Outside suspected ABB facility, 1 week later
Kaiser was stressed. It was the last night of Vacuum's deadline.
He'd hoped someone else would attack. That someone else would take care of the ABB first. But it was the last night of the deadline, and besides skirmishes in the streets, there had been no real battles. Coil had done nothing. The Undersiders had done nothing. The Travelers had done nothing. Although Kaiser wasn't surprised about the last one. If anything, after the threats Vacuum had made, Kaiser would be surprised if they were still in the city.
The only group that hadn't been included in that 1 week deadline had been the Merchants. Skidmark had been tossed out of Somer's Rock before it was made, the other Merchant capes leaving after. They had been wiped off the map later that night.
Kaiser had been coming up with potential defenses against the new threat of Uber and Leet when they'd heard the sounds of cannons. The trainyard was far away, but from the towering height of Medhall, Kaiser could see the bright lights of something firing. And every time it fired, it illuminated something big. Something titanic.
Every single cape of the Merchants had been confirmed dead. Skidmark was found asphyxiated in a warehouse surrounded by mountains of drugs. There were countless piles of crushed trash, but whichever one had been Much was unknown. It had all been collected and torched. Squealer's body had washed to shore a couple days later, terrifying some kids on the beach. Vacuum did not make idle threats.
And Kraken was far more dangerous than they had thought. It still was unknown if Kraken was a Case 53 with a body of water, or a powerful changer, or a powerful breaker. The most popular theory was now that the monster was a Breaker. Which made sense, given the ability to amass more water to increase its size. No known changers or case 53's could do anything similar. But a breaker that could shift into water and had hydrokinesis could do the things Kraken was known to be able to do.
People were wondering just to what degree Kraken's hydrokinesis was. If Kaiser had to guess, it was anything the cape was touching. That was why it stayed connected to the chair it made for Vacuum. It's why it was next to the Bay when it grew to such massive proportions.
If it was separated from a body of water, it could be killed.
But separating a fish from water was far easier than separating a mosquito from the air.
Kraken never was the dangerous one of that group. Vacuum would be the real challenge. One that Kaiser still couldn't think of a way of overcoming.
Hookwolf and Purity were potentially the best chances he had, with Hookwolf being immune to suffocation and Purity having a potential advantage in range and raw firepower.
But he would avoid fighting Vacuum if he could. Kaiser had already lost too much to that monster.
The cold emanating from the left side of his bed every night reminded him of that.
And so here he was. It's not like he was taking the ABB down for Vacuum. This would open many doors for the Empire. With the dragon slain, the Empire would be able to hold reign over the city. Coil was nothing but a plotting mole rat. He was no real threat. He could hide behind his mercenaries all he wanted to. And the Undersiders were just some teenagers trying to play in a league far outside their depth. They would all fall like dominoes before the might of the Empire.
He would prove that, starting tonight.
Cricket had tracked Uber to this warehouse. He'd been wearing some kind of tinkertech that emanated a high frequency thrum that only she could hear.
And so the Empire had mobilised. The ABB will end tonight. Standing at his sides were Fenja and Purity. Behind him were Hookwolf, Crusader, and Alabaster. All the other members remained in key Empire locations to make sure Coil or the Undersiders didn't make any easy grabs of supplies.
Crusader clones and Alabaster would be the front line, tripping any claymores or other proximity bombs. Hookwolf had been granted superspeed by Othala. That way, he'd hopefully be able to deal with Vacuum if he showed up. And if not, it would be a boon against closing the gap to Bakuda anyway.
Kaiser spoke up. "Alright Purity, announce our presence."
Purity's eyes and hands started glowing even brighter than normal, powering up a powerful blast to obliterate the front doors of the warehouse.
But just as she was about to release, an explosion came from inside. The wall next to the door exploded, two armored figures shooting out. On the ground was a twitching arc lance and the ragdolled figure of Dauntless. Standing above him was a figure clad in black armor, with a small attachment on one of his arms and multiple circular contraptions on his belt. The figure held a grey rod in his hand that looked like a cross. Flicking his wrist, a shiny silver blade popped out of its end, coated in red light. Swinging it down, Dauntless had no choice but to look in fear at certain death.
But the figure had to stop mid swing as a silver blur slammed into him from the side. Hookwolf had stepped in to attack Uber before he could finish the job.
But Dauntless was not saved. The only thing that had changed was who he would die to. Hookwolf turned to the downed cape, his hand spinning into whirring blades, a malicious smile stretching across his face.
Purity leveled her hands at the new target, shooting beams of light at the other cape.
But a green shield of energy erupted out of the contraption on his wrist, blocking it. Knocked back a couple of steps, the figure grabbed a circular device from his waist and hurled it towards the group of Empire capes.
The capes scattered, a group of Crusader clones surrounding the device as it exploded. The clones were warped and crushed as the space bomb crunched everything within a 5 foot radius into nothing.
A missile flew through the air, slamming into Hookwolf before he could finish off Dauntless.
Miss Militia ran forward to try and protect her teammate, but Hookwolf recovered quickly, turning to face her.
An enlarged Fenja moved forward to step on the downed cape.
Through the darkness there was a glint of light, reflecting massive wings of countless blades of ice.
1 hour earlier
Dauntless had to be careful. His power let him gain small boosts every day. He was Brockton Bay's crown cape. Someone who could rival the Triumvirate someday.
But that day was not today. And he knew that. His biggest fear was that he would die before reaching his true potential.
But that didn't mean he would just stand by.
With his armor he had been on the front lines against ABB thugs. He'd even chased off Uber and Leet two days ago. If they hadn't been armed with Bakuda's grenades, Dauntless would have caught them. He'd been extra careful to avoid the magnetic field device. He'd learned how to cut off the electricity charge in his lance and shield to avoid another fiasco where he had to retreat.
