Earth Takes a Stand
Chapter Four: The Studio Fight
by Anonymous
At 8:00 sharp, the lights came on in a talk show studio in LA, and the
host walked out from behind a set of curtains. "Good evening Los
Angeles, today we'll be talking to the man who finally stood up against
one of the aliens with a suit of armor he says aliens told him how to
make. Please welcome our special guest, the Avenger!"
Half the audience cheered and half of them booed as a very tall, very
well built man stepped out from backstage and took a seat. He looked
like he had just stepped out of a comic book, complete with rippling
muscles, a cape, and revealing skin-tight clothing.
"Tell us, why don't you have your armor on? And why have you started
your one-man war against these aliens?"
"Well," he began to answer, "A few days ago, I received a telepathic
message from another race of aliens. They told me the truth about what
these aliens wanted, and told me how to build this suit of armor to fight
them with. It's very dangerous though, so I couldn't bring it into the
studio.
"The aliens told me that these two races who were fighting on our planet
both wanted to take over, one only seems good and one seems evil, but in
the end the winner will conquer this world and enslave us all! They also
told me that we're not ready to meet any extraterrestrial life yet, not
for several more years. I was to get rid of the invaders and make Earth
safe again."
This was as corny as corny can get. Fairchild sat in the back of the
studio, trying to remain inconspicuous but still attracting stares from a
lot of the men around her. Telepathic aliens, enslaving the human race,
otherworldly technology, just add bigfoot and you'd have a tabloid
magazine. This guy was obviously not the same man she'd fought a couple
of hours ago. She was trying to decide how to leave quietly when a crash
caught her attention.
*
Garritan had lived a pretty good life so far. First of all, being born a
Prime had ensured him a high rank in Arion society. For some reason, he
had climbed in rank extremely quickly for someone who never did
anything. He received all the cushy assignments, was invited to all the
important places to be seen, and generally was in the right place at the
right time. His luck never seemed to run out.
Today was no exception. Once the Arions had heard of this armored hero
emerging on Earth, he was assigned to monitor Earth's television waves to
try to track him. This basically meant that he got to watch TV all day.
He had no problem with that. Although it was generally considered a more
important assignment to be part of an assault against the Velorian
Protectors or smuggle nuclear material from country to country, the kind
of tasks he seemed to get assigned to were, well, safer!
Once he told his superiors that he had found the armored Terran, he was
rewarded with the task of eliminating him. "Yep, Garritan, you are one
lucky son of a bitch," he thought to himself. Not only would he be
credited with killing the armored Terran, but it would be on national
television and he would be credited with a severe moral disaster among
the Terrans! And to top it off, it would be easy, since he didn't even
have his armor on!
Par for the course with Garritan's life. A lot of the other Arions
didn't like him because he seemed to lead such an easy life, and yet
seemed to be so respected by his superiors. That's how he got assigned
to Earth in the first place. He didn't really care what they thought
though, his career was all that mattered to him.
*
Garritan burst through the doors of the studio, a pair of bodies could be
seen behind him. It was unclear just how damaged they were, but they
looked like they needed immediate medical attention if there were going
to live. He marched straight to the man who called himself the Avenger,
and lifted him off the ground by his head!
The audience as a whole didn't know what to make of this. It could be
part of the show, but they didn't see any wires or anything holding him
in the air. And those men in the hallway looked pretty hurt. A few
screamed, but aside from that no one moved. Especially Aurora, who had
even less of an idea what to make of the situation that anyone else.
That man looked like an Arion Prime, but it was so unlike them to make
such a show like this. And it would have been just like a talk show to
set up this kind of scene.
Garritan looked to the camera. He spoke in a thick Arion accent, since
he had spent so little time actually on the Earth. "See what it means,
Terrans, to dare and oppose the Arions." He felt a surge of pride as he
saw the otherwise well-built man he was holding up whimpering in terror.
This was going to earn him big points in the Arion military!
A murmur ran across the audience and the crowd was trying to figure out
what was going on. Aurora decided that this had gone far enough, she
couldn't see any evidence of special effects holding this man in the
air. She had to take action.
Except that while she was coming to her decision, a familiar armored
figure walked into the studio. What the hell? This was going to be
great ratings, whatever happens.
That same booming voice came over the loudspeaker. "Ladies and
Gentlemen, this is not part of the show. For your own safety, please
rise from your seats and evacuate the studio in a calm and orderly
fashion."
That spark was all the audience needed to panic! At once they all rose
to run out as fast as they could, ready to trample each other if
necessary. This wasn't what he wanted at all! He was just trying to get
them out of here!
"I SAID, IN A CALM AND ORDERLY FASHION, DAMNIT!" The loudspeaker nearly
shook the room this time. He was visibly upset as he felt two hundred
eyes all on him, panicked fear melting away to revel the paralyzing fear
just under the surface. "Now Leave!" The audience actually did what he
said, and left at a rapid walk, but without the shoving and running as
before.
Aurora was impressed. That loudspeaker had its advantages. However, she
was intrigued at the fact that this was the first time she had seen him
lose his temper. His calm shell finally cracked the instant he saw he
wasn't in control of the situation.
"And you!," his machine gun swung out and aimed at the Arion
Prime, still holding his hostage. "If he dies, I swear you won't leave
this studio. Do you understand me!? Let him go." He was still angered
beyond control of himself, but he didn't seem to care.
"You mean I shouldn't place my other hand on the side of his head, and
slowly twist until you hear the bones cracking in his neck? I shouldn't
tear his body in half before your eyes? What would you do about it,
Terran? Shoot me? Ha ha hahaha! And risk hitting him? Ha hahahah!"
