The Crucible (Steel City Heroes Book 2)

by LE Barbant

  “Thank you very much, kind sir,” she said, fitting one of the keys into the padlock on the door. Though her captivity was brief, she relished her freedom.

  Rita ran to Skylar’s cage. For the first time the girl looked frightened.

  “So, how do we do this?”

  “Um, do what?” Skylar replied.

  “Will it hurt if I carry you?”

  Getting Skylar to safety and getting herself into some body of water were warring for number one and two on Rita’s top ten list. While her strength was extraordinary for her size, lack of nourishment and hydration had taken its toll. The girl’s dead weight, like a bag of mortar, weighed on her shoulder.

  “How do we get out?” Rita asked.

  “We can’t, not without my mom.”

  The halls were narrow, dirty, and dimly lit. Rita tried to put the pieces of the puzzle together. When locked in the cage she thought she was in some kind of self-storage unit, but now it seemed she was wandering through the halls of a large warehouse.

  Rita peeked around a corner and found a man wearing the same low-priced polyester uniform as the one who now sat bloody in his own prison cell. It was evident these were cheap hired guns, not the muscle of a highly complex crime syndicate.

  Gently, Rita lowered Skylar to the ground, trying to honor her dignity by not allowing her uncontrolled body to fall to its side.

  “I need a favor.”

  “What’s that?” the girl asked.

  “Give me five seconds, and then scream bloody murder.”

  The girl just smiled as Rita slunk toward the corner in the hall. She looked back and gave Skylar a nod. Without delay, the screaming started.

  “Help! Help! Please, I need help.”

  Rita gave her a clawed thumbs up as the footsteps approached.

  The element of surprise was Rita’s forte. The man turned the corner and she snagged his moving neck in her hands like a Frisbee.

  Claws sinking into his flesh, she whipped the man into the air and then down onto his back. He landed hard, air escaping from this body.

  Her dagger-bearing mouth clamped down on his right hand as it moved for a weapon fastened to his belt. The ruddy-faced guard tried to yell, but Rita cut it short with a tight squeeze.

  Keeping her hand on his throat, she said, “Quiet now, love, or I’ll end it all.”

  The man silently shook his head. Fear filled his eyes. “Good,” Rita let her claws dig in further. “Now, where will we find the girl’s mum?”

  “End of the hall. Last door on the right.” Rita looked down and noticed his dark gray pants were darker around the crotch. Pity was the last thing on her mind.

  “Get another job,” Rita said just before she landed a series of blows to his head, knocking him out. Zip ties conveniently hanging from his belt would keep him from causing trouble. She locked his wrist behind his back and to his ankles.

  “Nice work,” Rita said, as she hoisted the girl back onto her shoulders.

  They found the room without further delay. A locked door was their last barrier to freeing the girl’s mom.

  Careful, this could be a trap, she told herself.

  Three swift kicks knocked the door wide open, exposing a room that was more of a lab than a residence. Metal parts hung throughout, and a twenty-foot table ran the length of one wall. A woman in a lab coat turned and gasped as Rita stepped across the threshold. She grabbed a screwdriver off the table and raised it in defense.

  “I’m here to help.”

  Rita lowered Skylar off her shoulders and held her out toward her mother.

  “Skylar!” the woman shouted, dropping her feeble weapon. “Thank God.”

  “Let’s thank Him after we get out of here, lady.”

  Rita only made it two feet before the prongs of a Taser sunk into her dry flesh. Volts of electricity swam through her body, knocking her to the floor. Skylar landed a second later with a sickening thud. Rita pitched herself over, trying to reach for the wires.

  Have to get free.

  The man holding the stun gun grinned as though he’d always dreamed of having an excuse to use it. He pulled out a nightstick and took a step forward.

  His grin disappeared when a wooden Louisville Slugger connected with the back of his head. The guard dropped to the floor and Rita saw Chem standing with the bat resting on his shoulder.

  “High fly ball to right field,” he called into the room.

