Haze Gray 20
"Eighteen US code 1385-"
"Is suspended in the case of Parahumans. You know that Governor. What is it that you want exactly?" Commander 2 MEF asked, fairly reasonably really. He could be an urbane person. He was considered an intellectual by his peers and superiors. He could also be a bastard.
"However, dealing with parahumans is usually left in the hands of the PRT and their attached Protectorate forces. I want not to start a fight with a parahuman who stalemated an Endbringer but caused the loss of a third of a sovereign nation and eight million people at least in one of my cities. He bent the knee." The governor answered.
The general chuckled "Except this isn't fiction. He is wanted in conjunction with hundreds of crimes up to and including murder in the first degree."
"And he will be tried now that he has acknowledged some type of authority."
The General blinked "I'd like to see that."
"Stick around." The Governor smiled.
"The other one?"
"Same thing. His associate Hookwolf however, well, he has already been convicted." Now the General smiled. Then he stood up and walked out.
Emily shook her head and walked out too.
Haze Gray
Danny was walking toward the berthing barge surrounded by tight pack of little girls. Followed by, or being orbited by rather, a pack of dogs that were sixty-one ton wildly overpowered, and over armed, teenaged boy wet dreams with the best pump jets a seriously talented team of engineers and naval architects could design and build. The things would probably catch air and flip like those offshore power boats used to. He shook his head. Lacey asked "What?"
"Today settled down. Taylor didn't wake up but I think we are OK."
"Save that thought, we have bedtime coming up." Lacey looked at the girls.
Danny laughed and looked around himself "You girls are ready for bed, though aren't you? You need your sleep so you can meet Taylor, Amy, Rachel and whoever this new girl is tomorrow."
Lacey gasped "Don't tell them that! What if they don't wake up?" Danny looked at her and arched a brow "Hush they don't speak English." Danny kept the look going, Lacey huffed and went back to herding.
Haze Gray
"Seawolf, If I could speak to you and your proteges?" Emily asked. Lisa nodded and led her to an office. Aisha and Missy followed.
Lisa closed the door "So tonight?"
"Yes. The military is going to move on the Empire, we are going to move on Coil. The city and state are going to move on the ABB normal, backed up by the military."
"Hookwolf, maybe Storm Tiger and Cricket. ABB drug and prostitution operations, not Lung or his casino, interesting. Though he pretty much 'allows them to operate' it's all yakuza like. Tough to get a conviction. You have the data on Coil, so you want us to find the Travelers." Lisa stated.
Emily nodded "And neutralize them. Meet Athabasca at these coordinates," She handed over a piece of paper. "She has some items for you." She turned to Missy "You and your partner observe and report only."
Lisa grinned "I'll have Grue watch them."
"Ah man!" Aisha protested. "Oh wait, we could use Regent too, just in case."
Emily sighed "Your problem Seawolf, work it out. Don't screw it up."
Haze Gray
Coil ended the timelines and drummed his fingers This just got more and more ridiculous. A golden gun would never work. Even gold plated the idea was ludicrous. Though that auto gyro from the other timeline could have utility. Neither helped him with his current problem.
Just as he started the timelines his alarms went off. He never hesitated. He took one route in one timeline and one in the other. He ended both when the foam hit him. His phone rang. He arched a brow and picked it up. "Yes?"
"I have hundreds of pounds of foam and all the time in the world Thomas."
"Emily. I would have thought you had larger problems."
"The Travelers? Nope, disappeared."
"And their rather, interesting member?"
"So that was Echidna then. Tell me, what was her name?"
"Ah, ruthless. Why am I not surprised? Noelle Meinhardt, a resident of Madison Wisconsin, on Earth Aleph."
"So, a Simurgh bomb as well then."
"As well?" Thomas asked.
Emily chuckled "Have you been keeping up with what the Simurgh has been doing lately?"
"I've been rather busy Emily."
"Check the videos on her PHO page, I'll wait."
Emily set her phone on speaker on the console of the van. She listened to computer keys clicking, tried to discern what was going on when no sound besides side tone continued, then blinked when she hear the series of clicks and the bang "Goddamnit! "GO GO GO!"
