Hero time II

Malia/Raptor Mom

Malia ran with her daughter in her arms through the streets of the City of Saur-Lords, her, legs pumping beneath her as her little girl bounced in her arms. Behind her, the Devil was prowling through the streets, leaving people to run or hide.

"Mommy, mommy, he's coming!" her baby screamed in terror, her adorable scaly features set in childish fear that made Malia's heart ache.

"It's okay baby, we'll be okay!" Malia cried out, ignoring her fear. "Close your eyes, Ami!"

Obediently, her daughter screwed her eyes shut. Malia looked back. The form of the Devil, his three horns high, came after them, a familiar gladiator sitting on his back.

How had this happened? They had been shopping before, having a good day. Then, without warning, someone started shouting about the great Devil of the Arena coming towards them. She hadn't believed it at first. Then it came running towards them, an insane human whooping and hollering on his back as the Devil roared.

Malia had been running since, heading in the same direction as the crowd around them. She'd instinctively headed for the nearest guard tower, which she could see in the distance. Others were running towards the same tower, with guards guiding them in. She knew that the tower was the closest one to the Arena cells, but didn't see any significance to that thought.

Then, a familiar screech drew her gaze to the sky.

It was him. The Lord of Lords! King of the Sky, Cloud, and Sun!

"It'll be okay, Ami," Malia whispered, rushing into the tower. She and the rest of the civilians watched as he spiraled down from the clouds.

His skin was a dusky green, his scales stretched over a taut muscular form. His eyes were deep and wise, set into a pterodactyl's skull. His wings spread wide as he began his attack. His mouth opened wide and he breathed the night air in. When he breathed out, the holy flame came from his eminence. Malia watched in awe as he released a ball of fire the size of a large man, dropping it onto the Devil and gladiator.

It came in an arc, landing on top of the pair and exploding in a plume of red-hot flames. Ami cooed in her arms at the sight.

The Lord of Lords dropped down to land before them. He was even more impressive up close, towering over them all, literally in most cases, metaphorically in allcases. When he spoke, it was in a deep booming voice that echoed. With the flames behind him as he spoke, he cut an intimidating figure, his shadow falling upon them all.

"Guards! I believe you have a job to do!" the Lord said, bringing his hands behind his back to stand proudly, his wings spread behind him, a single loincloth wrapped around his waist.

"Yes, Lord Sauron!" one of the guards shouted. "Get the civilians moving! I want them safe in the tower."

"Most excellent choice, commander!" Lord Sauron smiled, his red eyes glowing. He noticed Malia, then Ami. "Ah, young one! Are you and your mother okay?"

Ami nodded quickly, her eyes wide in wonder, her tail wagging happily. "Y-Yes, Lord Sauron!"

"Lord!?" Sauron barked out, before throwing his head to laugh extravagantly. "My dear, you are but a child! There is no need to worry about such titles as a child! Only the joy of play and learning! Until you have come of age, I am only Sauron!"

Malia's heart swelled at the kindness of her Lord, who walked forward to rub the top of her daughter's head. Ami giggled happily.

A growling sound came from behind Lord Sauron, freezing everyone in their tracks. They stared at the fire, which was still raging.

Then, before anyone could move, a green ball of some sort of goo came rolling out of the fire. Everyone stared uncomprehending, as it spun it's way towards the right, heading towards the arena. As it passed over pieces of stone and debris left in the wake of Lord Sauron's fireball exploding, it gathered the pieces and became larger and larger. The guards who were in front of it had a moment to comprehend this before the now child-size ball came to a stop.

And exploded in a burst of green that sent shockwaves outward, sending the guards flying about. They landed in a heap of broken arms and legs.

"You know," an almost minuscule voice said somewhere. "This alien? In a medieval world? Kinda broken."

More and more green balls were suddenly flung from the fire, rolling towards the arena.

"Get inside, my children," Lord Sauron growled. "I must deal with this threat, and protect our world!"

Malia and the others were pulled into the wooden doors of the tower. The last thing she saw before the doors closed was Lord Sauron taking flight as the world around him exploded apart into fire and green.

Mahmoud Schahed/Dial

When the fire came down and I transformed for the first time in days, I had a moment where I'd felt a bit hot. Then Hauzer huffed, and the heat lessened significantly. Didn't surprise me. Fire cannot kill a dragon after all.

(Huh. Wonder how Game of Thrones ended.)

While the fire blazed around us, I began to change. Well, the change was beyond light-speed as always, but I could still kinda comprehend what was happening through it.

First, my body began to shrink, something that surprised me. Smaller and smaller, until I was about the size of a football. My skin became a smoky yellow, then hardened into a carapace of armor. My hands became legs, and two more came from my mid-section. My mouth went vertical instead of horizontal, and a pair of antenna replaced my hair.

"Ball Weevil!"

I stared down at my front left leg in surprise. "Huh. I did expect Humoungosaur," I said in a squeaky voice. Hauzer lifted his head around to his back in confusion, eyes widening at the sight of me. Then he moved to sniff at my new form, snorting a bit. "Still me, big guy."

