Chapter 26.2: Super Effective

Screams of desperate panic filled the air in New York City. A line of people who had waited outside of the Pear UPhone Store overnight to get the latest iteration of their UPhone. It was the UPhone 6b, a version of the UPhone that had a slightly different case color than the UPhone 6a and was thus more valuable, were greeted by the light of dawn.

From out of nowhere raging beasts in the form of shaggy horned gorillas appeared in the streets and began to leap upon people. They dragged men, women, children, and those annoying little yappy dogs that people kept in their purses away. The screams of the hapless public as limbs were torn off and devoured in front of them were counter-pointed by the shrieks of those who wished to escape such a fate.

Slowly, as the next few hours passed that same horror would befall the rest of North America as the world turned and dawn came to places further from the East Coast of North America. Why dawn on the East Coast of America was important for such updates would remain a mystery. Perhaps the mysterious assholes behind this worldwide apocalypse ran on Eastern Standard Time? Either way, the rest of the world could only wait in abject terror, or be taken completely by surprise if they were heavy sleepers, while people made desperate attempts to prepare for the coming dawn.

During the time that monster spawns had first started to occur throughout the Eastern Standard Time zone, Scott had spent his time dealing with all manner of problems that the monster spawns had caused. Every time he made headway toward reaching his home, he ran across a pack of weak monsters or some hapless idiot out for a morning jog despite the warnings that people had received regarding the immanent monster spawns.

However, he had finally made his way to town. He was only a few miles from his house now.

The dragon looked out through the underbrush then tried to resist the urge that welled up within him. It proved to be impossible. He could not ignore the sight in front of him.

Buttercup Lane, one of the little residential side streets a few miles from his house was overrun by hideous monsters that looked like hairless wolves. Even as Scott watched the scene, he heard screams coming from one house as a hairless wolf lept through a first floor window.

“Dammit!” snarled Scott before he gave in to his urge to help. Part of him did not want to care about what was happening here, but every other part of him demanded that he do something. Whether it was his new racial prerogative kicking in, or just his true nature shining through, it could not be said. Either way, he would not leave these people to die just to get home a little sooner.

The black dragon raced out of the shrubbery and then dropped down a short hill before racing through the backyard of a burning house. He hurdled a well-kept hedge then crossed the single lane road before he made his way to the same window that the monster had entered.

Screams of panic and fear erupted from within the house once more, followed by a roar and a sudden yelp of panic. The wolf-like monster lept out of the same window that it had used to enter the house. After its desperate escape it raced down the street with its hairless tail between its legs, while yelping in panic the entire way. “Aie, Aie, Aie, Aie....”

Scott jumped out of the window after telling the home owners to set up a sanctuary field. He did not take the time to ascertain whether or not they could even afford to do such, or if they owned their house instead of renting. He had to clean up the street and then get out of there.

Once he was back on the street Scott jumped up onto a car then used it to leap on top of a motorhome parked in the street. He let out a loud challenging roar, which sounded more like a cute and overly excited Graaaw. Still, it captured the attention of the twenty or so monsters in the area.

Hairless wolf monsters, Scarvulfs according to the information Scott received after focusing on one of them long enough to see what level they were. The one he viewed was level four. Even one of these monsters would be a severe threat to most people unless they had something to even the odds.

The sound of a rifle boomed out of the second floor window of a house on the end of the street and one of the wolf monsters went down. Scott glanced up to the window of the house at the end of the street then immediately jumped back behind the motorhome. The man in the window looked as though he had started to take aim at him!

Scott took a brief moment to shift into his shadow form. He did not want to be seen in human form around here, as someone might recognize him. Still, he was less likely to be killed by unfriendly fire if he was immune to bullets.

Just as he finished changing three scarvulfs raced around the side of the motorhome. They looked around in confusion as all they saw was a dark cloud. Where was the tasty smelling lizard from before?

Scott flowed forward and unleashed his aura upon the beasts. They turned tail and made a run for it without a second thought. Those monsters take care of; Scott slipped out into the road once more and used his aura to send the pack of monsters running in terror. He herded them down the street toward an abandoned meat packing plant that he recalled.

He continually moved in a way that caused the monsters to flee in the direction he desired. A few of them managed to break away and head for other areas, but Scott managed to keep the majority in line.

The pack of hairless monstrosities streamed into the packing plant parking lot and found that they were trapped behind a chain link fence, the only exit available was behind the cloud of darkness that not descended upon them.

Scott was just about to transform back into dragon form to finish them off when three police vehicles, one an animal control van, came careening around the corner. The boys in black pulled to a screeching halt just outside the fence along with an animal control officer.

“What the hell is that thing?” called out one of the officers as he leveled his firearm at the cloud of darkness.

“Forget that thing, what about those things!” snapped another man.

Scott recognized the second speaker! It was the sheriff. What would he be doing out here? He usually did not come out directly for anything like this. How bad was the situation around town that elected officials were strapping up and heading out?

Sheriff Ansen gave the order and the six man team of officers opened fire on the trapped monsters. Scarvulfs yelped in panic and made a desperate attempt to flee through the dark cloud blocking their path but Scott unleashed a hellish cackle and used his aura again. Despite the fact that their bodies were being shredded and torn by gunfire, they fell back in abject terror. The dragon fear that they faced was strong enough that they would rather face death than try to go against that cloud.

“I have to reload!” called one of the officers. He had emptied several shots into more than one monster but they did not go down easy. They jumped around and getting a clean hit was hard.

“Screw it. I’m getting my shotgun.” said the Sheriff before going back to his patrol car and taking his shotgun in hand. He finished prepping his weapon and returned to the fire fight.

“Hey, Sheriff. After this do you mind if I go home and get my hunting stuff? These damn pistols aren’t cutting it.” said a burly man on the sheriff’s left.

“I’ll go get mine too. Damn this shit. If the mayor wants to bitch, he can kiss my black ass.” replied the sheriff before blasting another scarvulf.

The battle ended with both a bang and a whimper as the last scarvulf fell dead to the earth. Afterward there was an awkward pause as the cloud of darkness and the gather police force regarded each other.

“What now?” asked the big officer.

“I have places to be, thanks for the assistance.” said Scott cheerfully.

“What the hell are you?” asked the Sheriff.

Scott unleashed a low, sinister, chuckle. “Just your friendly neighborhood cloud of terror.”

The gathered officers looked distinctly uncomfortable as they had no idea what to do about something like this. They looked to the Sheriff to see what they should do.

Scott began to flow down toward the ground then merged with the earth. If he stayed there too long, it could cause problems. However, he could not resist a parting shot. He allowed some of his mass to flow back up out of the Earth and said, “Nice to see my tax dollars at work. By the way, there are a few of those things still running around loose.”

He returned to the earth and headed off toward his house. It was slow going, but he did not want the officers to see which way he went. He needed to get off the street and change back.

“You heard the cloud, we have things to do.” said the sheriff. He reloaded his shotgun with the last of his shells then went into the parking lot. He wanted to make sure this group was dead before they went to try and find the rest of the monsters in the area.

“We’re listening to talking clouds now?” asked the burly officer. He shrugged then went into the parking lot as well. The others followed suit. They had a lot of work to do today and possibly a much more difficult night coming.