The Enhanced: TRI - 23

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By Diana M. Howe, Edited by Melanie Howe, Cover art by Monica Plant
Copyright © 2004, 2015 by Diana M. Howe
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction
Or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any
Electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter
Invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in
Any information storage or retrieval system is forbidden without the
express written permission of the copyright holder.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are
Used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead,
business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.


Previously

The Hammers boarded the jet and took off for Washington. Nathanial watched the plane leave and then went to the monitor centre to view the anticipated carnage.

Chapter Twenty Three
The Hammer Falls
‘It’s simple physics, strike any two objects together with enough force, you get sparks.’
Professor Julian Saber

On Island SIX, two hours later, the first reports of the attack on Washington were coming in. Watcher immediately sounded the alarm that called the other members into the observation centre.

“There’s a major conflict going on in the States. It seems we’re not the only enhanced kids on the block anymore and those guys are definitely bad mothers,” he explained without preamble.

He punched up the action on the main monitor’s screen in the room and the team looked on in horror at the devastation unfolding before them. The Capitol Building was missing half its dome and had several large holes blasted in it. The Washington Monument was collapsed in a pile of rubble and there were bodies strewn everywhere.

“We have no time to lose people. We have to get there now and stop those maniacs from causing any more death or destruction. Sidestep… take us there, now!”

Dreamwalker’s words snapped them out of the shocked trance they were all in and the team walked through the portal that Carina created into a scene of utter horror and devastation that was ten times worse than what they’d viewed on the monitor screen. There was smoke everywhere and the screams and moans of the injured and dying, along with the smell of blood and burnt flesh, permeated everything. There was a roar of fire and a voice boomed out from above them.

“Well, look who’s decided to attend the party, considering the nice invitation we arranged for y’all. Here… catch…” Firefall tossed a huge ball of fire that came hurtling towards the grouped heroes.

“Scatter people!” Dreamwalker yelled. “Samba, he’s yours!”

The team launched in all directions at once as the meteoric mass hit the ground where they had been standing just seconds ago. Firefall frowned at the escape and almost didn’t notice the exotically dressed woman floating nearby. Suddenly, he felt the air rushing by his ears as he raced toward the ground. He impacted with what felt like 3 times his regular weight and discovered it was getting difficult to maintain his flames.

“A little CO2 ought to cool you down, homem quente. Now just stay there like a good little boy,” Samba trilled.

He prised himself out of the ground and flew at her using the additional weight as momentum. His strike caught her off guard and the impact knocked her through the wall of the Smithsonian Museum. Samba levitated a slab of granite and hurled it at him with all her might but the rock melted before it was within five feet of the glowing man and molten rock rained down onto the plaza below.

Cossack ran towards a tall woman who was hefting the capstone of the Washington Monument as if to throw it. He tucked and rolled to knock her off her feet and she came crashing down. He picked himself up from the debris and looked about for his chosen opponent but she had seemingly vanished. Nikoli was suddenly rising into the air and soon discovered he was in the grasp of a forty foot tall woman who continued to increase in size. She wound up and hurled him at The Mall where he went through the surface to find himself in a cable vault thirty feet below. When he finally struggled out, the giant simply kicked him as if he was a soccer ball. He managed to stop his flight somewhere over the Arlington National Cemetery. Grimly, he ignored the pain in his ribs and flew at his top speed back to The Mall where the battle raged on.

Waverunner saw a woman standing amidst the carnage. Perhaps she was directing the battle he speculated, as she seemed to radiate a coolness that was out of place with the scene. He took careful aim and sent a compressed blast of sonic energy at her. To his surprise, she was no longer where he had aimed but twenty feet from his target. Theo had not even seen her move but she had spotted him. She seemingly vanished and appeared again by a large tree which she uprooted and threw at him with deadly accuracy. Theo blasted the tree with tightly focussed compressed air, but only managed to slow its velocity somewhat. It hit him in the chest and knocked him from the sky to land in The Reflecting Pool. The woman was beside him instantly and as he heaved the oak from himself, she started hitting him from all sides with metal rods at an incredible pace. He couldn’t even see her as she moved about him… she was just a blur. He felt himself start to weaken and the world around him went black.

