I hold up my hand. “Hold up the horses skipper. I’m not going anywhere with anyone and I’m certainly not going to take off my armor. Care to explain what this is about?”
Then, to Epic, “Broad spectrum ECM, let’s make sure Mariposa doesn’t take control of our friends.”
As if he were completely prepared he pulls out a tablet and holds it up for me. The video playing is shaky and grainy at best. It shows a building, the one from Boston, and a dark figure crashing into the roof. After several enhancements the dark figure takes form and it could be me. I know it is, but they don’t, not for sure.
Then the image shifts to New York. It shows me and Kate entering the school then the next shot is of us leaving, her with Perry and me by myself. The screen shifts showing eleven bodies in various states of death.
“We’re arresting you for the destruction of private property and the suspected murder of eleven people. Not to mention the kidnapping of a security guard. If you tell us where Domino is, this will go easier on you.”
I’m the dumbest smart person in the world. I was so fixated on stopping whoever’s behind this, I didn’t think about them being ready for me legally. They couldn’t get their grubby hands on my armor illegally so they just waited and watched for me to step outside the law. They must have hidden cameras in New York, knowing I would go there. And then I dragged Kate into it. Epic warned me it was a setup, I should have taken more precautions.
Awesome.
“Listen, Freedom, there is a perfectly innocent explanation for this, I—”
“This is you, not some trick?” Luke asks. The hurt on his face is plain. My heart constricts in my chest. As if I didn’t have enough going on.
“Luke, I found a lead to who took my parents.”
“That’s great but why didn’t you tell me?”
“Every piece of evidence,” and I say this to both of them while glancing at the butterfly-winged woman thirty feet away, “Suggests there is a telepath behind it. If I told you anything they would be able to read your thoughts and without knowing who it was… I didn’t want you to be in danger just for knowing.”
Luke nods, I can see he understands when he puts his hand on my shoulder.
Freedom interrupts, “That aside, you broke the law, Arsenal. I need you to take off the armor and come with me.”
“You know I can’t do that. In here I’m safe, once it’s off, there’s nothing stopping Fluttershy over there from controlling me the way her boss controlled my parents.”
That makes him pause. She reacts, even though she doesn’t have super hearing. She must be riding shotgun in his mind and then I know the jig is up.
Freedom takes a swing at Luke. His powers kick in and he steps back a heartbeat before it connects.
“Diamondbacks, protect Arsenal!” Luke shouts.
We are seriously outgunned.
“Thrusters, we need distance,” I yell. Epic tags everyone as we climb. The one I’m most worried about is—
Alarms scream as we slam into the ground. My HUD blares red as outside pressure increases ten-fold.
Localized gravity increase.
“Fleet, take out Torque. Mr. Perfect, engage Mariposa, keep her off balance so she can’t use her mind control powers.”
I’m guessing it’s probably hard enough for her to maintain control of her own team let alone break through the ECM to take over mine.
“On it,” Fleet says.
“As you wish,” Mr. Perfect replies.
The gravity field lets up almost immediately. Rolling over, I see Fleet holding Torque with both hands as he spins in a circle fast enough to create a small tornado.
Comanche steps forward and fires off his twin ion beams. Tony vanishes in a swirl of dust reappearing a few feet away to throw a rock at him. Torque sails off in the distance and I don’t envy his landing.
An ice blue hand reaches down to help me up.
“I don’t know you and I don’t know your team. But, do you really think you can help me?” Glacier asks.
“I do,” I say, as she pulls me up.
“Then I’m on your side, what do you want me to do?”
I glance around at the battle. Luke and Freedom are going toe-to-toe, Perfect is keeping Mariposa busy with his constructs, and Tony has Torque down for the count leaving Comanche and Behemoth… who doesn’t seem to be doing anything? Just leaning against the plane as if she doesn’t have a care in the world.
“If Mariposa has a free second, she’ll mind control you. Keep her busy?”
Glacier grins and skates off behind Perfect before sending out jets of ice at the fluttering telepath.
