Arsenal Reloaded (Full Metal Superhero Book 8)

by Jeffery H. Haskell

  Armor is at one-hundred percent integration. Transferring protocols, updating systems... I am on board with you.

  “Ooh boy. Someone is in trouble now. Find Mom and Dad. Once we know where they are, we get the Emjet to them and then we deal with the bad guys.”

  Understood.

  All I have to do is think about what I want and the Emdrives spin up. The whine from engines would deafen anyone standing next to me. Then I’m off. Blasting through the roof of the semi.

  Oops again.

  That was unnecessary.

  “I got excited. Sue me.” I shatter the sound barrier a few seconds later at three hundred feet above the ground. “Fly nape-of-the-Earth until we are far enough away. Without our full stealth systems installed, I don’t want to risk giving up our location.”

  I’d forgotten how freaking awesome it was to fly. “Woohoo!” I yell as I hit four-thousand miles per hour.

  Kinetic shields are holding, though there is a blip in the power distribution system. I do not recommend extended engagement.

  Exactly four minutes later I’m blazing over Lake Mead, heading due west for the heart of the city where the main attack is happening.

  Amelia, there are six fully armed drop ships circling the city; they are shooting down any aircraft attempting to leave.

  “Any luck finding my parents?”

  No. There is a lot of EMI, not to mention much of the city is without power. This does not feel right. There is no tactical reason to attack Las Vegas. Who is doing this and why?

  “Excellent questions, for after the attack.”

  I flip up, letting wind resistance slow me down with my arms out wide. “Mark the dropships.”

  Contacts identified as prototype vertical takeoff and landing gunships currently under development for the Chinese military… Contacts marked as Tango One-through Six.

  “I don’t get it. Are you saying this is an invasion? Why in the world would China attack Las Vegas?”

  I do not think so. I think whoever is behind this stole their tech.

  That makes much more sense. I flip over and gun it while pulling my new and improved Sword ‘O Doom from my back. I loved having it come out of my palm with the alien armor, but this is pretty cool.

  The dropships look like Scorpions, with the ‘claws’ as their wings and with large engines on them, generally pointed down. The ‘tail’ is the tail with another engine on it. Slung under the belly where the legs would be is an empty space—for a cargo pod, I imagine—along with four hard points loaded with missiles and one hard point under the nose connecting to a single barrel... a rail gun. Son of a—

  Tango One turns as I approach. The rail gun tracks me and opens fire at a rate no rail gun should be able to sustain without seriously damaging the ship it’s installed on.

  I roll to the right, dropping a hundred feet in a heartbeat and then punch it hard coming up from underneath. The pilot tips the ship forward to track me, but I’m a small target and I’m moving faster than the speed of sound.

  Impact imminent.

  The armor locks up to keep from hurting me, and the kinetic shields form a wedge as I fly right at the ship holding the sword in front of me like a spear. I fly right through the wing. The collision is deafening.

  Debris, heat, and flames lick at me as the fuel ignites. I turn to watch as the ship flips over and heads for the Earth, smoke streaming from its severed wing.

  “I don’t care how advanced you are, you can’t fight gravity. Woohoo!” I spin around, locating the next one for a repeat performance.

  The next four fare as well as the first one. The only caveat is making sure I don’t blow them up completely; I don't want them pancaking some poor citizen on the ground. Once their engines are down, I push them into a landing space free of targets. Lucky for me, being a thousand feet above Vegas makes it easy to find empty lots to drop them in.

  Amelia the last one is on your six. Roll!

  Without hesitating I throw myself into a roll, taking a turn that would break a fighter in half but is barely noticeable for me. The new armor is performing better than I expected it to.

  I come around the short turn and punch it, going from one hundred to sonic boom in three seconds as I fly right at the last ship. The one molecule thick edge of the sword cuts right through the canopy of Tango Six and I can see the startled look on the pilot’s face as I turn his ship into a convertible.

  Startled... so not an android.

  “Epic?”

  I saw. Flesh and blood humans. There is a small golf course at seventy-three degrees mark twenty-five, aim for that.

