Full Metal Superhero Box Set [Books 1-3]

by Haskell, Jeffery H.

She can’t fly, but she can throw things at me. I just need a little time. I check the clock.

  On the way.

  Thirty seconds until impact. I fly to the building, Behemoth tosses everything from cars to robot parts at me. I land in front of the main doors. I know what’s coming and I try not to think of my Xbox. My game collection is digital but still, it pains me to know I’m about to trash it all.

  Holding my arms out wide Epic triggers my PA, “I’m right here, Bitchamoth. Come at me bro.”

  “Like I’ve never heard that one before. You know what’s wrong with you. You think you’re smarter than everyone else. You think you have it all figured out and no one could possibly be one step ahead of you.”

  She’s not wrong. I do have that problem. Reinforced by the fact that I’m almost always right.

  “You know you’re being manipulated right? There’s someone controlling your thoughts and motivations. He’s controlling everyone and when he’s done this isn’t a world any of us are going to want to live in,” I tell her.

  She shakes her head, “This is what I mean. You think that given the facts any decent person would agree with you.” She’s walking calmly forward as she speaks, not at all angry or raging the way Luke does. “But that isn’t true. Can’t you imagine being shown the end of humanity and then deciding to do whatever it takes to stop the coming destruction? There’s something coming, something you can’t fathom. And we’re the answer, Amelia. We’re the next step. If you knew that a billion people were going to die tomorrow and all you had to do to save them was kill a few million, wouldn’t you? You’re the math genius, right? Tell me the numbers.”

  It’s the ultimate catch-22. Do you kill one life to save two? She’s close now, only ten feet away but she doesn’t look like she’s going to attack.

  “The only problem with that calculation is you don’t have all the variables. You aren’t killing people to save lives, you’re killing people on the chance it will save lives. You’re trying to stop something awful by being awful. What does it matter if we win if there’s nothing left that makes us human?”

  “It only matters that we win,” she says. She towers over me, standing this close. She could reach out and crush this suit like a discarded soda can if it weren’t for my shields.

  “That’s the difference between us, Behemoth. For me, it matters how I win.”

  She grins, “The difference between you and me is I’m alive and you’re not.” She reaches out in a heartbeat and grabs my helmet with both hands. The alarms scream from the pressure. The ZPFM kicks into overdrive flooding power into my kinetic shields keeping her fingers only inches from my skull.

  “No, Behemoth, the difference between you and me is I’m right and you’re wrong. Also, yeah, I’m smarter than you.”

  Her eyes go wide when the suit doesn’t pop. If it were just the metal she would totally break me in half. But with the kinetic shields powered by a ZPFM, I’m a lot stronger and tougher than she thinks. Still, I can’t stand here forever. I plant a foot in her gut and throw myself backward with an Emdrive assisted heave. I’ve read she can manipulate her mass. However, she isn’t ready for this. Epic slams me back and to the ground using both the kinetic emitters to temporarily adjust my weight and the Emdrive to ‘push’ us back. She flips over me and crashes upside down into the building, turning the entryway into a symphony of shattering glass and rending steel.

  “Up!”

  Three seconds.

  “Full burn.”

  The Emdrive kicks in and I see Behemoth crawling out of the debris just as a strobing yellow light flashes down lighting the whole area.

  I didn’t name Artemis on a whim. Not only is she a spy satellite, but she also carries twenty-four osmium filled tungsten carbide ‘arrows’. Dropped, not launched. They hit the earth at five miles per second with the force of three thousand pounds of TNT.

  The arrow burns through the air leaving a trail of ionized gas behind before striking the Diamondbacks HQ. The flash lights up the sky and the entire building is consumed in a massive fireball that rockets hundreds of feet into the air.

  I’m a half mile away when it happens and I can feel the force wave pass over me. The mushroom cloud climbs high into the night fading as the wind carries the debris away.

  Where are we going?

  “Stealth mode, let’s go see a friend one last time.”

  I try not to look back. I almost succeed.

