The Global Protectors –Stalked by Red Jack
By Marcus Lycus
(Marcus_Lycus@hotmail.com)
Legal Horrors – The Global Protectors are copyright, trademark etc. of Doctor Droid (www.superstories.net/droidzone) and are used with his permission. Other characters and text are copyright Marcus Lycus.
Marcus Lycus
December
2004
Chapter
4 – Apocalypse Now
A
lonely car drove slowly up Hughes Drive heading for a secluded fishing
hole. The winding road led out of Megapolis to the rolling hills along
the St. Giffen River. Clyde was looking forward to a relaxing day of
fishing away from his wife and his three screaming kids. Boy she’d be
pissed when she found out he’d taken the jeep and left her stranded at
home.
Rounding
a corner he saw a red flash heading towards him, he had about a second to
wonder what it was before his jeep exploded in Red Jack’s powerful wake.
The
was the first to die that morning. There would be more.
***
Interlude – Jack’s Story
It
was the summer of 1880. Warren, Garth and Grant wandered the streets of
the Limehouse disgusted at what they saw. Everywhere they went Jews,
Irish and other filthy foreigners perpetuated their heathen habits right here
in the center of Her Majesty’s Britannic Empire. Most well-breed
gentlemen turned a blind eye to this cesspool of corruption; a few even came
here to fulfill their carnal desires. It seemed no one had the will or
the means to end it.
But
they did.
Warren
gave the secret knock and the brownstone door opened. The three slipped
in unnoticed save for a few beggar boys who moved on to find new prey.
The butler took their coats and gave them each their robes and golden
masks. They descended into the basement where their brothers in the Order
of Prometheus awaited.
The
Grand Magus greeted them with a slight nod of his masked head. They were
the last to arrive. He began the chant.
The
alchemists of the Order circled the cauldron slowly, chanting ancient words of
power. On cue they drew their curved daggers and drew it across their
palms adding drops of their own blood to the mixture inside.
Blood
was hardly the most foul ingredient in that brewing potion.
The
corpse of a killer.
The
foreskin of a rapist.
The
tongue of seducer.
The
eye of a pedophile.
The
teeth of a cannibal.
The
brain of a madman.
The
heart of a sadist.
The
breast of a whore.
The
flesh of an innocent.
To
this they added their blood. Then they pulled aside their robes and, with
some effort, added their own semen as well.
Then
the words of power rose in volume and the mixture crackled with unholy
power. The walls began to tremble, the earthen floor began to shake, aged
Warren clutched his heart and fell lifeless to the ground. The rest of
the order closed ranks and continued to chant.
The
mixture began to boil and then shot upwards striking the ceiling and drenching
the assembled alchemists. Still they did not stop!
Then
the iron caldron shattered, a fragment struck Neil in the head killing him
instantly. The gaslights went out plunging the room into total
darkness. And a new sound was heard, a hysterical giggling.
“Hee-hee-hee… Jack’s here!”
The
instrument of their vengeance was complete.
Jack
was still small and weak, barely four feet high and no stronger than a
child. But he was nimble and ruthless and consumed with a great hatred of
whores, prostitutes and women of all kinds. His body was like flayed
human corpse, exposed muscle and grizzle where he should have had skin.
Tufts of hair dotted his naked body in random places. Between his legs
hung a massive member more akin to an elephant’s trunk or an octopus tentacle
than a human penis. From his lipless mouth an impossibly long tongue
flicked out tasting the air. He was a killer, a punisher, a living weapon
against the whores and foreigners who polluted London. He would not just
kill, he would feed. With each murder he would grow stronger, faster,
until he became invincible. The remaining alchemists looked at their
creation with pride.
They
unleashed him a few days later. He raped and killed his first victim,
consuming most the body with his needle-like teeth. What little was left
he dumped in the river, it was never found. He returned to the Order’s
headquarters and slept for several weeks.
The
alchemists grew worried that their creation was a failure but upon awakening
the killer was several inches taller and quite a bit stronger.
He
stalked, and killed and rested.
By
1884 he had grown more ruthless and sadistic. He no longer killed and hid
the corpses. He left them, what was left of them, in open for all to see.
The
panic began.
They
called him Leather Apron at first; until the first letters arrived then the
papers had a new name, Jack the Ripper.
The
Order of Prometheus found itself divided. The members were still united
on the need to purify London but their killer was stirring up too much
trouble. Already one of their members was being accused of being Red Jack
himself. Sooner or later someone would trace the killer to their
townhouse and then to them.
Red
Jack was not the order’s main project. He was a costly but ultimately
superfluous side-project of their true aim, discovering the secrets of the
ancients and recreating the Philosopher’s Stone (or as the vulgar Americans
called it, the Sorcerer’s Stone). Ultimately the Grand Magus decided Red
Jack would have to be put aside for a time, until the murders were
forgotten. He reasoned that in a year or two no one would care about some
dead whores in the East End.
