No Master Plan Here (Madness Runs in the Family) (15 page)

             
Anansi slid back across the couch and began playing with his coattails. Denise looked to him. She could feel the adrenaline beginning to pump into her system.

             
Archangel turned back to face them, and as Anansi said, launched himself forward. Anansi disappeared in a flash of light, reappearing a dozen paces down the hallway on Denise's left. Denise rolled from the couch and started sprinting down the right hallway a split second before Archangel sent the couch into the wall. A blast of electricity seared the wall as Denise ran, cutting off as she gained the hallway and lost line of sight to Spark.

             
Denise ran like her life depended on it, which it probably did. When the hallway lightened and she began chasing her shadow, she dipped to the left, barely dodging a blast of electricity. She planted her left foot and spun, scattering a handful of metallic flakes in the air. She completed her spin, shifting more muscle into her legs to run faster, and sprinted again. When the next blast of electricity dissipated harmlessly into the cloud of particles, she laughed in spite of herself.

             
“Come back here, you-” Denise darted around the corner at the end of the hall as the last of the particles either settled or were consumed and a blast of electricity seared a hole in the wall beside her, losing the last of what Spark was screaming to the sound of her own breathing in her helmet. She shifted more, lengthening her legs, her armor stretching to the new dimensions of her body. She crossed the distance of the hallway, past laboratories and other hallways, until she came to a set of double doors. A blast of electricity caught her on the shoulder, burning through and searing her arm. She howled at the pain and darted through the door before Spark could get a second blast off.

             
This particular laboratory was more of an operating arena, with raised ceilings and a second floor observation room. It was mostly empty, which, like the hallways, presented the issue of a lack of cover. Denise gritted her teeth, blocking out the pain in her shoulder, and sprinted for the other side of the room, where a single door awaited her.

             
A blast of electricity soared over her shoulder, welding the door in front of her shut just as she reached it. Spark hovered in the entrance to the lab, arcs of lightning orbiting the shapes that represented her arms.

             
“That's better. Now. Tell me where the serum is.”

             
Denise panted, watching as Spark approached. “Ruthers...Heather. You're not seriously going to kill me, are you? What about all we've been through?” She looked for something to use as cover, but the only desks were too far away from where she currently stood. She wouldn't make the jump.

             
Spark laughed, continuing to approach, hovering just off the ground. “Realizing you chose the wrong side won't save you. This is for the greater good, and nothing you can do will stop us. If you tell me where it is, I'll make your death quick.”  Spark hovered in the middle of the room, still approaching slowly. Denise smiled. She stood straighter, confidence replacing fear in her posture.

             
“It was worth a shot,” she said. “Stone!”

             
A metal frame covered in mesh crashed down from the ceiling, landing over and containing Spark as she loosed a blast of lightning. She screamed as the blast connected with the mesh, and instead of the short, controlled burst, it continued, and with it, Spark's screams, until finally, she collapsed to the ground, reverted from energy to flesh. Spark gasped weakly, twitching on the floor with tiny arcs of electricity fitfully dancing around her body.

             
“Wow. That was not what I expected,” Denise said as she walked towards Sparks prone form and the cage. Stone walked down the stairs from the observation area, a pair of manacles designed for containing superhumans, including those that could project or become energy. Stone opened a door in the side of the cage and walked through, placing the manacles on Spark's wrists.

             
“Do you think Anansi is doing this well?” he asked as he pulled Spark up and tossed her limp form over one shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Denise shrugged as an explosion rocked the building. She sighed and started towards the door.

             
“We can hope.”

Chapter 15

             
Anansi laughed as he teleported away from Archangel's second attack, sending the man flying through the air and into the wall. “You're slow!” Anansi called as he dropped a pair of grenades. Archangel came back through the wall, plaster in his hair and on his uniform. Anansi rolled his shoulders, using the motion to disguise palming a tracking beacon from his belt. Archangel started stalking towards Anansi, hands curled into fists.

             
“So you've chosen to be slower to prove me right? I'm not sure how that works, but let's go!” Anansi dropped back into a fighting stance. Archangel closed the distance in the blink of an eye, launching a haymaker at Anansi's head. Anansi felt his dispersion field take effect, scattering the force of the punch and reducing it to something a bit closer to that of a normal human's punch. Anansi deflected it upwards and dealt an open palm strike to Archangel's stomach, driving him back a step and opening his guard for a strike to his left ear.

             
Archangel stumbled back another step, blinking as the blow disoriented him. Anansi pressed the attack, dropping low for a sweeping kick to Archangel's legs. Anansi nearly fell when his kick felt like kicking a steel girder. It threw his balance and broke his momentum. Archangel kicked Anansi in the chest, sending him flying. Anansi clipped the ceiling as he reached the apex of his arc through the air, sending him spinning. He hit the wall at the end of the hallway halfway between the floor and the ceiling with enough force to crack the plaster before falling to the tiles.

             
When his vision cleared, he saw Archangel caught in a web of black goop that clung to the walls, the floor, and the ceiling around him. As Archangel pulled, the goop would stretch, but as soon as he stopped pulling, the goop pulled his arm back into place and each time it was harder for Archangel to pull.

             
Anansi stood, dusting the plaster off of his coat. He shook his head to clear his senses and checked himself for injuries. Bruises, certainly, and while it hurt, he felt fine. “That went better than expected.”

