“Now that's what I'm talking about bro, that's how it's done!” Jackson exclaimed. Shayne noticed Bianca and quickly ran over to her.
“She’ll be okay. Her healing factor will take care of those burns.” Jackson said.
Shayne dropped to one knee and lifted Bianca into his arms.“Let’s get her back on the jet.”
“What about Erik and Seth?” Jackson asked. Shayne instructed Jackson to watch the two men while he got Bianca safely on the jet.
“Shayne, this is Stephanie do you copy?” Stephanie’s voice sounded panicked.
“This is Shayne go ahead.”
“Shayne, I’m detecting another power surge heading in your direction. The readings on this individual are off the chart. Make sure you guys stay alert. Watch your back.”
“Shayne!” Jackson yelled, his voice sounded extremely desperate. Shayne did not get a chance to end communication with Stephanie. Someone else did that as his com link went dead.
A powerful bolt of energy hurled itself towards Shayne. As quick as Shayne was, the bolt caught him by surprised and connected with a devastating blow. Jackson looked on angrily at the one responsible for attacking Shayne. He pushed his hands forward and let loose a ball of ice. A woman in white who stood on the opposite end of Jackson easily evaded the attempt.
Frustrated, Jackson let loose with a barrage of ice balls all directed at the woman. One by one the woman evaded the attacks and with the simplest of ease countered with a massive ball of energy. The energy blast knocked Jackson backwards several feet rendering him unconscious. She slowly levitated over towards Seth and undid the binds that Shayne had put him in. She instructed Seth to unfreeze Erik. On command, Seth used his recently acquired fire ability to melt the ice away.
“Did we beat them?” Erik asked as melted ice dripped from his body.
“No thanks to you!” the woman hissed.
“After such success with the prison escape, I was expecting quite a bit more from you. The Leader will not be pleased to hear of your short comings.”
The woman in white looked around for something. She had a look of panic, like she had lost something valuable to her. “Where’s the girl?” Seth and Erik looked around the area but saw no sign of Bianca or the jet.
“Get us out of here. Make sure you grab those two, they're coming with us,” she hissed. The woman gave another quick look around the area for Bianca but Bianca was no were to be found.
Bianca waited until the woman in white, Erik, and Seth left before she uncloaked the Star Foxx Jet. She quickly dialed Mr. Connors and apprised him of the situation.
27
The Heavyweights
The local police fired on Joe Dorgan ineffectively. Bullet after bullet plunged forward and bounced right back off the massive man. Joe laughed hysterically as he continued down the street of the small suburban area fifteen miles outside of downtown Atlanta. Joe hurled cars through house windows and garages for the hell of it. He smashed cars into the shape of basketballs and chucked them at the police. Overwhelmed, police officers did their best to evade the onslaught of Joe's wrath.
“This is getting out of control Lou!” one of the police officers said to his fellow officer.
“Getting? This was out of control the minute that freak stepped foot in our direction. We need G.U.A.R.D immediately.”
“G.U.A.R.D can't do anything against this guy. We need those freaks to combat this freak. We need the League of Protectors!” the other officer said.
As if on cue, Jason, Jessica and Noah dropped down in front of the officers. The heavyweights so to speak had arrived.
“Fall back gentlemen, let us take it from here,” Jason said.
“I certainly hope you guys can do something about this man. He's going to destroy the whole city at this rate!” the first officer said.
“We’ve got this Sir, grab your men and get out of here.”
The police officers had no problem following that particular order. No one in their right mind wanted to combat Joe Dorgan.
“You and I have some unfinished business Shaw!”Joe shouted.
Joe charged towards Jason completely disregarding Jessica and Noah's presence. Noah noticed one of the damaged vehicles nearby and used his telekinesis to lift the vehicle off the ground. Using heavy concentration, Noah chucked the vehicle towards Joe. Joe swatted the vehicle away as if it was a bug. Noah quickly concentrated on another vehicle and moved his hands forward. The vehicle shook a bit before leaving the ground. Noah motioned his hands forward and the vehicle hurled itself at Joe. This time, Noah motioned the vehicle to make contact with the lower part of Joe’s body. The flying vehicle cut low and tripped Joe’s feet, causing Joe to fall.
