Interlude: Horn
Late 2009, Paramaribo
Water flowed through the streets, several feet high. Walter looked around. Most of the capes, some local, some protectorate, were up to their waist in water. He was not, he'd grown thick sturdy platforms under his feat. His real feet started two meters above the ground, and he was growing by the minute. The structures surrounding his feet were separate, allowing for a clumsy, but high velocity, walk forward.
The beast was close. He could see its position by both the armband that had been provided, and the beams and rays send towards it from the sky.
"It's coming, you ready?" A heavily accented voice said. He looked at his shoulder, it, too, covered in the horns. Standing on it was one of the local capes, he was wearing a costume better described as being made out of bones, than as being made out of cloth. A supervillain, or did that make him a hero? He remembered Jack saying something about capes in South America, but couldn't quite remember what it was.
"As I'll ever be", he replied. Quickly adding to the growth of horns around his face, which was the thinnest area right now.
Leviathan appeared from behind a building. Covered in ichor, his afterimage filled the street behind him with more water. The beast had a decision to make. It could go right, where a tinker had set up some sort of trap, or left, where he would meet it head-on. Horn checked his body one more time. Full coverage, more than a metres worth of brambly outgrowths in most places, more at the base of his feet. He slowly managed to move his arms forward, ready to meet Leviathan.
The beast cheated. It went neither left nor right on the T-split. It ran forward, up the buiding in front of it. Horn could see an intense blue orb thrown from the shoulder of his form towards Leviathan. The beast roared when the slow-moving projectile hit, and whipped out its tail towards him.
A swift movement of the lump of horns that surrounded his arms blocked the water, keeping the cape safe.
At the same time, Alexandria appeared from the top of the building, smashing the beat downwards into the street. It took that as a cue to choose a different direction, and started on a mad dash towards Horn.
The cape on his shoulder readied a new orb, holding it in front of them , rather than shoving it forward. Sadly, it had had less than a second to grow brighter, when Leviathan smashed into the two of them. Horn tried to move his arms, bending them around the sides of the beast, and tried to grow a cage around it.
The cape on his shoulder fell down when Leviathan started struggling. Horn could only dimly hear his armband. Blauwster down. BD-8.
The Horns sprouting from his arms had grown around Leviathan, the beast locked in place by an everexpanding growth. But it's physical strength wasn't the problem. The problem was the afterimage. Water kept pouring out of Leviathan's body, and while the thrashing didn't damage more than two or three layers of Horns growths, the water flowed right through the gaps. Sure, it didn't flow very fast, but he was still at risk of drowning.
Still, he held on. He couldn't give up to this beast. He'd promised himself he wouldn't give up again, no matter what the challenge. His power helped with that, he thought. After all, he could always get bigger.
The horns kept growing, he'd given up on mobility, and simply swarmed the beast with ever more horns. The growths covered leviathan's torso, digging in where they could. The horns around his feet dug down like tree roots, locking him firmly in place.
Then, the world went crazy. Taking advantage of the beast's situation, a group of blasters were letting loose at its head. That was still quite a few feet above Horn's real body, but he could feel the hits as they impacted the beast. That, combined with the masses of water splashing against him and the reduced visibility caused by the horns made for a disorienting experience. Still, the beast was getting pounded, that was good.
It swung its tail, the afterimage going for the group of capes. He could see some sort of shield go up, and the armband wasn't calling out any deaths, so it probably wasn't effective, but it did create a break in the artillery fire. Horn focussed his growths, this time going for the beasts tail, trying to immobilize it. He gasped for air, hoping that he could hold the beast still long enough for them to do some real damage.
It changed tactics, kicking with its feet at horns. It broke the connections between him and the floor, but he didn't fall over, his growths surrounding the beast itself now. Its tail, and upper arms, immobilized.
Still, mobility was the name of the game here, and leviathan was mobile. It simply lifted horn, and started running. Horn couldn't look around, but he could guess what was going to happen. They kept accelerating, and crashed into a building. The shock, the lack or air, the dust, Horn wasn't sure if he could keep going, but he had to.
Another building, this time, Leviathan jumped before smashing into it Horn-first. He could hear his horns break, his incredible strength useless without being able to move around. Still, he held on, growing more horn around leviathan's limbs. Even if Horn died, the beast would still be encumbered, trapped by the same mobility problems Horn was having right now.
The rest of the fight was a blur, he could remember at least one other crash into some sort of building, but he couldn't breathe well, and thought he had a concussion. Still, the repeated crashes destroying the growths on his back turned out to be a good thing. He felt a hand on his shoulder, he wasn't sure who, but he took that as a sign to disentangle himself. He focused on the location where the horns penetrated from his skin; the forehead, hands, elbows, knees, his feet and the base of his spine. As the flying cape carried him away, he saw leviathan below him, covered in horns, unable to use his arms and tail fully.
A few hours ago
The penthouse on top of the Radley building, Matthew was sitting in the library, this time not using his power. He had been using the google to look up the building, If Hallucca really lived there, he couldn't go in unprepared.
