The Stormcrow, A Superhero's Tale Options

[Acadian]

NastyNate simply ignored Stormcrow’s lightning bolt! Not so much Blood Raven’s dragon blade though.

Woot! Lighthammer joins Stormcrow and Gola with a potent lightshow.

My ESO experience with portals from the realms of Oblivion is screaming ‘Close the portal!’ I know, it’s hard to drain the swamp when you’re up to your wings in goblins. Becoming overwhelmed is a real concern here though, especially as the foes seem to getting bigger and badder. This Athsaia looks to be quite a handful. Oh, and even more help from the Raven coven would be helpful about now. . . .


Nit: "You're [Your?] presence is most welcome here my friend!"

[WellTemperedClavier]

What a battle!

While Blood Raven focuses on the boss, January has to take out the minions before they overwhelm the city. I'm impressed with her eye for the creatures, given how she can spot entities from Manx and Zuni legend, and in the heat of battle, no less. But that's important, since identifying a creature is how you figure out what tools to use against it.

Was the big creature with tentacles from a specific mythology?

Also, quite like the teamwork between Lighthammer and January. Good mix of tech and magic, to devastating effect. No surprise that the Abyssals had to bring out the big guns, since those goblins were gonna get fried.

[SubRosa]

Renee: Defeating the Dark Lord is going to be a tough conundrum to solve.

The Blood Raven / Natthrafn family reunion is worse than any Thanksgiving Dinner I have ever endured! At least no one ever died in those!

January's friends are central to this story, and to her success. They are on the way as we speak. Today and next week's posts are all about two of them in fact.


Acadian: Natty Dark is how I think of Natthrafn, since he definitely not Natty Light. He does not like Blood Raven's dragon sword one bit. That is going to become very important soon.

Closing the portal is indeed the key thing to do here. But as you noted, easier said than done when you are up to your eyeballs in goblins. The good guys need to get some more players on the field. This entire fight is essentially a meeting engagement, so both sides will be getting reinforcements throughout the length of it. It will swing from one side to another as new players enter the chat.

As ever, thank you for spotting that nit, so that I could fix it.


WellTemperedClavier: The battle is just beginning. January has spent a lot time reading the Bestiary that Blood Raven provided several books back. So she has some points in her Magical Theory skill.

The tentacle creature is literally from Dungeons and Dragons - an Otyugh. I had to look at a lot of sources for inspiration for the variety of critters in this book. There are just so many of them. I even got one type from a Transformers movie (those will show up much later)

I wanted to show that teamwork exercise that we have seen January and the others doing at various points paying off with various multiplayer moves, like the StormLight Kinetic Lightning Balls. The good guys succeed because they work together and make each other stronger.









Gadget's Theme - The Score - Unstoppable

The Gadget Armor inspiration

In Yoruba, Ogun is the Orisha of iron and technology

Ogun's voice - Djimon Honsou


Book 10.10 - Alliance

Avery picked up another empty 2 liter bottle of Diet FaeCo and stuffed it into the garbage bag he carried in his opposite hand. The good thing about hosting gaming night was the deposits from all the empties left behind. Ten cents was ten cents after all. The bad thing was cleaning them all up.

Still, it had been a good night. For the first time in a long time he had been able to forget about the Hierophant, and January's dead brother, and the impending end of the world. For a few hours, he had been able to just kick it with good friends. He didn't need a guru or Instantgram influencer to tell that that was a treasure no amount of money could ever buy.

Kell had been in rare form. Warm Diet FaeCo always brought out the best in his belch game. Usually Blackjack gave him a solid run for his money. But not tonight. Kell had - literally - blown everyone away by burping out the entire first sentence of the Gettysburg Address. It may not have been much. But was a superpower to still be proud of.

With the last of the empties safely put away he tied up the garbage bag the way Ryo had taught him to. Instead of using a twist-tie, he pulled up the open end of the bag and twisted the edges together into a long cord. Finally he tied that around itself in a knot. He had learned a long time ago that if he did not do it that way and Ryo saw it, he would take off the twist-tie and do it himself. It was just the way the other man rolled.

With that Avery walked back to the computer and logged in. Not to his normal account that was filled with school and video games and social media. He went to the work account. In no time at all he was plugged into Blood Raven and Cray's conversation. They were outside of their latest lead, apparently some house in Ann Arbor that belonged to an old professor of Julian's.

It was weird thinking that Julian was dead. Avery could not muster any actual feelings of sadness or loss. The guy had been a bag of dicks after all. The only thing that could have possibly exceeded his sense of privilege was that of his invented grievance. Needless to say, he had made his antipathy for the black, gay friend of his trans, lesbian sister eminently clear.

But he had still been a facet of life. Now he was just gone. Just like January hanging out in the basement practically every night was a thing of the past. It reminded Avery that the here and now - whatever that might be - was a fleeting thing. It might be gone tomorrow. There might not even be a tomorrow.

He brought up Blood Raven's suit cam, and the new mini-drones that Cray had bought from the Laughing Man. They were small, barely the size of a hockey puck, and could be controlled via satellite. Soon all of the team members would carry them. Cray could then deploy them in an instant and be able to literally watch their backs. It certainly saved the trouble of having to hack nearby phones and door cams to keep up on the action.

Avery had to admit feeling a shiver of ice run down his spine when Blood Raven entered the secret room, and the zombie monster stepped out of the shadows to confront her. What happened next was even more chilling. After smacking the wight down, she simply stood back and summoned an army of shadow ravens to tear it to shreds. All the while she sang the lines from some old Irish poem about death and corpses and affliction everlasting.

"You know, you really are scary sometimes," Cray murmured over the comlink.

Avery nodded his head, and filed that away with all the other ways that Blood Raven could kill you just by looking at you. She could rip the blood from your body. Or superheat it into a gas and make you explode, like a mouse in a microwave. Or just stop your heart. She could probably even create an aneurysm in someone's head. Just pop one tiny blood vessel, and end someone in an instant.

Of course none of that even touched on the claws, or swords, or magical energy bolts, or simple raw strength that the woman possessed. Thankfully she was one of the good guys.

The elder heroine was reading something now, a journal from the owner of the house.

"The rituals to summon the Abyssals are quite effective, if over complex. I am certain they can be simplified, in order to reduce the time and effort necessary to execute them. However, nowhere does Nátthrafn explain how to control these creatures. They simply run rampant. The first one nearly destroyed my basement after it was summoned. This has necessitated us moving the summonings to other locations..."

Well that was that, Avery thought, he was the Hierophant. Cray echoed his thoughts over the comlink. That meant that this was it. This was going to end, now, tonight.

He took in a long, expectant breath, and slowly exhaled. He turned his head to the pile of old junk in one corner of the basement. The one covered by a tarp and scattered with old car parts. There was nothing for it then. In perhaps just a matter of hours January was going to be fighting for her life. So too would Ryo. He could not just sit by anymore and watch from the sidelines.

It was time to suit up.

Before he could talk himself out of it, he leaped to his feet and strode across the basement. He did not try to be delicate. He simply grabbed the tarp and ripped it aside, sending alternators and water pumps tumbling with a clatter of rusted iron. Revealed beneath was a Vault-Tec steamer trunk. It was just an ordinary trunk of course. But Rus had repainted the exterior with the blue and gold colors and logo of the Fallout games' favorite soulless evil corporation.

Avery leaned down and set his thumb to the lock, then bent even further for the retinal scan. Only after both security measures had been passed would the lid of the trunk swing open. Revealed within was a suit of armor. It waited patiently for his touch. For a moment Avery held his breath. Then he plunged on.

He shimmied into the black hagfish under layer in no time at all. It made him think of a diver getting into a wetsuit. Next came the solid pieces around feet, legs, torso, and arms. Finally he locked the helmet into place around his head. The nanotwinned cubic boron nitride was heavy. At least until he kicked on the fusion reactor. The laser induced power source came to life with a loud click, and was followed by an audible hum. A soft blue glow filled the room, and an African-accented voice spoke from his helmet.

"Ogun online," his armored digital assistant declared in his deep, rich voice. Even as the computer ticked off the systems, Avery could see them pop up on his internal heads up display. Power, life-support, suit-integrity, etc... all were nominal. He took a step to shut down his PC. Then he stopped himself, and did it remotely.

Welcome to the new Gadget.

Then the general distress call rang loudly in his ear. He had been expecting to hear it. But it still made him want to jump from his skin. He had Ogun turn it off, and made his way up the stairs. They creaked ominously under his armored feet. But thankfully they did not give way under the added weight.

