Steel for (Para)Humans
Taylor was sitting on a swivel chair.
Her right hand was manoeuvring a particular page of a report that was just handed over to her by you.
Inside the club all the lieutenants and parahumans in your gang's roster waited for her to speak.
Tattletale on her left, Spitfire on her right and you behind her.
The rest mingled in the dance stage, sitting down on whatever chairs they could get. Only five days had passed since the meeting at Somer's Rock, so the parahumans present here still divided themselves by their group of previous friends. Namely, those recruited after the revelation of their existence and those recruited before.
By having Tats and Fire by her side and you behind her it's a subtle message to encourage unity in the gang. Or that was what it was explained to you before this general reunion. The club was closed during the day and for this general meeting the desk from the prop room was moved upstairs and placed where the DJ's set usually resided. It made the meeting look somewhere between a rally and a bi-quarterly meeting of a company. However, this much open space was necessary for this meeting.
Taylor puts the report on the table and from one of the pen holder on her desk she took a fountain pen. She dabs the tip a bit so it wouldn't smudge the paper and she signs the report. With a slow movement the pen glides over the paper writing: Duchess Sera.
Another slow movement puts the pen carefully back in its resting place.
"Very well, so far our plans have been moving inside our projected time span. No large deviations have been found and the small ones registered have been dealt with. We have placed tags demarking our new territory and installed a new protection racked on the people inside. The jurisdiction on this new revenue stream has been given to Spitfire," A hand gesture to the girl at her side. "who is in the process of establishing a soup kitchen and a homeless shelter. Shimmer productions continues uninterrupted, and our last transport of goods was successfully delivered." Boss nods at Grue, Trainwreck, Regent and Bitch, the ones assigned for maintaining the safety of the product for that turn. She then takes a deep breath from her tox-mask, the gassy and mechanical sound echoing through the building.
"Congratulations, everyone. We have fully and officially established ourselves has one of the three biggest gangs in this city." You can hear her smile.
The people in the room applauded, a few bumped fists with each other or slapped each other on the back and Regent dramatically bowed. The boss let them celebrate for a moment before taking another breath and continuing:
"Unfortunately, that means that the other two gangs are soon going to attack us. We are the up-and-coming sensation that threatens their existence, they will want us dealt with." The boss's mechanical fingers tapped on the hardwood. "Parahuman squads of two to four people are going to be made to patrol in important areas; no zaunite will travel by their lonesome, pairs and small groups always; finally, be vigilant of our dealers, like usual, but be more careful to who you sell Shimmer to. The PRT was already bold enough to disguise one of their members so he could buy Shimmer, if he hadn't been caught by Tattletale while exiting the club that vial would be, right now, in Armsmaster's hand. The same thing already happened to two E88 informants and an asian man who was thinking of getting favour with Lung by delivering our vial to him."
Boss takes from her inner pocket the new toy she recently got. The first payment of the protection fee was made directly to the boss who personally took charge of the collector's group. It was done so, so people in her territory knew who their leader was and that she went out of her way so she could see each of them face to face. That she knew their names, their faces, their professions and their families. All to make the point that she took personal responsibility for their wellbeing. Of course, that was the intention she had; what the people glimpsed or thought of it was probably so she could scare them to compliance. You say: why can't it be both?
Anyway, when one of the store owners in her territory paid the protection tax by giving her one piece of whatever she found interesting in his antique shop, two days ago, she took the offer. After a bit of searching and idle chatting between her and the old man she found something to her liking. It was a beautiful black wood tobacco pipe with engravings with the intricate details of steam ships and mechanical cogs. The old man said it used to belong to a captain of one of the ships still stuck in the Graveyard before he sold it, almost a decade ago, because he needed the money.
She took the lower half of her mask from her face. A small cloud of purple gas releases from within and she puts it on top of the table. With a shake of her head she raises the pipe to her lips. With the mouthpiece stuck between her teeth, she takes a small metal container from her other coat pocket, opens it and picks up a small amount of the glittering dust with her fingers. The dust is deposited in the pipe, carefully.