The news-sites hadn't said much about the place, only that the Radley building and its luxury apartments was bound to bring more money into the city, increasing the availability of jobs. He wasn't quite sure how that worked. Building it brought jobs, sure, but more people living in the city? How would that decrease the local problem. More people meant more people vying for the same jobs. The logging and ranching, fishing the lake. Still, if the newspaper said it, it was probably right.
Still, he couldn't find out who lived there on this interweb thing. It was time for some good old-fashioned leg-work. He couldn't very well sit here while the city was burning. He had taken leviathan head-on, this cowardly criminal would not escape him much longer.
Still, he wished Jack was here. He was much better at this whole investigation thing. Sadly, the man had been too loyal to his boss. Of course, he also had little Skip to look after. If Jack left the protectorate, then she would probably be placed in a wards team in a big city somewhere. Away from her home, her friends. She'd already lost her parents, and he could understand wanting to protect her.
If only Jack had understood that she could be best protected by getting rid of the criminals in the city, instead of walking around pretending to do something. Working with Jack had been nice, him using his power to bring people into Horn's reach, but they had been rather ineffective. Every time they had a possible location for one of the local drug dealers, they were slowed down by rules and regulations. The hideouts long empty once they finally arrived.
Then the frog-face had arrived, and he'd been the final straw.
No you can't just punch them like that, it looks bad in the media.
No you can't talk like that in public, what will people say.
No you can't just waltz in there, you're not a vigilante, you're a hero, you need a permit
No you can't use your power like that, it makes children scared of you!
That last one was horse-crap. Skip loved sitting on his shoulder when he was that big, and he had enough fans in the city. Also, it made him like that old comic book hero batman, criminals would be too afraid to commit crimes.
He had reached the Radley building early in the evening, and looked at the door bells, the idea being that you ringed up the person you were visiting, and they would use a button to let the security guard know to let you through. His eyes searched the names, until he found the one that fit the apartment at the very top.
P. Bourbon. Where did he know that name from. He remembered it, but couldn't quite place what from.
But, he had new information now. Time to head back to the library. He used to have one of those intelligent phones, but that had been PRT property, and it probably broke when he had thrown it against officer Blake's face.
*** Horn ***
Back at the library, he found what he had been looking for. was the mayor.
That didn't make sense. Had the junkie lied? Was the directory wrong? The mayor had worked together with them in fighting Hallucca's people. Sure, most of the time the tips she'd been able to give them were acted on too late, but every now and then they had caught one of her dealers.
Still, something was fishy. He couldn't really understand, but maybe if he went from the idea that the mayor was also Hallucca, he could figure out if things made sense that way.
So the question was, what would Jack do if he was thinking about what he would do if he was Hallucca but also the mayor.
Things would be so much easier if he could just punch someone.
Why would a criminal have some of her people arrested? She'd won the election based on an anti-drug policy, so it helped her there.
Maybe to keep them in line? Make unruly subordinates disappear into prison? There'd always been strong enough evidence for a good conviction and a long stint in prison.
And, since the mayor worked together with officer Blake, that would explain why the protectorate wasn't allowed to go after Hallucca directly. Maybe she wasn't really that dangerous. Maybe he could just waltz into the room and take her down, saving the city once and for all.
That seemed like a good idea, simple, yet effective. A quick punch to Hallucca's face to clean up the city.
Present
Horn turned around to reply to Blake, A difficult proposition. He's put dense layers around his body, and it was rather hard to turn in place due to the restricted mobility. Still, he managed to do it. "Think about it, it all makes sense" he replied to the man, when the lights suddenly went out.
Not just the lights in the building, he couldn't see the streetlamps outside either. Had Hallucca fucked with the power grid? Done incredible damage to infrastructure to give her a small edge?
Probably, that seemed like her style, he'd cornered her, and she'd escalated by creating a black-out.
When he heard someone moving behind him, he turned around as fast as he could.
Too fast, one leg's armor got caught in that of the other, and he tripped, falling on top of the mahogany table, breaking it with a cacophonous noise.
"And there goes our poker game" a sarcastic voice called out. The police chief, O'Brian.
He could hear a door slam shut at the other side of the room, Hallucca was escaping.
A hand touched his shoulder, "look Horn,if you have evidence that the Paige is secretly a supervillain we can talk about it, but you can't just attack her out of nowhere."
Blake… Horn knew he meant well, he just didn't understand. But then, that was what he'd thought about the mayor. And she'd turned out to be a supervillain. Did that mean that Blake was also a villain?
But there weren't any other villains around, except maybe that new tinker with the disappearing noise machines. But she was female, probably.
Horn decided that he didn't have time for his ex-boss/maybe supervillain, and started going after Hallucca. The chase was on, and he couldn't let her escape. The only question was why she ran instead of fighting. Was she going to get reinforcements? Some sort of weapon.
