The Monster Mash (JaK)

It was Tuesday. Mythical Creatures attacked on a Tuesday. Every resident of Jump City knew this.

"I said kneel!"

A bovine bellow followed this declaration. The inhabitants of Central Park practically fell over backwards to comply. An outdoor concert was being held as a charity event. But the festivities had been crashed by the arrival of three unseemly characters. A minotaur, a siren, and some human avatar of a Stymphalian bird. The siren had dive-bombed the stage, striking a literal chord with the lead act. She had ushered the remaining VIP's into their tent. Meanwhile the threat of a raging bull and a notched longbow held the majority of hostages in place. The Monster Gang were in town. And they were already stirring up trouble.

"We announced ourselves. What's your next bright idea?" Stymphalian cawed, "Hold pose until police arrive?"

Steam erupted from Minotaur's nostrils, "We break something, obviously." With a gargantuan leap, the mythical beast thrust himself upon the stage. Then, taking stock of his burden, he hefted the towering speaker set, easily three times his height, and held it over his horns. "On their heads!" It was thrown into the crowd.

A bystander caught it. Hefting the speakers down safely to one side, Onyekachi weathered the furious gaze of the Minotaur. He shed his shirt, "Push me, f'worder, and I'll push back." The crowd around him receded, creating a circle the Minotaur readily jumped inside. The beast roared his challenge and threw his best punch. The Kishi took the blow to his kidneys and then was thrown back by a second. His head lolled, as if concussed, and by another set of eyes he dodged the third blow. Now Onyekachi struck back landing a counter-blow on Minotaur's snout and causing it to drip with blood. Minotaur caught his next punch and the Kishi likewise caught his. The two pushed against each other in a test of strength. They were evenly matched.

"Enough of this." Stymphalian aimed at the demon's back and let loose an arrow. His second was on the string before the first had impacted. Bone suddenly grew under Onyekachi's shirt, causing the arrows to bounce off without inflicting harm, "Uh oh." A second pair of hands materialised out the Kishi's mid-section and punched Minotaur under his ribcage, winding him. Onyekachi followed that up with a hammer-blow to the head which floored his opponent.

Turning, he advanced on the archer, the thrill of combat in his eyes. The stragglers of the crowd took their chance to turn and run. "Cmere. I just want a word. Oi! Cmere!" His pursuit was cut short by a sonic screech. The sound vibrated through his very bones, and so putting his hands to his ears did nothing. Onyekachi staggered forwards a few more steps before an identical Kishi landed a punch to his jaw. Onyekachi sprawled out across the cut grass, "What the f'word was that for, brother?"

The Kishi in question had separated from his brothers before the battle started. They'd sent him to ambush the siren, "Tch. Not my fault." Normally the brothers would be amused at smacking each other round. This time, however, Geraldo was not amused. The source of his ire was evident when Siren hopped upon his back, curling his arms around his neck impishly.

"Aww! Thanks bunches! Who knew you'd attack your brother for lil' ol' me!" Siren tugged at the captive Kishi's cheek playfully.

"What are you doing? Attack her!"

"Can't... She started singing. And now I have this irresistible urge to f'word her brains out..." The Kishi phase meaning 'infatuated'.

"Your brother looks mad. I should sing him a song!

"S'word. One of you, think of something!" Onyekachi knew he couldn't cover enough ground to silence the monster. Instead he focused his efforts on something else. Two small objects were shed from his skin at the same moment a third Kishi leapt out of his body. The siren song washed over the pair of them, Onyekachi's scowl quickly turning into a blush. He was enchanted like Geraldo.

"Wow! Men are popping out everywhere!" Siren hopped off Geraldo's back and scurried over to Onyekachi who futilely tried to back away, "Ah-ah! Heel! That's better." Her hand patted him possessively, her smile turned toothy, "You'll wanna stay for the next part. When Minnie beats the living tar out of ya. The winner gets to be my pet."

"Like I'll let that happen." Minotaur had recovered, striding over to the enchanted Kishi with ill-disguised violent intent.

Siren beamed delightedly and moved to cling onto the third Kishi, Ernesto. A brittle object cracked beneath her heel. She recoiled into Ernesto with a look of disgust, "Ew! What are those?"

"Eardrums." Onyekachi replied.

Anatomically deafened, Ernesto grabbed a hold of Siren and clamped a hand across her mouth. Minotaur bellowed another challenge and leapt for the Kishi. Suddenly he doubled over in pain. A double aftershock effect from Onyekachi's previous attack had knocked the wind clear out of him. This was followed by two more hammer-blows, which finally succeeded in knocking the Minotaur out.

"Can you idiots wrap this up? I feel like I'm bleeding into my brain!" Ernesto protested, the bird girl wiggling ineffectually against him.

Onyekachi smiled to himself, a perfect plan executed, "Working on it. Now where did that archer run off too?"

The archer was sent flying backwards on top of the Minotaur after a thunderous smack resounded throughout the trees causing a flock of birds to take flight. The return of the archer was followed by a boy in a tank top, scarf, and boots with two scrolls at his side. "Oh...I thought I felt a lot of magic here." Kale looked around and assessed a fight had gone down here with these guys being the winners. "That one made the mistake of attacking me when I came towards him." Brave displayed his Titan tattoo on his shoulder for all the kishis to see. "Try not to make the same mistake." Kale said clenching his palm into a fist just in case one of them did attack.

"Minotaur...I haven't seen these types of creatures on Earth before?" He focused on the brothers. "And what are you three?" The dragon mage's eyes closed and re-opened with reptilian slits where his iris should be. A clear indication that he was something else than human but of course just researching heroes in this city would have revealed that. The dragon mage was rather overly relaxed in this situation.

