🚀 go-pugleaf

(continued from part one...)

                                   ***********

     "Shit!" Chris said.  "Anne!"  he shouted into the ship's communications
link. "Anne! Where are you?!" He dodged another blast from a particularly
nasty gun mounted on the upper bow of their opponent, but he could only dodge
them for so long.  Two rudders were jammed, the port thrusters were almost
gone, the passive absurdity field was depleted, the stabilizers and pressure
links, the equivalent to power steering, had all but failed, and worst of all,
he had no idea where Anne was.
     He frantically sought away to get the driver back on line, but he knew
he'd have an easier time getting the Ill Dudes to bathe.  He saw the bow of
the ship once again in his view screen, the gun glowed faintly.  He pulled to
the starboard, but the ship wasn't responding fast enough.  He braced himself
for the blast, which he knew would be a direct hit on the brain.  He was glad
Anne wasn't here right now.
     Shrreeeewwwwpptptptptptptptptpt!  Woommmmphhh!
     Chris opened his eyes at the noise of tiny explosions perforating armor
just in time to see the menacing gun be punched full of tiny holes.  Light
bled from the wounds and it exploded cinematicly.
     "Wow!" Chris exclaimed.  "Damien, did you see that?  Damien?"
     Chris looked around the bridge.  There was a trail of blood leading to
the ladder that went to the upper turret.  The rungs were red and moist.
     "Yeah, I saw it." came a faint reply from the tower.  I saw it."
     Chris brought the Awesome Force One to a slightly higher altitude.  The
bottom turret could be, and was, linked to the top turret.  As the Awesome
Force One rose, a battering of explosions rocked its underside.  Damien
returned fire, strafing the upper deck of the enemy ship.

                                   ***********

     Wayne was frankly amazed when his Royal Command Battloid landed in front
of him, waiting for orders. Grinning evilly, he did an anime leap into the
cockpit, and launched into the air to look for targets.

                                   ***********

     "I'm on my way, Bruce," Phobos said into his communicator as he avoided
another volley of bullets. While it was nice to be up where he could see all
the action, he didn't like the idea of being a prime target because of this
position.
     He turned toward Deckmaster's position just in time to see the Dalek fire.
He couldn't see Deckmaster from there, and hoped he was okay. Phobos damped
the light around himself temporarily, then sent a high intensity beam at the
Dalek, which exploded nicely (Phobos was glad that Mental had figured out
that these things weren't alive, because it certainly felt good to open up
every once in a while). The shrapnel from the Dalek served to incapacitate
the two Bubbas that were next to it.
     Phobos landed next to the smoking remains of the Dalek and looked for
Deckmaster. Searching about a bit, he found Deckmaster's hand sticking out
from under a bush. There was some blood around it, but not much. Phobos
wasn't too worried about him until he moved the bush aside and realized that
the hand was the only thing under the bush. The hand and the card it was
holding, that is...

