Aftermath
That was far too much fun. I've already established the fact that Vacuum will kill anything and anyone. The fact that Lung and Oni Lee had joined the list of capes in the morgue proved that.
So I didn't actually need to kill anyone at Somer's Rock. Seeing them all shit their pants as they waited for someone to make a move was hilarious though. The Travelers were unexpected, but made no difference in the end. I wonder if that weird praying mantis creature was a case 53?
As for why I didn't kill Skidmark. Well even though I did break the rules of the truce, killing someone at such an event would likely have been held in a far worse light. Not that it really would have mattered for me.
Besides, I gave the rest of the teams 1 week to get rid of the ABB. I could probably do it on my own, but a tinker is always something to be wary of. A bomb tinker is something that can be left for other people to deal with.
I heard she has some time manipulation bombs and space warping grenades. Lots of tricks that could hurt me through my armor.
So Bakuda is a threat I will definitely take seriously. Especially with Uber and Leet as her henchmen. Powers are bullshit, and bombs are the pinnacle of destruction that humans are capable of. A combination of the two was not a mix I wanted to deal with unless I absolutely had to. Not to mention she has two more capes at her back.
They were a joke before, when they stuck to their gimmicks, but now that they are forced to be lethal, I'm worried what Leet might cook up. And what Uber might be able to accomplish with a dangerous tinkertech weapon.
So, I'd let the other gangs tackle the problem first. They were losing far more than I was in this ordeal, the ABB wasn't raiding my house, after all.
If one week passed, well then I'd have to take matters into my own hands.
And just to nail the point in, well... Skidmark had not been part of that 1 week deadline. And he was a filth to this city.
He would serve as a good example. His whole group would. Just to remind the other gangs that they'd better spend their week well.
Nailing the point home before they even had the thought to consider otherwise. Somer's Rock had only been an hour ago. Why would I let them rest before giving them something new to fear?
So by getting rid of the rot that hung around in the territories nobody cared to have, I would be doing the city a favor as well as ensuring the other gangs would take my threats seriously.
Maybe Kraken should get the chance to showcase his powers.
The trainyard happened to be right next to the bay.
The Docks, later that night
Armsmaster was having a rough week. He finally thought he'd have the chance to try out his new tranquilizers, potentially taking down the strongest cape in Brockton Bay, only to arrive to an already catatonic Lung. Of course he applied his tranquilizers anyway, Lung had a healing factor and could wake up at any moment.
Instead the tranquilizers had nearly killed Lung, and Piggot had yelled at him in her office for hours. Something about untested tinker tech in the field.
And in order to not upset the new cape, all credit had gone to them. Even though Lung probably would have woken up and escaped before being captured if not for Armmaster's tranquilizers.
But that wasn't even all of it.
Armsmaster had been working on a null field and a new oxygen injector to combat Vacuum. He'd started working on this after the serial killer's debut, and had nearly finished the new tech before the kill order had been assigned. With his null field, he would be able to stagnate all the air molecules in a two foot radius around him. So Vacuum wouldn't be able to suffocate him.
But Armsmaster was always someone for backup plans anyway. So he'd designed another device that could inject oxygen straight into your bloodstream, keeping you alive even if you couldn't breathe.
And then Piggot had assigned a flee on sight order for all Protectorate capes.
One that he had vehemently fought against. His new tech would be enough to take the serial killer down for good. Armsmaster could make a special task force all with the oxygen injectors, assigning perfect roles and plans that had the slimmest margins of error. But she would have none of it.
And so Armsmaster continued throughout his routine. The drab montonotic routine that left him feeling empty inside.
At least riding his tinkertech motorcycle was freeing.
Villain activity had been particularly low tonight.
Besides ABB skirmishes with the police and military, the gangs were quiet.
Speaking of, the military forces in the city only seemed to encourage the ABB. Open gunfights in the streets had been a common occurrence in the last week.
The Protectorate was already thinking of sending additional cape task forces to help.
The only reason they hadn't already is they were scared a certain cape might escalate. The serial killer hadn't attacked or killed any Protectorate heroes or wards yet, and having additional forces in the city might make the cape feel threatened. And nobody wanted Vacuum to lash out against the Protectorate.
If only someone could have done something about that.
