Slaughterhouse
Alright, let's try this again, this was going to be an Ogre Bear story until I commissioned the artwork (FC32). I think I may have mislead the artist but it's a good pic none the less. In any case it should be noted which "Age" I favor in terms of what comic superheroes I like reading about. I am one who really like the Iron Age of comics which is also called the Dark Age of comics. But that was the time I was majorly into comics. After the conclusion of "No Man's Land" story arc in the Bat books I lost a lot of interest in supers.
The piece here is kind of my attempt at combining aspects I loved of the dark age of comics with horror as a kind of Halloween special. I do have a full world of heroes and villains at play here. I'm going to try and write as much as I can while I still have a good grasp of what I am trying to express. If you see me at Fur Fright, feel free to talk to me about this and my other stories.
Slaughterhouse
A black van pulls up to an abandoned warehouse near the Erie-Torresdale Station in Philadelphia, PA. The driver looks vaguely canine but wears a balaclava over his head as he honks the horn of the van to signal the folks inside to open up the roll away metal door. Once inside a trio of goats in paramilitary gear complete with urban camouflage and balaclavas like the dog is wearing point assault rifles at him
The dog plays a megadeth tune on his stereo and blasts it to the garage which causes the goats to lower their guns and nod to the canine. The driver comes out the side door dragging a young naked rabbit girl by the ears, her eyes covered with a blindfold, gagged with cloth and tied up. The goats walk over to the van in case the canine brought more than one girl with him and he did.
Nine individuals in total are in the back of the van tied up like BDSM Christmas presents: 2 female bunnies, 1 male rabbit, 3 female alley cats, 1 very male pit bull, 1 effeminate male fox and a very female vixen. Most of the nine are random nobodies from the neighborhoods, although the cats are recognized as street walkers that were thought to be holding out on the syndicate from which they got their nose candy while the rabbits look like college kids the kind that regularly get something illicit so they can cram for finals and just happen to be in the wrong place at the right time. The fox is a cross-dresser and a gay gigolo beside while the pit bull is very definitely a cop but the vixen is a bit of coup in that she is renowned crusading journalist and all around pain in the tail hole Victoria Valley.
All nine are dragged out of the van and down to the dungeon where they hung up on hooks and left to dangle over a pit via a conveyor system that the dog punches a code in which sends a signal to someone else deeper in the complex that fresh meat has just arrived. A fat pig is sodomizing a turtle, raping him with his cock as he brings an industrial sized circular saw to bear full blast on his shell. Any screams the turtle might make are muffled by a gag in his mouth as his head is wedged in the killing block of an industrialized guillotine.
The pig is in leather gear that includes an executioner's hood but there is no doubt of his species or the grotesque obesity poured into a harness that strains to contain the depraved body for any sort of sense of decency. In the underworld he is known simple as the Butcher a deranged pig with a taste for slaughter and an addiction to necrophilia bordering on obsesses ion. As he knows he is getting close to climax, the Butcher presses a button that releases the blade on the guillotine with great pneumatic force which ends the suffering of the turtle even as the pig buggers the corpse with sounds of absolute ecstasy emanating loudly from his covered lips.
Once he has dumped a load into the turtle's corpse he picks up the head and takes it over to a table where special syringes are laid out in a row. Butcher takes a syringe with the toxic looking glowing green fluid within and jams the needle into the back of the turtle's skull as a prelude to pushing the plunger to inject the alchemical drug into the skull. It takes all of a single minute for the black magic drug to its dirty work and bring just the head back to life.
He opens his eyes slowly and moans unintelligibly before the Butcher shoves his semi-flaccid cock into the turtle's mouth and like an infant the begins suckling desperately on the offered member. The head continues to give head to his murderer as he finishes preparing the turtle for consumption as black market meat. Most of the body is ground into sausage except the turtle's cock which the pig grills in a small kitchen and then eats like a hot dog when he needs to take a snack break.
It's while he is enjoying his cock and balls sandwich with tabasco sauce and brown mustard that the Butcher notices the message he has new victims to play with. He punches an oversized button on a control panel set before a robotic octopus embedded in the floor of the sub-basement in which the Butcher makes his home. Spiked tentacles lance upwards to impale 5 of the victims and drag them down to the Butcher, 2 of which, specifically the male rabbit and the fox, come down without their arms attached. The cat whores were smart enough to angle themselves so the spikes would retrieve them wholly from their hooks as they recognized that they had been caught by the Slaughterhouse Syndicate also know to organized crime experts as Murder Incorporated a kind of fraternity of psychopaths that will kill anyone with no questions asks for a fee.
Of the four that remain, the cop gets the bright idea to try and swing himself off his hook only to get impaled in the guts once he has accomplished his preliminary goal. The bunny girls scream when this happens and lose all bowel control which only elicits cruel laughter from below. Victoria Valley forces herself to remain calm and pray that somewhere someone is working to save her.
As a bit of pro bono work to help with his reputation as someone that can be taken seriously, Kodyax O'Connor, former professional wrestler now trying to re-establish himself as a professional superhero is following up leads for the Philadelphia police department who sent a maverick rookie cop, Benjamin Carson Dover, to escort Victoria Valley to an undisclosed location for a set piece she was going to do for International Cable News. He was supposed to be undercover but at the club they went to, something about him just screamed cop and Giovanni Scaletti, the viper owner of the illegal rave club, called in a favor to have the Golden Retriever of the Slaughterhouse Syndicate come grab some of his patrons for the Butcher to take care of and after slipping a bunch of patrons mickeys, including a certain fox that was annoying Giovanni, the victims were loaded into the Retriever's van and he drove off with the stripped and secured cargo that now is being claimed for processing by the Butcher.
