Full Metal Superhero Box Set [Books 1-6]

by Haskell, Jeffery H.

  A fusillade of bullets ricochet off me as they return fire, more out of fear than any hope they can bring me down. I circle around, letting them chase me as I drop down to the treetops. Engines whine from the exertion of moving so much mass around tight turns and high G’s that would, as Mr. Parker said, “make a fighter pilot cry.”

  “Amelia, we’re in position,” Carlos tells me over the radio. Excellent.

  I let Epic acknowledge him and I focus on the stringing the Armory along. While they’ve been chasing me, the team set up around the silo. Kate and TK have infiltrated it in hopes of recovering any evidence before the Armory or Strungel have a chance to realize the game is afoot. Hopefully, they will take Strungel unaware—if he is even there.

  I come back around, kick in the afterburners (so-to-speak) and break the sound barrier a few feet above the ground. They chase me, burning up their fuel trying to bring me in range of their weapons again. A few seconds later I throw on the brakes and slam into the ground back where we started, sliding to a halt in the dirt and grass.

  “Epic, locate the rifle.”

  Located.

  While I wait for them, I put it back in storage mode and attach it to my back. A few seconds later they slam into the ground in a semi-circle around me, one at a time, landing in the order as when they took off. I glance over at Two’s body—she hasn’t moved and blood has pooled underneath her. I try to remind myself that I don’t have a choice here.

  It’s a hollow reminder.

  “I don’t know what your game is, Arsenal, but we’re going to tear you limb from limb for what you’ve done,” One growls at me.

  “I warned you,” I say. “Retract faceplate,” I tell Epic. The faceplate slides up, removing my HUD and letting me see them with my own eyes.

  “Amelia, there isn’t anyone else here,” Kate tells me over the radio. “Milton’s accessing their computers right now and says he’ll have it all downloaded in a few seconds.”

  “Okay,” I tell her.

  “Okay, what?” One asks.

  “This. Now.”

  In a blur of speed Fleet drops off Glacier, and appears next to her. Lux bursts out over the trees in her near light form, almost blinding the Armory as she hovers above me. Then the spear falls from the sky, shaking the ground with its tremendous impact, followed by The Protector a second later.

  “No! They’re not supposed to be here. He promised! What do we do?” Five asks his team out loud.

  “I have an AI with trillions of computing cycles just laying about doing nothing. How hard do you think it was to fake a news story so you thought I was alone? You caught me by surprise once, good on you. Never again. Surrender,” I say again.

  “You know what he said he would do if we were captured,” One tells his crew. He hefts his hammer and charges me. Which isn’t at all what I expected. They’re not being forced, which is clear, but they are being coerced, at least not to surrender.

  Lux flares to light and I hear her hands slap together and a beam of light splits the sky above my helmet, striking One in the chest. My faceplate slams down automatically to protect me from the heat and light. Her laser blast makes my particle beams look like a flashlight. The beam burns a four-inch hole in One’s chest and right out the back and he falls over dead.

  The remaining three toss their weapons on the ground, dropping to their knees a second later. “We surrender,” Four says as he drops to his knees next to the sword he wielded.

  “Good call,” I say.

  165

  The three remaining members of the Armory march onto the armored truck, sans their armor. They shoot me dirty looks as the US Marshals march their defeated butts onto the transport van.

  The team stands together, all of us watching while our prize is locked up. The two who didn’t make it have sheets over them on the ground where they fell. Of course, the one I exploded doesn’t have anything.

  Amelia, Milton has successfully downloaded all of their information. This appears to be a base of operations and repair for the Armory. Strungel has not used it since he joined Rafael in Argentina.

  “Any chance he’s still down there? We really need to track this fool down. I don’t know what he told the Armory would happen to them if they surrendered but the sooner we find him the sooner—”

  Amelia, incoming!

  “Down,” I yell to the marshals.

  Fleet moves so fast I don’t even see the blur. The marshals just vanish as the massive object falls from the sky and slams into the roof of the armored truck. Metals, glass, and flesh explode outward as the armored car collapses in the middle like a boulder hit it. I can’t imagine anyone inside is still alive.

