Disclaimer: Don't own Aberrant, don't own Incredibles. White Wolf owns the former, Pixar/Disney own the latter.
Author's Notes: Okay, just so you know, Geryon (James Booth) is a character from Aberrant, he's a faction leader in the Teragen and...well...he's something of a nova vigilante (targeting anyone who tries to harm novas). I hope I do the character justice. I've had to re-write this part a few times...tried to shorten it. I hope nobody here is a fan of T2M: Americas. It's not pretty...Buddy's a little brutal in this chapter. I hope you like this. In the meantime, feel free to leave comments, criticisms, and the occasional threat. Feedback is always good...I guess.
Mexico City, home of T2M Americas, has turned itself around miraculously in the past 10 years. Once an overpopulated breeding pit of poverty and violence, Mexico City has benefited greatly from the presence and investment of the novas who dwell there. Now one of the cleanest cities in North America, Mexico City also intends to revive the national economy, starting locally. It is another multicultural hub, and all but the most daft of visitors can find someone who speaks their language. In addition, the young economy-on-the-upswing has drawn a fair share of entrepreneurs who, if you can look past their awful suits and omnipresent cellphone conversations, may turn Mexico City into a metropolis of global import. Perhaps in spite of themselves.
Excerpt from Duke Rollo's Why Customs Officials Hate Me — The Wretched World of Contract Journalism
Mexico City, Mexico
Grand Phoenix Hotel
Buddy smiled as he finished the calibrations on the boot-jets. According to the control console on his right gauntlet, they were now properly synchronized to the booster-pack that would be attached to the back of his body armor. Unfortunately, he didn't have the time to link the pack to the HUD system in his helmet, not that it mattered...it was linked to the small control panel in his ZP gauntlets which were well protected. He spent most of the day modifying the helmet that he had purchased from a store. Granted, it was just a motorcycle helmet, but it was one of the modern ones that had a polarized visor and basic radio and cellular communication ability. It was a simple matter of re-wiring and adding a little bit of extra hardware.
It's a pity I lost the other helmet in San Francisco, but this will do in a pinch. Besides, it's not like I'm going to be keeping this cobbled together getup. I'm only using this to conceal my identity and send a message.
He spent the next few minutes putting on the various pieces of body armor. When the last piece clicked into place, he tapped a couple buttons on the right hand gauntlet, synchronizing it with the systems of his cybernetic right arm. The HUD system momentarily displayed a status bar before confirming synchronization. It also flashed the two minute warning, informing him that the missiles would be on their way shortly.
Okay...it's showtime! Two minutes to launch.
He was expecting to feel the thrill of anticipation as he watched the time click away, but was surprised that he experienced a sense of boredom instead.
Then again, I've already caused a disaster of "nearly biblical proportions", killed a bunch of people, slaughtered an entire cell of Yakuza thugs, blew up an international sea-port facility, and killed a popular superteam...damn, it's been a busy week...I think I need a vacation already.
He sighed as he watched the last fifteen seconds start to tick away.
Hmmm...where to go...where to go...Vegas sounds good.
10...9...8...7...
Nah...better keep it local. Maybe I'll take a couple days off and just hit Santa Cruz...The Pacifica Grille is there, haven't been there in years. Really missed their bacon and grilled onion burger...damn...
6...5...4...
Now I'm hungry...I wonder if I should get something to eat.
3...2...1..0...
Suddenly, a new countdown started, twenty four minutes minutes and counting. Buddy sighed again as he watched the new countdown.
Dammit...I really should have ordered that steak and lobster dinner.
Off the shores of Acapulco, the first of four missiles launched, a ten-foot long projectile shooting skyward. Within in the first twenty seconds, the launch had been picked up by Project Utopia, NATO, and NORAD. Utopia immediately put out a call to Team Tomorrow Americas while the US government ordered a flight of fighters and the few flight capable novas they had up in the air. It was impressive, it all happened in less than a minute. The novas of Team Tomorrow Americas that were capable, were airborne and on their way to intercept the missile that continued to gain altitude...then three other missiles were launched four minutes after the first missile...this time at a different trajectory. Unlike the first missile, they were heading for land-based targets.
