Blessed by Night

Malachi had often wondered just how interchangeable his powers were.

It was a natural thing to consider when one took a moment to think about the breadth of abilities at his disposal and their various potential uses.

Was he using them at their most optimal? Was there a hidden niche that he could be unknowingly missing?

Ordinarily, Malachi would have consulted Rowan for this, but the old man was rather busy these days, and Mal didn't want to add any more to his plate.

So, he was reduced to discovering different things on his own. Usually, the beginning of a new discovery started with him thinking, 'Huh. This might be cool.' or participating in a powerscaling debate with Bianca.

His current state was the culmination of both sources of inspiration.

Swapping out his darkness for lightning, Malachi became a living beacon who turned the dark sewer into a tunnel of light.

The hulking mass of rat meat covered as many of it's eyes as it could so that it wouldn't go blind from the unholy light show.

It missed the arrival of a floating mass of pure electricity in the shape of a man.

As Mal's hair floated above his head, they eventually ceased to resemble inanimate locks and instead became writhing serpents.

The only 'clothing' that could be seen on Malachi's body were the bracelets he always wore.

With a flick of his wrists, the pieces of jewelry became chained blades with impeccably sharp edges.

Malachi threw the weapons through the air without a moment's hesitation.

The blades easily cut through the tough, mutant flesh of the rats and became embedded in bone.

Lightning crackled through the air.

Even with no lips on his face, it was clear Malachi was smiling.

"This… may fall into the cruel and unusual punishment category."

The chains of Malachi's weapons were quite the conductive material.

Lightning raced across the chains and consumed the rat king like wood over an open flame.

The amount of voltage Malachi produced was an estimated 1.2 terawatts.

It was a sheer miracle that the rat king was able to stay standing longer than a second.

When the creature toppled over, its body had been almost completely vaporized. Once it hit the ground, a cloud of foul-smelling ash billowed into the air.

Camille once again felt as though her father was the coolest man to ever draw breath.

But the man in the sewer with them thought he was closer to a demon.

Both were right in their own ways.

"Oww.." Malachi's new form proved to be unstable, and painful to stay in.

It was the kind of pain he was subjected to when he was doing something he shouldn't be, like turning his neck a full 360 degrees or drinking unsweetened tea.

He returned to his normal avatar state and tried not to show how woozy he felt.

"Put me down!"

Malachi focused his disoriented vision on the floating man he kept suspended in the air with his powers.

"You don't want me to put you down right now. Not unless you can survive an electrocution."

The strange man raised a brow.

"…Your Japanese is terrible." he said in disgust.

Malachi considered dropping the man right then and there.

"…I'm still learning."

"Daddy is a slow learner." Camille noted.

"Okay, now you're just adding insult to injury."

Cami shrugged.

"Put me down! You have no right to hold me like this!" The rat man flailed against Malahi's telepathic grip.

"I told you already, if I put you down, you'll fry."

"Take me outside and put me down then!"

"Sure, but will you tell me what you know about people in Japan spontaneously getting superpowers?"

"Why, what's it to you?"

"It's concerning for one."

"There's nothing at all concerning about what I'm doing! I'm elevating the human race!"

Malachi was immediately alarmed. "You're the reason people are getting powers??"

The stranger snorted. "Obviously. Did you think they were coming from Santa Claus?"

With everything that Malachi had seen, he wasn't really sure. It certainly wasn't something he was willing to rule out.

"Sorry, man. I'm gonna need you to come with me." Malachi sighed. "My friends and I have some stuff we need to ask you."

Malachi started to pull the man towards him so that he could remove them all from the sewer.

However, the man showed him a dirt-speckled smile that chilled his bones.

"Sorry. I don't make being tortured a habit."

"Tortured?"

Malachi turned back around just in time to see a grotesque sight.

A man's body rapidly decomposing and turning into a strange black sludge.

Camille was horrified.

"Dookie man!"

"Cami, close your eyes, please..."

Malachi shook the lump of decomposed human that he was still holding on to, but it was in vain.

There were no signs of life, and no displays of sentience.

It was like the stranger had broken his body down and sent his soul somewhere else on a whim.

Malachi dropped the lifeless husk into the electrified water, and it never so much as twitched.

The man was gone. And Malachi was left with more questions than if he'd never found him at all.

-

"Mommy, mommy, guess what we saw!"

Once back on the ship, Camille rushed to Anna with her arms held out.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Anna ran away and made sure one of the dining room chairs was planted firmly between herself and Camille. "L-Let's get you in the bath first, huh? We can have all of the hugs and kisses you want after."

Cami pursed her lips. "But I didn't get dirty! I wore a bubble suit!"

"Hazmat suit, Munch." Malachi corrected.

"Yeah! A hazmat suit!"

No matter what Cami wore, Anna still wasn't budging.

"Better safe than sorry, my little sewer baby."

Malachi scoffed as he tried to take a seat on the bridge himself. "Wouldn't have thought you'd be so skittish with all of the time you used to spend in-"

Anna pointed a hardened, sharp wing at him. "Hey, you stay off our good stuff too. Neither of you gets to touch anything or anyone till you've been in a bath for two hours."

Malachi couldn't believe he was getting this kind of treatment from the same young woman who would leave dirty dishes in the sink for days if not chastised about it.

A look passed between him and Camille. It was clear they both found the situation equally unfair.

Anna felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. "Look here, you two... I don't know what you're thinking, but I swear to god that you-"

""ATTACK!!""

Camille blinked out of existence. Malachi tumbled into the shadows.

Both of them reappeared in the air above Anna's head and tackled her to the ground, rubbing their bodies and any contaminants all over her.

"No, nooo!! You're both so gross!"

Nadine and Luna came into the kitchen to see what all of the fuss was about.

Once they saw Mal and Cami smothering her, they quietly started to back out of the room.

Malachi spotted them both before they could walk away.

He wrapped their ankles in tendrils of shadow and pulled them in while they screamed for freedom.

"No, no, wait, I just bathed!!"

"Malachi Jadou Saint, you better let me go, or gods help me, I will kill you in your sleep!"

None of their protesting ever worked. They too were sucked into the pile of sewery affection and held there against their wills.

"Ummm... You all having fun?"

Malachi looked up and found Joanne standing over their heads.

"Just holding an obligatory mission debrief."

"I can see that."

Luna was seconds away from tears as she held her hands out for Joanne. She hated being dirty more than she hated being poorly dressed.

"Help.. me..!"

""There's no escape!""

Malachi and Camille grabbed her arm and rubbed their faces against it, making her scream in horror.

Joanne tried to hide her amusement as she took a couple of cautionary steps back.

"Well, everyone should probably take a shower and put on something nice, too. I just got off the line with the Prime Minister, and he's throwing a reception banquet for us."

Malachi forgot all about terrorizing his wives and stood up with hope in his eyes. "Does that mean...?"

Joanne was unable to hide her smile any longer.

"They're going to let us stay."