2.1
"Come with me if you want to live!"
That was a line from a movie, wasn't it? I thought randomly.
Just then the roof door opened and an Asian man in green and red carrying a gun of some sort stepped out. I saw another doll-sized figure riding his shoulder.
"He's here!" the larger man yelled then dived to the side and opened fire.
Before I could cast a shield, I felt a line of impacts cut across my chest. The protective charms on my costume flashed brightly then faded. I staggered back, before I realized I was under attack.
Belatedly my reflexes kicked in. As two more men poured out of the door, I ducked behind the metal vent and cast a protego between me and the metal. I had no idea if the vent would stop whatever they were shooting.
I heard two more shots intermixed with the sound of small explosions and tearing aluminum. Shards of the vent sliced into my shield, causing it to wink out.
"Run!" the doll-sized figure barely dangling from my belt yelled, breaking me from my stupor.
Still crouching, I turned in place and disapparated to the roof of City Hall. The spell's effect caused the figure clinging to me to drop and hit the graveled rooftop. He rolled to his side, retching.
"What the hell was that?" he groaned after a few seconds.
"Sorry? It gets better with practice." I looked more closely, and the man was perfect in every aspect - a regular person in miniature, his Asian features were minimally covered with a domino mask. "Who are you and who were those men?"
"You walked into an ambush," the miniature man moaned. As he spoke his speech became clearer. "We hadn't expected you to get to the roof so quickly. A dozen specially armed soldiers were on their way up the stairs. They were going to wait for you to be attracted by the fire and teleport to the roof where they were supposed to catch you in a crossfire. If you teleported to a different roof nearby, the crew included snipers to take you out from a distance."
"And who are you?" I repeated.
"I was with them, or at least they think I was." he said, not really clearing anything up. "Where are we? You teleported again, right? Taking me with you?"
"Yes. We're on the roof of City Hall." I answered his questions more clearly than he had mine. "What do you mean you're with them?"
"My name is Breakaway. That's not my real name. I was a member of the Azn Bad Boys. Then Lung went to war with everyone in the city and Oni Lee and that crazy bitch Bakuda decided she was going to put a bomb in my brain."
"Something happened when they were strapping me to the table. I guess I got powers. I literally fell to pieces, and each little piece morphed into a mini-me. There must have been twenty of me all freaking out. Seems like one of me knocked over one of the madwoman's experiments while running around her lab. Suddenly – ding! - it was twenty-something hours later. Bakuda, Oni Lee, and I were all caught in the timeslip."
"The crazy bitch figured that since I was now a cape, I was more useful to her for my power than as a walking bomb. She gave me a little costume and sent some of me with a troop of ABB soldiers to attack you."
"I told them I'd be a lookout while they set the fire. That's why I was there when you showed up. I'm not really with them. I don't want to kill anybody. Besides, it was only supposed to be a dis…"
BOOM! BoOm. bOOm. boooom.
Several explosions seemed to go off all around the area, cutting off the doll-man's story.
I tapped my earbud to call Melissa.
"Justin!" she started.
"Merit," I said to let her know others were listening. "I'm hearing explosions in several spots Downtown. Have you any idea what's going on?"
"News just cut in saying that there are attacks on the PRT HQ and several other locations in the area. Are you ok?"
"Dazed and confused, but unharmed."
"You should come home," she urged.
"No, I can help. I'm going to the PRT HQ," I was talking to Melissa, but looking at Breakaway.
"Not a good idea, kid," she said. At least she didn't use my name. I had no idea how good the miniature man's hearing was.
"I'm not going anywhere near that war zone," the ten-inch cape cried. "I got you out of the ambush. Now you're on your own."
The miniature man jumped away from me and raced towards a fire escape. He moved quickly and was out of sight in seconds.
Rather than appearing on or in front of a building that was currently under attack I decided to approach the PRT HQ using line of sight disapparations. I ending on a roof across the street and down a few buildings from my target.
A group of twenty to thirty Asian men and women wearing green and red were firing at the PRT Headquarters from two broken lines in the street. Some must have been using grenade launchers as there was a constant popping of small to medium sized explosions rocking the building.
It was obvious the PRT had responded from their own prepared positions with containment foam as there were mounds of the stuff in front of ABB lines. The gang members were using these piles as cover from further streams of the liquid adhesive.
An explosion that converted a portion of the PRT building into glass and another which caused an area of sub-zero temperature demonstrated that the ABB weapons were not all firing mundane munitions. At least one tinker was involved, likely the Bakuda that Breakaway had mentioned.
