# 2
by Brian Campo (bcampo@hotmail.com)
This is a work of fan fiction. The Savage Dragon and all related characters are owned by Erik Larsen, and I do not contest that ownership. This story is in no way official and it should not be taken as such. All characters in this story not owned by Mr. Larsen are owned by me, though I would gladly loan them out if asked nicely.
Warning: This story may contain graphic violence, sexual situations and harsh language. If you shouldn't be reading it, don't.
First Day on the Job part two
"What do you say we go grab a late lunch?"
Maxine looked up at Dan, who had just got back from dropping off the pills from that morning's fiasco at the lab. "What about these reports?" she asked.
Dan picked up the one she was working on and looked it over. "Jeez, Max." he said. "It's no wonder you're not done yet. You're being a little too thorough here."
"I like thorough." she said.
"And that's good if it's a case that might go to court. That shit this morning, no one is suing anyone, no one is even going to read all of this. Stuff like this, you just make it short and sweet. 'We came, we saw, we kicked it's ass.' "
"Is that what you wrote on yours?"
"I didn't do a report. Why would I need to do one if you're doing one? Come on, hurry up. I'm hungry." He scooped up the papers she was working on and stuffed them into her top drawer. "There. If anyone asks about them, just say they're in processing. Let's go."
"All right, already." she said, pushing out her chair and getting her stuff together. "Where are we going for lunch?"
"I'm thinking we should head over to my mom's and raid her fridge."
"Is she going to mind you doing that?" She opened the door for him and followed him into the hallway.
He stopped for a second, and a strange look crossed his face, like maybe he had never thought about it before. "Don't know." he said. "But she's used to it. You tellin' me you've never ate your mom out of house and home?"
"I never knew my mom. I was raised by my adopted father."
"The Texas Ranger, right?"
"Yeah. He took very good care of me."
"What's he like?"
She smiled and said, "Most people think that he is cold and indifferent. They just don't know him like I do."
"What did he think about you moving to the states?"
"Oh, he was all for it. He knew I could take care of myself."
"I guess when your daughter is bulletproof you don't worry as much."
She giggled at that.
They took a black and white and drove to Dan's mother's house. The house was nice and situated in a middle class neighborhood. There was an apple tree in the front yard, and flower beds all around the edge of the house. Dan lead her along a walkway next to the house that lead to the back door. He didn't bother knocking, he just opened the screen door and went on in.
"Hey, Mom?" he shouted. "You home?"
"I'm in my studio." came the reply from some other part of the house. Dan lead Maxine through the kitchen and down a hallway that was lined with family photographs. Maxine walked slowly, taking a close look at each of the pictures while Dan continued down the hall. Many of them showed men that looked a lot like Dan. They were all dressed in Police uniforms with the same skinny build and red hair. Dan hadn't been kidding when he said there were a lot of cops in his family. Some of the photos were even the old two dimensional kind from the twentieth century. One of the older pics showed two men in plain clothes. One of them was definitely a Williams, skinny, redheaded, and wearing a small mustache. He was holding up a .44 magnum. The man with him was the exact opposite. Tall, three hundred pounds, dark hair, looked a little bit like Elvis. He held a doughnut in one hand and what looked like a .357 magnum in the other.
"Hiya, mom." said Dan as he stepped through a doorway into a small studio filled with stacks of paintings. Maxine stepped into the room and backed up against a wall.
"Hello, Daniel." said a woman from behind one of the canvasses. She stepped out from behind it, wiping paint off of her hands. She looked to be in her very late forties, pretty with a slender build. Her hair was fading from dark brown to gray. She paused for a second when she saw Maxine, and then smiled. "Who's your friend?"
"Mom, this is my new partner, Maxine Chalmers. Maxine, this is my mom."
"I'm sure you don't want to call me mom, so you can call me Janet." She offered her hand to Maxine, who shook it gently.
"I'll do that." said Maxine.
"Mom, you got anything to eat?" Dan left the room, headed back toward the kitchen.
"There's some sandwich stuff in the fridge." Janet yelled after him. She turned to Maxine and said, "When did you get stuck with him?"
