It took the fire department three hours to put the fire I had started out, as the fire had spread to two of the other warehouses. I'd left by that time, of course.
The Protectorate put out a statement condemning me for an act of arson and destruction of evidence, and for killing the one man who'd tried to shoot me from behind. Leet gladly responded by putting out footage of the fight in full glory on his channel.
I was of two minds about that; on the one side it probably helped my case with the public. On the other side, the more footage my enemies had of me fighting the better they'd be able to prepare against me.
I'm sure they were all theorizing in their bunkers; the Empire, the Protectorate, the Merchants, even Coil. All of them were looking for ways to kill or contain me.
The shielded drones that Leet had following me around apparently followed me everywhere except the bathroom and my bedroom. I suspected that was more because Leet was worried about child porn charges than out of any real concern for my modesty.
I asked him whether we could use the footage of my being bullied.
Unfortunately, Massachusetts was a two party consent law state. It was a crime to secretly record conversations where both parties weren't aware of the recording. Even video recordings were illegal if sound was included.
Leet got away with his recordings because they were typically recorded from public places and because conversations weren't what was being recorded.
I had no doubt that Emma would gleefully send me to juvie for recording her bullying mew, and I knew that courts were stupid enough to try. I wasn't strong enough yet that I could fight back either. I might be able to win against individual Protectorate capes, but until I was stronger than Alexandria I wouldn't be able to ignore the law.
Not that I was planning to, of course. I was totally law abiding, at least when the laws made sense.
From what Sophia told me at lunch the next day, the Empire was having conniptions about the loss of their distribution hub. They'd stored enough drugs in that one warehouse to supply the entire city for a month; I'd burned up at least a hundred million dollars worth of product.
The bounty on my head was now two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. That would be enough to turn the heads of even some of the Dockworkers, even though most of them were good men. To the scum of Brockton Bay it would be like chumming the waters.
There were reports of people attacking girls in hoodies all over the city. Most of them were likely drug addicts, and I can't imagine what they were thinking. I'd crushed a man's skull with one punch; why would anyone think attacking me was a good idea?
Most of the attacks weren't serious though; if a girl bled red she was immediately left alone. Apparently the Empire had warned those seeking the reward against making false accusations.
Over the next week I staged three more attacks; once was on a brothel, once was a smaller distribution hub, and the last time was on a gambling operation the Empire was running. I actually managed to stuff my backpack full of cash in that case before I burned the rest of it.
Leet deleted that part of the footage, only showing me burning the money.
He and Garrett thought my idea about bleeding them dry was a good idea. Leet set up secret wiretaps on some of the Empire phone lines using invisible drones. It was illegal as hell and would probably mean prison time for all of us, but he erased all the conversations after we listened to them.
What they learned was that there was going to be a weapon shipment over the weekend. The Empire had decided that the weapons they were using weren't enough; they were bringing in heavier weapons in hopes of killing or deterring me.
That seemed like something that I should stop for a lot of reasons. First, there were tinker tech weapons out there that really could kill me, and I didn't particularly care for my chances against even an antitank rocket.
Second, those weapons would be expensive, hurting their pocketbook yet again. Third, taking guns out of the hands of thugs could only be a good thing for the people of Brockton Bay.
I found myself feeling a little anxious. A shipment like this was almost certainly going to be guarded by capes.
My father also agreed to help, and Garrett and Leet agreed to help as well, although they would be in disguise as my henchmen.
I insisted that they not dress up like pop culture characters; doing that would as much as declare their allegiance to me, and that would mean they'd never be able to go out in public without the risk of being attacked.
Instead, Leet had compromised. He'd built two sets of something called Halo armor, but with the outside appearance changed to something generic and black. Hopefully they would blend into the darkness even if their holographic shields failed.
We were all being outfitted with invisibility fields like those covering the drones. Leet warned us that they likely wouldn't survive combat, but if they gave us surprise that would be all that mattered.
Leet was overly cautious, I thought. He had his drones make multiple passes over the proposed route of the weapon shipment, checking for traps and counter-ambushes.
The one thing we hadn't learned was which Capes would be guarding the shipment. Leet and Garrett privately suspected that we'd be facing Hookwolf, Stormtiger and Cricket at the very least.
It was doubtful that even my Kamahameha would do anything to Hookwolf, but fortunately I didn't have to. Leet built me and Dad something he called goblin gliders, and he made both of us spend much of the week practicing riding them.
It was a rush, even in the holodeck. The initial challenge of balancing myself, of controlling my flight by shifts of my weight soon gave way to simple pleasure.
As long as Hookwolf or one of the others didn't damage my glider there would be nothing they could do and I'd be able to get away.
The one factor we had in our favor other than surprise was that we didn't have to beat Hookwolf and the others. All we had to do was destroy the weapons.
