🚀 go-pugleaf

[Continued From Part Two!]

        "Ok guys," Mr. Morbid announced boldly "this is our position,
we must take it at all costs.  The only way we get to quit is to die. Or,
at least until we're ordered to do something else.  I prefer the later part
myself, but you get the idea."
        Morbid scanned the wall of infected superguys.  There was a light
sprinkling of brightly colored capes, spandex, and hero-hair (the kind that
goes in all directions and looks terrible on a normalguy, but is very
distinguished and dynamic for superguy) amidst the wall of mind-controlled
superguys.  "There has to be more tacky here than in the entire decade of
the 70's," he told himself quietly.  They needed a plan. But what?  There
were so many of them.
        Luckily, Morbid wasn't alone this time.  The big schemers had told
him that he was the most qualified one in his group to lead the charge for
his position which they referred to as: "Way, way far over there to the
right."
        Morbid breathed in deeply and exhaled.  He resolved that if the TFA
gang thought he could do it, that he could do it.  "Ok guys, here is the
plan.  I'm not usually one for a lot of strategy, but I  think it's obvious
that we need one here," he said and allowed himself a small chuckle.  "I've
read the 'Art of War' before. Skimmed it, actually.  But I think I got the
gist of it.  So, here is the plan.  I'll take the point, one person get's
my back, and they rest take the flanks.  We'll drive a wedge right through
them." He paused and waited for any final questions, comments, and last
minute confessions.  There weren't any.  "One last thing.  Remember! We're
playing for keeps here.  So, if you see a superguy you know, don't stop and
ask for an autograph!"
        Morbid waited a few seconds more.  "Ok, let's do this thing!"
He turned to high-five his troops, just like any good commander would, and
realized there weren't any troops.
        "Eugene!"
        *Yes, Morbid?" the Shadow Minion replied.
        "Why didn't you tell me I was talking to myself the whole time?"
        *Your inspirational speech was so convincing that I had to let you
finish.  It even made me want to rush head-first into an
inevitable horrible demise.*
        "Never mind that," Morbid replied in frustration, "what
happened to the people that were standing behind me during position
assignments?"
        *You walked away before they were assigned to 'way, way far to the
left.'  I am afraid that it is just us here.  Wait.  My mistake. Just you.*
        Morbid sighed.  "I thought those guys behind me were just
being stoic.  Damn!"
        *Surely you realized that something was amiss when they said
that you were the most qualified of your group.  That should have made it
obvious even to you.*
        "I'm the *only* one in my group!"
        *Now you are catching on.*
        The conversation was interrupted when Morbid noticed an advancing
army of brainwashed superguys advancing on him quickly.
        "I wonder what Sun Tzu would do?"
***
     Jack and the rest of his team looked at the horde of superguys that
slowly began to advance upon them. Few of them looked like they had more
than a day or two of practice with their powers, but that was almost
unimportant. There were only six on Jack's team and many hundreds of enemy
to fight; the enemy could easily win by numbers. Still, they had to put in
a good showing.
     "Attack plan Delta!" yelled Jack, prompting Shard and Karen to move
forward, while the other four moved to one side, ready to cover their
teammates.
     "Just be ready to fight," whispered Angellica to Avril, who nodded
slightly and pulled a tuning fork from her boot. In spite of her shy
nature, the young mage had insisted on fighting alongside the rest of the
team. Given the nature of the debt which Avril felt she owed, Angellica
knew that it would have been impossible to dissuade the young woman. She
only prayed that she would not have to explain her reasoning to Avril's
father, in the event of a tragedy.
     Karen judged the range to the approaching superguys for a moment,
before raising her arm to firing position. Shard glowed brightly with
anticipation, its own power at the ready. With a grin, Karen summoned a
tiny fleck of antimatter which flew towards the ground in front of the
advancing line of superbeings. At the same moment, Shard raised a domed
shield around the fleck, leaving a large hole in the barrier.
