Chapter Text
It was a night like any other. The nearly full moon shone bright above Faraway Town, where a young couple laid by the lakeside, gazing up at the starry night sky.
“Honestly, even I’m surprised this little romance of our’s has stood for so long, my little Hero!”
“I’m not as surprised, Mari. You felt that way, I felt that way. Call it intuition, but I guess I knew it’d work out.”
The two stood up at last, and approached one another for their first true kiss, when Mari noticed something strange.
“Hero…is…is that a tail?”
“...huh?” Hero looked back, realizing what had happened. That tail of his had unwrapped itself from around his waist, now wiggling behind him like a lily in a light breeze.
“...no?”
Mari raised her eyebrow.
Hero sighed, “Yes.”
“So, you on animorphaline or something?”
“Wh-What? I would never-”
Mari chuckled, “Oh my god. You totally are.”
“M-Mari! Let me explain myself for a second!”
“Alright. You got 5 minutes.”
Hero took a breath, “I’m not on animorphaline. This uh… Tail…well, Mom said I’ve had it since I was born.”
“Didn’t the doctors say anything?”
Hero shrugged, “Not that I know.”
“Maybe you should check it out.”
“... I actually haven’t thought of that before. You’re right, actually.” Hero started panicking, “W-What if it’s cancerous or something?! Or it’s some condition where-”
“It’s probably not that bad. I mean, I’ve heard of weirder.”
“That’s fair.”
Mari tried to pet the tail but Hero moved away from her.
“Please don’t touch it. It’s really sensitive.”
“Like I’m not going to deal with more sensitive things later…”
“M-Mari, what-”
“Come on, just let me pet it a little.”
The rest of the couple’s evening was soon gone, mostly with Mari trying in vain to grab Hero’s tail, like a cat flailing its paws at a string held just out of reach.
The next day, Hero decided to go to the local clinic. Mari was probably right that it was nothing to worry about, but having spent the entire night searching up on humans growing tails and finding practically nothing, it was worth a shot.
“Mr. Rivas? The doctor will see you now.”
Hero got up and opened the door.
“Hi, so you said you came because of a strange growth on your body?”
“Yeah. I’ve actually had it for a few years, I just wanted to check if it’s cancerous or anything.”
“Can I see it?”
“Oh, yeah sure.” Hero unravelled his tail from around his waist.
“...” The doctor stared, wide-eyed at the tail, “You have full muscle control over it?”
“I think so.”
“... We’ll run some blood tests as well as an overall physical examination. I’ll call you once we have the results.”
“... Okay.”
It was a few days later when Hero got a call from the doctor.
“So good news, it’s benign. I couldn’t find any signs of cancer in your blood.”
“Uh-huh.”
“And your physical tests also show that you have… Above average performance in relation to your BMI.”
“Which means?”
“You seem quite lean for your age, but you have the stamina of someone who’s been working out for at least 5 years. In other words, you could likely bench press a car if you trained enough.”
“...” Thoughts started running through Hero’s mind, “A-anything else?”
“Well, your blood barely resembles anything human. We weren’t able to get a blood type out of it, and it seems like it has some sort of regenerative ability.”
“... Damn. Shit sorry I… should probably stop talking.”
“Well, I believe you have nothing to worry about Mr Rivas. If you think of any other questions or anything you need, you can always reach out to me via email.”
“...”
The doctor hung up.
“...Not human, huh? Does that mean I’m…”
Hero walked downstairs, finding his mom drinking coffee.
"Hey mom, am I adopted?"
Mrs Rivas spit out her coffee.
"What? Why would you be adopted Henry? You- You and Kel are exactly like brothers! Look, if it's about the baby photos again, I told you we lost them when-"
"No it's not about that. I just got some bloodwork done and they said they've never seen this kind of blood before."
"...Yeah, you're adopted."
"MOM!"
"What? Do you want me to lie more or something?"
"No, but...when were you planning to tell me this?!"
"When you and Kel asked who we loved more."
"And you would've said?"
"Kel. Because our biological son will always come first."
Hero was confused,"T-Then what's with all the praise for me and stuff?!"
"Firstly, I will congratulate anyone for good academic achievements, not just you. Secondly, if you end up with a space baby and don't treat them well, who knows what'll happen?"
"...SPACE BABY?!"
"I'll tell you the whole story later, alright?”
It wasn’t until Thursday when things got strange again.
Kel had gotten into some cartoon about ninjas or something
“Okay so OFFICIALLY, the english translation hasn’t come out yet. BUT, Sunny got me a DVD with captions and a few volumes of the comic with writing in english. Apparently his dad made him do it to brush up on his Japanese or something.”
Hero brushed him off, “All that talking and you still haven’t given me a reason to care. Still sounds pretty boring.”
