Hero X's Swarm of Death
1
Donnie Suffrett stood on the roof of a skyscraper at the edge of Reagan City's financial district. He wore his blue shirt with the red x on it, blue pants, and the blue mask that resembled a wrestler's. His gaze swept the horizon on all sides as much as he could with some of the taller buildings standing in his way.
Donnie had the night off from his job, so he decided that he needed to fly over the city to keep in practice. He had acquired a fragment of some lost power, and used it to aid him as one of the new vigilantes that was springing up as the next generation of masked men. Donnie enjoyed his gift, and what it gave him.
Donnie ran to the edge of the roof and jumped out into space. His body changed as he fell toward the ground. Wings sprouted from his back, scales formed along the exposed skin of his neck, eyes grew red as his face became serpentine. Hero X's dragon man form pulled out of the fall, wings outstretched to catch the air. He sailed over Laurel Street toward Downtown.
Donnie had been a pool of conflicting shapes when he had first started transforming. Gradually he had learned to form templates so that he could reuse the same shape over and over without having to think about it. That was how he had returned to his human form after struggling to form fingers, then arms, then the rest of his body.
Donnie felt the transformations came from an excavation he had been involved with as an engineer for the city's engineering department. He remembered the sound of breaking glass, and streams of colored vapors covering his body. He didn't know if he had screamed as things rolled through his brain, or what really happened to him.
He did know that some of his shapes allowed him to fly, and he enjoyed that more than anything else he could do.
Donnie's dragon sight saw things in shades of red. It showed him shifts in heat as he soared above the evening crowd. It took a few wing beats to reach a roost above Reagan City's palatial City Hall. He landed quietly, returning to normal as he looked down on the street below.
Donnie knew the building had been brought across the ocean, then inland from the East Coast over land, and rebuilt by a shipping magnate that had went bankrupt. The city had grabbed the building and turned it into its new government center. Every department, Donnie's included, was based in that castle.
The place was spooky at night. Some of the old timers said it was haunted by headless women and hooded executioners. Donnie knew better to scoff, especially after what had happened to him.
Donnie looked around the rim of the castle's wall, eyes shifted to allow him to see across town if he had to. He noticed some kind of disturbance some blocks over from his lookout point. People were screaming as they ran from a hotel.
Donnie switched to his jet flier body as he threw himself into space. Twin streaks carried him through the air as small, rigid wings unfolded from a rocket engine erupting from his back. Metal plates covered him as he rocketed along.
He roared to a stop above the entrance to the Spiegel Black Hotel. People scattered from in front of the revolving door. The transformer landed in front of the door, peering inside the lobby. His metal face prevented him from frowning as he spotted a cloud of angry hornets swirling around the large welcoming area. Some of the guests had succumbed to the numerous stings from the buzzing fog. They laid where they had fallen, insects covering their bodies.
Donnie pushed through the door, wings folding into his back. This form was more changeable than many of the others that he had in his repertoire. His armor should protect him from the bugs.
Donnie rushed forward, knowing that he was too late for these people thanks to his enhanced perceptions. He flexed his hand, letting a flame thrower pop out of the back of his wrist. A streak of flame sent some of the flying death to a flaming doom.
The hornets turned on him. They stung his metal body, and he felt it. Pain ran through his system, as he staggered away from the aroused insects. That should be impossible. His skin should be impervious to any type of insect strike.
Donnie needed a body that couldn't be touched. He triggered the change, becoming smoke. The hornets recoiled from his poisonous touch as he swept a black arm in a circle to give himself breathing room until he could think of something more effective to use.
2
Jason Maglio listened to his minions talk to themselves. What the swarm knew, he knew through his connection to them. It had taken him a while to master that connection with the numerous individuals that made up his family, his exotic far-flung body.
He had hated insects when he was younger, crushed them whenever he had the chance. He understood them now in a way that no one had. He was a human queen, able to direct his army to carry out his bidding with a simple gesture, or thought.
All he had to do was give up most of his humanity.
Jason watched his hand deform, return to normal, then lose a finger as he thought about the problem in the lobby. X-Man was bound to show up. He had been busy protecting Reagan City for a couple of years. An insect problem as big as Jason represented was bound to attract his attention.
