No Capes: Chapter 1

Ryan guided his boat towards Cape City. He could see the faint glow of the harbor in the distance. He was ready to be back on land after three days on the Godson Sea. The massive inland sea created long ago by a meteor was always a pain to sail through and risky.

As if on cue, a winged lobster the size of a Saint Bernard shot out of the water onto his boat. The creature searched the deck for anything that might be food.

“You gotta be kidding me, this close to the port?” Ryan cursed. He had already dealt with a dozen similar creatures, descendants of those mutated by whatever the ancient meteor was made of.

Ryan had his own mutations or superpowers as most preferred to call them. He held out his hand and a small swirling vortex appeared above his palm before being replaced with a paintball gun, the same one from the small armory on the boat. This was the power he had inherited from his dad. The power to recall items, aptly named Armory.

Taking aim at the little sea monster. He hit his target and the balls exploded into a small red cloud of pepper. The little guy slipped back into the sea and hopefully learned a lesson about jumping on boats. Most people would have used more lethal means to deal with it.

Cape City grew larger on the horizon and the characteristics of the city became more clear. Massive skyscrapers climbed into the sky and small specks weaved through them in the air. Those whose superpowers gave them the ability to fly. This was the capital of the small nation of the Godson Republic, which encompassed the cities surrounding the inland sea. As the capital, it was the center of wealth for the nation and a prime target for a supervillain like him.

He steered the boat past the newer docks to those on the older, more rundown side of the city, where cold, hard cash was the only paperwork needed. He had gotten a few suggestions on which docks were best from some supervillains back in Cove City, his home for the past twenty years. If you called growing up on the streets a home.

Once he had the boat docked, he slipped into the cabin and pulled out an expensive suit with designer glasses to wear. Next was the blond wig he put on to hide his black hair. He looked himself over, the tinted designer glasses hiding his steel-colored eyes. While looking into the mirror, he shifted his posture into one more arrogant and filled with self-importance. How one would picture a rich boy with cash to burn.

The dockmaster took the wade of cash from him and gave him a concerned look as he counted the bills.

“Be careful out there, this side of Cape City doesn’t have a lot of heroes patrolling.”

He gave the man a warm smile.

“Thanks, I'll be careful.”

He lived on some pretty tough streets and the Extreme Durability superpower he had inherited from his mother had saved his life more than once already.

He pulled out his phone, set the GPS for his first target and followed the suggested path, and left the old part of the city. Quickly making his way to the shopping district.

“This lovely piece is platinum with black diamonds. Any woman would die to receive this as a gift!…. I know I would,” the saleswoman smiled as she handed Ryan the necklace to inspect. 

Ryan gave the saleswoman his best smile in return. He was fairly certain she was just trying to make the sale, but he also knew his rich boy persona for this type of con had an effect on women. He ran his hands over the necklace before handing it back to her, mentally assigning a number to it. A needed step for his Armory power.

“I’m sorry, that’s still not what I’m looking for. Are there any stores you would recommend?”

The saleswoman smiled as she slipped the necklace back into its box and returned it to the case. She listed a few high-end jewelry stores, all of which he had already visited. He gave her a friendly wave and he walked out of the jewelry store, nodding to the two guards as he passed them. They both were supers with physical mutations, one covered in scales and the other with a bulky build and horns. 

Physical mutations didn’t equate to power, but a lot of those with them worked as guards. A petite girl with laser vision might slice you in half, but people were more intimidated by those with physical changes, even if they didn’t make them any more powerful than a regular human. It was power-based discrimination at work.

He hoped management wouldn’t come down too hard on them after he stole all the jewelry the saleswoman had shown him. He smiled to himself, happy to have his total of high-end, pricy jewelry now at 136 pieces. Having seen them in person, laying his hands on them, and assigning each a number, they were as good as his. This would be his biggest heist yet.

He took his phone out and brought up an alternative path back to his boat. A trick he learned back in Cove City to help stay under the radar of any heroes. The path took some alleyways through the seedier parts, but once he ditched his rich boy getup on the way, he would look less like a tempting target.

He was a block and a half from his boat when the next turn he took brought an awful scene into view. He had stumbled into an execution.

A thug ruthlessly kicked a bound woman on the ground. He could see that she was wearing a colorful outfit that designated her as a superhero. She also had physical mutations in the form of Canine-like ears and tail. Her long auburn hair was wet with blood.

Nearby, another thug was spray painting a message across the brick wall of one of the buildings. A hulking woman with some mutation that made her skin stone gray watched as the graffiti artist worked.

Death to all heroes. Cape City belongs to the Five!

He must have made some kind of noise because the gray-skinned woman turned and grinned at him.

“Well, what do we have here?” she asked.

Ryan had activated his power the moment he saw what was going on. As she finished saying her words a revolver materialized into his hand. Without an ounce of hesitation, he raised it and fired three shots, one for each thug.

