Robert Farrell was working late today at his laboratory in the Nevada desert where he was putting the final design tests on his new project, Racer. He had been allowed after his work in field operations to continue some design work on his old Rocket Racer rig from his superhero days. SHIELD told him if he was able to help complete several other project designs he would be allowed to further develop his technology and even work in their super-agent program. He had not chosen the projects he worked on lightly. Each would, while benefiting SHIELD would also be able to be reincorporated into his new designs. He had spent the last two years working on an array of unusual applications for the agency and now he was putting them together into his new rig.
From the outdated Guardian armor designs, he used the underlying exoskeleton and control systems. They were a bit dated, nearly twenty years old, but were serviceable enough for his needs. He updated them with part of the cybernetic systems used in later armors and added a voice control system for an override and hands-free control system. He also cannibalized the primitive repulsor thrust control systems so he could use them to assist and control the rig in motion. With the repulsors, he could add to his overall thrust by thirty percent and with such a mature technology, the power to weight ratios were excellent, far better than his first skateboard thrust engines stolen from the illegal Big Wheel project. In a pinch, they could also be used to push objects away from him if he was properly braced.
When testing them he was able to push a man-sized object over twenty feet away with just one hand. When used in that way, the price was a huge power drain, so it was best left to emergencies. The underlying old-school metallic layered scale was replaced with a ceramic mesh with Nomex coating for fire resistance, able to protect against heat in excess of eight hundred degrees and cold resistance providing protection against sub-zero temperatures in excess of minus eighty degrees. The armored Nomex under-armor would also be proof against any sort of abrasion injury should he fall off the gravity sled.
This was just the first layer of his new armor. With the Guardian under-armor he could also count on some limited super-strength, nothing major, maybe up to three tons, but if he needed more, when he had the budget he could always see if he could gain access to more recent upgrades. The benefit of working with this tech is nobody cared what he did with it and if he improved it, no one would know or want to know until after he worked the bugs out of it.
The armor systems he created as the final layer to the suit were a masterpiece. They would cover strategic areas providing additional armor support and space for weapons systems. They could be activated cybernetically and were in compressed forms at the strategic locations. Made from memory metals, once activated they would spread out and take a rigid protective shape. These locations included the shins, hips, shoulders, elbows and knees. The shoulder systems also included a fully covering face helm that ensured the suit's temperature resistance applied to his head as well.
The gloves were the most recent additions to the rig. The gloves controlled both the weapons launching systems in the gloves and the magnetic control systems in the boots for the board. The weapons in the gloves were designed to be positive action weapons whose activation could only be done manually or once loaded into the weapons cartridges. They could be activated by hand and used as grenades as well, should the launcher be defective or destroyed. So there was no chances of accidental misfires or explosions. The positive action locks ensured activations only when wanted. He has learned from his first designs how it was possible for a misfire to blow up in your face, literally.
The magnetic boots were similar to his first designs with the addition of providing him with two escrima-style sticks which were held in two ejection launchers in the boots. He had learned that striking targets at high speeds with your fist was possible, but it was also likely to break your wrist or arm if you were not careful. With the sticks, he was able to fight both in passing and if he had to stop and engage in hand to hand. He had trained for over four years until his mastery with the sticks was one of the things he was most proud of in his physical training. Both sticks were spring loaded and flex formed, so they would come to full extension once they were clear of the housing. They were formed of a light and strong full index plastic, so it would take superhuman strength to even dent them, let alone break them.
Robert was not above punching someone in the jaw if it was required. His SHIELD martial arts training included karate, kung-fu, aikido and escrima and he had excelled in all of them. The trainers were quite surprised at his facility considering he was a lab-rat and took extra time to engage his interest. They said he had the makings of a great field agent if he ever decided to get out of the lab. In a tribute to his first rig he had included his thruster array into the bracers to recreate his signature, rocket-assisted punch.
Memories of his first use of that technology included thruster burns and a broken wrist that was slow to heal. He had learned from that and his updated designs took that into consideration. Combined with his armor-enhanced strength, his rocket punch should be able get the attention of even super-powered adversaries. Using his new rig he had been able to punch through a reinforced concrete block with no injury. The only disadvantage is that each glove could only fire twice before using up all of the rocket propellant. He had been working on finding a way to redirect the repulsor thrust instead of the rocket propellant but had not been able to find sufficient repulsor matrix crystals in the lab to redesign the system. For the time being he was stuck with his basic design and would update after a supply requisition could turn up some matrix crystals. Maybe he could get them directly from Stark Industries?
The most magnificent part of this entire new rig was the Gravity Sled. Using some broken gravity technology salvaged from the recent Skrull invasion, Robert was able to rebuild and outfit himself with a gravity control and interaction system that could be used in a manner similar to his skateboard. The technology would redirect molecular energies into a form of pseudo-gravity, so no matter what he was near, he could change that into the direction considered to be down. Wearing a gravity harness on his back, he would be able to create that very same field around himself so that he could ride the sled on any surface, wall, floor or ceiling. If he were willing to boost or use more power he could nullify the effect of gravity all together and using the thrust pack and repulsors, fly for short distances of one hundred and twenty miles before he ran out of fuel. The sled was good for nearly a thousand miles if he stayed near a surface as the device skimmed molecular energy from any surface it was near, recharging the Skrull power source. Robert was certain if he could get that particular design to function as expected, his reverse engineering would win him the Nobel prize, if he was not working as a member of SHIELD which never published such findings. Since he was reasonably sure if SHIELD knew it worked, they would disapprove, he neglected to mention it.
Since he was using declassified technology, meaning it was considered unable to be repaired, it should not be a problem but since he was able to repair it, they might decide it should have some other uses. As he was repairing it, he noticed it had several other functions but was unable to activate them at the time. So he simply rerouted the unspecified systems until he could figure out how to fix them later. It was as if he could almost see the answer in the alien technology, it made sense but was just out of reach. Even after reading Richard's recent papers on artificial gravity, he just could not quite understand why these more advanced gravity systems were non-functional. He considered asking Peter Parker to come and consult but wanted to work just a bit longer before asking for help.
He has also made other skateboard mechanisms similar to his first designs but rebuilt using the SHIELD budget and those included an all-terrain board and an urban dweller speed board with an intelligent climbing system capable of going nearly as fast uphill as it could go downhill. Part of that technology had been adopted from the armature system of Doctor Octopus. Both of these designs were quite adequate and with his power plant and gyroscopic systems attached to them, both could move in excess of sixty miles per hour over nearly any terrain. But both were simply too slow when compared with the Gravity Sled.
His first tests in the lab of all of these devices were abysmal. Only the very oldest and most stable technologies functioned as expected. It took almost another six months of constant testing and rebuilding to get everything to be ninety percent reliable. Robert had worked on almost all the designs and specifications on his own, refusing any support staff until it came time for testing. He had managed to get almost all of the tech functioning well and only the internal visor based head's up display require him to depend on someone else for his programming needs. The specialist was a young woman named Donna Ellis. Programming the HUD and the cybernetic interface took quite some time and Donna was often in the lab working while Robert completed his development. The last of the programming allowed him to integrate the HUD and the remote control systems into his last lab test.
Then it was time for a field test.
Part II
The hot desert air is still and quiet as the black and red suit of armor streaks across the sand. The man in the armor is standing up and riding, what appears to be a metallic plank approximately thirty-six inches in length. Two micro-fusion motors are thrusting from the back of the unit and the man standing on it is leaning forward, crouched down as if preparing to spring.
With his helmet on, he is breathing chilled air and monitoring his internal heads up display as he drives his vehicle across the desert sands faster and faster. "Ellis, I need you to compare your telemetry and readings with mine. I am seeing instability in the gravity repulsion and gravity conversion field. Can you confirm?"
"Racer One, I can confirm your readings, you are heading southwest at one hundred twenty miles per hour. Your gravity reading are fluxuating. I recommend you slow to eighty and maintain that until we can stabilize the gravity settings. You are cleared to commence vertical assent."
"Copy, there is an nearby ravine on my map, I will use it for the first test."
Racer One, slows the board but still marvels at its speed and smooth ride. I may never get back on a skateboard again. This is what the Silver Surfer must feel like.
Sliding into the ravine, he triggers the gravity redirector and targets the ravine wall. Kicking the board against the ground, it skips up and is now riding the ravine wall as easily as it rode the ground seconds ago. His suit and the board are both sharing a gravity field that has been redirected toward the wall, so that down for him and anything he touches is wherever the bottom of the board is pointed. His magnetic boots assist him in maintaining his grip on the board but the transition is flawless.
He rides the board and stays close to the ground while he checks the readings. "Temperature spike, still within safe parameters, gravity transition, smooth and by the numbers."
"Command copies, gravity redirection, five by five. Congratulations, Robert. It's one thing in the office to ride your skateboard on the ceiling. It's something else when you can ride the canyon wall."
"Thanks, Donna, but we are not done, no back patting yet. Going to push it up the cliff in a full vertical climb." Racer One turned slowly up the cliff face, fifteen degrees, twenty five degrees, forty-five degrees. At sixty degrees, the temperature needle red-lined, there was a difficulty with gravity shearing, when the force of true gravity and the force of the redirected gravity tear at each other, violently.
