The Ninth Department was only halfway through breakfast when the alert came in.
[URGENT MISSION - THREAT LEVEL: S-CLASS]
Somner read the notification aloud with a sigh and wiped syrup off his lips. "And here I was thinking we’d have a peaceful day off."
Fiero chewed on a strawberry pancake. "S-class? That’s gotta be Void-related."
Victorina was already putting on her combat tutu. "Sounds like it’s showtime, Cloud Nine Squad!"
The Cloud Nine Squad arrived in the field fifteen minutes later, crammed in their department van that still smelled like Cam’s chicken curry.
What they saw made silence crawl into the vehicle.
The anti-Threat protest was massive. A throng of mostly older, graying citizens packed into the plaza, red-faced with rage, waving signs that read:
They waved signs that screamed hate louder than any megaphone:
[THREATS ARE JUST VILLAINS WAITING TO HAPPEN!]
[VOIDLINGS, MUTANTS, MONSTERS—ALL THE SAME!]
[BORN WITH POWERS? DIE WITH RESTRAINTS!]
[YOUR EXISTENCE IS A THREAT!]
[KEEP EARTH CLEAN—NO BEASTS, NO FREAKS!]
[WE DON’T NEGOTIATE WITH TICKING TIME BOMBS!]
[VOID BEASTS AND VILLAINS GO BACK TO HELL!]
[HUMANS FIRST. THREATS NEVER.]
One woman proudly wore a shirt with the words "My Tax Money Isn’t For Monsters" while clutching a laminated poster of a Threat child being ’rescued’ and given a proper education in a rehabilitation center. She vandalized it, drawing red horns and fangs on the child’s face.
A man with a long beard swung a placard with blood-red paint splattered across the words:
"KILL THE CURSED BEFORE THEY KILL OUR KIDS!"
Hermes’ stomach turned. He wasn’t sure if it was the sugar crash from breakfast, or the sheer bile boiling in his gut.
Probably both, and he had the urge to burn something.
Some of the anti-Threat protesters wore gas masks. Some wore homemade body armor. But all of them wore fear and judgement on their faces.
Hermes’ jaw tightened. His pulse drummed in his ears.
It wasn’t just the slogans.
It was the gleam in their eyes. Like they were hungry for the suffering of those that were different from them.
"They don’t even understand what they’re saying," Hermes muttered.
Cam scoffed. "That’s how old people are. Gotta love it. Besides weak knees and poor memory, their one big weak spot is adapting to change."
Somner gave them a sharp look. "Focus. Let’s handle the threat before debating morality."
Vera frowned. "Where is the Threat anyway? I don’t see it anywhere—"
Then the sky cracked.
A shriek, thin and metallic, ripped through the clouds.
From above, the enormous Void beast descended like a plague.
It had wings like shattered emerald glass, serrated arms that scythed the air, and antennae twitching with chaotic pulses. Its carapace glistened with some neon green fluid.
Victorina gasped. "It’s a mantis! A giant mantis! I dub thee... Megamantis!"
The beast landed in the middle of the protest like a comet. Several demonstrators screamed, trampled each other, and ran in all directions.
Some didn’t run fast enough.
With terrifying speed, the Megamantis struck. Its jaws opened wide, and two screaming protestors were bitten in half.
Their placards hit the pavement before their bodies did. Blood pooled around the sign that read "Keep Earth Pure."
"Victorina! Cam! Get its attention!" Somner barked. "I’ll focus on crowd control!"
"On it!" Victorina leapt into the fray, her wand already blazing. "Come, glitter fossils! Rise from ancient slumber!"
Bones—some dinosaurian, some monstrous—erupted from beneath the earth. A skeletal mosasaur whipped its bony tail at the Megamantis’ limbs.
Cam raised his arm. "Snapshot!"
The Megamantis staggered, screeching.
"The head is its weak spot!" Cam shouted. "It’s soft and has no carapace above the neck!"
Meanwhile, Somner yelled as loud as he could, holding up a megaphone. "Everyone stay calm!"
Somner went to use Sirentone on the panicking crowd to stop the stampede, and have them file neatly behind a barricade.
Once everyone was in a safe area, he made a sign. "Vera! Time to summon a nightmare."
Vera’s voice was soft but resolute. "Let it weep."
A black unicorn burst forth from her shadow—its eyes were voids, and its horn gleamed with melancholic vengeance. It charged and pierced the beast’s leg, causing it to stumble further into the ruins of a skyscraper.
"Fiero!" Somner signaled.
"I gotchu, boss man!" Fiero raised his fists, manipulating the nearby scrap metal and rusted beams. "IRONCAGE, BABY!"
A mass of iron launched into the air, forming an angular prison around the mantis. Its limbs thrashed wildly, but the trap held—its head stuck out, its abdomen pinned inside the wreckage.
"All set!" Somner turned to Hermes. "Finish it!"
Hermes felt the burning capsule in his throat. He’d swallowed both ice and coal with the DNA capsules earlier. His body was alive with opposing forces—Cryoshift and Magnarok clashed inside him, turning his veins into threads of fire and frost.
His feet left the ground.
Energy burst from him in twin spirals. Magma in one hand, glacial shards in the other.
The beast looked up at him with alien eyes, unblinking.
He aimed between its huge bulging eyes—
A child’s voice cut through the smoke.
Hermes stopped mid-air.
From the edge of the ruins, a boy no older than ten ran into the scene.
His skin was bruised. One eye swollen shut. In his arms, he held a plush mantis toy like a sacred object.
"Please don’t hurt him!" he cried again. "Manny didn’t mean to! He’s just scared!"
The anti-Threat crowd went crazy as soon as they saw him. They seemed to know him alright, and it was easy to see that they were the cause of the little boy’s injuries.
"He’s controlling the Void beast!"
"HE’S GONNA KILL US ALL!"
Somner raised both arms. "Silence!"
He tried to use Sirentone, but it wasn’t enough.
Not this time. The screams of the crowd were louder. More desperate. Hate, louder than reason.
The sound of a bottle breaking. The screech of someone being shoved.
A pregnant woman flung her placard at the child. It hit his shoulder. He whimpered but didn’t run, just looking at Hermes while begging.
"PLEASE DON’T HURT MANNY! HUHUHUHU!"
An old man with spit flying from his lips cursed at him. "You little monster! You’re bringing the apocalypse!"
Hermes clenched his fists. He looked at Somner. Somner tried again, but his voice was buried under the hysteria.
That was when Hermes saw it.
Thought bubbles above the Megamantis’ head.
Faint. Scattered. Like static trying to form into language.
Hermes squinted. Mindbloom sharpened. The bubbles became shapes. The shapes became feelings.
["Small... fragile... mine... danger... protect... my eggs... husband dead... egg dead... only have little thing... son..."]
Hermes’ eyes widened.
"It’s... it’s a mother," he whispered. "Manny... she’s not attacking at random."
He turned toward his squad, heart pounding in his throat.
"She thinks the boy is her child."
Victorina froze. "Wait, what?"
"She’s not killing out of instinct!" Hermes yelled. "She’s defending him!"
The Cloud Nine Squad exchanged looks.
Fiero scratched his head. "You’re saying the Void bug... adopted the kid?"
Hermes nodded. "She thinks he’s hers. She was only protecting the only loved one she has left."