Useless: Male Superhero in a Reverse World
Chapter 29

When Donadd’s shuttle arrived at CERN in the middle of the night, the first thing they noticed was that the power was off.  Sister in Law handed out night vision goggles to everyone except for Cygnus, Sally, and Emboss.  Deleria and Sister in Law had donned full body suits of kevlar.  Donadd landed the shuttle behind a copse of trees and the Blazers disembarked out into the night.

Donadd was about to leave with them when Sally stopped her.  “We’re going to need you to take this shuttle off the ground and monitor the situation from the air. Stay above the cloud layer. If we need to retreat it’s better if you’re flying already, and we can’t risk having it blown up by Hera.”

“Right. Did you want me to have the drone fleet on alert?”  Donadd replied.

“Keep them in orbit, that might alert them.  I’ll keep you informed if the situation changes.”

The Blazers sans Donadd sprinted towards the research building that the server data had indicated was the location where the kidnappings were taking place.  As they approached a hurricane fence topped with razor ribbon, the flying supes carried over those who couldn’t fly or leap.  Deleria snuck in a hug and kiss when Emboss carried her over.  Emboss gently squeezed back.

Getting into the facility was fairly straightforward.  They flew up to the roof of the office building and went into the building through a roof access door while Cygnus disrupted the alarm system with a wave of her hand.

Sister whispered to Sally. “The control room is seven floors down this stairway.”  She pulled out two nasty looking blasters from her hip holsters.  

“New toys?”  Dan asked, raising his eyebrow as they maid their way down the staircase.

“It was a present from Donadd.  Don’t worry, these are set to stun.  If I fire off a few shots in succession they ramp up to kill and finally vaporise.”  She replied.

“Just don’t get hurt.  You’re the brains of this operation.”

Sally flicked Emboss in the ear with enough force to rip off a normal person's earlobe. “Quit flirting, we’re on the clock.”

“That actually hurt!”  He replied, laughing.

A spray of automatic rifle fire stopped their banter and made some of the Blazors press themselves against the walls of the stairway.  Emboss simply floated down to the bottom of the staircase and encountered two women security guards.  They had lights on the end of their guns.  He let the bullets ricochet off his body, causing one guard to drop as a bullet hit her in the foot.  The second ran out of bullets and then tried running for the door but Emboss put up a field in front of it, blocking her path.

“Mon pied!”  The wounded lady screeched.

Sister in law vaulted down the last set of stairs and unclipped a packet of super-coagulant. She tore it and jammed the contents into the wound.

“We’re going to cuff you, that stuff will stop the bleeding.”  Sister ripped the walkie-talkies from the pair and noted the frequencies they were using.  She crushed them afterwards and used Gatanaxian handcuffs.

“Where are the Hera agents!”  Deleria yelled at them.

The wounded guard spoke in a heavy accent. “Down the hall about thirty meters, they’re in a glass office overlooking the supercollider.”

“How many supes do they have?”

“I don’t know, something’s gone wrong.”  The agent started to whimper.

Sally kneeled down. “What happened?”

“We heard screams and then the power went out!” She said, “We were just paid to turn a blind eye.”

Sally moved them into a corner and said. “Don’t make a sound.  We’ll let the police know you’re here once this is over.”She turned to Dan.  ”Emboss, I want a force shield up as we progress down any hallway from here on out.”

“Right.”

Emergency lighting flooded the corridor with a dull red glow as they continued to the control room.  Emboss’s shield slightly distorted the group’s view as they walked.

A scream rang out in the hall in front of them.

Sally shook her head and said. “We have to move, people are getting hurt.”

They sprinted to the office.  The large space filled with electronic equipment, control panels, and desks was dark and quiet.  The team fanned out looking for anyone.

Emboss heard Obsidian over his earpiece. “Found them in the north east corner of the lab.  Or what’s left of them.”  He quickly dashed to find the rest of the group standing over a group of corpses.  They found one woman stylishly dressed sporting black hair, as well as two scientists and several men who looked like they should have been models.

Deleria shook her head. “What the fuck is wrong with their ears.”

Sister said, “Don’t go near them yet, let me have a look.”  She knelt down and pointed a pen sized camera and light at the ear of the scientist. “It looks like something had burrowed into the ear.  I’m turning on the camera.” She put the pen’s tip inside the wound. “Looks like complete cranial evacuation.”

“What?”  Emboss asked.

