Ultraviolet

Chapter 18

Challenge

Ultraviolet's boots pounded against the snow as she wove through the piles of rusting cars. More than a minute had passed by now, and four minutes later she would be led into the mastermind's lair… again.

For a second she wondered if her force field could hold up for four minutes… if it could, she would win, even if she were found.

But what happens if it fails?

Brushing both thoughts aside, she knew that she had to delay time as much as possible. She turned behind and was satisfied to see that Heatseeker was not immediately behind her. She just had to keep it up for just a few more minutes.

Finally she succumbed to temptation, giving in to her fatigued legs as she sat down among the rusting cars around. Her eyes scanned the area surrounding her, and while she rested she took in every possible escape route, and Heatseeker's direction of attack.

Before she could finish, a single bullet shot from her right, lodging itself in the metal frame of the car behind her. In a flash, Ultraviolet was back on her feet, scrambling off in the opposite direction. Complacency had got the better of her, and if it weren't for that missed shot, she would have been dead.

"Come on, Violet," she whispered to herself, taking a hard right turn in an attempt to shake off her pursuer. Jerking her head back every few seconds, she barely noticed where she was going when a streak of yellow leapt in front of her. With a scream, she came to a halt, as Heatseeker came into focus. In the back of her mind, she was screaming "force field" to herself, but the command seemed to register in her mind just milliseconds before he pulled the trigger, deflecting the bullet off the solid barrier. She breathed a sigh of relief as the bullet flew off, while Heatseeker's eyelids furled up in frustration.

"You won't last long under that, you're still too weak."

Violet didn't have time to argue as another volley of shots bounced off her force field. Each bullet was a strain on her energy and she knew that sooner or later the force field would vanish, like it did when she tried to save her father much earlier in the year.

There was a moment of respite, as Heatseeker reloaded his handgun, but not for long. Again another barrage of bullets was stopped by the force field, and Ultraviolet counted off the shots until he had to reload again. The last bullet shot from the barrel, and to Ultraviolet's horror it pierced through the purple orb, barely missing her shoulder as she rolled away in the last possible second. Heatseeker extracted another magazine of rounds clipped to his belt.

"This time, I'll make sure it hits," he sneered as he mechanically reloaded his gun. Ultraviolet didn't have to be warned; she was already headed away from him while she could. While she continued her run at her fastest, Heatseeker seemed to have no problem catching up, loaded handgun poised dangerously in his firm grip. Ultraviolet wasn't even paying attention as his leg swept under hers, taking her down to the ground.

In the next second, she had turned her body around, yelping in shock as the cool metallic barrel was levelled at her head.

"You lose, Violet." The trigger finger tightened slowly, so close to Ultraviolet's ear that she could hear the internal mechanism clicking. The cold stare was that of a killer's, and Ultraviolet knew that pleading wouldn't help.

Maybe you should learn to accept it, Vi, she told herself. Closing her eyes, she tried to brace herself, knowing the next (and probably the last) thing she'll hear is a gunshot…

BEEP… BEEP… the jarringly loud alarm screeched in her ear; she felt the handgun lower and the tension in her body vanished as quickly as it came. "Alarm for five minutes," a cool female's emitted voice from the digital watch. Ultraviolet's eyes peeled open as the tremor in her body subsided.

That means…

"Congratulations, you survived." Heatseeker's voice was just as cold as before, his face still expressionless as he held out a hand, helping Ultraviolet to her feet. "Follow me," he muttered, turning on his heels and walking at a steady pace. His behaviour was such a change from half a minute ago, Ultraviolet felt like she was walking behind some robot instead of the leader of a team of Supers.

Ultraviolet had to quicken her step to keep up with the striding Specialist. He stopped in front of an ordinary pile of cars, pulled open the door of the one at waist-level and depressed its handbrake. There was a faint whirling as some hidden mechanism was set in motion. "Wait here," he muttered, leaving Ultraviolet alone as the pile of cars beside her sunk underground and a platform rose from the hole beneath.

