The Locust's Revenge (Nate6595)

"This is Janette Allen from the World News, reporting on the locust plague in the state of West Virginia. I am now in a chopper circling above the dome of what seems to be Locusts. The military has tried to send in troops to the state, but all have not been heard of after. There have been speculations of a supervillain being the culprit of this... No reports from certified personnel have been established to confirm that suspicion..."


Just as she said that, the locust dome would form a face that began laughing, the camera panning down to it as it began speaking.


"FOOLS!!! YOU DARE TRYING TO STOP THE LOCUST??? TOO LONG HAVE I SPENT AS A MERE MERCENARY!!! NOW... NOW I CAUSE SOME REAL DAMAGE!!!"


The face would dissipate as quickly as it was made, and the camera would pan back to Janette.


"I think that confirms it, ladies and gentlemen. It seems a hero is needed to save the day once again... Now we must ponder... Who will answer the call?"


Elsewhere:

The Demonic Dire would be found on a plane with his civilian clothing on... He could only afford to take a flight in the base class, so of course he was stuck beside a hot but annoying girl that talked his ear off about something called Tik Tok and a kid that would continually pester him about having games on his phone. There was a baby screaming and crying in the back, and there was a rather gruff man sleeping behind him, snoring away a storm.


Malik would just lean his head back and shut his eyes. He only had thirty minutes left on his flight. The edge of Kentucky was as far as he could go, and it was the closest to the crisis in West Virginia that he could find.
Now all he had to do was pregame rituals...

It felt weird to be so spread out. Sam was in Vegas, Melody was heading up to Maine, and then this crisis. Locusts? It seemed an odd thread to deal with, but Melody had specifically called him to try and deal with this ordeal. He wasn’t the strongest or fastest, but Melody thought this sort of problem would be solved with brains over brawn, something that he would’ve been good at resolving. He had his doubts, but this was something a hero needed to do. It was his responsibility and more than anyone…he wanted to prove to the others that he could do this.

Using whatever means he could he traversed he made his way out to the crisis zone, or as close as he could. His mind raced with what he’d do when he got there, how he would handle the villain. It was composed…locust? He was part owl…they ate bugs. Maybe that’s how he would-no. No. He wouldn’t be doing that. So, he did research on the insect breed on his way over. He was mainly trying to find ways on how to kill them, though most of the info in regards to it involved sprays and so forth, nothing in high quantities.

Fire might work? No. That’d cause damage to the city. What if…he could try and get them airborne and take them out there. That could work. But with the sheer number of them it’d be hard to get them all in one place. He’d be surrounded. So…it’d be a closed area. He’d have to lure them somewhere where they couldn’t really get the numbers advantage. A confined space. Then…he’d do something. Burn them? Explode them? Just cause a cave in on them? It wasn’t easy, he wasn’t really the…area of effect damage kind of person, that was more so Melody’s area of specialty. Regardless, he would figure it out.

Only time would tell, for time being, he was nearly there now. Soon enough, he’d be getting to work.

Dire's pregame talk lasted about a minute and a half. There would be something loud, louder than the engines of the plane itself. It was pretty clear what was happening.


"I CAN SEE YOU!!!"


Ah yes... The edge of Kentucky was too close it seems. As loud as the child was screaming, nothing topped the shrieks of the passengers in front of him as a giant hole was ripped into the floor of the aircraft, sucking out all the people in the back. Dire, looking back would grimace, seeing that there was nothing to be done about that fact... Second day heroing and he's already losing lives... What a damn day. He would press deploy on his watch, revealing his superhero suit, and unbuckle himself. Those Locust-people that the Locust had made were creeping up the aisle. He would teleport to the door to the cab and peek in.


"How's the landing looking?" He would asked.


"Right in the thick of things..." The man would reply, scared.


"Dammit... Fine, okay... Try to get it out of there. He's after me. If you can, land in water."


At that, he would turn around tp see the slowly advancing locust people... This was an odd scenario... All of these people, looking to him for safety... And him not being able to give it. He couldn't swing his swords, the lane was too small... He couldn't shoot, bullets would hit someone. There were families and children on this plane... He couldn't just leave them.
Not anymore.


