The Hero Beat
Page 24
I looked out the thick plastic window. The field was set up for a Trojans’ game, and it darkened as thunderheads gathered several thousand feet above. Gale stood alone in the center of the field. Her iconic leotard’s grey and black color scheme blended to appear almost black in the shadows cast by the gathering storm. Wind swirled around her and we could see bits of grass and dust caught up in it. A steady breeze brushed against the heavy plastic windows. Ratna readied one of her cameras and started snapping photos.
We had gotten into position just in time. Soon after our arrival, Ultiman strode purposefully onto the field from the east gate, with Suave walking just behind and to his right. The two men walked straight toward Gale, deviating slightly to avoid the goal post. They stopped at about the forty-seven yard line. Ultiman and Gale spoke, but there was no way to hear them. The rumbling of thunder ominously echoed around the bowl of the stadium. I kept my eyes moving and spotted the bald head of Herculene up in the cheap seats, working her way around from the west side of the stands. Close behind her, I saw a flash of rainbow-colored cloth and knew that Three Dollar Bill must be following her. They were staying low, behind the stadium seating, so as to not give away their position. I saw no sign of Mentalia or SpeedDamon.
The windows of the press booth only made up part of the stadium-side wall. They were supported by about three feet of solid plaster. I knelt behind the wall portion and calmly said, “It’s going to start soon. You ready?”
Ratna noticed my position and mimicked me. “Yup. What do you think’s going to happen?”
I looked out onto the field. “Ultiman will get her talking for as long as he can to give the team time to get into position. See how Suave’s edging around to her left? When she makes her move, he’ll try to blast her, put her down quick. Gale’s building a lot of energy up there in the clouds, so I think she’ll open with lightning. She’ll probably go for Suave first, then follow up with a lot of wind before Ultiman can get in close. If he can get in, he can probably end this with one punch. If she makes it through that, look for her to go airborne. She’ll want to put some distance between her and Suave, let her wind and lightning take him out. If she gets a chance to get rolling with her powers, it’s gonna be a long morning.”
“Got it.” She tapped the window. “Think this’ll hold?”
“Yeah, as long as she doesn’t get up to full strength. L.A.’s built for earthquakes, not hurricanes. It’s plastic, though, so it won’t shatter. It’ll probably just get torn away, try to suck us out with it.”
“That’s not very reassuring.”
“Wasn’t meant to be. I want you thinking, not reassured. Be ready to hang on to these stadium seats. They’re bolted down.” I grabbed one and yanked to emphasize my point. Ratna shifted closer to the row of seats.
Suave continued to edge to Gale’s left, testing her peripheral vision. Gale shouted something at Ultiman, but he calmly stood there and let her vent. The thunderheads above roiled, flashing with lightning, reflecting the rage of their mistress. The rumbling sound of thunder grew louder.
“What did he do to make her so mad?” Ratna asked.
“Long story. Basically, he dumped her.”
Ratna looked at me, “You’re kidding, right? She’s gotta be eighty.”
“Eyes on the field, please. And no, for a change, I’m not joking. Let’s just say it’s complicated.”
In a sudden motion, Gale stuck out her hands, one pointed at each of the heroes. Twin bursts of air slammed into them. So much for opening with lightning. The force carried Suave off his feet and slammed him against the infield wall. Ultiman staggered backward, but managed to dig his feet into the natural grass field, leaning into the wind and holding his position. Gale started to ascend and followed her attack with twin bursts of lightning from the sky. Suave was ready for the attack and was already rolling to one side when the electricity struck the ground. Ultiman wasn’t so lucky, as he was busy holding his ground against what was probably one hundred mile-an-hour winds. The lightning caught him in the back of his neck. His body jolted as the electricity coursed through him and the winds did the rest. He sailed backward, crashing into the stadium seats in a cloud of broken plastic and concrete.
