“We’re The Newest Heroes. We’re responding to your distress call.” Nathaniel says upon entering the radio station on planet Yogo.
The giant centipedes who live there explain the situation. They are being terrorized by a monster. It destroys everything they build and beats up anyone who tries to stop it. It seems to hate technology. The only reason it hasn’t taken down the radio tower is because of the electric fence around it. “You mean the broken fence we stepped over to get here?” Haticat asks.
After making a quick trip back to the ship for supplies and opening it up to shelter any displaced centipede people, the heroes go hunting for the monster. The terrain of Yogo is mostly red boulders and gravel, but in this area there are also decent numbers of centipede trees. These are sessile centipedes planted upright in the ground with large, leafy legs to gather sunlight. Only some varieties have mouths and only some of those are known to ambush prey. They finally catch up with the monster stomping on the ruins of a house destroyed earlier. The beast greatly resembles a bear, with a rat-like face and three large horns somewhat like those of a triceratops. Nathaniel shoots it with a laser rifle and it runs into the trees. “Yikes, that should have killed it.”
“It must have a thick hide,” Fred says.
They chase it down again, attempting to close in from three sides. Nathaniel approaches its left, Haticat and Fred approach its right, and Doctor Bill and Mojo approach its rear. Before they can get a clear shot past the trees and without hitting each other, the monster charges Haticat and Fred at high speed. It is so fast, they hardly have time to react when it knocks them over, picks them up in its mouth, flings them around, and smashes them against the ground several times before running away again. Nathaniel fires one shot and misses. “Oh. Ow. My eyes,” Haticat mumbles as he turns over. Nathaniel sees that both his eyes and his nose are gone.
“Hey! My eye fell out,” Fred says, holding his forehead in pain. His left eye is missing. Doctor Bill and Mojo tend to their injuries. They have minor tears at every joint that need to be sewed shut before their stuffing leaks. Nathaniel goes looking for their missing parts. Fred’s missing eye and nose are nearby, but Haticat’s eyes and nose take longer to find. Nathaniel eventually finds them scattered widely over twenty meters away. Mojo sews them back on and within the hour both Fred and Haticat are as good as new.
“We need to rethink our strategy,” Doctor Bill says.
“Yes, and I have an idea,” Nathaniel says. “I read what I could about this planet before we landed. There is a mineral common here called explodium. It is made of microscopic compressed molecular springs held in place by tiny loops. Vibration of the proper amplitude and wavelength will dislodge the loops and allow the springs to expand, setting off a chain reaction in the explodium around it. I suggest we lure the beast into an explosive zone and fire properly-calibrated sonic weapons around it.”
“Sounds good,” Haticat says.
The next morning, they chase the monster into a gorge lined with explodium. All five of them fire ultrasonic beams into the ground around it. Instantly, the gorge is filled with dust. When it finally settles, they see that the sides of the gorge have collapsed and the monster is nowhere to be seen.
To confirm their kill, the heroes go digging in the rubble. Doctor Bill uses his scanner, but the red minerals here make scanning difficult. “Hold it, I’m picking up a large organic mass. That might be it.”
“Or it could be a centipede tree,” Mojo says.
“One way to find out: Dig here,” Doctor Bill says.
As they are digging, they hear a sound. “Mercy. Mercy.”
“What was that?” Fred asks.
The ground shifts slightly and the monster’s face emerges. “Don’t hurt me.” It can talk!
“Why not? We’re heroes. Hurting bad guys is our job,” Nathaniel says.
“The best heroes rescue everybody and hurt nobody,” The Monster says.
Nathaniel thinks for a moment. Its statement had a ring of truth to it. “We have to hurt you to stop the centipede people from getting hurt.”
“No, you don’t. I give up. You win. I won’t hurt anybody or break anything again,” The Monster says.
“Well…That does sound like a good deal,” Nathaniel says.
“What about revenge for what is already done to make things even?” Haticat objects.
“I invented a new idea that makes it okay to be uneven!” The Monster says.
“What invention?” Haticat asks.
“I call it mercy. You give someone mercy instead of vengeance and it holds its place in the structure of morality; it plugs the hole. That way, the perpetrator’s hurts are not added to the hurts of the victims. That way, there’s less total hurt in the universe,” The Monster says.
