Jones sat in his windowless cell. Every surface of the room was metal. He couldn’t use his dust to absorb the walls and make a way out. Even if he could, they would’ve noticed and stopped him. There was a camera in the corner watching his every move, and the moment the person on the other end clicks a button, within minutes the room would be filled with trained soldiers with armor piercing guns. None of that mattered to Jones though. Because Jones had realized his purpose in existence.
He was not a dirty criminal, nor a parasite upon society. He was not a tool to be used by anyone else. He was not a man, nor a prisoner. He was not anyone’s super soldier. Jones had finally realized that he was a warrior. Born and bred. Jones was put on this Earth and given power by a higher force so that he can plunge the world into blood, fire, and chaos. So that he may remove the leeches. So that he may remove the insolent brats that fester in the world, brats like his stepson that torture and twist the innocent children like his son.
Jones was put on this Earth to be a vaccine against the viruses. First he’ll remove the brat in the suit. Then he’ll remove his step son. Then all those who crossed him. Then he’ll go out and cleanse the world. Jones stared down at his hands and contemplated all the ways he’d enact his vengeance on the world that’s rejected him his whole life. He looked up at the door as he heard a click.
…
I was in the midst of a nap when I was suddenly awoken by someone saying ‘cement’ on the television in my lab. I jolted forward into an upright position, and wiped the slobber off my face as I directed my attention towards the tv. It was live footage of a press conference outside of a police station. No one was standing at the podium yet but the news station assured me that whoever it was would be on soon.
I threw myself backwards against the couch and slammed my head hard against the back of it. A man appeared on the tv, he looked young, with dirty brown hair that looked just brushed enough to look professional. His grey suit was covered in wrinkles. He was slouching, and his eyes were covered by thick glasses. The writing below the video told me that his name was Markus Keller.
“I’m aware that everyone here has been through quite a shocking week. First a series of terrorist attacks rocked your city. Then this new…” He stopped for a momentary pause, as if pondering the correct word. “Mutation. I’m sure that you’re all very shaken by these events. I’m here to announce that my company, September Incorporated, will be paying to help rebuild the things that have been destroyed. We’ll even be using my products to improve your communities and lifestyle where we can. For instance, we will be supplying the police with nonlethal guns that with one shot can temporarily shut down someone’s nervous system. Additionally, I will be creating a prison for this and any future mutations that arise.” Then the man paused and fixed his glasses. “Are there any questions?” He spoke calmly and with authority.
“Sir, what other improvements will you be making to the local communities?” A male reporter asked from the crowd.
“September Incorporated will be supplying a central bank for the city, that any bank may use for business, that will be outfitted with a system of our design that we believe will completely stop robberies. Along with that, we will be introducing a public transport system for the city. Anything else?” He responded.
“This mysterious corporation you say you work for, where did it come from? Why are you choosing this city for this operation?” A woman in the back asked.
“September Incorporated has been a functioning privately owned business for almost two decades. We’ve flown mostly under the radar because we mainly produce for the military.” He explained with confidence. “We decided to come to your beautiful city because we saw the potential for weapons testing, given the high crime rate and apparent propensity for mutation.” He said with a smile. No one seemed to call him on what he had just said. I guess none of them realized he’d just admitted to wanting to test high tech weapons in the streets.
“Did the city sign off on this ‘weapons testing’ you’re speaking of?” A male reporter at the back asked.
“Both the local and federal governments are aware of our activities and are encouraging us to move in. But I’d like to assure you that the organization that I represent has no intentions of causing any more harm to your way of life. On the contrary, we are here to improve your lives and make sure nothing like this tragedy ever occurs again in this great city.” The man said proudly. There were cheers and claps from the crowd. Mostly from bystanders and police officers. The reporters just looked uneasily at each other and waited for the applause to stop.
“Do you intend on bringing in the Monkey Man?” The same reporter as before asked him.
“The Monkey Man and his abilities are of great interest to our operation. But, seeing as the police have not officially charged them with anything, September Incorporated cannot pursue capturing him under any circumstances.” He paused, then looked directly at the camera. “However if you’re out there listening right now, Monkey Man, I’d like to formally request that you make an effort to contact me. No further questions, please.” He finished. The reporters erupted into shouting voices and questions. The police seemed uneasy at the sudden noise.
With that he stepped down off the podium and walked away as the press screamed a chorus of questions behind him. I expected the footage to end there. But instead the screams only got louder as a crash boomed out from the background. I instantly responded by running over to my bag, unzipping it in a single motion and putting on the suit.
As I slid my left leg in I bounced around on one foot trying to shove the other leg in, in doing so I tripped and fell. Without missing a beat I shoved my foot in. As the fur hood moved across my head I put the chip in the mask and put it on. My body instinctively tensed at the mechanical sound of the suit starting. They say after constant exposure you start to get used to pain. I’m starting to wonder when exactly that begins to happen. I felt the suit gain rigidity as it started up.
