Hope Through Overwhelming Firepower Interlude 10 Clockblocker
"We have both Alexandria and the next best thing to fucking Scion in our city." Stated Clockblocker, quite matter of factly. "So why the hell are we doing this?"
The surroundings shook, as Crawler rammed into the wall of haphazardly frozen objects in an attempt to scramble over, tentacles writhing in and out of holes in the barrier.
A rocket shot past, trailing smoke, as Miss Militia fired through one of said holes, throwing Crawler off the barrier. "They both vanished shortly before the attack." She replied.
"A truly wonderful time to do so." Clockblocker snarked.
Crawler squirmed for a moment, then picked itself up and shot off to the side, breaking through a building in the alleyway.
"There!" Earthshock pointed, they had done this so many times in the last couple minutes it had become habit.
"Right." Browbeat replied, and shoved a hunk of metal in front of the designated section.
Vista began trying to make Crawler's path as long as possible. "There's just so much... Crawler, there. I can barely do anything. Get off your ass, Clockblocker!"
"Yeah, yeah." Clockblocker ran up and froze the metal Browbeat had moved. A second later, and Crawler rammed into the sheet of metal.
Aegis and Browbeat began rapidly piling up things for Clockblocker to freeze.
After he had done so, and they had retrieved a moment's breathing space for themselves, Clockblocker heaved out a breath of air. "Phew. You know, very shortly we're going to be surrounded by nothing but my frozen stuff, and it doesn't last forever either."
"We're aware of that." Armsmaster answered. "This is just a... holding action." He finished with a tinge of bitterness.
"Uh, yeah." Clockblocker mentally moved away from that topic, best not to piss off the boss man.
Clockblocker sighed slightly in response to the continued movements of Crawler as he continued to try and find a way around the barricade.
Crawler had shown up earlier on, while Aegis, Vista, Browbeat and Clockblocker were visiting the PRT building for the requisite post-Leviathan paperwork. Earthshock had run in, and said there was something big on a direct path here. Its identity was discovered, and an epic battle had commenced to keep it out of the PRT building, and all of the unenhanced humans inside.
"Why the fuck did I wake up this morning?" Earthshock moaned out. "Could have stayed in my nice, warm bed, and not had to deal with being eaten by Cthulhu today."
"Stop your whining, you think any of us wants to be here? Fighting Crawler?" Vista berated.
"Hey, fuck you guys, I'm not a Ward. I didn't join precisely so I wouldn't have to fight these kinds of things." Earthshock replied.
"Pbft. The Wards aren't required to do any of this. You only didn't join because you have authority issues that make Clockblocker look like Buster." Vista retorted.
"Hey-" Clockblocker began to protest.
"Shut the hell up!" Armsmaster shouted. "We have better things to deal with. Earthshock, where's Crawler."
Moping slightly, Earthshock moved his hand to show the movements of Crawler.
"How do we know the brat isn't lying?" Vista questioned.
Earthshock turned to Vista. "You really think I-"
"My lie detector would see it." Armsmaster interrupted.
Earthshock turned to look at Armsmaster. "You- Fuck you all." He crossed his arms. "You can figure out Crawler's location on your own."
Aegis moved in for damage control. "I'm sure Vista didn't mean it that way."
"Doesn't matter how she means it. You're the only one here capable of tracking Crawler, so do so." Armsmaster stated.
"Fuck you."
Armsmaster scowled. "You-"
A thundering crash and Crawler broke in through a section of unfrozen wall.
A barrage of rocketry from twin launchers made by Miss Militia knocked him back slightly. "Clockblocker, now!" She snapped.
Clockblocker didn't respond, and just ran forward with a metal bar in hand. He shoved in the path of the recovering Crawler and froze it.
Crawler rammed into the bar, staggering it just enough for Miss Militia to shove him back again.
In the pause, Aegis and Browbeat rushed forward and began shoving objects in the way for Clockblocker to freeze.
Armsmaster deftly wielded his halberd, and cut apart any tentacles that came to close for comfort while another barrier was built.
Clockblocker collapsed, breathing heavily once Crawler left to attempt a better route.
Armsmaster turned to look at Earthshock, who had fallen over staring at the barricade. You could only see half Armsmaster's face, but that half was twisted into a terrifying scowl. "If we are still alive after this, and if I still have anything to say on the topic, you aren't going to be independent for very much longer at all."
Earthshock just sat on the ground. "Oh god..." He trailed off.
"Can you try freezing it directly?" Aegis asked, moving past the nigh-catatonic Earthshock.
Clockblocker looked at Crawler. A tentacle absentmindedly wrapped itself around a brick, and shattered it to pieces. Globules of acid dripped from its eyes and mouths. Clockblocker turned back to Aegis. "No."
Before Aegis could think up an appropriate response, the inevitable happened. A large section of frozen objects fell down, as Clockblocker's power wore off. Crawler stared at them through the hole.
"Fuck me." Aegis stated.
Crawler howled in victory. And charged.
Miss Militia attempted her rocket trick again, but a spray of acid rapidly melted them to unusability, the now inert metal shells bouncing off his hide.
Similar sprays of acid kept anyone from approaching.
Clockblocker stared at Crawler's menacing form as it advanced on him. Time seemed too slow, was he going to die here?
No. Clockblocker decided. Not without a fight at least. He readied himself for an attempt to freeze Crawler.
Bracing himself for the inevitable acid spray, Clockblocker held his hands forward.
It proved unnecessary.
A figure smashed down from the sky into Crawler.
A second of dust, and the figure showed itself to be the white scarfed Buster, standing on Crawler who was squirming, unable to move for whatever reason.
Clockblocker had never seen anything so beautiful in his life. "I love you, marry me."
Buster raised an arm, and it... opened up, for lack of a better word. Skin was pulled back by some sort of lever system to reveal an eerily metallic replica of the inside of a human arm. Instead of muscles, there were a few scarily thick cables, and her bone was a piece of straight metal. She slammed this fist into Crawler, and dozens of metal spikes extended from opening slots all over the inside of the arm, impaling Crawler.
Clockblocker considered things. "Totally okay with this!" He gave a thumbs up.
An eerie whine began to build, and blue light began to emit from the connection between the arm and the spike. "Collider." Buster clearly pronounced. The whine peeked, and lightning streamed down the spikes.
Crawler soon found himself covered in a field of lightning. For a moment, he laughed in derision, for what was electricity anymore? That laughter cut off within seconds, as the lightning grew more violent, Crawler began to scream. It was not a nice scream, as the sound of anguish echoed forth from every single one of Crawler's many mouths.
The extremities were the first to go, tentacles began to disintegrate to dust, and parts of Crawlers legs vanished under the blue not-lightning.
A few seconds later, even Crawler's screams cut off.
Buster pulled her arm back, the spikes retracted, and the arm closed up. Now, you couldn't even tell the difference between her arm and anyone else's.
Buster stepped off the rapidly disintegrating form of Crawler and looked at the rest with dead, four pointed star, eyes.
Clockblocker stared. "Uh... Klaatu Barada Nikto?"
Vista stared. "...You're such a dork."