Beast Soul

Ring! Ring!

The loud ringing of his phone woke up Gerald from his sleep.

"Ugh… who..." Gerald rubbed his eyes and began mumbling to himself as he reached for his phone.

He had lied on his bed as soon as he got home, but for some reason, he just couldn't sleep. He didn't know what was bugging him - Perhaps it might've been the bizarre encounter he had with the two monsters, or maybe the realization that he now had superpowers finally got to him. Either way, he was only able to sleep just a few minutes ago. And he wasn't even able to sleep properly because he just got interrupted.

 "Who the f*ck is calling me?" Gerald groaned as he unlocked his phone and brought the display close to his face, and it read 'conference call'.

"Really? They couldn't have picked a better time?" Gerald let out a heavy sigh and rubbed his eyes once again. He wanted to scream loudly, but he resisted the urge and got up from his bed, immediately grabbing his earpods and joining the call.

"What's up? What's the matter?" Gerald asked, frustration evident in his voice. 

"What the hell, man? What's up with you?" Harold replied with a question of his own, instantly identifying the frustration in Gerald's voice. 

"Maybe he was in the middle of beating his meat," Alphonso responded with a chuckle, and Gerald rolled his eyes. "Go on then, Jerry boy!" Alphonso continued, "Don't let us interrupt you!"

"F*ck off!" Gerald snorted in response, and the other two began laughing hysterically. 

"Just tell me the reason why you're calling," Gerald asked annoyingly.

"Yeah yeah, sorry about that…" Alphonso said as he caught his breath. "We were just calling to find out what your thoughts are about the 'superpower' decision."

"Yeah, I haven't even started thinking about that yet," Gerald said while scratching his head, and both Alphonso and Harold let out a surprised 'oh'. 

"Oh really?" The two asked in unison, and Gerald replied with a yawn. "Really. I've been a bit too tired from everything, and so I just immediately went to sleep." He clarified.

'Well, tried to sleep.' Gerald thought in his mind. 'But they didn't need to know that part.'

"What happened to Max?" Gerald asked. He couldn't hear Max's voice in the conference call. 

"Well, you know how his mom is.." Harold explained with a light cough. "Apparently, she found out about the fact that there was no school today, and Max is getting grounded for lying to her."

"Which means no phone, no television and no N*tflix," Alphonso interjected and spoke while chuckling. "He's not doing too well today."

"Yeah, no sh*t…" Gerald let out another yawn and he covered his mouth and waited for it to pass. "So, did you guys think about it?" He asked. "I'm asking about the superpowers, obviously."

"Yeah, we actually did..." Harold replied, and his tone had turned completely serious now. 

"You guys want to become superheroes huh…" Even though they didn't tell him anything yet, Gerald could already tell what they were about to say. 

"I guess us being comic book nerds was kind of a giveaway, huh…" Alphonso let out a short chuckle, causing the other two to laugh as well.

"Only a little bit.." Gerald said with a smile. His eyes were now cleared up. "But did you really think this through?" He asked, concern evident in his voice. "You don't even know what powers you're even going to get. And you have no clue whether you're going to be strong enough to do anything."

"I know what you mean, Gerald." Harold immediately replied. "And yes, we did think about all that. Like, what if we get the ability to make plants grow fruits? That wouldn't be helpful in a fight at all."

"But then, I realized something," Alphonso joined in, continuing the conversation in Harold's place. "You guys were able to find a way to get me out of that terrible situation in the sewers. You didn't leave me alone because I couldn't move properly. You guys helped me, and you did that without having any powers."

Gerald didn't respond. But he knew what Alphonso meant by his words.

"Honestly, I actually thought that you'd just leave me alone," Alphonso said with a soft chuckle. "But you didn't. And I don't want anyone else to feel like that ever again."

".... I understand," Gerald nodded his head. He then asked Harold. "Harold, is this also your decision?"

"It is," Harold said as he let out a long sigh. "I'm already a monster, so might as well do some good sh*t to make up for it. What do you plan to do?"

"I… I'll think about it," Gerald scratched his chin as he spoke, and then looked out of his window, up at the sky. 

'Yeah, I'll think about it.'

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"How're you doing, Raph?" Special Agent Alan Fischer said immediately as he entered the medical examiner's room, where Doctor Raphael Hernandez was present, along with Chief Medical Examiner Koichiro Sekino, who was sitting down in his chair and jotting down something on his tablet.

"Neutral, Alan.." Doctor Hernandez replied to Alan while half murmuring to himself, and Alan widened his eyes in surprise. "Not even looking at me while replying. You must be in a really good mood, huh?"

"Take a look at this, and you'll be in a good mood as well," Doctor Hernandez turned his tablet around as soon as he spoke and handed it over to Special Agent Alan, who took it from him and looked at it with intrigue in his eyes.

"What's this?" Alan asked Doctor Hernandez as he gazed at the tablet screen, trying to read through it as fast as he could.

"It contains the details of all the internal organs of this vine monster guy over here." Doctor Hernandez tapped his finger on the corpse's chest as he spoke, and Agent Alan raised his eyebrows.

"This is… different," Alan looked at the charts and information given on the tablet, and his eyes widened. 

"The internal organs haven't completed their mutations," Doctor Hernandez said as he took back the tablet from Agent Alan, who scratched his chin confusedly, his expression implying that he was still thinking about what this could mean.

"Is that even possible? How does that happen?" Agent Alan asked. "Why on earth did the BS-T just stop mutating?"

"It didn't stop mutating. It was most probably forced to stop mutating." Doctor Hernandez clarified. "This also meant that the brain was also comparatively less affected from the mutation."

"The boy was conscious?" Alan looked shocked by the doctor's words. "Partially, yes," Doctor Hernandez nodded. "Although I don't know how much of his consciousness was retained."

"Jesus Christ.." Alan rubbed his face with his hands, and his gaze then shifted to the corpse of the Mayor's son. "What the hell happened to you, kid?"

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"He couldn't have kept it inside there, right?" She said to herself, but her eyes were still glued to the door. After all, she had searched through the entire room and still came up completely empty. If there were any 'packages' that Marty had hidden inside the room, then that was the only place where it had to be hidden.

"F*ck… I guess I'm going inside that stinking place.." Clarice said with a disgusted expression. She used his fingers to clinch her nose and headed over to the storage room. 

Before turning the knob, Clarice stopped and took a deep breath. She decided to hold her breath and opened the door, entering the dark and dusty room.

"Oh f*ck…" Clarice couldn't help but be vocal about her disgust for this room. "It smells even worse inside."

Although she felt the urge to throw up, Clarice tried to hold it in, and began looking around in the dark for the light switch.

Plop! Plop! Plop!

The sound of water droplets dripping onto the floor could be heard, but Clarice paid it no mind, and began walking with her back next to the wall, running her hands all over the wall, desperately searching for the switch to turn on the lights.

"Got it!" She said in a happy tone as she found the light switch, and immediately switched on the lights.

The lights turned on, and the interior of the storage room came into view. The room was filled with cobwebs and dust particles, and there was an old computer near the corner of the room, which didn't look like it was in a working condition.

But it was the thing that was in the middle of the room that caught Clarice's attention the most.

"What the actual f*ck?" Clarice couldn't help but shout as she looked at the giant egg shaped objects that were right in the centre of the room.

Although the strange objects had similar appearances to that of eggs, they all had dark brown colours and the outer shell of it seemed to have been made out a fleshy material, as it looked glossy and glistening.

"What the hell is going on here?" Clarice asked to herself, unable to understand what the hell she had just walked into.