The
flashes of gunfire blinked in the darkened night as the platoon leader tried to
fight back the swarm of corrupted minions. The bullets were proving nearly
useless however; as the enemy only stopped if they couldn’t physically walk
anymore. Sewage’s micro-organisms kept the bodies animated and functioning as
long as they could. Next to the platoon leader, the other conscious agent
kneeled over their wounded companion, firing her gun as well. The air outside
the building was almost as polluted as the air inside, and they kept their gas
masks on to prevent them from getting infected. It wasn’t long before their
ammunition ran out.
“Now
what,” the leader muttered as the corrupted guards moved forward. “At least
these are all unarmed. Maybe we stand a chance.” He looked around at the two
dozen enemies around him. “Or not. At least we are going down fighting!”
Suddenly,
a bright glow smashed into the middle of the enemy horde, scattering the
corrupted. From the glow a young woman emerged, leaping into action and taking
down the first corrupted she could reach. The glow, which the leader saw was made
by a metahuman, rocketed back into the sky towards the central tower. Turning
his attention to the woman, he saw her flip over a corrupted and throw him down
while drop-kicking another. She moved with an acrobatics’ skill combined with a
dancer’s grace, seemingly floating from one target to the next. Seeing her in
action spurred him to fight on and, along with the other agent, they jumped
into the fray.
Matt
flew through the tower’s window and landed on the ground softly. Sewage had
moved, but left a trail of liquid waste to show his whereabouts. Matt followed
the trail down a spiraling flight of stairs that led to the bottommost chamber
of the tower. As he climbed further down, the air choked his breathing; but
this was not the first time he had dealt with Sewage’s micro-organisms. They
were delicate and could not survive in high energy environments. The more
energy around them, the faster they worked, and the faster they wore out their
lifespan. Thinking fast, Matt starting expelling energy from his body at a high
amount but low intensity; thus creating a force field that blocked the
microscopic creatures from getting close. However this constant use of energy
took a toll on him, and Matt needed to find Sewage quick before he used up his
entire reserve.
Marian
spun into a roundhouse kick, knocking a corrupted guard to the ground, and
followed with a stamp to his face. These corrupted were slow and clumsy, but
they took a lot to kill. One of them grabbed her from behind, and she
instinctively threw him over her shoulder. She went down to one knee after
that, and gasped for breath. The air was thick with a foul smelling stench, and
it was getting harder to breath with every passing minute. Her body also ached,
which is something she didn’t experience often. She looked around and saw the
survivors fighting a group of the undead and ran to help.
Only two left, she thought with a mix of sorrow and anger. I can’t believe how many have died tonight!
She vaulted over an enemy, driving it into the ground, and landed next to the
agents.
“Where
is your protection?” the male cried out, his voice muffled but still audibly
full of surprise.
“Protection?”
Marian asked as she punched a guard away, “I’m your protection!”
“Not
from them!” he yelled to her as he grappled with a corrupted. They fell to the
ground, and the female agent picked up his phrase. “From the pollution! Everything
in here, including the air, is infectious!”
Marian
paused after throwing another guard down. “What!” she cried out. She hadn’t put
two and two together, but it all made sense. She was out of breath and in pain
because the micro-organisms were getting into her system, shutting her down
from the inside out. Shit! She
screamed in her head, but as she turned around two enemies plowed into her,
knocking her down.
Tony
raced through the complex, bouncing from enemy to enemy, taking them out faster
than they could react. However there weren’t as many as he previously thought;
or at least they all went somewhere. Tony also was trying not to slow down,
since when he did he felt the effects of the atmosphere wear on him.
Damn! He thought suddenly, picking up his speed. Marian
doesn’t have any protection against these organisms! I gotta find her fast!
As he sped around a corner, Tony
ran through a few more guards and saw where they all were gathered. In the
middle of the corrupted, two people were fighting off the enemy. Without
hesitating Tony hurried towards them, ducking his head and smashing his way
through one half of the circle. When he came back around, he flashed by the two
agents, punching and kicking the rest of the corrupted. He came to a stop next
to them, and that’s when he noticed Marian lying on the ground, writhing in
pain.
Matt
pushed through the double doors and was nearly knocked backwards by the
overwhelming stench. The room was the old storage room, and it had deteriorated
into a pool of toxic waste. Matt did his best to control his gag reflex and
floated into the room, knowing that somewhere under the depths of the liquid
filth, Sewage lied in wait.
Matt
tried to sense Sewage’s energy, but the constant release of his own energy
blocked his attempts. He floated around the room staying close to the ceiling,
ready for any signs of danger. Suddenly, a drop of liquid landed on his
shoulder. Matt looked up and two feet above him saw Brian clinging to the
ceiling.
“Surprise!”
Brian yelled as he dropped down onto Matt. Matt grabbed Brian and threw him
off, realizing his mistake a moment too late. Brian fell into the pit of
sludge, and an instant later erupted out as the gigantic Sewage. His massive
bulk took up most of the room, leaving Matt little air space to maneuver. “I’ve
been waiting for this!” Sewage roared, sending a blast of sludge at Matt.
