2
Phoenix in September is a lot like Phoenix in June, hot enough to fry an egg on the outside of my armor. Lucky for me, I have climate control. My heart goes out to the rest of the team who don’t. Though Mr. Perfect manages to stay annoyingly sweat free, Kate’s body regulates itself so she’s never out of place, and Fleet just runs everywhere to cool off. Which just leaves Luke, aka Major Force, out in the heat.
He has some luck today, though. The newest member of the Diamondbacks is finally out of state training and should be joining us. Glacier is little more than a kid at seventeen, but with no ability to turn her powers off, and her life endangered by them, the government decided to allow her family to relocate to Phoenix so she could join us. Elementals are fairly rare, and ice is the rarest of all, and it will be nice to have one on our side for once.
“Okay, Epic, before we descend why don’t you give me the recon. Luke will ask for it as soon as we’re on scene anyways.”
Affirmative.
Part of me is glad the last three months since the monster attack were quiet. I spent a lot of time in the lab working on my three big upgrades. My Emdrive, the computronium spray over my chest piece, and of course my upgraded grenade launcher. The computronium allows Epic to live in the suit, it is a nano thick layer of a gold-titanium alloy capable of forming computer cores. Once I sprayed the suit with it, connected the components and then sealed it with a quarter inch layer of new armor, it allowed me to upload Epic. Faster than his old housing, and more importantly, with me in the suit. This means I can travel at sixty-thousand feet and not lose contact with him.
Data flashes up on my green HUD. Multiple windows open showing me pictures and video. Fleet, fast as always, grabs civilians and whisks them away to the evac zone, an underground parking garage a mile away. Luke, Kate, Mr. Perfect, and Glacier, are on top of the mall staying out of sight until I arrive. Good for Luke. Sometimes he has trouble remembering tactics.
There are nineteen members of the gang in the street and six in the diamond exchange. Epic flashes the rundown on every known member, almost all of them are F3 with variations of ‘fast and strong’. The three we need to watch out for are, Inferno, Crusher, and Fang. Inferno is an elemental of the most common type, flame. Crusher is their strong man, an F4 with mass generation. Ugh, mass is the enemy in a fight. The last, Fang is one of the beast modes. The poor bastards who upon receiving their powers turn into creatures out of nightmares or worse. Sometimes they’re recognizable, other times not. Fang is rather tame, like a wolf crossed with a spider that grew fly wings.
Inferno and Crusher are leading the rampant street destruction team, Fang is in charge of the team infiltrating the exchange. I have Epic flash this news to the Diamondbacks. They all wear augmented reality goggles now, Epic can give them updates, directions, show them info about who they’re fighting, the whole bit. I spared no expense.
“ETA twenty seconds, boss,” I say over the team tacnet.
“Affirmative. Come in stealthy, Domino has a plan,” Luke replies.
“Stealth mode.” The HUD switches from the ubiquitous green to the soft blue as light levels are lowered. I don’t need to worry about sound baffling or thermal energy anymore, the Emdrive puts off neither. Mostly the plates on my armor shift around to a radar friendly configuration. I’m still working on invisibility, but with this and the kinetic emitters rigged for silent running, I’m invisible to radar detection.
I land with a thud on the black tar roof. Heat from the midday sun turns it into a soft goo which sticks to my boots.
“What’s the plan?” I ask. My synthesized voice sounds more robotic than me. I find most people respond better to it than to my natural voice, which isn’t exactly authoritative.
Kate flashes me a smile, “A reverse on our takedown of the Six. Fleet has the whole area clear of civvies, the guys at the diamond exchange are stuck on the vault, which gives us something we don’t normally have,” she finishes with a smile.
“A dress code?” Mr. Perfect asks.
“Lunch?” Fleet adds as he zips up to stand perfectly still in a rush of wind.
“Time,” I say.
“And the prize goes to the armored heroine,” Luke mimes a roaring crowd.
