H.E.R.O. - Horde (4 page)

I pointedly looked at the blood and asked, "Are you?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine.  This is from the lady back there."

The Goth guy asked, "Lady Nocturne?  Is she injured?"

Spartan answered, "Is that her name?  Yeah, they jumped her."

I caught a flash of color approaching, turned and watched Zonk walk up.  Man, and here I'd thought Spartan's costume looked clown-like.  Zonk's appeared to be made exactly to look like a skin-tight clown suit - barring the big shoes, hair and red nose, I suppose.

Zonk said, "Hey, new guys!"

He reached out his hand to Spartan, who happily reached out to shake it.  As soon as their hands touched a blast of colorful particles exploded from them, as if they had fireworks between them.

Spartan jerked his hand back, but Zonk only cracked up laughing in a deep voice.

The clown hero said, "Haha!  Gotchya!  Sorry about that, man ... couldn't help myself."

He then reached out again and they shook hands without any odd explosions.

Zonk continued, "Hero-man, I love the costume.  It's like clown-lite.  And I
love
the huge feet!  You want a job at the carnival?"

Spartan gave him a slightly sour look.  "No thanks.  I'm Spartan, by the way."

"No, seriously.  I'm offering.  We could use another brick clown."

"Wha...?  No, no thanks.  I have a second job."

"Too bad!  Well, keep it in mind!  Hey, guy in black!  I'm Zonk."

He held his hand out.  For a moment I wondered at other bricks, all of whom seemed to have an aversion to shaking hands with non-bricks.  I reached out and took his, but he slid the palm back out of mine and slightly up.  He then made an exploding motion with his fingers and small fireworks went off from the hand.

"Miniboom!  Nice to meet you."

I smiled and said, "You too.  I'm Black Tiger."

I looked at the Goth guy, figuring he'd be the next to get an explosive greeting, but he'd disappeared.  I glanced around and didn't see him anywhere in the club.  There were a few other mutants getting up here and there.  Even if hurt fairly bad most would be healing it up quickly.

I heard police vehicles pull up outside the building; they shut off their sirens as they stopped outside.  I looked around to ensure none of the odd looking dudes were up, but they were all out cold.

Rayna joined our circle and grinned up at all of us, "Hi guys."

Zonk said, "Hey there, pretty lady."

He closed a fist and acted as if he pulled something out of it - a bright red rose made of his firework particles.  Somehow, it stayed in the rose shape until he presented it to her, and then slowly went into tiny fireworks from the bottom up.

I heard an "Oooooo" from Rayna's left, and saw her brown and white floating sphere creature staring at the rose with his mouth in a big "O" shape.  He was obviously extremely impressed by it.

Rayna said, "How are you, Zonk?  It's been a while."

"The Zonkster's been busy between the carnival and doing good guy stuff.  How about the little lady in pink and white?"

"I've been busy.  Some strange intrigue going on, but this isn't a good place to talk about that sort of thing."

Zonk deepened his voice and said, "BOOM!  BOOM!"  It echoed through the large, nearly empty room.  "I dunno, Rayna, sound works pretty good in here."

"I know, that's the point.  Too many ears."

"Oh."  Zonk glanced at Gruff, reached into one of the pouches around each thigh and pulled out a balloon.  In moments, he'd blown it into a long shape, shaped it into a squirrel, tied off the end and held it toward Gruff.  The eye beast again made the "O" look with his giant eye wide open.  The other four eyes all looked at Rayna for a moment.  She motioned toward it and the creature reached forward and took the bottom of the balloon animal.  He looked like it was the best day ever to have a blown up squirrel.

He floated around to show Fluff, who grinned evilly with his own giant mouth and began floating up toward Gruff.  Rayna put her hand on top of Fluff's body and rubbed his mohawk - but also kept it there to prevent him from moving toward his smaller cousin. 
Cousin?  Brother?  What the hell are these things?

The third eye creature slowly appeared.  He was a few feet ahead and above Gruff, and all five of his eyes stared at the giant balloon animal.  It was far larger than his softball-sized spheroid body.

Zonk looked back and me and asked, "Hey, didn't you have some weird things sticking out of your shoulders?"  He made an odd T-Rex type motion with his arms against his body and wiggled his hands above his shoulders.

