🚀 go-pugleaf

(continued from part one...)
                                   ***********

     "Increase altitude!"  Benedict commanded his bridge crew.  Experimenting,
the Dalek had found that maneuvering the 2402 through a series of rapid
altitude changes was proving to be slightly effective at evading the last few
shots that Awesome Force One had in her.  He wasn't concerned about the airship
winning, merely with reducing the time required to make repairs.  And somehow,
*somehow*, the demon manning that last, barely-functional gun seemed to know
*exactly* which components of a standard Dalek cruiser were the hardest to
replace without a proper shipyard....
     There.  The airship's weapon had fallen silent.  Even though the 2402's
last salvo had missed, it seemed Awesome Force One had managed to damage itself
by the evasive maneuver it had taken.  And now that his target was toothless,
he could maneuver closer.  The starship's own aim had been reduced by damage
to her sensors, and Benedict was interested in saving some important pieces of
Andy's magnificient creation for transport back to  MooseLodge for analysis.
     "WARNING!!  DAMAGE TO AFT SECTIONS!!!  HYPERDRIVE DESTROYED!!!"
     "WHAT?!?!"  Benedict spun to his aft monitors.  It was the Team M.E.C.H.A.
jet.  After it's initial, rather inneffective missile volley, the human plane
had opted to fire some sort of front-mounted energy weapon, most likely a
Reflex gun.  And although the 2402's shields and armore were more effective at
stopping it than they had been against awesomtonium projectiles, whoever was
aiming that thing has an excellet grasp of advanced technology.  It had been a
perfect strike on the starship's hyperdrive motors.  They had been destroyed
beyond all repair.  The 2402 would never reach FTL speeds again.
     A pity whoever was aboard the jet didn't know that the hyperdrive had
already been beyond repair.  Benedict could easily ensure he didn't live long
enough to find a more important target.  And as for the rather efficient
M.E.C.H.A. cloaking device, it had serious problems when used at such a short
range.
     "Switch batteries 92-Alpha, 93-Alpha, and 23-Gamma to visial targeting
mode!  Engage and destroy enemy aircraft!"
     There.  The idiotic RoboDaleks manning the aft guns hadn't thought to
switch to visual light.  If the human fool persisted in this attack...
     "COLLISION ALERT!!!  COLLISION ALERT!!!!!" Red lights flared all across
the bridge as the automated system shrieked a warning.
     Benedict's eyestalk spun to the tactical position display, and saw an
impossibility.  The Awesome Force One was still moving, and that course could
have only one objective...

                                   ***********

     Bulletproof staggered for a moment, his metal feet catching and ripping
through the muddy sod. The inertia of his armor bore him forward, and he sank to
one knee, dirty water splashing up and coating him. He caught himself, and
leaned forward, his arms crossed, breathing hard.
     He remained still, for a moment. The weight of his armor lay on his back,
heavy and implacable in its weight. This was the weight of Sisyphus's boulder,
of Atlas' burden, it seemed.
     It would be good to lie down for a while, Bulletproof thought.
     It would be good to put the weight down... but there were the millions to
think of; the defenseless, those who cannot protect themselves.  Bulletproof
couldn't protect them all.
     Not every superhero on the planet could protect them all.
     But...maybe...Bulletproof remembered, fear could protect them all.
Bulletproof whispered into his faceplate. "If terror's needed... then call me a
terrorist."

23:3  He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his
name's sake.

