A cool breeze blows through the hair and purple cape of a particular rodent as his mighty claws grip the roof of a building. The whizzing cars and bustling sidewalks hum with an unknowing gratitude to their guardian: the purple patriot, MIGHTY MUSKRAT. His sharp eyes pierce the night as the gloomy glow of the stars above illuminates the fog rolling in from the bay. He leaps from his perch with silent stealth, and begins his run through the unsleeping city. His broad, beastly shoulders bear more weight than even a creature as powerful as him – or even a mere grown man – can possibly bear.
That’s because he is not a beast, or even a man. He is a tenth-grade high-school student from Marlborough High. Beneath the hard flesh and twisted muscle, beneath the fur-coated exterior of the gruff, masculine muskrat, lies the imaginative and young mind of Melvin Morale.
Mighty Muskrat streaks through the streets as fast as his flying feet can take him, daring purse-snatchers and cigarette-pack stealers, pitiless perpetrators and erroneous evil-doers, to step out of their doors. Since he had arrived as the polis’ protector, crime had decreased in all of its forms, now festering only in back alleys or seething in a cell, serving a sentence.
That was enough to keep him in the metropolis for a time, but now his presence in the city and attention to its defense is more important than ever. Something much bigger than pilferers, bank robbers, or even mobsters lurks its streets. Although Mighty Muskrat has taken the city by the collar, polished its black underbelly, and shaken every flea from its fur, that has only made room for a more threatening evil power, one that rivals even the Amethyst Avenger. This new enemy is the stubborn burr, the skunk spray, the milked metaphor that is soiling the city’s coat once again. So our protagonist speeds, as only a cape-wearing super-rodent can, to a southern Ontario middle school in Marlborough, a veritable blip on anybody else’s radar, but a vital step in his investigation.
* * * *
Will Kolkman walks to school. Will Kolkman shrieks and is hauled into a nearby bush by a clawed hand.
“Will Kolkman,” a booming (but boyish) voice speaks, “I’m only gonna ask you once. Where is Blake Ours?”
“He disappeared, Melvin, just the same way you did.”
Melvin drops his mighty jaw, stunned. “How do you know who I am?” Though Mighty Muskrat had appeared only shortly after Melvin’s supposed death, nobody had guessed that they were one and the same. Not until now, that is.
“I saw it happen, Mel. I saw the lightning tear a hole in the ground the size of a car, right where you were standing.” Will lowers his voice. “And I saw what came out of that hole, Mel.” He studies his massive captor.
Melvin relaxes his grip on Will and stands silently, every frightening feature seeming to fade from his flexed frame, leaving what remains of the former “Marlborough Muskrats” mascot. He sets an opposable-thumbed paw on his old friend’s shoulder.
“It’s still me in here, dude.”
Will smiles, and says, “I don’t know where Blake is, Mel. But I think I know who does.”
* * * *
The pair walk cautiously through the deserted halls, populated only by the sounds of the janitor struggling to pull a prank-victim hamster out of the girls’ toilet, and the muffled squeals of a kid struggling to avoid having a bully flush his head down the toilet. Though he has a newfound sympathy with the former, the latter receives his attention. Violet vengeance tears through his veins as he sweeps to the anaemic academic’s aid.
“Stop!” The bathroom walls shake. The teenage tyrant and stammering serf both fall to the cold floor, made equals by the very sight of …
“MIGHTY MUSKRAT!” In unison, they stand to run, but the belt of the bully is pulled back and turned, so that the meanie stares directly into the menacing mandibles of the Mauve Marauder. As Will helps the freshman escape his after-school ablutions, Mighty Muskrat addresses the bully.
“Where is Blake Ours?”
“I don’t know! I mean, he’s dead, isn’t he?” he stammers unconvincingly.
“Let’s try this again, shall we, David Black?” Mighty Muskrat pulls the teen outside, where he is shocked to see his vintage ’81 Camaro balanced precariously on the upper level of the parking garage adjacent to the school, with nothing but asphalt to break its fall.
“That explosion at the Morales’ garage,” Mighty Muskrat grips David’s collar, “it didn’t kill Blake Ours, did it?”
“N-No,” David says.
“It turned him into something horrible, didn’t it?”
“I don’t know… ” The car slips forwards a little. “O-Okay! You’re right; he’s a monster! Please get my car!”
“He’s been terrorizing my city, pal,” Mighty Muskrat seethes, “and I need to know exactly what he has become, and what I can do to stop him!”
“Alright, I’ll tell you whatever you want. He turned into a bear with wings.”
A puzzled set of masked eyes stares back at the frantic jock.
“A flying bear?”
“Yes – I’m telling the truth!”
Almost on cue, the Camaro slides from its perch, beginning its apocalyptic descent. In a flash, Mighty Muskrat catches the car, leaving a perfect set of clawed feet imprinted in the pavement below him. The Canadian caped crusader carries four wheels of American muscle on his shoulder back to the school, and sets it safely down in front of the shocked student.
A shadow crosses the sky above. Broad and torn bat-like wings hover above the car, then drop the hulking mass, crushing the vehicle beneath it. As glass shatters and sprays across the parking lot, a bear-like Blake bellows,
“Boo!”
Mighty Muskrat stands his ground, pushing the youth behind him and whispering, “Run!” Not a difficult order, David runs for his life.
“We finally meet, Mighty Muskrat!”
“Gimme a break, Blake! If anybody knows who I am, it’s you.”
“Well, Melanie Morale; it seems that lightning does strike twice.” Then, Grinning, he says, “Do you really think you can keep control of that city? You’re just as pathetic now as you were before, Miss Muskrat. You couldn’t even let the little squealer’s car hit the ground – I had to crush it for you.”
Righteous anger grips our hero, and fear for his beloved metropolis and disgust for girl-names balls up in his fist, and he takes a Mighty swing. Blake’s hand catches Melvin’s, and with a crushing twist, he pushes Mighty Muskrat to his knees. The bruin chuckles cruelly as he delivers a shattering blow to his head.
Will waits in the school until the grim grizzly disappears in the dark clouds above. Coming to his friend’s aid, he says, “Melvin! Are you alright? Can you move?”
Before losing consciousness, the Amethyst Avenger manages a weak but determined smirk.
“Will, what do you know about hunting bears?”
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