Episode 5: Collateral Impact
The twentieth floor of the commercial building was a graveyard of shattered desks and severed fiber-optic cables.
Sho scrambled backward over the rubble, trying to put distance between himself and the hulking monster tearing through the dark. Asad didn't navigate the debris; he simply ran through it, his massive, drug-swollen frame obliterating concrete pillars and steel framing like they were made of dry rot.
"Stop messing around and get him down here," a cold voice crackled in Sho's earpiece.
Sho grunted, narrowly weaving under a haymaker that pulverized the cubicle behind him. "Fine. But how do you expect me to get him down? We're like twenty stories up."
"Jump out the window. I'll catch you."
Silence stretched over the comms for a fraction of a second as Sho ducked another lethal swing. "Oh, hell no. Last time i tried that guess who ended up with broken ribs?"
Down on the street below, the man in the ruined "Director Davis" suit allowed himself a small, invisible smirk. "Yeah. Because you pissed me off."
Up in the darkness, Sho heard the concrete groaning under Asad's next charge. He glanced at the shattered exterior window behind him.
"Fuck it," Sho spat into the comms. "You'd better catch me."
Sho didn't run away this time. He bolted directly at the juggernaut, closing the distance in two explosive strides. The giant courier roared, bringing both fists down in a devastating hammer strike aimed at Sho's spine. Sho didn't block it. He dropped entirely into a slide, slipping beneath the massive arms, and drove his shoulder into Asad's waist in a reckless, full-body tackle.
It should have been like hitting a bank vault. But Sho's physical output utterly defied his lean, pale frame. Beneath his skin lay a terrifying, unnatural density of muscle fiber. Driving his legs like industrial pistons, Sho hit the giant with the raw, kinetic force of a freight train.
Asad's eyes went wide as his 400-pound frame was uprooted from the floor. Using the courier's own forward velocity against him, Sho locked his grip around Asad's waist, screaming with exertion, and vaulted them both backward.
They crashed through the remaining glass of the curtain wall and plummeted into the freezing New Kong night.
Twenty stories. Absolute freefall.
On the street below, Davis didn't look up. He felt the shift in the air pressure. He turned his attention to a heavy, cast-iron municipal fire hydrant bolted into the sidewalk ten yards away. He didn't gesture. He simply focused on the pressurized water main sitting beneath the concrete.
The heavy iron bolts sheared off instantly.
A massive, high-pressure geyser of city water erupted into the sky. Before gravity could pull it back down, Davis manipulated the fluid, weaving the rushing water into a massive, dense sphere suspended thirty feet above the asphalt. He rapidly altered the water's surface tension, turning it into a temporary non-Newtonian fluid just as the two falling bodies slammed into it.
The sphere caught them, violently absorbing the extreme kinetic energy of a twenty-story drop. The water churned, killing their momentum instantly.
With a flick of his wrist, Davis split the sphere in two.
He whipped Asad's bubble across the street—hard enough to stun, but not hard enough to kill—and violently deposited the giant into the marble lobby of the commercial building. Asad hit the granite floor in a cascade of rushing water, sliding hard into the security turnstiles.
Davis brought Sho's sphere down gently, letting it burst over the wet pavement.
Sho dropped to his feet. He rolled his shoulders, cracked his back, and pushed wet strands of hair out of his eyes. "First-class travel."
"Shut up," Davis said, his eyes locked on the dark lobby across the street. "Let's take him in."
Inside the ruined lobby, Asad pushed himself to his hands and knees. Water dripped from his shredded trousers. His shirtless torso was a grotesque landscape of swollen muscle and dark, pulsing veins.
Suddenly, the giant's massive chest violently convulsed. He grabbed his own throat, his jaw stretching wide as he gagged. His neck bulged unnaturally, the muscles spasming until, with a sickening, wet heave, Asad regurgitated a massive, brick-like block wrapped in thick, industrial plastic.
It hit the marble floor, slick with stomach acid and thick ropes of bile. Raw, high-grade combat stims. He had swallowed a payload of them just to get them past customs.
