Chapter Thirty Three

Hero's Call: Chapter Thirty Three

They were nearly as far south as they could physically go on Manhattan island, but the din of New Year’s revelry in Times Square could just be made out if Milo strained his ears. He didn’t know if people were ignoring the doomsday threat from Destructo and enjoying their celebrations with the promise of a new year, a clean slate, looming in the back of their minds or if they were just taking the time to get one last party in before all hell broke loose. Either was just as likely, but Milo wanted each and every one of them, even the terrible ones, to see the coming year exactly how the last one had been.

Up ahead, Destructo’s warehouse stood menacing in the middle of the bustling metropolis. It looked like any other building around it, calm, placid, and unassuming. In only a few minutes, the warehouse would turn into a veritable warzone that could potentially create enough collateral damage to wipe most of the lower east side of the city. It could be nothing of the sort, however. Neither Bill, Milo, nor Calliope had any idea what was waiting for them inside the warehouse. They could meet no resistance other than Destructo himself, but it wasn’t likely.

Milo brought them to a stop a block away from their destination. Bill had refrained from converting to his metal form to remain inconspicuous and Cali had flown overhead just out of sight of anyone not looking for a flying teenager. She had been scouting ahead to make sure they weren’t walking into an ambush before they even got to the warehouse.

“Okay, this is it,” Milo said once Cali touched down next to him. Both she and Bill nodded to him, but remained silent. “Are we ready?”

Bill nodded.

“Ready or not,” Cali agreed, “we’re out of time.”

Milo nodded his concurrence. “Bill, you bust in through the front entrance. Since you aren’t going to get hurt by much, I think you can create a pretty good distraction to let Cali and I slip in and hopefully catch Destructo and his defenses off guard.” Bill nodded grimly, and then a small grin cracked on his lips. Milo couldn’t help but think his old friend was more than ready to cause a ruckus.

“Cali,” Milo continued, “give Bill three minutes and do the same thing through the back entrance. If Bill’s distraction works well enough, you should be able to get pretty far into the building without much resistance. Whether you run into trouble or not, make sure your presence is known. I want Destructo to know he’s being attacked on multiple fronts.”

“What about you?” Bill asked. Milo could detect a hint of fear and confusion in Bill’s voice. They had discussed many different plans of attack, but Milo wasn’t following any of them. He was, for all intents and purposes, flying by the seat of his indestructible pants.

“I’m going to try and find a way in on the low down,” he explained. “If I can find a way to slip in undetected, especially while you two are raising hell, it’ll give me more time to search for Xander and maybe put a stop to this whole thing before things get out of hand. I know we’re short on time so I won’t search for more than five minutes before I join you guys. If I can’t find anything in that time, the only chance we have is full on assault.”

“I think I saw one of the upper windows open,” Cali offered. “That could be your way in. I’ll show you when we get closer.”

“Thanks,” Milo told her. “We don’t have much time left. Let’s get moving.”

 

Bill was facing, unequivocally, the most important moment of his life. The whole world was resting on his shoulders. He had always had a problem with nerves and courage in the past, but now that it was a do or die situation, he was chomping at the bit to get the show on the road. Bill had never been a particularly violent person, never prone to physical confrontation, but the idea of doling out an a*s whooping was more than appealing at the moment.

He didn’t think too much about how his powers worked, he just let them respond to his wishes which he found was a lot easier than he would have expected. With the slightest thought, the cool, comfortable metal slid over every inch of his skin, creating a shining cocoon of defense and strength. At one moment, a teenage boy named William Meyers was wandering through the dark, dangerous streets of Manhattan. At another, Cobalt was striding confidently toward the front entrance of the warehouse that held a madman with the ability to destroy the entire world with the press of a button.

Cobalt had expected some sort of perimeter defenses once he had gotten close enough, but nothing came. No alarms. No concealed turrets. No incapacitator fields. He simply walked directly up to the front door as if it was his home and he was expected. The thought sent a chill through Cobalt’s metallic body.

He wasn’t sure what his best course of action was. He could simply kick the door in, which wouldn’t be hard with his impressive strength. Instead, Cobalt did the most logical thing he could think of. He turned the doorknob. Much to his surprise, the door gave way under his subtle guiding.

“There’s got to be an easier way,” he whispered to himself.

Cobalt stepped cautiously into the darkness behind the door. His powers gave him an added boost of courage, but walking into the lion’s den was never wracking no matter how indestructible he was. Destructo was a world class Villain. In fact, he was the only Villain in the world. Captain Amazing had told them enough to know just how clever and devious he was. Cobalt knew that it was no coincidence or lapse in judgment that the door was unlocked.

