A/N: Chap 24 review responses are in my forums. Thanks for reading.
Escalation 3.4
Sitting in one of the many narrow parks that lined the Heroes Way—the boulevard that ran by the PRT headquarters in the city itself—Taylor and Lisa drank tea from a thermos. In the Suburban parked two blocks back at a small bookstore, Jess listened in on the stolen radios they all used, courtesy of Coil's armory.
"Fourth floor containment cell, looks like they have full Mover protocols—he's foamed up to his neck," Taylor said, describing what her flies detected.
"Think they'll go for the trade?" Jess asked over the encrypted line.
"No, and I'm not sure why," Tattletale said, frowning in puzzlement. "We saw Legend fly in, and he is pretty much the only one in the Protectorate who has a decent history with Harry."
"It almost makes me wish Purity was still here," Taylor muttered.
Lisa shook her head. "We're better off with her gone. No, who I really miss is Bitch. She was our hard hitter before you came along. You're bugs make you powerful, but there was something to be said about a trio of car-sized, heavily armored monster dogs."
"No argument there from me. She had issues, but she didn't deserve what Coil had Shadow Stalker do to her."
"How are your bugs doing?"
"Little over two million so far."
"You know, I'm not sure I could even count to two million," Jess said over the radio. "How the fuck do you even know?"
"Secondary Thinker power," Tattletale said as she squinted and tried to study the PRT headquarters. "So, think it's time?"
Taylor nodded. Both went without masks and with loose-fitting clothes over their costumes. They made a show of finishing their tea and walking back toward the central portion of the city, staying well away of the Suburban where Jess waited for the signal.
Two large, unmarked white vans suddenly screeched to a halt in front of the young women. The doors slid open on one, revealing half a dozen men in black tactical vests with PRT badges at their shoulders and foam sprayers on their backs, though they held assault rifles in their hands.
"PRT, on the ground now!" The leader of the squad, a narrow-faced man with a hairline that had abandoned merely receding and was now in full retreat, shouted loudly.
Faced with a dozen assault rifles, Taylor raised her hands and dropped to her knees. Tattletale did the same, and neither resisted as two of the men walked around and secured their hands with zip-ties. Startled civilians watched from the sidewalks or even office building windows as the entire event went down.
The leader lifted a radio from the strap on his vest. "Headquarters, this is Agent Yarnoz, ID AGG-1265T on special assignment out of Boston. We have apprehended Skitter and Tattletale and are on our way in. Prepare containment."
"Say again, you caught Skitter and Tattletale?"
"Roger. They were sitting on a bench five hundred feet away from your building," Dimitri Yarnoz, a licensed PRT contractor, said. "Myrddin had a feeling they'd be making a move for Mage. We're bringing them in."
"Roger, we'll be waiting!"
The men pulled Taylor and Lisa to the first of the two vans. No one said anything as a third van fell into their formation as they pulled onto Hero's Way. A group of soldiers stepped out of a side entrance to the PRT Headquarters building, and among them stood the distinctive figure of Miss Militia, an American flag scarf hiding her features, while a larger flag cinched her waist just over the tight fitting camo pants and tank-top. The air by her hands shimmered as weapons materialized and changed, until she held an assault rifle herself.
"Show me," she said when the other PRT agents signaled the van to halt.
"Open the door," Dimitri ordered.
Taylor stared intently at the hero who looked into the van.
"This game of yours is over, Skitter, Tattletale," she said. "Time to grow up." She slammed the door shut and patted the side of the van hard to signal it to continue.
They drove into an entrance facing north toward the Boat Graveyard. Three separate checkpoints confirmed Dimitri's status as a free-lance consulting agent of the PRT before finally all three white vans stopped.
Miss Militia had walked alongside the vans through each check point. Inside the final checkpoint stood twenty agents and another Protectorate Cape.
"Velocity," Lisa breathed near Taylor's ears. "Fast, not strong."
Dimitri and his men climbed out, pulling Taylor and Lisa out as well. Six more men climbed out from the second van. One of the building's PRT agents walked to the third van and opened the door, only to stand and stare with a wide-eyed expression of horror.
Hundreds of thousands of insects swarmed out of the back of the van, engulfing him and cutting his terrified scream short. Miss Militia and Velocity both started to react nearly instantaneously; Dimitri and his men were just that much faster, having already positioned themselves. Foam sprayers trapped Velocity's feet and Miss Militia's weapon-producing hands.
The rest of the fake PRT soldiers fired fast-acting darts into the legitimate agents so quickly the poor men and women had no chance to defend themselves.
"You can't possibly think you can get away with this," Miss Militia said from the mound of foam that now thoroughly contained her.
Skitter stripped off her loose clothes to reveal the costume below. She calmly slipped on her mask. "We offered a fair trade, and you didn't want to play," she said. "Now we do it the hard way."
She turned to fight Coil's mercenaries. "Gentlemen," she said, now also to the masked agents. "Remember, we're in custody still until we reach the containment level."
