Book 2: The Imp's Hero Playground

Chapter 27

A gentle tap on his shoulder woke the unconscious hunk.

“Erm… Phantom, sir? Phantom, sir!” 

“Ugh,” Phantom opened his eyes, trying to shake off the mental cobwebs. Flux was tapping on his shoulder, trying to wake him up. The silver hero looked down and realized he was stark naked. His flaccid penis rested against his thigh. There was dried cum on his washboard abs. 

His handsome face flustered instantly. 

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?!” he yelled in frantically, leaping up in surprise. The hero quickly reached for a stray towel and wrapped it around his slender waist.

Startled by the naked hero’s outburst, the rookie heroes looked at Phantom with reddened faces. Geo shifted slightly to adjust his tenting cock with his trousers.

Flux spoke softly, “Sorry, sir. We have an emergency. We didn’t mean to… intrude.”

Regaining his composure, Phantom looked at the duo. He was desperately trying to maintain a heroic image in front of his juniors despite the embarrassing moment. 

“What’s going on?”

“Velocity got taken,” Flux explained. “Wits too. Well, not exactly…”

“What? What you mean not exactly?” questioned Phantom. 

“Well, the situation is odd. Security footage showed that Wits went into the infirmary, took Velocity, and left using some teleportation device.”

Phantom furrowed his brows in thoughts.

Wits was not himself. He was talking about The Imp and how that person was regaining control over him. It’s likely to be mind control of some sort. But Wits is a powerful telepath. It shouldn’t be so easy to control his mind.
 
Looking back up at the rookies, Phantom said, “We need to talk to Ember Man. Where is he?”

Flux paused before continuing, “Well… Ember Man is missing too. DayBreak came to our HQ and reported that Ember Man was abducted after their fight with the Kaiju.”

“WHAT?!” exclaimed a perplexed Phantom. “What the hell is going on?”

—-

Wits looked at his hands. They were trembling slightly.

Just a while back, he failed to capture the silver hero due to the protective instincts of the original. No matter how he tried, Wits could not grab hold of the unconscious Top Five. 

The original tried to take over using sheer mental powers. Even though he was all bound up deep within his mental prison, he could still temporarily resist The Imp’s submissive magic. What an incredible telepath. 
 
Due to his failure, The Imp strengthened the submissive magic on the telepath’s mind. Right now, he could hear the pained screams of the original echoing in his mind. 

Looking up from his trembling hands, his master was seated on top of the large machinery in the room. He was playfully knocking his heels on the machines. 

The room was filled with bright screens, displaying vital readings of their captives. 

His master’s partner, Dr. Grim, studied the two prominent figures before him in large metal pods, bounded by their limbs. 

The pale-looking man muttered softly, “Yes… Finally. The next phase of my experiment.”

Chapter 28

“What the hell? What do you mean by you don’t know?” DayBreak was in a rage, “What kind of Mission Control team are you leading?” 

Kenneth shifted about uncomfortably as he tried to calm down the sun hero. The Mission Control team leader was a young and handsome, well-built man. He wore a tight black polo tee and a pair of thick glasses. His meek personality often made him an easy pushover. Precisely in this instance, he was getting the heat from DayBreak.

If he had more confidence in himself, he would make a fine hero. Kenneth, who also went by his hero name Signal, is a telepath. Unlike Wits, his specialty was in telepathic communications, making him a crucial team supporter in many missions. But he hated the frontlines and moved to play a support function back in HQ instead and led Cindra Alliance’s Mission Control. His range of telepathic communication can cover the entire Republic of Cindra comfortably but could even extend to the rest of the globe for a short period. With his ability, he can temporarily enable his team to communicate telepathically with each other through his mental bridge. 

“HELLO!?” yelled DayBreak. The bulging veins on his forehead looked like they were about to burst.

“I’m sorry, DayBreak. I don’t know where Ember Man or Velocity is. My abilities can’t reach them if I don’t know where they are,” explained Kenneth. 

DayBreak let out in frustration, “God! What good are your powers, Glasses?” 

Kenneth frowned slightly as he felt offended by the sun hero’s harsh words. He will let it go for now, like how he always did. 

The rapid tapping footsteps could be heard approaching the Mission Control room. 

“What is going on?” Phantom said as he entered with Geo and Flux. 

At the sight of the silver hero, DayBreak turned his head away, hiding his gaze momentarily. He was embarrassed by his incompetency to rescue the fire Elementalist. 

