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Stories from the Verse
Multiverser: The Thirteenth Story
Chapter 23: Takano 164
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Beam 203
As Tommy leapt from the Cadillac, she saw the drivers get out of the trucks--or rather, she saw the one driving the dump truck, and heard the door of the garbage truck close on the far side. The one she could see was dressed in a football uniform, complete with the plastic helmet and shoulder pads, a large number one on the jersey plus the name ‘Metalika” printed across the shoulders.
Convenient, she thought.
He was a bit of a portly man, and jogged around toward the back of his vehicle, apparently not noticing her in his slow haste. She decided that the quickest route was under the dump truck, which was not even really a tight fit if she got on her hands and knees, and at his rate she would be on the other side before he was.
Coming through the other side she saw the other villain already at the truck with a hand on the bumper. He wore a shirt with multi-colored jagged lightning-bolt-like horizontal stripes, bright yellow pants, what Tommy guessed were steel-toed boots, and a simple mask that matched the pants and covered just the area around his eyes, but with a lot of sharp angles. His short curly blond hair was certainly distinctive, and Tommy tried not to think that he had a wiry frame, but it was the best word she could find for it.
The driver appeared to be trying to restart the vehicle, but getting nothing, not even a cranking noise. Obviously Aceydeecy was doing his part. He called out, “Hurry up, lardball. I don’t want to deal with an armed guard.”
“I’m coming,” Metalika said, and hastened over to the passenger side. At this point Tommy couldn’t see him, but he called out and said, “There. He ain’t goin’ nowhere.”
“And the driver?”
“Right,” he said, emerging from the far side, but then he stopped, looking at her.
“We have company,” he said, gesturing toward her. His partner looked over his shoulder.
“Oh. Think she’ll be trouble?”
“Don’t know. Some say she caught Lady Nightmare.”
“Well, I’m not surprised that a girl can catch a girl. Get the other door before we have to deal with a guy with a gun.”
“Tell, where are you?” Tommy muttered as Metalika reached the other door and apparently welded it shut. Then he headed toward the rear of the vehicle.
Loosening her kawanaga from her belt clip, she charged forward swinging it. “Truth triumphs!” she shouted, and hurled the hook forward, wrapping it around Aceydeecy’s legs and pulling. He fell with a shout, and she yanked again, pulling him across the pavement toward her. Running toward the side of the truck, she dragged him out of the way. “Go!” she shouted to the driver, who apparently took a moment to realize the situation and hit the ignition.
“No, you don’t!” came the voice that was Metalika, apparently blundering out from behind the truck to rescue his partner before the plan was completely derailed. She gave another tug--the little guy was not much heavier than her, and she managed to get him clear of the front of the armored car. She heard it drop into gear and saw it start turning toward the side street to its right, blaring its horn and flashing lights to get other vehicles to move out of its way.
Meanwhile, whether in hope or for spite, Metalika was still closing on her, growling out something she thought must be garbled curses.
Suddenly he got hit in the helmet, and was for a moment dazed. He was hit again--Tell’s famed blunt arrows--and he fell down.
However, the distraction was long enough that Aceydeecy had managed to free himself from the kawanaga and was standing. He looked at his partner, looked around at the street, and apparently decided that there was nothing else he could do here, so he ran. Tommy looked at Tell, who shook his head.
“We’re not going to catch him. We’ve got this one, let’s get him tied up and wait for the police. If The Eagle saw this, he might be able to stop our fugitive, but by now it’s likely he’s vanished into one of the buildings and is losing his disguise.”
Some disguise, Tommy thought, but then she remembered that in this world even a simple kerchief over the face was sufficient to conceal someone’s identity. She wound up her weapon and then recovered Tell’s arrows while he tied up Metalika.
The villain was not entirely out of it, and said, “Go ahead, officer, cuff me.”
“No cuffs for you,” Tell said. “Good old hemp rope should hold.”
Metalika did not look happy.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
