Chapter 7: Apokoliptic Developments
His gaunt face was alien in design; sharp teeth, a jutting two-pronged chin, beady golden eyes sunk deep into his earless skull. His skin was thick and craggy like rough-hewn stone. The hood of a heavy black cloak shaded his features, his body adorned with a metal wreath wrapping around the shoulders, intertwining with fabric and reaching all the way to the floor, concealing every inch of his body. Only a slender arm could be seen emerging from within the folds of his robe, ending in a gaunt hand where long, thin fingers reached with claw-like nails. He strode forth from the Boom Tube and stood like a grim spectre among the criminals of Intergang.
He was followed by another, one more imposing in stature. His body was wrapped in a rawhide tunic made of furs and pelts, which concealed all but his head. His skin was black as coal, his hair cut short but framed by an intricate horned half-diadem, the metal gleaming almost as brightly as his golden eyes. Much like his comrade, the texture of his skin was akin to stone, rough and raw as though freshly mined from some distant world. Scars cut through his lips and threatened to peel back the skin around his left eye, his expression set into a permanent grimace.
The shorter of the pair approached Bruno Mannheim, the Intergang boss twirling his moustache for a moment as he bated his time. "Your invitation consumes many resources, human." The hooded man (if he could even be called that) growled in a grating voice. "This had better be worth the Great One's time."
"I assure you, Desaad, it is." Bruno answered, suddenly all polite and well-mannered before the Apokoliptian. He turned back and gestured to the machinery in the laboratory. "We've been hard at work pursuing the ultimate technology: Earthstone. It's an adaptable mineral capable of growing any form of hardware we desire. No one else knew about it except for a special wing of the government. We managed to 'acquire' the equation from a retiring army General. We needed a helluva lot of rare stones and minerals to pull it off, the two rarest being Jadeite and Serendibite. Now that we have sufficient samples, we can begin production." He described.
Desaad watched with an indiscernible expression as Bruno motioned for his team to commence. Stone and mineral samples were poured into the fusion container which came to life with a crackle of violet electricity. Arcs poured out form within, striking giant generators as synchronous effects began the supplemental empowerment of the entire machine. "This device is a fusion container, which uses concentrated enemies to combine materials at a molecular level. It's the brainchild of our man Hux, a long time Intergang brainiac." Bruno explained, striding forward to slap a lab coat-wearing thin-haired man on the back. Dawson Huxley, a brilliant mechanical engineer, preferred the high-pay of Intergang to the renown legacy of non-criminal enterprise like STAR Labs. He was a wiry man, with a brian that far surpassed his lacking muscles, but his dark deep-set eyes spoke of a malignancy in his heart that had consumed his very soul. He did not flinch or shy away as the alien Desaad regarded him for a moment.
"This Earthstone. What you speak of sounds-"
"Almost too good to be true?" Bruno mused with a cunning smirk. Desaad glared at him, not appreciating being interrupted.
"It is not the great prize our lord seeks, but it would be considered a breakthrough in our shared mission regarding Earth." The Apokoliptian stated, nearly spitting the last word out of contempt.
"Sure it will be. With this Earthstone, we can create any sort of hardware technology we deem necessary. Intergang would be an unlimited arms dealership, capable of providing as many weapons for as many armies as possible." Bruno promised.
"You promise great things, human. The Great One shall grant you greater things still if you can keep and fulfill them." Said Desaad.
"He needs only say the word. I just wanted you to see this so you knew I was telling the truth. Not that I'd ever jerk around the great Dar-"
"You are not worthy enough to allow his name on your lips!" Desaad suddenly snarled, leveling a long, cruel finger at Bruno. "Your father made the same mistake slighting the Great One. You would be wise to learn from it!" Passive and unfazed by the outburst, Bruno held up his hands meekly.
"My mistake." He said simply. "It won't happen again." Desaad maintained his glare for a moment, eyes brimming with cold fury before he turned his back on Bruno.
"Come, Rundas."
His partner stepped forward, revealing himself to be slightly shorter than Bruno but cut like a soldier in his crisp efforts.
"This is The Hunter. He stands ever vigilant in the throne room of Apokolips, never leaving the master's side save for by his word alone." Desaad told his human company. "He shall remain here to guarantee your promises are kept, human. Your work is the will of the Great One, your mission an extension of his mighty hand… and he does not fail." With that, another Boom Tube cracked open and allowed Desaad to leave. The Apokoliptian called Rundas stayed behind, standing still and stoic as Intergang on injured their work.
