Elementus caught up to Sister Nature as she fled down the sewers, riding a wave of oil beneath her feet. Behind Elementus, Animage’s dog followed, running in a blur as it caught up to him. Throughout the sewers, bugs and insects scattered as the three superpowered beings sped past. Animage, sitting in a faraway car as it drove away from U.H.E. headquarters, looked through the eyes of the bugs down there, searching through the tunnels as she directed her mutant dog.
As soon as Elementus got close enough, he started pulling the wind towards himself again, and Sister Nature growled. She was getting sick of this tactic as she once again felt he oil around her warp. Animage, seeing this through her dog, redirected the canine down a side passage before Sister Nature noticed.
Sister Nature turned, sliding backwards as she the entire oil sphere at him. She didn’t have time to concentrate it into an explosion, so she aimed it at his head. Seeing this, Elementus reacted instinctively, unleashing frost breath. When the oil and the frost met, a wall of ice formed across the tunnel, cutting Elementus off from the air on the other side.
Without the wind pulling her back, Sister Nature was able to turn around and regain her speed. She turned her head back for a moment, seeing Elementus break through the frozen wall as ice clattered and splashed below. Of course that wouldn’t have delayed him for long. Sister Nature started forming an explosive ball as she turned back to watch where she was going.
Something fast was flying straight at her, making Sister Nature lean back. She slipped some oil under her back as she slid under Animage’s mutant dog. When she raised herself again, she quickly spun on her oil wave, finishing the explosive ball.
It was at that moment that Elementus caught up, however, so Sister Nature unleashed some regular oil in front of her oil bomb, aiming both at the dog. Elementus unleashed ice breath to neutralize it, but while the wall of oil froze, the oil bomb remained unfrozen behind it.
Animage’s dog was almost on top of it, so Elementus reached down, grabbed it, and spun them both, shielding the animal with his back.
The explosion blasted Elementus and the dog away, sending them rolling across the sewer floor, the waters flowing beside them. When they finally came to a stop, Elementus’s stone face bore more cracks than before as he lay there, unconscious. The dog stood and began barking, and through his collar, one could hear Animage’s voice.
“Elementus!” she cried. “Elementus! Are you alright? Elementus!”
Sister Nature, watching, formed an oil sphere around herself, just in case, then walked towards Elementus slowly. She knew she might never get another chance to kill a superhero like this. Even if they failed to destroy U.H.E. headquarters, this would at least be a minor victory.
Sister Nature raised her hands, beginning to form another large oil bomb.
###
Inside the plane, still pointed down towards U.H.E. headquarters below, the bomb’s pale, sickly blue light shifted erratically, casting sharp, angular patterns on the wall. By now the plane was practically falling, the wind roaring outside. Speedclaw climbed from the cockpit, his claws digging into the vertical floor, to watch the organic bomb, and the sight made his fur stand on end.
“Black Ash!” cried Speedclaw into his communicator as he hung there. “Are you satisfied? Ash!”
“Yes, fine,” said Black Ash. “Get to the window.”
Speedclaw ran to a window where one of Black Ash’s thick branches waited for him. Speedclaw leapt headfirst out the window, grabbed onto the branch, and began running down it, the claws in his feet digging into the wood. Running as a blur, he followed the branch towards the road far below where the wooden limb stuck out of the pavement.
Above, as the plane practically nose dived towards U.H.E. headquarters, Paramount pursued the plane, the stress on his mind from Black Ash’s creature starting to give him a headache, but down he went nonetheless, aiming for the front of the plane to slow it down.
Above him, SteelStar watched Paramount go down in awe. Despite shouting that the bomb could blow at any moment, Paramount hadn’t even hesitated. He saw something that needed to be done and he went to do it, no matter the danger. In the short, split second as that went through SteelStar’s mind, it reminded him of why he wanted to be a superhero in the first place.
Gathering his determination, SteelStar locked himself into place as best he could and reached down, pulling on the plane with magnetism. He made sure to spread out the effect and pull on the entire plane rather than any single point. That, he hoped, would prevent the plane from pulling apart.
The plane groaned as its descent began to slow. Paramount, halfway down the plane, noticed this and looked up. Seeing SteelStar up there, as well as the plane slowing down, he smiled. The rookie had a lot of potential with his powers. Thinking things over, Paramount assessed where he’d be most useful, and flew back up.
Closer to SteelStar, Paramount could see that the metal superhero was struggling, his body slowly going down with the plane. While the plane had slowed dramatically, it was still going down, SteelStar’s face grimacing from the struggle.
“Hang on, SteelStar,” said Paramount, flying behind SteelStar. “We’ve got this.”
Paramount grabbed SteelStar around the torso and pulled backwards. SteelStar grunted as the strain on his body increased, but between the two of them, they were able to stop their movement and that of the plane below them. The plane’s engines kept roaring, and for a moment, the vehicle stayed still, neither falling nor rising. After a few seconds, however, they slowly started going up. If they could get high enough, the explosion wouldn’t harm any people below. SteelStar would have given Paramount his thanks, but magnetically pulling on the plane was taking all his concentration.
