Chester Chapter 4 (OR: Execution: Empire Part 2)
Minutes Before the Defeat of Hookwolf and Kaiser
Amy Dallon's Bedroom, Dallon Residence
Amy 'Amelia' Dallon, otherwise known as the world's greatest healer Panacea, had long known that the Nazi gang Empire 88 hated her family, regarding them as 'race-traitors' for standing against the fascist gang. Hell, the death of Fleur had cemented a deep-abiding sense of mutual loathing between New Wave and the Empire.
But she'd never thought that the Empire would ever outright smash the Unwritten Rules like this! Attacking her family in their homes en-mass like this was such an outrageous breach of the rules that Amy had gawped for a minute before running to grab her Panacea costume, more out of habit than anything else.
She wasn't a combat Cape; she was a healer, damn it, regardless of those damn impulses that she was starting to get.
Peeking out of her window, Panacea saw Rune throwing a car at her (beloved) sister, who just flew up, grabbed the missile, spun it around and threw it right back at the Striker.
Down at the front door, her mother, Brandish, wielded her two weapons of light against Alabaster, while Flashbang lobbed his explosives light balls at Fog, while Night was lurking behind him.
Night, able to turn into a monster when no one was looking at her, wasn't the best choice for a frontal assault, but the healer was just glad that the Empire had goofed like this; Night's Breaker form was preternaturally quick and deadly, so she made an ideal ambush attacker.
Still, even with Night neutralized, there was only so long that Brandish would be able to fight through Alabaster's ability to simply reset himself. He could instantly revert to an injured, unharmed version of himself seconds after being wounded. It was akin to fighting a zombie; unending, never-ceasing and utterly relentless.
Clenching her fists, Panacea wished, and not for the first time, that she had a more offense-oriented power. She felt so damn helpless at times like this.
Then she was knocked on her rear by an enormous impact that happened outside. The windows of the house all shattered, raining glass everywhere. Staggering back to her feet, Panacea peered out of her now-empty window and gasped.
"Wake up, Dann!"
A blue and white robot, wielding a sword, flew out of a large cloud of dust and made a beeline for Rune, who hurriedly thew the car she had been batting back and forth between herself and Glory Girl at the incoming robot.
"Chesto!" the robot declared as it sliced the car in half and continued on as if it had been of no issue to it. Rune was tackled off of her manhole platform and onto the ground, struggling in the grip of the blue and white figure.
"Sonofa-! Lemme go, ya bastard!" she choked out before the hand around her throat tightened and she went limp. Relaxing its grip, Rune dropped bonelessly to the ground before it turned and glared at Night, Fog and Krieg with its gleaming red eyes.
"Let's see you take down something which you can't grab!" Fog growled, before he turned into the black fog that gave him his name and started moving towards the robot.
Said robot simply raised its sword arm and started spinning its weapon around one finger so fast it started to act like a powerful fan, blowing Fog back and scattering him across the empty street. He hurriedly reformed most of his physical body to prevent himself from being scattered to the point he could not reform himself, at which point her father lobbed an explosive sphere into him and knocked him out when it detonated.
Brandish tried to capitalize on that distraction by attacking Alabaster, but the man leapt back, diving to one side and into an alleyway, callously abandoning Night who simply raised her hands in surrender.
Amy hurried out to give her family check ups in case they were wounded. As she left the house, she saw the robot transform into a giant sword and blast off into the sky.
"What the heck was that all about?" Glory Girl wondered as she landed next to her mother, who was bleeding from several shallow cuts across her body.
"I have no clue, but I want you to fly to Lady Photon immediately." Brandish told her oldest daughter. "If we were attacked, so were they, otherwise they would have come when I hit the emergency call on my phone."
"On it." the girl replied, floating up and flying away, even as Panacea healed their mother's wounds.
"I hope Aunt Sarah's OK." she muttered.
"She will be. Your Aunt's a tough woman." Flashbang smiled at his youngest daughter.
Minutes Earlier
Outside of the Pelham Residence
It was times like this that made Sarah Pelham, Lady Photon, wish that she had never had the bright idea to spearhead the New Wave Movement. 'Capes with Accountability' was all very fine and dandy, but at times like this, when an enemy completely disregarded the Unwritten Rules, it made her family even more of a target than normal.