Victoria is anything but a fool so she left a coded message with her ICN handlers to be handed off to any superhero, especially a list of males with whom she has cultivated a "friends with benefits" relationship with, in case something goes south and they come looking for her. Kodyax "The Challenger" O'Connor is on that list so when a 9'6" lupursyn dressed like an Irish masked wrestler comes walking in asking for his friend Miss Valley the one handler just smiles, hands over a paper and lets the hulking hero figure out what it means. The message reads she is interviewing lady professionals at a snake pit which is all the Challenger needs to go busting in on Giovanni's Tomb, a semi legal establishment on Delaware Avenue.
Brutus "The Behemoth" Bertenelli is acting as door man and at 8'9" tall with a girth to match the gator makes an excellent bouncer and door guard. Behemoth gets nervous when he sees the russet furred superhero run up to the club as it puts him in a rather awkward and no-win situation as he no desire to tangle with Challenger, having learned the hard way that the lovable loser schtick that he bought into as an avid fan of the now defunct EWF, was just as an act, but on the other claw, his boss, Giovanni would turn him in a whole store of shoes if he just let the hero waltz into the club. In some ways the Behemoth is fortunate tonight as Challenger is just steamed enough bounce him into the river rather than go through the usual song and dance of trying to convince the gator to let him into the club and once his tail hits the water, Mr. B decides that discretion is the better part of valor and swims home.
Giovanni claps mockingly when the heavy doors to his club splinter and shatter as a coldly angry Challenger walks inside. However, the bravado quickly leaves him when Challenger's first move is toss him around his own place for 10 minutes like a rag doll and does not say a word or allow the snake to utter a word himself. Once he has broken roughly 80% of the reptile gangster's bones into roughly the same state of affairs as his doors then he asks a simple question.
"Where?" Challenger inquires with a voice grating icily with unrestrained malice.
"Slaughterhouse," Giovanni answers immediately as he knows better than to make a smart remark after getting trashed as badly as he did before the question was asked.
"Sleep!" Challenger commands and slams Giovanni's head into the floor so hard his whole body like a freshly caught fish as the hero runs out of the club.
Exactly where he's going Kodyax is not sure but he has a few ideas, as he has bounced a few stoolies around in the past week or so which gives him a little information to go on but not much. He knows that the Butcher is operating a black market slaughterhouse that kills and processes folks the other syndicates want out of the picture permanently. He's just a little vague on the details as to where it's exactly located.
In the abattoir itself the Butcher is assessing his new stock of victims to process. The corpse of the turtle has just finished being made into a length of sausage although the three rabbits see the cleaned out shell and it vaguely reminds them of a friend of theirs. Mechanical spiders have retrieved the arms of the fox and the rabbit boy from which Butcher strips off the fur before throwing the limbs into a large grinder and for good measure he takes a huge cleaver to remove their legs and add the meat from them to that which will collected from their arms in much the same manner.
After the limbs of the fox and the bunny boy, the Butcher decides he needs to slice some more meat tonight. He then secures one of the rabbit girls to a sliding table at the one of which is another huge circular saw and when he turns on the machine the naked rabbit girl slides slowly but surely towards the saw while he watches and masturbates. Bunny boy looses it and starts to scream in panic which the Butcher finds annoying as he pulls his own pud.
The fox knows what's going on and offers to suck the pig off and the Butcher allows him to do so while mechanical arms grab the male rabbit and place him on a conveyor belt that eventually with feed him into a kind of wood chipper that with strip the fur and flesh from his bones, depositing the meat and guts into one hopper where it will get made into scrapple eventually, his fur goes into another hopper to be taken to a landfill somewhere and his bones into another to be made into kibble. The other bunny girl faints at all this while the cats cower in fear while the pit bull and Victoria Valley look at each other in disbelief. But if the fox thought he was buying himself some time by sucking cock, he has a rude awakening when the Butcher puts him on the same conveyor belt the bunny boy got put on and he decides to rape the slumbering surviving rabbit female.
She awakens to feeling of being used but does her best to feign sleep and because Butcher is only interested in filling a hole he pays her attempt at deception no mind. Once he is done with her, the rabbit silently cries as she is left dripping cum out of her vagina on the dirty floor of the slaughterhouse. Used and then discarded like a broken toy the rabbit contemplates suicide as she lays on the floor feeling violated and abused.
All three prostitutes are impaled on meat hooks by the Butcher before being suspended from the ceiling along with a few other random folks that look malnourished and on the brink of starvation. Victoria Valley and Officer Dover are put into separate cages and are forced to watch as the last rabbit is put into a set of stocks that function like pneumatic guillotines to be mechanically dismembered for parts while her head is reanimated to give him head on demand like the turtle. Carefully the Butcher wraps up her severed breasts and cored out cunny as these are special delicacies on the black market which is how he makes his money.
Victoria Valley is sickened as she watches rats, tigers, wolves and cheetahs get processed next, taken from the ceiling like so much meat and murder with much the same mindset. She had heard rumors of this place and had it on her list of things to investigate. But she never expected to get this up close and personal to the project as she curls herself into a tight ball and tries her best not to watch any further as the Butcher starts to sing along to Sinatra on the radio to pass the time until he goes to sleep.
Even if she could just shut her eyes and try to escape her predicament through dreams the Butcher snores so loudly it keeps her wide awake. In between bouts of sawing logs, the squeals of delight from the Butcher recounting in part his psychotic dreams of slaughter grate on her nerves and her sanity as she begins to weep for her own predicament as well as those around her. Silently she prays for rescue.
The next morning Giovanni Scaletti visits Brutus at his home to berate him but finds him already gone. He decided to help out another crew that guards one of the other abandoned warehouses in the city that serves as a decoy in case anyone goes looking for the Slaughterhouse. As luck would have it, Challenger hit the place like a living tornado and tore it and the guards stationed there apart.
Giovanni Scaletti smirks to himself that even if he put the Challenger on the right path it will take days before he can actually find the true location of the Slaughterhouse if he can find it at all. But what Giovanni is unaware of is that Behemoth knows where the Slaughterhouse is and used that piece of info as a bargaining chip to get off easy from the Challenger. Although to his credit, his answer was only slightly less vague than the answer Giovanni gave as he gave Challenger the el station the slaughterhouse is near.
