Encounter
Disclaimer: Same as before…
The Air Soldier Heartless dived out of the sky, with the intent of picking Filby up and dropping him on the desert floor after lifting him up a few hundred feet. As it neared him, Filby extracted his shotgun from the holster underneath his gray duster. The creature flew right into a cloud of buckshot and tumbled gracelessly from the air.
Two more of its contemporaries tried another approach angle and Filby blasted them both with clouds of shotgun fire. Just then a Soldier Heartless jumped onto his chest and he dropped the shotgun. The creature raised its claws to claw him and Filby quickly clenched his fists after sliding on a pair of hidden brass knucklers in his sleeves. He threw a punch, connecting with the underside of the creature's belly, slashing it open with the razor sharp blades. The Soldier Heartless staggered away, blood leaking between its fingers and for a moment Filby was tempted to feel compassion for the wounded beast.
But then he remembered that these loathsome fiends had stolen away his beloved Amelia and threw an uppercut into the creature's chin, decapitating it. He retrieved his shotgun and ran into a low wash, the remnants of some long dead river. He would likely encounter foes at closer ranges so the shotgun was his best bet.
"Lowlight and Maitland didn't kill these things, definitely." Cover Girl replied, as she stood over what looked like one of those creatures Hal had shot earlier. It lay on its back, with a crossbow bolt sticking out of its body. A few feet away lay several more of those things, each of them shot with the same weird weapon. The first one seemed to have been hit by sniping, the other ones were perforated with multiple crossbow bolts, indicating that the shooter was running away.
"Where are those two?" Shipwreck asked.
"According to the tracking sensors I put into their teleporter watches, they're not too far away." Arcade said, punching a couple buttons in on the hand held GPS/radar device, "And they've got company."
"Roadblock, take Xi, Spirit, Avalanche, Blob, and Quicksilver and get them back over to us. We'll follow the trail of whoever's been killing these things." Cover Girl replied.
"Toad, you're on point." Cover Girl said, I'll follow behind you, Scarlet Witch, Arcade, Firestar, Dragonfly, Wavedancer, and Shipwreck follow me."
"Why don't I stay behind you?" Shipwreck said.
"Shipwreck, not now!" Cover Girl remarked.
"Sorry…" Shipwreck said.
The two groups followed their respective leaders to their objectives. As the group lead by Cover Girl continued to follow the grisly trail of dead Heartless, they discovered that there were more species of the fiends.
"Hey Cover Girl, look." Arcade said, "Evidently those things come in different sizes."
Arcade indicated a creature similar to the other dead ones, except it was a bit taller and wore a knight's helmet with a visor, and wore what looked like a blue armored suit with a black heart that had a red "X" through it. The creature had been killed by the same crossbow bolts.
A few yards away lay a metal cylinder. Cover Girl picked it up, and while she was no armorer she could tell it was the magazine for the strange crossbow that had been used to kill several of the creatures.
Toad hopped back over the horizon where he had been scouting, "Hey Cover Girl, did you know those things could fly?"
"No, I didn't." Cover Girl said, "Why?"
"You should take a look at this." Toad replied.
As the rest of the team made it over the ridge they could see a creature that looked like a Shadow Heartless, but wore a leather aviator's helmet and had leathery wings. This one's wings looked like they'd been torn by bursts of buckshot from a shotgun. Two more of its comrades lay nearby, hit by the same weapon and a few feet away a Soldier Heartless lay decapitated.
Lina 'Dragonfly' Chakram looked sickened. Sure she had been trained for battle, but this was the first time she'd seen this much carnage. Following in the stranger's trail meant tripping over his handiwork of dead Heartless.
"About time you guys showed up!" Low Light quipped as he and Maitland were holed up amongst a patch of boulders, firing their weapons at any Heartless or Viper that came too close.
"Of all the times for your wonderful piece of technology to break!" Maitland growled, firing his sniper rifle.
"No gratitude…" Pietro quipped as he ran in circles around a trio of Shadow Heartless, creating gale force vortexes that lifted them into the air.
As he did so, Maitland and Lowlight fired their sniper rifles at the helpless enemies, killing them. Meanwhile Blob was facing off against a Heartless, a very large one to be sure, wearing some kind of armor and almost as big as himself. It swung it's meaty arms at the Blob who caught the blow with deceptive agility.
"Hey Blob," Pietro remarked as he made another votex that lifted a Soldier Heartless into the air, "You've finally found someone about your size."
