M&M Episode 6: Interlude, with Monster-Auditions 2
This one's short, because it was one big fight against the monster
Interlude, with Monster (Auditions 2)
That's big, thought Izzy as she flew nearer to the monster. Both arms and the head were out of the ground now, and half of the train tracks across the industrial landscape had snapped like guitar wires. They had already emptied the train and were going to put people on it, but the train would have to back up.
How long does it take a train to stop? Two kilometers? Three? So if they back up fast and there's another train coming in already slowing down because this is a Just In Tine facility…boom.
She could see two security guards, both elderly. The tall moustached one was getting people on the boxcar-it had held something like electronic components-The stocky one was bravely about to fire his pistol at the monster.
Bet it has no effect, she thought.
Huitzil had suggested she go ahead and start distracting the monster so people could get clear, but she wasn't sure that was the best thing she could do. The train couldn't back up safely, and everyone on it could be hurt. No, the car was almost full now, and the other two cars were filling fast, and with a minimum of jostling. The sight of the monster coming from the ground probably didn't hurt, or the digging talons, each as long as a limo.
"You and you!" she called. "Uncouple the car. I'm going to carry it." She swooped down, hoisted the car easily, and took off with it.
* * *
Huitzil arrived in time to see Izzy-er, Canadian Lass-flying off with a railway boxcar, so presumably Izzy had some plan… Huitzil wanted Ninety-Nine Percent there to re-establish their mental link, so everyone could "talk" again.
The monster's thighs were still in the ground. Huitzil decided not to wait. This might just be a confused calf-monster separated from its monster mother instead of a rampaging beast of destruction, but why take chances?
Also, the glowing sigil on its chest indicated that someone owned it. Or that was its name. Huitzil didn't recognize the sigil.
Cock arm and-
It was like slapping an office building: the monster never noticed.
I could ram its eye and it wouldn't blink.
A bullet from a security guard's pistol whistled past. "Hey!"
"Sorry!" he called. "Trying to get the eyes. Vulnerable."
It tunnels through rock; I'm not sure the eyes are any more vulnerable. But Huitzil moved to the non-city side. Best to lure the monster off in the less-populated direction.
Huitzil's next blow might have had less effect. Great. That probably made it stronger. %Ninety-Nine? Your turn.%
%On it.% Ninety-Nine Percent had a clear view of the monster, now. Humanoid, check. Fifty feet tall, check. Knee deep in land as it crawls out, check. Glowing sigil on its chest. Check. I'll bet that's our boy. She cast about for the monster's mind-
-and found it too slippery. %Too alien,% she said. Or three days practice isn't enough. Nah, too alien. Probably has two brains, like a sauropod.
Volt gunned the engine and swept around the monster in a wide circle. There was a way of changing the taser so it was like an electrical straitjacket, and he used that. It held the beast in place-
-and then the beast shrugged, shattering the ionized paths that held the electricity. It swatted at Huitzil, missed, and knocked over a locomotive, sending the thing flying to the edge of the island.
%Great technique,% said Huitzil. %Can you immobilize it after it moves so we can take advantage?%
Izzy came back and saw that the second railway car was full, but the security guards were still there.
"Jack," she said, reading the man's name tag, "Get on the train."
"It's our job to stay and protect the place."
"For me?" She did her best to look cute and appealing.
Jack melted under the onslaught of cuteness. "Well...when everyone else is out."
"Great. Go stand by the third car, there." She lifted the second car.
Huitzil looked at the thing stepping out of the hole and dive-bombed its foot, tripping it and sending it sprawling into one of the factory buildings. There was a huge crash as the center part of the building collapsed, and a cloud of dust. Concrete shattered, wires hissed, and the area was invisible for a moment.
The monster punched the ground, making the island shake. None of the heroes were affected-they were in the air-but all of the bystanders were knocked down, unable to keep their feet, and the force of the thing's punch was enough to knock them unconscious.
%Well,% said Volt.%That's bad.% He wove the taser snare again. The beast was immobile and prone, so both Izzy and Huitzil dove to attack.
%It's the dim humanoid shape in the dust, right?% said Izzy.
%Just hit!% thought Huitzil.
As near as they could tell, their blows had no effect. In the distance, they heard screams and the sound of thudding metal as the shockwave propogated down the railway track and derailed a train.
%We should help,% said Huitzil.
%We're kind of busy,% said Izzy. %Have to be emergency services' job. Hit it again!%
Volt saw the monster shatter his taser snare again, and managed to get the hoverbike between him and the enormous paw before it hit, sending him tumbling through the air toward the border. Fortunately his seatbelt kept him with the bike, which hissed and spat as parts gave up under the tremendous force.
%I can't go to Canada!% he screamed. The hoverbike slowly settled to the ground. It wasn't going to rise again. Volt got off, slightly shaken.
%I can't seem to get hold of its mind, like it's being mentally controlled, or something,% said Ninety-Nine. %Maybe if I can make it more vulnerable to mental attacks-%
%Will that help?% asked Izzy.
%Can't hurt,% said Ninety-Nine.
"What if we hit it at once?" asked Huitzil, out loud.
"If it hits us, it'll squash us," said Izzy.
"Do we have any other choice?"
%Let's do it,% thought Izzy. %Huitzil, on your signal.%
The thing shrugged off the taser snare again and lurched to its feet, but mindful of his teammates, Volt wove the snare back up.
At Huitzil's signal, both drove hard into the prone monster, hitting it so hard that they knocked the beast over, all hundreds of tons of it. Its eyes rolled up and closed.
