Somewhere on the south side of the city:
Carl had stayed parallel to the massive highway sound wall, always keeping it to his left. He was moving at a good pace, but Bala and Spectrum caught up to him quickly. Bala put a finger to her lips, indicating silence. She hurried forward and picked her spot. She sent her whip swinging, around the big man’s thick neck. Then pulled with all she could, back around a tree for added strength. She even braced her legs against the tree as Carl began to pull back.
They struggled for several moments, Bala straining with all her might. Her knees began to buckle and she groaned as sweat began to pour down her face. Carl pulled harder. There was a low groaning sound from the tree, and then suddenly the tree snapped in two. Carl pulled the chain from around his neck and pulled her with it. He swung it hard, sending the whip and Bala flying up high and deeper into the woods. The hazel eyes came to rest on Spectrum. The young man swallowed hard.
“Fine,” he said, “if this is how it is, I will go down fighting.” He raised his hands up and shifted his feet, taking a traditional fighting stance. Carl roared and charged. Spectrum let loose a blinding flash just before he got within reach then jumped, and planted a strong kick square into the big guy’s face. Carl took a step back but Spectrum landed hard on his rear. He regained his feet quickly. From a distance he could hear sirens. Not good.
Spectrum fell into his martial arts training; he struck with a series of heavy and fast punches to Carl’s chest. He spun and struck his heel hard against Carl’s kneecap. Carl barely flinched. He spun back the other way and kicked into Carl’s throat. That one gave the big man pause and he stumbled back even more. Spectrum took the chance to let him have another full force blast from his eyes.
Carl actually stumbled back and leaned against a big tree, breathing hard. Then something happened. It was barely perceptible at first, but Carl’s skin seemed to start moving somehow. He began to grow taller by several inches and wider too. His skin became mostly gray-white. Small bony protrusions began to extend from his skin, around his knuckles, his forearm, his knees, his shoulders, and his face.
Spectrum’s jaw dropped. “Oh my goodness…”
Carl was on him quickly. He grasped Spectrum by the front of his costume and struck him across the face with his free hand. Blood flew and Spectrum’s legs turned to jelly. Carl raised him high above his head with his one hand and slammed him down hard against the ground. Dirt flew high around them. Carl repeated the action several times. As Spectrum stopped squirming, Carl released his grip and let him go.
Carl turned and began to walk off. Slowly, Spectrum forced himself up on his hands. He was wobbly and his mouth was full of dirt. He gritted his teeth and slowly rose to his feet. “I… don’t… give up!” he roared and blasted Carl once more in the back.
Carl roared in rage, and then spun around quickly, his extended backhand striking Spectrum across the face and sending him flying. Spectrum flew through the air and crashed through the thick concrete sound proof wall and into the jersey wall in the middle of the road, reducing a section to rubble. Spectrum couldn’t even count the number of things he felt snap inside him as he lay there. His head swam and his body refused to work. Blood flowed from his nose and mouth; he had difficulty getting his eyes to open. His breathing came in ragged gasps.
Cars swerved around the scene, causing several accidents. The cries for help seemed far away from Spectrum’s ears. He did hear, however, the heavy crunching of the rubble beneath Carl’s massive feet as he approached.
Through barely functioning eyes, Spectrum saw his own hand raise and grip the edge of the broken jersey wall. He slowly pulled himself up and half rolled onto the remaining wall. The pain wracking his broken body was more than he could really bear. He spasmed and spat blood. He could feel the fragments of bone grinding together inside him.
He heard from somewhere, Bala screaming “Look out!” and he rolled back to the side, falling back amid the rubble as Carl’s two fists slammed down into the concrete, shattering it. Spectrum squirmed and moaned, trying to push himself away from his tormentor. Carl turned back to Bala who stood in the hole of the jersey wall. He flung a big chunk of concrete across the street and struck her, sending her flying back into the woods once more.
Carl gripped Spectrum’s limp form in his massive hand, raising him up by his neck. Spectrum was beaten, broken and bloody. He did the only thing he could, he reached out for help.
All around the pair, car batteries started dying. The air began to grow dim. Spectrum closed his eyes. He could feel the power draining into his body at greater levels than he had ever felt before. Carl raised the broken body high up into the air. Spectrum shot his arm out and gripped a power line above his head. Energy flowed into him from all around. Nearby power transformers exploded from the overload. Spectrum gritted his teeth. His eyes flew open and revealed swirls of purplish black and red energy within them. Those same swirls began to appear around him. First a couple around his hands and forearms and then spreading. Black and red swirled about him. Carl looked around, surprised by this. No more so, however, than Spectrum himself.
