Supers: Ex Heroes 8 - Ch 3

Chapter 3

Charm took a step toward the light, uncertainty coursing through her. 

“You don’t belong with them,” the voice said as the light pulsated. “Leave them behind, so that we can welcome you properly.”

“Never.” Charm stood strong.

What was happening here? I left her mind momentarily, focusing my eyes on the direction of the light, but saw nothing. Except… that’s not true—there were white mushrooms there, and when I looked closely, they seemed to be growing before my eyes. 

A step forward, and Charm grunted. 

She held out a hand, moving ahead as she told us, “Wait here… Give me a moment.”

My look of exasperation met Laurel’s wave as she thought, Let it go. Get in her mind again.

I nodded, closing my eyes and focusing. The light wasn’t in the same spot, the mushrooms wilting already. To my right—or rather, Charm’s right—a new light appeared, moving with her as she walked. 

“What you’re destined for here is far beyond their comprehension,” the voice said, and now I could almost make out a form—with wings, even—and legs that vanished into light where you’d expect the feet to be. This being was definitely related to what we had seen upon arrival. “They will only hold you back.”

“Who are you?” Charm asked. 

“A guide,” the voice replied. “While we didn’t expect your return, I must see that it isn’t wasted.”

“Well then, guide me.” As Charm walked, the being altered, forming into a small ball of light that zipped around her, then came up close to her eyes so that, for a brief instant, all she saw was light. It faded to reveal that same spot, but with only a few trees, and now with a war going on around her. Clashing blades, explosions and blasts, those with powers and those simply armed with weapons. Charm spun, taking it in. “Where am I?” 

No answer, though, as the being wasn’t there. Instead, her answer came in the form of a figure charging through his opponents, otherwise indistinct except for his fox ears and tail—both dark red. 

Charm put a hand to her mouth as she mouthed, “Dad?” She didn’t have any real reason to believe it was him, other than a deep sense that it was, one that I felt as strongly as any of her convictions. It could have been any of the Kitsune, but something told her it was him. There was certainly a similarity, some shared characteristics between the two. He didn’t have the light or multiple tails like Charm, but he was undoubtedly a badass. 

Dodging between the attackers of various types, the man strove to reach a tall, shadowy figure on the opposite end of the battlefield. He took down all enemies in his path, with the help of some friends. Some had fox features like his while others were mostly humanoid with small differences such as ear shape or skin color. 

The enemy was a hodgepodge of winged creatures like we had seen attack the Citadel. Others were more humanoid but with lines of red or black in their skin that glowed like ancient magic threatening to burst out at any moment. A nude woman with horns and massive wings—what I would describe as a succubus—swept down to attack while his companions took out three goat-like men who fought with oversized rifles. 

A dodge left, then a blur of red and orange as the Kitsune man who might have been Charm’s father attacked. He had moved unnaturally fast, leaving no doubt that he had some special abilities. 

Who are these people? I asked. What are they fighting for?

Charm spun, searching as if she had forgotten all about me in that moment, confusion heavy as her mind reeled.

My guess is, they’re showing Charm her father’s fight in order to let her know who her enemy will be, Laurel sent my way. To ensure she knows that she shouldn’t go it alone.

She wouldn’t. She has us. 

Right. A brief pause. But in this case, I imagine the spirit means itself. She will need it to guide her along the way.

Charm had just turned back to the fight when the shadow figure moved back to a shaded area beyond the hill, vanishing but leaving in its place three tall stone colossuses. They moved for her dad, one landing a strike that sent him down. 

“No!” Charm shouted, running to get to him, passing through others without seeming to realize it. She was halfway there when other forms arrived, one blasting the succubus back with a burst of green light from her hand. They grabbed her dad and dragged him away, retreating into… blackness. 

That eerie darkness they disappeared into seemed to be a sort of portal, since the image was suddenly swept into it, spinning, and then spit Charm back out—only a pair of eyes appearing from the shadows nearby, seemingly staring right at us, before Charm was pulled out of there. All of it faded, the whole battle gone as she reappeared back in the woods with the rest of us, and with that strange ball of light once more present. 

“What was that?” Charm demanded, spinning and looking for any source of a possible answer. 

The light moved away from her, then pulled at particles in its surroundings to transform into an amorphous shifting metal, colors changing and at times appearing gold and then red. Even from where I stood, I sensed its power growing.

