Mortal Steel: Episode 5

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Mortal Steel: Episode 5
Source: collected/013-mortal-steel-episode-5.mp3
SHA-256: bd276ac0a3a76134fdb96d3336d401592ae9660176a96f376cbd0893345a4a69
Model: scribe_v2 | Transcribed: 2026-10-10T18:11:02.159126+00:00
Machine transcript — uncorrected. Speaker labels are local to this recording and do not identify people.

[00:00:00.000] Speaker 1: [rock music]

[00:00:53.920] Speaker 1: Mortal Steel, episode five. [grass crunching] Fleabag pulled the wagon, but it kept getting stuck on even the smallest cracks in the road. Why wouldn't one of the adults help? They were all afraid to get close probably. It's like they couldn't decide whether they were in love or super scared. Maybe some are both, which was weird. Adults were weird, especially Uncle Trey. He wore three pairs of socks every day. Fleabag didn't even have

[00:01:28.860] Speaker 1: one pair of socks. He hit another crack in the road and the wagon moaned.

[00:01:34.460] Speaker 2: Ugh. Oh, you hitting those deliberately?

[00:01:37.800] Speaker 1: Fleabag looked back at the huge lump covered by a blanket. For being a superhero, sometimes Holy Man sure didn't act like it. Superheroes weren't supposed to complain this much. Then again, Fleabag had never had his arms ripped off, so maybe it was okay to complain a little.

[00:01:56.100] Speaker 3: It might be easier if someone helped me.

[00:01:58.860] Speaker 1: The adults all looked away or started walking faster. Some of the older ones rubbed one finger around on their chest. Was that like a secret sign? The Holy Man sign. That's what the head scary boy had called him right before he got dusted. Tough luck. Never call out a superhero if you're not ready to get dusted. Fleabag would remember that lesson. Even The Protector got dusted. Fleabag didn't think anyone could beat The Protector. Maybe he

[00:02:33.880] Speaker 1: really could beat The King. Not without arms, though. It was a good thing he was around. Every superhero needed a sidekick.

[00:02:43.600] Speaker 3: Hey, how did you get your superpowers?

[00:02:47.320] Speaker 1: Holy Man was quiet for a long time under the blanket, so Fleabag stopped walking. Maybe he fell asleep. Then all the adults stopped walking too.

[00:03:00.660] Speaker 2: Some women in black robes gave them to me.

[00:03:04.620] Speaker 3: Really? Do they have superpowers too?

[00:03:08.860] Speaker 2: No. They just read a lot of books.

[00:03:14.360] Speaker 3: What? That's lame.

[00:03:17.100] Speaker 1: Unless they were magic books. Now, that was a possibility. The Great Talisman got her powers from a magic book. He would know because he'd read every Great Talisman comic book there was, except one, issue number 34, the fight with Blue Goo. But he'd read number 35 where Blue Goo gets sucked into a bottle and trapped, so it wasn't that big of a deal. Still, it would be cool to read it.

[00:03:48.040] Speaker 2: Ugh. How much longer, Fleabag?

[00:03:51.280] Speaker 3: We're close. You gotta be quiet, okay?

[00:03:54.480] Speaker 1: There were guards up ahead where The King's territory, Paradise, started. They would let anyone in during the daytime, but if you wanted to stay, you had to pay or join up with the scary boys.

[00:04:08.380] Speaker 2: Then why?

[00:04:10.080] Speaker 3: Because you can't fight until you get your powers back. If The King finds you, he won't wait until you're strong.

[00:04:17.620] Speaker 1: That would be stupid. He knew the difference between comic books and real life. In comic books, the bad guys always talked until the hero was ready to fight. The King wasn't like that. Real bad guys weren't like that. They just killed you, like they killed Sub and Big Derrick and Nozzle and everyone else. Most of the time, they killed you just because they could, just because you were there. They turned a corner and

[00:04:52.320] Speaker 1: Fleabag saw a ton of guards at the end of the street, a scary boy too. At least the scary boys wouldn't kill you for no reason. He glanced back at the wagon, but they might if they saw Holy Man here.

[00:05:08.340] Speaker 3: We're here, but there's like a butt load of bad guys blocking the way.

[00:05:13.980] Speaker 2: Can you find another way?

[00:05:16.040] Speaker 3: No. Oh, crap. They see me.

