by S. J. Delos
“I can take it,” I said. I hoped I injected enough confidence in my voice to sound like I was as sure as I needed them to believe I was. “No problem.”
Alexis unclipped her own belt and stood. “I’m going with her.” Before I could protest, she pointed at the floor. “I can ghost us through the hull and keep us that way until just before landing. Then we go solid and you keep me from being splattered all over the street.” She was grinning like a lunatic at the top of a rollercoaster. “Deal?”
Manpower shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a good plan. We should—”
“Deal!” I said and grabbed the teen’s hand. Instantly, we fell through the floor of the ship and towards the ground below. Our descent was a good deal faster than I expected, probably due to the two of us being intangible rather than just Alexis. Granted, it was still a lot slower than if I was hurtling earthward in a solid state.
We dropped into the thick cloud of smoke and I held my breath before realizing that the soot and particles went right through me. On the other side, we could see a three-block section of the neighborhood had been flattened. Not a single structure had escaped damage, and most of the buildings—trade businesses and the like—were half-destroyed piles of rubble. I managed to locate the source of the disaster, but dropped behind one of the buildings still upright before I could identify the culprit.
I pulled Alexis against my chest and wrapped my arms around her. “Now!” I shouted against the rushing wind and turned so that she was on top of me. My weight and mass jumped back into reality right before we slammed into the pavement. Fortunately, remaining phased as long as we had resulted in the impact only making a small crater in the street.
I tapped the teen on the shoulder gently. She brought her head up from my chest and grinned. “That hurt more than I thought it would,” she said, slowly climbing off me.
“You’re okay, though?” I rolled over and stood up as well. I shook my head. “You should have just let go of me and stayed in ghost mode. Then you wouldn’t have had to land like that.”
“I’m okay, Karen. Really.” Then she pointed at the crater. “If I hadn’t gone solid after falling from that height, I would have dropped right through to the sewers.”
I nodded and turned back in the direction of the bad guy. “Okay. Stay behind me and stay ready to ghost.” I gave her a wink and ran towards the sounds of many things being broken and trashed.
Rounding the corner ahead of Alexis, I spotted the source of the disturbance and froze in my tracks. Eight feet of trouble held a CPD power suit over his head with one hand and the limp body of the driver—one of Charlotte’s Finest—in the other. What little bit of afternoon sunlight that managed to get through the clouds of smoke glinted off the wicked-looking metal protrusions growing out of the skin of his brow and joints.
Colossal.
Once upon a time, I’d asked Martin why he didn’t reach out to Colossal to get him to be a part of our organization. Someone of his size and power would have been very effective in getting through to places I couldn’t. He’d responded by saying that the hulking brute was far too mentally unstable to be of any real use to us.
Let’s face it, when someone calling themselves Doctor Maniac thinks you’ve got too many screws loose, you must really be bat-shit crazy.
His laugh rumbled terrible joy as he threw the armored unit through the front of an office building. The omni-plex doors didn’t stand a chance and the shards of shattered glass were still tinkling onto the sidewalk when the first screams emerged from the gaping hole.
I didn’t know why the West Coast’s worst supervillain was in my town and I didn’t care that he was supposed to be dead. The EAPF had supposedly used a suitcase nuke to stop his rampage in downtown Tacoma last year. All that concerned me was stopping him before he killed or maimed anyone else. Even if I had to do it alone.
Maybe I should have been concerned about my mental state.
Alexis ghosted beside me and gasped as she became solid. “What the hell is that?”
“That is no one you want to tangle with, Lexi-chan.” I looked at the teen and pointed at her feet. “You stay right here.” I pressed on my ear. “This is Kayo, the guy bringing down property values is Colossal. Daniel can probably feed you the intel.”
The EAPF on the opposite side of the monstrous villain opened fire with their particle cannons. The impacts created dozens of fireworks that ran all along Colossal’s body, leaving little dark scorched marks. They might as well have been hitting him with cotton balls for all the damage it did. Colossal laughed again and scooped up a section of broken concrete and threw it at the officers, scattering them like bowling pins.
