by J. B. Garner
From the rubble, Archer emerged, trying to steady an aim on his crossbow. Frost managed to push up to her knees, but that was enough for her as I could see her lungs expand. Extinguisher kicked down an icy barrier that had somehow held fast and stepped out with Mind's Eye, looking weak but awake as she leaned on the firefighter for support. Hexagon threw off a slab of concrete and staggered to his feet. Twister spat up a wad of blood and chewing tobacco as he pulled himself out of a crater in the wall.
"Tank's getting Bio, so how about the rest of us just help you beat the hell out of this bastard?" Hex said, a growl in his throat as tears dried on his face. Reaper's grisly wounds mended like a patchwork of blood and muscle as he snarled back at our assembled forces.
"Oh, good, you've got the big boy back!" He wiped blood from his cruel grin. "I was afraid this was going to get bor-"
It was Quentin, suddenly appearing from the shadows like a ghost, that cut the murderer off as he drove a foot into his side, then rabbited away from the undoubtedly lethal counterattack of flying shards of debris. Swirling on a crimson wind, those same shards of debris sent me scurrying back or be ripped to shreds.
Epic, however, blasted through that barrier. As glowing white tendrils clashed with scarlet energy, the debris flew wild only to be collected and blown harmlessly aside by Twister's own cyclonic forces. Despite Epic's sudden rush, the monster himself blinked out of existence in a burst of energy, teleporting barely out of the way of the impact.
Still, with that cloud of rubble gone, Quentin and I were free to strike, following on the heels of Extinguisher and Frost laying down another heavy stream of ice and cold. Elemental force was countered by a surge of spontaneous flames, hot enough to turn rock to magma, but purely imaginary to the two of us.
"Stall, don't break, Q," I whispered to my side, just before we cleared the flames. Quentin responded with an imperceptible nod as we crashed into Reaper, our combined force and weight carrying him into the outer wall of the building, already weakened by the ravages of battle so far. The impact brought a grunt of pain from the monster but barely phased him.
With a wave of his hand, before we could even make a break for it, there was a rending of stone and metal as both the ground and what remained of the ceiling above ripped free in a semi-circle around Reaper. Ground surged up and ceiling rushed down, ready to squash us like bugs.
It would have, fueled by Reaper's god-like speed, if the glowing tendrils that manipulated the stone hadn't been countered by the simultaneous application of two forces. Epic's own surge of pure white energy twined around those opposite tendrils of force as the air around Quentin and I was filled with the near-invisible thrum of Mind Eye's telekinetic might. Reaper and Epic canceled out one another and the falling stone was easily deflected by the dome of hardened air around us.
"Aww, too bad. I thought I had you that time." Reaper sneered as he rocketed at me, specifically, but this time I was already gone, leaping backwards from the still-floating floor. "That's fine! This farce will keep playing out until one of you gets tired and slips up." A huge fist sundered the floor where I had landed on my back from the leap but, again, I had already rolled to one side.
"Just shut up." Hexagon's reply was punctuated by a wall of punches, slamming into Reaper's head and body. No matter how strong my six-armed friend was, the best it would do would be to keep Reaper off-balance. Dammit, though, Reaper was right. I rolled to my feet as Reaper threw Hex away from him with a sweep of an arm. The follow-up blast of pure destructive force, however, was thrown off course by an exploding crossbow bolt in the eye. It didn't hurt the monster but it threw off his aim.
The wild blast of energy flew off towards the far wall and, to my surprise, Epic was there, intercepting it and absorbing the blast before it ravaged another of the few support structures remaining. Maybe he had changed even more than I thought. I shoved that away. We had to buy a bit more time and I was good at playing bait.
Quentin tumbled away from another attempted assault on the demigod, swatted away like a fly but before Reaper could capitalize, Frost and Hexagon both bum-rushed him then broke off, making room for another burst of firepower from Epic and Extinguisher both, finished off with a half-a-ton of rock dropped on the monster's head from Mind's mental grasp. It did about as much good as you would expect. Reaper didn't even bother shattering the stone. He simply teleported out from under the rubble, dusting crumbs of concrete off his shoulder.
