Thanks to dwood15, Technetium43, and Assembler for betareading.
Interlude 3a: Ethan
At the sound of the alert siren, Ethan guiltily jerked to attention from where he'd been hunched over his laptop in the lounge of PHQ. He'd been browsing PHO—it was always fun to see how the ongoing speculation about his connection to Madcap was going.
Armsmaster's voice kicked in over the PA, partially drowning out the siren. "All on-duty Protectorate members," he said. "This is not a drill. Please assemble in the main garage immediately for deployment. We have confirmation of a terrorist strike in the docks."
Terrorist strike?
Ethan snapped his laptop closed and stuck it under his arm as he jogged out of the break room and down the hall towards his locker. Dauntless, his hands fumbling with the straps of his helmet, was coming out of the changing room just as Ethan reached the door.
"Ken," he greeted. "What's going on?"
"Haven't the foggiest," replied Dauntless tersely. "A terrorist attack? What does that even mean, these days?"
"An attack on civilians, basically," said Velocity, slipping nimbly out of the changing room and sidling between the two larger men. "I'll see you two in the garage."
"…And he's gone," said Ethan, blinking at the place where the speedster had just been standing.
"And I should be too," said Dauntless. "Catch up when you can, Ethan."
"Yeah, yeah." Ethan slipped past Ken and entered the changing room.
Rory was there, pulling on his skintight shirt. His leggings and gladiatorial skirt were already on.
"Hey, kid," Ethan said casually as he crossed the room and punched in his locker combination.
"Assault." Rory's voice was polite, businesslike, and cold and unwelcoming as half-frozen cod.
"You've got no idea what's happening, do you?"
"No."
"Hmm. Nor do I. In case you were wondering."
"I wasn't." Triumph finished tightening the straps of his pauldrons and shut his locker, golden helmet in hand.
"See you downstairs!" Ethan called after him as the younger hero left the locker room. He got no response. This was no surprise.
Ethan finished clipping together his breastplate and leggings and then slipped on his visor. He took a moment to study his reflection in the locker door's interior mirror before shutting it and running out of the room.
He made his way down the hall and two flights of stairs before reaching the garage. Armsmaster was already on his bike, talking to Miss Militia in a low voice.
"There you are!" The voice was Assault's favorite. He grinned and waved at Battery, who crossed her arms and shook her head at him.
"You're late," she said.
He shrugged. "My armor takes a while to get on," he defended. "Maybe if you were to help me out of my civvies…"
"That's enough." Armsmaster's voice was hard, and cut through the conversation like butter. "Here's the situation. About ten minutes ago, bombs began going off in and around the docks. They've continued to detonate, once approximately every thirty seconds. While most of the bombs appear to be generic high explosives, some early reports suggest tinkertech may have been fielded. More intelligence is pending while the thinkers and analysts work on it. In the meantime, we're deploying. I'll be on my bike. The rest of you will take a van. Standard team compositions. Clear?"
"Yes, sir!" Assault's voice joined the echoing call.
"Good. Protectorate, move out."
The garage opened, and Armsmaster's bike revved into gear as the rest of the team filed into the van. A PRT trooper was driving, and Miss Militia took shotgun. Assault was tempted to complain that she hadn't called shotgun, but he had a feeling it wouldn't go down well.
Piling seven people into a 12-seat van was not a challenge. All the same, Assault fulfilled his role as good husband by giving Battery a meaningful look and patting his lap in invitation once he'd sat down.
She just rolled her eyes and took the seat beside him, as she always did. Soon, the six of them were all buckled in and the van started rolling after the motorcycle. The blue light of the force-field bridge filtered in through the windows as the Protectorate emerged from the Rig. As they crossed the Bay, the sound of the van's siren began to whine outside the vehicle.
"Miss Militia," Dauntless asked from his seat just behind the Protectorate's second-in-command. "Do we have any idea who's behind this or who's supplying them with tinkertech?"
