EXTERMINATION
The woman was having a bad reaction as the Force warned her it was one of those cranial bomb implants. Whatever it was it was leaking from what the Force was telling her. She healed the woman by brute Force stumbling a bit thankfully after the door fully closed.
"We need to get her outside." Jeff picked the woman up as her kids were crying and wailing as the woman was out cold. She maybe still alive, but no amount of the Force was going to matter if that bomb remained in her head. Jeff kicked the doors open as Skye waved her hand at the last one unlocking the back door as the Force eased out the bomb from her head. Once several steps outside the bomb came free and Skye sent it rocketing into the air. Several hundred feet up it expanded into a large time bubble. Trapping several birds and many different insects. The woman's sudden gasp made the children shriek even louder. Jeff went to his knees as the one boy kicked him in the shin.
"Will you stop your screaming your mother is safe!" Three of them were suddenly quieter as the fourth was memorized with the bubble. A bubble that was not remaining in place.
"We need to move." Skye pulled on the Force before shoving out the warning to leave powering her next words.
"Get out of the lighthouse now!" They moved as the woman struggled with consciousness and the children wanted to free her from Jeff. Skye took the one youngling's hand and lead them out away from the effects. Bakuda was a danger and though she knew this the other day she had stopped when the bomb infected had stopped being sensed, but with this woman she knew that there had to be dozens more.
The bubble sank down on the small tower that held the light and then it slowly surrounded the rest of the building. Just enough of it showed to warn people away. What it revealed was something that would not have been picked up by anyone else. Jeff point and Skye looked.
"The bugs are all facing the same direction." They moved around leaving the younglings to tend to their recovering mother. Once they were lined up with the direction of travel Jeff pulled out his phone to scroll through some map function.
"Not much in that area. Even the Merchants avoided it. Storage lots mostly. Put in any way that could be to maximize space. Probably some dead animals or something."
"Or Fire Bee."
"Who?"
"The news called her Skitter. She controls bugs and bugs don't all fly in the same direction."
"No, they don't what do you think is going on?"
"She is calling them to her to use them or she is in trouble and needs more."
"Well, I would get the gear from the car, but the building is kind of out of the question."
"We will change on the way. I will drive as you change in the back. After you call Mike and Hast. Tell them to fly to my location."
"Come on Mike gets to fly the fighter before me?"
"No Ayfour will as he will not get distracted."
"You sure have picked up on how Leet can get. I mean Cutlass." The door locks popped, and they were on their way. Rapier called out direction to Saber as she drove. Parts of her armor joined her as the clothing she wore seemed to slither off of her and fly into the back. By the time they stopped to hear an explosion she was nearly fully equipped. By the time she heard the fighter her armor clicked into place.
The drones flew on a head being faster than the fighter being flown by a droid that must have thought there was some speed ordinance in effect. It was that or accelerating quickly or flying higher than they were, would attract even more attention. Weapons rained down as well as the figures of both Hast and Cutlass giving Rapier his blaster rifle. The first few we saw were hit with three interlocking stun beams. Each of us took a different lane and took down anyone who popped up or rounded a corner. The drones reporting locations of different bombs that were easily set off by our shots.
Skye would pick them up and send them high in the air to tap them hard enough they detonated. That was just the being as they entered into the darkness that covered a lot more of the storage lot. She was hindered in a few different ways but the sensors on the armor and the Drones gave her enough to keep coordination with Rapier and Cutlass. Their blasters would fire here and there, but the snap hiss of their low power lightsabers were not muted by the darkness which made the strange effect that much more eerie.
Between the explosions and the strange effects, it was a very odd battlefield. To see nearly immobile bricks, wood, and metal fly through the air as containment foam grew like a mushroom in fast forward or one of cold ice forming in a delicate lattice of white to larger fire balls. Skye rounded a corner to feel the end effects of a zero-point gravity bomb. She sent out a burst of stun bolts to see them bend over the very epicenter of the failing effect of the bomb. Each shot hit the three people before she jumped over to the next series of lockers.
Skye landed in the middle of a bunch of frightened individuals. The force told her that these people were no threat but could be as she felt the bombs in their heads. With a flourish of her blade, she held out her hand to them and wish they could see her look of concern and remorse. Since she had done it often enough it was not so hard to link them all together and pull the bombs all out at once.
The screams cut through the noise of the others fighting as their weapons and their bodies fell to the cracked asphalt. Twenty mini bombs flew away from their faces to be shoved high up in the air to explode. Several were zero-point bombs and they spun around each other while sucking in the effects of the other bombs, but the bright blinding light and the screamers were not as muted. The very smoky air was sucked up into one of the spinning centers of gravity. One suddenly hit a time stop bubble and the Force screamed at her.