"Abort, abort Racer One, specifications exceeded." Donna maintained her professionalism and was ready to trigger the remote abort if necessary.
"Negative, shearing was expected, repulsor thrusting to compensate. Do not abort." Robert triggered the hand repulsors with his palms pointed behind him providing additional thrust. This periodic thrust, eased the trembling board and reduced the stress on the engine.
As he approached a ninety degree angle to the true ground, he increased his additional thrust and the Sled picked up speed, stopped wobbling and shot up the cliff face. Setting the board to auto-redirect to true gravity as he cleared the cliff's edge, he turned and using the repulsors pushed himself so as the board reset to true gravity it would land on the ground and not plummet back into the ravine. Those hours in the simulator had just proven their worth.
The board reset gravity norm, allowed it to return to the ground and its gravity repulsion system kicked it so as it approached the ground, the greater the source of true gravity, the stronger the repulsion, preventing the board from ever touching the earth even in a free drop to the ground. Only a person with augmented strength could withstand the gravity backlash the board experiences as it drops at terminal velocity. Robert used the repulsors to reduce the speed of his descent so there was less gravity rebound as the board landed.
"Looking good out there, I have everything you just did on the spycams. We can go over the footage later when you get back. I am noting a drop in your power profile. The Skrull power-plant is holding up but you are losing power faster than we expected. You should head back."
Robert looked at Donna in his HUD display and noted her short braids falling behind her back, and her smooth dark complexion with those oh, so bright, and cheerful eyes staring into the camera and thought maybe he could turn in a bit early. They had been putting in an inordinate amount of hours preparing for this test and with only a few issues, this could be considered an unqualified...
What was that? A glint of light in the distance. There shouldn't be anything or anyone out here for miles.
"Command, I am heading out to investigate a flash of light about five miles from my position. Track and lock. Keep the spy eyes on me." Racer One turned hard to port and increased his speed.
What he found when he got there was stranger than he expected. The light was reflecting off of a military belt buckle. This buckle was connected to the belt of one of fifty different soldiers who were marching in-formation across the desert. Their formation was excellent and as he approached he slowed the Sled until he was moving at the same speed as the formation. No one seemed to notice him.
It's not every day you see a man on a floating skateboard, what's with these guys? They act as if they don't even see me, mused Robert.
Speeding up, he moved to the front of the formation and maintained his distance from the front of the group. "Hello, Sergeant, can you hear me?" They kept moving, oblivious to his statement.
Looking at the group more closely, Farrell decided a more vigorous effort might be needed. "ATTEN-HUUT. Company halt!" And just like that, the group stopped. And stood there frozen.
Now that they had stopped, Farrell was able to get closer and noticed the men were dirty as if they had marched quite some distance. A couple had stopped sweating which meant heat exhaustion was in their future.
"Donna, what do you make of this?"
"Mass psychosis or hallucination, possibly drug induced?"
"Is there a base they could have come from nearby, within walking distance?"
"There is a plasma destruction facility about twenty miles from here."When aliens attack the Earth, this place is where alien tech that cannot be reverse engineered and may be too dangerous to leave on Earth, is destroyed. "It is where the Skrull power plant in the Sled came from. These guys would be elites, nothing normal should have been able to do, whatever this is."
"I need you to call for backup and send them to the plasma facility. I am going to head there when I am done here. These guys look like hell. I am going to see if I can get something out of one of them. Send some retrieval squads out here to pick them up. There is not a lot of cover, but what little there is we will have to make due."
"Company. Attttt. Ease. The men assumed the parade rest position with their legs split apart an their arms crossed behind their backs. I walked directly up to the sergeant in the front of the formation and gave him a gentle slap on the cheek.
"Sergeant, can you tell me how you got here?" He blinked as if he were waking from a deep sleep.
"No, sir. I remember getting ready to relieve the commander of the watch when a strange man and a tall woman pushing a giant floating sphere just appeared at the gate. I don't remember seeing then drive up, they were just suddenly there.
Then the little man, who was floating a few feet above the ground, took out a keypad and there was this high pitched sound. I don't remember anything after that. Short man, tiny mustache, big head, bigger helmet. Once he took off his trench coat, I remember something I had seen on the news about New York and the Fantastic Four. He looked like the Wizard, and the woman, Titania."
You have got to be kidding me, two members of the Frightful Four in the middle of the desert? And what was in the ball, a bomb, a doomsday device, a picnic lunch? What else could go wrong?
At that moment, the Gravity Sled indicated a power surge and its remaining power dropped to forty percent from sixty percent and his armor system indicated his power reserve had just dropped to twenty percent.
Great. You had to ask.
Part III
Racer One's Gravity Sled, flew close to the surface of the desert with the back end of the board riding higher than the front end. Manipulating the Earth's gravitational field and using miniaturized engines salvaged from a Skrull space craft that crashed nearly a decade ago, this amalgam of technology would not have been the first thing anyone would have expected to see tearing through the desert.
As the Sled manipulated gravity, it also stole molecular energy from the surface of the planet and used that energy to power itself and to restore power to the armor of its pilot. As a side effect, it did not churn up dust in its passage as it stole the energy from the dust and it fell immediately back to earth. Unfortunate for that pilot, the time it will take him to reach the Plasma incineration facility will only increase his reserves by four percent. With time, he could restore a respectable amount of energy to his exoskeleton. But time was a luxury he simply did not have.
As he approached the base, he activated his HUD's telescopic enhancement and could see the large orb described by the sergeant and he could also see Mary MacPherran, the superhuman known as Titania, wife of the Crusher Creel, the Absorbing Man, standing next to it. She was wearing a new outfit, still relatively revealing but not that horrid purple thing he could see in the SHIELD database records.
As he approached, he took several new shots and sent them back to headquarters for entry into the field handbook. Robert Farrell, agent of SHIELD had no intention of confronting her at all. She is listed as one of the more dangerous metahumans on the planet and he wanted nothing to do with a physical confrontation with someone who could bench press an Abrams tank without breaking a sweat.
Increasing his speed, his intent was to fly past her and try and catch the Wizard unaware before she could lumber into the fray. All he had to do was to keep them busy until the SHIELD Tactical Squad showed up in ten minutes. Against these two, ten minutes was a real long time.
Activating his radio bead communicator, he announced to his command liasion, "Donna, I am making my final approach, I am going to lay down some smoke. This will slow her down and keep her off my back. I don't see her using any technology."
"Understood Racer One, records confirm her lack of interest in any kind of tech. She relies on her near-invulnerability and super-strength. You are not authorized to engage her under these conditions. You don't possess any weaponry that could even slow her down."
Thanks for the vote of confidence.
She continued "Keep them out of that ship. SK773 was scheduled for complete demolition today and has been fit with plasma charges sufficient to turn it into slag. It is currently in the fourth quadrant of the blasting region of the field. Internal base cameras went off-line as he entered the base, but he was headed to SK773 before we lost visual."
"Understood. Making my final approach." Farrell prepped his wrist based launchers with six smoke grenades taken from his belt. Similar in design to his old rocket systems, these were designed to deliver heavy smoke, in wide dispersal patterns. Since there was little wind, the smoke would last for nearly fifteen minutes.
Aiming in an expanding circle, the grenades were fired simultaneously and shot out in a firing blossom of reactive oxygen contrails. MacPherran did not appear to have been aware of the approach of Racer One. The Gravity Sled's engine was very quiet, especially when moving below forty miles per hour. Once the grenades hit the ground, Titania turned around and the last thing Farrell saw was her face frowning up before the smoke obscured her.
Farrell increased his speed and directed the sled into jump mode. Rather than go through the smoke, he would jump over it and Titania and head directly into the base. The sled had a limited flight capacity. But Farrell had no confidence in its ability to deliver at the moment.
He had been on this base several times before, but had never paid attention to how close it had been to headquarters. Or maybe he had subconsciously come this way so he could stop here after the field tests. He knew the base well and with the short range sonic imaging provided by his helmet he would be able to find his way to the blasting field without having to feel his way. The imaging was crude but better than a white cane.
Once he landed he fired a second salvo of smoke grenades behind him obscuring the path into the base. It was unlikely she had been here before but it did not hurt to cover the area with smoke to slow her down. You can never be too careful when dealing with supervillains. Activating his own jammer inside of his suit, if she and the Wizard were using any standard communication tech, they would be temporarily unable to send or receive.
Weaving quickly through the base, there were pallets of decommissioned equipment awaiting destruction assigned by number and specification of the types of equipment. There were five of these destruction facilities in the US, but the others handled far more dangerous equipment than this one did. The Nevada base was assigned to destroy equipment with low military capacity.
Most of what was out here had been stripped of any potential research value and was simply awaiting liquidation. Larger items or more complete ones were taken apart and itemized unless duplicates were already available. Everything out here had a manifest and an identity. SK773 was an old Skrull ship found nearly a decade ago when the Super-Skrull first came to Earth and had his first confrontation with the Fantastic Four.