“A new villain known as “The Imp” has captured Ember Man after their fight with the Kaiju,” explained Kenneth. “It is likely that Wits went rogue and might be under some sort of influence. He took Velocity away and escaped with a device that created a dimensional portal. That’s the first time we have seen this kind of technology. At present, we don’t know where they are.”

Grasping their current situation, Phantom shared, “They are at the warehouse where Imperial Flame’s video was sent from. I got that from Wits when he regained some control.” 

“The villain used some mind-control abilities and is strong enough to overpower Wits. So we need to be careful.” Phantom continued, “Before the villain regained control, Wits shared that the villain’s weakness is to call out his name three times, ‘ꐠ≍∌∀≸♅⥉⋊₪⋇'”

“What now? ꐠ≍∌∀≸-?” DayBreak looked over. “I could just smash his face in if I got the chance.” 
 
Kenneth tilted his head, “That… That’s an ancient name.”

He turned to his computer and ran his fingers quickly over the keyboard. “Historical recordings of this name were rare, but there is a single piece of scripture. An ancient sprite from Hague Domain. It seems that we are dealing with forces beyond our world here.” 

“Look, we need to be careful. This Imp is not alone. The portal device is a tell-tale. Unlikely that an ancient sprite could create such an intricate device,” Kenneth warned. 

“Yes. This is going to be a stealth mission. We are not sure what to expect,” said Phantom before noticing that the rookie heroes’ faces lit up. 

“You two are not going. This is far too dangerous. Even more so than the Kaiju.” 

Geo and Flux grunted in protest. 

After finalizing the details of their mission, DayBreak and Phantom left off, zipping through the air towards the warehouse at Oar Rest Harbour.

Flux looked at his friend and muttered, “It’s obvious that they need backup.” 

The frown on Geo’s face turned upside down instantly, “Damn, brother. Now you’re talking.” 

Chapter 29

“Who are these cuties?” asked The Imp cheekily as he pointed to the two figures on the monitor.

Dr. Grim glanced over the monitor. His eyes widened.

Phantom… and DayBreak? This was not in my calculations. There were plans for each of Cindra’s Top Five. But not a Guardian and definitely not for one who is this powerful. 
 
The scientist looked at the wall clock. Thoughts raced in his mind.

Noon. Not the best time to deal with the sun hero.
 
“Look. That hero in the silver costume. That’s Phantom. Take him in. But this one, his name is DayBreak. It would be best if you got rid of him. He’s too powerful to contain at this time. Even for you.” 

The Imp looked at Dr. Grim in contempt. Did this man order me around again? Seriously, does this man know who I am?
 
“You do know I’m not your henchman, right?” said The Imp over gritted teeth.

The scrawny scientist turned his back to refocus his study on the two figures, which were heaving heavily in their confines. Their heavy sedation was wearing off. 

“This is the last straw. Once I get that cutie in silver, I’m outta here,” grunted The Imp.

—–

The hot salty air filled his lungs as Phantom landed just outside the charred warehouse. As before, the ruined space was cordoned off. They were supposed to be on a stealth mission, but it would not be possible with the raging DayBreak. Failing to rescue Ember Man was a devastating blow to the egoistic sun hero. 

“Look, we should be looking for an underground entrance. Wits said that the villain’s base should still be around here.”

The two heroes moved quickly, uncovering the debris. There was scorched black rubble scattered everywhere. Some heavy equipment lay on its side, destroyed from the fire. 

“The entrance is over here.” 

“Thanks, DayBreak.”

“Huh?”

The two heroes turned to look at each other. Neither of them said that. 

Tapping sounds echoed through the warehouse. A young man sat on top of a fallen wall, knocking his heels against the concrete mischievously. Two others were standing on his sides, a ghostly white teenager and Wits. 

“Wits? W-What are you doing here?” asked Phantom. His heart took a slight dip at the sight of his lover. The telepath hero’s eyes were glassed. He stared at them with a blank look.

Phantom instinctively assumed his battle stance, prepared for combat. On the other hand, DayBreak was shaking. 

“DayBreak?” probed Phantom.

“That’s The Imp,” DayBreak replied with gritted teeth as he recognized the figure from their previous encounter. The sun hero was shaking… shaking with fiery anger. His failure to save Ember Man was eating away at him. Now the culprit was just in front of him.