                                   ***********

     Spandex Babe fired another Neophotonic blast at one of the ranks.  She was
shaken up badly.  She had fought Andy Awesome himself -- didn't he realize they
were trying to help?  Trying to--
     She ducked away from another magical blast, and threw herself to the side.
She had to catch her minty breath -- she had to think.  Bulletproof had shot
Scholarman in cold blood.  But Scholarman was a mage -- he had some trick in
mind!  He had to!  But without Scholarman, they wouldn't have been able to hold
Professor Backslash.  Where was the right side?  Who was right and who was
wrong?
     The walls were closing in on her.  She pressed her hands against her ears
-- she needed to stop and think.  She needed to figure something out -- could
she have been--
     Hands grabbed her arm, yanking her up.  A crazed looking Mage had hold of
her.  "Do you see?" he cried?  "I'm still alive?  I was wrong -- my vision was
wrong!  We have hope!  We can--"
     "Shut up!" Spandex Babe screamed, hurling the mage across the room and
into the back wall.  "We didn't want to hurt anybody!" she shouted, leaping
after him and slamming a jackhammer fist into his stomach.  "You forced us to
this, all of you -- we aren't the enemy!  We aren't villains!"  She smashed
into his body again and again, barely feeling the bones and they were splinted
and crushed.  "We didn't want to hurt you, but *you* *gave* *us* *no*
*CHOICE!!!*"
     She slammed the broken body into a wall.  "Spandex Babe!" she cried,
activating the voice-triggers and firing a Neophotonic blast into the mage.
"Spandex Babe!" she screamed again, her blasts searing and slamming into him.
She could see him convulsing through her tears.  "SPANDEX BABE!!!" she
screamed, firing a blast of semi-solid light that tore away steel-reinforced
concreted, he whole body being thrown into the attack.
     The light faded.  She stumbled to the side, suddenly exhausted.  And then
she saw the broken, barely recognizable corpse.
     The corpse of the man she had killed.
     "I... I...."
     "Dianna...Gods...."
     Spandex Babe turned.
     The Masked Bruce was standing, shocked.  He stared at her in disgust.
     "Mike?" she said in a small voice, tears welling up.  "Mike... I... I..."
     "You killed him."
     "Mike... please, I didn't--"
     "You killed him!"
     "Mike I just wanted to--"
     "YOU KILLED HIM!  YOU *BITCH*"  The Masked Bruce swing his Tihorn around,
firing a devastating Xolchapulse into the woman.  "You *bitch!*  I believed in
you!  I trusted you!"
     Spandex Babe rolled from the impact to her feet, her training bringing her
up.  "Mike -- I need your help!  I--"
     The Masked Bruce leapt into the air, firing a stream of Xolchapulses
around her and into her.  She felt her Spandex Neophotonic defenses protecting
her.  "Spandex Babe wouldn't kill!  That's what I said!  Damn you!"  The Masked
Bruce was screaming in rage.  "Damn you!  Damn you to Hell!"
     "MIKE!!!!!" Spandex Babe wailed, her vision groggy from the beating.
"Please!!!!"
     She screamed as the Masked Bruce's Xolchipaliax laser seared into her.  He
slammed her back with a concussion blast.  He knocked her into a wall with a
tractor beam.  He wasn't speaking now.  There were no wisecracks or jokes.
Just blast after blast after blast.
     According to the detailed records kept by the Mega Intelligence Bureau,
both Spandex Babe and the Masked Bruce were listed as Beta Level Paranormals.
They were among the first rank of superpowered beings on the planet, rated at
the same level as Andy Awesome, or Rad, or Smartman.  They were not as
overpowered as the Alpha Level, such as ! or Mighty Guy, but they were still
among the strongest beings on Earth.  As such, it would be hard to say who
would win a fair fight between Spandex Babe and the Masked Bruce.  But they
were not fighting a fair fight.  Spandex Babe barely responded, even as the
Masked Bruce's power broke through her defenses.  She felt her legs turn to
Jelly, she fought for sight.
     And then she could see... leaning against a wall, barely conscious, she
saw the Masked Bruce right in front of her, with the tooth end of his Tihorn
pressed against his stomach.
     "Mike," she moaned, "please say something..."
     "You're under arrest," the Masked Bruce said in a cold voice, and
detonated his Xolchipaliax Concussion Blast.  In a burst of red force, Spandex
Babe's consciousness was shattered.
     For her, the Revolution was over.

                                   ***********

     Radian slogged through the mud, staring to the right and left, saving her
energy for Bulletproof, the one who had caused all this mess, this horror.
"Heeeere, Bulletproof," she whispered.  "Heeeeeeere, killer, killer, killer.
Come and get your paaaayback...."
     The survivors of the battle, both wizards and warriors, scattered from her
path.  Those who could not run, crawled.  Those who could not crawl, burrowed
into the mud and prayed to whatever god they could that she would not notice
them, and those who could not burrow, died.
     She left boiling footprints behind her, as she hunted.

