Hardman's Bar
By Hadrian Howell (Hardman)
Chapter 46
There can be no action without an equal and opposite reaction, and I shot backwards as the spiked ball crashed through the shutters, taking two more healthy chunks of the metal shields with me in each hand. Junocron cried out and brought a wild hand down at me, which hit hard, and I went sailing off into the blackness.
I had to slow myself down or I’d be way too far gone to help by the time anyone COULD help me, so I threw the two large pieces of Junocron I had away from me, slowing me down a little bit, and then I fired both Hard Knuckles at the same time as well, slowing me down even more.
I spun in weightless space, catching glimpses of the battle. Junocron towered over the archaic-looking space station, and his fought and swung with a fury that was godlike. I could see the specks of my teammates as they attacked him with all they had, and I could only hope what I’d done was enough.
A cold, icy grip snagged something deep inside of me again, although this feeling was more distant, but growing stronger. I noted with some sort of pained happiness that I was now drifting back towards Junocron. As I started to accelerate, I tried speaking, telling Magnet that I was okay now, to stop using the magnetism because that hurt, but nothing came out of my mouth before I accelerated right back into Juno’s body.
There’s no sound in airless space, but inside my head, all kinds of headache sirens screamed into life. It was only now, with my head stuck in the body of a monster, that I remembered I had my own jet engine that would have worked PERFECTLY FINE in both instances where I’d been thrown at Junocron. I made a mental note to discuss this with Magnetman at length as I pulled myself out of his chest and grabbed one edge of the ravaged shutters.
Holding on tight with both hands and leaning back, I fired the jet engine in my lower half and burned it for a good ten seconds before the shutter started to give. If there had been noise, there would have been the chorus of tortured metal and the roar of an angry demi-god as Junocron’s hand came at me again. It was just about to knock me for another trip into deep space when a Spark Shot the size of a small sun collided with it, rending a hole in the arm large enough to drive a truck through. Junocron’s body convulsed with the pain, and I kept trying to haul his protective shutters open.
“Good job, Hardman!” I heard Topman say.
“Let him have it guys!” came Snakeman’s voice.
And then there came the silent barrage. Bright blue lasers, vibrant, flickering sparks, explosives tops, missile-driven magnets, pin-point accurate needles, spinning throwing stars, and self-possesed mechanical snakes all hit home, and Junocron shook even more violently.
“NOW!” Shadowman shouted.
“Now what?” I asked.
But it was too late. Junocron exploded.
I had the cover of the shutter I’d pried open from the blast, but the force was unavoidable, and I rocketed into space at a speed I’d never traveled at before.
“GUYS?” I shouted, heedless of my own situation. Sure, I was screwed, but I had the cover and the armor to survive the explosion. What about the others?”
No answer came back to me over the comm. link. I shoved the shutter aside in time to see the castle-turned-space-station get consumed by the flash and momentary fire of the explosion.
I hung there in space, drifting silently, watching the light show like a fireworks display. How could the others have made it out alive?
How had I made it out alive?
Was I the last Maniac? Or did Gauntlet have a plan? If so, why didn’t I hear it? Were our comm. links limited in range in space, or did the close proximity to Unicron’s Spark jam it somehow?
I felt a part of me burn with fire, and I looked at my chest. A small shard of metal was jammed in one of the holes the glass beings Hades and Eden had left in my chest, and it cackled with an inner energy.
I plucked it out and looked at it in the palm of my hand. And then a voice came into my head.
“I am Unicron,” it said feebly. Even with such a weakened voice, it awakened a primal, animalistic desire for power somewhere in the back of my head, but the entire front of my head narrowed my eyes.
“And you’re nothing,” I said to myself as I tossed the small fraction of Unicron’s Spark away from Earth.
I looked at the planet below me and I would have sighed if there’d been air to draw in a breath. As pieced of the castle drifted out into space and plummeted, burning, into earth’s atmosphere, I hoped that the others had made it out okay before the monumental amount of energy I’d spent during the last hour caught up with me, and I shut down.
