Strike 3: The Returning Sunrise

Strike: The Returning
Sunrise

by

Charlie Wood

Copyright
ã
 2013 by Charlie Wood

Book layout by Cheryl Perez;
www.yourepublished.com

ISBN 978-1494278632

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by an electronic or mechanical means, or the facilitation thereof, including storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

This is a work of fiction. Any similarities between the characters, places or events that take place in this book are strictly coincidental. 

Crouching behind a marble pillar in the Guardian Headquarters training room, Orion Hobbes tightened the red mask around his eyes and looked up. His teammate, Matt Taylor, also known as the superhero Titan, was using his feathered, eagle-like wings to soar high above the training room floor. After dive-bombing through a metal gate only seconds before it slammed shut, he used his shining, silver broadsword to cut down a series of dangling, electrified razor wires, before flapping his wings and moving on to the next area of the obstacle course.

Why can’t I be like that?
Orion thought to himself.
Never nervous, never frazzled
. Orion was seventeen years old now and had been a member of the Guardians superhero team for over three years, but he still got so anxious before training sessions that most days he could barely bring himself to leave his room. Only Orion’s best friend, Scott, knew that sometimes Orion got so nervous beforehand that he even spent several minutes locked in the bathroom, vomiting his guts out. And before real missions, real battles?  Forget it.  It was the moments before the real missions that Orion wondered if he was cut out for this type of superhero life at all.

“Red Wolf, pay attention,” Orion heard a stern voice say. “Keep up with your partner as you move toward your goal.”

Orion looked to his right. The Guardians’ mentor and trainer, Steve Dawson, was standing in his usual spot in the corner of the training room, away from all the traps and obstacles, with his arms crossed and his eyes fixed on his students. He was a slightly heavy-set black man in his mid-forties, with a black goatee and trim, black hair that was just starting to go gray. He had the body of a retired athlete, Orion always thought, which made sense considering he was once a star fozzball player in college.

“Sorry, Ranger,” Orion replied, using the name Steve once went by when he was a cowboy hat-wearing, laser pistol-toting superhero. “Won’t happen again.”

Then Orion suddenly heard a scream above him.

“Arrrgghh!”

Orion looked up: Matt had been shot by a laser blast from one of the training room robots. The blast had hit him right in the ribs, in the rare area that wasn’t covered by Matt’s gold-plated costume. Orion’s winged partner was now holding his side and flying not quite as majestically as before, bobbing up and down in the air as he tried to avoid more laser fire from the robot.

Orion looked ahead. He saw a six-foot-tall, one-eyed, humanoid robot, hiding behind a steel wall and popping out every few seconds to fire his laser rifle at Matt. Reaching for an arrow from his quiver, Orion pulled back the string of his bow and aimed the weapon in the robot’s direction. After timing it perfectly, the next time the robot popped his head out, Orion let the arrow fly and pierced the metallic pest, right through his glowing blue eye. As anxious as Orion could be before training sessions, he could still sling an arrow with the best of them.

“Very good, Red Wolf,” Steve said. “Way to keep an eye on your teammate.” Steve shouted louder now, so Matt could hear him high up near the mountain’s ceiling. “But don’t be careless, Titan. You were so busy flying towards your target that you forgot about your opponents on the ground.”

“I know,” Matt replied from the air, flapping his wings and floating in place above Orion. “But I didn’t think there would be any ‘bots until we got further toward the base.” Matt looked down. “Thanks for the save, O. I thought I was toast there for a second.”

“Titan,” Steve said, annoyed. “Watch the use of real names in the battlefield.”

“Sorry, Steve,” Matt replied, before shaking his head and correcting himself.  “I mean, Ranger.”

On the ground, now concerned about the potential for more training robots, Orion ran ahead through the obstacle course, jumping over gaping pits in the floor and darting behind pillars.  Sure enough, as he got closer to the other team’s base, he could see three more training ‘bots keeping guard. However, with three quick motions of Orion’s arm, the red-garbed superhero easily took care of them; before they even knew anyone was approaching, the robots dropped to the floor with a dull
THUD!
, with glowing red arrows through their silver skulls.

