“I’m on it, oh Illustrious One,” he says with a too-wide perfect grin.
He wiggles his fingers and the flying carpet he confiscated from Jadoo, the now brain-dead, appears and he leaps on. He takes off into the night with a flap of snapping fabric.
“I didn’t know we could loot the enemy,” I say casually.
“He told the authorities it was some sort of magical artifact and it would only be safe with him,” Domino says in the tone of voice she reserves for telling jokes.
“What do you want me to do, Force?”
Luke looks around at the city for a moment before speaking.
“Can you be our eye in the sky? Let us know if any hot spots flare up or if anything unexpected happens.”
“Sure, not a problem.”
I put my arms down in flight form. Before I kick off the thrusters he puts a hand on my shoulder. Domino wanders away talking on her radio to give us a moment.
“I know you want to help those people. I do too.”
He looks at my faceplate, I have it slide back to see his eyes with mine.
“We can’t let them die,” I say.
“You told me once you have stealth on your suit,” he says.
“Yeah…”
“We don’t have to report everything…” He nods and holds my gaze for a second. “Good luck.”
We can’t kiss—my armor is in the way—but oh how I wish we could.
“You too,” I reply and seal up the armor.
He turns away as I blast off into the sky. Message received; do what I have to do. I’m glad he’s on board with it. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it first.
“Epic, engage stealth systems.”
My HUD switches from light green to dark blue. Things like radar reflection, heat, and altitude all become more prevalent since those are the readings directly related to stealth. I have to keep my speed down as I bank us over at two hundred feet and put the compass squarely on ‘S.’
It only takes a few minutes and I’m crossing the border.
You are now in violation of international law regarding the illegal border crossing of powered individuals.
“Really? You’re going to tell me this, Mr. Illegal AI?”
Technically, only the construction, not the existence of AI is illegal. Yet another crime you’ve committed. Lol.
I laugh. Epic’s read on my emotional state is spot on and a little laughter clears my head.
“Thanks, buddy.”
Anytime.
“All right, now, how do we convince these people to evacuate?”
A few heard the siren and paid attention. The vast majority are still in their homes.
“Epic, if we were to use my audio synthesizers and crank up the decibels, could we fly around and broadcast an evacuation order?”
Calculating… affirmative. I’ve located footage on the Internet with acceptable audio of a man speaking Mexican-Spanish ordering people to evacuate. Cleaning it up… adding authority… reticulating splines…
“You made that last one up,” I say, trying not to laugh.
Ready.
“Do it.”
I pull up to three hundred feet to give it the most spread. A loud, clear voice emanates from my armor.
“By authority of the governor of Sonora and the president of Mexico, all citizens are ordered to evacuate to the north, west or east. The American border is available. Do not travel south.”
There’s a pause and it repeats again. I complete one full circuit of the town and lights are starting to come on. Excellent.
Fast movers incoming. Elevated radar signals. Drop to two-hundred feet.
I do without waiting for an explanation. A deep rumble echoes from the sky to the north. Above me, flying at Mach 1, are a pair of F-22 Raptors; ultra-fast, ultra-high-tech fighters. They pass silently above, followed by their noise a few seconds later. Only two. Did the Pentagon not watch the same video we did? The presence of the fighters isn't a complete waste; they add legitimacy to my broadcast. Lights all over the little town spring to life and within a few minutes cars are streaming in all directions but south.
Excellent.
Now we have to hope the civilians evacuate in time and we can somehow defeat a giant monster.
It’s all downhill from here.
I don’t miss the sarcasm in Epic’s message.
33
The air strikes failed, of course. The team and I are on the border watching this thing roll through south Sonoyta. I can only imagine the casualties if we hadn’t convinced them to evacuate, since no evacuation order ever came from the US or Mexico.
