Mettle, Metal, Meddled - Chapter 47 - Red menace (Patreon)

Hello! I wanted to let everyone know I will be taking the final week of December off from posting and updating, to spend time with family and unwind a bit. The normal schedule will resume on the first of January. 

Happy Holidays!

~~~~~~~

Bioship easily kept pace with the flying robot monkeys, staying far enough away that they didn't run into any of them, but close enough to keep a visual on them. Considering they were flying around the crates like a hive of disturbed bees, we were a good hundred meters or so away. After about another ten minutes of following them, they stopped above a set of train tracks that were curving around a large hill. Basically exactly where Batman said they would. They hovered for a moment above the tracks, before slowly descending in a patch of tall grass no more than fifty feet from the track, hiding pretty well from the casual eye.

“The next train will pass this area in six minutes,” Batman said, looking up from some sort of computer on his wrist, similar to Robin’s. “It is a standard freight run.”

“Good, that gives us time to go through a plan,” Kaldur said with a nod, looking back at us.

We spent the next six minutes planning out an attack strategy, with Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman listening in silently. When the train finally came within range we were ready for action.

The monkeys lifted off from their hiding spot, more green energy firing out their back-mounted thrusters, lifting off the ground and speeding away from the train. The train caught up easily, but the extra time they spent building speed meant they were soon flying in unison with it. They lined up for a moment before the door of one of the cars opened up and they all flew inside, the door closing immediately. Unfortunately, it had happened way too fast and we were too out of position to see who had opened the doors. The second they were shut, however, our attack began.

“M’gann, move in!”

Bioship, under M’ganns precise control, lower themselves until we could easily get down onto the train. With the ship in position, following along the moving train, both M’gann and Superboy flew out the hole Bioship made in the floor, while the rest of us piled out onto the roof of the freight car.

The two fliers flew down alongside the freight car, staying close to the door as we spread out over the roof, and split into two groups. As quietly as possible Aqualad got into the proper stance, pulling water from his pack, and preparing himself. I made my way to the other side of the car, Tora standing opposite me as everyone waited for the word to engage. After a long handful of seconds, Batman sent a message through our coms.

“First package has been unsealed.”

“GO!” Kaldur said mentally, neatly slicing a hole in the roof of the car below him and Wally, while Tora focused a blast of cold energy at the metal by our feet. I shifted all of the rock and sand around my arms into a point just in front of my fist, like a stone piledriver, and slammed it down into the frozen metal, busting a hole into the roof, not much bigger than Kaldur’s. Robin and Wally, both having been waiting for this moment, dropped several flash bangs down into the hole.

“Huh… What-”

The voice from inside cut off with a shout, as a series of concussive blasts reverberated through the train car, light shining brightly through the holes as the flashbangs went off. The second they did Aqualad and I expanded the holes we made, making them just big enough for all of us to drop in. At the same time, M’gann and Superboy both yanked open the large doors of the freight car, stepping in from the third point of entry.

Time seemed to slow down for a moment as I landed inside the car, looking around to spot any threats, only realizing that the car was much fuller than we had expected. The dozens of relatively weak robot Monkeys were there, of course, sitting on various boxes and crates. A short redheaded man, dressed in a red bowtie and a green sweater vest knelt between the crates, covering his eyes and shouting in pain.

There were also three red bipedal humanoid robots, looking much like Red Tornado if shaped slightly differently. One was feminine, and the other two were masculine. All three were adorned with golden yellow accents on their heads and chest. They also had paneling along their body. Something about the way it was attached made me think that they were newer additions to their frames, some sort of armor-plating. All three of them turned as one to the member of the team closest to them.

“Drat, it looks as if Dr. Morrow was correct, I did need backup,” The redheaded man said, still rubbing his eyes as he stood up. “and the chests are empty too. Makes me wonder if you let them get captured on purpose or not. Hmmm… Oh well, Either way, it’s time for you to go. If you would be so kind…?”

