A Cry for Help

[WP] You hear a knock at your door. When you open it, you find your archnemesis sprawled out just past the threshold, battered, bruised, and very clearly only hanging onto life by a thread. "Sorry. It's just ... I didn't know where else to go" they mutter as you look down at them.

*****

“Sorry. I just…. I didn’t know where else to go.” I stared at the man, who was so much more than a man. A god in flesh. Near invulnerable. So righteous. His costume, in tatters, blood slowly seeping from wounds. His breathing is heavy, heartbeat is rapid. Not dying, but his healing, which was always prodigious, had slowed. Something new, or something very, very old. I’ve not seen or heard of anything that could do something like this. It was a sight I’d always hoped to see, but at my hand, not… someone else’s.

Helios. The hero with the power of the Sun. Broken like a shattered lamp.

I step out the door, looking around, then pick the man up by his ridiculous cape and drag him in. He grunts in pain, but no other sound escapes. Well, he’s still tough, I’ll give him that. A bit more gently I set him on the Lazy Boy in the corner, and turn the TV down.

I could snap his neck, tear off his head with a flick of my wrist. It would be easy, I’ve never seen him so tired, so out of sorts. Not even after our week long battle in the volcano.

No, he came here. To my home. Homes were… well, not sacred, not for monsters like me, but for heroes? You just didn’t go after one in their house. It broke the rules that no one ever read, but always knew to follow. That he risked this, here, meant something bad.

“Beer?” Helios blinks at me, then nods. There’s a little less fear in his eyes, now. He knew the risk he was taking. As much as I called him a stupid moron, he wasn’t. Just the shit talk of the game. I guess I should come up with some better invectives next time we fight.

I set one cheap can of beer down next to him on the stand, and crouch to get a good look at him.Yeah, already healing. The cut on his head is scabbing over already, though the sheeting of blood across his face isn’t going anywhere. His breathing is better, his heart isn’t racing anymore. He opens it, and clinks it to mine when I offer. We drink. He drinks his fast, like a man dying of thirst… or someone needing some alcoholic lubrication to comprehend what he’d been through.

He takes a deep breath, then says, “Desolation, I-“

I thump my tail on the hardwood and raise one set of claws to interrupt him. “Drink. Get cleaned up. Talk later. Unless you can guarantee this won’t end in us trying to kick the shit out of each other.”

He fell silent, the perfect teeth clicking shut. See? Smarter than he looked.

“Shower’s down the hall, to the left. Don’t hit the yellow button, that’s the acid wash.”

It’s about thirty minutes later when he comes out of the bathroom, back in costume. Costume has been scrubbed a bit, and he looks more like his old self. Looks more like the god I fight every few weeks, and not the weak human I saw on my porch.

I offer another beer, which he takes, and opens it. I open mine, and he takes a slower sip, this time. Considering, weighing. I can’t help but lash my tail in excitement. The monster in me, maybe. I want to tear this man apart, but there’s the other thing. Something managed to do what I was supposed to do. What I’ve been wanting to do for so long. Break Helios. There’s a new Apex Hero or Villain out there, which means I’ve got a new target. I can’t help but grin, showing my fangs to Helios.

“Now, tell me all about who kicked the shit out of you. Because that’s my job.”

"If you're fucking with me, I will toss you out on your ass. Through my own wall, and into the quarry twenty miles away," I growled at Helios. "Miss Mystery did this to you? 5'4", maybe a hundred and twenty pounds soaking wet, minor energy manipulation and TK power? Streams on Instagram and uh... the... "

"Tik-Tok, yeah."

I let out another growl, I couldn't help it. What Helios was saying was absurd.

His heartbeat was calm, steady, for as much as it could be in proximity to me. No facial tics or any of his tells when he usually lied. He was pretty terrible at it, usually. Helios swallowed, some of the fear coming back, and then covered a grimace with another drink of the cheap beer. "I swear on my mother's grave, Desolation. It was her. Or... something possessing her. I don't know."

