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Project Defender : Chapter Five


Hialmar

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The Teaser for this story may be found HERE

The preceding chapter may be found HERE

* * *

Project Defender

Chapter Five

 

MONSTROUS. "Monstrous" was the word, that flashed through the mind of Jones the split second he registred the presence of the Being, which had entered the subterraneous gym area.  It looked like its muscle mass had been allowed to overflow, like some unknown substance brimming over. Its shape was revolting, but it was anyhow an obscene and disturbing icon of terrifying strength and muscular power. It was difficult to take its sheer muscle mass in.

Lieutenant Jones was bench-pressing a barbell at the time, and the time Jones needed to put the barbell back in place at the rack, was all the time the Being needed. Its large feet thumped against the concrete floor as it waddled clumsily but threateningly in his direction, and it reached the bench at the same moment, Jones had freed his hands and risen to an erect position. The first punch caused Jones to fall off the bench, and it made him dizzy. The Being threw itself over him, but the martial instincts programmed into his mind allowed him to swiftly roll away a few feet, enough to avoid being pinned under the Being. 

Afterwards, he couldn't remember what had happened the next few seconds. He found himself on his feet, the Being and himself circling each other. Those monstrously powerful vein-covered arms were certainly able to re-shape metal plates. From a tactical point of view, Jones had to stay away from their reach, but he had to defeat  the enemy by some means. Incredulously, he asked:

"What ARE you?"

The mouth of the Being formed a triumphant smile, but the smile was replaced by a irritated grimace, when the Being struggled to use its voice. It struggled, but in a raspy voice, like blocks of rock scraping against each other, it finally formed words:

"Don't you remember me, Britse? I'm the one you hindered from teaching the little Fag a lesson. I'm now stronger than any of you. I will be able to defeat the aliens on my own."

"De Vries?"

"Names do not matter any longer. I'm a god. I'm wrath. I'm punishment. I will crush you. I will crush the Fag. I will crush the midgets. I will crush EVERYTHING!"

When the second blow hit him, Jones began to doubt, that he would survive this. He was stronger than any man outside the Project, but the Being was stronger. The blow had forced Jones backwards to one of the walls, close to a rack of dumbbells. Swiftly, he grabbed a 100 kilo gramme dumbbell and threw it at the Being with full force. His old self would have been very proud of juggling a 100 kilo weight like it had been a rugby ball, but his new self was programmed to focus on the present situation. The fight. The combat. De Vries had lost his mind entirely at last, but his incomprehensible weight and strength made him an immense enemy.

The weight hit the Being on his abs. There was a slight wavering, but the hit didn't cause it to lose any breath or change its stance. There was smugness on its face. The raspy voice let out he words:

"I'm superior in every way!"

Jones volleyed three weights after each other rapidly in the direction of the Being. Two of them were of no use, but one of them hit the Being in the face. It would probably have broken the neck of an ordinary man. It forced the Being to bend its bull-neck backwards, and it slowed him down. It recovered at an unimaginable pace, and then it was over him, pinning him to the wall, its weight forcing itself on him – crushing him if the pressure continued long enough. There was hatred, glee and triumph in the face of the Being, and spittle rained on Jones' face. The Being's large hand ... no, PAW was probably a better description ... grabbed Jones' throat and began to press. Jones' powerful neck-muscles surprised the Being, and there was a glimpse of respect briefly flickering in the eyes of the Being, until the pressure intensified. Jones was increasingly aware of his own blood pressure ... the sound of his circulation in his ears ... dark red mist rising in his sight ... the feeling of not receiving enough air ... panic ... a wave of darkness rising ...

Then, the grip disappeared. Slowly, the dark wave receded. Air filled his lungs and expanded his mighty chest. It took him a few moments until he became aware of his surroundings, and he didn't know with any certainty how long time had lapsed. His programming allowed him to expel those moments of confusion, and he made a tactical analysis. What was happening?

