Gathering Clouds 2.6
Know your enemy. It was a commonly used phrase for good reason. If you didn't know who you were fighting, how were you supposed to adjust your own tactics and plans to account for their strengths and weaknesses?
The answer was easy: You couldn't. So Taylor had spent the previous week doing all the research she could on the Archer Bridge Merchants and their capes. In terms of numbers, they were the second most numerous behind the Empire 88, but they lacked the same kind of discipline and access to weapons that the Nazis did. They only had three capes and the more Taylor researched about them, the more confident she started becoming in her odds of victory.
Roulette of all supers had been the one to talk some sense into her, listing off the various ways that Skidmark, Squealer, or Mush could be extremely lethal. When she'd questioned how he'd thought of all that, he'd given the equivalent of a psychic shrug.
When your power is basically anything, you have to get creative. Plus whenever I held onto someone's power, there was always that chance I was depriving them of it at a bad time, so I was always swapping out what I was using.
So Taylor had decided not to run off half prepared and actually let Vulcan finish her armor and weapon before she assembled her heroes. The extra time also went into a more direct information gathering campaign, using Xander and Deadeye to scout out and identify Merchant locations. It had been surprisingly easy, though when one super was a telepath and the other outfitted with stealth tech, that was a given. She couldn't exactly find every location of their network, but narrowing down where their capes were hadn't been too hard. The only plausible reason she could think of as to why the other gangs or PRT hadn't wiped out the Merchants was just… laziness. Or perhaps because they held territory in the poor parts of the city, no one cared to bother. Both options pissed Taylor off equally.
Now here she was, ready and beginning the assault on what she deduced (and hoped) was the Merchants' primary hideout, where she could find their capes and put them away. The gang would fall apart without their parahuman leader and muscle. As she fell through the air, she briefly took in a surge of Legacy's power, just enough to allow her to stop her descent and land on the ground safely.
Around her, the team also assembled and readied themselves. They knew the plan, they knew their orders. They began to spread out and approach the building from different angles, Kite and Launch remaining with Taylor. This was their best shot at decapitating the Merchants in one shot. On his perch up above, Deadeye scanned the dilapidated warehouse that a large assembly of Merchants had gathered in.
"I have rooftop lookouts with some pretty heavy guns for ordinary thugs and dozens inside." Deadeye informed her. "Plus a garage area that definitely has tinkertech inside."
"Are we still undetected?" Taylor asked as she crouched behind a parked car.
"No signs that they've noticed us." Deadeye replied.
"No thoughts of any such activity." Conductor confirmed.
"Take down the lookouts." Taylor ordered and then leapt over the hood of the car and made a beeline for the entrance.
The strength granted to her by Vulcan's craft still left her blood singing with adrenaline. The ability to pull off superhuman feats of athleticism and skill was never going to get old. Even as she ran at speeds that would put olympic athletes to shame, Deadeye began to fire his suppressed rifle, the gun equipped with non-lethal rounds for the moment.
"Lookouts down."
Taylor took a deep breath and then eased open the front door. Not even a door guard? She didn't like that at all. It stunk of a trap. On a whim she drew in another bit of Legacy's power.
It probably saved her life.
As she walked fully into the entryway, a mine that had been situated behind the doorway detonated and struck her full in the back. She didn't know how tough Vulcan's armor really was, but combined with just a fraction of Legacy's durability, the blast only threw her forward and sent her head ringing, rather than kill her outright.
"Oh they heard that…" Deadeye muttered over the comms.
A pair of burly guards burst into the entryway, automatic rifles brandished in their hands. They began to unload onto Taylor's prone form, bullets richoteching off of armor and flesh alike as Taylor huddled into a ball to try and make herself a smaller target.
Get up, get up! She screamed to herself. She unslung her spear with one hand, heedless of the bullets and threw it like a javelin. The vulcanium blade pierced through the leg of one Merchant, while the other was thrown backward by a blast of kinetic force from Launch.
"Up you get!" Kite shouted as more shouting and gunfire began to fill the air. The small Australian girl began to heave Taylor onto her feet and shove her deeper into the warehouse behind some cover. She caught flashes of scrambling gangsters and just the edge of a living trash golem, Mush.
"Where's Conductor and Dryad?!" Taylor shouted over the gunfire.
"Busy!" Kite replied before leaping over their cover and shifting into her monster form.
Taylor grimaced as she held out her hand and called her spear back to her. This was not going as well as planned.
Alexander Zelton-Conductor when suited up-approached the Merchants' hideout cautiously. Being psychic came with its perks of course, but it had also taught him to be paranoid. People could conceal their thoughts and intentions much easier than Xander once believed and he couldn't keep his power on constantly. There was every chance that he was walking into an ambush or something, he needed to be alert. He reached out probingly and felt a rush of thoughts.