While he was facing the police, I launched from behind the corner of the building and bolted towards him at full speed. I didn’t know if the same technique I’d used to bring down Colonel Tank would work on the even-bigger Colossal, but I figured it was worth a shot. My boots pulverized the debris under my feet as I surged to my maximum speed with the villain’s back as my target.
I clenched my jaw tightly and leapt forward at the last moment, arms rod-straight before me, aiming for ultimate impact. I hoped I would do more than just knock him out. After seeing the damage he’d done today and knowing the suffering he’d caused over the years, I wanted to hurt him badly. I wanted to break his back and cripple him for life. I think it would have happened, too.
If he hadn’t turned around at the last second and backhanded me with a fist that felt like being hit with a Mack truck.
The world exploded in an agony I hadn’t experienced in years. The blow sent me rocketing back towards my starting point across the street. I hit the asphalt, carving a foot-deep furrow into the surface before bouncing up to slam into the building we’d been hiding behind. The impact was more than the already-damaged structure could stand, and all three stories crumbled down.
I shook off the ringing in my ears, shoved the broken concrete pile off my legs, and stood up. When I brushed my hair out of my face, it set off a shower of concrete and tar crumbs that landed around my feet. I was going to need several aspirin and one hella shower when I got back to headquarters. “Damn, that son of bitch can hit,” I said with a wincing grin as I glanced over to Phantasm.
The teen was standing half-in, half-out of a pile of rubble, staring at me and looking not the least bit disheveled. She must have gone ghost the moment she saw me come flying back. Her eyes stared at me so wide I sort of expected them to drop out of the sockets and her mouth hung partially open. When I tilted my head, she raised her arm to point at me with a trembling finger and said something I’d not heard in several years.
“You’re … you’re bleeding.”
I blinked and ran the back of my glove across my mouth, disbelieving the streaks of crimson that marred the yellow material. The metal sticking out of Colossal’s body must have been some derivative of dura-steel. I spit and the red liquid mixed with the gray powder on the ground. I looked back at Alexis. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a busted lip before.”
“It’s not just your lip, Karen. Your forehead is bleeding, too.”
I shrugged as I turned back towards Colossal. “Never much wanted a modeling career anyways. Again, stay here.”
I charged the villain again, this time ready for how swiftly he could move. Instead of trying to tackle him head-on, I used my speed and dropped to my knees, sliding under his arm as it passed harmlessly over my head. As I zipped past, I punched the back of his knee. The big guy’s leg folded and he went down on one knee. My hand felt like I’d just tried to punch a force field.
I popped back to my feet and spun around to throw another punch. Colossal had regained his own footing and by the time I’d drawn my arm, his hand snatched me around the throat and lifted me into the air. I kicked out, slamming my foot into his chest. That part of him was tougher than his joint had been and I was sure I’d broken a toe or two.
Colossal laughed and flipped me over to drive me down into
the concrete. The air jumped out of my lungs and before I could replace it, he pulled me back up and wrapped both arms around me. We were face to face and when he squeezed tighter, I head-butted his nose. Fireworks exploded behind my eyes, but I received a small measure of satisfaction from the pained roar my blow elicited.
Colossal snarled and pulled me tightly against him, crushing. My ribs felt as if they were going to shatter.
“I’ve been looking forward to meeting you, Kayo. I knew a little mayhem would bring the Good Guys running to the rescue.” His solid black eyes bored into mine. “And imagine my happiness to see the former Miss Crushette leading the charge.”
I shrugged my shoulder rapidly back and forth, doing my best to break free from Colossal’s grip. His breath was warm in my ear and my nose rebelled at the heavy odor of garlic and onions that wafted over my cheek.
“Love the wiggling, sweet-cheeks,” he said as his arms curled tighter around me. “Makes this more fun for me.” He laughed and licked my neck just below my ear.
