Fiasco Heights

by Zack Archer

  Aurora, Atlas, and all the others were engaged in a firefight with the Harbinger and the lobster monster. The Harbinger stomped on the streets again, creating a whirlwind of grit that soon resembled a cyclone by way of a sandstorm.

  Everyone stumbled back and that’s when I noticed it.

  A glow in the sky.

  Before I could warn the others, the glow had coalesced into the shape of a fiery meteor, an energy sphere hurled at us by the Harbinger. The projectile dropped directly toward an unaware Big Dread like a mortar shell.

  I ran forward as fast as I could and shoved her to the ground out of harm’s way as—

  BOOM!

  The energy sphere crashed directly behind me. The blast jolted me, raining down stone and gravel. I rolled over and watched a girder from what was left of a build twist and break off. It curled down toward me as I threw up my hands and—

  A blast of energy smacked the girder away at the last second.

  Elbowing myself up, I saw Big Dread, little wisps of blue light dancing at the end of her fingertips.

  “Tell me why I just did that,” she said.

  “Because deep down, you’re not so evil after all.”

  She smiled, but there was no levity in it. “You have no idea what I’m capable of.”

  Another explosion rocked the street and I rolled over and spotted Dolly Dagger bounding across piles of debris while firing back over her shoulder, releasing a storm of fireballs in the direction of the Harbinger.

  She landed next to me and grinned. “Are you taking notes?”

  “He’s coming,” I replied.

  “So let him come,” she said. “Follow me and I’ll take you to the place where heroes are made.”

  She rose up and confronted the Harbinger by herself, pummeling the villain with shots to his midsection.

  She was doing it, she was actually beating him back and then she made a fatal mistake.

  She turned her back on the supersized villain for a split-second.

  But in that instant, the Harbinger let out a scream of rage and cast a web of blue light that shot forward and enveloped Dolly Dagger.

  She struggled, but almost instantly was flash-frozen, her mouth wrenched open in a silent scream.

  Then the Harbinger grabbed the tendrils of blue light and violently pulled back, causing Dolly Dagger to shatter into a million pieces.

  Big Dread cried out and went on the attack, firing blasts of energy as I stood and caught sight of another form careening out of the half-light.

  It was the lobster creature and somehow it had crept up on us in all the confusion. It staggered out of a hiding spot on a side street and veered toward Splinter and Kaptain Khaos. It lumbered past Atlas, missing him as he knelt in a scooped-out section of the street.

  Oblivious, the monster passed Atlas who rose up and heaved a punch, burying his fist in the monster’s side, ripping out a hunk of steaming viscera.

  The monster’s ropy innards spilled to the ground and Atlas followed up with an impressive series of uppercuts that caved in a portion of the thing’s head.

  The fiend rose in a series of spasmodic hitches, striking out at Atlas who dropped under its talons and jabbed it in the stomach.

  A gunshot-like sound echoed as Atlas shattered the bones in the thing’s midsection.

  The big man punched it one more time in the jaw, sending it flying back into the dust where it vanished from sight.

  I ran in the direction of the stricken monster, intending to finish it off when I became disoriented by the dust.

  Something stirred out beyond me and I braced myself for anything, creeping forward and that’s when he appeared in front of me.

  The Showstopper.

  I held up my hand in a gesture of goodwill and that’s when he did it.

  He brought his hands together while muttering, “This is for what you did to my brothers.”

  His palms touched and a sudden jet of air, harder than stone, erupted and hammered into my chest.

  Before I knew what was happening, I was sailing through the air, my whole life unwinding before me.

  80

  I was driven sixty feet through the air, stopping only when I crashed through the front windows of what had once been a restaurant. Covering my head, I hit the ground and slid to a stop.

  With slow, groaning movements, I staggered to my feet, coughing, and witnessed The Showstopper striding across the street, pure homicide in his eyes.