Taylor knocks her metal fingers on the wood of the desk.
Your power is forced back. A few people jump and you smirk. You pick up the box on your pocket and take a matchstick and light it. Over the boss's swivel chair, with one armed propped on it, you slowly extend your hand with the lit matchstick, and you light the pipe in her hand.
She inhales, the dust shines amber and the smoke that comes out of her nose is bright blue.
She sits with her back fully on the chair.
Boss looks across the room. You aren't in front of her, so you can't see the expression she is making to the main door, but the others who are, aren't reacting positively. Must be one of those creepy, terrifying looks she gives, when her eyes light up by themselves.
You don't know which subtype of terrifying look she is giving, though. There are so many classifications you've discovered and named in the time you known her. Must be a type 3, by the side-eye Jack is throwing you. The I am more pensive than annoyed but if you dare talk out of order, I'll shoot you look she gives when thinking on a subject that irks her.
She takes another puff, before she speaks at the same time the blue fumes escape through her mouth and nose.
"I've decided… that the best defence… is offence."
Tats moves her head to look at the boss, her eyes scrutinizing Taylor.
"We have the momentum. I know some of you might be hesitant to throw yourselves at conflict, to start a gang war. And it will be war, be not mistaken. But we only took four days to mark a physical and visible presence in this city. The other gangs expect us to sit tight and assess our situation. To prepare ourselves to defend our holdings from the attacks they are no doubt preparing themselves for. They will not be expecting us to take the initiative. However, I have been advised to take more cautious measures. So I decided on a compromise. In other words, to maintain a façade of legitimacy we will wait until they seem ready to attack first, then we will start strong offensive manoeuvres. The patrols I previously mentioned are designed to be a mix between a defensive measure and an offensive one. We all need to ready ourselves for this. As soon as they come sniffing about we will punch their noses and the rest of their mugs so hard down the hole they came from they will end up in Hades." Boss takes another puff. "My own personal projects will be halted momentarily to focus on this new… war effort."
She shakes her head slowly causing the smoke she exhaled to come out wiggly.
"To help us with said war, our business partner Accord, has lend me a new enforcer that I have been working on. He has been pleasantly surprised by my work so he is giving him to me, for the duration of this conflict, as a reward. Truth is this is a test, a proof of concept, for Accord to assess how best to use this new asset. He'll help us in anything we need and then depart to join the Ambassadors. The man is a somewhat recent Thinker who needed my help. We will be as welcoming as we can be, but do not speak with him about anything classified. If you even think you shouldn't tell him something, then don't. He is not a member; he is a guest. He is a potential Thinker, so a bigger amount of caution is needed than the usual guest." She takes another puff.
You don't know what to think of the man. You were there when he arrived, he and his companion, the weird butler. He certainly seemed anxious to prove his new strength.
Duchess had a full debate in private with you, Spitfire and Tattletale about the motivations of both of their guests. It was agreed that Othello was there as neutral observer, while the newly named Urgot was there for some deep-rooted personal reasons beyond showing his usefulness to Accord. With an attentive crowd of three Tats went overboard in her analysis, just to prove that she was the smartest person in the room. At least, the whole thing ended the big dick-measuring contests that Tats and the boss still had the past three days. Their discussions have mellowed too, in the passing five days, with Taylor and Lisa reaching some sort of agreement. A surprising turn of events in your opinion. Sure, the Thinker seemed eager to help but you thought she would take a dislike to Taylor, thinking her another boss she would have to work under. Or maybe not. Maybe having a say in her employment and killing Coil made her take an immediate liking to Taylor. It's very likely she just saw something with her psychic thinker powers that made her more amenable. By the rate they are going you think that you will have to shoo the thinker away with a broom (or a loaded gun), so she won't try to steal Taylor away from you.
Nevertheless, the four of them had concluded that including Urgot in their battle plans wasn't going to be harmful to their operations. Quite the contrary.
Your boss speaking up broke your train of thought.
"Let him in."
