by Ben Bequer
Mighty was not a patient man, and even in the face of Nostromo, he wasn’t in the mood to play any games.
“I know all about these people,” he said scanning us all in turn. “You, Apogee. You are free. Go now and escape this place.”
“I don’t think so,” she shot back.
“So it is true that you are under some sort of spell. No need to worry then.” His attention turned to Zundergrub. “Release her, or you shall pay the consequences.”
Zundergrub bristled, “Not even in death.”
“We will see,” he turned back to me and sneered. We were beaten, and didn’t know it. There was nothing we could do that was a threat to him. It was like he was facing bellicose children that didn’t know their place.
“Things aren’t like they appear, Mighty,” Nostromo said. “We’re on the good side now.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“Where do I stand?”
Mighty saw that as a threat, and in facing Nostromo, he stood against someone who could beat him.
“How far you have fallen, Nostromo.”
“On the contrary,” Nostromo smiled again, “You’re on the wrong side of things again Mighty,” he said, but what ‘again’ meant, none of us knew. “An alien civilization means to destroy us all. The same alien people that gave us our powers. Me, Retcon, Apostle, all of us. They gave us this power you wield, that you got from us. It goes back to the beginning of all of this, and it’s a long, long story.”
“It will take more than your word to dissuade me.”
“It’s all I have, Mighty. My word. In that building behind us,” Nostromo pointed at Retcon’s building, “is a device that might help us.”
“A device designed by Retcon,” Lord Mighty said, almost spitting at the mention of the doctor’s name.
“Yes, and no. The device was designed originally by Nikola Tesla.”
Mighty considered that for a second, “Hence the Telluric energy I sense.”
Nostromo nodded.
“And you plan to wrap the planet in a protective sheathe of this energy.”
“An alien scout watches us from a moon of Jupiter as we speak, and when she sees what we’re going to do here, she will know we are ready for her people. They will have to find a new world to conquer.”
“Show me this alien,” Mighty demanded.
“I haven’t the time, Mighty. Believe me when I tell you this alien species is far beyond our abilities. All of us gathered here would not last a split-second.”
“How do you know this?”
“The Seven attacked her some years ago,” Nostromo began, his voice pained as he continued. “It killed Valiant.”
We were all aghast, but no one more than Mighty. The whole world thought that Valiant had died to Dr. Retcon in cold-blooded murder, but here was Nostromo refuting what we had all believed. And in any case, Nostromo’s meaning was clear; if the alien could defeat Valiant, it could easily beat Mighty.
Mighty shook his head, “Who are these aliens?”
“I’ve seen them up close,” I shot in, though of what value my words were, I had no idea. “We’ve travelled to their world. They are hoarders, collectors. I don’t know why, but they amass pieces of other worlds, as if for a museum.”
“Yes,” Nostromo said. “Listen to him.”
Mighty’s eyes were bored upon me, but I continued, “They are a decadent civilization whose world lies in ruin. They intend to add us to their menagerie, a collection of thousands of species from all over the universe. What they derive from that, I can’t say. Maybe they get their powers by subjugating others, or maybe they’re so set in their ways that despite facing annihilation, they can’t do anything about it. I’m not sure. What I do know is that there’s one on Callisto watching us. The others saw it,” I motioned to Haha, Cool and Zundergrub.
Crossing his arms after giving everything we had said close consideration, Lord Mighty nodded, “Very well, I will stand beside you.”
Nostromo stepped forward.
“If you want to help, if you believe in our cause, then go. Leave here.”
“I am not afraid of death.”
“I know,” Nostromo said, looking back at us. “But there has to be someone in case we fail. You and I have history. I came here because I knew I could talk to you, I knew I could make sense with you. But others won’t care, and they’ll try to stop us. And if they do, someone has to help the world.”
Mighty looked up into space. “Where is this alien? Jupiter you say?”
“Yes,” he answered. “But she’ll come when the shield starts to form. She’ll try to stop us.”
