Living Metal

Chapter 1: Between a rock and a hard place-3

“Okay, I am only going to ask you this one more time. Why did your gang bomb that communication tower?” asked Anna.

Bone Crusher woke up and overheard her.

“Ha, pig, we know our rights,” he said. “You cannot interrogate us without a lawyer present. This is police brutality. You won’t get away with this. I am the Great Bone Crusher, and you…”

Anna paid no attention to him. She walked over to the other side of the truck, looked toward the desert landscape and said to herself, “This is going to be a long night for me.”

Bone Crusher screamed out in anger, “Hey, are you listening to me?”

Anna looked back at Crusher in a disdainful manner and said, “I thought I had gagged you.”

The impudence of Anna’s comment left him momentarily speechless; he just watched Anna forcing Razor to sit beside him. Bone Crusher stared at her with utmost hate, and as she passed by, he said, “Your police buddies won’t come for you in time. You will die first and I will enjoy every last minute of…”

Again, Anna ignored him. She did not care to notice his reactions as she strolled back to the truck. Bone Crusher’s right eye twitched and he gritted his teeth with resentment.

“That’s it,” he said to himself. “I’m getting the hell out of here, and I’ll be back to finish you off, little miss badass. Then…then you will pay attention to me. Oh yes, you will!”

Razor overheard his mumbling and whispered, “Are you crazy? Wait for our gang to get here.”

Bone Crusher struggled with his bindings and managed to loosen his legs.

“You can wait, but when she gets into that truck. I am out of here.”

Anna hopped onto the truck’s driver seat and tried to hot-wire it to start. As she bent to take a hold of the wires under the steering column, Bone Crusher broke free of his leg cuffs. Quickly, he jumped up to his feet. Razor smiled, “All right, brother, come over here and help.”

Bone Crusher did not say anything. He just ran into the desert.

“What? No, you son of a b***h!” yelled Razor.

Anna’s long protruding ears twitched from the outburst and she popped her head out of the truck, spotting Bone Crusher making his escape into the war-ridden desert. Anna then walked up to Razor and briefly glanced at him. “No loyalties, huh. Do you think he can really get away from me?”

Razor looked at Anna with disgust and mumbled something to himself. Anna came around him to tighten the ropes on his legs. She smiled and said, “Now, I’ll be back for you. So, don’t get any ideas about escaping. Because then, I’ll have to do this the hard way.”

Her eyes glowed with an intense shade of blue. Razor got the message across that Anna was not joking. He looked back fearfully and closed his eyes. Razor nodded to comply and reopened his eyes. To his surprise, no one was around. He then thought about what she said and screamed, “You mean this was the easy way?”

The direction that Bone Crusher led into caverns and caves that were created by the blast scars from the bombardment caused by the war with Earth. It was another reminder of Earth dominance in the war. Most areas outside of the major cities had this type of landscape and like most of the criminal element on Mars uses the bombed out caverns to hide from the Earth security force.

Anna quickly followed Bone Crusher into these caves systems. With stealth-like grace, she caught up with him soon. Oblivious to Anna’s actions, Bone Crusher continued his way through the caverns thinking that he had escaped.

At the right was an exit that led out to a valley. Once out, Bone Crusher needed to make sure that he had indeed escaped. He stopped to turn around in hopes that she was not following him. Crusher did not see anything and sighed in relief.

But Anna was close by, standing on top of the ledge near his position. She jumped when he turned back around and continued on his way to false freedom. Anna was only a few feet away from him when he bellowed out with laughter, “Ha, ha, ha, I did it! I got away from her. There’s no…”

He paused as he saw the faint shadow that stood in front of him. Someone was up on top of the rocks, watching him. His eyes widened in fear and he whipped around to see if it was Anna. Again, to his relief, it was only his imagination giving him a scare. Standing before him was a rock face that resembled a human figure.

With a burst of hearty arrogant laughter, Bone Crusher turned his attention back on escaping from his captor. His amusement came to a screeching halt as his eyes gazed upon Anna standing before him with her arms crossed, leaning against a boulder a few steps before him.

With eyes wide in disbelief, Bone Crusher doubled back into the rocky caves. His cyber enhancements gave him great agility through the jagged boulders. Giving nothing to chance, he then used his massive cyborg legs to jump over a small ravine.

Bone Crusher landed into a network of grottos and continued to run, zigzagging back and forth through the caves, hoping to confuse his pursuer, convinced that she could not follow.

To his fearful reality, Anna was there waiting for him as he exited the last cave. Bone Crusher backed up a few paces looking back and forth, trying to find another way to flee. Just as he was about to run, Anna yelled cockily, “Hey!”

She started to walk towards him, saying, “That’s right, big guy. Are you ready to give up?”

Bone Crusher refused to give in and screamed out of frustration. “No, no, no! This can't be happening. I am the great Bone Crusher, the strongest of the Red Skulls!”

“Sure, whatever, bub,” said Anna as she walked towards him.