“Titan,” Orion said into the communicator near his mouth. “Any sign of the enemy?”

“Not yet, Red Wolf,” Matt replied, his voice coming through Orion’s earpiece. “But I think I—yeah, I think I see some kind of movement at the base’s entrance. Something fluttering in the wind. Want me to move closer?”

“Yes,” Orion said, stringing another arrow in his bow. “I’m right behind you.”

Moving ahead to the end of the obstacle course, Orion reached the enemy’s metallic, fortress-like base. Directly in front of the ground-level entrance of the building, there was a blue flag sticking in the ground, waiting for him and Matt.

“This doesn’t seem right,” Orion said.

“I know,” Matt said from above, with his forehead furrowed and his eyes suspicious. “There should be much more security than this. If we wanted to, we could just walk right up and take the flag. But why would—”

Then there was a sudden, loud, grinding rumbling below Orion, like two sheets of steel being dragged across each other. The ground began to vibrate, and when Orion looked down to his feet, he saw the floor suddenly open up, revealing a dark, gaping pit filled with slithering snakes and giant, crawling rats. Leaping to his right, Orion escaped the pit, but he was only able to grab onto the edge with his fingertips, leaving his legs to dangle over the disgusting vermin below him.

As Matt watched his teammate struggle to swing himself up to safety, he once again heard the sound of grinding, groaning steel.  Looking ahead, he suddenly saw another entrance opening up, near the top of the enemy base. Matt hadn’t even known there was an entrance there.

“What the hell?” Matt whispered, confused, as the second gate of the enemy base slowly opened.

Then Matt saw his enemy, the occupant of the base. It was his and Orion’s Guardians teammate, Scott Webber, also known as the superhero Strike.  As Scott moved out of the shadows of the gate, he was wearing his dark blue costume, with his mask over the lower part of his face, his black cape on his back, and his glowing, electrified bo-staff in his hand.

However, it wasn’t his appearance that was out of the ordinary; this was how Scott always looked when he was in his Strike gear. It was what was
underneath
Scott that was out of the ordinary.

Scott was riding on the back of a giant, fat, robotic, metallic grizzly bear.  The silver bear had wings on its sides like a jet, laser blasters equipped on each of its wrists, and a snarling snout full of metal, shining teeth.  Strangest of all, the bear was wearing sunglasses.   

As Matt watched, with his mouth dropped open and his eyes in disbelief, Scott and the bear stepped out of the second-story fortress gate.  Behind them, there were two more robotic grizzly bears, identical to the first.

“Behold!” Scott shouted, in his best, melodramatic, over-the-top voice. He sounded like the villain from an old medieval-times movie.  “The Mighty Grizzly Bear Army of the Ninth Region of Grabbaladoo! They all heed the call of the magnificent Strike! And...” Scott paused for dramatic effect, before adding his favorite part of the scheme. “
They are wearing sunglasses!”

With a laugh, Matt swooped down toward the base and headed for Scott, but the bears quickly stood up on their hind legs and fired on the winged-hero with their laser blasters. Matt had to swiftly dodge their green laser fire and head back up toward the ceiling.

“Not so fast, Winged Heartthrob of the Skies!” Scott shouted from atop his steed, holding his electrified bo-staff in the air.  “With the Mighty Grizzly Bear Army at my disposal, you shall never defeat me!”

Matt shook his head, grumbling. “God, you’re annoying. Do you really have to be in character?”

Riding atop the lead grizzly bear, Scott flew down to ground level and ripped the blue flag from its spot on the floor. “Yes, it’s much more fun,” he said, before shaking his head. “I mean, ‘character?’ What dost thouest speaketh of? I am not-ith in character-ith.”

Matt laughed. “What the hell kind of accent is that?”

Steve was still watching from the ground, with his arms across his chest and his eyes focused on Scott and Matt. “Titan, don’t let him distract you.”

“I’m not,” Matt said, “but it’s not like he can get by me just by using his terrible jokes and fake accent. He—” Matt’s eyes went wide. “Uh-oh.”

With a grinding of steel, another gate near the top of Scott’s base opened, and out rushed a dozen more robotic grizzly bears. They also had wings on their sides, laser blasters on their wrists, and clenched, frothing mouths that showed they were very hungry. And, of course, they were wearing sunglasses.