  I lit off through the window, trying to get a shot at the villain, but he was already on top of me. The bastard grabbed me around the neck and I was shocked to find that I couldn’t move. I was immobilized, unable to do anything other than peer up at his twisted face.

  Spinning, he drop-kicked me through another window and I crumpled to the ground. I hardened myself, resting on my elbows as The Showstopper appeared. His face lowered to within inches of mine and I could smell the funk of sweat and burned blood on him.

  “Don’t do anything you’re gonna regret,” I said.

  “We are well past that point.”

  “What’s with all the anger?”

  “Anger implies some kind of emotional connection, asshole,” The Showstopper said. “There is none, absolutely zero. You’re worth less to me than the dirt on my boots.”

  “I thought we had a deal.”

  “You actually thought that we’d side with you?!” he said, sniggering, a pendulum of spittle dangling from the corner of his mouth.

  “It’s a win-win,” I replied, trying to pry his hands loose.

  “There are no win-wins, you asshole,” he said. “There are only wins and losses, hunters and prey.”

  “I think I remember your brothers saying the same thing.”

  “Is that right?”

  I nodded. “Right before I kicked the shit out of them.”

  He screamed and threw me back into the side of the restaurant where my body left an impression in the malleable exterior. I slid back down to the ground and he grabbed me again, sniggering. “After you die, I’m gonna take part of you as a totem,” he said. “I just wanted you to know that.”

  “That’s all well and good, but what do you think that thing’s going to take after it kills you?” I croaked in response.

  I bobbed my head and The Showstopper hesitated. A strange look came over him and slowly, very slowly indeed, he looked behind him. “What in the name of…” The Showstopper stopped mid-sentence, awestruck by the large beast that rose up from its reptilian crouch.

  It was the lobster monster.

  The thing was grievously injured, but there it was, bruised, bloody, and looking for

  something to kill.

  Given where I lay, I had an exceptionally closeup view of the monster, and I can tell you it was a beast straight out of a madman’s nightmare.

  The abomination’s misshapen head was the size of a small car and the mouth opened to reveal rows of golden teeth that looked like they could bite through steel plate.

  The colossus moved with the dexterity of a much smaller beast, rising up to its full and terrible dimensions and then its mouth shot out and enveloped the upper portion of The Showstopper’s body, head and all.

  There was the sickening sound of bones crunching and I saw the villain struggle to fight back, but the monster was too powerful for him.

  The thing reared up with The Showstopper in its bear trap of a mouth, his legs still kicking, and then it swallowed the villain whole.

  I teetered back and then I heard a whining sound as—

  The lobster monster vanished in a greasy orange fireball that smeared across the road.

  I watched its immense body flap in flames, hoping that the fire had finished the beast off.

  Aurora rose up out of the dust, clutching her smoking rocket launcher. She bounded down over a cluster of ruined wave sleds and we stood there silently for several seconds, watching the fireball devour itself until only a few embers were left.

  Before either of us co
uld say anything, the ground trembled and I looked back in horror as the lobster monster rose unsteadily. Its hide was charred and two gaping wounds were visible near its neck which foamed red, but the thing wasn’t dead. Its pincers slammed into the ground, pushing the thing up so that it could get a better look at us.

  “Big boy is giving us the stink eye,” I said.

  “Is that good or bad?” Aurora asked.

  “Definitely ain’t good.”

  The puckered flesh near the monster’s wounds pulled back and tentacles the size of firehoses shot out.

  The thing’s head rotated toward us and I peered up into the beast’s mammoth gaping maw, a bottomless well of nothing. The mouth opened and closed rapidly, exposing serrated teeth that sawed together, the alpha monster hissing at us.

  “That is one ugly mother!” I said.

  We stared in stunned silence as the beast arched its back, rising up into the air, exposing its midsection for a moment. And then the tentacles snapped at us and the beast reared back.

  “LOOK OUT!” Aurora cried.

  I looked up as the monster threw itself at us.