The main doors opened to show Urgot. The massive cyborg of a man glowed with green light and his deep breathing seemed to haunt his presence as his mechanical spider legs took him inside the building. He nodded in greeting.
Taylor returned the nod.
"Urgot, it will be a pleasure to fight by your side."
"The feeling is mutual, Duchess" His mechanical voice responds.
"Now, Spitfire, here have these and distribute them." Boss gives Spitfire a bunch of small pamphlets. "Read them and memorise them. They are your patrol schedules and when you leave this room you will give them back." She picks up one from the pile, while Spitfire descends the stage, and continues: "Let's see… Let's start with Patrol B, since they will be the ones passing through potentially hostile borders. They will be composed of Grue, Bitch and Regent." And then you stopped paying much attention, as Taylor rattled on about the route and advice around the subject. Then Boss, moved on to Patrol A, consisting of Spitfire, Trainwreck and herself. And finally, Patrol C would be a patrol done in civies by you and Tats.
You perk up and pretend to start paying attention. You understood Taylor's tactic and you were there for its inception, so you already knew everything. It was a way to pair up the parahumans with an A.O.E. power with the damage dealers and long-range focused people. On the other hand, pairing the two support oriented parahumans together in civies was an effective way to gather passive info off the streets. Plus, if any of the other two patrols were in trouble Patrol C would mask up and go help. If both were in trouble, depending on the threats, you and Tats were to separate and go to the fight you were more useful in. By simply going to one of the marked alleys they would find a secret cache and both of you would be equipped with long-range weapons and healing vials, along with other knick-knacks to help.
Urgot would be assigned to Patrol D (for Dickhead), and he would stay in the base unless one of the big hitters of the E88 showed up. If anyone saw Kaiser's metallic racist ass or Purity's stupid glow or Hookwolf's s blender blades, they must call the heavy guns too by summoning Urgot and then let him do his thing.
After that it was just budgetary reports and other minutia and you really stopped paying attention.
Ω
It was the day after the general meeting when all their plans came together.
Taylor and Aisha were relaxing on one of the sofas in Taylor's office, experimenting with the flavours and the various dosages for their commercial drugs. Lisa on the other hand, was simply relaxing on the opposite sofa. They had a quarter of an hour before needing to join Brian and the rest, so they were trying to stray their minds to other thoughts.
Occasionally, the price would be discussed, and a heated debate would ensue. It couldn't be too high or they wouldn't sell and people would be forced to buy from the other gangs (which Taylor had demonstrated empirically that their quality/quantity ratio was worse and more expensive than its actual value), but it couldn't be too low which not only would endanger their bottom line but also become more easily accessible to people (something that Aisha had suggested in the beginning; she had no problems with rich fucks killing themselves but for other people it was a different story). In terms of taste, some experimentation was still undergoing. Some of the best unaltered formulas for comercial usage tasted like honey but they had branched out to try making new flavours, so the discussions they had also tended to deviate on what a good flavour would be for a certain formula in an attempt to make each version of Shimmer unique and appealing.
On this occasion the discussion had revolved around the glittering blue dust that Taylor distilled from one of her liquids. The dust, that could be either snorted or burned, and its fumes inhaled, had been dubbed as Spice by Taylor, who, on that train of thought, also jokingly called the purple eyes she now sports as her own Eyes of Ibad.
The geeky dork, Lisa snorts in her head.
Nevertheless, despite the jokes involved, the production of this new drug was another potential avenue of future inventions that Taylor was attempting to discover with her speciality. The dust was an attempt to produce something that could give thinker abilities, much like its namesake. After experimenting this avenue to its fullest, and depending on the results and data gathered, Taylor would move on to try creating something to mitigate Thinker headaches.
Something that Lisa was very interested, involved and personally invested in.
The actual results so far, however, were mixed, the liquid form was too potent to actually be consumed without dying while its dust form was only strong enough to cause a few errant deductive thoughts and the mild high. No matter how surprisingly accurate those thoughts were they weren't to the level they wanted nor did they have the frequency necessary for offensive use. The potential commercial product was there, however, and since Lisa's power had confirmed that it was safe for consumption… well, as safe as any mind-altering drug could be, they had moved on to how to price it and, perhaps more importantly, how to market it.
