Supplying Supers - Chapter 20 - Blood Trace Pt. 2 - Beta (Patreon)

Saturday June 17th, 2025 Mazuma City, Mazuma Amerika

Yokai

OSDB Hero Rank: 5X - Supervillain

OSDB Threat Rating: 100+

Yokai cast the spell, sending her blood across every surface. The runes along the walls shifted from a bright white to a crimson red. They flashed in their activation sequence, triggering the anchor to grow.

The sphere expanded to the surface area of a bathroom mirror. Its malformed edge straightened, glowing in a red light before a visible thread appeared like the string of a kite. Yokai stood and twisted her hands in a rhythmic sequence. A line of her blood connected to the thread before she called forth the command to trace the last anchor. The thread became taut, pulling the mirror into the shape of a teardrop.

“It’s working!” Yokai shouted, her hands shaking as she held the spell. “I must maintain concentration on the trace or threaten to lose it. Protect me and yourselves. Be ready for anything.”

“Where are they going to come from, the sphere?” Blast Wave asked.

“Anywhere. The room is the entire anchor. They could come from the walls, ceiling, or floors.”

“That’s not at all problematic.”

Hailstorm took a wide stance. She tightened her arms and legs. The thin sheets of ice around her body grew to cover every inch of her. Her eyes turned a solid white as she hovered a few inches off the ground.

Whisper stretched his jaw like an actor, readying himself for his next scene. He took deep breaths in through his nose and out through his mouth. The force of the air shook dangling meat hooks that hung on their tracks.

Blast Wave took off his vest and tossed it up on a hook. He rotated his shoulders and slammed his fists together. With each passing second, the thick veins in his arms illuminated red as the kinetic energy built in them. Bursts of air popped from his fist as he shadow boxed, readying his body for what was to come.

A tingling sensation tickled up Yokai’s back. Something was coming. Her skin felt like prickly when the room’s temperature boiled. The runes flickered off and on, creating a kaleidoscopic effect all around them.

Then they disappeared.

When they returned, they glowed a brighter, more vibrant red.

Animalistic clacks and clicks echoed from all around them. Everyone’s heads turned with each chittering sound that scurried above them. Howls followed the scrapes of something trying to get through.

The steel walls bellowed as if made from thin fabric. Faces with hallowed eyes and rows of sharp teeth pressed outward. Clawed hands reached out

“What kind of Freddy Krueger shit is this?” Blast Wave shouted. “I didn’t sign up as an extra in a horror movie. Y’all know what happens to black men in horror movies, right?”

“Stand your ground,” Yokai grunted, the spell draining more of her blood. “They’re almost through.”

The bruiser raised his fists in a boxer’s stance. “Then come on, you motherfuckers. Let Blast Wave show you a thing or two.”

The single line of runes cracked, spilling an orange light across a vertical section as if it held magma from the earth’s core. The crack split open in an oval shape, revealing a fiery cavern with burnt fleshy walls.

A girthy bubbling sounded as black liquid spilled from inside onto the floor below. It sizzled, filling the room with the intense skunk smell of the Gale. A bulbous sack oozed out behind it, dropping to the floor with a heavy smack. The defense team gathered around the unknown visitor.

“Is that what I think it is?” Blast Wave asked, pointing down at it. “Did I just watch the wall give birth?”

“It smells awful,” Hailstorm grimaced.

Everyone jumped back when something inside the sack wiggled. The top split, revealing a darkened form. It unraveled, displaying winged limbs. Its worm-like body was a foot long and as thick as a Pringles can. Its end pointed up at the group of heroes around it and shrieked, revealing dozens of razor-like teeth.

“Don’t stand there, kill it!” Yokai shouted.

The creature exploded into meaty chunks underneath Blast Wave’s boot. Its dying squeal echoed throughout the open room. More glowing lines cracked along the walls and ceiling.

“Looks like it called its friends,” Hailstorm said.

The walls split with gaping holes. Embryonic sacks poured from every surface, filling the ground with wiggling foes. The three supers jumped into action.

Hailstorm floated above the ground, spraying frost rays from her hand, freezing everything underneath her. Whisper took in a deep breath before breathing fire like a human flamethrower. Blast Wave’s approach was more than simple. He leveraged his size twenty-two boots, stomping anything that moved.

The defense they had in place worked. Each super took a third of the room, leveraging their powers to defend their section. The dead worm-like creatures painted the floor black.

Everything was going well until it didn’t. The speed of the births increased from one every few seconds to a few per second. The ground filled with a sea of wiggling monsters, struggling to free themselves.