Torque drags himself up from the truck that stopped his momentum. We can’t have that. Three bean bags hit him in the chest with the force of a car crash. He falls face down.
Comanche rakes his eyebeams across the field toward me.
“Floor it!”
Comanche and the four robots are firing wildly trying to score a hit. I know the plasma weapons will take me out, I’m not sure about Comanche’s ion beams though.
“Epic, find me a targeting solution for the four robots. We know a shot through the chest will finish them. Let’s set it up like pins.”
Affirmative.
Green balls of death fly through the air and I get the feeling the robots aren’t trying to kill me so much as keep me from fleeing.
Twin ion beams of white-hot fire flash through the sky. A sign explodes, followed by a car. I have to stay low or he’ll just flash over me. As long as he might hit his team he’ll be careful.
I fire off a couple of bean bags at Comanche but he just vaporizes them. I’m too far away for the IP Cannons and I don’t want to kill him. Maybe I can take out two birds with one stone.
Robots, hard left, plant and fire.
I do it. I come to a crashing halt. Lift my arms and the moment they line up Epic fires. The hyper-accelerated silicate rips through two of them setting off secondary explosions.
“Luke, King’s Gambit.” We have our own comms and he hears me. We’ve worked on moves before and this one is tricky. I leap into the air at full acceleration.
“Epic, ready the kinetic field…”
Ready.
I accelerate hard, in the limited space available. He steps back from Freedom with a kick that lands on his chest. Reaching out to me, we lock hands and I slam feet first into the ground. Epic triggers my kinetic field to simulate a few thousand pounds so I have far more mass than normal and we spin. Using my momentum and Luke’s, we manage one full rotation before I let go. Like a human missile, he flies right at Comanche.
The Brigade member held off his ion beams when I got close to Freedom and now he’s unprepared for the hit. Luke crashes with the force of a truck. I can hear bones breaking from here. But what can I do? The man’s powers are deadly. It’s either hurt him or kill him. Mind-controlled or not I don’t feel like murdering people who think they’re doing right.
A size twelve boot hits me in the head with staggering force.
“Freedom, listen. You’re being mind-controlled. Mariposa isn’t on the side of justice here, she’s manipulating you.”
He shakes his head, “You’re the one on the wrong side, Arsenal. You just don’t know it yet. Behemoth, end this.”
“Epic, brace for—”
Behemoth grins as she pushes herself off the plane, arms out wide she leaps forward and slaps her hands together.
The thunderclap ripples before her, obliterating the ground and throwing everyone off their feet. The shock wave slams into Tony, knocking him to the ground. Luke leaps in front of Glacier to take the brunt of it. Mr. Perfect slams into a car crumpling like so much tissue paper. The remaining two robots explode as the shock ripples through the air.
The force wave rolls harmlessly over me since we still had our kinetic field set to root us in the ground. When the dust clears only Tony and I are standing. Their team still has Freedom, Behemoth, and Mariposa.
�
�You’re tougher than you look,” Behemoth growls.
Pierre and Luke are in serious condition. Both are unconscious and have sustained life-threatening wounds. Glaciers status is unknown.
This is not how I imagined the day going. Behemoth alone is all but unbeatable, but now it’s me against their three most experienced members.
“Is anyone up?”
“Arsenal, I got some distance when Behemoth did her thing. What do you want me to do?” Fleet asks.
As fast as he is, he can’t turn the tide, but he can save Luke and Pierre.
“Evac the wounded, then Glacier.”
“Roger.”
“Glacier,” she turns to me when I speak, her body is filled with spider web cracks from the sonic attack. If Luke hadn’t leaped in front of her, she would be dead. “Freeze that big piece of crap.”
“With pleasure.”
The blue girl rolls her ice shoulders and slaps her hands together not unlike the move Behemoth did. Freedom and Mariposa are still recovering from the friendly fire when blue light flashes from Glacier’s palms and strikes Behemoth dead center. The woman howls and starts marching forward, each foot falling with the force of a small earthquake.