Although Lisa actively participated in the earlier part of the conversation, afterwards she did her best to ignore the later part of it. She personally knew, both because of her powers and simple deduction, that the "fight" had simply been a way for the two girls to vent their anxieties. Taylor would arch her eyebrow and a honeyed insult would come out of her mouth; Aisha retaliated by baring her teeth in a cheshire grin and deliver a biting insult. This went on until both girls decided on a victor or marked a truce and would go do something cheesy and sweet, like what they were doing now. This befuddled Lisa because every time they would do the whole thing in a will-they-won't-they way that already crossed the line between romantic to insulting a long time ago. The whole thing was more befitting a popular teen drama that needed to pan out its running time as along as possible. Neither girl seemed to want to pin down the relationship to anything cohesive despite both being too possessive of each other.
Case in point, Lisa wasn't blind to the murder-glare Aisha gives her whenever she and Taylor start their own cat fight and neither was Alec blind to Taylor's pointed tapping of her steel fingers whenever he and Aisha play games together.
And while Lisa would simply ignore it and focus on her opponent, Alec has already started to do stuff to purposefully annoy his new boss, like low-key flirting with Aisha.
Whatever, it's his funeral, Lisa muses amused.
A part of Lisa was still enjoying watching the whole drama, anyway. Free from her chains, with a new sympathetic boss and a nice paycheck, Lisa could do what she loved without a Sword of Damocles hanging over her.
Life had gotten better and certainly more interesting.
On the exact moment Aisha, who went from sitting on the sofa to sitting on Taylor, was about to start experimenting with combining two vials that Lisa's power assured her would boil and explode, the door to the office opened violently.
The occupants of the room jumped from their seats, causing … what was Lisa thinking about? Oh, right someone just came in.
[It's Jack. Jack has news. News involves the gang. Gang problem. External gang problem. ABB or E88 interference.]
"It's the E88! They have been spotted by our lookouts! Patrol B is moving to engage them, soon!"
"Alright, who are the parahumans? Any unpowered members?" Taylor rattles off, already moving to uncap a purple vial and then drinking from it. After that, she starts suiting up the rest of her costume.
"It's Krieg, Stormtiger and Rune. About 15 unpowered members acting as support. Victor has been spotted in a crow's nest, but he might change positions soon."
[Victor has skills as a sniper. He is acting as long-range support. Will change locations to other predetermined places.]
"Very well. I have been hoping for that combo so I already have ideas on how to deal with them. Grue's power will ensure Victor is useless." Taylor finishes suiting up.
Her entire costume is a mix between a business suit and a general's armour. Ornate copper shoulder pads on top of her black and red duster coat with burnished copper highlights, vest and trousers in the shame fashion, small copper armoured gloves and her face mask with glowing purple vials. She also recently made some copper vambraces equipped with hidden needles and knives and a simple copper poleyn for her knees. The entire thing had a nice tinkertech mesh hidden beneath acting as sort of chain mail to protect her body. Her cane was already in her hand and her hand cannon in its holster.
Taylor went to a corner of the lab and started clicking passwords and other info on a terminal. The small vat opened and showed a person sized elongated drone with three spikes in its back made of purple vials of different Shimmer formulas. It also came with two black wing-like additions hidden in its frame. It trembled as if in anticipation and came out of the vat, a purple gas cloud following it. Lisa had to contain her power so it wouldn't go on about the machine's propulsion system or any of the other things her power seemed eager to analyse.
Taylor looks at her and Lisa needs to shake her head to distract her power. Now that she is going into the action, she needs to conserve it.
"Will you come?"
"Of course, sounds like a good time." Lisa responds.
"You will need to stay in the back, though." Taylor counsels.
"I know the drill, I'll hunker down somewhere and give you info through comms."
"Let's go then."
Duchess Sera struts out of the room and Tattletale follows her.
Ω
Brian was conflicted man.
