Chapter 81: Street Cleanup

Chapter 81: Street Cleanup

Perry raised a brow staring at the faux wood grain inches away from his helmet.

“As much as I appreciate the sentiment,” Perry said, poking his finger through the bolt, driving the lock right out of the wood and causing the door to swing open.

“We are on a bit of a time crunch Chase,” Perry said before glancing at Spangle.

“We’re going to the front line at the corner of Anubis and Elaine.” Perry said. “Do you need a ride?”

“It’s as good a place as any,” Spangle said with a shrug. “Sure. I can only run so fast.”

“Don’t you dare -ACK!” Perry shouldered Chase and Spangle and flew out the broken window, aiming for the street where Hardcase was turning the night into day with her floodlight and tracers.

“Set me down next to the mechsuit!” Spangle said, pointing.

“Got it!” Perry said, coming to a halt beside Hardcase and dropping off his passengers.

“Slow down any ones and twos that get past us, can you do that? Perry asked Chase.Ñøv€l--ß1n hosted the premiere release of this chapter.

“You owe me a new door!” Chase shouted back.

“I’m good for it, just help out!”

“Of course, I’m gonna freakin’ help, you put my daughter in front of the prawns, you maniac!” Chase huffed and turned away directing his attention to some of the prawns climbing nearby buildings. The giant monsters stiffened and collapsed back into the flood of prawns being slowed by Hardcase’s hail of gunfire.

“That’s the spirit!” Perry clapped Chase on the shoulder and turned back to Spangle, who was doing something rather interesting.

Spangle tapped on Hardcase’s clear cockpit to grab her attention and motioned for her to lower the floodlight.

Once it was a bit lower, Spangle put the massive floodlight over her shoulder and threw a fistful of glitter up and into the incredibly bright beam of light.

Perry’s helmet automatically dimmed as Hardcase’s spotlight turned into a riotous mess of glittering color, accelerating into lines of bright light only perceived as dark streaks across his eyeballs.

The approaching prawns got chunked, and the ones who didn’t seemed to struggle to move, covered as they were in glitter. Perry could see dimples in the prawn’s bulletproof skin, where the incredibly hard material was being nearly punctured by the weight of the glitter.

“Thanks,” Spangle said, leaning against Hardcase’s floodlight with a heavy breath. “That was a lot easier than when I do it myself.”

“Wow, thanks.” Wraith said, landing beside them in the moment of breathing room. “How often can you do that?”

“Every two minutes or so, maybe three more times, after that I’m strictly debuffs.”

That’s not a lot of time.

“Alright, let’s do what we can while we can!” Perry said, yanking a Tomward’s Floating Dazzler out of his helmet.

“Close your eyes!” Perry said before hurling the crystal into the midst of the new wave of prawns barreling towards them.

Luckily the prawns didn’t understand English, and were incapable of closing their beady eyes.

Unluckily they didn’t have too much trouble gripping the ground with their outrageously tacky little stub-legs.

It slowed them down, but not much more than that.

“Let’s go tip them!” Perry said, rushing forward with Wraith and Hardcase, getting under the giant monsters and flinging them into the air.

One after another, the creatures were hurled upward, tumbling lazily in the air, wiggling to find their balance.

One well-placed shot from Hardcase sent them spinning through the air toward the wall.

Perry mentally calculated the amount of time it would take them to fly over the wall, and shook his head. Not quite fast enough.

“Shoot them each three times,” Perry said to Hardcase, who nodded and switched to full auto, peppering each of the floating prawns with a burst of gunfire.

They tore through the approaching prawns, creating a wake of prawns like a speedboat.

One of the monsters lunged forward unexpectedly and Perry caught the creature’s wicked mandibles across his chest, bringing back memories of his first battle against the armored caterpillars.

It’s amazing to me how far I’ve come, Perry thought, whipping his sword off his back and relieving the monster of its mandibles before putting the long shard of volcanic glass through its brain, causing it to shudder to a halt.

The mandibles had left a scratch in his armor, which was rapidly fading.

Individual prawns were no longer much of a threat to him, but Perry liked having video games to play, people to play with, stores to shop at, pretty girls to shop with, beds to sleep in...

