To Lyger 0: We shall see what this newest Beast will do…
Replies to reviews of "Quest for Claire," Epilogue:
To yellow 14: The Geroi Moskvy definitely needed that.
"Alert! This is a Level One Alert!"
The Huntsman set down his soda and glanced up from his book to find the holographic form of Mr. Tremendous hovering just above his head and looking down at him. He sighed. Today was his shift on duty in the Denver United Heroez' headquarters, and he had been looking forward to a quiet day to catch up on his reading. The city itself had been fairly uneventful for the last month. Baseball had barely started spring training, Colorado University wasn't anywhere close to the tournament, and the Broncos hadn't been relevant since their last Super Bowl victory. And Brain Pan hadn't shown his face in three months; he still seemed to be recovering from the flying jellyfish fiasco at Christmas. At the moment, nothing was supposed to be happening in their little area of the country, or at least nothing demanding superhero intervention.
So what did Mr. Tremendous want?
"Oh, hey, what up, 'Tree'?" the Huntsman called, raising an eyebrow in amusement. "What's got your panties in a bunch?"
Mr. Tremendous frowned, eyeing him with a look of disappointment. "I see that Denver hasn't improved your attitude," he observed acidly. "We have received a report of a large animal in the area of San Isabel National Forest, potentially moving in the direction of Colorado Springs. Our next satellite pass will be in less than ten minutes, but we need your team on standby to respond in case this is another attack by the Ringmaster – or worse."
The Huntsman shrugged and marked his place before tossing his book on the end table. "Sounds like fun." The hologram gave him a dubious look, which he ignored. Picking up his glass, the Huntsman hit a button on his wrist and left the room. Over his shoulder he called, "We'll be in the air just as soon as the others get here."
After dropping his glass of in the kitchen, he jogged down the hallway to the headquarters armory, right next to the elevator. The headquarters for the Denver United Heroez took up the top two floors of an office building near the center of the city, with a half-floor on the roof that housed their hangar and a hidden subbasement for their ground vehicles. Although officially the space was leased to a multinational conglomerate, it was an open secret that Hercules Inc. was a shell company for the United Heroez.
But that was Mr. Tremendous' problem to deal with.
Ten minutes after receiving the alert, the Huntsman finished his preflight check and climbed into the helicopter's cockpit to find his two partners waiting for him. Sliding on his headset and keying into their frequency, he carefully taxied out of the small hangar before starting the rotors, kicking up the wind around them.
"What's the mission, boss?" asked Wolf-Man from the backseat, folding his arms with a curious look on his face.
"Whatever it is, it had better be important," the Sorceress warned, frowning. "I had to cut my spa day short!"
Wolf-Man grinned. "As if you need it!"
She rolled her eyes. "Some of us actually like to be presentable…"
Blocking out the excess noise, the Huntsman gently pulled back on the controls to lift the helicopter off the helipad, nimbly threading his way between the buildings and ascending to altitude. The Denver Airport air traffic controller acknowledged him, and the radar screen began to clear as planes adjusted to make room for the United Heroez. The helicopter display lit up with an incoming message. Turning toward the south, he settled into his flight path and finally pressed a button on the control stick. One corner of the windshield shimmered and turned black before blinking into a real-time image captured by the United Heroez' closest domestic satellite. "What does that look like to you?" he asked the others, taking a quick glance while keeping his eyes on the sky ahead of them.
The Sorceress leaned in closer and furrowed her brows, her eyes narrowed in concentration. "I'm not sure," she admitted, "but it looks big, whatever it is. And is–is that a building next to it?"
Wolf-Man hummed. "It definitely looks like a building. And it has something resembling horns on the front…"
"Four legs," began the Sorceress, "brown, horns, and it's bigger than a two-story building. What are we going to do with it?"
"The same thing we always do," the Huntsman replied. "Stop it and keep civilians out of the way." The helicopter quickly cleared Denver airspace, and he hit another button to update their course. The interactive windshield displayed a superimposed map of the surrounding countryside, with a flashing red indicator near Colorado Springs to show the location of the monster. With a wave he zoomed in on that location. "Our closest intercept point will be Pike's Peak," he announced. "We'll engage it there, and neutralize it before it reaches the city."
Wolf-Man cracked his knuckles. "Excellent; it's been a hot minute since I had a good fight!"
As he flew, the Huntsman mentally reviewed his inventory, trying to determine which of his arrows might be most useful in the coming fight. He frowned. He had refilled his quiver after his last mission, but he had used up a couple arrow-types completely. And if the scale of the enemy was accurate, then he might not have anything strong enough to penetrate that hide; he had used his last adamantium-tipped arrows on Bundie last week. But he still had a few tricks up his sleeves…
Steering around the mountains, the helicopter came up behind the creature, dropping over the hills and skimming the tops of the trees until suddenly the trees cut off, forming a wide avenue that stretched east and west as far as the Huntsman could see. Whatever it was, it had carved out a long swath of the forest, as though a pair of semi trucks had driven through the forest side by side in a straight line, snapping off trees and churning deep furrows in the ground as they went. The remains of a small hunting lodge lay strewn across the ground directly below them. But at the end of the swath, still moving at a steady clip, several miles in front of them, was the monster.