[00:05:19.300] Speaker 1: A few of the guards pointed at him. Fleabag froze. This was it. They were gonna pull off that blanket and he was done for. No. No, he couldn't act like that. He was a sidekick. He had to be smart, at least until he could find the magic women and get his own powers. Fleabag looked at the adults gathered around him in a loose circle.

[00:05:42.340] Speaker 3: Hey, you all want to be in a club, right? That means you have to help too. Go distract those guys so we can sneak past.

[00:05:50.980] Speaker 1: A man in a gray trench coat stepped closer to him, whispering so the guards who were already talking to people wouldn't hear. Where do we meet after? Fleabag rolled his eyes. Did he have to come up with everything?

[00:06:06.048] Speaker 3: He'll give a sermon at sundown.

[00:06:08.748] Speaker 1: That was his thing, right? It must be how he recharged his power. The man in the coat nodded once, then fell to the ground screaming, rolling around and clutching at his leg. It was a pretty good job. Nozzle would've been proud. No one could cry like Nozzle. While the man howled, Fleabag snuck behind the group of people. They grouped up to block the guards' view. Maybe they weren't useless after all. Fleabag strolled right past the guards and into the shantytown. A hand fell on his shoulder.

[00:06:44.528] Speaker 1: Where do you think you're going? The woman spun him around by the shoulder. She was a Scary Boy, which never made much sense to him. Why shouldn't she be a Scary Girl? Paradise is closed to outsiders right now.

[00:06:59.228] Speaker 3: I can pay.

[00:07:00.568] Speaker 1: Doesn't matter. She shoved him backward, and he fell against the wagon. What are you hauling? Fleabag backed away slowly, palms sweating. What was he supposed to do? What could he do? This wasn't some sewer dweller. She had demon blood. The Scary Boy stared at the wagon and tilted her head. I know that smell. She reached out a hand to pull the blanket off the wagon. If that happened ... A man in a gray trench coat slammed into the Scary Boy and the two of them

[00:07:35.448] Speaker 1: crashed to the ground. [thudding]

[00:07:36.468] Speaker 2: It hurts. [groans]

[00:07:38.968] Speaker 1: Fleabag pulled the wagon as fast as he could, not daring to look back. He heard the screaming, though. He raced into the shantytown and took a turn down an alley, then another, and another. Then he squatted down and closed his ears so he wouldn't have to hear the screams anymore. He cradled his legs and pressed his back to the side of a building. The lump in the wagon sat up [fabric rustling] and the blanket slipped off of Holy Man.

[00:08:07.668] Speaker 3: They'll kill him for that.

[00:08:09.568] Speaker 1: Holy Man didn't correct him. He just looked sadly in the direction of the commotion. Fleabag took his hands off his ears.

[00:08:19.288] Speaker 2: Not all heroes have powers, Fleabag.

[00:08:22.748] Speaker 3: The ones who survive do.

[00:08:26.328] Speaker 1: Fleabag wiped his eyes and stood up. Some sidekick he was.

[00:08:30.508] Speaker 3: [sniffs] I'm fine. We gotta go.

[00:08:34.548] Speaker 1: Then he grabbed the wagon's handle and hurried through the maze of buildings. [gentle music] [people chattering] Turn after turn, Ethan watched the dizzying journey through the crowded shantytown from a lifted corner of his blanket. Makeshift homes of plywood, plastic tarps, and even cardboard covered the sidewalks outside the original old LA buildings. He was amazed at how many people were living here. It was

[00:09:09.428] Speaker 1: impossible to estimate without knowing the full size of the town, but from what he'd seen already, it was more than a few thousand. What did they eat? How did they defend themselves? He'd known that people still scraped by in the outskirts, but this was nearly a civilization, which made it all the more disheartening. This was the pinnacle of civilization, and it was pathetic. The people were universally filthy and malnourished, and they all shared the same frightful,

[00:09:44.208] Speaker 1: distrusting demeanor, as if their neighbors in the cardboard house next door might take their meager belongings at any moment. Though a few people tried to haggle with Fleabag for his wagon, no one tried to take it from him. Perhaps the low growl emanating from it may have helped discourage them. The weaponsmith's workshop turned out to be in one of the solid old Los Angeles buildings, a single-story brick building with bars over the windows. The paint had long since peeled from the exterior.

[00:10:17.868] Speaker 1: [metal clanging] Ethan had a great view of the dusty wood paneling on the front counter. He could hear men and women at work, striking metal, the smell of ash in the air. Got some scrap?

[00:10:35.148] Speaker 3: Yeah. I wanna see Dumpit, though.

