Before Colin could make another move, the huge hooded creature appeared out of thin air in front of him. The teenagers running toward Colin stopped in their tracks and screamed as they were levitated into the air. Their bodies began to spin. At the same time, the mass of debris that had assaulted Colin, Diane, and Kelly also began to rise into the air. Colin flew back in a painful collision with the stone wall when the monster backhanded him in the chest with its fist.
The creature turned right to face Diane, who had retrieved her laser pistol and was on her feet. The creature darted forward, giving Diane a backhanded blow that hurled her through the air. She yelped as she bounced off of the metal bench and then came to rest on the floor.
Turning to Kelly still on the floor, the creature reached down and grabbed him by his left leg and tossed him into the air. Screaming, Kelly hit the floor hard and rolled twice, landing next to the blond woman’s corpse. Kelly grunted painfully and tried to get back to his feet. The blade-covered creature roared loudly and dashed forward, making a beeline toward Kelly, its metal claws on its feet clicking sharply on the stone floor as it ran.
Before Colin could come to Kelly’s aid, he found himself being levitated to join the teenagers who were still screaming and crying out as they spun in the air, along with the dervish of debris. He whipped head over heels and collided with the teenagers trapped in the cyclone of seat cushions and metal debris.
Below him, he watched helplessly as the blade-covered monster charged toward Kelly. Kelly reacted quickly, raising his right hand to create a large square panel of blue energy shield. The creature bumped into the shield, then backed away. Snarling, it lunged forward, slashing its long forearm blades across Kelly’s shield. Then it tried to step to the left around the shield. Kelly moved his hand and moved the shield’s position to keep the monster blocked. The growling creature continued trying to dash around Kelly’s shield while slashing its blades at it.
Diane rose to her feet and grabbed hold of the metal bench, ripping it up from the floor. She charged toward the blade-covered monster and slammed the bench down on the creature’s head. The creature fell to the floor but quickly got back up. Diane swung the bench up, striking the beast on its chin and sending it flying back into the air for several feet. Then the huge seddrax appeared in front of her, hissing and thrusting its tail at her face. Diane was quick to counter by using the bench to block the stinger. The thing stabbed at Diane three more times, but Diane used the bench as a shield to deflect its blows.
The creature changed it tactics by grabbing Diane’s ankles with the pinchers on its two front legs and pulling her legs out from under her. Diane fell backward, kicking her feet and knocking the creature in its face, shoving it back several feet. The creature let out a loud squeal of pain. Kelly ran toward Diane and stood over her. Raising his hands, he shot out a large bolt of fiery energy at the creature, but it vanished and reappeared to the right as the bolt struck the floor in a brief burst of flame left a large blackened hole. Kelly fired another bolt at the creature, but it vanished again and reappeared, clinging to the ceiling. Kelly fired another stream of energy at the ceiling, causing an explosion of fire that blasted away large fragments of brick but missed its target as the creature once again vanished and reappeared on the floor in front of him.
Still holding onto the bench, Diane jumped to her feet and looked about. Spotting her laser pistol lying on the floor, she made a dash for it and turned, firing at the seddrax. The creature vanished and reappeared at her left as her shot struck the floor in front of her. Diane shot again, but the creature vanished and reappeared at her right, easily dodging her laser fire. Diane shot at it three more times, but the creature moved to the left and right to avoid being hit.
Colin still caught up in the air and spinning around with the four teenagers while trying to keep from being battered by the flying debris, realized he had experienced this force before that was keeping him levitated. He recognized it as a telekinetic power, but seemed unable to do anything to free himself from it, let alone do anything to help the others. To make matters worse, the constant spinning around was starting to make him nauseous. As he tumbled upside down, he managed to spot the large reptilian creature, with its flowing black cape, materializing behind Diane and Kelly. “Look out!” he shouted. “Behind you!”
Diane and Kelly both turned in time to see this new threat before them. The same telekinetic force that levitated Colin now seized Kelly. His body flew to the right and slammed into the wall. With his nose bleeding, Kelly fell unconscious to the floor. Diane aimed her laser at the hooded creature, but the weapon flew out of her hand and hovered in the air before her face. The creature grabbed the gun and crushed it, then released the hunk of squashed metal and plastic to float aimlessly in the air.
