by Kipjo Ewers
Sir George, sitting on his shoulder, shared their sentiment by popping him with his tiny fist on the top of his head.
A thunderous boom broke up their argument. Kimberly looked around realizing they were very close to beach.
“Follow me,” she ordered, “and stay close!”
“You’re not the boss…” Kyle said with a sneer.
Kimberly shut him up by grabbing him by the back of his neck and dragging him with her. Sir George jumped on her shoulder taking a seat as Kyle yelled in protest. Akram shaking his head obediently followed.
Three minutes later they came upon the battle, Kimberly, Kyle, and Akram watched in fear and disbelief as Heavy Element, Abe Rogers, and Lady Tech in her S.A.M. armor backed by Jennifer and Angie fought the Draugr feverishly in an attempt to keep him quarantined to the beach and bring him down. It was not going well at all for them; their combined might was barely able to stop the sheer brute strength of the sadistic monster.
“This is bad,” uttered Kyle.
“Doomsday bad,” chimed in Akram.
A frustrated Kimberly ran her hands through her braids. Even if she joined the fight, which terrified her, she would not be strong enough to make much of a difference.
“I’ve got to get stronger,” she muttered to herself.
It was then she remembered her mother’s talk about their abilities and how she got stronger. She turned looking in the direction of the village’s electrical power generator. During the tour of it, her mother told her that although it was small, it was capable of generating enough power to light up half of Manhattan.
“Sir George, hide,” she ordered her monkey.
It obeyed leaping from her shoulder onto a palm tree running up it.
Without hesitation, she grabbed her friends around their waists lifting them into her arms.
“Hold on tight,” she warned.
Kyle and Akram grabbed each other’s arms to hug Kimberly close as she coiled up. She exploded into the air with them. They both screamed in unison as an airborne Kimberly soared over the island clearing the town with her precious cargo.
“Brace yourselves!” she screamed.
The duo screamed again holding on as tight as they could. Kimberly made the landing as comfortable as possible without jolting them badly; stopping several yards in front of the massive electrical turbine generator. She set Kyle and Akram down before trotting over to it.
“What are you going to do?” Kyle frantically asked.
“I have to get strong like my mom to beat that guy!” she said.
She walked up to one of the huge cables connecting the generator to the town.
“What doesn’t kill me,” she whispered to herself. “On three. One …”
She did not hesitate as she dug her fingers through the protective outer layer of the cable touching the wires surging massive amounts of heart stopping electrical power. She could not even scream as she body seized up. Massive sparks and explosions erupted as Kimberly stood on the tips of her toes with her back arched while massive amounts of electrical current surged into her body.
Kyle filled with tears rushed to save his friend. Akram tackled him to the ground preventing his own electrocution.
“Let me go! She’s dying! Let me go!” Kyle screamed fighting to get free.
“You will die too stupid!” Akram yelled back struggling to keep him down.
In the midst of their struggle the generator flatlined. They looked up from the ground to see Kimberly still standing. White smoke wafted around her. She released the thick ruptured cable, which hit the ground kicking up dirt with a thud. Not even a spark spat from it as it laid there dead.
“Kim?” Kyle quivered.
Fear of her falling flat on her back dead over took them. It lifted as she slowly turned to face them.
Her eyes said it all, as they glowed a blazing bright white similar to her mother. She survived the deadly ordeal, absorbing the electrical output of the generator now stored within her cells.
“Holy shit…” was all both boys could utter in amazement.
“You guys stay here,” Kimberly commanded, “I’ll be back in a split second.”
“But the battle is that way.” Kyle pointed as she walked in the opposite direction.
“I need to generate speed if I’m going to deliver an IMP to Mister oogly,” she stated.
Before they could ask her to explain, Kimberly took off into the air with a leap going airborne. She closed her eyes as she soared higher and higher, her mind focusing not on thoughts of fictional characters she watched on YouTube, but on her mother. She filled her head with images of her soaring through the sky, racing to save her from her first attempt at flight. No longer did she have to dream or wonder who she was, if she was a good person, if she ever loved or wanted her. Her picture was clear, and her mother was who she wanted to grow up and be.
“Now fly,” she whispered to herself.
Unlike her mother, the electrical power within her surged and crackled about her form before concentrating around her legs. It caused a type of ion thrust igniting an earth-shaking sonic boom propelling her at unimaginable speeds through the air. There was no time to be fascinated with her achievement. She had to go faster in order to circle the Earth and save her friends.
Akram and Kyle stood flooded with emotion being the first to see their friend take flight.
“Dude, did… she say… she was going to do am IMP?” asked Akram.
