The Super Power Saga (Book 1): Super Powers of Mass Destruction

by Jaron Lee Knuth

  “We can see it better from the roof!”

  Andre reached out his hand as he chased after him. “No! Vic! Wait!”

  When he ran out after Victor, the hallway was already full of people. Neighbors were either yelling or shoving past each other. Some were trying to get to the stairs to get out of the building, and some were following Victor to the roof. Andre considered, just for a moment, leaving him behind, but the thought vanished as quickly as it came. He'd never be able to live with himself. His friends were his family. They had been ever since his mother kicked him out of the house when he was a teenager. His friends were all he had now.

  Andre shoved people to the side, knocking them into the walls with his increased strength. When he reached the stairs, he hopped up four or five at a time. He made it to the rooftop door just as Victor was running out. He chased after him to the edge of the roof and grabbed his arm, ready to drag him away if he needed to, but he stopped when he looked out over the city.

  The cloud of dust and smoke was growing from the trail of destruction Malignus was leaving behind. The monster leveled entire blocks of Patriot City, its clawed hands and spiked tail like a whirlwind of annihilation. It was mesmerizing how quickly it destroyed the city. The death toll was inconceivable, and it grew with every second.

  A formation of war ships shot overhead, racing toward the creature. The sound of their rocket-powered engines passing by was enough to knock Andre out of his daze. He gripped harder onto Victor's arm and shouted at him.

  “We have to go! Now!”

  “Where we gonna go, mate? You can't outrun that bloody thing!”

  “We need to find the others. We need to find somewhere safe. Right now.”

  “The others? Ya can't be worryin' about 'em right now. We gotta think 'bout ourselves. We ain't gonna make it if ya try ta play the bloody hero.”

  He let go of Victor's arm and walked toward the stairwell. “Damn it, Vic. Stay here if you want. But I'm gonna find our friends.”

  As he reached the door and was about to step through, he heard Victor yell after him. “Come on, ya wanker. Wait up.” He rushed over to Andre and slapped him on the back. “Can't let ya go foolin' 'bout by yourself, can I?”

  Andre smiled back at his friend. Victor might have been a jerk sometimes, but he always came through in the end. Well, maybe not always, but usually.

  The two of them rushed down the stairs, Andre bulldozing his way through the crowds of people and Victor chasing after him, yelling out with a wink and a smile at the shoved aside people, “Apologies ta you and yours! Have a merry apocalypse!”

  When they reached the street, there was more chaos. They could hear the roars of Malignus in the distance, but it was so loud it sounded like it was coming from the next block over. Cannons blasted through the sky. Bombs erupted. Cars raced down the streets. Sirens wailed. People screamed. Children cried.

  “Okay, hero. Now wot?”

  Andre looked at his watch. “Where would everyone be right now?”

  “Wes is doin' the job thing,” Victor said, pointing down the street. “That's nearby. And Mickey's probably at home takin' care o' his mum.”

  “Carmen's probably at home too.” Andre glanced in that direction and saw the cloud of smoke covering the sky.

  Victor started counting off on his fingers. “Right. So we yank Wes outta work, snatch Mickey, leg it ta Carmy's, get everyone ta Cleo's place, hide in the cellar, and Bob's yer uncle.”

  Andre took a deep breath and nodded. “Wow, man. That's actually a good plan.”

  Victor shrugged his shoulders and said, “I surprise myself sometimes too.”

  The two of them raced up the street, trying to ignore the destruction that was getting closer and closer. Three blocks up the road, Victor was already running out of breath.

  “You go ahead,” he said panting. “I'll meet you there.”

  Andre looked farther down the street, then looked back at his friend. He ran over to Victor and tossed him over his shoulder.

  “Oh, sod off! I ain't yer damsel in distress.”

  “I know, man,” Andre said, running down the street in longer strides now that he didn't have to wait for Victor to keep up. “But you're my friend.”