Diane grabbed the discarded bench and swung it at the monster, but a quick backhand swipe by its left hand knocked it out of her grip. She tried to throw a punch into the monster’s chest, but the monster moved faster, grabbing her by the neck and lifting her off her feet, slamming her back on the floor with a dull thud.
“Diane!” Colin shouted. There was no reply. Diane remained still.
The hooded monster turned to look up at Colin, then backed away as the blade-covered creature approached. Diane and Kelly were both down, with Colin still trapped up in the air with the teenagers in the debris cyclone. Tumbling head over heels, Colin collided with one of the screaming girls and was hit in the face by a hunk of flying metal. Throbbing with pain while fighting the urge to vomit, he forced himself to look around at what was happening below him. He saw the glowing insect creature still standing guard at the left tunnel. Its deadly power would keep anyone from escaping.
Colin spun right side up once again, very close to the ceiling, and noticed a foot-wide metal pipe running along the top of the subway tunnel. He reached out and managed to grab it, holding on tight to keep himself from spinning. The girl in the green dress slammed into him, and he gasped as the impact knocked the air out of his lungs. His chest ached, and the girl screamed, holding on desperately to his legs. “Don’t let me go! Don’t let me go!” she shouted frantically.
Colin glanced at her, but all he could do was maintain his grip on the pipe as his body swung in the air from the force of the telekinetic cyclone. Gradually he sensed the two electrically conductive things that resonated with his powers – the metal of the pipe, and the water that flowed through it. His hands started to tingle as he visualized his electrical power flowing across the smooth, rounded contours of the pipe. He saw his energy penetrating the cold metal and spreading across its structure until the pipe was ready to conform to his mental command. Break.
The pipe jerked back with a short burst of sparks a few inches from Colin’s hands, and he almost lost his grip as water exploded from the opening he’d created. But the water ended up caught in the power of the telekinetic cyclone and began to swirl through the air around him. A seat cushion broke through the floating stream of water, causing an airborne splash as it struck him in his stomach, knocking the air out of him. He clenched his teeth, fighting to keep the pain from breaking his concentration. This is getting me nowhere! The monsters below were about to slaughter Diane and Kelly while he was still trapped above, unable to stop it.
Still maintaining his concentration over the pipe, he issued a second mental command. Down.
With a grinding metallic whine, the pipe lurched down suddenly, nearly throwing Colin off. The girl hanging onto Colin’s legs screamed again, but held on tight to his legs now soaked with water. The pipe lowered ten feet, out of the swirling chaos above. A strong and steady stream of water was now shooting out from the pipe to soak the floor below. Colin directed the pipe toward the hooded monster. Taken by surprise, the monster was soaked by the stream and staggered back from Diane. The seddrax backed away and then vanished from view. With another strong jerk at Colin’s direction, the pipe pointed to the left to spray the bladed creature as well. It slashed its forearms aga
inst the high pressure stream, then slipped on the wet stone floor and fell on its back.
Colin glanced around to see what the glowing insect creature was doing and found it looking up at him while crawling forward. Colin wondered how it would react to a heavy stream of water. With another violent jerk, he directed the pipe to bend to the left, bombarding the creature and its red-hot burning power with the flood of water. The creature recoiled and backed away from the water as a loud hissing sound filled the air. The water instantly turned to steam as it came in contact with the creature’s super-heated body.
“Brace yourself,” he shouted to the girl. The girl screamed when Colin let go of the pipe and they both took a ten-foot drop to the floor. She released her grip on Colin’s legs and landed on her feet, then fell on her back. Colin tumbled to his hands and knees as water from the severed pipe drenched his back. The moment Colin’s hands touched the wet stone floor, he created focused electrical charges and directed the blue, sparking streams of energy to shoot out to specific targets. Two of the streams headed for the deadly creatures at his right, while a third shot out to the glowing creature at his left. With sharp crackles and explosions of sparks, each one of them was struck by a bolt of energy that rose up from the floor and lifted them off their feet. The three monsters all fell to the floor and lay stunned, while the focused energy bypassed Diane and Kelly. When the hooded creature fell, the swirling maelstrom of debris, water, and three screaming teenagers all dropped to the floor on top of Colin and the girl he’d brought to the floor.