From the back, all the Huntsman could see of it was its long thin tail, the powerful haunches, the tips of the horns protruding from its head. In spite of himself he leaned in closer, staring intently. "Is that – is that an Ox?" he wondered, blinking.
The Sorceress nodded, frowning. "It looks like it," she agreed. "But what's it doing?"
"I don't know," Wolf-Man told them, "but I've been craving a hamburger for a week now!"
The Huntsman pushed the helicopter forward, flying straight down the avenue, looking to fly past the Ox and land in front of it. The Ox, however, show no signs of stopping, or even of slowing its steady gallop. On the contrary, it seemed to build speed with every mile it went, forcing the Huntsman to push the helicopter to its limit to make up the distance. Finally, with Colorado Springs already visible in front of them, he spotted a break in the forest just large enough to accommodate the helicopter. Even before the engine was completely off, the Huntsman grabbed his bow, affixed his quiver to the back of his jerkin, and gestured to his companions to follow. At a sprint he led the way back to where the Ox was just passing between the mountains, breaking through the edge of the forest.
Wolf-Man took one look at the Ox and crowed, his eyes lighting up in excitement. "Now this is going to be fun!" He dropped to the ground on all fours, pounded the dirt with his fists, and rolled his shoulders as dark brown fur emerged from every part of his body, absorbing his bodysuit into his new form. Finally his head condensed and nose elongated into a snout and he threw back his head, howling into the sky before taking off toward the Ox at a gallop.
The Huntsman and Sorceress ran behind him as fast as they could, though he quickly left them in the dust. In the distance, Wolf-Man slalomed between two trees and burst out in front of the Ox at full speed. Landing in the soft grass and skidding slightly to turn and fact the Ox, Wolf-Man let out a primal growl. The Ox turned its head in his direction and lowered its horns to gore Wolf-Man, who nimbly dodged around it to land directly in front of it. Coiling his legs, he leapt at the Ox's throat, sinking his teeth into its neck, growling furiously and digging his claws into it. The Ox, however, bellowed and swung its head to either side, building momentum before throwing Wolf-Man off. He spun through the air end over end and landed on his side with a whimper.
Running out of the woods, still a quarter-mile away from the Ox, the Sorceress wound up and spread her arms out, casting a wide silvery barrier into the air between the Ox and the city. The Ox stared at the ward for a long minute before snorting out its nose and pawing the ground. Finally it pushed forward, driving both horns into the barrier and attempting to force its way through. The Sorceress grimaced, her arms shaking as she attempted to hold the barrier in place.
"It's… too… strong…" she gasped, strain in the corners of her mouth, her eyes clenched tightly shut.
Examining the Ox as well as the barrier, the Huntsman whipped out an arrow and fired it in a high arc to land in contact with the barrier, directly in front of the Ox itself. The Sorceress sighed in relief, tension leaving her face as the magic totem carved into the arrow shimmered and took on the same silver color as the barrier, relieving some of the strain on her. She clenched her fist, her eyes setting into a hard expression, as she fought to keep the barrier in place against the Ox's constant battering. A pair of police cars drove up to the barrier, turned around, and raced away with their sirens blaring.
On the far side of the clearing, Wolf-Man pushed himself to his feet and shook his head before his eyes once more fixed on the Ox. Snarling, Wolf-Man charged the Ox, narrowing the distance in mere moments and springing onto it. He crawled up the Ox's front leg, digging his claws into the tough hide, and leapt at its head. The Ox let out a deep, rumbling low, and Wolf-Man stumbled before his jaws could find purchase in the shaggy neck. It stamped its feet on the ground, pawing the earth, and threw itself to one side, with the hapless Wolf-Man scrabbling to maintain his balance on top of its head.
Finally, the Ox lowered its head and threw Wolf-Man up into the air and off his face. Wolf-Man yelped as he went airborne. Shocked back into his human form, he flailed his arms about as he flew through the air, only narrowly missing one of the Ox's horns. The Huntsman's eyes narrowed in concentration. Wolf-Man was moving too quickly! The Huntsman started to draw an arrow… When Wolf-Man was only ten feet off the ground, the Sorceress dropped her barrier shield and threw out her other hand to form a smaller pad directly below Wolf-Man. The Ox stomped the totem arrow to dust and burst past the spot where the ward had stood before the Sorceress could restore it. It was just entering the city now. Desperately, the Huntsman fired a dozen arrows at it in a spread around its head, detonating all of them at once in a cloud of shrapnel. The Ox threw its head back and bellowed, shook itself once, and charged forward, down the street.
"Everyone out of the way!" the Huntsman shouted, switching his communicator to a public address frequency. He took off after the Ox, joined by the Sorceress, leaving Wolf-Man behind near the edge of the woods to recover and lick his wounds. Doors opened and closed up and down the street. Cars raced away from the Ox as it trampled parked vehicles and drove its horns into the sides of the buildings.
The Sorceress raised another barrier directly in front of the Ox. The barrier shimmered silver for a moment before the Ox threw its head into it. The Sorceress cried out in pain and pitched forward as the barrier faded away. The Huntsman shot another arrow at the Ox's feet, but before the foam could expand and trap it, the Ox had already charged down the street, well out of its reach.