Threat Level: E

Destructiveness: E

Killability: D

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Might: F

Survivability: E

Recovery: D

Mobility: E

Spark: D

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Powers: Enhanced Sight and Hearing, Sonic Blasts, Durable Arms, Metabolic Regeneration, Desert Jackal’s Reflexes

Classification: Bruiser/Stalker

Malfunction’s helmet covered her eyes, but Danny could see Roach’s face. Because of one’s insect-like appearance, there was no way of telling what it tracked, but the other remained focused on him. Much to Danny’s relief, Ratling and Mindpunch were nowhere in sight. He worried Ratling would react poorly after their fight. The villain appeared attached to his minions, too, and Danny had killed a significant number of them. Meanwhile, Mindpunch felt ill-suited for a meeting with League heroes, given his instability.

“We didn’t think you’d actually show,” Druid said, offering Malfunction a hand to shake.

The villain didn’t make a move to react to the gesture. When Fenrir cleared his throat, Druid hastily lowered his hand.

“I was keen to see your white-masked companion—well blue masked now—again,” Malfunction said. “He’s not like the rest of you.”

“We included Rev in the mission in the hopes you’d function better with us,” Fenrir commented.

“Are you sure your superiors have green-lit this agreement?” Roach asked. “We’re willing to cooperate only if every Freak receives a pardon and protection.”

“It’s in the works.” Fenrir’s wolf-lips curled up into a close-mouthed canine smile. On a dog or a normal-sized wolf, it could’ve looked friendly or even adorable. However, the hero’s strange proportions made the expression unnerving. “Druid testified that you helped save his life after Dryad’s decapitation. The few witness reports from the event also confirm that you were specifically targeting Power Merchant and their minions. It works favourably for you. If this mission progresses smoothly, it will certainly help your case.”

“I don’t want probabilities, Fenrir.” Clicks punctuated Roach’s speech as he spoke. Danny spotted signs of mandibles inside the villain’s mouth. “Give me a guarantee or you don’t have our support with this. You deal with Power Merchant your way and we will ours.”

The smile disappeared from Fenrir’s face and a deep, sonorous growl spread from it. “If you don’t provide your assistance, then the League will forever hunt you. The friends and family you claim Power Merchant has captured might go free, but they’ll never get to spend time with you without ending up in prison.” Fenrir stepped up to Roach and his eyes took on a silver glow as he stared the villain down. “This is your one change of living a normal life after all of this is over. We need your knowledge of Power Merchant’s operation and manpower. If we take him on separately, it’s likely we’ll get in each other’s way. The bastard will manipulate that to his advantage. Do you want that? Do you want him to get away? Do you want your friends and more innocents to get hurt or die because of his actions?”

Fenrir and Roach staggered away from each other as the space between them exploded with pink energy. Purple smoke expanded from the point for a couple of seconds before rapidly solidifying into a young woman. She wore a puffy jacket with a fur-lined hood, thigh-high boots, and glossy tights. It was the Mover. Danny didn’t remember her face, but recognised the outfit from Becca’s videos.

A spectral wolf’s head formed around Fenrir’s left arm as he cocked it for a right hook. Before he could swing at the woman, a pair of purple tentacles with pink glowing tips shot forth from her back. One pressed against Fenrir’s neck while the other traced his abdomen.

“Relax,” the woman said. “I’m with the Freaks.”

“Why haven’t we met you before?” Fenrir asked, growling. The spectral wolf’s head surrounding his left forearm snarled, and spittle dribbled from the fanged maw.

“We did,” the woman said. “You were surprised they had a Mover and Mind super as powerful as me leading them. Unfortunately, you don’t remember, Wolfie. It’s an unfortunate side effect of my power.” She looked at Roach. “Don’t antagonise the man. Just accept his terms. They need our help to find the Power Merchant, and we need them to take him down.”

The human-half of Roach’s face contorted into a snarl, but he relaxed as the woman continued to stare at him. “Fine.” He sighed.

“Go on. Tell him, then. None of these fools will remember a word of what I said once I leave.”

“Yes, we’ll cooperate with you,” Roach said, rolling his eyes. “Just be gentle with our people. Most are younger than your fisting buddy and severely fucked up either physically or in the head thanks to Power Merchant.”

“I understand,” Fenrir told him before returning his attention to the woman. “I might not remember your name, face, or your powers, but I recognise your scent. Why does Malfunction pose as your leader?”

“It’s easier for me to communicate with her without your Fabricators listening in on everything. Speaking of which. I hope you’re jamming all of their recording apps, love.”

“I am,” Malfunction said.

“Good. Then I’m done here.” The woman glanced at Danny for a moment before disappearing.