     Antimatter is not a fun substance to play around with. It should
_always_ be kept out of the hands of small children, house pets and insane
tech geniuses. Even the tiny speck which Karen had shot at the unsuspecting
ground had the potential to Really Ruin Someone's Day. As ground and fleck
met, there was a massive explosion which left a massive crater - and more
importantly kicked up rocks, dirt and very surprised earthworms. This
detritus was kept from striking Karen or the rest of her team by Shard's
shield, but was quite happy to find that it could pass through the hole at
shield's front. The advancing superguys were buffeted by fast-moving
debris, knocking many unconscious and bruising the rest. Karen and Shard
had practised this manoeuvre enough to prevent any of the wreckage from
moving at terminal velocities.
     "Good shooting!" cried Jack, as Shard lowered its shield. "Follow up -
attack plan alpha!"
     "Try to take down as many as you can with one shot, and keep defence
your top priority," whispered Angellica quickly to Avril. She wished that
the two of them had been able to go over the team's plans in greater detail
before the battle, but there had just been no time.
     Karen waded into the middle of the wave of superguys, trusting her
invulnerability to be the best defence. Obediently, the attacking superguys
swarmed about her, pummelling with every sort of attack imaginable, and
quite a few that weren't. Karen grinned as she tapped a bloated, floating
man into unconsciousness. This was going to be fun.
     Meanwhile, Shard and Boomer were coordinating their attacks to try to
take down as many opponents as possible. They would have preferred if
Angellica could add her own powers to the mix, but she had taken up
position with Avril, so the two had to be adaptive. Boomer began growing
knockout gas capsules on his arm, which he would pluck out and toss into
the air. Shard responded by batting said capsules into the midst of the
enemy psychokinetically, for maximum effect. A few dozen enemy troops went
down before they reached the pair's position, forcing a tactical
withdrawal. Shard grasped the organic gadgeteer in its mental grip and few
him above the crowd. From his leg, Boomer plucked a fleshy wide-angle stun
cannon, and went to town, opening up on the enslaved superguys.
Unfortunately, he didn't notice the trio of winged anthropomorphs flying
towards him, talons extended.
     Jack happened to glance up as he sped about the field of battle,
trying to knock out as many people as he could without seriously hurting
them. Sighing, he noticed the bird-men headed Boomer's way. Would the man
never learn to watch his back? The answer was probably no, and it was time
to try out a new power trick that he had hoped would work. Jack knew that
he could absorb speed somehow, and use that speed himself. He had also
experimented with transferring speed to objects, which had met with great
success. But Jack knew that he couldn't react as quickly as he needed while
running at Mach speeds, which begged the question: how did he do it? The
anti-speedster suspected that the answer lay in being able to control his
direction of travel. It was time to see if he was right, and if the effect
could be transferred. Jack concentrated on one of the eagle-men, who had
begun a death-dive towards Boomer. Suddenly, the winged attacker squawked
with fright as his entire forward velocity was switched to a downward one.
He caromed into the ground, his speed reduced by Jack at the last minute to
prevent him from being seriously hurt. The other two bird-men fluttered in
the air, confused by their ally's strange suicide drop. Their confusion was
only increased when Jack gave them both rapid downward speeds of their own.
Boomer looked behind himself, blinked, then gave Jack a thumbs-up. Jack
nodded slightly, before returning to the battle at hand. He hated even
knocking out his opponents - especially ones who weren't responsible for
their own actions - but it was something that had to be done.
     The group continued fighting, long into mid-morning, using up spells,
gadgets, endurance and strength. Morale would have been improved if only it
looked as though they were making some - any - difference.
***
        On his front, Battletank was equally frustrated.  His plasma
blaster could take out three or four superguys at a time, but they seemed
to be replaced almost as quickly as he could subdue them.  His charges
wouldn't last forever; and even worse, some of the transformed superguys
seemed to be capable of firing back, or at least reflecting his charges.
The whimsically-colored stickers with which Mary Agnes had adorned his riot
armour were peeling off and fluttering away in the breeze every time he was
singed.
        Windswimmer, meanwhile, hovered overhead in a frantic mid-air
wrestling match with a man at least twice her size.  Fortunately his size
advantage was less relevant in the air, and she managed to get him in a
choke hold, squeezing his neck until he lost consciousness, then dropping
him on top of a petite brunette woman who was sneaking up behind
Battletank.  Inspired, Windswimmer began picking up chunks of concrete and
other debris created by the battle, carrying them high into the air and
flinging them down upon the attackers.