“Something sucked out her brains.”

Deleria shuddered. “Who the fuck would do something like that.”

Sister turned off the pen light. “Something that must have been resistant to the control pucks and was able to fight back.”

“Well shit. Donadd?  Donadd!”  Sally said while pressing her fingers to her throat.

“Yes Sally?”

“Send the fleet down here as soon as you can.  Make sure no living creature leaves the building we’re in unless told otherwise.”

Donadd’s voice crackled. “I’m on it.  ETA is in five minutes, I need time to deorbit them.”

At that point Emboss started to notice a blur running around the lab before he got punched in the gut, surprising him.  He didn’t move an inch, but this strike was definitely superhero level strength.

“Looks like we’ve got a speedster, people.”  Dan yelled.

Obsidian scoffed. “I don’t see anyone.”

“Well I’ve just been punched twelve times in the past few seconds.”  Someone is here.

“Let me handle this.”  Cygnus raised her hands and emitted a cloud of diffused phosphorescent plasma out into the room.  The group heard a grunt and Emboss saw the blur slow down enough for him to put up a bubble around it.

The group gathered around the bubble to observe what Emboss had snared.  They saw a man looking around in all directions darting his gaze instantaneously here and there.  His arms and legs were a blur.  A few moments later he stopped and passed out.

“What happened?”  Sally said. “Why is he unconscious?”

Sister replied. “Emboss’s forcefield is hermetically sealed, the man must have burned up the oxygen inside the bubble quickly, trying to escape.”

Sally waved to Emboss.  “Dan!  Drop the field, it’s killing him.” 

Dan grimaced. “I don’t like this.  There’s no telling what he’ll do.”  He waved the field away and the man dropped naked to the ground.  Sister was on him in a moment and slapped cuffs on him.  Examining his neck they found a control puck.

Sister looked at Cygnus. “Girl, you’re always so good with computers, could you pop this off him?”

Cygnus stared at the nude man.  Her eyes glowed white and then a puff of smoke exited the computer and the man seized up, straining the alien handcuffs but not breaking them.  He then collapsed. “I can’t remove the computer, I only broke it.  From what I can sense, he’s going to need major surgery to remove it.”

The man started to squirm as he recovered.  “Get this fucking thing off me!  We have to get out of here!  There’s a fucking monster on the loose!”

Sally placed a firm hand on his back. “Speak calmly and we’ll all get out of here quick.  Who was controlling you?”

“Tanya.”  He replied, pointing to the dead brunette. “One moment I was getting shot by a crazy girlfriend, the next a thousand needles went into my neck and controlled my body.  It made me fast.  I’m sorry I tried to kill you man.”

Emboss walked to him. “What’s your name sir.”

“My name is Gordon, Gordon Frass.”

“Once we get that computer off your neck we can let you go.  Can you tell us about the monster?”

“Tanya and the two scientists were pulling men through a hole in the ceiling, saying it was transdimensional or something like that.  They threw a couple back up through the hole.  The guys they kept were really strong, one could fly.  But the last one, the guy started turning into black slime and the computer couldn't control him.  He managed to kill everyone except me, my computer went into survival mode after the monster killed Tanya.  That’s when you came in.”

“Where’s the monster now?  I think we can handle him.”  Sally said. “I’ve dealt with worse things.”

“He went into the tunnel.”

“Shit.”  Sister muttered. “That tunnel goes on for kilometers.”

Sally pointed to Cygnus and Emboss.  “You two go east.  I’ll head west.  He couldn’t have gone far.

…

Sally dared not to break the sound barrier in the tunnel with so little space for her to fly down.  The same few meters of magnetic equipment flew by every second.  She was about to turn around when she flew into a netting of black slime.

She stretched the slime and it let go of the tunnel to wrap itself around Sally.  The heroine could hear it communicate with her in her mind.

“Why are you trying to kill me!  I told the Judge that I was only performing that research for the good of mankind!  I felt the electric chair start and then I fell into this place.  That bitch tried to take control of me.  I showed her.  I know everything about Hera.  Her brain was delicious.  I’ve eaten so much,  I know so much now.  I never thought raw brain would taste so good.  How does your brain taste, girl?”

Slime entered her nostrils and her ear canals.  It slid under her eyelids and her supersuit.   Whenever Sally tried to pick it away, the slime would simply cling to her fingers and crawl up her arm.  When it slid under her panties she screamed.  A gob of black slime entered her mouth, poking her soft palate trying to find a way into her brain pan.  Sally bit down hard.

