To Protect and to Serve

"Welcome to the East Pole. Hope you losers brought flashlights."

He was an old, overweight man with grey-flecked fur and a large chunk missing from his pointed right ear. A single gold tooth glittered from his mouth as he smiled a smile completely lacking in warmth and humor, but rich in contempt and mockery. He sat at his desk, covered with papers, before a stained grey wall.

Honor Guard stood in the office of Captain Orest Kelrast, chief of the police base where their vessel, the Nightstalker, was being repaired and tested.

"We haven't been briefed yet." Jolt took charge of the small, ramshackle office, crossing her arms. "What's the situation?"

"You're in the city that shouldn't be. We have two dozen troopers to handle a transient popluation of about 20,000. We've given up on doing much more than patrolling first-line installations." Captain Kelrast leaned back in his chair. "We have neither the staff or the inclination to do much more than that."

"I see." Jolt's eyes narrowed, her brow registered contempt.

The Eye looked up suddenly, and tapped Jolt on the shoulder. In the distance, the report of a huge explosion was a messenger for a low rumbling that gently shook the floor of the squalid office.

Orest Kelrast looked unconcerned. "Wildcat demolitions. Pretty much all the buildings out here are condemned. Sometimes the squatters do the demolition for us."

Arsenal fixed his gaze on the Captain. "How often does this happen?"

The Captain squirmed a little. "About once every cycle. There's been a sharp up-swing since last cycle, too. Seems like every few hours, now."

"What about the squatters?" The Eye looked concerned.

"I'll go see if there are any injured." Arsenal looked up at the ceiling, then rose like a rocket, phasing through the ceiling.

"Hey! Watch it! I just had the roof fixed last week." Kelrast was startled and annoyed.

"Don't mind him. I've taken the liberty of making a copy of your recent police blotter. We'll be seeing you." Jolt turned to leave the office, and Thresher and the Eye followed.

"Listen, if you capes wanna swoop in and save the day, knock yourselves out. We could use the help." Kelrast sank into his chair as Thresher closed the door behind him.

Meanwhile, Arsenal spotted the rising plume of dust from the demolition. He paused for a moment, floating in mid-air, as his implant signalled an incoming transmission.

"Arsenal, this is Jolt. We're in the meeting room at the station. Let us know if you see anything."

"Jolt -- I've spotted the detonation site. No rescue beacons, but I've got a mark..."

A few blocks away, a candy-colored one-man spaceship with a huge spoiler took off on a low-altitude course.

"...intercepting, a one man spacecraft, no running beacons, no ID..." Arsenal picked a vector that would put him directly in front of the accelerating vessel.

The pilot spotted the flying super-hero, and pulled up sharply, gunning the engines. Arsenal adjusted his course. "...he's making a run for it!"

Arsenal pulled up behind the rising spaceship, gradually closing the distance as it tried to reach orbit. As he closed in on the vessel, the engines suddenly stopped. "I've shut down his drive. I'm taking him in!"

Arsenal grabbed the spoiler of the space-ship and maneuvered it into a gradual descent. Jolt radioed in, "All right. We'll meet you in the impound yard. Jolt over and out!"

Outside the base in the impound yard, a half-dozen ships very much like the one Arsenal slowly guided onto a free spot sat, rusting. Jolt stood, her fists sparking with a coronal discharge. The Eye stood close by her, as Thresher extended one of his chainsaws and radioed the vessel.

"Come out, kid, before I have to cut you out!"

The Eye dropped into a crouch, waiting to roll out of the line of sight. Jolt registered her alarm, and her laser ionizers powered up.

The canopy opened, and Honor Guard saw an old woman, wearing a mask with painted-on eyes. Arsenal descended to help her out of the vessel, and she gestured towards him, dismissively.

Arsenal fell to the ground, clutching his eyes. "I'm blind! I'm blind!"

The old woman rose in the air, her hands crackling with eldritch energy.

Demonslayer looked upon Honor Guard, and said --

"If you catch it, can you kill it?"