  17

  In full stealth mode, the MKII is all but invisible. If I stay under three hundred feet and keep my speed at a few hundred miles an hour nothing can detect our passage. Which is exactly what I do as I head East toward my old neighborhood. I never sold the house; I had planned on giving it away. Of course, that is the first place they’ll look, so there is no point in going. However, a few houses down should be safe, for a while at least.

  Epic goes over the lowdown for me while we fly to Carlos’ house. No casualties, though the Brigade is seriously hurt. Currently, the news is blaming me for the explosion saying I was working on an unauthorized reactor experiment. They’re right, I did cause it and not just the arrow. My investigation into Cat-7 and the Cabal is what brought the Brigade down on us. I shouldn’t have been surprised when they did it legally. Whoever is behind this mess is certainly forward thinking. I feel like they’re just out of my grasp. Regardless, they’re close to an end game. They wouldn’t be making moves like this if they weren’t.

  I pull up the footage of the aftermath of our fight. The news has a spectacular shot of a very naked Behemoth crawling out of the crater my arrow made. I didn’t think it would kill her, but damn she’s tough. The rest of the team was rushed to the local hospital. The Governor is on TV demanding to know why the federal team was in Arizona without her permission. Interesting.

  I have Epic check the hospital, I can’t risk calling in case they’re watching communications. Pierre and Luke doing fine. Good thing too, if Luke was hurt badly or killed… I don’t even want to think of that.

  Our destination is ahead.

  “Thanks, buddy, land us in his backyard.”

  I come down in the sandy yard full of discarded toys and sun-bleached lawn furniture. The suit’s propulsion doesn’t make any noise but there is a plume of dust when I hit the ground.

  I text Carlos.

  In your backyard. Come out.

  What?

  Come outside and bring a Coke.

  A minute later I’m awkwardly leaning against the side of the house with my faceplate up. I hadn’t realized how thirsty I was until I asked him to bring a drink. It isn’t easy to put anything in my mouth, the helmet wraps around my chin and face to make sure an impact doesn’t spin the armor around. However, Carlos is very thoughtful and brought a straw.

  “I saw the news, damn, niña, was that your satellite or did you build a nuclear weapon into the suit?”

  I snort, trying to swallow the soda before it goes out my nose. “Funny, no it’s the satellite. Kind of an emergency backup if I ever had to destroy something down to the foundation.”

  “Can you use it again or is it a one-shot?”

  “Assuming Cat-7 hasn’t pinpointed the orbit, and I won’t know until tomorrow, I can use it again. Right now Artemis is in stealth mode, folded up to make herself smaller. On top of that, I used the latest infrared and radar absorbent paint to keep her invisible. I did a lot of math to make sure her orbit wouldn’t put anything in danger up there nor would she collide with the twenty-thousand something pieces of debris floating around.”

  He smiles taking a pull from his own Coke. “Well, you surely did it. I take it this means you know who’s behind all this?” He asks with a wave of his hands.

  “Not yet, I mean, I know what. But I don’t have a name yet. I’m close though.”

  “Too bad there isn’t a directory, like a Facebook for bad guys—”

  A directory… of course there’s a directory. “Carlos, you’re a genius!” He looks nervously at the h
ouse when I shout.

  “How so?”

  “I can’t go into it, but I promise you I couldn’t have figured it out without your help.”

  “Is there anything I can do? I don’t have powers and I’m not a super spy or anything. But if I can help…” He’s sweet to ask and I wish there was… wait there is.

  “Can you go to Maricopa County General, check on Luke, Pierre, and Monica?” His stature perks up at the mention of the ice queen. “Let them know I’m alright and I’ll contact them as soon as I can. Let Luke know…” I want to say more but I just don’t know what I would tell Luke.

  Carlos puts his hand on my shoulder, “It’s okay, I’ll tell him.”

  “Thanks, amigo, I appreciate it. Close faceplate.” I hand him the Coke as the suit pressurizes.

  “Amelia, will I see you again?”

