William Watson stood. He reveled in it. Even five years after his conversion, it still

  felt good to stand on his own. He had taken it for granted before he had been stricken.

  Now it was a reminder of how his planning had solved his problem.

  And now he had another problem stemming from the solution of his prior problem.

  How did he fix it in a way that would let him come out ahead? He gave it some

  thought as he left his office and searched for his assistant, Oscar.

  He should have known that Marty Morgan would stir up trouble. His limited power

  was still useful in its way. Of course, he would have figured out part of what had

  happened and come looking for answers.

  Now he had to be dealt with before he found out what had happened to his old mentor

  Barry Nicklaus. That discovery could ruin the base’s ability to jumpstart technology

  to fight powered humans.

  Watson Security made a fortune with their clandestine activities. Most of that fortune

  came from what had been done to the Hazard Scouts. No one could get in his way and

  call him to task for that particular business decision.

  He found Oscar standing with Captain Mercer outside a metal door marked

  operations. He hoped he conveyed his frowning. His metal face still had a lot to be

  desired in that department.

  “What is going on, gentlemen?,” he asked. The new voicebox was still better than the

  old one, but it still sounded like someone playing an electronic keyboard. The next

  generation should be able to sound almost like a normal man.

  “Somehow our prisoners have escaped,” said Oscar. “One of them has taken over the

  operations room and locked us out so we don’t know where the others are except

  from the reports from Gaze.”

  “So if they keep on the move, he can’t tell us anything other than where they are, and

  where he thinks they are going,” said Mercer. “He says they are two floors down right

  now, with Morgan and Finch battling Bob.”

  “Any plans to open this door?,” asked Watson. Operations could see every inch of the

  facility except for his own office. If they wanted to use the security cameras and lock

  down the floors, they needed to get inside.

  “We are bringing up explosives from my training area,” said Mercer. “We are going

  to try to cut through the lock and force the door open.”

  Watson inspected the lock on the door, then the door itself. The thing was like a vault

  door. They would need a lot of explosives to make a dent in the thing.

  “We think we can cut through the door,” said Mercer. He waved at a squad waiting

  to go into action. “We have some EMP guns here. We think Cog is the one who is in

  there. Soon as we get in, we blast him with the EMP pulse. He goes back to his cell.”

  “Understood,” said Watson. There was no way he could get through the door. It was

  too thick even for his new arms and legs. “What about the others?”

  “We plan to go after the other four as soon as we have operations back under our

  control.” Mercer waved at the stairwell door. “We’re going to blow all the doors and

  swarm them. Nullifiers and nonlethal ammunition will be used. We’ll round up your

  lost sheep.”

  “I’ll do that now,” said Watson. “Make sure to blow the door and get Cog before he

  can escape. He might have the knowhow to destroy the controls of our generators and

  ventilation. If he does that, it will take months to bring the facility back to active

  service.”

  “Will do,” said Mercer.

  Watson strode over to the stairwell door. Mercer’s men retreated from his advance.

  He noted they were armed with a mix of regular weapons and nullifiers. Once they

  were through the door, they could take his captives prisoner after cutting off their

  powers.

  Only Finch and Ren would be a threat after that.

  He doubted they could stand up to his strength with the normal human abilities that

  they possessed.

  He examined the door. It had been melted into the frame by intense heat. Corona’s

  handiwork unless they had something else that could do that. He had to make sure to

  not let her go to work on his body. He didn’t want to replace melted parts because he

  was careless.

  He braced himself. Then he launched into the door. It resisted his weight the first

  time. He repeated the exercise until he had knocked the door down. He looked out on

  the landing.

  Nothing moved. He stepped out in the stairwell. He looked down over the rail.

  Something big and green looked back. He dodged backwards as fire filled the air.

  “That could be a problem,” said Watson. He thought about he could handle the giant

  beast. He peeked over the railing again. It was gone.

  He decided the best thing to do was try to take his enemies by surprise. And he had

  never really tried his new body out against opponents that might be able to match him

  in some way. The most he had done with it was execute some troublemakers who

  thought they could take a larger share than he was willing to give them.