He stopped before the landing and peeked around the corner. His heart nearly stopped. Nana was in the kitchen, working on a crossword.

He jerked his armored head back. Thank god his grandmother had been intent upon the puzzle, otherwise she would have seen the superhero stealing up the basement steps.

Snap! What was he going to do? The world was about to end, and here he was trying to sneak out of the house to save it. He bet Blood Raven never had to do this sort of thing...

He paused for a moment and took a deep breath. Panicking was not going to help. Even if it was what every fiber of his being wanted to do. He had to think this through. All he had to do was distract his grandmother long enough for him to slip past. But how? Was he going to toss a pebble into the living room?

Then he remembered the cordless phone they still had. A holdover from the 90s, the landline was the only phone that Nana would use. It was in the living room, next to her chair. That would clear her out!

He could not simply use a voice command to have Ogun do it, as the personal digital assistant was not tied into something as archaic as a cordless phone. So instead Avery did it the old fashioned way. He brought up a holographic keyboard and typed in the commands. A moment later the call went through to the landline, and he heard the phone ringing in both his headset and his normal hearing.

In moments he heard footsteps from the kitchen, and dared another peek around the corner. Sure enough, Nana was on her feet and shuffling to the living room in her housecoat. He wasted no time and tiptoed across the landing behind her. He felt like an idiot. Was he 17 again and he sneaking out to see guys? This sort of thing definitely never happened to Blood Raven.

"Hello?" his Nana's voice came over the line. The eternal ten-year old within Avery wanted to ask her if Mike Hunt was there, or if she had Prince Albert in a can. But he kept his tongue still, and simply waited to hear the second click.

"Who is it?" came the creaking voice of Auntie Ruth. She was not really an aunt of course. She had been his Nana's best friend since they were both in high school. That must have been some time back in the Stone Age. They were close enough to make them honorary family. In no time at all both women were wondering who had called who, and were chatting amicably away. Job well done.

With that Avery was out the door and in the back yard. Blood Raven was asking about Stormcrow, who had yet to check in, and apparently was not at the Witch House.

"She was at my place," Avery replied without thinking. "But she left hours ago, along with everyone else."

"Everyone has checked in except for Stormcrow," Cray's mellow tones rumbled in his ear.

"That's not like her." Avery's heart began to sink. Something was definitely wrong if January was not the first one to respond. His previous sense of triumph at outwitting his Nana completely evaporated when his eyes scanned his back yard.

"Spleck! Her bike's still here in the yard. But there's no sign of her!"

Not only was her Victory still parked in front of the detached garage, but her helmet lay errantly on its side several feet away, as was her gaming backpack. She would have never just thrown them aside as casually as that. Something was really, really wrong.

He ran across the yard, and lifted her full-face helmet in one hand. But the pink headgear had no secrets to yield up. He frantically looked about, but saw no sign of her, or where she might have gone. Just to be sure, he opened the door and looked in the detached garage. But it was empty, as it usually was. He put both her pack and helmet within, then locked it shut once more behind him.

"The summoning..." Blood Raven croaked over the comlink. The dread and horror so clearly etched upon her words made Avery's guts twist in his stomach. He knew what that meant. Another Abyssal was being called. And where was January?

"All team members, converge on Belle Isle!" he heard Cray call out next. "Get there now, Stormcrow's in the middle of it!"

That was it. He kicked in the plasma drive and rose from the earth in a veil of soft blue light. Ionized air hummed around him as he turned south and skimmed over the rooftops of his neighborhood. A block to his right, suburbia was cut by the four lanes of Dequindre Road. Dead ahead across the sea of rooftops and trees lay Eight Mile, and beyond that, Detroit and Belle Isle.

He had known January since he had been old enough to remember. He literally could not imagine a world without her in it. Through all his ups and downs, she had been there. When his father had been sent to prison, she had been at his side, with no judgments. When he had come out to the other Knights, when she had come out, when she had tried to commit suicide...

Just like that he was twelve years old again. His best friend had slit her wrists. He was sitting in the hospital with his mother and Nana. They were all waiting, waiting nervously with January's own family members. The relief he had felt when the doctor came out to tell them she was going to be ok was palpable.

But then seeing her again later had destroyed that feeling of elation. Her tiny body had been tied down to a bed with leather straps. They told him that it was so she could not try to hurt herself again. Her wrists were wrapped in gauze, hiding the scars he would later grow so accustomed to seeing. She had been so fragile, so helpless, and there had been nothing he could do to help her. Not a damn thing.

Well not again. Never again.

Then he remembered Ôkami. Like all the Knights of Nerddom, he lived nearby. Most were just a few blocks away from his house, like Rus and Blackjack. Their homes were clustered near the corner of 9 Mile and Dequindre, as his own home was, and January's old place two houses down. But Ryo was the outlier. He was clear across Shaw Park from the rest of them, nearly half a mile away to the east. That was why they had not met Ryo until the Third Grade. The rest of them had all teamed up before preschool while playing in the neighborhood.

Ryo was going to need a quicker way to get Downtown than even his hoverbike could manage. Thankfully he could rectify that.

Gadget swerved his head to the left, and before he knew it, his whole body followed. The next thing he knew he was rocketing through a tree, and his vision was filled with greenery. Branches snapped around him, and he pulled up higher to avoid further entanglements. That nearly sent him into a loop as he overcompensated. He had to push back again in the other direction to straighten himself out.

[Acadian]

Nice to see Gadget’s pov for this episode. Loved how you moved from mundane (gathering empty bottles) to 'Oh Wow!' when he revealed an Ironman suit in his chest that Tony Stark would be proud of. And if ever there was a time to try it out, this is it!

Sneaking out of his house was a hoot as he envied Blood Raven for being so far above and beyond such unsuperhero-like concerns.

Then things start to come together that Jan is missing and she’s in trouble. Brilliant to let him provide us a flashback to Jan’s suicide attempt to remind us how much the two pals (as Sir Mazoga would say) have been through together.

Up, up and away he goes! As he was buzzing along, I began to wonder where he learned to fly so well. You addressed that perfectly as he rocketed through a tree and engaged in a few unintentional acrobatics. I’m sure he’ll learn quickly.


Nit: ’They creaked ominously under this {his?} armored feet.’

[Renee]

Gadget has his own theme! Let's take a listen. Ha, perfect. I don't know this artist. Sounds a bit like Tracy Chapman.

I have heard Djimon Honsou in some movie or somewhere. I know that voice. Very distinctive. Must be nice to just have "that" voice which allows somebody to make more money from one job than I'll make in a year.

This chapter starts with Avery/Gadget. Interesting. Don't know if we'd had any chapters from his perspective. And yes, y'all get 10 cents back for empties in Michigan. 🍼 There was a Seinfeld episode about that.

Nice, this is awesome. I finally got my gaming night episode! (sort of) Seriously though, this is humorous.

Wow, what a journal entry from Higherpants. He apparently had some troubles with the summoning before he finally got it right. Of course when that happened ...

Whoa, so he's got a special suit as well. Yeah, poor grannie might suffer a stroke if she witnesses some alien-looking armor-clad being in her kitchen, not realizing it's her own grandson. And if Avery tried to communicate with her, that'd only make it worse!

Mike Hunt! Okay, phew. Seems as though Avery does not have a fear of heights. He just floats above suburbia like he's one of the heroes. Except the part of flying into a tree, of course. Hey, every superhero's gotta start somewhere.

Damn, they tied Jan down after she just tried committing suicide??? How about a frickin' hug??? Shezus.

This post has been edited by Renee: Nov 6 2022, 04:28 PM

[WellTemperedClavier]

Oh, I remember the otyugh! I don't think I ever fought one on tabletop, but I ran into them in the digital arena. Unpleasant creatures, regardless (glad I didn't have to smell it).

I always like getting Avery's perspective. Do tech heroes still count as metas in this setting? Regardless, he's got a distinct view on things. Blood Raven's been a hero and a force of nature since time immemorial, practically a demigod. January has fully embraced her Stormcrow role.

Avery is still a bit more... I don't want to say "normal", but let's say grounded in the here and now. His gaming group, his Nana, his personal life are all still important to him, which I think is why he hasn't jumped into the superhero persona to the same extent as January. You can see this too in the way he cares about the people around him. The flashback to January's suicide attempt hurts, and each details brings in a sharp new stab of pain, but it hurts because we care and because Gadget cares.

But him valuing his regular life doesn't mean he isn't a superhero. And he proves that by heeding the call of duty the moment he gets it. He might not have internalized the Gadget persona the way January's internalized Stormcrow, but he's definitely Gadget.