As they got close, he would try to punch one, but his hand simply went through and the bugs would begin chewing on his arm. Well... There's a sign his power-up worked... He would peel his arm back and shut the door behind him, looking at the pilot disappointedly.


"I can't stop them without hurting someone. Look, I need you to peel this baby left. I'm going to try and cut a wing off and save you from total death."


The man would nod with seriousness on his face.


"No matter what happens here today, you're the true hero."


At that, he would begin taking the hilt of his blade to the front window of the plane. The man would shout that it wasn't going to work... or something like that.
Dire pulled out his two blades and swiftly cut a hole through the glass he would shift his momentum to where his blades cut through the wing of the plane, causing it to careen out of control. The plane doing exactly what he told the pilot to do...


As Dire freefell, he watched as the plane barely missed the wall of locusts... He also watched the locusts pour into the hole in the plane, likely chewing up all of the passengers inside.
Dire would shout out in utter horror as he knew there was nothing he could do to stop it, as the now red bugs peeled out of the hole.
He failed.
Again.


He would take one more second of his freefall to give a moment of silence for those killed in the plane before turning his head and diving straight for the dome of Locusts. While Dire knew he had some new powers, he wasn't truly confident in his ability to survive a fall from a plane just yet. Maybe one day.


He would teleport on top of a parking garage. The "beautiful" hills of West Virginia were covered with a strange green filter as the green bugs blocked the sun from shining inside the dome. The place hadn't been totally wrecked, but it surely was covered in bugs... God, how many of these thing had he collected over the years? Back when they worked together, he could only control a couple hundred. Things have changed... That's for sure.


Now he just needed to figure out where to start... Surely the Locust wouldn't keep him waiting for too long. So he'd just start screaming out for him.

Wyatt, thankfully, had not taken a plane this far out to get the city. He was honestly nowhere close enough to the event to even have noticed it. He had gotten in through an old train tunnel, seemed like the only way in that wasn’t through the dome. It was also a path less traveled by the locust. It was the perfect way in and the travel was easy enough. He wasn’t a fan of the dark or of the rats, which was strange for someone who was basically an owl, but still. It wasn’t a cozy environment. He’d much prefer an open field or the city above. Being down here he would almost certainly lose track of time if not for his watch which he kept a careful eye on between his glances forward.

The trip would take hours from where he had entered and when he finally got to the right station he let out relieved sigh. He was almost to fresh air, to a sigh that wasn’t a dank dark tunnel filled with disease and rats. He landed, giving his wings a stretched and moved to the stairs, letting out a relieved sigh. He could already feel the small hints of a cool, fresh breeze.

And then he got up. He got up out of the station and into the city. The city which was having a severe locust problem, covered by a dome. This was not the sight that he wanted to walk into after exiting such a dreary place. He let out a loud breath, shaking his head. Though, the moment of disappointed didn’t last long. His sharp ears picked up on something. A strange sound. A man screaming? Were people still out and about? Or maybe someone needed help?

“Guess that’s my queue…” He let out a breath as his wings flapped once.

In a quick motion he darted upward, flapping quickly the sound of the man screaming. His eyes had already homed in on the person screaming. He seemed…normal enough. There wasn’t any sign of enemies in his immediate area, though the entire scene was a shit show with all the locust. The sight of it caused him to slow to a brisk pace. Should he approach? Should he try and see what’s wrong? Maybe…maybe he needed help still? It was hard to say, honestly, at least from here. He’d have to get a bit closer to discern what the situation was.

With a bit more caution he’d continue forward towards the parking garage. He seemed distracted and…quite upset. Wyatt gave a small clear of his throat and a wave, trying to grab the man’s attention. “Uh…hey there, bud?” Wyatt’s hand would have several talons protruding from the fingers, razor sharp. “I noticed you screaming from far away. Seems like…a dangerous thing to do in a city like this. You sure you want to do that kind of thing here? Maybe we should go somewhere less…cluttered and maybe I can lend you a talon? The name’s Who. I’m a hero who was sent in to help out. You can leave the situation to me, sir.” He hoped his intrusion wouldn't cause any sort of panic or...urge to attack out of nowhere.