Jason sent the word out to his servants. He had the name of the man he was looking for so there was no need to kill themselves trying to fight the smoking hero in the lobby. It was time to retreat for the moment and regroup before searching out the man he wanted to talk to about his condition.
Jason walked to the nearest air vent, a modern addition to keep the transplanted edifice a uniform temperature all year round. His yellow and black body came apart into thousands of smaller bodies that invaded the ventilation system. The rest of him should be doing the same, trying to evade the meddler while flying up to the roof as fast as their wings could carry them. Once out of the building, Jason decided to let the swarm disperse in any direction and regroup at the address from the file he had grabbed, read, and replaced.
Maybe that would throw off the shapeshifter long enough for Jason to conclude his business with the man who had made him what he was at the moment.
Two hours of random flying should be enough to make X think this was a one shot occurrence. By that time, Jason would have an anchor where he wanted his body to gather and be able to call his warriors to him with no discernible problem.
He would then be able to extract his vengeance in peace from the man he wanted to talk with more than anything in the world. Then he would be able to think about how he wanted to treat the rest of the indifferent city.
The cloud of hornets appeared over the city hall, then separated in a million directions.
3
Donnie Suffrett paused in mid-swing as his enemies flew away from him. Smoke drifted from the dark red x as he dropped back into his human body. Pain raced through his system from the bites he had suffered. He went down to one knee as he flipped through his categories of forms. One of them should be able to help him.
Donnie selected his wound shaper demon, becoming a white silhouette with blazing blue crystal eyes, glowing hands, and changing symbols where his x normally would decorate his shirt. The pain dulled down to bearable levels. He hadn't felt anything as smoke, but had almost passed out as a human. Now he had it under control enough to use his new body's power.
Donnie grabbed the places where he had been stung by the hornets. He moved the welts until they were a single welt on one part of his body. He plucked that welt out, separating the pain and damage from his body with that simple move. His solidified damage glared at him with red eyes, and a grinning mouth.
"Search the building for any more of those bugs," Donnie said, placing the spawn of his injury on the floor. "Follow them if you can."
The blob bounced away, chattering to itself as it headed for the elevator. If it didn't use up all of its energy, it would return to Donnie's body with whatever pain was leftover. Hopefully the search of the place would tire it out so that it vanished. That would leave him undamaged when he returned to his own body.
Donnie hoped the bugs left him some kind of clue. He didn't believe for an instant that any insects would attack and then retreat without making sure he was dead. Smoke was bad for them, but they had kept pressing until they had left altogether.
Donnie walked toward the security desk. The place didn't have anything more special than fire and metal detectors. Everything was computerized and replaceable, but there should be a guard on duty to keep the riffraff out of the place after hours.
Where was that man?
Donnie grimaced when he found what was left of the security detail crammed behind the desk. It looked like the hornets had caught three of them, and stung them to shreds.
Donnie grabbed the phone, and called the police, and an ambulance for the men. Maybe there were others in the building that had survived the attack of the hornets. He would know when his helper returned from its search. He should be tracking the insects down, but he couldn't afford another run-in without figuring out a way to fight them without getting hurt himself.
Slower reflexes would have gotten him killed before he could abandon the metal man for his smoke wielder. Then he had been able to keep them at bay, but not long enough to figure out a quick way to kill them before they fled the city hall.
His servant appeared from the stairwell to Donnie's right. It gave its report in a slushy voice, saluted with an eye orbit, then faded away in a stream of glitter. No one was left in the building, no other people dead either. The hero was ready to get on the job and snoop around now that was settled. The police would deal with this scene of the crime while he was going about his business.
Donnie let his wound shaper fade away as he jogged to the elevator. He had a shape perfect for what he needed to do. He paused at the doors, concentrating on the shape he wanted. His body faded to an outline with the red x floating inside of it. The line man grew, reaching through the ceiling, walls, everything until he outgrew the building. His phantom eyes took in everything as he reached for the city's skyline.
Donnie bent one knee, focusing on the disturbed office he had noticed on his way up. He shrank down until he returned to his normal form again inside the place. He looked around, wondering what he had noticed that had drawn him to the room. There had to be something here.
