270 Tempest’s Stand [Chad/Tempest]
270 Tempest’s Stand [Chad/Tempest]
[POV: Chad]
Missiles kept streaking across the sky while the battlefield below turned into a storm of explosions and scattered capes.
Krissy’s voice cut through the chaos.
“Before this engagement progresses further, there are two viable strategies for dealing with enemies like Famine and Conquest.”
Even while weaving through the air currents, I focused on her words.
“Option one is elimination,” she continued. “My team has developed a theoretical super virus designed to destabilize their data-based biology.”
I grimaced slightly.
“Option two is containment,” she added. “Sealing them.”
I didn’t hesitate.
“Please tell me we’re going with option two.”
Krissy sighed through the comms.
“Believe me, I would prefer that as well. Unfortunately, I was informed otherwise during the planning phase.”
Her drone shifted slightly on someone’s shoulder.
“However, the sealing method remains available as a contingency. The drone accompanying your team contains a cuboid device embedded in its chest cavity. If that cube is crushed directly onto George’s true body, it will initiate the containment protocol.”
I frowned slightly, while banking through the air.
“George’s true body,” she clarified, “not the mechanical shell he currently uses.”
That was going to be difficult. Still, it meant there was a path. I twisted sideways as several projectiles streaked past me. Bullets, energy blasts, and jagged metal fragments from enemy drones filled the sky while cultists fired upward from the ground.
I accelerated.
Air currents bent violently around my body as I shot downward toward the battlefield. An elite drone unit rose to intercept me, its limbs unfolding into rotating blades.
I dove straight through it.
My body phased while I pushed my speed past the sound barrier. The impact shattered the machine instantly, fragments exploding outward as the drone collapsed into scrap.
It was my cheap version of warping motion.
Eclipse and Phasecrash could produce far more destructive force with the same trick. I was basically imitating the concept using aerokinesis and phasing.
The comms exploded with noise.
Someone screamed in pain.
“Medic! Someone get Pulse over here!”
“Watch the left flank!”
“Shaman is down!”
The voices overlapped into a chaotic mess. It was nearly impossible to tell who was speaking anymore. The battlefield had turned into complete disorder. People on our side were dying quickly, though many others were still managing to hold the line long enough to keep the drones and cultists occupied.
I pressed my earpiece twice.
The channel switched directly to the operations center.
I surged forward with super speed, racing toward the center of the engagement zone.
“I’m at the site,” I reported quickly. “I don’t have visuals of Conquest.”
Krissy answered immediately.
“Stealth technology is possible,” she said. “Based on previous data, I am certain he should be in that area.”
Something erupted beneath me. I jerked sideways just in time as a massive scythe blade burst upward from the ground. The weapon barely missed my torso. The earth itself twisted violently as jagged spikes spiraled upward, attempting to trap and crush me.
So he had geokinetic capabilities too.
I leaned fully into elementalization.
My body blurred into a shifting mass of wind and partial intangibility, the peak of what my aerokinesis and phasing could achieve together. The spikes passed harmlessly through me while I slipped between them like a gust of air.
Then the horse appeared.
Dullahan’s head tilted slightly before her mouth split open down the middle.
The mechanical skull unfolded into an enormous maw.
A scream erupted from inside it.
The sound carried an impossibly high frequency that tore through the air like a physical force. My sense of self scattered slightly as the sonic attack disrupted my elemental state and forced my body back into solid form.
I reacted instantly.
A compressed barrier of wind formed in front of me, redirecting the sound wave away from my body.
Guesswork’s voice arrived through the channel.
“Tempest, Spearker is approaching from your right.”
I turned just in time to see him. A man in a tight leotard covered in cybernetic implants leaped down from above, holding a massive spear fitted with a powerful speaker system at the tip.
It was Spearker, a villain with strong acoustokinetic abilities.
He plunged toward Conquest with a battle cry.
The fight lasted less than a second.
Conquest swatted him out of the air with the back of his armored hand. The impact launched Spearker across the battlefield like a broken toy.
His spear struck Conquest’s armor during the attempt.
It didn’t even leave a scratch.
I remembered that guy. Spearker wasn’t exactly known for having the sharpest mind, but his power rating had always been respectable. Looking at the battlefield, a thought crept into my mind. A lot of the villains recruited for this mission might have been here simply to pad the casualty count.
Cannon fodder.
