"Robert. You have got to get up. Your suits systems are all in the yellow. Wake up, Robert!" Donna Ellis shouts and this time I hear her. All thoughts of oatmeal and bacon retreat as I remember where I am. And all of the pain that comes with it. I can't breathe. My chest feels tight. And every time I try to take a deep breath, it feels like I am drinking fire. I am unable to move. Not even a little. There are sharp shards of metal piecing my legs and arms but I am feeling them so I still have motor skills. Then I remember.
"I'm here, Donna. Can you read me?" No answer. Not a good sign. Might be the rubble. Gotta get out of here. I put my arms up at the last second when I heard her voice and saw this huge chuck of metal smashing into me. As soon as Titania hit me, my suit lights all turned yellow and the last thing I remembered was the quick burst of repulsor fire before I was completely smashed backward and buried in a nearby building. That burst of repulsors is probably why I am still alive nursing one or maybe two broken ribs, rather than marveling at my shattered spine and wondering what color wheelchair Donna would be picking for me to zip around it. But I am not out of the woods yet.
I can't get much leverage and that means I can't use the limited strength this exoskeleton gives me. I must have hit a water main because I can hear and feel cold water flowing down onto my armor. Looking at my busted HUD clock, I can see it has only been a few minutes since I ended up here. Think. Think. Think. The Gravity Sled. It was designed to lift up to ten tons. I am certain that what has me pinned is less than that.
"Activate remote control, voice activation, Gravity Sled." The HUD indicates the sled is just a few feet from me but it is upside down, so it will not be able to push against the ground and move the wreckage. More challenging but doable. Instead of lifting the wreckage using the sled as a lever, I will float the wreckage by reducing the force of gravity in the area. It will likely drain the sled to a barely operable level but it can't be helped. Not unless I plan on changing my name to Wreckage Man. Ouch. No laughing. The other problem is this will require I get off my butt and push my way out before I run out of power.
"Activate gravity field, five meter spread." The rubble trembles and dust falls around me and near me but nothing moves. Not good. "Increase anti-gravity output twenty percent." I can hear wood snapping and more water splashing, and I can feel just the slightest bit of movement near my feet. "Increase gravity area thirty percent." A warning light comes on indicating less than eighteen percent power remains. Got to pick up the pace. I can see tiny beams of outside light breaking through the dust and can get up on my forearms. I pull my legs up under me and work myself into a crouch. I trigger the emergency power on my suit and feel it hum to life.
"Increase power output twenty five percent. Pulse in five seconds. Four, three, two one." Push! AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!! My body screams out as five tons of rubble give way to my efforts and I can see debris flying in every direction free of the force of gravity with the addition of my boosted strength. The water droplets floating in the air, languidly spinning create gravity rainbows as they dance free from the fundamental force that holds the universe together. For a moment, I feel hopeful and start to think maybe I have been going about this all wrong. The gravity rainbows fade as the sled shuts down power and enters conservation mode. It has less than ten percent of its total charge remaining.
I look like hell. My suit is damaged and most of the memory metal is retreating into the main exoskeleton showing only the interior functional frame of the suit. It is still capable of functioning, but it is now in energy conservation mode as well. Meaning, no more fighting. Start thinking. Why did they come here? What is in that ball? Okay that is a good place to start. I drop the board and activate it. I sounds like its grumbling but it starts up and I direct it back toward the front of the base. When I reach the giant sphere, easily fifteen feet tall, I notice the control interface on the front of it, and a light indicating the sphere is active. Looking it over, I realize this is not a weapon. It looks more like a containment device. We use something similar to ship dangerous metas to prison facilities when we want to keep them sedated, contained and controlled.
"Command, can I get an ETA on that support?" No response. Oh well, might as well have a completely awful day. There is an input spike and I draw my computer interface cable into the micro-access port. What do you know. Its one of ours. It says its from our New York branch. Now I am beginning to get nervous because I am remembering something about the Wizard. I run an access code and its locked, but with the code crackers I carry it should take about thirty seconds. The Wizard had a run in with the Fantastic Four less than six months ago and it spread out into the street. The report indicated there was a woman there who was believed to be related to the Wizard and a metamorph there.
The sphere opened and a super-frigid blast of air came out of the device. When the fog cleared, I was not sure what I was seeing. It looked like a large lump of concrete in a barely humanoid form. It was about nine or ten feet long draped backward into a medical bay inside the ball. Suddenly the form sat up. The sand in the area began to rise up and slowly swirl around the ball. The woman who was fighting with the Wizard and the FF was called...
"Cole, no!" I was distracted and did not hear the Wizard or Titania as they were coming back with a huge amount of equipment riding on one of the Wizard's gravity disks. The voice was the Wizard and the tendrils of sand that were swirling around our feet were surrounding him and encasing him in a ball of sand. The creature called Cole stepped down from the device and strode out to meet Titania. It waited for her to strike. MacPherran did not disappoint. Her blow caused an explosion of sand to be blasted away from the creature. Then the creature backhanded her and she disappeared in a cloud of sand and I could hear her shouting fade away into the distance.
Okay. She just took out two of the world's most dangerous super-villains in less than ten seconds. If I were a betting man I still had about five minutes before I could expect any help. So it was time to see if reason would be any more useful than just letting her kill the Wizard.
"Cole." I kept my voice calm and modulated. I took off my helmet. There was no point in keeping it on, the information it was giving me was depressing anyway. "Cole, can you hear me? Please stop what you are doing." I could hear the Wizard's anguished choking and knew he would not be able to last much longer.
"Cole, can you tell me why you are doing this?" Use the subject's name, try and establish a rapport. God, I hope this stuff they taught me in the academy is actually worth something. She stopped moving toward the Wizard, and turned toward me.
"Why do you care? When I kill him, the world will be rid of a problem and no one will miss him."
"Uh, while that may be true, miss, I don't think you really want to do that. If you did, you could have already done that. So what is it you really want?"
"I want my body back," and when she said that I heard something crack from inside the cocoon of sand she was holding the Wizard in.
"Miss Cole, if you agree to let him go, I will put the scientific capabilities of SHIELD at your disposal. We will do everything we can to cure you."
"Do you think you could?" This was the first time her voice had anything that sounded like a human voice. It was filled with uncertainty and a little fear. Until now, she had a voice like a giant, booming and just a bit terrifying.
"Yes, I think we could. Just loosen your grip a bit and we can talk about it." I could feel my tension starting to ease up a bit and I could feel myself starting to have just a bit of hope.
"Round Two, Girly." Titania appeared dropping down from on high like a bomb. She landed directly on top of Cole and after her crushing death-from-above attack, she landed blow after blow and the sound of each strike sounded like a bomb blast.
The rock-like substance covering Cole began to crack for a second and Cole gave off a terrible howl as sand began to come to her and fill up the cracks in the armor around her. And then she started to grow. While she was growing, she began to fight back and gave as good as she got. Titania has a reputation for being able to go toe to to with the Hulk, so in theory I was not worried about her. But if this got out of hand, someone was going to get hurt.
Jump to Gravity Rainbow - Part V
The Rocket Racer, Cole, The Wizard, Titania, and SHIELD are all © Marvel Comics. All Rights Reserved.
'Gravity Rainbows' © Thaddeus Howze 2010. All Rights Reserved.
The Rocket Racer, Cole, The Wizard, Titania, and SHIELD are all © Marvel Comics. All Rights Reserved.
'Gravity Rainbows' © Thaddeus Howze 2010. All Rights Reserved.
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