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"I know, I know," Hyper smiled as she rubbed her arms. "But you have to admit this is pretty exciting."
"What's so exciting about a clothing store being opened?" Crystal inquired.
"It's not that the store is opening," Hyper corrected, "it's what they'll be selling. From what the news said, a couple of companies overseas are using us as a testing spot for new designs and logos for their brands!"
"Hooray," Crystal replied, uninterested. "I'm so overjoyed."
"I just can't wait to see what they'll have in stock," Hyper said energetically. "There goes the manager!"
"Ladies and gentlemen," the manager began, "I thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to take part in the grand opening of our new clothing store. I'm not a man to give a preamble, so please forgive me for skipping that part. Without further ado, I present to you . . . the new . . . Be U Clothing Store!"
As the manager spun around, the sheet fell away, revealing the new, two-story building beneath it. Excited, everyone clapped as the manager offered to give them a tour of the shop. Forgetful, Hyper moved along with the crowd, but Crystal held her back, knowing that she'd do that.
"That's all we came to see remember?" Crystal reminded her. "We have to get back to looking for Acrobat."
"Alright," Hyper sighed. "But promise we'll come back later."
"Deal," Crystal agreed.
Hyper was downcast but hopeful, she followed Crystal through the parking lot. She knew Crystal was right; the problem was that they didn't get enough time to relax. With the villains still on the loose, the heroes had no choice but to stay on the clock. They had no idea when an attack was going to happen.
They barely made it to the street when a glass shattering shriek filled the air, followed by the screams of civilians in danger. Shock, concern, and anger flashed over eyes as they turned back to where the noise came from . . . the Be U Clothing Store. As the heroines ran back towards the store, they saw the small, silhouetted figure of Acrobat come out and fly off with a bag in his hand.
"He's getting away with my money!" the manager yelled as he came rushing out the door.
"Hyper," Crystal said.
"I know, I'm on it," Hyper replied, blasting off into the frosty sky to intercept the villain.
"Is everyone okay?" Crystal asked, running up to the manager.
"He has my money!" the manager yelled again, pointing at Acrobat in the sky.
"I understand that, sir," Crystal replied, trying to calm him down. "My partner is dealing with him. I'll need your help to make sure no one was seriously hurt."
"He didn't touch us," the manager informed, holding his hair in his fists. "He just did his bat-cry thing, took my money, and flew off!"
Glancing behind him, Crystal could see the crowd coming outside, terrified of being so close to a villain. Seeing that none of them were hurt, Crystal reassured the man they'll get his money back before racing off to assist Hyper bring down Acrobat.
Acrobat wasn't going to make it easy though. The little work that his scientists did on his flight pack was actually helping him out. Dodging the heroine's beams was definitely going to be a problem had he not got the flight pack fixed. The only problem he had was the speed; he was still too slow for his liking.
Case in point, Hyper caught him and forced him to fly into the forest behind Ithamite with Crystal a good distance away. The sound of branches snapping and grunts of pain sent the local wildlife scurrying in alarm as the two opponents fell to the forest floor. Panting, they both climbed to their feet, glaring hate at each other.
Hyper moved first, raising her arms to fire a beam for his head. Acrobat ducked quickly, rising and swinging the money at the same time, hitting Hyper in the shoulder and knocking her shot off target. She flew up quickly and fired more beams at him but they only hit the snow as he dodged and rolled out of the way. Changing tactics, Hyper fired shorter, but faster shots next, hitting the entire area where Acrobat was.
As for Acrobat, he had no choice but to run deeper into the forest. Despite his bargain of only getting the heroine's attention, Acrobat had no intention of just letting the money he got go that easily. All he had to do was avoid Hyper's beams and keep as much distance between him and Crystal as possible.
Unfortunately, as he tried to make a break for it to hide behind another tree, Hyper spotted him and let loose a torrent of shots, hitting him dead in the back. Seeing that he fell, Hyper lowered herself down closer to apprehend him. However, as she reached out to grab him, he twisted on his back and hit her with his wing, sending her stumbling into a tree.
Groaning, Acrobat shook the cobwebs from his head and climbed to his feet. Glancing at Hyper, he saw her using the tree as support to hold her up. Before she could raise her hand, he shrieked at her, making her scream and fall to the ground.
