“Did you ever see anything inside?” Glenn asked.
“Yeah, like glowing green rocks or something?” Terry asked.
“I don’t think that’s how nukes are made,” Harold grunted.
“No,” Triceratop replied. “The door opens to a stairwell. It was always too dark to see anything else.”
Deimos exhaled nervously. This was the part where his plan would begin to rely on conjecture, which was equally as bad as relying on luck, but he still came prepared. The modifications he made earlier to Tears And Fears gave it an alternate use other than simply scaring angry generals. If he was correct in his reasoning, which he typically found himself being, then its new setting could generate an electromagnetic field strong enough to nullify all electrical components within the thermonuclear weapon. This meant that the weapon would be impossible to activate, but only for however long the field was up. Somebody would need to be within range and also be able to keep Tears And Fears pointed at the nuke long enough for them to move it someplace safe.
On top of that, Deimos needed to trust that the military’s tech could trace the outgoing signals from the security cameras that Hans would certainly have surrounding the warehouse. Deimos wanted to be sure they knew the location Hans was orchestrating this from before risking going inside the warehouse himself. However, since there was no guarantee that they could find Hans before he activated the weapon, Deimos would need to be next to it with Tears And Fears before the military made their move.
There were too many variables that could go wrong, too many questions still unanswered, but given their time frame it was the best plan that Deimos could come up with. After waiting a few minutes while one of the Apache’s scanned the area, General Grant walkied them.
“We aren’t getting any readings of external signals.”
“You’re sure?” Deimos asked, concerned.
“Yeah, I’m looking at the screen right now. There’s nothing coming out of those buildings,” General Grant replied.
“Shit,” Deimos muttered under his breath.
He turned to Siren, unsure what to do. It was entirely possible that Hans didn’t have a proper security system setup, but it was equally likely the tech was too advanced for the military to identify it.
“We’re running out of time,” Alexander pressed. “We can’t just wait here.”
Deimos nodded. Alexander was right. This was no time to freeze. He directed Indiana Drones down to street level two blocks away from the warehouse and hopped off. Alexander followed him, then Terry, Glenn, Harold, and Siren all followed suit.
“What do you all think you’re doing?” Deimos asked.
“There’s a good coffee spot around the corner,” Glenn joked. “What the hell do you think we’re doing? We’re coming with.”
“Absolutely not,” Deimos argued, shoving them all back toward the drone. “You need to get as far away as you can.”
“Not a chance,” Harold grumbled, pushing back.
“Yeah, you need us!” Terry chimed in. “We’re your henchmen. We’ll stand by you no matter what. Until the end.”
“And I’m your wife, which used to rank higher than that,” Siren added snidely, eyeing Terry. “Besides, do you think Hans is going to let you waltz in holding Tears And Fears in plain view? You need us to break in while you distract him.”
“I don’t know, it seems risky,” Deimos challenged. “He could see you sneaking around and activate the nuke prematurely.”
“Not if they follow me,” Alexander said, pounding his chest. “I can get through that wall and anything else behind it before he realizes what’s happening.”
Deimos looked at each of them in silent reverence. He knew their chances would be better if they worked together, but that didn’t mean he wanted them to risk their lives. Yet if the last few months had taught him anything, it was that he couldn’t let fear cloud his judgment. They were just as capable as he was, and if the odds were better with them, then he would need to accept that risk.
“All right,” Deimos said finally.
He handed Tears And Fears to Siren.
“We will coordinate our movements with the military. They can have soldiers stationed in the streets surrounding the warehouse. I’ll approach the building from the front, and you all can enter through the west wall. Hopefully as you’re making your move, Hans will be distracted with me.”
Suddenly, a gravelly voice issued from seemingly all around them.
“What a wonderful plan, Deimos,” the voice said, echoing hollowly down the empty alleys.
They all froze. Their hearts sunk into their stomachs. Each one of them knew the person behind that voice, the man that was the source of so much of their collective misery.
