4

  “This ID is fake,” Four said with a deep and gruff voice, returning the card to the woman in front of him. The would-be nightclub goer clenched her fist, angry at the man who wasn’t allowing her entry. Four raised an eyebrow as he looked down at the woman, who seemed ready to scream any number of obscenities at a man at least thrice her weight. Four didn’t particularly like this job, but he didn’t particularly dislike it either. As a matter of fact, it was about as pleasant a job as he could dream for. The wig he was currently wearing did make his scalp itch slightly, but thankfully he could just use his power to self-scratch his head. The only truly annoying part about this entire charade was the fact that he had to come up with any number of excuses for his sister as to why he wore a disguise to work. What do I tell her? That it’s because they don’t want me to look too old? No, that’s ridiculous. He sighed when the woman finally backed away without saying a word, being sober enough to rethink trying to get into a fight with someone as large as Four.

  He wasn’t just large, he was downright massive. A towering beast of a man, he naturally exuded an intimidating aura that made even the most senseless drunkard think twice before angering him - making him the perfect bouncer. Watching her go away, Four stretched his arms slightly as a yawn barely managed to escape his lips. Hiding his identity was far easier than he had originally assumed seven years ago, when he first became a Celestial. His eyes lazily drifted to the next person in line, grabbing their ID and looking it over a couple of times. I’ll have to make something up. She’s already suspicious enough of me as is… And it's only gonna keep getting harder the older she gets. What a pain. He passed it back to the man with a nod, “You can pass.”

  The man nodded, grabbing his ID back from Four’s hand. Normally, people would just walk right past and into the nightclub. But this time, the man stopped right as he was walking past Four, giving the hero a side-eye. The party-goer spoke suddenly, his voice coming out dull and quiet, yet perfectly understandable to the hero, “Hello, Four. Fancy seeing you here.” The hero remained outwardly composed, his eyes narrowing as they quickly darted towards the rest of the crowd in fear. Nobody seemed to have reacted to the man's words, though. They just seemed like a normal crowd, waiting impatiently to be let in. No one reacting to such a statement must mean that this man must have some sort of noise-canceling power. Eight looked back to the man with a murderous spark in his eyes, raising one of his arms as he prepared to cut his enemy in half at the drop of a hat. “Are you an enemy?” the hero asked calmly, every single muscle in his body tensed and ready to spring into action at the tiniest provocation. The man’s eyes quickly widened and he put his hands in front of himself in a panic, his mysterious act disintegrating as soon as he realized that the Celestial was absolutely not messing around. “N-No need to panic, Four!! I’m an Association agent is all!! Eight sent me with an urgent mission,” The man continued quickly, his voice suddenly coming out a lot more rushed and without the calmness from before, recognising the murderous intent in the Celestials’ eyes.

  Four’s eyes stayed narrowed, but he unclenched his hand after hearing the man’s words, dropping his arm to his side once he realized he wouldn’t have to kill anyone. “I don’t care what she has to say or how urgent it is. Go bother someone else,” he stated politely yet decisively in a whisper, turning his head to look at the man neutrally, all the murderous intent gone. The agent wasn’t short by any means, but compared to Four, he was utterly dwarfed. The agent looked up at Four, felt intimidated despite the hero’s neutral expression, and very quickly looked away. “I apologize profusely in lieu of my boss, sir. But it REALLY is an urgent matter this time,” he whispered slowly, causing Eight to look away with a gruff and annoyed expression. The hero didn’t immediately shoot down what the agent was saying, meaning he was at least listening. The agent realized this and quickly continued, “It’s a very dangerous and notorious criminal, with confirmed kills in the thousands. He was spotted in a relatively populated area… and well… The reason we’re calling on you is because you’re the only hero with the qualifications to take him down anywhere near Vladivostok right now…” he whispered lightly, staring at the floor in shame.