Hyper felt her body numb itself, protecting her from the glistening snow, regrettably though, it didn't protect her from taking a boot to the gut and sending her rolling back towards the way they came in. Not finished in the slightest, Acrobat grabbed her and threw her with all his might, sending her flying into another tree and possibly knocked unconscious. Grinning in triumph, Acrobat held in his excitement and ran deeper it the forest.
For Hyper, it took her a moment to get herself together as she winced in pain with every breath she took, inciting damaged nerves throughout her body. At the sound of branches and twigs snapping, she looked up to see Crystal rushing towards her, concern written on her face.
"Hyper, are you alright?" Crystal asked, skidding to a stop next to her.
"Yeah, I just wasn't a match for him in close combat," Hyper laughed.
"This isn't funny, Hyper," Crystal frowned. "This is why I told you to take those sparring lessons. They're very helpful."
"I'm no fighter," Hyper dismissed the idea.
"Well you need some form of defense," Crystal crossed her arms.
"That's why I have you," Hyper chuckled. Pointing northward, Hyper said, "Acrobat went that way. We're about fifteen minutes behind him."
"Isn't that -" Crystal began to say before nodding and running after Acrobat with renewed determination.
Ahead of them, Acrobat was struggling to keep moving. The damage his back took was slowing him down significantly, possibly rendering him grounded until he had a good night's rest. He knew he could get one if he made it to Dervania, which was located on the other side of the Skinny Mountain Range. All he had to do was get over it. But as he made it out to a clearing, he could see that wasn't the first thing he had to cross.
The first thing he had to cross was a lake.
"Damn it!" Acrobat shouted.
It wasn't a big lake, but it was a big obstacle. Plus, it seriously tipped the balance of the upcoming fight heavily in the other heroine's favor. Even as he realized that, Acrobat could hear her stomping through the forest, looking for him if she hadn't found him already. Frustrated, he had no choice but to run along the bank of the lake, heading west and hoping that he could put more distance between him and Crystal as possible.
"ACROBAT!" he heard her shout, sending chills down his beaten back.
Turning, he saw her riding the water on an ice platform, throwing all types of water and ice projectiles at him. With no choice left, he dropped the money bag and rose in the air, despite his body pleading for him to give up. He knew he couldn't do that and the consequences were a nice block of ice smashing into his face. He hit the ground hard and arched his back as he hissed in pain.
"This time, your opponent will be me" Crystal threatened.
Rising up wearily, Acrobat got ready to attack her when he was blasted with a jet of water straight to his face. Out of control, he slipped back into a tree where Crystal quickly froze him. Coughing, he hung his head in defeat so that Crystal could apprehend him without resistance.
"You think that's it?" Crystal smirked. "This isn't over yet."
"What do you mean?" Acrobat asked, taken aback at her statement.
"I'm not done with you," Crystal replied. "I'm going to make you hate water. And not just water, but the state of liquid itself, so that whenever you feel it, hear it, smell it, taste it, and or see it; you get sick to your stomach."
"That's not very heroic," Acrobat shuddered.
"That's your problem," Crystal shrugged. "Now, don't forget to swallow."
*****
"Here you go sir," Hyper said as she handed the bag of money back to the store manager.
"Thank you, thank you so much," the manager beamed. "I was worried this store was going to close before it even opened."
"Thankfully, that's a dream that won't come true," Hyper smiled.
While she talked with the manager, Crystal stood back and watched a team of the Committee load a distraught and sickly looking Acrobat into their van. He made the mistake of looking out of the van and caught her eye, to which she smiled, waved, and winked back.
He would've puked if he had anything in his stomach.
"We won't be seeing him around anytime soon," Hyper said as she walked over to Crystal.
"How are you feeling?" Crystal inquired.
"Like I've never heard of a bed before," Hyper winced as she stretched.
"That's one of the amenities that come with the job," Crystal replied, cracking a smile, "Pain."
"Yeah, well when you find a better way to advertise that, call me," Hyper laughed as she rose to fly off. "See you back later."
"Bye," Crystal waved back. It was only then that she realized that Hyper left her to deal with the media as they rushed over to talk about their fight with Acrobat. "Damn it, she got me."
