Chapter 1.1
Collin looked out over the future battlefield, snowflakes slowly drifting down, melting as they hit the ground. A happy coincidence. Had the ground been colder, their camouflage shields might have been compromised. Given the sheer amount of prep-time that had gone into this operation, it would've been a shame to see it ruined by the weather.
The location had been carefully chosen. It was boxed in by abandoned buildings, right on the edge of the territory that was nominally claimed by Skidmark, close to the empty ship hulls that marked the old docks of the bay.
Slowly but surely, they'd laid the seed for this confrontation. Fake graffiti tags from the empire, sting operations within Winslow high-school, the right rumours spread by people from the Dockworkers association, several fake arrests of undercover operatives, and a fake Protectorate event on the other side of town, all complemented by a team-up with New Wave.
The hum of an engine suddenly penetrated through their optic shielding, louder than expected. Squealer. Everyone's head turned, looking at the incoming Merchants. Skidmark, Squealer, Mush, Flush, and Snot. None of their names made any sense, which was useful, because you immediately knew whether a given cape was a Merchant or not. At least it was an efficient.
On the other side of the fight would be the Empire, or E88 as they preferred, the eights referring to the eight letter of the alphabet, and through that, to Hitler. Maybe somewhere in some alternate universe, people didn't immediately know what they meant with their ludicrously transparent codes, but in Brockton Bay-Bet, it wasn't working.
Unlike the Merchants, the cape roster of the Empire was large enough that they wouldn't send everyone. It had made preparations more difficult, but not impossible. Given the way in which they had instigated the fight, they could make certain predictions. The main focus would be Hookwolf, an unrepentant murderer that took a perverse pleasure in slaughter. To get him of the streets was the main goal, and because of that, Armsmaster would personally initiate the fight with him. He had a couple of nasty surprises hidden in his halberd for just that reason.
He saw them arrive as well, walking through the streets toward the point of battle. Hookwolf stood in front, balancing himself on four metal limbs, almost completely transformed already. To his side, just behind him, were his main allies, Cricket and Stormtiger. The animal-themed trio was anything but kid-friendly. Except maybe for Nazi-children.
Victor and Othala were there too, a deadly combo if there ever was one. The couple, and his analytical programs suggested that they were so in more than just as a combat team, could adapt to their opponent with Othala's trump power, and steal the enemies capabilities with Victors skill leaching. Any tie against them was actually a loss because of that. Sure, the capabilities would slowly return, but Victor kept them, and not having the skill was rather problematic.
On the other hand, that was what had led him to finally create the autonomous driving program for his motorcycle.
Their team was filled out with the Boulder, a geokinetic that couldn't stop talking about himself in the third-person and pretended he was a professional wrestler when he wasn't kicking non-white puppies, and Botanica, who had powers that made trees and other plant-life an extension of his body, mostly using it as a brute-rating in some strange rendition of power-armour.
"Looks like things are about to kick off" Lady Photon said, stating exactly what was already obvious to everyone present.
Armsmaster nodded. "No Rune or Purity either, at least not right now. We're going with plan B, does everyone have their targets?"
People nodded in agreement. It was a boon that they hadn't brought any fliers, except for possibly Othala's target, but her using her power for flight meant she couldn't use it for something more dangerous.
This was the part where they waited, until the Empire and the Merchants were fully occupied with each other. At that point, they'd use their initiative to immediately get everyone into their best match-up. Lady Photon and Laserdream would blast whatever vehicles Squealer had brought to the fight, immediately taking away the possibility for escape from the Merchants. Brandish would take down Mush.
Velocity would attempt to take down Snot by surprise, covering his slimy exterior with the pieces of cloth that had been prepared around the battlefield. The cloth would glue to his slimy exterior, stopping him from doing anything else in the fight.
Miss Militia's task would be to snipe down Flush, a large-scale shaker that created a weird analogue of a black hole, with some quick rubber bullets. Young Aegis, in the meantime, had offered to take down Skidmark with an aerial tackle.
On the other side of the confrontation, Shielder would start out by blocking of Othala, stopping her from using her Trump power. Flashbang would take down Cricket, using his power to counter her enhanced senses, and Manpower had proclaimed he wanted a 1on1 with Stormtiger.
Glory Girl, the newest cape among them, wanted to take down the Boulder. He'd had his reservations on that, but Photon Mom had trusted the girl's instincts, and there were a few capes on back-up if things went wrong. Dauntless, then, would take down Victor, which should be easy for him. After all, Victor would have nothing to steal.
Botanica would've normally been a real problem; the self-regenerating power armour was rather annoying in an extended fight, but Kid Win's latest gun, originally created to destroy debris on the battlefield, also turned out to work on living wood, but not human flesh. Without his wood, he'd be a slightly overweight fifty year old.
In the meantime, he'd be taking down Hookwolf. In a way, he looked forward to the fight, trading blows with a powerful opponent, with the safe knowledge that there were no civilians around to get hurt from collateral damage.
That left Assault and Battery ready for immediate back-ups, with Gallant and Triumph as a second layer.
The fight had started, Stormtiger blasting wind at the Merchants, and Victor throwing fireballs. Squealer's large vehicle, the merchant capes hanging on to it, started rolling forward.
"Wait for it…" he said. They'd have to time it right, if one of the gangsters died while they were waiting, there would be consequences.
A minute went by, and he could see the tension building up around him, only a small camouflage barrier shielding them from the fight. "Vista, are you ready?"
The girl, youngest member of the wards, but experienced nonetheless, looked intensely at the battlefield for a few seconds before answering. "Yes"
"Then we strike… NOW!"
