Down with the Queen

by Benjamin Medrano

  Claire’s eyes widened as she saw what looked like a cross between a handheld vacuum and a clothing iron rotated around so that the flat bottom was pointed at her. She could see all sorts of sensors across its surface, and she struggled more as she tried to avoid the device. Unfortunately, the restraints were very solid, and the cool surface pressed against her skin firmly. For a few moments there was no change and Claire hoped that the device had broken or something.

  The sudden, white-hot agony that blasted through Claire nearly drove her unconscious, her muscles spasming under the overwhelming sensation. She tried to scream around the breathing tube, but couldn’t as the pain went on, and on, and on.

  Chapter 12

  Tuesday, December 31st, 2030

  Hayward Pub & Grub, Hayward

  “The hell?” Owen said, pausing as he stepped out of the back room, blinking at the size of the man lounging at a corner table. The man had to be nearly seven feet tall, if not over that, and the table in front of him had a large number of bottles scattered across it. Next to him was a pretty woman in revealing clothing, which just added to how strange it was to see someone in before opening.

  Glancing over at Jacob, Owen asked. “Hey, Jake, what’s up with that guy? I thought we were just barely opening!”

  “Yeah, well he and the girl showed up just as Gabe was unlocking the doors and offered five hundred if we’d open an hour early, if only for him,” Jacob replied readily, shrugging and smiling back. “Gabe didn’t think it was a problem, and I didn’t like the way the guy looked like he’d react if we said no, so we let him in. He’s been drinking a lot but put down a fricking grand for his tab tonight. Even better, he said that if it ran out to tell him so he could add more!”

  “Holy shit. Well, I can see why Gabe doesn’t care about opening a bit early,” Owen said, shaking his head as he put on his apron. “I just hope he doesn’t cause trouble. He’s a huge guy.”

  “You said it, and he picked up the table to shift it around with a single hand,” Jacob agreed. “Still, ready for a busy night?”

  “Doncha know it,” Owen agreed, settling in behind the bar. “Hopefully we get some good tips. It is New Year’s Eve.”

  “Hell yeah,” Jacob agreed, and Owen looked up as the door opened for the first customers of the night. Aside from the pair in the corner, of course.

  The tables had filled up quickly over the past couple of hours, and Owen had got into the groove quickly. Mixing drinks and socializing with the customers at the bar was almost second nature to him at this point, and he enjoyed the company of Erin when she came on shift. They didn’t normally work together, but she’d come in to help since it was expected to be busy. They split the customers pretty much evenly, which worked out rather well. As it was, they were doing brisk business and making good tips, so the night was going well.

  At least right up until a gunshot rang out, the sound of shattering glass echoed through the room, and people began to scream.

  Owen half ducked behind the bar and stared in shock as he saw the table which the huge man had been sitting behind was on its side with the remnants of shattered bottles bouncing across the floor. The man was standing up now, but his skin was darker, and Owen’s eyes went huge as he realized it was metal. His heart skipped a beat as he realized who he was looking at. As he watched, the huge, bald man yanked a mangled pistol out the hand of the man he was holding up by his skull.

  “I was jus’ here for a few drinks, and you dare to attack me?” Heavy Metal demanded, his voice slightly slurred as he threw the pistol through the window with a crash. “You tried to rob me? Well come at me, you punks!”

  Flinching as the huge man hurled the unfortunate attacker through the window, Owen watched him charge into a small cluster of suddenly panicking men, glancing over at Erin in shock as he gasped out. “I… that’s Heavy Metal! Oh, fuck!”

  “Of course it is! I had no freaking clue, I mean… why’d he come here?” Erin replied, running a hand through her short hair in a panic. “What do we do?”

  “I’m texting the cops. No way in hell I’m talking about it,” Owen replied, sliding halfway under the bar and wincing as it sounded like the front door had come off its hinges. He pulled out his phone and prayed that the police would react quickly.

  Ocean Shield HQ, San Francisco

  Hypergizmo’s eyes darted over to the secondary screen as some of his monitoring software chimed its alert. His hopes died slightly as he saw it was a social media alert, which were hit or miss at the best of times, but he checked it and sat bolt upright.

