Chapter 8 A night out in the city
It was bright tonight, the clouds having quickly parted not that long after we left Rachal auto shop. The sky lit up with hundreds of stars and galaxies and bright lights coating the city in a mesmerizing purple light. Years ago a top Rouge aka powered person with no affiliations to hero or villains stargazer Used their power to make it so that at night everyone could see the beauty of the universe.
A lot of the world has been changed by people with powers hell even the Docks and the area around has been put in a permanent winter by a powerful villain named glacier years ago never been the same since. I wonder if I'll be able to change things like these people are able to, maybe one day.
Anyways I’m in the back of Mary's car laying my head as I listen to the city heart beating around, people talking, heroes doing their work, people doing their jobs and people just living their lives enjoying this beautiful night.
“Hey Richy got any specific places you wanna go to tonight?” I open my eyes and stare at Mary.
“I’m cool with anything really”
“Boooooooring” Rachal chuckles a bit
“Hey guys I know this one area it’s a park with a ramen shop close by maybe we can head over there” Rachal says with a big smile
“Sure”
“Yeah that sounds good”
Mary turns the car onto another street as she starts listening to Rachel directions. I got back to listening to the area around as I just noticed how tense my body has been lately like it’s ready for action probably because of multiple fights I had over the last couple days.
I focus on the hero battles in the distance and wonder why people do it? Why do they risk their lives for people they don’t know? Is it for money, glory, fame just because it was right? Why did I save someone I never would have done that before but maybe with all these powers I felt like I could actually do something. I felt good helping people seeing those girls see the light again. Maybe I got that spark mom talked about. The spark that causes people with power to do what they do, good or bad.
I want to do some good, I want to help people, I want that same feeling I get from saving these girls. Maybe later I can talk with Mary about maybe becoming a hero or at least attempting to. I felt the car stop as I noticed we were near a park.
“Were here” I can feel the delight radiating off Rachal as Mary smirks at Rachal as there's an odd look in her eyes. I get out of the car having to duck down a bit as we start walking towards the park. It’s a pretty large park and it’s filled with cherry blossom trees. Their peddales litter the ground making the ground just as pink as the trees.
We walk for a bit as Mary chats with Rachal about random topics as I just gaze at everything around me. The cherry blossoms just give everything a peaceful vibe, makes you wanna just lay next to a tree and relax, Reminds me of home. Wait what was “hey Richard stop standing there or will leave you behind” I hear Mary calling me as I shake my head and walk over.
We walked for a bit longer as I noticed this park was kinda empty. “So where are we heading?”
“Well be there soon be patience” Rachal tail is just staring at me it’s very unnerving. Eventually I spot A wooden cart with an open window as I can smell someone cooking. Most non high end restaurants are usually on wheels since they don’t have enough money to hire super powered bodyguards and staff meaning they gotta be able to leave quickly when shit goes down.
We walk over as we all take a seat as eventually someone comes over. He stands at 6 foot with a muscular build he seems of asian descent. He has long gray hair tied into a bun as he wears a typical chef's outfit. The most unique trait about him is eyes are shut closed and have large claw scars on both of them, he's blind.
He quickly sniffs the air as he smiles “ah good to see you again Rachal-san and Mary-san” he sniffs the air again “who is your friend?” Rachal smiles as she speaks “good to see you too Okami-san this Mary’s brother Richard”
“Sup” he smiles as he turns his head in my direction “nice to meet you richard-san I heard very interesting things about you from Mary”
I raise an eyebrow “what did she say?”
“That you don’t talk much” he lifts up a hand to shake mine. I take his hand and he actually has a firm grip but as he shakes my hand his smile falters a bit.
“Is something wrong?” Rachel questions.
“He’s just got a strong grip. Now anyways what are the 3 of you orders this time let me guess the usual?” he points at Mary and Rachel “of course” they both said at the same time.
He points at me “and you?” I ponder for a couple seconds “I'll have what they're having” he nods as he walks away and I can hear him cooking. After a minute he comes back with 3 streaming bowls of ramen “here comes 3 bowls of dragon breath ramen enjoy” as he places 3 bowls of ramen in front of us.
The ramen looks pretty good as I can smell fish, vegetables and something spicy. “It’s really spicy so don’t take big bites” Rachal says as she is already halfway eating through the bowl. Mary is taking small bites as she's already looking a bit red from the spice.
