Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Origins 11: Max

It took me a few minutes to find and put on the lightly armored urban camo suit. It gave me no physical bonus, and only had two wrist mounted weapons, but a propulsion pack could be attached to the back, it could comfortably stop a few AK47 rounds, and it had top notch stealth systems. I put the helmet on, grabbed a pack off the wall and sprinted down the corridor leading to HQ's helipad. As I passed the rec room I saw Chúhúlain playing pool with Battle Scorpion. I waved to the six foot eight red headed madman who flashed a gleaming smile and shouted something back in his nigh incomprehensible accent.A few seconds later when I passed the pool, I heard a deafening voice in my head. <GOOD LUCK MAX!>

<Thanks Meg> I thought back. Meg, a.k.a. Amygdala was our resident telepath and telekinetic. She also was a kickass lawyer, single mom, and cook. Finally I reached the helipad where a Harry Drone awaited me. "Let's go" cracked over the radio. I hit the earpiece button and said "Affirmative, Harry. "

"It's Phalanx now that we're in costume."

"You're supposed to say over. Over."

"Shut up nerd. Over."

I laughed and shot up into the sky, and over our floating fortress before speeding off into the night sky towards my target. It was a warehouse situated on the west coast of the island, and seemed really run down, until I activated my heat sensors and saw dozens of signatures patrolling inside and below the dark grey building.  I hit the radio switch and whispered "I'm going in. Over" The Phalanx drone next to me nodded before teleporting fifty feet up into the clouds in a flash of dark purple. I turned off the propulsion packs engines and glided onto the roof. I was tempted to ask Harry how wings only two feet long could keep me from falling to my death, but I was sure the answer would be 'Super Powers Baby!' I clicked a button on my thigh and the pack slided off me noiselessly, before the suit became almost indistinguishable from my surroundings. I casually walked up to the edge of the roof
 and swung off onto a fire escape. When I landed, I surveyed my surroundings and almost instantly saw an open window. Score! I slid through it, and found myself in a dark office, filled with cardboard boxes and scattered papers. I flicked on on the electromagnetic spectrum detector in the suit, attempting to find the flash drive. If Drakk had been telling the truth, which according to Meg he definitely had been, EZ was storing a file on how to create meta humans somewhere in this building. They most likely planned on selling it to Samjoko who was one of the most powerful villains in the world. He had already conquered all of east Asia, both Koreas, and nearly half of China. Ever since his defeat in 2003, he had been growing his meta human army, The Little Gods, in power. This formula would easily give him the manpower to attempt an invasion of Japan, and then to our our little man-made island Roosevelt City. I couldn't let that happen. I turned off the scanner just in time to see a red blob of heat on my thermals heading down the hallway into my little office. As quietly as I could I snuck behind the little bit of cover the open door provided, and put my finger on the trigger of the silenced HIGEPS on my left arm. The second he walked in, I sprang out, covered his mouth with my right arm, kicked the gun out of his hands and fired two shots directly inbetween his eyes. He started to fall to the ground, thrashing all over the place, but I caught him and lowered the guard slowly to the ground, and waited for the sedatives to kick in. After a full minute of muted screams and weak struggling he finally gave in. I dragged the body behind a desk, and covered it with cardboard boxes before moving on to the next room. Nothing. Then the next. Nothing. This went on, until every room on my floor was checked, and  about four unconscious bodies were creatively hidden in various places around the area. I didn't like it but my only option was to head downstairs into the main storage area. If it was anything like the warehouses I trained in there would be very little cover in too much open space. I waited in the stairwell for a nearby guard to pass out of sight, and snuck in, avoiding lights, and sticking behind crates whenever possible. When I was about halfway through the main room, a blinding light filled my vision, before the suit automatically filtered the extra light out. When my vision returned at least so what to normal, I found myself staring down the barrel of a giant spotlight, helmed by a small mouselike man wearing a brown suit. He was flanked by about twenty henchmmen, and two costumed ones who I presumed to be metas. One was almost seven feet tall and had somewhat shark like looks, with caucasian skin that had a slight grey tint, and a wide mouth filled with sharp teeth. The other was an asian woman with glowing neon eyes wearing a black leather suit with neon highlights. She grinned at me, and her hands erupted into you guessed it, the same shade of neon flame. "Well well well," went the man in the brown suit in a cockney accent. "Looks like a super fell for our trap!"

Oh shit.

I hit the communicator button on the side of my helmet and shouted "BACKUP, NOW!"

No response.

"Aww, is the little man calling for help? I'm afraid no one is going to hear your pitiful screams besides us Maximum. Now boys, load him into the van and let's get going. I think a few of our bosses would be pre-tty excited to have a chat with a member of the Paragons."

"Okey boss!" said a guard in a heavy Slavic accent. He smiled, then jogged toward me holding out a pair of handcuffs. I lifted my left arm and shot him in the face. The orange goo exploded all over him, and he convulsed before collapsing to the ground, screaming bloody murder. I shot him two more times in the back of the head, before finally kicking him in the temple, cutting off the screams and leaving the room deadly silent for a few seconds. Unfortunately it didn't last. The asian woman charged, but I sidestepped the flaming punch and caught her wrist before slamming my palm into her elbow, nearly breaking it in half. Instead of giving up like any sane person would at that point, she growled and swung at me again. I ducked under her wild swing, slammed my armored fist into her throat as hard as I could, and brought a knee into her ribs with enough force to crack them. I let go of her, and she crumpled like a marionette without its strings. Shark man stepped up to plate next, bull rushing me with his teeth bared.  I dodged to the left, and stomped on his knee as hard as I could. Unfortunately it didn't break as dramatically as it was supposed to, and only seemed to fracture a little bit. Shark Man must of had increased durability. Nothing I couldn't handle, however. Even after his injury Sharky managed to turn around to face me, balancing on his good leg. He roared, and I rewarded his effort by shooting him multiple times in the mouth, stuffing the cavern with orange goo. Judging by the noises he made it didn't tast good. I turned to face the rest of the henchman with my hands raised in a martial arts stance.
I smirked, and shouted "Who's next?"

They responded by pointing their guns at me.

I slowly raised my hands over my head.

Why couldn't they attack one at a time like fair henchmen?

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