Corpies (Super Powereds Spinoff Book 1) (26 page)

The bad news was that the rest of Titan’s shirt was effectively decimated in the hit, the force of which caused him to stumble forward, but the upside was well worth the tradeoff. That burning hot plasma had seared right through the green material coating his back, scorching it off into liquid and an almost-certainly toxic green mist.

“You’re smarter than I was expecting,” Spring said. “Most of your type just know how to smash and get punched.”

“I’ve picked up few critical thinking skills during my years as a Hero,” Titan shot back. “Using an enemy’s assets against them is a good one, but my personal favorite has always been field advantage.” At that, Titan lifted his leg and slammed it down, striking on of the many half-melted sections of flooring left from his earlier battle with Birdsman. The weakened concrete fractured, splintering off several feet in three directions. His next attack sent more tremors out, widening the already broken gaps and creating four new ones.

“Cute, trying to make it hard for me to run. Don’t think we’ll just let you do what you want, though.”

Spring had barely gotten the words out before the column of wind struck Titan from the side, hurling him against the far wall. This time, he twisted in midair, making sure his back slammed into the concrete. This meant he was face-to-face with Spring as she tried to catch him from behind once more. Unlike Granite, she was more than capable of redirecting her speed and swerved off to the side rather than be caught in a clumsy grab from the giant man.

Normally, being backed into a wall was a bad thing, but at the moment it was actually one of the better places Titan could find himself. Gale wouldn’t be able to batter him about so easily with a solid surface right behind him, and Spring was smart enough to avoid getting close enough to be caught. That only left Birdsman to attack, which would be an annoyance at best. Sadly, this situation also meant Titan had almost no opportunity to bring them down either, since moving away would destroy his defensive advantage. Were he the type of person to worry about defense, that might have actually worried him.

Bracing his feet against the wall, Titan shot himself forward, replicating his attack from only moments earlier as he barreled toward Birdsman. The old summoner wasn’t the most important threat to stop at the moment, but he’d have to go down eventually. Taking him out would leave Elemental Fury with only two pieces on the board—three if Granite pulled himself free—and Titan was confident he could bring them both down given enough time. It would be easier without those damn bird distractions, though.

Plasma Hawk darted into Titan’s path again, but this time the charging Hero didn’t bother to turn, dodge, or avoid the creature in any way. He kept right on going, taking the beam of energy that shot from its beak head on, his chest smashing into the avian energy creature only seconds later. As it swiped at him, Titan grabbed Plasma Hawk in his right hand and squeezed as hard as he could. This one was smaller than Lightning Falcon, and he just barely managed to get its body engulfed between his fingers. As it turned out, barely was still enough.

A wave of heat washed over Titan as the summon was crushed into non-existence. Birdsman let out a grunt as he staggered back. A small bit of blood trickled down from the older man’s nose, falling to the broken floor as the he tried to keep from swaying on his feet. With enough time, he might have been able to get Fire Eagle in place as defense, but Titan showed zero sign of slowing down. There was no time for anyone to act. Anyone save for a person with super-speed, of course.

Spring appeared on his left, keeping pace as she reared back with what appeared to be another bomb. She thrust forward, her coordination incredible given the speed she was moving at. Just like few people could throw a well-aimed punch while sprinting, super-speeders also had to slow down to attack a foe. Their slow was still fast, it was just in the range of humans. That was most super-speeders, anyway. As Spring’s hand drew closer, Titan realized he wouldn’t be able to grab her, no matter how quickly he moved. It was all he could do to flip his arm around, but flip it he did, and as Spring’s hand smashed against him, Titan’s face lit up in a victorious grin.

“What the hell!” Spring pulled against the green goop that was binding her hand, and the bomb still clutched in it, to his arm. “This got burned off!”

“I kept a little safe. Thought it might come in handy.” Titan jerked to a stop, feet sliding against and cracking the already-shattered concrete, then grabbed Spring’s head in his hands as he’d done with Misdirection. “By the by, you’re out.”

“You dick,” Spring muttered. She reached down and undid the fastening on the yellow glove that clothed her hand, leaving it and the bomb still on Titan’s forearm but releasing her arm from its imprisonment. Then she was gone, zipping over behind the safety barrier and leaving no impediment between Titan and Birdsman.

“Do I need to do the theatrics?” Titan asked

“No, you’ve clearly got me. I can still concede when I’m bested,” Birdsman admitted. “Good show, Titan. Nice to see you haven’t lost your touch. Next time we should play on a bigger stage, though. I think my fourth bird might just have changed the outcome of this assessment.”

“Well, it isn’t over yet,” Titan said. He looked into the air, where Gale was hovering as she waited for Birdsman to get clear. She was one of the biggest threats on the field, but he’d purposely saved her for last. In a small cell like this, with teammates around, she wouldn’t really be able to cut loose. Now that it was just the two of them left, he hoped Gale would finally come at him full force.

No matter how it went, he was settling this matter for good.

48.

              The small pieces of debris near Titan’s foot began to move first, followed by the larger chunks as the wind picked up. Across the room, he saw the remaining members of Elemental Fury pulling the clear barrier to the wall and anchoring it firmly. Whatever Gale was conjuring up, her team knew enough to take precautions, which meant it was likely to be a doozy.

“You’re powerful. More powerful than I expected, I’ll give you that.” Gale wasn’t bothering to use her wind-whispering or whatever she’d done when he was in the tornado. She belted these words through the air, for all those watching at home to hear. “But you’re reckless; you take too many chances that could get people hurt.”

“No disrespect meant, but sometimes we have to take risks to get the job accomplished. It’s not something I do lightly; it’s just something that occasionally has to be done.” Titan noticed that the roar of the wind was still increasing; he’d had to raise his voice midway through the reply to be heard. His already-burned and torn pants flapped against him furiously.

