“My name is Dexter, or really I just prefer to be called Dex. During the day I’m your average 12 year old middle school student with not so great grades just trying to impress his peers. But this is all a guise for when night comes I am a warrior of justice, and a hunter of wrong doers! For I am actually Sonic Squirrel, defender of the innocent and Cigam’s first superhero!”

“Dex who are you talking too?” A voice called from the other room.

“Not now mom! I’m trying to have an internal monologue!”

“Alright but it’s time for dinner hurry up and wash up!”

“Moommmmmmmmmmmm you completely ruined the drama to my speech! Now where was I…….. I forget…. I knew I should have written it down. Lets see. Ah yes now I remember. My lonely quest for justice started on that night two weeks ago. It seems like an eternity now but then…”

“Dex your dinner is getting cold!”

“I’m almost done mom! I’m just trying to initiate a flashback so everyone watching knows about my motivation and I.”

“What people watching!?”

“Well there’s no one watching now, but if I get a movie deal someday I need to be in character.”

“….What?”

“Just calm down and let me finish this! It was on the faithful night, two weeks ago.”

Chapter 1: Two Weeks Ago

Cigam is a large city in Washington that you won’t often find on maps. Its location is not a secret nor is it impossible to find. However because of incidences very little news from Cigam is actually reported publicly as it’s just more convenient that way. The reason for this is that Cigam is one of the largest supernatural communities left in the world.

There is nothing spectacular about a supernatural community. It’s much like a normal one, it just happens to be where a large number of supernatural creatures gather. However years ago the supernatural was misunderstood and hunted down the magical community went underground and those who could disguise themselves as humans. The now hidden magical beings sealed their children in human form as well. The seal was not permanent and tended to break before the child entered puberty. However before the seal broke the child would learn how to act in human society so as not to give themselves away as a magical being once they knew the truth.

Though he didn’t know it, Dex was descended from one of those super natural creatures. There was nothing that would really give it away about him. He had messy short brown hair, wore thin rimmed glasses, and tended to wear just faded blue jeans, some sneakers, and t-shirt. He was short for his age and something about his appearance just screamed nerd. It was probably the fact he was always walking around with his nose in a comic book, or holding a video game.

Two weeks ago the seal on Dex broke. It happened when he was actually walking home from school one day. He was with a friend, and it was a warm summer day. Excitement seemed to hang in the air, as there was only one week left before school was out for the summer.

“School’s almost out.” Dex’s friend began. “Do you have any plans for the summer?”

“I shall lurk from my lair and strike out against the infidels who would seek to deceive and strike down the helpless!”

“You’re going to spend the entire summer leveling in a MMO so you can take petty revenge on someone who PKed you aren’t you?”

“…. It’s not petty.” Dex replied as he scratched the back of his right hand. He wasn’t sure why, but it was really itchy today.

”You know, you’re a real strange kid Dex.”

“I am not! Provide one example of how I’m strange!”

“Well, you wore a squirrel tail to school today and in fact still are…. You know, a lot of people probably won’t let you live that one down.”

“Hey!” Dex exclaimed. “I did no such thing!”

“You’re still wearing it.” His friend replied giving him the ‘you’re an idiot’ stare.

“No I’m!” Dex looked over his shoulder, and saw that a large brown bushy squirrel tail was indeed sticking out of him. “So I am.” He replied sheepishly. Then suddenly, a little blinking light went off in his head. “Wait, I don’t own a giant realistic squirrel tail.” He slowly reached behind him and grabbed a hold of the tail, and then attempted to yank it off. This proved to be a rather bad idea as suddenly he felt an intense pain at the base of his spine, heard a high pitched squeak come from himself, and nearly jumped out of his skin, right into a lamp post.

When he came too, he found his friend looking down at him, looking rather nervous. “Are, are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Dex replied as he sat up and looked around. Something was very strange, his friend appeared to have gotten taller, and was actually still growing. In fact so was the rest of the world. “When did everyone go through a growth spurt?” He asked as he tried to stand up.

“I don’t think…” His friend began. “I mean maybe you should.” He stuttered. “Just look at yourself!” Finally his friend began to rummage through his backpack as if desperately trying to find something.

“What’s up with you?” Dex asked as he finally got all the way to his feet, and was presented with a new problem. As soon as he stood up, his pants and underwear fell off of him. His shirt now was more than enough to cover him, but it barely hung on to his shoulders. Looking up, he only came up to his friend’s waste. Everything had stopped growing, but it had gotten a lot bigger.

“Look at this!” His friend produced a small mirror from his backpack and opened it to face Dex.

Dex looked at himself in the mirror. He saw himself, one half of his original size, but perfectly proportional. Patches of brown fur were growing over parts of his body, and he could see the tail, still attached to him, and moving. Before his very eyes fur covered both of his ears, which moved up the side of his head slightly, and took on a more round shape.

“As strange is this is, I’m more concerned about the fact that you have a hand mirror in your backpack.”

“I just do ok!”

“Have a makeup case too?”

“Shouldn’t you be more concerned with the fact you’re turning into a squirrel?”

“Ah, right, sorry…. So where was I then? Oh yes, panicking.” Dex began to run around in circles throwing his arms about and just in general making a fuss. The shirt fell off him, exposing his body underneath. His feet had changed to the form of paws, though his hands remained human and only covered by fur. However as more fur grew in his humanity was slowly being robbed from him when.


“Dex dang it get down here for dinner!” His mom billowed.

“Mom, I’m trying to have a flash back! Do you have any idea how much dramatic tension we just lost!?”

