Epic floated back a space, then unleashed a sudden charge at his full mind-blowing speed straight at Schuller. I threw myself to the ground to brace against the oncoming impact, but was surprised when I felt nothing. I stole a peek up from my prone position to see a swirling red portal winking out of existence. Reaper closed his hands together and smirked. He was the first to realize that no one was going to win a straight battle. The question was what did he do to Eric? A more important question was what was he about to do to me?
I was close enough now that I could see through the shell of black and red more clearly. Gerald Schuller, the real man, looked panicked, frightened, screaming. I couldn’t hear him, but I imagined his lips were curled into a cry for help. Reaper, though, only had malice on his lips as he floated closer.
“Oh, the things I am going to do to your pretty face now that we’re alone,” the lunatic said as he licked his lips. Unlike the other Pushed, he had no double voice. It was only Reaper. Schuller was silenced behind a wall of unreality. "I was told there was only two things stopping me from freedom. One is gone and the second should only take a few moments to deal with.”
A sliver of my mind started to contemplate this new information, but the rest of it was busy shutting down the rapidly growing fear in my brain and forcing my body to action. If there was one advantage to the long-winded speech the Whiteout seemed to engender in the Pushed, it was the chance to get the jump on them.
“Epic was as powerful as I am, but he was blinded by the restraints he –“
I shut him up by driving my right hand as far into his gut as I could manage. Even as tired and desperate as I was, my mind continued to guide my body with sublime agility and harmonized strength as all my muscles fired in tune. Hitting his unreal stomach sent a backlash of force ripping back down my arm, just as when I hit Eric, but I ignored the pain as I carried through, regretfully crashing into the real Schuller’s body. Both man and god doubled over from the sudden attack.
Here was my one chance. I brought my other hand around towards Reaper’s neck, the hypo tucked as deep in my hand as I could manage, swiftly, but not so hard as to force feedback that would break my fingers or render the hypo inoperable. I felt my knuckles start to slowly part through the mockery of reality and close towards Gerald’s carotid artery. I was focused so hard on my target that I didn’t see that the monster wasn’t finished yet. The only warning I had was the sudden panic in Gerald’s eyes.
I tried to pull back as swift as I could, but it wasn’t fast enough. Rock and stone from the earth below us had erupted up, conjured forth by the seemingly endless variety of powers Reaper possessed, catching my hand as I pulled away. The violent impact of real stone and all too human flesh and blood broke several bones in my hand and sprained my wrist instantly. The vital hypodermic was thrown from my now useless grasp and flew through the air. My seemingly endless immunity to pain was tested and even through the mental blocks I could feel a burning tingle race up my arm as I staggered back.
“I know all about your kind's tricks, girl.”
All of the ground around and underneath me began to rumble as glowing red tendrils seeped out of the villain’s feet and into the earth. I forced myself to run, still vainly tracking the needle’s flight through the air, as first clods of sod then larger and larger chunks of earth started to hurtle skyward. That last shard of hope start to arc back to the earth as I managed to side step a boulder erupting from deep in the ground.
I clutched my useless hand to my chest and set my mind to calculating just the right time to jump for it. I ducked a flying chunk of debris, serenaded by Reaper’s constant maniacal laughter, and then sprang up. I was glad someone was having fun at least. My leap was perfect and I stretched my arm out to make the catch.
The problem with my jump was that, once I left the ground, my trajectory was set. Even if I had noticed the sudden man-sized chunk of earth shoot up from the ground, I could have done nothing about it. To the godlike reflexes of Reaper, it must have been like shooting a duck in a barrel.
I was flattened against the grass and earth as it slammed into me, driving the air out of my lungs. I tried to push myself up, but with only one good arm, I made little progress. I saw the Apache helicopters to my side, opening fire on the National Mall, and then they were zooming away. The air was growing dangerously thin when the ground beneath me blew apart into chunks of dirt. For a brief moment, I was suspended in free fall, then gravity’s mercilessly pull began. Staring down as Washington began to zoom back towards me, I was honestly surprised. I hadn’t thought I would die like this.