Donnie looked around slowly with his normal eyes. There had to be something. He saw a crushed hornet on one of the file drawers across from the executive desk that dominated the room. He pulled the drawer open with a gloved hand, scanning the folders carefully. One of the manila holders was stained.
Donnie pulled the file. He looked through it, but it didn't mean anything to him yet. He needed to look it over when he wasn't pressed for time. This had to be some clue to how that swarm decided to get in the building and look through the file itself, as incredible as that seemed to him.
Smart bugs had to be the spookiest thing he had encountered since he had started his career as a mystery man.
Donnie tucked the file under his shirt as he walked to the office door. He let himself out, moving to the stairs. The roof would let him take flight so he could get back to his place without causing a commotion. Then he could go over the file in peace and quiet before trying to find whatever was behind the hornets and deal with it the best he knew how.
Reagan City didn't have a paranormal crimes unit, or any other hero other than Donnie, so he was on his own for the moment. At least his different forms gave him a wide range of solutions to whatever problem a swarm of bugs could do.
4
Jason Maglio gathered himself together exactly where he wanted to be. His hornets buzzed cheerily as he studied the residence he planned to enter. He would make sure that his target was home first before a full scale assault. It would also allow him a chance to probe for traps in case Hero X was smart enough to figure out his destination.
He sent one of his pieces to probe for openings, and to look around. He only wanted the man, no one else. The hornet examined the house for a way inside, finally entering through a slatted cover in the attic. It searched until it found an opening to the rest of the place. It crawled through, scenting the air before taking flight again.
The hornet searched each room until it was sure no one was home. It landed on an end table to wait while the rest of the insects joined it. A minute, two minutes later, the gestalt had assembled itself in the empty house's living room. The human swarm explored its surroundings before deciding to wait in the bedroom.
The element of surprise would be on his side.
Maglio patiently waited for the owner to arrive. He thought about loss of his body, and how he had been left to wither and rot while the city moved on without him. His wife and daughter could not love him as he was. A normal life was beyond his reach.
Revenge wasn't.
Maglio restrained himself from smashing something in anger as he waited. Only one thing deserved his wrath. Soon he would have his hands on that man. Then he would let his anger out.
If that didn't satisfy his anger, then Maglio would track down someone else that deserved his attention. He would continue until he found the end of his blood thirst. If he never found that end, he would keep going until he died.
No one was going to get in the way of his plans.
Maglio saw a car pulling into the driveway, then saw an outside light flip on as the driver walked toward the front of the house. A key in the lock primed the swarm for action.
5
Donnie Suffrett's line man stood above the city's skyline, eyes concentrating on the road ahead of him as he passed unnoticed among the teeming populace. The red x at the center of his being shone through the windows as he walked along.
Donnie knew he was on the right track because he could see stray insects over the house where he was headed. His line man form allowed him that type of focus and incredible eyesight. It was just slow, slower than walking in concrete with weights tied to his limbs. He needed to switch to something faster.
Donnie concentrated as he walked along the street. He pulled his line man into his body, as he thought about the form he wanted to summon. There was a second where he was high above the street, falling as he switched up. Then metal wings extended from his back, jets firing as metal covered his body. Transformed eyes kept his target in sight as he roared across the sky.
Donnie descended toward the house where he had spotted the buzzing bees. He glided toward the ground as a car pulled into the driveway. A man got out and headed for the front door, a security light outlining his profile on the concrete driveway. The metal man dropped down in front of the resident. One hand gestured for silence as he scanned the night sky for hornets and bees. His metal vision didn't spot any which was good under the circumstances.
Donnie took the man's arm and pulled him back to his car. He explained things as best he could before plucking the keys from the man's hand and went back to the door. He inserted the key in the lock as he thought.
As soon as he opened the door, the bugs would be all over him.
Donnie took the door knob in his hand. His shapes flipped through his mind's eyes. One appealed to him more than the rest. He let his human body fade away as he pushed the door open. The door finished its swing on momentum as a fire red x floated in the opening.
Wait for it, Donnie thought, wait for it.
Thousands of insects rushed forward, hoping to sting the owner of the house into submission. The red x threw them off for a moment. Then a human torch lit up, turning any bug in reach into ash and sparks falling to the floor.