The gunshot sounded as Low Light picked off Pietro's quarry. Blob picked up the Large Body, airplane spun it, and threw it into a cluster of Range Vipers that were shooting at Lowlight and Maitland.
Just then a torrent of gunfire came their way. "COBRA!!!" came the shout and a force of four armored cars and BATS (Battle Android Troopers) came running. Major Bludd was leading the group, "Get the freaks!"
Reinforcing the COBRAs were several Large Bodies and some flying Heartless. Lance made a gesture their way and the earth shook violently, creating a large hill in the paths of the attackers.
One of the flying Heartless dived towards the group and dive bombed Roadblock, knocking him over.
"Xi, Alley…." Fred began, gesturing at him and crouching down.
"…Oop!" Xi began, jumping on Fred's back and using Fred's upward momentum sprang into the air. While not as skilled a jumper as Toad, Xi had formidable agility, thanks to his genetic engineering. Xi leapt into the air, catching the Air Soldier on its terminal dive, knocking it away from Roadblock. He wrenched the creature's head from it's body, decapitating it, and hurled it's head like a football into a Soldier Heartless that stood atop Roadblock, ready to dismember him.
Xi then leapt from the spinning, headless Air Soldier and flipped end over end in mid air. He extended his legs and came plummeting towards Earth at an angle, towards Blob's back. On Fred's back was a pesky Air Soldier, just out of reach. Xi drop kicked it from almost a hundred feet in the air, and smashed it into the ground with the force of his fall.
"Hi five!" Fred said. He and Xi had made up this Alley Oop maneuver to counter the occasional jetpack equipped BAT.
Xi complied and ran to help Roadblock to his feet. "Great save, Xi." Roadblock said.
Lance created a wave of sand that bowled over a quartet of Soldier Heartless. Maitland then donated them a 40mm grenade from his M203. Nearby, Spirit was dodging several sword wielding Bandit Heartless. He struck one in the head with his tomahawk, barely dodged the other and ducked as the third swung its sword in a decapitating blow.
"Leave my Dad alone!!!" Lance shouted and gestured their way. The earth shook violently as Lance's eyes rolled into the back of his head and geysers of sand flew into the air, flinging the bandits airborne.
"Avalanche! Look out!" Fred shouted, as a Fat Bandit, a Heartless similar to a Large Body save for its ability to spit flames from its mouth, came striding into him. With a swing of its arms it knocked Lance over.
As it drew its breath in to spit flames, Fred Dukes, aka the Blob, stepped into its path. His invulnerable skin could not be burned through, but it still burnt away his shirt. Blob picked the creature up and turned its torrent of fire towards a band of Shadow Heartless running at Lance and Spirit, setting them on fire. He then hurled the fire breathing menace towards a COBRA armored car, destroying it, as the rest of the enemy reinforcements arrived and the fighting continued.
Filby reloaded his pistols quickly, the group of Heartless he had just shot up had a Search Ghost with them. From experience he knew that if a Search Ghost managed to escape alive, it would return with more Heartless to attack the unwary hunter. He hadn't survived being a monster hunter by making many mistakes, so he made sure all his weapons were reloaded before the next assault.
It came swiftly. Several Shadow and Soldier Heartless reinforced by a group of Air Soldiers attacked. In the tight spaces of the canyon this would be a close in fight. Filby pulled the gas crossbow and fired it on full auto at the Air Soldiers, turning the leader into an aerial pin cushion. It tumbled gracelessly from the skies over the horizon.
He turned it towards the attacking Shadows and Soldiers and squeezed the trigger, catapulting arrows that pierced armor and flesh, penetrating skulls, torsos, stomachs and spearing limbs. The results were devastating and Filby knew Carl was right about his invention being 'a work of certifiable genius'.
The Air Soldiers launched an attack run from two different directions and Filby hit the first one with a volley of arrows only to be knocked down by the second. He turned on his back and drew out his shock stick in time to see a Soldier Heartless leaping at him. He struck the creature head on with the weapon, hitting it with a fatal dose of electricity. He swung the weapon towards an Air Soldier that was almost on top of him, and he could smell the odor of burned flesh as the electrical current coursed through its body. It crashed head first into the ground. Filby retrieved the gas crossbow and put the shock stick away.
