Last laugh; Biggining of the end

Armsmaster sat at his work bench performing rudimentary inspections and maintenance on his gear. They were simple tasks, tasks that he had become so proficient in that they no longer required his full attention. It is during these sorts of tasks that Armsmaster truly got time to sit and think, reflect on the times.

It had now been a week since Leviathan's attack on Brockton bay. The conclusion to the day had been met with incredibly mixed results. On the positive side, Brockton bay was still firmly above sea-level. Armsmaster estimated that only about 20 percent of the city had suffered damages, and only 15% of that was truly irreparable. The death toll was also incredibly low, with only 102 dead and 428 wounded. The bad side, more than half of the casualties and damages were not done by Leviathen.

The battle with the massive hydro-kinetic endbringer had only lasted 31 minutes and 12 seconds, and then someone, an overzealous cape most likely, had detonated a massive bomb, the blast had been the culprit for nearly 67% of all damages and casualties. It was only by some miracle that it was enough to send leviathan back out to sea. Armsmaster was of two minds about the whole situation. On the one hand his power, ever looking for efficiency, recognized that the powerful blast had tactical merit. On the other hand his morals simply would not accept capes disregarding the lives of their fellow humans, especial when fighting and endbringer.

Armsmaster held fast to some pride that it had not been any of his wards caught in the explosion.

However the endbringer attack had only been the tip of the iceberg, and it only served to bring into the spotlight the many problems facing Brockton bay currently.

The wounded from the fighting were still here. usually they wouldn't have been a problem, with panacea in Brockton bay injuries were not hard to deal with. But that was just it, Panacea had vanished months ago. No note, no warning, just gone, there wasn't even any evidence pointing towards her destination or if she had even gone willingly. Without her, the recovery of the assisting capes was taking considerably longer, most had already left but there was still a considerable strain on the local hospital staff.

And with the heightened cape presence in the city a very long open case had landed in the protectorate's lap. A string of murders numbering exactly 134 victims with the first appearing on February 12th. A tailor was found brutally beaten to death in his own shop, with a Glasgow smile carved into his already deformed face post-mortem, they had been continuing in much the same way for a while .Murders were not usually the protectorate's responsibility, however it was the most recent victims that placed the case squarely in their jurisdiction. Seven out-of-town capes were found dead, brutally beaten with smiles carved into their faces. There was no significant break in the case even with several protectorate thinkers looking over the evidence. Regardless of what they found however Armsmaster would be the one to make the arrest, he would make sure of that.

There had been a full on gang war in the city between the E88 and the ABB, The E88 had apparently gone overboard in their assault on the rival gang apparently going so far as to actively target and torture non-combatants. And the E88 had seem a rise in cape activity as well as personal appearances by Kaiser. And in every fight Armsmaster had witnessed or participated in he had not displayed the cool charismatic demeanour nor did he display even the slightest hint of etiquette, nothing that Armsmaster had come to associate with the man, all he displayed was rage. Whatever the E88's reasons for becoming so violent recently, it was clear that it was a personal matter. The truce that always came with an endbringer attack hardly lasted 10 minutes after the endbringer was dispatched.

A beep alerted Armsmaster that he was almost out of time to work on his weapons, he would have to leave and meet with the whole wards team to dispatch assignments for the coming week. Armsmaster finished his work and stood making his way out of the lab.

The gang war was not even particularly profitable for either side, the only people benefiting from it were the Merchants, despite the disappearance of Skidmark and Squeeler the gang's territory was actually expanding. But they were not the one's who were really gaining the most. No that privilege fell to Coil. Coil now had a swath of territory rivalling that of either the E88 or ABB and it showed no signs of stopping. Between fighting each other and repelling the expanding merchants the local gangs were powerless to stop Coil's takeover. Coil was another villain Armsmaster wished to capture personally.

Armsmaster entered the Ward's lounge area mentally taking roll in his head. Clockblocker, Vista, Aegis, Kid Win, Gallant, Browbeat, and Shadow Stalker. All accounted for and giving him their attention.

Armsmaster opened his mouth to address them but was highly annoyed when he heard the TV on.

Armsmaster turned to turn the TV off but stopped, his heads-up display told him that it was the protectorate channel, programmed to simultaneously broadcast on every other channel and on several high traffic websites.

