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Foreboding 1.3

Three days.

That's how long it had taken Skidmark and the rest of the Merchants to realized that whoever was attacking them wasn't going to stop. Three days of constant attack every night from her Nightmares with her occasional personal intervention. Dozens of Merchants put into the hospital and scared half to death. Many wouldn't be walking again anytime soon while others were traumatized for life by the nightmares she set loose on them. But even with Mush's mauling and subsequent arrest two days ago there had still been no real reaction from the Merchants other than the occasional pistol which proved to be mostly useless against her Nightmares.

Boogeyman supposed she shouldn't be too surprised at Skidmark's delayed reaction, the man had probably been high on drugs so much he didn't even realize his gang was being bled out. Of course, it might have also had something to do with the fact that the PRT hadn't announced Mush's hospitalization to the public quite yet. She wasn't exactly sure what their logic was behind that, she would have thought they would want to announce to the world that they had "captured" a villain in order to bolster their PR.

Though Boogeyman couldn't deny that it had been useful to her. If Skidmark had moved earlier then she might not have gotten enough Nightmares to complete the next phase of her plan. The delayed reaction from Skidmark had given her enough time to gather some more strength and pad the numbers of her herd.

An hour or so ago she had found a stray Merchant that had been packing far more weaponry than any of his compatriots had before. After a little encouragement, she managed to get some information out of him. It appeared that in response to her attacks Skidmark had called a meeting and was planning on dealing with the threat. Merchants from all around their territory would be banding together to take her on.

It would have been rude of her to not oblige his challenge.

She watched with barely constrained anticipation as more and more Merchants slunk into the warehouse they were using for their meeting grounds. It was almost as run down as the one she was using, but none of the Merchants seemed particularly concerned about that. Judging by the fear rolling off of them they were all too glad to answer their leader's call after seeing so many of their fellows attacked.

"Wait for the signal," She said, pushing the command into the minds of her Nightmares. The demonic horses had multiplied in number the last few days, she had gone from a dozen or so to almost a hundred. Her own strength had grown as well, she was stronger, faster, and she was pretty sure she had grown an inch or two as well.

Her Nightmares neighed in response as they pawed the ground with their hooves in eager anticipation. This was the feast she had been promising. After this, they wouldn't be stuck to scavenging off lone drug dealers or isolated groups. She could feel at least forty or fifty gang members in the building, their individual fears coated the area in a thick fog to her senses, like smoke rising from a fire. Boogeyman could admit to herself that the thought of feeding off that many fears was appealing to her as well.

Her personal Nightmare, who she had chosen to name Phobia, brushed its snout against her arm while it neighed, hunger gnawing at its insides. Boogeyman absently patted its snout in a calming gesture. It might have been a mistake to give a name to a projection that would probably be destroyed in the coming days, but it gave her the illusion that she was actually talking to a real person and not a mindless drone.

"You'll all get your meal, but wait," Boogeyman reiterated. She didn't think it would be too much of an issue, the Nightmares had been following her instructions to the letter, but it was always better to be safe than sorry. She didn't want them to interrupt her while she was working.

Boogeyman allowed herself to become two-dimensional, nothing more than another shadow across the pavement. She clung to the dark edges around the few working streetlights, careful not to draw any attention to herself.

As a Merchant passed by she dived into his shadow, becoming indistinguishable as a shape other than a slightly darker spot. The smell of drugs and garbage clung to the homeless looking man like a second skin. She almost felt sorry for his sad state but it was quickly crushed under the revulsion she felt for his very being. He wasn't afraid of getting attacked or not having a roof over his head, all he was afraid off was not getting his next fix.

How many have you hurt for your abominable desires? Boogeyman thought with no small amount of contempt. People like him only cared about having their immediate desires satisfied, even if the city burned around them.

As they passed through the warehouse doors she found that the inside of the building was actually less lit up than the outside. She detached herself from the man's shadow and climbed up the walls, giving her a vantage point to look over the proceedings.

