Nova Academy: A Superhero & Supervillain Novel Page 12

  I pick up my dignity, and we're both up and running across the parking lot. The office building and tech park are both surrounded by waist high hedges, with the two rows separated by about thirty feet and trees in a row between. The trees are full grown and provide shade from the parking lot lights. Hopping the first row of the hedges that run along this side of the tech park, we make our way across the separation by running crouched down and kneel down behind the second row of hedges. The semi is about two hundred feet away from us on our right and I'm praying none of those guys has enhanced hearing. Most people don't, so it's a reasonable risk to take.

  The police patrol car is going up and down the first couple rows of buildings of the park, finds the security guard and calls it in. We can't see it from where we're at, but the officer turns on the blue and reds on top of his vehicle, which is SOP when stopping to investigate an unknown vehicle, and we can see the lights flashing on the next building over.

  Spinning around from watching the three in the building work, the telepath, who wasn’t paying attention before, realizes someone else is in the tech park.

  I see him give the Welcoming Committee a hit on the arm. "Someone's here, let's go,” he says and they jump off the ramp and head across the parking lot toward the end of the building between them and where the cop and security guard are parked.

  I pat Carly on the shoulder and we start low running along the hedges to get in position to see what happens, and intervene if needed. Giving a quick look back, I can hear the three working in the building, still going at it. They either don’t know what is going on, or are not concerned.

  Chapter 26

  We are ahead of Welcoming Committee and the telepath and get in position a few seconds before they come around the building. The police officer is standing next to the security guard’s car with the door open and speaking into his walkie-talkie velcroed to his shoulder. We can see perfectly Welcoming Committee and the telepath, maybe sixty feet away, edge up to the end of the building and peek around. Welcoming Committee motions a, "Let's go," but telepath pulls him back and steps forward. He looks around the building and that's when I see the first movement from the kid since he arrived.

  The kid wakes up and starts getting out of the car. The cop starts talking to him, then backs up as the kid keeps coming at him.

  "Time to go," Carly hisses, "He's using the kid." Carly stands up and…nothing, she just stands there.

  I look at her, then to the telepath, and I can see him physically smack into the wall. Then it dawns on me Carly's not just standing there. Welcoming Committee is looking at his telepath partner and reaches out and gives him a push. He gets no reaction. Thinking the attack on the telepath is coming from the police officer, he steps out from behind the building and starts looking for who's doing the attack on the telepath. The officer is still stepping back from the kid and commanding him to stop, to no effect, and he starts to draw his gun.

  Whoa! It’s time for me to act. I Ready my shield and hammer and jump over the hedge, running at a sprint toward Welcoming Committee. "Hey!" I shout and, as he turns to face me, I kneecap him with the hammer. I don’t take a full swing as I don't know exactly how much damage the hammer can do, or that he can take. It turns out I hit him pretty good, though, as he does a heels over head flip with a loud "Augh!"

  I keep going and grab the kid out of the line of fire of the cop and shove him to the ground and shout, "The kids under mind control! I'm here to help!" Which does exactly squat to stop the cop from shooting at me.

  Fortunately, the guy seems to be a baseline without any real power and I don't stop running, hold my shield between me and the officer, and add ducking and dodging to my movement. "Stop!" I shout again as I feel another bullet ping off my shield. The cop empties his gun into the air behind me, just missing me with each shot, as I run in a circle around him. He empties his clip and begins to back away from me as he starts to reload. I can see the panic building on his face and I’m sure he has never been up against someone with my speed. With the black suit I’m wearing, you can bet he also thinks I’m a super villain.

  Closing the circle I'm running, I run to the cop and use my shield to bat his gun away and give him a sharp shove with the shield to knock him off his feet. Which is also when I realize I’ve made a terrible mistake.

  Welcoming Committee is up and appears to have had no problem shaking off my hit to his knee. I don't care who you are, or how tough. Getting kneecapped with a hammer hard enough to drive in a nail hurts like hell. I swing my shield back just in time to catch Welcoming Committee's fist and I'm lifted off the ground from the impact and blown thirty feet to the other side of the driveway where I just knocked down the cop.

