Humbled Fox Origin Story

    "You only won because the wind helped you! I'm obviously the real winner, because I'm the best!"

    A game of miniature golf ended like most games played by Gregory Founderton. The boy idolized himself. All prizes, trophies, and awards rightfully belonged to him because he was the best person ever, so spoke his arrogant mind.

    "It's just a phase he's going through," his parents often said for several years.

    "It's just the way he is," the loving, yet tired parents said for the next several years.

    "It's just going to send us to our graves," the exhausted parents said while at their wits' end.

    Meanwhile, on the distant planet of Animal Kingdom, other people (animal people, to be more exact,) dealt with someone else. Someone not as conceited as that boy, but possibly more annoying because her amazing psychic powers helped back up her haughty claims. Sighs of frustration echoed around Veronica "Vibes" McAllister and Greg Founderton in unison.

    One day, during the usual groans of folks who couldn't handle those two people's awesomeness (or so they kept telling themselves,) two people said the same thing to Greg and Vibes at the same time.

    "You need to learn humility!"

    Abruptly, both felt like they were in two places at once. As the human boy road a school bus, he perceived a room designed for martial arts training. While the fox girl learned at a dojo, she felt like a passenger in an elongated vehicle. The odd sensations passed quickly, but concluded with Vibes feeling like something had left her. She shrugged, figuring whatever it was had probably held her back from being even more awesome. Besides, she already felt herself healing, though she ignored the odd sensation of the healing taking place in both the present and future.

    Within a short time, Greg felt like something entered him. He shrugged, figuring it was probably something that only the most awesome person in the world deserved.

    Over the years, the vixen literally entered a new world when she battled an army of robot foxes and a warp portal went awry. The young man entered a new world figuratively when, against all odds, he got married. Somehow, Greg felt a little humbled when his wife gave birth to fraternal twins, a beautiful daughter and an adorable son. He wished he could show his parents, but they had cut him out of their lives. He didn't feel devastated though, because he had been numbed by many prior instances of people giving him the boot.

    Vibes, by then known as AK Girl, struggled to defend her new home from the vile machinations of the vile machine, Mega Fox. Greg struggled to remove the safety features from the car his wife bought for him. In his arrogance, the father believed he was such a great driver, the safety features were nothing but an insult.

    The parallels continued when two worlds shattered. For Vibes and her friends, it happened literally when Mega Fox destroyed Animal Kingdom while taking great pleasure in causing misery and despair. For Greg, it happened figuratively on a family car trip. In a single moment, his mind acknowledged years of failures and pathetic performances as his own bad driving caused a loud bang. Only one heart still beat within the car because he had removed the safety features.

    Vibes and her friends Sally (AKA Wondervixen) and Guillermo (AKA Hyper Rob) recovered quickly because they had each other. Greg seemed doomed to soak in despair for the rest of his life. He had driven away all but three of the people close to him, and driven in a way that removed those three.

    After some time, a trio of super foxes burst into action and dashed to thwart Mega Fox's newest attempt at mayhem. A broken man had a snail-paced day sipping tea at a cafe. Bathed in misery as usual, he didn't consciously register the sight of three vulpine heroes zooming past.

    A familiar feeling of being in two places at once made AK Girl blink. Why did she have a sense of sitting at a table while drinking tea? A similar feeling made Greg's eyes go wide. What made him perceive running down a sidewalk?

    The psychic vixen shrugged and focused on a three meter tall robot fox with three red eyes, each focused on a different one of the targets the metal abomination's secondary directive told it to eliminate. All around, a crowd dispersed as people ran away and screamed.

    A sinister smile revealed many sharp needle-like teeth in a cold muzzle. "Now Disperser," whispered Mega Fox. "Show these idiots how weak they are."

    "Strength Mode!" AK Girl shifted into a state she thought would allow for quick trash compacting.

    "I don't deserve to be called human!" Greg Founderton also shifted modes just after shouting. That very moment saw the activation of an intelligent anomaly. Years ago, psychic energy left a fox girl, traveled to a human boy while mixing with warp energy, and started developing to prepare for something special. In the cafe, cries of annoyance because gasps of shock as the human man stood up while transforming into an anthropomorphic piebald fox in a costume with an emblem consisting of the letters HF. He became less muscular, but that felt oddly like a good thing.

    Meanwhile, AK Girl grinned as she delivered a powerful punch, then furrowed an eyebrow at the low volume of the resulting thud. Specially designed armor plates had dispersed the kinetic energy. Then they concentrated kinetic energy into a kick from the robot that sent the vixen flying.

    "Vibes!" Yelled Hyper Rob and Wondervixen simultaneously.

    After several more blows, AK Girl tried to stand up, but couldn't. "No! This can't be!" Despite her super powers, the robot had broken several of her bones.

    After a moment of trying to disbelieve his new muzzle, pointed ears, fur, tail, and other vulpine features, Mark's brain moved again. He finally realized he saw three fox people run past, and decided to head the way they went. Unused to having a tail, he accidentally swept filled tea cups off of a table. Nobody immediately moved to clean up the spilled tea and broken glass.

    Wondervixen and Hyper Rob tried to protect their friend, but sounds of snapping and cracking signaled them ending up in the same condition. "No! We weren't strong enough!" Pain moved through Hyper Rob with each word.

    "We failed!" Wondervixen's emotional agony exceeded her excruciating physical pain.

    Mega Fox's cronies, Caramel Girl and Insect Girl, blinked when they saw their master's metal teeth grind in anger. "You fool! You are taking them out too quickly! Stay where you are so I can savor this victory!"

    Coming upon the scene, the fox with the HF emblem felt an intense urge to flee as he humbly realized how easily he could be killed by the robot. Yet, the sensation of double location returned as he felt like he was lying on the ground with injuries while Vibes felt like she was standing.

    Instinctively, Greg reached out toward the super foxes. Silvery energy flowed from his hands and enveloped the heroes. Within seconds, they stood up easily without hurting. The robot tried to interrupt the process, but froze because of its primary directive of obeying its master (who was distracted by his own gloating.)

    Caramel Girl and Insect Girl flinched and ducked as Mega Fox's anger rose. "Kill them at once!"

    The trio nodded to the piebald fox, but wondered if a second pummeling awaited. However, they smiled and giggled as they found themselves even stronger and faster than usual. They flowed toward victory as they moved with the speed of whitewater and struck with the force of tidal bores while feeling like rivers of powers.

    Vibes's augmented psychic powers worked so well, she could see the weak spots of the robot's kinetic dispersal/concentration system and use telepathy to instantly show them to her friends. Punches, kicks, and woots surged during an intense fight.

    Caramel Girl and Insect Girl fled from their boss as his fury combusted. "Nooooooo!"

    Hyper Rob made a mental note to deliver the broken remains of the Disperser robot to their friend Rotecol.

    The power enhancements faded quickly, but the healing and gratitude did not. AK Girl, Hyper Rob, and Wondervixen all thanked the fox who helped turn the tide of the battle. Then they introduced themselves.

    The piebald fox humbly denied doing anything great. Then he looked down at the emblem on his costume. "Please call me Humbled Fox."

    The next several hours involved conversation, eating, and more denials of greatness. Greg learned how to switch between human and super fox form, so he didn't draw much attention when he finally waved and headed home.

    The trio all hoped they would see their new friend again soon. After another friend of theirs, Dr. "Anty" Antibiotix heard about the new vulpine hero, he wondered if the main purposes of Greg Founderton becoming Humbled Fox were to help Vibes learn humility and help Sal and G deal with their pasts.

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