Nyte's Point of View
Goddess, that could've been bad! She'd lost track of Rich when one of Nethys' robots decided to crash the party and even ran into Future Hero! It was a miracle nobody got hurt. They were having a moment! Going to homecoming together was a major relationship milestone, and now it'd been soured by another Stinger tantrum, the story of her life, really.
Nyte scanned headquarters. Soldiers were at terminals, somebody was shuffling papers, and the harsh florescent lights were hurting her eyes. Let's see, let's see...there! She'd recognize that scorpion tail anywhere. Without wasting a moment, the Spider Queen stomped over to give her, um, future cousin-in-law, a piece of her mind!
"Nethys, what the hell was that?" she demanded. The robotic scorpion tail tracked her movements faster than the girl's human head could. When she looked into Nethys' glowing mechanical eye, Nyte saw red, literally! "How could you even consider an attack on the homecoming dance? You know Rich was there. He could've been hurt!" With every word, Nethys' tail drooped lower and lower, the metallic stinger on the end hanging in shame.
"I had to do something, Nyte," the Scorpion Queen defended herself. "There was pressure from the higher-ups to engage Future Hero, and we know he goes to our school. The dance was the only place I could guarantee a response."
Nyte scoffed. "Are you sure he goes to our school? Rich is the only boy as tall as Future Hero. Do you know any others?"
Nethys froze. She attempted to speak a few times, but choked her words back down with effort. At last, she said, "Are you being serious right now?"
"Of course I'm serious. I'm always serious. As I said, Rich could've been hurt! Future Hero showed up almost immediately after I lost track of him!"
Yesensia, excuse her, Nethys, when she was in uniform, started coughing and gagging, a violent hacking sound like clearing a blockage in a garbage disposal. Idly, Nyte wondered whether she was more machine than woman at this point.
"Typical," scoffed Hamburger Satan. "Your robots failed again, oh Scorpion Queen! Personally, I think Stinger needs a radical change in management!" She paused and looked around anxiously. "Direction! I mean direction! Yes, we need a change in direction. Our strategy is fundamentally flawed. Kleia's mutants, Nethys' robots, nothing we throw at Future Hero hinders him for long!"
"Yeah, and you think you can do better?" Nyte taunted. She was upset with Nethys, but she was still Rich's cousin. Her boyfriend cared about his family. She'd side with Nethys against a loser like Hamburger Satan any day.
The woman, nominally second in command to the great lady Jellyfish Hitler, rose up to her full height. She had long red hair, devil horns, elf ears, and an outrageous red outfit embroidered with a hamburger pattern, oh, and a cape! Who the hell wears a cape these days? Those ears looked weird as hell. Was she fully human? A mutant? Or perhaps an alien like the leader herself? Nobody knew. Nobody dared ask.
"Fufufu." Speaking of the leader, Jellyfish Hitler picked that moment for her dramatic interest. "My, our dear Hamburger Satan is ambitious!" she said meaningfully. Those tentacles dangling from her head vibrated with every word, making the alien woman sound like she was speaking underwater.
"I only wish to see us succeed, my lady!" Hamburger Satan genuflected and offered a cringing bow to the only person who outranked her. Social climbers, they were the same everywhere. All kinds of businesswomen had been sucking up to Mom, or asked their daughters to suck up to her, since she was leading in the polls. Goddess, being a mayor's daughter was going to suck. At least she was going to college next year.
"I assume you have a plan then." Jellyfish Hitler's demeanor was suddenly stern and businesslike, nothing like her usual light joviality. It pissed Nyte off! Jellyfish Hitler took a clown like Hamburger Satan seriously, but not her!
"As ever, I am at your service, my lady," Hamburger Satan simpered. Her cape fluttered, and she produced a gun, but no model Nyte recognized, and she'd played a lot of Call of Duty.
Jellyfish Hitler held out her hand silently, and Hamburger Satan offered the weapon for inspection. Their leader scrutinized it before handing it back. "Mmm," she said with grudging approval, "this might serve."
What was going on? She and Nethys looked at one another. The Scorpion Queen's red robot eye blinked, but not in any code Nyte could recognize. Silence seemed her best course of action right now.
"The upgraded weapons will be issued without fail, my lady." Hamburger Satan bowed again, and tucked the gun under her cape. "Trained cadres will be ready to engage Future Hero within the week."
Nethys' tail shot straight up. Nyte didn't know what to make of it. Since it seemed Jellyfish Hitler was done with them, they walked away. "Watch Rich at home, won't you? Make sure he's at least safe at your house."
"I plan to," Nethys vowed. Grim determination was visible in her single human eye. It would just have to do.
***
After thoroughly inspecting Future Chopper, Rich's neighbor, Reka, the Future Force's technical advisor, gave him some advice. "Ride around town, get used to being on your bike," she told him.
Future Chopper drove itself for the most part, but Rich could easily fall off if it took too sharp a turn when he wasn't ready. For that reason, he was on a kind of "familiarization cruise". Future Hero told his bike to push itself. They zoomed across town, and Future Chopper seemed to be training him, gradually upping the speed, getting him used to holding on in a variety of situations. It'd even let him switch to "manual" a few times, actually taking control. He was fairly certain the Endram Armor would protect him in the case of an accident, but it never hurt to be cautious.