Heatseeker returned with the trolley, blood samples stolen from the hospital. "Take this down with you and save his henchmen some trouble."

Ultraviolet stared into his eyes, and perhaps she had missed this in the heat of the battle, she realised that he did not have the pupils or iris that normal humans had. His eyeballs were just white spheres; the more she stared at him the narrower his eyes got, until it was just a line on his mask.

"Quit staring and get going," he snapped, taking his hands off the trolley.

"When will you drop the 'tough leader' image?" Ultraviolet asked, daring to voicing out what she had thought about during the battle. There was a long pause, until Ultraviolet decided to ask another question. "Why don't you take them away from all this fighting?"

Them… The Specialists…. Just four innocent youths?

"Can you? Can you bring yourself away from this hero stuff? I can't believe we were beaten by someone like you." For a second it seemed like it was said in spite, but a grin spread across his face. It didn't look like the first time he did that; it must have been lost, buried under his responsibilities as a leader. Wheeling the trolley onto the platform for Ultraviolet, he waited as the Super stepped onto the black platform.

"Good luck, Violet." With that, he pressed a button on his glove, and the platform sank slowly into the darkness underneath. In the final seconds before all light was lost, she looked up, catching a glimpse of a military helicopter gliding overhead. Then, she knew… they had come.

The end is near, Violet…

The platform came to a halt cavern, lit up by several fluorescent lamps around the rocky walls. Ultraviolet scanned the room, catching sight of a single path out of this place. It looked like a lengthy tunnel, identical to the one she had walked in when she was kidnapped. The lights at its base seemed to stretch on forever, far beyond what Ultraviolet's eyes could see. Sighing, she stepped off the platform and made towards the tunnel.

Perhaps the light around her gave a false sense of safety, or Ultraviolet's fatigue was catching up to her, but she failed to detect a swift movement overhead. Behind her, the platform was rising back to the surface, its whirl muffling out the sounds when four sets of feet landed around her.

Ultraviolet was caught unaware, to say the least. Her arms were raised too late, barely in time to block the flashes of steel with a force field. The loose-fitting clothes, much like a ninja's garb, covering her opponents stood out against the bright light but covered much of their robotic body.

Using robots for guards, that's just like his style… Ultraviolet thought as they circled around her. It was then that she realised that she doesn't know the name of whoever was behind this, the so-called 'saviour' of the Specialists.

She dropped the force field, doing a back flip over two of the robots and landing nimbly on her feet. For a second the four robots glanced around the cavern in confusion, unable to pinpoint her exact location as she had turned invisible at that exact moment. Ultraviolet took her chance, as she set her sights on the nearest guard.

The first guard fell to the ground clutching its midriff as Ultraviolet delivered a boot to where its stomach would be. The next couple of punches, combined with a high boot to its metallic cranium, left it slumping to the ground with a realistic groan. Before the remaining trio could converge on her, she was gone again, withdrawing against the nearest wall. One of the guards, which appeared to be the leader, ordered them to fan out with a swift motion of its hand. Silence permeated the entire cave as everyone in it waited…

One of the robots wandered near the cave's walls. It didn't know what hit it as its head was smashed against the wall, leaving a gash in its metal covering and rendering it out of commission. Smiling to herself, Ultraviolet stalked the leader of the group, forcing it to the floor before breaking the internal circuits connecting to its head with a vicious twist applied to the neck. The dislodged piece of metal rolled for a moment and the limp body she was holding slumped to the floor.

Seeing the smoking remains of its comrades, the last of the guards leapt into the air, disappearing from wherever he came from. "So much for human intelligence," Violet muttered aloud as she turned visible again. With her eye set on the tunnel, she took a deep breath and continued forward.

Trivia: Using the challenge was another cheap cover-up to allow Violet to pass. And in the last paragraph above, the 'robot' running away was meant to show the artificial intelligence of their robots to the point of abandoning their comrades when beaten. Just my way of justifying the use of humans over robots (for the Specialists anyway).