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A Geeky Gryphon's Origins

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NickDaGriff:
Here, have another surprise chapter.  Just so you know this is actually going somewhere.  Probably.

CHAPTER TWO

[spoiler]The team’s vehicle was a bulky custom SUV covered in improvised armored plating and waiting just outside the warehouse.  Tough, dependable, roomy, and apparently powerful enough to have smashed through a house wall before the team was put together.  It actually belonged to Cooper, who treated it like it was his baby.  Of course, not many people would be willing to smash a baby through any amount of brick and drywall, but at least now everyone knew it could be done.

“Chop chop, people, let's go!” 

“God, we heard you the first time,” scoffed a young-looking teenage girl, currently staring down at her phone.  Sabrina Hedgeford-Yamato, better known by her Association pseudonym as Psy-kyo*, disinterestedly tapped away at a text message.  Without so much as a glance up, she climbed into the SUV and left the door open behind her.

Sabrina was Cooper’s girlfriend, having met him in college before she dropped out, and not quite as enthusiastic about the superhero gig as Cooper was.  She had a lot of potential with her low-level psychic and empathic abilities, and psychics tended not to stay in Class C very long.  However, her tendency to make rude hand gestures whenever talk of her unused potential came up spoke volumes.  She seemed content enough with where she was and responded poorly to authority, as evidenced by her many piercings, goth makeup, black hair partially dyed pink, and general rebellious attitude. 

Nick clambered into the back seat after her and closed the door.  He hopped up onto one of the side-mounted benches and clipped his harness to a buckled seat belt. 

“Is that everyone?” Cooper asked as he turned the ignition.  “Where's Mr. E.?”

“Right behind you,” spoke a French-accented voice from the formerly unoccupied seat.  Everyone in the vehicle jumped, then relaxed when they saw who it was. 

A humanoid figure in a beige trenchcoat sat there, face covered with a featureless slate-grey mask (not unlike a balaclava minus the faceholes) and topped with a beige fedora.  Mr. E., aka Monsieur Étranger**.  The name said it all.  Literally.  No one was sure who he was or what he could even do, because he'd avoided filling in as many fields in his Heroes Association application as he could get away with.  Even species was marked n/a, somehow.  That of course meant he was placed in Class C purely by default.  Whether he deserved to be there or not, only he knew. 

“Please,” he said, “do not hesitate on my account.  There are villains requiring vanquishing, I am sure.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Cooper grumbled.  He floored it, and they were off with a screech of rubber.

A siren activated on top of the SUV, and its roaring V-10 engine rocketed them through the streets as fast as they were legally allowed (taking the siren permits into account).  Nick, with a few minutes to spare, checked the alert broadcast on his bracers.

“...According to numerous eyewitness reports and satellite imagery, a possible metahuman or alien entity is currently rampant amid a populated residential area, and has been inflicting significant property damage.  There have been no reported casualties thus far, but the entity appears very aggressive with actively hostile intent.  Care is recommended in approaching.  Situation will be listed as threat level Wolf pending escalation.”
“It doesn’t sound too bad,” said Nick.  “Just a serious public disturbance, right?  The police could handle this.”

“Not if I get a say,” Cooper replied.  He cranked the wheel hard left and then right, sliding around a corner and forcing Nick to readjust his position on the seat.  “We might be the first responders on this one.  That means extra ranking boost if we do this right.”

“Like we needed the extra paperwork,” Sabrina grumbled. 

“What I’m saying is, don't screw this up, okay guys?  I actually want to be in Class B by the end of the year.”

Nick sighed and bit back a snarky jab.  As if anyone didn't want the promotion just as much. 

“We're here,” Cooper called out.  “I think we made--  Oh, come on, seriously?”

Nick squinted, staring through the steel louvres that armored the windows.  From where he was, he could just make out several black and chrome hoverbikes sitting next to an alleyway, with a human figure in full medieval-esque plate armor standing guard.  He was immediately hit with a sinking feeling deep in his gut.  Wonderful.  The Knights of Humanity were the last thing he’d expected or wanted to deal with today. 

Cooper turned off the ignition and swiveled his seat around to face the the back.  “Alright,” he said, fitting on a football helmet made to look like a kabuto.  “No more delays.”  He snatched a golf bag from a side compartment and hiked it over his shoulder.  “We’ve got a monster to bag.”

 Sabrina opened the rear double doors, letting the last sunlight spill inside.  As she and Mr. E. climbed out, Nick pulled a briefcase out from under the seats and opened it.  Inside, it contained four small quadcopter drones with cameras attached, held snugly in black foam.

