WRITING PROMPT RESPONSES | SERIES | SUPERHERO FICTION

No Superheroes

A superhero story, part 5/5 — finale!

This is a response to Monday Mashup #32, from Jonathon Sawyer, delivered via five-legged horse:

It also completes this short fiction series, following on from the previous instalments: Top Team — Woof!, No Rest or Comfort, Gremlins and the Pizza Hideout, and Explosive Action. All of them are writing prompt responses, too!

Synopsis of the events so far: Poofie (a pomeranian-featured human) put together a team of people who were all mutated by an event called the Progenitor Incident. The team includes Coop (a pigeon-person), Jill (a.k.a. Camel-Girl), Hop (a big sapient grasshopper), and Twister (a blind snake with mysterious powers).

They learn that a mysterious foe named Doctor Lennox le Fay has been transforming people into gremlins via magic cookies. They track down le Fay and confront him at his headquarters, but discover a bomb! As Coop is keeping the civilians away, Hop leaps with the bomb to a nearby roof. Poofie, Camel-Girl and Twister confront the doctor, but a pair of hench-bugbears overpower them…

Poofie stared at Lennox le Fay’s staff, from which a lattice of powerful golden energy was emanating, half-filling the room.

Could the warlock’s words be true? Did he actually cause the Progenitor Incident? If so, le Fay created them all!

There was a cackle. “The world was full of useless humans, eating too much and thinking too little,” said le Fay, as if sensing Poofie’s confusion.

“But why?”

“You were nothing, sitting at home unconcerned for the plight of others. Now, thanks to me, look how improved you are.” He laughed again.

Jill was squirming and groaning on the floor where she had been duck-taped by the bugbears. “But there will be no people to save if you get your way!” she called out.

Poofie was now barely listening to his companion. The staff’s power was hypnotic. He stepped closer. Could he push his way through the golden energy lattice?

Making a decision, he leaped forward. As he did so, a blast of energy filled his body, jangling in his teeth and fizzing in his belly, and he fell to the ground. On some abstract level, he realized he was being electrocuted, and had collapsed half in and half out of the lattice.

He would die here…

But the staff was in reach. Digging his claws in, he squirmed forward by another yard and grasped the base of the staff with one paw-like hand.

Suddenly, the room went dark.

“Help me,” croaked a voice.

Poofie groaned, then got up onto his knees, still gripping the staff. It was still upright and still rooted in the centre of the room, but pulsed with a much gentler energy that formed tiny silver sparks. Although the room around him looked similar, Poofie couldn’t see another person, nor the energy lattice, nor the smoke and the action outside. All was calm, and there was no sign of le Fay.

“Help,” came the voice again — a disembodied voice. The staff! It was… speaking to him?

“Who are you?” Poofie replied, no knowing quite where to look.

“I am Doctor Lennox le Fay.”

“Lennox le Fay is a crazed warlock who is trying to kill us all.”

“The le Fay that you know has been consumed by an evil not of my making. My brilliance and power is being used without my will. I am just an innocent scientist with an overabundance of curiosity.”

“Hmm.” Poofie got to his feet, but felt compelled to keep holding the staff as he did so — perhaps this mysterious voice could provide answers. “Where are my friends?” he demanded.

“Can’t you manage without them?”

“That’s not an answer.”

“You are… so dependent! You could do better, kid.”

“I am Dog Man! I don’t need help, I…”

“Dog man?”

“We’re workshopping it… The point is, I’m part of a team. It’s a choice, not a weakness.”

There was a dry chuckle. “Free me, and you’ll be back with them. The demon that took hold of me will be gone, too. I can return to my life’s work with some control — not this madness.”

Poofie was silent for a moment, then shook his head. “You are too dangerous to release.”

“Then you’ll die here with me.”

Poofie fell silent again. Was Doctor le Fay telling the truth? One thing he felt sure of was that this was a different le Fay. But he wasn’t sure that either could be trusted.

“We can still make a difference, you know,” le Fay’s voice coaxed. “Don’t you feel alone, Dog-man? It’s too late to stop my technology, but the people don’t have to transform into gremlins. Why not more dogs? More pigeons? If you help me, I could make everyone just like you and your friends. Just think — you’ll be the head of the clan, a natural leader worldwide. But you must act quickly.”

Poofie frowned. “What’s your role in this scenario, le Fay?”

There was no answer to this question.