“You’re doing great,” said Paramount. “Keep it up but be ready to flee. When that bomb blows, we’ll have to fly away as fast as we can.”
SteelStar couldn’t even spare the concentration to nod.
And below them, Black Ash’s limbs stopped, the eyes on them looking up. Speedclaw also stopped running down one of the branches to looked up. The feline supervillain saw them successfully holding back the plane high above the city and grimaced. He could even see the plane going up, slowly but surely. The others wouldn’t like this.
###
Sister Nature kept her distance as she formed the gigantic oil bomb, a protective sphere of oil swirling around her. Animage’s dog now tried to drag Elementus away by the collar of his suit, but the dog wasn’t that much stronger than an ordinary dog, so it couldn’t go very fast trying to pull someone. One more big blast, and Sister Nature could destroy Elementus once and for all.
Briefly, Sister Nature thought of an ad she saw for Elementus, back when he first arrived on the scene. They depicted him as this ancient spirit guardian of nature, a notion everyone in Gaia-born found laughable. As if the mascot for some polluting corporation could ever be a guardian of nature. The ads never specifically said he was some sort of ancient spirit, they simply gave the impression.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Well, thought Sister Nature, how fitting that I should be the one to end this farce once and for all. She raised her arm to throw her big oil ball. Either the massive explosion it caused would kill Elementus, or he would suffocate under the rubble from above.
Before she could throw it, however, Sister Nature heard another shuriken flying through the air. She whipped around, expanding the sphere around her as she expected another attack. However, the shuriken didn’t detonate on her oil, but struck the ceiling above her, one of the points embedding into the wall as it beeped and blinked red, it’s explosive ready to go off at a moment’s notice.
From the darkness down the tunnel, more shuriken flew, embedding in the ceiling and wall around sister nature.
Beneath her mask, Sister Nature paled. She’d miscalculated coming down here. Out in the open the Wraith couldn’t surround her like this, but down here, one wrong move could blow herself up along with her enemies. Her only consolation was that it was as much a risk for the wraith as it was for her.
Meanwhile, Animage’s dog had managed to carry an unconscious Elementus a fair distance away from the volatile woman. Animage, watching through the dog’s eyes, was feeling overwhelmed. She wasn’t exactly a heavy hitter in terms of power levels, even with the few mutant animals she had at her command. If her dog couldn’t even get close to Sister Nature, she didn’t know what she’d do.
Suddenly, the Silent Wraith appeared, turning visible in front of her dog, kneeling as he pulled something from his utility belt.
“Animage,” he said, “Don’t go anywhere. I have a plan, and I’m going to need your help.”
The dog tilted its head curiously as Silent pulled out three items from his utility belt, like small cylinders. One after the other, he placed them on the ground and pressed a button on the end, jamming a spike into the stone, the sound echoing in the sewers.
Through the collar, Animage said, “I don’t suppose you can just blow her up right now?”
“There’s a risk to civilians above,” said Silent, working. “The only thing preventing Sister Nature from acting right now is self preservation. Don’t worry, this will work, I’m sure of it.
Once Silent was finished sticking the spikes into the floor and wall, Silent pulled his tranquilizer rifle off his back with one hand, and with his other he pulled on a thin cable from his belt.
###
SteelStar barely lifted the plane with magnetism, the huge vehicle groaning as its engines roared. Within, the organic bomb scattered light everywhere, releasing whisps of energy into the air. Above the plane, as SteelStar held his hands out, Paramount kept his arms around SteelStar’s torso, helping him pull the plane slowly upward while the plane kept trying to push itself downward.
Nearby, Speedclaw stood on one of Black Ash’s branches, high in the air as he watched. Growling irritably, he had a feeling he knew what was coming, and sure enough, he heard his communicator beeping. Reluctantly he pulled it up.
“I suppose you want me to attack them?” asked Speedclaw.
“Naturally,” said Black Ash. “You can hit a lot harder than I can when you pick up enough speed. Don’t worry, in their current predicament, they’ll be vulnerable from behind, which in this case will knock them directly towards the explosion. I’ll have another branch waiting for you to run down.”
Speedclaw saw the branch he stood on extend itself towards the heroes, while another branch in the distance also rose up to meet them. Growling, he knelt on the black wood below him, his body like a coiled spring.
“Let’s get this over with,” he muttered.
As Speedclaw began running up the branch, Paramount barely sensed his mental presence and grimaced. SteelStar, reaching down towards the pane below them, was too distracted by his task to notice.
###
Sister Nature was sweating under her mask, ready for the Wraith to attack at any moment. She had no doubt that the shuriken around her would explode if she even moved an inch. Each one blinked with a red light in its center, signaling that they were active. Still, she knew that the wraith wouldn’t detonate all of them himself if he had to. An explosion that big would harm civilians above them, so he’d have to deactivate them at some point before he attacked her. She waited with baited breath for the wraith to make his move, and she wasn’t disappointed.
