Chapter 3.4
Thursday April 21st, 2011
Despite being literally the Butcher, I found that I could still feel a gnawing worry at Winslow. For all intents and purposes, the Teeth controlled the school — although Madison was starting to use her cutesy act to stop fights — and I sincerely doubted that white supremacist cannon fodder were going to start anything stupid. Still, I was distracted and barely listening to Mrs. Knott when my phone rang. The entire class paused and turned to me, but I was far more concerned that my capes-only Teeth phone had made the offending noise.
An anime fox girl was smiling back at me on the screen; Lisa was calling.
"Ms. Hebert, I'm afraid you can't have your phone on in class, I'll have to —"
"What's up L?" I asked briskly.
"Trouble!" Lisa yelled, loud enough half the class heard it, and that she didn't elaborate meant she knew I had an audience. I was on my feet and out the door in seconds, ignoring my favorite teacher's protests. "Echo dash five and add ons. Hurry." She hung up, but the message was understood.
Five Empire capes and a bunch of rabble were attacking the arena. I couldn't afford to waste time or track down Chrissie. I needed to move, and fast.
I was already targeting a bug I had placed as an emergency teleport option when I noticed the half dozen people hanging out right outside the abandoned classroom I usually used for discreet teleport departures.
Someone had been watching me and arranged this ambush. I very nearly had my insects eat them alive in my sudden rage, and it was only through a supreme effort of will that I walked past the smirking Empire kids instead of collapsing their skulls.
Stratego tsked. "The Empire knows Weaver attends Winslow, and is making sure you are aware of that."
Marauder nodded. "This is a message."
"No shit, captain obvious," Alkaline snarled.
"Worry about that later, get back to base and slaughter them for the audacity!" Butcher demanded.
"We will," I whispered, ducking into a nearby bathroom… where one of my Teeth was getting high. I glared at him, then vanished, reappearing with a blast in a safe house four blocks away. As soon as I arrived, I grabbed a spare mask and pulled on the generic black leather jacket and weapon harness with two OTs-62s holstered.
"Preparedness —" Stratego started, but Chisel snapped at him loudly.
"Do something fucking useful with your power and lecture later!"
As I leapt across the city in waves of fire, I couldn't help but snarl about how the teleport was limited by how often I could use it. Pyro counted to herself and then tried to raise some issue about timing that I ignored, because my people were dying right now and every minute that I spent away from HQ was one where the Teeth didn't have my support.
Luckily, the others were too busy howling for blood to make any other complaints.
The second-to-last teleport brought me in range of the battlefield, and I immediately shut up any of the choir that wasn't being useful. Stratego's power went to use immediately, but even Quarrel ended up offering useful commentary.
Things weren't quite as bad as I feared.
Rune was already leaving my range in full retreat and the fodder were running away on foot. Any other capes were already dead or gone, so I set what few bugs I could on the remaining Empire until I felt myself able to make the last not-step then landed in their midst with a clap of fire and thunder.
I didn't wait even a moment before hitting them all with a rage blast, turning their terrified retreat into a homicidal frenzy as they all proceeded to attack one another. I didn't stand idle, of course, leaping into battle myself and starting to beat the goons senseless. I tried to restrain myself, but they had attacked our home and thus excluded themselves from whatever mercy Butcher XV may have possessed. It was about the time I'd swept one's legs out from under an enraged neo nazi, only to catch him by the ankle and slam him into another mook that I heard Tattletale yelling something over the loudspeakers and finally calmed down enough to really take in the situation.
The front of the arena was a wreck: entire sections had been blown apart by explosives of some type and the parking lot was riddled with the husks of destroyed cars and–
"Oh fuck." "How many…" "Those bastards!"
I located Spree kneeling beside an injured Reaver and teleported as close as I safely could. His head jerked up at my arrival, as did those of his nearby clones that were currently applying what first aid they could to Reaver. Given the volume of blood around the fallen cape, he probably wasn't doing so well on that front. I hurried to their side, sticking my finger into the deepest pool of blood so I could swap it into my hammerspace. Once that was done, I poured the blood out onto his missing stump, forcing some back into his veins, while working to stop the bleeding in a way that wouldn't mess up his circulation. When I was mostly sure he wouldn't die, I scabbed over his injuries as best I could.