"Sure is a nice day, isn't it, Future Chopper?"
The bike honked back once, which he took to mean "yes". At this point, Rich could easily visualize a map of Plano in his head, no GPS necessary. That was such a crutch in his first life. He'd forgotten how to find his way without it. Thankfully, it all came back to him after a while. No matter how fast they drove, the cops just ignored them. Perhaps they considered the private war between him and Stinger to be above their pay grade?
The sound of gunfire immediately contradicted him. "Head for the action, Future Chopper, somebody might be in danger!"
"Somebody" turned out to be the Plano Police Department SWAT team. They had a bank surrounded. Rich parked Future Chopper and approached cautiously.
"What's going on here?" he asked a cop who was holding a radio.
She jumped at being addressed directly, then sagged in relief when she saw him. "Future Hero? Oh, thank goddess. Stinger is robbing a bank. We're no match for them! Can you do something?"
The police knew who he was? Well, he'd been at this for a while. Rich supposed the story must've gotten out, at least bits and pieces. Before he came on the scene, Stinger was pretty much untouchable, or so he'd heard.
"Leave it to me, Ma'am," Future Hero said stoutly. If this were only basic Stinger soldiers, not one of their monsters, this would be easy work. He walked right through the front door of the bank, bold as brass. "Party's over, ladies! Give it up!"
PEW! PEW!
Sparks flew, and it felt like he was stabbed by a dozen burning needles. Future Hero covered his face and dived behind an overturned table. On the ground like this, he could easily see the hostages, a few unlucky customers Stinger forced to lie down on the floor of the bank. They looked at him with pleading eyes.
I can't let these people get hurt, he thought seriously. This was too much like the Blockbuster incident, where he lost his Mom. Suddenly remembering how the Stinger soldiers laughed at her dead body filled Rich with a terrible rage. He knew what to do.
Gripping the handle of his most deadly weapon, he cried, "Future Edge!" The purple blade slashed the table he was hiding behind in two, and Rich flung the chunks at the Stinger mooks to distract them.
With no regard for safety or comfort, Rich rushed the enemies, angling the energy sword to at least fend off a few of their attacks. He was no Jedi, but Future Edge was a lot thicker than a lightsaber. Red bolts from Stinger laser rifles deflected off the blade harmlessly, but some also struck his limbs, making him grimace as pain lanced through him.
"Take this!" With a double-handed swing, he bisected one Nazi biker girl, making blood spray everywhere as her body was cut in two. Future Edge was not hot and didn't cauterize the wound. It was just strong, sharp energy.
In only two steps, he rushed another and drove his blade right into her chest. Blood rushed out of her mouth as she dropped, still moving weakly even as her heart was pierced. People didn't die instantly like in the movies, he thought with an odd sense of bemusement. Since when was killing so easy? Withdrawing as fast as he could, Future Hero swung his sword with a backhand blow, severing the arms of a Stinger girl who was about to blast him in the back at point-blank range. As an afterthought, he collected the weapon. Reka liked samples, after all.
"Suppressing fire!" called out a woman, probably the leader. "Don't let him isolate you! Fight together! Surround him!"
The initial shock of his attack had faded, and the Stinger soldiers were rallying. "I won't give you a chance-ARGH!" A laser impacted, right at the base of his spine, driving Rich to his knees. The pain was like nothing he'd ever experienced. Nerves he didn't know he had burned with agony.
The laser fire rapidly increased, becoming a storm of red, almost blinding him. Every hit stung like a hot nail being driven into his body. Rich desperately flailed with his sword, trying to fend off some of the incoming fire, but it was too much. Realizing how outmatched he was, Future Hero got low and attempted to withdraw. He made it as far as the bank's atrium before he collapsed.
"Finish him!" somebody said. Rich was hurting too badly to care who. He must've been delirious, because he saw a cyborg woman with a scorpion tail approach him.
"Stay with me!" she said desperately. Stay where? He forgot where he was. There was only the burning. It would be better to sleep, better to forget. There was no pain in dreams.
Robotic arms placed him on Future Chopper. The last thing he remembered was that scorpion tail as his bike carried him away.
***
"And that's what happened," he told Reka at the next day's meeting of the Future Force. Yesterday's burns were now just a dull ache. The Endram Armor had protected him from the worst of it. He noticed the laser rifle he'd captured from Stinger disassembled on a nearby table. His neighbor worked fast.
"It looks like you have a mysterious benefactor," Reka said neutrally, but he could tell the woman was worried about him. Becca was very freaked out when she found him passed out by Future Chopper. She was at football practice right now, so he didn't have to deal with her worrying over him. Rich was a hero. Risking his life was a part of the job.
"Yeah, well, there's not much I can do against those laser rifles," Rich said conversationally. "Unless you can make me a forcefield or something?"
Reka shook her head sadly. "I'd need a generator as big as a car engine to sustain a field that large." She looked at the rifle on the table. "You wanted a raygun before, right?" There was an evil glint in her eye.
