The First: EVO Uprising (23 page)

Jiang Shi, finding an opening, screamed as she blasted them both with a stream of pure fire. Blitz quickly snatched Rosann pulling her close while turning his back to
Jiang Shi
trying his best to shield her from the flame attack. Hard-On yelled in rage as he rushed to his sister and Oliver’s aid, while Lady Tech opened up a volley of concussive type energy blasts that slammed into her knocking her off the car and into a nearby wall. Knocked out cold, she hit the floor hard with a violent thud.
 

The flames around Rosann and Oliver died down. Blitz unscathed held Rosann tightly as the parts of her he was unable to protect healed before his eyes. For a second as they locked eyes the world and all the madness around them disappeared.

“
Are you both alright?” Adrian frantically yelled.
 

 “
Yeah,” Blitz said.
 

“
I’m fine,” Rosann nodded as she continued to stare into Oliver’s eyes.
 

“
Seriously?” Hard-On snapped at the both of them.
 

“
What?” Rosann snapped back.
 

He was about to lecture them both about ill timing of finding love on the battlefield, when another eruption came from the pit Abe and the Draugr battled in, this time expelling a body. Abe bounced violently off the concrete creating smaller craters before coming to a rest. He sprung to his feet in front of his dumbfounded team. He looked like a man who had descended to the seventh level of hell looking to return.

“
Sarge!” yelled Adrian, “you alright?”
 

“
Don’t call me Sarge,” Rogers snapped. “Someone give me a gun that blows big holes.”
 

The back of Erica’s mech armor opened up and jettisoned a massive black rifle that looked like an amalgamation of a Barrett M82 and an AS50 sniper rifle. Rogers caught it just as a savage grinning Draugr crawled out of the crater for round two.
 

“
M1 Ballistics rifle,” explained Erica. “Basically a compacted railgun with…”
 

“
Don’t care,” Rogers yelled.
 

Figuring out where the safety was and how to turn it off, he took aim pulling the trigger.

Parts of the rifle emitted a bright blue light followed by a whining sound. The shot sounded like it came from a tank; Rogers’ strength handled the kick back, but did not stop him from sliding back two feet. The velocity of the round shattered windows as it hit the Draugr dead center sending him and his sword flying, while producing a bullet hole the size of a human skull in his chest.
 

  
The beast of a man roared as he went crashing back into the crater Rogers and he created.

“
He’ll be up in a minute,” spat Abe. “If you all are done with your team poses, Hard-On, with me against Hagar, Rosann you got Ms. Neo-Nazi over there, Lady Tech after you’ve bagged and tagged the slimy sack of shit you’re standing on, you and Blitz take care of the rejects on the police outpost.”
 

“
Sir, yes sir!” all four sounded off to Abe’s orders.
 

Adrian quickly transformed back to his human form extending his hand to his sister offering his DNA and power.

“
Wonder twins time?” he asked, believing she needed extra strength to take on the sadistic female titan.
 

“
No thanks,” Rosann grinned. “I plan to put this asshole’s power to good use.”
 

She darted off leaving the team. With a roar and Mach 3 speed, she cocked back and delivered a superwoman punch taking Nachzehrer off her feet knocking  her into a nearby Sephora.

Nachzhehrer quickly recovered exploding out of the women’s cosmetics store covered in makeup. She snatched up a heavy metal garbage receptacle hurling it at Rosann who darted out of the way. It went flying into the Hard Rock Café on the other side of the street. Rosann picked up speed once again going on the offensive whizzing in and out finding openings to strike as the now frustrated female Titan tried to swat her like a fly.    
 

Rogers and Adrian armored up again went hunting for the Draugr, flanking opposite sides of the crater.

The monstrous Viking with recovered axe in tow this time did not wait for the hunters to come as he exploded out of the crater with a bellow and a powerful leap clearing four stories.
 

“
Aw shit,” Adrian growled. “It’s on.”
 

