by Jonah'sWhale
Jonah's Whale brooded after the visit to Hero's grave. Never before had Jonah's Whale felt so connected to anyone. He had never known the man but for the brief seconds before his death. And yet, Hero lived inside of him, literally. Well, almost literally. His energy lived inside of Jonah's Whale, granting him Hero's powers and his fighting spirit.
Jonah's Whale wiped the tear that had formed in his eye and begun its descent down his chilled cheek.
Christmas was over. The only things remaining from the holiday season were discarded Christmas trees in alleyways and the occasional colorful wrapping paper that had escaped its trash can confines and blew across the sidewalk in front of him.
Now the world prepared for the end of the year, for the end of the world, if you asked the right people: Armageddon -- right.
Damn, it's cold. Jonah's Whale held himself closer, protecting himself from the bitter, cold wind.
Children crossed in front of him, playing with their newly acquired toys. Merry fucking Christmas, he thought. They have no idea what we go through to make this world a bearable place to live in. There wouldn't be a world if not for the MBL. But you can't tell them that, because they get scared of our power, of what we could do if any of us went bad. Heroes don't go bad.
At least, they weren't supposed to. Smasher was a good guy, not long ago. Shock-Headed Peter could be a good guy. Hell, Jonah's Whale could be a bad guy if he chose. No, no, he couldn't, not with Hero's soul residing in him.
"AAAAAHHHHH!"
The scream came from around the next corner. Without a moment's hesitation, Jonah's Whale raced to see the problem.
As he rounded the corner, two men bumped into him. One of them carried a purse, probably belonging to the elderly lady on the snow-covered ground bleeding from her lip.
Jonah's Whale was used to common criminal scum running in terror from him at the sight. Today was different. He was in civilian clothes and thus unrecognizable to these punks. They pulled knives. Jonah's Whale allowed them to stab him, breaking the blades on his near-invulnerable skin. With his superstrength, Jonah's Whale lifted them into the air before the shocked expressions on their faces could change.
The collar of the man on the right began to tear when Jonah's Whale flew them a hundred feet above the alley floor. He held Jonah's Whale's arm, the only thing keeping him from falling to his death.
"Don't EVER do this again!" Jonah's Whale said.
The men agreed and pleaded to be released.
"EVER!" Jonah's Whale insisted.
After terrorizing them enough, Jonah's Whale flew them to the ground and released the converted criminals. As they ran off, Jonah's Whale knew they would continue their life of crime. The power that was once Hero's told him so. You couldn't win them all.
He returned the purse to the battered woman, who had taken the moment of respite to clean her bloody lip. She hugged Jonah's Whale, pressing her eviscerated lips to his cold cheeks and kissing him gently as a sign of her gratitude. Maybe the world wasn't such a bad place after all.
Jonah's Whale continued his walk to the MBL headquarters. As he opened the front door, Agent F7 and Zed rushed at him, nearly knocking him down in their efforts to escape.
Jonah's Whale: "Whoa. What's up?"
Zed: "Get the hell out of here."
Agent F7: "We need the rest of the MBL."
Jonah's Whale: "Why didn't you use the new MBL communicators?"
Agent F7: "Forgot about them."
Hardy New-Born had contracted Dragnet Zero to make communication badges as a way of communication among the Leaguers in the event of an incident like this. Zed tapped the communicator with light fingers, drumming a coded signal to be deciphered by the communication badges of the other Leaguers, alerting them to the trouble.
Soon, and hopefully not too late, the rest of the Meta Board League would arrive. And the evil, whatever it was, would be defeated.