A/N: I am a writing machine...with block. This is my first action scene in...ever, I think. And writing someone who's only creative strength is in swears. Spoiler alert, Skidmark may be a little less colorful than he should be.
Also, I've discovered a benefit of teasers on Spacebattles-the board often has better ideas than you. Thanks Ryune.
Alecto 2.3
The next part of Operation Goods Devaluation (wow, Clockblocker was rubbing off) was what was supposed to be stealthily taking positions for a surprise attack.
What actually happened was that the next part was convincing Glory Girl that stealthily taking positions was actually more rewarding than a full frontal attack in the long term.
This was about as difficult as it sounded.
"What do you mean, wait?"
"Funnily enough, we mean waiting by wait." I was actually cradling my forehead now. "Not all of us are invincible-"
"I am!"
"...And frankly we're worried about the Merchants suing us."
"So? It's not like they'd hold up in court. They were healed by sis and they're the guys working for a serial killer with an incredibly nasty MO."
"Ritualistic killer," Aegis piped up, sounded just as resigned to this as I felt. "Not a serial yet. And it still pisses off Piggot."
"The sky stubbornly remaining blue pisses off Piggot," Panacea chimed in. I had to agree there.
"Thing is, though? It's pretty well-known that Adrasteia planned this out, and furthermore that Gallant let non-Wards come along again," he said as he glared at the at-fault teammate, "so I'm already breaching protocol, and you know very well that a breached protocol to the Director is as blood to a shark."
Victoria was fuming now, though careful to avoid releasing her aura. "Well, so what? I'm a good outside cape, and I get the sense she's smart, so what does the Pig care!?"
"Because I'm new," I guessed. "Really new."
Both Dallons looked at me in surprise. "Really?"
"Really really new," I finished. "As in, was revealed two days ago new."
"You were!?" Amy did a quick scan of my costume. "Well, I guessed, but…you were openly revealed two days ago and this is your first mission?"
"The second, actually," I admitted. "The first was the investigation. By all rights, I shouldn't be the brains of the operation, I was just given the time of day because I made that many notes and plans."
Aegis shrugged. "She's good at preparation, as far as I can tell."
"Well, that explains why we hadn't heard of you," Glory Girl winced slightly. "Minor villain group called the Undersiders have been acting up, we tried to investigate."
"Emphasis on tried," Panacea finished. "All we got was that they're guarding shipments for some mysterious patron these days, and have embarked on a petty crime spree to distract anybody who's tailing the escorts. Like us."
Undersiders. That named jogged a memory. "Win? Weren't those the 'phantom trolls' you were complaining about?"
"Yep, those phantoms." Kid Win looked annoyed even at their name. "Thing is, they never get directly involved, one of them shows up to trip some security systems in a high-risk, high-value target and then run far before we ever get the alert, but leaving blatant evidence they were there. Things like a member waving at the vault camera before leaving or a graffiti saying G+T+R+B Declaration 1: KICK ME on the back of the bank president's favorite suit. Something that shines like a signal flare despite no violent or larcenous crime being committed."
"Hence, we think that they're trying to distract us for when the shipments are shuffled around." Victoria finished. "Of course, we managed to corner Grue, the leader-"
"You did?" I said, suddenly interested.
"...except the darkness he generates dampens powers, and the guard who was helping us is a severe nyctophobe who needed the bravery aura really bad." She sighed. "Amy and I thought his entrails were being pulled out through his skull the way he was screaming, and while we were distracted, Grue shows off his magician skills and makes himself disappear."
Hm, that sounded a bit too lucky to be unintentional. I pulled out my notebook and wrote down Grue's power. "Anybody on the Undersiders who can puzzle out fears and timetables?"
Panacea looked thoughtful. "Actually...there might be, but if so we haven't found him or her. Best ideas are either Tattletale or whoever R is, we know Bi-sorry, Hellhound's power already."
I looked up, amused. "Not a nice girl, I presume?"
"No, I mean her self-chosen name is Bitch. Hellhound is the PC term."
Clockblocker snickered. "Believe me, I've run that joke to the ground already."
I made a quick note to investigate Tattletale's known crime scenes and to research the parahuman-known-also-as-Hellhound, before putting away my notes.
