by Logan Jacobs
“I’m just going to replace a few of these older webs first, just in case,” I said as I shot off a few more strands at the bus.
The bus shook, and the civilians onboard screamed again. It tipped a little further over the edge, but it was still held in place by Bogdan’s vines as well as by my webs, so now the real test was if we could safely remove the vines. I figured that even if Elizabeth couldn’t yank the bus back up in one pull, I could still try to add more webs to the bus as fast as possible.
Besides, if the webs kept unraveling, we were about to have no choice in the matter.
“Norma, cut the vines!” I commanded as I fired more strands of web at the bus.
“Understood!” Norma chirped.
My omni-average assistant turned to slide underneath the swamp creature’s curtain of vines and tendrils, and as soon as she was on the other side, she jumped up and slashed her blade through the base of several vines that were looped around the bus. They spurt dark sap all over the bridge, and the swamp monster staggered backward with a strangled gurgle as it finally realized what we were doing.
One of the remaining vines caught Norma around the middle and slammed her into the ground. She was only on her back for a second, and then she staggered to her feet again with her two swords held out in front of her.
“Are you okay?” I demanded.
“I’m fine,” she said immediately. “I can keep fighting.”
“Good, we’ll need you to,” I said.
I knew she was tired, but we really couldn’t afford to lose her as a distraction right now. Norma yelled and leapt back into the fray, and I was quite proud to see her persistence. Her fight with the swamp monster was proving to be a good distraction since he hadn’t seemed to spare more than a glance at us, and that was exactly what I had wanted.
Especially since Elizabeth was starting to lose her hold on the bus.
Without Bogdan’s vines to keep it in place, the bus had started to wobble where it hung off of the side of the bridge. I fired new webbing every time a strand snapped or unraveled, but it was a slow process, and I didn’t know how much more webbing solution I had in my tank.
“I think I’ve got it,” Elizabeth suddenly growled as she pulled against the webbing and began to shift her weight.
The bus shifted, too. It began to tip back toward the bridge as Elizabeth pulled, so I slung out more webs to connect to the sides. I grabbed a good portion of the web myself to help her, and even though I didn’t have nearly as much strength as Elizabeth did, the bus finally started to tip all the way back onto the bridge.
It only moved inch by inch, but as the weight started to shift, I knew that we were almost there. We kept pulling back on the bus inch by inch, and I gritted my teeth together as I redoubled my efforts.
“Just a little bit more,” Elizabeth grunted, but her turquoise eyes sparkled with excitement.
“We’ve got it,” I said with a smile.
Just then, I received an alert from Aileen on one of the interior screens of my mask. A small image popped up in the corner to show me a muscular black vehicle as it sped down the roads of Grayville.
The Shadow Knight’s armored car.
“Miles, Shadow Knight is on the move,” Aileen alerted me. “His likely destination is the bridge you are currently on.”
“That’s not too surprising,” I replied as I continued to fire more webbing at the bus to keep it stabilized while we pulled it slowly back. “This was broadcasted everywhere.”
“It’s still broadcasting,” Aileen replied. “Also, Shadow Knight did not begin to move until the news reported your presence on the scene.”
“Asshole,” I hissed.
“What could he be doing?” Elizabeth groaned as she pulled harder against the bus.
A web snapped, and the bus tipped back toward the water again. I fired a web to replace it and tried to keep my focus on rescuing the people on the bus, but I was irritated by Aileen’s news about Slade.
I definitely couldn’t risk a confrontation with the Shadow Knight right now, but I didn’t understand why he hadn’t come here until he heard that I was here myself. Didn’t he care about the people of his city anymore? Or was he so obsessed with his hatred of me that he had waited until I showed up on the site?
“Whatever he’s doing, it’s nothing good,” I said finally.
The bus still hung over the edge of the bridge in a way that seemed stable for now, but I knew it probably wouldn’t stay for long. I tugged on the bus again myself, but it felt like my strength barely did anything, so instead, I just fired two more strands of web to keep the bus from falling.