“I’ll get some air support going and scout out where the creature is,” Nick said. 

“No, you're coming with us,” said Cooper, shoving past him and hopping outside.  “We already know where it is.”

“But I--”

“I can already sense, like, a huge amount of anger and whatever over that way,” Sabrina said. 

“But that’s--”

“I said no more delays, come on!”  Cooper folded his arms.  “Besides, you’ve got claws and stuff, you’ve got nothing to worry about.”

“It didn’t have to be a delay,” Nick muttered as he shut the briefcase and hopped out of the SUV.  He glanced down at his claws and winced.  Not if he could avoid it.

“Remember, code names only this point on,” said Cooper as he headed towards the alleyway.  “Let me do the talking.”

The rest of the team followed closely behind him.

“Good evening, citizens,” said the knight, his voice echoing inside his bucket-style helmet.  “I’m afraid this area is closed for the time being.  I’ll ask you to please fall back to a safe location until the threat is dealt with.”

“We're here to help,” Cooper replied.  “Just point us in the right direction.”

A distant scream echoed between the buildings.  “We appreciate your concern, citizen, but the situation is under control.”

“Look, we're not just citizens, we're with the Heroes Association.  We've got every right to be here.”  Cooper motioned to the team.  “Show him your badges, guys.”

Nick wore his on a ball chain around his neck, so all he had to do was lift his chin to show his Class C credentials while the others dug through their pockets.  The knight, however, raised his hand to stop them.

“Enough,” he said.  “Your willingness to help is appreciated, but wholly unnecessary.  Besides, a couple of Class C’s like yourself are only going to get yourselves killed out here, so just go home where you won't get hurt.”  He then looked down at Nick and said, “And make sure you two take your pet with you.  Wouldn't want it to be mistaken for some kind of xenospecies threat, now would we?”

Nick bristled at the threat.  He opened his beak to say something, anything, but words failed him.  He looked down at his paws quivering in rage, the downy feathers around his neck and chest puffing, desperately wishing he were better at speaking under pressure.

Right as he was about to be swallowed by the helpless anger, he was distracted by something else.  Did the knight just say, “you two”?  Even if he wasn't counting Nick, that still left… Nick looked around.  Where did Mr. E. go? 

“Sir!” cried a voice from down the alleyway.  A young man in light chainmail was jogging their way, looking thoroughly out of breath.  He came to a halt, stooped over and panting heavily.  “Sir, I have orders from the Captain that you are to let them through.” 

“What?” said the knight, not taking his eyes off the team.  “That can’t be right, squire, that's precisely the opposite of what he ordered.”

“I have it here, sir,” the squire said, holding a piece of paper over his head. 

“Let me see that.”  The knight snatched it from his grip and unfolded it.  “This is just a blank pa--”

At that moment, the squire unclipped a flanged mace from his belt and swung it in an upwards arc.  It tore clean through the paper just before denting the knight’s faceplate with a resounding clang!  The knight stumbled dazedly backwards, one, then two steps, before falling flat on his back in front of Cooper.  A low groan reverbrated from his helmet.  The team bewilderedly looked at the knight, then back at the squire, who was suddenly no longer the squire.  Mr. E. stood in his place, cavalierly tossing the mace over his shoulder. 

“That,” he said, dusting off his hands, “was most impolite.”

“Wait, how did you…?” Nick trailed off.

Cooper was grinning ear to ear.  “Hoho, you are not a Class C, bruh, that was awesome!”  He raised a hand to high-five Mr. E., who stared quizzically at the hand for a long and awkward moment.  Cooper slowly retracted it and shrugged at Sabrina.

“Well then,” said Mr. E., “shall we continue?”

---

* A play on words, stemming from the Japanese words "saikyou", meaning "strongest", and "kyo/kyou", meaning "unite" (in this case, referring to linking minds, one of her core skills as a psychic/empath)***

** Étranger: French word meaning "a stranger/foreigner"

*** Holy crud, did I just do a translingual pun in a language I don't even speak?****

**** A footnote of a footnote? WTF, is that even allowed?
[/spoiler]

Cloak:
Monsieur Étranger will probably be a safer name to use to avoid confusion in the continuity, as there was already a one-off character in Memoirs with that name in #3: "Dark Phoenix". Just throwing it out there.

NickDaGriff:
Ah, okay.  Forgot about that bit.  :P

Cloak:
That's why you have me and others as continuity checkers. :)

When Memoirs was in its infancy, I had Aquilai providing me with that service.