I spy Glacier shaking her head. She’ll get used to it. We’ve been together as a team for almost six months now, and the things we’ve faced have really brought us together.
“I’ll teleport one of them to us, we beat him up, lock him down, and then rinse and repeat until they’re a… more manageable size.”
It’s a good plan.
“Epic switch to stun rounds on the launcher, we’re going to want minimal collateral damage here.”
Affirmative.
Glacier raises an eyebrow at me as the drum on my back cycles. It was my answer to flexibility on the grenades. I can now carry sixteen grenades and as many types as I want. I still load mostly bean bags and pods. Today I’m also loaded with two high-explosives and a flash-bang.
“Okay everyone,” Luke puts his hand out. The smile on his face is worth all the money I’ve put into the suit. When we first met he was so unhappy. But now… not just the team has come together. We spend an awful lot of our off hours together and I can’t help but blush thinking about the hours we whittle away on my couch.
Fleet goes first, then Perfect and Domino, followed by me. We all look to Glacier when her hand doesn’t appear.
“This is stupid,” she says in a curt, teenage voice.
“Yes,” I reply, “It is, but we do it anyway. Now put your hand in.”
She does.
“Remember, stop the bad guys, save people, kick their ass. Diamondbacks,” Domino cheers.
Everyone except for Glacier chants ‘Diamondbacks’. She’ll get the hang of it eventually. Teamwork takes time to build and no one adapts overnight.
We spread out in a circle. Kate wants me to have first shot on the ones with few powers or those who have less… useful powers. Glacier is to my right and I can tell she’s nervous from the way she rolls her shoulders. Not that she has shoulders. Elementals defy science in a way that is beyond the rest of the super people. Poor Glacier is one of the worst. When her powers expressed her entire body transmuted into living ice. I’m standing right next to her and I can see the light filtering through her arms.
“What?” she snaps at me.
I shake my head. Great Amelia, fantastic. Stare at the person who is different.
“Sorry, I was curious as to how cold your surface temperature would have to maintain in the Arizona heat,” I say lamely.
I was, but that wasn’t why I gawked at her. In a way, Glacier is beautiful. It is as if someone carved a statue out of ice and imbued it with life. Her hair, eyes, even her fingernails are all there exactly as they should be, just ice.
“What are you, another scientist? Just stay out of my business.” She waves her hand in my face, “I have enough problems without more poking and prodding.”
“First in three… two…” Kate’s voice interrupts us… or saves me, I’m not sure which.
There is a pop and standing on the roof is Kate with her hands holding onto a man whose eyes couldn’t get any bigger. It takes his brain a half second to process what happened before he drops to his knees and throws his hands up.
“Smart boy,” Luke rumbles as he clamps on the plus-sized manacles.
Luke drags him to the side making room for Fleet. Kate can’t teleport twenty times in a row without exhausting herself. This was the test run. Fleet disappears in a blur and is back a half second later with a guy who looks like he stepped out of an old movie. He’s wearing distressed leather everything, boots, pants, vest and a beard that runs to his exposed beer belly.
He swings a backhand at Fleet, who dodges the blow with ease. Epic fires the bean bag at the thug with enough force to break bones. It hits him square in the gut, sending him doubling over and moaning. Then Luke is there restraining him and it’s done. Two down… seven
teen to go.
Three more go by quick. Fleet focuses on the low-powered ones, thanks to his AR goggles he knows who is who. Lucky number seven screws us up.
Fleet appears, dropping someone barely older than me in the circle. The kid is scrawny, baggy clothing, sunken cheekbones, and stringy hair. Perhaps the last three were too easy, but I don’t tag him as fast as I should because he’s a kid.
He opens his mouth to say something, but it comes out a scream. Sonic waves emanate from him in such decibels that even the sound dampeners on my helmet short out. The roof explodes in a shockwave. I’m sailing through the air with a nice view of the Arizona sun and a ringing in my ears that isn’t going away anytime soon.
There is absolutely no way the rest of the Riot boys didn’t hear that.
