Pacific Station Vigilante (Book 2): The Negative Man [Stormfall] by Jeremy Croston Page B

visuals quickly!”
    A loud elephant roar broke out from across the street and Ernie Masters began his charge.  I figured out his power straight away; two large tusks were growing out of his mouth.  He was coming for me with deadly intent.  Not being one hundred percent from my fight with The Crimson Mask, the smart thing to do was create some space.  “Detonate,” it was weird to call Heather that, “light him up!”
    She took out two phones and lobbed them like grenades.  The first hit the ground in front of the running man, blowing up the area around his feet.  He face planted on the ground as the second phone hit him in the back.  Not even the body armor he was wearing stopped it from ripping his spine to shreds.  He screamed for a few seconds before silent death took hold.
    By now everyone was back to their feet and the missing SVIS member, Rhino, was visible.  Seeing what happened to their leader and not ready for another super, the SVIS fell back to retreat.  The three gang leaders were also trying to run.  “Hammerspace, go get them.”  As I barked my command, he pulled a baseball bat covered in barbed wire out of his interdimensional pockets and took chase.
    Heather and I stalked towards the running group.  “Can you slow them up for us?”
    With a smile, “My pleasure.”  She unhooked another phone and let it fly.  The path was true, only Titan got in the way and knocked it back towards us.  I grabbed her and we dove, missing the explosion.  As the SVIS disappeared, only the mechanical hunter was left facing the two of us.
    It hovered for a minute and then dropped to the ground.  It had its gun pointed at us, ready to fire.  “Negative Man, resistance is futile.”  It took another step.  “You and your accomplice have five seconds to surrender.”
    The power running the suit was great, but there was some sort of barrier preventing me from gaining access to it.  The positive energy running the suit was designed to keep me out.  “I don’t think that’s something we can do.”
    The robotic nature of its voice gave nothing away.  “I watched surveillance on your fight with The Crimson Mask.  I know you are weakened.  To oppose me will spell your demise.”
    “I don’t think so.”  Even weakened, I wasn’t about to let Titan intimidate me.  The fusion gauntlet had been gathering energy since we arrived tonight and it was time to put it to work.  “Detonate, now!”
    She flipped two phones in the air in front of Titan.  It was getting ready to shoot them out of the sky, but my hand was faster than its gun.  Two jolts of negative energy hit the phones and Heather set them off prematurely.  A dark burst came forth and slammed into the metal terror.  For good measure, I used the ground attack from my rooftop fight with Crimson Mask, hoping to trap whatever was left in the dirt.
    It was all for naught.  Titan’s boosters kicked in and it levitated above the controlled area of destruction.  There wasn’t even a scratch on the dark metal shell.  “It seems you have made your choice.  So be it.”  It fired two shots at us; Heather and I were able to avoid them in the nick of time.
    “What do we do?”
    This was an unforeseen event.  I hadn’t expected Titan to be so close and to interfere in tonight’s mission.  “We need to get out of here and fast.”
    More shots were fired and we hightailed it back down the street, towards the pier.  Titan followed, floating above us and moving fast.  Every so often we had to take cover behind a car or duck into an alley to avoid attack.  All the while, I was doing my best to observe how it operated and what weaknesses it might have.  Finally, we made it to the old pier no longer in use.
    I pushed Heather into an old bait house and quickly shut the door.  I knew these places had trap doors to the water below for easy access to bait fish.  It took a moment to find it and I threw it open.  Titan was right there though,