The Vespidian

Arc 12 Villainy 101

Chapter 10

Miss Universe. The Atom Smasher, City Crusher. Rank 9 on the Super meter. To say that this woman was not serious business was a straight-up lie. Other than Hubris she was likely the strongest Super here, Sanguine, of course withstanding. I saw the photos and watched the videos, but something tells me that the real deal is way worse than what I had seen. She was strong, stronger than strong in fact; she was in the top 10 rankings in the world.

What exactly did Miss Universe do? Well… she could control gravity. Increasing or decreasing it at will. Why is that strong? That would be simple; there was no escape. Not unless you were fast enough or strong enough to get out of her zone of control.

With an open palm, she pushed down. All at once, pressure began to build up rapidly. All the dust and debris, birds, and anything that dared fly pelted against the ground immobile. The earth trembled as it dented in around the entire crater. Ally and enemy alike straining against the immense weight bearing down. It began to ramp up. Building and building until there was a sudden pop. A void of sound as even the air buckled under the weight of her powers.

Xava and I strained against the pressure attempting to stay standing, but the moment that the pop resounded, both of us smashed against the ground. Our bodies sank into the soil as it cracked around us. My muscles, straining, ripping as they tried to flex and move. It felt as though my insides were about to be squeezed out like a toothpaste tube being run over by a steam roller! Then, nothing... everything felt light. Did I die?

Confused, I looked about, seeing that everything in the area had begun to float. Gazing up, I could see that the hand had been turned up and lifted, as it did everything within the crater lost all that bound us to the world. The ground soared away from us as we began to accelerate into the sky. We stopped, clustering before her as she moved fingers manipulating microgravity fields to move certain people into certain places. She was sorting us.

Now that we were closer, I could get a good look at her. Her form-fitting suit was a dark blue, nearly black with white blotches forming a mural of stars, a veritable sea of stars shifting slowly. Her face a void of swirling black pierced only by two brilliantly glowing golden orbs that moved as her eyes did. An elegant cape of shimmering colors hung from her back; it gradually changed colors from a translucent green to a haunting violet creating Aurora Borealis.

“Tecton, you should be more careful in the future.” Miss Universe said as her finger shifted each of the heroes to one side and everyone else onto the other. She paused, counting them, “What happened to Light Fly?”

Before I could even let out a peep, Burnout replied. She cackled like the drugged-out lunatic that she was, “We creamed that bitch and smashed her into-”

There was a slight pause in Miss Universe’s movement before her right hand poked a finger, singling out Burnout. The fingers curled into a fist, and as they did, Burnout distorted. Her body broke, splitting, twisting, shattering as it began to compress rapidly. It happened so fast she didn’t even have time to scream. She folded in on herself over and over again like some sort of twisted human origami, crumpling in on herself until she became nothing but a speck.

“Dust,” finished Miss Universe as the grain of sand that once was a person, just moments before had been Burnout drifted away on the wind.

Her gaze shifted to the rest of us. We were powerless in this void and vacuum of weightlessness. My wings couldn’t even generate friction in the air. This was bad. Definitely bad. The blood drained from every part of my body. She just killed Burnout like it was nothing.

Miss Universe surveyed us readily, “I should kill all of you. But I have questions. Tell me, what is it that your grains of sand think that you will accomplish here?”

“Us?” I asked, “You guys attacked us.”

“Kraken, though it can be erratic, does not move without purpose. Why this city? Why here?”

I… well that was... actually a good question. Why was Kraken here?

Molotov’s face twisted with pure evil, “Why Bronson you ask? Because someone has grown bored of waiting to be found and has begun to wonder if the seeker is even still playing the game.”

Miss Universe nodded for a moment, “Speaking in riddles will not help you. If you have nothing proper to add, then you will die here. Now speak, or I will crush you into oblivion.”

“Need me to spell it out? Nyet, and I thought you were one of the more witty ones.”

“Stop delaying. Your games wear my patience thin.”

Molotov smirked at her and let out the loud, deep, booming voice of the man that resided in that tiny little girl, “You fools have woken the sleeper!”

A sudden twitch at those words, the glowing eyes seemed to blaze as she yelled back, “LIES!”

“Nyet, The Sanguine Puppeteer has returned. And it is all because of you and your heroes not leaving well enough alone. You have no idea what horrors you have just unleashed upon the world.”

“That is impossible. It… it can’t.”

“Why not? Tell me, do you even remember it? What it has done? To you, to them, to all of us?”

“YOU… you are just distracting me.” Said Miss Universe glaring at Molotov.

