“At ease, Agent Parker,” Donovan responded. “I’ve been training him myself. He did well on his first few outings, and frankly, we’re going to need his power. We may not be able to stop this hostile without him. The weaponry we have on hand right now is just not sufficient, and this may be more than our other three metahuman agents can handle without Lonero.”
“Then we stifle the hostile’s progress until the school is evacuated and the National Guard and State Police can be called in!” Gail retorted. “We’re more than capable of doing that if we give it our all. Agents Garrison and Tatti can help hasten the evacuation, and then join us for whatever help they can provide. Lonero is a lunatic; he can’t be trusted! I won’t trust him! And you shouldn’t either, after what he did to Eddie and those fellow students of his!”
“Gail, I think you’re letting your anger over Eddie’s injury cloud your judgment just a bit,” Sasheen said.
“Quiet, Sasheen. I’ll handle this!” Donovan insisted before Gail could respond. “Listen to me, Gail. You need to get past this! Benny has made much progress. He’s not evil, he was just hurting really badly…”
“But not nearly as badly as Eddie or those two boys he put in the hospital are hurting, right?” Gail spat. “What about the girl whose face he would have melted off if not for us? And how about the time he disobeyed orders to break out of the Institute, recklessly pursue those gang members, and involuntarily put a civilian in the hospital because of his carelessness?”
“He was properly censured for that, and he gave me his word not to do that again,” Donovan said. “As for Eddie and those civilians, that all happened when he was still in a state of mind, prior to being taken into Institute custody for treatment and training.”
Gail was now infuriated. “Donovan, he’s not a team player, he’s a loose cannon! There is just no way someone capable of doing the things he has done can possibly become a hero! You need to accept that! You’re letting these foolish paternal feelings for him cloud your judgment, because you have to rescue the wayward little monster that reminds you of yourself! I told you before: He’s nothing like you, no matter what superficial similarities you may see. You need to stop this now!”
“Stand down, Agent Parker!” Donovan hollered less than an inch from her face. “That’s enough! You’re out of line! You’re letting your emotions paint a troubled young man as a monster with no redeemable qualities. That’s not what he is, but that is exactly what we’re facing out there! Like it or not, we need his help! And the more we argue about this, the more we delay our response time. So, fall in line, so we can…”
“No!” Gail hissed while stepping into her commander’s personal space to make a stand. “I’m not going to participate in this insanity. I’m not going to work alongside Lonero, when he’s no better than that other maniac out there! I resign from the Institute, effective immediately!”
“Gail, you can’t do that!” Sasheen said. “We need all the people we can get right now…”
“I can’t do this, Sasheen?” Gail replied in a snarky tone. “Watch me!” The strong female soldier unbuckled the utility belt which carried her weaponry and let it fall to the floor; that was followed by the removal of her wrist communicator, which she tossed down beside it. “You’re as deluded and foolish as Donovan, Sasheen! You’re as responsible for this as he is!”
“Gail, I think you’re wrong about Benny,” the young Indian soldier opined. “You haven’t spent the time with him that we have. You haven’t seen the person lying beneath all that pain.”
“You’ll all be sorry for this,” the brown-haired young woman decreed. “And so will the world. All because of you. As for me, I can’t in good conscience take part in this.”
The irate young woman then stormed out of the planning room, and away from the Valis Institute altogether.
“Well, that kinda sucks,” Brett said. “Her timing is more perfect than an atomic clock.”
“Never mind that, Agent Marks!” Donovan commanded. “We’ve wasted enough time because of Gail’s tantrum. We have to make do without her, and she’d be a liability to us in her present state of mind anyway. Put me in contact with Tatti Lawson at the school right now!”
***
A few minutes earlier, Benny entered the lunch room with more than a little trepidation. He looked across the spacious room to see the table where Carolyn was sitting beside her same-aged niece Jane and their usual crew. He tried to hold back his anger over the newest girl of his dreams lacking the inclination to respond positively, or in any way at all, to his interest in her. Let’s just do this, okay? You can’t puss out now!
