And
in
A Baskerville Massacre
Knocking on the side of the trailer Sinclar stepped back, and finished slipping on a pair of gloves one would assume were padded as he slid rings on top of them. ” Youse all ready in there?” Hound Dog said as his knuckles sparked with the slightest bit of electricity.
The doors opened swiftly, forcing Hound Dog to either back off further or move off to the side, letting a bulky, armored figure step out, crunching down on the gravely floor with each step; and then the doors closed behind it, just as quickly as they had opened.
”Yeah I’m ready, are ‘youse’? You kept me waiting.”
‘Roadblock’ was supposed to be patiently waiting in the trailer, as Artemis and his partner Jennifer took every chance to remind him, so Richard had to play that part. But he hated it, being a cop meant never hiding, proudly presenting yourself as an upholder of the peace. So, while this secret identity thing was a little distasteful, it was this or the alternative, and he needed the SCD.
”Youse ever slip into a tight leather underwear? They don’t slip on easy I’ll have youse know. Besides I got some upgrades I was hooking up.” Cracking his knuckles against each other sparks flew from diodes just below the knuckles. ”Everything go on your end, any sign of our wolfman?”
“He’s already asking you about leather underwear? I never figured you for the type.” Artemis took this chance to tease him, she somehow seemed to carry a part of that in her voice too.
Stop talking about underwear! Richard pleaded in his mind.
”Nothing yet, chances are we’re early.”
Richard then jerked his head sideways, then gestured his hand at another building, and lead the way as they moved in closer.
”Usually I’m ready to go, but those Squares at the TSA are a right pain. Couldn’t go through security unless I checked my hero gear in. But now that we’re here let’s go collect some strays.” As Hound Dog looked at the doors to the warehouse, rust peeled off the handles and smeared his fingertips. ”Older than my grams spaghetti recipe, nothing behind the door least not that I can see. You got a pick or should I just force it open?”
”Motion sensor and thermals show all clear too.”
”I’ll handle the breaking and entering.” Richard said as he pushed in the doors, shattering the lock, and nearly knocking the doors off their hinges.
”I hope you plan to treat my armor better than that.”
”I can see the wiring in the walls, a lot of power is pulsing through the place looks like there’s a fake container elevator as the power lines stop and then immediately head through the concrete.”
[guy]”Think you can handle it?”[/color]
Giving a smile he walked over to the container trying to see where the door was, feeling the ground he could tell the scratches were worn into the concrete floor so he stood back and let a burst to crack it open.”First floor, empty warehouse, rats and heroes. Going down anyone?”
”Better let me.”
Lowering the two heroes into the abyss, the elevator trip was a bit of a long one leading down to a cold and dark tunnel the rough walls made of even more concrete than above was becoming an eyesore. Roadblock barely fit through the opening that lead right to a abandoned construction site, his armor scraped against the walls more than once along the way. As the two moved forward they could see a rail and platform, tools that rusted and cracks that dripped a sludge like water from the ceiling.
”Looks like an old subway, rails still have power. My guess, they used this to move things around unnoticed. Must be some sorta door or secret keypad in this grody place.” Looking around Hound Dog had a hard time figuring out where it was, either the keypad was hidden behind a panel or it was elsewhere, the thick walls did a good job of hiding where it would be. ”If there’s power flowing to it, the walls are covering it pretty well wherever they got their power connected too I can’t see it. How’s your scanners? Or do you need a tune up for this, I can wait.”
“No tune up or scanners needed, this one needs a detective’s touch.”
Richard bent down slightly, and moved his hand across the wall Hound Dog was staring at. His hand slowly rubbed the wall and stopped when he noticed an odd groove, a little cleaner and smoother than the rest of the wall, then pressed his hand down. The wall in front of them shuddered, and moved to the side.
The obvious sound of the hidden door moving alerted whoever was on the other side of the wall as sounds of movement echoed throughout the chamber, along with the familiar sound of guns being readied. Normally, detectives weren’t the ones storming storming hideouts or jumping into firefights face first, but he wasn’t the normal detective.
Richard moved to grab a small cylinder from his waist, making a swift motion with his fingers, and then tossing it into the room before the door had opened all the way. He backed up slightly and motioned for Hound Dog to move back before preparing his pistol.
”Police, put your guns on the ground!”
Standing behind Roadblock Hound Dog readied himself as well in case they had any weapons capable of breaking through his electrical barrier.”Shocked we found you! Might wanna give it up, go easy and we’ll protect you, or not. I don’t mind busting heads.”
“It’s a meta!” One of them shouted as they all opened fire with their rifles, but no bullet ever made contact with anything but the floor as they were all caught in Hound Dog’s magnetic barrier; Richard holstered his gun, and raised his right arm at them.
A thick steel wire, surging with electricity of its own, shot from his forearm at the wall behind the Hounds, the tip bounced off and wrapped itself around one of them. Richard then used that Hound against his nearest allies by bashing his body around, crashing him into them, causing them all to lose grip on their weapons, with the occasional stray fire at the ceiling or floor.
Clenching his fists Sinclair moved in. ”Hows about youse take a dirt nap, and youse get a dirt nap. Half price dirt naps for everyone.
