Chapter 58 Plastic-boy.

Chapter 58: 58 Plastic-boy.

I stood on the edge of an apartment block’s roof, watching the convoy barrel down.

With a gesture of my magnetic powers I deployed my armor, sending layers of ridged steel out from special bracers on my wrists, ankles and belt across my body.

The mask came on last, plastering it across my eyes and taking a breath to get into character.

Right.

Here we go.

I reached out with my hand, feeling the magnetic pull of the various vehicles that thronged the street, my powers zeroing in on the central car in the middle of the two armoured vehicles.

Oof.

It was a heavy bastard, but I’d lifted bigger.

My powers gripping its magnetic field, I began to lift the car slowly into the air, the metal groaning appreciably.

It took a minute, but people started to notice.

Cries of surprise erupted from pedestrians who pointed at the suddenly hovering truck.

Traffic ground to a halt and people poked their heads out windows to watch what was happening.

I looked through the window of the car to see the official and his driver frantically searching for a way out.

With a bunch of my fist, I made that physically impossible, basically melding the door to the hinges.

Phones came out, recording as the armoured vehicles stopped, two out already but just before the others could follow, I’d shut their door too trapping them within the car.

Couldn’t handle someone shooting at me right now, I’d lose it.

Time for my entrance.

I stepped off the roof, lifting my armour with a magnetic push.

Hands heavy by my side and drawing scattered fragments of metal to float in the air with me, making my entrance all the more stunning.

God, I loved this job.

"Metropolis!" I thundered. "Your conqueror is back, for it is I, Polaris! The lord of magnetism himself. And I will show you when you do not respect me!"

The two guards who’d fallen from the truck drew their guns and took aim, but with a yank of my powers I jerked the weapons from their startled hands.

The revolvers flew, spinning through the air to hover near my head.

"Idiots!" I bellowed, crushing the two guns with a squeeze of magnetic force.

"Guns? On me?! I am a living weapon myself!" I let loose another crackle of electromagnetic power, some streetlights exploding, raining sparks down, making people scream and duck.

"I am Polaris! And you are nothing but ants beneath my boots!"

"That’s a lot of talk for someone about to get his ass kicked!"

Ah, right on schedule. I recognised the voice instantly.

I turned to find a man standing on the edge of a building, hands on his hips, head thrown back and chest thrust out.

He was only wearing some skin-tight spandex tights that stopped at his upper thighs and barely covered his chest.

His suit was something straight out of a circus act. He even had his hair slicked back and goggles like a diver’s.

"Well well!" I said, turning to face him.

"If it isn’t the boy wonder himself, Plastic-boy! The human rubber band. What a surprise."

Plastic-boy’s origins were peculiar. In the sixties an alien spaceship crash landed on earth—no, not superman.

According to news reports at the time, the alien was dying and upon first making contact with Plastic-boy it’s DNA jumped ship for survival and gave him a form that’d never be constant.

The alien DNA stopped his aging which is why he still looked in his early thirties and still dresses like there’s no such thing as the internet.

"That’s right, villain! I am Plastic-man, and no matter the time of day, Plastic-boy is there! For I have come to put an end to your rain of tyranny on these innocent people!"

Yikes. Putting it down kinda heavy but as long as civvies were terrified and taking pictures I didn’t have any complaints.

"Since you care about them so..." I tossed the car down near him like a missile. "Save them!"

Far enough it doesn’t far fetched, but close enough I’m sure he can catch it.

Bracing himself, Plastic-man stretched off the top of the building, upper half wrapping around the car and setting it down on the streets.

He dropped down to the ground and did his signature move. His thumb went in his mouth as he blew on it and his upper body immediately buffed up.

He reached for the car doors and tried ripping it off its hinges, but seeing as he was having a difficult time I loosened it a little.

As the official and his driver were finally safe, Plastic-boy turned his attention back to me and grinned full teeth.

He extended an arm towards me, and his fist flung out with incredible force like a trebuchet.

Oof! The impact slammed into my armour, blasting me out of the sky.

I hit the ground hard but not nearly down yet. I turned to the side.

Civvies screamed and scattered, but kept their phones out, getting a good view of me and, more importantly, the billboard of a truck.

That was the money shot.

That was why they paid me the big bucks.

The sight of me slamming into the pavement was going to explode all over social media tonight.

Exposure like that was fucking gold these days. Try adblocking that one.

I slid out of the crater and landed lightly on the ground, letting my electromagnetic field crackle like spitting static.

"And here I was thinking a decorated hero like Plastic-boy would be better than that!" I demanded, laughing. "You’ve made a grave mistake. You should’ve died into the sixties."

"You’ll not be laughing long, villain!" he declared.

Dammit, I set up him up for a perfectly good pun and he just pissed it away.

Well, whatever.

Time to make things fun.

I stretched out my arms to either side, and several benches, some railing, and the chairs outside a nearby coffee shop rose into the air, floating around me like a halo of junk.

"Next time you hear a cry in Metropolis, ask if it’s Polaris first." I sent the benches hurtling at him one by one.

A stupid tactic, sure.

But the crowds love that shit.

People gasped in shock as the metallic masses crashed around Plastic-boy, who weaved around them and dove for me, his body extending like a curling serpent.

Uh oh, he was going for a confinement move.

I sent the chairs at him but he dodged around them sinuously, and then we were face to face.

His body twisted around me, suddenly tightening, squeezing me like a noose.

Oof! I could feel my armour creak in his grasp. I couldn’t help but wheeze.

"Are you alright?" Plastic-boy whispered as he lifted us into the air.

"It’s fine. Just go with it," I replied in a hiss.

"Gotcha," he murmured in an undertone. Then, in a shout, "You do not want me to end you. Surrender!"

"N-neverrrrrr!"

I milked it a bit as I gathered the electromagnetism in my suit and suddenly pushed it outwards.

The crackling ball squeezed Plastic-boy as he tried to tighten the grip, but to no avail.

With a sudden thud, falling to the floor like a mile of rope.

I floated there, wincing as I felt my ribs ache. Ouch, but it wasn’t too bad.

Nothing broken.

And Plastic-boy was reforming once again on the ground. Still on the ground he raised his head and gave me a wink.

Alright, guess it was finally time to wrap this thing up.

"Idiot!" I shouted, slowly descending to the ground, carefully positioning myself right in front of the street’s manhole.

I raised my arms, static crackling around me like a nimbus of power.

"Did you think a cur like you could defeat me? Me! I have the very elemental forces under my command. Now, witness them, and despair!"

I lifted my arms, and from a couple of balconies around us I ripped out the metal railings.

With a flick of my fingers I wrenched the bars apart, twisting the tips into spear-like points as the deadly metal hovered about me.

The crowd gasped in shock. That’s right, folks. This is why you live in Metropolis.

Not because of the out-of-control crime, sky-high housing costs and poor municipal services.

It was to get a front row seat to watching buff guys in spandex beat the shit out of each other.

And they weren’t going to be disappointed.

As I watched, Plastic-boy took his stance, legs parted—one in front of the other—rjght hand stretching back like a catapult.

"You think that’s power," he said as his body suddenly swirled and grew, his other arm rising towards me. "Then taste... this!"

His backward stretched hand made it to the end of the street and came back in a shockwave that shook even the civvies.

I immediately yanked up the manhole cover, flipping it up like a shield.

The fist hit it with enough force that the thing almost smashed into me even with my powers holding it.

I pushed more of my power against it, holding the fist that was practically cracking through the cover.

"Damn you! This isn’t the last you’ve heard of Polaris!" I roared as I stepped forward and dropped into the darkness of the sewer mouth.