Date: Fri, 1 Nov 2019 23:47:25 +0000 (UTC)
From: Abra Cadabra <abracadabra923@yahoo.com>
Subject: Fuxer - part 5

Fuxer 5 – The First Fight

The five A-listers were out above the HQ's island, training in full gear,
meaning their singlets, boots, gloves and utility belts.

For Xander this meant wearing a white face hood for the first
time. Obviously, his visor could not be laced with the alien material that
blocked his 4D sight or he would have been useless as a clairvoyant.

Sidekick Filipe served as his `flight instructor'.

"When you descend," the Brazilian twink said, "don't drop like rock,
swole-bro, hehe."

Xander caught himself as he fell to Filipe's level, just hovering next to
the headquarters' top floor.

"Use your power on the way down," the `kick said, "just like when you go
up. But, uh, less cause gravity helps out."

Xander was sweating a little in the tropical breeze. He was grateful for
the limb-less costume design letting his skin breathe.

"But ascending is so hard," he complained. "If I can't go up, how do I go
down the same way?"

Filipe rotated upside down. He seemed to do that a lot for fun. It made
Xander dizzy just watching. "You fight gravity the most by going straight
up. Almost every flyer ascends diagonally, like you're going up a ramp."

"Oh."

"You think only in two dimensions. But straight up is not the only way to
get higher. Start with a spiral."

Xander sighed. Flying curves was difficult on its own.

"No", Filipe said one second into the attempt. "That's not a spiral, that's
a corkscrew. Don't rotate, lean into the curve. Like thi- Woah!"

A plastic disk flew just over their heads. A bright purple ball of light
with a long tail swished up between them, shattered the disk and exploded
above the roof.

"Oops," Bolt shouted from below, anther purple power ball still in his
fist. "Sorry."

"Watch it, Bolt," Filipe shouted, dropping down. "You could have smashed my
face in."

The masked ginger looked around. "Guard was supposed to keep a shield
between me and the HQ. Did you see where he went?"

Wiz' shadow fell on Xander as the Korean hunk made his way over the
roof. His sky blue singlet left no feature but the groin to the
imagination. He wore his white utility belt over the shoulder.

"Anyone seen Aqua?" Wiz asked. "We were doing rounds until a second ago."

Bolt ascended to them, leaving his sidekick friends to their own target
practice on the ground. "We were just looking for-"

A figure with a fluttering cape flew at them from an open window. "Guys, we
got a call," Aqua shouted. He wore large water bottles at his
belt. "Serpentior is loose in Sweden. We won't have backup cause most of
Hero-U is still out of the solar system."

The team rushed for the center of the HQ's dome where an opening widened
for them.

Aqua held Xander back. "4X, you've got no training so far, so I can't ask
you to join the fight, but if you want..."

"Absolutely, captain."

"Good, but just to be clear: You're an observer unless I give you a direct
order."

"Understood, sir."

"Here's a briefing on what we know..."

***

With them in the Boi Wing were Henry B1 and DeShawn B7.

4X got to sit with the other flying bricks in the front compartment, in the
row behind the cockpit.

On a catwalk in front of them was Todd, who now carried the tag B10 on his
singlet.

"Are you confident?" Aqua asked B10 through the intercom, after he took the
pilot seat.

Todd looked anxious. "I managed it once."

"Just bring us close."

Behind Todd was a nicely muscled, dirty blond boy with B3 on his
chest. Reuben-B3 could augment other's superpowers, so 4X was able to guess
that Todd was expected to teleport the Boi Wing close to their target
location.

The jet took off vertically before- (For a second 4X felt like he was
vaguely aware of his position relative to all of earth) –light swirled
all around him and- (An almost familiar sensation of stepping outside
himself) -they appeared above the North Sea.

***

Serpentior was an ash-black snake the length of a subway train. Its head
was a chaotic assortment of drill-like horns. It was thrashing in a pine
forest but the closest village of brightly colored houses wasn't far.

The Boi Wing stopped in midair, engines pointed down, and the door
opened. The forest breeze rushed in.

"Remember it can turn faster than you'd expect," Aqua reminded them, "and
one hit with those horns can knock you out. Pummel the spine."

4X flew out last and DeShawn's voice came through the coms in his face
hood. "It's more agitated this time," DeShawn said. "I'm sensing serious
danger for that village. I think Serpentior is bloodthirsty today."

"Sucks," Aqua said. "Guard, get into position to force it westward. Bolt,
distract it."

Wiz ascended farther, mumbling. He was `casting a spell' and pale white
rune-like patterns circled around him, faintly sparking.

Aqua opened his water bottles and pulled water out like ropes, making it
form rings around him.

4X watched with fascination – and a semi hard-on – as Bolt shot
purple energy balls at the snake's middle from above.

Serpentior swooped its body in large motions, unearthing trees and breaking
branches. Some debris hit Guard's immense shield, causing yellow sparks on
the otherwise barely visible wall.

"It's trying to burry itself," DeShawn's voice came in. "Danger levels are
rising. I think it might head for the village underground if we keep going
like this."

"Fuck," Bolt said.

"Language," Aqua said. "New plan. Guard, put your shield into the earth
underneath it. Hammer and anvil."

4X recognized the tactic from issue #83 and others but it had never been
used on Serpentior.

"Done," Guard said. Multiple trees fell over as the shield cut through
their roots underground.

Bolt let lose a volley of five purple shots in quick succession. All hit
the middle of the snake.