  Epic flares out the shields to protect Monica from the worst of the debris as the shockwave rolls over us. Lux shoots up into the sky, flaring brightly as she goes.

  “I don’t see—” she starts to say when a chunk of engine slams into her, knocking her out of the sky to crash into the ground behind us.

  Oh no. No. Please don’t let it be—

  Luke lumbers out of the wreckage of the armored truck. He’s ten feet tall and at least half as wide. His chest heaves up and down as he breathes in whole liters of air every second. His pants are intact but his shirt is torn off. In the center of his chest, the Red Gem gleams from its place embedded in his sternum. The remains of the truck burst into flames.

  Fleet appears in an eye blink, hurtling a hundred stones at Luke, who just shrugs them off before punching the ground with enough force to open a crater. Fleet stumbles backward and I only manage to stay upright because Epic hits the Emdrive and we lift off.

  “Glacier, freeze him,” I order.

  Monica slaps her hands together, instantly shifting from human to ice queen. Blue beams shoot out of her palms. Then I notice; the ground around Luke is blackened and burning. Everywhere he steps, burns. The metal edges on the truck behind him glow with heat as they begin to melt and the rest of the destroyed vehicle bursts into flames.

  “Don’t touch him! He’s hot,” I warn the team.

  Glacier’s blue beams strike Luke in the chest and a gout of steam explodes off of him as his body heat fights the ice-beams.

  “I didn’t think that was possible,” she says in open-mouthed unbelief.

  “Believe it,” Luke growls. He leaps forward, through her beams, hand cocked back to strike her. I open my mouth to shout a warning but he’s too fast.

  As his fist comes down on her, Carlos is there, taking the blow on his shield. The shockwave of the impact explodes like a bomb at their feet. Dirt and debris fly in every direction. When the dust settles, Luke and the Protector square off. Fleet grabs Monica a second after the impact and has her a safe distance away.

  “Tony, Check on Lux!” I order him.

  “On it.”

  I can’t take my eyes off the titanic showdown in front of me. Luke, who doesn’t even look like himself now, with his monstrously deformed body that is more like a bodybuilders nightmare of deformed muscles on muscles, towers over Carlos.

  Whatever happened to my best friend in the past, forged him into a fighting machine with enough cut muscles to make any muscle mag in the country beg for him to be on their cover. It didn’t make him taller, though.

  Luke’s chest heaves as he stands back up from where the explosion of impacting force had knocked him down.

  Amelia. A tank missile now could end this.

  “What? Epic, it could kill Luke. I’m not about to do that.”

  When he speaks, it's like the gates of hell itself open up. Heat pours out of his mouth in air shimmering waves.

  “Child of Apollo, you’re not supposed to be here,” he says. His voice isn’t Luke’s.

  Carlos cocks his head to one side, gripping his shield tight against his body and his spear behind him in a more relaxed hold.

  “She tricked you. It’s how she wins,” Carlos says with a smile. “Get used to it.”

  “Oh, I know all about her tricks. We shall s
ee who tricked who,” he says with a lecherous grin. I know Carlos is about to say something but Luke backhands him. To both our amazement, Carlos ducks under it and kicks Luke in the stomach. The blow knocks Luke back a few feet. Carlos comes at him with the spear and Luke bats it aside, slamming into Carlos shield with his other hand.

  Carlos spins around, bringing his shield in a backhand that crashes into Luke’s face and elicits a howl of rage from him.

  The two punch, counter, and parry in a blur of motion that is almost impossible to follow. Each hit punctuated by a clap of air or shockwave as they wield titanic force.

  “Amelia, I’m still down inside the base going through every nook and cranny with Milton. Do you need me up there?” Kate asks.

  “No. It’s Luke, Kate, he killed the Armory. He and Carlos are duking it out.” When she doesn’t respond, I check to see if the equipment is working. In a pop of air, Kate appears next to me.

