Previously: Digger and Twain were locked in battle with the Big Apple Corps. Twain fled, pursued by Invictus, while Digger faced off against Caveat Maledictor and Biggus Stickus. And now…
Digger dodged the swing, then grabbed Stickus and used his body to block another barrage of darts from Caveat’s pistols, which failed to penetrate Stickus’s bulletproof hide. Digger shoved Stickus at Caveat.
Caveat sidestepped easily and continued to shoot. Digger dodged again, and once again felt soft impacts on his legs, indirect vibrations from the darts hitting the loosely flapping skater jeans. Dozens of darts stitched up and down the denim fabric in ragged lines, but none penetrated Digger’s skin.
Stickus charged again and swung with all his might. Digger dropped to his knees and slid under the swinging bat, then sprang to his feet and grabbed it. Stickus tried to wrench the bat from Digger’s grip, but couldn’t.
Digger actually had surprisingly weak finger strength. The installation of the Driller Beam Generators had damaged most of the muscles and nerves in his forearms, leaving his fingers barely able to squeeze. But he had learned to use his clinging powers to compensate, so that once he locked his grip onto something, it would take a terrifying amount of force to tear it loose.
Digger spun Stickus around to block Caveat’s shots again, punched him hard under the arm as he kicked his knee. Stickus grunted, and Digger pivoted behind his back to rip the bat from his grasp.
Now it was Stickus’s turn to dodge. He threw a hard cross into Digger’s jaw. Digger used the momentum of the blow to spin around and whack Stickus in the temple with the bat. The bigger man staggered, and Digger shoved him back into a pile of wooden palettes stacked off to one side.
Carpe moaned as she pushed up onto all fours. Caveat’s pistols stuttered again, but Digger was already moving. He whacked Carpe in the head with the bat, knocking her out again, bounced off a wall and cartwheeled back to where Stickus was struggling to his feet. Digger latched onto a wooden palette with his foot and flung it at Caveat, then turned back to Stickus. Disoriented as he was, the big man was unable to defend himself against Digger’s onslaught. The bat seemed to be everywhere, concentrating on his weakest areas–ribs, knees, groin, temple. The point of the bat clacked up under his jaw and made him bite his own tongue.
And every time Caveat tried to intervene, he had to duck out of the way of some piece of detritus flung at him by Digger’s sticky feet.
Finally, Biggus Stickus, the Heavy Hitter, collapsed to the alley floor and didn’t move. Digger hit him three more times with the aluminum bat, now bloody and bent, before spinning to face Caveat.
“You think I’m nothing without my Drillers?,†Digger said. “The whole time I was in Hell, my Drillers didn’t work. I’m actually more dangerous without them now, because I don’t dare hold back. You want to find out how dangerous?â€
The alley suddenly shook with an inhumanly loud scream. Digger recognized the voice. It was Invictus.
What has happened to the invincible Invictus? Find out next week in the next thrilling chapter of Run Digger Run!
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