The first missile, traveling much faster than the others, had actually reached the lower stratosphere in those four minutes before detonating. To the two novas known as Sliptream and Skyburn...it was almost a disappointment. They were expecting some sort of explosion, but all they saw was what appeared to be a blue flash, as if someone had set off a giant flash bulb from an over-sized camera
Then they saw it...a blue ring of energy that suddenly expanded across the sky, bathing the area with an eerie blue glow. Neither of them realized what was happening, only that their communications gear suddenly stopped working.
To the people stationed at the monitoring posts of NORAD and Project Utopia, they suddenly lost all satellite feed for the area over a large portion of Mexico and part of California. Instead of raw data, it was a blue haze on the screen and static over the audio channels. NORAD immediately ordered the aircraft that had just scrambled to pull back.
To the people of Mexico city, all forms of electronic and digital communications suddenly went off line. Internet users lost their connections, cell-phones lost their signals,various networks went down...unable to communicate, Mexico City and the surrounding area went silent.
Back in his hotel room, Buddy watched the countdown continue on, pausing momentarily to look at the window and watch the crowded streets become even more crowded as people rushed out into the streets to find out what was going on. He could also hear the sound of sirens in the distance and could see a couple accidents in a nearby intersection.
Yep...traffic signal network went down. It's absolute chaos out there...damn...I really should have gotten something to eat before this.
He looked at the HUD again and started humming the Imperial Death March from Star Wars. The first missile had obviously detonated, the little "quantum dispersion wave" worked like a nice little EMP blast crippling just about everything that was electronic and wasn't properly shielded by a zero-point energy field...like the one generated by his gauntlets. He took a few moments to check out the various weapons he would be using. The primary plasma rifle he would be carrying was something that he had to grudgingly give the Nakato some credit for...they had managed to build up a decent cooling system compared to his original design, but the discharge coils had to be re-calibrated to work at the original setting he had designed them for. The same could be said about the light rail-based "needle-gun" mounted on his left shoulder...they didn't use the titanium/duralloy based ammunition he had designed for the weapon, but the eumetal ammo would do...for now.
Then again, Eumetal and Eufibre are supposedly more "environment friendly"...shit...I really wish people would get off the political correctness band wagon. On the other hand, "going green" has got to be the best quick get-rich scam the world governments have come up with.
A grim smile crept across Buddy's face.
And I guess I'm doing my part...a lot of people won't be leaving "carbon footprints" after tonight. Hell...I've gotten rid of a lot of "carbon footprints" this week. And the bodies ARE biodegradable. I should get a Nobel prize for my efforts.
He couldn't help chuckling at that thought, then he saw something outside the window that caught his attention. Two novas were descending from the sky towards the T2M building. He brought the HUD targeting system up, zooming in on the front of the building. Four more novas could be seen stepping out of the entrance of the building while another one with wings flew out of an opening at the top.
Yep...there we go...all seven of them.
He then turned his attention to the crowded streets and the people looking up in the sky, pointing at the weird blue haze up in the atmosphere that seemed to pulsate in various patterns not unlike the famous "Northern Lights" of the Aurora Borealis.
Except my light-show is going to involve more audience participation, Buddy smirked to himself. The "pupil-lock" system he rigged up allowed him to bring up targeting reticles which he used to lock on various members of Team Tomorrow. Upon locking on a target, the HUD immediately brought up summarized info he had hacked from the T2M: Americas tower.
Target – Skyburn
Name – Mackenzie Rhodes
Designation – Offensive Operations
Known Powers – Elemental Based, Fire...Flight
Target – Slipstream
Name - Shayla MacTaggert
Designation – Offensive Operations, Reconnaissance
Known Powers – Supersonic Flight, Air manipulation
Hmm...those would be the two idiots who were capable of making it to the stratosphere...what about the third flyer?
Target - Jaguar
Name - Manuella Perez
Designation – Offensive Operations, Infiltration
Known Powers – Enhanced Reflexes, Enhanced Senses, Claws, Limited Regenerative ability
Oh goody, the resident hot "furry feline" chick...damn...not bad measurements though.
Target – Sea Hawk
Name – David Markham
Designation – Secondary Team Leader, T2M: Americas
Known Powers- Limited Flight (winged), Enhanced Sight, Enhanced Strength, Durability
Ah, there's the other flyer. Hmm..this guy could be trouble. According to his main bio, he was former military, a Naval Academy graduate and former S.E.A.L...he's probably more of a threat than the actual team leader. Which brings me to...
