By C.M. Rich (Magnetman)
May 31st, 20XX, 5:59 AM , PST
“How? How can that be the
same Judge? He’s in a maximum security prison…”,
Topman whispers.
“…I think that definitely answers th’ question o’ whether
or not they’re here for us…”, Hardman wryly observes.
“Someone made a deal with the Devil, but I’m not sure who’s
the Devil here.”, Raijin mutters. “I won’t be able to sneak
up on him so easily this time.”
Shadowman got his team's attention. “Okay…Listen up…We’re
not going to fight them. We’re not here to fight- we’re
here to find something- anything- that will help us clear our name.
I figured someone would figure out that we were here, but it did happen
a bit sooner than I expected...We’ll deal with it. We’re
going to split up into four groups and remain hidden at all times. Maintain
radio silence unless absolutely necessary. Avoid contact with the enemy
at all costs.”
“I still think the whole splitting up idea is stupid…”,
Geminiman uttered.
“So says the guy who’s entire power relies on splitting up…”,
NeedleGal smugly rebuts.
“Watch your mouth, woman.”
“Knock it off.”, Gauntlet snapped. “Gemini and Top, you head
south of here. Needle and Snake, you’re off to the West, while Hard and
I go east. Spark and Magnet, you’ve got north. Travel three hours in
your direction, then turn around if you don’t find anything. We’ll
meet back here at about noon.”
“Hey…Why does he get to go with Classi, hmm?”, Geminiman
examined.
“Because this isn’t date night. Now shut up and move out.”,
Snakeman ordered.
”Hey…” Topman said, just before heading off. “Weren’t
there, you know, a group of beat up bad guys laying around here just a minute
ago?”
“Th’ PC thugs musta scooted when we were gawkin’ at th’ copter.”
“Great.” Needle grimaced. “Well, I doubt they’re in much shape to do much else but run.”
“True enough.” Gauntlet agreed. “Anyways…Let’s head out.”
May 31st, 20XX, 6:27 AM , PST
“So…What do you think is really going on?”, Needle prodded
Snakeman, whom up until now was silent as he concentrated on his search efforts.
“I don’t think it was terrorists that did this.”, he says
plainly, brushing against a crumbled bit of building, which broke down even
further at his slightest touch. “Whatever did this…Is something
new. Nothing’s burnt, so I doubt its even a bomb.”
“And why us? Why use us as scapegoats?”
“Convenience, maybe. Or it's someone we ticked off...someone with the
ability to orchestrate such a massive cover up. Who ever set us up must be
really good at doctoring up photos. You know how good Santino is at spotting
them.”
Needle nodded her head, remembering
Santino as the resident computer geek on the Megapolis PD, and a really
good judge of fake photos. It was pretty funny to watch his reactions
to those cheesy tabloids pictures, too.
“This is all too weird...and how did the Sinister Six know we’d
be here?”, Needle pondered, her mind coming back to reality.
“Well...they didn’t. You heard Wave- they were scavenging and got...’lucky’.”
The two headed upwards, climbing a partially standing
building that managed to remain somewhat stable, hoping to catch a better
view. Most of the buildings they had encountered were so dry and brittle
that they’d collapse as soon as they touched them.
“And what about those-“
Snakeman silenced her immediately with a hand held close
to her lips. He motioned with his head downwards as explanation.
Ten feet below were three of the gray-garbed soldiers
they had observed exiting the copter earlier, cautiously checking the
environment. The two Maniacs observed in silence from their hiding place,
using the dusty wind as cover.
“…What are we doing here, again?”
“I ain’t going over it again.”, one soldier answered the
other curtly, both clearly annoyed at the conditions they found themselves
in.
“I don’t know about you, but our commander for this mission seems
like a real dick.”, the third chimed in, equally peeved. “Makes
me wonder where they find these guys.”
“Well, they yanked that serial killer from prison and gave him a gun…I
probably don’t wanna know who’s behind that mask.”
