“Just until we get closer,” Penumbra said, “and then I’ll drop out and go in on my own.”
“Are we sure they won’t trigger the gas once we start to attack them?” Beacon asked.
“They’re supposed to wait for a signal from the Maniac,” I said, “and I’m sure they have to be in a certain position over the city, since otherwise, the gas could blow right back into their faces and kill them, too.”
“So we just have to take them out before the Maniac notices what we’re doing, right?” Penumbra asked.
“Yep, and Miles should help take care of that for us,” I said. “If you can think it’ll be easier to kill the henchmen inside the choppers instead of shoot down the whole thing, we can also do that. But we just have to make sure that when it starts to crash after that, it’ll either land in the water, or Penumbra can help float it somewhere safe.”
“Then I guess it’s a good thing downtown Grayville is so close to the water,” Beacon said. “So do we go now, or…”
“Now,” I said when he trailed off, “but we need to stay away from downtown until Miles gives us the go-ahead.”
“Alright, I’m ready if you two are,” Beacon said. “Oh, wait… who’s gonna take on the mayor’s chopper?”
“That’ll be my job, I guess,” Penumbra sighed. “I’ll try to get them all out and set them down somewhere safe.”
“Let us know if you need help,” I said. “I know there will be a lot going on up there, but we can try to help each other out as much as possible.”
“I will also be able to assist and remotely pilot your crafts,” Aileen’s sultry voice suddenly came over the comms, “so if you need to leave them temporarily, I will keep them airborne for you.”
“Goddamn, Aileen,” I said. “You’re one hell of a multitasker.”
“This is true,” the beautiful android replied, but then she fell silent again.
“That’s good to know,” I said and took a deep breath. “Now let’s get our asses up into the air.”
While Beacon got settled into the glider, Penumbra took a seat behind me in the cockpit. It would allow her to leave and return to the plane as much as she needed to, and it wouldn’t interfere with me as I tried to pilot the damn thing.
I wished that there were some more offensive capabilities to the plane in case there was a dogfight, but since Penumbra and I would be working together, I figured that we would find a way to make it work. The most important thing was to get those choppers away from downtown and as far away from the rest of the city as possible.
After we took the glider and the plane up into the air, I had us both fly along the edges of Grayville as we waited for the signal from Miles. I thought it might take a while, but when less than two minutes had gone by, his voice chimed into my ear.
“Go now,” Miles ordered. “I won’t contact you again until everything is over.”
“On it!” I called, and then I swiveled the plane and headed toward downtown Grayville.
The scene downtown was even more chaotic than it had seemed on the news. The eight choppers flew in every direction, but they mostly just circled above the highest skyscrapers and only every now and then dropped down like they were trying to rescue someone.
The mayor’s chopper was the furthest away from the others, and as I watched the rest of the National Guard helicopters, I realized that whenever they dipped down and then retreated because of some supervillain on a rooftop, it was all just for show. The supervillains didn’t actually attack them, just like the helicopters didn’t actually get close enough to try to save any of the civilians who waved wildly at them to be rescued. It was all just for the cameras.
“Alright, Penumbra, you’re up,” I said as I flew a little closer to the mayor’s chopper. “Beacon’s already locked onto his first target to the west, so I’m gonna drop you out of the plane, and you try to get the mayor and everybody else to safety, but also get that chopper out of the air.”
“I can do it,” the blonde levitation specialist said. “What about you?”
“I’m gonna let Aileen remotely pilot the plane after I drop you off,” I said, “and then I’m gonna try to take on one of the helicopters myself, but I, uh, might need a little help from you on that one.”
“Good luck,” Penumbra said, “and I’ll do whatever I can to help you.”
“Thanks, same to you,” I said, and then I triggered her door to drop out from underneath her.
I glanced up to see that Beacon had already started to lead one of the helicopters away from downtown, and by the time I looked back over at the mayor’s chopper, I saw that Penumbra had started to float up beside it. As much as I wanted to watch the levitation specialist in action, I knew that I couldn’t afford to waste any time, so I flew the plane toward the next closest helicopter and then got ready to jump out.
I drove the plane straight toward the side of the chopper like I was going to ram myself into it, but the other pilot reacted in time to veer away.
I turned the plane into a spin to follow him. He kept trying to get away from me, but every time he rolled the chopper to one side, I just kept right after him, so he started to go exactly where I wanted him to.
Right back toward Penumbra.
The pilot was clearly confused, or the gunman on board would have opened fire on me already, but I had a feeling that would happen any second now. All I wanted was to get a little bit closer to Penumbra so just in case my jump went south, she could float me back up before I smacked into the side of one of the skyscrapers.
“How’s it going, Penumbra?” I called out, since I didn’t want to jump until she had a second to spare.
“I just floated all the families out of the chopper,” she called back.
“They came down a little rough onto the rooftop, but they all look like they’re still in one piece!”
“Awesome, because I’m bringing my chopper toward you now,” I said. “Can you help me float into it?”
“Yep, I see you!” Penumbra said.