Nathaniel scratches his head. “So, according to the math, it would be okay to hurt you, but even better not to hurt you…”
“Yes, that’s how mercy works,” The Monster says.
“Well, the math makes sense,” Nathaniel says.
“You invented this?” Haticat asks.
“Yes, I invented it four years ago. After my friend hurt me, I let him go,” The Monster says.
“A most intriguing piece of conceptual tech – perhaps on par with the invention of the number zero,” Doctor Bill comments. “Brilliant!”
“Okay, we’ll let you go. Hurting you won’t undo what’s done I guess,” Nathaniel says.
“That’s right,” The Monster says. “Mercy is the difference between good heroes and great heroes, and you guys are awesome!”
Fifteen minutes later, The Monster is free from the rubble and healing rapidly. It has even faster healing powers than Nathaniel gained from drinking The Genius’s healing juice. They all take a rest. A dry wind blows across the desert, making the sunlight tolerable. Nathaniel drinks some water and thinks about how awesome of a hero he is. “Can I have some water? Healing all these wounds makes me thirsty,” The Monster says.
“Sure, anything to protect and serve,” Nathaniel says. He jumps down from his boulder and holds his canteen near The Monster’s rat-like face. Suddenly, he is thrown against the boulder such that his back cracks and all the wind is knocked out of him. The Monster then stomps on their sonic guns, crushing them to bits, before tossing Fred and Doctor Bill to the side and biting Haticat’s tail. It spins him around and smashes his face into the rocks so hard that his nose and both eyes fall off again. Then he spins him around until his tail snaps and he goes flying. Finally, Mojo shoots The Monster in the back with a laser. Then it screams and runs away.
Nathaniel, Fred, Doctor Bill, and Mojo immediately begin pursuit. “Where are my eyes? I need them sewn on again,” Haticat says, but in the chaos no one hears him. He unholsters his pistol and follows the sound of the others running until he hits a boulder. He tries to go around it, but finds it is too big. He tries to go the other way, but learns it is even bigger that way. He finally climbs on top of it, but falls off the other side and drops his gun. He feels everywhere for it, but it is gone. Without his nose, he can’t even smell for it. By this time, he can no longer hear his friends and he is too far away from his play-host Nathaniel to remain alive. He finally faints from play-starvation.
The four others chase the monster into an open field. They fire lasers at it, but mostly miss. Then The Monster turns around and glares at them. It digs one horn into the ground. Veins of explodium throughout the field explode at once, sending stones of all sizes into the air. Nathaniel is hit in the back and temple. Doctor Bill is buried. The cloud of dust is so thick they cannot see more than two meters. Neither can The Monster. As it ambles along out of the clearing, Nathaniel runs out of the cloud at top speed, blood dripping down the side of his head, carrying an electromagnetic scanner and a vibrating sword. Before The Monster can react, his right horn is sliced clean off and hits the ground with a clang. It spins around to bit Nathaniel, but instinctively freezes when it finds the sword imbedded in its neck. “Mercy,” it squeaks.
Nathaniel stares at it, breathing heavily. “I already gave you mercy.”
“You can do it more than once. There’s no limit,” The Monster explains.
“You betrayed me,” Nathaniel says.
“You can grant mercy for that, too,” The Monster explains.
Nathaniel slowly withdraws the sword and The Monster relaxes. “I think you might attack again, so I need to find a way to stop that.”
“I won’t. I learned my lesson,” it says.
“I don’t trust you,” Nathaniel says.
“Okay,” it says.
Nathaniel climbs atop The Monster and rides it away, his sword ready to cut off its head if it doesn’t obey. Haticat is rescued and Mojo finds his gun not one centimeter away from his hand. It takes twelve hours of sifting through rubble to find his eyes. They had fallen between the rocks too deep for the scanners to find them. Finally, he is all put back together. The Monster is locked inside the ship until it can be fit with a collar containing a tracking device and a remotely-detonatable bomb in case it ever attacks again. It is let go the next morning.
Work then begins on rebuilding the Yogoan houses. They use stones, mostly. Ground up centipede trees are used as mortar. Specially treated mortar becomes transparent enough to use as windows. The heroes help a little bit and then go exploring in their buggy.
Not long into their journey, they encounter a crying centipede. Its back two-thirds has been paralyzed and is too heavy to drag. “What happened?” Mojo asks.