“Bullets aren’t working, grab the Force Cannon and hit the big one!” Another Hound member shouted and pointed at some piece of equipment in another corner of the room, one of the others complied by rolling towards it and mounting it on his body. It was some kind of cylinder attached to a chest harness with several tubes connecting to a small backpack, it was more complicated looking than it was considering he managed to put it on in an instant.
The man then aimed his chest at Roadblock and a flash of light escaped his chest, it cracked and exploded the immediate floor in front of him, warped and dissolved Hound Dogs’ electrical barrier, along with the air behind it, as an invisible force crashed into Richard’s armor; tossing him backwards with a grunt, and a loud metallic thud. The ground between them ruptured and exploded upwards violently, even as Richard was flung backwards.
”Oh sweet lemonade, I got this.” Grabbing his left ring he tossed it towards the newly armed Hound. A strand of electricity trailed behind it as it struck the molecular laser as Hound Dog pulled back suddenly with his right hand as if the lighting were a rope snatching the weapon from his grasp and moving in gloves charged with electricity. ”That was a neat gun, here let me introduce you to mine.” Punching his jaw the left side of his cheekbone had a nice imprint of Sinclair’s fist pouring enough juice through him to put him to bed for a while.
”If only we had the funding the Hounds did, they seem to have a new piece of equipment every time they show up, and it’s not too bad a piece of tech too.”
Richard grunted and held his head as he rose up, his own screen was blurry, from the blast or just his own perspective he couldn’t tell.
”Feels like I just got hit by a truck, ‘not bad’ is understating it.”
Now that their biggest gun was out Richard and Hound Dog made quick work of the remaining Hounds. It was a smaller hideout compared to the one everyone raided a month ago so it was only reasonable that it would have less people.
”Now that just leaves the last hound here, what’s it gonna be.” As the hound goon momentarily hesitated before simply trying to make a break for it something Hound Dog and Roadblock were equally prepared for. With him finally out for the count the two were free to look around. Hound Dog took this time to look through the crates in the room, while Roadblock went over the bodies of the Hounds.
Some of them were armored, but a few of them weren’t, despite all of them being armed. Their low numbers might have necessitated all of them participating in the fight, but one of their faces caught Richard’s eye.
”Does this guy look familiar?” Richard asked out loud as he moved the man’s face side to side.
”A question for me?”
Richard’s screen then filled with images of different men and women, presumably all from the Hounds file they downloaded a month ago, the images continued to slide to the side, quickly shifting through different profiles until it suddenly stopped.
”Yeah, one of the top scientists back at their main base. He was there before we raided the building, seems he managed to get out before things got too hot.”
As Hound Dog combed through the various crates deemed to ship out he noticed another room hidden behind a large stack of boxes and only partially visible.
”You wanna bring that hot rod of yours over here. We got a door.”
As soon as Raodblock cleared the way Sinclair noticed there were lots of specialty equipment, pods where creatures submerged in a liquid of sorts. Rabbits, Dogs, Cats, as he shone a light further he paused and collected himself.
”That is some jacked up shit. Roadblock!”
Sinclair called out with concern echoing in his voice. As the light illuminated various tubes of people in all sorts of states of decomposition with only a few that remotely looked alive.
”That’s what they were doing down here, the same experiments? But why animals?”
”It’s common knowledge that even domesticated Dogs and Cats can be more nimble or faster than the average human. If the Hounds want to overcome metas-”
As they were inspecting the victims something let a low growl out barely noticeable to normal human ears as it dragged away one hound, but Hound Dog and Roadblock were not reliant on their ears alone.
A rapid blinking at the bottom corner of Richard’s screen caught his eye, along with Artemis, diverting them from the grotesque gathering of experiments, to where they had left their prisoners.
”We got movement!” Richard said as he twisted around, to see that whatever was moving was gone, along with a certain man.
Rushing back out it was clear the werewolf creature had dragged away one of the scientists, pausing he drew from the electrified rails, using it to hoist himself up and climb along the walls as it rushed down the southbound tunnel. ”I’m gonna head it off, follow after me to block it’s escape! The rails will be shut off your way once I pass!”
Jumping down to the rails he flew by the wolf, it lunged and swiped at him, but a supercharged Hound Dog managed to slip by it’s claws. He blasted the creature, filling the air with the scent of burnt hair, causing it to break off and turn around. Irritated and volatile it chucked the prey it was carrying toward Roadblock as it leapt, claws extended, ready for a massive swipe.
Richard followed after the the creature as Hound Dog went to cut it off, then just as he said, Hound Dog blew ahead of the ‘werewolf’ and turned it around with a few thunderous zaps. The werewolf turned towards him and he readied himself to intercept it, but it tossed it’s hostage at him before charging at him with its claws.
He caught the man easily, the armor gave him a pretty big profile, but the claws were the real problem, and because of the somewhat close confines of the tunnel Richard wouldn’t be able to dodge, so he’d have to rely on something else.
Luckily for him Artemis was able to react and moved the riot shield in between the two, causing the creature’s claws to become lodged halfway in.
”That was close.” He sighed a breath of relief. But it wasn’t over yet, the creature gave a heavy, wet snarl, and heaved a torrent of viscous liquid all over Richard.