  Four’s gaze softened as he pursed his lips, looking away before finally returning to the man, clearly feeling conflicted. Goddamnit. He mentally stated, sighing as he turned to the agent with narrowed eyes and an intense fluorescent yellow glow emanating from his eyes. “I am not Eight’s puppet for her to order around as she pleases. Tell her to fuck off on my behalf,” he grumbled, “I’ll go.” The man blinked a few times, but then gave a relieved sigh and nodded before looking back up at the hero’s face, “The criminal is currently in Knevichi. We have evacuated the general population already under the pretense of a fire drill. We’re hoping you can take him down before panic spreads... And we cannot stress this enough, with as little destruction as possible.” Four stared silently at the Association agent for a few more seconds, the moment dragging on for what felt like an eternity. A woman yelled from the back of the line asking why the queue had stopped moving. Four sighed and turned to his right, walking away from his post, much to the perplexity of the people waiting in line to get in. I’ll have to look for a new job tomorrow, considering how I am absolutely going to get fired for this. Eight, that infuriating woman…!! I’ll have a word or two with her about this later. Four thought in frustration, already disappearing into the dark alleyways of the city despite his flashlights for eyes. The agent nodded and assumed Four’s place, doing a motion with his hand at the next person in line to show him their ID. The people seemed confused for a few moments, but quickly accepted the new situation.

  Four walked silently until he could find a nice dark alleyway far from any prying eyes. He knew this city like the back of his hand, so he had no issue avoiding any… unsavory people or places. Once he found a proper spot Four finally took off his wig tentatively, almost as if he was fighting the urge to keep it on. His eyes were a bright neon yellow, which was nothing special, but they constantly glowed potently with power; even when he wasn’t even using his ability or wasn’t feeling any intense emotion. Supposedly it's because I am “too strong.” Or whatever that means in the eyes of that crazy cyborg girl. This strange quirk of theirs would normally make it quite difficult to hide his identity in front of the common people, especially since his face was plastered on every single piece of Association propaganda that Eight could get her hands on. He was, as she argued; “The symbol of strength in the Association.” Four disliked this moniker with a passion, and he made that fact clear to everyone around. Being a Celestial is already one thing. Being popular even by Celestial standards was ridiculous. But still, the tried and true strategy of hiding in plain sight - as long as he had a simple change in his appearance or two - had proved effective. No one expected to see him, and no one would expect him to work as a bouncer. As far as he was concerned, a wig and the fact that he was always in sunglasses for work had proven to be enough. He placed his wig on top of an electric box - allowing his perfectly bald head room to breathe after so long - deciding that the wig would be safer here than to carry it around in a battle. He pursed his lips for a second, looking around to make sure that his belongings were secure. It’s not like buying a new wig would be much of an issue, but rather that he knew his sister had too much of a keen eye and would notice something amiss if he came back with a newer wig. He pursed his lips and reached into his breast pocket, pulling out a pair of sunglasses and placing them on his face - making the fluorescent yellow glow emanate from the sides of the shades menacingly.

  He quickly assured himself that his possessions were secure and walked out onto the street. He slowly got on one knee and placed both of his hands on the pavement, looking around to make sure no cars or pedestrians were nearby. He looked back at the floor and his arms suddenly turned a strange beige color, becoming a lot more round and smooth than human skin. Where his hands made contact with the pavement, they sank into the asphalt as if it was slime, and the pavement too began to transform into this strange beige and soft material. It didn’t take long for it to spread like a plague, as quickly more and more of the pavement turned into the same material, spreading at an exponential rate. It took seconds for the entire road to transform into the substance, after which it quickly disappeared by being absorbed into Four’s body. In a split second the entire pavement of a couple of street blocks had disappeared entirely, and Four was kneeling down on plain dirt. He stood up, stretching his fingers as his arms returned to looking human once more. He looked around at the street that was now missing a road. I’ve wasted enough time. Four thought to himself, grimacing, his entire bottom half along with his clothing transforming into the same “dough-like” substance and subsequently elongating it massively by using the excess mass that he had absorbed from the pavement. The substance then twisted up into what looked like a spring, coiling unto itself. The Celestial grunted and forcefully squished his spring-like bottom half until his hips could touch the floor, and then simply let go, the force of which launched Four into the air with surprising speed and force, cracking the ground while making a whip-like sound as he travelled through the air. Once he began to lose momentum from his jump - at about three hundred meters in the air - Four put his arms above his head and his legs returned to their normal form, his clothes also re-appearing as if nothing had happened. Instead, his arms turned into the substance from before, spreading out like tendrils and meshing into each other before flattening and spreading out in all directions. In other words, Four had transformed his arms into a functional glider, making his way over to his target.