 
The Draugr came down cratering the streets. The impact fired large chunks of concrete like shrapnel. Roger’s let off two rounds from the building leveling rifle. The Draugr spinning around blocked both headshots with his armor-covered forearm. The armor piercing projectiles tore through his dense armor like butter stopping at his tree trunk for a forearm, which just healed in seconds.
 

The Draugr bellowed as he took another leap, this time aiming for Hard-On with axe ready to fly. Adrian’s metal form could have tanked the axe blow. He chose a tactical move, rolling out of the way as the Goliath of a man sliced into the concrete with his blade. Back on his feet, he leaped into the air howling as he delivered a powerful haymaker caving in the side of the behemoth’s helmet.  
 

The Draugr answered his mighty blow with a forearm backhand knocking him clear across the street. The strike buried him into the side of a building.

With Adrian clear through unconventional means, Rogers let off two more rounds, which the Draugr blocked by digging in while folding his arms across his body and tucking his head to tank the shots.

Hard-On groaned as he pulled himself out of the imprint he made in the building dropping to the ground. He quickly snatched up an abandoned New York Taxi cab hurling it at the Draugr. He cackled as he sliced it in half as if it was a grapefruit. The front half of the vehicle crashed into a parked Mercedes, while the rear half shattered the storefront of a restaurant.

“
Ideas?” Adrian turned to Abe.
 

“
Keep flanking him,” muttered Rogers, “the head is the weakness. We either have to cut or blow it off.”
 

“
Easier said than done,” Hard-On returned.
 

“
You got anything else better to do?” Abe asked him.
 

“
Nope,” he shrugged.
 

The Draugr took the offensive this time charging like a mindless bull going for Abe. As he shook the streets of New York with each stomp Rogers opened fired with three more rounds from his rifle, before ducking and rolling for cover himself as the Draugr howled taking a wide swing with his axe hoping to slice him in half.

The only thing his weapon ended up slicing was the storefront of the building Abe stood his ground. Before he could wrench his blade from the concrete he imbedded it in, Hard-On leapt onto his back and began to rifle his helmeted skull with repeated shots. He was about to rip the helmet off when the Draugr spun around and threw himself backwards into the building he slashed pancaking him in between it.

Adrian held on as the Draugr, who showed great agility for a man so massive, executed a tumble roll to steamroll him into the concrete. Adrian refused to be bucked off, until the mountain of a man simply reached up and ripped him from his back hurling him into the concrete. Hard-On had seconds to cover up as the Draugr brought a boot down on top of him driving him further into the street.

Abe drove the monster from off of his teammate with two well places rifle shots to the chest and skull.

Erica finally stepped off a broken Ghoul palming his upper torso and pulling him out of the crater she created. The large palm of her armor shifted and cracked open allowing a malleable device to wrap around his upper torso locking into place. He began to groan as the device glowed and hummed. Erica released him allowing the device to take off with the Ghoul into the skies of Manhattan back to the Tornado.  

“
Nerve Hammer sends a pulse of electric shock straight to his nervous system causing a seizure and paralysis.” Erica referred to the device. “Won’t kill him due to his regenerative healing. The same power creates an electromagnetic propulsion taking him back up to the Tornado. Maxine will lock him into one of the cyropods till we’re done.”
 

“
Good,” Oliver powered up taking to the air again. “Now let’s take care of the rest of this damn freak show.”
 

“
Anchimayen, my boy,” Revenant motioned, “fetch Jiang Shi, before that nasty machine decides to take her away from me. I still have need of her, and while you’re
at it, come close as well.”
 

Obedient Anchimayen climbed to his feet standing on top of the police outpost. With an extended hand, the cloaked child deployed the power of telekinesis to lift his downed team member quickly pulling her over to the roof of the outpost they stood upon laying her at Revenant’s feet. He then scurried over standing next to the sinister looking man.  
 