23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

                                   ***********

     "BY THE NORTHERN LIGHTS!!!!!!!" bellowed Space Moose as he flew into view
of the battlefield.  Such carnage, such destruction... "WHOEVER IS RESPONSIBLE
FOR THIS MADNESS SHALL PAY!!!"
     Increasing speed still further, the Hypersonice Herbivore screamed down
towards the shatterd walls of the old, abused prision.  Then, a thunder of
distant guns echoed through his Moosely Ears....
     "Wait!  I have heard that sound before!"  The Antlers of Steel quickly
swerved in midair, towards a series of dark billowing clouds of smoke and
flame.  "Yes, there it is again!  I cannot be mistaken, nothing in the
Multiverse sounds like....."
     As he closed, two shapes became visible at the heart of the cloud.  One
was a formerly clean, smooth aerodynamic shape that had just rammed the
massive, ugly wall of metal hanging in the air.  Both were broken, battered,
and smoking, yet still airborne. Still fighting.  And Space Moose knew why
they were fighting, for he would never forget the sound or the sight of...
     "...the guns of an Imperial Dalek Heavy Battlecruiser!  Here, over
Earth?!?!?   MY AUTHOR!!!"
     The horror of the scene froze the Mighty Moose in his tracks.
     "It cannot be...how could Davros have come...to this Altverse..."
     But there was no denying the smoking, chunky ship that floated before him
like a plastic model suspended over a studio smoke machine on barely hidden
wires.
     "And my Moose Sense...tells me...Benedict is aboard that ship..."
     The Antlers of Steel furrowed his brow in concentration, trying to
interpret the impossibility before him with his Moosely Mind.  Finally, his
eyes opened wide.
     "OF COURSE!"  he bellowed, "That ship is exactly the same class that
carried Benedict and I to this Altverse!  After our escape, Davros must have
simulated the clever modifications that I made to the engines of the 2402, and
flown this ship here!"
     He looked down at the carnage on the ground all around him.  Even to one
as dim as Space Moose, a pattern emerged.
     "Mages, and..." again, he gasped.  "DALEK WARRIORS!!!  They are killing
the magi!  Then this must be......"
     He searched his vast, empty skull for words he had hear only in passing in
news broadcasts.  "The Industrial Revolution!  Yes, it is so clear to me now!
Davros, the evil master of the Daleks, sent this ship to seek revenge upon
myself and Benedict!  Upon arrival, he realized that Earth was too powerful to
invade because of the strength of the native magi and superguys!  So he
secretly launched the Industrial Revolution through spies and skullduggery, to
remove the Earth's magic!  This must be what Benedict has been monitoring from
MooseLodge since the fight with the Grangers- he predicted the attack of
Davros, and was trying to uncover his secrets and save the mages!  Only Davros
must have detected Benedict, which is why..."
     His gaze wandered towards the battlecruiser as it bore down upon it's
small opponent.
     "...my Moose Sense tells me Benedict is aboard!  Davros has KIDNAPPED
Benedict and is holding him aboard that ship, forcing him to reveal the
weaknesses of Earth's defenses!  Even now, the evil Davros is using his weapons
of destruction against......MY GOD, THE AWESOME FORCE ONE!!!!!!!  IT IS
BEATEN!!!!"
     The Antlers of Steel took a deep, minty breath, rolling up the sleeves of
his spacesuit costume.
     "The Awesome Force is beaten!  Benedict is in danger!  The heros below
are occupied with the Dalek warriors, so there is no one left but me to do the
job!  THIS LOOKS LIKE A JOB FOR SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE
MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
     And so, having *completely* misunderstood nearly everything happening
around him, Space Moose charged the alien starship.

                                   ***********

     Hecate heard the cry overhead, and looked up, despite herself.  It nearly
cost her - a bullet clipped the tip of her ear, and she scrambled away before
the bubba who had fired it could reload.
     "Dar, where the hell are you?" she hissed.
     A Dalek rolled by, its eyestalk clogged with roses.  Hecate decided not to
bypass the opportunity, and blasted it with a destruction spell.  It fell
apart in front of her, the roses dropping to the ground.  DEATH KNIGHT 3000
ran past, obscuring the visual (and in some cases, the olfactory) senses of
man and machine alike with flowers.  Burnout's fiery blasts scattered more
troops.
     They seemed to be winning, on the ground, at least.
     So where had Dar gotten to?  If he had abandoned her here...
     A liquid blast from Rainy Day Woman shot wide of the mark and hit
Hecate square in the face, knocking her down a small hill.  She landed atop
someone, who groaned.
     "I'm sorry, mother," he mumbled.  "I promise never to use the Spell of
Eternal Bladder Distemper on the cat again."
     "Dar, you fool, wake up!" Hecate hissed.
     "I've got this goop on my face, Hecate," Dar said.  "Will you peel it off
and make it better?"
     Hecate sighed.

