Angels Without Wings Can Still Win I'm going to die. I'm going to die. Right here, right now. Zach's crumpled body lay on the ground in piles of rubble from smashed buildings. Zach's body, slowly regenerating his wounds from fighting his vicious opponent, Steve. Steve, was actually a coworker, a scientist from Livtech. Steve had used chemicals and toxins to alternate his body. Presenting him with extremely sharp claws, amazing speed and strength, and he can jump to large heights. Steve and Zach have been fighting for the last two hours and Zach has taken critical damage compared to Steve. Zach decided to hide under some of the rubble and wait for his wounds to regenerate before he could start flying and attacking Steve from the air again. Steve had seen him from the top of a nearby corporate building and leapt onto Zach, catching him off guard. Zach and Steve hurtled towards the surface of Earth and crashed into a building side, tearing it apart. Zach tore his bloody clothes off, revealing all the cut skin on his chest, arms and heavily muscled stomach, including a few broken bones snapping into place, while the cuts sealed up. ...Ok, let's start from the beginning... the beginning of this mess.... Zach slammed the door, almost ripping it off its rusty hinges. He rushed down the stairs, into the lobby, and out his apartment entrance. Dang! I'm late for work again! My boss is going to fire me! Zach ran through the streets of Tokyo, trying to refrain himself from flying, which would reveal him to the public. Zach approaches the front doors of Livtech, the building he worked at. The young doorman dressed in green with gold colored rims, opened the door for Zach, guessing he was in a hurry. Oh, crap there's my boss. Zach's boss, Alisha Shey, briskly walked towards him, leaving him no escape. "So, Zach, late for work again, hmm?" She said quickly. "This is really getting old, I'm going to fire you soon if you keep getting here late. There is a giant stack of papers on your desk you need to deal with. "Ok, I'll go there right now and deal with them." Zach said, almost insubordinately. "Wait. First there's something we need to show you, follow me." She ordered, turning around and walking hurriedly. They walked across Livtech's decorated and furnished lobby and into the lobby elevator. After the elevator door closed, Alisha pulled out a small key and inserted it into a key slot. She turned it sharply and pushed the button above it, labeled "U". Zach had no idea what "E" stood for, and he walked in and out of this elevator dozens of times before and never noticed it. "What I'm about to show you is beyond any clearance you could ever achieve and must be kept top secret at all costs. You must defend this information with your life." Alisha said sternly. Why did she emphasize you? That's really strange. Does she know about me? How could she? I've never told anybody about my powers. The elevator doors opened and extremely bright light bounced into the elevator. The room was huge, at least 10,000 square feet. It was filled with science lab tables, glasses and beakers, and cages with moving objects, but he couldn't tell what they were. They stepped inside and Alisha turned in front of him. "We know what you are." She stated flatly "What do you mean?" I asked innocently, hoping she didn't know who I was. Oh, crap, I think she figured me out... "Don't act so innocent, we know what you can do. We know you have superhuman abilities. We've tried to duplicate them, but the experiments turned out to be utter fail-." She pointed out. "Ok, fine, you know, but that's animal cruelty, what you're doing to them! It's wrong!" Zach yelled angrily, the rage boiling inside him. "Not all of them are animals." She stated. "What the fuck is wrong with you people? Humans! What could you possibly need so badly, that you had to ruin the lives of animals and humans!" Zach said, almost to the point of exploding. "They were just the homeless, nobody would miss them." She said apathetically. "They were still humans with lives of their own! You, you people are sick and twisted! What in the world was so important?" Zach asked, imploding with anger. "We need to save the world from one of your acquaintances." She said, looking at Zach sternly. "You mean Steve, right?" Zach said, starting to cool off. "Yes, one of our assistants went into Steve Barkins's lab and found out he was working on some sort of virus, that could potentially be used to wipe the human race off the face of the planet. He never had any kind of access to them, nobody does except for me and a few others, and we think he may have stolen the ingredients from a highly guarded vault that was robbed two months ago." "Well, I think I know how he did it." "Really? How?" "Well, Steve has certain powers just like me. I never told you because nobody would believe some employee that spends all their time in a cubicle. Especially you.