The past week has been the most volatile in his life ever since the week when he had gain powers. The new gang showing up and upturning every way of life he made for himself since he decided to turn for a life of crime. He was still angry at the whole thing, but he couldn't truly be upset when he saw his first paycheck or when his sister laughed and smile while doing work for the gang. Family and reputation were everything for Brian and now that he had both a part of him couldn't help but feel content. The conversation he had with his sister went relatively well and despite the fact he still was uncomfortable with the fact she triggered he still resigned himself to the situation. Having her tell him the circumstances of it all lit a fire in him though and though at the time he did his best to comfort and reassure her, he still felt like should do something.
Today his work was to patrol along the stretch of territory connecting their part of the Boardwalk and Coil's old stomping grounds. Bitch had her hounds already transformed and was making them sniff around for trouble. Making them learn to detect and track the smell of blood as well as conventional drugs made them more useful than just using them for fights and it was a skill they were using more and more under Zaun's banner. Regent was strutting around while performing tricks with his new sceptre, seeming completely bored out of his mind.
Brian took a moment to breath deeply through his skull mask. While doing so he inspected his own costume as well as his teammates. New gang meant new colours and their new costumes reflected that. While they were still the same as before, now they possessed purple highlights. His black skull mask had a purple tear drawn under his right eye and his black leather jacket had a metallic chain, coloured purple and toxic green, diagonally from his waist to his shoulder. Regent had changed his trousers to a toxic green and had an ornate golden chain around his neck with a purple vial filled with liquid. Bitch on the other hand only changed her shirt to a purple one with the words "Hounds of Zaun" inscribed in black ornate letters. Brian took a moment to see everyone was dressed properly, just in case, because it wouldn't do well to show themselves dishevelled when the gang was still so new in the eyes of the city.
After confirming their state he turned forwards and continued walking, until a sound came from his radio.
"Patrol B, this is Overwatch, do you copy?" Spitfire's voice came through the small thing in his ear. Brian had only started knowing his new teammates but so far, he found he liked all of them. They were all strong and competent, even in Trainwreck's case who was gruff and had a rough demeanour. Unsurprisingly, he was getting along well with Bitch.
"This is Patrol B, we copy Overwatch. What is it?" He responded.
"One of our spotters just saw a bunch of E88 goons walking down Keystone Avenue and went to scout the place. It isn't just goons, Grue, they are accompanied by capes. I am still trying to see who they are."
"Ah, shit. Alright, we planned for this. We will fight them back if we win good and if they retreat, we then pursue them all the way to their base if need be."
"Exactly. Ok, I just got the report from the scout, it's Krieg, Stormtiger and Rune."
"Well, it seems Duchess and Tattletale's prediction came true, then. Do they have any other support one of the scouts can spot?"
"We'll keep an eye open, but so far no one has been spotted. I'm informing HQ regardless."
"Ok, we will go there and intercept them. Patrol B, over."
"Roger that, Overwatch over."
Brian looked back at his teammates.
"You heard all of that?"
Botch nodded and Regent answered with a "yup!"
"Let's do this then!"
With a map of the area still half-remembered in his mind, his team navigated the streets until arriving two streets away from the avenue. It was then the radio turned on again.
"Patrol B, this is Overwatch. We have reports of a sniper's nest in one the buildings to the north of that street, reports indicate it's Victor. Boss and Patrol C have been briefed already and are going to assist you. Duchess asked if you remembered the contingencies for snipers."
"Overwatch, this is Patrol B. Yeah, I remember: make a wall of darkness between buildings."
"Alright, Trainwreck and I are leaving Overwatch and moving closer to their flanks, estimated time of arrival: 3 minutes. I'll do something about Victor. Patrol C plus Duchess already left HQ, estimated time of arrival is 7 minutes. Urgot will stay in Overwatch until our victory is assured and move on to pursue. We will see you on the field, Overwatch out."
He heard the off beep before he could respond back. He turns to his companions.
"Do we wait or go to them?"
"We can take them!" Bitch growled.
