Chapter 5: Midnight Mayhem
Waiting in his car in the museum parking lot, Bradley Glenn alternated between cans of coke and various radio stations as he let the hours cruise on by. He was waiting for a signal from the third Intergang operative in Coast City; Jame Distefano. His staged breakout at the police headquarters would cause enough of a disturbance for Bradley and Arnold to make their move on the gala. In light of Bruno Mannheim's scolding, his plan was far more direct: as Blackrock and Shockwave, he and Arnold would make a big entrance to deal with any heroes while his remaining armed men would heist the precious stones and beat a hasty retreat.
In theory it would work flawlessly. But that's what he had thought the last time they attempted this.
He exhaled loudly, punching the bridge of his nose impatiently. This had to go right for him. Bruno Mannheim was not a man for third chances, even this second chance was a rarity. It lent to the importance of this task; so elevated in necessity that Bruno was willing to try again and again in order to see its success. "Can't screw this up. Won't screw this up." Was Bradley's mantra. His eyes flicked to the pair of vans elsewhere in the parking lot, one grey the other black. The men were ready. He just needed to clear the way.
His phone buzzed and he snatched it off the adjacent seat. It was a text message from Distefano: an invitation to play a built-in game… block-breaker. He grinned. That was the signal. Fingers pressed against an earpiece. "We're on. Clock starts now." Bradley stepped out of the rental, shedding his jacket before slamming the door shut. The rest of his clothes shredded as his armor emerged from underneath, verdant plating hardening through complex molecular processes. Soon he was fully encased, as entrenched in his Blackrock persona as he could. "Let's move it, big man." He ordered.
The entire parking lot seemed to shudder as Shockwave made his appearance known. His blue armor seemed almost ethereal in the mightnight lighting, were it not for his face being exposed behind a simple metal-mesh covering across the helm. Arnold looked squished, his face pinched by the armor's shape. Bradley knew from experience that the Shockwave armor was a tight fit, perfectly engineered to match Arnold Pruett's exact dimensions. It may look snug, but the large man was in no discomfort. "'Bout damn time, what the hell was keeping Deadline?"
Bradley didn't show it but he was pleased Arnold remembered to use aliases this time. "If I know him, it was all about timing." He replied. "Hit the guard office when we get in, it's just on the left. That'll buy us time if they can't call the cops right away."
"What about those heroes?"
"If they show, we'll make 'em eat pavement." His promise was affirmed by a chuckle from his compatriot and Blackrock swiftly and fearlessly led the way towards the museum. He stomped up the steps, priming his pulse emitters as he did. Kicking the door in, the greeting staff were taken aback by his sudden arrival and were promptly bowled over by pulse blasts from his right arm. Snapping up his left, Blackrock took aim at the security guards scrambling from their office and blew them both back inside with a single blast. Shockwave took over, focusing his twin sonic emitters to generate a concentrated stream of vibrations that collapsed the entire section of museum around the stricken guards, reducing the office to a pile of rubble.
The cacophony quickly earned a lot more attention as startled attendees were promptly held at bay by Blackrock's pulse emitter. "NOBODY MOVE!" He bellowed, firing a blast at the ceiling. Panicked screams and shouts filled the hall, decreasing in volume just a little as Shockwave lumbered up behind him, cracking his mechanized knuckles. "Down on the ground, people! Be smart, do as we say, and nobody gets hurt!" Blackrock ordered.
"Go ahead. Don't do as we say. Been a while since I hurt somebody!" Shockwave chuckled, his menacing gaze sweeping the hall wall to wall as they approached the rotunda where the geological exhibits were kept. "All we want is some rocks. You got any rocks, huh?" Shockwave demanded, menacing several of the patrons who shied away from him. "Don't make me bring the house down!" To prove a point, he aimed at a barren wall and generated a brief vibrational blast that shattered the masonry and reduced it to dust, incidentally shattering several display cases on either side of his target zone and the glass panes turned to a fine dust of glass that littered the floor.
Up above, peering through the skylight, Vixen and Liberty Lance noted the flamboyant arrival of the two fellons. "Figures they wouldn't stay away." The heroine noted, hands on her hips. "You ready to do this?"
