by Chad Kunego
“Oh shit, I’m sorry!”
“Where the hell were you? We almost got caught with our pants down. If it wasn’t for Newton’s quick thinking, we could have been ambushed, or at the very least, caught in a serious firefight!” Kaitlyn snapped.
“Hey, cut her some slack,” Rick said as he placed his hand on her shoulder, “We got the jump on them. That’s all that matters.”
He watched the anger slowly melt off her face a few seconds later.
“Yeah, you’re right. Sorry about that Jetlag.”
“No problem Major. I won’t let it happen again.”
“Actually, since they’re sending their people out with cloaking fields, there’s not much sense sending you ahead again. Newton’s right. Unless you know where to look, you won’t spot these guys. It does give me an idea though. See if you can identify the cloaking field emitters. Maybe we can use them to our advantage.”
§§§§§§§§§§§§
A small groan caught their attention. Looking over, Kaitlyn noticed the leader of the group was slowly regaining consciousness. She quickly strode over to him as he started squirming. Squatting down, she grabbed the man under his chin, forcing him to look her in the eye.
“Morning sunshine. You know the drill. You already know what we’re here for, so tell us what we want to save yourself some pain.”
“Fuck off!”
She made a clucking sound with her tongue before responding.
“Well, that wasn’t terribly original. You really need to work on that whole ‘I’ve been captured’ response. I would have expected something better.”
She waved Thunderclap and Glaizia over before looking back at her captive.
“This should be a real eye opener for you,” she said as the two giants came to a stop beside them.
“Thunderclap, would you be so kind as to hold this man up in air for me?”
“My pleasure ma’am,” he said, casually lifting the man up and pinned him to a tree a few feet off the ground.
“You know, I’m feeling a bit generous today, so I’ll give you a choice, you can either A, enjoy my rendition of chestnuts roasting over an open fire,” she said, her hand bursting into flames, “Or you can develop a serious case of snowballs,” she continued, gesturing toward Glaizia, who generated a large globe of ice in her hand.
“As I was saying, I leave it up to you, deep fried nuggets or crystal balls. I’ll give you about five seconds to make your choice.”
She watched the man started frantically thrashing in Thunderclap’s hands, trying to get away.
“Five… Four… Three…” she said, slowly starting her countdown. She let a stray flame flicker off her hand and drift through the air before landing on the dangling man’s pant leg, causing it to start smoldering.
“Oops. My bad, sometimes my flames get away from me. Two seconds by the way,” she stated, causing the temperature of her hand to increase. The flame slowly shifted from a reddish-orange flame to a deep blue color. She mentally projected a wave of heat toward the man’s face as she approached.
“Oh look, time’s up. Since you haven’t provided a preference, I guess it’s going to be trouser snake flambé,” she said, reaching out toward the man’s groin.
“Stop, damn it. You’re crazier than he is.”
She paused for a moment, allowing a crazed expression to cross her face.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing. So, shall we get to cooking, or do you think you can find it within yourself to point me in the right direction?”
While she talked, she slowly brought her hand closer to the suspended man again, causing the front of his pants to start smoking.
“Fine! Fine!” he yelled, his voice rising in panic.
She let out a disappointed sigh before snapping her hand closed, extinguishing the flame.
“Ok big boy, where’s it located?”
It’s about ten klicks northeast of here.”
“See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” she asked before nodding to Thunderclap.
Letting the man go, the man dropped roughly to the ground, ending up in a crumpled heap. Panting hard, the man squirmed into a seated position, his eyes wide with terror.
“You’re going to let me live, right?” he asked with wide eyes.
“Did you really think I was going to torture you? Who do you think we are, your boss?” she asked before spinning around and walking away.
Crossing to the other side of camp, she nodded to the pilot sat, leaning up against a tree.
“Do we have anything we can use to knock them out for a couple of hours? Something that’ll keep them out of our hair until we reach the base?”
“All we have are mild sedatives. Just something to keep patients calm until they can get to medical personnel.”
“That’s better than nothing. Go ahead and give them all a few doses if possible. If we move quickly enough, it may suffice.”
While the pilot prepared the injections, she waved everyone over.
“We’re just over six miles from the base. Strip everyone of their radios and anything else that’s useful. As soon as the pilot’s done giving them the shot, we head out. Speed over stealth is the name of the game now. We don’t know when this group needs to check in next, so it’s possible we’ll be walking into a trap. Let’s get started.”
She headed back over to the squad-leader. She noticed he gave her a dirty look when she grabbed his earpiece and radio.
“You won’t be needing this anytime soon. Hopefully you won’t be eaten by a bear after we leave.”
Standing back up straight, she looked around the area one last time.
“Okay everyone. Let’s move.”
Chapter 27
“Okay, let’s review the plan one more time.”
Kaitlyn glanced around to make sure everyone was paying attention.
“Once we get inside, we split up into three teams. One team needs to locate the controls for their weapons system. Another needs to find the power for the base. Either one of those objectives can neutralize the threat if we can destroy them. The third objective is one of opportunity. Any intel you can grab will get us that much closer to eliminating the threat Maelstrom poses to the world.