"Heh, maybe I can make Sabrina the Teenage Nazi drop from her platform." Regent mused out loud.
"Is that a yes or a no?" Brian asks.
"Sure, it's a yes." Regent shrugs.
"Well, then we need to get in character then." Brian says thinking on how to approach the nazi trio. Duchess had told them to be as polite and gentlemanly as possible when dealing with people outside the gang. They wanted to present a formal and polite demeanour like Marquis while punching just as hard as him. They needed the reputation of classy villains, to show they were the better option than the other two gangs. He breathed in a gulp of air and turned to walk to the avenue the nazis were waiting.
A few moments later he was walking up the avenue in arrow formation with Bitch and Brutus on his right, Regent and Angelica on his left and Judas behind him covering their back.
Rune was already up in the air in her concrete platform, her costume swaying with the breeze. Krieg in his SS costume and gas mask stood front and centre with Stormtiger, with his bared chest and white and blue tiger mask, on his left. They had about 10 visible goons in empire colours way in the beginning of the avenue.
"Good afternoon, lady, gentlemen. What might be the occasion for this gathering?" Brian got out when he reached hearing distance.
"Good afternoon, Undersiders." Krieg responds. "We were just walking through… Might I ask what are you doing here?"
"Well, you see the Undersiders no longer exist." Brian comments as if it were an obvious thing. "We are members of the Nation of Zaun… and well, we too were just passing through, minding our own business, until we saw someone that shouldn't be here."
Krieg's costumed body straightens, Stormtiger back arches and bends his knees as if to pounce and Rune simply raises a few more objects.
"I see." Krieg's voice comes from beneath the mask. "Then I think this is inevitable."
"It is." Brian simply responds.
Silence descends on both groups, for a single moment, weighing their opponents, waiting for the first to cave in and attack.
Victor is the first.
The bullet somehow misses hitting a few inches to the right of Bitch.
The sound of the gun echoes the beginning of the fight.
Brian immediately inundates the battlefield with as much darkness as he could. Bitch yells at her hounds to attack. Judas jumps over Brian, his hulking frame passing over the shadows pouring out of his body and goes for Stormtiger while Brutus and Angelica go for Krieg. Regent does what he does best and makes Rune's neck to twitch causing the objects she was holding to waver instead of being fired at them.
Krieg sends a blast of kinetic energy to Brutus throwing the dog into a shop but Angelica is quickly on the nazi and uses her massive paw to fling Krieg backwards into a restaurant. Stormtiger sends air claws with one hand to Brian, who tries to dodge, and with the other hand sends a blast of compressed air to Judas. The compressed air explodes on contact sending the dog back and causing damage to the animal. Brian manages to dodge the first set but the aerokinetic is fast on the draw and sends another blast to Bitch. With Angelica inside the restaurant chasing her prey and Judas on the ground, it was Brutus who came to the rescue, putting his body in front of the attack.
With the entrance of the street blackened by Brian's power it was only the roar that came from the sides that warned them of someone incoming.
Trainwreck burst through the darkness like a speeding train locking on a target and running towards it. The nazi teenager had spent the last moments trying to hit Regent in a rage for what he did so she didn't pay attention to the hulk of a beast that quickly approached her. As soon as he is close Trainwreck jumps and grabs on Rune's platform causing the girls attention to shift. Too late though as Trainwreck pushes himself up. Rune screams but somehow has enough presence of mind to actually do something instead of locking up in surprise. She drops the platform and instead goes even more up into the sky. Brian is still seeing if Bitch's dogs can still go on, but he manages to see that Rune is now floating on top of a sewer grate. She must have been on top of it even while still floating on the concrete slab.
Trainwreck is able to land on his feet and he rolls out of the great crash of concrete that drops from the sky.
In the same moment, Angelica is blasted out of the restaurant hitting the building opposite cracking the façade. Krieg comes out of the wreckage of the italian restaurant and has the gall of brushing fallen dust on his shoulder like it was no big deal.
Brian decides that the best way is to continue the fight is for him to go against either Stormtiger or Krieg but before he decides Trainwreck is already running towards Stormtiger.