"Time for round two," Donnie said.
"Why don't you get out of my way?," the swarm hissed from all of its parts. "Don't you see what he did to me? I am a freak because of him."
"You killed three guards who were just minding their business," said Donnie. "Not to mention trying to kill me. There are better ways to do things. Someone would have helped you if you had taken the time to explain things. Now its down to come along quietly, or we fight. I would rather you just came along."
"I choose the escape to return another day," the millions of insects before they split apart and headed to all points of the compass. "You can't guard him forever. Sooner or later, I'll settle things."
Donnie let his flames shrink to the glowing x on his chest. This body couldn't fly, so he couldn't give chase. He looked around, glad that the owner of the house had not taken off. One of those intelligent bugs in his car would have given his hunter an address as soon as he stopped. No regular building was secure against that bug invasion.
Time for a chat.
"Would you like to come inside and talk to me?," Donnie asked the scared tenant. His normal shape melted the fire starter away as he looked at the frightened man. "It should be safe as long as I am around."
"That thing wanted to kill me," said the intended victim. "How can I thank you for saving my life?"
"Let's start with who you are," said Donnie. "Then we can talk about why a bunch of killer bees want to kill you in the first place."
"I'm Homer Sampson," said the balding, overweight man. "I'm an accountant for Graham Morris Limited."
"What does Graham Morris Limited do?," said Donnie, gesturing the man to an easy chair. Maybe this was job related somehow. "Are they some kind of accounting firm?"
"We specialize in alternative fuels, alternative means of transport," said Sampson, sitting down.
"Solar powered cars, and stuff like that?," said Donnie.
"Much more than that," said Sampson. "But essentially that's correct. We hope to perfect a new patent on a film that a 1000% better than what we have on the marketplace now."
"What do you do as an accountant?," Donnie asked, trying to keep the man talking until he could figure out what he was going to do.
Sampson went into the details of his job for his masked visitor. Everything seemed normal workaday stuff to Donnie. Somewhere in those accounts was the Swarm's motive to kill the mild-mannered accountant. It was probably something obvious.
Donnie needed to get a look at those records somehow. One of his x forms should have the knowledge to track down the paper trail. One of them must have that power.
"I need to get a look at the paperwork if you want me to help you," Donnie said. "I'll carry you over and then take you somewhere safe until I can bag this Swarm."
"I'll be glad to show you," said Sampson. "Everything is back at the office."
"Let's go," said Donnie, calling on his robot form.
The two flew across Reagan City on twin jets. Donnie landed on the roof of the firm, switching back to his normal form after he had opened the access door. Sampson led him down to an office in the middle of the building. He sat behind his desk, turning on his computer. A few minutes of typing opened all of the files he had worked on since he had been hired.
"Let me see what I can do," Donnie said, switching places with the accountant.
Donnie mentally reviewed the forms he possessed. Most, such as the wound shaper and line man, were completely wrong for what he wanted to do. Still he did have one that might help out in this situation. He switched bodies, feeling everything gain new significance as his blue costume slowly slid into a neutral tan. The red x on his shirt faded to beige in that few seconds. His eyes filled with blackness.
Donnie touched the mouse with his altered hand. Files opened and closed as he conducted his search as rapidly as he could. Once glance told him what was in the file, and whether or not it was relevant to his manhunt. Halfway through his search, he slowed down as he read a recommendation to shut down a project working on insect biochemicals as an alternative energy source. Everyone in that division should have been shuffled to other projects in their area of expertise according to Sampson's report.
Instead they were all fired.
Donnie reread the report, allowing his normal self to return from storage. He had ten suspects he could pursue. One of them could have tried to continue their research, and done something horrendous to themselves.
Donnie took a nearby pad and wrote the names down. He would check them out later. First he had to hide Sampson somewhere he wouldn't be found until the hive mind had been stopped.
6
Donnie took his charge to a small hotel, and got him a room. He told Sampson to stay away from the windows and avoid notice. There was no telling if one of the Swarm's intelligent bees would find the accountant and trigger an attack on the building. The shapechanger planned to find the insect menace first with the list he had written down.
