The Ant - CONCLUSION (724 hits)
Category: NoneLabels: The_Ant
Rating: 2 on 14 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Jack McCallum (View user info) at 2005-01-27 12:47:49 EST
(Chapter 1 http://www.ubersite.com/m/56777)
(Chapter 2 http://www.ubersite.com/m/56855)
(Chapters 3-5 http://www.ubersite.com/m/56884)
(Chapter 6 http://www.ubersite.com/m/56930)
(Chapter 7 http://www.ubersite.com/m/57042)
(Chapter 8 http://www.ubersite.com/m/57139)
(Chapter 9 http://www.ubersite.com/m/57238)
(Chapter 10 http://www.ubersite.com/m/57350)
(Chapter 11 http://www.ubersite.com/m/57411)
(Chapter 12 http://www.ubersite.com/m/57474)
(Chapter 13 http://www.ubersite.com/m/57561)
(Chapter 14 http://www.ubersite.com/m/57676)
(Chapter 15 http://www.ubersite.com/m/57763)
The Ant - CONCLUSION - Chapters 16-19
==Chapter 16 - The Last Day of the Year==
Rob was sitting on the edge of the bed in Schroedecker's spare room. He sat in the dark, his head in his hands.
When he had returned to the doctor's home after the battle on the Golden Gate Bridge, he had found the laboratory a shambles, and Schroedecker was gone.
In a blind panic Rob had bounded over to Pier 39. The boat he and Megan shared was listing. The roof had been torn off the cabin, and she was gone. He had hauled the boat out of the water and bounded back to Schroedecker's home, carrying it overhead. Then he had set it in Schroedecker's garden.
He missed the old man. And if anything happened to Megan he knew he'd lose it. He'd snap. Go on a rampage. Do more damage than Pfaltzer's freaks ever did.
*
A week slipped by. Rob heard nothing. He hardly ever slept, monitoring TV and radio news constantly, listening to the many short-wave and police-band scanners the doctor had recently purchased.
On New Year's Eve, it finally happened. In the middle of the afternoon the phone rang. Pfaltzer said, "Be on top of the Transamerica Building tonight at eight o'clock," and hung up before Rob could reply.
Now more than ever before, Rob hated The Ant. He put on the costume for what he swore to himself would be the last time, and went out into the night.
At eight-ten, Rob checked his watch as he sat on the light on top of the Transamerica Building. He thought about all the shit he'd been through, the big red light blinking under his ass.
Down on the street crowds of people were surging along, heading to bars, heading to Market street. No one suspected that The Ant was above them.
A few minutes passed, and then Rob saw something moving through the night. It was Pfaltzer's aircar. It stopped a hundred feet from Rob, hovering high over the street.
Using the image enhancements in the helmet he could see Pfaltzer at the wheel and Megan in the seat beside him. The aircar turned around and the back door opened. Rob saw a grey-faced Dr. Schroedecker slumped in a seat a moment before Invulnerable Boy leaped out, holding PMS Girl in his arms. A moment later the back door closed and the car drew a little closer as I Boy's rocket pack roared to life.
A speaker blared, Pfaltzer's voice booming out into the night. "Number thirteen! I have your wife, and Schroedecker. You will submit to us, or they will die!"
Down on the street, people were looking up. Some of them recognized the aircar as the one on the Golden Gate Bridge a week earlier. "It's the mutants!" somebody shouted.
"Number thirteen!" Pfaltzer commended. "Remove your helmet and gloves and boots. Throw them down!"
Rob faced the aircar. He saw I Boy and PMS Girl circling him like vultures and drawing closer. He removed his helmet, and let it go. Then he dropped his gloves and boots. He stood and waited, barefoot and empty-handed.
On the street, his helmet crashed onto a sidewalk. "Hey!" somebody said, "it's The Ant! The Ant is up there!" Crowds of people began surging to the Transamerica Building, standing still and looking up. The police were called, and soon after that newsvans and the Channel 4 helicopter appeared.
Invulnerable Boy roared past Rob, and as he did PMS Girl launched herself into the air with blinding speed. She brought her feet up and hit Rob in the chest. He was knocked back against the light housing and it shattered.
Rob got to his feet, and PMS Girl was standing before him, kicking and punching with a strength the matched his own. He had to tense every muscle as it was hit, otherwise the bones beneath would shatter under her blows. It was impossible for him to strike out at her- all of his attention was on protecting himself.
PMS Girl was forcing Rob back against one edge of the small platform housing the red flashing light. When he was in the open, a few feet from her, Invulnerable Boy's laser rifle seared the air with a streak of light. Rob twisted his body to avoid a mortal wound, but the beam pierced his left shoulder. He screamed, smelling the scent of his own cooked flesh.
He looked up just as PMS Girl's foot lashed out, connecting with his chin so hard that her white cowboy boot burst its seams. He reeled, and she hooked her other foot under his, tripping him. Rob staggered backwards, and stepped off into space.
"Have a nice trip sweetie!" she called as Rob fell, "see you next fall!"
"Good move, babe!" I Boy shouted. "Look at 'im go! Just like fuckin' King Kong!"