"As ready as I can be." Her metal partner answered. "But we should try to keep in touch. To coordinate." Vixen brushed back some hair, revealing a small communications transmitter planted within her ear.
"Shift your communications array to an MF bandwidth, anything between three and three-hundred megahertz. Don't worry about range; this is Justice League-issue. It'll pick it up." She replied. "After you do that, why don't you get this party started? You owe Blackrock a rematch." A few seconds later and Liberty Lance was lifted into the air by the pulsejets on his legs. The skylight could open partially but not wide enough to accommodate his bulk. He crashed through, tearing open parts of the adjoining panes as glass rained down onto the museum floor. Slamming into the ground, Liberty Lance reared up and aimed his signature weapon at the pair of criminals.
"You again!" Blackrock snarled. "Always crossing my path!"
"And you just crossed into the danger zone." Liberty Lance retorted, firing his LANCE and sending Blackrock tumbling back down the hall. The armor suit turned and fired on Shockwave, who was already moving.
"I love it when heroes come out to play!" He sneered. "Gives me an excuse to hurt someone!" Applying the power of his distributor pack, the strength of his punch sent Liberty Lance flying across the room as patrons and attendees ran for cover to avoid the superhuman melee. Colt felt every square inch of force but shrugged it off and forced himself back up. His suit was taking the hits. The additional armor plate was working.
Shockwave came stomping after him as Liberty Lance forced himself up. "Nothing like a little raw power to shake things up!" Slamming his foot into the ground, energy waves triggered a small earthquake that rocked the museum wing. Liberty Lance took flight, snapped up his left arm, and unleashed the MASS combo attached to the fist. Shotgun rounds and high-calibre assault rifle bullets slammed into Shockwave, forcing him back as Blackrock returned to the fray. Energized pulse blasts struck Liberty Lance, scorch marks dotting the armor, before Blackrock rocketed into the vigilante. Suit grappled with suit in an effort to see whose mechanical might would win out.
"Elephant!" Dropping down from the skylight, Vixen crashed into Blackrock and drove him into the floor under thanks to her borrowed 4 ton weight. She whirled around as Blackrock thrashed underneath her, unable to stand. "Tiger." Bolting forward, Vixen scampered across the gap between her and Shockwave, lunging towards the felon and raking her claws across his chest. Three neat grooves shaped into an 'X' were carved into the metal.
"Vixen, let's take this outside." Liberty Lance scooped Blackrock off the floor with his LANCE and fired a concussive blast that propelled him clear through the skylight, afterburners firing as the vigilante took flight and gave chase. The job of maneuvering Shockwave out of the museum fell to the heroine, who grinned as she relished the challenge.
"Vixen? That's your name? What're you, some kinda fox-woman?" He wondered.
She cocked her head. "You don't know what a vixen is? What rock did Intergang turn over to find a dumbass like you?" She replied cuttingly. Shockwave seethed with anger, his face threatening to bulge through the protective mesh out of sheer rage.
"What did you just call me?! You bitch!" He roared, rearing his fists back. Thanks to the lion's nose, Vixen could smell sulfur and detected the sudden shift in Shockwave's power distributor.
"Oh please, like I haven't been called that before." The heroine scoffed, somersaulting backwards. "Pangolin." Dropping to a crouch, she curled up into a ball as her dermis hardened on a molecular level, allowing her to tank a punch from Shockwave with ease. The villain recoiled, appalled to see his effort had no effect against Vixen. She rose up with a grin, popping the tendons in her neck. "Coconut crab." Her hands snapped out and grabbed Shockwave by the biceps, crushing the metal plating with a mere flex of her hands. With immense upward motion, Vixen threw Shockwave so hard he barreled through the edge of the roof and went flying out of the skylight, debris clattering to the floor behind him.
Outside, Liberty Lance and Blackrock engaged in a deadly dogfight, circling the museum and exchanging fire with their respective weapons. Glowing bolts of white and orange zipped back and forth through the air, sometimes scorching surfaces or blowing off chunks of cement and masonry until Liberty Lance caught Blackrock in the back with a concussion blast that sent him spiralling into the pavement just behind the museum. The vigilante moved to engage again, only to be stopped by Shockwave as he took control of his flight and engaged his conscience emitters. The pair circled instinctively, vibrational waves hammering the air over the din of assault rifle rounds, making for quite the spectacle as Vixen crawled out of the skylight. She took in the two brawling for a brief moment before she smelt conducted electricity and discovered Blackrock back on his feet and attempting to catch Liberty Lance off guard with his pulse emitters.
