About the time I was going to push into the front of the building with the two others from the brigade and the hero Chuck, Midnight was rushing into a local corner store. Except it wasn’t on the corner, so it was just… a store?
“Hi I need all of your sports drinks put them on the tab of the hero association okay? Thanks!”
Midnight opened a fridge with Mage’s Reach while the clerk stared on in confusion. Then Even more confusion as a small tower of tuna cans appeared out of nowhere, while suddenly primary colored sports drinks began to disappear from the fridge as the floating, semi-translucent hand touched them.
“Okay thanks bye!” Midnight said, running out the door before they could even think to block it.
-----
Having heard Rodentia threatening to literally tear apart the members of the Mod Squad, we figured it was time to run in and either deescalate the situation or at least make sure one side won smoothly. And while it sounded like my preferred side was already winning, there was no guarantee that such would remain the case.
Shockfire took point as we charged the building, a few cyborg lasers targeting him from inside as we approached. Chuck had finished taking care of the ones outside, throwing them with his telekinetic powers. He couldn’t accurately crash them into each other, but smacking them into the ground was a shot even he couldn’t miss. They’d probably survive, concussed.
We had our own cyborg with lasers beams as well, and Kick went legs first through what used to be a window- destroyed before we showed up- blasting down a few targets. It wasn’t weird that as a former member of the Mod Squad he could easily defeat their members. He knew their weaknesses, and more importantly the Power Brigade didn’t hire people who weren’t worthwhile- or who couldn’t become worthwhile.
Our main goal being to gain a proper understanding of what was happening, we forced our way into the building, taking out the Mod Squad members on one side. The ground floor of what had once been an electronics store of some sort might have had poor lines of sight once, but now there were so many fallen shelves- half of which had been turned into cheese- we could see basically everything going on, especially around Rodentia.
The woman was cackling, though I couldn’t quite see her through the uh… Adaptive RAT Shielding she was covered with. Wait, was I conflating two things? She was definitely covered by swarms of robot rats, which was the first one I remembered. Then there was the other thing.
A dozen or so beams of cyborg heat-ray-laser-things struck her at once, revealing the clear shape of a super tech barrier. Which was supposed to be a bunch of hexagons, but I realized that particular piece of technology had been reclaimed during a previous mission. So instead… robot rats appeared to teleport into the paths of the attack. I was pretty sure she was going to get her mad scientist shield license revoked unless she turned those rats into hexagons.
Of course, Rodentia wasn’t the only one covered in robotic rats. A few members of the mod squad were as well, screaming in terror until the swarm left them alone- minus their fancy robot eyes, arms, and legs. At least she left them their hookups so they could replace things without too much fuss. Or maybe she didn’t want to clean off the blood.
“Unfortunately for you, the latest shipment of cpus shipped to this store has been claimed by myself. So you can all run back to your iron mom and complain about not getting upgrades today. Shoo!”
The back of the building trembled. “Is that so?” came a booming voice. Then a ten foot wide section was blasted apart. The dust settled to reveal a large truck, and a full robot standing there. “Actually, we’re the ones who are going to be leaving with everything.”
“Iron Shell!” Kick hissed. “Dammit, I didn’t think she’d be here.”
“Oh!” I nodded. “She’s the boss lady, right?” So not a robot then. Just… enough cyborg replacement parts that I couldn’t see anything else. Well, some of that might have been armor covering up some vulnerable human flesh. I ducked down. “So what are the risk factors?”
“Well, aside from the lasers-” Kick began to explain. And then he disappeared for a moment as light brighter than the sun filled my vision. A moment later, I could see a clear hole bored in the rubble he’d been sheltering behind, and I could feel his Energy Ward was nearly depleted almost instantly. “... X-ray vision.”
“What a fortunate day,” Iron Shell said. “I can take out an unfortunate rival… and a traitor.”