“Hey, Carl,” he said, still weak. “You should let me go now.”
Carl began to squeeze harder.
“I warned you.” His right foot shot up, connecting with Carl’s jaw. His head jerked back and he released his grip as he fell back across the road. Then Spectrum let loose a massively powerful burst of black and red energy from his eyes. Carl was flung back through the sound wall and deep into the woods.
Bala was climbing back up as she saw Carl go flying over her head. Reaching the hole, she looked through. She was amazed at what she saw. “Alex… you…”
“What?” he said.
“Look at yourself!”
He did, glancing down; he saw the black and red swirls of energy around him… as he floated in the air. “Oh, my… I-I’m flying? I didn’t know I could do that.”
Bala shrugged. The police and SWAT team were pulling up. Carl roared from the woods. Spectrum exchanged a knowing look with the woman. He flew over to her, gripping her hands in his and flew deeper into the woods, back after Carl. He could still feel the internal damage, but the energy he was projecting seemed to dull him to it, strengthen him even.
They closed on Carl. He dropped Bala to the ground a little ways away then flew at his opponent. Carl was prepared and struck first. Spectrum found himself in a heap again, at the base of the sound wall. He struggled to stand… then heard the sound of a gun clicking by his head. He looked up to see a police officer standing above him.
The officer, a nearly middle aged man with thin light brown hair, said, “Don’t move.”
Spectrum did as instructed and watched as several more officers streamed into the woods, going towards the direction he knew Carl was.
“Officer…” Spectrum choked out.
“That’s Sergeant, pal. Taylor Griffin, and you are under arrest.”
Spectrum grimaced. “Listen to me, please, your men are in great danger.”
“Is that a threat, pal? If it is, so help me…” He turned to face Spectrum more.
“No, sir, no threat at all. Carl out there… he isn’t well at all. But he is powerful and he can rip your men to pieces.”
“Not likely once we fill him with lead.”
Spectrum shook his head. “It won’t work, Sergeant. He’s bulletproof. I can stop him, though. Please, let me help.”
The Sergeant snorted. Then he heard a cop scream. Then a broken body of one of the officers fell in front of him.
“Sergeant, he nearly did that to me. I have more broken parts than I can count right now, but you have to let me help. Think about it, Sir, what do you have to loose? I go after him and get killed, no skin off your nose, but your men… if I can save them, isn’t it worth it?”
Griffin lowered his gun and helped Spectrum to his feet. “Go get him, boy,” he said.
Spectrum took a couple of testing steps then flew through the air toward the fight. As he approached, he saw the cops emptying entire clips at the man to no avail. Carl flung one officer high into the air away from him as he stepped into a shallow creek. Spectrum caught the man and returned him safely to the ground. He stopped, hovering, then lined himself up and flew fast towards the massive man, both fists extended.
He struck Carl in the chest with enough force to shake nearby trees. Carl fell hard into the water, nearly a dozen feet away. He focused his energy once more, this time more energy and electricity than force, and blasted Carl in the face. He covered his face and roared, as his skin sizzled somewhat.
“Bala!” Spectrum called, “I need your help!” A plan formed in his brain.
Bala showed herself from behind a tree, she was limping and holding one arm, but she was otherwise okay.
Spectrum nodded. “Just follow my lead!” he called.
Carl was on his feet. Spectrum flew passed and landed a hard blow to his face then flew away, spun and came back at him. Time and time again Spectrum landed blow after blow from every possible direction. Carl couldn’t keep up. Spectrum was tiring fast and his injuries began to be more noticeable. He knew he had not much time and had to get lucky for this to work. In one pass, he blinded Carl with a flash and pulled the bloody bandage from his head. On the next pass, he went low and took out Carl’s legs from behind.
“Now!” he called to Bala. She rushed in and pushed the big man’s head down into the water then placed both of her hands on his skull where blood still flowed from his concussion and let loose with the strongest electrical discharge she could muster. As his skull was fractured there, the electricity worked its way into his brain and bypassed the man’s defenses. Carl’s eyes rolled up into his head and his body jerked. He then lay still amid the steaming water. He began to shrink, the bony protrusions absorbing back into his body and his skin went to its normal tanned shade of a man that works outdoors a great deal. Spectrum and Bala pulled him from the water. Then they both collapsed.
Their respite was short, however, as the police came towards them, guns drawn. It took every ounce of remaining strength he had for Spectrum to summon a blinding flash then grip Bala weakly and fly them both to safety.
X