Once he was fully inside, Cobalt slammed the door as hard as he could. It slammed through the jamb, hinges tearing apart, and skipped into the street. Milo had asked him to create a distraction, but he may have overdone it just a little.

The only light in the building was street light pouring in from the gaping hole in the wall where the door had been moments before. Cobalt’s shadow stretched out in front of him and blended into the darkness.

“Hello?” he said loudly to the darkness.

Instantly, a single over head light came to life. Below it stood a single robot standing at attention. His arms and legs were thin and didn’t look as if they could support his thick barrel of a torso. Two glowing foggy glass lenses burned with life as the robot regarded Cobalt with the kind of apathy only a robot can produce.

“Welcome, Hero,” the robot said in a sophisticated British accent. “I am called Number 1. My master, Czar Destructo, has been expecting you. He has asked that you please remain precisely where you are so that he may destroy you at his leisure.”

“And if I don’t?” asked Cobalt.

“Then I will be forced to restrain you.”

Cobalt balked at the obvious threat. He sized up the robot standing in front of him. He didn’t look sturdy enough to withstand a strong breeze, let alone a super powered strike. He was willing to take his chances. Besides, a fight was exactly what he was looking for. He took a confident step forward.

“I was hoping you would not comply,” Number 1 said. Without another word, the old, rickety robot began transforming. His mass and size grew rapidly at an exponential rate as additional armor plating appeared as if from nowhere to reinforce the diminutive form that had once been there. In only moments, the robot servant of Czar Destructo had grown several feet and made Cobalt look like David against Goliath.

“Whoa,” Cobalt said dumbly. “More than meets the eye.”

A panel in Number 1’s shoulder slid open and a machine gun turret emerged. Its laser sight trained instantly on Cobalt’s chest. Acting purely on instinct, he dove out of the way just as a hail of gun fire ripped through the air where he had been standing. Cobalt may have been bulletproof, but it didn’t mean it didn’t sting something fierce when he got shot. He turned the dive into a roll and sprung to his feet as bullets nipped at his heels.

Milo asked for a distraction, Cobalt thought as he ducked behind a metal container big enough to fit a pickup truck inside, he’s sure as heck getting one. This thing is going to distract everyone in five block radius. Time to shut it up. He jabbed his fingers through the steel of the container and hefted the massive crate over his head. He winced as bullets ricocheted wildly off his now exposed, stationary body.

Cobalt slammed the container down as hard as he could onto the top of Number 1’s head. The force drove the massive robot into the ground and crushed the container like a tin can. Number 1 was not, however, beaten that easily. The massive attack robot shucked the metal container away like an old blanket and sent a giant fist smashing into Cobalt’s chest. The Hero was lifted off his feet by the force and sent flying back into a steel girder. The beam nearly buckled from the impact.

He brushed himself off and stood, more annoyed than anything else. He heard the sound of gun fire coming from somewhere else in the warehouse and knew that Calliope had to be inside now as well.

“Okay, big boy,” Cobalt said to the intimidating form of the robot in front of him. “You want to play rough? Well, daddy can play rough.”

Cobalt charged at Number 1 with a furious speed. The robot answered by sending a trio of miniature missile fire in his direction. Cobalt managed to dodge two of the speeding rockets, but the third made solid contact with his right arm and sent him spinning. Before he hit the ground, Number 1’s enormous foot planted into his chest and drove him into the ground hard. Dust exploded from the floor as the cement was turned to dust under him.

Number 1 lifted his foot to survey the damage, but Cobalt wasn’t there. The Hero had locked his arms around the robot’s foot and had used the boost to gain his footing under the robot. He swung into Number 1’s left leg with all his strength and the robot’s foot shot out from under him. The colossal figure came crashing to the ground, and Cobalt wasted no time taking advantage. He jumped onto Number 1’s lower torso and destroyed any weapon that emerged as he made his way up the robot’s body.

“Hey there,” he said jovially into the enormous face of Destructo’s metallic servant. He followed his words with a powerful right hook that nearly tore the robot’s head off its shoulders. The life light behind the foggy lenses slowly faded away.

“Dead already?” Cobalt joked.

Faster than he could react, the light came back in Number 1’s eyes, but it was a deadly shade of red. Much like Milo’s own optic blasts, a brilliant beam of red light erupted from Number 1’s eyes and connected with Cobalt’s chest. It threw him into the air where he pinballed off three differed support beams before crashing back to the ground.

“That one hurt a little,” Cobalt said in pain as he pulled himself up.