Well, Krieg it is. Brian thinks sardonically.
With parahumans with long range powers they rarely put effort in close range, especially when those capes have team members who can take care of the more personal type of engagements. So, he has to get close so he can trounce him.
"So, you are going fight me, then?" Krieg's voice comes into his ears, but Grue ignores it. It's time to punch a nazi.
He starts running towards his target. The sounds of the surrounding battle are drowned out by sheer focus in trying to get close. Krieg, who is an experienced cape, immediately understands his intentions and starts sending blasts of kinetic energy, the displacement of the air the only way of noticing his shots. Brian dodges and instead of trying to shoot more Krieg noticeably tries to do something with the air around his head but the skull mask protects him long enough for the nazi to see himself in trouble.
Brian tries a jab at his opponent's midsection, but it's deflected.
The next few moments are a confusing mess of up-close fighting. Krieg is too slow while defending himself to find an opening and do his kinetic thing, while Grue tries to direct wisps of his darkness towards the nazi's eyes when he is also trying to maximize each punch. He has to deal as much damage as possible in a single strike so that he can actually damage his opponent instead of just giving Krieg more kinetic energy by hitting as much as possible.
Suddenly, Grue's leg spasms making him drop from his stance.
Brian's mind tries to reboot from the sudden drop in height – the spasm could have only been caused by Regent – but before it can a muscled arm appears where his head used to be. The arm hits Krieg in his shoulder instead, sending the nazi reeling.
Brian immediately rolls out of the way to the right and reassesses the battlefield.
Cricket, in her cast iron mask that seems like something out of the Mad Max movie from Aleph that Alec made them watch, is now standing next to Krieg. Cricket starts to rotate her right kama, but before she can do anything else there is a cry from next to Cricket.
"Lay off my brother, bitch!" Imp appears out of nowhere and shoots Cricket in the leg with a hand cannon. The road turns red with chunks of meat when Cricket's lower left leg disconnects from the rest of her body. Imp's weapon t-
Holy sh-, wait, what just happened?, thinks Grue in a daze, oh right Cricket got her leg blown off.
Krieg who was just as much surprised as Grue, instead of attacking, goes to help his companion, picking her up bridal style while ignoring her screams. He runs away from the battlefield quickly, but Brian has doubts his absence will be permanent.
Brian is not one to reject an opportunity, however, so he takes advantage of this moment of peace to catch his breath. He also moves inside the wrecked restaurant for cover and turns his mic on. He needs to know the situation.
"This is Grue. What's the sitrep?"
"Grue, this is Tattletale." Lisa's familiar voice responds. "Spitfire took care of Victor, Hookwolf is fighting Urgot a street over from you-" There's a distant boom and the building trembles as if on cue. "Yeah, suffice to say Accord is gonna be happy. Urgot has the bastard chained up like a misbehaving pup. Cricket is out of the fight but so is Bitch and her dogs. You should probably peek out of your hiding place right about now though."
Grue, very much used to Tattletales cryptic advice, peeks out of the debris he is hiding behind.
He catches the exact moment when Duchess enters the battlefield. She runs to Stormtiger, who was previously busy toying with Regent, and starts attacking him. With a swift kick to the groin and a downwards swing of her cane-turned-sword she cuts off his right hand. With her hand cannon on her left hand she shoots at a newly arrived Crusader, who is starting to fill up the street with his ghosts, and manages to hit him right in the shoulder.
Both nazis cry out in pain and drop to their knees.
Duchess doesn't stop and immediately starts running towards the building opposite of the restaurant where Grue is regathering his strength. With a purple dash behind her she starts running up the wall and uses it as leverage to jump to Rune's position. The girl tries to protect herself by putting random objects in the way but from Duchess cane-sword a violently bright purple starts oozing and a moment later, with a diagonal swing, a purple bladed blast extends itself from it and breaks the stuff in two. The boss raises her left arm and shoots her gun, missing Rune's head, seemingly on purpose, but destroying her hood. Rune freezes in fear and Duchess manages to put a foot inside the sewer grate. His boss then head-butts the nazi teenager making the two of them fall to the ground.