I felt the strange sensation of my senses being enhanced, and I felt the even stranger feeling of having a prehensile tail sway back and forth behind me at my command. I grabbed the secret weapon I’d been preparing since the night before. As I ran out of the room I caught a glimpse of the tv. The news crew was trying to put distance between themselves and the flaming wreckage of a SWAT helicopter. My eyes burned at the sudden sunlight beaming into the lenses. I quickly shook my head to get used to it.
I could feel the wind rushing against my face as I moved. The rapid clicking of my toe claws distracted me as I practically slid across the field. My lab was actually closer to the bridge than town. It took me barely two minutes to get there. Just like last time the traffic was at a stand still. Hundreds of cars were trying to leave the city, and they probably barely noticed as I ran across them.
Right at the entrance of the bridge was a squad of police cars trying to get traffic under control. I jumped straight over the top of them and they all looked up at me. I passed the downtown area, where the hospital was. It was still closed off for construction from my last battle. In the distance I saw black smoke, so I decided to follow that. After going through many back alleys and streets full of people running towards the obvious calamity, I poked my head past the wall of a building and saw the ruins of a SWAT helicopter. I listened to the noise and heard several gunshots and heavy breathing. I forced myself back behind the building and gripped the edge of the wall.
If I go out there I’m going to die. He’s already killed so many people… I’m gonna die… I was already going to die.
I slapped myself across the mask. I slowly prowled down the alleyway I was peering down. I stashed my secret weapon behind a dumpster where Cement Suit couldn’t see it. I threw myself against the wall when I heard his monstrous footsteps. He was several feet away, but it sounded to me like he was right next to me. I slapped myself again and let go of the wall, leaving several holes where my toes had gripped it. I bolted down the length of the alleyway and turned to face him.
He was standing at the opposite end of the street. His left hand was a giant stone sword with sharp edges, and his right was a gauntlet. This time around his head was completely covered in stone except for his two giant hollow eye holes that billowed with pale smoke. In the armor he looked much larger than he had before, his arms and legs were like tree trunks. He had a man down on his knees. In his right hand he held the man’s helmet, smashed to pieces between his fingers. He held his left hand to the man’s throat. A smashed rifle lay at the Cement Suit’s feet.
“Please… I have a kid…” I heard the man plead. I winced at the words because I knew what’d follow them.
Without a second of resistance the man’s head left his body. It fell to the ground, the force of the swing carrying the head slightly to the right. It hit the ground with a thud. Then Cement Suit turned to face me. We were standing at opposite ends of the street. I balled my hands into fists. He turned his head ever so slightly. It was not a fluid motion because of the armor. I was frozen in place by fear. I screamed out to my legs to move, to run away, to run towards him, to just move. No matter how loud I screamed in my head they refused to comply. He wasn’t moving either.
He threw his sword arm down with his first step forward. As he moved with big thunderous impacts that left cracks on the road, the sword hand slid against the ground and made a strange noise. Not like the sound metal makes as it’s forced against something, more like the sound two rocks make as you scrape them together. He moved slowly, while I was frozen stiff and not moving at all. I could hear him breathing underneath all the armor. Like it was pushing his body to the limit just to move it. He was five feet away from me when he finally stopped.
“Aren’t you gonna fight back?” He asked in a voice that sounded strained. I didn’t respond. He laughed a little, but ended up kneeling over in a cough. “Aren’t you going to give a witty one liner? Isn’t that what you heroes do?” He asked as he raised his sword arm straight up to point at the sky. In a motion much faster than what should’ve been possible he moved the sword so that it pointed at me.
Now’s the time to run. Or attack. Or something. Just move. Move Jacob. Move!
He lowered the sword and took another step forward. The height difference was incredibly foreboding as he stood above me, looking down with those two smoking holes. As he stared down at me, I looked up at him. Emotion wasn’t conveyed that much through the mask so he wouldn’t be able to tell how terrified I was staring at him. His face was something ripped from my nightmares. Hollow, completely devoid of anything except for two eye holes spewing out smoke.
He lifted his fist straight up into the air. The instant I saw it swing down I prepared my arms to catch it. The force of the impact shook my body, I felt something crack in my spine as I was slammed against the pavement of the road. I gripped his fist in my two hands. I held it tight.
He yanked it free but the force of doing so threw me back. I guess the feeling of a jackhammer slamming against my spine was all I needed to shake some sense into myself, because I flung straight up and tried to punch his face. The impact was solid and made a noise like a car against a brick wall. It hurt my hand and didn’t move him at all, but his stone mask was shattered a little bit. He let out a scream and slammed the stone fist down again.
“I will smash you! I will break you! Cleanse the Earth of your filth!” He shouted. As the hand slammed against me I gripped it as hard as I could. I could hear the stone crackle in my hands as they held it with all their might. I could see fragments flaking and smashing onto the street.