She turned and ran energizing her legs to carry her away. Much faster than the group that was under the effect. All but two managed to escape the pull and one hung desperately to one of the beams supporting the locker roof. With a groan the several gravity points now caught in the same slowed time effect broke the roof up into pieced and the woman never lost her grasp, but it did not matter as she was suddenly being slowly sucked in the zero points as she hit the time bubble. Skye looked away knowing there was nothing she could do.
They say that time slows down when you are in battle and that is true more so for a Jedi than any other fighter. Though speedsters must know what it is like. Skye let go and trusted the Force to bring her where she needed to be. A group here and a group there. More and more cranial bombs were added to the slowly dying bombs only to have more time slowed effect begin to explode or zero-point bombs to start pulling everything to their center.
Though the fighting had moved away from the effect it was still very visible no matter where in the maze of storage lockers you were at. The fight continued to move and slowly she got closer to the sound of a vehicle. The distinct sound of a grenade launcher and the warning in the Force was enough for her to Force pushed in the direction the bombs would come from. She managed to see them fly much higher in the air before igniting or fall to the ground before exploding far from the current battle area.
The jeep came around a corner just as several bodies came falling or jumping over the area. Rapier and Cutlass came from the other side as a second jeep enter the far point of the row behind her. She felt gloating coming from one of the jeeps and she noticed it was the person holding the grenade launcher.
"Well, well, well, what a wonderful surprise. I have been toying with the Undersiders for the last hour and now I find I have captured another group entirely. One if I am not mistaken has reduced the effects of my conscription. Naughty naughty."
"Surrender now Bakuda." Rapier ordered. She just laughed.
"I have just won, and you want me to surrender? Not going to happen not on your life, but I will take yours."
"Checkmate?" Skye said as a question as she cocked her head to the side as her lightsaber snapped off.
"What did you say?"
"That is the word you use when you capture the king is it not."
"Ya and you are the king, and I am the queen."
"You forgot about the Hast?"
"The what?!"
"The piece that fires on the queen."
"I don't..." The high-pitched piercing sound came right after the red flash. No one move as Bakuda looked to be frozen.
"Shit, she is dead." Tattletale's voice was extremely loud compared to the breath that everyone else seemed to holding. The regular ABB members started to drop their weapons just before all the bomb infested members started to scream. This drives them to flee in shear panic. Dozens of little bloody bombs shot away from their initial victims in the direction of the still present time slowed gravity field. Then finally the lifeless form of Bakuda collapsed backwards falling off the jeep.
"Holy shit what the fuck."
"Regent what?!" Grue yelled as Skye turned to face the and then followed their gaze upwards. The fighter was hovering just behind and to the left of them with Hast still in his sniper pose a dozen drones flying around him as if in orbit.
"A space ship. An actual extraterrestrial scout fighter craft. No this is too much my power can't be right." Tattletale declared as she got to her feet.
"You are not mistaken."
"You are Skye the rogue hero?" The very bug looking girl asked as Skye's helm opened up to reveal a smile on her face.
" Fire Bee or I could say Skitter you should perhaps think of switching to a new job as well as the rest of your friends."
"We're villains. We can't just flip sides."
"Then stop, turn yourselves in. It does not matter. You could even join me on my mission."
"How could we trust, okay Jedi Code. Not that I know what that is. Still, we have to eat and take care of other bills. Oh wow, you're rich. How can that, no, I didn't need to know. Crap, shit, you really are, my God I am going to break my head."
"Tattletale, are you okay."
"Ya sure just can't look at her."
"Is what half she said true?" Skitter got to her feet and then watched several victims run away holding their noses.
"I think what you should be asking is if we are willing to add you to our group. I am Rapier." He said as he came up to her side.
"Ya, we were surprised as we found her, and she convinced us to join her when we were going to mess her up or turn her in to ABB. I am Cutlass." At that point his snitch flew down behind his head.
"Leet and Uber, but you guys are laughing stocks."
"Not after today. Viewer ratings quadrupled since last night. We release this fight we might hit a million subscribers."
"Even our side videos are racking in the views. Jedi girl there is popular." The four moved to one side to have a heated discussion as Skye searched the Force for any more threats. They were there but moving away from the storage locker maze. She moved over and then jumped to the roof.
"Hey um don't go yet." Skitter called out to her.
"I am not but I hear something. Your partner, or your pet. I am not sure which."
"You hear Bitch."
"Yes, the girl who calls herself a dog." This got the four to whisper angrily with each other.
"Look we don't work that well with others, but we owe you one."
"A big one."
"Ya okay a big favor, but we are going to turn you down."
"That means we will sleep on it."
"No, it does not."
"Just where is Bitch."
"Over in that direction. She is locked up. I have a drone over her location." Skye waved her hand, and the dozen drones flew away with one of them floating down the lane to the end and stopping.