  Rita’s mouth dropped open.

  “Come on, Aquagirl, you actually believed I’d leave you in this hellhole? I’m a better man than that, even though losing you would take care of plenty of my problems.”

  “But I heard you. They had a tape of you talking with the others.”

  “Shit, I can’t believe that actually worked!”

  Chem knelt and gently pulled the prongs from her skin. Rita stared at him without blinking. “Elijah figured that the drone you found was spying on us. It’s how the Decepticons knew where we were. So we decided to try a little deception ourselves.” He gave Rita a hand and helped her to her feet. “So Willa and Elijah are running off to take care of the Mayor, and I came looking for you.”

  He looked around the lab and his gaze landed on the middle-aged woman cradling her daughter. “Who’re your friends?”

  The woman looked up, tears running down her cheeks. “I’m Sylvia, and this is my daughter Skylar. We’ve been trapped here for months. I don’t know what to say, except thank you.”

  “You can get me a Hallmark card later. But what are you doing here in the Fortress of Ineptitude?”

  “There’s no time.” Rita leaned down and picked up Skylar. Sylvia flinched watching her daughter being balanced on Rita’s shoulders. “Come on, we need to get out of here before those suits show back up.”

  ****

  Chem, Skylar, and her mom stood next to the Allegheny as Rita eased herself in. The muddy water made her feel alive again. Fully submerged, she swam to the middle, letting the current take her a hundred yards downstream before making her way back to the shore. The ease with which Rita navigated the water still amazed her. It wasn’t a skill, but a deeply ingrained knowledge that had become a part of her when her new body took over.

  She swam back to the edge and stood waist deep—feet away from Chem and their new companions.

  “Feel better?” Chem said to Rita. “I’d offer to give you a physical but your weird fish body still makes no sense to me.” He turned to Skylar and her mother. “Don’t worry, we’re safe now. At least safeish. Wanna tell us what the hell was going on back there?”

  The woman held her daughter close and kept an eye on Rita.

  While her daughter accepted her, Rita could feel the mother’s suspicion. It wasn’t unreasonable, considering all that she had been through.

  “Eight months ago, a strange woman contacted me regarding a job. She offered all kinds of money but, as you can imagine, I was hesitant.”

  “Actually, I can’t imagine. What was the job?” Chem asked.

  “Oh, I thought you knew. Didn’t you come to disrupt the project?”

  “Only inasmuch as the project decided it would be prudent to take my gilled friend here.”

  Sylvia laughed. “I thought you had come to rescue us. Good thing we were at least an afterthought.”

  Chem grinned. “Sorry, honey.”

  The woman tucked strands of long black hair behind her ears. Her smile was warm, like an old friend’s. Rita thought she looked too young to have a sixteen-year-old daughter.

  “Before being taken captive, I worked for Bio-Org, a nonprofit working to create various technologies for people with physical handicaps. As you can imagine, I had skin in the game.” She nodded toward her daughter.

  “And you were good, huh?” Rita gurgled.

  “You might say I was the best. When I refused to work for them, they just took me. Literally. A large bald man asked me to go with him. When I said no, he threw me over his shoulder.”

  “Lots of those
large bald men walking around Pittsburgh,” Chem said.

  Sylvia gave the chemist a strange look, then took in the river. Rita assumed she was reveling in her newfound freedom. “And, when I refused to help, they took my baby. I had no choice.”

  “No choice in what?” Rita asked.

  “I made those suits. I didn’t know what they were using them for, but I assumed the worst. I hated the thought of my work being used for evil purposes.”

  Chem looked down at his shoes. For the first time since she met the man, he was speechless.

  Rita filled in. “They were terrorizing the city. They hurt some folks. They hurt a…friend of ours. But we don’t know why.”