“You’ll… Break… Your hands first.” I said as I let go and threw the arm up as hard as I could.
He stumbled back a bit and let out a yell. As he threw the sword out in a swoop that was so fast it broke the sound barrier and made a cracking noise, I threw myself to the ground in a sprawl. Then I rolled to the left as he slammed his fist down in a punch. The motion had forced him to his knees and as he recovered, I bolted down the alleyway.
He’s stronger but way, way slower.
As I ran down the alley he gave chase. With each stride of his massive legs he covered as much ground as I did, but in a fraction of the time. As I leaned against the back of the dumpster to pick up my secret weapon he lifted the dumpster above his head with his one gauntlet hand.
Without much force he tossed it right on top of my head. I ran back through the alley as fast as my legs could carry me in that millisecond and the dumpster slammed against the ground on its back an inch away from the heel of my foot. The feeling of which made my foot slip and stumble for just a second as I ran back through the way I came.
I heard the sword crackle behind me and felt the rushing wind. Once I was out of the narrow space I caught my breath for a second. I looked behind me and saw the golem of a man atop the smashed rubble of a metal dumpster. It seemed to be giving him some trouble.
Now.
I ran back to the entrance of the alleyway and pulled out my secret weapon. A super soaker. All seventeen dollars and ninety nine cents of it. I looked up at this behemoth, with the ruins of a metal dumpster underneath his feet. Smoke billowed from Cement Suit’s face as he held his sword arm at his side. When he saw the super soaker clutched clumsily in my one hand, I could hear him chuckle. So much so that he kneeled over coughing once more.
I clicked the little orange trigger and water squirted all over his eye holes. At first he laughed even harder. Then he realized what I’d done and he clutched his eyes with his giant gauntlet fist. At the exact moment his hand instinctively covered his face I threw the super soaker aside. I jumped up with all the force I could muster and collided with the giant. He smashed against the ground in the alley and it made the ground beneath shake. I heard several beer bottles smash beneath him. Shards of glass pulverized by his sheer mass.
He tried to catch himself as he fell with his sword hand but it slid harmlessly against the brick wall. I held both of my hands together into one super fist and slammed them hard against his face. His mask cracked and spiderwebbed. The now solidified eye holes were obliterated by the hit. I separated my hands and hit him with my right one. Stone fragmented and shot off. I hit him with my left hand even harder and by now his face was a mess of bloody gnarled flesh and fragmented stone.
“You feel big now!?” I yelled. “Do you!?” I yelled so loud it hurt.
He threw up his sword hand but was too weak to move it quickly. I caught it as it swung towards my back. I held it in my two hands and I could feel the metal frame in my costume bending to its limit as I applied force to different ends of the solid stone sword. It smashed in half with a crack that shook the air and made my arms hurt. I threw the broken sword through the air.
His stump of a left hand fell limp against his side. I grabbed the back of his neck and used it to lift his head up. Then I released it and shoved the palm of my hand against his forehead as hard as I could. The rest of his mask crumbled as his head impacted against the ground so hard it bounced. He looked up at me with bloody and bruised eyes.
“P…. Pl…. Please…” He groaned. I punched him as hard as I could right in his nose. I could feel it breaking, smashing. He would never look the same ever again.
“Do you want mercy?!” I yelled.
But he was unconscious. I stood up and walked away from him. He’d be unconscious for a long time. Long enough for someone to detain him. I slowly caught my breath. I walked over to the super soaker I left laying on the ground and I picked it up. Then I walked back over to where his unconscious body was. Dust was slowly creeping across his face.
Just as I thought. It heals his injuries. Typical.
I squirted the gun at the dust and it solidified on contact. Ideally it solidified in a way that didn’t bond to his muscles, but that didn’t really matter at this point. He was down for the count and that definitely stopped the healing process. “Bad dust.” I scolded.
His breathing grew shallower with the sudden weight. Realizing I couldn’t let him suffocate I walked over to the slumbering giant and ripped the newly created layer of concrete off of his face. Blood oozed from his open wounds. I put my back against the wall outside the alleyway. I slid down against it with my legs out.
I opened my hands and closed them repeatedly. My knuckles and fingers hurt like crazy. Otherwise I wasn’t really harmed. I squeezed my hands together as hard as I could, then I took a deep breath. I stood up, with the soaker held firmly in my hand. I walked over my slumbering enemy, and through the alleyway. I gave the chaos of the street a good long look.
I saw corpses cut in half. Corpses with smashed heads. Smashed rifles, smashed cars, smashed windows with corpses lodged in the glass, the entire side of a building completely smashed. I saw fires dying and growing. I saw soldiers running down the street. They passed me as they looked down the alleyway and quickly ran over to the body. I just kept walking down the street.
My knees hurt.
