by Lucas Flint
All of the Injectors began firing at me. I immediately flew into the air, narrowly avoiding their bullets, and pulled several disks out of my pouch. I threw them all in a hurry, which meant that most of the disks missed, but one of them hit an Injector in the forehead, knocking him down. That seemed to cause the other Injectors to scatter, but they didn't take their guns off me, nor did they stop shooting. They just kept firing at me, forcing me to do all sorts of aerial maneuvers just to avoid getting shot.
"How did the Injectors find me?" I said, zipping through the air as I avoided the hail of bullets coming from below. "This doesn't make sense!"
"I don't know, Jack, but I think it might be wiser to flee than fight," said TW. "There are far too many Injectors for you to take on by yourself. Best to escape and go home. As long as they don't know your secret identity, they won't be able to track you down back to your house."
"Did you just tell me to run away?" I said, stopping on the catwalk briefly in order to catch my breath. "Yeah, I'm not going to do that. Either help me take down these goons or shut up."
"But you're outnumbered."
"I don't care." I heard bullets strike the bottom of the catwalk, but luckily none of them had pierced the underside yet. "I'm going to teach these guys a lesson and find out how they knew I was here in the first place."
I launched off the catwalk and flew down straight toward the Injectors. They aimed their rifles at me, but I was too quick and landed right in their midst before they could react. I swung my fists this way and that, taking down two Injectors in an equal number of hits, but had to fly straight back up into the air to avoid another volley of bullets.
Landing in front of the abandoned forklift, I picked up the forklift with both hands and flew into the air, still holding the forklift above my head. Once I got high enough, I threw the forklift directly at the largest group of Injectors. The Injectors scattered at the last second, which was a smart move, because when the forklift crashed into the floor, it created a huge crater and sent pieces flying everywhere.
Now that the Injectors were distracted, I flew toward them again. I grabbed two of the Injectors by the collars of their shirts and threw them at another pair of Injectors, knocking them down in a confused heap of limbs. I heard some of the Injectors cursing in Spanish, but didn't stick around to listen to anything else they had to say, because their friends immediately began shooting on me again, forcing me to fly toward the ceiling to avoid getting shot.
I flew across the ceiling, deftly dodging the bullets that came at me from below, and then rushed toward the Injectors again. They aimed their guns at me, but at the last second, I pulled up, causing them to shoot pointlessly in air. I landed behind the Injectors and kicked one of them in the back, sending him flying forward into another Injector, knocking them both out instantly.
The remaining four Injectors turned toward me, but I rushed toward them before they could shoot me. I smashed the gun of one Injector before punching him in the face, followed by grabbing two other Injectors and smashing their skulls together before throwing them both aside, leaving only one Injector left.
The last Injector backed away from me quickly. Though his hold on his gun was steady, I could see the fear in his eyes as he realized exactly just how screwed he was.
"G-Get away from me, you monster," said the Injector in a voice that wasn't anywhere nearly as steady as his grip. "Or I promise you, I'll sh-shoot and--"
I rushed forward, knocked the gun out of his hands, and then pinned him to the floor, twisting his arms behind his back and putting the full weight of my body on his so he couldn't get away.
"Sorry, buddy, but you started it," I said. "Now that this is all over, however, tell me how you knew I would be here. Who told you I came here?"
"I'll never t-tell," said the Injector, whose voice was surprisingly sharp now. "It was an anonymous tip, so I couldn't tell you even if I wanted to."
"Wrong answer," I said. "I can tell you know, but for some reason you don't want to tell. Why is that?"
"I said I don't know," the Injector repeated. "It was anonymous. I wish I could tell you, but I c-can't. Please don't break my arms."
"He appears to be telling the truth, Jack," said TW in my head. "I don't sense any deceit from this one. Just cowardice."
I decided that TW probably had a point, but I still wasn't letting this guy go, because he might be able to tell me other things about the Injectors that I wanted to know.
"Okay, I think you're telling the truth," I said, "but I'm still not going to let you go until you answer a few questions for me. First off, where's your boss, Michael Jones?"
