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Registered User
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Posts: 1033
Join Date: Jan 2008
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Shadow Hawk left only four hours ago on the trail of his father’s killer and since then Captain Midnight had shown up on the Citadel’s doorstep announcing his return from the future yet again. He had swiftly enlisted Sebastian’s help to track down as many heroes as he could to form a new team ready to stand up to the evil of the world.
“Finally some down time” Sebastian breathed a sigh of relief after the Captain had left.
Then he plugged in some codes on the computer and downloaded the emergency alert feed to his PDA. That way if the Sentinel picked up any criminal activity it would be sent straight to him and he could get out of this clock tower and try and relax for a few hours.
Halfway down the elevator shaft his PDA began to vibrate “you’ve got to be kidding me, I haven’t even made it outside the building yet.”
The Sentinel’s screen zoomed in on the threat area and began streaming live video as Sebastian made it back to his all too familiar chair. The Sojourn Corporation seemed to be under attack by the same cyborgs that had assaulted it previously. But this time John wasn’t here to stop them. He wondered briefly if the heroine Raptor would show up again since it was in this place and against these troublemakers that she had made her one and only appearance to date.
Then he saw her on the screen ordering them to leave…
“You two are trespassing” Raptor shouted “I demand you leave the premises immediately!”
Gray Mist and Ashigaru just laughed as their small army of robotic drones came out of hiding to surround Sojourn’s guardian “what no Shadow Hawk to rescue you this time?” Gray Mist asked.
“I walked right into this one” Alicia Martin, vice president of Sojourn and masked guardian Raptor, said to herself.
“This building will fall today” Gray Mist said with conviction “there is no doubt about it.”
Ashigaru began giving orders to the drones “surround the building and begin demolition procedures.”
“No you can’t” Raptor gasped in horror.
“Yes we can” Gray Mist corrected her “and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”
Raptor screamed letting the resonance projector at her throat build pressure. Then it released the energy as a sonic sound wave. This time however they were not knocked from their feet or otherwise damaged at all as they had been during the first encounter. The cyborgs now had some kind of sound proof shielding in place which protected them from the blast.
“Upgrades” Ashigaru smiled at her, and then he took a swing at her with his iron Bo staff.
The staff connected with her jaw knocking Alicia off her feet. She retaliated with a telekinetic punch that caused the cyborg to lose his grip on his staff. Then she connected with a leg sweep sending him off balance. Furious Ashigaru kicked out with his metal leg connecting with her stomach. The wind was knocked out of Raptor and she lay on the ground gasping for air.
Meanwhile in the Citadel…
“We can’t let her die” Jess cried as she saw the horrible battle taking place on the computer screen “I’ll suit up.”
“I thought you were done with this?”
“So did I, so did I.”
“You’re not going alone” Sebastian said as he went with her to the armory “me and John are about the same size, besides I have been tinkering with one of the suits. About time I took it for a test drive.”
As Jess suited up and became Talon once more Sebastian showed her the special suit he’d been working on “this suit has been fitted with cybernetically enhanced armor and a few more weapons.”
“The cape’s gone” she commented.
“Replaced with this folding wing design flight pack, no more need of grapplers” he said with pride.
“So what do you call it?”
“The Cyber Hawk suit” he smiled as he put it on.
The two of them raced over to the Sojourn Corporation’s parking lot where the battle was taking place. Sebastian arrived first, flying in low enough to grab two of the drones by their necks and slam them together breaking loose the circuitry in their shiny chrome heads.
“We’ve got incoming” Ashigaru shouted!
“Is that Shadow Hawk?” Gray Mist asked “he looks different.”
“Upgrades” came a voice slightly different than Sebastian’s due to the voice changer built into his mask.
“Ah and it looks like you brought over the toddler for a play date” Gray Mist retorted upon seeing Talon swinging in.
“I’ll show you who’s a toddler” Talon shouted angrily as her wrist blades extended from her armored gloves.
“Feisty little one aren’t you? I like that” Gray Mist laughed as she activated her own energy sword.
Raptor took the hand that was offered her and looked up into the mirrored faceplate that Sebastian’s suit contained “Shadow Hawk?” she hesitated.
“Not quite” he said “but we work together.”
Ashigaru charged Sebastian utilizing his cybernetically enhanced speed. The Cyber Hawk’s flight pack thrusters activated, rocketing himself and Raptor up and over the cyborg. Then Sebastian launched a half dozen electrified hawk-stars from his gauntlets. They each struck Ashigaru in the back and discharged. The electricity shot through his metallic body causing his robotic systems to shutdown.
The massive explosion knocked everyone in a ten block radius off their feet. Raptor looked on in horror as Sojourn started crumbling down. The robotic drones succeeded in planting their charges as she and her saviors were distracted by the cyborg leaders. Tears began even though she fought hard to keep them back. Her mother Sylvia, president of Sojourn, was still inside the building as was about a hundred and fifty employees.
Gray Mist laughed manically as she turned her attention back to them. Then the metal plates on her shoulders slid open making way for small flamethrowers to emerge.
“Get behind me” Sebastian shouted to the others as fire spewed forth from the barrels.
He activated the shields built into his forearms and the metal plates fanned out created semicircular shields. When he brought his arms together they became a whole circle that spanned about a foot wider than his body on both sides. The fire hit the shields but could not penetrate them.
Across the ocean…
John Dark’s plane had touched down thirty minutes ago. Now he was wedged in a stall in the men’s room trying to put his suit on in the cramped space. After dropping one of his gauntlets in the toilet he finally managed it. Now he had to wait until the coast was clear to make his escape from his cubicle prison.
Fifteen minutes later he was crouching on the left rear battlement of Castle Carrion trying to detect signs of life. He wanted to find out how much the Count had discovered about Marcus Deimus. A small automobile pulled up the driveway. It pulled into the garage and a man, presumably the Count, stepped out as the electronic garage door closed shielding him from sight.
John waited three minutes giving the Count ample time to get inside before forcing open a window and entering the castle as well.
To be continued…
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