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Placehero Effect

In a world inhabited by the amazingly gifted and physically superior it is up to an ordinary man to protect the future, change the past, and try to live in the present. "The world needs a Hero and no one wants to step up huh? Guess I don't mind playing pretend for a bit". After a strange incident leaves the world to deal with the emergence of individuals awakening strange and powerful abilities a struggle from both sides arise as they fight to adapt and coexist.

The_Gaji · Urban
Not enough ratings
4 Chs

N-Type encounter

Inside of the warehouse in a dark room. Detective Chang was sitting in front of his laptop as he copied all of his files to an external hard drive.

Beads of sweat rolled down his face as he could feel the chaotic state that his body was in. When his screen flashed indicating that the files were all successfully copied he hid his laptop and the hard drive in a hollowed out portion of the wall that was covered by a poster.

He pulled out a pen but strangely when he pressed down on the end with his thumb it flashed a red light three times before returning to normal.

Detective Chang was only able to relax for a second before he swung his head in the direction of the door. Everything appeared normal, the door was closed just like it had been a few seconds ago.

But he couldn't shake the feeling off. Something was wrong, his body and his senses were both trying to warn him. He quietly walked towards the door.

Controlling every muscle in his body to move precisely to avoid creating any sounds. Eventually even his heart rate began slowing and quieting down.

He leaned towards the door and closed his eyes. It was then that he could tell, even without a visual confirmation, someone was there.

Bam! A fist came smashing through the wooden door. Somehow he was able to take a step back just in time to exit the range of the fist.

He quickly pulled out a police baton from his coat as he used it to deflect a second fist flying towards his head.

The arms stuck in the door pulled it apart sending wooden fragments flying through the air. Detective Chang tried to ward of the wooden shards by raising both his arms in front of his face when he felt something wrap around his waist.

A split second later he was sent flying out of the room as he crashed into the wall of the large open section of the warehouse.

Clack clack clack, The sound of leather boots tapping against the concrete made their way towards his direction.

Detective Chang's vision came back into focus after the disorientation from the impact wore off and his vision adjusted to the dimness.

The first thing he saw was a beautiful brunette dressed in black form fitting pants and a white tank top that exposed her stomach.

With her long hair tied behind her soft angled face combined with her dynamite figure, it was enough to light a fire in any man's heart.

But for the detective what he was feeling right now was the exact opposite. He felt all the blood in his body turn ice cold as he gazed at the monster in front of him.

'Rosanna Altino' That seemingly innocent name only brought gruesome images to his mind. As the legitimate first born child of Vincent Altino she was expected to continue their family's line of crime related business going and inherit the position of power from her father.

Since a young age she had already been exposed to the dark side of society. Cruelty and bloodshed was nothing new to her.

But after that fateful day when people began awakening strange abilities it was like a monster was given wings.

She used her new abilities to become her family's most effective weapon. Hundreds of mutilated corpses could be traced back to her but because of her family's political power and the lack of substantial evidence the police could only watch on as she continue her slaughter.

"Detective Alexander Chang, looks like I finally managed to find you." Her alluring voice playfully carried her words.

"You know what? I'm actually impressed. Before you, the longest any target was able to hide from me was two days.

But you've been scurrying past my tracking for five days now. Not only that you've been hiding from both the police and the crime families as well some mysterious third party. I really have to give you credit for that."

As she made her way closer and closer to him, Rosanna then sighed "Sigh Unfortunately we have to finish up this fun little game.

My father is terribly upset right now. He was heartbroken to hear about your betrayal Detective." He began to slowly get up.

His body shaky as though just moving was a struggle. With some hidden and discrete movements his left hand touched his belt buckle as two thumbtack sized darts flew out and embedded themselves into Rosanna's exposed stomach.

Being only a few feet away Rosanna was unable to dodge. Then a sick crackling sound was heard as a terrifying current of electricity began flowing into her body.

Seizing the chance he rushed towards her, instantly closing the distance between them. With a massive overhand swing the baton in his right hand swung down diagonally smashing into her temple.

After the follow through he swung the baton again bringing the baton back up diagonally smashing it into the opposite temple.

Crack! Fragments of metal flew as the end of the baton whizzed into the darkness. He threw the handle away as he began launching haymakers.

A right hook utilizing the force from his lower body, the twist of his hip, and the power of his shoulder and wrist, sent an impact generated by his entire body drilling into Rosanna's temple.

Left right, left right, hook hook, uppercut uppercut. his body blurred nonstop as each blow decisively landed either on her temples or Jaw, all lethal targets.

Power, speed, body coordination, his display touched the realm of the highest top tier athletes. Just as his hand was about to come down with another fearsome blow it was stopped mid swing by a furry orange tail that had wrapped around his wrist.

Clap clap clap "So these are the legendary boxing skills of Detective Alexander Chang. I have to say that you must really take care of yourself.

I felt like I was up against a world champion for a seco-" A knife slid down from inside the sleeve of his coat as the detective then plunged it towards her heart with his free hand.

The knife was stopped just inches away by a hand that looked halfway between belonging to a human and a beast.

It was covered in short orange fur but the lean strong muscles were still visible and the fingers had sharp black claws an inch long.

"But more impressive than your physical abilities I have to admire your decisiveness, your ruthlessness and focus.

I can see why you were the highest earner on the family's payroll Detective." Chang looked at Rosanna as her eyes now glowed yellow and appeared the same as the eyes of a large wild cat.

"Now if you don't mind, I believe my father would like a word with you" All he could catch was an orange blur from the edges of his vision before everything went dark.