“Hey there, Hans!” Deimos shouted with a forced grin. He looked around trying to find the cameras Hans was spying on them with. “So, uh, you heard all that, did you?”
“Yes. I wonder if it would have worked. Guess we’ll never know,” Hans’ voice said coldly over hidden speakers. “I see you have teamed up with one of my failed experiments.”
Alexander punched angrily into the wall beside him. Concrete exploded outward and sprayed onto the ground.
“Come out and face me!” Alexander shouted. “I’ll show you how much of a failure I am.”
“Don’t worry. I plan on revealing my location, but not to you,” Hans said. “Why don’t you and the others get on that little drone and fly away. Tell those choppers following you to pull back as well. I only want to speak with Deimos.”
Deimos turned to Siren and she shook her head. He looked up, still unable to make out any hidden cameras.
“What if I don’t want to talk to you?” Deimos asked.
“Then you and everyone else in this city will die. I’m the one with the thermonuclear weapon, remember? Don’t try and bargain with me, Deimos. It won’t end well.”
Deimos sighed. Hans was right. Even if he was somewhere nearby, there was no way they would be able to stop him before he activated his weapon. They had no choice but to play his game.
Wordlessly, Deimos turned and embraced Siren.
“Don’t,” Siren whispered. “Please. We can run. There’s still time.”
Deimos kissed her. When Siren pulled away she saw Deimos had tears in his eyes.
“I’m sorry, my love,” Deimos said. “Not this time.”
Siren choked back tears and stepped toward Indiana Drones. She didn’t want her husband’s last image of her to be one of her crying. She reached under Indiana Drones’ control panel, grabbed Hells Belts, and clipped it around Deimos’ waist.
“Kick his ass,” Siren whispered.
She stood strong, proud, and boarded the aircraft. Alexander grumbled angrily. He slammed his fist into the wall again before joining her.
Deimos turned to Terry, Glenn, and Harold.
“We had a good run, eh boys?” Deimos said with a smirk.
Terry burst into tears and hugged Deimos.
“The best,” he whispered. “Thank you, boss.”
Terry turned and joined Siren and Alexander on Indiana Drones. Harold grabbed Deimos’ hand and pulled him in close.
“Don’t let him see your fear. Stay strong,” Harold whispered before boarding Indiana Drones.
Glenn then embraced Deimos in a powerful bear hug.
“We’ll get you out of this. Don’t worry,” Glenn whispered.
Deimos nodded, hoping Glenn was right, but a feeling deep in his gut told him otherwise.
“Go on. Get as far as you can,” Deimos said loud enough for Hans to hear.
Glenn stepped back onto Indiana Drones. They all looked at Deimos one more time before Glenn directed Indiana Drones upwards. They flew high into the sky before its jets blasted them back toward the freeway. Soon after, the military choppers turned and followed suit
.
They had entered uncharted territories. There was no plan this time, no window to jump out of to safety. Everything had happened far too quickly to be able to account for all of the variables. This was simply one of those variables that they could not prepare for. Deimos knew he would one day have to finally face Hans, but with how the last few months were going, he had hoped it would be in a courtroom.
Once the drone and military choppers were out of sight, the speakers crackled to life again.
“That was beautiful,” Hans said snidely.
Deimos sighed and began walking toward the brick warehouse.
“Fuck you. You have me. Why don’t you kill me already?”
“In due time, Deimos. You’ve come this far, why not go all the way?”
“Now you’re starting to sound like my wife after a few margaritas,” Deimos scoffed.
Deimos could hear Hans audibly sigh. Even though it wasn’t much, Deimos took a tiny bit of pleasure in the fact that he still had the power to annoy Hans.
“Can you be serious for two seconds?” Hans seethed. “Must you try and take everything from me?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Deimos asked. “You’re the one who started all of this. You and your unhealthy obsession with power. Look what it cost you. You’ve lost everything, Hans. You have nobody to blame but yourself.”
Deimos passed the first block. The warehouse was nearly in full view.
“Wrong!” Hans shouted.