Down on the ground, her husband fought a hit-and-run campaign against no less than two-dozen heavily armed Empire thugs, supported by her son and daughter, while she fought against the true threat.
Purity. The second-strongest flying Blaster in America after Legend of the Triumvirate. Out of every Cape in the Bay, Lady Photon was the only one able to fight her in the sky, on her terms, and the only one who had shields strong enough to block her light blasts, even for a short while.
"Surrender, Lady Photon. I don't wish to have to kill you." Purity called before another blast hammered into her shields.
"Not likely." the woman who bore the (irritating) nickname of Photon Mom replied, sending another blast back at the Empire bitch. Like hell she'd surrender to Nazis!
Both flying Blasters heard the sound of something coming closer and jerked around to see a flying musket speeding towards them. Dodging out of the way easily, the two women blinked in shock as the large weapon smoothly spun and unfolded, becoming a burnished gold and blue robot with eight shining blue wings and a handheld gun with a razor-sharp bayonet slung under the barrel.
"Wake up, Saudade!" a female voice came from the machine.
'Saudade? 'Memory of something with a desire for it', I believe that means.' Lady Photon thought as she hovered, warily eyeing the robot.
"Target: Purity. Stand down and allow yourself to be taken into custody." the robot, Saudade presumably, spoke in that same female voice.
"I don't obey machines. Leave or be turned into scrap." Purity fired back.
"Shifting to combat mode. Execution." Saudade stated...then blurred, vanishing from its previous position to meet Purity none-to-nose.
"Wha-?!" the Empire Cape started to back off, but taken off guard as she was, a solid punch met her jaw before she could do more than begin. The blow broke her jaw and sent her spinning through the air to barely avoid landing amongst her own men. She recovered at the last moment and swooped back up.
The glare of her light shroud redoubled in strength and she unleashed an incredibly powerful blast aimed right at Saudade...that missed, as the flying mech moved at speeds nigh-impossible to keep up with, zipping all around Purity as she fired multiple bursts of light in an attempt to strike it.
Finally, Saudade raised its gun and fired off three blasts of yellow light at her. One struck her shoulder, one struck her gut, and the last burned a hole in her right palm, making her shriek in pain as she tumbled to the ground, her light shroud guttering and fading, save for her head, revealing a pristine white costume marred in three places by the scorch of laser fire.
Seeing their Cape leader so handily defeated, the Empire grunts turned tail and fled, leaving Manpower, Laserdream and Shielder to form a discrete guard around the defeated Purity.
"Target: Purity defeated and in custody." Saudade rumbled. "Mission Complete. Returning to base via autopilot."
Before the incredulous eyes of half of New Wave, the robot spun back into a bayoneted musket and roared into the sky, becoming a glimmer in the sky in mere moments.
"What the hell was that thing?" Shielder asked.
"Language." Lady Photon said automatically as she landed, wearily standing next to her husband as he eyed the downed Purity, who was sobbing slightly at the pain she was feeling. "Well, this went unexpectedly fortuitously for us."
"Yeah...but at what cost, Mom?" Laserdream asked as she hovered, looking at the smoke rising from all across the city. "Brockton Bay is burning."
"This isn't the first gang war the city has suffered, and I doubt it'll be the last." Manpower huffed. "I'll admit that it hasn't been as bad as this since the last time the Nine were here, though."
"Uncle Neil! Aunt Sarah!" a familiar voice called out as Glory Girl swooped down to land near her relatives. "You're all OK!"
"Vicky? How are the rest doing?" Lady Photon asked worriedly.
"We're fine; Mom got cut up a bit by Alabaster, but Ames healed her up." the flying brick reassured her. "Some big robot that could transform into a sword took down Rune and Fog, and forced Alabaster to run. Night surrendered. Whoa! What happened to her?"
"A gold and blue robot kicked her ass." Shielder said. "It could transform into a musket. Think they're related?"
"A sister-unit, by the sounds of it." Laserdream nodded. "Who sent them though?"
