Brilliant light erupted from the sphere in Manitoba, Canada, and a creation fell to the ground. A large man stood up, his body mostly mechanical, with a dead look in his eyes. An otherworldly mist slithered up from his body as he slowly turned his head to scan the surrounding people.
“DON’T GIVE HIM TIME, SHOOT!” Agent Brandel yelled and then unloaded his revolver at the mech.
Heroes blasted powers at him. One threw a giant boulder. The rock hit the mechanical man, and he went tumbling with it. After the rock rolled away, it left the enemy flat on the ground.
Everyone hesitantly stopped, though not lowering their defenses. Agent Brandel slowly inched toward it with his gun ready. “Did... did we kill it already?”
Both arms of the mechanical man shot up and sprayed the area with an electrical attack. Brandel took a hard hit and fell, and several other heroes staggered, while those further away had to flee the wave. After the shocking attack stopped, the mech pushed himself up. A hero released another blast of her eyebeams only to have him stop it with a casual wave of his hand.
“Power analyzed, negation complete.” He fired back at her with a beam from the same hand.
She barely dodged it and then ran to the side and blasted again, and again he casually stopped her.
Another hero threw a rock at him, and he batted it away with a swift motion of his hand. “Power analyzed, negation complete.” He stomped on the ground and then kicked a clod of hard dirt at the hero who had just attacked him.
Captain Nightshade held her team back. “This isn’t good.”
***
Agent Justin and EB stood at a seaport in Seattle, Washington. Justin scanned while EB stopped to greet fans.
“EB, can I get a selfie?” A woman yelled, waving her phone around.
“Sure.” He zipped away, stopped on a railing along the dock and smiled as he leaned up against her, and then zipped back to Justin.
“You can’t keep doing that. We have work to do.” Justin commented while he adjusted the specialized equipment.
EB said, “I can’t help it if I’m famous. I’m sexy, rich, and a superhero. I’m a triple threat.”
“EASTER BUNNY! CAN I GET AN AUTOGRAPH?” A police officer called out through his megaphone.
“Sure.” Before Justin could protest, EB zipped away again and was signing several items from a group of people before he zipped back. “Where were we?”
“I’m doing my job.” Justin stated bitterly.
“Aw, don’t get jealous.” EB teased.
Justin turned on him. “Look, EB, I’ve put up with a lot of your shenanigans. But we have a real mission. It’s only a matter of time before more of those Legion spheres pop open and this world is a war-zone, and this time I don’t think we can stop Legion like we did before. So, do you want to help me stop this or just keep smiling for cameras?”
EB looked down. “Gee, I never heard you get that serious with me. I guess I really should focus. Sorry.”
“I don’t mean to be... mean, but it has to be said. And... wait, this is new.” Justin looked into the scanner. “We just got a major spike.”
“The trail is hot again?” EB looked at the scanner with him.
“This is the biggest spike so far. We have a clear path; look at the map. This signal is leading... wait, this can’t be right.” Justin moved the digital map around.
EB frowned and looked at the map and then out at the ocean. “It’s on the international dateline?”
“In the middle of the ocean.”
“Could be a glitch. One time I was trying to use some of the early GPS stuff to help hide eggs, and boy did it screw me up. I ended up in this bedroom, and these two were... well, let’s just say they were not happy to see me. I mean, I’m a rabbit, they weren’t doing anything... uh... right, back to the mission. I say we check it out.”
Justin said, “We can’t call BADGE to send a boat; we have to keep a low profile.“
“I could make a magic eggshell boat. It would be huge and have bright colorful sails and run on rainbow magic and... right... low profile.” EB caught his foolishness before Justin could say something.
Justin looked up at a boat rental place. “I guess we have one option.”
***
Captain Nightshade spun around and her body turned to shadow, and then she vanished. Five spinning clouds of shadow appeared around the mechanical man, and out of one she jumped and hit him with a slashing motion of her sword. He fell to the side and then quickly returned with a hard punch in her direction, fortunately; she vanished again, this time appearing further away.