It was the release of the wide area of powers by her protectors that foretold things were getting dire. Blast Wave disintegrated lines of the beasts with thrown punches of his kinetic force. Whisper’s shouts grew more intense as he backpedaled, painting half the room black with a forceful gust. Hailstorm lobbed ice balls that froze the surrounding area when they hit the ground.

But even with their increased attacks, so too did the number of enemies. The sea of dead and newly alive created a six-inch muck inside the room. Everywhere they turned, there was more.

Yokai’s eyes widened as she saw Blast Wave and Whisper covered in enemies. Their wiggling forms suctioned onto their flesh. The only thing saving Hailstorm was her flight. But even she too, found herself surrounded by a horde of fliers.

Yokai raised her hands over her head as enemies fell from the surrounding ceiling. It was clear the other supers were only concentrating on their own individual areas and not protecting her. When several of the beasts encircled her, she extended her hand, shooting lightning from her fingertips. It conducted across the floor, killing every foe. Their bodies popped like hotdogs cooked too long in a microwave. It was a short-lived reprieve.

The strength of the blast and her blood loss left her lightheaded. She used the strand of blood connecting her across the Gale like a rope to keep herself from falling over. When she regained her footing, she shouted, “I need your protection!”

Hailstorm flew to the middle of the room. Her entire body encased itself into a single cube and fell to the ground. When the ice touched the growing lake of flesh and sinew, a wave of frost covered every surface and entered every hole. Each creature froze into small statues, skidding across the floor and smashing into pieces. A burst of cold air flash froze everything in the air. They fell like rocks, shattering on the hardened surface.

For the moment, everything became calm.

The ice melted away from Hailstorm, revealing her thin bikini-like outfit. She wiped her hands together and walked toward Yokai with a smug smile. “The great sorceress needs our help? It seems like your reputation was embellished.”

Yokai grunted as the wound from her hand burned. She tightened her free hand around her wrist and pushed the thread further. A bead of sweat fell down her face as she looked up at Halestorm’s glowing white eyes, panting. She forced a grin and said, “This spell requires blood magic. If you feel like helping, let me know. I can always use you.”

The ice queen leaned forward and whispered, “Try me and see what happens. Blood is eighty percent water.”

“That’s enough!” Blast Wave shouted. “Whisper is injured.”

The pair turned to see Blast Wave holding up their other companion. While both of the men’s clothes were full of holes, Whisper looked worse for wear. Blood dripped down his limp arm and out of his shoes.

“What happened?” Hailstorm asked.

“I don’t know,” Blast Wave said, lowering him to the ground. “I was busy with my side of the room. It looks like several got him.”

“Thanks Captain Obvious.” Hailstorm ripped open his clothes, revealing bite-sized holes of flesh missing from his body. Each wince pulled the exposed muscle under the thin layer of skin that was still left. Hailstorm frowned as she looked down at the half a dozen wounds. “I can flash freeze your wounds to stop the bleeding, but it’s going to hurt a lot.”

“What about you, Yokai,” Blast Wave asked. “Anything you can do?”

Yokai wiped her wet forehead and grunted through the pain that had spread from her hand down to her arm. She darted a glance down at Whisper, long enough as to not break her concentration. She shook her head and said, “Not right now. If I do, I’ll lose the thread, and all of this will be for nothing.”

“How much more time do we have?”

“Unknown. I won’t know until we reach it.”

“So we could be here for hours?”

“Possibly, but unlikely. The anchor is in Mazuma City, just like this one.”

“Whisper needs a hospital.”

“We can’t. I need you all here defending me until Mr. Webb and I reach the last anchor.”

Blast Wave jumped to his feet. “Fuck that. I will not be responsible for this man’s death when I could have saved him. I’m taking the car and dropping him off at a hospital.”

“No, you’re not,” Hailstorm said, standing up.

“Excuse me?”

“You’re not leaving us. We came here to do a job. A job that Whisper signed up for. We’re staying until we get this done.”

Blast Wave loomed over Hailstorm and growled, “Make me.”

“Both of you stop,” Yokai groaned. “Something else is coming. Something big.”

All the pests and their remains disintegrated like a forest fire’s ash. It disappeared into the ceiling until the room was back to his barren self. The runes reappeared along the wall. Only instead of glowing red, they glowed a deep blue.

Weighted footsteps approached a side wall. The first blow cracked the center runes. The second blow cracked the rest. Everyone stood on pins and needles as they awaited their next foe.

A beast the size of an APC crashed through the wall. It stood on four legs, with a second pair of pincer-like claws protruding from its chest. Six eyes lined its feline-like head, only instead of whiskers it had tentacles that twisted halfway down its purple, muscular body. When its gaze locked on the supers, it hissed, exposing its rows of pointed fangs. It paced side-to-side, judging its new threats.