Target – Gila
Name - Ricardo Montoya-Bernal
Designation – Team Leader, T2M: Americas
Known Powers – Mega Strength, Mega Dexterity
Great, they put a former masked wrestler from the XWF in charge of a T2M cell...from what I read of this guy, he's an arrogant prick and full of himself. I think I'll save him for last.
Target – Stinger
Name – Lisa Tyrell
Designation – Intelligence, offensive operations
Known Powers – Enhanced Strength, Enhanced Reflexes, Light-bending Camouflage, Adhesion
That must be the babe with long brown hair tied back in a pony-tail...yep, she just went "invisible" and is stalking her way to a vantage point. Not going to help you, bitch, I can detect your body-heat and quantum signature just fine.
Target – Portal
Name – Melissanda Estevez
Designation – Reconnaissance, Logistics
Known Powers – Enhanced Reflexes, Teleportation
Ah yes...the teleporter. Definitely the most dangerous out of the group.
He smiled as the targeting window for the rail-launcher flashed into existence.
But easily taken care of.
Target Lock – Portal.
Buddy didn't even flinch as the projectiles from the rail launcher blasted through the glass of the windows, but he did chuckle as he watched Melissanda Estevez' head suddenly explode, splattering two of her teammates with skull fragments, blood, and brain matter.
One down...now let the show begin.
With a wild cry he jumped through the window of his hotel room, his boot-jets kicking on after he had fallen several floors. He thumbed on the external speakers to address the bystanders below who were pointing up at him.
"Pay no heed, people," he said. "It'll be all over soon."
And those of you who survive will never forget this day.
Plasma Rifle Calibrated...Targeting.
Quantum Signature – Stinger – Target Locked
A large ball of energy erupted from the barrel of the plasma rifle, slamming into the wall of a building, momentarily revealing the silhouette of a woman trying to jump clear before it was consumed by the expanding fireball that blew out the entire third floor of the building. Buddy doubted Stinger even knew what hit her or even had time to scream as she disintegrated.
Two down, five to go.
Mexico City had become crown jewel for Project Utopia, proof that a benevolent organization could turn a city on the brink of collapse and infested by corruption into a beacon of what the rest of the world could aspire to...so long as they followed the Utopia ideal.
James Booth hated Mexico City, it represented one of the major things he hated about Utopia and, if he had his way, he wouldn't be here. On the other hand, Mexico City was relatively easy to infiltrate and one of the last places the international authorities would look for him. After all, when he was powered up, he was the Teragen monstrosity known as Geryon, nova terrorist and a regular resident on most law enforcement agencies' top ten list.
However, that was Geryon they were hunting, not James Booth, who could pass as a baseline human. Not only that, no one would think to look for Geryon in a Project Utopia stronghold. But it wasn't James' intention to lie low, that was just a fringe benefit. He was actually following up on a lead that Synapse, another member of the Teragen, had given him. Though James didn't care much for Synapse's cocky attitude, he had to admit the boy was one hell of an asset when it came to the frontier of cyberspace.
Apparently, Synapse had stumbled across a highly encrypted teleconference on the net. The irony was that he wouldn't have picked it up through the sea of mass communications across the net if the damn thing hadn't been so highly encrypted. It was like throwing a bloody piece of meat in a shark tank, a challenge for the quantum enhanced super-hacker to break. But even with his advanced abilities, it had proven quite the challenge and he had only been able to crack into the tail end of the digital gathering. However, it was enough to worry a lot of people.
It was a meeting of the leadership of the Church of Michael Archangel, a group of pseudo-religious fanatics, based mostly in the rural southern back country in the United States, who saw novas as being demons. When they first surfaced, the Michaelites were laughed at, even most of the members of the Teragen, along with most of the world, dismissed these people as crazed lunatics with no real cause and not much of a threat.
That all changed six months ago when the Michaelites took down the nova hero known as the "Houston Tornado". Sure, the baselines ambushed the poor bastard, but the fact that they had done so in an organized fashion with basic tactics and crude weapons, it was obvious that the monkeys were learning very quickly. There had been talks of a few novas seeking retribution for those responsible, but targeting the known Michaelite compounds would have been a suicide mission. It also wasn't a good idea because there was a possibility of a hidden Michaelite cell waiting to strike, and an all out assault on them might draw more baselines to side with the fanatics.