Behemoth thought he was being smart but the Challenger already knew that the slaughterhouse was under some abandoned industrial building. That piece of the puzzle was key as he could eliminate places to search once he got to the el stop. But once Kodyax got there he was dead tired so he decided to climb up and onto the el platform and nap on one of the benches there.
SEPTA police are not about to give a superhero a hard time for sleeping out more or less in the open; not when a cop is in danger of being killed by some lunatic and he's on the case. Early morning commuters recognize the costume immediately and try not to disturb; assuming he is there for a reason and let him sleep out of respect although pickpockets due try to rob him blind. Plain clothes police hidden in the crowd apprehend the opportunistic thieves almost immediately after and to their dismay don't even manage to grab his real wallet as he doesn't carry one.
When he awakens a little after noon he drops down and enters the combination Taco King and Oklahoma Fried Chicken for a bite to eat before going to the Slaughterhouse. The parent company behind both fast food places has an endorsement deal with Challenger which allows him to eat for free as part of his contract. Of course part of that deal is making himself available for photo opportunities with the customers and employees, but for him it's all in a day's work.
In the slaughterhouse itself the Butcher is just waking up at noon and starts by taking Vicky out of her cage and tying her down to a table. He makes her suck him off to get rid of his woody and she chokes on his semen after his climax. Once he has gotten off it's time to start working.
The last of his old stock was slaughtered last night, so today he starts on the three whores but he doesn't kill them right away. He already has plenty of stock to ship off to be sold so today is a kind of play day. A length of chain makes for a heavy whip that he uses to help tenderize them in anticipation for later.
Each of them cry out in pain as the blows from the chain shatters their knee caps and their screams of agony amuse the Butcher greatly as he laughs uproariously. A chorus of mocking laughter can be heard above as the goat brothers get in on the act. The Butcher loves his work and after their knees are destroyed, he does his best to shatter the pelvis of all three of them.
He drops the prostitutes from their predicaments and just laughs as they writhe on the floor. He kicks each of them in the abdomen with powerful blows until they start to cough up blood. None of them can crawl much less run away from him but he does this as part of his sick games.
With the prostitutes bleeding from the mouth on the floor, the Butcher goes to check his email. Don Giovanni sent him a general warning that there is a hero looking for him and urges that he process this batch as quickly as possible. The Butcher is unconcerned as to get to him, he has to go through the goats on the floor above him and even after that he would need to come down here and destroy his mechanical octopus and when Giovanni responds with the name of the hero after him, the Butcher just laughs as the Challenger is a loser so even if he manages to get to him, the Butcher is sure he can make short work of him.
Satellite radio broadcasts opera music in Italian as the Butcher takes up a sledgehammer and gleefully puts an end to the misery of the night walkers by caving in their skulls with a single mighty blow for each one. He then puts their bodies on the conveyor belt feed the bone stripper as he contemplates who to kill next. Unable to decide for himself and flips a coin: heads for the cop; tails for the bitch.
Light dances in the reflection of the coin played out on the shadowed walls of the chamber. Ultimately it comes up heads as the Butcher takes out a long pointed pole. He takes the cop out of the cage and takes him over to what looks to be a huge roaster.
After strapping Ben to the prep table, the Butcher takes out a set of clippers and razors as well as a gel and a sounding rod. Slowly but suredly and ultimately very clinically, the Butcher shaves the dog and removes every bit of fur on his body before giving him a hand job to get him hard so he can insert the rod into his cock. Ben starts to shudder from the cold but eventually his body betrays him and the massaging of his sheath and scrotum makes his canine cock come out and get rock hard.
Inserting the rod insures his member will remain hard as the Butcher sodomizes Ben with the pole and eventually shoves it from his anus to out his mouth. The Butcher then applies barbecue sauce to his body before slicing off his limbs and putting his torso and phallus to roast. Victoria watches in horror as the Butcher grills the limbs of the pit bull before sealing them as well as a frilled lizard rolls a cart up to the Butcher.
"Hey, Butch!" the lizard calls. "Boss called and asked me to pick up whatcha got!"
"It's all mostly in the fridge vault, Larry," Butcher calls amicably. "Are you in a hurry?"
"Not really if you want gimme a cop roast as well," Larry says with a chuckle as he jerks a thumb to the cooking cop."
"Aye," Butcher admits. "That I do, I'm planning on roast vixen tonight."
"Yeah, they look like some sweet tit steaks," Larry says while looking at Victoria as if assessing a piece of meat. "But you might wanna do it quick. That Challenger ain't no joke."
"Lucky Lorenzo took him down in less than ten minutes in Beach Wars," Butcher says dismissively. "Like I'm worried."
"That was when there was still and Extreme Wrestling Federation, Butch," Larry warns in a pleading tone. "Behemoth keeps getting his clock cleaned every time he tangles with that carnie cape."
"You really consider him a true cape?" Butcher asks incredulously. "He's a wanna-be pure and simple."
"Butch," Larry states with a serious tone. "Moe, Shemp and Curley ain't gonna stop Challenger if he hits this place. The bullets are just gonna bounce off of his hide. You know why we don't have Sniper Joe no more?"
"Don't tell me the Challenger got him?" Butcher inquires incredulously to which Larry just nods his head and the Butcher shakes his head. "How? Joe's taken down lots of capes before."
"Yeah, but most of those are costumed freaks that don't have the Challenger's hide." Larry states. "I remember when we had to take out that rhino dude, whatever the schmuck called his self. We had to use explosive rounds to send him into a pit of concrete that was being mixed for that one job down in South Philly."
"How the fuck am I going to kill that son of a bitch?" Butcher asks.
"I don't know!" Larry shouts with more than a little bit of frustration in his voice. "Can't drown the son of a bitch, we tried that already."
