A brief sense of respite ... - Part 2
Something struck Caitlyn and she almost summoned the suit to hit back, only to find a terrified man picking himself up from the street. Only now, as she reached to support the man back to his feet, did she notice the shard of glass that had lodged in her arm. It felt odd not to even feel it but, even as she watched, the shard dislodged itself, falling with a musical tinkle to her feet. No blood came from the wound and she realised that the suit protected her, even when not covering her fully.
Rayna's screaming face passed before Caitlyn's eyes as the monster thrust giant claws into the side of the building and then began to climb. It looked like some kind of bipedal alligator, but it wasn't anything Caitlyn had ever heard of before. Not in the villain mugshots that Kyle continued to send to her phone, with tests, nor on any news report. Another new villain, but this one had Caitlyn's girlfriend. Possible girlfriend. Right now, she was a Schrödinger's girlfriend and to find out whether or not Rayna was, or could be, Caitlyn would have to kick that creature's ass.
In the panic caused by the monster's passing, Caitlyn managed to merge with the crowd and, as soon as she could, split away, down a filthy, tight alley, where the suit came at her summons and her grapple flew upward, dragging her up toward the night sky. It took several more swings before she managed to reach the roof, landing on a parapet and searching for the monster, and Rayna.
A scream caught Caitlyn's attention and she began to sprint in that direction. The creature moved fast for its size, but that size also worked against it, leaving cracks in the roofs, broken brick walls and twisted aerials in its wake. Then, a momentary flash of something caught Caitlyn's eye and she saw the beast clambering up the side of one New Hasting's many skyscrapers.
"Hey!" The sudden voice in Caitlyn's ear almost made her stumble, but she valued Kyle's contribution, whatever that may entail. "I saw cell phone footage of this thing and I thought you should know, we have literally nothing on this guy. Not a damned thing. He's new."
"You think?" That was considerably less helpful than Caitlyn needed at the moment. "Any advice, or did you just call because you were feeling left out?"
The silence that followed answered that question better than any amount of words. She couldn't blame him for wanting to get in on the action, but he could have chosen to try and help during the day, against Machina. She couldn't afford the distraction if he couldn't tell her anything useful, not with Rayna's life in the balance.
"I can neither admit nor deny that. But, after looking at this footage, this thing looks like an alligator, or a crocodile, or something and they have a fairly simple weakness." She hoped Kyle wasn't about to say 'the cold', because it was mid-Spring. There was no cold here. "Its bite will be predicated on snapping down on its prey. All the muscles in the jaw are made for that, not so much on the opening. If you can tie it's jaws closed, you'll have one less weapon to deal with. The claws will be a different matter."
"Got it." Her suit-powered grapple lanced out again and she yanked on it with all her might, sending her flying upward. "Gotta go. Need to punch something."
She didn't punch the creature. Instead, she timed her downward swing, adding as much momentum as she could, so that she smashed into the creature, carrying them both, and Rayna, through the heavy, plate glass windows and into the building. Caitlyn had enveloped Rayna with the suit, protecting her, while Caitlyn used the creature's body as a shield.
They all rolled across the floor of the building, smashing desks, cubicle dividers and chairs out of their way until they came to a stop. Caitlyn took back the suit just in time as the gator-man slashed out toward her with the claws of one hand. Caitlyn had listened to Trooper Jane. She had! When she wasn't gushing over the hero, that was, but she remembered the shield work.
The claws bounced from the round shield Caitlyn created and she followed up with an uppercut of a punch that would knock the jaw off pretty much any normal person. Only this guy was not normal. Not in the slightest. It almost didn't affect the creature at all, except for turning its head a slight to the side. That was enough to give Caitlyn the opening she needed to try to break Rayna from its grip.
She tried not to look into the beautiful girl's eyes, not in the middle of a fight with a creature that had to duck to even move in this building, but she could hear the stifled sobs coming from Rayna. The creature was too strong, even against the suit's enhanced strength, the claws moved, but only a little, not enough to release Rayna. Rayna was the only reason Caitlyn survived the next attack, her eyes widening at something behind Caitlyn.
The jaws slammed closed, but Caitlyn had leapt away, tumbling until she came to a stop close to the broken window. For whatever reason, this creature did not want to let Rayna go. It held on to her for dear life and Caitlyn wondered whether the thing was actually a transformed, jealous ex, but that sounded too much like that trashy daytime super-hero soap, X-Lives and Heroes. She had to grab this thing's attention.
"Hey, CC?" That was new and Caitlyn dearly hoped Kyle would never use that to refer to her. Ever again. "I think you're going to have to use the thing."
"Are you crazy?" She launched herself forward, driving her foot into the creature's gut, to little response. "The thing is for the other guy. We use the thing now and we lose the advantage of it being secret!"
"Can you beat this thing without the thing?" Kyle had a wonderful way of putting things simply. No. Annoying. The term was, an annoying way. "Those teeth will rip you apart. Alligator heads move fast. Use the thing."
