Hell Rising: Part 4 of 5.
The all powerful Wind Duster! The mighty Freight Train! The enigmatic Dark Arrow! Formed together due to events that are better left unspoken and lead by the brain power of CBTF Director, Morris Pfeifer and Head of Public Relations, January Morgan, alone they're powerful, yet together they're the World's Greatest Superheroes! Yet even they can't defeat their latest threat!
Indigo City, Midtown Area.
If people had to describe the event eventually known as 'the batte of Midtown' in a single word it would be 'chaos'. The setpiece was simple in comparison to similar battles from popular media such as Comic Books and Movies, yet to the citizens of Indgio City, the battle of Midtown was the exact opposite of 'simple'.
There was the villain, Jacob Brighton, hovering in the sky while sending several goliaths constructed with scrap metal towards his opponents. They were the Response, their powers and skills were extraordinary, their deeds would soon become legendary... and most of them would soon be regarded as the greatest heroes the World had ever witnessed. There were 3 members at the time, Freight Train, Wind Duster and... Alan Maystrike... and as the colossal junk titans all lumbered forward they each understood their task.
"Response." Wind Duster, the team's 'leader' stepped forward, preparing to attack his chosen target. "Rough 'em up." The blue and gold hero sent his attack towards the closest Junk Titan, a quick, powerful beam of wind shooting forward striking the target directly in the chest, smashing it to pieces with ease and sending the shards of its body flying through the air.
To Wind Duster's left, Alan Maystrike, the Dark Arrow stepped into a firing stance, he pulled an acid tipped arrow from his quiver and fired it at his own target with extreme precision, the arrow smashed into the target at an incredible speed, the tip exploding and spraying sulphuric acid upon the goliath, causing it to crumble as its body slowly dissolved.
Finally, Chuck Hawser, the mighty Freight Train effortlessly threw the remains of a nearby lorry at the final titan, the metal weight crashed into the beast, catching it off guard, allowing the hero the chance to complete the action he'd intended. Freight Train leaped through the air, landing on the goliath's skull, he brought his jackhammer fists crashing down, smashing the junk titan into... well... junk.
"Is that it?!" Jacob Brighton screamed as he levitated before the Trinity of heroes, his worn and tattered trench coat flapping in the wind as the skin on his face slowly peeled and disintergrated from his power exertion. "Is that all you've GOT?!" He laughed.
The Response had formed around the remains of the Junk Titan, Freight Train at the center and his two allies on either side. All ready and all willing to fight.
"Give up!" Chuck yelled, still unsure on his enemy's identity. "You're finished!" The team still hadn't been informed on Jacob's real identity.
"Finished?!" The last of the skin upon Brighton's face peeled away, revealing the grey metallic skull beneath, his eyes glowing so bright they were almost blinding, the remains of the Junk Titans all began to shoot towards him along with other pieces of metal and debris in the surrounding rea. "I'm FAR from finished, Freight Train!" He screeched, the pieces of debris forming a large body around him, similar to the Titans from earlier, yet much, much, MUCH larger. A piece of rock debris ripped from the ground and attached itself to the end of Brighton's right arm, creating a gigantic, rocky mace. The goliath rose to its full height, easily towering above the heroes and rivalling the height of the surrounding buildings. "Come on, then, heroes!" He cackled, clearly mad with power. "SHOW ME WHAT YOU CAN DO!"
Alan Maystrike stepped forward, loading a single arrow fitted with something resembling a metal pole on the end. He glanced at his teammates who both seemed stunned by the Archer's willingness to fight.
"You heard what he said." Maystrike said, calmly. "Let's show him what we can do." The goliath took a step forward, sending dust from the crater flying everywhere, Brighton pulled his mace fist backwards and prepared to crush the heroes beneath its weight. The mighty Freight Train pulled his own fist backwards and ran forward a few steps as Brighton punched straight towards him.
KRASH!!
The two fists collided, sending shockwaves rippling throughout the surrounding area, beneath the power of Freight Train's fist, the mace exploded into small little shards, sending the titan stumbling backwards in shock from the sheer power of the punch.
As the titan attempted to regain his footing, Mark Brooks made his move, he leaped over his teammate's head, rising towards the titan and swiped his hands to the side, summoning a gust of wind with power similar to a gigantic battle axe, easily cutting through the goliath's chest and knocking the metal armour that had been protecting Brighton from damage aside, leaving the Carrier completely unprotected as he hovered in mid air, an easy target.
Finally, Alan Maystrike soared over Wind Duster's head, assisted by a burst of wind from under his feet, provided by his teammate, before descending towards the ground he locked onto his target as he had done many times before and fired his shot, the metal arrow striking the stunned Carrier directly in the jaw, sending him tumbling to the ground, ironically landing in the crater he'd created hours earlier.
As Brighton slowy got to his knees in the pit of destruction he'd created he looked up to the edges of the crater and stared at the three utterly exhausted men glaring down at him from the edges of the crater.
"Who... who are you?" He asked as the remenants of his body's skin turned to ash. His whole body simply a metallic skeleton.
"You know who we are." Freight Train answered before shrinking down to his normal size, Jacob Brighton's eyes rolled into the back of his skull, and he collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
"WE F#CKING DID IT!!!" Wind Duster cheered, throwing his arms up into the air in victory. Freight Train sat down on the ground, grinning, even Maystrike let out a small smile.
"Wind Duster." He said, his eyes nodding towards the small crowd watching the heroes in the distance, among them was a news crew filming the events. "Language."
"RESPONSE!" A booming voice called.
"Oh god! What now?!" Freight Train moaned as a large figure emerged from the crowd, wielding a large, steel axe.
"Who's this loser?" Wind Duster muttered, Alan Maystrike narrowed his eyes as Freight Train bulked up to super strength size.
"My name is Briar Blackwood!" He screamed, anger filling his eyes as his grasp tightened around his axe. "You killed my brother!" He screeched, his voice growing hoarse.
"Axe-Man?" Freight Train muttered, his eyes widening in surprise.
"Maystrike did that." Wind Duster elbowed his teammate.
"I don't care!" Briar growled. "I'm going to rip the skin from your flesh! AND FEAST ON ALL YOUR HEARTS!"
Freight Train, Dark Arrow and Wind Duster all glanced at each other, each smirking. In the end it was Freight Train who said what all the team were thinking.
"Yeah..." He chuckled. "Good luck with that."
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