Sunday, September 26
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“Fursona reporting in. Nothing on North Street.”
“Copy that. I’m at Colfax—no sign of him. Over,” I said into the headphone mic plugged into my cell phone, which we’d figured out how to set to continuous transmission.
“You don’t have to say over,” Fursona’s voice—unmodulated, since it was inside her suit—came through, a little staticky. We’d agreed to keep an open line of conversation while we scouted for Theseus over Mid-Town. The idea had come from watching The Triad talk to each other, but we hadn’t had time to figure out how they’d done it. Underdelver probably had something to do with it, and I wished we had a proper Genius, not just my half-baked, villainous Lab Assistant Panic.
Still, it was better than nothing. We’d found a lot of major league Episodes and a couple of little League ones—hopefully, those kids were okay out there—but nothing that sounded like Theseus. Luckily, we’d covered most of Mid-Town, which meant there was only one place he could be.
“I don’t have to say what? Over,” I said, as much because I knew it’d get a rise as anything else.
“Over!”
“Okay, but seriously, I’m doing a fly-over of Fitch Road, then looping back toward the mall. Meet me there, and we’ll orbit around Theseus’s last known location. Maybe he hasn’t gotten started yet.”
“Got it,” Fursona said. I heard her wings beat. I turned my own flight path to cross over the mall.
The support build wasn’t ready. Pataki said they needed a week or so to experiment, so I was on my standard Costumes for now. But other than that, I was ready to rock. I dove down, cutting through the morning air over the busy mall below, and banked toward the corporate towers in Mid-Town’s center. Theseus’s dot tended to stay near the Alkirk Corporation’s tower, so we’d done some digging. They were involved in robotic prosthetics, medical supply chains, and a dozen other business ventures—but the biggest hint that he worked for them was the video footage on their site of him operating the various prosthetic weapon systems they’d developed.
He had to be inside that tower.
Fursona’s eagle form circled the building as I got close, and I joined her, flying on my [Solar Wing]. We did loop after loop of the building until finally, a Casting Call we could get behind popped up.
[Casting Call]
[Episode: The Dark Hand of Capitalism - PG-13]
[Role: Heroine! Do you accept the role? (Yes/No)]
[Role Focus: Cunning+Badass]
I accepted the Casting Call, and a moment later, something rocketed from Alkirk Tower’s top floor.
[The Dark Hand of Capitalism: Act One in Progress]
I caught a glimpse of a pointed tube as long as my arm just before it turned mid-air and javelined toward Fursona. She dove, tucking her wings in and aiming straight for it, then stalled just before it reached her, changing directions. The rocket missed, started to turn, then exploded.
I banked, holding my wand at the ready. Theseus had to have launched that rocket, and if he had…
“Fursona reporting in. Theseus is armed and dangerous!”
I rolled my eyes but positioned myself above the tower’s pointed pinnacle. Glass shone under us as we searched the building.
And then, there he was, standing on the helicopter landing pad. Theseus.
He waved with a steel arm ending in a huge blade, then aimed his other arm into the sky. Honestly, it barely qualified as an ‘arm.’ Everything below the shoulder had been replaced with a massive, multi-barrel rocket pod, one of which was still smoking from its launch. He’d swapped out his legs, too, replacing them with what looked like steel spider legs that all split from his waist. But his face still had the same trademark serious smirk.
“Hi, girls. I wondered when you’d show up. I have to hand it to you. I didn’t think you’d grow this quickly. You might actually be able to give my old self a run for his money. But Alkirk’s given me a leg up on you all. Or, in this case, six.”
I groaned. Theseus only had one kind of joke.
“I’m well on my way to being a whole new supervillain, which begs the question. Once they’ve replaced my whole body, will I still be Theseus?”
“Only if you keep those terrible puns! [Starlance]!” I shouted, waving my wand. The energy bolt ripped from it, arcing as Theseus threw himself over the landing pad’s edge. His spider legs grappled the side of the building, and he ran, but my lance arced to hit him. He tumbled down, only for his legs to skitter against the skyscraper’s side, finding purchase.
[Dramatic Damage! +1 Drama Point]
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Okay, that’s how it is, then!” Theseus shouted. He held out his rocket pod arm, and a moment later, white smoke poured from every hole as a few dozen missiles filled the air. I dove, trying to copy Fursona’s move. She banked around the skyscraper as a double handful of missiles pursued her.
I faced off against fourteen.
I dodged, spun, and even turned off [Solar Wing], trying desperately to escape the explosions behind me, but it was hopeless. As first one, then another, then a third rocket filled the air with shrapnel and flames, I used [Quick-Time Change]. The world froze, and I did the only dance that wouldn’t get me killed instantly, shifting into Rainy Day.
[Flashy Fitting Room! +1 Flamboyance Point]
[Steel Yourself! +1 Grit Point]
An explosion went off the moment I finished my dance, and I started counting. [I-Frame Transform] lasted three seconds. More and more missiles poured in, and the heat around me grew and grew with each explosion. Two seconds.
One second. The missiles kept hitting. It wasn’t going to be enough.
Zero.
BOOM!
[HP 4/11]
One last missile bored in, exploding twenty yards above me and sending a blast of shrapnel that ripped into me. I shuddered, watching my HP plummet almost as fast as I did. Theseus wasn’t playing around, and neither was Alkirk.