        "Good goin', Windy!" bellowed Battletank.  "See enny decent
openings down thar?"
        Windswimmer scanned the crowd from her vantage point and noted a
spot that seemed only five or six people deep, rather than seven or eight.
        "Try there, to your right!" she cried back, swooping down to heft
up a chunk of marble and sidestroking it to a suitable location overhead,
where she reduced the number by one.  At the sickening crunch, Judy
couldn't help but wince underneath her mask.  "These people...  they're
mind-controlled pawns!" she mused.  "And I could be one of them...."  But
there was no time for sentiment.  Windswimmer looked around for another
rock to drop.
***
     HotFlash spun in midair to avoid the attack of Mammalimal, Flinger of
Small Warm-Blooded Creatures.  Two badgers and a vole shot by, striking
another of Maladroit's superguys.  Mammalimal had no second chance --
HotFlash's flame burst toasted his spandex and sent him yelping into the
distance for Bactine.
     There was no end to the combatants, it seemed.  Despite its best
efforts, CalForce's members had been separated by the sheer volume of
super-powered opponents they faced.  Most were no more powerful or talented
than Mammalimal, but they didn't need to be.
     "Hai kiba!" the misshapen martial arts master Leghead exclaimed, as he
attempted to headbutt her with his foot.  She grabbed his ankle-like neck
and held firm as she launched into a vigorous tickling maneuver that
incapacitated the Heel of Hong Kong for the rest of the episode.  No sooner
did she succeed in doing this than something thin and shiny wrapped around
her arms and legs, hoisting her well into the air.
     "Hey there!" Criticalman called, as he spun her around from where he
stood.  Next to him was Kid Gothic and Baffled Boy, keeping opponents away
from Criticalman and trying to figure out the mystery behind laffy taffy,
respectively.  "Sorry about all this, but my master Maladroit has commanded
that you die!"
     "How'd you get out, anyway?" HotFlash asked, as she struggled to burn
the celluloid, which resisted her flame.
     "Jump cut," Criticalman informed her.  "Thanks for bringing us back to
Canada, anyway.  We'd've never made it if we'd had to take the bus!"
     [stock footage: bus being hijacked to Cuba.]
     Before HotFlash could answer, Criticalman whipped her over his head.
The film he projected from his fingers yanked her along, slamming her into
the ground with painful force.  He whipped her into the air again,
preparing for another strike.
     "Excuse me," a beefy voice interrupted.  "But can I have your
autograph?"
     "Why, sure," Criticalman said, automatically, turning around and
reaching for what he presumed would be a pen and an autograph book.
Instead, he got a solid, meaty right hook to the jaw.  The film snapped
away from his fingers, setting HotFlash free.
     "Another blow for USDA-approved justice!" Commander Frank bellowed,
his hot-dog-filler cape blowing in the wind heroically, while Criticalman
slumped to the ground.  "Well, one down, a few thousand or so to go!  I
guess I'd... what ARE you doing, young man?"
     "Hmmm?" Baffled Boy asked, as he wiped his lips.  Frank noticed that
several bites had been taken out of his right forearm, and shifted his mass
to restore his heroic form before punching Baffled Boy in the gut.
***
     This wasn't a battle, it was a bar brawl.  At least, that was Kim
Nelson's interpretation of the wild fight going on around them.  No matter
how many people you hit, there were always more ready to jump right in and
try to pummel you into the ground.  Downright frustrating, it was.
     "Calm down," Michael muttered from her side.  As the toughest two
members of their little subgroup, they were 'privileged' to take point.
Behind them, Lee Stands and Julie Baker fired on the continual wave of
attackers, Julie floating several feet above the ground.
     Ben Washington stood behind and to the side of Michael.  They'd formed
a good team -- Michael battered anyone who got past Lee and Julie's blasts
and then moved on to the next attacker, letting Ben finish the weakened
person off.  But despite the success of the team, it was like trying to cut
the yard with a pair of scissors.