The protectorate was not the ones using it at the moment.

By this time the entirety of the wards had also noticed, it must have only just come on after he entered the room then.

"Greatings, citizens of brockton bay." a calm. level, and masculine voice spoke. The owner of the voice sat behind a desk with his laced in front of him. He wore a black body suit with a white snake pattern running up the front and around his neck. A dark helmet obscured his face from view. He was easily recognizable by anyone in Brockton Bay, from the few public appearances he had made he had certainly made an impression. In the few times he had faced Amsmaster and his wards he had proven to be more than proficient on the battlefield, easily incapacitating many of them and evading capture by those he did not engage. Coil. "I had meant to bring you all this message far earlier but I thought it best to allow you all to... Recuperate."

"The fuck does He want." Shadow Stalker spoke up getting glares from a few other members of the wards.

"Don't swear." Vista said with a frown.

Armsmaster hushed both of them as he turned his attention back to the television. He had sent a message to dragon and she should be attempting to trace the signal as well as shut it down. It should only be a matter of time.

"First I would like to know something..." Coil continued. "What did you think of my demonstration?"

"What demonstration?" Clockblocker asked allowed.

Aegis seemed to stand bolt upright for a moment. "The bomb..." He said in horror and realization.

"I had been disappointed when it did not kill Leviathan but then again that was not why a made them." Coils choice of words was not lost on Armsmaster. Suddenly Coil, who had been extremely still the entire video slumped forward his helmeted head landing on the desk. He was unmoving. "~Oh welL thaT's not good.~Heheha. Ahem." The voice continued in a more lilting sing-song cadence but it was undoubtedly the same voice.

suddenly another figure came on screen. Tall and thin, wearing semi casual dress clothes, button up shirt, a vest, expensive jeans, that sort of thing, it certainly wasn't appropriate attire for the current situation. He wore these things under a bright red trench coat. Covering the strangers head was a gas mask. The villain Gasschamber, he had joined the E88 a few short months ago, a tinker who synthesized deadly gasses. He had never said a word when in costume however he also didn't dress so colourfully, this was a first. Gasschamber pushed the chair and Coil to the side as he continued speaking "Ah, A minor Malfunction. No need to postpone the show for such a trivial thing. And, Hehoho Ahem... Don't worry about my charming Co-star. ~He's quite dead.~" Gasschamber made a placating gesture with his hands. "Now all you out there that answer to him, DON'T PANIC. You are all still on his payroll, Well technically its MY payroll now. ~I've been running the show for a while.~" Gasschamber sounded ecstatic, particularly with the death bit.

"What is with this guy?" Clockblocker asked. obviously feeling ill at ease with the villain's antics. Perhaps finding them a mockery of his own behaviour.

"OH! How about an unwrappinG~" Gasschamber threw his arm around Coil's shoulders. "A present for all of you out there! I really am sorry you aren't here to unwrap it yourselves ~but~ We are Live and In HD! Hehehehu~ And teh culprit is...~" with a flourish the helmet was pulled off. "Thomas Calvert!" He exclaimed in mock surprise. "But he's a well respected partner with the Protectorate, an upstanding citizen, It couldn't possibly be!" Gasschamber said in a mocking high pitched voice. "Oh but it is dear citizens. I suppose this just goes to show... No one is who you think they are. Not you're neighbours, or your friends, family, not the police, not the protectorate or the heroes. Not. Even. The little. Baby. WARDS!" the last word was shouted, abruptly and with clear anger.

"Ahem." And as soon as it was there it was once again replaced with the frighteningly jovial demeanour. "~Take me for example. I..." The gas mask came off revealing another mask, a skin tight material that hugged his entire head, expressionless and without any design. The mask worn by an independent hero in Brockton bay he was mostly un-noteworthy besides taking in a few thugs and cleaning up trash from the street, was largely unremarkable. "Am also The Samaritan!~ Oh but you probably want to see my face! Haha. Oh you. Greedy greedy~" He said wagging his finger. "But since you're all SOOO! insistent!~" And to armsmaster's surprise the mask came off.