"Well, if he comes here I'll find a way to have his balls breakfast," Butcher boasts. "There has yet been a fur that I haven't found a way to kill."
"If you do, there's a cool billion coming your way," Larry promises. "Giovanni is getting tired of his shit. Damn cape keeps bustin' up the boss's schemes."
"We got any recent tapes of the fucker?" Butcher asks.
"I think there's a channel on him on the VILE web page." Larry speculates. "I know old Professor Apocalypse is pissed off at the fucker too."
"Maybe I can shop the corpse around?" Butcher speculates greedily.
"Don't count yer chickens before they hatch, Butch," Larry warns amicably. "That's a good way of gettin' sloppy."
"Too true that," Butcher agrees as he puts another coat of barbecue sauce on the torso of the cop. "Ye feelin' yer oats?"
"Nah, I never scritch the itch on the job if you what I'm sayin'." Larry says in a lecherous manner.
"Fair enough," Butcher says with a smirk. "I've had my fun and thought I'd spread the wealth if you know what I'm saying."
"I appreciate, don't get me wrong." Larry says with a nod. "I just don't want to cross the boss no way no how. You do whatever the fuck you want down here, it's your turf. I'm on the clock, well, mostly. How long does copper torso got?"
"A bit," Butcher admits, "I just got him started an hour ago."
As Larry and the Butcher are kibitzing the Challenger has leapt onto the roof of their building. Kodyax is normally not one for stealth but he also wants to make sure he doesn't have any surprises when he confronts the Butcher. The roof however is not sturdy enough to support his weight so he makes a big hole as he drops through to the top floor below.
On the next floor down is Kinetica, an African wild dog bitch mutant with complete control of kinetic force and has used this power to make herself a well skilled sniper assassin in a sexy black rubber bodysuit that features red, green and gold accents. There is little that she fears but when the ceiling above bows, buckles and almost breaks she gets a tad concerned. She takes out a table and logs onto the website of Villainy International, Legality Exonerated to check on the section entitled the gallery of fools to see what oversized oaf might have landed above her.
Both VILE and GHOST maintain extensive databases for their members on each other and on the heroes that can and in many cases will stop them. VILE and GHOST maintain an antagonistic relationship with each other and thus information gained by one is not shared with the other by the rank and file, however certain independent contractors who work for both organizations can and do share intelligence that they have been privy to. The syndicates themselves are independent clients of both organizations, picking and choosing which operatives they will hire for a given situation based on their needs and the capabilities of the villain in question; Kinetica for example is being hired as an observer and a sniper which her powers allow her to be very suited for.
While looking around she gets a warning message from her current employer, Don Giovanni Scaletti, that the Challenger is coming. She uses that message to check out his file in the gallery of fools and is alarmed by what she reads as she might not be able to beat him if that is who is assaulting this tower. Kinetica does her best to hide herself and just watch and when she sees the jack o' lantern masked hero jump to her floor briefly before moving on it confirms to her that trying to tangle with him is probably a mistake. Unfortunately when she sighs her relief Challenger hears her and jumps back to her floor to find her.
"Alright, I heard someone up here." Challenger growls as the metal of his championship belt reflects brightly in the sunlight. "Am I deal with some syndicate thug?"
"No!" A voice calls out as he gets hit with a blast of invisible force. "The name's Kinetica."
"A member of VILE I take it?" Challenger asks and breaks off a piece of a building and chucks it at her.
"OW!!" Kinetica calls out as the chunk of debris grazes her shoulder. "You'll pay for that, hero!"
"Bring it, little girl," Challenger growls as he looks around himself and takes into account all the potential weapons he can bring to bear.
Kinetica screams and targets him with her blast with such fury that it might overcome his defenses if it got through. Challenger manages to cartwheel out the way picking up a fist sized piece of concrete to throw at her that she blasts into dust. She then blasts out the floor beneath him and forces him to drop badly to the floor below.
When Kinetica pokes her head through the hole she made to see what she had wrought, a basketball slams into her nugget and forces her back. While she shakes her head to clear the cobwebs she inadvertently walks into a shaft dropping straight down to street level several dozens of feet below. It's then that the Challenger captures her as she drops through the floor he's in and puts her into a sleeper hold, fondling her as he chokes off her air supply.
Conflicting thoughts are going through Kinentica's head as she is being assaulted. On the one paw she is being assaulted and will be unconscious if she can't get out of it. On the other paw her body is enjoying his pawing her body.
Ultimately she can't break out of his hold because her strength is nowhere near the level his is and thus her conversion from conscious villainess to an unconscious one is assured. He wraps some rebar around her once she is no longer struggling to keep her from going anywhere and checks her rap sheet to see if there any outstanding warrants on her. Currently Kinetica is not wanted for anything so he just leaves her there but intends to collect her later.
However, once he finishes with Kinetica, the Contractor attacks. Contractor is a boa in a black and white bodysuit that can elongate himself to extreme lengths and is well known to authorities as a contract killer specializing in strangulation and suffocation. The first thing Contractor goes for is Challenger's mask as he knows that without Challenger is as vulnerable to his attacks but with the mask in place, no matter what he does, the Challenger will be able to win. In fact the image of a skeletal boa coming at you is terrifying to anyone except someone like Challenger who has faced him before.
Like Kinetica, Contractor is a member of VILE and while before now, Challenger has never read Kinetica's bio, Contractor is fairly well known to the hero as everything that authorities know about the assassin has been put up on ISULL's web page. Challenger makes a mental note to look over Kinetica's file next time he has the free time to do research for work. It should be noted that as a member of ISULL Challenger is actually getting paid to do hero work as the city of Philadelphia maintains a contract with the union to keep Challenger in the general area of Philadelphia although any place he travels on vacation is entitled to his services should they need it.