Dauntless down in the tunnel thrust his arc lance forward at the same time as Armsmaster swung the Halberd. Brandish, covered by Shielder, stepped in and hit specific places with her blades, The door was demolished. Assault was hit by Battery and disappeared into the dust and smoke covering the door with a tremendous bang; Velocity followed. Triumph followed them up, while Armsmaster got his Halberd out of the door, then followed. Dauntless behind him. Battery followed the group up slowly, charging again. New Wave followed her with a suited Tess. Armsmaster frowned at the exorbitant use of foam grenades. There must be fifty discharged just in this hallway.
He followed the map and arrived at the door indicated. He looked at the key pad and hummed to himself as he got out a cable and matched connectors. The door slid open with a few moments work and he stepped inside, He was armored after all. He looked at the spray of blood and brain matter up the wall behind the chair. "A corpse Director, tentative ID is Thomas Calvert."
"Dragon?"
I'm in the server room Director. You may have to reorder foam grenades. Velocity seems to have used most of them. I'll let you know what I find."
Armsmaster came back up on the net "I'm moving to the self-destruct. Wait a few moments on the forensics teams Director. Concur with Dragon, you will need to double the amount of solvent the strike team has. At least."
The Strike team commander at the van acknowledged as the Director was behind the van cursing.
Haze Gray
Trickster stood on the beach looking across the water toward the giant building. He took a breath when huge speedboats appeared and silently slid to the beach leaving glowing trails behind them, then turned into dogs. When he looked up next a blond in a wet suit was standing on the water. He reached out with his power and got nothing. "Ha! Tewnty one hundred tons, can't switch with that. Nope stay where you are blondie. Shifter, well changer now. Interesting. Wow your brain is like soup though."
Clang "Twenty one hundred tons of metal that can dive past eight hundred meters and punch through five feet of ice. Luke I am not your father. I will shoot you in the dick." She waved a pistol languidly.
"Nu uh, put the sun down sweety, unless you want to trade it for a cruise missile? Squishy."
"Mmmm, right there, no, little lower, Ah that's it, I can't reach that spot right over my VLS. Hey you want a job? I can't pay much but man do you scratch good."
"So, I know you but you don't know me, Seawolf, Kanmusu attack submarine. I think we got a friend of yours at our place? Well used to be a friend of yours. Probably a friend of ours now. Ships, we kinda get each other. And as we are all there is of us, well, I'm sure you see.
"I wouldn't do that Ballistic, first, he's a Patrol Torpedo Boat and that stick thing you are looking down is a thirty-millimeter autocannon, and second he is a dog. His pack is on this beach and out there in the dark. Even if you get him, which I will kill your for, just so you know, his pack will never stop and they have autocannon, torpedoes, missiles, depth charges, and heavy machine guns, GAU 19B, fifty caliber, three barrels, up to 2000 rounds a minute, Mark 211 ammo is apparently all we have as well, armor piercing explosive, complete overkill, but they seem to like them. Only two of those apiece though, thank god, those poor seagulls.
"So here is what is going to happen. Your boss, ex-boss, wow that was quick, ate a bullet because he found out he was a simurgh bomb and she was having a grand time playing with him. Takes some people like that, especially when they remember they were never near her, so she somehow singled them out among the many millions of you humans. You squishy fruit loops, you were right next to her though weren't you?
"You all haven't been seeing yourselves in Bond movies, have you? No urge to wear skimpy clothes and call yourself Holly Goodhead, Octopussy, or anything like that Ladies? Not wondering where the tuxedo store is men? Contemplating the merits of a PPK? No? No white kitty cats around? Nobody want a pointy silver grill? Good.
"As I was saying we are going to go over to the dock, and my boss is going to decide what to do with you when she wakes up. Good chance she fixes you up and sends you on your way. If you want to see your former friend again however you are all going to either follow her orders, and stay out of trouble, or join the Protectorate and try to stay here in Brockton bay.
"Your friends trigger fucked her up beyond belief, but she is fixed now, well aside from making Marines out of sea life. Gung ho little fuellows, damn yeomen, too let me tell you. Is that something like what she was doing? Anyway, I know a lawyer, or a dozen, so we can work on that. The rest of you have managed not to kill anyone. Color me surprised. Yall got some pretty serious powers. Yes, you too shifter.