I recoiled away from his tongue. Well, I tried to, at least. All my struggling had done nothing to loosen his hold around me. And a quippy comeback wasn’t going to happen because I was busy using all the air I could get into my lungs for staying alive. Being invulnerable didn’t mean I couldn’t suffocate.
Colossal squeezed tighter, whispering directly into my ear. “Of course, the real fun will start the moment you pass out.”
“Rocket,” Manpower yelled into my ear. “Get your ass down there and help Kayo!”
“What the hell am I supposed to do against something like that?” There was real fear in the flyer’s voice.
“Distract him, Robert!” Alexis screamed. “Or drop something on him. He’s killing her!”
The world dimmed as my oxygen-starved brain began shutting down. The darkness that formed at the edges of my vision drifted inwards, sending me towards the abyss of unconsciousness.
“I can’t,” Rocket’s voice came from far away. “He’s too … I just … can’t. She’s on her own.”
“Then I’m going in,” Alexis said with a determination well beyond her years.
“Phantasm, stay back!” Seems that Darla had decided to join the party. “I can be there in a minute.”
“She’ll be dead in a minute.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Alexis running towards the two of us. She passed right through the flames and the debris as easily as a normal person would pass through air. I shook my head, fighting for a breath to scream at her to stay back. My mouth was open but only a gurgling croak came out.
Her concern for my safety was so great, she neglected her own. With the horrific clarity of adrenaline-fueled awareness shoving everything into slow-motion, I watched the teen reach out in her ghost state and do the one thing I had been terrified she would do. She phased Colossal instead of me.
Suddenly, my higher-density mass fell from Colossal’s embrace and passed through the now-intangible villain. I hit the ground, sending up a puff of powered concrete and broken glass. I gasped and choked as I opened my mouth to scream for the teen to let go and run, but the words lost their fight against my air-greedy lungs.
Alexis’ face wore a mask of relief and her hand rested flat against Colossal’s leg, keeping them both in a ghosted state. They were untouchable to everything around them. Except each other. The monstrous villain realized that before the teen and took advantage of her distraction. His arm swung down like a pendulum, the back of a dinner plate-sized fist coming right at Alexis.
He was fast. So incredibly fast for his size.
He swiped down in a scooping blow, connecting with Alexis’ ribs before she could remove her hand. The impact lifted her into the air and sent her sailing in a flailing arc across the street. She re-solidified in mid-air, and came down to hit the pavement with a smacking thud and a sharp crunch that caused a lance of fear to stab through my heart. She lay there, unmoving, and I ripped my gaze away from my friend to look up at Colossal.
He towered over me and tossed a brief look over to the teen’s prone form before laughing. “That little bird flew further than I’d expected.”
My hands curled into fists as a crimson haze drifted over my vision. My blood went from the icy chill of fear to a boiling kettle of rage. That son of a bitch was going down. He hurt my friend and now he was going to pay for it. And if killing him sent me back to the Max for life? So be it.
I screamed and brought both fists up together, using every bit of Class Five I possessed. Hitting him in the knee, chest, and face had worked out more in his favor than in mine. However, I was willing to bet that his Enhanced durability might be slightly less effective someplace else. My double-fisted blow landed right at the juncture of Colossal’s legs.
Right in the balls.
The satisfying crunch made me smile. So it would seem that the big guy could be hurt after all. Before he could recover from the punch, I jumped up and punched him four times in the chest. One-two. One-two. Each impact stung my hand and the screams accompanying them tore at my throat. In my mind, I could see Alexis’ body tumbling limply through the air.
My attack drove Colossal back several steps, and then he countered and his hand slapped me away and into the side of police vehicle. The world tilted back and forth and a trickle of red dripped from above my eyebrow to land on my cheek. The pained look on Colossal’s face—one hand holding his manly bits, the other his ribs—was priceless. I clenched my jaw and grabbed the side of the car, pulling myself to unsteady feet.
