🚀 go-pugleaf

[Continued From Part Three!]

     Peterson and his temporarily assigned Infrared Squadron hovered mere
centimetres from the ground, darting backwards and forward on thrusters as
superguys attacked. He and his group had fallen back to assist Yellow Squad
in keeping the advancing adversaries from overwhelming Amiga, and now the
six Tornado-clad troopers had formed a ring around the man. The soldiers
had been using tear-gas missiles and rubber bullets to hold back the tide,
but ammunition was now at a premium and the group was running out of
options.
     "Any ideas, Porche?" asked Peterson, firing a three round burst at a
man who shambled along, causing plants to animate and shamble with him as
he passed. The controlled superguy was spun around by the impact of the
mercy rounds and fell to the ground, insensate.
     "Call for reinforcements, and fall back to the transport for
rearming," muttered Jennings into her comlink as she loosed her
next-to-last missile at a tight group of superguys who were shooting
pasta-shaped-like-popular-cartoon-characters-in-tomato sauce from their
hands. One of them seemed able to project meatballs as well. "Or... wait a
second."
     "What're you thinking?" asked Peterson, grabbing another clip from his
hip compartment and reloading his rifle.
     "Your team all have Tornado-2m upgrades, don't they?", asked Portia,
motioning for her squad to spray-fire into the oncoming rush.
     "Don't make it sound so... so... innocent," grumbled Peterson. "You
_know_ that the 'upgrade' means it's loaded with some random device Colleen
knocked together."
     "Well now's not exactly a good time to be choosy, Al!" shouted
Jennings as she reached for another clip, and realised that she was out. "I
have to engage in hand-to-hand now, and the both our teams are nearly
depleted. Do something!"
     Peterson sighed, bowing to the inevitable as he switched the safety
off of the internal weapon which ADVANCE had installed in his suit. It was
called the 'Dorothy Mk 1', and had come with no instructions beyond a
hurried 'point your chest at the enemy and pray'. Peterson activated firing
control on this new weapon, and once the standard 'Oh Elvis, You Aren't
Serious About Firing This Thing Are You?' test pattern faded away from his
HUD, he was gratified to note that this was an area-effect weapon. He
pointed his chest in a random direction, being careful not to include any
allies in the firing solution - because STOP tended to treat 'friendly
fire' with the same attitude that most people reserved for the dining
habits of chronic cannibals - and triggered the device.
     At first, nothing happened. This was probably a feature rather than a
flaw, because ADVANCE engineers had a tendency to feel unappreciated, and
so added a moment of anticipation to their weapons for that sense of drama
and suspense. Then twin beams of cohesive energy shot from Peterson's
torso. They twisted and writhed in the air in front of him, seeming to pass
harmlessly around the enemy. Just as the disappointed trooper was about to
turn off the device and radio for relief, a swishing noise began to sound
from the centre of the beams' commingling. As Peterson watched, a mini
twister formed, moving with powerful force and manoeuvred by the twin
beams. Surprised superguys were thrown upwards or swirled around with great
speed, leaving them only time to shout 'Aunty Em!', 'What a world...' or
the more popular 'arrrrrrrgggghhhhh-*splat*'.
     Laughing, Peterson rejoined the battle, keeping one eye on the radar
on the off chance that a stray farmhouse appeared.
***
     "Whatta putz," laughed Unorthodox La-- er gir-- or... um... whatever,
as she tossed an anvil on her opponent's foot. The Clown of Titanic
Proportions yelped and scurried off as quickly as his oversized floppy feet
would carry him, looking to spread mirthful destruction elsewhere.
     "Down!" shouted an unfamiliar voice from behind Unorthodox Girl,
prompting her to stop, drop and roll as a three-round burst of mercy
bullets passed over her head, striking Mighty Mosquito on his probuscus -
which had been poised to puncture the unsuspecting Unorthodox Lass' arm.
The STOP trooper who had made the save rushed back into the fray.