I like the way he conceals the episode from Nana (his care for her is quite endearing). He's a good thinker on the fly.

Which is a trait I think he'll need, given that hell is (literally) breaking loose.

[SubRosa]

Acadian: This is the big battle that wraps up the season, so it is truly gigantic. In order to show it all, I broke it up into pieces, each of which we shall see from a different character's POV. So there will be a lot of segments like these two with Gadget.

Gadget sneaking out of the house was a nice callback to the very first book, when January had to explain to her mom that everything was ok and ordinary, even as she was going out to do super stuff. In that one she also imagined that Blood Raven probably didn't have to sneak out to save the world.

As you noted, Gadget is not quite as good at flying as he would like. He might indeed need to get some lessons from Lighthammer in the future.

As always thanks for finding that nit.


Renee: Djimon Honsou has been in a ton of movies. I first was aware of him back in the 90s, when he was in Amistad. He was in Blood Diamond, and even in the Marvel movies as a space guy.

Ten cents is ten cents. People actually smuggle in empties to Michigan to return them. Imagine Han Solo having to dump a cargo of 2 liter bottles because of an Imperial customs inspection?

I don't see myself doing an actual gaming episode, because I am afraid it would be boring. But you never know. In Season Two, January finds an actual girlfriend, and she might come to gaming night. I might be able to do something with that. I dunno.

Oh boy, Nana might think he was an alien if she saw him in the powered armor!

Strapping down people suicidal people is standard. It is to keep them from killing themselves. Especially if you cannot watch them every minute.


WellTemperedClavier: Tech heroes absolutely count as metas. The only reason their inventions work is because their meta-human power makes them do so. It is not science. Otherwise everyone in the world would have a suit of powered armor.

Blood Raven is very much a demigod, though certainly not all powerful nor infallible. And you are right, by now January has gotten quite comfortable in her role of Stormcrow, which likewise meanders into demigod territory (though no where on the scale of her mentor). Gadget, Lighthammer, and Isaac are fun to write, because they are a lot more down to earth. Their lives are lot less weirder, and lot more about ordinary experiences.

I have kept a light touch when it comes to January's suicide attempt. Sometimes I think I should have started the very first story with it. But while it was certainly a defining moment in her life, it is not what defines her. I also don't want to be triggering for people who are going through hard times in their lives when they read this. So I don't want it to feel like I am dwelling upon it, or turning it into suffering porn. It is hard line to walk, between acknowledging it, and not overdoing it.

Ever since the very first book, I have been looking forward to Gadget climbing into his suit of powered armor and taking to the sky. I have to say, it is exhilarating to finally get here. One of the reasons I introduced Cray as another hacker character was because I knew this day was coming, and Gadget was going to be too busy fighting to do the other tech support things.

I honestly had to wrack my brain to figure out how he was going to sneak past his Nana. Thankfully something came to my mind.








Get Your Cape On


Both Gadget and Ryo's houses are of course on the Stormcrow Map

Ryo's house

Belle Island Zoomed Out

Belle Isle

Belle Isle South-Western Tip


Pure Michigan


Book 10.11 - Alliance

By the time he had reoriented himself Cray came over on a private channel that they had set up to coordinate without distracting the others.

"Gadget, can you get in some cams on the riverfront? I'm trying the Belle Isle cameras, and not getting anything so far. I think they all might be down."

"I'm a bit tied up right now," Gadget replied, feeling more than a little overwhelmed with all the different things demanding his attention at once.

This must have been how January had felt that first night as Stormcrow, when she had squared off against Lighthammer in that Southfield hotel. Except she hadn't been obliged to pick leaves out of her helmet afterward...

"What's with your video," there was no mistaking the curiosity in the elder hacker's voice. "Where are you?"

"I'm in the suit." Even with the apprehension that knifed through his guts, he could not keep the pride from his voice. "My suit. Cam's coming online... now."

With that he tied the older hacker into his suit cameras, allowing Cray to see both ahead and behind him, as well as his face. "I'm on the way to pick up Ôkami. We can get Downtown faster if I fly us there."

"Holy smokes Indy, you weren't kidding!" Cray did not hide his amazement. Then his voice returned to its normal, mellow tones. "I'm looping you in with Ôkami now."

"Gratis," Gadget replied. That allowed him to concentrate on flying, something that he was still getting used to. The field of charged particles that he created around his body had no issues with defying gravity. But sometimes it seemed to do it too easily, and the smallest motion could send him careening far off his intended course.

Thank goodness Cray was there to handle the communications behind the scenes. Because right now there was no way he could set up a link without flying straight into an elementary school at the same time. That allowed him to swoop over said school without incident instead, and turn back to the north.

Shaw Park now stretched out to his left, while a subdivision sprawled out to his right. Most of the park was just open grass. But a copse of trees did rise up in its center. Nearer to him was a pair of tennis courts, and a small parking lot. He reduced power in order to slow down there, and made a hard right turn into the subdivision.

Once more, he went too far. A pair of trees seemed to leap from the street right in front of his new course. He ducked low, and plummeted earthward to avoid their spreading branches. But that created a new problem: the electric power lines that hung right beneath them.

He skimmed along the black cables, and was sure he could feel the electricity that flowed through them. Ogun noted in his ear that his power reserves were rising, even as he saw lights flickering down the street in front of him. Being partners with Stormcrow had taught him the wisdom of creating a suit that was a giant capacitor. But obviously it was not just her lightning it could absorb.

He swerved aside again as the tall wooden pole that the power lines were attached to rose up in his view. But then there was the light that jutted from the pole and out over the street. If it was not one thing, it was another! He swerved again, and found the pavement rising up in front of him. He was just able to stop in time before he went head-first into the concrete. That is when he noticed the headlights of an oncoming car. He jetted directly upwards, in time to avoid the Chrysler that darted past under him, horn blaring.

Flying was not as easy and Blood Raven and Stormcrow made it look. Maybe he was going to have to get some lessons from Lighthammer after all?

He took it slower this time, and turned in place in the air. His latest overcorrection had sent him a block in the wrong direction. Once he was reoriented, he hovered forward at a steady pace, rather than just barreling head first as he had before. Houses rolled past beneath him, and he was finally on the right street. He counted over from the avenue that ran beside Shaw Park. One, two, three, that was Ryo's house. He had never noticed before, but his roof was gray, while the others around it were red.

January had said that the world looked a lot different from the air than it did from the ground. She was right. This was going to take some getting used to.

He paused a moment to engage his video camouflage. He did not want this on a dozen porch cameras. It was bad enough that he was glowing. It was the nature of plasma to do so after all, and that was where most of his suit's abilities came from. He was going to have to see if he could do something about that. Otherwise people might be calling him Mr. Nightlight.

He brought himself over the back yard of the house. This was going to take some delicacy. There were not only trees in front of the house, but also two massive ones behind it. He had never really appreciated how tall they were, until now that he had fly through them to reach the ground. Branches cracked and snapped as he descended feet-first to the earth. He winced each time and was thankful when he finally touched earth.

"Ôkami, I'm in the back yard," he said over the comm. "I can give you a lift downtown."

A shadow stepped out of the wall of the detached garage, nearly giving Gadget a heart attack. In seconds it resolved itself into the familiar form of a high-tech samurai, decked out in white, black, and gray. The newcomer's helmet left only the strip of flesh around his eyes bare, and for the briefest of moments they betrayed a look of shock. But only for an instant, and then his gaze returned to its usual, detached state.

"So you did build a suit after all," was all Ôkami said in the end. That was his style: low key and nonchalant.

"Come on, let's roll out," Gadget said. "The clock is ticking."

Without another word, Ôkami climbed onto Gadget's armored back. His weight felt, well, practically negligible. What was a few hundred pounds to a fusion-powered suit of armor? Gadget took a moment to center himself, then he turned his head skyward, and they jetted toward the stars above.

"Yatta!" Ryo exclaimed as they left the earth below. Gadget echoed the sentiment, and laid in a course for Belle Isle. A quest marker appeared in his HUD, and he turned to line himself up with it. This time he did not overcorrect. He pulled up a little higher, enough to insure that no more trees or power lines or even tall buildings would be an issue. Not that there were many of the latter around. Those were mostly in the Financial District Downtown, in the area January had taken to calling Jotunheim: the land of the giants.

He turned on the plasma, and the ground underneath sped past. The streets below were rivers of light that flowed through an otherwise darkened landscape. In just seconds they winged over 8 Mile and crossed over into Detroit proper. The divided boulevard was just a few blocks from their homes after all.

