A Superhero Story Chapter 23 - A Battle Without...

Seven blocks from the action, Azaria had to find a place to park. The police had cordoned off a four-block radius and another three were filled with prying spectators.

Pulling her mask up over her face, Azaria motioned for everyone to follow as she leapt up onto a building and started climbing. The only way there was probably going to be from above.

Kethri and Ruaia flew alongside while the others raced across the rooftops. It was obvious from the floating cars and debris where the epicenter was.
Hovering above city hall, right in the middle of town was the weird guy they had seen on TV.

They skidded to a stop at the end of the last roof. The man was already turned towards them, like he knew they were coming and where from. “Are you this planet’s heroes?” A surprisingly tenor voice came out from under the hood. Weren’t all villains deep basses?

Kethri stopped mid-attack from trying to sneak up on his left. “Are we what now?”

If they could see his eyes, they’d probably be rolling sarcasm. His voice certainly was. “Are you the ones who claim to defend this world?”

“I...guess...?” Amari squinted up at him. What was his game?

There was a pause and then the cars dropped to the ground. Police below jumped out of the way, narrowly avoiding being crushed by tons of metal.

The guy floated over and, in his smooth, suave voice, said, “I am Destro. I seek the heroes of this planet that I may destroy them and conquer this world.”

Cael snorted. “Destro? Destroy? We need to find you a better name, mate.”

The hood turned towards him. “I have found in my travels that a name is better remembered if it describes who you are. Do you not agree?”

“If this guy doesn’t throw in a contraction soon, I’m going to go nuts,” Kethri murmured.

The hood shifted towards her. “Does your name not describe you, Whirlwind?”

Kethri almost fell out of the air. “What? How did you-”

The man held up his hand. “Enough talk. Words mean nothing.” He pulled up his other hand and a car flew up with it to hover in front of him, already crumpled from having been dropped before. It swung around towards Kethri. She tried to dodge but the back bumper clipped her shoulder, sending her tumbling away. She smacked into a rooftop exit building and lay unconscious on the roof.

“Whirlwind!” Amari yelled. She looked over the edge for ammo and saw that chunks of concrete had been knocked free. She started grabbing the biggest pieces she could find and lobbing them at Destro. He dodged them easily, weaving forward until he was right up in her face, his hand on her chest. It seemed like he barely touched her, but a force knocked her back, almost sending her over the edge behind them. She lay there for a moment, stunned.

Azaria shifted slightly and a knife went flying towards Destro, aimed at his temple. He turned his head towards it and it came to a halt right between his eyes before falling a safe distance away from him. Those left standing took a step backwards. Who was this guy?

Ruaia hovered on the edge of the battle field, watching intently, waiting for an opening, observing his movements. She guessed that he had to have had some sort of telekinesis to make things move like that, and he had so many mental blocks on his mind that he had to have at least some telepathic ability as well. Yeesh. She needed to know more before she acted.

By this point, Kethri and Amari had recovered enough to stand and were glaring at each other over the gap, trying to make a plan through looks. Finally, Amari mouthed, “Distract him.” Kethri nodded and jumped off the building. She dropped to the ground and tried coming up from underneath. He looked down at her, pushing her back down. While she struggled to reach him, Amari ran across the roof and did a flying-leap, ramming Destro in the stomach and slamming both of them into the building behind him.

“Off me, you fool!” Destro snarled, disentangling himself from Amari. He grabbed the front of her shirt and threw her off the building.

“Whirlwind!” She shouted as she fell to the ground. Kethri chased after her, trying to catch up, but Amari was falling like a rock. She hit the ground on her back and just lay there in an Amari-shaped crater. “Ow.”

Kethri landed next to her. “Are you okay?” She asked.

Amari held a thumbs up, trying to hide a grimace, then let her arm drop to the ground. All of the air had been knocked out of her lungs, and her back was in excruciating pain. She needed a moment. Kethri, assured that Amari was at least going to survive, flew back up to join the fray.

While Kethri and Amari were distracting Destro with their attempts to fight him off, Amato had snuck his way across the street and had managed to get into one of the buildings. He had set up his sniper rifle in one of the windows near the top of the building. Squeezing the trigger, he sent a bullet flying through the air at Destro. Destro merely looked at the bullet and it veered off in another direction.

That direction just happened to be towards Antain. It hit him in the shoulder causing him to jerk the grenade launcher he held in his hands. He accidently pulled the trigger when the bullet hit him, sending a grenade hurtling towards a nearby roof top. It exploded, crumbling the roof, which was above where Amato had his sights on Destro still, but not wanting to risk another bullet in the melee. He was so focused on the chaos outside that he didn’t notice the roof caving in until it was already on top of him. He looked up as the first chunks of ceiling started to fall around him, and dove under a desk for protection at the last moment before the roof completely collapsed around him, trapping him under the rubble.  