"Eight o'clock this morning."
"What do you think of him?"
Maxine smiled and shrugged. "He seems like a nice enough guy."
Janet threw her rag down on her worktable and started out the door. "Well, I think a person that small shouldn't have a mouth that big. Come on, we better get in there before he starts drinking right out of the milk jug." Maxine followed her to the kitchen, where sure enough, Dan had the milk jug raised to his lips.
"You take one drink out of that, " said Janet. "and it's your head."
Dan sat the jug down and got a cup out of the cabinet.
"Are you hungry, Maxine?" asked Janet, as she opened the fridge and started pulling out sandwich makings.
"A little." answered Max. Her stomach had been grumbling for a while now. She sat down on one of the stools surrounding the island in the middle of the kitchen.
"She should be." said Dan. "She wrestled a half ton pomeranian this morning. She put him in a headlock and dropped his ass right to the floor."
"Watch your mouth, Dan. Has he been rude to you, Maxine?"
Behind Janet's back, Dan was shaking his head enthusiastically and mouthing the word, "No.".
"No." said Maxine. "He's been all right."
"He used to be such a little prick to his last partner. Always calling him Jack Ass and making fun of his laugh."
"He was a Jack Ass, Mom." said Dan, stealing a slice of cheese out from under his mom's arm. " She would say, "Andy, why do you put up with it? Why do you let him call you Jack Ass?" Andy would go, "Oh, hee haw, hee haw, he always calls me that." " Dan was making a sandwich of his own, tossing on meats, condiments, and vegetables in liberal amounts.
"See what I mean?" she said to Maxine. "Andy should have kicked his arrogant little butt. He could have, too, if he had ever taken the notion."
"Oh, Andy knew I was kidding." said Dan. " He didn't mind."
"Mmmmmhmmmm." Janet replied to that and then turned back to talk to Maxine. "What part of town do you live in?"
"My instructors at the Police Academy are letting me keep my cot in the barracks for a few weeks. On payday I should have enough money to get myself an apartment, and get out of their hair."
"That isn't going to be easy." said Janet. "People don't like to rent to Freaks in this city."
"I know, I'll probably end up paying double rent on the place."
"That sucks." said Dan through a mouth full of food. In his hands he clutched the sandwich that he had made for himself, which was roughly four inches thick. Janet and Maxine looked at him with disgust.
"My god," said Janet. "where do you put it all?"
"I convert it into charm." he answered, spitting out bits of pickles and ham when he spoke.
Janet slid a plate with a sandwich and chips to Maxine and told her to eat it if she still had any appetite left.
"Though I would certainly understand if you didn't." she said, glaring at Dan.
"Wha?" he said, grinning and revealing globs of bread sticking in his teeth.
Maxine was too hungry to let something like that keep her from eating. They were three quarters of the way through their meal when both Dan and Maxine's radios and pagers went of. Dan pulled his radio out of his belt and turned up the volume.
"_nd Precinct, calling all units to the corner of Wade and Valentino. There is a robbery in progress, and Freaks are involved. Repeat, all units from the thirty second precinct go to the Security Bank of Chicago on the corner of Wade and Valentino."
Dan acknowledged and got up from the stool he had been sitting on. "We got to go, Mom. Thanks for lunch."
"Yes, thank you." said Maxine. "It was very nice to meet you, Janet."
"Anytime. It was nice to meet you too, Maxine. You come back again, ok?"
"I'll do that." said Maxine and started for the door. "Bye."
Corner of Wade and Valentino- Dan and Maxine crouched on the roof of the building across the street from the bank with their guns in their hands. Sirens wailed all around them, and every few seconds, heavy artillery gunfire would shake the building beneath them. Something exploded down below, making their ears pop.