[00:10:39.008] Speaker 1: He's busy. You can deal with me.

[00:10:41.908] Speaker 3: It's militech, and I know where there's more.

[00:10:45.988] Speaker 1: [scoffs] Come on back if your story wears thin. I'm taking this wagon. Fleabag wheeled the wagon through the building, most of which had been torn apart to make space for the various workbenches and furnaces there. People cut, hammered, and melted strips of metal. Whatever they were doing, they were doing a lot of it. Here he is.

[00:11:13.028] Speaker 2: All right, let's see what we've got here.

[00:11:15.588] Speaker 1: The blanket was pulled off the wagon. [blanket rustling] Ethan looked up at an impressively fat man, considering the state of the people he'd seen so far.

[00:11:23.988] Speaker 2: [whistles] Holy dog farts in heaven. [footsteps]

[00:11:29.228] Speaker 3: Can you fix him?

[00:11:31.068] Speaker 2: Fix him? I'd shake your hand, but [laughs] you'd have to do all the work. It talks.

[00:11:38.568] Speaker 3: This is Holy Man. He's a superhero.

[00:11:43.188] Speaker 1: Ethan didn't feel the need to disabuse Fleabag. It seemed like one thing too many to take from the boy. He'd already seemed to have forgotten the violence from just a few minutes ago. He was a resilient kid, resourceful too. Ethan guessed you had to be to survive out here.

[00:12:02.688] Speaker 2: What are you? Pastor Ethan Cutter, Hail Mary prototype

[00:12:08.336] Speaker 1: Cyborg. And you?

[00:12:11.936] Speaker 2: Name's Dumpit.

[00:12:13.836] Speaker 1: The man's name was Dumpit? That did not bode well. Dumpit hobbled over and gingerly picked up one of Ethan's severed arms out of the wagon. He was missing a foot of his own, replaced with what looked like a fireplace poker. Fleabag, are you sure there's no one else?

[00:12:34.896] Speaker 2: Hold on now. Duchin got one thing right. There ain't nothing I can't fix. Usually my projects don't talk back, but I can make an exception.

[00:12:46.096] Speaker 1: Dumpit set the arm back in the wagon and put his hands on his wide hips. His stomach sagged out from beneath a stained white T-shirt.

[00:12:54.796] Speaker 2: These are toast. So what, you want some chainsaw arms or something?

[00:12:59.296] Speaker 1: Ethan saw Fleabag put his hands on the side of his face and his mouth dropped open. Can you do that?

[00:13:07.156] Speaker 2: Sure, I can give him a matching foot too.

[00:13:10.276] Speaker 1: Can't you just, you know, reattach them? Dumpit squinted one eye and rubbed his chin. Then he squatted down to take a closer look, which seriously threatened the integrity of his pants. Ethan's second mind ran the strain calculations. He just let it do its thing. It only wanted to be helpful. Tension forces exceed predicted pants tensile strength. Further investigation recommended. That was not going to happen.

[00:13:46.456] Speaker 1: Dumpit picked up one of the arms.

[00:13:49.156] Speaker 2: Unlike the other one, this one has most of the socket joint intact. The wires and tubes are cut pretty clean as well. I can make this work.

[00:13:57.576] Speaker 1: Maybe there was some hope after all. The man was so lost in the project of fixing him that he hadn't even asked about payment. Perhaps the challenge was payment enough.

[00:14:08.796] Speaker 2: So just one chainsaw arm then.

[00:14:12.056] Speaker 1: Ethan opened his mouth to answer, but the sound of a siren in the distance cut him off. Fleabag seemed to shrink into the corner of the room reflexively. Dumpit felt around at his hip for something, then stumbled over to his cheap wooden desk with shaking hands. He pulled a sawn-off shotgun from the top drawer. What is that?

[00:14:35.736] Speaker 2: Reed. Damn. First some lunatic guns down our boys, now this. Sometimes I wonder if we missed the Rapture by a couple decades.

[00:14:46.056] Speaker 1: There was a commotion throughout the workshop. People raced around, donning makeshift armor, lifting crude-looking weapons. Dumpit opened his office door to join them, then looked down at Ethan in the wagon.

[00:15:01.536] Speaker 2: It's a shame you can't fight.

[00:15:03.476] Speaker 1: Ethan narrowed his eyes and lifted his chin toward Dumpit's false foot. How fast can you give me one of those? Dumpit grinned a piano key grin.