  A golf course. Awesome. I hit the back of the sputtering ship and push it in the direction I want. I have the kinetic dampeners set to my usual Point-zero-five feedback so I can feel some g’s—which is helpful when pushing armed drop ships into the ground. Right before impact I pull up and let the ship hit. Manicured grass lawns explode as the V-TOL crashes into it and rolls on its back.

  I hit the ground next to the cockpit, rip the door right off the hinges, and pull the pilot out. This is dang exhilarating. Only a month has passed since I last wore armor, but dang if I didn’t miss it.

  “Who are you working for?” I demand of him. Epic makes up in volume what I lack in intimidation. Holding him up by his collar above me I add a few shakes to get his attention.

  He has a fractured arm and several broken ribs. I will alert EMS as to the locations of the other fallen drop ships.

  “I’m not telling you anything,” he says between coughs.

  “Fine,” I say tossing him into the ground. I take a few steps and lift up into the air in a tall arc over the city.

  Amelia, I have located your parents. They are currently bunkered down in the parking garage of the Bellagio. I spotted them on a Wi-Fi enabled backup camera. They are currently safe, but I have no way of contacting them to direct them to the Emjet for rescue.

  Relief floods through me. I hadn’t realized how worried I was until that moment. “Okay, okay, they’re okay. Good. Epic, there has to be a commander or leader here. They just can’t be rampaging. Let’s find a central location and do some signal analysis.”

  The World Market Center, while not the exact center, will suffice. Follow the yellow brick road.

  Without the dropships shooting down anything flying, the world above Vegas explodes in a flurry of departing helicopters, planes, and medevac vehicles. At subsonic speeds it takes less than a minute to arrive at the roof the building.

  “Activate all channels,” I tell Epic. Holding my arms up to act like antenna, we start receiving all kinds of signals.

  Filtering. Standby.

  While I wait for him, I do a rundown on the armor systems. I’m stunned at how well the suit is performing. Well beyond expectations. I haven’t had so much as a popped circuit. The kinetic shields are holding up and the structural integrity is perfect. I’m pleased as punch.

  Found them. A mobile command centers two miles, four hundred feet from here. They are driving around to keep anyone from doing what I just did.

  “How did you do it?”

  I hacked all the cell towers in the city and used them to triangulate along with the active armor sensors and then fed them through algorithms I wrote on the fly.

  Epic always brings a smile to my face. “Let’s go kick their butts.”

  FIFTEEN

  The mobile command and communications center is a six-wheeled buggy-looking vehicle with antenna and domes, all for coordinating their troops on the ground. It isn’t undefended. Three walkers right out Return of the Jedi flank it on either side and the rear. Not to mention the fifty-foot soldiers and several supers.

  The main road they’re on is a junkyard of burning vehicles and blown up buildings. The Walker’s have rail guns like what was on the dropships, and shoot anything that moves. The soldiers are carrying laser weapons that have way more power than a hand-held laser should have.

  However, they aren’t my real concern. Con
ventional and unconventional weapons I can deal with; it’s the supervillains that have me hiding on the roof of a Panda Express, kneeling down behind the AC unit analyzing the situation.

  There are four of them. One is riding on top of the C&C vehicle like it’s his personal flying carpet. He’s dressed in a white suit, with a black cape and a top hat. Odds are he’s a so-called mage. The government database has him listed as “Miracool.” I wish I was making that up. The largest one, who is likely a strong man, walks in front like a scout. Except he’s more like a bulldozer, pushing vehicles and debris out of the way. He’s dressed in a dark green jumpsuit with yellow stripes crisscrossed over his chest. It takes Epic a second to give me his data; “Ironside” is an F5 strength and invulnerability.

  To the right of the vehicle is “Phase,” an F4 speedster who can briefly pass through solid objects. He’s in an all-white skin suit with a face mask and over-sized goggles.

  The last person rides a hover-bike that bears more resemblance to a jet engine with handlebars than a motorcycle. I know her, though.

