1.13 Breakout Part 7

I shove the section of solid metal wall aside as I get to my feet. The thing slammed me  into the wall.

“Everybody out!” I yell as I realise how bad the situation is.

Somebody let all of the prisoners out. Every single last one and the power restrainers won’t keep their power neutralised for long.

And the person to blame is without doubt Glenn Bateson.  I should have known, but it wasn’t like I could do anything about it without any proof or evidence of wrongdoing.

How would have that gone? Hey, I think is prison officer I just met isn’t to be trusted because I think he might be a bad guy. Let’s arrest him and throw him into one of the cells.

But that would explain why a chuck of the wall just flew into me.

All of the country’s native supervillains, Vengeance, Vistorix and a rogue superpowered prison officer scattered between the ground level and the two walkways versus me, Treves and the other officer on the tour.

I can take them. Or hold them off long enough for someone else to arrive.

“Hey Janelle,” I say into my League communicator, “We got a breakout here at Blackguard. Officer Bateson just released all of the inmates.”

“I understand,” comes the swift reply, “Informing all relevant authorities.”

“Don’t bother calling for help,” Bateson tells me as several more chucks of the wall hover around him, “I’m jamming all signals in or out. No one will hear you.”

Now there is a trick up my sleeve. If they don’t realise that I have already called for help and their jamming is actually affecting me, then I might be able to catch them off guard.

Both Treves and the other guard have drawn their stun guns, but they’ll do little against the freed prisoners.

At least the crowd of reporters are heading back out. No idiots hanging around to get some footage.

Target priority first. Who are the biggest threats and which ones to use spyders on and which to use missiles on?

Black Death’s touch won’t affect me through the Sentinel armour while Gaia’s Vengeance doesn’t have any vegetation to work with. Hall’s lightning and Avenger’s fire are also useless.

With high amounts of metal in Blackguard, Bateson and Forsworn could be pretty dangerous as well. The rest also have the potential to cause some trouble for me, but I can probably take them if I play if smart.

But Vistorix, along with Gravilord and Edison, is the most dangerous with a very real chance of beating me. The three of them are easily the biggest threats of the assorted supervillains.

Two missile for each of the Mad sisters and the last two for Vistorix. Electro-spyders will take care of Edison and Gravilord. The rest I should be able to take.

I open fire with all of my missiles and electro-spyders as I activate the rocket pack. I zoom straight at Bateson.

I crash into the rogue prison officer and we both slam into the other wall that has mostly been stripped away by Bateson.

I hear something cracking and huff of breath from Bateson before I pull away. Bateson starts to drop to his knees, but before he can collapse into a heap on the floor, I slug him one in the face.

Not too hard, just enough to break a jaw. That combined with the ribs I probably just broke will keep Bateson out of the fight.

I spin back around to face the rest of the supervillains. Both Mad sisters are transformed, but only Mad Cat is down with Mad Dog shaking off the effects the missiles that caught her. It seems that her missiles were intercepted by Forsworn and Avenger judging by how those two are on the ground.

I should have expected teamwork from Vengeance. They were a successful team back when they were ‘heroes’.

Gravilord is also out while Edison is staggered. It seems that he was able to catch two of the three spyders I sent at him in his temporal field.

Vistorix is getting back to his feet after being blown onto his back.

Time to thin the herd. I grab one of the chucks of metal that were floating around Bateson and lob it at Mad Dog before reactivating my rocket pack and flying up at Nightmare.

Best to take Vengeance out of the fight.

The metal takes out of the stunned Mad Dog and knocks her off the walkway while Nightmare is better prepared for me. He shapeshifts out of the way, but I still catch him with a kick that sends him flying.

I unleash a flurry of low-power laser shots at the other villains to scatter them. Edison is still busy dealing with the electro-spyders. That leaves only White Lord or Redmund McNamara as main threats until Vistorix or a member of Vengeance recovers.

I launch myself at White Lord, ignoring Hall’s crackling lightning. My armour can more than handle bit of lightning.

