Massive coils condense in my left arm as power flows into the animetal tendons, putting the seven-inch coils under massive pressure. Club steps to the side, pulling back his fist for a full strength hit.
“Fire!”
Twenty-seven thousand pounds of force spread out over seven inches hits him square in the face. Teeth shatter and I hear the distinct crack of his jaw. The blow sends Club flying through the far wall… again. This time, I don’t think he’ll be getting up for a while.
Lightning strikes the suit full on the chest. Green energy bleeds off me as the HUD flickers from the sudden burst.
“Locate!”
Tracking algorithms scan everyone in sight, analyzing patterns to show me the most likely culprit. While they do their thing, I blast another F3 with a full force, narrow beam IP cannon. He spins around, arms flailing as he spazzes his way to the ground.
Located.
Behind a number of costumed thugs, who apparently haven’t gotten the memo about Tia since they are all attacking her, and she is taking her time flicking each one in the face, is a man in a cape and cowl. Green bolts of lightning flicker in and out of existence around him.
“Got you!” I take off running. The suit shakes the ground then I leap, the Emdrive whines louder than a screaming child at Wal-Mart, deafening the group of idiots attacking Tia as I fly overhead. With the suit’s weight being greater, it takes four times the thrust to lift it. Ergo, louder engines. I hit the ground in front of him. He jerks back, holding out both his hands. Energy crackles around him and blasts me in the chest. Alarms ring and for a second, the shields have trouble bleeding off that much sheer voltage.
“My turn!” I hold out both palms, ionic pulse energy rips through him, overloading nerves, causing him to jerk around like a crazed Muppet. It always puts a smile on my face.
Puff-puff.
The double-barreled grenade launchers have put another twenty bad guys on the ceiling, thinning out the crowd dramatically.
“Tia, mass up!” I yell her way. She drops to one knee, her mass and density increasing with each second. “Full power IP Cannons, maximum width, rapid fire.” The sandpaper staccato fills the air as I whip my hands back and forth, sending out wave after wave of energy. Countless superhumans fall to the ground spazzing with energy as their nerves lose control.
Tia’s hyper-condensed form doesn’t allow the energy to penetrate her skin. When I lower my hands, only a handful of people remain standing.
“If I were you, I’d surrender,” Kate tells them. She’s standing on three bodies piled on top of each other, twirling an IP-pistol in the air like a gunfighter while her clawed hand drips blood on the floor.
A moment of indecision passes… the remaining people drop to their knees with their hands up.
It’s then I can hear the sirens outside and the loudspeaker calling for people to come out with their hands up.
Amelia, I am detecting an enormous energy signature. It might be best to flee.
“Run,” I say over the loudspeaker. “Run outside, right now. Epic, particle beam!”
Remember, we only have it for thirty seconds of sustained fire before it must shut down.
“I know!” The beam flashes ready and I fire it at the ceiling in an “x” pattern. The corrugated aluminum falls in, leaving a hole large enough for those trapped up there to float out.
Warning, the energy signature is moving.
The water inside the covered dock area heaves forward in a four-foot-high wall, washing over anyone still on the ground. Several people sputter to consciousness, pulling themselves up. Tia grabs two and chucks them bodily toward the door. Kate is helping too. I know she could help better if she could teleport—clearly, that isn’t related to the barrier.
Seawater splashes over the lip again, this time even higher. I grab the green energy guy and heave him the thirty feet to Tia, who relays him right out the door before he even hits the ground.
Epic shows three more people unconscious on the far side of the enclosure. I hit the Emdrive and floor it. The suit isn’t as agile as my others and I slam into the wet floor, skidding to a halt. I pick up one and toss him over my shoulder, then the second. Epic fire the grenade launcher with a puff to catch the third. He gently floats up and out of the hole.
Amelia, move!
I hit the jets, blasting out of the hangar-like structure through the hole I made in the ceiling, arc around and land next to the police, dropping off my package.
“Who are you?” The officer next to me asks.