3
The kid is flying. Not only that, he has Luke on his knees with his sonic voice. Blood seeps from my man’s ears and the roof under his knees crumples. Up Amelia!
I’m now thankful I kept Epic as an on-screen presence because I can’t hear a damn thing.
“IP Cannon, full power, narrow beam,” I say hoping Epic can hear me through the cacophony.
Arms forward, palms up, I yell for Epic to fire. It is like being in a silent film; I can’t even hear myself scream just a high pitched ringing in my ears and a hollow tone behind it. The ionic pulse energy strikes out at the teen, catching him in the shoulder. The energy transfer flings him twenty feet away to crash into the quickly disintegrating rooftop.
He isn’t listed as having this power, but he is in the database.
That’s weird, but I don’t have time to ponder it. The remaining thirteen ‘Riot Boys’, which is a stupid name since some of them are girls, are coming for us. I still can’t hear, and if it’s this bad for me I can only imagine how bad it is for everyone else.
“Epic. Thrusters. Give us some altitude, switch to pods and go to automatic fire.”
As we climb I feel the slight vibration of the grenade launcher and see the counter rapidly descend as my computer sidekick fires off the eight AG Pods I have and the four other bean bags leaving me with only the two high explosives and the flashbang.
Out of twelve shots, six incapacitate or remove combatants from the field. All of a sudden they go from thirteen to seven. Lucky number seven, again.
I smile at myself for a job well done. Unfortunately, with the pods exhausted, and half the Riot Boys and Girls (I’ve decided to rename them) floating off into the atmosphere, all I’m left with are my IP cannons, Kinetic Lance, and two very, very deadly options.
Domino and Luke are taking on three of them at once, each punching, jumping, and dodging in a ballet as beautiful as it is deadly. Luke is a marvel of a man. As his adrenaline pumps, he grows in size from an already impressive six-four to six-eight. His mass increases too while not inhibiting his nimbleness at all if anything it increases. He dodges blows he can’t possibly see coming and lands counter punches at angles no one can hope to block. He loses his mind though, which is the downside. He runs purely on instinct and anger when he’s like this.
Domino, while not as kinetic or strong as Luke, has her own grace and beauty. She teleports around her opponents. Punching them from odd angles and kicking them when they are looking the other way. She uses a variety of weapons from Tazers, to zip ties in a Jackie Chan-esc ballet of incapacitation.
Fleet zooms around slapping his opponents with debris and shoving them into walls. He can’t punch anyone at speed without breaking every bone in his body. I can only imagine how careful he has to be. His friction field protects him to some degree, but not from punching a human at a hundred miles an hour. However, even a pebble causes serious harm if it’s going fast enough.
Mr. Perfect has several contained in one of his energy constructs, a box that shrinks in size by the second. He does all of this from his flying carpet while chanting and waving his hands… goofball.
I look for Glacier to make sure she is okay and… I can’t find her.
“Epic, locate Glacier.”
He flashes a search pattern on my HUD before it zeroes in on her. She is sliding south down the road toward the Diamond Exchange. Great, she wants to go solo against Fang. I glance around the struggle before me. Crusher and Inferno vanished the moment the fight broke out. Which means the team can handle these losers.
Either Glacier is aching to prove herself or she wants to get hurt. On the bright side, I can hear again.
“Boss, permission to engage the DE with Glacier?” I ask Luke. “It looks like Inferno and Crusher are a no-show.”
He kicks one of the gang members in the chest, sending him flying backward end over end to crash into a car. The door crumples and the man doesn’t get up. The car is one of those cheaply built electric jobs that cost an arm and a leg. Which we’re now going to have to pay for.
“Affirmative. Keep her out of trouble,” Luke replies.
I turn south and kick in the speed. I miss the roar my compressed fuel jets used to make. Glacier travels by freezing the ground in front of her with a thick sheet of ice, then sliding on it. She must have phenomenal balance. Once she gets going she really moves. I have floor it to catch up.
“Nice afternoon for a skate?”
