“No.”
What?
“I’m joking, Epic, of course, I want to know.” Now the crowd is really going, he’s talking about locking everyone up who has superpowers and funding research that would strip people of their abilities. I need to double check my security protocols. All my research is behind three firewalls and a DMZ with both Milton and Epic running active security. The last ditch is an Arrow strike on the actual servers if they are breached. However, I can’t be too careful. I may be called paranoid, but I think if there were ever a person who was justified, it was me.
I do not think he is human.
That hits me like a cold bucket of water. He’s the former Chief Science Officer of Cat-7. He has more background checks performed on him than anyone but the president’s staff. How could they miss that? Which is what I ask Epic.
Spectre. The AI they had in the space station. He was very good. Better than me at cyber-security because that was his sole directive. He could have made sure the public persona held, especially with Category-Sevens internal access to government networks.
A thought hit me, “Scan for quantum radiation.” Sure enough, a trace amount shows up. He has a tiny ZPFM on him doing something. Well, that settles it. I will bid him good day and then—
Pedric turns from roaring crowd who are all chanting for my death at this point and smile, “Don’t you have somewhere to be?” His gleeful smile sends a shiver down my spine and makes me want to punch him in the face at the same time.
There is an emergency call coming in from Palo Verde nuclear plant. A mob of super-powered people are overwhelming security. The Presidents team has asked us to intervene.
“How did he… never mind,” I turn to Pedric and I pump up the decibels to fifty to drown out his crowd, “You may all stay as long as you like. If you require food, water, or medical attention please use the comm panel on the pillar over there,” I point toward the closest of five pillars holding up the covered drive, “and let my people know. They’ve been instructed to provide any and all care you may require. Enjoy the rest of your day.”
He’s still smiling but I can see a chink in his armor. He expected me to get mad or something. Well, I am, but I’m not going to take it out on a crowd of people who are either doing what they believe is right or are unduly influenced. Either way, I’m not going to give him the satisfaction.
Arms down at my side I kick in the Emdrive and blast off. The high pitched whine of the boots drowns out anything he might have said as I left. “Epic, plot the least time course, let’s bust some barriers. Re-route the jet and notify Kate, we might need her when we arrive. Is anyone else coming?”
As if we needed another threat to worry about. Of course, if he is alien, then really it’s the same threat.
The Southwest team is on the way. However, they are using a conventional transport cannot make it there for another one-hour and twenty minutes. We will be there in seven minutes.
“Well, it’s a nuclear plant, no wonder the President called us. A lot can happen in an hour and a half. Re-route the team, give them a briefing and get me some eyes on the ground. Also, see what you can do about having Mr. Personality arrested. If he is an alien, then he’s working for the bad guys and we need him contained.”
Affirmative. Brace for acceleration.
“I feel the need for speed!” The suit shakes as we pass through Mach One, followed by two more in ten seconds. I love this part.
I’m five minutes ahead of the jet. While it can theoretically go as fast as I can, the hull isn’t made for faster than Mach Three. If I wanted faster I’d have to make it out of the same material I use to construct the suit. And that is just too much Titanium-tungsten carbide flying around for my liking. A private jet is a heck of a lot easier to steal than my suit.
Five miles out Epic cuts the thrust and we free-fall the remaining distance, coming down from sixty thousand feet in a hurry. I use the two minutes to scan the battlefield. And it is a battlefield. Palo Verde is in the middle of nowhere surrounded by scrub brush and dessert. A seven-foot-tall concrete and chain link fence encloses the small building and the two huge cooling towers. Fifteen hundred feet of open ground exists between the fence and the main building.
It looks like security has paid in blood for every foot of lost space. Soldiers fall back from a crumbling perimeter, shooting as they go. Epic Identifies them as US Army National Guard. Weekend warriors who train to defend their homes. They were never trained for this. My AI is doing his best to run threat analysis on the twenty or so super-powered attackers. The battle is pure chaos, though. The soldiers on one side firing in controlled bursts as they fall back. Superpowered lunatics on the other going crazy.