White Lord attempts to dodge, but even with his enhanced speed, I’m still faster in the Sentinel armour. I catch his arm and yank it out of the socket before tossing White Lord into a wall.

I feel something ding against me and somebody yelp in pain. I turn around to find Gaia’s Vengeance clutching her fist in pain.

I punch her in the gut, kick her knee before finishing her off with a backhanded slap that knocks her aside.

I spare a glance at Treves and his officer. The two of them are covering the door and have even taken out Black Death with their stun guns.

I turn to take on Vistorix only to find his fist coming straight at me.

1.4 Sins of Our Grandfathers Part 4

Narszara roars at Vengeance and they all stagger backwards. That roar of hers must have had some force behind to physically affect Vengeance. Maybe Narszara enhanced it with magic?

She slams into Avenger as she lands. Avenger groans before slumping over.

Narszara rushes the other members of Vengeance and they scatter before her. Forsworn sends his spears at her, but they barely dent her armour without slowing her down at all.

Nightmare covers himself in blades and charges her, but he suddenly gets frozen in a block of ice with a glance from her. She must have used some of her magic on him.

The Mad sisters leap at her at the same time, but Narszara zooms out of the way and slams into Forsworn. He is sent flying as Avenger starts to get up.

Mad Cat rushes Narszara while Mad Dog jumps over Mad Cat at Narszara. Narszara roars at them again. Mad Dog is sent off course while Mad Cat staggers. Now I’m certain it must be magic roar of some kind.

Faster than me or my armour can track her, Narszara punches Mad Cat into the ground whilst stabbing her in the side with her sword. It doesn’t look too deep, but Narszara has made it clear that she doesn’t have any qualms with killing her enemies.

Mad Dog grabs Narszara by the head, but she rolls away, leaving her helmet in Dog’s grip.

As she rises, Narszara has a genuinely happy smile on her face and lets out a laugh.

Not a crazy laugh like ones Vengeance or other nuts like them have, but the kind when you’re on a roller coaster or winning a game of sports or something like that.

Mad Dogs halts her attacks, seeming unnerved by Narszara’s smile and laughter. Plus the disregard for her secret identity is probably confusing for the vigilante.

Mad Dog makes a decision and grabs a large chunk of broken wall. Mad Dog tosses at Narszara, who rushes at the villainess.

A moment before it hits her, Narszara’s entire body turns light blue and transparent. Like a ghost or spirit.

The block of wall goes straight through Narszara and she turns back to normal. She then uses her speed and momentum to slam into Mad Dog. Narszara breathes fire straight out of her mouth at Mad Dog as they tumble. Mad Dog screams as she burns. For that fire to come out her like that without burning her, Narszara has to be fireproof.

Narszara punches Mad Dog in the stomach before grabbing Dog by the back of her head. Narszara slams Mad Dog’s head into the ground repeatedly until the villainess is without a doubt unconscious.

As Narszara stands up straight, the flames on Mad Dog go out while Nightmare breaks out of the ice. He stumbles towards to Forsworn, who is getting to his feet.

Narszara calmly walks towards the two of them, her blade trailing along the ground.

“Do something!” yells Nightmare at his teammate, “The others are down!”

“Don’t worry,” replies Forsworn as he winces in pain, “That bitch’s armour is metal.”

He appears to be attempting to grab Narszara’s armour with his metal control and tries to send her flying.

Emphasis on tries.

 Narszara is staggered, but pushes on, stomping towards them.

“£$%*, “£*$, @#$&,” curses Forsworn, “She’s resisting it.”

“You can’t control her armour!” exclaims Nightmare, panic in his voice.

“No,” replies Forsworn, his voice strained, “I have full control, she’s just too strong for me overwhelm.”

“Let’s see how she deals with this,” snarls Nightmare and he charges at Narszara.

Narszara roars at him again and he goes flying backwards into another wall. Nightmare goes limp and morphs back to his normal self.

Narszara grins at Forsworn and uses her speed to rapidly approach him. Forsworn soon goes down in a fury of superfast punches.

It is only once it’s all over I realise I have just been standing there watching her.

