Several Stranger SUVs swerved around the wreckage and continued after me as I quickly kicked my legs downward and pulled myself back onto the speeding bike—only now I was facing backward and Howie was doing his best to steady the turbocharged motorcycle as he remotely controlled it from over a thousand miles away.
“I need more space, Echo!” I yelled as I withdrew four of the five marble sized micro-grenades from one of several utility pockets near my waist.
“I’m doing the best I can!” Howie snapped as the bike suddenly jerked forward, forcing me to tighten my grip on the handle bar, lest I fly off and fall to my death. Distance was the key but the pursuing Strangers were still too close. As their bullets continued to whiz dangerously close to my head, all I could do was wait for Howie to give me enough space to work with.
“I need more, Echo! I need more distance!” I repeated as my bike leaned left and right, ducking in and out of traffic as the hoard of SUVs stormed after me.
“Dammit Ace, you’re gonna make me kill you!” Howie griped.
“Just punch it, dammit!” I bellowed as I took a quick peek over my shoulder in order to get an idea of what was in front of me. The bike suddenly jolted forward so drastically that I knew Howie must have triggered the overdrive.
“Now we’re talking!” I cheered as the space between me and the Stranger SUVs started to grow. “Echo, when I say so, I need you to pop the front wheel and give me back control once we go airborne, okay?!”
“Airborne?! Ace, what exactly are you planning?!”
I ignored him and hurled the four micro-grenades away with all my might. Those tiny devices that Howie had designed were small, but they sure packed one hell of a punch.
“Do it now!” I yelled as the grenades exploded and ripped into the concrete and steel bridge. I felt the front wheel lurch upward just as the force of the blast threw my bike into the air. Behind me, droves of both civilian and Stranger vehicles plunged into the chasm left by the explosion as my bike sailed through the air. While still clutching the handlebars with one hand, I pushed against the foot pegs with my feet and extended my body upward just as the remaining Stranger helicopter fired a rocket at me. I could feel the blistering heat of the rocket’s thruster as it zipped between my outstretched body and the motorcycle below that I was still desperately clutching as I sailed through the air. As the rocket soared harmlessly away in the distance, I quickly twisted back to the front and pulled myself on the bike, landing it safely on the side barrier of the bridge just in the nick of time. I pulled my head down and accelerated across the barrier as the pursuing helicopter unleashed its miniguns.
The helicopter’s rapidly firing cannons continued to narrowly miss me as I sped across the top of the barrier and searched my surroundings for a way to take it down. In my side mirror, I saw the helicopter swoop in closer and steady its flight directly over the center of the highway as it prepared to unleash another round of machine gun fire.
It was now or never. I popped my front wheels and steered my bike to the right, launching it into the air and causing it to sail back toward the center of the highway. Bullets and debris littered the sky as I soared through the air, gripping my last micro-grenade with all my might. Finally, I picked my angle and threw the device backward with as much force as my arm would allow. They never knew what hit them. They continued to fire and miss as the micro-grenade collided with their windshield and the helicopter went up in a massive fireball just as my bike hit the ground and continued forward.
“Yes!” Howie howled as though he had just watched his favorite basketball player hit the game winning shot in the championship game.
“That’s the last of them, Echo! How’s it looking in Manhattan?” I asked as I weaved in and out of traffic, picking up as much speed as I could as I continued onward.
“It’s an all-out war zone, Ace. Reaper’s holding his own for now, but I don’t know if even he can defeat that many Strangers alone.”
“He won’t be alone for long,” I said firmly as I squeezed the throttle and sped past an overhead sign that read: Welcome to New York City.
3. HOMETOWN HERO
http://goo.gl/V8bLtl - ♫
REAPER:
THE THICK BASE LINE OF MY FAVORITE RAP GROUP’S NEW single “Hometown Hero” boomed in my ear piece as I slammed into a group of Strangers and sent them all flying like rag dolls. Howie had been concerned that I wouldn’t be able to defeat so many of them at once but the battle was proving to be so easy that I had decided to throw on some music just to keep from getting bored.
I bobbed my head and shoulders to the beat as I held my fists before me and dared the army of Strangers that still filled the streets to advance toward me. I had reduced nearly a third of them to unconscious heaps of broken bones and bruised flesh but there were still six-hundred of them left standing and despite the ease with which I incapacitated their comrades, the rest of them weren’t showing any signs of backing down.
I blazed back into action faster than the naked eye could see and tore through another twenty of them in a matter of seconds. My heart thumped uncontrollably as more and more adrenaline poured into my system and further amplified my already unearthly abilities. I smiled and plucked an RPG out of the air just before it could slam against me. I crushed the grenade between my hands like a soda can and it exploded harmlessly in my face as I turned my attention back to the astounded Strangers.
Not so fast! I thought, as I suddenly leapt forty feet into the air and sailed after a group of Strangers who were trying to evacuate Alias. Most of them toppled to the ground upon impact and the rest of them scurried away as I slammed my fist against the pavement and sent hundreds of cracks ripping through the street.