                                   ***********

     "Hit the starboard thrusters!" came a loud, commanding, unmistakeable
voice from the door to the Brain.
     "What!?" Exclaimed Chris as he whirled around.
     Damien, slipping in and out of conciousness as he dangled from the
ladder, saw Anne move like a ghost across the floor.  Her shoes and pants
cuffs were torn, and absorbing rivulets of blood that ran from tiny cuts on
her ankles. Blood dripped more profusely from a gash in the palm of her right
hand.  To Damien, she drifted quickly across the floor to the consoule next to
Chris. Her right hand rose and came down leaving an arc of blood like a
sanguine vapor trail.  She nailed the starboard thrusters and the massive
airship swung like wrecking ball into the hull of the Dalek cruiser.
     Guns crumpled.  Plates of alien alloys crumpled under the force of
colliding awesomeantium like they were tin foil.  Explosions ran along the
porcupine like turrents like hellish dominoes. The ship pulled back and began
to turn.

                                   ***********

     "Secure from collision stations!"  Benedict silenced the damage-control
lights and sirens that had lit up after Awesome Force One's insane ramming
attack.  The damage done was serious, but not crippling- surely the human crew
aboard the airship should have realized that their craft was simply too small
to bring down the 2402 that way.
     "Starboard broadside non-functional!  Starboard broadside non-function!"
The RoboDaleks shouted across the hazy bridge.
     "Disregard."  Benedict looked over a systems display.  "Enemy weapons are
eliminated.  The air vehicle has lost maneuvering capability.  Ascend and arm
batteries Nine-Alpha and Twelve-Beta for...."
     "Incoming fightercraft!  Incoming fightercraft!"  Benedict spun and glared
with annoyance to the robot at the point-defense console.  Conventional
fighters were of no consequence, the 2402 still packed enough antiaircraft
firepower to hold off an entire CowFighter assault wing.  The RoboDalek's
limited intelligence was over-reacting after the damage inflicted from the
brief assault by the Team M.E.C.H.A. jet a few moments...
     It wasn't a fighter.
     "Increase power to aft defense guns!  Increase power!  INCREASE POWER!!"
For the first time, Benedict computed a significant chance of failure.  Someone
was finally taking advantage of the battlecruiser's biggest weakness, although
the attacker almost certainly had no way of knowing that.  Given the starship's
rather blatant display of firepower, only someone very stupid would even
contemplate a lone attack.  Someone like...
     "Space Moose!  Exterminate Space Moose!  Exterminate!!  EXTERMINATE!!!"
Intense laser fire tore the air apart, while hundreds of launchers fired
thousands of missiles at the approaching Moosely form.  A few kept firing at
the retreating M.E.C.H.A. jet, the computer overriding Benedict's commands to
concentrate all weapons on a single target.  By it's own logic, the big
Robotech plane was a much more serious threat than any single missile shaped
like a flying herbivore.  But then, the Dalek computer had never quite
understood the concept of superheros.   It certainly didn't understand why it's
commander wanted to re-target the main antiship weaponry on one.
     "EXTERMINATE SPACE MOOSE!!"

                                   ***********

     With a sound like the bursting of a thousand steam engines, Bulletproof
surged to his feet. Somewhere on the battlefield was Radian, the one who had
started it all.
     Radian. Perfect.
     "Yea," said Bulletproof, as he took a step that sent shock waves out
through the mud, "though I walk through the valley of  the shadow of Death," and
he took another step, "I shall fear no evil," and another, "because I," and
another, "am the baddest," another, "son of a," another "BITCH," another "in the
valley," and his fists slammed together with the report of a cannon.
     He was out of machine-gun ammunition, he knew.
     His armor was dented, damaged, seared.
     He had no grenades, no shells, no bombs.
     His faceplate was cracked.  He was in agony.
     There was almost nothing left in his inventory.  Each step he took, took
another chunk out of his reserves of will.  That was okay.
     It just meant he had to be a little more traditional.

23:5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou
anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

(continued in part three, following...)