He dashed forward, and jumped, the combination of his power armour and Vista's power allowing him to almost immediately reach Hookwolf, who was currently being launched backwards by one of Skidmark's zones on the ground. He shifted his halberd into his new spear mode, and struck forward, impaling Hookwolf on it.
It didn't work, at least, not in the conventional sense. Hookwolf's changer form reshaped itself, and he recovered from the strike. But the physical damage was only a distraction. The spear-head was charged with an energy that magnetized whatever it struck. Hookwolf hadn't noticed, at least not yet, and charged forward. A quick succession of strikes made him back off for a second, reshaping his torso to human form. He was getting more sluggish, had he noticed? Was that why he was shifting back?
"You're a filthy little race traitor aren't you?" The man said. Collin chose not to react to the frankly ridiculous accusation. Not only was the notion of race itself inconsistent, but to betray something implies previous loyalty.
He struck again, forcing Hookwolf back into his metal form, striking at the whirling blades. Then, Hookwolf went on a counterattack.
Blades whirled around, and it was everything he could do to block all the attacks. Hookwolf must've thought he was winning, but with every block, his body started getting more and more magnetized.
Eventually, the effect became noticeable. Individual pieces of metal started sticking together, or repelling each other.
Before he could finish the fight however, a large boulder came flying their way. Both of them dodged, creating distance between them.
"Huh, it seems like even your own people hate you." He said, taunting the murderer.
It worked, and Hookwolf jumped upwards, planning to strike from above.
Quickly, Armsmaster flipped around the spear, and activated the net launcher in the bottom. The metal net launched upwards, and Hookwolf, flying through the air, couldn't dodge it. It clung to him, being attracted by his now metallic body.
Armsmaster looked around, surveying the battle. Dauntless had taken down Victor, and decided to help Glory Girl, who was now lying on the ground next to the Boulder, having been tased by her ally.
Cricket had escaped somehow, as had Othala. The real problem was Stormtiger, who was holding back Manpower, Assault and Batter, as well as Shielder, who had obviously switched targets.
On the Merchant side, the battle seemed largely decided in their favour, although some of them had been able to get away.
Stormtiger was building up a serious amount of air pressure, one of Shielders barriers the only thing separating him from the Protectorate and New Wave capes.
"I suggest you surrender Stormtiger, you're drastically outnumbered, and you're no Lung." He said, walking towards the cape.
"Surrender? Seems to me that it's you guys who are afraid of me, not the other way around."
"Don't be stupid and put away that massive air pressure. Even if you manage to hurt, maim, or kill one of us, the rest of us would put you down or ensure you're send straight into the birdcage."
"Are you afraid of me Armsmaster, it's not often I see you threatening death on your enemies. Come on, it's just a little pressurized air".'
It was anything but a little bit of pressure. Behind Shielders force fields, now joined by those of Lady Photon and Laserdream, the air had become thick with the pressure, it looked like Stormtiger had difficulty breathing.
"Open up a small hole at the top. He's somehow creating extra pressure out of nowhere. He probably has generation powers as well as aerokinesis." He whispered to the teenage Shielder beside him. Something wasn't quite right, it looked like the Empire cape was stalling for time, but it wasn't likely that he still had reinforcements incoming.
He turned around, and saw his reinforced iron net lying on the ground, shred to pieces. Had Hookwolf somehow been able to escape through the magnetism? Or had Othala or another of the escapees done something?
At that moment, Stormtiger blasted his air downwards, the force driving him upwards through the gap that Shielder had made.
"Well, I guess he has mover capabilities too." Collin said, barely concealing his displeasure at the order of events. Still, they'd captured three Empire capes and three of the powered Merchants.
"Don't bother chasing Stormtiger, we need to secure the prisoners we have." He said to no-one in particular.
A call came into his armour, one of the PRT teams had found a half-dazed Cricket and managed to foam her down. That was four Empire capes down.
*** Armsmaster ***
The defeated villains had been loaded up into the PRT vans and were being taken to the Protectorate headquarters until their trial. In the meantime, the press had arrived, looking for information on the cities' latest parahuman altercation. He was about to walk over and explain what had happened, when he saw that Dauntless was already doing so.
"So Dauntless, can you tell us what happened here?"
"Well Rosette, there was a big fight between the Empire Eighty-Eight, the local neo-nazi's, and the Archer's bridge Merchants, a cape-led drug-selling ring. We were able to catch them off guard, and take them down. It's all in a days work you know."
"Still, seven capes arrested in one day, that must have been difficult!"
"Not really, They were distracted, it was actually rather easy to take them down."
It was always the same, Collin thought. It'd taken tight cooperation between the PRT, the police, the mayor's office and the Dockworkers to make this happen. They'd had a prepared PR statement, stressing the value of co-operation and communication between the people of the city. Dauntless, however, had decided that he could do everything on his own because he was friends with the journalist interviewing him. They'd arrested seven capes and thirty gang members, the idea that it was no big deal was preposterous.
But it probably wouldn't help his cause to get angry in front of the camera. He looked back at his wards. Kid Win was happy, his gun had made quick work of the wood-based cape. Velocity, about to graduate to the Protectorate, was rather grossed out by all the snot. Vista seemed to be happy about her contribution, getting everyone to their target, Gallant and Triumph looked bored, which, in the big scheme of thing, was a good thing.
Tonight, instead of tinkering, he'd relax a little. Paperwork could wait. It was time for pizza, ice-cream with cookie-dough, and the original StarTrek series. Dragon had told him about the series, and he had to admit, it was rather engrossing, even though the special effects were incredibly bad and the tinkering made absolutely no sense. Reversing polarities did not work that way.
The evening was starting, and a thin carpet of snow covered the city. Collin made his way to his car, where he changed out of his armour behind the tinted glass, and drove home. Today, his work was over, he would be able to relax, and there'd be no more surprises.