  The message someone had posted was a video with the simple message ‘Heavy Metal in Hayward!’ and was showing a phone video of what looked like Heavy Metal throwing a man through a door. As more alerts began to spring up, Hypergizmo hit the microphone toggle.

  “Crimson Bull, head for Hayward!” Hypergizmo said abruptly. “Current info on Heavy Metal, I’m trying to pin down his location now!”

  “Hell yeah!” Crimson Bull replied quickly, the man sounding absolutely delighted. “One of them finally came out of the shadows?”

  “I’m getting feeds of people watching him wreck what look like gangers outside a bar. I think one of them has enhanced toughness, considering the hits he’s taking,” Hypergizmo said, wincing at how Heavy Metal was laying into the guy. “Looks like it’s in downtown Hayward, I’ll get you better directions as you approach.”

  “Sounds like a plan, I’m pretty close already,” Crimson Bull replied, his voice eager.

  Hayward Pub & Grub, Hayward

  Crimson Bull felt more pumped up than he had been in weeks. Well, aside from the fight with Black Harbinger, but in that fight he hadn’t been able to concentrate on just beating down a villain, not with the villain’s minions setting explosives around the city. With Heavy Metal it was different, it’d just be an outright brawl, and that would be a relief. He’d be able to burn off his frustration from Warden moving in with Lilith, and with not being able to catch any of the damned rats.

  Traffic was snarled as he approached the area where Heavy Metal was located, so Crimson Bull popped the front tire of his motorcycle over the curb to cut through an unoccupied segment of sidewalk. People moved out of the way, and he quickly turned the corner and grinned as he caught sight of the villain in the distance. He hopped off the bike, trusting its software. Hypergizmo had designed the tires to be so wide so the bike wouldn’t fall over, and the software would bring it to a stop before it could damage anything. It was too bad he couldn’t get a good run toward the villain to use the launch system, but he could deal with that.

  Heavy Metal had just tossed one of his opponents aside, spitting on the man derisively and ignoring the handful of cops taking cover nearby. Crimson Bull couldn’t blame them for not trying to stop Heavy Metal, and not just because he wanted to beat the ever-living daylights out of the villain himself.

  Barreling past a couple of cars, Crimson Bull stopped and shouted. “Yo, coward! Where d’ya think you’re going?”

  “What did you call me, you pansy-ass cow?” Heavy Metal growled, turning around to look at Crimson Bull angrily. “You want to be pounded into a pancake or something?”

  “Oh, there’s going to be a pounding, but it’s not me that’s gonna be the pancake!” Crimson Bull retorted with a grin, then charged forward at the villain.

  Heavy Metal roared and counter-charged, but with all the grace of an untrained thug. Despite his eagerness, Crimson Bull wasn’t about to underestimate the villain, not when he knew that Heavy Metal could hit damned hard in return. Still, the villain was underestimating what someone with the proper training could do.

  Ducking the villain’s punch, Crimson Bull didn’t even try to punch the other man and instead hit him full force with his shoulder, not trying to slow down at all. Hitting Heavy Metal was unpleasant, but he’d punched through steel hatches before.

  The impact brought Crimson Bull nearly to a stop, but Heavy Metal’s eyes went huge as he went fl
ying more than twenty feet backward, trailing sparks and torn clothing as he bounced off the pavement.

  “Is that all you’ve got, Metal? I heard that you were supposed to be a challenge,” Crimson Bull taunted, grinning broadly at the villain and pounding a fist into his palm.

  “That was a lucky hit, you bastard! It isn’t gonna to happen again!” Heavy Metal retorted, climbing back to his feet and starting to charge again.

  Laughing, Crimson Bull stepped into the man’s charge happily. This was a proper fight.

  West Coast Scrapyard

  “Huh?” Martin asked, pausing as he heard a loud crash. Killing the welder, he raised the face mask and stood up, frowning as he did so.