*****
Dr. Genie cried out in frustration as she listened to Crystal recount the fight with Acrobat. She shut off her TV and went downstairs, wishing someone would do something wrong so she could blow up on them. On the contrary though, everyone performed their jobs very meticulously, knowing their demise could end if they gave her a reason to say anything.
"Dr. Genie," the lookout said as he walked up to her.
Everyone gulped as they watched Dr. Genie glaring at the lowly lookout. Shaking their heads, they couldn't see why the guy had to offer himself up to be her next experiment, but they didn't care. As long as it wasn't any one of them, they were happy.
"What?" she glared.
"Mad Master is about to show up," the lookout informed.
"Tell him to meet me as soon as he comes in," Dr. Genie replied as she went back upstairs.
As the lookout went outside to talk with Mad Master, everyone let out a sigh of relief neither of them knew they were holding. The lookout, the lowest of all positions, just survived an encounter with the monster maker.
Upstairs, Dr. Genie was sitting at her desk, studying her notes of possible experiments while trying not to dwell on Acrobat's idiotic nature. Hearing a knock at the door, she barked for the person to enter and looked up to see Mad Master standing before her.
"Mad Master, I have a task for you," Dr. Genie said gruffly. "In light of Acrobat's fuck up, I'll need you to do his job instead. Do not fail me."
"What did you have him do?" he asked.
"Don't play with me, you dolt," Dr. Genie spat. "Get me a yellow jacket . . . now."
"Would this do?" Mad Master inquired, using his telekinetic power to bring a yellow jacket into the office.
"Where did you get that?" she glared.
"The new clothing store that Acrobat went to," Mad Master replied. "I was a bit suspicious about Acrobat's plans since I heard what he said about the heroes looking for him. So, I made sure I was inconspicuous and watched to see what he would do."
"Did you know the heroines were there?" she demanded.
"No, I didn't see them until they were going after Acrobat," he denied. "That's when I snuck around the back and stole one of these yellow jackets like you told him to."
"Well then, you've done a satisfactory job," Dr. Genie nodded. "Get back to your other job until I have need of you."
Once he left, Dr. Genie went over to the curtains and pulled one of them back, revealing the young man she had experimented on yesterday. Grinning madly, she was ecstatic to see that his body had accepted the DNA sample and began to mutate into a more physically acceptable form.
His head was more triangular and sharp, with two antennae sticking out of his head. His eyes no longer looked human or faced forward like a normal human's would be either. Instead, they were compounded and sticking to the side of his head. He lost his nose and his mouth had been turned vertically, jutting out on the end point.
He also lost all the hair on his head.
His hands were still the same, though he found out real quick just how sticky his hands could be. On a deeper inspection, he felt a hollow, vertical place at the deepest part of his palm. When he flexed his hand, a stinger dripping poisonous venom shot out, ready to deal lethal damage to his opponents.
He also found out that he had another two extra elbows and knees. But the biggest surprise was on his back. Two sets of wings were situated on his back, situated on his shoulder blades, drying as he explored his body.
"How do you feel?" Dr. Genie asked, watching the mutated man examine himself.
"Weird, strange," he replied with a buzzed tone in his voice. "Abnormal."
"You'll get over it," she replied, tossing him the yellow jacket to put on. "You're going to need to move about to get used to your new body."
"How did you do it?" the young man asked.
"I have to admit, it was tough. Rapid development is my specialty but it's not a work of art," Dr. Genie exhaled. "First, I welded all of the joints on your limbs together, that being your knees and elbows. Then I broke both your humerus and femur bones in evened spaces and turned them into joints. Then I welded the ulnar and radius bones together and the tibia and fibula bones together before turning them into joints as I did with the humerus and femur bones. I was a bit stumped on how I was going to get the head into that isosceles triangle shape I was gunning for, but as it turned out, I didn't need to try. The DNA samples handled that part. Your skull morphed, pushing your eye sockets to the side and lengthened it by the width, then produced your compound eyes. Your nasal and oral passages were reconstructed into the vertical opening that is your mouth while forming new muscles for you to eat with; in that entire process, you lost all of your teeth, your tongue, and your human eyes. Do you have any questions?"
"Don't bugs have another bottom that has all of their important organs?" he asked.
