Blood Obsidian

Issue 11

Fear response - Part 5

Below ...

"Do we know which supers are duking it out?" Chief Watson stared up toward the abandoned building, hands resting on his belt. "Never mind, get the usual cordon in place and be prepared to widen it if it's Principle level supers, okay? Evacuate everyone from the immediate area."

Officers rushed around and Watson couldn't take his eyes from the building above, hearing the crashes even from here, dust clouds puffing outward where walls were never built. Including the two incidents involving that new super, this made it twelve super incidents within the last few days. Ever since Black Staff's death, and Watson always knew this would happen as soon as New Hastings' resident hero either died or decided to retire.

Watson had warned the mayor, but no-one ever believed Black Staff would ever leave. For certain, no-one expected him to die. The man had fought crime since Watson was a child and had never seemed to age much. Unlike Watson himself. They needed a super, one they could rely on, or the super-villains would trample this city to the ground.

-+-

Caitlyn fought through the fear that wormed its way into her brain and launched herself toward the monster that had killed Alaina. She wasn't going to let him get away with it, or allow him to disappear between the blinks of her eyes again. In fact, she wasn't even certain she had blinked since the moment that fountain of blood had exploded from her best friend.

Her first punch smashed right through the concrete pillar behind the man. Her second missed his chin by the tiniest fraction of an inch. The man in the fright mask ducked and dodged everything she threw at him and now she started to believe he may have some superpower after all. Not the thing with the fear, something else. Something physical.

He wasn't strong, she had felt as much from his previous attacks. The reason he had cut through the Black Staff suit was because of those metal claws a kind of metal she had read about in her geology book. An alloy, first created in ancient China, the recipe lost and found so many times over the years, Synonium. The toughest, strongest metal in the world, said to make everything else seem blunt by comparison, and so expensive to make, few people had ever even seen it.

That was the only explanation for this man's ability to cut through a suit that Caitlyn had witnessed suffer harder hits. So, not strong and not particularly fast. Caitlyn could see him moving, only he seemed able to anticipate everything she did. But he was agile, possibly super-agile, jumping and bouncing around, twisting in ways Caitlyn hadn't even seen dancers twist. Bending so much only gymnasts could compare.

It infuriated her, making her even more angry. She hadn't connected with a single strike and now she wished she had the length of that staff to give her even a tiny advantage. It appeared, expanding from her palm. Three feet from one side, three feet from the other and, with a wild swing, she struck the vile monster a glancing blow on the jaw. That caught him and now Caitlyn knew she could and it added an entirely different dimension to the fight.

The man in the red-eyed fright mask reacted in a way she could never have expected to the strike. He nodded, as though giving props to his opponent. As though he hadn't viciously and callously taken the life of a teenage girl to goad Caitlyn. To taunt her. And now he taunted her again, in a different way. Treating the fight like a gentlemanly duel. Caitlyn almost screamed at him for that.

Half-blinded by her fury, she launched herself at the man again, only this time, she anticipated him. Every time he moved to avoid her punches, she adjusted herself to attack where he would go. Her attacks still didn't hit, neither with her fists or the staff, but she had her attacker stumbling in random directions, arms flailing until he lost his footing, falling back into another of those holes that dotted the building.