"So, back to the matter at hand, it's going to come out that the greenest of green members was one of the authors of the attack plan sooner or later, and you were invited along without Aegis' knowledge. If things go even more off the rails, the janitorial staff is going to be very grateful if you get my meaning."
It took her a second to catch on, before nodding. "Okay, we do it your way, if only for Gallant's sake. Hate to imagine smelling him after having to scour a toilet for weeks."
"Good." And a really good point actually. I'd hate to smell me.
Thankfully, The Part of The Plan That Was Originally Step One went off fairly well. Yes, Glory Girl was awkward when trying to move quietly and out of sight, but Panacea, as part of being a pacifist who usually found herself near violence, proved to be an excellent guide.
"Oof!"
"Sorry sis. Trying to avoid the-"
Crunch.
"..Soda can. Who leaves those a head height?"
I wasn't sure if the sigh I heard was Panacea, me, or another Ward. We only had one spare radio, and given how Victoria was probably the one we'd need to relay orders to more, we gave it to her.
Which meant that she pocket dialed it after last call. And that meant the entire network was on, due to the same reason for rotating therapists: PRT Competent Preparation, trademark.
Having a friendly guide to the fine art of stealth to someone who was hard to miss when sleeping (and groundbound by necessity of the guide's power set). At least Aegis caught on to this and assigned her to the back row, far away from where her catlike tread would possibly ruin the mission.
"Radio's on," Vista muttered.
It took Victoria a second to apparently realize where her voice was coming from. "Shit, sorry." Then silence.
I briefly considered calling her up again to complain, but it was a waste of effort. Besides, I was nearly in the Merchant warehouse.
"..and I'm saying, what are you talking out of your ass about now? Elf-fucker says she's, and I am quoting here, 'humbly offering a slightly different deal, one that both of us will find profitable," like she's some kind of Darth Bitch…"
And if the briefing was correct, the head honcho was on his patrol.
I switched on the radio. "I've got Skidmark's voice," I whispered.
"Sure it's him?" said Aegis.
I held the walkie-talkie towards the swearing for a second.
"And then Little Miss Dicktip Ears gives that shit-eating smirk of hers, and…"
"Confirmed. Could you get a better view?"
Thankful for the apparent soundless landing I apparently knew how to do, I winged up to the top floor of an abandoned tenement farther away from the warehouse and took out my binoculars.
"Visual confirmation on Skidmark. He's talking to Mush on the west side."
"The battlefield control and the big-scale brawler," said Clockblocker. "Sounds...actually intelligent. Skidmark creates an arena for Mush to pulverize people in. Apparently they have nootropics there."
"...What?" came the confused voice of Gallant.
"Neural enhancers," I said. "Something that makes you smarter."
"Huh. Think I could swipe a couple for the next test?"
"Leaving aside the idiots, want me to get them?" came the voice of my nemesis.
"Take the shot, Stalker," said Aegis.
Through my binoculars, I saw Sophia's shadow form jump to the rooftop of a building about a block from mine, readying her crossbows for easy fire one after the other. Seemed she planned to get them both in two shots.
True to the terms of the deal, I hadn't really seen that much of her after our big fight. Just passing by on my way to tests and training, trying very hard to ignore the other. I tried to put her out of mind, focus on her raw competence as a hero in prep for this moment, but years of ruthless bullying didn't go away in a month and a week.
Surprisingly, I didn't feel the need to quietly mock her, though a dark part of me hoped she'd miss on at least one.
No such (lack) of luck.
Skidmark and Mush whirled around, the Merchants' leader opening his mouth to say something that would probably melt my ears before his eyes crossed and he fell over, followed by his crony, spewing what debris he had managed to pick up in the couple of seconds before the Tinker-made toxin got to work.
Sophia made a blowing noise over the radio, as she held a crossbow to her face for presumably my benefit. "Hey, don't look now, but it's jackass season. Watch your back, donkeys."
"More like giant targets," I felt slip out.
"Adrasteia, cut it out," Aegis snapped. "You may hate her, but she's also the barrier between you and the grim reaper, so rub that monarch of yours and get back to the raid."
"Oof! What was that for, Vista?"
"To stop the joke you were about to say. Don't encourage them."
I bit my tongue for the team's sake, and was a little surprised when Shadow Stalker remained silent through all of this.
"Okay, so Skidmark and one half of the Merchants' thug squad is down. We advance?"