Suave rose to one knee and fired two blasts of blazing red energy up at Gale. She swooped to one side, dodging one blast, but the other caught her in the leg. She toppled end over end and fell about twenty feet before catching herself and unleashing another blast of arcing lightning at the Latino blaster. A shimmering purple half-dome of mental energy materialized just in time to catch the blast and deflected it to the earth. Momentarily saved by Mentalia’s shield, Suave fired off another salvo and ducked from view to find a safer place to continue his attacks.
Gale started pumping more energy into the winds surrounding her. She now hung about fifty feet in the air, and chunks of turf tore loose from the ground to swirl around the gray-clad woman. Ultiman hurled himself through the air at her, only to be caught by the rapidly accelerating winds and carried off target and into the stands again. I glanced over at Ratna. Now that the action was underway, she was calmly snapping photos like this was a day at the beach.
Down on the field, the fight raged on. Ultiman continued to hurl himself at Gale, only to be knocked away by the force of the winds, and Suave kept working his way around the interior wall, popping up to blast at Gale before ducking into cover to avoid her incessant lightning blasts. Mentalia was hidden somewhere, projecting psychic fields to ground out the lightning where she could.
I spotted movement above the fight and saw Herculene and Three Dollar Bill standing on a purple platform of psionic force. Mentalia had picked them up and was moving them into place about a hundred feet up, directly above Gale. I called to Ratna, “Up! Above Gale!” as the pair of Angels leapt from the platform and hurled themselves downward at the floating stormcaller. Ratna shifted to catch the shot. Herculene extended herself like an Olympic diver with her fists outstretched before her and quickly outpaced Bill, who spread his body out to control the speed of his descent.
Simultaneously, SpeedDamon sped from the stands to our left and out into the field. Gale spotted him immediately, and unleashed a series of lightning bolts, but the streak of green easily weaved between them. Suave, having doubled back to the other side of the hovering villain, spotted Damon’s move and popped out of cover and let loose with a barrage of crimson energy. Gale took the blow in the back and the force of the storm winds slackened as she struggled to maintain her position.
That left her wide open for the pair of Angels striking from above. Herculene hit her first, her extended fists catching the older woman in the shoulder. Gale spun head over heels as gravity carried the warrior goddess past her. Before Gale could recover, Three Dollar Bill landed on Gale’s head, feet first, in a blow that would shatter the neck of anyone not fortunate enough to have the stormcaller’s invulnerability. Bill kicked off, transferring his momentum to Gale, who plummeted straight down. Below her, Herculene tucked, rolled, got her feet under her and hit the field in a spray of displaced earth. She rolled to one side as Gale smashed into the crater her landing had created. Bill came to Earth next, discharging the remainder of his momentum in a roll and rising in a fighting pose.
The winds abruptly died away. From the stands, Ultiman rose in a shallow arc that terminated in the crater where Gale lay. As he reached her, he dealt a tremendous downward punch that echoed through the stadium. The force of the blow forced Gale deeper into the crater, and vibrations rattled the Coliseum.
The Angels stood for a moment, while Ultiman checked Gale for a pulse. He nodded to Bill, who waved his hands over his head to the rest of the team. I didn’t know if that meant Gale was alive or dead. Suave and SpeedDamon started making their way over to the crater, and I saw Mentalia step forward out of the shadows cast by the luxury boxes at the East end of the arena.
Ratna turned to me. “Is it over?”
I breathed a sigh of relief. “I think so. See, n
othing bad happened.” I grinned at her.
My comment was contradicted by a single gunshot broke the silence of the Coliseum.
My head spun back to the field, and I saw Suave lying on the ground, clutching his chest. The Angels on the field scattered as another shot narrowly missed Herculene, a burst of turf spraying from the ground a mere foot from where she was standing.
My brain struggled to process what I’d just seen. At last, something clicked, and Gale’s words echoed in my mind. “To make it worth your while, I’ll even bring the bullets.” I suddenly understood what was happening. I cursed and started running to the scorer’s booth at the west end of the press area.