The
Order’s perfect killer did not take well to retirement. Three alchemists
died in the effort to imprison Red Jack but finally he was bound and sealed
mystically in an iron jar. It was locked away in their basement until it
was safe.
But
no one forgot about the killings in the East End. The stories
continued. Penny Dreadfuls retold and embellished the stories,
broadsheets published ‘shocking new information’ each year and tourists
traveled to the area to see crime scenes. So the Order kept Jack locked
away, never quite finding a good time to free him.
In
1916 most of the order were killed when the ocean liner they were using to flee
England was sunk by a German U-Boat. Still locked in the basement Red
Jack was forgotten.
Until
1943.
Captain
Courage: the spy smasher! and Spunky: the girl without fear! had located a
group of Nazi sympathizers operating in London. Lead by the renegade tomb
raider Veronica Crowe these traitors were stealing objects of mystic
significance and smuggling them to Germany where Hitler’s corps of necromancers
and black wizards used them to aid their cause. A bit of detective work
connected a townhouse in the East End to a Victorian Era group of
self-proclaimed alchemists. Captain Courage and Spunky set a trap there
and quickly rounded up the evil relic hunters.
All
in a day’s work for Captain Courage: the spy smasher!
They
never noticed how during the fight an iron jar was toppled and the wax seals
about the top were broken. Nor did the notice the corpse-like homunculus
that crawled from it.
Red
Jack’s first sight after being freed was a gorgeous young woman in a Union Jack
minidress kicking a Nazi agent in the face. He caught sight of her red
panties and knew he had to have her.
It
took him several days to recover his strength and begin the hunt. Then he
found her, the queen of all whores. It took some time but he finished her
and consumed what he could. Digesting her took some time; he rested in
the sewers of London for over a year as he absorbed her powerful spirit.
With her inside him he felt stronger and braver. Before he had feared
death, feared imprisonment or destruction but nothing could scare him now.
He killed a few more whores for sport but it was unfulfilling. He had
tasted a woman with real power and wanted more.
He
heard of another super whore in France and pursued her. She was stronger
than the English girl and took longer to find and kill. But his newfound
courage protected him from her ability to cause fear and made his victory all
the sweeter. The self-important slut was used to humiliating and hunting
men, using her unnatural powers to isolate them from all help. Being
pursued by Jack terrified her and left her a nervous wreck before he finally
finished her. She took even longer to digest but Paris’ sewers are deep
and Jack had plenty of time.
The
Soviet girl was next. Red Star 2 was the heir of Red Star 1 a gymnast
heroine who had perished in a mission in Vlaxia. The new Red Star was
another gymnast admired by millions of good communists as the epitome of the
Soviet spirit, She had started to believe it herself when Jack came
calling. The psychiatrists thought she was mad with her stories of being
pursued across the rooftops of Moscow by an invisible rapist. How could
these attacks occur in a city of millions without anyone knowing? They
were about to decommission her and send her to an asylum in Siberia when her
corpse was found. What was left of it. The best efforts of the KGB
and Soviet police never found the slightest trace of her killer, Pravda kept it
quiet of course and simply reported Red Star had retired to her parent’s
collective in the Ukraine. Red Stars 4 and 7 followed in time but Jack
grew tired of his Russian diet and moved on.
No
one even noticed the Chinese, Indonesian or Australian heroines. But Jack
loved them all the same. He was getting stronger, faster; he did not need
as much time to rest between feasts.
The
American Indian was short and sweet. Barely a challenge. The
Californian sprinter was more of a challenge, even with his agility her speed
made her hard prey. Luckily she tired fast.
A
few more mutants and martial artists kept him busy throughout the 80’s and 90’s
but none of them were worth noting. The Korean girl was a challenge,
she’d almost beaten him in a fight but in the end he had her too. Red
Jack always liked Asian cuisine.
With
her foresight to guide him he had pounced on the Global Protector.
Naturally his instincts (White Crane’s instincts) had told him she was more
than she seemed and that the rewards were greater than any he had enjoyed
before. He was strong now, he did not need time to finish them or digest
them, he was ready immediately. Three more stupid Global whores followed
in swift order.
Now
he was swelled with the power of four of them. Parts of their
consciousnesses were inside him screaming, just like the bits of all the others
he had had from that first whore in a London alley. It amused him to hear
their minds screaming at every atrocity the committed. It made him laugh.
He
flew towards the city surrounded by a red psychokinetic field. Eight
million people the voices in his head told him. Four million of them
whores.
And
none of them could stop him.
He
couldn’t wait.
***
Jessica
Mammon pulled up to the Bendis Town Wal*Mart in her white Mercedes around
6:45am. She unchained the doors allowing the illegal immigrants who
cleaned it at night to finally leave. They’d been locked in since 10pm
the night before to make sure none of them left early. Of course they
were only paid for four hours and had to spend the other four hour playing
cards or jerking off or whatever it is Mexicans do for fun. Sure they could
just have an American supervisor but why pay an extra $7 an hour when all she
had to do was lock the doors. It was savings like that that made Wal*Mart
number 1! Of course Jessica felt kind of bad about that time one of them
had a heart attack and they couldn’t get him to the hospital in time but hey if
they don’t like it they can go back to Mexico! She thought she saw one of
them sneer at her as he walked out, she got a good look at his face and made a
note to fire him when she got to the office. Lousy wetbacks, they should
be glad to have a chance to clean Wal*Mart’s toilets for $3 an hour!
