Hardman's Bar

Chapter 19


As Golemman’s body slumped to the ground, flame swept through the Bar, here one instant, gone in the next, and the place had been reduced to the pile of charred rubble I’d last seen it in. I looked up at the sky, where shattered remnants of a sunny day swirled with dark, evil wisps of energy.

“Mesmerman’s starting to lose his grip…” I said out loud. But how had he gotten a hold of Magnet and me in the first place? We’d been in Protoman’s ‘bunker,’ right? Either we’d been led into a trap, or I just didn’t remember what had happened yet.

A sharp hiss turned my attention back toward the street. The people that had swarmed around me on my way to the bar weren’t people anymore, but grey, writhing demons, reaching out and clawing at me, hoping to tear me down by numbers alone. I recognized them for what they were, though. Low level demons that fed on negative emotions.

I laughed. This was going to be fun.

I literally waded out into the street, crushing these ghosts underfoot and sweeping them aside. With little other direction to go on, I started to make my way back to the theatre where Gauntlet had met up with us before. I found it harder to get up to a full run, mired in this hissing and screaming morass of negative emotions, so I trudged on. Aside from hindering my movement, nothing really hurt me as I was now.

I occurred to me that my side no longer hurt, but something in my mind said that was because this place wasn’t real. If what we were here were mental facsimiles of ourselves, then physical injuries didn’t matter here. As soon as Mesmerman was dealt with here, though, I’d have to worry about the fist shaped dent in my side all over again.

This guy was getting annoying.

Approaching near-boredom, I fired off a Hard Knuckle down the street, clearing out a swath of the demons and driving them back. The sight of hundreds of the little things flying into the air as they disintegrated made me smile, and as the path I’d cleared filled in, I shot another Knuckle off.

I continued in this fashion for a while, stomping them down, making my way back toward the theatre, and making entire lines of them die all at once, when a new phenomenon caught my eye. In a storm of flying bodies that wasn’t unlike a tornado, I caught flashes of yellow armor and a grim, determined face.

“Bite size!” I shouted over the din of the demons, “Over ‘ere!” I sent another Knuckle his way to clear out some space, where I saw Topman in all his armored glory, obviously a little thankful for the reprieve from the crushing mass of anger and hate. He skated my way as fast as he could.

“Good to see you back to your old recognizable self, Hardman,” Top smiled wearily as he slid to a halt near me.

“Good ta see I didn’t kill ya,” I said back. “I was worried there fer a bit.”

The smallest member of the Mechanical Maniacs nodded before throwing himself into a whirlwind spin and rocketing out into the crowd in a kind of loop before coming back to me. Topman’s signature Top Spin attack had only gotten deadlier when he obtained his Transmetal armor. These days, Topman himself didn’t hit much, but the firestorm of kinetic energy that surrounded his body tended to have wild effects on everything around him. I was pretty much immune, being as rock-solid as I am, but Gauntlet always got a little woozy around Topman in battle.

“So where do we go next?” Tops asked me, throwing out a few explosive tops to keep some space between us and the endless throng.

“I was figurin’ we go back to th’ theatre and try findin’ th’ Boss,” I said as I crushed four more of the little things under foot. They weren’t tough (for me, at least. They could bury Topman if he wasn’t careful), but they were endless.

We seemed to keep fighting them back for ages, before a rain from above gave us a brief reprieve. A familiar sinking feeling in my gut told me who it was before Top even shouted it out.

“Magnetman!” Top cried, waving at a rooftop nearby. “Thanks for the save!”

“We’re not done yet,” Magnet shouted back. “You guys keep going, I’ll support you from up here!”

“We need ta move faster,” I told Topman.

“I’m open to suggestions,” he said over his shoulder.

I looked at him for a moment and then I thought of something. “Sorry about this, kid,” I said, grabbing his head.

“HEY! What are you DOING? Put me down, you lummox!” I wound back my arm like a pitcher and held it there for a moment with a squirming Topman fighting my grip, which was something like an ant trying to open a mousetrap.

“Just do yer thing, Tops!” I shouted as I threw him forward. He sailed above the crowd, screaming a curse at me before he started to drop, and literally hit the ground spinning. The power of the Top Spin, combined with his momentum, carved a canyon in the ground under his feet and scattered the crowd of demons like confetti to a hurricane. Swatting aside the few shacked demons in front of me, I started to run after him. He was hard to keep up with, though.

I stop in front of the theatre and looked down the street. Topman was still careening uncontrollably through the monsters, but I figured he’d be okay if he figured out how to turn around. Magnetman landed softly next to me and flexed his previously injured arm.

“Well, that was different,” he said with a smile.

“I do occasionally have a good idea,” I nodded.

Without much more exchanged between us, we went inside, looking for our team leader. The theatre was still as run down as it had been, and I found I had to shift most of the rubble to account for my larger frame.

“I don’t think he’s here,” Magnet said after a little bit. A sound behind us made us turn, only to see Topman, leaning on the door with one arm and glaring at us.

“Do not EVER do that again,” he growled.

“Sorry about that,” I managed without laughing.

Magnet jumped onto the stage. “Man…. Now what do we do?”

Top sat down in one of the open seats. “Well, we thought of coming back here, so maybe the others will have the same idea.”

“Worth waitin’ fer,” I said after a little consideration. “’Sides, I don’t feel to welcome out there at all.”

“This place is giving me even more creeps than Topman’s room,” Magnetman said conversationally.

“What’s wrong with my room?” Top demanded.

“It’s just so…” he shivered, “Gay.”

“… And?”

“I just think it’s creepy, all right? I never said bad, I said creepy.”

“You SAID gay,” Top grumbled. “So I’m gay, so what? Doesn’t make me less of a person…”

Sensing the rant Top was about to launch into I prowled around back stage (well, I say prowled, but it was more of a rumbling sound.), looking for anything to occupy my time. Then I heard something, kind of like a whimper.

“Who’s there?” I asked aloud. Another feeble sound came from under a tarp. I approached it slowly. “Hello?” Whatever was under there was trying to shuffle away.

“Hey!” I shouted, grabbing the tarp and tearing it away. A shape under it dashed into the corner, trying to hide behind some discarded scenery.

“I’m not gonna hurt ya,” I said, holding out my hands and approaching slowly. “I’m here ta help…” I wasn’t sure of that. Was this some sort of trick by Mesmerman to get at us? Who was this… person?”

I moved the scenery aside and crouched low, trying my best to look friendly. This is apparently very difficult to do when you’re fourteen feet tall and composed almost entirely of armor. The person who was shaking with fear looked me in the eyes.

“What are you?” it… she asked. Definitely a feminine voice, but the gloom of backstage made it difficult to see her face.

“Name’s Hardman,” I said, offering a hand which was never taken. “I’m with the Mechanical Maniacs. We’re heroes,” I finished a little weakly. I didn’t know what else to say.

She was shaking with fear, but I don’t think I was what she was afraid of at this point. “Lies…” she managed. “All lies… can’t tell what’s really… oh god…”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” I said, resting a hand on her back. “You’ll be okay… what’s going on?”

Then I finally recognized her voice. As wracked with terror as she’d been, it’d been difficult to place.

“Oh god,” I breathed. “Needlegal?”

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