“Epic, pod Freedom, go full automated attack against Mariposa, we can’t let her control anyone while Tony gets the team to safety.”
Affirmative. Amelia, the jig is up and the lab is lost… do you want me to enact Enterprise Refit protocol?
Dammit, no I don’t. A quick glance at the situation tells me that no matter how this turns out, I’m done with the Diamondbacks.
“Do it.”
Verbal confirmation code required.
“Zero-zero-zero-destruct-zero.”
Glacier pours on the power but Behemoth is somehow closing ground. The puff off my launcher signals Epic going after Freedom. Mariposa is on the ground fifty feet away. She’s shaking her head trying to clear it from the shockwave her teammate smacked her with.
Initiating fire alarm. All personnel are evacuating.
The suit bucks as I slam into the ground next to the butterfly-winged woman. I’ve never really looked at her before but I see it now, she’s beautiful in an elegant way. Everyone in the media is always going on about how wonderful she is. To me, she’s just another despot trying to take over the world.
I snag her tunic and lift her off the ground.
“If you so much as flinch I will shatter every bone in your face, understand?”
She nods and her eyes snap open, clearing of confusion immediately. The shield on my gloves sparkle like a live wire has arced against it.
“I’ve developed defenses to your powers, they won’t work on me. You people… it never occurs to you that if you can do it, so can I. Now give me a name!”
She shakes her head, “You don’t understand, Amelia. We’re trying to save the world.”
“I don’t care what brand of crazy you are. Tell me who’s in charge, a name Mariposa, I want a name. Who messed with my parents’ minds?”
I shake her to focus her thoughts. If she so much as glances away from me I’m blasting her with my kinetic lance. At point blank range it will likely shatter her face.
Building evacuation confirmed. Safeties off. Artemis is locked on. Adjusting orbital parameters…
“Arsenal, Force, and Perfect are in the hospital, what next?”
“Tony, get Glacier out of here. You two lay low for a few days. I’ll contact you and let you know where to go from there.”
“Amelia, we’re not leaving you,” he says.
Mariposa smiles as if she can read my thoughts, but I know she can’t. She thinks I’m being indecisive, the truth is I’m multi-tasking.
“Tony, seriously. There’s a lot going on here you don’t know. I need you two to vanish for a few days, can you do that?”
“What about helping me? You promised,” Glacier asks.
Epic shows Behemoths progress on the split screen. The monstrosity that is the unstoppable woman takes one earth-shattering step after another. Glacier is visibly weakening and I’m out of time.
MKI Arrow locked. Firing in seven seconds.
“Monica, I will. I know I can, it will just take some time. Go with Tony and I will explain when I can.”
I put my full attention back on Mariposa.
She glowers at me, “They can’t hide from me, you know. Or from us. We’re everywhere. Controlling everyone who matters. You only slipped through our net because we thought you were dead. He thought you were dead. You’re only one woman, Amelia. You can’t outsmart all of us…”
“The hell I can’t,” I fire the kinetic lance. I let the energy carry her away from me in a vortex of broken bones and blood. She crumples to the ground a few feet away. She’s going to need serious plastic surgery if she ever wants to show her face in public again. The life signs on my HUD tell me she’ll live. I’m tempted not to let her. They’re building a world where life and happiness mean nothing. I can’t fight against that by being like them, so she lives.
Glacier vanishes in a blur of speed as Tony carries her to safety.
“Epic, make sure they’re taken care of. Divert funds from Mars if you have to. Legal and everything. I don’t want any of this coming back on the team.”
Affirmative.
With Glacier no longer actively freezing Behemoth she is free to come after me. Freedom is floating up into the sky trying to contort himself to reach the AG pod on his back.
In the pipe.
I nod. The ground shakes as the massive woman sprints toward me. I feel like a herd of elephants are bearing down on me. I fire off full IP cannons just in case as I blast off. The blue energy envelopes her and flashes down to the ground with no effect. Just like White Rhino and every other invulnerable person I’ve fought.