  The last few months had been rocky but good. Due to his protests about ‘inhumane treatment’ at being kept across the hall from Shadowmind, the Parole Board had moved up Martin’s hearing by six months. He hadn’t held out much hope for getting out of the slammer, but he’d been pleasantly surprised. It probably helped that the board had a person on staff who could read the truth of someone’s statements if they agreed, and he’d been quite happy to agree to that.

  His assurances that he wanted nothing more to do with villains or heroes had been met with a degree of skepticism, but after a grueling few hours, the board had actually agreed to Martin’s release. It had been a surprise, but a very welcome one. It had led to other difficulties, though; the main one being finding a job which would accept an ex-convict.

  Money had been getting desperate for him and his mother when Martin had finally gotten a job fixing what parts he could at the scrapyard, and he was finally starting to turn things around. Welders made decent money, even these days. Once he finished his classes in the coming semester, things would be looking even better. If he could broaden his skillset a little more, he might be able to work on classic cars, and that’d be a major step up.

  Even so, there was the tiniest part of him that was worried that Burt might’ve broken out of lockup and decided to come after him, or one of the other people he’d met in the SuperMax. So he cautiously took a look out the window of the shop, and his jaw dropped in disbelief.

  As he watched, a super in red and yellow was sent flying into a stack of crushed cars, toppling the stack with a resounding crash. The man who’d been spinning him through the air stopped, half-naked and with skin like steel, as he snarled, “How’d you like that, you damn cockroach?”

  “You’ve got to be freaking kidding me!” Martin exclaimed, groaning as chills ran down his spine, his hindbrain screaming at him to run away at the sight of two extremely powerful superhumans. His power wasn’t pleasant, but if there had been one good aspect about living across the hall from Shadowmind for four months, it’d been that he’d learned more control of himself.

  The two supers were hammering their way deeper into the scrapyard, and Martin just groaned, wincing as he saw them slamming each other back and forth as they moved in the direction of the car compactor. Martin groaned again, half-slumping over as he wondered how much damage the two were going to cause, and at the possible impact on his job… then paused, looking upward speculatively.

  “I wonder…” Martin murmured, looking at the crane, complete with the electromagnet, then at Heavy Metal. Taking off the welding mask, Martin slipped out of the room, hoping he could save the scrapyard from being destroyed without losing his job.

  Grunting as Heavy Metal hit him again, Crimson Bull had to admit that the man was better than he’d thought, but he couldn’t stop grinning despite that. There was nothing like a proper throw down to get the blood pumping, and this had been one so far. They’d already battled their way down most of a street, and Heavy Metal was looking winded but far more focused than he’d been before.

  “Getting tired, bastard?” Heavy Metal demanded, throwing another punch. This time Crimson Bull dodged it, laughing again and feeling a slight twinge in his side as he did so.

  “Oh, heck no! I’m just getting started!” Crimson Bull retorted, grinning at the villain. They were on the top of the car compactor now, and the machinery looked old and worn. “You’re not moving as fast, though.”

  “Shut up, you stupid—” Heavy Metal began, but cut off as Crimson Bull hit him in the stomach, wincing at the impact, but still knocking the wind out of the villain. Heavy Metal might have skin and bones made of metal, but he still was predominantly flesh and blood.

  Crimson Bull followed up with a second punch as Heavy Metal staggered back into a control panel, but the villain dodged and before he could stop, Crimson Bull’s fist punched through the machinery with a loud shriek and crackle of sparks. Electricity arced through his arm and Crimson Bull gasped, yanking his arm back painfully, and swearing under his breath as the compactor suddenly rattled to life. “Ah, hell!”

  “Serves you right!” Heavy Metal snarled, and suddenly his eyes lit up. “In fact…”

  Before Crimson Bull could react, the bigger man kicked him in the back of the leg, sending Crimson Bull toppling forward, directly toward the compactor. Crimson Bull’s eyes went wide as he desperately grabbed for the safety railing.