Serpentior rammed its head into the ground, only to bounce off the
shield. It twisted around and leapt at Guard but multiple other Guards –
slightly blurry - were flying close to it. Henry was creating illusions.

The snake slammed into some of the illusions, then twisted around again and
swung itself east, toward the village.

"Okay," Aqua said, "I'm afraid we have to get closer."

"Out of the way!" Wiz's voice came from the coms.

Guard hurried away and multiple lighting strikes rushed from the clear sky,
homing into the snake's spiky face.

Serpentior dropped.

Aqua flew closer and slammed his water into its face as a large ball. He
covered maybe two horns.

The snake stirred.

4X touched a nearly un-noticeable button on his mask to speak only to the
Boi Wing. "Uh, B7, what is Aqua doing?"

"We think the monster's got to have sensory organs. He's trying to cover
its eyes or whatever it's got."

The snake stirred again, raising its now wet head.

"Should I freeze it?" Wiz asked.

Aqua responded, "Try it. Maybe we can freeze its eye lids shut."

"Give me a couple minutes," Wiz said.

"Wait," 4X said, to his own surprise. "Zeal once compressed a whole town's
snow around Serpentior's head and the thing just shook it off." It had been
in issue #90.

"Shit, he's right," Wiz said. "That would've been a waste."

"Any other ideas?" Aqua said as the snake woke up and began to make its way
toward the village only to smack into Guard's shield. The length of the
shield was marked by fallen braches it had severed. The snake dashed to
move around it.

Hm... eyes... maybe 4X could see those when no one else could.

He focused his vision on the snake's face, looking through the horns into
its anatomy – gross.

"It has no eyes," 4X said. "But I think that's a nose. Yeah, it's
breathing. There are lungs deep inside."

"Nose?" Aqua said. "Where?"

"Just under the chipped horn next to the bifurcating one."

Aqua collected all his water into the spot. Serpentior's thrashing changed
to something panicky. It was suffocating.

4X kept looking along the snake's body. "There's a spot on its belly where
the armor is thin."

"I can hit it," Bolt said. "It keeps arching. Just need to get underneath."

4X zoomed out to look at Guard's position.

"One third down the length." A purple comet went down. "Bit farther up."
Another projectile. "Yes, right there."

Bolt flew underneath the arching creature's body, shooting purple comets
ahead of his path. He smashed into the snake with his glowing fist and
bounced off.

There was a cut. Serpentior was bleeding green slime.

"Liquid!" Aqua shouted. "I can work with that." He gained height and made a
pulling gesture. Green stuff squirted out of the snake's wound.

For the first time, Serpentior made a sound – like a thousand
jackhammers malfunctioning.

"Get away, I'm ready," Wiz shouted.

Serpentior twisted to keep its wound covered, coiling up.

Aqua flew aside and another lighting strike smashed into the dark
flesh-train.

The creature swayed as if dizzy... and dropped into a loose helix.

"Is it... is it dead?" Guard asked.

"Still dangerous," DeShawn proclaimed.

"The wound isn't deep," 4X said. "But I see soft tissue just underneath
that armor if we go a little deeper."

"Okay," Aqua said. "Here's the pl- Woah!"

The snake-coil leapt into the air, turned in an elegant arc and slammed its
horns into the ground, using superpowers to drill ahead of itself, and
vanished deeper into the earth than humans had ever gone.

A smear of green slime blood stayed behind among the fallen trees.

"I can't believe it," Bolt said. "We injured Serpentior. We really wrecked
the Bane of the North."

"More importantly," Aqua said, as he flew back to the Boi Wing, "we learned
a lot about it, including that it can be suffocated." He reached 4X and put
his hand on 4X' shoulder. "Well done, newbie. Your first fight and you were
a critical asset."

4X was beaming. "Thank you, sir. I'm only doing my clairvoyant job."

Aqua passed him, flying into the jet. One by one, the other heroes flew up
to 4X and congratulated him.

He was rock hard.

His cup was pushed out far enough that he had to sit with his hands in his
lap on the journey back to keep his boner a secret.

***

Akio stuck to a regular schedule, making him easy to track throughout the
day with 4D vision.

Twice a week the Japanese captain invited Katashi-B2 into his room to catch
up in their native language. Katashi was a darker skinned `kick,
165cm/5'5'' tall, athletic with slender muscles. He had a delicate face and
wore his hair to the side.

Xander had hoped to find a gay ally in him since he looked the part. B2 was
fashion conscious with a subtle nose ring. Funny enough, he had a Prince
Albert, too. The same Henry had. They must have gotten it together even
though Katashi hadn't been a boi for as long, being a mere 19 years.

Unfortunately, the hot Asian only watched porn of girls jerking off while
he humped the mattress.

Regardless, Xander kept an eye on Katashi throughout the day because the
sidekick liked to jerk off in places where he could be caught. A stairwell,
the laundry room, a closet.

Especially at night Katashi got daring and picked a random corridor or a
public spot like the gym to strip and step as far away from his clothes as
he dared. Sometimes he even left the lights on in those places when he
jerked off.

Usually the `kick stood in the middle of the space but sometimes he knelt
or crawled farther away from his clothes.

Xander almost wanted to do the boi a favor and `catch' him but he didn't
want the performances to stop.

Katashi's power was duplication. As far as Xander was concerned that would
have been perfect for a vers gay who wanted to fuck himself.

Sadly, Katashi only used the ability to have a duplicate of himself
temporarily hide his clothes. Sexy but not the peak of creativity.

***

Chapter 6: Zeal