The shipment was supposed to arrive at midnight on Friday. We were cautious, arriving early, but not so early that Empire scouts would notice us. The fact that Dad and I could detect Ki made that part easy.
In the area we'd decided to ambush, the street lights had all been shot out. That left everything in darkness, lit only by the lights of the city.
I was crouched down on a flat roof; people lived in apartments below me, but not many; most were squatters who were stealing electricity and water from the city. I didn't like the idea of endangering people, but the Empire hadn't cooperated in choosing their route. This was the best option we had.
Dad was two blocks away; he was actually inside a building, looking down on things. His range sensing Ki was half mine, but that meant that together we could detect things in a three block area. Given that kind of lead time, we would be able to mount an attack with plenty of time to spare.
Garrett and Leet were on the building opposite me. Leet had been incredibly nervous, despite his heavy armor. Garrett on the other hand had seemed cool as a cucumber.
Waiting was the hardest part. Time seemed to stretch out interminably; I knew that Leet was probably playing on his phone or on a HUD inside his helmet or something, anything to reduce the stress. I could have done something like that, but my phone didn't have games.
The money I'd stolen from the Empire was mostly going to go for food; Dad and I had finally decided that all you could eat restaurants no longer made any sense considering that the Empire was staking them out. Dad thought I should be avoiding restaurants altogether.
The night grew colder as we waited. Thirty minutes passed, then an hour. I was starting to think that maybe the information we had gotten was wrong when the tiny speaker in my ear squawked.
"It's time," was all Dad said.
They were coming from the opposite direction we'd thought; we'd thought that I'd be the first one to detect them but had left Dad as a backup.
I felt myself tense. Until I felt the Ki myself there was no way to detect how many Capes they had. If the convoy was too heavily guarded we'd all agreed to abort the operation.
After all, the biggest disaster that could happen would be if Purity and Hookwolf were both in the convoy. Purity could follow us easily and shook us out of the sky and there was no guarantee that I could hit her.
It took almost two minutes before I felt them. There were almost a hundred of them, and at least five of them had the brighter configurations I'd come to associate with Capes.
"Hookwolf, Fenja and Menja," Dad whispered in my ear. "I can't see the others."
I grimaced.
Not knowing who the last two capes were was a problem. Out strategy would be very different depending on who they were.
"Abort?" I heard Leet's voice say. His voice sounded almost pathetically eager.
I thought about it then scowled. "No."
If we gave up every time something unexpected happened, we'd never accomplish anything.
I waited and saw the convoy turn the corner. They were an eclectic group of vehicles; some of them were old and beaten up, others were shining an new. None of them were carrying any kind of Empire emblems.
There were twenty vehicles in all, and I couldn't detect which vehicles had the weapons in them. Ki could only detect life, after all.
It was most likely one of the trucks, but if I'd been planning things I'd have split the weapons among all of the vehicles, That was if any vehicle was lost the damage would be minimal.
It meant that I would have to destroy all of the vehicles. Luckily I wasn't going to have to depend on my own powers for this.
I took a deep breath, and then I switched the goblin glider on with my foot. A moment later I was rising above the roof and dropping down toward the lead car.
Leet had insisted on painting the bombs in my pack like pumpkins, although he wouldn't explain why. Maybe it was a Harry Potter thing.
The bombs were magnetic; the moment they struck a metal surface they would latch on. I dropped down and I could see the lead car braking as I flew over them, dropping bombs as I went.
I was already over the fourth car when the bombs in the first car exploded. Cars were stopping, and the people in the second third and fourth cars were already bailing out.
It didn't matter. I was already moving past them, dropping more bombs even as the bullets began to fly toward me from the people who'd left the vehicles.
We'd chosen this spot because the road was narrow here, with a lot of junk by the side of the road. It made it difficult for the men in the middle of the convoy to move, which made them sitting ducks.
I saw something flash by me and only instinct made me swerve to the side. I saw a missile fly past me and strike a building, lighting the area up with an explosion.
It didn't matter.
I'd already dropped bombs on half the cars, and the ones behind were trying to pull away. I was out of bombs though, but I started pulling in ki and gesturing.
I could see flashes of light up ahead; apparently Dad and Leet and Garrett were attacking the cars in the back.
I hit the tube the man by the side of the road was pointing at me, and it exploded in a shower of sparks. Two more were getting out of their cars, though. They were sighting down at me, and I could feel a third coming up from behind.
I dropped a phosphorous flare, and I closed my eyes.
The world exploded in blinding light, and the men who'd been aiming at me were blinded. One staggered back and a moment later his missile hit one of the cars, turning it into a burning hulk.
I hadn't seen a sign of any of the parahumans, and for a moment I wondered if I'd been mistaken. A moment later I dodged as a giant spear slid toward me.