“Then I will help you,” Lord Mighty announced.
Nostromo shook his head.
“They will need you,” Nostromo pointed at the sliver of the cerulean orb that circled below us, at the slice of Earth that was visible at the edge of Hashima Island’s sea wall.
Lord Mighty turned towards the planet below us and nodded.
“Good luck,” he said, and was gone so fast he made Apogee look slow.
“Holy fuck, Holy fuck, Holy fuck,” Cool Hand said over and over returning from whatever hole he slunk into.
“We could have used him!” Zundergrub protested, seeing Lord Mighty as a good buffer between whatever other heroes were coming and his welfare.
“More trouble than it’s worth, my dear doctor. No, we’ll be alright,” Nostromo said ultimately, then smiled to me and Apogee. “I’ll be headed back to my post. Holler if you need a hand.”
He lifted off and flew back to his part of the island.
Chapter 27
Things got busy quickly, because The Sentinels did show up, not in front of us. We had prepared for them to arrive in the open field, but their landing craft dropped them behind us, high on a rooftop and out of view, flanking us completely and avoiding all our traps.
“Cool, go check it out,” I told him as we ran up the hill toward the building where we could see their landing craft. It had touched down when Cool ran off.
“Brigade’s the key,” Apogee said as we ran. “He has a neural link with the others through his headset. Get rid of that the others aren’t used to fighting without his orders.”
“Had a feeling you’d come in handy,” I said keeping an eye on the edge of the building, and as I had finished, a figure appeared there, aiming a weapon at us.
“Look out!”
The others scattered and he fired a heavy machine gun, pelting my chest and face as I stepped forward to draw his attention. The bullets bounced off my skin, but they hurt like hell. I threw up my arms to cover my face, but the weight of the fusillade was too much, and I had to dive for cover. I found a nice spot behind the remains of a fallen building to the right of the road leading up.
A second later, Cool appeared at my side.
“We’re fucked,” he spat, catching his breath.
“What is it?” I said, looking around for Apogee and Zundergrub.
“They’re building some sort of Mech up there.”
I blinked twice. “Mech?”
“Yeah, you don’t follow anime? Shit. Anyways, it’s like a robot, and it’s going to be fucking huge. Let’s get out of here, man.”
“What?”
We had to flinch as the machine gun fire concentrated on us, tearing at the wall we hid behind, hurling chunks of concrete all over us.
The machine gunner was on suppression duty, keeping us at bay while they built whatever it was they had in mind. He turned his attention from us to Zundergrub, hidden behind some rubble to our left. Where the robot or Apogee was, I couldn’t tell.
“I sure wish I had my bow right now,” I said to no one in particular, feeling the Nuke arrowhead still in my pocket.
I tried to spot a way around but there was another machine gunner covering the right flank, firing at something. Instead of going around the buildings, I decided to go through.
“Hang here,” I told Cool Hand and moved farther away from
the street, finding a nice wall to pummel. The structures had concrete outer walls, and wood interiors, so once I got past the masonry, I was certain to have an easy way through.
I found a nice spot; the outside edges of the concrete blocks partially cracked, threw my shoulder into the wall, hard, and broke through, tripping over something and falling flat on my face as rubble bounced off my head. Standing, I rushed across the inside of the building, through a long hallway that went across the whole place, to the far wall, and smashed through again at full speed so fast I bounced through the street and against the wall of the opposite building.
It was the one where Brigade and the rest of The Sentinels were forming their fortress.
Down the street, the gunners concentrated on pinning down Cool Hand and Zundergrub, while on the opposite side, another fired at Apogee, who was moving too fast for him.
She saw me and slowed her pace to give the gunner hope, and further draw his attention away from me. I was at the base of the building, beneath him, but he only had to peer down and catch a glimpse of me.
