Second half of chapter 3 got rewritten last week. Outcome is the same so rereading it is not necessary.
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"You sure about this plan of yours Armsy?"
Armsmaster gave Assault, the one that decided to share the back of the van with him, that look. A look of incredulous that he saved for the rare occasion that demanded it, such as this.
"We would not be moving out if I was not sure of the plan."
"With all due respect, we're moving out because of an emergency, not because you had time to prepare for it." Assault retorted.
It was true, the plan was not fully realized nor scrutinized. Well, the plan that would occur when diplomacy was to break down and when violence would be the chosen path forward. It wasn't terribly complicated; troopers would surround Weaver at a minimum distance, blanketing the cape and all she had mastered with containment foam separately. Separate being the key, assuming her mastering field couldn't be shut off without resorting to simply knocking her out. Or by killing her. Remotely pulling the thralls out would be pointless if the master also came along for the ride.
But no, that plan was doomed to be a failure from the before it could even leap off the drawing board; not since two of his wards got mastered by that monster. Of course she mastered those he was responsible for. Of course both of the ones she mastered had ranged abilities. Of course she mastered probably the only cape in Brockton Bay that could nearly nullify her biggest weakness!
"You don't seem so sure to me."
Armsmaster grunted. "No. No I'm not. This all hinges on whether or not Militia is able to talk some sense into her. If Weaver decides to not listen and that we would all better off under her control. Well…"
"Yeah, I get it. Vista is the second scariest shaker in town, even when she's normally on our side." He said without a change to his face.
No, he clearly did not get it, Armsmaster was sure of it. Having control of your body being stolen away from you in an instant is only something he would secretly wish on the worst villains in the city. If Assault was there when she did her first act upon himself and the others, he would understand.
But he had already resolved himself. He would let Miss Militia do her talking, and if Weaver backed down, then so be it. He personally wouldn't be satisfied, not getting back at her his own way. But he knew that as long as his wards, and the two junior New Wave members, were safe, then he could live and let lie.
He flexed his left hand, feeling his power suit adding to his grip strength. His right hand mimicked his left, but he felt no sensations from it. His hand was still missing, and any suitable replacement that could be supplied was still hours away at the earliest, be it a prosthetic or a flesh and blood arm regrown by Panacea. No, it was a simple feature he added in at the last moment, building off of old code, allowing the right hand of his suit to mirror his left, with all the grasping and twisting that could be done. He was still not used it, and he figured he never would be.
"Do we know how she got them? To avoid it a second time for us. Nobody told me anything about it."
"Audio logs from their communications with the console and each other. They took a shortcut through Rags Park. Weaver then… ambushed them."
"She sicced her bugs on them then?" Assault asked with a shudder.
His nod was shallow. "They got swarmed and couldn't escape. There were so many that they interfered with Vista's Manton Limit. They were then forced apart, allowing her to get mastered."
"…And when she got Vista, it didn't matter how far away Gallant got?" Assault supplied, nodding.
"Exactly. I suppose that Weaver could coordinate her bugs with Vista to not cripple her while she was in her power." He paused, leaning over, and managing to knit his fingers together after only two tries. "Lets just say, if anything… unfortunate were to happen to Weaver at this point, I wouldn't lose any sleep over it."
Assault snorted. "You barely sleep as is."
The van rolled to a stop, and there was a knock at the doors. Assault took the liberty of opening them up and jumping out first. He soon followed, ensuring that his halberd was locked safely on his back. He hoped that he would not be needing it.
They were in the parking lot for Rags Park, completely cleared out due to the PRT strongarming anyone that they could away, not even the homeless were spared.
Weaver wasn't here, and neither were any of her minions, mastered or not. With the emergency tracking devices installed in Gallant's suit, they all knew that she was in a nearby building. Specifically, the Hellman Tower, an office complex. Thermal cameras showed both her and those she had mastered on the fourth floor. Given that it was still a Friday during the workday, the chances that she had gained a significant amount of people was not lost on him.
Time was of the essence though; his two wards had already been mastered for a significantly longer period of time than he was. Mere minutes under her thumb and he was eager to consider it one of his worst moments of recent memory. He balked at how terrified that those two would be after this amount of time. And that wasn't even considering the two junior New Wave members, who had spent the longest as her puppets.