“I don’t care, dinner now! You have your flashbacks after you eat!”

“FINE!” Dex abandoned his flashback for now, retreating back into the reality of his bedroom and then downstairs to the kitchen for dinner. He quickly took a seat, and began to wolf down the food as fast as he could.

“So.” His father began. “Any particular reason you came to dinner, with a squirrel tail….. half your size… and naked?”

“Dad.” Dex whined. “You can’t really see anything abnormal about me. This is just from the flashback when I was turning into a squirrel and isn’t really happening now.”

“Wait, you believe you turned into a squirrel?” His mom asked.

“I did but I mean I didn’t as! It’s in the flashback dang it! You guys don’t know about how I gained my supernatural powers that day and how I am actually now the superhero known as Sonic Squirrel!”

“… Did you just say you’re Sonic Squirrel?” His father raised an eyebrow.

“No no no! You didn’t hear any of that! You don’t know anything about it because it was a flashback and you weren’t there! So please stop information from the flashback as you don’t know it existed!” Dex rambled.

“But you just said.” His mom began.

“No!”

“But.”

“No!”

“You.”

“NO!”

“Alright, alright, just eat your vegetables.” His mom gave in defeated.

“Awww do I have to?” Dex whined.

“Eat your vegetables or no flashback.”

“Fine fine.” Dex ate the rest of his vegetables, cleaned off his place, and left it in the sink. Then he climbed back up to his bedroom and looked around. “Now, where was I…..”


Back in the flashback Dex was running in circles screaming as the changes continued. “Gahhh help help help help! I’m been infected by an alien virus and am now turning into a squirrel!”

“Wait how do you know it’s an alien virus?” His friend asked.

Dex stopped in his tracks. By now the entire lower half of his body was covered in fur and it was spreading over his chest and back. “Well, it obviously wasn’t a virus from Earth, I mean look at what it did to me!”

“Yes but how do you know it’s a virus!?”

“Well that’s obviously what it has to be.” The fur spread now over up his back, and onto his face. As it did, his hair changed from a bright blonde to a shade of brown darker than his fur.

“Well if a virus why haven’t I caught it yet?”

“Maybe it’s not contagious but okay I get what you’re going at.” The fur had completely engulfed Dex now a two and a half foot tall bipedal squirrel. “Maybe some kind of evil spell on the land and?”

“Once more only affected you.”

“Ah right. Then that means it can only be the call of destiny!” Dex posed dramatically, on top of his friend’s head.

“One, why do you say ‘call of destiny?” He asked annoyed. “And two, get off of my head!” He quickly reached up and through Dex down.

“It’s simple really.” Dex said landing lightly on his feet. “We may not know the cause but this only affected me and therefore means something is supposed to happen. It’s like in the comics when a superhero gains his powers. If it happened to anyone else they would die, but when it happens to the hero he gains super powers and goes out and defends the world! So obviously I must have some great destiny since I’m not dead which must be… Yes, that’s it! I’m going to be a superhero!”

“What?” His friend burst out laughing.

“You’ll see I can do it! I just need to get a cape and a mask so no one recognizes me.”

“I don’t think you’re going to hide that you’re a two foot tall talking squirrel no matter what you use.”

“Maybe I can change back to normal though so I still need the disguise.”

“If that’s the case then isn’t a two foot tall talking squirrel good enough of a disguise?”

“Of course not! So I suppose I should go by a costume shop on the way home and…”

“Wait a minute, can you change back? Because if you can you might want to, as you’re kind of going to attract attention if anyone else comes by here.”

“Well I could try? How does one go about changing forms?”

“I don’t know you’re the one who turned into a squirrel how did you do it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Maybe you just think about the form that you’re in?”

“I don’t think that would work? I mean seriously if all I had to do was think about being human wouldn’t everything be fixed to easy?” Dex began to increase in size. “I mean if all I had to do was think about how it felt not to have fur over my skin to be taller and have normal ears to change back that would be very anti climatic and make it seem as if this transformation had no purpose at all.”

“Um.” His friend began as the last of Dex’s fur receded.

“……Oh dang it all!” Dex exclaimed. “The world has no sense of drama! Well at least I’m human again….”

“You still have the tail.”

“Meh close enough.”


“That night after making Chris swear to secrecy. Oh by the way, Chris is the name of my friend. Funny that it never came up in that conversation, but I suppose we don’t actually say each other’s names a lot when we talk. Anyways after swearing Chris into secrecy about my changes I snuck home and into my bedroom where I practiced changing until I could become completely human or completely….. well not a complete squirrel but whatever you call a two and a half foot tall squirrel. The point is I could change forms at will. Then I set off for the task of finding a white cape, and a small white mask just big enough to cover the area around my eyes, and made my super hero costume However, I still had three problems remaining before I could become a super hero. For one I had no idea where I needed to be in order to stop a crime from occurring, but more importantly I didn’t have a name or a motto. A theme song would be nice too…..”

Chapter 2: Squirrels in Tights

Dex’s fist few costume ideas didn’t go to well. He had learned quickly that tights were a bit uncomfortable on top of fur. Then there was the fact that the red Super Squirrel costume didn’t go to well. He hadn’t managed to actually run into any villains before getting hit with a lawsuit for copyright infringement. Next he tried running around in a trench coat but people kept asking to see his secret gadgets, but the first person he met dressed like that wanted to see his secret gadgets, so he decided on another identity.

Finally he was out of ideas, and had to go back to running around in just his original white cape and mask. He still didn’t have a name though. However, for now that would have to wait, as he was on patrol through the city.