     "Reflex cannon, nuke, cathedral sized chunk of rock..." Kim muttered
to herself.  Simulations she could handle fine, but she was having trouble
holding on to her temper in the middle of this
insanity.  In the training room, there was the niggling little piece of
knowledge that everything was fake and the worst that could happen was a
humiliating loss.  Here...
     Kim grunted as she blocked a punch from a brute in front of her, then
went low and swept the man's feet out from under him.  Well, at least most
of these people had no idea how to fight or use their powers.  She knelt
down quickly, gave the man a few final punches while Lee's blasts flew over
her head, then moved on to the next person charging.
     Keep it up.  Don't think about the legions backing up whoever you're
fighting, just about the person who you're up against right now.  No fear.
Really.
***
        HMR-One scanned the 'wall' of superguys, looking for a few
specific people in the crowd of Maladroit-controlled people.  He didn't
need the life form counter that was part of his robot body's software to
tell that the number of opponents he and the other heroes were facing was
in the thousands.  Which was good, as the counter had given up at two
thousand.
        _Thanks a lot,_ Arnie, the Computer Intelligence that controlled
the robot (and which, in a sense, was HMR-One's secret identity), thought
as he shut the counter off.
        Finally, he spotted the people he was looking for -- the same
superguys that had attacked Greystone Engineering earlier.  They were all
there: the woman with the electro-kinetic powers, the hulking man, the
flying girl, and the man with energy powers.
        And with them were David Harris, Arnie's best friend, and Mitch,
the man who invented the HMR-One robot that Arnie was currently 'wearing'.
Arnie felt the approximation of his heart sink.
        He knew what was coming.
        And he knew what he had to do.
        "Who the heck is *this* guy?" Steve asked as the black armored
robot headed straight for the group.
        ++Obviously not Arnold Swarzenagger,++ Mark, Steve's gestalt
partner, quipped inside his head.
        "Obviously," Janet replied in her usual calm demeanor.  "He's all
yours, Steve."
        "Thanks, Ja-"
        "Hey, wait!" David Harris said from behind Janet.  "We forgot to
come up with code names!"
        "Code names?" Jenni asked.
        "Yeah!"  The others just looked at David.  "Hey, everyone else has
them."
        "Fine," Janet said.  "I'll be Kinelectric.  Steve -- and Mark --
you're Bodyslam.  Sam, you're Heatwave-"
        "Hasn't that one already been taken by one of the Super Seven?"
Jenni asked.  "Sam, how does 'Thermostat' sound?"
        "Sounds good to me," Sam replied.
        "Anyway," Janet continued.  "Jenni, you're J-Girl, because I can't
think of anything better."
        "How 'bout Marvel Gal?" Steve suggested with a grin.
        "Ew!" Jenni groaned.  "I think I'll stick with J-Girl for now."
***
        Fact: Superguys with telekinetic powers are nearly impossible to
come up with code names for.  Trust me on this.
***
        "So, what about us?" Mitch said.
        "What can you do?" Janet asked.
        Mitch held out a large piece of metal and concentrated.  The metal
began changing shape, and was soon a complex-looking gun.
        "Ooooooo," the others said.
        "Nice," Janet said.  "We'll call you Mechaniwiz."
        "Hey, whatever," Mitch said.
        "What can you do, David?" Jenni asked.
        "I dunno," the young man said.  "I haven't discovered my powers yet."
        "Just don't explode on us," Sam said.
        "I suppose we need a team name," Janet said.
        "Would help," Mitch said.  "Though I doubt we'll all be assigned to
the same place once Maladroit takes over the world."
        "True... Aha!" Janet said.  "We'll call ourselves...."
        (Dramatic pause.)
        "Yeeessss?" the others asked.
        Hey!  Don't interrupt a dramatic pause.
        "Sorrrreeee..."
        (Rest of dramatic pause.)
        "...Team Temporary!" Janet finished.
        ++And I thought the other names were bad...++ Mark 'said'.
        "I heard that!" Janet said.
        ++Sorry.  I forgot about the telepathic link between all of us.++
        "Ahem," HMR-One ahemed from where he was standing several feet away.
