“No!” screamed Camille as she raced for the crashing helicopter. The team was all braced inside, ready to get out, but they were still over the water.
“Everyone hold tight!” said Camille who reached in the door to grab the helicopter and then with all her strength started flying. She could hold up a falling helicopter and soft land it, or at least she could ten years ago, but it was a hell of a struggle now, especially in the driving rain.
“Helicopter crew, bail out!” yelled Dr. Sterling over the team channel. “Await Coast Guard rescue. White Knight, engage jet pack and get yourself and Keystone out of there!” The two pilots hardly even hesitated before unclicking from their seats and pulling the cords to fill their life jackets. Camille brought the helicopter low over the water and they jumped out. She then hefted the helicopter up and increased her flying speed towards the platform. White Knight flew out of the helicopter, carrying Keystone, who was waving idiotically at Pearcy, leaning out of the helicopter to film the dramatic departure. With the two of them gone, the helicopter was at least somewhat more manageable, but if the enemy had more missiles they were all sitting ducks. Fortunately, it seemed that they were either out of missiles or saving them for a later threat. Camille’s arms felt like they were about to give way.
“Almost there…everyone out!” she yelled. The team scrambled out, hitting the edge of the platform as bullets flew all over the area at them. Camille struggled to gain altitude and then threw the helicopter towards the platform. It quickly dropped as it left her grip and smashed into Avalon One and exploded.
“I do truly, deeply love collateral damage,” said Camille with a smile, diving down to help cover her teammates as they engaged the numerous hostiles on the platform.
Chapter 25
9:41 p.m., Tuesday, May 28th, 2013
Avalon One
Pacific Ocean
“Gregory, activate the QHRA,” said Dr. Brandeis, unable to keep the panic from his voice. West Pacific Supers were approaching and Erica had just used all their missiles. Dr. Brandeis wished that Ian had listened to Erica months ago when she advised spending a few million to arm the platform with heavier munitions. In many ways, Ian was cheap and that was probably the mistake that would cost them success. Ian lived lavishly and spent a fortune on many aspects of the Plan, but little stuff like a new copier, overtime, and fixed weapon emplacements threw him for a loop.
“Dr. B, I am initiating the activation sequence,” said Gregory over the radio. Gregory was on the airship directly managing the QHRA. It was probably the most dangerous location…well, except for the deck of the platform, which was quickly turning into a battlefield.
“Detonate the charges!” commanded Dr. Brandeis to a young man next to him who flipped the three switches that would detonate the explosives on the seabed. The switches were flipped and they waited…then it was confirmed by their underwater sensors that the explosives had gone off.
“Gregory, what is the status of the QHRA?” asked Dr. Brandeis. He was feeling a level of excitement that he had never felt before. He was on the cusp of geological history. He was about to remake the Earth. He was playing God. He was… his reverie was broken by the sound of gunfire outside the bridge.
“Damn it, Gregory, the supers are here, I’ll stall, you execute the Avalon Order,” said Dr. Brandeis into the radio. He grabbed a bucket filled with salt water and started dumping it on all the circuit panels that they had previously opened around the control room. “Come on, everyone dump the water, dump the water!” Sparks were flying and systems were going down. There would be no turning back at this point.
Then the door exploded and there was a ringing noise throughout the bridge. Camille burst into the room, looking around like she was ready to blast anyone who moved. Dr. Brandeis ran up. “Camille, thank God you’re here! They’ve activated the QHRA!”
“Do I know you?” asked Camille.
“No, we haven’t met, but I was with Patrick on a cruise recently,” said Dr. Brandeis. “I’m Dr. Noah Brandeis – maybe he mentioned me? Candy and I had dinner with him and Emily.”
Camille looked at him blankly for a minute. “Oh, the cruise with the mice, right? Cosmic Kid was telling me about that…There was a photo of the four of you on the front page of the paper.”
“Right!” said Dr. Brandeis, happy that she was catching on. “They threatened my wife if I didn’t help them.”
“The woman in the picture - Candy?”
