If any of you have been reading my Bingo story, then you may have read my chapter where the boys all have superpowers. This first chapter is a direct copy of that story, and then the rest of this story is a continuation of that. I hope that all makes sense and that you enjoy! :D
They were all out of the ship the second it touched the ground. His boots hit the gravel, and he stretched as he looked around at the city around them.
New York was just how he remembered it. Tall skyscrapers and bright lights. The sky was cloudy, and he was pretty sure it was going to rain soon.
However, what was out of the ordinary was that there was not a single soul on the streets. A piece of litter was blown across the vacant road in front of them, and Gordon was distinctively reminded of a tumbleweed in an empty desert.
"So, why are we here again?" Gordon asked his brothers.
Before they could answer, there was a loud crash that came from several blocks away, and the ground rumbled beneath their feet. A second later, a tall robot, almost as tall as the buildings around it, stepped out from behind a skyscraper and into their view.
"Never mind."
"Do you know where it came from?" Virgil asked from behind Gordon.
"No idea," John replied. "But apparently it's been wreaking havoc on the city."
"Alright, we can find out who's responsible for it later. For now, we need to work on taking it down." Scott came to stand in front of them. His hands were on his hips, like if anyone didn't realise he was the leader of a team of superheroes, they would after seeing that pose. "Gordon, you try to freeze its movements whilst John and I work to take it down. Virgil, Alan, you two be prepared to knock it down."
"FAB." They all replied in unison, and then they were off.
Gordon created an icy path in front of himself so he could quickly slide down the street and towards the giant robot. He could feel the wind as he whipped by, and then he saw a blur as Alan sped past.
Gordon smiled to himself, knowing that Alan would never deny the chance to race his brothers. Gordon pushed himself a little faster, not wanting to give his little brother the satisfaction of getting there first.
Gordon slid to a stop as he reached the end of the street. He hopped off his icy trail as he came to stand next to Alan.
"You took your time," Alan raised an eyebrow at him as he crossed his arms.
"Not everyone is the fastest man alive. And at least I got here before those slowpokes." Gordon pointed over his shoulder at their brothers who were still running behind them, only halfway down the street. Their powers were definitely not useful when it came to getting somewhere fast.
Alan laughed as he looked over at them, and Gordon let out a chuckle too, before he sobered up and turned back to the situation at hand.
They were much closer to the robot now, practically standing beneath it. It looked much taller closer up, and they made sure to stand back from its feet, for they would be flattened like pancakes if they got underneath one.
"Time to get to work!" Gordon called with a smile. He always loved this bit.
He held his hands out, palms facing towards the big, mechanical monster in front of them, and fired.
Ice shot out from his hands and immediately hit the robot's feet, freezing it in place. Gordon kept firing, strengthening the ice and letting it grow up its legs.
The robot noticed what was happened quickly, as Gordon had halted its movements. What could only be described as a growl escaped that was likely meant to be the robot's mouth.
The robot's head bent down to search for what was responsible, and when it saw Alan and Gordon standing there, it growled again. It was accompanied by a loud cracking sound, and when Gordon looked back at the frozen feet, the ice was splitting.
"Uh, that's not meant to happen," Gordon mumbled.
"What's happening?" Scott asked from next to him. He sounded a little out of breath and there was sweat on his forehead. Any other time, Gordon would have made some joke about him being slow in his old age.
Instead, he pointed to the ice cracking as the robot broke free. Gordon tried to fire more ice at the robot before it could escape, but this time it was prepared, and the ice couldn't stop it for long before it was moving again.
"Get out of the way!" Scott yelled as the robot broke free of the final chunks of ice and stepped towards them.
This close, the steps felt like small earthquakes beneath their feet, and Gordon struggled to stay upright as he ran away from the robot as it stepped closer to them, trying to squish them like ants.
"What now?" Gordon yelled over their comms, now too far from them to speak normally.
"We keep trying to take it down!" Scott yelled back.
Once Gordon was in a safer position, slightly further from the robot than he was before, he glanced over at his oldest brother just in time to see him hold his hands out and shoot electricity blasts from them.
The sparks of electricity hit the robot in the chest. By all accounts, the robot should have been affected in some way by the electricity, it being a hunk of metal and made up of its own electrical currents. However, it didn't even flinch, no matter how much electricity bolts Scott shot at it.
