Wonder Heroes 4.0

by Ahlquist, Steve

  Outside the Wonder Base, and just outside the protective force bubble, Matt O’Dette, Wonder Hero Ultra, saw Wonder Hero Jet approach. He had been following the goings on at the Wonder Base and knew that Jay Parker had adopted a new call sign, but he was emotionally unprepared to see what looked liked one of his best friends suddenly come back from the dead.

  “Jay Parker, right?” asked Wonder Hero Ultra by way of introduction.

  “Yeah. It’s great to meet you Matt,” said Jay, “I’m a big fan.”

  “Save it for later. These Retroxin need to be stopped.”

  Jay’s Wonder Visor identified and targeted four hundred and thirty-one Retroxin. “How do we do this?”

  “We do it the hard way,” said Matt, “hand-to-hand, and fast. When they go nuclear they can kill you, armor or no armor.”

  Matt hovered to a stop next to Jay and turned to face the oncoming storm hoard. Jay tried to calm himself, but fear gripped him hard and he cursed.

  “Sorry to drop you into the deep end, kid,” said Matt, “Just remember. Hard and fast.”

  Red lightning arced from the cloud, streaked past Wonder Heroes Ultra and Jet, and scurried along the outside of the Wonder Base forcefield.

  “Oh,” said Matt, activating the kick in his Wonder Boots and flying towards the Retroxin, “and watch out for the lightning.”

  Jay gritted his teeth and followed Matt through the sky towards his first battle to the death. He suddenly wondered why he ever wanted this.

  Wonder Heroes 4.04

  Retroxin battle armor is well built, but one-on-one is little match for a Wonder Hero. It is bigger and bulkier, and way slower. The armor is gunmetal gray in color, but the individual Rocketmen are caked with black residue due to the smoke generated from the large jet engines attached to the backs of the armor that serve the dual purpose of providing flight capabilities and emitting the noxious brew of organic silicon compounds that work to rewrite planetary biospheres.

  Matt dove towards a random Retroxin warrior and generated a cerulean energy sword from his gauntlet, using it to sever jet engine from armor. As the Retroxin warrior fell powerless towards the Earth, the loosed jet engine careened randomly and collided with another Rocketman, causing an explosion that sent three more enemies plummeting from the sky.

  Jay followed suit, generating his own gleaming, jet-black energy sword. His cut was less precise than Matt’s. He accidentally beheaded the Retroxin and sliced through the side of the jet engine. Dark, chunky fuel vomited under high pressure from the sword cut and covered Jay an instant before the jet fuel ignited. There was a terrible explosion and Jay fell from the sky like a fireball.

  Panic gripped Wonder Hero Jet but his gauntlet compensated for that and injected him with mood stabilizers. Jay hit the desert floor hard, and the blazing heat of the jet fuel liquefied the sand around him. On his back, staring at the sky, he watched as the alien storm clouds passed above him, spewing colored lightning. He saw Wonder Hero Ultra fighting alone, and something like courage flowed through him.

  Jay Parker stood up. He did not notice that the heat and impact of his landing had caused a crater of cracked glass to form in the desert around him. Targeting algorithms acquired likely targets, he activated the jump in his Wonder Boots on instinct, and he reentered the battle, jet-black energy swords in each hand.

  Inside the Wonder Base, Kalomo Roman placed his hand in the depression over the gauntlet of Wonder Hero Imperial and lowered his arm into it. Seconds passed, and nothing happened. He looked over at the gauntlet of Wonder Hero Gold.

  After thirty-seconds of battle, Jay was starting to get into the groove of it. His Wonder Visor now counted three hundred and eleven Retroxin. These remaining Retroxin seemed to swirl around the two Wonder Heroes, firing easily avoided missiles and occasionally making themselves vulnerable to devastating counterattacks.

  “This isn’t so bad, Matt” said Jay, “These guys aren’t so tough.”

  “Don’t get cocky, uh, Jay. They get more dangerous when they’re desperate.”

