1.2 Rising Part 8

The interior walls of the building’s ground floor have all been knocked down and there are several armed gangsters waiting for Guardian. She can count nine in addition to the large brute of a man that Guardian assumes is their leader.

He looks particularly tough with shiny metal skin, extremely large muscles and lacks any bodily hair on him. His clothing consists of a sleeveless white shirt with strains and ragged jeans. Unlike his fellow gangsters, this man has no gun and is completely unarmed.

“So you’re the Guardian,” sneers the metal man, “That superhero bitch who has been giving us so much trouble.”

Guardian thinks though her options as the two men that have been following her enter the building via the same door as Guardian.

I’m surrounded and outgunned. I have no cover and no route of escape. I can’t fight back without getting killed in the opening moments and I have no options. Now what?

Wait.

More advice from the voice. I might as well follow it. It’s not like I have come up with anything better and the voice has yet to give me bad advice.

“Surrender girl if you know what’s good for ya,” says the metal man and Guardian is sure that he is the leader of these gangster.

Guardian slowly draws her two stun-pipes and drops the on the ground.

“Smart girl,” chuckles the metal man, “Looks like we haven’t got a complete idiot, boys.”

Some of the gangsters join in with their leader’s laughing as Guardian tries to figure out how the situation is going to go down.

They know my name and they should also know about my pipe weaponry. I don’t know if they know about the gun that Scott insists I keep on me. I haven’t used it yet there is still the possibility that they don’t. I don’t think they seemed to be interesting in killing me right now, but I have no doubts that will kill me without hesitation.

“What about your other weaponry?” demands the metal man, “Don’t pretend you don’t have anymore.”

Guardian pulls out her pipe-gun and drops that on the floor with the stun-pipes. The gangsters stare at her as if they are expecting her to have more weapons on her.

“I don’t have any more,” Guardian tells them, “Well I do, but I left the rest at my hideout.”

The metal man grunts and orders one of his lackeys to collect the weapons.

Now what voice? I’ve been waiting and I don’t think this is going to go in my favour any time soon.

Phones.

Phones. More advice even if it is a bit unclear on what the voice is suggesting. A win to this fight I hope. I don’t have any phones, but I have noticed that most of my enemies do.

Guardian reaches out with her power, searching for phones. She can find on all of the gangsters. Even their leader.

What could the voice want me to-

“Girl!” yells the metal man, “Pay attention! Perhaps you prefer being called Guardian? Would that get you to pay attention to me?”

“Maybe,” replies Guardian and the metal man grunts in annoyance.

“Do you know who I am?” demands the metal man.

“Metal Man?” suggests Guardian.

Whatever the metal man is going to say, he freezes as he thinks Guardian’s reply over.

“Yeah, I might go with that,” mutters the metal man before speaking up, “I am Metal Man, the leader of the Lakeside Devils!”

Some of the others look uneasy at that declaration. Perhaps they dislike him or the fact he holds that position.

“I got my power when the old boss of our old gang decided to off me,” declares Metal Man, “One of his followers shot me, but I didn’t die. Instead I got my metal skin. Now I am tougher and stronger than any normal person! That was when I decided I wasn’t gonna to let my attempted murder go. After all, I now have real power that doesn’t rely on other people. And soon I will crush my rivals and the police will be helpless to help me. Only Atlas or Alexandria can beat me and I won’t be stupid enough to take them head on.”

While Metal Man has been gloating, Guardian has been going through the phones of the gangsters. She has been using her power to change the phones so they will electrocute the gangsters as a signal from her.

“A shame that you decided to be a hero,” drawls Metal Man, “But at least I have the opportunity to bag my first superhero, first of many I’ll bet.”

He gives Guardian a feral grin just as she finishes altering the phones. Her trap is set and will give her opportunity to turn things around.

Metal Man reaches for Guardian with his beefy fists. She instinctively leans away and sends the signal.

As a limitation of her abilities, Guardian can’t activate all of the modified phones at once.  Instead she had to link them and then used her power to modify one of her sensors to send the signal. With a device capable of sending the signal, Guardian than uses her power on that device to make it send the signal to make the phones electrocute the gangsters.

The men scream around her as electricity pumps through their bodies.