issue #13 part ii
Northwestern Vermont
Dragonfist, on his PRIMUS hovercyle, and Cosmic Knight topped the rise and looked out over the “Chin”, at the zenith of Mt. Mansfield. Four seconds later, Nightmare with Jae Sun riding bareback, and Somnus, joined them.
“Hey, I thought you were supposed to be a woman and a virgin to ride a unicorn.”
Jae Sun gave Cosmic Knight a scathing look, but Nightmare neighed simulating laughter and Somnus gave him a mental smile in his smug way.
En route to Vermont, they had heard from S.T.A.N.. He had told that that instead of splashing down Lake Champlain, Dent had turned east somewhere south of St. Alban’s. It looked like he was now heading for Montpelier, though more likely he would try and cause destruction at the ski resorts north of the capitol and in the Mt. Mansfield area. Jae Sun looked down at his holo-wristwatch. S.T.A.N. was sending them satellite feeds and sure enough, there was the Stone Giant, bounding over snow-covered mountains in their general direction.
“Anaka, do you see him?”
The martial artist stood up on his bike and scanned the area. He pointed and the hovering Cosmic Knight nodded his head seeing the same thing: puff of snow powder, amid the pines and bare-branched trees, and then another about 400 feet in front of that one.
“We see him.”
“Very well then, this Stone Giant seems the typical brick. Let us proceed on Attack Vector Beta, since Slipstream is still not with us.”
Cosmic Knight shook his head, “Once again, I give you a hearty, Whatever!” and then he took off into the valley.
Dragonfist, not wanting to be last to the target followed quickly.
Somnus rose above the tree line and began a slow, graceful descent down the mountain, and Nightmare teleported away, leaving Jae Sun in the lurch to fall on his bum in a nearby snowdrift.
“Ancestors! Please help me to have patience with the youth of today!”
However, he was professional enough to maintain his original course of action. Seconds later, a huge, black-furred werewolf stood where Jae Sun had once been. The Warwolf leaped forward trying to get to the Stone Giant as quickly as possible, maintain melee contact while the rest blasted him from a distance. He growled with exasperation as the Nightmare/Darkfire thing maintained its unicorn form. He had hoped that the strong superhuman female aspect would help him against this villain. The Warwolf leaped again and his eyes widened. A huge boulder hurtled towards the group, who in their rush, had not spread far enough away. Furthermore, instead of approaching stealthily, which was within his capabilities, the Cosmic Knight had hit is afterburners. He and Dragonfist lit up the valley with their exhaust, not to mention the noise of their flight.
The Warwolf landed just as the boulder hit and exploded into hundreds of sharp, rocky fragments. Trees were torn asunder and splintered. The Warwolf heard a whinny of pain from Nightmare. Fragments struck him, but fortunately, he had been far enough from the epicenter, that the shards, losing momentum, merely bounced off his tough hide. Somnus, above him was likewise able to deflect pieces of rock with his multi-colored sphere.
“They have no tactical sense,” muttered the werewolf. “Change, you fool!” he yelled at the fiery unicorn.
They had all been debriefed on the Stone Giant’s mental profile. He usually went after foes that looked like monsters you would find in a role-playing game. That was one reason the Warwolf wanted to close. He would be a psychological distraction as well. Right now, however, Nightmare looked the part, and she had been closer.
Nightmare did not change, instead she fired a beam of energy from her horn. Even from the long range, she hit, but the attack did not even slow the giant down. Warwolf on his next leap, got a better look at the villain. The giant was big; more than twice his size. He landed near Nightmare who huddled behind some rock formations on the slopes. He saw the fierce look in her eyes as she blinked away, this time with a bit more smarts, reappearing behind cover some twenty meters ahead and firing her hornbeam again. Peaking from behind the trees, the Warwolf saw the giant reel drunkenly, right before Nightmare’s beam hit.
“Well at least the mentalist is doing his job,” he growled and jumped once more to get closer to the fight.
**
Cosmic Knight had outdistanced Dragonfist and arriving at an acceptable range to the target, opened with a volley of plasma blasts. The Stone Giant shrugged then off and retaliated with another hurled boulder. Cosmic Knight’s heads-up display flashed Incoming! and the proximity klaxons screamed in his ears. He dodged, but the rock exploded, assailing him with fragments, and pummeling him silly.
