home grown monsters: 1 tech talk

Henry had been doing tests all day it felt, although many were rather interesting from a medical point of view. He even learned a few things he wasn’t aware of about himself. His max lift capacity was not 1200 as previously thought, it was 4567.82 lbs. for a total of 10 minutes under constant pressure.  His max land speed boosted was 86 MPH for short distances. and lastly, he learned his sub dermal armor was in fact made of a conjoining of tissue and polymers, allowing it to actually heal with him! If it weren’t for the less than thrilling fact of being the subject, something he was never fond of, he’d be amazed. Henry was finishing up the last one, finding out his Energy limits, how much he can absorb comfortably, which he’d been at now for around five of the seven hours he’d been in the base. The methods ranged from being hit by a jackhammer, to sound wave, to finally, and the least impressive, a baseball pitching machine. The energy reservoirs were certainly high, but far from full, and at this rate, not filling any time soon. Henry walked away from the testing post and tapped on the reinforced glass window.

“Do you guys have the necessary data, because my feet are falling asleep, and I don’t feel any closer to full than when the jack hammer stopped?”
He asked, praying the answer was yes.
“Well, I gathered enough data to complete most of what I need.  We have also synthesized a solution mimicking the affects of tellurium, the key difference being the activating chemical is a dose of highly concentrated BZX compounds to mimic it, but without the toxicity, also In tests it surpasses tellurium in all field excepts volatility. Also now it’s color will be a reddish hue”
Lois said, reaching a cast covered hand out holding a cigar.
Henry grabbed it, lighting it up and taking a draw, despite a citrusy flavor, it was almost identical.
“By the way, I had my boys down in the hardware department tweak your arsenal a bit, if you don’t mind.”
She said. Henry nodded, making his way with her to the elevator. The elevator descended, finally stopping after 13 minutes at the lowest floor. Henry followed Lois through myriad of hallways and corridors, till he ended up in a place he found familiar, a gun range. A large stout blond woman stood there, admiring the Kodiak.  Lois whistled loudly, startling the woman and causing her to look their way.
“Jerri, everything ready for our client here?”
Lois said. Jerri nodded and grinned.
“So you’re the lucky bloke who gets to handle this Sheila, eh?”
She said, looking down its sights and checking the action before handing it back to Henry.
Henry checked it out.
“There’s not much I could do but tune ‘er up. Cleaned up the custom action, in general maintenance. She’s a real beauty, but do you mind if I ask something?”
Jerri asked. Henry nodded.
“What’s with the high caliber? .44 rimless is big enough for most anything, 12.77mm is enough to punch through a tank!”
“Trust me where I’m from, you need this to be sure.”
He said, examining it.

“Now that presented a challenge, seeing as that caliber is rare here, so we improvised, and just made a simple round for it, same caliber, but no real tricks, we’re working on something but for now, well, try it down range.”
Jerri said. Henry loaded in the magazine, and took aim, lining the sights up directly on the first gel target and let loose a barrage of five rounds. The target’s head, left arm, and most of its midsection were shredded. Henry raised the pistol and holstered it.
‘Bloody Nora, that thing is a fiend!”
Jerri said quietly.
Henry turned back to face them, a smile on his face.
“Works like a charm. So what else you tinker with?”
“, we fixed up that mace of yours, took a lot of work but she’s back in working order now. Also your AR took the brunt of your fall from the sky, so she’s busted pretty good for mow, but we made due. This here beastie was made for a cancelled robotic warrior project, and figured a 12.77mm pistol user could take this no problem,”
Henry picked up the heavy rifle; its weight was certainly a good solid feeling in his hands.
As Henry readied to take the first shot, something happened, an alarm rang out, and lights began flashing.
“What’s going on?”
Henry asked, confused. Lois looked at her wrist-mounted terminal with shock.

“Oh my god, we’re under attack! I have to-“

Henry walked forward towards the door.
“You are in sorry shape as it is, I think it’s my turn to go to war. And the new guns need a live fire test.”
He said, cocking the mastiff shotgun, it’s heavy brass casing hitting the ground.

