The City That Heroes Built

by Daniel Pierce

  I looked back to the Guardian Angels. Ravelin maintained her impasse with Shamblingstroke and Avalanche. I wondered why Oubliette wasn't killing them.

  Cal appeared next to me. “Oh shit,” he said. I looked the way he was facing. Red Barber was there, all 15 clones from the Sleep Farm, and 4 more from Death Row.

  “Be nice to have Slowburn, right about now,” I said.

  “Line of sight radios,” Cal said. “We can't call him. Oh shit. I'll be right back.” He looked up and disappeared. I heard his broadcast a second later. “Slowburn! We need you at the Citadel! Emergency! Full breakout! Help!”

  “I got this,” Rebel said. “Go get Shamblingstroke and Avalanche.”

  Simmilax teleported around in flurry, hitting all of us, disappearing, and reappearing a few feet over so rapidly I couldn't react. Rebel could, though. He punched at open air just as Simmilax teleported into his fist, twice in rapid succession. Simmilax fell.

  Catchpenny was already running away. She had to dodge past Ice Queen's freezing blast. I went with a massive jump. Honestly, terrifying the first time the hydraulics spin up and launch you in the air, and you hope you land near where you're aiming on the far side. I came close. The ground boomed when I landed and the hydraulics hissed. Avalanche stopped and turned to me.

  He's a nasty violent villain with impossible strength and incredible speed, as big as Shamblingstroke, but all muscle. His prison uniform was torn, showing his physique. Catchpenny shoved a blade into Shamblingstroke's knee. I did my part by taking a beating. Avalanche was too fast for me to hit with my blades. I did hit him with the net gun, but he tore through the net in a hurry. Catchpenny followed up with a hit to Shamblingstroke's other knee. He managed to stay upright, leaning on the force field. Ravelin moved it, and he fell over. Catchpenny stood over him and tried to cut his throat. Shamblingstroke was really fat. She hacked at his neck trying to get a fatal strike. She eventually did, hitting an artery and spraying blood everywhere.

  Cal re-appeared, wasted bullets trying to hurt Avalanche, then popped behind the force field and checked on Persephone. He created enough of a distraction that I gained a second to think, and started releasing tear gas. Avalanche thought about it, and not knowing what was happening, decided to back off. I shot canisters around in a wide arc, hoping to keep others back.

  Avalanche came charging back at us. Then disappeared.

  “Avalanche, dead,” Oubliette said. “I'm okay now.”

  “Where is Sunday?” I asked.

  “Trying to follow LEGION,” Oubliette said. “They came and left with a bunch of prisoners when you were out. Anyone going to help Rebel?”

  “I got this, wait, no, yeah, ugh, help.” I could hear him fighting as he talked.

  I looked back across the open concrete area. There were individuals standing alone, and groups of civilians huddle together still against the wall where we'd moved them when the break out happened. The closest ones moved away from the tear gas. The busiest part of the ground was a pile up of orange jumpsuits. I took a step in that direction and my hydraulics failed. My legs buckled and Ironsides collapsed.

  “I got this,” Slowburn said on the radio.

  “Fucking hurry,” Rebel said.

  Alerts started to appear on my heads-up-display. Power went back on in the hydraulics. I fought to get Ironsides upright.

  Slowburn's fire trail streaked over to us. He lit up the pile of Red Barbers trying to kill Rebel. The ones that could run scattered then turned and leapt off the cliff for the water. Rebel tore off burning clothes. Slowburn extinguished the flames on his friend as he landed.

  “Motherfucker,” Rebel said. He tossed off the destroyed radio, along with his mask and shirt. He’d taken a beating from the Red Barbers. He was bloody and bruised, and not slightly burnt.

  “Shit, sorry, I thought you'd be okay,” Slowburn said. “It was an ambush, by the way, we need to get back there. All the dead bodies they stole, they're all there. We took out Flammable Lolita and Granite Kid. I left to take on the zombie legion. It's Sentinel against everyone if LEGION finds him.”

  “LEGION was here without Lady in Black,” Oubliette said. “Lady Thirteen was with them.”