  “Maybe I can reach him,” she says with a shrug. “I’ve been trying since he left but I can’t feel him. If I can see him, or touch him, though, I might be able to get through.”

  Another shockwave of air rolls over us as Luke’s fist is suddenly stopped on Carlos’ shield.

  “You think you can get close enough?” I ask her.

  “Amelia, Lux is hurt bad. Teddy thinks she needs immediate evac,” Fleet says, I can hear the pain in his voice. He’s talking so fast it takes me a second to catch up.

  “Do it. We got this.”

  “Are you sure?” he asks.

  “If we don’t, I don’t think you’ll make a difference,” I tell him matter-of-factually.

  “Understood. I’m getting her out of here.”

  Carlos ducks another blow by Luke and comes under him, striking his jaw with the edge of Aegis. The blow lift Luke off the ground and sends him flying to land in a furrow twenty feet away.

  “Now’s my chance,” Kate says, taking off in a run.

  “Epic, what can we hit him with that won’t kill him?”

  Amelia, unless we disable him entirely there is no stopping him without killing him. Even if we aimed for the Gem and hit it directly, anything with sufficient power to destroy it would certainly kill Luke. The choice may not be yours for much longer, Amelia. If Carlos and Kate cannot stop him, a hit with the railgun or tank missile may be our only option.

  Kate leaps through the air, vanishing from sight for a second and reappearing on top of Luke. She lands on his chest in a crouch, hands on either side of his face. She screams as her fingers burn. Her boots sag with heat, the rubber in the soles melting as it breaks it down almost immediately under the assault.

  “Luke,” she screams. “Come back to us.”

  For a second, I think it’s going to work. Luke reaches up for her and his hands stop, he shakes his head like he’s trying to wake up... then that evil laugh comes back and he bats her off him like an insect.

  “Kate,” I scream. Emdrives flare as I floor it after her. I pass Luke going four hundred miles an hour, grab her before she hits the ground, and roll, taking the impact on my armor as we slide to a halt in the dirt.

  Epic throws her vitals on my screen, letting me know she’s alive.

  Luke roars in rage as Carlos leaps at him, spear back. He jams it through Luke’s chest. “No!” I shout. The spear pierces Luke like a knife through water, knocking him back as lava-like blood spurts out of the wound on his chest.

  He kicks Carlos in the chest, knocking him back and away, then he pulls the spear and chucks it aside. The blood leaking from the wound burns the ground where it hits.

  “Match to you, Son of Apollo, but you won’t always be here to save them.” Luke takes two steps forward and leaps into the air. In a heartbeat, he vanishes off into the distance.

  166

  The plane ride home isn’t a barrel of laughs. One bright spot—well, two—no US Marshals were hurt and Lux is going to be okay. We picked her, Tony, and Teddy, up on our way back to Phoenix. Which is good for Kate since she suffered third-degree burns on her hands and feet.

  Teddy wrapped them up pretty quick. Between her already accelerated healing and Teddy’s power, she’ll be fine in a day or so. She sits next to me, her smile faltering a little as I review the footage from the fight. Once Luke emerged from the burning remains of the armored truck, I froze. I know it, they know it.

  “It’s not your fault,” Kate says, patting my hand with her bandaged one. I’m out of the armor—it’s nestled snugly in the belly of the plane, ready to go if I need it again.

  “I know,” I sigh. “It sure feels like it, though.”

  She shrugs. “We all blame ourselves for things we have no control over. It’s human nature.”

  “My people do that as well,” Lux interjects from the chair behind us. “Maybe it is just the nature of sentience?”

  I chuckle. “Good point, Lux. Maybe everyone who can judge and think will blame themselves when things go badly. Or at least good people, I guess.”

  Her laugh is like wind chimes in the sun. “Yes, good people. Bad people tend to blame everyone else for their problems.”

  Everyone chuckles at that. “Truth,” Teddy says.

  “It really isn’t your fault, Amelia,” Carlos says from across the aisle. He has his armor on still, but he’s removed his helmet, and his shield and spear rest on the next seat beside him. “That thing, I say ‘thing’ because it isn’t Luke, called me ‘Son of Apollo’... now, how would he know that?”

