Northwest Territories
Yellowknife
0652 Local Time
December 12
The chaotic swirl of colors twisted and convulsed in the early morning darkness of northern Canada. Boiling steam clouds shot into the sky where the extreme temperatures flash and melted the thick layer of snow. Science said the rifts were a natural phenomenon and thus possessed neither intellect nor emotion, which did not keep them from exuding pure malevolence.
The torrent of winds whipped the ends of the long jacket Professor Eldritch wore, forcing him to hold down the brim of his fedora. He was thankful for the scarf he always wore across his lower face as it kept some of the bitterness from biting his skin too badly. The Professor was not what anyone would picture when they thought of a country’s strongest superpowered individual. His greatcoat could not hide the bulk that an intense love of fatty foods had given him. He raised a ring-festooned hand and twisted his fingers into a quick intricate pattern and the wind split before him leaving him standing in a small pocket of calm.
A large man in the red serge of a Royal Canadian Mounty flew through the air and landed behind the Professor, then strode to stand next to him with smooth, powerful steps. The Constable was the opposite of his companion this cold morning. He stood nearly six and a half feet tall and possessed the Herculean physique of a bodybuilder. He pulled the brown Stetson off his head and ran his hand through his close-trimmed hair.
“Good morning Professor.” The Constable’s voice has firm, calm, and strong; just the kind of voice one wanted to hear in times of stress. The Professor turned toward his companion and again wondered if the government had recruited the man or grown him in a lab. “Sometimes I envy your ability to teleport long distances. Although the joy of flight is something special, it is a shame that we meet this morning on such a grim occasion.”
Professor Eldritch discreetly rolled his eyes and said, “Who else is close?” Thirty years spent away from Scotland concealed his accent, which tended to reveal itself only when he was excited or overly anxious.
As if in answer a multicolored streak flew low over the snow, slowed as it came near them, and coalesced into a female-shaped swirl of lights. It then further solidified into an athletically built woman in a tight blue uniform complete with a mask that covered the upper half of her face. Her long dark hair settled around her shoulders as she stepped into to pocket of calm air around The Professor.
Before any of the heroes could speak the swirling rift pulsed and expanded, the center glowing with a telltale amber intensity. It was only a matter of minutes before the bounds of one universe split and overlapped into their own. With the opening of the rift would come a wave of horrors.
“Greetings Aurora.” The Constable nodded his head slightly in her direction and placed his stetson back onto his head.
Aurora glanced at the digital display on the small pad affixed to her left forearm. “Looks like the Northern Lights are inbound on a helicopter from Edmonton, twenty minutes away.” The rift pulsed again and expanded a bit further.
“Which means we will be on our own against whatever comes out of that thing for at least fifteen minutes. Which is really going to suck.” The Professor finished his statement with a sigh and began to weave a series of protective spells around the three of them.
“We will stand strong until reinforcements arrive.” The Constable’s knuckles cracked loudly as he flexed his meaty hands.
Aurora gave a slight laugh as her body shifted back into a loose collection of photons, “Oh Lord, do you have to be so Dudly-Do-Right all the time?”
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The tundra burst into an artificial day as the rift exploded outward and the center of it opened upon another reality. Within the depths of the rift, shapes could be seen moving outward. A large shape in the front revealed itself to be a mechanical creation with a menacing skeletal shape adorned with what appeared to be a variety of ballistic weapons.
“But the Prof is right Dudly, this is going to be eighteen minutes of pure suck.”
Professor Edlricht raised his hands, slowly swirling them above his head fire trailing in the air as his fingers burst into blue flames. “Quick plan people. I will be artillery from here. Aurora you are the fastest of us, get any that get past us.”
“And I hold the line!” The Constable yelled as he shot forward through the air, quickly accelerating to several hundred kilometers an hour. The first of the tall skeletal robots raised its right arm, a large cannon slung underneath it. Before the bot could fire The Constable slammed his shoulder into the center of its chest, with an explosion of electricity and hydraulic fluid he shattered the robot and flew on.
“Ok remind me never to play hockey against that guy.” Aurora’s voice was thin, fragile in her photon form. She shot straight up into the air above the Professor, a beam of blue and green light flashing out from her to slice into the second robot as it emerged from the rift. Her ray sheared one of its legs off, the robot toppling to the side.
As if a dam had burst another dozen robots followed the first two. With concussive booms the shoulder-mounted weapons fired, shells streaking across the tundra. Two exploded in the air two meters before the Professor, halted by an invisible wall of force behind him. A third hit the Constable in the chest, sending him tumbling back several feet in the air before he righted himself. Fire streaked over his shoulders to explode into a robot and shatter it. His first spell expended Professor Eldricht began to weave further magic as even more robots pressed forward.
The Constable landed before the ten-meter-wide epicenter of the rift, snatching up a skeletal bot and wielding it as a club, smashing its companions aside. The robot laid into his hands and arms with its clawed hands, tearing his uniform and drawing thin lines of blood into his flesh. In the heat of battle, the muscular man began singing the first song that came into his head, a song that always brought him assurance.
Around the legs of the large robots, smaller spider-like bots scuttled. These were not as heavily armed, possessing only a single energy weapon mounted on their backs. The green beams of superheated plasma arced out across the battle. Several beams deflected off the Professor’s shield, others off of the resilient skin of the Constable, and several others passed harmlessly through Aurora’s energy form. What they lacked in individual power they made up for in volume as the Professor could feel his shields weakening, bowing inward towards him.
The Professor changed his spell, uttering several quick words in ancient Gaelic, and slammed his hands into the ground around him. There was the sound of rocks snapping under the churning snow of the battlefield and shapes began to emerge. Twisted, broken pieces of rock formed into a dozen humanoid shapes roughly larger than a normal man. The elementals rushed into the robots with awkward yet powerful strides, swinging rocky fists about them. Several blows were required to break the hardened steel of the tall skeleton bots, a single one smashed the small spidery bots.
Above them Aurora circled the battle, lashing down at the enemy with intense laser beams. One of the rounds from the shoulder cannons of the skeletons burst into the air next to her. The force of the explosion tore at her, threatening the cohesion of her energies. With a sharp scream, she pulled herself to the side and refocused herself, each of those bursts could hurt, too many in a short time would scatter her..effectively killing her.
Four robots emerged from the rift, these were dominated by a large rocket forming the body, and long arms held wrist-mounted energy weapons. They flew over the battle and arched toward the nearest cluster of life forms their sensors detected: the town of Yellowknife. Aurora turned sharply and gave chase, twenty thousand people call Yellowknife home, who knows how many these four could kill in a short period of time.
With an earth-shattering explosion, the Constable was propelled dozens of meters threw the air, past the Professor. His impact plowed up a wall of snow and rock. He quickly stood and shot back towards the new robot that had just hit him with a massive cannon held in its arms. Resting upon the settling snow and rock was his beloved Stetson, temporarily forgotten.
As the Professor wove magic to summon more earth elementals the Constable flew past him, still singing. “...true north, strong and free…” The obese wizard let out a barking laugh at his companion and sent his new elementals forward, his first twelve laying smashed upon the ground, scattered and inanimate.
Within the swirling intensity of the rift more murderous robots could be seen, pressed tightly together in cold eagerness. Fifteen minutes until help arrived, sometimes this being a hero was damn hard work. He was cold, tired, and not sure if even the three of them could hold off a rift for that long...plus he really needed a beer.