� Alisha slapped him hard across his face. "This could all have been prevented if you told me this information before! You idiot!" "You wouldn't believe me anyway! You probably would have me sent to some insane asylum or something! You have to admit to that, because you know it's true! "Ok, you're right. I apologize for hitting you. Ok, so what can this Barkins guy do? "Well, for one thing, unlike me, his physical shape actually changes. He grows razor sharp claws, at least 3 inches long, and his top half of his body morphs into a wolf like humanoid. His teeth are two inches long, and his jaw is strong enough to bite through steel. He has amazing speed and strength, and he can leap to extremely high heights." "Ok, that sounds dangerous, will you help us defeat him?" "Yes. Yes I will." "Ok, good. What can you do? As in, what chances do we have? "I'm faster than a human being, I have superhuman strength, which is my strongest ability. I can fly, and I can regenerate broken bones, cuts, and organs. I don't know how I got these abilities, but new ones show up every once in a while, and I might be lucky enough to get one to help take down Steve." "Impressive. Now, let's get started. You are going to need some information about him before you go. "Ok, let's do this." They took the elevator up to Alisha's office and went inside. Zach looked around the room. There were two, green potted plants on each side of the entrance. There was a clean white desk in the back of the room with an LCD flat screen TV on the wall behind it. They walked up to the desk, and Zach now noticed there was a small stack of papers in the middle of the desk. "We have some information about the last ingredient Steve Barkins needs to perfect his virus. It's located in Manhattan, New York; in their museum they have there. You might be familiar with the place, considering you were born there." Alisha said, handing him the papers. "Wait, how did you know where I was born?" Zach questioned. "It doesn't matter. How fast can you fly?" "250 mph. The speed doesn't seem to affect me." "Here's your mission. Go to the Metropolitan Museum in Manhattan, New York. Go there, and if you get there before him, tell the manager that Alisha sent you and get his ingredient, the Crystallinium, and bring it back here so we can guard it safely. On the other hand, if you get there after him, find a way to get the Crystallinium from him and bring it back here. If you have a chance, kill him." "Ok, I'll try my best." Alisha shoved him out the door, before he could ask any more questions, and slammed the door in his face. You'd think they'd treat me with a little more respect, considering I'm saving the world. Plus, I'm the only one who could do it. Zach stepped out of the Livtech building onto the paved streets of Tokyo. Zach was extremely hungry, considering he hadn't eaten in since yester day. And the scent of the hot dog stand ten feet from him wasn't helping. Flying takes a lot of energy, so I might as well fuel up now. Zach walked up to the hot stand and ordered ten of them. The short, stocky man asked him "You throwing a party or have you not eaten for three days? Hahaha!" "No, just really hungry" Zach replied. "Ok, have a nice day!" He said with enthusiasm, turning to another busy looking customer. Zach finished the ten hot dogs, then walked into an alleyway where no one could see him. If I'm going to fly, I can't let anyone see me. Zach used his mind and pictured himself flying. After a second or two, he couldn't feel the ground on the bottom of his feet. It was a feeling as if there was no control in the world, no limits as to where you can go. Flying was one of Zach's favorite things to do and he found it exhilarating. Zach took off the ground and flew up about 3,000 feet, so if someone did happen to see him, he would look like a tiny pepper crumb in the sky. He was high enough that with his enhanced vision, he could see a good majority of Japan. He had taken a compass with him and it pointed east, and that was the way he needed to go. -7 hours later- Zach started to see the tip of Hawaii about thirty minutes ago, and was ready to land and take a rest. He hovered and looked down, and found a secluded area of houses to land in. He suddenly let go of the levitation like binding that kept him in the air and plummeted like a rock through water. He started to approach the ground and grabbed the binding again and hovered about 2 feet above the ground. He landed gently on the ground. Zach walked out of the small crowded space and onto the street. The streets pavement was cracked and broken, and the street was littered with garbage and people's abandoned items. What is this, some sort of ghost town? The houses, all piled together in clusters looked tattered and old, and Zach saw no signs of any human or animal life. Must be some sort of modern-day ghost town. Zach walked for about 5 miles to stretch his legs and finally came to another small town, but this one had life in it. There was a restaurant nearby, bustling with life like a busy anthill. Zach walked in and just the smells of the restaurant alone renewed his energy and vigor. He slowly walked up to the tall man at the counter and ordered two pork barbacoa burritos, three drinks, and two key lime pie slices. After a few minutes Zach received his delicious smelling food and sat down at a clean looking table. He started digging in rapidly, like a ravenous beast. 