He was more embarrassed than hurt, but still found it necessary to turn his attention to Noah.
“Guess you should've paid more attention to us as well,” Jessica said.
Joe made a sound that could be best described as that of a bear or maybe a lion. Noah, Jason and Jessica looked at one another perplexed by the weird sound the man had just made.
“I think he's taking this animalistic nature thing a bit too seriously,” Jessica stated.
Severely pissed, Joe grabbed the vehicle responsible for tripping him and angrily threw it at Noah. Noah used a massive force of concentration to create a force field. The car bounced off the force field and fell hard to the ground. Joe was visibly angered.
“What’s wrong? Not having much fun?” Jessica asked with the intentions of keeping Dorgan off his game. The group had to remember that Joe Dorgan was strong, very strong, but he wasn't the smartest one around. Their intentions were to keep him unfocused and frustrated.
“I’m just getting warmed up little lady, just you wait, you three will be begging for me to spare your lives soon enough!”
The massive man charged forward but was caught with a well concentrated energy blast from Jason. Joe looked surprised.
“You didn’t think you saw the extent of my abilities did you?” Jason asked. His face was lit up with amusement as Joe looked at them with a perplexing look. What you saw was me holding back. What you saw was me trying to remind myself that your life has meaning, that it has value. You seem intent on being destructive, so I have no choice but to show you just how destructive I can be as well!”
Joe slapped himself in the face, psyching himself up to unleash even more carnage. He walked across the street and grabbed two cars that were parked in the driveway. Joe used the two cars as shields and charged forward.
“Fall back!” Jason ordered Jessica and Noah. With a car in each hand, Joe lifted the cars over his head and drove it downward. Jessica dodged to her left just in the nick of time. Joe swung the other car but Jason punched a hole right through the center of the vehicle.
“Give it up Joe; you aren’t going to win this fight.” Jason drove Joe’s arm backwards forcing the massive man off balance. Joe began to stumble. He threw the car in his right hand at Jason, but Jason caught it with ease. Jason threw the car back at Joe, but Joe used the car in his left hand as a baseball bat. The cars connected with one another and found themselves heading towards Jessica.
“Look out!” Noah pleaded as Jessica seemed unaware of the incoming danger. Noah used his telekinesis to redirect the incoming vehicle.
Jessica smiled and Noah smiled back. Jason found himself distracted by the quick moment Jessica and Noah shared. Before he knew it, Joe was lifting him off the ground by the throat. Joe slammed Jason to the ground forcefully. He proceeded to drive left and right fists into Jason's face and sternum. The street shook and cracks formed all down the road. After several brutal blows, Joe grabbed Jason with one hand and lifted him off the ground. He gave Jason a wink right before driving him back down to the ground again. Blood poured out of Jason’s mouth.
“This is a good look for you soldier boy,” Joe said mockingly. Noah charged forward with fluid motion and evaded the massive arm Joe swung. Noah found himself on Joe’s left side. He twirled and drove
his left elbow into Joe's ribs. Noah quickly shifted his body and delivered a straight closed fist punch to Joe's face using his right hand. The punch had Joe wheeling.
This was Noah's moment. If he was in costume he would've taken out his sword and ended Joe right then and there, but that wasn't an option. Instead, Noah quickly followed the straight fist punch with a devastatingly well placed kicked to Joe's kneecap. Chopping the big man down to his level, Noah concluded his attack with an off the ground spinning kick to the head.
Joe fell to the ground lying flat on his back. Jessica and Jason both watched the exchange thoroughly impressed by Noah's skill. At that moment Jason thought to himself, Noah wasn't someone he wanted to fight to the death. Noah pressed on. He moved forward and leaped off the ground hoping to land a effective blow to Joe's head, but this time Joe was ready for him. As Noah came back down, Joe caught him by his right leg and flipped him up in the air. Joe quickly got off his back and caught Noah mid air and slammed the former assassin hard to the ground.
