Genesis

by Kipjo Ewers

  “Can I help you with something?”

  “Requesting permission for a ten-minute window to have an all-female strike force to hit the camp first.”

  “Reason?”

  “Couple of ladies raining down unholy hell on the camp is a bigger impact,” she shrugged, “considering Jihadists are terrified of being killed by a woman.”

  “But I’m all locked and loaded,” he shrugged. “I came to have me some fun.”

  She answered back in a soft whisper.

  “Check your phone.”

  The Sarge pulled out his Smartphone from one of the compartment pouches in his battle harness and activated it with a tap. He gave the message she sent him a quick read and then grunted while lowering his beanie.

  “Get your team ready …you get a ten-minute head start from the second you hit the ground.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  “Aight ladies, on your feet!” She barked while jumping up. “We’re on the field first!”

  Upon Sister Sledge’s announcement, Merge shot to her feet getting in a good stretch before heading to the exit point of the aircraft. A jittery Cyclone now on her third mission, waited for her to pass before getting up and following her. As the Sarge continued to check his primary weapon, Heavy Element inconspicuously glanced at him while attempting to hide the smirk forming on his face.

  “You got something to say to me tin can?” the Sarge growled.

  “No sir,” he answered while clearing his throat.

  Heavy Element mockingly began to make silent whipping gestures.

  “You’re five seconds from getting shot in the face boy.” the Sarge warned.

  “We are now over the strike zone,” Maxine announced, “Switching to VTOL mode and opening side hatch.”

  The Tornado came to a quiet stop hovering several thousand miles up from the drop zone, while the side door hatch slid open bringing in the ice-cold air of the high altitude. Sister Sledge poked her head out narrowing her eyes to focus her vision through the chilly winds generated by the VTOL thrusters so that she could find her target.

  Merge turned glancing in Blitz’s direction. Slight sadness fell over her as she noticed he did not look up at her when she walked by him and wasn’t looking in her direction before she prepared to exit the plane. She closed her eyes concentrating as her skin began to match the color of her boyfriend, while her straight black hair turned bright white and curled into a kinky afro. Her eyes blazed white as she charged up mimicking Blitz’s abilities to harness and manipulate electricity.

  She turned her direction to the door focused on the mission unaware that his eyes lifted and were focused on her. Her brother was the only one to notice. He also saw that the Sarge’s eyes were fixed on Sister Sledge as she prepared to bail out.

  “Glad I don’t shit where I eat,” he grunted to himself.

  “You say something Heavy Element?” Nitro raised his voice for everyone to hear.

  His face read that he was paying him back for putting him in the Sarge’s radar earlier, Heavy Element’s face read for him not to try it.

  “I didn’t say anything.”

  “No, I think you just said you're glad you don’t eat where …”

  Heavy Element touched the metal part of his seat transforming into its metal property and went to stomp on his foot. A quicker Nitro moved his foot out of the way and then jumped into another chair with a massive grin on his face.

  The lock and loading of Rogers’s rifle and the evil glare he gave them were a warning to knock off the shenanigans. Heavy Element threw Nitro a dirty look and the “I’m watching you” hand gesture promising to get him back.

  Sister Sledge ignoring the antics going on within the cabin focused on preparing to dive out of an aircraft without a parachute. Despite doing simulation training, actual real-life exercise, and executing it on three past missions, there was still a tiny sliver of fear that crept up on her as she gripped the sides of the exit. Sister Sledge remembered on her first mission attempting two false running starts the first time, and then screaming her lungs out all the way down giving off the team’s location before they hit the ground. Despite the success, Rogers tore her new one in front of the entire team which almost turned into a brawl between the two of them as she chose to verbally retaliate.

  “Fifty-something years old, and I’m jumping out of a perfectly good airplane to take out a terrorist cell,” Sister Sledge whispered to her. “What a life.”