Dex flipped through the TV channels. “Nothing at all.” He muttered. For the last two hours he had been flipping back and forth through every news channel, searching desperately for some kind of news on a daring daylight robbery, or some kind of murder mystery or anything that could use an avenger of justice. Unfortunately, it was a slow news day, and all he had learned was that the closest interstate had a 25 year anniversary since being built today. It was a very slow news day.

“Not fair there’s supposed to be some sort of emergency where I rush in to save the day!” Dex flailed his arms in the air. “But the town is at an all time low crime rate!”

It was a week and a half after he first discovered his squirrel nature that he finally got a chance to put his plan into action.

“Breaking news!” The TV Reporter began. “An unidentified thief broke into an electronics’ store this afternoon and made off with three Nintendo Wiis!”

Dex had envisioned stopping a bank robber, or saving a damsel in distress, not just retrieving lost video game systems. However at this point, he would take it. Dex quickly ran up to his bedroom, and removed his clothes to change forms.

First he began to shrink as the bushy tail grew out from his tailbone. Fur spread over his entire body as his feet took a paw like structure and his ears moved up the side of his head. Soon, he was once more a two and a half foot tall squirrel boy. He quickly put on the cape and mask then jumped out his bedroom window. He had learned from previous experiences in this form that his speed and agility were inhuman now, and he could scale up and down buildings and even leap from roof to roof. He was already halfway to downtown, when he realized he didn’t have any idea where he was going, and had to backtrack all the way back home, then mapquest the electronics’ store and was finally on his way.

Dex arrived at the electronics store and discovered that there was one fatal flaw in his plan. By waiting till the robbery had already been reported on the news, the thief had already stolen the merchandise hours ago and had plenty of time to make off with it.

“Aw, blast. He’s gone. How do I actually find him now….” Dex muttered to himself as he crouched on the roof of the electronics store. “Lets see, I don’t have x-ray vision, ro any form of supervision, or smell….. I do have kinda heightened smell but don’t know what the robber smells like….. Dang it all! The only way I could possibly catch him were if he were to for some reason come back and make a second robbery. But that would go completely against common sense and-“

Dex was cut off, as suddenly an unmarked black car pulled up to the store, and a man in a mask quickly got out and ran inside. From the screams inside, it was obvious he was up to know good.

“Yes!” Dex cheered. “Good things do happen to good people!” Dex did a small dance on the roof. “He’s back I can stop him and! Oh, the people inside, they’re in danger.. Right… Squirrel something, away!” He jumped off the roof.

“Alright everyone on the ground I came back for batteries!” Inside the store, the robber was looting all the AA batteries he could find. “I know the merchandise I stole earlier came with batteries, but those things are cheap and never last very long, I wanted something main brand.”

“Not so fast generic evil doer!” Dex leapt in through the window, shattering it in the process. He landed on a counter and at that point winced under the realization that broken glass hurt, a lot. Ignoring and the ridiculous amount of pain they caused for now, he posed dramatically holding one arm outward performing a V for victory.

“Erm um.” Dex quickly tried to think of a cathphrase. “Sweet justice shall be had, like the strawberries in a smoothie! For I am Squirrel Kid! Wait no… Squirrel Boy… Super Squirrel…… Shoot I need a name… And did my catchphrase suck as bad as I thought it did?”

“What. The. Hell?” The robber looked at the giant squirrel that was apparently trying to pose in a dramatic fashion. “What are you exactly?”

“Um….. Cigam’s first superhero? I’m here to stop you from being evil and stuff.”

“Oh really?”

“…….. I think I’m failing at this banter stuff…… So can we like fight now?”

“You know, talking to a squirrel is getting kind of weird.” The robber reached to his belt, and removed a pistol, then fired.

“Oh you son of a!” Dex flipped backwards faster than he would ever think possible, and saw the bullet fly directly underneath him. “Did I just dodge a bullet? That’s awesome! And holy King Arthur’s undergarments!” Dex jumped to the side as another bullet flew by.

“Okay time to counter attack!” Before the robber could get off a second shot, Dex ran straight at him, and launched himself into a head-butt into the thief’s chest. Then using all the knowledge and moves available to tae kwon do yellow belt, followed it up with a jump kick to the groin.

“Ow, that really, hurt.” The thief went down and hit the floor cringing. “I was just beat up by a squirrel.” Then he sank into unconsciousness.

“I won!” Dex did a small jig. “Oh yeah the hero can’t stay around after saving the day.” He quickly leapt out the broken window he had entered.

“So.” One of the employees slowly came out of hiding. “Do we call the police, and tell them a squirrel just caught the robber?”

Back after returning home Dex quickly resumed human form and then took the only course of logical action. He logged into the internet.

“Okay people know I exist now so it shouldn’t be long before a real villain shows up, but I can’t fight him if I don’t have a name.” Dex went to an online name generator, and sat staring at his computer. “Lets see…. Something that matches my powers? Um…. I guess I’m fast… Can’t really run fast but I was able to dodge that bullet.” He thought for a few moments, then typed the word quick into the generator and read over the list of synonyms and related words.

“… I guess something squirrel….. Quick Squirrel, Agile Squirrel, Flash Squirrel, Turbo Squirrel…… None of these sound that good!” He continued through the list. “Overdrive Squirrel. Well that one isn’t too bad. Sonic Squirrel, Speedy Squirrel. Oh those last two had alliteration… but speedy doesn’t sound foreboding… Sonic Squirrel?”