“Whatever! I’ll show you whatever.” Bone Crusher turned around to face Anna. His hands were still tied behind his back. With a crazed look on his face, he began to charge straight into her direction, screaming, “This time, woman, I got you, HAAA!”

With ease, Anna had time to move out of the way. Instead of a simple move to the left or the right, she wanted to add more of an insult than just a counter. Anna winked at Bone Crusher to anger him more.

In rage, Bone Crusher charged right at her. In one fluid motion, Anna smacked her right hand onto Bone Crusher’s face and leapfrogged over his back.

Once he had passed under her, Anna mule kicked him in the back. Bone Crusher looked shocked as the impact caused him to stumble down a ditch that Anna purposely stood in front of. She landed away from the ditch and turned to watch this calamity unfold.

Since his hands were still tied together, Bone Crusher tumbled all the way down screaming colorful metaphors about Anna. He landed face-first on the ground. Anna knew that this fall would only hurt his ego more than his cybernetic body and started laughing at him, “Hey bub! I bet that hurt. So much for the Great Bone…”

Anna stopped laughing as she felt a gush of wind blow forcibly down onto her body, “What the…hell?”

Anna looked up at a big oval ship in the Martian sky. Four wings and a mammoth size Vulcan cannon was pointing in their direction. The ship swiftly came down from the high altitude and hovered above them.

Anna could barely make out the insignia on the side of the ship as the searchlights glared brightly at them.

Something isn’t right. There shouldn’t be anyone else out there in the Badlands. Earth’s Security Force…no, wait a sec. What the hell are they doing out here?

The ESF ship opened the rest of its main gun ports on the front two wings and turned on the secondary searchlights. A voice from the ship announced, “Freeze! You are all violating Earth’s restricted zone! You will be shot if you do not comply!”

While Anna was focusing on the ship, Bone Crusher thought he saw an opportunity to escape. While he tried to pass by her, Anna was quick to respond to his actions.

“Hey, where do you think you’re going?”

Damn it! he thought as he tried to run. Before Anna could get to him, the Earth’s ship cut off his escape route by flying in front of him and said with authority, “Last warning. Do not proceed.”

Caught off guard by the swiftness of the ship’s movements, Bone Crusher accidentally stumbled forward. A barrage of bullets tore through his head and torso. As he fell, his blood trickled down in front of Anna’s feet. She looked upon the crimson river that flowed around her in disbelief.

Slowly, she peered back up to the ship. With intense rage, she yelled, “Hey asshole, what the hell do you think you are doing? That was my prisoner!”

Anna went for her badge in the back pocket of her pants. The ship began to land and transformed to fit a ground assault. The wings separated and reconfigured into legs, spreading like a spider and the Vulcan cannon extended as the secondary gun ports attached themselves onto the searchlights.

“Put your hands up, now! This is your only warning.”

She flicked him off and showed her badge. With authority, she yelled, “That’s what I say about your authority! I am the goddamn cop here! You are interfering with my invest…”

The voice interrupted her. “I don’t care who you are, lady! If you come any closer, you will be fired upon just like your so-called prisoner!”

The standoff between her and the ESF’s mech continued. Anna’s patience was running thin. The last thing she wanted was to be stuck with an Earthier with an itchy finger.

Okay, no problem here, she thought. I can take on this asshole. As long as there aren’t any more of these…

Just before she could finish her thought, Anna noticed little red dots appearing all over her body. Out from the starry night, more of the ESF mechs came down and hovered around them. Armed with a heavy arsenal, the ESF troopers began to surround her, cutting off all escape routes.

Anna finished her thought, guys…okay, I guess it is still not a problem. As long they don’t find my other prisoner, I can finish talking my way out of this quickly.

Due to the firepower that these troopers were handling, Anna’s suspicions grew that were not just ordinary security units. What she had stepped into was above her pay scale. Since she left New Dicon city’s limit, her jurisdiction had ended. There was not much she could do right now.

Suddenly, Anna heard a distant gunshot. One of the other troopers in the background spoke loud enough for her to hear. “We got another one. He tried to escape.”

Frowning, she screamed as she held up her badge for the second time, “Alright, boys, do you know what this is? I am an officer of the New Dicon police. Again, I am saying that you are all interfering in police business. So you can do this the easy way or…”

The main Mech who stopped her fired a warning shot before her feet. The red sand of Mars fell on top of her head as she continued to say, “…the hard way.”

By now, all of the troopers were pointing laser-tip rifles at her. Their targeting lasers were covering every part of her vital organs. Smirking, Anna looked up to the troopers and said, “So, y’all want to do this the hard way.”

Just out of their sight, Anna’s back muscles started to tense up with the anticipation of the coming fight with the Earth’s Security Force. She could feel her body transitioning from flesh to metal. Her long, flowing red hair covered most of the parts that were transforming. It was a matter of time before they figured out what she was. As Anna tensed her forearms and then triceps, her metallic form was about to be revealed.