WHAT: Leon and Adam run into a giant hand and Leon realizes who Adam is WHERE: Vallo Forest WHEN: Backdated to the first day of the killer hands plot WARNINGS: Violence and giant creepy hands STATUS: Complete
So far being in Vallo hadn’t really been all that bad. When he’d arrived, he’d been warned of the potential dangers and threats to the people living here, natives and Outlanders alike. The whole reason he agreed to join the Defense Team was to protect people from these threats and do what he could to keep people from getting hurt. However, so far, aside from people suddenly rapidly aging or de-aging and pulling flower petals out of his nose, things had been relatively calm. He’d come across a couple of monsters while out on patrol, but they weren’t the worst threats Leon had ever encountered. Compared to Spain, Leon may as well have been on vacation!
It made him feel more than just a little guilty. While he was kicking back here in this world, there were people he left behind who were still fighting. Umbrella may have been taken down, but the damage they’d left behind was still deeply affecting the world. And, if Spain was anything to go by, Umbrella was just one organization of many…
Leon sighed. His mind had a tendency to wander like this when he was out on patrol. It was a dangerous habit to fall into. He glanced at Adam next to him. The other man was so relaxed, so easy going. Leon envied him for that. “It’s quiet again today,” he said.
Adam nodded. “Better than the alternative,” he said cheerily.
Overall, Adam didn’t particularly care for violence or fighting. He did Fight Club to keep himself sharp, and because he was pretty competitive, but Adam preferred to use violence to solve a problem as a last result. Unfortunately in Vallo, many of the enemies that ended up plaguing Vallo wren’t sapient; they couldn’t be talked out of their course of action. Usually punching was the only resort.
When he’d first started working with the Defense Team, Adam had tried to gone out as He-Man every time, but as he became more familiar with the job and with Vallo itself, he usually came out as Adam, unless there was something that required him to use the Power: monsters that he couldn’t fight just as Prince Adam, or if one of the farmers needed his help with some extra heavy lifting. Ever since he’d died, he preferred to stay as Adam over his heroic persona, and the fact that he wasn’t keeping his identity secret anymore – probably never should have kept it secret in the first place, he’d seen how that had worked out – meant that he could transform whenever and wherever the transformation was needed.
It took Adam a moment to recognize the barbed wire fence as Farmer Kuang’s fence when they came across it. He’d helped repair the fence a number of times, but it seemed like it was going to take more than a quick fix this time: four of the posts were snapped cleanly in half, and the barbed wire was a tangled snarl on the ground.
“Be on your guard,” Adam said, studying them. He couldn’t tell how long they’d been broken like this. That sort of tracking wasn’t his forte. Whatever broke it could be long gone, or could be still lurking out in the trees somewhere. He picked his way over the mess of barbed wire and shards of wood. “We should let Grace know about this though. I hope her sheep haven’t escaped.”
His phone dinged – an alert from command – and pulled it out to take a look. He didn’t even see it when the creature darted out from the trees behind him and closed around him.
Leon unholstered his service weapon when they came up on the fence. The sudden change in Adam’s demeanor put him on alert as well. Something wasn’t right. Leon’s eyes narrowed as he scanned the tree line, though he had no clue what it was he was looking for. He didn’t have to look long.
Leon barely registered the ding of Adam’s phone before something large and grey lunged out of the tree line. “Incomming! Get down!” Leon yelled. He managed to roll out of the way of what, at first glance, seemed like a large spider skittering towards them. Adam, unfortunately, wasn’t so lucky.
Leon rolled up to a knee in time to see the creature wrap itself around Adam. “Boss!” He leveled his gun at the creature and realized what he had thought was a spider was actually worse. It was a…hand? A hand chopped off at the wrist and with too many fingers. What the fuck is that?! Whatever it was, he had to get it to let go of Adam. He opened fire on that fleshy wrist stump. If nothing else than to get its attention on him.