Dex stood up and pointed to the sky. “Evil fear for Sonic Squirrel is here! I think I like that one… The catch phrase wasn’t that bad either.”

And so, Sonic Squirrel was born.

Chapter Three: PLOT!

“Wow…. I never realized how time consuming an internal monologue combined with a flashback takes.” Dex looked at the clock it was almost midnight. “I suppose I don’t need to finish the rest of it for now. Stopping a few extra robberies isn’t going to be that much onto the story.” Dex walked over to his bed, climbed in and fell asleep.

Downstairs his father read watched television while his mother read a novel.

“I’m a bit concerned about how Dex acted during dinner.” His mother began.

“Oh don’t worry about it.” His father didn’t look up from the television. “When I was his age I had similar fantasies too he’ll grow out of it.”

“That’s not the only problem and you know it.” The mother replied. “Calling himself an avenger of justice, Sonic Squirrel, then these reports of a squirrel like kid stopping those robberies. It’s obvious that his seal finally broke, and he’s trying to live those fantasies.”

“Oh what’s the harm? Let him have his fun.”

“I’m not going to have my child running around the city acting like a superhero. He could get seriously hurt, and our health insurance doesn’t cover superhero related injuries. It’s $200 more a month for that plan.”

“Ok ok fine. Just for you, I’ll crush his childhood dreams before he hurts himself. Are you happy?”

“That’s all I ever wanted.”

The following morning was eventful for Dex. He woke up, and during his breakfast was watching the news once more for signs of recent robberies or wrongdoings, and finally got what he was hoping for.

“This just in.” The news reporter started. “This city has seen one of its worse crimes to date. Actually we’re not 100% sure it’s not some type of hoax it’s very hard to believe the report I’ve received but…. It appears that someone has hijacked a nuclear warhead and somehow gotten it underneath city hall without anyone noticing, and is holding the mayor hostage. At least that was what he was claiming until he found out the mayor was out of town, and is now holding the mayor’s secretary hostage instead. Police are trying to approach the situation, but are cautious in case he does have a nuclear warhead or some sort of bomb. Right now all we can do is wait, and hope for a heroic action on the police’s side.”

“A hero?” Dex’s perked up.. “Yes this is what I need!” He quickly ran upstairs to his room not even bothering to finish breakfast.

“Alright, stock footage transformation sequence go!” First he began to shrink as the bushy tail grew out from his tailbone. Fur spread over his entire body as his feet took a paw like structure and his ears moved up the side of his head. Soon, he was once more a two and a half foot tall squirrel boy. He quickly put on the cape and mask then jumped out his bedroom window.

Now under the guise of Sonic Squirrel, he made it to City Hall, easily evading the police line by jumping from tree to tree, and entering the building through the roof. He was surprised by the lack of guards. He had figured whatever villain would already have taken out anyone in the building that worked for the government, but suspected that he would at least have his own guards. Perhaps this wasn’t the super villain he was hoping for. Maybe it was a hoax.

“Well only one way to find out.” He quickly found an elevator and waited for it. He would take it down to the basement, to see if there was indeed a nuclear warhead. If there was, then he could be sure it was the real deal. The elevator doors opened, and he stepped inside once more surprised that no one had tried to stop him. He was expecting some kind of trap when the doors open, but there was nothing.

“Hello?” He stepped out into the dark basement examining it. Then he saw something that made his heart skip a beat. He had never seen a nuclear warhead before. He had no idea what was one supposed to look like. However, he was absolutely pretty sure that the large metal cone thing standing in the basement was a nuclear warhead.

“Oh snap.” He replied, suddenly realizing as much as he wanted to be a hero, this situation was really bad.

“Oh snap indeed Sonic Squirrel.” A voice rang out from the darkness. “I’ve been waiting for you. I’ve seen your exploits on the news. However, you must understand this is my city?”

“Are you the leader of some underground crime ring that I’ve been thwarting without knowing it by stopping simple robberies!?” Sonic Squirrel asked excited.

“Yes, sure, lets go with that.” The voice said. “Anyways this is my first time doing this, so I’m just going to reveal myself now.” The figure that stepped out startled Sonic Squirrel, mostly because it looked very similar to him. It was a mix of squirrel and human like himself, even with the same brown colored fur. However, it was much taller, about the same height as his human size. However, he was obviously evil. He was wearing a black cape and mask.

“You’re, like me!” Sonic Squirrel exclaimed. “I mean taller and older, and not nearly as cool but still…”

“Hey watch your mouth you rodent! I’m a lot cooler than you’ll ever be I’m a crime ring leader super villain you know!”

“Hey who are you calling a rodent!? You’re a rodent two are you blind!?”

“Stop arguing with me I purposely held this place hostage to bring you out for a showdown so I can end your superhero career before it kicks off!”

“Ha it will take better than the likes of you to defeat Sonic Squirrel!”

“Silence I’m a great villain who has defeated plenty of heroes before you!”

“Oh really what were their names? And what’s your name anyways?”

“Erm…. Their names are lost, because erm, I made them lost! And my name isn’t important!”

“You don’t have a code name or secret identity or anything… I was really hoping for a less lame villain for my first real adventure.”

“Oh it’s on now.” The villain charged Sonic Squirrel.

Sonic Squirrel nimbly dodged out of the way of the charge. He may have only been a yellow belt, but experience and superhuman reflexes had taught him a fighting style though not refined, did the trick. He quickly did a sweeping kick halfway through his dodge, and sent the villain falling flat on his face.

“Ha it seems your reflexes are a little slow!”

