The Executioner: Part 2

Next to me, Rachel said, “Does he really think he’s going to stop Ray by himself?”

I didn’t say anything. I’d pulled up my communicator. They’d given Sean one, and he’d managed not to trash it yet. I clicked, and got a GPS view of the team including Sean’s dot.

He was flying toward the address Gimpius had given us.

Idiot.

I hoped he didn’t plan to take on Ray by himself. If I guessed right, all he’d manage to do is pass his powers on to Ray.  And that was a best case scenario. Worst case was that he’d be dead by the time we got there.

If I were Ray, I’d have picked up super-strength and invulnerability before I left the radio station. It’s not as if those powers were in short supply among Prime’s people. Fists weren’t magnetic. He’d be able to pound Sean into paste even without a gun, and that was assuming he hadn’t packed non-magnetic bullets just in case.

I called Sean’s communicator.

He didn’t answer.

“We’d better go,” I said.

“Rocket, before we do, you need to listen to me. You know the address Prime gave us? Ray left a note inside with the same address. He’s expecting us.”

“So basically, we’re walking into a trap?”

“Looks like it.”

“I’d say skip it, but he’s still got–” and I would have said, “Mom” except Liz stood with us, listening.  “–a hostage,” I finished.

“So we go,” Rachel said, “and try to surprise him. He can’t anticipate everything.”

I clicked  button on my palm, and the rockets lit. Rachel grabbed my shoulder, and I took off.

I barely got into the air before my communicator started beeping. Sean? No, Jaclyn.

I hovered, and took the call.

“Rocket, I’ve got your dad. He’s safe, and still at his office for now. I’m getting him out of here.”

“Why?”

“I just fought four mechs, and there might be more. He’ll be safer with everyone else we freed.”

“Just don’t bring him home,” I said. “Ray’s got my mom.”

“Oh, Nick… And you’re trying to catch him? What’s your plan?”

“I don’t know. I’m just thinking that with Ray’s power, I ought to get all of our armored people to help.”

“Maybe I can swap places with Chris and send him over. Look, if you get stuck, even if Gunther’s there, call me. We’ll think of something.”

We hung up, and I started flying.

Taken by itself, the flight there might have been fun. Summer, the real summer, the warm part, had started, and as anyone might guess from its name, 2913 Northshore Drive was on the north side of Grand Lake.

More than that, it wasn’t directly on Grand Lake. The GPS showed the address as a dot near Lake Michigan, just a few miles north of Haley’s family’s cottage.

To get there, I flew over Grand Lake, seeing our harbor, a couple big ships at dock, the marinas, boats pulling water-skiers, and sailboats with their sails wide and catching the wind.

I barely noticed.

I knew I ought to be planning, but I couldn’t talk to anyone to do it. To catch Sean, I’d given the rocketpack all the fuel it could handle.

The rockets’ roar in combination with wind made talking over my wrist communicator impossible.

The communicator’s GPS showed Sean as being three miles ahead of Rachel and I.

If we hadn’t talked to Liz or Jaclyn, maybe we’d be closer. As it was, he’d reach the cottage before we did–probably a minute before, but a lot could happen in a minute.

What would we do when we got there? Gunther wanted us to wait for him, and he’d told me before that he felt confident Ray would kill me if we fought.

That argued for stalling until Gunther got there.

Except…

Sean wasn’t going to go in there quietly, and we’d arrive just behind him, probably in the middle of the fight.

Obviously we could hang back, and let Ray do his stuff, but it wouldn’t be right. It’d be like letting Sean walk on a mine.

So we had to go in after him, and maybe save him.

Or… Rachel could taser-glove him into unconsciousness. Either way, he wouldn’t be screwing things up anymore.

Of course, if he’d already screwed up enough that Mom was dead before we got there, it really didn’t matter.

I didn’t know what I’d do then.

Once Rachel and I crossed Grand Lake, I stayed over land, figuring that it’d be easier to stay out of sight that way. To judge from the GPS, Ray’s hideout appeared to be directly on Lake Michigan.

The dunes and trees would hide us better than flying over the lake would.

I got a visual on Sean. He appeared to be doing the same thing, but possibly not for the same reasons.