"Not yet," she replied, voice slightly muffled by her scarf. "I privately suspect Bakuda. You remember?"
"The girl who held up Cornell, right?" Battery asked. "We don't know for sure that she joined the ABB, and why would she be doing this now, anyway? It'll just bring in heat."
"That, I don't know. This may be vengeance for Lung's capture, or a show of power against the Merchants. The docks are a contested area between the two groups."
Suddenly, the car's radio flared to life. "This is Director Piggot." The familiar voice, muffled slightly by static, emerged from the speakers. "We have video confirmation—the bombing group is the ABB, and the leader appears to be the tinker Bakuda. We have evidence of kidnappings occurring in the AO."
"Kidnappings?" That was Armsmaster's voice. "Why would Bakuda or the ABB be kidnapping civilians? Is that the whole objective of the attack?"
"We don't know," said Piggot flatly. "Most of the abducted civilians have been of Asiatic descent, as far as we can tell, but we're working on salvaged footage from street and store cameras. Expect surprises."
"Always," said Armsmaster dryly. "You heard the Director, people. Velocity, you're going to perform a mobile deployment as we approach the AO. I want you to scout out the situation and report back as soon as you have any useful tactical data. The explosions appear to be centered around the intersection of Fifteenth Street and Chesterton Avenue. I want you to head in there—carefully—and identify where the enemy is congregated."
Velocity palmed his personal radio and spoke into it. "Yes, sir. When do you want us to make the drop?"
"Whenever you're ready."
Velocity started unbuckling his seatbelt. "Assault, could you…?"
Assault nodded and pulled the handle of the door beside him before shoving the door open. The sound of the rushing wind, coupled with the van's siren, suddenly drew deafening in the little cabin.
Velocity stood up and zipped into position right beside Assault, his hand on his fellow hero's shoulder to stabilize himself.
"I'll let you know when I've got something!" he hollered over the cacophony, and was gone in the blink of an eye.
Assault shut the door and sighed in relief as the air returned to something like equilibrium in the vehicle.
"Velocity has deployed," Miss Militia said into her radio. "We'll proceed to a staging area, and wait there for his report."
"Good," said Armsmaster. "I'll take point; have the van follow me."
"Bakuda's holed up in a clinic on Ironmonger's," Velocity reported, appearing in the midst of the assembled heroes. Assault and a couple of members of the group jumped at Velocity's sudden arrival. They'd stopped just outside the apparent AO and unloaded from the vehicles. They were now standing in a loose ring just outside an alleyway.
"The twenty-four hour one?" Battery asked. "What's she doing there? It's not exactly defensible."
"Her guys are combing it for surgical equipment. No idea why."
"Did you see Oni Lee?" Armsmaster asked sharply.
"No," Velocity replied. "No sign of him. Doesn't necessarily mean he's not here."
"Agreed," said Miss Militia. "We should assume he's intending to assist. Does she have any other parahuman support?"
"Yes—Uber and Leet. They're both kitted out with tinkertech, and Leet has a gunner drone patrolling the block around the clinic. I think he caught a glimpse of me at some point."
Armsmaster took one slow breath, in and out. "Okay," he said. "Miss Militia, take Assault and Battery in from the south, moving up Ironmonger's. Triumph, Dauntless and I will move to head them off at the intersection with Norfolk, and then trap them in the clinic if you haven't already got them moving. Velocity, you're running reconnaissance, but if you can take a safe potshot, do it. Everyone clear?"
"Yep," said Assault, and was drowned out by the chorus of "Yes, sir!"
"Good. Move!"
Miss Militia beckoned and Assault moved to follow her, his wife falling into step beside him. They moved at a run, not bothering with stealth, and covered the two blocks between themselves and Ironmonger's Lane in only a few minutes.
They stood behind a corner of the intersection, glancing around it to get a feel for the AO. A fire crackled uncontrolled in the crater of a bomb on the right side of the street, and on the left a one-story building's lights were lit.