The plan had been modified since Vista had got mastered. With protocols in place regarding Weaver's estimated maximum range being effectively moot, none were allowed to get anywhere near her or to have direct line of sight with her. They would be forced to use the remotely operated drones outfitted with tinker sensors to get close, and a containment foam sprayer and a stun gun that would operate similar to one of his halberds, just in case. His confidence was high that her mastering power didn't also affect machinery. Non-lethal options would be vastly reduced if that were the case. Why they were still resorting to the peaceful option first, despite Weaver going out of her way to attack and master two wards, he did not know. Piggot insisted that the decision came from above her.
And with him being Brockton Bay's premier tinker (and cripple), Armsmaster would be one to sit behind to control the tinker drones, as well as being up top on the immediate chain of command.
The rest of the Protectorate heroes, as well as any PRT troopers, would be scattered about. Strength could be found in numbers, but now when that strength could be so easily turned against them. Forming a human blockade ring would be too risky, even with Vista being only able to manipulate a single section of space at a time.
The mobile command center was set up on the asphalt of the parking lot, as far away from Hellman Tower without being out of the vicinity. It was not anything special, being standard issue and all. Armsmaster had only been able to tinker on it a few times several years ago. The upgrades were woefully out of date, but it was still better than the most cutting-edge mundane equivalent.
Being close was risky, but he couldn't bring himself to sitting miles away indoors in a cushy command center while the rest of his colleagues were out here.
Several of the stations were already staffed by PRT agents, showing the body-cams of the troopers they were responsible for. His own station similarly showed the body-cams of the Protectorate heroes out in the field, namely all of them. Vitals were also shown, a redundancy for detecting the master's influence.
The key to keeping anyone from being mastered were unique master protocols for the situation, with each of the heroes having a set of twenty unique, short pass-phrases to cycle through, calling one out every ninety seconds. It would be verified by the computer so that Armsmaster didn't need to micromanage or get distracted. He did have a manual override, as well as his own phrases he needed to use every one-twenty seconds to worry about.
And, to ensure any hero mastered would be taken out of the equation entirely, each and every one of them, himself included, were outfitted with a remote-activated containment foam charge, low-powered ones to prevent any injuries. While not ideal, or cheap, no one could simply accept the risk of having a blaster such as Miss Militia under the control of a powerful and belligerent master. Failure to report in their correct master code within the five second tolerance would immediately imprison them in foam.
That was all in addition to the drone, just one of the fleet, that he needed to control. The drone was his primary purpose being here, with overriding the master protocols second. Still, it was times like this where he wished Dragon could lend some assistance, but she was busy dealing with a different threat over in Edmonton. That and the director insisting on this be an internal operation.
His armor gave off a quick electric discharge as an insect landed on it, killing it instantly. None more landed on him, but he could spot a swarm of gnats nearby, drifting lazily with no purpose. He was well beyond the maximum bug-controlling range they had given Weaver, which soothed his nerves a bit.
The drone booted up and flew towards the rendezvous point, without so much as a sound, being enhanced with his own tech. Once he was able to locate Weaver, Miss Militia would speak through it, and attempt to reason with her.
A waste of time and effort for that, as he doubted anything productive were to come out of a chat. But orders were orders, and as much as he wished to just rush the drone in and immediately spray her with foam, he couldn't.
All of the heroes were in position in accordance with the map on one of the screens. That also included two wards, Kid Win and Shadow Stalker, the only two wards available with ranged abilities, or weapons, rather. He and the rest of the protectorate heroes in the know argued vehemently against bringing those two into the operations, but their hands were tied. He couldn't stand the thought of losing more wards to that monster. At least they would be out of the way. Kid Win had his own station near his, and Shadow Stalker would be on lookout duty, far away from any action, with Velocity nearby.
The operation began after the signal was relayed to all that was present, the fleet of drones departing.
His own drone raced through the empty hallways of the tower. Occasionally he would glimpse a bystander in a poor hiding spot, shying away from the insects flying about. But he ignored them, his focus was finding the master. PRT would secure them.
The higher up the tower he went, the thicker the clouds of insects became. A cacophony of buzzing and chittering that was most unpleasant to his ears.
A large insect made itself known, a dragonfly, he didn't recognize the specific species, but it was large, its wingspan easily the size of an open palm. The camera focused in on it, and tracked its jerky movement. It latched itself to the drone. The weight or force exerted by its wings were not nearly enough to drag it down, but soon others like it joined. Piling onto the drone and overwhelming its antigravity engine.
Armsmaster grimaced as he missed pressing a button to his right, his mirrored arm smacking the metal nearby. A quick correcting move and he was pressing the emergency electrical discharge for the drone, zapping away the insects. He only had two charges left for that drone, and while he had backups, waste was not something he wished to partake in.