So it was best to let him think I’d been shot down. I fell and fell, remembering the last time I’d taken a tumble from a skyscraper. Then, two, maybe three, seconds before I hit the ground, I used my second [Quick-Time Change] and switched right back to Understudy. “[Solar Wing]!” I shouted, and the two wings erupted from my sleeves and stopped my fall.
[Flashy Fitting Room! +1 Flamboyance Point]
[Rejuvenation Activated: HP 8/11]
It wasn’t a full heal, but it was enough. I banked, then started circling up around Alkirk Tower. If I’d seen it right, Theseus had fired every rocket in his arm. He probably didn’t have a reload—that felt like a Genius tech upgrade, not like something a human engineer could design—so now was the time to push the attack!
I had other priorities, though.
Fursona didn’t have an [I-Frame Transform] to dodge damage, and as far as I could tell, she had no heals. “Fursona, come in,” I said into my mic.
Nothing.
“Fursona, are you still up?”
Still nothing. I gritted my teeth and put on speed, searching for Spider-Theseus or a wrecked, smoldering eagle fursuit—whichever I found first.
As I turned around the building, wind whipping at my hair, a shadow fell over me. I looked up to see Fursona’s gigantic eagle suit perfectly between me and the sun. Her suit was definitely worse for wear, but she was still up and running. She dove to get on my level, then tapped her head and shook it as she rolled.
I nodded. Theseus’s missile barrage must have knocked out her headset, and she couldn’t put it back in while wearing the suit. But that was fine; she hadn’t been knocked out of the fight, and Theseus had used his ranged attack too early.
We climbed, wings beating pink, blue, and feathery, and arrived at the helicopter pad just as Theseus did. He grinned, popped off his rocket arm, and replaced it with an identical blade to the first. “Well, you can’t blame me for trying, can you?”
Before I could retort, he threw himself off the edge, skittering toward the ground below. Fursona dove after him and shrieked, and I fired a [Starlance], but he clattered around the corner and kept descending as glass windows shattered inward. Extras screamed—or maybe they weren’t Extras. I couldn’t be sure, but if the Alkirk Corporation had built his weapons, were they Extras, henchmen, or villains?
I’d have to ask Rocko later, but right now, I needed to catch up to Theseus. I turned around the building’s corner, then braked hard as a sharp, pointed blade sprung toward me. It sliced into my side, and I screamed and back-flapped.
[HP 6/11]
It took a minute—and another Eagle-Sona screech—for me to stop falling, turn myself around, and re-engage, and when I did, Theseus had almost reached the ground. “[Bit-Part Barrage]!” I shouted, spinning as my wings retracted, and fired a half-dozen [Stellar Rays] his way. A couple hit, but not the all-important first blast. Before I could adjust, he clattered away again.
[Dramatic Damage! +2 Drama Points]
As Theseus touched the ground, one of his arms popped off. A moment later, a pair of drones rocketed past me. The all-too-present camera drone zipped past first, hovering backward to catch the second one, a massive thing with the Alkirk logo plastered on its side. I fired a [Starlance] at it, but it threw chaffe into the air, and my energy bolt missed.
Then it dropped a new arm, which Theseus immediately installed.
This one looked like a launcher, but not for a bunch of rockets—just one projectile. He aimed it at me.
PFFWUMP!
A hook zoomed right toward me faster than I could bank. It slammed into me, not doing any damage, and then pulled back. I jerked painfully in the air as it yanked me toward Theseus, firing a [Starlance]. It zipped toward him just as he swung his blade arm, which sliced into my off-arm. My [Solar Wing] retracted a moment later.
[Dramatic Damage! +1 Drama Point]
[HP 4/11]
Fursona shrieked again, buffeting Theseus and forcing him away from me. I rolled the other way, putting distance between the supervillain’s grapple and me. He finished retracting it, and this time, he fired at Fursona, who couldn’t get out of the way fast enough. I tried to turn [Solar Wing] back on, but it wouldn’t go! Instead, I received a Style System message.
[Dead Leg Protocol: Mobility Powers Disabled for Understudy. Time remaining: 30 Seconds]
Okay, the hook had some sort of debuff. It had to be the hook because I hadn’t lost flight the first time he’d sliced me. Sure enough, Furson’s flight was gone too—and honestly, that was worse than me losing mine.
“Get a grip, ladies. You can’t take me, so don’t even try! Alkirk is my route up. I’m skipping the lieutenant phase and becoming my own major leaguer—for myself!” Theseus said. Then he charged, hook firing.
As the cable zoomed toward me, I remembered how we’d almost beaten him in the Roth Arena. We’d attacked his arms, stopping his power. Could we do the same thing here?
I had to find out. The hook reached me just as I fired a [Starlance] at the cable. It wrapped around me, jerking me off my feet again, but as I started zooming toward Theseus’s blade, the cable snapped. It whipped toward me, crashing into the asphalt next to my feet, and at the same time, snapped back and caught Theseus across the forehead.
“In your face, Theseus!” I shouted, then fired another [Starlance], which slammed into one of the villain’s legs. It shattered, but before we could press the advantage, a Casting Call popped up.
[Casting Call]
[Episode: Power Wars: Appetite for Destructo - R]
[Role: Collateral! Do you accept the role? (Yes/No)]
[Role Focus: Grit+Drama]
In the moment it took me to decline it, Theseus skittered away, crashed through the glass doors, and disappeared inside the Broadway Mall.
[End of Act One! Act Two in One Minute!]