After only a few more moments Gadget recognized the trap house where Stormcrow had wrestled that tiger just a few days before. To his other side was Global Titanium, the site of her second battle against Archie and Isaac's junkbots. He had never grasped just how close to home those places had been. But now that he saw them from the sky, he realized that they were each only about two miles away from his house.

Then City Airport was coming up dead ahead, and he turned aside to give the runway a wide berth. He did so gently this time, so he did not over steer and end up at Mackinac Bridge. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a plane taking off from the runway, and he was glad he had done so. Ramming an airliner head on would not be a good way to start his career as an armored superhero.

That also reminded him to turn off the video camouflage. There was no longer any need to protect secret identities up here. In fact, it was better that other fliers could see him clearly on their electronics, as well as their Mark I eyeballs.

His quest marker soon became superfluous, and Gadget shut it off. The night sky ahead was lit up with great flashes of lightning. At the same time the stars that glittered in the sky above were blotted from one patch of the firmament. It was that same place that rained electrical fury. That became his target as the old Packard Plant passed by his right shoulder.

With only a few miles left, it only took moments to close the distance. The neighborhoods thinned out, to be replaced by a row of tall apartment buildings to his left. Dead ahead and to the right were the open fields of a park. Then he was over the Detroit River, and traced a path along the single bridge that linked the western shore to Belle Isle beyond.

The island sat at the north-eastern end of the strait that separated the United States from Canada. It was a slender finger of land nearly three miles long from end to end, running from the south-west to the north-east. Starting from a narrow angle at its south-western tip, it widened out to perhaps half a mile for most of its length. Much of this area of the island was open fields dotted with occasional trees.

Concrete roads crisscrossed its length and breadth, leading to various pavilions, towers, shelters, and boat houses. Finally the island widened out to nearly three quarters of a mile across as it neared Lake St. Clair at its north-eastern end, and in that stretch it was almost entirely taken over by forest.

The Detroit-facing coast of the island hosted both a beach and the quays of the Detroit Yacht Club. Gadget knew from memory that the opposite shore that looked out toward Canada held a small Coast Guard station. Finally an old lighthouse rose from the island's north-east tip.

Just a short distance to the east stood was Peche Island. It was a much smaller isle, and from the air its outline reminded Gadget of a claw. Given the lack of lights on its surface, it appeared to be completely deserted. Beyond it the river widened out into the expanse of Lake St. Clair. The latter was now a featureless obsidian sheet that blanketed the Earth.

Gadget followed the five-lane bridge over to the island proper. The brilliantly lit action was all taking place straight ahead and slightly to his right. A narrow creek looped its way inland from the Detroit side of the island, ending up in a large pond near the far shore. On the south side of this lay a vast parking lot. Farther south rose up a huge white marble fountain surrounded by a traffic circle. A large pond and the very southern tip of the island lay beyond. While dead ahead lay the old Belle Isle Casino. Which Gadget remembered from his last trip was built in the old Spanish Colonial style. Not that it was actually a casino. It was really just an event space.

But the casino was not there anymore. It was just gone. Still, it was perhaps hosting the largest event in its century-long existence. A gigantic bubble of energy had swallowed the historic building in its entirety. All that remained of it was a brickwork sign that bordered its parking lot.

The bubble itself just screamed inter-dimensional portal to Gadget's science fiction-trained eyes. Not in the least because he could vaguely glimpse a darkened hellscape of tortured rock and alien skies through its bubbling surface. Of course the hordes of alien creatures that poured forth from its borders also sort of gave the whole thing away.

Most noticeable of the monsters was a giant that stood at least fifty feet tall. Its iron gray hair was long and matted down, and its skin was so knobby and wrinkled that it looked like horns or barnacles grew from it. It swung a huge axe of black metal that glowed with orange veins, and hacked open a deep trench in the concrete of the parking lot. Gadget saw a small figure with black wings there, who seemed to flow aside from the titanic blow like she was water.

"Stormcrow! She's alive!" Ôkami cried out. It was the first time had spoken since his initial exuberant shout at going airborne back in Warren.

The gray giant brought his axe back for another blow at Stormcrow. But she was now occupied with what looked like a pair of trolls that were coming at her from both sides at once. She would never see the blow coming.

"Not today shovelhead!" Gadget growled through gritted teeth. He thrust both hands forward, and routed all of his power through the plasma projectors in his palms. His gauntlets blossomed to life with brilliant light, as a pair of tiny suns sprang into being there. Twin rays of blinding blue light and heat gushed forth, and slammed into the falling axe. The streams of charged particles literally threw the massive metal head back into the body of the giant. Great chunks of the stuff disintegrated under the blow. Even more gobs of the superheated metal were liquefied, and splattered away like a rain of lava.

Gadget came to a halt directly above Stormcrow. Maintaining the overcharged plasma blast did not leave him enough spare energy to do anything other than hover in place. Even his HUD began to dim, and he saw warnings begin to spike that his heat levels were reaching the red lines.

"Ei!" Ôkami shouted.

Gadget felt the other man's feet scramble across his shoulders. Then the samurai was airborne, and he leaped out into space directly at the giant. The monster had enough awareness to attempt to swat him aside with one hand. But Ôkami faded right through the creature's fist and forearm. He was solid again an instant later, when he struck the Abyssal's head feet first.

No, not feet-first, sword first. Chujitsu buried itself to the hilt in the giant's forehead. The Abyssal went still for a moment. Then the kinetic energy of the plasma beams threw him back, and Gadget hurried to cut the power to them. Even after the energy attack winked out, the creature continued to topple. Ôkami withdrew his sword from the monster's skull, and rode the body down to the ground as it crushed a dozen lesser Abyssals underneath its bulk. The samurai leaped out and used the momentum to propel himself through a pack of the creatures, leaving severed heads and arms in his wake.

"That's Pure Michigan baby!" Gadget heard himself trumpet over the suit's PA system.

[Renee]

Is Gadge still stuck in that tree?? Sounds like it. It's so weird how Lighthammer started off as an opponent.

Oh my gosh. He's terrible at this! Maybe he should've practiced flying around first. Yeah, the camoflauge thing is good. Not just for porch cams, but just imagine all the cellphones getting aimed his way if somebody sees him. Plenty of memes aimed Gadget's way.

There goes 8 Mile. We don't have this Mile thing on the east coast. Makes me think of Eminem, every time.

Sheez that is creepy, as he approaches the place that battle's going on. Just like when the hobbits headed near to Mordor. Yeah, this is creeping me out (compliment). How are they going to survive?

"That's Pure Michigan baby!" Gadget heard himself trumpet over the suit's PA system.

Maybe this can be his superhero catchphrase.

This post has been edited by Renee: Nov 14 2022, 02:02 AM

[Acadian]

‘Get Your Cape On’ was adorable!

Good call establishing Cray as a reliable ‘command center’ in plenty of time to support your plans for Gadget to take a more ‘direct action’ role.

"I'm a bit tied up right now," Gadget replied, feeling more than a little overwhelmed with all the different things demanding his attention at once.’
- - Well put as Gadget and his new suit get to know each other under the pressure of an actual crisis. He is learning quickly though.

Love the quest marker in his HUD – gamer turns superhero.

What an entrance Plasmaman and his samurai passenger make!


Nit: ’Even with the apprehension that knifed through is {his} guts, he could not keep the pride from his voice.’

[WellTemperedClavier]

Makes sense about tech heroes. Plus, it explains why their tech is a little extra.

It is tricky to deal with traumatic episodes like that. You need to take it with due seriousness without having it become overwhelming. You handled the balance well, I think.

Damn, now that was a nice critical hit from Okami and Gadget! Takes out a big one, and the big one takes out a bunch of little ones on the way down.

Liked how Gadget has to get used to flying. I remember reading that during WW1, militaries weren't really sure how to train pilots for combat, since typically you only had to worry about enemies to your front, back, and sides. No one had ever needed to think that much about foes above or below. Granted, Gadget mostly seems to be doing air-to-surface attacks for the moment, but I'm quite sure he'll be dealing with air-to-air pretty soon.

[SubRosa]

Renee: Gadget is kind of bad at this powered armor thing. At least so far. But he is learning. January was not very good at the beginning either. Her first act as a superhero was to send her and her opponent through a plate glass window in a high rise. Her next move was to fall through a skylight while trying to fly.