"You're doing good kid, let's get to the others that need you," Chisel murmured, voice hard.
I met Damien's eyes and I could see the fury bubbling just under the surface. Much as I knew he was justifiably angry with me — as were Ironsides and a few others — now was decidedly not the time to deal with the issue. There was still work that needed done and bastards to make suffer, so we shared a curt nod and I targeted the next group that likely needed my attention before teleporting.
The next blast dropped me a short distance from a girl gasping and crying out as another girl desperately held her nearly bisected stomach. I sprinted over and let Sanguine's power map out her rapidly spilling blood, and I hated everything that I found. She'd been shredded by something, and my eyes found the headless remains of a cape spread down the hallway.
"Son of a bitch," Ironsides swore. "That's Fog!"
"I thought they ran away to Boston?" Quarrel asked.
"Clearly they came back. Big mistake," Sabertooth said with a grin.
"The mistake was Taylor —" Knockout started, though I pushed him away, his complaint sparked another argument. I ignored them to focus on the girl as I did everything I could to put her back together with Sanguine's limited hemokinesis. The girl beside her was crying fiercely as I worked, grabbing at her arm desperately as if that would keep her there.
If only healing were that easy.
"Where's Lisa's girlfriend?" Fester asked.
"I doubt she would show up," I retorted, waving off the confused looks from the other girl. I swapped the blood within the hammerspace again and began to force it into her severed arteries and veins in a desperate hope to keep her from bleeding out. Just as I thought I'd made it in time, she stopped breathing. My mind went blank as I had to force down my first instinct from my limited first aid course.
"Does anyone know CPR?" I yelled. "I'll crush her fucking chest if I try!"
The girl beside us snapped to attention at that and started chest compressions. It would have to do. I kept funneling blood into her veins, forcing it to flow as I used scabbed blood to hold things together and continue my repairs.
"Focus on rescue breaths more than the actual compressions." I instructed her. "My power's helping on that front at least."
She didn't answer me, but she started doing breaths every five compressions from then on, which I took as an acknowledgement. Two dozen rounds of rescue breaths later, she coughed. It was weak, and hoarse, but she was breathing on her own again, and her heart was pumping once more.
I kept working, even as the girl held my patient in a vice grip, sobbing into her bloodied shirt. I knew there were others that needed me, I could pick up dozens of injured with my bugs, people screaming for help, but I couldn't abandon the person right in front of me until I knew they were going to be stable enough to survive on their own.
The bugs I had on everyone's pulse felt three others slip away as I finished working on my current patient. The anger was building underneath my skin, I had to force it out and into my swarm that was hanging in the skies around the arena, blotting out the sun with their density. It was a warning and a promise for what was to come — no doubt the Empire had someone watching the arena, and I wanted them to be afraid.
Lisa was coordinating a triage in the pit where Alice and I ended up working tirelessly for hours to do what we could with our limited abilities. Each of our takes on blood control had their uses, yet it wasn't enough. We ended up with thirty dead before noon. Thirty people who had entrusted me with their lives, and died, all because I was too busy playing schoolgirl to be there for them.
"Taylor, what you're doing at Winslow is of no less worth than what you could have done by staying here," Alkaline tried. "There's more than one way to wield power."
"This never would have happened under any of us!" Quarrel yelled.
"Twice under Knockout," Ironsides simply stated.
"The Nine," Pyro added.
"Marauder got Legend to run us out of New York," Chisel groused.
"By calling a truce with the Adepts and Elite to do so," he retorted, but it sounded like a broken record.
"Wow, way to compare my fuckup to some of the worst in Teeth history, that makes me feel so much better."
"Taylor, yes, this was a mistake, but not one you can fully blame yourself for," Stratego said. "Your strategy always had risks, and this was one of them. What matters is how you plan to answer this aggression."
"With blood, obviously."
"Wait, did little miss XV actually say that!?" Butcher asked.
"Was gonna say, that was more of a me kind of line," Sanguine answered.
"Oh fuck off. The Teeth are mine, and I look out for what's mine. The Empire will bleed rivers for this."
The Butchers went silent at that declaration, and more than a few of my minions working around me were now staring, but I meant it. The Empire crossed a line by shamelessly abusing my secret identity and attacking our home. I looked down at the labored breathing of Rachel as Elliot carefully reapplied a cool rag to her forehead while Damien did the same for a pale Michael.
