Herc arrived at school in typical fashion; as a school bus. Well, normal for him anyway. Herc had gotten used to the daily morning routine of waking up, morphing to human, eating, driving to school,(as a bus) morphing back to human, stopping Larry Mutton from shoving some nerd into a locker,(typically Mark) and going to class. Today, however, was different; when he walked inside the school, he didn't find Larry (AKA 'The Fox', due to his amazing ability to never get caught by an authority) stuffing some nerd into a locker. He looked up the hallway as far as he could just to be sure. Suddenly, he was grabbed and roughly shoved...you guessed it...into a locker. He felt the door slam and heard a lock click, along with chortling that sounded somewhat less intelligent than a pig's.
"That's for stopping my fun, Greek Onion! Chaw haw haw!"
Larry, of course. It was times like these that Herc wished he still had his old laser burner. Silent but deadly. Then he realized that he could morph into it, and the only thing that stopped him from putting a nice, clean slice through te bully's chest was the bell.
BRING!BRING!BRING!
'How ironic.' Herc thought. 'When I first met this idiot, I was saved by the bell. Looks like thing have turned around now.'
Herc morphed his arm into a key on a string, and morphed to fit the lock. He then managed to escape and run for class. He got there in the nick of time. As he sat down, the teacher started talking.
"Alright class, I have heard complaints about someone bullying you, but you have kept me in the dark as to who. That doesn't matter to me unless it happens in my classroom, so talk to the principal or the PTA or the FBI or some other letter combonation, got it?"
Lisa leaned towards Herc.
"Where were you? You were almost late today!"
"Stuck in some locker traffic."
"But no one got shoved today, which is weird."
"I was the locker traffic this time."
"Herc! Why didn't you blow him up or something?"
"Explosions attract attention."
"I was joking. But, seriously, how much attention could an explosion draw?"
As if in awnser to that question, there was a giant explosion in the room. Everyone turned and gasped.
"That much." Herc said.
"Bringing destruction to your school!"
"Education is so uncool!"
"To put textbooks under lock and key!"
"To infect head lice into the galaxy!"
"Brains, Xenon!"
"Vilgax, brawn!"
"Destruction Duo, ready to fight against learning!"
"Destroying every single notebook in our sight!"
""You better believe we're right!""
Herc couldn't believe his eyes. There was a Cerebrocrustecean of some kind, said he was Xenon, but what was shocking was Vilgax. Vilgax, conquerer of 10 worlds, destroyer of a few, and creator of a black hole. He was obviously weakened, however, and wore some kind of robotic body. Herc quietly morphed into a steel cable, and slithered over to the destructive aliens.
"In case you're wondering why we're here, this is a hostage situation." Vilgax said. "We are going to use you helpless people as bait for Tek. He will have to give us the Ultimatrix, and we can use that to get what we need. So, no talking, plenty of screaming for help, and no tricks!"
Herc morphed back into human behind Vilgax with no-one noticing. He swung up onto the ceiling, and then swung down, foot aimed straight at Vilgax's head.
"No tricks, huh?!" He yelled. "Then you're gonna hate this!"
Vilgax turned just in time to get kicked right in the front of his robotic body's dome, which shattered, and then Herc's foot made contact with Vilgax's face. Vilgax went down hard. Herc landed, waiting to see what would happen. All of a sudden, a red beam shot out, and he was trapped in some kind of hovering orb. Vilgax stood up, unfazed.
"Actually, I believe you're going to be the one least happy with that decision."
Herc was trying to think of a way out of this situation. He looked around, and it didn't look good. He suddenly noticed that the orb he was in was still connected to Vilgax through that red beam. He was hoping that the orb was indeed condensed infrared signals. He took out his Earth laser pointer, and shot it straight down the main beam. Of course, when you have photons hitting photons, something explosive happens. There was a small explosion, throwing up a cloud of dust. While Vilgax was stumbling around, Herc jumped up and gave him the hardest punch a human body could muster. This KOed Vilgax, due to being a direct head shot, but Herc's arm took some recoil damage. Xenon, who had just been watching up to this point, pressed a button on his head brace, and the duo teleported. Herc was left standing in the center of the room. He quickly ran to his seat. The teacher picked up the teaching manual, and continued on as if nothing had happened. When class let out, Lisa said:
"Herc! Why did you do that back there? That was an extremely risky move!"
"Simple." Herc said. "They were a problem, and so I removed them. Plus, I swiped some alien tech to put on my ship."
"Herc!"
"What? Anyways, that battle also gave me the idea on how to catch Larry Mutton in the act. prepare for me to out-fox the fox!"
At lunch time, Mark and Lisa couldn't find Herc. This might have been because Herc was up on the ceiling, clinging like a human spider. Herc looked around for a while, and eventually saw The Fox stuffing a kid's face into his lunch. Herc swung down, like he did in his fight with Vilgax, but this time, he took a picture with a camera of Larry in the act. He later showed the film to the principal, and though it was suspicous that he was even able to get on the ceiling, that was mainly disregarded, the principal focusing more on Larry's bullying. And so, that's how Herc put a stop to The Fox.
Herc, Mark, and Lisa were walking home from school later, when they were stopped by a fairly big stranger in weird red armor.
"Hey!" Herc said. "Get out of our way!"
The stranger leaned over Herc, and was suddenly enveloped in a green light. The group gasped as they recvognized the kid they had seen in the hallway the other day.
"Igneoux!" Herc said angrily. "I should have known! New suit come with hologram projecter?"
"Oh, please." Igneoux said. "As if. This is an actual form, Herc. Have you ever wondered why I'm not interested in claiming the Ultimatrix?"
"No way! That's impossible!"
"Oh, it isn't, now? Let me tell you something, Herc. You are totally clueless as to what happens outside of your little world."
"I know what I need to! I'm smarter than you by a hundred times! You just use your brawn in battle!"
"Oh, really? Try me."
"Gladly!"
Herc turned his hand into a flail and swung at Igneoux. Igneoux reverted back to Metamentian, and easily dodged all of Herc's blows, and then shot sonic bullets at Herc. Herc, being too exhausted by the power of his attack, was unable to dodge, and was knocked to the ground. Igneoux pinned him with a low-power MLDB, and Herc was too weak to even get up. Igneoux retrieved the device and stood around, like he was waiting for something. Herc tried to stand, but collapsed onto the ground. All of a sudden, A faint glow appeared around him. Herc's blue cover started to seem to fall away to nowhere, and was replaced by golden, shiny skin. His shape changed, turning into a form with a wide head with a long, high crest, and thick, padded limbs, along with a slim torso.
"What..." Herc said, suddernly filled with energy. "What is this? What happened to me?!"
"Simple, Herc." Igneoux said. "It's a failsafe installed by the Celestialsapiens into their first attempt at enforcement. Wheever health or energy gets dangerously low, the turn to a form called Azteca, after the ancient aliens that visited the old humans. This form can gather all the energy surrounding the user and compress it into an extremely powerful attack of some kind. Once health and energy have been fully restored, you will revert back to regular. My work here is done."
And with that, Igneoux flew off. Herc stared after him.
"You have one confusing nemisis." Mark said.
"No. It's just that I don't know what's going onwith him. But I intend to find out. Someday, I will find what Igneoux is up to and defeat him in battle. I swear I will do this, or my name isn't Herc the Mercenary!"
"Actually, it technically isn't."
"It's an occupation, Mark."