Whatever had grabbed hold of Adam was strong. It squeezed the air from his lungs, bruised his ribs, and he struggled to draw breath. It was only seconds though before he heard the sound of gunshots.
The creature jerked, and then flung him aside, the motion sharp and jarring. He landed on his back, but managed to backspring onto his feet, his hand already gripping over his shoulder. The Sword of Power materialized in his fingers, and before he even glanced at what had attacked him, he was calling out to the Heavens, “By the power of Grayskull!”
Above them, black stormclouds roiled and circled, appearing from nowhere, and the lighting engulfed him. It wasn’t only a few moments before He-Man was standing where Adam had been. “I have the power!”
And then he took in the scene. Whatever creature was advancing on Leon was more than a little horrifying. He swallowed back his revulsion and smiled instead. “Leon, you look like you… need a hand.”
What…the….fuck….? It isn’t every day that the hero from your favorite childhood cartoon comes to life. And it certainly isn’t every day that you discover that said childhood hero is the leader of your team. Needless to say, Leon had no idea how to process what the hell he was seeing.
Rather than short circuiting, he opted to not process it at all. Doing so had worked for him so far. It helped that a giant monstrosity of a hand was bearing down on him much too quickly. Whatever the fuck Adam had turned into could wait until they’ve taken care of this fucking thing.
He held his ground as he continued to fire at the hand. He emptied the clip into those ugly horrifying fingers, before rolling out of the way of their grasp. He ejected the spent clip and slammed in a new one. He came up on a knee on the creature’s flank. “A hand would be nice!” He shouted back at Adam.
He-Man didn’t need to be told twice. He didn’t even need to be told once, really. With a single, two-footed leap, he closed the distance, cleaning taking off three fingers with a single swing of his sword.
AdamHe-Man had the attention of the giant hand-horror now. It recoiled in pain, blood spurting from the knuckle stubs where the fingers used to be. To Leon, that was a good sign. If it bled, if it could feel pain then they could beat it.
The creature turned on He-Man, moving its massive bulk with speed and agility a creature of its size shouldn’t have. Leon got to his feet and searched for some kind of weak spot on the creature - some kind of target - but found none. His mission knife was no sword, all he could do was continue to shoot it in hopes of slowing it up enough for He-Man (Fucking He-Man ) to chop it up some more.
He-Man grinned when the giant hand turned its attention toward him. He pointed his sword at it. “Hands up!” he demanded. “You still have time to surrender before I nail you.”
The hand pounced. “I tried to warn you,” He-Man sighed, before he swung, cleaving the hand in two between the metacarpals in a spray of blood. The fingers gave a couple of twitches before they laid still.
“Well, that’s the first time I’ve seen one of these around here,” he said after a moment, poking one of the halves with the point of his sword.
Reflexively, Leon raised an arm to shield himself from the blood and gore that sprayed from the now split-in-two hand. He shook off the access blood with a vague wonder if giant monster hands were worse than the mutated monsters he usually found himself fighting against.
The question was forgotten when he looked again at his boss and was quickly reminded that his boss was He-Man. He couldn’t help but stare. “Yo-you’re --” the sound of his own stupid sounding voice shook him out of his own head. He quickly holstered his gun and joined He-Man at the side of the now dead hand.
It took a moment for He-Man to realize what had surprised Leon so much, but when he did, he laughed: a deep, rich noise. “Yes, I’m He-Man,” he said. “I guess the transformation can be a bit of a surprise if you’re not expecting it. I should have warned you; I’m sorry. I’m still the same old Adam though, no need to fear.”
Leon was staring again. Afraid? Who could be afraid of He-Man, arguably the best hero of all time?! “No…I mean, of course…I…” Jesus Christ this was bad. Leon looked at the half of hand in front of them, palming his left shoulder as he did. “I’m sorry, I, uh, -- this is probably going to sound weird or stupid, but, you were in a TV show I used to watch when I was a kid,” Leon explained. “You’re actually one of the reasons I wanted to to be a cop.”