Lisa was eyeing me with concern, but wisely kept her mouth shut. She was still new to the Teeth, and while she'd won some good will with her quick Thinking, she never actually took to the field. She hadn't killed for the Teeth yet, on accident or on purpose, and assists only counted so much. Technically I hadn't killed on purpose either… perhaps it was time to change that.
"About fucking time!" Marauder cheered.
I pushed him into the void along with every other Butcher that had joined in his celebration. Now wasn't the time to celebrate, now was the time for retribution.
"Weaver," Tattletale said, giving me a look of deep concern.
"Save it. You know I can't let this go."
She hesitated, seeming to search for the right words even as I glared at her with all the determination I felt. "I'm not saying to let them get away with this, far from it, but to make sure you do this right."
"They attacked our home, I feel it's only fitting that I return the favor."
"They attacked our well known public base, which might be the home for most of the Teeth, but it isn't the same as you storming Medhall."
"Fucking Thinkers," Pyro grumbled.
"Are you trying to tell me this wasn't a violation of the Rules?" I demanded, the bugs I had in the room rising up and making themselves known. "Most of our dead had never held a weapon before, hell, many were just kids fresh out of school!"
"Yes, and they chose the shelter of a gang. They knew the risks," Lisa said firmly, and several of the Butchers grumbled in begrudging agreement. "Make the Empire pay, but don't give them an excuse to throw all the rules out. They are obviously baiting you with this, please don't fall for it."
"So hit everything but the Medhall stuff, got it. We'll just have to tear down everything else around them." I growled, moving onto the next patient. Lisa began to follow, but stopped as her phone rang. I checked with the underground doctor that Lisa called in and moved to the patient he directed me to. The man was suffering from blood loss, and we lacked the supplies to provide for everyone, so Alkaline's hammer space was getting quite the workout for it.
Just as I was wrapping up with him I felt a vehicle pull up, and I recognized the two bugs within the paper necklaces. Chrissie was here with Charlotte, and a third person that I didn't have enough bugs to identify. I pulled a chunk of the swarm down and had to bite back a snarl. I teleported straight to them in a burst of flame, knocking the interloper to the ground.
"The fuck are you doing here Madison!?" I yelled, grabbing her by the shirt and hauling her to her feet.
"Taylor, calm down!" Charlotte tried, but she might as well have tried to shove over a building.
"She helped us kick some Empire ass and asked to come," Chrissie added. "School got closed when the Empire dicks started shit during lunch, cops and PRT are swarming the place."
I threw Madison to the ground. She felt heavier than she should have for her size, but she didn't show a hint of pain as she picked herself back up.
"I deserved that," she grumbled.
"Damn right you did," I hissed. "Talk fast, I've got people dying inside that need my help."
The diminutive Ward glanced around, clearly looking for extra eyes. "I take it you figured out…?"
"Enlighten me," I snarled, only to realize that Madison probably didn't want to out herself in front of the Teeth. My bugs swarmed in from nearby alleys and rooftops, forming a mostly opaque wall to conceal me, Chrissie, Charlotte, and Madison.
Madison gave the bug screen a strange look before her form shifted, gaining considerable bulk and height and soon four foot nothing Madison was seven feet tall with shoulders as broad as a damn barn. I stared Browbeat in the eye as Charlotte gasped in surprise.
"Nothing quite like Government sponsored bullying, is there?" Chrissie said.
Browbeat sighed, their form seeming to literally deflate. "I wronged you, and nothing I do can fix that. What I can do is tell you that there are people sympathetic to you within the PRT. Assault, as well as Armsmaster and Battery. They all know your identity and obviously haven't made any moves to arrest you."
"So they aren't suicidal, your point?"
Browbeat's form began to shift again, this time becoming decidedly less humanoid and more reptilian. Even the Butchers went momentarily silent at the massive and supple form that she had taken, with a jet black carapace and an extending mandible of some type that looked like it could punch right through someone's chest. They resembled something out of an Aleph sci fi film or —
"Holy shit, she turned into a goddamn Xenomorph!" Sabertooth said, sounding rather jealous of his fellow Changer.
"They," Fester chided, but even she sounded distracted by the monster standing before us. I couldn't help but wonder just what Madison's limits were for their ability to alter themselves.
