CHAPTER 6
I had, to this juncture, avoided the ire of the E-Human assemblage known as The Crusaders. Prior to my manufactured war with China, they concentrated on bringing down Epison. They had long suspected him of injustice but they were so singularly focused upon my “friend” that they never even suspected I was the true mastermind behind all of his dealings. It is a shame that not one of those seven overpowered youths had even an inkling of detective skills among them. For if they had even for one second connected Epison to me, it wouldn’t have taken a domestic slaughter to draw their attention.
Their leader, the pompous Enforcer, had the gall to hold a press conference where he publicly denounced my Presidency and revealed to the world his conspiracy theory. He should have consulted the latest approval ratings as I held over a ninety percent approval while more than sixty percent of the nation felt the E-Humans should be imprisoned, registered by the government or otherwise controlled. People look to strong leaders in times of great turmoil, not teenagers born of the Internet generation. Imagine a seventeen year-old human that the country fears going on television and accusing the President of war crimes. I couldn’t have done anything more to help my cause than Enforcer did.
The technological advantage Epison had given us allowed us to dominate the war in China. The American people were united in what they had come to believe was a meaningful war. It was only a matter of time before China crumbled, and I was ready to turn my attention to the Middle-East when things suddenly and unexpectedly went awry.
The first deviation from my master plan came when my longtime partner became tired of playing second fiddle to me. Weiland had his own dreams of world conquest and he chose to reveal his masterstroke to the world late in the winter of 2022. My friend scheduled a press conference himself and the truth behind the war in China. He implicated that I had coerced him into allowing the prototype to be stolen. He then went into a witty diatribe stating that I had placed a gag order on him, and that I would destroy his business empire if he ever uttered a word. Oh, the courage everyone watching must have thought he was showcasing by disclosing this on live television. I always knew he would betray me, I didn’t expect him to do so this early in my mission of domination.
Americans were quickly forced to choose between believing a man of infinite wealth or their beloved President. In this unique situation, money trumped all. Epison Technologies was responsible for a dominant percentage of the economic infrastructure. If the populace at large sided with me or if Epison was imprisoned for treason, the economy would collapse. The people took the only path they could. They revolted.
Deceived and betrayed, my formerly loyal citizens rioted and pillaged. The war I convinced them to believe in so perfectly was revealed to be an illegal fabrication. Major cities imploded in disarray. Within just hours of Weiland’s announcement, thousands of incensed, homicidal citizens marched on the White House. Though I was not yet proven guilty, I had been so judged by the populace. I was responsible for their dead sons and daughters. I was solely responsible for all the dead Chinese. I had deceived them and led them all into an atrocious war against an enemy that was innocent of the crimes they were charged with -- unquestionably innocent. They were calling for my head and in the face of such accusations, contingency plans had commenced.
Martial Law went into effect immediately; however, it was my version of it. I had recruited a small personal guard assembled from Epison’s private army. I had twenty soldiers outfitted in the tactical armor that made my former friend so wealthy and also two of his now infamous exo-skeletons. With the majority of our armed forces deployed to China, there would be little chance of even so large a mob breaking through the White House walls to get to me. Furthermore, I employed two personal bodyguards who did me the favor of eliminating the White House staff and any in the Presidential line of succession who were present. My days of maintaining my stronghold in the nation’s capital were numbered in single digits. I knew eventually my former friend was going to send his private army to remove me, but I would not yield without a fight.
What happened next was unexpected. The great and glorious Enforcer arrived among the horde. I was aghast at his arrogance, arriving without his teammates as if he could oust me alone. Yet there he was in his gleaming azure armor, that otherworldly aura surrounding him. I still remember seeing that infernal smirk on his face on the monitors within the oval office. I did not know how he could dare trivialize the seriousness of this situation. I vowed to make life a living Hell for him. If the mighty Enforcer wanted a fight, he was going to get one that changed him forever.
I watched the scene unfold via satellite cameras. I had every vantage point and every angle from which to watch Enforcer suffer. By radio, I ordered my men to surround Enforcer and isolate him from the masses. My men formed a circular formation around the interloper and began closing in. He was facing twenty men of equal strength, skill and durability and that smug grin remained on his face. He was either too brave or too stupid to be intimidated. Whatever plan was rolling around in that juvenile brain of his was about to be shattered into oblivion when I issued my next order.