Bruno shrugged. "Enjoy the show, pal." He moved back into the ranks of his men, approaching the red-headed Whisper A'Daire. The woman's scaly orange skin glimmered through the many windows in her skintight black dress, revealing her inhuman appearance. "Sounds like he's placated."
"For the moment. Desaad has always been a bit more… on edge compared to the Great One." The assassin responded. Her approach to their work and their allegiance to Apokolips bordered on religious and it was her unique fanaticism that was a boon to Intergang. "I should take the data-packs to our various contacts. They will be expecting information."
"No time like the present." Bruno agreed. "Use the teleporter. Danner, Danton, and Stitches have one each, save Metropolis for last." Whisper offered a brief nod before departing the lab, passing the statuesque Rundas as she did who didn't so much as flinch at her passing.
High above on the catwalks, Vixen and Liberty Lance took a moment to process everything they had heard. Eavesdropping had proven to be to their boon even if the information gleaned turned them both pale. "This is bad… Intergang is already a big problem being a black market weapons-distributor, but being able to provide any number of weapons for as many people who order? It'll be an all-out war between criminals and law enforcement… especially if they're packing Apokoliptian weaponry." The ebony woman murmured.
"Goes without saying we have to stop this, right?" Liberty Lance replied, not even knowing who or what Apokolips was, and Vixen nodded. "Any suggestions?"
The heroine scanned the laboratory, specifically looking around the fusion container where the Earthstone was being made. She pointed to the massive power towers near the rear of the room. "We'll nuke their power supply, hopefully slow everything down. Then we'll lead them outside and take down as quick as we can."
"Sounds like a real good time to call in your Justice League friends."
"They won't get here in time. We have to act now." She decided decisively. With no choice but to relent, Liberty Lance took aim with his left arm where his tri-rack of missile folded out over his hand. "On the count of three, we blow that power station." Vixen counted down, slow and steady. "Anglerfish!" A bolt of light erupted from her forehead, scorching fire striking the power generators seconds before Liberty Lance's missile slammed into the charred husk and blew the remainder to pieces.
The explosion rocked the whole lab to its foundations, causing dust and debris to fall from the ceiling as machinery wound down with a slow whine and ambient power crackled from the ends of broken wires amid raging infernos. "No!" Hux whined as he threw a nearby killswitch as fast as he could. "What happened? Look at my creation!"
"Don't just stand there, you morons! Get fire extinguishers on this!" Bruno bellowed and multiple technicians scrambled to locate some.
"B-B-Boss, I… I don't know what happened… Everything was fine. Fine! But look at this hellscape! It's ruined!" Hux bemoaned.
"Quit bein' such a damn drama queen!" Bruno snapped. "This wasn't an accident. We've been sabotaged." His gaze turned upwards, catching a fleeting glimpse of broken and twisted metal from the catwalk access that had been torn apart to make way for a much larger individual.
"S-Sabotaged…?"
"Don't think too hard about it." Bruno ordered, brow knit into a concentrated frown. "Just fix it." He looked back over his crew and Bruno wasted no time barking orders. "Glenn! Pruett! Suit up! Gunn, Deadline, Abbot, Torcher, follow me! Key, Sixty, stay here with Hux and Egg Fu and get this shit back online!" His gaze landed on their overseer, the one man who would report a good word back to Apokolips. "And you… Rundas, was it? Stay here in case those assholes try comin' back." Rundas frowned, growling faintly, but Bruno ignored it and started moving along with his crew. James Distefano, still wearing his energy-absorbing Deadline suit, tapped into his metahuman power of intangibility and sprinted right through solid walls to hunt down their saboteurs.
Outside, Vixen and Liberty Lance burst free from the lab access at a dead sprint. "Hang tight!" Colt triggered his pulsejets and shot forward, scooping up Mari with one arm as he took flight and made for a distant clearing on the very edge of Intergang's encampment. "I still think you should call your Justice League friends!" He exclaimed as they touched down on solid ground. Scorching laser blasts filled the air, scything through foliage and striking Liberty Lance, leaving scorch marks on the armor.