They raised them selves up slowly and peeked over the edge to get an idea of the situation below. Below them, floating just a little above the ground, was what looked like a pirate ship. It was made from wood, had solar panels instead of sails, and a large tank on each side that gave the craft buoyancy in the air. A set of thruster engines stuck out from the ships aft, giving the impression that the clumsy looking craft could actually move if it had to. A black flag waved from it's highest mast, snapping and popping in the wind. It showed a strange version of the old jolly roger. The skull on the pirate flag was on fire, and where there should have been two bones crossing below it, there were two campfire logs.
There were four 30 mm high velocity cannons on the ship, two of which were being used to shoot at cop cars down the street and turn them into piles of scrap metal. Several of the cars was burning; apparently that was what had exploded earlier. There were two young women manning the guns, no older than twenty at Maxine's best guess.
The cops who arrived on the scene before Maxine and Dan had already tried an assault on the girls, and it had gone badly. There were several officers laying out in the open, whether they were alive or dead, Maxine could not tell. She could see other officers hiding in alleyways and behind the burning cars. They would make attempts every few minutes to run out and drag their dead or dying comrades to safety, but the girls on the boat would open fire and force them back behind cover.
"Great." said Dan, lowering himself down out of the line of sight. "It's the Campfire Girls."
"Who?"
"Campfire Girls. They're pirates. They rob banks and hijack electronics shipments and that kind of thing."
"Why are they called the Campfire Girls?"
"Because they used to be Campfire Girls. They were a secret division called the black sash level. Kinda like the girl scouts version of Delta Force. They were all very well trained killers, proficient in all weapons and fighting forms. They did corporate assassinations, blew up competing cookie factories, pretty much any dirty work that the Campfire Girls needed done. An FBI investigation about ten years back forced the Campfire Girls to kick out all the black sash level girls and deny any knowledge of their existence. The girls got together and turned to piracy."
"So, they are all human? What are we doing here?"
"They used to be human. With all their training, they still couldn't compete with Chicago's Freak criminals. A few years back they all got implants, and I'm not talking about bigger titties. Everyone of them has been cybernetically enhanced, and they are lethal. As you can see, they have no problem with killing cops either. We've got a file on these girls about a mile long back at the precinct."
"Any ideas on how we're going to take them down?"
"I was thinking that you could go out and arrest them and I could hide behind you."
"Stop screwing around. Let's bag 'em."
"Well, since we don't have time to revise my plan, we'll go with yours." They headed back to their car, which was parked on the far side of the roof. Max stretched through the window and hit a switch that popped the trunk open. Dan followed her around to the back of the car where she began searching through the trunks contents. She came up with two clips for her Faustin, which she shoved into her gun belt. Next she pulled out a bulletproof vest which she began strapping on over her shirt.
"Why in the hell do you need that?" asked Dan. "I thought you were bullet proof."
"I am, but my shirt's not. Ever see any pictures of the Dragon after a fight? Half the time he was buck naked. I am not going to be running around down there topless when this is all over with. Now pay attention. This is what I want you to do. Take the car. Drop right down behind the ship and try to take out those shooters."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to drop down in front of them, and draw their fire." She turned and ran back toward the edge of the building.
"Hey." he shouted after her. "It's ten stories down."
If she heard him, she gave no indication. She reached the edge of the roof and launched herself out into the air. She had several seconds to survey the scene below before the ground rushed up to meet her and she landed with a resounding thud. The pavement beneath her feet broke, buckled, and cracks spread out around her like a spiders web. Three of the Campfire Girls were standing by the ship and they were staring at her with mouths agape.
"Where the hell did she come from?" one of them asked.
Maxine leveled her gun on them and said, "Officer Chalmers, Chicago PD. Drop any weapons and put your hands in the air. You will not get another warning."
There was a whistle from above, up on the ship's deck. Maxine looked up and found herself staring into the barrels of one of the 30 mm cannons. The girl with her fingers on the trigger smiled sweetly and opened fire. Maxine was blown backwards down the streets. Head over heels she tumbled, her body pummeled by the high caliber rounds. Fifty feet back, she crashed into one of the burning cop cars and came to a stop.
"Did you see that?" said one of the pirate girls in a shocked voice. "Did you see who that was? It's was the goddamn Savage Dragon."