I grab the chopsticks and take a bite. It's really good the fish mixes well with the spice as I quickly finish the bowl. “H-how The F-fuck are y-you too not reacting to s-spice like me!?” Marry says as she looks like she’s about to burst into the flame as she’s barely half way through her bowl.
“I breathe fire, I can handle some spice” Rachal says after she just finished her bowl.
“what she said” as after a couple more attempts at finishing her bowl Mary just stops as she takes several glasses of water from Okami she chugs them. Rachal chuckles as Mary's face is still red “shut up I just can’t handle spices” Mary quickly looks away hiding her face as Okami chuckles a bit.
“So Richard, are you a hero like them?” I stared at him as if he were a real man. Why did you have to ask that out of nowhere? Mary and Rachel stare at me with anticipation in their eyes.
I Tap my finger against the table as I think of an answer. “I uhhh I don’t know”.
“That’s a good answer you shouldn’t know the boy like you shouldn’t know if they're ready for such a big change in their life because if they make that change it can change them forever for good or worse”
“Uh thanks?”
“Well will cya later Okami were gonna go continue out night” Mary puts money on the table as she gets up and starts walking. Me and Rachel quickly follow after as Okami waves us off. I look at the places as I noticed above the window is the words Okami no sokutsu aka wolf's den wait I can read japanese now huh neat.
We all head back to the car as I hop inside “so where are we heading next?” Mary stares at me and smirks “A club”.
“But none of us are 21?”
“Well we all look 21 especially you” she punches me in the shoulder
“Plus I got some fake ids made by this wonderful creature” she wraps an arm around Rachel and pulls her in.
“It's nothing really wasn’t even that hard hehe” she blushes a bit as she lets out a nervous chuckle
“I’ll go only to watch you and make sure you guys don’t get into trouble” I have a feeling Mary will still cause trouble even with me around. With that Mary starts the car and we hit the road again. After about 20 minutes of me being silent and Mary and Rachal talking about how Many bananas it would take to make a nuke we end up in front of the club. It’s a two story brick building with a Vanta black neon sign that reads club void not ominous one bit. We walk over as Mary exudes confidence and Rachel has a nervous sweet. Mary hands me a fake id as it says I’m 21 instead of 18. Let's hope the bouncer buys it.
Surprisingly there was no line. Maybe this place was not that popular. The bouncer stood 10 feet tall and looked like he was made of metal. I don't know how his black shirt and pants fit him. I walk forward first and hope he'll find out the ids are fake.
He stares down at me with his silver eyes “Are you 3 here for Business or pleasure?” His voice was deep and sounded like a volcano erupting.
“Pleasure” Mary speaks up, he nods as he holds his watermelon sized hand out wanting our ids. We handed him our IDs, he then looked at them and then us. I give him a deadpan stare, Mary gives a confident grin and Rachel has A nervous sweat.
“Welcome to club” he gives a massive toothy grin as he hands us our ids and the steps out of the way so that we can enter. We enter inside a dark hallway as Rachel lets out a sigh of relief.
“I can’t believe that actually work”
“Don’t doubt yourself Rachel now come on let’s go have some fun” Mary drags Rachel to the door at the end of the hallways as we enter.
This place was a spectacle from the walls to the ceiling to even the floors and tables was Vanta black; this would make things hard to see if it weren't for the moving purple lights all over the palace. There were dozens of booths and tables, a dance floor with a DJ and bar. Something I noticed though was that everyone was mutant. except for a few exceptions everyone had some mutation to multiple eyes to being made of rocks even some people that look like slimes are having fun.
It was really cool as we looked for empty booths as eventually we found a booth and sat down.
“What do you guys wanna do first?”
“Maybe get some drinks?” Rachal rub the back of her as she replied to Mary her tail mesmerized by the lights.
“Sure” Mary called a waitress over; she had fox ears and several tails all colored white as she wore black work pants a white shirt and a vest as she walked over.
“well hello they-yur darlin' Aah see that ya thray are new he-yah” she had a smooth voice with a southern accent.
“Yep we like some drinks, any suggestions?”
“well the blood mary has bin' quite popular so aah suggest that” she gives a street smile as she bats away Rachel tail that tried to bite one of her tails, so it does have a mind of its own.