Heroes and agents lay on the ground, scattered from where he had defeated them. Almost no one could still fight.
“WHERE IS THAT BACKUP?” She yelled and then had to vanish again as he came in to strike her down.
Stony jumped over and threw another giant boulder. The mechanical man held his ground and, with a punching motion, he hit the boulder and split it in two. With a hard kick, he sent half of the boulder back at its creator. Stony quickly slid down into the earth, narrowly being killed by his own attack.
Captain Nightshade vanished again, and another circle of black smoke clouds appeared around the enemy. She appeared out of one to his left, and he dodged her attack and quickly grabbed her by the throat. She tried to vanish, but his grip on her throat prevented her from breathing, and her body resisted using her powers while fighting to get oxygen.
The thrumming sound of engines caught his attention just as a spray of bullets hit him and sent him tumbling away. This attack forced him to release Nightshade, and she hit the ground gasping for air.
The mechanical man rose and dashed toward them. Five people jumped from the top deck and landed swiftly. A man in a 1930s suit formed two Tommy guns with his hands, using morphonic powers, and from them came a barrage of morphon bullets that staggered the enemy.
Nightshade vanished and reappeared near them. “Stop, he learns your attack and then neutralizes it. He’s unbeatable.”
Rutkowski gave off a confident laugh. “My power aint nothing he’s gonna learn too quickly, not if I have anything to say about it.”
“Watch out, he’s coming.” She pointed at the mechanical man racing toward them.
“Wait for it.” Rutkowski commanded.
A few yards before the enemy got to them, Rutkowski held out his hands and a wave of gray energy spread out. The mechanical man froze in time for a moment. “NOW, STEELFIST!”
A burly man in a suit came crashing down through the gray energy, his metal fists meeting their enemy on both shoulders. The Mechanical Man was smashed into the ground. Steelfist didn’t relish in his victory; he simply continued pounding.
“ENOUGH, YOU LUG!” Rutkowski commanded.
Steelfist jumped off his opponent and joined his gang. “That mugs good as trash. Wanna get some cement and throw him in da lake?”
“Nah, we.... what the hell?” Rutkowski watched the mechanical man pushing himself up from the ground, his body repairing itself. “This mug aint stopping.”
“We have to run; this is too much.” Captain Nightshade said.
“We've got one more ace up our sleeve, sweetheart. HEY, SQUIRREL, TIME FOR PLAN B!”
Nightshade asked, “What’s Plan B?”
“You’ll see. Steelfist, Plugsy, do it.”
The man with Tommy Guns for fists ran to one side while Steelfist ran the other way. The Tommy Gun’s sprayed at the enemy, keeping his attention on the man.
“Power Analyzed,...”
Steelfist ran up behind him and, with a double-fist uppercut, sent the Mechanical Man flying.
Rutkowski used his time-slowing power to freeze the man mid-air.
“DO IT!”
A massive energy weapon descended from the bottom of the dirigible. With a screaming roar, it unleashed a powerful blast of energy right at the mechanical man. In a spectacular explosion, the metal man exploded, scattering debris all over the area.
“And that’s how you get things done,” Rutkowski stated.
Plugsy, who now had regular hands again, held a metallic sphere. “This looks expensive. Never seen nothing like this before.”
Rutkowski took the silver sphere. “This is not normal. I like it. Tell Nova this is my reward. And tell him I’ll help with any more of these Legion goons.”
Nightshade asked, “Why?”
He looked her dead in the eye. “That Drocha, he put my entire team down for the count. And he was gonna kill all da babies. I’m a criminal, but even I got my limits. Besides, I can’t run my city if Legion goons destroy it.”
“Thanks for...” Nightshade quickly spun around at a strange sound. “What’s happening?”
They watched as all the pieces of the destroyed enemy rattled and moved. With a swift motion, all bits and pieces flew up into the sky and reassembled into a man.
“Aw crap!” Rutkowski stated.
Then, with no preamble, the enemy flew off at top speed. Everyone looked at each other for answers.
“Okay, you got me.” Rutkowski scratched his head under his fedora.
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