  “I sure hope so. If not, you’ve been a good friend—”

  “None of that. You owe me a rematch on Halo, so you better make it through this.” I can see in his eyes what his Hispanic upbringing won’t let him say.

  I step back off the porch, lock up and blast off.

  There is a warrant out for your arrest, publicly now. A Parker alert has been issued in all fifty states plus Puerto Rico. You have even made it to the top of the FBI’s most wanted list. Well done.

  “They want to stop me and since they have total control of the government they will use any means necessary. That’s okay though, because Carlos gave me an idea.”

  May I inquire as to your brilliant plan?

  “We can’t extract Shai-Hulud because they’ll shut him down before we could get anything useful, right?”

  That is correct.

  “However, if we were in physical contact with a network hub he had access to…”

  Then we could transfer the data far quicker than they could counter. Excellent thought. The only problem is we do not know where a data center is.

  “Don’t we, though?”

  Portland?

  “Portland. Seriously, you never actually thought they would build those awesome underground bases for state militias, right? There had to be another reason. I think they’re the network. They have teleporters, total access to the teams, heck they could have telepaths down there at any given moment playing ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ on people and no one would ever know. We break in, steal the info, and get out. If we do it now, they shouldn’t even have time to prepare for us.”

  How do you suggest we get in? You vaporized the Arizona entrance.

  Vaporized… yes I did. I can’t help but smile at the thought.

  “There are four bases that we know of, Portland, Montana, Florida, and DC… but every state militia has an entrance.”

  Montana is out unless you are planning to attack the UltraMax. So is DC.

  “Florida is too far away, that leaves just Portland. Since I don’t want to fly to Seattle that leaves only one other team.”

  Which is the team with the highest probability of having their asses kicked by you…

  “Bingo, California it is. Set a course, keep stealth mode on.”

  Course set. Stealth mode directive still in play.

  “Engage!”

  18

  Los Angeles is almost due west of us. We fly low over the Joshua Tree national forest, then Palm Dessert. I have to keep it under three hundred feet, which limits me to sub-sonic speeds. Which is still pretty darn fast. Five hundred miles an hour and we’re past Riverside and looking at the outskirts of L.A. and it isn’t even two in the morning yet.

  “I’m gonna need a rest after this. Do you have our mobile lab going yet?”

  Almost. Should be ready by the time we return to Phoenix.

  It isn’t anything fancy, just a semi-truck with everything I need to take off and put on the armor. Plus a bed, food, spare clothing and a medkit. I had it set up as a contingency but I don’t actually know how it works. I let Epic do the legwork. This way if anyone was able to read my mind they wouldn’t know where it was or anything about it other than the fact that I had one.

  We turn south as LA approaches; I want to skirt LAX. Risking a collision with a jumbo jet isn’t worth the extra time I would save.

  The So-Cal team has their base on the water in Long Beach. I just hope not too many of them are home this time of night.

  “Can you remotely connect to their computer?”

  I’ve been trying. They have a very effective DMZ. I will need physical contact.

  “That’s the plan.”

  California’s official team HQ is a ten-story ode to modern architecture. Shiny, mirror-like windows, curving walls, and lots of round corners dominate the surface. The roof is our best bet with its open-air helipad and elevator.

  “Once we pop up to land on the roof we’re likely going to be on their sensors. Bear that in mind.”

  Affirmative.

  “Here we go.” The building rushes up at me, the city behind reflecting off the mirror like windows. I kill the jets as we pass the eighth floor and let momentum carry us the remaining distance to land on the helipad with a crunch. I’ve taken two steps when a rush of air and a familiar blur of speed materializes in front of me.

  I’ve only ever met him once, but even if Kate didn’t hate this guy I wouldn’t like him. Maybe if he didn’t have overly tanned skin with shoulder length stark white hair I wouldn’t think he was a douche, but with his cocksure grin, I just want to punch him in the face.

  “Arsenal. The rest of the team is on the way. We were alerted to your presence the moment you landed. Surrender and we’ll go easy on you,” he says with false swagger.