But he would not regret the past. He would learn. That's why rather than reinforcing his shield or boots this week, he'd been reinforcing his arclance. After he charged something up over 20 times, he could imbue other properties into his materials other than power and durability.
He knew his shield would do nothing against time bombs or space bombs. So rather than focus on a useless defense, he would just make sure his offense could eliminate threats before they happened.
So this week, knowing he might need to attack from afar, he'd been imbuing his arclance with the ability to arc back to his hand like a boomerang.
It could already extend as far as he wanted at any time, but this would let him hit enemies around corners and around shields. So even if Bakuda was hiding behind Uber and Leet, Dauntless could take her out and disable her grenades.
Despite the fact that building this had made him a potentially fantastic ranged attacker, he was still paired with Miss Militia for patrols tonight.
Not all the pairings were perfectly optimal. Or at least that's what Armsmaster had said. Dauntless didn't care much for that sort of thing.
He'd just try to do his job the best he could with what he had.
They'd been patrolling when Dauntless had spotted a small drone buzzing through the air.
Flying up to it, Dauntless only had a second to react to a sudden beeping noise before the drone exploded in a shower of green light, likely some kind of radiation. He'd been quick enough to activate his shield, charging it with electricity to let the magnetic field repel the radiation. The same way the magnetic field around Earth protects the surface from most solar radiation.
He'd make sure to check he didn't just get cancer after his patrol anyway though, just in case.
He was about to fly back down to Miss Militia when another drone rose, a couple buildings down.
"I've got eyes on a drone, potential Leet tech. The last one exploded when I got close, so I'm going to keep my distance. Follow me from below. Stay back."
"Acknowledged."
The two capes continued cautiously, Dauntless slowly following the drone as it flew somewhere, keeping a gap large enough to keep eyes on it, but stay out of a radius that it could notice him.
After following the drone for nearly an hour, Dauntless eyed the warehouse he had been brought to.
"I'm circling around, going through the back entrance. Console, be on standby to send backup. Militia, I'll try to draw them out to the front. Be ready with containment foam."
"I've got a vantage point on a roof nearby, ready at your call."
Dauntless slowly made his way in, the door creaking loudly even with his careful touch.
Knowing the loud sound betrayed his cover, Dauntless decided away with sneaking and brought his shield and arclance in front of him, both buzzing with power. He continued forward.
But everywhere he looked, the warehouse seemed empty. Abandoned. Nothing but empty boxes and rats. Then he noticed the drones. There were 5 or 6, all dormant on the floor of the warehouse.
He edged forward, looking around the dark warehouse, but as far as he could tell he was alone.
"Dauntless, Empire capes inbound. Console I need reinforcements stat. I have eyes on 6 capes, all of them heavy hitters. Kaiser is leading them."
"Reinforcements are on their way. ETA 12 minutes. Do not engage."
What? Dauntless was confused. Was this a trap set by the Empire? Luring them in with the ruse of the ABB, using drones that could have been Leet's tech. But with Squealer killed, the only other villain tinkers were with the ABB. Maybe this was bought tinker tech?
That was Coil's MO. Perhaps he was making a play at both the Protectorate and the Empire, hoping his enemies would thin ranks attacking each other.
Moving forward to properly examine the drones, Dauntless kept his shield at the ready. One had already exploded on him before. He was going to be ready.
But the sound of something powering up made his hairs stand on edge. It sounded like the whine of an airplane engine. Something powerful. But it wasn't coming from in front of him, it wasn't the drones.
Turning around, Dauntless heard a hiss of hydraulics and saw the brief silhouette of black armor.
But as soon as he turned his back to the drones, they all exploded, the explosions ripping into his back, sending him flying towards the figure. The figure launched forward, slamming an armored fist into Dauntless' form.
There was enough force to send him flying through the massive metal doors of the warehouse entrance.
Dauntless slammed into the ground outside, his arclance knocked from his hand. Uber landed in front of him, some sort of propulsion coming from his boots and torso to stabilize him. Flicking his wrist out, a blade of energy came from the cross like contraption. Dauntless didn't have the strength to raise his shield. Was he going to die right here, before he could get strong?
But something glinted through the air, slamming into Uber.
Dauntless looked to his savior with hope, only for it to be replaced with gut wrenching fear as Hookwolf turned to him with his hand a whirring chainsaw, a malicious smile stretching across his face.
He tried to push himself to his feet, but gasped in pain as his arm collapsed. His shoulder was dislocated. His ribs were definitely broken. He was struggling to breathe.
"Hang on!" A voice buzzed through the earpiece on the warehouse ground. It had been knocked out of his ear during the explosion.
He could only look up in fear before a missile slammed into Hookwolf.
Miss Militia.
But it wouldn't be enough. Hookwolf was getting up already. But Hookwolf wasn't focused on Dauntless anymore. Dauntless was not in the clear, however. Barely able to turn his head, but incapable of not looking, Dauntless turned to the source of the shaking ground. Of the colossal cape, standing 3 stories tall, each foot the size of a car, stomping towards his prone form.
He tried to move again, but could only groan as something within him shifted. Something that definitely wasn't supposed to move.
There was a light coming from above. Was this the end?
But the light was getting bigger, getting closer.
Blades of ice rained down from the sky. Dauntless couldn't turn to see where they were aimed.
Right as Fenja stomped down, a figure landed over him, like a guardian angel. The foot stomped down, but the figure weathered the blow with ease, not even budging from the force. The ground cracked under his boots, but Dauntless had survived.
Cryoblade had arrived.