All We Have To Fear
by Gary D. Snyder
Chapter 15:
The flight upwards was nothing like Cindy had expected. She had assumed it would be similar to one of the thrill rides at Retroland, but none of them had prepared her for the acceleration imparted by Spider-Sam's giant slingshot. Only astronauts and fighter pilots experience anything similar to what Cindy did, and only with special training and equipment. Cindy had neither and she immediately blacked out as the blood rushed from her brain. Fortunately for her the slingshot had, by chance or design, oriented her so that the terrible force was spread uniformly over her body. Had it not been, her neck could have snapped like the proverbial twig.
Near the apex of her trajectory, as the acceleration tapered off and the blood could again return to her head, she revived and found herself hurtling through the air towards Poultra. Unlike Jimmy and Goddard she was simply a projectile and had no choice in where she would land nor the path she would follow to get there, and sp did the only thing she could. "Neutron!" she yelled.
There was too much noise for Jimmy to hear, but Goddard's electronic senses were far more sensitive than human hearing and even the canine ears that they were designed to emulate. He looked back and Jimmy and barked.
"What is it, boy?" Jimmy asked.
In response Goddard circled away from Poultra and assumed the classic pointing stance of a hunting dog. Jimmy followed his point, saw the small form hurtling upwards towards the giant chicken, and recognized it for who it was. Goddard barked again.
"Gas planet!" Jimmy muttered in surprise and annoyance. "What is she doing here?" Goddard simply shook his head at the rhetorical question. Jimmy sighed, torn between going to her assistance and continuing his harassment of Poultra but knowing that there was really no choice. "Come on," he sighed. "Let's go get her."
They swept down in an arc intended to bring them to an intercept course with Cindy, with Goddard carefully adjusting his speed and direction to match hers as they drew together. He did this so well that Cindy was able to step aboard as thought they were both standing motionless on the ground. Because Jimmy's Flycycle design had only one seat Cindy was forced to sit side-saddle across his lap. Cindy noted Jimmy's sour look and gave him one of her own.
"I'm not enjoying this either, Neutron," she said.
"Just what do you think you're doing here?" he growled.
"I didn't have much of a choice," she snapped back. "You're in trouble."
Jimmy bristled at this. "Hey, I had everything under control until you showed up!" he shot back. "I can handle Poultra without your help!"
"Oh, yeah?" she retorted, pointing down the street. "What about them?"
"Who?" Jimmy asked, both startled and suspicious.
"Them!"
Jimmy looked down the street in the direction in which Cindy was pointing and saw nothing at first. Then a slight movement in the sky caught his attention and he looked more closely. At first he thought some trick of his vision of his flight path had made a couple birght stars seem to move, but as he watched there could be no mistake. The lights were moving, and a quick computation of the estimated distance using parallax told him that they were moving very fast. "Are those…?" he asked weakly.
"Jet fighters," Cindy finished, both angry and triumphant. "They were called in to take out Poultra but they didn't know you were up here. Someone had to warn you before they fired their missiles."
"They did," Jimmy said, still watching the lights.
Cindy's mind skipped a track. "They did what? Warn you?"
"No," Jimmy replied. "Fire their missiles. Here they come!"
Cindy looked in the direction of the lights and saw that two smaller, glowing points had appeared and were slowly growing larger and brighter. "Well, what are you waiting for? Let's get out of here!"
"Wait a minute," Jimmy told her. He was watching the approaching projectiles and looked worried. "There's something wrong."
"Of course there is," Cindy snorted. "That's why I came up here to warn you."
"That's not what I mean. The missiles aren't staying on course. I don't understand it. It's like they're malfunctioning or something."
Cindy watched as the missiles made crazy loops and swirls and shook her head, not believing the evidence of her own eyes. "How can that be? Those things are supposed to have ultra-sophisticated targeting systems. They should be able to hit anything, especially something as big as Poultra!"
Jimmy slapped his forehead. "Holy Heisenberg!" he cried. "That's it!"
