A true hero

"So this isn't a fae town after all..."

Nightwing thought as he looked around at the next house.

In the trashed living room, which looked like a psychopathic maniac's playground because of the bloodstains and overturned furniture, there was a fresh English newspaper discussing the recent Justice League recognition. The event is truly uncommon, so it's not strange that it's being covered literally everywhere. The occasional familiar inscriptions along the way and the hot weather for winter also hinted that he had just found himself in one of the southern countries that favored the use of Arabic script.

Initially, the guy wasn't too keen on climbing into houses to avoid encountering another group of mutants, but the usual traveling on rooftops was fraught with contact with flying monsters, and the height of most buildings left much to be desired, allowing the wandering creatures to react to the sounds of running overhead, despite the cacophony of squeals, growls and other sounds typical of the local inhabitants. Dick was incredibly lucky that the creature that suddenly swooped down on him flapped its wings loudly before attacking, and then died quickly when its neck was sliced by a well-thrown batarang. A couple of creatures that looked like large skinless rats also promptly left for a rendezvous with the Eternal before attracting the attention of the larger creatures. The young hero didn't want to meet them, because it would be much harder to finish them off, which meant that additional opponents could come to the noise of the fight and turn a quiet, unhurried journey into a deadly chase.

Despite the fact that many mutants went on a suicidal attack on the blood and bone wall, as if driven by orders, or maybe very hungry for fresh flesh, there were some who successfully escaped the otherworldly influence, remaining to wander around the infected city. What was happening was very much like some action movie or horror movie about a mad scientist who released a biological virus and turned all living creatures into hideous monsters. The presence of magical creatures camped behind a huge bloody wall didn't fit into this picture, but one could always make the assumption that the bioweapon had a magical basis, and the creatures themselves were warriors who had come to destroy the contagion. After a short wander through the infected area, Nightwing came to the conclusion that it would be better to fill the place with napalm or to drop a nuclear bomb, because there were huge pulsating lumps of flesh spewing out another batch of grotesque monsters with no skin at all.

However, the last option looked more reliable, but he didn't really want to use it, because there were still survivors in the city. Yes, they were very few, but communication with Batman taught Richard to value human life, though not all the theses resonated in the teenager's soul. This was especially true of hardened criminals, who should have been killed or turned into invalids, like Zuko, but it was easier to agree with his guardian than to listen to endless lectures and be left without Alfred's baked goods.

"Raur," a triumphant loud growl sounded from outside the house, followed by a loud slurping sound.

"At least it wasn't human," the guy looked outside with the aid of a small mirror to see a large hideous monster with a severely deformed torso devouring a smaller monster with great gusto.

The behavior of the creatures encountered on the road resembled that of wild, aggressive animals, and, to Richard's great happiness, only a couple of times did the invisible puppeteer show his abilities. That was during the attack on the fortress, and when several of the creatures, clearly ready to rip each other's throats out over a bloody human body lying on the ground, suddenly raised their extended muzzles upward, as if listening for something, and then hurried off toward the northern part of the neighborhood.

Frankly speaking, by this time he had already accumulated enough information on the local fauna. The most interesting were the vulnerable places and the fact that the enemy had no collective mind, otherwise the young hero would have been dismantled into a lot of small souvenirs right after the first meeting, but still he was not planning to go back. And the matter was not in the desire to prove something to someone, but in the banal impossibility to realize it. When the guy applied the hundred and first karate technique, near the walls gathered a huge army of mutants, with which he absolutely did not want to accidentally cross. So Nightwing just continued his leisurely journey, but now taking a little westward, so as not to run into another creature running to the call of the lord.

The human screams and the outraged roar of the monsters reached the hero's ears quite suddenly.

"It's worth checking, maybe we can help," Dick thought determinedly, shifting to a light jog and wanting to get to the source of the sound as soon as possible.

As already mentioned, despite the extremely unfriendly environment, there were still people in the city, but for the most part they survived quite well on their own, locking themselves in basements, hiding in houses with strong shutters and walls, and occasionally in ordinary stores with vandal-proof bars. But against a crowd of determined monsters, most of the obstacles were only temporary measures, so, as in some Walking Dead movie, it was desirable not to draw attention to themselves at all.

