Sensors are still unable to penetrate the hull.
“Epic, we don’t have the time right now, but there has to be something else we’re missing. This thing came from somewhere. Make sure to check on the sublevels beneath the docks. There has to be an engineering bay or something. He built it somewhere, somehow. Someone did, and I don’t think it was Rafael.”
Amelia, he has recharged his heat beams and he is aiming for the downtown core. They have not evacuated all of it.
“Oh no. Epic, full throttle!”
Power diverted.
The air shakes around us as we pass through the sound barrier. I can see the red lines forming on his back, the massive head swinging around to vaporize the core of the city. Epic shows me the numbers at tens of thousands of projected casualties. He’s willing to be the greatest single mass-murderer in history if it means the end of the superheroes.
What is your plan?
“I was hoping you would have one,” I tell him as I flip the suit over to dodge Robo-Rex’s tail. I swoop under his arm and throw everything I have into reverse. The suit roars to a halt in front of his open mouth… I have a really good view of the several elements heating up in his throat, and even this far away the heat alarms scream at me.
“Shut those damn alarms off…”
Shut! Shut his mouth. I kill the thrust, dropping suddenly then I go full afterburners blasting right up into the bottom of his jaw, arms out, pushing. I’m close enough now that instead of bouncing off from the momentum, I lift.
Actuators scream and even through the Emdrive’s whine I can hear metal sheer and bolts pop. Something inside gives and the jaw snaps shut, shooting me forward like a rubber band. Heat blooms in his mouth for a second before Rafael shuts down the weapon. Smoke, like dragon’s breath pours out of the gaps in his mouth.
“Okay, how long do you think we have before the self-repair fixes that?”
Not long. On the good side, Kate and Tia are now together at the pre-arranged location.
“Time to end this.” The suit protests as I pull a hard turn, grunting from the g’s and the exertion. My whole body, well that I can feel, is just ready to be done. I’m gonna sleep for a week when this is over… or forever depending on how the next two minutes go.
It only takes a minute to find the two women. They’re waiting for me only a few blocks from where we were first attacked, what seems like a lifetime ago. I hit the roof hard, sending up a spray of gravel and dust.
“Faceplate up.” The plate slides up revealing my face to Tia. She smiles and nods.
“This is a good look for you, Amelia.”
“Thanks,” I take a knee as I speak. “Listen, how tired are you?” I ask Tia.
“Exhausted,” she says, running a hand through her dirty hair. “I need about a month of sleep and a million calories.”
I nod. “Me too. I have a plan, but I need you to mass up as much as you can. And… it might be dangerous.”
Kate laughs. “Might be dangerous? Amelia, what do you think we’ve been doing all night?”
“I know, but I had to say it.”
“I’m in. What do you want me to do?” Tia asks.
“Clench up and when I say, put on the weight.” The faceplate closes back over my face and I walk around to stand behind Tia.
“Amelia,” Kate says, reaching for both of us in an awkward hug that doesn’t quite go around my armor. “Be safe.”
I want to say something back to her, but my throat decides to clench up. Instead, I give her a nod. The Emdrive whines as we blast off toward the sky. I can’t go too fast, because of Tia, so I hit one-fifty and put the cruise control on.
“Are you okay?” I ask her in a yell. I’ve got her around her chest and waist in an iron grip to protect her. There’s no chance of her falling but going this fast without a suit or invulnerability can be disturbing.
“Si,” she yells with a nod of her head.
We hit five thousand feet and I loop us over.
Amelia, you remember when I said that your previous plan was unnecessarily dangerous?
“Yeah,” I tell him. “Tia, mass up. As much as you can!”
I stand corrected. This is the most dangerous thing you have ever done.
“More dangerous than unleashing a black hole?”
Second most dangerous thing you have done.
“See? We’ll be fine.”
I hit the drive, dumping every ounce of power into the Emdrive, shooting us toward Robo-Rex. The air ripples around us as Tia increases her mass and weight. The sensors in the suit don’t know how to deal with the sudden change of mass.
“You might want to curl up,” I tell her. She adjusts, bringing her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them, bowing her head and forming as much of a wrecking ball as she can. I try to reposition her in front of me, but I can’t move her. All I can do is slow down for a second, get behind her and push.
Amelia, she is now more massive than a train, are you sure this will work?
“Not like I can stop this train now. Fire the tank missiles!” I close my eyes trusting Epic to guide us in. Please, oh please let this work. The Gatling vibrates, thumping against my back as it shoots three tank missiles down toward him. On the fourth one, the mechanism rips off and falls behind us in a screech of tearing metal.
I hear the roar of Robo-Rex over the whine. Heat alarms wail at me as he unleashes a blast in our direction. I know she’s near impervious to physical harm when she’s like this, but heat is different. She screams as her clothes burn off. Her flesh begins to cook.