Colin ducked and placed his hands over his head as the debris dropped around him and water pummeled him. The two boys fell on their backs in front of him. Colin heard a cry as the second girl fell behind him. With the hooded monster, the blade-covered creature, and the glowing insect thing all down, Colin hoped he had a chance to repel them, but he had to act fact, because they wouldn’t remain stunned long. And the huge seddrax thing was still active and on the loose. Fighting these monsters was difficult enough, let alone fighting while trying to protect four frightened teenagers.
A cloud of fog began to flow around Colin. He looked around and saw the glowing-hot creature was the source of the fog, still emitting an aura of super heat while the water from the severed pipe soaked the floor and flowed toward it, resulting in the water converting to steam. Colin ran toward Diane, his clothes drenched by the cold water. She lay on her back, slowly moving her arms and legs. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she replied, groggy. “I think so. My head hurts.”
Colin grabbed her by her arms and pulled her to her feet, ordering, “Get inside the subway train.” He pointed to the dazed teenagers and repeated the order, then ran over to the wall where Kelly had fallen. Kelly, with his nose still bloodied, was also starting to rise. “Are you okay?” Colin asked, grabbing his arm to help him up.
Kelly wiped the blood from his face. “I’m fine.”
“We have to move. Let’s get to the train and get out of here.”
Colin saw the huge monster with the hooded cape was starting to move, as was the blade-covered creature. He didn’t bother to look back to see if the glowing hot creature behind him was getting back into the fight. His only concern now was to get everyone on the subway train without having to contend with the huge seddrax, which was still running loose and could attack at any moment.
Colin’s fear materialized when the seddrax appeared in front of the train, hissing with its long tail reared up into the air. Colin raised his hands and shot out an electric bolt at the creature, but it vanished in an instant, and Colin’s bolt struck the floor. Colin spun left and right. “Where the hell did it go?” In answer, the creature appeared at Colin’s right, hissing and tensing to leap and attack.
“Nobody move!” Colin warned. He already had his hands raised, hoping that he could be fast enough to fire a bolt and hit the thing. With a bright white flash, a bolt of electrical energy shot out from Colin’s hands. Again the spider thing vanished, only to reappear a few feet away to the right, moving at high speed. The creature slid across the floor and slammed into the stone wall with a loud thud, landing on its back with its legs thrashing about. Colin looked down to see what sent the creature sliding and saw the water that covered the floor had somehow frozen into a sheet of ice. That’s strange. He suspected the source of the ice, but there was no time to dwell on it now. They had to board the train and leave.
Colin ushered everyone into the open doorway of the lead car. Everyone was forced to stand, as all the seats in the shredded car were gone. Colin headed for the control compartment up front. Its metal door was ripped off. Inside, Colin saw a small instrument panel with two rows of blinking red and green lights above a glowing white keypad. The system was fully automated and didn’t need a human operator, but this panel apparently allowed for human override in case of emergency. This was an emergency.
Desperate to get this train on the move, Colin scanned the instrument panel, unsure of what to type in. He saw the button labeled ‘brake’ and took a chance, pressing it. He fell backward as the car lurched forward and heard a couple short screams of surprise behind him. The low hum of the lead car’s magnetic levitation generator sounded reassuring, but was drowned out by the loud screeching of jagged metal on the side of the car scraping against the tunnel wall. He didn’t let that overshadow his thrill of escape as the subway train steadily increased its speed.
Taking a deep breath, he turned and walked out of the control compartment to find the flustered and bedraggled group before him looking beaten but somewhat relieved. Diane and Kelly leaned on each other for support while the four teenagers remained huddled together at the right. The trembling girl in the green dress, her skin pale, turned to Colin. “What’s going on? What just happened? What were those things?”
