Leftover's Crushing Victory

As the hot afternoon sun beared down, Mirk and Tam approached the royal castle in Prosperity, seeking to confront the king. Before Lenny Overature had been crowned, his father's advisor Bill had posed as Lenny's hero Hugh, the man from another world that Mirk and Tam worked for. Bill stole Lenny's features, leaving his body in a dark silhouette form. Mirk had arrived on the scene and sent Bill to the Reflection Dimension, a place created by Hugh to hold dangerous criminals. Those that vowed to change their ways could leave the Reflection Dimension, but Bill had not returned, leaving Lenny stuck as a silhouette. Per the media, Lenny had returned to normal and peacefully ruled as Prosperity's king. But a recent tip stated that the king was actually a villain calling himself Leftover, and his plans were to destroy Hugh and the hero network he had built.

Mirk and Tam were wearing dark helmets that provided their wearers with armor, enhanced strength, and access to weapons by thought. Anyone defeated by one of their weapons would automatically send them to the Reflection Dimension, healed of all fatal injuries. The helmets were created by Hugh, but Tam's technical expertise had proven to be very beneficial to the network's research and development work. The brothers were not intending to start a battle upon questioning King Lenny, but they were prepared should things get out of hand. They were now at the castle gate, and a guard addressed the heroes before him.

"You must be heroes from Hugh's network!" The guard said excitedly. "Don't mind me, but I'm a big fan! How can we be of service?"

"We request an audience with the king." Mirk said politely. "Can you tell him Mirk and his brother Tam are here to see him? The king and I are acquainted already."

"I will tell him right away sir!" The guard said giddily, nodding to the second guard and running into the castle. A few minutes later the castle doors opened, and a beautiful woman in a black dress emerged.

"Hello boys, my name is Kari!" The woman said in a flirtatious tone. "King Lefto.... er, I mean Lenny, would be delighted to see you! I will take you to him now."

Mirk and Tam followed Kari into the castle and down a long hallway. At the end of the hallway was an open door with stairs leading to a higher level.

"He's upstairs in his study." Kari explained. "I hope you all have a great get together!" Kari gave a wink, then disappeared back down the hall.

"This is a obvious trap. How shall we proceed big bro?" Tam asked with a hint of amusement. Mirk was 38 years old and Tam was 23. Despite the gap in their ages, both had been very connected since they were kids.

"We go in and have some fun!" Mirk said cheerfully. "If this really is a trap, these folks don't know what they're in for!"

Mirk and Tam went up a flight of stairs and found themselves in a library. The door behind them vanished, and cackling filled the air.

"Welcome to my new Hallway of Peril!" A sinister voice jeered. "I was hoping I would get to play with you two again!"

"Hall?" Mirk asked, knowing full well whose trap they had fallen into. Hall was a villain that could create procedurally generated rooms, and he had previously given Mirk and Tam a difficult time. The Reflection Dimension had still been under development at the time of their previous encounter, so Hall had been sent to prison.

"Last I heard, you were locked up. How did you break out Hall?" Tam asked.

"Well, it pays to have friends with cool powers!" Hall's voice bragged. "There's this guy that can turn himself and others into worms, and we used that ability to grant me freedom! Enough of that though, you will need to win my game to gain your freedom! Grab the blue book off the shelf in front of you, and prepare for an adventure of a lifetime!"

"We can do this brother." Mirk said reassuringly. "We won last time mostly working on our own, and this time we will win together. And when it is over, we will send Hall to the Reflection Dimension."

"Alright brother, I trust your confidence." Tam replied, smiling under his helmet. "We will overcome whatever Hall throws at us."

Mirk and Tam approached the bookshelf Hall referenced, and Mirk took the blue book. Trap doors opened underneath them both, and each hero went down a separate slide. Mirk landed in a pool of water, and quickly swam to the surface. He climbed out of the pool and found two doors in front of him.

"Awwww so sorry, did you think this was a co-op game?" Hall's voice bellowed. "Well if you pick the right door it could be! One door will lead to your brother's location, and the other to a challenge that I am actually not involved with! Choose wisely brave adventurer!"

Mirk looked at the two doors. Both doors were made of steel and painted black. His only option was to hope he guessed the right one. Mirk opened the door on his left and walked into the darkness within.

