Hardman's Bar

By Hadrian Howell (Hardman)

Chapter 12

Sleep wasn’t easy that night. Part of it was I had a lot on my mind; the other part was that a storm front moved in and it started raining really hard. Combined with the thunder and lightning, it was difficult to find a quiet moment to close my eyes.

At one point, I sat up in bed and swore quietly. Sitting up HURT. Sparkchan had done her level best to ease the pain of the dent in my side, but I was still going to need to visit Dr. Light in the near future to get some of my more vital supportive parts patched or replaced. I got up slowly and wandered over to my window to watch the storm.

Flashes of electrical power tracing lines of azure strength into the sky illuminated the city briefly, in second-like instants. Some people are afraid of thunder storms, but I always found them kind of relaxing. You might think that being made of titanium might make this a very stupid idea, but pretty much all Robot Masters were capable of grounding themselves in some way or another. I myself had hard rubber soles on the bottom of my feet.

As the audible cracks of thunder rolled across the city like an advancing army, I took in a couple of deep breaths, trying to forget the pain and stiffness in my side. I’d been hit in other places too, all of which hurt, but I felt like I was walking around with a few cracked ribs. If you’ve ever had a cracked rib, you’d know how painful that is.

I took comfort in the rain. Mostly because there was no way another place could burn down tonight. So thinking, I walked back to my bed and descended into a toss-and-turn slumber.

When I woke up, it was still raining, but this wasn’t the first thing on my mind. The FIRST thing on my mind, or rather, my back, was Topman. Jumping up and down, going “wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up”

I rolled over, sending my diminutive team mate rolling across my room. He stood up and shook himself as I lumbered to my feet. “Are you awake?”

“Does it LOOK like I’m awake?” I asked grumpily.

“Gauntlet wants us all downstairs, as soon as possible,” Top said enthusiastically as he skated out of my room.

I took a minute to rub my eyes and crack my neck before I realized what he’d said. “Wait… Boss is back?”

I almost literally ran into Magnetman in the hallway. His ruined right arm was in a sling, and it didn’t look like he’d gotten any sleep at all. He gave me an ‘I’ve got nothing left’ kind of grunt before passing me and heading down the stairs. I took the stairs carefully, favoring my side. Fortunately, it didn’t hurt too much.

There, in the living room, sat the rest of the Maniacs. Needlegal, Sparkchan, and Snakeman were occupying the couch, while Geminiman sat on the floor in front of Sparkchan. Magnetman made his way over to one of the two recliners in the room, the other of which was already filled with Topman, who had obviously had something caffeinated that morning. I made it to the bottom of the stairs and just kind of sat back on the first two steps. Shadowman, also known as Gauntlet, was leaning with one elbow on top of the TV.

“Man, you guys have been busy while I was gone,” Gauntlet smirked.

“Nevermind what we’ve been doing,” Gemini snapped at him, “Where the hell have YOU been?”

My boss held up his hands. “All in good time, but first I need the whole story here.”

Magnetman coughed pointedly. “We were chasing an arsonist and we ran into the Evil Eight. We beat them up more than they beat us up, end of story.”

Gauntlet looked at the team as a whole before leveling his gaze on me. “Is that the WHOLE story?”

“Not really,” I said, shaking my head.

“What do you mean?” Magnetman asked.

“He’s right,” Needlegal said looking at her brother. “Someone’s out to smear us all over again.”

“Repetition of Magnetman’s question?” Topman said from his chair.

I sighed. I was probably, in some twisted way, the best person to explain this. “The Diner, my Bar, and Terri’s all had a lot of things in common, contrary to what ya might believe.”

“Yeah, they were all burned down with similar methods. Whoop-dee-do,” Snakeman cut in.

“They also had something, or rather, someONE else, in common,” I said, throwing a look at Needlegal. “She was supposed to have taken th’ blame fer th’ arson cases by now. I think. Gah, this is confusin’.”

“You’re not making much sense, Hardman,” Topman told me.