There was also the help from the independent hero Cryoblade. While Armsmaster hadn't personally met him yet, apparently the new cape had spoken to Velocity and Dauntless during their patrols. While they hadn't succeeded in recruiting him, they both enjoyed both his charisma and his sense of duty to the city. He had helped stop gun fighting in the streets, his shields of ice stopping the bullets with ease. Which didn't make sense, with how brittle ice normally was. Armsmaster would love to get a sample to see what made Cryoblade's ice special. Could he manipulate the temperature? Or maybe the density? Either would increase the tensile strength of the ice. But Colin thought that Cryoblade could be doing a lot more. He'd only been seen fighting the ABB's new capes once. Uber and Leet had really stepped up their game since becoming the ABB's new lapdogs. Leet almost had fully functioning power armor when he was last seen. He had beaten Dauntless back with a device that boosted magnetic fields, causing Dauntless' electricity to start going haywire. Dauntless had to flee the scene in order to not injure any nearby civilians or his teammates.
A signal lit up on his visor as something tripped one of his seismic sensors, shaking him from his musings.
Armsmaster had installed seismic sensors all over the city this last week to know when and where bombs were going off, letting emergency response get to damaged areas as fast as possible to help them.
But he hadn't heard any bombs go off.
So what could have tripped the seismic sensor?
Armsmaster sped off towards the trainyard.
It felt like a trick of the light, but the moon warped as he got closer. Nothing was affecting his thermal sensors. It was being diffracted. But what could…
The massive water monster slammed a tendril into a warehouse, splintering the entire building apart.
A shoddy tank made of rusty materials one would find in a junkyard tore through one of the walls in a building nearby. It shot out beams of energy, carving massive holes in the titanic water monster.
But water seeped out of the bay, collecting around the beast. Before long, all the holes had been filled and the monster stood even taller, nearly 40 feet tall now.
A pile of trash was growing behind the tank, collecting everything it could. Standing 20 feet tall, the body of trash moved in front of the tank to try and fight the beast. It's entire left arm was coated in blue light.
Armsmaster noted that the light signifies the effect of Skidmark's power. He had never used it this way before. Had desperation caused a breakthrough?
The trash heap punched into the towering water creature, half of its body splattering back into the bay behind it. But the water came rushing back, filling any damage.
The titans brawled, trading titanic blows. Each punch would take out massive chunks of Kraken, but the bay was too close. It kept regenerating any damage it took nearly immediately. The same could not be said for Mush. Each lash from a watery tendril sent garbage flying, the heap slowly falling apart. Even the support from the tank behind it was not enough.
It was eerie. The titan of water had no eyes. No mouth. It made no cries of pain. No roars of triumph.
It just was.
With one final push, Kraken charged forward. Slamming two massive tendrils down from above, Mush was split in half. Then the other tendrils kept slamming into all of the pieces relentlessly.
Squealer kept shooting the beast with her tank, but it ignored it. Destroyed tendrils were regrown. New holes in its body didn't even matter. Before long, the trash pile had been obliterated. Each piece was pulverized. Whichever one was Mush, Armsmaster didn't know. Not that it mattered anymore.
Kraken stalked forward again, Squealers tank wheeling backwards as she realized she was next.
But a tendril shot forward, grabbing onto the tank.
For a moment the tank's treads squealed on the ground, trying to move forward, but the tendril had locked it in place.
Then the tank started to get pulled back, slowly inching towards Kraken as the monster pulled.
More tendrils joined the first, grabbing the tank and roping it back.
In a fit of desperation, Squealer undid the latch on top and tried to get out of the tank. She jumped off, running back towards the warehouse.
Behind her, the tank crumpled as the tendrils crushed together.
Armsmaster noted that if Kraken could do that then, it could have done it the whole time. Why was it drawing this out?
With a loud clang, the tank dropped to the ground, the heap of metal crumpled into a ball.
A tendril lashed out, grabbing Squealer by the foot, slowly dragging her back. She clawed at the ground, but her body was frail and weak from drug overuse. Not that she would have been able to fight the force either way.
Grabbing her and holding her 20 feet in the air, Squealer was brought up to the top mass of Kraken. It was odd, something without eyes trying to stare you down. Squealer pounded on the tendril fruitlessly.
Armsmaster started to move forward involuntarily, stepping out from the shadows. He had hidden that whole time. He wasn't sure what to do. What he could do, in the presence of something so big and seemingly invincible.
He could electrocute it, but it didn't seem to have any internal organs to damage. If anything that might just be a death sentence, as Kraken could just grab onto him with the electrified tendrils, frying his suit and him with it.
Kraken seemed to notice him, making a small tendril near him and moving it back and forth, like it was trying to chastise him for doing something wrong. Like a parent scolding a child for doing something naughty.
And then the beast wound up and threw Squealer into the bay. She was nothing but a small speck in the dark night sky. She landed so far away that even with his advanced night vision tech, Armsmaster didn't even see a splash.
She would not be able to swim to shore from there, and Velocity was off duty tonight.
Kraken moved back towards the bay, sinking into the water.
Armsmaster was left alone in the rubble of destroyed buildings, nothing but trash wading in countless puddles of water to keep him company.