  “If they meet up and she shuts down Sentinel's powers, he's dead,” Catchpenny said.

  “I doubt she can,” Ravelin said. “He's the Sentinel. But we still need to help. Take us back to the Island,” she said to Cal. She told Slowburn, “Kill all of the escapees in the water. Then go to Sentinel, and call for everyone else.”

  “What about all the civilians here?” Catchpenny asked.

  “I'll take them in groups,” Cal said. He took me, Catchpenny, Rebel and Persephone first, popped back and forth rapidly, extracting people to Angel Island. He took one side trip to move Rebel into the city. Most of the remaining former inmates had taken shelter in the Citadel. Ravelin and her forcefield were with the last group of civilians.

  I had to eject from the Ironsides. Not as dramatic as it sounds. The way I put it on had been damaged, so I couldn't just step out. I activated the emergency switches and the armor opened up. It had taken a beating. Avalanche had busted the arms and legs. Shamblingstroke rattled everything when he threw me against the Citadel wall. I had a few scrapes, and a little blood. I'd have bruises in the morning. But I survived my first fight with supras.

  I stood on the deck of Angel Island and looked back at the Citadel. Calliope walked up next to me. “You okay?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” I said. I think I believed it.

  “We've got to get back to the city. Sentinel and Slowburn are on their own.”

  Catchpenny came over. “I've got a guy who can fix this.”

  “In time for me to make the fight?”

  “LEGION released all sorts of hell on the city. An army of dead supras, the zombie-disease, Suicide Prime, and now the escaped prisoners from the Citadel. We're going to be fighting all night,” she said. “Get the armor on.”

  Cal popped over while I put on the armor.

  “Ravelin is staying behind,” Cal said. “Oubliette is going with us. Sunday, Slowburn and Sentinel are downtown fighting LEGION's resurrected supras. Fiver is fighting gangs in the Rail District. I'm taking you to Murphy's.”

  “Head to the junkyard,” Catchpenny told me. “It's in the GPS. Southern part of the Rail District.”

  “What's the junkyard?”

  “It's where you'll get fixed.”

  “I just walk to the address?”

  “No, you run.” I closed up the armor. It felt more cumbersome than before.

  Cal stepped in the middle of us and we all laid hands on him. As he did for his longer-range teleports, he concentrated for a few seconds. He popped us to the alley behind Murphy's.

  “Go,” Catchpenny said. “I'll call ahead.”

  I voice activated the GPS and ran off toward the junkyard. The sun had set, and this part of the city didn't have the illumination of the islands off the coast. Long shadows fell over everything. Even in the armor, I felt nervous being out after dark in this area. I laughed at myself as I built up speed. I was Ironsides, or the armor was and I was in it. Running was awkward, but manageable.

  The junkyard was near the train repair depot in the southern part of the Rail District, tucked beneath a freeway on-ramp. A massive fence topped with razor wire encircled it. Stacks of crushed cars stood out over the fence. The gates were shut when I arrived, though the chain was not locked. They opened as I approached, and I walked in.

  An old man closed the gate behind me, adding the lock to the chain. He was withered and worn, in a clean white t-shirt and dirty overalls.

  “This way,” he said. He pointed to a garage. I walked that way. A row of metal animals lined each side of the driveway, like clockwork beasts and birds. The largest was last, a life-sized steel gorilla. Servos, gears and hydraulics could be seen in most of them, but the gorilla was the most complete, its mechanical parts enclosed in a metal skin. Walking past it, I entered the g
arage.

  The space was fully kitted out with all the repair gear you could need. I didn't recognize half the tools in the place. A kid sat on a workbench. I'm not good with ages; he might have been 9 or 10. He looked over Ironsides as I stepped out of it, ignoring me completely.

  “This your apprentice?” I asked the old man.

  “He's the one you're here to see,” the old man said.

  “I'm Ironsides,” I said. “Can you fix it? I need to get back out there.”

