by S. J. Delos
The heat-flinger himself was further up the sidewalk, keeping a vehicle between him and the EAPF. He popped up from behind his impromptu shield, twin beams of bright red shooting out from his eyes. The blasts impacted against the side of the transport, causing the paint to bubble and drip. However, the metal beneath remained firm.
The moment Mega-Blaster stopped attacking, the police responded, their plasma bullets scorching little dents in the sedan. It appeared to be an even match at the moment, but eventually Mega would melt through to a transport’s fuel cell. The resulting explosion would take out half the block.
The other three members of the quartet were tucked in an alcove across the street from the museum, trying to break through the reinforced wall at the back of the building. I glanced over at the granite sign sitting in the grass near the structure’s front entrance.
It read “Delgado Corporation” in bright red letters. Just like the crate Rupert claimed he was hired to find.
Interesting.
Carbonado was in his seven-foot onyx crystalline form, punching the wall in front of him repeatedly. Bits of concrete and mortar flew in the air with each blow. Sonix and Syncope stood a few feet away, their backs to their companion, keeping watch on the area in front of them.
Syncope’s eyes locked with mine. Then pointed at Alexis and me, yelling something to his compatriots. Sonix followed his finger, as Carbonado stopped pounding and turned around.
I couldn’t tell from where I was if they were pleased or worried that I was present.
“Kayo, Phantasm, report.”
“It’s the Doom Quartet, Manpower,” Alexis answered. “Mega-Blaster is exchanging fire with the EAPF at the south end of 6th. The other three are trying to break into the Delgado Corp building.” She looked back at me, winking once. “Kayo and I are going to engage. Over.”
“Roger that. Captain Awesome, Luminosity, and I are almost there. Zip should be there within a moment.”
“I’m already here,” the chirpy voice sounded as the speedster screeched to a stop below. He glanced up, tossing us a happy little wave, as if we were all just hanging out. Not about to fight four heavy hitters.
I opened my mouth to warn him that he needed to take this seriously when Sonix’s eardrum-rupturing scream broke through the cacophony of the battle around us. The street where Zip had been standing exploded into a shower of asphalt, leaving left behind a crater that was easily three feet in diameter.
Due to my ringing ears, I felt, rather than heard, Alexis’ gasp. I glanced all around, hoping to spot a whole Zip, rather than a pile of Zip parts. The newbie hero was standing on the curb about fifty feet from the damaged street. The enthusiastic grin was still plastered on his face, but I noticed he was twirling a finger around in one ear.
“Dammit, Zip,” I yelled into the com. “You might want to pay a little more attention to the bad guys trying to kill you.”
“Sorry,” he said, his voice sounding as if he were calling from Pluto. There was a weight to the single word. Like he was more upset that I was angry with him than he was at nearly being atomized by Sonix’s voice.
“Kayo…” Alexis tapped me on the shoulder. I turned my head to see where she was pointing. Syncope stepped away from the others, his arms raised in our direction.
“Shit,” I grumbled. “Go Casper, chica, I’m dropping you. Coordinate with Zip on getting the InBees to safety.”
I released my hold on the teen. She fell like a stone toward the ground, but right before impact, she became semi-transparent, gliding the final few feet to land softly on the pavement. I turned my focus back to the villains, just in time for Syncope to grin up at me as he sent a massive wave of intense vertigo slamming into me.
I tried to fly straight up, to get beyond his limited range. However, Sonix’s sound blast had already upset my inner ear, so when Syncope’s disorienting energy hit me, I found the world spinning out of control. My empty stomach rolled, bile surging up my throat. I was so busy willing myself not to hurl that I didn’t realize that instead of rocketing up, I was diving.
My shoulder hit the street first, immediately followed by the rest of me. The impact left a second crater right beside the one from Sonix. I rolled over onto my hands and knees, my breath coming in sharp, shallow gulps as I fought against the waves of nausea. It was like being punched in the gut by Colonel Tank after scarfing down a dozen Coney Island chili dogs and a chocolate shake.
“Kayo’s down,” Alexis screamed in my ear. “I’m going to help.”
