The next day.
**
This area was populated with non-cape humans, and it was very rare for capes to approach within a mile or so. The occupant had never been sane, and time spent imprisoned had only made him less so.
I walked purposefully through the darkness, approaching the gigantic concrete and steel fists that seemed to be gripping something spherical. Removing my backpack carefully with my left hand, I set it aside, and pulled out several explosive devices, gluing them to the fists with stickypads, and then picking up the backpack and walking a block away.
A press of a button, and an oddly muffled but still loud explosion later, I jogged back towards where the fists had been. I could see a grey sphere with tatters of white containment foam on it, sitting in a nest of broken concrete and steel fingers.
Hurry up boss. No way people didn't call the police after that.
I put my left hand on Lady Teldra, and noted that she had shaped herself into a very long left-handed foil. Perfect for the job at hand.
There was an incoherent muttering coming from within the grey sphere. I did not listen to it. I was in a hurry, and didn't want to have any witnesses. The only secret I still possessed that mattered was that Lady Teldra could kill with a scratch. I had even needed to tell Tattletale that Lady Teldra could feed on souls to recharge herself in the absence of the Imperial Orb.
Again, I dropped the backpack and removed the red flashlight from a side pouch and turned it on with my left hand before carefully moving it to my right. My right hand immediately ached with the effort of holding the light.
Shining the red light into the grey sphere, I saw my target. A tall, slender man with a neat beard. Early middle age. As I watched, he time-looped, wounds opening, intestines spilling, and then the scene reset itself.
Boss. Strobe lights two blocks from here. We need to go. Do it.
Whispering, I did as I had been asked. "Tattletale says goodbye, Jack."
I drew Lady Teldra, and immediately heard local pandemonium as people woke from sleep and began trying to flee from my proximity without having any idea what they were afraid of.
Reaching through the bubble with Lady Teldra, I struck the trapped man in the left eye, and felt Lady Teldra gorging on his soul as she rapidly repaired the remaining damage to my right wrist, leaving me with a nagging ache that would pass in a day or two.
The man in the bubble was instantly dead as soon as Lady Teldra pierced his eye, with a wound that would appear to have been the cause of death, though no coroner would ever be able to examine the body.
I wiped her blade on a rag and then sheathed Lady Teldra before placing the rag in the backpack. Total time elapsed from exposing Lady Teldra to sheathing her again was about two seconds, and I wasn't severely injured or in danger, so the fear effect wasn't quite as bad as it could have been. Most people didn't have good enough reaction times to move more than a couple feet in that time without being prepared to move, so I hoped that I hadn't caused anyone harm.
I picked up the backpack, threw it on my back, and ran into the darkness, Loiosh and Rozca flying overwatch and helping me avoid the authorities.