Singularity: Part 17
“Two Rockets?” Scream Eagle shouted, faking an English accent just like he had the last time we fought. “Wouldn’t it be funny if you fought each other?”
My suit’s computer informed me of the growing magnetic field, but I didn’t need it. I’d already seen the True’s guns begin to float upward, some dragging the unconscious bodies of their owners across the floor toward us by the strap of their rifle or belt and holstered pistol.
You know what didn’t move toward him? Grandpa and I.
I hadn’t realized that Grandpa had moved to ceramic armor that early. Or maybe he hadn’t, but had fought enough supervillains who controlled magnetism that he’d developed a counter? I’d have to ask him after the fight if we still existed.
Grandpa shouted, “You take left,” and aimed himself to the right of Scream Eagle. I went left.
Scream Eagle shot upward, his the roar of his jetpack increasing. His accent gone, voice incredulous, said, “Neither of you use metal?”
We’d already changed direction, chasing him toward the glowing spheres above.
What would happen if he hit one? I put a pin in that question and kept it for later. I shouted back, “Where’d you get that accent from, Dick Van Dyke?”
That may have been the first time I’d deliberately heckled a supervillain. It wasn’t that bad of an accent, but who did he think he was fooling?
Scream Eagle changed direction more quickly than either Grandpa or I, shooting off to right and downward, away from the throne.
Part of me wondered if it was worth the bother of chasing him, but he’d keep on attacking until we took him down and powered up, he might be more effective than he’d been in our last fight.
As Grandpa and I both came out of our turns, following Scream Eagle, I shouted, “He’s also a technopath,” at Grandpa, hoping that word had been in use in 1959.
Grandpa gave me a nod. So, maybe? Not having a radio connection sucked. Using the Mentalist as a switchboard might be great for the team, but not if you needed to talk and the Mentalist thought it too risky to include you.
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Not that I had time to go into that in the moment.
Scream Eagle started throwing lightning at us. It was a logical extension of the electro in electromagnetism. It didn’t do anything to either Grandpa or I either.
Long,jagged white streaks surrounded us and we kept on closing on him. We were close to the outer edge of the room by then, sometimes catching a glimpse of the blur of silver and purple that was C fighting Jody.
With the wall coming closer Scream Eagle flipped, diving downward and doing it with a speed I couldn’t match. The military had designed a good suit and Grandpa and I were both having difficulty keeping up—not to mention matching his agility.
I was closer, but not enough to make me feel like I’d improved much on Grandpa’s design. Still, I was ahead and gaining.
That’s probably why Scream Eagle tried to take over my suit. I’d been expecting it. It’s what he’d done last time after I’d used my sword to cut off some part of his connection to Magnus’ power. This time he had the full effect of whatever help Magnus could give him.
I’d set my implant to shut off the best routes of attack already—which was part of the reason I couldn’t keep up—no anti-gravity or inertial dampers to help.
That’s when a lot of things started to happen at once. For one, error messages began to run down the screen of my HUD. My implant shut off the computer—which was annoying, but expected.
He was more annoyed to judge from his wordless growl. What wasn’t as expected because he didn’t try it that last time is that he tried to turn the computer back on.
The startup sequence began with the Rocket logo, a stylized “R” filling the screen and I’d never been so unhappy to see it. I didn’t know how his powers worked, but he couldn’t do this the last time.
I concentrated, trying to pull the sword into existence, hoping it wouldn’t take long when my implant shut down the computer again.
In that moment, I hear Scream Eagle’s voice over my own helmet’s speakers, “Don’t kid yourself, I’ve got you.”
In the same moment, Grandpa, who hadn’t been far behind me, shot past and punched Scream Eagle’s helmet, knocking him backwards.
As Grandpa hit, I felt the sword materialize in my hand (even though I wore the suit’s gauntlets), glowing with a white light.
Even as Scream Eagle’s change in direction began to cause him to shoot upward, I pushed the immaterial blade into his chest.
He said, “What’s this?”
The words came through his helmet, not my suit’s speakers and the glow that had surrounded him since the power up went out.
He gasped, but I didn’t hear anything more because he’d twisted back too far as he tried to get away from the sword. Instead of flying upward, he flew sideways, hitting the wall behind him, fell down, and stopped moving.
Artificer vision showed no hint of power surrounding him. That was good, but I hoped that didn’t mean he was dead.