Seems like diplomacy is breaking down before we could even speak to her.
Soon after, a swarm of flies latched onto the drone, smothering it in the mass of crawling insects. Covering everything except the heat fins, giving them the illusion of self-preservation. Another zap and soon the lifeless husks tumbled off, only to be replaced by another swarm of flies seconds later.
A suite of additional tinker-sensors flared online, giving Armsmaster a mix of sonar and thermal imaging. He couldn't afford using the bug-zapper again for now, despite the higher power draw the new sensors used.
On the fourth floor, he saw her, as well as the rest of those she had mastered. His two wards, the two New Wave heroes, and at least twelve other bystanders that had gotten swept up in this mess. Weaver was unassuming position, with her sitting on a couch, hugging her knees, and liberally covered in insects. Her right arm was hidden, but the exposed fingers were distinctly more human-like than the last time he saw.
She did not bother to look at him, instead using other un-powered individuals as her proxy. Two of them, standing between her and the drone. They stared directly into the sensors, their eyes pointing directly at his. Several cockroaches crawled around their shirts to be perched on their shoulders.
Of his two wards, only Vista was visible, being mere feet away from Weaver on the same piece of furniture. Gallant was only visible through the tinker-sensors, with him standing behind a false wall with other unknowns.
She made no movements, nor did he detect any sudden movements from the others nearby.
The PRT agents around him gave an affirmative that they too were ready. He pressed on the comms button with his left hand.
"Miss Militia, everything is in position." He twisted a dial on his left to eliminate the audio feedback that he was receiving. "Your channel is open and Weaver is I believe… ready to listen."
He tuned out her speech and focused on the image and soundscape presented before him, watching for any signs of hostility, or passivity. The villain went unmoving, as well as her two proxies standing before his own. Another bystander began to approach the drone from behind, her face showing no sign of distress, or anything at all. A thin line of distorted space tethered her to her master.
Movement was seen in a different area, opposite of the one approaching, near a white-hooded figure he assumed to be Panacea. Several dragonflies like from before, but something was wrong with what he saw.
"…We are willing to provide full amnesty if you are to release your mastered hostages within the next five minutes…" Miss Militia's words continued to have no effect on anyone, Weaver or her minions. The only thing they paid any attention to was the drone itself.
"…it was signed by both Director Emily Piggot and the Chief Director. If you do not…" Her words continued as the dragonflies shot towards the drone before stopping on a dime, though one went right past, into the building. They were huge, unnaturally so, nearly as large as the drone, with their main body already being as long as one's forearm. Their compound eyes were merged into a single glossy, black mass on what he assumed to be their head.
They hovered, surrounding the drone in a lose ring. The buzzing was loud, to the point of nearly blocking out most words being broadcasted.
These were not natural. Someone made these.
He couldn't risk it. Somehow, she was performing the role of a biotinker. He couldn't risk this situation ballooning into an S-class threat. He sent a quick command to Kid Win, ordering him to hunt down the lone dragonfly that flew off on its own with his drone.
The buzzing was quickly filtered out by the computer as he maneuvered the drone above the biotinker-made dragonflies and fired the stun gun at her. She made a small reaction, even before the shot fired. One out of surprise, but failed to move out of the way in time, and with a quick jolt, she was out cold.
He breathed out in relief as he watched her slump over where she was sitting.
"Armsmaster? What is going on up there?" Miss Militia asked over the voice comms, her voice hurried. "Why are you shooting at her?"
"She wasn't making any responses," he replied coarsely, taking a moment to sit back, with his hands still at the ready. He watched as he saw Panacea running towards the drone, the hood obscuring much of her face from the vantage point of the sensors. "But that didn't matter, she had biotinker-made insects at her disposal, and I made the executive decision to not let her escalate with more of them."
Triumph made a snide remark about him not turning the speakers on as he came to a sudden realization. The bugs were not moving around freely, not even any of the people aside from Panacea were moving, of which was moving directly towards Weaver.
No! Her mastering field was kept active even while she was unconscious, and she was somehow still able to control them! He didn't even want to think how that worked, and how her mastering field was not up when he first found her in that alleyway. At the same time when he moved in to foam the healer, sent out an order for the rest of the PRT drones to converge on his location.
He fired, hitting Panacea in the legs.
But not before her hand reached out and touched Weaver on the neck.
A mere instant later, the mutant dragonflies launched themselves at the drone, and the rest of the normals swarmed his location, cutting him further off from Weaver. Above her was a dense cloud of flying insects, serving as another one of her shields.
