Chapter #11

The sun began to disappear along the horizon as thunderclouds rolled in from the west. Gusts of wind blew through the barren streets. No sound could be heard except for Donovan’s footsteps against the pavement as he walked casually along the sidewalk.

He stopped at an intersection and looked up at the sky, “It’s going to be another dreary night,” he then strapped on the long, slender gun to his back and headed for one of the skyscrapers.

~

Fog settled across the city as the sounds of thunderous footsteps echoed against the buildings and stores. Angry roars and cries rang throughout the snarling horde of odd creatures as they entered the west end of the city. Distorted birds soared through the air as wolves and other monsters prowled below.

Up in front, Ranzford clenched his fists, looking for anything that moved. Grundman scuffed his feet, feeling the dirt under his skin. Hugo crumpled cars that he past as O’Connors chucked small grenades in random places, cackling to himself each time something exploded.

Seth Zarian stood in the middle of the small group. His walk was calm and casual as was the expression on his face. His outfit was a new black and teal pinstriped suit, with a black bowler hat and cane to go along. He smiled as the Police HQ appeared in sight. They were only a street away when suddenly Zarian stopped dead in his tracks. The entire army stopped with him.

Zarian just smirked and whispered to himself, “Come out, come out, wherever you are…”

There was a loud crash followed by a few curses before Aaron hopped out into view. He quickly straightened up and stood firmly in front of the Police HQ building.

“Stop!” he yelled out dramatically, “Or face the wrath of…The IgKnighted!!”

“Dude! I thought we weren’t going to go with that,” Martin walked out from around the corner toward Aaron.

“No, but you see, if you add a ‘k’ and a ‘gh’, it becomes ‘IgKnighted’. Is that not awesome?!”

Martin just shook his head, “You’re hopeless.”

John and Catherine stepped out from where Aaron had come from and Harold, Marié, Henry and Roger followed Martin into the open. Finally Draco, Leslie, Tracey and Commander Wilson stepped out of the police HQ front doors and joined the others, spreading out into a long line that blocked the building behind them from Zarian. 

“We’ve been expecting you, Seth,” Wilson puffed on his pipe.

“Hmm. Seems like we’re one short,” Zarian smirked, “And I find it a little hard to believe he would just ‘run away’.”

“Don’t you worry Zarian. You’ll have your go at him. He’s off escorting the townspeople to a safer place,” Wilson calmly emptied his pipe onto the ground.

“Apparently…” Zarian knew better that Donovan wouldn’t pass up a chance at taking him out, “No matter. This city is ours.”

“Not quite,” Draco slowly drew one of his handguns.

“Haha! Very well. May this be the end of your bothersome interruptions!” Zarian turned to his army, “Kill them all.”

The large horde of monsters began to charge at the small group of people. Hunger raced through them, the craving of blood drew them onward.

But before they even got ten feet, Aaron’s eyes began to glow dark blue. He rushed a couple of steps forward and threw his hands up toward the large army. With a blast of gravitational energy, the first row of monsters went sailing up and over the heads of the rest of the crowd.

As if by some sort of signal, there was a sudden wave of bullets shot from every direction the large horde in the street. Monsters watched in confusion as creatures were being picked off around them.

“Cedar,” Zarian sneered. He turned back to Timebomb, “Take care of them. As for the rest of you, get moving!”

The creatures began to swarm their way down the street toward the small defense line of heroes. Timebomb, meanwhile, began chucking small grenades up into the buildings windows. Rooms exploded from above as both men and debris fell down onto the large horde.

“Time to split up, gang!” Aaron announced.

All but Aaron, John, Henry and Martin hurriedly disappeared down the alleyways. Martin had already begun morphing into the dark shadow creature he was now accustomed to, with razor-sharp claws and bright red eyes. Aaron’s eyes had begun to glow a dark blue once more as his body began floating off the ground. A brilliant blue fire ignited all across John’s body, the ground beneath him starting to melt away from the heat. Henry adjusted his british cap as his eyes shined blazing yellow and static crawled across his hands.

A large gecko-like lizard on its hind legs raced toward them, a large, brass helmet over his head and swinging on iron axe in his right hand. Aaron’s hands flew up, sending a gravitational blast at the lizard making him flying back into the massive crowd. 