Kyle’s eyes widened as he too realized what his friend just said.
“Infinite Mass Punch!” They both screamed jumping up and down with joy.
“Dude! Let’s get back to the beach!” Kyle screamed, “we definitely don’t want to miss this!”
They both scurried as fast as their young legs could take them back to the battle on the beach.
˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜
Back at the beach, the fighting was a very bad stalemate. The team of five did their best switching off attacks in an attempt to keep the Draugr at bay, but their best assault tactics only staggered him. It did not help that he was enjoying the battle immensely.
“More! Give me more! More!” he roared.
The Draugr swung his massive broadsword missing Heavy Element, who ducked just in time. Although he knew his dark metal form could withstand the hit, he feared the strike would knock him to the other side of the island. He would not allow a stupid move to take him out of the fight alongside his teammates.
“Oh shit!” he yelled using his forearms to block.
The Draugr revealed his inhuman speed once again as he followed up with a savage front kick from his size thirty boot. Even in his metallic form it radiating down his arms through his spine as it knocked him off his feet back first into the sand several yards away. He had no time to recover as the Draugr leaped into the air to bring his gargantuan sword down on top of him.
Heavy Element covered up the best he could for the blow he would never feel as an orange-haired Angie leapt on top of him to take the full impact of the blow to her back. She smiled at a stunned Adrian as the Draugr’s blade sunk deep into her back.
“I got you sweetie,” she whispered to him.
She gently stroked his cheek with the back of her hand before the Draugr ripped her away tearing her in two in front of him. He simultaneously flung her upper and lower halves yards away from each other.
“You son of a bitch!” Adrian howled.
“You shall join your tin bitch…” the Draugr raised his massive blade high to deliver another murderous blow.
He never finished his crude sentence, nor did he get to go for the kill.
An ear deafening sonic boom sandstorm overtook Heavy Element and the rest of the team. When it settled, the Draugr was no longer on the island.
“What the…” Adrian looked around. “Where the hell did he go?”
Rogers pointed to a blip in the sky that he believed to be the Dra
ugr whisked away by something or someone.
˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜
That someone was Kimberly with a waist full of Draugr soaring higher and higher into the heavens.
The terror and fear that crippled her during her first flight attempt was gone. Anger and determination filled her as she focused on removing the invading behemoth from her mother’s island.
A disoriented Draugr, hammered by the elements, realized too late what Kimberly, traveling five times the speed of a space shuttle, had in store for him.
Her speed increased the second she exited Earth’s atmosphere ripping out of Earth’s orbit. She counted ten more seconds in her head before putting the brakes on releasing the Draugr into the vacuum of space where he howled with insanity still clutching his sword.
Disorientation overtook her as well, as she spun out of control in the freezing weightless black. She calmed herself using short bursts of energy from her hands and feet to right herself.
Kimberly, finally stabilized, took in her surroundings. She was a ten year old floating in the vast universe, and it was beyond beautiful to her. She cupped her mouth trembling with emotion; the Earth looked like a pretty sea blue marble she could hold in her hand. She snapped out of her euphoria remembering she had to get back to the island and then find her mother. She powered up again rocketing back to Earth.
˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜ ˜
Back on the beach, the Regulators regrouped while attempting to figure out whom easily dispatched the Draugr before their very eyes. Merge violently threw a soaked and restrained Jiang Shi onto the sand of the beach while her brother recovered the two halves of Angie. Despite the psychopathic juggernaut tearing her in two, she still functioned, as she chirpily wrapped her arms around his neck while nuzzling against his chest.
He gave in this time chalking it up to her weird AI programming, which also saved him from a possible deadly blow. Angie’s sister Jennifer stood off to the side, sneering at the weird scene of affection.
“Why don’t you two get a room,” she said, “or better yet take that crap to the other side of the island.”
“Don’t hate because you ain’t got a man,” shot back Angie.
“I’m not your man.” Heavy Element rolled his eyes.
Rogers walked over to Erica sitting in the open cockpit of the S.A.M armor looking up at the sky.
“What the hell happened?” he asked looking up at her.
“Someone with a huge ion reading just swooped in and took him,” she answered flatly.
Rogers nodded as if he was accepting her answer.
“Took him where?” he asked, looking up at her again.
“From the traces of energy signature left behind. I’d say straight up,” she said, pointing, “and whoever did it… is coming back… like right now.”
The battle weary team did not bother to go on the defensive as Kimberly touched down on the sand before them. Anyone who could take down the Draugr had to be a friendly in their minds. What took everyone aback, aside from Abe and Erica, was the reveal of how young their savior was.