  It didn’t take long for Four to be above Knevichi, upon which the glider dismantled, being absorbed back into his arms, which returned to looking like normal. Four took the opportunity to scan the environment as he fell from the sky, looking around the territory for any obvious sign of devastation or criminal activity. He didn’t have to look for long, his eyes immediately drawn to the Association research lab which was currently on fire, right smack in the middle of the city. Just my luck. Couldn’t Eight have just ordered the construction of the lab on the outskirts? He rolled his eyes, his legs suddenly extending and turning into a quickly elongating mass of beige substance before coiling up into two separate springs. Once he hit the ground his spring-legs contracted and absorbed the impact, quickly uncoiling and sending him flying towards the burning structure at an impressive speed. He landed right in front of the burning lab, pursing his lips pensively as he looked around for the villain while his legs returned to normal. Four wasn’t the best at detective work; he preferred to leave such activities to Three or Eight. Maybe Five if the situation required it. But Four? He was good at one thing and one thing only. This place is already destroyed. There’s probably not much left to salvage. He noticed as he tilted his head to inspect the crackling building. I’ll deal with this quickly. He placed both of his arms above his head, both of them becoming beige and melting into each other before using all of the accumulated mass he had absorbed to elongate tremendously and flatten out in all directions until he was holding up above him a building sized flat slab. He narrowed his eyes and with a quiet grunt he brought his arms down, the slab slamming into the building and flattening the entire structure in a single blow, putting out the fire along with it. The impact of the construct against the lab was so potent it caused a shockwave that blew out the windows of the nearby houses, and would have most definitely caused mass panic had the citizens not been evacuated earlier.

  “So fast?? Oh c’mon, have some fun in what you do at least!!” a man suddenly muttered as he approached the now flattened building while the gigantic slab was re-absorbed into Four and his arms returned to normal. His eyes widened when he looked up at the hulking figure of Four, a wide grin spreading on his lips. “At least they sent someone FUN to fight me~ Innit, lapdog?” He chuckled and extended a hand towards Four cordially, standing where the main entrance to the lab once stood. Four’s expression remained immutable behind his sunglasses, looking behind the man and at the ruined facility with his arms hanging at his sides. He might be a pyromancer, considering the fire. But if he indeed does have a kill count as high as I was warned… I shouldn’t underestimate this man. Let’s not take this lightly. Four took a step forward, approaching the man with an arm extended. The criminal grinned broadly, thinking the hero was about to give him a handshake, when suddenly Eight’s right arm transformed into a massive beige hammer - roughly the size of an entire bedroom - and swung towards the man like a baseball bat with so much force and speed that it created a sonic boom in its path. Any normal human would have been crushed before they could even react, every bone in their body splintering and their internal organs being crushed. What happened instead, though, was that Four’s arm went right through the man as if he wasn’t even there. The hero blinked a few times, the intense yellow glow emanating from behind his glasses intensifying as the criminal just stood there unfazed with a disappointed expression. Interesting. I was right to not underestimate this man. The hero looked up at the hammer he had formed, lifting it up to try and see what could have gone wrong, his eyes narrowing as he saw a human shaped hole running right through the weapon - as if his construct had been made of foam. The man smirked broadly, shaking his head while doing a “tsk tsk tsk” sound, wagging his index finger.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “Although it seems I was lied to…” The man said with his smirk dying down, his eyes dimming as he looked around - as if searching for someone - while completely ignoring the Celestial infront of him. Four was mildly annoyed by the criminal, taking advantage of the situation to quickly reform the damaged hammer into a massive scimitar-like blade, bringing it down towards the man with the intent of splitting him in half vertically only for the scimitar itself to be cut in half as it passed right through the man without causing any damage, the top half of the scimitar flying off - having been disconnected from the rest of Four - cutting into the ground before turning back into the asphalt that Four had absorbed earlier. The man turned to look at Four with a wide grin. “Can you BELIEVE that?? The Rebellion lied to me, those bastards! They promised I’d get to fight Horde!! Agh, whatever, you’ll make do as warmup~” Four blinked a few times, his eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out what the power of his enemy was. This is the biggest disadvantage and handicap us Celestials face. Our powers are public knowledge, while we have to figure out what our enemies can do.