He flew over the county fairgrounds. People were already working on the midway. I recognized the race track, and wondered when they’d put up the Ferris wheel.

A truck joined him in the air. Even with the zoom, I didn’t recognize the model, only that it looked old.

I hoped it was a leftover from last year’s demolition derby. Otherwise, he’d just stolen it.

13 thoughts on “The Executioner: Part 2”

  1. Maybe, just maybe, Sean is thinking…

    Does he have enough control to shape the metal around his body and wear it as a jointless armor, shaped around by his powers when he needs to move or pound something? That’d be cool.

    Also, he could tear up the truck and send pieces of it to tear up any cover Ray is hiding behind and when he sees him, swarm him with the pieces. That would not kill Ray of course, but once he’s lifted off the ground by a swarm of metal he can’t really destroy, strength and invulnerability are not going to help. Not to mention that instead of holding him suspended in the air, Sean could hold him suspended in the water until he dies from lack of oxygen or simply lift him high enough that the air is too thin.

    But maybe I am giving Sean too much credit.

  2. Good Lord, I feel my blood pressure starting to peak reading this. And now I get to wait impatiently for the next episode.

    Damn, Jim…….

    And yes Bel, you are giving Sean WAY too much credit.

  3. Somehow even him picking up the truck so he can throw it at Ray’s hideout seems like way too much intelligence to give Sean credit for. A truck wacking with Ray and Nick’s mom inside would really fit Sean’s thinking only of revenge.

  4. i think that before he even gets to the house he will be knocked out of the air…..he could be shot at or they could trow something at it to knock him down and that will be that

  5. I agree with Eli, Sean is an ass.

    And Nick better reach him before Ray does because I don’t think you want a super-powered assassin to absorb magnetic powers when the only people who can fight him wear powered armour.

  6. Actually, superpowered assassin or no superpowered assassin, tactics would give a huge advantage to the people with numbers and gadgets.

    1) They know where he is/going to go.
    2) He is physically bigger than his captive.
    3) His invulnerability does not protect against lasers.
    4) There should be some very powerful lasers lying around.
    5) There should be some infrared sensors lying around.

    So, pick up IR sensor and big laser, see him through wall, dial laser up to maximum power, aim for the head.

    Of course, young people tend not to think calmly when stressed, tend to believe in fair fights, tend to be reluctant killers and usually lack the experience to take the right decisive action.

  7. We here at the Gecko Sports Network bring you our breakdown of the upcoming fight between Super Douche and the Executioner.

    Ray thinks things through extremely well. There’s probably a good reason that he wanted some of the heroes coming after him.

    Ray’s power is only to grab the powers of others. Maybe he is invulnerable, maybe he isn’t, but if he gets his hands on Sean, then Ray is the one messing with magnetics.

    Basically, we’re dealing with Batman if he used guns again and could use the powers of others from a touch.

    I was going to compare Sean to Magneto, but I can’t do that, it would be way too disrespectful of Magneto. Sean has magnetic powers that he doesn’t use intelligently, and has no fighting ability. He’s also rushing towards a battle that will involve a hostage, and he’s doing so while very upset and carrying a large chunk of metal filled with flammable liquid.

    The closest backup he has are the Rocket and Rachel. Rocket’s stealth suit probably uses some metal and definitely some electronics. Rachel is known for having a gun, but that’s metal.

    Sean is going to either mess things up for them by disabling their equipment, or by letting Ray get his powers, in which case Ray will disable their equipment.

    I think Sean dying counts as the best case scenario in light of those circumstances. For the love of the Mighty Thor, hope Ray doesn’t grab hold of Lee/Gunther.

  8. If Ray gets hold of Lee, his mind is auto-gibbed. Cause while he may copy the powers of others, his mind is his own.

    Suppose a human suddenly and temporarily becomes an eldritch horror but retains a human mind and thus weakness to an eldritch horror’s insanity effects. What do you think will happen? 🙂

  9. It’s an open question whether Lee can even be affected by Ray’s abilities. Lee may not even be human; we’ve certainly gotten hints to that effect. And we know non-human intelligences are out and about in the LoN’s world.

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