Beast Soul

"Take the body of the dead creature. Be careful with it." Alan said as he waved his hands to the men, and they immediately headed over to the spot where the dead body of the monster was lying. "What do you think?" Detective Harry walked up to Special Agent Alan Fischer, and whispered softly. "Do you think this is related to the person I talked about?"

"What? The one on the back of the dragon?" Alan didn't turn to look at Harry as he spoke, his gaze still stuck on the monster corpse. "You do remember how I told you that it is a highly unlikely thing to happen, right?"

"But-" Detective Harry wanted to defend his words, but right before he could speak, Special Agent Alan Fischer raised his hand, motioning to him to let him finish speaking, which made Harry close his mouth.

"You should also remember that although I said that I might've taken your words with a grain of salt, that didn't mean that I'm not dismissing what you saw entirely either, right?" Alan turned to face Detective Harry as he finished speaking, waiting for confirmation from the detective, who nodded his head with a confused and nervous expression on his face. "Ye- Yeah, I- I guess…" He replied, and Alan nodded.

He then lightly patted Detective Harry's shoulder and said with a smile, "We'll figure it out, alright? If it's really a person that you saw, then sooner or later, we'll have confirmation. That's how it usually goes." 

"Yeah… yeah, you're right, Agent Fischer," Detective Harry nodded his head, and Alan did the same. "Good. I'm glad that you understand."

"Sir!" All of a sudden, one of the men raised their hand, and the detectives and the special agent turned their attention to him. The man said, "This one has it's heart missing!"

Both the detectives looked at each other as Alan narrowed his eyes and then began to walk towards the group of men. "It's alright. That's to be expected. Continue doing what you were doing and ignore the missing heart." He clarified, and the man who spoke nodded his head and returned to work.

"It's to be expected?" Detective Lewis asked, and Alan reached into his pocket and picked up his phone, bringing it close to his face. "The monster corpse that Richard found after his initial fight with the dragonoid creature had no heart either." He spoke as the phone was ringing, and the two detectives looked at him with a curious expression. "So yes, this was to be expected to some degree. Although maybe not all of the monster corpses I guess."

"So something's taking them out?" Detective Lewis raised his eyebrows in surprise and ran his hands through his short beard. "Do you think the same monster that killed this creature is doing that?" 

"We don't know for sure. But it very well could be," Alan shrugged his shoulders, and right then, the person on the other line answered. "What's the matter?" The voice of Doctor Hernandez could be heard through the phone.

"We found another one." Special Agent Alan replied. "You're going to have to be more specific than that, Alan." The monotonous voice of Doctor Hernandez responded, and Alan let out a short chuckle. "We found another monster corpse. With no heart."

A brief period of silence ensued. After a few seconds, the voice of Doctor Hernandez was heard once again. "I'm going to need to see this corpse. Fast." This time, the usual tiredness that his voice has was nowhere to be heard. Instead, he sounded incredibly serious, his tone containing a sense of urgency. 

"You'll get it soon," Alan replied as he scratched his cheeks.

"I'm going to need it 'sooner'." Doctor Hernandez didn't waste a single second with his response. 

"You'll get it when you get it. Don't worry about it too much, Ralph.." Alan said, and after a few seconds more of talking, he hung up the phone.

A few meters away from the detectives and the Special Agent, were the group of boys - Max, Gerald, Harold and Alphonso, who were standing next to one of the cop cars. 

The boys were a reasonable distance away from them, so the detectives and the special agent had assumed that they wouldn't be able to hear what they were saying to each other. However, what they did not know was that these weren't your average group of teenagers.

"Are you guys also hearing this?" After a few seconds of total silence, Alphonso turned his head and whispered softly under his breath, and the other three nodded their heads. 

"I can hear them, even when they're speaking with such a low voice. This is awesome. I really am a superhero!" Alphonso was excited by what was happening to him. Even though it was such a small and negligible change, he was nevertheless excited about it. It seems that he really does love being a superhero.

"Keep it quiet, Alphonso!" Harold also whispered softly as he responded to Alphonso's words. However, even though he was speaking in a hushed voice, his aggressive tone was heard by the rest of the group. "You have the ability of super hearing, not super quietness!" The veins on his forehead were visible as he spoke. 

"Well, in my defense, who knows. Maybe I really might have the ability of super quietness, alright?" Alphonso said with a nervous laughter, but he had certainly realized his mistake. 

"Oh my god, just shut up! Both of you!" Gerald shook his head and clicked his tongue as he whispered, and the two nodded their heads reluctantly. "We'll figure out our superpowers some other time alright?" He continued. "Right now, let's focus on what we heard."

"Yeah, yeah, you're right," Max nodded his head, and he placed his finger under his chin as he began to think. "What do you think happened to the heart of the monster?" He asked, and everyone's gazes turned into ones filled with curiosity.

"Are you sure that you didn't turn it into dandelions?" Gerald asked with one of his eyebrows raised. The question sounded ridiculous. However, the expression on Gerald's face implied that he wasn't joking. He was asking for real. 

"No. It can't be," Max shook his head, disagreeing with Gerald's theory. "I don't have the ability to change what something is made up of." Max continued his clarification, and the other three listened to his words, fascinated by his skill. "I can only manipulate the path of nature." 

"You do know that you don't need to add 'only' to that sentence, right?" Alphonso said while he rolled his eyes. "Dude! It's a f*cking awesome superpower!"

"Just shut up, Alphonso.." Harold said softly as he slammed his palm onto his face with a disappointed expression. 

Max let out a short chuckle as he spoke. "Uh, thank you Alphonso, I guess…" He then continued. "But the point is that I can't change something that's made out of meat into dandelion flowers. So I'm not the one responsible for taking the heart of the creature."

"Well, the agent did say that this was the first time that it has happened, so it's highly unlikely that the culprit is any of us.." Gerald said as he placed his hand under his chin and went deep into thought. The others did the same as well.

"So… it's probably Noah, right?" Harold said with a nervous voice. He didn't seem too sure about his words, and wanted somebody to back him up.

"... Probably…" Alphonso spoke softly, but he too didn't sound too confident. 

".. if we remove us from the equation, the only one left with superpowers who was present during today's monster attack was him, so…" Even after he said all that, even Gerald was having trouble pointing out Noah as the culprit. 

"Well, he could definitely have a valid reason behind taking the heart.." Max brought up a possible reasoning, and soon everyone nodded their heads in unison. "Yeah, that could be true.." Gerald nodded his head immediately. "Of course, he must have a good reason," Alphonso said. 

And yet, the boys were still feeling strange. As though something was off. Something about the stolen monsterheart made them tremble.

A few miles away from the spot where the boys and the cops were standing.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

A dark figure moved quickly through the air, jumping from the rooftops of buildings with incredible speed. 

Swoosh! Swoosh!

The figure jumped onto the railing of one of the buildings and then crouched down. In the hand of the figure was something large and fleshy. 

The dark figure opened its mouth, revealing its sharp fangs, and bit into the fleshy material, devouring it within seconds.

"Aah!" The man let out a satisfactory sigh as he leaned back and tilted his head up into the sky, and the light that shone on his face revealed him to be Noah.

"Sorry, kid…" Noah spoke to himself with a cold and emotionless voice. "There's something that you're just not ready to know..."