  “Actually, I’m pretty sure we figured that out as well.” Chem added; his weird silence didn’t last long. “After you were taken, our friend Willa showed up, along with a speechwriter for Mayor Dobbs. Apparently the man was squeezing information from Dobbs’ other political aids. He told us that Dobbs had been investing city funds into weird tech outfits and that he’d been gathering strangely personal data about Pittsburghers. We put two and two together and figured that he was somehow connected with that drone and these tech suit douche bags. So, we made it as obvious as we could that Willa and Elijah were going to confront Dobbs, hoping that he’d pull in his armored bodyguards for protection, leaving me free to come rescue you.”

  Rita sat on her heels, letting the cool water rise to her neck as she tried to understand the convoluted plan. It made sense that Dobbs was connected; after all, the fake monster attacks only helped him in the polls. But there was still something nagging Rita.

  “But how did you know where to find me?”

  “Elementary, my dear Watson,” Chem smiled, clearly enjoying his role as expositor. “Willa tracked Dobbs to a warehouse on the outskirts of the city, and that happened to be only blocks from where Robert Vinton was murdered.”

  Sylvia placed a hand on Chem’s shoulder, a concerned look on her face. “You said your friends were trying to draw those thugs in my suits out. They won’t stand a chance.”

  Chem shrugged. “Elijah and Willa make a pretty effective team. It’s a fine line between monsters and heroes. Together, they’re stronger than Dobbs realizes. Plus…” A cocky grin crossed his face. “We have a secret weapon.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  Dobbs’ technological entourage moved into place between him and the heroes. The two smaller suits came equipped with nasty-looking automatic rifles.

  Willa and Elijah took a step back toward the door.

  “Not exactly what we had in mind,” Elijah whispered.

  Even in the full light of the office, Willa could understand why people thought the big fighter was Elijah in monster form. Over seven feet tall, the entire body of the suit was covered in plate armor. And according to Elijah, the thing was even stronger than he was.

  They were outnumbered, and Willa realized she’d have to take care of the other two. They were human size, and although their faces were shielded by armored masks, their bodies were partially exposed. They would be faster, but less impervious to assaults.

  “Look, this is between us and the Mayor. Why don’t you just power down or whatever, and we won’t have to hurt you?” Elijah’s tough guy routine needed some work. They aimed their rifles at him and began to advance.

  “OK, I’ll take that as a no.” He turned to Willa. “Ready?”

  Willa focused on the words, praying her magic would respond in the way they had planned. If she failed, their night could get a whole lot worse.

  “Tyger Tyger, burning bright,

  In the forests of the night;

  What immortal hand or eye,

  Could frame thy fearful symmetry?”

  Elijah groaned. She could feel heat emanating from his body. He doubled over with pain.

  “Don’t stop,” he yelled through gritted teeth. She hadn’t planned on it.

  “In what distant deeps or skies.

  Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

  On what wings dare he aspire?

  What the hand,

  dare seize the fire?”

  The sound of ripping cloth accompanied Elijah’s screams. His voice deepened into a roar as he grew a foot in height, molten steel dripping from his body. He took a step forward, and Willa felt the floor shake under her.

  “Looks like you’re ready,” Willa said.

  Before their adversaries could move, Elijah kicked the coffee table. The element of surprise worked perfectly; one of the exoskeletons took the solid wood table in the chest. He crashed into the corner, evening things up for the heroes, if only for a moment.

  Elijah ran full-force at the larger of the remaining two. Willa heard a cacophony of metal on metal as she positioned herself for battle.

  She and the soldier circled each other. Her eyes narrowed as she watched for his first move.

  Naturally, he went for his gun.

  As the mech soldier swung his piece toward Willa, her foot was already on its way. She timed her kick well. Her training had not been in vain.

  His shot went wide, riddling the wall behind her with bullet holes. Willa followed through with an elbow in the gaps of the exoskeleton.

  The soldier doubled over at the hit.

  The words were already on her lips:

  “Her words did gather thunder as they ran,

  And as the lightning to the thunder

  Which follows it, riving the spirit of man.”

