Racer One's Gravity Sled, flew close to the surface of the desert with the back end of the board riding higher than the front end. Manipulating the Earth's gravitational field and using miniaturized engines salvaged from a Skrull space craft that crashed nearly a decade ago, this amalgam of technology would not have been the first thing anyone would have expected to see tearing through the desert.

As the Sled manipulated gravity, it also stole molecular energy from the surface of the planet and used that energy to power itself and to restore power to the armor of its pilot. As a side effect, it did not churn up dust in its passage as it stole the energy from the dust and it fell immediately back to earth. Unfortunate for that pilot, the time it will take him to reach the Plasma incineration facility will only increase his reserves by four percent. With time, he could restore a respectable amount of energy to his exoskeleton. But time was a luxury he simply did not have.

As he approached the base, he activated his HUD's telescopic enhancement and could see the large orb described by the sergeant and he could also see Mary MacPherran, the superhuman known as Titania, wife of the Crusher Creel, the Absorbing Man, standing next to it. She was wearing a new outfit, still relatively revealing but not that horrid purple thing he could see in the SHIELD database records.

As he approached, he took several new shots and sent them back to headquarters for entry into the field handbook. Robert Farrell, agent of SHIELD had no intention of confronting her at all. She is listed as one of the more dangerous metahumans on the planet and he wanted nothing to do with a physical confrontation with someone who could bench press an Abrams tank without breaking a sweat.

Increasing his speed, his intent was to fly past her and try and catch the Wizard unaware before she could lumber into the fray. All he had to do was to keep them busy until the SHIELD Tactical Squad showed up in ten minutes. Against these two, ten minutes was a real long time.

Activating his radio bead communicator, he announced to his command liasion, "Donna, I am making my final approach, I am going to lay down some smoke. This will slow her down and keep her off my back. I don't see her using any technology."

"Understood Racer One, records confirm her lack of interest in any kind of tech. She relies on her near-invulnerability and super-strength. You are not authorized to engage her under these conditions. You don't possess any weaponry that could even slow her down."

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

She continued "Keep them out of that ship. SK773 was scheduled for complete demolition today and has been fit with plasma charges sufficient to turn it into slag. It is currently in the fourth quadrant of the blasting region of the field. Internal base cameras went off-line as he entered the base, but he was headed to SK773 before we lost visual."

"Understood. Making my final approach." Farrell prepped his wrist based launchers with six smoke grenades taken from his belt. Similar in design to his old rocket systems, these were designed to deliver heavy smoke, in wide dispersal patterns. Since there was little wind, the smoke would last for nearly fifteen minutes.

Aiming in an expanding circle, the grenades were fired simultaneously and shot out in a firing blossom of reactive oxygen contrails. MacPharran did not appear to have been aware of the approach of Racer One. The Gravity Sled's engine was very quiet, especially when moving below forty miles per hour. Once the grenades hit the ground, Titania turned around and the last thing Farrell saw was her face frowning up before the smoke obscured her.

Farrell increased his speed and directed the sled into jump mode. Rather than go through the smoke, he would jump over it and Titania and head directly into the base. The sled had a limited flight capacity. But Farrell had no confidence in its ability to deliver at the moment.

He had been on this base several times before,  but had never paid attention to how close it had been to headquarters. Or maybe he had subconsciously come this way so he could stop here after the field tests. He knew the base well and with the short range sonic imaging provided by his helmet he would be able to find his way to the blasting field without having to feel his way. The imaging was crude but better than a white cane.

Once he landed he fired a second salvo of smoke grenades behind him obscuring the path into the base. It was unlikely she had been here before but it did not hurt to cover the area with smoke to slow her down. You can never be too careful when dealing with supervillains. Activating his own jammer inside of his suit, if she and the Wizard were using any standard communication tech, they would be temporarily unable to send or receive.

Weaving quickly through the base, there were pallets of decommissioned equipment awaiting destruction assigned by number and specification of the types of equipment. There were five of these destruction facilities in the US, but the others handled far more dangerous equipment than this one did. The Nevada base was assigned to destroy equipment with low military capacity.

Most of what was out here had been stripped of any potential research value and was simply awaiting liquidation. Larger items or more complete ones were taken apart and itemized unless duplicates were already available. Everything out here had a manifest and an identity. SK773 was an old Skrull ship found nearly a decade ago when the Super-Skrull first came to Earth and had his first confrontation with the Fantastic Four.

Back then it was a treasure trove of information and almost everything had been stripped out of the ship. The New York research group had decided they had gotten such a new flux of alien technology with the recent Skrull invasion, they would simply transfer SK773 out here for demolition so they could play with their new toys.

