Issue 20: Demi Dust Up
The Golden Bulleteer vs the Red Men! Can the daring Mavericks prevent the flood?!—In the News, Demi headlines on Earth!
She’s testing us. Trying to find out what kind of limits we have. Many thugs don’t last more than 20 mins with Red Haze in their veins but they have numbers. We have to stop this. Sooner the better.—Blue Blaze
I gained more from getting “captured” than the enemies ever realized. I am still thankful that Ritark joined me. He didn’t have to talk. Just knowing he was there bolstered me in ways I never realized. –Lorain Lanis
I could see it on everyone’s faces when I got back. They expected a reaction. I gave them one. Most don’t realize what they have until it's gone. Possibly forever.—Sleeping in Starlight, a memoir of the 23rd century (vol 2)
Raven Stadium
Downtown New Ashbury
T-Minus 20 Days
Blue Blaze aimed a kick to the thug’s midsection. It sent the gorilla-sized lackey flying to the 30-yard mark on the field. The players and audience had already been evacuated but Blaze’s H.U.D lit up with alerts. Some civilians were trapped in the access tunnels. Vines shot out as White Lily whipped another two Red Haze users around. The green ropes tightening. Balls of metal few past. Golden Bulleteer shouted, “Get the civvies out of here. We will handle this!” A giant hand burst from the earth.
A woman made of clay warbled, “Such power! Selfish demis!”
Blaze pivoted. Dashing in circles around her. Lifting the woman into the air. Cutting her off from the fresh earth. Bulleteer encased her within a metal sphere. “GO!”
Zach dashed into the depths of the stadium. Hearing the panicked cries.
A woman exclaimed, “Let go of my baby!”
Time slowed. He saw the man with the gun. His hand shot out. Pulling the pistol from nerveless fingers. Using a paralyzing agent from his utility belt. His grandmother had bestowed quite a bit of chemical properties into his arsenal. The man fell backward.
Unconcious.
He guided the women and children out. The men fanning out to watch their backs.
One off-duty NAPD detective getting the rest of his division on the coms.
Blue Blaze’s hands were a whirlwind. Knocking back the Red Haze users. These had spent their boost early. Bodies thudded on the ground. The detective soon ran out of restraints. Footfalls sounded near the emergency exit. Paxton hollered, “Secure this wing. Keep going! Blaze! With me!”
*****
White Lily dived to the ground as the crazed user thundered overhead. Using wind and fire powers to glide around the stadium. A metallic shield popped up over her as another geyser of flames poured over her. A rumble of water knocked the man out of the sky as Tidalwave chanted. His sword glowing within his scabbard. His black and blue Haori jacket was in tatters. He removed it with one smooth motion. His arms and chest were covered in tattoos. Writhing blue dragons. They roared as they rose from his body. Colliding with the fire user. Tidalwave unsheathed his sword and leaped.
The blade shimmered. Flowing through the thug. Encasing him in water. The last of his flames going out. He screamed. The wind sheer knocking Tidalwave back. A blur of white and blue circled. Creating a counter current.
Golden Bulleteer joined in.
Paxon linked in over the hurricane-force winds. Using the magnetic energy of his boots to position himself just inside the team entrance. <<Get ready to launch the counter agent over the stadium!>>
They owed Doctor Impossible on that one.
Paxton prayed that she’d survive her next assignment.
White mist formed over the building. Awaiting release.
Bulleteer and Blaze struck simultaneously.
One going for the mad man’s head while the other hit his chest. The wind died. The mist falling like snow. Distant thuds hit the duracrete as Red Haze users fell to the Earth. Sir Avalon softened the landings via magic. With the help of J’dax and his fellow Typherians, they also altered the makeup of the duracrete. Just enough that most would only wake with a splitting headache. Avalon crossed his arms as one female miscreant shouted, “WE DESERVE THESE POWERS!”
Dr. Zanzibar remarked, “If you have to say it you don’t need it or have the capacity to command it.”
She screeched as the grav chains pulled her towards the NAPD Transport.
O’rioh pointed, “Who ordered a sandstorm?”