Neither of the girls commented as a winged gargoyle stepped from the last van, which was now insect free. The massive creature looked at Velocity with a sniff before staring at Miss Militia.
"Big fan," the gargoyle said with a young woman's voice. "I'd ask for an autograph, but…well, you know."
The tranquilized agents were tossed like cordwood into the two closest vans and ID badges were switched. Skitter and Tattletale both put their hands behind their backs and let their dozen men guide them into the heart of the PRT headquarters.
They reached the elevator which appeared to be undefended. Lisa took one look at it and said, "Stairs."
No one protested. It gave Skitter time to continue infiltrating the building with her bugs. Genesis came up behind the twelve men, obvious but necessary because of the power of her projected body. In the absence of Bitch's dogs, Genesis was their only Brute-style hitter.
Lights began flashing in the stairwell, followed by a piercing alarm.
"Well, knew it was too good to last," Lisa muttered. "Come on, kids, let's get moving! Skitter?"
"On it."
Overhead, lights began to flicker as the millions of insects that now infested the building attacked electrical wiring. They heard a door open overhead—Genesis launched herself into the air column between the flights of stairs until she found the source of the noise. Instantly they heard terrified screams.
They reached the scene just moments later. Dimitri's men quickly tranquilized and secured the PRT agents that Genesis either distracted or beat up before moving on. With the alarm going already, there was no point to pretending to be prisoners.
They reached the fourth floor where the containment cells were and spilled out into the hallway.
Skitter took one look at the team waiting for her and felt her stomach clench up like a fist. She anticipated the Wards—Vista, Kid Win, Gallant, Clockblocker and Aegis. Not even Armsmaster was a surprise.
They knew Legend was in the building and faced the possibility that he might face them as well.
But fucking Alexandria?
"Skitter, didn't you tell me you had an Alexandria lunchbox as a little girl?" Tattletale asked loudly.
"And Armsmaster undies," Skitter said, too terrified to be embarrassed.
Armsmaster seemed less than impressed. Alexandria simply took a step forward with a piercing dark gaze.
"This game is over, children," she said, echoing what Miss Militia said earlier. "There's only one way this ends without all of you getting very, badly hurt."
~~Simurgh's Son~~
~~Simurgh's Son~~
Harry was expecting bugs to come eat the foam away at any moment. Taylor pretty much made it clear they were engaging in a rescue operation—she had to be close to get him the message.
He was not expecting a knife to appear out of nowhere and stab his forehead hard enough to strike a spark when the runes redirected it into the metal frame that held his foamed body upright.
"Ow," he said, more by reflex than because it hurt. "Who's there? What was that?"
The knife came again, even harder this time. Again his runes redirected it without it even scratching him. As he stared, a girl came into focus, almost like a mirage. She wore torn jeans and a halter top that did little to hide the almost fluorescent pink bra. Her black hair had one bleached stripe with a strand of purple riding in the middle Her face looked like a picture of a composite from all the prettiest models in the world distilled down to a perfect oval shape in mocha, and then put in a cheap, plastic frame by way of bad dime-store make-up liberally painted on.
Not that he cared. He was staring so happily at her top he barely noticed as she stabbed the knife directly at his eye. His temple rune again redirected it.
"Fuck!" the girl shouted. "Why won't you die?"
"Show me those beautiful tits and I might."
She turned the blade and hit him in the temple with all her might, which was enough to turn his head a little. Harry felt he was justified in making bad sex jokes about breathtakingly hot young women in revealing, trashy clothes trying to kill him, and was preparing another when he noticed she was crying even while she continued trying to stab him in the head.
Damn it, crying girls just left him utterly helpless.
"Um, look, I know you're busy trying to kill me and all, I get that, but could you slow down enough to tell me why?"
"Fuck you!" She stabbed at one of his hands, and in the process broke the magnetic envelope that kept him from vanishing then foam. He stared down at his suddenly free hand.
"Huh, thanks."
She backed away as he quickly began vanishing the foam from the rest of his body. He turned back to…wait. How'd he get free?
What…? He looked around for bugs or other proof Taylor was there, only for the secondary security system to kick in. Foam almost exploded out in massive volumes from nozzles set in the top of the walls. Harry quickly summoned a shield around himself, only to falter when he felt a knife poking his stomach. He looked down and saw the same girl from before trying her very best to ram a knife into his stomach within his shield.
"Yeah, sorry, my skin's pretty knife proof," he said.
She tried punching him, and when that didn't do anything she tried the knee in the crotch trick. "Why won't you fucking die?" she cried.
Making a sudden decision, Harry grabbed her and apparated just as he let the shield drop. They emerged in the observation room on the other side of the glass wall. The girl spun around and then started to fade away again, not just from his sight but his memory.
Click. His mind began moving faster as he recognized a foreign influence on his memories. He beat the influence back, refusing to let anything affect his thoughts, and just like that the girl reappeared. She tensed when he met her gaze, but then attacked again with her knife.
This time he caught it, spun her wrist until she released it, then spun her back until she was against him, one arm around her neck, the other locking her arm behind her back.
