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Fall of the Skulls
By T.W.
Voltech stormed his way through the Onami base. He carelessly brushed
pass a couple Onami members who knew to get out of his way when he was
like this. He absent mindedly put in the key code and went into his
lab. With a push of a button the generators started humming quietly and
the twenty TV monitors he had set up on the far wall came to life.
On the three by three arrangement of monitors on his left began
searching documents on the building that was destroyed. On the three by
three to his right appeared the news on the event. And the two large in
the center began digging up anything it could on the Skulls.
Voltech sat down heavily in the high-back leather chair on wheels. He
rolled behind him and logged on the computer to his left. He began
scrolling into funds and properties on the building. His mind was
occupied on one question: what did the Skulls want with that building?
‘Course if they wanted the building destroyed Voltech helped him
in that area. He slammed the table with one fist causing a cup full of
writing utensils to fall to the ground. He brought his hand away and
looked at the dent in the table. His temper had gotten the better of
him again, he could never get control of it, in his preoccupation to
get rid of the Rogue Isles Protector he hadn’t thought of all the
lives at stake. That’s all he needed, more blood on his hands.
The News showed a young female reporter standing in front of what was
left of the tower, she was speaking. Voltech turned the volume up.
“This is a devastating event to the people of Skyway and
it’s a miracle that their were no deaths,” she was saying
“but several severe injuries were reported do to the collapse of
the building which was caused by this man” a picture showed
Voltech with his glasses on close-up facing to the left a snarl on his
face.
Voltech angrily shot a bolt of electricity at the monitors causing them
to shatter. What a lovely picture, he thought. So they were blaming the
collapse on him, which was his fault, but he failed to see any mention
of the Skulls involvement in the attack and whoever took that picture
obviously didn’t see the Protector, either they were blind
or….
They were bribed by the Skulls to make him look like the bad guy. If he
knew one thing, it was Skulls and bribing to get what they wanted
seemed right up their alley. Sure enough, he was looking at the
information on the Skulls that he had and a drop of half a million
dollars appeared.
So they didn’t want the building destroyed they wanted to make
him the bad guy. In truth Voltech felt like the bad guy, maybe PH was
wrong maybe he wasn’t cut out to be a hero, he dismissed the
thought and shut down the lab.
He passes by ShadowPain on his way out of the base, “where are
you going now?” she asked. By the way Voltech turned around she
knew he didn’t want to talk.
“Me? Why haven’t you heard? I’m going crazy; I’m the lunatic who blew up the building in Skyway.”
ShadowPain’s eyes widened, “you blew up a building?” she asked, concerned.
“Yes,” Voltech said coolly, punching coordinates into a
teleporter, “now if you’ll excuse me...” there was a
rush of wind and he was gone.
~~~~
He teleported to an abandoned area in Kings Row that was recently shut
down due the large hero population, what he was looking for was a door
that lead to the Skull leader head quarters. The door in the wall was
no longer there, but lighter colored bricks marked the spot where it
was.
He rammed against the light area six or seven times before the bricks
started to shift. With a well placed round-house he shattered the
middle brick causing the rest to collapse. A rusted steel door stood
behind the bricks, Voltech spread apart his thumb and index finger and
created a steady current between them. Using his fingers he slowly
welded around the hinges of the door.
When the door wasn’t attached to anything, he slowly pushed it
open, fit his arm threw and pulled the wire to an alarm placed just
behind the door. With another strong push he and the door fell into the
open space. Standing, he dusted himself off and took a small black box
from his pocket. Placing it above the door jam it projected an image of
the bricks in the opening.
Voltech had been in these caves before; he had only gone as far as time
permitted before turning back. He slowly crept along the dirt floor,
careful but uncertain why; no Skull had been permitted in here for more
than four years. Most likely it was still abandoned.
He came right up to a door, the door itself caused Voltech to jump, it
was an old Skull trick the door itself was a trick of space and time so
it seemed to appear out of nowhere. Voltech eased it open with a
minimal of screeching and stepped around.
He opened it to a huge hole in the ground, which he almost fell down.
The hole was about 3 feet in diameter and very deep, he couldn’t
see the bottom. Taking a deep breath, Voltech put his and by his side
and jumped. The fall lasted a long time, maybe five minutes. Suddenly
it became light and he stopped himself, hovering a foot off the ground.