  “You do know I just single-handedly whooped the Brigade and sent them packing with their tail between their legs, right?”

  His costume is a ridiculous green and brown leotard which looks more designed to show off his physique then actually protect him.

  “The Brigade is all for show. We’re the real deal.” He slaps his hands together. A wall of force erupts from him passing harmlessly over me. When the air disturbance ends there are three of him standing shoulder to shoulder. Well, two standing, one floating a foot off the ground.

  Reminder: our only less-than-lethal option is the IP Cannons.

  “I’m warning you guys, I don’t have a lot of time here. There’s a lunatic with mind control powers and he’s trying to take over the world. All I need is five minutes access to the Portland base and I can find out who he is.”

  “What? So you can blow up Portland like you did Phoenix?” The flying one asks.

  “Fine, be that way.” I hold my hands out, palms up, and he hesitates. The sandpaper staccato of my cannons rips through the air. The speedster vanishes and the strong one leaps into the blast to take it. He twitches and drops to one knee, but doesn’t go down.

  Even if we proceed to lethal options, it is likely they will delay us long enough for the rest of the team to arrive.

  Flying-guy zooms into the sky at incredible speeds. He has to have a certain level of invulnerability to turn that sharp at speed.

  “If we plugged into their buildings network could you use that to activate the quantum teleporter?”

  Do you even need to ask?

  “Call Kate,” I say as I take to the skies. The jig is up, so I cut stealth mode bringing full power to the shields. Triple Threat clearly trains hard. He works as a team, trying to contain me. Speedy hurls about a thousand marbles at me constantly keeping the barrage up from a hundred different angles to distract me. Flyboy has a cudgel made of a stiff metal. He zooms in close, swinging for the fences each time. The second I stop moving Strongman throws a hundred pound weight at me with the force of a bullet.

  Connecting to her cell.

  I let out a double blast, narrow beam at maximum power. Strongman drops like a stone this time, the second weight he was about to throw at me rolls aside like a discarded beach ball.

  “Amelia?” Kate’s melodic voice sounds in my ear.

  “Kat
e, I’m sorry I dragged you into this,” I say as I spin to put my arm up and ward off the cudgel.

  “You didn’t drag me into anything, this was already happening. I’m sorry about Phoenix, I wish I—”

  “Listen, no time for that right now. I’m trying to break into the Portland underground. I’m in LA and I could use some help.”

  There’s a moment of silence and I wonder for a second if I misjudged her. Maybe this was one step too far for someone who’d played by the Rules her whole life. Even if the Rules were a lie made up by evil people.

  “I need thirty seconds. Please don’t be high up when I come in.”

  “You got it,” I say. Thank God. Even with everything I’ve invented I’m just one person. Unless I want to start killing innocent people, I can’t do this alone.

  “Epic, ETA on the rest of their team?”

  LAX ATC has their hoverbikes two minutes out. However, that could change.

  “As soon as Kate arrives, full ECM.” I land next to the door, switch to widespread and go to full auto on the cannons. The air fills with their roar as the energy creates a cone of ion pulses. It isn’t as effective when I use them this way. However the side effect is the ions in the air become saturated setting up a sort of temporary field. As long as I keep the energy pouring in it’s almost like a stun shield.

  “Epic, full power to the kinetic shields and go wide angle. I want a large enough area to shield Kate.”

  Got it.

  The kinetic emitters reconfigure to their wedge shape with a hundred percent of the power facing forward to deflect the projectiles to the side. Flying-guy comes in hard and hits the stun field. Ionic energy zaps him out of the air like a bug. The speedy one is all that remains, he plays safe and continues to throw a thousand marbles a second. What makes it through the stun field simply falls flat as it hits the kinetic field.

  There’s a pop behind me as Domino arrives. She’s in costume mask and all, wearing more weapons than I’ve ever seen her carry.

  “Get the door,” I yell over my shoulder.

  ECM to full. Broad-spectrum jamming has commenced.