[Mkguild] Back to the islands part 13

[cokane8116 at aol.com]

 Misha wants a big boom! And gets it.

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   The American armed forces always foundthemselves in a tough spot when it came to Supers and giant monsters. As partof their mandate they were required to deal with such threats. But often hadlittle they could do to actually defeat them. It’s why people like Misha werein the Special Operations Command.    BUT the military never stopped thinking andplanning. Looking for a backup plan. The constant threat of various monstershad lead to the creation of really special weapons. Following the idiom of GoBig or Go Even BIGGER they had developed the AGM-244 Jack missile. It was over30 feet long and packed with as much explosive as possible. It was so largethat it couldn’t actually fit into the bomb bay or cargo bay of any aircraft.Instead it was slung beneath the fuselage of specially modified B52’s.    The bomber was an old veteran. It wasactually older than the pilot flying it. Her father had flown B52’s when heserved. The engines were roaring along at full power, straining under a load ithad not been designed to handle. But it did.    “Final approach! Thirty seconds!” The voiceannounced over the radio without identifying himself.    “INCOMING!” Misha shouted. “TAKE COVER! NOW!”    The missile dropped free of the B52 and fellfor a short distance before the engines came to life and it roared off.    The bomber itself took a high G turn thatsomething that old and that large shouldn’t be able to do. Freed of it’s heavycargo the bomber surged ahead as it tried to outrace the coming shockwave.       Back at the battle there was the loudrumble of a jet engine that was audible even over all the chaos and mayhem. Therewas the loud wailing of air raid sirens warning people to take cover. But itwas an unneeded warning. With a giant monster wreaking havoc the people hadalready fled to safety.    An object came racing over the waves andthey caught a glimpse of a missile moving at over Mach one. It changed courseslightly and then plunged straight down onto Lusca.    BOOM!!!!!    The massive explosion rocked the harbor andsent everyone and everything flying in all directions as a tremendous fireballengulfed the monster. The ground rocked and the water of the bay was vaporizedor sent skyward.    For a brief moment the bottom of the bay wasclearly visible along with the battered remains of a shipwreck. A moment laterthe water rushed back in and put out the fires as it swamped everything.    The wall of water raced outward headingtowards the city.    Standing on the end of the dock that stuckout furthest into the bay was Moonlight Serenade. The woman waited till theapproaching wave got close. She concentrated on the space in front of her. She broughtup her arms and a curtain of shimmering green light appeared in front of her.The green wall looked ephemeral and flimsy but this force field would easilywithstand machine gun bullets.    The wall of water reached the shield andslammed into it with a crash and a roar. Stones, wood, chunks of concrete andother debris were mixed with the water. They all hammered against the barrierand the woman who had created it.    The wall couldn’t remain strong against thispunishment and it thinned in places. She found herself pelted with a shower ofsalt water.    A wooden beam; a foot wide and a dozen feetlong burst through and rocketed straight at her. The deadly missile seeminglyaimed at her chest.    Silvermane’s bow snapped and an arrow hitthe beam and exploded. The old, rotten wood shattered pelting the woman withmany small pieces of wood.    After what seemed like forever; the waterreceded. It left the ground and water covered with wreckage.    Moonlight Serenade was still standing on thepier. She was covered with mud and muck. The same muck and mud which coveredthe pier up to her ankles.    “Are you all right?” Silvermane asked. Hewas standing in knee deep mud just behind the woman. He was as covered withmuck as she was.    “I feel funky,” she said slowly.    “I’ll see about getting you something moreappropriate for combat,” Silvermane commented.    “Something waterproof,” she added.  ************     As the smoke and clouds dissipated an oddsilence and calm fell over the entire bay. Wreckage; both burning and otherwisewas everywhere. A lot of it was from the ten ships smashed by Lusca in it’srampage. Of the monster itself there was no sign.    The first motion was a police boat thatmanaged to make its way out. It was quickly followed by several Coast Guardrescue boats.    Having been thrown all over the harbor bythe blast it was several minutes before the heroes rallied.    “Where is he?” Bob asked. Echoing whateveryone else was thinking.    “I don’t see him!”    “Split up and search all over,” Silvermaneordered.    “What was that thing they dropped?”    “I warned you it was a big missile.” Missilecountered.    The bay was carefully search with the heroeslooking in all the inlets and small islands. A dozen people were rescued fromthe overturned remains of their boat. One of Lusca’s tentacles had smashedtheir boat. More were recovered from a small islet. Where they had wound upafter their speed boat hadn’t been fast enough when Lusca arrived.    A half dozen people were pulled from thewreckage of a house on the shore. Lusca had not smashed it but a piece ofwreckage Lusca had thrown had.    The heroes diligently rescued and helped allthat needed it. Lots of wreckage was found but not Lusca. All that was everfound was a large ink slick and a relatively small piece of tentacle. It wasonly 20 feet long.    The Willawaw had survived it all. The shiphad drifted a good way off. It was down by the bow and listing at a 20 degreeangle to port. The mast had been snapped off and not a single window hadsurvived. All were blown out.    The metallic minotaur had been slammedagainst the deckhouse and the deck had buckled and dropped him two decks below.He had come to rest in the hold at the very bottom of the ship in two feet ofwater.    It took the nanites several minutes toreboot the systems and get him operational again.    “Steel Horn survives!”    “He’s tough and can take anything. Doanything.”    “Can he float?”    Water was flowing into the compartment at apretty steady rate and was already well past the minotaur’s hooves.    “We’ve got a problem!”    “Is this thing watertight?”    “NOW you ask that?”    “We were a little busy.”    The water was rising and had reached his knees.“We’re about to find out!”    “Does this float?”    “You’re joking right?”    “Well, it might if Trickshot and Silvermanehadn’t put so many holes into it.”    “They used this in a sea-based villain groupand didn’t make it capable of floating or swimming?”    “We can always walk along the bottom.”    A quick check of the hold confirmed that thebox was gone and yet another large hole in the side told of how it had beenremoved.
   A tug came racing out to help the ship but acoast Guard cutter was first on the scene. When the CG commander stepped ontothe Willawaw he was greeted by her captain. But he took one look at the shipand ordered everyone off.    The last to leave was the Captain. Hereluctantly stepped into the cutter after giving his ship one last look.    They did manage to tow her into shallowwaters and she eventually settled with her deck awash.  **************** 
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