He stood up, and walked towards the door Hallucca had used, going straight through the wall instead. He could hear the two men behind him yelling, but didn't pay attention to them.
He found himself at the end of an alleyway, and saw a dark figure that had almost reached a corner, she was running barefeet, and Horn could feel a single high-heeled shoe crush under his feet.
He grabbed a dumpster, and took aim. He couldn't let Hallucca escape into the crowd.
*** Hallucca ***
Running through the alley, Hallucca was desperately trying to form a plan. First of all, she needed a way to defend herself. She'd kicked off one shoe, and grabbed hold of the other. Hidden in a compartment in the heel, was a small dose of LSD, one of her more effective tools. Still, it wouldn't be enough for an all-out fight with someone like Horn.
She heard a wall crumble, and, shortly after, something heavy get picked up. She quickly put a strip under her tongue, and started feeling the enhanced effects. When she turned around, the dumpster was already mid-air. But it wasn't a normal dumpster anymore. Its edges started fraying, its colours shifted, and it started flying in a straight line, no longer bound by gravity.
Hallucca turned the corner as the dumpster-like object flew over her head, crashing into a building opposite of her.
Home, she'd get home, and use her stash herself. Then, she'd take down Smith once and for all, superpowers or not.
She looked at the street signs, trying to think of the best route to take, but it was difficult to see through the darkness. That, and the signs slowly started melting and dripping. She had no time, she'd have to finish the stash in her heel and hope that was enough to get to her main supply.
*** Horn ***
The dumpster missed, crashing into a storefront on the other end of the street. Bad aim, or something else?
Still, he suspected he knew where Hallucca would be going, and he had the advantage in physical strength. Where Hallucca had to keep to the streets, he could take shortcuts, like the kool-aid man.
He started running after her, and saw her again. This time, he threw a car, which duplicated into two different car-like objects mid-air, and crashed down on either side of Hallucca, the explosions lighting up the surrounding area, he could see her sillouette in the flickering light. Tonight, he would end this, once and for all.
*** Hallucca ***
Almost there. She was almost home after this hellish chase. She'd outsmarted that filthy . She was almost happy, elated, when Horn crashed through a wall, onto the street, right in front of her. The building started crumbling behind him, crashing down under the stress.
She took one of her last strips, and this time, she focussed on Albert Smith. His beige-white horns started discolouring, melting into each other, becoming a single object. That would keep him occupied for a minute or two, long enough for her to run upstairs.
She ran past the confused looking group of smokers at the front of the building, the security guard amongst them. Hid tardiness actually being a useful trait for once. She ran through the lobby, and saw that the elevator was open, but out of order due to the blackout. In addition, strangely out of place, she could see a pile of power tools and other assorted objects lying there. Still, no time to think about it, she ran up the pitch-black stairs, navigating them by memory and a small emergency light every now and then.
Two stairs up, she heard someone come down the stairs as well. She took a wide turn to dodge the other person, but appearantly she had the same idea, because she half-crashed into the girl. She only knew it was a girl, because of the squeaky little apology the dark shape gave her. "Sorry, no time, gotta go". The shape got back on its feet, and started running down again, carrying some sort of heavy load in a bag over her shoulder.
No time to think about it, she had to hurry, before Horn broke through his now mutated armor.
When she reached the top floor, she saw that something was wrong. The door was left open, and she was sure she closed it. She always closed it, she didn't forget that like some filthy little peasant, that was how you got robbed! Especially with people as incompetent as the building's security guard around.
Making her way inside, the shock really hit her. Someone had ransacked her place. Still, she had no time to survey the damage. She had to grab her stash and finish off Horn. She made her way to the hidden room.
NO
NO
NO
FUCK NO
WHO THE…
THIS COULDN'T
WHO COULD
THE GIRL
SHE'D BEEN CARRYING STUFF
IT MUST HAVE BEEN
SHE'D KILL HER, CRUSH HER, DECIMATE HER, VAPORIZE HER ANNIHILATE ERASEDROWNEXTINGUISHSTABELECTRIFYBURNERADICATEMELTKILLKILLKILL.
She looked at the remains of her emergency supply. 5 strips left. She walked to the kitchen, a bottle of pain-killers, as strong as possible without prescription. It would have to do.
*** Gadget ***
My shoulder hurt, I should've looked out better on the stairs, that woman had crashed straight into the still painful burns of yesterday. Still, I had made my way out of the back door again. Where to now, my hidey-hole? Or straight to Horn? I summoned and checked my phone. No signal, of course, my work must've crashed the cell towers as well.
So I'd have to wait until that got fixed. Well, I had the time.
That's when I heard the scream coming from the top of the building. The sound was horrible, like someone who just saw their life's work destroyed, or found out that her boyfriend liked the twilight movies and she'd have to watch them now.
Then the world went crazy.
Well, not exactly crazy, more… Dali-esque? That was Dali right? With the melting clocks? Because that was what seemed to be happening to the building she'd just left a few minutes ago.
Shitsnacks, Hallucca had come home to roost.