I think Eminem made 8 Mile famous. It really isn't that big of a deal here in Metro Detroit. It is just another street. Though it does happen to be the northern border of Detroit proper, and the 'burbs beyond.

"Pure Michigan" would be an interesting catch phrase. I had not thought of one for Gadget, like January has "Valhalla Awaits", and Blood Raven has "The Ravens Come For Thee,". I will have to workshop it.


Acadian: I loved the DC Super Hero Girls movies. As you said, they are delightfully adorable.

One of the things I really latch on to when writing Gadget's personality is his video gamer side. Much more than January, he is a PC gamer. So quest makers, cheat codes, mods, that is all part of life for him.

As always thanks for being my editor and finding that nit for me.


WellTemperedClavier: Gadget has a long way to go with mastering flight. January did too. She spent a lot of books just going from jumping and gliding with grace to actual flight. Plus she had an actual pilot teaching her. Professor Lighthammer's flight school will probably be back in session once this is all over with.

And yes, Gadget will get getting a lot of experience at air-to-air combat very soon.








Blood Raven's Fight Theme - Imagine Dragons - Demons

Belle Isle showing Blood Raven's battleground vs Nátthrafn

Nancy Brown Peace Carillon Tower (The Belle Isle Casino is the red-roofed building in the background)

Nancy Brown Peace Carillon Roof

Nancy Brown Peace Carillon Ground level

Annihilator

Belle Isle Conservancy


Book 10.12 - Alliance

Blood Raven created an arcane shield just in time to deflect a decapitating blow from her father's axe. Myrkr impotently slid off the force field. She had long since learned to angle them, so that rather than absorb the full force a blow, they caused them to ricochet away.

She followed up by reaching for Nátthrafn's blood, or whatever it was that now flowed through his orange-red veins. But while she could smell it within his flesh, she found her magical assault skittering away from his aura. He had been telling the truth. He was learning. Blood magic would not avail itself against him another time.

Holding his battle axe with one hand, he gestured to Blood Raven with the other. Darkness flowed from his open palm, and rushed to engulf her. She replied by creating a new force field. This time rather than a ubiquitous arcane shield that would defend against all threats, physical, energy, or magical; she created one of pure light. Her father's darkness was annihilated upon contact with the screen of opposing energy.

He immediately followed with a bolt of arcane power from his other hand, which still gripped the axe. She was obliged to drop her light shield, as it would only defend her against the darkness that was its polar opposite. Now she called forth a new ward against magic, and the aion of the attack dissipated harmlessly against its orange surface.

She replied by calling her Unkindness. The ravens took shape from the darkness around them, and arrowed into her father's body. He did not try to dodge or deflect their assault. Instead he simply stood there, and laughed. The creatures of shadow vanished into his frame, and did not emerge again.

"You think to use the darkness against me, dear daughter?" Nátthrafn laughed. "I am the Darkness!"

Now the same shadow ravens launched from his body, and arrowed directly at her. She brought Y Ddraig Aur around, and sliced them in two as they neared. Bright light flashed from the blade with every strike, and soon surrounded her in a brilliant glow.

That light remained after the last of the ravens had been destroyed. Her father flinched from it. He created a wall of darkness in front of him, hiding him from both her view, and the light's rays. But she could feel him through the aether behind it, moving away. That was not going to happen. He would not escape.

She leaped directly into the wall of darkness, and hammered at it with Y Ddraig Aur. For a moment the blackness seemed to stretch and mold around her like rubber. Then the blade flared hot and bright. The darkness recoiled. But it could not escape the golden dragon's light. It burned away like parchment in a bonfire.

Blood Raven strode forth to find her father standing on the flat roof of the nearby Flynn Pavilion. Unlike most of the other pavilions on the island it was more than just a simple shelter from the sun. This was a building of mortared stone, with glass windows that ran from floor to ceiling, and afforded a view of the pond that skirted its eastern length.

She came down upon the black tar of the roof an instant later, and struck out with Y Ddraig Aur. The rune blade flashed as it hammered against Myrkr's Abyssal steel blade. Nátthrafn side stepped behind an air-conditioning unit. His foot swept out, and kicked the entire thing loose. The iron missile shot directly at Blood Raven. Rather than dodge the attack, she brought her longsword down and hacked into the massive projectile. It shattered under the draconic blade, raining jagged metal fragments everywhere.

Nátthrafn leaped away once more. Blood Raven sent a tendril of golden power after him. The spell wrapped around his leg. But the elder wizard simply brought his axe down, and cut the magical cord asunder. It did not even slow his progress, and he came to earth atop the spire of a stone tower even farther to the north.

Blood Raven recognized it as the Nancy Brown Peace Carillon tower. The four-sided Neo-Gothic bell tower rose nearly ninety feet into the air. The narrow moat and wrought iron fence that surrounded its base lent it the air of a medieval castle. She remembered when it had been built, as a monument to peace. A peace that had not lasted to see it constructed, given that the Second World War had broken out before the first cornerstone had been laid.

She grabbed spacetime in her metaphorical hands, and warped it to her will. A moment later she stood atop the sandstone tower beside her father. She struck out with Y Ddraig Aur, but he slipped aside at the last moment. Sandstone shattered under her rune blade, and a full quarter of the roof shattered under the blow.

He replied by lowering a shoulder and hammering into her chest. She was sent careening backward, and took out another half of the tower's parapet as she flew through the structure and out into space. She hung there in mid air as building stones plummeted to the moat below.

She responded with an arcane bolt. But her father brought Myrkr around, and used its Abyssal haft to deflect the magical attack. The golden energy reflected down at his feet, and the rooftop beneath him disintegrated. He plummeted along with it, and Blood Raven darted forward as he vanished from sight.

She followed him down into the tower. Building stone and smashed electronics gear rained down all around them. He somersaulted in mid air, and put his feet beneath him. Then the shadows thrust out from all around him and took hold of his body. The darkness held him aloft, even as debris rained past.

He gathered up a ball of aion and hurled it back up at Blood Raven. It erupted into a great explosion of fire when it struck her. The blast hammered the walls, and blew them out in all directions. But neither fire nor force could slow Blood Raven. She charged through them both to land upon Nátthrafn.

She brought Y Ddraig Aur directly down toward his skull. He was only just able to slip aside, and the blade slid down beside his body. He was too close to strike back with his axe. So he butted his forehead directly into Blood Raven's face. She tasted blood in her mouth. That was all the push she needed.

Selene's Curse had been there all along, roiling beneath her skin like a seething chamber of magma. Now it finally burst loose. Claws sprouted from her fingers, and fangs from her jaws. She tore through Abyssal armor and rent flesh beneath. Orange-red liquid glowed in the night air, and splashed about them. It was not blood. What it carried was not life. In fact it tasted foul, corrupted. Even incensed as she was, Blood Raven spat it from her mouth.

As quickly as it had come, that quelled the beast within. Even though he walked the Earth once more, there was nothing alive about her father. Even his flesh was not true meat at all. Rather it was a strange, black gravelly substance, like dirt or stone. Yet here and there she saw white flecks of bone among it all. That must have been all that remained of the Hierophant's corpse, now subsumed into Nátthrafn's being.

Some calm, analytical part of brain noted that. It meant that attempting to banish him would be pointless. Thanks to the ritual sacrifice of the Hierophant's blood and bone, he was now a part of this realm, at least enough to be immune to magical dismissal. He would have to be dealt with the old-fashioned way.

A kick slammed her through one wall, and brought more of the tower down between them in a waterfall of stone and mortar. She heard laughter from beyond, and a moment later her father emerged, standing atop a wave of darkness. His body stitched itself back together before her eyes, and in moments he was as whole as ever.

"I should thank you, dear daughter," he said in that rich baritone voice she had so grown to loathe. "You have freed me from the last vestiges of flesh and blood. Now I am truly one with the Abyss. Allow me to bequeath upon you a gift."

He swept his arm out in a wide motion. Behind him Blood Raven saw a horde of goblins and buggane issue from the gateway. They swept across the landscape like roaches. Then the earth directly beneath them swelled up, and a behemoth burst forth. It was a long, insect-like creature. Its back was covered in row after row of sail-shaped plates. Its mouth was ringed with rank after rank of triangular teeth, each row turning in opposite directions.

As she watched, this new destroyer rose up through the foundation of the tower. Stone disintegrated within that spinning maw, along with everything else in its path. What remained of the bell tower collapsed into a pile of broken stones. Even as a cloud of dust boiled up in its wake, the massive Abyssal burst forth once more, intent upon Blood Raven.