“Boring?! Come on Hero, it’s a story about a kid with a demon inside of him, who can clone himself and one of them can even make an electric blade out of thin air! You’re saying that doesn’t sound awesome?!”
“...Kel, we literally have fighting tournaments where people shoot giant lasers at each other. Why would I read that when I can see it in real life?”
“Yeah, but those only happen every 3 years!” Kel whined before mumbling, “And it’s not like you can do them.” Kel mumbled.
“Who says I can’t?”
“You’re bluffing.”
“Nope, I…uh…totally can! Just watch!”
Hero cupped his hands together, mimicking some of the martial artists he saw on TV.
Kel smirked. If nothing else, this was gonna be funny as hell.
Hero closed his eyes, focusing.
He tried to just… Imagine all that energy puring into his hands… They called it chi or something?
But he couldn’t feel anything.
“Alright Kel, you got me.” Hero opened his eyes, “I was bluff- OH SHIT!”
Within his palm, a brilliantly bright orb of yellow energy had formed.
Kel just stared at him, his jaw would’ve hit the floor if it could do that.
“THAT’S AWESOME!!! HOW’D YOU DO THAT?! WHO TAUGHT YOU?!”
“I’m just a natural!” Hero grinned, “I can learn any technique I want just from looking!”
“AWESOME! YOU’RE LIKE A SHARINGAN USER!” Kel kept talking on and on about how awesome it was Hero could do that and that they could put him in competitions and so on and so forth.
And then Hero realised he was losing control of the energy.
“Maybe you’ll become a martial arts master, huh Hero? …Hero?”
“... Hey, Kel? Could you open the front door for me?”
“Huh? Why?”
“I do NOT want to blow up the house.”
“Oh.”
Kel quickly ran to the front door and opened it.
Trying not to let any energy slip out, Hero carefully walked outside.
“Where should I aim?”
Kel pointed up.
“What about airplanes, or satellites?”
“HERO, IT’S EITHER THAT OR YOU BLOW UP THE TOWN!”
“POINT TAKEN!”
A bright burst of yellow energy went forth from Hero’s palms into the sky like a beacon.
Meanwhile, around 20 feet from Kel’s House stood Mikhail The Maverick and his cohort, Angel.
“Grand. Simply grand! I suppose that there’s something to pose a challenge toward us after all.”
“Shouldn’t we be worried, 23-”
“Do NOT utter that wretched numeric, Angel. We wouldn’t want to blow our cover before the Army strikes.”
Mikhail The Maverick Android 23 touched two fingers to a small device in his ear.
“Agents K and V, HQ, this is Android 23. It seems as if we must begin Phase 1 sooner than expected. It appears we may have a larger threat than our intel had predicted.”
Gero: “Understood.” Angel: “How much earlier, master?”
Android 23: “Sunday. Under the full moon’s blight, we and our forces will blot out this town’s pitiful dreams! After that…the world will be ours for the taking.”
Agent K: “...Good job not belting out your usual ‘Ultimate Cackle of Evilness’. You’re taking this seriously for once. Well, other than the dramatics, but still.”
Agent V: “I’m shocked, 23. Well, not too much. The doc did work extra hard on ya. When he gets onto a ‘secret project’...well, he never disappoints, that’s all. Alright then, so on Saturday I’ll ring up any nearby bases of the rescheduling, and on Sunday night…”
Gero: “This wretched town will belong to The Red Ribbon Army, and serve as a new base of operations in our goal of global conquest.”
Sunday night was something Hero used for one of two things.
Either a romantic night with Mari…or a woodland stroll for collecting his thoughts. Tonight, it was the latter.
As he wandered, he wondered…what was he? Alien? Some genetic experiment? With the doctor saying he’s barely human, his mom saying he was from some sort of space pod and with the recent discovery of him being able to shoot FUCKING LASERS from his hands (which Basil had helpfully informed him were called ki blasts, since he could sense them with his ki control, thanks to whoever “King Kai” was.), this further cemented doubts of his humanity, leaving him with a simple question…
“Where am I from? What…am I?”
Soon enough, however, a new question arose: “Why is it so bright out?”
That one was quickly answered with a look towards the night sky.
“Wow…it’s even more beautiful than before! Oh wow, I can’t believe it! My first sighting of a full…moon…”
Hero couldn’t help but gaze into the full moon’s light, and soon his consciousness faded to black…
Hero awoke with a start. He was at home, in bed. But then what happened to his shirt? What was once a freshly ironed navy blue t-shirt was now a tattered mess, only the very bottom part that sat around his waist remaining. He tried to stand up, but as he was about to, his entire body roared out in pain.
“¡OH MIERDA QUE DUELE COMO EL INFIERNO!”
“¡HERMANO, CÁLMATE Y ACUÉSTATE, QUE ESTABAS INCONSCIENTE EN EL BOSQUE!”