  Don’t be greedy was a rule he lived by in his pursuit of personal satisfaction.

  He worked his way down to the floor below his floor. He tried to be stealthy. He

  didn’t think it was a good job. A lance of light confirmed his thought. It missed his

  head as he dove for the floor. He slid down the steps to the landing between the floor

  where the group was and where Mercer’s men waited above.

  Some of the men came out of the door above and fired down at the group. They

  worked their way down to his side, crouching to keep return fire from being a

  problem.

  Watson lifted himself off the ground. He was way too heavy for an ordinary man to

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  lift now. He inspected his metal skin. He noted two dings on the arm that hit the floor

  first. There was nothing he could do about that. He had to forge on.

  “Watch out,” he warned the men. “They had some kind of giant beast with them.”

  The men nodded. The nullifier carriers fired bursts of purple light at the opened

  doorway. They might hit something, so shooting didn’t hurt. And the beam guns were

  rated for hours of use before they had to have their batteries changed. The fight would

  be over before the guns ran out of power.

  “Move up slowly,” said Watson. “Who has a radio?”

  One man stepped out of the crowd. He wore a large radio on his back. He carried a

  simple rifle to keep from getting close to the enemy.

  “Call Mercer, and tell him he might be able to use the elevator to create a two

  pronged attack.” Watson eased up behind the nullifiers. “Tell him to proceed

  carefully.”

  “Yes, sir,” said the radio man. He stepped back to make the call. He didn’t know what

  the fugitives could do, but everyone knew that Becker had been hurt bad by one on

  the way back to base.

  The Captain almost made an example of him.

  He relayed the message and listened for acknowledgment. He didn’t need to be in the

  middle if something went bad on either end of the call.

  Mercer gave him a terse “Got it.”

  “Captain Mercer said he understood the message,” said the radio man. He stood

  behind Watson. If anything went down, he wanted a big shield like the robot man

  promised to be.

  Lances of light flared at the men. Nullifiers and rifles answered the beams. Watson

  yanked the only hit man out of line and rolled him on the ground to put out the fire

  as fast as he could.

  “Take him out of the way,” said Watson. He handed the wounded man off to some

  squaddies. “Riflemen, prepare to cover us. Nullifiers, open fire and keep their heads

  down.”

  He advanced down the steps behind a shower of purple beams. He had to take Corona

  out of the picture first. She was the only one capable of hurting him. He couldn’t

  allow that.

  Morgan would have to go next. He had learned some new applications for his powers.

  There was no telling what he could call up, or how much damage the beast would

  cause. It was better not to give him a chance.

  The other two could be as dangerous, but there was no telling what they could do

  against a group of men. Finch was said to be a highly trained fighter. Nothing was

  known about Morgan’s companion. They had grabbed him on the off chance he had

  something that could be used. And he did have something. Watson didn’t know how

  to handle it yet.

  Watson pointed to the edge of the door. He wanted his men ready to cross the

  threshold when he did. They had numbers on their side. The other side had weird

  powers. If the prisoners didn’t go down in the first volley, the retaliation could take

  out most of his men before he could stop them.

  His metal body should take some hits, but he wanted to keep things to a minimum.

  Getting hammered in a simple action like this would be embarrassing.

  Watson peeked around the corner. He smelled burning metal. That was good. His

  nose worked after months of tweaking. He would have smiled if he could.

  He saw a glow where metal and concrete had been eaten away. He scanned the room.

  Where were the powers? The elevator doors opened on his right. Mercer’s men

  leveled guns, but not at him.

  Watson advanced into the room. He felt the men spreading out behind him. Their

  comrades moaned on the floor. He bent down and tapped one in the face. Eyes

  snapped open at the touch.

  “What happened?,” asked Watson. The men checked their comrades as they kept

  searching the floor.

  “That woman,” said the wounded man. He raised his hands. All the fingers were

  broken. “She came out of her cell with a blanket. The next thing I know she was

  breaking my fingers. She was asking about her stuff. I told her where to find it. She

  slammed my head against the floor. That’s the last thing I remember.”