  As if to prove Matt’s point, green lightning arced from the alien storm clouds and struck one of the Retroxin Rocketmen. Acting on this signal fifty Rocketmen stormed towards Jay and Matt en masse and though they dispatched five or six of them each with their swords the rest grabbed hold and piled on, dragging the two Wonder Heroes to the Earth in a screaming, smoking pile of mechanized death. Jay’s Wonder Armor gave him the bad news. The Retroxin struck by the green lightning was now in overload, starting a nuclear cascade. These other Rocketmen were all sacrificing themselves to hold the Wonder Heroes in place until their comrade went nuclear, destroying them all.

  In a panic Jay fired energy from his gauntlet, piercing the fuel tanks of the Rocketmen that held him down, causing a series of violent explosions that buffeted him mercilessly. Dimly he was aware of Matt’s voice over the comms, but he was past understanding. An instant later, the Rocketman in the sky went nuclear.

  Susan, Theodore and the rest of the onlookers at the windows of Wonder Base took a step back from as a bright flash temporarily blinded them. As the spots cleared from their eyes there came the sound and vibration of a nuclear explosion about a mile away. Susan watched as a mushroom cloud rose, pushing the invasive alien clouds of the Retroxin Rocketmen aside as it expanded, filling the sky. There was no sign of the beautiful blue skies the day had started out with.

  “They were still out there,” said Theodore, “at ground zero…”

  As the battle raged outside Kalomo gave up on the Golden Wonder Gauntlet and glumly assessed his chances of the last gauntlet choosing him, the one formerly wielded by Wonder Hero Light. He had nothing to lose in trying, but prepared himself for disappointment.

  Suddenly making his way back to consciousness, Jay punched through the empty air as Matt leapt back, narrowly avoiding the punch.

  “Easy there, guy. We’re all right.”

  Jay looked around, taking in his surroundings. The two Wonder Heroes were in a small white room. Jay’s Wonder Visor informed him that he was inside the Wonder Base.

  “What the hell?”

  “I sent an emergency recall to the Wonder Computer,” said Matt, “had us teleported out in the last second.

  Jay wanted to throw up, but his Wonder Armor calmed his stomach with anti-nausea medication. “Did we win?”

  “There’s about a half dozen left,” said Matt, “I can take care of them if you want.”

  “Screw that,” said Jay, “I’m not letting you take all the credit.”

  “Okay Computer, send us back in,” said Matt as Jay rose to his feet, and the two Wonder Heroes vanished from the teleportation room…

  …only to reappear outside the Wonder Base on a large sea of liquified atomic glass and half melted Retroxins. The deadly radioactivity that swamped the area was no danger to the Wonder Heroes, even as the mushroom cloud still rose ominously into the air above them. Jay located his targets as green and red lightning arced from the storm clouds, testing the defenses of the Wonder Base.

  “Let’s finish this,” said Jay.

  Matt nodded, and leapt into battle. Wonder Hero Ultra flew towards a group of three Rocketmen who startled at his appearance. They had thought him dead. Matt fired blue energy blasts at the lead Rocketman. The unfortunate Retroxin burst into flame and fell from the sky. The other two shot towards Matt, their rockets propelling them forward at maximum velocities. Matt retreated slightly, and then, unbelievably, turned his back on his pursuers.

  The two Retroxin shifted their rockets into overdrive and screamed furiously through the sky at the unprotected Wonder Hero, who seemed completely unconcerned at their approach. Only at the last second did the Retroxins realize their mistake as they collided with the forcefield that protected the Wonder Base, exploding harmlessly a few feet away from where Matt O’Dette hovered. Matt flew up and out of the Wonder Base forcefield towards where Jay was dealing with the last of the Rocketmen.

>   Jay cut through one of the Rocketmen with his energy sword, moving quickly out of the blast area an instant before the terraforming warrior exploded. Green lightning streaked through the sky, and as Jay blasted another enemy to pieces he was suddenly grabbed from behind. The last of the Retroxin Rocketmen had grappled him. Jay struggled to free himself but before he could do so red lightning arced from the angry alien clouds and enveloped him and his opponent.