“What gets me are the names; The Judge…Viscous…I mean,
what the hell? Who makes shit up like that?”
“Crazies. Crazies with more authority than us, so it ain’t in our
interest to question it.”
“Well, look…All we gotta do is find that girl and get her on that
copter. If we’re lucky, we won’t even have to fight those terrorists,
if they’re even here.”
“How insane. We don’t even know if she’s alive. I mean, who
could survive something like this? We haven’t even found a single corpse
out here. It's freakin’ me out.”
“Yeah…It is pretty f’d up.”
“Whatever…If we don’t find the girl, I ain’t gonna
lose any sleep over it. Nobody’s told me jack about this mission, anyways.”
Snakeman observed the soldiers meander off through the
eyes of his hidden Search Snakes, quietly listening in on their observations.
“…Little girl?”, he says aloud.
“What’s that all about?”, Needle follows up.
“…I don’t like this. I can understand if the government
sent those guys to find us, but a single little girl? Those guys didn’t
sound like they were all that concerned with us…”
“Think we should follow them?”, the heavily-armored needled android
asked.
“No. Those guys aren’t serious about their job. I am. I’ll
trust my own instincts over theirs any day. Besides, I’m curious about
what we might find at the center of all of this.”
“Understood...and before I forget...” NeedleGal formed a spiked
mace on her arm and jabbed her unsuspecting partner in the stomach. It was
a relatively light touch, but it was enough to make the pierce-weak robot recoil
in pain and hold back a compromising scream.
"What the hell-?" Snakeman demanded in a strained whisper.
"Stop clamping my mouth like that, it's annoying and your hand smells."
"When have I ever..." Snake started before recalling the time shortly
after he joined the team when his hand-clamping action prevented NeedleGal
from warning some children about the spiked lemonade he and the other guys
were about to sell them. Apparently she was still holding a grudge about that.
Snakeman didn't like arguing with the "Psycho Magnet" on a
good day, and despite what he just claimed about taking things seriously,
he knew the right thing to say. "Sorry."
NeedleGal smiled and nodded, retracting her spikes. "Let's move,
then."
The pair of Maniacs quietly slid down from their vantage
point, disappearing further into the dusty maelstrom.
May 31st, 20XX, 6:49 AM , PST
“That ninja bastard…Thinks he knows everything there is to know…My
mind is so underappreciated on this team…”
“Are you just going to bitch this entire trip?”, Topman snapped
at Lennon.
“Because it's getting really boring.”
“Hey, I’ve got every right to be pissed…You’ve seen
it! You know I’d make a better leader than him. At least I’m around
more often!”
“Look, what are you going to do? Fight him for the leadership of the
team? Doesn’t that seem a little, you know…childish?”
Geminiman narrowed his eyes and sneered. “Yeah…Matter of
fact, that’s exactly what’s gonna happen.”
“Going to.”
“Huh?”
“That’s exactly what’s going to happen. Not ‘gonna’.
A leader needs to have proper communication skills.”, SD corrected, much
in the same way a college professor would.
“Whatever. A leader just needs to know how to beat any situation in front
of him.”
“And…Isn’t that exactly what Gauntlet has done in 99% of
our cases?”, Topman asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Feh! You’ve missed the point entirely. He may have led us out
of the fire many times, but I could have gotten us out of those same fires
quicker, safer, and easier every time.”, Lennon claimed.
“…I think you need a vacation, Gem. You’re a little delusional
these days. I don’t remember you ever being so obsessed with knocking
down Gauntlet all the time. For the past few weeks, that’s all you’ve
been able to do, it seems.”, Topman observed.
“I…don’t know why…But I need to beat him. I just…feel
that way…And I’m gonna do it! You’ll see!”
“Going to.”
“Shut up.”
May 31st, 20XX, 6:55 AM , PST
“That’s close enough, Shadowman!”, Bass screamed at Shadowman
as the shinobi robot inched forward with his sword halfway drawn.