  He made it to the MajesTech mobile phone store that Wesley worked at in under a minute. Everyone was either standing near the window, staring up into the sky, or watching live footage on their phones. When Andre burst in the front door and set Victor down, Wesley looked over at them with wide eyes.

  “What are you guys doing here? Have you been watching-”

  “There's no time, Wes. Come on.” Andre held the front door open, expecting Wesley to come running out.

  “What do you mean? Where are you going?”

  “To get Mickey and Carmy, mate! We're gonna hide out at Cleo's Place.”

  Wesley looked more confused. “Cleo's Place? You can't be serious. I'm not going to leave work to go get drunk while Malignus tears the city apart!”

  “We're not gonna get drunk, man. We're gonna hide in the cellar.”

  Victor nudged Andre with a grin on his face and said, “Come on, now. We can do both, can't we?”

  Wesley shook his head. “My shift isn't over until-”

  Victor ran across the store and grabbed onto Wesley's wrist. “Screw your bloody job. It's the end of the world, mate!”

  “No,” Wesley said, starting to argue more, but as he did, a military war ship came hurtling down the street, crashing and exploding a block away.

  The window to the store shattered from the impact. The blast knocked the crowd gathered around the window to the floor, their skin shredded from the broken glass. Car alarms wailed from the street, mixed with the ever present screaming.

  “Wes!” Andre yelled from the doorway, untouched from the broken glass.

  Wesley just stood there, stunned by what was happening, but Victor yanked on his arm, jerking him from his shocked state. Wesley mumbled something as he walked out the door, and as Victor was about to step past Andre, he turned back and snatched a MajesTech mobile phone from a spinner rack.

  He tossed it to Andre and said, “Here. Ring up the other two. Have 'em meet us at Cleo's Place. Ain't no way we're gonna get there in time otherwise.”

  Andre glanced in the direction of the bar and saw Malignus's wave of destruction creeping closer. Victor was right. They had ten minutes, maybe, before the creature reached their neighborhood.

  Both Mickey and Carmen were home, and both argued with Andre about going outside. Mickey didn't want to leave his mother, so Andre told him to bring her too. Carmen's mom wouldn't let her leave, so Andre told her to sneak out the window.

  “I'm not going to leave my mom here to die.”

  Andre was yelling into the phone as they ran through the streets of panicked people. “You either leave her there, or die with her!”

  As Andre continued running down the sidewalk, Victor yanked on Andre's collar, pulling him backward as a brick flew through the air, right where his head would have been. The window next to them smashed open and a group of teenagers climbed through the opening to loot the store.

  Andre looked back at Victor, and Victor smiled, tapping his head with his finger. “The future, mate.”

  Andre nodded to him as he tried to hear what Carmen was saying. The signal was breaking up.

  “I'll... there if I... don't... me.”

  “Carmen? Carmen?”

  The signal was gone. Just silence from the phone.

  As they turned the corner, Andre glanced over his shoulder. He could see the massive head of the beast a few blocks away, over the tops of the apartment buildings across the street. As a war ship flew past, it's mouth opened wide and snatched it out of the air. As the beast snapped shut its jaw, the ship exploded between its teeth. The creature roared with excitement as the burning pieces of the craft fell to the street below. Rockets fired from another war ship, exploding harmlessly against the creature's thick hide.

  We
sley yanked on Andre's wrist, pulling him away from the terrifying sight. He stumbled down the sidewalk, toward Cleo's Place. When they reached the front door, they nearly toppled over each other to get inside. There were only a couple other patrons there, and everyone was watching the TV, but Cleo didn't have the sound turned on. That was always her rule.

  “Hey boys,” she said. “Need a drink?”

  The ground rumbled and the glasses all shook on the counter behind the bar.

  “Cleo!” Andre yelled. “We need to get into the basement before that thing reaches the neighborhood!”

  The ground shook again, this time stronger. Bottles of liquor fell off the shelf and shattered on the floor. The other patrons got off their bar stools and looked around as the entire building continued to shake. The ceiling cracked and bits of plaster fell to the floor.