Back then it was a treasure trove of information and almost everything had been stripped out of the ship. The New York research group had decided they had gotten such a new flux of alien technology with the recent Skrull invasion, they would simply transfer SK773 out here for demolition so they could play with their new toys.
Farrell had looked through it just like he did anything that ended up out here for an opportunity to recover what others may have thought less useful. It was his nature to try and salvage anything he could. Growing up in the inner city, he almost felt a compulsion to repair or reuse anything that could be made to work. SK773 had no systems that had not already been seen or studied elsewhere at this point so Farrell had no idea what the Wizard could be looking for and wasn't paying attention when he was hit by a beam of excited protons fired from the Wizard's patented Wonder Gloves.
The Wizard had stepped out from the Skrull ship when his scanner indicate the approaching signature of active Skrull technology. In the last few months with Skrulls popping up everywhere, his search had grown more dangerous and he was confident what he was looking for was close. Only the Skrulls had the metagenic technology he was looking for because of their malleable genetic code. Having dispatched several in his quest, he had no problem with another.
He did not recognize the black and red armor, but if it was another Skrull, he was going to unmask it with the proton beam, electrocute it and then get back to work. The transporter system here was intact and perfect for his needs. Shooting this Skrull did not seem to be very difficult but he did not change to his default form. Was this a local super fool he did not know about? There was something vaguely familiar but no matter, he won't be alive long enough for me to make the connection. He tapped the tips of his fingers together to alter the electron density and prepared to fire again.
That was unexpected. How did he know I was coming? Suit's had a power surge and is now offline. "Ugh. I'm hit Donna. I don't know how he made me, but he was waiting in the door. Whatever he hit me with temporarily shorted my armor systems. I am face down in the dirt. Reboot in progress."
Donna Ellis was the field technician who was providing support during the field test of the Racer One armor. She was a beautiful black woman who wore her hair in militarily precise cornrows. She was standing over a holographic display of the base and she was attempting to place a marker on both the Wizard and Titania. Warning lights were flashing in the base as the alert message was routed that a possible incursion from the Frightful Four was imminent. Other technicians were setting up in the room and taking over terminals that had previously sat empty during their field test duties.
Donna was attempting to boost the signal gain as her instrument showed the armor temporarily offline. Fortunately the bead comm was not routed through the suit's primary power. "I am using the spycams but there is a jamming field near you. I can barely make you out. You have seven minutes until the Tac-Squad arrives."
We have so got to do something about this power fluctuation. I did not intend to be using the suit in combat and it is just not ready for prime time. "Reboot, complete. Oh, damn. He is coming out of the ship and headed in my direction. Moving..." This is not going like I hoped. How did he know I was even here? Incoming!
This time the energy that flashed toward him was more like electricity, with a jagged formation starting at the Wizard and suddenly exploding in Racer One's direction. Only his timely dive, prevented him from catching the full brunt of the lightning from the Wizard's outstretched hands. As it was, the Racer One armor was smoking in several places and the stench of ozone filled the air.
Okay, enough of that. My turn. Racer One pointed his left gauntlet, armed with offensive ordinance and let fly two HE micro-missiles capable of blasting a hole in a tank. The Wizard's hands changed their formation and then the missiles struck their target with a powerful explosion. There was the flash of what looked like a force field coming online and that was consistent with the Wizard's MO.
The shockwave shook the ground where the Racer was getting to his feet. Without stopping he fired two more in the general direction of where the Wizard was. With his right hand he called the Gravity Sled to him and it moved to him and he put his foot on it. As the smoke cleared, He saw the Wizard lying against the Skrull ship in a crumpled pile. He could see his unshaven face and he looked tiny and old. Frail was the word that came to mind. "Command, the Wizard is down. Can you get me a location on Titania?"
The smoke had been annoying and obscured her sight, but once the shooting started, Titania had no problem orienting on the fight. Rarely inclined to user her super strength to leap, she decided the smoke was too damn thick to see through and she would jump to where she heard weapon's fire. Her radio went offline as soon as the smoke hit so she figured the little man on the surfboard was responsible. A jeep broke her fall after the second jump and she could not have timed her landing any better. The explosions from the guy in red and black completely blocked the sound of her crashing down. Now with this chunk of ship debris, she was going to make this little problem go away.
"I'm right here, big boy. Nighty-night." The last thing Ferrall saw was the hunk of wreckage that knocked him off his feet and pinned him under it. There was a moment of searing pain as his rib cage gave way and then everything faded to black.
Part IV
"Robert. Robert. It's time to get up." My mother's voice is sweet to me, but the bed is warm and I don't want to get up on this cold New York morning. I can hear the wind blowing around my project in the Bronx and it's that wind that says, its cold out here, this morning. You don't want none of this. So I snuggle back down under the blankets and try to wait her out. She goes into the kitchen and I can hear her moving pots and pans around. I think she is making breakfast. She knows how to get me out of bed. But I wait for as long as I can because I know when I get up and touch that cold, linoleum floor, I am going to be really awake. So I drift back to sleep and it is good.
"Robert. You have got to get up. Your suits systems are all in the yellow. Wake up, Robert!" Donna Ellis shouts and this time I hear her. All thoughts of oatmeal and bacon retreat as I remember where I am. And all of the pain that comes with it. I can't breathe. My chest feels tight. And every time I try to take a deep breath, it feels like I am drinking fire. I am unable to move. Not even a little. There are sharp shards of metal piecing my legs and arms but I am feeling them so I still have motor skills. Then I remember.
"I'm here, Donna. Can you read me?" No answer. Not a good sign. Might be the rubble. Gotta get out of here. I put my arms up at the last second when I heard her voice and saw this huge chuck of metal smashing into me. As soon as Titania hit me, my suit lights all turned yellow and the last thing I remembered was the quick burst of repulsor fire before I was completely smashed backward and buried in a nearby building. That burst of repulsors is probably why I am still alive nursing one or maybe two broken ribs, rather than marveling at my shattered spine and wondering what color wheelchair Donna would be picking for me to zip around it. But I am not out of the woods yet.
I can't get much leverage and that means I can't use the limited strength this exoskeleton gives me. I must have hit a water main because I can hear and feel cold water flowing down onto my armor. Looking at my busted HUD clock, I can see it has only been a few minutes since I ended up here. Think. Think. Think. The Gravity Sled. It was designed to lift up to ten tons. I am certain that what has me pinned is less than that.
"Activate remote control, voice activation, Gravity Sled." The HUD indicates the sled is just a few feet from me but it is upside down, so it will not be able to push against the ground and move the wreckage. More challenging but doable. Instead of lifting the wreckage using the sled as a lever, I will float the wreckage by reducing the force of gravity in the area. It will likely drain the sled to a barely operable level but it can't be helped. Not unless I plan on changing my name to Wreckage Man. Ouch. No laughing. The other problem is this will require I get off my butt and push my way out before I run out of power.
"Activate gravity field, five meter spread." The rubble trembles and dust falls around me and near me but nothing moves. Not good. "Increase anti-gravity output twenty percent." I can hear wood snapping and more water splashing, and I can feel just the slightest bit of movement near my feet. "Increase gravity area thirty percent." A warning light comes on indicating less than eighteen percent power remains. Got to pick up the pace. I can see tiny beams of outside light breaking through the dust and can get up on my forearms. I pull my legs up under me and work myself into a crouch. I trigger the emergency power on my suit and feel it hum to life.
"Increase power output twenty five percent. Pulse in five seconds. Four, three, two one." Push! AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!! My body screams out as five tons of rubble give way to my efforts and I can see debris flying in every direction free of the force of gravity with the addition of my boosted strength. The water droplets floating in the air, languidly spinning create gravity rainbows as they dance free from the fundamental force that holds the universe together. For a moment, I feel hopeful and start to think maybe I have been going about this all wrong. The gravity rainbows fade as the sled shuts down power and enters conservation mode. It has less than ten percent of its total charge remaining.
I look like hell. My suit is damaged and most of the memory metal is retreating into the main exoskeleton showing only the interior functional frame of the suit. It is still capable of functioning, but it is now in energy conservation mode as well. Meaning, no more fighting. Start thinking. Why did they come here? What is in that ball? Okay that is a good place to start. I drop the board and activate it. I sounds like its grumbling but it starts up and I direct it back toward the front of the base. When I reach the giant sphere, easily fifteen feet tall, I notice the control interface on the front of it, and a light indicating the sphere is active. Looking it over, I realize this is not a weapon. It looks more like a containment device. We use something similar to ship dangerous metas to prison facilities when we want to keep them sedated, contained and controlled.
"Command, can I get an ETA on that support?" No response. Oh well, might as well have a completely awful day. There is an input spike and I draw my computer interface cable into the micro-access port. What do you know. Its one of ours. It says its from our New York branch. Now I am beginning to get nervous because I am remembering something about the Wizard. I run an access code and its locked, but with the code crackers I carry it should take about thirty seconds. The Wizard had a run in with the Fantastic Four less than six months ago and it spread out into the street. The report indicated there was a woman there who was believed to be related to the Wizard and a metamorph there.
