Chapter 132: Going Rogue
The sky was gray with smoke, feathers, and streaks of fire. The battlefield was chaos, the streets littered with shattered glass and scorched asphalt.
Hermes raised a wall of ice just in time as three oversized Void chicks slammed against it, their beaks cracking sharp against the frozen barrier. Civilians screamed as they ran behind him, herded by Somner’s commanding voice.
"Move to the left! Straight path! Do not scatter!"
Somner’s tone was sharp, his Sirentone making the crowd listen as if their own instincts had been overridden. The flood of people obeyed in perfect unison, rushing away from the slaughter zone.
Hermes was panting from all the exertion.
But it seemed that it wasn’t the physical exertion from the battle that had him out of breath....
"Somner." He said without looking at him. "Have you found out anything about Eirwyn?"
For a moment, the battlefield noise dulled in Hermes’ ears, and his mind slipped back to the research center a month ago.
***
The lab stank of chemicals and sterilized air. Hermes stood with arms crossed as the head researcher wrung his hands.
"I swear to you," the doctor said, sweat glistening on his balding head, "the specimen was suddenly gone. No alarms, no breaches. Just... gone."
Hermes narrowed his eyes. "You’re telling me something walked out of your lab without leaving a single trace?"
"It was like it vanished into thin air," the doctor insisted. "We even called in our security head. You know his ability. He can see traces left behind by anything. Invisible forces, time distortion, even dimensional residue. But he found nothing. Nothing at all."
Hermes was quiet. Then...
He slammed his fist on the glass case where Eirwyn had been kept!
It was empty now, glowing fluid still sloshing gently inside. "So you’re saying he wasn’t taken... he just disappeared?"
The doctor’s lips trembled. "That is... the only explanation we can give."
***
Somner glanced at him mid-command, guilt shadowing his sharp features.
"I..." He hesitated, then turned back to bark another order at the civilians before lowering his voice.
"No. Aphrodite and I still haven’t uncovered a trace."
Hermes grit his teeth. His focus wavered just long enough for a chick to slam into the barrier. It cracked. With a sweep of his arm, he reforged the wall in jagged spikes of frost that pierced the beast through its throat.
"A month already..." Hermes muttered.
"I know." Somner said, lowering his eyes. "I’m sorry, Hermes. We are doing everything we can."
Before Hermes could reply, a loud, commanding voice cut across the chaos.
"Cael! Hermes! Stop chatting and hold the damn line!"
Eris strode past them, dark hair snapping like a whip as she swung her blade into a Voidling that dared cross her path. The Cloud Nine squad’s department leader wasn’t the type to mince words.
"Yes, Ma’am!" Somner snapped back, tightening his posture around his big sister.
Hermes looked down but nodded as well. "Understood."
The Cloud Nine squad fought like a storm, each of them a piece of a violent orchestra.
Vera’s black dress swirled around her legs as she whispered her spell to activate Knightmare.
Out of the void behind her, ghostly unicorns charged, eyes glowing, horns lowered. They skewered rows of the chicken-spawn, trampling them into broken yolk and blood.
Victorina twirled with the grace of a ballerina, her massive hulking arms a shocking contrast to her delicate tutu.
"Rise, spirit of dead strays!" She sang, waving her sparkling wand.
The chicks shuddered in fear as they heard those words. Soon enough, skeletal dogs and cats rained from the sky and started chasing the giant chicks down!
Analytical Cam stood still, notebook in hand, his eyes flashing with his Snapshot ability. Each photo-light burst froze the enemy mid-motion for an instant, and in that frozen second he scribbled down weakness points.
"Neck is thinner than expected. Wing joints are brittle. Focus there." His voice was calm, clinical, while his pen scratched relentlessly.
"Got it, bro!" Fiero shouted, a grin splitting his face.
He pulled on the wires of electrical poles, tying them together in a crisscrossing net. Sparks flew as the cables turned to solid iron, forming a cage.
With a roar, he slammed it down over a cluster of Void chicks. They screeched as the cage tightened, bones snapping beneath the pressure.
Hermes slammed his palm on the ground, freezing over a wide arc of street. His Cryoshift spread like veins across the pavement.
Chicks slipped and fell, thrashing helplessly. He followed up with Magnarok, fire bursting from his other hand in a torrent that turned the icy trap into a field of boiling steam. The smell of cooked meat filled the air.
Somner raised his voice again. "Civilians secured. Pulling back!"
His Sirentone echoed, and the last stragglers scrambled to safety.
Meanwhile, Eris used her ’Discordia’ to command the chicks to get them to massacre each other.
She wiped a sweat on her forehead.. "Focus fire on the mother hen! She’ll keep laying more eggs if we don’t hurry up!"
The squad converged on the massive beast in the distance. It towered over the wreckage, wings spread wide enough to eclipse the broken skyscrapers.
Its eyes glowed molten gold, its beak snapping open to spew out another wave of eggs. Each one cracked midair, more chicks spilling out like a river of death.
"Damn thing just keeps laying!" Fiero cursed.
"We cut the head, the body dies," Eris barked.
"Fine by me," Hermes growled. He summoned ice beneath his feet, sliding forward with a streak of fire blazing in his palm. Somner was at his side, voice booming with power as he ordered nearby civilians to duck for cover.
The squad prepared for the final strike. Vera’s unicorns reared, Victorina’s undead swarmed, Cam’s notebook flashed with tactical notes, and Fiero charged up another cage. Hermes and Somner aimed for the beast’s throat.
But before they could land the blow—
The giant chicken spasmed. Its eyes rolled back.
A deafening explosion ripped through the air.
A smoking hole gaped open in its neck, charred feathers scattering like ash. The broodmother let out a final screech before collapsing with a ground-shaking thud. Its massive body crushed cars and buildings beneath it, shaking the battlefield silent.
The smaller chicks froze, then fell apart into writhing yolk as if their lifeforce had been cut. The fight ended in an instant.
For a second, none of the Cloud Nine spoke.
Then Eris snarled. "Who the hell took our kill!?"
The squad looked around, weapons raised, eyes scanning the rooftops. Nothing but broken steel and smoke.
Cam adjusted his glasses, already pulling up the Golden Apple database through his wrist console.
His fingers tapped rapidly. "Checking for nearby registered heroes. One moment."
Hermes narrowed his eyes. "That wasn’t a natural death. Someone killed it."
"Yeah, with a freakin’ rocket launcher," Fiero muttered, peering at the hole. "That’s no power I’ve seen."
Cam’s console beeped. He frowned. "Strange. No other registered heroes within a 50-mile radius."
Eris clenched her fists. "So what, the monster just fell over and died by accident?"
"No," Cam said flatly. He closed the console. "That was a deliberate strike."
Victorina tilted her head, her voice lilting. "Then... a rogue hero."
Victorina twirled, her massive muscles flexing as she spun. "This sure is a great way to make a debut, easily taking down an S-class Threat like that. What a diva!"
But Hermes’ mind was still elsewhere to care about this ’rogue’.
He didn’t even feel the eyes that were burning holes on his back, watching from above like the sun itself.