Once again Jimmy had lost Cindy. "What's it?" she asked irritably.
"It's as big as Poultra…but it's not Poultra. It's just something that the phobifier created from our perceptions. In some ways, it's not even real to the missiles, because the missiles can't think the way people do. There's no way for them to lock on to their target."
"How could the pilots launch a missile without having a target lock?"
Jimmy shook his head. "It depends on the missile and targeting system. Since no missile system was designed to take out a giant chicken, the pilots must used visual targeting only and assumed the missiles would get some kind of lock after they were launched. But they didn't. They're looking for something to hit."
"Well, there isn't anything. I guess you'll just have to finish what you were doing." Cindy looked at Poultra who was wandering aimlessly back down the street, apparently unnerved by her close call with the Purple Flurp. "That'll take care of Poultra."
"But it won't take care of the missiles." Jimmy looked more worried than ever. "It's only a matter of time before they hit something. And even if pilots try to abort and cause the missile to self-destruct, the explosion and debris could hurt someone."
"Maybe Goddard can take out the missiles with his lasers," Cindy suggested.
"Same problem." Jimmy came to a decision. "But there's one way to kill two birds with one stone."
Cindy shifted uneasily, not liking the way Jimmy had said that. "What are you saying?"
"The missiles need a target, so we're giving them one."
It took a few seconds for the meaning to sink into Cindy's head. When it did she almost couldn't speak. "Now, wait a minute…"
Jimmy ignored her. "Goddard! Move in closer to those missiles and fire up the afterburners. We're going in fast and hot!"
The flames from Goddard's propulsion system changed from bright yellow to blue-white as the system afterburners kicked in. Jimmy, Cindy, and Goddard surged towards the erratically weaving missiles as the added thrust brought their airspeed to just under 400 miles per hour.
"You're insane, Neutron!" Cindy yelled in fright.
"You wanted to be up here!" Jimmy shouted back. He swung the Flycycle into tight loop to bring them near the missiles. A quick look back showed that the missiles erratic behavior had not changed, and that they were coming dangerously close to some of the buildings. Grunting Jimmy wheeled back around. "We have to get in closer. Hang on!"
Cindy gritted her teeth and tightened her hold on Jimmy as the Flycycle swooped back around towards the deadly projectiles. This time, rather than perform a fly-by, Jimmy dove directly towards one of the missiles. He can't be serious! Cindy thought wildly. He's going to try to ram one of them? She watched with growing apprehension as they neared the lethal weapon, until, at the last minute, Jimmy pulled up and spiraled away.
"Did we get its attention?" Jimmy yelled.
Cindy looked behind them and saw first one missile, then the other, change course and veer towards them. "Yes!" she cried excitedly. "You did it! Wait a minute." The realization of what this meant struck her. "That's not a good thing, is it?"
Jimmy didn't answer. He leaned forward as though trying to coax more speed out of the Flycycle as they rocketed towards Poultra. Cindy had nearly forgotten the giant monster in her excitement and alternated frantic looks between the creature and the pursuing missiles. The missiles, she noted with alarm, were closing rapidly.
"Those missiles are coming in fast," she said in alarm. "Can't you outrun them?"
Jimmy shook his head. "The Strato could," he said, "but not the Flycycle. But the Flycycle has something the Strato doesn't."
Cindy couldn't take her eyes off the missiles as they continued to close in. One hundred yards…seventy-five… "What's that?" she asked. Fifty yards…
Her stomach lurched violently as the Flycycle suddenly shot straight up into the air. "A great turning radius!" Jimmy answered through clenched teeth. Below them Cindy could see the missiles attempt to follow their path and fail as their momentum carried them directly into Poultra. There was a brilliant flash as twin balls of flame erupted below them and spread outward, and Cindy held her breath as billows of fire crawled upwards in pursuit towards them. As the Flycycle outdistanced the flames Cindy decided that they had escaped inferno below them and heaved a sigh of relief.