“Come on!” I dared as another wave of mercenaries rushed toward me while I clenched my fists and loomed over their leader, who had been knocked unconscious when I slammed into the group. I continued to bounced back and forth and bob my head to the music in my ear as I dared them to make the first move. Now that I had caught up with Alias, I knew they would have to get up close and personal instead of relying on gunfire—and that was exactly what I had been waiting for. There was only so much fun to be had while zipping around as they fired their worthless guns from a distance. The carnage of hand-to-hand combat and the sensation of their brittle bones snapping with every thrust of my fists is what I really craved.
The first of them to attack was the largest of them all. The moment he threw his wild left jab I leaned in and head butted his fist, instantly dislocating his shoulder and snapping his forearm in two. I slammed him hard to the ground, just as the rest of them rushed toward me all at once. Despite their numbers, they were woefully overmatched. In a destructive blur, I decimated the forty Strangers that surrounded me in less than five minutes. Despite their armor, I shattered bones and ruptured internal organs with every attack, but I made sure I pulled my punches enough to keep any of them from dying upon impact.
I grabbed Alias and leapt high into the air just before the next wave of Strangers could attack me. They all turned and gave chase as I hit the ground and rocketed toward the Empire State Building. As I zoomed toward the massive skyscraper with hundreds of Strangers racing behind me, my heart pounded in my chest so violently that for a moment, I thought about slowing down—but I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t stop until I had freed as many of the hostages as I could. As I approached the front entrance of the building, I held Alias’ unconscious body behind me and reduced the front door to splinters as I smashed right through it.
Somehow my already raging heartbeat pounded even faster as I laid eyes on the battalion of heavily armed Strangers posted throughout the front lobby. With Alias’ unconscious body still in hand, I zoomed to the right before any of them could react. I was moving so fast that as they fired upon where they thought I still was, their bullets seemed to do nothing more than creep through the air. I zipped across the lobby in an instant and used my momentum to bound several steps up the towering right wall and
leapt forty feet across the long lobby, barreling into the group of Strangers near the back of the room. I was pummeling my way through them with reckless abandon when out of nowhere a powerfully sharp pain suddenly erupted in my chest and threw me to the floor.
The once helpless Strangers instantly seized this opportunity and began attacking me from all sides. I tried desperately to fight back but between the debilitating pain and pressure in the left side of my chest and my sudden shortness of breath, I was powerless to stop them. Their kicks and punches were as worthless as their bullets; however, as more and more of them attacked me my heart beat faster and with each beat came even more excruciating chest pain. My heart felt like it was about to explode and for a second I thought that it might—but then I heard a sound that I couldn’t have been happier to hear.
The deep roar of Ace’s supercharged motorcycle suddenly rang out as he stormed into the lobby as though he had been shot out of a cannon. Strangers scrambled to stop him as his bike soared through the air toward the towering wall to the left. I tried to slow my heart rate, but it was hard not to get excited as I watched Ace speed across the wall to the left of the room with his sights on the Stranger hoard that surrounded me.
His long, black headband whipped wildly behind him as he clutched the handle bar of the speeding bike with his left hand and fired an automatic pistol with his right, laying waste to the entire mob of mercenaries that surrounded me. As another wave of Strangers moved to attack me, Ace finally leapt from the bike but just before he let go of it, he used his left hand to guide the motorcycle’s momentum toward the oncoming group. The motorcycle slammed into the Strangers and toppled most of them to the floor just as Ace landed with a soft tuck and roll, popping up a few steps away from me. Gun in one hand, Ace quickly moved toward me as he unsheathed the razor sharp katana at his waist with the other. My chest was still on fire but as this deadly ninja warrior crouched over me and dared the Strangers to advance, my hope of making it out of that building was once again restored. I focused on catching my breath as droves of Strangers cautiously approached us from all directions. As they opened fire, Ace became a whirlwind of fury, twirling his silvery sword with astonishing speed and sending most of their bullets back toward them. The Stranger troops soon realized their guns were useless and tried their luck at taking Ace down by getting closer—but that was a huge mistake.
Waves of Strangers rushed him in unison, but they soon found themselves missing entire limbs as well as various other body parts, courtesy of Ace’s lightning quick swordplay. Due to my power, the Strangers were probably more afraid of me than they were of Ace, but in all actuality they could not have been more wrong in that regard. I was far stronger and considerably faster but simply put, Ace was far deadlier. In the two and a half years that we had worked together as a unit, he had developed a killer instinct that far outmatched my own. Still, they continued to rush him even as he began to decapitate and further dismember their comrades. I shut my eyes and tried to tune out the sounds of Ace laying waste to the waves of Strangers in an effort to slow my heart rate. After a few minutes, I was able to catch my breath and the pain in my chest finally started to dwindle.
“Reaper, can you stand?! I need you on your feet!” Ace barked.
It was clear to see that the Stranger death toll had tripled during the time that I had closed my eyes. Ace still stood guard over me as a new wave of Strangers hesitantly moved towards us.
“We have to get out of here!” Ace shouted as I finally pulled myself to my feet.
