Heroes flew around the flying armada. Gales of wind blew some heroes around while weapons fired madly off the decks of the ships. Blasts of holy light and mental energy crippled heroes who attempted to approach the center of this storm, Arx.
Hotwings and Warmachine flew toward Arx, both blasting a volley of power at the villain. Arx dodged and responded with amazing speed.
“Distract him!” Warmachine said and then split from Hotwings.
Hotwings doubled his weapons fire and focused his powers on Arx. It worked, Arx turned his attention away and shot Hotwings out of the sky.
Suddenly, Warmachine crashed into Arx and started punching him. Arx responded with blows and kicks. Then time slowed down slightly as Warmachine used one of his unique powers. Arx barely moved as Warmachine repeatedly nailed him in the gut and face. All at once, Arx broke the time dilation and hit Warmachine in the face and then grabbed him by the arm and flung him off of him with a massive swing.
Gar swooped by and quickly snatched Warmachine out of his freefall. Landing on a nearby roof, Gar set Warmachine on his feet.
“You okay?”
Warmachine nodded, “sure. Just...winded.”
Punlork appeared and tumbled across the same roof. “Ow!” Sitting up, he said, “this is getting out of hand.”
“Hey, Gar!” Chase spoke into his ear through the comm link.
“What?”
“Furious Squirrel has pin-pointed a nuclear device that is activated on the ship directly in front of you.”
“I don’t know how to deactivate a bomb.”
“We need ideas.” Chase said.
Punlork said, “what about slowing time? It worked for Warmachine...briefly.”
Warmachine answered, “no. He can break through that somehow. Timebender had the same problem.”
Gar watched ahead as Arx hovered between his flying fleet. The ships showered the heroes with weapons fire, and Arx added blasts of his various powers. No one was getting close. Suddenly, Midgard rose and threw a water tower at Arx, which was destroyed by a blast of light from the enemy.
“Hey, what about Midgard? Have him throw that boat out to sea or something.” Gar said.
Midgard yelled through the comms. “I DON’T CARE ABOUT PUNY HUMAN WEAPONS, I WILL SQUISH ARX WITH MY BARE HANDS!!”
Chase said, “Midgard, a nuke isn’t puny.”
“I DON’T CARE!!” Midgard bellowed and then rushed toward Arx.
Gar said to Chase, “what about teleporting it?”
Now Starmaster answered from another part of the battle, “I don’t think that’s a good idea…” he grunted and yelled at something and then finished, “teleporting can mess with stuff like that. It could blow across the portal, which would spread that explosion, not to mention the fallout.”
Just then Skynett landed next to Gar. “What if we retreat? This city has already taken a beating, but all the civilians are gone.”
Chase answered, “that bomb is under his control. We leave, he turns it off and follows us. Or he might even detonate it over another city.”
Skynett dryly said, “then we take down Arx and release his control of it.”
“How?” Gar asked.
Skynett squinted as she watched Midgard go after Arx. “we wait for an opening and then unleash hell.”
Gar frowned at that, not really certain what she was saying, but Chase got it. Through the comm, she said, “heroes, regroup and ready for a power-strike. This is a code black attack. Noone hold back. Wait for my signal.”
All over the city, heroes rushed to a circular line around the incoming navy ships. Several heroes formed energy barriers that prevented the ongoing weapons’ fire from hurting anyone. Only Midgard remained in his attack, as he often ignored any orders during a battle. Heroes charged their eyes, hands, and other powered appendages. Others activated guns, lasers, and tech. Gar joined the many who picked up objects to throw. A code black was not called on often, and could only be done during extreme circumstances.
Gar said, “Chase, what about Midgard?”
“He is part of the plan, just wait.”
“Chase… this could hurt you.”
Skelanimal came through, “Gah! Would you two lovebirds stop the mushy stuff!”
Gar said, “We aren’t…”
Chase yelled, “NOW!”