She did not dodge or shy away. Instead she darted forward, directly into its maw. A golden bubble of force surrounded her frame. The monster's spinning rows of teeth clashed against it. But her will was stronger than Abyssal brawn. Its fangs snapped against her power, and it reared back in sudden shock. It tried to spit her out. But it was already too late for the beast.

Y Ddraig Aur lanced forward and up. Blood Raven pushed herself behind it. The roof of the monster's mouth split apart under the rune sword's meteoric steel. A dragon howled in the aether, tasting the blood of its mortal enemies. It hungered, and devoured. The annihilator's head was torn asunder from the inside out, and Blood Raven burst from the ruined skull.

She found herself looking north, toward the tall glass walls and curved domes of the Belle Isle Conservancy. The horde of Abyssals had passed her by, and now bore down upon it. Within lay a priceless treasures of rare and exotic plant species kept safe within its temperature-controlled greenhouses. Her father and his minions had already destroyed two landmarks today. She was not going to allow them to add a third to the list.

Before she could spring out ahead of the pack of rampaging beasts, a glowing curtain of energy shimmered into being between the Abyssals and the sprawling conservatory. Standing atop the force field was a familiar figure wearing banded metal armor, with a medicine wheel emblazoned upon her breast. It was Blackhawk! Goblins and buggane slammed against her ward, but to no effect. Their weapons broke upon its surface, and their claws and fists merely bounced harmlessly aside.

Then Blood Raven caught up with them. These creatures did possess blood, however foul. She reached out in the aether, and took hold of it. Great gouts of the stuff ripped from splintered bodies. She hardened it into steel, and gathered the shards of blood into several large spiky masses that floated in mid air above the horde. Then with a single gesture of her hand they all exploded like a series of artillery shells. They rained jagged fragments down all across the field before the conservancy, and tore apart the bodies of those Abyssals that remained.

Yet a few survived the onslaught of hardened blood. She allowed it all to turn liquid once more. Then she once again set her will upon it. In just seconds all of it now boiled with heat, and transformed into steam. Those Abyssals that had been left now exploded into a haze of charred fragments, burst inside out by the superheated gas.

"When you get to Hell, tell the Das Reich division who sent you," Blood Raven growled.

"Wait, you're the Ange de la Mort?" Blackhawk allowed her energy field to vanish. Now the First Nations heroine rode the Earth's magnetic field down to her. There was no disguising the horror in her eyes. "You destroyed the 2nd SS Panzer in France?"

"The francs-tireurs played their part as well," Blood Raven murmured. She was surprised. She had not expected the other woman to know what she had been talking about. Clearly, the First Nations heroine knew a thing or two about history.

Blood Raven turned from the meta-human and looked back south. While she had been busy with her father, more and more of the Abyssals had spilled from the portal. If anything it too, had widened since its initial creation. It had now engulfed the small parking lot and field that had sat before the Belle Isle Casino, along with the pond behind it.

Damn! She had been a fool. While her father had distracted her, the foe had expanded their foothold on Earth. She had to put a stop to this at once.

The brilliant displays of lightning beyond the portal told her that Stormcrow and the others were still in the fight. Here on her side of the gateway more of the Abyssals spilled forth. Yet worst of all, a third pack of them now headed west, along the narrow stream that bisected the island. At its far end lay the bridge to the mainland, and the entire sprawl of Metro Detroit. They must not be allowed to reach that shore!

"Prevent them from reaching the bridge, at all costs." She pointed to show Blackhawk what she meant. "Cray, we shall require more assets there."

"And you?" the Canadian heroine asked.

"I am going back to that portal to kill my father. He is the key to all of this."

[Acadian]

Nátthrafn certainly qualifies as a ‘Big Bad’. I’m glad for Blood Raven’s terrifyingness as she matches his attacks and even drives him back. Like the casino, that poor bell tower will never be the same.

Nasty Nate conjures a Daedric siege engine! Blood Raven counters by entering the maw of the beast and destroying it from within.

Nice reminder of the vampire within Blood Raven when she takes a bite out of Dad. Similarly, Blackhawk’s recognition of the Ange de la Mort is tribute to Blood Raven’s bloody WWII history.

The arrival of Blackhawk reminds Blood Raven that she needs to shift her focus from draining the swamp to taking out Dad which should close his abyssal portal. And enough of her coven is there now to let her focus on doing just that.

I hope Blackhawk doesn’t have to destroy that bridge to accomplish her task.


Nit: ’Yet a some survived the onslaught of hardened blood.’ – Looks like during your editing you were debating between ‘a few’ vs ‘some’.

[Renee]

Oh wow, that's where this final brawl is taking place. Quite scenic, when the sun's shining and there aren't hundreds of goblins running about.

Father and daughter, going at it. They aren't exactly cordial are they? I like how they keep trying to 1-up each other. Oh no, don't destroy the Peace tower.

Jeez, that's harsh, an actual headbutt, what the heck? I suppose since this is family related this could be construed as parental abuse.

Whoa, it's Blackhawk! Still, it seems like they're overwhelmed. Hypothetical: but what would happen if, let's say, the National Guard or Air Force or some other armed forces scrambled to this location? Would they stand any sort of chance without magic?

Better question: will be able to pwn her father? I kind of doubt it, but let's find out.

[WellTemperedClavier]

Quite a back-and-forth between Nátthrafn and Blood Raven here. It makes sense: they've been after each other for a long time, and both are seasoned combatants.

Loved the moment when Nátthrafn headbutts Blood Raven, and just ends up giving her that boost via her blood. I suspect he may not know his opponent as well as he thinks he does.

And those pyrotechnics! Or... hemotechnics? Nothing like wiping out a bunch of the baddies with a bloody artillery strike. It's an impressive showcase of Blood Raven's power. But the sheer number of beasts gives them an edge, and it looks like Blood Raven has no choice but to take out the head of the army.

I suspect she'll need some help from Stormcrow on this...

[macole]

Wow, that was tense. I was on the edge of my seat while reading this one.

[SubRosa]

Acadian: This was the point where we finally got to see Blood Raven in her full, terrifying glory, with no ethics or morals to hold her back. She has not done anything like this since WW2, which is why she brought it up.

Blackhawk's recognition comes from her own career out of costume, which is as a historian. I have not had a place to work it in yet, but she is currently writing a book about First Nations veterans of WW2. That will come up in a few more segments however, when we get to some events in the battle from her POV.

Unfortunately, Blood Raven is going to need more than just her coven to stop this. The good news is, there are plenty more covens on the way.

It won't be Blackhawk destroying the bridge...


Renee: Belle Isle is a state park. So it is really nice place to go visit. Unfortunately, because it is a state park you have to pay to get in as well...

I can't imagine what Thanksgiving Dinner would be like at the Nátthrafn and Blood Raven household. Probably absolute murder...

We will see exactly what happens when the Air Force, Army, Marines, Coast Guard, and others get involved. This battle has only just begun. In fact, Selfridge Air National Guard base is just about 10 miles away. January flew over it during the Book where she first met Vortex. IRL they have a squadron of A-10 bombers stationed there that will be making an appearance.

Pwning dear old dad is a tall order. We will see if Blood Raven is up to it eventually.


WellTemperedClavier: Nátthrafn and Blood Raven are literally two of the most powerful supers in existence. It is like Superman taking on General Zod. So their fight had to feel titanic in proportions. Likewise with Blood Raven pulling out all the stops that her ethics normally prevent her from using against earthly foes.

Blood Raven is going to need a lot of help with this. But luckily for her, there are a lot of Champions of Earth on the way.


macole: The battle is just starting. There is a lot more coming, and it will only grow larger and larger in scope and stakes. Just like that portal to the Abyss...













Isaac's Theme Song - Marvin Gaye - What's Going On?

The Fred Hampton Size Comparison (in meters)

The Real Life Fred Hampton

Thunderbolt riding a column of lightning was inspired by one of the Three Storms in Big Trouble in Little China



Book 10.13 - Alliance

Isaac checked the straps that secured him to his seat for the tenth time in the last minute. They were as firm and inviolable as the previous nine times he had pushed and pulled at them. His eyes scanned the indicators and displays within his cockpit. Again, they were green, showing all systems nominal and ready for action.

He stared out of the canopy and licked his lips. He should have brought a water bottle. His mouth was dry as a desert. Then why did his hands feel so slick with sweat? It was probably for the same reason that his heart was beating faster than a jackrabbit's. He was about to do something really stupid, or really brave, or both.