“Just remember, if any of you spot Reaper, do not engage under any circumstance. Radio the rest of us immediately and we’ll try to converge on your location. Keep in mind, this is an opponent that’s given Newton here a run for his money more than once, so don’t try to be a hero. There’s too much riding on this.”
“That’s all great and everything, but we actually have to get in first. Any thoughts on how to do that?” Blitz asked, waving to the front of the base in the distance, “I mean, I know Jetlag and I can get there fast enough, and obviously Newton can, but then what? How do we neutralize them fast enough so they can’t raise the alarm?”
Kaitlyn stared at the front of the installation again. A massive front door that she assumed was for large vehicles was the major feature, while a smaller door stood to the side, which was most likely for letting troops in and out. There were also several soldiers standing outside, presumably to guard against attack since it’d be very unlikely that someone would stumble across this place on accident.
“We’ve got two options. Either we wait for a shift change, which we have no idea when it’ll happen, or we rush the front door and hope one of use can get inside before they can sound the alarm.”
“Oh, so piece o’ cake then, eh?” quipped Scattershot.
Kaitlyn gave him a dirty look before she noticed Rick staring intently at the door, an unreadable mask frozen on his face.
“You got something?”
He held up his hand, intent on their target. Without warning, he whispered, “get ready.”
Glancing back at the door, she noticed movement. Tensing up, she turned to the rest of the team to make sure they were ready. Looking back, she spotted the door starting to open.
“Hang on…”
Kaitlyn ga
ve Rick a questioning glance. Suddenly, everything blurred. A split-second later, they were in the midst of the combatants. Readjusting quickly, she swung at the closest soldier, flowing through a combination she’d practiced hundreds of times in the gym. Her opponent didn’t even register her presence before collapsing to the ground unconscious. Looking back up, she noticed Rick ripping the door off its hinges before disappearing inside, followed a moment later by Blitz and Jetlag blurring through.
“DUCK!”
Responding instantly, she dropped to the ground. The crack of multiple projectiles whizzing past overhead causing her to look behind her. Two of the guards stood frozen for a moment before slowly sinking down. She noticed several holes punched through them starting to leak bodily fluids in a slowly spreading puddle. Getting back to her feet, she looked back toward Scattershot and nodded. Her eyes widened slightly before she snapped her hand forward, throwing a fireball at him. Without hesitation, he flipped into the air, completing several revolutions before landing softly several feet away. The soldier that’d been trying to sneak up behind him instantly becoming a flaming pyre, happening before the enemy could react. As Scattershot landed, he extended his hands and launched several projectiles, killing the soldier before he had a chance to scream out in pain.
“Thanks boss!”
Spinning around to look for more threats, she watched Thunderclap turn the last two into a mist with a quick swing from his massive mace.
“Let’s get in there, now!”
They all charged forward, unsure what they were going to find. Reaching the door, they almost attacked Blitz when he slowly appeared, a blank look on his face.
“Report.”
Looking up in a daze, he struggled to form words.
“Yeah, uh… Newton’s pretty effective when he needs to be,” was all he said before staggering out the door, suddenly blurring toward a nearby tree and retching behind it. Stepping inside, she immediately understood what he meant. She spotted Jetlag standing stunned in the center of the first room they entered. In the time it had taken them to subdue six men, Rick had eliminated somewhere north of that number. She wasn’t sure of the exact count since all that remained was chunks stuck to the walls and a fine pink mist slowly settling to the ground. A bomb going off wouldn’t have caused this much devastation. In all her years of combat, she’d never seen such overwhelming force unleashed in such a short period of time. Slowly walking toward the next room, she noticed more of the same.
His brother’s name might be Reaper, but from what I’m seeing, it wouldn’t do justice to what Rick was capable of.
His sudden appearance in front of her caused her yelp, accidentally lobbing a fireball at him. Casually reaching out, he caught it in his hand and absently closed it, extinguishing the fireball with a slight whump.
“I’ve secured the surrounding hallways and rooms,” he said, a blank expression on his face, “I kinda left a mess, so we don’t have much time before someone sounds the alarm. We should probably get moving.”
Turning back around, he unslung his staff with one hand while uncapping his tube with the other. She watched in fascination as the metal spheres took up a random orbit around him with a slight whistling noise.
We are extremely lucky he didn’t consider our team a threat when we engaged with him. If he had, we’d only be greasy smears.
Turning back around, she nodded at her team.
“You all know your assignments. We’ll only get one shot at this. Let’s go.”
§§§§§§§§§§§§
He watched the others split up and take off down the hallway in the different directions. A moment later, he headed off down the hall with Kaitlyn and Scattershot following close behind him.
“So uh, mate? What exactly did you, uh, do back there? That was some, eh, some impressive work. Ain’t seen nothin’ like it before.”
He turned, looking back over his shoulder while struggling to keep his feelings compartmentalized. It’d been a long time since he’d had to kill someone and he wasn’t exactly happy about it. Keeping his voice neutral, he replied.
