Project Northwoods (94 page)

“Hear that, Siren?” Athena asked. “We have ourselves some rogues.”

“How are we going to take care of that?” Thanatos inquired rhetorically.

“Like this!” shouted Siren. Two of the agents fell to their knees, covering their ears and screaming. Another two were blown backward, into the flaming wreckage of the helicopter, their shattered bodies falling limply to the ground as they wailed at the fires eating away at their flesh.

“
Heart…
” Zombress shouted as she summoned a sigil in the air. Immediately, she clasped her ears and grunted as Siren flicked her hand toward the villain, making the shimmering signs fade into nothingness. The remaining agents knelt and took aim at Siren, firing.

The bullets stopped and fell to the roof as Athena put up a telepathic wall. “Duck!” Mast shouted as the fallen rounds rose in the air and blasted off toward them. She hit the ground fast enough to dodge it, but her subordinates were not so lucky, catching the shrapnel at eye-level.

Zombress was recovering from Siren’s assault, a sneer spreading on her face. “You unbelievable trollop!” she shouted. Thanatos closed the distance between them and sent a fist smashing across her face. Zombress fell from the force of it, rolling up and into a crouch. Her face screamed at the touch, but she couldn’t resist the primal urge to leap forward and knock Thanatos to the rooftop with a body slam. She sprung up and onto her feet, running toward Siren when she was hit by a psychic shockwave and audio assault at the same time.

Mast rushed toward Athena, opening fire. The rounds slammed short of their target, but the distraction allowed Zombress to carry forward, toward Siren, only to be dragged down by Thanatos. Hands clasped around her neck, prompting Zombress to shout in agony as she drew a dimly flickering sign into the roof. “You’re mine, Queen of the Dead!” came the hoarsely whispered threat in her ear.

“
Starburst
!” Zombress roared. Immediately, the air around her flashed and burst in a white-hot display of phosphorescence. Thanatos was thrown off of her, and another ear-shattering blast smashed Zombress’s teeth together as she tried to rise.

The second Mast’s gun was out of ammo, Athena reared back and delivered a psychic blow to the agent’s mid-section, sending her flying backward as the two remaining members of her squad ran forward in an attempt to stop the SERAPHIM.

Ariana was trying to keep up with the ebb and flow of the onslaught, but the chaos of it all was making it too difficult. Stuck in the middle of the besieged heroes, all she could do was reinforce the bulwark of her side and push against them as they struggled to keep as many of their troops alive as they possibly could. Flashes of all different colors streaked into her vision, blinding in the variety and brilliance. A lot of it was bluster and adrenaline for all the lack of damage it was doing.

“Ariana!” Morgan shouted from close by.

“What?”

“We can help!” the hero shouted.

The Enforcer in front of her collapsed to the ground, nearly knocking Ariana over as she tripped up a step. She immediately offered an arm for support to prevent the man from getting trampled. “How?”

Morgan’s hand wrapped around Ariana’s free arm, grabbing her attention. The heroine pointed up, toward the Guild. Ariana thought her companion lost her mind until she realized exactly what Morgan was pointing at. For the first time in a long while, hope sparked inside her.

The four SERAPHIM posted at the door of the western entrance of the building went down quickly from Allison and Steven’s concentrated gunfire. Arthur rushed over their writhing forms and immediately went to the key panel, subconsciously adjusting the bulletproof vest he was forced to wear. “Losers would never have made it in my mob,” Allison mused as she kicked a downed mercenary.

“Mollie, we’re at the west entrance,” Arthur said, unconcerned with Allison’s appraisal of their foes

“Code is four, nine, zero, nine, seven,” Mollie sighed. “It relieves me to hear you are still alive.”

“Same here, Mol,” he muttered. He hit the buttons in sequence, and the door buzzed unlocked.

Steven stepped forward and pushed Arthur gently away as he grabbed the handle. Allison stepped through the doorway, gun up and at the ready. Arthur followed as Steven covered their movements. “The card maker is in the Security Office. It is all prepped and ready to go.”

The goon tapped his earpiece. “How’s the fight going, Mollie?” Steven asked.

A pause. “It is going… well… ish.”

Zombress knocked Thanatos off of her again, managed to carve a symbol in the air before one of the mercenary’s cohorts could defend her, and charged into the SERAPHIM. The sigil shattered as Zombress passed through it and she sped up catastrophically, smashing Thanatos through ventilation units, picking her up, and jumping into the air before slamming her on her back into the roof. Blood sprayed out of her victim’s mouth as Zombress sprung off the mercenary and flipped up and onto her feet. She quickly spun, brought her leg up, and swung it down, only to pulverize the rooftop as Thanatos rolled to her side and knees. The SERAPHIM bolted into her, picking Zombress up and throwing her downward.

Use me!
the voice inside her head hissed as Thanatos straddled her temporarily stunned chest.
Use me use me use me!

Thanatos brought her hands up and tried to plant them on Zombress’s face, the Queen of the Dead intercepting the movement with her own gloved hands. “I learned not to give you time to summon any of that bullshit artwork, oh exalted queen!”

Zombress flashed a smile. “You’re really getting off on this, aren’t you?” she choked.

“You have no fucking idea,” Thanatos whispered hoarsely.

Gunshots exploded near the SERAPHIM’s head, the bullets hitting an invisible wall much too close for comfort. Distracted, Thanatos’s hands slackened. “Sorry,” Zombress snapped, squeezing the mercenary’s hands hard enough to shatter the bones. As the woman screamed, Zombress’s legs snaked up and locked together around her opponent’s chest and squeezed, cutting off the sound with a gurgle. “But this is as close as you’ll get to being between my legs.” The villainess rolled over, pinning the wounded woman beneath her. Zombress latched onto Thanatos’s foot and stood, pulling the hero’s leg into the air.

Before she could rip Thanatos’s leg off, an air conditioning unit tore out of the rooftop and threw itself at her. She smirked and tossed the SERAPHIM at the flying object, deflecting it before she turned her attention to the others.

Zealot’s eyes flickered across the mass of fighting humanity, sparks of light raking across his sight. The guns only occasionally reported, their effectiveness limited by close quarters combat and the undesirables’ weapon of choice. On top of that, witnesses were now joining the fray, leaping toward the encircled rebels, knocking aside the white-suited defenders or falling to the same army. Despite the supposed chaos, he could see the numerically superior SERAPHIM forces maintaining rank, disciplined structure clashing against the Enforcer line. It was the influence of the costumed heroes which gave it a look of confusion.
It will only be a matter of time
…

The fountain erupted in a tidal wave, smashing into a column of SERAPHIM moments after turning a thick, oily black. Jets of steam gushed as the mercenaries disappeared beneath the water, screams of agony rising above the sounds of combat. His pulse quickened as more water sprayed upwards, coalesced into spears, and shot into the sky like mortars, raining down and pinning several of his men in place.

“Aquaria,” he said as a smile spread across his face. The girl would make an excellent prize for Arbiter. He strode toward the battle, reaching up to his headset. “Bring the search drones out of orbiting formation.”

Arthur was not nearly as patient as he could have been with the card maker, the ancient machine humming and clicking in what seemed to be an ever-increasing effort to get them caught and killed. Steven moved next to him and prodded Arthur with his foot. “Watching it isn’t going to make it work any faster.”

Arthur fought the urge to roll his eyes. “Thanks.”

“Looks like they’re having a lot of fun out there,” Allison grumbled disappointedly as she entered the room. Arthur whipped around at the sound of the door squeaking.