“Narszara!” I call, “Storm Knight and Bolt need help! Can you heal them?”

“Yes milord,” replies Narszara as she causally strolls over to me.

Now it’s over, the police are swarming in to arrest Vengeance.

Narszara bends over Stefan and breaths a green light over him. It heals Stefan’s wounds as Inspector Oakley walks over to me. Another magic power of hers

“Good work taking out Vengeance,” says Oakley as Narszara heals Vance, “You and Narszara did well.”

“The others held out for almost ten minutes,” I point out, “And it helped that Narszara has turned out to be a Class 6.”

Oakley freezes before shaking his head. Sam lands next to me.

“You took them out already,” he says.

“Narszara is a Class 6,” I reply.

Sam looks at me for a moment before laughing.

“You got to be kidding me,” laughs Sam, “That’s awesome! We got a Class 6 as part of the League!”

“I can’t say for certain that Narszara is a Class 6, but after seeing her in action tonight, I would bet good money on it,” I tell him, “Can you carry Bulk back to base? His suit is trashed.”

“I can do that,” replies Sam.

I turn to face Oakley.

“Now what?” I ask him.

“Lock them in power draining cuffs,” says Oakley, “And bring them to justice in court. Just hope that some American heroes don’t cause any problems with that.”

“Why would they do that?” I ask, confused, “Most of the ones that I know hate people like Vengeance.”

“Sticking together against false foreign justice is their reasoning most of the time,” replies Oakley, “Most of them are okay as you said, but you always get a few wackos like that.”

“Has it happened before?” I inquire.

“Nothing in public,” explains Oakley, “It has all been in private or out of public eye or just pressure on government.”

“That won’t happen this time,” I reply quietly.

“You can’t know that,” he replies, shaking his head again.

He starts to say something else, but I cut him off.

“I know it will because the League of Heroes won’t let Vengeance get away with this,” I state in a harsh voice, giving Oakley a hard look, “They just tried to murder two of us based on their grandfathers, one of whom is currently a member of the League himself and other dead before he had grandkids.”

I pause for effect.

“If anyone tries to break Vengeance out, we’ll stop them.”

1.4 Sins of Our Grandfathers Part 3

When I reach them, the situation is downright awful. The Bulk armour has lost an arm and is barely standing with the Mad Sisters circling Charlie. Storm Knight is down and I can see blood on the ground next to him. Bolt is staggering backwards, blasting away at Forsworn’s metal spikes and 

Avenger’s firebolts. Nightmare is walking up to Stefan, his hands transformed into bloody razor sharp blades.

The police are only just arriving and Narszara is still two minutes behind me.

I zoom at Nightmare before he can harm Stefan anymore. I slam into him and we crash into the wall behind Storm Knight.

I can hear bones crunching. I don’t care because Nightmare just tried to kill Stefan, my friend and teammate, and I know he can recover quickly with his shapeshifting. I look around and grab a few metal poles. I stab each one into Nightmare’s chest. He’ll have to pull them out and heal the wounds before he can get back into the fight.

I fly back out of the warehouse that we landed in and see Bulk crash into ground in front of me. None of the armour’s limbs are still working.

I spot Mad Dog a few metres away. I raise my sonics at her, but Mad Cat pounces on me.

The villainess slashes away at me, but my armour can withstand punches from Vistorix and her attacks don’t even scratch the armour. I grab one of her arms and twist it in what is certainly the wrong way. Mad Cat screams in pain and I fire my sonics into her face at point blank range. Mad Cat slumps and I throw her into a wall just in time to see Mad Dog rushing me.

I fly up into the air and Mad Dog smashes into the ground where I was. I fire both sonics at her and Mad Dog yowls. Before she can recover, I drop and stomp her into the ground. She’ll be fine and if she isn’t, I don’t really care.

I jump off her, but before I can move, I’m bathed in flames.

Stupid Avenger doesn’t realise that the Sentinel armour has been fireproof since before the World War 2 ended. Granddad wouldn’t have survived if it couldn’t withstand a bit of fire.

