoring the open stares.

“This is my palace and I’m the goddamn prince!”

She reared back in her chair, looking around the room as if embarrassed.

“Whoa, dude. Settle down. We all know you’re the prince, okay?” she looked at his relatives and waved toward Terry with a shake of her head. “Believe the ego on this kid?”

To a person, they ignored her and turned back to their whispered conversations. Tania shook her head and picked up her sandwich, taking another colossal bite.

Terry picked up his chair and sat down, his face beet red as she giggled to herself.

“I hate you,” he muttered.

“Oh, come on. That was inspiring!”

“I’m never listening to you again.”

“But I have so many good ideas!” she complained.

“Somehow, I doubt that—” Her eyes cut to the space above him, as if tracking someone approaching from behind. It felt like one of those made you look things, but then Crunch appeared at his side and leaned down toward his ear.

“My prince. News from war.”

His stomach flipped, his knuckles turning white around his fork.

“Father?” he asked, both dreading and needing the answer.

“Father safe. Lord Mesmer requests presence,” the ghoul continued. “War over.”

***

The two of them treaded familiar ground back to Mesmer’s office. Crunch went straight through and Terry was too distracted in his thoughts to catch if the ghoul had used aura to signal their arrival or not.

Right away, Terry noticed the revenant’s office was much tidier than last time, but his eyes glossed over that fact to lock onto the white rose encased in the right hand bookshelf. He had the sudden urge to reach out and—

“Prince Terry! Oh, and Tania. Welcome.” Mesmer came around his desk, a black disc-shaped remote held in his hand. “Good news! I sent Crunch to fetch you as soon as I heard.”

“What is it, Mes?” Terry asked. Good news, he said. Good news. So why did I feel so anxious?

“Halleck took out the Scourge, with assists from Savage and your father.” His heart rate picked up at the mention of his father fighting the Scourge. “The Emperor and the Council circled each other the entire time, but the fighting stayed among the A-rankers.” Mesmer shared a look of relief with Terry. “System knows what would have happened if the Council tried to intervene.”

He tried to imagine his grandfather, father, Whipvine—even Savage—holding off one of the strongest superhero groups of the region and then echoed Mesmer’s sentiment. That battle would have sent shockwaves rippling through the Midwest’s super community and possibly even further.

Mesmer gripped the remote, flicking his thumb across its surface. A blue-white spirit projected from a smooth pane of glass as wide as his palm, shifting into an image ten feet long in every dimension.

The wraith-glass projected a scene so crisp, it was like they were there.

His breath caught when he recognized his friend on a rooftop in the distance. The man was small, unimposing against the backdrop of Topeka’s sky, but then Whipvine moved, demonstrating a speed and grace that not even wraith-glass could capture. In a blink, the old super had crossed the gap between rooftops, angling toward where the wraith observed the scene.

Behind him, a figure soared into the sky, seeming almost to fly before landing on an adjacent rooftop from Whipvine. Terry immediately recognized the burnt-orange fur of Savage and his palms began to sweat from the deja vu of seeing him leaping through the air.

But then a third, more comforting, figure appeared in the feed, racing below on the streets. Terry’s father was flanked on either side by his two, nearly horse sized dire wolves, Skol and Hati, that he had bonded during his Midmark Quest. He knew his father could only draw the two dire wolves to Earth for short spurts of time—at least until he became S-ranked—so he must have expected the fight to end soon.

Sure enough, a fourth figure appeared from behind a building, buoyed into the air by a swarm of insects that were far too large to be natural bugs. The wraith-glass feed was so good, he felt like he could pick out each individual insect making up the Scourge’s swarm—and they were each nearly as big as his fist.

From HeroWatch, he knew that the Scourge had never bonded large, powerful summons like the Fairways in favor of many, many smaller summons. The estimates on HeroWatch ranged from the thousands to the hundreds of thousands and seeing it now, he leaned toward the higher end of the range.

The massive swarm split into three, one group holding the Scourge in the air, while the other two spread to cover the space between him and the three chasing Wichitan heroes, creating a wall of insects that shielded the last member of the Knights of Sol.

Savage was the first to make a move, leaping so powerfully that the building he had launched from collapsed behind him. The fur-covered super seemed to float in the air as he hit his apex and the wraith shifted its perception somehow to focus on Terry’s father.

“Savage! Hold!” The sound of James’ voice carried like the wraith was right beside him and he wondered if that was an effect of the wraith or of the powerful carrying nature of the man’s voice.

Either way, Savage was committed now—or didn’t care to obey—angling his body to collide with the Scourge. The two separated swarms of insects rushed to intercept him and the super’s face knotted in a grimace as he braced for impact. The momentum of his fall seemed like it would be enough to take him past the swarms, but they followed him, absorbing his inertia until he was held aloft in the air. He swiped around him with his A-ranked strength, but the insects seemed limitless.

“Whipvine!” That powerful voice rang out again. “Take him!”

A crack rang out, so sharp through the wraith-glass that Terry and Tania covered their ears in pain. Unlike Savage’s leap, he couldn’t track Whipvine’s movements as the super shot across the buildings separating him from the Scourge. Mesmer held up the remote and the feed slowed down, playing the scene at quarter speed so he could actually see Whipvine move.

“What’s he doing?” Tania asked.