“Arsenal, The Protectors. Listen, you have to evacuate the area, something big is—”
Before I can finish speaking, the entire structure over the dock collapses in a scream of twisted metal and broken glass. The police officer yells for everyone to fall back.
I don’t think they have enough time. “Epic, what the hell is that?”
It appears to be a gigantic robotic T-rex with ape arms. Like the one we crashed the alien ship into… but bigger.
“Oh, is that all.”
150
Tyrannosaurus-Robot pulls himself from the wreckage of the building, his massive three-fingered hands digging furrows in the ground as he lifts himself out of the water. I don’t even know where to start. The thing is huge, black, and has a head full of teeth. It’s clearly made from the same material as my armor, but I could never, ever make something that complex. It moves like a living creature, metal plates shifting like skin.
It’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.
And it’s going to kill me.
“Epic, we need to draw it away—give the police time to evacuate. Full power to the particle beams.”
They still have not cooled down since last use. You only have fifteen seconds of sustained firing left.
“Noted.” I shunt power to the four Emdrive’s and blast off in a howl of whining engines. Taking to the air in my riot suit isn’t nearly as graceful or agile as my alien armor. More like a flying tank. Of course, I think I’m going to need the flying tank. I do a quick scan while it continues to pull itself out of the water. The best bet is to lead it north; there is park land and a forest only a few miles away. Less chance of damage to life and property away from the city.
I swing wide south, then east behind it. “Hit it with every sensor we have.” I doubt we’ll be able to find anything other than heat levels. My armor is immune to a lot of things because of the way the molecules bond together. If this is my armor, then it will be too.
Nothing useful, I am afraid. It has a massive power source, clearly. Beyond that, I cannot detect anything.
“Dangit all. Okay, let’s wake it up,” I say as I do a roll and head north. The particle beam fires, ripping through the air in a sizzle of blue as hyper-accelerated silicate splashes against Robo-Rex’s hide. I run the beam for the full fifteen seconds before the shut-off warning flares to life and I have to turn it off.
No effect.
“Gee, you think.”
One massive foot with three toes slams down on the building in front of the pier. Wood and concrete explode outward in a shower of dust. Its second foot makes landfall and all one-hundred and fifty feet of it is standing over the city, like Godzilla at a buffet table.
Epic highlights the police’s effort to evacuate the area—it is working, just not fast enough.
Incoming call from Kate.
“Is there anything I can do?” she asks. I hear screaming behind her and a mass of people all shouting to “run.” Good advice.
“Nothing comes to mind. Can you teleport?” I ask her.
“No, I’ve been trying. Whatever he did, it locked me out.” The frustration in her voice is evident, as is the exhaustion. Not that I’m peppy myself.
“Get to our truck if you can, let me know when you’re there. I might have an inkling of an idea.”
“On it.” She disconnects.
“Epic, fire off all the AG pods on its left leg. Let’s make it hard to turn.”
I have eight re
maining.
A yellow path lights up on my HUD, showing the way to go. I hold out my arms wide to steady the flight as we bank. The whine of the Emdrive fills the air around me. I come in low and it takes a swipe at me with a massive arm. It only looks slow because of how big it is; it’s actually fast. I flip over and dive for the ground just as it passes above me. “Fire.” It’s now or never. The puff-puff in rapid succession tells me Epic is following my orders. The sticky AG pods slap against the left leg, activating. They’re designed to lift up to a metric ton, I seriously doubt they’ll do anything against this behemoth.
I fly out between its legs, dodging the tail as it comes at me. I respond with a couple of shots from my IP cannons, but the energy fizzles on impact. Robo-Rex lifts its head up in a mighty roar. Buildings shake and glass shatters for half a mile as the sound reverberates.
“Why do I get the feeling this is more than just a robot?”
Rafael did say he is a conjurer. Perhaps it is a combination of metal and life? I am going over the last twenty-four hours recorded by your wrist computer. Give me a moment.