[00:15:14.496] Speaker 2: [laughs] I think we're gonna get along just fine, Holy Man. Now hold still so I can get this in straight. Don't want you stumbling around when those crucifer bastards charge you.

[00:15:27.156] Speaker 1: A moment later, Ethan got to his feet, testing out his balance on the iron point of his new foot. A new mod icon appeared in his HUD, The Foot Skewer. Ethan flashed his own wild grin.

[00:15:43.096] Speaker 2: Looks like it's time to get medieval. [rock music]

[00:15:52.436] Speaker 1: Part seven, Hail to the King. Dumpit finished strapping the spear to the side of Holy Man. What a name that was. Not that he was one to talk. He'd been born Randall Goodman. But Randall Goodman died 30 years ago. Dumpit had survived though, and he was gonna survive today too. Holy Man sneered with perfect white teeth. The dark stubble of a beard framed his perfect, powerful chin. Like Dumpit, this

[00:16:27.176] Speaker 1: man had been remade, though he'd been made with much more patience, resources, and a hell of a lot more technology. Old world tech. Not even. Comic book tech.

[00:16:41.156] Speaker 2: Now, you're sure you don't want a chainsaw arm instead?

[00:16:44.716] Speaker 1: Why would I want a chainsaw arm?

[00:16:47.316] Speaker 2: Why would you not?

[00:16:49.156] Speaker 1: The sounds of fighting could be heard down the street. The Forge warriors were streaming out to reinforce. Dumpit should already be out there, but this important matter needed to be settled first. It's loud, unwieldy, and requires fuel, and if the chain breaks, it becomes little more than a noisemaker. Dumpit shook his head with deep disappointment. Some things you just couldn't teach.

[00:17:16.836] Speaker 2: Fine. Move around a little. Let's see if it holds.

[00:17:21.416] Speaker 1: Holy Man looked down at the sharpened rebar spear strapped to one shoulder, and then at the sheet of metal duct taped to the other for a makeshift shield. Then he jumped six feet straight up into the air. When he landed, the fireplace poker punched right through the concrete floor. He pulled it free, scattering little bits of concrete across the room. The makeshift weaponry held fast. Dumpit slapped the sawn-off barrel into his open palm and laughed.

[00:17:51.296] Speaker 2: Boy, you are gonna tear him a new one.

[00:17:54.976] Speaker 1: Holy Man narrowed his eyes. I'll tear them three. [laughs] And to think, this weapon just showed up on his doorstep. Unbelievable fortune. Sometimes the Lost God still worked his miracles, apparently Hell, Dumpit might even say a prayer or two if he lived. That seemed like a fair trade. As he walked out of the forge, he shielded his face from the burning sun and squinted one eye up at the pale blue sky.

[00:18:25.036] Speaker 2: You hear that, big guy? Time to start making yourself useful.

[00:18:35.196] Speaker 1: Ethan stepped out of the forge to find a defensive line of Crucifer acolytes, nine sweating, bloody young men. Bodies from both sides already lay on the dusty, broken asphalt between them. Ethan could hear more sounds of fighting on the next street over. It was impossible to tell how big the raid party was, which he supposed was probably the point. Dumpit looked over his shoulder and hissed at Ethan.

[00:19:02.676] Speaker 2: Let's circle back around and make a sandwich.

[00:19:05.936] Speaker 1: The man was already overweight in a place where that was a crime against humanity.

[00:19:11.316] Speaker 2: You sure it's a good time for that? Get them from behind, I mean.

[00:19:15.916] Speaker 1: Both the sandwich and the attack were immediately off the table, however, because the fighting from the next street stopped and another group of raiders turned the corner behind them. 11 more Crucifer acolytes and one grafted.

[00:19:34.536] Speaker 2: Ah, pig feathers. Now we're screwed.

[00:19:37.896] Speaker 1: The two groups of raiders boxed them in. Ethan jabbed a spear at one of them. The man must have thought it was a feint because he died with a cocky smile still on his face. Their advance halted there. The six uninjured forge workers, Dumpit, and Ethan pressed against each other back to back. Wait, where was Fleabag? Pastor Cutter smashed into the line of smirking acolytes with his makeshift plate iron shield. They scattered before him,

[00:20:12.956] Speaker 1: allowing the rampaging cyborg through the line.

[00:20:17.156] Speaker 2: Where's the boy?

[00:20:18.756] Speaker 1: His second mind pinged him.

[00:20:21.735] Speaker 2: Overclock.

