Return To Battle
When the heroes attached to DOSA Lebanon ripped into the skyline of Sandusky, they witnessed a site that no one had seen in years. The older heroes; Darius, Art, and what remained of their original group were reminded of the chaos from their earlier years. But the new generation of heroes knew nothing of what it felt like to stand in front of a leviathan, or the mayhem they created. Their transport ship soared above the chaotic evacuation that had turned into a bumper-to-bumper blockade. Smoke and small fires reached up for the sky in various locations where people had let things fall out of their control. Cars ran into each other; people were pinned in and unable to escape the approaching doom that thundered toward them with each step.
Even Mark, through all his pride and ego, found himself staring in fear at the task set before them. Civilians were everywhere, rushing in all directions like swarms of locusts. Panicked adults scrambled for safety as childlike screams of terror littered the ambient roar of the event. The realization that children were intertwined in the anarchy made everything worse. Mark started to doubt that even his great strength would be enough to save them. Even Darius had a moment while assessing the scene where it looked like it was far too out of control for them to help everyone, yet his strategic mind took over instantly to handle the situation as efficiently as possible. It had been too long since he had responded to a situation this dire and with casualties this massive.
The jet shuttled forward across the sky in unison with the three black cylinders. On Darius’ command, the cylinders broke formation with the transport jet to begin their alignment. Branching off, the transport veered to land on top of a supermarket that was as close to the center of the panic as they could land. The drone package started spreading out, producing the triangular formation programmed by Darius to attack from all sides. One of the black cylinders dropped its loadout of bipedal rescue drones to bring order to the frenzy in the parking lot and surrounding areas. The drones moved robotically as they ran, assisting stuck vehicles to lift and move them off each other, creating a path out of the parking lot. In only ten minutes or so, the dozen bipedal drones had traffic heading north away from the approaching behemoth. Orders were being broadcast through the robots’ amplified speakers and people quickly recognized that help had arrived.
Seven superpowered DOSA agents stood on top of the roof of a supermarket. Not a normal site to see, especially not in the middle of Sandusky, Ohio. They all stood at the edge staring out at the leviathan that was still half-cloaked in a cloaking mist. The behemoth was ominously approaching. Moving slowly and powerfully towards the city. It bred fear of the unknown into the minds of its onlookers. A Lovecraftian horror that trampled across the civilized world upon revealing itself to the surface world.
Gigantic tusks poked through a blue-purplish curtain of octopus-like tentacles that hung from the face of the massive creature. This titan had features that made you think it was in the family of an elephant but twisting tendrils and appendages that looked more like something you would see on sea life hung from its head like the mane of a lion. Darker and stronger-looking tentacles ran straight down the length of the creature's back and hung over its posterior. Its flesh almost glowed with an internal power that was trying to shine through. The purple fire burned inside the beast as a hurricane of energy. The sheer size alone was enough to induce fear, let alone the strangeness of its appearance. With every step, cars and buildings alike were crushed and decimated as the beast made its slow approach. Every few moments it would let out another deafening trumpet that rumbled across the entire town, shaking the very earth itself.
“Take your positions,” Darius ordered them all.
The twins both vanished through portals of purple and black energy, while Mark jumped from the roof, cracking the structure beneath him. Art floated off the edge of the roof above the scene of pedestrians to assist in their evacuation. All four of the first to leave were to assist in getting people evacuated safely. Mark didn’t like the assignment at first, he thought he’d be better suited at throwing haymakers into the side of the massive beast. But, as soon as Mark saw the thing in person, he was more willing to comply with his supporting role.
Darrius, Felipe, and Carol were the only ones still standing on the roof. They were the attacking team.
“Ready,” Darrius looked to the husband-and-wife team.
“Ready,” they answered in unison.
Felipe closed his eyes and began concentrating as he clenched his fists. Carol stepped away from her husband and over to Darrius who was preparing something for her. Darrius pulled a large black case from the back of the shuttle, always prepared. He hadn’t planned this item specifically for Carol, but as soon as he realized who would be on the mission, his plan would incorporate one of his latest inventions.
Darrius pulled a rectangular containment unit out of the sealed outer case. It was a clear material that housed what looked like mercury. The liquid metal sloshed around as Darrius moved the case a few feet further away from Felipe as he focused. “This is going to get us closer to it. It’s an adaptive ariel platform controlled through my neural link. It will monitor our weight and balance and adapt its form to keep us on our feet and in the air.”