"Follow them I guess, and you'll find your friend." Rapier added.
"Thanks." Was said in several different ways as a small swarm of bugs followed after the four of them. Rapier and Cutlass gave each other a high five that was not perfect, but they didn't notice. Then Cutlass turned to his snitch.
"So, this was another video produced by the former Uber and Leet. Until the next battle, stay safe and if you gain powers, being a villain really sucks. Heroes rule, villains drool."
"Really come on now. Going to have to edit that out."
"Not."
"Fine, but we need to do another take or something."
"Guys head back to the vehicle if you are fast enough the BBPD and the PRT may not catch you." Skye squatted just long enough to have them watch as she jumped to the fighter. Hast moved behind the cockpit as it opened, and she dropped inside. The two men argued the entire way back to the car and even on the drive back to the lair.
INTERLUDE: DANNY
Taylor had been gone for several days and he had found out she had not gone to school from after lunch on Wednesday all the way through Friday. Now it was Saturday morning, and she was nowhere to be found as the TV warned of multiple explosions all over the city. They were random, but it was enough to worry him even farther.
He had reported her missing to the BBPD, but the bombs had to have put finding her on the back burner. He had gone out looking, but there were not many places that were safe to drive around in the daytime and even fewer at night with how much reporting the news was doing on the ABB and this new tinker that was going by the name of Bakuda. Then the news called to him as he heard the reporter.
"This just in and from one of the most unlikely sources in the Brockton Bay area. Here is Gina with the full story."
"That is right Jim. The tinker known as Bakuda met her untimely death and well deserved according to many of her victims. Even now her bombs are going off as the rush to beat the clock to find them is failing."
"Gina, I heard that Armsmaster is leading the search for her hidden bombs and many of her victims?"
"That is right Jim. The PRT and the Protectorate have been closed lipped, but they did report finding Bakuda dead in an old personal locker storage compound near the international Docks area. With her gear they are searching for the very bombs she had planted throughout the city."
"That is frightening and a very good reason to heed the PRT warnings to stay at home or if you are one of the victims there are little call centers set up to signal you have a bomb in your head. So far none of the victims seem to be under any time constraints."
"Right, but back to the source of the footage of the last fight and only recorded fight of Bakuda against a fairly unknown group that robbed the Central Bank on Thursday."
"There is a lot of speculation on the reasoning, Gina."
"Not so farfetched to think it was over the money that they got away with, but they gained way more in status then the forty thousand they gained in the heist from beating the Wards. However, the video that is now playing behind me, perfectly edited is the work of the villain team of Uber and Leet who claimed to be retiring to follow the career of the newest cape group to appear in the Bay area. Saber is said to be the leader and she has two named associates Rapier and Cutlass, but a fourth member is hinted at to be named Hast."
"The images are edited but if you have a weak stomach, now is the time to turn away as the next scenes are not pretty." The two anchors go silent as the bombs burst in the air and three bodies are seen being sucked inside. There were other scenes that made Gina gasp and Jim to grow pale. The image freezes as the jeep is rounding the corner followed by the snitch. Gina sips some water before she finishes.
"This is the final part as Bakuda has been corralling the Undersiders into this particular lane. Then the armored trio drop down around the Undersiders. Words are exchanged and then a bright red flash happens before multiple bombs are pulled out of the surrounding forced members of the ABB. It is only after they explode that the body of Bakuda falls."
"That is one eerie end to a cape and a very clear message that the Jedi Praxeum does not allow villains to indiscriminately target civilians, Gina."
"That is right Jim. The trio has claimed an obscure movie reference from a couple of movies released back in the eighties named Star Wars."
"I heard there is also a rumor that the group is linked with another new cape that took out the Archer's Bridge Merchants who goes by the name Skye. Though the only link we have is she claimed to be a Jedi after she freed a student from a brutal bullying prank that put three girls in jail."
"Who can say, and she might even be the leader of the Jedi Praxeum. There is also another video that puts a more villainous eye on the group as they raided a military base over an hour away the night before. That on top of saving a villain group has made many of the experts wonder what their motivation was and may taint the good will with the city by removing such a psychopath as Bakuda from the city."
"You can watch the full video of the raid on Uber and Leet's channel for their standard fee and the end of Bakuda for free after registering for their channel as it has gone viral. Over to you Timothy as he tells you what to expect from the weather."
Danny finally blinked as he rewound his DVR. He moved forward and then back several times until it was perfectly frozen on one of the members of the Undersiders. Her by only the length of her hair as the costume even hid whether Skitter was a male or female. The fact that Skye had saved his daughter and then he remembered her fighting Lung not too long ago with a bug controlling girl she called Fire Bee only to have the media rename her Skitter after she was identified as one of the bank villains.