Most of them felt as vile as he figured from this sort of scum, but one mind had more cunning, more viciousness. Instinctively he latched onto it and dug deeper, only to be shunted out by a crystalline barrier.
Parahuman.
Xander felt himself grimace. When he'd found himself in this new world, he'd found that his telepathy was still restricted against supe- parahumans, that whatever beings gave them their powers tended to not like outside psychic contact. Sometimes he could force his way through, but depending on the power of the parahuman and how in tune with their power they were, they could usually force him out by barely even trying.
Still, he had a lead and he decided to take it even as Taylor began to close in on the entrance. He approached a wall of the warehouse, still sensing the parahuman presence upstairs. A stack of crates was against one wall and with a telekinetic push off of the ground, Xander boosted himself up on top of the stack and peered in through a window.
He was treated to the sight of Skidmark, the Merchants leader, going through paperwork of all things. It made sense of course, a leader, no matter how foul, needed to be organized and keep track of his subordinates income and operations.
Flexing his vulcanium prosthetic, he began to gather power and prepare a strike for when Taylor began her attack. Then he felt an echo of psychic malice. At the last moment he took his prepared power and wrapped a shield around himself, right as a crudely armored man leapt up to his level and slammed a heavy fist into the back of his skull. The powerful blow threw Xander through the wall and into Skidmark's office, the villain immediately ducking for cover as Xander was partially buried by debris.
"Trainwreck what the fuck are you doing you dumb sack of shit?!" Skidmark roared.
The armored figure let out a grating apology. "Sorry boss, there was a cape outside your window."
"SKIDS!" The Merchants' Tinker, Squealer, shouted through a hand radio on his desk. "We've got capes at the front door!"
"Motherfucker!" Skidmark cursed to himself, beginning to throw some papers into a case. "Get the car ready, we're bailing!"
Xander burst from the rubble, head and back throbbing, and immediately threw out a wave of telekinetic projectiles at Skidmark and Trainwreck. The Merchant leader laid down one of his strips of power and reversed the direction of the attack, forcing Xander to throw himself to the side with a blast of telekinetic force. Trainwreck lumbered forward, floor straining under his weight, fist raised for another strike. Xander glanced at the cracking floor and responded by hitting it with a telekinetic blow, causing it to fall out from underneath the villain and send him falling to the floor below with a hail of debris.
"YOU DUMB CHUCKLEFUCKS, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO YOU'RE DEALING WITH?!" Skidmark demanded, practically frothing at the mouth as he laid down another acceleration field and threw a handful of debris through it.
Xander deflected it to the side and sneered at the filthy specimen of parahumanity. "Just another villain."
Xander didn't like to use such a dirty trick against a villain, but it needed to be done. This was not one of the villains of his world that he respected to some degree and that abided by the old code, this was simply a bastard whose gang peddled death and disease. He would not lose any sleep as he might have if he used this technique upon his old rival, Hastur.
While his world had not possessed a 'Manton limit' as it was defined on this Earth, most powers did have something similar inbuilt to prevent damage from occurring to the user. Those with enough control to circumvent the limit tended to not abuse it so as not to invoke Legacy or Archmage's wrath. The majority of telekinetics needed extreme control to pull off something on another human being's body. The only ones he knew of were Archmage… and himself. While he lacked the supervillain's raw strength, he had a plethora of control forced upon him by his weaker powers. With a mental scan Xander took in Skidmark's body and then promptly removed his legs' from their sockets.
The villain let out a bone chilling scream while he collapsed to the floor and began to thrash in agony. A simple step forward and Xander used his prosthetic hand to knock the villain out.
Taylor, Skidmark is down. What's the situation downstairs?
Lots of guys with guns! His young Master shouted back psychically. Apparently they got another cape recently, he just fell through the ceiling.
Ah, that was my fault, apologies.
Launch is dealing with him while me and Kite are taking care of the guns.
Kite and I. Xander corrected absently while beginning to walk through the upstairs area, casually knocking out several Merchants as they tried to either flee or join the battle downstairs. Come now Miss Hebert, your mother was a literature professor.
Just get your ass down here! She snapped in reply before the connection abruptly shut.
Xander chuckled warmly and continued his leisurely stroll. Oh how he enjoyed having friends again.
Legacy floated over the warehouse as gunfire echoed in the night and regarded it all with some worry. While Taylor had asked him to stay out of the fight unless it was absolutely necessary, a part of him still urged him to just smash through the roof and put an end to this. But no, this was a valuable learning experience for her. He was a safety net in case she fell, not a magical fix to all of her problems.
She isn't Diana. Don't treat her like it.
