Superheroes Kill Werewolves Read online

  Contents

  Copyright SKW

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Superheroes Kill Werewolves

  By Jeremiah Kleckner

  Copyright 2018

  Cover Design by Jeremiah Kleckner

  Cover art by Toyin Ajetunmobi

  jaymorby.carbonmade.com

  This is a fictional work and any resemblance to actual people living or dead, businesses, locales, or events is either coincidental or parodied with extreme absurdity. Reproduction of this publication in part or whole without written consent is strictly prohibited. Thank you for reading. Please consider leaving a review wherever you bought the book so that others may find it as well. Your support is everything.

  Chapter 1

  “Faster, Alex. Faster!” Gabriella urged, holding Nicki’s trembling body as she glanced through the rear window of the Buick to the dark streets fading behind them. “I think I saw-”

  Claw? Or it might have been Scar. Please, anyone but Stalker.

  The car shuddered to a dead stop. She and the boy were thrown hard against the back of the front seats. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the thing that they had hit as it rolled to the sidewalk. It was large, monstrous, and covered in silver fur. Scar!

  “Keep going!” Gabriella shouted while clinging to her boy.

  Alex hit the gas pedal again and they were pushed against the back seat as the car accelerated. He then turned a sharp corner, forcing them to slide around the back of the car wildly.

  Once Alex found a clear stretch of road, Gabriella was able to get a better look at their adopted son. Nicki wasn’t in any better shape than before the encounter with these monsters. If anything he looked worse. He shook as if he had a fever, but his skin was as cool and pale as death and slick with cold sweat. She quickly checked him for cuts or broken bones and found none. Small favors.

  As Alex took another corner, the silver locket that hung on a chain around Nicki’s neck swung wildly, almost as if it had a life of its own. The witch who had sold it to them swore on the Goddess that it was genuine and, as far as they could tell, she hadn’t lied. As bad as things were, it still seemed to protect the boy, keeping him from suffering more than he was right now. Still, Gabriella knew that they had to get him home soon and hidden from the things that were chasing him. Both she and Alex loved Nikki dearly. They weren’t going to lose him.

  “How much longer?” she asked worriedly, glancing at Nicki’s trembling hands and his contorted face. “We need to get him back to his sanctuary.”

  “If I go any faster I’ll crash or we’ll get pulled over,” Alex yelled as he took another turn, this time jumping a curb. Steel groaned from underneath the car and something hollow snapped.

  “You could-” she started to say as the car slowed to a stop.

  She brushed the curly hair from her eyes to glance out the passenger side window.

  “What is it?” she asked, looking up into the light of a streetlamp that shone through the car windows. “Are you-?”

  Alex pulled the handbrake.

  “We’re home,” he barked. “Don’t worry. I took the route through Dennison this time. The gardens should confuse them. Come on!”

  Alex got out, pulled open the passenger door, and helped her and Nicki out into the chilly midnight breeze. The pavement was wet from the rain, and the whole street smelt like wet grass.

  With her husband’s help, Gabriella carried Nicki to the front door. She held him while Alex let go to reach into his jean jacket.

  “I’m pretty sure we lost them,” Alex said, fumbling for the keys to open the front door. “And all the aconite is still in bloom.”

  Gabriella glanced up and down the street, spotting the rows of purple flowers they had offered to their neighbors as gifts.

  “I hope so,” she said. “But they are getting too close. We can’t stay here.”

  “The flowers will be in bloom for another week,” Alex told her as he turned the bolt and opened the door. “That’s all the time we need. I’ve already set up a rental down south.”

  One more week, Gabrielle repeated in her mind. She pulled Nicki inside as Alex locked the door behind them.

  They rushed him down the hall and down the basement stairs.

  Ahead of them, Alex flicked on the light to reveal the cell that they had built.

  Gabriella always cringed at how crude it was, but Alex nailed and bolted the wood and steel frame himself and swore that they would all be safe if things got really bad.

  And things wouldn’t get too bad as long as Nicki’s locket worked, which it was, at least to a degree.

  The thought made Gabriella glance at Nicki’s neck.

  It was bare.

  “Wait!” she cried out in horror. “Where’s the locket?”

  Alex’s confused expression changed to one of shock and mortal terror as realized what she was saying.

  They frantically searched the basement floor.

  Then Gabriella spotted a glint of light coming from the top of the stairs.

  Just as she started to point to it, Nicki doubled over and let out an agonized groan.

  Chapter 2

  Jeff could have done without the all the frenzied bugs and rats that attacked him as he chased Creeper through the maze of filthy tunnels that ran beneath Dover City’s sewer and subway systems. In fact, Jeff would have been fine letting Creeper escape to “fight another day” if it meant not having to deal with the stench or the guy’s disgusting ability to control vermin with his mind. But Creeper took a checkout girl from the outlet mall as a hostage and as FORCE, Jeff couldn’t let her die down here like this. Not if he could help it.

  He brushed past cobwebs and avoided the charging vermin to keep up the pace. UQs, people who were born with the Unknown Quotient that gave them unique abilities, were able to sense one another like a homing beacon. At this range, Jeff didn’t need a map or a GPS to tell him which way Creeper was running. He just had to follow his gut.