Terry squinted, studying the quarter speed Whipvine and still struggling to process what he was seeing. It seemed almost like the super was swimming through the air toward the Scourge, but that wasn’t right. Whipvine was a Duelist, not a—

His breath caught once he realized what he was seeing.

“No way…” he breathed.

In either of Whipvine’s hands, he held his namesake whips that he’d carried ever since his Midmark Quest. And he was twisting his wrist, cracking the air behind him…to propel him forward.

“He’s using the whips to fly!” Terry turned to Mesmer with wide eyes. “Is that even possible?”

Mesmer rolled his eyes but didn’t reply.

“That’s…” Tania double-taked between Terry and the wraith-glass. “That’s so fuckin’ awesome!”

“He’s bootlegged flight using his System weapons!” Terry exclaimed. “I’m adding that to his HeroWatch wiki when I get back to my room!”

Mesmer coughed into his fist. “Ahem, I suppose that cat’s out of the bag. But in the future, try not to reveal family powers to the world unless they’re already common knowledge.”

He cringed. “Oh, uh, yeah, that makes sense.”

“Watch out!” Tania shouted, pointing at the wraith-glass as if Whipvine could hear her through the feed.

The swarm containing Savage threw the flailing revenant away and rushed to intercept Whipvine from the side as he charged in like a missile. As Savage fell to the earth, Terry noted that the revenant’s characteristic orange fur was churned up and tinted red. Seemed the super had gotten worse than he’d given. As the swarm was poised to collide with Whipvine, Savage crashed behind a building and out of sight.

“He okay?” Terry asked.

“Why you care?” Tania shot back. “Didn’t he try and kidnap you or something?”

He gave a chagrined shrug. “Good point.”

“Savage is fine,” Mesmer replied.

Before Terry could respond, the swarm met Whipvine in mid-air.

Or…it should have met Whipvine. Somehow, the super had cracked a whip to the side, propelling him at a perpendicular angle right before the wave of insects hit him. Without missing a beat, he cracked his other whip behind him and continued his trajectory toward the Scourge.

The Topekan super’s back was to the wraith, but it was easy to imagine panic had begun to set in. He let himself drop the twenty feet to the building roof below, launching his last swarm toward Whipvine.

Terry gasped as the cloud of mutant insects moved to intercept the older super. With the two swarms behind rushing to close off his movement, Whipvine was trapped.

A resounding series of cracks split through the wraith-glass and he slapped his hands over his ears, instinctively clutching his eyes tight as he flinched. A moment later, he opened his eyes to see the aftermath.

The Scourge lay on the rooftop—no, that was only his torso there…his entire lower half and head were missing.

“Holy shit…” Tania whispered.

“W-what happened?” Terry asked, looking between the girl and Mesmer. “Wha-how?”

She just shook her head, mouth still hanging wide.

“I’ll mute it and rewind,” Mesmer said, manipulating the disc remote. The feed skipped back ten seconds, frozen on Whipvine’s snarling face; his crisscrossing scars contorted into deep valleys that made the super look like a demon. He seemed to float through the air in the quarter-speed feed, his whips dangling loosely at his side. The two swarms he had dodged rushed toward his back, while the third rose to meet him mid-air.

Then, his wrists seemed to pirouette, his whips swirling too fast to see, even at quarter speed. A section of the swarm coming for him exploded outward, then another, and another. In half a second in feed time—so, really more like a tenth of a second—the entire ball of insects was destabilized. Whipvine crashed through the disoriented swarm, both whips poised over his shoulders, his teeth bared like one of James’ dire wolves on the hunt. The two whips crashed down, crossing over each other to strike at the Scourge. One struck through the super at his hip line, while the other cleaved at his neck. In a blink, the last A-ranked super of Topeka was trisected as Whipvine tucked into a roll and leaped to his feet beside the Scourge’s decapitated head.

The feed resumed to full speed with a flick of the remote, showing a bloodied Savage leaping back toward the fight. He landed on a nearby building, completely caving in the roof with his impact. Without missing a beat, he leaped into sight again, alighting onto Whipvine’s building with a bit more grace. Mesmer turned up the sound, the groans of the still-collapsing building echoing in the background.

“Missed the fight.” Whipvine’s voice was amplified by the wraith, full of condescension. “But here’s a snack.” One of his whips snapped out, wrapping around the Scourge’s head, before delicately tossing it toward Savage.

The bloodied super unhinged his jaw and caught the head fully in his mouth. With a terrible crunching sound, he gnashed the dead super’s skull until it was splinters, then swallowed it. His eyes never left Whipvine’s, a deep fire burning there. Whipvine snorted in response, turning away as Terry’s father pulled himself up over the roof lip with an acrobatic flip. It wasn’t as dramatic as Savage’s bounding leaps or Whipvine’s unorthodox way of whipping himself through the air, but James’ strengths weren’t in the power of his body, but his summons. The two, towering dire wolves did make a dramatic leap, arcing from the ground below to land silently beside their master.

James whirled on Savage, pulling his bone mask away to reveal a green fire burning in his eyes.

“You disobeyed a direct order—”

Mesmer lifted the remote and the sound cut off.

“Sorry, kids, the rest is need-to-know. I just thought you’d want to see that your father and Whipvine were fine.”

He clicked the feed off with a button and turned toward Terry with a confusing expression.

“Now, for the bad news…”