"So why'd you sneak all the way into PRT headquarters to kill me?"
"For Brian, you murdering fuck!"
"Brian?"
"Grue! You killed my brother!"
Harry released her as if she were acid. "Brian…? Oh shit, Taylor said he had a sister. He was trying to… My God. I'm so sorry."
"Not yet, you fuck! Somehow I'm going to find a way to kill you!"
"I didn't kill him. I was trying to save him from Bakuda. I just…I failed."
"Bullshit. TV said…"
"TV said what the man responsible for all this shit wanted it to say. You know about Tattletale, right? Did Brian trust her?"
"Mostly." She looked suspicious and appeared ready to bolt—only the fact he could see her kept her in place.
"She and Skitter both joined Coven," Harry said. "All of this was Coil. Coil was Brian's real boss, and he left us all out to dry. Please come with us. I…I owe you. For failing to save your brother, I owe you. I know that. Come with us and at least talk to Tattletale or Skitter. You know Skitter had a thing for him, right?"
"Yeah, I know," she admitted.
"I promise I won't hurt you. And you can't hurt me, so it doesn't do any good to try. Will you come? Please?"
"How can you see me? I walked right past Alexandria herself and she could…"
"What did you say?" Harry interrupted. "Alexandria's here?"
"Yeah, so?"
He grabbed her hand, much to her displeasure, and started running toward the doors to the main hall. The PRT agents, because of the foam, were never able to search him for his staff, which he'd kept in a charmed pouch on his belt. He pulled it out now as he ran with Brian's sister, whom he still didn't know by name, only to pause as ants and termites crawled onto the door in front of him.
ALEXANDRIA AND LEGEND IN BUILDING. FIFTY FEET AHEAD OF YOU, ONE HUNDRED FEET TO YOUR LEFT.
"That's gross," the girl announced.
He looked around the room—it was the control room for a dozen cells just like his, all designed to hold powerful parahumans for transport to the Birdcage or whatever other prison was warranted. There was no furniture or loose items to transfigure at all.
He looked back down at his would-be assassin. "What's your name?"
"Why do you care?"
Harry shrugged. "You're the sister of a guy I wanted to save but failed. Also, you're absolutely fucking hot. So I could call you 'Sister of Grue" or "Super-fucking hot bird", but in an emergency both may take too long to say. And Skitter told me 'bird is a demeaning word that I'm supposed to stop using. So, your name would be easier."
She stared up at him, evidently too confused to be angry. "You…I'm trying to fucking kill you and all you can say is that I'm hot?"
"You have a nice personality too?" Harry hazarded.
"My name's Aisha, fucktard."
"Great!" He grabbed her arm and spun them both into disapparation.
A second later the two of them appeared in a spot between Tattletale and Skitter on one side of a wide hallway and two thirds of the Triumvirate itself on the other. He quickly saw the Wards behind the two elder heroes.
"Holy shit, it really is Alexandria!" he exclaimed the moment he appeared. "Damn, Legend, really? Bringing in your final solution just to get me into the Wards?"
"How'd you get out?" Kid Win blurted from behind Legend.
Harry shrugged. "Magic."
Alexandria exploded into motion, flying toward them like a missile. Aisha shied away with a squeak of alarm. Harry barely had time to summon a shield anchored to the walls. She hit it head on. The boom shook the building, cracked the walls he used to anchor it, and the shield itself shimmered like cracked glass.
But Alexandria stumbled back genuinely surprised that it held.
Unfortunately, it was about that time that Miss Militia, Assault, Battery, Triumph and thirty more PRT agents with containment foam spilled out of the stairwell behind them. Miss Militia looked like a drowned rat, with her wet hair plastered down over her bandana mask. A very, very pissed drowned rat.
"There is no way out for you and your men," Alexandria said with an unflappable calm that betrayed no anxiety at all over the fact his shield stopped her.
"Eh, we don't care about the men," Tattletale said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "These were all Coil's mercenaries—the ones we captured when we freed Dinah Alcott. Canary asked them nicely to help us, but when we're done you can have them. Now, that said, as much as Harry's power utterly sucks ass in a way normal teleportation shouldn't…"
"Because it's magic, not power-based," Harry said over his shoulder.
"…I think we'll be going now."
Tattletale and Skitter both rushed forward to grab Harry's arms even as Harry grabbed Aisha. Alexandria and Legend both surged forward, but they were not fast enough and all four disappeared with a pop.
Left behind, the huge Gargoyle grinned.
"You know, if she had Armsmaster skivvies as a little girl, then she's probably been shitting and pissing on Armsmaster since she was a toddler." The monster sounded like a young woman before it too disappeared with a pop.
The remaining mercenaries blinked suddenly and looked around. They found themselves facing the most powerful heroes not just in the city, but in the country itself, flanked by half a hundred PRT agents, and very slowly put their guns on the floor.
"Er, we surrender?" Dmitri said.
A/N: Short but hopefully sweet. But definitely short.