She
walked in as the security guards searched the wetbacks before letting them go
home. Gotta make sure the filthy foreigners weren’t stealing
anything! This was always the best part of the job walking through the
empty aisles of the greatest retailer in the world. She passed the
display of American flags (made in China) and Eminem CDs (edited without all
the bad words) and felt her chest swell with pride. The 25 year old MBA
had always dreamed of working for the company that had remade American
retailing with their strategy of undercutting local stores and driving them
into bankruptcy. Just thinking about it gave the busty brunette a shiver
up her spine and a tingling feeling between her legs. Next week they were
going to open their Mega Center with an ultra low price supermarket. Jess
had started a pool with her assistant managers about which family supermarket
would go bankrupt first.
Just
a year out of B-school and she was ruining whole businesses. It made Jess
hot just to think about it.
Completing
her circuit of the store and returned to the front where the first shift of
minimum wage-earning single mothers, retirees and high school students were
just starting to show up. She put on a sneer of her own to remind of them
of their place and how lucky they were to work here and how easily they could
be replaced. She decided it would be fun if she fired the first employee
she saw who forgot a nametag. Can’t let them get too lax.
In
the distance she saw a red dot getting bigger and bigger pretty fast. Red
Jack pause in mid air for a second looking the young executive in the
eye. Then he hit the Wal*Mart at Mach 2, his backwash imploding the
entire building destroying the shoddy merchandise and reducing Jessica Mammon
to a red smear on the wall. Luckily the poorly-paid employees outside
survived unscathed.
And
although Wal*Mart had been the most popular chain store in Bendis Town, no one
missed it when it was gone.
***
Once
he hit the highway the destruction really grew. Red Jack dived low,
shredding cars as he smashed through them. Most of the early morning
commuters never knew what hit them.
Red
Jack slowed down as he entered the city. So many options, so much to
choose from. From a Victoria’s Secret billboard a twenty foot tall whore
looked down on him wearing nothing but a bra and panties. He grabbed a
passing cab and hurled it through the sign smashing the building behind it.
He
giggled. He looked around for the next whore.
He
spotted a girl in spandex.
***
At
the outskirts of the city the four heroines paused for a moment. There
were dozens of fires, people panicking in the street but with all the smoke and
confusion there was no way to know exactly where Red Jack was.
“Split
up! Shamrock take the west side, La Sola you’re downtown, Rising Sun
uptown, I’ll take the financial district. Help out where you can by try
to find that monster! Keep your communicators on and yell when you see
him. Got it? Move!”
The
other three hovered in place looking at each other, not at all enthusiastic
about going out there alone.
“Uh…”
“Are
you…”
“Maybe…”
Below
them a gas station exploded, a mother screamed from a burning apartment, people
cried out for help.
Maple
Leaf scowled and dived, pulling the mother and her child from the window before
the flames reached her.
Shamrock
took a deep breath and headed for a water tower. Reluctantly Rising Sun
and La Sola headed out as well.
***
Meanwhile
back at the Gaea Building…
Star’s
eyes fluttered. She muttered something. She sat up and screamed!
“I’m
alive! Omygawd, Omygawd! I’m still alive.” She panted for
several minutes enjoying the sensation of breath in her body when it finally
occurred to her…
“Why
am I still alive?”
Hadn’t
Red Jack killed the other heroines he’d caught? Why was she still
alive? And how come Tigress was left (barely) alive too?
She
tried to remember the rape, before she blacked out, she’d heard voices,
woman. Thinking harder (an unfamiliar sensation) she even thought she’d
heard Tigress and Aussie Girl and Valkyrie yelling for him to stop and not to
kill her. Did that make any sense? Maybe, like, he absorbed some
their minds when he raped them and like, they’re starting to influence
him. Yeah.
Star
congratulated herself on figuring that out and struggled to her feet. She
could barely walk, much less fly but if she could make it back to headquarters
she could call the team and let them know. Maybe that bit of news would
help.
She
didn’t even notice the sensor as she stumbled by.
***
>Gaea Building Status – Red Alert
>Intruder detected sector 8
>Gooey Guns 12-15 armed
>Scanning for Psychokinetic Field
>None detected.
>Scanning for communicator
>None detected.
>Gooey Gun 13 targeting.
>Firing
>Target immobilized. Notification sent.
***
The
sticky chemicals fired out enveloping Star and knocking her off her feet.
She was trapped in the hardening goo until the police or the rest of the team
came to let her out. Unfortunately they had other things to worry about.