        "Hmm?" Janet blinked.  "Oh, sorry.  Team Temporary... ATTACK!"
***
     Ted Baxter wasn't sure if not being on the front lines was good or bad
right now.  Sure, being up there would really increase the chances of
getting turned into Kal-Kan, but at least then he wouldn't have to be
running around in the background trying to clean up the messes everyone
else left behind them.  He and Gerry Anderson had been assigned to make
sure all of the people their allies were beating down didn't just jump back
up and leap to the attack again when everyone had their back turned.
     "Okay, Gerry.  Everyone over here's ou.."  Ted blinked suddenly. "Drop
and roll!"
     A half man, half rabbit leapt into the air, just recovering from a
rather bad beating.  The mentally dominated superguy prepared to jump for
Ted as soon as he hit the ground, but had a little trouble.  You would too,
if your perceptions started to melt like clocks in a wilderness.  The
creature stumbled in his landing and fell to the ground, desperately trying
to restore his equilibrium.  Then the mental blast Ted sent managed to
convince him that sleeping would be a much better idea.
     "*Now* is everyone out?" Gerry grumbled.
     "Um... yeah.  Sorry about that."
     "Whatever."  Gerry gestured, and a collection of grass and weeds grew
over the fallen around them.  Not that it would do too much good if anyone
there had powers in the slightest bit useful, but it was better than
nothing.
     Ted gave another glance out at the main battle, so close to them.
Still, it seemed miles away right now.  "C'mon, Ger.  Plenty more moaning
bodies to take care of."
***
        The robot known as HMR-One wasn't doing quite as well as he had
hoped.  While Kinelectric's electro-kinetic blasts couldn't penetrate his
armored skin, the large man known as Bodyslam turned out to be stronger
than he looked.  Thankfully, HMR-One's robot body was pretty tough, so it
took some effort on the superguy's part before warning messages started
showing up on the robot's visual systems.
        "Arrrrrrgggghhhh," HMR-One groaned as Bodyslam continued his bear hug.
        "This is gonna be easy," Bodyslam said.
        ++Careful, Steve.  Don't get over...++
        Enough was enough.  HMR-One planted his feet firmly on the ground,
pried the man's arms off of him, then picked him up and through him back
towards the others.
        ++...confident,++ Mark finished.
        "Ow," Bodyslam said.
        "Maybe I can melt through its hide," Thermostat suggested. He
raised himself into the air, then fired blasts of heat straight at the
robot.
        [+ Warning: Temperature tolerance reduced due to stress
damage to armor, +] a female computer voice said in the back of
Arnie/HMR-One's mind.
        "Thanks for telling me," HMR (I'm tired of typing "-One" so much,
okay?) said.  He raised his right arm, the forearm mounted taser extending
into position, then fired a stun blast directly at the superguy.
        "Uggghhh," Thermostat groaned as he fell to the ground.
Fortunately, J-Girl was able to catch him telekinetically, and lower him
safely to the ground.  "That stung."
        HMR then turned to the one superguy who hadn't attacked him or used
his powers yet.  "David, it's me... Arnie."
        "You know, I *knew* your voice sounded familiar," David commented.
        "David, listen to me," Arnie/HMR continued.  "You're not yourself.
None of you are.  You're being controlled by a madman named Maladroit."
        "We knew that," David said.  "He's our lord and master."
        Inside the HMR robot's computer, Arnie nearly fell over.
        ++Hey, David, now would be a good time to see what powers you've
got,++ Mark 'said'.
        "It would?" J-Girl asked.
        "It couldn't hurt," Thermostat said.
        "Right," David said, and began concentrating.
        "David, listen to me...." Arnie pleaded.
        He was cut off as David's body began glowing, somehow turning into
energy, clothes and all.  Then, his now-energy body shot forward, colliding
with the robot.
        [+ Warning: Second Intelligence detected in system. +]
        "Oh, poopy," Arnie said, switching his perspective to cyberspace mode.
        The HMR-One robot froze in place.
***
        Jon Perceptor, Earth Girl, Soundbyte, and Starwave looked up from
the computer screen they were watching.