“No, Pam, Candy’s just my girlfriend,” said Dr. Brandeis, feeling desperate again. His plan to weasel out of everything had been so clever in his mind, but now that he was in the midst of it he sounded like an idiot. If only Patrick were here instead of Camille; she didn’t look like the type to give him the benefit of the doubt.
“You’re married, but were on the cruise with your girlfriend?” asked Camille menacingly. “Wait - Dr. Noah Brandeis…you must be Dr. B.!”
“Yes, yes, but remember – they threatened my wife!” Dr. Brandeis repeated. It wasn’t helping his concentration that his three assistants in the room looked like they were just waiting to confess and probably paint him as the mastermind.
“Listen, Dr. Brandeis, you’re in trouble but if you help us then you might avoid spending your next three lives in prison,” said Camille. There was a sudden massive flash of light in the distance and they all turned to see, hanging in the sky, a brilliant ray of white light descending into the ocean.
“It’s too late!” cried Dr. Brandeis. “I am Dr. Noah Brandeis and I have made geologic history! Soon a new landmass will arise from the ocean and the shape of the world will never be the same!” It was a little melodramatic, but the situation seemed to call for it.
“You are totally insane,” said Camille. “So how do we turn this thing off? And what do you mean by a new landmass? I hope this is something a little more ambitious than a beach renourishment project?”
“It can’t be stopped and we’re probably only looking at a small island, but it’s an impressive leap for science,” said Dr. Brandeis.
“I guess I have to fly out there and turn it off, but I’ll need to take an expert to help me shut it down,” said Camille, moving towards Dr. Brandeis.
“What? No, no, I don’t like heights,” said Dr. Brandeis who didn’t like this idea one bit. The QHRA was dangerous in so many ways; the last thing he wanted was to be near it when it was running. It would either kill him or render him impotent.
“Then come up with an alternative now!” snapped Camille.
“I can call Gregory on the satellite phone,” lied Dr. Brandeis. “We didn’t sabotage it.” He headed over to the inoperable satellite phone hoping to stall for a few more minutes.
“Ah, Dr. B.,” said one of his assistants. “The laser is turning purple.”
Dr. Brandeis turned and looked out the window. It was unmistakable - the QHRA was about to suffer a cascade inversion. The absolute worst-case scenario. “Ah, that’s…that’s not good, not good at all.”
Chapter 26
9:55 p.m., Tuesday, May 28th, 2013
Avalon One
Pacific Ocean
Cosmic Kid shook his head as Keystone walked across the platform towards a group of goons with guns and then proceeded to level them dramatically, even occasionally turning back to smile in the direction of Pearcy, who had gone pale from all the gunfire and fighting.
“You’re exposing yourself too much!” yelled Cosmic Kid, who fired a few darts from his Taser rifle to bring down two goons shooting at Keystone.
“I can expose myself completely if you want, naked fighting is the best,” said Keystone with a laugh as more bullets bounced off him and he picked up a goon and sent him flying off the edge of the platform.
“No one needs to see your privates,” said Cosmic Kid disgusted, sprinting forward and using a roundhouse kick to take out a couple more goons who were hiding behind a generator.
“Sorry, Kid, you may have privates but my boys are colonels,” s
aid Keystone, picking up a smoldering piece of the crashed helicopter and tossing it at the arriving goons. “Pearcy, keep the camera on me!”
Cosmic Kid saw a pillar of light form in the distance and his first thought was that Keystone had booked a spotlight from orbit to illuminate his heroics so Pearcy could get a clearer shot. Then he realized it was probably the QHRA, but he couldn’t decide which scenario was actually worse. When the pillar of light turned purple he had a growing suspicion that it might actually be a lot worse than an orbital spotlight.
His attention was distracted by a big guy, wearing a flak vest, running towards Keystone. That took guts, but it took being a mutant to actually knock Keystone off the ground and back into a metal staircase that went up a communications tower. Cosmic Kid threw two chakras at the big guy, both of which hit, but neither of which caused him to pause.