"I'd say," said Aegis. "Okay, so here's the plan-"
"Vic, what are you doing?"
Everyone stopped for a second at Gallant's voice. Looking at his general area, I saw a certain blonde teenager floating up to the window.
"Glory Girl, stop it," Aegis said.
Glory Girl gave no indication of hearing him. Instead, Panacea's voice came over the line.
"Um, don't look now, but sis said that since you gave the order to advance…"
I felt a migraine forming. "Gallant, I know you're a sweet guy and all, but can you be less of a pushover when your girlfriend's involved? It might save your relationship someday." I groaned. "Alright, here's the contingency I made on the way here…"
I had expected total chaos after Glory Girl was introduced, and I was not surprised.
I was surprised she had crushed Squealer's car first. My recent experiences with her had convinced me she had the mind of an ox in more than one way, none of them complimentary. One enemy down, and the living sore on the rear of feminism (who wears the kind of thing she was currently?) knew it. She had actually put on the handcuffs Victoria had thrown her before crouching in a corner to await pickup.
Unfortunately, her foresight only extended so far, as evidenced by one guy who was apparently so stoned he didn't notice Trainwreck charging over him to get at spare machine parts to form his robot arms with.
"Panacea, you're on," I muttered into radio.
"Got it."
I flipped my faceplate on and extended the tranq injector in my spear.
First shot. Ham voice: On.
"Trainwreck, you are already defeated. Surrender now, for your scent had been caught by-"
I felt an impact on my wing, shaped like a box. So that didn't work. Oh well, it was a prototype "Big Entrance" anyway.
"So, you're that 'Inescapable' bitch," said a voice I assumed was Trainwreck's. "Heh. You look more like a lost cosplayer than-FUCK!"
Ah, first shot connected. I lifted my wing to give a thumbs up to Kid Win.
The arm Win blasted was easily repaired by a bit from what looked like Squealer's workshop, minus arm gun. I forgot the hand signal for "attack", but thankfully experience overcame young talent here, as he quickly opened fire on the array of parts. Aegis came through a window, carrying Vista. He joined the fight after setting her down on a stable ledge. Gallant and Clockblocker charged in the back door next, with the latter creating cover from a convenient tarp for the other to duck in and out of. Shadow Stalker came up next on her own ledge, gearing up for another snipe job.
I knew all this, because I was under explicit orders to avoid getting involved and instead observe team dynamics in a real world situation, only backing up if called upon and getting civilians out of the way. Seeing as how Panacea was right on Team Gallant's tail and doing a perfectly good job of that herself, I just brooded and observed. Travails of the Newbie, I guessed, and I really didn't want to push my new member privileges than I already had.
Trainwreck was a surprisingly more intelligent combatant than I would ascribe to the Merchants, in that he fought with any degree of cunning or tactical acumen. And I had to admit, he had some pretty good ideas about the whole thing. After being hit by Kid Win, the addition after repairing his arms was a pair of car doors to serve as armor for his torso (I could hear Sophia curse over the line when that happened). Next, he rushed for Squad Gallant, apparently realizing both members were the bigger threat that he could actually injure.
Of course, the term "damn with faint praise" was applicable. He apparently didn't realize that, thanks to Vista, he was moving hilariously slow. Not unlike a cartoon representation of slipping on ice from my perspective.
So, I just decided to settle in on my railing perch, an oddly birdlike mannerism, and-
I felt the railing shake as Glory Girl punched a support holding the roof over Trainwreck. Huh. Great minds thought ali-the hell!?
Beneath the rapidly crumbling roof, a junkie, a rather sad looking fellow who didn't seem aware that there were other people around him, let alone a fight.
I wasn't even aware I had taken to the air until I was dragging the guy out of the way. Not quickly enough, but enough to save his life.
A blood-curdling scream signified that his lower half wouldn't be so lucky under normal circumstances.
"Panacea!"
"Oh God. Here we go again…"
As I helped Amy and Aegis (apparently he heard the guy) dig out the junkie's lower half, my mind internally repeated what she just muttered.
Here we go...again?
"The fuck was that, Gloryhole?"
Amy had stabilized the guy's vitals and was now working on his nervous system. The problem with that was that a bit of roof had somehow managed to get into his leg, hence why Panacea was taking longer than normal; she had to fish that out somehow.