  Blade. She creates melee weapons made of plasma. Superheated gas hot enough to cut through anything— including my armor. The last time I ran into her she was part of the Psychotic Six and terrorizing a bunch of innocent people at the Phoenix Airport in what feels like a lifetime ago.

  “Okay Epic, here is the play. I’m going to drop in on that C&C vehicle like a bomb, deal with Miracool, then Ironside. After they are out of the way, I can figure out how to stop the other two.”

  And the Walkers and soldiers?

  “Uh, there are a lot of them, aren’t there?”

  Yes. We do not know the extent of their hand-held arsenal. It is possible those weapons can damage the suit.

  If I had a full arsenal I would have an EMP at my disposal. As it stands, my only offensive weapons are my hands and sword. The HUD has all kinds of useful information on it; one thing stands out at me. The temperature of the air around me seems like the least useful piece of info I could have, but right this second, it’s a lifesaver.

  “Epic, we’re in Vegas. It’s a hundred degrees in the shade right now...”

  So?

  “Those weapons and Walkers look like they are full of complicated electronics. If they are attacking here as some sort of field test, it’s possible they haven’t waterproofed their equipment. Heck, even regular vehicles can break down in a flood.”

  Amelia, there is no danger of a flood.

  “Are you sure about that? Because they are on a main street. Switch to wireframe and pull up the city utility schematics.”

  It only takes him ten seconds to show me what I need to see. A massive water main large enough to drive a VW Bug down. It runs the length of the street and there is some kind of valve at the end.

  I see. Let me check to see if I can increase the water pressure.

  Lucky for us the convoy isn’t moving very fast, maybe five miles an hour. When they’re a hundred feet out, Epic signals his readiness.

  “Oh, this is going to be awesome.” I leap up, kicking in the Emdrive and zooming up a few hundred feet before cutting power and rolling over. With my fists pointed down and the kinetic shields at max power and shaped into a wedge in front of me, I floor it. The air screams by as I hit four hundred miles an hour.

  Impact!

  The world shakes as I hit the ground. Concrete explodes outward in a geyser of rock and debris. Then the water comes.

  The MK IX is fully sealed, with its own environment. I could survive underwater or in space, at least for a little while. The hole I made fills up in an instant and then the water is gushing out fifty feet into the air.

  I push against the pressure until I’m at the lip of the broken pipe. A swipe with my sword severs it completely. It takes a moment to find a good grip, but when I do, I pull upward. The pipe strains, creaking as I push it up at an angle like a barrel. Once it’s above me I let it go.

  Well done.

  Epic puts the CCTV view of my work on the HUD. Thousands of gallons of water spray out of the hole, sending a wall of water six feet high down the road. It’s like watching a flood video; loose trash, enemy combatants, and cars are picked up and carried off.

  Ironside braces himself by slamming one hand into the ground. The flood hits him like he’s a reef, but everyone else? Gone.

  I shoot out of the hole in spray of water, roll over, and fly right at the C&C vehicle. Two of the Walkers are already down, having lost their footing in the unexpected flood. The other fired a grappling hook into the nearest building and managed to stay upright.

  Miracool is holding on to the hatch for dear life as the water level approaches the top of the six-wheeled vehicle. I can’t hear him over the rush of water, but I think he’s trying to get them to let him in.

  I hit the top of the vehicle with a clang. He looks up and his face goes white.

  “I thought you quit?” he asks as he raises his hands up.

  I draw the sword and wave it at him. “You can fight or go for a swim.”

  He looks at the water and back at me, then jumps in. It’s nice to have a reputation. I swing the sword up, twirl it down and slam it down into the top of the armored vehicle like a can opener.

  I don’t hear the roar of the hovercycle over the water until it’s too late. Blade crashes her bike into me going fifty miles an hour. Warning lights flash and alarms ring as the kinetic shields are momentarily overwhelmed by the sheer mass and speed.

  I go flying off. Scrambling for a hold, I find it on the bottom of her bike as she pulls up. The HUD flashes as several systems suddenly reboot.