The red androids attacked the second he gave the word. The feminine one blasted us with a wave of fire, Superboy taking the brunt of the blast as he stepped forward. As the temperature in the car suddenly skyrocketed, M’gann shouted in fear, flying back to the farther corner of the freight car.

Meanwhile, the other two robots stepped forward as well, one of them yanking Aqualad off of his feet, his pack tearing open as he summoned his water. The hydrokinetic blasted him with the stolen liquid, slamming them against the wall. The final android raised his hand and blasted electricity out at me, aimed straight for my chest. Wally shoved me out of the way at the last second, barely avoiding getting blasted himself.

“Tora! Lockdown Ivo, everyone else get the robots outside!” Kaldur ordered. “There isn’t enough room to fight in here, we are going to get burned!”

The team moved to respond to their orders quickly, Tora blasting Ivo and most of his monkey bots with several blasts of ice.

“Inferno, get me-” The supervillain, who the more experienced members of the team clearly recognized as Professor Ivo, started to say before I took a running leap and tackled the female android.

The sound of his voice immediately vanished as I managed to catch her off guard, launching both of us out of the freight car. We fell for a good three seconds before we hit the ground, which I thankfully saw coming. As much as I wanted to drive android into a solid slab of stone, the chance of that impact seriously injuring me was way too high. Instead, I softened the ground as we hit, absorbing the energy of our impact. We still tumbled but not nearly as harshly as we would have. I tried to roll to my feet and immediately sink the robot into the ground, but she stood inhumanly fast, blasting me with fire and forcing me to roll out of the way.

As I pulled out my shield and blocked a second blast of fire I saw Superboy take an electrically charged punch to the gut even as he flew out of the car carrying the lighting-wielding android. He lost his grip as electricity sparked off of him, both of them falling from the sky as Superboy lost his concentration on his flight. They were only about a hundred feet away when they stopped tumbling. Both Superboy and his target got to their feet immediately, already squaring up.

I raised my shield to block a third blast of fire, this one turning into a continuous stream of intense heat. I could feel my shield already warming up, so with a shout, I did a quick forward kick that dragged through the ground and launched a chunk of rock at the female android, forcing her to use a blast of fire to dodge out of the way.

“Robin, get to the front and stop the train, Kid Flash go help Skarn, M’gann and Tora get the water android out!”

Kaldur gave his orders quickly, leaping out of the freight car  and rolling with the impact, tumbling for a while before standing and making a beeline for the electricity-controlling robot. He attacked from behind, a downward strike with a single water mace.

Behind him, I could see M’gann and Tora forcing the final elemental bot out of the train car. Meanwhile, Robin was back on the roof and running along the train, heading toward the front end. Wally ran in a blur towards me, making his way to me and my opponent.

To keep the android's eyes on me, and give Kid Flash a surprise attack, I whipped out my right hand, sending a barrage of stones at the robot, which it didn't even bother to dodge or blast with fire, simply tanking the chunks of stone. The attack did its job, however, because Wally zipped right to them, tagging their hip and running around them as fast as he could. As they moved, strands of rappel wire, now a standard part of everyone's utility belts, coiled around them. They tried to move and escape but Wally managed to lock their legs together, with one arm against their side.

With a wave of their free hand, they blasted a ring of fire around themselves, forcing Kid Flash to retreat, blurring as he ran to my side. I stomped spun and tried to impale a spike of stone into their foot, before trying to suck them down into the earth, but a blast of powerful flames erupted from their back, lifting them off the ground and into the air.

“Fuck me… really?” I said, looking around, spotting Superboy and Kaldur fighting the electrokinetic robot.

The female robot, now safe from us for the moment, started blasting the cord wrapped around her with fire, starting as a thick plume before dialing it down to a tight, blowtorch-like blade of intense fire. The cord held for a surprisingly long amount of time considering its thickness, but after a few seconds, she managed to burn through, snapping the cords, which fell away to the ground.