“Hmph.” The man got up. “You may be faster than me but no matter how fast you are you won’t be able to keep up.” The villain jumped to his feet, then started to run at Sonic Squirrel again, but just disappeared into thin air.

“What the?” Sonic Squirrel looked around. “Did he just disappear or oof!” He suddenly hit the ground hard, as the villain appeared right above him.

“It doesn’t matter how fast you are? Once I get moving I can be anywhere I want.” The villain smirked. “You can’t win.”

“Heh.” Sonic Squirrel began to laugh.

“What are you laughing about!?”

“This is exactly what I wanted!” He got back to his feet. “It would be boring if you were just a normal person, erm squirrel. But you have superpowers! You’re a real super villain! And I’m going to beat you!” He ran directly for the villain.

“Don’t you get it!?” The villain jumped backwards and vanished. “You can’t actually defeat me this way!”

Without wasting time, as soon as he was wear the villain was standing, Sonic Squirrel flipped backwards away from where he would have stopped running. The villain appeared right where he was before the flip,  and he jumped for and landed on the villain’s shoulders.

“What!? How did you!?” The villain screamed.

“You were predictable. You teleported right to where you thought I would be. So by being somewhere else I was able to get you as soon as I reappeared!” Sonic Squirrel grabbed the villain’s ears and pulled. “Now take that!”

“Argh!” The villain vanished, dropping Sonic Squirrel where he was. Sonic Squirrel didn’t even bother moving, and the villain appeared behind him this time.

“You didn’t move?”

“After my explanation you were expecting me to, so the safest place was right where I was!” Sonic Squirrel delivered a kick to the back of the villain. Who fell forward.

“Oof… I can’t believe, you figured this out.” He lost consciousness.

“Wow, that was kind of easy…. I guess I couldn’t expect much from the first super villain.” Sonic Squirrel smiled, and slung the unconscious villain over his shoulder.

He walked out the front door just as the police were about to swarm in. He saw most of them stopped and were staring unsure of how to react. He knew he had made the news a few times, but with no real pictures many probably didn’t believe a squirrel was saving the day.

“Um hello, good officers! I’ve captured the one responsible for this, he did indeed have a warhead which is in the basement. I’ll leave him to you to take into custody, and I must be off for I am Sonic Squirrel!” He dropped the villain and scrambled up the wall. None of the police fired so they probably believed him, and he soon escaped going from tree to tree.

“So, I guess we erase the bigger squirrel freak?” One police officer said. They locked the villain in one of the squad cars and went in to investigate city hall. They did indeed find the warhead, but when they went back to the car to interrogate the villain, he had completely vanished.

“You did what!?” It was late at night, and Dex’s mom and father were in the kitchen of their home, while Dex was upstairs asleep.

“Yes I acknowledge it didn’t go to well. I should have thought things out a little more.”

“Thought things out!? You stole a nuclear warhead and held the city hostage! This is why no one likes the supernatural and we had to go into hiding!”

“I just thought if our son lost a battle to a super villain he would get discourage and give up the whole superhero thing.” The father pleaded.

“You…Thought the best choice was to be a super villain? And you got beaten by your own son, a twelve year old boy!?”

“He was actually really good at the whole hero thing.” The father nodded his head approvingly.

“And thanks to you, the entire city knows that Sonic Squirrel saved them all from certain destruction. Our son is a hero to thousands of people. I hope you’re happy.”

“I’m sorry.”

“So you’ll find a way to fix this?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“And how are you going to fix it? No more nuclear warheads! I mean it!”

“Alright alright.” The father rubbed the back of his head. “I’ll just go talk to a few friends, and we’ll have him turned around and back to being a normal school child within a week.”

Later that night.

“So it is agreed. Sonic Squirrel must die.”

“Aw crap. My wife is going to kill me.”

“I knew it!” Dex was watching the news the following morning, to find once more the city was in a state of emergency. He watched the news report in awe. The best part was that he was specifically being called out.

“Earlier today.” The news reporter began. “Four hostages were snatched up from Cigam Elementary and are being held at a construction sight. Police have tried to storm the site and rescue the hostages but. It’s easier to show the clip than to explain.” A clip began to play the television. It showed the police storming a stereotypical abandoned construct site, when something rather strange happened. A field of electricity formed around the entire site hurling the police backwards.

“Several are injured and many have already been taken to the hospital.” Continued the news reporter. “The abductors have called in their demands over the phone to the news station, saying to announce they want Sonic Squirrel, the strange creature that stopped the nuclear attack yesterday. Police are looking into who or what the strange creature is, and if the one that performed the attack yesterday is connected to this new threat.”

“Epic battle senses, tingling.” Dex was almost drooling, then stopped himself. “Wait, I can’t let myself get excited now, I have to act like a hero and save them… Then I can drool about how cool I was later!” He quickly ran upstairs to his room.

“Alright, stock footage transformation sequence go!” First he began to shrink as the bushy tail grew out from his tailbone. Fur spread over his entire body as his feet took a paw like structure and his ears moved up the side of his head. Soon, he was once more a two and a half foot tall squirrel boy. He quickly put on the cape and mask then jumped out his bedroom window.

The construction site was for a new skyscraper that was a corporate building for some bank. Sonic Squirrel examined the building from a nearby rooftop, trying to figure out just where the hostages would be held, and where the bad guys were. Looking over the bottom half, it looked mostly completed, and then higher up was only framework.