"Really?" There was a look of shock and ... suspicion on Reaper's face. "You fought harder when your savior here was weak as a kitten." Damn, he was catching on. "What are you doing?"
"I've got Bio, he's waking up, now what do I do?" Tank asked with shocking curtness.
"Tell him he has about a minute to figure out what drug could keep a person in a subconscious state for hours and create an antidote for it. No pressure." I was lying. There was a lot of pressure.
"As for everyone else," Ex called out on the com as he pointed at Reaper, "dogpile him so they actually get that minute!" It was a stupid plan, but I didn't have anything better in mind. Epic must have already figured it out as he was in Reaper's face in a moment.
"Let us take this outside." It was a surprisingly mild request, only a slight boom to Eric's double voice, but he punctuated it with a huge uppercut. Crimson shields flared into life, absorbing most of the impact but, when such tremendous force is applied, even gods can be moved. Reaper rocked up into the air, unharmed but flying, only to be pushed higher as Hexagon flew through the air, thrown even harder than he could normally leap by a surge of Mind Eye's mental might, and slammed into him.
"You wanted occupied," Epic said, rocketing up after the monster, "I have delivered." Again, that imperious edge was mostly gone. It was no gloat, simply a statement of fact. Ex shot me a brief glance but said nothing, only followed after on an ice trail. Also in pursuit were Mind's Eye with Hexagon and Frost in tow, the dragon-woman's wings being far too ravaged to fly under her own power.
As for myself, I forced my tired body to keep working as I could feel that terrible hunger staying in my accelerated state brought on. Quentin leaned on his knees, knowing this was only the briefest of respites. It was Archer that was suddenly at my side, putting one of my arms around his shoulder, as I started to lurch towards the stairs.
"Now, milady, give thyself the moment you deserve." His presence was warm and comforting and I let myself the luxury of leaning on the swashbuckler for that moment. Up above us, outside the building, the echoing impacts of combat continued.
"Thanks." Those were all the words I could spare at the moment and they felt so little and petty. Archer replied by gently brushing a few errant sweat-slicked hairs out of my face.
"Indy! He's got it so we can save the day and stuff and I'm bringing it down right now and, uh, so ... how does this save the day again?" Tank said over the com, punctuated by the roar of his engine a floor above. The treaded teen bunny-hopped off of ... something ... and landed beside us with a crash.
I gave Archer a brief glance and a nod before forcing myself to stand on my own.
"There's one thing though because I told Bio about Reaper 'cause I figured we'd hit him with the crazy drugs too at the same time but he said that would be really dangerous and it might not work anyway because the drugs are probably all out of his system and he's sorry that he can't do more because Reaper is too powerful and ..."
"Incoming!" Ex shouted over the com as, neatly plummeting through the hole Reaper made on exit, Reaper came back down through in a tight grapple with Epic. The two demigods were unleashing a brutal pounding to each other to minimal effect but it kept them tied up. As they abruptly stopped their plummet at ground level and broke apart, the one chance there was going to be was open.
I pushed away from Archer and simply opened my right hand over my head. Quentin was already moving as I broke into a sprint, the sound of the whirring servos of Tank's cybernetic arm somehow coming through clear over the echoing lash of Reaper'
s backhand against Epic's jaw, knocking him away a good ten yards. The monster whirled on us, eyes blazing with crackling lightning.
Quentin poked him in the eyes Three Stooges-style. If we weren't in the final chorus of a life-or-death struggle, I would have laughed out loud. The thing was that it was momentarily effective. Reaper growled in blind pain and swatted at the air. Quentin had already dodged back but it wasn't just raw strength Reaper had brought to bear as a wave of shattered office furniture and collapsed wall flew upwards from the floor, shotgunning the short-order cook with a volley of projectiles. I passed Quentin as he was thrown back, bloodied and battered, just as the drug hypo that Tank had thrown landed neatly into my outstretched hand.
"Up high, milady!" I ducked into a roll as the still-blind Reaper took a double shot of high-powered crossbow bolt and plasma discharge in the chest, enough to rock him back a step. My roll slipped right between the two tree trunks Reaper had for legs as I came up into a crouch.