*****
Renenutet chose this spot so she could use some of the instruments left behind by Chronos and his lackeys. So it mattered not if it was discovered. It had just enough materials left behind to activate the blood sigils. This would be no ordinary storm. Even better, that familiar echo rippled through the atmosphere. The Golden Redeemers had entered the fray. She made sure to activate the additional Keeper scout probes. It was remarkable that this hidey-hole was so close to the city of New Ashbury. It was 100 miles north of it.
It would be delicious to taste her enemies through the blood sand. If only a little.
She formed two giant fists. Then snarled as two blazing green eyes stared back at her.
The girl was resisting her.
That would not do. She pushed against the other woman. Lanis had not developed her powers the same way yet she found a rock to resist the sorceress. Flesh fell away from Renenutet’s body. Her true form emerging from the stolen lifeforce.
“Foolish girl.”
The White could repel the blood storm for a while. Yet it couldn’t prevent her other gifts.
She threw 5 figurines into the sand before her feet.
They sunk into the earth. Pools of crimson floating upward to stain the ground.
*****
Arthon’s suit closed in. Sealing all outer layers to the incoming sandstorm.
//Foreign material detected. Biohazard Protocols initiated.// His white, gold, and blue Lightbearer uniform had been upgraded since their early days. Incorporating Earth Light Shaman thread weaving with Muthra tech levels. Yet he could see Lanis waving frantically. They landed. Eliza’s white defender armor snapping into place.
A shimmering shield of white, green, and yellow expanded outward to envelop the city itself. Eliza sat on the rooftop. “Go, I’ll keep the shield up.” Arthon waved the rest forward. Emerald K-9 paced around Eliza, <<But who will watch you?>>
Dexter landed next to the Bardaxian, “I will. Get going. Doc and Arthon are going to need you. The Puzzler already caught a clue.” Eddie’s voice crackled over the coms, <<Right you are Mr. Grim!>> Dexter maneuvered to stand behind his sister. His white, black, and gold Dawnbreaker suit etched with the Twin suns of Typha. <<I’m a Redeemer too. Just happen to be the alternate quarterback!>>
Puzzler grinned, <<Let’s go earn our paychecks then!>>
He spotted a blue streak.
The remaining Redeemers joined the Blue Blaze just as five red skeletal tigers jumped from the alleyway of a banking building. Their pearly white fangs bared. The eyes were hollowed out. Glowing a faint amber. Doctor Impossible shouted, “I know you are here. You won’t feast on any more innocents today!” Blaze dodged a wide swipe of a blackened claw.
He warned the others.
“Poison!”
A droning buzz rumbled through Blaze’s chest as a high-end energy projectile knocked the creature back. J’dax snapped, >>Jump!<<
Blaze bounded skyward. Using his metal manipulation to cling to the side of the building. Below more shots peppered the decrepit tigers. Their limbs disappearing. Then red sand swarmed over the ground. They continued to advance. Limbs snapping into place with horrific force. Behind them, a woman walked.
Blood pouring from the soles of her feet.
Renenutet’s proxy howled, “Flesh and bone. By blood, I command all! The Golden City cannot protect you!” Half of her face disappeared as J’dax’s shots rang out. White Lily crouched beside Tidalwave. She said, “There’s a plant fiber mixed into all that blood.”
She linked to her grandson, <<You sense it too right?!>>
Blue Blaze wanted to puke. The copper tang rotted within his nostrils but he replied, <<Yes, but it doesn’t grow naturally on Earth. Its Litari. Moonlily.>>
Lily gasped as Bulleteer pulled her back. Red sand stabbing into the wall where her shoulder had been. Tidalwave’s sword forming a wall of water that pushed the remaining red sludge back. Renenutet snarled, “The White Defender has no power here. Not without the Black to back her!” The mummy raised her arms. The Sheriff materialized behind her. His pale ghostly skin glowing with runes. His ax was a whirling slab of heat.
“Come out and play Robin!”
He thudded the massive shaft against the duracrete.
The Egyptian fiend recoiled as a wave of golden hammers stuck her head and midsection. Doc made a tugging motion and Renenutet gagged. Holding her hands to her throat. Lanis commanded, “Be silent!”