I kept diving at the military chopper to force it forward, and when I was close enough to jump, I came so close to it that the helicopter had to roll onto its side to avoid me. I immediately raised the nose of the plane so
it would fly up over it, told Aileen to take over the controls remotely, and then triggered my seat to release me down onto the exposed side of the twisted chopper.
I tucked into a roll as I fell through the air, then suddenly I felt Penumbra’s power over and I missed the whirling blades by two feet, and landed gently onto the rail below the helicopter cabin. I felt my body start to float, and it gave me just enough time to fling out my hands, grab the railing of the door, and then swing myself up inside the chopper.
“Got it!” I told Penumbra, so the blonde could go back to her own fight.
Two gunmen and one pilot all turned to look at me like they had never seen a woman jump out of a plane and land on a helicopter before. If I had workshopped some kind of catchphrase, now would have been a great time to use it, but instead, I just took advantage of their moment of hesitation.
I roundhouse kicked the first gunman straight out the side of the plane.
As soon as he fell screaming to his death, the second gunman raised his rifle to his shoulders, but I dropped to the floor of the chopper and slammed my boot into the man’s shin. His leg instantly gave out, so I
jumped right back up, grabbed the barrel of his rifle, and then rammed it backward into his face.
He stumbled backward, but his instinct was to drop his rifle so he could clutch his face instead. Of course, my instinct was to take control of his rifle myself, so I swiveled it around to point at him and then simply pulled the trigger.
The bullets ripped open his chest, but as he tumbled backward out of the chopper, I wondered if the blood loss or his crash landing would be the thing to actually kill him.
I would have to contemplate that little problem later. Right now, I turned the barrel of the rifle onto the p
ilot, at the same time he fired his sidearm at me. It missed, but only because he was also trying to fly the chopper at the same time, and since I didn’t want a second shot to accidentally release the gas wherever it was hidden on board, I flung the rifle to the side and jumped forward into the cockpit instead.
While the pilot tried to twist back around with his pistol, I moved toward him, grabbed his hair, and slammed his face into the controls. He came back up with his eyes crossed, so I easily pulled the pistol out of his hand, pressed it up against his temple, and then squeezed the trigger.
His brains sprayed out across the glass on the side of the cockpit, so I instantly seated myself in the copilot’s chair and took control of the helicopter. I steadied its course, raised it above the highest rooftops of downtown, and then started to take it toward the river in the distance. When I glanced above me, I saw that Aileen still had control of the four-person plane, and she was keeping it right above me for whenever I needed it again.
“I just sunk a chopper into the river,” Beacon called, “so I’m headed to my second target now.”
“Me, too!” Penumbra said. “I threw everybody inside my chopper, uh, you know… outside, so I just need to float this helicopter somewhere safe.”
“Make it the bottom of the river,” I said. “I’m headed there with my first target, too. Oh, and Penumbra?”
“Yeah?” the blonde replied.
“Can you check inside the chopper while you float it toward the river?” I asked. “I want to be absolutely sure that the gas is inside these fuckers, but I can’t check and fly at the same time.”
“On it!” Penumbra said.
As I piloted the chopper toward the river, I glanced over to my far left and saw gunfire between the glider and another National Guard helicopter, so I figured that Beacon must be well on his way to taking down his second target.
Now if we could just get the rest of them down before the Maniac got word of what was happening, we’d really be onto something.
One of the two police helicopters in the air moved toward Beacon’s glider like it would join in the fight. I panicked for a second, but then the cops just started to help herd the National Guard chopper toward the river, and I felt my whole body relax.
“Found it!” Penumbra called. “There’s a huge canister in the back, and it looks like there’s some sort of release on it like there is on a grenade.”
“Don’t touch it!” I shouted.
“Come on, I’m blonde, but I’m not stupid,” Penumbra laughed. “Oh, and I told the mayor to make a call to the police, so their helicopters shouldn’t give us any problems!”
“Nice,” I said with a grin.
The Maniac’s plan must have been for the gunmen in the choppers to pull the release on the gas canisters, toss them down into the city, and then
fly out of reach just before the gas exploded and coated everyone’s lungs with the toxic shit.
I still hadn’t heard anything from Miles, so that must mean that he was still in the middle of his fight against the Maniac. But as much as I wanted to hear his voice so I would know that he was okay, and so I would know that he had been successful, I knew that the silence wasn’t a bad thing.
It just meant we had more time to take down the rest of the hijacked helicopters.
Beacon’s targeted chopper looked like it was starting to smoke in the distance, so I picked up a little speed with mine and began to fly it toward one of the other military helicopters. I could have just flown this fucker straight into the river, but that seemed like a waste of a perfectly good chopper.
When I got a little closer to my target, I shifted in my seat so that one hand could fly the chopper and my other one could shoot the mounted guns.
It was a little difficult to coordinate both at first, but after I opened fire on the other military helicopter, I realized that it wouldn’t take too much firepower to bring it down.
The other chopper tried to spin itself around to face me, but before they could start to return fire, I shot straight at it until the glass of the cockpit finally fractured and rained down like clear pieces of hail onto the edge of downtown Grayville.