I replied, "My tentacles?  They go away."

"Cool trick."

I glanced around again, all of the red guys were still down.

Rayna pulled the smallest orb, Duff, close to her and whispered, "Did you see the guys?"

Duff's upside-down eyes looked around at all of us and he said, "Guys right dere."  He pointed at us with one of his crab claws.

She whispered again, "No, sweetie.  The guys in your pictures, were they here?"

"No."

From under a pile of broken furniture, something long and thin with green and yellow fur and with wings stumbled out, shook itself, and leaped into the air.  It flew and landed on Spartan's large shoulder.  It was a three foot long furred dragon.

It said, "You were drinking at the bar, weren't you Duff?"

Two of Duff's eyes looked at him and he replied, "Duff no drink at bar."

Gruff said, "Duff
always
drinks at bar."

Duff said, "Do not."

Rayna looked at the dragon.  "Kar, did you see him drinking at the bar?"

"No."

"Then how do you know he was doing it?"

"Cause."

"Because of what?"

"Cause he has a horrible deception skill.  He did it!"

Rayna sighed and rolled her eyes.  She held her hand out near Spartan's shoulder and the dragon walked up it onto her shoulder, wrapping itself around the back of her neck.

Zonk said, "You have a dragon now?"

Rayna nodded.  "This is Kar."

Kar said, "Greetings, jester.  Rayna, see what I mean about the red horde men?  They were a horde of orcs!"  The dragon tried to deepen its voice as it said, "The Horde has arrived!"

Rayna nodded.

Zonk said, "The dragon's wicked awesome!  Can I use him in one of my acts?"

"No, Kar is more of a sit at home and play games kind of dragon."

The dragon nodded.

Zonk said, "Can you make me some of these guys?  I might actually succeed at juggling with balls that can float."

"What?  No!  Ugh, you're terrible.  Come on boys, tonight's been a bust."  She turned and headed for the door, her three floating eye monsters hovered along with her.

Zonk said, "Oops, speaking of a bust, forgot to close the event."  He pressed a few buttons on his phone.

I glanced at the bar area, where several mutants in Goth style clothing were standing around the end of the bar.  The woman with the spider legs was wiping off her face in front of the bar's long mirror.

I said, "I'm going to go say hi to the spider lady."  I walked away from the two bricks toward the mutants.

Most of the mutants turned toward me before I reached the group.  One of them moved to intercept me, but one of her spider legs reached out and pushed him to the side.

She said, "Now, now, Lorach.  He's one of us."

I said, "Hi, I'm Black Tiger.  So what happened here?"

One of the other mutants said, "These jerks barged in and started tearing up the place."

"Out of nowhere?"

"No, dumbass.  They used the front door."

"I meant ... did they have cause?"

The lady said, "I will speak with the hero.  This is my club.  I am Lady Nocturne, hero."

The mutant nodded, "Sorry, Lady."

I was glad I had a face mask on, for I raised an eyebrow.

I asked, "This is your club?"

"Yes, it is.  Tomlin is correct; they did come in through the front door and immediately began picking fights."

"But why?"

"I haven't a clue.  I've never seen anything like them.  They look odd, like a new form of brick, wouldn't you agree?"

I couldn't disagree with that thought.  They were wide, bulky and well muscled - and obviously had some kind of armored skin.  However, their odd looks were so off human that they had to be more along the lines of mutants.

I said, "I'm not sure.  They are kind of a combo brick and mutant."

She shook her head, "Apart from the odd appearance, they have little in common with mutants.  No claws, swords or other body weaponry, for example."

"Good point."

She made an odd expression, reached into her mouth and pulled out a fang.

She said, "Damn them, this better re-grow."

I said, "Mutant swords re-grow, I don't know why teeth wouldn't."

Seeing Lady Nocturne up close was interesting.  She reminded me a lot of Shrinker - odd eyes, although hers had a star iris rather than cat eyes.  While her teeth were all sharp fangs, several were longer than the rest.  She had a web tattoo on her neck.  It stretched up slightly onto the bottom of her jaw and went down over her collarbone.

She said, "I and mine have work to do, dark hero.  Leave us."