The graffiti artist and the one attacking the super dropped with gaping holes blown into their bodies. The revolver and its ammo were specially modified to deal with most supers. An heirloom from dear old Dad, the shitty bastard.

While it packed a punch, there were still powers that it couldn’t even scratch. As was proven when the gray-skinned woman stood back up and snarled at him.

“That fucking hurt!” she yelled once she got to her feet.

She charged at him and he quickly dodged out of the way. Raising the revolver he fired two more shots that were as effective as the first one. One had even been a headshot and just ricocheted off her skin.

She’s bulletproof…..FUCK SHE’S BULLETPROOF!

He was trying to figure out how he was going to deal with her when her fist slammed into his face. Super Strength was another of her powers apparently as it sent him flying into the adjacent wall. Extreme Durability kept the punch from killing him or even causing serious injuries, but it still hurt like a bitch.

He let out a groan as he started to try and get back on his feet. A swift kick knocked his feet out and he was back on the ground. The woman was straddling him in an instant.

“Cute and durable. You’re just my type. Unfortunately,  you pissed me off and killed my coworkers, so I’m going to pop your head like a cherry.” 

Her hands grabbed his head and started squeezing. It was his durability against her strength. He tried to buck his hips in an attempt to throw her off, but she was incredibly heavy.

“My Stone Skin triples my body weight. There’s no way you're throwing me without super strength,” she taunted him. “Now, let’s see how small your brain is for picking this stupid fight. You should have just kept walking. Now I’ll string your corpse with hers.”

He had one more trick left and grabbed her head in much the same way that she held his. She laughed at him.

“You’re not strong enough too—” her words cut off as she went cross-eyed and blood leaked from her eyes and nose.

He summoned the first thing that came to his mind, with his power; the necklace from the jewelry store. The necklace appeared between his hands, still holding her head, which pureed her brain.

Her dead weight was just as hard to move from off of his chest as when she was alive and fighting back. After several attempts, he managed to shift enough of her body from directly on top of him and was able to slide the rest of the way out. He stood up with a painful grunt. His body was going to be sore the next few days and he was sure he’d have a nasty black eye in an hour or two.

He looked over at the tied-up woman. She watched him the best she could with one eye swollen shut from the beating she had received. He used his Armory power and a first-aid kit appeared in his hands.

“Give me a second and I’ll get you bandaged up and out of here.”

He unzipped the first aid kit and pulled out some bandage scissors to cut her bindings. He noticed the patch stitched to her super suit.

In-training Hero

He grimaced. There were some universal rules on the streets for those with superpowers. One: Don’t slaughter normies. Two: Big-name supers don’t go after small-fry villains. Three: Don’t murk a rookie super. Someone trying to do a gangland-style execution on a trainee was a thousand times worse. It was a great way to get one of the top ten ranked supers on your organization's ass with the kid gloves off. 

He was about to cut the bindings when something collided with him and rolled him across the ground until he hit the wall of a building.

He looked from the ground to see a woman in a red super suit standing over him. Her black hair was cut short and she glared at him with a look full of fury.

“I was—”

Before he could explain that he was trying to help, she reached down grabbed him by the throat, and pulled him upright. With his throat still in her grasp, she shot straight up into the air until they hovered over the closest building. It had to be at least 5 stories high.

“This is for Erica, Monica, and Kim, you fucking Five bastard!” The woman’s voice cracked and he saw her eyes swell with tears. 

She flew straight at the building below them. Ryan went head first through the roof, his durability power working overtime to keep him from getting knocked unconscious. She continued to use his head as a battering ram and they went through another floor. His durability power hit its limit and after going through one more floor, he began to lose consciousness. He looked back up to the woman and the last thing he saw was the rage on her face.

***

Angelia stood in front of the coffee bar in the corner of the meeting room and poured herself a cup of coffee, already knowing it was going to be stale. She glanced up at the poster that depicted herself when she was in her prime and was a hero of Cape City who went by the moniker of Magblade. Now she was on the Board of Directors for the Cape City Superhero Organization, or CCSO, along with 3 other former superheroes. 

There was Stu, a superhero from the Silver Age who was known as Mr. Dashing due to being a speedster. Sara was the closest to Angelia in age, they were both in their late 30s and went by Bonespur. Last was the youngest of the Board of Directors, Rin, whose superhero alias was Moonlight. Her fellow Directors were currently behind her sitting at the meeting table, folders and pictures scattered on the table.

They’ve had several late-night emergency meetings this week while trying to figure out how to deal with The Five of Cape City hunting and killing in-training heroes. Three young and promising heroes had met their end at the hands of these villains, their bodies mutilated and left with taunting messages. Tonight they had received their first break in the case, although it had turned into quite the clusterfuck.

“I don’t even see why we are discussing this. He’s a thief! Lock him up and give Mimic the credit for saving the rookie and taking out the thugs. She could use the good PR,” Stu growled.