Keystone yelled out, “Pearcy, you better be getting this!” He then ran for the big guy who dropped into a defensive stance in preparation for Keystone’s arrival. Right before Keystone hit the guy and would likely be tossed again, Keystone dropped and did a slide tackle into the guy. Cosmic Kid had to admit he was the most nimble pile of bricks he had ever seen. The big guy was hit hard and crashed to the ground, swearing in what sounded like Russian. Then Keystone was up, grabbed the guy’s leg, spun around and tossed him into the communication tower. The big Russian crashed to the ground and didn’t move, either unconscious, dead, or just ready to give up the fight.
“Operations, I’m worthless here,” said Cosmic Kid. “Keystone and Pearcy have this area sewn up, can I move to assist someone else?” Cosmic Kid silently prayed he could be switched to another front, anyone would be a preferable partner to Keystone, the One-Brick Show.
“Yes, Starfish has separated from White Knight to secure engineering, move to the southeast and down to the lower level to give him support,” said Dr. Sterling.
“Thank you, Annie,” muttered Cosmic Kid as he moved quickly towards the southeast. The focus of the fight had become Keystone on the top deck and probably Starfish on the lower deck. Everyone was targeting the two most powerful of the team, who were demolishing any and all that faced them. There was really no coordination by the enemy and as the fight went on many of them were simply dropping their weapons, putting their hands on their head, and lying down. There were a few mutants, but none were that powerful. The whole group was simply outclassed by the heavy hitters of West Pacific Supers.
He got to the staircase and headed down to see White Knight firing his lasers at a group of goons who had taken cover behind some heavy machinery. Cosmic Kid had the perfect angle to hit them from the stairs and took a few shots with his Taser rifle. He hit two of them and drove the rest from cover and either into White Knight’s lasers or to retreat. He reslung the Taser rifle over his shoulder and continued down the steps.
“Any idea what the purple light means?” Cosmic Kid asked White Knight.
“Dr. Sterling told me it might mean the QHRA is about to go pop.”
“Is pop a technical term?”
“Yes, it means—” started White Knight when bullets started hitting the area, including into Cosmic Kid’s chest, arm, and leg. He dropped to the ground with massive pain. White Knight jumped in front of him to block the bullets and returned laser and missile fire at a gray-haired woman in a black jumpsuit who was running towards them jumping over obstacles and evading White Knight’s attacks.
“Operations - we’ve made contact…with Erica Wilkie,” said Cosmic Kid in between gasps for breath. He glanced down and saw that his armored vest had caught one bullet and his ultimesh kept his leg mostly unscathed, but he had a wound in his right arm. It would heal in a few minutes, but right now the pain was tremendous. She was apparently using high-caliber rounds.
White Knight ran for Erica Wilkie, intoning “Erica Wilkie you are under arrest!” Erica just smiled and kept firing at White Knight, mainly at his helmet, which Cosmic Kid thought must be damn distracting. He dashed to what cover he could find next to a lifeboat and then started shooting with his Taser rifle at Erica. White Knight disengaged to an angle that gave both him and Cosmic Kid clear shots and a crossfire opportunity, a maneuver they had practiced under Dr. Sterling’s watchful eye many times. Erica retreated from the barrage into an open door that led to the interior of the platform.
Cosmic Kid quickly maneuvered over to White Knight. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, but I do have some micro fissures in the armor. The suit can repair itself, but I’ve been taking more fire tonight than I’d like.”
“Operations,” said Cosmic Kid. “I don’t think we should go after Erica, White Knight has taken some damage and my Cicada sense is guessing that Ms. Wilkie is trying to draw us further into the platform.”
“Very well, you two head up to the top deck and I’ll send Keystone and Starfish after Erica,” said Dr. Sterling.
White Knight nodded and headed for the stairs, bounding quickly up towards the top deck. Cosmic Kid followed, but kept his eyes on the door that Erica had entered in case she decided to circle back once she figured out they weren’t giving pursuit. He suspected Erica had an ambush prepared for them when they entered the interior, but now she’d need a new plan.
Chapter 27
9:59 p.m., Tuesday, May 28th, 2013
Avalon One
Pacific Ocean
“Why is the light turning black?” asked Camille as she peered out the window at the QHRA’s resonance beam. Before Dr. Brandeis could say anything there was an explosion in the sky, likely the airship holding the QHRA, and the black light beam disappeared.