All of those things required homo sapiens and the elaborate concrete constructions they nested in.

Perry saw the tail of a prawn disappear into a broken hole in the side of a nearby apartment building.

“I’ll round them up!” Perry shouted, flying in after the prawn.

It wasn’t the first one into the building. Perry could hear screaming and breaking wood ahead of the ass-end of the one he was following.

Perry turned his jets of and streaked past, dragging the sword along the monster’s armor and unzipping it as he blasted past.

“I, um, sorry.” Brett said, flinching away from the robot’s gaze.

“You’re lucky you pose no tangible threat to either me or the train. I suggest you put your powers to work defending your city rather than attempting to shirk responsibility.”

“Responsibility!?” Plagius demanded, his mood turning instantly. “They tried to lock me up! For an accident! They wanna keep me in prison for the rest of my life because they think I might be a bad guy! What responsibility do I have to them?”

The enormous metal man frowned, idly watching a civilian run screaming down the street, chased by a wriggling prawn, showing no interest in helping.

“Consider it your responsibility to yourself to prove that you’re not a villain. That you’re a human.” the chrome giant said with a shrug. “Or perhaps your responsibility to not be a bitch and do what is required of you.”

The prawn caught sight of the two of them and changed directions, charging them, stampeding across the trainyard, bowling forklifts and carts out of the way as it focused on the two of them, air rushing in and out of it’s mandibles as it barreled forward.

Brett flinched backwards with a yelp, closing his eyes as red flashed in front of them.

I’m not dead?

When he opened his eyes again, the prawn was twitching in front of them, mortally wounded.

“There. A head-start.” The metal man said, motioning impassively.

Could I? Brett thought, creeping toward the twitching monster.

“You might want to do your thing before it dies,” The chrome giant said, seemingly bored.

Stirred into action, Brett lunged forward and placed his hands on the creature’s body, unleashing his power.

OOOH MY GOOOOD! Brett’s eyes widened as a rush of power throbbed through every cell in his body.

A minute later, the prawn stopped twitching.

“Yeah! HELL YEAH! I’m gonna track down a thousand of those things tonight!” Plagius shouted “And I’m gonna beat them half to death and drain every last one of them!”

His heart was hammering in his chest, and he felt like he could lift tons with no effort whatsoever. He felt like a god in human form.

“Whoo!” Plagius jumped twelve feet in the air, proving that the feeling was more than just a chemical rush. He really was that strong.

“Thank you!” Plagius shouted over his shoulder as he ran back into the street, scanning for the nearest Prawn.

“You’re welcome, Brett,” Matador said, still standing impassively in front of the train, arms crossed.

Plagius bounded down the street until he spotted a prawn munching on the side of a building, seemingly burrowing into the concrete.

“Listen up, you oversized caterpillar, I’mma -ACK!”

The prawn casually whipped Plagius with its tail fin and sent him sailing through a building.

“Okay,” Plagius coughed out some drywall dust as he pushed himself to his feet. “Obviously this is going to take a little effort.”

He bounded pack out and latched onto the creature’s back, going on a merry ride as he tried to drain its power.

After a few seconds, it managed to buck him off before slapping him with its tail and embedding him six inches into the asphalt.

“Ow.” Plagius groaned, staring up into the sky.

Then the mandibles were there above him.

“Crap!”

Adrenaline singing through his body Plagius grabbed onto the mandibles and instant before they locked around him, holding them apart while simultaneously draining the monster’s power.

It began to thrash about, slamming him into every nearby building and then some in a mindless attempt to dislodge him.

There’s gotta be a better way of doing this, Plagius thought as concrete dust got into his eyes.

Everyone’s score by sunrise: A ballpark figure

Paradox: 40 kills, 28 removals, 30 assists.

Hardcase: 5 kills, 70 removals, 50 assists

Wraith: 60 kills, 12 removals, 5 assists,

Spangle: 35 kills, 0 removals, 80 assists.

Chase: 0 kills, 0 removals, 60 assists.

John Gabras: 80 kills, 0 removals, 0 assists.

Matador: 120 kills, 0 removals, 1 assist.

Plagius: 3 Kills, 0 removals, 0 assists.