I focused again on the sound waves still vibrating through the air. My control over wind allowed me to manipulate sound indirectly, not quite like true acoustokinesis but close enough to interfere with its movement.
Maybe I could use that.
I raised my voice, while drifting closer.
“George!” I shouted across the battlefield. “Can you hear me?!”
Conquest charged at me with terrifying speed.
I reacted immediately, rushing to my left with a burst of aerokinesis that carried me sideways through the air. For a moment I thought I had dodged the attack cleanly.
Then Conquest’s movement changed.
While still running forward, his body suddenly shifted into warp motion laterally. The maneuver looked completely unnatural, like he had bent the direction of his charge without actually turning.
He slammed directly into me.
I tried to phase my body away at the last second, but the impact still landed hard. The force behind his charge was ridiculous, and the armor he wore clearly had thick null plates built into it.
My body folded under the hit.
I crashed into the ground and rolled across broken concrete and metal debris. Pain exploded through my side as I struggled to stop the tumble. I was pretty sure I broke a rib or two.
Krissy’s voice came through my earpiece quickly.
“Tempest, the team guarding my drone has been informed of your position,” she said urgently. “They will move toward you. Please anticipate the drone’s arrival. If an opportunity appears, do your best to complete the operation.”
I groaned quietly.
Guesswork.
That bastard really had planned this.
I originally thought the mission would rely on the whole team working together to corner Conquest. Now it felt like he expected me to end up in this exact situation from the very beginning.
Conquest sprinted toward me again.
I pushed myself up and ran.
My side screamed in pain with every movement, but I forced my legs to keep moving. I dove behind a pile of collapsed metal beams and rubble, using the debris as temporary cover while I caught my breath.
A group of capes rushed Conquest from behind.
Their powers lit up the battlefield with bursts of energy, but I couldn’t focus on them right now. I quickly checked my body for injuries while crouched behind the rubble.
My fingers brushed against the USB device we had been given earlier.
It was shattered.
The kill switch was supposed to be stored in that thing, but whatever Conquest had done during the earlier clash had completely destroyed it.
I wished we had brought a healer with us, but considering the survival rate Guesswork probably predicted for this operation, it made sense none were assigned to this team.
I reached into my utility belt and pulled out a small canister.
The spray inside was a coagulation gel designed for battlefield injuries. I sprayed it across the small puncture wounds scattered across my body where shrapnel and debris had cut through my suit.
The liquid hardened instantly into a thick gel that sealed the bleeding.
I took a deep breath.
The pain in my ribs remained sharp and unpleasant.
Guesswork’s voice entered the channel again.
“Tempest, you are the strongest cape currently operating in that zone,” he said firmly. “This operation depends on someone seeing it through to the end. Right now that someone is you.”
I closed my eyes briefly and focused on controlling my breathing. The battlefield noise echoed around me while I steadied myself mentally.
Then Krissy suddenly shouted through the comms.
“I screwed up! Hold on, hold on—what do you mean the signal isn’t—wait!”
Her voice turned frantic as she began arguing with someone else over the line.
I tapped my earpiece.
“What happened?”
Another cape answered while breathing heavily.
“They anticipated the kill switch,” he reported quickly. “They’re using highly charged electrical attacks designed to destroy any electronic appliance or device connected to a USB—”
The transmission cut off with a loud burst of static. Right on cue, the capes surrounding Conquest were blasted by a massive electrical pulse. Their screams echoed across the battlefield as sparks ripped through their suits and equipment.
I reached into my belt again.
Painkiller.
Adrenaline injector.
I slammed both into my system without hesitation.
Warmth flooded my body as the chemicals kicked in.
The pain dulled just enough for me to function.
Guesswork spoke again.
“Tempest, I need you to do something big.”
I stood slowly behind the rubble, wind beginning to gather around me.
“Oh, I got something big,” I muttered. “A tempest.”
I needed to separate the horse from the master.
The two of them together had a terrifying level of synergy. Every movement from one reinforced the other. The horse distorted space and sound while Conquest layered technology and brute force over it. Fighting them together meant constantly being attacked from two different vectors.
My body began to dissolve into moving air.
Wind wrapped around my limbs and torso as my power circulated faster and faster. I pushed the currents harder until the storm gathered tightly around my human frame. Lightning flickered within the cyclone of air surrounding me, unstable arcs dancing between swirling pressure walls.
Walking became difficult.
The storm inside me was starting to resist its container.
Dark clouds gathered overhead, drawn by the pressure building in the atmosphere.
