The Misadventures of the Man Formerly Known as Victor Heart

My troop’s success led to increased fame in my base as I became known as Four-eyes as it seemed like I had a pair in the back of my head. It was not the most intimidating or impressive name, but I liked it as I never had a nickname before.

Everyone wanted to know my secret, but I knew that I could not have been the first person to discover what hid in the shadows of our world. If what I was doing was without large risks, it would be wider spread in the military. I would either disappear or be forced to stop if what I was doing got out.

The first two people I drew into my secret group were two other people in my batch of recruits, Eli and Barbara. They were ambitious like me and would ignore the dangers like me as well.

Years later the three of us were famous within our camp and I got an offer to lead my own elite team with Eli and Barbara. We were stuck with new recruits though, Thomas and Tad.

Our group became even more well known as we were able to convince the new recruits to follow along with us.

The group was made up of the following members at the time:

Me an early thirties black man with the standard increased physical abilities and seismic sense.

Eli Popov a muscular white guy of a similar age that needed to always wear sunglasses due to the cockatrice blood he regularly consumed. The ability that it granted was a paralyzing glance that unfortunately was always active.

Barbara Perez a slim Latina that wore long sleeve shirts and gloves due to her blood choice. She chose basilisk blood that granted her a toxic touch that like Eli’s was impossible to turn off.

Johnathan Smith, one of the two younger members, was a blonde that chose sphinx blood granting him increased intelligence and wisdom.

The other younger member, Sherman Jefferson, chose mongolian death worm blood. It allowed him to swim through the sands like water.

We became known throughout the military as the go to team in the area to take on bases. We were a well-oiled team that never failed a mission. The army in their infinite wisdom decided to add a new gear to that well-oiled machine.

Trevor Long was a hothead even before the addition of Jinn blood gave him pyrokinesis. Afterwards he was a liability, and this came to a head on the mission that brought you here.

The mission started off with business as usual.

I took off my boots and wiggled my toes in the sand to scout out the enemy base. My seismic sense allowed me to create a map of the base with the position of guards and equipment. Johnny and I then came up with a battle plan based off my map in the sand.

Sherman tunneled up to the wall and then launched himself out of sand with Eli, Trevor, and Barbara wrapped in his arms. Sherman was able to soften the landing leaving the enemy combatants oblivious to their guests. When they landed in the center of the base, they split up as planned.

Sherman went back in the sand and proceeded to pull the various pieces of equipment stashed around the base into the sands.

Eli and Barbara went around taking out the guards as stealthily as possible. Eli would paralyze them and then slit their throats. Barbara took off her gloves and ran her fingers over unsuspecting throats. Johnny and I provided support with our suppressed rifles utilizing our enhanced abilities to avoid a single missed shot.

We were able to take out most of them without suspicion, but then our rookie lost his cool. He started throwing around fire willy nilly. The camp went up like everything was doused in gasoline.

Eli and Barbara got out with the help of Sherman leaving the arsonist behind to continue his f*ckup.

It’s hard to say who was angrier, the people who got caught up in an impromptu bonfire or me who had to explain how an enemy base burned to ash without any heavy ordinance of our own or any reason to use it.

Trevor came walking out looking like a burnt corpse with eyes made of fireballs and spikes sticking out irregularly from all around his figure.

Before we could tan his hide for what happened or ask about his new appearance, he released this strange screech that dropped everyone else to their knees. They then started to change.

***

“It’s an alpha screech.” I explained to the man telling his story.

“What?” the soldier asked with a confused expression on his face.

Answering his question, “That strange screech that caused the transformations is called an alpha screech. The jinn you used must have had quite the pedigree to be able to use it, let alone pass it along in its blood. Alpha screeches are used by high level monsters to summon subordinates. These are usually already existing monsters in the area, but it can also awaken the dormant monster DNA in people creating new ones. This dormant monster DNA is usually some remnant of a distant ancestor, but it can apparently also be the result of long-term monster blood ingestion without sufficient plasticity. You apparently have such plasticity; your subordinates were not so lucky.”

***

My men’s bodies distorted and shifted on the ground. When they got up it was as changed people.

Sherman gained a sheen of slimy mucus and lost a lot of his facial features. His ears and nose turned into holes. While his eyes disappeared entirely. He also lost all the hair on his head and body.

Eli gained a red comb and wattle in addition to green scales and russet feathers.

Barbara gained grayish white scales and fangs.

Johnny now had brown fur and feathers all over his body. He also gained claws on his hands and feet.

They all turned to face me, and I got the message to run.

I got back to base and tried to explain how I lost my entire elite team on a standard mission. I did not do a great job at that as I am now talking to you.

***

“I’m sorry, but this story does not end well for you. You got your entire team addicted to a known dangerous substance and did it for no reason but pride and vanity. You will not be leaving this room.” I told the man before turning the glass of water he was drinking into a large spike that went through his heart.

I turned to my partner, “Well that’s settled. Let’s go comb the desert for a jinn, cockatrice, basilisk, sphinx, and Mongolian death worm. Hopefully before nightfall.”