***
Rising
Sun saw him first. The villain had flown into a gym interrupting an early
morning aerobics class. He was working his way through the lycra-clad
cuties, clutching one in each claw and pinning a third under his foot. He
held the first, a cringing actress/dancer/aerobics instructor in a pink
leotard. When she whimpered his tongue darted out down her throat.
The woman convulsed for a few seconds as he sucked on her essence. In
less than a minute her firm tan skin turned gray and wrinkled and Red Jack cast
aside the drained husk.
Rising
Sun froze for a second.
Red
Jack reached for another one.
She
took a deep breath, hit the panic button on her communicator and flew in.
She grabbed the next victim from Red Jack’s claw and dropped her by an
emergency exit.
Red
Jack turned towards the Japanese heroine. Behind him the other captives
ran for the door.
Rising
Sun planted her feet, put her hands on her hips and faced the monster.
She looked at his rotting flesh, his claws crackling with energy, and his
forked penis dripping with unidentifiable fluids. Her stomach churned
from the smell. She froze.
“G-give
up?” Her voice cracked.
Red
Jack giggled.
***
Interlude
The Penalizer’s War Journal
Final Entry
Dec 20, 2004 – Me and Hot Stuff (as I like to call my little
red-headed mutant pyromaniac partner, course she still wants me to call her the
Incinerator, whatever…) we were heading back from a little ‘meeting’ with some
Neo-Nazis upstate. The kind of meeting you bring a grenade launcher and
shotgun to.
As
usual I was driving our armored battle van while my teenaged partner
enthusiastically sucked my dick. I rubbed her spiky red hair and smiled,
nothing like enjoying the rewards of a job well done. Dunno why I ever
thought my war on crime had to be the lonely one-man kind, since I hooked up
with Hot Stuff life’s been pretty good for Chuck Forte, a.k.a. the
Penalizer. Damn good I figure when I cum in her mouth.
I’m
just turning off of the Ellis Street exit when the traffic chick on the radio
starts jabbering about a supervillain downtown. Then she mentions the
exploding cars and the burning buildings and how none of the usual spandex
glory-hogs are doing their job.
So
I figured I’d see what we could do.
We
pulled up to some old tenements on the west side. I put Hot Stuff to work
dousing a burning apartment building with her flame control powers while I took
out good ole ‘King David’. King David started life as a .50 cal sniper
rifle but over time I’ve just about replaced or enhanced just about every part
of the gun from the barrel to the stock. These days it fires depleted
uranium rounds a buddy of mine in the army hooked me up with. Those
babies are dense enough to tear through a tank, or your typical super
guy. King David is my super-stopper, what I reach for when I know I’m
going to be up against the Incredible Behemoth or Bruticus. Beats the
hell out of a sling-shot.
I
look at the trail of destruction and notice the red energy crackling on the
roof of a gym. Figure that’s the guy. There’s a 6 story walk-up on
the block that should give me a clear shot.
I’m
panting by the time I get to the roof of the building, must be getting old, but
I’ve got a perfect view of some monster guy raping the hell out of one of those
heroine chicks.
Damn.
Being
a heroine must suck sometimes.
I
lean King David’s barrel on an AC duct and carefully take aim. The breach
can only hold one of these DU rounds at a time so I’d be pretty lucky to get a
second shot. Haven’t needed one yet.
I’m
a nice guy, deep, deep down so I actually spend a minute waiting for a shot
that’ll take the monster’s head off without ventilating the heroine.
I
lick my finger and check the wind. I adjust my sights. I take a
deep breath and aim…
“Hey
Chuck!” She hugs me from behind and kisses my neck.
“SHIT!”
The shot goes wild. “OH FUCK!” I slap her to get her off me and
reach for another DU round, I can usually reload in 5 seconds.
“What
the fuck! Chuck did you just fucking hit me?”
I
feel my body armor start to heat up.
Hot
Stuff always was a bit jumpy. Out of the corner of my eye I see a red dot
heading towards us. My fingers tremble for a second, I drop the heavy
slug.
“What
the fuck? You asshole! No one fucking hits me!”
Some
of the tar on the roof starts melting; I grab the slug off the ground and drop
it, too damn hot to touch. I try to say something but I’m
hyperventilating. Can’t catch my breath…
I
look up. I see red.
***
Red
Jack hit the roof like a wrecking ball. Half the building collapsed and
the psycho Vietnam vet known as the Penalizer was tossed 30’ across it into the
wall of its neighbor.
He
heard his bones break.
His
partner the Incinerator was tossed off the roof but landed on a fire escape
dazed.
Red
Jack stood triumphant over the tough old vet watching him twitch. He
reached down and picked up the Penalizer by his left arm.
The
vigilante scowled and pulled a pistol with his right hand, he fired seven .44
rounds into the killer at point-blank range but Red Jack just giggled. He
grabbed the Penalizer’s other arm and twisted them both.
Bones
cracked, tendons tore and the gun-toting vigilante screamed before passing
out. Red Jack giggled again and gave his arms another 180° twist before
kicking the Penalizer’s crippled body off the roof.
