“Dingdong Narciso! The greatest and most proficient politician in the world! The Martial Law was introduced to lessen all crime in the Philippines, and the introduction of the War on the Illegal Splooge Trade! Splooge is a mutagenic substance that is highly addictive! One sip from the radioactive substance, and each shot makes one person stronger, faster, quicker, and enters an all-time high. Then, THE ASWANG came along,” said the news anchor.

  Meanwhile, President Dingdong angrily twitched his nose. “I want him dead…”

  “Mister President, I want to tell you that Mister Dougnut Trumpet would like to have a word with you,” said his secretary, but Dingdong waved his hand as the secretary was ushered out of the room by the mysterious man in cockroach spandex.

  “Undying… I want him… dead…” said Dingdong. “The Congress considered Impeachment.”

  “I know, sir,” said Undying.

  “You didn’t FUCKING LISTEN!!!” he boomed. He composes himself, breathing in. He suavely fixes his hair with his comb. “How are the Facebook Echochambers?”

  “They still pray to you like a God, my good sir,” said Undying.

  “The Fernandezes?”

  “Shot them with my icicle. Dead. All of them.”

  “Mmm,” said Dingdong, bouncing his leg with incredible annoyance. “And the Aswang?”

  “Checked the dumpster. No body.”

  “So, he’s alive,” said Dingdong.

  “Sir, he should still be in Tondo. He wouldn’t have gotten very far.”

  Dingdong sighs, as he places some powdered Splooge on his wrist and sniffs it into his nasal cavity. “Did you shoot the bastard with garlic?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You’ve got 3 days. Go home empty-handed, then no paycheck.”

  Undying nods and augments ice crystals from his hand as he jumps off the window of the Palace.

  Dingdong mutters. “I don’t know what you want, but I won’t let you destroy what I built…”

  Meanwhile…

  Miguel sighs, now back in school, Saint Lorenzo Ruiz Manilan University High School. He sighs in relief, entering the air-conditioned hallway and approaching his next class.

  Miguel listens intently to the buzzing of the bees outside, looking out in the window.

  “MISTER AZRAL!!!! I know your parents are Multiversal Immigrants of yourself, but you cannot treat this class as a joke!” yelled Miguel’s Filipino Teacher. ”You should pay attention!”

  Miguel avoids eye contact. “AND YOU SHOULD LOOK AT THE BOARD WHEN I TELL YOU TO!!!”

  Miguel tries his best, but is far too uncomfortable doing so.

  “I’ll call your parents later,” said the teacher.

  “They’re away.”

  “Any guardian for me to talk to?”

  Miguel shakes his head.

  “Hmph. Then you should be careful or we’d give you a warning form,” said the Catholic Filipino teacher.

  Miguel’s eye twitched as the students began laughing at him.

  “Everyone be quiet!” boomed the teacher. “He probably gets laughed at when he’s at home. What a strange boy…” said the teacher.

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  Miguel taps his fingers.

  “FOR THE LAST TIME, STOP THAT!!!” yelled the Filipino teacher. She throws a chalk onto his table. “I can’t hurt you because apparently the government considers that abuse now, BUT SHAME OF YOU, MIGUEL AZRAL!!!! SHAME… OF… YOU!!!”

  Miguel sighs and closes his eyes. “Average Filipino Catholic teacher…” he thought.

  The bell rang, and everyone left the classroom with students chattering about him.

  “Hey! It’s the autist!” smiled Tyrone.

  “Leave him alone, Tyrone!” yelled Anna, only to be pushed aside.

  Tyrone smiles and punches the wall beside him as Miguel screams, covering his ears in disgust and cringing with that singular, dreaded sound.

  He and his goons laugh as they walk away.

  Anna helps him up. “C’mon, man… Let’s go…” Anna sighs, rubbing her shoulder over his. “You okay? ‘Aswang…?’” she smirked.