Matt
dodged the blast and countered with his own blast of energy, his motions calm
and smooth. His blast ripped through the body of Sewage, but did no lasting
damage. Sewage quickly repaired the hole with more sludge from the pool he was
standing in. “You’re gonna need more power than that, Matt!”
“Power
isn’t everything, Brian!” Matt yelled back as he dodged a swing from Sewage’s
arm. “You need control before you can properly use power. Now let me give you a
demonstration before things really get out of hand here.” Matt, whose body was
already glowing bright, pulled all the energy he had left into his fist and
created a tiny ball of energy in his palm. He threw the ball at Sewage, who let
the attack hit him directly.
“Ha!
I didn’t even feel that one!”
Matt
looked at Sewage with a tired look in his eyes. “That’s because I didn’t
execute it yet. I’m sorry, Brian, but this has to end.” With a snap of his
fingers, the tiny energy ball exploded, illuminating the room briefly before
tearing the building down. Outside, the ground shook and the fortress walls
crumbled to the ground. The central tower gave a sigh, and then disintegrated,
the bigger pieces falling and shattering into goblets of waste or clouds of
dust. What corrupted soldiers remained fell to the ground, the link broken
between them and Sewage. The force of the attack disintegrated the
micro-organisms in the immediate area and, with Brian unconscious, the rest
slowly started to dissolve, ending the threat of Sewage.
As
the complex collapsed into rubble, the two agents breathed a sigh of relief.
They found their fallen friend still alive, although barely, and began trying
to resuscitate him once again. When the walls crumbled, police and GMA agents
flooded the area, only to find dozens of dead bodies decayed beyond belief.
Out of the ruins of the tower,
Matt floated up, no longer glowing with energy. In his arms he held Brian’s
unconscious body. He floated down to a group of agents who were caring for the
three survivors and set Brian’s body in front of them.
“On
the ground before you is the metahuman responsible for what happened tonight.
But standing before you is the metahuman responsible for creating this villain.”
The agents looked at Matt for a moment, but before they could respond Tony
raced up to Matt, holding Marian in his arms.
“Matt!”
he cried out, desperation in his voice. He gently laid Marian on the ground and
Matt kneeled over her. “I don’t know what to do; I tried mouth to mouth but she
just…” Tony couldn’t finish his sentence. Matt checked Marian’s pulse and found
it faint, but still there. “It’s those micro-things Sewage used, they got in
her.”
Without
hesitating, Matt put one hand on Tony’s shoulder and the other on Marian’s
chest. “I need a boost,” he said looking at Tony, who nodded in reply without
question. Marian’s natural resistant to fatigue had helped boost her immune
system to the micro-organisms, holding off their decaying properties, but she
needed help flushing them out for good. Matt pulled energy out of Tony’s body
and siphoned it into Marian’s, flooding her system with fresh energy and
overpowering the remaining micro-organisms. It only took a few seconds for her
body to burn through the invading organisms, but Tony nearly collapsed
afterwards from the drain of energy.
With both Matt and Tony looking
down at her, Marian opened her eyes. “What the hell…did we win?”
Both of the young men smiled. “Yeah,”
Matt replied with a sigh of relief. “Yeah, we won.”
“And you just let him go?” Steve
stood at one end of the table, while Marian and Tony sat at the other. Natalie
and Francis were there as well, but for the most part Steve was doing all the
talking.
“Well yeah,” Tony replied, not
sounding as confident as he wished, “if it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t have
won. Or at least not as quickly. And he doesn’t want the publicity yet.” Steve
stood glaring at the two youths.
“The GMA has Sewage in custody,
and the day is saved. Why are you so angry?” Marian’s question nearly made
Steve burst out in anger.
“Angry? I’m angry because you
didn’t call us! I’m angry because you took on something that was too big for
you two to handle! I’m angry-”
“You’re angry because we could
have gotten killed, dad.” Marian cut in, and Steve stopped his yelling. “I know
we should have called, but how will we know we can handle this unless we, ya
know, handle it? I’m sure there were times when you went up against something
and didn’t know whether you were coming out alive. That’s how it was, but we
needed to do it. We needed this to see if we were capable of being real,
big-time superheroes. You’ve always been in the spot-light; you’ve always been a
hero. We’re just starting out, but one day it will be our turn to be in your
shoes. One day we will be the ones counted on to save the day no matter what
the odds and we need to be ready for that. Cuz we’ll really be dead if we’re
not.”
The room was dreadfully quiet
while everyone took in Marian’s words. Finally Francis broke the silence. “I
think we should take a night and dwell on what happened, before any more is
said.”
With a round of nods, everyone
agreed, and retired to their rooms. As Steve and Francis were walking down the
hallway, Francis leaned in towards Steve and whispered so only he could here.
“She’s going to make a fine leader one day.”
Steve grinned, the first time
since arriving back. “That’s my girl.”
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