I spot at least two flame generators pouring out heat like they’re prize guests at a Texas Barbecue. A few F3 strong people throwing rocks, ripping cars apart in the parking lot, and generally making a mess. A number more with conventional weapons firing at the soldiers. No speedsters or elementals, which is a nice change.
“Epic, relay everything to the team. We’re going in.”
You do not want to wait for backup?”
“Negative. I don’t want any more of those soldiers dying. We’re going to land west of their location and get the attention of as many bad guys as we can.”
How do you suggest we do that?
“Rock and Roll.”
I kick in the Emdrive and floor it right to the ground, slamming into the packed earth with as much force as an elephant. Using my eyes, I flick through the menu on my HUD until the right selection pops up.
“It’s an oldie but a goody. Maximum decibels. Full PA,” I wait for the system to flash ready. “Hit it.”
As the dust clears the first notes of Queen’s We Will Rock You kick out of our sound system. Followed by a half dozen puffs from the grenade launcher as Epic goes active.
I have their attention now.
Firebolts scream my way. Epic pings their temp at over a thousand degrees. I return fire with IP Cannons on full power as I run forward. I could fly, but I want them shooting at me with the stray beams and bullets hitting the empty landscape instead of the hunkered down soldiers. The pop pop pop of gunfire echoes in my helmet and I can see bullets falling out of the air as they impact with my kinetic shields.
A man walks out of the dust in front of me, fire licking at his fingers. He wears a pair of dessert goggles to protect his eyes. The grim set in his jaw tells me he is no joke. I leap to the right a second ahead of a tornado of fire. The sandpaper roar of my IP cannons fills the air as I blast away at him. Most of the metas we face are susceptible to the IP cannons.
A large tire swirls through the dust and slams into my kinetic shields at three hundred miles an hour. My alarms scream as the shields deflect the tire. The mass and speed of the projectile sends me sliding backward in the sand. They give up entirely when the utility truck crashes down, flattening me into the sand and dirt.
“Ow.”
I cough and try and move. The utility truck is noticeably larger than Luke’s. Which makes me think—
“We should buy Luke a new truck, what do you say?”
Shift your left arm three feet to the right.
I follow his instructions and trigger the particle beams. White-hot, hyper-accelerated silicate slices through the metal and plastic, creating a wedge in which my kinetic shields can rip the truck in half.
“Anyone who surrenders now, won’t be hurt,” I say over the music. “Epic, cut the tunes, we have their attention now.”
Kate is on scene. She is behind them dealing with the F2’s carrying guns. The Emjet is landing now. I think buying Luke a new vehicle would be a nice gesture after you apologize to him.
“Nice mess you have here, Arsenal,” Fleet says over the comms.
“Good to hear you, Tommy. There are wounded soldiers on the field. Get them to The Doctor.”
A line of dust swirls through the air as Tommy zips through the fire running at hundreds of miles
an hour and turning on a dime. He only has to stop for a couple of heartbeats before his powers envelop a person before he can run with them. Otherwise, the friction from running three-hundred miles an hour would be like the worst full body rug burn ever. Bodies of the fallen vanish one by one.
“Tessa, stay with Teddy and keep him safe. Glacier, do your thing and contain as many of these fools as you can.”
A chorus of rogers follow. “Right. Teddy Bear duty, yay.” Tessa’s sarcastic reply comes over the comms.
“You know I’ve heard that joke before,” The Doctor says.
“Doesn’t mean it isn’t funny.”
“Focus people,” I break in.
Epic pings the fire thrower through the dust, he’s lobbing more fire bolts at the soldiers. I guess he decided I was down. His mistake.
I start toward him when Kate pops in front of me, hands waving in the other direction. “Amelia, there’s a strong man with low-level invulnerability. He’s the one tossing cars around. You need to deal with him, I’ll take Hothead.”