“Sure, take all the moments you need.” Staying well away from the metallic monstrosity, I gain altitude as I line up my particle beam, firing the moment it comes back online. The super accelerated sand hits him in the face, leaving a glowing orange trail behind it as I move it across his eye. Armored plates like eyelids slam down over the ocular section. The beam only heats up a very small area before I have to shut it down again.
Robo-Rex swings his leg around, clawed foot bursting through buildings, gas lines exploding in its wake. He’s fully facing me and pointed north. Awesome.
I can’t get too far in front of him or he might return to wrecking the city—or whatever it is he came here to do. Time to try some new ordinance. I’ve never been one for conventional weapons, but why reinvent the wheel? Besides, with the riot control variant, I have a lot of extra room.
“Bring up the kinetic missile.” Essentially nothing more than an arrow-shaped mass driver. However, since my attempts with mass drivers outside the animetal armor have been… shall we say, “disastrous…” this one fires at a much lower velocity. Instead of pumping one hundred mega-joules into the driver, this one only fires at ten—which is lower than even the Navy's railgun. However, it should allow me to do it more often. Plus, I make up for velocity with mass.
Tank missile ready.
Epic has the best sense of humor. I navigate the menus using eye movements until I find the loudspeaker.
“Hey, Rafael! Bring it!” I fire. The Gatling gun on my right shoulder reconfigures, locking down the articulating arm into a hard point. The energy build-up whines, then discharges like a broken battery. Fire leaps from the barrel as the eight-inch-long arrow launches at three thousand miles per hour, leaving a jet of flame in its wake that momentarily blinds me.
It works perfectly.
The hardened arrow slams into the robot’s chest in an explosion of force. The thing stops for a second, wobbling back and forth. He lowers his head, opens his mouth… and belches out smoke before slamming his jaws shut. His eyes flash red. Lines of red light spread from his eyes down his back getting brighter and brighter as the second's tick by.
“Uh-oh, I’ve seen this movie. Epic, full power to the drive!”
Done.
I leap up through the air as Robo-Rex unleashes a blast of red fury that misses by over a hundred feet but turns the air into an oven. Alarms scream from the sudden thermal increase. The thermometer spins past one thousand on its way up. I throw the reserves into the drive as I realize he’s tracking us with his heat breath. The suit bucks as we break Mach One, then a few seconds later, Mach Two. Only then does the temp start to fade.
I am over a mile away. “Epic, bring up the area. Find me some cameras so I can see what he’s doing!”
Screens flare to life, showing me what is happening. With me fleeing, he’s turned his attention back to the city.
“Epic, open a channel, all radio frequencies, hack the television broadcast, AM radio—hell bounce a laser off of him and use Morse Code. We need to speak to Rafael.”
Working. I need ten seconds.
I swing back down, coming in over the city. Another tank missile locks into place with a thunk. I only have six left. He’s so frigging massive—unless I can find a way to get a kill shot, we’re screwed.
I have all the local frequencies.
“Rafael, if you can hear me, look at what you’re doing! Who’s the one killing people? Who’s the one trying to stop you? Ericsson wanted to trade a hundred million lives on the hope of saving more down the road. That is exactly what you’re doing! You’re killing people, not saving them. Listen to me, I’m not Ericsson. Do you hear me? I’m not him.”
I use my hands to slow down as I come back face to face with the monster. He’s a hundred feet away, head low and mouth open. I can only hope Rafael has some kind of control over the beast. I can’t even imagine how he built it, let alone how he imbued it with life. I refuse to believe it’s magic—it’s just science I haven’t seen yet.
“Amelia, I’m at the truck, what do you need?” Kate’s voice interrupts my thoughts.
“Your swords. And then find Tia. I’ll need her too.”
“On it. Be safe!”
“Always,” I tell my best friend.
The line cuts and I’m back to staring down the robo-apocalypse.
He is broadcasting.
“On screen.”
Audio only.