A Sonic Lance from my hand struck her directly in the chest, and she took half a step back to keep her balance. That… was the only apparent effect of my spell. “Oh,” I said. “So she’s one of those modest size heavies.” I had some goggles for this sort of thing, and with the numbers calculated… “I’m seriously betting none of that stuff is made of iron. Or at least, not mainly. She’s actually heavy. Hey, Chuck, how much can you lift?”
Obviously we weren’t just free to talk- but Rodentia didn’t simply stand around when an enemy boss entered the building. She’d already turned the getaway truck into cheese with her cheese ray, and Shockfire was blasting beams back at the Mod Squad members trying to make their way towards us.
“Eh, around a ton?” he said. “Two tons on a good day.”
“Let’s hope this is a good day, then,” I said. “Grab that robot-lady!”
“You got it!” he said. Then he reached out in front of him like he was giving a bear hug to a ghost. Telekinetic arms closed around Iron Shell’s torso, and immediately tossed himself backwards. I could see he was leaning far beyond where gravity should support him… and he wasn’t making any progress. “Ugh, it’s not enough!” Meanwhile, Iron Shell was moving around slightly slower, but still blasting swarms of rats with her lasers.
Also Kick, occasionally. I threw a quick Shield on him, since at least there was a clear directional target to block.
“Shockfire, can you return those beams?”
“Maybe if I have nothing else to focus on!” he called.
Hmm. I put a hand on Chuck’s shoulder, casting Enhance Mind. “I’ve just enhanced your mind,” I told him. “So you should be able to toss her now. If you can ever lift two tons.”
Chuck’s face was strained. “It’s no good! My main power is super strength. I use that to throw people!”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Ugh. I didn’t want to waste more mana. “I meant I enhanced your body,” I said. “I have done it with Great Girl before and she went and wrestled dragons.”
Chuck got a determined look on his face. “I might not be as strong as Great Girl, able to toss cars as I please… but I can at least throw a metal woman!” He roared, and his body finally moved backwards. Across the room, Iron Shell was picked up and flipped head first into the ground as he flipped back.
So… was it a mental power, or was that the placebo effect and he could always do that? Eh, didn’t really matter.
Even though she left a massive crack in the floor with her head, Iron Shell didn’t stop for long. In fact, her body flexed unnaturally and she slipped out of Chuck’s telekinetic grip. She crushed some of the dog-sized robot rats that were attacking her, jamming her hands inside of them and then… pointing them at us.
“Watch out for rat lasers!” I yelled.
And indeed, the rat lasers fired. Yet only for a brief instant, when there was an explosion. “Nobody is allowed to abuse my rats like that! Feel the power of cheese fusion reactors!”
It turned out, in fact, that Iron Shell did feel that power. Her arms were a mess of torn metal and exposed wires. For all of about three seconds, before the outer layers twisted and closed. Did she have technology control powers, or were her mods just that advanced? Hopefully, there was some sustained damage involved there.
Iron Shell reached down for one of her fallen companions, tearing away even the bits and pieces Rodentia had left behind. Then she reached for a metal shelf, ripping it to pieces and shoving in into a vent that opened in her chest- along with all of the electronic components on that shelf.
“I feel like this might be something we want to stop,” I said. “But unless she’s oddly weak to lightning where her minions are resistant, I’m pretty sure I don’t have something for this situation.”
Rodentia’s cheese ray clearly wasn’t affecting her either. As she was tearing things apart, a sustained beam only managed to turn one of her arms slightly yellow, instead of the shiny black chrome look it had.
Iron Shell’s right arm arm transformed into what was clearly a cannon- pointed at Rodentia fortunately- firing a spray of metal shards at her. Fortunately? Her RAT shielding blocked it. But Iron Shell’s arm was already reaching for more- another member of the Mod Squad.
Then that guy disappeared right before she could touch him. There was obviously more to it than that, but I’d seen speedsters work before. Only the wide angle allowed me to spot Sprint dragging the guy away. That didn’t stop Iron Shell from stomping forward to grab another… and when Sprint rushed in, a cone of metal shrapnel covered the whole area.