“You are the key,” the voice said from it, still internal to her. “Follow the path.”

“I don’t… understand,” Charm said, voice racked with sorrow and confusion. She eyed the form, then hardened before reaching for it. “Let me back into that place. I have to help him!” 

It pulled away. “We stayed in too long already. What’s done is done.”

“No!” 

She lunged this time, glowing hands grabbing the form as her eyes flared with light. A gushing sound filled the air, trees suddenly swaying, needles and large leaves flying about. In that moment, the metal being moved into her, and now her power grew, too. Considering the foreign nature of this being, the action made me uneasy.

“Breaker!” Twitch shouted, but I hadn’t left Charm’s consciousness yet. 

“They’re coming,” the metallic form said. “I shouldn’t have shown you, not yet… not here.”

With that, I pulled back to myself, seeing that Laurel had a hand on my shoulder, likely willing me to return. 

“We have company,” she said, and Twitch was there beside us, her screens up and ready to form energy shields. A wind colossus was now forming, and gusts of wind were already flowing, picking up leaves and waving branches, revealing glimpses of massive darkness gathering around glowing specks of dust as they came together to form stones at the being’s center. 

“No… fucking… way.” I glanced around to be sure I wasn’t the only one. Sure enough, Charm was there at my side, reaching out to take my hand. 

“Like at the temple,” she said. 

As if in response to her noticing it, the metallic being emerged from her, circling around and darting out in the direction of the colossus. It only went a few feet each time, until Charm finally followed it. 

“What was happening over there?” Shimmer asked as she stepped up and took a defensive position in front of me, glancing back. 

“A connection to this place,” I replied. “One that I think Charm should…” My voice trailed off as I turned to see Charm moving within the shield but at the very edge, at the ready. That strange metallic presence was still there, darting about as if trying to say we needed to get out there and fight. “…should address.”

“And that?” Andromida asked from my other side.

“Again, up to Charm to tell. After we get out of this situation, though.”

“If it’s a threat,” Andromida said, hand up and about to see if she could manipulate the metal, “we need to deal with it now.”

“I don’t think it is.” I pulled her hand down. “First,” I gestured to the wind colossus forming overhead, “we deal with that.”

She nodded. 

“I’m on it,” Gale said, and stepped out of the energy shield. 

Instead of going with her normal ice attacks, she tried to meet this wind colossus with wind, seeing if she could break it apart. Each time she struck she seemed to get closer to dealing a solid blow, pulling at the wind that somehow kept form. One strike pulled at it so that the glowing stone at its center was revealed momentarily, blue and exploding with light that sent Gale flying back and into our shield. 

“Ezra had me face things like this,” I said, helping her to her feet. “We have to tackle it on that spiritual level he was trying to show us.” 

I turned back to my team, eyes stopping on Charm. “Are you with us? Can you help?” 

Her eyes snapped to me. “Of course.” 

“Even with… everything?”

“Whatever that was, it made me more determined to get answers.” She took her breath of light in, then flashed her claws. “Try and stop me.”

Not that I would, but I held up a hand as I addressed the others. “We have to do this together. Muerta, we’ll explain more of this after, sorry. But for now… maybe cause distractions in any way you can?”

“You got it,” Muerta replied. 

“I’m not sure I follow what we’re doing,” Shimmer admitted, right as the energy shield broke. 

“Reach within, try to get in touch with that energy—you can fight these things with our normal powers, but only as much as you can fight the wind. Throw shields at it and whatnot, contain it, sure. But the only way to stop it is to reach that other part of ourselves.”

Charm was the first one out, charging after her metal friend as if it was her guide, showing her where to attack. Following those fluttering tails, I ran right behind her. While she was dancing around, distracting the colossus from any would-be attacks, I mostly used my powers to get close. I needed to get in touch with the core part of it, the central force that brought the stone together. 

The wind colossus tore at us and threw us around. No matter what we flung at it, our attacks vanished in the wind. An attacked tossed us into the air, our team only able to recover when we managed to escape its area of attack. 

I slammed into a tree, then fell, tumbling. No more—I’d had enough, so I stood to counterattack.

All my energy went into that focus. All of my connection to Charm and that strange creature with her. All my emotions and power, until finally the core of the colossus exploded. It tried to come back together, but I wouldn’t let it, sending it flying around until suddenly the metal being with Charm absorbed it and the wind dispersed. 