Ammunition for both the stun gun and the containment foam were highly limited on a drone, even with all the tinker workarounds. He couldn't afford to waste them, and he certainly couldn't shoot his way towards the master. But he had to try, so he sent a stream of foam towards Weaver, right after shooting at one of her human shields.
One was knocked out, but another effortlessly blocked the stream of liquid containment foam with his hand, lifting it above his head like without wasted movement.
Warnings flashed up on his screen, alerting him that battery power was falling rapidly, and several of the sensors had shorted out. The drone was jostled by the tinker dragonflies, alerting him to even more damage being sustained.
It would be a waste, but he had other drones he could fly up here. He would need this one to go out in a blaze of glory soon.
A sustained stream of containment foam shot out, intending to coat much of her human blockade in front of her, to flush her out later. That didn't happen though, for the air shimmered in front of him the moment he began firing, and the space stretched out, with them now being several meters away and off-target.
"Armsmaster?" Assault spoke, his voice terse. "Is she contained? What are we to do?"
"Everyone is to hold position! There is nothing any of you can do without getting mastered yourself!"
No one else spoke up after that.
Another shot, and another miss, denied by the fabric of space itself, despite maneuvering to a better vantage point. He was running out of options, and with backup not here yet, he made his decision.
The electrical field of the drone sprung to life as it dove towards Weaver, avoiding the swatting of one of her shields. The drone hit and used its antigravity generator to detonate, causing a chain reaction to unleash the remaining stores of containment foam upon her like a bomb.
The image was lost.
Similarly equipped drones piloted by the PRT finally swarmed into the room and rushed in to engage, and he watched the plain-view camera images as they closed the distance. His own replacement was autonomously following the same path he took from before to rejoin.
One of the PRT drones was destroyed by Glory Girl, who crashed through a false wall earlier and launched herself at it. Another was knocked down by Gallant, who managed to connect one of his wide and clumsy swings against one before getting his feet foamed to the floor. The others that survived, their goal was to foam anyone in their way, with priority on Vista, so that she could be extracted from the site safely.
His drone arrived to the scene, his own eyes watching as Panacea was being ushered away by four bystanders. The camera quickly panned over to the last known location of Weaver, the image showing her covered in containment foam from the torso down, also catching one of her arms. She was unmoving, save for the insects crawling over and flying around her.
He opened his comm. "Velocity, get ready to retrieve Vista on my mark. You will know when." He got no response back, but he knew the message went across.
A large mass flew towards the fleet. A conglomeration of insects and the mutant dragonflies, a hideous sphere writhing and flowing in over itself. Multiple sets of titanic wings spread out from it, each longer than even he was tall. It flew into the fleet, anything it touched, stuck to its mass. He avoided the attack with as much precision as he could with his single arm.
The drone reorientated itself, and leveled its containment foam sprayer at Vista, who was ducking behind a large potted plant. The shot was fired and-.
The image distorted, streaks of every color that he knew of and then some were smeared and striped along the screen. It waved and heaved, back and forth. There was a crashing sound, loud enough that he could hear it from where he was sitting.
He gave the order for the other heroes to stand by, and to react evasively if Weaver or any of her minions were to be spotted.
The image came nearly a minute later, its sensors recalibrating. His drone, as well as the others, were now staring out into the open. No, that wasn't right, the wall was missing, and Weaver all the unfoamed un-powered, and even the foamed capes, were now gone. A tall blob of solidified containment foam, where Weaver once was, was still present, and still in one piece.
All that were left behind were screaming and sobbing incoherently.
"NO!"
Out of reflex, he gave a quick glance up above his screens, standing up briefly. There were no abnormal changes to the building, not even any damage so to speak, from his side.
The console reported that Dauntless preformed abnormal movement and had failed to supply his master-code.
No.
The console reported that Battery performed abnormal movement and had failed to supply her master-code.
NO.
The console reported that PRT Squad-.
He muted the last report out.
Those two were over fifteen meters apart and not in line of sight! How?
The wall of the building was back, in near-pristine condition like it was never gone in the first place. A large crack ran up the wall in between a set of windows, not large enough to squeeze anything larger than a bug through.
Another report shot out, stating that both Dauntless and Battery's containment foam contingency has activated and stopped their movement.
He cursed out, and found his finger on the comm button yet again. "Attention all units, Weaver has escaped and has mastered Dauntless and Battery. Do not approach any of them!"
