Rise of the Warlord, part 8

Continued from:

The heroine known to the world as Walkiria cut through the sky in a brilliant flash of green and red. Ten minutes earlier she had been searching for a madman, unsure who he was or when and where he would strike next. He had left a trail of death since arriving at Angel Falls airport and it was agreed by all aspects of law enforcement that that was just the beginning. Whoever it was had tremendous power and an ability to remain some-what hidden from electronic devices. Maia, her wife Olga who was better known as the Soviet Superwoman and handful of other heroes and heroines had fanned out to watch for any sign of his passage. Until ten minutes earlier there had been nothing. Just blue skies, warm air as spring approached and people going about their day to day lives. She had decided to cover half of downtown with Mindy Marvel taking the other half. Olga had taken off in the direction of Eden Island. O.D.I.N.'s voice crackled in her ear, tilting her head back up from where she was looking downwards.

"Walkiria, I just received a very troubling message from Polygirl." the voice of her benefactor’s Artificial Intelligence program said urgently.

Already Maia didn't like the direction this was going.

"What was the message?"

"The message was that she had been contacted by someone named 'Claire' and that this Claire had intercepted and engaged the meta you and the others are looking for. I have the coordinates of where they are battling right now."

Maia grit her teeth together. The only Claire she knew of was Olga's former lover, the one Genocide had transformed into a cybernetic killing machine and pointed at her wife like a homing missile. Olga had told her all about Claire and what they had once meant to each other, but it had taken a lot to get it all out of her. Deep feeling were like deep rivers with her: hard to cross and difficult to reach the bottom. Supposedly she was on the side of the angels now, or at least she was no longer under Genocide's thumb...according to Olga. Still if she was involved it must mean that Olga was involved as well. Maia got a sinking feeling in her stomach.

"Where are they O.D.I.N.?"

"They are in an alley adjoining Park Row and 4th...Maia..."the computerized voice took a decidedly grave tone as it continued, the sort of tone Maia had been hoping wasn't coming. "Maia, it appears that this individual managed to somehow serious hurt and disable Olga."

Behind her red goggles Walkiria’s eyes glowed brightly, shining with a bright-purple light. Her muscles grew even larger as her entire form increased in size and mass almost involuntarily, growing to over seven and a half feet tall. Purple arcs of energy sparked between her fingertips as she dug them into two fists that crackled with power. Her lips pulled back into a snarl as she rocketed in the direction of the combat. She was trying her best to remain calm and focused. She didn't know who or what she was about to face, but if they had actually managed to defeat Olga so quickly and soundly she had better take them seriously. Couldn't let her emotions get the better of her, despite the fact that this fiend had already killed a room full of people and possibly hurt the woman she decided to spend the rest of her life with. The ETA to that location was five minutes even at her top speed.

She prayed that Claire could hold this bastard that long.

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Grendel lurched to the side, collapsing down hard into a pile of metal and plastic rubbish bins. She gripped the sides of head with both hands, her legs kicking outwards as all manner of filth and trash enveloped her. A thin trickle of blood raced down from her ears and both her nostrils before she shook her head violently, spattering it in all directions along with copious amounts of her spittle. The pain in her skull was magnificent, almost too much for her to withstand. So badly did she want to cry out and scream in agony, but all she could manage was a choked off sound from deep in her throat. Voyevoda stood a few feet away, clenching and unclenching his hands as he dug deeper and deeper into her mind. He was burrowing into her like a maggot and there was nothing she could do to defend herself from his invasion. Consciousness was starting to slip from her and her cybernetic eyes were beginning to flicker in and out of reception. She had to do something! Pensez! Claire stared back at her assailant for a moment and held out her wrist blades towards him defiantly. Her arm was wobbly and it took all her effort to pull her hand from the side of her head. The cyborg that was Claire Delattre pointed her shaking wrist downwards and fired both blades towards him in a whistling arc. She hoped her targeting systems would take care of the rest.

It must have caught him off guard. The armored Russian dodged to the left, but this time his reaction was too slow and the blades cut across the biceps of his right arm. Her diamond-coated titanium blades had managed to slice through the actuator suit, probably due to their low velocity and energy output. The man let out a yelp of pain and surprise and immediately his other hand covered the deep gouges, crimson blood running between his fingers. His grip on her mind was temporarily severed and she let out a loud, long gasp, like one who had been drowning and suddenly caught a breath of fresh air. Voyevoda cursed in his helmet and immediately tried to reestablish the link with her mind. This time he would simply mash it like a cooked potato, no matter the risks.