Number 1 had crossed the room while Cobalt was recovering and now stood only feet from the Hero. He held out his massive right arm with the palm out. A circular compartment irised open and Cobalt could see the fire of a flamethrower burning inside. With all the strength he could muster, Cobalt clamped his around Number 1’s hand and squeezed. With some strain, the robot’s hand crumpled like a sheet of paper with a sickening crunch.

Taking advantage of the big robot’s surprise, Cobalt used his considerable strength to rip Number 1’s right arm out of its socket. The robot’s body squealed from the catastrophic damage. Number 1 moved to retaliate, but Cobalt didn’t let him. He swung the severed arm like a baseball bat and knocked his opponent off balance. Another swing sent the robot spilling face first onto the floor. Cobalt adjusted his grip on the arm and staked it into the center of Number 1’s back. The enormous robot struggled briefly and then lay motionless.

That was when the ceiling exploded.

 

Marvelous Maiden had found a lot of enjoyment in handing those goons their butts back in Cleveland. There was just something gratifying about knowing innocent people were protected because of her. All the concern she had faced about her Villainous family tree had dissolved that day when they had all escaped the building through the sewer. She went into the building a scared teenage girl who was just following her friend more than anything. She emerged from the building a bona fide Heroine.

She had yet to mention anything to her parents. At this point, it didn’t matter much since the world was less than an hour away from being sent back into the stone ages and essentially tearing itself apart in the process. Being honest with your parents kind of took a back seat to something like that.

Maiden had made her way to the back entrance of the warehouse after pointing out the open window to Milo. She knew she had to wait for Bill to get things started, but she was a little anxious to join the fray. Only a few minutes passed waiting by the back entrance of the warehouse before the sound of machine gun fire cut through the relatively quite night. She immediately began to count in her head. Once she reached three minutes, Maiden grabbed the door by the handle and ripped it off its hinges as easily as if she was ripping a piece of paper out of a notebook.

There was such a commotion inside the warehouse that the door flying off its hinges didn’t even register on the henchers inside. Maiden stepped into the room as all the hired guns scrambled around trying to gear up for a fight. She stood and watched them for nearly a full minute before she decided to act.

“Am I interrupting something?” she asked in a normal voice that seemed to carry through the whole room. Only the henchers near the back of the room didn’t immediately stop and turn to her.

She didn’t wait for a reply. Turning to the hencher closest to her, Maiden slammed a fist into his chest which sent him crashing into the men behind him. She was able to subdue three more henchers before one was able to gather his wits and open fire on her with the weapon that was next to his bed. Much to his dismay, the bullets bounced harmlessly off of her.

There were a lot more henchers in the small room than there appeared to be. They just seemed to come from the woodwork. Every time Marvelous Maiden took one hencher down, two more took his place. Even so, she barely broke a sweat as her fists rained down glorious justice on hencher after hencher. Much like the video games Milo and Bill were so fond of, her opponents seemed to get more difficult to deal with as she progressed into the warehouse. She had caught the first group off guard, so they fell easily. Once the other henchers were aware of the breach, they started opposing her wearing better armor and bearing much stronger weapons. The final group of henchers were each piloting a battle exoskeleton which could pack quite a punch.

They were, in the end, only men. And, which she was just a teenage girl, she was an indestructible, super-powered teenage girl. She made quick work of the five battle ready men, rending their exoskeletons practically useless.

Brushing the one loose strand of blond hair back from her face, Marvelous Maiden stepped over a downed hencher to the door she knew led to Destructo. The men in their exoskeletons wouldn’t have been protecting it so fiercely had their leader not been cowering behind it.

She kicked open the door just as the ceiling exploded.

 

The bad news was that the open window Calliope had mentioned was near the top of the building, at least twenty feet above ground. The good news, Pulsar knew, was that a pile of long forgotten cable spools had been stacked next to the warehouse and created a perfect makeshift ladder that would let him climb directly to the opening. It occurred to Pulsar that the whole thing was an incredibly huge security breach which meant it was probably not a coincidence but a trap. Whether it was or not, he really didn’t have many other options.

Pulsar began climbing up the giant spools as quickly and quietly as he could. Climbing was treacherous in spots as the wood of some of the spools had rotted and would give way with even the slightest weight being born down on it. By the time Pulsar had reached the top of the pile, the sound of machine gun fire and explosions were clear from inside the building. He knew he didn’t have a lot of time before he had to give up on his search for a quick and easy resolution and join the battle.

Pulsar emerged through the open window onto a floor that resembled a normal office building. The floor was covered in a thin, scratchy carpet and the walls were painted a disturbing shade of ecru. A corridor ran parallel with the windows and another stretched out directly in front of Pulsar. The walls were broken only by an identical door at regular intervals in every direction. Instead of having a very limited number of places to search for Xander or Destructo, Pulsar now had potentially hundreds of doors to open which would no doubt be completely fruitless.