     "Who was that masked man," said the unorthodox hero, as she rushed
forward to stuff a stick of dynamite into the mouth of a hulking tax
accountant who had been menacing Mr Morbid. "Happy birthday!" she shouted
with a grin, before vaulting off. The accountant blinked in confusion as
the stick's short fuse burned completely out, followed by a soft 'popping'
noise, and a small flag with the word 'Dud' popped out of the dynamite's
far end. The superguy's confusion was quickly settled as an indestructible
trash can lid impacted against his temple, driving him into
unconsciousness. Morbid shot a thumbs-up to the ALU, before wading back
into the battle, to be followed moments later by his rescuers.
***
     Commodore Amiga was mildly surprised when Chronosphere appeared next
to him, surrounded by the strange translucent bubble that was the source of
his movement powers. The armoured man turned to the naval officer.
     "I've been triangulating," began Chronosphere, his modulated voice
soft. "I've managed to locate Maladroit on my scanners, and we have an
exact fix. Are you ready to try teleporting in?"
     Amiga nodded, ready to use his powers, but his ally put up a
gauntleted hand. "No, not yours. Your range isn't great enough, and you'd
be toast before you got two jumps in. If my method doesn't work, we'll just
have to go in the old fashioned way: with guns blazing and most
importantly, _in force_."
     "All right, go ahead," nodded Amiga, finally in an area which he
understood. Sometimes the quickest way to a battle wasn't the most
strategically sound. He stepped next to Chronosphere and waited as the
bubble of energy engulfed both.
     And then the bubbled vanished, leaving both exactly where they had been.
     "Bloody hell(tm)," muttered Chronosphere, "Maladroit's already figured
out how to block me. Not so surprising since his people built this suit
but... well, I saw this future coming and got ready for it."
     "What do you mean?" asked Amiga, over the din of the fighting going on
around him.
     "We'll get the forces we brought to punch us a way in and... oh...
no..." Chronosphere's voice tapered off as his helmet tracked something for
a moment.
     "What is it?" asked Amiga, mildly annoyed by the fact that he seemed
to be the one providing all of the expository opportunities.
     "I was hoping Maladroit would be paranoid enough to hold her back,"
muttered Chronosphere, almost to himself. He raised the volume on his
speakers to maximum, prompting massive feedback.
     "Oops, sorry," bellowed Chronosphere, as friend and foe winced at the
sound. Amiga blinked twice, wondering when exactly he'd gone deaf.
"Everyone, be careful! The Dash had entered the combat! Repeat, the Dash
has entered the melee!"
     A collective groan went up from the battlefield. The day had just gone
from bad to worse.
***
     Badass let fly with several more grenades from his grenade launcher,
scattering a large knot of Maladroit's superguys and increasing the general
carnage level greatly.  At his back stood Microvax, using his micromissiles
sparingly to achieve the same effect.  Thus far, the high-firepower heroes
had gone untouched, and had pushed deep into the territory the enemy was
trying to hold.
     "We're almost there!" Badass called out.  "On my mark, we charge and
break through, 'kay?"
     "Right with you," Microvax replied, hefting his VaxAxe.  "Nothing's
going to stop us now!"
     "What?" Badass asked, suddenly frightened by the invocation of Murphy.
He didn't have time to make any further comment, as the air suddenly
exploded around him.
     When his senses returned, minutes later, the air was filled with a
cacophony of ringing noises that were coming from Microvax's suit.  The
armored hero staggered about, his suit vibrating from hundreds of impacts.
Badass tried to step forward to help him... then felt the pain.
     He looked down, and saw his belt was up around his chest.
     "Agh," he groaned, as he fell roughly to the ground.  "Hyper-
kinetic... wedgie... owieowieowieowieowie...."
***
     Michael grimaced from under a swarm of bodies.  Well, this was a
pretty picture.  These guys weren't coming close to hurting him, but it was
the principle of the thing.