"No time!" Vixen exclaimed as she moved to face Deadline. "Cover me!" Liberty Lance took flight, unleashing rapid-fire rounds from his LANCE as Deadline bolted through buildings, concussive explosions ripping apart the old and dilapidated structures. "Anglerfish!" Vixen joined in, firing high-intensity heat rays that struck Deadline's armor. They dissipated on contact, their molecular makeup absorbed by the armor's kinetic-field properties.
"You two freaks have had it! One way or another, you're dead meat!" He vowed, opening fire with his rifle. The rounds ricocheted off Liberty Lance and the vigilante promptly retaliated with his other weapons arm, pumping assault rifle rounds and shotgun blasts that bored holes into the surrounding buildings as Deadline kept moving.
More Intergang members rushed onto the scene, Kyle Abbot summoning his lycanthropy to morph into his werewolf form while Mike Gunn and Torcher brought up the rear. Vixen took notice and narrowed her vision, aiming for the werewolf first. "Tiger." Her claws gleamed as she charged forward and tackled Abbot, a furious fusion of claws, fur, and synthetic fibres wildly tumbling about in a frenzied melee. Scratches and cuts were exchanged in equal measure until Abbot clamped his snout down around Vixen's shoulder, attempting to force the heroine into submission. Fighting through the pain with gritted teeth, Vixen took full advantage of Abbot's face being so close to her. "Spitting cobra!" A millisecond later, poisonous acid erupted from Vixen's mouth and nailed Abbot right in his canine features. Howling like mad, the blinded wolf-man released her and ran off to find some way to clean the biotoxin out of his eyes.
Vixen forced herself up but found no time to heal as Machine Gunn and Torcher confronted her.
"How about it, babe? Wanna wreck her day?" The man inquired of his partner.
"Count me in, Mikey." Torcher responded with a sadistic grin. Gunn tapped into his metahuman ability, his hands disappearing into a mass of organic steel that formed into high-calibre cannons. He fired three-round bursts, seemingly having Vixen dead to rights.
"Mantis shrimp!" Vixen moved at blistering speed, snatching every bullet out of the air with hypersonic reflexes. She rushed Gunn and executed a somersault to land a crescent kick, her heel slamming into the cap of his skull. Landing on her feet, Vixen launched immediately into a kickflip, her boots catching on Gunn's jaw and knocking him back.
"Hands off my man, bitch!" Torcher snarled, unleashing columns of flame from her outstretched hands.
"Pompeii worm!" Adapting heat-resistant capabilities, Vixen surged through the flames and decked Torcher with a powerful right cross, snapping her head to the side.
Liberty Lance continued to trade shots with Deadline, the vigilante managing to collapse the remnants of a small house on top of the metahuman. But, seconds later, Deadline launched out with a pair of hover discs beneath his boots, launching right up to Liberty Lance where he pressed a powerful plasma pistol against his helm. "Maybe I oughta just rip you out of your suit. Never done that with anyone before… I wonder if you'll survive the transfer?" He sneered, thinking he was well out of weapons range and had the hero on the ropes.
"Before you try…" Lance replied, sounding out of breath, "can I say something?"
"I won't deny a condemned man his last words." Deadline remarked with a shrug.
"Judge Dredd called, he wants his look back!" The vigilante retorted, engaging his forward-mounted flare launchers. Blinding phosphorus rounds exploded in front of Deadline, passing through his body but also blinding him while choking him out with thick fumes. Charging his LANCE to its second power level, Liberty Lance shook the villain off, took aim, and fired at point-blank range. The concussive blast sent Deadline screaming through the air, his body arcing high over the island before disappearing somewhere within the abandoned municipality near the shore.
Dialing back the power module, Liberty Lance took aim at Torcher and Machine Gunn before toggling the release check and fire rapid concussive blasts that kicked up tons of dirt and stone while sending the two thugs flying. The vigilante touched down next to Vixen just in time to see Blackrock and Shockwave on approach with Bruno Mannheim right behind them… and he was leading a small army of armed thugs. "These guys don't know when to quit."
"They're eager to please." Vixen replied, wiping the corner of her mouth on the back of her glove. "Still wanna play air support?"
"It's kinda what I do." Liberty Lance lifted off and adjusted the power gradient of the LANCE.