Poofie still held the staff, but as he looked around, he could see only shadows moving in the near-dark room. “So I can get my team back? Go back to fighting crime?”

A laugh. “That’s cute. Well — as you wish. As I said, you’ll be head of the pack. Just… release me.”

“Why do you insist on mocking me, Le Fay? Didn’t you say you were a good guy, held prisoner by some demon?”

“I don’t recall saying anything of the sort. Good? Bad? I’d rather see myself as a pragmatist. An experimenter, certainly. My mistake was to trust one of my creations.”

“So, the gremlins are your creations?”

“Yes. Of course. Those I can control.”

“And the bugbears too?”

A growling came in response. “Those are my only mistake. They sold me out. Free me, and I will kill them. We’ll all be safer.”

Poofie snorted “How would I even free you? What do I need to do?”

“Knock the bugbears unconscious. They have a psychic hold over me. Without it, I will be restored to my true self, and can stop this madness.”

And transform every human worldwide, Poofie thought, but didn’t speak aloud.

He felt himself suddenly repelled by the staff and the power it represented. He let go, stepped back, and became aware of his surroundings again, a dazzling brightness. He was standing, alive, but once more outside the lattice of energy.

At that instant, Coop swooped through the window, smashing it and sending shattered glass rattling across the scene, some transforming into showers of confetti when it hit the lattice of energy. A fraction later, Hop charged through the door. The great grasshopper looked singed and wounded, but she was alive!

le Fay, meanwhile, was still inside the protective lattice. And the staff was now glowing brightly. A broad, insane grin had crossed the warlock’s face, and Poofie felt sure that the plan was on the verge of culminating.

“Get the bugbears!” yelped Poofie, realizing that the heavies needed to be taken care of. Coop stepped over to tackle one bugbear, flapping at its face, while Hop barrelled into the other, and wrestled the creature to the ground. As the two struggled and tussled, one of Hop’s feet whacked Twister in the face. The magical snake-hero groaned and reared up. As Twister rapidly came to his senses, he began firing bolts of dark energy from his blind eyes into the bugbear that Coop was fighting. It staggered back, screaming, and slumped to the ground.

“Die!” yelled Twister, now turning on le Fay. But his energy bolts fizzled against the lattice, useless.

Poofie hurried over to Camel-Girl, and bit through the duck tape that had restrained her. Hop had found a baseball bat from somewhere, and was thumping the second bugbear into submission.

“Stop, Hop!” yelped Poofie, feeling suddenly fearful that the slippery le Fay would get exactly what he had asked for if both bugbears were rendered unconscious.

“What?”

“Drop the bat. Don’t knock him out cold.”

“Really?”

“Just trust me, Hop!”

“Fist fight it is then!” Hop dropped the bat, which bounced and landed near the lattice.

Several pizza-carrying gremlins now swarmed in through the door, and Coop thumped each one with a flurry of wings, knocking them back into the singed and rained-on hallway.

Local people were gathering in the hallway close behind, struggling with and subduing some of the gremlins. “Is that little Frank?” one of adults shouted, recognising a T-shirt worn by one gremlin. “My son!”

Meanwhile, the struggle between Hop and the second bugbear showed no sign of slowing.

Poofie reached for the baseball bat, and faced Doctor le Fay through the lattice. “You have to stop, le Fay,” he said. “Listen to me — you’re not in your right mind. These bugbears are controlling you.”

“You’re out of time!” shrieked le Fay. The staff was glowing white now, smoke rising from its tip.

“I can finish the bugbear,” called Twister ominously, rearing up to maximum height.

“Help me, team!” snapped Poofie. “I need to get at that staff.”

In response, Coop staggered back from a gaggle of gremlins, feathers flying, and Camel-Girl took his place. “I’ll hold them back,” she called out.

“Then I’ll make an opening,” said Coop, moving towards the lattice, “even if it kills me.”

Poofie nodded. “For the team.”

Coop slammed his wings into the lattice, howling as a stench of burned feathers rose up. Hop joined him, her chitinous arms further breaking the energy barrier. The interruption was enough for Poofie, who dived through the gap, raised the bat, and thumped hard at the centre of the staff.

“No, stop!” yelped Doctor le Fay, grabbing Poofie by the shoulder. But Poofie sank his teeth into the doctor’s hand, and kept hitting the staff.

It was tough and resilient, however, and his hits seemed to be making little impact.