"I don't know...but I have a feeling that the PRT and Protectorate will be very interested to find that out." Lady Photon said, her face grim as she beheld the city practically aflame. "Vicky, go and get the rest over here. We need to move to support the PRT and Protectorate, as well as aid the citizens of Brockton Bay."
"On it, Aunt Sarah." the blonde girl nodded and flew off.
"Better get ready for a long, hard slog." Manpower recommended to his children. "Something tells me this is only the beginning of unrest here in the Bay."
"Great." Shielder and Laserdream chorused dully.
The Next Day
Virtual Conference Room, PRT ENE HQ
"Emily, you have had twenty-four hours, you had better have a decent report for yesterdays' events." Chief Director Rebecca Costa-Brown stated. The woman looked very fresh, almost as if she'd actually slept, the bitch.
Keeping the thoughts behind a bland façade, Director Piggot swept her eyes over the other directors and Protectorate leaders that were present via the virtual meeting devices that all PRT buildings possessed. Made secure by Dragon herself, and developed by Masamune, these devices were far more efficient than the old videoconferencing devices.
"Yesterday, at approximately fifteen-hundred hours, the Nazi Gang known as the Empire Eighty-Eight began a civil insurrection aimed towards ousting the PRT and Protectorate from Brockton Bay." she began. "This is due to a leak, which has now been located and contained, which detailed the broad strokes of Shadow Stalker's actions in her civilian guise and thus her violation of her probation."
"Yes, and what exactly was the little psychopath doing?" this came from Bastion, Leader of the Boston Protectorate, and a controversial figure due to him being recorded while calling a kid who wanted to take his picture a 'spic'. He was too high profile to bundle off to somewhere obscure, but he was rapidly running through all the favors people owed him, so Emily figured he'd be in Anchorage this time next year, if not sooner.
"She was bullying several people in Winslow High School. Most notably this girl." Emily pressed a button and a recent picture of Taylor Hebert appeared in the the middle of the table. "Taylor Annette Hebert, a fairly ordinary girl."
"That can't be it. The Empire wouldn't act so recklessly just because of that, surely?" Director Armstrong from Boston asked with a frown.
"Two days ago, on January Third, Miss Hebert was pushed into her locker and the door padlocked behind her." Emily replied grimly. "A locker, might I add, that was filled with biological waste, mostly used feminine sanitary products, before the Christmas Break and left to rot and ferment. Medical specialists have had to decontaminate Winslow very thoroughly as it was declared a crude biological weapon."
"Sweet Christ!" someone swore.
"Thankfully, Miss Hebert was rescued before anything could happen to her, but the identity of that rescuer is...surprising." Piggot stated. "This is the only footage we have of the incident, as Winslow's internal cameras are nonoperational."
And Carrie Blackwell was going to get the book thrown at her for embezzling the funds for fixing that shithole up. This camera was the only one fixed and it was the one in the goddamn car park.
The Directors and Protectorate Leaders watched in stupefaction as the robot landed in the car park of Winslow High, zoomed in and, several minutes later, zoomed out with Taylor Hebert slung under one arm before the robot changed into a giant sword and zoomed off into the sky.
"Who the hell built that thing?!" James Tagg growled. He was only a Deputy-Director and shouldn't be here, but his superior was deathly ill, and had been for months, so he was attending in his stead.
"Unknown." Emily replied. "Shadow Stalker was detained for keeping her old vigilante costume on Winslow's premises and costuming up against regulations, and we then searched the Hebert home for clues as to why Taylor Hebert had been 'kidnapped' by the robot. We discovered this."
Reaching down, she pulled a two-inch thick notebook out of her bag and dropped it onto the table at a high enough height that it made a satisfyingly sharp noise as it hit the surface of the desk. "A 'bully diary', written and compiled by Miss Hebert herself, detailing four months of bullying by Shadow Stalker, and damn near all of the Winslow student body as well. She wrote on the first page that she would have started a diary when things started, but she was, and I quote, 'naïve enough to believe that the staff would do their damn jobs' at that point."
"That's disgusting." Director Hearthrow growled. A former soldier like Emily, he despised corruption and incompetence.