The monster fell, as if in slow motion, onto the other manufacturing building, which supported its weight for a quarter of a second, and then collapsed with the sound of thunder, sending another cloud of dust into the air.
When they could hear again (predictably, Huitzil was first), they heard the sound of one person clapping.
A middle-aged woman stood there beside a yellow SUV, clapping. She had an oxygen tank in her car, and a tube ran to her nose. Other than that, she looked healthy.
"Good job!" she said. "Atlanteans will know better next time, though."
"Who are you?" asked Izzy. "And are you sure it was Atlanteans?"
"Sigil is Atlantean. I don't read it, but I can recognize that." The sigil on the thing's chest was fading. "Grace Kitteen. Formerly Bastion. Came to see the new team, maybe lend a hand if I could. You don't follow through quite enough. Takes power away when you need it."
"And it was under some kind of mental control," said Ninety-Nine. "I could sense that much. Mystic, of some kind."
Grace nodded. "That sounds Atlantean."
"What do we do about this thing?" asked Huitzil.
"No idea," Grace said. "We dealt with mostly killer robots, psychopaths, vampire cabals, and regenerating fiends from the future. It was the times."
"But I might know someone who does know," said Ninety-Nine. "Hold tight." She gunned the hoverbike and headed toward the city.
Izzy said, "You were a member of the last Sentries?"
"That I was. Me and Roy the only ones left in town."
"Can you show me how I should be punching?" asked Izzy.
"Sure, as long as it doesn't take me away from the soup kitchen work. Roy's got a chunk of land he never uses any more, we can use that. I got the keys."
"What do we do with the monster?" asked Volt.
"Just a second," said Huitzil. She called Palmer and asked.
"FEMA," he said. "Once the governor declares a state of emergency for the area."
"Has the governor?"
"Well, not yet. The mayor is probably trying to get through to him right now."
"What do we do with it in the meantime?"
"Well, I have some PDFs they provide-let's see, natural disaster, nuclear attack, here it is, giant monster. You want me to send it to your phone?"
"Please," said Huitzil.
"What about the other train?" asked Volt. "We can't leave the monster here."
"We're the only ones who can handle it," said Izzy.
"Oh, I remember these talks," said Grace.
* * *
Once she was out of sight of the others, Ninety-Nine called home. Her father answered. "Who do we know who reads Atlantean?"
He didn't ask why; he just said, "Know people? Nobody, I think. We mostly steered clear of the mystic types. Oh, we know of someone. Koschei the Deathless."
"The mobster?"
"No, the original. But he won't talk to you unless you have the Serendipitous Ruby, and that's in a vault that the Confederacy of Justice keeps."
"Great," said Ninety-Nine.
"Had a plan once to steal some of their tech-if was for your mother; her birthday was coming up and she always liked some of their stuff-let me see if I have it around still. If you can get in, I still have a duplicate. Signature won't fool Koschei or I'd suggest you give that to him."
"Thanks, but no thanks. I guess I'll head back."
* * *
"This PDF has a number for FEMA," said Huitzil, and called.
A bored-sounding man answered. "Nature of the emergency?"
"Giant monster. About fifty feet tall."
"Radioactive or toxic? Breath ray?"
"I don't think so. It burrows."
"What we normally do with those is, we airlift them and drop them in the Marianas Trench. Unless they're aquatic. Is it aquatic?"
"I think so."
"Then what you want to do is get a hundred repulsors, fasten them, and lift the thing into low earth orbit."
"Won't that kill it?"
The man chuckled bitterly. "Oh, no. Those things never die. They might look like they're dead, but they never die."
"We don’t have repulsors like that."
"Well, we got some Sikorsky models we can… Is there an official request yet? Okay. Well. Unofficially, what we can do is send some up for maintenance. If they have to move the giant monster to land, well-"
"Can you do that?"
"You want to wait until the governor manages to declare a state of emergency?"
Huitzil said, "Good point. Tell them to home in on this phone."
The monster's eyes flickered open.
"Oh, god," said Ninety-Nine. "Places!"
But instead the monster rolled over and began digging. Soon it was gone, with only a layer of disturbed earth and wrecked buildings and train tracks to show it had been there.
"I gotta get back to the soup kitchen," said Grace. "I'll phone you, we'll set up a time."
"Thanks," said Izzy.
They were waving goodbye when Ninety-Nine returned. "How'd you get rid of it?"
"We're that good," said Izzy.
The radio on Ninety-Nine's hoverbike came to life. "Agent Gonzalez here. How you doing with that monster?"
Huitzil flew over. "All done. Another problem dealt with."
Volt muttered, "Delayed is more like it."
"Good. Because you know all those Stormers we've been locking up at our facility? We're under attack. Somebody's trying to break them out."
"On our way," said Izzy.
"Does it ever let up?" asked Volt as he mounted to sit behind Ninety-Nine.
"No," said Huitzil. "They don't want us to make lasting social change with our powers, so they keep us busy with threats like this."
"Who?" asked Ninety-Nine. "The bankers?"
"The establishment," said Huitzil. "The man."
"It's also the day we're presented to the public," said Ninety-Nine. "Every group that wants to make a name for themselves is going to do something today to show us up."
"Staged arrival or all together?" asked Izzy.
"You go ahead and scout," said Ninety-Nine. "If I'm right, there'll be more of these today."
Previous session Next session Posted on DreamWidth at http://doc-lemming.dreamwidth.org/196933.html. Try this link to reply over there.