"It's not working. Why isn't it working?" Gordon could practically picture the frown on Scott's face, even though he was too far to see him properly.
Scott sent another frustrated bolt at the robot, but then Gordon noticed something.
"Wait, Scott, try that again. But this time, watch exactly where you're hitting it."
Scott sent Gordon a look across the street, but he didn't question him and did as he said.
Just as the electrical bolt hit the robot's chest, Gordon saw it again. A translucent screen appeared on the metallic surface of the robot, a honeycomb pattern flashing just briefly as the electricity hit, and fading away just as quickly as it had appeared.
"There! Did you see that?"
"What was that? Some kind of shield?" Virgil asked, standing close enough to Gordon that he could hear his brother without the comm. Although, the communicator certainly helped Gordon hear over the low rumbles that echoed every time the robot moved.
"Seems like it," John agreed. "There should be a way to disable it, we just need to find out how."
"We might need to find out fast!" The alarm in Scott's voice had them all looking back up at the robot, just in time to see it drive a fist into the side of one of the buildings.
Chunks of brick and glass shattered down at them, and they all fled to avoid the falling debris.
Gordon slid on an ice path out of the way. Whilst he moved, he turned to make sure his brothers had all managed to get away and was glad to see they were not near the debris as it all crashed into the street.
The robot drew its fist back, and Gordon saw in its hand a chunk of the side of the building that it had just ripped out. He had enough time to dodge out of the way again as the robot threw the piece of wall down at them.
It was moving fast. Quickly ripping apart buildings or picking up abandoned parked cars and throwing them at the brothers.
They all fell into a rhythm that was born from years of working together. They spread out, all using their powers to distract the robot and stop it from targeting just one of them, whilst they tried to find its weakness or a way to disable the shields.
Gordon dodged past a piece of shrapnel that came barrelling towards him, but just as he did that, there was a shrieking noise coming from his left.
He turned just in time to see a bus skidding along the street on its side, heading right towards him.
Gordon held his hands out and shot ice at the bus, aiming to freeze it in its place or at least slow it down enough so it wouldn't hit him.
Although, the bus was moving at too fast a speed and Gordon couldn't fire off enough ice quick enough to slow the vehicle down.
He could feel himself begin to panic as the bus just sped through his ice like it was nothing, barely slowing down. Gordon wouldn't have time to move away before it reached him.
There was a long second where he debated whether he should either try to run away, or continue to fire ice blasts and hope for the best, before his decision was made for him.
A heavy weight hit his side and then everything blurred into one, before it all abruptly stopped as he felt himself smack into the hard gravel.
He was stunned for a moment, but then he blinked, and Alan's face was in his.
"Gordon? Are you alright? I saw you were about to get hit so I pulled you out of the way. Sorry for crashing into the ground." Alan was speaking a mile a minute and Gordon raised a hand to stop him.
"Al, it's fine. Thanks for saving me."
Gordon flashed a smile up at his brother and Alan offered one back.
He pushed himself to stand up, but as he moved his arm, a flash of pain was sent down it. He lifted the limb up, and found that when he hit the road, he must have skidded against it, as there was a long abrasion all up his arm. It stretched from his hand all the way to his elbow, and his suit was all torn to show it bleeding beneath his sleeve.
Alan winced as he saw it. "Ah, I'm really sorry. Does it hurt?"
"Nah." That wasn't quite the truth, it stung a hell of a lot, but there wasn't anything that could been done about it right then. He'd live.
Gordon pushed himself up, putting the pressure on his uninjured arm as he stood up. He could see Alan looking at him worriedly, but Gordon ignored him by bending down to brush the dirt off his suit. New York wasn't clean on the best of days, but now it was littered with shattered glass and crumbling chunks of brick and stone.
Gordon straightened and glanced back up at the robot. It was still terrorising the rest of their brothers by throwing debris at them. The ground and buildings shook when the robot lifted one of its feet and slammed it into the ground.
Gordon was worried that one of his brothers was going to not be fast enough to dodge a hit, but so far, they seemed to be doing just fine.
Gordon could see them temporarily hiding from the falling debris in a small alleyway, most likely taking a quick breather, and Gordon laughed as the robot turned in confusion, trying to find them.
But then his smile slowly fell, and was replaced with a furrowed brow as he tilted his head and took in the back of the bot.
