Hardman's Bar
By Hadrian Howell (Hardman)
Chapter 26
As the two rocketed upward, probably trying to strike at the head, The Range came down at the rest of us like a freight train, the last two stores on the end spreading into a four-fingered hand to grab us. There was no way for me to move fast enough to dodge, and I got enveloped in the steel beam grip. I felt myself rising, although I couldn’t see what was going on, so I tried to shake free.
I managed to get some breathing space by fighting my way INTO The Range itself. I found myself in a Levi’s Jeans store that looked like a train wreck. Racks of clothing were everywhere, and moving at high speeds, making navigation tricky. In the center of the room were more of those thick cables, running through like a skeletal system. As the room spun and pitch and turned, I tried to maintain some semblance of which way was up and tried getting to the opposite wall.
I clambered into a dressing room and slammed through the back wall to find I’d gotten turned around. I stared at the street below me (almost 600 feet below me) and thought better of jumping out. I could see the bottom of the Frostmoore complex, and I saw Gemini dart in through the front door. May he’d have better luck trying to scale this monstrosity through the leg.
I crushed my way into the next dressing room and took a second to think. Whatever was controlling these buildings had to be in the Radio Shack up top. Or in the Records building. Either way, I’d have to work my way out of the arm somehow and into the body. Maybe the other Maniacs would be able to take it out before I got there.
As the arm pitched again and I hit what might have been the roof of the place, I swore. If the others were taking a pounding like this, they probably wouldn’t be holding up as well as I was. I tried to reorient myself and I sent a Hard Knuckle through the closest wall, which turned out to be another mistake. As the rushing wind from outside slammed into me, I lost my grip and tumbled out of the gaping hole I’d made.
I fell at an angle, slamming into a building a few blocks away from our burning base. It would occur to me later that Cityman was moving around in a Godzilla-like rampage while we fought, but that wasn’t on my list of priorities. People screamed and shouted as I went through several floors of the building, finally shooting out the other side in a cloud of dust and debris and slamming into the street.
Cars screeched to a halt, and a few slammed into me as I tried to stand up, which made THAT exercise more difficult than was strictly necessary. Swearing I batted the disable vehicles aside like pillows and stood up, shaking myself free of the remaining wreckage. I staggered out of the hole I’d made and onto the sidewalk to catch my breath.
Were we still in the dream world Mesmerman had crafted? That didn’t make any sense. Everyone here was afraid, running in terror, obviously frightened of the monstrosity that was making so much mulch out of downtown Monsteropolis. This thing had to be real, but how? The cables suggested that some kind of central control unit commandeered the buildings to use as armor for itself, meaning that the cables themselves were probably vulnerable.
Sighing in frustration, I started to run back toward the fight. This was an arduous process as the throng of screaming people was running the other way, but I sported more figures fighting through the crowd to join the fight.
“GARY!” I shouted, hoping he heard me. He gave me a nod of acknowledgement as I got closer to him. “What IS this thing?”
“Not sure,” Iceman said, trying to shove through the crowd. It was harder for him because of his size, and he looked like he took a similar fall to mine. “The rest of the Sinister Six are already in there, as are Wily’s Warriors and Drastic Measures.”
“Good ta know we got backup,” I nodded, picking the Eskimo up. “This’ll be faster,” I told him.
“Much obliged, Hardy,” Gary smiled. “Now let’s get going, all right?”
“Not a problem,” I said, charging forward. The crowd parted for me more out of fear than respect, but I wasn’t really picky at the moment. I kept Cityman in my sights as we got closer on him, curious to see what this thing was trying to accomplish. “Any clue what it is? One o’ Wily’s?”
“I don’t think so,” Gary said as I saw Cloudman bombard the Radio Shack on top with electricity. “It might be connected to our mysterious Mesmerman , though.”
“Doubtful,” I shook my head. “Geminiman did him in last night.”
“Good news, but not comforting,” Iceman said as a part of the Frostmoore apartment building blew out, spewing masonry onto the crowded street, as well as Sparkchan. I swore and shot a Hard Knuckle out to catch her as she used her Spark Shot to destroy the more dangerous pieces of rubble falling toward the populace. She came rocketing back to us.
“Thanks for the save,” she said with an empty smile.
“What happened?” Gary asked.
“Oh, hi Ice,” she managed between gasping breaths. “This guy’s got a wicked anti-body system.”
“Good to know,” Gary said. “This is getting more and more difficult by the second.”
The Techmode antenna stabbed at the ground again, only to be caught and shoved aside by Gutsman, who wrenched backwards to tear the spike from its anchor to disarm the towering colossus. Spinning with the momentum of the stab and tear, Gutsman threw the spike back at Cityman, the antenna slamming into the left side of the Records building and shooting out the other side.
“He seems pretty frail,” Gutsman laughed as we drew even with him.
“Yeah, but it’s those cables we’re gonna have ta worry about,” I shouted over the roar of tortured concrete as we ran. Cityman was moving away from us, but ponderously. With his massive strides, we were having trouble catching up, but we were gaining ground slowly.
“Who designs a robot capable of possessing buildings?” Sparkchan asked loudly.
“A few different psychos come to mind,” Gary said sullenly as Gutsman and I dodged some more falling debris that turned out to be Junkman. He didn’t move much when I looked back at him, but at least he was moving.
“This is prolly that other General o’ Duo’s Protoman mentioned,” I told them.
“Yeah, but who’s in control, then?” Gutsman asked. It was a question that silenced us for a moment until the crimson streak of Quickman shot by us and into the Temp-Co building.
We made a few more meters of progress before discarded needles and metal saw blades clattered down around us. Needlegal and Metalman were probably throwing everything they had at those cables, which were proving to be tough to damage. I caught glimpses of no less than four Geminimen helping out other team members and allies, catching them as they fell off of higher vantage points or working in concert to destroy the writhing cables that seemed to be whipping out to attack the invaders of Cityman’s body.
The middle of the Records building exploded, showering glass outward like a razor-edged sprinkler. Iceman and Sparkchan shot down the largest pieces with their own special weapons while some well placed shadow blades from higher up, near the Radio Shack, broke the other pieces into finer slivers.
“Dammit,” Gary growled. “Destroying his body only puts more people in danger…”
“We gotta shut this thing down!” I shouted, weathering the shower of see-through daggers.
“Open to suggestions!” A shouting Gauntlet managed as he dropped by, slamming into the concrete but bouncing back onto his feet like nothing had happened.
“You okay, boss?” I shouted as Gutsman and I ran by. Shadwoman leapt nimbly onto Gutsman’s back.
“I’ll be fine.”
Gutsman faltered a little with the extra weight. “Man, you put on weight, ninja boy?”
“A jedi’s strength flows from the force,” Gauntlet grinned as we kept running. The tide of screaming pedestrians got thinnewr and thinner the closer to Cityman we got, but it was still difficult to move around much to avoid the pieces and chunks of the buildings that fell from above as four different Megaman Teams poured firepower into him.
Cityman let out a rumbled that sounded like a challenge from the old monster movies, and slowly turned a corner to trace yet more destruction through Monsteropolis.