Which gave me ample time to chew out Victoria. In my estimation, she deserved that nickname right about now.
She bristled. "Well, I didn't see him-"
"You could have checked!"
"So, I didn't. But you saved his brain, so Amy's fixing him, no problem-"
"Which brings me to my next point…"
I pointed my spear at Panacea for emphasis. "When I called for her, she was complaining about this happening...again. Care to explain?"
Victoria looked unusually shifty. "Well...er…"
Even without the smell of growing deception, I could sense the reluctance to answer that question at all. "This happened before how many times?"
"...Once or twice (lie)?"
Somehow, I managed to shove back the power of the Hebert Clan Tirade until I got the context.
"I. Can. Smell. That. Lie," I growled.
"Um…"
She looked away.
"Look, I don't know my own strength a lot of the time, and-"
"That guy could've died!" I shouted. "You don't get to go 'shit, my bad' and give a half-assed apology!"
"But sis is there! She can fix anybody I hurt!"
I had a sudden epiphany about how Glory Girl operated. I felt the acid streak down my face. "She can fix-she can fix!? Vicky, newsflash: You. Are. A superhero. Not some two-bit action lead who gets to brood about hard women making hard decisions and then being praised by the narrative for being morally right the whole time!"
Victoria looked up, eyes narrowing. "Says the wannabe villain whose plan revolves around being a coward!"
Okay, that did it. I held up a claw. "First-I wasn't the planner, Aegis was, being, oh, our leader and all, I just advised when he was asking around the table and I was the only one who piped up. Second…"
I leaned closer. "We were acting stealthy to prevent exactly this! If you hadn't shown up, this guy would have been scouted long before the attack and we would have lead the Merchants out of a zone of potential collateral damage instead of charging in like a fucking lemming!"
"Well," she said, meeting my gaze behind the visor, "You're new to being a hero, but I have a mom who's a superhero, and she'd never-"
"Yeah, she'd never." My Medusas were hissing now. "But I'm not Brandish. I'm also not rich, I don't have a cape parent, and I don't even have a mom-"
She looked a little shocked at that, before she turned back to her expression back to a scowl. "Well then, you don't understand what it's like to have that pressure of not disappointing your Dad then if you're at all selfish-"
"Your life has its own celebrity columns following it!" I couldn't hold back the Rant anymore. "There are WEB PAGES dedicated to following your every move, and you GO ON RECORD stating you love the attention!"
She was getting mad again. "Well, excuse me if I kind of feel like acting heroic for said columns instead of sneaking around to stab people in the back-"
I was going to hate myself for this later, but she needed to have some sense slapped into her. "Yes, because acting heroic solves so many more problems than being restrained." I pointed at the wing still regenerating from Panacea's emergency reallotment.
Victoria suddenly turned very red and looked down at her feet. "...I see your point," she said sullenly, as I caught my own scent again. I just hoped I hadn't ruined a potential alliance here, with Amy especially.
Or was going to. "No. No, I don't think you do."
I flipped open the helmet to reveal my acid tears. No pose this time, I was doing this for her, even if it hurt.
"Take a look at him, Vic. Take a good long look."
The image was rapidly losing its effect due to Amy finally getting the shrapnel out, but the unfortunate's body was still twisted.
"See that? See that guy, who if it wasn't for your sister may have been, I don't know, parapalegic for the rest of his life?"
"Imagine if that was Gallant. Or Amy."
Glory Girl looked taken aback by this. The man groaned as Panacea jerked up in surprise at the venom in my words.
"Actually, you don't have to imagine it right now, because the way it's going? That's exactly what's going to happen. You're going to make a stupid mistake someday, and your maid won't be there to save you from your own idiocy, either because she's somewhere else fixing a different mistake or because she's the victim. You'll cry, you'll beg, you'll be desperate for someone to clean up your mess, but guess what? Nobody's going to clean up your mess like they have a hundred times before in your spoiled little rich girl world, and then maybe it will get through that golden ball of yarn you call a brain that there is such a thing as cause and effect, and then maybe you'll understand my position a little better."
The druggie finished healing, and Amy rushed in. "Hey, hey I fixed him there's no need to get up in arms about it-"
"Stop defending her."
The younger Dallon paled a little bit and backed off.
"You know how I triggered? How I became a monster?"
I didn't wait for an answer. "I. Killed. Someone."