She dove off the roof, executing a perfect roll before extending her leg in a flying axe kick. Her heel slammed into the top of Blackrock's helmet, sending him stumbling as an errant pulse blast tore up the concrete of the loading bay for the museum. Several trailers parked up against the back of the building hemmed in the pair, like a primitive gladiator cage. Bouncing back to her feet, Vixen crouched low and tensed as Blackrock recovered. "You were a thorn in my side the last time!" He growled, launching forward with his jump jets and unleashing a volley of low-power pulse blasts from his wrists. Vixen launched backwards in a series of backflips, deftly avoiding each shot before arcing into the air and spinning right around as Blackrock charged underneath her.
"Platypus!" She slammed her leg into his back, an ankle spine secreting an acidic poison that cut clean through the outer shell of his armor. His forward momentum allowed her to slice right down like a hot knife being dragged through butter. Sparks erupted, Blackrock stumbling to his feet as short-circuit warnings flashed across his HUD. He whipped around to face her. Vixen was nowhere near finished with him. "Electric eel!" Arcs of electricity surged between her fingers and coiled up her forearms just before Vixen unleashed a yellow blast that struck Blackrock in the chest and momentarily overloaded his suit's systems. His weapons and propulsion were offline.
"Oh you want to do this the old fashioned way, huh? Alright. I'll play." He still had the other abilities of his armor, including the enhanced mechanics in the leg pneumatics. A single leap propelled him across the distance between and he plowed into Vixen. The heroine grunted as she took the impact head-on.
"Ox!" Her feet dug into the ground, holding her own as she planted Blackrock back on his feet and locked them in a near-stalemate.
"You think you got what it takes to play with the big boys? I fought Superman to a standstill!"
"Bullshit! He dismantled you within five minutes. You and the bonehead." Vixen retorted with a glimmer in her eyes. "With a record like that, I've got everything I need to wipe the floor with both of you."
"Then why call in your boyfriend? Scared?" Blackrock sneered. Vixen just snickered.
"I'll show you scared." She promised. "Firefly!" Her hands glowed brightly until a sudden chemical combustion detonated between them, blinding Blackrock as the force of the blast rattled him hard and left his ears ringing. "Leopard!" Vixen charged ahead, sweeping Blackrock's legs out from under him and harnessing her momentum to spin around and slice her claws through his helmet. She planted him against the pavement, hacking through the layer of armor around his chest before she grabbed Blackrock by the shoulders and rolled back, launching him into the air. She pounced after him, tackling Blackrock in the air and slamming him back down to the ground.
Meanwhile, Liberty Lance discharged rapid-fire bolts from his LANCE into Shockwave, sending the felon hurtling through the air only for his propulsion systems to right his erratic flight. "Was that supposed to hurt? All you did was tickle me!" He sneered, generating an ultrasonic blast from his gauntlets that struck Colt like a wall of white noise. Momenatarily disoriented, Liberty Lance was vulnerable as Shockwave dove in and landed a super-powered punch that left a fist-shaped dent in his chassis. "Now I'm gonna rip that armor offa you piece by piece!" He threatened with a sneer. "Think of it like eating; first ya crack the shell, then ya crack the nut inside!" Finding enough sense to react, Liberty Lance planted his left fist and unleashed a sustained blast of shotgun rounds and assault rifle fire, riddling Shockwave's side and threatening to dislodge his power pack. The felon broke off.
"Not so tough when your power source is in danger, are you?" The vigilante retorted as he dialed up the power of the LANCE to its maximum setting. His thrusters powered up and he dove low, catching Shockwave on the end of his weapon before firing. His aim was true and Shockwave ripped clean through one of the trailers, the metal sides exploding outward as the entire rig was lifted off its wheels and bounced a few times before Shockwave exploded through what remained off the roof and made a beeline for his quarry. He fired his sonic emitters just as the LANCE blasted away one more time, both energy waves meeting in the middle to created a blinding blastwave that precluded the two armor men slamming into each other.