  Jay’s Wonder Armor was temporarily off line, but he could still move, so he quickly slipped free of the chokehold he was in and grabbed the Rocketman by the neck, twisting as hard as he could. One by one his Wonder Armor systems came back on line. Jay activated the kick in his Wonder Boots and aimed for the ground, hoping to dash the Rocketman on the rocks below. The Rocketman was glowing brighter and brighter, and Jay realized that it was about to go nuclear. Jay kicked his way free and fired an energy blast at the Retroxin, but the nuclear cascade was emitting high frequency energies that made the alien impervious to energy attacks.

  “Hey genius!” It was Matt O’Dette, over the comms, “That last Rocketman is making for the Wonder Base!”

  Jay looked down and saw that far from being dashed on the rocks the Retroxin Rocketman was rising on a cloud of viscous smoke that was bringing him within striking distance of the Wonder Base.

  Jay could not conceal his astonishment. “How did he get through the bubble?”

  “You carried him through while you were grappling with him,” said Matt, “be more aware of your surroundings!”

  Inside the Wonder Base, Kalomo was trying on last gauntlet. He smiled as the gauntlet suddenly sprang to life and wrapped around his arm.

  Kalomo smiled with excitement. “All right!”

  Wonder Heroes Jet and Ultra dove towards the slowly rising Retroxin Rocketman, firing bolts of blue and black energy as they did. The energy bolts were having no effect. Jay noticed that the gunmetal coloring of the Rocketman was shifting towards glowing red, yellow and white and the sensor readouts in his Wonder Helmet told him that the temperature readings were rapidly approaching stellar levels.

  “The Rocketman’s going into hyper-atomic mode,” yelled Matt as he desperately tried to come up with a plan to stop the now inevitable destruction of the Wonder Base. “He’s going to explode and we can’t stop it.”

  Jay fired his energy beams uselessly into the swelling energy of the Rocketman. “But the Wonder Base will be okay, right?”

  “Everything inside the bubble will be vaporized,” said Matt, unable to hide his anger and desperation, “We’re screwed.”

  Jay could not believe it. It was his first mission, and he was responsible for destroying the Wonder Base, and killing thousands of people. Searching his brain and the Wonder Armor interface, Jay yelled, “Energy net!”

  Jay shook his head. “We need three Wonder Heroes for an energy net…”

  The Retroxin began to swell and overload was now inevitable. A new voice broke into the Wonder Hero transmission.

  “Energy net, engage!” said Kalomo, firing towards the Rocketman. Wonder Heroes Jet and Ultra did not hesitate. They joined with Kalomo, firing three colors of energy towards the Rocketman. The energy braided and curled around the villain, wrapping him fully inside a bag of woven energy matrices. There was a muffled sound, like a cannon shot, and the bag swelled to twice its size, but as the energy net dissipated, the Retroxin was completely atomized, and the danger ended.

  Inside the Wonder Base the assembled crowd whooped and cheered. Even the stoic military men broke a bit and smiled. Then there was a round of applause.

  “Okay folks, settle down. A few more names to read,” said the General, asserting some control. “Studebaker, Theodore?”

  Theodore jumped to attention. He looked at Susan with a big smile. “Wish me luck?”

  Susan was thoughtful and surprised herself by saying, “I want to go with you.”

  Theodore smiled. “Changed your mind, did you?”

  “Nothing will happen, but I have to know.”

  “That’s been my reasoning,” said Theodore.

  Theodore led the way to General Rumpole and threw a mock salute. “Reporting for duty, sir!”

  The General did not smile. He looked at Susan. “What are you doing back?”

  “I want a shot.”

  The General shook his head, and gave Susan a stern look. “It doesn’t work that way.” At the disappointment that crossed Susan’s face the General softened, and cracked a smile. “but then, I don’t know how it works, so what the hell. Take your shot.”

  Susan and Theodore walked side by side, flanked by the military men and the scientists. After a quick trip on the elevator they entered the Locker through the silent sliding doors and saw the last two gauntlets, that used to belong to Wonder Heroes Imperial and Gold, each on its own wedge.