Well, I suppose that wasn’t exactly a lie. After all, with Miss Universe all worked up, she clearly did not hear what I could. Though if I could barely make it out, I doubted that a human could hear it. A low roaring, the sound of a jet engine. As to where it was coming from, my antennae flicked about ascertaining that information. It was coming from… the south?

My head turned so that the large eye on the back of it could see in that direction. There was some sort of craft, and it didn’t look like a typical sort of airplane. It was too streamlined. Whatever it was, it was coming directly at us so fast that the clouds were warping, and it was punching holes through them, leaving spiraling openings as it barreled in our direction.

It wasn’t alone either. Specks, dots, a veritable swarm riddled the horizon like an angry host of insects. A loud grinding noise sounded along with alarms from the Citadel of Order. The massive turrets shifted, aligning to confront the encroaching craft. After a brief delay, the guns came to life, and the boom of the concentrated fire shattered windows below the Citadel. The roaring scream of the weapons made Miss Universe freeze up and turn in the direction that the hail of rounds were pelting.

The fleet rose higher, avoiding the shots and steadily going higher. The dots were becoming blobs: tracers, and the gleam of munitions streaking across the sky to meet them. Explosions distantly boom as some of the craft were taken out. Little poofs of smoke and debris falling. The rest kept coming. Closer. One was much more daring than the others— the closest, fastest ship. This one drew all the attention of the cannons and laser beams from the Citadel as though it had a death wish. It danced and weaved spiraling between the deadly streaks of smoke, narrowly avoiding the flashes of destruction.

Xava’s arm detached rising away from us as Miss Universe was distracted. Masked by the boom of the cannons, the back erupted, and it shot at Miss Universe in a rocket punch. It hit something and bounded up streaking into the sky where it exploded— a sickly green glow raining above us. The hooded figure flicked, sending Xava smashing into the ground below.

“More rats crawling from the shadows I see. Is this it? Is this your trump card?” Asked Miss Universe.

“It is one of them. Scared?” mocked Molotov.

“Scared? Of this rabble? I think not. You bring them where they are weakest to my power. I can’t understand your thoughts. Is this bravery? More likely, madness.”

“Not much of a difference between the two is there?”

“I suppose not, but oftentimes it ends in the same way. It’s best to know one’s limits.”

“Giving advice, how kind of you, but I don’t think we’ll need it if anything you should know your limits more than we should. Your power makes you arrogant, or is it just Hubris rubbing off on you?”

“Say what you will, but you will be held accountable for all the wrongs, all the crimes you committed.”

The boom of the anti-air ordinance was drawing closer, and Miss Universe’s attention turned back away from us. We were not a threat to her; at least she didn’t think so. That daring craft was much closer now. It was increasing speed and aiming right for us. Miss Universe lowered her hand, which held the heroes, dropped them to the ground, and quickly brought up her fist and punched it forward. A wave of gravity went ahead towards the craft, grazing it.

“Watch as I crush all your hopes into not but dust. You will learn your place, villains. Earth is not your plaything. We will stop you here, and we will restore order.”

“Da! Are you sure about that? You seem to be having trouble with just one ship. Do you think you can stop Kraken? We have tentacles everywhere... in every aspect of life. You strike down one tentacle, and many more will rise from the depths.”

Unbalanced, it spiraled the wind screaming around it as it spun, one of the wings detaching as it corkscrewed through the air. Spinning like a drill, it kept coming at us.

“I will deal with this interloper first, and then I will deal with you!” Miss Universe cast us aside and brought both hands up to stop it. All at once, the gravity returned, and we plummeted back down, smashing into the ground.

“RUN!” Shouted Molotov, already fleeing.

I didn’t need to hear that twice and grabbed Xava’s crumpled robotic body, scuttling away like a gigantic cockroach. Above us, an immovable object smashed headlong into the unstoppable force of gravity.

A wall of shimmering air marked where the gravity was so intense it might as well be solid. The craft crashed headlong into the barrier, spinning, glowing red as friction increased exponentially. It had so much momentum that it kept coming boring through the wall of force. Until finally, with the death cries of the molten metal, it collapsed in on itself.

We fled, running as fast as we could. My back eye was watching the terrifying events that were unfolding. All my senses were bristling and screaming that it was wrong. That was wrong, and I needed to get the hell away from it. My wings flapped, pushing me forward faster.

