Talyesin's Tales

This huge guy comes crashing through the window, just as I dive clear of the booth. Kimmy’s gone limp - and when you’re quadruple-jointed, that means really limp - and slides under the table. Rick managed to duck.

The huge guy is dressed in gang leathers, bald and angry, sitting in the wreckage of the long oak bar. I recognize him, he’s Ruckus, runs with the Masters of Disaster. That’s bad news.

Julius comes running out of the back room, chomping on his cigar. There’s three or four masks right behind him.

“What in the name of little green apples is all this?!” he bellows.

I’m checking to make sure Kimmy and Rick are alright, so I don’t see Ruckus’ face, but the smirk on Kimmy’s face makes it pretty clear the big dope looks worried.

He should be. You think holding up a cop bar is a bad idea? Try crashing into a masks bar. We work hard, and I’ll tell you something, getting a few minutes peace to chow down is worth a hell of a lot to us.

“Fuck off, old man!” Ruckus yells back, standing up from the wreckage. His head brushes the ceiling, and he pulls back, about to deck Julius.

Big mistake.

The masks from the back room jump him, landing on him hard. I recognize them - Knight and Daye, who usually operate in Knight City, Midnight Avenger, Psifire. I’m about to jump in too but I feel a hand on my wrist. It’s Rick.

“Civvies, remember?” he hisses.

“Yeah but..."

Knight and Daye get shrugged off. Midnight Avenger doesn’t have powers during the day, so he’s using the tricks from his belt. Ruckus is too strong. He picks up a table and throws it at Avenger, slamming him into the wall. Then, all of a sudden, Ruckus goes stone-still.

Psifire is holding her head.

“Hurry!” she yells. “Get help - Jesus, he’s strong!”

Somebody flies in the window. She’s blond and beautiful and perfect, floating there, framed in sunlight.

It’s Princess. TeenSupreme must be on this one. I look outside and see that’s exactly it - there’s a huge fight going on.

“Merciful gods,” she says, looking at Julius. “I am SO sorry, sir. TeenSupreme will cover the damages, of course.”

“Don’t you worry about that, missy,” Julius smiles at her. “You just kick his ass.”

“Hate to... interrupt, but...” Psifire says, but then Ruckus breaks free and Psifire crumples unconscious and he tackles Princess, back out into the street.

Daye heads outside, where the direct sunlight will power her up, she starts glowing almost right away. Knight checks on Psifire. Midnight Avenger crawls out from under the table and heads out to the street.

“C’mon,” I say to Kimmy and Rick, tossing some money on our table. We head out into the street. It’s a war zone out there.

“Just watch,” I tell Kimmy and Rick. We stand aside with the other civilians.

Okay, so here’s a little who’s who: TeenSupreme is made up of Princess, Go-getter, Resize, Monkeysee, Monkeydo, Quique, Hex, and Jeanie Sterling, aka Zephyr. Glitter and Fantasy don’t seem to be around. The Masters of Disaster are Ruckus, Thunder Axe, Inferno, Speed Freak, their leader Powerhouse, Phantasm, Jailbait (out on parole and already in trouble) and Wildebeest.

Princess is pounding Ruckus, who’s got her in a bear hug. Quique and Speed Freak are just a red streak chasing a silver streak. Monkeysee and Monkeydo are jumping around, trying to distract Thunder Axe, while Go-getter lays into him, trying to get his axe away. Resize has grown to about fifty feet tall, and he’s on one knee, pounding Powerhouse, but he’s just too tough. Hex is trying to cast a spell to keep Phantasm out of the fight, but Wildebeest slams her from behind. Zephyr has her wind-blast blowing on Inferno, keeping him from building up enough fire to fry them all.

Daye jumps into it, grabbing Wildebeest by his horns and wrestling him to the ground, glowing so bright it’s hard to watch. Princess manages to get loose, grabs Ruckus by the head and knees him hard in the face. He goes down, nose shattered and spurting blood. She turns around.

“Shit!” she yells. “Jeanie! Jailbait!”