Even though my impending demise was assured, I still instinctively fought against it. I forced myself to mimic the spread arms and legs of a skydiver, just to buy a few more moments of life. After all, maybe if I slowed myself enough, I could be one of those lucky people who survived falls from near-orbit and lived. I could honestly tell myself that stranger things had happened.
As Washington came closer and closer, the only real wish I had was that someone would get that syringe and manage to jam it down Reaper’s throat and into Schuller. I had closed my eyes and was saying one last prayer when I swore I heard someone shouting my name, drowned out by the rushing wind. I put the thought out of my head as an auditory hallucination until, a split-second later, my fall hit a violent snag, then a sharp reduction in speed.
The jarring impact shuddered through my body as the sudden stop cracked two ribs, broke my tail bone, and gave me a near-concussion. I almost blacked out, but the seemingly endless flow of adrenaline and endorphins my heightened state produced kept me conscious.
“Irene, are you alive?” Eric shouted above the wind. “Please, please be alive.” I cracked open my eyes, cradled in Epic’s arms, sunk in through the unreal flesh to Eric’s actual arms. “I am going to rip him apart for hurting you, for killing my parents, for all of this, I swear it!”
I reached up with my good hand and grabbed his shoulder as we now seemed to be spiraling back down to the battlefield.
“No, you won’t, by God.” My voice had a grit to it I didn’t know I could muster. “If you kill him, any hope you had of making this work is going to fail. His blood on your hands in front of the entire goddamn world.“ I pointed down. “I can stop him, but you have to keep your head on straight. If you don’t, I swear you’re next!” Even in my sorry state, I could see Eric flinch under his god’s disguise from the iron in my voice.
As we rapidly descended, Reaper, along with his unwilling internal hostage, had finished ripping apart a military chopper, tearing its rotors apart to use as projectile weapons against another. I could tell he was just playing now, unconcerned as to any real resistance. I could imagine in my mind’s eye that the President must be about ready to order a nuke with Reaper’s name on it. Reaper’s eyes perked as he undoubtedly sensed the pulse heralding Epic’s return.
“You have got to keep him busy and give us a chance to get in on him, give him his drugs, and shut him off.“
I realized that plan was assuming my friends were still alive. I looked down from Eric’s grip and saw, thank God, all of the Atlanta Five on their feet, worse for the wear, but still going. My friends had regrouped and seemed to be moving towards Reaper already.
“Alright. You have one shot at this. If he dares hurt you again, though, I will flay him atom by atom," Eric relented.
I nodded. That would have to do. At my direction, Epic did a broad, low swoop and dropped me right next to my friends. Medusa, nursing a seeping laceration in her shoulder, looked at me and gaped. I must have looked horrible, now that I thought about it. Extinguisher was about to speak, but I raised my unbroken hand to stop him.
“No time,” I said. “The syringe is somewhere nearby, hopefully intact.” I found myself wobbling and Tank roared up, letting me lean on him. “Tank, you’re fast. We’ll find it. You guys … You have to keep him busy. Don’t die.” I felt that same guilt claw at my heart as I crawled onto Tank’s treaded body. I forced
myself to stare away from their collective gaze. “I’m sorry. If you don’t want to do this, I’ll understand. I’m not looking forward to dying either.”
“Shucks,” Hexagon guffawed. “How I see it, three days ago, the best thing I was lookin’ forward to as an achievement was being salesman of the month two months straight. Today, well, I might die, but I did it savin’ the world.” He shrugged all six arms. Mind’s Eye was about to speak when there was a tremendous peal of thunder as Reaper and Epic crashed into each other with earth-splitting punches.
There wasn’t any time left for speeches. When this had first begun, I had only seen the Pushed as a horrible by-product of this horrible new reality. Now, they were my friends who had been willing to stand by me and follow my lead in the face of certain death. So, yes, I was guilty. I was ashamed. I looked at my friends with sadness in my eyes, then grit my teeth. Forcing my guilt and sentimentality into the same little boxes my pain and fear lived in, I slapped Tank on the shoulder.
“Let’s go get him!” Grass, dirt, and rocks spewed behind us as I held on for dear life with my one good arm.
