Hardman's Bar

By Hadrian Howell (Hardman)

Chapter 20

I guided a shaking Psycho out onto the stage. “Guys? We got a problem.”

Magnetman turned to look, at gave me an odd look. “What the heck is SHE still doing here?”

“I dunno,” I shrugged. “I thought she’da been at the Diner by now.”

She convulsed notably at the word, which was, as I would have guessed, the place she was tied to in this nightmare reality. Sinking to her knees, she sobbed out loud, totally consumed by some kind of inner terror.

“We gotta get her outta here,” I told them. “No tellin’ how bad it’ll be if she don’t get back into costume soon.”

“But I had to fight myself!” Top exclaimed. “She doesn’t look at all ready for that kind of battle!”

“I had to fight an imposter Magnetman, too,” said Magnet thoughtfully. “We’ll just have to help her against her double.”

I nodded, and then thought of something. “Wait, so who were your doubles?”

Top shrugged. “Mine turned out to be Spinman in disguise.”

“I got saddled with Chimeraman’s weaker form,” Magnetman said. “Let me guess, you had to fight Golemman, right Hard?”

“Yeah, that one was obvious.”

“Still,” Top said, picking up the still shaking Psycho, “We’ve got to help her. We have to get her there, if nothing else.”

“I agree, but should we wait for back up?”

“No need,” came the voice I’d been waiting for. “I’ll carry her, you guys go in front and play crowd control.”

“Yes, Boss.” I said without even thinking. Top and Magnet were still looking for him when he strolled out of the shadows, once again the ninja.

He took Psycho from Topman and looked at her, anger plain in his eyes. “They’ll pay for what they did to you, sis. I promise.” He stood there in silence for a while, just holding her before looking at the three of us in turn. “Guys, I know I don’t have to explain what the goal is here. I’m not usually one for motivational speeches and I don’t intend to start now. Let’s just go and show this Mesmerman who he’s really dealing with.”

“Let’s rock,” Topman smiled.

“Just one question,” Magnetman said, looking Gauntlet up and down. “Who did you fight?”

“Omniman,” the leader of the Maniacs spat. “Ho won’t be bothering us for a while.”

“Good deal,” I nodded. “Let’s go then.”

We went to the front of the theatre, and I placed both hands on the wall facing the street, firing both knuckles to shove a chunk of the building out and into the crowd of demons that had gathered outside. Topman, who’d been ready for the opening, shot out at top speed, whirling like a golden tornado before the dust had even started to clear. Magnetman peppered the remaining monsters with Magnet Missiles, and we charged out into the street as one, big, angry half of a Megaman Team.

Shadowman’s shouted directions of left or right was all that changed or stride as we powered through the ghastly denizens of the world gone mad. Oddly enough, the press of the crowd seemed to be weakening, and soon there were actually very few demons surrounding us at all.

A final spin from my small yellow teammate took out the last of them and we stopped to get our bearings. “Where do we go from here?” Magnet asked. “This place is confusing the hell out of me.”

Gauntlet readjusted his grip on his sister and looked around. “It’s… close. I think. It’s got to be.”

“Anybody else wonder why Needlegal’s taking this so much harder than the rest of us?” Topman asked aloud. It was a thought that hadn’t really occurred to me.

There was a tremendous tearing sound, like paper, but magnified a thousand fold, as rents appeared in the concrete all around us. Three of the four of us swore, and Magnet shouted “Aw, what is it THIS time?” As something sectioned out an island of concrete about the length of a football field, the ground shook, with the tortured cry of the writhing earth drowning out all other sound. I only noticed later we were rising into the air as I watched my reflection in the windows of the buildings around us that were rapidly sinking below our level.

We passed through what could be generously called the cloud line and into a bruised looking sky, hovering there above hateful, purple clouds. Then, we stopped ascending.

The others got up slowly, Gauntlet staying crouched over his sister. I hadn’t fallen down, but it had been a challenge. We took in our new environment.

“That is a long way down,” Magnet whistled as he looked over one edge.

“Crap, NOW what do we do?” I asked.

“We could make the jump, THAT would be easy,” Top said, shrugging. “The problem is Needlegal. Until she’s back in her armor, there’s no way she’d be able to absorb the shock of the fall.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” I told him. “Even when I was still Hadrian, the world sometimes acted like I was still a four ton death machine, even if I didn’t realize it.”

“Not something I’m willing to risk, Hardman,” Gauntlet said darkly.

“Point taken, boss,” I apologized.

“Huh,” Magnet said, looking past all of us down the range of our island in the sky. “That’s new.”

We turned to see what Magnet saw, which… didn’t make much sense. The face was all wrong for a start. If that was supposed to be the face. One dull grey eye stared balefully at us, the other one having been replaced by some sort of ring that looped all the way around into the back of its head, like some sort of massive piercing. The head and the torso were all that were actually attached to each other, and the arms, forearms, hands, thighs, legs, and feet all floated in the general area of where they might be on a real body, but remained disconnected. It gave the impression of a floating, unfinished jigsaw puzzle, and was colored a stark white with stripes of black tracing spirals all the way down. It had a mouth, and that mouth was fixed in a wicked grin.

“Wow. He’s got issues,” Topman muttered.

“Mesmerman, I assume?” Magnetman shouted down at the other being.

“Presume,” Top corrected him.

“What?”

“Until you know, you always PRESUME someone is someone.”

Magnetman gave Topman a weird look. “Right, you go on doing that, pip squeak.”

Topman just glared as a familiar, high and cold voice I’d heard once before came back to us. “Welcome, Maniacs, to the nightmare of your lives.”

“We’ve been here for hours, man, you’re a little late,” Magnet told him.