"The Dragon was a guy." said one of the other girls. "I don't think you really have to worry about her anymore, anyway."
There was a crash and they turned to see the burning cop car come skipping down the street toward them. They jumped out of the way just before the car bounded past them and disintegrated against the bow of the ship. Maxine stood down the street, looking like a bowler who had just sent the ball down the lane and was waiting to see how well she did. One of the girl's on deck was bringing her cannon around to bear on Maxine. Behind her, a cop car dropped out of the sky, hovercraft engines screaming.. The driver's side gull wing door popped up and Dan shoved his gun out the opening. He fired once and the girl aiming at Maxine toppled over the edge of the ship. He shut the door as the the other 30 mm opened fire and tore into the police car's armor. The car rocked violently from the assault and spun away from the ship. The passenger door opened and Dan dropped out of it. Moments later, the car exploded and fell to the street.
She had been bought precious seconds, and Maxine used them to race down the street to get close to the three Campfire Girls on the ground. One of them was on her feet, and she jumped into the air to attack Maxine. The skirt of her Campfire Girl uniform blew up to reveal her cybernetic enhancement. From the waist down her body was a construct of steel, pistons and wires. Her waist revolved three hundred and sixty degrees, whipping her feet into Maxine's head with tremendous force. Maxine stumbled back as the girl dropped to the ground and skipped toward her. She raised one leg slightly and lashed out, catching Max in the ribs with a steel foot. She threw herself into the air for another kick, and Max slammed into her like a football linebacker. She put her shoulder into the girl's midsection and drove her into the hull of the ship. The metal of the cyborg parts cracked and crumpled and the girl's lower half fell away from the rest of her body. Maxine stepped back and let the rest of her fall to the ground.
"Get her, Brandy!" said one of the girls behind her. The other girl, a brunette with shoulder length hair was moving in on Maxine with her hands held out in front of her. Her hands were a dull metal color and as Maxine watched, they began to glow a warm red. In a matter of seconds, the red had changed to a searing white, and though the girl was still five feet away, already Maxine could feel the heat emanating from her hands. Maxine kept her arms down and her hands open, ready for when the girl made her move. Brandy closed in on her, and she was quick. Maxine managed to catch one of the hands before it made contact, but the other slipped past her defenses and was planted right on her throat.
A scream escaped from Maxine's mouth, and she swung her fist wildly in an effort to get the girl away from her. Her skin was vulnerable to harm, and the burning on her throat and neck had to be one of the more painful experiences of her life. Her right fist caught Brandy under the chin and sent her skidding across the pavement.
The third girl, a blonde with an eye patch and a hook on one arm, didn't appear to be interested in tangling with Maxine. She pulled a radio from her belt and said, "Mindy, we could use some help out here."
Maxine started toward the girl, who turned and raised her hooked arm in the air. The hook shot outward, trailing a long cable behind it. The hook caught onto something on the ship above and a moment later the cable began to retract. The Campfire Girl was jerked into the air and out of Maxine's reach.
WHUDD, WHUDD, WHUDD
Maxine heard the sound of heavy footsteps from the bank. Really heavy. T-Rex heavy. She slipped her gun out of her holster and aimed it at the bank's front doors. The wall next to them exploded outwards in a shower of stone and dust. A fifteen foot mechanical gorilla stomped out through the rubble towards Maxine, with the bank's vault held above it's head. The ground shook with every step it took.
"Drop it!" said Maxine. Then a moment later she realized what she had just said. "Ah, shit..."
The gorilla slammed the bank vault down on top of her, caving the surrounding street into the sewers below. It grabbed the vault and picked it back up out of the hole before looking down inside. Six shots rang out in quick succession, and the gorilla was knocked backward away from the hole. Maxine crawled out a moment later, and emptied the rest of her clip into the mechanical monster. It had been getting to it's feet, but it was knocked down again when Maxine shot it. Maxine popped the clip and slid in a fresh one as the gorilla started to get up again. It was dented and dinged, but otherwise it shook off the gunshots. It thudded across the ground toward her on all fours, flattening any debris in it's path. Maxine had only a few seconds before it was on her, and could only get off a few shots. They did no good. It slammed into her like a freight train, dragging her across the street with it.
