Not much of interest happened in the following missions, at least not compared to the thrilling little scrap they’d had with the flying monster. Ace got to show off his mask’s disguise feature at work during one mission as he impersonated a gang member’s dead brother, causing him to let his guard down long enough for Dahye to kick him unconscious, whereupon they took back some money the gang had stolen from one of Malena’s many companies, and Annabelle found a quarter, but that was about it.
After completing the third and final mission for the first day, the GLYPH agents boarded a train back to Braver City, relayed the results to Saschia (after they learned that Malena was out of town for other work), dropped off their gear at HQ, then gathered at the Derring-Do Diner across the street to celebrate a successful day’s work with a nice little dinner.
“Great work today everyone,” Dahye said as the waitress left to relay their orders to the kitchen. In particular she looked to Gisela beside her, and Annabelle on the other side of the booth. “You girls did very well, especially given how new you both are. You have amazing careers ahead of you.”
“Acknowledged, abuelo!” Annabelle saluted her, and kicked her leg out. Unfortunately, Ace was sitting beside her, and took the kick to his own leg, which sent him flying out of the booth and crashing into another table.
After Ace had Annabelle switch seats with him, he pulled the FORMA card from out of his jacket and set it down on the table. “Shame I didn’t get a chance to play around with this.”
“Well, we still have a few more missions for tomorrow,” Dahye said. “Maybe you’ll find an opportunity to use it then.” She then added, “You were supposed to leave that in Malena’s office when we dropped everything off, by the way. FORMA are kept on lock down when we’re not on a mission.”
He shrugged. “Eh. Nobody told me.”
A few moments later, one of the guests seated at the bar called for a waitress’s attention. “Hey! Could you turn up the TV? There’s something big on the news right now!”
Dahye and Ace looked over to one of the many TVs installed above the bar. The customer had been correct, as a breaking news report was currently playing out on the screen – one of the local “businesses” known as the Pyro Punks were in the midst of laying siege to a hotel, and had taken a few staff members hostage on the roof. Police had arrived on the scene, but were evidently powerless to do anything with the raging flames the members of the Pyro Punks were threatening them with.
Standing up in the booth, Dahye said, “We need to get down there!”
But Ace, seemingly unperturbed by the situation, gestured for her to sit back down. “Whoa, whoa, relax. Homeboy’s gonna handle it.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
He nodded at a different TV screen, one playing a different news channel’s broadcast. This one had cameras aimed at the skies high above the hotel roof, as a glowing streak of red flames zoomed across the clouds at high speeds.
The rooftop door of the Resolute Resort hotel flung open, having been kicked by the currently-very-irritated Aiden “Flare” Jackson. As he stomped onto the roof, he had his right hand, currently ungloved, flicking up and down, all while he muttered censored curses beneath his breath.
The sky overhead was painted orange by the setting sun in the distance, along with the flames the Pyro Punks members were shooting down towards the cops parked on the perimeter of the hotel, and at any drones they tried sending up to get a closer view. The air all around was hot, naturally, with the heat distorting the view all around the rooftop.
He soon arrived beside Tony “Blaze” Wallace, who stood several inches taller, with the body of a pro wrestler. Both men wore the Pyro Punks’ uniform of dyed-red-tips in their hair, black pants, and orange-and-black jackets – Flare had his unzipped, with the hood up over his head, while Blaze had thrown on an additional white coat over his body.
Blaze looked down upon Flare with irritation. He’d never liked the young, erm…hothead, and he’d especially not been thrilled when the boss had put the boy under Blaze’s direct command. “What?” he asked, his voice deep and booming, even when he spoke at a low volume.
The younger boy held his hand out to show a fresh bite wound in the side, right along the thumb and index finger. “That goshdang stupid manager witch freakin’ bit me while I was draggin’ her butt to the backroom! Can you believe that shiz?”
I’m surprised it ended at just a bite, Blaze thought to himself, shaking his head at the patheticness of Flare’s complaint. He should’ve known better than to expect something serious from the little clown. “You’ll live.”
Flare blew on his bite wound before slipping a thick black glove over it. He then relinked the hoses attached to the glove to the fuel tank all of the Punks wore on their backs. “Anyway, she still ain’t agreein’ to hand over the hotel to us. What do we do now? Kill her or somethin’?”