Sara glared at him with blood-red eyes caused by her mutation. She oversaw the training and team building of the CCSO heroes. She had worked very closely with each of the in-training heroes killed.

“Her. Name. Is. Rachel.” she said through gritted teeth.

“What?” Stu asked.

The look that Sara threw Stu's way made Angelia worried that she might try to kill the retired hero. Instead, Sara pulled out a tablet and shoved it in front of him.

“Rachel Miller, a sweet, optimistic girl. Who the thief you want to lock up kept her from ending up like “Monica..." Swipe "Erica..." Swipe "And Kim." Sara continued to swipe through the tablet, going through the pictures of the girls from their crime scenes. Stu grimaced and tried to look away. 

They knew very little about the thief, only that the necklace found in the skull of the Class-A villain, Highway, during her autopsy seemed to have been stolen at the same moment that the villain had died. Also, there was no entry wound for the necklace.

Right now the thief was sedated in a hospital bed after his run-in with Mimic. He only had minor injuries and it was clear one of his powers was durability or regenerative since he survived Mimic's attempt to kill him.

“Those bastards killed my girls! He took out three of their enforcers, including one that had EMP-based powers that shut down the trackers in the supersuits. That’s how Mimic found Rachel, her suit started transmitting its location again. He might have crippled The Five's ability to do this again by killing those sons of bitches.

“So, yes. We are discussing this! I want to try and recruit him as an in-training hero, offer him a pardon or some shit. Also, get Mimic refresher training in situational awareness. So she can determine the difference between someone attacking and someone giving first aid!” Sara was yelling at Stu at this point.

The elderly hero gave a sigh and turned to look at Rin. She was looking through a folder that had pictures of their thief, as well as some stills they believed were him from the security video of the jewelry store where the necklace had disappeared.

“Surely you don’t support this? It's a PR nightmare waiting to happen,” Stu asked.

“He’s hot,” Rin answered.

Angelia almost spewed her coffee, Stu made a noise that made her wonder if he was about to have a brain aneurysm, and Sara just smiled. Rin looked at all of them with a serious face.

“You want to talk about a PR nightmare? We had ten recruits this year, the lowest on record. Also,  within the last week, three recruits have been murdered and four have announced their resignation. Rachel is an unknown, but I wouldn’t be shocked if she resigns as well.

“It has also been over five years since we had a male recruit, this is due to the private sector offering better pay and a generally low desire for men to don the cape these days. To put it bluntly, adding some sausage, spicy bad boy sausage at that, to this clambake might help drive up our recruitment numbers,” Rin said.

Angelia’s tablet chimed alerting her to a new email arriving in her inbox. When Sara had made her intentions known to recruit the young man, Angelia had ordered a DNA test on him to see if he was in the system for any crimes and the results had just arrived. She quickly opened the email.

Shit seriously!

“His name is Ryan Burrow and his record is spotless, not even a traffic ticket.” Angelia looked at everyone in the room before continuing.“His biological parents are both in the system. They are both dead though, so that shouldn't be held against him."

Angelia figured it would be Stu that would push for more information, but Rin spoke first. Her mind was always thinking about the PR angle.

“Anyone of note?” Rin asked as she messed with her tablet.

Angelia sighed.

“He is the child of War-Crime and Shellshock according to the DNA results.”

Rin's fingers froze over the tablet. She looked up and said, "Whoa. Very spicy sausage."

Sara whistled, her usually neutral face shifted into a savage grin. Angelia knew she wouldn't like whatever idea had just popped up in her head.

"Damn. With a pedigree like that, he has to have some potential.”

Stu wordlessly stared at Angelia, trying to gauge her feelings on the revelation. After all, she had fought against War-Crime alongside Shellshock when she had defected from her boss and apparent lover. She still had nightmares about that battle.

“Like I said, this will not be held against him and this information WILL not leave this room, understood?” Angelia asked.

She got nods of agreement, though Stu did so with some reluctance.

“Good. I see no reason not to offer him a place in the CCSO.”

Sara pumped her fist in victory, Stu sighed in defeat and grumbled about how CCSO was run during the Silver Age of heroes, and Rin had a tablet out working on something, probably trying to figure out how to present Ryan to the public if he joined.

“I’ll make the pitch to him. No offense, but Angelia, you would probably be too cryptic, Stu would just piss him off with the Silver Age ideas, and Rin,” Sara stared at the young PR Director before she met her gaze and gave a sigh.

“I know how to act around men and not be a horn dog,” Rin protested while rolling her eyes, though she did a poor job of hiding the smirk on her face.

Sara shook her head and turned her attention back towards Angelia.

“Also, Angelia, I want the necklace they pulled out of Highway's head. I already sent payment to the jewelry store for it so it’s already mine. Think you can get the lab rats to clean it up in the next few minutes?”