Challenger and Contractor are pretty much at a stalemate when Challenger has his enchanted wrestling mask in place and that's exactly how Challenger wants it as the ex-pro wrestler is thinking of how he can beat the stretchy murderer. As much as Contractor tries Challenger manages to keep his hands away from the laces of his mask. Challenger drops down the shaft with Contractor still grappled with him and drops down to the ground which taxes the limits of Contractor's elongation ability.
The hero then does his best to run around a column to start the process of trying to turn the villain into a pretzel. Contractor recognizes the tactic immediately and tries to snap himself back to his unelongated state and push Challenger into some to knock him out. But doing this allows Challenger to reverse the grapple and gets into a submission move and it the midst of doing this he manages to tie together Contractor's wrists and ankles.
"Stay put Contractor," Challenger orders sarcastically. "I'll have the police collect you later."
"Fuck you, Challenger!" Contractor shouts.
"No thanks, I'd rather do Kinetica." Challenger shouts back as he walks away.
"That can be arranged," Contractor shouts back slyly as he tries to get free.
Challenger smirks and shakes his head as he stomps the ground to make a whole to jump down as the goats look up in horror. The goats fire on Challenger immediately not really realizing whom they are firing upon. One triple noggin knocker later and the Challenger moves onto the heavy steel door leading to the first sub level of the building which he just rips off its hinges to allow himself access.
Mechanical spiders hidden in the rafters shoot webs at the Challenger that he easily powers his way out of and with a few of them he manages to rip them from their posts and smash them on the floor. With the destruction of the spiders the octopus activates and goes on high alert as Challenger sees angry red eyes alight in the darkness below. Challenger cocks his head to the side as he regards the site as spiky tentacles lance out for him but can't quite reach him.
"Very interesting," Challenger tells himself, "I wonder if any of these mechanical monstrosities have the tool marks of the Mad Mole Machinist?" He picks through the remains of one of the spiders and finds exactly what he was looking for. "Mental note," he says and taps the side of his own head, "Make a report with ISULL when we're done here." Then he looks down at the eyes and vocally speculates. "Now I wonder what kind of monstrosity you are? Doctor Mole had so many interesting toys to choose from when he would approach the syndicates and everybody else he sold his murder machines to."
After taking a deep breath and sighing to himself, Challenger leaps into the darkness to meet the metal monster that owns the tentacles that tried to spear him. What he finds is a fiendish technological vision of a land kraken with a buzz saw for a beak that rises from the bedrock to attack him. Challenger shakes his head as recognizes a realized version of what was until now only supposed blueprints of the Technologically Perfect Kraken or what the Mad Mole Machinist giddily referred to as his TPK when the Witch Wolf apprehended him three months ago.
Well known as an insane genius as well as a bit of a narcissistic nihilist, triple M as he has come to be called by members of the International Union of Superheroes, Limited Liability (ISULL), of which Challenger is a card carrying member, was well known to sell his murderous inventions to both VILE and GHOST, the Global Hierarchal Organization of Supervillains and Terrorists, and by extension was considered a valued member of both cartels. Now it seems as though the mole would sell to anyone, the syndicates included. Kodyax takes mental note of this as the TPK does its best to attack him with its tentacles. As tempted as he is to call for assistance in the form of pointers on how to take this thing down the Challenger does not bother making the call because Rabbit Ears, Techno Turtle and War Horse are all analyzing the blueprints of this thing to see how it might work in theory; he will providing them with data when he destroys it in fact; he just has to figure out how to accomplish that particular feat.
As an experiment, Kodyax takes out his phone and tries to make a call, only to find he can't get a signal. This doesn't actually surprise him as certain villains like making areas like this a death trap of sorts and if a hero can call out for help it rather defeats the purpose of a death trap. Challenger idly wonders what could be blocking the signal but he is a warrior and a brawler more than a thinker like the gadgeteers and battlesuit heroes, like those analyzing those blueprints, or even the mystic characters he knows like Witch Wolf might be able to detect something odd about the area that his sense can't pick up; but he doesn't really have the time or the inclination to devote too many brain cells to the matter right now so he just doesn't worry and makes a mental note to consult Rabbit Ears the next times she gets an itch she wants him to scratch.
Lighting in the area he is fighting the mechanical monstrosity is poor at best and non-existent at worst. The crunching of debris beneath the feet of both combatants gives the impression that the chamber is huge with the only illumination coming from an area behind the TPK meaning the Challenger needs to dismantle the thing to get to that section of the structure. Kodyax can also hear the high pitched ping of radar that the TPK is using to circumnavigate the darkness.
Kodyax already knows a great deal about the metal monster from the schematics Witch Wolf brought in to share with the Union. He knows that it has a sophisticated suite of sensors which means there is no way he can hide from the thing. Notes that have already been translated from triple M's shorthand reveal that the thing was to be armored in impossibillium, a rare metal that is highly resistant to damage.
Fortunately for the Challenger the internal workings are not nearly as so well protected and impossibillium does have its own specific weaknesses that he can exploit rather easily. In fact one of those weaknesses is the fact that the cables and servos that allow it extend its tentacles as long as long as it can are rather easily to break for a hero that lift a hundred tons which Kody can do without breaking a sweat. So it when it tries to spear Challenger again with a probing tentacle, Kodyax grabs it and rips it out of its socket.
What Kodyax does not know is that the TPK that the syndicate provided the Butcher is merely a prototype and does not have all the bells and whistles the Mad Mole Machinist was going to put in his final design. In fact none of it is made of impossibillium because the syndicate couldn't steal any and would not have been able to procure some any other way due to government restrictions. By hefting the severed limb, Kodyax can tell what it isn't, having been able to handle impossibilium thanks to the fact that War Horse is a recognized government contactor, and heaves a heavy sigh of relief at this as it means this TPK is not going to be as hard to take out as the one made exactingly to the mole's schematics.
