I stood in the street looking at the magnitude of damage I didn't know I was capable of. I mean getting overexcited or angry caused me to blow a bulb or cause some minor surges but this was on a whole new level. The streaks of lightning that came off my palms ran wild, one hit the wall of a building causing damage, another went through a window and started a fire in the building, and the rest I could see at the time caused scorch marks on the street and walls around.
"What are you?" Mr. Adler asked.
I was wearing the carnival mask and the jacket so he didn't recognize me, I ignored his question, not wanting him to hear my voice. I turned to the dire beast, one of the streaks of lightning hit him, the lightning struck him on his neck and mid-section, he was visibly bleeding but its behavior was very strange, one second it would take a step back while whining in pain and the next second it would growl and position itself as if it wanted to attack, it like it couldn't make up its mind.
"What have you idiots done?" a man voiced, he was approaching Mr. Adler from his rear but before he could react the stranger disarmed the Alchemist and brought him to his knees with a single punch to his gut.
"Great! Another one" Mr. Adler said and coughed in pain.
I got a good look at the stranger, he wore a black t-shirt and jeans, very odd clothes for this freezing weather but his clothes made his very profound athletic build hard to ignore, I was sure the punch he gave Mr. Adler must have hurt like hell. He had what appeared to be a glowing stone in his hand, he raised the glowing stone towards the beast and yelled "Obey me". The dire beast stopped whining and started to growl at me again.
"You're behind all this, you're controlling the beast" Mr. Adler said struggling to get back to his feet. "Why are you doing this?"
"That's what they always ask me, town after town, state after state, why are you doing this? Well I'll give you a simple answer. I was looking for some people and finally after years of searching I finally found one of them" he answered pointing right at me. I was flustered, I didn't know if I should say anything, I just stood there with my face still covered with the Carnival mask, staring at the stranger and the Alchemist not sure of what to do next.
The stranger advanced towards me "I'm here for you kid, I've been hunting you for years so make this easy and come quietly"
Mr. Jerald pulled out another firearm from a holster on his ankle and aimed the gun at the stranger "You are responsible for the deaths in this town and many others, I don't know what your business is with lightning boy over there but I can't let you walk"
The stranger grinned, he gently lifted one of his palms so we could see the dagger shaped claws growing from his fingernails, he held the glowing stone in his other hand, his grin revealed his sharp fangs, and his arms began to shimmer with scales"
"You're a chimera" Mr. Adler said.
The stranger giggled "I'm impressed, you seem to know your stuff"
"This isn't your full transformation" Mr. Adler said. "Why aren't you shifting completely?"
"And make this too easy for me? Why would I do that? I like a little opposition, it makes me feel alive"
Mr. Adler opened fire on the stranger but he was too fast, it was almost as if he could predict the direction of the bullets. The stranger who apparently is a chimera started to get too close to the Alchemist, I ran towards them with the intention of helping the alchemist but I wasn't fast enough. The stranger sliced Mr. Jerald's arm with his claws, the alchemist tried to fire his gun with his other arm but the stranger grabbed the gun and tossed it away. I finally got close, I attempted to punch him but he side stepped out of the way, he got behind me quickly, I could feel his sharp claws grabbing the jacket I had on, and with one fling of his hand he tossed me across the street.
"Wait your turn" he yelled, he raised his hand with the glowing stone at the dire beast. "Keep him busy, but don't kill him"
The dire beast who was still bleeding and clearly in pain started to advance on me, I turned to look at the Alchemist, he tried throwing jabs with his one good hand to the stranger but it didn't seem to have any significant impact, the stranger gave the Alchemist a blow to the head which sent him collapsing flat on the ground. Obviously he couldn't assist me, the dire beast drew closer and a got up attempting to give another blast of lighting when I heard a loud howl, one howl turned to two, two turned to four and then it was clear that a large number of werewolves were approaching us and boy were they quick. They surrounded the dire beast and the stranger and then came to a stop, it wasn't a full moon so they weren't fully shifted, they had their claws and fangs out though. Hopefully all of them together can end this – I thought.
"The werewolves of this town have spirit after all, I thought you guys would continue to let me run wild, killing and destroying as I see fit" The stranger said with a little chuckle.
"That was you?" one of the werewolves asked in rage. The werewolf then turned to me "Who are you?"
"Eyes off him" the stranger barked. "He's mine, just after I kill all of you"
The werewolves attacked the stranger and the dire beast, throwing their best punches when someone grabbed me, I wasn't sure who it was so I pushed hard and the person fell to the floor.
"Ouch" Karen cried. "What was that for?"
I hurriedly dragged her back to her feet "I am so sorry, I didn't know it was you"
"What are you doing here? We have to get out of here, the pack will handle this" Karen said pulling me in the opposite direction of the fight.
We ran as fast as we could, maneuvering our ways through different streets trying to get as far away as possible, but after about a minute of running I heard a noise behind us, it was the chimera.
"Run Faster!" Karen yelled.
"I can't run like a werewolf" I responded.
The chimera was obviously faster than any werewolf I'd encountered, I clearly haven't encountered a lot but you understand the point I'm trying to make. The chimera caught up with me and pushed me against a wall, the wall collided with my face and the impact broke a piece of the carnival mask I still had on.
The chimera looked at me and smiled "Don't be rude, I've been wanting to meet you for years, take off the mask so we can be properly introduced"
"Years? I think you got the wrong person" I said as I struggled to my feet.
"Get away from him" Karen yelled. She advanced on the chimera trying to dig her claws into him, he grabbed her and was about to bury his claws in her chest when I tackled both of them to the ground with my strength which seemed to have had more of an impact on Karen. I sat on top of him about to deliver a punch but he threw me off him very easily, before I could pull myself together he was already standing in front of me.
"You are untrained and unprepared, I wasn't expecting this to be easy" he said.
The Chimera took a shot at me with his claws, I raised my arm in defense and I definitely felt this claws on my forearm. I immediately looked at my arm expecting to see blood, the sleeve of the jacket was ripped to shreds but there was no blood and no bruise, the only evidence that his claws connected with my forearm was my shredded sleeve.
"He said you would be hard to kill" The chimera said.
"He? Who's he" I inquired.
"You'll find out soon enough"
He raised his hand in the air about to take another shot at me when someone hit him on the head with a baseball bat, to my greatest surprise it was Mr. Park, my physics teacher who was also a family friend. The baseball bat to the head had little to no effect on the chimera, he turned his attention to Mr. Park.
"Stop harassing the kids" Mr. Park said in a shaky voice as he took several steps backwards. Seeing that the chimera was distracted I quickly got to my feet and with every ounce of strength I could gather I delivered a punch to the chimera's back which sent him rolling at least three times before coming to a stop. Just then AMU sirens became audible and they seemed to be getting closer.
"You pack a hell of a punch kid, until next time" The Chimera quickly got up and ran in the opposite direction of the sirens.
I turned to my physics teacher who still had the baseball bat in his hands "Mr. Park?"
He looked at me keenly "Frederick? Is that you kid?"
I took off what was left of the Carnival mask "Yes"
"Who was that?" Mr. Park asked.
"I honestly don't know" I turned to Karen "Are you okay?"
"Yeah" She answered. "Just trying to catch my breath"
"I parked around the corner, I'll take you guys home" Mr. Park said as he led the way.