There was shouting occurring on the other side, by multiple people, a particularly loud obscenity was made by Assault.
His mind raced on how to contain this. He had contingencies upon contingencies, but they were all falling apart. How else is he supposed to lock her position down without causing collateral damage if containment foam meant nothing to her? He was not about to jeopardize the lives of the innocents or of the wards that she had mastered.
Getting out of the building would have been simple, unfortunately for him, the only drone that had a miniature plasma blade, one that was modeled off his halberd, was the first to go in and the first to be destroyed. A new one was deployed and raced out to the tower. It was faster this way.
Along the way, he was granted a birds-eye view of the ground beneath. The others were still in place as they were ordered to. Chaos had yet to break out, no one was even hurt as far as he could tell, ignoring their simplified vital readings shown off to his right.
The console reported that Battery performed abnormal movement and was now heading north.
What?
The console reported that Dauntless performed abnormal movement and was now heading north.
Armsmaster dared to skirt his eyes to the windows showing their bodycams. They were standing with the other mastered, with Battery's camera aimed towards Weaver. She was a mass of crawling insects, nearly doubling the size of her figure. Gallant and Vista were close by her, with the former pointing a hand towards a group of normals, residual smudges of containment foam covering his legs.
Dauntless' camera was aimed elsewhere, towards a ball composed of the large dragonflies from earlier, slightly flattened against the ground. If he had to guess, it must have been a half a meter in diameter now.
He made a quick announcement that the two were now free of their imprisonment and were still mastered. Their reactions were not pleasant to hear.
He couldn't input any more commands or say anything over the comms, as the next moment, the masses of insects exploded. All but a thin layer over Weaver remained, while the rest rushed out in all directions.
One of the agents close by was quicker on the announcement trigger, broadcasting to all involved that Weaver was unleashing her swarm, and to prepare the electrical-arc prods. An invention created by Kid Win the month prior, back when Skitter first attacked the wards with her insects at the bank.
His drone soared above the main body of the swarm, watching the carnage below. He grimaced as he watched an entire squad get taken down as they failed to use their electrical weapons in time, all screaming that the insects had gotten inside their helmets.
The heroes, well, what was left of them, were faring better. Miss Militia, being the expert in firearms and the like, had no trouble utilizing the tinker creation. Triumph, meanwhile, mainly forwent the weapon, instead using his shouts to clear the air in front of him. The swarms of insects were sparse, concentrating on the heroes and squads instead of blanketing the area.
The camera he was watching soon reached the street that Weaver and her minions were on, but what was he even to do? She would make Vista redirect the containment foam, and any that would hit her she could just, somehow, break out of. Her minions too.
Non-lethal wasn't working, and from wherever her mutant tinker-bugs were coming from, she was only going to get worse.
She needed to die.
To hell with Director Piggot not yet even starting the process for a kill order.
It was unfortunate, receiving information from the future regardless of how far into the future it would actually be, would have been a huge boon. The Thinkers did only give her an eighty-five percent chance of being Protectorate or in some friendly working capacity. He knew they always gave themselves some leeway to cover their own asses.
He patched a private line to Miss Militia. "Militia, I need you to-."
"Not the time Armsmaster!" The buzzing on her side almost flooded out her voice. "There are too many and they won't stop coming! We need to regroup!"
Triumph opened his line, the buzzing on his end just as horrifying. "Shit, fuck! Sir! Where are these all coming from?! Holy shit these things are huge!"
"No! Just… just get out of there and fall back to my position!" He gave the order to the rest of the heroes. Miss Militia was on the same side of the building as he, and neither Assault, Triumph, nor Velocity would be able to do anything further.
This would have been significantly easier if Dragon was here. Her remote-controlled suites wouldn't be mastered, and there was no way to detect any energy blasts they could fire.
She can detect projectiles and incoming containment foam though, but failed when electricity was involved. What if...?
How Weaver was doing it was irrelevant, as long as she never loses any of her parahuman minions. His first instinct was to blame it on Vista, but no, she shouldn't be capable of that.
His mouth stretched out into a thin line as he held back a groan at what his treacherous mind was thinking. There was only one other cape here that could potentially bypass Weaver's defenses. It wouldn't be electricity, but it should be able to be detected.
His armored hand that still held flesh and blood inside of it reached over to establish a private communication line.
"Shadow Stalker. Report."
There was a short silence before he heard a response. "There aren't any bugs here, if that's what you were asking for. Do you need something?" Her response was quick, and her voice had an edge to it, as if just waiting to strike at something.
