Thrusts of Justice (Chooseomatic Books), page 15
From Octavia’s anguished face, it’s clear that trying to probe his thoughts is causing her physical pain. “Oh my God. He’s still running the company. He’s still giving orders. There’s a whole web of directives in there… the names of a huge number of supervillains. I think they’re all working for him.”
“The attack on D.C.?” you ask. “Is that part of it?”
Thorpe lets out a screech and gathers a blanket around himself, shaking. “D.C. is just the beginning,” Octavia says. “Los Angeles. Paris. Tokyo. There are attacks planned all over the planet — and it’s all happening today. It’s happening right now.”
“Aw, hell,” Magnifica says. “We gotta get out there.”
You’re not ready to go charging off quite yet. “What’s the point of it, though? What’s the motivation?”
Octavia grimaces. “I don’t think there is one. His higher functions are just gone. It’s like his mind is a radio receiver tuned to an open frequency. Something is broadcasting to him.”
“Whatever,” Magnifica says. “Couldn’t have happened to a nicer fella. We can figure out the whys and the wherefores after we stomp the bad guys. You know damn well those Squadron pipsqueaks won’t be able to handle this on their own.”
“I don’t think we should dive into this until we have more answers,” Octavia insists. “We need to trace the brainwaves to their source.” They’re both looking at you. Apparently you’re in charge here?
▶ If you agree with Magnifica that it’s time for action, click here for page 305.
▶ If you think Octavia’s plan to keep gathering intelligence makes more sense, click here for page 230.
172
You’re not sure how to make Agent Moretti’s gadget interface with your armor, but as soon as you hold it up to your head, tiny mechanical tendrils shoot out of your helmet and suck the thing right in. Neat! You follow Moretti to the helicopter, and find that the inside is incredibly swank. You’ve never actually ridden in one before, but with the federal budget cuts you’ve read about, the last thing you expected was a wet bar. Moretti offers you a drink, which you accept gratefully. “Um, what branch of the government did you say you were with again?”
“Our department doesn’t have a name. In fact, official channels will deny that we even exist.” He explains that the United Nations has a long history with the Cosmic Guard, and although they try to handle Earthly affairs with local law enforcement, occasionally they’re forced to ask the galactic authorities to step in.
“Now, I know you guys prefer to work solo,” Moretti says. “Making split-second decisions with lives in the balance. Not having to worry about personal safety while using the power of the cosmos to singlehandedly vanquish the forces of evil. It’s a lone wolf thing, and I get that. But I have to insist that you take a partner along with you on this mission.”
▶ Actually, the way he describes it, the lone wolf scenario sounds AWESOME. If you immediately decide to go that route, click here for page 123.
▶ No, Moretti is right. If you agree to partner up (if nothing else, at least to rein in the whole loose-cannon thing you’ve clearly got going on), click here for page 259.
173
You’ve seen plenty of Star Trek episodes about first contact with aliens gone horribly wrong, so the last thing you want to do is rush into anything before thinking it through. So you step out of the craft with one arm raised in what you hope is some kind of universal semaphore for “We come in peace.”
One of the forms approaches you, but it doesn’t seem particularly aggressive. Upon closer inspection, you see that it’s composed of bulbous, misshapen segments of blotchy brown and red flesh with thick, bony rods sticking out at random intervals which it uses to propel itself like giant flagella. It’s as if some writer tried to come up with the grossest alien imaginable, you think. But then you’re the one covered from head to toe in purple gunk. Who are you to judge?
Soon the aliens surround you completely and you feel yourself being lifted gently off the floor. In the thick brown haze you can’t see whether the Ox is receiving similar treatment, but they still don’t seem overly hostile, so you just go with it. Perhaps they’re taking you to see their leader? After a few moments they set you down in a smaller chamber that’s indistinguishable from the room you came from, and disappear through a big spiral hatch.
Once you’re alone, the wall behind you opens with a rush of air and you’re sucked out into the void of space.
Airlock. Yeah, that makes sense. Your purple coating holds up surprisingly well in the vacuum, but there’s no way to propel yourself, so you just float listlessly until you eventually run out of oxygen. Well, you did hope to avoid a fight.
Mission accomplished, my friend.
THE END
174
“Magnifica, wait,” you say. “There’s an alien invasion that’s been brewing for something like the last 25 years. And to stop it, we might need that laser cannon intact.”
She looks at you, and her anger melts away. “Then it’s too late already,” she says. “We had plenty of muscle, but Nancy was always the brains. Without her, it’s all hopeless anyway.” You find it hard to believe that a woman who can punch through steel plates would put so much stock in the abilities of an ordinary, mild-mannered reporter. Suddenly, the realization hits you like a ton of bricks.
“Nancy North was the Nightwatchman.”
“It was the media that named her,” Magnifica says. “They’d interview the villains, and we used to laugh about how every one of ’em assumed it was a man kicking their ass in a dark alley. Eventually she just went with it. Helluva secret identity.”