John stepped forward and held his flaming hands out in front of him. Rapidly, large columns of fire shot out of his arms and burned through the first two rows of creatures. Martin had already charged through the flames and began slashing violently at the other monsters as Henry shot lightning bolts into the horde.

All of a sudden a huge whirlwind erupted from the back of the large army, throwing creatures every which way. Gunshots could be heard as a huge wave of water smashed into the monsters.

~

Zarian’s fist clenched as he watched his army being attacked from either end. “This isn’t going the way I planned!” he turned and snapped at the beast nearest him, a gryphon monster with a sharp beak, “Get your arse in there, you bird brain!”

~

Ice shards shot through the chest of a large gorilla creature as Marié Verdón charged her way through, bashing in any creature’s skull that came close enough to her pure metallic body. Draco began reloading his handguns as Harold created a thick ice dome over him and Draco for protection. There was a click and Draco nodded to Maxwell. Harold shattered the ice dome and threw the remains into the three nearest monsters as Draco jumped up and began firing once more. 

Suddenly four large monsters moved their way toward them, knocking the smaller vermin aside. They were heavily armored; swords, axes and shields alike. A werewolf-like creature quickly pounced at Harold and with a swift punch, knocked him off his feet. A large badger clambered over and smashed its axe into Marié’s left shoulder, making a small dent in her skin. Guilzini tried to gun down a minotaur but the great beast blocked each bullet with a large shield attached to its forearm. The minotaur roared as it rushed headlong toward Draco.

~

Over on the other side a giant hawk fiend fell out of the sky, incinerated by a fireball from John’s hand. Martin was disappearing and re-appearing among the shadows, attacking anything that got close enough. Aaron flew over a large group of monsters, stopping right above them and jumping down to the ground. As he slammed his fist into the dirt, all the monsters were thrown off their feet and into the air. Henry, meanwhile, struck at a grizzly bear across the lower jaw, blooding spraying out of its mouth and onto the paved street. He then whipped around and sent an electrical shock wave at a swarm of creatures behind him.

Suddenly the large horde parted, letting four larger monsters through. The gecko was among them, glaring at Aaron with pure malice. A large gorilla, with an axe in each hand, threw itself at the shadowy creature of Martin. A medium-sized ring-tailed cat creature sped off at an unbelievable sped toward Henry. And from far back, the large gryphon beast stepped forward, snarling at the flames that encircled John. It flapped it’s wings, sending large gusts of wind toward John, pushing him farther back. John quickly shot a large fireball singeing the gryphon’s left wing. It roared in pain, giving John the time he needed. He shot another fireball into the gryphon’s face, burning away the entire right side of its helmet. With incredible speed, the gryphon quickly lifted itself high into the air. John lost sight of the bird quickly and looked frantically through the sky for any sign of the winged creature. He whirled around at the sound of a loud bang, just in time to see a large car hurtling toward him. His sudden instinct made him quickly fire a ball of flame at the car, creating a enormous explosion and throwing John back into the building behind him.

~

The lizard charged at Aaron, chucking two knives toward him as it ran. Aaron easily dodged them but didn’t pay much attention to the creature’s distance, for it suddenly jumped at him, bladed gauntlets bearing down at him. Aaron quickly threw his arm up and, using gravity, swiftly repelled the gauntlet only inches away from his forearm. The gecko’s other arm came up at Aaron, but once more repelled by Aaron’s other gravitated arm. Now both man and beast were struggling, arms against arms as they pushed against each other in a movement of ferocity. Unexpectedly, the gecko’s spiked tail lashed out and slammed into Aaron’s side. Excruciating pain seered through his left side as Aaron struggled to maintain the resistance of the lizard’s gauntlets. Finally, with a sudden burst of exertion, Aaron transferred a huge gravitational wave out of his body, sending the gecko flying back, smashing into a building and falling to the ground, lifeless.

Aaron fell to his knees, clutching his left side, wheezing heavily. He looked down to see a small pool of blood spreading out around his feet. He was going to need it bandaged as soon as he could, and decided on an idea. He crawled over to the lizard’s corpse, its head dented inward as blood spilled from it’s mouth. Aaron quickly tore off strips of the gecko’s clothing and wrapped it around his stomach, covering the darkened wound. He tightened the wrapping and stood up slowly. 

