Tuesday, August 12, 2014

The Battle of the Zoo Part 2

Interestingly enough, of all the forces of good, the first to reach the Zoo was the US Navy. The battleship Harry Truman arrived, called in by the American government to take down Titan. The dinosaur and his militia were responsible for hundreds of deaths, and military forces had been keeping tabs on him since he left Bangui.
The ranking officer aboard the Truman was Captain James Anders. Anders knew enough to be worried about this engagement: the creature on that barge had fought Vector. But the Truman was well armed, and carried enough ammunition to turn even hardiest genetically modified Tyranosaurus into so much shark food, and the monster's barge looked relatively unarmed. He ordered his crew to hail the dinosaur's ship. "Attention vessel: this is the United States Navy vessel Harry Truman. Is the war criminal Titan aboard your ship?"
A few seconds later, Anders heard a response. "This is General Electric. I am in command of the good ship Ichthyosaur." At this point, Anders heard squabbling on the other end. "I represent the good ship Ichthyosaur. Titan is on this ship."
"Turn him over into our custody immediately." Anders wasn't sure where they would house a gigantic dinosaur on his battleship.
"No. And don't bother threatening us. We've been threatened by people a lot scarier than you."
One of Anders' subordinates ran up to him. "Sir, you might want to see this." He gestured to a video monitor. On it, Anders could see the Ichthyosaur. The ship was bristling with weapons. Artillery, rockets, lasers, and weapons Anders didn't even recognize.
"What should we do," the subordinate asked?
"Call for back-up," the commander said. "And stall."

Despite the high-tech weaponry cluttering the ship, General Electric wasn't feeling confident. Most of it had been stuff he'd thrown together a few months ago on his last trip to the dinosaurs camp. He'd only tested some of it, and he sure as hell didn't trust the dinosaur to do a good job maintaining futuristic war machines.
And even if they did take down the Navy vessel, they still needed to hold the fort at least until Mephistopheles showed up. And when Mephistopheles arrived, Vector wouldn't be far behind (if he didn't get there first). Maybe Mephistopheles could hold his own against the telekinetic man, but General Electric sure couldn't.
He heard the captain say something about maritime law. He didn't bother listening. "Ready the electro-cannon. Missile system: lock on target. Somebody turn on the plasma beam."
Titan would have none of it. "I give the orders around here, human." He paused.  "Ready the electro-cannon. Missile system: lock on target. Somebody turn on the plasma beam."
The Americans didn't wait for the villains to fire first. The General heard the thunder of artillery. He was relieved to hear the sound of ballistic shells falling into the ocean, destroyed by the Ichthyosaur's defenses.
A moment later, the renegade ship launched its on attack. Titan opened with a single plasma ball. It sailed through the air, a self-contained ball with enough energy to melt through ten feet of steel. General Electric watched as it traveled in its graceful arc- until the Titanium Warrior came out of nowhere and redirected it into the ocean. General Electric's nemesis had arrived.

The General donned his powered battle-armor. It was large. It gave him great strength, made him nearly invulnerable, and let him fly small distances. But the really impressive bit was the six fifty-foot high-voltage alternating-current tentacles that the General could use to snare and kill his opponents.
"You've been in a confrontation for ten minutes, and you're only now putting on the armor," the Titanium Warrior taunted. He was in his rapid-transit armor. It wasn't a powerful suit, just designed to let the hero get to his destination as quickly as possible. General Electric knew he could take his enemy down.
General Electric moved to tangle the hero in his electrified appendages. His enemy dodged away, slicing off one of the tentacles with a blade of near-molten steel. He then opened fire from a machine-gun and a plasma turret. Maybe this wouldn't be such a quick fight after all.
The General left Titan to fight it out with the Navy. He chased the Titanium Warrior around, using his much heavier weaponry to his advantage. The hero's ranged weapons were so weak they were practically non-existent, while the General had his tentacles and enough heavy artillery to make a tank look like a party cracker.
Both of the armored fighters briefly came under fire from one of the two ship, but for the most part, the vessels squared off against each other, leaving the two longtime rivals to fight in peace. "You know, I swear you armor has gotten even weaker than the last time I sent you to prison."
"Tough talk coming from a guy with no heavy weaponry."
"This suit was built for speed. 'Heavy' was never really part of the picture."
"Well, congratulations. You built a suit that could fly you to your death extremely quickly." The General grabbed the Warrior's leg with a tentacle.
"I would be so sure of that." The hero severed the cable as electrical overloads spread though his armor, sending out shows of sparks.
"Why is that?"
A robotic arm lifted the hero's faceplate. "Because even if you destroy this armor, I've got a dozen other unmanned suits."
Just as the General realized he had been duped, the empty suit of armor was joined by five heavily armed models.
There were two Aquatic Combat models. Mark Seven and Mark Eight. One for submarine combat, and surface-level fighting, respectively. The first carried torpedoes and microwave transmitters. The second wielded a laundry list of medium-range weaponry.
There was Space Armor. Despite its name, it could function in more of less any environment, and it was nearly indestructible. And for those rare times when it did suffer internal damage, nanotech components could repair it in minutes.
There was the Stealth Armor. Already disappearing from the visible spectrum, the machine was capable of throwing cars without being seen or heard.
Worst of all, the High-Powered Supervillains Response Armor, Mark Ninety-Five. The forty-foot-tall machine was the latest evolution in a series of self-improving armors designed to fight the likes of Mephistopheles and Phoenix. The United Heroes were on the record saying the machine cost twenty million dollars an hour to operate, and General Electric doubted anyone would bring it all the way to the Sea of Madagascar and then have it sit tight because Mephistopheles wasn't around. Nope, the General was screwed.

1 comment:

  1. A moment later, the renegade ship launched its on attack. to A moment later, the renegade ship launched its own

    "I would be so sure of that." to "I wouldn't

    ReplyDelete