Asad snatched the brick and crushed it in his massive fist. The plastic ruptured, and the compressed powder exploded into a thick white cloud in front of his face.
He inhaled deeply, dragging the chemical particulate straight into his lungs, ignoring the acid. He tilted his head back and let out a guttural, terrifying roar.
His eyes ignited, burning a toxic, chemical red bright enough to cast long shadows against the lobby walls. His biology went into absolute overdrive, muscles expanding further, tearing the skin as his already massive frame grew even larger. The dosage was insane. It would have stopped a normal human heart in three seconds.
"Here he comes," Davis said, his voice dead flat.
The street was empty—cleared by Jasmine's extraction run. Nothing but pooled water from the broken hydrant, scattered debris, and the glow of neon signs bleeding through the night.
Asad leaped. He cleared the lobby steps in a single bound, launching impossibly high into the air. He came down like a meteor, both fists aimed directly at the asphalt between them.
*BOOM.*
The impact released a concussive shockwave. The street cratered, asphalt cracking outward in a massive spiderweb.
Davis dodged right, his hand sweeping through the air, pulling a sheet of pooled water with him. He splashed it directly across Asad's face and flash-froze it in a fraction of a second. It wasn't meant to hold him. It was meant to blind him.
Sho dodged left. Using the distraction, he launched himself off a parked car and drove a devastating spinning kick directly into the ice mask. The frozen water shattered, spraying crystalline shards into Asad's eyes.
Sho didn't stop. He stepped completely inside Asad's guard, his fists blurring in a relentless, brutal combination. Ribs. Liver. Jaw. Temple. The impacts sounded like baseball bats hitting wet meat. Sho weaved with lethal precision, ducking under retaliatory swings that would have easily taken his head off.
Davis supported from range. He manipulated the ambient water on the street, splashing it over Asad's heavy boots and freezing it to the asphalt. The ice patches snagged the giant's footing, breaking his rhythm just enough to keep Sho alive in the pocket.
But Asad was too big, and too high.
Mid-combo, Asad dropped his guard and simply absorbed a punch to the face. His massive hand snapped out, closing around Sho's ankle like an industrial vise.
Sho grunted. The giant lifted him off the ground entirely.
Asad slammed Sho into the wet asphalt. Once. Twice. Three times. The concrete cracked under the boy's weight. Then, with a furious roar, Asad spun and hurled Sho like a ragdoll back toward the commercial building.
Sho flew through the air, crashing hard through the remaining glass doors and disappearing into the dark ruin of the lobby.
Asad slowly turned around. His burning red eyes locked onto the man in the corporate suit.
Just the two of them now.
Davis didn't back away. He simply raised his hands.
Two compact pools of water from the broken street rose on either side of Asad's head. They instantly flash-froze into dense, solid palms of ice. Before Asad could react, Davis slammed his hands together.
The ice palms shot inward, clapping against both of Asad's ears with brutal, terrifying force.
*CRACK.*
The giant dropped to one knee, a spray of blood erupting from his ruptured eardrums. His equilibrium was instantly destroyed. He swayed, completely deafened and disoriented.
Davis didn't wait. He dashed forward, leaping high into the air. He spun, grabbed a fistful of Asad's hair to anchor himself, and violently yanked the giant's head down toward the pavement. In his free hand, ambient moisture rapidly condensed and froze, forming a solid, jagged hammer of ice.
He drove it straight down.
Asad crashed face-first into the cracked street, the ice hammer shattering against the base of his skull.
Davis landed gracefully beside the downed giant. He didn't stop. He pulled more water from the flooded street, wrapping it over his right fist. The ice rapidly expanded, layering over itself, growing into a massive, ridiculously oversized sledgehammer that would have required a forklift to carry.
Davis raised the massive weapon high, his muscles straining under the sheer density of the frozen block, preparing to bring it down for the final, executing blow.
The air to his right suddenly warped with absolute, blistering heat.
The pooled water on the asphalt flash-boiled into instant steam as twin beams of concentrated thermal energy tore through the night, aimed straight for Davis's chest.
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TO BE CONTINUED