That got a vocal scoff of disbelief from Blaze. “No we don’t kill her, you moron. Take her back to base, and don’t let the police tail you.”
“Ahhh, aight. Guess that makes more sense.”
Shaking his head, Blaze turned around and began reaching into his jacket. “I’m heading out to handle something else. When you get back to base, contact Ember. She’ll give you your next orders.”
From his jacket, he pulled forth a FORMA card, this one with the word [Smoke] printed across it. Upon activating it, the card released a wide blast of force in all directions, catching Flare and sending him stumbling back onto his ass.
Before vanishing into a wisp of smoke and floating off into the distance, Blaze smirked, enjoying the sight of the younger Pyro Punk “cussing” from the sudden knockdown.
“Could’ve frickin’ warned me first, buttface!” Flare spat, pushing himself up to his feet and dusting himself off. He spun around, teeth grinding across one another. He’d already been in a bad mood when he was born, he’d hit eight on the rage scale after the first time he fell off of his tricycle, getting bitten by the resort manager had turned him up to eleven, and now, having been humiliated by Blaze, he was hungry for some violence.
There wasn’t anyone else on the roof besides a few of the other gang members. Not that that would have completely deterred Flare, as his fingers twitched at the thought of incinerating one of them to let off some steam. But he did manage to fight the urge and put his hand back down, so there was at least some sense in that little knucklehead’s tiny brain.
And the heavens seemed to bless him for this, bestowing upon him the violence he craved!
Of course, instead of getting to light someone on fire and reduce them to ash, that violence came in the form of the shrill battlecry of a bird overhead, followed by one of the nearby Pyro Punks taking a punch to the face so hard he was sent flying all the way to the other side of the Resolute Resort roof, nearly being flung off of the thing entirely.
“What the fudge…?!” Flare muttered, spinning around, watching as the attacker landed in the center of the roof. The other gang members quickly turned away from the streets, and faced this new threat together.
He stood up, red-and-gold armor shining brilliantly in the evening sunlight. He, too, seemed to be a fan of flames, as a massive trail of fire coiled around his neck and fluttered to the side of him like a scarf.
The attacker struck a heroic pose, pointing at himself with his thumb, pinky extended, staring directly at Flare from behind the black visor of his bird-head-inspired helmet. “Alright, villains! Show’s over! HYPER HAWK is here!”
Back at the Derring-Do Diner, Dahye folded her arms across her chest, and looked down at Ace. “Um…That’s who you were referring to?”
Ace nodded, opening the mouth part of his mask to take a swig of his apple juice. “Yup.”
“And who is he, exactly?”
“HYPER HAWK, I think? Hiroto’s his actual name,” Ace answered. “He’s another GLYPH agent. Surprised you haven’t heard of him by now. He’s pretty much Malena’s favorite little boy toy… And I’m totally not jealous.”
Dahye turned back to the TV screen, raising a skeptical brow. She wasn’t quite sure how serious to take him, given the ridiculous costume and pose, but if he was one of their allies, then it was probably a good idea to give him some respect in spite of that, right? “Are you sure he can handle all of them by himself, though? He doesn’t need back-up?”
“I saw him in action a while back. You should be more worried about the Pyro Punks, honestly.”
Even Gisela took her eyes away from her game, glancing over at the screen, albeit just for a brief moment. “His ass is huge,” is all she said before returning to playing her game.
As silly a comment as that was…it did get Dahye to check. Oh, wow, she wasn’t kidding…
“Oh shit, it’s HYPER HAWK!” one of the Pyro Punk members called out. “What do we do, Flare?!”
Growling, Flare held his hands up, aiming them at the superhero standing before him. “Who flippin’ cares who he is?! Turn his arse to ashes, dumb basses!”
Flare was joined by a few of his allies, and all of them raised their hands in unison. The nozzles attached to the backs of their gloves, connected to the fuel tanks on their backs, began to send blasts of hot orange flames in HYPER HAWK’s direction.
“Whoa!” HYPER HAWK exclaimed, dashing back and leaping off of the roof and into the air, narrowly avoiding taking a few fireballs to the chest.