A light glimmered, a speck, no bigger than a candle flame. Then it grew. A surging, roaring, raging fire expanded out from the wall. The calm, collected, disjointedness of Miss Universe had vanished entirely as she grit and smashed both hands together using the full extent of her power to crush that thing. It only added fuel to the growing mass within. A seething storm of energy rippled yellow within the tightly packed sphere she had formed to keep it contained.

Miss Universe seemed to realize something far too late and cursed, “DAMN YOU, NITRO!”

At last, her power buckled. It collapsed. The shimmering wall cracked and splintered, seeping out the terrible power within as a shock wave exploded out. The sheer force slammed through everyone and everything. The light grew blinding, and the explosion tore through that whole section of the city. My back eye glazed over as it went blind from the blast. The retina seared from the intense light. The sound had faded into the brain, stabbing tone of silence. Pulses of shocks rippled through the air and surging with burning hot air. I dared not look back and clamored along with the other. Molotov led the way, powering her way through the distorting earth.

All at once, the power reversed, sucking, pulling, and trying to drag us back in. My arms thrust into the ground anchoring Xava and me in place as Molotov and Boris did the same. After a moment of disturbing silence Miss Universe’s power fully gave out, and the full brunt of the blast unleashed. A streaking blackened silhouette shot over us, smashing through buildings that toppled over in its wake.

We held on until the world grew still. My eyes peaked open, and I looked back to see a second crater overlapping with the first. The dust was still settling, but a dark towering shape loomed through that shifting haze. The Citadel still stood. Above us, the fleet of dropships had arrived releasing pods. Sowing the city with reinforcements before the craft streaked away fleeing the booming guns of the Citadel.

Distantly I could see the Heroes emerging from a tunnel that had been carved through the earth. They were hastily retreating into the shadow of their fortress. The first Battle for Bronson city coming to a draw as both sides were battered, bruised, and weary to continue. Our job was apparently done. Molotov motioned for retreat, and we fled into the city back to our lairs.

Xava and I flew through the city streets. I gazed over the destruction that the thing that had been thrown in this direction had caused. In a straight line, holes had been punched through anything and everything in its path. Following this trail of destruction, we came upon a crater that used to be a section of the gorge across from the bridge. Whatever it is was, it was embedded in the center of that gouged hole in the cliff.

My wings beat as I drew closer, keeping some distance as I inspected that hole. Sure enough, there was somebody in there, a beaten, battered body covered in black plates. Hissing hoses spewing a yellow ichor that floods out of the hole, making the cliff bleed yellow.

“You know what that thing is?” I asked Xava, who was sparking.

She jittered, her voice shorting out as she replied, “Parameters met… I, I believe that would be Ni… Nitro. Rank 8.8 endurance type. She makes ex- explosive blood from the kinetic energy that she absorbs and uses it as a weapon.”

“Is eh is she alive?”

“Vitals are nominal. She is very much alive.”

“Even after all that?”

“Affirmative.”

I drew closer. This was Nitro, somebody just as strong if not stronger than Molotov. A big fish in this already over stuff little pond. This is the person who is supposed to lead our base? She looked worse for wear. She looked like a crumpled mess, and I had my doubts.

“You sure she is alive?” I asked, reaching in and pull out the limp woman.

Her hand grasped onto my arm as she coughed, gasping, and gagging as a constant flow of yellow gushed out of her face mask. “Tall, dark, and... wasp? you must be Vesper.”

Ugh! I reflexively hurled her into the wall where she dented in. Yellow streaming from her as her body jerked, and her limbs moved at strange angles.

“What the hell! You a zombie or something?” I stared at her readily.

“Zombie? That’s a new one. I am more like a living, bleeding, explosive sandbag. Come now wasp, we can discuss this at length in the lair now give me a hand. It looks like a long way down, and I can’t fly as you can.”

“You eh not going to blow up again, are you?”

“Not unless the blood gets activated. Come now, you are unprofessional. I am your superior officer and deserve respect. I will require a tour of my new base of operations as well as a more thorough briefing on the situation.”

“Can we trust her?” I whispered to Xava.

“Yes, she is, no doubt Nitro. We are under her jurisdiction for the duration of this siege.” replied Xava lowly.

Ah… I reached forward picking back up the smaller woman who was leaking explosive blood everywhere, and I mean everywhere. I am glad that I don’t gotta clean up after her.

“Welcome to Bronson city! I hope you enjoy your stay.” I said, pointing her towards the city. Distantly a skyscraper collapsed with a low thudding boom. “Ignore that.” I reassured her.

Nitro seemed amused, laying in my hand, limply, “Seen worse.”