Purple smoke lingered, following another explosion. It disappeared moments later, and the image of a pink crack lingered in Danny’s mind’s eye. He blinked several times, thinking it was an odd spot, but the floating eyes sent him the information, too. Even though Danny couldn’t recall the pink crack’s origin and purpose, he was sure it had existed a moment ago.

Fenrir stopped growling. The hero tilted his head like a confused dog and looked at the Freaks before checking with Druid. The second League member shrugged while the villains appeared impassive.

“Alright.” Fenrir sighed, shaking his giant head. “Now that we’ve agreed to work together why don’t you tell me what’s this big information you had to share in person.”

“Do my powers feel familiar to you, Fenrir?” Roach asked. “Or Mindpunch’s tactile telekinesis, or maybe a super that messes with your memories.”

“Not really,” Druid said when Fenrir didn’t answer. “Your power combinations are unique when compared to similar supers. I’ve seen regeneration as potent as yours only in rift creatures. As for memory meddling, there’ve been several villains over the years with abilities along those lines, but it’s hard to get exact information on them for exact reasons.”

“The only known entity with consistent memory meddling abilities would be the cerebropods that swarmed the city about fifteen years ago,” Fenrir said. “I captured a fair few of them for the League and tried to get a cluster of eggs, but some bastard stole them from under my nose.”

“You’re on the right track,” Malfunction said. “We Freaks were either powerless or had dormant meta genes that refused to awaken. Power Merchant somehow stole the abilities from rift creatures and forced them into us. In some cases, it awakened the dormant meta gene and fused with them to make amalgamations like mine and unpredictable time bombs like Mindpunch.”

“Meanwhile, most of the formerly powerless turned into grotesque monsters,” Roach added, flexing his chitinous limbs.

“How did Power Merchant capture you?” Danny asked. He felt there were too many unexplored and unanswered questions. Fenrir and Druid looked at him questioningly. Danny guessed as an asset they didn’t expect him to ask questions, but expected a yes-man instead. “If Power Merchant is imprisoning people and experimenting on them they have to come from somewhere. Otherwise, there would be countless missing person’s reports. Given there’s no investigative hero around asking questions or investigating disappearances, I’m guessing he isn’t randomly grabbing people off the streets.”

“He’s obviously taking the homeless and druggies—”

“We were all taken during rift outbreaks,” Malfunction said, interrupting Fenrir. “I think he has some homeless people amongst the older subjects. Mindpunch, Ratling, and I were taken from a group home in Hackney. The entire neighbourhood burned down during the outbreak. The heroes were too slow and too scared to respond.”

“There have been way too many rifts in North-East London over the last year and a half,” Danny said. “Couldn’t have been easy.”

“It wasn’t,” Roach said.

The conversation continued and the glare from Fenrir clarified that the hero didn’t want him speaking. Mista Fista appeared to have tuned them out, and he stood with his head tilted backwards. The twitching fingers suggested the young man had lost interest in the conversation and was now playing a game on his HoloLens.

Even though the meeting’s discussions intrigued Danny, his mind drifted. It sounded as if Power Merchant could remove essences from rift creatures and then insert them into people. Kabandha and Kaka would likely find the information incredibly interesting. Most of all Danny wondered whether Power Merchant had a connection to rifts or used a magical artifact, too.

After tracking rift outbreaks in North-East London for the past decade, he observed a gradual increase in their numbers. However, over the past eighteen months, the numbers had increased exponentially. Instead of giant portals that flooded a neighbourhood with monsters, small door-sized rifts dotted the map. They opened frequently and only a few dozen monsters broke through them. However, the intervals between them felt consistent. Danny also observed the locations to be more on major streets or mostly industrial parks.

Could Power Merchant be causing rift outbreaks?

As far as Danny knew, no one had the power to create rifts to other dimensions or universes. From what Danny understood, the ongoing imbalance between two powerful magical relics—the Vedas—damaged the barrier between dimensions, increasing the chances of a rift outbreaks. Danny worried that any power or device capable of opening portals between worlds further increased any damage. He wondered whether there would eventually be a critical point.

More rifts opening around the world would work better for Danny. He’d get more essences to feed Kabandha and grow stronger. However, the collateral damage would likely damage far too many lives.

Kaka told Danny that Keepers had greater responsibilities. They didn’t just hide powerful relics from the wrong hands, but also protected the many dimensions from the magic-imbued objects. Given the volume and variety of rift monsters Kaka had, Danny wondered whether his uncle helped contain dangerous rifts, too.

Is protecting their dimension a Keeper’s job, too.

Danny reminded himself not to get distracted from his current job. He understood that now his image of the League and its heroes had shattered, he was looking for a new purpose. However, it wasn’t the time to get distracted. Danny had his current purpose. He needed to reclaim the Sur Veda and restore the karmic balance. Whatever came afterwards, he’d figure out then.