I moved to one of the corners of the building, specifically the corner facing the downhill slope, trying to find the fattest point, where the most support would lay. Pressing my hands against the wall, I shoved with all my might, roaring so loud they could undoubtedly hear me above. The concrete crumpled and gave, but inside the masonry were support cables or beams, and I could feel them complaining against my pressure. Someone screamed above and a moment later the ground around me churned up with the explosive impact of bullets. They smacked into my skin, tearing through my clothes, but I pushed and pushed, with the corner support slowly collapsing under my pressure.
But suddenly the machine gun fire stopped, and I heard a loud ‘thunk’, and something slammed into the ground behind me. I turned to look, and saw a huge grenade, smoking and emitting a series of beeps. It was suddenly silent.
I saw a white flash, then black and felt thrown back into the building corner I was trying to destroy. The wall gave under the combined pressure of the explosion, and my body hurled as an impromptu missile at the weakest point. To my surprise, and I’m sure the consternation of those above, I broke through the supports.
Unfortunately, the whole side of the building collapsed right where I was, burying me under tons of wood, stone and rubble. It didn’t happen all at once, and at first I felt like I could rise up against the falling rock and wood, but heavier items kept falling on me, and I was in a bad position, on my stomach, so I felt the huge weight push me down. I was completely pinned, and had only a small pocket of air I had managed with my right arm.
It was ironic, that I was damned near invulnerable, becoming more so every day it seemed, and I was going to die by choking. I tried to control my breathing, but the weight of rubble above me was too much, and I could barely lift my rib cage.
Above me, someone dug at the mountain of junk that was pinning me down. It took a few moments, but the heaviest things holding me in the awkward position came off, and I felt like the stuff holding me down could give. I managed to get my hands under me, and then my knees, and finally I got my left foot planted. With a massive shove, I pushed a huge wooden beam off me, sending the tons of remaining rubble rolling down the hill.
My helper was Apogee. Her suit was in tatters from the machine gun fire, and blood poured down her arm. She followed my gaze.
“It’s alright.”
“No it’s not, you’re bleeding like mad.”
I ripped off a piece of my shirt and started to wrap it as a compress around her wound, when her eyes widened, and I turned to see Brigade coming out of the rubble himself. He was looking at the crumbled form of the Mech droid his team was building, shattered by the collapse of the building. He saw us, and leveled a plasma cannon at us that had a six-inch diameter barrel that glowed hot red.
I grabbed Apogee, to cover her, protect her from the impending blow, but she was doing the same and was much faster than I. But instead of covering me, she picked me up and hurled me at Brigade. I flew through the air, with all the grace of a flying Buick, and slammed into his armored chest as the weapon went off. It was like flying into a mountain, but we both collapsed to the ground. I had the bad fortune of landing on the bottom.
“Time to get fucked up!” Brigade shouted, and socked me one across the face with his armored fist.
“Get off him!” Apogee snarled, standing above us.
“Apogee? What the fuck you doing with these-” he started but she slammed her fist into his chest, knocking him on his back.
I came to my feet, as did Brigade, who was shouting into his vaunted headset, “All remaining team members target Apogee. I got the big ugly fuck.”
Then he charged, roaring a battle cry and pelting us with his plasma weapon. I stepped forward to meet his charge, crouching to avoid his fire, and behind me Apogee was under assault as well, but I knew she could handle herself. She did her fist-to-the-floor power eruption and flew through the air into her attackers.
A plasma bolt slammed into my chest, and it merely exploded harmlessly, shredding my shirt. The weapon couldn’t hurt me, so I stood up, and charged Brigade right back. His eyes widened, not in fear, but in excitement, and we crashed into each other.
Brigade was strong, made even stronger by his formidable armor. The servos and controls strained, but he was my equal in a shoving match with his weapon as the focus. The plasma cannon was a sturdy gun, almost four feet long and thick with metal, and covered in scratches and dings from many battles. But it was paper in our hands, and tore to pieces. I clasped his right wrist and he gripped mine and we pushed, our faces inches from each other, spittle and sweat spraying across the narrow divide. He went to head butt me, but I swung him, almost making him lose his balance, so he thought otherwise and we continued our wrestling match.