"Mr. Jones?" said the Injector. "Why do you want to know w-where he is?"
"You're not very smart, are you?" I said. "It's because I want to take him down. If I take him down, then the rest of your little group of criminals will go down with him. It's pretty simple. So tell me, where is he?"
Oddly, the Injector smiled. "Why don't you ask Ferdinand?"
I frowned. "Who?"
A large shadow suddenly appeared over me. Before I could react, two large hands grabbed my shoulders and threw me against the other wall. I smashed into the wall so hard that I almost crashed through it, but I ended up just leaving a huge dent in it that was the size of me. I fell to the floor, where I lay briefly stunned before I shook my head and looked over to see just what had thrown me.
Standing on the other side of the room was a bull. No, it wasn't a bull. It was a huge, muscular man with the head of a bull. Sharp, curled horns stuck out of his skull, while his massive hands curled into boulder-like fists. He wore jeans, but no shirt, though he didn't really need clothes given how hairy his muscular body was. He easily towered over me, probably a head or two taller, and was as thick as a brick wall. His brown eyes were strangely human, though they twitched every now and then like he was crazy.
"Who are you?" I said, rising slowly to my feet, my back aching from the impact of the throw. "Another Injector?"
The last Injector stood up, dusting off his clothes, his eyes full of laughter. "Did you honestly think Mr. Jones would send us to fight you alone? Mr. Jones knows that us ordinary Injectors are no match for superheroes like you. That's why he sent Ferdinand here with us."
The giant bull-man--apparently named Ferdinand--snorted and growled. He pawed the floor, his massive feet leaving deep ruts wherever he pawed. I estimated he had to weigh a ton, and that was without the horns.
"But what is he?" I said. "A genetic experiment gone wrong?"
"Ferdinand is no experiment," said the Injector. "He was once one of us, before he volunteered to be injected with Power. Now he has the appearance and physical strength and endurance of a full-grown, very angry bull. It was risky, of course, because Power could have killed him, but luckily that was one batch of Power that worked. Right, Ferdinand?"
Ferdinand just snorted in response. His eyes seemed to be getting angrier and angrier, as if my very presence was an insult to his existence.
I gulped. "You've got to be kidding me."
"Not even slightly," said the Injector. He pointed at me. "Ferdinand, kill him!"
Ferdinand bellowed like a bull and rushed toward me like a runaway freight train. I flew into the air, but Ferdinand suddenly jumped into the air toward me and grabbed me before I could get very high.
Ferdinand slammed me into the floor hard enough for me to hear something crack underneath me, though I couldn't tell if it was my back or the floor that broke. Either way, intense pain flowed through my body and for a moment everything went black.
When my senses returned, I found myself hanging upside down in Ferdinand's grasp. He was pulling back his other fist, ready to smash me into pulp and, though I was still in pain, I flew upwards, jerking Ferdinand's hand up and wrenching myself out of his grasp. Ferdinand tried to grab me, but I flew out of his reach and then back toward him. I punched Ferdinand in the face, sending him staggering several feet backward, but he recovered quickly and thew another punch at me,
which I dodge by flying into the air out of his reach again.
As I flew near the ceiling, I drew three disks out of my pouch and threw them at Ferdinand. Ferdinand raised his arms in front of his face, but the disks cut into his skin anyway, causing him to growl in pain, but he barely seemed to notice it. He just lowered his arms and, picking up one of the guns dropped by his fellow Injectors, threw it directly at me.
I easily dodged the gun, but then I heard a gunshot and a bullet struck me in the chest. My suit blocked the bullet, but the impact of the bullet still stunned me and caused me to fall to the floor. I hit the floor hard and gasped for breath, though I shook my head and looked over to see that the last Injector was aiming his gun at me.
I rolled to my feet, but Ferdinand was upon me again and slammed his fist into my gut. I gasped in pain before Ferdinand smashed his fist into the back of my head, knocking me into the floor. I tried to get up, but Ferdinand slammed his foot down on my back, pinning me to the floor and forcing me to exhale all of my breath.
