“AND STAY DOWN!” Thrasher screamed at it.
The monster screeched with a deafening pitch, then shot straight off the ground into Thrasher’s abdomen, shoving the brutish hero across the park and slamming in into a city bus, bending the entire vehicle in half. The monster beat Thrasher mercilessly as Thrasher was pinned against the metal and glass of the bus. Blood streamed down Thrasher’s nose and from his eyes as the monster pummeled him.
A beam of blue energy hit the monster, removing it from Thrasher. A younger woman in a white super suit ran up to Thrasher. “Coach!” She held up her hands, and white light shone from her that healed his wounds.
A team of heroes swarmed into the middle of the park, focusing most of their attention on the legion creature. It held its ground well against all of them, withstanding their attacks and returning pain for pain.
“SNOW! DO IT!” The captain of this League yelled.
A beautiful woman with blond hair and a blue outfit thrust both hands forward, and a beam of icy energy hit the creature. It flew toward her, but as it did, its body became darker, and a frost formed over its skin. With a terrible thud, it hit the ground as a solid block of ice.
“What do we do now?” The captain of the league asked Thrasher.
Thrasher snarled, “Smash it! That thing is Legion, a little ice aint gonna keep it down forever.”
The captain looked over at a young man in a golden uniform who was flying above the ground. “Smash him in an open area; I don’t want this park covered in defrosted guts.”
“Gotcha!” The boy flew by with incredible speed, grabbing the outstretched arm of the monster and then zipped away as fast as EB.
***
“That was too easy,” Santa said to Nova.
Nova nodded. “It was a hard fight, but hardly more than most supervillains our people face daily. Legion warriors are no easy take-down. Something is wrong with this.”
Chase said, “Count your blessings when they come.”
“I’m not dismissing this victory, but it raises more questions. Drocha wouldn’t create weak monsters.”
An unusual beep buzzed out from his comm system. It was the encrypted signal from Justin. Nova typed in his code, and the screen opened up with Justin and EB waiting to speak. “Sir, we have something... unusual.”
“What is it?”
Justin turned the comm device around to show a sphere hovering above the ground in an open field. “The signal we’ve been following grew in strength for a moment and pointed us to this location. This is in the middle of nowhere in Manitoba, Canada. The sensor was precise, more so than usual, leading us to this sphere.”
“That is strange.”
EB hopped up and clung to Justin’s shoulder to look into the comm unit. “What is weirder... is that a word? I’ll look it up later. Anyway, what’s weirder is that this sphere moved.”
“Moved?” Nova asked.
EB nodded quickly. “Yeah, so, like, it was closer to Winnipeg and then it just started moving a few hours ago. We checked with BADGE sensors, and they don’t show it. Like it was here, then there and...”
Chase said, “If it moved, it could be active. We need people on this.”
“I agree.” Nova said to her and then addressed them. “Keep a healthy distance from that and keep following the signal. We have to find Drocha. I’ll have Gar send a team in that direction to monitor this.”
EB said, “Wait, I would LOVE to kick some Legion butt. Those jerks blew up my homeworld, and I want some payback. I want to shove an egg right up...”
“No. Your priority is finding Drocha; you two are my only people on this special mission. Keep moving.” Nova gave his command.
EB gave a quick salute and said, “On it, boss. Your number one bestest BADGE operative is on the case, and so is Justin.”
Justin let out a sigh and said, “We’re on it. Justin out.”
After the screen went dark, Santa turned to Nova and said, “This could be a deflection, a ruse. Legion will do anything to win. The monster in St. Louis is still a key problem until we are certain it’s dead. If we divert attention to this new sphere, it might give Drocha reason to toy with us more. Shift things around and keep us guessing his next move while his mother ship flies here.”
“I thought of that as well.” Nova said, “But we can’t be certain. Besides, if this turns out to be a real risk, then it will raise far more questions than answers.”
“Why?” Chase asked.
“If this turns out to be a genuine threat, then why would Drocha direct our attention to it? If he knows we’re tracking his signal, then why not stop us? That aid came through our tracing of this signal, and as far as I know, no one outside of the few of us knows that Justin and EB are following it.”
Santa said, “So, if this turns out to be a distraction. Then it will mean we are still fooling Drocha. Which means we must respond to it normally, or we risk him catching on to our advanced knowledge.”
Nova nodded. “This game is a chess match between masters, and neither can afford to lose. Right now, we have one advantage, that signal we are tracing. It is the first time in far too long that we have something ahead of him. I have to keep playing his game to be certain that he isn’t aware of our little advantage.”
Chase shook her head. “I miss the fights with villains who are all punch and little thought. This game is complicated, and it’s almost political.”
Nova laughed, “Trust me, no war is more bloody and complicated than politics.” Nova’s comm unit beeped again, this time with the standard signal. He clicked it on. “Gar, good timing. I need you to contact the League in Manitoba...”
“Sir, we have a report from Golden Comet in the field.”
“Put it through.” Nova looked at his comm unit as the screen activated with a feed to an open field in Missouri.
Gold Comet, the hero who took the frozen Legion creature away from St. Louis, looked at him through the comm. “Director, I brought the monster out here and smashed him against the ground. It was like breaking a giant block of ice. He’s in a million little pieces now. Found this little thing left behind.” He held up a metal orb the size of a golf ball. “Some kind of power source. I’ll bring it to the station. I think you should bring in a clean-up crew to.... wait, what...”
The shiny golden hero looked around the ground.
.jfif)
Nova asked, “What is it, son?”
“Sir.... the bits and pieces of the monster... they’re gone.”
Nova frowned and then his eyes widened. “Get out of there now. Move!”
“What the what!” The young man jumped back as two blobs of purple goo formed in the middle of the field and slowly transformed into two identical copies of the monster. “NOT POSSIBLE!”
“GET AWAY NOW, THAT IS AN ORDER!”
Nova watched the screen and then looked away as the screaming of Gold Comet became a blood-curdling horror followed by a cut signal.
“DAMN!” Nova hit the side of Santa’s sleigh with a powerful punch.
The baby in the crib roused and began crying. Santa picked up the baby and rocked her around. “Is he...”
“Dead,” Nova whispered. “He graduated just last season. I’m going to make Drocha pay for every hero he has cost this world. I don’t care if I have to live another ten thousand years, I will make him pay.”
“What was that?” Chase asked.
Santa said, “One of Legion's little games. Several of their own were easily defeated, but they simply returned stronger and often doubled or tripled in number. Like the hydra from ancient Greek legend. The trick was to not kill them, but just stop them.”
Nova said, “Tell Gar, we are at code red. I need a moment.”
Chase clicked her comm. “Gar, we have a code red. Alert heroes that Legion monsters are on the loose. They must be contained but not killed, they will duplicate if killed.”
“Understood.” Gar answered.
Chase looked up at Nova standing off in a corner. Most people never saw how much pain he felt with a hero was killed. He exuded such a strong presence of focus and determination. Little did the world know how deeply it hurt him to watch heroes die in the line of duty.
0 Comments