“He means me,” Needlegal said finally. “All the places that were burned down also had their safes emptied, and the evidence was supposed to point to me.”

Gemini shot to his feet. “AHA! So YOU’RE the arsonist!” I smacked myself in the forehead. Exactly why I didn’t say anything before.

“Calm down, Gemini,” Gauntlet said. “Nobody in this room is the guilty part. Continue, one of you, please.”

“There ain’t much more ta say,” I shrugged. “I think I’m th’ only one who figured it out on my own, but I kept th’ facts ta m’self. Besides, Whoever is trying to ruin Needlegal’s reputation like this is just one player in somethin’ bigger.”

“Really?” Spark asked.

Gauntlet nodded. “You guys have probably noticed how the Mayor has called in so many other teams trying to get to the bottom of three little arson cases,” I winced. I LIKED my Bar, dammit. “which is something we should all be finding suspicious by now.”

“AND he knew about the Evil Eight being down at the pier before WE found them. That right there is making me uneasy.”

“That was probably a slip up on his part,” Gauntlet said thoughtfully. “Much as I hate to say it, the Mayor’s a pawn in this too. “

“And by extension, we are too,” Needlegal said glumly.

“So who’s playing the pieces?” Topman asked, going along with the metaphor.

“Someone who isn’t already a part of our rouges gallery, I know that much,” Gauntlet said.

I stood up slowly. “I still think we need to talk to the Mayor. The Ascendant Androids are gonna meet us there at 10. Might as well show up and compare notes, at least.”

“Not you, though, big guy,” Gauntlet said shaking his head. I started to protest, but he held up a hand. “You and Magnet have to see Dr. Light. Get back into fighting shape, all right? I have a feeling we’ll need all of us in the end of this.”

“We usually do,” Magnetman muttered, standing up to walk out the door. I followed him, because when it comes down to it, there’s no way I could argue with Gauntlet’s logic.

The rain was still pounding down, and the thunder still cracked overhead, but we really didn’t notice. We walked slower than we might normally, taking care not to hurt ourselves even more than we already were.

I’d like to say we were surprised when our path was blocked by a rebuilt Golemman and a cockier Spinman, if only because I could write about how they got the jump on us and we STILL beat them, injured and surprised. But, no. These idiots just walked out into the street and stood in our way. Magnetman and I had been expecting this anyway.

“Look, Golemman,” Spinman laughed. “Stray dogs.”

A low rumbling from Golemman struck me as something like laughter. That set me on edge. “Would ya guys take a rain check or somethin’?” I asked. “I have a headache today.”

“Keep cracking wise, Hardy,” Spinman grinned, “Because we’re bringing your HEADS home to master Wily, and he could use a good laugh.”

I frowned, not seeing an easy way out of this one, when something inside of me seemed to drop and pain shot through my head. I’d felt this before, so I wasn’t surprised to see Magnetman’s eyes glowing.

“Could I step AWAY from you first before you do that?” I asked, trying to back away from him.

“Sorry, but we need to end this fast,” Magnet said, exerting as much magnetic energy into the ground and buildings as he could.

“No arguments, but still,” I managed. It had felt like getting kicked in the stomach. Magnetism had always been my major weakness, and a massive shift like that always made me a little shaky. As I watched, however, girders and sewer pipes started to pull free of their concrete bonds. Spinman and Golemman had already realized what was going on and were charging Magnet.

I swore and powered forward to collide with Golemman from the side, sending him over and into Spinman. As the two evil robots tumbled to the street, I tried my best to get away from the storm of magnetic energy that was building around me. A steel I-beam shot past me head before slamming into the ground near Golemman and Spinman, who were trying to fight the magnetism to stand up.

Huge pieces of metal tore out of various buildings and wrapped around the two members of the Evil Eight. I tried to stay conscious through it all, but I know I black out briefly. Briefly enough for it to be over when I opened my eyes again. I stoop up and made my way over to Magnetman, who had overexerted himself. Shaking my head, I scooped up my smaller teammate and kept going toward Dr. Light’s laboratory.

“That was short,” I coughed.