His eyes flashed down, and before I could follow, he inched sideways slightly, and matching him, my left foot slipped on a bare patch of concrete. He pushed me backwards and I stumbled away from him, giving him an opening.
But instead of charging in, Brigade dove out of the way shouting; “Paper, end this motherfucker.”
A fellow atop a nearby building, wearing armor even heavier than his bosses’ and wielding a massive rocket launcher fired at me and my world turned to red and white. I flew through the air, propelled by the sheer force of the explosion, and careened against the wall of a far building, collapsing part of the structure and sliding down to the floor.
“Deadliest weapon in the world; a Marine and his rifle,” Brigade said, recovering first. As I wearily came to my feet, he drew another weapon, a small pistol, and fired at me, but instead of a bullet or plasma bolt, it shot a thick laser beam. I expected it to slice my arm off, or tear a hole right through me, but it did nothing of the sort, instead leaving a small red dot on my chest.
“Hit him again!” Brigade shouted, and then I knew it wasn’t a weapon, it was a target designator for his rocket launcher companion on the rooftop.
Another rocket raced towards me, and I had no time to do anything. As I scrambled to find cover, the missile crashed into me, and again I was engulfed by fire and thrown into the air.
When I came to my feet, Brigade was running closer, as I was obscured by smoke and dust. He saw me and smiled, aiming his laser at me again. My shirt was in shreds, only a few strings across my chest, so I ripped it off and stood tall atop a mound of rubble.
“Come on,” I taunted the rocket launcher guy. “Hit me again!”
And he did. Again I was rocked and sent soaring across the island, but this time we were farther down the hill, and I reckoned too far from the range of Brigade’s associate to give him line of sight.
As I expected, Brigade came closer to re-target me, but this time I was ready, and sprung my trap. I came to my feet with a huge boulder, and as soon as I saw his armored form approaching through the smoke, I let lose my improvised missile, slamming it right into his chest.
Brigade collapsed
and I was on him in a second, knocking him down and putting my right knee on his chest.
“You can give it, buddy,” I said, rearing back to clock him, “But can you take it?”
He screamed, covering his face with his free hand as I started coming forward. So frantic was his fear that I held my punch. I looked down at my other hand, which had him pinned as I straddled him, and I saw that the grip had crumpled the armor, tearing it partially off his chest, revealing his muscled torso.
“You win!” he screamed. “You win!”
I released him and stood, realizing the awful truth. He was strong, and skilled, bearing many years of training in all forms of combat. But outside of his armor, he was a man. Had I struck him in his unprotected face, I would have killed him instantly.
“Call your boys off,” I demanded.
He nodded and ordered his troops to surrender over his radio.
“I thought you were going to kill me there, man.”
I smiled, “I thought I was too.”
* * *
It took us awhile to gather together the remnants of The Sentinels. As it turned out, they were marginal supers like Brigade, augmented with powered armor and heavy weaponry, made deadly by years of training and coordination. But they were otherwise regular men and women. A few were injured, including one who had tussled with Mr. Haha and received the working end of a rusted old katana through his armor, but they had several medics to handle their wounds, and the man looked like he ultimately would live.
We had a brief respite, and even though the fight against The Sentinels was brief, it had taken a toll. I was already tired and had to commandeer a canteen from one of our enemies to quench my thirst. I’d been shot, blown up and beat up, and while my skin was tough enough to handle the battering, I was ready for a cold one and a long nap on the couch. I was covered in grime and dirt, and my clothes were holding on by shreds, and I had to find a replacement t-shirt. Again, my combat boots were fine, and would live to see another fight.
Cool Hand was hit with shrapnel as he and Zundergrub attacked the opposite flank, and his wound, while minor, bled quite a bit along his midsection. He used his temporal powers to contain the bleeding, then we got one of The Sentinel’s medics on the job, and they put a dermal patch on the wound, securing it with a strong tape the resembled a clear Saran wrap.