He grimaced even as he thought of it, the ache of loss ripping through his chest. While he had technically died first, the fact that he was here now by virtue of Taylor's power meant that his daughter had died too. The knowledge made his heart ache. It also made his fists clench in terror. His daughter had been the most powerful super alive (as far as he knew at least) even stronger than himself. The fact that those two that had killed him had managed to get her too… It really terrified him.
God, the day she summons Jason or Di… I hope that day isn't anytime soon.
"Uh, Legacy sir?" ReNew asked from his own position. "Are you sure we shouldn't go give them a hand?"
Legacy suppressed a chuckle at the nervous young man's demeanor and clear worry. Also the deference. He kind of hated it, but it was endearing sometimes from young people. It usually went away after he gave them the 'so you got detention' talk back when he was a part-time teacher at the LoS Academy. Ah, good times.
A section of the building suddenly began to become overgrown with vines and other plants, even while the sound of a booming cannon joined the fight.
Looks like lil Peyton has her hands full. Legacy mused, thoughts drawn to the girl and her family, which inevitably reminded him of the Downfall. The event had left its scar on millions, but it was just that now: A scar. Long healed and faded. I'll have to tell Taylor about that one of these days. Before she lets him out and destroys the city. Or the continent.
Bad enough Magician was out there (probably? Taylor hadn't complained about any headaches though) the last thing they needed to deal with was Ares or Bellona.
From the tangled mass of plant life, a massive armored vehicle burst forth, clearly Designer tech of some sort. It looked like the bastard child of a monster truck, a tank, and a scrap heap.
Well I suppose this warrants some intervention…
"ReNew, could you…?"
"You got it!"
The young hero put his hands together, forming a glowing ball of solar energy. During the process, Legacy stared closely at the piece of technology strapped to his chest.
The damned games you play Suit… one day they'll burn us all. Maybe they already have.
ReNew thrust out his hands, unleashing the energy into a beam of scintillating light, the energy searing through one side of tracks and causing the monstrous vehicle to slow considerably. Then whatever technology had been stuffed into it kicked in and what looked like a pair of jet engines sprouted from the back and triggered, sending the vehicle bouncing down the road.
Showtime.
Legacy sped to the ground in the time between heartbeats and stood with a hand facing out toward the incoming Designer vehicle. It kept on barreling toward him, so he floated just a smidge off the ground so that he wouldn't kill anyone inside from a sudden and instantaneous stop. The vehicle smashed into his hand and pushed him back slowly as the vehicle ground to a halt, thrusters still trying to propel it further. ReNew took care of those handily with careful bursts of cryogenic energy, something Legacy hadn't seen him do before.
The battle against Gilgamesh and Ishtar must have given him some more insight on his powers. Legacy thought to himself grimly.
He looked over the battlefield and noted young Alexander (Damn, when did Symphony's son become a hero? I'm freakin old…) and little Nova bickering over who was ultimately responsible for the defeat of the new Designer that had just joined the Merchants. When he glanced at the perimeter to make sure no Merchants were escaping, he was pleased to note that Marion's turrets and other devices were taking care of the fleeing gangsters.
"Well ReNew, why don't we go help round'm up?" Legacy suggested cheerfully.
Ah the mundanities of hero work. It never changed.
Taylor slammed the end of her spear into the last Merchant's skull, finally ending the fight. Her body ached with bruises from the hails of gunfire, but at least nothing was broken and she wasn't full of holes. Vulcan did good work apparently. She staggered outside just in time to see Legacy casually ripping through the outer shell of Squealer's latest tinker vehicle and pull the drug addled and probably concussed Tinker out of it.
"Is that all of them?" Taylor asked exhaustively. "Please tell me that was all of them…"
"All four Merchant capes have been neutralized." Legacy confirmed with a thumbs up and a bright grin.
"Protectorate are enroute." Deadeye informed her via earpiece. "Dauntless and Velocity."
Right on time a red blur materialized in front of Taylor, some paces away luckily. Velocity dropped his Breaker form and looked around at all the destruction, letting out a low whistle at the sight. "You guys have been busy tonight." He glanced at Taylor, taking in her costume. "You're the new girl from the Echidna incident, right? We don't really have a name on file yet."
"Call me Olympia." Taylor replied with what she hoped was confidence, shifting to make sure her helmet covered her face properly. "Our team is called Olympus." She gestured to her heroes as they were properly securing the various Merchants that were scattered around.
Velocity did look mildly impressed or maybe he was just amused. "Quite a large team you've got here. From out of state?"
"Yeah." Hopefully the PRT hadn't shared with every single one of their heroes what her powers were.
"Well Brockton can always use more heroes and you've already done some good work here." Velocity nodded.
"Seconded." A new voice cut in as Dauntless floated down, arclance crackling with energy. "Nice look."