  She leaped out going into a dive bomb, Merge followed without a thought mimicking Blitz’s ability of electrical propulsion chasing after her. Cyclone slapped both sides of her face and broke into a running start diving out. She waited a good ten seconds after clearing the ship to channel the air around her with the force of a mini-tornado granting her flight. Sister Sledge began to hum to herself as she tore through the air descending at speeds that would make a regular human blackout.

  As the camp came into view, the rest of her team with flight capability hung back giving her the honors to strike first. Sister Sledge pulled herself out of her dive past the point of no return and began to position herself to make a devastating impact.

  Down below, murders, rapists, and defilers of a beautiful religion stopped from either whatever they were doing, or whence they were going within their camp as their ears popped up to the sound of a bomb dropping. Seconds before impacting the ground, she roared her battle-cry for all to hear.

  “Allah Akbar!”

  Sister Sledge obliterated a jeep in the middle of the ISIS camp sending debris and bodies flying everywhere. The grandmother rose to her feet standing in the center of the destruction she caused to the pelting assault of automatic gunfire that bounced off her skin and suit.

  The feeble offensive would not last long as a hovering Cyclone unleashed gale force wind blasts from her hands both blinding and sweeping away terrorists within proximity of her attack. Those out of range were struck down by Merge’s concentrated electrical bolts.

  More massive gunfire filled the air, as an Old Russian GAZ-66 truck with a manned heavy machine gun mounted on top of it barreled toward Sister Sledge laying down salvos of rounds which just bounced off of her. The driver roared as he slammed his foot on the gas pedal determined to run her over.

  She stood her ground cocking back her right fist. The female Titan laid waste to the truck with one shot caving in the front end with one powerful shot; the force of the punch was enough to send the driver through the driver side window, and the gunner over the top of the truck taking a nasty spill on the sand.

  “Oh damn … she Handcocked the truck!” beamed Cyclone.

  “Don’t worry about what Sister Sledge is doing,” Merge barked into Cyclone’s earpiece. “Keep your head in the game. You got a party of five coming on your six.”

  “Roger that,” Cyclone apologetically coughed.

  She spun around in mid-air with her right arm extended as concentrated air twisted around her hand. She unleashed a furious tornado blast slamming incoming assailants off their feet.

  Merge darted across the sky unleashing tanking melting bolts of electrical heat striking down everyone and everything that appeared to be a hostile threat.

  “Careful girls,” Sister Sledge advised. “Be on the lookout for human shields and more importantly snipers.”

  “Roger that.” Both of her teammates confirmed.

  She fell under the attack of her own precaution as a sniper armed with an M-60 machine gun from a reinforced watch tower fired upon her hoping to bring her down with armor piercing rounds. She retaliated by reaching into the torn open grill of the truck she punched through ripping out the entire engine block with one hand and shot putting it in his direction. The machine gunner bailed out of his nest slamming painfully into the ground as the engine cannonballed through the Watchtower bringing it down.

  “Those that can boost, boost now,” screamed an ISIS terrorist in Arabic over his dual band military radio, “Boost now!”

  Upon r
eceiving his command, several ISIS soldiers reached into tactical pouches on their person pulling out a syringe filled with a red liquid injecting the needles either into either their arms, legs, or chest areas.

  “Oh shit, we got boosters!” Cyclone announced. “We got boosters on the ground!”

  “Calm down rook,” Merge barked. “It’s going to take a while before their …”

  Her advice was interrupted as she barely evaded a powerful head removing photon blast from an ISIS boosted terrorist. She mouthed the words “What the fuck?”, and got her head back into the game strafing away as she came under fire from two other boosted soldiers employing thermal and solar energy attacks.

  “These are not regular boosters!” Merge yelled. “I repeat these are not regular boosters! Whatever the hell they’re on is boosting them instantly!”

  Before Sister Shareef could respond, she turned around the see what was left of the truck she totaled levitating into the air.

  “Oh shit.”

  An ISIS soldier powering magnetic fields slammed the truck right into her taking her off her feet plowing her into a nearby compound. Cyclone came to her teammate’s aide flattening the terrorist with the force of a hurricane. She was forced to stop her assault as another boosted with her similar abilities focused his power on the ground creating a sandstorm blinding her.