  “Force is dead!” Creeper screamed. “You are just a cheap knockoff.”

  Jeff kicked the swarm of foaming rats gathered around him and shouted back, “The city will always have a protector. That’s the point. Force doesn’t die.”

  “We’ll see!” Creeper howled as he fled down another dark passageway, stifling his hostage’s muffled cries.

  Jeff poured on the speed, cornering Creeper at a dead end.

  All he had to do was make sure that he and the hostage didn’t get eaten alive by the swarm of tiny creatures. His kevlar and cut-resistant suit protected him for the most part, but the girl wore shorts and a blue work polo.

  Jeff assessed the thin trails of blood that streaked down her legs and arms. How much more punishment could she take?

  “Don’t come any closer,” Creeper warned as a large black spider crawled up his arm towards the girl’s terrified face. “I might not hurt her, but my friends might have other ideas.”

  Erica McCreary, Jeff’s mentor and the Dover City’s previous Force, taught him that he had to be as smart as he could to make up for any disadvantages in a fight. Jeff glanced into the horrified eyes of the petite brunette and heard her struggled gasps. He saw the steely resolve behind Creeper’s greasy hair and toothy sneer.

  An idea came to him. It wasn’t ideal, but it should work.

  “My mentor told me about you, but there’s one thing she didn’t tell me,” h
e tried in a confident, but submissive tone.

  “And what is that?” Creeper asked.

  “That even though you hang around with creatures that hide in the dark, your night sight isn’t so great.”

  Jeff fired a couple wrist rockets high above the gangly villain. They clanged hollowly against the wall like empty soda cans, then rolled to a stop on the concrete floor.

  “I think it’s your night vision goggles that need an upgrade, Force Jr.,” Creeper replied in a snarky tone.

  Then the canisters burst open, filling the dead end tunnel with thick smoke.

  “What is this?” Creeper screamed through sickening coughs.

  Jeff cracked his knuckles and said, “It’s tear gas, you idiot, and I’m the only one wearing a mask.”

  Minutes later, Jeff emerged from the tunnels carrying Creeper and the girl over his shoulders. He let the girl down by a pair of EMTs and handed Creeper to the waiting police officers.

  “Jeez, these things are still crawling off this guy,” one of the cops complained as they cuffed the villain. “We’re going to have to get our cruiser fumigated.”

  “And my suit,” Jeff agreed, flicking another few bugs off his shoulder.

  He turned to the closest thing he had to a partner now, Detective Tom Costner, and stifled a yawn. “That’s the third UQ this week. I’m not going to get a decent night’s sleep any time soon, am I?”

  Detective Costner shook his head. “Not for a while, if experience is any guide,” the detective agreed with a grim set to his lips. “The moment word gets out that a city’s prime hero has been killed, these bums rush in to test the new kid—No offense.”

  Jeff grunted, slapping a spider off his mask.

  “But as you can see,” the detective said, nodding at the villain who was being stuffed into the nearby police cruiser, “the first ones aren’t the smart ones. You’ll get some practice on these yahoos before the heavy guns show up.”

  A call came over the detective’s car radio.

  Jeff took a breath. He glanced from the car that carried Creeper to the police station to the checkout girl swaddled in a blanket being asked questions by the paramedics as she sat in the back of the ambulance. His powers weren’t limitless and exhaustion wore on him just like anyone else, even if it did take him days to tire out.

  “Hey, Force,” Costner said.

  Jeff reacted slowly, still not quite used to the name being his just yet.

  “Got a call from Middlebrook about some disturbance. Screams. Weird animal noises and all. Patrol found something pretty nasty in a house over there. Wanna tag along?”

  Jeff checked the time and asked, “Isn’t it the end of your shift?”

  “No rest for the wicked,” Costner reminded him.

  Chapter 3

  The house they pulled up to was a white-and-blue split-level, no different than any others around it except for the flashing lights of the police and emergency vehicles.

  “The people around here sure like their purple flowers,” Detective Costner said. It was one of those dismissive observations that reminded Jeff how an experienced law enforcement officer paid attention to the little details.

  Officers eyed him as they approached from the sidewalk. Their faces told him to expect the worst. Jeff readied himself and followed Detective Costner inside.

  The place was a slaughterhouse. Blood spattered the walls. Body parts were all over the place, like they had been ripped apart rather than chopped or shot off. Raking claw marks had torn open the walls and linoleum as if some kind of monster fight happened here.

  “What are we looking at?” Jeff asked one of the uniformed officers. “A bear attack?”

  Before the officer could answer, someone yelled from the far end of the house.

  “No! No! I need—!” the young voice screamed.

  Jeff followed Detective Costner to a back room, where two EMTs were struggling with a slight kid on their gurney. The boy wore torn and bloodied clothes and looked like he was maybe eight or nine years old, but he was still giving the two grown-ups a hard time. The male EMT was trying to take something from the kid, something that he was gripping tightly.

  Costner approached, waving to all of them to calm down. “What’s going on?”