The Merchants had formed up into a huddled mass, whispering, and muttering and they jostled each other around nervously. Boogeyman couldn't make out what it was they were saying but she got the general idea- they were afraid.

"Listen up!" The man that took the makeshift wooden stage at the end of the warehouse looked like what someone would use for a PSA on drug use. His cheeks were sunken in and his gums and teeth were rotted out. She could see at least a dozen injections sites covering his rail thin arms. His eyes were bloodshot and wild, flickering around the room with sudden jerky movements.

Boogeyman was a tiny bit impressed, Skidmark actually looked worse than the PHO forums made him out to be.

His costume was laughably minimal, a simple mask that didn't even bother to cover his iris was strapped across his face. Squealer looked like she had a more coherent costume and all she was wearing was some stereotypical slut wear with a barely concealing tank top and a skirt that might have well not existed. Said Tinker had taken her place next to her boyfriend (and didn't that make the bile rise up in her nonexistent mouth of the thought of someone willingly kissing that face) and seemed content to stare out at the crowd and appeared to be rather lost in thought.

How have the Protectorate not caught them? Boogeyman wondered to herself. It wasn't like the Merchants were the Empire with over fifteen capes and international support or Lung who had fought an Endbringer to a standstill. They were a group of hedonists with only three capes that were capable of any appreciable damage and two of them needed time to build up to reach lethal levels.

"Some ass thinks he can take us on," Skidmark continued, oblivious as the rest of the building to the threat that lurked with them. The muttering in the assembled Merchants grew, the pitch of concern becoming sharper and more defined as their fears became more solid. They had all known that they were afraid of something, but having it admitted out loud, and by their leader no less made the fear they felt become more pronounced, more real.

"Now we gonna screw him up!" Skidmark shouted shrilly as he waved a sawed-off shotgun. Boogeyman watched as the Merchants began to shout incoherently at their leader's declaration, but she could still feel the fear hiding behind the thin layer of bravado.

This wasn't like the PRT and Protectorate making a move, or one of the other gangs muscling in on their territory as downtrodden as it was. They had no idea who was behind these attacks or what they were capable of. Her attacks had varied from viciously mauling her targets or breaking them down through psychological attacks until all that was left was a gibbering wreck afraid of their own shadow. None of the Merchants had ever dealt with something like this before and had absolutely no idea what the limits of her powers were, or if there might be worse fates in store for them.

The uncertainty clawed at their thoughts and influenced every action. As drug-addled as they were even the Merchants knew that calling forth a gathering this big would rain down punishment from the heroes and the villains. But they were afraid, and scared people didn't make decisions that were rational.

She could have left them like this, allowed them to go on their rampage and burn themselves out as the heroes beat them back and villains retaliated against their enterprises. But that would have left innocent civilians in harm's way and while the heroes were most certainly capable of allowing those they were obligated to protect be hurt for their own safety she wasn't. She was never going to allow a civilian to be willingly harmed by anything that she put into motion.

Even then there were other options, she could have slit Skidmark's throat while he was sleeping and be done with it, but this was bigger than just removing a single gang from play- this was a message. This was going to be her statement, that it didn't matter how many people they gathered or what powers they wielded, nothing was going to protect the gangs from her wrath. They would cower before her or fall.

Boogeyman stretched her form out and pinched one of the shadows of the flickering lights between her two of her adumbrated fingers. The group below her jumped back as the light sparked and died, bits of glass falling to the floor.

"What the f-"

Skidmark's explicative was cut off as Boogeyman crushed another light with her shadowy fingers, plunging even more of the room into darkness. Then she started laughing.

She could feel the fear of the Merchants spike as her bone chilling laughter filled the room, modulating from a small child's to an old man's voice and everything in-between. The tension grew as one of the more nervous Merchant's fired his pistol into the air. The small caliber round embedded itself in the ceiling, sending shards and splinters of wood to the floor. The brief muzzle flash revealed her shadowy form for all to see for the briefest of moments before fading back into the darkness.