The sphere opened and a super-frigid blast of air came out of the device. When the fog cleared, I was not sure what I was seeing. It looked like a large lump of concrete in a barely humanoid form. It was about nine or ten feet long draped backward into a medical bay inside the ball. Suddenly the form sat up. The sand in the area began to rise up and slowly swirl around the ball. The woman who was fighting with the Wizard and the FF was called...
"Cole, no!" I was distracted and did not hear the Wizard or Titania as they were coming back with a huge amount of equipment riding on one of the Wizard's gravity disks. The voice was the Wizard and the tendrils of sand that were swirling around our feet were surrounding him and encasing him in a ball of sand. The creature called Cole stepped down from the device and strode out to meet Titania. It waited for her to strike. MacPherran did not disappoint. Her blow caused an explosion of sand to be blasted away from the creature. Then the creature backhanded her and she disappeared in a cloud of sand and I could hear her shouting fade away into the distance.
Okay. She just took out two of the world's most dangerous super-villains in less than ten seconds. If I were a betting man I still had about five minutes before I could expect any help. So it was time to see if reason would be any more useful than just letting her kill the Wizard.
"Cole." I kept my voice calm and modulated. I took off my helmet. There was no point in keeping it on, the information it was giving me was depressing anyway. "Cole, can you hear me? Please stop what you are doing." I could hear the Wizard's anguished choking and knew he would not be able to last much longer.
"Cole, can you tell me why you are doing this?" Use the subject's name, try and establish a rapport. God, I hope this stuff they taught me in the academy is actually worth something. She stopped moving toward the Wizard, and turned toward me.
"Why do you care? When I kill him, the world will be rid of a problem and no one will miss him."
"Uh, while that may be true, miss, I don't think you really want to do that. If you did, you could have already done that. So what is it you really want?"
"I want my body back," and when she said that I heard something crack from inside the cocoon of sand she was holding the Wizard in.
"Miss Cole, if you agree to let him go, I will put the scientific capabilities of SHIELD at your disposal. We will do everything we can to cure you."
"Do you think you could?" This was the first time her voice had anything that sounded like a human voice. It was filled with uncertainty and a little fear. Until now, she had a voice like a giant, booming and just a bit terrifying.
"Yes, I think we could. Just loosen your grip a bit and we can talk about it." I could feel my tension starting to ease up a bit and I could feel myself starting to have just a bit of hope.
"Round Two, Girly." Titania appeared dropping down from on high like a bomb. She landed directly on top of Cole and after her crushing death-from-above attack, she landed blow after blow and the sound of each strike sounded like a bomb blast.
The rock-like substance covering Cole began to crack for a second and Cole gave off a terrible howl as sand began to come to her and fill up the cracks in the armor around her. And then she started to grow. While she was growing, she began to fight back and gave as good as she got. Titania has a reputation for being able to go toe to toe with the Hulk, so in theory I was not worried about her. But if this got out of hand, someone was going to get hurt.
Part V
"Don't just stand there like a daft idiot. I need your help." The Wizard was wiping sand out of his face and eyes with his right hand. His left one hung uselessly at his side.
"Is that how you talk to someone that just saved your life?"
"You're the same idiot who shot missiles at me, managed to get buried alive, and opened the cannister that allowed Cole to get out?"
"Technically."
"Then you are an idiot. Now get over here before they get finished and remember who they both hate, a lot. I don't have both of my hands at the moment, so you will have to do. Did you make that suit?"
"No, but I adapted all of the technology that it's using."
"Okay, you're a talented idiot. You know most of that stuff is out of date, right?"
"Yes, I know that. It's what they give me to work with."
"You know, if you worked for me, you would never have to deal with substandard, twenty year old technology. I mean those repulsors look as old as time. Could you even stun a kitten with those?"
"Look old man, what do you need me to do? This is all the equipment from SK773, why are you stealing it? You said it yourself, don't use old equipment."
"Unless it has properties you have not invented or considered yourself. And this does and I haven't. I needed the metagenic transporter equipment that was used to transport the Super-Skrull. The condition I inflicted on my daughter combined with her mother's metamorphic nature, has made her organically unstable and unable to control her powers."
He dropped his head and a bit of shame entered his voice as he rubbed his broken arm. "I could not stop what happened to her in New York so I kept her sedated once I found her in the sewers. Her powers had continued to operate and she was absorbing mass there."
"So you want to use this to separate her organic from the inorganic matter."
"He can be taught."
"What about her powers, what's to stop her from doing, well that?" He and I both turn to look at the battle between Titania and Cole and the shockwaves from their fight was creating a dust cloud out in front of the base. The upside will be that no one will have trouble finding this place.
"I created an inhibitor collar, but it has to go onto her organic flesh. That is where you come in." I am going to lock on to her signal and teleport her to me. You put the collar on her and then we are out of your life."
"I can't do that." I couldn't believe I said it either. "I promised her my help."
"Look at me, you dolt. Do I look healthy to you?"
When I looked at him, I realized what I was seeing earlier, he did look frail, sickly even. He has lost weight and his eyes were sunken and glassy. "You're dying."
"Cancer. And me, here without a Cupie doll. Yes, I am dying and feeling a bit of remorse for what I did to my daughter in the womb. You can't help me. And you can't help her. No offense, you have a bit of mechanical talent and with some training, will one day hold your head up as a world class engineer. But you know nothing about genetic engineering. And SHIELD knows just a bit more than you do, but only Reed Richards and maybe that would-be, two bit, world-conqueror Doom, know as much as I do. I made this problem and I have to fix it."
The fighting had grown quieter and the cloud was beginning to blow away. Cole had grown to over twenty feet tall and had an unconscious Titania in her hand as she strode back toward the base. And us.
"Give it to me." He handed me the inhibitor collar. My number of choices had been reduced to just one. Unpalatable as it may be, I could not stop Cole and I could not help her if this did not work. Please let him be as smart as he thinks he is.
"Stall her. I have to calibrate this thing. I just need a minute."
Refitting high explosive rounds, shock rounds and plasma rounds took ten seconds. I hopped onto my board and shot off into the desert. Cole saw me coming and hurled Titania contemptuously away like a broken rag doll.
"You were working with them. You were not trying to help me." She raised her hand and the sand in the area began to move around and soon caused spires of sand to begin whipping around me striking and smashing as I weaved through their lines. I did not want this, but I had only cold comfort that these weapons would not have stopped Titania so I might not hurt her to badly. But I did not let that stop me from trying to.
I emptied both clips and the desert lit up with explosions, lightning and two balls of burning plasma which fused parts of the creature into pools of molten glass. I blasted off one of her arms and she still kept coming. Despite its low power, my board was a thing of beauty, leaning into and out of the spires of sand I moved around and reloaded my last set of rockets.
"I'm ready." The Wizard's voiced crackled over my comm bead. "You will have to be right upon her. I will only be able to pull her from the mass but the device does not have enough power to pull her to me. I will free her but she will likely be able to begin using her power seconds after being free."
"Then wait for my signal. I won't even ask how you got this channel."
I set up the last of my high explosives and made my last run on the giant. This time I worked to shoot the legs from the central body. I surmised she was in the center mass of the body and using her powers to control this giant form. I took the left leg with two hits and the right with three. She toppled forward and used her arms to try and stand as I got closer. The board sputtered and died as she swung at me. I leapt clear of the board and using the last of my suit's power to leap inside the reach of that arm. "Now."
Cole's arm had begun to reach back as I ran underneath her body. I reached into my belt to grab the inhibitor collar. Then I could see the body of sand glowing with a green light and suddenly the desert was glowing green. The colossal sand body stopped moving and then the body of a young lithe woman fell from the sky in front of the form. I caught her and she was light and small in my arms. I snapped the collar around her neck and the sand form above us, buried us alive.
I covered her with my body and waited. It took him less than a minute. He was using his Wonder Gloves to move the sand and Titania was standing at his side, only a little worse for the wear. She looked as if she had a nasty sunburn and was covered with mild abrasions. She was one tough woman. I admired her amazing body and then hoped to never see her again. I began to hand the unconscious form of Cole to the Wizard, but he gestured and Titania came to me instead.
"Hey, I was doing my job," MacPherran said. "She's tough, she can take it." So I gave her over.
"If you're going, you better be on your way." I still felt conflicted but I was trusting my intuition. It seemed like the right thing to do. Peter told me to trust myself, so I would.
"You were not bad out there. In my younger days, I would have torn you a new one."
"You wish, old man."
"You know this means the next time I see you, the kid gloves will be off." As he is saying this, he and Titania have stepped onto a glowing disk and begin to float away.
"You mean, if you can get up out of your sickbed."
"I'm a villain, kid, we're like cats. We've got nine lives. But the next time I see you, I don't want to see you in that busted old suit. Catch." He flips something down to me. "Make yourself something nice. What will I put on your tombstone?"
"Racer."
"Racer, it is. Try not to get killed until I get back to you. Come, Titania, all of this heroism is getting cloying."
Looking off in the distance I could see the tactical squad approaching from the east. I put the Wizard's anti-gravity disk into my belt. Looking at the tattered remains of Racer One, I could not wait until I could get back to reverse engineering this thing.
"Racer One, this is Command, support is on its way."
"This is Racer One. I see them. The bad guys got away, but they didn't get anything. Put some coffee on Donna, we are going to be up all night."