Deimos could practically feel the spittle flying from Hans’ mouth.
“I have you to blame! Everything was going great until you came along. You should have stayed dead.”
“Then you should have done a better job killing me,” Deimos responded.
There was a loud SLAM and the speakers crackled. Deimos could only assume Hans had punched his metal fist down on whatever system he was using to transmit his voice and it caused an interference.
“Still with me, buddy?” Deimos asked.
The speakers crackled again. When Hans’ voice returned it seemed different, colder, like a switch had been flipped in his head.
“I’m with you, Deimos. Come now. Only a little further.”
Deimos exited the alley and came into full view of the warehouse. He looked up at the old structure. It appeared different than how he remembered. It could have been the passing of time that warped his memory, but something certainly felt off.
“Well, I’m here,” Deimos said. “Let’s get this over with.”
“I’ve been very busy while you were away, Deimos. Aren’t you at all curious to see what I’ve built?”
“Honestly? Not really. I’ve seen bombs before. There’s nothing special about you building another nuke.”
There was a brief pause. Then, Hans broke out in crazed, maniacal laughter. Deimos was actually impressed. It sounded like Hans had been working on his evil laugh. Of course, the alternative was that Hans was actually crazy and this was his last scrap of sanity leaving him.
A slow, menacing siren began to blare. It echoed through the streets and around the empty city as if it were heralding something terrible. Deimos winced, hardly able to make out Hans’ voice over its ringing.
“You think I built a nuke?” Hans goaded between bouts of laughter. “A simple bomb?”
The siren continued to blare. Then, the ground shook beneath Deimos’ feet and dust fell from the warehouse. He looked up to see the roof of the warehouse folding back onto itself. The ground trembled with increased intensity as the whine of gears and grinding of metal emanated from beneath the warehouse.
When the roof was fully retracted, a shining silver dome slowly protruded through the opening. What Deimos first thought was the top of a missile continued to rise and display wide metallic shoulders. The object rose ever higher, revealing a glowing chestplate housing a nuclear fusion reactor. Two monumental arms were attached to the side of it. The right arm was outfitted with cannons and turrets, while the left had a double-edged sword of baffling size.
As it rose further out of the ground, shaking the warehouse until the brick holding it together crumbled to the ground, Deimos became fully aware of what Hans had built. Towering before him, standing at nearly six stories tall, was a fusion-powered, weaponized mech robot.
Deimos looked up at the peak of the gargantuan monstrosity. On the front of the metallic dome that made up the mech’s head was a semi-transparent screen. Deimos squinted and was barely able to make out Hans sitting in the pilot’s chair.
“I don’t need a nuke!” Hans shouted over the wailing siren. “I am the fucking nuke!”
Deimos didn’t wait to deliver a snappy retort this time. He turned, activated the thrusters in his robotic legs, and ran. In seconds he was several blocks away, but the looming mech still towered behind him well within viewing distance.
“Yes! Run!” Hans shouted. “Let’s see what this thing can do!”
There was a roar of an engine. It was much louder than the siren still blaring around them. The mech’s fusion core grew brighter as immense thrusters on its back positioned outward into place. The mech stepped forward, easily breaking through any remaining brick from the warehouse, and stomped down heavily with its metallic tracked feet.
The roar of the engine grew louder until it overpowered all other sounds. Sparks flew in the chambers of the thrusters on the mech’s back. There was an eerie thrumming emanating from the core itself as its plasma grew hotter, spinning ever faster within the magnetic housing it was encased in.
Suddenly, there was an explosion so immense that Deimos felt it from ten blocks ahead. The thrusters funneled and focused the plasma into a massive burst of energy, instantly demolishing rows of buildings behind the mech. The force of the blast launched the mech forward at a blinding speed, crashing it harmlessly through warehouses as if they were made of cardboard.