"Get down here," Skidmark growled as he brandished his shotgun at the now dark ceiling, but he didn't activate his power. It made sense she supposed, from what she knew once he had placed his strips he couldn't move them, so trying to set them up for an enemy he couldn't see would have been an exercise in futility.

"Do you hear me?! Get down here so we can teach you what it means to mess with the Merchants," Skidmark growled out. Boogeyman could feel the assembled Merchant's bloodlust rise a bit at that declaration, but it was largely overshadowed by the fear that was consuming their minds. Idly she wondered if Skidmark actually thought that making that threat would really work when he obviously had no control over the situation.

Boogeyman allowed the light that illuminated the stage to remain intact if only for the next part. "Is that what you'll do Skidmark?" She hissed, her voice coming from everywhere and nowhere as she circled the stage just beyond the rim of the last light. The addict's cape name dripped with such contempt that Boogeyman was surprised the floor didn't melt underneath her at that moment.

"Babe…" Squealer tried to interject. She wrung her welding torch tightly as her heart rate soared. Boogeyman could feel the vulnerability that Squealer felt for being so exposed to an unknown cape without her tinker tech assistance.

"Not now," Skidmark said through grit teeth. He put on a good show for his followers but Boogeyman could see the sweat on his brow and the dilation of his eyes. He was just as afraid as the rest of them. Good.

"Is that what you'll do? Teach me a lesson?" Boogeyman said in an imitation of Skidmark's voice. She relished the flinch that the man tried to suppress.

"You've made a big mistake coming here," Skidmark said as his grip on his gun tightened. "We gonna beat you down ain't we boys?" But instead of the resounding cheers that he had surely been expecting all he got were a few halfhearted responses as the Merchants nervously shuffled in place.

Boogeyman chuckled, "Now Skidmark, how are you going to fight something you can't see?"

Skidmark fired off a shotgun blast into the darkness. It missed Boogeyman by a mile, but the group of Merchants that had been standing too close to the stage weren't so lucky. Boogeyman watched with a cool detachment as they fell to the ground screaming, choking on blood and lead. Those closest to them and the stage started to back up.

"Who do you think you are," Skidmark shouted, spittle flying out from his mouth. Boogeyman allowed her shadowy form to enter the light and cling to the wall. She heard gaps as she inflated herself to be as big as possible, towering over the assembled Merchants. Skidmark shot off another shotgun shell into her form, but she was too intangible for it to actually do anything other than smashing the wood beneath her.

"Tell me Skidmark," Boogeyman hissed. As said parahuman backed up, desperately trying to load another shell she retook her physical form on the stage. Skidmark raised the half loaded shotgun, to do what with it, she wasn't sure, but she didn't give herself the opportunity to find out instead she formed a whip out of her sand and knocked him off the stage with a deafening crack.

"Baby," Squealer shouted in alarm as she raced over to her boyfriend. Skidmark's shirt had been ripped open by the whip, and a long angry mark was left across his chest. Boogeyman gave them the most disturbing slasher smile she could muster and judging by their elevated heart rates it was pretty good.

"Do you believe in the Boogeyman?"

At that moment the doors to the warehouse burst open as her small army of Nightmares made their entrance. There were so many of them that they became a single indistinguishable mass of sand and shadow as they crashed into the assembled Merchants. Boogeyman grinned as the fear that they had so been desperately trying to conceal revealed itself in the form of their panicked screams. A few of the slightly braver, or perhaps dumber, ones tried to fight the back mass of demonic horses.