"My powers never were very PR friendly, so I had to hide them away," Madimorph said, speaking in a way that didn't sound human. "Before I joined the Wards, forms like this were how I went after the gangs. PR didn't like them, so Browbeat was born."
"Taylor, no offense, but please let her kill you?" Pyro nearly begged.
"No shit, just think what we could do with that!" Marauder added.
"We don't know how her bug control would be affected. That ability is incredibly valuable beyond some rudimentary shapeshifting." Damascian countered.
I resisted an almost overwhelming urge to groan. "Congratulations, you have half the collective plotting my death at your hands because they want your power," I said as neutrally as I could. "Why show me all this?"
They seemed to choose their words carefully, and it was rather disconcerting to see a monster rub its chin. "I may have implied to Assault that I was going to disguise myself and carefully try to see what happened here. It's not like the Empire would do any better to me if they could get away with it. I was an independent once, too."
I couldn't help it, I laughed. The Protectorate heroes weren't individually stupid, and the idea that Madcap let a Ward go play recon with the Teeth was almost too absurd to be true. Still, I had tried to cultivate a reputation, so maybe it was working?
While I pondered that (my predecessors, of course, made lewd comments), Madison shifted back to her petite form. The bugs had mostly dispersed as another vehicle entered my range, one I didn't recognize. Lisa started running towards the parking garage immediately, bursting out of the arena as soon as the car door opened. Both the Butcher and I were rather surprised to see Amy nearly trip over herself getting out of the car before running and pulling Lisa into a frantic embrace.
Chrissie gave a half-hearted wolf whistle at the display, but her eyes didn't leave the car that had just produced a hero. Then Dinah stepped out behind Amy, shaking her head and muttering something that startled the unknowing couple into motion. They hurried back into the arena, leaving the rest of us with a gaping, dumbstruck Ward.
I caught Madison's incredulous gaze as she turned back. "I'm sure you didn't see anything, because it would be a damn shame if Amy wasn't allowed to see one of the few people who actually cares about her as a person. Same goes for Omen."
At that mention, Dinah waved to her, and Madison awkwardly waved back before muttering, "Taylor… what the hell is going on around here? Are you seriously reforming the Teeth?"
Chrissie snorted. "Fuck no. She's just making sure we're pointing all the fun stuff at the fuckers that deserve it."
"Like the Empire," Charlotte added with a nod.
"Especially the Empire," I said with a Sabertooth-assisted grin. "So, you up for helping put the Nazis back into the history books?"
"Why are you asking the cowardly Ward?" Quarrel sneered. "She's barely worth a damn in a fight and fainted when you revealed yourself!"
"But she did confront Taylor," Sanguine pointed out.
Damascian shrugged, metaphorically. "Despite the cowardice, she did choose to accompany Chrissie. Even a supposed reconnaissance mission and Weaver's reputation would be insufficient for most heroes to willingly be within arm's reach of the Butcher."
If I was being honest with myself, I didn't really care if Madison came with us or not. Neither I nor the Butchers found a sudden betrayal very likely — sending a Ward as bait for the Butcher was beyond even the Protectorate. And while more friendly capes were always better, it was Madison.
The girl in question seemed to be having a similar deliberation, only to sigh heavily. "I shouldn't. I really shouldn't, but I didn't ask Chrissie to come because I wanted to hear about the Empire's latest bullshit after the fact. Even if I haven't been very good at it lately, I am a hero. You, on the other hand…" She waved at us, a conflicted expression rolling over her face.
"Aren't the Empire," Chrissie said with a grin.
"Yeah, that. You also had every right to kill me, yet didn't." Madison shook herself before standing up straight and flashing an inhumanly sharp grin. "Fuck it. Let's kick ass before the Protectorate remembers to ask where I am."
"How the hell did the Wards get this girl and not us?" Butcher demanded.
Sabertooth chuckled. "At least we know she'll fit right in."
"Can we keep her?" Marauder almost begged.
Inside, I had lightning bugs form up over Michael and Rachel's makeshift cot within the triage area. Amy broke off from Lisa and followed my signal, hopefully she would be able to save everyone. Back outside, I sighed. It was going to be a long afternoon and I had to see that my people were ready for an even longer night.
