Wanted

By C.M. Rich (Magnetman)

Episode 1 - Wildfire

May 30th, 20XX, 7: 47 AM , Pacific Standard Time

“Ahh, sh-…It figures! It friggin’ figures!”

Hector Garza muttered loudly as he climbed out of his somewhat rusted, yet-usually-reliable Ford Torino. Already late for work, Hector spent weeks just finding a job after being laid off from his former factory- he certainly didn’t need to be late on his second day.

Cursing under his breath, he hastily slammed the door of the old tan car and walked to the back end to inspect what he already knew to be a flat tire. Making matters even worse, he no longer had a spare tire, being that the last owner lost it, sold it, or destroyed it. In any case, Hector would have to hunt down some way to get to work, hopefully only a little later than he knew he’d be.

As he crouched down to look at the shredded tire, he heard air escaping the tire on the other side just before that too popped, followed by the remaining pair in short order.

Garza grimaced while looking confused. He didn’t notice any hazards on the road behind his car- no glass, spike strips…Nothing. There weren’t any bullet holes around, either. He wouldn’t be blamed for suspecting someone from shooting out his tires in this city. After all, Los Angeles was rather infamous for its abundance of crime, petty and serious alike.

But this was just strange.

As Hector was walking around his car, he spied another strange phenomenon- this one coming towards him. It looked like a heat mirage, actually- a common sight during the summer, as the sun warmed the dark pavement to over one-hundred degrees.

But…This was early spring. At only sixty-three degrees, heat mirages just…didn’t happen.

“…H-hey…?”

The phenomenon swept over him as quickly as he saw it- the last thing he’d see.

May 30th, 20XX, 8: 12 PM , Mountain Standard Time

“Th-thank you! Thank you!”, the middle-aged mom nervously said to the hulking, 14 foot tall tank known as Hardman as he handed over her only child of sixteen months.

“No problem.”, he shrugged before heading back to the burning building from which he had just emerged. He didn’t have time to bathe in praise, not that he did so very often; The brush fires here in New Mexico were keeping the Mechanical Maniacs busier than the lack of crime back home in “Monsteropolis”. This particular fire swept in overnight, catching most of the town residents of Los Alamos by surprise, stranding many of them within their homes before they had the chance to escape.

“You’d think that someone like Windman would have an easier time with this!”, shouted Geminiman as he shot at the base of some flames with his Gemini Laser, blowing out the ground and extinguishing a little bit of the fire. “Why is the only team without a fire or wind-based guy here doing something like this again?”

Shadowman emerged from the fire, using the tails of his scarf to help shield an unconscious victim of smoke inhalation.

“Because wind spreads fire. And fighting fire with fire usually just means more fire. And besides, we’re on call. No other team can say that.”

Gauntlet handed off the sleeping victim to ClassiCal- the resident medic of the team, who quickly checked the young man for serious injuries.

“This one will be alright!”, she claimed as Shadowman disappeared back into the burning halfway house for more survivors.

A radio signal burst into Shadowman’s ear as he searched the volcanic-like hallways of the near-collapsing building.

“One more. Two doors down, on your right.”

“Thanks, Raj.”, Gauntlet responded with, neither of them really thinking twice about the nickname used.

Inside the room was a cowering little girl, no more than six years old. She seemed to be even more scared of the dark ninja Robot Master than the flames, though.

“Hey, don’t worry. I’m one of the good guys. Let’s get you out of here, okay?”

The little girl shook her head weakly at first. Then a steel beam crashed down in the adjacent room, shaking the entire complex and scaring her in short order. Hesitantly, she offered her hand to Gauntlet, and he quickly scooped her up and started running out of the door towards safety.

The beam must have weakened the floor, as Shadowman only got a few steps into his jaunt when everything finally collapsed around him, sending him and his now-screeching passenger down towards certain burning death below.

Fortunately, the very concept of “team” means you’ve got seven other people looking out for you. Gauntlet shouted to one of those onlookers as he was saved by a third body that grabbed him and the screaming child and hoisted them up.

“Thanks, Needle.”, he coughed, the smoke from below entering his nostrils.

NeedleGal simply smiled as acknowledgement, received the girl from Shadowman, and helped him back to his feet.

“Is that it?”, she asked aloud.

“As far as I know.”, Snakeman confirmed from his vantage point a few blocks away, where he was using his dozen Search Snakes to comb over the entire town faster than normally possible.

“Hah! If I didn’t know any better, I’d say we managed zero casualties this time!”, Lennon gloated, a few burn marks apparent on his otherwise pristine armor.

“Magnet and Top?”, Gauntlet asked bluntly, ignoring his teammate’s claim.