Sighing, he decided to check the local news to see what had happened. Apparently it was now Monday, so that happened. But then something else caught his eye.
“'Colossal ape Returns! Drives off Red Ribbon invaders!'?”
As it turned out, around 11:36 last night, the Red Ribbon Army attempted a hostile takeover of Faraway, but was driven back by a giant ape, which was apparently an urban legend in Faraway, around 11:56. The ape later vanished around sunrise.
Hero remembered last night…he was in the woods and saw a full moon around…
No
No.
NO NO NO NO NO
“¡¿YO ERA UN SIMIO GIGANTE?!”
Hero couldn’t handle the absurdity, and passed out, but that thought of the giant ape lingered in his subconscious mind…
Tuesday.
Henry “Hero” Rivas had (somehow) recovered from what had happened in the woods during the weekend. By this point, there was no denying it…he wasn’t human. Or at least, not a normal one.
That still didn’t tell him anything about what he was, but it’s a start.
Besides, he had other things to focus on. He was finally going to tell everyone else about his tail. Kel and Mari already knew, and thank god that they planned this hangout at the old treehouse. In 2 hours, it would all be revealed…
Two hours later, and everyone was at the treehouse, playing cards like the old days…
“Uno.” deadpanned Sunny, already on a win streak.
“Kel, WHY MUST YOU ALWAYS DRAG UNO INTO THIS?! With Sunny around it becomes World War 3!”, screamed Aubrey, her hair the same bright pink it had been since two years ago.
“Sh-she’s not wrong”, mumbled Basil, very much in dead last.
“We might beat him this time!”, Mari said as enthusiastically as she could, her hair a shimmering purple, dyed two years ago alongside Aubrey.
“We can do this!”
One last round proved that wrong.
One shredded deck of Uno cards and a swift punch to Sunny’s leg (both courtesy of Aubrey) later…
“You have anger issues Aubrey.”
“It’s in my blood.”
“Yeah it’s in your blood to shove my brother into-”
“Mari, chill.” Hero finally spoke up, having been dead silent that whole time.
“Anyways uh...I have something to show all of you”
With that, he unfurled his tail from around his waist, with it slowly wiggling back and forth behind him almost hypnotically.
The treehouse was dead silent, until…
“Huh. You have one of those too.” Aubrey deadpanned.
“What?”
“N-Nothing. Just saw them on some documentary before. I think it’s cool.”
“I can’t say I knew about this”, Basil stated, “But I can say I figured something was odd. Most people don’t have so much ki that I can sense them from the other side of town.”
“Then how’d you confuse me for Hero six times in the same month last year?”, Aubrey stated.
Basil remained silent.
“...can I touch it?” Sunny asked.
“Please don’t, it’s actually incredibly sensi-GUH!”
Hero was interrupted mid-sentence by Mari, having grabbed his tail mid-explanation.
“3-0, Hero!”
“Mari, Please stop doing that.”
“For now.”
“Ok. As I already mentioned, I was born with this. As well, apparently I have some other odd skills too.”, the tailed Rivas stated as he started summoning ki into his left hand, before incinerating the shredded deck of Uno cards.
“Can’t all martial artists do that or something?” Sunny questioned, “Even my dad can-”
“I learnt that in a minute.”
“Oh. Oh shit.”
This was going to be a long afternoon, wasn’t it?
“Android 23 reporting to HQ. Mission Status: Failure”
Gero: “What the hell happened out there 23?! I thought you were sure of our victory, and the next thing I know the lot of you are retreating like cowards!”
Angel: “W-we don’t know, Doc! Well, I-I don’t. I kinda…blacked out on the spot.”
Agent V: “Of course, Angel. Of course. Well, Dr. Gero, we were sure of victory last night…until IT appeared.”
Agent K: “Some sorta wannabe King Kong showed up out of the forest and started spitting lasers everywhere. We lost 17 vehicles in total, and around 324 men. Apparently this thing appeared around 12 years back too, and some people started calling it "The legendary defender of Faraway" or something like that.”
Gero “A what?! There can't be a- I’ll check the footage. Well, you weren't lying. That is indeed a giant ape.”
Android 23: “Requesting access to an upgraded Battle Jacket in case this beast shows up next time”
Gero: “Denied. I want you to study the beast if it makes itself known. I believe it appeared under the full moon, correct? And it seems there's a cooldown for it seeing as it has only appeared twice.”
Android 23: “It seems so. Is this for another secret project?”
Gero: “If we can replicate this beast’s power, the world will easily fall to the Army.”
Android 23: “Understood.”
Agent V: “Understood. Study the beast.”
Agent K: “Eh, why not. Sure thing, doc.”
Angel: “O-ok.”
Gero: “Good. An artificial moon is being warped to you now, Agent K. Use it ONLY when you believe it is most needed.”
“We will not have any more failures.”