He kept firing the weapon, aiming it into crowds of Heartless at chest level and squeezing the trigger, sending storms of up to a dozen bolts into the crowds. Several wounded and dead Heartless fell from the ranks. Grimly Filby realized his quest to find Amelia might well be terminated here, in this Godforsaken desert. If it was the will of God that he would die here, he would take as many of the loathsome fiends with him as possible. Grimly he did a quick ammunition count. He had about seventy-five more arrows left for the gas crossbow, about one and a half cylinders. His pistols had twenty-four more rounds remaining, the shotgun had thirty, the dart shooters and holdout derringer had a dozen or so rounds apiece. At close range he would use the knucklers with their razor sharp blades at the ends of his fists.
"We can't be far." Toad said, as they heard gunshots further ahead.
Just then an Air Soldier tumbled gracelessly from the skies, its wings and body punctured by a barrage of the steel crossbow bolts. It collided solidly with Shipwreck.
"Dragonfly," Cover Girl ordered, "See what's going on over there."
"Yes ma'am." Dragonfly replied, and took off.
As Lina took off over the canyon she could see things much clearer than she could when she was on the ground. Flying, combined with the sharp senses inherent in her mutation, gave her a scouting ability that was priceless for the team.
Below she could see several of those creatures besieging a man wearing a gray duster over sturdy gray work clothing from the 19th Century, everything below his eyes was obscured by a gray bandana he used as a mask, like the bandits of the old Western films Fred was a big fan of. He was backed up against the side of a cliff with the strange monsters all around him. Several of the beasts lay killed in a variety of different ways.
Just then she could feel the wind gusts that heralded arrows flying past her. He must think I'm the enemy. Lina thought. She was so intent on watching the battle that she almost forgot that there were more of those flying things around. She turned around in time to see one of them latch onto her back behind the wings. The added weight and the creature's claw swipes made staying in the air difficult and she tumbled gracelessly to the earth right in front of the trigger happy stranger.
The weird creature raised its claws, with the intention of raking her across the face and Lina cringed, expecting the worst when the top half of the beast simply exploded. She turned to see the stranger holding a weapon that looked like a tube of wood and metal, one she recognized as a shotgun. The spray of pellets had torn her attacker in half at very close range.
"Who are you?" the man said, aiming the weapon at her.
"Lina Chakram, I'm here to help you. Hold on, I'm brining the rest of my group over!" Lina said, "Can you cover my takeoff."
The stranger nodded, his gray eyes showing the acknowledgement of an ally. He pumped his shotgun and blasted a creature that spun with its sword at point blank range, blowing a hole the size of a fist through its chest. He pumped the shotgun again, blasting another Bandit Heartless just below the neck, sending it rolling end over end. He pumped the shotgun again and blasted the head off another creature. He realized the shotgun was running low on ammunition so he fired his last round into a fourth Bandit and drew out his pistols. He was shooting steadily, but taking time to aim shots, not wasting bullets, because the pistols weren't like the shotgun which was a point and shoot sort of weapon.
Filby put the pistols away after he'd shot off the twelve rounds at his disposal and pulled the shock stick out again. It worked fairly well as a close in melee weapon earlier. He then noticed a higher ledge on the walls where he could fire down into the crowd. He drew out his grappling gun and fired a hook that burrowed into the rocks. He hit the retraction button and the action carried him into the air, out of the reach of the Heartless.
Filby reloaded his gas crossbow and took aim at a diving Air Soldier. He squeezed the trigger, hitting the creature with four bolts. Just then he saw a group of people approaching. The first person he saw was a youth with dirty blonde hair who traveled in the same manner as a frog.
"Whoa, right outta that Van Helsing movie!" Toad remarked, when he saw the masked stranger in gray shooting at the Heartless with the strange crossbow.
"Don't just stand there staring, Toad, help him out." Shipwreck replied, drawing out the two Desert Eagles he kept in holsters around his hips.
Toad somersaulted in mid air and kicked one of the winged Heartless that the stranger had missed with his strange weapon. Just then Scarlet Witch shouted, "Toad, clear off, I'm gonna try something."
Toad hopped clear, landing on the ledge next to the stranger. He spat out his acidic spit in projectiles at the four remaining Air Soldiers. "What are those things, yo?" Toad asked.
"They are a plague upon humanity. They seek to destroy your world." The stranger replied.
One of Toad's projectiles struck home and the Air Soldier began to disintegrate as the acid melted every part of its body that was touched. It stumbled into the ranks of some other Heartless on the ground which Shipwreck promptly gunned down.
