Galose
retracted his weapons back into his armor. “I am sorry for your plight. I wish
to help you on all fronts. But we must stop Maniac first.”
“How will
he destroy the planet?” Anubis asked.
“Maniac is
what we call a Genocider. He’s cruel and ruthless. First he will take great
pleasure toying with your people, killing them like a malicious child with
insects. When that bores him, he will make his way to the core of your world
and trigger a chain reaction. The officials of my world have declared Maniac
unfit for reprogramming. He is to be destroyed.”
“I’d call
that compelling enough. We’re going to have to stop Maniac. He’s now the
highest on our list of threats.” Sandstorm said. “Show us the way, Marshall
Galose.”
“Just
Galose is fine. I can transport all of us if you’ll put a hand on my armor.”
“Oh great;
more long distance teleportation. Can’t tell you how much I love doing that.”
Atomizer grumbled.
“You will
find my form of transport without the disorienting side effects.”
They all
put a hand on Galose with reservations on trust and vanished from the building
rooftop. Commander Larratus watched the whole thing from back near the rooftop
doorway.
“If it
isn’t one thing, it’s another.” He grumbled as he turned back inside. He
stomped his way down the stairs to return to his office.
As he
reached the door leading to his floor, someone grabbed him from behind and put
a dark hand over his mouth. Larratus struggled and shook off his attacker,
turning and putting his back to a wall. Everyone thought the Deformer was dead,
killed by Electrode back in the beginning of the conflict. The same time
Larratus realized that Deformer was very alive, he realized he had no mouth to
say anything about it. Deformer had used his power to mold living flesh and
sealed the Commander’s lips together. Commander Larratus pushed his way through
the stairwell door, looking for a way to defend himself. Deformer, almost as
fast as Electrode, darted in and shoved the man over a desk. Commander H.P.
Larratus lay on the floor unconscious, and lucky he could still breathe through
his nose.
Deformer
calmly walked away from Larratus and went through another door. As he came
around a corner he met with a secretary who started to scream at the sight of
him. She only managed half the sound of the first syllable before Deformer
crushed her face in. He left her a quivering heap on the floor. He decided to
perform a high speed search for his true target and found the Vagabond sitting
quietly in a cell.
“Took you
long enough.” Vagabond said with a smile.
Deformer
cocked his featureless head sideways and made no sound.
“I know you
were seriously damaged. Geez, get a sense of humor. Now let me out of here. We
have a lot of work to do.”
In his
search, Deformer killed four guards and took the keys from one of their bodies.
He released Vagabond from the inhibitors that held his cosmic energy powers in
check.
“Release
me.” The voice of Professor Zombie came from another cell. “I too have much
work to do.”
Vagabond
looked in on the Professor. “So, you aren’t a total vegetable after all. I
heard the Nyhtwulf creature warped your brain.”
“Merely
incapacitated me for a short time. I’m far more than what you see, Mr.
Vagabond. Now, if you please, we can all be out of here.”
“I’ll let
you out, but after that our business together is concluded. You’ll be on your
own, Professor. My partner and I have other plans.”
“That suits
me fine.”
The City of
Galveston, Texas lay in ruins beyond anything the heroes had seen so far. It
looked like the Tank armor, the Hearse, and three other artifacts all teamed up
on the poor town. Blast marks at the
scene were over a hundred feet wide. Cars were crushed like soda cans.
Buildings were knocked into each other worse than in old Japanese monster
movies. They couldn’t see a single structure that wasn’t broken or burning from
where they stood.
Atomizer
stood in a stupor, trying to form thoughts to words. It took him several
seconds. “Just how big did you say Maniac was?”
“40 feet by
your measurements.” Galose responded. “He was built to deal with large scale
threats and high troop numbers. Sadly, he wasn’t expected to become a high scale threat.”
“We have to
do something here.” Redeagle said. “There may be survivors.”
“I agree.”
Sandstorm said as looked at a broken ambulance.
“I am
picking up life signs, but we must move quickly. Maniac is walking toward the
next town as we stand here.”
They split into
partnered teams; Anubis with Nightfall, Blacktide with Nyhtwulf, Atomizer with
Redeagle, and Electrode with Sandstorm, while agreeing to meet back in a common
area after they saved as many people as they could.
“I am picking
up radio communications that suggests more help is coming as well as military.”
Galose said. “We can take long enough for them to arrive and still help many.”
No time was
wasted in seeking out the wounded and trapped. Anubis, Redeagle and Nyhtwulf had
the gift of being able to sense life nearby. Electrode could feel the electric
impulses in living bodies while Galose had advanced technology. Blacktide
removed threats like fallen power lines and leaking vehicles by disintegrating
them. For people trapped under tons of debris, Nyhtwulf phased through and
brought them out. Anubis and Nightfall found a group of children trapped in a
preschool with their teachers. Anubis pushed an entire side of the building up
and out of the way so Nightfall could lead them to safety. Redeagle used his
strength in similar form to allow Atomizer to reach the injured and pull them
from danger. In the short time until flashing lights could be seen and the
first fire engine arrived, they had already rescued over a hundred victims.
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