Murray Hill || A Superhuman Tale - 1

Chapter Seventy-Seven

Tommy leapt up from the ground only to have a solid and powerful knee meet his nose from Ulysses Morse, who'd sailed 20 feet from where he too had fallen. Within a heartbeat, Morse was on him. His powerful legs wrapped around Tommy's torso, and his fists abused Tommy's face with brutal lefts and rights. Morse was strong, not as strong as Tommy, but strong enough to cause great pain with each blow. And such blows added up.

Reaching up and grabbing an ear, Tommy pulled the old man's head closer and dug his teeth into Ulysses' nose. The old man howled in delight, and as Tommy bit down he managed to spin and launch both he and Morse into the air.

Somehow, the agile old man managed to shake loose and, in an instant, dropped the 80 or so feet to the ground. Miraculously, the scoundrel immediately rebounded and, still hooting and screaming in glee, shot back into the air and drove his shoulder into Tommy's stomach, wrapping the younger-looking man in a bear hug and beginning to gouge and tear at his eyes and ears.

This airborne wrestling went on for many minutes, with Morse occasionally throwing a vicious kick to the groin or punch to the kidneys. Neither man managed to give the other any significant injuries, but Ulysses knew that even Gifted fighters had weak spots—these were invariably the same as the average fighter—and soon snaked his way around to Tommy's back. He attempted to put the younger-looking man in a chokehold.

Tommy had had enough.

He twisted midair until he was heavenward and drove toward the ground with all the speed he could generate. Morse let out a huge howl when they hit the ground with Tommy on top of him, and a string of expletives exploded from the mercenary's mouth. This time, Tommy grabbed the old felon from the top, straddled him, and began pounding him with all his might, with a flurry of lefts and rights to the face and head.

After several minutes of this barrage, Morse laughed, spat blood in his face, and somehow managed to get both feet free and push Tommy away with a titanic thrust. Before Tommy knew it, he'd been hurled several hundred feet in the air, once again the target of the base anti-aircraft guns.

He was incredulous. The old man was made of leather and rubber and seemed to enjoy getting pounded by Tommy as much as Tommy enjoyed dishing it out.

Tommy dropped beneath the anti-aircraft fire and, hovering at about 90 feet, scanned the area for Morse or any of his comrades. Below, he could see an armored body in the area where he'd last seen Seven and Four. From the size, it appeared to be the lifeless remains of Four. There was no sign of Morse, nor of Six or Seven, but a heavily breathing figure Tommy presumed to be Sam was crouched out of sight in a cinderblock building about 50 yards away.

He continued to scan and to watch as he too caught his breath. By some miracle, his jeans had remained on his body, and, out of the blue, the ping of an incoming text-message sounded. Without thinking, Tommy pulled out the phone. It was Rhonda. "Who the hell is Mindy?" was all it read. He tucked his phone away.

Oh, shit ....

Ulysses couldn't fly, but his leaping ability was prodigious. From behind him, Tommy sensed a rapidly advancing presence and, turning about, saw Ulysses hurtling toward him, his arms and legs pumping, his mouth set in an ecstatic rictus, and his eyes burning with some unspeakable fire. The crazy man must have leapt from several hundred yards away.

Tommy had no time to ponder but caught the flying and laughing madman, spun him in one quick turn, and fired him into the ground. Shooting down, Tommy slammed feet-first into the now supine mercenary. His heavily armored opponent merely let out a huge, "Oof." And before Tommy could press his attack, a powerful arm swept his feet from under him, and the cackling old man was on top of him again, gouging, biting, kicking, and punching.