Stormflyer smashed through the glass ceiling, landing on a bent knee in the middle of the darkened atrium. Twenty guns emerged from their hiding places behind columns and overturned tables on the ground floor, and banisters and low walls on the second floor, all training their red laser-sights on the eagle insignia covering Stormflyer's chest rather than on his head. Trained shooters then, aiming for center-mass, he thought, not at all like the henchmen I fought at Deveros' other jobs. Stormflyer stood slowly, hands raised in surrender but with defiance still in his eyes.
"Deveros, come out! This ends tonight!" His words vibrated through the atrium. Several guns rattled briefly until their owners regained their nerves and steadied their hands.
The echo of footsteps grew louder in the darkness. Deveros appeared in the doorway of the balcony above Stormflyer, a tall, slender man in a long black coat emerging from behind the line of rifles. Even in his early sixties, his eyes still contained a gleam of wildness behind the black-rimmed glasses, his long dark hair combed straight down to his shoulders. His smile held a malice no other villain Stormflyer ever fought could match.
"Even after the body count at our last job, The Legion sent just one man to arrest me? I'm insulted," Deveros said, hands waving in the air as he spoke, "You have no idea how hard my boys and I worked to trap that many people in one room. Did you know that if you don't spread the fire just right, some people might pass out from smoke inhalation and not even bother to wake up in time to scream as the flames cook them alive. I hoped this last trick of mine would bring the entire Legion here tonight, but I guess you'll just die alone." Deveros tapped the shoulder of the rifleman on his left. "Get me his cape, please. I'd like a souvenir of this moment, preferably one not filled with bullet holes and soaked in blood."
Cautiously, the man descended the staircase and crept toward the hero, his gun trained on Stormflyer the entire time. He stalked around to the side of the hero, who stood statue-still, his unblinking eyes focused on Deveros. With a swift motion, he hit the hero with the butt of the rifle, dropping him to his knees. His confidence boosted, the henchman unfastened the cape with one tug, pulling it from Stormflyer's shoulders and draping it over his own. Satisfied, he walked backwards to his boss, keeping the gun pointed at the fallen hero.
Deveros tapped his chin with a gloved finger. "Something is bothering me though. Before you die, perhaps you could tell me why The Legion sent you in here alone to bring me in. After all, it doesn't make much sense. Even if you can fly, it wouldn't help much once you got inside."
"You're right, Deveros," said Stormflyer. To the stares of twenty-one pairs of puzzled eyes, he removed his shirt, the eagle with wings spread out across a black cloud landing face-up as it hit the ground. It took the men less than a second to recognize the insignia on the red spandex shirt Stormflyer revealed underneath, a fist with a crown upon its knuckles. "King Fist, though is basically bulletproof."
The rifleman with the cape strode back to the hero, confident and emboldened, and swung his rifle again. To his and everyone else's surprise, the gun smashed on the hero's face, shattering the stock to pieces. King Fist grabbed the man by the head, his palm covering the man's forehead, and shoved, sending the henchman across the room and smashing into a wall. He didn't get back up.
"Oh shit, it's King Fist!" shouted one of the men on the balcony. Nineteen rifles roared to life, deafening everyone in the room as bullets rained onto the hero, brass casings clinking on the tile floors. Hundreds of muzzle flashes made shadows jump all around the room while the smell of spent gunpowder filled nostrils. Trained shooters kept their eyes on center mass and their hands steady, and close to six hundred rounds found their target.
In seconds, the rifles clicked empty and shell casings littered the floor at the riflemen's feet. Similarly, bent, crushed, twisted fragments of bullets littered the area around King Fist. "My turn," the hero said striding forward. Before the henchmen could reload, he was upon them, breaking rifles in half and throwing men across the room. In a matter of minutes, the hero knocked out all the guards on both floors. He turned his attention to Deveros just in time to see the villain flee back through the door from which he earlier emerged.
King Fist gave chase down the hall but the villain was too far ahead. Deveros got to the end of the hall and, instead of turning into any of the rooms, he hit a secret button on the wall and dropped through a hole in the floor. Before King Fist could give chase a steel door slammed shut, separating him from Deveros as the villain fled down the hole on the other side. "Let's see you punch through that, King Fist!" said Deveros, barely audible through the steel door, but still taunting the hero.
The superhero reared back his fist and brought it down, sending a Boom! echoing through the hall but leaving barely a dent in the steel door. "I guess if I can't go through the door, I'll try the floor instead," King Fist said, aiming at a spot in the floor right next to the steel entrance.
"Don't!" said a henchman lying not quite unconscious on the floor. "The whole thing is rigged to blow if you try to go through anything besides the door. He's watching." The henchman lifted a hand and pointed to a security camera in the corner of the ceiling, red light shining bright in the dark room.
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