This incredibly powerful discharge had the concurrent effects of melting the remainder of the fence into a chrome-colored puddle on the ground, smashing a seven-foot-long oval-shaped blast pit in the concrete below his feet… and sending Centurion flying away from him for more than fifty yards.
A few seconds later, Centurion’s battered form gave off billows of smoke from the painful energy discharge he had just received, as he laid near the center of the schoolyard stunned and unable to get back on his feet. He was barely cognizant enough to cohere a single brief thought:
Man, this day really blows…
***
As the final group of students were rushed off the school grounds, Al Garrison finally caught up with Tatti Lawson. As they reconnoitered, Al sent the other two remaining security guards to follow the last of the students away from the school to safety.
“I’m pretty sure that’s all of them,” Al said to Tatti. “It seems our boy didn’t do too badly, either. We’ve had some injuries, but most of those were connected to the panic. No casualties to speak of.”
“I’m not too sure about that, Agent Garrison,” Tatti replied with a depressed tone.
“Say what?”
“Rick Kelley, Zeff Walsh, and a few of their cronies-in-crime weren’t anywhere to be seen when that lunatic with the light powers attacked. The only other students who had left the school prior to that were those who attend the Skills Center in the afternoon.”
“And Mr. Kelley, Mr. Walsh, and the others don’t?”
“No. They don’t.”
“And they didn’t have a pass for some reason?”
“No. They didn’t.”
“I’m sorry, but considering the ruckus going on around here for the past twenty minutes, I didn’t notice they weren’t among the groups of evacuees.”
“I did.”
“Well, of course. You being The Noticer, and all that. But what’s the problem if they broke the rules and left early? That was just less who were in danger here today. I’m certainly willing to overlook this indiscretion of theirs.”
“You don’t understand, Agent Garrison. Craig Minkel, Benny’s best friend and often fellow favored target for bullying, does attend the Skills Center. So, he was one of the students who left the school earlier.”
“I… see. But that’s nothing to worry about, because he went with the rest of the students in the shuttle that takes them there, right?”
“No. I called the Skills Center to verify if everyone who was supposed to be there today was in fact there. Craig never made it.”
“But maybe he wasn’t feeling well and just went home.”
“There was no record in the nurse’s office of his asking for a pass; trust me, I took the time to check despite everything that was going on here. Also, I have noticed him taking a walk to the Skills Center twice prior to today, likely as a way of letting off steam. I don’t think the near-simultaneous departure of both Craig and Mr. Kelley’s crew was a coincidence, Agent Garrison.”
“Oh, Jesus. You don’t suppose…”
“Yes, I most certainly do suppose. We need to leave the school grounds now.”
“You mean we aren’t going to give Centurion there some back-up?”
“Donovan and his Mega-Force team can do that, if need be. We, however, need to go looking for Craig, as well as Mr. Kelley and his crew, immediately. You get out your cell phone and call all the local hospitals to check for the admittance of someone fitting Craig’s description. And be sure to turn on the police radio in my van so we can scan and replay all recent reports.”
Tatti felt her gastro-intestinal fluids begin to boil at the thought of her suspicions proving correct. Benny, you’re going to have to be strong…
Chapter 21: There Goes the Neighborhood… Literally
“Alright, let him have it!” Donovan Jakes commanded at the top of his lung power.
Immediately following that order, Agents Sasheen Kahn and Brett Silver unleashed the full force of their taser rifles on the seemingly triumphant Light-Lord. Now that Centurion was down, it was all up to them to keep the cosmic villain at bay until Valis Institute reinforcements, state troopers, and the National Guard arrived.
Unless, of course, Centurion turns out not to be dead and gets his silly little ass back into this fight, Donovan mused.
The deranged man-god’s azure suit of destruction frequently shifted the radiance of its protective aura as he was repeatedly struck by taser bullets. Though Light-Lord’s personal half-inch-thick energy field was weakened from the battle with Centurion, it remained sufficiently intact to prevent the continuing staccato of spherical energy projectiles from penetrating his suit and inflicting major bodily damage. He still felt their impact, however, and the fact that he was brought to his knees by the assault attested to that.