James was certain there was going to be a war, that was inevitable, but he also wasn't stupid. As much as he wanted to go after those bigoted monkeys, he knew that the Teragen weren't ready for the war...not yet, at least. Too many people in the Teragen were divided over what to do, some wanted outright war, others suggested neutrality, and some even wanted to establish some sort of new status-quo with the baselines. While he didn't want to go to war right away, James wasn't stupid. It was only a matter of time before the monkeys turned on the novas and tried to control them or just outright destroy them. To him, Utopia was merely a first step in that direction, and while he didn't want to see them dead, he saw the novas working for Utopia as sell-outs and had no problem beating them to a bloody pulp.
Then the game suddenly changed.
He wasn't sure how or exactly when it changed, but he could feel that something was terribly wrong. Fate, God, or whatever was guiding this little drama decided to kick things up a notch. The first clue was the freak tsunami activity and electro-magnetic storms in the Indian Ocean that disrupted communications, sank several freighters and cruise ships, and wiped out various seaside cities and villages off the coasts of several countries. The last known body count was pushing nearly a million people. According to the world-wide media, it was a natural disaster, but he knew that was a crock of shit the moment he heard it. Utopia and various International agencies were doing their best to figure out what created that burst of quantum energy that caused so much devastation.
Actually, he was certain Utopia knew what caused it, but they were doing their best to feign ignorance with the rest of the world and were probably trying to cover any evidence that might link them to the disaster.
Then there was the attack on San Francisco a few days ago and the destruction of their resident nova super-team, the Protectors. There was no mistake about it, the novas were targeted and systematically taken out, except for one member who was seriously injured and would have died if that idiot Bomber hadn't showed up and saved her life.
At first, the Utopia controlled media tried to blame Bomber for the attack on The Protectors, but James knew that was a lie. Jean-Paul Renard, killing a super-team and blowing up a chunk of the historic San Francisco waterfront? Not likely. Renard was an adrenaline junkie, but he wasn't a cold blooded murderer, that wasn't his style. Eye witness accounts from baseline survivors of the attack cleared Bomber any wrong-doing, claiming that an unknown man wearing black body-armor, sporting some extremely high-tech weaponry, and, according to a couple witnesses, shot some sort of blue energy out his hands, was to blame.
James had planned on crashing the hospital where Renard was being held and get more information about the mysterious attacker, but a couple Elites had shown up to kill Renard, who managed to escape and disappear. Despite his opinion about Renard, he was starting to admire the punk's ability to survive and escape. However, with Renard on the run, his lead on who attacked San Francisco was gone...until Synapse showed him some interesting data he intercepted.
Apparently, a few days before the attack on San Francisco, someone had killed a group of Nakato in British Columbia, seized their assets, and blew up a large chunk of the shipping port facility in Vancouver. According to witnesses, they saw what appeared to be a miniature "lightning storm of cackling blue energy" after the blast. After doing some digging through the digital records of various Nakato front companies, Synapse had learned the Nakato were smuggling in weapons from Japan to Vancouver and planning to sell them to a group of Michaelites. That little tidbit was enough to get James' interest. He had tangled with the Nakato, and he had seen some of the tech they were starting to field, stuff that could drop him. The fact that they were willing to sell their tech to the Michaelites was bad news.
But the deal had fallen through. Someone had killed the Nakato cell before the representatives of the Michaelites even arrived. However, someone calling himself "Gabriel" had contacted one of the Michaelite compounds and informed them that he would like to continue the business arrangement they had with the Nakato. Though the conversation was brief and sketchy, the man called Gabriel said that he would provide an 'audition' to prove himself. A day or two after that conversation, the attack on San Francisco happened, then that highly encrypted teleconference occurred. Though Synapse hadn't been able to recover the whole conversation, the last few seconds were enough: Mexico City was the next target.
And that was why James found himself in Mexico City, pretending to be a tourist on holiday. He had been there for almost two days and found himself dying of boredom. For what had to be the hundredth time, he checked in with Synapse who constantly asked him to pick some souvenirs while he was down there, joking about how he could use a giant sombrero to put on his cryo-tank where his actual body was stored. After what had become this annoying ritual of reporting in, arguing about this was a mission and not a sight-seeing tour, James had finally lost his cool and started to tell Synapse what the little net-linked nova could do with his self...or he would have if a sudden blue flash up in the heavens and something that looked like an evil twin of the naturally occurring Aurora Borealis appeared in the sky.