I didn’t realize that was his name, but now that she says it Epic has a little ID badge on the HUD showing me his info. I really want to smack Hothead around but she’s right. Reluctantly I kick in the jets for altitude and speed the five hundred feet to the parking lot. Epic opens a small window on the bottom of my HUD showing me Kate’s vitals. It eases the anxiety I feel every time she has to go into battle.
I upgraded her suit – well I upgraded everyone’s suit. Nanofibers protect them from temperature changes, micro Kevlar weave gives them durability and protection from damage and finally my special blend of Titanium and tungsten carbide for trauma plates protecting their vitals. They all have AR glasses or goggles that are tied directly into Epic. Micro cameras let him see and hear what they do. I also gave Kate a pair of IP pistols. They’re each powered by a micro ZPFM. The only limit to how much they can shoot is the heat build up in their chassis.
Epic identifies the man in front of me as Cannonball. He’s not terribly tall, in fact as I land, I realize he is shorter than I am and incredibly squat.
“If you know what’s good for you, you’ll run,” he says with a gravely voice.
“Dude, if I had anything to fear from you, neither of us would be here.” I sound far more confident than I am. Then I realize I am confident. I’ve been doing this for months now and I keep hearing these threats, but that is all they are, just threats.
“Have it your way,” he says, running toward me. I fire a barrage of IP cannons at him and they slide off his skin. I expected them to, but I had to try. He leaps through the air, curling himself up into a ball—
The ringing in my ears followed by the impact of the ground startles me. I’m staring up at the blue sky. “What happened?”
His name is not because he throws cannonballs. He can throw himself like a cannonball. Do not get cocky.
“Yeah, yeah.” I roll over, scanning for him. He’s fifty feet away coming out of his own roll. The shields protected me from the impact, but they had nowhere to channel the force, hence why I ended up on the ground.
He starts running at me again. The grenade launcher cycles switching to pods. I wait for him to leap… and fire. The boom echoes in my ears. It isn’t just that he throws himself at me. He creates some kind of micro-velocity envelope like he’s being shot out of a cannon. Epic throws the math on the screen and it looks like he breaks the sound barrier when he shoots himself. Amazing.
This time I was ready with angled kinetic shields. Instead of rolling me over, he bounces off the wedge, flying at a forty-five-degree angle. I can hear him screaming expletives once he realizes he isn’t coming down.
“Notify ATC and ping his location. I don’t want him bringing down a plane.” The AG pod caught him just as he bounced up, sticking to his lower back. If he even knows it’s there, he’ll never be able to contort enough to reach it.
Done.
I hear Kate over the tacnet directing the team. She has Tessa off of Teddy—The Doctor— and in the field using her TK abilities to great effect. Glacier overpowers the flame generators. Her blue beams of ice freezing them in place. Fleet can’t hit or touch anyone while he’s at speed. He has invulnerability to friction and g-forces but not if he hits someone. He can run into a wall at a hundred miles an hour and it’s a love tap. But if he punches someone at a hundred miles an hour it will break every bone in his body. While he heals fast, I imagine the pain is all the same. He does his best to help, evacuating wounded, zip-tying downed opponents, which is incredibly useful, and generally filling in where he’s needed. Tommy loves his job and I’m glad to have him on the team.
“Arsenal, I need you at the jet please,” The Doctor says, a waver in his voice. “Now, if you don’t mind.” Teddy is always so polite. I fire up the Emdrive, climbing to a hundred feet. Kate has the mop-up, this is over. I’m halfway to the jet when I spot the reason for my return.
“Epic, land us, full power all weapons.”
Affirmative. Suit is one hundred percent, all weapons and systems are green.
This is a lot better than when I had to pick and choose which components to power, or having them idle at half power. I hit the ground, IP Cannons pointing right at the man known as Jack Danger.
“Arsenal, I’d say it’s a pleasure to see you again…”
“Cut the crap and let my man go.”
He’s standing behind Teddy, one arm wrapped around his throat in a chokehold. He’s being careful, not exposing himself any more than he has to.
“Your man? You mean you’re not dating Major Force,” he says with a smirk. Why is it when a woman speaks everything is assumed to be romantic?