Guesswork’s voice cut sharply through the comms.
“All units clear a path for Tempest. Priority one is keeping smaller units off him. Protect him at all costs.”
My lungs burned.
The air rushing through my body felt like fire scraping against my throat.
I leaned forward and charged.
Lightning cracked around me as I surged across the battlefield. Wind screamed in every direction while drones and cultists were blasted aside by the violent currents.
A barrier suddenly ignited in front of me.
The impact threw me sideways like a ragdoll, but the storm I carried had already punched a large crack into the field.
Several voices shouted through the comms.
“Covering fire!”
“Push him through!”
Powers erupted across the battlefield as capes unleashed everything they had. Energy beams, kinetic blasts, and strange projectiles created from powers rained down on Conquest’s position.
The assault forced him to split his focus.
That was enough.
I slammed into him.
My storm-wrapped body crashed against his armored shell with enough force to dent the ground beneath us. The impact pushed him several meters backward before he planted his feet again.
He tried to shove me away.
Every time he knocked me aside, I rushed back at him like an angry boar. The storm surrounding me hammered into his defenses again and again as I slammed my shoulder and chest into the armored frame.
My limbs started to feel like jelly.
The painkiller and adrenaline kept my body moving, but my muscles were starting to fail under the strain. I ignored it and kept charging, unleashing a relentless barrage of human-shaped storms.
Dullahan roared.
The mechanical horse reared upward, its massive body kicking the air violently. The strike almost crushed me, forcing me to drop my storm state instantly.
I phased through the attack and grabbed Conquest.
Wind erupted beneath my feet as I shot into the sky with him clutched in my arms.
The horse remained behind.
“Hold back Dullahan!” I shouted into the comms. “I’ll deal with Conquest!”
I tried to climb higher.
Conquest’s weight changed and multiplied instantly. The sudden pressure slammed us both toward the ground like a meteor. I pushed against it with everything I had, but the gravity tech built into his armor kept increasing the load.
We hit the earth.
The impact carved a massive trench through the battlefield as I struggled to keep moving forward. My body reignited into storm form as lightning erupted from my torso despite the fact that I technically had no electrokinesis rating.
The trench widened.
Conquest increased his weight again.
The gravity pressure forced the ground to split apart while I kept pushing against it with wind and lightning.
Then he moved.
His arm swung sideways with crushing force and smashed directly into my face.
My jaw shattered instantly.
Stars exploded in my vision.
Before I could react, his arm warped again and drove downward toward my chest. I phased part of the strike away, but the force still slammed through my body like a truck.
I refused to let go of him, and then my limbs went limp.
Blood poured from my mouth as I collapsed against the ground.
Ah, shit.
The battlefield around us had opened into a wide clearing. The storm clouds above had reached their peak, swirling violently over the scarred terrain.
I could barely move.
Still, I lifted one finger.
A tiny spark flickered at the tip.
The sky answered.
A pillar of lightning descended from the clouds above, blinding and impossibly bright. The bolt struck Conquest’s armor directly, sending electricity cascading across the shell in violent arcs. The armored body collapsed backward.
Smoke rose from the machine.
Moments later Krissy’s drone flew into the trench.
“You did a good job, Tempest,” Krissy said through the machine. “Leave the rest to me.”
The drone crawled onto the armored shell and forced its limbs into the seams. Metal screeched as it pried open the casing.
Inside was George. He looked terrible. His form flickered constantly like corrupted data struggling to stay stable. Pieces of his body phased in and out of existence while strange digital distortions rippled through his shape.
The drone’s chest opened.
A cuboid device unfolded from within it.
The machine slammed the cube directly into George’s chest. Energy exploded outward in violent colors as the device activated. The cube emitted a mechanical whirring cry before expanding and swallowing George completely.
A portal opened beside us.
A familiar woman stepped through. She wore an SRC uniform and carried the calm efficiency of someone who had done this kind of operation many times before.
“I’m with the SRC,” she said simply while retrieving the cube. “Let us do the rest.”
She stepped back into the portal with the device.
Immediately afterward medical teams and SRC special forces poured through the same gateway. Some rushed toward me while others scattered across the battlefield to help subjugate the remaining enemy forces.
Guesswork’s voice returned to my earpiece.
“Tempest, I had several SRC assets stranded in that zone earlier. They should be rescued now and reinforcing your position.”
His tone softened slightly.
“There’s no need to worry anymore. Just rest.”