  The man took a step forward, giggling like a psychopath with an arm extended towards Four, starting to walk casually towards him. Four took a step back in suspicion, reforming his hand into a beige spear that he thrusted forward into the man, noticing how the spear instantly dissolved wherever it made contact with the man. Four’s mind began to turn as he stopped walking backwards, already beginning to understand what this man’s power was. My creations dissolve upon contact with his body, yet his clothes nor the ground are dissolving. His power must be something like an acid? He is consciously deciding what his body dissolves selectively. The man raised an eyebrow as he continued to slowly approach Four, chuckling softly. “What, already gave up? I was expecting more spunk out of you, Celestial!!” Four’s arm became a spear again, this time stabbing it into the ground next to a large rock, as from where it made contact with the floor the dirt around it quickly transformed into more of that beige dough-like substance. I have to make sure that the rock itself isn’t converted, merely all the dirt around it. Four thought to himself, concentrating while still keeping an eye on his enemy. The man stopped walking for a moment to look over at what Four was doing, tilting his head. “What? Haven’t you learned by now that you can’t hurt me, idiot?~” And then, Four lifted his arm, forming a hammer shape once more - but this time with a rock hidden inside the hammer’s head, his expression still completely neutral to the criminal’s taunting. Speaking of him, he pursed his lips in annoyance at Four’s unresponsiveness and continued walking. “Oi, have you been listening to a thing I’ve been saying?! Hello??? Are you a fucking mute-” he never finished his sentence, since Four swung at him with the hammer from the side. Normally this wouldn’t be a reason for him to stop talking, but the sudden sharp pain of multiple of his bones cracking and his skin tearing apart as well as the surprising feeling of being sent flying away from the blow was enough to make him shut his mouth.

  The man smashed against the wall of one of the nearby houses, crashing into it with a deafening thud. The man blinked a few times, gasping for air as blood trickled down from the side of his mouth, looking down at his damaged body and then quickly up at the slowly approaching Four. His eyes darted to the hammer, glimpsing the rock concealed inside through the human-shaped hole his body had made until it came into contact with the rock. The man slowly got to his feet in spite of his wounds, not even screaming in pain. Four mentally commended the criminals’ fortitude. “I-I see!!” The man said, his grin disappearing completely as he stood up flimsily, wiping the blood from his lips. “Incredible. I had been told you were one of the dumber Celestials… but I guess a Celestial is still a Celestial after all!! So, you found out how my decay works, eh?! Fine. I guess I’ll have to take this more seriously.” Four looked at the man, ceasing his advance momentarily. So he’s taking this seriously now? Lets see how much mastery he has over his power. Four covered the hole left in the hammer with more dough, a bit of the ground around his feet transforming and subsequently being absorbed into his body. He also transformed his other arm into another hammer by spearing it into the ground, this time wrapping it around a piece of metal that fell on the ground from the obliterated building behind them. The man began to walk towards Four once more, eyes fully narrowed and an arm outstretched once more while his other hand grabbed his bruised ribs.