  “Son of a bitch!” She screamed covering her eyes.

  The soldier armed himself with a machete while channeling the air around his legs similar to Cyclone granting him the ability of flight. He took to the air to remove her head from her body. He was stopped by a hole punched through his chest from an electrical blast delivered by Merge which left her open for a deadly two on one assault from her thermal and solar powered assailants now airborne and flanking her for a shot.

  They were both blasted to cinder out of the sky by earth-shaking electrical blasts from the original electricity wielder of the Regulator team. Blitz hovered next to her with his entire body covered in his light blue plasma form.

  “The Sarge thought you ladies had enough fun time.”

  “The air is yours,” she turned looking away from him. “I’m going hunting.”

  With a thought, she canceled out Blitz’s abilities turning back to her regular form dropping out of the sky. Halfway down Merge focused again transforming into her were-lioness form landing on her hands and feet. She rose bellowing out a deafening roar as she charged, mauled, and clawed to death any unlikely ISIS soldier within her path.

  Blitz sadly shook his head only to realize he was spacing out while bullets from terrorist soldiers still brave enough to fight made a splatter sound as they melted on impact from the electrical field he generated around himself.

  “Get your head in the game Blitz!” Nitro yelled whizzing past him.

  The thermo-kinetic energy wielder used his super-heated plasma energy to slow his descent. Coming in at an angle he tucked into a tumble roll as he hit the ground. Staying in a crouched position he unleashed an incendiary plasma blast turning ISIS terrorists within his vicinity to ash, except for one with Titan abilities who covered up taking his onslaught. Nitro halted his assault and shook his head as the Titan boosted soldier tore off the remains of his scorched military jacket and shirt, while his regenerative healing repaired the fatal burn marks he was able to inflict on his skin.

  The soldier pulled out a sizeable razor-sharp bowie knife with the intentions of fish gutting him.

  “Fucking Titans,” he sneered.

  Nitro powered up again, as the soldier advanced only to be blindsided with a Russian army jeep knocking him off his feet. It was delivered by a recovered Sister Sledge who used a super leap to close the distance pouncing on top of the solider. Using both her new military training and strength which dwarfed the boosted soldier’s she trapped his attempted knife lunge, executed a textbook judo throw slamming him into the ground and then hit a sitting armbar both hyperextending and snapping his arm. The soldier screamed dropping his knife, and then fought through the pain getting to a kneeling position.

  Sister Shareef knowing he would attempt to lift her even with a broken arm transitioned into a gogoplata submission hold. As she cut off his air supply with her sturdy legs, she used her free hand to open up a hidden compartment on the sleeve of her suit. She pulled out and activated an ion body damper slapping it on the side of his skull overloading his nervous system with several thousand volts of electricity.

  She released him getting to her feet as his eyes rolled into the back of his head while he fish-flopped on the sand.

  “You got a problem with Titans?” Sister Sledge asked as her eyes stayed fixed on the terrorist soldier she just downed.

  “No ma’am,” Nitro quickly shook his head. “No problem at all.”

  High above the air Heavy Element back in his human form leaned up nonchalantly against the opened exit door of the Tornado waiting for the Sarge.

  “What the hell are you waiting for?” He asked while looking Heavy Element up and down with a scowl on his face.

  “Nothing,” he smirked. “Was just hoping you’d say something motivational like ‘Regulators, regula …’”

  “Get your ass out of this plane and go destroy something!” He snapped at him.

  “Yes, sir!” Heavy Element beamed snapping a salute.

  With a slap on the outer hull of the Tornado, Heavy Element changed his entire body composition into dark metal as he dived out of the aircraft making his descent to Earth even faster. His target was a barrack which he dead-leveled on impact sending debris and bodies flying in different directions. Merge’s inorganic elemental twin walked out of the destroyed structure dusting dirt and sand off of himself.

  “Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar!”