He eased himself down, as soon as his feet touched the floor, the stone
square he was standing on sunk into the ground. Several long wicked
spears shot out of the walls, Voltech dove ahead of him dodging the
flying spears, on the ground he had to pick himself up quickly as a
long spike jutted out of the floor at his mid-section. He started like
a dear and ran, spears and spikes coming from all directions behind
him. Had he been slower he would have been a shish-kabob already but he
made it to the opposite door way with only a few semi-deep scratches.
A creaking sounded just above him and several axes dropped from
the ceiling, swinging towards him. Voltech pressed himself against the
wall as the ax stopped its swing about an inch away from his face
before swinging the opposite direction.
Several sets of axes swung the same way ahead of him, the poles
suspending them made it impossible to fly. He cautiously put a foot on
the ground in front of him, another spike shot out of the floor,
crawling was ruled out.
To make matters worse the door at the far end was closing; the one
behind him was already locked. Voltech cursed silently and jumped
forward. The idea came to him in mid-air; he grabbed the poles
suspending the first row of axes and planted his feet on the blunt area
on top an ax.
He rode across the axes to the door and dived through be met by,
another door! Voltech was starting to dislike doors, he made a mental
note to remove all the doors inside his house and shred them personally.
The hallway was richly carpeted with Corinthian columns on either side.
Above him painted on the wall was an evil skull in a laughing position.
He swallowed, but continued forward drawing strength from his inner
Skull. He came to the door and almost blew it off, but instead opened
it again, hoping that behind wasn’t another door.
He walked into a pitch black room, it wasn’t any normal darkness,
it was a living darkness. Something snapped inside him and he totally
embraced being a Skull again. Suddenly he could see. The Dark masters
were sitting in the tables around him, looking at him wide eyed.
The man at the head of the table spoke in a deep guttural voice.
Voltech immediately knew he was the Leader. “Kill him” he
said simply. The Dark masters stood, laughing, cracking knuckles, and
taking out weapons. There were about 20 of them, all coming at him at
once. The two fronts were carrying swords.
Voltech lunged at them; the sword flashed pinning him to the wall. The
Dark Master let go of his blade and laughed at the pinned Voltech. That
was it, he couldn’t take it anymore, he was fed up with the
Skulls he wanted no part of this anymore, he wasn’t gonna play
Mr. Good guy, he was through.
Slowly Voltech took off his glasses and crushed them in his hand; he
opened his hand again and let broken pieces fall to the floor. His
clear light-blue eyes crackled with the electricity flooding through
them, his expression turned murderous, he grasped the hilt of the sword
and with a cry of rage ripped out of the wall and his arm.
Two heads disappeared from their shoulders in one swipe of
Voltech’s sword. He grabbed the second sword and tore into the
crowd of Skulls. No longer trying to control his temper he slaughtered
the Dark Masters. He was a whirlwind spinning with blades slashing at
all around him. Dark masters were cut to pieces getting stabbed and
cut, losing hands, arms, heads, all losing their lives.
With the momentum of a fired cannonball he killed all the way to the
leader with a thrust of both swords he stuck them through the
Leader’s chest. The Leader took a step backwards but before he
could do a counter attack Voltech was already on him, his fists were
surging with electricity and he struck the leaders jaw he toppled and
Voltech began punching him over and over moving at a incredible speed.
All the time Voltech was yelling in fury, he didn’t give an inch,
he reflected later how good it felt to harness all the power his fury
gave him. Voltech never let up, his face was one of determination and
pure anger. Finally the Leader threw him off with a violent explosion
of dark energy.
The Leader howled in agony, “ENOUGH!” he declared,
“you may have killed my leaders but the Skulls will never die! I
am bent but not broken; the Skulls are crippled but not dead! You have
heard the last of us Voltech! But the Skulls will never die!”
suddenly he was gone.
Something strange then happened, the darkness in the structure began to
get agitated and everything around him started collapsing. Voltech
stood there eyes closed, facing the ceiling. Columns crumbled and huge
pieces of stone came down all around him, but he didn’t care, not
in the least. He stood there the living darkness swirling around him.
He didn’t know how long it took but the entire area collapsed,
but he stood there untouched. The area in which he stood still showed
the floor beneath him. He was totally at ease; he no longer feared the
living darkness seeping up from the ruins around him. He didn’t
know what happened in that temple, But he knew he no longer fought his
anger and rage, it had become apart of him, and he felt better that way.
He climbed the debris and left, just as the wailing sirens pierced the night.
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