She can’t fly, but she can throw things at me. I just need a little time. I check the clock.
On the way.
Thirty seconds until impact. I fly to the building, Behemoth tosses everything from cars to robot parts at me. I land in front of the main doors. I know what’s coming and I try not to think of my Xbox. My game collection is digital but still, it pains me to know I’m about to trash it all.
Holding my arms out wide Epic triggers my PA, “I’m right here, Bitchamoth. Come at me bro.”
“Like I’ve never heard that one before. You know what’s wrong with you. You think you’re smarter than everyone else. You think you have it all figured out and no one could possibly be one step ahead of you.”
She’s not wrong. I do have that problem. Reinforced by the fact that I’m almost always right.
“You know you’re being manipulated right? There’s someone controlling your thoughts and motivations. He’s controlling everyone and when he’s done this isn’t a world any of us are going to want to live in,” I tell her.
She shakes her head, “This is what I mean. You think that given the facts any decent person would agree with you.” She’s walking calmly forward as she speaks, not at all angry or raging the way Luke does. “But that isn’t true. Can’t you imagine being shown the end of humanity and then deciding to do whatever it takes to stop the coming destruction? There’s something coming, something you can’t fathom. And we’re the answer, Amelia. We’re the next step. If you knew that a billion people were going to die tomorrow and all you had to do to save them was kill a few million, wouldn’t you? You’re the math genius, right? Tell me the numbers.”
It’s the ultimate catch-22. Do you kill one life to save two? She’s close now, only ten feet away but she doesn’t look like she’s going to attack.
“The only problem with that calculation is you don’t have all the variables. You aren’t killing people to save lives, you’re killing people on the chance it will save lives. You’re trying to stop something awful by being awful. What does it matter if we win if there’s nothing left that makes us human?”
“It only matters that we win,” she says. She towers over me, standing this
close. She could reach out and crush this suit like a discarded soda can if it weren’t for my shields.
“That’s the difference between us, Behemoth. For me, it matters how I win.”
She grins, “The difference between you and me is I’m alive and you’re not.” She reaches out in a heartbeat and grabs my helmet with both hands. The alarms scream from the pressure. The ZPFM kicks into overdrive flooding power into my kinetic shields keeping her fingers only inches from my skull.
“No, Behemoth, the difference between you and me is I’m right and you’re wrong. Also, yeah, I’m smarter than you.”
Her eyes go wide when the suit doesn’t pop. If it were just the metal she would totally break me in half. But with the kinetic shields powered by a ZPFM, I’m a lot stronger and tougher than she thinks. Still, I can’t stand here forever. I plant a foot in her gut and throw myself backward with an Emdrive assisted heave. I’ve read she can manipulate her mass. However, she isn’t ready for this. Epic slams me back and to the ground using both the kinetic emitters to temporarily adjust my weight and the Emdrive to ‘push’ us back. She flips over me and crashes upside down into the building, turning the entryway into a symphony of shattering glass and rending steel.
“Up!”
Three seconds.
“Full burn.”
The Emdrive kicks in and I see Behemoth crawling out of the debris just as a strobing yellow light flashes down lighting the whole area.
I didn’t name Artemis on a whim. Not only is she a spy satellite, but she also carries twenty-four osmium filled tungsten carbide ‘arrows’. Dropped, not launched. They hit the earth at five miles per second with the force of three thousand pounds of TNT.
The arrow burns through the air leaving a trail of ionized gas behind before striking the Diamondbacks HQ. The flash lights up the sky and the entire building is consumed in a massive fireball that rockets hundreds of feet into the air.
I’m a half mile away when it happens and I can feel the force wave pass over me. The mushroom cloud climbs high into the night fading as the wind carries the debris away.
Where are we going?
“Stealth mode, let’s go see a friend one last time.”
Full Metal Superhero Box Set [Books 1-6] Page 28