Shadowman gnashed his teeth together. He must really
be losing it if he allowed Bass, of all people, to get the drop on him,
he thought.
“Boss…Ya want me ta smash this guy?”, Hardman murmured to
his chosen commander.
“Not yet.”, Shadowman whispered back. “What are you guys
doing here?”
Gauntlet was referring not only to Bass and Treble, but
the entire ensemble of the Wily Warriors, positioned behind the black
and gray android.
“Sorry Gauntlet…But boss’s orders.”, Starnik offered.
“No hard feelings.”, the ninja robot proclaimed as he launched
a few hidden Shadow Blades towards Bass, which he dodged, sending them straight
towards Quickman himself. “Hardman, go.”
“Right.”, he boomed as he rammed both Hard Knuckles into the glass-like
pavement, shooting massive amounts of dust and debris into the air between
the two Maniacs and the Warriors.
By the time the dust had cleared, the pair of dark blue
fugitives were missing.
“Rrrgh…I want them found…NOW.”, Bass commanded. “We’re
not returning home without their heads!”
“That’s not exactly a bad thing…”, Crashman muttered.
“Goddamnit, shut up and fan out! Find them! Now!”, Bass screamed,
slapping Crashman in the face as an exclamation point.
“…You heard the man.”, Quickman said, somberly as he dropped
the pair of Shadow Blades he casually caught. He knew what Wily would do if
they weren’t successful this time, even if it meant hunting down their
friends in the process. “No hard feelings.”
As the Warriors fanned out, leaving Bass to walk slowly
around the area, a pair of androids beneath the surface kept hidden
in the darkness.
“Boss, I didn’t know you could make others shadow warp like that…”
“I didn’t know if it’d work on a big guy like you. You learn
something new everyday.”
“What do we do now? Should we fight that idiot up there?”, Hardman
quizzed.
“I’d like to avoid that. We could take him down, but you know Starnik
and the others have no control over what Wily tells them to do. I’m not
sure what Wily’d do to them if they allowed Bass to get beat up once
again. He might just delete their minds once and for all.”
“Maybe we should just warp around, then.”
“No can do. That burned up a lot of my energy as it is. I can’t
keep moving you around so easily, big man.”
“Damn…Guess we should stay down here an’ see if we can find
somethin’ around th’ sewers.”
“That’s our best option. I just hope that moron up there doesn’t
figure out where we went…”
May 31st, 20XX, 7:04 AM , PST
“Oh! Watch your step, sweetie! The ground is really-“
“I know. Must you remind me constantly?”, Magnetman groused to
his over-protective comrade.
“I’m sorry! I…just don’t want to see you get hurt
again…That’s all.”, she defended quickly.
“…I can handle myself quite well, thanks.”, Kenta explained,
stopping himself from cursing in his native tongue.
“You don’t have to be so defensive all of the time, Ken-san…”,
SparkChan stated with a little dejection in her voice.
“…I’m sorry. I’m just…not used to…friendliness.”
Classi looked at her still-helmeted comrade, unable to
see the small amount of sadness in his eyes. Taking that as a cue, she
opted to let him be for a few minutes, and perhaps back off of the inherent
protectiveness she was known for.
Until Kenta fell, tripping on some unseen broken concrete
in the dusty storm they were engulfed in at all times, it seemed.
“Oh! Ken-san, are you alright?!”, Classi asked, immediately forgetting
her small, inward vow as she ran to her downed comrade’s side.
“I’m fine. I just…Wha-?”
Unable to finish that thought, Magnetman fell down a
gaping maw that opened beneath him as soon as he landed, taking an equally
startled SparkChan with him.
Luckily for the diminutive electric “big sister”, something
softer than the steel pipe below broke her fall. Unluckily for Kenta,
he was that something.
“Oof…Ken-san…”
“I’m…fine…”, he said in the darkness. She landed
right atop his still-raw Shark Boomerang wounds from earlier, setting off painful
reminders of the attack.
“Where are we?”