  “My five minutes of fame are almost up,” said Theodore.

  “You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t deserve this Theodore. Don’t sell yourself short.” Susan waved her hand at the gauntlets. “Which one do you want to try?”

  “I’d rather be Imperial,” replied Theodore, “Gold betrayed his team and the world, remember?”

  Susan smiled sarcastically, “Oh great. Then I get to live all that down.”

  “Only if the gauntlet chooses you.”

  Together they placed their arms in the open gauntlets and waited. Nothing happened. They looked at each other. “Switch?”

  “In for a penny,” said Theodore.

  “…in for a pound,” finished Susan, “right.”

  As the scientists and armed guards watched, Susan placed her arm in the Imperial gauntlet and Theodore placed his in the other. Almost immediately the Imperial gauntlet snapped shut, squeezing and penetrating Susan’s arm, connecting to and rewiring her nervous system. Microtubes pumped nanobots into her blood, and the tiny machines went to work reinforcing and enhancing her body.

  “Oh my God…” Susan said, lost in the powerful effects of her transmutation.

  Theodore watched as Susan’s eyes glowed red and asked, “Are you okay?”

  “It’s unbelievable. Like a pleasant warmth spreading…”

  Theodore looked at the unmoving golden gauntlet and forced a smile. He felt tears coming to his eyes, but could not allow himself to cry here, in front of Susan and the military guys.

  There was a flash of red and the sound of expanding chain mail next to him, and Theodore saw the newest Wonder Hero, Susan Daystrom, in full Wonder Armor. Theodore looked at the golden Wonder Gauntlet. He wanted this so badly he hurt. A scientist put a hand on Theodore’s shoulder. It was over.

  Then the gauntlet started to move. Slowly the gauntlet wrapped around Theodore’s forearm, and he could feel the delicate monofilaments and microtubes begin to penetrate his skin as the gauntlet sealed shut. Then began the gentle squeezing that allowed the alien device to adapt itself to Theodore’s arm.

  “Ow. Huh. Hurts more than I thought.”

  Susan was by his side, her voice sounding hollow from inside the Wonder Helmet. “It’s moving real slow,” she said. With a thought she retracted her helmet into the armor. She could see that the golden gauntlet was behaving quite differently than the one on her arm.

  Theodore gripped the gauntlet with his other hand and tried to pry it loose with rising panic. “Ow! Ow! It hurts! Get it off me!”

  His body started to convulse violently and Theodore arced backwards, screaming. Yellow steam gushed from his eyes. Susan, her strength enhanced by the Wonder Armor, scooped Theodore up in her arms.

  “It’s killing him!”

  “I don’t understand,” said a scientist, looking at the readings on her tiny device, “This isn’t supposed to happen.”

  Theodore started to scream, his voice merged with the gauntlet’s technology, giving a mechanical cadence to his speech. “Dam- Damaged! Damaged in the explosion that killed the original…” In a voice more his own, Th
eodore panicked, “I can hear the gauntlet in my mind!”

  Golden Wonder Armor suddenly appeared on Theodore’s body, only to instantly vanish, leaving him dressed in yellow briefs and yellow tee shirt, his clothing obliterated during the change. “It’s repairing itself, using my body... Arrgh!”

  Susan reactivated her helmet, and called up on her visor the route to sickbay. In a flash she shot out of the room, past the guards and scientists. In her arms, Theodore screamed.

  Wonder Heroes 4.05

  The radioactive and transbiological death cloud left hanging in the air above Wonder Base in the wake of the Retroxin Rocketman attack dissipated quickly as the military ran a series of flyovers, dispersing enormous quantities of a uniquely sequenced biochemical cocktail of anti-terraformula from modified Lockheed Orions. Soon the thick, oily silicon goo began to rain from the sky as sand and heavy metal particulates, allowing the rejected Wonder Hero candidates awaiting transportation home a quick peak at a vibrant desert sunset moments before nightfall.