The sun hero’s body basked in a yellow glow as his sun powers activated. He lunged forward, half-flying with a clenched fist outwards. The Imp expertly swerved to avoid the punch.

“Gee. What’s wrong with you heroes? Everyone’s attacking me on sight these days,” scowled The Imp. 

DayBreak followed up with a quick but powerful jabs but the nimble villain avoided the high-powered punches. Taking chances of any openings, The Imp successfully landed a couple of his own powerful blows on the hero. But the man’s body seems to be tougher than titanium. The Imp’s strikes bounced off the hero’s invincible body as though it was nothing. Both figures appeared as a blur as they exchanged blows in rapid succession.

The high-speed battle was too fast for Phantom to follow. His hands glowed green as he readied his energy blasts, but he could not lock onto his target. Damn!
 
A powerful punch lightly grazed The Imp’s cheek. A line of red dripped down from his handsome face. The Imp leaped back, winced in anger. Rarely, anyone could cut him because of his tough skin, not to mention with just a brush. “Argh. You are a tough one.” 

Recalling Dr. Grim’s advice, he should be getting rid of this sun hero, rather than taking him down. Looking at both of his slaves, he commanded, “Wits! Pitch! Get onto it.”

Wits’ eyes lit up in orange. “Enhanced speech command.”

“Halt,” chimed the pale figure. 

DayBreak and Phantom froze in their positions.

“W-What?” both of them let out as they struggled to move. Their body seemed to ignore their mind to move even the slightest inch. “Argh…”

DayBreak’s fists were shaking against the enhanced speech command. The sun hero was too strong for such bindings. Pitch started coughing as a dribble of blood leaked from his nostrils. The powerhouse was denying his absolute speech command, even with Wits’ Augmentation.

The Imp arched a brow and cheekily let out, “Oops. Sorry, Pitch. I will just get this over quickly.”

With a snap of his finger, an inter-dimensional portal opened out in front of the struggling DayBreak. The sun hero roared as he strained to break out of his invisible binds, “When I get out of this, y-you are going to pay!” 

The Imp took the chance to humiliate him further by ruffling his dirty blonde hair. “I don’t think you can teleport right?”

“ARGH!!” roared the sun hero as his face turned red with anger. 

“Ciao, my handsome hero.” 

Phantom watched as The Imp looped the dimensional portal over the protesting sun hero. “ARGH! FUCK! Fight me like a man! YOU COWAR-” 

Once DayBreak disappeared into the portal, the dimension closed. 

Phantom felt his body regain control. He glared at the villain, “Where did you send him?”

“Somewhere far. It’s going to take him ages to get back here,” said The Imp as he dusted off his hands from the heated battle. 

Chapter 30 

In the heat of the battle, Phantom had forgotten Wits’ words. The Imp’s name!

“ꐠ≍∌∀≸♅⥉⋊₪⋇!” He yelled out. “ꐠ≍∌∀≸♅⥉⋊₪⋇! ꐠ≍∌∀≸–“
 
His words went silent. His mouth was in motion but not a squeak to be heard. Looking around in confusion, he saw the pale figure’s hand raised towards him. The air around him seems to have been manipulated. 

The Imp let out a massive sigh of relief. “PITCH! I thought you were out from holding that hunky hero! Thank goodness!” 

The pale figure could hardly stand properly. His blood was still flowing from his nostrils. It was clear that his abilities were overtaxing his body. 

The Imp turned his attention to Phantom, who was visibly yelling at the top of his voice. “As always, they always try to scream my name after being silent… Oh, Sinner, it’s so hard for my fans, not being able to call my name.” 

Phantom felt his body stiffen. His movement was locked again. He looked up at Wits. The telepath’s eyes grew orange.

Damn! Wits! Fight against him!

It was as though his boyfriend had heard his thoughts. Wits’ eyes flickered blue for a brief second, releasing his telepathic grip on the silver hero.

Phantom took the chance to phase out of the mental hold and flew towards the telepath. His body slammed against Wits, throwing the telepath onto the ground. A cloud of rubble dust burst up into the air. 

Holding Wits arms above his head, Phantom raised another hand, glowing green with ghost powers.

“Stop this! Wits,” he mouthed as his clenched fist readied for a powerful punch. Seeing his lover’s dusty face, his eyes behind the mask softened. “Please don’t make me do this!”

In that second of hesitation, Wits’ eye glowed a bright orange. Phantom felt a strong tug on his body, pulling him away from Wits, and flinging him backward into a broken wall. 