On my command and without hesitation a flank of my soldiers turned away from Enforcer and unleashed torrents of deadly energy blasts into the masses. Hundreds were executed at once, disintegrated on impact. Perhaps this made me a one trick pony but I had to admit murdering innocents makes a statement. A high-pitched shriek of terror escaped from Enforcer’s lips as he dropped to his knees. A spell of hysteria had overtaken him and he was babbling wildly. Though he had been acting as a vigilante for four years, he had never witnessed such a massacre. I had succeeded in removing that smile.
Horrified, Enforcer launched himself at my nearest soldier and tackled him to the ground. The force of their landing was explosive, leaving a crater at their impact spot. The azure clad assaulter began pummeling my soldier with a series a punches, each one shaking the earth upon connecting. He had become solely focused on the lone soldier than he had beneath him that he overlooked the nineteen others waiting behind him. A volley of direct energy blasts drove into Enforcer’s back lifting him helplessly into the air. He landed awkwardly but recovered and leapt to his feet. Just that instant, two soldiers attacked from each side with a flurry of hand to hand combat. Their punches and kicks were executed at a pace faster than the eye could comprehend. Enforcer dodged deftly at first but soon one strike hit true, then another and so on. After damage had been inflicted on Enforcer and signs of vulnerability were becoming illuminated several more soldiers joined the fracas. Their nemesis tried to stay on his feet but the combined might of my men was too much. His body started to crumble.
“Please stop,” the beaten teenager muttered through gritted teeth. He who had been so smug and arrogant a moment ago was now begging. He would receive no such quarter however. I ordered my men to press harder. They were to finish him off.
Just then a flash of white hot teleportation light beamed onto the battlefield. Standing in its midst were the remaining six Crusaders. Affairs were about to become far more interesting. The blind one adorned in golden and red martial arts regalia called The Master assumed field command and issued instruction. He commanded the supposedly holy-powered Saint and the hellfire imbued Faust to rescue Enforcer. Saint, in his angelic light blue uniform and Faust in his blood red disguise each drew swords of flame from some ethereal place and rushed to their leader’s aid. The Master then ordered the female in a green mystic’s outfit named Emerald and the ghastly man known as The Peacemaker to keep the remaining civilians safe. He then instructed the cosmically powered one known as The Universal to fly overhead and provide energy fire while he took to the frontlines.
The flame swords of Saint and Faust were doing considerable damage to the armor my men were wearing. They were chipping away at the protective layers covering the vital areas of Enforcer’s assailants. Several were forced to break off their attacks and turn their attention to the newcomers. Saint’s angelic blue flame easil
y deflected a series of energy blasts as Faust pressed forward and attacked. His blood red flame struck true and knocked two of my men to the ground, leaving them shuddering in pain.
“Leave them to me, brother,” Faust taunted as a fourth fell to his flame. “Just hang back and play defense while I do all the dirty work.” Faust was the embodiment of rage as he eliminated man after man working his way to the two who had Enforcer pinned down. His righteous brother made his distaste for fighting clear, merely deflecting blows and blasts.
“You know violence isn’t the only solution, Faust,” the angelic one shot back. “We could look for a better way.” Saint’s words were so meek that they must have seemed ridiculous even to him because he joined his brother in the fracas only a moment later.
Across the battlefield, The Peacemaker and Emerald had cordoned the civilians to the rear of the White House and had engaged two of the soldiers I ordered to follow them. Peacemaker with his ability to phase between solid and ethereal states was toying with the dumbfounded soldiers. He continuously baited them to fire their energy blasts while phased intangible. He levitated in the air dauntingly, moving ever closer to my hapless henchmen. He came upon one of them and turned his body solid just long enough to slam a clenched fist into my man’s protective helmet. The impact of the blow was jarring dropping its recipient to his knees. Meanwhile, Emerald had conjured a force field from her bare hand that surrounded the cordoned civilians. The large mass encapsulated the remaining thousand or so surviving bystanders and was proving impenetrable to the Epison armor’s energy blasts.