With the speed of lightning, the now gigantic shape of Corporal Kowalski hit the Being in the face with his knee, and jumped away before the Being was able to grab him. And Taylor ... Oh, God! Lieutenant Taylor ... Jones hadn't expected any of the scientists to have any time to spare on the recruits and the Lab while Captain Melnyk and Major Murphy investigated what had happened last night, but obviously some of them had ... had transformed Taylor into one of the Defenders. Kowalski and Taylor were now of the same shape, the optimal shape of the enhanced Defenders: Wide, tall, heavy, sturdy, muscular, and with no impediment to their speed.

Taylor threw 200 kilogramme weight-plates like they were frisbees, and when they repeatedly hit the Being in its face, it began to stumble. Kowalski circled the Being, and the clumsiness of the Being began to show. Kowalski's symmetrical and functional physique favourably compared to the Being's asymmetrical and dysfunctional amorphous shape of brutal muscle mass, as he attacked the Being and reposted before the Being was able to react and use its terrifying strength. Then, Kowalski grabbed a barbell loaded with heavy weights, and used it as a sledge-hammer. The speed added to the impact of the weights, and a terrifying blow sent the Being stumbling into one of the rock walls, hitting its head. It feel life-less to the floor. For a second, Kowalski stood over his fallen foe with the barbell in his hands resembling St. Michael standing over Lucifer.

"Quick! Reinforcement, before it wake up!"

Lieutenant Taylor stayed on guard close to the Being, while Corporal Kowalski ran to bring reinforcement. Something more alarming, than the investigation had happened.

* * *

To be continued.

Edited by Hialmar
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It's great to finally read a continuation of this story! Thank you Hialmar.

 

In the comments of the previous chapter, you said writing of the antagonists is uncomfortable, but The Being is one of the hottest characters of the story.

Hope to read more of his quest for domination soon.

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1 hour ago, superkappa said:

It's great to finally read a continuation of this story! Thank you Hialmar.

Thank you for your kind words. This was the first publicly available story I ever wrote, and now, when I look back, my English was slightly more clumsy back then, but I still struggle with prepositions. There exist prepositions in my native language, which are equivalents to certain English preposition in many – but not all – cases. This lack of one-to-one correlation between Swedish prepositions and English ones (even when they are linguistically related, because they either descend from words that existed in Proto-Germanic before 100 BCE or were borrowed from Old Norse into English in the 9th century) still mar the way I use the English language.

I have been thinking in years about continuing this story, but I got writer's block. I'm still wondering, if there exist any words commonly used among third-to-fifth generation Jamaican-British citizens, that distinguish the way they speak, which would make Lieutenant Taylor to be more realistic, but, on the other hand, I do not want to perpetuate any racist caricatures.

The primary reason why I turned my attention back to Project Defender today, was the circumstance, that My Hulk-daddy is Paying recently has generated a wider literary universe, of which Project Defender is a part. I had to take a look at some details of earlier chapters of Project Defender, and adjust them to fit into the continuity of the wider literary universe. Also, when I began to write Project Defender, no one would have guessed, that UK would leave the European Union.

The secondary reason why I turned my attention back to Project Defender, was because @Trio has written some very kind words about the story. It seems like he and I and @DieselMass share a particular taste, which cause us to write stories, which, though in each one's particular style, belong to the same sub-genre.

1 hour ago, superkappa said:

I know you said writing of the antagonists is uncomfortable, but The Being is one of the hottest characters of the story.

That's disturbing isn't it? I explored the disturbing mixed feelings about hot villains further, when I blurred the line between heroes and villains for satirical purposes in The Security Squad. If reading about De Vries, his scary ideas and his violent antics make you excited, and if you haven't read that one, The Security Squad will be exciting in a similar fashion, including some stereotypes from action films and comics: incredibly old Nazis (cf. Marvel), surprisingly old Soviet scientists, shady officials from the American south (cf. X-files), and so on.

@belabarbells Prisonguard is disturbing and hot in a similar manner.

There are several "dialects" of hot. My personal favourite characters in Project Defender are Lieutenant Jones and Corporal Kowalski, and I suppose, that this is fairly obvious to many readers. In dialogue-heavy chapters, I have spent much energy on Ltn. Jones' vocabulary.

Edited by Hialmar
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