“Then will 3 blood marys please” I swear she only picked those because they had Mary in them.
“Ok 3 bloody mary's that all?”
“Yeah”
“Well then sugar aah'll be with ya folks soon with your drinks” she walked away as I noticed both Mary and Rachel were staring at the woman's ass. I looked too but I only took a glance and wasn't just staring at it, I mean it was nice so I can’t blame them. The fox girl walked up to the bartender who wore similar attire but was a dear man with clawed hands and a deer skull for a face.
The fox girl came over and gave us our drinks and walked away. The drinks were red like blood and I could smell the alcohol and tomato juice?
Mary held up her glass up “cheers to so far amazing night”
“Cheers” me and Rachel said as we all clink glasses and took a sip of the drinks. It wasn’t that bad, the tomato flavor was both sweet and savory and it was a bit spicy, it was very alcoholic though. Rachel spit a bit not liking the taste as Mary chugs hers. We sat there what felt like a hour just talking about our lives what we will do when summer ends and what classes we took for the final year of high school and what will do afterwards Mary and Rachel talk about there superhero careers and what there names will be and we got several orders of drinks as the conversations went on.
I sat in my seat as Mary and Rachel were deep in conversation, Rachel trying her best to keep up since even with an enhanced body she didn’t have a healing factor like me and Mary so she got a bit bussed. I looked around and relaxed using my hearing to listen to some interesting conversations.
Some people talk about their day, others work. I could hear some guys playing poker and it seemed like some guy named Isaac was lucky tonight or he was cheating who knows. I eventually picked up on a conversation going on between a small bunny guy and some guy with some of his body parts not attached and floating. Mr bunny was trying to flirt with floaty but floaty didn’t seem interested then mr bunny ordered some drinks. I noticed when floaty wasn’t looking mr bunny put something in his drink a little tablet The fucker was gonna drug him.
I tapped Mary on the shoulder and she turned to me with an eyebrow raised as I turned my head towards the bar “Mr bunny gonna drug floaty mind stopping his plan?”. She nodded as she put her hands to her mouth as if she was about to sneeze.
“Aachoo!” She made a fake sneezing noise as a small bolt of light shot out and hit Mr Bunny causing him to freeze up and fall over. I used my earth breath to make a small pebble then flick it at the sealing just at the right angle so that it would hit drink Mr bunny drug tip over and fall over hitting him over the head drenching him wet.
I snorted as the man got up and gave me a grimace as he walked off to probably get cleaned. Several people close to the bar stared at me too as they all look pissed, guess there were his friends. Me and Mary did a quick fist bump as Mary quickly grabbed Rachel who was drinking some water.
“Hey me and Rachel gonna go dance don’t cause any trouble” Mary once again gave Rachel that odd look.
“Wait wha” and before Rachel could finish Mary dragged her off to the crowded dance floor. I sat there rubbing the bridge of my nose. I can let them go do their own thing for a bit. Mary won’t do anything dumb I hope. I sat there for a bit as I tapped my fingers against the table for several minutes………I shouldn't overreact while having fun. I don't need to be around them all the time as I sat there for several more minutes…………ok I’m gonna go find them just to make sure they're doing fine.
I quickly got up and walked through the crowds of people to get to the dance floor. I walk past several people dancing, others making out several try to talk to me or flirt with me. A guy with pointy ears or a girl who kinda looks like a spider but I either just walk past them or push them away.
Eventually I got through the crowds and spotted Mary and Rachel…………they were making out. Mary The smaller girl had pinned Rachel against a wall and was gently kissing the other. Rachel's face was blood red as her eyes were dazed. Huh I guess that's why Mary was giving those odd looks to Rachel. Good for them, they'll definitely be an adorable couple, I wonder if I'll be a wingman. I go to walk away but I feel someone tap me on my shoulder.
“Hey I’m not Int” as soon as I turn around I get punched across the face. It wasn’t even a strong punch causing my head to turn a bit as I turned to look at the person who punched me.