Carol looked confused, “Can’t you just fly?”
It had been a while since the team did anything big together, so they were all unaware of each other’s current stats.
“Not like I used to. The power source for my flight boosters was too heavy as I upgraded. I had to ditch that so I could incorporate other, more effective technologies. But that’s what I have things like this for,” Darrius said as he reached back into the jet with a metallic arm that sprouted from his back, pulling an identical case to his hands. He poured the reflective silver fluid out in front of them both. “Step in, don’t be shy.”
Carol was apprehensive as she watched the mercury-like substance crawl halfway up Darrius’ legs and form a circular platform about four feet wide beneath his feet. However, Darrrius’ calm demeanor surprised her, even with the Leviathan approaching and the chaos below. She nodded quickly, stepping into the silver substance. The sensation of it crawling up her legs was strange but made her footing feel oddly sturdy.
“When you’re ready Felipe, join us. We’ll weaken the Leviathan as much as we can until you’re ready. Then give it everything you have, but remember,” Darrius reminded him of their plan they spoke about on the plane ride, “keep your focus on the Leviathan. Don’t let anything slip away into the town. We don’t need more damage and casualties.”
Felipe never opened his eyes, he just nodded as he remained motionless, fists still clenched. The only movement that could be seen around him was the faint lines of wavy heat around him like an aura.
“Good luck, honey,” Carol spoke before floating away on a disc of solidified silver.
Carol and Darrius ripped across the sky towards the elephant titan, watching the formation of ariel drones shooting multicolored beams of intense energy at the creature from changing angles. The discs were controlled by Darrius through his neural link, so Carol was just along for the ride.
She shouted over the rushing air around them, “Are these things going to hold up once I start?”
Darrius looked directly at her, assuring her in a way that reminded her of how he used to be, “They’ll be fine, don’t worry. It will take a lot to disrupt their structure once they’re in active mode. Even a point blank full powered blast from you might not be enough to shake their hold. But,” he grinned, “just make sure you aim at that thing and not your feet.”
Carol smiled, “Okay.”
She liked this Darrius. It reminded her of how things used to be. All of it did. The chaos, the shuttle ride, the planning, and even the leviathan gave the warm memories that she hadn’t felt in her mind in years.
Once in position near the distracted giant, it was time to go to work. At Darrius’ command, Carol went on the attack. The drones remained in their triangular formation if only to serve as another form of damage, however, the real attacks were about to begin.
Darrius’ disk floated behind Carol’s to give her unrestricted space between herself and the leviathan. Carol brought her arms out to her side, fully extended as she took in a deep breath. She slammed her hands together into a slap that was amplified exponentially by her powers. The shockwave vaporized the outer flesh of the blue and purple-toned beast. The behemoth stumbled to the side at the physical force the shockwave induced as it met the creature’s massive body. The leviathan went down on its front knees as it stumbled, shaking the earth harder than before as its weight came down to the ground.
Carol had a specific cone that she focused her shockwave into that kept almost all of the blast localized onto the creature itself. However, sound cannot be completely controlled, not even by Carol. The trees beneath and behind the beast that was in the path of the attack were flattened to the earth. There were even buildings about four blocks away, past the trees that had all the windows just blown out.
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Carol’s power to amplify and manipulate soundwaves gave her the devastating ability to create shockwaves of epic proportions. Carol had one of the most devastating one-shot abilities that the heroes had back in the golden days. She was also the cause of most of the damage that the team created in those same early years. She had much more control now, knowing her surroundings and amplitudes better for her given situations but still, the effect around the leviathan was a clear demonstration of just how powerful one blast could be if she truly went all out.
“Give it another one,” Darrius said as he appeared beside her on his floating platform.
“Again,” Carol asked, unsure about how much damage she’d cause. She worried about that most above everything else when DOSA sent her out. The damage and finger-pointing in her early days as society blamed heroes for most of the devastation scarred her for life. She feared herself and the things she could do.
“Yes,” Darrius assured her. “Look around you. This thing is going to destroy the town if we let it keep moving. This area is still less populated, and we have it by that opening of trees. If we tear this place up it still won’t be as bad as if we let it into the rest of the city.