10 minutes later, the tin pork barbacoa burrito plates were spotless, the drink cups bone-dry, and the key lime pie devoured. Zach got up and left the restaurant and decided to look for a place to sleep for the night. Across the street from the restaurant there was an old Motel 8, with a sign on the front door that said, "OPEN". Zach walked in the old, musty smelling motel and decided this would suffice for the night. Zach walked up to the desk attendant and said, "Room for one, keep the change. The young, female desk attendant nodded and quickly typed away on the out-dated computer in front of her. She looked up at him as he turned around as if to say, "Thank god for this tip." Zach walked up the creaky, dusty stairs and found himself staring at the green door with the numbers 11 painted on it. Zach walked into this room, his room for the night, and saw a small, crowded, shabby room with a few furniture items. There was a queen bed, a nightstand, two lamps on either side of the room, a ripped couch, and a mini-fridge. Zach plopped on the bed and immediately fell asleep, letting his dreams and nightmares take over. The next morning Zach woke up abruptly, as if someone had shoved him, but there was no one else in the room. He groggily looked at his wristwatch that said it was 6:38 am in Hawaii. He stood up, a little wobbly and walked over to the fridge and opened it. Ha. Of course it's empty, I should have been able to guess that. He closed the fridge, picked up the motel keys and walked out his room door. He locked the door behind him noisily, due to the rust. He walked downstairs and dropped the keys off to the morning shift attendant. The plumb lady with a purple dress mumbled a monotonous "Thank you for staying with us.". As Zach exited the motel, a chilly wind rushed upon him from the cold street. He walked to the nearest alleyway and hovered about 10 feet in the air to check and see if anyone was watching. No one was, so he took off the rest of the way and parked at about 5,000 feet. Hawaii seemed a lot smaller from up in the air like a tiny piece of land stuck in the middle of nowhere. The air felt cool and refreshing against Zach's tan skin. He gently drifted in the fresh air, letting it absorb into his skin. He took off, flying at top speeds, trying to make up for the lost time spent in Hawaii. -5 hours later- Zach was soon flying over California, only able to pick out the biggest of the buildings. He gradually approached many other colorful states, trying to get to Manhattan. He finally approached New York and flew quickly and quietly inside one of the many alleyways in Manhattan. Luckily, in the bustling streets, there happened to be a tourist station nearby. Zach walked up and grabbed one of the colorful maps of Manhattan. Apparently he landed just off of Park Avenue, East 80th Street, which was pretty close to the museum from the start. Zach walked onto Park Avenue, then across it to Madison Avenue and continued on to 5th Avenue, and he could see the Metropolitan Museum right where he was standing. Zach heard a familiar noise and realized it was a fire truck, but he didn�t know where it was going. He looked a little closer to the giant museum and realized it was in flames. He ran as fast as he could to the museum incase Steve was still there. It started to rain and the sky got darker, as if it were some ominous omen. He heard people screaming and yelling and he saw two fire trucks parked at the base of the museum. Men were handling the hoses and spraying water all over the beautiful museum. There was caution tape already lined around the building, but when no one was looking he ducked under it and ran towards the building. This is not good, not good at all, he may have already escaped. He got to the burning doors of the museum and pushed them open, ignoring the searing burn from the fire, letting his regenerative abilities take care of it. He burst through the door, and immediately, smoke sucked out the door and cleared the room so he could see. Uh oh, that�s going to draw some attention� Oh well, too late to fix it now� Zach thought as he watched the smoke billow out the door. There was a nearby crash, and Zach whirled around, letting his reflexes take over. He couldn�t see much but rubble and half-buried artifacts and other museum objects. There was some stairs to his right, but they didn�t look safe, but he started towards them anyway. Big deal, I�m a little reckless. It�s not like stairs collapsing will kill me. I don�t have to be careful like normal humans. Zach stepped on the first, scorched step and it held. He slowly and quietly went up the stairs, he might be able to regenerate, but he doesn�t need to make unnecessary noise. He walked up the steps, trying to look for the Crystallinium. When he arrived at the second floor, he saw Steve Barkins standing in the middle of the room, staring at the brilliantly shining crystal, the Crystallinium, he held in his hands. �What do you want, Zach Fenway? Did you come to try and stop me? Well, you can�t, this Crystallinium enhances anything it comes into contact with, and that my friend, would be my powers.