                                   ***********

     Marie staggered along, even though her suit's repair program had already
fixed the damage done by the Masked Bruce's Xolchapulse.  "Why did I kill that
mage?!" she wondered aloud, "He was no threat -- why did I do it?!"
     Because of Gould, she reasoned. She still remembered Spectrum's face --
the pain there, after he took Gould down.  She remembered thinking it was all
those small corpses of the children Gould and his allies had slain.  But it
wasn't just that, she thought, it couldn't have been.  It was Gould's death,
too.  She remembered fighting Spectrum in Springfield, how he hadn't killed
her when he so easily could -- should have.  She remembered that book on
heroing, one of the top rules was Do Not Kill.
     Do Not Kill.
     "And that's just what I did..." Marie said quietly.
     "SURRENDER, VILLAIN!" boomed an armor-enhanced voice from behind her.
     Roger had just seen the destruction Marie had caused. He had paused long
enough to check on his three teammates before heading off after Tornado's
thermal trail. Fresh in his mind was the burning corpse -- Shannon id'd it as
that of a healer-mage.
     Shooting the damn medics, he thought, his fury burning high.  All these
battles, he had been holding back, for fear of injuring or killing his
opponent.  His battlesuit was, after all, a Weapon of Mass Destruction, and
not really useful for capturing people alive and unharmed.
     "SURRENDER, VILLAIN!!", he roared, seeing Tornado standing with her back
to him.
     "Bwah?!" Marie replied, turning.  Roger fired his right-arm Gauss Cannon,
blowing her down.
     "I _SAID_, SURRENDER!!"
     "Not a chance!" Marie answered, rolling out of the way as Roger fired
again. At last, an opponent she could understand.
     "Leaping Chainsaw Strike!" Marie shouted, slashing with her diamond-edged
Black 'n Deckers at Roger's head. Roger dodged back desperately, foot
thrusters flaring.  A group of wandering Airport Pests dove for cover,
literature flying everywhere.
     "You and your fellow Revolutionaries have been picking on those who can't
adequately defend themselves for _long enough_!" Roger shouted, his left-arm
lasers scoring twin char-marks on the Tornado's flank.
     "They are mages -- their existence threatens the safety of this entire
planet!" Tornado replied, blasting Roger with her plasma cannon.  The front of
his power-armor melted slightly with the heat, but he kept up the attack.
     "Oh, sure, and that healer you geeked back there was _real_ threatening!"
     "Shut up!!" Marie shouted, leaping on Roger and throwing him to the
ground. "You're trying to confuse me!!"
     "You know I'm right!" Roger countered, kicking her off to the side and
struggling to her feet. "There can be no justifying what you have done!"
     "SHUT UP!!" Marie screamed, emptying the remaining charge on her plasma
cannon at Roger, who managed to dodge out of the way of most of the blast.
     "Nobody messes with my friends!! Your days of hurting and killing are
_over_, Tornado!!" Roger roared, triggering his Gauss Cannon on full auto.
Marie staggered backwards, the impacts tearing massive rents in her suit.
     She struggled to keep herself upright as Roger advanced.  Her weapons
weren't functioning -- she couldn't fight.  But she couldn't bring herself to
flee.  She had done all this, joined the Revolution, killed that mage, all for
Spectrum... But was it what he wanted her to do?!  Was she willing to
sacrifice innocents for her own gains?
     No!!
     Roger wondered only for a split second why Tornado wasn't moving, as if
thinking.  Knuckle guards locked over his powersuit's clenched fists as he
closed the last few feet to the Tornado suit. Visions of his old and new
enemies flashed before him -- all those who had escaped him because he had
been too restrained to kill. Gerbre, Morgan... _Drakkor_.  But no more!
     "I sur-" Marie started, before Roger cut her off by slamming an armored
fist into her helmet visor, shattering it and sending her sprawling backwards.
     "RRRAAAAA!" Roger roared incoherently, opening up with all his weapons.
Drawn Titanium/Steel alloy macroflechettes from his Gauss Cannon ripped holes
in the Tornado armor, and his laser cannons blasted trenches in the left-arm
shield, which Marie raised in a futile attempt to block the attacks.
     "No! Wait!!" Marie screamed, trying desperately to get some portion of
her smashed armor on-line. "Lawrence!! Wayne!! Any unit, I-aaauugh!"
     Roger simply pounded on her armor, ripping away at it as he released
massive quantities of angst in one massive burst. He stepped back, finally,
seeing the Tornado armor was a smashed wreck, its pilot near-unconsious.
     Marie tasted blood in her mouth. Nothing was working -- but maybe her
enemy would leave her alone now that he saw she could do nothing.  Without its
complex actuator systems in working order, the Tornado suit was so heavy as to
make it impossible for Marie to move.
     She blinked, as the damage to her armor began to repair itself, right in
front of her eyes.  "Oh shit." she gulped.
     Roger was amazed -- self-repairing battlearmor?! That was the last straw
-- no mercy! He had thought that Tornado was down, but it was clear that only
total destruction would keep the suit from reactivating.  Roger flipped on an
energy sensor, which quickly located the source of power, on the left hip. His
gauss cannon swung up and fired, sending blood--no, wait... Slurpees?! gushing
from the hole.
     Marie stared up at her attacker as the Tornado suit shuddered and cut off
for good. Roger stomped a booted foot on her scarred chestplate, raising his
right arm Gauss Cannon. There was a whirrrrrrr-click! as the last
macroflechette cycled into the stubby weapon.
     Roger stared down at the Revolutionary. His targetting systems displayed
her face, with a small electronic dot right at the center of her forehead.  He
slowly squeezed the trigger...
     'Spectrum...' Marie thought, 'I have failed...'
     "No! Roger!! ROGER!!" Shannon shouted, coming up behind Roger and
grabbing his armored arm.  "This isn't the way to end this!"
     "Whew!" Marie breathed, tasting the sensation of cool mint.
     "Very well..." Roger said flatly, "Do whatever you _feel_ is right."
     "Peels!" Shannon said, snapping her fingers in front of Marie's face.
The Invid warriors' eyes rolled back into her head, and she managed to curse
only once before passing out: "Damn you, mage..."

