New Markets - 02 (61 page)

Arissa’s mental whip faded in seconds as she lost her focus and realized that it would hurt her dear friend.  She heard gunfire and Psystar fell across her, blood splattered her as the heroine was struck in her right side and knocked across Arissa.  She saw Spartan turning toward her and her golden haired love, and projected a mental thought to him to protect them from the gunman.  Spartan immediately turned and looked at the guard.

Hellshock crawled to his knees.  His chest felt like his sternum and every rib had been broken near the center of the chest.  Blood ran from his mouth and nose as he coughed.  The blast of light off to the east caught his attention, and he saw Firebane unleash a blast of energy at a man standing in spandex shorts.

Firebane’s blast struck the man in the torso, flames licked around his body and he stood looking down at them.  Sunspot smiled as he realized the hero couldn’t hurt him with his own fire.

Another burst from the machine gun struck Black Tiger as he slowly worked toward a standing position.  The shots knocked him backward off his feet, and blood splattered as the large caliber rounds ripped holes in his torso.

Spartan leapt at the gunman, tackling the surprised man.  They bounced to the ground and Spartan rolled to one knee.  He moved to punch the man, but noticed he was unconscious from the weight of a six hundred pound object as hard as metal momentarily crushing him to the ground.  He looked around to find any other threats to the women, but found none.

Firebane stared at Sunspot as he grinned at her.  From off to her right she saw the blue-white arc of a line of electricity strike Sunspot, causing the villain to seize up for a moment.  She realized that she still felt the distinct electrical energy in her from the bola, and as he slowly recovered from the shock she stepped forward, grabbed his shoulders and released all of the electricity she had absorbed a minute ago.

Hellshock watched her pour electricity through the villain, and launched a continuous, though weaker, line of lightning at her.  It flowed into her and out through her hands.  In a short time the villain crumpled to the floor unconscious.  He stopped blasting as soon as he saw the man fall.

Firebane jumped up with her hands in the air in celebration, and a pair of fiery blasts were unleashed from her hands into the air and through the ceiling of the warehouse.  She screamed, “Yeah!” until she noticed the continuous beams of fire and focused on stopping them until they cut out.  Hellshock shook his head and coughed.

Psystar listened to the thoughts of Arissa and Spartan.  Both were intent on protecting her at the moment.  She relaxed slightly against Arissa’s legs as she listened for other fighting.  She was pleased when she heard Firebane’s cheer of joy echo through the warehouse.

Black Tiger climbed to his feet again.  He watched Arissa and Spartan carefully, although Spartan stood strangely silent, merely looking around the area.  He gaze passed Black Tiger and barely recognized that he was even there.  The headache subsided slowly as he looked around the room.  Gatecrasher and Chrome lay off to the side, breathing but otherwise unmoving.  He didn’t see Hellshock or Firebane.

He looked again at Arissa and Psystar and asked, “Are we all right?”

Psystar turned her head toward him and opened her eyes.  “Yeah, we’re okay.  Go check on the others.”  She lay resting on Arissa, listening to the two former villains thoughts to ensure they remained safe to her.  She wasn’t sure if having fewer large machine gun wounds were any less painful than many smaller wounds from a submachine gun.

Black Tiger walked toward the southeast part of the warehouse, where he had seen the beams shoot toward the ceiling.  In a minute he approached Firebane where she stood over Sunspot’s body.  She looked at him and grinned.

“See that?  I got him!”

Black Tiger smelled blood from his right and saw Hellshock sitting against the wall of the office section.  The hero held up a thumb at Black Tiger.  Black Tiger nodded at him.  He stepped forward and grabbed Sunspot around the neck, his claws allowed him to wrap his hand most of the way around the man’s neck.

He looked at Firebane, “We need to free the supers.”

She asked, “Where are they?”

In the northwest corner.  I spotted them as I rushed a woman on their team.

He called out to Hellshock, “You going to make it?”

Hellshock nodded slightly and motioned for them to move on.

Black Tiger nodded, looked at Firebane and nodded toward the northeast, and then began walking in that direction, dragging the villain at his side.

Firebane asked, “You’re just going to drag him?”

“Can’t guarantee he won’t wake up soon, if I have him and he does I can stab him.”

“Uhh, okay.”  She walked up alongside the black-clad hero on the side opposite of where he dragged the villain.  “Are you okay?”  She stared at the gunshot wounds on his torso.

“I will be soon.”

“I didn’t realize that gunshots make you bleed from the ears.”

“They don’t.  I think it was their psionic, like Psystar.  It caused a hell of a migraine, still have a headache.”

Soon they arrived at the section of the warehouse hidden behind large stacks of pallets.  Two rows of the heavy duty beds, along with medical gear to keep the supers knocked out, stood in the area.  The area was empty of personnel.

The two heroes walked among the beds, unlocked each super and disengaged the gas and IV tubes from each of them.  Black Tiger stared at a gas mask.

“This might work to hold the kidnappers for a while.”

He unceremoniously dropped Sunspot onto an empty bed and attached one of the gas masks to him.