Taylor had to stop herself from curling up into a ball from embarrassment. Her armor was all vulcanium, colored gold and platinum for the 'heroic' angle, but all of it looked vaguely greco-roman, including her helm. The fact that it somewhat matched Dauntless' own look was more coincidence, Vulcan simply being good at forging in that style.
"Thank you. A Tinker I know made it for me." She replied with as much dignity as she could muster, trying to hold herself a little taller. "Yours is cool too." She glanced at her spear. Damn, I even stole the spear thing. I'm gonna look like a Dauntless fangirl at this rate.
She could see him smile beneath his helmet. "Thanks. Mind if we get a quick statement?"
"Not at all."
"Good. So you're the team lead?"
"In training." Taylor fibbed. "Legacy is more the actual leader, but he's hoping to retire soon."
Dauntless glanced at the Alexandria package as he jokingly slapped Conductor on the back hard enough to send the younger man stumbling. "Don't think I've ever met a retired cape."
"He's older than he looks." Taylor shrugged. "He deserves his rest."
"Sure." Dauntless agreed easily enough. "So what went down tonight?"
"I've been gathering info for a week or so. A couple of my teammates are Thinkers, they managed to deduce that this was a likely location where we might find the Merchants' leadership. So we planned an operation and carried it out." She glanced at the wreck of a building that was formerly a headquarters of sorts. "It uh… Didn't go as smoothly as planned."
"You're new, it happens." Dauntless reassured her. "Why didn't you call us? I know Assault gave you an associate's phone."
"I didn't want to waste your time, in case we were wrong." Taylor replied, then hesitantly followed up. "Also I wanted to see how well we'd all work together first before adding in the Protectorate or Wards. Plus we already have a lot of firepower. More capes might have been overkill."
"Or it could have led to a smoother operation." Dauntless stated, though there wasn't any condescending quality to his voice, just fact. "But it looks like you did handle it all pretty well. We got first responders on the way to secure the scene and take care of any bad injuries. Are you all okay?"
"Nothing a good night's sleep can't handle." Taylor winced as she flexed an arm and felt the bruises. "But Skidmark is ah… Well, he might need some treatment before being sent off to prison, that's for sure."
"Thanks for the heads up." PRT vans began to pull into the parking lot. "You guys are good to head out, unless you want to stay and get a look at how we do things?" Dauntless smiled again. "I know it's a school night, so if you've got to get to bed, we won't be offended."
Taylor smiled back, liking that the hero wasn't being a condescending ass like most adults she knew. "We'll stick around. See how the pros do it." She tried to inject some banter into her tone. "Us young ones don't need as much sleep as you old folk."
Dauntless let out a chuckle and then gestured for her to follow as he led her to the PRT vehicles. Taylor spent the rest of the evening learning how the PRT did things and talking to Dauntless and Velocity, surprised to see that both heroes treated her more like a peer than some dumb kid. It was refreshing. By the end of it all, she felt exhausted and her headache was killer from keeping her heroes out for so long, but… It was probably one of the best nights of her life. She felt like she'd accomplished something for once. She went to sleep, content.
Being a hero rocks…
-
Meanwhile, overlooking the sleeping city of Brockton Bay, the madman who called himself Janus stood on a rooftop, gazing out across the city. So peaceful, so quaint… and so BORING!
Suit, his old buddy, was sure that little Tay-Tay was growing at a reasonable rate. Well he called bullshit, the girl should've been through cleaning out her city already and prepping for the Endbringers! Did she not realize just how much power she had at her fingertips? Was she dumb? Had his and Suit's endgame gone to a dummy?!
Geeze, he missed his old world. All the fun games him and Suit had gotten up to… heh, Janus still remembered fondly when he'd provoked Magician into killing Ares early and seeing that fallout. Suit's mad scramble to try and fix that timeline had been hilarious to watch, even as the world's heroes died in droves.
What was he thinking about again? OH RIGHT! The failure of an experiment. Taylor. Taylor, Taylor, Taylor, that's all Suit cared about, because that was his goddamned 'Plan'. 'Plan this', 'Plan that', it's all according to the 'Plan'.
Bah, Suit was worse than that dumb Contessa chick sometimes with her 'Path'. It annoyed the hell out of him. Sometimes you have to be… spontaneous.
Sleep well Tay-Tay. Because tomorrow… heh, tomorrow the fun starts.
A little acceleration of the timeline never hurt anybody. Much.
A/N: Alrighty, here's the next batch of chapters. Nice to see this getting some attention over on this site, it's much appreciated. To the reviewer who said that my characters are specific and detailed and insinuated that I stole/ copied them, I suppose all I can say is thank you, my friends and I have been working on this setting for many years and it's nice to see that they feel like genuine, real characters.