"Oh, shifter boy, meet stranger nine and shaker nine Imp and Vista." The two girls appeared. Lisa wanted to face palm at the kabars they were cleaning their nails with. "They'll be watching you. Also meet Regent, master seven. Human master." Regent stepped from a shadow and bowed a bit.
"Last and my favorite besides our new Destroyer Tender, these guys pack leader, she waved at the dogs the mighty Grue, be careful-"
Marissa giggled "Or you might be eaten by a Grue. Holy shit!" Grue had dropped his smoke and appeared. Lisa had to agree. Probably only Taylor was more buff than Brian.
Trickster slow clapped "And if we refuse your kind offer?"
"Sergeant?"
Trickster blinked as troops appeared, lots of troops, Army troops, with lots of guns that didn't shoot foam. "You can take it up with the Sergeant? Discuss it amongst yourselves. Yell when you have decided." She skated away into the dark. The dogs trotted to the water and became eighty-foot-long twenty feet wide power boats again and roared after her. With the guns on the back pointed right at them.
Marissa looked at Trickster "Do what you want, I'm going to see Noelle." Trickster looked at all the Travelers nodding and sighed.
The sergeant nodded "Right decision kid, she might even be able to help you. Before that one was an attack submarine, she was a thinker. Ran the planning for the team that quit Coil before you guys did. They never got caught."
Haze Gray
Lung looked at the soldier's walking through his territory and smiled. He could see the money.
Haze Gray
Hookwolf exploded into spinning hooks and blades. Two heavy machine guns focused on Storm Tiger, accurately, nine hundred rounds per minute being too much to handle he didn't and crashed to earth dying, or already dead.
At the same time two medium machine guns had been used in the same manner on Cricket. She wasn't dead, just.
Hookwolf took the first several rounds of Mark 211 without noticing the damage the armor piercing explosive rounds were doing, but when several more machineguns joined in an unholy chorus. He ended up in his core on the ground separated from his metal. Two Marines ran out, used D handled shovels to scoop up the ball, and dropped it into a tank of liquid nitrogen four other marines ran out, set down, and uncovered.
Corpsmen ran out, evaluated and treated Cricket and Storm Tiger. They were sedated after the large bore IVs were started. then they were packaged and put in military ambulances.
Motors roared for a few moments and then all became quiet again at the intersection of the main secondary route west out of Brockton Bay and the north south secondary road that ran from Portland south.
Haze Gray
Lung blinked as the reports of the raids came in. Every federal law enforcement agency backed by the military, but no Kanmusu. Good thing he had told the ronin and merchants to clean up. This would blow over. They were testing him. Too bad they didnt realize the only test for him was the Kanmusu.
Haze Gray
"Spend more time there. Be seen looking after those girls. Protect them."
Rune arched a brow "And when they turn me into a boat?"
"I'm sure you will uphold the honor of the Kriegsmarine."
"I'm not scuttling myself, getting depth charged to death, or hiding up the river." Rune slammed the door behind her.
Krieg shrugged "Point. And now without Hookwolf, Storm Tiger and Cricket to control those animals?"
"I rather thought you could take them in hand James. Crusader and Alabaster should be of great assistance. Victor and Othala will return. The Clan doesn't like Victor. Needs must I can talk to Purity."
Haze Gray
Danny wandered out into the dock from the Officers stateroom he was using on the berthing barge, After chasing seven little white, brown, and tan girls off to their bunks to get ready for the day, cleaning up the pallet he had ended up in on the deck, hey it was seven of the little frozen footed things, and nodded to the two exasperated young ladies, daughters of dock workers, being employed to ride herd on them and speak to them. He smiled; they had only had to go outside for two languages. Suomi and Ordo. He would have sworn Bob Koskinen was a Finn but he didn't speak it. His daughter was here, she spoke Spanish.
He walked the barge just eying things to make sure everything was ok and made his way to the mess hall in on the first deck. He passed through the line and nodded to the CS Chiefs. Wait where had that normal sized one come from "Chief?"
"Retired, your Chief Yeoman, erh, well Lacey? She hired me."
"Welcome aboard Chief. Check your marbles at the gangplank."
