Douglas's Dilemma - Chapter 4

Douglas starts investigating, hoping his superpowered girlfriend shows up on the scene.

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Douglas rushed onto the crowded street, squeezing his way through a sea of people hurrying in different directions. Suddenly, there was another explosion, causing screams from those around him as they increased their speed. Shielding his eyes from the bright sun with his hand, Douglas looked toward where the explosion had originated.

The sound was uncomfortably near, and it appeared to originate from the end of the street, where Douglas could see plumes of smoke rising. Car alarms wailed in the background. Every fiber in his body urged him to turn around and flee. However, he continued walking, jostling against a crowd of panic-stricken individuals sprinting in the opposite direction, their footfalls resembling those of a stampeding herd of buffaloes.

"Goddamnit, Tiff, where are you?" he said, hoping that his girlfriend was already underway to whatever was going on there.

A man barged into Douglas, his breath reeking of tobacco as he grabbed onto his collar with a desperate grip. He yelled in Douglas's face, "They're killing them! They're killing them all!" Before pushing past him in the direction Douglas had come from.

Out of instinct, Douglas ducked as a large object soared over his head, clattering against the façade of a monumental building across the street. Shards of glass rained down on the bustling crowd below, wounding many of them.

To his dismay, Douglas realized a car had caused the damage. The back end of a black Mercedes Benz protruded from the hole it had created in the colorful stained glass and brick wall.

Douglas couldn't believe that the car was flying under its own power, so he knew that something or someone else must be responsible. 

He felt a knot in his stomach at the thought of encountering whoever was behind this. 

Every fiber in his body was now shouting at him, commanding him to turn back, run off, and follow the lead of others who had already escaped the scene. 

But he refused to give in to fear and was determined to uncover the truth. As the partner of the world-renowned superhero, he felt it was his duty to do so. 

Looking up at the sky, he hoped Tiff would soon appear to take over for him. In moments like this, he regretted not having a clear mind when encountering that genie and accepting the powers himself instead of his girlfriend. He caught himself wondering if it was possible to kiss himself.

He went through the last cluster of people trying to exit the area and noticed a candy store on fire. Flames were shooting from the windows, and smoke billowed into the sky. Two figures, who appeared almost human except for the two stubby horns protruding from their heads, emerged from the building as if unaffected by the intense heat. They were casually conversing with each other and calmly nibbling on what looked like candy canes, and they seemed to like it.

Douglas also noted their blue tongues and six-fingered hands as he observed their actions. 

They both wore the same grey uniforms adorned with a red luminescent emblem on the chest - a clear sign that they belonged to the same group. A chilling scream pierced through the air, originating from an elderly woman who was being tormented by another individual with the same appearance. He snickered as his boot held her down on the ground in a helpless position.

Before Douglas realized it, his mouth was already shouting, "Hey!" at the scary-looking individual.

He immediately regretted drawing their attention to himself as all three individuals turned to look at him with beady eyes.

Before Douglas could even take a step back, one sprang towards him, closing the gap between them, at least the length of a school bus, in a flash.

The stranger grabbed hold of his throat and lifted him, suspending him in mid-air like a limp puppet.

Douglas struggled to break free from the tight grip around his neck, using all his strength to pry himself loose. He heard the man say something in a foreign language to his accomplice, a language that sounded otherworldly.

With the final piece of air in his lungs, Douglas could say in barely comprehensible words that sounded like they were pushed through a straw, "Let.. go… of me."

            As he slipped into unconsciousness, a scream of agony filled his ears. The tight grip around his neck released, and he collapsed to the ground. Clutching his sore throat and coughing, Douglas looked up to see a pleasant sight: a pair of well-formed feminine legs encased in snug leather that belonged to… "Tiffany?"

His heart leaped with joy as his superpowered girlfriend flashed him a reassuring smile, assuring him that everything would be okay. Then, she turned her attention to the bloke lying on the ground, groaning after being knocked down by her and groveling away. A group of his friends, about six of them, arrived at the scene, drawn in by the sound of the bloke's scream. They landed close by, forming a circle around the couple and exchanging words in a foreign language. Tiffany scanned them all carefully, ready for any further aggression.

            "We better get out of here, Tiff." Douglas regained his balance and nervously surveyed their attackers. "These guys are no joke. One of them even..."

"Shut it."

Douglas blinked in disbelief. Had he just heard Tiffany say, "Shut it?" He had never heard her say something like that before.

Her usual manner of speaking was always polite and proper, but never...rude. 