FIN
The Rocket Racer, Cole, The Wizard, Titania, and SHIELD are all © Marvel Comics. All Rights Reserved.
'Gravity Rainbows' © Thaddeus Howze 2010. All Rights Reserved.
From the outdated Guardian armor designs, he used the underlying exoskeleton and control systems. They were a bit dated, nearly twenty years old, but were serviceable enough for his needs. He updated them with part of the cybernetic systems used in later armors and added a voice control system for an override and hands-free control system. He also cannibalized the primitive repulsor thrust control systems so he could use them to assist and control the rig in motion. With the repulsors, he could add to his overall thrust by thirty percent and with such a mature technology, the power to weight ratios were excellent, far better than his first skateboard thrust engines stolen from the illegal Big Wheel project. In a pinch, they could also be used to push objects away from him if he was properly braced.
When testing them he was able to push a man-sized object over twenty feet away with just one hand. When used in that way, the price was a huge power drain, so it was best left to emergencies. The underlying old-school metallic layered scale was replaced with a ceramic mesh with Nomex coating for fire resistance, able to protect against heat in excess of eight hundred degrees and cold resistance providing protection against sub-zero temperatures in excess of minus eighty degrees. The armored Nomex under-armor would also be proof against any sort of abrasion injury should he fall off the gravity sled.
This was just the first layer of his new armor. With the Guardian under-armor he could also count on some limited super-strength, nothing major, maybe up to three tons, but if he needed more, when he had the budget he could always see if he could gain access to more recent upgrades. The benefit of working with this tech is nobody cared what he did with it and if he improved it, no one would know or want to know until after he worked the bugs out of it.
The armor systems he created as the final layer to the suit were a masterpiece. They would cover strategic areas providing additional armor support and space for weapons systems. They could be activated cybernetically and were in compressed forms at the strategic locations. Made from memory metals, once activated they would spread out and take a rigid protective shape. These locations included the shins, hips, shoulders, elbows and knees. The shoulder systems also included a fully covering face helm that ensured the suit's temperature resistance applied to his head as well.
The gloves were the most recent additions to the rig. The gloves controlled both the weapons launching systems in the gloves and the magnetic control systems in the boots for the board. The weapons in the gloves were designed to be positive action weapons whose activation could only be done manually or once loaded into the weapons cartridges. They could be activated by hand and used as grenades as well, should the launcher be defective or destroyed. So there was no chances of accidental misfires or explosions. The positive action locks ensured activations only when wanted. He has learned from his first designs how it was possible for a misfire to blow up in your face, literally.
The magnetic boots were similar to his first designs with the addition of providing him with two escrima-style sticks which were held in two ejection launchers in the boots. He had learned that striking targets at high speeds with your fist was possible, but it was also likely to break your wrist or arm if you were not careful. With the sticks, he was able to fight both in passing and if he had to stop and engage in hand to hand. He had trained for over four years until his mastery with the sticks was one of the things he was most proud of in his physical training. Both sticks were spring loaded and flex formed, so they would come to full extension once they were clear of the housing. They were formed of a light and strong full index plastic, so it would take superhuman strength to even dent them, let alone break them.
Robert was not above punching someone in the jaw if it was required. His SHIELD martial arts training included karate, kung-fu, aikido and escrima and he had excelled in all of them. The trainers were quite surprised at his facility considering he was a lab-rat and took extra time to engage his interest. They said he had the makings of a great field agent if he ever decided to get out of the lab. In a tribute to his first rig he had included his thruster array into the bracers to recreate his signature, rocket-assisted punch.
Memories of his first use of that technology included thruster burns and a broken wrist that was slow to heal. He had learned from that and his updated designs took that into consideration. Combined with his armor-enhanced strength, his rocket punch should be able get the attention of even super-powered adversaries. Using his new rig he had been able to punch through a reinforced concrete block with no injury. The only disadvantage is that each glove could only fire twice before using up all of the rocket propellant. He had been working on finding a way to redirect the repulsor thrust instead of the rocket propellant but had not been able to find sufficient repulsor matrix crystals in the lab to redesign the system. For the time being he was stuck with his basic design and would update after a supply requisition could turn up some matrix crystals. Maybe he could get them directly from Stark Industries?
The most magnificent part of this entire new rig was the Gravity Sled. Using some broken gravity technology salvaged from the recent Skrull invasion, Robert was able to rebuild and outfit himself with a gravity control and interaction system that could be used in a manner similar to his skateboard. The technology would redirect molecular energies into a form of pseudo-gravity, so no matter what he was near, he could change that into the direction considered to be down. Wearing a gravity harness on his back, he would be able to create that very same field around himself so that he could ride the sled on any surface, wall, floor or ceiling. If he were willing to boost or use more power he could nullify the effect of gravity all together and using the thrust pack and repulsors, fly for short distances of one hundred and twenty miles before he ran out of fuel. The sled was good for nearly a thousand miles if he stayed near a surface as the device skimmed molecular energy from any surface it was near, recharging the Skrull power source. Robert was certain if he could get that particular design to function as expected, his reverse engineering would win him the Nobel prize, if he was not working as a member of SHIELD which never published such findings. Since he was reasonably sure if SHIELD knew it worked, they would disapprove, he neglected to mention it.
Since he was using declassified technology, meaning it was considered unable to be repaired, it should not be a problem but since he was able to repair it, they might decide it should have some other uses. As he was repairing it, he noticed it had several other functions but was unable to activate them at the time. So he simply rerouted the unspecified systems until he could figure out how to fix them later. It was as if he could almost see the answer in the alien technology, it made sense but was just out of reach. Even after reading Richard's recent papers on artificial gravity, he just could not quite understand why these more advanced gravity systems were non-functional. He considered asking Peter Parker to come and consult but wanted to work just a bit longer before asking for help.
He has also made other skateboard mechanisms similar to his first designs but rebuilt using the SHIELD budget and those included an all-terrain board and an urban dweller speed board with an intelligent climbing system capable of going nearly as fast uphill as it could go downhill. Part of that technology had been adopted from the armature system of Doctor Octopus. Both of these designs were quite adequate and with his power plant and gyroscopic systems attached to them, both could move in excess of sixty miles per hour over nearly any terrain. But both were simply too slow when compared with the Gravity Sled.
His first tests in the lab of all of these devices were abysmal. Only the very oldest and most stable technologies functioned as expected. It took almost another six months of constant testing and rebuilding to get everything to be ninety percent reliable. Robert had worked on almost all the designs and specifications on his own, refusing any support staff until it came time for testing. He had managed to get almost all of the tech functioning well and only the internal visor based head's up display require him to depend on someone else for his programming needs. The specialist was a young woman named Donna Ellis. Programming the HUD and the cybernetic interface took quite some time and Donna was often in the lab working while Robert completed his development. The last of the programming allowed him to integrate the HUD and the remote control systems into his last lab test.
Then it was time for a field test.
Part II
The hot desert air is still and quiet as the black and red suit of armor streaks across the sand. The man in the armor is standing up and riding, what appears to be a metallic plank approximately thirty-six inches in length. Two micro-fusion motors are thrusting from the back of the unit and the man standing on it is leaning forward, crouched down as if preparing to spring.
With his helmet on, he is breathing chilled air and monitoring his internal heads up display as he drives his vehicle across the desert sands faster and faster. "Ellis, I need you to compare your telemetry and readings with mine. I am seeing instability in the gravity repulsion and gravity conversion field. Can you confirm?"
"Racer One, I can confirm your readings, you are heading southwest at one hundred twenty miles per hour. Your gravity reading are fluxuating. I recommend you slow to eighty and maintain that until we can stabilize the gravity settings. You are cleared to commence vertical assent."
"Copy, there is an nearby ravine on my map, I will use it for the first test."
Racer One, slows the board but still marvels at its speed and smooth ride. I may never get back on a skateboard again. This is what the Silver Surfer must feel like.
Sliding into the ravine, he triggers the gravity redirector and targets the ravine wall. Kicking the board against the ground, it skips up and is now riding the ravine wall as easily as it rode the ground seconds ago. His suit and the board are both sharing a gravity field that has been redirected toward the wall, so that down for him and anything he touches is wherever the bottom of the board is pointed. His magnetic boots assist him in maintaining his grip on the board but the transition is flawless.
He rides the board and stays close to the ground while he checks the readings. "Temperature spike, still within safe parameters, gravity transition, smooth and by the numbers."
"Command copies, gravity redirection, five by five. Congratulations, Robert. It's one thing in the office to ride your skateboard on the ceiling. It's something else when you can ride the canyon wall."
"Thanks, Donna, but we are not done, no back patting yet. Going to push it up the cliff in a full vertical climb." Racer One turned slowly up the cliff face, fifteen degrees, twenty five degrees, forty-five degrees. At sixty degrees, the temperature needle red-lined, there was a difficulty with gravity shearing, when the force of true gravity and the force of the redirected gravity tear at each other, violently.
"Abort, abort Racer One, specifications exceeded." Donna maintained her professionalism and was ready to trigger the remote abort if necessary.
