Week 25.4 – We All Scream

Previously: Digger and Metalord were escaping Shanghai in a flying ice cream truck when they were trapped inside a force field. And now…

The truck bounced inside the softly-glowing enclosure as it hit the ground and rolled. Their impact with the ground was soft, though, as if landing on soft padding, and the truck came to rest upright. “Hey, we landed standing up,” Digger said. “That’s one in a million.”

“One in one, actually,” Metalord said. He got out of the truck and stared at the walls. “I stood us up with my powers.”

Digger got out, too. “What did we land on? It felt soft.”

“What we landed on was a force field that absorbs energy.” Metalord ran his hand across the wall. “My magnetism can’t act through it, and my lightning doesn’t affect it. I barely got out of it last time.”

“How?”

“I split my armor into a hundred pieces and hit the field as hard as I could in as many places as I could. Overloaded it, and it burst.” Metalord’s fingers crackled with electricity where he touched the wall. “Feels stronger now. Good thing I’ve got a whole truck to work with this time.”

“Wait, that’s my truck,” Digger said.

“No, it’s not.”

[blockquote type=”blockquote_quotes” align=”left”]He and Cole had a brief conversation in Chinese, then they bowed to each other. The man gave Digger an embarrassed nod, then lifted gently into the sky…[/blockquote]“Well, I’m the one who stole it,” Digger said. “Which makes it more mine than yours.”

“Fine,” Metalord said. “You get us out.”

Digger thought for a moment, then said, “Okay, fine, use the truck. What should I do?”

“Get under it,” Cole said, his silvery eyes crackling. Digger felt the hairs on his neck raising. The small enclosure smelled of ozone and hot oil. “Between the mass of the freezer and the mass of the engine, I should be able to pop this thing like a balloon.”

Digger crawled under the truck, feeling his skin crawl as Metalord’s power built. Then a voice from outside yelled something in Chinese. “What’s that?”

“He’s asking me not to break out,” Metalord said. “Says he’ll let us out if we promise not to attack.”

“Sure,” Digger said, scrambling out from under the truck.

Metalord shouted an answer, and the glowing walls dissolved.The rotund man Digger had hit with the truck stood just outside, looking miserable. His uniform was dirty and scorched and stained with blood where it had been pierced by shrapnel. His face was bloody, with one eye swollen nearly shut. He and Cole had a brief conversation in Chinese, then they bowed to each other. The man gave Digger an embarrassed nod, then lifted gently into the sky.

“What was that about?” Digger asked as he slid into the driver’s seat of the truck. “I mean, he catches us, then he lets us go?”

“He’s saving face,” Cole said as he sat in the passenger seat. “By catching us again and then voluntarily letting us go, he can say we didn’t beat him.”

“But we would’ve,” Digger said.

“I would’ve.” Cole corrected as the truck lifted off. “But it’s better this way. He had some information about the Czar. Seems he’s got some sort of super-lieutenant or enforcer or something. Someone called the Ghost Dragon.”

Who or what is Ghost Dragon? Join us tomorrow for our next exciting episode!

To read from the beginning, click here…