“Negative,” Greg answered with a sharp bark. “Getting InBees out of danger is top priority. Kayo can handle herself.”
I heard the deep rumble of engines as a dark shadow passed overhead. The knowledge of the arrival of backup helped pull my head back into the fight. Even if my stomach still protested that it needed more time. I pushed myself into kneeling upright and burped, tasting the tangy metallic residue in my mouth. Ugh.
“I’m fine,” I croaked. “Just need a moment.” I also needed a big swig of mouthwash in the worst possible way.
Or a dozen breath mints.
“Kayo, look out!” Luminosity screamed.
I whipped my head around, which wasn’t the best idea under the circumstances, just in time to get Carbonados’ diamond-hard fist in my face. The blow flipped me over onto my side on the street.
“Hey, Crushette. How you doing? Long time no see, huh?” he said, moving to stand over me. His voice growled like two stones being ground together, and the sunlight glimmered over the glossy black surface of his body, in little blinking starbursts. Before I could respond to his greeting, his right leg swung forward to kick me in the side, sending me sliding a yard away.
Another surge of bile rocketed up my throat, making me groan. Not from the rapidly-vanishing pain, but from the revulsion of actually throwing up in the middle of a battle.
Syncope walked over to stand next to Carbonado with Sonix following suit. The leader of the Doom Quartet smiled down at me, looking exactly like the kind of bad guy that used to dominate the silent movie era. All he needed was a waxed mustache to twirl.
Sonix, on the other hand, might have just walked out of a Gothic death metal fashion magazine, all strategically placed black leather straps. Her cherry red hair was shaved crew-cut short, and there was enough black eyeliner on her face for it to qualify as a mask all by itself.
“What’s the matter?” Syncope asked with a sneer. “No glib response without Maniac to back you up?” I could hear anger boiling through his voice. That’s when I remembered he and Splash used to be a couple, always saying pancreatic-seizing sweet things to each other. I guess, he was taking her loss hard. “When I’m done with you, bitch, you’ll stagger like a drunken sailor in a hurricane for the rest of your miserable life.” He raised his hands again, fingers pointed in my direction.
I assumed he intended to destroy, or at least permanently impair, my vestibular system. I didn’t know for sure if my invulnerability could prevent that from happening.
Before he could attack, a blur passed through the space between us, followed by the unmistakable sound of a leather hitting flesh. The vertigo-inducing fiend spun around twice before collapsing to the ground. Still conscious, but definitely stunned.
“Ouch, that hurt more than I thought it would,” Zip said.
I took advantage of the momentary distraction my speedy teammate provided to climb to my feet. Carbonado and Sonix looked up from where their leader lay sprawled out on the pavement. The crystalline behemoth took two steps forward, swinging his fist at me again. This time, I managed to block it with my forearm.
I drew back my own arm, pausing for a half-second to wonder if his shiny chest would shatter if I hit it hard enough. Of course, I didn’t get the opportunity to find out since Sonix screamed at me the moment she realized Carbonado was in trouble.
The vibration blast sent me reeling back a few steps. The ringing in my ears, which was starting to subside, came back with a vengeance.
It was like having two alarm clocks, one taped to either side of my skull, going off at the same time. I shook my head, trying to quiet the clamor. Carbonado took advantage of the opening, punching me with an uppercut backed by what felt like every bit of his Enhanced strength.
I flew backward, feet and arms flailing, slamming into the exterior wall of the Museum of Discovery building. The force shattered concrete and rebar, opening a hole much bigger than my petite frame. I continued through the opening to hit the floor inside. The remaining bit of my momentum saw me slide across the polished tile floor, to slam to a stop against a stone pillar.
I lay on the floor for a few seconds, staring up at a vaulted ceiling decorated in hieroglyphs and cracks. Holy shit, I thought, he knocked my ass all the way to Egypt. I brought my gaze lower to see a miniature pyramid, an equally resized Sphinx, and a wall mural map of the Nile.
Instead of on the other side of the Atlantic, I was still in Charlotte. Inside the museum’s Ancient Egypt room.