I use my HUD to see through the blaze. Forsworn is trying to use his powers on me despite any decent set of power armour being immune to magnetism.

Idiots.

“It’s not working!” shouts Forsworn.

“My wrath is doing nothing!” snarls Avenger in reply, “Try the explosives.”

Forsworn throws a handful small of explosive balls at me. I know because my HUD identifies them as my own creations.

I send the deactivation codes to them. As Avenger stops his flames, the balls hit me. They bounce off of the armour harmless.

“What £$%*?” says Avenger, “You used duds!”

“I did not you moron!” yells Forsworn back.

“Don’t use my own tech against me if you want it to work,” I say as I fly into the air.

I spot Vance behind them. His cos-mat costume and powers protected him from the worse of Avengers flames. Stefan is still down. Charlie is personally okay, but the Bulk armour is junk right now. Just me to take on these two until Narszara arrives.

“Your tech?” mutters Forsworn, “Damn it!”

“Get him!” yells Avenger.

Forsworn summons a swarm of metal spears whilst Avenger’s hands light up with fire. I prepare to attack when I hear Nightmare waking up behind me. Mad Dog is struggling to her feet.

Four to one is a lot worse than two to one especially when that four is a team of highly experienced killers. At least none of them can fly. I really like having that advantage.

Unless Nightmare grows wings or Forsworn uses a metal platform. Then I’ll really be in trouble.

“You’re not going to win this,” I shout, “I’m wearing Class 4 power armour. Narszara is almost here and both Britannia and the Aquiline will be here in less than half an hour.”

Avenger and Forsworn exchange worried looks. I’m about to fire my sonics when Forsworn grins savagely.

“You won’t kill us,” he laughs, “You’re too weak! You won’t even hurt us too badly because you’re so soft!”

Next thing I know, Mad Cat and Mad Dog have jumped up and each grabbed one of my legs. Between the two of them, they’re pulling me down.

Forsworn sends the metal spears at me, but they barely dent the outer armour. That’s when they start spinning. Forsworn is using them as drills.

I’m not worried. I know the metal will break before the armour does.

I’m finally pulled down by the Mad Sisters. Then pin me down and are too strong for me to break free. Forsworn and Avenger stand over me, both are grinning like the madmen they are.

Nightmare walks over to them, his face furious.

“This is the Sentinel?” he scoffs, “I guess it was to be expected he would defend his criminal pals from justice.”

“Justice for what?” I yell at them, “Being born?!”

“They need to pay for their grandfathers’ crimes,” says Avenger, “Don’t you realise that Sentinel? After all, your own grandfather fought to stop theirs.”

“I’m a hero unlike you as was my grandfather,” I retort, “You talk of criminals yet you’re the ones committing the crimes here. Assault and attempted murder this night alone! Not to mention you armed Hall and Edison’s people with all of that firepower!”

Confusion appears on their faces at my last sentence. Something isn’t right I realise.

Before I can anything else a strong gush blows against us, staggering Vengeance. A barrage of flames bombards us.

Vengeance leaps back to avoid getting burn. The Mad sisters are snarling, Nightmare has his hands as blades again while Forsworn has his spears around him again.

I hear a familiar battle cry and look up.

Narszara is swooping down; flames surround her while her sword is drawn in her right hand. 

1.4 Sins of Our Grandfathers Part 2

“Look out!” shouts Vance as I hear fire crackling and metal screeching.

“Narszara!” I call as I send out a yellow alert, “We have to help them!”

“We shall put on our armours and fly to their aid,” declares Narszara as she puts on her still damaged helmet.

I dash for the lab as I hear fighting breaking out for the others. As I run, I go through a mental checklist of Vengeance’s members.

Nightmare likes to terrorise people who have been accused of breaking the law. Preferably by breaking into their homes and threatening them in front of their families.

Mad Cat and Mad Dog are twin sisters who both can change their form, into a werecat and weredog respectively. Sort of like Carrie except she doesn’t lose control like the Mad sisters like to. They generally brutally assault murderers, wife beaters and other crimes of that calibre they claim. 