We were just beside the river now, but I wanted to make sure that it dropped down into the water instead of on top of the row of restaurants below us, so I decided to kamikaze myself into the other chopper.
Well, not exactly full-on kamikaze, but just enough to make both helicopters sink into the river together.
“Penumbra, can you float me up out of here if I jump?” I demanded.
“Yep, I’m right behind you with my chopper,” she said. “But I don’t see the third chopper we’ve got left!”
“I’m on it,” Beacon replied. “I just took out my second one!”
“Good,” I said, “then I’m jumping out in three… two…”
I accelerated the chopper forward as much as possible until it looked like it was on a collision course straight toward the other helicopter. Then I scrambled my way out of the cockpit and jumped out the side of the chopper like I was going to take a swan-dive down into the water below.
As I plunged toward the river, I had a momentary panic that Penumbra wouldn’t be able to get me in time, but just as my legs started to
flail above me, I felt my body float up into the air and then out of the way of both choppers.
“I got you!” Penumbra chirped. “If you--”
But I couldn’t hear what else she said, because just then, my helicopter crashed into the other one, and they both went into a tailspin down toward the river. I had just enough time to see the giant wave that they created when they hit the water, and then Penumbra pulled me up higher into the air to keep me well away from the water.
When I was able to flip myself onto my back mid-air, the blonde levitation specialist waved at me from up above, and then she used her other hand to send her own chopper down the river and toward the lake beyond it. It zipped away from us like a runaway balloon, and then once it was over the deepest part of the water, Penumbra tightened her fist, and the entire helicopter started to crumple at the same time it plunged toward the water.
A few seconds later, it had completely vanished under the waves.
“Let’s get back to the plane,” I shouted up to Penumbra. “Aileen, if you could--”
The android didn’t respond, but the plane dropped down from a low cloud-cover and hovered steadily above us. I felt a wave of tension release
from my shoulders when I realized that meant Aileen was still okay, because if Aileen was okay, then so was Miles.
Penumbra floated us back up toward the four-person plane, but she moved us both into the main cockpit this time. Once we had secured ourselves into our seats and closed the door, I took control of the plane again and started to fly away from downtown. I wouldn’t take us too far away in case Miles needed us to do anything else or go to some other place, but I would at least get out of the cops’ hair while they dealt with all the fall-out from our aerial fight.
It would be one hell of a fishing expedition when the police had to go down and retrieve all the toxic gas from the bottom of the river, but at least none of the canisters had exploded over the city.
“We were impressive!” Beacon laughed over the comms. “That’s it, right? Or do you want me to stick around?”
“Yeah, but we can head back to the other side of the city for now,” I replied. “Miles is at the shipyard over there, so I want to be close in case he needs us.”
“You got it!” Beacon said.
As I piloted the plane further away from downtown, I glanced over at Penumbra to see that the chipper blonde was unusually pale and quiet.
“Penumbra?” I murmured. “Did you get hurt, or--”
“No,” she said and quickly shook her head. “I’m just…”
“Thinking about Miles?” I guessed.
“Yeah…” the blonde trailed off again.
“I know,” I said and then pushed my glasses up on my nose. “Me,
too. Let’s at least give him the good news, and then he can respond whenever he’s able to.”
“We’re all good here, Miles,” Penumbra said over the comms.
“All the military choppers are down,” I added, “so the Maniac can’t release the gas.”
There was no response, but I just had to hope that Miles had heard me and only couldn’t respond because he was still busy in his fight against the Maniac, not because…
No, I couldn’t think like that.
Of course, Miles would be fine. He was always fine, and besides, he had Aileen and Dynamo to help him, so there was no way that the Maniac would stand a chance against them. After all, Miles Nelson was the Evil Genius, and nothing could stand in his way.
And then maybe… just maybe… if we all lived until the next morning, I might finally tell Miles how I felt about him.
Because right now I felt like I could do anything.
Chapter 15
After I told Norma that she needed to take out the choppers before they could release their toxic gas down onto Grayville, I slammed on the throttle until I reached the entrance of the shipyard by the river. I slowed down as I started to roll over the gravel, but the tracking beacon told me that Elizabeth was still far enough away that I didn’t need to sneak up on foot just yet.
I glanced at Aileen in the passenger seat, but she had the same calm expression on her face that she always did. Of course, if my beautiful android suddenly looked surprised or panicked, then I’d have another set of problems entirely. Still, I wasn’t sure if I found her calm expression to be reassuring or just unsettling, especially when I thought about what we were about to do.
At least I knew that the choppers were in good hands.
I knew that Penumbra and Beacon would do a great job with the National Guard helicopters, but I knew that a good portion of the reason that they would do so well was because of Norma. My brunette assistant might be mousy and nerdy, but when it came to battle plans, she was a regular fucking general.
Maybe I had rubbed off on her, or maybe she had just started to understand her own superpowers a little more, but either way, Norma had seemed a lot more sure of herself lately. She hadn’t even questioned whether or not she and the others could take out the helicopters, and instead, she had just accepted it as a fact and immediately moved on to the logistics of everything.
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