“I’m not leaving without the hostages!” I replied.
“There are thousands of them up there, Reaper! We don’t have that kind of man power!”
“I have to try! We can at least save some of them!” I insisted. “Make sure Alias doesn’t get away. We have to keep him around to stop them from setting off the bomb!” I said as I pointed at a nearby group of Stranger troops that were attempting to evacuate the still unconscious Alias.
“Reaper, no—” Ace started but I had already zoomed away before he could finish.
I barreled through countless Strangers and rocketed from floor to floor in search of the droves of hostages. I was mortified to discover that there were far more than the so called one percenter fat cats locked away throughout the building. There were men, women and children from all walks of life within those office rooms. The Strangers had spared no one after all. The terror that I saw on the faces of those children even after I had liberated them made my desire to save them all even stronger. I knew that some of them would die—either by the stampede that ensued once I demolished the walls that confined them or by the hands of the remaining Strangers that were still lurking throughout the building, but at least some of them would make it. As far as I was concerned, some of them dying was a hell of a lot better than all of them dying—and that’s exactly what would have happened if I had not come for them.
The building started to tremble as the faint sound of explosions erupted from below. I knew it wasn’t the big one because the entire building would have been consumed if that was the case, but I still realized that I was running out of time. I braced myself to keep my footing as I contemplated my next move while the stampede of newly freed hostages chaotically stormed around me. There were still several floors that I had not yet liberated but I had grown concerned for Ace’s safety. The Strangers had began using explosive weapons; therefore I knew that Alias had to have either escaped Ace’s custody or he had given the order to use any means necessary to defeat us. If that was truly the case, then it was only a matter of time before they triggered the big one. The Strangers possessed bombs that were powerful enough to level an entire city block. I knew this because they had actually set one off during the Stranger Acquisition of Boston, Massachusetts. I desperately wanted to save the rest of the hostages that were still locked away in the floors above me, but I also knew that if The Strangers set off one of those giant bombs, even I wouldn’t survive it.
I charged forward and crashed through the plated glass window of the 40th floor room that I was standing in and plunged head first toward the street below. Rubble and debris littered the air as I soared toward the ground and, to my surprise, swarms of helicopters were swooping in and fighting off Stranger troops while others were zipping in and picking up groups of freed hostages. In mid-air I flipped my body and smashed against the concrete, throwing up a huge cloud of dust and rubble upon impact. I quickly pulled myself to my feet and peered into the crowd of Strangers and fleeing hostages that flowed from the building looking for any sign of Ace. I breathed an internal sigh of relief as I finally noticed him standing near the entrance of the building still fending off hoards of encroaching Strangers. In a blur, I zoomed around Ace in a circle at over 200 miles per hour and incapacitated the entire group of Strangers that were attempting to subdue him.
“They’ve triggered the bomb, Reaper! We have to get out of here!” Ace yelled as I finally came to a stop.
“Where’s Alias?!” I asked as I searched the crowd for any sign of his mask.
“I lost him when the hostages stormed the lobby!” Ace yelled just as I caught the sight of an injured female hostage nearby trying desperately to make her way through the crowd. She appeared to have already injured her right leg and my heart skipped a beat as I watched her nearly tumble to the ground as the surging crowd pushed her forward much quicker than she was able to move.
“Forget about Alias! This place is gonna blow!” Ace insisted.
I ignored Ace and zipped forward into the fray, sweeping the injured woman from her feet just before she was consumed by the stampede.
“I’ve got you!” I reassured as I gazed into her frightened eyes. Even amongst a scene that chaotic, I was instantly taken aback by just how strikingly beautiful this woman was. The very sight of her brought on a rush of adrenaline and other hormones that seemingly slowed down time around me. Her fiery red hair danced within the wind around us as I gazed into her shimmering crystal blue eyes and
she slowly settled into my powerful arms. As I stood there completely entranced by her undeniable beauty, I suddenly realized that for that one moment in time, nothing was more important to me than getting her to safety. It had been over two years since anyone had so completely captured my attention and even though I was still madly in love with Monica, I couldn’t help but feel as though I had shared some brand of instant connection with this woman as well.
I finally broke out of my trance when she suddenly began to yell and point back towards the Empire State Building.
“My family!” she shrieked as her eyes widened with terror. “They-they’re still in the building!” she continued as she struggled to free herself from my grasp.
“Where? Where are they?!” I asked as I snapped out of my trance. “Tell me where they are! I can save them!”
“There!” she said as she pointed upward with her left hand.
Five floors up I noticed a man and woman trying in vane to break the plated glass window of the room they were trapped in. My heart rate tripled as I noticed a small boy cowering in fear no more than two feet away from them.
“It’s over Reaper! We’ve saved as many of them as we can! We have to get out of here!” Ace insisted as he pulled up next to me on what was left of his motorcycle.
“Take her!” I ordered to Ace as I forced the woman into his arms as the last few helicopters took off with numerous hostages still left behind.
Savior Part 2: Son of Eden (The Savior Series) Page 3