"Tiger!" Dropping to all fours, Vixen loosed a roar utilizing the powerful vocal chords to generate waves of infrasound. At such a low hertz, the noise attacked the nervous system of the approaching goons and drove them into a panicked terror. Taking advantage of their chaos, Liberty Lance unleashed rapid-fire concussion blasts that blew them all off their feet and knocked them out cold. Only Blackrock and Shockwave managed to overcome and the pair surged towards the two heroes.
"Two on one, not very fair… but thanks for giving me an excuse to use this…" Liberty Lance remarked. The back plating above his afterburners unfolded to allow his bushmaster chain gun to snap over his shoulder. The weapon spooled up and unleashed a hail of bullets that slammed into Blackrock and Shockwave. The LANCE fired next, twin overhead blasts driving the pair into the ground where Vixen slammed into them pair with a rhino's charge. Her hands cloaked with electricity, Vixen shocked the pair with the powers of an electric eel. Machine Gunn and Torcher attempted to ambush her from behind only for Liberty Lance to tank the shots from Gunn and return fire with his LANCE, forcing the pair to try strafing the electromechanical suit while Liberty Lance took flight to avoid streaks of flame shooting from Torcher's hands.
Bruno stood back, observing the melee unfold with no shortage of confidence the superior numbers of Intergang would win the day. While disappointed in the failure of his hired guns, he had a feeling the metahumans of Intergang could turn the tide. He crossed his arms and barked out a challenge, "First one to bring me their heads gets a big fat bonus!"
The four villains found some renewed vigor and attacked the heroes in full force. Vixen and Liberty Lance traded up again, slugging it out back and forth with Blackrock, Shockwave, Machine Gunn, and Torcher as best they could. Vixen's grizzly claws sliced through Shockwave's chassis while ducking under his vibrational blasts, her raw strength and power pushing her to become more and more visceral in her efforts. Bits of armor flew off as she hacked into him, pinning him to the ground with savage effort. Flying off in a fury, the heroine landed a punch to Machine Gunn that hit like a freight train, cracking several ribs before she bowled him over with an equivalent thousand-pounds of force. She was snarling, growling even, her every strike imbued with the primal rage of the grizzly bear as the Tantu Totem bestowed it.
Worst of all, Mari hadn't even realized she was succumbing to it.
Powerful blasts from the LANCE blew Torcher off her feet while Liberty Lance's bushmaster riddled Blackrock with bullets. The pair slammed into one another, Liberty Lance executing a desperate tackle to avoid energized pulse blasts. "You may have followed us here, but this island will be your grave!" Blackrock threatened.
"Not if I put you in the dirt first!" Liberty Lance shot back, overclocking his pulsejets and slamming him in the ground at such speed the shockwave threw Bruno and Gunn off their feet. He launched back up into the air just as Deadline rocketed back onto the scene astride his hover discs. The villain came charging at Liberty Lance as he fired energy emitters strapped to his wrists. Inverting the directional fire of his pulsejets, Colt spun his armor around and drove a knee right into Deadline's face before overclocking the charge of his afterburners to perform a loop-de-loop and tackle Deadline right into the dirt. Keeping him pinned, Liberty Lance smashed his chest several times with his fist, trying to make sure Deadline would not be a threat any longer.
Proximity sensors alerted him to a presence approaching to the left of his rear. Thinking it was Blackrock or Shockwave, Colt flicked the charge trigger to its maximum capacity before whipping around and firing his LANCE.
Unfortunately it was neither Blackrock nor Shockwave, but Machine Gunn.
The concussive blast struck the man dead centre of the torso and carried him a good thirty feet across the clearing to the treeline. Any bones not broken during the initial impact were reduced to powder when Mike slammed into a sturdy old tree and evaporated into a wet paste, leaving only a red smear behind on the trunk. Colt froze, mouth agape, horrified by what he'd done.
The battle seemed to lull for a moment as a pained shriek left Torcher's mouth, everyone suddenly registering what had happened.
The pryokinetic woman pounced on Liberty Lance, blasting high-temperature flames in his face and planting him against the ground. "You bastard! You killed my man! I'm gonna melt that armor, rip you out of it, then bury you in its molten puddle!" She shrieked, planting her hands against the chassis and generating a caustic aura that caused metal to bubble from the heat. Colt remained frozen, aghast at what he had done. He couldn't find it in him to throw Torcher off. He never meant to do that.
All he could do was stare into the livid expression on Torcher's tear-stained face, the reality that he had taken a life sinking like a weight in the pit of his stomach.