Ferdinand kept stomping on me over and over again, each blow even more devastating than the last. I tried my best to get up, but Ferdinand's stomps came hard and fast, to the point where I could barely react. For a long time, all I saw was the increasingly destroyed warehouse floor as Ferdinand smashed me deeper and deeper into the floor, until he finally stopped, grabbed me by the cape, and once again threw me halfway across the warehouse.
I landed on the floor hard and rolled several feet until I came to a stop against another crate, my head spinning from the impact of the crash. Every bone in my body felt like it had been smashed into a million little pieces and I wasn't sure if I was ever going to walk again after this.
"Get up, Jack," TW urged in my mind. "You can't give up now. Ferdinand is coming over to finish you off."
I raised my head to see Ferdinand walking over to me slowly, his lips parted in a bloodthirsty grin. I tried to sit up, but the pain in my back flared and I laid back down.
"I can't," I muttered, panting heavily under my breath. "He broke me, TW. He broke me."
"No, he didn't," said TW. "You're still alive, aren't you? If you are still breathing, you can still fight."
"Easy for you to say," I said. "You're not the one who just got stomped into concrete by a literal cow man."
"If you give up now, you will never be able to avenge Thomas," said TW. "Do you want your brother's death to be unavenged?"
My hands curled into fists. "No. Never."
"Then get up and fight," TW said.
I gritted my teeth, but knew that TW was right. Against my screaming body, I not only sat up, but slowly rose to my feet. This seemed to surprise Ferdinand, because he actually stopped for a moment to look at me with a face that clearly said You're not serious, are you? before he shook his head and resumed walking toward me, wearing a smirk that told me that he didn't fear me.
Truthfully, I understood that. Ferdinand had given me the absolute worst beat down of my life so far. He had no reason to fear me. He had every reason to believe that I was a weakling who didn't stand a chance against him.
Too bad I was about to show him why you shouldn't assume anything.
I drew three small disks from my pouch and threw them, but not at him. I threw them in three different directions, imagining each one bouncing off different parts of the warehouse, imagining their exact trajectory as they moved toward Ferdinand.
Ferdinand, on the other hand, apparently didn't realize what I was trying to do, because he just snorted and, lowering his head, rushed toward me with the speed of a charging bull. Once his horns struck me, I would probably die, but I didn't move just yet because I was waiting for the right moment to strike.
The disks bounced along the walls, floor, and ceiling of the warehouse. Ferdinand drew closer and closer to me, his feet smashing across the floor of the warehouse while he did it. I stayed exactly where I was, keeping my focus on my disks, making them bounce in seemingly random patterns that even Ferdinand wouldn't notice until it was too late.
Then Disk One suddenly sliced through Ferdinand's right knee, making him stumble slightly, but not enough to stop. Disk Two slashed across his left cheek, cutting his face open and making him roar in pain, but again he didn't stop. And finally, Disk Three bounced off the ceiling and lodged itself directly into the back of his head, making Ferdinand roar in pain even louder than before, but again, he didn't stop.
When Ferdinand's horns came within my reach, I grabbed them both with my hands and, yelling loudly, I whirled around and threw Ferdinand with all my might toward the back of the warehouse.
Ferdinand flew toward the back of the warehouse and crashed into the abandoned office. He crashed into it so hard that the entire thing collapsed on top of him, sending up a cloud of dust into the air and even causing part of the roof to collapse in itself.
I waited a few seconds to see if Ferdinand would get back up, but he did not rise again.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
I heard footsteps running away and looked over my shoulder to see the remaining Injector--the one who had tried to shoot me--running away toward the blasted apart wall in an obvious attempt to flee from me.
I jumped into the air and flew toward him. I grabbed the Injector by the collar of his shirt and lifted him off the floor and slammed him against the nearby wall, pinning him several feet above the floor, almost up to the ceiling. Fear appeared in his eyes and he stopped struggling as soon as he realized how far above the floor he was.