“Being accelerated to nearly the speed of sound before hitting a wall tends to have that effect.”
He sensed movement approaching from around the corner in front of them. Before anyone had a chance to respond, several of his spheres lanced forward, punching holes through the chest of several people before streaking back and resuming their orbit around him. All before the bodies hit the floor. In a distant corner of his mind, he could feel himself screaming as the body count continued to rise. Picking up the pace, he hurried forward.
“The longer this takes, the more people I’ll be forced to kill, so let’s get hustlin’.”
“Dude, I feel like we’re playing Doom on god mode,” he heard Scattershot mumble. Spinning around, he blurred into motion, snatching the smaller man up in the air.
“Is this a game to you? Do you LIKE hurting and killing people? ‘Cuz I sure as hell don’t. I went into hiding for a long time because I was sick of it!”
He struggled to keep from shouting as the emotions he was trying to bottle up threatened to explode out of him. The sudden pressure of Kaitlyn’s hand on his arm made him pause. The barely contained rage flashed across his face as his glared at her.
“Easy Newton,” she said softly. “Nobody thinks this is a game. Scattershot just has a macabre way of dealing with the stress of combat. That’s all. So if you could put him down please…?”
It took a few seconds for him to process what she was saying. Comprehension forced him to notice the terrified look on Scattershot’s face. Gently, he lowered the smaller man down.
“Sorry,” he whispered, unable to meet the stare of either teammate, instead turning away and heading further into the base. He felt her shake her head slowly, probably to tell Scattershot to leave it alone. He lowered his chin to his chest, his cheeks burning fiercely as he replayed his overreaction to Scattershot’s remark in his mind.
Is this what I’ve become? So powerful that I don’t consider someone else’s feelings? Maybe I should disappear again after this. It’d probably be safer for everyone.
“You know, you’re probably going to have to pay a cleaning bill when we get back…”
Her sudden voice beside him forced him to look toward her while still trying to avoid the look of judgment he knew she was giving him.
“Come again?”
“A cleaning bill. You probably just scared the shit out of him. You know that, right?”
He looked down at his feet. He could feel his throat swelling, making it hard to reply.
“Yeah, I know. I overreacted. I’m sorry for that. It’s been a long time since I’ve really been in combat. Plus, in my later missions, I worked alone. I never wanted to come back to this. I was slowly turning into a monster.”
“Well just remember,” she said, placing her hand gently on his arm again, “we’re all teammates. We’re not enemies.”
“I know, it’s just that—”
“Hi Newton, I know you’re here, somewhere. You tripped the sensors the second you entered the base. I have a great idea now that you’re here. How about we play a game!”
Chapter 28
“Sonofa… He knows we’re here!”
Rick raged internally. Again he got outmaneuvered by Reaper. The only question left was, did Reaper’s plan include the rest of the team.
“Tell you what Newton, it takes about twenty minutes or so to charge up our weapon enough to use, so you’ve got that long to try and stop me. If you don’t, your precious city is going to become a smoking crater. Ta ta!”
“Now what, mate?”
His glare unconsciously caused his teammates to take a step away from him. Shadows started forming behind them as the glow from his eyes intensified keeping pace with his anger.
“You two, stay on mission. I’m going to find my asshole brother and put a stop to this.”
Before they had a chance to respond, he pulsed away,
breaking the sound-barrier in the process. At the same time, he started rapidly spinning his metal orbs in a tighter orbit around him, in effect turning him into a supersonic meat grinder. Moving at speed, he only distantly registered everything in front of him disintegrating as he searched for Reaper.
Where the hell are you, you bastard?
A though occurred to him, causing him to stop.
Hang on a second. He knows me, knows how I’ll react. I’m playing right into his hands again. If I go raging at him, I’ll be at a disadvantage. I need to think this through.
Glancing down at his wrist, he set a timer so he knew how much time remained. Satisfied, he dropped into a seated position. Relaxing his mind, he stretched his senses out, forcing his perceptions to penetrate through rock and metal, searching for where his brother might be waiting for him. As his awareness expanded, he started noticing something odd happening. He could feel a slight tug of kinetic energy drifting past him, similar to what he’d felt from the rupture near his old job. Focusing his attention more on the sensation, he slowly got to his feet and started moving with the flow of kinetic energy, allowing it to pull him along in its current, drifting down the hall.
So now I know the where, so the next question is, why is all the kinetic energy moving that way in the first place? Did they create another rupture? This feels different somehow. I need to be careful.
Opening his eyes, he allowed his senses to direct his movement, accelerating himself deeper into the base.
§§§§§§§§§§§§
“Sir! We’re detecting the same energy field that appeared during HellKat’s fight with Newton forming above the Rapier building!”
The Colonel nodded, studying the display in front of him.
“Any estimation of how much time we have before they activate it?”
“No sir… The energy levels have already surpassed what was detected at the first site. Based off our calculations, it would completely wipe out the building at this point.”