"Negative, shearing was expected, repulsor thrusting to compensate. Do not abort." Robert triggered the hand repulsors with his palms pointed behind him providing additional thrust. This periodic thrust, eased the trembling board and reduced the stress on the engine.
As he approached a ninety degree angle to the true ground, he increased his additional thrust and the Sled picked up speed, stopped wobbling and shot up the cliff face. Setting the board to auto-redirect to true gravity as he cleared the cliff's edge, he turned and using the repulsors pushed himself so as the board reset to true gravity it would land on the ground and not plummet back into the ravine. Those hours in the simulator had just proven their worth.
The board reset gravity norm, allowed it to return to the ground and its gravity repulsion system kicked it so as it approached the ground, the greater the source of true gravity, the stronger the repulsion, preventing the board from ever touching the earth even in a free drop to the ground. Only a person with augmented strength could withstand the gravity backlash the board experiences as it drops at terminal velocity. Robert used the repulsors to reduce the speed of his descent so there was less gravity rebound as the board landed.
"Looking good out there, I have everything you just did on the spycams. We can go over the footage later when you get back. I am noting a drop in your power profile. The Skrull power-plant is holding up but you are losing power faster than we expected. You should head back."
Robert looked at Donna in his HUD display and noted her short braids falling behind her back, and her smooth dark complexion with those oh, so bright, and cheerful eyes staring into the camera and thought maybe he could turn in a bit early. They had been putting in an inordinate amount of hours preparing for this test and with only a few issues, this could be considered an unqualified...
What was that? A glint of light in the distance. There shouldn't be anything or anyone out here for miles.
"Command, I am heading out to investigate a flash of light about five miles from my position. Track and lock. Keep the spy eyes on me." Racer One turned hard to port and increased his speed.
What he found when he got there was stranger than he expected. The light was reflecting off of a military belt buckle. This buckle was connected to the belt of one of fifty different soldiers who were marching in-formation across the desert. Their formation was excellent and as he approached he slowed the Sled until he was moving at the same speed as the formation. No one seemed to notice him.
It's not every day you see a man on a floating skateboard, what's with these guys? They act as if they don't even see me, mused Robert.
Speeding up, he moved to the front of the formation and maintained his distance from the front of the group. "Hello, Sergeant, can you hear me?" They kept moving, oblivious to his statement.
Looking at the group more closely, Farrell decided a more vigorous effort might be needed. "ATTEN-HUUT. Company halt!" And just like that, the group stopped. And stood there frozen.
Now that they had stopped, Farrell was able to get closer and noticed the men were dirty as if they had marched quite some distance. A couple had stopped sweating which meant heat exhaustion was in their future.
"Donna, what do you make of this?"
"Mass psychosis or hallucination, possibly drug induced?"
"Is there a base they could have come from nearby, within walking distance?"
"There is a plasma destruction facility about twenty miles from here."When aliens attack the Earth, this place is where alien tech that cannot be reverse engineered and may be too dangerous to leave on Earth, is destroyed. "It is where the Skrull power plant in the Sled came from. These guys would be elites, nothing normal should have been able to do, whatever this is."
"I need you to call for backup and send them to the plasma facility. I am going to head there when I am done here. These guys look like hell. I am going to see if I can get something out of one of them. Send some retrieval squads out here to pick them up. There is not a lot of cover, but what little there is we will have to make due."
"Company. Attttt. Ease. The men assumed the parade rest position with their legs split apart an their arms crossed behind their backs. I walked directly up to the sergeant in the front of the formation and gave him a gentle slap on the cheek.
"Sergeant, can you tell me how you got here?" He blinked as if he were waking from a deep sleep.
"No, sir. I remember getting ready to relieve the commander of the watch when a strange man and a tall woman pushing a giant floating sphere just appeared at the gate. I don't remember seeing then drive up, they were just suddenly there.
Then the little man, who was floating a few feet above the ground, took out a keypad and there was this high pitched sound. I don't remember anything after that. Short man, tiny mustache, big head, bigger helmet. Once he took off his trench coat, I remember something I had seen on the news about New York and the Fantastic Four. He looked like the Wizard, and the woman, Titania."
You have got to be kidding me, two members of the Frightful Four in the middle of the desert? And what was in the ball, a bomb, a doomsday device, a picnic lunch? What else could go wrong?
At that moment, the Gravity Sled indicated a power surge and its remaining power dropped to forty percent from sixty percent and his armor system indicated his power reserve had just dropped to twenty percent.
Great. You had to ask.
Part III
Racer One's Gravity Sled, flew close to the surface of the desert with the back end of the board riding higher than the front end. Manipulating the Earth's gravitational field and using miniaturized engines salvaged from a Skrull space craft that crashed nearly a decade ago, this amalgam of technology would not have been the first thing anyone would have expected to see tearing through the desert.
As the Sled manipulated gravity, it also stole molecular energy from the surface of the planet and used that energy to power itself and to restore power to the armor of its pilot. As a side effect, it did not churn up dust in its passage as it stole the energy from the dust and it fell immediately back to earth. Unfortunate for that pilot, the time it will take him to reach the Plasma incineration facility will only increase his reserves by four percent. With time, he could restore a respectable amount of energy to his exoskeleton. But time was a luxury he simply did not have.
As he approached the base, he activated his HUD's telescopic enhancement and could see the large orb described by the sergeant and he could also see Mary MacPherran, the superhuman known as Titania, wife of the Crusher Creel, the Absorbing Man, standing next to it. She was wearing a new outfit, still relatively revealing but not that horrid purple thing he could see in the SHIELD database records.
As he approached, he took several new shots and sent them back to headquarters for entry into the field handbook. Robert Farrell, agent of SHIELD had no intention of confronting her at all. She is listed as one of the more dangerous metahumans on the planet and he wanted nothing to do with a physical confrontation with someone who could bench press an Abrams tank without breaking a sweat.
Increasing his speed, his intent was to fly past her and try and catch the Wizard unaware before she could lumber into the fray. All he had to do was to keep them busy until the SHIELD Tactical Squad showed up in ten minutes. Against these two, ten minutes was a real long time.
Activating his radio bead communicator, he announced to his command liasion, "Donna, I am making my final approach, I am going to lay down some smoke. This will slow her down and keep her off my back. I don't see her using any technology."
"Understood Racer One, records confirm her lack of interest in any kind of tech. She relies on her near-invulnerability and super-strength. You are not authorized to engage her under these conditions. You don't possess any weaponry that could even slow her down."
Thanks for the vote of confidence.
She continued "Keep them out of that ship. SK773 was scheduled for complete demolition today and has been fit with plasma charges sufficient to turn it into slag. It is currently in the fourth quadrant of the blasting region of the field. Internal base cameras went off-line as he entered the base, but he was headed to SK773 before we lost visual."
"Understood. Making my final approach." Farrell prepped his wrist based launchers with six smoke grenades taken from his belt. Similar in design to his old rocket systems, these were designed to deliver heavy smoke, in wide dispersal patterns. Since there was little wind, the smoke would last for nearly fifteen minutes.
Aiming in an expanding circle, the grenades were fired simultaneously and shot out in a firing blossom of reactive oxygen contrails. MacPherran did not appear to have been aware of the approach of Racer One. The Gravity Sled's engine was very quiet, especially when moving below forty miles per hour. Once the grenades hit the ground, Titania turned around and the last thing Farrell saw was her face frowning up before the smoke obscured her.
Farrell increased his speed and directed the sled into jump mode. Rather than go through the smoke, he would jump over it and Titania and head directly into the base. The sled had a limited flight capacity. But Farrell had no confidence in its ability to deliver at the moment.
He had been on this base several times before, but had never paid attention to how close it had been to headquarters. Or maybe he had subconsciously come this way so he could stop here after the field tests. He knew the base well and with the short range sonic imaging provided by his helmet he would be able to find his way to the blasting field without having to feel his way. The imaging was crude but better than a white cane.
Once he landed he fired a second salvo of smoke grenades behind him obscuring the path into the base. It was unlikely she had been here before but it did not hurt to cover the area with smoke to slow her down. You can never be too careful when dealing with supervillains. Activating his own jammer inside of his suit, if she and the Wizard were using any standard communication tech, they would be temporarily unable to send or receive.
Weaving quickly through the base, there were pallets of decommissioned equipment awaiting destruction assigned by number and specification of the types of equipment. There were five of these destruction facilities in the US, but the others handled far more dangerous equipment than this one did. The Nevada base was assigned to destroy equipment with low military capacity.
Most of what was out here had been stripped of any potential research value and was simply awaiting liquidation. Larger items or more complete ones were taken apart and itemized unless duplicates were already available. Everything out here had a manifest and an identity. SK773 was an old Skrull ship found nearly a decade ago when the Super-Skrull first came to Earth and had his first confrontation with the Fantastic Four.
Back then it was a treasure trove of information and almost everything had been stripped out of the ship. The New York research group had decided they had gotten such a new flux of alien technology with the recent Skrull invasion, they would simply transfer SK773 out here for demolition so they could play with their new toys.