There was nothing to see outside of his mech except for green metal walls of course. The interiors of garbage trucks were not made to be aesthetically pleasing after all. They must have run into a pothole, because a sudden jolt sent him and his vehicle lurching down and then back up again, hard. But his safety harness held him firmly in place through it all.

He heard everything over the communications gear of course. Cray had tied him in. He could even see the drone camera footage through one of the TV sets he had mounted within his cockpit. It looked grim. It reminded him of nightly news during 1968, when the Tet Offensive had taken place. He had watched the Marines fight street by street through the city of Hue during the evening news. Now the same was happening here, at Belle Isle.

It also reminded him of 1967, and the Uprising. It was not like his mother would let him outside, so he never saw most of it. But he remembered the tanks rumbling down the street outside. Just as he remembered how his mother had pulled him away from the windows when he had tried to peek through the curtains to see what they were doing.

It was strange how time seemed to turn in a loop. Some people said that history repeated itself. Isaac would say that it was so unoriginal, it was constantly making reboots instead of coming up with a new plot. Like every show on television these days.

Just a few months before that girl Stormcrow had talked him out of going out in a blaze of glory with his mech. Well, here he was again, about the do the same damn thing. Only now it was on her behalf. Now that was crazy. But so was a white girl who thought she could change the world. But then again, she was full of surprises. So too was Blood Raven.

He still remembered the first time he had come face to face with the elder heroine. It had been just a few months after the '67 Uprising. So he had just been little then. The memory of the Iron Scorpion looming over him like an armored giant was indelibly burned into his brain. Isaac could still feel the supervillain's steel claws on his neck.

Then Blood Raven had been there in front of them. A cord of golden power had torn the villain's hand from his throat. The heroine's own claws had come out afterward. That had been the end of the Iron Scorpion. Isaac could still remember the supervillain falling backward through a tall display of canned peas, his rent and torn powered armor sparking and shorting out the entire time. Even today, he could not walk through the vegetable isle without thinking of it.

"Prevent them from reaching the bridge, at all costs." Blood Raven's voice came over the comm. "Cray, we shall require more assets there."

Then she said something about killing her father. As a father himself, that sent a chill through Isaac's spine. Having met Blood Raven more than once, he would not want to be that man...

Archie beeped and booped in his ear. They were almost there. Once again, he wiped his sweaty hands on his stained overalls. What was he doing? He was a sixty year old man. He was no superhero. He was a tinkerer, a glorified mechanic. How was he going to do this?

With that the garbage truck paused. He felt the gears shift under him, as the transmission switched to reverse and went into a turn. After a few moments it shifted forward again with another lurch, and completed the 180 degree rotation. Then metal clanged all around him, and the walls of the garbage truck fell outward, turning it into a flatbed truck.

Isaac did not think. He just acted. He hit one of the controls within his cockpit, and the mech unfolded from its storage configuration. Arms and legs rotated out, and locked into their final positions. In moments it rose to its full sixty feet of height. With hands gripped tightly on the controls, and feet slung into the pedals, he stepped forward. One massive titanium foot followed the other onto the concrete surface of the MacArthur Bridge. The great structure trembled with every step he took. But the bridge held. It had to hold, no matter what.

"Come on Fred, we can do this..." he said as he scanned the readouts and screens within his cockpit.

"What is that on the bridge?" he heard that young kid Lighthammer ask over the communications link. "It looks like Optimus Prime..."

"This is the Fred Hampton, thank you very much," Isaac heard himself snap back over the link. "And I'm here with my Panthers."

Archimedes bleeped to underscore his words. With that his sidekick floated out beside him. The robot's rounded head sharpened to a triangular tail section, sporting antenna and gravity manipulation arrays. The two glowing circles of his eyes and long line of his mouth made him feel as human as anyone else, at least to Isaac's eyes. Granted the multi-limbed mechanical arms that trailed from where his ears would have been did kind of ruin the look of a human head. So too did the plethora of hands, pincers, and tools that sprouted from each metal arm.

The truly anthropomorphic robots followed. Made of scrap car parts such as leaf springs and axles, they still had a distinctly humanoid shape. With two arms, two legs, and one head, they were definitely metal-men. Each had a clenched black fist painted on their torso. The same Black Panther symbol was emblazoned upon Isaac's own mech: the Fred Hampton.

He switched on a few toggles, and the quad gun arrays snapped off of his back. One of the four barreled guns slid down each of the mech's arms, trailing conduits to the blue-lit fusion reactor built into his back. Set right beneath Isaac in the cockpit in fact. Like the much smaller Panthers, Fred too was humanoid in design. Like any good mech was.

He stomped Fred down to the end of the bridge, and his pack of smaller robots marched in lockstep alongside. Archie as ever, floated in space beside him. A dull shape resolved itself on the horizon. It was like a carpet that billowed and grew. Then it drew near, and Isaac saw that it was actually a horde of individual monsters, all packed together in a great, seething mass.

It was like something out of the Lord of the Rings. He was tempted to quote King Théoden's speech from the Battle of Pelennor Fields. But the words escaped him at the moment. All he could see was the horde of orcs closing in. He knew that he had to do something. He should be shooting. He should be charging. But his hands were as frozen as his heart and tongue.

Archie beeped loudly in his ear. With that whatever spell had gripped him was broken. Isaac squeezed hard on the triggers in each of his hands. The quad cannons mounted on each of Fred Hampton's arms blossomed to light. Brilliant streaks of blue plasma cut through the sky. Monsters exploded in a haze where they struck, literally vaporized by the tremendous heat and force.

The Panthers opened up with their own array of lasers and lightning guns. So too did Archimedes. Just like that the night was lit up like it was noon. But the horde of monsters just kept coming, straight into the curtain of searing light. The heat from the plasma made the air shimmer and waver, like heat haze on a highway in the summer. Goblins and shadow creatures and other, less wholesome things exploded and disintegrated under the gunfire. Yet still they came on.

Warning lights began to glare at him from within the cockpit. The quad guns were overheating from the constant firing. He toggled them off, and with barrels glowing white hot, they slid back up his arms and into their storage units on his back. With another set of commands the long twin barrels of his railgun rose from his back. The double-tined weapon pivoted on his shoulder, and locked into firing position. The firing light turned green, and he loosed his first shot a moment later.

The twin rails of the weapon hummed to life, and sent a wave of glowing magnetic energy down the length of the barrels. The resultant magnetic field shot a projectile at ten times the speed of sound out from between the twin forks of the weapon. If the plasma cannons obliterated targets, this went father. The kinetic energy annihilated not only what they struck, but the shock waves created by each impact destroyed everything nearby. The ground shook with each titanic impact, and massive gouts of earth and dust rose with each hit, practically blotting the sky from view overhead.

Isaac was careful to keep the barrel low, and only shoot down with this. The entire city of Windsor lay over the heads of the onrushing monsters. One errant shot could level a skyscraper. In no time at all the land in front of him had transformed into a cratered moonscape, and looked more like the moon than a city park.

Then the horde was on top of him and the Panthers. The creatures slammed into his metal minions with a great crash of metal on metal. Swords and axes rose and fell against oil pan chest pieces, leaf-spring legs, and axle spines. It was too close for the railgun. So Isaac simply bent and swatted at the Abyssals with his titanium fists. Each of Fred Hampton's hands was the size of a phone booth. A phone booth made of solid metal. So when they hit, they splattered whatever was in the way.

Then a goblin was on top of Fred's head. Isaac stared at it through his canopy. The monster brought his sword down upon the projectile-proof glass. It bounded off, but left a scratch behind. Isaac reached out by reflex, and grabbed the creature with one hand. He flung it aside, and turned it into a smear upon the concrete below.

But there were too many of the monsters. Now that he was not laying down a field of long range fire, they were filling up the space between him and the horizon. He switched back to the railgun, and began hammering magnetically accelerated shells in at medium and long range. That softened them up as they came in.

That left Archie and the Panthers to deal with those that came in close. For several minutes they held the monsters at the end of the bridge. Then the soil erupted at the edge of the span. Out came a dozen giant centipede-like creatures. Their hides were covered from front to back in rows of sail-like plates. Their mouths were spinning vortices of teeth, which devoured all before them, earth, metal, or stone.

They swept through the Panthers like a scythe through wheat. In moments half of his robots were dead. In another moment another quarter was gone. Soon he and Archie stood alone against the monsters, who pushed them ever back across the span.

Archimedes squawked in his ear.

"Yes, that's right!" Isaac agreed. He lowered his railgun to his feet, and turned loose the magnetically accelerated weapon. He only had to fire once. With that half of the width of the roadway simply vaporized under the titanic force. The other half literally exploded, sending great chunks of iron and concrete tumbling through the air and down into the river below.