  The power of the poem blasted the soldier across the room. Willa smiled, pleased with her development. But her self-approval faded as she saw the other smaller soldier pick up the table and hurl it.

  There was no time for defense. Will dove out of the way, barely avoiding the wooden discus. She scrambled to her feet, drawing forth another spell to use against the fighter.

  An explosion sounded behind her. Elijah and the giant metal soldier disappeared through a newly made hole in the Mayor’s office wall.

  Willa turned in time to see that both of her grunts were now on their feet, moving toward her.

  Oh, crap.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  Sheetrock and wood burned as Elijah crashed through the wall and out of the Mayor’s office.

  Shit, this guy’s good.

  Elijah stood and landed a shovel hook into the soldier’s side. The punch knocked the man back, but not down. He advanced as Elijah readied himself.

  Elijah focused on the fire burning inside of him and called on it. As his temperature rose, the pain had transformed into a feeling of power; his heat wasn’t a weakness but a strength.

  The metal warrior came in with his own flurry of punches. Two landed, but Elijah’s molten skin absorbed most of the impact. He aimed a wild haymaker at Elijah’s head. The tank was stronger than Elijah, but not as fast. The historian ducked the punch and with a quick sidestep wrapped his arms around the mech suit, pinning one arm down with an enormous metal bear hug. He squeezed like a python, putting every muscle he had into the attack.

  Elijah bellowed, heat pouring off of him.

  The soldier’s plate armor turned light pink and then an amber red. A faint hissing emerged from the inside of the suit. His enemy struggled. He elbowed Elijah with his free arm, but Elijah took the blow without letting up. A scream, deep and mechanical, emerged from speakers somewhere on the suit. The yell was something born of pain mixed with rage. Elijah concentrated, knowing this could end the skirmish.

  More heat emanated from his body.

  Like a runner crossing a marathon finish line, he felt his energy fading with the expending of power.

  The scream deepened. The mech suit struggled in his grip. The soldier changed tactics and gripped Elijah’s wrist. Hand like a vise, the suit squeezed. Elijah tried to block out the pain.

  In one swift motion, the brute lunged forward, pulling Elijah off his feet. Unbalanced, Elijah’s hold weakened, and the tank slipped free. It turned, slamming both arms into Elijah’s body. He crumpled like a
rag doll, landing on his back with the three-ton tank on top of him.

  The tables had turned, and Elijah Branton was nearly spent.

  The room erupted as the mechanical warrior drove its fists into the side of Elijah’s molten head.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  Tim Ford rounded the last set of stairs and pushed open the doors to the Mayor’s office suite. Sounds of Armageddon rang through the hall as the century-old building shook around him. He was entering a battle of monsters that fought like gods. As in his days in the military, fear gripped him. He wondered if he would walk back down those stairs under his own power.

  A thick metal chain was wrapped around his arm.

  Facing one of these beasts had nearly killed him last time. Even with Chem’s serum coursing through his veins, he wouldn’t enter into a fight like this unarmed.

  Nevertheless, he was eager to see what the chemist’s enhancements could do. Even while he feigned weakness in front of the drone, the formula that Chem and Willa had cooked up rapidly changed his body. The pain in his fractured leg subsided, replaced by a strength he had never known. They had warned him that the serum wouldn’t last, but the high was worth whatever consequences he would face. Right now, Tim felt like he could chew through a brick wall.

  As he entered the room, he saw the monster—the same one he had met on the streets of the Steel City—straddling what looked like a volcano. The suit was hammering the dark glowing form below it.

  Shit.

  Ford leapt into action, catching the giant machine on an upswing. Even with his extra strength, he barely moved it. But Elijah took the opportunity and with a powerful upward punch he knocked the tank off him.

  Elijah scrambled to his feet, and without looking at Tim, his molten friend yelled, “Help Willa.”

  Whether it was his old-time sense of chivalry or his awe at Elijah’s powerful form, he complied, turning toward the sound of battle beyond.

  He made the right decision.