  Four brought down both of his arms from both sides unto his enemy, planning to crush him between the two hammers. The criminal took notice of this and extended his arms to the sides, the substance that Four’s hammers were made of disintegrating as they came into contact with his body until they came into contact with the metal and rock, at which point the man’s eyes focused and began to glow intensely, and both the rock and metal disintegrated instead of slamming into him like last time. Four retracted the hammers - or what was left of them - back into his body as he considered what to do. His body can recognise materials from the touch, Four garnered as the dirt around his feet transformed into more dough before being absorbed into his body while looking down and noticing the fact that the man was standing on top of a boulder despite having just melted through rock. And he can also selectively decide to only disintegrate with certain parts of his body. Four’s eyes narrowed, finally understanding Eight’s decision to send him to fight this enemy so urgently. Someone with a power this dangerous was a serious threat to everything and everyone around him, even lower ranking Celestials could struggle against him. The man grinned, lowering his arms once more as he took in a deep breath and winced from his wound once more, looking straight into Four’s sunglasses as he continued to walk forward, his eyelid twitching in anger and his fists balling up. His ego had been seriously bruised by that blow from Four earlier. “Keep trying, Four!! You only hit me once because I was caught off guard, you shitty government lapdog!!! It’ll NEVER happen again!! Know why?! You’ll NEVER hit me again!! My muscle memory lasts the whole day!!!” The criminal chuckled, wiping blood from his lips before his eyes locked unto Four. “Try to hit me with iron again and I won’t even need to pause.” Four’s eyes lit up ever so slightly, the yellow in them becoming more intense. Telling me your power? He’s getting cocky. Perfect. Tendrils of dough quickly began to spread underground in all directions from Four’s feet, forming a spiderweb just out of sight with Four as the epicenter.

  Four sighed, marking the first time a sound escaped his lips in the battle thus far. “You’re Grey Matter, aren’t you?” he asked the criminal while pointing a finger at him. Grey Matter. One of the most wanted criminals of all time and a known serial killer. He is known for hunting down strong heroes like an addict. Getting recognised by me is a surefire way to get him to stop moving for a couple of seconds. Grey Matter laughed boldly, nodding his head, grinning with glee at the fact that one of the untouchable Celestials had uttered his name, recognising him as a worthy enemy, stopping to point at himself. “That’s right, Breadman. I am the one and only Grey Matter!!! Now, let's end your pathetic lif-” and then from the ground all around Grey Matter erupted dozens of tendrils, all of them descending upon him like spears from all directions and angles. Grey Matter’s eyes narrowed as he quickly spread his arms, looking around in almost like a panic at all the different snake-like tendrils. The first dozen hit him all at the same time, and Grey Matter quickly understood what Four was doing; the tip of each tendril contained a different substance. The first tendril contained clumped up grass in a ball so dense it felt more like steel, the second containing shards of glass, the third a brick, and so on and so forth. Grey Matter stood perfectly still as he had to use his full concentration to feel every single material the millisecond it came into contact with his skin, quickly making his body resistant to that material. And so, the first dozen tendrils all disintegrated after being speared into him, only to be replaced by two dozen more. A single bead of sweat ran down Four’s face, spreading his essence far and wide in order to keep finding different substances to throw at Grey Matter, not daring to slow his assault for even a split second. If what the criminal said is true… then if I attack him with a rock again he can just continue to walk forward without issue since his body will automatically destroy it for the next day. Every single attack has to be unique. Grey Matter, meanwhile, despite being barraged by uncountable attacks couldn’t help but crack a grin, even while being fully concentrated. Four will run out of things eventually!! That is the ultimate outcome; I cannot lose!! He thought, not worried in the slightest, although he was surprised by the constant barrage of things Four was sending at him, sweat running down his forehead as well. Where did he even get so many different substances?? There were so many of them that he was being forced to sit still like an idiot.