  The front door swung open and Mickey came shuddering inside, holding the door open for his mother.

  “T-t-that thing is right down the street!” he shouted. “ And i-i-it's headed this way!”

  “Cleo!” Andre yelled at her again. “The cellar!”

  She nodded at him and cleared the bar in a single jump. She raced to the cellar door and fumbled with her keys for a second. The building shook again and outside Malignus screamed into the air, deafening them all. Andre glanced at the front of the bar, trying to mentally force Carmen to come running through the door.

  Cleo yelled when she unlocked the door and held it open as they raced inside. Andre was the last in line, and as he reached the doorway, there was an explosion above him. The roof cracked open and a metal beam fell, slamming into Cleo's head and knocking her to the ground. Andre shoved aside the rubble that fell around him, and rushed over to her. Blood dripped from her forehead and the beam laid across her chest. He wrapped both hands around the beam and gritted his teeth, pulling as hard as he could. The metal wouldn't budge, but as he looked up through the hole in the ceiling and saw the belly of Malignus standing over him, a surge of energy filled his body and he tossed the beam to the side. The roar of the creature shook his bones as he dragged Cleo's body through the cellar doorway and down the stairs. Another crash behind him caused the entire building to cave in. Bricks and beams and plaster and stone fell into the doorway, blocking the stairwell behind him. He fell to the floor in the pitch black of the cellar, exhausted and out of breath.

  “Everyone okay?” he asked between gasps of air.

  “We made it,” Wesley answered back from the darkness. “But I don't know if that means we're okay.”

  Andre held his head. He wanted to feel relief. He wanted to be happy that his friends were together, that they might all survive this. But Carmen was still out there, somewhere. If she was still alive.

  15

  MERMAID

  Mermaid hosed down the third story of the burning apartment building with a stream of water gushing from her hands. Seven Replicas were assisting the elderly tenants that were having a hard time getting down the stairwell. Eight blocks to her right, Stiletto formed her hands into long blades and leapt off a rooftop, plunging them into the leg of Malignus

  “That's the last of them,” Replica shouted across the chaos.

  Mermaid nodded and thrust more water into the building as she saw another office complex topple over onto the street a couple blocks away. A cloud of smoke and dust poured toward her. She closed her eyes and covered her head as it passed over.

  “Are we On-mind yet?” she thought.

  “Getting everyone connected now,” the voice of Link, their psychic telecommunications expert, mentally replied to her.

  “Any word on Behemoth?”

  “We found him,” Link thought. “He's on his way to Voyager's room. He should be there any minute.”

  “Well tell him to hustle. One minute is an eternity right now. He's the only one that can match Malignus in sheer size. I don't think that thing has even noticed Stiletto.”

  Mermaid watched as the silver figure slashed away at the beast's hide, cutting as deeply as she could into its flesh, but Malignus continued its swath of devastation. Stiletto's sword hands may have been able to cut through anything, but at her size, it was like tiny paper cuts to the creature. Malignus's tail walloped another building and the structure broke in two, the top half rolling over the tail and crashing to the ground. More rockets exploded harmlessly against its back.

  “Tell those soldiers to watch their fire!” Stiletto thought. “That last barrage almost hit me.”

  “Can you handle this fire by yourself, Mermaid?” Replica asked. “I think I've got an idea.”

  “Go ahead, dear. I'm willing to try anything at this point.”

  Replica formed back into one person and sprinted down the street, dodging between the overturned cars, burning fires, and dead bodies.

  “Any word on Everlast, Flex, or Rainfall?”

  “The Citadel has psychic blocks in place, and the coronation ceremony has some pretty explicit 'do not disturb' rules. We sent a distress call to the Guardian of the West, but there's been no response.”