A small gasp from both.
"I was trying to protect someone from harm, to stop a villain, just like you, and guess what? Through no intention of my own, I ended up taking someone's life. I don't care if he deserved it or not, I don't care if it was justified, but Taylor Hebert became a murderer, and dear God why don't you know this already?"
I advanced. "Nevermind. The point is, I've tried to walk away from that, to be a purer person, a better person, but I still can't justify what I did to myself. The Sphinx was a person, even if an evil one, and I still can feel the blood on my hands when I wake up sometimes from my nightmares. That I did it to protect someone else is probably the only reason I'm still sane."
I locked my eyes with her, ignoring the forming tears. "Now, how would you deal with it, I wonder? How would little Victoria Dallon, whose worst experience in her entire fucking life was agoddamn basketball game, one she jokes about how silly it was in retrospect, deal with the death of someone, though her negligence, she caused? Someone close to her, because she was so reckless that she didn't bother to hold back and think like a human instead of a rabid bear for once in her life!?"
I was nearly touching her nose with mine now. "So, here's a little message from someone who has actually been there; Grow. Up."
She was in full cry now, and I didn't bother telling her to turn off her aura. I think I made my point.
It calmed me down though, and I already felt remorse over the whole thing. I didn't want to undo my little chewing out though, so I instead turned to a shocked Panacea. "I'm sorry you had to see that."
Her eyes narrowed as she put a hand on her sobbing sister's back. "You didn't have to go there."
I didn't have an answer for that.
As I strode back to the other Wards, the healer in question glaring at me reproachfully and the scent of bullying wafted behind me, I caught Shadow Stalker out of the corner of my eye, lurking in her corner.
I could have sworn she was beaming behind her mask.
I could also swear that I had not felt more ashamed of myself in my entire life combined than in that one moment.
The time from my outburst to exiting the building passed in silence. The Wards minus Shadow Stalker were apparently too shocked at how I truly lost my temper at someone they ostensibly liked, I felt too guilty to talk to Glory Girl about it, Panacea was too angry at me for reducing her big sister to tears, and Sophia...yeah, I wasn't going to talk to her in a million years about it.
Apart from that though, everything was okay. Clockblocker had frozen the dazed Trainwreck, and I was waiting with a tranq powerful enough to overcome whatever speed-alike he was on with a little help from Gallant. Nobody else was seriously injured, and Squealer was still waiting (im)patiently to be arrested, so I supposed the mission was a success.
Then we exited.
The first thing we noticed was that Skidmark was gone. Mush was still there, but it wouldn't be at all surprising that he left his team behind. Almost immediately the team formed a defensive circle around Amy.
Then we noticed the "incoming call" light on the walkie-talkie. Aegis switched it on.
"M-m-mayyy-day…." my driver's fractured voice sounded over the connection. "L-location f-f-found...p-poison a-a-arrow…"
Amy was the first to comprehend what came over. "Which direction?"
As quickly as we could in a defensive circle with Aegis as aerial lookout, we ran over to the van.
There were three things of note. First, was of course, the driver, who had an arrow sticking out of his side and was twitching rapidly, apparently in cocaine overdose. Amy was able to calm him pretty quickly, though his eyes were still lolling. No brains, and I hoped that limit wouldn't cause him to have a stroke or something.
The second was the broken left window of the van, almost like a bullet rather than an arrow.
The third, and most pressing, was Skidmark.
Or more properly, what was left of Skidmark. Still enough to look at us with terrified, pleading eye (in the singular), though I wondered if that wasn't a sign of fate being a cruel bitch.
After the first guy was stable, Amy ran over to the charred drug dealer and attempted to use what mass he had left to save him. She didn't show any sign of nausea, unlike either her sister or any Ward, including me.
As his vocal cords healed, a bit of blood dribbled out his mouth. "B-bitch...t-t-turned on me. Cu...crazy. Put...h-h-heater e-element in…"
Phwp.
And with that, Skidmark was put out of his misery by an arrow.
"Rubbish. And I was really hoping you'd be number two. Peasants can't even manage to die properly...Oh well, there's always other sacrifices."
Everyone spun around to face the owner of the soft, almost lyrical voice, who I swore wasn't there until a second ago.
"At the very least, I can wonder what a great avenue of research you'll be, quick. I wonder how you'd interact with necromancy.."
