#26130
Director Nova is gone.
I’d never imagined that could happen. He was BADGE. Him not
standing on the command deck issuing orders was like Dairy Queen without
soft-serve. Now Acting Director Chase was trying to figure out what to do with
all the nuts.
“LET US GO BACK DOWN TO STOMP THESE WARPED CORPS INTO THE
BONEMEAL THEY DESERVE TO BE,” Midgardsormr shouted as the security force continued
to keep authorized staff entering the command deck. “I WILL GRATE THEIR BODIES
BETWEEN MY SCALES AND LEAVE THEIR SHREDDED CARCASSES TO ODIN’S RAVENS AND
FENRIS TO FEAST ON.”
I shuddered, knowing that he could do so with ease, but having
taken on the form of a bird and wolf, I could actually taste the blood, flesh,
and bone on my tongue. I didn’t like my meat served tartare. Call me crazy, but
I like a good sear on my steaks.
“We need to find the leader and just cut the head off the
snake that is the World Corps,” Hanzo said as he side-eyed Midgard. “No
offense. Well, maybe a little.”
Midgardsormr’s mouth
curled as his tongue lashed out, tiny particles of venom spraying from it as he
sneered at the space pirate. “I SHALL TAKE MY OFFENSE OUT OF YOUR HIDE SOON
ENOUGH.”
Dozens of heroes milled around the open area just below the platform
giving entrance to the command deck. I recognized many of them, but there were
also multiple new faces mixed in. Ever since the World Corps had started
kidnapping and changing Morphon enhanced people into their augments, the ranks
of BADGE heroes had increased. Many of them had limited fighting experience. A
year ago, I was in their place with one big difference. I joined BADGE with
hope in my heart. They were joining out of fear.
“This isn’t the right time to be going at one another,” Krystal
Fae said as she and her enormous belly stepped between the escalating
testosterone of Midgardsormr and Hanzo’s bodies. I hated to think that her baby,
Gem, was going to be born into a world in such turmoil. It looked like if
someone hugged her hard enough she would immediately go into labor. “Give Chase
time to think. Director Nova never acted rashly, unlike some people…-,” Krystal
gave her patented over-the-rim of her glasses stare to the two hotheads,”-so it
would be wise to let her follow his example.”
The doors opened from the command deck and Chase stepped up
to a small podium from within, Gar a few steps behind her. “I didn’t mean to
eavesdrop, Krystal, but I have to disagree. I think now is the time for some
fighting…”
MMMMMMMM
After Chase’s announcement, the Star Force leagues and the
league Wyldfyre had been mentoring, L.U.S.H., met in the expanded locker room
they had been assigned. Chained Angel asked several of our acquaintances, such
as Sword of Gerraxia and Ms. Fae to join up with us for the Faction War, as
Chase had proposed. The Faction War was meant to help us prepare to face larger
forces, such as the mercenary army with Augment soldiers. League Wars prepared
us for small skirmishes, this was meant to prepare us for a full-fledged
assault.
“How long are we going to wait here?” AlphaBeta asked. A
member of L.U.S.H., she was a fearsome woman. A product of a military cloning
project, she had been genetically manipulated with demonic enhancements. Demons
didn’t have D.N.A., rather were formed on this plane by forced molding by
ectoplasma, and the influence of her dark creation showed primarily by her crown
of flames. “If we’re going to prepare, let’s begin now so we can be ready for the
battlefield.”
“We’ve got time,” Chained Angel said. “We’ve all fought here
before, so there isn’t anything really new here to what we are doing. It’s
mainly an exercise in tactics.”
“It’s more like an exercise to keep up distracted and out of
Chase’s hair,” Silver Paladin said. His silver helmet sat next to him on the arm
of his chair. A few of the L.U.S.H. team members stared at him due to his
nearly identical appearance to Chaz Hamilton, not knowing the story of his
origin. “With all us heroes cooped up here again, she either had to let us
start fighting in the hallways or in the arena.”
A murmur of agreement came up from every corner of the small
meeting area just outside the locker rooms.
Chained Angel raised a wing to calm the chatter. “You’re
probably right, but it doesn’t change the fact that it never hurts to be
prepared. What if the World Corps was able to capture an experienced BADGE hero
in a fight and augment them like they did to poor Torrin Wolf? From what we
know so far, the augments were originally kidnapped people just learning about
their Morphon enhanced powers. A trained BADGE field agent altered in the same
way could be far more deadly.”
The room quieted. What if World Corps had taken someone powerful
like Zen or Nightshadow? What if they had captured Director Nova and that was
why he was missing. Just the thought was enough to turn my stomach inside out.
An image of a hovering, paler-than-normal Director Nova attacking New Amsterdam
manipulating the primal energies of the six avatars flooded my mind. If they
could keep his knowledge of fighting while removing his love of the people of
the planet Earth, we would all be doomed.
A portal opened in a rear corner of the room and Allyson,
aka Crossroads, walked through it. She carried a backpack over her shoulder and
waved as she slid into an empty seat. “Sorry I’m late. I was trying to talk to
some of my alternates and see if they knew anything about where Director Nova
might be or if any of them encountered the World Corps before.”
“It’s fine,” Chained Angel said. “Everyone, this is Crossroads,
if you haven’t met her. She’s going to join up with us for the Faction War. Her
experience in the upper divisions will be a huge asset for us, and hopefully
none of our opponents will see her coming.”
MMMMMMMM
I sat in the stands of the first matches between the
Coalition and the 5th Precinct to watch my mentor and friend
Midgardsormr in action, as well as the rest of the WMD-Black Order team who had
been so generous to me during league wars. I would never say this to anyone,
but they were far superior to the teams they had fought during League Wars, but
Faction Wars allowed several individual groups to ‘gang up’ to bring down the
WMD core group a few pegs. As much as I knew Midgardsormr loved to fight, he
especially liked to fight worthy opponents. They say some creatures can taste
the fear in their opponent’s blood. Midgardsormr didn’t want to taste fear, he
wanted to taste his opponent’s hope die. I prayed he got sated during these Faction
War battles.
As soon as the opening bell range, the Coalition team ripped
into the poor, unprepared 5th Precinct league. Our Faction had been
assigned to fight a group fairly familiar to me, the Bomb Squad, for our first round
of battles. I looked forward to working with our new grouping and seeing how we
would well we might work together.
While I watched Midgard knock another opponent, Tekel I
believe, across the arena, Eggie slid in beside me and took a seat. Her oversized
knitting bag was instantly open as she began to work on another scarf. “Hello,
dearie. Have you done your stretching to get loosey goosey for your fights?”
“Yeah. I’m ready to go.” I leaned back and watched a
stretcher team hurry onto the field to remove the unconscious body of
Midgardsormr’s opponent. He may have been someone important at one time, but
now he was nothing but meat paste. “I have an hour before my first match.”
“How is your faction looking?” Eggie asked.
“Good, I think. It’s going to be a challenge, but I think we
have a good shot.” I replied.
Flash forward 24 hours…
I shouldn’t have had any hopes at all. I thought we were all
equally invested in winning, but I guess I was wrong. Crossroads and Astra didn’t
show up to any of their matches. They didn’t respond to any of our messages.
Two of the most powerful members of our faction ditched us. We might have had a
chance, a good chance, but ended up being defeated, 549-580.
Screw the world. I need chocolate.
0 Comments