Rampage

The Recluse was down. Nautilus was down. Dr. Quick was missing. Foreigner was about to go down. The Creature, seven feet tall and covered in muscle, a big pair of horns on his head, was just finishing beating Foreigner in the face. The monster discarded the hero on the ground. Foreigner should be able to heal from an attack like that, but for whatever reason he wasn’t.

“C’mon big guy,” Halley said through clenched teeth, wrenching herself up off the ground. “You’re supposed to be the strong one.” She said as she slumped against the wall. The light on her strength ring was flickering, and that was about all she could manage. “Is it up to me now?”

“I should commend you,” the voice said, full of mirth. “Green is coming back in season. Unfortunately, so are you.” Then she saw him. A man in green teched-out armor with green hair appeared on a hovering glider, an old fashioned hunting rifle materializing in his hands. “It’s been fun, Gladiator, but I’m afraid the fun is done now.” He began to snicker as he leveled the rifle at her. Maybe it was the way the fight had gone, the fact the two strongest men alive were face-down eating pavement, but something told her the rifle would punch a little harder than a Winchester. A shot like the sound of thunder boomed from Mr Green’s rifle and a light like the sun filled the street as the pavement where Halley had stood exploded into craters and dust. Halley coughed up blood, her speed ring flickering out. “Where’d you go Gladiator?” Mr Green cackled. “It doesn’t hurt that much!” Halley leaned heavily against the wall she hid behind, hearing Mr Green’s glider whirring around and the sound of the bull-man stomping and snorting. Halley limped as she walked, hoping to God neither of them were trackers. Where had they come from in the first place? She paused to take stock of her injuries, trying to care for them. Mr Green she knew, he was an old sparring partner of The Recluse. Still, she didn’t think he had powers like this. This bull-man was completely new to her, but he was strong enough to take out Foreigner, Nautilus, and herself with seemingly little effort. Anyone who can do that doesn’t just appear out of nowhere. Everyone has a powersource of some kind, though some aren’t as easily removed as Halley’s are.

“Gladiator?” Halley raised her fist ready to blast a bolt of super-sonic lightning until she saw who it was. Dr. Quick was under her shoulder supporting her and helping her walk before she could blink. “We’re the last two up. How did this even happen?”

“Wish I knew.” She said through clenched teeth. “Quick, we need to get out of here. I’m running out of power so you’re gonna have to carry me.” He shrugged and lifted her off the ground. The streets around them blurred before her eyes and they were standing in a small studio apartment, papers disturbed from their resting place floating back down to the floor.

“C’mon, sit over here.” He set her down to look over her injuries and suddenly had a first aid kit in his hands. “Let’s have a look at you. That bull-man got you pretty good.”

“No kidding. Quick, you’ve gotta go back and try to get to Recluse.”

“Recluse? I don’t think--” Dr. Quick didn’t want to finish the thought.

“He’s the smartest man I’ve ever met, and obviously strength couldn’t beat that monster. We need him. We’ll figure out the rest later.” Dr. Quick shrugged and spoke as he disappeared.

“Bebackinaminute…” The apartment door shut and the papers flew about again and Halley was alone. She lay back and breathed painful breaths. She felt like crying but that wouldn’t help right now. One by one she took off her rings, setting them on the coffee table. The last one she took off was lighting, and she traced the emblem with her thumb as her costume faded away. The symbol on the ring was a rune from an ancient space language that nobody spoke anymore, but after years of using the rings she’d begun to understand them somehow. The rune meant ‘muster,’ and she’d always thought of that as meaning to muster the lightning, cause then she would dispel it in a blast. She kind of wished it meant something else, something about mustering strength or allies cause right now she sorely needed some.

The door to the apartment opened and closed in a second and Dr. Quick was there holding the unconscious Recluse.

“Uh, where’d your costume go?”

“Not now, Quick, put him down here.” She told him, standing up from the couch. “How’s he look?” She asked as Dr. Quick started and finished his examination.

“He’s catatonic, no doubt about it. His heart is beating just fast enough to keep him alive and it looks like his whole body is going into overdrive to keep it that way. Something very deadly is trying very hard to kill him. Any other normal man would be dead by now.”

“Recluse isn’t a normal man.” She muttered, putting her lightning ring back on. “What would help him?”

“I’d need an MRI just to start--” he said, eyeing her ring.

“What if we restart his heart?”

“What? There’s no way to know if that would work. I mean, we could try it but without a way to monitor his vitals or anything there’s no way of knowing--”

“We don’t have a lot of time, Quick. A monster and a madman are tearing apart downtown where the rest of our team is defeated. We need him.” Her ring crackled.

“Ugh, okay.” Dr. Quick conceded. “But you need to make sure you don’t use too much power. Start with 200 volts-- do you know how to manage your output like that?”

“Hush, yes I do. I need to concentrate.”

“Okay, I just don’t want to accidentally kill him.”

“Right.” C’mon, Recluse, fight. Halley placed the ring on his chest over his heart and charged it up. Green light filled the apartment with a burst of color and sound; the Recluse convulsed without responding. Halley grit her teeth, feeling the strain in her arm and her mind and willed it to charge again. “Fight, Recluse! We need you!” The second blast shook his whole body and Halley collapsed to the hardwood floor, panting and sweating, one hand on the coffee table for support.

