Blood Obsidian

Issue 38

A brief sense of respite ... - Part 2

Something struck Caitlyn and she almost summoned the suit to hit back, only to find a terrified man picking himself up from the street. Only now, as she reached to support the man back to his feet, did she notice the shard of glass that had lodged in her arm. It felt odd not to even feel it but, even as she watched, the shard dislodged itself, falling with a musical tinkle to her feet. No blood came from the wound and she realised that the suit protected her, even when not covering her fully.

Rayna's screaming face passed before Caitlyn's eyes as the monster thrust giant claws into the side of the building and then began to climb. It looked like some kind of bipedal alligator, but it wasn't anything Caitlyn had ever heard of before. Not in the villain mugshots that Kyle continued to send to her phone, with tests, nor on any news report. Another new villain, but this one had Caitlyn's girlfriend. Possible girlfriend. Right now, she was a Schrödinger's girlfriend and to find out whether or not Rayna was, or could be, Caitlyn would have to kick that creature's ass.

In the panic caused by the monster's passing, Caitlyn managed to merge with the crowd and, as soon as she could, split away, down a filthy, tight alley, where the suit came at her summons and her grapple flew upward, dragging her up toward the night sky. It took several more swings before she managed to reach the roof, landing on a parapet and searching for the monster, and Rayna.

A scream caught Caitlyn's attention and she began to sprint in that direction. The creature moved fast for its size, but that size also worked against it, leaving cracks in the roofs, broken brick walls and twisted aerials in its wake. Then, a momentary flash of something caught Caitlyn's eye and she saw the beast clambering up the side of one New Hasting's many skyscrapers.

"Hey!" The sudden voice in Caitlyn's ear almost made her stumble, but she valued Kyle's contribution, whatever that may entail. "I saw cell phone footage of this thing and I thought you should know, we have literally nothing on this guy. Not a damned thing. He's new."

"You think?" That was considerably less helpful than Caitlyn needed at the moment. "Any advice, or did you just call because you were feeling left out?"

The silence that followed answered that question better than any amount of words. She couldn't blame him for wanting to get in on the action, but he could have chosen to try and help during the day, against Machina. She couldn't afford the distraction if he couldn't tell her anything useful, not with Rayna's life in the balance.

"I can neither admit nor deny that. But, after looking at this footage, this thing looks like an alligator, or a crocodile, or something and they have a fairly simple weakness." She hoped Kyle wasn't about to say 'the cold', because it was mid-Spring. There was no cold here. "Its bite will be predicated on snapping down on its prey. All the muscles in the jaw are made for that, not so much on the opening. If you can tie it's jaws closed, you'll have one less weapon to deal with. The claws will be a different matter."

"Got it." Her suit-powered grapple lanced out again and she yanked on it with all her might, sending her flying upward. "Gotta go. Need to punch something."

She didn't punch the creature. Instead, she timed her downward swing, adding as much momentum as she could, so that she smashed into the creature, carrying them both, and Rayna, through the heavy, plate glass windows and into the building. Caitlyn had enveloped Rayna with the suit, protecting her, while Caitlyn used the creature's body as a shield.

They all rolled across the floor of the building, smashing desks, cubicle dividers and chairs out of their way until they came to a stop. Caitlyn took back the suit just in time as the gator-man slashed out toward her with the claws of one hand. Caitlyn had listened to Trooper Jane. She had! When she wasn't gushing over the hero, that was, but she remembered the shield work.