Charm stared at me. She seemed to glow brighter, her metal companion now entering her as a fifth tail appeared. Five. Damn. Tails. It was all connected somehow, I was realizing. 

“You… did it,” Aegriss muttered, helping me regain my balance. 

The others stood in various degrees of exhaustion, sharing looks of relief. Except, apparently the fight wasn’t done. We stumbled back, eyes on the flowing winds and stones as they began to form more of those colossus spirits. Based on how hard the first had been to take down, we were in trouble. I wasn’t sure I had it in me. 

“Run,” I said. We took off, but hadn’t made it far before a group of a few dozen warriors rose in front of us, holding makeshift spears. They were covered in brightly colored body paint, but otherwise didn’t wear much. The few men wore strange cock-pieces. The women wore large leaves over their nether regions, but their breasts were free. All of them had white hair sticking out wildly in all directions, and piercings in their lips and nipples. 

“The fuck is this?” Muerta asked with a laugh. 

“I think,” Laurel said, turning to indicate the colossuses, “they’re trying to push us back that way. Like a sacrifice.”

“Kill them?” Andromida asked. Muerta looked like she was on board with that idea. 

“Maybe we don’t attack the first group we come across?” Aegriss suggested. 

“She has a point,” Twitch agreed. “They aren’t… exactly a threat.”

Where I came from, any groups pointing spears at us was exactly that—a threat. But, they were right. All of this bluster couldn’t do much at the end of the day. Not with our powers, ability to heal, and even control their minds. 

“Since they’re also the first group we’ve come across…” I eyed the strange people, then looked back at the incoming colossuses again. “Let’s find another way.”

“On it,” Shimmer said, and instantly our pursuers were gone. Or so it seemed. “I made them think the colossuses left, to see what happens next.”

“Let’s hope they move fast,” I replied. 

“On it,” Laurel noted, then grinned. “I gave them a sense of urgency.”

Indeed, half of the group was looking at the sky in wonder while the other half started to form around us, gesturing for us to follow or die. We were happy to oblige, and none too soon. Using my power to see outside of Shimmer’s illusion, the colossuses were incoming. As we moved, something slowed them—and I noticed more of those crystals out there, in the path. 

The beings didn’t cross that point!

I didn’t have long to linger on the thought, though, because soon we were pretending to be harmless, following this group of barbarians into torch-lit tunnels. They tried speaking to us, but it was no good. For once, our translation abilities weren’t working. 

“They’re basically demanding to know where we came from,” Laurel said, able to check with their minds. “But I wouldn’t know where to start with answering, other than via their minds—and that would tip them off to our powers.”

“Let’s not do that, yet,” Twitch said. “See where they take us, and go from there.”

Without any reason to do otherwise, we went ahead with them, and I started checking their thoughts, too. Confusion, questions, although none of it came as words. More like feelings and sensations. 

First, they led us into a throne room where a large woman with massive breasts stood discussing something with two teenage boys. They eyed our arrival. She waved off the youths, then sat on the throne. More questions, more confusion, except that at one point she indicated Muerta to come forward, all of us muttering excitedly. 

My check on their mental state seemed to say they found her divine, or extremely beautiful, I couldn’t tell which. The queen eyed me dismissively, then snorted and turned, apparently done with us. 

As her guards led us on, I noticed several pedestals with fragments of colored stones and crystals on them. More of their colossus worship, perhaps? It gave us a moment to think as they walked us along a corridor that had images of more colossuses painted in vibrant colors. 

“Worship, without a doubt,” Aegriss said as she scanned the images. 

“So, they sent us to some planet where the people worship core-stone-based beings,” Andromida noted. “Why?”

“Good question,” Charm said, but then froze. She was standing directly in front of an image that looked a lot like her. The painted form was a Kitsune with nine tails, the form black but with light shooting out from behind it. A silhouette, I guess. And the colossuses were around it as if protecting the figure. 

Our guide motioned to the image, demanding answers. None of us could understand, but I sensed what he wanted to know—was Charm this figure? There was doubt, though, because they couldn’t understand why the colossuses outside would have been attacking us if so. In which case, Charm was an imposter. 

And that thought angered these people, I saw as the guards nearby started arguing, pointing at the image and then at Charm. One even shoved another, and then they pushed us along. Oddly, nobody bothered to take Shimmer’s BFG. Maybe these specific people hadn’t had interactions with guns and didn’t know what it was? I was fine with that. 