“Let me guess.” Rogers walked up to her. “You’re Dennison’s kid.”
“Yeah,” she nodded. “Where’s my mom?”
Before Rogers could answer Akram and Kyle ran down the beach to meet up with their friend.
“What the hell was that?” Kyle yelled. “I thought you were going to do an IMP!”
“I did too do an IMP!” she yelled back at him.
“That was no IMP!” he shot back.
“It was too!” She got louder. “I was moving too fast for you to see it!”
“What the hell is an IMP?” an irritated Abe asked.
“Infinite Mass Punch,” Erica and Adrian recited in unison.
“Dude, you did a RFB and you know it!” Akram jumped in.
“An RF what?” Rogers cocked an eyebrow.
“Remove from battlefield,” Erica and Adrian recited in unison again.
“All right!” Rogers threw his hands up. “You two knock off the acronyms! Young lady, what did you do with the Draugr?”
“He’s either headed to the moon or Mars,” she shrugged.
The answer made Erica crack up laughing in her cockpit.
“Good riddance,” Adrian chimed in.
“Now where’s my…” Kimberly started to ask again.
The sound of thunderous shockwaves shaking the heavens answered her unfinished question. Kimberly’s new keen eyes and Erica’s headset were the only ones to view Sophia trading godlike blows with Peace as they streaked across the skies jockeying each other for position.
Kimberly advanced to take off once again, but Rogers quickly grabbed her arm.
“Whoa,” he asked with a forceful tone, “where do you think you’re going young lady?”
“I’m going to help my mother.” She turned to him with a bass filled voice.
“I think you need to sit this one out,” he advised her.
“I think you need to let go of me,” she returned.
Her eyes surged brightly revealing her emotions, Erica decided to step in before everyone witnessed the Sarge embarrassed by a little girl.
“You can’t go dressed like that,” Erica interjected. “Jennifer, take her to the Warthog to get the spare gear. It should fit her just fine.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Jennifer nodded. “Come on, super mini me, let’s get you suited up.”
Rogers reluctantly released Kimberly. She did not give him a second glance as she broke into a run following the android back to the Warthog. Abe turned disapprovingly to Erica for usurping his command.
“Don’t give me that look,” she fired back from her cockpit. “You weren’t going to stop her on your best day. We also need the extra muscle to end this quickly. Peace and Dennison are too evenly matched, and judging from my readings, if we don’t end their fight quickly, a lot of people are going to die, and we might not have a planet left when all is said and done.”
CHAPTER 25
Goddesses warred on high shaking the blue sky itself as they continuously clashed with one another searching for an opening and a blow to fell the other. This was Sophia’s first actually aerial hand to hand combat fight, especially with one who was her equal, and possibly stronger than her. Although she had six years to become a natural flyer, pulling from countless resources depicting feats of flight and fighting. Peace was also a skilled aerial combatant. As she charged to deliver a blow, Peace strafed to avoid it coming back with a punch of her own to take Sophia’s head off. She would not be there as well using her version of an aerial flash move to evade her attacks, a tricked she picked up from watching anime cartoons with a thought she could execute powerful bursts of speed.
The times they were lucky enough to land a shot, wasn’t enough to knock the other out of the sky, as they would quickly recover and return to attack again.
Sophia realized during their fight that Peace possessed all of her physical attributes on a greater level but none of her mental. A relief which gave her some type of edge. With that knowledge she decided to get creative.
Sophia brought violent thunder claps to the skies over North and South America as she executed a series of flash bursts around Peace. As she expected, it was enough to overwhelm and frustrate her. Sophia found a big opening. Enough to deliver a seismic right cross.
This time Peace would not recover as she spiraled out of the sky crashing in the heart of Rio de Janeiro. Sophia cursed herself wanting to avoid any further destruction, but there was no way of containing this fight like before. She dived to where Peace fell. Her mind raced with still no clue on how to stop her.
Before she could even land, a recovered and enraged Peace knocked her out of the sky and through the top floors of a JW Marriot hotel. Her recovering time was truly far superior to Sophia’s.
Her other edge was her total disre
gard for life or property as she tore a bigger hole through the hotel to get to her.
Residents and tourists ran through the streets screaming for safety as they crash landed through the second floor of an office building. They went through the floor exploding out the front window of a restaurant located on the bottom floor on the opposite side of the building.
Sophia, on her hand and knees, shook the cobwebs out before springing to her feet. She had no time to process how insane this fight was. She shut out the cries and screams around her to focus. Peace had figured out how to employ her own version of Sophia’s flash step hitting her with a powerful forearm that she barely blocked. The force of her blow pushed her two feet backwards.