“Creator, incoming!” Aileen sent another alert across my screen.
The Shadow Knight had arrived.
From the view Aileen gave me, he’d approached from the other side of the bridge and now charged toward the fight between Norma and Bogdan.
I told myself that Slade was here to help with Bogdan, just like I told myself that he couldn’t possibly be so far gone that he’d sacrifice a bus full of people just because he hated me, but I couldn’t shake the bad feeling that I had about all this.
I fired off multiple webs at once to coat the entire bus, and then I passed off all the strands to Elizabeth so that she would have the best chance possible to pull it back up. As soon as she gripped them, I fired off another round of webbing, but I held onto this round myself, even as I felt my muscles strain at the extra weight.
“One last pull,” I said. “We just need one more good pull.”
“On your count,” Elizabeth gasped. “Hurry, Miles.”
“Three,” I started to countdown. “Two--”
Before I could even reach one, Elizabeth shouted.
Something crashed behind me, and I preemptively fell to the ground with the webs still gripped in my hands. Immediately, I rolled onto my back to see that the crashing sound had come from Slade’s fist where it had collided into the metal siding of a car behind me.
“You shouldn’t be here.” The Shadow Knight strode out from behind the car now and aimed his next punch at my head, so I rolled to the side again, but this time, the webs slipped from my hands.
The sudden shift in weight made Elizabeth lose her balance, and she fell forward against the asphalt, but the webs dragged her forward now, and she was only just able to catch herself at the edge of the bridge. She clung onto the rope of webs before it fell into the water, but she was now at the edge of the bridge, and she was the only thing between the bus and a watery grave.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I shouted at the Shadow Knight.
Slade placed himself between Elizabeth and me, so I could barely see how she was doing.
“I can hold it,” my girlfriend hissed into my earpiece. “I think I can hold it, but I can’t help you, Miles!”
“I got him!” Norma shouted.
As Shadow Knight threw another punch at me, I ducked and saw Norma roll away from her fight with Bogdan, but the swamp creature lashed out with one of his vines and pulled her back into battle.
I was going to have to deal with Shadow Knight all on my own.
I powered up one of the blasters in my palms and fired it at the ground, but even though it knocked the Shadow Knight off his feet, he was able to throw himself into a graceful roll and come back up to his feet a few steps away.
“Are you going to answer me, you bastard?” I shouted again. “You almost killed a whole bus of people!”
The Shadow Knight only ran toward me again, and for a second, I thought that maybe he was being mind-controlled by someone like Honeybee.
Then I noticed that he was purposefully trying to get me away from Elizabeth where she clung to the bus. I knew it was because he was afraid of her super strength, but I couldn’t believe that he was so afraid of her that he would put innocent people in danger.
“You’re the only villain I see here!” the Shadow Knight finally snarled.
He was definitely in control of his own mind
.
He just happened to be a delusional, deranged asshole who had finally gone off the deep end.
“Are you fucking blind?” I swore and then fired off another shot from my blaster.
The Shadow Knight dodged out of the way before it could hit him.
“Miles, the webs are unraveling!” Elizabeth shouted.
I lunged at the Shadow Knight and pretended to go to the left, but then I immediately went to the right instead to avoid the next punch from the crow-masked asshole. I used his momentary confusion to dart around him as I ran toward the edge of the bridge.
I would only have a second before Shadow Knight caught up to me, so I raised my gauntleted hand, fired off as many webs as I could, and passed them all to Elizabeth.
She grabbed them and I darted away again, only this time, I started toward where Norma and the swamp monster were still locked in combat. Bogdan was a difficult opponent, but I hadn’t thought that we would have to fight the Shadow Knight on top of the swamp monster.
“Norma!” I shouted. “Forget the fucking swamp monster, we need to deal with--”
But I didn’t get that far.