  The shield does exactly what I meant it to do and absorbs most of the hit, which is to say, it absorbs just enough that the hit didn't kill me and I didn’t break anything. That hit was at least a Class 3 strength. I'm on my back, looking at the sky, lying on the grass strip between the parking spaces and the front door of the building. The police car's red and blue lights are still flashing, which is doing all kinds of messed up things to my eyes that are still rattling in my head. I give my head a shake and roll away from Welcoming Committee, putting my shield up again in case he's already on top of me. Either he's stupid and taking his time thinking me finished, or he's not as fast as he is strong. Being both is less likely, but more welcome.

  I'm up and running as Welcoming Committee steps up to the cop and draws back his fist, if he hits the guy he’ll kill him. I reach full speed with my shield up in a bull rush. It does not matter how strong or tough you are, if you weigh less than five hundred pounds I'm going to launch you into the air when I do a bull rush. It's all about force versus mass and leverage, so unless he latches onto me, and let's hope he doesn't, I'll be fine.

  I'm taking a big risk with this move, but there's no choice if I want to save the cop. I hit Welcoming Committee just as he punches down toward the cop and I knock him about half as far as he blasted me. The difference is, he also went vertical as I hit him full body, coming in at an up angle and negating all of his leverage. Hitting him hurt, and my face feels like I'd just been the one blasted. I watch him flying through the air and his face looks like he's just been pissed off, without so much as a hair out of place. He just glares death threats at me as he flies through the air. Well, I've got his attention.

  Sparing a moment to check on Carly, I see the two telepaths now facing each other and just staring. I have no way of knowing who is winning or if Carly needs my help, so I pull out the baseball I keep in a pouch on my hip and throw it as hard as I can at the telepath. Try keeping your concentration when that hits! I think.

  The ball stops in mid-air, two feet from the telepath's head, and my eyes bulge. The telepath hadn't even moved and I'm thinking we're in trouble. Then I look to Carly and she's lifted up a hand to me in a motion to stop, and I begin to think it was Carly that stopped the ball. If that's the case, then Carly has her guy under control. I hope that's the case.

  Out of time for sightseeing, I look back to Welcoming Committee as he's standing up. He's pissed, and completely unhurt from the looks of him. The guy must be a Class 4. I do not have any doubts at this point. I briefly consider if he's a Class 5, but throw that out as they're so rare, and powerful, I would not have survived his first punch even if he was holding back. He also wouldn't be chumping around with this crew if he was a Class 5. He'd be big time.

  I think I can take a Class 4. If I'm lucky, and if he’s not too fast. Welcoming Committee looks slow, so I should be able to work him down as long as I can avoid taking a solid hit. I’ll have to use my usual hit-and-run tactic on him. It's too early to activate my repeller field and try to go toe-to-toe, but maybe I could use it another way….

  "I'm gonna kill you, you little maggot." Welcoming Committee is in a rage. I can see veins popping up on his head and neck, and his arms are starting to bulge even more than they already were.

  Definitely a Class 4,
they're always calling people 'little maggots' on television, it's kind of a signature card for a Class 4 to remind everyone else we're inferior.

  "Shut up, stupid," is my standard reply to anyone trying to dialog, which has pissed off every guy I've ever had words with during a fight. It has the same effect here.

  He's coming at me, but I don't wait. I rush him and sidestep just before I come in range as he reaches out to grab me. Stepping to the side, I spin to pick up momentum in my swing and, once again, drive the hammer into his knee. Only this time it's into the back of his knee, and I swear I get two full revolutions out of him as he flies up and slams back into the pavement. "Boo-Yah!" I yell.

  Okay, that was stupid sounding. Be a pro, Theo, and shut up yourself. I tell myself.