“Where’re you going?” Ratna called after me. “I thought this was over.”
“We forgot Mechanista,” I called out as I ran, “And she’s got the cape-killers!”
The door to the scorer’s box was unlocked, which was a lucky break because I was pretty sure I couldn’t have knocked it down by force. Back when I was rotating through the departments at the Beacon, I got to watch a few games from here and knew how the equipment I needed worked. I found the switches that turned on the Jumbotron and other video displays around the Coliseum, and started typing on the console. Down on the field, The Angels ran for cover as another shot rang out. SpeedDamon scooped up Suave and serpentined into the west end zone tunnel in a blurred streak of lime green motion. After an eternity, the stadium’s big screens came on line and my message was displayed.
I looked out the window, and saw “Mechanista has the bullets” displayed on the Jumbotron. Tense moments followed as The Angels ducked in and out of cover to try to get a fix on the shooter’s location. I noticed a movement to my right, above the luxury boxes where I had seen Mentalia emerge a few minutes before. I leaned forward to get a better look. There was a black, metallic turret, glinting in the morning sun, atop the luxury box structure. It had a long, ugly barrel and it rotated around the stadium, scanning for targets. I typed “East side. On top of the Luxury Boxes” into the Jumbotron panel, and the screens updated my warning. I looked up to see the turret turning toward the scorer’s booth.
I dove for the floor, shouting, “Ratna, get down!” Bullets riddled the plastic windows and impacted against the back wall. Chunks of plaster, acoustic ceiling and broken plastic rained down on me. The Jumbotron’s control panel exploded in a shower of sparks. I lost count of how many bullets Mechanista sent into the tiny room, but it sure seemed like a lot. She seemed to be firing high, however, and the bullets all passed over my trembling body.
“Ratna, talk to me!” I called out.
Her voice came back, “I’m fine! All the shots are hitting your side. Why is she shooting at you?”
“She knows I’m calling out her movements, and I think she’s expressing her displeasure.”
“Try to get over here. Seems pretty safe.”
It sounded like a good idea, so I started crawling on my belly toward the door. I heard a blast from the luxury boxes, more like the sound of a wrecking ball than an explosion, and the gunfire ceased. Tentatively, I got to my knees and peered out the bullet hole-riddled window. The luxury boxes were gutted from the bottom up. Mentalia was standing underneath the destruction, shielded from the falling building materials by her trademark dome of force. I guessed she had gotten my message. Mechanista was nowhere to be seen, probably blown back off the roof and out of the Coliseum by the force of the telekinetic blast. The other Angels started to come out of cover, and Ultiman launched into the air to find the nanotech-infused Omega.
I left the scorer’s booth and jogged over to Ratna. The room was bullet-hole-free, which was a blessing. I knelt behind the little wall and peered over it and through the window. Ultiman was on the top lip of the stadium. He poked his head over the edge and drew it back quickly as an explosion of plaster exploded where his head had been a split-second before, followed a second later by the sharp crack of the shot that caused it.
A crunching sound echoed from down the hall at the scorer’s booth end of the press boxes. “Reuben?” Herculene’s voice called. “Oh God, Reuben!” I heard her crashing around the booth, overturning equipment.
“I’m over here!” I called out. “I’m fine!” I got up and ran down the hall. Herculene stuck her head out of the booth. Tears streamed down her cheeks and her face broke into relief when she saw me. Three Dollar Bill appeared in the doorway behind her.
“Reuben, you idiot,” she said as she hugged me. “You really had me scared, you jerk.” Bill looked away, suddenly taking an intense interest in a bullet hole in the plaster wall.
I hugged her back. “You know, if you keep calling me names, I might start taking it personal.” I grinned and I wiped a tear from her face with my thumb. “Shouldn’t you be out there, you know, helping stop a rampaging robot lady or something.”