“Bitch!  That hurt!  You’re a tough nut to crack.  Maybe your eyes are softer.”  Tendrils attempted to slide around her eyeballs but were making slow progress against Sally Comet’s invulnerable body.

In the moment Sally was completely covered by the slime she wondered if she should use her laser vision on herself.  It was the one thing she was too scared to try.  Was her skin more powerful than the beam?  Or would her vision slice off an arm?”  She started to feel nauseous as every inch of her body was now covered by that wriggling black wetness.

“Holy shit Sally!”  She could hear Emboss’s voice.  Save me Dan!

“Don’t touch it!”  Cygnus yelled.  “This is a job for a blaster.   I’m sorry Sally, this is going to hurt… a lot.”

Sally felt intense heat all over her body and white light showed through her eyelids.  The black slime screamed incoherently and withdrew from every crack and crevice of Sally’s body.  Her suit was torn to shreds and half eaten by acid.  Emboss reached for her and pulled her away from the roiling mass of black goo.  It had turned itself into a lump and was racing down the curving corridor of the collider, squealing like a pig.

“Aaaaargh!”  Sally screamed and her eyes glowed bright red.  She let forth searing beams of energy and cut the thing repeatedly.  Chunks of concrete started to fall from the ceiling as her rage cut through the roof and walls of the tunnel.

“Sally, stop!  Let me catch it with the beam.”

“It dies now!”

“No!  You don’t know if the beams will kill it!”  As they ran down the hall the creature was now nine football sized slimes, each squealing and fleeing by slinging itself down the tunnel.

Sally saw a ball of force envelop her and she wailed in frustration.  She didn’t hold back and wide white beams poured forth from her eyes, trying to break her force field cage.  Down the tube she saw Dan run and put up a second field just as the slimes were about to jump through a drain set in the floor.

“Stop it Sally!  I can’t keep up two fields for long!”

“Let me kill it!  I can do it!”

“Sally, do you trust me?”  Emboss held one hand out to Sally, another towards the black slimes that were reconstituting each other and swirling around trying to find a way out of the field. “I need you to trust me this one time.  Your eyes only cut it, it’s still moving.”

Cygnus yelled at Sally.  “Would you listen to the man!  If your lasers can’t kill it, I doubt my plasma can either.”

She maintained the blazing white hot beam for a few seconds longer, the beams sputtered out and she then collapsed on the floor of the bubble.  Emboss immediately dropped the field around Sally and the field around the slime intensified.

“I don’t have much time.  I’m exhausted.”  Emboss fell to his knees.

“Danny I’m coming!”  Donadd’s voice rang out in his ear piece.  The concrete wall of the collider tunnel blew out and a  drone  poked its robot head through the hole. “Get in!”

Emboss stumbled holding the force field ball in his hands, Sally’s all out efforts to breach his field had him completely gassed. “Donadd whatever you’re gonna do, do it fast.”  The hatch closed behind him.

“I’ve got you honey.”  The drone backed up and then rocketed upwards.  It broke through the clouds and then it’s path curved into low earth orbit.   Emboss could see the lights of Europe below him.

“What are you doing?”  The black slime bubbled and swirled. “You can’t kill me!”

Donadd showed up on the monitor in the drone.  “If he can survive being thrown into the center of the sun I’ll eat my hat.”  She looked at Emboss. “Dan, I’m going to need to vent you into space once we hit dawn.     You can move the force field fast right?”

“Yes I think so.”

“When I let you go - shoot the creature as fast as you can directly in the direction of the sun.  I’ll come pick you up.”

“You can't do this!”  The black slime screamed in Emboss’s mind.

“I can and I will.”

Donadd's voice sounded distorted over the comms channel.  “Five, four, three, two, one!”  The sunrise showed through the window of the drone.  The cargo hatch opened up, shooting Dan into the vacuum of space.  He winced as he aligned the fading forcefield with the blinding white light.  With his last ounce of power he accelerated the creature to relativistic speeds towards the sun.  He could hear the thing screech in his mind as it rocketed away.

Glowing hot plasma started to appear around him as he tumbled back to earth.  “So this is what reentry feels like…Couldn’t even kiss the girl at the end…I’m useless.”  He thought as he blacked out.  

END OF BOOK 1  Useless: Male Superhero in a Reverse World