3.a.x
Everything
looked grainy, like footage from a cheap camcorder in the early days of video
technology. Harsh shadows dominated the
urban landscape and there was a squealing hiss and a hollowness to the air.
A huge,
hulking form lurched into view, disturbing the static stillness and a barrage
of battle sounds erupted like heavy thunder as the hulking form was surrounded
by smaller, scuttling forms. Bursts of
light snapped and popped around the large man-shape as a small man wearing olive
green and a black beret flung some sort of small objects.
The other
scuttling people wore brightly colored costumes though something dulled the
hue, like a set of grade-school watercolor paints mixed with dirty black water.
The hulking
man thing knocked the scuttling forms away with a sweep of his giant arm. Then he pounced, clamping a beefy hand around
the small olive green man’s chest. The
beast yanked on one of the small man’s arms until the shoulder dislocated. The small man screamed and the huge behemoth
roared and yanked harder, unrooting the small man’s arm, tearing it from the
joint. The hulking form tossed the
broken man aside and bludgeoned the other scuttling man-creatures with the
dismembered appendage.
A man wearing
a fedora and a black domino mask swung down from a fire escape and called out,
“Donkey! Elephant! Formation six. Miss Pension get Two Cents out of there, he’s
getting pummeled. Ben, put a tourniquet
on Commander Credit’s arm!”
Donkey and The
Elephant took up positions on opposite sides of the behemoth as Miss Pension
darted into the fray and grabbed Two Cents before he was struck with the bloody
arm again. The Elephant charge the giant
man-thing head on while Donkey rushed the thing’s blindspot and kicked. The Elephant took a couple of rough shots,
but Donkey’s kicked succeeded in unbalancing the hulking creature.
“Bull Market,
Fair Wage! Now!” the man in the fedora
called out.
Two more
scampering brightly clad men rushed in toward the massive man-beast. Fair Wage swung a hefty plank of wood,
connecting squarely on the big thing’s nose as Bull Market punched its
midsection.
At first the
hulking brute seemed stunned, but when Fair Wage pressed for another attack the
thing struck out at blinding speed, knocked the smaller man to the ground, and
stomped on him. Bull Market doubled over
and bellowed. His blunted teeth cracked
and thick hair sprouted through his skin like deadly grass. Beneath the hulking beast’s foot came the
sounds of grinding bones and Fair Wage’s muffled screams.
“I’ve got him, John,” a voice rang out as
Corporate Man jumped down from a building near the man in the fedora. “Sorry I couldn’t get here sooner, but
whenever The Crash is on the scene, my necktie cape seems to malfunction.”
Corporate Man charged
forward and slammed into the massive leg of The Crash, toppling the hulking
man-form and freeing a very broken Fair Wage.
The Crash rolled up and slammed a giant fist into Corporate
Man.
From the fire
escape the man in the fedora called out a few more orders and then spoke into a
wrist watch, “John Q Public to Business Woman, do you copy?” Business Woman, where are you?”
“Right here,”
a crackling voice came through the right watch.
In the street a woman with bold slacks and noticeable shoulder pads in
her dress jacket round house kicked The Crash in the face. Before he could shrug off the attack,
Business Woman dealt another snap kick to its sternum and then to its knee.
The Crash fell
hard.
Miss Pension
distributed a flurry of solid punches to the thing’s face and Ben Buck the Dollar
Man leapt on top of The Crash and battered its midsection.
“Let’s wrap it
up people,” John Q Public said. “I want
a–”
A hairy bear
shaped thing slashed Ben Buck’s side open and turned on Miss Pension, snarling
and gnashing. The Crash rolled up onto
its feet and grabbed Corporate Man by the necktie.
“What’s going
on down there? Report!” John Q Public
shouted.
“It’s Bull
Market,” Business Woman said, rushing to aid Miss Pension. “I don’t know what happened to him. I think he’s gone Bear!”