  “You're not Ironsides, the armor is,” the kid said. “I'm Bobby. We can fix it, but we don't have the heavy stuff like the original armor. We'll replace the hydraulics, but they won't be as resistant to damage. They'll be lighter, though.”

  “Let's do it.”

  “It's going to take a hour,” Bobby said. “Come here, Monkey.” From the collection of animals, a 3-foot tall mechanical creature resembling a monkey scurried over.

  “Cool monkey,” I said.

  “It's a gibbon, its name is Monkey.”

  “Gotcha.”

  “Can you get out of the way, so we can do this,” Bobby said. The old man motioned for me to follow him. He looked like the Soft Master from the old GI Joe comic books. He led me out of the workshop to a small building he used as an office. There were tables and chairs outside, a mess of books and papers, and clutter inside. He introduced himself as Howard and offered me a chair.

  “Coffee?” he asked. “Tea?”

  I realized how thirsty I was.

  “Water would be great.”

  He brought me a bottle from the refrigerator inside the office. I drank it straight away. He brought me another, and I immediately drank half of that.

  “Thanks,” I said. “I needed that more than I thought.”

  “Hot out here,” he said. “That's why we've got the chairs outside. Also the chairs inside have my things all over them.”

  “This your junkyard, then?”

  “It is. Been in the family for a long time. Started out as a used car lot.” He went back into the office and took a photo off the wall while he talked. “I wasn't that interested in selling cars, so I fixed them up instead. The cars that didn't run started to outnumber the ones that did. Once those were sold, I kept buying cars for parts.” He handed me the framed picture of the junkyard when it was a car dealership. Where the piles of old cars stood today, the picture captured a long row of classic American autos.

  “That's awesome,” I said. I handed the picture back. “How long ago was this?”

  “Thirty years,” he said. “Only three cars left now.”

  “Here?”

  “Out back. Do you want to see?”

  I jumped at the chance. He led me behind the office and the wall of crushed cars. Three classic Mustangs sat in the bright lights, shiny and polished as if they just came off an assembly line.

  “The '66 is my favorite,” he said.

  To the north, several miles away at least, I saw flashes of lightning.

  “You have a TV?” I asked. “I'd like to know what is going on in the city.”

  “You haven't heard? Dead people and dead heroes.” He led me inside the office as someone flew past overhead. I looked up, but couldn't see the source.

  Howard turned on the TV. The news confirmed it with video recorded earlier in the day. Screamingo had attacked Sentinel when he flew into the city to fight Suicide Prime. Flammable Lolita and the Granite Kid had joined the fight until Sentinel flew out of reach. When he did, they set about demolishing the nearest buildings until he got back within arms reach to stop them.

  Screamingo re-attacked as well, but he was intercepted by his old teammate, the hero once known as Sloppy Toaster. Slowburn was an expert flyer and had the agility to avoid Screamingo's attacks for a while, but he didn't risk getting distracted. His friend had died long ago and Slowburn wasn't sentimental. It was still difficult to do it. Screamingo came around for another pass, trying to impact with his sonic attack. He leveled out aimed straight at Slowburn. Slowburn ejected his fire blast as Screamingo came for him. Screamingo turned and flew away. Whatever the dead supras were, they weren't mindless automatons.

  Sentinel had his hands full on the ground. Granite Kid could take a punch, and being dead may have made him smarter than he had been when alive. Flammable Lolita didn't have the sheer power of Slowburn, so she wasn't a threat to Sentinel, but she was a threat to everyone else around her. While Granite Kid traded punches with Sentinel, Flammable Lolita lit up stores and turned cars into fireballs. Trying to counter her took a lot of Sentinel's time and focus away from battling Granite Kid.

  Slowburn couldn't hurt Flammable Lolita. Instead he used his incredible flames to ignite Granite Kid, destroying the undead supra in intense fires. With the threat gone, Slowburn landed in the center of Flammable Lolita's destruction. A news helicopter circles, recording the area as fires and flames were extinguished by the strength of Slowburn's will. The fires closest to Slowburn went out first. Slowly in an expanding circle, the rest of the fires died. Sentinel caught up with Flammable Lolita and knocked her unconscious with a combination of punches.