SparkChan extended a needle-like conductor from her knuckle,
which enveloped her index finger, allowing her to “direct” electric
fields more easily than the former large conductors of previous Sparkman
armors. Setting off a small, sparkler-like effect, her power filled
the old sewer with yellow-hued light.
“A sewer…Yet…No water?”, Magnetman observed.
“Hmm…Yes, it really is pretty dry down here. Really dry, actually…”
“Everything’s so dry in this city…It’s almost as though…”
Eigen’s thought was cut short when he silenced himself to better
hear a gradually increasing noise from down the pipeline.
An ominous, rhythmic clanking noise of metal on metal.
Footsteps.
“Who’s there?”, SparkChan demanded softly, still unable to
see the approaching figure just yet.
“Hmm…Not who we’re looking for…But I’ve got
business with you…terrorists…”, a husky, slightly Hispanic
accent answered.
“We’re not terrorists! We don’t even know what’s going
on!”, Classi pleaded with the voice.
“Don’t bother with this one, Spark-yan…He won’t listen.”,
Magnetman silenced her, stepping forward. “It’s in his voice.”
“Smart kid.”, the voice agreed, the hulking figure it belonged
to gradually becoming clearer in the amber lit pipe. “Boss said he’d
accept a few dead Mechs, and I’ve got a score to settle with you monsters.
I had family here.”
“Who are you with?”, Kenta asked, cutting off another one of Classi’s
pleas of innocence.
“The government, of course.”, the giant man answered, finally visible
in the darkness. He was a hulking beast of a human being, with even bigger
objects of unknown use strapped to his back. He nearly filled the ten-foot-diameter
tunnel with his mass, blocking out the area behind him. “I am Special
Agent Viscous of the Pale Riders.”, he asserted.
“’Pale Riders’?”, SparkChan echoed.
“An impromptu team of our own, assembled to counter you, The Mechanical Maniacs, in addition to…other directives.”
“Mercenaries.”, Magnetman summarized.
“I guess you could call us that. I’d say we’re more like
sheriffs to you outlaws though, sent to bring you to justice for the destruction
of an entire city.”, Viscous countered.
“Sadly, we don’t have the time to spare on you. I cannot hold back
against- Glugh?!”
Magnetman, despite being helmeted still, was being choked
and gagged by an unseen assailant. Or rather, a barely visible one.
Some sort of cloudy liquid had now engulfed his head,
and was quickly absorbing his entire body.
“Magnetman, I’ve been informed, is a dangerous robot. I was told
not to take any chances with this one…”, Viscous said coldly.
“What are you doing?! What is that stuff? Stop!”, Classi rattled
off quickly, concerned over her teammate’s wellbeing, yet afraid to touch
the liquid sarcophagus that now entombed him, out of fear of being absorbed
herself.
“My namesake.”, the giant man claimed cryptically. “A special
salt-based fluid in tune with my mind. I carry it with me, and it does whatever
I want it to. In this case, I think I want it to crush your friend, like an
egg in my fist.”
The liquid pulsed slightly, and Magnetman’s choked screams could
be heard from within.
“Please stop! He hasn’t done anything to you!”
“But he was planning to. You heard him. Besides, I have a mission to
complete. If I kill him and bring you in alive, things will go much smoother
with our boss. Unless…You’re willing to fight for his life…’pacifist’.”
SparkChan looked at Viscous with woeful eyes, uncertain
on what she should do.
“Hesitation…Perhaps a little more persuasion is in order to bring
out your true nature.” The salty fluid pulsed again, and Kenta’s
voice, a little weaker than before, cried out in response. “So, what’s
it going to be? Are you going to just let your friend die to uphold your false
beliefs? I know you’re not a true pacifist, you terrorist. My mother
and father would agree with me, monster, had you not killed them, along with
everyone else in this city.”
“…I…I…No…Ken…san…I’m…”,
SparkChan’s eyes grew watery as she watched Kenta’s form within
the translucent tomb slowly lose strength.