As the young man finally worked up the nerve to approach her, he suddenly almost buckled to his knees when his cosmic awareness picked up an enormous sensation of energy being deployed in the vicinity of the school. What the hell? I’ve never felt anything like that before! Something big is going on.
It was then that an announcement came over the school intercom system, with Vice Principal Hal Carroll’s deep voice sounding quite urgent.
“Attention everyone! The school is to be evacuated immediately. Please calmly approach the exits as practiced in our fire drills. Please note this is not a drill! Proceed to the shuttle buses in the parking lot that will take you away from the area. The older students who have their own cars should proceed to their vehicles and leave the school vicinity immediately, and all staff members should do the same. Our security guards will help direct you out of the building in an orderly fashion, and the staff should assist them until everyone is safely out of the building. I repeat, please do proceed calmly.”
The students leapt out of their seats and began rushing towards each available exit in a state of alarm. Benny realized this danger must be connected to the surge of incredible energy he just perceived. Without a second thought, his concern for the safety of his fellow students overcame any disappointment in missing his chance to talk with Carolyn.
Craig left for the Skills Center just long enough ago that he should be safely away from the area by now. But Carolyn is still here. I have to make sure that she and the rest of the students get out of here okay, no matter how I may feel about the majority of them personally.
A split second later, Al Garrison acquired Benny’s attention when he put a strong hand on the young metahuman’s shoulder.
“Benny, we have a serious problem!” Al said.
“Yeah, I know. Mr. Carroll’s announcement, the stampeding students, and my cosmic awareness suddenly spazzing out sorta hinted towards that,” Benny replied. “What exactly is going on?”
“The Institute just contacted me, and it seems we have an unidentified metahuman hostile approaching the school. He’s throwing around blasts of energy that match anything you’ve ever thrown, if not surpassing it. The police have already been thrashed, so Donovan’s Mega-Force team and your fellow metahuman agents from the Institute are headed this way. But honestly, man, we need you in the game if we have any chance of stopping that bastard.”
“Consider me officially in the game then, Al. This looks like a job for… Centurion!”
Al couldn’t help glaring at Benny as if his zipper had just come undone.
“Okay, so I need to come up with my own original battle cry. But can’t I take the inspiration this one provides for now?”
Al’s only response was the continuation of his bemused glare.
Benny frowned. “Maybe not. Alright, I’ll suit up and head for the hostile. Consider the threat as good as nullified!”
***
Just half a block away from Buffalo Historical School, the scientist who just gave himself the nom de guerre of Light-Lord kicked aside what remained of the final police car that dared to attempt barring his way.
A lone remaining police officer forced himself to ignore his three broken ribs and dislocated jaw to make one last attempt to halt the progress of the deadly being before him. The debilitated lawman managed to steady his right arm just long enough to fire
two more shots. They hit their mark on the back of Light-Lord’s skull… or at least they would have, had they not partially melted and fallen to the street when they struck the thin glowing nimbus of energy surrounding his entire form.
“That was quite foolish, officer,” the shimmering villain said upon turning around. “Are you determined to sacrifice your life in your futile attempts to stop me instead of doing the wise thing by staying down and pretending to be dead?”
The officer forced himself to utter a partly unintelligible expletive filled rejoinder as he managed to fire another fruitless shot. Rutger Kaiser smiled under his incandescent hood and pointed his arm at the lawman, intending to reduce him to a pile of charred bones and blistered internal organs.
That intention was ruined when the green-clad form of Spring-Heel suddenly delivered a flying double kick to Light-Lord from behind. The powerful blow spoiled the villain’s aim just enough so that his projected bolt of energy missed the police officer by a few inches, merely sizzling the air close to the lawman’s left ear instead.
But despite its power, the blow from behind didn’t succeed in knocking the powerful being off his feet. Instead, Spring Heel bounced off the energies encapsulating his target’s body and hit the ground a few feet away. His back impacted in a less than glamorous fashion upon a pile of trash.