Carol agreed with a nod, focusing her power as she spread her arms out again. Darrius, controlling the silver disks via the neural link, positioned himself and Carol more above the beast than where they were beside its knelt position. He wanted Carol to flatten that thing into the ground if possible. When Carol slammed her hands together, it was even more powerful than the first. The blast plowed the leviathan to its belly, blowing its legs out from under it and a few supporting tentacles from its back. After it was forced down, more flesh ripping off from the intensity of the blast, it fell over to its side and rolled slightly into the section of forest that it was nearest. The shockwave dispersed across the ground, sending out dirt and debris into the surrounding area. It kicked up one hell of a dust storm, but that was fine. They needed the beast to be down, and now it was. This was a good thing because Felipe was ready.
Atop the supermarket, Felipe’s eyes opened at the same moment his entire body was engulfed in flames. The fire raged all around him in a localized storm that swirled about ten feet in diameter. The heat blistered the roof around him and scorched the paint of the shuttle. He stepped forward once and then flew into the air smoothly. He didn’t fly fast, just easily toward the downed leviathan. He lit up the early morning sky and drew attention from the scared onlookers that had all but stopped escaping. It wasn’t often that you saw the heroes at work. Even more so to see the original heroes, the legends. People still fled, but the panic was far less. Seeing Felipe like a ball of light in the Sandusky sky was entrancing, and the majority of the adults knew what it meant. They saw and felt the shake of the leviathan fall. Now they wanted to see what was happening. They wanted to see the heroes they used to idolize as kids working for the government to help them. Most in the crowd truly believed that the government control of the old heroes was a good thing. Some had doubts, but they all were in awe of what they were witnessing. It reminded them of the childlike emotions they used to feel when they believed in the superheroes that came to their rescue; before all of society feared them.
Felipe was pyrokinetic and was very active in the early years. His power was well known to most around the country, and a symbol of victory over the gargantuan threats of the past. His heat and flames could destroy anything if he had enough time to build up his power, and that is exactly what Darrius and Carol had given him.
“It’s time for us to pull back,” Carol told Darrius.
“Agreed,” he told her.
Their silver disks put distance between them and the creature as it attempted to stand its massive weight. As they fell back, Felipe approached. He never spoke a word. The only sound that Darrius or Carol could hear was the roar of fire around him.
The hovering fire was centered above the leviathan where Darrius and Carol had been only moments before. Without warning, the fire crossed the gap between Felipe and the creature, descending from the air like hands reaching out from the sun. The fire rose in intensity as soon as it touched the creature, ripping forth and spreading across the surface area of the behemoth. The fire raged across the fallen monster, pulling more rumbling cries from its powerful lungs. The sounds would have been tremendous compared to the trumpets it blasted before, but Carol was containing the sound in the local area, redirecting the soundwaves up and into the sky to disperse where it wouldn’t hurt the ears of the escaping civilians. The agony went on for minutes as Felipe’s focus blazed out and charred the flesh of the walking disaster. It looked like torture, even for a mindless beast.
Then, to everyone’s surprise, the Leviathan began to stand back up even as it was engulfed in scorching flames. It belted out a rumbling roar so loud that Carol couldn’t contain it, it was too strong. Its powerful limbs rooted into the earth and pushed itself back up.
“Oh shit,” Darrius barked. He threw his hands out into the air in the direction of the circling ariel drones. All three drones broke the orbiting pattern and returned to group up in front of Darrius. The three flat black cylinders began shifting and connecting themselves at the ends in a series, forming one massive cylinder. Darrius floated up and the silver base at his feet wrapped around the center of the central cylinder.
“You’ll stay below me and hit it with one more shockwave on my signal. Then I’m going to give it everything I have,” Darrius explained.
Carol was unsure if that would work. She was certain, as were they all, that it would have stayed down after Felipe laid into it. She began to think that maybe after all these years they had all gotten weaker. She was too scared to think if it was just the Leviathan was even stronger; stronger than even they had become.
“Carol?” Darrius yelled to her. “Are you with me?”
Carol nodded, “Yes!” she yelled back to him.
The creature was back on its feet staring straight at the still-floating Felipe; the source of the tremendous pain it had endured. Felipe’s concentration was beginning to fade. His focus was so sharp that his fire was nearing the hottest he had ever gotten it before. At first, his flames scorched across the Leviathan bright orange, but now they seared its flesh with an unquenchable blue fire. However, even that intensity wasn’t enough. Somehow, this Leviathan was still alive and back on its monstrous feet. Felipe’s focus started slipping, and the fire emanating from him changed from blue back to the usual orange. He could feel his power falling with every second that he began to think he wasn’t strong enough. He kept pushing power out toward the beast almost locked in fear and unable to pull away. He feared that he wasn’t enough, and he’d die here along with Carol. He just kept pushing, hoping it would be enough.