Watcher moved with all his available speed covering the battlefield, rescuing trapped civilians, aiding the injured and helping the rescue crews as best he could. He had just pulled three people out of what had once been the Lincoln Memorial when a funnel of water from the Potomac River engulfed him. He found himself deep in the murky water, unable to get a purchase on anything as he spun wildly in the vortex. Suddenly he was hit from behind with a force that knocked the remaining air from his lungs. He could neither see nor hear, he couldn’t even determine which way was up anymore. His last conscious thought was that he would never see his family again.

Following the fireball, Dreamwalker struggled to make sense of what was occurring on all sides of him, but there seemed to him to be no logic, no objective to this attack. He couldn’t figure out a battle plan to counter any of this mayhem. As he watched the chaotic scene, he was grabbed from behind by two immense arms that slowly started to squeeze him. David was astounded to feel a sharp pain in his ribcage, followed by a snapping sensation. This wasn’t supposed to be possible his brain screamed at him. The crushing sensation suddenly ceased with the arrival of Cossack who tossed David’s attacker into the ruins of the Capitol Building and followed onward to do battle.

Sidestep watched the bloodbath in horror as citizens and her comrades were being felled everywhere across the historic district. She spotted Theo who’d been hit by a large tree and rushed to his aid.

“Not so fast little lady,” an oily voice spoke from behind her. The quality of the light around her took on a bizarre flicker and she found that even at her top speed, she was no closer to The Reflecting Pool to assist her fallen comrade. Looking around her, she saw that the people and events were moving at a comical speed and noticed the man who had spoken was now floating beside her. She focussed her power at him and transported him to the middle of the Arctic Ocean. All of a sudden, everything snapped into regular motion and she realised that the battle was no longer raging and there was no sign of the villains… only massive devastation.

Carina dodged another ball of flame and created a globe of frozen CO2 to surround her attacker with. She added layer upon layer of dry ice to the ball until it weighed approximately a tonne. She dropped it to the ground not caring whether the villain inside lived or died and turned her attentions to the giant woman that was stepping on people as if they were ants. She increased the giant’s weight, doubling it and adding a factor of two every second. The woman screamed out in agony and rapidly diminished in size until she lay unconscious on the ground, both of her legs broken. Carina then turned her attention to the battle and noticed a blur moving across The Mall. Their opponents retrieved their wounded and trapped and flew off towards a hovering aircraft. As she watched, they flew directly north and out of sight. Sarida flew to the Lincoln Memorial, found Watcher, and carried him back to where the rest of her team was. With their own injured seen to, Sarida, Carina and Nikoli did their best to aid in the rescue efforts in the aftermath of that horrible day.

To Be Continued

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Comments

Is chapter linking working?

Maybe it's just me, but I never saw ch. 22 on the main page, and I was watching for this story.. The only link I saw was after I finished Ch. 23 and saw it at the bottom of the page.

Chapter Linking?

I couldn't tell you Misty. I just upload the chapters as i know how. Who would i ask?
Cheers,
Diana M. Howe, Moongoddess at Large

22 was only up on the main page for a short time.

Page of Wands's picture

Site rules means only the latest chapter of a story gets shown on the front page. When Moongoddess uploaded both in a row, as soon as the mods linked them to the previous chapters, 22 was removed from the front page.

That said, it does look like they wound up out of order - right now 22 and 23 are between chapters 17 and 18.

actually

Dahlia's picture

When moongoddess first posted these chapters they were both visible on the main page. Several hours later I noticed that only 23 was visible. It was probably some doing housekeeping.

Dahlia

What a battle. So pretty

What a battle. So pretty much Ravensclaw nor his daughter actually have a care about anything except their own desires. They care nothing of people, places or things unless it gives them pleasure or to put it more plainly--POWER. Can't wait to see them get theirs and it can't be soon enough.