Still the Challenger charges at the thing intending to demolish it with its own severed limb. The prototype TPK is off balance slightly as it tries to steady itself on six limbs in compensation while striking out with its one remaining tentacle. It manages to trip Challenger but being knocked prone is no detriment to his fighting ability as he flails at the thing with the captured tentacle he has.
The limb breaks on contact both due its own protections and the sheer muscle power Challenger brings to bear in his strike. When next the TPK hits him with its attack arm, Challenger makes it pay for the mistake by whipping it around a pillar and attacking it with itself as an improvised weapon. The result is that the thing is stunned as its programming tries to make sense of what just happened and take appropriate countermeasure.
It stalls in its assault which gives the Challenger the window of opportunity he needs to begin completely dismantling it. If it were armored in impossibillium like the mad mole machinist said it should then the Challenger would not have been able to punch through its mechanical shell as easily as he does. It's hesitation proves to be a fatal mistake as the Challenger rips its guts out with impunity and only the sparks of its death knell alert the Butcher as to the failure of his most favored tool.
The fountain of sparks indicating the utter destruction of the TPK does not go unnoticed as it sparks the interest of both Larry and the Butcher. Larry uses the occasion as an excuse to make good his get away as whatever can take out the metal monster the Butcher keeps as a pet is powerful enough an entity that the Scaletti courier wants no part of no way; no how. For his part the Butcher goes and collects a set of meat cleavers to throw and chop at whatever hero dared to come here and take out his beloved TPK as he bellows a challenge.
"I pity the fool!" Butcher bellows, "That done killed my pet. Now you face the Butcher! And I'm right pissed off!"
"Better to be pissed off than pissed on," The Challenger quips back in the darkness. "The Butcher, huh? Well, Butcher, you face the Challenger now. I've taken down bigger fish than you."
"The Challenger?" Butcher yells in incredulous inquiry, "Kodyax O'Connor? The big time loser of the Extreme Wrestling Federation? You took out the Technologically Perfect Killer? I don't believe it!"
"When are you lunkheads gonna learn?" Challenger growls back menacingly in counter inquiry. "That bozo in charge was a flim-flam man! Nothing was what it seemed!"
"I saw..." Butcher starts to say in protest.
"Exactly what they wanted you to see." Challenger counters then gets a thought. "Hey, Vicky!"
"Still alive, Kody!" Victoria voice calls out. "Everyone else Scaletti grabbed at the club is dead but I can still testify."
"I'll kill you after I kill this fool!" Butcher promises at full volume.
"Empty promises!" Vicky calls out mockingly. "I've seen Challenger at work and I've seen you work. It's going to be a little hard killing someone who isn't restrained."
"SHUT UP!!!" Butcher bellows and chucks a cleaver at her. "He's an all time loser! I seen it on TV!"
"What is he, Vicky?" Challenger asks.
"A big pig!" Victoria Valley calls back. "You've taken down worse."
"Big on brawn and short on brains, huh?" Challenger asks of nobody in particular. "Alright super thug, let's see what you got."
"I'm gonna make you squeal, boy!" Butcher bellows as he chucks a cleaver at incoming shape of the Challenger as he comes barreling towards the pig like a runaway freight train.
"I doubt it." Challenger says in response as he parries the cleaver and runs right into the Butcher. "The only one who's gonna be squealing will be you, piggy."
The route Larry has to take with his delivery van takes him out into the area where the Challenger left the goat brothers. Larry has just enough decency to be courteous enough to rival the guys and help them into his van. Groggily they just obey and come to as they are being driven safely away from the facility.
Moe has even sense to inquire what hit them and when Larry tells them the Challenger took them out on his way to fight the Butcher the thug brothers look at one another, shrug their shoulders and then thank Larry for dragging them out. They may be street thugs but they do have enough sense to realize that running at this point is the best choice. Standing up to a superhero may earn them street cred but going to jail for their stupidity is not worth it, besides getting your tail handed to you by a cape after you pumped him full of lead is just as good too for building one's reputation.
Contractor makes one of his arms into a circular saw to cut Kinetica out of her predicament. She is not exactly happy about her circumstance but grateful to Contractor for getting her out. They converse as he works.
"So where is he?" Kinetica asks.
"Last time I saw him he was going down below," Contractor relates. "Presumably he's taking on the Butcher by now."
"Better him than me," Kinetica quips as Contractor gets enough rebar cut that she can wiggle out. "Still I got felt up as he was choking me out."
"Yeah, I think O'Connor likes the girlies more than the good old boys," Contractor says with a smirk. "I yelled about doing him and he said he'd rather do you."
"I think I might like that," Kinetica says as she licks his muzzle. "I wonder if he's more bear or wolf down there?"
"Most of the body is bear," Contractor speculates. "But I don't think anyone has checked and told."
"None of us have gotten that intimate with him," Kinetica states. "Well none of us from our side at least." Then a stray thought hits her as they make their way to safety as well. "I take that back, one of us has dance on his pole."
"Who?" Contractor asks.
"Well, nobody from VILE or GHOST," Kinetica teases. "But I think Lady Goo-Goo has sampled his goods if you know what I mean."
"FARCE is not a reputable villain team," Contractor grouses as he bounce back up to where Kinetica is flying whereas he is using the rubber like status of his body to make himself a big bouncing ball. "We don't take them seriously. You know what the Professor thinks of them."
"I know, I know but remember when some of us tangled with him and Maiden Russian and other ISULL members in Jersey?" Kinetica asks.
"That's right!" Contractor agrees as he remembers the incident. "Goo-Goo said she got to play nice with Challenger! Well, maybe she's getting a drink."
In a nameless bar hidden away in an unused portion of the Gallery mall in Center City Philadelphia, Kinetica and Contractor walk in and wave to other supervillains having a beer and kibitzing back and forth. The bar is a neutral ground for VILE and GHOST primarily but they tolerate other villains by the nature of the place and the rules of the establishment. By extension this means that members of the Frivolous Association for Ridiculous Criminal Endeavors (FARCE) are welcome to partake as well but few do as VILE and GHOST consider them lesser villains at best and outright posers at worst.