[00:20:23.516] Speaker 1: Time crawled nearly to a stop while he reviewed 10 seconds of footage caught from his peripheral vision just moments before. Five women in rags pulled a young boy from the forge building. He was kicking and screaming, screaming for Ethan.

[00:20:44.236] Speaker 2: Why didn't you tell me sooner?

[00:20:46.836] Speaker 1: His second mind did not respond. It didn't operate on emotion like his human mind. He was lucky a computer even considered notifying him at all. It wasn't part of his mission. In all actuality, he had no reason to care for the boy at all. He was one such soul among thousands like him, children of war. Why was this one any different? His second mind could not answer that question,

[00:21:21.796] Speaker 1: but his first mind didn't even care. It mattered that he lived. It mattered that he was okay. He replayed the footage one more time, freezing on a frame where Fleabag reached out one last time before he went out of sight, mouthing the word, "Please." He released the

[00:21:56.816] Speaker 1: overclock and rammed his spear through the sides of three acolytes, but he didn't stop running. He pushed until the entire line of soldiers on one side was either skewered on his spear, trampled beneath their combined mass, or knocked aside. Then he slammed the spear and all the people impaled on it into the side of the forge building. The spear stuck in the wall, leaving the corpses to hang in place like a shish

[00:22:31.756] Speaker 1: kebab. When he tried to rip the spear out, it tore free from the strap on his shoulder instead, making it look like he intended to leave those victims there as a symbol. Ethan spun and faced the new line of soldiers, who were now a good 10 feet further back.

[00:22:58.096] Speaker 2: Where do you take the children?

[00:23:00.676] Speaker 1: The remaining acolytes, no longer grinning with confidence, parted to let the grafted step forward. He stood almost a foot taller than anyone else. His lower jaw had been replaced by a thick piece of stainless steel. His arms from the elbow down had been replaced by two enormous axes which dripped with red liquid. The grafted were Crucifer's most elite, most

[00:23:34.796] Speaker 1: insane warriors. If this man could even talk, he wouldn't be of much help. Well, Ethan would just have to make him talk. He charged the grafted with his shield raised. He would pummel him to the ground and break every bone in his body. He would... The grafted split the makeshift shield with one ax, then slammed the haft of the other into Ethan's thigh. He went down without even uttering a harsh word.

[00:24:06.936] Speaker 2: Overclock.

[00:24:08.596] Speaker 1: Which only gave him more time to consider the steel boot plummeting toward his face. There was no time to dodge. Overclocking gave him time to think. It didn't give him time to move faster. His second mind chirped. Yes, this steel boot could do potentially lethal damage to his human brain. At best, he would be unconscious, and that would be just as lethal. So he did the only thing he could.

[00:24:43.776] Speaker 1: He sent one last message on the radio transmitter he didn't even know he had. Fern, detonate me.

[00:25:37.116] Speaker 1: Four dozen people sat around an abandoned church just outside of Paradise. Rusty watched as still more filed into the tiny building. Maybe he should have gone to a bigger place. He rubbed at his jaw. It was definitely broken, fractured. Maybe the preacher knew some God magic to fix that. Or robot magic. Either worked. Rusty wasn't too particular. Someone started chanting. We want the show! But no one else picked up the chant. It was sundown, right?

[00:26:12.136] Speaker 1: Was this the right place? Well, no one had told him a place. He got up and looked out a window. It was past sundown. He cursed inwardly. Hopefully no one got eaten for this. He sensed everyone's shared restlessness. Their shared hope. Maybe the preacher was busy. If he was busy, he was probably busy saving their bacon, one way or another. Rusty grumbled. Nothing for it, then. He'd have to give this evening's

[00:26:46.816] Speaker 1: sermon at sundown himself. So he walked up to the podium and rubbed at his aching jaw. That scary boy had decked him good. But it also seemed like she'd pulled the punch. A little. Maybe it wasn't too late to get her house number. Rusty cleared his throat and let his gray jacket spread out behind him in what he hoped was a really cool way. Quiet down now, y'all. The holy man is off fighting some monsters on our behalf.

[00:27:22.296] Speaker 1: Until he comes back, y'all gonna have to make do with me. To his surprise, they quieted down. More surprising still was the soft, shimmering glow at the edges of the room. It was hard to see if you looked right at it. It looked almost like the air rising off asphalt on a summer day. It was almost like power. Rusty grinned. Perhaps a little of that robot magic had rubbed off on

[00:27:57.356] Speaker 1: him after all.