Then, a reverberating voice rattled the cells in his body, “Felipe!” It was Carol. “Back out, honey. We’re coming back in. Darrius wants a crack at this thing.”
Carol’s amplified voice rang out across the entire area to where all the onlookers could hear. Felipe, out of his haze, soared away in a weakening state, trying to make it back to the top of the supermarket as the slowly accelerating beast began to take steps toward the town. Felipe’s fire faded completely just as he made it to the structure. He was completely spent, all his focus was gone, and he would need to recover before he would be of any use again. This fact didn’t help his mental state.
“Now!” Darrius yelled out to Carol.
Carol slammed her hands together again, but this time she let out a scream with all her might. The shockwave wasn’t so quick to dissipate as her scream amplified and prolonged the destructive sonic blast. It decimated the Leviathan and everything else beyond it for quite a way, shaking the town. The blast was enough to knock the flames that blazed across the beast completely out. The Leviathan stumbled again, almost falling over completely. The creature’s body was charred and unrecognizable from the purples and blues that made up its entirety before. Now it was just a walking chunk of deformed muscles.
Darrius shifted around in the sky to aim the barrel of the joined cylinders down at the beast’s body. The cycling hum of the charging cannon rang high as the culmination of charging power readied to spring forth from the weapon.
Carol saw the beast begin to shove itself upward aggressively. It was making a move, it wasn’t attacking before, only walking towards its destination. There was a change in the noises it was making, and the motions it made to right itself. It was ready to fight… to kill. It was moving faster, building momentum.
“Kill it Darrius, now. It’s about to do something,” Carol screamed.
Darrius still needed a moment to let his canon charge. It was the downfall of this older tech, but it would still be powerful enough. His internal HUD was showing scans from an overhead satellite, calculating muscle and bone densities for weak spots to have the most success for a singular strike. He just needed a moment longer.
The beast clamored forward, stomping towards the supermarket where the people were still fleeing from. If it got there, it would flatten the store and everyone still trying to get away. All the heroes recognized what was about to happen. Darrius had to end that thing before it got there. But it was getting too close.
Carol clapped out one more time, hoping to slow the creature. The elephant creature roared out in aggression as it met the shockwave with its own sonic blast. The two waves met, and Carol’s was overpowered. The backlash from the opposing force sent Carol flying away wildly. The only thing that kept her from being killed was Darrius’ silver platform which kept her upright in the air. It slowed her momentum as she spiraled away, keeping her in the air away from anything that would hurt her if she crashed. She was disoriented, but safe. Darrius’ advanced mind was calculating a lot, but the quick fear of losing an old friend surprised him. It shocked him out of his calculations, and he put his focus on regaining control of her platform. The emotions he felt at that moment weren’t new, just surprising after all he had done to disconnect from his old friends.
The beast kept moving forward, with only seconds until it was too close, and they would lose everyone in the vicinity. Panic flooded Darrius’ mind as the calculations showed it would happen. The time he needed to charge was too long after the abrupt change in the Leviathan’s aggressiveness and speed. He needed a miracle.
Then, at the base of the stampeding Leviathan, a flash of light flickered so fast no one else even saw it. Right after the flash, came a deafening blow to the behemoth's front left leg. The massive bones inside the beast’s leg were destroyed in an instant. The resounding crunch of a mountain's worth of bones was cringing to hear. The injured beast's leg left no support for the gargantuan weight to rest. The Leviathan fell, just outside of the immediate area, shaking the ground once again as it cratered into the earth. It wasn’t getting back up. The bellowing roars were still just as intense, turning the entire area into a vibrating world that shook the very cells of your body.
At that moment, the charge was complete, and Darrius fired the full-powered blast into the weakest point of the flailing titan. The concussive force of the canon vaporized the surface of the Leviathan cutting through to its very center. The heat of the energy cooked the ominous entity from the inside out to its previously charred flesh. In a few moments, the beast stopped struggling beneath the emerging purple flames and everything was over. The Leviathan’s internal energy was leaking out as heat and the purple power burned itself out across the flesh of this amalgamation. The Leviathan was dead.