Colossal glared at me with murderous eyes and took a few steps in my direction. Then a searing beam of ionized plasma came down from over my head and struck him in the face. The stream was hotter than the sun, and I squinted against the radiant heat from more than a dozen feet away. The stink of charred flesh filled the air and Colossal roared throwing up an arm to shield his head. The skin of his forearm blackened and split. When his face turned my way, I could see that his eyes had been boiled right out of their sockets.
That was going to give that healing factor of his one hell of a workout.
When the plasma stopped flowing, Colossal dropped his arm and began swinging his fists around, blindly trying to make contact with something. Or someone.
Darla dropped down to land beside me, cracking energy halos still surrounding her fists. “You look like shit,” she said. “And I mean that in the nicest possible way.”
I gave her a hard stare and then spun around twice, panic rising as I tried to locate Alexis. The spot where I’d seen her land was empty. Then I glanced up to see a flaming trail arcing up and away from the battle scene and whipped my head back around to Darla. “Phantasm?”
“Rocket’s flying her to the hospital. Daniel’s going to meet them there.” She glanced back over at Colossal, whose face was in the process of repairing itself. Her hands flew up and blasted a double stream of plasma into his chest. The hit staggered the villain into a partially demolished wall, but didn’t knock him down. “And you just shut the hell up.”
“Thanks,” I said as I tried not to groan. Between Vaporizer, Colonel Tank, and now Colossal, I was at my limit of being knocked around. Just because a girl was mostly invulnerable didn’t mean that crap was fun. Now that my friend was on her way to medical attention, I could channel my anger into putting the bad guy down. I glanced over at Darla. “Let’s bury this fucker.” I tilted my head towards the villain.
“You hit him low and I’ll hit him high,” she said and launched back into the air.
I reached over and picked up a large chunk of concrete and ran away from the battle, heading back to the spot where Alexis and I had landed. That bastard had hurt my friend—how badly I didn’t know—and I was going to hurt him back. I skirted around an appliance repair shop that was still mostly intact and hefted the piece of debris over my head. Grinding my teeth, I kicked into high gear and zoomed back towards the villain.
Darla was busy swooping and blasting, keeping Colossal’s
focus on her as much as possible. She bought me the time I needed to accelerate to the maximum. She hit him in the face again as I zoomed right up to the monstrous giant and threw the block of concrete at his abdomen. It hit dead-center at over a hundred miles per hour and shattered into thousands of shards upon impact, barely marring the flesh. But that was okay.
I never expected the attack to actually hurt him.
Instead, the blow pushed him backwards, causing him to flail his arms around to remain upright. I took advantage of his lack of concentration—and one of his massive arms—and grabbed him around the wrist with both hands. I pulled him along with me another hundred feet at super-speed and stopped, swinging him around like a ball at the end of a chain. Colossal’s feet came off the ground, and I released him at the apex of the turn.
He sailed through three civilian vehicles and landed in the remains of the fourth. I paused for a second to marvel at the similarity. Tank had done practically the same thing to me yesterday. Darla drifted down to hover overhead and used one of her beams to ignite the gas tank of Colossal’s resting spot.
The explosion was much smaller than movies would have you believe, but the raging fire was nothing to sneeze at.
“Is this game ‘ladies only’ or can anyone play?”
I turned to see Manpower walking across the battle zone towards me, omni-plex goggles perched on top of his head. “Nice of you to join us,” I said as I pointed to the flame-covered beast rising up from the busted cars. One eye had already grown back, and the charred patches all over his body were getting smaller by the moment. “We might have saved you a bite or two.”
Colossal roared and looked up at Darla. The things he promised he was going to do to her dead body, I didn’t think were physically possible. The blonde hit him with another plasma beam, sending him back into the flames, before landing next to me and Manpower.
“Any chance we can wrap this up?” she asked. “I think the police are ready to do their part.”
I glanced at Manpower. “Homerun Special?”