After about two minutes, Richard carefully peeked out of the window opening, finding an ordinary two-story house across the street, where a small group of seventeen disgusting mutants had gathered.

The larger ones were furiously attacking the heavy wooden door, while the smaller creatures were cowering near the narrow, loophole-like windows. Nightwing saw that they were devouring their own kin with throwing knives in their eye sockets.

~Booh~

The sturdy planks cracked dangerously as another creature slammed into her with its whole body.

"Guys, do something, I can't take this much longer! - An indignant male voice sounded from behind the barrier.

~Booh~

"Shit. Holding the door, holding the door, just holding the door..."

"Oh, not everyone is as strong as you. This dresser weighs a ton. Hasan, why don't you give me a hand?"

"Yeah, if you want some little critter to get in," a human silhouette flashed through the narrow opening behind the curtains on the first floor. - They were just finishing their meal.

"Phew... I guess I'll pass. It's heavy."

"I can try to lead the monsters away... You've seen how they react to the transformation," the boy's sonorous voice made the gears in Nightwing's head spin, working out a plan, because he didn't want to put the child in danger. The mutants were dumb enough to give up trying to sneak into the building and bite into more available prey, but the problem was that he needed to not only lead them away, but also break away from his pursuers, which, given the hostile environment, was quite a difficult task.

"Beastie, don't even think about it..."

~Booh~

A particularly strong blow suddenly tore off a piece of board, and the lucky monster immediately rushed to slip its paw through the hole it had made.

"Rob!"

"Heh."

There was the sound of flesh being chopped, and then the creature bounced off the barrier with a shriek, staring in surprise at the severed paw.

"It's okay, it's just a scratch. You don't have to worry about it."

"But... No, I can't sit around and do nothing anymore," the teenager's voice was hysterical, and then something happened that Dick didn't expect.

A loud roar came from behind the door, and it was followed by a huge gorilla carcass whose fur boasted an unfamiliar bright green color.

"Raaaaah," King Kong in miniature rushed at the nearest creature and literally ripped it in half.

Throwing aside chunks of flesh, he tapped himself on the chest and rushed back to attack the frozen mutants.

"R-ha! - A powerful blow from a green paw turns the head of the hesitant monster into a pile of meat and bones.

As the gorilla continued to move, the gorilla clearly intended to get another hideous creature, but the anthropomorphic wolf, which looked like a psoriasis-stricken werewolf, jumped backward, and then howled loudly. The howl quickly changed to a death rattle (it was hard to howl with a torn larynx), but it still allowed the other creatures to wake up from their strange obsession and attack the stubborn prey.

The fight lasted less than a minute, and in that time, despite its thick skin and dense fur, the primate had managed to get a couple of unpleasant wounds, even though it had managed to kill several other enemies in the process. Nightwing was particularly unhappy with his damaged hind leg, where the jaws of the monster, which resembled a well-fed pony with a crocodile's head, had successfully closed. Most of the mutants had anthropomorphic features, but there were some that were much more animal-like. Their intelligence was noticeably lower than that of their more "human" counterparts, but this was more than compensated for by a powerful physique and increased survivability. However, the injured limb was not the biggest trouble, because even with it the unusual green creature could still defeat the remaining opponents, who after the death of their brethren for some reason did not hurry to rush into a suicidal attack. The main problem was that the noise of the fight had already attracted a lot of attention, and soon the street would be overrun with grotesque monsters.

"Beast Boy, get back," the figure of a large bald man with a luxurious mustache curled upward appeared in the doorway, where a crowd of monsters had recently burst through.

The big man was dressed in a blue-and-white striped leotard, suggestive of a classic circus strongman, but a little creepy, for he held a broad butcher knife with one hand, which had clearly tasted the black blood of the local creatures, and with the other he held a white cloth soaked with blood at his shoulder. Two other survivors peered out from behind him: a man in a stage magician's costume and a pair of throwing knives, and a gymnast in green tights who was armed with a spear made from a broken mop.

Hearing human speech, the gorilla froze and stared at the humans in astonishment.

"Rob... Hasan... Eddie..." To Nightwing's great surprise, the primate's voice sounded very much like the boyish voice that had recently come from the locked house, only slightly rougher.