Then the link with Synapse went dead, the lighting in all the buildings started flickering before going out. People around him, who until that moment were lost in their own little world until their cell-phones or any other digital communication devices went out were suddenly wondering what was going on in their otherwise boring life. However, all of them, including James, looked up at the sky momentarily mesmerized by the blue haze that seemed to go on forever in the sky above the city. The sound of screeching tires and something crashing made him look around and he noticed that all the major traffic signals had gone out. He looked in the direction of the Utopia building near the city center and saw two novas coming down from the sky after obviously checking out the strange anomaly that suddenly appeared in the sky.
Even though he was expecting an attack, James did not expect anything like this. Like the baselines surrounding him and the clueless T2M nova team standing in front of their headquarters, he couldn't help being confused...until he saw Portal's head explode, spraying Gila and Sea-Hawk with blood and brain matter.
Then he heard people shout and saw them pointing at some hotel down the street. He saw a figure...in black body armor wearing some sort of jet pack and carrying a nasty looking energy weapon that he fired across the square and into an apartment building, blowing out the entire third floor and raining burning debris on the crowd.
"Bloody Hell!" he yelled as he, like everyone else, dove for cover. However, unlike the rest, he didn't try scrambling for shelter when he got back on his feet. Instead, he made his way towards the battle, his body beginning to shift into its monstrous form.
"Ka-Ching!" Buddy laughed as he blew up a fuel truck with his plasma launcher. "Oh yeah, wanton destruction and chaos, gotta' love it!"
Target – Sea Hawk, terminated...
Then again, being slammed into a fuel tanker and having it blow up on you is enough to roast most people, even a nova.
"Okay," he said, "that's three...have to admit I never roasted a winger before-HEY!"
Buddy managed to roll with the tackle, but lost his grip on the plasma launcher as the feline creature known as Jaguar knocked it away. "Monster!" she hissed, swiping her claws against his chest, actually slicing into the body armor.
"Whoa there, baby," Buddy chuckled, powering up one of the ZP gauntlets and catching Jaguar in a blue field. "Bad kitty."
He slammed her against a wall.
"Don't."
He sent her flying into a parked car.
"Fuck."
Then he sent her flying through the window of a restaurant.
"With."
And finally, he had the field grab her and bring down hard into the middle of the street with so much force that he could actually hear bones break from the impact.
"Daddy."
He paused to look at the fallen heroine and was actually impressed to see she was still alive, moaning softly as she tried to get up.
"Oh, I'm so sorry Timmy," Buddy said as he activated the rail-gun. "Fluffy was old, broken, and just not worth keeping around anymore." The rail gun burped once, turning Jaguar into hamburger as the rounds ripped her to shreds. "She had to be put down...and that makes four."
"Son of a bitch!" someone screamed. To punctuate that expletive, a wave of flame hit Buddy and actually knocked him to the ground.
He rolled with the impact, but cursed as the rail-gun was ripped off his shoulder mount. He went to reach for it, but jumped back as the weapon was melted to slag by a fireball that turned that small patch of ground into a pool of magma. He looked up and saw Skyburn floating there, Slipstream flanking him.
"Damn, boy," Buddy laughed. "Such passion, such anger, you sound really pissed...really fired up!"
"FUCK YOU!" Skyburn screamed as he fired a wave of fireballs at Buddy.
Buddy kicked up the power on the ZP gauntlets and having them generate a stronger field around his suit. However, he was getting concerned as he noticed the readings coming from the fireballs.
Shit...he's really gone into Elemental mode. He keeps this up, he might breach my field in a few minutes. Hmmm...I wonder...how much power can he hold?
"Well shit, son, that's a lot of quantum you're flinging out, how about a boost?" Buddy aimed his right gauntlet at Skyburn, altering the ZP energy to match Skyburn's, and fired.
Skyburn actually laughed as the energy burst hit him, but did nothing. "You're shitting me! That just powered me up, asshole!"
"I know," said Buddy as he increased the energy flow.
Skyburn's eyes widened in realization before he suddenly screamed in pain. "NO! It's too much!" He tried to release the excess energy, but something was preventing it from being discharged. "NOOOOOO!"
His scream died out as he literally exploded, a fiery ring twenty feet off the ground that expanded outward for at least a city-block, incinerating just about anything in the way, including his own teammate, Slipstream, who was too stupid to get away from her boyfriend.
