Liam spun, a burning in his side and a flashing red warning light on his HUD declaring his suit had been breached. His emergency procedures kicked in and it dispersed foam inside his suit, around the breach and the bolt that’d caused it. Clogging the opening and preventing air from getting in from the outside.
Another sensor indicated the air outside was breathable, no sign of the green gas to be found. However, Liam decided against taking a risk and kept the containment procedures in effect.
Darting to the side of the street, Liam put his back to a building. Limiting the angles at which Skip could attack. His opponent appeared in front of Liam, the overlarge nail gun hanging in his hand.
Inspecting the weapon, it didn’t take Liam long to realize it had very little in common with its smaller cousin. This was purpose built, to sling bolts. Which were made to punch through armour, not a 2 by 4.
Pulling out another grenade, Liam tossed it forward. Knowing the result before it activated.
“Oh No!” Skip called out in mock horror as he let the cement grenade go off in front of him.
The man was again gone a second later. The cement doing little more than silhouetting where he’d been.
An attack came from Liam’s left. Liam’s staff moved to intercept as the Hero himself ducked.
The staff found empty air, to no surprise. Liam had known his opponent would teleport and was already trying to defend against the next attack. Yet the bolts in his suit limited Liam’s mobility, so he wasn’t able to react as fast as he’d have liked. The attack from behind clinked off his shoulder. The bolt careening past his helmet.
Liam’s foot reached out, searching for his opponent. With a solid thud, Liam connected with Skip’s ankle. Toppling the Cowl. Liam spun, bringing his staff down on where the man’s head had been. Only for his staff to crash into wet cement. Skip goo staining the area he’d just been.
The clicking of feet on the far side of the road cued Liam in on where his opponent had teleported to. Turning to the sound, Liam found Skip straightening himself. The look in his eyes letting Liam know he wasn’t impressed by their recent exchange.
With an exaggerated motion, Skip brushed cement dust off his shirt. The small pebbles landed on the ground around his feet while the man’s eyes stayed on Liam.
In a blink, Skip was gone again. Backing into the wall, Liam looked around. Both directions down the street were clear. Glancing up, only the blue of the sky was present. Skip was nowhere to be seen.
Second after tense second passed Liam’s breathing coming in quick spurts. The lull in the fighting was doing more to Liam’s psyche than the actual exchanges. Yet his former teammate refused to relieve the tension and stayed out of sight.
Liam shifted his feet while he looked down the street. The fight wasn’t going as well as he’d hoped, so why would Skip run? Liam shuffled his feet as he turned to look another way. Still no sign of the man.
With his back against the wall, Liam’s fingers played along the staff. Fluttering over the metal length as he tried to figure out what the teleporter was playing at.
Without warning, the wall behind Liam burst outward. Little holes were being punched through as bolts sailed out. Each metal rod striking Liam’s armour.
Spinning away from the attack, Liam saw Skip inside the building through the quarter inch holes the gun was leaving. His large weapon continued to fire forth. Punching more holes by the second.
Then, as abruptly as it started, the attack was over. Skip was gone again, his weapon falling to the ground inside the building with a clatter. Liam wasn’t buying the sudden disappearance and spun around. Looking for his foe.
Dropping a weapon that was having an impact, albeit slowly didn’t seem like something Skip would do. The man’s biggest struggle when fighting Liam in the past was breaching his armour. This weapon had proven capable of doing just that. No sane person would disregard something that capable unless they had something else planned.
Raining goo was the only warning Liam received to Skip’s change in tactics. Looking up at the source, Liam found Skip, falling from the sky, a few stories above him. A bowling ball held in either hand. Then he was gone, the bowling balls continuing their fall, rocketing towards Liam’s head.
Diving out of the way, two thuds sounded from behind Liam. Shattered concrete and bowling ball fragments were sent scattering across the ground.
Spinning to the side, Skip goo and another bowling ball landed where Liam had just been.
Letting instinct take over, Liam kept moving. Rolling from one direction to another as the sky fell down around him. It wasn’t until Liam made it to under the eave of a building that the barrage ended. The street in front of him left littered with debris, like some crazed ex bowler had taken revenge on their balls right here.
Liam looked across the street to find Skip poised as if he’d landed from a jump in a movie. One knee touching the ground while the other was bent out in front of him. One arm on the ground while the other was pointed behind. The look could’ve been on a comic book cover for all it looked like an action movie pose.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Despite his opponent’s current look being more movie star than fighter, Liam knew things had to change. He couldn’t afford to let the fight drag out any longer. Skip’s attacks were getting creative, showing how much this engagement had been on the man’s mind. The prospect of additional tactics wasn’t something Liam wanted to face. Luckily for him, he wasn’t unprepared.
Liam pulled out his last grenade. The one he’d been working on a few weeks before. With a half cocked smile, Liam threw it at Skip. Glad his helmet blocked the man’s view of his face. His opponent didn’t even bat an eye. He’d already made it through multiple foam cement grenades. What could this one do to him? If only he’d known this wasn’t a foam cement grenade, he wouldn’t be standing there, awaiting his end.