  Our gut instinct to survive sheer reflex, that’s the only thing that saved us. Aurora grabbed my arm and yanked me violently to the right, seconds before—

  The lobster monster flopped on the road, its weight carving a deep ravine in the asphalt, sending up banners of dirt and dust.

  The creature hesitated for a moment, seemingly disoriented by the smoke and dust it had just kicked up. We both saw that the creature, positioned with its soft belly to us, was vulnerable.

  “FIRE ON THAT!” I yelled.

  Aurora did, tossing plasma balls at the monster’s belly, and I did likewise.

  The creature, as if recognizing what we were doing, shifted one of its mighty arms like a matador pulling its cape in the face of an oncoming bull.

  Our incoming fire bounced off the hardened arm, doing minimal damage.

  The creature swung at us, obliterating a building as we juked back and to the right, opening fire again. This time we hit the beast’s belly dead center and it reacted in anger, thrashing about, knocking down a portion of a multi-story building.

  “WE GOT IT!” I shouted.

  “GO IN FOR THE KILL!” Aurora screamed.

  With one deft motion, I juked to the left and Aurora headed out to the right. Our movement disoriented the beast, causing it to make a split second decision.

  It chose to come after me (lucky me!) which meant Aurora was able to move in for the kill.

  The lobster fiend staggered toward me as Aurora birthed a length of energy that she shaped into the form of a javelin.

  She tossed the javelin at the monster’s belly and there was an explosion and an intense pressure wave that nearly blew out my eardrums. It was like being trapped under a tsunami, the pressure was so intense.

  The air was stolen from my lungs and I watched, absolutely rapt, as the monster’s body broke into pieces that collapsed to the ground.

  Like a lizard with a separated tail, the two portions of the monster flopped about before Aurora finished them off with another burst of searing energy.

  Aurora rose up out of the dust, slinging her rocket launcher over one shoulder. She bounded down over a cluster of ruined wave sleds and we stood there silently for several seconds, watching the fireball devour itself until only a few embers were left.

  “Thank you,” I said. “For back there. You saved me from the monster and The Showstopper.”

  She nodded. “The Showstopper was a dead-ender anyway. He’d never allow himself to be brought into the fold.”

  My eyes raked the street and the partially obliterated city. “At some point you’ll have to lay your weapons down, Aurora. The fighting will have to stop.”

  “You actually believe there will be a reconciliation?”

  “There was before wasn’t there? After the first war, right?”

  “Times have changed.”

  “I don’t believe that. Tomorrow’s reality comes from today’s dreams.”

  “What does that mean?”

  I shrugged. “I saw it once on a bumper sticker and thought it was cool.”

  She actually managed a smile at this. Then she pointed at the Harbinger who was visible over a section of the city’s wrecked subway. “We’ve still got some unfinished business.”

  The heavy sound of footfalls echoed.

  Glancing back over a shoulder I spotted Atlas, Big Dread, and the others. They were covered in dirt and grime and several of them were bloodied and sporting superficial wounds. Big Dread’s eyes pinballed in various directions, and I could tell she was looking for The Showstopper, so I looked away from her. Luckily she didn’t say anything and I sure as hell wasn’t going to volunteer any information. I figured I’d confront her about it once the battle was over.

  “What about the other monster?” Atlas asked.

  “We destroyed it.”

  “Which is more than we can say for the Harbinger.”

  “We should retreat,” Lyric said. “Take shelter in the middle of the city and lay a trap for him.”

  “How we gonna kill him?” Kaptain Khaos asked. “He’s too big, too powerful now. None of our weapons or feats can take him down.”

  Lyric was silent and the Harbinger roared again, turning toward us. We had a few minutes, maybe less before he was on top of us. It was at that moment that my gaze wandered over the others to the trap bottle in Aurora’s hands and the still-smoking rocket launcher at her feet.

  I latched onto a thought. The antimatter combined with Aurora’s rocket launcher. Yes! If I could find a way to feed a portion of the antimatter into the weapon, I could use it to destroy the Harbinger. It was a long shot, but it was the only thing that made sense.