"Five and six," Buddy said as he went airborne again. "Now that just leaves...ah." He had one of his gauntlets deflect a large piece of concrete that was thrown at him. "There you are, Montoya. I knew you crawled under rock when the fight started, but I wasn't expecting you to throw it at me."
The leader of T2M Americas snarled as he charged Buddy. Buddy actually felt some of the force of the blow when Gila connected, knocking him through the remains of an office building before he came to a landing three blocks away.
"Shit," Buddy muttered, "I think he's pissed." He shrugged as he kicked the ZP gauntlets to full power. "Well, guess that means I can stop playing." He waited until Gila charged through the wall of a ruined building, then brought both gauntlets up, catching the attacking nova in a field. "Damn, don't you think you're taking this too personally?"
"They...were..my..friends," Gila managed to choke out.
"Bullshit," Buddy said. "A relatively new team of unknowns thrown together and you really didn't give a shit about them. They were highly paid posers, just like you. None of whom have actually been in a real fight, especially you." A simple flick of the wrist and Gila was sent across the street and into parked armored truck, his body leaving a shaped indentation in the vehicle's side panel. "This is a long cry from the XWF, Monty. Unlike those staged conflicts, this one's real." He had the field toss Montoya up high before slamming him through a bank.
Buddy walked towards the front of the bank. "What's the matter, Montoya? Where's the cocky piece of shit who owned the Monday night main event on N!CHannel?"
The sound of grinding metal was the only warning Buddy got before a bank vault door came hurling out of the opening. Buddy deflected it with a wave of his arm, the field sending the vault door down the street where it landed on a a group of people trying to flee the scene. With his gauntlet, he caught Gila in mid-leap.
"That's really pathetic," he said, shaking his head, bringing the other gauntlet into play, forcing Gila's arms and legs apart. "The great Montoya, former XWF superstar, token brick and leader of a team of glorified wannabes."
To Gila's credit, and Buddy's surprise, the hero was defiant and actually spat at him, the mixture of blood and saliva splattering on Buddy's force-field before sizzling away a second later.
"And that," Buddy chuckled, "was an act of futility." He spread his arms apart, the multi-segmented field mirroring his movements, ripping Gila's body in half. There was a brief scream, followed by a weird "splutch" noise before blood, organ tissue, and other assorted remains splattered across the area.
Buddy shook his head as he discarded the two halves of the now deceased hero. "And that," he sighed, "was just me being a sadistic bastard."
James never considered himself a religious man, but everything he experienced in the last several minutes had him actually wonder if God was pissed at the world. He made his way towards the battle, at first trying to avoid being seen, but that idea was scrapped when the unknown attacker began to cause massive collateral damage across the town.
No...this wasn't caused, he deliberately inflicted it.
James was no stranger to this tactic; using collateral damage as a way to strike fear into enemies had always been a sound strategy and one he used as the monstrous Geryon.
But even the Teragen didn't do damage on this kind of a scale. Sure, the Utopia-friendly media would accuse us of that, but we never did anything like this...at least not yet anyway.
He found himself burrowing out of rubble caused by the devastation only to buried by more rubble when he saw the T2M nova called Skyburn literally explode, sending an enormous ring of super-heated plasma that incinerated anything that happened to at the same altitude he was at. The explosion took out the third floor of any buildings within a couple blocks radius of the blast, most of them being high-rises and skyscrapers that collapsed, showering the area with more debris and burying anyone unlucky enough to be there.
There was no doubt this armored psycho was responsible for the killing of the novas in San Francisco. And while he didn't think to highly of Team Tomorrow, they were novas, his own kind...and this animal was slaughtering them.
After plowing his way through the debris of what had been an apartment building, James followed the noise of the battle and the mocking voice of the man behind this, pausing for a moment when he saw the mutilated remains for the nova known as Feral. Though no stranger to violence and having seen his share of dead bodies, he found himself swallowing back some bile.
Who the hell is this bastard?
Then he heard a man's scream, followed by a sickening sound of something splattering. He rounded the corner and saw the armored figure with his back to him, walking away and leaving Gila's corpse behind.
"And that," the armored figure said, the digitized vocalizer on the helmet not even hiding the disgust in the wearer's voice, "was just me being a sadistic bastard."