“What the hell, dude! You were supposed to get knocked down!” the young leaping hero complained.
“I will never get ‘knocked down’ again, you insipid little snot!” Light-Lord shouted as he pointed his arm at his portly young adversary. “Now you can immolate in place of that police officer!”
Once again, however, Light-Lord’s aim was thwarted when the stone-hard form of the metahuman called Brick suddenly shoulder-slammed into him at full charge. This time, the powerful being was indeed knocked off his feet as the force of the blow caused him to slam into and severely dent the door of an empty Sedan parked several yards away.
“Stay out of this, beef cake, ‘cause you’re out of your league!” Brick said to Spring Heel as he prepared to attack his enemy again.
“Oh, stick it up your lower orifice, Brick!” the portly young metahuman replied bitterly. “Was I not the one who just saved the cop?”
Not wanting to admit that he had soiled his costume when Light-Lord pointed his arm at him, Spring Heel slowly crawled out of range. The would-be hero hadn’t yet decided if he would return to the battle, but he certainly wasn’t going to do so unless he first cleaned himself off and got a change of costume from one of the Institute vans parked around the area. Otherwise, at the very least an irritating rash would soon develop on his lower extremities, which would hamper his leaping ability.
“This is so freakin’ embarrassing, man,” Spring Heel grumbled to himself. “And on top of messing my pants, I now owe one to Brick! What a shitty day this is.” And what a poor choice of words on my part, considering the circumstances. Oh, man…
Unfortunately for Brick, Light-Lord didn’t stay down for more than a second. In a surprising display of fast reflexes, the glowing villain hurled a spherical bolt of yellow energy at the gray-attired, heavily muscled metahuman who charged at him like a frenzied rhino. The bolt struck Brick’s left shoulder, and the searing pain drove him right to his knees.
The youthful powerhouse failed to stifle an agonized scream as he went down. “Geez, that felt like fire or somethin’!”
“I can assure you that blast will be a pleasant memory compared to this!” Light-Lord decreed as he pointed his two glowing hands in his fallen opponent’s direction.
However, the enraged man’s arms were knocked downwards before he could project those twin bolts of destructive energy when they were unexpectedly struck by a sizzling bo staff which appeared to be composed of bright neon magenta energy. Despite its apparently energy-based nature, the luminescent object clearly simulated material solidity.
With impressive swiftness, the neon staff then struck Light-Lord just above his eyes. This knocked the villain back two inches to once again be halted by the metal frame of the Sedan.
Just as Light-Lord regained his full vision a moment later, he saw the lithe form of Shard run towards him, pole vault over his body with her energy staff, land directly behind him, and garrote the front of his throat with the flaring magenta weapon. The quasi-solid staff seemed as hard as steel, and the crackling energy of which it was composed sent a stream of mini-shocks into the powerful villain’s throat every second it maintained contact.
But the Odic forces pouring into Light-Lord’s body by way of his absorption suit gave him more than enough strength to withstand this assault. As a result, he remained on his feet while he grasped the staff and pitted his own energies against those generated by Shard.
“Brick, hit him while I still got him!” the masked heroine shouted. “I can’t hold him long, ‘cause he’s overloading my energy staff!”
“No probs, I’m on ‘im!” Brick screeched as he leapt back to his feet and resumed his charge.
The mammoth young man struck Light-Lord directly in the chest, hoping to cave in his rib cage. The impact of the superhumanly strong blow certainly had an effect, even if much less than hoped for, as the powerful villain was sent hurtling back against the Sedan a third time.
However, since Shard was directly behind the energy-throwing villain while attempting to hold him in place with her energy staff, she was caught between his flying form and the door of the vehicle. The force of impact knocked her out cold. Her energy weapon fizzled out of existence as she lost consciousness.
“Aw, shit,” Brick lamented. “I didn’t mean to do that. You shoulda’ gotten out of the way, Shard! I told you I was about to hit him!”
