No Heroes Left Behind (Book 1)

Chapter Three: Duplicates and Fireballs

I fly to the East Side of Nightshade, scanning the streets and my surroundings as I approach the commotion taking place. Screams sound like howling wolves, and I fly faster to reach them. With a quick change to my trajectory, I plummet onto the road, leaving cracks around where I landed and walk to stand beside Rush and Zeus.

Rancor is flying above the street, holding cars in both hands. He hurls one at us and we all dodge it, splitting off in separate directions.

Rancor laughs then throws another car at Zeus.

He dodges it and flies up to Rancor, grabbing him by the foot and throwing him into a building. He smashes through the glass window into an empty office.

But, just as fast as he flew in there, he flies back out, keeping his distance. The streetlights down below cast a shadow onto his creepy looking costume.

The black and white full head mask that covers his face has a huge pointed smile that takes up half of the mask's surface area. It has sharp teeth lining the lips and the eyes are diagonal ovals that come to points rather than curves on each end. His voice also adds to the creepy factor of his persona. He has a voice changer, just like every Super has, but his voice is a monotonous robotic voice that could give nightmares to small children.

"Zeusy, Zeusy," Rancor calls out condescendingly to Zeus. Rancor suddenly splits into three Rancors and disperses around us.

How is this possible?

I stare at him in bewilderment, but slightly impressed. I haven't seen this power of his before, or in any other Super for that matter.

"Yes, isn't it awesome?" the Rancors ask in unison as they fly around us in circles. "One of the many advantages of duplication."

Zeus, Rush and I split and each take on one of the Rancors. They fight just as well as the real Rancor does and it's difficult, if not impossible, to tell which is which.

The Rancor I'm fighting flies up into the dark sky and I follow him up there. He shoots lasers at me and I shoot fire back up at him. It hits him and a loud screech bellows out of Rancor. He turns and flies directly towards me and plummets the both of us into the asphalt below, me cushioning his fall. I am pinned underneath Rancor as he lasers my face.

"That is NO way to treat a lady!" I yell out. I make my entire body heat up and combust into flames, burning Rancor and forcing him to fly off of me. I take this opportunity to grab a stop sign out of the ground and smack him with it. He goes flying into a building and suddenly, disappears, turning into nothingness. I look around in confusion. This was a duplicate.

The other two Rancors are in mid combat with the other two heroes. I fly up, stop sign in hand. The one Rush is fighting has Rush in a head lock, ready to end the fight with her.

"Hey!" I call out from behind it. It lets go of an unconscious Rush and she falls to the ground motionless, but Zeus catches her and gently places her on the ground before returning back to Rancor.

I swing the stop sign at Rancor and send him flying, just like the other, into a building. He tries to stop himself but the force of my swing is too strong for him and he crashes into a building, hitting the wall and disappearing.

I look up at the real Rancor and let my hands catch fire so I can throw fire balls at him if need be.

Zeus has an electricity ball in his hands and shoots it at Rancor.

He dodges the first one, but the second one hits him.

He stumbles backwards mid-flight, holding his arm in pain. I fly up on the other side of him and encase the three of us in a giant, orange fire ball. Rancor looks around the fireball, his eyes are visible through the masks' eyes which I never noticed were slightly see through.

"Give it up Rancor, you lost, we won," I say confidently. Zeus is smirking on the other side of Rancor in satisfaction.

Rancor laughs hysterically, "Oh my dear, sweet Scar." He tilts his head menacingly and moves dangerously close to my face. "You haven't won."

I furrow my eyebrows and look at him angrily. "What do you mean by that?" I ask, and as I do, Rancor disappears, just like the other two.

"He was a duplicate?" I yell angrily and dissipate the fire ball. In the distance, the real Rancor laughs loudly and then flies away in the opposite direction, over the lake water that surrounds Nightshade.

My blood boils at how stupid I feel and I fly down next to Rush—who is just starting to sit up now—to make sure she is okay. When I reach her, I help her sit up and she looks around in confusion.

"What happened?" she asks, sounding insanely groggy.

"He got away," Zeus explains calmly, looking at her in concern.

I can feel my skin becoming hot as I help Rush up from her spot on the ground. She retracts her hand back quickly from mine and gasps. "Ow, you're burning hot!" she calls out in shock.

My vision is beginning to turn red and I look at the window beside where we stand to see my reflection, my skin is turning into a fiery red as well. I shift my gaze and realize civilians are starting to gather around. A couple point at me, surprised of the sudden colour change of my skin tone.

Without another word to anyone, I shoot up into the sky, out of view from everyone and fly across town, landing a block away from my apartment. I quickly change out of my outfit and into my other clothes within a second and walk the rest of the way to my apartment. I float up to my window and enter silently, being sure not to wake the sleeping Erin.

Once I successfully hide my suit and shut my window down, I get into my bed and force myself to go to sleep. I can't think about this right now. I'm too angry to think clearly. And this is exactly what Rancor wants, so I'm not going to let him have the satisfaction of making me blow up.