New Markets - 02 (60 page)

Gatecrasher skidded to a stop about thirty feet past the wall.  He was in a section of a warehouse.  The entire room was filled with metal racks, along with rows between them to give forklifts space to maneuver.  The racks were filled with cartons and metal pieces in a wide variety of shapes.  He looked around for the hostages.

A crossbow twanged as a guard shot a taser bola at Gatecrasher.  The bola struck him in the left leg, electricity surrounded him and died down.  He ignored the guard and spotted the movement of shiny metal on the far side of the warehouse and jogged toward it.

The guard switched to his paintgun rifle just as Black Tiger came through the gap in the wall.  As Black Tiger leapt at him the guard began firing a long burst of paint balls toward him.  He dodged most of them, although one struck him in the right shoulder.  It didn’t hurt.  Black Tiger heard the crackling of electricity from behind him as he performed a jump spin kick on the man.  The guard flew back several dozen feet on the smooth floor.

While Black Tiger attacked the left guard, Hellshock had unleashed a line of electricity at another guard to the right.  The man slumped to the ground and twitched.

Psystar and Firebane ran past the two men to follow Gatecrasher.  Black Tiger spotted a pair of guards further down to the right and sprinted down toward them.

The shiny, silver skinned woman stepped out from a stack of boxes and faced Gatecrasher.  He noticed that her expression was neutral as he charged her.  Several paintballs struck his left shoulder as he approached her.  The hero ignored them.

The sensation of an unbelievable migraine struck Gatecrasher shortly before reaching the silver brick.  He stumbled and had difficulty seeing as the pain tore through his head.  Chrome punched him in the chest and stopped his momentum.  Her metal feet made a screeching sound as she skid back a few feet from her own punch.

Gatecrasher faltered back a step when a pair of huge hands smashed his helmet in from both side.  He was stunned from the impact and the ringing of his eardrum.

As Black Tiger sprinted to the right side of the facility he noticed a glowing light ahead and to his own right.  He cleared the office section and noticed a glowing orb reminiscent of a small sun, about eight feet in diameter.  What appeared to be a sunspot appeared on the side and lashed out toward him.  His safety mechanism kicked in and he disappeared, and then reappeared a short distance ahead of the beam of energy.  It blast past him into the warehouse with a loud whoosh sound.  Where the beam struck metal rails and parts melted instantly through the length of the warehouse.

Psystar and Firebane stopped for a moment at the sight of the bright beam to their right.  Psystar said, “They have some kind of light or fire super with them.”

Firebane sighed, “Fire is my thing, I’ll go help.”  She ran off to the right.

Hellshock stopped at Psystar’s side, “Let’s go!”  She nodded and proceeded to follow Gatecrasher when she saw Spartan, dressed in black spandex shorts and a tank top, smash the sides of their brick’s head.  Gatecrasher stumbled backwards.

Hellshock swore and said, “Distract the metal chick so I can hit her.”

Psystar ran forward, watching Spartan begin landing heavy punches on the stunned brick.  Chrome spotted her and walked forward to meet the heroine, on the way she punch Gatecrasher in the jaw, spinning him about.  The sound of her metal fist against his bone rang through the entire warehouse.  Psystar stopped just behind Spartan when Chrome’s mindview appeared.  She immediately pulled it close and dove into it.

Chrome looked surprised in her mental chamber.  She still looked clad in chrome metal in her mind’s eye.  Psystar immediately noticed that the memory door to her right was heavily barred shut from this side.  A second, smaller door stood next to it.  Through it she saw memory videos, although she was certain the barred door was the normal memory chamber.

Chrome walked up to her, but fell to the ground in a massive electrical storm in the center of the room.  Psystar was torn out of the mindview, she stumbled back, barely conscious.

Hellshock watched Chrome stop in her tracks as he summoned the largest lightning ball he could.  Loud thuds came from Gatecrasher as Spartan’s fist pummeled him just beyond the ladies.  He hoped he didn’t miss.  When he launched the lightning ball Chrome simply stood in place, staring off into space.  The electricity hit her and arced back and forth across her metal body much longer than he’d ever seen on a brick.

Black Tiger continued to the guard and leapt over the line of paint balls the man shot toward him.  The hero sailed over the guard, his tentacles lashed down, stabbed into his shoulders and threw the man over Black Tiger’s own head once the hero touched the ground again.

He looked back toward the sun sphere, which moved out into the main path.  He could barely see the shape of a person inside.  Several paintballs struck him in the back as he stared at the miniature sun.  Black Tiger had no idea how to fight someone encased in energy, so for the moment he followed Gatecrasher’s plan, turned and ran toward the man shooting at his back.

Firebane grabbed a random metal object from a rack as she ran past it, and soon saw the bright orb of energy ahead of her.  She ran out into the aisle as a taser bola wrapped around her legs, tripping her to the ground.  The electricity flowed through her body, and she discovered that she could absorb more than simply fire.  

Sunspot erupted another flare from his orb and unleashed it toward the foolish heroine lying on the floor ahead of him.  She stared into the light as the lash of energy struck her.  Her body absorbed the energy, and her eyes began to glow brightly.  Fire erupted from her hair.

Arissa watched the heroine in white slowly moving on the floor.  She smiled wickedly as she saw Psystar nearly unconscious and barely moving on the floor.  Arissa summoned her mental whip, envisioned it building up energy as it snaked about in her mind’s eye, and lashed out at the heroine.  Psystar didn't see the mental energy this time, as Arissa was out of mindview range.

The migraine struck her without warning, but just as quickly faded as she dimly felt it flow through the mindviews into the people near her.  Hellshock and Spartan cried out in pain as the stabbing mental pain struck them.  Gatecrasher slumped to the ground as Spartan released him.