With her other hand, she constructed a second force field around my second man. With barely a though, she lifted her arm into the air and the would-be protective bubble surrounding my man was launched dramatically high into the air. The nitwit soldier landed outside of the range of my satellite cameras and was completely eliminated from the fray.
Back on the main battlefront, The Universal’s black and white uniform seemed to come to life. Black energy poured out and began to coat his body as if he was being covered in tar. A star field pattern appeared against the darkness that had coated him. His body began to rise off the ground and took flight. He crisscrossed the combat zone, releasing violent torrents of energy at my soldiers. Another two soldiers were uprooted in the wake of The Universal’s blasts. In a matter of seconds my elite guard was reduced by fifty percent. I was beginning to lose confidence but felt certain we could at least inflict damage to the blind one. Perhaps if I took down their acting field commander, the tide would ebb back in my favor.
I ordered four soldiers to take on The Master. Despite being blind, he has the ability to see a few moments into the future, allowing him to correctly predict where, when and how his opponents will attack. His clairvoyance must allow him to see much more pristinely than those with normal vision because he made his four attackers look foolish. He had already avoided each punch, kick or blast before they were even thrown. The martial artist was a blur of acrobatic grace, flipping and dodging around luring the soldiers to attack. When one got too close; he struck with extreme precision, exploiting the most miniscule of weak points in what was supposed to be flawless body armor. My henchmen triangulated on him and fired their final blasts of energy. As if to mock my entire strategy, The Master stepped out of the way of the blasts and my men managed to hit each other. He mocked me further by giving a nod and a self-serving thumbs-up gesture to one of my cameras. I had lost my patience. I ordered my men in the exo-skeletons to attack.
“Everyone, regroup,” The Master ordered. “Those giants are on the move!” The Crusaders returned to the spot they had first arrived on the battlefield. Faust and Saint were assisting Enforcer who had recovered enough to walk upright, but not unassisted. The two monstrous machines were bearing down on the seven nuisances. If not for Emerald’s mystic shield erected at the last moment a hail of arm mounted Vulcan cannon fire would have ripped them to shreds.
The force field was weakening and Emerald began to buckle as The Master ordered Universal to fire energy blasts at my machines. Dark energy struck true and blew the cannon off one of the exo-skeletons. His second shot was not as lucky as the second unit zipped aside unscathed. The unit with the cannon kept raining bullets onto the force field while the damaged unit propelled itself toward the fading dome. The operator began pile driving the unit’s arms into Emerald’s shield nearly rendering it useless.
The Master issued further commands. “Saint, Faust, cut its arms off,” he shouted. Crude strategy as it was, those otherworldly flame swords cut cleanly like a hot knife through butter. With no arms and subsequently no weapons, the operator was unable to prevent Faust from cutting the legs off of the vulnerable machine. It fell to the ground with a thud, the operator surrendered immediately.
The second machine continued to pump gunfire toward the nigh destroyed force field but there was no point in pressing further. Enforcer had recovered. “I’ll handle this one,” the smug bastard proclaimed. In a blur which my cameras scarcely detected he charged through the force field, his nearly invulnerable body deflecting the Vulcan rounds as he sprinted forward. The blue aura that normally surrounded his body was now a blinding radiance reflecting the emotions that must have been coursing through him. Enforcer unleashed several rapid fire energy bursts while simultaneously driving his gauntleted fists into the operators hatch. Using unfathomable strength, he tore the steel door from the exo-skeleton as if it were construction paper. Rather than finish the operator, he allowed my defeated soldier to run away. His compassion is his biggest weakness. I would have finished the man right there. My elite guard was totally finished, beaten to stammering, belligerent pulps. My anger had boiled over. My hands had been clean for so long. It was time for me to play my trump card and finally join the fray.