  After five entire minutes of relentless attacks, the barrage suddenly stopped. Grey Matter blinked a few times, suddenly grinning as he looked up at Four, who was standing in the same place as before with his arms crossed. Grey Matter then chuckled cockily, raising an eyebrow. Both of them were sweating and panting, although Four was better at hiding it. Grey Matter began to take a step forward, “O-Oh?~ Haah… D-Did the big scary Celestial finally g-give u-” and then he fell into a ditch. Grey Matters’ eyes widened as he looked down, the solid ground he had been standing on replaced with empty air that stretched so far down he couldn’t even see the bottom, the walls of the sinkhole too far away for him to grasp at. “WHAT THE FUCK?! AAAAAAHHHH!!!!” Grey Matter screamed, flailing around while trying to grab anything but air around him. Four sighed once more as he walked forward calmly towards the massive sinkhole he had just artificially created, taking his time. Four had used the time where Grey Matter had to stand still to defend against the hero’s barrage to turn a massive portion of the ground under the criminals’ feet into dough, which he then simply absorbed into himself as soon as it was deep and wide enough. He heard the faint scream of the criminal as he fell down to his death, not paying any mind to it. Four had ensured that the hole was wide enough that there was no way Grey Matter would be able to hit an edge and hold onto it, and more importantly he had ensured that it was deep enough that even Eight would be turned into pink mist upon impact with the floor. And if Grey Matter uses his ability to dissolve the ground under him, he’ll just keep falling a bit longer until he grows tired, and then he’ll die anyway. Four looked down the hole while tilting his head for about a minute, after which he jumped in as well, his legs extending downward so far that they hit the ground at the bottom like comically large stilts, after which he began to reabsorb the material back into himself slowly, lowering himself until he was back to normal height and looking down at the human shaped hole in the dirt. Four pursed his lips in annoyance at the criminal stubbornly deciding to waste his time. But there was still no question about it; it didn’t matter since the moment Grey Matter stopped using his power, he’d die instantly.

  “FOUR!!!” he suddenly heard, his eyes shooting to the top of the hole where the same Association agent from before was looking down at what looked like a gaping sinkhole. The hero sighed and extended his legs once more, stepping out of the hole and then turning to look at the agent while extending a hand over the crevice, dirt and rocks spewing out of his palm, refilling the empty space with what he had taken from it in the first place. “What is it this time?” the hero asked, annoyed and frustrated. The agent looked up at the Celestial, then at the slowly filling sinkhole in the ground, gulping while holding a radio. “I-I’m so sorry, sir!!! It's just umm-... another message from Eight, hehe…” he said nervously, holding up the radio towards Four. The hero blinked a few times and grabbed the radio with his other hand rudely, pursing his lips in discontent. I’m not your lapdog Eight!! I’m going to give you an earful, I swear to god. He turned on the radio, putting it to his ear as Six’s voice rang through instead of Eight’s. “Woah, is it really you big guy??” Four’s eyes narrowed, sighing as he looked over at the agent in annoyance. “Hurry. I’m low on patience,” he demanded from the boisterous space manipulator, making Six chuckle.

  Six smirked, looking over at Eight as she chased him around the Association Headquarters, teleporting away from her grasp at the last second. All of the bodies of the passed out employees had been cleared, and the professional heroes dispatched; meaning it was currently just him and his boss. Six had hurried over as soon as he saw the news about New York, much to Eight’s annoyance. He put the radio to his ears, his voice losing all of its playfulness and becoming dead serious in a way very unbecoming of his usual demeanor. “I’ll just give you the short of it, Breadman. Seems like Number One either just directly killed a million people in New York, or just so happened to be there when it happened.” Upon hearing that, Four’s eyes narrowed and began to glow even more fervently than normal, almost like flashlights, turning to the baffled Association agent, “You. Get a cleanup crew for this mess. I’m going to New York, so I won’t be here to put everything back for a while,” he grumbled, heading towards the nearest airport.