Then we hit.
I put more power into the kinetic shields than I’ve ever done. Tasking nearly the entire ZPFM to create a wedge to protect both her and me.
The impact is tremendous. Metal and armor explode like glass. The sheer weight of her as we hit transfers enough energy into the robot’s superstructure that every joint explodes one second after we hit. Three seconds later we crash through the underside into the ground… and keep going.
I groan as the journey finally stops. Warning alarms flash and scream in my ear. The suit is toast, nearly half the systems are off-line. It’s all I can do to throw myself over her as proximity alarms warn of imminent danger.
Then Robo-Rex explodes. The force of the blast compresses the air slamming into me like an anvil. I scream as something inside me breaks. Then a hand covers my visor and for a second everything goes white…
I swear they should name a room in the hospital after me. Lying there, with my eyes closed, I take a moment to enjoy the floaty feeling of painkillers as I dredge my way up to full consciousness. The tap of keys tells me I’m not alone in the room. If I had to guess…
“Kate?” I manage to croak out. I try to turn my head but the angry tendons in my neck refuse to work and punish me with pain.
“Don’t try to move, hon. You’re hurt pretty bad,” she says. A cool hand rests against my forehead and warm fuzzy feelings flow into me from her. Her whammy washes over me and most of the pain fades. Things don’t work like I can’t lift my arms or turn my head, but at least the angry throbbing is gone.
“Thanks,” I say to her and try to smile. At least it works a little. “Is Tia okay?” I close my eyes trying to block out the last thing I saw of her, smoking and burned as she huddled under my armor.
“She’s fine. As soon as the Thunder Lizard went down, I could teleport again. I got you and her out of there before the real fireworks started. It only took me a minute to grab Teddy from Seattle and he’s been with you ever since.”
My heart thumps, ever since? Oh no—
“Calm down, Amelia. It’s only been a week. You’re fine.”
I nod, maybe. I think I do, anyway. “What happened?”
“After you destroyed Robo-Rex the rest of his organization gave up. The local authorities are in the process of rounding them all up,” she tells me.
I nod. The hollow pit in my stomach shouldn’t be there. After all, we won, right?
Kate leans down and gives me a kiss on my forehead.
“You’ll feel better after some more sleep,” Kate tells me. I start to protest but she touches my face and I’m out.
All the tests I can run tell me the same thing. This is my armor. I have a chunk of the Robo-Rex from the fight down in Buenos Aires, courtesy of Tia, and it’s certainly mine. Right down to the crystalline matrix and the way the titanium and tungsten bond.
Except… that’s not possible. I don’t mean the friendly sort of I don’t understand how that is possible. But the straight-up impossible as it can’t happen… but here it is. It’s like someone stuck one piece of my armor into a machine that copied it a hundred times on the molecular level.
Luke is asking for permission to come in. Shall I grant his request?
“Of course. Take the permission protocol off, for now, I’ve made my point— I hope.” I roll over to the other workstation where the red gem from Rafael’s cane rests. This was slightly harder to procure. I’m treating it like a containment, so no touching with bare hands.
Then the smell of fennel sausage and the most wonderful mozzarella to grace our Earth hits my nose. My mouth immediately seizes control of my brain and I spin around in place.
“You brought me Bianco’s?” I ask the super-marine.
“Of course I did, after all. I love—” He stops mid-sentence his eyes going wide. “What is that?” He puts the pizza down, forgotten as he walks toward the gem in a stupor.
“Uh, Luke, hello?” I wave my hand in front of him, but he just brushes by me stopping only when his hips hit the cabinet. He’s freaking me out and my brain is sending all kinds of alarms at me. “Luke?”
He doesn’t answer as he stares, mouth open, eyes wide at the gem.
“I need to touch it,” he whispers.
Okay, that is a VERY bad idea. “Epic, lockdown!”
Red lights flash and alarms sound as every workstation recedes into the wall. All of them, except the one Luke is holding on to.
“Luke? Luke? Get a hold of yourself.” My hearts pounding as I wheel over and grab his arm, for all the good it will do me.
He looks down at my hands, eyes filled with cold contempt as he swats me aside. I forget how frigging strong he is. The blow sends me flying out of my chair, sliding across the cold floor on my sore shoulder.
“Kate!” I scream. It’s too late. He tears the containment lid off the gem, reaching in to grasp it with his bare hand. Kate appears next to me, claws out ready to strike.
“Amelia, Luke? What’s going on?”
Luke pulls the gem out, holding it in his hand like it’s the Ark of the Covenant.
Then he’s gone… vanished in a flash of red light.
“Luke!” I scream into the empty room. “Luke?”
UNTIL NEXT TIME…
Dear reader, I think I have a problem. You see, I can’t seem to stop a book without starting another one. The only thing I can think to do is write faster.
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Unbreakable Arsenal Page 16