In response, his left hand unclipped a compartment on his belt, and retrieved a small rectangular device. Printed on the front was an image of a red ball of flames. It was one of the hero’s signature HYPER DRIVES – little chips that he could use to temporarily access special abilities.
He quickly slid the HYPER DRIVE into a slot on the back of the golden gauntlet strapped to his right arm – the HYPER HAND. From the center of the glove emanated a digitized voice that echoed around the hotel rooftop: “FIREBALL!”
HYPER HAWK threw his hands forward, and out shot several bursts of red flames, each one aimed for the Pyro Punks. One landed successfully, sending the gang member toppling back, though the others were quite easily eaten away by the Punks’ own fires.
Just then, a shadowy black bird manifested at HYPER HAWK’s back, encased in glowing flames of its own. The bird pecked at HYPER HAWK’s helmet, eliciting a flinch from the hero. “Don’t just copy them! They already use fire, so you should be using water instead, you idiot!”
Dashing away from another wave of fireballs, HYPER HAWK rubbed the back of his neck. “Uh, right, haha, my bad! Sorry, Haz!”
The Red Phoenix Spirit, Hazird, sighed before vanishing from sight again. “Can’t believe I still gotta tell you basic-ass shit like that…”
From a compartment on the back of his left gauntlet, he retrieved another device, this one made of a glowing blue crystal-like material. He slotted this into a different slot on the back of the HYPER HAND. Once again, the digitized voice called out, this time shouting: “HYDRO MODE!”
A bubble of blue light and water expanded from the HYPER HAND and quickly encased the superhero, protecting him from another volley of fireballs. As the bubble burst around him, his armor shifted colors from red and gold to blue and white, and even the flaming scarf around his neck transitioned into an azure tone.
From the hero’s hands came globs of blue water, each one exploding in a burst as it struck the roof, instantly dousing many of the Punks’ flames, and putting an end to their initial assault.
Growling, Flare clenched his fingers tight, pressing the buttons on the palms of his gloves. Two blades emerged from the machinery on the back of the gloves, each gleaming in the sun and hungry for flesh. “You’re dead, grasshole!”
The other Punks followed his example, and began charging at HYPER HAWK as the hero descended to the roof.
HYPER HAWK ducked beneath the arm blades of the first incoming gang member, all while his hands slotted a new HYPER DRIVE into his gauntlet. “KNUCKLE!” As the next one approached, he threw his fist forward. Blue light expanded out from his hand and formed a gigantic fist of energy that slammed directly into the Pyro Punk, throwing him to the far side of the roof.
He managed to bring his gauntlets up to block the next incoming blades, and threw a kick into the attacker’s stomach to send him stumbling back.
But when Flare joined the fray, he was faster and wilder than any of the others, and managed to score two good slashes across the exposed portions of HYPER HAWK’s arm, tearing through the black spandex bodysuit and pulling forth sprays of blood from his flesh.
Hissing, HYPER HAWK dashed back at a high speed, and slotted in a new weapon: “SWORD!” A red blade of energy emerged from the back of the HYPER HAND, and just in time.
He and Flare locked blades several times, parrying each other’s strikes, though the hero seemed to be at an advantage, as the hot laser of his weapon began to melt through the metal of Flare’s blades, and in just a few more clashes, they would likely be completely destroyed. “Annoyin’ piece of crap!” Flare roared, nearly on the verge of throwing a complete bitchfit. Oh, wait, sorry – a complete biatchfit.
But as another Punk came rushing in from behind, HYPER HAWK found his attention divided, and had to spin around to make sure he could protect himself from both angles. Flare took advantage of this, and, in the brief opening between parries, he released a pulsing blast of heat from his gloves that sent HYPER HAWK flying back several feet.
Hiroto wasn’t exactly the “thinking fast” type, so it would be more appropriate to chalk up his next moves as coming down to instinct instead. “ARROW!” He quickly swapped to another HYPER DRIVE, causing the red energy sword to dissipate, instead replaced by a glowing green energy bow, which he quickly took aim with.