He went into detail, telling the story. A mysterious crystal shipped to the Tower, which was where The Dawn had their work headquarters. Somehow it had gotten past their security - ("Good to know for next time. I'll just MAIL myself." "Shut up.") and touched the crystal. Then she started shrieking, calling out things ("What things?" "Personal things that she shouldn't know." "Hah, juicy!") and then started firing her energy blasts and that was when it got exciting, it sounded like. Putting holes through walls, and people. Apparently, she'd put ManBeast into the hospital with just a single shot of her energy whip. The thought of that gave me the giggles, but Helios glared at me. I'll give him credit, when he does get angry, he's got a good glare. It didn't stop me when he started recounting his own loss to Miss Mystery, which had me in stitches. I even fell out of my chair, and my spikes shredded some of my hardwood. Whatever, worth it to hear that story. When I finally recover, he's glaring at me with the fury of a thousand suns. Which he has, ironically. Getting torched by that is fairly painful, so I put on my best serious face and start thinking, rapping my claws rhythmically along the table.

Miss Mystery. She won most adorable hero three years in a row. She, Helios, and maybe two other heroes were people I had respect for. Helios, ManBeast, and Captain Cosmos were Targets, good fights, and weren't cowards. Scrapping with them was usually the highlight of my month. That and breaking horrible architecture.

MM was slightly different, to earn my respect, though. Did social programs more than 'Hero' work. Ran protection and evacuation for civilians when things started blowing up. Which was nice for, you know, the mortals that were around when gods were fighting. I'd knocked her out cold once with a tail slap that was supposed to be the beginning of a me tearing Helios in half. I hadn't even put any OOMPH into the hit, but I felt oddly bad about it. Though it WAS her fault for getting in the way. Still, she was made of cardboard compared to some of the people I've hunted. Compared to Helios or me, wet tissue paper. So whatever this is, this crystal, it's adding another Target, one that I'd not usually go after.

"So, yeah. That's what happened. She took off, the Tower is trashed, half the team is in the hospital or off planet. Didn't know where else to go. You've... fought all of us. Seemed right to maybe get some insight or just... I don't know. You never gave the impression you'd kill someone while they were down, unless you were the one to put them there. Thought... I don't know what I thought. This was, ah, something, " He looked at me, confident, but also troubled. He didn't like being in the same room as someone who'd once or twice put most of his team in the hospital. And hey, the feeling was mutual. Hospital food sucks.

Yeah, Helios was back. Healed, but tired. No longer the beaten down human like he sometimes masqueraded as. He finished the beer can, crushing it just as easily as he'd once crushed the I-beam I'd hit him with. "Thanks for the beer, I guess. I... I've gotta go."

"To, what, get your ass kicked again?" I snorted, and thumped my tail on the hardwood, finishing my own beer. I stood as well, to my full nine feet, glaring down at Helios. He looked at me, puzzled, one eyebrow raised. Huh, he almost does that as well as The Rock.

"Nah, you came here, and told me Miss Mystery is now FUN?!" I laughed, and he paled a bit. That perfect tan skin can go really chalky white when he wants to. "Now hold o-" I grin, full of fangs, and lash out with my right claw. My claws never pierce far into his skin, even if they're monowire sharp (which actually isn't great when you're not fighting), lifting him up and through the roof of my house, sending him flying. With the amount of force I used, he'll arc about a mile or two before getting his flight under control. I call out to him as he goes vanishes into the night sky, "Miss Mystery is MY Fight now!" and laugh.

My contractors are going to spit so many obscenities about the house, but, whatever. I'm out of my own house like a lightning shot, on all fours, hitting sixty, seventy miles per hour in about two seconds. If I can find Miss Mystery first, well... the fight will be something amazing. AND it'll be something to rub in the obnoxious heroes' faces.

This turned out to be the best night EVER. And here I was going to do just another Brooklyn Super 99 marathon.

*****

THE END