The atmosphere within the lounge was tense as I lorded over my sculpted map of the city. Any other time, I might have stopped to admire the level of detail and proper scale, but right now all of my attention was on the red-painted bugs being used to mark Empire holdings across the city. There were significantly fewer of those following the Teeth's campaign quests, but enough remained that I wanted nothing more than to sweep across their territory in a tide of blood and death. Unfortunately, that way laid only more casualties.
The Empire had claimed too many of my people as it was.
Around me, the capes were split into various factions. Lisa was with Alec and Rachel, who was fully recovered thanks to Alkaline's hammer space producing blood that Amy could use in place of biomass. Honestly, that power almost felt tailor made to compliment her own.
"Butcher XVI when?" Alkaline joked.
Preferably never? The others groaned.
Beside them, Amy was having a heated argument with Madison — neither junior hero was completely okay with the other being here. I wasn't happy that one of my bullies was now going to fight alongside me either, but given that the enemies in question were Nazis, I was willing to put aside my issues for a worthy cause. Madison's issue, however, was that Amy was considered the gold standard of what a hero represented, and here she was, consorting with the Teeth.
The more telling group however, were the old guard capes. Damien, Alice, Elliot, Michael and sadly, Chrissie were on their own side, apart from me. It hurt, but I understood their recalcitrance. I hadn't been there when the Teeth needed me, both at the arena and later at school.
I couldn't sit back on my ass any longer. No more games, the Empire had to die. "Alright, let's get this shit done so we can get out there and pulp some Nazis."
"About fucking time!" Elliot growled.
A round of cheers resounded around me, and I didn't do anything to stifle them. "Save that enthusiasm for the Empire. It goes without saying, the Empire fucked us raw with a cactus drenched in habanero sauce today, so tonight, we pay them back tenfold. We aren't those pussies in the Protectorate that will let someone bend them over raw and then thank them for it. If they're in Empire colors, gut them. They shoot at us, flay them alive. We have six targets picked out to start with that were too dangerous to put on the board, as cape resistance is expected at any of them, so we'll be splitting up with Rachel hanging back with Angelica and Brutus to act as fast movers along with Elliot. Once we know where they're defending, we'll redeploy accordingly."
"And what will our glorious leader be doing during all of this?" Damien asked, it was close to insubordination, but I'd earned a touch of that tonight.
I turned to Big Robbie, who was seated beside me, with Dinah on his lap as she looked over the cityscape, her brow furrowed in concentration. "I'll be hitting my own target alongside Robbie's team, one that is rather important to the Empire's image."
"You're saying we can't count on the Butcher to support us?" Alice asked. That got me more than a few glares from the veteran side.
"It is support, I'm going in first and making a huge ass mess to hopefully draw in cape attention so you guys have an easier time. We'll have Lisa and Dinah working mission control and Amy will be with the Movers in the event someone needs healing."
"I didn't agree to that." Amy cut in.
I turned to her and shrugged. "Either you help us take down the Empire or it's never going to happen. The heroes just stood around with their thumbs up their asses last time something like this happened. Don't you want revenge?"
"You're hanging with the big kids, so be ready to get your feet wet, Pandemic," Chrissie said. At Amy's withering glare, she smirked. "What, don't like the name? Claim a worthy trophy and you can name yourself whatever you want. I don't think you want your precious Panacea image to be linked to the big bad Teeth, do you?"
Amy was red faced, but a gentle hand on her shoulder courtesy of Lisa stilled any further outbursts. I turned my attention back to the city map. "Dinah, how many questions can you answer tonight?"
"Five, comfortably. Six to seven if I endure a Thinker migraine tomorrow," she said professionally.
"Oh, now she's asking questions, after the attack she wasn't there for." Alice grumbled.
I had her by the throat in a blink. When would they fucking learn to not backtalk me in fucking public!? "We ask Omen the same question each day, will any Teeth affiliated capes die while I'm at school? Nobody died, so we assumed we would be alright. We're amending future questions to account for that."
"Prophecies are poisoned by their nature, it's a learning experience," Lisa added, completely unphased by my display. "We make mistakes, we learn from them and correct the questions, all there is to it."
"That good enough for you?" I demanded. Alice nodded, so I dropped her where she was and turned back to the table. "Alright. Question one. Chances one of the people in this room dies tonight?"