It was a blind strike, but I had a large target: the muscle tissue of the buttock. It was undignified (not that it mattered here) and not as immediately effective as a direct bloodstream injection, but it was a far easier target to hit. I felt that strange sensation as my closed hand pierced unreal skin and all it then took was a twist and a stab.
Reaper blurred in motion, moving faster than I had yet to see, snatching me by the throat in one easy swipe, using that as leverage to hurl me with incalculable force. No doubt about it, the impact when I hit the wall would pulp every bone in my body. Well, if the wall had actually been there instead of open air caused by a ripple of pure white reality energy from Epic's fingertips.
A moment later I was outside as air resistance started to slow me and gravity curved me downwards. I didn't even have time to look at my next level of imminent doom (a terminal velocity swan dive onto the streets below) when I hit snow. Loose, fluffy snow, then dense powder.
As I shoved my head out of my chilly resting place, breaking clear of the snow, Extinguisher was waiting on an ice slide.
"You didn't think I'd let him splat you, did I?" he smirked.
I didn't answer, for once at a loss of words. My only reaction was to climb over the ice dome, filled with its payload of snow, still held aloft by telekinetic force, and onto Ex's slide. With a serious face again, the firefighter turned us back towards the Plaza. There was some huge commotion on the streets below but, dammit, it would have to wait.
"What are you doing to me?" Reaper shrieked, holding his head as he fell to his knees. Surrounding him, keeping a cautious distance, was the rest of our badly wounded cadre, those that could still stand at any rate.
Inside Reaper's phantom shell, I could see Gerald Schuller awake, eyes bright and clear thanks to Doc Bio's antidote, but there was something more there. The Gerald Schuller I knew was a meek man, afraid of his own shadow and most of all afraid of Reaper. This Gerald Schuller had something awoken in him, some inner fire. It was his voice we heard next as the strange drama played out, captivating all of us, even myself.
"I'm taking c-c-control!" Schuller shouted through Reaper's lips. There was nothing but steel there, even though he retained his stutter. "I've always been so afraid of you, what you w-would do to others, do to m-m-me. I l-let you do this but t-this power is mine too!"
The crimson energies swirling around Reaper ebbed, seemingly warring with itself. Epic looked from across the room at me and Quentin.
"This may be our only chance, noble allies," he shouted over the unnatural din of sparking energy. "Gerald is already dampening Reaper's powers, enough for me to try to contain them further. For how long, I do not know though."
"What do you expect us to do, Mr. Big-and-Godly?" Quentin yelled back. "We can't kill him!"
"I agree yet I am not sure what other path we can follow, Mr. Strange."
I looked around for answers but all I found were conflicted faces. Ex clenched his fists in frustration. Hexagon looked lost, anger ebbing into a torrent of underlying grief as he stood protectively over Medusa's body. Frost took a deep breath as if trying to calculate the good of one death over countless others. The Human Tank circled impatiently and Mind's Eye had only a lost look to offer me. Archer, well, he just gave me a look filled with a strange, infectious confidence.
It was well-placed because an idea thrust into my head.
"Epic, back up Gerald, push that power down." Epic nodded and streamers of white light launched out of the demigod's form, diving into the roaring conflagration still aflame around Reaper's body. "Mind, get ready and keep tabs on Gerald's mind." Before she could object, I raised a hand. "I know you can't get in there right now, either him or Reaper, but I think you will be able to soon. You know what to do from there." The Indian psychic nodded curtly and entered a meditative position. "Quentin ...." I took a deep breath as I looked into the man in black's eyes. " ... I don't want to ask this, but if this doesn't work ..."
"I know." His face hardened. "So don't screw this up."
There was no reply needed. Instead, I raised a hand to shield my eyes from the blinding play of white and red lights and moved into the storm of energy, through the deafening sounds, into the heart of it. Blindly reaching around as the constant wash of unnatural energies started to build into a dull, aching vibration through my bones, I felt Reaper and then, with a push, my hand felt the face of Gerald Schuller.
"Gerald!" I cried over the din. "Can you hear me?"
"I c-c-can, Ms. Roman," he said, pain lacing his words. "I d-don't think I c-can fight him much longer."