Firebane asked, “Now what?”

Black Tiger pulled out his H.E.R.O. phone and sent a text to Captain McCain.  Firebane noticed that he used the knuckle on his finger to tap and swipe on the phone while his two inch black claws extended from the end knuckle on each finger.

Black Tiger sighed, “I’m not sure what to do about Spartan and the woman, I’d rather not start another fight if they resist whatever ‘star’s doing to them.”

“No way to knock them out?”

Black Tiger’s eyes narrowed.  “Hmm, the paintgun might work.”  He left the area and took the guns from the two guards he brought down in the northeast corner.  “Yeah, plenty of balls left.”

He hooked one gun on his belt and carried the other with two hands back to the scene of the large combat.  Spartan still stood over the women, while Psystar and the black haired woman sat by each other’s side facing one another.

Black Tiger walked over by the two women and asked, “How are you two doing?”

Arissa said, “We’re fine now.”  Psystar nodded.  Spartan didn’t say anything, he simply continued keeping watch over them.

Black Tiger quickly aimed and shot Spartan in the face with the paintgun.  The pellets broke against his face, releasing the liquid and gas inside.  His eyes focused on Black Tiger for a moment and he took a step forward before dropping to his knees and falling to his side.

The women both looked from Spartan back to Black Tiger as he leveled the rifle at Arissa and launched the paint balls at her face as well.  In moments she slumped.  Psystar began to fall as well, and Black Tiger quickly grabbed her shoulder and pulled her away from the villainess.

He walked over to Chrome, rolled her over with his foot and shot her several times in the face as well.

He looked at Firebane, who had been following him, and asked, “Did you see any more villain supers?”

She shook her head, “Just the sun guy.”

“You want to bring Hellshock here?  I’d prefer to keep an eye on this bunch.”

She nodded and jogged toward the south end of the warehouse.  She returned momentarily, helping Hellshock along.

Shortly Black Tiger heard sirens outside.  Soon Captain McCain, a variety of police officers, and Agent Willman’s men were at the scene, along with a group of E.M.T.s.

Gatecrasher stirred before Black Tiger had covered the details of the fight to Captain McCain and Agent Willman.

Black Tiger finished his statement while watching the brick slowly sit up, “… so yeah, I have no idea which of the villains here were actual villains, or were coerced into it.  Obviously they have a way to control people, or Spartan wouldn’t have fought us.”

Agent Willman said, “Psystar would have been useful now.”

“Is Daphne awake yet?  That might tell us how quickly the paintballs wear off.”

“Not yet, but that was only thirty minutes ago.”

One the E.M.T.s asked, “How are we supposed to get him into an ambulance?  He’s got to weigh four or five hundred pounds?”

Black Tiger pointed his thumb at himself.  “I can, or Gatecrasher, or Captain McCain for sure.  Those we may want to leave for now.  Get the guards out for now.”

The man nodded, “The injured ones are already off.”

Gatecrasher shook his head a few times and slowly stood up.  He tore the remnants of his helmet off and held it in one hand.  He looked over at the group and said, “Good, we won.”  He wiped the blood off his lip and ears.  “Damn telepaths.”

Black Tiger nodded.

“Did we get the hostages?”

“Yeah.  They are free, but still unconscious.  I’m sure the gas or drugs will take a while to wear off.”

Gatecrasher looked at Captain McCain, “Their telepath got me, then the two bricks ganged up on me.”

Captain McCain said, “Why did you take on the telepath?”

“Didn’t mean to.  I was rushing the silver skinned woman.  The psychic had to be hiding and watching me charge her.”  He stretched a few times and used his huge hands to crack his neck in each direction.  “Jaw still hurts.”

“It’s still badly bruised.  They might have cracked your jaw.”

Gatecrasher nodded.  He pointed at Chrome, “She’s small for a brick, but she packs a wallop in that metal hand.”

The heroes continued making small talk until Psystar woke up a short time later.

Chapter 35 – Memories

Stephanie’s Viewpoint

I slowly woke up, feeling far more groggy than normal.  Mindviews appeared, but didn’t come into focus until my normal eyesight cleared up.

I looked around.  Rael was on one knee next to me, his hand on my back.  I smiled at him, I felt that he was happy to see me awake.  Captain McCain, Firebane, Agent Willman, Hellshock and Gatecrasher also stood in the area.

I asked, “Did you shoot me?”

He laughed, “No, I shot that chick you were with.  You were too close and inhaled some of the gas too.”

“Why did you do that?”

“I didn’t know how long you would keep them friendly, and would rather have them be unconscious than to be potentially hostile to us at some random time.”

I thought about it a moment, it made some sense.  My side still hurt, though not as bad as before.  I leaned over and looked – someone had cleaned off the wounds.  They felt worse than they looked, it would be a while longer for them to finish healing.

“So what’s the situation?”

“I had them wait for you to wake up.  I figured you might be able to give us an idea of what happened with Spartan and the others.”

“Sure.  Where is he?”