[LNHY/ACRA] The Daily Super Short-Short Story #48

[Saxon Brenton]

The Daily Super Short-Short Story #48
 
A Devil Came Down to Georgia 30
 
Last time: Martin fought with the Diabolicals.
 
     "You're the sock..." Martin managed to say despite the pain he 
was in. Whatever Damian had hit him with had packed quite a punch. Yet 
now that he knew what to look for it was pretty obvious that the man 
standing before him with a hand surrounded in menacing kirbykrackle 
was being directed by a malign force on his left foot. Indeed, he was 
so busy pinpointing the wondersock with his spirit sight, while also 
trying to keep peripheral tabs on his other two assailants, that he 
didn't even recognise the body the sock was wearing.
     "I am indeed," said Damian through TJ's mouth. Off to one side 
Lisa began to pull herself out of the wall that Martin had thrown her 
through.
     Suddenly Martin was a fit of anger. To be honest, it was more-or-
less what the diabolicals had been hoping for - if they couldn't seduce 
him to the Dork Side of the Farce, then provoking him to give in to 
wrath would be a slower but just as acceptable alternative. Too bad 
for them that they had no idea that Martin wasn't *just* one of the 
Teenaged Giant Halfbreed Fallen Angels, or that his powers were far 
greater than anything they were anticipating being able to control and 
manage, even as a group.
     The student's sudden rage swelled up within him like a red tide, 
and with untelegraphed speed he leapt forward and grabbed the sock's 
meat-puppet and was away.
     Damaian tried to prepare something, but Martin savagely generated 
a large but measured jolt of electricity and pumped it into TJ. For a 
few seconds Damian was befuddled as he found himself unable to work 
through the spasming form of the monkey boy that he had possessed. By 
the time the sock had realised why he no longer had voluntary control 
of TJ's muscles and was preparing an occult attack that didn't require 
his host, Martin had grown two extra limbs, had torn the sock from TJ's 
leg, and was generally ripping the evil woollen parasite to pieces.
     Damian squealed as the hate-engorged Martin methodically tore 
apart the fabric of the wondersock, and continued to squeal even after 
Martin had spend several minutes unravelling him. Martin only really 
came to his senses when TJ suddenly pushed him aside, poured a quart 
of gasoline over the evil sock, then stepped back and threw a lit 
match on the sodden mass.
     TJ watched Damian burn. Then he turned his clear unblinking stare 
on Martin, and Martin was struck by the sight he must be making. He'd 
completely lost control of the aesthetics of his shape again; the 
carefully formed smooth metal surfaces that Martin had shaped to look 
like sculpted human musculature were gone, once again replaced by 
jagged collections of metallic bits. He still had those two extra arms, 
making him look like some pagan Hindu deity. And he had the wings and 
those two jet engines. (It was only in that moment that Martin realised 
that his abduction of Damian and flight away from the sock's allies had 
been a literal flight - he hadn't run away from them at speed, he'd 
taken to the air and was now somewhere on the far side of the central 
business district of Net.ropolis.)
     In other words, his form had followed his function - and in those 
minuted his function had been to kill and destroy. Suddenly overcome 
with fatigue, Martin put his face in his hands. He must look like a 
monster. Well, he *was* a monster, and his only saving grace was that 
he had the choice to be otherwise. Control. He had to get control of 
himself.
     He took a deep breath and looked up. TJ hadn't moved, and was 
still staring at him in that utterly disconcerting way. Martin didn't 
know what was worse: the prospect of people seeing him like this and 
fleeing in horror, or TJ's completely freaky stare. Well, considering 
what the man had been through, Martin realised it would be only 
natural for him to be in shock. He was probably in an even worse way 
that Martin was. The student asked, "Are you okay?"
     "I'm really pissed off," said TJ. "But that's not important at 
the moment. How strong are you? Are you up to destroying the other 
three of them, because if you aren't then we should start running."
 
Tomorrow: Martin and TJ make start making plans.
 
The Daily Super Short-Short Story series and the wondersocks created 
by Arthur Spitzer, and used with belated permission.
 
The Teenage Giant Halfbreed Angels epithet for the Nephilim/Nephalim 
cooked up by Andrew Perron. 
 
All main characters created by Saxon Brenton are Ask First Before Use 
for the duration of this storyline, then they'll probably go to Usable 
Without Permission.
 
-----
Saxon Brenton University of Technology, city library, Sydney Australia
     saxon.brenton at uts.edu.au
The Eyrie Archives of Russ Allbery which collect the online superhero
fiction of the rec.arts.comics.creative newsgroup can be found at:
     http://archives.eyrie.org/racc/