  Was the sound of a battle cry from advancing soldiers converging on him, Heavy Element drew his Desert Walter 01 sidearm taking the SUL position squeezing off high-velocity rounds to dispatch several regular ISIS soldiers opening fire on him with their AK-47s only to see their bullets bounce off his suit and hardened skin. In the heat of the gun battle, another boosted Titan charged him in an attempt to take him down. Executing a textbook sidestep at the last second, he uses his legs to wrap his charging opponent’s legs into a scissor hold dropping him face first into the sand. Heavy Element rolling to one knee, took aim with his firearm triple tapping him in the back of the skull at point-blank range blowing his head clean off.

  “Regenerate from that.”

  As he rose back to his feet securing the area, his ears picked up the sound of a tank turret firing, before feeling the shell striking him dead center in the chest sending him flying. Heavy Element cursed and groaned as he bounced violently off the sand before coming to rest. Now on his back, he continued to spew a slew of profanity mostly in Italian as he clutched his chest.

  “Heavy Element, you dead?” Nitro yelled his question over his comlink.

  “I’ma kill someone …,” he groaned as shell fire smoke bellowed from his mouth, “When I get up I’ma kill someone!”

  Before Nitro let off a sarcastic joke, he turned to see the assailing culprit rolling into the camp.

  “Guys, these idiots got a Soviet T-62M,” Nitro snarled over his comlink while powering up.

  “Nice that you know your tanks!” Heavy Element spat back. “Now turn that damn thing into an ashtray!”

  Before Nitro could unleash a super-heated plasma blast, his attack was interrupted by the Sarge touching down several yards in front of him with a thunderous thud shaking the Earth while spraying sand everywhere.

  Without a word, he calmly raised his M2-X Ballistics rifle, which was a modified shorter version of the M1. With one squeeze of the trigger, he unleashed a sheering blue and white energy volley that cut through the air and obliterated the heavily armored Russian battled tank with one shot. Everyone froze in their tracks just from the deafening blast that came from the Sarge’s rifle.

  “In case you didn’t figure it out, taking prisoners is optional!
” He howled, “So if you are allergic to getting killed I suggest …”

  “Allah Akbar!”

  The Sarge’s order to surrender was interrupted by a lone terrorist sprinting towards him. Rogers turned to take aim and fire, only to stop and lower his rifle after realizing that he wore a vest full of explosives strapped to his chest and a dead man’s detonator trigger in his right hand.

  “Rogers!” Sister Sledge yelled in disbelief.

  “What the hell is he doing?” Heavy Element asked with a contorted face.

  The Sarge stood his ground and closed his eyes as the terrorist now within a foot of his space released the trigger detonating the explosive vest engulfing him in a fireball of flames.

  “Oh my god!” screamed Cyclone.

  “Rogers!” Sister Sledge shrilled while clutching both sides of her head.

  Without thought, she broke into a run heading towards him. She slowed down within less than a yard away from the detonation zone as the thick smoke began to clear.

  Standing tall and very much alive in the center of the chunky dissipating smolder was the Sarge covered in blood and small body parts from the now deceased suicide assassin. He opened his eyes and gave a sigh bellowing smoke from his nostrils and mouth as he pulled one of the dead ISIS terrorist’s fingers from his left ear flinching it away. It broke the will of the remaining extremists still standing as they tossed down their weapons dropping to their knees to surrender.

  As minor wounds and burn marks around his face quickly healed, Rogers seeing that the fighting was officially over nonchalantly reached into one of the pouch compartments on his tactical gear pulling out a freshly cut Cuban cigar and lighter to have a victory smoke. Heavy Element smirked shaking his head, while a furious Sister Sledge glared at him with her fists clenched.

  The Sarge responded with a semi-innocent shrug wondering what he did wrong as she cut her eyes at him and stormed away to assist in the roundup of the terrorists they captured. Puffing on his cigar, the Sarge gave a quick scan of the perimeter taking a quick head count of all the Regulators present.

  “Where’s Merge?”