Surprise, surprise it was Mr bunny or well more like Mr drink spiker. He was holding his hand as if he punched a wall. He turned to look at me as his eyes had a oh shit look as it was my turn. I punched him right in the gut causing the air to knock out his lungs as he flew into a table. I walked over to him and several people moved out of the way as I walked over to the little bastard and grabbed him by his shirt. “Hey buddy, let's talk about this. I was drunk and You look like my ex and I wasn’t thinking and you aren’t even hurt so we cool?” I go to punch him across the face as he tries to kick me in the dick. I kick his leg to the side as I hit him across the face but before I can continue I get grabbed and lifted up.
The bouncer is holding me and Mr Bunny as he walks out of the club and throws us out. I got up and grabbed him before he could run away. I hold him up as fear pops up in his eyes. “Let’s continue” I punch him across the face sending him sprawling across the ground and I go for a kick as he flinches but before I kick I feel something hit me across the face. I nearly fell to the ground as I stumbled several feet away as my jaw felt sore as I held it.
I turned to see a man with rock like skin helping Mr bunny up but that wasn’t just it then came a minotaur looking fucker and a man with pitch black skin with hair made of storm clouds and sparking blue eyes. Great, his friends from earlier are here and by the looks of it they all got powers great.
Great, I gotta deal with this guy's cronies as I wipe a bit of blood coming from my mouth as I get ready for a fight. “Kill the motherfucker!” Bunny yells in his very light voice as Mr bull and Boulder run towards me. Mr Bull got to me first as he went for a right hook as I duck under and shot out my foot hitting him In the calf causing him howl in pain I go for an uppercut but I hear a step near my left side. I jump into the air and land My hand on boulders head dodging a punch and with a quick kick to the noose I stop Mr bull from getting up. I then land behind Boulder as I open My mouth and fire a Volley of stone spikes. They don’t fully pierce him but cause him to stumble.
I hear some sparking as I kick myself off boulder as a blast of electricity hits the spot I was just at. As stormy hands were sparking I hit him with a blast of air But got kicked across the jaw as I felt blood shoot out of my mouth. Mr bunny now that he has some goons grew some balls to attack me. I go to grab him but hops away, coward. I duck again as Boulder goes for a punch. Then jump to the side to dodge Mr bull as he slams into the ground. I then hit his ankle with mine causing him to tumble into boulder. I jump as I grab boulder and use him to block an electric blast from Stormy as I toss boulder at stormy as he barely dodges.
I get grabbed by Mr Bull as He slams me into the ground again and again as I feel blood pouring from my forehead. Mr bull Goes for it again as I open up my mouth and knock him several feet with a wind blast knocking him on his ass and cutting him up. I turn my left hand to steel as I see Storming go for a lighting charge punch. I grab his fist and crush it “AAAAAAHHHHHH!!” I then throw him into a wall. I hear several steps behind me as I slam The side of my metal fist into Boulder chest hammer striking. I then elbow his chin, knocking his head up as I grab it and slam his chin on my knee causing the stone to crack.
I feel something hit my calf as I fall to one knee I then get kick across the face knocking out a tooth as my fraction slow down as I shoot out my hand grabbing Mr bunny by the leg lift him but before I could slam him into the ground I get tackled and I’m force to drop him as I get Tackled by Mr bull. I slam my elbow into back several times as he slams me into a wall cracking it. He uppercuts me and then pulls my head into a headbutt breaking my noise.
He goes for another punch as I slap it away with my steel hand as I jump over him, turn around grab him by his waist and suplexed him into the ground. His horn gets stuck into the ground, almost comical. As I duck under a sucker punch from boulder as I jump to the side as I dodge a kick from Mr bunny as I roll across the ground wrap my ankles around Mr bunnies and roll again knocking him to the ground as I shoot my foot to the right hitting him in the chin.
Boulder goes for another punch as I use My metal hand to do a handspring launching me into the air as I take deep breath and launch out a large stream of earth spikes. Boulder jumps over Mr bunny tanking the spikes as I land on his head I then dig my claws into his stony head I then flip over him and using that same momentum I flip him over me slamming him into the hard concrete cracking it. I take a breath as I hear sparking again as I fire out a water beam. It hits against the wall but knocks me back as it pushes me away from a powerful blast from stormy.