Despite his rage, James managed to bite back the snarl as he charged the armored man from behind.
Unidentified Quantum Signature...
"What the Fu-" Buddy was hit hard from behind and sent flying through a couple buildings before landing in an intersection. Even with the protective field, he still felt the force of the blow in his back and he was certain he heard a couple ribs crack. In fact, landing flat on his back on the concrete was less painful than the blow he received. The HUD screen in his helmet flickered for a moment and he was wondering why he didn't detect the signature of the attacker, but the answer to that came in the form of the residual quantum energy that still saturated the area after Skyburn exploded.
He managed to come to that conclusion in less than a second, which was a good thing because he spent the next second rolling out of the way as something huge and ugly came down out of the sky and landed right in the space he had previously occupied. He rolled to his feet to see a nine foot tall monstrous creature with scales embedding its fist in the ground where his chest would have been if he hadn't moved out of the way.
Target Identified...Geryon
Warning...High Level Quantum Signature
No shit, Buddy thought. He hadn't planned on facing off against the Teragen, let alone on their heavy hitters like Geryon. He then looked at the small countdown display at the lower corner of the HUD.
Then again I won't have to. Only have a few more minutes left.
"Well, well, well," he said, hoping he kept the concern out of his voice. "Wasn't planning on the Terragen showing up." He fired a pulse of ionized energy from his left ZP gauntlet. "But hey, I don't mind adding you to my list of kills."
The bolt of energy hit Geryon in the chest, throwing him down the street and crackled across the massive nova's body for a few seconds.
James remembered the first time, back before he erupted as a nova, he had felt pain similar to this. It was at a football game in Leeds and a riot broke out between fans. To be fair, he was part of it and he actually enjoyed being part of community the world media had dubbed "soccer hooligans", but that was until one of the other hooligans on the other side doused him with beer and then zapped his wet body with a tazer repeatedly, it felt like he was being burned and someone had spilled sulfuric acid on his body.
This was about a thousand times worse. Whenever he "powered up", he could feel the quantum energy coursing through his body, that M-R node in his brain that channeled the quantum that gave him his monstrous form and abilities, it was like a constant adrenaline rush. Except, now that energy seemed to rip through his body, causing him to convulse for a few seconds. If he wanted to find the perfect metaphor, it was as if someone had dipped all his nerve endings in molten lava. And while the pain only lasted a few seconds, it still fucking hurt!
"Damn," the armored figure said as he approached where James had landed, but stopping at least a dozen feet away. "You're body's kicking out a shitload of quantum energy there, pal. I'm sure it makes you a bad-ass in the nova community, but it's a fucking handicap when dealing with me."
James didn't say anything. Instead, he rolled up into a couch and then lunged forward at the man. It only took a moment and, under normal circumstances, he would have had his hands around the target's throat and proceeded to rip their head off. He was only inches away from the man when he was suddenly wrapped in a blue field and held in place.
"What the-ARRRRGH!" He screamed as he felt that searing pain throughout his entire body.
"Ow," laughed his tormentor. "Sounds like it hurts like a bitch, here...lie down."
James was suddenly thrown through a city bus.
"No, wait, not there...how about over here?"
He was then picked up and catapulted through a storefront.
"Nope, on second thought, back out here is good."
The invisible field picked him up and brought him close to his attacker, but he found that he couldn't move. The pain had subsided, but his whole body had gone numb.
"Who...are..you?" he managed to choke out.
"Well, I could say that I'm your worst nightmare, your nemesis, the man who will annihilate your kind off the face of the earth, but that would be rather cliché, don't you think?" The armored man leaned forward, his helmet's visor only inches from James' face. "But you can call me Gabriel."
"I'll call...you...dead." To emphasize his point, James actually managed to bring his left arm up and tried to grab Gabriel, only to be awarded with another wave of searing pain.
Gabriel shook his head and chuckled. "Shit, Geryon, that's fucking impressive. Even Mr. Incredible couldn't move in my little Quantum field." He paused for a moment, his helmeted head tilted to one side as if he were considering something. "You know, I don't know why they call it Quantum energy instead of Zero Point Energy...I always thought that sounded cooler. Not that it matters, I can manipulate quantum, and the fact that your body kicks out so much of it pretty much allows me to control it."
James' eyes narrowed. "Really?" he asked as a desperate plan suddenly went through his head. "Using my own quantum against me?"