“Oh, come on,” Matt said, ready for the onslaught about to hit him.

“Fly, my wondrous winged babies!” Scott shouted, pointing to the new set of bears with his staff. “Fly!”

As their jet wings ignited with blue flames, the entire pack of grizzly bears leapt up and soared into the sky, forcing Matt to use his best evasive flying maneuvers to avoid the rapid laser fire blasting from their wrists. He knew his only chance to win the game now was to drop down on Scott from above and steal the blue flag from his hand, but it was suddenly impossible—if Matt took his mind off of the pack of bears chasing him for even a second, he would be overwhelmed. He tried to confuse the bears by flying back through all the obstacles he had gone through on his way to Scott’s base, but it was no use—the robotic animals were just as adapt as him at avoiding the metal gates, strings of razor wire, and scorching blow torches.

As the bears chased Matt and matched his every loop-de-loop and hairpin turn, one of them broke from the pack—it was the bear Scott was riding on. With a big grin underneath his mask, Scott steered the bear toward Orion and Matt’s base at the other end of the training room.

“Hey, Orion and Matt, I just want to break character here for a second and let you know that I did this all by myself, okay? No help from Vincent or anybody. I just want to make sure you guys know that I beat you all by myself. Now—” Scott cleared his throat and resumed his ridiculous accent. “On with the triumphant flight of victory!”

With Orion still dangling over the pit of snakes and rats and Matt being hit in the air with more laser fire by the second, Scott flew easily and smoothly to the top of their base. After landing his steed, he planted his blue flag in the rooftop right next to Orion and Matt’s red flag.

“I claim this land in the name of Scott Webber!” he shouted, with one hand gripping the flagpole and one hand on his hip. “The greatest, most handsome, most wonderful-est man in the world!”

Orion finally swung himself out of the pit and reached the safety of the floor. “Did he just say ‘wonderful-est’?” he asked himself.

Near the entrance to the Mountain training room, Steve pushed a series of buttons on a control panel on the wall, and instantly all of the robot bears were deactivated, landing peacefully on the floor, while the two bases at either end of the room retreated into the walls.

“Very good, Scott,” Steve said with a smile, as he walked toward the middle of the room. “Excellent use of your environment.”

Scott tipped an imaginary cap on the top of his head. “Thank you, thank you very much.” He walked toward Orion and offered Orion a hand, helping him up off the ground.

Sore and rubbing his wounds, Matt flew down to the ground and landed near the others. “That’s not fair. We weren’t prepared for an entire army of flying bear robots.”

“Yeah,” Orion said. “That wasn’t part of the exercise.”

Steve nodded. “I know, I agree that Scott once again bent the rules—”

Scott shrugged. “You say bent, I say gracefully disregarded.”

Steve ignored him. “But that doesn’t make up for the fact that, even without the other member of the blue team, he was still able to capture your flag. He was able to beat you, all by himself, and remarkably easily. I want a full report on what went wrong from the two of you tomorrow morning. Got it?”

Orion nodded, but with a grumble. “Yes, sir.” Matt was so annoyed that he didn’t even answer.

Scott stood next to one of the motionless grizzly bears. “Can I just point out again that they are wearing sunglasses? How cool is that?”

“Yes, why are they wearing sunglasses?” Steve asked. “Why would bears need to wear sunglasses?”

Scott shot him a look, as if it was obvious. “In case it gets sunny?”

“Oh,” Steve said with a nod. “But they’re robots. Why would robots need to—” Steve shook his head. He was falling into Scott’s vortex of nonsense again. “Why am I having this conversation?” he asked, before looking around the room and changing the subject. “Where is Vincent, anyway? Has anybody seen him? Why did he miss training again this morning?”

“I don’t know,” Scott replied. “I even reminded him a couple hours ago, but he basically ignored me.”

“Surprise, surprise,” Matt said, shaking his head.

Steve let out an angry sigh. “I’m getting really tired of this. That’s the third time he’s missed a training session this week. Orion, go find him and tell him to come see me right away.”

Orion frowned. “Why do I have to go?”