The creature is a hundred feet tall and twice as wide. It has flailing tentacles and pods all over its body. It ‘walks’ by undulating thousands of knobs on its underside. For something big enough to fill a football stadium it moves pretty fast. Watching it move is almost as bad as listening to it. A cacophony of squeals and barks, enough to sound like a confused mass of seals and eels.
Epic estimates it’s thirty minutes from crossing the border.
A loud roar catches our attention as a VTOL swings by overhead. The wings spin up pointing the engines down as the ship comes to rest a few hundred feet away from us.
The Brigade has arrived.
The side door opens and Captain Freedom exits first. His red, white, and blue jumpsuit is made with muted colors. He wears a trench coat over it and protects his face with what looks like a hockey mask painted with the American flag. Comanche follows him. I don’t know a lot about him. Epic lists him as an F5 and extremely dangerous. He can produce focused ion beams from his eyes. After him is Torque, a young Latino who is new to the team. He can create force fields and manipulate them in interesting ways. Mariposa flutters out of the plane to take flight above the team. She floats aloft on delicate looking butterfly wings. She is also a telepath, which makes her a natural at logistics and communications. The last person to exit the plane is Behemoth. If there is one truly scary individual on the team, it’s her. Six-four with a physique which looks carved from stone. Her eyes are black pits radiating hate all around her. The ground sinks slightly as she steps onto it and the plane rocks up on its suspension once she’s off.
“They’re—impressive,” Perfect says over the comms.
It’s hard not to be intimidated by them. They’re a full-on team with an unlimited budget and years of experience. They’re also some of the most powerful supers in the world. I’ve heard Behemoth’s max strength is unreadable: there isn’t anything heavy enough to test her against. She might even be stronger than The Protector.
The five of us—me, Force, Domino, Perfect, and Fleet—are standing together like herbivores trying to scare off the predators. Captain Freedom spots us and heads our way. The rest of his team hangs back.
“Epic, full sensors. I want to know as much as possible about all of them.”
I watch my HUD light up as my electronic warfare suite comes online. Everything from sonic vibrations to light reflection is recorded in real time.
“Major Force?”
Oh God. I just got his name… I thought it was his rank in the Marines. Thankfully no one can hear me snicker.
“Captain,” Force replies with a crisp salute.
“Yeah, whatever. Have you handled the civilian evacuation?”
I can tell Luke is a little let down by Freedom’s dismissal of his honorific salute.
“Yes sir, all civilians have been evacuated, on both sides of the border.”
Freedom stiffens, “You didn’t cross the border, did you?”
“No, sir.”
I’m not sure what to think about Freedom. I don’t like him, I know that. He’s rude to Luke, for one thing. There is also a certain jadedness to him. Maybe because he’s older or maybe because he’s a jerk. I don’t know.
“Your people did well. Pack it up and head back to Phoenix.”
He doesn’t wait for acknowledgment; he turns around and walks back to his group. I can f
eel the astonishment around me.
“Force we’re not—”
“I don’t think—”
“This is some bulls—”
Everyone is talking at once and I can see the war in Luke. He wants to obey, but he knows Arizona is our state. I make the decision for him.
“We’ll hang back if you don’t want our help. Once you’ve all died exposing its weakness, I’m sure we’ll be able to take it down.”
There goes my mouth again, I really should look into sealing it or something. Freedom stops dead in his tracks. I’ve hit a nerve. Mariposa snaps her head over to look at us—she must have felt his sudden mood change.
He turns around and storms right up to me. I’m only five-eight in the armor—it isn’t like it’s hard to tower over me. However, I’m not intimidated in the least by him. Angered, yes.
“This is our show. We don’t need interference from local hicks to screw us up.”
The creature is approaching the tail end of the civilians. It appears to have picked up speed. Perhaps in response to their movement. I’m recalculating…
“How many are likely in its path given the new data?”
Hundreds.
“Are you listening, Diamondbacks? Go home,” he says in one final explosive breath.
My team doesn’t move.