:edit: And, wow, you actually made the Knights like like a somewhat credible threat, rather than treating them like a joke, like I do. Then again, Cloak sees them as such, so . . .

NickDaGriff:
This story is fun to write, I like it.



CHAPTER THREE

[spoiler]
Heading down the alley at a brisk pace, the sounds of combat grew louder and louder still.  The alleyway turned a corner, leading into the back entrance of an apartment building’s central courtyard.

“I’m gonna hit the rooftops,” Nick said.  “I want to see what this thing is before we charge in there.”

“Sure,” said Cooper, “you do that.”

The gryphon spread his wings halfway and charged at a nearby dumpster, vaulting over and catching air.  He unfurled his wings fully and gave them several powerful flaps, propelling him up and out of the alleyway, above the level of the two-story gravel-covered rooftop.  It seemed clear from where he was.  He swooped in and flared his wings, gently alighting near the edge. 

The courtyard below was a mess.  The spread-eagled forms of several unconscious Knights were strewn across the open space.  Trash cans had been flipped and tossed, a small tree had been toppled, and the overall property values in the area had undoubtedly just taken a substantial hit.

At the center of it all stood an odd figure.  Humanoid, but it really looked more like a rainbow-colored lobster than anything.  Its large blue-ish striped eyes were held up on stalks just above its mostly red with intense neon highlights body, with a couple of knobby fists curled in front of its chest. 

The creature advanced on the last remaining Knight, who was cowering behind his upraised kite shield. 

“We need more backup!” he cried.  “Send in more--”

Nick blinked, and he missed it.  One moment the Knight was there, the next he was gone with a crash.  The only sign he had been there was a roughly human-sized hole in the apartment wall behind where he'd been standing. 

“What the…” Nick muttered.

The creature pulled back its fist and let out a grating laugh.  “No one can stop me now!” it cried in a shrill, nasally voice.  “I am the ultimate life form!”

“That looks like our cue,” Nick whispered over the comms.  “Just don't, I repeat, do not get punched by this thing.  It hits like a truck.”

“Uh huh,” Cooper replied over the comms.  Then, more distantly, Nick heard him shout, “Hey jackhole, want a piece of this?”  Cooper swaggered out of the alley, arms spread wide in a ‘come at me bro!’ sort of gesture. 

 “Ugh,” Nick groaned, rubbing a paw over his face. 

“And who are you supposed to be?” the creature screeched.  “Another flimsy shell to crack?”

“Quit flattering yourself, ugly.”  Cooper reached back into his golf bag and drew a baseball bat reminiscent of a kanabo due to a number of nuts and bolts spiking out of its length.  He treated the tip to two test taps to terra firma and grinned.  “It's just gonna make this easier.”

“Ugly!?  You're calling me ugly!?”  A number of colorful fins splayed out on his body.  “I'm glorious now!  Do you think I would have injected myself with mantis shrimp DNA if it weren't the best thing I could have possibly done?”

Nick blinked in confusion.  Mantis shrimp DNA?  So oddly... specific.  Something told him that this guy was probably not too stable to begin with.

“Wait, you did that to yourself?” said Cooper, unable to keep a laugh out of his voice.  “Damn dude, you must have been desperate for improvement, I almost feel sorry for you now.”

“I--  Shut up!  Don't patronize me!”

“Guys?” said Nick.  “I think maybe we shouldn't try to antagonize him.”

“Too late for that,” Sabrina muttered. 

“I will not be talked down to anymore!” said the creature, raising his fists.  “You’re just as bad as the rest!”

“No no no buddy, listen, you’ve got me all wrong,” said Cooper.  “I actually really don’t want to fight you, because in a fight ugly people got so much less to lose.” 

“Co--  Samurai, c’mon, don’t…” said Nick.

“So why don’t you come in quietly?  We’ll get you a nice living area in the local zoo, maybe a vet to take care of that face--”

“Shut up shut up shut up!” screamed the creature.  “I’ll make you shut up!  I’m stronger than you now, just watch me!”  With that, he charged. 

Even from where he was, Nick could see Cooper still smirking behind his faceguard.  The gryphon shifted nervously from paw to paw, mentally urging Cooper to not get himself killed.

Cooper skipped back a step to let the first punch whiff harmlessly in front of him.  Thing was, it didn't so much whiff as it did crack through the air like a whip, almost too fast to see.  The Street Samurai’s expression went from one of smug overconfidence to one of surprise instantly.  His eyes stayed fixed on the fist held out in front of his face even as his boot heel caught on a crack in the concrete.  Cooper stumbled, but didn't fall.  Even still, it created just enough of an opening for the mantis shrimp to graze his shoulderpad with enough force to send him tumbling across the pavement.  Weapons scattered everywhere from his golf bag, and Cooper was laid out on the ground clutching his right arm.