"Agreed, but not our department. Have the Board of Education directed to clean Winslow up, dissolving the School District if necessary." Costa-Brown stated. "Either way, Winslow is to be blacklisted as a possible Ward School if it remains a viable school, and any staff there found guilty of corruption, collusion or incompetence are to be blacklisted from teaching at any school with a Ward attending."
"Noted." It was closing the barn door after the animals were let out, but Emily would do it. "Should I continue?"
"Has Shadow Stalker said why she would do such a thing?" Dan Seneca, the new Director of PRT Anchorage, asked. A former FBI man, he was competent, adaptable and known to have truly great self-control.
"Shadow Stalker has a Predator-Prey view of the world, wherein those with strength can do as they please to those without." Piggot replied dryly. "Her unnaturally narrow focus on Miss Hebert is, I believe, the result of Miss Hebert's refusal to cower before her. No matter what Shadow Stalker did to her, she kept getting up and going about her business. To Stalker, that was a challenge from someone she viewed as beneath her, hurting her pride."
"I see. So, what happened yesterday?" the Chief Director prompted.
"At approximately oh-eight-hundred hours, Shadow Stalker smashed the anklet that was preventing her from using her power, stole her costume and crossbow, and escaped the PRT Building where she was being held." Emily said with a scowl. "She then proceeded to the house of Alan Barnes, where she terrorized the inhabitants. She had presumably stopped off at one of her old vigilante weapons stashes, because she then shot Daniel Hebert, Taylor's father, with a broadhead crossbow bolt, and slashed Alan Barnes across the arm with a knife, neither of which were in the PRT loadout she was permitted. She then kidnapped Alan Barnes' daughter, Emma, who is Taylor Hebert's best friend."
"I've heard of Alan Barnes. He's a lawyer." Director West, in charge of PRT Department 22 in Washington DC, said with a frown. "Why didn't Miss Hebert get him involved? He's a divorce lawyer, granted, but he would have been able to help her."
"According to statements taken after the kidnapping, Miss Hebert pushed Emma Barnes away to try and protect her, and begged her not to tell her parents of Taylor's father." Emily sighed. She added sourly, "He's going to be suing us now though. He's already contacted Brandish for help."
"What is the status of Emma Barnes currently?" Cinereal, the head of the Atlanta Protectorate, asked.
"Missing, presumed to be in the same place as Taylor Hebert." Piggot replied. "Shadow Stalker was discovered by civilians at approximately thirteen-hundred hours, entrapped within solidified blue gel that, according to Armsmaster, carried an electrical charge within it, negating any attempt by Stalker to escape via her Parahuman ability. She is now back in custody, with an escape-proof set of anklets and bracelets on her."
"Well that takes care of that." Director Armstrong nodded before frowning. "Wait...you think Emma Barnes is with Taylor Hebert? Based on what?"
"Eyewitness reports state that a similar robot landed in front of the Barnes Residence." Armsmaster put in. "Unlike the one which entered Winslow, this one had pink armor, and looked distinctly female in appearance. It also, and I quote, 'vanished into thin air where it stood', so it presumably has a stealth field of some kind. Our best guess is that it tracked down and defeated Shadow Stalker before carrying Emma Barnes off to wherever it is that the robots originate from."
"Hmm. I don't like that this Tinker is sending their machines into cities without supervision or so much as a by-your-leave." Tagg scowled. "We should find them and get them inside the Protectorate where they can be monitored strictly."
"The Protectorate ENE and the PRT ENE are in no fit state to do so." Emily stated firmly. "We are under-strength, underfunded and ill-equipped for patrolling any more than the richest areas of the city. And, thanks to yesterday's uprising, we will likely be stretched to our limits to handle the new Triggers which have no-doubt happened in the violence, not to mention the remaining two gangs, plus the remnants of the Empire."
"What exactly happened yesterday?" Director Wilkins from New York asked. She was infamous for choosing favorites among the Protectorate heroes assigned to her, helping and hindering them as she pleased. She was only held back by Legend being the head of the New York Protectorate.
"Dragon, could you run the presentation, please?" Emily asked.
Instantly, a map of Brockton Bay appeared in the middle of the table, with forces marked in their respective colors.