Blackrock endured the beating from Vixen just long enough for his suit's computers to recalibrate and get his weapons back in the game. Pulse emitters began to glow and he snatched Vixen's fist before she could land another punch. "Eat fist, bitch!" He drove his fist into her gut and unleashed a pulse blast simultaneously, sending Vixen sprawling across the pavement. The heroine grimaced, struggling with the lingering burn she felt in her midsection.
"Snake." She whispered, shuddering as burned skin peeled off in a scaly residue she ripped out from under her costume. With speed, she scampered away as Blackrock lunged for her, a pulse blast fracturing the concrete where she had lain. Springing to her feet, Vixen jumped up and spun around to lash out with a hook kick, clubbing Blackrock across the face. She lunged like a tiger, pouncing on him, but Blackrock threw her to the ground and pounced, fists aglow. "Zebra!" Vixen reared back her legs and landed a kick that launched Blackrock clean through the parked trailer 20 feet behind. Springing to her feet, the heroine spied the aerial brawl unfolding between Liberty Lance and Shockwave, lending a helping hand in a heartbeat. "Angler fish!" A dot of white light appeared on her forehead that grew and expanded into a beam of superheated energy, the blow lancing across Shockwave's armored back and cutting through his propulsion systems. He dropped like a stone, slamming into the pavement at an awkward angle. "Change dance partners!" Vixen called to her partner, jumping after Shockwave. Liberty Lance dove after Blackrock as he crawled out of the trailer, riddling him with gunfire before he blasted him point blank with his LANCE, sending Blackrock careening through the corner of the museum in a cloud of shattered masonry.
But while the superhuman brawl continued to unfold, the second phase of Intergang's plan continued to unfold.
James Distefano had completed his raid on Coast City Police Headquarters and was escorting the captured Intergang mercenaries to a safe house. The remaining mercenaries were taking advantage of the superhuman brawl to raid the museum and procure the stone pendants they sought. Colt and Mari were none the wiser.
Slugging each other with their full mechanical might, Blackrock forced Liberty Lance into the ground only for the vigilante to fight them over and force the villain down instead. The pavement tired up in chunks as they rocketed down, narrowly missing Shockwave and his repeated tremors. With all the power going to his feet, the villain was generating quake after quake to keep Vixen on her toes. With catlike agility, she sprang from point to point, avoiding every stomp as they came. "You think you're somethin' special, huh?" Shockwave growled, channeling enough energy from his power distributor to shattered the pavement. "Here kitty kitty…" A slab of ground erupted from below and launched Vixen head over heels into Shockwave's waiting grasp. She found herself abruptly trapped in a crushing bear hug. Pneumatics whirred as Shockwave crushed her into his chassis. "Why don't you cry uncle, sweetheart? Don't got one?" He sneered as he increased pressure. Vixen grimaced, feeling the results.
"G… Gr…" She attempted, fighting to get the word out past the constricting weight against her lungs. "Gorilla!" She gasped. New strength surged through her and she snapped her pinned arms to the side with effortless ease, breaking Shockwave's hold on her. Both fists came crashing down into his shoulders, shattering the plating there. "Python!" Slipping around behind Shockwave, Vixen wrapped her arm around his neck and flexed her muscles, the strength of a snake choking the big mercenary as his eyes bulged beneath the protective mesh of his helm. The armor around his neck bent and buckled, contorting around her arm as Vixen increased her hold tighter and tighter. Only an errant pulse blast from Blackrock threw her off.
Gasping for air, Shockwave had just enough in him to target Vixen with his sonic emitter and unleashed a stream of vibrational waves. "Condylostylus." Inheriting the reaction time of the fly, Vixen was moving within five milliseconds, keeping well ahead of Shockwave's aim. "Ram." The double-skull came in handy as Vixen plowed head-first into Shockwave, armor chipping into fractured shards as his torso plate crumpled from the impact and the wind was knocked from his lungs.