Jason grimaced, knowing exactly how painful that was for Noah. Jessica lounged forward. She lounged straight into Joe and drove him back into a stop sign. She stood tall realizing this was the first time she landed an offensive move on the massive man. Joe got back to his feet and started swinging wildly. For Joe, there was nothing worse than having a woman best him. That was something he had to correct immediately.
Jessica flew above Joe to avoid his wild swings. Joe was getting madder by the minute. He swung and swung at her but he missed each time. As Joe got madder his height and size began to increase. He again swung at Jessica and this time caught her leg. He aggressively threw Jessica as far as he could.
Jason was now back to his feet. He readied himself and took flight ready to rejoin the fight. He didn't get too far when he felt the breeze of Jessica flying passed him. At first he thought she was falling back, but he quickly realized that she was flying involuntarily. Jason rapidly turned directions and flew with lightning speed after her. The young woman was just out of his reach and she plunged downward into a small lake several miles from where she was thrown.
“Jessica!” Jason screamed. He dove into the lake after her. Many of the neighbors were either outside watching or looking on from one of their windows. Just about all of them were capturing footage of the fight. “Jessica can you hear me?” Jason asked frantically. There was no response. “Jessica, please answer me! Are you okay?”
Again there was no response. Jason looked down towards Noah and noticed he was struggling with Joe. He turned his attention back to Jessica and laid her down on the ground. He began performing mouth to mouth on her and desperately prayed for a response.
“Jessica!” Jason shook the young woman hoping for some sort of response. Still there was nothing. He again performed mouth to mouth on her, and this time she started to cough. She coughed up a big gulp of water. She looked around her surroundings and looked completely dazed and confused.
“Jason?”
“You're okay, I've got you.”
“Thank you, now go help Noah.” Jessica replied tiredly. Jason nodded and flew back towards Noah and Joe.
Joe had the upper hand and his latest attack left Noah wheeling. Jason swooped low and caught Joe's massive fist just before Joe could deliver another fist to Noah's face. Joe broke Jason's hold and shoved him backwards.
“You seemed awfully concerned over that woman back there,” Joe said. Joe threw another punch and yet again Jason caught the attempt. Jason's face was red with anger. He bent Joe’s arm and used his left hand to deliver a crushing uppercut to Joe’s chin. Joe tumbled backwards.
Noah used a leg sweep to get Joe off his feet. The massive man hit the ground hard. The impact of his fall shook the ground. It caused an incoming driver, that seemed oblivious to the battle taking place to lose control.
The car spiraled wildly. Noah used his telekinesis to catch the car and safely bring it to a stop. Noah concentrated and gently the car landed on the ground. He gingerly walked over and checked on the driver and the passenger. Besides a few bumps and bruises, the civilians were fine. Noah instructed them to get as far away from the battle as they could.
When Noah turned back around, he found himself hit with a massive energy blast that caught him near the shoulder. His flesh burned and the pain caused Noah to fall to the ground. He cursed through gritted teeth as the pain from the blast felt unbearable. He had been hit with blasts before but this particular blast was so much more devastating. Noah looked around for Jason and Jessica. He discovered that they suffered the same fate as him. Noah tried to force himself back to his feet, but the pain was too unbearable. Noah noticed a woman in white approaching him just before he succumbed to the pain and fell unconscious.
The woman in white looked down at Joe, who was still lying on the ground from the beating he took. “Unbelievable. You too? Aren't you suppose to be the most dangerous man in the world? The most powerful man and you couldn't even take these amateurs out? Pathetic!” the woman exclaimed.
The woman in white knew exactly who Joe Dorgan was but she wasn't the least bit intimidated. Joe looked at her as if she was crazy. “Listen here little lady, no one yells at me I’m…”
Before Joe Dorgan could finish telling her his name, the woman opened her hand and by sheer will power forced Joe to start choking.
“Silence!” she demanded. Joe’s eyes grew angry as he tried to speak, but nothing came out. “Do not speak unless spoken to animal. I am not someone that will tolerate insubordination. Keep your mouth closed. If you had done what you were supposed to do, I wouldn't have to come here and clean up your mess.”