She threw away her gun and began pounding into it with her fists. That got a reaction out of it. It pulled her away from itself and then threw her into a nearby building. Maxine was on her feet in a second, and launched herself back at the simian construct.
Dan raced along the side of the boat, keeping so close to the hull that anyone above couldn't get a clear shot at him. Just as he came around the stern, Maxine crossed his field of vision, flying at about four feet above the ground. She smashed into a metal light pole, which collapsed with a screech. A second later, a large gorilla made of metal hydraulics lumbered into view, bearing down on Maxine. Max grabbed the broken light pole and wielding it like a bat, cracked the gorilla in the head with it. The metal bent over it's titanium cranium, but did not stop it. It raised both it's arms into the air and brought them down on her like clubs, pounding her into the pavement. To Dan's amazement, Maxine took the blows like they were slaps and returned them in kind. The expression on her face looked like she was actually enjoying herself.
Up above Dan, news craft were starting to crowd the sky, in hopes of getting some footage of the destruction below. The pilots were getting braver now that the gunfire had died down a little and were getting closer to the scene of the battle.
"Stupid." thought Dan. They were going to be peeling their selves off of the pavement pretty soon. They weren't armored like police cars, and that 30 mm cannon would punch holes in them and their craft like they were made of paper.
He had been leaning against the ship, and when it lurched, he almost fell over. He found his balance, and then looked to see the ship begin to rise up away from the ground. They were lifting off.
"Oh, no you don't." he said, running back along the length of the ship. A rope dangled down, and he made a mad dash in it's direction. It was above his head by the time he got to it, but still well within jumping range. His hand snagged it on the first try and he swung in towards the boat. He didn't like the idea of holstering his gun, but he knew he would need both hands to climb. The gun went in his holster, and he began to shimmy up the rope. Already, they were fifteen feet up, and rising.
The cannon went off at the front of the ship, and the sky lit up as one of the news craft was hit. There was a second explosion when the wreckage hit the ground.
"Dan?!" he heard Maxine yell.
"Yeah, Max, I'm here. What do you need?" he shouted back at her as he climbed higher up the rope.
"I need you to take out the goddamn shooters! I got frickin' cars falling on my head over here!"
"Hold on." he said. "I'm on it."
His head peeked up over the deck of the ship and he had a clear view of what was going on there. There was a girl with a patch on one eye and a hook on one arm ordering people around. There were twelve or thirteen other girls doing what she told them, turning the solar sails, balancing the buoyancy tanks, steering the ship. The girl running the 30 mm was picking out another of the news craft to fire at.
Dan wound the rope around his left arm and let go with his right, so he could get his gun. He rested his elbow on the deck and aimed his gun carefully at the girl with the cannon.
"Police! Freeze!"
Everyone on deck stopped what they were doing and turned to look at him. The girl with the 30 mm was the first to make a move. She spun the gun around on it's base, bringing it to bear on Dan. He squeezed off a shot, and her head disappeared in a fine mist. Then all hell broke loose. The headless girl fell forward on the gun and it began to go off. As she continued to topple to the floor, the gun spun back toward the opposite side of the deck, blowing holes in the deck and dropping several of the girls right where they stood. At the end of it's arc, the 30 mm rounds tore into the far buoyancy tank, which exploded in a large fireball and a shower of shrapnel. That side of the boat dropped in a rush, turning the ship on it's side. Dan held on for dear life as he was yanked up and over the ship railing, before swinging in and smacking into the deck. Below him, Campfire Girls were clinging to anything they could, trying to keep from falling the twenty five feet to the ground. The floundering ship spun to the left, and the front of it crashed through the windows of the building next to them.
Dan loosened his grip on the rope and slid down the length of it. When he reached the end, he was still a good ten feet above the ground. He couldn't stay here, he would have to risk the fall. He let go of the rope and fell to the street below. His ankles took a mean jarring, and the palm of his left hand was skinned pretty bad when he stopped his fall, but otherwise, he was all right.
