Chương 89: Gargoyle

The members of The New Sentinels sans Hercules had been disrupted at sunrise. Christian was already awake, but Jairo and May had to be forced awake.

"Leo encountered a serious problem," Tancred explained, looking at a tablet as he spoke. Turning the tablet to the group, it depicted footage from a news helicopter of a gigantic crab making its way towards Virginia Beach. It was hard to see due to constant interference, resulting in static and blocky images that refused to un-stick.

"Don't treat this as just a normal giant animal, it seems to be producing interference that for just audio requires a signal booster. And video is a struggle for consumer-grade capture. I've got a team heading out with some sturdier shit now in a Huey. You get to be in one too."

"What's a Huey?" Jairo asked as he was slipping the remaining parts of his costume on.

"Big military helicopter. Cheapest we can run and it's still nearly a grand per hour. When you get dropped off, your job's gonna be damage control- Oh, we've got visual from my team." The feed snaps to much clearer footage from a more perpendicular angle, right as a massive tidal wave is swept up from the crab. As the wave marches across the water, a sudden gouge in the beach is formed from a small humanoid shape, that splits the wave in twain and causes it to collapse.

"Holy fuck-" Tancred blurted out while the others gasped. He tapped his own earpiece.

"Helicopters are in the area, we have visual, and Herc, what the fuck was that?" The others just watched the feed, enraptured in the silence before Tancred speaks again.

"Jesus Christ, kid. I'm watching now. I think we have a minute to talk about good news and bad news." Another second of silence.

"No Wave of Hope." The others could actually hear a "What!?" coming from the earpiece. Their ally Leo's voice.

"Not even on this fucking planet right now, apparently some bullshit involving a wizard, I don't know, but we're no longer operating with them in mind. Good news: Forces of Nature are already on the way. They were on a mission in Atlanta and Texas Tornado is hurtling the entire team towards us now. Said he was gonna push for as fast as he could fling them as fast as they can get. Just a bit under Mach 2. That's a twenty five minute flight, we've burnt twenty already. Hold out."

Taking his hand off the earpiece, he pointed to the group.

"That's why you guys are important. Without the Wave of Hope, we have no proper anti-kaiju level threats."

"But Leo just-" May started.

"Leo is just one guy and we don't know the full scale of what this crab can do." The footage continued as a pair of trucks were hurtled at the crab as it breached land. Neither seemed to do anything.

"Fucking Hell. Yeah, you guys need to go, now!" The New Sentinels rushed out of the building, to the sound of a helicopter's rotors whipping through the air, sending hair and costume material billowing from the gale as they climbed in. There was no attempt at subtlety here, but the hope was that everyone was far too distracted with the ongoing events to notice where any costumed heroes were coming from. As the helicopter swung up and off Eastbound, the group looked between each other.

"I've... never actually been through a kaiju attack," May started, still awkwardly adjusting her domino mask.

"We always evacuated." Chris took a deep breath.

"We should be fine. The Forces of Nature are still coming and those guys are pretty strong from what I've researched. Their leader's beaten hurricanes in fights. Kaiju aren't really much different than a hurricane, really."

"Hurricanes don't turn people into me," Jairo mentioned, his gaze focused out the window.

"I- Fudge. Sorry, man. I keep doing that."

"It's fine. Most people in kaiju attacks don't end up like me either," he added." May raised an eyebrow.

"Keep doing what?"

"I just keep... shoving my foot in my mouth. The other day I tried teasing Leo about that really gruff tough-guy attitude he has sometimes despite being only a bit older than Jairo and he kind of looked hurt by it. He didn't say out loud that he got offended, but I think I went a bit too far."

"Well, yeah, I think you kind of did, Chris," May muttered out.

"Did Sam not tell you about what's going on with Leo?"

"No. I assumed it was confidential."

"It is. But I've always been good at getting stuff out of you guys, like your swimming thing. Sam and I were having a normal conversation and she just kind of admitted a lot. His training for his powers was kind of like torture at first. Shock collars and stuff. Apparently it's because his powers burn out his memories. He doesn't really remember a lot of his life because of it." While half of Chris' face was obscured, the pursing of his lips was unhideable.

"I didn't... I mean-""Damn," Jairo mumbled.