Donnie used his x power to get around Reagan City to check out his suspects. He crossed them off one at a time until he came across Jason Maglio's property. His observer form told him no one had lived in the place for days, but there were signs of various bugs living among the wild grass and trees dotting the lot. The beige x man walked around the house noting traces from a burnt out fire along a window.
He may have struck paydirt.
Donnie assumed his smoke form as he got ready to break into the house. He forced his hand under a crack in the door, then the rest of his body until he could stand in the living room. The place was a mess, but what interested the smoking shadow the most were the dead insects around the door leading to the room where the fire had been and gone.
Donnie examined that room as his observer, after making sure there were no living insects around to attack. A few glances to take in the whole picture was enough to complete the picture. Maglio had decided to continue his research on his own, and had accidentally done something to mix the supplies he was working with in a catastrophic event.
Obviously he blamed Sampson for discontinuing the research that had forced him to work without safety measures when the company got rid of the division.
The living hive would never believe that Sampson had recommended a transfer instead of firing. Any attempt to exonerate the accountant would add fuel to the fire.
Donnie changed to his line form growing as big as he could to observe the whole city at the top of his towering height. One insect, even a small group of insects, was not any kind of indicator. He needed to find a large group assembling at one spot where there was no hive close by. It was only a matter of time before one of Maglio's parts found Sampson.
Donnie knew the results of that already.
Donnie kept looking until he saw hornets displaying the odd behavior he wanted to find. He started walking, legs passing through the buildings in front of him as he kept his eyes on his goal. He began to shrink as he considered his options.
Donnie decided that his fire form could be the exact thing to deal with the insects if he couldn't reason with Maglio. He had a feeling that the chemist was already too far around the bend to listen to reason. The x man had heard of cases of vendettas that went on for years despite what outsiders did to put an end to the death and destruction.
He knew he didn't have years to guard Sampson from Maglio's collective intelligence.
Donnie dropped down, gliding toward the ground. He could see the small firefly sparks of insect heat as he descended. That was a side benefit of the fire form. He waited until he was just above the street to ignite and stop his fall.
The assembled bees and hornets broke up and flew in different directions to escape Donnie's sudden appearance. Some weren't fast enough to get away from his fiery touch. They exploded as his burning hands swept through their tiny bodies. The shape changer killed as many as he could with his x power so he would have less to chase down.
Donnie frowned as the hornets flew away as fast as they could manage on their tiny wings. There were simply too many for him to deal with in one shot. He let his flame die down, as he flipped through the templates he could summon. His fire starter couldn't fly anyway.
Donnie concentrated to allow the x powers to fill his form. His body faded to an expanding line again as he grew to keep the insects in sight. He still needed to track them down and try to capture them somehow. He really hoped Maglio couldn't draw on more to replace the ones he had flamed.
There was no telling how far the researcher would go if he could do that.
Donnie grew until he towered over Reagan City. His transformed eyes tracked one bee flying erratically from where he had scattered them with his fire starter. He knew that his line form was invisible from the ground, and intangible. He had a solid lead to his quarry, and he couldn't let it slip through his fingers. This might be his last chance to rein the bee man in.
Donnie walked across the city, passing through everything in his way. He didn't really have an idea what he could do to stop this thing. He didn't want to just wipe the Swarm out, but didn't think that killing Sampson was the right thing to do either. Sampson hadn't done anything to deserve this.
Donnie's shifted eyes followed the lone insect as he walked behind it as fast as his line form could carry him. Some of his other personas were faster, but this seemed the type of job the line man seemed exactly made to do. It just took more to keep things where he was aware of them so he didn't flake out.
That wasn't easy to do when you were an untouchable giant.
Donnie followed the bee across Reagan City, aware that real insects could travel the same distance in the hunt for food. He also knew that they typically didn't fly in a straight line from point A to point B. He also thought that insects like bees didn't do much traveling before the sun came up. That was a little odd as far as he was concerned.
Donnie waited for the insect to join others in a small horde that grew a body as he watched. He wanted to get all of Maglio in one place before he made his move. He couldn't keep chasing tiny bugs for the rest of his life. He had to capture all of them in one shot. Then he could work on a cure for the collective mind.
He had to have a form that would help him do that.