He fired two glowing emerald energy arrows, each one striking a Pyro Punk in the chest and sending them to the ground. The arrows didn’t seem to puncture their chests, merely striking them with enough concussive force to down them for the time being. A third arrow instead caught the hood of its target, yanking him several dozens of feet back until the arrowhead lodged itself into the back of the Resolute Resort’s rooftop sign, leaving the gang member helplessly stuck in place, kicking his legs out desperately trying to free himself.
That left HYPER HAWK and Flare as the remaining combatants.
“Gaaaaah! You freakin’ piece of spit!” Flare roared, clanging his blades together and stomping his feet to make as much noise as he possibly could. “You’re screwin’ with my first ever solo mission, dillweed!”
HYPER HAWK tilted his head. “Huh? Oh, uh, really? My bad, man! Heh.”
Hazird manifested behind him, perching his talons on the hero’s shoulder. “Tch. Don’t apologize to this clown.”
“You laughin’ at me, you fartknocker?!” Flare spat. “Did somebody send you here to screw me over?! Huh?! Who was it?! I bet it was Spark, wasn’t it?! That darn dweeb! He’s always tryna make a laughin’ stock outta me!”
“Damn, you actually found someone even more annoyin’ than you are,” Hazird said to HYPER HAWK. “The world really is a place of infinite possibilities, eh? Heheh.”
“Uh…I dunno what you’re talkin’ about, bro,” HYPER HAWK called out to Flare, lowering his energy bow, trying to ignore his growing annoyance at Hazird’s insults. “I came here to stop you guys from causing trouble and endangering people. It ain’t anything personal.”
“Shut the fudge up! I’m sick of your stupid face!”
HYPER HAWK brought a hand up to his helmet. “Wait, you can see my face?”
“You’re frickin’ DEADMEAT, you son of a gun!”
Flare clenched his hands tight. Heat began to radiate from his body, distorting the air around him. Flames blasted out from his gloves, and even his fuel tank was smashed open, further feeding the fires until his entire body was surrounded in a raging inferno.
With one final roar, Flare dashed forward towards HYPER HAWK, having become one massive fireball – far too large for the splashes of water the hero had used to douse the flames earlier. And he was moving at an incredibly high speed – fast enough that he could probably tear a path straight through him.
Unfortunately, as comparatively impressive as this new desperate final attack was, it was still essentially just fire, and HYPER HAWK was still in his HYDRO MODE form.
Slotting in one final HYPER DRIVE, the hero slammed his fist into the ground, as the voice within the HYPER HAND called out, “WAVE!”
Blue light spilled out from his fist, and washed along the ground beneath his feet, coalescing in the space behind him. The light rapidly expanded in size, transforming into a massive wall of water that rose upward, casting a shadow over the rooftop of the Resolute Resort hotel.
The tidal wave then crashed down upon the roof, completely washing over everything, including HYPER HAWK. Flare’s flaming aura was doused in seconds, and he and the rest of the Pyro Punks were quickly caught in the resulting flood of water that carried them all the way to the edge of the roof.
But the water did not stop there, pushing forward and forming a makeshift waterfall over the edge of the hotel. The Pyro Punks screamed in fear as they were suddenly dropped over the waterfall, and descended to the ground below in a big, final splash.
With that done, HYPER HAWK stretched his arms out, and began flicking water off of his suit. Strangely, his fiery scarf seemed unaffected by the tidal wave, though the same couldn’t be said about his tights as they clenched even tighter to his abs, ass, and bulge, which the moms at home watching on the news certainly appreciated. “Whew! Glad that’s over and done with!” He brought a hand up to his neck, rubbing and squeezing at it. “That was rough. I’m still pretty exhausted from all the shit we did earlier today…”
“Tch. Told ya you should’ve just skipped out on this mission to get some rest. Let someone else handle it.”
The hero shook his head. “Nah. Mrs. M and Sasch asked for our help, so we had to help ‘em. You know the drill by now, Haz.”
He reached over to remove the HYPER HAND and end his superhero transformation, until Hazird suddenly pecked at him. “Oi! Don’t reveal yourself up here, moron! ‘Sides, there’s still the hostages inside to free up, too.”
“Oh, right! My bad! Hahaha, thanks Haz!”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Good job, I guess, ‘hero’…”