Not that I personally consider hitting your wife to be as bad as murder even if I still strongly disapprove of domestic abuse.

Avenger can shoot fire from his hands. He likes to burn up murderers and attempted murderer. He also includes those that have committed manslaughter as members of the first two groups.

Forsworn can control metal. He prefers to go after petty criminals such as thieves and speeders. Fortunately the Sentinel and Bulk armours have contained trace amounts of metals for a while now, instead relying on a ceramic that my granddad and the first Bulk came up with following the Invasion.

Shade is the final member of them and only decent one. He can phase and travel through shadows. He can also make darkness solid. Like hard light except it is more hard dark than light. He likes to go after mobsters, gangster and other parts of organised crime. He is also the only one that rarely kills. When he does, his victims really deserve it or innocent lives are at stake.

Despite almost all of them being monsters, a large amount of the public supports them for some inexplicable reason that is beyond my ken.

Despite neither granddad or me selling equipment to supers like them, they have still acquired some of my tech somehow. Part of me wants them to try and use it against me so they can find out what happens when you use someone’s own inventions against them.

I’ll bet they’re going after us because of Charlie and Stefan. People like Vengeance have no problem with going after the families of criminals how wrong that is.  They probably want to punish Charlie and Stefan for the crime of being related to their grandfathers.

At this point, I’m already suiting up. Just as the process finishes, Narszara rushes into the lab, wearing her armour and armed with her green-bladed sword.

“Are you ready milord?” ask Narszara.

“Yes,” I reply, “I’ll take me seven minutes to reach them at full speed.”

“I will take me ten,” says Narszara, “If you go first, I will arrive second. We cannot afford to fly together.”

“Agreed,” I say and we run for the closest exit.

Once up in the air, it occurs to me I haven’t called the police, MI9 or the Defenders.

“Norris Oakley,” I hear him say after he answers his phone.

It was easy enough to find his personal mobile number.

“This is the Sentinel,” I say, “Vengeance has ambushed Bulk, Bolt and Storm Knight in Portsmouth. Narszara and I are flying to them.”

“Those American thugs here!” exclaims Oakley.

“Yes, I need to make some other calls,” I say before I hang up.

“Agent Lewis?” I say as I once I called our MI9 liaison.

“Yes Daniel?” replies Lewis, “Bulk, Bolt and Storm Knight are investigating the weapons warehouse in Portsmouth right?”

“It was a trap set by Vengeance,” I reply, “Narszara and I are flying to help them now.”

“Damn it!” shouts Lewis, “This is not going to go well. Especially with the Americans.”

“I’m going to call the Defenders now,” I say before hanging up again.

“Hello Daniel,” says Aunt Mary as she answers.

“Mary,” I say, “Charlie, Vance and Stefan were investigating a suspected weapons warehouse in Portsmouth. It turned out to by a trap by Vengeance. Narszara and I are heading there now to help them.”

“Vengeance?” says Mary, “&*%$!”

That startles me. Aunt Mary never swears unless it’s really bad.

“I’m not going to bother telling you to stay away and wait for back up,” says Mary, “Just be careful. I’m not going to get there in time. Only Britannia can. But even then she’ll take fifteen to twenty minutes. How close are you?”

“Just over four minutes out,” I reply, “Narszara while be a couple of minutes behind me.”

“Try not to die,” says Mary wearily, “And call Laura.”

“Good idea,” I say before cutting the connection and dialling Laura Aquiline.

“Yes Daniel,” says Laura as she answers

“Vengeance has ambushed Charlie, Vance and Stefan in Portsmouth,” I say to her.

“I’ll be there in half an hour,” replies Laura, “Try to keep all of you alive and don’t worry about hurting any members of Vengeance. They deserve whatever get.”

As Laura hangs up, I get a call from Sam.

“What’s going on?” demands Sam, “You just sent a yellow alert.”

“Change it to red,” I say, “Vengeance has ambushed the others in Portsmouth. Britannia is twenty minutes away and Laura is thirty.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” replies Sam, “Give them heck until I get there.”