"Wow, you're not as dumb as you look," Gabriel snickered. "That's pretty much it."
"Good to know," James said. He knew it was a desperate attempt, maybe suicidal, but it was now or never. He concentrated for a moment, willing his body to "dorm down".
The field surrounding Geryon suddenly went down. With no quantum energy there for his ZP gauntlets to immediately manipulate, the field went down, releasing its hold on the wiry shirtless young man wearing tattered jeans.
Warning...field re-calibration required...
"What the fuck-" was all Buddy got out as the other man swung at him, suddenly morphing back into his monstrous form before his fist connected to Buddy's helmet.
Even with the personal field, the sheer force of the blow actually snapped his head to the side.
Warning...protective shell breached...
That was confirmed as the visor on his helmet cracked, robbing him of his HUD. His body flying through two buildings was another clue that things weren't going well. He actually felt the impact on his spine when he landed. The protective field was still working, but it was weakening. If it wasn't working, he'd have been a greasy smear on the street by now.
He brought up his right arm and checked the small display screen on the gauntlet as he stumbled back to his feet. Okay, almost time to go, those missiles should be here soon.
Unfortunately for Buddy, that was enough time for Geryon to catch up to him. Before he could bring up another field, Geryon had actually managed to grab Buddy by the right arm and slam him into the ground.
"Ow," Buddy managed to wince.
"Talk and I'll end it quickly for you," James growled. He could feel a slight burning sensation in his hands where he gripped the man's arm, but he could tell the field was starting to collapse. "Who are you? Why are you doing this?"
"Well, to be honest, killing an entire T2M cell and destroying the lemmings of Mexico City dumb enough to worship Utopia...it's going to look good to my clients."
"Clients?" James repeated. "Who are you working for?"
"Sorry, can't do that," Gabriel chuckled. "That would be a violation of my ethics."
"You killed an entire team of novas and a bunch of baselines for what...an audition?"
"Actually, it was mostly for shits and grins, but what do you care? After all, you Terats don't care much for Utopia, and the baselines," Gabriel shrugged at him, "the world can do with a few million less of them, don't you think? After all, they're just monkeys, right?"
James didn't like where this conversation was headed. True, he didn't care for the novas who, in his opinion, "sold out" to Utopia, but he never wanted to destroy them. As for the baselines, he didn't care about them either and didn't matter if any died as part of any "collateral" damage, especially if they deliberately stood in his way.
But this was different, he could feel it. This was more on the scale of mass genocide, and this prick was claiming it was "mostly for shits and grins".
Not anymore.
James grinned at him as he tightened his grip on Gabriel's right arm. "You're right, they're just monkeys, but I'm sure they won't mind if I rip various appendages off your body." He then pulled on Gabriel's arm, ignoring the burning pain his hands and laughing as he ripped the man's arm off.
"SHIT!" Gabriel screamed as his arm was ripped off his body, then he started laughing.
It took James a moment to realize what was going on until he noticed the sparks coming from the severed arm and that it was a cybernetic limb. Then it suddenly exploded, knocking him off his feet.
"Well," he heard Gabriel say, "that was rather anticlimactic."
James blinked a couple times to get his vision to clear from the bright flash of the explosion. He saw Gabriel, now missing one arm, airborne, floating several feet above him. "This isn't over, you bastard!" James roared as he threw a chunk of concrete at the battered figure who calmly dodged the attack.
"Actually, it is," Gabriel said, pointing up at the sky. "Enjoy the show." He then shot further up into the sky, heading east.
Then he saw something else, three objects coming from the east. His eyes widened in horror as he realized what he was looking at.
Oh god! Missiles!
He watched them soar overhead, passing his his location as they headed for the heart of the city. Then he heard the impact as they hit. For a moment, he was expecting to see a bright flash and something along the lines of a nuclear explosion, but that never came. Instead, he felt something deep within the ground, three distinct, but muffled explosions...then nothing.
"Okay," he said, "not what I was expecting."
Then he heard a rumbling, and then felt it, as the ground suddenly rippled around him before exploding. He could hear people screaming and the rending of steel as other buildings began to topple.
Oh bloody hell, the fucker started an earthquake!
A shadow suddenly fell over James, causing him to look up just in time to see a ten story building coming down on him.
"Oh Shit!" he screamed before the building fell on him, burying him as the rest of the city started to tear itself apart.