Farrell had looked through it just like he did anything that ended up out here for an opportunity to recover what others may have thought less useful. It was his nature to try and salvage anything he could. Growing up in the inner city, he almost felt a compulsion to repair or reuse anything that could be made to work. SK773 had no systems that had not already been seen or studied elsewhere at this point so Farrell had no idea what the Wizard could be looking for and wasn't paying attention when he was hit by a beam of excited protons fired from the Wizard's patented Wonder Gloves.
The Wizard had stepped out from the Skrull ship when his scanner indicate the approaching signature of active Skrull technology. In the last few months with Skrulls popping up everywhere, his search had grown more dangerous and he was confident what he was looking for was close. Only the Skrulls had the metagenic technology he was looking for because of their malleable genetic code. Having dispatched several in his quest, he had no problem with another.
He did not recognize the black and red armor, but if it was another Skrull, he was going to unmask it with the proton beam, electrocute it and then get back to work. The transporter system here was intact and perfect for his needs. Shooting this Skrull did not seem to be very difficult but he did not change to his default form. Was this a local super fool he did not know about? There was something vaguely familiar but no matter, he won't be alive long enough for me to make the connection. He tapped the tips of his fingers together to alter the electron density and prepared to fire again.
That was unexpected. How did he know I was coming? Suit's had a power surge and is now offline. "Ugh. I'm hit Donna. I don't know how he made me, but he was waiting in the door. Whatever he hit me with temporarily shorted my armor systems. I am face down in the dirt. Reboot in progress."
Donna Ellis was the field technician who was providing support during the field test of the Racer One armor. She was a beautiful black woman who wore her hair in militarily precise cornrows. She was standing over a holographic display of the base and she was attempting to place a marker on both the Wizard and Titania. Warning lights were flashing in the base as the alert message was routed that a possible incursion from the Frightful Four was imminent. Other technicians were setting up in the room and taking over terminals that had previously sat empty during their field test duties.
Donna was attempting to boost the signal gain as her instrument showed the armor temporarily offline. Fortunately the bead comm was not routed through the suit's primary power. "I am using the spycams but there is a jamming field near you. I can barely make you out. You have seven minutes until the Tac-Squad arrives."
We have so got to do something about this power fluctuation. I did not intend to be using the suit in combat and it is just not ready for prime time. "Reboot, complete. Oh, damn. He is coming out of the ship and headed in my direction. Moving..." This is not going like I hoped. How did he know I was even here? Incoming!
This time the energy that flashed toward him was more like electricity, with a jagged formation starting at the Wizard and suddenly exploding in Racer One's direction. Only his timely dive, prevented him from catching the full brunt of the lightning from the Wizard's outstretched hands. As it was, the Racer One armor was smoking in several places and the stench of ozone filled the air.
Okay, enough of that. My turn. Racer One pointed his left gauntlet, armed with offensive ordinance and let fly two HE micro-missiles capable of blasting a hole in a tank. The Wizard's hands changed their formation and then the missiles struck their target with a powerful explosion. There was the flash of what looked like a force field coming online and that was consistent with the Wizard's MO.
The shockwave shook the ground where the Racer was getting to his feet. Without stopping he fired two more in the general direction of where the Wizard was. With his right hand he called the Gravity Sled to him and it moved to him and he put his foot on it. As the smoke cleared, He saw the Wizard lying against the Skrull ship in a crumpled pile. He could see his unshaven face and he looked tiny and old. Frail was the word that came to mind. "Command, the Wizard is down. Can you get me a location on Titania?"
The smoke had been annoying and obscured her sight, but once the shooting started, Titania had no problem orienting on the fight. Rarely inclined to user her super strength to leap, she decided the smoke was too damn thick to see through and she would jump to where she heard weapon's fire. Her radio went offline as soon as the smoke hit so she figured the little man on the surfboard was responsible. A jeep broke her fall after the second jump and she could not have timed her landing any better. The explosions from the guy in red and black completely blocked the sound of her crashing down. Now with this chunk of ship debris, she was going to make this little problem go away.
"I'm right here, big boy. Nighty-night." The last thing Ferrall saw was the hunk of wreckage that knocked him off his feet and pinned him under it. There was a moment of searing pain as his rib cage gave way and then everything faded to black.
Part IV
"Robert. Robert. It's time to get up." My mother's voice is sweet to me, but the bed is warm and I don't want to get up on this cold New York morning. I can hear the wind blowing around my project in the Bronx and it's that wind that says, its cold out here, this morning. You don't want none of this. So I snuggle back down under the blankets and try to wait her out. She goes into the kitchen and I can hear her moving pots and pans around. I think she is making breakfast. She knows how to get me out of bed. But I wait for as long as I can because I know when I get up and touch that cold, linoleum floor, I am going to be really awake. So I drift back to sleep and it is good.
"Robert. You have got to get up. Your suits systems are all in the yellow. Wake up, Robert!" Donna Ellis shouts and this time I hear her. All thoughts of oatmeal and bacon retreat as I remember where I am. And all of the pain that comes with it. I can't breathe. My chest feels tight. And every time I try to take a deep breath, it feels like I am drinking fire. I am unable to move. Not even a little. There are sharp shards of metal piecing my legs and arms but I am feeling them so I still have motor skills. Then I remember.
"I'm here, Donna. Can you read me?" No answer. Not a good sign. Might be the rubble. Gotta get out of here. I put my arms up at the last second when I heard her voice and saw this huge chuck of metal smashing into me. As soon as Titania hit me, my suit lights all turned yellow and the last thing I remembered was the quick burst of repulsor fire before I was completely smashed backward and buried in a nearby building. That burst of repulsors is probably why I am still alive nursing one or maybe two broken ribs, rather than marveling at my shattered spine and wondering what color wheelchair Donna would be picking for me to zip around it. But I am not out of the woods yet.
I can't get much leverage and that means I can't use the limited strength this exoskeleton gives me. I must have hit a water main because I can hear and feel cold water flowing down onto my armor. Looking at my busted HUD clock, I can see it has only been a few minutes since I ended up here. Think. Think. Think. The Gravity Sled. It was designed to lift up to ten tons. I am certain that what has me pinned is less than that.
"Activate remote control, voice activation, Gravity Sled." The HUD indicates the sled is just a few feet from me but it is upside down, so it will not be able to push against the ground and move the wreckage. More challenging but doable. Instead of lifting the wreckage using the sled as a lever, I will float the wreckage by reducing the force of gravity in the area. It will likely drain the sled to a barely operable level but it can't be helped. Not unless I plan on changing my name to Wreckage Man. Ouch. No laughing. The other problem is this will require I get off my butt and push my way out before I run out of power.
"Activate gravity field, five meter spread." The rubble trembles and dust falls around me and near me but nothing moves. Not good. "Increase anti-gravity output twenty percent." I can hear wood snapping and more water splashing, and I can feel just the slightest bit of movement near my feet. "Increase gravity area thirty percent." A warning light comes on indicating less than eighteen percent power remains. Got to pick up the pace. I can see tiny beams of outside light breaking through the dust and can get up on my forearms. I pull my legs up under me and work myself into a crouch. I trigger the emergency power on my suit and feel it hum to life.
"Increase power output twenty five percent. Pulse in five seconds. Four, three, two one." Push! AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!! My body screams out as five tons of rubble give way to my efforts and I can see debris flying in every direction free of the force of gravity with the addition of my boosted strength. The water droplets floating in the air, languidly spinning create gravity rainbows as they dance free from the fundamental force that holds the universe together. For a moment, I feel hopeful and start to think maybe I have been going about this all wrong. The gravity rainbows fade as the sled shuts down power and enters conservation mode. It has less than ten percent of its total charge remaining.
I look like hell. My suit is damaged and most of the memory metal is retreating into the main exoskeleton showing only the interior functional frame of the suit. It is still capable of functioning, but it is now in energy conservation mode as well. Meaning, no more fighting. Start thinking. Why did they come here? What is in that ball? Okay that is a good place to start. I drop the board and activate it. I sounds like its grumbling but it starts up and I direct it back toward the front of the base. When I reach the giant sphere, easily fifteen feet tall, I notice the control interface on the front of it, and a light indicating the sphere is active. Looking it over, I realize this is not a weapon. It looks more like a containment device. We use something similar to ship dangerous metas to prison facilities when we want to keep them sedated, contained and controlled.
"Command, can I get an ETA on that support?" No response. Oh well, might as well have a completely awful day. There is an input spike and I draw my computer interface cable into the micro-access port. What do you know. Its one of ours. It says its from our New York branch. Now I am beginning to get nervous because I am remembering something about the Wizard. I run an access code and its locked, but with the code crackers I carry it should take about thirty seconds. The Wizard had a run in with the Fantastic Four less than six months ago and it spread out into the street. The report indicated there was a woman there who was believed to be related to the Wizard and a metamorph there.
The sphere opened and a super-frigid blast of air came out of the device. When the fog cleared, I was not sure what I was seeing. It looked like a large lump of concrete in a barely humanoid form. It was about nine or ten feet long draped backward into a medical bay inside the ball. Suddenly the form sat up. The sand in the area began to rise up and slowly swirl around the ball. The woman who was fighting with the Wizard and the FF was called...
