fantasy
Rat Man

11
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 arenโt exactly โheroesโ so much asโฆ well, you know that group project in school where no one read the assignment, but everyone still showed up to present? Thatโs them, except with spandex.
Take Harrison, for instanceโcodename: Rat Man. His great gift? The astonishing, awe-inspiring, and profoundly underwhelming ability to mind-control rats. Thatโs it. Not all rodents. Not squirrels, not guinea pigs, not even hamsters. Just rats. Even then, only if theyโre within about a ten-foot radius and willing to listen, which, as it turns out, isnโt often.
Harrison likes to think of himself as a brooding antihero, the Batman of the group. Unfortunately, itโs hard to be brooding when your โarmy of darknessโ 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 theyโre โtraining for battle.โ
When villains strike, Lunar City doesnโt cry for help. It groans. Because it knows Rat Man and the Fabulous Five will show upโusually late, usually loud, and usually making things worse. The last time Harrison tried to stop a bank robbery, his rats chewed through the robbersโ getaway carโฆ but also through three police cruisers, two lampposts, and the mayorโs 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 Cityโฆ is its own heroes.