Farrell had looked through it just like he did anything that ended up out here for an opportunity to recover what others may have thought less useful. It was his nature to try and salvage anything he could. Growing up in the inner city, he almost felt a compulsion to repair or reuse anything that could be made to work. SK773 had no systems that had not already been seen or studied elsewhere at this point so Farrell had no idea what the Wizard could be looking for and wasn't paying attention when he was hit by a beam of excited protons fired from the Wizard's patented Wonder Gloves.

The Wizard had stepped out from the Skrull ship when his scanner indicate the approaching signature of active Skrull technology. In the last few months with Skrulls popping up everywhere, his search had grown more dangerous and he was confident what he was looking for was close. Only the Skrulls had the metagenic technology he was looking for because of their malleable genetic code. Having dispatched several in his quest, he had no problem with another.

He did not recognize the black and red armor, but if it was another Skrull, he was going to unmask it with the proton beam, electrocute it and then get back to work. The transporter system here was intact and perfect for his needs. Shooting this Skrull did not seem to be very difficult but he did not change to his default form. Was this a local super fool he did not know about? There was something vaguely familiar but no matter, he won't be alive long enough for me to make the connection. He tapped the tips of his fingers together to alter the electron density and prepared to fire again.

That was unexpected. How did he know I was coming? Suit's had a power surge and is now offline. "Ugh. I'm hit Donna. I don't know how he made me, but he was waiting in the door. Whatever he hit me with temporarily shorted my armor systems. I am face down in the dirt. Reboot in progress."

Donna Ellis was the field technician who was providing support during the field test of the Racer One armor. She was a beautiful black woman who wore her hair in militarily precise cornrows. She was standing over a holographic display of the base and she was attempting to place a marker on both the Wizard and Titania. Warning lights were flashing in the base as the alert message was routed that a possible incursion from the Frightful Four was imminent. Other technicians were setting up in the room and taking over terminals that had previously sat empty during their field test duties.

Donna was attempting to boost the signal gain as her instrument showed the armor temporarily offline. Fortunately the bead comm was not routed through the suit's primary power. "I am using the spycams but there is a jamming field near you. I can barely make you out. You have seven minutes until the Tac-Squad arrives."

We have so got to do something about this power fluctuation. I did not intend to be using the suit in combat and it is just not ready for prime time. "Reboot, complete. Oh, damn. He is coming out of the ship and headed in my direction. Moving..." This is not going like I hoped. How did he know I was even here? Incoming!

This time the energy that flashed toward him was more like electricity, with a jagged formation starting at the Wizard and suddenly exploding in Racer One's direction. Only his timely dive, prevented him from catching the full brunt of the lightning from the Wizard's outstretched hands. As it was, the Racer One armor was smoking in several places and the stench of ozone filled the air.

Okay, enough of that. My turn. Racer One pointed his left gauntlet, armed with offensive ordinance and let fly two HE micro-missiles capable of blasting a hole in a tank. The Wizard's hands changed their formation and then the missiles struck their target with a powerful explosion. There was the flash of what looked like a force field coming online and that was consistent with the Wizard's MO.

The shockwave shook the ground where the Racer was getting to his feet. Without stopping he fired two more in the general direction of where the Wizard was. With his right hand he called the Gravity Sled to him and it moved to him and he put his foot on it. As the smoke cleared, He saw the Wizard lying against the Skrull ship in a crumpled pile. He could see his unshaven face and he looked tiny and old. Frail was the word that came to mind. "Command, the Wizard is down. Can you get me a location on Titania?"

The smoke had been annoying and obscured her sight, but once the shooting started, Titania had no problem orienting on the fight. Rarely inclined to user her superstrength to leap, she decided the smoke was too damn thick to see through and she would jump to where she heard weapon's fire. Her radio went offline as soon as the smoke hit so she figured the little man on the surfboard was responsible. A jeep broke her fall after the second jump and she could not have timed her landing any better. The explosions from the guy in red and black completely blocked the sound of her crashing down. Now with this chunk of ship debris, she was going to make this little problem go away.

"I'm right here, big boy. Nighty-night." The last thing Ferrall saw was the hunk of wreckage that knocked him off his feet and pinned him under it. There was a moment of searing pain as his rib cage gave way and then everything faded to black.

Jump to Gravity Rainbows - Part IV

The Rocket Racer, Cole, The Wizard, Titania, and SHIELD are all © Marvel Comics. All Rights Reserved.
'Gravity Rainbows' © Thaddeus Howze 2010. All Rights Reserved.