� Steve blurted out, not looking back, already starting to morph. �Tell me something, Steve. Do you want to die today?� Zach said back. �Well, now, we�ll see who�s going to die to day! Akh me tze!� Steve yelled and the Crystallinium absorbed into his skin. He finished morphing and he was about three times as big as he used to be, that would add up to about four times the size of a fully loaded Semi truck. Steve is huge! There is absolutely no way I can beat him now, if he�s that big just because of a stupid crystal, I can only imagine how strong he is� Steve lunged at him, and Zach jumped out of the way, just in time. Steve skidded across the floor, leaving a huge gash in the floor where he landed. While Steve was momentarily distracted, Zach bashed through a nearby window and gripped the power that let him fly. He flew as fast as he could, about a mile up, then hovered and looked down. He couldn�t see Steve chasing him from the museum. I need to get out in the open, otherwise, I�ll lose, and that won�t be pretty. Suddenly, Zach was rammed from the side and lost altitude quickly. He caught that energy that makes him fly again and looked around. He saw Steve crashing back to Earth and he landed on the ground. This could hurt, but it should do some damage� Zach flew downward towards Steve as fast as he could. As he approached the ground near Steve, he flew straight at Steve, pounding him with an uppercut. Blood spewed out of Steve�s wolf-like jaw, and he flew across the street, smashing violently in an alleyway. Zach flew across the street, intending to not let Steve escape. He landed in the alleyway, facing Steve. Faster than Zach could counter, Steve lunged and grabbed him by the throat, his claws digging into Zach�s neck, letting small droplets release from his bloodstream. �You have no chance, Zach! This is the end!� Steve snarled and spun around, letting go of Zach and smashing him into the corner of a nearby building. The corner crumbled and debris and cement showered Zach, lodging him on the ground. Here we are, right were my story started� Zach moved most of the rubble off, but kept just enough covering him to hide. Zach could see Steve sniffing for his scent and looking for him. Haha, you can�t attack what you can�t see, you great oaf. Zach finished healing himself, and tried to slither quietly out of the rubble, but Steve heard him and whirled around, running for him. Zach managed to get a few feet in the air, but Steve grabbed his leg, his claws gouging into them. Steve dragged him back down to the ground, Zach fighting for the distance he had between him and the ground. Steve forced Zach down to the ground, holding him down securely with his massive paws. Well, here it is. My time to die. Steve was saying stuff that Zach couldn�t quite understand. Zach started to drift off, then felt himself awaken, a burning sensation inside him. He heard Steve scream and forced his eyes open. His entire body was glowing red, producing a tremendous amount of heat. Steve stumbled back, staring at his burnt hands. Zach willed the heat to stay, and it did, burning even hotter than before. Zach flew at Steve punching him hard across the face, leaving a scorch mark across his furry face. Steve turned and started to run, but Zach pursued him. Zach chased him all the way back to the museum. Zach lost track of Steve, and couldn�t see him anywhere. Zach was smashed from behind, with the top half of a tree that Steve was holding, which burst into flames and spread to Steve�s arms. Zach bashed into the side of the museum, but nothing caught on fire. So, I guess I can control it. Zach flew up to Steve and felt the burning even stronger than before. Zach screwed his eyes shut and focused on the energy inside him, making it hotter, more powerful. When he felt like he was about to explode, he screamed �Take this, you overgrown bastard!� A fiery sonic wave engulfed Steve and the land within a mile radius, it flashing and burning like a sun implanted in the Earth. Zach suddenly felt cold and weak, and passed out, everything turning black, like the prison cell of life. -3 Days Later- Zach opened his eyes, still weak. His vision slowly cleared and he saw Alisha standing over him. From all the white, cleanliness, he could tell he was in a hospital. Alisha stood over him saying, �You did it. You son of a god, you did it!� Zach tried to stay awake, but his eyes drifted shut and he passes out again.
Copyright © 2009 Randy Sumner |