His
red-headed partner had crawled to the roof in time to see this. Her
scream of terror was lost in the wind. She scrambled down the fire escape
whispering “don’t be dead, don’t be dead”, her eyes filled with tears.
Red
Jack noticed her. He giggled again and headed for the fire escape.
“Cute little girl… Uncle Jack
wants to show you something…”
It
was about then that La Sola and Shamrock slammed into him.
***
Maple
Leaf caught Rising Sun in mid air after Red Jack dropped her. The
Japanese girl was unconscious but alive. The Canadian heroine flew her to
an ambulance and headed for the fight.
It
wasn’t much of a fight.
The
two heroines had knocked Red Jack off the roof into a parking lot but the
hulking monster was unfazed. He pulled Shamrock out of the air before she
could get away and slammed her face first into a slab of concrete. He
started tearing off the red-head’s costume when La Sola spun in mid air and
landed a few blows on his head. He simply dropped Shamrock’s limp body
and grabbed La Sola instead. He held the struggling Latina above his
enormous forked phallus and licked his skinless lips. La Sola screamed
Spanish obscenities at him until his dick lashed upwards and double penetrated
the gorgeous woman. La Sola fell silent as she felt her strength leave
her.
A
foolish grin covered Red Jack’s deformed face and he let out a content sigh.
“Three little whores had
their day in the sun,
Two came to play with Jack…
And then there was ONE!”
Which
is about when Maple Leaf impaled him with the steel rebar.
Fueled
by rage the auburn-haired Canadian heroine struck him at several hundred miles
an hour. The steel bar tore through his chest and he was carried into the
sky. La Sola fell to the ground next to Shamrock. Maple Leaf
accelerated carrying him higher and higher. Disgusting ichor flowed from
the wound in his back, burning her hands. She twisted the steel bar,
tearing more of his flesh.
Then
the two combatants stopped dead in the air. Maple Leaf pushed as hard as
she could but Red Jack would not move. She started to let go but Red Jack
reached backwards, his long arms twisting impossibly and grabbed her
head. He swung her in a wide arc and launched the screaming heroine
somewhere into the abandoned warehouse district; she vanished into the maze of
rotting wooden buildings.
Red
Jack thought about going after her but he had unfinished business with La Sola
and Shamrock. Even from up here he could see their bright costumes
calling to him from the Dunkin’ Doughnuts parking lot.
***
“C-Carmen?
Carmen! Get up! Get up! He’s coming back!”
Shamrock
shook her friend by the shoulders a few times but La Sola barely moved.
There
was a thud behind her.
Shamrock
heard giggling. Red Jack raised a claw to his sunken face and rubbed his
chin as if deep in thought.
“There once was a girl from
Ireland
Who went and joined a heroine
band
I fucked her tight cunt
And if I may be blunt
I frankly found her quite
bland”
Red
Jack giggled again at his own rhyme. Shamrock felt her knees start to
knock. She looked left and right for escape routes. Maybe if she
took off now… She heard La Sola groan behind her.
“N-no!
This ends now!” she shot forward like a cannon ball raining blows on Red Jack’s
face catching him, for an instant, by surprise.
But
only for an instant…
***
Buried
in the rubble of the abandoned Dreamwave warehouse Maple Leaf stirred.
She’d shot through the roof of the warehouse right into the grill of an oddly
familiar red semi-truck. She rubbed her head and felt blood. She
could barely walk much less fly or fight.
She
slumped down on the concrete floor and sobbed.
“Damn
it! God-fucking-damn it! God-damn fucking HELL!” She swung
out and dented the Porsche police car next to her. She sobbed quietly.
“Fucking
Wraith Lord, fucking Blackchrome, fucking Bruticus, fucking Black Baron, fuck
them all… goddamn shit heads… can’t just rob a fucking bank can you?
Gotta be some kind of fucking pervert… should just give the fuck up; let
fucking Ultra Woman do it all, nothing ever happens to fucking Ultra Woman…”
Maple
Leaf sobbed and ranted for several minutes more.
Then
she saw the ghost.
***
The
world seemed to slow down for young Shannon O’Sullivan. Birds froze in
the air, the crowd became statues and flames became sculptures. Shamrock
had only felt this way once before, that wonderful feeling that came when she
was in complete harmony with her powers, able to move faster than she ever
thought possible. Suddenly she wasn’t afraid or uncertain, she was
powerful and confident. She loved this feeling. She feared this
feeling.
She
could see the look of shock on Red Jacks twisted parody of a face and could see
him start to recover. She could see the drops of slime and blood flying
off his claws as they reached towards her. She had all the time in the
world to avoid them. She acted.
She
jumped over his head and kicked the monster hard. She thought she heard
bones break. She saw him turn slowly but she wasn’t worried. He was
moving much to slow to threaten her. She landed some punches on his hip,
trying to cripple the beast. She saw his hideous forked phallus lash
towards her and jumped back, no way was she going to touch that thing.