He was right. She hated that he was right and she wasn't about to say so. If the gator creature decided to use those massive jaws upon Rayna, Caitlyn would never forgive herself for wanting to keep the thing secret. She needed to grab the creature's attention. Somehow. Keep it focussed on her and not the tasty, oh so tasty, morsel of pure female perfection in its grubby hand. That seemed inappropriate to think about during a life or death struggle.
"Hey, AlleyGator!" Worst villain name choice ever! Still, it could have been worse. She pointed her hand to the side. "What say we table this meeting and reconvene in a jail cell. Or a zoo. Your choice."
Inwardly cringing at the ridiculous trash-talk, she fired her grapple to grip a nearby, overturned desk, planted her feet and swung it toward the creature's head. The desk cracked against the AlleyGator's skull, becoming nothing but splinters and twisted metal, but it had done the job. The creature turned toward her, opening its jaws wide and roaring in pain, or anger. She couldn't tell which.
As retrieved the suit's grapple, she opened up a gap in the suit's surface, reaching into the bag beneath and pulled out the the strange device Kyle had had Drone's drones create for him. The suit resealed and Caitlyn waited for the jaws to snap closed before she fired the thing. It took only an instant. The jaws closed, the almost silent 'pfft' of gas escaping from the device and the weighted netting flew out from the opening on the device, wrapping around the AlleyGator's jaws and trapping them closed.
A muted, weak attempt at a roar came from the creature's closed mouth and it began to stumble, fighting against the netting with its only free hand. That gave Caitlyn another chance to free Rayna and she leapt forward, planting her feet against the creature's huge, scaled arm as she put all her strength into tugging the claws, wrapped around Rayna, open. To Caitlyn's surprise, it didn't take as much strength as she thought. The claws opened, dropping Rayna to the floor.
Caitlyn jumped from the arm, bounced off a nearby wall and rebounded toward AlleyGator, smashing her shoulder into the alligator-like face. Except, it wasn't that much like an alligator anymore. In fact, the creature had started to shrink, the netting falling from its diminishing jaw. The scales on its skin began to fade away, becoming pink flesh, and its claws, now fast becoming normal hands, clutched its head. Or, rather, his head.
"No. No!" No longer AlleyGator, Caitlyn could see a dishevelled man, now. Long, straggly hair. A beard almost as rough and badly groomed. Dirty skin as though the man hadn't washed in some time. In fact, he didn't look as though he had eaten in some time, either. "They said it would make me strong! They said I'd never be hungry again! They said!"
"Who?" Caitlyn tried to reach out for the man, but his arms flailed around him, as though fighting something invisible. "Who told you that? Who did this to you?"
"The demon with the yellow eyes!" Wild, insane eyes glared at Caitlyn, but still he stumbled and tottered, arms continuing to thrash about. "But I did what I was told! I did it! I didn't hurt ..."
From the side, something, someone, came rushing past Caitlyn, holding something in their hands. Before the man could finish talking, Rayna smashed a chair into his chest, sending the man back-pedalling until his dirty, shoeless feet caught on the frame of the broken window, sending him falling backward, arms reaching out to stop him falling, eyes widening in shock.
Caitlyn began to follow, to jump out of the window. She knew she could catch him, arrest their fall with her fast-floating, but Rayna had dropped the chair, flinging her arms around Caitlyn's neck and sobbing into her chest. Caitlyn's first priority was to Rayna, it had to be. That man, no matter how changed, how deranged, had tried to kill the girl Caitlyn liked. He didn't deserve to die, no, but Caitlyn had to make a choice. After all, she couldn't save everyone.
-+-
Meanwhile, at a hidden facility, somewhere in New Hastings ...
Doctor Rucka hadn't eaten in hours and his stomach complained as he tested the new batch of the synthesised Element. Raymond Alden had specifically said the synthesised Element should have a limited life, terminating itself once it had done its job, repairing human bodies, curing diseases. The most altruistic form of science. Healing. And it had worked. Alden, himself, was proof of that, but the process needed adjusting. Tweaking. Perfecting.
That was what he had tried to do, even after the first batches of the synthesised Element were stolen, along with experiments from a whole series of Ald-Tech facilities. He had recreated his experiments, made improvements, created a life-saving new technology. Then that night came.
The night that creature had burst into his home, carrying him aloft on that strange flying platform, the eerie, inhuman laughter ringing in Rucka's ears until the creature had dumped him here, in this well-appointed lab with no doors. No way to escape. And the creature had one demand.
Make the synthesised Element permanent.
Rucka checked the results of the latest tests and realised that he had done as the creature asked. He had succeeded. The synthesised Element could last forever, with no termination date. But he couldn't let this creature have such technology. The grey, laughing thing would not use it for anything but evil.
Destroying the Element would be easy enough. Hiding the fact would be hard and the creature would return soon. Rucka didn't care. He would suffer the consequences.