The Shadow Knight had closed the distance between us so that now he was just behind me. He lunged forward, grabbed my forearm, and yanked me backward.
“I’m taking you in,” he growled, and the look in his eyes was definitely not the look of a sane man. “Your criminal days are over, Miles Nelson.”
Chapter 4
“Fuck off.” I aimed the blaster on my palm backward and fired.
The Shadow Knight let go of my arm as he dodged hard to the left to avoid the blast, but it still tore open the shoulder of his suit and left a nasty burn in its wake.
As soon as he released his grip on me, I put a little distance between us and then turned around to face my crow-masked nemesis, but I was careful to hold both of my palm blasters out in front of me so that he wouldn’t get too close.
We circled each other on the debris of the bridge. I was halfway between where Norma fought the swamp monster and where Elizabeth held up the bus, and it was impossible to keep an eye on both of them at once while I also battled the Shadow Knight.
Luckily for them, he seemed entirely focused on me.
I was done holding back against this asshole. I might not try and kill him yet, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t injure him badly enough that he’d have to take an early retirement.
“Why don’t you put your effort into, I don’t know, bringing in someone who actually matters?” I demanded.
“You’re the only one who matters,” he growled. “You’re the most dangerous criminal alive.”
“I’m flattered,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “But I think the giant swamp monster about to kill an entire bus full of people matters a little bit more than me, don’t you think?”
The Shadow Knight didn’t say anything and instead just lunged forward, so I fired another blast at him. He dodged to the right, and this time, he avoided any scorch marks on his suit and immediately followed it up with a punch aimed at my throat.
I blocked the punch with my forearm, but even though it rattled me, my suit absorbed most of the impact. Still, it made me rethink our fight a little since he was both strong and clearly a well-trained fighter.
In a close-quarters fight, it would be tough to handle him on my own.
Behind the Shadow Knight, I could see Elizabeth where she struggled to hold up the bus, and I knew that if I didn’t help her soon, the webs were all about to unravel from the weight of it. But if I couldn’t keep the Shadow Knight away from me, I wouldn’t be able to help her.
As I glanced back at the Shadow Knight, I saw the hatred in his eyes, and I knew that he was really willing to sacrifice an entire bus full of citizens of Grayville just to capture me.
“Miles!” Elizabeth shouted.
I ducked around the Shadow Knight to run toward her. I knew he was right behind me, but I wasn’t about to let an entire bus full of people die just because the Shadow Knight couldn’t get his priorities in the right place.
“This is all I can do for now,” I said as I fired several more strands of web at the bus to reinforce her hold on it. “Just grab on!”
As soon as I passed off the webs to her, she reinforced her stance and her hold on the bus. Her legs, biceps, and shoulders were covered with popping veins, and her mane of thick hair was plastered with sweat.
She couldn’t hold on much longer.
The Shadow Knight tried to sucker punch me from the back, but I zigzagged to the side to avoid it, and now I headed toward the middle of the bridge and away from Elizabeth. Even though Slade seemed to be as focused on me as a bull on a red flag, I didn’t want him to have any excuse to go after Elizabeth while a bus full of people depended on her for their lives.
I suddenly missed my jetpack.
But then again, there was no way I could have predicted that the Shadow Knight would throw away everything he’d built just to chase me down.
“You’d really let them all die?” I snapped as I blocked another punch with the metal-plated forearm of my suit.
“You are more dangerous to Grayville than any supervillain could ever be,” he growled.
“I think it’s the opposite, buddy,” I said as I leveled my gaze on Dan Slade’s eyes beneath the crow mask.
I ducked another punch and promised myself some new upgrades later. The power behind his punches had already dented the metal of my suit, so I didn’t think I would be able to take another direct hit.
“I had this city under control before you came along,” Slade snarled. “You’re a murderer, and you’re not going to escape this time.”
