Leaguer to the Rescue
1
The day started simply enough for Charles Flores. He arrived at work at the Church Hill Crier. He sat down at his desk, going over his notes for the stories he was working on for the next few editions. His cane went in the umbrella stand next to his desk as he sat down.
He started making phone calls to verify his stories. A lot of people he needed to talk to didn't want to talk to him.
A reporter's life was never dull, but often frustrating.
Charles's watch beeped at him. He cupped his hand over it so no one else could see the light emitting from the watch's face. He stood up, grabbing his cane. He limped from the bullpen as fast as his bad leg could carry him.
An emergency was unfolding and he had to get there as fast as he could.
It was time to get away from the prying eyes of his colleagues to change clothes.
Charles stepped in the elevator, glad to be alone.
"System boot," Charles said into his watch. "Flores, field operator, Terra."
A yellow light leaped from the watch face, engulfing the reporter. When it cleared, a different man flew through the elevator's roof hatch like a ghost and headed to the source of the alarm.
The Leaguer was on the way.
2
The Leaguer's gold form crossed the skyline in a glittering haze. The light was so familiar that though he could not be clearly seen, most people knew what it was in the sky.
He changed course when he reached the Atlantic, aiming for a point over the sky southeast of the city.
A boat floundered on the smooth ocean. Its bow seemed to be sinking, while its stern lifted slightly off the surface of the sea.
Leaguer dove into the water, gold erupting in a flat plane from his hand. He arced under the sinking boat, System calculating its weight as a hand modeled after his hand lifted the ship out of the ocean.
He wrapped the fingers of his created hand around its hull as he flew to the local dock yard. It only took a minute to set the holed craft down in a dry dock rack. He swept the boat with his gold beam, making sure the passengers had not been harmed by whatever had hit it.
Leaguer cut his beam and flew back out over the ocean. He dove into the water and headed down, field keeping him dry and lighting up the dark environment at the same time. He spotted bubbles from heated water as he dropped.
Then he saw the source of the heated water.
It looked like a meteorite at first glance. Closer inspection showed that it was a piece of an engine.
Leaguer frowned under his visor, wondering what was going on.
He played his light over the wreckage.
3
-Standard ferrous forms.-
Flores smiled underneath his visor. At least he didn't have to worry about a stray life form using the meteor as an invasion device.
-Aircraft in trouble.-
Flores got the coordinates from his flight navigator as he headed for the surface of the ocean. He turned to intercept the plane in distress. His glowing form cut across the sky.
His suit locked on the plane easily. He saw that one of the engines had caught fire and blew smoke out in a thick cloud.
Leaguer flew into the slipstream of the gliding jet. He reached out with his aura, snuffing the fire out easily. A hole had been shot through the engine, leaving a tunnel the size of his fist.
Two holes from a rock from the sky.
4
The golden hero assisted the jet to a landing before heading up in the stratosphere. His scanners picked out satellites, debris, and other space junk. He soared above that, armor compensating for vacuum and cold.
His scanner picked up a massive shadow heading for Earth. It was a rogue asteroid according to the system. Its heading would place it in a direct line with Church Hill. The East Coast would vanish in a fireball the size of Texas at ground zero.
Long term effects would make life on Earth hard to live after that.
Leaguer ran calculations, trying to plot a new course away from the Earth as he flew out to meet the juggernaut. He had never tried anything like what he planned. He didn't know if the system had enough juice for what he needed to do.
5
The golden gladiator circled the giant to get his approach right. He flew at the planetoid at full speed, boosting his shield into giant hands. He struck the surface of the planet killer, pushing on it with all the power System could apply.
System fed course corrections as the meteor moved off its path. The impact point with Earth moved across the face of the United States slowly.
Too slowly, he realized.
He would never be able to move it so that it would completely miss. The best he could do was a crash into the Pacific that would still cause damage and a lot of deaths.
Leaguer pulled away from his effort. He flew up, deciding to use the suit's only real weapon. He aimed at the a point that would continue to push the asteroid along the course he wanted.
Then he fired.
6
The suit could take all of the energy he provided it and convert it to a omnidirectional blast of light. The wave sliced through the planetoid before sputtering out. The hero floated powerless for the moment, space eating at him through the suddenly flimsy protection he wore.
Chunks of the asteroid fell toward Earth. They would burn when they hit the atmosphere. The greater mass of the celestial object had been rocked by the explosion against its surface. It would still hit the Earth.
System came back on line slowly. It started with basic life support, then flight and scanners.
Leaguer limped after the falling meteor as System routed what power it could to the suit.
7
Flores asked for the course computations to be run again as he slowly gained flying speed. His blast had shifted the thing's course until it would miss the Earth. He smiled until the image showed him the meteor hitting the moon.
He shook his head at the bad news.
That could be disastrous, but more survivable than if the asteroid hit the Earth directly.
Leaguer got in front of the flying mountain. His golden field was a dim cover as he pushed on the projectile hoping to slow it with his own flight ability. It was working according to System, but not fast enough.
His power level was slowly coming back to optimal. He decided that he would have to fire his weapon again as soon as possible. He told System to lock on the biggest flaw it could perceive in the rock.
His eyes followed the holographic gauge as it changed color. When it had reached the minimal point, System fired the blast against the fault it had selected.
8
Leaguer floated on the tides of space. He had taken his best shot. There was nothing else he could do until System was able to bring itself up to operational minimal. He felt the gravity well reach for him.
He wondered how much time he had before he burned up in the atmosphere.
The suit was tough, but it wasn't that tough without System's brain at work.
Finally he felt life support turn itself on, as he tried to relax. Flight and sensors would activate next. That would hold him in place as the rest of the generators and converters powered up. His visor flipped on as power returned to the rest of his suit.
System went through a quick diagnostic, resetting itself where it encountered an error. It wasn't designed to fire its weapon more than once a minute. Target acquisition lit up last as the artificial intelligence said it was ready.
The asteroid had split into two pieces. They careened wildly toward the moon. Flores smiled because the double hit had reduced the menace to a more manageable size.
Now he could handle the problem a lot easier.
If System could come up to snuff.
-Operation nominal.-
Leaguer nodded to himself, aiming his flight path at the two giant fragments. He soared ahead of the rocks, aura blazing in a golden cloud. He extended his power out, catching the leader in a giant hand. He slowed the fragment down to a gentle landing on the Moon's dusty surface.
He flew up and caught the other one in the same way. A few seconds later, it was resting beside the other half.
Flores scanned nearby space for any more hammers from the sky. Everything looked clear.
He headed for home.
epilogue
=The agent thwarted us.=
The speaker looked at his executive officer with wide, malicious eyes. Drool dripped from its rubbery lips.
=He does not know of our existence yet. We can use a bigger projectile to start our attack. Our readings show that his equipment entered stasis when he attacked the projectile.=
The executive officer cringed from his captain, forearms doubled up against his chest.
=I will consider your proposal.=
The captain eyes blinked out for several seconds.
The glow snapped back on.
=We will use two projectiles.=