“Force, the thing has picked up speed and it will catch up with the tail end of the civilians. Hundreds will die,” I say.
“That’s not our problem, it’s up to the Mexican government to protect her people,” Freedom spits out.
He’s angry, but I feel like he isn’t angry with me so much as the situation. Suddenly a theory rushes through my brain like a train. I glance at the creature, then at the Brigade. They’ve been ordered to stand down. It makes so much sense now. Cat-7 wants the creature for itself. If even a part of it is on the Mexican side of the border, there will be a custody battle. The biology of that thing could be worth billions.
“Arsenal, I—I don’t know what to do,” Luke says.
“I do. Fleet go move as many people out of the path of the creature as possible. Domino, once he’s there, port to him and start moving people out. Perfect, fly over as fast as you can, maybe you can use your,” I can’t believe I’m about to say this, “magic to wall off people if they can’t get away, or move cars or what not. Force, I’m going to carry you with me. I’ll drop you off a few hundred feet in front of it. Build some sort of barricade: cars, signs, hell, knock down buildings if you need too. Anything to slow it down.”
They all nod.
“I’m ordering you and your people to stand down,” Freedom says.
His anger has vanished and now he sounds almost… unperturbed.
“I’m not a big order follower, just ask Force,” I say.
“She ain't lying,” Force says with a smile.
“Some of us have no choice.”
He nods at me and turns to walk away. Was it all a game? Did he blow up to push us into action? If he was ordered not to cross the border—then this is his way of getting those people help.
“Diamondbacks, do Arizona proud,” I say.
Fleet blurs and he’s gone in a trail of dust as he runs toward the border. Perfect flies off on his carpet, it’s going to take him a little while to arrive. Domino hangs back so she can—pop and she’s there. Good for Fleet.
“Alright handsome, it’s you and me.”
I hold out my hands to Luke. He takes my wrist and we lock together.
“Ame—Arsenal, thank you,” he whispers to me.
“You might want to hold off on the ‘thank you’ until after we’re not dead or in jail.”
This is going to be rough. With one hand holding him, we’re going to have to make up in speed what we lack in stability.
“Full power burn, go!”
34
I let Luke go as I pass by a group of people whose cars were stuck together. I’m confident he can square it away. Fleet blurs in and out, moving people and things forward. I hear the pop of Domino teleporting to add to it all. Now to deal with the creature. It crushes everything in its path: trees, cars, houses alike.
I pull up to hover a hundred feet in front of it. Long tentacles ending in pods wave in the air. I don’t see any eyes or other sensory input. It’s a mass of sponge-like material crammed with a hundred different parts of sea creatures. Its maw is twenty feet wide—I get a good look as it opens to breathe. It sucks in a huge breath, enough to cause trees to bend toward it. Just like we saw on TV, the maw is full of row after row of shark teeth. What sort of nightmarish hell did this thing come from?
“Epic, are we clear yet?”
Negative. The efforts of the team will not save everyone. They need an additional six minutes.
Six minutes? This thing may be the size of a small cruise ship, but I should be able to distract it for six minutes. Okay then. I’m still hovering. There’s a pit of fear in me and it’s freezing me in place.
Focus! I can do this. I take a couple of deep breaths and shake my hands. One giant monster against one very small, frightened woman. What could possibly go wrong?
I burn sideways and do a quick loop. It all looks the same. The only variation in texture is around the mouth and at the bottom where it moves along the ground. How to get its attention?
“Combat HUD, Epic.”
The HUD switches to an angry red. Weapons status and power levels, all one-hundred percent for now. As I fly around it I circle in closer. Once I’m behind it I point my right arm, hand down, at it. The particle beam lights off. I’m fifty feet away, which is not optimal range for the beam. It slices through the thing spilling orange guts and bits as I drag the hyper-accelerated silicon particles across it. I burn through ten feet of its hide with no effect.
Up in the air above it again and—crap, it didn’t even notice.
