Sinister Six:
Re-Engineered
by
Rich (Bombman) Kassidy
CHAPTER 10: Apple Corps
“Apple?”
The tall EEL captain asked as he entered the doorway to
the musty shop on the Grecian coast. It was a small, run
down brick building situated between a family-owned diner
and a rather common pharmaceutical chain store, it’s outer
appearance being that of a long abandoned building that
was about due for a date with the bulldozer. Since most
local police around the world didn’t care about something
as small as a ramshackle hut on some far off beach, it had
evaded it’s destruction.
However, the locals knew there was more to this decrepit
structure than meets the eye…and they kept shut about it.
It was currently occupied by a young woman most interested
in world politics, particularly the kind involving the
topple of a certain greedy regime. They tolerated the late
nights involving firearms testing and groups of rather
unscrupulous brutes gathering in the early morning hours,
as they too, secretly, wanted the world they had before
New Center existed.
One of those earlier-mentioned “brutes” was Leon White-
high-ranking commander in one of many underground groups
dedicated to the downfall of the resource-sucking entity
located in the Arctic. Here now, the “Thunder Sniper” had
arrived to collect on a debt.
“Hey, Apolonia!”
As he peered around the dusty confines of the small
building, he suddenly felt the presence of something cold
and unforgiving against his temple.
“Again. I got the drop on you again, Leon…”, the playful
voice on the other end of the barrel noted.
“As usual…Is this what it’s going to take to get you to
come out and say ‘hello’ every time from now on?”
“Maybe…Can’t be too careful in this business. You should
know that even better than me.”
“True.”
Leon turned to look at his host, the stunning girl of
twenty-four. She was a local- a Greek-born gal through and
through. Her hair was bleached and streaked with soft
pastel-green streaks, as if to match her nickname. Her
skin was darker than Leon’s, but not by much, and her eyes
were no where near as sharp or battle hardened as his,
instead filled with the glint of a life yet to fully be
experienced. She was attired in worn-looking, second-hand
battle gear, yet it matched her demeanor once you knew who
she was.
This was Apolonia “Apple” Kannellis. She was a
second-generation gunsmith who carried on her father’s
craft in his absence. He taught her everything he knew,
and she expanded upon it, investing untold amounts of
money in legal and illegal tools and machinery to
replicate the finest weaponry to come out of New Center
City. If the resistance were going to win, it would be
with guns designed by the very same people they had hoped
to defeat.
As a result of her father’s questionable business tactics,
her family’s gun shop was raided and burned to the ground
by New Center MP seven years ago. In the confusion,
Apolonia was separated from her father, and it was assumed
he either died in the fire or was taken into custody.
After the fire, Apolonia was forced into seclusion,
knowing she was now a wanted criminal. That’s when she
decided to become a supplier for the resistance.
At least, that’s the story, in any case.
“Been a while, Leon. Thought you were avoiding me after a
while.”
“Huh, now why would I want to avoid someone like you?”
“Quite the coy one, aren’t we, captain?”
Leon turned away quickly to hide the redness in his face.
He hadn’t even realized he made such a straightforward
comment like that until she pointed it out.
“…Ahem…Apple, I have a favor to ask.”, he said quickly to
change the subject. “I need ammo.”
“Leon, you know you’re good for it. You don’t even have to
ask, and you usually don’t.”
“This is different. I need custom rounds. Very custom.”
“Just how ‘custom’ are we talking about?”, she asked,
skeptical. He made it sound as if he doubted she could
fill his order.
Leon held up an example of each of the Tetsu Roku guns’
munitions, which Apple took in hand immediately.
“This is…a .50 caliber round…but it’s not like anything
I’ve seen. It’s like it’s been tempered to withstand
heat…”, she remarked as she held up one of Fireman’s
Desert Eagle rounds.
“And this…an M995 armor piercing round. I haven’t seen
anyone use these in years. It’s pretty common, but there’s
a lot better stuff out there these days.”, she sneered at
Gutsman’s round. Unfortunately for Gutsman, Dr Light opted
to use a fairly common gun as the base of his machine
guns- the H&K G36, and he re-chambered and customized that
to fire the then-easy-to-find M995 rounds. The problem was
that it was already obsolete by decades by the time Dr
Light created the Final Generation.
