Chapter Eleven - Iron Chains

Luis wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be feeling.

He’d had an alright morning, joking with the guys, playing games, chatting up Tim’s babe of a sister. Just a nice day.

His life had taken a turn for the better after Power Day. No more taking anything from his jerk of a step-father, no more being pushed around. Having powers was nice. It was more than nice, it was intoxicating.

He was a big guy, tall enough, wide at the shoulders. He worked out. Figured he’d end up in some job that had a lot of labour, something honest but simple. Now he wasn’t so sure on that account.

So, he was having a nice day. Maybe later he’d have to be a little more responsible with his powers or whatever, but for now the money was just rolling in. He was making new friends and remaking old ones. Girls that hadn’t given him a second look in high school were chatting him up, and when he wanted something, he got it.

So he was being a bit of an ass. That was fine, who wouldn’t be after getting a power? He could be a goody two-shoes later.

He was a hero, after all.

So, that begged the question. Why in the world was his new hangout spot filled with random girls and children.

“You know what, nevermind. I’m not going to surrender, alright. How about you and your toddler squad piss off instead, huh?” he said to the one in the suit. She had to be a mask. No sign over her head, but that was fine. He kept his hidden too. Smarter that way.

He’d been in a scuffle or two, in and out of school, he knew how to hold his own in a brawl. Didn’t have much time for martial arts or anything like that, but he knew how to read someone well enough. The girl was standing there, completely flat footed. It was almost like she was taunting him to come and knock her around.

Who did she take herself for?

“No,” the Boss said.

Luis licked his lips and hesitated for a moment. There were a lot of them. The kids had masks on too. Those were some bad odds, but they were kids. And besides, he was a hero. Heroes did not get pushed around like this. They were the ones in charge.

What was it the TV had called those dogs in charge of the others? Alphas? That’s what he was.

His chains shifted, and he could feel a few more left here and there across the room. They uncoiled themselves and rose out of the nooks and crannies he’d left them in.

Thing with chains was that they hurt when they hit. The flexibility of ropes, but the weight of a hammer. He tilted his head left and right, neck popping. “Fine then,” he said.

Luis took a step forward.

Then the girl right in front of him growled.

It was weird, just some kiddy noise. “Get out of here,” he said.

She growled louder, then she turned into a bear.

“Ah, no man, I’m not doing this,” Jean said. “I’mma peace out back to my car bro, you, uh, take care of this bunch, yeah?”

The coward. Luis didn’t bother to swear at him as he ran off.

“You think I’m going to be scared just cause you’re a bear?” he asked.

“That would be the smart thing to do,” the girl in the suit said.

“I didn’t ever let myself be stopped from doing something just because it was smart,” he shot back.

He wasn’t entirely sure that meant what he wanted it to, but it was the tone that counted.

The bear roared again, then it charged.

Bears, he discovered, were pretty fast.

Chains were faster.

Jumping into a roll, Luis dodged out of the bear’s path, but not without leaving a trap behind. The bear’s roar turned into a surprise... well, it was still a roar, but it was a choked and confused one. The large chain he usually kept wrapped around his waist spun around the bear’s massive neck, then tightened, metal links clinking together in a racket that he’d come to really enjoy.

Luis came out of his roll and ducked down under something big and brown that flew over his head and crashed into the ground behind him.

A box?

He glanced up and saw one of the kids up on the second floor, grinning at him as she raised a second box over her head then flung it right back down at him.

Luis stepped to the side and sent a smaller chain spinning up at her like a bolas. She screamed in protest as it caught her hard across the chest and wound around her arms. That was one more down.

“You shouldn’t’ve messed with me,” Luis said. “That’s two of you down now.”

He grinned at the girl in the old gangster outfit, then at the girl behind her, a tall darker-skinned girl with a baseball bat that was a lot more his style.

“Sorry, but I’m going to have to chain you up,” he said.

“Let Teddy go,” the Boss said. Her voice was pitched low, not a growl or anything like that, just deeper than it had been. It was that kind of no-nonsense voice his mother had used on him when she was actually angry. “And I won’t have to hurt you.”

Luis shifted just a little bit.

“No, you’re the one that picked this fight, Boss, I’m just going to put you in your place.”

He started to step towards her while all around the room, chains rose out from behind boxes and crates. A few rushed to him and wrapped around his forearms and torso and partly around his head.

“Sisterportation, Teddy.”

Suddenly, the bear was in front of him, and his heavy chains clanged together as they squeezed around nothing.

“Oh,” he said before the bear swiped at him.

Luis was flung back, but he slowed his tumble with his chains and stayed on his feet. “Alright, you want to play hard, huh?!”

The bear chuckled. “Athena, you said he was yours,” it said with a voice like an old motorcycle rumbling to life.

“Yeah, he’s mine.”

Luis looked around. He knew there were a few other kids in the room. He’d hardly kept track of all of them, but he couldn’t tell where they all were.

He glanced back, and made out a girl in a white and black lined shirt, with a poofy tail behind her. Wasn’t she the one he’d knocked out above? But no, he could still tell his chains up there were holding onto someone, someone trying hard to get loose.

Luis whipped his head around as he caught some movement from the corner of his eye. At the same time, a chain flicked out, smashing into the thing that moved.

The old tv on the crate stand exploded apart as his chain whipped into it, the cartoon animals on screen squealing for a second as the tv fritzed.

Luis refocused, he couldn’t just fling his chains out like that, he had to be careful. A few bruises were fine, maybe a broken bone or three, but heroes didn’t kill. It’s what made his power so great.

“Last chance,” The Boss said.

He narrowed his eyes on her.

It felt like she was so far away ,but she hadn’t moved at all, had she.

He shook his head. The room was... no, it wasn’t twisting. He didn’t feel like he was drunk, or high. He wasn’t imagining it though. The shadows were deepening.
He felt his heart racing, a thump-thump beat that he couldn’t mask over with the clink of his chains.

A girl laughed. He didn’t know which one. All of them? But no, it was only the one.

“Hey!”

He looked up, then flinched down as a crate came crashing down.

One of his chains caught it and shoved it aside. Then something small and fast rammed into the back of his legs and he stumbled forwards and... and right into the bear.

He’d forgotten the bear!

It smacked him in the chest, but his chains caught it. Then he screamed as a huge maw opened and tried to swallow his head.

The chains covering his face sprung forwards and grabbed the bear’s head like a net, tugging it back and away.

Another kick to the back of his legs, right in the crook of his knee this time. He caught a flash of black and white stripes and a smiling face as he crashed to the ground.

And then that babe with the bat was on top of him.

When did she go from cute to scary?

She grinned. “I always wanted to do this,” she said before she raised the bat.

***