Ruaia raised an eyebrow. She knew that move that Destro just did. It was quite possible that he was trained the same way that she was. Her brain whirred. She vaguely remembered her mentor telling her years ago how to counteract another telepath. It wasn’t everyday that she encountered another one, so it wasn't a skill she thought about often. She racked her brain, trying to remember.      

Cael had been fussing with something on his belt for the past few minutes. He pulled out what seemed to be a net that he had fashioned out of thin metal wires. He attached it to an arrow and shot it at Destro. Unfortunately just as the arrow was about to make contact with him, Kethri rocketed up from the ground, right in the path of the arrow. It hit her in the side, just below her ribs, and the net wrapped around her. The force of it knocked her into a nearby flagpole. Net and flag bundled together, and soon she was hanging, swinging, blue blood oozing from the wound in her side.

Azaria glared at Cael and pulled him behind a low wall, motioning to Ruaia as she moved so that all three of them were gathered behind it. “Either of you getting any bright ideas?”
Cael shook his head. “Other than getting our butts handed to us? Not a clue.”

“I’ve been watching, and I’ve figured out a couple things about him. He’s telekinetic and telepathic,” Ruaia said, glancing around the corner at him. He seemed to be waiting for something, which made her nervous. “He’s also obviously had battle training.” She didn’t feel like it was the right moment to mention that his battle training was the same as hers.

“That much is obvious…” Azaria muttered under her breath.

Cael seemed lost in thought for a moment. “Wait...how do you know he’s telepathic. Isn’t that the thing where you can read minds, or some crap like that?”

Ruaia looked at him pointedly. “No. It’s where you breathe fire and can lift a twenty story building.”

“Sooo...you’re telepathic?” Cael asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Are you saying that I can read minds, or that I can lift a twenty story building?”

“Well, you can breathe fire.”

Ruaia just shook her head. “We don’t have time for this,” Azaria interjected. “We need to make a plan and you two, you are not helping. At all.”

“I think I can help with that,” Ruaia said slowly. She didn’t know how much she wanted to reveal about herself yet, but this was kind of important. “I can block his telepathy.” I think.

“You are telepathic!” Cael almost shouted.

“Not now!” Azaria and Ruaia said in unison. Cael frowned and looked down at his feet.

“And you didn’t mention this before...why?” Azaria asked, turning back to Ruaia.

Ruaia sighed. “I didn’t know he had telepathy at first. Once I did, you called me over.”

Azaria rolled her eyes. “Alright fine. So what did you have in mind.”

The three got closer together as Ruaia described her plan. “I guess, if that’s the best we’ve got, we’re going to have to hope it works.” Azaria stood up, grabbing Cael’s ear and dragging him out with her. Destro had been hanging back patiently, waiting for them to finish planning. His confidence gave Azaria chills. Why hadn’t he attacked, or run away?

She whipped out both of her hip pistols and started shooting at him. Cael got his act together a couple seconds later and started firing explosive arrows. Destro easily redirected all of it, but it gave Ruaia the opportunity to sneak around behind him. She got close, trying to reach for a pressure point. The goal wasn’t to kill him, or mortally wound him, just subdue him long enough to get him back to the mansion for questioning. She was about to press her fingers between his neck and shoulder blade when his hand whipped back and grabbed her wrist.

“You almost had me for a moment there, Miss Longwei,” he whispered, smirking.

Ruaia’s eyes grew four sizes. “How do you-” Before she could finish the sentence, he pulled her around in front of him, right into the path of one of Cael’s arrows. It hit her square in the chest, singeing her and knocking the breath out of her chest. If it wasn’t for the fact that she was practically made of fire, it probably would have hurt a lot worse.

Destro took the still-gasping form and threw it at Cael and Azaria, knocking them over like bowling pins. Then he pulled one of Cael’s explosive arrows from his quiver, armed it, and set it between them. The resulting black knocked them all away. Ruaia, already teetering on the edge of consciousness, hit the ground and blacked out. Cael hit the low wall they had been hiding behind and his head snapped back into it.

Azaria was still awake, but she had taken most of the actual fire from the blast and was smoking a little all down her left side. Blearily and with ringing ears, she watched Destro’s feet finally touch the ground and walk over to where she was lying. His hand wrapped around her neck and picked her up by it until her feet were dangling in the air. She tried to struggle, but her senses were all messed up from the explosion and she couldn’t seem to get her bearings.

He was still wearing that smug smile. “This is all your planet has to offer?” He asked. He pulled her in close and whispered in her ear. “Pathetic.” Then he threw her into the rooftop. Her head hit the ground and she was out cold.