“So.” He thought outloud. “The hostages will be in the completed part out of sight, but the epic battle will take place jumping from beam to beam of the building frame, likely causing lots of collateral damage and in full sight of everyone. However, if I just run in I’ll be fried like the police officers. Need to somehow enter the building without being seen. If only I had mutated into a flying squirrel I could just glide in. It’s a bit far to jump though, even for me… Wait, maybe.”

A few minutes later, he was standing holding a metal pole four times his current height on the building. “I have no idea how to do this but that’s never stopped me before!” He ran to the edge of the building, slamming the poke onto the ground, and leaping from the building he was on to the construction site.

“Huh pole vaulting isn’t so hard after all.” And then he collided with a completed wall. “Ow. I deserved that.” He peeled himself off the wall, and scrambled up it to the nearest window. Slipping inside he found himself in a dark room. It was unfurnished since the construction was not yet complete, but if he had to guess it would probably be someone’s office eventually.

“You should leave.” The larger squirrel figure he had fought the other day appeared in the room. “This guy will kill you if you don’t.”

“And you wouldn’t have?” Sonic Squirrel demanded. “I can handle myself fine. Are you guys just getting cold feet now that I’m actually here?”

“You don’t understand! This fight isn’t supposed to be happening! I screwed up!”

“I’m rescuing the hostages! I kicked your tail once and I’ll do it again if you’re in the way! You can’t stop me!”

“You’re right. Please though, just turn back, before it’s to late.” The other squirrel stepped backwards, and vanished.

“Huh?” Sonic Squirrel looked around confused. “What was that all about? I thought it was going to be some type of warm up battle before I fight the big boss... That other squirrel, really acts weird.” He turned and walked through the only doorway out of this room. It led into a hall with several identical doors. None of them were marked currently. He silently walked among the shadows of the corridor, hoping to find some clue onto where the hostages were kept.

After a complete sweep of the current floor, he decided to head upwards. Closer to the area where construction was still in progress, where he envisioned the final battle taking place; and that was how he walked right into a trap.

Sonic Squirrel entered a large room. In the middle of it, there were four girls, tied together all gagged and blindfolded. His first instinct was to run towards them, but as soon as he got closed he realized he had made a mistake, and a single bolt of electricity shot forth from farther in the room and struck him in the chest. He flew backwards landing on his back, and could smell the singed fur as he slowly dragged himself back to his feet.

“So you’re still alive.” People were revealing themselves form the shadow. There were around twelve of them. Ten of them seemed to be generic human thugs. The eleventh was the squirrel from earlier. And the twelfth though human was wearing a black suit and had a bald head that screamed ‘big bad guy’

“So you’re the one behind this.” Sonic Squirrel eyed the thugs around him. He were sure he could take them easily, but that electrical shock really hurt, and he didn’t want to experience a second one. “Who are you and why are you doing this?”

“Who am I?” Electricity jumped off of the bald man’s arms. “What kind of superhero can’t even recognize a crime kingpin of their own city? I go by the codename Draconic Storm. As for why I am doing this. It is quite simple. It was brought to my attention, that you see yourself as an upcoming young hero, currently no threat to my power. However I am aware of how things work, and though you are not a threat now, with experience and time you will grow, and one day be able to take me on. So, it is much more simple just to destroy you now while you’re not a threat.”

“Oh I see. That makes sense, but it’s not very fair.” Sonic Squirrel shook his hea.d

“I’m the bad guy, do you expect me to play fair?”

“Good point, but why kidnap the four girls?”

“Well we figured out your age but not who you actually were. So kidnapped the four most popular girls in the school, figuring one of them would be your love interest and you would come running as soon as you heard they were in trouble.”

“I’m only twelve, I haven’t started dating yet, and have just now begun to notice girls exist. I don’t even know who any of them are.”

“Oh, well, I suppose, that was my mistake, but hey you still came all this way, so the least I can do is go ahead and finish killing you.”

“Is this the part where all ten of your generic thugs gang up on me but I easily overcome them?”

“Almost.” The villain smiled. “But you’ll find, my thugs are a lot less generic.”

Sonic Squirrel’s attention was taken away from the blind man and onto the thugs. They were growing in size! One by one they burst out of their clothes as dark gray fur covered them. Their ears moved up the size of their head as their faces pushed out into snarling muzzles. Their hands and feet took on grotesque clawed forms, as each of them sprouted a tail.

“Werewolves!? You have werewolf thugs!?” Sonic Squirrel exclaimed.

“When you throw in the fact they get the job done without dieing so you don’t have to replace them all the time, it actually comes out more cost effective than generic thugs. Get him!” The bald man shouted.

The werewolved dives for Sonic Squirrel. He quickly dodged them. He was far more agile than them, but they still had him beat on brute strength and size. He barely dodged as one of them punched him and went right through the floor. A frightening feat, but at least it was one down when it fell to the floor below. He continued to desperately try to dodge, and forming a plan worked his way over to the window.

Two werewolves charged him, and he jumped over them. Unable to stop their momentum, the two werewolves charged right through the window and were gone. Only seven to go.

However while he was admiring his defeat of the first three another grabbed him and hoisted him up into the air, holding him there for another to attack. Thinking as quickly as he could, he bit into the hand that was holding him, causing the one werewolf to drop him, and then get his right in the chin by the first of the other werewolf. Before the other had time to react, he quickly ran up its back, and kicked it in the back of the neck. Both brutes went down. There were five more.

He knew this time not to take a break to admire his work and quickly moved looking for the other five. He guessed they probably wouldn’t fall for the window trick again, and he couldn’t rely on dumb luck having them hit each other. He also didn’t fancy getting hit by them. Looking back at the hole the first one had created he didn’t want to know what it would have been like to be hit by one of those fist.