A short distance away, Liberty Lance blasted Blackrock with his weapon, launching his armored foe back into the stumbling Shockwave where they were both bowled over and landed in a mechanical heap on the ground. Groaning in apparent defeat, the pair struggled to untangle as Vixen and Liberty Lance stood before them, framed by the white light of the moon and the shadow the museum cast.
"What do you say we wrap these two up with a nice little bow for the police?" Colt asked.
Vixen chuckled and crossed her arms. "I like that idea very much."
For a brief moment, Bradley Glenn was very concerned about failure. The seconds ticked past as he realized he didn't have another fight left in him. The Blackrock armor had taken a beating during the fight and any more prolonged action would spell the end of his career. In more ways than one. As a gloomy cloud settled over him his comms suddenly crackled, the voice of his ground team leader filtering through,
"Package is secure, exfil complete. We are go for removal."
He grinned. The confirmation that they had succeeded up to this point was a welcome change from their previous effort. Glenn switched channels to a private line right to Shockwave's suit. "Big man, we're in the clear! Time to scram!"
"Gladly! You see what these bastards did to my suit?" Arnold complained.
"Whatever." Blackrock took flight, lifting off the ground with enough force to startled the two heroes. The plan had been rehearsed and all he had to do was get clear. "Past your bedtime, heroes! Lights out!" On cue, Shockwave thrust out his arms and generated a powerful ultrasonic pulse that blew both Vixen and Liberty Lance into the museum wall behind them. Both went crashing through, shattering mortar and cement and disappearing from view. Cackling gleefully, the pair of felons took flight and left the scene behind.
Liberty Lance was the first to get up, his armor scuffed but no worse for wear. Colt quickly tapped his infrared cameras to locate Vixen, clearing away the debris around her and helping her up. She appeared to be in a bad way; costume torn and arms at awkward angles.
"They took off, rather suddenly might I add." He muttered, looking the heroine over. "You need medical attention."
"I'm fine!" Vixen growled, forcing herself to stand. "Lizard." Within seconds her limbs were good as new, broken bones knit solid while flesh returned to its natural ebony hue. "Come on, Colt. We can't let them get away." She urged, already sprinting out of the hole and moving towards in the same direction of the fleeing duo.
"You want to stop them?"
"No, let's see where they hang their suits." Vixen replied, breaking into a run. The thunderous rush of Liberty Lance's afterburners propelled him out of the hole and high into the air where he arced towards the front of the museum. "Cheetah." Vixen's speed increased, accelerating by 10 kilometres per hour with every step until she was travelling at a steady 130 km/h. She kept pace with ease as Colt took time to analyze their positions from the air, his onboard cameras tracking the fleeing Intergang vehicles as well as the pair of Blackrock and Shockwave.
"I'm tracking vehicles leaving the museum." His voice informed her over their shared comms.
"Great, they played us. Kept us busy while their goons stole the pendants." Vixen growled in irritation. "Take the suits, I'll take their rides." She stated decisively.
"They're heading down forty-fourth avenue." Colt answered. She moved to intercept, sprinting down the road as fast as any vehicle could. She vaulted over cars parked at traffic lights, slid across half-ton trucks crossing intersections, somersaulted back onto pavement and kept moving without missing her stride.
Up in the skies, rocketing just above the tops of high-rises, Colt was thankful he had updated the operating systems for his suit's cameras. Synching his radar with his guidance systems, he could effectively keep watch over Blackrock and Shockwave while also following the movements of the Intergang vehicles. Multitasking had never been easier and he breathed a sigh of relief for that. "They turned down twenty-sixth street." He announced into his radio. "Now they're on forty-seventh avenue. I think they know you're onto them."
"I can tell!" Vixen exclaimed, darting and ducking around traffic as it barreled around her, Intergang committing every traffic violation possible in an effort to out pace her. Horns blared, tires squealed, the stench of burnt rubber and superheated brake pads was rife in the concrete jungle. Getting tired of being forced to maneuver around parked and stopped cars, she devised a solution. Breaking off the road and onto the sidewalk, she aimed right for the side of a building. "Spider." Her feet made contact and gravity seemed to shift as Vixen sprinted across the wall like it was perfectly solid ground. Springing from building to building, Vixen kept pace with the SUVs with ease… until the city block ended, along with her running space. Keeping her cool, she waited until the corner edge was just a step away. "Kangaroo!" Powering off the last piece of solid surface, Vixen launched herself through the air and landed neatly on the rooftop across the road. She kept running, her pace sustained through years of physical training.