She
landed ten feet back and felt her high heels snap from the impact. The
pavement under her cracked. She took a step forward to attack the monster
again. She pulled the fender off a Dodge Ram with one hand. Dimly
she noticed she couldn’t hear right, there was just roaring in her ears.
She was panting too. But she didn’t care! She felt unbeatable.
The
monster reached for her again, she ducked under his claws and jabbed his
wounded chest with the fender. The monster screamed.
Shamrock
pushed harder with the fender, driving it into the beast. Foul smells
assaulted her senses but she kept pushing. The wound was almost the size
of a basketball now. Roaring with pain Red Jack’s claws flailed
impotently.
Shamrock
could feel her heart pounding but she didn’t care. She was going to
finish this monster off.
She
shoved the fender and sent him reeling back. She reached for the rest of
the Dodge pick-up, lifted it one-handed and smashed it over Red Jack’s
head. The killer slumped to ground buried under tons of steel.
Shamrock
slumped against a lamppost panting. She was sweating like a pig; her
vision was dark around the edges. All her muscles hurt but that was OK,
she’d done it. She’d won.
She
slumped down lower. The world was returning to its normal speed.
She knew she had to make sure, had to finish off the villain, tie him up for
the police, talk to the reporters, but she just couldn’t catch her
breath. Her legs were turning into rubber. She’d finish the job up
in a minute…
Just
as soon…
as
she…
had...
a…
rest.
Shamrock
slumped to the ground unconscious. Her last reserves of strength spent.
Five
seconds later Red Jack roared and tore the truck in half.
He
was in a lot of pain, his hazy vision picked out the prone form of his attacker
but she was oblivious, beyond fear or pain. No fun.
He
saw the brown-haired heroine stirring.
He
took a step towards La Sola.
***
Maple
Leaf looked over at the blue and white clad heroine facing her from across the
warehouse perched on a yellow VW Beetle. She blinked and blinked
again. It couldn’t be. But that face was unmistakable.
“W-white
Crane? Is that you? But you, you’re dead? If I can see you
then I must be, I’m…” Maple Leaf sobbed again.
“Huh?
I mean, I mean, uh, you’re not dead Maple Leaf! Your, uh, work is not yet
done! I have come with a message from Beyond! You can defeat Red
Jack and avenge me!”
“Bullshit.
He kicked our asses; now fucking Ultra Woman will step in and make us look like
fucking losers… Fucking glory hog. Makes everything look easy...”
White
Crane tried to process that, superhero rivalries? What the hell?
There was a monster killing and raping and this chick was worried about who
would get the credit? But that was none of her business, she was here to
give Maple Leaf a message and she already knew what she had to say.
“Maple
Leaf! You can still defeat Red Jack and, uh, get the credit…”
Maple
Leaf looked up hopefully.
“You
must remember though, Red Jack does not just absorb your power, he also absorbs
your essence. Your thoughts, your feelings, your weaknesses. That
is the key to his defeat!”
“Huh?
But we don’t have weaknesses! No Kryptonite or vulnerability to yellow or
anything ay? You’re not making sense, what they hell do you mean?!”
But
White Crane had disappeared.
“What
the hell…”
Maple
Leaf looked around but the Korean heroine was gone, as though she had never
been. A hallucination? A vision? A ghost? Maple Leaf
didn’t know what to think. Whatever it had been, it had one thing right,
Maple Leaf had to try again. If this was going to be the Global
Protector’s last stand, then they’d go down fighting damn it.
She
took three running steps and took off through the roof.
In
the shadows White Crane smiled and ran off to follow her.
***
Meanwhile,
14,000 miles straight up in the Avenging League of Justice’s orbiting
headquarters…
The
alarm rang again; Blue Archer clicked it off without even looking. Stupid
Global Protectors bothering him again. He looked back at his Anal
Intruder IX DVD and put his feet up on the desk. Another two hours of
monitor duty and then he was a free man. He wondered what Nightbird was
doing tonight.
There
was a whisper of sound, his chair vanished from under him and he thumped on his
ass. A booted foot pressed down on his chest.
“What.
Are. You. Doing?”
“Wha?
Huh? Nightbat?”
The
leather-clad vigilante just growled.
“Hey,
uh, y’know, you said we could like watch TV if there was nothing going on and
like-“
“Megapolis.”
“You
mean that Global Protector thing? It’s bullshit, man, serial killer or
something.”
“Fifty
dead and counting.”
“Oh.”
The
dark vigilante stepped over his teammate and started manipulating the computer,
deleting all records of the alerts.
“Shouldn’t
we like-“
“Fifty
dead. Fifty and counting. Because you were weak. Because we
trusted you.”
“It’s,
it’s not my fault they never said anything, and I mean, we can still-“
“We
will.” Nightbat hit the general alert for the team. He took an EMP
grenade out of his utility belt and tossed it into the transmitter. The
communications system sparked and went dead.
“If
anyone asked, communications were out all night. We never heard from the
Global Protectors.”