Still as luck would have it, a blonde mink in a scandalous dress is sitting at a booth overlooking the shops below. Kinetica spots her first and after getting herself a beer slides into the same booth on the opposite side of her. Contractor just stays at the bar proper and watches.
"So, what kind does he have?" Kinetica asks of Lady Goo-Goo without any pretense.
"I'm sorry," Goo-Goo says nervously as she was sitting here contemplating her future and going over her options, including switching sides to maybe defecting to ISULL, mainly to have a shot at sleeping with Challenger again.
"Challenger," Kinetica clarifies, "You've seen what kind of package he has. Is it ursine or canine?"
"Canine," Goo-Goo admits. "He has a sheath and a canine cock. Why?"
"Contractor said he'd do him and he said he'd rather do me." Kinetica explains with a lusty smirk. "I wanna know what he has down there. So it looks like he's a true hybrid. Half grizzly; half wolf"
"Yeah," Goo-Goo replies in an uncomfortable tone.
"Good to know," Kinetica says and leaves Goo-Goo who heaves a sigh of relief when she leaves.
"I gotta switch sides," Goo-Goo tells herself quietly. "I wouldn't get such a grilling in ISULL."
A green rabbit woman with purple hair and black diamonds over her eyes among other places on her body along with a cheetah's tear lines and tail in a rather revealing outfit walks in and while nobody challenges her every male with an inclination to the sexual straight and narrow is eyeing her up like a piece of meat. She makes sure walks by Goo-Goo's table and discreetly puts a card in front of her before walking back towards the rear of the establishment. The card is double sided with one side features the silver pentagram ISULL uses for its logo and on the other is the name Cypher, whom Goo-Goo had never heard of before.
Back at the slaughterhouse the Butcher has grabbed a hook on a length of chain and is trying to use it as a weapon to inflict grievous harm on the Challenger. Challenger's chest has been gouged by the implement of destruction many times but without any permanent harm done due the ultra-immune system he got when he first became a hero, that includes a mutant healing factor allows him to regenerate would rather quickly. This lack of progress frustrates Butcher no end as nothing he does can harm his opponent long enough to get a proper advantage over him.
For his part Challenger is still assessing the situation, getting a feel for his surroundings and what he can use to his benefit. A lot of machines are present and the stench of death is rather pervasive, so much it's impeding his ability to take in everything properly as his sensibilities are assaulted with every glance he takes in for his mind to process. Dark rumors come unbidden in his mind of an underground slaughterhouse that takes folks the syndicates want eliminated and makes them into simply meat products to be sold on the black market.
The reality of the rumors made into ugly truth hits his psyche and sensibilities like a runaway freight train builds a fire within him of righteous rage. The change comes as he falls to his knees for a moment which makes the Butcher think he did something, and to be fair he did but not in the course of the fight but how he has been conducting his business until the Challenger arrive to disrupt operations and is now going to shut it all down, and does his best to pour on the beating to ramp up the hurt and put the Challenger in a world of pain before killing him as he initially promised. Then the Challenger rises to his feet and gives the Butcher a look of righteous indignation as the blows bounce of his back like so much rain.
It's when the Challenger gets up slowly and with obviously dangerous purpose that it starts to dawn on the Butcher that the decision to stand his ground and fight might have been a poor one. He manages to hook the mask of the other and try to rip it off and its then that he lifts a hand to confiscate the villain's toy. It's also at this time that his tone drops to a level of seriousness Kodyax only uses when he is royally pissed off and ready to beat someone within an inch of their life.
"This is it isn't it?" Challenger asks although he's already sure he knows the answer. "This is where the rumors I've heard about people being turned into so much meat becomes a reality."
"Yeah," Butcher says with great annoyance. "Why the fuck do you think they call me the Butcher?"
"There are plenty of reasons why someone is called a butcher, boy," Challenger states as he slowly and methodically approaches and the Butcher himself gets the idea that backing away might just be a wise thing to do. "Mainly for the brutal way in which they conduct their business. Not that it really matters but why?"
"What do you mean?" Butcher asks, feigning misunderstanding. "Why do I kill?" Challenger leaps righ in front of him and nods with a forehead smash that staggers the Butcher back. "Hey man! A fellow's gotta eat. Besides, the screams are nice to listen to. Plus I get to have my way..."
"Sicko!" Challenger says while making a haymaker punch that dislocates the Butcher's jaw and he squeals in pain. "Did that turn you on, freak!? I made you squeal. Did you jizz in your pants because of it?" Butcher flips him the bird and Challenger breaks the offending finger by making sure it bends the wrong way. "I don't do this very often. I hate taking guys apart, boy; usually; but in your case I think I can make an exception." The Butcher looks at Challenger stupidly to which Kodyax flashes a fiendish smile. "I'm going to enjoy my work and if you live you'll be months in intensive care and years in physical therapy before you can even take a piss without somebody to hold up your pathetic cock."
Butcher catches Challenger with a powerful backhand that barely even phases the hero. Desperation comes over the villain as he realizes that this is not the loveable loser that he saw on television and that he is in for the beat down of his life with himself as the victim instead of the perpetrator. Any and all bravado he might have had beforehand has quickly left him as like all bullies at the very heart of the Butcher is a pure yellow coward.
Any and all thoughts of munching on the Challenger's cock as smoked sausage has vanished in a puff of smoke as all the Butcher wants to do now is get away. Challenger throws him against the wall with enough force to create a Butcher sized crater within it. Butcher crawls out and throws debris to slow his opponent down enough for him to get away.