Scarlet Witch, meanwhile, had begun to power up and hurled the Air Soldier Toad had leapt on earlier into a patch of cacti. Then she had a flash of inspiration. Remembering that the day before she had used it to attack Pietro the day before she began to power up, focusing her great ability of hexing upon the cacti. Each cactus began to uproot itself, coming alive to attack the Heartless.
"All Right Scarlet Witch!" Firestar whooped. She gestured and a gout of flames as she swooped down onto the Heartless, a cluster of them on fire.
Between Scarlet Witch and her cactus army, the assorted powers of the Misfits, and the stranger's skill with his myriad of strange weapons the Heartless that weren't killed retreated in a hurry, leaving the corpses of their dead kin behind.
"Where are you going?" Cover Girl asked the masked stranger as the group got back together.
"I must pursue and kill these abominations to God." The stranger replied.
"Not alone you aren't." Shipwreck said.
"I have hunted and killed these vermin on my own for five years, I do not need help." The stranger replied.
"If it hadn't been for us, you would have been through." Shipwreck retorted.
"True." The stranger said, "I owe you a debt that I must now repay."
"Listen, why don't you come back with us?" Cover Girl offered, "Tell us what those things you were fighting are and all."
"I shall." The stranger replied.
"Who are you?" Shipwreck asked.
The stranger unmasked himself, pulling the cloth below his eyes down, revealing a face of a man in his mid-twenties, weathered by years of hardship and fighting. "My name is Filbert Maitland and the creatures you fight are known as the Heartless…"
"Save the explaining for later." Cover Girl said, "Roadblock and his group are in some trouble at the end of the canyon."
"'Bout time you guys showed up…" Roadblock remarked as he reloaded his weapon.
Scarlet Witch powered up again and hurled a boulder, using her powers, into one of the COBRA armored cars, smashing it.
"Aim for their leader!" Low Light ordered.
"I can't get a bead on him." Hal replied, snapping off a shot with his M24 at a Bandit Heartless that would have decapitated Shipwreck.
Xi was backed up against a rock wall by a trio of Bandits. They slashed and stabbed with their swords, staying out of reach. Xi was barely dodging their speedy swings, and had sustained several shallow, but painful cuts. He was underneath Low Light and Maitland's position so their telescopic rifles wouldn't be able to help him.
Avalanche was currently wrestling with two Shadow Heartless that had jumped onto his back and Quicksilver was struggling with a pair of Air Soldiers that were carrying him aloft. Blob was too busy attempting to knock out a Large Body that had tried to squash Xi like a pancake.
Filby aimed the gas crossbow at one of Quicksilver's attackers and opened fire. His arrows killed both creatures, sending Quicksilver falling into a patch of chola catci.
"Not again!!!" Quicksilver said as he fell. He leapt into the air with a loud, "YEOUCH!!!"
Scarlet Witch saw this and began to hex the cacti which immediately came to life and started attacking the Heartless and the organic COBRAs. Low Light and Maitland were shooting up the BATS with their telescopic rifles and their M-16s. Before Quicksilver could fall again, he found his sister's powers were keeping him off the ground.
Blob was trying to match the Large Body pound for pound, but beating up on two such creatures earlier was starting to sap his strength. It was like three sumo matches one after the other and the creatures had the advantage of numbers. Just then the creature's head flew off as Dragonfly's sword-like wings slashed through its neck.
As a Bandit Heartless was about to run Xi through, a hexed cactus picked it up and hurled it into its fellows. Scarlet Witch's face was flush with concentration as she animated all the cacti she could see, using them as a thorny attack force against the COBRAs.
"YEOW! OUCH!" Major Bludd shouted, "Retreat! We'll return!!!"
"Way to go Scarlet Witch!" Shipwreck shouted.
Wanda was so caught up in the action that Shipwreck's shout startled her. She dropped Pietro in her surprise and he landed on top of a particularly massive saguaro cactus.
"OUCH!!!!!" Pietro shouted.
"We'd best get back to base, so we can try and figure out what COBRA was up to and what those things are." Roadblock said.
"Not to mention get the story on our strange new friend over there." Shipwreck said, and realized it might not be smart to insult someone with a gas crossbow, "No offense."
"None taken, on some worlds I have been called far worse." Filby replied, replacing his gas crossbow.
TBC (Up next: More character exploration, fluff, and information.)