  He's not hurt, and I know it, so I step back to let him pick himself up. I have a policy: don't ever rush a guy who is a hundred times stronger than you while their legs are bunched under them when they’re getting up. He'll launch himself right at you, if you do. It's suicide. I keep running around him about twenty feet away, trying to avoid giving him a spot to line up to jump at me. "So, where you from, Cupcake?" I say. It’s better than saying “boo-yah.” That just sounds stupid. Taunting, however, is canon.

  “C’mere, dead man,” is his only reply.

  He’s not very nice.

  Welcoming Committee finally thinks he has me lined up and pushes off with a thrust of both legs to come flying at me. I'm ready for it as it's one of the most common moves there are for a strong man, and sidestep to give him a smack with my shield as he goes by. I use the shield's wide surface area to smack him so he has nothing to grab onto, it's heavy and knocks him flying away at a forty-five degree angle from the direction he jumped at me and he lands in a heap.

  He starts snarling and I start getting worried.

  I'm really not trying to toy with him, but that's what I'm doing. I just don’t have much ability to do more than that. I have my war hammer, but I don’t know its full damage potential. I decide to get a better idea of Welcoming Committee’s limits before I risk hitting him in the head. Hopefully, he doesn’t surprise me. I really can't afford that.

  As he's picking himself up from smacking into the security guard’s car, I steal a glance over to Carly and see they're still in the same position, only this time the telepath is on his knees and one of the guys who was in the semi is laying on the ground about fifty feet away. Criminy, I'm getting tunnel vision on this Welcoming Committee guy and Carly has to take on multiple opponents!

  Welcoming Committee decides at that moment to reassert himself and bull rushes me. I hear him approaching and spin to face him. I'm dead stopped and flat footed and he's nearly on top of me. He's on my shield side, but that's not going to help me once he gets hold of me, so I panic, flip on my repeller field, and do the only thing I can do and start to swing my hammer. The head is now glowing blue, energized from the repeller field. I do the fastest overhand swing I can and crash my hammer into the top of Welcoming Committee's head as he comes in. The sound is sickening and I think I crushed his skull.

  Instantly regretting I hit him like that, I watch as his head smashes face first into the asphalt parking lot, busting the asphalt. The fear in me I've killed him wells up inside me before I even finish swinging the hammer.

  I've killed him. He's not moving and his face is imbedded into the asphalt, literally. I’ll say it right now, if he gets up from that hit, I'm finding another profession.

  De-energizing my field generator, I push his head with my hammer. It’s still intact and there is not a lot of blood. None pooling, anyway. I push his head with the head of my war hammer so his face lifts out of the depression it has made. Rolled to the side, I can see his face. He’s breathing. The back of his head is bloody, but his skull isn't caved in, which is freaking incredible. I'm not sure in this case the field generator didn't provide a bigger surface area than the hammer head would have, and spread the force of the impact more when it hit his skull. His face looks like hamburger, a bloody mess with a smashed nose not even a mother would recognize. Fortunately, he’s unconscious.

  The cop is standing up and looking at me. His mouth's hanging open and he keeps trying to pull his gun from his empty holster, so I go over to him. "You okay?" I get no answer and that's when I realize the cop wasn't looking at me, but past me at Welcoming Committee’s body still lying on the ground. He's in shock, so I just leave him to it and head over to Carly and her telepath in case she needs help.

  I think calling the telepath Carly is fighting as getting “owned” might be an understatement. The guy is on his knees and dribbling saliva out of his mouth like a broken faucet. His eyes are completely vacant and out of focus and his hand is twitching. He's wet himself and maybe more. Holy crap, I’ve never seen a guy this messed up. Not even on television.

  Carly is looking at me and isn't even paying attention to the telepath, so I jerk a questioning thumb back towards him as I walk up to her.

  "He'll live,” she says, without much in the way of concern in her voice. “He'll be in therapy for a long time, and he doesn't know he's a telepath anymore, but he'll live." She's trying to put on a show of nonchalance, but I can see she's exhausted.