“Keep it up!” Donovan commanded. “Keep hitting him until your rifle’s battery runs dry!”
Light-Lord screamed in rage and defiance as the fusillade of taser projectiles buffeted his form from a trio of directions.
“Do you idiots seriously believe this will stop me if that kid could not?” he shouted interrogatively.
“I seriously believe we’re going to try, asshole!” was Donovan’s quick response.
The besieged former scientist proved his determination to make good on his boast by focusing all his will into unleashing a multi-directional series of mauve-colored energy bolts from his central bodily aura. Donovan realized exactly what was about to occur due to the pulsating bubble of energy that suddenly manifested around Light-Lord’s person.
“Go for cover!” the battle veteran hollered a mere two seconds before the omni-directional blast of energy burst forth like numerous multi-colored shafts of pure chaos.
The beams projected behind their source smashed what remained of Buffalo Historical’s front entrance section as if it were composed of plastic Lego blocks. Donovan and his two fellow Mega-Force soldiers leapt aside with barely a fraction of a second to spare; the beams that missed them struck the row of houses across the street from the school, blasting to pieces the wood, cement, and glass of which they were comprised.
Donovan quickly rolled from his knees to a standing position and could scarcely believe the carnage he saw inflicted upon this section of Masten Avenue. The muted screams of whichever people remained huddled in these houses for what they hoped and prayed to be safety could be heard reverberating throughout the streets.
Jesus H. Christ. I hope to Whomever May Live Upstairs that none of those people were seriously injured, or worse. We have to take this freaking psycho down, and fast!
Sasheen swiftly side-flipped to a kneeling position and fired at Light-Lord again. The expertly aimed energy bullet struck his incandescent adversary directly between the eyes, which snapped back the villain’s head and knocked his specialized goggles clear off his head. Light-Lord was taken aback by the unexpected impact but was quick to regain his bearings.
Despite the temporary occlusion of his vision which resulted from the blast, the cosmic-powered menace retaliated with a gauntlet-projected beam of sizzling white energy. The imperfectly aimed beam ripped through the body armor covering Sasheen’s right leg as if it were wax paper.
The brave Indian soldier screamed in agony while the air filled with the stench of his calf’s burning flesh. Brett immediately ran to tend to his injured comrade as best he could.
“Sasheen!” Donovan yelled in horror. He then turned back to Light-Lord. “You’re dead, you son of a bitch!”
“No, ingrate!” the iridescent man countered. “You are.”
Light-Lord demonstrated how well his experience wielding the suit had grown by manifesting a sizzling, basketball-sized sphere of golden energy over his gloved palm. He then hurled the searing mass of concentrated light at Donovan, who now leaned against the remaining portion of the fence for support.
The artificially created ball lightening resembled a miniature comet as it sputtered through the air to
wards its target. The soldier immediately deduced that he would never be able to jump aside in time to avoid the deadly energy orb. He also knew his thin body armor wouldn’t be sufficient to shield him from the entirety of its burning effect, especially not at a range of just a few meters.
As a veteran of numerous combat situations, Donovan stoically prepared to meet the fate he always knew would someday be awaiting him. Just my luck to be killed by a dickwad like this light-throwing nerd…
Except the spheroid never struck its target; instead, it dispersed against what appeared to be an invisible barrier roughly two feet before it would have struck and immolated the Mega-Force leader. The startled but relieved soldier turned to see a once again conscious Centurion crouching against a partially intact vehicle a few yards to his left, his outstretched hand emitting a shimmering bluish glow.
“I had no idea you could fuse air molecules into one of those force shields of yours from several meters away,” Donovan said with a grin.