  He caught hold of the railing, but as he hit it there was a shrieking, snapping sound, and Crimson Bull swore loudly as the railing started to collapse. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”

  Even with the collapse of the railing, Crimson Bull managed to pull partway back, panting, and for a moment he thought he’d avoided falling into the slowly closing compactor. Right up until Heavy Metal hit him in the back again, launching him into the pit as he crowed. “In you go! Pancake, just like I said!”

  “You psycho!” Crimson Bull snarled, wincing as he bounced off the remaining debris that had been left from the compactor’s previous job. The walls were far too close for his comfort, but he could still get out if he jumped quickly. His plan faded as he looked up and saw Heavy Metal hefting what looked like the roof of a car and threw it at him. “Oh, damn you!”

  “Hah, have fun down there, pancake in chief!” Heavy Metal said. Crimson Bull managed to shove the roof of the car off of him, but with the walls right there he didn’t have many options.

  “This isn’t going to stop me, you ass!” Crimson Bull roared angrily, rage powering him as he reached out, bracing his hands against either wall and beginning to push as hard as he could.

  The pressure was immense, but the motor of the machine grew louder, grinding as it ground to a halt. Practically vibrating under the pressure, Crimson Bull panted, barely holding the crusher back.

  “Well, I guess you are pretty strong! Maybe someone could stop it after all,” Heavy Metal said, looking surprised, and Crimson Bull blinked as he saw something moving in the background. “Time to go, though. I don’t want to run into the rest of your team. Have fun—”

  As Crimson Bull watched in astonishment, the scrapyard crane swung over Heavy Metal, the sound drowned out by the compactor, and he saw the confused look on the villain’s face the moment before he rose into the air and stuck to the gigantic magnet.

  Despite his position, Crimson Bull couldn’t help but laugh at the sight as the magnet swung over the compactor, calling out. “I don’t suggest you turn back to normal unless you want to be the pancake!”

  “Uhm, guys? You’re not going to believe this,” Black Comet said, looking at the villain hanging from the crane in disbelief. Then he moved toward the cab of the crane, seeing the nervous-looking man inside.

  “What happened, Comet? I’m not hearing from Crimson Bull!” Hypergizmo replied, his voice taut with worry.

  “He’s in a car compactor, I’m going to figure out how to shut it down before he gets crushed,” Black Comet replied, grinning as he added, “Heavy Metal’s currently stuck to the crane’s magnet, over the compactor, so that’s one problem dealt with.”

  “What?” Hypergizmo almost yelped, but Black Comet ignored him, poking his head around the door of the cab.

  “Yo, can you tell me how to shut down that compactor down there?” Black Com
et asked, and the man inside jumped, spinning to look at the hero.

  “Holy… okay, yeah, yeah… you’re Black Comet. Look, can you just… neglect to mention my role in all of this?” the man asked, nodding in the direction of the compactor. “I’ll happily help. I’m just an ex-minion, and I really don’t want to have people looking for me with vengeance in mind.”

  In the distance, Black Comet could hear Heavy Metal yell angrily, “Let me down, already!”

  Ignoring the villain and focusing on the man in the cab, Black Comet grinned, nodding. “Sure, that won’t be a problem. Just… could you point me to the power for the compactor? Crimson Bull is looking a bit upset.”

  “R-right,” the man said unsteadily, running a hand through his short hair and getting up. “Let’s see, the power box is right down there…”

  Chapter 13

  Wednesday, January 2nd, 2031

  Sky Defender HQ, San Francisco

  Without anyone around to look into things, the computer worked through the analysis that Sky Defender had requested. Everything was going according to its projections, and one by one, it worked through the various tests on Lilith Carpenter’s blood. Had it been an AI, the analysis would already have been brought to Sky Defender’s attention with glaring alerts, but as things stood, the hero wouldn’t know until he checked the files.

  The computer noted the almost imperceptible signs that indicated cloning, as well as other components fabricated from other genetic samples and code. The modifications weren’t easy to track down, but the evidence was quite obvious when it was analyzing it in so much detail. If Lilith weren’t cloned, she’d be related to at least a hundred heroes that it could identify in its database.