“The Sugar Rush Kid and Hop Along Kassidy are across town at the front of the fire, putting it out. Somehow.”, Geminiman sneered, knowing a certain name in that sentence would enrage one of his least favorite comrades.

A large crash from across town acknowledged the “somehow” part, as half a building was dumped onto the flames, seemingly by magic force.

“I think they’ll manage.”, Shadowman suggested. “Let’s get these people to the hospital. Hardman?”

Hadrian appeared from another burning building empty-handed, double checking for more survivors. “Yeah boss?”

“Clear a path for the ambulances, would you?”

“Sure thing.”

Lennon mouthed the words “boss”, his lips curled over his teeth in disgust as Hardman got to work using his Hard Knuckle to clear burning debris from the road. In a matter of minutes, EMTs were at work, piling variously injured people into ambulances as quickly as possible to avoid being caught at the center of the town for very long.

A half hour later, Topman rejoined the rest of the team, his body a little charred, which annoyed him to no end. He brushed it off as best as he could and enveloped his body in his ironically flamed-themed leather jacket.

“How’d it go over there?”, Shadowman asked the Spinning Demon.

“Oh, just great. It was extra fun working with someone who just picks up tons of steel to drop on a fire WITHOUT checking first. He almost squashed me a million times or so.”

“So…The fire’s out?”, Lennon smirked.

“Yes. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m in serious need of a shower.”, SD groused, his usual upbeat personality overshadowed by a day of death-defying labor.

As Topman skated off, Magnetman finally rejoined his teammates. His entire body was covered in soot and caked-on debris, with parts of his outfit melted to his frame.

“Oh no! Hun, are you alright?”, the team “mom”, SparkChan ran over.

“I’m fine.”, he whispered.

“Kenta…A bit too reckless out there, I see.”, Gauntlet began to scold.

“I did what needed to be done.”, the blackened android countered with.

“I think you did what needed to be done in a reckless way, then.”

Kenta remained quiet as Classi started peeling away the more damaged layers of his pseudo-skin. Lennon, looking more than a little angered by what he perceived as Kenta being a baby, shoved him out of the way and presented his elbow to SparkChan.

“Hey! I’ve got injuries too, you know…”

“Hmph.”, Magnetman grunted as he wrapped his body back up in his poncho. Wordlessly, he teleported off.

Gauntlet sighed. “That kid…He’s gonna get himself killed.”

“Or worse,” Geminiman chimed in as Classi meekly tried to reject his advances, “he’ll kill one of us. Great job on hiring that guy, by the way.”

Shadowman narrowed his eye at Lennon, who took cheap shots on the aloof ninja whenever the opportunity presented itself. Gauntlet normally ignored the quips, but shots on his leadership skills were especially annoying. Tired, however, the cyber shinobi wouldn’t give Lennon the argument he wanted, and followed Kenta’s example, teleporting off.

“Heh.”, Geminiman muttered.

“You shouldn’t be so hard on Gaunts or Ken, Len. They had just as tough a day as you.”, Classi maintained.

“And? Bad leadership or poor teamwork is never excusable.”, the mirrored terror frowned.

“Then I suppose you’re inexcusable.”, NeedleGal, in a fashion akin to her brother, seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

“Care to repeat that, Needle B-?!”

SparkChan stepped in between the two feuding Maniacs before Lennon could follow up his insult. “Guys! C’mon, now…It’s been a long day. Let’s just go home, ‘K? I think a good night’s sleep will do us wonders.”

NeedleGal and Geminiman stared at each other over SparkChan for a few moments.

“…You’re getting off lucky. If I hadn’t hurt my elbow, you’d be scrap without ‘big brother’ to help protect you, little girl.”

“Keep it up, pretty boy.”, Needle continued to challenge.

“Problem?”, Snakeman chimed in as he returned from a final sweep of the area. He was reloading another magazine into his rifle…just in case.

“…No. There’s no problem, Snake. We were just going home. Right, Needle?”, Geminiman said, a bit quieter than usual.

“…Right.”

“Good. Then let’s get out of here.”, Raijin nodded, knowing he had to stop yet another one of Lennon’s “contests” before it got out of hand. He gave Lennon a warning glare from under his scaled helmet as a silent warning.

Classi nodded to Snakeman as a sort of silent “thank you”, then teleported off, followed by Geminiman and Needle. Hardman, returning from a last sweep of his own, met up with Snake.

“Huh, like a buncha kids.”, he observed, to which Snake agreed with a nod. “Is it me, or are we just not gettin’ along like we used ta?”

“You'd know better than me, but I think it’s the same, more or less. I think our new ‘cop deal’ has us a bit over worked, so we’re all a bit pissed.”

“That’s true…I haven’t been to my bar in two weeks. Hope Gag n’ Cassandra are runnin’ things a’right back home.”