“Neither did I,” Centurion replied, “until I realized that I absolutely had to. I wasn’t about to let Disco Ball Dude over there kill ‘The Man’ as long as I’m still alive.”
“Welcome back to the world of the conscious, kid,” Donovan uttered with a warm smile before his tone turned serious again. “Now go get that dick nozzle.”
“This is for what you did to my friend Sasheen!” Centurion shouted as he projected a beam of azure-white energy from his fingertips at his adversary.
The energy beams struck Light-Lord dead center, clearly staggering their target.
“And this is for what you almost did to Donovan!”
That declaration directly preceded another stream of projected electro-force. Centurion’s second beam assault hit his opponent directly in the gut and knocked him back several steps, after which he briefly went down on one knee before quickly pushing himself back to his feet.
Light-Lord’s protective energy aura seemed to be starting to buckle under fire, but it continued to hold for the time being.
“You’re still here?” the scientist-turned-demi-god asked in a contemptuous tone. “You can barely stand, let alone summon sufficient power to actually knock me down.”
“I just need to get a second wind,” Centurion replied. “Then I’ll knock you down plenty.”
Determined to make good on that boast and filled with anger over the injury inflicted upon Sasheen, the adolescent hero-in-the-making charged towards his opponent.
This time Centurion focused his will into projecting the golden-hued beams of pure searing heat that he learned he could emit directly from his eyes. The intense energized tingling sensation he felt surging through his retinal nerve cluster was extremely invigorating as his ocular organs delivered twin streams of 1,500 Fahrenheit heat directly into Light-Lord’s throat.
The villain’s protective aura prevented the beams from burning clear through his larynx, but the sudden surge of pain was incredible. The scientist-made-cosmic clutched his throat with both hands and screamed.
Determined to press his advantage, Centurion leaped over twenty feet through the air to land on his incandescent adversary. There he delivered a reverse punch of great superhuman force to Light-Lord’s nasal region, and this blow sent the powerful menace directly onto his back.
The youthful champion now felt himself fueled as much by pure rage and determination as the Odic energies which charged his cells. He mercilessly began pummeling Light-Lord in the face, thus putting severe pressure on the latter’s protective energy aura. In the midst of the several blows delivered, Centurion was certain that he felt something on his opponent’s face break under the impact of his steel-strong knuckles.
Light-Lord reacted to the relentless assault with an equal degree of rage. He seized his foe by the throat in a crushing grip that forced the young hero to cease his flurry of punches. Centurion suddenly realized he should have anticipated that all the energy channeling through his foe’s suit would give him superhuman strength that was at least on par with his own.
Light-Lord immediately followed up his choking clutch by willing several wavelengths of Odic energies into the sophisticated micro-circuitry of his gauntlets. The result of this was a wave of crackling pink arcs of energy which permeated the nerves in Centurion’s neck and lower jaw. The adolescent hero bellowed in pure agony, while simultaneously struggling to wrest his enemy’s hands off his throat.
Centurion’s best efforts along these lines proved insufficient, however. He quickly found himself shocked back to the brink of unconsciousness by the pain exacted upon him by his foe’s energy assault. The bio-memetic material of the youth’s monochrome suit began melting around his neck region, thus making it clear that his semi-impervious skin underneath was likewise being damaged.
With a quick swell of anger, Light-Lord lifted the badly stunned Centurion over his head like a sack of laundry. He then slammed his young opponent’s body down upon the pavement as hard as his cosmically enhanced strength could muster. The resulting blow left the youthful metahuman imbedded within an indentation of roughly human-shaped contours that extended almost two inches into the cement.
Centurion was thoroughly stunned, and he could feel a trickle of blood oozing out of his mouth. Light-Lord then raised his foot and stomped it down with superhuman force on the youth’s chest. This caused his opponent to hack up a further expulsion of blood as one of his ribs snapped like a twig and penetrated the lung behind it.
“I’ll see you dead, you treasonous little bastard!” the cosmically powered scientist roared. To make good on this intention, he raised a right fist that quickly began manifesting another energy mine around it. “I’ll burn your putrid little head right off your shoulders!”