"Cole, no!" I was distracted and did not hear the Wizard or Titania as they were coming back with a huge amount of equipment riding on one of the Wizard's gravity disks. The voice was the Wizard and the tendrils of sand that were swirling around our feet were surrounding him and encasing him in a ball of sand. The creature called Cole stepped down from the device and strode out to meet Titania. It waited for her to strike. MacPherran did not disappoint. Her blow caused an explosion of sand to be blasted away from the creature. Then the creature backhanded her and she disappeared in a cloud of sand and I could hear her shouting fade away into the distance.
Okay. She just took out two of the world's most dangerous super-villains in less than ten seconds. If I were a betting man I still had about five minutes before I could expect any help. So it was time to see if reason would be any more useful than just letting her kill the Wizard.
"Cole." I kept my voice calm and modulated. I took off my helmet. There was no point in keeping it on, the information it was giving me was depressing anyway. "Cole, can you hear me? Please stop what you are doing." I could hear the Wizard's anguished choking and knew he would not be able to last much longer.
"Cole, can you tell me why you are doing this?" Use the subject's name, try and establish a rapport. God, I hope this stuff they taught me in the academy is actually worth something. She stopped moving toward the Wizard, and turned toward me.
"Why do you care? When I kill him, the world will be rid of a problem and no one will miss him."
"Uh, while that may be true, miss, I don't think you really want to do that. If you did, you could have already done that. So what is it you really want?"
"I want my body back," and when she said that I heard something crack from inside the cocoon of sand she was holding the Wizard in.
"Miss Cole, if you agree to let him go, I will put the scientific capabilities of SHIELD at your disposal. We will do everything we can to cure you."
"Do you think you could?" This was the first time her voice had anything that sounded like a human voice. It was filled with uncertainty and a little fear. Until now, she had a voice like a giant, booming and just a bit terrifying.
"Yes, I think we could. Just loosen your grip a bit and we can talk about it." I could feel my tension starting to ease up a bit and I could feel myself starting to have just a bit of hope.
"Round Two, Girly." Titania appeared dropping down from on high like a bomb. She landed directly on top of Cole and after her crushing death-from-above attack, she landed blow after blow and the sound of each strike sounded like a bomb blast.
The rock-like substance covering Cole began to crack for a second and Cole gave off a terrible howl as sand began to come to her and fill up the cracks in the armor around her. And then she started to grow. While she was growing, she began to fight back and gave as good as she got. Titania has a reputation for being able to go toe to toe with the Hulk, so in theory I was not worried about her. But if this got out of hand, someone was going to get hurt.
Part V
"Don't just stand there like a daft idiot. I need your help." The Wizard was wiping sand out of his face and eyes with his right hand. His left one hung uselessly at his side.
"Is that how you talk to someone that just saved your life?"
"You're the same idiot who shot missiles at me, managed to get buried alive, and opened the cannister that allowed Cole to get out?"
"Technically."
"Then you are an idiot. Now get over here before they get finished and remember who they both hate, a lot. I don't have both of my hands at the moment, so you will have to do. Did you make that suit?"
"No, but I adapted all of the technology that it's using."
"Okay, you're a talented idiot. You know most of that stuff is out of date, right?"
"Yes, I know that. It's what they give me to work with."
"You know, if you worked for me, you would never have to deal with substandard, twenty year old technology. I mean those repulsors look as old as time. Could you even stun a kitten with those?"
"Look old man, what do you need me to do? This is all the equipment from SK773, why are you stealing it? You said it yourself, don't use old equipment."
"Unless it has properties you have not invented or considered yourself. And this does and I haven't. I needed the metagenic transporter equipment that was used to transport the Super-Skrull. The condition I inflicted on my daughter combined with her mother's metamorphic nature, has made her organically unstable and unable to control her powers."
He dropped his head and a bit of shame entered his voice as he rubbed his broken arm. "I could not stop what happened to her in New York so I kept her sedated once I found her in the sewers. Her powers had continued to operate and she was absorbing mass there."
"So you want to use this to separate her organic from the inorganic matter."
"He can be taught."
"What about her powers, what's to stop her from doing, well that?" He and I both turn to look at the battle between Titania and Cole and the shockwaves from their fight was creating a dust cloud out in front of the base. The upside will be that no one will have trouble finding this place.
"I created an inhibitor collar, but it has to go onto her organic flesh. That is where you come in." I am going to lock on to her signal and teleport her to me. You put the collar on her and then we are out of your life."
"I can't do that." I couldn't believe I said it either. "I promised her my help."
"Look at me, you dolt. Do I look healthy to you?"
When I looked at him, I realized what I was seeing earlier, he did look frail, sickly even. He has lost weight and his eyes were sunken and glassy. "You're dying."
"Cancer. And me, here without a Cupie doll. Yes, I am dying and feeling a bit of remorse for what I did to my daughter in the womb. You can't help me. And you can't help her. No offense, you have a bit of mechanical talent and with some training, will one day hold your head up as a world class engineer. But you know nothing about genetic engineering. And SHIELD knows just a bit more than you do, but only Reed Richards and maybe that would-be, two bit, world-conqueror Doom, know as much as I do. I made this problem and I have to fix it."
The fighting had grown quieter and the cloud was beginning to blow away. Cole had grown to over twenty feet tall and had an unconscious Titania in her hand as she strode back toward the base. And us.
"Give it to me." He handed me the inhibitor collar. My number of choices had been reduced to just one. Unpalatable as it may be, I could not stop Cole and I could not help her if this did not work. Please let him be as smart as he thinks he is.
"Stall her. I have to calibrate this thing. I just need a minute."
Refitting high explosive rounds, shock rounds and plasma rounds took ten seconds. I hopped onto my board and shot off into the desert. Cole saw me coming and hurled Titania contemptuously away like a broken rag doll.
"You were working with them. You were not trying to help me." She raised her hand and the sand in the area began to move around and soon caused spires of sand to begin whipping around me striking and smashing as I weaved through their lines. I did not want this, but I had only cold comfort that these weapons would not have stopped Titania so I might not hurt her to badly. But I did not let that stop me from trying to.
I emptied both clips and the desert lit up with explosions, lightning and two balls of burning plasma which fused parts of the creature into pools of molten glass. I blasted off one of her arms and she still kept coming. Despite its low power, my board was a thing of beauty, leaning into and out of the spires of sand I moved around and reloaded my last set of rockets.
"I'm ready." The Wizard's voiced crackled over my comm bead. "You will have to be right upon her. I will only be able to pull her from the mass but the device does not have enough power to pull her to me. I will free her but she will likely be able to begin using her power seconds after being free."
"Then wait for my signal. I won't even ask how you got this channel."
I set up the last of my high explosives and made my last run on the giant. This time I worked to shoot the legs from the central body. I surmised she was in the center mass of the body and using her powers to control this giant form. I took the left leg with two hits and the right with three. She toppled forward and used her arms to try and stand as I got closer. The board sputtered and died as she swung at me. I leapt clear of the board and using the last of my suit's power to leap inside the reach of that arm. "Now."
Cole's arm had begun to reach back as I ran underneath her body. I reached into my belt to grab the inhibitor collar. Then I could see the body of sand glowing with a green light and suddenly the desert was glowing green. The colossal sand body stopped moving and then the body of a young lithe woman fell from the sky in front of the form. I caught her and she was light and small in my arms. I snapped the collar around her neck and the sand form above us, buried us alive.
I covered her with my body and waited. It took him less than a minute. He was using his Wonder Gloves to move the sand and Titania was standing at his side, only a little worse for the wear. She looked as if she had a nasty sunburn and was covered with mild abrasions. She was one tough woman. I admired her amazing body and then hoped to never see her again. I began to hand the unconscious form of Cole to the Wizard, but he gestured and Titania came to me instead.
"Hey, I was doing my job," MacPherran said. "She's tough, she can take it." So I gave her over.
"If you're going, you better be on your way." I still felt conflicted but I was trusting my intuition. It seemed like the right thing to do. Peter told me to trust myself, so I would.
"You were not bad out there. In my younger days, I would have torn you a new one."
"You wish, old man."
"You know this means the next time I see you, the kid gloves will be off." As he is saying this, he and Titania have stepped onto a glowing disk and begin to float away.
"You mean, if you can get up out of your sickbed."
"I'm a villain, kid, we're like cats. We've got nine lives. But the next time I see you, I don't want to see you in that busted old suit. Catch." He flips something down to me. "Make yourself something nice. What will I put on your tombstone?"
"Racer."
"Racer, it is. Try not to get killed until I get back to you. Come, Titania, all of this heroism is getting cloying."
Looking off in the distance I could see the tactical squad approaching from the east. I put the Wizard's anti-gravity disk into my belt. Looking at the tattered remains of Racer One, I could not wait until I could get back to reverse engineering this thing.
"Racer One, this is Command, support is on its way."
"This is Racer One. I see them. The bad guys got away, but they didn't get anything. Put some coffee on Donna, we are going to be up all night."
FIN
The Rocket Racer, Cole, The Wizard, Titania, and SHIELD are all © Marvel Comics. All Rights Reserved.
'Gravity Rainbows' © Thaddeus Howze 2010. All Rights Reserved.