I climbed to my feet with a groan. Carbonado and I were in the same strength class, so getting punched twice in the head by one of his rocky fists actually hurt. Fortunately, when I wiggled my chin, nothing felt broken. I brushed some of the brick debris from my hair and shoulders, then heard a small whimper come from behind me.
I spun around, wondering why there were still people in the building. The whole place should have already been evacuated the moment the EAPF showed up on the scene. I glanced down to see five pairs of repeatedly blinking eyes set in cherubic faces, cheeks streaked with tears.
The kid closest to me, a little blonde girl who looked to be around six, locked eyes with me. “Are you going to save us, Kayo?” she asked with a sniffle.
I knelt down in front of her, wiping one of her cheeks with my thumb. “Yes, sweetie. I am.” I glanced around. “Why are you still in here? Where are your parents?”
The girl sniffled again, then pointed over my shoulder. “Miss Danvers got runned over when everyone left. She won’t wake up.”
I looked in the indicated direction to see an older woman a few feet away, lying on the floor next to a statue of Anubis. There didn’t seem to be any blood on her, and her chest moved in a steady rhythm. I turned back to the girl.
“I am going to get you, your friends, and Miss Danvers out of here, okay?” I said, putting on a smile. “But we can’t go through the hole I made because there are bad people out there.” I pressed the button on my com. “Anyone? Hello? I’m inside the museum. There’s a freaking group of kids still in here. Their teacher is out cold.”
A loud cracking, like ice being torn from a tray, sounded above us. I glanced overhead as a huge section of the decorated ceiling broke loose. I flew up, planting my hands on the heavy debris, as I fought to bring it down slowly. The reinforced material of the twelve-foot cross-structure weighed several tons, all of which I was holding as high as I could over my head.
“Kayo,” Manpower said. “Do you read?”
I grunted, struggling against the section’s desire to tilt randomly. If I dropped it, some of the children might get hurt. The unconscious adult most certainly would.
“Someone … needs… to get… these… kids… out of here.” I snarled into my mic.
The tractor trailer from earlier in the week now seemed unbelievably light in comparison to the chunk of ceiling. I risked lowering my attention to see the kids trying to pull the prone woman by her arms, to get her out from under the slab in my hands.
I dug deep to find another reservoir of energy, steadying the chunk of ceiling as best as I could.
“Hey, Crushette? Forget about us?”
Carbonado and Sonix were standing just inside the hole in the museum wall. While the obsidian villain stared at me, the bitchy screamer’s attention was focused on the children.
“Looks like the local funeral home is going to need to order a shitload of tiny caskets,” she said in a voice full of hate. She opened her mouth to draw in a deep breath.
“No!” I yelled as I staggered into the path of her attack. Her auditory blast slammed into my chest, blowing my hair back and making me slide backward, still holding the piece of debris above the InBees’ heads.
Carbonado laughed, walking closer to me. “Wow. So Crushette really did become some kind of hero. Who would have thought?” He picked up a hunk of debris from the floor and threw it at me. It hit my left thigh, shattering into pebbles.
I clenched my jaw, ignoring the pain in my leg in favor of keeping control of the weight in my hands.
“You know, it’s funny,” he said picking up another softball-sized chunk. “Back when we were working for Maniac, we often wondered if you were really as tough as the stories claimed. Crushette, the bruiser with a heart of ice.” He bounced the hunk in his hand. “Looking at you now, putting yourself in front of a bunch of little kids, I can’t believe A-Listers like us were ever scared of you.”
I didn’t think it was the right time to inform him that, for all of Doctor Maniac’s evil, he adhered to one unbreakable rule: never harm children. Martin never bothered to explain why he felt it was okay to snap the necks of police officers. Or perfectly acceptable to slaughter every adult who dared to stand between him and his plan.
Kids were always off-limits.
He glanced over at Sonix, giving her a slight nod. The screamer moved me to get a better angle on the children. Judging the scene, I realized, without question, Carbonado was planning to throw the chunk of stone in his hand at them as well. There was no way I could be in two places at once.
“Someone better get their ass in here now,” I ordered into the com. “Like fucking yesterday now.”