I had kept the exo-skeleton that was used to incite the war with China in a bunker beneath the White House. I pressed a button on my desk and I was instantly lowered down to a series of tunnels that led to the bunker. A shuttle vehicle sped me quickly to my destination and in moments, I was inside the operator’s hatch and the relic came to life. Without any warning, I fired the booster rockets and was launched through the false ceiling and sprang onto the battlefield. I had caught The Crusaders off guard and fired a volley of missiles from the shoulder mounted salvos.
The Universal and Saint both took to the sky just as Emerald raised a force field to protect those confined to the ground. Enforcer was still separate from the rest of The Crusaders so I charged directly at him. The battle weary leader stood his ground and readied an energy blast. I reached him just as he was about to unleash the torrent of blue energy and deflected his arm. The blast went astray into the air and smashed into the airborne Saint’s chest. Enforcer shrieked in terror as his stricken teammate fell from the sky. He turned to run and catch his plummeting ally but I fired a burst of Vulcan cannon rounds into his back. The impact leveled Enforcer and the angelic Saint fell to his demise.
Faust bellowed the most satisfying scream that had ever breached my eardrums. Filled with insatiable rage, the hellfire powered fool rushed from the safety of the force field and ran directly into my line of fire. A quick burst of cannon fire and he was cut down in stride. The foolhardy teenagers had finally realized the price of their meddling. Until this encounter they had battled mere street thugs and the occasional super powered villain. Their lives were up for wager in this game and two of their close friends had lost. The shock had left even the bravest of them hysterical.
I was enjoying the moment of triumph. I had just made Enforcer strike down his own teammate and eliminated another one before his eyes. The Peacemaker lost the will to fight, phased out of his physical state and left the battle. Emerald, overcome with emotion, lost the ability to create her force fields and The Crusaders were left defenseless. Even the great strategist, The Master with his ability to see the future had lost hope. In that instant I may have lost myself to triumph. I was about to fall victim to Murphy’s
Law.
From an unknown location, a rouge energy blast pounded into the rear of my exo-skeleton. I spun in place to see a man in a suit of Epison Armor that had been repainted in an American flag motif. This was an unforeseen setback. The newcomer was an unknown entity and that frightened me. Even as The Crusaders decimated my elite guard, I still felt I had control of the situation. With another powerful opponent, especially one that was unaffected by the tragedy the others had experienced, my victory had come into question.
The new arrival loosed another surge of energy that impacted directly with the hatch of my exo-skeleton. I was knocked back and crashed to the ground with a thud. As I attempted to regain my bearings, the armored man rushed to Enforcer’s side. I attempted to take advantage of the two powerful beings close proximity but as I tried to fire, my controls were unresponsive.
The patriotic armored man kneeled and introduced himself to the bewildered Enforcer. “Hey kid,” he began, “my name is Lieutenant David Beach. I used to be a member of Weiland Epison’s private army. I recently defected.” I could only imagine how empty Enforcer’s eyes looked behind those opaque white eye slits in his mask. He stared at the man in front of him emptily. “Never lost a man before, huh,” he asked as calmingly as he could. “You have to pick yourself up. You have to soldier on because if you don’t, that maniac is going to kill everyone else here. We can win this thing, together.”
Just as he finished his pitifully heroic and rousing speech, I had regained control of my exo-skeleton. I struggled to keep my wits about me, for as pathetic as Beach’s dialogue was, it may have been enough to get Enforcer’s head back in the fight. I unleashed a fury of weapons fire, letting loose my entire reserve of munitions. A fury of missiles, cannon rounds and grenades pounded the ground where the heroes had been. When the smoke cleared, there were no bodies, no shattered armors and no remnants of shattered human beings. I had missed. Less than an instant later, the arms were torn off my cherished exo-skeleton. Enforcer held one arm while Beach had the other. They began bashing the disembodied limbs into my defenseless machine. One more of those strikes and they would have breached the hull and torn me out. It was time to take my leave of that place. I fired the jump rockets and launched the exo-skeleton into the air. Enforcer said something utterly paltry like, “no you don’t Hamilton,” and fired an energy blast that impacted one of the jump jets. I lost control of the machine and ended up crash landing nearly one hundred miles from the site of the battle. I had escaped, beaten but not nearly destroyed. I knew I would meet The Crusaders in battle again and I would finish what I started.