        "Hi," Earth Girl said.  "We don't actually appear in this episode,
or this crossover, for that matter."
        "Thank goodness for that," Soundbyte said.
        "Yes," Jon said.  "Interesting timing, that.  I've been wanting to
see the Beanstalk in person."
        "Oh, be quiet," Soundbyte said.  "You're just jealous."
        "Am not."
        "Are too."
        "Am not, and I'm not going to continue this argument.  It's silly,"
Jon said, turning back to the computer.
        "Anyway," Starwave said.  "We now return you to the episode, still
in progress."
***
        Inside the cyberspace that was the computer system of the HMR-One
robot, two cyberspatial entities fought.
        "David, will you please listen to me?" Arnie asked, hiding behind a
GIF of a wall.
        "Nope," his opponent said, rezzing up a crane and wrecking ball to
demolish the virtual wall.  Arnie recognized the crane as being one from
Mitch's collection of images of various machinery, and groaned; the entire
collection was probably somewhere in the system.  Little did he know that
it was there because Mitch had been using it to test the system's memory
and had forgotten to remove it.
        "Man, this is *great*!" David exclaimed as he dodged a text file
thrown his way.  "I know what I can call myself:  Kid Virtual!" he said as
he continued chasing Arnie.  "Now, if I can put Arnie temporarily out of
commission, I can take control of the HMR-One robot."
        "Not if I have anything to say about it," Arnie said, throwing a
GIF of a very large beach ball towards David.  He watched as it flew
towards the young man...
        ...seeming to take a while to get there.  Arnie reached up with a
virtual hand to scratch his head, and noticed that his arm was moving
sluggishly.
        "Whhaatt'''ss happpeennnninnnggg???" he asked.
        "Iiiiii thhhiiiiinkkk theeee loooaaaaddd iiiiissss toooo
grrrrreeeeaaaaatttt," David replied, also lagged.
        Arnie managed to get out a grumble, and sent a control-c to the
image viewer, closing the image.  A short eternity later, the beach ball
vanished, and everything returned to normal speed.
        "Now that was interesting," Arnie said as both he and David
recovered from the lag.
        "Mitch probably didn't finish putting in all of the processor chips
and memory," David said, 'flying' straight at Arnie.
        "Oh, no you don't," the CI said, jumping out of the way. David,
unable to 'turn' in time, ran into an unused sector of the computer's
memory.
        "Computer: Lock sector and maintain lock until told otherwise by
*only* myself," Arnie said triumphantly.
        [+ Error: myself: process not found. +]
        "Um, right."  Arnie paused to check what process number he he was,
then continued.  "Computer: Lock sector and maintain lock until told
otherwise by process ID 237."
        [+ Lock engaged. +]
        "Hey, you can't do this!" David said as he tried and failed to get
out of the sector.  Despite his newly-discovered computer powers, he wasn't
able to
        "Sorry, David," Arnie said.  "But this is the only way I can keep
you out of trouble until a cure is found for Maladroit's mind control."  _I
just hope this robot survives that long..._ he added mentally.
        Not bothering -- or wanting -- to say anything else, Arnie shifted
his perspective back into the real world.  A total of twelve seconds had
passed.
        The remaining members of Team Temporary tensed as the HMR-One robot
began moving again, and waited as it turned its head to look at each of
them.
        "David?" Janet asked.  "Did you succeed."
        The robot gave her a thumbs-up.
        "YAY!" the Maladroit-controlled superguys cheered, letting their
guard down.
        Needless to say, the taser blasts that stunned most of them into
unconsciousness came as a bit of a surprise.
        "DOWH!" Bodyslam exclaimed slapping his forehead.
        ++Um....++
        "What?" Bodyslam asked.
        "I didn't say anything," HMR-One said.
        ++You do realize that we're without backup unless we ask for help,
don't you?++ Mark 'asked'.
        "Y'now," Steve/Bodyslam said.  "I think we oughta find some other
superguys to fight."
        ++Good idea,++ Mark said dryly as the hulking man ran towards
another part of the battle.
        "Oh, no you don't," HMR-One said as he chased him.
***

[Continued In Part Four!]