“Better stick with that. He’s not the kind of guy that
likes to change his gear without notice.”, Leon said,
shutting down Apple’s hopes of changing his mind for
something better (i. e. easier to make).
“Aww…You work with some real weirdoes, you know that?”
“Lady, you don’t know the half of it.”
Apple moved onto the next item: “This is…Wait, what the
hell is this? Is this steel?”
“Magnetized.”, the incognito Elecman added. “Can you make
those?”
“Geez…Yeah, but this isn’t a ‘pick up by 8’ type of deal.
Who the hell uses magnetized rounds?”
“Me.”
“Get real. That 149 of yours isn’t exactly high class, and
it’s no where near this cool.”
“It’s not for my 149. I’ve got an…old gun of mine out of
storage.”, Leon explained.
“’Old’? Man, I’d like to see the ‘old gun’ that fires
magnets at people…”
“…Apple…I’ll be straight with you. This bullet is for-“
Leon’s confession
was cut short by the northern wall of the old store
imploding, sending dust, debris, and chunks of brick
into the air. Out of reflex, Elecman dove over Kannellis
to give her cover from the onslaught of flying
construction refuse.
“Apolonia! Are you alright?”, Leon asked as he struggled
to get up with a few hundred pounds of broken bricks on
his back.
“Y-…Yeah…I t-think…”
“Hold on…”, Leon asked he looked into her eyes, noting
her dilated pupils. Her hairline was also leaking a
trickle of red liquid from an impact of a chunk of
debris. “…You’ve got a concussion. Stay down and I’ll
get us some help. Just don’t try to get up too fast.”
As he shoved the rest of the debris off his back and
stood up, Leon peered through the settling dust to find
the outline of a particularly large man standing just
before where the wall once stood. Oddly enough, he
seemed to look strikingly like the very wall he just
apparently knocked over.
“Heh…Sorry about that. They just don’t make doors in my
size, it would seem. I always have to improvise.”, the
giant, gray form explained.
“Who the hell are you?”, Leon demanded.
“Very serious, I see! Very good!”, he clapped his hands
together as he exclaimed in his thick, indistinguishable
accent. “I hate wasting such energy on people that don’t
have the decency to grasp the situation at hand.”
“You still haven’t answered my question…”
“I am Petur Magnusson of the NSG, but those that know me
now call me The Granite Wall, or simply ‘Granite’.”
“NSG? Shit, not now…”, Leon thought to himself. “…What
do you want?”, he asked is assailant.
“We want the girl. She’s a known felon and conspirator.
You’re also a nice bonus, Captain White. Or perhaps…now
you’re calling yourself ‘Elecman’ once again, yes?”
“E…Elec…man?”, Apple whispered, barely hearing the name.
“Stay down, Apple!”, Leon ordered.
“Yes, stay down. Don’t interfere with my test subject!”,
Granite yelled.
“Test subject? The hell do you think I am? A lab rat?”
“No! You are the perfect test for my Devil Construct
armor! This is the original prototype, but I’ll prove it
is more effective than the others by killing one of the
famous Sinister Six members with ease!”
“I hate that name…”, Leon grumbled about the use of the
Tetsu Roku’s infamous moniker in the West.
“Fight me, Son of Thor!”
“Oh god…”, Elecman winced at the Nordic reference. Not
another nut job.
Granite reared back his massive fist for a quick kill,
but Leon met the strike with a dodge and two shots from
his NM149 rifle, which merely refracted off of Granite’s
stone-like armor.
“How? How is he able to move like that and be made of
solid rock? There’s got to be some sort of trick…”
“Hahaha! Do you see? With this armor, I am as strong as
a boulder itself! Mere firearms will not work against a
man of my caliber!”
“Wow…I really hate this guy.”, the EEL member groaned.
“Wait…he keeps saying armor, so he’s not actually made
of rock. That means…”
Granite took a running start this time, charging
directly at Leon. Elecman knew the layout of this old
building and knew the shop’s back lot ended only a few
feet from a hundred-foot drop to the beach below. He
decided to roll backwards, hoping Granite hadn’t scoped
out the area before he attacked. If he could lead him on
fast enough, this big bastard wouldn’t be able to stop
in time.
