Chapter 22: Darker sides to the family

Salem pov

I was sneaking around a forest area with my eyes set on my target sitting near the clearing. I smirked and crept to my target as silently as I could then pounced. But when I was very close to my target I was grabbed by the collar and I just growled in dissatisfaction.

"Nice try cub." Agogo smiled at me. She then put me on her lap and began tickling my ear and gave me some mangos. A laptop was beside her because aunt Minerva was supposed to video call soon.

"H-Hey stop that." I tried not to laugh. "I thought I had you this time."

"Ha! Ha! You're a hundred years too early for you to get on me cub." She began tickling my ear and I released a strange sound.

"Anyway, let me see your teeth." She told me and I opened my mouth and she took a look at my teeth. "Yep, those are the teeth for a predator alright and I am glad the apple didn't fall off the tree after all." She showed her teeth to emphasise our similarities.

"So, you're telling me that you wanted to eat a man with a zebra head quirk?"

"Wow it was an intrusive thought, nothing more. I really wasn't going to do it." I defended myself.

"Relax Cub I get it more than you think. I'm not a quirk doctor or a doctor in general but I know the feline quirks in my family."

"So, you're saying I'm developing a feline quirk too?" I was a little surprised. Sure, I had the same features but I thought it was something similar to those people who had some weird extra features which have nothing to do with their quirk.

"Probably. Am so excited I can't wait to see what kind of animal you will grow into, a lion, cheetah, leopard, lynx." She smiled brightly. "I can't wait to teach you a lot about being an apex predator." She began tickling me.

"Hey wait I thought you said it was just you and great grandpa?"

"I did but I still had uncles, aunties and cousins though I didn't want anything to do with them."

"And they all had cat-like quirks.

"You can say that."

"Wait if I do have like other family members how come you or auntie never really talk about them?"

"It's a complicated club." She sighed.

"Can you please tell me a little something about some of them?" I asked and she gave me a complicated look. "You don't have to if you don't want to."

"Hm well okay. It's time agogo tell you the some of the history of the Caçars." She then shifted my position on her lap to get more comfortable. "Now you know how quirks appeared along the time the war for lake Malawi was happening right?" I nodded. "Well as much as people feared quirks and saw them as bad voodoo or juju, some saw them as a blessing and started forming little tribes based on the quirks they had. There was a tribe composed of people with quirks of hunter cats called mlenje mphaka After people discovered that quirks get stronger with the generations some tribes wanted to use this to have children with strong quirks to boast their influence.

The mlenje mphaka was also a part of this and a lot of babies were made through um strange methods. Eventually my father who had a strong lion-based quirk and my mamma who had a strong leopard or black panther quirk based gave birth to me. Since I had a perfect lion quirk they wanted me to lead the tribe and marry me to my cousin who was the closest to reaching a similar quirk evolution as me." She flinched and briefly breathed heavily.

"My father didn't agree with this and distanced us from the tribe. After I gave birth to your mom, she was basically born with her quirk but she was a hybrid quirk user of mine and from your grandpa's side do really wanted her. But it was when your aunt was born and how they treated her which truly made me cut ties with them but that's a story for another time." She finished her tell and rubbed her eyes and briefly looked at her actual age.

I could tell there was so much more to the story but I didn't want to ask more as she had pain in her eyes. So, the tribes in question were trying to reach a quirk of singularity or something. Though one question was on my mind.

"So are they still around along with the other tribes?"

"As smart and mature you are cub you're too young to know that part of the story." She rubs her head on mine a little.

A video call request notification suddenly appeared on the laptop and agogo used her tail to accept. Auntie was on the other side of the screen looking annoyed wearing a female bodyguard suit but her head was wrapped in a bandage, cheek and left arm.

"Hey mom and Chicky!" She waved at us.

"Minerva what in the world happened to you!" Agogo asked worriedly and so was i.

"Don't worry mom, I've gotten worse injuries." She reassured her.

"That doesn't make me feel better. What kind of people were you bodyguarding this client of yours from?"

"Sorry mom, that's private information." Auntie made a playful meow face while agogo growled in annoyance.

"You must be going through some adventures auntie." I commented.

"You have no idea chicky." She sighed. "Anyway, the good news is I'm going to finish earlier than expected so I'll be back to Nyasa in two weeks."

"That's great auntie."

"Yep, how's Joseph by the way. Is he feeding alright and not getting you involved in anything dangerous?"

"Auntie for the thousandth time now and you can just say you miss the man a little." I rolled my eyes and she just chirped in surprise. "By the way, why was the pro hero Miriko in your room that day?" I was really curious about that.

"Oh her. In the second week of the job, we were in Shiba and a couple of villains tried to stop us by the road, leading me and other guards to fight them off. Miriko happened to be in the town and got involved but I didn't know who she was and thought she was also a villain so I punched her hard and sent her crushing some feet away." She looked a little embarrassed and I laughed while agogo had a 'why am I not surprised look'.

"We did still deal with the villains but she was still pretty pissed so she demanded a fight to make up for me sucker punching her. I tried to apologise but she was dead set on it. So, Mr. Muthali organised a fight between us."

"Wait, how and why did your boss organise a battle between you two?" I tilted my head.

"Well, I said I wasn't interested in fighting her due to me being on a job but she didn't care and Mr. Muthali offered her a deal. I would fight her if she would bodyguard him so she accepted."

"Why?" Agogo and I asked.

"Well one Mr. Muthali isn't this super strict businessman his actually really weird plus he saw his other three bodyguards easily being man handled by the villains so I guess he wanted extra man power. "She shrugged.