"And I thought I had it bad. At least I remember what happened to me." May ran a hand through her hair, trying to ease her heart rate with any sort of self-soothing. The rumble of the helicopter's engine and tbe heating of its rotors weren't helping.

"Yeah. He's not really a normal teenager like us. And honestly, we all know he was homeless for like half of a year and spent all of his time fighting drug dealers. Of course he's not going to sound and act like a normal kid. He's never had a chance to be one."

"Man," Chris said, dragging his palms down his face.

"Why can't I just say the right stuff to people? I didn't really think about what I was saying. We've barely been talking since we started doing our undercover stuff too so I haven't even had a chance to apologize. Like we walk back home together but he just kind of stares ahead, says 'Yep' and 'Yeah' and all that if it's not related to the job." Jairo spoke up.

"Probably because of what you said. Probably doesn't want to get told he doesn't sound normal for his age again. None of us are normal, dude. Honestly, with how unhappy he is, he's probably the most normal one here."

"Yeah, but- Fudge, I just wanted to banter with him and get some kind of laugh out of him. I don't know the last time I got a laugh out of him. It'd do him a lot of good, but I keep getting it wrong." May sat back in her seat.

"I've seen him laugh and smile before. Do you know when that was?" Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. The others shook their head.

"After the tree guys showed up for the first time. He had this like... smile on his face when they showed up. It was for a split second, but I could see a bit of a smile start to form. And then after that, when we got some food to try and relax from what happened, he was a lot more friendly and cracking jokes and stuff. I think he's only ever been happy when he gets to do..." She gestured out of the door, pointing towards Virginia Beach.

"Whatever it is he's doing right now. I wish we could come up with a way to make it so he could actually feel happy without doing it." Chris sighed.

"Maybe that's the goal for now. After this is all done. We figure out a way to get a smile out of Leo Holt." May started to crack a smirk.

"I think we could try that." Jairo's gaze remained out the window, silent. The ride cotninued for a few more minutes before Tancred's voice rang out over their earpieces.

"There's been a change of plan."

"What's going on?" Chris asked.

"You're not going to Virginia Beach. Hercules is pretty adamant that some contraband the guy he was surveilling was in fact the crab's eggs. He doesn't know where those eggs are kept. You're going to go pay a visit to said guy, and you're gonna get answers out of him."

"Alright. Do we have any details?"

"Not much, other than that the guy is a Vampire Knight by the name of Hidalgo. Herc fought him, ended up in a draw. Based on the description of the job he gave me, there should be some other grunts. So expect a few individuals, one of which is comparable to a superhuman."

"... How do we fight vampires, again?" May asked.

"Well, we didn't go over that, they're a low population and we were told it could look bigoted against Wallachians. Moving on. Silver makes wounds they don't heal from and sunlight makes them burst into flame. That being said, I recommend not killing a potential informant. You're going to need to think outside the box for this one. Your ETA is two minutes. You've got that much time to plan." Silence in the air again, as the decrepit house on the hill was coming into view.

"Alright. Just one vampire. One Leo was able to fight to a standstill by himself," Chris assured.

"Think we can handle that?" Jairo finally spoke, voice surprisingly sullen.

"I can do that. Might not be as strong as Leo, but I'm still strong. Faster, too. And I'm a lot more trained than he is." Chris tapped his shoulder.

"Look, you've got this. We'll keep you covered. Worst case, if the sun's a threat to him, May can just... aim ultraviolet light at him, right? That's what the sun makes." He glanced over at May. She nodded.

"Yeah... yeah I can do that."

"Okay. I think it's simple enough, we deal with any henchmen that are there while Jairo keeps this Hidalgo guy busy. Once we have him on his own, we can work on getting the location out from him. We can improvise from there, but we usually synch pretty well." Chris pat the sides of his head as the helicopter descended on the hillside. The group exited, only to see a man stepping out from the back door to the patio enclosure that faced them. His first step was confused cursing.

His second step was procuring a pistol, leveling at the man in bright orange, flappy clothes who just came ou- BAM Crashing through the enmeshed wall with a crash that sent the wooden frame's splinters flying, Teiú was already in the man's face. A pair of strikes to the jaw sent him tumbling onto the ground while Flowstate and Spectroma rushed in after him.

