Hardman's Bar

Chapter 22


I shoved my way to the front of the group as both Needle Cannons roared to life. I'd been on the recieving end of this atack before, but never intentionally. I threw both my arms in front of my face as the projectiles rained on me.

"What do we do now?" Magnetman asked in a panic-stricken voice behind me.

"I'm voting for running," Topman shouted back at us as he bolted for the edge. Gauntlet wasn't far behind him. Magnetman swore and ran off as well. Getting back down into the city was priority at this point, since the ruined urban terrain would give the others cover from the hailstorm I was weathering for them. Up here, there wasn't anything to hide behind, no doubt a calculated measure on Mesmerman's part.

The flurry of needles came to a halt and I looked out from between my arms just in time to see Mesmerman take his first swing. I never had enough time to move as the scythe bit into my shoulder, lancing pain into my joints. I yelled in pain and swung a fist at him, but he was too fast. I caught a glimpse of Needlegal as she leapt off the edge in pursuit of the others. I knew already I couldn't move fast enough to get off this island myself without Mesmerman having more than enough time to cut me to pieces. There weren't many other options than standing and fighting at this point.

Unless...

I fired a Hard Knuckle at Mesmerman to keep him busy, and crouched low to jump into the air. Depending how thick this island was, I might be in trouble, but I had to chance it.

I rocketed into the air as my hand returned to me, and fired myself into the gound to complete the Hard Press, trying to managed as much force into it as I could. I felt the entire island buckle almost immediately, bending inward like a piece of wood that had just been chopped in half. I barely had time to haul myself out of the ground before the two halves cracked apart and I found myself plummeting down to the city again.

I said a lot of things on the way down to myself, and a fair share of them were shouted at the top of my lungs, but once they were all edited or censored, the bulk of them boiled down to "Well, this is going to hurt."

I remember hitting the building below me. The top of it, anyway. Most of the rest of that particular trip down consisted of rocks, glass, steel, and a very, very sudden stop.

I coughed once, got my feet back under me, and stood up. There were definite perks to weighing four tons. Especially when a large portion of that tonnage is armor. I brushed some dust and masonry off me, and shook myself to get the rest of the dust off of me. Stepping out of the rubble, I realized how disoriented I was, so I took a second to get my bearings.

I'd spotted the others, Top and Magnet under heavy Needle Cannon fire while Gauntlet snuck around to attack from behind, when a hand shot out of the rubble in front of me, grabbed another large chunk of stone, and hauled a coughing Snakeman out of the wreckage. "What," he managed between coughing fits, "the hell HIT me?"

I helped him up. "Sorry about that, Snake. Do you know where Spark and Gemini are?"

"Massive moron," Snake remarked before standing up straight. "No clue where those two are. I was watching the fight, waiting to see just how many of us were in there. What's going on? Someone piss Needlegal off?"

I shook my head and made a hasty explaination, which Snake miraculously understood somehow. "Wow, that's fascinating and all, but where IS Mesmerman?"

I looked up and thought of something. "Uh, not on my list of priorities at the moment."

"Why not?"

Two incredible chunks of concrete dropped through the clouds, screaming their way toward the city like low-orbit meteors. Snake looked at them, looked at me, and then ducked back under the rubble. I was already at a dead run and shouting warnings at Magnetman and Topman. Unfortunately, they were too busy dodging fire, so I had to think fast. Both Hard Knuckles flew true, despite the stabbing pain in my shoulder, and grabbed the pair of them on their way, hauling their unprepared bodies off to the outskirts of what I guessed was the impact zone.

Of course, this once again meant several times my own weight in city fell down on me for the second time in as many minutes.

My head was ringing in the darkness of the stone and dust clouds. I managed to shift enough to give an opening for my hands to return to me to, and hauled some slabs of stone aside to pull myself out. I'd obviously blacked out a little bit, since the rest of the Maniacs were searching the wreckage for me. I heard Sparkchan shout that she saw me and the rest of the team was there in a short time.

I rubbed my head, feeling a multitude of dents that hadn't been there before. "What happened?" I asked.

Top gave me a smile. Something had obviously gone right for a change. "Gauntlet brought Needlegal around."

"She's back on our side?"

"Yeah, I am," a happy, if not somewhat beaten up Needlegal spoke up from the back. She'd obviously taken some rather painful convincing.

"You okay?"

"More than you," she smirked. "I didn't get knocked unconcious."

I rubbed the stab wound in my shoulder and rolled it a bit, trying to get used to the pain of moving it. "Yeah, you didn't have a chunk o' th' street fall on ya at somethin' like terminal velocity."

"Fair point," she smiled.

"Bad news, though, is that Mesmerman's gone missing," Gemini said sullenly.

Needlegal's rampage earlier had left its mark on the rest of the Maniacs. None of us were really in top condition anymore. Gauntlet was still moving slower than normal due to the dozens of needle wounds in his back, while everyone else had sprinkled needle holes in their armor. Topman's face was bruised, and one of his eyes had been blackened. Snakeman looked the worst though. Needlegal's weapon was incredibly effective against him, and it was obvious he'd taken more than a comfotable amount of hits. There were still two Geminimen standing around, both looking fairly hurt.

Needlegal herself had been hit with pretty much every weapon we had, aside from the Hard Knuckle for obvious reasons. A straight black burn on the side of her head marked where she'd been tagged with the Gemini Laser, which probably hurt the most.

"First order of business," Gauntlet said in a voice that was lighter than the last time I'd heard him, "is to get out of this altered reality and get back to the real Monsteropolis. Open to ideas."

"Find and destroy Mesmerman here?" Magnet suggested.

"No go," Gauntlet shook his head. "He can evade us forever in a realm he controls."

"What about some kind of central control thing? EVERY bad guy has one, right?" One of the Geminimen suggested.

"Anyone seen anything like that?" Gauntlet asked.

I shrugged, as did the bulk of the team, but Sparkchan spoke up. "City hall?"

We all exchanged looks. "Might as well," Gauntlet said. "We don't have much else to lose."

Those words in my mind, we made our way to City Hall, in a surprisingly uneventful trip. Aside from the incredible damage the city had suffered and the angry sky, there were no traces of Mesmerman's influence. We arrived at City Hall and let ourselves in uneventfully, and we fanned out, searching the place.

For some reason, Gauntlet asked me to search the Mayor's office, which I didn't question at the time. I really should have.

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