The green beast began to look around perplexed, as if he wasn't the one who had been reducing the population of infected fauna for a full minute, while panic became more and more apparent in his eyes.

"I-" suddenly the gorilla collapsed to her knees and vomited bile.

"H-sa," one of the creatures lunged forward and sank its sharp teeth into the green paw, eliciting a painful shriek. Knightwing noted that it would have been more logical to attack the defenseless throat, but the disgusting monsters had been deliberately trying only to cripple the animal, not just finish it off and make a gruesome feast.

"Damn it, hold on! - The magician threw the knife, hitting the monster right in the eye, only this action signaled an attack for the other creatures.

Stealthily approaching the fight, Nightwing had time to literally at the last seconds. A bat claw shot pierces one opponent, an electric batarang seriously wounds and then electrocutes another, a third gets a close encounter with the special spikes on the outside of his forearm, and a fourth gets a simple kick that sends the ugly carcass straight to a rebar sticking out of the ground, which used to be part of a small front garden. Three more snarling monsters that looked like incredibly large skinless rats remained on their feet, but they were successfully neutralized by the circus performers themselves, demonstrating good skill. Richard even tensed a little when the bald big man brought the butcher's knife down on the head of the last hapless monster with a loud hacking sound, and the magician surprised with his accuracy and power of throw.

"Oh..."

When he felt movement behind his back, the young hero turned around and froze, because instead of the expected green gorilla on the asphalt sat a green guy in a strange tight black and purple suit with a wide metal belt and white gloves. And, unlike the Joker, not only his hair was green, but also his skin. The pointed elf ears were not even worth mentioning, because even without them the teenager who appeared before Richard had a rather memorable appearance.

"All questions later," said the strongman, helping the green boy to his feet and glancing at his wounds, which in his human form were almost invisible because of the inexplicable costume, "a lot of creatures will come here now, and we'd better find a place to hide from them."

"I saw a suitable house nearby, follow me," the aspiring superhero quickly oriented himself, simultaneously opening a special compartment on his belt and taking out a blister with several pills. - Antidote and immunomodulatory. I'm not sure if it'll work, but it won't hurt.

His companion was impressive in size, but a quick glance showed rapid breathing, trembling hands and dilated pupils, and the blood-soaked cloth on his shoulder caused serious concern. Dick didn't yet know how monster wounds affected people, but after watching zombie movies, he could guess that even a light cut could have dire consequences. Surprisingly, the shifter looked more or less normal, and his condition was more like post-traumatic stress, while there were no signs of fever.

Knightwing had many questions on his tongue, as did the company following him, but by tacit agreement they decided to postpone even their acquaintance, wanting to get to safety as quickly as possible. Richard already knew the names of his companions, except for the green guy, but the latter was still in shock and was running along with the others only because Rob was always pushing him.

But none of their small group realized that it wasn't a mob of mindless monsters they had to fear, but the Hounds of Rot who were on their trail. The creatures that came from another world were an unnatural fusion of various living things. These monsters had no definite form, as each of them was reborn according to their preferences. Some possessed a mighty physique, clearly based on the rhinoceros, which had grown extra legs, a four-segmented maw, and three pairs of eyes along with tentacles sticking out of its back. Some were less mutated, taking the standard form of a red chitin-covered gorilla whose hind limbs resembled those of a cheetah.

But despite their outward differences, they all had one thing in common that set them apart from most of Black's spawn, and that was the presence of a full-fledged mind.

"Don't let the younger ones near this neighborhood," a creepy growling voice came from a running ape-like creature in one of the alleys.

"You think it's that easy? The Overlord seems to have decided to bring his entire army here. My brain is going to leak out of my ears," the eight-meter centipede, deftly moving its many legs, closed six of its eight black faceted eyes, sending another mental signal to the nearest creatures. - Ugh, why had he given that stupid order in the first place? It was enough to just surround the area. We'd already located the victim, and now we had to make sure no one accidentally killed her.

"When I get my reward, then you can ask your question. You know, do it after I'm gone, though, so I don't have to clean your blood off the shell."

"I think I'll refrain, because I'm getting used to this shell."