Fenja and Menja had grown to their full size while I was blinded, and they were now screaming out some sort of challenge as they tried to knock me from the air.
A moment later I lunged toward the ground as a mass of swirling blades came hurling off one of the buildings toward me.
I was out of tricks and outnumbered, and we'd already destroyed at least half the convoy. Part of me wanted to continue fighting, but I knew that would only get me and maybe Dad and Garrett and Leet killed.
"Withdraw," I said into my earpiece as I sent the glider rising higher. Fenja tried to throw her giant spear at me, but dodging it was easy. I felt a sudden sense of elation; we'd gotten away with it!
I could feel Dad and Leet and Garrett moving away in the distance just as planned.
Suddenly the glider dipped. I looked back and I saw smoke; apparently at least some of the bullets had hit, and I was losing altitude quickly.
For a moment I considered calling the others, but I quickly realized that would be stupid. I wasn't going to get Dad or Garrett killed trying to save me.
I was falling faster now, and the glider was starting to spin; a moment later my feet left it and it spun away from me. I gathered my Ki and started to slow my descent. Even with my Ki I suspected that a fall from six hundred feet was going to hurt.
I saw the glider crash on top of one of the cars, but I tried to push myself to the other side of the buildings; I could feel Capes already moving to intercept me.
It didn't matter.
I landed on a flat roof on my feet, leaving a crater in the roof but not breaking through. The shock to my legs was jarring but not overwhelming. The moment I landed I started running, jumping from the roof all the way across the street.
I could hear a roar behind me, and I risked a look back
Hookwolf was on top of the building and he was racing toward me. I didn't know what my top speed was compared to his, but I knew that he didn't have super senses like I did. I could feel him behind me and Fenja and Menja falling farther and farther behind.
He was racing down the side of the building; apparently he couldn't make the jump across the boulevard and knew enough not to try.
There was something else though, something moving with an almost unbelievable speed.
In the darkness it only looked like a patch of fog, but I caught glimpses of something horrible moving underneath. Worse, it's Ki felt strange, almost as though there were two entities inside the fog instead of only one.
Before I could do anything it was moving toward me. I couldn't run, and so I launched myself toward it, hoping that I could take whoever it was out before Hookwolf could reach us.
As I plunged into the fog I caught glimpses of multiple legs. I felt some of them slashing at me, and I felt pain like I hadn't felt in a long time.
I lashed out, but whatever the creature was, it was moving too fast.
Was this the weapon they were transporting?
I could sense it's Ki, but something else was happening. I couldn't breathe suddenly. I gagged even as I punched out, feeling chitin breaking a little under my blow. A moment later I felt several other slashes.
It was like being in a blender; the pain was unbelievable.
It seemed like it lasted forever, even though it was likely less than two minutes. I felt my face hitting the roof, and I could feel blood pooling underneath me.
Darkness came over me.
Waking was almost instantaneous, and strangely I felt no pain. I was stronger now, but as I opened my eyes I saw that I was bound with manacles that were at least six inches thick, held by chains normally used to hold ships.
There were poles on both sides of me, and I was strung up in a standing position. I tested the chains, but they were beyond even my newfound strength.
"Those are brute chains," I heard a familiar voice say to my right.
I looked over to see Sophia strung up with smaller chains.
It took a moment for my eyes to adjust, but finally I could see that we were in the middle of a clearing outside of town. I was bound like the girl from King Kong, and there was already a group of at least a hundred people below me, with more arriving all the time.
We were raised on a wooden dais even though the poles we were attached to were of concrete and driven into the ground. There were torches lighting us, but I could see people setting up lights all around us, and someone was setting up a camera.
"What's going on?"
"Somebody saw me with you at the fire," Sophia said grimly. "So they figured I was important to you. They hit me with a tranquilizer and they plan to make an example of both of us."
"Can you move?" I asked.
With her powers she could phase out of her chains easily, even though it would reveal her identity to the Empire.
She grimaced. "My whole body is numb. I'm just starting to get feeling back in my limbs."
"Why are we even here?"
"I can answer that question," I heard a voice from the other side of me say. Looking over I saw a big man with greasy blonde hair stepping toward me. He was hairy and had a wolf tattoo on his arm.
Hookwolf.
"We're going to make an example of you," he said. "Show the rank and file what happens when someone defies the Empire."
At least Dad and the others had gotten away. There was still a chance that they could track me, either from the speaker in my ear or from the hidden drones.
Hookwolf must have seen the hope on my face because he grinned nastily. "Did you know those drones of yours make plenty of noise for Cricket and Stormtiger to pick up on? We got rid of them and the little earpiece too. Nobody is coming to help you."
I gave the chains another yank, hoping that eve if I couldn't break the chains maybe I could break the poles. No such luck.
He leaned forward. "I suspect you aren't going to enjoy the next few hours very much."