“Uh,
right. Sure thing.”
They
headed for the teleporters…
***
It
didn’t take long to find her teammates. Police had sealed off the area
but the newscoptors were circling, covering the defeat of the Global Protectors
from every angle.
On
the ground Red Jack pumped into La Sola again and again. The more he took
from her the more he wanted. He’d raped more than a dozen heroines over
the years but this was something else. It was like the girl was made for
sex! No matter how much he took she had more to give!
“More!”
“More!”
“More!”
“More!”
Maple
Leaf’s stomach churned. The monster’s forked phallus had penetrated the
curvy Latina’s pussy and ass, his thick tongue was jammed halfway down his
throat choking the life from her. Her bronzed skin was turning pale, her
brown hair grey. Red energy was crackling across the monster’s body; he
was swelling, growing even larger with each second.
Maple
Leaf froze in mid air. What could she do? What could she do against
something like that?
The
newscoptors circled her. She could hear the reporters asking if she was a
coward, calling this the end of the Global Protectors. But even that
didn’t get her to move.
What
had White Crane said? Something about absorbing weaknesses? But the
Global Protectors didn’t have a weakness, not really.
Did
they?
“More!”
“More!”
“More!”
Oh.
Right.
There’d
always been gossip about the team, rumors of Tigress’ escapades with the local
street gang, Aussie Girl and the Megapolis basketball team, La Sola and well…
everyone. Even Maple Leaf had found herself succumbing a bit too easily
to the demands of amorous donors. But this…
“Mas,
mas, mas” she heard La Sola whisper when Red Jack removed his tongue to lick
her heaving breasts. The Latin girl’s hips were buckling, a smile was
forming on her face, the monster raping her started to pant and moan.
No.
Way.
Maple
Leaf remembered how exhausted she was after that night with Richard.
She’d cum four times that night. Unable to fly home she’d had to take a
cab the next morning. She wasn’t at full strength till days later.
Maybe
the Global Protectors do have a weakness after all.
Red
Jack was panting visibly a disgusting leer formed on his twisted face and he
screamed “Yes! Yes! By Jason yes!” and dropped the Argentine
heroine. It looked like gallons of slime were still gushing from his
swollen member. His shoulders heaved and he collapsed against the side of
a minivan with a content sigh.
In
the back of his evil mind Red Jack wondered where he could get a
cigarette.
Maple
Leaf grit her teeth and acted.
With
her fists in front of her she accelerated downwards faster and faster leaving a
sonic boom in her wake. She hit the exhausted monster in the chest and he
disintegrated into red paste and chunks of rotting flesh.
Red
energy crackled among the tiny bits of Red Jack’s body. The energy turned
from threatening red to a beautiful gold and bolts started to shoot upwards
into the sky. Later witnesses would swear they could see the faces of
women in the gold energy and could hear feminine voices whispering ‘thank
you’. The pyrotechnics lasted for more than a minute and then
disappeared.
Maple
Leaf wiped a tear from her eyes as the afterimage faded. She wasn’t sure
but for a second she thought she had seen a Korean girl smile at her. She
hoped it was true.
The
Canadian heroine landed on the roof of the Dunkin Doughnuts. She slumped
to the ground and peeked over the edge at the quiet parking lot. She was
exhausted and covered in gore but had to laugh, she’d done it! She’d
beaten him!
Or
had she?
The
bits of flesh started to quiver and twitch, they moved towards each other
crawling like worms across the parking lot. A few even detached
themselves from her hair and inched towards the rest.
“No…
oh God no…”
The
pile of flesh was already knitting together. Arms and legs were starting
to emerge. A claw-like hand groped towards Shamrock’s prone body. Maple
Leaf tried to rise, tired to save her friend but there was nothing left, she
was spent.
“Oh
God, not again…” she prayed.
Then
there was a howling wind and a red blur. Before she knew it Maple Leaf
was three blocks away on the roof of a firehouse looking down. Shamrock
and La Sola were next to her and Red Lightning, the fasted man alive was behind
her.
“Yo.”
The speedster said.
“Uh,
hi.”
Below
them the Dunkin Doughnuts parking lot was bathed in a warm golden light.
The light grew more intense, until it hurt to look at it directly.
The asphalt melted, cars burst into flame and the reforming body of Red Jack
was burned into ash. Apollo, the most powerful member of the Avenging
League of Justice continued to bombard the area with his solar vision until the
last traces of Red Jack were gone. The Greek God turned to Maple Leaf and
landed next to her. As he descended she noticed he wasn’t wearing
anything under his toga.
“Fear not mighty champion of
the Great White North for once again the Zeus-Son hath used his divine might to
protect thee. Later thou may thank me in the traditional way, perhaps
thine companion the Lady Star will join us for a threesome?”
“Uh,
right… whatever.”
Maple
Leaf climbed to her feet and realized with relief it was over. It was all
over.
She
felt a leather glove on her shoulder. She heard the gravelly voice of
Nightbat whisper behind her.