“People of Argentina, of the Earth, I am Ricardo Rafael, founder of the Fabulous Five, also known as The Red Wizard. Please listen to me. Your very future depends on it.”
I shake my head. He’s really not going to back down. No matter what.
“Superhumans are not your friends! They lie to you, they steal from you, and they murder you. The few who put on costumes and protect you do not make up for those who abuse their power. As long as one person with superhuman abilities roams free, we’re all in danger. Stop them. Do whatever you have to before it’s too late! Once we have power, we will never give it back.”
I shake my head. “Because that makes all kinds of sense. Punish the innocent for the crimes of the guilty? Superpowers aren’t going anywhere, Rafael. Wishing them away doesn’t make it so. And even if you could remove superpowers from the world… do you think we would all form a circle and sing Kumbaya? Lest you forget, the world had wars before anyone had superpowers.”
As long as we are facing each other off, he’s not destroying property or killing people. My skin crawls watching that big metallic monster, made from my material, hunching over, rising slightly with each breath… Why is it even breathing? What has he done?
The monster’s eyes narrow and he leaps forward. Nothing that big should be that fast. At least a real T-rex had short useless arms—this thing has long gorilla-like arms with three claws at the end, one of which hits me square on.
Alarms scream in my ears. The world flashes around me and I want to vomit from the g’s piling up on me. Something explodes around me and everything goes dark for a second.
Amelia, are you okay?
“No,” I groan. My mouth fills with the coppery taste of blood, oh how I hate that flavor. “What happened?”
He hit you…
I cough, trying hard not to spit up blood in my suit. “Open faceplate.” The front slides up, letting me breathe some stale, dusty air and also spit out the blood. I’m in a cellar of some kind. Great. At least we’re not underwater.
“Close faceplate.” It slides back down, bringing my HUD back to life.
The force of the blow exceeded our tolerance. Amelia, he simply has too much mass. We cannot fight him. I seriously doubt even Carlos could hurt him.
“Too much mass… too much…” My inkling of an idea turns into a full-on plan. I’d thought that maybe Kate and Tia could use the swords to damage him from below while I attacked from above… but…
“Call Kat
e and locate Tia please?”
On it.
“Go for Kate,” she says when we connect.
“I really need you to find Tia, then make sure the evacuation is citywide. I think I have a way to stop him but it’s going to do some damage.”
She sighs audibly. “Amelia, when do your plans not involve ‘some damage?’”
“Sometimes…? Just find Tia.” I close the line, shake off the dust and fire the Emdrive. In seconds, we’re back in the air. His blow had sent me tumbling almost a mile away.
“Epic, I need you to calibrate the Gatling for rapid fire on the Tank Missiles.”
The hardware is not designed for that. It will likely exceed our tolerance by the third shot.
“I understand that. It’s just… this may be our only chance to stop this thing.”
Amelia, the tolerances are heat based. I know we are accustomed to the animetal heat resistance, but this is traditional armor. Three thousand and one degrees and the suit melts.
“I’m aware of the math—” I dodge hard to the right as red beams of heat scorch the air. He sweeps his head back and forth in an effort to catch me. “Just do it!” Alarms blare and my screens pop up, showing me the swath of destruction he’s leaving behind.
“Rafael, this is your last chance. Stop this madness and surrender! You’re not doing anything to help your cause,” I tell him. I doubt he’ll listen, but it’s worth a shot.
“My cause and humanity’s are one and the same. You’re a blight on this world, Arsenal. You and the rest of super-humanity.”
I sigh. There’s just no getting through to him. He believes his goals are just, and therefore any action he takes is righteous… but it’s simply not true. Not for me, not for The Protector, and certainly not for Raphael.
I have located Tia. She does not have a communications device, but I caught her on cell phone footage from a bystander.
“Call them and have them give her the phone!” I pull up hard, firing another stream of particle beams at Robo-Rex. I’d have to stand still, focusing the beams on one section for longer than he would allow, to make a difference.
Full Metal Superhero Box Set [Books 1-6] Page 80