Yokai’s stomach sank as she shouted, “That’s a voidsaber. Its skin is thick as steel except under its neck and stomach. You can’t let it scratch you. Its claws excrete a poison that will leave you petrified.”

“Sounds like a perfect job for me,” Blast Wave said, taking a step forward. “You all get behind me. Just be ready for my signal.”

As Blast Wave took off into a sprint, the animal roared and charged. The voidsaber sprinted faster than Blast Wave, whose colossal frame kept him heavy to the ground. When the two launched at each other, the impenetrable super caught the beast’s open maw.

His muscles strained as it tried to clamp down around him. A single paw swipe sent him flying into the nearby wall. After pulling himself out of the body formed dent, he stood back up with no signs of injury.

Blast Wave sprinted at the creature, throwing kinetic punches. The first blow connected, swelling two of its eyes before it turned its body to shield the blasts. In the same twist, it whipped its tail across his body. Blast Wave flew backward, cracking the tile floor when he hit the ground.

“Do you need help?” Hailstorm asked.

Blast Wave spit as he stood to his feet. “Not until I call for it.”

He took off in another sprint and the voidsaber hunched onto its back legs, ready to pounce. When it jumped, Blast Wave leapt and punched down at the ground, sending him tumbling in the air. The cat-like creature missed by inches.

The super repositioned his feet on the ceiling, pushing down like a speeding rocket. He slammed his elbow into the animal’s back with a combination of his kinetic energy. The beast howled in pain as its back legs fell limp.

After crawling onto its head, Blast Wave snatched bundles of the whisker-tentacles with both hands and lifted. But a swipe from the enormous paws sent him tumbling to the ground. He rolled to his feet and dodged two more incoming blows. He stepped in and punched the voidsaber’s chin, dazing it.

As the beast moved sluggishly, he wrapped his arms around its neck and pulled upward as he shouted, “Hailstorm, do your thing!”

The frozen vixen extended two javelin-sized icicles from her hands and launched them across the battlefield. They punctured the beast’s neck, spreading frost all around its head. Once frozen, Blast Wave raised both fists and slammed them on top of its skull. Frozen nuggets crashed across the floor.

When the pucks settled, the only part of the voidsaber that moved was a back leg that continued to twitch. Hailstorm and Blast Wave shared a smile before Whisper’s groan pulled everyone’s attention.

While they raced back to their comrade, Yokai could feel the end of the anchor. It was close. Her painful shouts filled the room as she pressed the thread faster, pushing her body to its limit.

Gunner’s voice kept her on her feet as he said, “Yokai, I’m close. Do you feel it?”

“Yes, just a little farther,” she waned.

Her eyes widened when her blood connected with Gunner’s. All the pain and weakness vanished. They’d found the final anchor.

Yokai waved her arms in a pattern as she said the last bit of the incantation which would allow them to track its location. With the spell complete, she pulled her blood back from the void, filling her with a tickling sensation as it returned to her.

“Did you feel it?” Gunner asked into her mind.

“I did,” Yokai breathed. “I can trace it. Did you get the location?”

“I did once our connections intertwined. Let’s regroup and push after them. I don’t want to waste another second.”

“How is your team? Whisper is injured. We were attacked by Gale creatures.”

“We’re perfectly fine. We didn’t have any breaches.”

“They must have sensed you and went after the easy prey.”

“Maybe… But I’m not that person anymore, Yokai. I haven’t been for a long time.”

“The Gale doesn’t care. It’s connected to all of us. It knows who and what you are.”

“Yokai, I—”

Whisper’s groan pulled the sorceress’s attention. Hailstorm and Blast Wave were kneeling next to him. They were holding his hand, spouting reassuring words as they examined his injuries.

Blast Wave looked up at Yokai and said, “We need to get him some emergency medical attention, pronto.”

“I’m discussing our next steps with Mr. Webb,” Yokai said before speaking back into Gunner’s mind. “Whisper’s not good. He’s missing flesh and blood. He needs medical attention.”

“Can you make it back to the church?” he asked. “I can have MartyrDOM heal him.”

Yokai took another look at him. His face was pale and covered in sweat. Yet, his body shivered. “Are you there now?”

“No, we can be back in thirty minutes.”

“Then no. He’s at death’s door.”

Gunner paused for a moment before speaking. “Take your team and prioritize his safety. I’m taking my team to the last anchor’s location. We have to move now. If they detect the trace or open a rift, all hell is going to break loose in the city. We can’t let Mellicent or her cultists do any more damage than she’s already done. We have to stop her now.”

“It seems like she’s still got her hooks into you.”

“She always will. She’s the one who turned me into a monster.”