“The hole!” He could almost feel a light bulb above his head as he dived down the hole, and then landing on a pipe for the floor below. Just as he expected, the werewolves came for him. They tried to reach down the hole to grab him, but  their reach was to short. He saw cracks form out from the hole as t he werewolves continued to claw at him trying to reach.

“Now for  the hard part.” Trying to judge the time the best he could, leapt straight up out of the hole, landing on one of the werewolves’ faces, and quickly jumped off. A moment later before they could give chase, the floor completely gave way, dropping all five of the remaining werewolves through.

“Thugs are still thugs.” Sonic Squirrel announced smugly after seeing his victory. “Seems you’ll have to hire some new ones after all.”

“Hmph.” Draconic Storm stared at him. “You, deal with him.” He said to the other squirrel, as he himself turned. “Such rodents are beneath my level!” With that he headed towards the broken window, and leapt out.

“Hey you’re not getting away that easily!” Sonic Squirrel ran for the broken window, just as the other squirrel appeared in front of him. “Out of my way!”

“Aren’t you worried about the hostages?”

“Erm, well.”

“You could chase him, or you could rescue them. It may seem like a tough decision now, but ask yourself what would hero do.” The squirrel replied.

“I see, you’re trying to trick me from  following him, and even though I know that.” He looked back at the hostages. “Wait, why can’t I just untie and they can just take the stares down?”

“Well you could do that but then you’d lose your chance to make a morally difficult choice and hey!”

Sonic Squirrel had already united the hostages. “I’ll get another one.” And then he himself went for the window, having a good idea of where the villain would go.

“….. He truly thinks he can do this.” The larger squirrel muttered, as he took a few steps backwards and vanished.

Chapter Four: The Final Battle

Once outside the building Sonic Squirrel began to climb up the side of it. He knew where the villain was going to be. He had know where this would end from the moment he saw the location he had chosen to fight. His ears twitched he could hear the crowd of people that had gathered at the base of the building. They were celebrating the return of the hostages, and now they were all here in time to see him fight the villain.

As he reached the heights of the building that were still only framework a bolt of electricity flied for him. He quickly jumped to another beam and turned around. The bald man, Draconic Thunder was standing on the platform that was not alive with an electrical current.

“You should have just gone home kid.” He spoke angrily as the current ran over his entire body. His clothes were on fire, but he didn’t even seem to care. When they were burned away, underneath he saw dark blue scales! The scales had started on his chest and were spreading to cover his entire body. His nails extended into sharp claws that would easily rip through flesh, and his eyes changed to small slits. A long reptilian tail erupted from behind him and took on a life of its own. Two great wings grew from his back and lifted him into the air off the beam. His face then pushed into a snout as the scales finished covering his body, leaving a strange half man half dragon creature.

“A dragon!?” Sonic Squirrel exclaimed realizing now that the codename was literal.

“Playtime is over squirrel-boy!” The dragon shouted.

“You can still run away.” The older squirrel had appeared behind Sonic Squirrel. “You could escape.”

Sonic Squirrel looked between the older squirrel and the dragon. Why was the older squirrel so intent on getting him to leave. “A hero never runs.” With that, he jumped to a higher beam, trying to get closer to the dragon.

“You fool, you really plan to fight!?” The dragon erupted into roaring laugher, and spread his hands out. “Fry.” Electricity ran down his arms to the tips of his fingers, and he fired out ten bolts at Sonic Squirrel.

Sonic Squirrel evaded the bolts by jumping to another higher platform. “You’re tough, you have good aim, and you can shoot electricity while I can’t, but you’re still to slow!” Launching himself from the higher platform, he jumped into the dragon’s chest, and learned that those scales were hard.

“Ow!” He shouted, but not giving up latched onto the dragon, trying to hold both his arms together so he couldn’t fire another bolt.

“You fool.” The dragon roared then opened its mouth, and exhaled bolts of lightning. Sonic Squirrel flew backwards from the dragon, landing on a beam of the constriction site. For the second time he could smell burnt fur.

“You’ll die if you keep fighting.” The older squirrel appeared. “Please, just give up.”

“A hero never runs.” Sonic Squirrel slowly climbed back to his feet. “Everyone is watching me. I can’t give up now.” He winched from pain as he saw his singed fur and flesh. “I may not know the right way to do this, but I’m a hero, and I’ll stay and fight like one!” He turned and ran straight up the building, until he was even higher than the dragon.

“How is he still able to move like that, after being struck twice by my lightning.” Draconic Storm flew upwards towards the squirrel. He didn’t care how many times it took, he would continue to attack until his enemy was dead.

“Gotcha!” Sonic Squirrel flipped backwards off of the rails as he saw the dragon gaining altitude towards him. As he did, he reached out, and grabbed one of the dragon’s wings. Most of it was armored, but the wings he could feel begin to rip as they tried to resist the force of his fall.

“Arrrrrgh!” Draconic Storm roared in pain as he started to fall, and grabbed on to the side of the building before fell to far. The wing was still attached, and as was the troublesome squirrel, but he wouldn’t be flying on it for now. He roared in anger and sent an electrical current through his entire body.

Sonic Squirrel was smirking smugly when he suddenly felt intense pain, and lost his grip on the wing. He could barely see straight, and it was mostly luck that he had managed to get a good hand hold on the building.

“You brat!” Draconic Storm shouted. “You will pay for that!”