Her name was not familiar to either the original Justin or me. I took it as another sign, along with Breakaway, that the ABB was looking to grow their cape numbers. It was an interesting question who was driving that growth, especially with Lung in custody.
At first, it looked like the fight was a stalemate. Then I saw that PRT personnel, including unarmed staff were getting injured by attacks on the building that managed to break through or, in the case of the more exotic attacks, bypass the hardened windows and walls. Whereas the PRT's reliance on containment foam rather than lethal weapons was emboldening the gang members.
I was still trying to decide my best course of action when a two-pronged attack by members of the Protectorate and the Wards fell upon the ABB assailants. Miss Militia, Shadow Stalker, Browbeat, and Battery hit the group on the left while Assault, Aegis, Kid Win, and Dauntless hit the group on the right.
I expected it to be a slaughter - eight superheroes against a small army of thugs. But unlike in the movies, these heroes weren't all bulletproof, and the villains didn't need to be good shots when they were shooting grenades. That didn't mean the ABB were sweeping the streets with the capes. But the fight was still raging after several minutes.
I finally figured how I could best help. As I prepared to disapparate to the perfect location to begin my plan, I got a call from Melissa.
"Bad time," I said. "I'm just about to join the fight."
"The Protectorate HQ is under attack. Someone is dropping bombs from airplanes." Her voice was tight. "Things are getting too crazy out there. You need to come home."
"What!"
Then I remembered what Breakaway had been saying right before the explosions.
"Besides, it was only supposed to be a dis…"
A distraction! The attacks were all meant lure the heroes out of the PHQ, where they were holding Lung!
Moving to the top of the tallest building in the city – the Medhall Tower – I looked towards the Bay. The Protectorate Headquarters was on an upgraded oil rig some distance out in the water. With my new body's enhanced eyesight, I could see flashes of light as something was interacting energetically with the PHQ's forcefield.
"They probably know," I ordered Melissa, "but call the PRT and anyone else you can think of to let them know the PHQ is under attack, and that I'm moving to help."
Not waiting for her response, I ended the call and disapparated to the beach. It was the closest place to the PHQ that I knew to go. From my sandy vantage I saw two small planes flying over the base releasing missiles and bombs with parachutes. The gun emplacements on the oil rig were firing at the planes to no noticeable effect.
A string of men on parachutes were falling from above the low cloud cover. They must have jumped from a higher plane. Just before they hit the forcefield, a bomb exploded, bringing it down.
Finding a landing spot high in the massive structure, I disapparated.
Apparition without a good image of your target landing zone is dangerous. In this case, I missed by several feet and found myself plummeting towards the steel deck far below.
Reaching out I tried to grab the metal tower on which I had intended to land. It was too far. Desperate, I tried summoning the tower, hoping I would move towards it instead. All I got was a wrenched arm.
My last hope was a shouted Arresto Momentum! I still hit the deck, just at a much slower rate. My new body absorbed the remaining impact with a lot of pain, but no injury. As I muttered that I could do without the pain, it turned off like a switch had been thrown.
Shit! Is my spine broken? I wondered, searching for the pain. It turned back on, like the switch had been thrown again.
ZZzzatt!
A ball of electricity exploded next to me. This time I was primed, and my shield was up before I felt more than a tingle. Wrong place to play with your pain switch, I thought as I ran towards a nearby doorway.
I disapparated across the open space as a PRT trooper shot at me from the building I was running towards.
I guess they didn't get the word I was here to help.
I stopped, pressing up against a wall and tried to figure out what was happening.
I had jumped in like a Gryffindor, I realized. Not smart, Justin. Not smart at all.
I could guess that the guys in red and green shedding their parachutes were ABB. But Oni Lee was nowhere to be seen. Nor did I have any idea where the Protectorate might be holding Lung.
This was probably the wrong place for me. I could try to take out the gangsters, but the PRT troops thought I was a bad guy too. I'd be fighting on two fronts and distracting the guards when they needed to be concentrating on the real enemy.
My phone buzzed and I hit the earbud automatically, old Justin's reflex rather than mine.
"Manifold!" Melissa called on my earpiece. "What the hell is going on. You need to get out of there."
"You may be right," I muttered quietly. As I prepared to turn in place and return home, I felt myself being swallowed by a giant marshmallow that devoured me from my feet up. Before I could finish my motion, I was immersed up to my neck in what I assumed was containment foam.
