H.E.R.O. - Horde (11 page)

I thought it would be good to knock them off the bridge, but there was a bicyclist on the right side near the canisters.  I had a bad feeling about it, and only a second to decide - I decided to go for the person.  The men in the van began shooting at the canisters as I approached the man.  That couldn't be good, no one shoots at a barrel unless it will explode or something....

Even though I'd slowed somewhat, I came in faster than I ever had at the ground.  I put my hand down to push off the concrete walkway and my hand tore through the cement in a line.

I banged off the concrete, grabbed the person's arm and shifted gears up.  I pulled the person against me as I flew away from the bridge to the south.

A second later, a massive, deafening explosion came from behind us.  A huge water hand appeared ahead of me and a woman's voice shouted to throw the man to her.

I prayed that it was a hero and released the man toward the hand after decelerating.  Then I kicked my flight speed back up to maximum and curved around to the shore and looked back at the bridge.  Huge chunks were flying away from it, one of them toward the people and vehicles stopped on this side of the bridge.

I swore as I saw the big piece of concrete.  I sped up even more and flew low.  The seconds went by in slow motion as I blew past all the people and such on the shore a dozen feet below me at my top speed.

Somewhere down in the crowd a super was firing dark looking blobs of something up toward the many concrete pieces.

The piece was slightly above them and heading downward fast when I reached the crowd.  I flew up at the piece and slammed into it at full power.

It was the hardest hit I'd taken to date - even harder than that monster, Kralgon in the Jailbreak attempt.  The concrete and metal piece blew apart away from the crowd.  I was stunned from hitting it face-on, and was barely conscious as I hit the water, bounced a few times and went under....

Chapter 10 - Bridge Down

Hellshock's Viewpoint

I was sitting on my motorcycle in a parking lot just surfing my social websites when the event came across for the robbery.  I shoved the phone in its holder, flicked on the cycle's red and blues and cranked it toward the river.

I wasn't too far away, traffic tended to be heavy in the downtown part of the city near the river.  I rode between some cars and took a few chances, but years of experience paid off as I closed in on the scene.  I pulled up to the crowd near the edge of the bridge, people and vehicles were thick just before it.

I saw a flash of colors I didn't recognize come in from behind and above me, and whomever it was sped down at the bridge.  I worked my way through the vehicles to reach the end of the bridge.  I saw the barrels drop and bounce.  The heroine grabbed the cyclist - I cringed at that, the poor guy's arm had to be broken from that grab at such a high speed.

Then the barrel exploded right over a pillar of the bridge, followed by a second explosion.  I thought the second barrel must have been knocked off the bridge before it went off, for explosive force went upward, and chunks of concrete flew all over the place.

Most headed for the open water of the river, but some came toward the crowd.  I swore - this was a time that having lightning blasting powers was useless.

I saw something large and blue crash into the van on the far side of the bridge.  The robbers weren't getting away from this one.

I noticed Watermane approaching from the south in a wave, she made a huge hand to catch the biker, and the flying heroine curved around and flew low over the ground at immense speed.  A huge chunk of concrete headed directly for the crowd, just off to my right.

Another super was in the crowd - globs of dark energy flew up at various chunks and knocked them back.  It had to be some kind of concussive or motion based power, but I couldn't spot the person, and it wasn't a super that I knew of.

I swore again, there wasn't a thing I could do about the big chunk, and the globs only slowed that one down.  The flier curved upward at the huge piece of concrete and metal and smashed into it.  She had to be moving hundreds of miles per hour - I hoped she was a brick or she was a goner from that hit.

The concrete exploded outward back toward the bridge and the river.  The sound was nearly as loud as the initial explosion.  The heroine flew head over heels in an uncontrolled path toward the river to the north.  She was either dead or unconscious from the way she tumbled through the air.  I revved my cycle and tore off onto the wrong way of the bridge, most of which was intact.

I stopped at the closest point and dove down into the water.  Fortunately, my costume was tight and acted more like a wetsuit than something that inhibited my swimming.  I should have taken off my boots first, but that would have cost me precious time, and with my strength, I was a strong swimmer even with the boots on.