“Danger, I’m only going to tell you this once. Let him go and get face down on the ground. Don’t think for a second I won’t put you down.”
I raise the cannons a little higher. I can go for a quick shot with the particle beam if he forces me. I hate to kill him. But if it is him or The Doctor, there’s no decision here.
“I want on your plane. Open the door, turn off security and give me your word you won’t stop me, and I’ll let him live. Refuse any of those and I snap his neck like a twig and take my chances. It isn’t as if I’m not already looking at life in prison.”
He makes a good point. I’ve got nothing to bargain with. He won’t surrender… but he’s a merc? What is he even doing here?
Amelia. His heart rate suggests he is dead serious.
I nod. “Yeah, I gathered that.” Then to Danger, “Listen, Jack. You’re a merc, right? In it for the paycheck? Why are you attacking a nuclear plant, you had to know there would be resistance before you could destroy it.”
He smirks, jerking the Doctor around a little bit to prove his point. “That’s my business. Now deal or he dies.”
Teddy looks at me and I can see an odd piece in his brown eyes. Like he’s at peace with whatever I decide. “Let him go, Arsenal, it isn’t worth a life to stop him. Mine or his.”
“How zen of you Doc.” Danger smirks thinking he’s won.
The problem is if I let him go, and he goes and kills someone else, then I’m responsible. And he will kill. He’s a merc, an assassin, a gun for hire. He’ll do whatever the paycheck says to do… which gives me an idea.
“Okay, Jack, you win. I’ll let you go, but I want to hire you.”
I don’t know who’s more stunned, the Doctor or Danger.
“Bullcrap.” He tells me.
“Nope. What’s your rate? Five mil? Six?” I’m smiling ear to ear. I love doing the unexpected.
“Eight,” he says. His heart rate blips and Epic flashes, Liar, on my screen. That’s okay. Eight mill isn’t what it used to be.
“Done. Let the Doctor go, sit over there out of the way and you get your eight mil. But I want answers. Do that for me and I promise you your money.”
“I don’t believe you,” he says with narrow eyes. He glances around as if a trap is about to be sprung.
“You w
ere willing to trust me to let you go with just my word… trust me on this. No tricks. You get paid, I get answers. After that, maybe we can come to another arrangement. But this is the best deal you’re going to get. And you don’t have much longer to decide.” I’ve put him off his ease and he’s sloppy because of it. Epic brackets his head with the kinetic lance… I really hope he takes the deal otherwise I won’t be getting any info.
“Epic, fire at your discretion.”
Affirmative.
Danger is a lot like Luke with his lightning-fast reflexes. However, where Luke has a preternatural danger sense, Danger doesn’t. Hitting him when he’s actively dodging his darn near impossible. But, if Epic is doing the shooting. His muscles twitch in his forearm and his eyes narrow to little slits.
“The plane or—”
The kinetic lance doesn’t make any noise. Dangers head simply snaps back flipping him and the Doctor over backward. I’m on him in a second pulling Teddy off of him and hitting Danger at point-blank range with the IP cannons. He’s twitching like a Muppet on crack.
“Fleet, full body tape, now!”
Danger is already recovering, struggling to overcome the IP cannons. In a whir of speed and three rolls of duct tape from the plane, the only piece of Danger I can see is his nose. Fleet finishes with a flourish, whips out a sharpy, and draws an angry face on the tape.
“Nice, Tommy.”
“I aim to please.”
“Kate, how’s the situation out there?”
“Amelia, you better come. Better hurry,” her voice is deadly serious and I’m in the air when my radiation alarm triggers.
How do I know she’s alive? Well, I could tell you I have faith in her. I believe that if there were ever a person who could survive the impossible, it’s Amelia. But the truth is a little more factual. I can feel her. In my heart, I know she’s out there. She just isn’t a place I can get to… yet.
—Excerpt from Studio 50’s interview with Kate Petrenelli AKA Domino. Founding member of The Protectors.
Full Metal Superhero (Book 3): Inescapable Arsenal Page 8