The woman looked back to where Seth Maddox was standing. She instructed him to teleport them all to the predetermined location. Seth nodded and in a flash the entire group of Post Humans on scene disappeared.
28
All that Remains
“Where are they?” Mr. Connors asked nervously, “Tell me you can track their location!" The worried man sat at the desk inside his office. Five of his members were currently captured by a group of equally impressive Post Humans. All that remained of the group was Bianca Ramirez, Garrett Blake and Stephanie Morgan. Bianca was the only one remaining that had any sort of real life experience in the field. That experience however, wasn't going to do much against the likes of Erik Masters, Seth Maddox, Kyle Stanton or even worse, Joe Dorgan.
Bianca's ability was mainly used as a defensive and healing measure. With her phasing ability, if she grabbed hold of another member, Bianca could phase them out of dimension preventing them from being attacked. Her gifts would allow her to heal herself and others. Combat however was not part of Bianca's repertoire. Her skills were tremendously lacking in that department.
“Sir, she might not be able to detect anything but I can! I'm fairly confident someone with similar abilities as her own are somehow blocking Stephanie from detection.” Garrett exclaimed. The young tech master came rushing in the room with a laptop in hand. “Sir, one of the tracking locators came back online a few minutes ago.”
Mr. Connors had a perplexed look on his face. When The League was captured, the tracking locators went offline. This was an easy indicator that the locators were destroyed.
“Shaw Enterprises had been working on a more advanced tracking locator for the military, but it was still in the early stage of development.” Garrett looked at his laptop with excitement and continued talking. “Jason and I were discussing implementing this upgrade into The League’s bag of technology. The idea was that in the event of the locating device being destroyed, it would send out a signal burst that could be traced on our network! Jason must have been wearing the prototype because sure enough a few minutes ago a faint signal showed up on my system!”
Mr. Connors clapped his hands. Garrett's news was the first bit of good news he had received since learning the group was captured. There was still hope in finding his team.
“Where are they?”
“The
y are approximately 15 miles from downtown Chicago.”
Mr. Connors had a solemn look on his face. Now that he had the location of his members, he needed to figure out how to rescue them. Without his regular field members available, the likelihood of a successful rescue attempt seemed unlikely. Was this a mission he should contact G.U.A.R.D about? Would they even be willing to aide in such an attempt?
After passing all League mandated mission return protocols, Bianca walked into the room dressed in all black with a gun firmly placed in a side holster.
“That's a new look for you Bianca. I guess staying with Noah has opened up your rebel side,” Garrett said. He wasn't sure if he was afraid or turned on by Bianca's new look. She definitely had the fiery attitude to match the new look.
“I’m just waiting for the assignment. I'm ready for whatever the mission is,” she replied.
Mr. Connors was impressed with her enthusiasm. Garrett raised his eyebrow. He knew as well as Mr. Connors did that Bianca wasn’t going to be able to do much against the likes of Seth and company.
“Orders for what? I know you aren’t thinking about going back out in the field to try and rescue the team!” Garrett's voice sounded very condescending but he was really just concerned about her.
“And what if I am?” she fired back.
Garrett huffed. “You've got about as much chance saving them as I do hooking up with Jessica!”
Bianca rolled her eyes. She wasn't going to dignify that statement with a reply. Instead, she turned her attentions to Mr. Connors and pleaded her case. She knew she wouldn’t last in a fight against Seth and the rest of his group. But if she could somehow manage to get in undetected, she was confident she could free the League and mount an escape.
Mr. Connors wasn’t too keen on that idea of sending Bianca back out in the field by herself, but he didn't see too many other options. After several minutes of deliberating, Mr. Connors agreed that Bianca slipping in undetected was their best course of action. Well, it was their only course of action. Mr. Connors immediately felt sick to his stomach at the decision he had made, but this was part of the responsibility of being a leader. It meant you had to make the tough decisions. Bianca smiled at the decision. She too was extremely worried, but she was confident she could get the job done.
New Age of Heroes 1: The League of Protectors - Dawn of a New Age Page 21