"Uh, looks like you're going the wrong way." Colt noted over comms.
"Keep tracking them. I'm gonna take the long way, make them think they lost me." Vixen replied.
"Whatever you do, keep heading west. It looks like they're heading for the docks." Her partner answered.
Coast City boasted one of the busiest docks and seaports along the west coast. It's prominence as a big enough port for cargo ships and its position as an ideal shipping hub resulted in a serious of expansions over the years, the original docks in the Presidio district of the city eventually being shut down in favour of the modern harbor further north in the Seagate district. It was to those old abandoned docks that Intergang returned to.
And it was to those abandoned docks that Liberty Lance and Vixen staked out from atop the disused buildings along the edge.
Colt adjusted the range of his infrared cameras, targeting the concealed SUVs Mari had been tailing as they parked under a rusted old tin roof where outbound and inbound shipping used to be held. "They're good, I'll give them that. Nobody comes to this part of town anymore. Coast City's very own ghost town."
"A blind spot the bureaucrats should have determined a long time ago. And to think they complain about crime." Vixen muttered. "Can you tell if they're all in that building?"
"All of them. Our electromechanical friends included."
"Good. Let's sneak up good and close, see if we can hear anything." She decided, ready to prowl. Liberty Lance remained hesitant.
"Uh… about that. I'm, er, not very stealthy."
Vixen thought quickly. "Alright then, tall, dark, and weighs-ten-thousand-pounds, you stay here and keep tabs on the building. Let me know if anyone leaves. I'll do the listening." With that, she took off like a cat, prowling across rooftops of rundown, disused office complexes as she advanced on the one attached to an aging warehouse. "Panther." Her footsteps were virtually noiseless as Vixen stalked her prey right up to the rooftop of the same building. Claws extending from her gloves and boots, she slowly descended down a wall and hung close to an old window that still had its glass panes in one piece. "Horseshoe bat." She whispered, her ears attuning to a higher megahertz level, higher than anything a human could hear. Vixen listened intently, honing in past the myriad of sounds on the tone of Bradley Glenn's voice as he spoke into a phone.
"This had better be good, Glenn."
"It sure is, Mannheim. Job done. We got the rocks and Distefano picked up the jailbirds."
"About damn time. I'm gonna order the Oregon to come and pick you up, you and the crew haul ass back to base. This is gonna be a non-stop trip so get your gear ready for immediate departure. That boat ain't slowing so much as a knot, you hear me? You wanna be on it, you better be ready to get on it."
"We will. All of us." Quiet followed, presumably the end of the phone call. A grumbling sigh. "Damn bastard."
Enough information collected, Vixen climbed back up the wall and skirted the rooftops back to Liberty Lance, taking care to ensure she was just as soundless as before. "Any activity outside?" He shook his head. "Good. I've got news: our friends are trying to make a getaway, but we're going to intercept the boat and hitch a ride. Whatever Intergang stole these pendants for, their boss wants them bad. I'm in the mood to disrupt their whole operation, since they went and ruined my traveling gala."
Colt performed a double-take, popping his armored helm open. "Wait, you're being serious? You want to hijack a boat?"
"No, silly. We're going to stowaway in the cargo hold and surprise Intergang when we get to wherever their base is." Vixen replied with a grin. "You up for it?"
Colt looked back at his city, the one home he had never strayed from. Everything he had ever need of was found within the limits of Coast City. "I… I guess I don't have a choice…" He murmured.
Vixen maintained her grin. "Good. Because I have the name of the boat and I know it's leaving port soon to come pick these guys up. So we have to move quick." Colt thought quickly, his gaze turning northward.
"It's probably moored at the harbor up north. I know you're fast, but I'm faster."
"No denying that. Don't mind a passenger do you?" Vixen wondered. Colt popped his helm back on and made a brief gesture. Vixen crawled up his chassis, hanging from his chest as the leg thrusters of Liberty Lance propelled them into the air before the pulsejets took over and launched them through the air at nearly five times the top speed of a cheetah…