The girls were dropping from the ship now, and landing on the ground all around him. They jumped to their feet and raced off down the street. Dan pointed his gun in their direction and shouted for them to stop. Seeing that they had the upper hand, the other cops up the street were running out of hiding. They tackled the Campfire Girls in groups of three and four, pinning them while their partners slipped power cuffs on them.
Dan heard the whirring of small motors, and he turned to see the girl with the hook descending from the ship above by way of a cable extending from her arm. She landed and retracted the cable and hook line. Her hand reached to her belt, pulling out a cutlass. She raised the arm with the hook and aimed it right at Dan. The hook launched toward him and it latched onto his gun belt.. He was yanked towards her through the air, as she raised her sword and prepared to meet him. He dropped his gun and yanked his baton from his belt. As he was drawn closer, he pulled it back and got ready to give her the what for. She realized too late what he was doing. He cracked the baton into her jaw, and then piled into her. The hook released his belt and he rolled away from her. She dove after him, swinging the cutlass with slices that were meant to cut him in half. He used his baton to fend off the blows, and delivered a few of his own when he got the chance, striking her in the knees and side. Dan got a good blow in, punching her square in the nose with his free hand. She tumbled back away from him, and he raised the baton with every intention of knocking her ass out. She slid toward him, ducking under the baton and hooking of one of the straps on his bulletproof vest. She pivoted, picking him up into the air and throwing him. He tumbled along the ground and came to a stop in the shadow of the wrecked pirate ship.
With a malicious grin on her face, she threw down her sword and picked up Dan's gun. She pointed it upward, aiming right at the last buoyancy tank.
Dan put his hands in the air and shouted, "No! Don't do that!"
She fired.
Maxine heard the shot and saw the tank explode. She saw Dan right beneath the ship. There was no way she would get there in time.
The gorilla rose up in front of her, roaring and waving it's arms. She didn't have time for it. There was no way she would get there in time.
She grabbed the gorilla by the metal plates covering it's chest and heaved it up, up and over her head. It sailed off through the air behind her. There was no way she could get there in time.
The ship couldn't be that heavy, she thought as she raced towards it. She had lifted more. If she could get there, she could catch it, no problem. But there was no way she could get there in time.
The gorilla crashed down somewhere behind her. Fifty cops stared in horror as the ship dropped towards the earth.
"Ahhh, fuck!' she heard Dan shout. There was no way she could get there in time.
~Fin-Fan-Fic-Fanatics~Letters and comments from readers. Do I rock or do I suck? Write me and tell me what you think. If you don't want your comments put in this letters column, or if you want them taken out, please let me know.
Damn good stuff. You can be sure I'm going to link that from my page! --Emporer Mako'Va aka Cody Hopkins
Here is the Dragon 2200 homepage (http://www.angelfire.com/or/icffa/dragonifshome.html) Where I also post "covers" for the issues and maybe more stuff later on. Thanks for the kind comments.
Damn good stuff man, damn good --Carl Price
I'm glad you like it!
>>Warning: This story may contain graphic violence, sexual situations and harsh language.
Hey! That's WHY I read SD! --Shrewy
These are a few of my favorite things...
Read what ya got there so far...and I liked it. Good Job keep up the good work! Good seein some Fan Fick Fin Work up. --Dulock
Thank you. There's plenty more where those came from, I hope you stick around to see them.
Dances happily. Something Dragon related! --Doralee23 (10)
Yeah, there is a big void when it comes to Dragon fic. Here are a couple more sites, if you are interested: Savage Dragon vs The Hulk , and Pipeline Script writing.
Hey.
I just wanted to tell you that I like how your story is going. It's really well written! I'll be checking back every once in a while and see if you add more.
Michael "Big Mac" McKinley
There will be more, every month. I'm staying ahead of myself by about four months. Thanks for the feedback everybody. I'm having a ball writing these. All of these off the wall ideas that just don't fit in anywhere else are falling into place nicely with the Dragon. Thanks again, Brian Campo