  The stream of water coming from Mermaid's hands gushed harder, breaking through the wall of bricks as her anger manifested. She pulled back, trying to calm herself. Of course the Zharkovs wouldn't care about this. Thousands were dying, and if they didn't stop this thing soon, it could be millions. But the royal family would continue to sip their wine and nibble on their cheese, right up until Malignus stepped on the shore of the Fatherlands. Then they'd let out a yawn and kill the beast with a flick of a finger. Until then, the Alliance of Heroes would have to fend for themselves.

  “Stiletto, back off,” Replica thought as she reached the foot of the beast, pushing past the ring of soldiers that were firing their weapons into the air, hoping the constant bombardment would eventually break through the creature's hide.

  “Give me a sec. If I keep striking the same spot-”

  “You've been striking the same spot for the last two minutes! Let me try something.”

  “What are you going to do? Show him your tits? We don't need a distraction, we need to take him down.”

  “Stiletto!” Mermaid shouted with her mind. “Back off and let Replica do whatever it is she's going to do.” Mermaid paused for a second before she asked, “What are you going to do?”

  “I watched a nature documentary the other night,” she thought, clenching her fists and focusing her ability. “And I saw a group of ants take down a mouse.”

  “You watched a documentary?” Stiletto thought with a laugh.

  “Stiletto. Get off Malignus. Now.”

  Mermaid heard a heavy sigh in her mind as the silver figure jumped off Malignus's leg and landed on one of the few buildings still standing.

  Replica split off into two, then four, then eight versions of herself, each one doubling again and again. Every time she multiplied, the bodies would charge forward, straight toward Malignus. As the horde of Replicas grew, they swarmed up the leg, assisting each other in the climb as they continued to split off into more and more. It looked like a tidal wave of pink spandex and blond hair swallowing the creature's limb.

  “Are we sure she can do this?” Mermaid thought, stunned by the sight. “Has anyone ever seen her multiply this many times before?”

  “Her record is around a hundred,” Link thought.

  “She's way past that,” Stiletto thought. “And doubling it every second.”

  Only a few moments passed before the pink bodies were covering all of Malignus, from head to tail. As the last bodies filled the beast's nose and mouth, cutting off its air supply, the creature fell backward, consumed by Replicas. The gigantic form crashed into a building, and tiny pink bodies went flying in every direction from the impact. The beast's body slid down to the street below and slammed into the pavement. It laid there, motionless, for nearly ten seconds, before Mermaid heard Replica screaming in her mind.

  Mermaid turned her water jets toward the ground and shot into the sky, flying toward the gia
nt body laying in the street. She watched in horror as the creature's mouth opened and closed, gnashing the copies of Replica between its teeth like a pig eating slop. Red streams of blood poured from its mouth as mangled corpses fell in piles of drool. The other bodies of Replica, shocked from the pain, shed from its hide, falling to the ground and convulsing.

  Malignus crawled back onto its feet and roared victoriously into the sky. As it stomped away, its feet crushed more copies, leaving a trail of mangled Replicas in its wake.

  Mermaid had seen a lot in her years. The horrors of the war still kept her awake at night. The psychotic behavior of some of the old supervillains were nightmare inducing. But she knew the sight of all those corpses would haunt her for the rest of her life. One of the most beautiful women on the planet, an innocent, naive girl who was more interested in the celebrity of being a superhero than actually saving the world, desecrated in front of her a thousand times over.

  Mermaid jetted over to one of the bodies that looked like it was still in one piece and crouched down next to it. Mermaid cradled Replica's head in her hand as she spit up some blood.

  “I'm not an ant,” the girl said with a laugh.

  “And that's no mouse. But you did great,” Mermaid said, pushing some of Replica's blood-soaked hair out of her dirty face. “You looked like an honest to goodness superhero out there.”

  “That'll teach me,” she said with a sneer. “I'll stick to just looking pretty in the future, thank you very much.”

  Mermaid laughed, but then glanced at the piles of pink corpses. “I'm just glad you only need one of you to survive. Not all your copies still look as good as this one.”

  “You've got Behemoth incoming,” Link said into everyone's mind.

  Mermaid let out a sigh of relief as the hero stepped out from a nearby portal.