As one, most of the shuriken went dark, save one that continued to blink. That one lay on the sewer floor right next to her protective oil sphere.
“Bring it on, Wraith,” she muttered.
###
Speedclaw sped towards them, running on a black branch that extended behind the two superheroes. SteelStar and Paramount grimaced as they held the plane up between the two of them. It wouldn’t take long before Speedclaw reached them as the black tree limb brough itself up behind the heroes. Sadly, SteelStar was too occupied to react, and Paramount couldn’t turn his head to unleash a brain blast. They were sitting ducks.
Nearby, Speedshock sat in the invisible Wraithjet with an unconscious Demigoddess in his lap. The vehicle was on autopilot, and Speedshock couldn’t alter its flightpath himself, so he was forced to watch as Speedclaw sped towards them both. He put his hand on the glass, watching helplessly.
“At least I’ll finally be rid of you, Paramount!” cried Speedclaw, raising his fist.
At that moment, just as the organic bomb fizzled and spat out many bursts of Tholatite energy, it exploded, the sickly blue light expanding, beginning to envelope the plane. Paramount, SteelStar, and Speedclaw saw the explosion and their eyes widened in shock.
###
The shuriken by Sister Nature’s feet detonated, igniting the oil sphere around her. Sister Nature listened carefully, and when she heard the whistling, she brought up a small patch of oil, deflecting the three darts with small explosions, just as before.
Screaming, Sister Nature raised her hand to throw her massive oil bomb in the direction the darts had come from.
###
When the plane vaporized in the explosion, SteelStar had nothing to pull on, so both he and Paramount suddenly found themselves flying upward. Now that an explosion was chasing them, that became a good idea, so the two of them turned and flew upwards as fast as they could.
Nearby, the Wraithjet detected the explosion, and the autopilot turned the vehicle to fly away, leaving Speedshock to wonder how his companions would fare. As the jet fled the explosion, Demigoddess began to stir.
Speedclaw immediately turned and ran the other direction, heading down the black tree limb as fast as he could. At the same time, Paramount looked behind him and paled at the expanding explosion. As fast as the three of them were, that deadly energy was gaining on them.
###
The massive oil ball sailed down the sewers, and Sister Nature was certain she’d destroy the Wraith once and for all.
“Now die! Silent Wraith!”
The oil bomb traveled far, beginning to glow red as it prepared to explode.
But suddenly Sister Nature felt three pricks in her shoulder. Suddenly feeling faint, she turned to see, out of the corner of her eye, three starts sticking straight up out of her shoulder.
“H…how…” she stammered.
###
SteelStar and Paramount flew up as fast as they cold, travelling high into the sky. Nearby, Speedclaw fled on Black Ash’s limb, but all three struggled to flee as the explosion started to catch up to them. With that energy behind him, Speedclaw screamed and pushed himself to the limit, picking up as much speed as he could to outrun the explosion, the black branch vaporizing behind him. SteelStar and Paramount, however, struggled. After just a few seconds, the energy was at their heels, and SteelStar grimaced in desperation. After all this, he started to think that they weren’t going to make it.
Paramount, however, set his face in determination. He was still being inhibited by the psychic creature with Black Ash. As they flew into the sky, however, the distance between them was increasing, and Paramount could feel it’s influence weakening. He just needed a little more distance.
Come on, thought Paramount.
Finally, like a weight behind lifted off his shoulders, Paramount felt the creature’s mental presence disappear. Grabbing SteelStar’s hand, Paramount unleashed his full speed, and the two of them sped into the air. SteelStar gasped in surprise while Paramount held his breath, frost forming over their skin as they climbed higher, outrunning the explosion.
Finally, after a few moments, the explosion began to clear. Soon there was nothing below them but the city, and the two of them stopped. They turned around and stared down thoughtfully, both wiping the frost from their eyes so they could see more clearly. So far, the city looked intact.
If SteelStar had been able to breathe in that moment, he would have sighed in relief.
###
Sister Nature’s oil bomb splatted on the sewer floor, beginning to evaporate. The supervillainess stared at her shoulder and the three darts sticking out of it with a shocked look on her face as her vision became blurry. A moment later, the Silent Wraith’s hand appeared over those darts as he turned visible.
As she fell unconscious, Sister Nature kept wondering how he’d done this as Silent caught her, laying her down gently. Inspecting Sister Nature, running through the pockets of her robes, Silent found the creature that had woken her up before, like a blue caterpillar. It was dead now, so at least Silent wouldn’t have to worry about her waking up again.
As Silent did this, Animage’s dog let go of the thin cable it had just pulled on with its teeth. That line was connected to the trigger on Silent’s tranquilizer rifle, which lay suspended with wires connected to the spikes he’d attached to the floor and walls. The dog sat there, panting heavily, and through his collar Animage said, “Good boy.”