Challenger bounces Butcher onto the belt feeding the bone stripper hard and as he groans and tries to recover he creeps closer and closer to the spinning cylinder of death with its multitude of cutting teeth that he has condemned so many others previous and sealed their fate to a relatively quick but ultimately very painful end. Butcher sees the device and gets a devious plan; a desperate hope to still turn defeat into victory as he rises and beckons the hero closer in a mocking manner suitable for such ultimate cowards that are the bullies of whom the Butcher is a most prime example thereof. Kodyax is no fool but the idea of finishing off the Butcher with one of his machines is such a delicious irony of poetic justice that he finds himself completely unable to resist.
The conveyor belt is much narrower than the Butcher realized which might cause most folks to reconsider their plans but the arrogance that had served the Butcher for so long also causes a lapse in judgment that he thinks it works to his advantage. One good grappler the Butcher thinks and he can toss the Challenger into the stripper and he can add a superhero to the list of folks he's killed over the years. This thought fills him with such joy and pleasure that any conflicting thoughts that this might not actually work are banished from his mind and thought process.
Unfortunately for the Butcher, what he fails to take into account is the sheer fact that while the Challenger was a professional wrestler and thus trained in the martial arts, especially the finer points of grappling with an opponent, his training consisted of beating up other kids on the playground and then graduated to cheap shots on drunks and leg breaking for the syndicates. Suffice to say that calling this a situation where the bad guy is delusional, in over his head and just not having what it would take to accomplish his fancifully deadly plan of action is putting it mildly. What's worse is that the Challenger has correctly assumed that the Butcher is something of a sadist when he has the upper hand and has decided to give the gangland enforcer a taste of his own bad medicine.
"School's in session," Challenger says gleefully to Butcher as they initially grapple.
"What do you mean?" Butcher asks fearfully as Challenger executes a super leap straight up and reverse the hold so that when they come back down Butcher is on the receiving end of an atomic drop.
"I take it you like wrestling?" Challenger asks facetiously, "You're going to get the full experience; my treat."
"Mother fucker!" Butcher curses as he follows the atomic drop up with a simple bear hug. "You bastard! This was a specialty of yours. Just because you're half grizzly..."
"I'm just getting started," Challenger promises to which Butcher's eyes go wide.
"No! I'll be good!" Butcher falsely promises as he tries to rack the hero.
"You make promises like a politician!" Challenger growls angrily and switches to a one handed chokehold that he then turns into a tombstone slam. "We're running out of room!"
"Fuck you! This ain't no damn game!" Butcher yells before realizing his boot is now caught in the churning spiked cylinders of his own death machine. "I'm caught! Save me!"
"I think not," Challenger says with a dark grin as he jumps off the machine and watches the Butcher become just another victim of his own murder machine with in unintelligible screams of pain and dying filling his ears as he hangs his head in a mixture of triumph and shame.
He has just beaten a truly evil individual it's true and sentenced him to the fate he had consigned countless others to. The fact that the Butcher would have gladly fed him to that modified wood chipper is not lost on him but was there really any danger of that happening. Kodyax maintains all the skills of a professional wrestler and used them on a professional thug with an aptitude for murder.
Was he really in danger from the villain, Kodyax asks himself. In all actuality the answer to that is always yes, there is always a chance that the villain find some way of beating him and using a machine to dismember him. Ultimately this is one fight that will put a blemish on his record even if the homicide is justified he knows he does not have the right to be judge, jury and executioner.
Victoria Valley however who witnessed everything is of a very different opinion than her rescuer of the situation as it unfolded. The Butcher was clearly murderously deranged and eager to add the Challenger to his list of victims. Once freed finding a detailed list of victims is not hard including several crime fighters that have been missing for years.
She is however only going to come to this conclusion after another bit of business is concluded. Once free, the first thing she does with her hand is put them down Kody's pants. Kody looks askance of her but considering the trauma she was put through, he is not about to deny her.
"Vicky," Kody says in an embarrassed tone. "Do we really..."
"We're alone down here, Kody," Victoria promises. "I sincerely doubt any thugs you knocked out on the way down here are going to disturb us now. And after watching Porky Pervert sodomize everyone else before getting around to abusing me I want to be fucked by someone I know I can trust."
Kodyax starts to say something in protest and then thinks better of it and just pulls his pants down to his ankles and lets Victoria do what she wants. Victoria licks at his sheath and scrotum until she gets his cock out and once that has been accomplished she sucks his prick to get it hard enough to penetrate her folds. When she deems his phallus hard enough she leaps into his arms and impales herself along his length.
Victoria rides his pole and moaning loudly all the while as she is thoroughly enjoying this even as part of her is thinking what a great story this could make. It's then that Kodyax gets a text from the police department looking for a heads up if not a full progress report apparently unaware of the situation, which is largely the case as the last activity they know he was party to is when he played handball with Don Giovanni Scaletti playing the part of the ball in question, and now they are anxious for news of what he has since found out. . Kodyax simply texts back "Track Me" as a response as explaining what just happened would require a phone call and he's not about to be that rude to his friend and sometime activity partner by calling the cops as she's bouncing her naked rear up and down his shaft.
The police don't exactly have an easy time finding him as the reason reception is so spotty where Kody is relies mainly on how that place was built. Kodyax is fucking Victoria in a kind of hot spot right now and can barely be tracked at his current location. Down where they are, the sounds of police sirens off in the distance is non-existent as the only thing Kodyax can hear right now is Vicky moaning and yelling at him not to stop what he is doing.
It's only when the police start yelling Kody's code name as they search the facility that he is aware of their presence. Fortunately for the decency of everyone involved, Kodyax has shot his climax within Victoria and she was cleaning his cock when they got close enough for him to hear them. He clutches her close, and makes sure his pants are pulled up and secure before doing this, and leaps out of the hole rather effortlessly.
Rachel "Rabbit Ears" Tesla is called in to analyze the situation and is with the police when they arrive. She records both the brief they will give to the police and a longer dissertation that will go in ISULL's records and will not be shared with anyone else without someone paying a $1 billion fee first. The Union has to make its money somehow...