Carbonado drew back his arm as Sonix opened her mouth.
“After we kill you,” Carbonado teased. “Everyone will know that the Doom Quartet is every bit as dangerous as the infamous Doctor Maniac.” His arm snapped forward, hurling the piece of concrete at my head. At the same time, Sonix released her vocal blast.
A white lance rocketed across my field of vision, striking the incoming missile. The chunk of stone exploded into a harmless cloud of dust. I whipped my head around to see Luminosity standing between Sonix and the children, one hand held out in front of her. A glowing barrier of solid light hovered in the air between them, still wobbling from having absorbed the sonic scream.
“Hey, Sonix,” Sonya said, peering at the other woman over the top of the photonic shield. “I see you’re still as shitty a dresser as ever.” She looked over at me. “I’ve got Miss Big Mouth. You take care of tall, dark, and stupid.” She tilted her head to the side. “Zip? Get your skinny ass in here and take these kids to safety.”
“On my way, Lum!”
“Now, let’s take the party outside,” Sonya said, dropping the barrier.
Sonix opened her mouth again, but before she could scream, twin beams of solid light slammed into her chest, throwing her back out through the hole. Luminosity charged right after, both of them disappearing from sight.
I looked from the opening back to Carbonado, my arms starting to tire. If I didn’t get the chance to put the ceiling down soon, my limbs would be too limp to do more than slap at the villain like a dead fish.
He shrugged, holding up his hand. The index finger lengthened by several inches, the tip forming a needlepoint. “You can’t fight me holding that. But you can’t put it down either. At least, not without maybe killing some kids or the adult bitch.” He laughed, raising his other hand to show it, too, was now a diamond lance. “It’s kind of a shame, really. It would be fun to stomp you in an even fight.”
“Tell you what,” I sneered, shifting my back to keep the weight in my hands balanced. “Why don’t you wait for me outside? Then when these nice kids are safe, I’ll come out there and beat you into enough material for a thousand ring settings.”
“As tempting as that is, your friends are here now. It would probably be best for me to lend my crew a hand.” He pointed toward the children. “But first, I’m going
to make you watch me gut every single one of those little brats.”
“Freeze!”
I turned to look over my shoulder at the doorway into the room. Standing there, with his service weapon pointed at Carbonado, was George. I noticed the tear in the sleeve of his uniform, as well as the cut running across the forehead of his soot-covered face. He must have been a part of the unit trying to apprehend Mega-Blast. He kept the hand cannon aimed at the criminal as he stepped closer to the two of us.
Carbonado looked back from George to me. “Well, well, it seems a brave member of the EAPF has decided to join those he protects in the afterlife.”
“George,” I grunted. “Get the hell out of here.” I began to fear the bad situation I was in was about to get a whole lot worse.
The large, crystalline nature of the criminal’s Enhanced form did nothing to impede his mobility. As fast as if made of flesh and blood, Carbonado bounded the distance between him and George. Kurt’s cousin managed to get off a single shot, which passed right over his attacker’s shoulder, before he was slammed into a display case.
“George!” I screamed. I looked around frantically for a way to ditch my burden without injuring anyone.
Except for Carbonado. Him I wanted to injure. A lot.
He grabbed the pistol from George’s hand, throwing it casually across the room. Then he hauled my friend up by the neck, then turned toward me.
“Friend of yours, Crushette?” He shook his head. “A hero and chummy with the cops? You really have gone soft.”
“Let him go, Carbonado,” I said, straining against the burden in my hands. “This is between us. Only us. Stop hiding behind kids and Norms.”
“Tell you what, girl. I’ll give you the choice. You get to decide who lives and who dies. You can stand there helpless, while I gut this little piggy. Or you can put down that slab and save your buddy with a badge. At the cost of sacrificing those snot-nosed punks.”
“Kayo,” George groaned, still disoriented from being body slammed. “Don’t you do it.”
The crying of the children behind me tore at my heart, and the sight of George, one of my few actual friends, dangling from Carbonado’s grip ripped at my stomach. My head pounded with the enormity of the decision. I didn’t want anyone to die.