He-Man stared. “I was? You did?” he asked, surprised. It was a little strange to think about the fact that someone in another world had watched him on television, but then, maybe not that strange. He was sure he’d heard other people talking about having comics made of them, books.
And it felt good to know he’d helped inspire some kid to grow up to help people.
His blank, mildly concerned stare gave way to a dazzling smile. “I’m glad that I could help you get on a good path then, even if I didn’t know it at the time. Let’s put up this fence again, and you can tell me about the show?”
Adam’s easy going demeanor helped Leon relax. At least a little bit. There was still the entire matter of being attacked by a giant hand-spider that they hadn’t fully addressed yet. He glanced at the creature, then over at the tree-line, half expecting another one to come barrelling at them at speed. Of course nothing did. Leon’s eyes narrowed a little before joining Adam at the fence.
“The show originally aired back in the 80’s.” He said as he and Adam started repairing the fence. “They did another show in the 1990’s, and another in 2004. I watched a little bit of the 90’s show,” he admitted sheepishly. “But I never got a chance to watch the 2004 version.” Mostly because he was training his ass off by that point of his life with very little personal time.
Leon went on to describe the classic 80’s cartoon as he remembered it, specifically talking about a couple of his favorite episodes. He also kept a close eye on the treeline as they worked and talked, just in case something else decided to attack them.
He caught himself a couple of times teetering on the edge of sounding like a complete fanboy. The second time he caught himself he cast a sheepish look Adam’s direction. “Sorry,” he said. “I don’t mean to come off as a complete nerd. It’s just…the show meant a lot to me back then.”
It was strange hearing Leon tell He-Man stories about events that he was there for. He recognized them, and sometimes expanded on the stories, but it was still his life that Leon was talking about. It could have been unnerving, if He-Man let himself dwell on it too much.
He wouldn’t dwell on it.
“Don’t be sorry,” he said, shooting Leon a grin. “I like nerds. Hearing people talk about the things they like makes my day. Don’t ever be ashamed of that.”
He stood back from the fence, running a critical eye over their handwork, and then gave a pleased smile. “Well, that should do it. How far do you think we are from the ocean right now?”
Leon relaxed a little more, the sheepish look turning into a more genuine smile. “Thanks,” he said. He also took stock in their handiwork. Leon had never attempted to mend a fence before. Honestly, the last few missions he’d been on had been more about breaking fences…and walls…and barrels…
…but the work looked decent enough and not like it would blow over at the slightest gust of wind. Leon was actually kind of proud at how well they’d done.
He glanced at He-Man when the other asked how far they were from the Ocean. “Oh, uh…I dunno…” He said, raising a hand to his forehead and squinting towards the sun. “A couple miles, maybe?” He looked back at He-Man. “Why?”
He-Man frowned to himself, and then nodded to himself. Instead of answering Leon directly, he gripped the hand by the wrist, spun several times, and, once he had enough momentum, he released it. The hand rapidly disappeared into the sun and, hopefully, into the ocean. He-Man would feel terrible if he discovered that he’d just flung it into someone else’s yard.
“I thought I’d do a little cleaning up,” he said, brushing his hands off with a sense of accomplishment. “It’s wrong to litter, after all.”
Leon probably should have expected something like that, especially considering he’d just semi-gushed about his favorite morning cartoon that just so happened to feature the very man in front of him. It was one thing to have watched it animated on TV in classic 80’s fashion, but it was an entirely different thing to see it done in person.
He-Man’s added “it’s wrong to litter” at the end brought up memories of the little PSA’s at the end of cartoons back in the day. Leon laughed a little. “Yeah,” he said with a slight nod, “it is.” His attention returned to the tree line. “We should probably report in and let them know what happened.”
Adam nodded. “I’ll shoot Sara and Shiro a message,” he said. “Thank you. You really saved my neck back there.”