It was hard to see in the water.  While Watermane did something to the water over in the cove at White Sand Beach to keep the water unbelievably clean and clear, the ships tended to churn up enough sediment from the bottom to keep the rest of the river slightly cloudy.

I risked a few small lightning bursts to light up the area better.  I saw a form sinking a ways ahead.  I shifted my path to meet her as she sank.

She was unconscious when I reached her, grabbed her and began swimming up.  It turned out to be our new flier, Diva.  She was wearing civilian clothing.

I surfaced and was just checking her breathing and heart rate when Watermane rolled up on her wave.  A hard watery platform raised underneath us.

I started performing CPR when Watermane pulled me back by the shoulder.

She said, "Hellshock, I'm better at this."

She put her hand by Diva's mouth and drew out the water from the heroine's lungs using her water powers.  That was a cool trick.

The brick's breathing went back to normal almost immediately - they certainly came tough.  Her heart rate seemed fine, so Watermane moved us over to the river's edge to drop the two of us off.

She'd been bleeding from the nose, although I saw her body repairing the damage already.  I picked her up and began climbing up the riverbank to the road above.  She certainly was lighter than the big guy bricks.

A couple of guys stood waiting to help at the top of the incline.  I laid Diva down and looked over at the bridge.  One of the men took his jacket off, rolled it up and slid it under her neck as a pillow.

A large section of the bridge was severely damaged; chunks of concrete lay all over both sides.  On the far side, the thirteen foot tall form of Big Man could be seen tossing the roof of the van off to the side.  Officers from that side of the bridge were rushing in to apprehend the robbers.

A large van was allowed past the crowd and police vehicles as the Rebuilders showed up.  They were Metrocity's elite repair crew; all of them were supers with powers that aided in repairing metal and stone damage for the most part.  The group had to have been traveling through the city to arrive so quickly.

The ground erupted nearby as Muckman's form came out of the ground, mostly made up of the rocks from the incline at the river's side.

I never got used to seeing him.  We weren't even sure if he was human, alien, or perhaps some weird rock that the meteorite showers had brought to life.  If he had been human, it had destroyed much of his mind, for he barely spoke like a normal person.

On cue he shouted, "I is Muckman!  Muckman is here!"

I yelled over to him, "Muckman, come here!"

I waved to get his attention when he looked over.  His rocky form had gem-like eyes.  I couldn't figure out how he spoke -his face didn't have a mouth most of the time.  He had no legs; the lower half of his body was a shifting mound of rock and earth under his torso.

"I is Muckman!"

I replied, "I'm Hellshock, you know me.  Can you pick up the bridge parts and bring them back onto the bridge?  These things."

I pointed to the broken chunks of concrete and metal scattered on the shore from the explosion.

"Muckman bring rocks!"

He grabbed a boulder from the embankment.

I said, "Muckman, only these rocks.  Like this one."

He stared at it for a moment, dropped the boulder and picked up the bridge piece.

"Rock?"

"Yes, bring it over there please."

He flowed over the ground with the big piece of concrete above his head.  He had to have brick-like strength to lift it, or at least high mutant levels.

Watermane brought more chunks that had fallen into the river.  While in the water, she was able to command massive strength to lift the concrete as well.  She deposited them on the river's edge.

More supers showed up - Spartan and Black Tiger, Zonk, and even Gatecrasher came.  I was surprised at the last; I figured he'd take a few weeks off after losing his left arm in the mutant attack a few days prior.

Diva stirred next to me.  I took her hand and squeezed it.  As she gained consciousness, she squeezed it back.  My eyes nearly popped out from the crushing strength.  Fortunately, she had just responded to my squeeze and didn't keep the pressure up.

She opened her eyes, blinked a few times and looked up at me.

She said, "Did I get it?"

"Yeah, you knocked the big one away."

"Why does my face hurt?"

"I think you decided to use your nose and jaw to hit the concrete rather than a fist.  Nice job, though."

"Oh no!  Is my face okay?"  She began feeling her face.

