Half Hero ⚡️ {Superhero Adventure Scifi}

Chapter 9: Chain Reaction

When I bit down, the jolt of electricity emitted a powerful sound from my lungs, big enough to rattle the glass of my cage. Putrid gas crept up my nose hairs, curdling my rage into a sickening frenzy.

I threw my hands up to send concentrated beams of blue lightning crackling into the ceiling. The metal fibers sizzled and vibrated until they burped molten fragments into the air. A jagged hole opened and I seized my moment, springing up and through the shaft.

The white-hot pain of my skin catching on the smelted titanium lit up my nerves and pumped adrenalin into my brain. Soldiers burst into the darkened room and I flipped over the edge of my cage to land in a crouch.

"Did you guys come for the rave?" I called over the hiss of poisonous gas escaping into the room and waggling my sapphire fingers. "I brought glow sticks!"

Spinning out of the way of the first body (and pleased with my clever wordplay), I swept the leg of a second man and rolled away from the boots of a third. My skin glowed bright blue in the darkened room, blurring the velocity of my attack.

The open door left a sliver of cool light from outside and I fixed my senses on freedom. A pair of hands closed down on my leg and I lit up like a renegade firecracker to send him flying back.

"You put your hands on me," I yelled out. "I put you through a wall!"  

The stench of cooked flesh mixed with the vaporous fumes escaping my cell.

"Oh-my-God-that-was-so-bad-ass!" I whispered, trying not to choke.

More boots pounded through the door. A few men staggered as they encountered the gas, but others had thought to wear protective gear.

"Seriously?" I complained. "Where do you guys keep coming from?"

With a running leap, I grabbed the bulge of the first gas mask in line to yank the soldier to the ground by his chinstrap.

Using his bent back as a catapult, I sprung over the head of another guy scissoring my legs around his neck to windmill us to the ground. The inertia of our unrehearsed gymnastics routine smacked another soldier square in the jaw, knocking him unconscious. I wasn't even coordinated enough to do the Floss, so I had no idea how this agility came so easily!

The guy I was strangling between my legs thrashed against the squeeze of my thighs and I cracked my knuckles over the top of his head. He sizzled like I'd hit him with a cattle prod and went limp.

"Walk it off buddy," I grunted, shoving his body away in time to send an uppercut into the crotch of another combatant.

He doubled over and dropped on top of his buddy, squealing like a stuck hog as I rolled up to my feet.

I curled my fingers, enjoying the crack of my knuckles. That sound used to grate on my nerves and make me worry about early-onset arthritis. Not anymore.

Closing the gap, I brought my fist down on his temple to knock him out. The brief contact with my skin made his body shudder like one of those colorful windsock dancers outside of used car lots.

"Hold still!" One of the goons hollered through his mask.

"Hard pass!" I scoffed mid-flip to avoid two shots from his dart gun, one of which grazed the strings of my hospital smock. 

I vaulted off the nearest wall to get a running start, charging straight for the well-built idiot. It was almost a shame he was about to shit those big boy linens he was wearing so well.

Soldiers were stomping down the hallway, rounding the door to join us.

With a graceful arch of my back, I escaped the lunge of another bad guy missing his tight blonde curls by a hairsbreadth.