“This
isn’t over. Let’s talk.”
Epilogue
1: The Next Day
The
deal was simple. Maple Leaf would not mention calling the Avenging League
of Justice for help and the ALJ would not mention how Red Jack became so
powerful. They split the credit when talking to the media and both teams
came out looking good. With Red Lightning and Apollo on the job they were
able to rescue many civilians; the death toll was surprisingly light.
Despite
their injuries the Global Protector’s rapid healing abilities allowed them to
recover, at least physically. Strangely, after a few days they found that
none of them could quite remember any details of their encounters with Red
Jack.
Eliza
was not so lucky. Her face was horribly scarred and her voice was reduced
to a rasping whisper. Shamrock visited her once in the hospital but Eliza
just threw things at her until she left. After two weeks she came back to
work. Once she was back at work Kristen started calling in sick a
lot. When she did come to work she seemed to have some strange bruises
and a lot of trouble sitting down. But none of the Global Protectors
noticed this; they had much more important things to worry about like the new
cartoon and the Adam Hughes mini series. For a couple of weeks they
devoted themselves to combat practice and working out with their powers but
after some easy victories against VX and the Necro Ninjas they figured they
were doing all right and they went back to their normal schedule of parties and
TV appearances.
Epilogue
2: The Next Generation
Mi-Young
Kim climbed back into her room through the fire escape and pulled off the long
black wig that hid her short dyed-brown hair. She ran to the bathroom and
puked. She could not get over the memory of how Maple Leaf beat that
monster guy. Talk about gross!
Once
she washed up she headed back to her room and looked at herself in the
mirror. It had taken hours to make the new costume, but she’d known she
would need it, just like she had known she had to be in the Dreamwave Warehouse
that morning. She didn’t understand where these feelings came from or why
they had started the night her sister died but after a month she knew she could
trust them.
She
slumped down on her bed next to her favorite teddy bear. She gave him a
hug.
Now
what?
Her
sister was avenged, was that it? Was she done now?
She
looked down at the costume, seemed like a waste to do all that work just to
wear it once.
Of
course it could use some work, So-Jung was always such a nerd, she was afraid
to show any skin.
Yeah.
Change the costume to some low slacks and a mid-riff top, cut the top a bit
lower, it would work.
Mi-Young
smiled at the mirror.
“Looks
like the new White Crane is here to stay.”
Epilogue
3
Linda
Lewis sat in the lounge waiting for news. She was still in her light
leather pants and flaming skull t-shirt but had covered up with one of Chuck’s
trench coats from the battle van.
What
if he was dead? Then what? Then what? Back to being
Firestarter in the Young Ex-Titans? Back home to her parents? Carry
on as the Incinerator? What should she do? Who would tell her what
to do? He had to be OK! The Penalizer couldn’t be dead!
“Uh,
Ms. Forte…”
“MRS.
Forte.”
“Uh
right, about your uh, father”
“He’s
not my father. He’s my husband.”
Doctor
Blake looked the teenager up and down. The skinny redhead didn’t look old
enough to drink and his patient Chuck Forte was in his late 50s. But hey,
nice work if you can get it right?
“It
looks like he’ll survive but, I’m afraid the damage to his spine and to his
arms is irreversible. He’ll be paralyzed for life and I doubt he’ll ever
be able to use his arms again. I’m very sorry.”
“What?
Fix him! Fix him up! That’s your job right!” She balled her
hands into fists and shook them, for a second her coat flew open and Dr. Blake
caught a glimpse of a flaming skull under it. The room suddenly felt hot,
he started to sweat.
“I-I
assure you we’ll doing everything we can but with your husband’s age and his
numerous other injuries I-I ah!” He smelled smoke, his wedding ring was
hot enough to burn his hand, and the girl’s eyes were burning with more than
rage.
“ASSHOLE!
You’re lying! You’re lying! He’ll be OK! You’re just lying to
me!” She turned on her heel and stormed out of the hospital. Stupid
doctors, what did they know! Chuck’s files had information on all kinds of
guys, Doctor Droid, Villainy eXtreme, the Clone Arranger, one of them could
help, she knew they could. She just had to find them.
Dr.
Blake caught his breath, that sudden wave of heat had vanished with the young
girl. In the back of mind a memory stirred, something about the police
asking local hospitals to keep an eye out for a psycho Vietnam vet and a teen
girl with fire powers… He stumbled for his office to find that
e-mail.
Afterword
Well
there it is! My pre-penultimate Global Protectors story (the story before
the next to last one). Stay tuned for the Global Protector: True Romance
coming in March 2005 or so.
If
you’d like to know more about Penalizer and the Incinerator check out Global
Protectors: Tangents. I’m planning a sequel following up on the events of
this story but there’s no date for it yet.
As
always, the only reward I get for writing stories is feedback so if there was
anything you liked, anything you didn’t or if you’ve got a suggestion or idea
to share please e-mail me at: marcus_lycus@hotmail.com
Thanks
for reading!
Marcus