Bakuda's bombs were lethal, and ridiculously so. Each and every one of them capable of wiping out a dozen people before they could react. Fire rained from the sky, and one of them seemed to have opened a hole in reality leading to an ocean that promptly tried to empty itself into the bar, throwing salt water, seaweed, fish and a dolphin at the assembled crowd.
Kaiser, now with porpoise in his life, created a shield of metal around the meeting capes, massive bars of iron keeping out the explosions, and keeping in the water.
"Ninety percent chance we're gonna be in hot water!" Dinah said. "Get it? Cause the roof's on fire but also Kaiser's wall is keeping the water in?"
"You mean like this?" Cinderhands asked, putting his arms in the water to heat it up.
"Yes, make it worse, great idea!" Faultline said as Kaiser completed his barrier, the water up to their knees as Dinah climbed her way back to Cinderhands's shoulders. Outside, they could still hear the sound of explosions, implosions, glassplosions, timesplosions, and a thousand other splosions. Presumably no moneysplosions, Taylor thought.
"Useless idiots, all of you," Purity whispered, holding her hands above her and firing at the roof, sending debris down upon them.
"See guys, this is why I wear a helmet," Grue said to his team as rocks and planks fell down on top of his motorcycle gear. The three of them nodded, hiding behind a table until the worst of the debris was gone.
"Some stairs maybe?" Faultline suggested to Kaiser as Purity flew ithrough the hole in the roof.. The man obliged, presumably because Faultline was white. Before him, a great metal staircase, with elegant railings, carvings of metal swastikas, and a steel eagle on every post growing out of the ground before him. The growing metal bars tactically grew to move the roof upwards, the steel not budging before the weight of a third-rate pub which, presumably, weighed more in termites than in actual wood.
Most of them followed behind Kaiser, who was far too self-absorbed with his stairs to notice that his bodyguards had followed Purity's lead and left through the roof, growing until they could properly reach it.
Taylor looked around, trying to figure out who had survived. Cinderhands, Acidbath and Dinah were following right behind her, and Kaiser and Faultline's team were walking in front. The Travellers seemed to be doing their own thing, centered around their leader teleporting stuff around through the gap in the roof created by Purity, and the Undersiders were walking behind them.
Where, exactly, Skidmark's people had gone she didn't know. Maybe they'd been flushed down the interdimensional toilet drain one of Bakuda's bombs had opened.
The real kicker, however, was that Coil was gone, crushed under a massive support beam that had fallen down on his head.
"Great, just as I was about to get paid," Taylor said.
"Relax boss, we'll find another source of income," Acidbath said.
"And we still have the kid to sell!" Cinderhands said.
"Hey! I heard that!" Dinah replied.
"What's the chance I don't give a shit?" he asked.
"Seventy six point four three eight six percent," Dinah replied, looking at the ground dejectedly.
Taylor looked around, showing the carnage wrought by Bakuda. The neighbouring blocks had been blown up by bakuda, giving them a nice view of the ocean, as well as a good sightline to the incoming emergency services.
"So, you wanna get out of here before the Protectorate shows up?" Acidbath asked.
"Sounds like a plan," Taylor replied.
The base, luckily, had been spared the worst of the damage. There was some blast damage on one of the walls, but the wreckage of a nearby chair explained the source quite easily. Lily was watching the news. The national guard had been brought in, and there was talk of a kill-order for Bakuda. Additionally, an attempted break-out at the Protectorate headquarters had been foiled, with Oni Lee having been arrested during the attempt. The ABB was now down to a single cape on a mad bombing spree.
"So what's the plan?" Leet asked.
"I bring Dinah back home, and get me some money," Taylor said. In the meantime, you guys secure the area.
"Mister Snek will just kidnap me again," Dinah complained.
"Coil's dead," Acidbath said.
"But it's boring!" she whined. "I'll have to go to school!"
"I'll kidnap you again tomorrow, okay?" Cinderhands said.
"Fiiine, but you better grab me before school!"
"Good, let's go," Taylor said. "Where do you live anyway?"
"Rich part of town," Dinah said. "Pretty long walk, especially in this chaos."
"Right… guessing busses aren't exactly driving around right now," Taylor said. "Uber, steal us a car and play chauffeur!"
"Sure thing ma'am," he said, fake saluting.
"What the hell are you doing!" Taylor shouted as the car flew through the alleyways, taking near impossible turns as Uber's driving meant only two wheels were on the road at any time.
"I'm a taxi-driver!" he replied.
"Taxi drivers don't drive like this!" Dinah yelled as the car hit the boardwalk, expertly weaving through the panicked civilians.
"Sure they do," Uber said. "Trust me, I've done this lots of times!"
"Hundred percent you're wrong!" Dinah shouted.
"Nope," Uber shouted. "Didn't you see our stream last year? The one with all the hits?"
"What? The one in which you beat up that woman for no reason?" Taylor asked.
"Yep, GTA baby! Lots of driving in there!"
"A video-game is not real-life!" Taylor yelled as Uber hit the curb, timing it correctly to make the car turn on its side, weaving in between two market stands it would've crashed into otherwise.
"Your power is literally a video game!" he yelled back,
Another swift turn, and the car was back on the road. Taylor breathed a sigh of relief. Sure, it was the wrong side of the road, but it was still the road.
"Couldn't we have had a Chubster do this?" Taylor asked.
"I mean, we needed money first right?" Uber said.
"True," she admitted. Dinah, how much further?"
"Almost there," Dinah said. "Just...a few more miles? I never drive this way."
"Great," Taylor sighed, bracing herself..
"Great!" Uber yelled, putting the pedal to the metal.