“Exploding boulders! That’s not fair…” he cried as he began to fall, stunned from the attack.
For the Stone Giant, it was getting harder to think straight and make a coherent decision. Then the headaches began to blur his vision. He had to stop and recover.
“Need to get better padding against concussion damage,” said Theo Coolidge as he shook off the cobwebs from being dazed.
He had plummeted significantly downward, but it was far from a close call as he banked out of his dive and got his bearings. He saw that the giant had put its hands on its knees, it seemed to ignore the ch’i blasts from Dragonfist who stood on the seat of his bike and flew by, and the crimson-colored beam from My Little Pony. It could not ignore the raging wolfman that leaped from the trees and attacked with pummeling fists. Once again, the physical attacks seemed ineffective. The Stone Giant took his own fist and smashed it into the Warwolf sending him skittering down a nearby stream, and smashing into some fallen logs. But the werewolf got back up and this time flew at the giant with tooth and claw. Theo laughed at the sight. Warwolf’s attack and grapple looked like a dog nipping at the giant’s heels. Then Theo had a brilliant idea. He flew at the giant and let loose with his tangleweb. While it did not catch the whole villain, it did get his head and upper torso preventing him from letting loose on Warwolf again.
**
Somnus could tell that his mental assaults were beginning to take a toll. He had drained this Dent’s ego making it hard for him to make decisions and making it so much easier to make him sleep. The giant yawned even as it tried to shake off the Warwolf who was actually beginning to draw blood with his massive bite. Somnus saw the giant hesitate trying to decide what to do, then it shook its head and tore free from the net. However, the delay had been enough. Cosmic Knight actually did something brave after he had actually done something tactical. Somnus crossed his arms and watched as the Knight swooped down from the sky and sliced the giant with his energy sword. The mentalist raised and eyebrow when he saw black, ichor spray and ooze from the abdominal wound.
The Stone Giant bellowed. Somnus could tell that Dragonfist did not want to be outdone as the martial artist sped towards the giant on his bike and then vaulted from the seat and smashed the giant in the sternum. It was becoming his patented move. Dragonfist pushed off the behemoth and somersaulted to the ground landing in the snow on his feet--a 10-point landing--, even as the giant went staggering back and then crashed to the ground.
“Oh very well then, my turn,” mumbled Somnus.
For effect, he placed his fingertips on his temple and focused, then sent a mental command for the giant’s sleep receptors to fire once more. The Stone Giant spasmed and then lay still, breathing deeply as it now slept.
“I win again,” he said smiling
**
The Warwolf howled in victory, black blood on his snout as the Stone Giant fell. He was more incredulous at the fact that some of these supers had actually, in the end used their brains. Even now Cosmic Knight was making sure that Harold Dent was entangled in steel, sticky webs. No longer a massive ground-pounding titan, Dent was still as tall as he was, and still grey and bald. The Warwolf sighed. Clean-up was more suited to the immortal who housed his spirit.
Since the defeat at the hands of the Crowns of Krim, there were no longer any secrets among the group. Their identities had been laid bare to one another. The Warwolf let Jae Sun manifest in full view of the rest of his team.
“Nice job team!” admired Jae Sun as he inspected the restrained form of Harold Dent. “Somnus, keep him under,” he called in his wristwatch.
The prismatic sphere in which all assumed Somnus floated, hovered over the downed villain. Jae Sun dialed up PRIMUS.
“Mel, we got him. Please send one of your vehicles for pick-up and extraction.”
Jae Sun Lee actually let himself break and then keep a smile.
**
A deserted island in the South Pacific
Brian Parker sat on the beach and watched the waves. They were smaller now after the monsoon had passed, and as Slipstream he had rode the deadly ocean in the thralls of a mighty storm. It had been very satisfying, and he had not died.
“Dangit! I’ve been moping around for too long. It’s time ta get back and fight the good fight. Sorry, I let you down Stally. Sorry I let you down, Legion. I ain’t gonna anymore. Crowns, I’m gonna have yer heads. Ultimates, watch out! Cuz here comes Slipstream!”
He stabbed his surfboard into the sand and shot towards the ocean skimming across the surface, and swimming beneath the waves, headed roughly northeast...
End Issue#13
The fight between Dragon Fist and Cosmic Knight was funny though, we finally had to have Somnus and Cap'tn Valor preform pyschic churgery on them to purge that meddlesome chica from their grey matter.