Midgard had grabbed a smaller navy cruiser and used it like a bat to smack Arx. The silver hero was sent flying through the city, his fleet slowly losing elevation while he tumbled out of control. When he came to a stop, he barely had time to check his head when the barriers came down. Several thousand attacks all came at him in one volley. Bullets, knives, boulders, and some thrown cars joined lasers, fire blasts, ice beams, and electric shocks. He tried to respond, but the sheer power culminated in one explosive blast.
Normally, a collective code black attack would cause a deadly explosion that could hurt, or even kill, some users. In this attack, it seemed to be absorbed by Arx, but not on purpose. His body shimmered in an array of colors, and there was an immense explosion of energies out of him. He flew back, punching a hole in the lower hull of the USS Saratoga. The fleet in the sky rained down over the city. Huge navy cruisers crashed and crushed two thirds of what remained of Hollywood.
Heroes dashed out of the way as waves of dust and debris erupted all over the place. Many flight heroes were carrying non-flight heroes to keep them from being overtaken by the catastrophic collapse.
Gar landed with Chase in his arms. He gingerly set her down among the wreckage of the mangled navy ships.
“I can’t believe you survived that.” Chase said.
Arx, half covered in metal debris, gagged out a laugh. “It’ll take a lot more than that to end this superstar.”
She held up her scanner. “Your power levels are laughable. Oh, and your little bomb threat; I guess crashing the ship shut off the computer running it. So, you’re done.”
Arx chuckled with a wet cough. “You think I’m going out like this? No, Arx won’t be remembered as the celebrity who was defeated, he’ll be remembered as the greatest villain in movie history. I’ll have the last laugh.” His eyes flashed.
“What did you just do?” Chase threatened him with one of her blades. However, he merely continued to mock her with laughter.
Warmachine and Furious Squirrel appeared on top of the debris above them. Furious said, “that nuke, it just went active again! It’s got seconds.”
Arx said, “see, I’m going out with a bang, and taking you with me.”
Chase yelled into her comm, “GET TO THAT NUKE!”
Heroes rushed over, following the tech specialists toward the mound of wreckage where the nuclear signal came from. Midgard and other heroes tore through the piles of debris, throwing large chunks of ships all over the city.
“We can’t get to it fast enough!” Furious said, as he watched his monitor.
Punlork said, “I can’t portal people away fast enough either.”
Warmachine said, “I’ll get to it!” He dove headfirst into the debris, blasting a path to the bomb with his powers.
Furious yelled, “IT’S DETONATING!!” Everyone flinched. Several zapped themselves away.
Nothing happened.
Cautiously looking up, Chase asked, “was it a dud?”
Warmachine spoke through the universal comm. “No, it’s going off, and I can’t stop it.”
“Where are you?” Chase looked around.
“Down here, under the rubble.”
Starmaster snapped his fingers and vanished. He reappeared next to Warmachine, who held the side of a nuclear missile, it was beeping and flashing, but everything was slowed to a near crawl.
“What did you do?”
Warmachine smiled, “I got to it just as it exploded, but I could slow the time.”
“Good, we can…”
“It’s too late. I’m slowing the flash point, but it moves so fast that it’ll over take me in moments and then will continue in normal time. If I move, it will explode instantly. I...I can’t save myself.”
“We have to try.” Starmaster said, looking around for the answer.
Warmachine shook his head, “no. But...we have a chance. Portal me away.”
“Portaling might not work.”
“It will. We have a few seconds. The portal won’t set off the bomb, that has already occurred. You get me somewhere, in another dimension, where it won’t hurt anyone else.”
“But, you’ll die.”
Warmachine nodded slowly, “the risk of being a hero. We don’t have time for sentimentality. Just do it.”
Starmaster had tears in his eyes as he waved his hands and watched both the missile and Warmachine vanished away.
(In Remembrance of Thomas Krohn aka Warmachine. You were a great hero.)
The month of June has been especially busy for collaborative fan-fiction. There were many high quality entries, and two ongoing threads stood out impressively: TRIP TO FAE REALM, and THE GREATEST DAY.