  “I really prefer that you don’t talk about my alter ego in public…” he whispered.

  “Does anyone else know?”

  “No,” Miguel scratched the back of his head. “If I did, I’d get that person in trouble.”

  “Why’d you tell me, then?“

  “I was tired of being alone… I became… a Superhero to keep the streets safe. My parents taught me that the world will never be perfect. And I taught myself that I was the fine line between chaos and tyranny.”

  “Why?” asked Anna.

  Miguel smirked and walked away. “Got my powers. I immediately wanted to use it to help people… as my parents wanted…”

  “Is that it?”

  “Part of me wants to… change… how I’m viewed…” Miguel smiled, saddened, bowing his head.

  That evening, Miguel and Anna laughed, happily playing a video game together.

  Anna cheers, having won, as Miguel sighs and bows his head. “WOOOOO!!! DAMNED STRAIGHT, BITCH!!! YOSHI BEATS KIRBY!!!”

  “That… isn’t lore accurate,” said Miguel, smiling, still avoiding eye contact.

  “Hahahahahaha!” she smiled, placing her palms on her hips. “Wanna watch something else-?”

  Miguel laughs. “Sure, dude!”

  “You wanna watch Transformers One? Ooh! Superman? Oh, oh, oh! Fantastic Four First Steps!”

  “I didn’t like that one.”

  “Yeah, me neither. Too much blue-balling…”

  Miguel laughed at her little joke.

  The pair just talked for hours on end. But Miguel hears screaming in the distance.

  Anna stops laughing. “What’s the matter?”

  Miguel teleports away and back, now with his black mask, black jacket, black spandex underneath with the symbol on his chest, black pants, and black shoes.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Anna.

  “Bank robbery at Ortigas,” said Miguel, suiting up.

  “The cops will handle it.”

  “No, they won’t.”

  “What makes you say?”

  “The cops are the ones who hired the robbers…” Miguel teleports away.

  Meanwhile, the criminals entered the truck with loads of cash.

  “GO, GO, GO!!!”

  “DRIVE!!! MOVE!!!”

  Then, one of the criminals activated a device that creates a ringing sound…

  Miguel had hopped down onto a gargoyle with his phone duct taped on his stomach.

  “Dude? Why the hell am I on call…?“ asked Anna.

  “Can you triangulate where the truck is? Something’s blocking my ears. I don’t know what it is.”

  Anna sighs and uses his phone to and uses a GPS system to activate Google Maps.

  Anna smiles. “The only place with no traffic right now is a tunnel underneath the train station-...”

  “Got it…“ Miguel teleports away.

  The criminals laughed and chuckled.

  “Holy shit! The device works! HOLY SHIT!!! Boss will be DAMNED HAPPY when he hears about-!”

  Suddenly, something lands on the car’s hood.

  His blue eyes slowly peak through his hood.

  “Oh... FUCK!!"

  They stepped on it. Miguel is tossed off the car and lands on a protruding gate’s fence spike, skewering his chest.

  Miguel is obviously very much in pain, but he pulls himself off the skewer and regenerates almost immediately. He takes out his eskrima sticks as they jump out of the car with machine guns and shoot at Miguel.

  Miguel teleports around, yelling, “HOCUS POCUS MOTHERFUCKER!!!” as he ends up tossing the eskrima stick at all of them at once with a ricocheting toss, with the stick zigzagging in the air and landing on all of their heads. He catches the stick teleporting at the back and smiles.

  The cops then reach the area.

  They angrily stared at Miguel.

  Miguel gives a smug smile. “Caught the ‘bad guys’ for you… Lest you guys DON’T wanna arrest them?”

  “Go fuck yourself, freak,” said the cop, as Miguel teleported away.

  Another cop turns to the first one. “Let’s tell the radio host that The Aswang was the one who orchestrated this bullshit.”

  Miguel overhears this, and sighs, closing his eyes in begrudging respect…