I could tell as the six of us closed in that Eric seemed to be going with the game plan so far, keeping Reaper engaged, but in a more hit-and-run fashion and using less raw power than before. I still didn’t even know what trick Reaper had used on him moments ago, but whatever it was, he didn’t seem apt to repeat it immediately. The landscape had been so battered by the raging conflict that I could only vaguely direct Tank’s course. The others moved to directly confront the villain.
Epic strafed by his opposite number, lashing out with tendrils of white light, which brought equal retaliation. No harm was done to either combatant, but it distracted Reaper, letting Extinguisher get close enough to let loose with his own powers. The fire fighter raised his hands, radiating blue ripples of pure cold. The air around Reaper instantly crystallized into a block of solid ice. Then, Medusa unleashed her strange gaze, turning the ice into a tomb of chilled stone.
The teamwork was impressive, but it only held back the raging demigod for a few moments. Red sparks ran up and down the stone and it split asunder with explosive force, flinging both of the heroes off of their feet. Hexagon managed to catch both of them, setting them safely to the earth, as I thought I caught a glint of shining glass near the heart of the battle. I yelled and pointed over Tank’s shoulder and the hyperactive youth roared at top speed, following my direction.
I leaned off of the side of Tank’s chassis, latched on with my good hand. The prospect of making the snatch with a broken hand was not a good one, but what choice did I have? Besides, my fingers weren’t broken yet.
As we made our approach on the syringe, a series of pure white flashes went off like strobes to my side as Eric teleported in a series of heavy blocks of debris and wreckage, cycling through them as Reaper smashed aside each new barrier. Using that amazing intellect of his, he was steering the rampaging monster towards Hexagon. Stretching out even further, I reached out to make the snatch.
Reaper shattered the last barrier in his way into fragments of metal and fiberglass, only to reveal my favorite six-armed powerhouse. Hexagon unleashed a tight series of three punches from his right side, firing like pistons with inhuman force, which seemed to have minimal real effect on the demigod, but it threw him off balance. Seizing the moment, Hex snatched Reaper with his other three hands and plowed him violently into the ground. There was a concussion of dirt and stone as the villain was cratered five feet deep.
Uninjured but annoyed, Reaper started to right himself only to be met by the full payload of missiles and rockets from a downed Apache helicopter, telekinetically manipulated by Mind’s Eye. The rapid series of explosions blew Hexagon back, dazed but unharmed. As for Reaper, his fate was obscured by a cloud of debris and dust.
I managed to snatch the syringe with the tip of my fingers, tears bleeding out of the corners of my eyes as my pain threshold stared to wear down and my thoughts slowed down to normal. The hunger was starting to emerge, which I could only guess was a sign that I was at the limit of what my body could sustain at its full unlocked potential. Tank glanced over his shoulder at me, I must have been vocalizing my pain, and started to slow. Biting my lip, I willed myself to keep going. Despite the gnawing in my stomach and a growing ache in my skull, the rest of the pain receded and my mind sped back up.
“Go! I’ve got it.” I grinned madly at the teenager. “Ready to save the world?” He grinned back. He may have been young, but I think at that moment he grew up in a second, fully aware of what sacrifice we might be making. He turned ahead and poured on the speed, erecting his force barrier as we hit the cloud of settling debris.
We hit him dead on. The barrage of mundane armaments hadn’t even annoyed Reaper; when Tank plowed into him, I was certain the monster was giggling like a madman. The shield shattered apart, but absorbed the initial impact. The Human Tank roared on, smashing dead center on the now-startled Reaper. Though nigh-invulnerable, he hadn’t braced for the dual impact and it flung him back, tumbling end over end.
As for Tank, the violent collision caused his body to whiplash violently on his cybernetic chassis. For all I could tell, Tank was dead as I vaulted off of his back. I hit the ground in front of the prone demigod roughly and tucked into a roll, aggravating my injuries without a care, winding up on my feet. Reaper still seemed disoriented from the crash; I leaped forward to take advantage.