"You mean?" He didn't dare hope.
"Come back tomorrow," she instructed him. "It's not that complicated. I just need to reconfigure the mechanism to use the opposite polarity of the emotive force, that is, Pureheart Power."
Sweet!
Yesenia was super sweet and affectionate to him that night, fussing over him like he was sick or something. When he said he was thirsty, she almost knocked over the bookshelf in her rush to get him a soda. Honestly, he could get used to this! Rich sure loved his family.
***
Reka's basement lab, previously so harsh and menacing, seemed to him a wondrous workshop, the toy factory of his boyhood dreams. He held Future Blaster in his hand.
"You know how to use that thing?" Reka asked dubiously.
He'd had a brief familiarization with the M9 pistol at Navy Boot Camp a lifetime ago. Rich knew how to align the sights and control his breathing, but that was about it. "Rate of fire, effective range?" he asked.
"Accurate up to one hundred meters," she informed him clinically. She tapped a cylinder under the barrel. "There's your power source. It's about the same as the handle on your sword. The extra weight might throw off your aim a bit, but this was a rush job. You should be able to fire to your heart's content, but try to keep it to careful, aimed shots. No need to push it."
He took the advice in the spirit it was given. Finally, Future Hero had a ranged option. There were so many monsters who'd given him so much trouble. Now he could strike back.
Rich tested the weapon in his hand, felt the weight of it. Experimentally, he held it aloft with one hand.
Heavy, but manageable, he decided. With the enhanced strength of the Endram Armor, it would feel like nothing at all. Nothing about the weapon looked particularly futuristic. It was silver, sturdy, with a heavy barrel like a high-caliber pistol, a Desert Eagle, for example, and the power source under it could be confused with some kind of gas cylinder firing system or even a grenade launcher. He loved it.
***
Rich didn't have to wait long to test out his new toy. Stinger thought they were invincible after the fight in the bank. Their soldiers strutted about arrogantly in public, brandishing their rifles and intimidating civilians. He scouted in his civilian attire, careful not to draw too much attention to himself. When Rich spotted a group of Stinger women rushing into a jewelry store, he raised his ring:
"From a future dark
To a post not set,
Stinger hasn't won just yet,
With Pureheart Power, a noble mission,
Come forth! Future Hero! Henshin!"
"Let's rock!" Future Hero cried gamely. Just as predicted, Future Blaster handled like a dream. He felt like he could drive nails with it at maximum range, so steady did it feel in his hands.
Careful not to let himself get surrounded again, he chose the ground where he'd confront Stinger. Best not to go in after them. Getting surrounded indoors was bad. No, Rich would let them rob the place, then ambush them on the way out.
The women smashed display cases, greedily clawing up necklaces and rings and bracelets, before shoving their plunder into duffel bags. He took a stable firing position with a clear view of the entrance to the jewelry store. Stinger was efficient, if nothing else, and the girls in Nazi biker outfits and jellyfish armbands were in and out in about sixty seconds.
BURCHAH! BURCHAH!
Future Blaster spat purple fire, kicking more than he was expecting. It didn't hit this hard in the test fires he did in the backyard of Reka's house. Was it feeding off the Pureheart Power in his suit? Rich adjusted to a two-handed grip to compensate.
One bolt struck the first woman, burning a fist-sized hole in her chest.
Jesus Christ!
"Contact!" the second woman out the door cried in alarm, diving to the ground before returning fire.
Downtown Plano became a warzone, worse than Baghdad, worse than Normandy beach! Purple and red, the laser bolts flew.
The Stinger soldiers were disciplined, executing an expert peel, an infantry maneuver where they pinned him down with suppressive fire and retreated down the street one by one. Their getaway vehicle was already hopelessly damaged from Rich's blasts, so they attempted to flee on foot.
One bolt struck Rich in the shoulder, reminding him of his first encounter with their new weapons. Ouch!
BURCHAH!
He snapped Future Blaster up and lined the offending woman up in his sights. This time, he was lucky, nailing her in the head when she popped up from behind cover. Not much was left of her face when she hit the ground, just a charred wreck with a biker cap knocked askew.
Future Hero chased the fleeing women down the street, and they fired wildly to delay him. There was a car crash up ahead, caused by civilians fleeing the sounds of their firefight in panic. The remaining Stinger soldiers might've gotten away if not for that. Knowing they were trapped, the women turned and took position for a last stand.
Future Blaster was smoking and felt uncomfortably hot in his hand. Rich made a mental note to tell Reka. The power supply was already strained.
Thinking fast, Rich fired at the ground near the women's feet, sending hot chunks of asphalt into the air, disrupting their attempts to take cover. While they were disoriented, he kept up the fire, wiping the squad out with a few more blasts.
Instantly, almost unnaturally, the street went silent. He walked up and inspected his kills. Adult women with burning holes in their bodies, melted leather fused to their skin. It smelled like hell itself.
Without needing to call, Future Chopper appeared at his side. It was on to the next battle. Stinger definitely wouldn't win!