At the last moment, just before he found himself
cornered against the back wall, Leon popped off two
shots, this time landing right in the only two areas
that would possibly hint at a weakness in the
bulletproof armor- his eyes. Leon noticed only a pair of
black lenses that were probably part of a helmet
assembly beneath the stone interrupted Granite’s face.
He had no idea how Granite was able to wear rock that
moved like skin, but he knew from experience that a
fighter without his eyes, no matter how strong they
were, was beaten.
Blood gushed from one of the shattered lenses, the other
merely cracked enough to expose Magnusson’s eye as he
watched the wall approach, tumble beneath his force, and
the bright blue sky greet him just before his feet found
themselves without traction. Or land, for that matter.
The whole earth seemed to quiver beneath Leon’s feet as
he felt the impact of the “Granite Wall” meeting the
stony beachfront below. Cautiously and with his rifle at
the ready, he peered over the side of the cliff to see
the huge man laying broken on the rocks below, his armor
doing something no natural stone could do on it’s own –
melt.
“That’s…messed up.”, he said as he twisted his facial
features in curiosity and intrigue. Suddenly, he
remembered he had no time for science projects.
“Apple…Apolonia, are you still awake? Hold on, we’re
going to get you somewhere safe…”
Leon gathered up Apple in his arms and looked around,
hoping Granite didn’t have any henchmen waiting for a
counterstrike. He didn’t like to do this with a human,
ever since watching some sci-fi movie from the 1980s
about mutations and teleportation and…insects? Never the
less, he decided to risk it and teleport with his
unconscious partner in crime in tow.
He just hoped Gary wouldn’t be there to watch him appear
with a woman in his arms. He’d never hear the end of the
“hooker” jokes.
Chapter 10
Extras- Petur “Granite” Magnusson
For reasons currently unknown to the outside public, New
Center City has invested much time and money in devising
a huge array of outlandish armor types, most of which
don’t seem to be all that functional in battle.
One of those armor types was the liquid-based “Devil
Construct” series. The wearer of the armor wore a suit
lined with electrodes directly connected to the nervous
system, ensuring a subconscious link between the suit
and the wearer. Next, a type of liquid polymer, which
came in varying types of consistency and composition,
was released over the suit. The suit itself actually
emanated an electric field, which reacted with the
liquid, keeping it a set distance from the electrode,
forming a sort of “liquid mech suit”.
While intriguing on paper, the glaring oversight of this
system was the fact that it required at least a hundred
gallons of the thick, heavy liquid, and when not in use,
the liquid had to be stored somewhere accessible and
close by, usually in a reservoir on the wearer’s back.
This meant the wearer of the suit had to be a man of
unbelievable proportions and strength, and would need
cybernetic enhancements just to walk around with the
added weight and electrode suit.
This is why the already large native of Iceland, Petur
Magnusson, was selected to test the first of these
suits. Petur is a very proud man, who takes great pride
in his heritage and has studied the culture of his
people extensively. In fact, he was actually a history
teacher at a high school before he joined the NSG,
betraying the “big man, small brain” stereotype.
However, shortly thereafter he donned the Devil
Construct Suit he developed a mean streak, and his
already imbedded competitiveness ran out of control. The
psychological drugs used to synch his mind and the suit
on a subconscious level were later blamed for his new
found aggression, and Magnusson’s version of the Devil
Construct Suit was deemed a failure before they moved
onto the next version planned.
However, as was common practice between the Neo
Shinsengumi and New Center Labs, the NSG took in Granite
and used him as a special agent when precision or
finesse weren’t needed, where he excelled.
The liquid that covers Granite’s body is fantastic in
that it’s extremely complicated. It pours over his body
like cement and stays semi-liquid near his body, but the
further it goes away from the suit, the closer it’s
particles get, making them as hard as his namesake. The
result is astonishing- a hardened shell of
bullet-resistant armor over a liquid layer of
protection. The only openings were his telescoping
lenses that jutted out from the hardened layer to allow
Magnusson to see. An electrical generator and oxygen
supply were also built around the large, one hundred and
fifty-gallon reservoir on his back to complete the need
for self-sufficiency.
If it weren’t for the weight issue or psychological
risks involved, this armor would have been put into mass
production.
Granite is, of course, based on Graniteman of the Sleek
Squad, albeit with a lot of liberty taken and a complete
disregard for his original back story. Hey, kinda goes
along with the theme of this novel.
Next Chapter
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