"Yes, but you are no bug," she stated. "If I wanted you to be a bug, you'd be dead and a bug of your size would be here in your place. What's more, it's illogical to add an additional body cavity for multiple reasons. One, it would take hundreds of more samples to develop another body cavity proportionate to your body size. Two, it would give my, and now your, enemies a good place to target when you're in the line of combat. And three, you're a stepping stone."
"Wait, I'm a what?" he asked, rightfully insulted.
"A stepping stone," she repeated, loud and clear. "You are a stepping stone for your future descendants."
"I - I - I don't get it," the young man shook his head.
"Does an animal evolve overnight?" Dr. Genie asked as she rolled her eyes.
"No, not really," he answered.
"And neither will you nor the rest of humanity," she told him. "All you have to do is convince a girl to mate with your hideous new body and impregnate her. Then, your mixed hybrid DNA and her DNA will birth a girl who'll grow up with the bug DNA already a part of her. However, you might have to impregnate the girl multiple times since it's highly unlikely you get a perfect set on your first try."
"Seriously?" the man replied, shaking his head hopelessly.
"If all goes well," Dr. Genie continued, "then when she's old enough, you'll have to mate with your daughter to make a more perfect species."
"What?" the man yelled jumping to his feet.
"Honestly, that begs the question of what's going become dominant and what'll be recessive," Dr. Genie thought aloud, running simulations of what the future could hold if things went right. "Hm, you just might have to sleep with your granddaughter to get a more concentrated and definitive DNA sample."
"What do you think I am? A pedophile?" he demanded as he reached for the doctor.
Despite his surprising agility, Dr. Genie was ready for him with a taser right in his midsection. He crumbled to the ground immediately, twitching and convulsing at her feet.
"Here I am trying to find a way to make sure your generation has a fighting chance for the future," Dr. Genie said as she knelt down by his head, "and you have the gall to come at me. Ha! You should be worried about how you're going to get a girl first with that ugly shape of a head. The only remote chance of you lying with someone now is to kidnap and rape her."
"I just wanted to get back on my feet," the guy growled.
"Well, you came to the wrong doctor," she smiled. "Now get up."
Hatred bloomed in his chest as he resented the man who sent him down this course of his life. To be changed in such a way, all because he showed much more potential. He sure wished he could meet that guy now. He'd teach him a thing or two about ruining someone career.
Thump!
While he was pollenating his hatred, Dr. Genie had gone behind her desk in her closet and pulled out a duffle bag. Locking the closet back, she had brought the bag to the young man and dropped it at his feet.
"That's yours," she nodded at him.
Wondering what type of trick she had going on, the young man slowly knelt down and unzipped the bag. Looking at her one more time, he slowly opened the bag and . . .
No.
No way!
Inside the bag were hundreds of dollar bills, most likely thousands. He had no idea how much it was all worth, but it had to be well over what he'd ever own in a lifetime. He could see it now, riding up in a car, just showing how much he was above the plebeians . . . and . . . and . . . and what? He's a monster. And it wasn't like anyone would know who the hell he was. Fuck, he might as well start dealing drugs or something along that line. That's similar to what he'll be doing here.
"What's the catch?" he suspiciously questioned her.
"The catch is that if you accept the money, you work for me," she replied.
"And if I don't accept this?" he asked, knowing he wouldn't like the answer.
"Well, there are multiple scenarios, but let me tell you my favorite," Dr. Genie replied with a blissful smile on her face. "First, you'll be on the street, hungry by the end of the day and avoided by even the most homeless of all men. Since you're hungry, you either steal or starve, but for this scenario, you steal. Because you steal long enough, the police are after you, thinking that you're a petty crook. When they finally see you, they call the Committee in hopes that they can use you. You, however, think their calling for back up and attack them to preserve your backstreet life. Now, they see you as dangerous and have decided to call the heroes to deal with you. The heroes arrive and squash you like the half-bug you are and put you in prison. Whether you escape or not is up to you, but if you do, you always end up going back to prison. After some time in prison, the Cavalanchee government scientists decide they want to dissect you to learn more about insect behavior. While you're there, you meet me. Under the pretense of science, I transport you to another government facility, which is just my fancy way of saying my special laboratory, and I finish my own analysis of you, torturing you, dehumanizing you, and, slowly but surely, killing you. And throughout all the screaming and begging that you'll be doing, you're only regret is that you didn't know how to change back into your human form."