"Have a good night ... well ... as good as can be given the mess."

I glanced back at Spartan and Zonk.  They were collecting the red guys and bringing them outside.  I walked to the nearest pair, grabbed them and carried them out.

I noticed on those that had taking stabbing and slashing wounds that the injuries were closing, but very slowly - even more so than any brick I'd seen.  The clothing was the oddest thing about them.  They wore jeans and t-shirts for the most part.  Half of the shirts had a heavy metal band as a logo, and the leather jewelry with studs and spikes also fit in with that theme.  It was all stretched to the maximum and beyond, however.

Several of the shirts had large tears in the seams because they were so tight.  That made me think that something had changed a bunch of guys. 
And why only guys?  None of them are female.

Outside, the police secured the red men - or as Kar put it, 'the Horde.'  Rayna was already speaking with Agent Carrigan - she was the night equivalent to Agent Carson of H.E.R.O.  On my second trip with some Horde guys, I handed them off to the officers, and then stopped over by the pair of ladies.

Rayna glanced at me and said, "Hey Tiger."  I had a momentary flash of Stephanie calling me that.  It made me like the cute hero in pink and white even more.  I grinned at her.

Agent Carrigan said, "Greetings, Black Tiger."

She held a pair of wallets in her hand.

I replied, "Hello.  Find anything useful?"

The agent said, "They are - or were - human.  The similarity to their photos is there.  I think we have to assume that something changed all these young men."

I said, "I didn't think anything could change someone into a super - barring radiation from the meteorites?  I mean, I know it just happened yesterday at Fargene, but from what you guys said they didn't look similar."

Rayna shook her head.  "No, I fought them.  They were extraordinary mutants.  Each of them appeared totally different from the others.  One had four tentacles and a squid arm, one looked like a scorpion and centipede combo, and the last was more like a huge evil demon.  These all look far too consistent with each other."

Her little dragon said, "They are a horde of humanoids.  Look, here's a picture on my phone."

He held his tiny arm out with a large smartphone.  I stepped closer and looked at the picture.  He'd pulled up Google images and showed picture after picture of orcs.  They were all green, but the appearance was fairly similar to the red guys, even though the pictures were from different games.

I said, "So these orc things are super strong and armored?"

Rayna opened her mouth, but the dragon shook its head and spoke first.  "No, they are slightly stronger than a human, although they are very warlike.  They often level as human warriors do, and can have spellcasters as well."

Rayna smiled and stroked the dragon under the chin, "Kar, we can't assume these are the same as in a game.  They are stronger than most mutants, have body armor - now how many orcs in games have body armor?"

Kar said, "But they are a horde of something!  Maybe they are an offshoot of orcs!  Maybe the city is under siege by a War Horde on the edge!  We need to fortify the city gates and call in the adventurers!"

She gently said, "Kar, we
are
the adventurers.  Metrocity doesn't even have gates, and I'm pretty sure word would have come in about hundreds or thousands of warriors outside it somewhere.  Besides, these could be bugbears, orogs, or based on who knows what else?"

I said, "If someone can mutate people into these, perhaps they have their own idea of what an orc is, and are making guys into that?"

Agent Carrigan nodded, "That makes sense.  I'll collect the identity of these men and follow up with their families to see if they have anything in common.  If there is I'll let you both know."

Rayna said, "Right.  Something did this to them - and they weren't prepared, based on their current clothing."

I said, "Man, the military would love whatever did this.  Imagine an entire squad ... or hell - imagine a full company of these guys in battle.  These had little combat training, but if they were prepared...."

Rayna said, "That's a frightening thought."

I realized her eye creatures weren't around.

I glanced about and said, "Hey, where are your other dudes?"

"Not in sight.  News will be here in minutes.  Speaking of - fly home, Kar.  I don't want pics of you floating about."

The dragon nodded, uncurled itself from her neck and walked out on her then-outstretched hand.  It leapt into the air and flapped up into the sky.

Spartan walked up behind me and said, "Man, that is so cool, Rayna."

She grinned.  "Thanks!  You should see what I gave your friend."

I glanced at Spartan as he glanced at me.  I shrugged.

She continued, "Oh, I meant Psystar.  I gave her a living doll."