The metal that made up the majority of the robot was of a light grey. However, on its back, there was a sizeable patch of darker grey, a rectangular shape that stretched from shoulder to shoulder.
"Hey, Alan." Gordon nudged his brother to get his attention. He pointed up at the out-of-place patch of metal. "Does that look like…"
"A panel!" Alan turned to him in excitement. "That must be where the shields can be deactivated."
Gordon grinned at the fact that his brother was thinking the same as him. But at that same moment, the robot, who had given up looking for their brothers and had instead found the two of them again, came barrelling towards them.
Alan dashed to the right and Gordon slid away on an ice path to the left of it.
"There's a panel, on its back," Gordon shouted over the comms to inform his older brothers. "I think that's how we disable the shields."
"FAB, Gordon," Scott affirmed, and Gordon skidded over to where they were hiding.
"We need to find some way to get up to it," Virgil said.
"Maybe I can wrap a rope around its legs and trip it over. Then we can easily climb up onto its back," Alan suggested as he appeared next to them a moment later.
"And where do you think we'll get a rope that long?" Gordon turned to his younger brother, a smile on his face as Alan realised he didn't have an answer for that.
"I can send Virgil up there," John piped up. "Then he can pry that panel off and deactivate the shields."
"Sounds good," Scott nodded. "You two work on getting onto its back, whilst the rest of us distract it."
They agreed to their new instructions and then dispersed. Gordon sped around the robot, firing ice at its feet and arms to try and slow its movements down. It didn't do much, but it at least distracted the bot enough for it to not notice his older brothers.
Gordon cast a glance past the robot to see Virgil and John.
Virgil was steeling himself for what was about to happen. His knees were bent and he was prepared for the next moment, when John would be sending him through the air.
Perhaps watching his brothers and not the gigantic robot in front of him was not the best idea, as Gordon missed when the machine ripped a streetlight out of the ground and began to swing it around.
Gordon only saw it a second before it reached him, too late to do anything to stop it.
It hit him straight in the chest and sent him flying off his ice path, slamming into the wall of the closest building.
Gordon slowly peeled his eyes open, his whole body aching. He was laying on the pavement at the side of the street, crumpled at the base of the building he'd just hit.
Everything hurt and he didn't think he could push himself up. He looked up at what was happening around him and found that Virgil was already on the robot's back, frantically pulling at the panel and trying to rip it off.
With his strength, it didn't take long until the piece of metal was ripped off the robot's back and sent crashing to the floor.
By this point, the robot had noticed what they were trying to do and was furiously trying to reach for Virgil and get him off its back.
Virgil clung on tightly as the robot spun quickly, trying to dislodge him.
"Is there something there for the shields?" Scott yelled up at him, and even through Gordon's comm, the words sounded muffled.
"I- think so." It sounded as if Virgil was speaking through clenched teeth, and Gordon watched as he hung from the robot with one hand, whilst the other hand reached into the exposed wires of the robot's back.
Gordon saw sparks flying and Virgil started to rip the robot apart from the inside out. However, nothing about the robot changed. It still moved quickly; its anger prominent in its movements.
But then Virgil pulled his fist back and sent it flying straight into the robot. More sparks flew, but now they were accompanied by the shield being lit up over the whole body of the robot, before the whole thing flickered out.
The robot jerked as the shields were disabled and that was what finally caused Virgil to lose his grip and be sent tumbling to the ground.
Gordon's mind screamed at him to do something. He pushed himself up on aching limbs, only managing to lift his upper body off the ground.
He reached out with his already injured arm and fired ice at the ground beneath Virgil. He stretched it up into the air until it formed a slide.
Virgil hit the top in time and slid down the ice until he reached the bottom, unscathed.
"Thanks, Gordo," Virgil said, sounding out of breath.
Gordon couldn't find the energy in him to reply and instead watched as Scott sent several bolts of electricity at the robot again.
Now that the robot didn't have its shields to protect it, the electricity attacked its body. Once Virgil was up again, he threw punches at the parts of the robot that he could reach, which were only the feet, and John threw up pieces of debris and dented the outer hull of the metal machine.
Under the assault, the robot fell to its knees, the impact making the whole ground rock.
The robot then slumped to the floor; its movements now stilled as it shut down.
And as its head hit the ground, so did Gordon's, his energy depleted now the threat was eliminated.