In seconds, the mech had blasted through eight blocks of warehouses in a beeline toward Deimos. Deimos didn’t even need to turn to know the mech was nearly on top of him. The thrum from the fusion core was vibrating the air around him, shaking the very bones in his body. He pivoted to his right and dashed down a side alley, heading for the nearest freeway overpass. He felt heat from the exhaust of the mech sear past behind him as he narrowly dodged being squished beneath its heavy tracked feet.
The mech screeched and tore through the asphalt, skidding to a slow stop and leaving behind a trail of scars embedded deep into the ground. It then smashed into the side of a building, finally stopping itself. As the mech’s fusion core churned and the thrusters flared preparing for another blast, Deimos heard a far off whine in the distance. It was quiet in comparison to the air-shaking rumblings of Hans’ mech, but it was high pitched and approaching fast.
As the mech stepped forward to prepare itself to launch again, a series of explosions blasted the ground at its feet and the mech’s engine suddenly cut. Deimos stopped and turned to see a dozen A1 Skyraiders leading another two dozen military helicopters in attack formation. The Buzzard had finally arrived.
Before Hans’ mech could turn to see what was coming, it was pelted with anti-tank missiles, rockets, and thousands of rounds of 30 mm bullets from the attack choppers. A cloud of smoke and debris engulfed the mech and it was soon lost in the hellfire raining down upon it.
The Buzzard’s Skyraiders fired their rockets and cannons into the smoke as they passed overhead. They flew off to loop around for another attack while the helicopters hovered and emptied their munitions into Hans’ mech. After the last round was fired, Deimos could only see a pillar of dense white smoke where the mech once stood. He dropped to one knee, breathing heavily, wondering if it could all be over so easily.
From within the smoke, there was a heart-dropping clang of metal on metal. Then, the white smoke was blown away by the force of rapidly firing missiles emanating from the sh
oulders of Hans’ mech. The missiles locked onto the helicopters and adjusted their flight paths midair. They blasted through the sky, crisscrossed in a dizzying display of accuracy, and detonated mere inches from the helicopters. The entire fleet exploded simultaneously and their flaming wreckage dropped to the city below.
Deimos remained kneeled in utter shock, unable to bring himself to his feet. He watched in horror as the dozens of helicopters crashed onto roofs and into the sides of buildings, laying waste to everything beneath them.
Hans’ insane laughter emanated from the mech, which stood undamaged from the military’s onslaught, save for some soot and minor dings in its otherwise impeccable armor. It turned in a slow, calculated pivot to face the Skyraiders as they looped around for a second attack. As The Buzzard and his henchmen charged the mech in V formation, Deimos heard a distinctive clinking of empty chambers coming from the mech’s shoulders.
Good, Deimos thought. If he’s out of missiles, the mech will be useless against air attacks.
The Skyraiders flew low, unleashing their second volley of attacks. Their cannons pelted hundreds of rounds of ammo into the mech’s armor, their bombs fell and exploded on target, but they appeared to have no effect.
The Skyraiders flew past overhead and the mech spun to follow them. As if to disprove Deimos’ thought, the mech’s crane-like right arm rose upward to aim its turrets and cannons. It began firing an unrelenting assault into the sky. Unguided rockets tore past the planes as several of their wings were peppered with bullets from Hans’ turrets. Two of The Buzzard’s Skyraiders exploded mid-air after being hit by a lucky rocket and they spiraled down into the city.
The Skyraiders flew farther into the city, not looping back for a third attack. Hans then turned the mech’s attention back to Deimos.
There was no time to think. Deimos leapt to his feet, activated Hells Belts, and ran. His thrusters spit blue flame as he tore down alleys in a zig-zag heading for the highway. Behind him, buildings and streets were shredded by an onslaught of munitions from the mech’s arsenal. He felt a spray of bullets pass by him and reflect off Hells Belts. Once Deimos was out of range, the mech stopped firing and its engine roared to life. Its thrusters shifted and sparked. The mech stepped forward and in a tremendous explosion it was off, tearing through the next ten blocks of warehouses in seconds.
Villain (Book 1): Villain 1 Page 30