He also noticed that she wasn't wearing her usual colorful attire. Instead, she was dressed head-to-toe in black, with tight leather leggings accentuating her cute butt and a sleeveless top hugging her marvelous bosom. Her whole energy also seemed different; her radiant smile was replaced by a determined gaze as strands of blond hair waved in the wind in front of her eyes.

In fact, she looked pretty badass, and Douglas found himself liking it very much!

Two troublemakers dashed forward, one letting out a battle cry as he charged towards a surprised Douglas, while the other targeted Tiffany.

Their speed was impressive, too fast for Douglas to track with his eyes. Luckily, Tiffany was even faster. 

Before Douglas could react, Tiffany had taken down the two guys with one fluid movement. 

With a frontal kick to the chest, she sends the first one flying several meters backward while delivering a spinning back elbow aimed at the other’s head. An awful crack echoed through the air before the poor guy somersaulted through the air, his back landing with a thud on the ground where his body lay still at Douglas’s feet.

“Wow, Tiff! I think you might have broken his neck!” Douglas said.

“That was his nose,” Tiffany said. “He’ll live.”

She stood triumphantly in front of a cowering Douglas, eyeing the rest of her opponents and daring them to try the same.

 "Take that in your face!" She mocked the man whose nose she had just broken. He woke up with a start, coughing and trying to stop the blood dripping from his nose with his hands.

Douglas gently tapped Tiffany on the shoulder, causing her to pause in her confident demeanor. "Why are you acting so cocky all of a sudden?" he whispered. “And slightly crueler than you normally do.” He glanced at the guy nursing his broken nose.

Tiffany turned to face him, her tough facade melting away, and she replied with her characteristic sunshine smile, "I've watched some of those movies you're always babbling about, and I've paid extra attention to the baddies in them. You like?"

"Let's talk about that later because here they come!" Douglas said, his finger pointing with urgency to the approaching assaulters.

Four of them charged forward with loud shouts, emerging from various directions.

"Ha!" Tiffany jumped up and cannoned into the sky. Douglas shrieked as the four guys swooshed past him, ruffling his hair as they gave chase. She weaved through the sky with effortless grace, taunting them with her playful maneuvers, another thing she usually did not do while battling her opponents. 

She soared in tight circles and executed loop-de-loops, always just out of reach from her pursuers while laughing at them. Until she had enough of it, and knocked each one down with quick precision.

In a flash, Tiffany appeared at Douglas' side, casually leaning her elbow on his shoulder as if waiting for the bus, before the four troublemakers plopped down in front of them, like apples from a tree.

"That was fun!" Tiffany said.

"That may be, but who exactly are these guys?" Douglas asked as he noticed them standing up and no longer looking eager to attack Tiffany.

"I have no clue, but they better watch themselves in my city," Tiffany replied with a darkening gaze.

"Finally, a formidable opponent is blessing us with her presence."

Douglas and Tiffany exchanged a perplexed glance before turning to face the source of the voice. 

They saw a man with a smug expression standing behind them. He was dressed identically to the others except for his more defined muscles and an additional horn protruding from his forehead, together with a white circle surrounding the red logo on his chest. 

These differences indicated that he held a higher rank compared to the others.

Not only was the man able to speak perfect English, but he did so with an Irish accent to the boot. Something they had not heard from the others.

"Who the hell are you, and why are you able to speak our language while your subjects speak like they are hybrids between a lizard and a goat?" Tiffany asked, eliciting a laugh from the man.

"My name is Major Kraam, leader of these clods you so easily defeated. And the reason that only I am capable of speaking your language is that I guess I’m more educated. Planet Earth and its humans have always fascinated me, in particular its females, especially when they are as stunning as you." Major Kraam's eyes traced over Tiffany's figure. "Or like this exquisite specimen."

"Illyana!" Douglas said. He took a swift step forward as he saw two lackeys dragging a struggling and shouting Illyana by her hair. She didn't hold back from hurling all manner of insults at them as they pulled her along until they dropped her to the ground on her knees in front of the Major.

Tiffany glanced at Douglas, questioning him with her eyes. "You know this girl?"

"Only vaguely.” Douglas said.

"She seems familiar, though," Tiffany said.

The Major gripped Illyana's chin tightly, forcing her to meet his gaze. "Pretty thing this one and with eyes that are burning with so much fire. She might even be prettier than you," he said while eyeing Tiffany. "Too bad for her, she isn't as strong as you, making her an easy prey."

A glob of spit rocketed from Illyana's mouth and landed on the Major's cheek. "Fuck off, you three horned paddy!" Illyana spat. "What are you waiting for? Roast this motherfucker!" she said to Tiffany.