Black Tiger dodged several more shots from the pair of guards in the northwest corner of the giant room.  He swung from the racking system and landed on one of the guards.  The other he knocked the machine gun away from and punched a few times until the man fell unconscious.  He knocked out the guard struggling to his feet and looked around to assess the fights.

The loud thudding noises from the fighting bricks stopped.  He hoped Gatecrasher was doing well, and began sprinting in his brick’s last known direction.

Firebane’s eyes glowed brightly as she unwrapped her legs and ran toward Sunspot.  She reached her feet and closed about half the distance when Sunspot’s next flare rose from the sun-like orb and lashed out at her.

She hoped the fiery light wouldn’t hurt her again as she sprinted toward it.  She felt her skin tingling, and the feeling akin to hunger as when she had wanted to pull the fire from the office building into her.  The light struck her and flowed into her body.  The fire in her hair glowed brighter and she closed on Sunspot.

Arissa whipped Psystar again with another mental lash.  She saw the initial reaction of the heroine, but hadn’t realized the pain was but momentary to the golden haired woman.  Again Psystar jerked when the whip struck her, and yet again the majority of the pain flowed through to the others near her.

Spartan looked at the heroes near him.  Their brick lay at the ground at his feet.  The golden haired woman in white was nearly down, she appeared stunned to his right.  The lightning blaster remained standing past her.  He marched toward the lightning blaster, grimacing in pain from whatever was hitting him in the head.

Hellshock summoned another lightning ball between his hands.  His concentration nearly failed when Arissa hit with her mental lash, but was able to continue building the power out of long practice and determination.  He grit his teeth and unleashed the ball at Spartan.  The brick continued marching at him, and the lightning coursed over the previous hero’s body.  His muscles locked up from the great shock.

Arissa smiled wickedly as she envisioned spinning her mental whip in her mind’s eye, building up the energy again.  Black Tiger’s tentacles hooked the nearest metal racks and he swung through the air in a great arc, slamming his feet into the villainess’s back.  She flew through the air and rolled on the floor near Hellshock.

Black Tiger saw Spartan standing and was momentarily glad, until he saw his former friend straighten up and look at Hellshock with a cold stare.  Hellshock saw Black Tiger a few dozen feet ahead and to his right.  He hoped the mutant would be able to fight his own friend.

The determination Psystar felt flowing off the two villains and Hellshock helped her focus and regain her senses.  She immediately saw through the mindviews that Spartan and Hellshock were about to face one another.  Arissa looked back toward Black Tiger, and Psystar saw her building up a mental whip of green energy as the villainess lay on the ground.  Two black mindviews told her that Chrome and Gatecrasher were unconscious.  Black Tiger’s mindview appeared as he rushed toward her.

The memory of Black Tiger flying into a rage at her kiss crossed Psystar’s mind.  She rolled over and grabbed the woman as the villainess unleashed her mental whip at Black Tiger.  He crashed to the ground in front of the two women, screaming and holding his head.  Blood ran from his eyes, nose and ears.

Firebane reached the sunlike orb surrounding Sunspot.  As she held her hand out toward it the energy began flowing rapidly into her, as though a black hole had appeared next to a sun.  Sunspot attempted to create another energy lash out of the orb, but his control was fading fast.  The sun sphere began to lose cohesion as it siphoned off into Firebane.

The remaining guard in the northwest corner of the building watched the pack of supers mostly lying about on the floor.  He swore at taking a job where every punch the bricks had made on Gatecrasher sent shockwaves he felt through his bones.  He feared that one of them would get too near him.

The only hero who remained standing was Hellshock.  The guard took careful aim and began firing heavy machine gun slugs into the lightning blaster.  Not expecting the attack from his far left, Hellshock failed to see the man and the burst of rounds caught him in the torso and knocked him back.  With a body not as dense or tough as Black Tiger’s, the bullets tore large wounds in his torso.

Thoughts of emotions swept through Psystar’s mind – the idea of making Arissa fear her might make her lash out.  Anger, frustration and any type of joy might do the same.  Pride or cheer might make the woman attack even stronger.  Hellshock stumbled back from the weapons fire, and Spartan stomped toward him as she closed on Arissa.  She knew she needed Arissa to help her more than anything.

Psystar focused on spreading love and a desire to protect herself in the area, hopefully hitting the villainess more than anyone.  Psystar yanked the woman’s hair back and kissed her, hoping to force the heavier concentration of pheromones she’d seen affect others from her mouth and nose.  Tingling spread over her as she held onto the woman.

Arissa was torn from watching the effect of her mental lash against Black Tiger as Psystar yanked her back by her hair.  She began twisting her mental whip around in her mind as the kiss landed.

Spartan reached Hellshock, and with a mighty punch to the chest launched the hero through the metal racking systems, causing metal parts to fly and crashing him way back against the wall of the office section the heroes had first entered through.  He watched the path of destruction the hero’s body left in its wake.

The sphere around Sunspot faltered.  It became waves of energy flowing around him, then became bands, and finally failed completely until the villain was left standing, dark and in a pair of spandex shorts.  He doubled over, hands on his knees as the effort of maintaining and then losing control over the sun sphere collapsed.

Firebane felt energized.  Her hair was fully ablaze with fire, her eyes glowed brightly with white light, trails of flame rose from the outer corners of each eye.  As she stood with her mouth open, each breath released heat and flame.  She held her hand in front of her, it glowed, and then lit up with flame and light.  She looked back up at Sunspot, aimed her hand at him and blasted a line of fire and light at him.