“
Wendigo, my love,” Revenant smiled, “time to go play.”
 

Wendigo’s eyes grew as wide as a full moon the second Revenant removed the leash from her collar. She quickly rose to her feet and strolled forward while holding down the volume button to her iPod pumping the sound way up in her headphones. She took a step off the roof of the police outpost causing the whole area to tremble as she hovered in midair.
 

“
Miss, detecting a massive energy reading from the woman in front of us,” emitted Maxine from the inside of Erica’s cockpit, “on a sonic level.”
 

“
How massive?” Erica asked.
 

“
1,000 MHz and rising,” indicated Maxine.
 

“
Full shields up now!” Lady Tech screamed frantically. “Patch me into everyone! Guys! Run or fly you’ve got to get out of the area now!”
 

“
We’re kind a busy here getting our ass kicked!” yelled Adrian. “Ooof!!”
 

Hard-On groaned as he took a full axe swing to the chest taking him off his feet and knocking him into a parked car. The impact sent him and the parked car into a nearby storefront. Before the Draugr could advance on a downed Adrian, an airborne Blitz stopped in his tracks with a staggering electrical blast.

“
Guys I’m telling you, you have to leave now!” Erica
screamed.
 

 
Rosann still using the Ghoul’s speed easily sidestepped a charging Nachzehrer. She grabbed and slammed her face first into a parked car before spinning her around and launching her skull first into a brick wall of a building.
 

“
What’s the problem?” Rosann asked, finally patching in.  
 

“
In about five seconds we’re about to witness death by stereo,” Lady Tech frantically responded.
 

“
What, Ms. Cue ball floating over there?” Rosann scoffed. “ I can…”
 

“
No you can’t Rosann!” Erica forcefully yelled. “Run! Run like you have never ran before! Run!”
 

Erica miscalculated by two seconds.

Pulsating through the woman’s headphones was “Inbred Evil” by the rapper Boondox. Wendigo extended her left hand and opened her mouth, unleashing an attack that emitted throughout the entire city. Blitz without hesitation dove down into the streets at break neck speed swooping in and snatching up Rosann frozen with shock and fear taking her into the skies with him. Though Oliver was fast enough to evade the initial blast, he was unable to outmatch the aftershock while holding Rosann. It clipped him in midair separating both him and her. Blitz spiraled out of control flying into an office where he smashed through several rows of cubicles, while Rosann knocked several blocks across fell helplessly to the streets below.  She cursed as she had no choice but to try her best to maneuver in mid freefall and cover up as she came crashing down on top of an SUV obliterating it on impact. She laid there writhing in pain saved by the Ghoul’s slightly dense physiology and regenerative healing repairing her injuries.
 

Rosann, Blitz, and those not in the blast zone vicinity
were the lucky ones.  Those not of a superhuman level or wearing high-powered armor were killed instantly. The force of the blast sent both Rogers and a recovered Hard-On flying through several buildings, even Nachzehrer felt the wrath of her own teammate sending her sailing from the sonic blast.  Anything not bolted down was sent flying, whole sides of building where blown off raining glass and rubble everywhere. The only ones left standing aside from Wendigo were Revenant and Anchimayen who stood behind her in a strange purple energy dome shield generated by the sadistic leader, the Draugr now bleeding from both his ears and nose, and Lady Tech in her high powered S.A.M. armor.
 

“
Shields withstood near point blank blast,” Maxine reported, “holding at forty percent, power reserves at eighty percent. Miss, you’re bleeding from your nose and ears, scans show your vitals are elevated drastically.”
 

“
Prepare to retaliate,” Lady Tech panted, “weapons set to deadly force… full power to weapons…”
 

“
Miss… even with the S.A.M. armor you cannot withstand…” Maxine cautioned.
 

“
Stop
arguing
with me Maxine and do it,” ordered a frustrated Erica.
 

“
Weapons on full power…” Maxine obeyed. “Miss Incoming at three o’clock!”