             
Archangel growled and pulled against the goop again, trying to escape its embrace, and failed. Anansi smiled and leaned forward, still at a very safe distance from the winged man. “How do you like my Tar Baby?”

             
“Tar Baby? What are you, Briar Rabbit?” Archangel struggled again against the goop, making less progress than he had before. Also known as “working exactly as intended.”

             
“This is why you can't beat me. I'm smarter than you. I've got cooler toys than you. My girl is hotter than yours,” Anansi said, taking his eyes off of Archangel to count off the items on his fingers.

             
[You're monologuing, mister villain,] Kay sent. Anansi stopped as he was about to list another way in which he was better than Archangel and instead looked up at the trapped once-hero.

             
In response, Archangel spread his wings.

             
His big, white wings.

             
Completely untouched by the Tar Baby.

             
Oh, crap.

             
Archangel flapped his wings. The Tar Baby gave several inches, and it didn't pull back quite as hard as it had before. Several tendrils snapped.

             
Oh, crap.

             
Archangel flapped his wings again. More tendrils snapped, and Archangel's left foot broke free. Anansi cursed and spun to the hallway, pulling up a map of the building up. Kay highlighted several routes, and Anansi chose the one that led to the section of the research facility that didn't have any explosive or volatile projects in it. Galle had refused several times to provide the information about the nature of the projects, but what he didn't know Anansi had took wouldn't hurt him. It wasn't like any of the projects were interesting, anyways.

             
A snap resounded through the hallway as the last of the Tar Baby gave in to the strength of Archangel's wings. Anansi concentrated on increasing the distance between them. He had another Tar Baby core, but he'd not really anticipated needing it and only brought it as a just in case. Now, with the just in case looming over him, he felt a little silly.

             
“Bring up equipment list,” Anansi said. The list filled his screen and he used the neural link to scan through it. Shape charge cores, stun cores, explosive cores...Ah! There it was. Anansi grabbed a grenade and slammed a shock core into it. The beating of wings heralded Archangel's imminent arrival. Anansi ducked and slid, throwing the grenade up. Archangel altered course to catch the grenade, which exploded before he caught it, sending a scattering of particles into the air. The particles suddenly came to life, creating a mesh of electricity that coursed across Archangel's skin, causing his muscles to spasm and sending him crashing to the floor as Anansi returned to his feet and continued to run.

             
[That should keep him down for several seconds. I didn't expect that to work.] Kay sent a feeling of amusement and congratulations across the neural link.

             
“I was going to test that next time Tom was in the states, but I was pretty sure it would work on Archangel,” Anansi offered as explanation. He followed a prompt around the corner and paused, disabling the dispersion field to activate his invisibility generator. It was a gamble. Archangel had obviously strong senses, but how strong was merely speculation on the net, and he obviously used his eyes as much as anyone else.

             
Without the dispersion field, Anansi wouldn't be able to fight him hand to hand, but maybe he wouldn't have to.

             
[You keyed the entire electro-shock core project to Shockwave. Assuming that because Shockwave's invulnerability comes from a natural psionic field-] Anansi cleared the message without acknowledging the rest of it.

             
“Yeah, I know, huge risk, but it paid off. The plan now is to get him with the second Tar Baby and make sure we get his wings this time.” Anansi drew three more grenades from his rig, placing cores in each one and rolling them to different places, one down the right side of the hallway, one the left, and one back the way he had come. An image of him standing and facing towards him appeared in the middle of the hallway right over one of the grenades. He set out more grenades and began loading cores into them while he watched down the hall.

             
Archangel walked around the corner at the far end of the hallway, pausing when he saw the hologram of Anansi standing in the middle. The hologram turned to face Archangel, who sneered and threw a chunk of wall at it. The hologram disappeared in a flash as if teleporting away, the grenade blowing up at the same time. With a similar flash of light, another hologram appeared over the second core, down the right side of the hallway.

             
“You're going to run out of tricks eventually, Anansi,” Archangel called, ripping another chunk of plaster from the wall and throwing it with enough force that it would certainly injure if it hit. The hologram blinked out as its exploded, appearing to dodge the plaster again. “And when you run out of tricks, that's when I win.” Archangel pulled another chunk of plaster from the wall while the holographic Anansi gave him the finger. “Because without your tricks, you're just another norm punk without any real power.”

             
He pitched the plaster chunk at the holographic Anansi which appeared to hit this time, sending it onto its back. Archangel lunged forward, landing with his feet planted directly beside the holograph's chest. “Checkmate, punk,” he said and punched into the hologram's head.

             
“My thoughts exactly,” stated Anansi as he detonated the grenades he tossed up. Archangel looked down in disbelief as the hologram winked out, leaving just a crater in the floor. The grenades spun in the air, spraying black goo as they did, covering the man again, and this time coating his wings as well. Archangel roared and struggled against the Tar Baby, but this time, each pull, each attempt at escape pulled him tighter and tighter down to the floor until his face was adhered to the tile and half covered in the goop.

             
Anansi plopped down onto the ground out of sight of the enraged super and opened a channel to Mantis. When the static cleared, he said “Target down. You?”

             
“Target down on this end as well. How much collateral did you inflict?” Mantis responded. The verbal jab was spoken with a tone of irritation, and Anansi sighed.

             
“I didn't cause nearly as much as Mister Feathers. Do you have cuffs for him? I kinda glued him to the floor.”