A Dark Trail - Chapter 9

Down on the first floor, Pollock and the Clever Adolescent Panda were still in trouble. Pollock had managed a second barrier against the last grenade, but only barely. She'd have been blown across the room by the shockwave if CAP hadn't been behind her, acting as a brace.

Out of explosives, the Immaterial Man seemed content to try rushing forward and diving at them. Pollock rolled left, CAP right, and he slid smoothly out of sight through the floor. The two each jumped onto one of the few remaining objects in the room, Pollock an equipment cart, CAP one of the holding tubes, trying to stay out of reach of surprise attacks from below. Four eyes scanned the room for any sign of that unsettling smile or green suit, to no avail.

Pollock whispered, trusting the panda's ears to pick it up. "I might have something to stop him, but we need a way to hold him in place for it to work."

"I have something, but you'll have to stay back or it'll get you, too." The panda dropped to the floor more heavily than necessary, all senses on alert for their opponent to appear, an object hidden in one massive paw. At a loud cracking near the blocked doorway, both sets of eyes swiveled that direction. The floor gave way under the remains of the collapsed ceiling, the concrete and plaster splashing into the water one floor down. Even after the rubble had fallen through, cracks continued to spiderweb outwards from the hole. From her higher vantage point, Pollock could tell the floor was unusually thin, like it was made of a single sheet of graham crackers.

"He's been pulling away the floor this whole time!," she shouted as the floor gave way entirely. Her perch shifted backwards as it fell, and she was unable to leap clear. Clever Adolescent Panda lunged towards a wall, just managing to grab hold of a pipe running from ceiling to floor with one paw. But this left them unable to do anything for Pollock as she fell into the dark water below.

It also left them vulnerable, trapped on a single narrow handhold. It wouldn't be difficult for their ghostly enemy to reach out of the wall and take the panda's heart. Unless he was focused on Pollock while she was in the water.

As CAP scanned the murky surface below, hoping for a familiar head to break the surface, a hand shot out of the wall, although it was aimed at their face rather than their heart. Our furry hero had been warned somehow. An instinct maybe, or the rustle of fabric as it passed through air, and they flung themselves backwards into the open space where there used to be a floor.

"Time flies, but you just fall." The Immaterial Man began to fully emerge from the wall, intending to attack while the panda was helpless in mid-air. Before he could launch himself from the wall, CAP hurled the item in their paw. The Aura Lock grenade released a flare of light, and the spectral enemy spasmed, tumbling gracelessly for an instant before their suit caught on a bracket holding the pipe on the wall. The panda's momentary triumph didn't convince gravity to release her grip, and CAP plunged into the frigid water.

They bobbed to the surface a moment later. The few functioning lights in the room above didn't illuminate much down here. It looked as though they were in a long hallway or tunnel, rather than an office or lab. There was no sign of Pollock. Perhaps her cape had weighed her down? Before CAP could start a search, a low groan rolled from above. The Immaterial Man glared down, smile gone, as he phased one hand into the wall to lever himself up and free his suit from where it was caught.

He held a lighter in his other hand, and it was then the panda noticed a sticker on the pipe indicating it was a gas line. If there was still any inside, phasing a lighter in there would be bad for everyone. Except, presumably, the guy who could turn intangible and let the explosion pass through him.

"You can't buy time, but time can say bye."

From behind CAP a canister flew up and exploded in a cloud of yellow smoke around the Immaterial Man. "Would you shut up, you nattering lunatic?!" a wet and extremely angry-looking Pollock snarled.

The lunatic in question tried to close his eyes and mouth, then retreat into the wall, but his concentration faltered, and he couldn't pull himself in. He fell, not out of the wall, but down through it, towards them, towards the water. There was no splash when he reached it, not even a ripple. His passage through it caused as little disturbance as starlight.

"He must be stuck in his intangible state!" CAP realized as they submerged and kicked swiftly to the floor. "He'll just keep sinking if I don't stop him!" Underwater, most of the panda's senses were muted, if not entirely useless. From what little they could make out, there was no sign of that shiny green suit. The Immaterial Man was gone without a trace.

By the time Clever Adolescent Panda resurfaced, Pollock had reached the staircase to floors above and was watching the water warily from the dry landing. She offered a hand as the panda reached the staircase.

"No sign?"

The panda shook their head, water droplets flying in all directions. "I don't know how far down he could be by now. If he regains consciousness in time, maybe. . . "

"I designed that stuff to keep a regular person unconscious for hours. Even Wade would probably be out for an hour."

The panda's dark eyes locked on Pollock's green ones. "What would you need something like that for?"

Pollock folded her arms across her chest, exasperated. "For all the very annoying, very strong people who keep showing up at my business and causing problems. It's a nonlethal response. In my defense, I wasn't expecting the person I used it on to fall to the floor and then through it."

"Great, but now we've got nothing."

"I'm sorry, perhaps you'd prefer to be back in the freezing water faced with an opponent who probably wouldn't be hampered by it at all?"

The panda raised their front paws in a placating gesture. "You're right. This just isn't going how I hoped."

"Does it ever?" Pollock scoffed. "There are still the computers in the lab. Or perhaps one of the others found something."

Both of them snapped their heads towards the ceiling above them as the sound of gunfire reached them. They both dashed up the stairs as CAP said, "I don't think Wade is just bored."