He winced, “Wow…these things don’t work as well as I thought,” as he slunk back down against the building wall.

~

Martin swiftly clawed at the monster’s face before quickly disappearing into the shadows once more. The large gorilla bashed at the shadowed brick wall from whence Martin had came, only to find nothing. Martin couldn’t help but chuckle from behind the creature, and the gorilla quickly whirled around and lunged at the shadow beast.  It smashed into Martin, knocking both of them through another brick wall, sending up large clouds of dust. Finally, after the debris settled, Martin leaned up slowly, groaning miserably from the pain in his back. But before he remembered, the gorilla had jumped up and held up one of his axes.

“Do you ever quit?!” Martin sighed heavily.

The gorilla swung his axe down on Martin, but he had swiftly disappeared through a shadowy crack in the floor. The axe banged into the solid ground bluntly. The gorilla stood up angrily looking around for another sign or sound of the illusive dark monster. There was a sudden rip and the gorilla’s eyes widened as it looked down at the dark claw sticking out of his stomach. The creature gave one last shrieking howl as Martin retracted his claw out of its back. The gorilla slunk to the flat pavement as Martin looked down at the dead animal in silence.

“My apologies,” Martin whispered as he turned and disappeared into the shadows.

~

Lightning flashed through the side street as the small raccoon-like monster ran around, dodging each of Henry’s bolts. It sped past henry’s legs, scratching at his shins as it passed by. Blood was beginning to drip down into his shoes as Henry got more and more ferious. At last Henry’s eyes glowed bright yellow and a large electrical wave erupted from his feet and spread across the ground. It reached towards the speeding raccoon and shocked it, making it shudder and become still. Giving him just enough time, Henry shot another lightning bolt at the furry beast. It struck it in its side, hurling the creature into the side of a building. Henry stumbled over to it and glared in anger, "Payback's a b***h, isn't it?" He raised his hans up as his eyes turned golden yellow once more.

~

Aaron began shaking. He was having difficulty keeping his eyes open as the blood stained wrap around his waist began to loosen. Suddenly a long, dark claw reached out of the shadows of the wall next to Aaron.

"Great! The Grim Reaper finally makes it," Aaron rolled his eyes as the dark creature stepped out into the light.

"Aaron! What happened?!" Martin rushed over to him, materializing back into his human form.

"Damn lizard had a trick up his sleeve," Aaron pointed over to the dead body behind them, "and he got what he deserved."

Martin removed the worn bandage and replaced it using his left pant leg. Aaron grunted as Martin tightened it and chuckled, "You get the worst luck."

"No crap. My new superhero name should be, 'The Most Unlucky B*****d," Aaron coughed.

"Well that's not real cheerful," Henry stepped out from an alleyway.

"Lookey who's here! Mr. optimistic himself!" Aaron laughed. He then looked down at Henry's bloody legs and looked mortified, "What happened to you?!" 

"Got into a little catfight," Henry shook some of the blood from his pant leg.

"Little?!" Martin's eyes widened, "Let me see that-."

"No time!" John ran past them as the large gryphon creature flew after him. Aaron quickly threw his hand up and his eyes began to turn darker blue. A large bubble appeared around the gryphon and as Aaron closed his hand, the bubble calapsed on the gyphon until finally the creature and the bubble disappeared completely. 

"Now do we have time?" Aaron smirked.

"Not quite!"

Marie appeared around a corner, running at full speed toward them. Catherine and Harold followed closely after, then Tracey, Leslie and Draco rounded the block, a giant shielded Minotaur right behind them. 

"Move, move, move!" Guilzini shouted as he whirled around to face the beast and put three bullet holes in the large shield with no effect.

The minotaur then raised its shield into the air. Draco spun around and ran as the shield came crashing down into the ground, missing him by a couple of feet. Harold rushed forward, eyes glowing crystal white as he began to freeze the shield to the pavement. Draco began firing once more, hitting the creature in the chest, blood spilling down onto the ground. The minotaur roared in pain and tried to swing a punch but it was held back by a gust of wind created by Tracey. Guilzini went for one last shot, firing a bullet directly between the monster's eyes and it toppled over backwards, lifeless.

"These things just dont stop!" Draco heaved as his arms hung limb at his sides. 

"When will this end?" Catherine slunked down next to Aaron against the wall.

"It won't," smiled Zarian.

~