Hop now pushed half of her body right through the gap and inside the lattice; unlike Poofie and Coop, she seemed undamaged by its power. With one angular leg, she pushed the vile-looking necromancer back against the magical lattice, and using another limb to bend the staff into an unnatural angle.

Poofie raised the bat once more, and thumped down on the now-strained magical staff. It was enough. The staff cracked, split, and then disintegrated into a pile of splinters. In an instant, the lattice vanished.

Le Fay screamed, and then collapsed. Poofie didn’t see everything that happened next, for his body was filled with an agonising pain. He felt his face distorting, his limbs lengthening. It was like the Proginator Incident all over again. He had been too late — this was what it felt like to turn into a gremlin.

Except… He felt at his face, and then his teeth. No luxuriant fur, and no sharp teeth or ears either. He felt his nose, mouth, chin... Yes! He was back to his human form. He looked at Coop, and felt his heart leap — his friend was also restored to his familiar form, tall and athletic.

They embraced, but Coop recoiled in pain. Poofie realized that his friend’s arms were badly burned. “I didn’t know…” Poofie murmured.

“I’ll be all right,” said Coop. “We managed it — that’s what counts.”

Poofie now stepped away and looked around at the others. Hop had transformed into a wiry middle-aged woman with tattoos and short gray hair. “You’re older than I was expecting, Hop,” he said.

“Hehe. I’m 58. You?”

“Thirty seven. Wow — you’re old enough to be my mom.”

They both laughed, then looked around. Outside, in the hallway, people were embracing children that had transformed back to human form. “Maybe we shouldn’t mention the dead gremlins in the dumpster back at base,” mused Coop.

Twister was still curled on the ground, and as Poofie watched, the former snake-hero uncoiled into a slim, suited man in sunglasses. “Damn, I was starting to like my powers,” he said, as he stood.

Camel girl, or rather Jill, had now transformed back to a muscular and attractive woman of six feet in height, and very long braided hair that could only be described as camel-colored. “Well, I guess this is it,” she said sadly. “We have no powers now. We’re nothing!”

Poofie grunted, then leaned over the prostrate Doctor le Fay, and slapped the man’s pale cheek. “Can you hear me, Doctor?”

The eyelids flickered, then le Fay sat up and looked around. “My office? What happened,” he grumbled. “You fools have trashed it. And the bugbears…” Then his eyes widened. “My staff! Did you idiots break my magical staff?”

“I saved your ass, le Fay,” snapped Poofie. “A ‘thank you’ is all I need from you. If Twister’d had his way. You’d be dead by now.”

Le Fay huffed.

Poofie looked over to the bugbears, now transformed into a pair of tracksuit heavies, cowering in one corner.

“Better get the doctor out of here,” said Poofie to the pair, glancing over at the parents in the corridor. “He’s no warlock, now, but he’s still a bad dude. This neighbourhood won’t be kind to him if he sticks around.”

The pair slowly picked themselves up and walked over to their master’s side. Soon, they were helping a limping, coughing le Fay down the stairs.

Twister sat at a chair by the window, and lit a cigarette. Coop had found a broom and swept up some of the glass and confetti. He paused contemplatively, looking towards the window. “You know, if le Fay’s not using this place,” he said. “It has a much better view than the warehouse.”

“But… we’re not crime fighters any more,” said Jill.

“We’re not superheroes,” said Poofie. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t fight crime.”

The End.

All right, all right… But what about the score?

Main prompt:
Your protagonist becomes the head of 'The Family'! Well... Poofie was offered such a chance. Does that count? Half a mark...? 1 point.

Constraints:
A baseball bat – 1 point
Tons of confetti! 1 point
An improvised weapon – wings? 1 point
Your guess at my mom's age! My money is on 58, but 1 point either way for the guess, I reckon.
This box - 1 point

Hardcore Constraint:
Introduce (or reintroduce) a character who suffers from being permanently deaf, blind, or mute – this was my chance to revisit Twister! - 2 points

Literary Device:
Outline a classic "Hero's Journey"... Hopefully, if I got this right, Poofie's experience fits the bill. 5 points.

Total: 13/14 points

Thanks for the challenge! As you can see, it was the perfect kick up the butt for me to complete this short superhero series.

I challenge Nanji Erode and Camilla Seth to have a try at this challenge or next week’s!

Thanks for reading! You can find my fiction and poetry here, including lots of stand-alone fantasy stories, and my articles about creativity writing and author skills right here.