                                   ***********

     Ginsu World Class felt her anger mounting as she was assaulted by one
wave of flowers after another.  Thick walls of carnations appeared and burst
into flames at the touch of her electric blade, followed by roses, then
azaleas, then honeysuckle.  Using Shadebeam almost a storage cell, three mages
helped her cast powerful lightning bolts from her fingertips that burned
noticeable pits in the armor's outer plating.  Link poured whatever ordinance
he had left into her while Sarah strafed her with automatic fire.
     A flamethrower materialized around Ginsu World Class's arm to protest the
floral invasion and a fifty-foot area around her was suddenly engulfed in
flames.
     "Stop!" cried Mr. Safety, "According to the Federal Fire Safety Code of
1963, Section Two, Subsection Twenty-Three, paragraph nine, flamethrowers,
torches, arc-welding equipment or similar devices may not be activated within
one hundred (100) yards of a prison facility unless a) said device carries a
series 17384-19 inspection sticker issued within the last six (6) months, b)
at least three (3) fire safety officials from local, state and federal
authorities are present to oversee the procedure, c) that the device conform
to the safety guidelines listed in Appendix D, Section Twelve (12), Subsection
four (4), of the Equipment Manufacturing Safety Commission Report, as amended
in 1975, 1976 and 1978, d) that its fuel be obtained from a licensed dealer,
whose license must be inspected by the presiding fire safety officials, e)...!"
     It was almost astonishing to see Mr. Safety actually holding Ginsu World
Class at bay.  More lightning tore into her plating while Captain Non-Sequitor
sprayed shaving cream on her armored legs and attempted to shave them with a
banana.  It should be noted, however, that what was actually holding Ginsu
World Class back was the sudden overload that resulted when the onboard
computer began searching through the safety regulation archives attempting to
cross reference the passages Mr. Safety was quoting.  By the time Liz was able
to issue a command to halt the search, the system load average was already in
the triple digits.
     Shadebeam and one of the mages combined their efforts to reach out for
the packed Bob City Thruway and pluck a dozen abandoned vehicles from the
traffic jam.  One by one they sent them careening towards Ginsu World Class
who swatted them away like flies, except for the last one, a tanker truck,
which she caught.
     <<I think I should tell you that my search of shipping records indicates
that tanker is filled with diesel fuel,>> said HAL, calmly.
     "I had a feeling you were going to say that!" Shadebeam exclaimed. "Guys,
if any of you know any good shield spells, now's the time to speak up!"
     "No spell is going to save you from me, you bitch!" Ginsu World Class
cried.
     With one hand, she ripped the tanker's cab away and tossed it aside,
then lifted the tank itself over her head.  Pinky launched a stream of tiger
lilies into her face to buy time.  Shadebeam clasped hands with a pair of
mages and with their help began reciting an slow, mysterious chant.
     The tank left Ginsu World Class's hands like a ninety mile an hour
fastball bound right for Shadebeam's face.  Sarah, Link and Mr. Safety
managed to make it to Shadebeam's side just as a ghostly wall of force sprang
up in front of her.  The tanker exploded mere inches from their faces but the
barrier held, though the look of pain etched on Shadebeam's face betrayed the
effort it took to maintain.  The blast rocked the compound and sent a column
of flame rising hundreds of feet into the sky.
     "Hubba hubba!" said a voice.
     Ginsu World Class spun around with blinding speed and pulled back her
fist, ready to smash the voice's owner into pulp, and found Deadman behind her,
still sitting on the curious little trash can.
     An easy mark, she thought, until her display went red, warning buzzers
sounded and a radiation alert flashed before her eyes.
     "WARNING!" it said.  "THERMONUCLEAR THREAT DETECTED!  THIS UNIT IS NOT
EQUIPPED TO SURVIVE A DIRECT NUCLEAR STRIKE!  IMMEDIATE WITHDRAWAL IS ADVISED!"
     Liz's mouth went dry.  She carefully scrutinized the Croaked Crusader,
trying to discern how this otherwise benign individual could pose such a dire
threat.  Could it be that this guise was just a front?  Did Deadman secretly
have terrible nuclear powers?
     Deadman and the trash can waddled a bit closer.  Liz heard a lewd cat-call
directed at her.  She gulped and took a step back, lowering her fist.  The Bomb
and Deadman moved in still closer.  Liz took another step.
     A flurry of temperature reduction spells along with careful application
of Mr. Safety's fire extinguisher and a well timed artificial downpour created
by Rainy Day Woman as she passed briefly to inspect the damage eventually
brought the blaze under control, allowing Shadebeam a chance to finally relax.
She was surprised that she'd been able to keep it in place for as long as she
did, but kept this fact to herself.
     "Okay," she gasped, "I'm ready: let's get after her again before she
drops a planet on us."
     "Uhm," said Pinky, uneasily, "I don't think that'll be necessary."
     "What? What the Hell (Tm) are you talking about? You want we should just
stand here while she stomps us into the ground?"
     Just then, Shadebeam caught sight of Ginsu World Class running towards
her and dove for cover behind Captain Non-Sequitor, who was singing the Star
Spangled Banner and hitting himself over the head with a rubber chicken.  She
was astonished to see her run right past, screaming in terror, with Deadman
and the Bomb chasing her relentlessly and making suggestive remarks.
     "It would seem," noted Pinky, "that Deadman has her on the run."
     "Right," Shadebeam sighed, "no sense wasting brain cells on this one.
Time for a smoke, I think."  She looked around, and spotted a pack of
cigarettes lying on the ground nearby, evidently dropped by one of the
combatants.
     "The area is still contaminated by diesel fuel!" cautioned  Mr. Safety.
"It's not safe!"
     "Yeah yeah, whatever.  You want one?"
     Mr. Safety looked suspiciously at the oddly shaped cigarette Shadebeam
handed him, then paused to consider the decidedly unsafe state of the prison
grounds and the unlikelihood that he would ever be able to correct all of the
violations in his lifetime.
     "Sure," he sighed, "why not?"