It didn't end well for them. The small caliber fire they unloaded into the herd was nothing more than an annoyance and none of the melee weapons they had could hit the horses with enough force to disperse them. One of the Merchants that had a shotgun managed to get off a hit and made one of the Nightmares collapse into a pile of dust as dozens of tiny pellets ripped through the beast's head. The Merchant's victory fell short as two more Nightmare charged forward to replace their fallen comrade. They fell screaming as the Nightmares descended upon them, eager to feed off the fear of so many.

Boogeyman could see that a few of the smarter and more cowardly Merchants were trying to make an escape, but they were cut short as another group of Nightmares surrounded them, their glowing yellow eyes daring them to try something.

"I'm gonna kill you!"

"Ah right, Skidmark," Boogeyman mentally chastised herself for getting so caught up in the buffet that she had ignored her actual targets.

Skidmark had lost his shotgun, but he seemed undeterred as he stared her down. The fear that he was feeling towards her and the Nightmares was now largely overshadowed by his rage. His eyes were bloodshot, veins nearly pulsing along his arms as he tried to grind what few teeth he had left to demonstrate the sheer rolling ball of anger that was eating away at his insides.

"I'm gonna kill you," the addicted shaker shouted again. It might have been a bit intimidating if his arms weren't like built like twigs and his clothing wasn't about half a size too big for him. It was like watching a Chihuahua bark at a Great Dane. Humorous to be certain, but there was really only one way it was going to end. She had put far too much effort into this to be stopped by someone like Skidmark.

Boogeyman smiled, revealing her fang-like off colored teeth that seemed to shine in the faint lighting of the warehouse. "You can try."

Skidmark roared at her dismissal of his threat, his arms shaking in fury. Boogeyman watched as a strip of blue energy appeared midair between the two of them. It was thin, barely the thickness of a piece of paper, but then another one was layered on top of it, then another, and another…

Boogeyman could feel the force that the strips were exerting start increasing as Skidmark layered more and more on top of each other. She quickly moved to her shadow form and felt the pressure that had been building up on her chest evaporate.

Her form slithered under the power strips and Skidmark's legs. Even as she erupted into physical form once again she willed her sand to form a scythe that was about as tall as she was yet was virtually weightless. Its black grains seemed to draw in the surrounding light and its serrated edges appeared sharp enough to cut through solid rock. As it swung, whistling through the air Boogeyman shifted her stance slightly, adjusting her aim for the man's exposed neck.

What happened next surprised her.

Perhaps Skidmark wasn't as stupid as his appearance suggested or perhaps he just had good survival instincts, but as the edge of the blade sliced through the air, the Merchant leader allowed himself to fall to the ground. What should have been a killing blow swung over the Merchant's prone body and threw Boogeyman off balance as the resistance that she had been anticipating from the man's spine vanished.

It was all she could do to keep herself from falling over as Skidmark rolled back up to his feet, his discarded shotgun in hand, mouth stretched into a sadistic grin.

"Bye-bye," he said as he squeezed the trigger.

Boogeyman didn't even have time to blink as a twelve-gauge shotgun round blasted into her chest. Her chest ignited in fiery agony as she fell to the ground gasping for breath. Her scythe shattered into a million grains of sand as her concentration lapsed even as the shards of metal that had embedded themselves in her flesh were pushed out. As she laid stunned on the floor Skidmark approached her with a swagger to his step.

"Now what were you going to do?" he asked with a mocking smile as he waved the shotgun in her face. Boogeyman's eyes narrowed as she pushed past the pain to glare at the Merchant. Despite himself, Skidmark took a step back at the sight of a glare that was as cold and chilling as a Siberian night. His palms were greased in sweat as he adjusted his grip on his gun, making sure to aim directly at her skull.

"Don't you try-"

Skidmark was cut off as Boogeyman allowed herself to lose her physical form once more and become nothing more than an intangible shadow. Skidmark let loose the second round in the chamber, but all it did was temporarily blind him as rock and cement blasted out from the impact sight and into his face, completely ignoring the cape before him.

