fantasy
Rat Man

8
Lunar City is famous for two things: its neon-lit skyline and the Fabulous Five, a superhero team so catastrophically useless that most residents would rather trust their lives to a stray raccoon with a plastic knife. The Fabulous Five arenβt exactly βheroesβ so much asβ¦ well, you know that group project in school where no one read the assignment, but everyone still showed up to present? Thatβs them, except with spandex.
Take Harrison, for instanceβcodename: Rat Man. His great gift? The astonishing, awe-inspiring, and profoundly underwhelming ability to mind-control rats. Thatβs it. Not all rodents. Not squirrels, not guinea pigs, not even hamsters. Just rats. Even then, only if theyβre within about a ten-foot radius and willing to listen, which, as it turns out, isnβt often.
Harrison likes to think of himself as a brooding antihero, the Batman of the group. Unfortunately, itβs hard to be brooding when your βarmy of darknessβ consists of three sewer rats named Mr. Nibbles, Cheese Thief, and Brenda. His rats are more interested in stale pizza crusts than fighting crime, but Harrison insists theyβre βtraining for battle.β
When villains strike, Lunar City doesnβt cry for help. It groans. Because it knows Rat Man and the Fabulous Five will show upβusually late, usually loud, and usually making things worse. The last time Harrison tried to stop a bank robbery, his rats chewed through the robbersβ getaway carβ¦ but also through three police cruisers, two lampposts, and the mayorβs prized golf bag.
Still, Harrison dreams big. Maybe one day, the world will recognize the value of rat-based justice. Until then, the Fabulous Five keep stumbling forward, proving one painful truth: sometimes, the greatest threat to Lunar City⦠is its own heroes.