*****
High above Earth orbit, Q’vera called out to other Defenders. She added the power of the Red to Eliza’s shield. >>J’dax, what is going on down there!?<<
While the White held, she noticed that the shield now encompassed Earth. Highmaker’s probes from Illarium joined her.
<<Saturn stirs! We cannot let him awaken!>>
The void filled with Defenders from all across the sector.
Gulliver and Trouble among them. The little white duck quacked, <<The strongest of each Defender must add to Eliza’s shield. QUICKLY NOW!>>
B’karis drained his belt to the breaking point. >>Get ready Scion!<<
Others followed suit. Only keeping enough energy to survive the void of space.
*****
The combined power of all the belt types hit me like a sledgehammer.
Red, Blue, Green, Orange, Omega, Yellow, and a very thin thread from Black. Infinitesimal but he regulated the flow through my body. My heart lurched in my chest. The Weave layer around the Earth ate away at the bits of the Mummy’s sand. The dark mirror pulled her into the Abyss. That had cost them dearly. Yet as it shattered I felt the echo of another mirror.
Unity’s lackeys still had a way onto my homeworld.
My nose bled.
Hilary Brookes gave me a mocking salute as I crashed to the ground. Just a handful of yards from the Mummy. Its putrid scent imprinted upon my memory.
*****
The Sorceress of Amu’rak screamed as her proxies died. Then blinked as a cold-eyed woman stared down at her. “Great. Now I have one less trap door.” The woman had plain dark brown eyes. Her black hair was shaved on one side. Renenutet inhaled the unusual odor. The woman aimed a long tube at her. Shielding knocked the mummy’s life force feelers back.
The woman wasn’t entirely human. Renenutet screamed as the glass cut her off from all sensation. “You have no right….” The beastly thing of Chronos laughed.
“I just saved your skin. With the might of the entire spectrum of the Defender Corp behind her, that damned Banner would have sent you packing to your original universe. But we need you. The All-Father needs you. To take Lanis’ place.”
Hilary didn’t care what would happen to the mummy.
She only cared that it would bring pain to Eliza Murphy.
Ice trickled over the container.
“Sweet dreams you dried up meat sack.”
*****
Dexter bent down. Taking the shard of the dark mirror. Black’s tendrils preserving it.
The power of the Defenders fled my body. Leaving only White. A warm wind hit my face and Queen Guinevere stepped through a shining portal. She held out her hand, “We must bring you back to the Waters of Avalon. Follow.”
My feet moved as if in a dream.
My brother’s voice echoed, “No red sand got in her system. Mummy didn’t have time….”
The cool waters of the mystical isle hit my face and the current carried me away.
Red sand. Red Haze. I murmured into my coms, <<It’s both.>>
Hands raised me from the water. Birdsong. The gentle sway of grass.
*****
Eliza’s shield had done its job.
Lorain Lanis sucked in a deep breath. “I got most of it. There are still some hotspots north of here.”
White Lily asked, “Part of it was based on Moonlily.”
Doc nodded. “Explains the reach then. Besides the Life Energy. Unwillingly given.” Lorain shuddered. She had known deep down that she could have gone the route of the Spinster. Sucking the life from the multiverse. The sheer depravity of it.
She hugged herself then said, “Get some inert samples. Ill take it to the C.A.P. labs to cross-examine.”
*****
Sister Nyx listened through the traffic coms. Via her dear slumberer friends. It took quite a few minutes to get all the snippets. She had to piggyback on Brooke’s asteroid. Using a back door she had placed there. The connection was haphazard at the best of times. She didn’t want the girl to notice. One observation rose to the forefront: The All-Father wanted Lanis! How interesting. The mummy had her uses.
Even if Medusa didn’t perceive it.
The Keeper turned as the All Mother’s voice rang out across Tarkanan.
“All Sectors report. Stand by for Warp.”
The Keeper’s fingers curled around a lock of J’ino’s hair.
She would force Lanis to grow more samples.
To make the next generation of Brood.
Issue 19: Here
Issue 21: Here
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