Hessian’s plan was working like a charm, the entire block was locked down, and there were enough problems that anyone who would arrive to save the day was already preoccupied disarming dummy bombs, fighting bank robbers, or other petty things. The tower, and more importantly, it’s powerful inhabitants were all his. His troops had locked the building down, all but the lower levels, to which the only way in or out was the elevator his men were already working on hacking into. Hessian watched from a rooftop not too far away, it was working perfectly, now he just had to wait for them to step out into the huge field of fire awaiting them. The elevator rang; someone was coming up, fast. As soon as the doors cracked open a barrage of MG fire and grenades blew them apart. . The doors, or more appropriately, what was left, were forced open in a flash as ten thunderous bangs rang out, and ten troopers fell lifelessly.  A single figure was showered as a chorus of gunshots, Synchronized with brass casings hitting the floor, rang out.
Henry had sprung the trap, and couldn’t care any less, taking aim at the first one nearest the door. He wore some sort of power armor, certainly enough to stop most weapons here, but Henry wasn’t using the local tools of trade, the Mastiff’s 4 gauge heavy tall boy slug tore threw the middle of the cuirass and exploded inside the mans chest, sending the body backwards and collapsing on the floor. He swiveled to the right and let two more fly, taking out an MG gunner and his companion next to him. Henry slid the mastiff back in its hip holster and drew the Kodiak out and firing at them, to him, it was a turkey shoot, the small 4mm anti Meta rounds were barely even stinging him. Even so, Henry was pissed; he couldn’t catch a break could he? Dropped in a new dimension a week and a half after his retirement, fighting superheroes, then, helping them, and investigating murders, and now he’s knee deep in murderous mercenaries, he smirked.
“Soon to be knee deep in the dead!”
Henry muttered, firing the Kodiak with the elegance of an old gunslinger, taking them out with enthusiastic efficiency. One could almost set a metronome to it, one shot to his chest, another to this ones nasal bridge, another to this ones throat, despite the grim material; it was a thing of skill. Hessian didn’t need to see it to know exactly what was going on; the figure was undoubtedly his intended quarry Henry Fleischer, and his men were definitely terrified, he observed their aim collectively dropping from the usual pin point accuracy he drilled them over and over in the cold dead of night to attain, to that of a panicked civilian almost, it was like they no longer desired the kill. He had no Idea why they were scared, the weapons weren’t made to kill whatever he was, and they were made for superhuman targets with little to no military training, not someone who obviously had a lot of blood on his hands and notches on his belt. Hessian observed Henry as he took down the troops. Henry used what looked like a Medieval Mace against his troops, and scarily it was effective, his form was good but technique a little sloppy, he was slow, maybe not enough for an easy kill, but just enough that a well placed counter could stop his momentum dead. Henry put the mace back in its loop, and pulled out his pistol once more. He had heard chatter that it was a 12.77mm pistol, how anyone could use this thing with the ease he does is almost unreal, but He spotted something, Henry takes a split second to aim first, not too long but enough that he could be predicted as to when and where the bullets would hit, they seemed to follow a pattern.
“Aims, takes first shot, bullet impacts below left collarbone, right about where the left lung is, second shot, hits center mass but slightly below ribcage, right below sternum, third shot, hits head, right above upper lip.”
He said, almost instantly though he noticed something else, these shots are all at focused areas, and the first one is not intended to be lethal fully, it’s to throw the target off, the second is made to cause massive soft tissue damage in most cases instantly killing, and lastly the face shot is at the thinnest area of the skull, massively lethal.  Henry had taken most of his men out, a loss to most people, and right now many other’s would call this a failure and call it off, but not Hessian, to him, it was the beginning. Hessian knew in a stand up fight, Henry would crush him, in all ranges he was seemingly surpassed, except one; Hessian was ruthless and planned ahead. Lark’s Jetpack wasn’t the only thing he took that day. Hessian lifted his arm up, tapping on the wrist pad.
“ Hydraulic stabilization: check, actuators and combat processors: check, all ROS are geared! Now Henry, you think yourself a hero, let’s see you face a monster!”
He said.
Henry had finished off a majority of the troops, who now fled back down alleyways, and streets away from the now wildly grinning mercenary. Henry looked around, all were either dead, or running, and the cops were on their way.
“Ahh, a nice refreshing breaks from testing all day.”
He said, suddenly the sound of the jump packs he heard before came humming again. This time it was louder, and coming in faster than before. Suddenly something slammed into the pavement in front of the tower.
“What the hell is that!?”
Henry yelled. He walked over, his pistol still drawn, to the smoldering crater now in the middle of the street. Henry peered over the edge in time to catch a metal fist the size of an SUV in the chest, sending him flying into a building. A figure stood up from the crater, it’s large body casting a shadow up the street.
“Unit designation: Grendel, Purpose: riot suppression. Lethal force: authorized.”
It said.
Henry Grinned, he had a hell of a fight on his hands today.