"43.683465%"
"Shit," Michael muttered.
"Chance that Hookwolf kills someone in this room tonight?"
"43.2854587%"
"That narrows it down," Alec quipped. The veterans all glared at him, save Michael.
I nodded. "It does, actually. Hookwolf is the most likely to kill someone, which might include me. I'm also the most likely to survive a direct fight with the bastard. If Hookwolf is spotted, I'll disengage my current target and move to assist. I'm the best deterrent we have for the rabid blender."
"Taylor. Where exactly are you hitting?" Chrissie asked, eyeing me carefully.
I couldn't help but smile. "Hookwolf's little dog fighting arena."
Rachel perked up at that and leaned forward, over the table. "I want in."
Lisa took the opportunity to step forward. "Originally, we were planning to have you involved when we hit it in the next day or two, but this attack forced a change of plans. I have vehicles ready to load up the dogs once the place is secure, which will be delivered to a shelter for you."
Rachel seemed conflicted, but nodded. "Fuck the bastards. Make them suffer."
"Consider it done." I then turned to Madison. "You'll be with me. To be blunt, I don't trust you one bit to not stab any of us in the back."
"That's fair," she said, "Do you have a fancy new name for me as well?"
"That's a good question, the hell do you name a Xenomorph?" Chisel asked.
"Would Ripley be too on the nose?" Sabertooth wondered.
Alkaline chuckled at that. "Coming from the animal changer that stole his name from an old Marvel comic."
"Fuck off!" he yelled at her. I pushed their little spat down into the dark.
"Didn't that one Japanese game have a similar creature named Redley?" Reflex asked.
"Ridley," Pyro answered. "Not quite the same though, since it was more of a draconic form."
"Dunno, I think it would be hilarious to make it known that we had a hero helping us tonight," Alec said while twirling his scepter. "If trust is an issue, I could always pull my little party trick on her."
"That won't be necessary," I said with a glare, then turned back to my once tormentor. "Are you fine with Ripley as a cape name for tonight?"
Madison nodded. "That'll do."
"Alright, unless anyone has questions, Lisa will be handing out sheets with your assignment and objective tonight as well as the recommended loadouts. You have two hours before the operation begins, so make good use of it, and happy hunting!"
Muttered complaints echoed through the room, but everyone stopped by Lisa to pick up their marching orders. At least the drills were finally instilling some discipline into our people. Still, I had something I needed to do. Stepping with purpose, I walked straight over to Chrissie who straightened up at my approach. "My room, now."
It was blunt, but I needed to project strength in the face of the current undertones of hostility among the veteran members. Once the dust settled I fully expected one of them, possibly Elliot, to make a proper bid for the mantle, but that could wait until the Empire was dead and rotting in the streets. For now, I had a war to win and I didn't want this to be put off until after the battle.
I'd read that novel one too many times.
"There is nothing worse than regret." Fester said in a motherly tone, memories of my own mother's final conversation with my mental roommate playing back for me. She still regretted how they split, and I couldn't blame her. It was a mistake I didn't want to make.
Once inside the room I pulled Chrissie into a hug, but rather than return it, she stiffened. I felt my heart crack at her reaction, but held her nonetheless.
"I hate this," I muttered.
A choked sound came from her and she finally returned my embrace. "Me too."
"I know we don't have time to work this out tonight, but I didn't want either of us going off and —" My breath hitched, almost the beginning of a sob.
She gripped me tighter. "Either of us might die tonight…"
"Yeah." We held each other for several moments, just enjoying each other's presence.
After a few moments, Chrissie let out a sigh, her voice soft yet firm. "Taylor, I'm not a damsel for you to protect, I'm a Cape, a Warrior. If I die out there fighting, then I've died the way I wanted to. It's my choice, and nobody, not even you, is going to take that from me, so when shit goes down, don't leave me out of it."
"I never intended to." I paused, wishing we had more time. "I promise. I promise that we'll talk after this shitshow is over and Kaiser's head is on my mantle."
Chrissie snorted, a choked chuckle following as she buried her face in my shoulder. "Hooky's would look cooler."
"Nah, his head goes on the skull throne."
We both laughed at the mental image and I felt a bit lighter. Hopefully tonight didn't go to shit.