"The Empire struck with the advantage of total surprise. No prior indications were seen by anyone, up to and including Watchdog, that they were about to commit a strike such as they did yesterday." Dragon stated, before a pair of dots started flashing red. "New Wave were besieged in their homes, with Lady Photon, Manpower, Laserdream and Shielder facing off against not only a small army armed with the latest military grade firearms and tactical gear, but Purity herself, while Brandish, Flashbang, Glory Girl and Panacea were facing Rune, Alabaster, Night and Fog."
Another dot flashed. "Lung, Oni Lee and a new Tinker called Bakuda, along with dozens of ABB footsoldiers, faced off against Fenja, Menja and another small army of Empire footsoldiers, just as well equipped as the last group."
The last three dots flashed in pace with one another. "Hookwolf, Victor, Cricket and Stormtiger faced myself, Armsmaster and Miss Militia at the Broadwalk, while Kaiser, Krieg, Othala and Crusader besieged the PRT building along with more men armed to the teeth with military ordinance, while they were faced off by most of the PRT Troopers, as well as Director Piggot, Triumph and Dauntless. Velocity, Assault and Battery were sent to try and relieve the siege on New Wave, but were blocked by a last group of heavily armed men."
"Have you even been doing your job, Piggot?" Tagg snorted. "That much weaponry and equipment in the hands of criminals..."
"Oh shut up, Tagg." Emily snorted, utterly unimpressed with the idiot. "I told you, and I have been telling you all since I first became the Director of the PRT ENE, that I need more funding, more men, more equipment and more Capes. I have asked and even begged for more of any of them, and each time I have been blandly told to make do with what I have. I warned you all that something like this would happen eventually, and now I have been proven right, you think you can blame me? You can take a long walk off a short pier before I let the likes of you do that."
Taking a deep breath after her rant, she continued grimly. "I was not selling myself short earlier. Brockton Bay has the most Capes of a city of its size in the entirety of the United States. Only larger cities have more Capes than Brockton Bay does. With only seven members of the Protectorate, and just as many Wards, we have to be pragmatic about where we patrol, protecting the richest sections where crimes are more likely to be reported. With only the PRT Troopers I have at current, the patrols are limited and infrequent to the point of nigh-uselessness. In all respects, we lack the adequate force to properly secure Brockton Bay at the best of times."
"I believe we are being buried under the avalanche of your inadequacies, Piggot!" Tagg sneered.
"Enough!" Chief Director Costa-Brown shut down the argument before it could go any further. "Deputy Director Tagg, while you are in this meeting as a representative of your branch of the PRT, you are still junior in position to everyone else here. Show respect to Director Piggot or you will find yourself remaining at your current position for quite some time. Dragon, please continue with your report."
"Very well. While how the Empire got their hands on such a large amount of military ordinance is a question for later, the part which concerns us right now is how that skewed the fight in the favor of the Empire. Had what had happened not occurred, we might not be discussing this so calmly right now." Dragon said.
"And what did happen?" Director West asked.
"At approximately fifteen-fourteen, six robots deployed themselves via aerial insertion to six of the main areas of the fight. The one left alone, Lung versus the Giant Twins, was a draw, as the twins were forced to retreat after suffering serious wounds from Lung." Dragon reported, having the dot indicating that fight gray out. "The other fights were...interesting. This is footage compiled from both Armsmaster's helmet-cam, and my suit's onboard sensors."
The gathered Directors and Capes were treated to the sight of a large robot beating Hookwolf to within an inch of his life, and of a slighter robot easily disarming and defeating Cricket.
"The large one identified itself as 'Diablo of Monday, First of the Original Seven', so we can presume that there are seven robots in total, each named for a day of the week." Armsmaster stated. "The slighter one identified itself as 'Metsä', and easily defeated Cricket and Victor."
"In front of the PRT Building, the two robots identified themselves as Sin and Sen, and defeated Kaiser so easily that it wasn't even a real fight." Emily put in. "In New Wave's case, the Dallons were rescued by the same one who kidnapped/rescued Taylor Hebert, identifying itself as 'Dann', while the Pelhams were rescued by a robot powerful enough to defeat Purity, identifying itself as 'Saudade'."