“I disagree; well-laid plans and execution can minimize risk and overcome any obstacle.”

“Looks like we’re going to have to agree to disagree.” Titan readied himself as he saw her eyes shift about the room. She was buying time with the conversation, which had been fine for the first few moments, but Titan had no intention in getting swept up in whatever she was planning. If he went into the air on her terms with no bystanders to worry about, there was no telling when he’d finally hit the ground again.

As quickly as he could, Titan raised his right foot high off the ground, pointed the toe of his reinforced boot downward, and thrust it into the concrete below. Unlike with his shattering stomps against Spring, Titan wasn’t trying to spread the force out to ripple through the stone. He wanted it all concentrated in a single point.

A mighty crack of splintering concrete filled the air, audible even over Gale’s storm. Titan’s foot sank through the floor past his ankle, effectively anchoring him. Fast as he’d moved, he was still barely in time. The blast of wind that struck his chest was tremendous, so powerful he nearly slipped out of his boot as he was lifted up. Thankfully, his foot covering held and he remained rooted in place.

Gale struck again and again, furious blasts coming at Titan from nearly every direction. He managed to lower himself down to the ground, digging his fingers into the floor to help solidify his hold. Even with appendages literally jammed into the concrete, it was all he could do to stay in place. If they’d built their training room from weaker material he’d have been airborne already. The assault was incredible, which meant it also had to be taxing. Using abilities didn’t come free; they wore a person down like any activity. Even someone like Gale would only be able to keep it for so long.

Of course, the ground would also only hold for so long, so neither of them was in a perfect situation.

Finally, Titan noticed a steadily-increasing lull between attacks. He chanced a look and saw Gale, eyes still blazing, but with a noticeable sheen of sweat on her forehead. As a trained Hero, she surely had plenty more left in the tank; however, the all-out assault had definitely left her drained. She was probably trying to think of another way to come at him, to negate his strategy of rooting himself. At that moment, she was more focused on what she should do than on what was actually happening, and that was what Titan had been waiting for throughout the entire match.

His left leg, the only appendage he had not thrust into the concrete, shifted back as he braced his foot against the corner where the wall and floor met. The first two times he’d used his trick of blasting off the walls he’d been sure to keep the range very limited. Gale was smart, she had a keen eye, and given her powers, she was probably great at visually gauging distances. She’d floated high into the air and far enough away that she’d be out of range if he replicated the technique. Which was precisely the reason Titan hadn’t let her see how strong his jumps could really be.

Titan released his hold on the concrete and soared through the air. His right boot fell apart in tatters; it had been dug in too deeply to get extracted when he propelled himself up. Only his near-indestructability had saved his foot from a similar fate.  As he flew toward Gale, he saw the shock in her face as she realized he was easily going to reach her. With her abilities, she might have still been able to redirect him or dodge; that was why he’d waited until her mind slipped away from the battlefield. It probably made a difference of less than a second in her reaction time.

One second that secured her loss.

His arms grabbed her before his body could make impact, bending slowly to cushion his momentum. As soon as Titan had a grip on her, he spun around in the air so that his back smashed into the wall, sparing her from a very painful, and likely bloody, sandwiching. The two tumbled to the ground, where Titan landed on his back, Gale still clutched in his large hands, saved from yet another impact.

“Unless you’ve got some kind of ultra-resistance that would stop me from squishing you, I think we can both agree that you’re down,” Titan said.

“That was a beyond idiotic maneuver,” Gale snapped. Her voice was firm, but Titan could feel the slight shivers racing through her body. It was no doubt a mix of nerves and adrenaline dumping through the body, a sensation that he was all too familiar with. “If I’d managed to stop you, you’d have been completely in my domain.”

“It was a risk,” Titan admitted. “But it paid off.”

“That is not the
point
! It doesn’t matter that it happened to work; it was a stupid, dangerous maneuver. You would have lost if it didn’t.”

“No, I’d have just been in a shitty position. I’d have figured something else out. I’ve got a lot of practice. Now are you going to admit that I got you so we can be done with this ridiculousness?”

Gale’s face reddened beneath her mask, but she gave a small nod. “I concede that you could have taken me out of the fight. You successfully subdued every member of Elemental Fury in the ambush and provided a strong showing in your assessment. Should we every require someone of your. . . talents. . . we will contact you.”

Titan smiled and set Gale carefully on the ground. He pulled himself up next, giving a polite nod to the others that were emerging from the barrier. “You guys put up a hell of a fight.”

“That means so much coming from you.” Gale barely managed to slip enough false-sincerity into her tone to cover the venom in her voice.

“I get it; you still don’t like me, or you think I’m dangerous, or whatever.” Titan lowered his voice to a point that he hoped wouldn’t be picked up by the audience at home.

“I worry that you’re reckless, and that you take unnecessary risks. Our town already has enough Heroes doing that; the last thing they need is an idol to hold up as an example of how that type of thinking works.” Gale’s own tones had lowered as well. This no doubt looked suspicious to the viewers but was still better than them being overheard.

“You know, I’m getting real sick and tired of you making all these assumptions about me. First it was that I’m a media whore, then it was that I was reckless; I don’t even want to know what you’ll come up with tomorrow. Let’s be real clear:
you’re
the one who pushed this event into being, so think hard before you accuse anyone of being spotlight hungry. As for the reckless thing. . .” Titan grabbed her shoulder and pointed across the room, where Spring was freeing Granite with some sort of spray-can solvent.

“I brought down every member of your team, and not one of them has more than light bruising. My entire power is built around hitting so hard I take people out of the fight, and none of you need so much as aspirin, let alone a healer. Think long and hard about that fact next time you want to call me reckless.”