The three brothers all met the new arrival with unfriendly gazes. It wasn't often they got to knock people around and they were looking forward to catching up to that archer. It didn't occur to them that Stymphalian could easily have gotten away and went on to free his accomplices from jail. Protecting bystanders hadn't been Onyekachi's aim, unleashing his pent up aggression in a morally justifiable way had. If not for this intrusion he might have waited around for Minotaur to regain consciousness, just so he could lay into them again. It wasn't every day he met a guy who could take his full strength punch.

"Kishi. If you really gotta know. Just passing through." Onyekachi's reply caused his brothers to turn away and ignore Kale. They knew he would take the burden of conversation from here on out. The Kishi saw in the dragon mage an impressive spectacle, one that was well worth smacking around if it could be justified. But what really drew his eye was the all-too evident tattoo. A vagrant though he may be, even Onyakachi could identify the Titans. He stalked over, "You're one of those hero types that sits in a pretty little tower, ain't ya?" True heroes amused the demon. Why anyone would willingly try to protect this bunch of base, cruel, hypocritical, simpering, and selfish people was beyond his ability to comprehend. They needed a looney bin.

"Listen. We got myself one of those license thingies that entitles me to basic self-defence, so we got no beef with you. But if you're committed to this public service lark then you won't mind standing around holding this dumb broad until cops arrive to toss these freaks in jail." Onyekachi carelessly jabbed a thumb behind him at his brothers. Geraldo had taken off a sock with the clear intention to gag Siren, but his infatuation made him falter long enough for the girl to push off Ernesto and kick at him until he backed off. Ernesto still had his hand firmly over her mouth, but her muffled protests were plainly disgust at the notion they would put that smelly footwear anywhere near her face.

"No, I separated myself from them a while back - I'm doing my own thing now as a Titan." Kale stood quietly then chuckled. "Freaks you say?" He bared his fangs at them within a toothy grin. "Look at you, and look at me, and then look at them." Kale extended a hand as if passing a proverbial olive branch. "Were all freaks in the eyes of humans, even if we look like them, which is why I can protect them so well. They let me do it - like I'm a guard dog, not a human solider. And I like that." Kale clenched his extended hand into a tight fist. "When someone lets an animal hunt they know what it's capable of doing. They don't reprimand it, they don't critique it like soldiers. When that dog hunts, he can be free."

Kale folded his arms after making the analogy. "You took these three by yourselves; you're strong and I'm looking for a strong beings to join me, ones who want to be free." Kale approached the three brothers. "The three of you are welcome to my team and my club, where you can be free to do whatever. All I do is hunt down creatures like these or evil humans who try to hurt others to protect the good humans who don't just see me as a, freak."

Kale offered to take the girl from them. "Think about it," he took in the brother's scents. "Or at least stop by for a visit sometime. I'd still love to talk about....what it is exactly you guys are." Kale pointed a thumb behind him, almost mimicking Kishi. "My name is Kale Salem, but people of Earth call me Brave. I live in the giant T-shaped tree with the rock golems out front deep in Central park." Kale might not have realized how odd this sounded.

"Guh. Yeah. Hard to miss." The Kishi replied reservedly. He had just been thinking how juvenile the idea of heroics was. How misguided its idealistic practitioners were. Yet this lizard-lidded human had put it in terms the demon could understand, even respect. Opinions were not changed overnight. It made the Kishi guarded. The analogy was sweet but he recalled recently how his parole officer Karma Kharmeleon had also referred to him as a 'dog'. It was an insult then, but not now.

Ernesto readily let Siren go and swiftly sought the shelter of his brother's body. He had ear drums to regrow. Geraldo also gripped Onyekachi by the arm, and disappeared from view. Now there was just one Kishi visible. Loathe to hear more philosophy, lest it actual change his views, he made to leave, "My clan name is Onyekachi. Use that if I come a knocking." A prospect not even they knew for certain would occur. There could be benefits to working in a group. For starters - regular meals. Perhaps someone else who was prepared to do the things he was forbidden to do.

It wasn't long after the Kishi left that Minotaur roused. It wasn't a natural awakening. An electric bolt, invisible to the naked eye, had given his consciousness the jolt it needed. The monster knew what that fortold. It was the signal to act. Rising up, the beast bellowed his challenge once more, this time at the pink-haired man who held Siren. His hoof smashed down, scraping the ground. On its second pass it kicked the head of the body near him; that of Stymphalian. The kick in a sensitive spot killed his fellow monster, but Minotaur did not care.

He charged Kale Salem, his horns brought to bare. Siren was frightened by his ferocity, unsure if she herself would be skewered alongside her captor.

Kale smiled at Onyekachi, but then the Minotaur rose again. The beast killed it's comrade and charged the teen. One would expect the Titan to get out of the way but the dragon mage was enthralled. Instead Kale stood firm after tossing the siren aside towards the brothers and roared as he grabbed the horns on the Minotaur's head and slowed the creature. Not enough however. The Minotaur plowed into Brave and knocked him through two trees before skidding to a halt before he could reach the third.

The teen's resolve was terrifying - blood seeped from Brave's mouth and his hands as the sharp hooves pierced into them, but yet and still he pushed back the creature. "You killed your own teammate out of anger?!" The dragon roared as he stook a step forward and rangled with the beast. "You think you know rage and anger!?" Kale said as he threw the beast's head to the side and then hammer-fisted it down to the floor and reached into his pack with the other hand. "You don't have a clue!" Kale having had his entire race massacred knew anger, and knew the feeling of his kin dying before his eyes. He pulled a scroll from his pocket and unraveled it - the scroll wrapped around the Minotaur momentarily holding it in place.