"Good moves! I don't think he's the vampire though..." Flowstate trailed off, digging out some zipties from his belt and using it to tie the man's wrists, footsteps audible further down the hall into the house they stood at the gaping maw of.

"They've got guns," Spectroma noted. Teiú rolled his shoulders.

"I can deal with them."

"We need you on Hidalgo," Flowstate repeated.

"Spectroma and I can handle anyone else with guns."

"Fine," Teiú conceded. With that, they entered the home and met the encroaching footsteps. Three men. Two with a pair of small submachine guns. One carrying a shotgun. They enflanked a fourth, larger man. Corpulent, hairy, and looking almost primitive in body and nature. If he were to be a statue, he would be put next to cavemen in a natural history museum. The only differentiator were his more modern clothes, namely a leather vest that sat over an exposed gut.

"I always wondered when I would meet some real superheroes these days," the ogrish man growled out.

"Glad to know you think we're the real deal," Flowstate said with a bit of cheer as he stanced up.

"Oh, no. I'm still wondering. Shoot 'em." A hail of gunfire roared out, but in that same moment- VWEEEEEEEEEEEEN Drawing out one of her hard light blasts as a wide sheet, Spectroma held it up to withstand the storm. The noise of it all in such a small room was deafening. Hidalgo seemed to be saying something, but it wasn't heard as Spectroma and Flowstate pushed towards the gunmen. By the time their magazines had run empty, the two heroes were close.

At the same time, Teiú zoomed over to Hidalgo, fist already flying towards the much larger man's head. A noise like thunder drummed out as the vampire snapped an arm up, bent at the elbow, to serve as a shield from the impact. The force sent dust and wind flying that disrupted the gunmen from reloading. That turned out to be their failing, as Spectroma swept her shield across them, downing one and forcing the other two to duck.

"Oooh, you hit pretty hard-" Hidalgo mused, voice barely audible with the chorus of tinnitus in everyone's ears dominating the conversation.

"-And good form on your punch. I've been needing to get in the square again!"" Fucking-!

"Teiú started growling out. It was back to that buzzing quality, a swarm of ravenous locusts." Try-!

"Every syllable like a charging army." Me!" The rolls of thunder continued as Teiú and Hidalgo met fist-to-fist. Hidalgo's form, being more reliant on elbows, knees, and kicks alongside his punches forced Teiú onto a more defensive position, repeatedly needing to evade and counter blows instead of retaliating. Every strike he could throw out was simply a jab, the fastest he could put out amidst the storm.

All the while, Flowstate had rushed over to where the one unconscious man was, the other two goons still bringing themselves back to their feet so that he could work on quickly zip-tying the one knocked-out perp. One of the conscious ones yanked a pistol out of his pocket, bringing it up towards Flowstate, only for a VWAM echo out from a blast May projected. It crashed into his hand and sent the pistol flying.

A round cooked off from the force of the impact, putting a new hole in the ceiling to accompany the others. Upon hearing the gunshot, Flowstate looked up and immediately flipped forward from the unconscious man and grappled with the standing one, yanking his arm down towards the third man who was still just getting up from his knees. In the three-man pile, he began trying to tangle one of each of their arms together.

The third man wasn't very pleased with this, however, using his free arm to procure a knife and loosely jab it at the mobile hero's face, resulting in a squirming dance as Flowstate tried to herd two cats. Meanwhile, another great echo of thunder occurred from Teiú's fist meeting with the business end of one of Hidalgo's elbows, snapping the bone and opening the vampire's guard. The transformed hero thrust out a proper straight at the criminal, only to suddenly see a growing presence appear behind him.

He couldn't see its form in its current state, and at the speed it was moving, he couldn't even react in time. Slamming into him like a freight truck, Flowstate and Spectroma could see as out of nowhere, this horrific form had yanked Teiú off of his feet. What should be a woman, but with a face too wide, a mouth too rich in additional jaws, and long arms with too many joints and fingers, at the end of a centipede's body, scurrying like a blur and bringing him up the broken stairs to the second floor."

Gracias, Hidalga!" The vampire yelled, the bones in his elbow cracking as they put themselves together.

"Alright..." he then said punching into his palm, looking between the scrambling Flowstate and the tensed-up Spectroma.

"Which one of you two is next?"