"I have to admit, I didn't expect you to throw a literal bull man at me," I said, tightening my grip on the collar of his shirt. "But it obviously didn't work. Now, unless you happen to have another bull man waiting around here somewhere, it's time that you told me where Michael Jones is. And I want you to tell me now, so I can confront him myself."
The Injector's chattering teeth made it almost impossible to tell what he was saying. "N-Never. I will n-never tell--"
I slammed him against the wall again, making the Injector scream and clutch my arm as if he was afraid I would drop him. "Drop the tough guy act. If you don't tell me where he is, then I'll make sure you go to jail in a body cast."
"Okay, okay, okay," said the Injector, almost babbling. "Michael Jones is at our headquarters. He's always there, but you won't be able to make it in because it is protected by the best security systems money can buy."
"And where, exactly, is your headquarters?" I said. "Give me an address. Give it to me now, because my grip is starting to slip and this is an awfully high place for a normal human like you to fall from."
"H-Here," said the Injector, stuffing his hand into his pocket and pulling out a piece of paper. "This is a receipt for some recent P-Power shipments. It lists our headquarters' address at the bottom."
I took the receipt and looked it over once. Unfortunately, I was not familiar with the address' exact location, but that was okay, because I would just put it into my phone's GPS app and search for it there.
"Thanks," I said as I stuffed the paper into my costume's pouch. "By giving me this receipt, you've ensured the safety of the city of Rumsfeld from your kind."
"Why are you thanking me?" said the Injector with wild eyes. "Once Jones finds out what I did, he's gonna send Lethal to kill me! Jones doesn't tolerate or forgive traitors. Ever."
I shrugged. "I wouldn't worry so much if I were you. Once you're in prison, you'll be safe and sound ... for a while, at least."
I slapped the Injector across the face hard enough to knock him out. I slowly lowered the Injector to the floor and, after making sure that he was out for the count, I rose to my full height and surveyed the warehouse.
It was a complete mess. Injectors lay scattered around the place, every last one of them unconscious. The hole in the wall they had blown out still smoked vaguely, while the dust had settled on the office area where I had thrown Ferdinand. I was surprised that Warehouse 19 still stood at all, given all of the abuse it had taken. Perhaps it was better built
than I thought.
TW flashed next to me, a worried frown on his face. "This is not good."
I looked at TW. "Why do you say that? I took down all of the Injectors and their pet bull. Sure, Warehouse Nineteen got a little roughed up, but don't most superhero battles usually result in some collateral damage, anyway?"
TW looked at me as if I was an idiot. "I'm not talking about how you defeated the Injectors. I'm talking about the fact that the Injectors knew you were here at all. You haven't told anyone you're here, right?"
"Right," I said, nodding. "Only you and me know that I go to this place to train."
"Or so we thought," said TW. "Yet the Injectors' attack proves that someone else knows you train here. The only question is, who?"
"I don't know," I said. "Do you think it could be Christina? Maybe she's been following me around and tipped off the Injectors that I would be here."
"Impossible," said TW. "While she's still on the run, I think we would have noticed her if she was following us around. Remember, her mission is to capture you and, by extension, the Trickshot Watch. Why would she send the Injectors to kill you if it might result in the destruction or even outright theft of the Watch?"
I folded my arms in front of my chest. "Well, aside from her, I can't think of anyone who could have possibly done it. I wish I did, though."
"It's a deeply disturbing mystery," said TW. "And in any case, until we find out who did it, we should stop coming here. You did well against Ferdinand and the Injectors, but there's no guarantee that you will do as well in the event of another attack."
"Sure," I said, nodding. "I was thinking we'd have to stop coming here, anyway, given how it's been totally wrecked. Maybe we should find another abandoned warehouse to train in."
"There aren't many of those in Rumsfeld," said TW. "And even if you find another, it won't solve the real problem: namely, the Injectors actively hunting you down."
"That's why I'm going to take the fight to Jones himself," I said. I patted my pouch where I put the receipt. "Once I locate their headquarters, I will go in and take down the man himself and end his reign of terror once and for all."