  One of the EMTs, a middle-aged woman with tight silver-streaked hair, glanced over from the gurney and straightened. “He’s got something in his hands,” she told him. “It looks sharp.”

  “Let me take a look,” Costner said as he approached. He turned his gaze to the frightened boy and whispered, “Hey kid, it’s all right now. You’re safe. Just let me get a look at what you’ve got there.”

  Jeff stepped up to get a closer look and the female EMT glared at him. Her eyes were suspicious at first, but her shoulders relaxed when she seemed to recognize him. He was starting to get that response more often as people began accepting him as the new Force, trusting their hero to set things right.

  “Looks like a locket on a chain,” Costner decided. He turned to the male EMT. “Look, the kid’s been through a hell of a terror and that’s likely all he’s got left of his folks. It probably has a family picture in it or something. He’s not cutting himself with it, so it should be fine to let him keep it.”

  “Is he injured?” Jeff asked. “Can we talk to him?”

  “He doesn’t appear to be hurt. This blood isn’t his,” the male EMT said. He glanced over at his senior partner.

  “He seems to be in shock,” the female EMT told them. “So maybe just couple minutes, and then we’ve got to get him to the hospital.”

  A couple of uniformed police had stepped over by that point and were watching the exchange.

  “Son, what’s your name?” Costner asked in that hoarse whisper he used earlier.

  The kid eased back on the gurney now that the EMTs weren’t trying to take away his silver locket. He still gripped it tightly in both fists, like he would die if he let it go. The boy didn’t answer. He just stared wide-eyed, glancing from one adult to the other.

  The Detective gently touched his shoulder.

  The kid flinched.

  “We need to know your name, son,” Detective Costner said slowly.

  “Ni-Ni-Nicki,” the boy stuttered.

  “And Nicki,” the detective probed gently. “Do you know what happened here? What happened to your parents?”

  The kid started shaking his head, shuddering. “They’re coming for me,” he said, then repeated, “They’re coming for me, they’re coming for me.”

  That obviously was the wrong question to ask because the kid panicked and began fighting his way out of the gurney.

  “We’ve got to go,” The female EMT urged as she grabbed onto the boy. “You can talk to him at the hospital, later.”

  Detective Costner nodded and let them go. He turned to the other two policemen and started talking about what checked out in their investigation.

  Jeff listened to their ideas, ranging from a bizarre home invasion and kidnapping attempt gone wrong to some drug-fueled rampage, but those explanations seemed way too tame. No amount of LSD would account for the torn-off body parts and the claw marks. Not only that, but there didn’t seem to be anything that looked like forced entry. Why would anyone let drug-crazed freaks into their home?

  And then there was the kid and his necklace.

  Jeff joined Detective Costner on the front porch and watched the ambulance pull away. Something was wrong here, something that sent a chill up his spine.

  Chapter 4

  Derek Matheson, AKA Creeper, didn’t come across any better in the fluorescent light of the 35th Precinct interrogation room. If anything, his gangly form, greasy hair, and stubble-covered cheeks looked worse, like he really did belong under a rock with the rest of his creepy crawly pals. Thankfully, he had been sprayed, showered, and put in a new set of clothes for the interview. Jeff still glanced around for any bug he could squash, if necessary.

  “So, I’m just strolling around the outlet mall…�
� Creeper said, leaning over the table towards Detective Costner. “And some five dollar an hour rent-a-stooge starts hassling me for no reason. I’m just minding my own business and then he puts his hands on me. What am I supposed to do?”

  Detective Costner rolled his eyes.

  “So you’re saying none of this was your fault,” the detective continued, scribbling something in his notebook.

  “Yeah, none of it,” Creeper told him. “This city was my hometown and Force–” He offered a smirk at Jeff. “The dead one, rode me out on a rail. I just wanted to come back and see my friends, visit my old haunts. Then I get hassled and shoved around, and of course I defended myself.”

  Jeff gazed at the mirror wall.

  “And the money from the register and the thousand-dollar smartphones you had stuffed in your pockets…?” Costner added.

  Creeper leaned back. A toothy grin widened across his face. “I know nothing about that.”

  “What do you think?” Jeff heard Detective Costner ask. “Force?”

  Jeff stiffened, realizing that Costner was talking to him. He turned around, focusing his attention back to the slimy UQ.

  “Look,” Jeff said, staring at the handcuffed criminal. “The guy robbed the place and as soon as we arrived, he took a hostage and ran for the tunnels.” He turned back to Costner. “I don’t know what more there is to say. I mean, he committed a crime, plain and simple. I don’t want anything more to do with him. He’s not worth the effort.”

  Creeper threw up his hands, at least a far as he could with them shackled to the table.

  “Okay, that’s enough for now,” Costner decided, then pressed the intercom. “Come take this guy back to holding.”

  Jeff didn’t like the narrow gaze that Costner offered him while the other cops came and took Creeper away.

  “Hey, I wasn’t going to hurt the girl,” Creeper insisted once he was in the hallway. “I just wanted you people to leave me alone and let me do normal things for a change.”

  After the door closed, the detective motioned for Jeff to take a seat.