  "Damn, that's incredible," I say and give her a short-lived hug. I hear the semi's engine revving, followed by gears grinding. Someone's in a hurry. I can hear it pulling out and heading for the exit on the other side of the building we've been fighting next to, "I've got this," I say. I grab my war hammer and run to cut off the fleeing truck loaded with at least some of what they had come to steal.

  The driver of the semi isn't holding anything back and is driving the rig like it's a race car. It beats me to the corner and turns up the main drive to the exit.

  I could run it down, but I've had enough screwing around tonight and instead throw my war hammer at the engine compartment of the semi. The hammer hits the sheet metal cover of the engine housing and punches right through it and into the engine block. I hear a loud crunch and the engine explodes. The engine compartment cover is ripped off and thrown into the air and the truck starts to slow.

  Walking up to the semi, I reach into the mess of the engine and pull out my war hammer. The leather wrap on the shaft is torn up a bit, but otherwise it's not even dinged and I feel a twinge of pride at my creation.

  The two guys riding in the semi are still sitting in the cab, too scared to move. The driver is peering out the window and down at me with a terrified look on his face. "Both of you, out! This side, and don't pull anything or I'll rip your heads off!" That should work, and it does.

  I put zip ties that I keep on me for just this sort of occasion on them to secure their hands and walk them back to the area of the fight. I stop them in front of Welcoming Committee, who still isn't moving and I'm not sure if he's alive or not, and kneel them down in front of him to show them the futility of trying anything. "What were you stealing?"

  Both of them snap their heads from staring at the unconscious Class 4 in front of them and look at me, a different type of fear comes over them now. Instead of looking like they're about to die a horrible death, they look like they're imagining someone giving them a horrible death in the near future. At least that's what I'm imagining they're imagining. They don't say anything and just stare at me.

  I'm looking back at them, waiting patiently for a response, when the one on the left's eyes go all out of focus and become glassy. I look to Carly and she's looking at the guy like a curiosity in a museum. After a minute his eyes come back into focus and he shakes his head while the one on the right becomes the one with unfocused, glassy eyes. "I've got everything they can give us. We need to go," She tells me.

  That reminds me and I look over to the police officer. He's still trying to pull his gun out and staring off into space. "Are you doing that?"

  "Not at first, but I've kind of kept it going to keep him out of trouble." She walks over to him, "You want him back now?"

  "Yeah." I walk over to
him and he starts to come out of his…condition. Grabbing his walkie-talkie off his shoulder, I ask him, "You okay?"

  His eyes come into focus and he looks at me and smiles, which raises my eyebrows.

  Stepping up next to him Carly says, "He knows we’re the good guys," and puts her hand on his arm, smiles, and looks at me like she's introducing me to her new boyfriend.

  "Well that's good to know." I look to the officer and say, "Do you know what's happened here?"

  He starts looking around and I can tell he doesn't, so I go to Plan B. "Listen, I have video of everything that happened, including before you arrived. Here's my card," I hand him a business card that's solid black on both sides and blank except for a website address, user name, and password, "Everything that happened here tonight, along with our statements, will be on this website by 10 AM tomorrow. Do you understand?” The officer does a slow nod. I assume he’s got it, and he can figure it out later if he doesn’t. “Just login to the website and you'll have everything." I thought of the idea of using a dropbox to get files to the authorities anonymously over the summer, and set this location up a couple months ago.

  The officer nods and takes my card. He's still staring at it when I key the mike on his walkie-talkie and talk to dispatch, "Dispatch, this is Officer Michaels at the Sheridan Tech Park, over."

  "This is a police frequency, identify yourself," Immediately comes back and it's obvious they know I'm not Michaels.

  "All right, listen up. My name doesn't matter, you're not getting it. I'm a super who just saved Officer Michaels from being killed. He's over at the Sheridan Tech Park and needs backup right now, so quit screwing around and get over here." I look over at Welcoming Committee and add, "You better send an ambulance too."

  Putting the walkie-talkie back on its velcro strip on his shoulder, I tell him, "Help's on the way. We're going to leave now. Don't forget to get the evidence from the website." Looking over to Carly, "You sure he's going to be okay?"