Nancy North. Battling superpowered criminals with nothing but her wits and sheer strength of will. It’s inspiring. “We have to try, Magnifica,” you say. “Moretti mentioned an alien mothership. If you could sort of point the cannon in that direction…”
“I dunno,” she says. “I can fly in space for a bit, but only as long as I can hold my breath. And I was never much good at aiming… never had to be, you know?” She cocks her head, thinking. “Nancy has that big-ass jet, though. We could probably strap the cannon on that thing.”
It’s not a bad idea. She brings you to Nancy’s secret underground hangar, and you take a look around as Magnifica goes to rustle up more help. Moments later she flies in carrying two men, one under each arm.
One of them, a stately gentleman who must be about Magnifica’s age, introduces himself. “I’m Conrad,” he says, “but they used to call me Mechaman. I helped Nancy upgrade the jet with that Cosmic Guardian stuff back in the ’90s, but if we’re going to use it against them, we’ll have to take it all back out. Of course, Nancy was the genius who figured out how to make it all work — I was just the mechanic. Fortunately, I knew where to dig up my own genius. This is Tinker.”
The other man is middle-aged, pudgy, and stained with grease. “Conrad, you know you can’t just strip a bunch of alien electronics out of a modern aircraft and still expect it to fly.”
Conrad waves a finger and a hatch pops open in the jet’s fuselage. A huge turbine floats out of it and across the hangar toward him. “Trust me, I can keep this thing in the air,” he says. “You just concentrate on making it spaceworthy.”
After a quick jaunt into low orbit, Magnifica returns with the satellite weapon in tow. “So this is the death laser you were talking about,” Tinker says. “You know, I think I might have designed the targeting system for this thing.”
In a rush of wind, suddenly Magnifica has him by the throat. “You did what?”
“They never told me what it was for!” he says. “I thought it might be something awful, so I made it terrible on purpose — I mean, a cranial implant beacon? It’s ridiculous.”
She drops him to the floor. “You have no idea what you’ve done, you little runt.”
Tinker drops his head into his hands. “I just get these ideas in my head,” he says. “Like for a shrink ray, or a device that body-swaps a person with a mackerel, you know? I get an idea and it just consumes me. I can’t stop thinking about it until I make it real. And you have no idea what the raw materials for a mackerel swap machine cost…”
Conrad puts his hand on Tinker’s shoulder. “We’ve all done things we’re not proud of,” he says. “The question now is, what are you going to do to make it right?”
“No.”
Magnifica is standing with her hands on her hips, facing away from you. “If you want to give that little punk the chance to redeem himself, fine. But I won’t work with him. Christ, I can’t even look at him. So you’re going to have to decide who you want more in this fight — him or me.”
She won’t be swayed. It seems there’s only room for three on this mission — should you take the world’s greatest hero (retired), or the weaselly guy with the welding torch?
▶ If you choose Magnifica, click here for page 278.
▶ If you choose Tinker, click here for page 86.
177
The Ox might not be a bad guy to hang around with, but he is a supervillain. And he did rob the Union Bank of Cleveland. Besides, it looks like your new superpowers might be a bit of a letdown, and if that’s the case, you’re still going to need the journalism thing to fall back on. Maybe you can get an interview with a space alien!
The Guardians continue their work, bagging and tagging selected villains after they’ve been identified by the little guy with the tablet. It takes four of them to subdue the Ox, but eventually they cart him away. By the time they finish, the room is empty except for a single Guardian, the boss man, and a handful of confused, cowering criminals. One of them, a pudgy, forty-something man in overalls, pipes up.
“Mr. Moretti, it’s me,” he says. “Remember? The Tinker? I worked on that remote targeting system for you?”
The tablet computer guy seems uninterested. “He’s not on the list. None of them are.” He glances at you. “I don’t even know who this person is.” Meanwhile, you’re trying to get the attention of an alien who’s roughly humanoid but larger, with no head and six arms.
“Excuse me, sir! Are you a member of the interstellar peacekeeping force known as the Cosmic Guard? Can you tell me what you’re doing on Earth? Would you be interested in doing an interview for ClevelandNewsExplosion.com?”
He shoots you in the face with an energy weapon, killing you instantly.
Those guys from the Cosmic Guard? Total dicks.
THE END
178
You’re not about to take your glove’s advice and power down now, particularly when you’ve got a two-ton criminal cowering before you. I mean, what kind of message does that send? “Tell me more about these Cosmic Guardians,” you say.
Rockjockey’s information seems to come mostly from rumor and innuendo. It doesn’t help that he’s scared out of his mind just talking to you, either — soon he’s begging you just to take him into custody and get it over with. Suddenly, without warning, a volley of missiles comes out of the sky and strikes Rockjockey, knocking him to the ground. You leap backward as a volley of missiles strikes him, reducing his enormous stone form to a pile of rubble.
In the darkness it’s difficult to tell if the three figures that descend are wearing the armor of the Cosmic Guard, but judging by their shapes they’re definitely alien. One of them extracts Rockjockey’s human body from the debris with its tentacles and stuffs it into a sack. That can’t be standard procedure for an intergalactic peacekeeping force, can it?