His horrid laughter filled the studio as he slowly reached up to do just
what he had described!
*
Garritan knew he had control of the situation. That figure was nothing
more than a Terran wearing a cheap suit of metal. There was no metal on
this earth that could stand up to the full force of an Arion Prime! So
things hadn't gone according to plan, and this whimpering fool wasn't the
armored one, the armored one had come right to him! He could almost
taste his next medal.
Still, a part of him wondered if he really was such a fool, or if he had
the firepower to back up his words. Obviously, he should hold onto his
hostage just in case.
Sirens wailed outside as the police arrived. A bullhorn shouted
something no one could hear in the nearly soundproofed studio.
*
Meanwhile, Aurora had been hiding just inside the doorway. She knew that
the two would be focusing on each other, and she could get in a free hit
fairly easily. The question was how to do it without getting the hostage
hurt.
"Fuck you." chung! chung! chung! chung! chung! chung! chung!
chung!... One hundred and fifty rounds per minute of solid lead,
almost three
per second, smashed into the Arion's face and made him drop his hostage.
He didn't stop firing his .50 caliber when the impostor ran off, he
continued to fire, raining an assault on the Arion's body that could have
torn a car apart in seconds, eventually even worked its way into a tank's
hull!
Garritan was in the most pain he had ever been in in his soft life. The
first bullet had broken his nose, several more slammed into his face like
a Terran getting hit with a baseball bat. His eye was scratched and
he couldn't see well anymore. He staggered backwards as the bullets
moved to his chest, pounding over and over again at a horrible rate.
Finally, after enough torture had been administered, his flesh finally
began to tear from his body! Pinned against the wall, unable to get up,
he felt the fiery pain of each individual hit, now tearing off whole
chunks of flesh and reflecting off his ribs.
click click click click Spent shells were scattered around the
floor at the feet of the armored figure. If anyone had bothered to count
them, there were exactly one hundred and fifty. Every single bullet had
met it's mark on the Arion Prime. Not a single bullet hole could be
found on the wall. It would take a microscope to find the lead powder
left over from the bullets impacting with the Arions near-invulnerable
flesh. And yet still he lived!
Aurora was still standing in the doorway, terribly impressed at the
damage this weapon was capable of! She remembered that first day among
Terrans on the island, when she had been shot at with several calibers of
bullets, including the .50 caliber. It had been powerful enough to knock
her unconscious for a bit. Getting hit with it had been one thing, but
watching it tear apart an Arion Prime's chest is completely another!
Aurora was also impressed with the aim. No human alive could aim that
well with a gun that powerful. Obviously, it had something to do
with the armor. She gradually became aware that she had become very
attracted to him, even though he was only powerful because of the armor,
he was still far more powerful than she had previously imagined! Plus,
she had never seen him outside of the armor, nor could her enhanced
vision see inside of it, and this sort of made him
become the armor. It was like there was no one inside of it, the armor
was the sum and whole of what he was.
Garritan could only sit on the ground in pain as he watched the blood
trickle down from his chest. He didn't think any weapon on this mudball
of a planet could hit that hard, mostly because he hadn't spent enough
time here. He also didn't think that the Terran would have chanced
shooting at him and hitting the hostage. Considering his aim, he
understood that it wasn't much of a chance.
He watched as the armor walked slowly toward him, gun swiveling back into
place and still smoking. The massive left arm and three imposing claws
pointed directly at his face, as he watched with his good eye. Could his
luck finally be running out on him?
"I've had enough! Stop!" he pleaded with the armored warrior standing
in front of him. It was to no avail. He had regained his composure and
was once again hard as a rock. His emotionless mask hid anything he
might be feeling, as unlikly as that seemed. "Please don't kill me!"
Aurora was sick to her stomach. On one hand, she approved of what this
mystery man was doing. He had saved a hostage, and showed remarkable
leadership ability upon safely emptying the studio. She also hated the
Arion for wimpering exactly the same way that his hostage had been. On
the other hand, the Arion was at the mercy of this Terran, a quality he
didn't seem to embody. She felt sorry for him as she knew that his death
was going to be painful simply due to his invulnerability, if this Terran
could kill him at all..
She saw a stream of white light leap from the left hand of the armor.
Looking more closely, she saw that it was actually made up of a number of
tiny streams of light, sort of like the effect you get when you aim a
flashlight directly into pouring rain. This really was a primative
particle beam weapon! He wasn't bluffing a few hours ago in the street!
Primative or not, it did the job. The weapon tore into the flesh of the
Arion's head, face, and shoulders as he screamed in pain! Still, by the
time the charge had worn out, he was still alive, holding his head in his
hands and crying.
"What does it take to kill you aliens?" He looked down at the
shaking, terrified Arion and decided to try to simply crush him
physically. Picking him up by his shoulder, he wrapped a massive, armored
forearm around his skull and began to squeeze with all the power that the
armor had to deliver.
Aurora once again found herself impressed with this "mere Terran man."
She noticed for the first time that the armor was well over seven feet
tall. It lifted the Arion with no more effort than a child lifting a rag
doll. And as she saw the neck and head start to give under the pressure,
she realized that this was no ordinary steel the armor was made of, as it
would have given out far, far earlier than the Arion's head!
Finally, it was over as the skull of the Arion fractured and the edges
tore his exposed brain. Blood had literally exploded out of his head and
onto the armor, the walls, and the floor. She was almost used to such
grizzly sights by now. Almost.
The Terran picked the Arion up in both arms, and exited the studio. A
moment later she heard the sound of his jets as he ascended skyward,
evading the police outside.