Nearly two dozen concrete arches held the bridge aloft from end to end. His shot had created a gap between two of these arches, and completely annihilated the span between them. From one side of the bridge to the other, there was now nothing but open space. That left no way across except through the air or water.

Yet the monsters still came on. But now they plummeted into this makeshift moat. Isaac did not give them good odds at surviving the Detroit River. It was not very wide. But its riptides were treacherous, and the mud that lined its bottom was infamous for never yielding up its victims.

That gave him and Archie a little time to breathe. It was a good thing too, for the destruction of the bridge's end had sent the Fred Hampton reeling. He fell to his hands and knees, and the twin forks of the railgun scraped against concrete. That of course threw him forward in the cockpit. Only the safety harness that strapped him in held him in place. He was just working on rising to his feet again when something clasped around one of Fred's legs.

It was a tentacle that rose from the river. Another followed it a moment later, then a third. These ropy cables pulled him downward, even as Isaac struggled to lift the mech to its feet. Then a great maw of triangular teeth filled his vision. It chomped through the edge of the bridge in front of him. Shattered concrete flew everywhere under the great teeth. Chomp went more of the bridge, and with another chomp, even more. Soon it would be him and his cockpit in that maw.

"I could use a hand on the bridge!" he cried out, with more panic evident in his voice than he would have liked.

Then something really weird happened. Yes, that was ironic, given the circumstances. But Isaac literally saw reality fold and twist around itself in front of his eyes. It was like someone had grabbed the universe and twisted its fabric in their hand. It wound down into a tiny vortex of impenetrable blackness. Then it snapped out to normal once more, and four figures stood in its wake.

One was a woman wearing a blue and white suit. A mask covered her face, but left her mouth and chin bare. It also allowed a long mane of dark hair to spill down one side of her head. But the real thing that drew his eye was the black hole that glowed on her chest when she turned around. The circle of pure darkness was ringed with an accretion disk of brilliant colors. It was not simply a decal. This halo of light literally twisted and turned as he looked on, as if it had a life of its own.

Isaac could not help but note how the black hole depicted there so perfectly mimicked that similar hole that had briefly formed in space before him, only to vanish again to deposit the newcomers.

Isaac knew that had to be Stormcrow's girlfriend, or not girlfriend. Or whatever she was. Given how young they were, he imagined they did not really know either. Vortex was her name. That meant the man in black camo gear and sporting a metallic staff beside her must have been her father: Hungry Ghost.

The final two needed no introduction. They had been all over magazines and television for the past twenty years after all. He had even seen their wedding photos in Person magazine. It was Thunderbolt and Riven, San Francisco's preeminent super partnership.

Thunderbolt was a man in a suit of white armor with a blue cape and accessories. He was sheathed in a field of electricity that hissed and sparked every instant. He held out one hand, and a glowing pillar of lightning grew from it. One end shot down into the bridge underneath, the other lanced up into the sky above. He rode this pillar up into the air and out over the broken section of bridge. A moment later he began hurling bolts of lightning at the creature below.

The last figure was Riven, a woman wearing a suit of glowing golden light. It was shaped like armor, but Isaac could literally see through it. In fact, it reminded him of the force fields and golden tendrils of power that Blood Raven liked to create. It was like she wore such a force field as if it was armor.

Underneath the golden light, she wore a suit of red and white, and a cape swept out behind her, shaped like numerous sword blades. A pair of goggles covered her eyes, but allowed her long blond hair to flow free.

She held out one hand, and a sword of golden light formed there, with a blade sheathed in white flames. An axe took shape in her other hand, and once again, its crescent blade burned with white fire. She leaped upon the tentacles that had wrapped around Fred Hampton's legs. Her sword and axe flashed, and limbs fell to pieces beneath their flaming blades.

A new tentacle came up behind her, and snapped at her like a rocket. But she seemed to have eyes in the back of her head. The axe in her left hand vanished, and was instantly replaced by a shield of shining light. She did not even bother turning around. She simply held the shield behind her back. The creature's appendage smashed against it a moment later. Riven did not so much as flinch under the blow. It was like she was a part of the Earth, rooted to the spot.

Her husband followed an instant later with a bolt of lightning that lanced down from one of his hands. The thunderbolt slammed into the monster, and completely incinerated it before Isaac's eyes. He could likewise see Hungry Ghost lashing out with his staff, and each time he hit, it was with the force of a mountain falling atop his targets. Finally the new girl reached out with one hand, and a shimmering field of energy sprang up between his mech and the rest of the monsters.

"The bridge will hold," Riven declared over the comlink. Her voice was absolute in its certainty.

* * *

[Acadian]

If I was a supervillain, I’d sure hate my demise to be remembered as crashing into a tall display of canned peas.

Enter Isaac the junkyard mech warrior! Isaac makes an awesome entrance but before long risks being overrun. More heroes arrive to save the day, including that white girl’s girlfriend – or not girlfriend!

You weren’t kidding when you said this would grow into a full scale production!


Nits:
’Isaac knew that had to {be} Stormcrow's girlfriend, or not girlfriend.’
’It was Thunde{r}bolt and Riven, San Francisco's preeminent super partnership.’

[Renee]

Absolutely what I was thinking... I don't know how remote Belle Isle is, but it seems like it's a bit away from the rest of town. Still, I'd imagine radar or some such would pick up all this activity, or maybe just flashes in the sky. Which means some armed forces would get curious what's going down...

Isaac... this is the guy who built those machines?

g. Only now it was on her behalf. Now that was crazy. But so was a white girl who thought she could change the world.

KSSSHHHH!!!

Whoa, Isaac and Raven met way back then? Wow. Yikes,,, Iron Scorpion??? What an early memory that must be. No wonder he got so involved with building metal things.

Yeah, it sounds like Isaac is inside a giant Transformer. More than meets the eye, right? Robots in disguise. WICKED!!! Smaller robots, too, which means they'll hopefully be impervious to fire or some other elements which'll no doubt get strewn about during the battle. Basically, sounds like Isaac has been busy all this time.

Also smart that his monster or whatever has more than one set of guns. So the first ones overheat but this is okay. He's got a whole other set he can use.

So the question is, why did he build this monstrosity? 🤖 "Well this bank of guns is known to overheat, gotta do something about that..." Seems he's been anticipating some sort of brawl just like this one, eh?

Uh oh... reality is shifting. Is this Vortex? Yup, sure it. That bi---... well she's here to do good works, I guess.

Phew. Overwhelmed here, Florens. I need a drink. Except I don't drink. 🍷

This post has been edited by Renee: Nov 27 2022, 05:19 AM

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

Mech battles make everything better. And explosions. And vaporizing. Practically zero-summing things out of existence.

"Isaac checked the straps that secured him to his seat for the tenth time in the last minute. They were as firm and inviolable as the previous nine times he had pushed and pulled at them." Sounds like me checking my alarms on my clock and phone to make sure they are on, or that the front door of the house is locked.

Barely even tangentially relevant, but any time I hear the word "pothole" as in "They must have run into a pothole..." in your third paragraph, I think of this amazing local government candidate ad.

Lighthammer comparing the mech to Optimus Prime while I can't help but think about Liberty Prime. Isaac should make sure that these monsters know that democracy is non-negotiable.

If you scale the production value of this fight any further, you might have to pay million of dollars just to write this.

Interesting that we've got a different character the story is focused on temporarily.

"Then a great maw of triangular teeth filled his vision." Ech, made me think of sea lampreys for some reason. I hate those things.

"'The bridge will hold,' Riven declared over the comlink. Her voice was absolute in its certainty." Well if she is certain, then I am certain, too.

[WellTemperedClavier]

Great to see Isaac again! He's one of my favorite secondary characters in this series. And damn, what a comeback. Loved the flashbacks to his earlier history, and also how aware he is of the amount of damage his 'mech can do. He's clearly someone who's made himself a lot better.

The sheer amount of firepower he lays out is also impressive. A wave of (localized) destruction against the forces of Hell.

He shows good tactical awareness, too. His robot army's powerful, but needs to keep things at some distance to be totally effective. Unfortunately for him, self-preservation isn't a priority for the demons, so they keep coming.

Also, interesting information on the Detroit River. I wasn't aware of that.

Lucky for Isaac, he's got some help. Vortex has some issues, but she knows to put them aside when the situation demands. And it looks like she brought in even more firepower. This is turning into one hell of a brawl!