Colin took in another deep breath. “It’s a long story.”
“Then why not tell her?” a loud voice asked from the background.
Colin looked to the rear of the car to see the blond man in the blue shirt and black pants, who had waved to him before all this craziness started. Colin’s eyes widened in amazement. He gasped, almost choking on his own saliva as he was unable to speak. As the man walked closer there was no mistaking who it was. Colin exhaled a lungful of air and made a second attempt to utter a name. “Driscoll? Eddie Driscoll?”
Still walking forward, Driscoll smiled at Colin. “Glad to see that you still remember me,” he shouted over the screeching noise.
“I thought you were dead,” Colin shouted back.
“Now that’s a long story,” Driscoll quipped, grinning wider. He stopped and stood next to Diane and Kelly. “So, why don’t you tell these kids what really happened back there? That they were caught in the middle of a big conspiracy to kill President Drennan.” Driscoll looked toward the frightened teenagers. “My pal, Sergeant McKenzie, just saved your asses from the Enforcers. Shouldn’t you be thanking him?”
The teenagers all looked back at Colin. They hesitated. Then their four voices joined together to utter, “Thanks.”
Colin took a step forward. “The Enforcers. That’s what Lieutenant Garbo called them.”
Driscoll nodded. “Yeah. Just before they killed her. Pissing off those third-generation Reploid freaks is not a smart idea.”
Driscoll turned and stared Diane down. Diane looked to Colin. “Sarge, you know this guy? Just who is he?”
Driscoll answered before Colin formulate an answer. “Who I am is the guy that helped save your asses back there. No need to thank me.”
“Okay then. Thanks,” Colin said. Driscoll’s freezing power explained how the sheet of ice covered the station’s floor. “So these Enforcers are Reploids too? I suspected that.”
Driscoll stepped closer to Colin. “They’re not just Reploids. I said that they’re third-generation Reploids. They were build to be bigger, stronger, and a lot more bad-ass than us second gennies.”
“Second gennies?” asked Kelly.
Driscoll shot him a droll look. “Second gennies. Second generation, kid. Get with the program. The big ugly lizard with the black cape is Poltergeist. He possesses telekinetic ability – if you haven’t already figured that out by now. He also can turn himself invisible. In addition, he’s a cyborg. His entire skeletal system has been reinforced by a solid durium framework integrated with several advanced hyper motors and thrust pistons to make him stronger than your girlfriend here. He also has a cybernetically enhanced bad attitude.”
“Wonderful,” Diane groused.
“The ugly pig-faced freak calls himself Shrapnel. He has the power to convert matter into energy, then back to solid matter again. But it only works on metal. He’s been cybernetically enhanced with a flexible, magneto-platanium-mesh skin that his metal shrapnel can adhere to. And he can also make himself explode.”
“We found that out already,” said Colin, recalling the incident on Retalas.
“And you’ve already met my favorite member of the group, Inferno. That ugly bug has a specially designed thermium-ceramic alloy shell that allows him to radiate his intense heat without cooking his own insides well-done. He can also camouflage himself as a human by rearranging and compacting the molecules of his shell. He likes using his power and hates kids and small animals. He won’t be on my list to send any Christmas cards.”
“Mine either,” Kelly piped.
“Lastly we have Vosh. I saved you asses from him back there.”
The girl in the green dress spoke out. “You mean that giant spider?”
“He’s not a spider,” Driscoll corrected. “He’s a seddrax, but genetically engineered to be twenty times bigger than your average seddrax. In addition to his outer organic carapace, he’s been given an internal durium skeletal structure to support a series circuit of hyper motors installed throughout the entire length of his eight legs. This enhancement gives him the ability to move super fast. That’s why you can’t hit him. But his most endearing feature is the stinger in his tail. It can inject venom that can kill a victim within ten seconds. He was designed to be a reconnaissance unit, but in a fight, you don’t want to get on his bad side. Because all he has is a bad side.”
Assassination Anxiety (The McKenzie Files) Page 15