Acting on a gut feeling, Pulsar set off down the hall to his right, but didn’t bother opening any of the doors on the way. He had made a quick decision to give up on looking for Xander and immediately join the fight. Not wasting his time with pointless searching to give them more time to bring Destructo down was the only logical solution he could see now that he was inside.

Pulsar rounded a corner into another corridor identical to the one he had just been in and stopped in his tracks. Standing in the middle of the hall was a young woman in a skin tight leather jumpsuit that was unzipped provocatively. The top part of her face was covered by a masquerade mask covered in black feathers. He had never met the woman before, but Pulsar recognized the mask and short chestnut hair that had flooded the news over the last few weeks.

“I’d really prefer it,” Pulsar said to her, “if you didn’t put up a fight. I’ve got a madman to stop.”

“Well, you see, that’s the problem,” she answered him, taking a few steps towards him. “I’d really rather prefer it if you didn’t stop him.”

“Do you have any idea what will happen to the entire world if Destructo’s plans go through?” demanded Pulsar.

She shrugged. “I don’t think it’s going to happen quite like you think.”

“What’s your name?”

She stepped closer. They were no more than an arm’s length away from each other.

“You can call me Raven,” she said.

Pulsar held his hand out for Raven to shake. “You can help us put a stop to this insanity. What do you say?”

Much to Pulsar’s surprise, Raven took his hand. Instead of shaking it, though, she spun and twisted his arm painfully behind his back. Pulsar could feel her lips on the back of his right ear.

“I think I’ll say,” she whispered, “stuff it, Hero.”

With a flourish, Raven twisted Pulsar out away from her and landed a solid kick square into his chest. The impact knocked him off balance and sent him tumbling to the floor. He rolled completely over and clamored to his feet.

“Oh, not cool,” Pulsar said, dusting himself off.

He locked his eyes on Rave and let a beam of emerald light burst in her direction. She was too fast. Raven rolled under the optic blast and sent another kick this time aiming at Pulsar’s head. It was only his super-powered reaction time that allowed him to dodge the kick just in time. Before he could recover, Raven was assaulting him with a barrage of open handed chops. Her hands hit like a hammer, but the pain was only temporary, his Hero gene quickly quelling the pain to nothing.

Pulsar hadn’t had much hand-to-hand combat training so there was little he could do to go on the offensive against Raven. His only method of defense was to do his best to block Raven’s expert strikes while he moved backwards and found a way to neutralize his opponent. The problem was, since he couldn’t exactly see where he was going, he was being guided more by Raven than going where he wanted. She could have been moving him into a much more dangerous situation than dealing with just her. He would have to end the fight quickly before things got out of hand.

Pulsar had backed far enough down the corridor to come into contact with another wall which put his back to it. Out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of a fire extinguisher and he instantly knew it was his only chance to turn the tide of the battle. He lunged forward and threw his shoulder into Raven. Taken off guard by the wild action, she was knocked onto her butt, shaken. In the blink of an eye, Pulsar snatched the extinguisher from the wall, pulled the pin, and turned back to Raven who was standing back up and getting ready for another assault. Pulsar squeezed the trigger and a cloud of chemical smoke erupted in Raven’s face.

She backed away sputtering and choking. It was all the opportunity Pulsar needed. He unleashed an optic blast that slammed into her chest and sent her skipping down the corridor they had just come down. Her body bounced to a stop and remained motionless. Pulsar could just make out the slight rise and fall of her chest so he knew she was still alive, but unconscious.

He left Raven behind and found a stairwell that took him down to the bottom floor. The sounds of combat had grown louder as he descended closer to the action. Pulsar pushed through a door at the bottom of the stairwell and came out into a massive open room. On one side of the room Cobalt was on top of a gigantic robot, jamming the bot’s own arm through its chest. On the other side of the room, Marvelous Maiden appeared to have just entered as well. She was looking around as if to find someone to punch or something to break.

Before Pulsar could call out to either of them, the ceiling exploded inward, steel and wood raining down into the warehouse. Pulsar and Marvelous Maiden threw their hands up out of instinct to protect themselves. Cobalt was too busy with his opponent to bother with his own safety. The sound of crashing metal filled the room, echoing off the bare metal walls. The cacophony seemed to last forever as it tore through Pulsar’s ears and reverberated in his skull. As the noise died down, he lowered his hands to see something he did not expect.

Captain Amazing was standing confidently in the middle of the room, a maniacal grin stretched across his face.

“Still got it,” he said, winking at Pulsar.