She looked around, searching for us… just in time for me to come from behind and smash into her back, having launched myself with a pillar of stone.

The heat was immense, I could feel it even through the protective layer of stone and sand I had just formed around myself. I forced my fist into a point pile driver point again and slammed it into her back, just above where the wreath of flame she was using to fly was spraying out of. I hit her once, twice, three times as she tried to get me off.

On the fourth strike, her built-in jetpack flickered and coughed, causing us both to wobble in the air for a moment. I tried to reach inside her with my metal bending, but her body was way too refined for me to even sense at my current skill level. So instead I hit her again, shouting out loudly and slamming into her shoulder. Her left side nozzle crunched, massively changing the thrust it was putting out, causing both of us to fall from the sky. I pushed away from her, kicking off her back with both feet and cushioning myself from the fall by softening the earth.

The android managed to recover, blasting the ground with fire from her hands to stabilize herself just long enough to land with barely a stumble. Kid used the stumble to run by her again, punching her in the shoulder as he did. He stopped running to help me up with one hand while shaking out the other one.

“Ouch, metal armor, right,” He mumbled as we stood together.

In the distance, I could see Superboy and Aqualad dodging blasts of electricity while Tora froze water as fast as the hydrokinetic could pull it from the ground. M’gann managed to smash the hydrokinetic with a chunk of stone she pulled from the ground, though he managed to soften the blow with a last-minute blast of water.

As the pyrokinetic recovered from Wally’s drive-by punch, I pulled out a chunk of meteoric iron from my utility belt. With my adrenaline pumping, I pushed my energy into it, and with a few pushes and squeezes managed to turn it into a single, crude but functional knuckle duster.

“Here, we will get you a pair for heavy targets later,” I said, passing it to Wally, who looked at it skeptically. “What? Would you rather hit them with your bare-”

I saw the movement with just enough time to shove Wally out of the way, sending him tumbling back along the ground. I had just enough time to get my shield up in front of me before a small ball of fire landed at my feet and detonated, lifting me off the ground and sending me skidding across the ground, and onto my side. With a groan I quickly pushed myself back up, standing for a moment before the pain washed over me.

I had managed to cover my face, thankfully, but I could feel the tips of my fingers on my right aching, my left leg feeling a little loose from landing on that hip. My costume was smoking in several places as well, but I had managed to avoid both Wally and me getting seriously burnt.

We had both fucked up, stopping to chat when we were in the middle of a fight.

It was about as rookie of a mistake as you could make. I double-checked Wally was getting back to his feet before charging directly for the android. I held my shield up to block a blast of fire, and Wally blurred beside me, rushing past and using his new weapon to clock her in the jaw, before ducking under her blasts of fire. His punch threw her off with a clang, giving me the opportunity to close the last bit of distance between us.

I slammed my foot down on top of hers, driving it down into the ground, which I softened and then rehardened around it. I follow that up with a shield bash to knock her off center. Her foot, which was still pinned in the ground, forced her to struggle against the hit rather than stumble backward.

Kid Flash zipped by again, this time rushing by and slamming a hit to her chest, denting a space between her extra armor plating. I stomped on her other foot, locking that in place as well, before moving my arm up, pulling a large solid chunk of stone up behind her. Wally hit her again in the face, denting her chin and finally making her fall backward. She fell for a second before her hip landed on the stone block I just made. As Wally kept zipping around and hammering her to keep her down I jumped back, pulled a massive square pillar of stone from the ground, and with a bit of flare brought it down directly onto her hip.

Between the block under her and the massive pillar of rock, angled with a corner facing downward, that slammed down into her, the android's lower torso was crushed almost completely through. I followed through the attack as her legs twitched and sparked by letting the earth swallow her, sealing her in solid stone all the way up to her eyes.

Wally and I nodded to each other before turning back to everyone else, ready to help them with their fights.