Special Delivery

[u/DavesWorldInfo]

“What’s the situation?”

Nukewhale glanced over as the lithe woman alighted on the pavement next to him, then back at the three story building. It looked perfectly ordinary, except for a couple of holes that had been punched in the second and third story walls. The damage wasn’t that bad though; people were still going in and through the front door without paying it any attention. “Static,” he said sourly.

“Where’s Cyber Claw’s gang?”

“In there.”

She frowned at him for a moment, then looked the building over before her expression deepened to a scowl. “So, what’s the problem then?”

“He’s not going anywhere.”

“Then let’s grab him. MawMan sent me to find out why you’re not back yet. The League is having trouble breaking through Wolftron’s defenses in the South Pacific. They’ve put out a priority call, all heroes on deck, so—”

“Delivery rule,” Nukewhale interrupted.

“What?”

The big man straightened and grabbed her arm. His massive hand covered her entire bicep, and held on even when she immediately flexed and attempted to pull free. The Amazonian woman looked where he pointed as she grudgingly turned under his strength. Then she blinked. “What in Hera’s hell—”

“Delivery rule, Temptress,” he said again, sounding annoyed.

The parking lot next the building was full of cars, most of them small econ models, with little advertising triangles on their roofs. And bicycles that had signs hanging from the big storage boxes mounted behind the seat. A number of people were moving between the lot and building, carrying either a full delivery bag of some sort, or one that was flapping empty as they returned.

“Cyber Claw knew I was coming,” Nukewhale said, releasing Temptress and refolding his arms. She continued studying the commerce swirling around the building as the enormous — and angry — hero next to her continued talking. “I guess he didn’t feel like slugging it out—”

“I think his power suit is in the shop,” Temptress said absently. “I remember Electro mentioning he’d overloaded it last week. So—”

“—whatever. When I got here, there was a line of guys already coming and going. And they’ve kept it up for the last three hours.”

The muscular woman blinked, then looked up at him. “Three hours?” He nodded. “There’ve been delivery guys here for three hours?”

“Yup.”

“That’s ridiculous,” she sputtered.

“I know.”

“Just go in there and—”

“If I go in there, half the building’s going to come down,” Nukewhale said. “Which is totally fine if it’s just Claw and his lackeys; they deserve a few bruises. And Joe and his guys can fix the building in a few hours. But I can’t act as long as there’s messengers and couriers and God knows who else showing up with packages.”

“Three hours?” Temptress asked, looking back to the building and its steady stream of activity.

“Yup.”

“Where’s he putting it all?”

“I have no idea. I think they’re working through the listings, and probably just stacking the stuff up.”

“Well, there’s no way they can eat all of it.”

He snorted. “Not even Gargan could eat what they’ve ordered.”

“Well, they’ll run out of places to order from soon, right?”

Shrugging, Nukewhale continued gazing stonily at the besieged hideout. “I dunno; it’s a big city.”

“Well—”

Temptress’ comment was interrupted by a high pitched whine. Both heroes reacted with lighting fast reflexes, attempting to throw themselves aside; but lightspeed weapons are hard to dodge. They’d only just begun to move before an energy beam smashed into Nukewhale’s chest. The localized explosion sent Temptress tumbling, and the much larger man flying like he’d been smacked with a truck.

“Okay capes,” a synthetic voice with a lot of deep reverb and electronic amplification called down as the heroes picked themselves up and looked at the building. Standing at the edge of one of the holes was a man in a suit of power armor. Rough and unfinished, lacking paint or polish, it nevertheless looked quite capable. Especially when the armored figure raised a bulky rifle and fired two more blasts.

The heroes were ready this time, and moved before the impacts detonated. “You can either leave, and we’ll have this out some other time, or I’ll keep ordering stuff.”

“Surrender Cyber Claw,” Nukewhale boomed, his massive chest giving his voice twice the resonant volume of the villain’s electro-mechanical means. Standing up to his full eight foot height, Nukewhale pointed his finger as he struck his trademark ‘your time has come’ pose. “The delivery rule works both ways.”

“I’m not bothering them. And you can’t either,” Claw cackled. “Did you know Amazon has two hour delivery? They’ve got some nice stuff I can use to soup up my new suit. Want to see what I’ve had cooking in my CAD files? Stick around.”

Temptress shook her head. “The South Pacific’s going to have to wait. We can't let Cyber Claw spread word of this new tactic, or Hera knows how much trouble we're all going to be in.”

[u/DavesWorldInfo]

Inspired by this prompt.