"'Diablo', meaning 'devil' in Spanish. 'Metsä', meaning 'forest' in Finnish, 'Dann', meaning 'then' in German, and Saudade, meaning 'memory of something with a desire for it'." Dragon listed. "There doesn't seem to be any kind of rhyme or reason for the names, but each robot also resembles a weapon when they transformed, which they also used in robot form. Diablo was a one-sided battleaxe, Metsä was the exception as it transformed into a lance but wielded a rapier, Dann wielded a longsword, Sin wielded a tonfa, Sen a chakram and Saudade a gun with a bayonet."
"Purity is an extremely powerful flying Blaster, second only to me in America." Legend put in, speaking up for the first time. "I'll admit that hearing of a robot powerful enough to defeat her makes me somewhat uneasy."
"That can wait for a moment." Alexandria interrupted. "How many Capes are prisoners?"
"Kaiser, Hookwolf, Othala, Rune, Night, Fog, Purity, Cricket, Stormtiger and Victor are in custody on the Rig, leaving Alabaster, Krieg, Fenja, Menja and Crusader at large." Emily replied. "I'm formally requesting outside escorts to take them to prisons outside of Massachusetts, as there are too many Capes or the ENE Protectorate and PRT to safeguard for too long. As it is, I'm expecting another attack by the remains of the Empire in an attempt to free them."
"That should be doable." Eidolon nodded. "The Empire has been a thorn in our side for long enough. Removing this many of their Capes should cripple them, at least in the short term."
"We must be careful to not fully excise the Empire." Armstrong said cautiously. "A power vacuum is the last thing Brockton Bay needs right now. We don't want to give the Teeth or Accord's Ambassadors the idea that the crown of the underworld is up for grabs there."
And here was the reason that gangs led by Parahumans were so rarely destroyed these days. Politics, balancing acts and the blasted Unwritten Rules. If Emily had her way, she'd have started kicking doors in long ago.
There was some discussion about where the various Empire Capes were to be sent, but then the discussion returned to the robots.
"As Dragon pointed out, these robots fight with the same fluidity and grace as a human, maybe even more so." Emily stated. "And seven of them exist, at the very least. This is either a brand new Tinker, who has managed to strike it extremely lucky, or it is an old Tinker, one who has kept their head down and worked on their creations for years on end without showing a ripple of their existence. And for the life of me, I cannot tell which one worries me more."
"The resources needed to construct just one of those machines should have been immediately obvious, never mind seven of them, and no materials were found for such large construction jobs." Armsmaster added. "The only Tinkers that reside in Brockton Bay not with the Protectorate until recently are L33t and Squealer, neither of whom could build the robots. The newest one, Bakuda, is believed to be the bomber of Cornell University, and has a specialization in bombs and other explosives, which rules her out. Aside from Toybox, I cannot think of anyone who could have constructed these robots."
"Or, to play devil's advocate, what if this Tinker Triggered and kept things quiet? Didn't make a move, didn't kick up a fuss, built things up without making ripples?" Armstrong countered. "Not all Parahumans have that instinct to use their powers or to Tinker morning, noon and night."
"They are few and far enough between, to the point most believe them to be propaganda." Costa-Brown said with a barely perceptible frown. "I will take it under advisement as it actually seems to be a possible explanation in this case. Watchdog is to start trying to determine the objectives of the builder of the robots. That information is to come to my office before being disseminated."
"Yes ma'am." The Watchdog representative nodded.
"Very well. Dismissed." the Chief Director said, vanishing as soon as her last words left her mouth.
Sighing in relief, Emily disengaged her own system and started hobbling to her dialysis machine. All this stress was not good for her battered and wounded body.
Yo. A Taylor-less chapter, but one needed, I think. Taylor and Emma's reaction will be next chapter.
As you all know, I posted three new stories on X-Mas Day, with second chapters and a further story on New Year's Day. I am pleased to say that [Code Geass: Numbers Reshuffled] and [A Place in My Dreams] have already received TVTropes pages, as has [Ranma: Happenstance Gone Right]! If any of you know TVTropes-fu, go and add to them!