"All you have succeeded in doing is to make your death particularly gruesome and painful." he growled at her.

Already she could feel the fingers of his mind pressing heavily inside her skull again, looking for a way inside. Grendel began to clear her mind of thoughts and purge memory programs. If he managed to gain access again he wouldn't take any chances this time. She stumbled to get back to feet quickly, an awkward, desperate feeling as almost all of her actions were smooth and so precise. Claire quickly popped her machine guns back out and prepared to open up with another volley at him. If nothing else it might keep him off balance and cause his suit to expend more energy deflecting the rounds.

There was sound like a thunder-crack and Walkiria rushed in from the heavens above like a vengeful angel. Voyevoda was completely caught off guard for a second time. Her fist plowed into the side of his face like a wrecking ball. He spun around like a top and smashed hard into the side of the street just outside of the alley. Claire was also momentarily taken aback at her tremendous entrance. The larger woman's face was set like stone, her nostrils flaring outward. A mask to hide the pain and fear she must have felt for poor Olga. Claire knew it all too well. The Russian man was obviously disoriented and tried to steady himself as he stood back up. Maia reared back and punched him in the helmet again, cracking the lenses over his eyes and putting a fist sized dent in the face plate. Yuri let out a moan and dropped back to the sidewalk. Claire followed behind the muscular heroine, still shaking off the effects of his mental powers.

"Good timing, thank you." Claire said to her back as she strode towards the armored villain.

Maia's head bobbed up and down as she grabbed a hold of the fallen man and easily lifted him back up, his toes dangling several feet from the ground. She leaned into his ruined helmet, her voice quavering with emotion.

"Give up, whoever the fuck you are. I'm only giving this option once."

Yuri stared at her goggled face for a long few seconds before responding. Why didn't he sense her approach? Her mind seemed so alien and...strange to him. It was worse than the cyborg, where the electronics and hardware must have been giving him interference this was something else entirely. He could feel her emotions; raw hatred, anger, perhaps a twinge of fear and pang of conscience...but he couldn't read anything else at all. It was like she was a being of pure energy and emotion. He was completely baffled and the idea that he had no advantage against her frightened him. Nyet! There had to be a way into her mind! All living creatures have a mind and in that arena he was always victorious! He would keep her talking, get her to spike in her emotions despite the obvious risk he put himself at.

"So you are the life-partner, da?" came the electronic voice, harsh and fragmented sounding. "You are the one who kept her from fulfilling her destiny. A common American whore. A muscle-bound harlot!"

Walkiria continued to look emotionless as she held him aloft. "I've been called much worse by much worse."

"Nyet. I will be remembered in this city...in the whole world as the man who crushed and humiliated the Soviet Superwoman for the final time. She is nothing now but a broken shell, full of doubts and fears of her own making. I am the worst Walkiria. Even if you defeat me today and put me in your prison, I will always be the worst to you for what I did to her."

Maia could feel the anger rising in her. Her hands began to crackle with purplish energy once again, dancing off the actuator suit in small arcs.

"You're nobody. You're just another sicko who got his rocks off coming here to kill and hurt people, like Ultrawoman or Twisted Savant or a hundred others. You're a flavor of the fucking month. Olga will recover from whatever you think you did to her...can you say the same for what I might do to you Boris?"

"Kill me then." he replied flatly. "Kill me and she will remain trapped in the state I have her in forever. She will only recover if and when I choose for her to recover."

Walkiria swallowed hard. She wanted to rip him in half and toss the pieces across the city in two different directions. Already a crowd was forming a few feet behind the combatants. He deserved it for all the people he killed in the airport terminal, let alone whatever he did to the love of her life.

Olga.

Olga wouldn't want her to kill him. Olga never wanted to kill anyone, ever that Nazi psychopath who had hurt her best friend and previous lover who was standing only a few feet away.

She would do her best, but she wasn't making any promises.

To be continued...

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A massive thanks to my good friend for this wonderful piece of artwork! You are one of the best and I always appreciate all the hard work and attention to detail you pour into every creation.

Walkiria is the property of the fabulous and is used here with her permission.

Soviet Superwoman, Grendel, Voyevoda and the story are all my creations and property.

This takes place in the universe.