Somehow the boss is able to catch the girl bridal style during her fall and lands on her feet, like a particularly agile cat.
"Attention! Everyone!" Lisa's voice comes from the radio. Brian is barely able to pick his jaw from the floor before he is bombarded with new info. "The Protectorate is coming in 5 minutes! Wrap it up! Let the heroes deal with the rest!"
Trainwreck, having been throwing shit into the air trying to hit Rune, raises his arms in celebration letting out a deep "Hurrah!".
Duchess simply lets Rune lie on the floor and moves on to survey the battlefield. She nods and says:
"Well done everyone." Then she sighs and puts the gun back in its holster. "A bit boring though… didn't even need to use the drone."
Crusader tries to rise, and more two ghosts show up from his body. Three more show up from the wall of the building left of her. The nearest to Duchess raises his spear but the boss blocks with her sword and raises her left arm. From somewhere beneath the cover of her coat there's a sound of something being fired and soon after that something hits Crusader's medieval armour. Crusader starts lifting off the ground and goes for Duchess with great speed. The nazi cape's ten-foot-long spear goes through nothing as Duchess dodges, using both her legs on the ghost's chest to propel herself out of the way. A downwards swing of her purple sword later and Crusader's spear is cut in two. She backflips mid-air and swiftly fires another something from her sleeve to the nazi cape.
Regent, even as exhausted as seem to be, with a bleeding gash on his chest, makes Crusader trip before he could dodge or sprint into a run.
Brian spots Stormtiger trying to attack Regent from where he is sitting and immediately sprints to the target.
What felt like an eternity later he finally kicks Stormtiger's head before the air in his hands extends outwards. The bastard drops unconscious.
Brian turns around to help Duchess with Crusader but the boss is fencing one on one with the enemy cape. Crusader is still holding on to half of his spear and after a few blows are traded Crusader is suddenly hit on the back with something translucent and he fumbles a riposte.
It takes Brian's brain a bit to decipher what just happened.
Apparently, Trainwreck just attacked the guy from where he was a few feet from that fight and while he was still fighting a pair of Crusader's ghosts, simply by picking one up by his leg and throwing it back at his creator.
Duchess's sword doesn't miss however, and Crusader's chest is split open.
The sirens cut through Brian's battle focus.
Anxious, he goes to Regent and helps him up. Bitch shows up in that moment with a new dog already transformed and she helps him secure Alec on to it.
"Let's go." He hears the boss from behind him.
Tired he simply nods.
They manage to escape the Protectorate, but he simply falls asleep before they reach Overwatch.
Bonus Scene 3
"Fraulein, stay here. Othalla is already coming." James says.
He still doesn't know exactly how it happened but with Cricket being this badly wounded he needed to retreat with her before she bled out. He could have continued the fight with the ***** but Crusader would do a good job replacing him in the fight.
This alley was a good distance enough from the fight so she would be safe here.
"I need to go back. Stay here, and for God's sake don't fall asleep, or anything."
His companion nods wordlessly and James nods back. He gets up from his position and gets away from the alleyway. There're barely a few moments of peace while he is walking back to the fight when he hears someone speak from behind him:
"Naughty, naughty! Don't tell me you forgot about little old me?"
James turns around, lifts his arms to f-
What?
Right, the battle, he needs to get back to it.
He turns around again and starts walking towards the fighting. Damn, they really weren't expecting the Undersider's to join the new gang. He was glad that Kaiser had prepared three more of the Empire's capes just in case the Tinker had anything prepared.
"So, you did forget. That's very rude, ya' know!"
There's someone in front of him. Wait, is that bi-
What?
Right, he still had a fight to get to. Before he even takes one more step forward, he feels a prick in his neck and a voice whispering in his ears.
"Don't worry, though. My name's Imp, and where you are going you ain't ever going to forget about me."
He tries to struggle, but his body doesn't respond.
"See ya' soon!"
Darkness welcomes him.