“Oh crap!” I heard the yell from across the room, and then right beside my ear. “Yeah, uh, she’s got way too good of reflexes for me to continue that.”
“Sprint! You’re back in business!” Chuck grinned.
At this point, I could feel Midnight helping Shockfire to take out the regular members of the Mod Squad. There had been dozens at the beginning, but they were probably half that when we arrived, and now there were only a few still able to act.
Sprint was chugging a blue drink. “Yeah, Midnight got me a whole stash of juice! Too bad I’m still not fast enough to deal with that robot.”
“Hey, you’re a speedster right,” I said. “What do the words ‘too fast’ mean to you?”
“There’s no such thing!”
“Great,” I said. “Time to be too fast,” I said, casting Haste on him. I waved my arm around so he could notice the change. I could feel him doing a few dozen laps around us, and then he was grabbing stuff away from Iron Shell again- and avoiding the shrapnel. “Kick. Do you know about Iron Shell? Any weaknesses?”
“We just have to keep throwing things at her. We can wear our her parts if we keep it up.”
“Understood!” Chuck said, tossing a metal shelf at her. “I have made a mistake!” Chuck said.
“Yeah, I think you should probably be tossing her into sturdy non-metal things,” I said.
“Right.” He reached out… grabbing at her shoulder and waist. And then he threw her into the central column of the building. Everything trembled.
“Hey Chuck?” I said. “Please hold that pillar up.”
“... How much does it weigh?”
“Just over two tons. I believe in you,” I lied. Twice. I looked towards the exit, and we were all kind of halfway through the building, nowhere close to escaping. Time to find out if we could survive a building falling on us.
Aaaand… nothing happened. Chuck’s face was very red, however, as he had his arms spread wide.
“Everybody evacuate!” I said. “Chuck, you hold that up for just a few more moments. We’ll have Sprint pull you out of here. Speaking of which, Sprint! Help drag everyone out of here!”
“That’s my cue.” Rodentia said. “Normally I would escape with explosive ordinance hiding my movements, but I don’t want the building to collapse on me!”
“... Building?” Chuck asked. “Wait, is this-?”
“It’s just a pillar that could have fallen on… that guy,” I pointed to a random member of the Mod Squad. “Remember, if you can, you have to save even the lives of villains! So we should get working on ourselves.”
I rushed towards the front of the building with Kick. It was unfortunate that Iron Shell showed up so he didn’t get to demonstrate his abilities more. Shockfire and Midnight were already across the street, next to a large pile of empty bottles. And a handful that still had colorful sports drinks in them.
“Building’s clear,” Sprint said, in a way I could only understand because I’d hung out around Shockwave enough to be used to sped up speech.
A moment later, Chuck was standing in front of us. His face was red and he was breathing heavily.
“Sports drink?” Sprint offered, opening one up.
“Oh, thanks!” Chuck grabbed it. Then the building collapsed. He looked over at me.
“Hey, so I lied a little,” I shrugged. But one of the things I said was true now. I totally believed in this guy.
“... Weren’t we supposed to prevent a building collapse?” Midnight said.
“It basically imploded and didn’t fall on any civilians,” I said. “So it all worked out.”
The Power Brigade probably wasn’t going to like this… but the hero association was slightly more at fault than we were. Unless we counted me telling Chuck to throw Iron Shell at something solid.
“... You think she’s dead?” Kick asked.
I put a hand on his shoulder. “I think you know the answer to that.”
“... I thought I got stronger, but it wasn’t enough.”
I shrugged. Maybe I could juice some tech super when they were working on his next upgrades. Or maybe not. But really, what he needed was to steal Iron Shell’s legs. That was a project for another time, however.
A gunshot rang out. I pat down my torso and head, but didn’t feel anything. I’d been keeping Stoneskin active, and it should have only taken some damage from the various things flying around in there. Then my vision suddenly changed, and I was down a side street before the second shot came. There in front of me on the ground was Shockfire, hand covered in blood, pressed just below his ribcage. His teeth were clenched tightly, but he still appeared to be conscious, at least.