Panting Sonic Squirrel dragged himself up onto the platform he had a hold of, and collapsed for a moment. This was giving to much time away though, as his he heard a loud thud as the dragon landed right next to him, and lifted him up by the arm. The dragon smiled, then laughed, as he threw him through the air without letting go of the arm into another beam. Sonic Squirrel felt an intense pain in his arm as he heard it snap, and began to scream as he was now being held up by a broken arm.

“And now you die.” The dragon began to pour electricity into Sonic Squirrel’s body who could do no more than scream as his life slowly began to fade.

“Get your hands off of him!” The older squirrel appeared again, and grabbed the good wing of Draconic Storm, pulling with all his might completely ripped it off. The dragon began to scream in pain as he dropped Sonic Squirrel and turned to face the older squirrel.

“You, you would betray me now!?” He roared in anger and pain. “Do you want to die just like your son!?” He grabbed the older squirrel by the neck and lifted him up. “You can go first then.”

Sonic Squirrel fought to remain conscious as he watched what was happening. “Like your son? Dad?” He looked at the older squirrel questionably. There was a certain resemblance, then suddenly it sank in. He had no idea why his father was a super villain, but it explained why he had been so obsessed with trying to get him to run away. He didn’t want him to fight.

“Dad….” Sonic Squirrel felt tears in his eyes, and forced himself to his feet. “I won’t let you die for me!” He held his broken arm with his good hand and looked at the dragon. Pouring all his energy into these last movements, he ran at the dragon and jump kicked him in the side.

“What!?” Draconic Storm had just enough time to see the kick coming for it before it hit. He dropped the older squirrel, and tried to turn to face the one that had attacked him, but it was to late. The kick though it had not harmed him, and been enough to knock him off the narrow beam, and now he was falling away. He tried desperately to try, but with one wing useless, and the other completely gone, it was to no use.

“How, could I be defeated by rodents?” Were his last words before he fell to the ground beneath him.

Back above Sonic Squirrel fell onto his back on the platform. He was in pain, exhausted, and no longer had the energy to keep up.

“You just, defeated Draconic Storm.” His father whispered amazed.

“Dad, why didn’t you tell me?” Sonic Squirrel said, before he blacked out where he was.

Chapter 5: To Be A Real Hero

“Ugh. Where, am I?” Dex opened his eyes to find he was back in his own bedroom. He felt very weak though. He sat up, and looked at himself. Most of his wounds from the battle had healed, even his arm had been mended.

“You’re finally up.” His father spoke who had been sitting besides the bed. “I was really worried.”

“What happened?” Dex asked.

“Sonic Squirrel, saved the hostages in front of the entire town. He’s all over the media being declared a hero.” His father smiled. “Looks like you got what you wanted.”

“I wasn’t acting like a hero.” Dex replied. “The entire time, I was just fighting, because I wanted to be seen as a hero, I wanted the reputation. I never once actually cared about the greater good, or the people I was supposed to help. When…. That dragon guy started to win, all I wanted to do, was run away.”

“Then why didn’t you?” His father asked.

“Because… you were there… When I was about to die, you intervened, and I finally recognized you. I couldn’t leave my own father. I don’t know how I found the energy, but I did, and somehow, I knew I couldn’t let you die.”

“You may be more of a hero than you know.” His father mused.

“What, what do you mean?” Dex asked.

“Before that you were fighting for the recognition, because you wanted to be a hero. When you thought I was in danger, you were fighting to protect someone, that’s what a real hero does, and that’s why you had the strength to win.”

“I am?” Dex smiled. “So then tell me, why did you never tell me, about you?”

“About the squirrel thing? It’s a long story son but I’ll give you the gist of it.” His father began. “You and I are not the only ones with special gifts in Cigam, you m ay have noticed that you fought werewolves, and a dragon. There are many more like this us in Cigam, supernatural creatures that have taken the guise of humans to survive. Long ago, man began to fear the supernatural and hunted us down. We faced extinction so had to go into hiding. When our children our born now, we seal their powers so that they will learn to live as and act like a human. After about ten to sixteen years, the seal breaks. Unfortunately your’s broke when no adults were around that could have explained things to you.”

“So wait, there are more people like the dragon?”

“There are dragons, werewolves, kitsunes, wizards, elves, and all kinds of creatures living in Cigam. Have you noticed that your running around the city in a cape hasn’t had that great an impact? The humans have their memories modified so that they won’t remember what really happened when magic is involved. Of course you’ve made that a real challenge for the wizards who maintain that spell. However the supernatural is no uncommon thing, your mother herself is also a squirrel shape shifter.”

“I see, so I guess this means I’m kind of common place.” Dex looked crestfallen.

“I suppose so, sorry to ruin your dreams of being a super hero like that.”

“Are you kidding?!” Dex replied back excitedly. “This just makes me want it more! There are all kinds of supernatural creatures out there! Think about all the super villains that are just waiting for their chance! Spunky side kicks with unpredictable powers! A magical femme fatale that reveals deep secrets about the hero! This is exactly what I wanted! But this time! Instead of fighting for just myself! I’m going to do it to help people! Especially the people who won’t even know I exist! It’s my job to keep normal humans safe from the supernatural!”

“So you’re not giving it up.” His father sounded confused. “Oh your mother is going to be angry at me again.”

“I can’t now that I know the good I can do! You said it yourself a true hero fights to help people that’s what I’m going to do!”

“You realize of course if you do so, I will have to continue to oppose you till you come to your senses and give up this dream.” His father replied smirking.

“And each time I will defeat you and save everyone from evil! I am Sonic Squirrel, and I am Cigam’s first superhero!”