“Ugh,” the man groaned from the couch. “Wha-- where--” the man tried to rise but Dr. Quick was on him in a flash looking him over.

“Not so fast, Recluse, you’ve just gone from catatonic to revived and--”

“Quiet, I’ve got a headache.” The Recluse muttered, sitting up slowly and pushing the Dr. away. “Where are we? Where’s the Bull? Where’s Mr Green?”

“You’re in my apartment--” Dr. Quick began.

“Gladiator?” Recluse stared directly at her, still on her knees. “Halley, are you okay?”

“Woah,” Dr. Quick interrupted, attempting to remain relevant. “Seeing her face is bad enough, you’ve gotta go giving away secret identities too?” Recluse fixed Dr. Quick with his own trademarked masked stare that-- somehow-- conveyed all the nonchalance and superiority in the world.

“Halley Blake, Dr. Waldo Wesran.” He stated. Dr. Quick shut up pretty quick.

“Speechless,” Halley grunted, trying to stand. “You’ve gotta teach me that trick, Rec.” Recluse tested his own legs and helped Halley up. “We were hoping you’d be able to figure out how to beat those two.”

“Foreigner?” He asked.

“He went down last, unless you count skippy here.” Halley responded with a nod at Dr. Quick.

“Hey, that’s not fair I was in Montreal--”

“We know, Quick. It’s probably better you weren’t there.” Recluse helped Halley sit down and stood to pace, the gears in his head beginning to turn. “If I was in my lair this would be much easier…” He trailed off. “But I’m not. The Bull is secondary. The reason we hadn’t heard of him before today is because he wasn’t consequential before today. Halley, did Green display anything unusual? Anything he shouldn’t-- doesn’t normally have or do?”

“Yeah, actually. He can’t conjure things, can he?”

“Conjure things?” Recluse stopped his pacing.

“Yeah, one of the last things he did before Quick rescued me was summon a rifle-- it looked like an old Winchester-- out of thin air.”

“You’re sure he didn’t have it with him?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

“That’s bad, but there is a bright side.”

“Wait,” Dr. Quick interjected. “I’m confused. What’s a Winchester?”

“Inconsequential.” Recluse decided. “Was there smoke?”

“Yeah, the gun appeared in a puff of smoke.”

“There’s the bright side.”

“What is?” Dr. Quick asked.

“I know what their deal is.” Recluse had to be smiling beneath his mask. Both other heroes fell silent, waiting for Recluse’s news. Finally he faced them and spoke. “Since I’m not in my lair you two are going to have to do without the use of visual aids. Can you handle me breaking it down without any pictures or diagrams?” Both nodded, Dr. Quick a little skeptical but Halley being well-adjusted to Recluse’s mannerisms and processes. “Mr Green must have the GabBox.”

“The GabBox?”

“Quiet, Dr. The general scientific consensus on the GabBox is that it’s one of the most powerful weapons in the known universe, allowing the user to construct anything their heart desires.”

“Something tells me you’re about to give us a ‘but I think,’ Recluse.” Halley smirked at him.

“But I think it’s more powerful than that.”

“Break it down for us, Rec.” She said.

“I’m still waiting for the bright side.” Dr. Quick whimpered.

“I think the GabBox feeds off the wielder’s mind, conscious and subconscious, to alter the wielder’s reality.” Dr. Quick stared at him, wondering if that was supposed to be the good news. “Our Bull is no more than a regular man, transformed by the power of the GabBox.”

“Wait,” Dr. Quick interjected. “If someone as twisted as Mr Green has it what’s to stop all of reality from crumbling? That guy’s psyche has more holes than swiss cheese, or a sponge. Or something like that.”

“That’s where the good news comes: that’s not Mr Green, and he’s not the wielder.”

“What?”

“What?”

“This is where it pays to pay attention to your villains. Mr Green hates the usage of super powers. He’s madcap, yeah, but he has his own twisted code. If he used powers to defeat me he didn’t really win. That’s why he fights me and not Foreigner, cause he sees himself and me as equals, two normal men fighting with just our intellects. Which really shows how fortunate we are it’s not Mr Green. If it was him using the GabBox his declining mental state would actually be the least of our worries.”

“So, he’s what, a construct?” Halley asked.

“That may well be Mr Green, but he’s not acting in his own agency. At the very least the man behind our Bull has altered reality to control Mr Green, into some kind of teamup.”

“Wait,” Dr. Quick sped out of the room and returned with water bottles and granola bars. “I thought you guys might need some juice, for round two. Doesn’t this mean our answer is in figuring out the identity of the Bull?” Recluse nodded slowly.

“That’s exactly right, Dr. You are quick. If we can figure out our mystery man we can figure out how to stop him. The GabBox shows you a preferable reality to your own, feeding on your longing to make it real. However it’s primary function can prove to be its downfall: if you can return the host’s mind to their own reality the false reality will begin to weaken, and if the host rejects the GabBox it will shut off entirely.”

“So,” Halley leaned in. “Who’s the Bull?”

“That, Halley, is the question of the hour.” Recluse sighed. “Who indeed?”