Veldron 9

Veldron's Saga 9: Fortune Favours the desperate

I had to talk fast. "How did they know I was here?" I asked. "How did they know where the exits were? We have a spy among us, and if we don't find them then it's going to be bad for all of us."

Turning supervillains against each other is the easiest thing in the world, but this time they weren't buying it. They'd seen or heard of me getting out of too many tricky situations to just assume that they could capture me later, whereas the question of the spy would keep. Well, with Scythe and Cabaret out of the picture, and Forcinor in no shape to use his shields... suddenly I was glad that they didn't make a very effective fighting force, although five on one was not good odds.

I always carry a few pain grenades in my belt. I rolled one across the floor, knowing that my radiation-proof skin would protect me, and ran.

A few cries. Forcinor and Gerald had both collapsed behind me. FrostWing and Yolund both cried out but seemed to be following, and the Host hadn't even made a sound.

The wet ground beneath me became ice and I lashed out blindly with the pain ray. I had more destructive weapons but I didn't trust them in these old tunnels. Besides, I wanted to avoid doing permanent injury if possible; I had to work with these people in the future.
On instinct, I dove to the ground right as FrostWing glided over me. The Host slid past, struggling to gain footing on the iced ground, and angled himself so that his fall protected Cabaret from hitting the ice. I reached out and tore something mechanical off his belt as he slid past me. A compulsion I guess.

I doubled back, aiming a punch at Yolund as I dashed past but not expecting to do any damage. I was right; the force just disappeared out of my punch before it hit him. The contact wouldn't have crushed a fly. He didn't make any attempt to retaliate or even restrain me, though, which was interesting.

I turned on my levitation detector as I ran and heard it begin to click slowly. That was probably Yolund; I had half-expected the tunnel to be full of heroes by now but I wasn't detecting much in the way of fliers. FrostWing's method of flying was something else, the levitation detector never caught it.

I pulled the back off the Host's mechanical thing and looked at the circuitry, trying not to break anything except the outer plastic as I moved stuff about. It was a mechanical music box. For emergencies, presumably. I could have gotten the same information from turning it on but I'm not in the habit of testing potentially dangerous mechanical devices that way.

Anybody who doesn't expect a hyperintelligent and mentally unstable roboticist to be physically fit vastly underestimates the usefulness of a good pair of legs and lungs in a robot rebellion. I dashed with the strength of the desperate, tossing another pain grenade to clear the recovering Forcinor and Gerald from my path. The pain caused FrostWing to crash into a marble pillar, which was a bonus.

I was winning! I couldn't believe it! Admittedly these were not the highest class of supervillain except the Host and Cabaret (who were half out of commission), but I, Veldron, was beating them! I'm a freaking techie and they're mostly field people and I was taking on five! I am awesome!

The Host's weight slamming into my back was like being hit with a car. He hadn't attacked me in any conventional way, he'd simply kept running as if I wasn't even there, until we collided. I wished the tunnels were more labyrinthine so that I would have the chance of actually losing them; I only had one pain grenade left and I was running out of temporary disabling tricks. I also wished that I had a soldering iron. I had done what I could to the music box as I ran, but it was only approximate. In the absence of solder, I used a heat ray on the tightest possible focus to melt some plastic together and physically force the right connections, waited for him to put Cabaret down and face me, and then switched the music box on.

I'd fought with the pair before. We were on the same side that time, but the tricks were the same.

The discordant whine was annoying, a little painful on the ears maybe, but the Host dropped to his knees and screamed. I turned to run again, but not before I saw where Yolund had got to – he was several feet behind the Host, watching the entire thing. Just watching.

Dammit, I had to lose these people. I turned the sound off as I ran. After I'd determined that I had enough distance between us, I turned and aimed my heat ray – highest power, highest focus – and offered a silent apology to the League of Shadows.

I hadn't put distance between us. Most of them were far behind, but FrostWing was headed straight for me, a furious expression on her face, hands raised to engulf me in ice. Her loss, I guess.

I aimed at the roof and then tracked the ray down each wall.

The stone cracked under the sudden temperature change. FrostWing saw what I'd done in time to back away from the cave-in, but not prevent it. She tried, but her ice only made the barricade stronger.

That was that problem solved. I collapsed a few more bits of tunnel as I went, just in case. They could blast through, given time, but they wouldn't; it would be easier to evade the heroes than come after me. I couldn't help but feel elated. Admittedly circumstances had been in my favour, but I'd held them off, held my own; I was a force to be reckoned with. And that was without a base.

I could take on the heroes, too. I could take on the military. I, Veldron, could take on the world!