*****

Tam had landed in a separate pool and was given the same door puzzle. Tam had also chosen the left door and proceeded into the darkness. Within a moment the darkness cleared up, and he found himself a few miles away from the royal castle. A night sky lit up only by a full moon caught Tam's eye. Tam questioned if he was still in Hall's world or not.

"Welcome back sweetheart, you made it!" A familiar flirtatious voice stated. Tam turned around and found Kari standing before him. "Apparently you chose the door that led out here, well done! Is your brother with you?"

"No, he isn't. Where is he Kari?" Tam asked in a tone of anger and fear.

"Oh dear, he must have picked the wrong door. That's unfortunate for me, I was hoping I could dance with him too!" Kari replied, her flirty tone replaced with a menacing one. "I'll settle for you though, I will enjoy whatever hero destroying opportunities I can get!"

"Kari, don't go down this path!" Tam exclaimed. "Just tell me what's going on!"

"What's going on is that a witch and some other people from your network took my dear husband away from me, and my goal is now to eliminate as many heroes from that network as I can." Kari said angrily. "Oh, and don't call me Kari again. You can refer to me as Anti-Hero, because I am against what you so called heroes stand for!"

Kari summoned a sword in her hand. Tam questioned how she was able to do this without a helmet and armor, as she was still in her black dress from earlier. He didn't have time to think further about it, as Kari charged at him with the intent to kill.

*****

The darkness around Mirk faded, and he found himself outside where it appeared to be the back of the royal castle. The door was gone, and Tam was nowhere to be seen. Before Mirk could ponder his brother's fate, he felt someone tap his shoulder. As he felt the world around him growing bigger, he realized he was shrinking. His arms and legs disappeared into his body as he shrank and thinned out. When the process was completed he was no longer armored, or even human. Mirk had been transformed into a worm, and he was powerless against whoever his tormentor was.

Mirk then felt the sensation of being picked up, and he found himself in the palm of a shadowy figure. Next to the figure stood a normal enough looking man whose face was sporting a gleeful smirk. After a moment of adjusting to his current situation, Mirk realized that the shadowy figure holding him was a silhouette, and he quickly realized the silhouette's identity.

"King Lenny!" Mirk cried out. "If you can hear me, it isn't too late. Let us help you, please?"

The man standing next to the silhouette told him what the worm had said. The silhouette then spoke.

"I may be the king, but you can call me Leftover." The silhouette said. "Thanks to you sending my tormentor to the Reflection Dimension with my features, all that remains of me is this. Before you did this to me, I used to idolize Hugh and his hero network. But now I am going to destroy them all, and replace them with a much better team of heroes. By the way.... do you remember Larry, the hero that saved you and your brother from the infected cat in the alley?"

"Yes, I do remember him." Mirk replied. "Does Larry work for you too?"

"No you fool, I am also Larry!" Leftover jeered. "The helmet I used is a modded version of one I was able to obtain from Hugh. You and Hugh were under the control of another one of my associates, and thanks to your help I now have some of Hugh's technology at my disposal. Soon enough I will find someone that can replicate these helmets, and we will then be able to replace Hugh's network over time!"

"Don't do this Lenny, please." Mirk pleaded. "Join us instead. We can work on a cure, and be heroes together. We would gladly take all of you in!"

"The name is Leftover, get it right!" Leftover snarled, before calmly continuing in a tone of nobility and menace. "Why team up with you when I can build something so much better? I vowed that when my work was done, there would be nothing left of Hugh and his team at all. It is fitting that the first to fall from his organization will be you, Mirk. You played a part in creating Leftover, after all. Your role in this story has been completed. So long, you failure of a hero!"

Before Mirk could attempt to reason any further, Leftover squeezed his hand into a fist, crushing Mirk's worm body with a sickening crunch. He unclenched his fist, and looked at the lifeless worm that laid in his palm.

"Well, the first of Hugh's crew is gone." Leftover said triumphantly, tossing Mirk's worm body to the man that had been relaying Mirk's words back to him. "Willy, do me a favor and change him back into his human form please."

"But boss, why would we do that?" Willy questioned. "If we leave him like this, the other heroes wouldn't ever find him!"