"Oh shit! I've been foamed!" I yelled.
"What!" my bodyguard demanded. "Ok. Ok. That's good. That stuff's a great shield. It should protect you from whatever's going on and the PRT will let you out when its safe. Just stay put."
As I watched the eight ABB gangbangers were engulfed in foam, one after the other. It happened almost faster than I could follow. My enhancements let me distinguish Velocity dropping grenades as he crisscrossed the deck.
Suddenly there was a man standing in front of the Protectorate speedster, a man that almost immediately exploded. Velocity somehow skidded under the blast and bounced back to his feet on the other side.
Multiple versions of Oni Lee appeared in a triangle surrounding the speedster, two exploding, driving Velocity to where the third was waiting with different device. Instead of a standard explosion, the duplicate flared with purple lightning that stabbed out at everything in fifteen or twenty feet.
Velocity was caught by three bolts and screeched to a stop. His muscles locked up as he screamed in an agony I had last seen when the death eaters used the Cruciatus Curse during the Last Battle.
Suddenly Lee appeared in front of me. I could feel his power – disposable distance duplicate – then, with a split-second glance away, the power vanished. It reappeared to my left, maybe fifteen yards away. The duplicate in front of me held up a grenade, the pin already pulled.
I desperately tried to disapparate, but the foam held me too tight. As I tried to vanish the foam, beginning to chant evanesco, the grenade exploded.
Ouch …
I was lucky. The foam absorbed most of the shockwave and fragments. My head was sticking out of the foam, but my mask still had its protective charms – protego, cushioning, and unbreakable – which probably kept by skull whole. My mouth and jaw were not so lucky.
I decided this was a good time to switch off the pain.
Verbal casting was out. I think my jaw was still attached; it just wasn't working. I concentrated on evanesco using both hand and vanished the front of the foam cocoon. This let me twist enough to disapparate.
I should have gone home. I'd just had half my face turned to mincemeat. But Oni Lee's power signature had just appeared next to Velocity's. The hero was still spasming from whatever the purple lighting had done to him.
He was helpless. I couldn't just walk away.
Appearing between the two capes, I sent a red stunner into Oni Lee's chest. He collapsed in a puff of white ash. Fortunately, that included the large pistol he had pointed at Velocity's head. Unfortunately, I could feel the duplicator's power signature appear twenty feet to my left. I sent another stunner, but the real Lee was gone by the time it arrived to reduce the body left behind.
As soon as I felt the power reappear, I disapparated to that spot and slammed a stunner point blank. It was still too late. Dust.
I chased the distance duplicator all around the platform. He was fast and seemingly unpredictable. Every time I closed, he attacked, giving him time to create a new duplicate while I dealt with the remnant left behind.
As we danced, I realized that Lee' choice of where to move wasn't quite random. He favored looking to his right. He preferred to reappear behind me. He usually went in the direction he was looking when he appeared, eventually leading in a ragged circle.
Noticing this, two ideas flashed into my head. I chose the one that would rob him of some capability even if it didn't work fully to try first.
He appeared near the edge of the platform and started to grab a grenade. I spun. He'd fallen into the rhythm of the weird dance were in and jumped automatically assuming I would do the same thing I'd done the last ten times. But, instead of disapparating to him, I appeared where I thought he would move to next.
I got lucky. He was there. I wasn't close enough to touch him, but my spell didn't need touch. I waved my hand, invoking a variant on the switching spell my girlfriend at Ilvermorny had taught me.
His costume, and everything attached to it, was switched with a volume of nearby air, leaving him naked except for his mask. I quickly vanished the pile of clothes and weapons as he created a distant duplicate, which was also nude. A quick stupefy dusted the man next to me as I spun to catch the real Oni Lee. He moved before I got there.
My improved reflexes were fast enough that I was able to aim for where I almost knew he would appear next and tagged him with a quick transfiguration before he could move a second time.
Suddenly his mask had no eye slits. It wasn't even a mask anymore; it was a red metal globe surrounding his whole head. He couldn't make duplicates if he couldn't see.
One more disapparation and one more stunner, finally he was down. An incarcerous and he was bound. I stood over him, breathing heavily, blood dripping from my blasted and mangled chin. I conjured some chains and another metal hood, just in case.
"Are you ok?"
I turned to see Velocity standing nearby, his arms wrapped tight around his torso. I could see small tremors running along his long muscles.
"Are you?" I asked. My voice was garbled. I was guessing my lips had taken damage too.