  “What does the Harbinger want?” I asked.

  “The antimatter,” Lyric replied.

  I smiled. “So why don’t we give it to him?”

  “Did you get hit on your godsdamned head, Night Shade?” Kaptain Khaos asked.

  “For the last time, that’s Night Fire, and no I didn’t. What I’m saying is, we need to use the antimatter against him. It’s the only thing that can destroy the Harbinger.”

  “We’d destroy the planet if we did that,” Atlas replied.

  I shook my head, thinking about the yellow shell in my pocket. The one I’d found down in the underground with Kree’s people. “Not if we only used a portion of it.”

  The others took this in and then Splinter looked over. “Raise your hand if Quincy’s plan sounds like the worst fucking idea ever.”

  Splinter raised his hand, but there was instant recognition in the faces of the others. I could tell they’d realized there were no other options. The use of the antimatter was a last-ditch effort, a Hail Mary, but it was the only thing we had.

  The only difficulty lay in trying to figure out how to channel a portion of the antimatter into the launcher. Before I could begin processing how to do that, the Harbinger launched a ball of icy blue energy that landed nearby, eating through what was left of the street.

  81

  My breath caught as the explosion warped the air all around us. I managed to dredge up some strength and thrust my hands upward at the last moment, creating a forcefield that shielded all of us from the shrapnel flung into the air.

  The Harbinger was visible now, plowing through the city, supremely confident, unconcerned by us, a collection of mere gnats when compared to him. He laughed and flung broken machines and whole sections of the road at us.

  We hadn’t yet come up with a full game plan so Atlas signaled for everyone to move evasively and we did.

  I ran sideways with Aurora. The Harbinger spotted us, and the trap bottle, and gave chase. The villain was so large by that point that he could cross a city block with one gigantic stride.

  We tried attacking him from every direction.

  Aurora and I concentrated our fire on his midsection, but we’d been separated in the co
nfusion and couldn’t combine forces. The Harbinger blocked our incoming fire, redirecting it back at us.

  Ducking, I cowered under a destroyed wave sled and watched Atlas throw a punch that caught the Harbinger in the jaw. This knocked the giant off stride, but only for a moment. He turned and whipped an energy bolt at Atlas who barely avoided getting incinerated.

  Splinter flung sap and splinters at the villain while Big Dread and the others did what they could, but it was no use. The Harbinger seemed to be getting stronger. Then he did something unexpected. He threw up his mighty hands and clasped them together as if he was praying. I stood there watching this and then a spoke of blue light burst forth from his hands and turned into a mesmerizing dome that slowly began to descend on us.

  “RUN!” Aurora screamed.

  Planting my foot, I tried scrambling to safety, but the dome dropped to the ground and the next thing I knew, the air was on fire.

  I dove under a fallen wall and felt the heat, which was like being at the door of the world’s largest furnace when it’s thrown open, kissing the back of my neck.

  The blast of heat rolled right over me, and I had trouble breathing as an explosion sounded next, a titanic boom that shunted me sideways and rained a seemingly never-ending supply of rocks and refuse down as I curled into a fetal ball.

  I lay there on the ground for several seconds as the echo of the back-blast reverberated off what was left of several nearby buildings. It felt like a giant hand was pressing down on my back, the pressure from the detonation was so strong.

  My hands ran over my body and I felt gashes on my head and cheek. Blood was in my mouth, and even though I hadn’t yet reached it, I knew that something had broken in my right leg. The left side of my body was covered by several feet of debris and was numb, but I could at least move my arm and leg which was a good thing.

  Lying there in the shadow of what had once been a mighty building, I looked heavenward and focused on the hole in the Caul. The Harbinger had been able to breach only a small section of the protective shield, but look what had happened. The radiation had increased the size of the villain nearly tenfold. I could only imagine what horrors awaited the planet (and indeed the universe) if the Harbinger was able to secure all of the remaining antimatter and completely destroy the Caul.