"Anyway, apparently he knows a guy and we set up a fight between us in a building used by heroes for training so we fought and I won but I have to admit she was pretty strong but in the end she was just a rabbit and I'm cheetah." She bragged a little in the end.

"Well, that explains why she burst into your room last time." I hummed.

"Minerva, you're lucky that she didn't press any charges when you attacked her the first time. God, forbid I had enough with seeing those." Agogo scolded me a bit.

"Don't worry, I'm a grown woman now, not that girl who wants to prove herself anymore." She smiled but squirted her eyes. "But the way Chicky, when did you start getting freckles?"

Elsewhere

A prison guard was wearing heavy armour holding a tray of food very shakily as he walked towards a certain cell. As he walked through grey halls the closer he got to a certain high-tech cell the more he wanted to bolt out of there. When he got to the door he thought about bolting.

"I know you're there just to get in." A deep powerful female voice commanded him, making gulp hard. "You better get here and give me my food or I'll get out there and eat you myself." She demanded and he did as he was told.

Once he got in the white max prison cell was a tall woman about 7'3 feet tall wearing the prison outfit. She had long curly brown hair, and an Amazonian woman-like figure. She had lion features like lion, ears, tail, claws both hands and feet with fur on them and whiskers. She was tied by strong chains all over her body and there were motion sensors in the room such that if she tried anything.

The guard had to admit that he was sexually attracted to the woman but he knew what she was and saw what she was capable of doing and was scared to death of her. She opened her eyes revealing golden feline eyes making him jump back.

"Well, aren't you going to give me my food or is there something else you want from me?" She asked.

"Y-Y-es t-the w-warden said you are allowed b-back to the y-yard after y-your done eating." He said but she was suddenly near him making him jump back and fell over making her laugh and caught the tray with her tail. The walls opened revealing automatic guns ready to fire and the chains yanked her back.

"Well, they're allowing back to the yard huh well isn't that interesting I thought I was stuck down here for life. I wonder what he's planning?" She hummed and looked down to the guard. "Looking for pleasure or something. Get you lost." She growled like a lion making him leave immediately.

A little while later

The warden of the prison was a regularly built fifty-year-old black man with dark eyes and grey beard. He wore a blue suit and glasses. He looked down to the yard which was separating the males and females by a wall. He was the warden of the max prison which housed the most dangerous criminals or villains in southern parts of Africa even if the was a chance the inmates got past the security then there was an electric field around the prison to prevent them from escaping. They even wore high calibre shock collars.

That thing showed up in his prison nine years ago. He was confused why they brought her there instead of shipping her off to max prisons in Europe, America or the Tartarus prison in Japan.

When she arrived, she caused all kinds of mayhem just for the fun of it, killing a lot of inmates and guards and even drinking their blood. Since they couldn't actually cancel her mutant quirk, they took extra measures to keep her under control taking a lot of tax money. He wanted to put her down but he was prevented from doing so by a minister from Nyasaland.

The lion woman walked in the yard causing some inmates who actually knew her scrambled away. She looked around a little bored and yawed and walked over to a wall to smoke.

"Who that might that be and why do same people seem so afraid of her." A tall muscular black woman asked her fellow inmate in Lingala. She had short-coiled hair, grey eyes, and a tattoo of large jaws. She crocodile's scales, teeth, and a tail. This woman was nicknamed terror of the west river in Congo or red jaws.

"I don't know but I heard rumours that she's at the top of the food chain when it comes to the prison even on the men's side." She answered, also in Lingala making red jaws hum.

"Well, it's time to show her that there's a new person on the top." She got up and walked towards the lion woman.

Some older inmates and guards looked at her slightly and already knew what was going to happen to her.

"Hmm so you're the previous top cat around here." She spoke broken English and did the famous wall slam move while the lion woman raised her eyebrow with a 'really' face. "I really don't see anything impressive about you but I admit you do have a great body." She said looking up and down the lion woman.

"Oh, we're doing this? Okay it's been a while since I've been out so I guess I'll play along." She blows a smoke to the red jaws to growl at her.

"You think this is some kind o-…" She was silenced by shard claws digging to the side of her face.

"Sorry I could barely understand you so I got bored already plus." The lion woman rolled her eyes and used her claws to rip red jaws face off.

"AAAAHHHHH!!" She screamed in extreme pain and terror as she fell to the ground bleeding heavily and the lion woman just stood there smoking and licked the blood on her claws.

"Compared to a certain sea monster I know and fought on a monthly basis, you're just a little tuna finish but thanks for little blood I actually like seafood." She smirked and continued smoking.

The warden looked down at the scene and shook his head. But he was surprised how tame she was being this time around which made him worried even more.

"Why do you want to even let her back into the world? You know how unpredictable she can be." He spoke to the person on his computer screen.

He was an African man in his fifties with grey hair but was balding, wore a blues suit and glasses hiding his pink eyes. He was a minister of Malawi Tionge Nyirenda.

"I don't have to explain myself to you warden, just tell me if she is still in fighting shape."

"Well, she just ripped the face of one of Congo's most dangerous villains. How was the right hand of the villain who uses the river as a drug route. But there's an issue."

"What is it?"

"She seems to have lost interest in anything nowadays. How are you going to get her to work for you?" The warden asked the minister.

"After I tell her some news regarding family matters, she won't be able to resist." The minister smirked as he knew having the disaster in their ranks once more will be extremely beneficial even though she was also a risk.