"You're bleeding pretty badly. Let's get Lee into a holding cell and you to the infirmary."
"Yeah, ok." I knew it would be bad to show up at home looking like this.
My earbud did not survive the first grenade, so I was no longer connected to Melissa. She had probably called my parents by this point. I was not looking forward to explaining all this to them.
Several PRT guards came forward, grenade launchers still clutched in their hands. They pulled Oni Lee to his feet. I sent another brace of stupify's just to make sure he stayed unconscious.
"What was that?" Velocity asked. I appreciated his asking rather than just assuming I was torturing our prisoner or something.
"Stunner," I enunciated as well as I could. Some blood spray landed on his costume. "Sorry."
He motioned towards one of the mysterious doors I'd never made it into. After a dizzying trip through apparently identical corridors and uncounted hatches, we ended up at a room filled with ultra-modern medical equipment.
I noticed I was getting lightheaded, probably form loss of blood. That was when I remembered I had a few potions on me. I held up a hand to forestall the medic that rushed towards me.
She stopped, if only for a moment.
I needed a mirror to apply the Essence of Dittany and the Burn-healing Paste. There was one on the wall. When I saw myself and the extent of my injuries, I was grateful for my ability to turn off my pain receptors. But I realized it was a double-edged sword. I had almost certainly done more damage to myself by not feeling the facial injuries I had exacerbated. And I had not even noticed the several burns and lacerations that I had picked up on other parts of my body during the extended fight with Oni Lee.
"What is that?" the medic asked when I started dripping Dittany onto my wounds.
I mumbled something too garbled for her to understand. She watched nervously as I continued.
Most healing spells could only be cast on others. After the Dittany, I used what few spells I could on myself. Feeling my jaw reset was unnerving, even without pain. I could hear it grind through my skull. After that was the burns. There weren't many and the Burn-healing Paste soon took care of them. That's when I turned the pain back on.
It wasn't as bad as it had been, but I still hurt all over.
As soon as my wounds had started closing under the potion, the medic had started recording my self-care. She was very interested in the apparent effectiveness of the salves, but I continued to refuse to answer her questions, even after my mouth was healed.
Velocity came back to check on me.
"Hey kid. You're looking better."
"Still not fully healed, but I can talk again at least," I replied. "How are you? That purple lighting grenade looked bad."
"Yeah, it hurt like hell. Not sure if it was because of my powers or if it hits everyone that way. I wouldn't recommend trying it to see."
"Are they attackers all gone?" I asked.
"Seems that way." He scratched at his chin, one of the only parts not covered by his costume. "There were attacks on the PHQ, the PRT building, and a few other spots, mostly Downtown. It was the ABB."
"The other attacks were distractions," I stated. "There's a new cape who's somehow involved with the gang, or is trying to get out, or something. He warned me when they tried to ambush me just before the explosions started. I think he was trying to tell me their plan when things went crazy and he disappeared."
"A new ABB cape?" the Protectorate hero sounded interested.
"He mentioned another one as well. A woman named Bakuda. He said something about her making or working with bombs. I figure the gang is recruiting capes."
"Maybe that's why they were after you? Recruiting at gunpoint is a thing."
"Yeah, but I'm not Asian," I argued.
"Maybe they're changing their requirements? Anyway, could I get you to write a report of what happened and what you saw and heard? You can either record it or type it, whichever works better for you."
I rubbed my sore jaw. "Typing is probably better."
He set me up at a desk with a laptop. By the time I was done, some of the other Protectorate members were returning.
"Manifold," Miss Militia greeted me. "I heard you fought Oni Lee?"
"Yes, ma'am. He was here to break Lung out and I didn't want all our efforts to go to waste. I was about to help you at the PRT building when I got word they were attacking here."
"I got the same word but couldn't pull out of that fight. We were outnumbered and outgunned, for the most part." She looked at me for a moment, her bandana hiding most of her expression. "I appreciate your wanting to help, but I'm not happy you got hurt so badly doing it. I really think you'd be better off joining the Wards to get the training you need to do this more safely."
"Yes. You may be right," I replied thinking how my parents were going to feel the same if they didn't try to steer me away from cape life completely. "And on that note, I think I'd better be heading home. People will be worrying."
"I understand. I've got people to see as well. But I'd like to talk more about this when we both have the time."
"Yes ma'am."
After looking in the mirror and cleaning myself up I disapparated home.
Needless to say, none of the adults in my new life were happy with me.