“The Monster just bit me,” it answers.
“Which way did it go?” Nathaniel asks.
The centipede points with its antennae and Nathaniel starts to yell. “Mojo, help him get to a doctor. The rest of you come with me. Fred, drive.”
Fred drives the buggy while Doctor Bill tracks The Monster and Nathaniel loads the missile launcher. “Right up ahead,” Doctor Bill says.
Soon, they see the explosive collar with its tracker on the ground. It has been torn off. The Monster is nowhere to be seen. “Keep going; it can’t be far,” Nathaniel says.
They drive around the area for fifteen minutes while Haticat uses the telescope. “There!” Far in the distance, on the other side of a gorge, is The Monster.
“Doctor Bill, where is the explodium around here?” Nathaniel asks.
“The scanner shows a large deposit running the length of the gorge,” he says.
“Another trap,” Nathaniel says.
“Yes,” Doctor Bill agrees.
“What about that ledge? Fred, do you think the buggy can jump the gorge there?” Nathaniel asks.
Fred takes the telescope from Haticat. “Looks like it to me.”
“Okay, everyone hold on,” Nathaniel says. Fred pushes the buggy into top speed and they fly over the gorge. The monster doesn’t even bother setting off the explodium. It runs. Once he is close enough to take aim, Nathaniel fires a missile at it. The missile hits the ground near its feet and the force of the explosion sends it rolling a long way.
When they pull up next to it, its front leg lies across its back bent at strange angles. Blood runs everywhere. Nathaniel steps out of the vehicle with sword in hand. The Monster’s eyelids flutter and it begins to cough up blood. “Mercy.”
“You bit a centipede and you lied to us,” Nathaniel says.
“It’s too late to change that. It’s not too late to spare me,” The Monster says.
Nathaniel throws his sword away in frustration. “The math still makes sense!”
“We need to make it impossible for it to fight with anyone again,” Doctor Bill says.
“I know!” Nathaniel says.
“We should remove its teeth and horns!” Haticat suggests.
“Cut its legs off!” Fred yells.
“It will heal. The horn I cut off is already growing back. We need to build a prison for it or move it to another planet,” Nathaniel declares. As they debate, The Monster’s wounds close up and its limb straightens. It stands up and sets its jaw back in place. It stretches its back and hind limbs. Then it flips the vehicle over with the Stuffians in it. The Monster throws Nathaniel to the ground and then picks him up and holds him against a boulder with all his weight behind one paw. Nathaniel feels and hears something crack.
“Now I’ll finish you so you stop bothering me,” The Monster declares.
Struggling to breathe, Nathaniel forces out one word. “Mercy.”
“What?” The Monster grunts.
“Mercy,” Nathaniel repeats.
The Monster looks up at the sky as if genuinely considering it. “Request denied,” it finally replies.
“But…mercy,” Nathaniel stammers.
“Mercy is never guaranteed. Mercy is an option. Mercy is for heroes. I’m not a hero. I’m The Monster. Now die.” The Monster plunges his central horn into Nathaniel’s belly. Pain radiates into every corner of his body. If only he could reach his sword with his tail, he might be able to flip it into his hand, but it is just out of reach.
He is saved by a volley of laser fire hitting The Monster’s back. It cringes. Smoking gashes cut deep, but no vital organs are hit. It drops Nathaniel, turns, and kicks the Stuffians away. They stand up quickly and shoot it again. Fred is stabbed and flung over the buggy. Haticat is stomped on. Doctor Bill is kicked away again and again. Nathaniel drags himself along the ground feeling like he is slowly coming apart. His abdomen gushes blood. He crawls under the buggy and cries.
Outside, The Monster faces Fred and Doctor Bill, still shooting at it. Behind it, Haticat takes hold of Nathaniel’s vibrating sword. He can barely lift it in Yogo’s gravity, but still manages to slice off a hind limb. The Monster sits down hard and screams. Then it sees Nathaniel rounding the side of the buggy, leaning on it for support, and dragging the missile launcher. Fred and Doctor Bill turn to see what it is looking at. “Move,” Nathaniel says in a barely audible whisper. The Stuffians run.
“Mercy! Mercy! Be the greatest hero in history by giving me one more chance!” The Monster begs.
Struggling to raise the missile launcher level, Nathaniel whispers, “I have no mercy left.”