“ARGH…” cried Phantom as his body slammed into the concrete. He felt a slight concussion in his head and a bit of bile in his mouth. The telepath had a renewed grip on his body, lifting him into the air. He could not phase out of it.

Wits approached the trapped hero. Even though his eyes were glassed, he smirked a little before landing a strong gut punch to the silver hero.

Crying out in pain, the sweat-drenched hero was struggling mentally to break free of the telepathic hold. A powerful kick slammed into his gut, sending the hero tumbling across the rubble.

The Imp grinned. He always loved to see a good beating. 

As the dust settled, Phantom stumbled to stand up. A couple of his ribs were broken from Wits’ augmented strength. His muscular body panting from the blows he received from his lover. Phantom’s hands glowed green as he used his ghost powers to nurse his internal injuries.

Not letting up, the telepath lunged forward. In a quick motion, he gripped the silver hero by the throat. Using his telepathic abilities, he denied Phantom to activate his intangibility to escape. 

Lifting the injured hero against the wall, Phantom’s masked face turned red with the lack of oxygen. He gritted his teeth, mouthing the words, “Please… no… Wits” 

At that moment, Wits’ evil smirk disappeared. His eyes flickered blue again. The original was fighting back aggressively in his mental prison.

“Argh,” let out Wits as he winced in agony, holding his head. His eyes flickered between orange and blue. 

Phantom collapsed to the ground, gasping for air. He looked up wearily at his boyfriend’s struggles. “Fight it, Matt! Fight it!”
 
The Imp stared in confusion at his slave telepath. “What? This is impossible. After all that breaking, this peaky one is still resisting me?” 

A frown spread across his darkening face. His hand lit up an orange magic circle. “Know your place, fool!” 

Phantom quickly phased out and leaped into the air. From his aerial view, he hurled powerful blasts of ghost energy towards The Imp.

With the bombardment, The Imp switched his focus to bring down the silver hero. He jumped onto the broken rubble and attempted to land blows onto the levitating hero. But Phantom easily slipped in and out of his intangibility now without Wits’ interference and managed to push back The Imp with his energy blasts and charged punches. 

Infuriated that he could not gain the upper hand in an aerial battle, he landed back beside the telepath. The ruthless villain gave his distracted slave a violent kick to his stomach. Wits’ eyes bulged in shock as he spat out his gastric fluid. 

“Wits!!!” screamed Phantom in silence, “NO!!” 

The Imp lifted the unmoving body of the telepath hero and threw the muscular form into the air towards Phantom. 

“NO!” yelled Phantom in rage after seeing his lover getting hurt.

He slipped out of his intangibility to catch his boyfriend. 

“SHIT!” It was too late when he realized The Imp’s intentions.

In a flash, The Imp leaped upward to the levitating hero and landed a jaw-break punch to his handsome face. The powerful punch sent the sliver hero headfirst into the concrete ceiling, dislodging the rubble from above, and before collapsing to the ground like a swapped fly. Dust filled the air.

The silver hero moaned softly as his vision quickly faded from the concussion. 

Chapter 31

DayBreak stumbled on his feet. His world had changed in a blink of an eye. The hot salty air of the harbor was quickly replaced by soothing and cold air.

He looked around. It seems to be an ordinary brick street. His new location was dimly-lit warmly by street lamps… or rather oriental lanterns.

What the hell am I?
 
The sky above him was dark. It shimmered with sparkling spots of lights. Not stars. But… bioluminescent? 

“S-Shit! It can’t be,” DayBreak uttered as he slowly recognized the place. “The Sea Dragon Palace? The capital of Pacific Water Continent?” 

That’s far. Far off from Cindra Metropolitan or Kant City. Far off from Phantom and the rest of them. I’m probably halfway across the globe now.
 
A couple of the seafolks looked at him with astonishment. It was rare for them to have a foreign superhero in one of the deepest depths of the ocean. The residents here looked like regular humans just that behind their ears were a set of gills for them to breathe underwater. More seafolks began to gather curiously around him, the sighting of a superhero spread quickly.

“Fuck!” DayBreak roared. “I need to get back.” 

He leaped into the air and landed back down. His face turned red, embarrassed that his powers didn’t activate in front of the growing crowd. 

“S-shit. It’s night here. Fucking midnight!” 

The sun hero had been powered down.