Before you have a chance to switch on your cloaking device, you feel your boots and gauntlets decompress, and your wrist screen goes blank. Crap — did the aliens just do that? Or did the Nightwatchman cut your power remotely after issuing a final warning? Either way, you tap your touchscreen furiously, but can’t get it to respond. The aliens, finished with their errand, turn their attention toward you.
And you don’t fare nearly as well against their missiles as the last target did.
THE END
179
You’ve been keeping the Guardian armor a secret, but now the temptation to thwart evil is just too strong to resist. “Drinking can wait,” you say. “Tonight, evil shudders in the presence of Cosmic Guardian and…”
“Commander Goo!” Dale finishes. “I’m still working on that. Also, I’m already a little drunk.” You find a vacant alley and suit up (for Dale, that involves covering himself from head to toe in purple slime). With the Ox long gone, your best chance to root out evildoers is a quick flight to New York City, so Dale affixes himself to your back with his gunk, and you’re off.
Ew. You can almost feel the stuff seeping into the cracks in your armor.
Now what? Maybe your armor has some way of detecting crime? You try to ask it, but all you get is the tinny recorded voice you heard before. Uptown shop are hand fingers, it says.
Not this again. Dale, however, shouts at you over the windshear. “There’s a group of five villains hidden in a warehouse!”
“What? How do you get that?”
“Forget what it’s saying,” he says. “Listen to what it means.” You try, and get the vague feeling that your suit is attempting to tell you something. “It says there’s another one out in the harbor on a ship,” Dale insists. Your friend may be far more inebriated than he’s letting on. Still, it’s worth a shot.
▶ If you head toward the five theoretical villains in the warehouse, click here for page 139.
▶ If you think you’re better off taking things slow, and stick with the lone one in the harbor, click here for page 102.
180
“Gather the troops,” you say. “The superheroes, the government — just call everybody. Tell them what’s coming. I’m going to go try to stop it.”
You’re already airborne before Octavia can protest. Within moments you break through the planet’s atmosphere, and a communications beacon allows you to pinpoint the alien mothership quickly. Although simply having eyes would probably allow you to pinpoint the alien mothership quickly — the thing’s enormous.
You make a few passes around the craft to get your bearings, but soon spot a whole fleet of Guardians coming your way. Someone apparently got wind of your last run-in and upgraded your threat level, because from what you can tell, this is the entire army. You knock a few of them out with your reprogramming trick, but there are just too many — soon armored hands, pincers, and tentacles (one of them might even be a mouth) grab you from all sides.
Your only hope is to get out of there! You make the jump to light speed, but immediately discover that several of the Guardians who grabbed you have come along for the ride. And as you’re searching your new merged consciousness to understand how your warp technology even works, they’re digging into your armor and tearing pieces of that technology right out. Your entire body is torn asunder as some of its particles slow down abruptly, while others continue to travel at light speed.
Would you have fared any better if you had taken Octavia along? Unless you still have your finger stuck in that last page (don’t pretend you never do it), there’s no way to know.
THE END
181
What the hell. “I’m Sten Janssen,” you say. “What’s the emergency?”
Moretti shakes his head. “Things are completely falling apart,” he says. Then he mutters something into a device clipped to his jacket collar that you don’t quite catch. “The supervillain community is getting organized and planning something big. Plus, we have a traitor in one of the major hero teams, so I don’t know who I can trust.”
He pauses, looking you straight in the reflective visor. “And right now I need people I can trust. Like Sten Janssen, who I worked with for almost 15 years.”
Uh, oh. “Rip this joker out of the suit, boys, and we’ll get somebody dependable in it.”
Before you can protest, something big rockets out of the sky and smashes you into the ground. It’s another Cosmic Guardian, and it’s quickly followed by two more. They must be the Guardians of distant planets, though, because they aren’t shaped like people, and their understanding of human anatomy seems iffy at best. Their efforts to separate you from the armor mostly involve scooping, so your excitement at meeting actual extraterrestrial life is dampened significantly by the chunks of flesh being systematically torn from your body.
Needless to say, you don’t survive the ordeal. Honesty: still the best superhero policy. You should write that down.
THE END
182
Oh, you’ll calm him down, all right. With your fists. “Attack!”
Magnifica charges, pummeling the Ox with a double-fisted blow that knocks him back a few steps. Even this far past her prime, she remains the Earth’s most powerful hero. Of all the world’s villains, however, the Ox’s strength nearly matches her own, and his hide may be even tougher. Combine them with an all-consuming rage and all the advanced alien weaponry of the Cosmic Guardian, and the ensuing battle truly is one for the ages.
That’s the battle between the Ox and Magnifica, you understand. Your part in it ends rather quickly, when you fire a grappling hook at him and he snatches it out of the air, pulls you in by the cable, and crushes your whole head under his armored heel with a single stomp.
THE END
183
You were right in thinking that your psychic adversary holds the key to defending the planet from an alien invasion — the entire blueprint for the attackers’ nefarious schemes is locked away inside its mechanical mind. You were wrong, however, in thinking that you stood any chance against Cosmo the Space Dog.