“Oh great,” Nick said as he leapt from the rooftop.  He caught the air and rode it down, straight for the mutant’s turned back.  Time for Plan B.  Paws outstretched, he took aim, and fired the tasers hidden in his bracers.

Pok pok tktktktktktktktkt!

Nick banked sharply away and settled atop the roof opposite of where he'd started.  He turned back to look, expecting the creature to be writhing on the ground, but no.  The taser darts had apparently just bounced harmlessly off of his chitinous shell and lay sparking on the ground until they ran out of charge.

“Crap,” he said, kicking the gravel with his back paw.  Not wasting any more time, Nick sat up and began digging through his saddlebags for his next idea. 

Meanwhile on the ground, the creature was slowly advancing on the prone Cooper. 

“Hey, stay away from him, you jerk,” Sabrina said, sounding more indignant than anything else.  She raised a hand towards the mantis-shrimp-man, and a curious look crossed her face.  She grimaced suddenly, and the mutant came to a halt.  He blinked confusedly a few times, slowly raising his curled fists to his head.

“Look… Jerry?” Sabrina said, speaking slowly.  “Jerry, right?  You’re being, like, kind of a dick right now.  You gotta stop.”

“How… did you…”  The giant stalk eyes began to droop and drifted lazily apart.

Cooper sat upright with a grunt, still holding his dangling right arm.  He took a deep breath, lifting the arm up, and-- Pop! --jammed it back into its socket.  He exhaled in almost a laughing growl as he climbed to his feet.

“I played football for years bro, you think that’s the first time I dislocated my shoulder?”  The Samurai grinned.  “Got any more, or was that it?”

At the sound of Cooper’s voice, Jerry’s huge eyes snapped back into focus.  “No, stop it!”

Sabrina’s head recoiled like she’d been punched in the face.  She coughed, and a trickle of blood flowed generously from her nose.  “Ooh,” she groaned, massaging her temples.

Up on the roof, Nick was busy attaching--what were they on now?--Plan D to his right bracer.  It was an electromagnetic launching mechanism similar to a net gun, only designed to fire a set of bolas--round metal weights connected to a small central ring by lengths of plastic-wrapped steel cable--to entangle a target.  Heavy duty enough to snare a mutant crustacean, he was sure. 

…He hoped, anyway.

The bulky device clicked into place, capacitors charging with a faint whine from the transformers.  The readout on his goggles showed it functioning properly.  On three legs, Nick hopped the edge and landed near the center of the courtyard, just a few meters behind Jerry.

“Stay out of my head!” he was shouting.  “I’ll kill you all!”

Nick hit a button on the bracer’s touchpad to deactivate the safety.  Just as he did so, however, he heard the whirring of an engine behind him.  He looked over his shoulder to see a knight atop a hoverbike, cruising in from the front entrance of the complex, lance at the ready.

“Purge the xeno scum!” the knight bellowed.

“Augh!” Nick cried out.  Acting on instinct, he swung the launcher underneath him and rolled onto his side, aiming up at the incoming knight.  Before he could even think about it, he’d already fired.

The bolas whistled and whirled through the air and hit the knight square in the chest.  His arms snapped against his side and he suddenly found himself unable to hold the lance straight. 

Nick curled up in panic, covering his face with his bracers as the knight’s lance staked into the ground just in front of him.  The knight was involuntarily pole-vaulted from the seat of his hoverbike, uttering part of a vulgar exclamation on his way.

With a whoosh that rippled Nick’s feathers, the hoverbike zipped not inches over his form.  Even without its rider, it carried on in a straight line.  The bike managed to get a total of thirty feet before it embedded itself into a concrete staircase and erupted in flames.

Nick peeked out from behind his paws just in time to watch the trussed-up knight tumble and skid to a halt with a shower of sparks from his plate armor.  Another small explosion from within the demolished bike made the gryphon flinch.  He winced, looking down at the spent launcher which he didn’t have a second shot for.

Everyone, sans Monsieur Étranger who was apparently nowhere to be found again, had momentarily paused to watch the spectacle of the bike crashing and burning, followed by its bound and struggling rider. 

“Not bad,” said Cooper.

Nick climbed to his paws, disengaged the launcher, and tossed it aside in disgust.  “Okay, um…”  He paused, collecting his thoughts.  “I guess we’re on Plan E then.”
[/spoiler]

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