     Behind him, a woman with a water body advanced on Julie, who didn't
really consider her a threat.  Lee was already down, victim of  the attack
from behind that had just thrown their group into disarray. To one side,
Ben was holding his own against a glowing man, and Kim was doing her best
to fight off an entire section of superguys by her lonesome.
     The water woman shot forward at Julie, who just snorted and poured
more heat into the shield around her.  As expected, her attacker poofed
into steam and started to dissipate.
     "That was silly," Julie muttered.  "These people really need to get a
clue."
     Julie didn't notice the cloud regroup behind her, and wouldn't have
cared if she had.  After all, she was immune to heat, so the steam wouldn't
harm her, right?  Heh.  For those of you who may not remember technical
discussions of powers, Julie was immune to heat attacks because she kept a
field an inch and a half around her at a constant temperature.  Which meant
that as soon as Mrs. Stanley Steamed entered that field, she was cooled
back off into water.  Oops.
     Ben continued sparring with his foe as Julie went down behind him,
drowning in her attacker.  Then things completely fell apart when a rush of
wind went by, leaving Ben beaten on the ground.  Kim went down next, taking
a *little* longer to fall than Ben.  Of course, it's not like most people
could tell the time difference between the two beatings.  The Dash
continued on her merry way, leaving her allies behind to continue their
work.
     The remaining Maladroited superguys turned on the pile of bodies
covering Michael and began to advance.  And under the pile, Michael slowly
grinned.
***
     "I've got you now..." muttered STOP trooper Vedding, as he carefully
took aim on a knot of superguys who were harassing MeltDown. He had worked
methodically, moving from battle to battle, using his suit's power to turn
the tide in each case. He had no squad, nor would any have accepted him. He
moved tirelessly, fighting and reloading as necessary, taking no breaks nor
rest when the opportunity presented itself. Vedding moved like a man
possessed - or a man who had a great debt to pay off. Four carefully placed
shots cleared the heroine's airspace and brought the trooper no closer to
personal absolution. Nevertheless, he queried his armour's tactical
readout, searching for his next battle. To his surprise, he noticed that
allied 'blips' seemed to be suffering heavy casualties. Here, the ALU had
lost a member to unconsciousness. There, CalForce had two of its numbers
neutralised for the moment. Several from the Sentries were down for the
count... Mr Morbid seemed to be teetering... what was happening?
    Vedding got his answer as a greenish blur, moving faster than his
scanner could track, flashed by. The trooper felt his armour rocked by
thousands of stones being hurled at it, each moving with hyperkinetic
speed. The suit was tough, but within seconds the HUD began displaying
system warnings and reporting mechanical failure in key areas. And then the
suit toppled over, its computer crashed and its power fluctuating wildly.
Trapped by the weight of his suit, Vedding reached for its emergency
release button. His heart sank as he realised that he would have to retreat
to the transport, his role in the battle done for the moment. In his soul,
Vedding cursed the woman who had moved an already unreachable absolution
even further out of his grasp.
***
     Karen Moire was interrupted from her battle with a man made entirely
of granite by several hundred 'love taps' on her back and skull. Smirking,
she turned back to her opponent, stepping up her assault. Karen knew that
there was nothing the Dash could do to take her down...
     Karen was still thinking that as she flew through the air at rapid
speeds, sailing low over the battle. She had forgotten that for all her
strength and invulnerability, she still weighed only a little more than a
normal adult woman did. Karen had been rammed into the air: a tactic that
had worked but would ultimate prove futile, as the fall wouldn't hurt Karen
in the least.
     Today was truly the day for Karen to be wrong. With a coordination
borne of being able to access each other's thoughts, two flying women
zipped through the air and grabbed the hero's arms, flying towards the
river. Karen struggled, but couldn't get enough leverage to throw either of
the two. Sighing, she prepared herself for a swim and a long run back to
the battle.
***

[Continued In Part Five!]