While the Flycycle was fast enough to escape the fireballs, however, it could not hope to escape the unseen shockwave that raced towards them at the speed of sound. Jimmy, Cindy, and Goddard were hit by the invisible blast of super-compressed air as though struck by a tornado. Goddard's stabilizers were the best that Jimmy's ingenuity and allowance could devise, but the concussion of the missiles had been designed to disrupt machines costing millions of dollars and the Flycycle spun wildly, tossing Jimmy and Cindy in different directions. Stunned and helpless, the three of them began the long fall into the shadows below.
It was Goddard who recovered first. Resuming his normal form he activated his helicopter mode and descended rapidly towards Jimmy who was stirring feebly. Cindy, also in shock, became groggily aware of her surroundings. It seemed to her as though she were watching an old motion picture, with everything moving far too slowly. To her right she could see Goddard drifting downwards while below her and far to her left she could see Jimmy's faint silhouette. As from a great distance she could hear a voice faintly calling up to her, like a recording played at the wrong speed. No, not to her, she realized dimly. To Goddard.
"G-e-e-et C-i-i-in-d-y-y-y!" the voice called.
Obediently Goddard moved to obey, seizing the back of Cindy's collar in his mouth and slowing her fall. As she continued to watch, Jimmy continued his own unimpeded free-fall and rapidly disappeared from view into the shadows below.
That succeeded in snapping Cindy out of her shock. "Neutron!" she shouted. There was no answer. But that was because he was out of range, she told herself. That's all. "Goddard!" she instructed, trying to keep the panic out of her voice. "Get us down. Now." Goddard sped his rate of descent while Cindy peered frantically into the gloom below with her mind racing.
As she and Goddard dropped towards where Jimmy had fallen Cindy finally spotted something. At first it was nothing more than an indistinct blob in the dark canyon between the row of buildings, but as they moved closer Cindy could see that it was the unmistakable form of a person. With unwelcome certainty she realized that it was Jimmy, lying where he had fallen. As she drew nearer he appeared to fade and she thought at first that the moon had gone behind a cloud. Then she realized that her eyes were tearing. She brushed here hand across her eyes to wipe the moisture from them as she and Goddard alit on the ground.
She took a step towards Jimmy and was startled as the ground beneath her seemed to give beneath her feet. She looked closer at where she was standing. No, she thought suddenly. Not on the ground. On a…net? As she was puzzling over this Jimmy stirred and moaned softly. "Neutron?" she asked in disbelief.
Jimmy struggled to a sitting position. "I ache all over," he complained. "What happened?"
"I don't know," she admitted as she knelt down next to him. "I guess you fell into this net. But where did it come from?"
"Hey, there," a voice called out. Startled, Cindy and Jimmy looked up so see a dark and hefty silhouette squatting on the ledge of a building above them. "Mind if I get a lift down?"
"Sam?" Cindy asked.
"That's me, yeah," Sam answered. "Funny thing. When you mentioned a fly hitting a windshield, I figured, why not a fly hitting a web? I mean, Spider-Sam thought that. So he whipped up a web all along this street in case you missed. I guess it came in handy after all." There was a familiar chuckle. "It was a good thing he did it when he did, too. Right after Poultra disappeared Spider-Sam vanished as well and left me stranded on this ledge, yeah. So, are you kids okay?"
Jimmy tenderly felt his limbs and joints. "I guess so," he called back. He looked at Cindy in the dimness, unable to read her face or her thoughts. "So, I thought you never wanted to see me again."
Cindy felt a twinge of irritation and old anger at the reminder and stood up. "I didn't," she answered, as she marched towards the edge of the webbing. "Not even as street pizza."
End of Chapter 15
Author's Notes:
No, this is not the end. There are the usual loose ends to wrap up and hopefully the customary epilog next time will do that.
This should have been uploaded a day or so ago but if it's not one thing its another. The wireless network connection keeps going in and out on me and there's not pattern to it. I just have to shoot for a window and hope things work out.
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