The first thing that struck me about the longbow-wielding psychopath wasn't the anachronistic diaphanous gown she was wearing, like some kind of fairy tale princess. It wasn't the unearthly beauty that nonetheless had a rugged, somewhat muscular tone to it. It wasn't even the pointed ears.
It was the complete lack of anything resembling sanity in her bemused smirk. Or compassion. In fact, the expression was one more of a casual visitor to an art museum, admiring the portraits despite the mangled corpse she assisted in making.
The fact said dress was stained with what looked like charred flesh really didn't help her first impression.
Aegis was the first to recover. "You...you did this?"
"How uncouth!" The "elf" whipped around to look at the team leader with a mildly offended expression. "When addressing a noble, a person of low position is meant to use the honorifics 'your serenity', 'my lady', 'most honorable', or even 'madam'! Your world has backslid from its halcyon days. Nay, I daresay you are quite barbarous in this decadent culture."
"Barbarous this!"
Glory Girl flew at the elf, rearing back…
And impacted an invisible wall. She drew back, shocked at being stopped more than anything.
The elf sniffed. "Admirable cunning, but I am of my Grandfather's kin in mind as well as flesh. Please allow me to make some pleasantries before our combat, hm? My arrows cannot penetrate this either, and before you inquire I invoked this spell before I began speaking."
Victoria growled, but withdrew.
The elf turned back to the main party. "I am impressed enough by the attempt at ingenuity, however, that I am willing to cede you that as a sign of naivete rather than rudeness. Yes, I am the responsible party for that brigand's demise and attempted sacrifice to Lord Haagenti. I wish curry his liege's favor in my attempts to rid myself of dependency on the strange craftsmen of this world. Tinkers, I believe they are officially termed?"
All right, she was batshit, too. I detected a rather familiar scent too, but I probably wanted confirmation just in case my Medusas weren't admissible in court. "My lady, forgive me, but I could not help but recall something that appears to have beeen your handiwork?" Dear god I felt like a complete tool even thinking that. If it wasn't for the person I was speaking too, I probably couldn't keep a straight face.
The elf examined me. "Hm...Do you prefer Adrasteia or Hebert, serenity?"
I blinked a little in surprise. "Er, Adrasteia, in costume."
"The answer is yes, Lady Adrasteia," she said in an almost obscenely casual tone, as if she was discussing some rather pleasant weather rather than the gruesome murders of at least two people. "I am indeed the party responsible for the ritualized death of Elder Roberts, and the attempted ritual of Mister," she rolled her eyes a little, "Skidmark."
I immediately discovered there were people in the world I hated more than Sophia. "Elder Roberts." Like he should be honored to have his corpse mutilated to satisfy the delusions of a sociopath.
Apparently the elf picked up on my growing disgust for her. "Oh, don't be so condemnatory, sister. You share the same link to the Lower Planes as myself, after all. I dare say I deserve it more than you, who have it by sheer accident of inheritance."
Those last few words hit my ears like a freight train.
Clockblocker said what I was thinking. "...Sister?"
The elf looked up in surprise, then gave an airy laugh before holding her head in a silly me gesture. "Oh, not in that sense! It is merely an honorific among those of us who share the immortal blood of King Azrai. She wasn't even a distant cousin until quite recently."
Azrai.
The name of the god I was in my dreams.
"You...have those dreams...too?"
The elf's eyebrows rose. "You are a naif, are you not? But I suppose that is to be expected."
The Wards looked just as befuddled as I was. There was a moment of utter silence before the elf suddenly grinned apologetically.
"I am also a complete hypocrite. I have yet to introduce myself!" She curtseyed. "I am Marchioness Danita Kusor, Kin to Shadow and Daughter of Azrai. Most, however, call me by my awnshegh title, the Chimaera. It is an honor to meet you."
A/N: Annnnd...Cliffhanger!
Also, no religions were meant offense by use of "Elder" as a title for sacrifices to demon lords. I just saw it was a title for missionaries, and thought it was an appropriately creepy way to refer to the "honored" position of sacrifice to curry favor from demonic patrons. If there are any who were offended, I apologize.
(And now I remember it might be that Panacea is actually older than Glory Girl. She seems a lot younger, so if that's a mistake I'll leave it in, but I want to make sure that it is or not).