  “Epic?”

  That last hit played havoc with the systems. A few are offline.

  “Let’s take her for a ride. Full power to the Emdrive.”

  Offline.

  Oh great. I hang on for dear life as she turns her bike sideways and pulls up.

  “Arsenal, you’re a dead woman,” Blade says. She reaches out and a four-foot energy blade snaps into existence.

  We’re still over the raging river I’ve created, and she is only half paying attention to where she is going.

  I swing my feet up, using the weight of the suit to wobble her bike. She screams and the sword blinks out of existence as she puts both hands back on the handlebars to keep from falling off.

  “I hope you can swim,” I say as I swing my other hand hard at the base of the bike. The nanite suit impacts with the aluminum shell and I reach in and grab a handful of parts and pull. The bike immediately sputters and drops. I let go right before it crashes into the water.

  She had the same idea. Our bodies collide with each other and the water at the same time. A burning blade appears in her hand, boiling the water around it as we sink beneath the surface. The current is stupid strong, and it knocks us around. I bat her hand aside, trying to keep that blade from hitting me. She’s holding onto my shoulder with one hand while trying to wrap her legs around my waist. I have no leverage and I can barely think as we are tumbled about.

  “Epic, I need flight like right this frigging second!”

  Ten seconds.

  Blade swings her sword around trying to cut me. I manage to grab her wrist and squeeze.

  Warning, structural integrity failing. The nanites are losing their cohesion. I do not know why.

  “What?” I mentally scramble. If I lose the suit right now, I’m dead. Blade won’t have to kill me, the flood will.

  “Epic, use the kinetic shields, increase the pressure on the nanites, force them to respond.”

  It may work, calculating.

  We hit the bottom and roll over a car. How much longer can she hold her breath? A kick like a mule hits me in the chest, and she rips her arm free and stabs the blade at me. I don’t feel it hit, but the alarms screaming on my HUD tell me she connected.

  Before I can respond she’s swimming furiously for the surface eight feet up.

  Nanite cohesion stabilizing. Amelia, you have sustained significant da
mage to your leg. I am sealing the breach and applying pressure.

  Nausea washes over me but I don’t have time to be sick.

  “We’ve got a job to finish, Epic. Start a clock. I’ve got... fifty-nine minutes to find Teddy before the damage is permanent.”

  A timer appears on the HUD. I take a deep breath. I can do this. “Emdrive, now!”

  The engine lights up and the water around me vibrates as I shoot up and out into the sky. I blast out of the flood and do a quick pirouette. The water rages down the road and only two things remain; the C&C and a Walker. My sword is stuck in the top of the command vehicle, right where I left it when Blade hit me.

  Rockets roar by as the Walker fires. “Full ECM; blind them.” The HUD dims as one of the ZPFMs is tasked with filling the air with electronic noise. Flares explode out of my upper thigh as I fly toward my wedged sword. I hit the C&C with a thunk, grab the handle of the sword, push it all the way down, and then wiggle it for good measure.

  When I pull out, there is an eight-inch gash all the way to the internal compartment. I spin, swiping the edge of the blade through the front tires in one swift move. The front of the buggy collapses and water rushes over the top. Seconds later the hatch opens and the six-man crew abandons ship. I sheath the blade against the locking mechanism on my back.

  Amelia, the C&C is empty... move!

  The Walker hadn’t fired at me because they didn’t want to kill their own people. Oops. I trigger the Emdrive a half second too late. A salvo of ten ounce nickel-iron traveling at three thousand feet per second slams into the vehicle I’m standing on. The sheer energy transfer causes an explosion long before the fuel ignites. The force hits me like a truck and I’m through a wall—several walls—and on my butt before I can even think. Warning klaxons warble in my ear, telling me all manner of bad things.

  “What the hell,” I mutter and cough. The schematics for their rail guns pop on screen. Ten ounces of iron accelerated that fast is… well, it’s awesome. Just not when they’re shooting at me. The rounds weigh twenty times that of a .45 bullet and travel four times as fast.