“Epic, if I was at point blank range would the particle beam do more damage?”
Based on all available data, you could fire the particle beam until the suit ran dry and not significantly hurt it. One minute until I estimate the first civilian is caught.
I redline my thrusters and I fly right at it. Banking hard I grunt from the g-forces. In the middle of my arc, I let loose with a full power IP cannon blast. I don’t expect it to do a lot, but I can hope. I need a few minutes for the particle cannon to recharge. The Ion Pulses dissipate against its hide. If it noticed, it didn’t show. I wish I had actual grenades in my launcher because I don’t think pods are going to—
I grunt as a giant tentacle shoots out at me and slaps me in midair. The kinetic shielding screams at me. Fifteen percent.
I get a real close look at the pod. It has suckers on it and they’re spitting an orange juice at me. It doesn’t have any pressure and since the shield held they’re two feet away. Time to test my new toy. I reach behind me and draw the sword. I feel it hum as the ZPFM kicks in to make it weigh far more than it does. I grip it with both hands, relying on Epic to manage the thrusters for a second. I swing in a downward cleave—the black blade slices through the tentacle with ease. Viscous orange liquid sprays out of the severed end.
The thing grinds to a halt. Its mouth opens, and a deafening keen fills the air. Windows shatter, car alarms blare, people two hundred feet away fall to their knees holding their bleeding ears.
“Reroute all available power to the shields. I need them recharged fast!”
I see the numbers start climbing but it isn’t fast enough. I turn to face the thing and kick my feet out slightly to put me moving more east than north. I need it to follow me. A pod shoots out at me from below. The blade intercepts it and cuts it down. Another from the right, I cut it too. Above me and—
I’m hit again. Alarms blare as the HUD flashes at me. Kinetic shields are down. They’re going to need at least thirty seconds to charge. Less if I land. I manage to right myself in the air. The thrusters land me gently on the roof of a building. It looks like a church. The creature is thoroughly focused on
me now—fantastic. Its ginormous form shuffles toward me on spindly, sponge-like legs. I can only see them now as it crests a small hill. The rest of the time they’re hidden
“Domino, Fleet, go help Arsenal and—”
“No,” I scream overly loud, “Civilians first. Once they're clear we fall back and come up with a plan.”
I don’t listen for their acknowledgments—I have too much to handle in front of me.
A barrage of tentacles come slashing at me. I do my best to intercept them with the blade. I cut one, spin, slash another. Orange ichor splashes around me.
Toxic atmosphere forming, switching to internals.
I thought I smelled something acrid. Is the orange stuff acid? The wooden wall of the church steeple breaks my horizontal trip. One of the pods hit without me seeing it. I crash against the ground thirty feet away. Rolling and flopping I come to a halt.
“Epic, where’s the sword?”
There wasn’t any way to hold on while I was spinning. He pings it on my HUD and I run for it. I scoop it up and engage thrusters. This thing is too big to hurt. Even chopping off its pods is only pissing it off.
“Civilians?”
“All clear,” Force comes back.
“Okay, I’m heading back your way to re—”
My kinetic shields howl as alarms sound all over the place. One of the tentacles wraps around my leg. Another pod slams into my side and it sticks. Thick goo sprays all over my armor followed by little suckers with hooks trying to dig into my armor. If I were flesh, even strong flesh…
“Oh my God I know what this thing does and why the Mexican team couldn’t break free. They were dead the moment these pods attach. They paralyze you with this goop they secrete on the outside and then inject your body with acid and start ‘drinking’ in the melting flesh.”
I want to vomit as I say it. Knowing it, and seeing it up close, sends a shiver down my spine. Lucky for me my military grade alloys aren’t easily hurt by acid. Maybe if I was to sit in a cauldron of boiling hydrochloric acid for an hour it would hurt.
Full Metal Superhero Box Set [Books 1-3] Page 18