“I will in a second. I just had to make sure you were alright.”
Ratna called out, “Uh, you guys might want to take a look at this.”
We went to join her in the press room. Rain fell from the thunderheads above, and the clash of thunder again filled the air. Ultiman was sheltering under the ruined luxury boxes with Mentalia and the pair almost didn’t see the mechanical spider legs as they began to creep over the lip of the Coliseum bowl. Mechanista crawled over the edge with one arm extended in a gun barrel. She pointed it at Ultiman and Mentalia and fired a volley of three shots, the sound all but lost in the increasing din. The Angels dodged out of the way, and Ultiman quickly pounded a hole through the concrete with his fists. Vibrations shook the stadium. He and Mentalia dropped down to the level below.
“Not that,” Ratna said. “Down there.” She pointed down to the field.
The increasing downpour made visibility difficult. A bolt of lightning hit the field, and lit up the scene for a fraction of a second, momentarily blinding us. The first bolt was followed by a second and then two more. I heard Herculene gasp, and as my eyes cleared, I could see why.
Down on the field, the crater was filling up with water. A form rose from the waters and stepped up onto solid ground. Her wet hair was plastered to her head, and she reached up with her hands and brushed it from her face. Her eyes flashed like they contained their own lightning, and her bruised face broke into a broad, hateful grin.
Gale was getting up.
Mechanista’s spider form crawled down the stands and onto the field, covering the ground between her and Gale in long, elegant, creepy strides. As she reached midfield, she dropped to the ground and assumed a more human form. The mechanical shapeshifter’s right forearm was still shaped like a rifle barrel. They stood there in the center of the arena, facing the press box, daring the Angels to come and get them. They knew where we were.
A burst of air blew through the press box, and SpeedDamon appeared next to us. Blood smeared the front of his costume. “ThoughtI’dfindyouhere,” he said as his vibrating body returned to normal. “Where’s the boss and ‘Talia?”
“Last I saw, they dug through to the second level under the luxury boxes,” I pointed at the rubble.
“OK.I’llgofind’em.Tell’emwhereweare.” And he was gone. In a few seconds, he returned. “They’re on their way,” he said, after he settled back to normal speed.
“Where’s Suave? Is he OK?” Herculene asked.
“He’s bad. Lost a lot of blood, but the bullet went clean through. Ben’s got a couple of guys getting him to the hospital. He’s headed this way with the others. Should be here in a couple minutes.”
Moments later, a burst of air blasted through the press box. At first I thought it was Gale’s doing, but it turned out to be caused by the approach of Ultiman and Mentalia. “Status?” he called as his feet hit the floor behind us. Ratna started snapping photos of the impromptu gathering while SpeedDamon reported what we knew of the situation.
I added, “Mechanista’s shots were about a second apart. I don’t think she knows how to do rapid fire. Might be something you can use.”
“Yeah,” the speedster nodded. “I can try to get in close between shots. Maybe jam her gun up somehow. A second’s more than enough time.”
“Excellent. That leaves four of us to deal with Gale. Mentalia, how confident are you in your ability to ground out her lightning?”
“I can cover a small area with no problem. Big enough for you three to make your approach, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
The Angel leader nodded, “It is. Once SpeedDamon gets in on Mechanista, we make our move. You will also need to shield us from the wind, if she tries to keep us back. It moves clockwise around her. Will that be possible?”
“Sure, just don’t get too far apart. Say, twenty feet at the most. Also, you’ll have to stay close to the ground.”
“We can do that. We will approach from this side. SpeedDamon and Mentalia, from the east. Everyone ready?” The Angels nodded grimly. “Very well. Get into position. SpeedDamon, the first move is yours. Good hunting, everyone.”
The five remaining Angels moved to leave the structure and face the enemies waiting for them on the field. Herculene hung back for a second to collect one last kiss from me. “For luck,” she said. I heard Ratna’s camera click, but I ignored it for the moment.