                                   ***********

     The black hardsuit jinked and slalomed amid combatants, taking care of
machine gun-toting revolutionaries and casting assistive magic where it was
needed.  As they approached the front lines, a figure in a familiar suit of
white streamlined armor with a rainbow stripe became visible.
     "Spectrum!"  Summer gasped.  He and Radian were fighting, and then the
Masked Bruce blasted Spectrum from behind with his Tihorn.  Spectrum became
rather intimate with the soil.
     It took them a while to work their way over to him - the Dalek soldiers
were thick on the ground, and where there weren't Daleks there were bubbas,
and, oddly enough, LaRouchites, Moonies, and Jehovah's Witnesses.  They lost
sight of Spectrum's armor behind a U.S. army truck, but spotted Spectrum
a few moments later, running in a state that could only be described as
au natural across the battlefield.
     Suddenly the fight got nasty.  Another wave of mages and revolutionists
swarmed into the area.  Daleks trained their cannon on Summer, and it was
all she could do to dodge their blasts, returning the blasts with energy
blasts and magical blasts.  "Where did Spectrum go?" Summer shouted over the
din. "There!" Ariella gestured for the two of them, the hardsuit following
her movements.  As Spectrum blasted into the air, Summer's jet boosters
kicked in, carrying the two women face to face with Spectrum.
     They stared at each other for long moments, then Ari murmured something
and the air around the hardsuit gauntlet began to glow with a greenish-white
light.  "You bastard..." Ariella said.  "They gave you friendship and you
betrayed it."
     "I don't want to have to fight you..." Spectrum began, backing away and
trying to make everything stop spinning.
     "Fight?  You don't fight.  When you kidnapped Deckmaster and myself, did
we fight then?  Did we even have a chance to fight?  Did we even have a
chance to talk to you?"
     "Because of you and others like you, my brother is lying near death in a
hospital room right now!" Summer said angrily.  "Adam Douglas shot him three
times with his gatling gun!"
     "No...that can't be!" Spectrum protested, stumbling backward.  "He
couldn't--he wouldn't--"
     "He could, he would, and he did!" Ariella retorted, closing the hand
surrounded by the glowing aura into a fist.  "And the only thing that saved
Mike's life was that 'magic' which you so detest!"  She lashed out with her
glowing fist, and Spectrum was so shocked by what she had said that he was
slow to react.  The impact sent Spectrum flying backward about fifty feet.
     "That felt good!" Ariella remarked, smacking her fist, now
unglowing, into the palm of her other hand.
     "You think he's all right?" Summer asked, a little worried.  Even though
she was angry with him, as close as they had been she didn't really want to
see him seriously hurt.
     "I, for one, don't especially care," Ariella said.
     "Whatever.  Come on, I think they need us over there."

(continued in part three...)