The x man waited, watching with his head above the skyline, invisible eyes focused on the street below. The insects joined together quickly as they arrived one by one. The shape was still doll-sized but growing quickly as more of the intelligent beasts arrived.
Donnie held his nonexistent breath as he watched the human hive take shape below him. He thought he had just the thing to capture the crowd of insects in one swoop. He just needed some surprise to help him spring his trap. If everything went like he hoped, he could close the case in a few minutes instead of the days he had hoped to avoid.
He definitely knew that the Swarm would not stop going after Sampson until its condition was reversed somehow. He couldn't allow that when he could stop it.
Among the many forms Donnie possessed, the least used was The Stripe. He avoided the neon pink elasticity as much as possible. His other forms gave him the same ease, sometimes better depending, so he preferred to stay away from the embarrassing colors.
Still that might just be what he needed to stop the collective mind he was facing.
7
The Swarm coalesced from the individual insects as the hero watched. It drifted on the air, as it seemed to think about what it wanted to do. Donnie knew that revenge was the first thing on the collective creature's mind.
He could almost see the wheels turning in its fractured mind.
Donnie felt his body melting as he assumed the Stripe form. His blue costume turned neon pick with the x changing to an eye curdling green. The element of surprise was on his side at the moment but he knew that he had to be quick, or lose the deranged Maglio again. He stretched his arms to limber up.
Then he jumped off the roof top.
Donnie's body expanded as he fell into a blanket. He saw the Swarm trying to break up to escape his landing. He just stretched himself that much faster so that he was a living dome with the insects trapped under his rubber shape. He felt his skin giving under their angry stings so they couldn't drive their natural weapons home.
So much for the easy part, Donnie thought, looking around to see if any insect had escaped his trap.
Donnie let his shape balloon into a round sphere, getting some space so he could power into his next move. Then he contracted the sphere into the space of a softball. He winced at the buzzing scream Maglio unleashed as most of the insects comprising his body was crushed by the maneuver. The x man did it again, trying to kill or hurt as many of the bugs as he could before he tried to put the survivors in a container that he could put away without a chance of the Swarm escaping and hurting Sampson.
Donnie looked around, spotting a trash can in front of a nearby store. He reached over with one hand on the end of a tentacle-like arm. He rooted around until he found a plastic bottle. He ignored the buzzing anger as he reached in the enclosed area he had created. Malleable hands began dumping the linked bugs into the bottle, making sure to keep the lid on so none could escape.
It took a while, but he finally had all of the bugs trapped inside the bottle where they couldn't do any more harm. Now all he had to do was put Maglio in a place where he couldn't escape, wouldn't die, and had time to think about trying to help himself and his mental condition.
Donnie knew a regular prison wouldn't help Maglio's situation. He needed a cure for his condition, and a new outlook on life. The x man held the bottle to his face, wondering what he was going to do.
epilogue
Donnie Suffrett sat in his easy chair, rubbing the x-shaped scar over his heart. It was a reminder of how he had gained his shapes. That strange explosion had warped him beyond any normal understanding, but he had been lucky.
Whenever he wanted, he could return to normal. His shapes were just things of convenience that he could take off like dirty clothes and put away for a while. He didn't know what he would do if he were trapped in one of those shapes as an inhuman monster.
At least he had been able to help Jason Maglio some. The wound healer had reached inside the swarm of insects and pulled out what it thought had initiated the change. That had returned the chemist to humanity in body, if not yet in mind. Donnie had talked to Sampson and the law. There was no way to prove that Maglio had been the Swarm, so there was no way to connect him to the death of the guards at City Hall except Donnie's say so. It was the same with his invasion of Sampson's house.
On the other hand, as soon as Maglio and Sampson were allowed to talk to each other, the former insect king expounded on how he would kill the accountant for shutting down his pet project which had led him to becoming the monstrous collective mind. He had tried to strangle the softer man in a fit of fury before policemen were able to get him back under control.
That was enough to get him in front of a judge, who mandated Maglio should be placed in the state hospital until he was able to stand trial. Invective followed him as he was dragged from the court room.
It wasn't perfect, but slightly better than Donnie using his plasma body to kill all the insects he had captured. At least Maglio had a chance to straighten out his life under the care of a doctor.