Boogeyman took her physical form a few feet in front of him as she clutched her chest. The pain that had come from the shotgun blast was gone, proving her theory that she was getting more durable, though she would have preferred have tested it in some other way.

Getting shot hurt.

Though she supposed that would have killed her if she had been weaker so she should probably count herself lucky.

At any rate, this wasn't time to analyze her powers, not in the heat of battle. She reformed her scythe as Skidmark finished wiping his eyes of any debris. Boogeyman saw them widen as her curved blade swung forward in its deadly arc. The Merchant instinctively raised his hands to shield his more valuable head from injury even as he started to back up.

A futile gesture.

Skidmark fell to the ground screaming as he clutched the empty stump that had once been his right hand while his shotgun clattered to the floor uselessly. His shrill screams mixed in rather nicely with all of the other screaming Merchants.

Boogeyman approached him slowly, confidently, hiding the fact that his surprise attack had spooked her. She towered over the fallen parahuman as tears and snot streaked down his face, mixing into a salty mucus liquid even as more precious blood erupted from his severed stump.

"Now what was it you were going to do Adam?" she asked with a vicious sneer. Her nose wrinkled a bit at the smell of ammonia and she had to forcibly keep herself from rolling her eyes at the dark stain spreading down his trousers. She could feel the fear rolling off of him in waves as his fright-filled eyes stared at her. She could almost physically feel his heart trying to burst out his chest as he tried to scoot backwards to escape from her wrath. She could still feel the anger and indignation of her actions, but it was completely dominated by his overwhelming fear of her.

And thus the true drug lord of Brocton Bay revealed his true self, not a merciless coldhearted killer, but a coward lashing out at the world around him.

"W-wha'do want," Skidmark managed to get out through the choked sobs of pain that wracked his body.

Boogeyman only smirked.

"Your head."

She gave him a split second to realize what she was about to do before she swung her blade. She could see his eyes widening and his lips opening in half formed pleads for mercy but she ignored them. People like him didn't deserve mercy.

Blood splattered the ground as his head rolled away from his body, his terror filled expression frozen on his face forever. The Merchant's body twitched a bit as if it hadn't realized it was dead yet and was still trying to complete the last thing it had been trying to do. But as more blood squirted out from his nonexistence neck and dominant hand it slumped to the ground completely.

Perhaps not as satisfying as breaking him down piece by piece until nothing remained but an empty shell, but such efforts would have been lost on the man. All he understood was pain and violence and so she obliged him. The part of her that had once been Taylor Hebert seemed to churn at the sight of the dead man but she ignored it. Skidmark had been a disease eating away at the city without any thought for those he harmed. The world would be better off without his taint.

Boogeyman turned back towards the chaos behind her. The Merchants that were the closest to her and had witnessed what she had just done to their leader were cowering on the ground as her Nightmares surrounded them. A few more of the Merchants looked like they still had some fight in their eyes, but a quick growl from a Nightmare or two was enough to subdue them into submission. There was more than one body that was clearly dead, one looked like her Nightmares had gotten a little too eager in trying send him into a state of terror through the removal of nonessential body parts and one looked like he had just dropped dead. As she took a rough count of the Merchants she wondered if he had literally died of fear. She was curious to what his autopsy would show.

It was then as she examined the Merchants who had surrendered that she noticed someone in particular was missing.

"Where's Squealer?"

There was a roar like thunder and half a second later part of the building collapsed as the lovechild of a monster truck and a tank erupted through the wreckage. It wheels were beyond massive, towering over her by a good four feet. Decorative spikes shot out from the rims while even more were placed along the haphazardly placed armor that covered the mechanical monstrosity. A single massive cannon barrel hovered menacingly over the vehicle's main body like something out of a science fiction fantasy movie. Boogeyman held back a wince at the screams of the unfortunate Merchants and Nightmares that were caught in Squealer's path, crushed underneath the massive wheels of the metal eyesore.

"…never mind."

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