A great mane of black hair was unleashed, messy but not unclean, it looked like it was never brushed however. The face was pale, only a few shades off of pure white, a wide mouth stretched wider in a smile that was unnerving. Dark circles around eyes that appeared to be red. With the face completely visible it was clear that this was no more than a girl, young and definitely not the man she had been pretending to be. Armsmaster noticed that Shadow Stalker was squinting at the screen as if trying to et a better look.

"Dragon. What's taking you so long?" Armsmaster asked into his com.

"I'm sorry Colin, I am trying as best I can but the signal is being routed through a number of proxies it will take some time before I can shut it down." Dragon's voice came.

"Do you recognize this person?" Armsmaster asked

"I will run a facial recognition program and see what I can find." Dragon said before cutting off. She had a job to do.

"I am... No one important. You're side tracking me." the stranger said accusingly in a much more feminine voice. the smile disappearing for a brief moment as she made to announce who she was, before returning as if it had never been gone. "That isn't why we are having this lovely little Pow wow!~ I'm here to announce a GAME!~ Oh hohoho~ AN-d before AnY of you decide you don'T want to play, There's ~Prrriiiizzeeeees~ YES! Get the goal and win the prize of your choice!" The strange girl gave a shove and pushed Coil and his desk off 'set' before pulling another table into view. There was a great deal of scratching and scraping. On the table was a plunger (like one would use to detonate explosives), several briefcases in a very tall tower, and a large basket full of cloth.

The strange girl walked over to the basket and pulled something out, they could not see what it was as she had her back to the camera, whatever it was she held it close to her breast. Turning around Armsmaster felt his stomach drop as it was revealed to be a baby. "First up we have Darling little Aster!~ So young~ So pure~ I am sorry about her mother you know. I know what its like to lose family." Armsmaster felt that she was talking to someone specific, and she sounded genuinely sad for a moment. "Or maybe I don't! But win the prize and you might just get to hold this precious thing.~" She passed the child to someone off screen, there was not enough of them showing to discern who. "Prize number two! Is thirty million in Cash!~ I Know how much you all just love Money. What else should I say! NEXT!~" The girl walked over to the plunger. "Our last prize is Brockton bay! ~Have a Taste!~" Her hand came down on the plunger, nothing seemed to happen. "I just blew up a school! Don't worry no one died this time... I think. Hehahahahhe."

"Dragon can you confirm their claim?" Armsmaster asked.

"Winslow high was destroyed by an explosion several seconds ago." Dragons voice confirmed.

"Now For every day The goal isn't reached I blow something else up. A hospital~, a park~, The police station~, the protectorate HQ~. Anything! And at some point I don't know when Maybe tomorrow maybe next week, I end the game! Teh prizes, forever out of reach and Brockton bay a smoking pile of rubble. Oh and no one is allowed to leave or I end the game sooner rather than later~" The strange girl's smile seemed to only grow wider.

"Is she serious?!" most of the wards shouted in disbelief.

"What does the crazy bitch want!" Shadow stalker said, not getting a reprimand from any of the others this time.

"She must be bluffing." Kid win said with shaky conviction.

"She isn't. She hasn't told a single lie since the TV came on." Armsmaster was quick to shoot down their hope.

"But what does she want!" Clockblocker asked urgently.

"~AH I haven't given you all the goal!~" The stranger started again as if she heard them. "well it's simple really. I want you to BRING ME SHADOW STALKER!" Spittle flew from her mouth as she visibly nashed her teeth. Her eyes were gleaming red in the video, she looked murderous.

She seemed to visibly reign herself in with as shiver and a twitch. The smile returned this time far more unnerving than before. "If there isn't anything else..." She pulled a revolver from her coat and pointed it at the camera.

"~HAPPY HUNTING!~" Bang!

The screen went to static.

-end-

right. first chapter of a new story.

recently got into worm and worm fanfiction thought I would do a story of my own.

I watched a lot of Joker (Live action, cartoon, and video game), Vaas, and Rorschach and a little bit of Deadpool in preparation to write Taylor. and yes that is Taylor. I will tell you all straight up I am never going to explicitly say what her power is or if she even has one. if I do it right I will be able to keep you guessing. if I do it wrong it will just be vexing. feel free to guess all the same.

And I won't be writing this in chronological order. there will be some snippets from before this point and some from after. kinda like Lost only they aren't all dead.