“Or we could just settle this after I rescue the bus,” I said as I sidestepped another blow. “No? Not feeling up to saving people today?”
“They are necessary sacrifices to get you alone,” he ground out.
I glanced at the dual screens inside my helmet, but both Norma and Elizabeth looked like they were struggling. Norma’s movements were a little slower than they had been, and Elizabeth’s hold on the bus was starting to slip again.
“Coward,” I snapped.
I aimed my blaster directly at his chest and fired with enough force to send him flying backward, and he crash-landed into an abandoned van. I was well aware that his chest was the most heavily armored part of his suit, so I knew that I hadn’t killed him, but it did at least give me enough time to run back to Elizabeth.
“I’m sorry I can’t be more help, Miles,” my superpowered girlfriend groaned.
“It’s fine,” I replied through gritted teeth. “It’s that bastard’s fault, not yours. He knows he can’t fight you, so he purposefully chose to attack me now.”
“Does he know this is being recorded and broadcasted?” she seethed as she tightened her hold on the webbing that I reinforced.
“He probably doesn’t care, but this sure won’t help his reputation,” I laughed.
“We can use that to our advantage if you tell him that,” Elizabeth panted. “He’s coming, Miles-- you’d better move!”
I glanced at one of the screens inside my helmet and saw that the Shadow Knight had recovered from his crash landing and was headed toward me again. Since I didn’t know what he would do, I didn’t want to bring the crow-themed crusader close to Elizabeth or the bus, so I just ran along the bridge toward Norma instead.
“Norma!” I called into her earpiece. “We’ve got an issue.”
“I can see that,” she replied but didn’t turn away from where she sliced her blade through another one of Bogdan’s tentacle vines. “What can I do to help?”
“Let Bogdan go for now,” I ordered. “I can’t hold off the Shadow Knight on my own for much longer, and I have to help Elizabeth rescue the damn bus!”
I didn’t like the idea of letting a supervillain go, but the Shadow Knight had given us no other choice.
The insane bastard was closing in behind me now, so I aimed my palm blaster
s down at the ground to launch myself up into the air. I activated the thrusters in the bottom of my boots to try and keep myself in a stabilized jump, and then I angled myself so I could shoot a short distance above the bridge. I aimed to land on the other side of Norma and the swamp monster, but even though I overshot the distance, I still managed to land semi-gracefully with the thrusters on the bottom of my boots set to maximum.
Bogdan had finally noticed the Shadow Knight’s arrival, and he immediately turned to run away from Grayville’s former hero. Since I blocked the only other exit from the bridge, the monster slithered over to the edge of the bridge, flung itself into the water, and disappeared beneath the waves of the river.
Now only Norma was between the Shadow Knight and me.
She tossed her slime-covered blades to the side and ran toward him without hesitation, and I’d never felt more proud of her.
“I’ll hold him off,” she promised. “Go rescue the bus, Miles!”
Norma dodged a punch from the Shadow Knight with the grace of a martial artist, and then the two of them engaged in combat.
She met him blow for blow and even landed a few of her own against the Shadow Knight’s blaster-exposed rib cage. Norma’s suit was doing much better since Bogdan hadn’t done much damage to her at all, so that gave her a slight advantage over Slade. Still, Slade was master of hand-to-hand combat, and she wouldn’t be able to last long against him on her own, but she was doing surprisingly well.
“Who trained you?” Shadow Knight snarled after she blocked two of his punches and then countered with a right hook that connected with his jaw.
“I was born this way!” my assistant chirped and then slammed another punch into the Shadow Knight’s side.
The blow took his breath away, but it didn’t keep him down for long. The deranged hero landed a solid blow against Norma’s shoulder that sent her stumbling to the side, but she spun back around him and leveled a kick directly into his back.
The Shadow Knight swiped to grab at her leg but missed, and Norma landed a direct punch against the side of his jaw.
He stumbled backwards, spat blood off to the side, and rubbed at his jaw.