"Stay with me, Schuller, please." I knit my eyes shut and stuck my other hand in, this time groping for the thin man's shoulder. I gave it a squeeze, a sign that someone was there for him. "We can do this; we can save everyone. You just need to fight a little harder."
"This weakling will never win, no matter what you do," Reaper snarled. "He's got no power of his own, just what he can steal from me." That voice was suddenly drowned out by a ringing chime as another force broke through into this core of the battle. Epic's own power, maybe? That's what I guessed.
"We can't hold him back for long." I forced myself to be calm, firm, but sympathetic. It was like talking to a patient, if that patient was the key to saving millions of lives. "You can though. If you can push him down just a little more, open up yourself and your mind, we can beat him, all of us together."
The growing light was so bright it felt like it was about to burn through my eyelids. My teeth started to chatter in my head and liquid agony from the intense vibrations poured through my mental block. Even I, with all my immunity to the powers of the Pushed, couldn't withstand this terrible meeting of forces. Despite what I knew was happening to me, I wasn't going to give up, to leave an innocent man to his fate, not now. Not ever.
"Come on, Gerald, do it! Do it now!" I don't know if he actually heard me over the screaming sounds all around us. I certainly didn't hear it. There was a long moment of horror, a seemingly endless thrum of unearthly vibrations speeding up through me. Finally, it ended. Not with a terrible clap of thunder or building-leveling explosion but with a sudden breeze and a loud sigh.
I dared to open my eyes.
Kneeling on the ground in front of me was an unconscious Gerald Schuller, still garbed in military prison issue attire. Mind's Eye was still hovering in her meditation position, eyes closed, deep in telepathic rapport with Gerald. She had done her job perfectly. Once Reaper's mental shields were suppressed by Gerald and Epic's combined efforts, Mind's Eye had simply put poor Gerald to sleep. As for everyone else, there was simply silence for a moment.
We had won. Somehow, we had won. Unfortunately, there was one more battle to win before the war was over.
Chapter 25 Army
Epic hovered forward and gently laid the deeply sleeping Schuller onto the debris-strewn floor. Mind's Eye must have felt it was safe to pull him from the depths of unconsciousness. I clenched my fists, forcing myself to turn away. My focus was flagging and I wasn't s
ure how much longer I could keep going, but I had to.
"Ex." I focused myself at the firefighter, who was putting pressure on a bleeding slash in his arm. "You need to take care of things here. Please, save who you can"
"Where are you going?" Extinguisher said, looking confused, even shocked. "We don't know who's dead and -"
"I have to concur, milady," Archer added as he looked up from binding Hexagon's many wounds. "This is no time to be bounding off. After all, have we not won?"
"No, we haven't. Not yet." I started to limp towards the edge where Epic was floating, waiting.
"She's right. Don't forget about the army coming." Observant Quentin. Like me, he hadn't lost sight of the endgame.
"We must all come then in case things go worse than they already are," Mind's Eye said, trying to stand straight, something she wasn't quite capable of. "I sense the mood of the crowd is one to stand up to the army, but whenever I seek out the source of this notion, I run into clouds and empty space."
"No, we can't, Ms. Eye, because, like, if we go now, then they might panic to see all these Pushed all messed up and angry-looking and they'll only guess that we're out for blood and what about Poly and Alma and Frost and Vee and Battalion and Wavey and the steampunk dude and the creepy doctor and, Ms. Eye, they'll die if we leave them." The Human Tank might have been hyperactive, but he had moment of astounding clarity.
"Wait, what crowd?" The one time I had been thrown violently out of the building, I hadn't exactly taken the time to scan the streets below the Bank of America Plaza.
"The one that gathers in the streets," Epic said, his booming voice modulated into more humble tones. It seemed hard for him to do, to not shout and proclaim. "Normal citizenry gathering for some unknown purpose." He looked to the Human Tank.
"The youth speaks the truth. You, friends, must please do as Indomitable asks. We will need every man and woman we can save for the days ahead ... to stand up for those that have fallen." He clenched a fist and the section of floor with Gerald on it cracked free, suspended by a web of white lightning. "Indomitable and I will go, show that Reaper has been quelled, and plead our case."