Just like normal then. Additional confirmation for her not being mastered.
He hesitated, doubt coursing through him. Sending in a ward on an assassination mission would not fly, and it would certainly lead him to be exiled some place far away, but the situation was getting desperate, and action needed to be taken. "I need you to get a shot at Weaver with one of your breaker-powered crossbow bolts and tranquilize both her and Panacea. Do you understand?"
"Wh- wait, huh? Understand? You want me to actually shoot at them with my shadow bolts? What about Militia, or the PRT guys? Or Velocity. He's nearby." Her disbelief was evident over the comms, and had an edge of giddiness to it.
"They are all predisposed and you are the closest," he spoke while gritting his teeth. An unacceptable situation. "Your tranquilizer won't act fast enough to stop Weaver from forcing Panacea to prevent her from falling unconscious."
"I… you do know that my shadow bolts can do a lot of damage, right?" Her unspoken words of them potentially being lethal was not lost on him.
"I am aware." His fingers found themselves rubbing his chin through his beard in thought. "Just shoot a normal tranquilizer bolt at Panacea, we cannot risk losing her."
"And the bug bi-, Weaver?"
"If she dies then so be it."
If anyone else were around to listen in on this exchange, they would be fighting tooth and nail to prevent such a thing. He should be too, and wanted to, but there was a niggling feeling in the back of his mind that knew that something about Weaver was wrong, and that she needed to be stopped.
Shadow Stalker gave no response for a few moments. Her body camera showing lateral movement, indicative of her looking around rapidly.
"Fine, okay. But Pigg-."
"Do not worry about the consequences for if you succeed." Only worry about if you were to fail, but he kept that to himself.
The drone found her at her designated position on the top of a building over a block away. She realized what to do even before Armsmaster could say anything, and began following it, using her breaker state to aid in her movement.
Velocity was the only hero close by, but he wasn't carrying any weapons, he was instead of 'public relations' duty as well as being Shadow Stalker's partner in this mission. Despite the breakdowns occurring on his side, he was still performing his admirably, helping keep everyone away from the scene on his side. He would not be informed on what he just did.
Automated reports came in from the other heroes, as they managed to all deliver their master-codes in their allotted time window. He managed to break his eyes away from the monitors to look up.
It was not something he wanted to see.
The swarm of insects was not thinning, if anything, it was growing. There was a single tendril of the flying pests were streaming in from outside of what her range should be.
This entire operation was growing out of control, and the responsibility of stopping it was placed onto a single ward, someone who shouldn't even have come here in the first place. His HUD lit up as his eyes focused in on his speed-dial icon for Dragon. She did not answer, but he left her a message, letting her know that he may be needing more help than just a new arm.
An alert popped on out of the corner of his vision. A loss of a unit, one of the few units deployed with lethal ammunition, and the only one sent towards her. Ten PRT officers, one dead from anaphylactic shock, the rest effectively immobilized from the hostile insects. Their sealed helmets unable to stop the tide of insects deployed against them.
His hand clenched, and his false one soon followed. The bodycam of Shadow Stalker showing her staring down at Weaver from five stories up. No insects were visible, they were, instead, all on the villain, given how her form was a black mass in the vague shape of a human.
Panacea was not next to her, instead being several meters off to the side, in the center of a huddle of several emaciated figures.
Perfect.
He sent the signal to Shadow Stalker.
She launched her bolt, and cloaked it with her breaker power.
In the mere second for it to strike its target, nothing happened. There were no obvious reactions that his unfinished prediction software could make out, and no warping of space that any camera or eyes could see.
Weaver cried out as the arrow struck her in the stomach, bypassing a normal acting as a shield and anything else she was be covered with, and it buried itself deep before the breaker power was whisked away. Her bugs swirled around her in what he imagined to be a defensive shield. It blocked out all camera vision to her, but not for his drone. Panacea could be seen moving before Weaver could even fall to the ground.
Shadow Stalker aimed her second crossbow at the healer, already prepared to take the next shot.
The ground and its buildings twisted, and a countless swarm of bugs flooded into the alley. An unknowable amount of them mutant.
He couldn't see through the bodycam, and the buzzing choked him out before he could shout anything to her.
It went without saying, but he tried anyways. "Shadow Stalker! Get out of there immediately! Abort the mission!"
A cold dread filled his veins as she made no response, nor any movement. A short moment later, he got his answer.
The console reported that Shadow Stalker has made abnormal movement and has failed to supply her master-code.