Zephyr’s got a public I.D. - she’s a Sterling after all. She looks over her shoulder to see Jailbait’s using her pheromones on Monkeysee, Monkeydo, and Go-getter. They’re all three of them standing around grinning like idiots at Jailbait, who may only look 15 but she’s really almost 40, so she’s old enough to be M&M’s mother. Anyhow, with the three of them acting like morons, Thunder Axe is winding up to make them all shorter by a head, so Zephyr turns her attention from Inferno and blasts Jailbait and the boys HARD with her wind. Jailbait slams into the wall across the street, going down in a tangle of pigtails and tight little top and short skirt and panties and I shake my head to clear it - those pheromones are pretty strong.

Quique has stopped running after Speed Freak, and in a blur of red and yellow, she disarms Thunder Axe. Then the Freak is back, pounding her a thousand times a second.

Inferno uses the distraction to blast Zeph, but she’s shifted into her gas form, so she’s not hurt, although she flies up out of range. Hex lands a Chill Out Curse on him, turning him back into solid state, and Knight - who’s joined the party - reaches out from the shadows of the alley nearby and knocks him out.

Ruckus gets up, blood streaming down his face. He grabs a car and throws it at Princess, who dodges - but the car flies into Resize. Even fifty feet tall, getting hit by a car isn’t very fun, he crumples to the street and shrinks back down to normal size. Powerhouse is about to grab him but Princess tackles Powerhouse instead, grabs him and swings him around and tosses him at Ruckus, the pair of them crashing through the wall into building behind them.

Hex tries to slow Speed Freak down with a spell, but he dodges it. Monkeysee and Monkeydo start jumping and flipping all around him, but he’s too damn fast - then Quique jumps him. He’s faster, but Go-getter joins in, there’s four of them, that’s too much for him to keep dodging. Go-getter manages to grab one wrist and Quique gets the other, and the twins get his legs. Go-getter pulls the magic ring off the Freak’s finger. His silver coating disappears and he’s just a skinny strung-out loser again. Midnight Avenger cuffs him.

Phantasm has Princess trapped in a nightmare, she’s on the ground crying, rocking back and forth. Zephyr forms on the ground next to her, blasts Phanty hard, long enough for Princess to snap out of it. She takes off, tackling Powerhouse and Ruckus. She knows she’s vulnerable to Phantasm’s mind tricks, so she lets Hex deal with him. Hex slaps an Invisible Box around Phantasm, and he starts howling to be let out. Resize grows to his max, about a hundred feet tall, and grabs Ruckus, slamming him into the ground again and again and again. The street is pretty much a crater when he’s done, but Ruckus is out for the count.

Powerhouse is the only one left. He grabs a streetlight, rips it out of the ground, swings it back and forth, keeping TeenSupreme back. The kids aren’t pleased.

“Give it up, Powerhouse,” Princess says, her team spreading out to either side of her. Sirens can be heard in the distance, closing in.

“Yeah, yeah...” Powerhouse starts to put the streetlight down, but at the last second he throws it hard at Princess and starts to run for it.

Princess just catches the streetlight and puts it carefully off to one side as her team takes him.

The cops show up and Princess takes the collar for TeenSupreme with assists for Midnight Avenger, Knight and Daye, and Psifire, while the rest of the team helps clean up, handing out the team’s card to the bystanders for claiming damages and the like. I take one of their cards from Jeanie Sterling, who recognizes me - she’s seen me a bunch of times without my mask - but keeps a straight face. Good kid.

The cops take the criminals away, TeenSupreme heads off. We leave too.

“That was educational,” I say.

“They’re good,” Rick agrees.

“Where are we going to get the start-up capital?” Kimmy aks. “Even with the trust, we can’t afford the insurance for the kind of damage they caused.”

“We’ll be more careful than they were,” I smile. “Besides, none of us can throw cars - Rick, can you throw cars?”

“Nope.”

“Me neither... Kimmy?”

“Har har, smartass. What about our new recruits? Maybe think of them?”

“Look, we’ll burn that bridge when we cross it.”

“First things first,” Rick says. “We’ve got to go to Weirdsville.”