As the ball closed in on Skip, he must’ve realized something wasn’t right. Maybe it wasn’t the ball itself, but Liam instead. His body language said that this move was something important. Whatever the reason was, Liam didn’t know, and Skip didn’t have time to finish processing the information and react before it was too late.
A crease formed on Skip’s brow as the grenade activated. From all over the sphere’s surface, two pronged needles shot out. Hundreds of the things porcupined from the black ball in every direction.
Many of the needles slammed into Skip. Piercing through his suit and embedding themselves in his skin.
The rest of the street wasn’t spared from the needles. They embedded themselves into every surface. The buildings, trees, some broke through windows. Even Liam had a few bounce off his armour.
Then, as one, they all activated. The metal needles became the prongs of hundreds of tasers. Each pulsing in unison. With so many in Skip, there was nothing he could do. A debilitating surge of electricity rushed through him. Easily powerful enough to bring down anyone, even a former Hero.
From his encased space, Liam watched as his foe fell. His mind already moving to the next step, how to contain a teleporter, with one, permanent solution coming to the fore.
…
Nudge threw out his hand. Plants slithered over it before shooting forward and wrapping around a pair of struggling robots. Encasing the two before the vines transformed into a hardened trunk. The machines might continue to struggle, but the plant pillar would become their final resting place.
Turning, Nudge shot out another couple attacks. Each one knocking robots from the sky.
Nudge staggered forward as a blow landed on his back. Without looking, he grew tree bark where the attacks were coming from. The thick membrane was arrayed like fish scales over his suit. Each clinging together and to Nudge’s suit itself. Giving the man extra defense while not affecting his mobility.
Yet there was something even better than a little armour that the bark could do. When there was a lull in the attack, Nudge flexed his back and hundreds of the tiny bark scales shot out. Spraying the robot behind him with wooden shrapnel.
The scales were already regrowing before the last projectile hit the robot. Each piece of wood regrowing at a rate unimaginable in nature and just in time to block another series of blows. These were no more than a nuisance against Nudge’s new armour.
While Nudge had been focused on his back, his front was attacked again. Lasers raced forward, burning everything in their path. Nudge’s reflexes, cranked up to 150% for the fight, were the only thing that saved him from being burnt by the incoming attacks as an umbrella of wood formed in front of him. Taking the attack in his stead.
While the barrage continued, Nudge looked to the side. Snagging an incoming robot, with a potted flower grown gigantic. He used the flower to slam the machine into the ground. Disregarding the robot as it fell apart under the flower, he looked for a new target.
Another robot took the same path as the recently captured one. The enlarged flower swung up to meet it. Parts of the first robot falling to the side as it moved.
The flower met the second machine in a screech of metal over wood. Then, like an enlarged baseball bat, the flower cracked a double and sent the second machine into center field.
By the time those two robots were dealt with, the attacks from the front ended and Nudge let his wooden umbrella fall to the side. Its surface smoldering and blackened from the lasers. The dead plant no longer feeding into Nudge’s senses of the world.
“Drawing things out won’t save you!” Bank-Breaker called from his vantage on the rooftop.
Not bothering to respond verbally, Nudge created six wooden spears, then threw them blindly towards the voice, with his vines. The vines gave the attacks the added umph they needed to shut up the Cowl. And at least one of them sailed close, if the cursing from the other man was any indicator.
The feeling of victory was short lived as more attacks reigned down on Nudge. Foot by foot, he was being pressed back. Corralled away from Tank. He knew their only chance was if they joined together again. It was Hero 101. Unlike the Cowls, his side had coordination and cooperation on their side.
Pulling out one of his trump cards, Nudge reached out, palm towards the sky. Standing their Nudge felt the life of the world coursing through the soil. Every animal, root, cell responded to him. Adding their own voices to his own.
Around Nudge, the street cracked, then broke apart. The very ground itself writhing as it shot into the air. Spraying dirt and debris all over.
Each plant forked outward until the ground became a hedgerow of spikes. Each sharp enough to pierce through his foes. Even their metal armour would take a beating against this defense.
“Amazing! I love that you’ve continued to grow stronger through the years. This will make your end all the sweeter,” Bank-Breaker said.
“Surrender now. We can end this before I have to permanently hurt you,” Nudge responded.
Nudge knew the threat was empty. Even with his new walls of plants, he was being overwhelmed. This was only a stop gap.
“Permanently hurt me? Look at what you made me into!” Bank-Breaker screamed.
Nudge turned and through his twirling defense of vines found the Cowl’s trench coat falling to the ground. What was underneath could hardly be called human. The man was more metal than flesh. And it wasn’t just a missing arm, but half his abdomen and a shoulder weren’t human anymore.
“It’s time to end this!” Bank-Breaker called. The enjoyment in his voice from seconds before was gone. Only a burning desire coated it now.
From the streets around Nudge, more and more robots emerged. Each promised death to the Hero.
He couldn’t hold against this. Nudge knew the tidal wave to come was more than he could hope to match. The thought of running flashed in his mind, but he turned it away. He couldn’t leave behind those he’d gathered. He’d have to fight, and would fall.