“Thank you for rendering your little compatriot insensate for me, imbecile,” a beaming Light-Lord stated as he got back on his feet. “You deserve no less than this.”
The scientist gone bad projected one of his stronger beams of energy from his gauntlet. It struck Brick directly in the sternum. The burly metahuman howled in agony as his superhumanly dense form proved no match for the energy projections of Light-Lord.
The tall young hero was hurled back at least a hundred feet by the impact of the blast. His movement through the air was halted only when he smashed into the bolted door of a small deli, knocking the wooden frame right off its hinges. Brick lay halfway inside the store with a steaming burn the width of a basketball seared onto his chest. The mighty young hero was still breathing, but he did not get back to his feet.
“Pitiful,” Light-Lord said to himself as he resumed his trek towards the school.
***
A good twenty-five minutes before the above described conflagration began, Craig Minkel had ventured two blocks towards the Skills Center. At this point he became aware of a familiar looking car pull up near the curb alongside him. A sense of foreboding caused his spine to tingle. He then recognized the car as the rust-colored Nissan Versa driven by Rick Kelley. The long-haired, elongated face of Rick then peered outwards to confirm Craig’s fears.
The neighborhood where the young man found himself had a long back alley which stretched between two abandoned buildings that operated as cereal mills decades earlier. Craig knew it was no coincidence that Rick parked in front of him at the precise moment he stepped in front of the path leading left into the alley.
Rick quickly disembarked from the driver’s side of the car. Zeff Walsh and Jimmy Bonsey simultaneously emerged from the passenger side and back seat, respectively. Craig knew those latter two only in passing, but he clearly recognized them as part of the “in” crowd that included Mick Judge, Jeff Wolfe, and Leah Stanton.
The tall social outcast knew what was about to take place; no words needed to be exchanged from either side. He also realized that though he didn’t care for entering the alley, it led to the only way providing him a potential route of escape.
Craig then ran as fast as his lanky but rotund body could carry him into the inner portion of the alle
y. He knew it exited into an open field where he could make his way to a more populated street.
As he approached the opposite side of the pathway which would provide him ingress to the field, two other teenage boys with an impressive athletic build and flaxen-colored hair suddenly stepped in front of him. They were obviously “covering” the other side, and Craig realized he had been led into a trap. He quickly recognized one of the boys as a popular hockey player from his school named Marcus Eggloft; the other was Ken McRafferty, a friend of Mick Judge from his own neighborhood located on Buffalo’s South Side.
Marcus walked up to Craig and shoved him against the brick wall of the derelict factory. “You’re dead, Minkel,” were the only words he uttered.
“What the hell is this all about?” Craig asked.
“We know what you and that fag friend of yours did to Mick and Jeff,” Marcus answered in a completely emotionless tone. “Now we’re gonna do the same to you. Haven’t you ever heard of ‘an eye for an eye,’ dickhead?”
Marcus then plunged his fist into Craig’s lower abdomen. This immediately caused the larger boy to keel over while gasping for breath.
“No, I get him first!” Rick shouted in a fit of rage.
The medium-sized but well-built soccer player then rushed at Craig and began pummeling him mercilessly. The athlete appeared almost giddy with pleasure at finally being able to unload on the young man he always hated for no reason other than the fact that almost everyone else seemed to.
Though battered by the shorter but stronger young man’s initial volley, Craig screamed in defiance while pushing his attacker off him with a single adrenalin-fueled heave. He then leapt to his full height of ‘6’7” and delivered a rage-fueled haymaker to the bridge of Rick’s nose. Much to the young athlete’s surprise, two streams of blood began rushing from his nostrils.
While he and his cohorts were still stunned by Craig’s uncharacteristic move, the taller boy lunged forward and slammed his full weight into Rick. This took them both to the ground like a pair of MMA fighters. The two young men pounded on each other furiously, with both taking a beating but Craig receiving the worst of it due to the greater strength and fighting experience of his opponent.
Centurion- Dark Genesis Page 23