He didn't seem to know how to take that.

Then again, an insect did kind of make sense in a dinosaur world, considering how big bugs were in this place.

Ball Weevil though… that was broken. I was a living grenade launcher in a place that had just discovered iron was a thing.

If it wasn't for my new insectoid features, a wicked grin would have come to my face. Well. I had promised to carpet bomb this city. Still not gonna kill civilians, but the guys who'd been stabbing me were fair game. "Okay boy. Let's go blow the shit out of this place."

I opened my mouth and a green ball of plasma came out, solidifying into a slimy orb. I tossed in the direction of the arena and watched as it quickly rolled out of the flames surrounding us, absorbing debris to become bigger and bigger. When it hit the guards, the ball just… it was like C4 going off. I could see them sent flying, the shockwave of the explosion breaking arms, ribs, legs, and spines. It was horrific.

"You know," I said in my minuscule voice, raising it for the peanut gallery. "This alien? In a medieval world? Kinda broken."

Good lord, I had severely underestimated how powerful these green balls of explosive were. I needed to dial down the boom on these things if I wanted to avoid killing these guys.

Hauzer growled. I opened my mouth and spat out another ball, then tossed it, before following it over and over. Over a dozen green balls launched out, rolling to become as big as three or four feet before exploding in cascades of green.

Even though I was trying to limit the size of the explosions, they still tossed the guards aside. No one died, but the streets around us started to get covered in broken guard bodies. "Come on, Hauzer! Let's get moving!"

"SKREEEEEEEONK!" Hauzer roared in agreement. He unleashed a plume of flame outwards, turning a group of guards to charcoal. I tried to keep the thought of that from my mind, focusing on my goal instead.

In front of us, something rose up, flying into the air. I stopped throwing explosives to stare at him as he lifted into the air.

Sauron. An enemy of the X-#*!$.

I hissed, my head suddenly feeling like it had been about to burst in half. Damn. The Omnitrix must have still been acting up.

I looked back at Sauron, who had fought Spider-Man alongside Stegron once. He'd also taken on the Avengers a couple of times. He was currently circling for another pass at us. Right, he'd once flame breathed a Black Widow. Not Natasha, the other one.

"Hauzer, let's move!" then I hesitantly added. "And can you stop killing people? I kind of want to keep that a minimum if I can?"

He replied to that by burning someone else alive. This person had thrown a spear at us, but I got the feeling Hauzer would have done it anyway.

"Good talk," I grumbled. Still, it felt good to be on the attack again. No more broken arm, no more broken Omnitrix. Just me, a powerful ally, and my body filled with strength and power once more!

We rushed for the arena, tossing people aside. The pair of us must have made a hell of an image, an orange dinosaur breathing flame while a giant yellow bug on his backfired exploding balls of green plasma that sent Ankylo, T-Rex, and Bronto-Saur-Lords flying about with ease.

We reached the arena in record time.

"Okay, big guy!" I hopped off of Hauzer and spun to look up at him as he leaned down to look at me. "You wanted food, right? There's gonna be tons if you go this way," I scratched out a quick map on the dirt with one of my claws, marking out the kitchens based on my observations of the place. "Should be enough to feed you for decades. I'll meet you there."

He gave me a hesitant look.

"I made you a promise," I said as fiercely as my adorable form could, spitting out a green ball and hopping on top of it. "I intend to keep it. That Yellow Bastard is all yours."

He still looked a little hesitant, but he nodded and spun to head the direction I'd indicated. As he did, I looked at the arena.

Six guards opened the doors that led to the prison cells my allies were in and rushed towards me.

I narrowed my eyes into a smile and ran backward, the ball under me moving forward in a simple display of physics. I quickly reached my top speed, picking up dirt and debris until the tennis ball-sized plasma goo under me became as big as a car. The Saur-Lords in front of me skidded to halt.

"Oh gods!" one shouted, the entire group spinning to run.

"Someone play the Katamari Damacy theme!" I shouted in glee as the ball hit the first guard.

Schloop!

He was absorbed into the ball of plasma goo, spinning inside it like a hamster in its ball. For a funny moment, he stared up at me through the sea of green.

I hit the next guard, then the next, before I leapt off the ball, letting the massive explosive slam into the doors as the last three closed them.

The ball didn't explode all that hard. I'd formed it as more of a bubble than a ball anyways, more to restrain, not kill. It still tore through the doors and sent all six guards flying. The Saur-Lords didn't look like they'd broken anything, but the three I'd rolled around in a demented hamster ball were going to be fighting their lunch for a while.

I landed in the chaos and spat out streams of plasma, wrapping each in restraining webs of the stuff.

"Would you look at that!" I chirped once I was done. "I'm multi-purpose!"

"You're an asshole," one of the guards rumbled, before losing composure to throw up on the floor while stuck to the wall.

"You help enslave people, you have no moral high ground," I scoffed, before running deeper into the prison.