  “Isn’t Asclepius the son of Apollo?” Teddy asks. He would know; his brain is bigger than mine. “You’re not him, right?”

  Carlos laughs. “No, never even met him. I spent some time with his sister, Artemis, but he had no sons when I was there.”

  Kate leans forward to see past me; one delicate eyebrow raising up. “How much time?” she asks in an almost purr. The temperature in the plane skyrockets and Carlos’ face flushes beat red.

  “That—that’s not what I meant,” he coughs out.

  “Uh-huh,” she says with a smile. “I’m sure it was all just battle training and martial exercises. None of that debauchery the Greeks were known for—of course not.” I can tell Kate is teasing him, but Carlos can’t. His face burns bright red and I’m worried he’s going to burst a blood vessel. She holds his eyes for a second before turning back to me. The plane has gone silent and she continues.

  “My point is, Amelia, you’ve done everything you can do to help him. What the thing in the Gem does isn’t your fault any more than it is Luke’s,” she says. When she’s right, she’s right, but it doesn’t change how I feel. It does give me the strength to smile at her for a moment.

  Amelia. You need to see this. All of you do.

  “See what?” Tony asks.

  The big TV screen in the front of the cabin flares to life. The volume ticks up until we can hear the newscaster speaking. The scrolling ticker on the bottom of the screen fills us in while the person reporting finds their words.

  — Superhero battle in Seattle. Several dead —

  Oh no, no, no. Smoke on the screen clears and I can see the bodies. Whoever has the camera is as brave as they come to get that close.

  “Epic, reroute us to Seattle!”

  It is already over. Amelia, this is a replay of events that happened a few minutes ago.

  My mind reels.

  “Wh— what?”

  Standing over the bodies of the three versions of Triple Threat and Enforcer, is... me. Or at least armor that looks like mine. She’s holding Emerald Knight by the throat and snaps her neck while we watch helplessly. The running news feed at the bottom changes to, Arsenal goes rogue, murders innocent super team.

  “Where’s Weather Witch?” I ask Epic.

  She is alive but in critical condition. Keep watching.

  The armored figure—who looks just like me—drops Emerald Knight to the ground. Her body falling in a heap. My stomach threatens revolt just as the temperature in the plane drops ten degrees. Monic
a switched to her elemental mode to keep from puking.

  The not-Arsenal turns to the camera, gives it a nod, then braces herself. The whine of the Emdrive fills the air and she blasts off into the air.

  “That’s not good,” Tony mutters.

  “You think?” Carlos asks him.

  167

  “The only reason you’re not in jail right now is that the Governor of Arizona and the State Attorney General are vouching for you—combined with your ‘alibi’.” Special Agent-in-Charge of Superhuman Activity Brown actually raises his hands up and makes air quotes with his fingers while he talks to me. We’re in Sulaco, the smallest of our conference rooms in the Spire.

  Since I am only allowed one other person in the room with me, I chose Kate. I figured her abilities would come in handy. What I didn’t know was Agent Brown would be wearing a breathing filter to block out her pheromones. He’s sharp, I guess. Except for the part where he thinks I actually murdered the Northwest team. This is an unofficial-official interview. Agent Brown is recording it. If he’s looking for me to say something and slip up he’s in for a long wait. I may only have Kate with me, but I’m wearing my glasses. Epic is analyzing everything Brown says and his body language, and running advanced computations on any possible response I could give, then feeding me the best answer with the least likely chance of me ending up in jail.

  I would think being innocent would be enough, but I’ve learned the hard way over the last few years that the truth has little to do with... well, anything.

  “Please tell me why I should believe that wasn’t you in Seattle?” he asks.

  His body language and tone suggest that he is not at all open to the possibility of the assailant being someone else. Keep your answers short, simple, and truthful.

  I glance up at the camera in the corner of the room and give Epic a raised eyebrow. As if I wouldn’t be truthful.