"Ha! I did that twenty-four years ago, wonder if they still have them stored at Great Lakes?"
Danny looked past her "Uh, are those some of the girls we picked up?"
"Apprentices, twenty three hours a week, pain in the ass to schedule but gets them pocket money while they wait on their builds? Well some of them. All of them hope. Couple in each division. Not the youngest. Though they still follow the others around. When they aren't in the dock.
"You better be careful, somebody showed them the fiction and is reading it to them, the tamer stuff, I think they all want to be Taffy's" Danny blinked and moved on. He looked at the chief on his shoulder, who was face palming?
Haze Gray
Danny made it out to the dock followed by a stream of girls in one-piece suits, who instead of stopping flowed down to the water and then into it fearlessly. Then one squealed. He laughed at the startled "What the hell? Who are you? Holy shit another bird farm, who is she?" From Taylor followed by the muzzy "Don't know. Coffee?" from Amy. and the EEEEEEE from Leslie.
"Leslie? OK, OK wow, that's a hell of a data dump. Give me a minute here I'm processing. Hue, Dwight and their group are covering? Raids, wow, did he live through that? Fucking Coil shot himself? What the fuck kind of supervillain shoots himself? I hope those two don't think this in any way makes up for what they have done for years. They find all the girls whose lives they have ruined and pay them that much, or their families, and I might think about not ball tapping them with a super heavy.
"LISA!"
"Coming boss! Morning!"
Danny stepped up to the edge "You good Taylor?"
"No, give me a couple hours and a patrol. Anybody Amy needs to patch up? This blotter is full of arrest of names I recognize, for assault and battery. Been having a good liberty Dad?"
"The docs patched them up. They paid the fine, fifty bucks, they seem to think it was worth it. Told the judge they might want to do it again. She laughed."
"Wait on these two for the briefing? What the fuck? Echidna? Who in the PRT comes up with this shit?" Danny gave her a look then looked around at all the little recording devices. Taylor blushed "Oops?"
"M'up Grr off. Hey dogs!"
"I'm awake too, Noelle, nice to meet you and thank you."
Tess came in the door on the caisson and leapt to the water, Danny left them to it. Taylor was fine. Oops. He grinned. Then scowled, he needed to call the lawyer and fuck Barnes over some more.
Haze Gray
"Well with the PRT, Protectorate, New Wave, and the military in action overnight rounding up a significant portion of the criminals Jim, and this just at Sunrise" The weather girl waved at the screen and its view of the harbor full of boats going all out maneuvering like crazy below a sky full of aircraft, fixed and rotary wing, "It certainly is a good morning Brockton! And we have a great day for it, the high is holding just off the coast, swells to a meter tops, not a cloud in the sky, visibility unlimited, and a record high scheduled for later. No need to worry, conditions should even improve this afternoon. With sunset at six forty we should all have time after work or school to enjoy a spectacular day."
The camera panned to Jim and he smiled, a real smile, "Thank you Natalie! And Good Morning Brockton! Back to our top stories-'
Haze Gray
Barack nodded at the TV "OK girls, time for school." He picked up the phone "Katie, good morning, let's get a trip to Brockton Bay together for this afternoon into tomorrow."
He listened and then sighed "Pease could take strategic bombers, I was thinking the helicopter? After the girls get out of school. two and a half hours really three, or forty minutes. fine. We'll take the whale. Yes, I'm sure the detail will be happier. Oh, the helicopters from Pease to the dock, OK.
Haze Gray
Emily walked into 2 MEF's headquarters a bit amazed it wasn't on fire. Chaos, standing in front of a bunch of screens shrugged "Had him visit in the near east. Surprise! They love this kind of stuff. Plus, we planned for it as soon as we beat the idiots down. Got the scouts covering the two and armor keeping geometries of fire on both of them. Want to find out how they do against an APFSDSDU penetrator? The tankers tell me they can penetrate a meter of armor two clicks away. Sort of want to see them prove it. How tough are these two?"
"Of course, they are all in love with the Alaska class, want to make her a honorary tanker, say she could hit either of them from Massachusetts and turn them into road pizza. She's roaring around out there in the bay again.
"We could probably brief the boss and her at the same time. Hey! Let me work on that."
Emily sighed; it was going to be one of those days.