I got to blast him but I got uppercutted by Mr bull “Gotcha!” as he grabs my arm and twists it I feel the muscle pull and tear slightly as I feel the bone be slowly br pulled out of the socket. I grit my teeth as I feel pain in my right hand as it turns to steel not having fully healed yet. I palm strike him in the noise spraying blood across his face as I nerve strike him then hit him in the solar plexus causing him to fall to his knees as I got for a hook I feel something hit my back.
I feel My muscles tighten and my nerves flare as my thoughts scramble as I feel that my back is burnt as I’m launched to the ground. I try to get up but I’m kicked to the ground by Mr bunny. “Stay down you albino bitch actually help him up” As Boulder and Mr bull grab me by my arms and hold me up.
A stormy walk over and Mr bunny snaps his fingers as stormy hits me with shock to the chest “AAAAAAAHHH!” I feel pain run through my body as I get kicked across the face over and over and get shocked over and over. My face is heavily bruised, my body slightly fried as bunny goes for one more kick. I close my eyes and think as my perception slows down.
How can I get out of this situation? well isn't it obvious you idiot? I flex the left side of my face and focus as I feel my left side of my face become solid, denser, colder, more like steel. As I grin as I see Mr bunny face turn to shock as feel his foot impact with my face. I hear a satisfying crack as I turn my left hand to steel and twist my wrist and stab into Mr Bull's upper arm causing him to lose his grip and with a pull I drag my claws down his arm. I split the flesh, rip the muscles and cut even through the bone. Leaving the inside of his arm open to the world I chop Boulder in the throat causing him to choke.
I then turn my elbow to steel and crack him on the nose. I then grab him, his head slamming it into my knee as it turns to steel, shattering his jaw. I then threw him into Mr bull, knocking them down. I hear the sparks and with my slowed perception and enhanced reaction time I jump into the air dodging a blast of lighting from Stormy and landing behind Mr Bull who's still on top of Boulder. I grab Mr bull by his horns, stomp my foot on his face and with a sadistic grin I break his horns off his head.
Leaving bone shard and blood everywhere as I spin around and throw the horns at stormy as they stab into his shoulder and panning him into a wall.
I then leap forward and slam my metal hand face caving his nose and breaking his eye sockets as I feel the bones break under my strength. I turn my hand back to normal as I hear groaning as I see Mr bull and Boulder slowly getting up as I feel the build in my throat and I fire out a fire ball at them. It explodes knocking them into a wall burning them both. I sniff the air as I smell something salty and piss?
I turn to see Mr bunny quivering in fear as his pants are wetter. Did this bitch just pee himself? As I walk towards and kneel in front him tears stream down his eyes.
“Pl-please don’t k-kill m-me I’ll do a-anything”
“I didn’t like you kicking me so” I stand up and stomp on his calf and I hear a crack as it breaks. He screams in pain as I stomp on the other one causing him to pass out. I stand tired and hurt as I hear clapping. I turn to see the bouncer walk over.
“That was a fucking spectacle my friend” he gives a manic grin
“Why didn't you help me?” I wince as I feel my body slowly healing as I fall to a knee.
“Simple not my job”
“Fuck you’
“Understandable” he grabs the broken and passed out bodies of all my attackers
“I’m gonna take these guys and make sure they don’t die, their boss would be so pissed, see ya later Richard” as he walks inside. How did he know my name? You know what, I don't care, I wanna go home. After a couple minutes I see Mary and Rachel walk out of the club, they look like they had a good time I can tell from the hickies on Rachels neck.
“You guys look like you had fun”
“Yeah we di…………………………what the fuck happen to you!?” Mary runs over as I lay against the ground
“I got attack by rabbit fuck and his friends I won”
“You look bad we should take you to a hospital”
“You should see the other guys they all have broken bones” I snicker
As with some effort I stand up as I feel healed enough to move as I walk over to the car “can we please go home?”
“Yes Richy let's go home” as I get in the back of the car we drive to Rachels auto shop. Mary drops her off as I hear them talk about maybe going to a movie sometime, ew blossoming love it sickens me. As they kiss and Mary gets back into the car with a happy expression. As I Think about what Okami said, if I choose to become a hero at this stage in my life It might change forever. Well it’s already changed a lot so far so might as well add a few more plus I have a feeling I can actually do some good with these powers and help more people, become a good guy.
“Hey Mary”
“Yeah?”
“Can You help me become a hero?”
she grins as she turns to me “thought you never ask”.