Valorverse: Dulzak Arc

[True Grave]

As the party wound down, Nick took Simone upstairs. They were both ready for action. Finding a room with a clean bed, Simone shoved Nick down into a sitting position. She then straddled his lap and they made out passionately. Nick shrugged out of his leather jacket and raised his arms so that she could remove his shirt. Simone clearly loved his defined abs and muscular chest.

As her hands moved around his broad shoulders, though, she felt another tattoo. Looking curiously, her face drained of color. Across Nick's shoulders, in big letters of green and yellow, was the word 'Mutantz'. Being French American, she knew about The Mutantz and other mutant gangs. Bolting to the other side of the room, she looked terrified of him.

"You're a mutie?!"

That racial slur said all Nick needed to know. He just looked at her with utter contempt. Simone ran out, slurring him in French. Nick shrugged in dismissal.

"Your loss, bitch."

Having been hated for being a mutant since he was born, Nick had learned to give the hate no power over him.

Nick got dressed and climbed on his bike outside. After starting her up, he set off. Traveling down the road, he had no particular destination. He had lost his buzz. He just continued to ride. Taking some lessons from the last bitch, he would be more careful with the next.

 

[True Grave]

While Eric was sleeping peacefully after great sex with Valentina, Nick continued to ride. He had reached a desert highway and the bleak surroundings mimicked his mood. He didn't know where he was going. He was traveling down a lonely highway to nowhere. The bad mood would pass but he had to wonder if the wanderer life was truly for him after all. The Mutantz and the Shadow Force hadn't worked out either, so he had to wonder just what kind of purpose there was for him out there.

While he was riding, a fireball hit his motorcycle below the handlebars and caused it to spin multiple times. Nick was thrown from the bike and rolled in the desert sand to try and minimize injury. The motorcycle had crashed into the sand. Thankfully, the Harley was not on fire. Multiple small fireballs came his way. Nick shot them with white energy blast bolts to neutralize them.

A flame demon with leathery red wings and skin descended slowly to the road. He was humanoid but had bestial claws like lions. His face was human and he had a cocky grin on his face.

"I thought I smelled the scent of a mutie."

Nick cracked his neck and fixed the flame demon with a stone faced glare.

"Man, I am really getting tired of people calling me that."

 

[True Grave]

The flame demon found joy in his annoyance.

"Mutie, mutie, mutie! Whatcha gonna do--"

The demon quickly had to flash step to the right in order to dodge an energy blast beam. Nick had predicted this, though, and landed a powered up punch right under the nose. The flame demon was now annoyed.

"I was gonna play around with you a little. But if that's--"

Nick headbutted the demon, forcing him to warp behind him. With an angry yell, he began slashing up Nick's back. Nick cried out in pain and ran away. The flame demon chased him down with flight.

"You can't outrun me, coward!"

Nick sprinted as fast as he could across the desert, but the demon was faster. He warped in front of him and Nick grinned. Using his momentum, he tackled the demon hard to the ground. He couldn't use his superior speed if Nick was grappling him. Nick placed a knee on his throat and pressed his open palm on the demon's face.

"When you get to Hell, tell 'em Shell Shock sent you."

He then unleashed a massive blast beam at point blank that completely destroyed the demon's head and gouged a deep tunnel into the sand. The rest of the demon's body turned to ash and blew away. Nick knew that he needed medical care for the deep cuts in his back.

"Motherfucker ruined my favorite jacket and shirt."

Getting on his motorcycle, he began driving it to the nearest hospital.

 

[True Grave]

Eric awoke the next morning to find Valentina snuggled up next to him. He put his arm around her and kissed her head. She nuzzled against him and said something in Spanish. She then looked into his eyes with happy, sleepy eyes.

"Last night was fantastic."

"Yeah, it really was," Eric replied with a smile.

He leaned in for a kiss and nearly jumped out of bed as something crashed through the window. It was a fire demon with a frog lower body and human upper body. It opened its mouth to reveal a snake tongue.

"Rider," it hissed.

Eric was annoyed but regarded the demon with passive dismissal.

"Not cool, dude."

The fire demon leaped at him and Eric's eyes glowed green. In less than a second, the demon was chopped into tiny pieces by the air itself, which Eric could turn into vacuum blades. Valentina was in shock.