Our journey ended with them leading us into a room with tall, blank walls and leaving us there. The guide and guards retreated up one of the many tunnels that led to this room, and then the sound of stone grinding—likely a door closing. 

“What’s this room?” I asked, glancing around at its high walls. “Is it supposed to be some sort of prison?”

“Not prison,” Shimmer noted from one of the nearby tunnels. She indicated, and we moved to see bones on the ground in the darkness of that passage. “We’re meant to be a sacrifice.”

Andromida laughed. “That would be the day.”

Chanting sounded in the distance, along with sticks thumping on stone, and then a burst of light shone through one of the passages. 

“Looks like it’s time.” Charm eyed Twitch. “Shall we go out the fun way?”

“Wait, no.” Laurel’s antennae were glowing, and she indicated the opposite direction. 

“What for?”

“A fire colossus,” I said, sensing it with my core focus.

Laurel nodded. “They seem to want to test us. Either Charm proves to be some figure they worship above the colossi, or they see us burned. Either way, a good show.”

I laughed. “Not such a good show for us.”

“How hard could it be to defeat?” Gale asked. “Fire, meet my water.”

“Sure,” I admitted, hoping she was right. Except then other passages lit up, too, and I was keenly aware of the fact that the fire behemoth wasn’t the only colossus coming our way. In that confined space, my hope for our survival certainly lessened. 

Movement from the right cast a shadow. We turned to see one of painted men gesturing us over. 

“Quick,” the man said, motioning for us to follow. 

“You speak our language?” I asked. 

He frowned, shook his head, then motioned us on and said again, “Quick.”

I nodded, leading the way to follow him out of there. We ran along a passage, the howling wind and sound of roaring flame echoing after us. More passages, until finally we emerged into a section of the forest above that had a similar look as before, except that here the trees had silky bark that floated around them like clothes hung out to dry, or ghosts clinging to the trunks for their salvation. 

The man eyed Muerta and stepped toward her, but then froze. His eyes rose to the sky beyond her, then he gave her a regretful glance before running off like his life depended on it. 

We turned to see a wind colossus there, incoming, and understood. 

“I think that guy had a little crush on you, Muerta,” Laurel said with a sly grin. 

“More than a little,” Muerta replied, eyes on the colossus as it approached. “You all might not have noticed the way he was ogling my tits, but I sure did.”

“Honestly, I just want some fucking cake and a chance to give Breaker a blowjob,” Charm said, half-teasingly but with some clear truth in her words. “Can we…” She gestured at the colossus. “Get this over with?”

Some eyes on me, I nodded. “No complaints here, with any of that.”

“I wouldn’t think so,” Gale added to my left, hair flailing out as she started to rise on the wind. “But for the record, I’d kill for some dim sum.”

“You have dim sum in the Oram system?”

“Only on one planet, but sure. What, you don’t think any Chinese people were among the early colonists?” She laughed. “Wasn’t Earth like half Chinese people or something back then?”

She had me there. Too often, I forgot about the fact that the Oram system had started with colonizers from Earth. And damn, dim sum did sound good. I was especially fond of the barbecue pork buns. 

“Let’s make it happen,” I grunted, preparing to attack and hoping we could fare better this time around.

We charged, but as we cleared the distance, more winds rose behind it to form additional colossi. Not good. We started our attack on it, me trying to reach into it and take control, to focus on what Ezra had taught us. It was no use, though—the being kept sending us flying or slamming us into the ground, clearly dominating our group. If we had been forced to go against these beings back in that sacrificial pit, we wouldn’t have even likely lasted this long.

It turned toward me, and a flare of panic rose in my throat. 

A blast of light flew into the sky from our right, then exploded in a burst that sent the wind colossus back. More bursts, and from my right I noticed a barrier of crystals rising out of the ground. A man with purple skin and long ears stepped up, waving his arms and forming more crystals. These were apparently the basis for some sort of shield. When enough of them were up, spirits like we had seen when we first arrived appeared, too. Maybe they were more reflections of power than actual power themselves?

We all fell back, gathering behind the line, relieved to find that the attacks from the would-be colossi were unable to move past those crystals.

For now, we were safe. Except, a small army of those purple-skinned men and women had now stepped out from the woods behind him. I wondered if we were any safer with this group than we were fighting against the wind spirits, but for the moment, he held up his hand to show that he didn’t want trouble.