Week 30.5 – The Cobalt Czar

Previously: The battle between Metalord and the Cobalt Czar was destroying the Foreign Ghetto, while Twain tried to rescue Yi Fan from the cables smothering her. And now…

Metalord was getting dizzy from all the aerobatics he was having to do to avoid the Cobalt Czar’s destructive rays. He swooped down behind some buildings for a breather, heard energy chewing through brick and wood and steel as he scanned for a particular type of building. It would have been easy to find in America, but they were on the border between Mongolia and Siberia; Western-style restaurants were pretty rare here.

And in the meantime, the Czar was utterly destroying the town. Perhaps Metalord could put a little more caution in him. He launched back into the sky above the buildings to draw the beam up after him, arced back and dove down between the Czar and Ghost Dragon. He heard the ghost shout, “No!” as the beam tracked onto him.

***

Twain felt the crystal burn against his chest as he saw the blue death approaching. His reaction was instinctual, as he focused chi and sent it out in reply. Only instead of making a pear explode like old Ma Ying had done, Twain’s chi came out glowing blue, much like the beam he was countering. The two beams met at the membrane that formed the edge of Ghost Dragon’s personal space.

There was a flash of bright white, and a flare of pain in Twain’s head. The pain caused his blue chi to disappear as suddenly as it had appeared, but it lasted long enough for the Czar’s deadly ray to sweep past. Twain staggered and laid his hands on the cable surrounding Yi Fan once more, not sure he could actually get her out.

***

[blockquote type=”blockquote_quotes” align=”right”]Twain felt the crystal burn against his chest as he saw the blue death approaching. His reaction was instinctual, as he focused chi and sent it out in reply…[/blockquote]Having found what he sought, Metalord rose again over the level of the rooftops. The sound of the blue beams had stopped a moment after the Czar had inadvertently struck Ghost Dragon, but the moment he spotted Metalord approaching, the Cobalt Czar lifted his hands to aim once more.

This time, the beam didn’t miss. Radiation coruscated around a magnetic field Metalord erected to divert the energy around him rather than through him. It was not completely effective, however. Metalord’s clothes burned away and his skin sizzled, while the chunk of automobile hide he wore as a breastplate to let him fly blackened and bubbled.

But Metalord did not fall. Rather, he had let himself take the hit in order to distract the Czar from what he towed 50 feet behind him.

Metalord flung his arm forward, and the huge walk-in restaurant freezer hurtled down at the Cobalt Czar, its door wide open like a gaping mouth. The freezer slammed down over the Czar, enveloping him completely.

“Don’t bother trying to burn your way out,” Metalord shouted. “That freezer’s lined with lead. Your beams won’t penetrate.”

A moment later, the wall of the freezer buckled outward. Blue fingers tore through and ripped the wall apart. “Don’t need beams,” said the Czar. He plucked a bit of foam insulation from the sundered wall. “And this is not lead. You watch too many movies.”

How can Metalord hope to defeat the Czar? Join us next week for the next exciting chapter of Run, Digger, Run!

To read from the beginning, click here…