"You're... You're a mutante?"

"Yep," Eric replied casually.

Valentina let out a hungry moan and jumped on Eric in lust.

 

[True Grave]

An hour later, Eric was back on the road. Valentina had work as a nurse and caught a bus headed there. Before she left, though, she gave him her number and Eric put it into his phone contacts. After riding for fifteen minutes, Eric pulled over and took out his phone to text Nick.

Where you at, bro?

A second later, a text came back.

Mercy General Hospital.

Alarmed, Eric searched for that specific hospital on Google Maps. Once he found it, he followed the GPS to it. Eric parked his bike and went inside. Thankfully, Nick was easy to find since he was seated in the cafeteria. He was wrapped with bandages over his torso and holding his shirt and jacket.

"Damn, bro, what happened?"

"Fire demon. The fucker messed up my back before I could kill him."

"No shit? I had one come at me at the hotel. Thankfully no one got hurt except for him."

Eric could see that Nick seemed to be down. He slid into the seat across from him.

"What's going on, bro? Talk to me."

Nick sighed sadly. It took him a minute to think.

"Maybe this whole thing was a mistake. Maybe I should go back to Shadowgreen."

"To the place you ran away from? Is that really what you want?"

Nick struggled to answer. Eric put his hand on his shoulder.

"It was a bad day. But it was just one day. Right?"

Nick teared up and finally nodded. Eric smiled.

"You're wild and I'm free."

Eric offered his hand for a clasping high five.

"Wild & Free?"

Nick smiled and laughed. With gusto, he clasped Eric's hand.

"Hell yeah! Wild & Free!"

---

Later that afternoon, Nick and Eric were sitting astride their bikes. Nick had gotten his shirt and jacket repaired. In addition, Nick and Eric were now wearing black vests over their jackets. On the back, in white lettering, it read:

Wild & Free MC

Nick and Eric started their motorcycles and knuckle bumped. They then rode off down the road side by side.


Brotherhood

 

[True Grave]

Shadowgreen Institute


Firestar and Scott exited a Fire Path in front of Shadowgreen. There was a winding road leading up to an arched gate. The grounds were lush and beautiful greenery. Scott was captivated.

"Wow, it's really nice out here."

Firestar nodded.

"This is sacred ground for mutants. Centuries ago, mutants would come here to hide from civilization. It was just one mutant and one tent. One mutant became two and so on. They stuck together, protected each other. Strength in numbers is why Shadowgreen exists."

"So they built a whole society separate from human society?"

"Precisely. Every mutant, down deep, is scared of humans. That fear takes different forms. The mutant gangs lash out in fear, others hide in fear, and still others build walls here out of fear."

Scott thought that sounded so sad and wrong.

"Come on, Scott. I want you to experience this society."

They began walking up the winding road. The mature trees in the distance and the well-manicured grass looked great. It probably looked similar to Ivy League university campuses. Being a working class kid from Detroit, Scott had definitely never been anywhere this nice before.

 

[True Grave]

Firestar and Scott got close to the arched gate that had a black barred security gate running from end to end. There were two security guards at either end. One of the guards saw them and flipped down a visor in response. He scanned them with something resembling UV light, which fed data into the computer installed in the headset. He couldn't get a read on one of them and the other wasn't a mutant. With a hand motion, they went to aggressively confront them.

"Hands in the air!"

Firestar made a calming motion with his hand.

"Gentlemen, relax. I'm Firestar."

The name carried instant weight. The body language and tone of voice in the guards instantly changed.

"Our apologies, Lord Firestar. We didn't know it was you. Can we do anything for you?"

"Just open the gate, please. I want to show my protege around Shadowgreen."

The guards looked suspiciously at Scott.

"But my lord, he's--"

Firestar narrowed his eyes and gave them a look of challenge.

"You have a problem with my protege?"

The guards quickly shook their heads.

"Of course not, my Lord. Please go inside."

The security guards opened the gate and they proceeded inside. Scott was floored by the campus. It was like a small town, similar to a human military base.

"The place to be here is the Shadowgreen Institute. The students are trained there for both civilian and military careers. The Institute is the beating heart of mutant society."