"That's the clinic?" Assault asked softly.
"Yeah," Battery confirmed, matching his pitch.
Miss Militia shifted her posture. Prismatic green light flared around her hands, spreading and shifting in the air about her, and then she was holding a gun—a hefty grenade launcher, and about her belt were several round grenades.
"I'll fire a smoke grenade into the main entrance," she said. "Battery, let me know when you're charged. You're going to bounce off of Assault and enter by the window. Your objective is to get Bakuda to abandon the clinic. We want to drive her north."
"You're sending her in alone?" Assault asked.
"No," said Miss Militia. "You will follow her in, using her momentum to speed you up. I will wait here and make sure they move north once you've flushed them out."
Assault nodded. "Got it," Battery said.
"Good. Whenever you're ready."
A few moments later, Battery nodded. "All right. Can't hold this long." Her voice was hard with tension and some pain, and Assault winced slightly under his visor.
"I'm ready, Puppy," he said gently, stepping out from behind cover.
She gave him a grin through clenched teeth, jumped up, and kicked off him.
He redirected the momentum and began to run after her as she lanced through the air like a bullet, soaring towards the clinic's window some sixty feet away. A click, and muted bang, and Miss Militia's smoke grenade launched from behind him, soaring past him, making for the clinic's doors.
He followed it, rushing straight through the smoke as it burst forth, and emerged straight into the body of a ganger. He ran the guy over without stopping and dove behind the receptionist's desk for cover.
Gunfire dug into the other side of the wooden block as Battery joined him. "Where's Bakuda?" he asked her over the racket.
She looked grim. "Not here."
"What?"
"Not here!"
"I heard you! Why isn't she—"
Boom. The sound had come from the north. Bakuda had moved on.
"Shit. We need to catch up to her."
Battery nodded. "I'm almost charged again. You throw me in and then dive in yourself. We'll take these guys out quick."
"Whatever you say, Puppy."
She glowered at him affectionately. He watched as her face twisted slightly in pain as her powers took their toll.
"Okay," she said. "Ready."
He picked her up and threw her in, then pushed off of the ground to launch himself into the fray.
There were four guys in the clinic, each with an assault rifle. Battery flew into one and went down rolling with him while Assault picked the second up by one arm and beat the third with him. One blow, two, and they were both down.
Then the fourth was aiming his rifle in Assault's direction, and he prepared to flex his powers against oncoming bullets until Battery leapt into the ganger's space, kicked his gun out of his hands (showing off her impressive flexibility while she was at it), and punched his lights out.
Assault breathed deeply, looking around the room. All four gangers were, if not out, then at least down, and there was no one left to fight.
"Well," said Assault. "that was anticlimactic."
"Look at you, finishing early," said Battery drolly.
"Didn't hear you complaining about my endurance last night."
Battery gave him a look-which he, of course, couldn't see because of her visor, and thus decided to ignore. "We're not done yet. Let's go."
Their radios crackled to life. "This is Velocity. Bakuda got past me while I was reporting back. She just bombed the Dockworkers' Association building. She's headed west. Shall I pursue?"
"Keep her in your sights," Armsmaster confirmed. "We can't allow her to keep this up. Triumph, call fire rescue to the Dockworkers' Association; there were civilians in there. Miss Militia—"
"Armsmaster." The voice, cutting in suddenly, was Piggot's. "Drop Bakuda. You're all needed at the Rig."
"What?" Armsmaster's voice was hard and heated. "That woman just bombed at least three congregated civilian groups! I can't—"
"Lung and Oni Lee just engaged the Wards," Piggot said shortly. "At PHQ. Get a move on."
A pause.
"All Protectorate members, make for the Rig, as fast as possible." Armsmaster's voice was almost robotic. "Velocity, I want you there yesterday."
Assault looked bleakly at Battery. "This was a distraction," he said.
She nodded grimly. "Let's go."