"You look great.  You're already healing the damage."

She sat up and tried using my large reflective glasses as a mirror for a moment to see what her face looked like.

I said, "Hey, you'll be fine.  The guys could use your strength to bring more wreckage back to the bridge though."

She looked around, glanced down and looked at the torn-up shirt.  If her eyes weren’t red from the entire water-in-the-lungs thing, I’d swear she was close to crying.

I touched her arm.  “Diva, help the guys with the bridge.  They could use the hands, especially with your ability to fly.”

It gave her something else to think about.  She rubbed her eyes, nodded and stood up.  I stood with her, but she was stable and moved lithely.

She asked, “What … what do they need done?”

“They blew up the bridge.  The repair crew is here, but they need as many of the debris back as possible to reform and rebuild with.”

“They use the old parts?”

“Exactly.  They have powers too.  The sooner the better, traffic is already backed up.  The police will have a nightmare on their hands if this goes on for a long time.”

“Yeah … I can do that.  Just fly the … what the hell is that?!”

I followed her eyes – Muckman was flowing back toward us, his rocky upper body bobbing slightly as he moved across the ground.

“That’s Muckman.  Be kind to him, he’s … got issues.  Better yet, grab some concrete and avoid him.  He’s kind of strange to communicate with….”

“Okay.  Thanks for helping me.”

She stared at him for a few seconds before she looked around and jumped down by the pile of bridge pieces Watermane had already gathered on the edge of the river.  Muckman interrupted me as I stared at the heroine.

“Muckman is here!  Move rock?”

I looked at him, he was pointing at a piece of concrete.

I nodded, “That’s a good piece, Muckman.  Well done!”

I couldn’t tell if he smiled or not, his mouth disappeared once he finished speaking.  He grabbed the slab of concrete and flowed back toward the bridge.

Diva had taken flight with another piece and was delivering them directly to the bridge.  I jogged over to the bridge, I knew that the city had electrical cabling running under the bridge.  The repair crew would have an easier time of it if I controlled the electricity rather than wait to have it shut off at wherever the nearest junction would be.

It was quite the colorful collection of heroes on the bridge.  Big Man towered over everyone in his shiny dark blue costume with lime green diagonal stripes and arms.  Spartan had his bright yellow and red costume.  Zonk was colorful all by himself in his costume that looked more like a clown outfit than a regular costume.  Diva wore her torn dress clothing – she looked like she’d been at some kind of modeling event before coming here.  Black Tiger was in his solid black and Muckman had his gray and green rock colors.  Watermane wore her blue and green swimsuit type costume, although she stayed in her human form today instead of becoming water in human shape.  My own costume was dark red to black with a gradient and white lightning streaks running down it as though I were in a storm.

It felt good to be in a group of the H.E.R.O. supers.  So often, we kept to our own ‘patrol region’ and didn’t see each other.  I’d been seeing Spartan and Black Tiger fairly often since they joined H.E.R.O. a week and a half ago; they seemed to be fairly cool guys – not as cute as a few of the new ladies, but at least they appeared to be interested in being more than just competition for events that popped up, as a few heroes did.

One of the people from the Rebuilders motioned me over.  He’d taken out his platform pieces, attached them together to make a ten-foot square platform, and was ready to fly the electrician and me down to the wiring to repair it.  His was an interesting power – the ability to stand on something and make it fly, so long as it was touching his feet the entire time.  It worked great for his repair team when they worked in unusual spots – like underneath a bridge.

I saw the gaping hole nearby close up during the ten minutes or so it took the electrician master to reconnect the lines while I stopped the flow of electricity.  He tested the lines and our platform flew out from under the bridge and back up on top of it.

The Rebuilders reminded me a lot of Dr. Turnquist.  Their powers allowed them to reshape, harden and move hard, heavy material like metals and concrete.  Once the electrical work was done and larger chunks of concrete and metal had been found the batch of heroes left the Rebuilders to continue their work.  Some of the material had been lost to the explosion and the river bottom and additional beams and concrete needed to be brought in.