- - -

"Jesus Rosey I thought I told you to bring him back so I could talk to him. How the fuck am I supposed to talk to the prick when you put him in a god damn coma?"

Kim could hear a familiar deep and raspy voice. "Ain't my fault Pops. The guy wouldn't go to sleep with just a few wacks."

The second voice he identified as Rosanna and after a quick thought he was pretty sure of where he was, the situation he was in and the owner of the other voice.

He was about to keep pretending in order to buy more time to come up with a plan but unfortunately Rosanna's beast like instincts were too sharp to fool.

"Hey Pops he's awake now" Seeing as how his cover was blown Detective Chang began opening his eyes. His entire face was sore and swollen.

Seventy percent of his vision was obstructed and he could feel inside his mouth that a few teeth were missing.

Even with his vision limited he could tell that he was chained to a metal chair and that all of his clothes had been taken as he sat in only his boxer shorts.

"Detective Chang glad to see you awake. I hope you don't mind Rosey's heavy handed methods but you really didn't leave us with any other options."

Vincent Altino, a man in his mid 40s with a bit of graying starting to appear in his short brown hair. His squarish face and sun beaten complexion gave him a masculine disposition despite his moderate body frame.

Vincent pulled a chair from the side as he sat face to face with the detective "You were one of our best Detective, one of our most trusted.

So to hear that you were in cahoots with the N-Types selling em info on the family. Now that broke my heart" Vincent put on a pained expression as he jokingly grasped at his chest.

"So I think there's only one solution. You sold em info on us now I want the info on them" Vincent's expression became serious.

"Who is the Queen?" He painfully smiled with his swollen face "That's easy Vince. The Queen is the ruler of the Alliance, I thought you knew that"

Vince let out an annoyed chuckle "Hehe, wise guy huh? You know what I mean! I want her name, her real identity!" Towards the end Vincent's voice turned into a half growl as he yelled.

Detective Chang just silently looked on at Vincent. Seeing his silent refusal Vincent then shrugged his shoulders.

"Alright Detective you've forced my hand." He then walked over to the table nearby and grabbed a hammer "I'm sure you've heard this story a thousand time by now Detective.

When my great grandfather first came to this city he worked day and night as a handyman/ construction worker.

Everything my family has now was built up with his rough calloused hands. In order to show appreciation for all of his work and to constantly remind us of where we came from its become a tradition for all the men born in the family to spend a few years learning to work with their hands."

He then picked up a two inch long nail from the box on the table "And there's one trick that my great grandfather loved showing off."

Vincent held the nail over the top of Chang's thigh as the hammer then came crashing down. A sick crunch was heard as the nail pierced bone. The nail was hammered all the way down in only one swing.

As the nail pierced his thigh he fought against the chains restraining him making them dig into his skin but he didn't let out a sound.

Vincent looked at Kim "Very impressive Detective. Most people scream their lungs out on the first nail. So have you changed your mind? Who's the Queen?"

Chang glared back at Vincent but his mouth remained shut. "Suit yourself Detective. There's a bunch of nails on the table and I've got all night."

One by one nails were hammered into the detective's legs as Vincent interrogated Kim. But after each nail he would just stare at Vincent without letting out a single sound.

After an hour both of his legs had nails going from the top of his thighs down to his knees.

Vincent stretched his arm and rolled his shoulder as he looked down at the pathetic figure in front of him.

Kim's medium length black hair clung to his face from being soaked in a combination of blood and sweat. Blood trickled down both his legs pooling around both his feet.

He seemed to lack any strength as his head hung down and yet his mouth never let out a sound and his eyes looked straight into Vincent's the entire time.

"I don't get it Detective. You had everything going for you. A good job, you made good money, a nice house, a real looker for a wife, and you were so close to being promoted.

If you had just kept your mouth closed your life would have been smooth sailing. I especially feel bad for Mrs. Chang.

She probably got snatched by the group that just came to town to take care of you. But it's not too late"

Vincent's tone became a lot calmer as he tried to convince the detective "You might feel like a hero after helping out the N-Types but right now your name has been dragged through some serious mud my friend.

All the clean cops know that you've been working for us and the public don't know squat about your little heroics. To them your just another dirty cop"

Vincent continued "But that can all be fixed if you just hand over Queen. Without her the Altino's ain't gonna have anymore obstructions, we'll own the city! After that we can clear up your name, get you reinstated.

Heck we could get you a promotion just like before. What do you want? Sergeant? Lieutenant? Captain? You tell me what rank you want and what station, it can all be yours again all you gotta do is wisen up"

"Haha" He let out a small laugh that eventually escalated to a maniacal laughter "Hahahaha! Hahaha!"

The detective mustered up all of his strength to lift his head up to properly stare down Vincent "I'm the one that needs to wisen up!?

That's the best joke I've heard all year Vince. On account of our long tenure as business acquaintances let me tell you this.

You're so focused on become the King of spades in a small deck that you haven't even noticed that the casino is burning down.

And just so you know I didn't just recently betray you. The entire reason I started working for you all those years ago was so that I could feed the Queen and her alliance constant info on your family."

"This sonova!" Vincent's face turned red from anger and humiliation. He grabbed the hammer and was just about to smash it into the detective's kneecaps when all of a sudden he felt the temperature in the room start to drop.

It was just a slight change at first but then it quickly became so cold that Chang could see his breath in the cold air.

Once again the detective began laughing but this time in a calm and amused manor "You said you wanted the Queen Vince. Looks like you're gonna get your wish."