  Slowburn flew off and found the wall of cops trying to quarantine the zombie outbreak. His ability to set large areas on fire all at once winnowed the mass of diseased people by the time Cal teleported to line of sight and called him to help at the Citadel.

  With one crisis averted, Sentinel sought out Suicide Prime, locating the burning hulk by following its trail of destruction. I watched the news replay the fight. It happened suddenly, Sentinel arriving to face Suicide Prime. Suicide Prime charged him. Sentinel seemed to freeze up, as if held in place. Suicide Prime ran him over, smashing him into the pavement and left smoldering. The camera zoomed in to show the damage to the greatest hero in the history of Santa Maria. The formerly invulnerable hero was bleeding from his head. I don't think I've ever seen a photo of him bleeding. For good measure, Suicide Prime returned and stomped on Sentinel. The news feed cut off before it showed his head being crushed.

  I was too shocked to concentrate on the commentary. The feed switched to a live picture of police and helicopters at the scene of the zombie outbreak. It appeared to be mostly contained with a house-to-house search beginning. The feed changed to video of LEGION floating over the city, inbound from the Citadel.

  That had been enough to kick off violence elsewhere, the most visible occurring between gangs. Drive by shootings and clashes on drug corners became too numerous for the press to keep up with.

  Disaster flew away from the Citadel as soon as he escaped and immediately killed someone in an apartment in West Santa Maria. Police had not yet released the victim's identity.

  Another Citadel escapee, Atomic Punk, broke into a bank. Breeze made a series of thefts at convenience stores after she was freed.

  The TV news cut away to give a quick summary of the day's events: The zombie outbreak, followed by Suicide Prime's rampage, the possible death of Sentinel, then jailbreak at the Citadel, combined with the attack by LEGION, and the gang war breaking out.

  Following the break away from Suicide Prime crushing Sentinel, they showed video of LEGION flying away from the area. A second clip showed police officers firing at Suicide Prime, drawing him away from Sentinel, and a daring dash by a policewoman to load Sentinel's body into her backseat and escape. The news speculated that he had been taken to a hospital but wouldn't identify which one.

  The news reporting continued. The mechanical gibbon called Monkey ran over and fetched us. We returned to the garage.

  The mechanical gorilla moved Ironsides under Bobby's direction, resting the repaired armor on the ground. Bobby stayed seated on the workbench, as he had when I first saw him.

  “I guess you've got better places to be,” he said. “You ought to hurry.”

  “Thanks,” I said. I stepped into Ironsides. It seemed eager to move. I walked out of the workshop as I activated the comms and sensors.

  “I've got your video feed on the laptop,�
� Bobby said. “If you break down, I'll send help.”

  “Great, thanks.”

  I climbed in.

  “Ironsides online,” I said. No one answered. I called again.

  “Hang on,” Sunday said.

  “North of the Rail District,” Catchpenny said. “Block south of MLK.”

  I pushed Ironsides into a run. Catchpenny's position came up on my monitor. I aimed for it. When I got there, she was standing in the center of an intersection with Sunday and Calliope. A dozen injured gangsters had been rounded up and collected on a corner. Their hands and feet were zip-tied.

  “Everything working?” Catchpenny asked.

  “Yeah, great,” I said over the radio. “What's going on?”

  “We're crushing violence as soon as we get word of it, but there is a lot of things flaring up. Grudges are getting settled while cops are busy elsewhere. There is looting in the wake of Suicide Prime. Rebel and Cal went to negotiate a quick peace. It turned into a shoot out with them in the middle. We couldn't do anything about thefts and bank robberies on the west side. Slowburn was with us, but he was pretty seriously injured by Impact.”

  “Who?”

  “Fought with the Sky Bandits when they came after the old Catchpenny armor, you know, the armor you're wearing.”

  “Ah, yeah.”

  “Persephone and Oubliette are waiting on someone to come collect Suicide Prime,” Sunday said. “Persephone managed to take him out. Oubliette is helping keep guard. Waiting on the Feds or someone to collect him. It. Whatever.”