Rob fell down the side of the high pyramidal building. Shoulders, legs, head, feet, all connecting with concrete and glass. The crowds parted and he hit Montgomery Street, smashing through the concrete and splashing into the sewer below.
There was silence, save for the sound of the water running below the street. One or two people muttered, "What are we gonna do now? Who's going to stop them?"
Pfalzter's speaker blared again. "People of San Francisco! This city is mine! Now I shall show you what will happen to the common folk should they try to stand against me! Witness the first sacrifice!"
The people below saw the aircar hovering above, saw the back door open, and saw a man in a white lab coat drag a young woman by the hair, trying to throw her out into the night.
They didn't hear anyone sloshing about in the sewer.
Pfaltzer was trying to toss Megan out of the aircar, but she had hooked one of her legs around his, and even though she was gagged, with her hands bound in front of her, the lapels of his lab coat were clenched in her fists. He raised a hand to strike her.
Megan got her feet under her, let go of his coat, and with one finger poked Pfaltzer in his good eye. Then she threw herself onto the back seat beside Schroedecker, grabbing one of the armrests and hanging on.
"Eyagh! Bitch!" Pfaltzer screamed, blindly shambling backwards. He flipped over the front seats, his arms and legs striking a number of strange levers and buttons as well as the steering wheel.
The aircar careened, the engine roared, and then it raced straight at the Transamerica Building.
The people on the street were looking up. They didn't see a dark-clad figure leap out of the hole in the street and begin scaling the building in a series of thirty foot hops.
Every bone and muscle in Rob's body ached. As he had fallen he'd tensed and flexed every muscle in his body as he fell, proving Schroedecker right. He was badly bruised, but it beat being dead. He winced with each movement.
He was about two hundred feet from the top of the building when the aircar slammed into it halfway between him and the top, wedging its nose into one of the small windows.
Rob scrambled closer to the aircar. He could hear metal and concrete scraping together. The weight of the car was already pulling it free.
A beam from I Boy's laser rifle scorched the concrete beside his head and he leaped to one side like a spider.
Rob saw I Boy lining up a clear shot.
The aircar tore itself free of the building and fell past him. He grabbed the driver's side door as it fell, holding it on its side.
He saw the jumble of arms and legs that was Pfaltzer, and beyond him, Megan and Schroedecker. The old doctor was shaking his head, and Megan was dragging him out the back door. They scrambled onto a ledge just as I Boy sighted down the barrel of his rifle.
Grabbing a large rear-view mirror bolted to the door frame, Rob wrenched it off and then tossed the aircar clear of the building, towards an empty intersection below.
As Invulnerable Boy fired the rifle, Rob brought up the mirror. The beam lanced out from the rifle, and bounced off into the sky.
Rob quickly angled the mirror, and before I Boy knew what was happening the beam had raced harmlessly across his skin, and was suddenly going right back into the rifle.
The weapon exploded in I Boy's hands. He was unharmed, but really pissed off. He flew towards Rob, his rocket pack blazing.
"Watch out for him!" PMS Girl called from above.
Invulnerable Boy laughed, and slammed into Rob. They rolled down the side of the building, then found their footing on a narrow window ledge and grappled there, a few feet below Megan and Schroedecker.
I Boy grinned and spit in Rob's face. "You can't hurt me at all," he crowed. "I'm gonna kill your ass and you can't stop me!"
Rob noticed the steel control arm which jutted from the left side of the rocket pack, and the tiny button-studded knob I Boy gripped in his hand.
Rob grabbed the control arm, hit a big red button, and when the pack roared to life, he tore the control arm off the pack and said, "You may have a tough hide, but how long can you hold your breath?" Then he pointed I Boy to the stars and let go.
The rocket pack carried the squalling I Boy up into the night and out of sight.
Catching his breath, Rob wondered if I Boy had the brains to realize that he could probably unhook himself from the rocket pack and survive the fall no matter how high up. Nah, he thought. The fear of heights is a powerful thing. Dumb fuck will probably suffocate up there. In fact-
His thoughts were disrupted when a chunk of concrete fell past him, striking the ledge a few inches from where Megan and Schroedecker huddled. He looked up.
PMS Girl was going nuts, tearing up another massive slab of steel and concrete to drop on them.
Rob leaped up beside the flashing light and struck the slab with a blow that practically disintegrated it.
PMS Girl punched him in he mouth, and he boxed one of her ears.
They swapped kicks and punches for what seemed like hours.
Finally Rob kicked her left knee out from under her.
He was going to give her another hit when he suddenly felt as if the Transamerica Building had ripped free of its foundation and begun to dance around. He reeled like a drunk. Then he collapsed, his body going numb, and limp.
The exertion was too much, he thought. I need another shot.
PMS Girl stood over him and smiled. She kicked him and he rolled onto his stomach, halfway over the edge of the platform. If he fell this time he was fucked.
"Well, sweetie," PMS Girl said, "I think it's time to say goodbye. But I'd like to leave you with a little memento before you go."
She turned and started tearing a thick bar of steel out of the platform. "I'm going to pin you like a bug," she said, "and then toss your ass over the side." She was laughing, taking her time.