“Well, I guess that’s the end of this crisis,” said Camille, feeling relieved.
“I don’t think so,” said Dr. Brandeis pointing out to sea, where a massive surge was rising from the ocean. As it closed, it appeared to rise like a mountain around the platform. Camille flipped the team channel on her headset. “Everyone - we have an incoming tsunami! Secure yourselves!”
The tsunami closed faster than she had expected, hitting the platform and the lower levels with a massive splash that even flooded the top level. Staircases, communication towers, and other loosely attached parts of the platform were ripped from their housings. The entire platform listed to a perilous angle and then the tsunami continued on in the direction of the coast.
Camille, who had actually fallen to the ground when the tsunami rocked the platform, yelled on the team channel. “Everyone report!”
“Rocking and rolling, literally,” laughed Keystone. “Don’t worry, I caught Pearcy and his camcorder before they went off the edge.”
“We have water in engineering,” said Starfish. “You may notice a lack of power.” Now that he mentioned it, the platform had in fact gone dark when the tsunami hit.
“Cosmic Kid, White Knight?” asked Camille. There was no response. Camille went to the door that led to the outside from the bridge, flung it open, and took to flight to survey the area. It was nighttime, raining, and complete darkness… perhaps the worst conditions for search and rescue.
Camille tapped her headset for the close circuit channel to Ops. “Annie – I need to know where White Knight and Cosmic Kid are.” All of the team had tracking devices in their HoloBerrys, or in the case of White Knight, his power armor transmitted a tracking signal. For security purposes, only Ops and the team leader could access the information. As soon as she thought of this, Camille frowned in annoyance; she was the team leader now.
“Check your HoloBerry,” Dr. Sterling replied and Camille quickly examined the coordinates displayed there. White Knight and Cosmic Kid weren’t far away, in fact, they were still on the platform not far from the bridge. She turned back to look at Dr. Brandeis. “Don’t even think of running, Dr. B. Stay here!” She flew up in a rush of wind and water, following the make-shift map that Dr. Sterling was creating on her HoloBerry. There was a mess of metal beams wrapping around the bridge that was the stairs, communication tower, and other obje
cts that had been ripped off by the tsunami. She peered into the area and saw Cosmic Kid kneeling beside some of the beams trying to move them.
Camille flew closer and saw that White Knight was caught among the mass of beams. White Knight called out with panic in his voice, “I’m pinned! I can’t breathe! Get me out of here!” Camille landed next to Cosmic Kid and began lifting and heaving beams away from the area. Starfish had also arrived and came over to help as well. Cosmic Kid suddenly stiffened and yelled, “Cover!” Camille looked up in surprise and saw Erica Wilkie coming out of a hatch carrying an assault rifle.
Cosmic Kid threw a chakra in the direction of Erica, but the distance was too great for accuracy and he missed. He dived for cover just as Erica began firing wildly at the team. She hit Starfish and just missed Camille who had taken to flight and was dodging in midair.
Then Keystone came into sight and ran straight for Erica, who quickly switched targets. Bullets smashed into Keystone, but did little harm as he closed the distance. Pearcy was running behind him capturing the whole thing on video. Erica sprang out from the hatch, threw the empty assault rifle to the ground, drew her pistols, and started shooting again at Keystone. He came up to her, swinging slowly with his left fist. Erica easily dodged the blow, but then he moved incredibly fast with his right fist, catching Erica in the chest. The sound of her ribs breaking and possibly her lung being crushed echoed in the darkness. She staggered back as Keystone connected with a full-speed left punch to the head; they could all hear the sound of her neck snapping. Erica Wilkie’s eyes rolled back in her head and she just dropped to the ground.
“Pearcy, keep filming! Let’s go rescue some bad guys from drowning down below!” said Keystone who dropped down the hatch into the lower level with Pearcy doing his best to follow him.
“Get me out of here!” yelled White Knight. The rest of the team turned their attention back to their teammate, who was struggling as the claustrophobia of his situation was clearly overwhelming him.
West Pacific Supers: Rising Tide Page 29