  Watson stood. Finch had done all this on her own. Maybe he had underrated her

  ability.

  “Get this area clear,” he ordered. “We don’t need them in our way while we are

  looking for our escapees. They’ll just get in our way.”

  Guards formed up at the edge of the fighting area. Other men handed their wounded

  to people in the elevator. When the elevator was full, they sent it down to the training

  area. The men could be put there until the company doc could look at them.

  Watson wondered what their next move should be.

  He walked over to where the glow still emitted from the floor. He looked down.

  Thingmabob lay on a desk directly below.

  What had happened to the man?

  Watson had wanted to face a real challenge. Here it was. Somehow, his fugitives had

  engaged his top thinker and leader of his powered assets and put him through a

  concrete and steel floor. What else were they capable of doing?

  He left the floor search to Mercer’s men. They had the weapons and attitude to mix

  it up. All he could do was draw fire. He dropped down through the hole, noting the

  heavily hot temperature still radiating from the cracked floor. He landed like an anvil

  beside Thingamabob.

  “What happened, Bob?,” he asked. He looked the man over. The man’s rod had

  charring around the working end. “Bob, Bob, can you hear me?”

  “Yes,” said Bob. His voice sounded dry and whispery. “I thought I could hold them.

  I was wrong.”

  “What happened?” Watson looked around. He didn’t see any of the escapees. That

  didn’t mean anything. He considered the heat from the hole and thought a normal

  person wouldn’t have been able to do what he did.

  The only one he had to worry about doing that was Corona. Naturally she was the

  only one who could blast his metal body to bits if he gave her enough time.

  “I was holding off Morgan with shield,” said Bob. “Couldn’t use nullifier while

  shield was up. Corona blasted the shield at full power. Luckily, I had my visor on, or

  I would be blind. Fell through the floor before the shield gave out. Hit this thing after

  it gave out. I don’t know if I am all right, or not.”

  Watson frowned internally. He didn’t have the means to check to see if his minion

  was paralyzed. Any wrong move could cripple Bob for the rest of his life.

  He decided the best thing to do was call for a medic. Someone had to be able to safely

  move Bob from the counter he lay on.

  Then he could search for the prisoners before they hurt anyone else. He had wanted

  people with ability. He had gotten that in spades.

  Watson didn’t think he could jump up to climb through the hole. He headed for the

  stairwell door. Mercer’s men had medics. They would know what to do.

  He didn’t want to make things worse for Bob. The man had done some good things

  for the company over the years. It wouldn’t be right to leave him like that. He would

  have to talk to Gilbert to see if a conversion could be done if that was what necessary.

  He headed up the stairs. One of Mercer’s men guarded the steps from attacks from

  below.

  “I need you get a medic and two men with a litter.” Watson paused at the landing. “I

  need a wounded man checked and secured downstairs.”

  “Yes, sir,” said the guard. He went inside the disaster area of hurricane Finch, and

  talked to several people. He returned with a man with a medical kit and another man.

  “You said there was a wounded man downstairs, Mr. Watson?,” said the man with the

  kit.

  “He fell through a hole in the floor.” Watson headed down. “He says he can’t feel

  anything.”

  “I got it,” said the medic. “We’ll transport him down to the training area. A real

  doctor will look him over when we get things sorted out.”

  “Do the best you can,” said Watson. “I’ll be down to check on him.”

  “Yes, sir,” said the medic. “Let’s go, Ike.”

  Watson watched them disappear into the floor. He needed to check with Mercer. They

  needed to get inside the operations center. Then they needed to hunt the escapees

  down.

  Watson started up the stairs. He had to think about what he could do to speed things

  up.

  He doubted that Mercer wanted more than suggestions with a number of his men

  wounded. It would be a surprise if he didn’t try to kill them instead of taking them

  alive.

  Watson stepped on the floor with the operations center. It was time to think of a

  strategy to get things back in hand.