***
Al Garrison quietly ended a call on his cell phone and turned to Tatti Lawson, who was sitting beside him in an unmarked silvery Valis Institute van.
“I just… received a confirmation from Sweet Mercy Hospital. Craig Minkel was admitted there this morning. He was jumped on the way to the Skills Center. He’s… in really bad shape.”
Al couldn’t help but notice Tatti clench her fist and close both of her eyes tightly for just a split second.
“Tatti, this is seriously messed up. It’s bad enough that something like that happened to Craig under our watch. But how is Benny gonna react?”
“I think you just asked a seriously rhetorical question there, Al.”
“How are we going to tell him this?”
“We’ll figure that out after we find Mr. Kelley and everyone else involved in the assault and get them into protective custody. And I mean fast.”
“A part of me thinks they shouldn’t be protected from the consequences of what they did. As if their crowd hadn’t already done enough already to instigate this whole business in the first place.”
“I know, Al, but they aren’t being shielded from any consequences. When I said protective custody, I still meant custody. They’re going down for this. Big time.
“But we can’t let them go down by Benny’s hand. Sometimes violent solutions are necessary, but it still must be done within certain civilized boundaries. And even the most powerful among us must be made to realize they cannot simply do anything they want to do, or to whomever they want to do it to. God help us all when only the ‘little people’ have to follow the rules.”
“Maybe you should tell the people in Washington that. But anyway, can we actually stop him if it comes down to it?”
The lady known as The Noticer sighed and looked down. “I really don’t know. We need to inform Donovan as soon as that mess on Masten Avenue is resolved. Assuming he and Benny even live through it, that is. If not, then we may have far bigger problems than Benny’s feelings at the end of the day.”
***
Rick Kelley cursed loudly when the latest episode of the Degrassi series was suddenly interrupted by an emergency news bulletin reporting the disaster now going on in front of his school. The disruption of his view
ing pleasure was then extended with a secondary report about a fiasco surrounding a young, allegedly electricity-tossing metahuman from Kentucky whom the press referred to as “Kid Kilovolt.” These reports were combined into an impromptu mini-documentary of sorts titled Metahumans in Our Midst: What Does Their Mean for Human Civilization and the Rule of Law?
But something worse than the sudden disturbance of his favorite TV show was about to be revealed to him. It began a moment later when his cell phone emitted the downloaded theme of The Godfather to indicate he was receiving a call.
Seeing that it was Jimmy Bonsey on his caller I.D., Rick answered it. “What the hell do you want, man? It’s bad enough Degrassi got interrupted, even if it was to report the good news that some metahuman freaks just thrashed our school…”
“Dude, shut up for a minute!” Jimmy said in an uncharacteristic tone to his alpha friend. “We’re in some deep shit. I just heard that Ken decided to turn himself into the cops.”
“You gotta be shittin’ me!”
“No, I’m not, man. Seriously! But I don’t think he’s stupid enough to turn us all in.”
“Are you really that level of retarded? Do you honestly believe that prick is going to take the rap entirely on his own? And do you think the cops would believe him if he tried? They’re gonna find out that he only knew Minkel through us, and then they’ll figure out the rest of it!”
“Aw, man! What the hell are we gonna do?”
“We need to get the hell out of Buffalo, that’s what! I gotta call Zeff, and we need to split town, into Canada or something! You do have an enhanced license, right?”
“No, man, I don’t. I couldn’t afford one…”
“It’s only 65 bucks, you cheap ass bastard! Look, I know Zeff has an enhanced license, so we’re gonna take off for Canada. I know some people in Toronto we can sack with. Maybe I’ll get to meet some of the cast members of Degrassi, or some shit while I’m there. With Buffalo Historical having just been annihilated, no one will be doing roll call at the school for a while anyway.”
Centurion- Dark Genesis Page 26