“I’m sure they’re fine. But…If you want, I could put them under surveillance for you.”, Snakeman offered.

“Nah, its a’right. I trust ‘em enough.”, Hardman sniffed, a bit of soot finding its way into his nose.

“Fair enough…How’re the roads around here?”

“All clear for the demo crew, providin’ th’ fire stays out long enough for ‘em to tear it down. Ain’t nobody gonna be here for a few days, though.”

“Not our problem.”, Snakeman said. “Alright, let’s go home, big man.”

“Cool.”, Hardman nodded before activating his teleport beacon. In a flash, the 4 tons of steel that made up Hardman was gone- a technological magic trick unimaginable only a few years ago.

Snakeman was just about to do the same when a…feeling came over him. It prompted him to look to the West, towards the mountains. Though he could see nothing out of the ordinary, aside from obvious fire damage, something told him there was something going on far away in that direction. He shook the feeling quickly, however- he did get leftover interference from his Search Snake signal on many occasions.

Snakeman left Los Alamos the same way his friends had.

May 31st, 20XX, 3:28 AM , Eastern Standard Time

“…It’s a most…tragic day…In United States history…An unparalleled attack has been perpetrated on our own soil. A terrorist act like no other before it…Words cannot explain our…grief…anger…sense of tragedy…but above all, our desire for justice…This WILL NOT go un-punished…”

“And there you have it…The press conference from earlier today as President Weaving addressed the attack on Los Angeles from this morning, which left the City of Angels completely decimated, with millions lost, presumably dead. We here at MMN are still in a state of shock over what can only be called an act of cowardice. We’re still without answers at this hour, but every single one of our resources is hard at work, attempting to find the truth behind this horrible incident. Stay tuned for more cover-“

The automatic timer for the television kicked in, shutting off the news cast abruptly. Nobody seemed to care at this hour within the Maniacs’ HQ, as the man previously watching the television was fast asleep on the floor in front of it, having lost consciousness midway through his DVD, bottle still clutched in his massive hand.

Everyone else, even Gauntlet, was fast asleep after a particularly difficult day of putting out yet another brush fire in the West. Nobody felt like watching the news, suffice to say.

Hours later, something stirs the massive Hardman from his semi-drunken stupor.

May 31st, 20XX, 7:14 AM , EST

“H-huh…Whossat?”

Silence. Hardman listens intently for a few seconds before assuming it was nothing but his imagination. He slowly leans back to his former horizontal position.

Until the loud “boom” resounds. Hardy gets back up, clumsily, and starts walking around the many chambers of their lair, deducing the source of the noise is emanating from outside of the base, rather than within.

“Do you hear that too?”, a much more energetic SD asks his house-sized compatriot as he descends the stairway.

“Yeah…”, Hardman says, looking up at the ceiling. “Like some kinda hailstorm.”

“Its not a hailstorm.”, Gauntlet proclaims as he drops from a shadow on the ceiling.

“Then…What th’ hell is it?”

“A riot.” He warns. Before the other two Maniacs can question that statement, the sound of a very heavy, thick front door crashing to the floor, accompanied by the angry shouting of hundreds of human voices, agrees with Shadowman’s observation. “Get everyone up and out of here…NOW.”

Gauntlet double taps the spot on his hood where his ear would be, activating a signal. The den area of the base goes into lock down, buying the Maniacs more time before the angry crowd broke through that as well.

The three scramble through their comrades’ resting quarters, stirring them rudely from their slumber and dragging them to the teleportation chambers within minutes. Aside from Gauntlet, there were seven confused, nervous faces within the room, as the sounds from the riot grew closer, announcing that they had breached the haphazard inner security doors as well.

Gauntlet punched in a quick set of coordinates on the machine as the others took their places in the chambers. Jumping inside, Shadowman quickly tossed a few Shadow Blades into the console of the machine, destroying it as he evaporated along with the other Mechs.

Though they were gone now, the riot still tore through their sparsely-decorated abode, ripping through entire walls, smashing furniture, and crushing any electronic device before the police finally arrived to diffuse the situation with tear gas, rubber bullets, and pepper spray.

After a few hours of combat between the police- the Mechanical Maniacs’ recent extended teammates- and the flustered citizens, the officers finally cleared out a now-decimated Maniac HQ.

The captain of the squad strode over the inches-thick layers of debris before arriving at the teleportation chamber. Taking one look at the main IBN-brand console, he sighed.

“They’ve escaped…Tell the Chief.”

“Yes sir.”

The captain was alone in the room, looking at the cut and burnt console, as well as the smashed teleportation chambers.

“I’ve bought you some time.” The captain mumbled to himself. “It’s up to you now, Shadowman. Don’t let me down.