All of a sudden, grizzly claws burst from Torcher's torso, the pyrokinetic gasping as blood gurgled from her lips while Vixen tore her off of Liberty Lance, her claws elongated and sharpened, like sickles extending from the tips of her fingers. Torcher fell limp to the ground where she lay in a steadily-growing pool of blood. For a brief second, Vixen heaved and snarled atop Liberty Lance, a wild look in her eye Colt had never seen before. At last she shrugged it off as the scent of blood reached her nostrils, Vixen's power waning as she looked down at her bloodied hands with a look of disappointment and regret.
She had no time for either, though.
Turning on the remnants of Intergang, Vixen tensed her arms. "Pistol shrimp!" Swinging her hands together, she generated a blast of compressed air so powerful it sent everyone, Deadline, Shockwave, and Blackrock included, spinning and sprawling out of control across the ground and through the air. Only then did she grasp Colt's helm and try to shake him back into action. "Lance. Lance!" Vixen called out. Colt did not reply, still frozen on the ground by the horror of what he had done. "Colton!" He finally jerked his head. "We need to pull back. Come on!" Vixen urged, using the strength of the elephant to force him onto his feet. Colt didn't think of a direction or a destination, he just triggered his jets and took flight, rocketing away as fast as he could. "Cheetah!" Vixen picked up speed, sprinting faster and faster with every step as she darted off into the island foliage.
By the time Intergang was back on their feet, the pair of heroes were long gone. Deadline nudged Torcher with his foot. "She's dead. Gunn sure as hell is, too." He announced.
"Should we pursue?" Blackrock asked. Bruno took a moment to study the scene before shaking his head.
"Nah. Making the Earthstone is our top priority and we need all hands to get the lab back up and running." He decided.
"Aw man! I wasn't done tryin' to smash 'em yet!" Shockwave complained.
"You'll get your chance later, ya big lummox!" Bruno snapped. He turned to the handful of armed men still on their feet and gave orders. "Clean up what you can, get some genetic samples to Dabney and let him know what happened." Bruno took his leave with Deadline, Blackrock, and Shockwave in tow while the men took one look at the grisly remains and each grimaced in turn.
Later…
Bruno returned to the lab with Blackrock, Shockwave, and Deadline in tow. The engineers who stayed behind were hard at work repairing the fusion system, despite Dawson Huxley still behaving like a nervous wreck. He stomped over to Bruno, "Tell me you got them! Tell me!"
"Back off, Hux. We forced them to retreat, bought you some time to get this thing up and running." Bruno retorted. "So quit your blubberin' and get to work."
"This is not a 'thing', this is the pinnacle of my scientific achievements!" Hux protested. "And you can't treat it like some common household appliance! I take my work for Intergang seriously!"
"Ugh, say it don't spray it, Hux." Bruno grumbled. "You love the damn thing so much, get it up and running again." He retorted, shoving the engineer out of his face before approaching a separate console. Footsteps sounded behind him and Bruno believed it was Hux again.
"You did not retrieve the interlopers." Rundas growled. "You did not ensure their interruption was silenced. The Great One will not be pleased."
"We kept them from becoming a further setback. No big deal." Bruno retorted. "The sooner we make the Earthstone, the sooner their presence here won't be a problem."
"You claim as much… but I sense the power of the Fourth World at work here." Rundas retorted, sniffing the air for a moment. "I will not abide by this. You humans let your arrogance guide your steps far too much. You may be so flippant as to your fate, but I will bring great glory to Apokolips with this hunt."
With that, he ripped off his fur tunic, revealing an athletic build of coal-black skin. He had many scars and many more tattoos, the same color gold as his eyes. Rundas withdrew a polearm from his back, tipped with a tri-edged spearhead. He gripped it tightly as he studied Bruno with scrutinizing gaze.
"I will track them down. I will do what you did not. I will hunt this patron of the Fourth World and rid you of the menace they pose." Rundas pulled a skull from his belt; one of his most pried trophies, the skull of an ancient predator that had been coated in metal. He slipped it over his face, concealing all but his eyes. "Let the hunt commence and may it bear much fruit." He turned and left without waiting for a word from Bruno, the boss of Intergang watching him leave with a raised brow.
"Sheesh, how over the top can you get? Am I surrounded by friggin' drama queens?!" He muttered once Rundas was out of earshot.