The huge advantage of my new suit is the Emdrive allows me to hover without having to use my hands for balance. I can fly along at twenty-five miles an hour simply by angling myself up and letting my new maneuvering thrusters do the rest.
“You,” she sighs, “Can’t I do my own thing? I don’t need a babysitter.”
“As a matter of fact, as a probationary member, you do need a babysitter. Everyone gets one until they’re a full-fledged member, that means you. What are you doing?”
She shrugs.
“The way my… abilities work, I don’t like to use them around people I don’t want frozen,” she says as we approach the front entrance of the diamond exchange.
I read her file, she can flash freeze things but she can also rapidly build ice up around herself and others. Not to mention the tricks she can do with it, like ice skating when it’s ninety-five out.
“Epic, could we generate enough heat to melt ice if we were incased?”
Other than the minimal amount of life-support required for our eventual crack at orbital flight—no. I wouldn’t recommend being frozen.
“Thanks…” Don’t get frozen, right.
The Diamond Exchanges outer doors are the kind of roll down metal slats business use to protect themselves from vandals. These didn’t help at all, someone peeled them back like bananas.
“What is Fang’s strength rated at?”
F4 and his claws are sharp enough to shred metal.
It was a good choice of words on Epic’s part, considering the next set of doors were made of reinforced steel. Fang went through them like a can opener.
“Be ready for anything,” I say to Glacier.
Epic throws up some telemetry on my HUD. Heat sources, sound, etc. I notice he’s picking up vitals from Glacier. I’ll have to ask him about that later.
With palms toward the door, I land the suit and start in. Glacier is right behind me. She’s not tall, only five-six, which is funny because if I could stand that would be my height. In the suit, though, I’m five-eight and much bulkier than a normal person.
With the power out, I turn on the suits exterior LED’s, they’re bright enough to light up the dark side of the moon. There isn’t a lot of natural light in here. Fewer windows mean fewer entrances to guard, I guess.
Movement. Up ahead, three meters.
“That’s in the room…”
An invisible wall of force slams into me, sending me flying backward. Glacier narrowly dodges and I see her hands shoot out. Beams of blue light flash through the empty air leaving behind splashes of ice wherever they touch.
I hear a scream as I pull myself back up. A man appears out of thin air and drops to the floor, holding his frozen hand. I try not to think about it as I zap him with an
IP cannon blast. He falls to the ground convulsing as his nervous system short-circuits.
Glacier chuckles.
“Cool weapon.”
“Invisi-dork must be the rear guard. They probably know we’re here, be careful.”
I don’t wait for her to respond before I start moving again. She didn’t panic which says a lot about her.
“Arsenal, this is Force.” As if I don’t know what he sounds like. “We’re all cleaned up out here and moving toward you. The two ring-leaders are a no-show.”
I nod to myself. Something fishy is going on here but I’m not sure what.
“Roger Dodger, meet us around back, maybe we can flush some of these guys out to you?”
The Exchange is essentially a big warehouse with cages for buying and selling precious gems. On one side they have the massive vaults and in the middle, the showroom. When we enter the open area the remaining four members of the team are busy looting one of the vaults that look like it was peeled open.
“Glacier,” I whisper, “Freeze the floor.”
“All of it?”
I give her the thumbs up as I take to the air. Her hands go out in front of her and the blue light flashes from her palms. Wherever she shines the light a thick layer of ice grows behind it. The room is instantly more humid from the sudden influx of frozen h2o.
“Attention bad guys,” I say at a hundred decibels, “You are under arrest for the crime of being stupid. Give up now and we may reconsider the charges.”
When I first started doing this I thought I sounded hokey, until I heard Luke talk.
The four gang members stop what they are doing and look back to me. I don’t expect them to throw their hands up but pointing and laughing weren't high on my list either.
“Okay, have it your way,” I say aloud, then to Epic, “IP Cannons, maxi—”
Full Metal Superhero Box Set [Books 1-3] Page 20