My hand passed through Reaper’s skin and the hypo pressed against the grateful, sad face of Gerald Schuller. A hand gripped around my neck at the same time. It was Schuller’s own hand, manipulated like a puppet by the phantom beast around him. For just a moment, we stared at each other, eye to eye, a strange moment of connection. Neither of us was going to back off, so we both pressed on. Reaper-through-Schuller squeezed and I pressed the inject button.
Chapter 19 Division
Everything was turning gray as Reaper-as-Schuller choked the life out of me. Tears streamed down Gerald’s face and I swear he was trying to scream something. Although the madman’s outer skin passed through me, he still seemed to have total control of Gerald’s body. Though Schuller was considerably weaker, all of my injuries made fighting back almost impossible. It took all of my willpower just to not let go of the hypodermic with my broken hand and keep that button depressed. Injecting him in the head, despite what a layman might think, was far from ideal, but it was better than nothing.
“I won’t go back in there,” Reaper slurred. He sounded tired, sleepy. “Not before I kill you, at least.”
I was acutely aware of the thumb in my trachea as he forced the hapless Schuller to squeeze harder. I could only imagine the confusion on my friends’ faces. To them it had to look like he was killing me with his forearm while my hand was fused with his face. Through the hazy fog in my head, I swore I could hear people shouting my name. Hexagon grabbed Reaper from behind, but couldn’t get him loose from me. After what seemed like an eternity, the hypo’s button clicked. The dose was in.
Reaper rose up on increasingly unsteady feet, throwing off Hexagon and sweeping aside Extinguisher and Medusa with his free arm. My feet were dangling for a moment, then I lost sensation in them. There was also a grinding sound in my head; something in my neck was about to give way in a permanent fashion.
The murderer seemed to want to make sure I was gone; he reared back a massive fist, sluggishly aiming at my skull. I forced myself to give him a crooked, bloody smile. If I was going to die, I wanted him to know I was happy to have stopped him. Though weakened and fading, Reaper’s blow would still crush my skull, undoubtedly breaking every bone in Schuller’s arm in the bargain.
That blow didn’t land. A white blur flashed before my eyes and Eric was there, interposing himself at the last moment. There was one last shockwave as inhuman power met invulnerable skin and then it was over. Suddenly, I found myself falling to the ground as Reaper’s grip went loose. My legs were too weak to catch me and I tumbled down on
to my knees. Wheezing and gasping, all I could do was sit there and try to keep breathing.
I had planned to stay that way, at least until I could heroically collapse into the arms of some kind of expert medical care. Unfortunately, as with all of my recent plans, that was not to be. For a few moments, at least, nothing disturbed my labored attempt to stay conscious. There was a cluster of white flashes all around me and, even in my agony, I could tell that some of the combatants were disappearing. In fact, a good half of them winked away. I wouldn’t have even noticed it if the gray in my vision hadn’t started to fade. Sweet, sweet oxygen was starting to sing in my brain.
After that, there were a few more moments of eerie silence. Though I didn’t know it at the time, it had been all of the Pushcrooks that had been teleported away, those still alive anyway, and without an enemy, the Push heroes ceased to battle. Even the military and police seemed to be startled into holding fire. Unfortunately, something happened that forced me to pay attention.
“No way, sir,” Extinguisher said. “He’s helpless now; there’s no call for it.”
“Right, he’sss beat,” Medusa added with a hiss. “Bessidesss, he wassn’t in control of hisss actionss. He needsss help not a beatdown.”
“Are you all mad?” Eric boomed, his real voice hard with fury. “He hurt Irene; he’s killed hundreds if not thousands. Not just our own, but the unpowered as well. He’s a monster and deserves to die.”
I forced my head up as I tried to find the strength to stand, despite every desire to stay down. Epic was floating away from me, towards what I assumed a now-normal Gerald Schuller was cowering. Right beyond him, the two Push heroes had their arms raised as they tried to talk reason with the angered godling. Mind’s Eye and Hexagon were trying to do what they could for Tank, who still was unconscious. At least I hoped he was only unconscious, I still couldn't be sure. Prying my eyes away from the fallen teen, I tried to shout to get Eric’s attention, but all I could manage was a hoarse croak, more dying frog than woman.
The Push Chronicles (Book 1): Indomitable Page 17