Rob was in a daze, thought he was dreaming.
He was looking over the edge of the platform, and he saw Megan slowly crawling up towards him. She huddled just out of sight, and dug a familiar case out of her jeans pocket. It was his old syringe and a vial of insulin.
"I've been carrying this around for months now," she whispered, drawing a dose into the syringe "It seemed so weird that you didn't need it anymore, and I felt better having it with me."
She slid the needle home, and gave him a bright smile, full of love, as she depressed the plunger.
Taking a shot had never been as sweet, he thought.
The fog in his mind began to clear. His strength was coming back. PMS Girl was now turning and standing over him, getting a grip on the steel spear she had fashioned, rambling on about how she was going to make San Francisco her city, and nobody would stop her, and on and on.
Rob kicked out with both legs. His feet connected with her knees and they popped like rifle shots. She collapsed, and he hopped to his feet.
"I'm sick of you," he said, picking her up," And I think it's time I got rid of you."
He raised her over his head and threw her as hard as he could into the eastern sky. She flew and flew, and disappeared over the horizon.
Rob helped Megan onto the platform and gave her a hug. He looked over the edge and called down to Schroedecker. "You okay, doc?"
"Of course, fine, yes," Schroedecker snapped, waving a fist. "I am having a wonderful time and of course I am enjoying the view." He grumbled on, but Rob and Megan didn't hear him.
They kissed.
Rob retrieved Schroedecker. They went down to the street together. They used the elevator.
When they reached the street there was no sign of the aircar or Pfaltzer.
==Chapter 17 - Dick Clark's Rocking New Year's Eve==
Dick Clark was grinning. He was counting down to midnight. On television screens all over America people were counting with him, and watching the brightly illuminated ball atop One Times Square descend over his left shoulder.
"Six... five..."
Something streaked through the air. Later it would be identified as a female body.
"Four... three..."
The body struck the big ball and it exploded, showering sparks and fragments of glass. Then the figure, trapped in the wreckage of the ball, began to burn.
"Two..."
In Times Square all was silent.
Dick Clark looked over his shoulder and saw what was displayed on the monitors nearby.
"Holy fuck!" Dick spat into the microphone to his live nationwide audience, his eyes bulging. "Look at that!"
==Chapter 18 - The Ant, No More==
The next day, the first day of a new year, Rob took a dingy out into the bay.
He stuffed The Ant's boots, gloves, suit and helmet into a canvas bag. He put five bricks into the bag, and then tossed it over the edge.
For a while he watched bubbles rise to the surface where the bag had gone down, and then he went home.
==Chapter 19 - Pfaltzer Fades==
Deep in the South American jungle, on a narrow tributary of the Amazon, Pfaltzer sprawled in a small canoe as an indian guide rowed him away from civilization.
He was cradling a metal container, full of liquid nitrogen. In the container were frozen embryos. It is not over yet, he thought, not yet.
The embryos, though the mothers and fathers knew nothing of them, were the unborn children of El Hombre Mucho Mas Elastico and the Harpy, and PMS Girl and Invulnerable Boy.
He had created them in the laboratory, and that was where he would nurture them.
Pflatzer dreamed as the boat took him deeper into the jungle where he had set up a small retreat years before.
He knew that one day soon the children he raised on his own would help him get his revenge on Schroedecker, and that damned number thirteen, The Ant.
User Reviews
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-08-03 11:43:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Supreme Overlord damage control...
Submitted by Supreme_Overlord (user info) at 2005-07-21 22:22:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
shite
Submitted by munkeypants (user info) at 2005-02-08 14:01:31 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-01-29 00:57:15 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Nice, dramatic ending. Got a little confused as to the placement and relative locations of people and things...but I am very sleepy.
So...
very...
ZZZZnnxxxxzzzzzZZZ
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2005-01-27 18:10:21 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
sequel sequel sequel sequel sequel!
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2005-01-27 17:10:00 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Hell, I guess I better start looking around for the next installment in the Ant's continuing adventures...
Submitted by ess-arr (user info) at 2005-01-27 15:27:21 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
sequel?? I can't wait for the Movie...
A+
Submitted by Adjomak (user info) at 2005-01-27 15:04:27 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
There maybe a sequel. Yes! Bring it back
Submitted by tlozoot (user info) at 2005-01-27 14:38:08 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Pleeeease post the sequel!
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2005-01-27 14:14:02 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Well done.
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2005-01-27 14:08:42 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Submitted by TheSunGod (user info) at 2005-01-27 12:59:50 (#)
Ranking: 2
Great series, man. I had fun reading it all the way through, and was sorry when it ended. Good job.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Submitted by TigerLilly (user info) at 2005-01-27 13:54:41 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This was really, really good. From start to finish.
Thank you for writing it Jack!
Submitted by TheSunGod (user info) at 2005-01-27 12:59:50 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Great series, man. I had fun reading it all the way through, and was sorry when it ended. Good job.
Submitted by AshK (user info) at 2005-01-27 12:58:56 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This was just excellent. The whole series.
I can't wait for the sequel.
Until then, please accept my undying adoration.