"All part of the plan." Leftover advised. "I want them to find him, and I want them to know that their days are numbered too. Change him back and leave him here, and I will send Hypnorc to fetch Anti-Hero."

*****

Tam and Anti-Hero clashed swords, neither having an advantage over the other. Tam still wondered how a civilian in a dress was keeping up with him, when he was powered up by his armor providing helmet.

"If you are wondering why I'm so good at fighting, I will explain it in terms that you will understand." Anti-Hero said as if she had read Tam's mind. "A warlock gifted me with the same abilities as your boss's helmets. So even though I am not armored, I have the same strength as someone enhanced by one of those helmets, and my body is now as strong as the armor that the helmets grant. I can also store weapons and summon them with a thought, just like you guys can. But unlike you, I don't have a helmet to smash that will take those abilities away. These powers are mine forever!"

"It doesn't matter." Tam said calmly. "I will defeat you, and send you to the Reflection Dimension. If you don't decide to use these powers in the right way, that place will be your permanent home."

"You have to win first boy!" Anti-Hero laughed. "And the last I checked, you aren't any further ahead than I am!"

"Anti-Hero, we're done here!" A gruff voice yelled out. A massive orc ran to the scene and stood next to her.

"C'mon Hypnorc, this idiot was telling me how he was going to win!" Anti-Hero pleaded. "So is it done then? Did the boss off the other guy?"

"Wait, what?" Tam cried out in horror. "Where is my brother? Tell me you monsters!"

"You are not going to worry about that quite yet." Hypnorc calmly told Tam.

"I am not going to worry about that quite yet." Tam repeated.

"You are going to back off, and unequip your sword." Hypnorc ordered next.

Tam stepped back and made his sword disappear. Anti-Hero glared at Hypnorc, but he raised his hand and nodded at her before turning back to Tam.

"You will go behind the castle and retrieve your brother's remains." Hypnorc told Tam in the same calm tone. "Then you will go home, and when you get home the hypnosis will wear off. Then you may mourn your loss, and the weight of it all hero. You will realize that your brother is gone, and you failed to save him."

Tam quietly walked past Hypnorc and Anti-Hero to retrieve Mirk's body. As he left, Anti-Hero gave Hypnorc a puzzled look.

"I'm assuming this is what Leftover wants." Anti-Hero said, no longer annoyed, but confused. "We could have easily finished him off though, why doesn't the boss want that?"

"He says it is part of the greater plan." Hypnorc responded. "I don't quite get it either, but everything seems to be going the way he wants it to. I will trust that he knows what he is doing for the time being."

*****

There was a great period of mourning and sadness upon Tam's return with his deceased brother. Once the shock of what had occurred faded, Mirk's body was cremated. A service was held that honored the fallen warrior. Fellow heroes Jirk, Nostrel and Janet were present, along with The Pirate and his team of Rick, Cerissa and Essie. Dirk and Doug, two new heroes that had just joined the network, were also present. Chris was noticeably absent at the tribute.

After the service Tam approached Hugh with a sense of urgency.

"Hugh, please let me gather a team to go to Prosperity and stop all of them!" Tam pleaded. "They're going to keep going after us, let me put an end to it now!"

"I'm sorry my friend, but now is not the time." Hugh calmly replied. "We don't know what other tricks Leftover has at his disposal. We need to get more information from whatever his next move is, and what we learn will help us in stopping his machinations."

"His next move?" Tam asked incredulously. "His last move killed my brother! We have to stop him before we lose anyone else!"

"I don't disagree Tam, believe me." Hugh said firmly, but calmly. "I don't want to lose anyone else either, but rushing in with no knowledge of what the enemy is capable of would guarantee more losses. Take some time off Tam, it is ok to grieve and rest. I promise we will stop Leftover, please just give it some time."

"Fine, I will take some time off, permanently!" Tam shouted, making his dark helmet appear in his hand. He threw the helmet to the ground, shattering it. "You will regret not taking action on this day Hugh, mark my words. Consider this my resignation!"

Tam stormed off. Hugh considered following him, but conceded that it may be best to give him time to process. Once the storm clouds settled, Hugh vowed to reach out to his friend once again. He silently promised to look out for Tam, and all of his associates that fought through his network to cleanse the world of evil. Hugh acknowledged that evil won today, but he would do all he could to make good the victor in the end.